Turn 6: Hotter the Fire

[Corporal Hicks]

"Hold fast. We're cut off from the exit and I don't wast to throw you or your scouts away. On me, and fast." He shouted to his old friend.
"Lets go Marines! We are falling back and breaching the room. I'll go in first. Roberts, you and your scouts on my ass and kill whatever comes at us."

Roberts could see the aliens through the holes in the stairs. They weren't in range of him yet. Then he saw Dirk coming back up the stairs toward him. When Dirk ordered him to go back upstairs, Eric wanted desperately to protest. He hoped that Dirk was right. Orders were orders, and he had to move fast.

"Scouts, on me! We're going back up, now!" he shouted to his men. He turned and followed Dirk and the rookie from 1st squad. When the marines arrived at the door, Eric cocked his grenade launcher and readied his fingers on the triggers.
<Tag Duncan/Creed>

[MarcusOTerra]

Boothe skidded on his feet. He didn't like this. He didn't want to between the wall and the monsters, but the butane flame called to him. He let out a yell and moved up to the edge of the stairwell, pointing his flamer down.

"Unass the stairs, Marines!" Sal roared down the stairs, "NOW!"

His eyes were wide as he saw the rush of armed men rushing up the stairs, the screeching bugs, and it dawned on him on how high the tower was, from the inside.

"Somebody get a line ready!" He howled over his shoulders, "The stairs are gonna get lost real quick!"

His finger carressed the trigger of the flamer, ready for that golden moment, when the path would be clear.

<As SOON as the line of sight is clear, saturate the stairwell with flames, AFTER calling it out.>

[maxvale76]

Samantha stands shoulder to shoulder with Boothe; her flamer at the ready and lending a hand to any marine who needs it while keeping an anxious eye on the xenos coming thier way....

[Morse]

Before Morse began firing back at the Xenomorphs Colson was asking him why he was not firing. And in combat as time always either slowed down or fast forwarded, he could understand why the moment would be an eternity. Still he was not recognizing that precise factor at the moment.

”I fuckin’ see that Coleslaw. N’ ima fuckin’ firin’ now Coleslaw.” Morse actually was making a mocking tone. He frequently tried to hold a cynical levity to most situations. It wasn’t a harsh response as much as it was almost as close as Morse got to an apology for hesitation.

< Tag Colson

Eyeball noted the Xenomorphs were moving to the upper levels and that they should expect incoming. But Morse knew that it was well too late. ”Ems’s already shootin’ at it. They know.” Morse concluded, still continuing to fire at the targets before him.

< Tag Eyeball

More things kept being presented through the ear piece, in a miserably jumbled conversation. But Morse heard Dirk’s order clearly, and mentally immediately denied it. ”Bugs’s movin’ straight up through our path over it, Dirk. Aint no chance in shit were runnin’ up through that n’ gettin’ a shower a friendly fire’r burn juice.” Morse commented seeing bursts of a flamethrower being released over them, though who he could not see.

< Tag Dirk

Sam answered his point to gather up her Smartgunner, and she was also sending them the Com Tech. Morse’s group was about to fifty percent larger, and he did not necessarily have a problem with it. ”No promises!” Morse called back to Sam, though he of course would make sure they didn’t. Morse left the channel open as he gave an order to his squad. ”Two friendlies commin’ down. Watch fire!” Morse told the Dead Shots, knowing they’d likely not make a mistake with it even if he didn’t tell them.

< Tag Sam and Dead Shots

Morse kept it on the all channel, but Morse really only wanted to speak to Dirk and Quinn. ”Quinn! We gotta get our air back over us n’ use them fuckin’ movers we got. They’ve got the guns, n’ were all kinds a fuckin’ exposed. Aint no time, someone gimme a call here, cus I aint wantin’ the ground I got!” Morse finished, noting that they would be the first to be utterly wiped out if they did not move. And there were fast moving vehicles with much heavier weapons outside that they could utilize very easily. Morse did not like abandoning positions without orders however, so he wanted to hold till he heard otherwise.

< Tag Quinn and Dirk

< Roll Machine Gun

[Pale Rider]

The Xenomorphs quickly converged on the upstairs landing ignoring the two marines as they passed between and beneath them. They came to a halt all 25 that remained of the same clutch as the creature behind the closed door. Their exoskeletons looked more like Burnt Seine than the traditional glossy black. They stood hissing at the marines when the locked door exploded outwards and a smaller Queen's tail lashed out piercing the back of Duncan spraying Dirk and Roberts with blood as it stood two feet beyond the doomed Marines chest. With a single rasping cough his eyes sprung wide open as he took his last elevator ride.

Meanwhile downstairs the way down was clear and the rampaging horde outside drew closer.

<Actions>

OOC: 6 MINUTES REMAIN.

[Corporal Hicks]

Roberts turned and saw the two-dozen aliens by the stairs. They were trapped. Five marines and one civilian stood between him and the enemy. When the door behind him burst open he jumped as his nervous concentration was broken. He turned to his right and saw PFC Franklin Duncan impaled on the queen's tail. The man's blood sprayed all over him and Dirk as his back slammed against the wall in a reflexive escape attempt. "No! Ohh nooooo!" he shouted in fear. He could tell the tall, quiet soldier was done for, if not dead already.

Roberts turned toward the queen, leveled his pulse rifle, and did the only thing he could think of. "FIRE!!!" he shouted and squeezed the trigger for automatic fire. He didn't let off for a second as he unloaded point blank at her head. The hallway lit up red and white as the fire from the end of his gun burned through the darkness.

(Roll Gun Combat x6)

[MarcusOTerra]

Salazar looked Sam in her eyes as his left hand grabbed a canister of combustible flamer gel from his belt. He had read in the pamphlet that the gel was to be handled with care, and that allowing the canister to become overheated would have disastrous consequences.

At his point, Disaster would be a far improvement from their situation. Burn the horde, then perhaps draw the new threat to the fire and slip past. There might, just MIGHT, be a way out from inside.... but if there was, wouldn't this threat have taken it?

Sal looked over his shoulder to see a marine, he couldn't remember who he'd been, impaled on a massive tail. The ones in front had come to a stop and there had to be twenty of them, all cold and hissing like snakes and they loomed in front of them.

He heard one of the scouts, the squad leader, roar at the death of the man, and call for fire.

Sal would oblige.

He chucked the canister as hard as he could into the center of the swarm. Then brought up his flamer and pulled the trigger till his knuckle went white.

<1-Toss the canister target: center of the horde>
<All other actions, roll for Flamer, target: canister, then the horde>

[maxvale76]

Sam closed her eyes for a split second and said a quick, simple prayer for poor Duncan. She hadn't known the marine well; but she had known him and she hoped his soul was currently occupying a better place than this ring of hell they were all currently in.

Then she snapped back to reality and saw what Sal was doing and nodded her head while backing up as much as possible. She took her own flamer and blasted several quick left-to-right-and-back sheets of flame straight into the center of the horde....

<Aim, Use Flamer, Aim, Use Flamer, Aim, Use Flamer>

[Whisky]

As the last horror from the abyss flew up the stairs, tail disappearing from sight Colson took the chance to reload, he didn't know how much ammo he'd expended but the SMG didn't have a large capacity as it was. As he was bringing his gun back up two marines from 1st squad came around the corner and were very nearly ventilated by Colson.

"Fuck." Muttered Colson, letting out a long exhale and lowing the SMG, "Am I glad to see you guys." he said to the Marines who he hadn't been introduced to yet. "Did you get them all?" Colson asked, thinking the only way they could have got past the Xeno's is if they were all dead. His comm net was kept to squad as was standard protocol for someone of his rank and designation. He had no idea what was going on upstairs.

<Tag Gisso and Louis

In the mean time he kept his attention on the stairwell. "Hey Eyeball, now you know what I mean about the Motion Tracker eh?" An entire hoard had been closing on them and only one contact had shown up.

<Tag Eyeball

<Reload
<Roll Awareness

[Corporal Hicks]

The queen jerked her head left and right to dodge the explosive-tipped rounds that were being unloaded into her. Roberts moved his gun back and forth as best he could to maximize the damage of his attack. He saw the rounds impacting on her head, a few seeming to bounce off but a majority piercing the exoskeleton armor on her head. Many of his bullets were missing or hitting other parts of the queen as she flailed around, but he didn't let off the trigger for a second. In his peripheral vision he saw Duncan's bloody corpse flailing up and down on the end of the queen's tail.

Roberts let off the trigger at what he guessed to be about 60 rounds. If that was correct he should have about 30 more in his clip. About half his rounds had hit the queen. "Dirk!" he shouted. By shouting his name he meant 'back up and fire.'

<Tag Dirk>

(OOC: 3 hits)

[Pale Rider]

The explosive force of the canister was such that the twenty-five Xenos were obliterated. However the concussive force of the blast lifted everyone on the floor off their feet and slung them backwards like rag dolls. Those closet to the explosion suffered some 2nd degree burns and those behind feel like that laid out too long in the sun..
The flames and heated air were funneled down the stairs and those below could hear it's approach like a train gone wild.

<Actions>
P.S. You still have one pissed off queen.

[Dirk Pitt]

Things seemed to go into slow motion as the Queen slammed her enormous, barbed tail into then through Duncan's torso. The dieing man's eyes flew open wide as Dirk was sprayed from head to foot with his blood. Tasting blood in his mouth he started to move backwards, trying to get away from the eminence creature. Before he could react though, Roberts opened fire on the queen, piercing her tough shell with explosive tip rounds and sending acid spraying across his chest.

"Oh shit! Shit! Get the fuck off me!" He scouted to no one as he staggered back while clawing at his armor. He had to get it off before the potent acid ate it's way through the thick metal of the chest plate and into Dirk's chest. He kept leaning forward so that at least gravity would work in his favor and slow down the acid's relentless consuming of metal.

Letting the armor fall of his body Dirk kept backing quickly down the stairs, away from the creature. In the split moment he was unsure if the acid had reached his flesh. All he knew was that he had to get away from her.

"Fall back! Fall back" He managed as he raised his own weapon and fired at the queen as he made his way quickly down the stairs towards the others.

<Tag Roberts>
(Roll Agility for getting the armor off before he is hurt and gun combat)

[Quicksilver]

The world seemed to shift into a horrific slow motion as Mark turned to face the stairs behind him. He could hear them, hear the thousand clicking feat of the xeno horde. It was a nightmare’s sound, something he instantly knew he'd never forget the sound of, presuming he somehow managed to live to sleep another night. Finally, after the eternity of just a few seconds, he had managed to turn to see the first of the wall of blackened carapace crawling the walls of the stairs at him. He raised his weapon, steadying it by the instinct of training and pulled the trigger. It beeped. He realized suddenly he was still holding the motion tracker, not a pistol. He dropped it and reached for his shotgun. It was too late. The xenos were almost on top of him. One of the monsters in the lead jumped.

He wasn't dead. The xeno hadn't jumped on him, it had jumped to the wall to avoid him. In an instant he realized these creatures were of such single mind, so focused on their ordered task, that Mark and Lewis had become not a target but a simple obstruction, of no more interest to the aliens than box or tree. Mark grabbed Lewis’ arm and pulled the man forward with him, deeper into the swarming mass. The xenomorphs swarmed around them like insects fleeing a flood as they ran down the stairs and back for the main lobby.

“Coming down the stairs! For god’s sake don’t shoot us.” He yelled into the comms just moments before he broke loose of the horde and stumbled forward into the main lobby. Seeing all the guns still pointed essentially in his direction, Giosso quickly pulled himself and the squad smart gunner off to the side to clear the lanes of fire. Orders started coming back to him as he found himself with a moment to breathe. Call APC, Call Snakefighter. Support, we need support.

Giosso lifted his wrist and punched a few codes into it, activating the heavy duty comms gear in his backpack. “Pope! Warm up all the APC systems and get it down here! Get ready for immediate extraction, Over.” He punched another button, linking him to the Snakefighter. “Immediate air support! Immediate air support! There’s a horde of xenomorphs headed this way, engage them at will!”

Mark was about to repeat his communications when a new sound came to his ears, a roar like the ignition of a gas barbeque turned up to eleven. He didn't know what it meant, but it was coming down the stairs quickly and the marine couldn't imagine any way it was something he wanted to be around. “Incoming!” he yelled as he started sprinting away from the stairs as fast as his weak, overloaded legs could manage.

<Tag Morse, et al>
<Tag Lewis>
<Comm Use x2>
<Athletics to outrun fireball>

[Morse]

When Giosso and the other Smartgunner, who’s name Morse had forgotten, made it down the stairs Morse had a certain relief. They had not suffered those casualties, which were among the most strategically important of everyone in the platoon. But what was happening up stairs Morse did not know. The chatter on the com told him it was not good, and the sight of Xenomorphs heading that way made it that much worse.

Giosso was starting to call in the support, which Morse was exceedingly thankful for. Whether he’d gotten specific orders to do so, or was just calling it in was irrelevant. The point was it was happening.

”Finally! Some fuckin’…” Morse began to comment as there was suddenly a loud explosion of fire from upstairs. It gave an immense roar which was completely unexpected. Morse ducked his head on instinct as did many of the others, which they quickly recovered from.

”What the fuck was that!?” Morse spat, quickly attempting to figure it out. He ran forward towards the stairs as flames quickly engulfed the steps. His eyes were wide for a moment as he wondered if it had killed everyone upstairs. But the radio chatter resumed and Morse knew it wasn’t as bad as he initially assumed.

Without a word, Morse knew they needed to keep evening odds. ”Eyeball! Coleslaw!” Morse called out. Though he did not have orders, he was tired of waiting. ”I need them fuckin’ buggies back here now. We want there hard guns! Run yer ass’s n’ get em both back here fuckin’ now!” Morse concluded. He looked at the other Smartgunner from Sam’s squad. Morse did not know how far away the buggies were, but he knew he wanted the three running at the opposing swarm might need a heavy gun. ”You!” Morse looked at his name. ”Louis! Go with em!” Morse ordered. ”Yalls got two minutes! So get some lightning in that ass! Go!” Morse finished.

< Tag Eyeball, Colson, and Louis

He turned to Giosso and Wilks, the last man in Morse’s squad. ”Hold here a tick.” Morse said, with Giosso still calling in the support. He knew the three of them could still likely hold the hole if need be.

< Tag Giosso and Wilks

Morse still was not getting a response as to exactly what was going on upstairs. He was getting a point where he was probably going to go up there and find out, as for all he knew there was wounded that could not get out at all.

”What the fuck happenin' up there!? Sit-rep! Someone! Fuck!" Morse demanded, trying to figure out what was going on and if there was a serious need for assistance.

< Tag anyone Up Stairs

[maxvale76]

Samantha picked herself up; doing her best to ignore the burning sensation that was pretty much engulfing her skin at every point it wasn't covered by her fatigues and armor and quickly glanced over to see if any aliens had survived the blast.

Relieved that none had; she was brought back to reality by the thrashing and Pulse Rifle firing coming from the opposite end of the hall and seeing a blood-spattered Dirk fall back and tear his acid-covered breastplate off.

Seeing the wild-eyed look in his face and hearing his yell about 'Falling Back'; she quickly slung her Flamethrower over her left shoulder and reached out with her right arm and grabbed the SGT before he ran head first into the flames. "SARGE! Snap out of it! We've got one alien behind us and a wall of fire and dead aliens on this end! Let's take out the alien and wait for the flames to die down and then figure out how to help out Morse's squad below!"

Once Dirk has gathered himself enough not to run full-bore into the flames; she quickly helps Boothe to his feet and then moves with the flamer at the ready to a position to be able to burn the Queen. Taking a wide angle to ensure she doesn't ignite Roberts or any of the other marines; she takes aim and pulls the trigger....

<Tag Dirk & Boothe>

<Grab/Steady Dirk, Help Booth up, Move, Aim for 2 actions, Fire Flamer>