Rennac nodded and jacked into the system, muttering under his breath as he couldn't even get the system to turn on. He was about to try and find the manual override lever when he heard the voices from the other side. The slow opening of the gates and the rattling of chains told the wolf the doors weren't even on the electric rails anymore, cursing a bit more openly at the fact that all tech seemed to be dead on this planet save the most basic systems. He moved to the doors and started to push his shoulder into it, doing what he could to speed the progress of the colonists trying to open the way for them. He could calm a paranoid Hay later, for now he was interested in aking a few questions and seeing what the colonists knew about what was going on.

Jackdaw was through the doorways the moment there was room enough to do so. She whipped her rifle up, taking aim at one of the colonist; for her, the time for tempered paranoia was [i]then[i/].

She scanned through the bodies there, and though she spotted nothing monstrous, that did not mean those inside were friendly. She kept her aim true on the colonist, only slightly glancing off to see if the rest of the group was filing in, though on the outside the red eye kept its focus directly forward. She might have looked like a drone were there light enough to make out the rest of her mechanical form.

"Get in here," she said, directed at the others, though she was still focused directly on the colonist.

It would be a lie if Taerys said that she wasn't a little confused as to why there was such a massive hurry, but she knew that these people had been surviving here against whatever was out there for a while now. It would be naive and unjustified to question their calls. She was a stranger in a strange land full of people that she didn't know, although she'd been in this same situation so many times in her life that, oddly enough, she knew what she needed to do.

With a hand place loosely around the hilt of one of her knives, Taerys made her way back down the stairs and followed the colonists, albeit staying a bit further behind than usual. If she could help then she would. That's the only way that they were going to survive. Of course, she'd be careful not to extend her helping hand out too far to these colonists; she didn't want them desperately grasping at it when the only thing that would accomplish would be to pull her down with them too. First and foremost, Taerys had loyalty to herself.

The Varyx slowed to a stop as she noticed a commotion up ahead of her at what she presumed to be a gate of sorts. It took a few moments, but as soon as one large, lumbering beast came through she knew who it is. "Put your weapons down." Taerys called out as she walked forwards a little, focusing primarily on Jack. "Radios don't work. I couldn't contact you. Now hurry up and let them close them gate."

The colonist that Jack was ready to kill dropped the chain he was holding and that in turn caused the door to falter under the reduced power and began to drop slowly as the other three couldn't hold up up the massive chunk of steel.

Ryder was able to help, by putting a massive hand under it, but he couldn't lift it, only stop it as long as Varus was still in the other arm.

Several of the other colonists drew their weapons and returned the aim at Jack, easily outnumbering her seven to one. Course several did have gun, instead they had sharpened metal rods and welders, but a few did have small firearms. "Listen to your friend." One of them said. "We will be closing that door whether you're inside or not."

Jackdaw's attention immediately snapped to Taerys as her voice filled the air. At first she guessed trap; voice modifiers weren't terribly uncommon. But then she saw the Varyx, the way she held herself, even beneath the armor she could just imagine that look on her face. No radios? They knew there'd been no radios. She was losing her patience with the other girl, to say the least.

She lowered her rifle, though the colonists' voices only barely registered in her mind. Unimportant, useless she figured if there was actually something there. Not worth the ammo, or the damage she'd sustain. Besides, they hadn't butchered Taerys yet.

"Get the door back open, I shouldn't need to explain why," she snapped at one, and then approached Taerys.

She circled the Varaxian once, like some predator sizing up its meal. "Did you find what brought us down or not."

Rennac leaped inside and goton his guard beside Jack, ready to shoot when the shit hit the fan. When Taerys came down he eased visibly, moving over to help the villagers keep the gate open for the remaining crew members. It was something to keep his mind off the fact that all comms and systems were dead. This fact did little to sooth his unease, having been so used to technology being readily available.

Taerys remained still, breathing slowly and deeply as Jackdaw came up to her. Despite the length of time that the Varyx had to deal with her for, she could still feel herself getting aggravated by the human already. Who the hell did she think she was? "Maybe. The colonists call them 'The White Ones'. I still don't know exactly what they are, but I suppose the state of this colony gives you a good idea." She gestured around herself with her hand and paused for a moment, still watching Jack. "And I'm sure your suggestion to open that gate won't go down well. I trust them as little as you do, but we have no choice here. Don't make your first impressions on these people worse than it already is. We were tasked to help them, and that's what we'll do."

Taerys sighed and did her best to ignore Jack for a few moments. She made her way over to the rest of her team and opened her mouth to start conversation with Rennac, but she was immediately silenced with the sight of Varus under Ryder's arm. The Varyx was silent for a moment. "You found him..." Taerys trailed off, eyes locked on Varys. "What's his condition?"

Jackdaw continued without pause, or heed to Taerys's warning. Her voice dropped a bit, but only just, so she wouldn't need to lean in closer to her.

"He's fine, for now. Ask your new friends if there's anywhere we can stash him," she said.

With that she made her way back to the gate, sliding in beside Rennac and Ryder to help push the gate back open. Whatever these White Ones were, she assumed they would be coming sooner rather than later, and that meant they didn't have any more time for nonsense. If these colonists were going to fight them, or make their mission any more difficult than it already was, there was going to be an issue.

Six had scurried in quickly when the gate opened, following behind Jackdaw like an obedient dog. Part of him was sick of himself this way, trailing along on a mission that had yet to make use of him past bodyguard for a crippled pilot and captain. But this was his life now, for the foreseeable future--all he could do was hope things would look up with Hark here.

Ryder used his one arm to help with the door as well, crouching low to squeeze in and letting go once he was in. Moving a bit closer to Tearys and gesturing to Varus with low moans. He knew she was close to him and he still couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on with him; maybe she could.

Hay hobbled in slowly, still trying to stay by Ryder for protection in this foreign environment.

The colonists gave wary looks to the group though. So far two of them were bitches, two were not so bad, one was unconscious, one was crippled, and one was fourteen feet tall. What a strange group and one who was treating them cruelly at every step. "Why should we help him?" One colonist said. "Yeah, you've only treated us like shit and tried to get us killed!" Shouted another.

Another colonist stepped forward, "Easy everybody, a few may be insufferable, but night time is here and we can't be fighting each other."

As if to signify what he said, a piercing shriek came from over the walls, is was high pitched, but it was far away and came from something big. And when the first one ended, hundreds more came up from all around them, then the hundreds became thousands, then the thousands became millions.

Every single colonist went pale and most left in a rush to get on the walls or hide in the ruins town.

One who had stayed said that he knew a place to hold Varus and Hay, leading them reluctantly off.

Another man said to Tearys, Rennac, Jack, and Six to get on the walls; and quickly.

Jackdaw huffed while the colonists whined like children. No wonder this place had fallen so easily, with only one among them seemingly competent, she was surprised this many had survived. Though it took her by surprise, she was almost thankful for the screeches; at the very least it served to shut the others up and get them moving.

She held her rifle up again, sparing not another moment. Whatever these things were, they were close. She'd held perimeters before, so up on the walls she knew to space herself out from those next to her. First thing she did was check the wall beneath her, making sure there was nothing already clambering up. Then she brought the sight on her rifle up and looked out into the distance. She wasn't a sniper, but she could hit a target running at them once it got close enough.

It was about damn time something happened. She was a hair's breadth away from beating the ever-living hell out of the next sod that irked her. Of course, she could restrain herself, but even drugged up and encased in metal she was still human.

Six followed Jackdaw closely, going for the only weapon he had on him--the needle, which wouldn't be much good against something that wasn't there. He turned to Jack, and though it might have sounded dangerously close to giving orders to a girl who clearly wasn't wanting to take them, he spoke a quick, "I have sniper training." She could see he didn't have a gun on him; the request--offer?--was there plainly, waiting for her to confirm or deny.

Rennac looked to Taerys, moving to her once the gate was closed. "Long story short, just bumped his head a little so he's gonna be out for a bit. Gona keep the armor lock on so he doesn't jerk his head in a bad way." The screech caught his attention immediately, drawing both pistols and doing a quick count of the clips he had with him. He took a few more usually since the clips were smaller than what was available with rifles so it came about to just as much ammo as say Jack would have for her rifle. He was also firing out of two barrels so he knew to be ready for close quarters when and if he ran out. He took a few clips and set them at the wall, knowing when he needed to reload he could eject a clip and slam the gun down on a fresh one in a hurry instead of getting one from his belt or pouch. He stood at the wall ready, guns lined up with the horizon to shoot at the first ugly bastard that came in range.

Jackdaw's mechanical gaze snapped to Six as he spoke up, and she looked him over. Did he...was he unarmed? Was that a knife? All he had on him was a knife? She had half a mind to yell at him for being unprepared. He was an infiltrator, and unarmed.

But they were running out of time, and at this point the yelling would solve nothing. She flipped the safety on broadly so he could see he'd need to flip it back off, and then tossed the rifle over to him, and pulled the sidearm from her hip.

"Break it you die," she said flatly, and then returned her focus outward.

Six took the weapon, flipping the safety off and taking his aim. "I've been on 'go in stab the guy get out' missions since I happened--and I'm a little bit of a dumbass." A small crack at humour that failed in it's tracks--even under the mask he could barely muster a twitch of the lip. He knew it was foolish, and he should have taken the initiative to pack his own long rage weaponry before coming out, but like he said, he wasn't wired that way. He'd sniped before, yes, but usually with a weapon Hark had carried, and never on a team mission like this. He'd be thanking Jackdaw more thoroughly for her help here later on--but for now, he put his eye to the sight and scanned the scenery for anything in need of a hole through its head.

More and more shrieks filled the air, millions of them from all sides, a chorus of calls. But over the walls nothing could be seen, and it wasn't because of the night shroud, whatever was out there was over the hills.

Ryder and Hay followed to a collection of buildings, stepping into one they found a collection of children and elderly, not many, about fifteen in total. Each and every one afraid as the night air was willed with shrieking terror. Ryder was curious, but everyone was afraid of him, Karadons are uncommon and generally known for their violent nature. But they held and so did he. Ryder put Varus down next to Hay and then spent a few second to look everything over, then left to go and help keep the walls. Taking a position away from Jack, Six, and Ren, but still within view. Reaching behind his back to take off his Chain-Gun and his kinetic shield, activating the shield and running the eight barrels on his gun, making himself ready to fight.

Out on the plains, all sound stopped suddenly. Not a whisper came. Then the ground several miles out began to move, all around the colony the dirt and grass seemed to move, shifting, tumbling, and making the ripples move closer to the walls. Similarly the shrieking returned and seemed to be getting closer.

Rennac kept his eyes peeled on the horizon, the end of the shrieking was a comfort to his more sensitive ears. Soon enough he could so the horizon shift up slightly and move, something coming over the hills with great force in numbers. Well, least they didn't need to worry about missing anything. Problem was whether or not they had enough ammo to shoot them all! His breathing picked up slightly before he calmed himself, knowing panic would never help in this situation. If he had an idea or noticed a weakness of these creatures he would call it out to the others. Till then, he decided to get a few extra clips on the wall in front of him so he could quickly reload.

"Good. We'll get him out of here soon enough." Taerys remarked and nodded at Rennac. When she was told to man the walls, though, she almost laughed. Manning the wall? Taerys was an infiltrator, not an out-and-out soldier. Close range, up-close-and-personal combat was her style. She had a pistol to play with, but nothing else in the gun department. Regardless, she followed the rest of the team up, gritting her teeth at the incessant screeching and wailing. At least they knew that the things were coming. Warning was always better than no warning. That, and it'd hopefully be easy enough to shoot them. If they were this obvious eight their approach then they either don't care, or they're idiots. Probably just that they don't care, but hey. Gotta stay positive! If things got sketchy on the walls, then she was comfortable fighting them face-to-face.

The pistol wasn't much. She had spare clips, but those were limited. Her knife was the only other weapon on her,aside from her fists, and claws, which she was very well-versed in. Was she afraid? No. Not in the slightest. But going up against an enemy of substantial size under-equipped was not an ideal scenario for her.

But she would make due. She'd adapted before, she could do it again. Even though she'd been itching to get going for so long she was quite ready to be done with this; injured teammates, idiotic colonists, and the company of those she was not entirely fond of was starting to wear on her. At least she had somewhere to aim her aggression.

Outside the walls the ripples were getting closer and the shrieking was getting louder as they tide of movement was about three miles out and getting closer fast.

The people on the wall seemed scared at first, but then steeled themselves, this wasn't their first attack and they hard to be hard to survive. Finding a new and shock sense of determination a few let out war cries while others readied the larger makeshift weapons on the walls, looking ready to kill.

Within the tide, large white forms seemed to joined the smaller fray. These "White Ones" seemed to be much bigger than the ripples on the ground; standing over twenty feet high. Their bodies being almost like chitin gorillas, having hulking arms covered in carapace and claw, all white, even their eyes were a pure white. Pincers on their heads that looked as if they could sheer metal, the hands being made in the same fashion. Their legs had no toes, instead they had six legs with points for ends, moving much like a spider with the horde of smaller forms. Only two were coming from the direction that Jack, Rennac, Tearys, and Ryder were manning.

As the smaller forms got closer, their shapes became clearer too. They seemed to be like the big ones, but they only had one pair of legs, and they were almost canine like, powerful and strong, much smaller too only about two feet high. Their front claws acting as feet as well, but they had sharp points and two claws. Their heads having what could only be described as tusks, each to a dagger's point on either side of a mouth containing a few hundred pointed teeth. Eyes red as burning coals; their hides ranging from a dirt brown to a pitch black. Their number was even greater; having millions upon millions charge towards the colony with more still coming over the ridge.

Ryder kept solid, yet under his maskhelmet he knew what was coming. His home world had something like it. It was The Tide of Death. No Karadon could fight against so many claws and teeth, but then again, no Karadon had a Chain-Gun and Power Armor. This fortified his confidence and even made him crave the conflict. He joined in the war cries, his resounding the loudest from his bellowing lungs.