"Everyone going on the mission will go armed and ready for a fight, but we won't charge in guns blazing."
"What about bombs 'a-sploding?" Taka asked. Receiving no answer, she figured that it was definately a maybe.
Taka followed the lead of most of the others, scampering off back towards the rooms to retrieve their gear. She hummed impatiently, tapping her foot against the resounding metal floor of the elevator with excitement, a mission was always exciting. Back in her room she quickly shuffled through the parts and pieces on her desk, shoving a few essential items into her backpack, before turning towards the now nearly empty metal crate. Lying over one side of it was her gear, which she hastily swapped out with her regular clothes. One Honey Badger and Law Breaker later and she was ready and raring to go. On her way back to the first level, Taka checked the settings on her goggles, adjusting the light filtering until the levels of brightness were automatically adjusted to a comfortable level. Not that the goggles typically ever left her face, as the Gladius could be quite bright at times, but she hadn't thought ahead to adjust the auto settings. Satisfied with her work, she waited for the elevator to come and take her back up to the bridge.
Henri made her way to the armoury, having not collected her belongings previously. Her crate stood alone in the room. Inside, a pistol, her standard armour and a glistening red mask. She had felt no need to collect them since boarding the Gladius, her mechanics being enough protection. She changed quickly, sliding the mask over her face. There was no need to conceal her identity anymore but there was something satisfying about being suited up. Her energy began to rise, she bounced on the balls of her feet in excitment. It didn't matter that it was a frozen wasteland down there, it was still something.
Lastly, she picked up her pistol distastefully, checking it was set to stun. So, she wasn't a fan of guns. Others had said she lacked finesse but they had soon stopped that when she had brought a fist to their faces.
Back on the bridge, most of the crew (if that's what you could call their little gang) wore serious, dour expressions. All that is, besides the excitable Nohvan who seemed to be radiating what Henri was feeling. Henri turned to her and grinned so widely it almost fell off he planes of her face.
Taka returned the smile, checking the holster for her pistol and ensuring the strap on her automatic was, well, 'strappy'. Taka rummaged around in the bottom of her pack, pulling out a wrinkled plastic baggy and turning to the smaller woman, "Want one?" She asked, taking a cube from the bag and plopping it into her mouth.
Henri eyed the bag. Something at the back of her mind told her to cautious- there's a reason she's here, remember. She quickly crushed the voice and reached into the bag with a "Thanks!" and popped a cube into her mouth. Immidiately her face twisted into a grotesque charicature of itself.
"Is that salt!?" She cried, "Man, you Nohvans have some interesting tastes. Remind me to show the delicacies of my people one day." She vaguely wonderd if Nohvans liked chocolate or if it would kill them like dogs.
She finished the cube with a grimace, and stuck her tongue out at the other woman as if to prove she had. This elicited a giggle from Taka, "You're supposed to suck on it silly!" She instructed.
The ship shuddered ever so slightly, before finishing its docking procedures. Taka and Henri followed the others of the ship, and into the chill of the desolate hangar. Taka watched as Scarleth broke away from the group to examine the ships, but quickly lost interest and instead hopped up towards Callum just as they reached the doors to enter the facility.
"Nice of them to leave the door unlocked. Shame they couldn't leave the heater running, too," Jesse complained.
"Oh man, not much of a welcome committee huh?" Taka asked, nudging Henri and motioning towards the bodies sprawled on the floor.
"I don't know," Henri smiled, swallowing her unease at the holey, bloddless bodies, "They look like the life of the party."
Ahead of them, the enigmatic Scarleth and cocksure Jesse stood at a computer terminal, seemingly engrossed in what was on the screen. She understood their mission depended on stealth, the eerie, suffocating silence made that perfectly clear, but Henri was crawling out of her skin, standing around like this. There was something wrong about this place. She reached out to Taka, who she knew would respond, and whispered "Hey, you wanna explore a little?"
"Oh gosh, do I ever! This is like, the best game of hide and seek," Taka answered, excitement thick in her speech, "You think we'll find anybody hiding in their rooms?"
"Oh boy, you're one sandwhich short of a picnic huh?" Henri said, not unkindly, "Come on then, quietly now."
They crept behind the rest of the group, down a desolate corridor, the only sound their breaths and the gentle hum of the heater. This was the setting to a horror film the part where the two girls get dragged off by the ankle, screams echoing in futility. Wow, calm down imagination, Henri thought. Taka paused at an intersecting corridor, looking down the hallways. Off to one side the hall stretched on, it's sleek metal walls interupted at intervals by several doors.
"This way!" She chimed happily, taking Henri by the hand and skipping down towards the doors, "I bet you these are the bedrooms." Taka stopped at the first door, rolling the salt cube around in her mouth as she crouched next to a body. A woman was slumped against the door as if she had been locked out.
"Man, she must not be very good at hiding, she's full of those holes that don't bleed, see?" Taka said, pointing in the general area of the woman's torso. "I bet we'll find somebody behind this door," She deduced.
"I'm not sure I want to find anyone else." Henri retorted. The body count was really racking up.
Taka stood, dusting off her hands for no real reason at all, and pressed the button to the door—Nothing happened. She pressed the button a few more times, just to be sure—Still nothing. A frown formed on her face as she stared at the door, "You think exploding it will work?" Taka asked, turning to her new friend.
"No doubt," Henri said, imagining the noise and debris that would cause, "But- do you mind if I try something first?"
Taka shrugged and made a motion as if to say 'go ahead', so Henri picked up her left leg and placed her foot on the door. She felt her leg hum as it charged before releasing like a piston and warping the door thoroughly, leaving a hole large enough for the two to clamber through.
"Sorry Taka," She smiled up at the Nohvan, "I'll let you blow something up next time."
"Wooah that was awesome! Taka stated, eyes wide with awe as she stared at the warped metal. She poked her head through the hole, looking around for a minute before slithering through the hole rather awkwardly. She landed on the other side with a thud. Inside the room had a pretty standard layout. A bed pushed against one wall, the sheets in disarray. The other wall held a desk with clutter strewn about haphazardly, and a tipped over chair with a body splayed out next to it. Taka reached back through the hole, offering Henri a steadying hand as the smaller woman ducked through the hole with a bit more ease.
Together they approached the body, Taka kneeling next to a puddle of congeled blood on the floor. "Looks like he wasn't having a good time," Taka noted, gesturing towards the pistol lying a few inches from the man's limp hand. Apparently he'd either locked himself in, or become trapped. Taka nudged the corpse with her toe, "At least he's not a zombie," she said, approving of the body's unwillingness to rise from the dead and feast on her delicious flesh.
"Meet a lot of zombies, do you?" Henri said, covering her mouth and turning away. What could drive a man to this? Did she want to know? She imagined Taka would face off whatever it was with teeth bared and a smile in her eyes. Glancing around the room, Henri spotted holopad lying on the floor, she picked it up gingerly. The screen stared back at her, dead. Lifting a panel on her arm, Henri plugged the tablet in and watched the screen flicker to life.
"Oo' What's that? Did you find treasure?" Taka asked.
"I might've."
The tablet flickered to life after a moment, showing a generic logo as it powered on. The device's interface looked relatively simple and contained a handful of folders, obviously cenetered around some sort of research. Taka leaned down, peering over Henri's shoulder as the smaller woman navigated through the folders. She tapped away at the device, scrolling through pages of notes and graphs before something caught her eye—
I can feel it calling me. It haunts my dreams, I can feel its presence through every waking moment. It always beckons, a warm feeling deep within my brain, a euphoria I can't understand. The Artifact, what is it? What does it want? I'm not sure how long ago we found it, I'm not sure of anything anymore, the only constant is that beckoning, like my mother's embrace, always at the back of my mind—But it's getting stronger, I think.
We're not sure who, or what made it yet. But something is definately wrong. I've brought my concerns to the director but my emails have gone unanswered. It's definately not of human origin, that much I can. God dammit, get out of my head!
It looks like a small pyramid, no longer than my forearm, and no taller either, it's relatively as big as my desk fan. But it's so powerful, why won't it leave me alone? I get strange sensations around it, comfotable, but also wrong. As if my body senses something unnatural, but my mind is too clouded to see it clearly. Warmth, always there, always present, it never stops. But I still don't know what its purpose is, I regret the day we found this thing.
It's evil... but its not, really, is it? It doesn't open, it doesn't close, it doesn't whir or hum—Not that I've found. Yet. It just, calls me, I want to go back to it. To feel the sensations it gives me, nothing else compares to it, I just—No, I must fight it. Things have become so surreal, it's like I'm in a dream. A warm, cozy dream that's constantly pressing around me—I can't escape it. I fear i'm going to lose myself to it—That's what it wants, right?
We're not sure who, or what made it yet. But something is definately wrong. I've brought my concerns to the director but my emails have gone unanswered. It's definately not of human origin, that much I can. God dammit, get out of my head!
It looks like a small pyramid, no longer than my forearm, and no taller either, it's relatively as big as my desk fan. But it's so powerful, why won't it leave me alone? I get strange sensations around it, comfotable, but also wrong. As if my body senses something unnatural, but my mind is too clouded to see it clearly. Warmth, always there, always present, it never stops. But I still don't know what its purpose is, I regret the day we found this thing.
It's evil... but its not, really, is it? It doesn't open, it doesn't close, it doesn't whir or hum—Not that I've found. Yet. It just, calls me, I want to go back to it. To feel the sensations it gives me, nothing else compares to it, I just—No, I must fight it. Things have become so surreal, it's like I'm in a dream. A warm, cozy dream that's constantly pressing around me—I can't escape it. I fear i'm going to lose myself to it—That's what it wants, right?
Henri let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, so they might be trapped in a horror film after all. Except instead of a monster they'd be picked off, one by one by a menacing... pyramid. What a joke. Still, the fear in that recording was palpable.
"Wo-ho-hoah, spooky."
"Yeah.. Yeah it is." She turned to Taka, "Come on, we better show someone more qualified for this shit."
