Nerrone's Rangers IC [Thread 1]

Chalen nodded and ran on ahead of the others despite the fact that they have heard the strange sounds again just minutes ago. He was wading through deeper waters which slowed him down terriably. He could have just flown over them but the water was up to his body and wings and if Chalen's wings get wet, he'll be unable to fly for 26 hours. Chalen cursed so bad about this annoying situation, tapped into his comlink and reported back to Dagon. "Dagon the water here much much deeper and so far there is nothing bu-" A blood curdling scream was heard, momentarly interrupting Chalen's report. "Ah carp diem. Dagon I think you might want to get everyone here fast before something bad happen to me!" Chalen tapped his comlink off and quickly grabbed his blaster. He yelled at the top of his lungs. "Alright I heard enough of them screams! Show yourself ya big ugly of a brute!"

Dagon had not even noticed Chalen leaving the group as chaos broke loose, and the comm message had been barely audible over the sounds of frantic splashing and gunfire as Dagon opened up on the approaching creatures with his rifle. The creatures themselves, however, had heard Chalen quite well: another rounded the corner, bearing down on the space sprite and letting out another ear-piercing screech.

"I've got something!" Bor exclaimed from inside his fighter. "Four alien bio-signs, headed right for Team A. I'm also reading weapons-fire."

"Already?" In the cockpit of the Lacuna, holding steady in low orbit above planet Ariid, a note of mild surprise found its way into Kwa's voice, Those tubes were supposed to be squeaky clean.

"This is why I like working at ground level — what can a field-commander really do in a situation like this without heavy ordinance and a laser guidance system?" Indeed, Kwa had spent the last ten minutes impatiently tapping her fingers against the dashboard and fantasizing about orbital cannons. If she hadn't been expecting something to go horribly wrong at any moment she would long ago have disengaged the autopilot and done a few barrel rolls just to stave off boredom — secure in the knowledge that no-one else was looking, of course...

This is madness! Celdryc thought, as he snuck around the battle. The beings looked like insectoids and were very large...and loud. The issue is that they were insectoid, and most insectoids are never easy to kill. Stealthed in the shadows, he came upon one of them that had its back turned to him.He attempted to grab what appeared to be the creatures neck and stab its face

Whatever sensory apparatus the insectoids used to find their way around the pipe system in nigh total darkness, it was clearly enough to detect Celdryc before he could make a clean kill — the close quarters, echoing walls and ankle-deep liquid did not lend themselves to stealth, in any case. Celdryc's blade was deflected by the insectoid's bony exoskeleton and scraped along its side, cutting through to cause superficial damage. The creature reared up and slashed wildly with its two front-most pincer legs towards the source of the attack.

~~The Lacuna, Engineering~~

Lacuna Iconicfigure2.02, (To use her full name) was beginning to stir, after all, if you just had massive data downloaded and a personality integrated into you, while you where still plugged up and suspended on a dais, you'd stir a lot too. After constant tugging, Lacuna noticed she was 100% ready to leave. She, against orders, used her full strength to rip the plugs out of her back. She had full awareness and a brain developed as much as a 30-year old, so she knew all of what she was doing. The plugs being gone was like taking a breath after spending an hour underwater. Lacuna climbed down and found a standard engineering uniform that she pulled on, although she knew she was alone in a dark room so there was no need. It made her feel...Complete. And that's what she was. Complete. A new life on the Lacuna, ready for action. She intended to be in that action sooner rather than later. She smiled a long smile, because she had never smiled before.

Celdryc quickly evaded the creatures attack, but not fast enough to escape unharmed. Drat, they're smarter than I thought. I should have known better, how else would no one know they were down here? Regardless, he made as little noise as possible and quickly found a good place to attack. He stabbed at the same spot he had damaged before in an attempt to slowely weaken the creature.

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((Where the heck is team B Drago?))

Kaaran Looked around puzzled as the strange insectoid roared into view, insulting all of his senses, at once. He readied his launcher just as the Outline of a stealthed figure appeared in his targetter, to attack the creature, as it lashed out at the silhouette. Kaaran cursed loudly, as this stupid stealth character compromised his launchers effectiveness. Instead he drew his pistol in his right hand, whilst still gripping his launchers support handle in his left hand, letting it rest on the floor, whilst he took aim. He had yet to link the pistol to his targetter, but he would need to test it sometime. He pulled the trigger and the pistol gave a high pitched whine, and an impressive kickback as as a hypersonic plasma coated slug flew through the air towards the writhing insectoid.

Unfortunately for Celdryc, there are very few places inside a stretch of damp pipe that could honestly count as good places to attack from with melee weapons: this time his attack was completely deflected by one of the creatures' flailing, chitinous limbs as it attempted to rake its unseen assailant. It was at this point that Kaaran's shot boomed through the pipe system, the slug from his pistol finding its mark and taking the creature's front-left pincer-leg clean off. Its howl of rage became a screech of pain and dark, viscous fluid spilled from the severed limb as it backed off, flailing all the more wildly with its remaining limbs.

The other three insectoids continued to bear down on the group, two in particular rushing towards Kaaran.

Lacuna (Person)


Lacuna opened the engineering door and crept up the central hallway, passing living quarters and other rooms, looking for the nearest crystalline data port. The first one was in behind a wall plate, dangerously close to the cockpit. She didn't want to be seen by Kwa- Not yet at least. Without permission, Lacuna began surfing the massive data and systems on the ship. The landing ramp status: Closed. Lacuna blocked all the particle electromagnetic data ports leading to the info on the landing ramp. No one knew that she opened the landing ramp. After crafting cloths together into a crude parachute, she did something most would think was crazy.

She jumped.

Although he missed, Celdryc was pleased. From the looks of it, the creature didn't actually know where he was, just that he was attacking it. Carefully avoiding the creatures flailing limbs, he sheathed his blades, took out his rifle, and shot at one of the creatures limbs at point blank range

Celdryc's shot scorched the edges of the creatures bony head, its wild movements saving it from instant death this time. It lunged madly at Celdryc, whose gunshot had revealed his location definitively.
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Kwa had long since gotten used to the odd sounds that often emanated from the back of the ship — experience had taught her that the best approach to little technological side-projects Quark or anyone else cooked up in the engineering deck was simply to clean up the mess afterwards and stay as far away as possible until there was a mess to clean up. Compared to some of the noises that had woken her up in the middle of the ship's night-cycle in the past, the hiss of hydraulics, actually the sound of the landing ramp opening, was positively relaxing.

She tapped her fingers impatiently against the dashboard in the cockpit, waiting for any transmissions and wondering idly if it would be irresponsible of her to read a book, preferably a big catalogue of space-to-ground ordinance, while her comrades fought it out in the dark bowels of Las Thaddas.

Chalen being way braver then he did the last time, went all trigger or in this case blaster happy on the insectoids. By shooting them in the eyes, Chalen has caused them to be permentaly blind. Unfortualy the buggers relied on smell as well as sight. Chalen shouted to one of Team A, "Someone distract one of the insectiods! I have plan but tis an insane one and just trust me!"

Celdryc had thought through his plan, and that it would give away his position. He was not, however, prepared for the surge of fury that ran through the beast when it discovered its attackers location. He heard what the little Pixie said, but was too busy avoiding being mauled to death to help. He did not answer either, as he would need to regain the element of suprise to beat this bug in such cramped and dimly lighted conditions. The beast was persistant, however, and would not allow its self to lose track of the small splashes made by Celdryc's feet. Celdryc managed to get enough distance between himself and the beast to get a shot in though, and fired right at the charging beast.

Taking the oppertunity, Chalen charged at one of the insectoids that were regaining their stance/ground. He then jumped at one of them who still had it's keen eye sight, used his clawhands to hold his grip on it's underbelly and hung in there. The insectoid buckled and shook furiously to get rid of Chalen however it would simply not work. Chalen wondered if he could get it to obey him by *driving* it. "Maybe if I twist my clawhand like this..". The insectoid bellowed in pain and reared it's skeletal like legs. "Okay that seem to work! Listen to me beasty! You are going to help me save my friends but that will have you fight the others. You understand?" The insectoid screamed loudly. "I'll take that as yes then. First let's help out Celdryc. Charge!" The insectoid screamed and reared again before rushing to assit Celdryc. Chalen hopes his plan will still work. He cannot afford to mess up, not even a little bit!

Lacuna (Person) fell and fell. The smokey have faded as the surface approached. Gradually, she used the cloth to glide to the surface, until she hit the ground. With an 'Oof', she stood up and began surveying the area for bio-readings. Quark was located, and she began trotting towards team B...

Kaaran stared straight down his pistol's sight as the leg of the insectoid was torn off. Then came the menacing approach of two of the insectoids towards him, and he decided this was a job for his Launcher. He hefted the frame of his Launcher, engaging the firing mechanism, and locating his targets in his targetter, and fired a dispersion missile screaming towards the two insectoids.

The creature attacking Celdryc staggered to one side as his shot embedded itself in its abdomen. The insectoid collided with the wall of the pipe and collapsed, foul ichor bleeding from its wounds. It lay still where it fell.

In such a confined space scatter missiles were less effective than they would be in open combat, but nevertheless fragments of Kaaran's munitions managed to pierce the soft underbelly of one of the aliens charging him: it toppled over, momentum carrying it another few meters closer before it slid to a halt, legs twitching. The other emerged with only a few scratches on its bony carapace, and lunged right towards Kaaran's face, rows of razor-sharp mandibles bared to tear flesh from bone.

Barely a few meters away, Dagon let off a few bursts from his rifle down another branch of the pipe; "More bugs at 6 o'clock, closing fast!"
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Beneath the Engineering District of Las Thaddas, the group of four orange-armoured officers stopped and their leader, who sported a white combat helmet and striped on his shoulder guards that identified him as a sergeant, addressed Team B:

"Do you have licences to carry arms in this district?" It was a direct question, spoken gruffly and laced with suspicion.

Chalen orderd his insectiod (whom he decided to name it Beasty) to block off the incoming attacks after rushing to Celdryc, momentarly to help him. "Come on Beasty! We need to stop them buggers before anyone get hurt!" Chalen twisted his clawhand (Beasty hates that so much!) and Beasty reared while screaming loudly. Team A couldn't understand how a little guy like him managed to tame one of the insectoids and get it to obey Chalen's commands. There wasn't time to think about it just yet. Six more of them are on the way which is certainly not good.

Kaaran's missile felled one of the brutish bugs, and he was still recoverring from the blast when, the other's claw ripped into the skin of his head before locking on one of his antlers, twisting it and snapping it in half. The cut wasn't deep, but the pain coming from his antler was excruciating, and the momentum of the blow brought him to the floor loudly. The adrenalin in his body took hold, and his vision narrowed as he reached towards his ankle drawing his combat knife and thrusting straight towards the insectoids underbelly that now stood above him.

Dark, thick ichor and chunks of the creatures' innards spilled down on Kaaran as his blade cut a wide, deep hole in his target's underbelly — the insectoid bucked and flailed wildly in pain, its limbs whipping out dangerously in all directions in a last ditch attempt to cause damage to its prey.

The last of the creatures that had approached down the left-hand pipe rushed past, moving at rapid speed towards Dagon, whose back was turned as he kept the next wave at bay with bursts from his rifle.

Celdryc did not gloat over his kill, and immediatly turned to another target. He chose an insectoid farther away to shoot at this time, so he could get more shots in before it reached him. Hi aimed an shot as many times as he could at the beast before it got to him.

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Seeing that Xol was not responding, IO stepped in. "Well hello there. We seem to be a bit lost at the moment. We are just here to transport these weapons, but our map holder seems to not be in his right mind. Where we're headed is right near the coolant systems, and my friend here thought we could take a shortcut through here." He lyed, and pointed at the group for someone to catch on and help him out. He hoped the sergeant would believe his story and show them a quicker route to the coolant system, or at least leave them alone. he wasn't opposed to fighting his way out of this either, however.

There were now four insectoids at large in the immediate area: three approaching rapidly down the right-hand branch of the pipe and one coming from the left.

As Celdryc turned and opened fire down the right branch at the approaching aliens, Dagon was struck from behind by the one creature that had slipped past from the left — Dagon had barely enough time to turn and bring his bulky rifle up to protect his face before being knocked to the ground, cursing wholeheartedly as he grappled with his enemy.

Celdryc's shots kept back the insectoids approaching from the right for a few more seconds, opening a hole in the carapace of one and causing superficial damage to at least one other.

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In the engineering district, the sergeant frowned under his helmet, suspicious; "I'm going to have to ask to see your papers, sir."

Beasty body slamed one of them into a wall, chipping off a few bits. Before the Insectiod could start to get up, Beasty made sure it stay there by holding it down with it's very boney leg. At this point Chalen tried to get Beasty to listen. "Uh Beasty? I think you got it so can we save others?" Beasty ignored him and remained where it stood. "Okay suit yourself. You play with dead body while I go save others by myself!" Chalen huffed a little and then procceded to run. Dagon is being surrounded by more of them and tried to fend them off by firing his weapon but one of the insectiods managed to get into a struggle fight with him. Chalen aimed and fired his blaster at the attackers.