The details of the mission at hand was alittle disappointing to Tobi..well..half of him. Red didn't like sitting around doing nothing but but blue would not let him speak. If I may get an uplink to the data allowed. I would like to know if we will have any issues with the wildlife. A planet primarily left alone could yeild some dangerous creatures in a nutrient rich environment. I didn't know you liked animals and plants. I don't, I'm just not an idiot. with that being the last of Tobis public statement, he left the war room.

You never let us talk to anyone. I am well aware you have been making us avoid SAL. Afraid he will fix the mistake? I'm not a mistake. You may be right for once. You are more like a failure if anything. Your irrationality has made you nothing short of a complete failure.

Red didn't chime in this time. He stayed quiet. As I thought..pathetic. now we are going to see SAL and fine a way to get you erased.

Harrison shouts out, "Bugs Bunny! You know, like, "what's up, doc!" I'm very funny." He mumbles that last part to himself. "Ah, whatever, I'm out." He got up and went to the shooting range. He fired up his Focus, selected his rifle and put it through maintenance. He took out the lens, checked it for cracks, and placed it back inside the gun again. He fired it in both its single- and split-shot configurations. After deeming it sufficiently working, he put it back into his backpack. He summoned his spear and, without turning it on, started training with Bob, the incredibly damaged dummy. He stabbed it some and slashed it some then punched it some because why not. After showering, Harrison went to the kitchen to survey what he had to work with. Surprisingly, quite a bit. He got to work making a pork stir-fry and some rice. He found some bags of potstickers and, after some math, started preparing 36 (3 for each non-robot) of them.

The biological deterioration of lifeforms proceed to spread the molecular evolution off.., 

Short nails clicked against the table as large, black eyes absentmindedly trailed across the sentences of a book. With music blasting into his ears, it was safe to say that Willow wasn't entirely focused on what displayed itself before him. How did one come to view his current predicament? The boy was on a ship ran and maintained by criminals, lunatics and murderers. Now, which of those three categories did Willow himself fall into? It would not be a stretch to consider them all. He was, of course a criminal. There was little need to sugarcoat that. After resent events, nothing else could brand him. The boy did after all lay waste to not only his dear father, but also the scientists tasked to make his life a hellish experience. A lunatic? Most certainly. The voices constantly echoing within his cranium were bickering even now, fighting amongst themselves in an attempt to convince Willow of following their path, their instruction. It would have been an easier endeavor, were they a unified front. Alas, they were but a raging battle echoing within. "Shut up..," Willow sighed, shifting to another song on his music player. At least they let him keep that. 

From a laboratory to this ship, it was quite a change. Now, it would be a stretch to say that it was for the worse but the boy was no fool. He was well aware that he was part of a suicide squad. He was a freak, a lab rat, an experiment gone wrong. If he could help the Alliance somewhat before being erased with a bullet to the head, they were more than willing to invest. Needless to say, Willow was in the possession of some peculiar abilities. 

Now, he had traded out the scent of medicine, sterile walls and rubber gloves for oil, metal and the occasional sweaty crew mate. Given enough time and he would likely grow closer to the others, and see how they all got along. Since arriving at the ship, Willow had kept to himself, listening to either the music used to drown out his thoughts, or the voices bicker and argue. If the boy was to be truthful, they could, on the oh so rare occasion, be somewhat entertaining. During most scenes however, they were a drama Willow would do better without, but even so, it had already been displayed that their absence brought discomfort. Quite the interesting situation. They were as if an addiction, a bad habit. Were they present, Willow found some sort of twisted comfort in the pain of their presence. Were they absent, he'd feel a loneliness without compare, as if a very part of him had been cut off. 

"Willow!" A voice ehcoed," don't be rude!" There was a ghastly repeat of the word, fading into the back of his head.

"Such a fucking pansy," came another voice, "Willow, stop being a bitch! Get up, hurt something, kill someone!" 

"Pick up the book, paper is sharp, cut, cut, cut something, cut someone, hurt, hurt someone, hurt you, your finger, start with the finger," a third, more sporadic voice proceeded.

"Everyone, shut the fuck up!" Came a fourth voice, "Willow, it has to be quiet, right? Gotta' be professional." This one was quite soft, quiet and by every measure, more disturbing.

"And turn off that fucking J-Pop, Willow! See that radio? Turn it on, turn it on, turn it on!" 

Wrapping his fingers around the cold surface of a soda, Willow downed it's contents with a heavy breath. This was insane, and raising the music only caused the voices to scream louder. "Why haven't you killed them yet!? What about that little plant thing? Or that hot, blue alien!? You should fuck hi-..." 

"Think he has an alien dick?" Yet another, more sultuary voice trickled down Willow's spine.

"Of course he has an alien di-.." The previous voice tried before Willow shot up from his chair and slapped his hand against the table. 

"Would the lot of you..," he sighed, clenching his teeth as a black mist proceeded to manifest itself in his immediate presence, "stop talking..?" In reaction to these turns of the tide, plants growing in a nearby pot promptly withered, and faded into antiquity. Leaves were overtaken by a sickly brown color, their shapes reaching the now shriveling dirt. It did not take long for the plant, and the fruit closely present, to wither into shells of their former selves.

"Hah, you've done it now, Willow! Plant chick's gonna' be pissed!" A voice echoed throughout his head, furthering the boy's annoyance, "and that fruit! You're savage!" 

"Ugh," the boy sighed, rubbing his forehead before dropping back to the chair. At this rate, his crew mates would have a hard time getting used to him. At times, it felt like these voices controlled his actions more so than he did. In truth, Willow always feared that day, the day when they take complete control. Could that happen? Could they move his limbs to their own tune? They lived within his skull like flat mates who refused to pay rent. As far as he knew, they preferred to be backseat drivers, commenting on everything he did without fear of the repressions. "You guys are gonna' get me killed," Willow huffed, resting his head on his arms sa they laid upon the table. 

"It's a wild ride!" A voice returned. Perhaps the boy needed to up the dosage of his medicine, but too much of the medication would have dire circumstances, indeed. They tired him out more so than he already was, an ironic cure. Preventing these voices from manifesting as physical entities, with the ability to physically interact with Willow, he was forced to trade the little strength he had for the ability to fight these creatures lurking within the dark depths of his fragmented mind. 

"Just hearing you guys speak is enough to feel dirty," Willow rolled his eyes before leaning back in the chair. 

"Find the blue alien thing and take a bath with him!" A voice was quick to shoot back.

"The day I find anyone willing to go that far with me, I'd have worse things to worry about, than you." Anything willing to take that step with someone like Willow undoubtedly had a darker abyss than even him.

Amy got up after the briefing, somewhat relieved that their upcoming mission didn't require everyone to have boots on the ground unless things took a turn for the worse. She looked at Grayson and smiled briefly, knowing that he had work to do so it was best to let him be. She knew they all knew, it had been like that for some time now, but she took the fine line between work and pleasure very seriously.

"She you later," she whispered as she walked by him, briefly looking back at Stryker as curiosity got the best of her. Amy wanted to know a little more about the mission, although it wasn't her place to barge into what Stryker and Taleste were about to discuss.

With the little bit of free time she had on her hands, Amy decided to inventory her armor, gear, and weapons. She thought about how up to that point, the crew had been somewhat lucky with their missions. Minimal casualties and non-threatening injuries, so it was safe to assume that statically speaking, at least one of them wouldn't make it back alive.

With the last few days Dr. Matthias made use of the time initially to study herself and data that was present on the Revenant. Security footage verified several things Stryker had told her. The situation was rather unusual since coming back from such little genetic material was astounding. That was on top of the fact that she was alive at all. Past data suggested that she should have been dead years ago. Getting all the details was difficult though, having pretty much lost everything from the last three years. Either because she buried it, it was destroyed, or others that knew about the missing span of time were dead.

Fitting in also proved to be somewhat difficult. It wasn't surprising really. Mobile plants were pretty rare, much less humanoid omes. Couldn't say she was the only species, but none of them had such human like features. That fact was something of a give away to what she used to be. With any luck she would never run into anyone that knew why she was the way she was. Socializing was a tab bit unusual for her anyway though. She didn't have the same hormonal responses so she had to fake some feelings. Though thus far she'd found that if she didn't have much energy she was muted while high energy meant she was really peppy. Somewhere in there was a middle ground she hadn't quite gotten right. And there had been one incident where she'd been surprised and her body instinctively sprouted thorns for defense.

Despite how odd she was though Harriet had been at least tolerated by everyone. The down time for the crew was a blessing that made the initial transition much easier. Also allowed her to focus on a project Stryker gave her. He needed a neurotoxin and tasked her with making one. From what she knew of her biology she should be able to produce one internally. Doing so wasn't that difficult for her. Observing her cells while she made the toxin it clued her in a bit to what was going on. Observation showed far greater levels of complexity to the cell mutations from other subjects. That shouldn't be the case but she watched as her cells altered to produce the specific chemical compounds. As a test she tried to make something that she didn't know the specifics to and it didn't really work. Interesting.

---

Having given Stryker the requested product a few days ago, she joined the rest of the crew in the War Room. In a better mood than usual she stood by and listened. This was her first mission not counting the one that killed her and this one sounded like it needed more a more discrete approach. That pretty much left her out of that since she stuck out in many situations. Theoretically she could climb her way through hard to fit places but this job didn't seem to need that.

Largely letting the others work out the plan her attention was drawn toward a conner of the room. Harriet had never considered the possibility of a connection to plants but she's sensed something happened before looking. Watching as a dark mist withered the plant in seconds she glanced at the source. She didn't know much about the boy other than that his name was Willow and a handful of general details.

On one level she felt like she should be be put off by the fact that he'd just killed a plant. It was an unexpected sensation that she could only assume was a hormonal response. However as a scientist the agent that killed the simple organism intrigued her. Rapid necrosis was not unheard of but it usually was a biological weapon that affected everyone in range. In this case though Willow seemed to be the source and immune to its effects. Taking out a pad that she'd been using to catch up she made an entry with the observations and a note to ask Willow for further details.

@iTem@Xandrya@Gardevoiran@superservo27@Rultaos@t2wave@Shard@Silver Carrot@BKburke

"As per usual, the Alliance doesn't care about the innocent lives. Let me read you a line or two directly from the mission files" Stryker said turning his head to look at Tibulus "'The local populace will likely have been slaughtered. Losses unavoidable. Any who may have survived the initial attack will have been rounded up and corralled onto one of the transport ships to be enslaved or sold off to human traffickers in the Deadzone. No authorization will be granted to attempt a rescue, as the priority is the safe collection and transport of the scientists from the research facility' bastards literally couldn't care less than hundreds, or maybe thousands of people are dead or en route to something worse, and there's nothing we can do about it, even if we attempted a rescue, there's thirteen of us and hundreds of them. I don't like it either, but that's the facts."

Even though Tobi had already left, he answered the question anyway for everyone still gathered around.
"Wildlife shouldn't be an issue. It's mostly livestock in this region. Anything wild, we won't have time to cross paths with anyway. Once we find a place with some overhead cover to hide the ship, we'll be taking the shuttles out. The entrance to the lab is up on a plateau, totally barren from the scans, won't be anything there to cause trouble for us. Someone pass that note on to Tobi when you see him."

Looking back at Tibulus fiddling with the robot, he thought about Tibulus's request for name suggestions for a second.
"Nothing coming to mind, but listen, we've all got work to do. When we get back from Arbonne, there'll be plenty of time for a brainstorming session on what to call your pet project here. Come on guys, file out, we need the room."

-------

Grayson returned Amy's smile and nodded as she slipped out. Before leaving the War Room, he borrowed Stryker's datapad for the moment to access the ship-wide PA system just so everyone aboard, both still in the War Room or elsewhere on the Revenant, would hear him.

"Gonna be in the Armory loadin' up for the mission" he began "'fore we get there, I want everyone to either drop by or ping me on the comms, need ta know what weapons you'll be carryin' so I know what kinds of ammo to load up on, in case things do go sideways down there. If ya drop by, I'll be includin' a weapon an' armor check-up, free o' charge."
He closed the transmission and handed the datapad back over chirped out a quick "Thanks mate" and headed over to the Armory door just a few steps away.

'Let's do this.' he thought as he entered the code and stepped inside. Before he even sat in his chair, his mind was racing, creating a mental checklist of everything he'd need in case Stryker's 'doomsday scenario' came to pass.

After another fruitful session, the trio eventually went off to clean themselves. By which it meant dragging the sweaty Scotsman towards the bathroom so he would at least seem presentable in front of others when they were called to the war room. There, they talked something about a band of raiders called Skaldum and so on and so forth. But this Taleste chick was apparently better than her for reconnaissance. She scoffs at the thought and shot a glare at the thief before trying to focus back on the mission briefing. Thankfully, they’re not really expected to do much on the surface other than expect a potential FUBAR if the raiders ever found them, or the labs. With nothing else to talk about, she immediately stood up and left the room so she could simmer down outside the war room. This earned the surprised and confused looks of some of her colleagues in the room but she didn’t really care for it regardless.

As Koren passed by, she grabs him by the arm and the Juz’ stops on the command. “Take ma guns and ammo from the room,” she says. “I’ll do some firin’ practice later. Wait for me in the gym.” The alien nodded to it and left when she lets him go.

After Taleste left, she too would head in the room to confront their supposed leader. “So, ain’t good enough for ya?” she says with venomous sweetness when she saunters in with a toothy smile that showed off the sharpness of her teeth, and rage in her eyes. “Cute lil Taily girl better than me? Tell me, Stryker. What made her better than me?” She gets near him, too near for comfort as she felt herself breathe in the rancid air of the man that had fallen down from her view. A moment was all it took for her smile to falter, urging her to pull it back up as she took an extra moment to stare in his eyes. “Actually, you know what? Whatever, right? Give others a chance,” she says as she takes a step back to give the man his space back. “I hope yer kitten is as good as you think she is, Stryker,” she said in that still sweet voice. “It would be a shame if one poor choice ended up with all of us dyin’.” With that, she left the room with a hollow chuckle on her throat.

Matija headed straight to the gym to use their small firing range inside. Koren handed the Mecorian her earplugs, pistols, magazines, pack of ammunitions, and a marker. She then tells the young Juz’ to head to their room and onto the Armory so they could get a fresh batch of ammunition enough for the apocalypse and get their armors checked before they had to deploy. “Get yourself a gun too and practice with it. You won’t know when you’ll need it.”

When the blue alien left, Matija asked the other range users to stop, she then jogged towards the insugel’s surface and doodled rough outlines of two people and multiple other targets before her marker ran out of ink, making her growl at it in frustration as she tried her best not to throw it on a random direction, or a random someone. When she’s done, she put in the earplugs and announced “FIRING!” to everyone to make sure that she won’t accidentally hit an idiot trying to walk in front of her.

Despite not being able to use a gun for a while, the kick of her pistols on her arms felt wonderful to her. The comforting weapon added with the rage fueling her systems made her focus so well that she ended up hitting her targets with near deadly precision despite the first few shots that she required to get a feel for her guns again. The rest of her time was spent with her slowly filling their insugel on multiple places with enough lead to make a small statue out of. When she was somewhat satisfied, she placed the hot firearms down onto the table so it could cool and be taken in to Grayson later for additional check-ups in order to assure minimal issues when they land planetside.

Benny had spent most of the time during the takeoff from the planet and the the ride through space in constructing the firing range in the gym with help from Grayson, Matija, and the others who weren't busy. It didn't take very long to set up, and soon they had a functional shooting range for their leisure aboard their vessel. After spending most of his time refreshing his bomb-making, chemistry, and computer skills during his recovery, he was excited to get to make use of his rifle once again. He retrieved it from the armory to practice a few shots with it before anyone else could hog the space.

It felt good to be able to fire his gun again. The kick of the rifle as it fired was cathartic in some way, after spending so long idle. It wouldn't compare to the feeling of the vibration of the shockwave of a bunker-buster or thermite charge. But still, he took whatever he could get. His aim wasn't impressive before, and being comatose certainly didn't do him any favors, but he could still consistently hit a target at center of mass it seemed, with controlled shots and Skelly's reliable stability. After expending one magazine's worht of ammunition, he called it quits and packed up his gear, giving his bionic arm a congratulatory pat as he left. "At least one of us dinnae get fucked by muscle atrophy, aye?" he said to his arm as he left the range.

The next few days were spent in relative monotony, made bearable only by his further experimentation in the ship's lab in the testing of new explosives theories, sparring sessions with Matija and recently Koren, and rifle practice at the range. He would've spent more time in the labs, but Harriet, the plant-lady, seemed to temporarily claim the place for a few days saying that Stryker had tasked them to do something. Benny didn't like being kept out but he figured an answer like that was just another way of saying "mind your own damn business", and if it was the captain's orders it was best not to get in the way. Though he did take his wheeled toolkit out to his room to do small-time experiments in his room, at the expense of the nasal health of the people in adjacent rooms. The activities helped keep the boredom in check and resharpened his somewhat dulled skills, but he was itching for something more exciting to do to really bring out his abilities.

An eventual call from Stryker would promise an answer to that itch as it seemed the Alliance had finally found another job sufficiently dangerous for them that they couldn't afford to send their respectable military units into. They were to sneak into human colony occupied by space vikings, have Taleste clear open a path for them, and rescue a bunch of Alliance eggheads doing classified research. The plan was simple, yet so much could go wrong. However, instead of making it anxious, the possibility only excited Benjamin as he felt a smile creep on his face as he imagined the chaos their little team of troublemakers could cause.

"When you get to the terminal, radio back for evac and I'll come back for you at the same place we drop you off, about a kilometer or so outside of town. If you run into any trouble, I'll come back with numbers. If all goes well, none of us will even fire a gun, but after those last few jobs, I want to be prepared for the worst possible scenario, so Grayson... get everyone kitted out for a doomsday scenario, maximum ammo, and I'll also need this stuff as well." Stryker ordered as he handed a note to the arms master.

Benny began running the numbers in his head, scenarios and situations playing out and what he figured he would need for them. However, they were working on limited information, and that severely hindered his ability to prepare for the task ahead. He figured some standard explosive charges would be necessary for most barriers. A couple standard charges, along with one special Thermite mix and one concentrated Acid to get through anything short of starship hull levels of sturdiness. Usual set up of 2 Flashbangs, 1 smoke grenade, and 2 Frags for general combat. Maybe 2-3 EMP grenades in case any of the secret lab's automated defences considered them enemies. 4 grenade launcher rounds, armor-piercing variants to be used for blasting open vehicle armor, or a quick exit through most walls if needed. And for their doomsday contingency... well there was always the classic military-grade bunker-buster capable of leveling an underground building into a debris-filled sinkhole, if he were allowed to requisition that. He'd also bring in a few of his tools for crafting an IED from household items. A top secret Alliance R&D facility was bound to have chemicals he could work with if his packed explosives weren't enough for anything that stood in their way.

After the few seconds it took for him to analyze it, Tibulus spoke up with a question for Stryker. "Previous verse still stands. What about innocents?" their skeletal pilot asked. "As per usual, the Alliance doesn't care about the innocent lives. Let me read you a line or two directly from the mission files... 'The local populace will likely have been slaughtered. Losses unavoidable. Any who may have survived the initial attack will have been rounded up and corralled onto one of the transport ships to be enslaved or sold off to human traffickers in the Deadzone. No authorization will be granted to attempt a rescue, as the priority is the safe collection and transport of the scientists from the research facility' bastards literally couldn't care less than hundreds, or maybe thousands of people are dead or en route to something worse, and there's nothing we can do about it, even if we attempted a rescue, there's thirteen of us and hundreds of them. I don't like it either, but that's the facts." their leader said.

Benny shrugged at it in response. "Shite like this happens in the Deadzone all tha' time, cap'n. You keep worryin' about these things ye'll go right screwy. 'Sides, not as if we're tha' cleanest scoundrels out here, anywae" he said with a small sly grin.

A little afterwards, he addressed their commando-droid's concern about wildlife before asking them to leave the room so he could brief Taleste properly. Benny followed the order and left the room, bringing up Skelly's holographic interface to mark down the gear he would need for the operation and submit it to Grayson for approval. In the meantime, he'd get started on making the mixtures for Acid and Thermite in the ship's lab to make sure he could at least guarantee them passage through 2 stubborn barriers.

---

As everyone else filtered out of the War Room, Stryker fiddled with the holotable controls, loading up the images and data files he'd need for Taleste's briefing.

"Alright" he began, beckoning her to step in for a closer look "So for this mission to even have a chance of succeeding, you're gonna have to blend in perfectly with these pirates. Like I said in the briefing, they're mostly human and have a bizarre obsession with an ancient Earth civilization called the Vikings."

A hologram of several pirate women popped up from the holotable.

"Thanks to that Aliance squad's recon, we know that they've finished raiding the settlement, so in keeping with their cultural beliefs, they're celebrating. They'll still be armed but unarmored. We have this imagery of some of their female warriors, to give you an idea of what they look like out of armor: common hairstyles, clothing, the way they show off their bodies to men they want to take as their own, and most importantly, the war paint they wear on their faces. I don't have any exact data, but the common belief is the patterns of the paint denote things like tribe, rank, belief in the gods, stuff like that. Having this paint be picture perfect is perhaps the pass or fail moment of this job. If a single line is out of place, anyone of stature will know, but that's nothing to worry about for a woman of your talents."

The hologram women shrunk and shifted off to the side as an overhead image of the settlement filled the holotable. Taleste was watching intently, completely serious for the first time that Stryker had ever seen her. Here was an actual job with a lot at stake resting solely on her shoulders. What was more important was that it was a true test of the proud thief's skills.

"As you can see, there's really just one main entrance to the township, so you'll have to pass right through the gates and through the celebrations to reach the target. Here." he pointed at a stately, three-story building "On the top floor, main office, there's a computer terminal. They sent me login credentials so you can gain access. That terminal is the only exterior control point for the doors to the subterranean facility, you get in there, access the controls, then get out, simple right? There's one possible obstacle, that all depends on what this particular gathering believes in. Usually the leaders of the hunting party will take a building that signifies power as their living quarters for the duration of the raid and the celebrations. If that's the case here, common members of the hunting party wouldn't be allowed inside, but there's a simple way around that, look for the biggest, meanest woman you can spot, odds are she lays with one of the leaders, accuse her of some slight against yourself, then slit her throat, in full view of the men. One of them will be impressed, it's just their way, and he'll want you to join him inside. Incapacitate him once you're alone and proceed to the terminal. Any questions?"

Taleste nodded, staring at the holograph. "Sev'ral questions. First, do we 'uve any information on 'ow they act? Whut's acceptable and taboo? In fact, lit'rully any information on them, no matter 'ow seemingly irell'vant, I'd like access to. It's thuh little things that give you away in these situations. Secon', 'ow am I meant to win a fight against a fully-trained warrior who I've made marself the focal point of? I wouldn't say I'm a bad fighter but my specialty is stealth."

"I'll give you a copy of the files we have on them for you to study up. I'll summarize the chapter on behavior really quickly- act like an absolute savage, walk around that camp like you own the place. As for how you'll deal with the warrior, we've already cooked up a little cheat for you." Stryker reached in his pocket and pulled out a small palm-sized black box, he pulled up the cover and handed it over to Taleste, inside was a golden ring with a long thin needle protruding out from the side of the band.
"You'll wear this ring as part of the disguise, the needle should fit neatly between two of your fingers. It's loaded with a neurotoxin Harriet made that'll disorient, or maybe even paralyze the woman you choose to fight. The key will be to hit her first, blind side her if you have to, jab it in her neck and the fight is yours. I guess fight wouldn't exactly be the best word, execution is probably more fitting."

Talest took the box, shut it and grinned. "So, I discreetly nip thuh whun in the neck with this, then I make a large public showing of guttin' her neck with a knife when everywhun's watching?" she asked.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Stryker said as he shifted his attention to copying all the intel files to a portable datapad "Oh, and you'll probably get some blood on yourself during the act, don't wipe it away, apparently it's considered quite a.... pleasing look among some of the more vicious males, if you catch my drift. And since this is a culture that revolves around the taking of life, it wouldn't be too much of a leap to assume that the vicious ones are the ones in charge, ergo they'll have access to the building with the terminal. Consider it the art of seduction.... through the eyes of complete savages anyway. Keep the ring on too, should be enough in the needle's storage capsule for a second dose, if you want to play it that way once you get one of these leader-types to bring you inside. Last thing before I leave you to get ready, have your comms earpiece close at hand, but don't wear it outright. The rest of us will be quite a way out from the town, but once you've accessed the door controls, get in touch and I'll send someone back to rendevous."

He finished copying the data files for her and slid the datapad across the holotable.
"Everything we have on them is there for you to read. Like I said to everyone before, you've got a few hours to read up and get your disguise ready, I'll find you just before we enter the system to go over any last minute questions and details."

The next three hours passed in relative silence, Stryker kept himself occupied by reading over the intel files again, looking for any additional information that could make Taleste's job easier. With just under an hour to go, he pulled on his armor and marched up to the cockpit to help Tibulus guide the ship through the planet's atmosphere. The plan was to come in on the far side of the planet and cruise to the landing zone in low-power, not give the Skaldurm any inkling they were coming. Looking below, Stryker caught his first glimpse of the lush forestry that covered most of the planet and he began a radar scan to locate a clearing big enough to set the ship down. Five minutes out, Stryker left the cockpit and headed down to the crew quarters to grab Taleste. He stopped in front of her room and knocked on the door.

"Hey, you ready?"

A viking emerged from Talestes room. It took a few seconds of close scrutiny to see the thief underneath her makeup. The only shortfalling in her appearence, dress, body language or facial expression was that she was a little on the scrawny, slender side. Even when she spoke, her voice contained none of her natural accent and was mimicking perfectly the recordings she had listened to.

"Let us go forward," She replied pushing past him as she walked ahead with a masculine air of power she had never shown before.

The disguise was impeccable, Stryker wouldn't have recognized her at all, if not for knowing beforehand what she would look like when the door opened. The attitude and accent were spot-on as well. He grinned as he set off behind her.
"Wait for me down by the shuttles, I've gotta grab something from upstairs."

He went on ahead of her and clambered back up the steps to the Command Deck. One last check on the radar scans up in the cockpit and a quick stop by the armory later and Stryker was on the elevator headed down. As instructed, Taleste was waiting for him in the Cargo Bay.

"Your weapons" he said holding up a small black case "Grayson did a complete tune-up on your gun and knife. He also managed to whip up a little something to help you fit in- a fully-functioning Skaldurm Vibro-axe. Let's get moving."

They hopped inside the foremost shuttle, with a few flicks of the wrist and a quick call up to the cockpit, the cargo ramp began to lower and the shuttle's engine hummed to life. They darted out from the ship over the tops of the trees, keeping as low as possible to avoid premature detection.

"The township is about ten kilometers out, can't bring you right up to the door obviously, but I think we'll be safe if I let you out just under a kilo away. Don't be nervous, I know you can do this, you've got everything you need: the neurotoxin ring, the terminal login key, comms if you run into any trouble at all. The look, the accent, the mentality.... fits you like a glove."

He was mostly talking to fill the silence, but part of it was to satiate his own nervous feelings. The entire mission rested on her success. Stryker was confident in the woman's abilities, how could he not be after working alongside her for all this time? But still there was that nagging in his head.... what if she couldn't pull this off?

He kept the conversation light the rest of the way, finally he spotted the spotted the town shining like a beacon in the dull evening light. He started to pitch the shuttle down for a landing, setting off a radar pulse to make sure they were alone.

"Alright, this is your stop... Good luck." he said as the shuttle touched the ground and the side hatch popped open.

Taleste showed no nerves. It was as if she had stopped being a usually careful thief playing the part of a viking and had become a viking. She naturally held little conversation, for under the facade, Taleste was indeed nervous, but this was not the first time she had done something like this, and it would not be the last if she could help it. Survival was, as always her first loyalty. The crew came second. If she had to join the vikings in order to be spared, then she was going to do it.

Leaving the hatch and walking for about ten minutes gave Taleste her last pocket of time to shed her true self and become a native. By the time she reached the settlement, she was practicaly indiatinguishable from the real deal.

The leader of the Skaldurm raiding party, a hulk of a man named Nico Chareon, guffawed deeply from his hastily-constructed throne of sandbags and bedding. One of his war chiefs had suggested pitting the surviving soldiers against one of their warriors in a series of gladiator-like battles. They'd told the soldiers if any of them won, they and the civilians would be free to go if any of them won, not that any of them had even the slighest chance of victory.

He clapped, cheered, and drank deeply from his ale as his warrior slew yet another of the worthless rybak. The pile of bodies grew greater. As he awaited the next fight, he glanced up and looked around the town square. Bonfires dotted the landscape, his warriors drinking and dancing, revelling in another glorious victory. Some were still raiding, tearing through the empty houses for unclaimed treasures to bring back to the fleet. His captains sat around him, on similarly constructed seats of bedding and pillows, drinking and enjoying the sport in the cool night air.

Taleste had little trouble sneaking into the camp in the midst of the celebrations. Once in, she strutted around, grinning and twirling her axe in her hand as she circulated around. She had little trouble locating the leader and his captains. Now she just had to find the largest, meanest looking woman she could find, and make sure that they were visible to the important men.

Nico stroked at his beard, pulling at a knotted tangle as he watched the fight unfold rather uneventfully. The Alliance soldier wasn't fighting to kill, rather he was simply trying to survive. That would not suffice. His tankard was empty and in a bid to invoke some excitement, stood suddenly and tossed it at the Alliance soldier.
"COME ON!" he bellowed "FIGHT FOR YOUR HONOR MAGGOT, FIGHT FOR YOUR PASSAGE TO VALHALLA!"

He cast his gaze over to the huddle of still-living Alliance soldiers and continued.
"ODIN DECREES THAT ANY MAN OR WOMAN WHO DOES NOT FIGHT WITH EFFORT WILL NOT DIE WITH HONOR, THEIR LIFE WILL BE SPARED ONLY UNTIL IT LEARNS HUMILITY, THROUGH A PAIN WHICH IT HAD NEVER KNOWN BEFORE!"

He sat again, and noticed that the Alliance man currently fighting with Deivar was suddenly much more aggressive, as intended by his little speech.
"Sinara," he said to the woman on his left, one of his many warrior-wives "Would you please fetch me more ale? In fact, fetch us all more ale, and you shall be granted the glory of the next fight when Deivar tires."

Sinara, before leaving the men's line of sight, would be stopped by a much smaller woman, who quickly and subtly smiled a mocking smile before discreetly bringing her hand up to the amazon's neck. She would feel a small pinching stinging sensation. That's when Taleste got back into character and began angrily shouting, attracting the attention of the men towards the two of them. "Sinara!" she bellowed with more power than her frame semed to allow, whilst poiting er axe at the larger woman. "We did not finish our last battle when you left me for dead! Now you will pay for your insult of not finishing me off!"

Taleste waited for the viking to draw her weapon, before knocking the sluggish toxin-affected strike that came her way away as if it required no effort on her part, before performing an almost theatrical leaping spinning axe blow right between Sinara's eyes. Blood and brain showered Taleste, and all of those standing nearby. Taleste then gave a kick to the dead viking's chest, separating them from the axe and sending them sprawling to the ground.

Nico had just given a quick signal to Deivar to stop toying with the soldier when he heard the shouting and the hum of the vibro-axe. the distraction gave the Alliance soldier and opportunity to knock Deivar down and stood poised to deliver a killing strike. However, Nico caught the flash of movement in the corner of his eye, drew out an energy pistol from behind him and quickly shot the soldier in the head. He stood and walked over to the dimunutive blood-soaked woman who stood over Sinara's corpse. He felt a slight sadness, seeing her lying dead, without glory, but his face reflected no emotion. He stood over this unknown woman and reached up to gently grasp her chin, pulling her face from side to side as he observed her. Through the blood splatter on her face, he studied the markings and learned that she flew with the berserkers, was lowborn, and was fairly new to their ranks. He certainly wasn't expecting to find a woman so small among his berserkers, but stranger things have happened. With a hand still on her face, he spoke in a low voice.

"You're very new, yet not green enough to be without dispute, or blood on your hands. You are familiar with the laws of Odin, yes?" From the sultry smile on her face, he knew the answer was yes. turning back to the onlooking crowd, he made a declaration.

"Sinara has stood by me for years, she always fought with an exudence of bravery and a beauty of skill, but she knew the laws, as do I. And in keeping with those laws, this woman has earned her chance to stand where Sinara once did. Continue with the fights, or kill them all, I don't care. as I now retire for the night."

He returned his gaze to Taleste.
"You want to be a queen do you? I shall grant you your opportunity personally. Come."
After her positive responce of nodding and smiling slyly, he took her hand and began to walk, guiding her to the tall marble-white building he had claimed as quarters. The door was locked down via usual Alliance methods, keycard access and biometric scans. His guard at the door produced a severed hand and the key to unlock the steel-reinforced door, and stepped out of the way to let Nico and Taleste through. The door swung shut behind them, Nico guided the berserker into a large, dimly-lit room a few doors removed from the main hall. Just a few days ago it had been someone's office, now all the furniture was either upended and stacked against the wall, or removed entirely, replaced with bedding.

Now alone with her, Nico shrugged off his fur-lined coat and tunic, exposing his scarred and tattooed chest to her. With arousal apparent on his face, he stepped over to her.

"You're very beautiful, and if your display against Sinara is anything to go by, we'll have lots of fun together. You must tell me your name shusaan" he ducked his head sideways to lap at a rivulet of blood running down her neck, as his hands ran up her back tugging lightly at the hem of her shirt.

"You wish to know my name first?" Taleste asked in a sultry tone. "In that case, consider it my honor to remind you of your priorities." And with that, she lifted his chin and kissed him hungrily. But this was to serve another purpose. This was to stop him shouting out, as she lifted her ringed hand and jammed the needle into his neck. She had only used enough to make Sinara a little sluggish, so there was plenty of the drug left for this pervert. To stop him trying to struggle free, she bit his tongue, and kept a tight hold of him until the effects of the drug carries out and then lowered his unconscious body onto the bed.

With that done, she then, without as much worry, made her way upstairs to the computer terminal, then took out her comms device, switching it on and raising it to her mouth. "Stryker. I'm in the Terminal room. Tell me what I'm looking for."

Over on the desolate plateau, Stryker and the others were sitting around, guns at the ready in case the mission went pear-shaped. He jumped like an electric current had ran through him when Taleste's voice filled his ears.

"Good to hear things are going well." he said, bringing up the mission details on his suit's HUD "Ok, with the Alliance login credentials you should have access to Level 9 clearance. There's a secondary password to access that server, ready for it? Ok enter XD8FC06431BLUI. Find the file coded RDF-003 and inside that will be the command list. Engage the Gateway Override Protocol and get out of there. I'll spool up the shuttle and head out for the rendevous point as soon as you're ready."

Taleste sat down at the terminal, and followed the instructions, engaging the Gateway Override Protocol. Once that was done, she stood up and headed swiftly to the exit of the room. "It is done," she spoke into her comms, resuming her viking persona.

Pounding footsteps echoed down the empty hallway as Skaldurm warriors came stomping into view. At the head of them, holding a double-bladed vibro-axe was Nico. Blood streamed out of both corners of his mouth, and his shoulders were sagging greatly. His movement and the greenish tinge on his face suggested he was feeling the effects of the neurotoxin, but the large dosage hadn't been enough to keep him out for long.

"GRAB HER!" He yelled as he spotted Taleste. His warriors moved in quickly, dashing past him to secure the imposter. As he staggered forward, using every effort to stay standing under his own weight, a flash of light caught his eye. Turning to the window, he saw a sporadic pulse of red light flashing out over the plains away from the settlement, disappearing into the night sky.
'So there are more of them he thought.

"They got me," spoken in a cheery, relaxed tone was the simple, ominous reply that Stryker's comms would pick up above the background noise of angry Skaldrum warriors rushing into the terminal room. Taleste then switched her comms off and dropped her axe, readily surrendering. Smiling with the confident aura of a woman who knew that her life was not in danger as long as she could make a case for her own survival being profitable.

@iTem@Xandrya@Gardevoiran@superservo27@Rultaos@t2wave@Shard@Silver Carrot@BKburke

"Taleste, come in.... Taleste do you read me? Damn it!" Stryker said, his hand falling away from his helmet as he looked to the others.

The ground under their feet rumbled and shook as the rocky surface at the center of the plateau began to split open, revealing a spiral staircase that twisted down into the depths of the dark hole in the earth.

"Taleste was captured, but she got the job done. If she's lucky, she's already dead, we have to honor her sacrifice by pushing forward and getting this job done. Besides" he added, looking up at the pulsing red light above them ".. they're probably gonna follow that right to us, and we have a better chance of defending ourselves down there in cover than out here in the open."

"They're already comin' Stryker" Grayson said, his cybernetic eye able to locate the faint signals of ships taking off from the settlement.

"Ok, everyone get down there!" Stryker said, pulling his rifle from it's sling and frantically jabbing at the controls on his wrist-computer to set the shuttle to auto-pilot itself back over to the ship. If they left it here, the Skaldurm would either destroy it or take it.

At the bottom of the stairs a few minutes later, the crew found themselves in a small circular room with a single door being the only way forward.

"Hey!" Stryker said, pounding on the door "Open up, we're with the Alliance, here to rescue you!"
The door clicked as it unlocked and slid open, revealing a narrow, decently-lit hallway. The walls were Alliance-standard sterile white, like a hospital. Doors leading on to other rooms lined the hallway on both sides. From the architectural plans he'd been provided, Stryker assumed this whole floor was the living quarters.
"Works every time." Stryker said to himself with a slight chuckle.

Once the last of them were inside the door slid shut again.
"We need this to stay locked." he ordered. SAL responded immediately by punching at an access panel, killing all power to the door, but also killing all the lights but the emergency lamps mounted on the walls.
"That works." he said, he looked around and picked the first three he saw "Ok, Grayson, Amy, Benny, you three with me, we'll grab the eggheads. The rest of you stay up here. Sure, we killed the power, but the Skaldurm are nothing if not resilient, they will break through that eventually, so grab whatever you can from the rooms up here, barricade it off, and set up some cover points in case you have to fend them off. There's another way out of here according to the blueprints I got from the Alliance. Soon as we're ready to go, I'll call up to you guys."

He looked at his selected team and jerked his head to the side "Let's get moving. The rest of you, don't die. They don't get another win today."

@Crossfire @iTem @Xandrya @Gardevoiran @t2wave @superservo27 @Shard @BKburke

Within a short amount of time, the Revenant crew was armed and getting ready for the drop planetside, most of the members eager to get into some action after beeing cooped up in the ship for so long. Tibulus, was as good of a pilot as ever, and managed to get them relatively undetected into the planet's atmosphere and on an uninhabited stretch of forest in the middle of nowhere that the Skaldrum would likely consider insignificant and not bother raiding or patrolling. Benny spent most of the time reading the base architecture the Alliance had provided them, and trying to get a feel for the place so that he would not have to consult his holographic map every time he had to figure out where he was. Thankfully, Alliance architecture was designed for human practicality, and he had no trouble getting a general gist of how the place was put together, and logic was often enough to fill the blanks in his memory as to what rooms or facilities were near or connected to others. Given enough munitions, he even felt confident about being able to do a full demolition job of the place, but he wasn't packing that much firepower as their mission was rescue.

At the shuttle bay, Benny stood with most of the others as he adjusted the seals and locks on his hazard suit. Once he was satisfied with it, he activated Skelly's interface and synchronized it with his helmet HUD, to allow him to view and browse data without having to bring up the hologram, instead using a portion of Skelly as a touchpad to guide a cursor on his HUD to access and organize windows of information. He brought a backpack to carry his heavy explosives while the pockets on his suit were used to carry his grenades, and around 4 magazines worth of ammunition for his rifle. Once he was satisfied the way his detachable scope and Grenade launcher attachment was locked onto the weapon, he slung it over his right shoulder and snapped it onto the magnetized lock on the back of his armor, next to the backpack and stretched his neck around.

Next to the Scotsman was Matija who just finished reminding Koren about how he should use the new pistol that he had managed to borrow from Grayson before turning to the other. "Benny, I already told Koren this. We know the gig's simple. But shit can go wrong. We might have a warband on our ass, we might not. Bottomline is, don't die. I'd be disappointed if you do," she told him. Benny smiled at the dry humor of her statement, and also her concern. "I dinnae knew I had expectations ta' live up to. I'll try not ta' disappoint," He jested back with a nod. He then turned back towards Koren, the blue Juz' that seemed to be a close friend of Matija's. "I've been meaning to ask, how'd you an' the kid meet each other? Ya two seem to go way back," He asked as the shuttle doors opened and some people began climbing in.

"Well..." Matija started as she thought about his question. "How's about this. I'll tell ya all about it when we get back, yea? Juss so we'll have something to talk about if we can at least get a bit of watered down beer to swill down," Matija responded as the two of them began walking towards the 2nd shuttle entrance to climb aboard. Benny looked curiously at her but nodded nonetheless. He'd have to wait until their mission was over to get some answers.

---

The shuttles carrying the Revenant's crew flew out, one of them stopping to deploy the disguised Taleste, while the one that Benny, Matija, and Koren rode on continued towards their destination. The ride was mostly silent with people checking equipment and gear along the way. Benny managed to pick up local satellite extranet services and used it to download a geographical map of the place they were heading to during the flight. Obviously the map did not have the Alliance facility on it, but it at least showed the plateau and the surrounding area, which would allow him to get his bearings should the shuttles be compromised and they need to leave on-foot. With that settles, he spent the rest of the trip playing a bootleg 3d remake of an old arcade game called "Bomberman" on the emulated interface on his helmet, visible to others who looked at his visor as he played against bots in a free-for-all mode.

They arrived at the plateau shortly after, with Stryker's shuttle coming in closely behind theirs as everyone unloaded onto the barren top, no sign of any facility of any kind. Benny tapped the ground curiously, trying to see if he could hear any hollow spots or signs of an opening, but found none. The dirt and ground seemed to be all there was. The Alliance hid it well, that's for sure he thought as he pictured the facility underneath them. He figured that if they had hollowed out most of the plateau and the rocks and minerals within it, a powerful shockwave that manages to dislodge the facility's foundations would cause the plateau to collapse in on itself and bury the the whole facility along with anyone in it. Benny wondered if the Alliance had considered that as a contingency plan should they decide to destroy the facility and hide the evidence. As much as he would've loved to see something like that in action, he preferred witnessing it from a distance that he wouldn't get buried alive from.

The group spent most of the time, taking up positions around the plateau, with Grayson and Stryker taking charge in assigning people into different overwatch positions to cover all the ways an attacker could use to reach the plateau and climb it. Holding a mid-range rifle, Benny was assigned to look over one of the edges that had a good view of the entrance of one of the paths leading upwards. sitting on the most comfortable rock he could find, he flicked his helmet to thermal mode to scan the treeline for activity, but no heat signatures presented themselves in the blue hue of the thermal overlay.The minutes passed by in tense silence as they waited for Taleste to call in that the job was done. Every now and then Benny would catch a glimpse of a heat signature in the treeline, and would zoom in on it, only to see that it was some sort of ostrich-sized two-legged bird that ran in between the shrubbery.

Eventually, Stryker received a call on his comms and Benny turned towards him in curiosity when he heard him speak up. He mentioned a long pass code of some kind, which implied that Taleste had reached her objective and was about to secure them passage into the facility. Stryker began walking up to one of their shuttles to pick her up when he suddenly stop and spoke loudly into the comms. "Taleste, come in.... Taleste do you read me? Damn it!" He exclaimed just as the ground began to shake underneath them all. Benny jumped up from the rock he sat on, looking around the ground of the plateau to track the source of the disturbance when he saw a hole opening up in the middle of it, with a staircase leading downwards.

"Taleste was captured, but she got the job done. If she's lucky, she's already dead, we have to honor her sacrifice by pushing forward and getting this job done. Besides... they're probably gonna follow that right to us, and we have a better chance of defending ourselves down there in cover than out here in the open." Stryker announced as everyone stood up from their positions and got ready to move. "They're already comin' Stryker" Grayson, their resident sniper warned as he stared off into the distant lights of the settlement that were small dots on Benny's thermal vision.

"Ok, everyone get down there!" Stryker ordered as he began tapping on his wrist computer. Benny flicked off his nightvision and ran towards the staircase with the others. It took a few minutes of jogging down the steel steps for them to arrive at a single doorway, while the open hole loomed far above them.

"So, we got a key fer this or am I makin' one?!" Benny asked, already preparing to retrieve one of his charges to blow it open if needed. Stryker ran up to the door and knocked on it harshly. "Hey! Open up, we're with the Alliance, here to rescue you!" He shouted. After a second or so which felt like a lifetime to Benny, the doors unlocked and opened up to allow them passage into a small hallway. The group quickly rushed inside the uncomfortably clean white walls of the facility.

"We need this to stay locked." Stryker ordered, to which SAL responded by breaking the door controls. "That works." Stryker responded. "Hah! I like tha' way ya think, tin man!" Benny complimented as he looked around the area they were in. From what he remembered in the plans, the entrance led into the living quarters of the facility, just past a security checkpoint. Benny felt that it was a dumb decision to have the entrance be so close to where the people slept, especially if this place were attacked, but figured they did it for the convenience of the employees. After the couple seconds it took for those thoughts to go through his head, Stryker began laying out the plan.

"Ok, Grayson, Amy, Benny, you three with me, we'll grab the eggheads. The rest of you stay up here. Sure, we killed the power, but the Skaldurm are nothing if not resilient, they will break through that eventually, so grab whatever you can from the rooms up here, barricade it off, and set up some cover points in case you have to fend them off. There's another way out of here according to the blueprints I got from the Alliance. Soon as we're ready to go, I'll call up to you guys." He explained.

Benny felt oddly uncomfortable about leaving Matija and Koren behind, though he couldn't quite place why. He shook it off and nodded at Stryker. "Aye aye" he said, wishing he had decided to bring the trip-mines after all so he could've handed it to the defense team. "Let's get moving. The rest of you, don't die. They don't get another win today." Stryker added as Benny followed him and his group deeper into the complex.

"These braniacs betta' not have left automated security or some shite online that tries ta' kill us, or I'm gaunnie be very upset!"

Matija was bouncing by the heels of her feet as she impatiently waited for their shuttle to come. She felt heavier than usual considering that her sniper rifle, the one that she usually prefers not taking, is on her back. Not to mention that additional magazines for her guns, all six for her pistols and four for her rifle, on her waist; plus the few extra bullets that she took just in case. ”I’m excited to not die,” she says cheerily to no one as she eyes the toes of her shoes both in anxiety and excitement. Koren was on her side, as per usual. He was looking at the partial mapping of the facility that Matija eventually looked over for a bit to have a general idea when her toes stopped being interesting. ”Just remember to turn off safety when you fire,” she says out of the blue, making the Juz’ look up to her before responding with a ”I understand.” ”Don’t forget what I told you. The trigger ain’t your enemy. Just pull it, don’t squeeze. An’ breathe, Koren. You’ll be fine. I’m there. Just don’t die, okay?” The blue alien nodded in acknowledgment before looking back down at the map and closing it.

Leaving Koren be, the Mecorian eyes Benny on her side who was stretching his neck and shoulders before he flexed his fingers and hands. She watched him fidget about before she piped up to fulfill the need to say something to the man. ”Benny, I already told Koren this. We know the gig's simple. But shit can go wrong,” she pauses as she takes in the gravity of her words. ”We might have a warband on our ass, we might not. Bottomline is, don't die. I'd be disappointed if you do,” she finishes with a small smile hidden behind her helmet’s tinted visor. Her words seemed to have amused Benny based on the snort of a chuckle and his tone of voice. "I dinnae knew I had expectations ta' live up to. I'll try not ta' disappoint,” He jested back with a nod. He then turned back towards Koren, the blue Juz' that seemed to be a close friend of Matija's. "I've been meaning to ask, how'd you an' the kid meet each other? Ya two seem to go way back,” He asked as the shuttle doors opened and some people began climbing in.

"Well...” Matija started as she thought about his question. ”How's about this. I'll tell ya all about it when we get back, yea? Juss so we'll have something to talk about if we can at least get a bit of watered down beer to swill down,” Matija responded as they began walking towards the second shuttle entrance where they all huddled aboard. Based on their current numbers, it seemed that Taleste got excluded from their little pile. This thought made Matija feel grateful and envious due to the implications of special treatment. In order to distract herself, she starts fiddling with her rifle again, adjusting the sight as she deems it fit before she got tired of it and holstered it back to her back. She looks at the blank faces of each person’s suit in the room before glanced at Benny, watching him play the old retro game in his helmet. The Mecorian finds herself grinning at the childish sight and letting out an amused snort before going back to minding her own business.

Soon enough, they were offloaded to the top of the said plateau and Matija started feeling her ears perk up in alert due to the thought of them being in such a relatively high location that could be seen by anyone willing or lucky enough to look. With the crew being directed to circle around the location plateau, Matija found it apt to pull out her rifle and looked over the direction that she was given while she swallowed back the feeling of unbearable excitement bubbling in her stomach. Koren on the other hand simply took a flat rock to sit on before pulling out his own borrowed gun that he held with both hands. Till then, they simply had to wait for the thief to not fuck up.

The silence within the group was broken by Stryker’s frantic voice later on. ”Taleste, come in.... Taleste do you read me? Damn it!” he exclaimed, making the Mecorian and Juz’ glanced towards Stryker as the two tried to make sense of what’s happening. Before they could properly piece things together, the ground shook underneath them, startling the two of them to standing upright. ”Oh wow,” Koren breathed as he watched the ground before them open up what almost seemed to be a staircase to the underworld. ”Taleste was captured, but she got the job done. If she's lucky, she's already dead, we have to honor her sacrifice by pushing forward and getting this job done,” said their Captain. Matija grinned maliciously at the thought of Taleste being captured and tortured. The Siren found it satisfying to think of such due to the mere fact that she felt one-upped so unfairly. ”Besides, they're probably gonna follow that right to us, and we have a better chance of defending ourselves down there in cover than out here in the open,” added Stryker. To which she nodded to as she lowered her weapon and started jogging towards the hole.

"They're already comin' Stryker,” called out Grayson. This resulted in the rest of the crew hustling faster inside even without Stryker’s orders.

By the time they get by the doors, Stryker was already pounding and demanding for a passage in. Whether or not he was heard by its inhabitants was a mystery to them. But at least the door opened, to which everyone felt relief over. While Koren had decided to holster his weapon so he won’t get bogged down by a weapon that he had no current use for, Matija herself found it eerily quiet save for the sounds of their crew’s footfalls and the eventual sliding of the door once they were all in. The Captain ordered the doors to stay locked, to which SAL responded to by punching the literal lights out of the entire room. He possibly turned off the entire floor’s power as well. Sans the few emergency light fixtures on the walls. Matija nodded and let out an approving hum at the act before turning on the low-light vision on her visor; helping her see in the relative darkness by outlining the objects within her line of vision.

"Ok, Grayson, Amy, Benny, you three with me, we'll grab the eggheads. The rest of you stay up here. Sure, we killed the power, but the Skaldurm are nothing if not resilient, they will break through that eventually, so grab whatever you can from the rooms up here, barricade it off, and set up some cover points in case you have to fend them off. There's another way out of here according to the blueprints I got from the Alliance. Soon as we're ready to go, I'll call up to you guys."

"Wait-” Matija muttered as she found herself feeling stupid at the realization. She looked at the group that was meant as a search party and she eyed the yellow trimmed merc that agreed to the notion. ”Let's get moving. The rest of you, don't die. They don't get another win today,” quipped Stryker as their group moved into the depths of the facility.

With nothing else to do other than to watch the rest of their team’s backs, she sighed and faced their eight-man crew. "First thing’s first,” she said as she cleared her voice. “We need to set up a barricade. Who can lift the most? We also need to prop up chairs against the doors so they have to work more to get in.” Harrison turned to the plant lady and asked, ”Harriet, right? Do you think you can set up some kind of spider-web kind of deal so we can detect when they’re going to break in? Or, like, some kind of spike trap or something?” He turned to the others and asked them, ”Does anyone have anything that explodes? We can probably convert it into some kind of landmine or tripwire. We need to set up all possible defenses in case they break through.” As he attempted to organize the group into a coherent unit, Matija became visibly angry with him. ”Um. Yeah no,” the Siren says as she tugs at the guy by the shoulder. ”New guy, you got nice suggestions, but you should hang back.”

”Anyway, what he said. We’re going to have to scour around the place for now, see what we can find. But we’re going to have to find a way to reinforce those doors. If we can pike up some metal bars against that thing, or chairs. That would be great.” Matija looks at the two robots, SAL and Tobi. ”You guys look pretty strong, think you could prop some bars or a couple of those extremely heavy desks against the door?” She tries to silence Harrison whenever he tried to speak by placing a hand on the front of his helmet and shushing him. ”Hush now and help me carry some of the things from the back,” she says as she jogs towards the workstations to drag or carry whatever furniture she can just beyond the choke towards the opening of the clearing. ”Miss Harriet, you’re a scientist, right? Do you think you can cook us up some kind of smoke bomb after you’ve made spikes?” she says as she refers to the leafy woman. ”And you, Koren. Get Unaysah to make a few tracking webs for us on the corridor. We’ll need it so they can’t see us comin’,” the Siren says with a smile on her face. ”Oh and I’ll need someone to get some of the water gallons from the kitchen. We’ll need it for the floor and Tibulus so the brutes’ll have a little surprise when they go in.”

At the mention of water on the floor, Harrison had a guess what the plan was. ”We’re setting up a shock zone, aren’t we? An area where we channel electricity into the water, right? That’s a great idea, why didn’t I think of that?” He ran to the kitchen and tried to find the biggest container he would still be able to lift and came back with a big pot. He set it down and leaned in and to whisper at Matija who was about to tell Tibulus how she needs him to use the electric trap in tandem with a surprise attack of her own when Harrison spoke, ”You may have come up with a good idea, but I’m not finished with you yet.” The Mecorian leaned away and growled at the man in response as she walked away from her. ”As I was saying. Tibulus, we’ll need a really powerful shock on my signal. You’re my only ticket outta that thicket.”

As one the group gathered water and spread it across the floor, the others continued working on the barricades. One to block off the hallway, another to back it up, and one more in case. The defense requires Harrison and Koren crouching in the middle where the tables were propped just low enough to shoot over, Tobi and SAL would be standing behind them since they were the ones with the stronger firepower, while Tibulus, Harriet, and Willow were asked to stayed behind for support. Plus there’s the reason of not knowing what the complete expanse of their abilities may be. Her plan was to stick to the walls where the Skaldurm won’t think to look with her companions shooting at them. When a good amount of them are in their trap, she would shoot as much of them as she could and run back to her team when they realize her position. All while Tibulus gives them the shock of their lifetime in hopes of distracting them long enough for the Mecorian to get to safety.

When their preparations were done, the Siren walked near the only entrance that they’ll have to go through. ”Y’all gotta trust me on this,” she says before shooting Tibulus a glance in hope that the Funganoid would keep his word. With one pistol pulled out and on the ready, she rolled her shoulders and teased the trigger with her finger while they waited...

...And waited...

. . . And waited . . .

Unaysah eventually started chittering and Koren announced “They’re here,” to the everyone in their comm beads. As the Vikings were upon the door, Harrison shouted, ”Think back to your history class in school. Back before the federation and all that, there were 2 massive planetary-scale wars. In the second, the bad guys used a technique called blitzkrieg. Do you know what that means?” As he shouted this, he slowly unfolded his spear, each part sliding into place. He glanced toward Matija who was glancing back at him. She was in the process of activating her boots when Harrison pressed a button. The spear’s blade crackled into life, electricity coursing through it. The Mecorian scoffed as she reoriented herself to walk towards the wall and pressed herself to the side so her back was against the ceiling. When the Vikings broke the door, he screamed at the top of his lungs, “IT MEANS LIGHTNING WAR!” and stabbed the spear into the water. Raw power surged through it and lit up the Vikings like Christmas lights. Just as that was happening, bullets started whizzing past Harrison’s head. The siege had started.

Exasperated, Matija pressed herself closer to the corner before glaring back at the crew. ”FUCKEN’ IDIOT!” she screams at Harrison while she kept to her corner in order to minimize her chances of being hit. ”What?! I thought that was the plan! Was it not?!”

”NO!” she cries out as she shoots one that was brave, or stupid enough to cross the threshold despite the initial shock. ”TIBULUS, NOW!”

Tibulus Sepitan - Pilot of the Revenant

"Gotcha'." Tibulus ran into the water whilst unzipping his jumpsuit, allowing for a good amount of appendages to rocket out and into the surrounding area, electrifying the water and zapping the literal shit out of everybody. He wasn't willing to just stay behind this time, he was going in for something a lot more worth it in his eyes.

The water coursed with voltages rivaling a substation, easily enough to kill something the size of an elephant, and more than enough to cause the eye sockets of numerous hostiles to shoot blood everywhere. Soon enough, the water was a tinted shade of pink, and Tibulus was zipping up his jumpsuit.

In front of him laid a pile of twitching bodies. The bodies of those who were dumb enough to stand in the water while a shock of an incredible amount surged through all of their nerve endings, dulling them completely and entirely along with their lives. Tibulus chuckled as he saw the handiwork of him and Matija, his hand reaching up for his cigar to puff it once. "Lightning war indeed."

A lone bullet whirred by Tibulus' head as he noticed a single survivor aiming to take him down easily by cracking his skull. A devious chuckle escaped him as he raised his stun-gun and shot the survivor right in the head, knocking them down and rendering them unconscious. The rest of the hallway was clear, otherwise.

Tibulus walked over to the body of the survivor and lifted them up, pulling them back around to the rest of the Revenant crew. They would do just nicely for Tibulus' personal goal for this mission. The Funganoid threw the body onto a nearby table before beginning to wrap them up, a lone appendage rushing out of the back of his jumpsuit and slamming into a nearby plug, turning on two things for the floor.

One, the camera feed, which illuminated on the television screens above Tibulus.

Two, the cameras around the hall and on the floor, which showed their feed through a static filter on the screens above Tibulus.

"We've still got company, though they're a lot less willing to step forward," Tibulus remarked as he began to survey the damage done to his subject. Sure enough, though. More reinforcements showed up on the camera feed, some with horrified faces. "Fight's not over yet, kids."

"Right there with ya," Amy said, staying behind and a little off to the right of Stryker. The narrow hallway was making her feel somewhat uneasy, and that was in part thanks to her feelings of regret from leaving her rifle behind. In hindsight, she should have prepared herself for the worst regardless of how "easy" the mission was made to look. But that was a hard lesson learned, and she knew she could rely on the rest of her team if at some point she was getting close to being outgunned by the Skaldurm.

@iTem@Gardevoiran@superservo27@t2wave@Shard@BKburke

SAL quickly observed the situation on their makeshift battlefield. He hadn't offered any advice in the planning of the defense strategy and instead had simply done what was asked of him, pulling furniture from the offices and supply closets to construct the barricade and a few lower barricades for the team to use as cover. The Skaldurm had burned through the sealed door with a laser torch, then shortly afterward had blasted through the barricade. Matija and Harrison bickered as the fight started and Tibulus had to run out and use the shock trap early to cover her retreat back to their cover. Then, as quickly as it began, there was a lull in the fighting, as the Skaldurm pulled back, just out of sight.

SAL heard the stomping of armored feet. It appeared the Skaldurm had devised a new plan of attack slightly faster than anticipated. After a quick chamber check to ensure his shotgun was loaded, he wheeled around the corner and saw them. A line of vikings were slowly making their way down the narrow hallway, the three in front hoisting steel slabs in front of them like shields. They must have used their laser torch to rip the door into smaller, more manageable pieces, or maybe even ripped paneling down from the walls of the entry chamber. Either way, this was less than ideal. Just as they reached the edge of the water puddle that remained on the floor, they stopped, and dropped the slab in the middle, covering up the water. Before SAL or anyone else cold loose a shot, the shield slab they dropped was replaced by another. Before they continued to walk forward, the barrels of several laser rifles poked out between the cracks in the shield wall and one by one began to open fire as they marched further down the hall. Nobody on his side moved or made any suggestion, so against his better judgement, SAL began to speak into the team comms and take charge of the situation.

"I calculate an 82.6% chance of us sustaining casualties if we remain in this configuration." He said, looking down at Koren and Harrison "You two pull back to the secondary position with Matija. When the lane opens, begin a concentrated stream of fire. Support trio, get ready to cover Harrison and Koren as they move back. Tobi, get ready."

Seemed that the others had decided to take charge and arrange defenses. There had been a few suggestions but none of them sounded particularly helpful. They were going up against space vikings. Despite how they may choose to live they still had access to tech and could siege an installment like this lab. The deja vu of the situation was hitting her hard. But having some advance notice helped.

Rather than follow the subpar line of thought given to her she let the others prepare the line they would try and hold while she concentrated. She'd already proved that she could manipulate her body into producing some rather complex compounds. It was something she knew could be done but hadn't been sure how refined of control she would have. Confident that her biology, intellect, and any instincts wouldn't outright let her kill herself she put her focus on making less conventional bio and chemical weapons. Their delivery system would definitely leave something to be desired but they would have to make do.

---

As the attack on the facility was underway Harriet found that the weapons she had on hand were not of much use. Several panels had been hoisted in by the vikings. The first wave had been used to cover the water that had shocked a number of their comrades. The second was proving to be a fair bit harder to deal with. Given a bit of time the crew of the Reverent would be able to respond, but every step they lost meant more things had the potential to go wrong.

Having created several pods from her own body she'd carefully placed them outside the line of fire. With the enemy advancing and blocking a fair amount of fire they could throw out it seemed an apt time for Harriet to act. Couldn't use what she made too close to her crew members. Taking hold of a pod she threw it against one of the plates. The thin walled membrane burst on impact and the liquid inside dispersed. Enough of it would spread into the air but for good measure three more pods followed. What was delivered was a compound that contained a deadly dose of gas not unlike hydrogen cyanide. It doesn't take much to do someone in. And unless you have the antidote on hand to counteract the toxin you're looking at being incapacitated in seconds and potentially dead in minutes.

Of course given that enough could drift its way toward the defenders she'd made sure to give everyone the needed antidote along with releasing a counter agent into the air on their side of the room. Eventually it would all even out and be safe to pass through but in the mean time the vikings were going to learn not to corner the crew of the Reverent. Fully expecting the barriers to go down the woman raised her weapon and began firing from the back line

Tobi opened fire in short controlled bursts. His visor flickered red but remained blue for the most part. The vikings using the metal panels was a smart move but Tobi has a very easy solution.

Tobi reached and pulled put a cluster grenade. The force of of impact would break a couple arms if it didn't shred the panels. He reached to pull the pin but stopped when his scanners picked up a chemical substance in the air. His cluster grenade might burn out the toxin if it exploded. Blue didn't let himself get frustrated for someone using a tactic that a simple filter could negate. He held on to the cluster grenade, while blue would hesitate to pull the pin, something stopped him. Red wouldn't let blue pull the pin yet.

Stryker and his crew proceeded with caution down to the lower level. The research and development area had an extremely similar layout and decor to the living quarters upstairs. A long hallway lined with doors, decked out with sterile white-paneled walls, and blindingly bright fluorescent lighting.

"Main Lab's got some kind of blast door." Stryker recalled "odds are they've locked themselves in there. Big one on the left."

The floor-to-ceiling door glimmered ominously as they approached. Unlike everything else in this place, it was made of jet-black steel. There were no windows to look through and confirm the scientists were even in there, but the eerie silence (save for the faint sounds of the battle happening upstairs) was sign enough. Rifle still in hand, Stryker leaned in to try and listen at the door. Nothing. He brought up a hand and knocked three times. The door shot open in a flash and before anyone could react, Stryker had three guns directly in his face.

"WHOA WAIT!" he shouted.
"DROP 'EM!" Grayson said, his gun jumping up to a ready stance.

Amy's body tensed. She drew in a sharp breath and took a step back, aiming her pistol dead center at the scientist's chest, the bright red dot sitting comfortably just off to the right of his heart. But even though he was standing across from her, his focus rested entirely on Stryker and the others.

Benny had raised his rifle in tandem with the others, aiming down the ironsights at the armed men in lab coats staring them down. He aimed center of mass at one of the other scientists on the side as Amy and Grayson already had the middle one well covered.

The scientists stared them down, unmoving but for slight quivers of their hands.
"Who are you?" The lead one demanded "Don't bullshit, you're clearly not Alliance marines."

"You're right" he replied, keeping his one free hand up in the air, the other, still holding his rifle loosely by his side "We're not Alliance, but we work for them. Project Revenant."

"Never heard of you."
"Well, you wouldn't, it's classified."

"Ok, here's what's going to happen, you drop your guns and come inside. Alone. Convince me you are who you say you are, or I'll blow your head off."

"You'll do no such fuckin' thing" Grayson growled, his finger slipping closer to the trigger.

"Easy Grayson, stay calm, we're all friends here" He turned to the scientist "Ok, I agree to your terms" He laid his rifle against the wall and slipped off his grenade belt and pistol holster. He stepped over the threshold and got one last word in with his team before the door snapped shut.
"Benny, if they do shoot me... blow the place up."

Benny grunted in annoyance at the turn the conversation had taken, knowing their allies in the upper floors were getting shot every second they spent down here. "Jus' dinnae take so bloody long, aye? I migh' get bored..." He replied grumpily through his sealed helmet's internal speakers as he lowered his rifle and fiddled with Skelly's interface to prepare the remote triggers on his charges for immediate detonation.

The lab was, unsurprisingly, full of computer terminals, long work benches and counter tops. That same too-white color scheme, reflecting the glare of the bright overhead lights. The scientists were all human, six men, four women. In the center of the room, with a few of the scientists clustered around it, was a large glass case. On first inspection, it looked empty, but then Stryker say it, a little speck of darkness, floating around like a drop of water in zero-G. He didn't know what it was, but he knew it was nothing good.

"Enough staring" the lead scientist said "Talk."

"Well, to start, if you're planning on shooting me, might wanna take the safety off of that thing first" he quipped with a grin behind his helmet's visor before continuing "Executor Lara started Project Revenant almost ten months ago. Criminals and mercenaries forced into running black-ops in exchange for reduced sentences, or other rewards. We were sent here on her orders to retrieve you, your team, and all your research. You sent a transmission encoded under channel 815-V a few days ago. I'm supposed to quote a recall order number...... 7Y86."

"That checks out." One of the others with a gun said to the leader.
"Alright then." All three men finally lowered their guns and the lead researcher stepped forward to extend a hand to Stryker.
"Dr. Robert Micolashe. Apologies for all that unpleasantness. My colleagues and I were expecting more.... official individuals."
"Stryker... just Stryker" he replied as he took the handshake. Ignoring the second half of his statement, he pressed on "Impressive setup."
"Ah yes, spared no expense. Our benefactors wanted to ensure we had top of the line technology for our efforts here."
"And what exactly were you doing, if you don't mind my asking?"
Micolashe lit up at the question. The man was clearly passionate about the project as he launched into his explanation.

"We were tasked with researching the applications of dark matter. It's quite something really, we've already made several breakthroughs, like how to harness it's energy. They're actually testing a new transmutation process over there now. The machine absorbs light, any source of light at all, and puts it through a process of convergence whereby it becomes dark matter. From here it's only a matter of time until we harness it's potential energy, then we'll really make progress, but our representative with the Alliance was so excited by the machine alone that he must have ordered our recall sooner than anticipated."

'Yeah something like that' Stryker said, unable to stop staring at the black bubble floating in its casing. He was utterly horrified and disgusted with everyone in the room at how joyful they appeared to be. How blissfully unaware they seemed to be of the monstrosity they had created. Still he had to play along for now.
"That's really amazing, and as much as I want to hear more, time is of the essence. How long would it take you folks to be ready to leave?"

Micolashe's response was cut off by a loud bang from above.
"What the devil was that?"
"Three days ago, a Skaldurm raiding party touched down on the planet. They killed or enslaved everyone in the town and that's why we were sent for you. They captured one of my people and followed the beacon from the access terminal right out to us, the rest of my team is up there now holding them off, so as I was saying, time is of the essence. Pack up quickly and get moving..... now if you'll excuse me for a second while I check in with the folks upstairs."

"What the hell?"

Amy activated her sensor, but the scans didn't pick up any movement in their vicinity. Even though the four of them seemed to be safe at the moment, the same wasn't true for the rest of the team upstairs.

Inside, Stryker stepped off to the side and discreetly activated the deep-space-exposure seals on his helmet. The scientists in the room wouldn't be able to hear him speak as he opened up a comms channel to converse privately with Grayson, Benny, and Amy. Dark thoughts swirled around in his head as he started to speak. In that moment, only one thing was certain- these people couldn't be allowed to get back to the Alliance.

"I don't have long, they think I'm checking in on the others. I know why the Alliance needs these guys. They've created a functional black-hole generator. The Alliance could destroy entire systems if they weaponize it, which you know is exactly the reason they wanted to invent it. I don't care that we're working for them, no one deserves this kind of power.... we have to kill the eggheads and destroy this place. Nothing, and I mean nothing, makes it back to the Alliance. Soon as the door opens, draw your weapons and cut the fuckers down."

Benny's helmet was already sealed beforehand, so he simply had to shut off his speakers to respond to Stryker. "Is yer bum oot tha' windae? Artificial black holes?!" He replied, his knowledge of physics making it hard to believe that they would actually be able to achieve what Stryker said they did. Nonetheless, he prepared his rifle and aimed at the door from his hip, intending to unload in a sweeping motion in full auto so he wouldn't waste time aiming at them. "Jus' stay outta tha' killzone, aye?" He said to Stryker over the comms, not wanting their ambush to turn into a case of friendly fire.

The idea didn't sit right with Amy. She was a criminal, sure, but she wasn't a murderer. Multiple thoughts crossed her mind, including the option to destroy their equipment and leave them stranded somewhere, but the Alliance would find out one way or the other, so at that point, it wasn't even an argument to simply follow Stryker's plan.

Grayson, rifle at the ready, glanced over at Amy. From her stance and the look on the bit of her face he could see, he could tell she wasn't a fan of the idea. She couldn't see his face through his helmet visor, but he reached over, touched her shoulder and nodded, silently saying 'it's ok'

"Ready mate" he said into the comms "Now, like Benny said, you keep your head down, unless yer plannin' on gettin' a hole in the head."

Noticing Micolashe turning his attention over towards him, Stryker didn't have enough time to verbally reply, he tapped the transmit button twice, sending two quick chirps out over the comms channel. He only had a minute or two to formulate a plan of how to disarm the three men holding guns and get out of the way of his team's line of fire.

Amy readied her weapon once more, looking over at Grayson as she posed a question.

"Is he usually this...reckless?" she asked, hoping that Stryker's line of communication really was dead. "Is this abrupt behavior normal?"

"No, this is new love" he replied "He's never been like this before, not since I've known 'im at least."

It looked like the scientists were nearly ready to go, several boxes of datapads, hard drives and other data storage devices lined the counters closest to the door. Stryker saw one of the armed researchers stride towards the blast door, he called back to his colleagues, something about needing to grab all the observation room hard drives. Now or never.

He walked on a collision course with the researcher, his eyes firmly locked on the man's pistol, loosely hung at his side. Quick as a whip, Stryker threw a solid punch to the man's throat and with his other hand, yanked the pistol away from him, flicked the safety off and brought it up to his head. The gunshot echoed loudly around the room as the man fell to the side, dead instantly, blood spatter and brain pan covering the jet-black blast door. Taking advantage of the researcher's shock, he leapt over and bashed the door controls, allowing his team to come inside.

A gunshot went off inside and not even moments later, the heavy doors opened up to allow them access. Amy's attention was immediately diverted to one of the scientists rushing for something near the wall. She took aim and fired off two shots, both hitting his left side below his arm. The man fell to the ground, seemingly dead. She then went on to target one of the women running around. Surprisingly, Amy managed to get a headshot on her, blood and brain matter contrasting against the heavy white of the room as the lifeless body unceremoniously dropped to the ground. Amy could hear the gunshots around her that were dwindling down the team. She had hoped for another solution, but each trigger pull was another terrible reminder that such idea wasn't possible.

Amy then cut a corner around a row of stations and immediately aimed down to a female scientist cowering on the floor. She was crying, nervously yelling up at Amy for her life to be spared. She seemed really distraught, and although the red dot sat on her forehead, Amy was having trouble pulling the trigger.

As soon as the doors opened, Benny pressed down on the trigger of the rifle. His weapon unloaded into the defenseless scientists on full-auto, with him sweeping the area and hitting various furniture and computer terminals as he did. Watching the bodies fall from the weapons of both he and his allies was oddly satisfying. He found himself smiling under his helmet as the kick from his gun coincided with the scientists' bodies rag-dolling before falling into a bloody mess on the floor as the room erupted with broken items.

Eventually, almost all the scientists were killed and then only one remained. A female scientist that was cowering in fear in a corner, screaming "P-please no! D-don't shoot! Please! I'm n-not armed! Please d-don't k-kill me!"

Benny was about to plug a round into her when he had an idea. He lowered his weapon, turned on his helmet speakers, and approached the woman. "Hey... Calm down now lil lassie. Me gun's down, see?" He said as he shook his rifle and held it casually. "Today's yer lucky day, y'know? Y'see, we need someone ta' tell us where all yer research is. We'd use tha' computers here but it looks like some o' them got beaten right proper, aye? Tell us, did ya save everythin' in this room, or are there backups somewhere?" He said as he knelt down to face her at eye level.

"We'd really love ta' see wot ye've been werkin' on and it would be such a waste to have that data an' your brilliant mind join yer friends here, aye? Couldinnae you show us where ta' find wot's left?" He said, struggling not to let his laughter out, settling for smiling widely underneath his helmet, sure that she couldn't see him through it. The woman stared at him through tear-stained eyes, before hesitantly nodding. "Y-y...Y-yes. T-the data it's... i-it's all here. H-had to... Had to protect in c-case of... l-lab breach," She answered.

"I see... Thanks, lass. Ye've been a big help," He said before he quickly aimed Skelly up at her face and fired the wrist-laser multiple times into her face, sending her backing up against the wall as her melted skin went up in smoke, bone and teeth bared.

Benny slowly stood up, his body spasming as if hiccuping, but actually holding back a wheezing fit of laughter as he turned towards his allies. "I... heheh... G-guess ya could say she... GOT BURNT! AHAHAH!" He finished as he fully burst into laughter, hunching over his front and facing the floor as he tapped into Skelly's interface to begin preparing the data erasing virus for insertion into the remaining functional terminals.

Amy's weapon hung down by her side, the anger that was suddenly building up threatening to unleash hell on Ben if she didn't suddenly develop the self-control to counter it.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

With her free hand, Amy grabbed Ben's shoulder and pulled hard enough to have him face her. Using that same momentum, she pushed his back against the floor-to-ceiling column so that he was stuck with nowhere to go. Just as quickly, Amy brought up the gun and shoved it against his neck. "Who do you think you are killing her like that?"

Benny scowled at Amy from underneath his helmet when she pushed him against the pillar and held him at gunpoint. "I'm jus' carryin' out tha' bloody cap'n's orders, lass! Nothin' gets back to tha' Alliance, aye? I was makin' sure these eggheads dinnae have any other backups elsewhere that coulda' been salvaged. They cannae tell us that if they're all dead, can they?! Now we know how ta' destroy it all. If anythin' got back to tha' Alliance an' they finish wot they started 'ere, how many planets will be destroyed? What gives you the right ta' risk tha' fates of entire populations?" He started. Then a sinister grin formed on his face

"Oh tha's right... That's old hat ta' you isn't it, Mrs. Spy? Playin' puppetmaster with people's lives... heheh..." He said, almost taunting her to pull the trigger, if just to spite her by showing everyone he hit a nerve.

Grayson had been silently, dutifully finishing off any of the scientists who had survived the initial attack, single shot, between the eyes. When he saw Amy grab onto Benny and pull her gun on him, he stopped and rushed over, with Stryker on his heels.

"That's enough!" Stryker said, getting a hand in between them and separating them "we still have a job to do here, and it's not gonna work if we start turning on one another. We can talk about this later, for now it's in the past."

Amy stared in silence for a moment before she pushed him off in a harsh manner, taking a few steps back. She didn't attack Ben for the simple fact that Grayson and Stryker had stepped in, despite of his words and actions.

"Ya did cross a bit of a line though Benny" Grayson interjected, keeping a hand out across Amy's front to keep her from lunging back at Benny if the tensions boiled over again.

Benny only grunted in response as he got back to work on the total data erasure virus. "None of us were good people ta' begin with, lass. It's a bit late ta' question our methods..." He mumbled bitterly as he busied himself with his work.

Dr. Micolashe was still clinging to life, he'd taken a bullet or three to the midsection, and his once white lab coat was now stained with red. A stream of blood flowed freely from his mouth and his vision was going blurry. The man who claimed to be their savior appeared in front of him.

"Why?" he asked, wheezing greatly through the effort of talking.

"Because you thought you were heroes" Stryker said solemnly "you were already hearing the songs they'd write about you, the tales they'd tell of the monsters you slayed but you were never heroes, you were the monsters. Waiting in their den for a hero to come. Now, I'm no saint, I've got no illusions about that, but I'm still human, aren't I? Couldn't just stand by and let you get away with a million holocausts."

Before Micolashe could respond, Stryker put the barrel of the pistol he'd stolen against his head and pulled the trigger. It was done. He stood up straight, dropped the empty pistol and walked back to the door of the lab to retrieve his own discarded weapons.

"Sorry about that," Amy whispered to Grayson, apologizing for her behavior. Even though it hadn't been aimed at him, she still felt the need to apologize. A final shot went off in the room, and it was obvious that Stryker had finished off the last remaining scientist. With virtually nothing left to do given her skillset, Amy began to search the pockets of the deceased for anything they could use down the road, and she consciously made the effort to ignore the gory display of the female scientist Ben had killed. It really was a tragedy that such smart minds would be so blind as to the implications their work could bring.

But as she was going around, an idea suddenly popped in her mind. Amy reached for a small capsule on her utility belt and walked over to the dead woman. She knelt down next to her, collected a blood sample, and quietly got back up again.

Grayson simply nodded at Amy's apology as she wandered off. He didn't know how to feel about what just happened. He'd killed defenseless people before, it was part of his job before this, to kill whoever was on the contract. And of all the marks he'd ever taken out, he was fairly confident that none of them had been complicit to crimes like these scientists had, but there was something different about this. Something about them screaming, begging for their lives, and all of it doing nothing to help their situation. It was the closest thing to remorse he'd ever felt.

"Ok, we're not done yet. We still gotta get out of here and wipe out all trace of what happened. The fight's still raging upstairs, so Grayson, Amy, the two of you head back up and assist, we'll signal when it's time to start evacuating. Benny, you're with me, we're gonna rig this place to blow. Amy, take my rifle, you're gonna need the firepower up there. I only took a couple of spare mags, but Grayson, you carrying anything that'll fit it?

"Sure thing, thanks." Amy reached for the rifle, avoiding eye contact with Stryker for the moment given the interaction they'd had a few minutes earlier.

"Yup, right here" he responded, tapping at a pair of ammo pouches on the right side of his belt.

"Alright, good luck." As they headed off, Stryker tuned his comms back into the team's main channel and started a transmission out to the others.
"Stryker here. We're gonna start evacuating in just a few minutes. Hang in there guys." With that done, he turned over to look at Benny "let's get to work."

"Abou' bloody time!" He said as he finished sending the data virus to the terminals to begin erasing every packet of information not needed to keep the computers working while they got on with their tasks.

@iTem@Gardevoiran@superservo27@t2wave@Shard@BKburke

Koren did as instructed: shooting what he could while avoiding Matija who was stuck within the enemy’s lines. “TIBULUS, NOW!” the Mecorian barked to which their energized companion responded to with appendages eager to electrify the water trap that was meant for later use. The Mecorian took this to her advantage and ran for her team while Koren tried to wrap his head around what he was seeing. The field was eventually quiet again and the Mecorian safely dropped behind their cover before hurrying over the next. That was when a lone survivor from the first wave of Skaldurm pirates tried to shoot for their skeletal pilot. Thankfully, Tibulus was able to land the first shot before the pirate could.

“Yer tha best, Tib,” Matija chimed as she readies her rifle and aimed at the door. Koren glanced back at the Mecorian and then to the Funganoid who started covering the surviving pirate’s body. “That was amazing. But why take that?” the Juz’ asked curiously as he watched their pilot power up the security feeds with an appendage. "We've still got company, though they're a lot less willing to step forward... Fight's not over yet, kids."

“Indeed,” the blue alien said as he faced the door again.

The minutes spent waiting for their enemies to come forward was agonizing. The Juz’ felt cold sweat slowly drip down his face as the sounds of familiar fizzing and metalwork occurred outside their view. These sounds were later followed by heavy footsteps accompanied by the sounds of armor platings grinding against each other. Koren reloaded his gun just as the pirates came in with metal panels that they placed down by the water to act as insulators in order to ensure their safety. With their tight shield formation, Koren could not find a location that he could effectively exploit. More so when the vikings started shooting back at them, forcing them to duck for cover.

"I calculate an 82.6% chance of us sustaining casualties if we remain in this configuration,” piped SAL, making Koren turn his attention towards the robot. “You two pull back to the secondary position with Matija. When the lane opens, begin a concentrated stream of fire,” he said while looking at him and Harrison. “Support trio, get ready to cover Harrison and Koren as they move back. Tobi, get ready," the robot added and Koren nodded in agreement. Matija on the other hand tried to aim at whatever their enemies exposed to her. But she was only able to shoot down one of their guns before she had to stop and hunker down. “I’ll let ‘em bunk with me if them boys won’t get me killed this time,” the Siren joked as she shot a look at Harrison. Koren smiled underneath his helmet as he slowly shook his head.

After a few moments, Harriet threw pods at the enemy that dispersed into some kind of grey-ish fog. This prompted him and the Mecorian to seal their helmets in reflex just before it could disperse towards their location. Another gas, a counter-agent he assumed, was dispersed in their location and Koren took this as the signal for their retreat. The back liners and the two robots fired at the pirates as the two men scrambled back towards the Siren who had taken advantage of the wavering pirates. She shot down one pirate that lowered his shield to cough and then the shoulder of another that made the pirate stop and drop behind her shield while she too gasped for air.

“We’re gonna have to fall back deeper inside,” Matija said as she pulled back the bolt handle of her rifle and continued aiming and shooting. “Who’s got a map? Is there a good place to hold into until boss man says so?”