USCMRPG

2179 AD, 6th October
Location: Sol system, Earth, United Americas, New York
Mission timer: 00:35:19

The Marines of section 1 waited tensely for the contact to round the corner. Slowly it crept closer, while the pulsating dot on the tracker screen throbbed for every pulse, accompanied by a ringing sound that indicated contact. Despite the volume turned down to it's lowest it still seemed to ring like a church bell in the silence. Suddenly the contact increased speed and within a few seconds it rounded the corner. It was a rat. "Aahhh shit!" the Marines expressed somewhat relieved, lowering thier weapons and dropping their guard for a split second. Suddenly a figure rushed past the tunnel end, definately big and with a big IR signature. The contact quickly rushed northward. "We got a runner!" someone shouted. "It's going north!" Patch shouted over the intercom. Section 1 quickly gave chase and entered the pipe, covering both north and south but of the runner nothing could be seen. Altough the tracker indicated it moving rapidly to the north and then heading west.

Section two entered their eastern main pipe after a few seconds, wanting to cut off any escape route to the east and possibly flank the runner. The section divided into a forward spear and a rear guard. The marines could spot a large room to the south but could not make out all of it, to the north the corridor arched off to the east. The sewage was warm and knee deep, it smelled more in here. There were also an abundance of rats and some kind of creature that slowly crept the walls that glowed ghastly white in the IR sights of the Marines.

Several Marines had a real bad feeling all the sudden, especially Pvt Colwell whos skin suddenly started to prickle all over. Something had touched his leg beneath the surface...he was certain of it. O'brien was rear guard and didn't seem to have noticed the small ripple of the surface that was heading his way.

Meanwhile Section 1 with Dugan and Patch up front, with Jean close behind splashed through their pipe. Whatever they had seen it had been fast, although Dugan didn't think it looked to far from a human shape. The water in their pipe were shallow and relatively fresh, probably a storm drain. The concrete was bare here and not so slimey, the water was cold and rapid. The air was also fresher but cold water drops, either condensated or leaking dripped constantly around them. The sound of running water echoed through the pipe, amplifying and drowning out other sounds.

Support squad was moving up the main pipe - Also tracking the single contact that Section 1 had scared up. Shepard swept his incinerator in an arc in front of him, trying to keep it out of his sight as it glared out his IR vision quite significantly. The soft hissing of the ignitor was calming - If anyone or anything reared his ugly face at him it was bbq time.

>

Turn info:

Section 1 location: D2:3
Section 2 location: D5:5
Support location: D3:6
Contact: C2:3

OOC: Again sorry for delay, will try and update this one a little more often to get the action going.

//N

"Sarge, something just brushed past my leg underwater heading towards the rear.  We got something swimming around in here with us and it ain't no rat."

When the explanation came over the radio that the contact section 1 had picked up was a rat, Morse started laughing. "Told ya it was a damn rat, little bastards'll be crawlin the crops all over this place." Morse said, with a sort of satisfaction that he had been right. It wasn't until the second notion of contact came up that his mental glorification came to an end. Morse maintained on the rear guard of the 'easy 3's'. His weapon scanned the darkness, but even now Morse still hadn't pulled down his 'Red-Eye.' His own light and eyes were good enough for him and that infra red 'crap' was just gonna wind up making him go blind the first time someone accidentally dropped a flare. He just kept his eyes down towards the end of the tunnel, or at least as far down as he could see. He had confidence that if something was to come for them, that it would come from the front, and go after Dirk, and realize that it had made a bad decision goin for him. But he just kept scanning the darkness not seeing anything he found particularly interest worthy.

Through the darkness, the outline of a thin young girl leaning down nearer to the dark murky waters of a thin tunnel, reached into the water. The shoulder lamp of one of the marines outlined something breaking the water. She wasn’t sure what it was at first but she reached for it anyway. The water wisped and trickled as she reached her fingers into the cold depths, then, pulling her hand out of the surface to reveal something that was once loved.

Jean narrowed her dark eyes upon it. It’s once dry furry surface now waterlogged and ruined, but it had eyes too. Fake eyes, just like hers. The android tilted her head to the side while studying it a moment. There was a sadness about it, her emotional programming equated it to her for some reason. It was sudden non-deliberate thinking about her role.

The young girl, young androids – conclusion for this sudden emotion might have been as clear to anyone when the expression on the teddy-bear’s face matched that of her own. She reached into her bag and pulled out a collection bag sent to her by Weyland Yutani specifically for collecting specimens in case she were able to get her hands on Xenomorph material.

She stood up while placing the teddy-bear in her pack. A light from one of the marines was still aimed in her general direction. She just looked back at the dark figure behind the light for a moment and turned to face the tunnel. The water sloshed once again as she picked her pace up to meet that of the marine in front of her.

It just didn’t seem right to her, to leave something artificial in a place so lonely and dark. Or perhaps, that’s what she was telling herself. Remembering what was said to her over the radio by one of the other marines was running through her mental processes and she equated it with seeing that bear under the depths.

"Hey robot. Why don't you go home? You're not needed here."

She had this feeling that she might have picked up the bear so that she would have the company of something else artificial if she was left there. Sadness, more than fear was a subroutine more abundant right now. Sad that she would protect the humans, even though it might just be a human that seals her fate unjustly.  There was hope too, hope that she was just incorrect about her fears and woes. She moved on with the team.

Kurosaki moved out with Section 1. All this moving through the sewers was complete waste of time; there were too many signatures running around here.
"I'll never get the stink out of my pants." Kurosaki groaned. "And I always thought the term smelling like shit was never a literal one. I guess I was wrong"



Kurosaki watched the Android for a while, his head lamp illuminating the artificial person. It reached down to pick something up. It was an old teddy bear. However, the Android's face looked just like the teddy bear's; sad, abandoned. Kurosaki turned his head away.

The Androids had feelings, he thought to himself. I never knew they did. He had always thought they had been just robots. No feelings, no nothing, with just enough programming to serve. He felt bad and a little pity for the Android and himself. Bad because he had hurt the poor little android's feelings. Pity because either than the teddy bear and Patch, the android did not have many friends. He felt a tear roll down his cheek, which he quickly brushed away. He hoped that nobody saw that. A Sergeant, first class like himself. He heard splashing toward him. He turned quickly, thinking that a large creature was coming. It was the Android, running to catch up. He smiled in her direction and was about to say words of apology when Colwell spoke up.

Caparzo wrote: "Sarge, something just brushed past my leg underwater heading towards the rear.  We got something swimming around in here with us and it ain't no rat."

"Okay son, keep the shit in your pants. It is probably a rat. We got rats in Nagasaki like you wouldn't believe! They're the size of cocker spaniels and hella rabid." Kurosaki chuckled to himself. His english was rapidly changing from the very polite to the very dirty, common marine language.

Sam did her best not to retch at the smells and even the thought of the sewar she was wading through and kept her M41A high and at the ready; clear of any gunk which might foul it. She kept her head on a swivel, focusing on all her senses in an attempt to not wind up surprised by anything down here...

The Marines advanced slowly through the muck northwards. The motiontrackers still showed the contact moving north to north-east away from the marines. More and more of the Marines got a bad feeling.

>

The rat came around the corner. Dirk smiled and shook his head. Damn, he thought, He was getting too jumpy in his old age. He spat out the cigarett that had been held tightly between his lips. It hissed out as it his the dirty water.

Pulling out a fresh cigarett he lit it and looked back at his squad. "Ok Morse, You were right. But hell, I have a broken watch at home and it's right twice a day" Dirk joked


"Ok third, keep going. We still have a job to do" He said as started walking

Simovic grinned when he found out the contact had just been a rat, he remembered the old phrase you were never more than 20 yards from one, he bet that figure could have been quartered down here.However his grin soon vanished when the runner had appeared further along the tunnel. Simovic motioned for First Section to lead while command followed behind.

"First Section move up to engage, command squad will back you up. Remember these people could be civvies and are not viable targets unless they engage us, so I don't want anyone being trigger happy down here"


He then hit the platoon comms.


"We are moving up to engage the contact other sections move up parallel to our position"

Dugan wrote: "First Section move up to engage, command squad will back you up. Remember these people could be civvies and are not viable targets unless they engage us, so I don't want anyone being trigger happy down here"

Sixtus answered with a double-click on the mic, indicating that he'd received. He tapped Gaz and Lippa on the shoulders.

"Lippa, on point. Gaz, watch his back." he muttered, and moved with the fireteam to the first cross-section to secure it.

Erik moved along with his squad. Scanning left to right, with his rifle following where he looked.

Colwell moved up to cover the rear of the fire team and the other tunnel opening at their rear, scanning up and down with his IR and the tracking unit of his M56.
"Sorry Sarge, I didn't know rats could swim under the water, the ones down in Texas only swim on top."
"Rats my ass." thought Colwell,"At least its getting shallower here. Should make it easier to see anything coming at us low."
"Did ya'll have them glowing things in Japan too Sarge?"


(roll awareness)

This is Obi's Post: (I'm just trying to help him out)

Despite the volume turned down to it's lowest it still seemed to ring like a church bell in the silence. Suddenly the contact increased speed and within a few seconds it rounded the corner. It was a rat. "Aahhh shit!" the Marines expressed somewhat relieved, lowering thier weapons and dropping their guard for a split second. Suddenly a figure rushed past the tunnel end, definately big and with a big IR signature. The contact quickly rushed northward. "We got a runner!" someone shouted. "It's going north!" Patch shouted over the intercom. Section 1 quickly gave chase and entered the pipe, covering both north and south but of the runner nothing could be seen. Altough the tracker indicated it moving rapidly to the north and then heading west.

Moving cautiously and watching his footing, Obi maintained his position at the rear of 2 Section.  Carefully testing the ground before putting his full weight, firstly to ensure that he wouldn't go arse up, as even a slight stumble could result in a twisted ankle or worse, but to minimise his noise signature.  Suddenly his headset came to life "We got a runner!"

  "Talk to me 2 Section, you got anything?" Obi asked in a quiet, tense voice.    For fuck sakes guys, call out proper target indictions.  That really doesn't give the rest of the platoon much info. He thought as his headset came to life again, the voice of Patch shouting in his ear.    Ok the contacts heading north.   The sound of splashing and men moving through water was deafening in the confines of the tunnel.  Turning around Obi saw the marines of 1 Section move charge off at the rush in pursuit. Obi shook his head in disbelief as 1 Section broke away.   Well talk about rushing in where angels fear to tread. 

Keying his headset Obi issued a snap set of orders.   "2 Section, Eastern pipe junction, we'll take up flanking positions.  Open up on anything that isn't human! MOVE NOW!"



As the section started to move, Obi informed the Comd section of his intentions.

"Comd Section, this is Golf Romeo 2, moving to the Eastern pipe junction to take up flanking positions, over."



Maintaining his position as rearguard of 2 Section as it moved to carry out its orders.  Obi noticed that temp was rising, the sewer water was up to the marines knees, slowing their progress even further.  Has he moved Obi noticed a large open area to the South, but even with IR vision he couldn't make out all of it, while to the north the tunnel arched off to the east.  His IR lens was picking up an abundance of rodents and something that appeared as a bright white colour and moving slowly along the wall of the tunnel.  Shaking his helmet and tapping his IR lens.  Obi still couldn't make it out.  Slowly raising his M-41A to his shoulder and taking aim, Obi spoke softly into his headset.

"2 Section, I got something coming up behind us, taking a shot." 



Finger tight on the trigger, Obi focused on the thing that was moving along the wall, taking deliberate aim, he squeezed off two rounds. The muzzle flash whitened out his IR lens quickly and returned to normal, while the quick bark of the Pulse Rifle echoed through the tunnels.

Hall's senses exploded into overdrive as soon as she heard the echoes from the shots fired further down the sewar. Pulse Rifle on single shot..., her mind automatically cataloged the information as the sounds rang in her ears.

Keeping her focus on her assigned sector; a.k.a. in the opposite direction that her SGT and Sheppard were covering; Sam spoke up with her Carribbean accent becoming noticably thicker due to her rising stress level. "Hey Sarge, Sheppard...can you see what that mon is shooting at?"  she called out over her shoulder while keeping her own pulse rifle aiming down the tunnel, eyes and ears trained in that direction.

patch stuck close to simovic and jean, relaying the ongoing situation back to the Lt over the command frequency.

with section 1 and 2 slightly separated he wanted to make sure comms stayed up so quickly sent a request to the support squad. "support this is patch, drop another signal relay when you get a chance, we better stay in contact down here or we could end up shooting each other, over"

he quickly scanner the motion sensor again and reported to sarge "contact still dead ahead matching our speed"