Inside of the warship, the PA system came online, crackling as the southern drawl filled the air, "Listen up, y'all. This here is my ship. It's mine. If y'all want it, then I think it's high time to try and barter with me. Who knows? I might be merciful." A soft tone came after his cackling laughter.
Inside the halls of his newly dubbed Serpent's Fang, Jararaca hummed a merry tune as he passed his minions manhandling guns and various bladed weapons. The trip had been too easy for these Coalition pups. Time to give them the fear of God.
"Listen up, y'all," This message was directed on his own frequency to his thralls, "I need a perimeter around Decks C, B, and G. Seal the doors to the reactor, bridge, and armory. If they want in, they gotta' cut through." One of the armored men handed him an over sized rifle, larger than a normal man could wield. "The hunt's on, boys."
"THE HULL HAS BEEN BREACHED AND THESCIENCEIS LEAKING OUT!"
The creature was closing. Everyone was behind cover. Dmitriy motion the man, to stay low until it gets closer.
But Green couldn't keep his position. He stood up with a battle cry and started shooting at the shadow.
Actually a few rounds must have hit the enemy as it lurched back a few steps, but it immediately opened fire with the plasma gun it was carrying. One of the shots hit Green straight at the face and as the hot plasma burned through his helmet in a second and he started screaming in agony as it burned him too.
-Open fire! -shouted Vitalievich, he pulled out his handgun from the holster attached to his boots and by leaning out from behind the wall he shoot two bullets towards the enemy. One hit the arm, the other flew above the target with a few centimeters.
Miriko was the second, who pulled the trigger of her submachine gun, landing a nice burst in the chest of the enemy, cutting through it's armor.
The shadow collapsed and silence came again to the corridors of the huge vessel.
Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.
Lachina got to cover once she heard Vitalievich signalizing the enemy. She needed to realize the anger mixed with sadness in her on something. She did not know that what will come next second will make it even worse.
Attention, Y'all might want to pay some attention to what I've got to say." Small pause "KABOOOOOOOOOOM!"
The ground shook a little. What the...
"We just lost the Stormfall. We don't know if there are survivors."
No, that cannot be...
Jacob...
She forced her look into the corridor and tapped her comm, this time failing to sound sure.
"I want everybody's attention on that thing in the corridor! Get ready! We don't have time to mourn now!" said Lachina lying to herself.
Lachina was waiting behind the cover and listened to the incoming steps, when she noticed Green who left the position.
"Green, ya so-" before she could finish it, she saw his face splash under the plasma fire
She yelled simultaneously with Vitalievich "FIRE!" She leaned from her cover and sprayed the target with bullets. When it finally collapsed she waited a few seconds and then gave a short look at Green. There was no mourn for that idiot. He brought that to himself by disrespecting the orders. She aimed her rifle at him and shot. His comm quieted.
"There is no place for Coalition for weak and idiot's who cannot listen to the orders"
She went to the corpse carefully watching if there is someone else in there. It was empty. She kneeled to the corpse and took the plasma rifle from it's shattered body and tosses it to Kasheyev. "Take this thing and try not to pump it in my back."
"Listen up, y'all. This here is my ship. It's mine. If y'all want it, then I think it's high time to try and barter with me. Who knows? I might be merciful."
Lachina looked at the men and women who came with her while holding the AK.
"Anybody here wants to barter with him? Because I am not going to. I will find that freak and kill it. We came here to get the Sickle and you all knew it will be redeemed by our blood. So who is with me and who is going to beg for it's mercy?"
"I'm with you ma'am." Kasheyev's voice was rock steady, the joking tones of the earlier landing gone. It was almost as though a switch had been flicked. There was no time for mourning, no time for emotion, no anger, no grief. There was nothing to do but move. The Recruit knew that if he stopped to think on Forge, or Green, he'd likely not move again. He threw the shotgun over his shoulder, slinging the bloodied plasma gun into place. Hi-tech as the weapon was, it wouldn't protect them indefinitely, particularly in an exposed area.
"Lieutenants." He addressed all three Officers, amplifying the transmission to drown out the cry of twisting metal. The Stormfall must've detonated close to the Sickle, its remnants hammering on the hull with all the ferocity of heavy cannon fire. He brushed the implications from his addled brain. One way or another, Forge was beyond their help. As if in response to the hammer-blows to the hull a shadow seemed to lengthen, stretching to impossible proportions. The shadow glided across the iron-grey wall, exposing bare metal where it passed. With a lurch, Kasheyev realised that the apparently-solid darkness was a swarm of machines, stripping the ship down. He didn't think too hard on what would happen if he got in their way. Far more worrying was the realisation that the scrappers would be relaying their location'¦ Levelling the rifle at the swarm, he pulled the trigger, a surge of savage satisfaction coursing through him, as half the robots dropped to the ground, little more than melted circuitry and twitching limbs. The surviving machines simply filled in the void in their ranks, scurrying on with single-minded determination.
"We need to get moving, before more of the bastards arrive." If they stayed still, the gory entrance could well be as far as they got. Kasheyev moved to the nearest door, weapon humming like an irritated insect, waiting for the signal to go.
-I'm with you ma'am.- Dmitriy could hear Kasheyev's voice.
-That's what I like- he went after Lachina, when he heard several shots. He immediately turned around just to see Kaheyev finishing of some bugs. -What the hell are those?
-Some kind of scrap bots, sir- answered the engineer in the team. -They're taking the ship apart.
-Any idea how to get rid of them? We can't shot down each of them! We don't have that many bullets, but if we don't stop we won't have a ship to go home. We need to find the armory.
The scrap bots already damaged the ship, but who knows to what degree? Why did that thing wanted this ship to be his, than just make these robots to tear it apart? Vitalievich didn't know the answers, but it wasn't his job to find answers. His job was to take back the ship, which he will do, even if he has to track down every single of these little things. Although he felt, it's not the worst what waits them on the battleship.
Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.
T-800 and T-1000 stuck close to the wounded Dongfeng, as silent as sentinels, however if one were to look at the Communications relays in between the boats themselves instead of them between the rest of the force they would notice a high amount of information being trafficked. T.A.L.O.S. was currently cataloging the full capabilities of the Production-Type Units in an effort to formulate Strategies for potential conflicts.
T-1000 also had much of it's scanners focused on the Sickle itself, it was searching for something, but having difficulties due to the inherit background radiation of the system, in order to find what it was seeking it would need a transmission Relay.
T-800 had it's scanners on active search in the surrounding space for hostile ships, the link between the ships ensuring they would not be caught off-guard like the Stormfall had.
T.A.L.O.S. itself was juggling multiple duties, Decrypting a Nomad Information Artifact, controlling Multiple Gunboats and keeping a close vigil on the Library it was connected to. It was quite a busy Artificial Intelligence, but it was beyond such petty things such as exhaustion or hunger....
"Kasheyev here. Moving in." The Junior Lieutenant heaved on the door, metal groaning in protest. Behind him Mendoza kept his weapon levelled, half expecting another walking corpse. He had no such luck, the corridor beyond stretching on into the bowels of the ship. The Corsair gave Nikolai a reluctant wave, signalling the all-clear, as the latter moved into the walkway, scanning the floor for mines.
Nikolai's heart was threatening to beat its way out of his chest. The corridor was a tactical nightmare, poorly-lit, and painfully narrow, there was barely sufficient room for two men to walk side by side. Suited as they were; if the strike team attempted it, they would only succeed in pinning themselves to the wall, easy prey for whatever was waiting out there... Doors, identical to the one Kasheyev had entered, dotted the walls at uniform intervals. Probably crew cabins, or intended to be, at any rate. What they housed now was anyone's guess. A piercing scratching, like fingernails down a blackboard, reverberated from a few of them.
The team had barely moved twenty metres down the hallway before they hit the first stairwell. The lighting was little better, even with his helmet's filters, it was a struggle to make out the text printed into the wall. It was, after all, for more efficient simply to emboss letters into the wall rather than bother with signs.
"Sir!" He directed the transmission to Vitalievich, assuming the Lieutenant was somewhere behind him. "I've got the route to C Deck here. Looks clear. Armoury's further down, Comrade-Lieutenant" He added, shining the torch from his webbing down the corridor.
The short stroll through the decks was very brief. The maze had been assembled and the hunters prepared themselves for the sport of the century. After all, the ultimate prey would be the cunning wit of a human being. Their bodies may have been soft and squishy, but technology and intellect easily solved that.
C deck was locked down and the only way through was a path that had been predetermined. The major feature of the deck was the central hall that traveled down the skeletal super structure of the ship. Such an amusing place to put on his show.
As the largest team made its way down the destined hallway, the lights became increasingly dim. The only thing that increased was a chill in the air, as though the internal heating of the ship was failing the further in that they got. Progress would be shown by the steam that escaped their lips every time they took an icy breath.
The central hall finally came into view as the junior lieutenants peered about with curiosity and interest, weapons leveled at the darkness that lay ahead.
Boom, boom, CLAP!
The sound was sudden, echoing off the walls and coming from all around.
Boom, boom, CLAP!
It became more apparent that the sound was coming from the darkness ahead of them.
Boom, boom, CLAP!
"G'evenin', I see y'all managed to arrive at the armory," The voice spoke softly from ahead, followed by the soft illumination of an armored being adorned in blades and thick plating.
Boom, boom, CLAP!
All weapons were raised as he continued to speak, "This is my ship. Y'all're intruders, ya'see? Now turn them little tails of your's about and get the hell off, yeah?" In his right arm he clutched an archaic boom box, loudly emitting the sound again and again.
"THE HULL HAS BEEN BREACHED AND THESCIENCEIS LEAKING OUT!"
-Everyone get to cover, disperse, but stay in cover, and look out for each other! -Vitalievich ordered everyone around them Boom, boom, CLAP! than switched to the outer speakers. -Just tell me one thing! -He slowly backed behind a small wall Boom, boom, CLAP!- Why are your machines eating the ship around you -he readied the minigun -if you want to keep it? -he aimed at Jararaca and waited for the answer.
Boom, boom, CLAP!
Around him, everyone found some cover, hopefully they will be able to kill this thing, without loosing too much men. If they fail here, the other group may be able to solve the situation, but they had to at least help them by killing as many of these things as possible.
Boom, boom, CLAP!
The sound started irritating most of the militsya, it could be seen on them. But it didn't matter, it was only a toy...
Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.
The Recruit didn't need to be told twice, the cold steel bulkhead digging into his spine even as he forced himself closer to it. He was relatively clear of the corridor, that was all he needed. The sadist's offer fell on deaf ears. Run? Kasheyev's hands were shaking, more rage than blood pounding through his veins. Where? Back down the hallway, like a child scared of the dark? They'd be cut down, shot in the back. The Stormfall, JiangXi? There was nothing left of either in his mind. An entire planet, violated and scarred, an entire crew murdered. He gritted his teeth.
Boom, boom, CLAP!
No, the Phantom and his kind would get all the mercy they'd shown. All the mercy they deserved.
"What are you doing talking to it?" He slammed a switch on his weapon, the plasma gun's impatient hum rapidly drowned out the whining of the boom box, heat searing even through his gloves. "Put the damn thing down!"
All around him, the other Militsya pilots levelled their weapons, Miriko even managing to keep her SMG from swaying.