The Stars Await - Mists of Europa

[Stella Gaslight]

"Genarator is up". Lou shouted as Talon picked her up.  Luckly the switch was still on reach as they went bt she tugged it down.  She pulled down her visor and grinned wildly. "Let there be light." Lou shouted in triumph as the genarator kicked up and light filled the main hall but futher back in the mine there were brakes in the line that showed up as red blinking lights on the display grid. 

[MWBailey]

Bailey grabbed Heinrich and collar-hauled him along, Yelling at Wallace to "c'mon, leave it!" And letting him climb aback of the walker. Heinrich loudly protested that he could manage very well on his own feet, thank you ever so much, but Bailey ignored his protests as the walker tore along at a breakneck pace. They made it just as the first ceiling and wall portions began crashing down. Heinrich looked back down the tunnel, realizing that, in fact, Bailey had very likely saved his skin...

[Alexis Voltaire]

The gray things screeched at the sudden light when Lou turned on the generator, those with hosts covering their gray eyes in desperation and the lone ones writhing and darting blindly for cover.

Roberts waited until everyone was clear of the tunnel, and then drove the loader blade into the doorway to collapse the entrance leading into the larger grid, and plowed in a few of the smaller passages in the room, effectively sealing off the room from the rest of the mine. He then parked and shut off the loader, stepping heavily on one of the remaining gray things as it turned and slithered toward him. He then headed up the sloping shaft toward the surface with Mariah and her crew.

When they reached to the surface Mariah explained to the others what their plan was. "It's not much, but we've got to keep those things from getting out and causing trouble up here."

Roberts had gone into the main building, and returned a few minutes later with a schematic of the ventilation control panel. He described where to find the panel boxes on each level, and some of the tunnel layout where the gray things might give them trouble. "I'll get the chemicals prepped up here, shouldn't take more than twenty minutes. someone'll be at the radio in the main building here, and you'll find an intercom box next to each of the controls, call up if anything goes wrong."

"I will." Mariah replied. "Just wait 'till we're clear before you dump anything down the vents." she didn't mention what might have to be done if they got stuck down there or worse, but she could see by the grimness in Roberts face that he was thinking the same thing. "I won't." He said. "Good luck."

[MWBailey]

"This here thing seals in air if need be," Bailey mentioned about the walker. "Just th' air in th' cockpit, which ain't much, but that might last long enough t' carry the driver an' a passenger to safety if'n th' worst happens an' the stuff gits flushed in afore they finish climbin' out. I didn't think t' grab any air tanks 'r that stuff afore I rushed down 'ere..."

[Stella Gaslight]

Lou nodded.  "Brakeing things is simpler than fixing them but we damned well be geting hazard pay for this. We have an advantage for now but after the first few they are going to figure out what we are doing and swarm again. Fire works if nothing else."

[Alexis Voltaire]

"Yes, that reminds me..." Mariah said, looking back to Roberts just as he was about to leave. "That extra pay you promised us, put that down on paper as soon as you can."

"Will do. I'll see that you're paid fairly." Roberts said, before turning to head for one of the forklifts at the edge of the stacks of crates.

[Cpt Wallace]

He dropped off Bailey's back just long enough to collect the lance and spring back on he half turned and fired the weapon again cutting half a dozen possessed men in half with a smile he turned back looking at the weapon he lowered the power to half and smiled as the energy read relit with a bright green diode.

[Alexis Voltaire]

"Well, lets hope we don't have to use it." Mariah said grimly in response to Bailey's comment.

She headed over to the elevator platform, motioning for the others to follow. The platform had a sturdy-looking roof supported by the cable framework, but was open in the front and sides. Hopefully the crates Bailey had loaded on earlier should provide good cover, if it came to that.

Once everyone was on, she moved to the controls, fired up the motor, and pulled the lever down to the full descent setting. She pushed the lever back to stop, and hauled on the brake as they coasted slowly down to stop them in time when the renewed light of the first level spilled onto the platform. The first level control was in the huge gallery they had just left, and rock dust was still drifting through the air. It was oddly quiet except for the generator, and much brighter now. The floor was littered with dead and burned gray things, and thankfully there were no living ones in sight.

"First level should... wait, what's that?" She had noticed something as the creaking of the cables against the guides and pulleys of the elevator framework went quiet. There was a thunk from below them, followed by several more, as if something soft had launched itself into the underside of the elevator.

"Lou, can you get the control?" She said, turning on her lamp and looking down toward the dark opening between the platform and the wall. "I think some of those squid-things are coming up through the shaft under us... Watch what you shoot at down there." She cautioned the others. "If you cut a cable we'll have a long way to think about hitting the bottom."

[steamcowboy92]

Slinging the big shotgun behind his back, Talon pulled the 'hawk from his belt and gave Mariah a disturbing smile, the light of insanity starting to shine in his eyes as his vision began to fade to a pink mist. Running his tounge over his abnormally pointed teeth, he filled his other hand with the razor bladed scalping knife he carried in his boot. It was all he had managed to salvage from the explosion that killed his father, and even now the scorch marks could still be seen under the countless layers of blood that had stained the bone handle a pale red.

"let them come" his voice had slipped from his usual baritone to a gravelly bass. "I'm itchin tah collect some new scalps fer mah collection"

[Stella Gaslight]

"Sure can but it won't be smooth.  I am going to have to use the safeties as control to get us down in one piece and they will protest that."  She unbolted a section of the floor and shook her head at the messy nest of wires. "Give me 5 min and I will have this sorted."  Lou started to sing to herself one of her favorite songs a baudy one about a earnest young technician and the lady of the house.  It was easier to work with the song removing the thoughts of the monsters below them.

[Cpt Wallace]

"Talon you got a lighter?"

He pulled the blue alcohol from inside his coat.

"Tastes great but burns like a bastard when you light it."

He passed him the bottle.

[Alexis Voltaire]

Mariah made sure the safety for the raygun was engaged and stuck it in her belt. The raygun was wonderfully destructive, but it was too much of a risk to use in here.

She switched to a small pistol that wouldn't damage the cables or framework, and pulled out a knife to stab at a gray thing that was trying to wriggle free of a cable guide beside her. If they were trying to climb up the cables they were going to get a hell of a surprise when Lou was done with the controls...

---

The gray things were hesitant to come up onto the top of the platform while the light of the first gallery was still streaming in, but they were slowly growing bolder. One had edged up to the side and seen vague shadows in the brightness, and it launched itself blindly into the air, aiming for the shadows that might give it cover.

It gave an odd chattering cry, calling for others to follow as it landed and clung to something hard and metallic. It could sense a warm thing somewhere, and it wriggled into a tight gap in the metal, trying to find it...

[MWBailey]

CLUNGHHKK!

Something hit the front of the walker while Bailey was busily reloading the big-bored converted Colt Walker. The hell wuz 'at?! He wondered, sitting in the relative gloom within, the illuminating glowbulb above the rudely-simple control and instrument panel combining with the reflected light shining in from the lights of the other's lamps on the elevator to bathe him and the rest of the interior of teh walker in a kind of yellow-tinged twilight. His other pistols were all spent as well, except for a tiny-caliber peppermill belly gun and the weird little derringer that he had purloined aboard the V3 shuttle. the peppermill was almost spent; only one shot remained. It was tucked into his shirt pocket, of all places, while he reloaded the big revolver. When a strange, gross squelching noise from the direction of the message tube hole attracted his attention, he looked up, just in time to see a sucker-covered tentacle poke though the port and begin questingaround the inner edges of teh hole.

"GRGGHK! GAH! Damn thang! GIT OUTTA MAH WALKER!" He yelled, yanking the peppermill form his pocket.

He shot the tentacle as it seemed about to reach toward him, and the beast outside on his armor yanked the limb back out, and then began trying to press more of itself in through the rubber-lined hole. The peppermill now completely spent, and feeling the weighty small bundle of the derringer-like pistol in the breast pocket of his jacket, Bailey pulled it out, thrust it through the message port, poking the monster's body out and the derringer up into its mouth cavity (thpough he could not, of course have been able to see thus).

Bailey had made sure that he was turned away from anyone else and faced the rock wall outside the elevator platform's perimeter, and it turned out to be a good thing that he had, for when he pulled the trigger, the misleadingly-tiny weapon let loose a frighteningly-huge bolt of white-hot energy and blasted the offensive alien against said rock wall, actually burning a recess into the naked stoneand carbonizing all but the outer periphery of the beast's body. Bailey stood there staring in wide-mouthed horror, realizing how carelessly he had been handling the little terror that nestled in the palm of his hand...

"Damn thang amost got inside muh walker," he sheepishly, but urgently, explained to the others' stares. "If one of 'em kin get around th' edge o' th' platform--!"

[Stella Gaslight]

"Ha got it." Lou said as the platform learched a little.  "It is going to squeel a bit but pay no mind also it may smell like burning.  All abord." She said cheerfully as she stomped a tentical coming up from below.

[steamcowboy92]

Smiling murderously at Wallace from under the wide brim of his bolero, Talon took the liquor from him and took a quick drink, shuddering slightly as it burned its way towards his stomach. Pouring the liquid in a circle around the out perimeter of the lift, he waited patiently, lighting a cigarillo as he did and puffing thick clouds of blue-grey smoke, when a rather sufficient amount had rolled off the edge, Talon touched the flame to the liquid, turning it into a small flaming waterfall as it poured off the sides. The sound of beasts screaming filled the air and Talon started to do a little jig as he listened.

[Alexis Voltaire]

The gray things that didn't get caught in the rain of burning alcohol or jump to thier ultimate deaths six hundred feet below, found themselves suddenly drawn into the tight pulleys and cable guides as the elevator picked up speed. They screeched shrilly but rather briefly as the platform descended into the depths of the mine.

"Alright, lets take it down to the bottom... First sensor was already taken care of and two is offline, so that leaves two more for us to get, down at the bottom levels."

She spoke as the dark opening of the second level rushed by with a whooosh of cold air, apparently a break in the line had taken the lights offline along with the sensor. The third level went past a minute later, this one properly lit. The motor then began to slow of its own accord as the automatic controls took over and applied the brakes and counterweights that would bring the platform to an even stop at the bottom level.

The lights were on, showing a deep blue veining through the pale walls, but it seemed they weren't alone. A complex chattering that sounded like some inhuman form of speech could be heard distantly down one of the tunnels, and a man with his eyes covered by dark goggles suddenly walked into view. He had likely come to investigate the sound of the elevator, and he turned and ran as soon as he saw them, yelling in the same chattering language.

He was less than twenty feet away, and he didn't get very far before Mariah aimed her little hideout pistol and fired all four rounds as fast she could pull the hammer back. The man fell and didn't move, but the warning had already reached the others.

"Dammit, sounds like they're over in the direction of the sensor..." She said, hearing the chattering stop, and then grow faster and louder. "And I think they know we're here."

[MWBailey]

"I don't know how long this li'l' cannon'll stay charged," Bailey said," But she's one hell of a li'l burner, adn I still got my suitblade -- and I have four of muh six pistolas reloaded." he popped the hatch on the walker's helmet and pushed six grenades from his possibles bag into the holding brackets just insid ethe hatch, making sure that he could reach and throw them easily if he popped the hatch open in mid-stride. "ain't much as far as artillery's concerned, but maybe it's better'n nothin'." He said, and slid back in, sealing the hatch behind him. "Lets get goin', a'n kill us some moonsquids..." he said over the loudhailer.

[The Corsair]

The engine check had been entirely uneventful. The same couldn't be said of the delivery. It wasn't exactly eventful for Roger though, he was sat in the infirmary with Jemima, waiting for the crew to return. He hoped they wouldn't be injured, Jemima seemed to hope they would. According to her she had been spending the time flying to the drop-off point learning more proper medical procedures. The doctor, Fitch he was told, had taken her under his wing somewhat. They had chatted briefly over their meal but Roger hadn't exactly paid any attention to what it was they were chatting about. He was impressed by her handiwork. Had she been in a medical school she would have been something of a prodigy. Roger began to suspect the slightest exaggeration on Jemima's part, but he also didn't have much of a point of comparison. The stitches were fiddly work, but so was a lot of his engine work, and how hard could digging out a bullet be?

When the ground, and by extension the ship, shook it seemed the whole crew jumped into action. Those that weren't already outside took up arms and rushed out. Dr Fitch, according to Jemima, had followed a minute or so later once he had finished showing Jemima some important thing to do with sterilization, which sounded like a made up word, and had refilled his medic's bag. Supposedly he would help them in the field if one of them was hurt. Jemima told him she suspected the Doctor had fought in the last Anglo-German war. Roger arrived just after the Doctor left. Now the two sat on the operating table, talking in small bits about mundane sections of their past, waiting for the crew to return with pay and orders.

-Dr. Fitch-

A doctor had one goal, help people. He had spent a lot of recent days helping himself, helping the young girl seemed an appropriate cure for his feelings of guilt. Helping the crew that had given him passage seemed like it would similarly act as a cure, and the impulse to help those in battle was somewhat hardwired into him. He did manage to catch up to them, moving faster than they had given that he was not delayed by combat as they were. He descended with them on the facility's large service elevator. They had barely emerged when shots were fired again. The Captain's, thankfully, and then they were left again with the sound of distant murmuring.

[Stella Gaslight]

Lou walked back and forth nodding to herself.  "I can take down the sensor in a way he can get it back online later easy but one the controls are in the ceiling and two all I have are my pistols and a wrench.  I wouldn't last long enough out there to get it done on a ladder.  They will be all over me the moment I get up there."  She looked at the head of Bailey's armor and smiled, perhaps she had a shot after all.

[steamcowboy92]

Closing the reloaded shotgun with a snap, Talon smiled brightly at Lou and said, we got ya covered. The ray gun was slung over a shoulder, but he was cautious about using it. He didn't trust them.

[MWBailey]

Bailey had turned the walker around at the sound of Lou's voice, and he saw her smile up at the top of the walker. He smiled back, but then realized she probably couldn't see him through the thick, narrow, tinted vison blocks, so he spoke through the loudhailer, "I kin guess what's goin' through that pretty lil head of your'n, Miss Lou, but why don't you jist go ahead and tell us, hey?"

[Stella Gaslight]

"You have a few mooring loops on that head of yours Bailey boy.  A bit of rope and I can ride your head like one of those mechanized bulls they have in that cowboy bar.  Then I will be safer than on a ladder provided you don't buck me."  Lou grinned it was a crazy idea but it just might work.

[MWBailey]

"It'd be safer if you rode inside and then popped the hatch and worked from th' catbird seat," Bailey said, referring to the narrow, padded bench just inside the helmet turret. "you'd have to sit across my lap or up behind my head down inside 'til we got there, but that'd be safer than bumpin' along atop this machine."

[Stella Gaslight]

"Alright but if they fall from above I want you to close the hatch.  If they get down in your workings we can't blast them away so easy. Pop your top and I will climb on in."  So far this was one of the weirdest working days of her life.

[Alexis Voltaire]

"Now where the hell've they gone?" Mariah muttered to no one in particular as they started down the passage. She had been expecting these gray things to rush them as the ones before had, but the murmuring inhuman voices had faded. They had either run, or were waiting quietly to ambush her group. And if the one wearing the dark goggles to cover his eyes in the light had been any indication, they had lost thier advantage of fighting in the light.

She had pocketed the hideout gun and switched to the disintigrator again, despite her mistrust for rayguns she was finding she liked this one. The kick was also a little more bearable on her bitten hand than the heavy peacemaker, she'd use that if she had to but even the little hideout gun had hurt like hell. Maybe she should have had Dr. Fitch look at it earlier, but she hadn't though of it at the time...

A rifle shot cracked loudly in the confined space, the bullet whining past her and striking the opposite wall with a spray of stone chips. She aimed the raygun toward the corner where the shot had come, and she knew by the feel as soon as she fired that the shot had gone wide and would strike the wall. To her surprise there was a scream as the ray bored straight through the few inches of rock. The man slumped to the side, but she could hear others coming quickly. Several more men with dark goggled eyes had come into the corridor, one carrying a pistol and another with the fallen man's rifle, but most carrying knives and picks and other makeshift weapons.

"Hurry up!" She shouted back to Lou and Baily, moving back behind the cover of a dead-end side passage they had just passed, and aiming the disintigrator at the nearest of the men that was rushing toward them...