Turn 6: Hotter the Fire

[Pale Rider]

The pile of metal falls apart as it is cut. Just as the Eights reach for the door handle a scream shatters the air. Followed by an audible cracking sound that ends in squelch. A sound not to dissimilar to a tea kettle followed by a thump of something hitting the floor.
The motion detectors begin to sing as something begins to race around within the room.

<ACTIONS>

[maxvale76]

Samantha begins to sweat as the motion detector sings out its song. "Keep your heads on a swivel and look sharp!"; she calls out to her squad. "Talk to us; tell us where the signal is coming from"; she asks the Motion Tracker operator....

<Tag Squad>

[Morse]

From their position at the base of the building, there was not much to be heard or seen. Morse, and his squad, were likely quite familiar with their surroundings by that moment. There was not much to take in. And the general quiet could almost put them at ease.

Morse himself was slipping into a place where he assumed this mission was going to end on a rather easy note. Still he kept his hands firmly gripped on his M56 Smartgun and viewed over some of the weapon readouts through his eyepiece to ensure it was optimal. Though adorned in charms and memorabilia, such as his Confederate Flag on his ammo drum, and the silver dragon dangling just off of the barrel, Morse kept his Smartgun at peak efficiency and knew the weapon inside and out better then most people knew their hands.

He groaned a moment starting feel a bout of boredom coming on with how quiet things were, when suddenly there came the shriek.

It was not quite as loud as it might have been if they were in another part of the building, but Morse heard it and he was suddenly quite alert. He had no idea what it was, but it did not necessarily sound good.

”Look alive Dead Shots.” Morse said to his squad. ”Sounds like bad shits on its way.” He did not adjust his position, he just switched his com back over to the ‘platoon channel’.

”Someone gotta an answer’s to what the fuck that noise was?” Morse asked over the com hoping that someone could tell him what had just happened.

< Tag All
< Roll Awareness

[Corporal Hicks]

Roberts reached for the door handle, but jumped when he heard the sound. "That sounded like a chest-burster! They've got cocooned civies in there! Permission to engage?" Roberts called to Sergeant Pitt, or possibly Lieutenant Quinn. He put his hand on the door handle and waited feverishly to pull it wide open as soon as he got the order.

<Tag Dirk/Quinn>

[Quicksilver]

“A lot of movement behind that door, Ma’am. Something’s doing laps at a dead run. Not much pattern to it.”

Mark frowned as he watched the tracker. The creature in the room wasn't the problem to him. It was easy to detect and honestly, even without the tracker, they would have heard it coming. He just couldn't manage to shake the feeling it might be a decoy, a screamer to hide the advance of others. Fiddling with the unit’s controls, he tried to cut off the top end of the detector to ignore the running in the other room in favor of anything moving slow, creeping up. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, he kept thinking about the shotgun slung on his chest, mentally rehearsing the act of grabbing it and getting it ready.

<Tag Sam, et al>
<Motion Tracker Use>

[Morse]

Something clicked in Morse’s mind. He had been trying to figure out what the shriek was since he had not yet gotten a definitive answer. He considered it and kept his eyes ready. And though he was not able to quite fit what it would be, it was something that made him a little nervous.

Morse had been in the corps for years, and fought against the xenomorphs many times. But they were in a slightly confined space, with a hive close by, and nothing but their FTL ship as a means of more serious support. And for that Morse was more and more concerned.

He still could not put his finger on what the noise was. It was similar to something he’d heard before, but still different in the pitch enough that he was not precisely able to place it. It was making him feel a bit uneasy. Almost as though they were being watched in the dark hallway they patrolled.

But with the motion tracker not picking up anything it was safe to assume they were still in the clear. The walls and ceiling seemed secure and they still had a lot of distance between themselves and the end of the hallway entrance. And Morse had every bit of confidence three rifles and a Smartgun could close a hole that small easily.

”Someone’ wanna tell us what the fucks happenin’ up there?” Morse called out, wondering if someone would be gracious enough to fill the Dead Shots in on the situation.

<Tag All

[Whisky]

Colson's head snapped up as the scream echoed down the stairwell. Remembering he was supposed to be watching the stairs down Colson snapped his head back down, helmet bouncing forward. He pushed it back with and kept his eyes on the stair well, whatever made that noise might draw nasties.

<Roll Awareness>
<Aim down stairwell.>

[eyeball]

”Look alive Dead Shots. Sounds like bad shits on its way.”

eyeball checked his own motion tracker again, then swept his area to make sure that still remained clear.

"all clear here Corp, but something running round in circles up stairs?!" eyeball reported.

<roll motion detector>
<roll awarness>
<tag squad>

[Morse]

Apparently Morse had not been the only one to get a bit jumpy because of all that was going on. Colson seemed to be very interested in the stairs, and Eyeball was eagerly calling out exactly what he was seeing on the motion tracker. A bit of panic was good, but Morse had a tendency to shoot long before a question even entered his mind.

He continued to look around the hallway, recognizing that they could be ambushed any moment. The motion tracker did not pick up what was happening very far outside the building, and if something came rushing in from outside it would tear straight through the hall way, and straight towards them, an outcome that would be very painful for their adversary.

Hearing it was all clear down below Morse got a hold of the point to keep them all on task. ”N’ at shits fer the ones up there to deal with. Keep eyes on down here n’ make sure we aint ‘bout set fer an ambush’r nothin’.” Morse replied. He knew by this point they would be aware of the movement upstairs, and there were more of them up there then watching the door, and so Morse wanted to keep focus in that direction.

< Tag Eyeball

[eyeball]

Eyeballs motion detector sounded out, not the motion upstairs but something new, something below them.
"Got movement Morse, 10-20m below us, regular strong signal, kinda odd just moving then stopping" eyeball moved the detector around trying to get a more specific fix, but nothing else came.
He continued to cover the doorway and made sure he was not just concentrating on the detector.
Colsen was the man covering the stairs down but Morse would be thee in a flash if trouble came knocking.

[Whisky]

For a moment Colson thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but when a deeper shadow peeled away from the other shadows around it he knew something was down there.

"Got movement Morse, 10-20m below us, regular strong signal, kinda odd just moving then stopping" eyeball moved the detector around trying to get a more specific fix, but nothing else came.

Eyeball reported just he did;. "I've got contact." Reported Colson, finger going to his SMGs trigger, "Stairwell down, someone get a flare down there."he squeezed the trigger, letting off two bursts at the shadow. Colson had adopted the Deadshot's MO of shoot first, let someone else bother with the questions.

<Tag 2nd Squad
<Roll SMG Bursts x2

[Quicksilver]

Giosso fiddled with the device, eventually causing the tell-tale rapid click of the circling beast in the next room to fade from the device. Almost as soon as it faded, the tech thought he heard something else. Carefully he adjusted a different dial. It click again, then a second time.

“New Contact, New Contact.” Mark called out. “Jerking and slow. Below us. About that way, ma’am.”

Mark pointed in the direction of the floor, trying to indicate the direction of where the moving thing might be.

<Tag All>

[Morse]

A call of a contact below them surprised Morse. He was not necessarily expecting something to be down there. Their recent string of missions had them fighting on open field or chasing tiny signals that were nothing. Something down the stairs in the dark reminded him of the ‘elevator to hell’, a mission Morse was not fond of returning to.

And before Morse could say anything, Colson was calling out a contact. He claimed to have seen something in the dark and began to fire. Morse liked that. He’d saved lives with such tactics more then once. Of course his weapon was a bit bigger and he never really called out that he was shooting, it was essentially the same practice, where others in the platoon tended to practice more restraint. On the times that Morse had been right however, if he had listened he, and others would have died, so he opted for ignoring such orders completely.

”New fuck.” Morse said to their quiet riflemen named Wilks. ”Take hallway guard. Watch front.” He finished as he moved back.

<Tag Wilks

”Flare up.” Morse said moving back to the stairs, and with his right hand pulling a flair. He snapped off the top and dropped it down. And because he wasn’t sure what else was down there, he did not hesitate to pull a grenade up with it. Morse was very over prepared for combat scenarios, so he packed plenty and was never afraid to use them.

”See nothin’?” He asked Colson, then quickly asked Eyeball. ”S’it movin’r sittin’?’ Morse wondered not sure if they were looking for a moving target, or even it’s size.

< Tag Colson and Eyeball

[Pale Rider]

A primordial hiss blended with sound of escaping steam erupted out of the darkness as Colson struck the darker shadow. The staccato movement became evident when Morse's flare crashed into the shiny dome of a Xenomorph. The light displayed a scene straight out of hell! The walls, stairs, and ceiling was packed with Xenos slowly advancing on the Marines.

An answering scream is heard from the room at the top of the stairs. The frantic movement within stops.
<Action>

[Dirk Pitt]

Dirk watched with satisfaction as the last of the barricade dropped from the door with a loud metallic clank. Reaching for the handle, he was about to order the scouts to cover him as he took a quick look inside but he was stopped short by the sounds from inside. The scream, the cracking sound that ended in squelch. Something was wrong. Very wrong and he couldn't put his finger on it. But he felt the icy chill of death near him and he always paid attention to the feeling.

After a moment it hit him. What if the people that welded the metal onto the door weren't trying to keep something out of the room. What if they were trying to keep something in the room.

"Oh shit" He whispered to himself.

The sound of the gunfire erupting wasn't what sent a chill through Dirk's body. Not even the sound of the Xeno screaming in the shadows was chilling. But the scream that answered the first from the room behind him and the stillness that followed chilled him to the bone.

"Roberts, move your squad out. We need to get the hell away from this door and support the others. I think the damn queen or something else big is in there."

<Tag Roberts>

With that Dirk moved down the stairs firing on the now illuminated Xenomorphs that crowded the walls, stairs, and ceiling.

"Quinn, the contact in the room has stopped. I think it might be the queen. I'm moving the scouts back to your position to provide elevated support, unless you want us to breach the room."
<Tag Quinn>

(Roll weapons fire)