By SCSPIEKER - Dec. 31, 1969 [Sato] "Booths and Patwardhan, you two know this ship better than any of us, so you should probably make the final decision on which way we go.", says Sato. "That being said, my suggestion is that we take the central access corridor up on B deck. Time seems to be our biggest problem here and that way will get us to the APC quickest.". Sato looks at the others, awaiting other opinions. [Healy] Healy ones again checks her rifle and looks back towards the door into the corridor. "I'm with Sato on this one, the main corridor looks like the best bet... just keep that tracker handy." Healy turns over her assault rifle for a moment and looks quizically at the LED read out '99'. She thinks for a second and then heads over to Booths, "Hey, maybe we should swap rifle magazines... you put a few rounds into that poor sod over there... and something tells me that you can make more pulse rifle rounds count then I could, also I'm not really the 'spray and pray' type." Healy goes to release the lock on her clip while waiting for Booth's response. [Fenix] Following along behind the group, he can't help but wonder how stupid scientists could possibly be. Looking at the others in the group, he moves up to Schabowski asking, Is it likely the other scientists have some sort of radio that we could try and track them down? Since it could give us an idea of a 'clear route' to the back of the ship. What route did the marines take the first time through anyhow? I'd suggest taking a different route. Patwardan shakes her head. "The APC is only about one hundred meters that way," she points aft. "My team came straight up the access tunnel with no trouble. We would have taken the starboard cargo holds, but the door was jammed, so we took the tunnel while the other squad moved through the port-side cargo holds. When they ran into trouble, it was around there, in the port-side holds on B deck. We never got down to the C deck holds, or anywhere on A deck. I couldn't tell you what to expect there. "All I know is that the tunnel was clear and easy, and it runs straight to the APC. What's to discuss?" [Fenix] "If the APC's still intact-- any reason to assume that it isn't?" Patwardhan shrugs her shoulders. "Well, it would contain the mission records, right?" "Right. And a hell of a lot more firepower than we're packing right now." The medtech looks sourly at her bandaged wrist, looks away. "I think you're right," Beaudreaux gives in. "We need your weapons, anything we can carry back to Rodina. I don't know what we're up against but I don't want to face it with this cap gun. The Gaines could be sabotaged, meaning that we could be stuck out here without help for a month or longer. I'm no Boy Scout, but I'm pretty sure it says somewhere in the manual to be prepared. If these ######ing things bleed acid, I'm not taking any chances." [Fenix] "Fine, then let's go. What's it take to hurt these things if we run into them?" Taking a look at the 6 dum-dums in the shotgun, and thankful for the little bit of real ammo in the Taurus. [Booths] Booths' pulser clicks as he removes the ammo clip, holding it out to Healy. He liked the sergeant. A little. He slapped the fuller mag into the housing, and checked the LCD to see that it was ready to kick. "We'll take the tunnel. Gonzo, you've got point, I'll grab second. You see trouble and you fall flat on your ass, and hose the corridor, I'll kneel and follow suit, and whoever is behind me gets to shoot over the top of my head." He looked at the feds. "One of you gets that honour, and if you shoot me by mistake, I'll skin you alive." That didn't sound like a threat at all...more like a promise. "Civvies in the middle, and you get to babysit them Patty, the feds get to bring up the rear. Sato, by the numbers, just like I showed you." A small pause. "Keep your eyes moving, and don't forget to look up every once in a while. It coule mean you ending up like that colonist I had to turn into mince because of those idiot Mensa-wannabes, if you don't." A sardonic smile at the guy fondling the scattergun. "All you got, and then some." He spat. "Move out." [Healy] Healy takes the depleated clip and slides it into the gun's chamber, giving the base a hard whack to make sure it clicks in. That was one thing she always hated about the Taurus, you couldn't slam a clip in when you wanted to impress someone, you could only fumble with the speed-loader. "Give me an auto any day" Healy mumbled to no one in particular. Checking her gear she moved with Mina to the back of the group, taking one last look at the colonist's remains before getting ready to move with the rest. [Gonzales] That was one thing she always hated about the Taurus, you couldn't slam a clip in when you wanted to impress someone, you could only fumble with the speed-loader. "Give me an auto any day" Healy mumbled to no one in particular. Alex paused to retrieve the VP70 he had stowed in his pocket. With a humorless smile, he extended it towards Healy, butt first. "Only got the one clip in there, Sarge," he said, "but don't say I never gave you anything." He hefted his rifle, gave the LCD a last look, satisfied at its comforting '99' reading, then moved up to take point down the corridor, nodding as he shuffled past Booths. He enjoyed how he was suddenly out of the Rodina personnel group and firmly in the Marines group now. It was. . .comforting, and familiar. He liked it a lot. "If we're goin', let's go already." [Fenix] Hearing Booth's statements, and noticing the rather large lack of response to his questions, he decides to play it safe, and moves to the middle of the group, a little more towards the rear than the exact center. Ready when you are, I think. There are more people standing about the cryogenics bay and hallway than the Korea was ever designed for. It tangibly crowded, everyone shifting from foot to foot, pulling in their elbows. Once the decision is made to take the tunnel, Booths leads the way up along the corridor, to the last door on the right. It opens easily enough. The room beyond is obviously the common area, with a dining table and autochef at one end, and a workout machine and storage lockers at the opposite side. Patwardhan points out the access tunnel hatch, and the assemblage quickly pulls it open. The tunnel is freezing cold. The rest of the crew section has begun to heat up some, and there's power, but this tunnel remains as icy as death and just as dark. Gonzales, followed by Booths, then Healy, Beaudreaux, Sato with the tracker, Schabowski, officers Stewart, Fenix, and Mnumbu, and finally Patwardhan. It's a long procession. At least the door had come open easily. It's very long, almost one hundred meters. A straight shot, no adjoining corridors to either side. No alcoves or areas of respite. The occasional piece of electrical equipment sticking out at an angle from the wall, or a coil of wire. The combined illumination of a half-dozen hand lamps makes the immediate area glary. Further up the hall are projected many strange shadows. Gonzales is first in line. He ventures into this cold, void place. It feels much like walking through an ancient tomb, deep under the earth. His parents had taken him to Mexico as a boy, and he had stood atop a stone pyramid a thousand years old. Into the tunnel. Soon everybody's in. The cold begins to dry skin and chap lips, and faces are red. Exhaled breaths generate a freezer-mist around the group. Their own heat reacts steaming with the frozen atmosphere. Moving forward. Eighty meters to go. Fenix's voice cuts through the scraping of boots on the ice-flaked floor. He's talking to the hand radio, trying to convince the scientists of their good intentions. They don't reply. But he keeps trying, jaw and tongue reluctant to move against the cold. Sato bumps into Beaudreaux several times, putting all his attention on the tracker. "Don't worry about it," she tells him. She's not bothered at all by its quiet, steady clicking. It means they're in no immediate danger. About halfway down the tunnel, Gonzales feels something touch his armor-plated shoulder. He stops, and looks straight up. A drop of cold liquid falls on his cheek. Someone shines a light at the ceiling. The ice-crusted pipe leaks down on him again. [Gonzales] About halfway down the tunnel, Gonzales feels something touch his armor-plated shoulder. He stops, and looks straight up. A drop of cold liquid falls on his cheek. Someone shines a light at the ceiling. The ice-crusted pipe leaks down on him again. "######," says the cargo handler as his left hand leaves his pulse rifle slightly unbraced. As he wipes away the drop of water that threatened to escape down his shirt, he casts a look back towards Booths. "We almost there yet, chief?" he asks. He turns back to facing down the corridor, his free hand bracing his pulse rifle again, held comfortably above hip level and slowly tracking from side to side as they moved. [Fenix] Looking up at the leaking pipe, He tries to make a mental note of where it is. Shifting my dumb-dumb loaded shotgun over my shoulder, he drew his Taurus, figuring it'll at least give him a quick death if it's necessary. "Why don't they answer...and where the he*l are they?" Then turning to Beaudreaux, "So, what was the area the APC was in like when you left it before?" Patwardhan overhears Fenix's question, and answers for Beaudreaux. "She never went there, mister. Josh was the last one of us to see the APC. He, and our coporal, went back to try to contact our lieutenant. They didn't find the lieutenant there, didn't find anybody there. So they came back to tell to us. We were waiting up on the bridge. I guess they got ambushed on their way to meet up with us. We heard their cries for help, the gunfire, and came to help them out. That's when we lost everybody, pretty much..." Her small, girlish voice carries in the tunnel, much further and deeper than any of them wish to hear. [Sato] "Sorry.", murmurs Sato as he bumps into Healy again, his eyes on the motion tracker. "Uhh, still all clear.", he says a bit louder as he thinks on what Patwardhan just said. The actions of the two marines seemed almost sane as it finally dawned on him as to how dangerous these aliens really were that they could devestate a team of trained marines. "Patwardhan, how did the xenos attack you?", asks Sato as he glances back at her. "Did they show any signs of intelligence or did they just act like bugs and run at you? Where did you run into them?". He winces slightly as he realizes he's just given Booths and Patwardhan another chance to make a jihad speech but figures the information is worth it. He turns his head back to the motion sensor, taking some comfort in handling something he has control over. [Fenix] Looking to Patwardhan "Seeing as this is the first in 10 times I've asked the question anyone bothered to fraggin answer, how was *I* to know who was there?! or who knew what! I'm trying to find out what we might be in for...and, maybe, try and think of something to help us get the he*l outta here alive." muttering under his breath, he sticks his comm-unit back in his pack. "Gotta bring Rolly and Beezle next time...if there is a next time..." "Look, guy," Patwardhan says. "They just kind of... swarmed us. There were so many of them, I... I couldn't count them... I just fired at anything that moved... They move fast... They have hard shells... You can blow off a leg and they'll keep moving... Sharp tails... Claws, teeth... I... don't remember seeing any eyes, or I'd have aimed for them... I didn't think they were vulnerable at all... But they can be killed... You just gotta keep shooting... Right, Bootsy?" On up the tunnel they walk. Fifty meters to go. Halfway there. Gonzales keeps a steady pace, not too fast. The cold is unbearable, godawful. But someone is warmed by a twisted sense of humor. Officer Mnumbu's broad white teeth can't be seen by those in front or behind him, but he cracks. "Don't forget," he says between chuckles. "The f*cking acid for blood! I don't think this could be worse, you know?" [Schabowski] "So you say, that they can be killed, if you put a hella lot of ammo in them, right?" - Schabowski looks at his gun, now rather unsatisfied with it's firepower- ~It'll probably do as much damage to them, as a paintball gun~ - he thinks - "So anyway, how many rounds do we have? Per alien, that is..." - he sneers. [Booths] "Shut the f*uck up!" Grimly, quietly, Booths takes a moment to stare at them all, before resuming his limp. "And keep moving. All your freaking yapping is getting on my nerves." "What makes you think we have enough ammo either way, 'bowski? An entire section of marines couldn't handle them...remember?" came his quiet words. "Now keep your traps shut and your eyes open. Next motherf*cker that talks, I shoot." [Schabowski] "That's the damn thing I was talking about, Einstein! We won't stand against this horde!" - thinks Chris, but saying that wouldn't do anything, except making Booths really angry, so he just shrugs and keeps moving. "No, we don't stand a chance against them on firepower. Hopefully we have more brainpower though, and that might be what can kill more of them than our firepower, hence why I want to know my enemy, if you don't mind." Silent for a moment "Ah, to he*l with you, I want to know even if you do mind. I just want to know it before I have to friggin face them." Turning back to Pat "So, back to story telling time...I doubt you'll find much joy in my questions, but the only way to stop them is to out think them. So, back to the hanger. They swarmed you? How'd anyone make it out at all then when you had so many critters? What sorts of weapons seemed to actually make them think twice, so to speak?" "I don't know," Patwardhan says, defeated by all the questions. "Okay? The first time we ran into them, in the cargo holds, they were all over, climbing on the walls, dropping from the ceiling. It was too damn dark to see them until they were close. Then I guess Morrison set off some plastic explosives... We came back to the crew compartment, tried to regroup, but they just followed us, and we... Had to get out. I can't tell you where to shoot, cowboy, because I don't think our chances are very good..." "Hell of a thing to say right now," Beaudreaux intones. She's somehow more nervous now that they've reached the end of the tunnel. The distance behind them is a dark hole. Ahead, a sturdy hatch blocks their entrance into the cargo staging area. "How's that tracker reading, Sato?" she asks him. He shakes his head, all clear. [Fenix] "He did WHAT? What do you remember after the explosives, this is very important, did he rupture the hull." Now very much nervous, the prospect of walking into an area with a hole opening it to space does not seem pleasant. Though, maybe in a strange way that will help them...it might have gotten rid of some of the monsters...shaking I pat my shirt pocket, feeling the comfortable pill bottle, I stop myself from opening it and taking any, but none-the-less I am reassured by it's presence. "This is not a good thing...how sure are we the tracker is working right? Hey, Schabowski, Rodina have any unmanned drones that can travel around the ship and search for hull breaches, or...maybe even cause some?" [Gonzales] Alex stared hard at the keypad for a brief second, then looked at the door. He licked dry lips chapped by the intense cold. His voice was barely above a whisper, but that carried remarkably well in the silence of the Korea. "Uhm, Booths. All lights are green here, door is open. I just need to shove it, but I'd be damned if I didn't tell you this doesn't seem like a great idea. You be ready to fire past me, okay?" For himself, he tightened his grip on the rifle, making sure the safety was free and the weapon was hot and ready to go. For the second time since this whole thing went to ###### he wished he had his big xenon-bulbed torch. That was the one thing he missed most on the Gaines. Bracing himself, Alex put his strength behind the steady shove he gave the door, putting his left shoulder against the cold metal. This allowed him to fire his rifle one-handed in case something insectoid and ugly was waiting on the other side of the door. [Healy] Healy holds her breath as Alex begins to open the door... damn, that was becomming a habit. She lifts the pulse rifle up, looking down the top of the large weapon towards the door. [Booths] The door itself look clear enough, but they were all on the raw edge of paranioa here, or at least should be. "Just get ready to drop Gonzo, just get ready to drop." A grimace bared his teeth, and his entire face became a snarl as the mood of the others hit him. Some were scared sh*tless, some just plain nervous, but the stink of them in the air touched a nerve. Booths was about ready to pop one of them on general principles, just to relieve that itch he was feeling... [Sato] Sato's teeth chattered quietly as he turned the knobs of the motion detector, still getting nothing. He anxiously looked towards Gonzales, hoping that the bay holding the APC would be less cold than where he was now. [Fenix] Standing with his Taurus drawn, and aiming down past the door opening as much as possible, he held his fire until a clear shot presented itself.