Breaking the Barrier - IC

Daian sat there, blushing ever so slightly as Sean put the flower behind his ear, and sighed. "I guess, a thank you is in order for this," he said. This was just his way of thanking someone without having to outright say it. He pulled the flower out from behind his ear, and sniffed it, it was fake, he knew, but he wanted to reassure himself that the real roses were out there, somewhere. He took the fake rose, and put it in his suit pocket, where the petals were hanging out.

He sighed, "I can't believe it, but this is actually one of the nicest things someone's ever done for me..." He looked away at the plain-ish wall, and sighed once more.

Anne was writing in her notebooks again. Her aquatic blue eyes acted as a reading light as she carefully made sure not to waste the graphite in her pencils. She shed a single tear as she finished off the last sentence.

"Dear diary...I can't take it anymore. I hate everyone here. I hate having to fight these abominations. I hate it all, and I just can't go on much longer. I know I promised myself I would never connect with anyone, but if anyone finds this after I do what I plan to this week, I want them to know that it was nothing personal against any of the people here. I want to be free. I want release from my painful existence, and I want freedom from this awful place. I have already been practicing by cutting myself and dulling myself to the pain. Once I get used to it, I'm going to stab myself in the eye. It will be the quickest way to go. I want it to be swift, and what is more swift that going directly to the brain? I hope that they aren't too distraught about what I'm going to do, but I doubt they'll miss me long. Nobody will miss me at all, I bet...goodbye Diary. Goodbye...forever...you've kept me sane until this point."

She heard the intercom shortly after finishing that last word. She quickly made her way to the conference room, black greasy hair covering her face so no one could see the tears in her eyes. Why was she even crying in the first place? No one would miss her, and she wouldn't miss anyone...would she?

Her aqua eyes quickly ceased their glow as she sat down, and clasped her hands together in front of her. "Everybody shut up. What are we doing, why are we doing it, and when will it happen?"

"Are you joking?" Orion practically laughed, "Knock knock- who's there? TWO INCH ROOTS..." he ran his fingers through his hair, sympathetically "Not to mention I have yet to find Ivory 1 by mac, or porcelain mineral foundation by covergirl... I look a hot mess." He jokingly mumbled. He smiled at Daian, a warm, if somewhat casual smile, "When we survive this.... IF we survive this, we can all go clubbing together." He looked to Sean and Maul, "Well, those of us who'd enjoy it, anyways." This was the closest thing to an apology anyone was likely to hear from Orion, who may be a good shot with a pistol, but his favored weapon was sarcasm.

Orion laughed, it felt good. It had been ages since he had laughed, and the tension made it harder and more awkward than ever before. The laugh was short lived, but left him smiling warmly, as he drew a knee to his chest, hugging it close. He looked around the room, the spirits here had long since been broken by danger, death, blood, mayhem, and a stark lack of privacy that had so many reeling. No one here was at 100%.... except maybe Sean... he seemed to be almost enjoying the end of the world.

His laugh and the subsequent good feeling was extinguished rather nicely, by a young woman with, shaggy at best, black hair and fair skin, "Everybody shut up. What are we doing, why are we doing it, and when will it happen?" Orion saw the mood of the young girl was... lacking, but couldn't put his finger on how...

"We're savin' the world, buttercup." He smiled. "Because mimosa's and manicures are so 2010." His smile was a mock wicked, playful with a bit of spice, and his eyes danced a bit as he looked at her. He didn't feel a particular draw to any one person, but his nature was flirtatious and often very motherly... sometimes to an awkward degree.

"That's the spirit, lad." Sean smiles and ruffles Orion's hair endearingly as he stands back up and winks at Anne "Like the lad said, we're saving the world. But buck up, would you? it's not like we're about to die." He laughs and strides back around the table, his fists clenching as his suit swirls through technicolor and his eyes simultaneously bleed "That's right you little bastards... Get these problems out of the way now...." He moves his seat to Anne and slips a metal rose out from under the table and into her hair, straightening it with a genuine smile as he relaxed back and looked to the head of the table expectantly, knowing that the meeting wasn't to plan the next birthday party, but there was no hurry. It would all make sense in due time. Sean simply laid back dabbed the blood away from his eyes and placed his visor over his eyes to await their instructions.

Delta listened to the briefing Athena compiling a mission focus and personnel file
The assets at hand were lacking that which would have assured success but they were all they had
Anne was demonstrating mental instability and bore attention from Aphrodite.
Utane was holding up but her thermal scan coupled with the sound of her cardiovascular system showed she was worried
Orion was himself showing he'd come to terms with his mortality
Maul was, well Maul, built and reconfigured as a bot prize fighter he was in his element
Sean was prepared to go and still a bit of a mystery to Delta somehow avoiding analyzing
Daian was stable though frightened a little and the Doctor Dave was actually egar to test his findings

Dave turned his head towards sean while still standing in the now crowded room. "If I may say so, chances are at 96.32 percent that we will, in fact die, 72.82 percent from one the unknown creatures roaming the surface of the world." Often would Dave do this, he did not understand such complex things like reassurance or hope.

Off in the corner of the room sat Nikolas patiently, an easy and warm smile touching his lips. As the members entered the room one at a time they all received a nod in greeting with a welcoming smile. Though as Delta entered and said something no one else seemed to understand besides Alice she simply giggled to herself at the comment and kept it at that, their little secret. The sweet sound of Alice unaltered programmed personality and vocal simulator seemed to always cheer up the people around her. As everyone had made it into the room Nikolas remained silent for some time, letting them socialize while also getting a better read on where everyone stood; it was disheartening though they all showed up, so that was a good sign. Hearing Dave mention the grim reality of their percentile of success he thought it best to chime in. He stood from his seat, taking a few relaxed strides to Dave's side and placed a hand on his synthetic shoulder. "What Dave here is trying to say is that there is still room for success."" He calmly and confidently remarked in a loud, yet soothing, enough tone for the whole room to hear. "The odds are stacked against us. Though the human race has faced this problem time and time again, yet we have prevailed. That is no coincidence. We have this fight bent in our favor. God, Zeus, Odin, yourself or whatever benevolent being you pray to is looking down upon us and giving us strength to fight on. We weren't locked in this barrier because of bad luck, but because someone or something was looking down and said.. 'Let's make sure we have the best and brightest here during Earth last stand. If those sons of bitches want what is ours, they will damn well not get it without a fight.' And a fight is what those motherfuckers are going to get! So stand tall, fill your cartridges to the brim, polish your blades for tomorrow we rain hell upon those Godless cunts!" He his roared as the speech carried on, his Irish accent thick and proud. He took a breath as if he were about to speak again but the crackle of the radio brought an eery silence to the room.

Through the static and radio fuzz womans voice could be heard. "If any humans are on this line, and are receiving me, please submit your co-ordinates, over." Without missing a beat Nikolas swiftly went to the radio, picking the speaker up close to his lips.

"Attention, Attention. This is Nikolas Valentine, leader of a small group of survivors. If you receive this message head to coordinates 36.1 / 80 within the hour, over." Niko released the button on the radios side and set it down, cutting off the receiver. The coordinates were for a location not but a mile from their bunker in a rundown town that was left in rubble. Looking back to the group he smiled. "Looks like we have found at least one more survivor. I need everyone to gear up and meet me at the front entrance." With that simple instruction Nikolas left the room and down the hall towards the main entrance, awaiting for the group; leaving Jax and Alice in the room for anyone who had questions about equipment or information.

"Gear up? Are we actually leaving?" Daian asked. He hasn't left the bunker in awhile, hell, he hasn't even left his lab for a week! "This is new..." he said quietly, "Should I grab my good gun?" he asked nobody in particular. He looked around at the others, Some of these guys don't seem suited for combat... he thought slyly. He shrugged, it couldn't be helped, could it? "I'll be back!" he said to everyone, "I need to grab my protective gear and good gun and chemicals!"

With this, he left the meeting room post-haste, swiftly walking back into his lab to suit up. He walked over to his lab closet, and pulled out a certain suit, "Nice, I got to see if this works. My experimental protective suit..." It glowed softly, a radiant green color, "It's a good thing I'm pretty immune to radiation now, or I'll be dying!" he joked quietly.

Maul stood in his corner, listening to Valentine's speech."That might have convinced the humans...But my processor is telling me that there's no way a cosmic being could help us now." The lumberjack turned machine of battle's voice rung out. It was metallic and deep."Excuse me. I will be rearming myself for combat."

With that, Maul stomped out of the room and down the many halls, his massive feet causing an echo through out the entire bunker as he went. He arrived at a room stocked full of random bits of scraps that Maul could convert into ammunition for his plasma thrower and batteries for his chainsaw. He attached the chainsaw to his left arm, and the plasma thrower to his right. He had some trouble getting the plasma carrier back loaded again, but he was able to manage. He had gotten so used to having a team refit him for combat, that doing it himself for the past couple of years has been quite hard. After scanning all of his systems and making sure they're at their maximum percent for effectiveness, he began towards the entrance, arriving within a few minutes. He stood there, waiting for the others.

Delta was already preped as she always was for she'd learned in two + years of fighting the distance between herself and her weapons was measured in lives.
She went with Nikolas to the entrance and waited.
She had come here as a film crew from the local BBC affiliate and now she stood ready to battle and had become quite good at it.
She did not think of the ramifications to her model, it did not occur to her that she'd become more than her designer ever thought she could be, she was a war bot now and her unusual combination of persona had made her better than the Omega models