The Vents Aren't Friends... {CLOSED. DONE.}

[Captain Mako]

Mako could hear the creature coming, could hear it coming down the hallway behind them. It registered in his brain, it echoed in the halls of his brain and somewhere else, somewhen else it might have registered as important, as something to think about or a cause to panic. This would have been something he would consider... as it was Mako's attention was diverted by the fact that the most precious of cargos he we holding had just gone limp. In midstride he risked a glance down and saw her eyes were closed. In midstride information was collected in his brain by many sources shoving out the mere threat behind them. His electromagnetic senses told him her nerves, her brain were still firing, his heart still beating as pulses of electricity went it though it had slowed down drastically. He could smell her breath still, the scent of sweet bubblegum toothpaste, the smell of her lavender bath wash and tea tree shampoo. She was alive but... out cold. A thousand thoughts raced through his brain in an instant.

Bloodloss was considered and rejected, she was too warm still and the wounds were not that critical, heart was fine he could 'smell' that. A thousand things were considered as in that frozen moment he looked at the tiny form of the woman who had shaken his world more then this future... and one thought occured to him. Poison. He could feel the rage build below the surface, a vast monster that wanted nothing but to turn and rip apart all those in the station, to paint the walls red with blood and revel in their pain, to feast upon them till his stomach bulged and leave not a one of them alive. He watned it, he need it. His mind begged for it... but he rejected it and planted his foot on the ground as he broke out of the frozen moment.

Stopping to fight would put her in danger... and while Mako felt he might be able to protect himself... a helpless Bao was not a usually part of the equations of his fights. Slapping down his aggression as far down as he could Mako ran towards the door, his teeth gleaming through a feriocious scowl as he ran through the door. He dove through curled around Bao to absorb the impact and screamed at the tiny thrusting robot.

"Close the door please ma'am!"

A crisis was no reason not to be polite to a lady. All Mako needed was some time, to check Bao, to treat her wounds, to find out what he could do to help... and then he promised he was going to show each and every critter that had infested this place who was at the top of the food chain.

[Phin <---> Zilla]

Once they reached the safety behind the big round door which took them a little longer due to the defensive remarks back and forth between dragoness and shark man, the grumpy genius was more than happy to agree to Mako’s polite wish in closing the door shut behind them. Pressing a button with the speed of lighting, she had closed the door just in time as Tall, Fleshy, and Messed up knocked into the door that was almost completely shut. Correction….now it wasn’t shut at all! Noticing on the monitor that one of it’s gross muscle limbs it called an arm was missing through the hall cameras, she found the ape’s arm wedged in the door way which kept it from closing shut while viewing the mini robot screen. Gridding her teeth with sheer annoyance, at the moment Phin was thinking of some very dark thoughts that they’d make these f-FANERU-kers actions look like puppies doing a ‘no no’. ”So you think you’re a smart ass, huh?” Not being the type to smile much less grin, she only let a small sneer form on her lips as she narrowed her mood ring shaded eyes at the monster on the screen. Unexpectedly, she tapped the release key with her index finger and the door open up a little which was enough to do the next thing she was thinking of pretty evilly. Pressing a few quick keys, Phin made the door close fast and hard which left the flesh ape literally armless as the door sliced off that particular limb. Smart was good, but outsmarting a smart ass was even better.

Having a little victory dance in her head for second or two, Phin kept quiet like a little smug person knowing the inside joke no else got. But of course the mini mental celebration was short lived once she noticed what was happening on the new monitor screen she was now focusing on inside the control room. On the lower right hand corner of the screen held the red colored words ‘WARNING: FLOORING IS UNSTABLE’ with the added ‘DO NOT ENTER DANGEROUS AREA’. Well, it was too late to turn back now, literally. Not the slightest bit aware that Phin’s world was going in slow motion at this tension of a moment, she slowly and I do mean throughthepeoplewatchingathome ever so slowly turned her head to the robo cam speaking out the words ”HOOOOOOLD OOOOOON TOOOOO SOOOOMETHIIIING!!!” with a slow moh voice people used for dramatic effective. And once time flowed evenly again, everything went completely and utterly f-fanta-ing wrong as the floor gave out to the weight of the group and made them drop down into the next area down.

Practically holding her breath as her robo cam went into white noise mode from the shock of having to fall one floor down at just a surprising speed. She quietly hoped and no, praying never got her anywhere but hope did so she hoped with all her might that a strange woman like herself could muster up at this moment in time. Please be ok, you pain in the ass brat! When the translucent screen dissipated it’s static a little, Phin tried to make out what she was looking at. It was hard at first to figure out the weird shapes so the genius of a lady leaned in closer to get a better look. Yet, just as she did such a attentive action, the static suddenly went away revealing something human like with a freaky looking smile on it’s face as it fell from the screen fast be in speed meant to make her jump out of her seat. Ha! Nice try, it’ll take more than THAT to scare Phin. So what exactly was ‘that’? It was a clown doll that’s what and by the looks of it, she notice many more in the distances like it was some sort of messed up ball pit replaced with clown dolls. What’s weirder was that the straying dolls seemed to floating by themselves in that buoyancy type of way. Pressing a few buttons to get a signature reading on what they might be swimming in, she soon found out it was …..pickle juice. Wrinkling her nose, just the word made her want to twitch in that ‘Eeeeew!’ manner. Sadly, now was not the time to do such an action.

Honestly? Who in the hell filled one of sector rooms with pickle juice and clown dolls? It was like someone was trying to get her intelligently pissed like what Mr.-… Looking like she just realized something rude and disappointing, her worried expression change for a moment as she murmur something Sir M was sure to catch this time since her voice went up a few notches. ”When I find that annoying piece of tech, I’m turning it into scrap metal and tossing it into space so it can eternally be bored for the rest of it’s stupid life.” Now beyond upset for such mistreatment to working area AND stressed the hell out due to Bao Yu’s safety, she focused back to the monitor and guided her mini robo dancer to the surface since it apparently had been sinking halfway down to the bottom. The smart thing about her and making stuff was that Phin ALWAYS and I do mean always kept the commonly known disasters from inflicting her machinery thus mini Hard Gay robot was liquid resistant. When the robot broke to the surface, she quick scanned the area for three people in question on this hellish fun house. So far, she didn’t see anyone, especially not Bao Yu. Damnit… Bringing up the holographic screen display so the group could see her in this dimly lighted clown pit, Phin loudly but out of concern if anyone could look passed the irritated look she was displaying on screen as she asked ”Is anyone still alive?! Scream or throw a clown doll at me so I at least know.” If no one answered then Phin would have to go bratty teenage fishing for Bao Yu since supposedly Mako was ‘watching out’ for the rich kid.

[arachnidsGrip]

There were a whole lot of irons, all in the fire too! IN FACT there was an iron specifically labeled for this very event in space and it was about time to check the temperature! Clicking on over to the view port to show what was going on right now....it....reminded her so much of Gamzee. Not like it was a bad thing, she really didn't have anything against him or anything like that. Pretty neutral about the clown obsessed troll, really. Bringing her hands up to her head, she couldn't help but grin oh so very evilly at her computer screen. If there was one critical detail she knew about sleeping beauty over there it was this: she hated to fall.

What better way to help the pink and blue haired girl get over her fear and become stronger than to wake her up for a bit right now?! IT WAS JUST PERFECT! Plus that dragon girl and shark guy could have a little help before needing to put the brat back to sleep. Widening her eyes and gritting her sharp teeth accented by a pair of spider-like fangs, focusing her attention on the girl being held by the shark pirate. Ok....she didn't get a whole lot of practice but this timeline was going to make getting practice with her powers on humans a cinch! For a moment, she could feel that putting her in a peaceful slumber to subside the insanity threatening to take over her worked quite well. Good....didn't need that human going crazy trying to kill her friends here so soon!

Continuing to focus...this was time....

for

her

to

wake

UP!!!!!!!!

Vriska's seven pupil filled eye twitched a bit and her grin grew...all of a sudden and out of the clear blue...Ms. "I attack things with whatever the hell I can grab" was awake and back with joining the Scooby G-....the freak show staring a midget, dragon, and shark. Later...she definitely had to troll the woman who had a button which called this unlikely trio over here. Right now wasn't the time since she was busy, so she'd wait a bit longer before interfering both directly and indirectly all at the same time. TIME TO MUTLI-TASK WITH THE TIMELINES AGAIN! Smirking with a whole bunch of confidence to herself about a great wake-up call to help the brat find her very own inner Rufio, she had other things to look into....and check back on for that matter.

[Bao Yu Chao]

The most peaceful thing she had offered to her was absolute nothingness considering her mind was a tad bit corrupt by the marker. Anything outside of a black void for slumber was begging to fill her with paranoia since the best dreams could get twisted into the worst nightmares imaginable. With her sapphire optics shooting wide open in mid-fall...initially she was wondering what in the name of investors was going on and why the HEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Mako was holding onto her. ...oh right....she got really sleepy and blacked out. Heeeey and who the crap was the vaguely familiar dragon lady?! BUUUUT before she could start going on a huge rant frenzy....she felt wind brushing against her body in an upward position....both of her eyes were actually revealed which was pretty uncommon since one was usually concealed by her bangs. In a complete panic, she looked around and instinctively clung onto her right hand man and body guard, the most abnormally useful one on her side.

Instead of screaming like a normal person, she yelled out "IHATEFALLINGIHATEFALLINGDAMNITDAMNITDAMNIT!" Something...was....whispering from below to her...or...at least it seemed like it even though it was all in her head, "Let's be one...we'll....be...one...soon..." and her response? Well she announced it to the world "HELLNOWHATEVERTHEHELLYOUARE!STUPIDPIECEOFTRASH!I'MNOTBEINGONEWITHYOU,YOUSICKBASTARD!"

.....everyone else could hear that...right? Wait...if they couldn't she just made herself seem crazier than usual....shit. ON TOP OF THAT IT WAS TIME TO SPLASH LAND! Letting out a freaked out squeak with her eyes wide open, the rich paranormal investigator was about as useful as a freaked out cat clinging to a tree. Save for the fact instead of clinging to a tree she was clinging tightly onto the pirate shark fellow who was once upon a time a sharksicle. Practically clinging to his face with her arms wrapped around her head, she starred at the dragon female and could have sworn she was trying to help her earlier....so....that was one less thing to worry about. OH GEEZE SHE HOPED THIS FALL WOULDN'T END BADLY!

Theeeeeeeen KER SPLASH into the clown coated pickle juice pool while holding in a last gasp of air. Letting go of him not having plans of drowning them both, the voice in her head began calling out in a rasped fashion...much loader than before... "Bao Yu....join us....we missed you...." Letting out a confused little glub bubble, she looked around....and...HOLY CRAP HER GRANDMA! WHAT THE HELL! Her eyes widened and instead of swimming toward what she thought was her deceased grandmother....she knew better....especially since the faint image started to look like....SHIIIIIIIIIIT NOT ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE F-4KIDS!-CKING THINGS! Violently shaking her head no in response to that proposal of joining the army of undead space freaks, this was DEFINITELY going on her top three of most messed up missions!

This time it looked like it....had....clown face paint on it.....FFFFFF-! Swimming away in a completely reasonable panic, she wasn't half as fast as Mako was BUT OH GOD HOW SHE REFUSED TO GO SLOW IN HER UNDERWATER PICKLE JUICE EDITION ADVENTURE RIGHT NOW! Smacking away a drowning clown toy trying to get in her way, she was trying to get to the surface before not only losing air but also getting ripped to shreds. OH HOW MUCH SHE WANTED A BATH RIGHT NOW! This was just disgusting!

[nicholas]

........ cold. Why was it so cold? Turning his head slightly and pushing himself off of the ground, a repetitive beeping sound emerged from his HUD as the shield bar flashed red, completely depleted from the explosion that had knocked him off of his feet - not an easy thing to do given how downright sturdy Spartans were in full gear, even the somewhat lighter Spartan IIIs. Nicholas once again gave thanks that he'd been given his MJOLNIR suit to replace the SPI armor that the rank and file Spartan IIIs had - he wasn't sure what had caused the explosion, but had it not been for the armor's shields he most likely would've been dead, a fact he was even more sure of when he looked up, pushing himself off of the ground. As he rose into a crouching position, blood that he hadn't noticed before leaking onto the inside of his visor, Nicholas noticed a very large crater in the ground a few meters away. A Lotus mine? Shaking off the disorientation, Nicholas glanced around for his weapon, spotting the compact M7 submachine gun only a foot or two away from where he was. Rising out of his crouch, Nicholas went to grab it just before his entire world shook yet again.

Eyes snapping open and a muffled hissing sound assaulting his ears as what little atmosphere there was in his cryo pod escaped into the vacuum beyond the cracked glass and titanium-steel casing, Nicholas took a moment to understood what was going on before realizing that a number of things were wrong with his surroundings. First and foremost was that there were no lights, a problem he corrected by turning on his suit's VISR system only to immediately realize exactly how utterly wrong things were. Instead of seeing a clean room filled with a number of neatly kept cryogenic pods, the artificial gravity had clearly failed as evidenced by the corpse that was suddenly moving through the air across the room, continuing along its path to impact and rebound from another cryo pod that was clearly leaking atmosphere. Sealing his suit and glancing around the pod for a moment, Nicholas lifted an arm and a leg before shoving them forward against the front of his pod, the front casing cracking even further as the frame bent and came loose, opening a few inches before Nicholas shoved against it again. The second time caused it to detach from the pod entirely, with the bent frame travelling across the room much as the corpse had to rebound from the far side and fly towards the ceiling.

Climbing out of his pod but not releasing his grip from the wall, Nicholas glanced around the room before climbing across the row of pods to reach the next wall that had the room's control board. Halting his momentum again but using another pod as a handhold, Nicholas floated in the null gravity as he quickly manipulated the controls on the interface to bring up a status log of the room, noting grimly that none of the pods read any signs of life. What had happened? The ship obviously hadn't been caught by the Covenant since he would have been killed in his sleep if that were the case, but things were wrong. The ship clearly hadn't reached Earth or another UNSC facility, and it had vented it's atmosphere at some point, something that meant big trouble for him - Spartans were tough, but they couldn't survive vacuum. Even with the MJOLNIR armor he only had about 90 minutes' worth of recycled air before he suffocated. Standing around and thinking about it wouldn't do him much good, though - he was on the clock, and every second counted, assuming there was anywhere nearby that had breathable air, and if not, he was screwed plain and simple. Looking over towards the closed door a few feet to his right, Nicholas turned his attention back towards the interface in front of him and used it to open the hatch, even more worried that no sound of rushing air came to greet him. If only the cryo bay had vented atmo it would have at least bought him time, but that apparently wasn't the case.

Launching himself off of the wall and catching the edge of the doorframe with a hand as he floated by, Nicholas continued to make his way through the transport, noting that there were a number of inanimate corpses silently floating through the rooms and hallways, all of them having died from explosive depressurization. Not the most painless of ways to die, but at the very least they had been quick deaths, and there was still some power flowing throughout the ship, and in passing the ship's armory, intended for last ditch defense efforts from pirates, Nicholas quickly stopped to grab the sniper rifle, sidearm and battle rifle he'd stowed there upon departure from Reach. Placing both the M6C/SOCOM and SRS99D on their magnetic clamps on his right thigh and back, Nicholas kept the battle rifle gripped his left hand as he stuffed as much ammunition and grenades into the pouches and softcases located all over his armor before he left the armory and continued to move towards the front of the ship. As Nicholas entered the bridge he finally saw the source of the breach - nearly all of the thick, armored viewports on the front of the supply vessel's bridge had shattered, crushing a large portion of the room's anterior in the process. There still were, however, a few terminals active, flickering dimly as power continued to drain away. Quickly moving over to one, Nicholas opened the ship's automated log, gritting his teeth in mild frustration at the fact that most of it was corrupted save for the two last, final entries, both marking impact events. The first of which, as clearly evidenced by the bridge's condition, had been responsible for most of the transport's damage, and apart from the hull breach warning there were a dozen other alerts attached to the log file. The second automated entry, however, was much more recent, having occured only within the last few minutes and what had apparently been responsible for waking him from his cryo addled dreams. What was left of the sensors had detected a large, metallic mass approaching before the ship had collided with it, and unlike the first object, the second object and the ship were now connected, likely through the bent and twisted wreckage where the second object had penetrated the transport's thin hull.

Leaving the bridge, Nicholas began moving towards the transport's mid section to examine the damage caused by the second impact, only to stop himself short by grabbing onto a wall's handhold as his luck suddenly took a turn for the better. Wheras Nicholas had been halfway expecting it to be a small rogue asteroid or some other piece of space debris, it had been another ship that the transport had collided with. While the exterior plating of both ships were bent and twisted, resulting in how they were now more or less merged, the torn section of the second, larger ship was venting atmosphere from several cracks in the hull where the plating had buckled. Wedging his rifle in another handhold near the second hull as he moved closer, Nicholas spent a moment considering his options before he decided to go with the most forward approach he could think of. Placing his feet on the hull, Nicholas worked his gauntlented fingers into one of the larger cracks and pulled, hard. While it didn't move as much as he had hoped it would, it did budge a few inches. Encouraged by the result, Nicholas continued to work for several more minutes until he managed to pry off the heavy exterior hull plate, offering near unrestricted access to the weaker interior plating that Nicholas made quick work of in about the same amount of time.

By the time Nicholas had finished the transport's hallway was littered with floating bits of metal and hull plate, and the air that had been rushing out of the gap at first had all but stopped by the time the opening had become large enough to move through. Grabbing his rifle and shutting off his armor's shields to squeeze through the relatively tight opening, Nicholas made note that he was now in the warmly lit space that appeared to the the ship's engine room, and even better than that was the fact that the room's doors had sealed themselves automatically to prevent the loss of further atmosphere, and that he was now able to stand thanks to the operational artificial gravity. Turning off his suit's VISR function and moving towards one of the doors, Nicholas attempted to open one with a control, only to find that it had been automatically locked. Nicholas briefly debated with himself again about the next course of action, only to choose the path he had before, forming his free hand into a fist and smashing the control pad with a steel denting punch and prying the panel off to expose the crushed components and wired beneath it. Crouching down in front of the panel's remains, the Spartan spent the next few minutes stripping and crossing wires at random until he got his desired result, nearly a half an hour after he first woke. As the doors hissed open and fresh air began roaring out, Nicholas picked up his rifle and used the sheer weight of his armor to walk against the flow of air, turning around and using the still intact controls on the other side of the door to close it and halt the escaping atmosphere. As silence settled again, Nicholas glanced away from the door to look down the dimly lit hallway for a moment, switching his battle rifle to a right handed grip and releasing his suit's seal to allow fresh air into his lungs before turning away from the door and beginning to move down the corridor.

[Captain Mako]

As the fall began, as they began to hurtle downwards no part of Mako above the neck had control of his body. It didn't need to check in on the control room it knew what to do, his arms curled around her supporting her neck, his body putting himself between whatever was down there and her, he would take the impact and he would do it gladly and with a grin on his face.... because she had woken up. She was screaming in his ear, and they might die wherever they were falling as they hurtled towards the void below but he didn't care, didn't hesitate to put himself between her and what was coming, and the smile on his face was without control only a whispered thank you to the heavens no matter where they were... cause... she was there. The thing that made the future more precious then the gold of a thousand civilization, the woman for whom he would rip this station in half for, the queen of his heart... she was awake... and he readied himself for... the raising scent of pickles? He hated pickles!

He opened his eyes from the tears that could never form in his eyes and looked downwards and raised an eyebrow before shouting out just before impact.

"BRING ON YOUR PICKLES GOD! I HAVE BAO BACK AND I LO~"

The rest of the sound was drowned in pickle juice as he hit. His gills opened in contact with the pickle juice, pulling free oxygen from a suprisingly good analog to salt water... if it wasn't for the pickle taste he would be happier. They had seperated at impact... he had been knocked silly a bit and looking around he saw her near... a clown head...he resisted the urge to look for hidden cameras and kicked off his shoes as he unfurled the full width of his feet, pulling apart his toes forming flippers and kicked himself at great speed towards his queen of hearts, lady of spades, wielder of clubs, and wearer of diamonds and grabbed one of her wrist. Slowly he reached out and stroked her face, to reassure himself and then he looked up and pointing up kicked them to the surface towards the air he knew she needed. Breaking the surface he smiled, wanting for once to be able to cry, to be bodily possible to cry tears of joy failing that he laughed but there was... an edge of desperation to the laugh. Not to mention very causually trying to keep from screaming from pickle juice in his wounds as the water around them turned brown from red and green.

"Milady Chaos... you sure know how to show someone a good time..."

Looking up at the origin of the voice asking to throw a clown head and around himself at the pool of pickle juice and he calmly asked.

"I suppose this would be a awfully weird place to casually mention I am madly in love with you though... oh well more reason to get out of here."

[Phin <---> Zilla]

If silence was golden Phin would be rich right now, but in this case gold could wait in the back burner for now as incompetent people’s safety was sadly more important. Mostly Bao’s though since she figure the other two seem like they could hold their own…at least she thought they would. Mako the shark man decided to let her know he was alive….well sort of. Who in the hell poured out their feelings during dangerous times such as this?! ’I mean come on….SERIOUSLY?!’ Practically rolling her multicolored eyes at the love declaration fish man had to say, it made her want to press the mute button if he decided to go any further with it. ”Sheeesh….” Couldn’t he do this romantic crap after everything was fine and dandy?

Moving her attention away from the fisherman, Phin scanned around the surface for cotton candy hair girl and the dragoness. So far no sign of life and especially more so since she didn’t hear anything from the two through the speaker connected on her side of the situation (aka the control room), which of course made Phin begin to wonder if there was something dangerous roaming around in the room full of pickle juice and scary clown dolls besides the somewhat quiet group. About to ask Mako the obvious about where the two girls were especially Bao Yu, all effort to do so was put to a sudden halt that the group wouldn’t know about until later as room Phin and Sir M occupied began to shake violently.

Gripping onto part of a desk that was quite hard to hold on to considering it not only was the only spot free of buttons but a very SMALL spot, Phin was bracing herself for impact as whatever was happening was probably making the whole ship go into a seizures attack. What the f-fanservice-k was going on?! Glancing behind her to where Sir M was, which had been near the barricaded door, she was happy to see Sir M was somewhat not damaged yet distracted with the barrier loosening as the android was trying to keep it together and steadying himself from such an earthquake of a shake the ground was continually making. Looking back to check the ship’s systems for any high damaged problems, the cranky genius was greeted with a collision to the power room by something close to the same size as her ship. Now of course she was able to make out the words on the bottom of the main screen since her vision was making her see the words jump and down like crazy.

Wanting to curse up a storm that would make an astronaut proud to commend her of such verbal words, instead she had something else to worry about as the shake of the ship increased more to the point she lost grip of the side of the desk Phin had been holding onto with her dear life and was pushed back to the other side of the room very hard. Even more so when her foot began to step onto something round that made her trip backwards to the point she collided with more force to the metal wall that had rectangular small compartments her head had greeted with a fierce welcome. A welcome sadly that led to her unconsciousness. Feeling the sharp pain hit the back of her head hard, she automatically went lights out and on the ground in seconds, leaving Sir M to panic on more than one thing.

Multi-tasking like how he always did for Phin’s ship, this time Sir M put his circuits into overdrive as he tried to get the barricade under control as fast as he could while he remotely sent an order wirelessly to the robot controls, which would pop out a map on the holographic display on the mini robot for the group to figure out how to get from point A to point B. Though this time he decided making a new route to be the power room to investigate in what was going on, plus if was also where a few of her gadgets laid in wait that if the group was smart they could use to their full advantage….that was if they could get past another anti-gravity chamber they needed to head over. And by the time he was done with that signal controlling task, the shakes started to die down enough for him to fix the door problem a little easier just so he could get to his creator faster. By the looks of it, she didn’t seem at all ok out on the floor resting on her stomach, not moving as the darkness the room created covered most of her body aside from her sprawled arm sticking out from the light coming from the mini robot controller that had followed her to the ground.

((Out Of Cupcakes: Phin will be out for awhile, giving everyone time to ask each other/to figure out where they are and why and on top of that how to escape. I'll play the ncps when needed to so good luck! >; ] ))

[Bao Yu Chao]

OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD THAT THING WAS GOING TO KILL HER! SHE WAS TOO RICH AND HIGH UP ON THE SOCIAL LATTER TO DIE LIKE THIS! Looking over her shoulder trying to out swim the freakish creature...it....poofed? What was with all these damn poofers?! Oh well...her eyes and a chunk of her head were starting to hurt from all that damn pickle juice! Plus she was running out of freaking air! Uh...but where the hell was she right now?

A little disoriented....she felt like her head was spinning a bit but just as she was about to swim upwardor at least what she hoped was directionally UP....Mako showed up? Captain Mako? ...and he was grabbing her wrist at a time like this?! Where the hell did he show up from?! Oh right...she just kinda woke up in mid fall panicking and he was yelling about pickle juice or something... Quite frankly, this rich girl was really too concerned about her own life and survival not too long ago to give that rat's ass she lost in the midst of this falling trip which scared the ever loving hell out of her more than those stupid creatures she saw! Pointing in the direction she swore was up, if he was going to hold her wrist he might as well get her the hell out of this disgusting mess! Ah but that clawed hand grazing against her cheek caused her to let out a confused glub....GUH THIS STUFF TASTED HORRIBLE! Feeling her face slightly warm up from that for some reason and a little skip of her heart, she snapped out of a short lived daze and saw him point up.

YES! AIR! DEAR SWEET AIR! OH HOW SHE MISSED IT! Nodding she kicked her feet along as to not be dead weight and get her to the surface. Letting in a huge gasp of air, it had been a while since she was so happy at the fact she could actually do the common thing called BREATHING. Dear sweet lovable air....she missed it so very much and before she could compose herself and thank her right hand man and bodyguard for doing his job, her mouth curved into a slight frown of confusion at his current state...was...was he ok? The pirate sharkman's laugh was unlike how it usually was...did something happen? In fact...what the hell DID happen?!

As much sympathy as she harbored at times, now wasn't the time to let it show since Bao Yu knew they were in one hell of a mess and she wasn't just referencing the weird pickled clown pool in that thought either. Sure he said she sure knows how to show someone a good time but she didn't even remember meeting him in the ship all that well let alone be awake for long...so what was he talking about? On the verge of inquiring that little question on her mind...he...picked one hell of a strange time to say he was madly in love with her. To that she lifted one hand out of the pickle water and smacked her hand upon her forehead while blushing a bit. "Captain Mako....this is the WORST time to attempt being a hopeless romantic! For the love of my bank account, focus on getting us the hell out of here a bit...no..A LOT more and help me find some damn survivors!"

Practically groaning out those words in her usual bossy fashion, she moved her hand off of her forehead and grit her teeth while motioning for him to follow her. Swimming on over to the edge...she was met with a little robot that looked like something out of a silly Japanese series. What the hell....? The piggy empire heiress...didn't remember that thing at all....how much happened while she was out like a light. Smacking a couple doll clown heads out of the way, one smacked her in the face. That one got violently grabbed and squeezed like a stress ball...except it broke in her hands and she released it before continuing her swimming frenzy. Grasping onto the ledge before pulling herself up and out of the water...she could have sworn the ship shook just a bit.

Wait....did that mean they collided into something or...did something collide into them? Investigating was the dangerously smart thing to do and that's what she fully intended on doing...soon as she figured out where to go. Plucking up the little robot, she stared at the map and glanced toward the doorway. ...hold up...weren't there more members to their party or were they hallucinations too? Probably with the way she's been seeing things...oh well she didn't have time to dwell. "Follow me and remember to attack those disgusting, diseased freaks at their limbs...they die faster that way if the bloody message was right." Stating those words in a professional fashion, she set the robot down and wondered if it was going to take them in that direction.

Taking the soaked up doll from her pajama shirt....those sapphire optics stared at it for a short moment and pulled a gun out of its head before putting it back in its place. It somehow didn't fall out before so keeping it there looking like it was watching everything unfold from the safety of her shirt. Kind of like a ninja...except it was a stuffed animal. Sometimes she had the strangest luck and still having this thing counted in that The weird looking robot that looked like something Zilla would suggest didn't move or dance around....rewiring it to work for them wasn't time they had to spare. So effortlessly, she pulled it up by the arm and stood at an angle while noticing a little light blue path beam that lasted only a couple of seconds going toward the door. Okay...tugging at its arm again, the short lived path appeared once more and she pointed the gun in her right hand toward the door. Normally she'd try to kick it open, but normally she wasn't holding a potentially delicate map.

Feeling miserable as all hell from being completely soaked, she tried to be polite but sounded more agitated than anything while instructing her partner at this time, "Knock down the door and be careful. I don't know if this gun will work on those rejects to nature, but I'm willing to bet it's better than the toilet seat I was using to defend myself with earlier....and if you repeat that to anyone I won't hesitate to make an example of you." Cringing at the thought of touching something so unsanitary...she threw up in her mouth a little and spat it out to the side away from wherever Mako wanted to stand since she still had manners regardless of the crappy situation. If anything at all was certain, it was that pickle juice taste in her mouth was absolutely disgusting....

(You folks read right! Allie will be controlling the NPCs from this point! They'll be fully controlled by our shiny new NPC account! Additional surprises and wtf moments for all! YAY NPC ACCOUNT! ......yes I was rather hyper in the process of writing this. I REGRET NOTHING IF I BROUGHT FORTH AMUSEMENT! Hope this is all good and sorry for the wait @___@)

[arachnidsGrip]

Geeze...there were so many things that she had to keep an eye on and this one one of em. A lovely iron in her fire and it was once again time to check the temperature. When she checked through the view port...it...seemed like people were missing from the original group she was watching AGAIN! Plus there was an event that should of taken place by now to cause the scientist rendered unconscious. Really, she had too many things going on to have checked out WHY way ahead of time so now it was time to check on the reason there was a female human grub to have a head injury critical enough for her to be K.O'd. Clicking through the timelines...it seemed like someone new entered into their timeframe according to the list of people in the area. Moving the cursor over to it, she selected it and watched what happened on their end...and...this guy's ship or...rather...the ship he was on crashed into Phin's.

Okay...strange...but at least he was loaded to the brim with cool weapons. Cool weapons that were USEFUL to be exact. If she could get this guy to rendezvous with the brat and mister shark man pirate....without getting either of them killed....those three could work as a team. Well...hopefully anyway. Right now the only thing that would be productive to kill were the Necromorphs. That and right now he was lost without a map and on top of that it was obvious that this guy was a soldier. Right now all she could go by was mere speculation.

Multi-tasking didn't mean trying to crack into his past because it was obviously the same issue as Megaman's own timeline of events. Anything before his entry into this timeframe had a weird glitch mark over it. Not wasting any time, she clicked to Bao Yu Chao's timeline and took a quick screen cap of the map she had in front of her on the robot. Saving the file as `phinsship.jpg` the eight obsessed troll edited it to add an `x` for where he was and circling where the survivors were headed. Naming that copy `youarethatx.jpg` then saving it as well, she swiftly moved the cursor to the armored fellow's timeline. Now...it was time to get digitally connected to this guy and send him the damn thing plus a message. This guy trying to kill survivors that ARE NOT the primary objective to actually maim and destroy would just make such a stupid mess.

Connecting directly with his communication device meant for visual messages, she first sent the picture file and then followed it up with a quickly typed message thus triggering little bleeps similar to instant messaging clients.

arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling soldierGuy [SG]

AG: First of all, I'm sorry I gave you such a lame handle, 8ut I'm in a huge rush.
AG: Secondly, you can call me Mindfang. With that out of the way........
AG: That thing I sent you is a map of the ship you not only crashed into, 8ut just so happened to survive the accident of 8y some 8ig miracle or amazing luck 8ecause you know.
AG: 8eing involved in an accident that 8ig is impressive.
AG: So impressive that I'm going to help you while I can.
AG: (::::
AG: You see, there are survivors other than you on here! USEFUL survivors!!!!!!!!
AG: Guess what that means??
AG: It means YOU are now part of a team!!!!!!!!
AG: Your o8jective is o8viously to work with each other and figure out a solution.
AG: It's inevita8le to 8ump into the things on this ship, 8ut proceed with caution.
AG: The survivors aren't ALL normal human gru8s so make sure you don't get too trigger happy.
AG: Hence the proceed with caution thing I told you a8out. Think 8efore you shoot, soldier 8oy, would 8e a shame if your chances of survival dwindled even more. Not everything here is your target.
AG: As you can see, on the map there's a mark representing you as an x.
AG: The circled area is where the surviving team is headed. If you head in that direction, you should 8e a8le to meet up with them sooner or l8er.
AG: Sooner would 8e 8est so hurry up!
AG: They have the ro8ot displaying the same map I got special for you which has 8etter features than a stup8d picture.
AG: L8er, you can get a hold of the ship's owner too through that thing.

Ok...that was long but hey, not everything could be short and sweet! Next she clicked on over to unconscious beauty's timeline and left a message on the screen for the one who would read it...

arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling fixerUpper [FU]

AG: Another ship crashed into yours and guess what? 8ecause I'm so nice I'm leaving you a useful message to wake up to!
AG: (::::
AG: There's an armored human gru8 who is VERY useful to everyone's survival, so contact him as soon as possi8le.
AG: Don't 8e a 8itch like I have seen the 8oth of you 8e.
AG: More importantly........
AG: If you don't want those surviving human gru8s to die, don't 8e more of an idiot than you already were.
AG: You know EXACTLY what I'm talking a8out too. Try using your think pan.
AG: I know it's hard for a 8lundering idiot such as yourself, 8ut you need to put some effort into not 8eing a moron. That got you in this situation and it's not getting you out any time soon.
AG: (::::

Sending those messages off on their merry way, she waited a bit to hear from the only armored individual wandering around the area. All she knew about his past was he woke up from what is possibly the world's longest nap...though currently that record belonged to the shark guy.

(GAH....hope this is alright =____=;;;;; bluh bluh bluh)

[nicholas]

As Nicholas slowly moved through the darkened corridor and progressively further away from the engine room, he noticed that without thinking he'd been slowly and steadily bringing his rifle up higher and higher the further in he got - it had started out in a one handed grip, with his right arm loosely hanging at his side. After only five minutes it was now halfway up, supported by his left hand as well now and ready to fire at the slightest provocation.

Nicholas did not like this ship. He didn't know what it was, but something was putting him on edge, and Kurt, the person who had made him into who he was along with NCPO Mendez, had always stressed on the importance of trusting such instincts. Something was wrong with this ship, and it wasn't the hole his own ride had left in the engine room. This vessel seemed to be working just fine, but something was off. The air itself seemed almost stale, and on top of that he'd had yet to see a single person - given the impact from earlier, Nicholas didn't understand why they weren't rushing to check on the damage. That wasn't to say there weren't any signs of life, although that fact made Nicholas feel even more uneasy - while he'd had yet to see actual people, his motion tracker had been picking up contacts ever since he left the engine room, above and below. The problem was that they keep disappearing almost as soon as they showed up - he'd see anywhere between one to five or six blips at the edge of the sensor's range, only to have them disappear as soon as he began approaching them.

No, he did not like this at all.

It wasn't until passing around another corner and reaching yet another door that Nicholas's unease began shifting more towards outright paranoia, though. Approaching the door and noting that it had a similar design to the one from earlier, Nicholas froze as he saw multiple contacts on the motion tracker, all on the other side of the blast door. Bringing his rifle up to a ready position, Nicholas began slowly edging closer, noting that it had to be a relatively big room - the contacts on the other side were beginning to move away from each other, and very quickly at that, far too quickly to be human. Animals of some kind? Standing outside of the door for several more seconds, Nicholas debated on whether or not to simply turn around and find another path he might have missed before, only to realize that would probably prove to be more or less useless. The corridor had been a straight shot between this door and the engine room, with the corridor probably meant to act as an air lock in the case of a hull breach - if there had been another path he'd have noticed it before, and there'd been nothing. Making up his mind, Nicholas figured he'd try the usual approach, especially seeing as he could only break so much before the place started falling apart. Seeing that his motion tracker now read clear on the other side, Nicholas nonetheless kept his rifle up and aimed at the middle of the door as he reached forwards and pressed the controls - unlike the other door, this one was not locked, and opened easily, something that Nicholas almost immediately regretted. At the very least he now knew why no one had gone to check on the hull breach.

The room was a mess, and even the things he'd seen the Covenant do to captives in the past did little to prepare him for this. What should have been stark grey like the corridor behind him was red, rust red, and it wasn't hard to see why. The room was much smaller than Nicholas had thought, apparently meant to act as something of a ready or control room for the engineering crew, most of which were scattered across the floor. Vacuum hadn't killed them, nor had blunt trauma from being thrown across the room or hit with something - neither of those things left cuts, slices as clean as this. It wasn't Covenant, either - both energy swords and energy cutlasses left burn or scorch marks behind, and that wasn't the case here. As Nicholas slowly moved into the room, careful not to step on any of the corpses and weapon still up and searching for a target, the Spartan noticed a particular red smear mark that travelled up the wall, and in following it he saw that it moved across the ceiling as well, ending at what looked like the square opening to the ship's ventilation system, the grate no longer in place. As Nicholas continued to look up at the opening, wonder exactly what the hell had done this, a red blip appeared on his motion tracker again, directly above him and accompanied by a sudden racket from above, the sound of something hard and sharp on metal - reacting instantly, Nicholas brought his weapon up to point directly at the hole, not daring to relax even as it began to move off and away from him, the sound eventually fading a minute later.

As it was Nicholas nearly jumped a second later as text began scrolling across the inside of his helmet's HUD, and it was only his training and experience that kept him from visibly reacting, but at this point his nerves were beginning to wear thin. As it was such a thing shouldn't have been possible - the MJOLNIR's software package was the best the UNSC had short of ONI's own dedicated machines, but that alone should have meant that no one should have been able to crack into the system like that, even if it was only COMMs. Still as he read the text he began to pay closer attention once he saw the word "survivor". As he'd hoped, there were other people on the ship, but that didn't allow Nicholas to relax. The contact he'd just seen on his motion tracker had matched dozens he'd seen since boarding, and whatever had been capable of slaughtering this many people in an area where improvised weapons were plentiful was not something to be trifled with - his armor did give him an advantage, but if these corpses were anything to judge by, he'd need to move quick and reach whoever was left before the things that had left this room did.

The vagueness of the message didn't exactly set him at ease (a solution to what?), but it was nevertheless useful, and while he didn't at all like someone (or something) capable of tinkering with his HUD, he had to admit that the addition of the map to his TACPAD's functionality was extremely useful - he didn't know how it was done or how it worked, but he would take every bit of information he could get. Continuing to watch the vent opening in the ceiling for several more seconds, Nicholas made a personal note to keep an eye on his motion tracker as he looked down and edged over towards the table in the middle of the room, placing his rifle on it and bringing the hand over to the controls of the TACPAD on his left wrist. As Nicholas brought up the map on his HUD, still mindful of his motion tracker, he where he had to go - a straight shot for the rendevouz point, an almost straight path with just a few intersecting rooms. While he would have preferred to try and intercept the other group mentioned as it was a better idea than splitting up and he could add quite a bit of firepower to said group, but whoever had contacted him had failed to mention where they were, only where they were going. It was better than nothing, though, and at the very least he could get there first and clear the area out on the offchance it was compromised.

Picking his rifle back up from the blood encrusted table and again careful not to step on any of the dismembered corpses in the room as he moved, Nicholas opened the door opposite of the one he had entered, and after making a quick sweep of the hallway beyond began sprinting, moving far faster than any human could and his footsteps leaving small dents in the floor's tough metal under the weight of his armor. This was good, or at least better than he hoped - based on the small map now tucked into a corner of his HUD, he should be at the designated meeting place in only a few minutes barring any unforeseen circumstances. Rifle cradled in front of his chest as he ran, Nicholas squeezed out even more speed from his armored legs.

[dib]

Dib appeared to be conversing with a frustrated convenience store cashier.

Poof.

He stood in the middle of a room holding a can of unopened Coca Cola.

"REALLY. What is this!? Where is the Poop Cola!? ... Hey where am I?"

He looked about with a blank expression on his face, blinking.

"I guess he gave me the soda free! Sweet."

He took a swig, quickly spitting it out.

"This doesn't taste anything like Poop Cola!"

Carelessly tossing the can aside, he looked at the clown dolls, the pickle juice, then the clown dolls.

"These strange artifacts are vague enough to tell me that... OH MY GOD I'M ON AN ALIEN SHIP! I must document it! ... But how will anyone see it without a plausible way home? HEY! That green juice looks suspiciously like pickle juice! Perhaps where they breed!"

He immediately took out his camcorder and pointed it at the pickle juice.

"Day 1 on unknown alien ship. I have found a strange green liquid. It looks suspiciously like pickle juice, but I think it might be where they breed. There's also all these strange clown things everywhere.. Probably toys for the babies!"

He turned the camera and started walking in Bao Yu's direction, before pointing the camcorder right in her face upon her discovery. He didn't seem to notice the pirate guy.

"This room seems to go on for quite a while.. OH! There's a door! ... And a girl! ... A girl.. Or.. AN ALIEN! Tak may have fooled me once but I won't fall for your hologram watches again! Plus you're covered in that pickle juice! YOU! How many states are in the United States of America! ... Wait, aliens would know that, they would have studied our planet fully... Hmmmmmm. Do you burn in the rain?"

His expression read that he seriously meant the question with concern, his free hand under his chin in a questioning gesture. Man did he look like his dad right now. He only needed a ridiculously high collared labcoat and some goggles and he'd be set.

[Bao Yu Chao]

Right now time was of the essence and without so much as giving her right hand man and body guard the luxury of doing his job once more, she simply went, "Tch!" Glancing around the room for something to break down the door...she knew Phin all too well and that door wasn't going to budge with a simple button push. Using the robot to bash the damn thing open wasn't an option...she needed the map and for all she knew it was the only way she'd hear from the woman she'd known for as long as she can remember. ....someone was talking....someone familiar. Quirking a brow trying to figure out if she was hearing things again, absolutely hating how much this whole ship trip was messing with her head....there was a camera all up in her business. WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THE RICH PEOPLE SHE PLANNED TO GRIND UNDER HER SUPERIOR FEET?! Lifting up the hand gun in her grasp...she HAD IT with all the freaking bullpoopie!

Pushing the gun against his forehead while glaring at the camera, with an obvious ton of anger in her voice...she spoke up with a strong sense of authority. "Accuse me of being an alien ONE MORE TIME and I can promise my extravagant bank account that I'll make an example of you! I have monsters to kill that are more than likely parasitic aliens so get the hell out of my way or help me with the damn door, pathetic peasant and know your place!" Pulling the gun away she turned around grumbling out, "Burning in the rain....tch....how stupid...!" Under her breath, she glanced around and then noticed there was....an axe in a glass box attached to the wall. WELL THAT WAS CONVENIENT!

Rushing on over to it, she skid to a stop right in front of the EMERGENCY axe and smacked it with her gun. This thing didn't have a silencer on it, and really she didn't want to make THAT much noise! Switching the safety back on and shoving the simple handgun right on back into her curry mascot cow doll...it seemed like a better idea to use an object like this. Snatching up the axe, she was careful not to scratch herself since she had enough injuries as is. "Assuming you're not a hallucination, grab the weird looking robot and follow me...we're getting the hell out of this room....I'm way too rich for this crap...." Making her way on over to the door as she spoke up in a professionally annoyed fashion, the piggy empire heiress looked to the control panel...then tried to push the `OPEN` button. No such luck though just as she initially thought....so that meant it was time to bash in the controls!

Holding onto the axe with both hands, she swiftly and quickly slammed the tip of the blade to the little green open button...and TADAAAAAAAA the door almost seemed to grudgingly open! Slightly smirking in a `yeah...that's right you stupid door!` sort of way...she paused for a moment then looked to the guy with black, lightning bolt shaped hair. That smirk faded into a serious look of slight confusion after looking at him long enough....he...seemed so familiar but why? Curiously, she couldn't help but inquire,"...don't I know you from somewhere...?" There was a really intense mission where she got hit pretty hard on the head...and...well...things sort of blurred. Shaking her head slightly, she quickly added a slightly frustrated little..."...tch...what am I thinking? If we knew each other you more than likely wouldn't accuse me of being an alien...sorry for the stupid question whoever you are..."

Turning away, she began trudging through the doorway with an annoyed frown on her lips while glancing around to make sure the coast was clear....things were just a bit too peaceful. Earlier she could barely get away from those damn whatever-they-weres and now...they weren't really showing up. Something didn't make sense...but more importantly something was DEFINITELY amiss!

[adamanta]

How strange can things really get, I mean honestly? Whats the worst that could happen?

Never ask such a silly question, you fool! Never, ever ask that kind of question! What kind of bloody idiot really says that kind ofthing anyhow? Well, Ada-May McKennith asked that question, and look where she ended up. She had the "Best" luck - she really, really did. Not only was she about to get some sleep when... whatever it was happened, but when she was yanked in a direction that made her stomache to somersaults and try out for the circus and the world went wahoonie-shaped, she'd come into existence in the middle of something sharp and pointy. And all over the walls. She was soaked, she stank, and she looked like some kind of bloody demon monster from the deepest pit!

Adamanta flicked a bit of mandible off her sleeves with a whipping downward motion. Her C-14 jumpsuit was totally soaked in blood and bile and bits of the thing she'd TELEFRAGGED displaced with the teleportation still clung obstinately despite her best efforts to dislodge it all. GROSS! She got her bearings - a.. hallway. There were other creatures, but they look mildly concussed... okay, they were dented into the walls, but when something scratches at you like that when you first appear inside one of them, you tend to get a bit... acerbic about things and disinclined to ask questions like "Please don't try to gore me with your sharp bits" and "Why are you trying to hurt me?". She almost wondered if she should apologize... but they didn't look... alive... or nice. They looked like... zombies.

Adamanta shuddered, and spat a chunk of gore that had, to her dismay, managed to find its way into her mouth. She suspected that other bits had filled in spaces... she'd certianly felt WRETCHED at first when she'd appeared - probably helped to explain the twitching ruins in nearby walls.

Claws gripped and clicked in the floor gratings as the eight foot, horned, usually blue-skinned form strode down the darkened corridor, her tail squirming and swaying along behind her, shortening in and tucking against her in case anything thought it was a snack. The cuts the creatures gave her when she'd first appeared were healing - they were bowel perforations, they ached dully.. but there was barely anything left of them now - she payed them little mind. Just the same, she looked rather ragged as she reached a great big doorway just as it was opening, her keen ears at last informing her of raised voices inside the room.... so it was that when Bao yu came through, she bumped right into a massive apparition, dripping with gore and looking quite irritable indeed!

[arachnidsGrip]

Hmmmmmmmm........this was certainly a strange little predicament. They were in a ship infested with OBVIOUSLY zombified creatures and none of them were out and about playing like rambunctious brats. Seeing how she lost her Vision 8-Fold, looking into the Magic Cue Ball wasn't an option....well if she still HAD IT anyway since that thing blew up in her face! Grabbing onto one of her many spare Magic 8 Balls, she side glanced at it. There was a question on her mind...she had a feeling she already knew what the answer was but something was itching away at her to ask anyway. Grasping onto the stupid thing with her cold, unfeeling metal hand, she muttered out a simple question.... "Is this another stup8d offshoot timeline I'll a8solutely regret wasting my time on?"

Giving it a shake shake shake shake shake shake shake shake, she narrowed her eyes to stare at the result ``AS I SEE IT, YES`` GRAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!! She H8ED these stupid things! They were so inaccurate! OF COURSE THIS WASN'T AN OFFSHOOT TIMELINE! Crushing it effortlessly in her robotic grip, she grit her teeth as black plastic and blue goo shot around the place. It felt great destroying those inaccurate pieced of rubbish though....hm...well anyway...she had time to kill and how would the Alternian troll kill this time?

By briefing the soldierGuy about the situation in detail. He was obviously a warrior and going to be aiding a great deal in progress what better way to make a warrior DEADLY efficient than to give them a cheat sheet? Oh hell yes!


AG: 8elieve it or not, 8ut a 8usy 8ody such as myself just so happens to have time to explain important details a8out your mission!
AG: The monsters you'll 8e up against aren't 8lue with horns and a tail like one of your fellow survivors team 8uddies.
AG: Even I think the........whatever it's supposed to 8e is docile like Tavros' stup8d lusus Tinker 8ull as long as you don't 8randish your gun like a trigger happy moron at that weird looking female.
AG: Enough a8out her, she'll 8e with the other survivors. You do, however, need to 8last these things like your life depends on it.
AG: 8ecause your life o8viously does depend on it.

Going back in the timelines via the Trollian view port, she took a few screen shots of the various creatures that were running around and about on the ship going on a killing frenzy. These things were worth SO many points! Including what could best be described as a tentacle baby. There were three pictures total to help give him a good idea of what he was facing. They all had one obvious thing in common: humanoid traits grotesquely mutated. The mouths seemed almost similar to that of an arachnid, well for two of them anyway...the baby-thing seemed to have the most OBVIOUS link to a normal human save for...well...the tentacles. Anyway, those same two were riddled with torn flesh and exposed bones which not only seemed to shape into scythe-like blades but one of them had what looked like a spine that shifted into a stinger sort of tail.

Kinda like a scorpion might have. Sending those three pictures to him, she continued on her little plethora of messages.

AG: See these interesting a8ominations?
AG: These are the 8astards you're going to 8e loading up with 8ullet holes.
AG: May8e you'll find this funny or incredi8ly ironic in some human sarcastic way.
AG: Their weak spots aren't as easy as a head shot.
AG: Try attacking their lim8s instead when you face them, alr8?
AG: Or you could find out the stu88orn way that 8ullets to the head won't work and waste what ammunition you have.
AG: It's really up to you!
AG: (::::


Switching out of the chat with SG, she clicked on over to FU and proceeded to type type away a few more things.

AG: Hey, ro8ot 8utler!!!!!!!!
AG: Use your digital think pan and start talking to the 8itch with ridiculous colored hair who attracts weird company already!!!!!!!!


There! Hopefully the bucket of bolts residing in the control room with the ship's owner would work on being a little more helpful!

[nicholas]

Despite his tank like appearance and size, Nicholas had made extremely good time since whoever it was had contacted him before, admittedly in large part due to the map she'd sent him that was now integrated into a corner of his suit's HUD. A good thing, too - had it not been for the fact he knew where he was going and had a simple, concrete objective Nicholas would have spent most of his time exploring the winding side passages that led off from the corridors and handful of rooms he'd passed on the way to where he was supposed to meet up with the other survivors. Unfortunately, such a simple objective also gave his mind time to wander, something that had made both his trainers and COs nervous. What he didn't get was how whatever had happened on the ship had happened so fast. Every one of the considerable number of corpses he came across had been killed recently, with almost all of the blood either being sticky or still wet outright - they'd been killed recently enough that the blood hadn't had time to dry, and yet there were very little signs of struggle or combat in any of the rooms or passages. There'd been one or two barricades he'd been forced to dismantle - and just as quickly rebuild to be safe - because they were between him and where he had to be, but that didn't explain the other problem with the equation.

They were in deep space.

That left one of two distinct possibilities left in Nicholas's mind, especially since everything came from somewhere and there weren't any planets nearby. Either this ship had found something and brought it onboard with the intent to either study or sell it, or something had boarded the ship of its own accord. Normally Nicholas would've been impressed with the creatures' audacity and even considered notifying the UNSC about it as a possible bioweapon, but what he saw here had quickly convinced him that it was uncontrollable and far too dangerous to be captured, only destroyed, and destroy them he would - all UNSC forces had standing orders to protect civilians when possible, and while whatever had done this most certainly wasn't Covenant it clearly wasn't human. As Nicholas saw the door between him and the room he was supposed to wait in come into view he gradually slowed his pace, walking up to the door and glancing down at his motion tracker before beginning to reach for the controls, only to stop as text began scrolling across his HUD again - while Nicholas appreciated being given direction, he would have greatly preferred being able to contact whoever this was. If things got hairy he could not risk text suddenly popping up across his HUD.

As he read it, though, he quickly wondered exactly what she'd meant by one of the survivors not being human but at the same time warning him not to shoot at whatever it was. While he didn't particularly like being forced to spend more time checking his targets than he was used to, he liked what she said next even less. How the hell did she expect him to shoot every enemy that moved as soon as they showed their faces while at the same time taking the time to make sure he was shooting at the right things? He didn't particularly like how contradictory whoever was on the other end of the one sided conversation was being, but at the very least he was getting information out of the deal - good, usable information, although that led to the next part of the message that he liked even less.

As he read the message about shooting the enemies in the head being rather useless, Nicholas got a sinking feeling in his stomach, glancing down at the rifle in his hand and the pistol on his thigh - both would more or less be useless from what she'd mentioned. His sniper rifle would do the job, most likely tearing the abominations in the photos she sent him apart and turning them into a red mist with a single shot, but using the anti materiel rifle ran another risk - in going right through the target, there was easily the chance of the armor piercing round penetrating any wall behind the creature and exposing the room to vacuum and explosive decompression. It wouldn't be immediate given the size of the hole, but while he could at least survive the vacuum for a short amount of time, the other survivors couldn't. In short, trapped on a ship with civilians to protect, outnumbered by creatures mostly unaffected by two of his weapons and unable to use his third. Perfect. At the very least his grenades would still probably work and he could always go back to the ship he arrived on to fetch a few of the security team's MA5 series rifles, M90 shotguns or M7 SMGs, weapons perfectly suited to this kind of work, but as of right now he had to be in the next room when the other people still on board the ship did arrive - once they were there he could go back, and possibly even arm them if they knew how to use firearms.

Not even bothering to bring the BR55 to bear since aiming for the head would be pretty much useless based on the earlier information, Nicholas pressed the control and drew his eight inch combat knife from its sheath on his chest piece with his left hand, alert and aware as he moved through the door and into the large, square room littered with containers as tall as he was, clearly the ship's cargo bay, noting with some relief that there were no corpses here - while it wasn't to say that the area was safe, it hadn't yet been compromised, at least not based on that observation and his motion tracker. Turning around to close and lock the door behind him, Nicholas did likewise for the few other doors on the edges of the room, leaving only the entrance that the other people he was meant to meet would come through open before climbing atop one of the containers in the center of the room and noting with some dismay that there were quite a few grated air vents along the walls, close to the ceiling. Well aware that he wouldn't be able to do much about them, Nicholas crouched atop the contrainer to steady his aim as he brought his rifle to bear, figuring it wouldn't hurt - while the headshots might not kill the creatures eh hadn't been told that they were immune to bullets in general, and he'd be damned if he didn't at least try to kill one by riddling it full of holes until it stopped moving.