4106/Jupiter: Infested Outbreak (P3)

Jupiter: Infested Outbreak (P3)
Date of Scene:	13 May 2016
Location:	Origin System <WF>
Synopsis:	With less Infested in the way, an attempt can be made to obtain the information necessary to track down PHORID where it has manifested most recently. Surely it isn't a trap?
Thanks to:	Everyone! Been loads of fun. :D
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, 215, 255, 304, 571, Kushiko
Tinyplot:	Infested Outbreak (Jupiter)

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Kushiko has posed:
THE STORY SO FAR--

Reports had come and gone regarding the Infestation, a name applicable to disease and victim, a metamorphic plague without cure. Jupiter, the gas giant which is controlled by the Corpus have sought the aid of Tenno and Elites alike in mobilizing against the Infested, who care little for things like politics in their pursuit of biomass and greater strength.

What is known now is that the Infestation does not care about organic or technological, infesting and corrupting technology as well as organic tissue, and much of their combative abilities beyond claws and heavy, close-in attacks tend to involve toxins, electricity and of course, fire. Ironically these are things that can be used against them but in more specific ways.

While some Infested have fossilized tissue and carapace from long age, the bulk of the Infested remain very vulnerable to fire and other sources of high heat weaponry, and the notion of cutting them apart, slashing them open is a very valid option. Armor piercing rounds that puncture rather than slash aren't particularly useful here.

Curiously, corrosive measures as well as toxic gasses that break down flesh are uniquely effective in their own ways against the Infested, as while they may wield their own toxic measures, Infested are still living beings at the end of the day, and are as vulnerable as such.

Furthermore, in the case of today's operation, the group is tasked to recover data that has been stored on systems at the Thebe network of gas processing stations. For reasons related to typical security protocols, much of the data went into lockdown, owing to either power or the simple presence of the Infested.

More to the point, the information here is of critical nature, as while the source vector has been determined, the exact location of PHORID must be narrowed down further, and the information here is the last link in that chain.

Kushiko has posed:
PRESENT DAY --

Thebe is two things: one of Jupiter's many moons, and the name of this junction point in the myriad gas processing stations that may as well be cities floating in the planetary atmosphere. Well, three things if you count the mythological nymph of the same name.

Regardless of this, Thebe is yet another point where rare gasses are refined from Jupiter below. Though for most who know of the Jupiter of yore might be worried about survival here should be less concerned: considerable technological advancements into these coldly industrial, design-by-committee structures with their own atmospheric controls means that breathing is a non issue.

Doesn't really stop that odd yellow-green coloration in the 'sky' so high up here.

Cobalt steel and modular aesthetic aside, there's a very large, open docking platform that ships can arrive upon: a cursory Corpus security force of about a dozen assorted crewmen, MOAs and Ospreys are milling about, awaiting the future arrival of others and monitoring the situation further in.

A little ways beyond a cargo container appears to be corpulent, cancerous growths of Infested tissue, like a splotch of receding growth that does not seem to quite concern the Corpus given the active threat of Infested deeper inside.

The mission here is simple: access specific terminals inside, and upload either the Lotus or link another individual capable of the systems via a carryable datamass with the Tenno or anyone who might choose to volunteer for that task. Speaking of, the Nova Prime Warframe is present already and awaiting the arrival of other Elites presently. A quad barrel-looking shotgun of some measure is cradled in her arms, with what looks like to be a... jet-powered /hammer/? of some Grineer-inspired design on her back, the handle rising up between the control surfaces where cones of energy radiate from the antimatter-wielding Warframe.

A hot wind is blowing...

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    It isn't the first time Setsuko has worked with the Corpus. At least they're willing to recognize allies. Once again, she isn't here for the pay, though; she's here because her divine senses led her here, and because of a strange, nagging feeling she'd had yesterday. Just a ghost of an echo, something distant and short. But for some reason, her instinct tells her she should be here. And so she is, stepping off her own dropship and walking past the Corpus present to stand beside the Nova. "The infestation is persistent, isn't it?"

Kushiko has posed:
ADDITIONAL:
Transit means are varied, transport ships provided by the Lotus are sleek and efficient, Corpus one are mass-produced angular, blocky shuttles. The operating procedure is fairly clear though: if you wish to assist, you are here to help kill and draw attention in a wide variety of ways.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka's here, and she's brought her jury rigged mini gun once again for the operation. As backup, she's got a MK X Hell's Teeth Pattern Chainsword, the weapon slung across her shoulder. It's a killer for close-quarters, especially against infested flesh. She also has a sawn-off shotgun as well, just to be sure, but she's leading with Shredder Rounds fired at 1000RPM. "You could say that, Major." She remarks, heading towards the Warframe herself as her helmet folds into place.

Iria (215) has posed:
Some bounty hunters work for the pay, but Iria does it for more than just that. It's as long as she knows that she's doing it for a good cause. So her craft arrives rather quickly, and Iria steps out and joins the others. She says nothing to Setsuko or anyone else, just giving a slight nod to acknowledge everyone as she arrives, weapons ready for action at a moment's notice.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa had started to get the idea of how bad news the infestation was, it was something to behold. She's loaded up with incenary rounds, which would be stupidly illegal on her world yet for here? Against monsters like this it was needed. It had taken her a few days to fab all the ammo she'd need but she was ready to go here. She'd also this time brought a old sword with her, in the event she gets up into close combat, thankfully the infested are more savage then skilled, so Kotone's body should be able to somewhat cover for her lack of formal skill with a blade.

She connected up to the Lotus network and was aweed againt at the coding of it and just how much information it could handle. It was a rare thing for Kotone to run into something that out die her world in this.. She checked over her weapons and everything else and she'd made sure she had enough data storage for the data they were going to grab.

<< All right I'm set to go.>>

"Hey Iria, Maaka, Setsuko you all set for this? And yes it's more stubborn than the tax man."

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Cutting attacks are effective? That's particularly useful knowledge for Black Arachnia; she depends primarily on her claws for close combat, and the lasers she's equipped with for ranged combat are better suited to trying to cut enemies than to just drill holes through them. Of course, ideally she's not even going to have to fight any of these Infested, but since when does a field mission ever go according to the ideal scenario?

Since neither of her modes is capable of independent spaceflight (let alone atmospheric re-entry; she'd at LEAST need a stasis pod for that), Black Arachnia hitches a ride on one of the Lotus-provided shuttles. She can hang onto the ceiling or a bulkhead just as easily as taking up a seat, anyway; she'd actually prefer to arrive in her spider form. Hopefully none of her allies are arachnophobic.

Once the shuttle touches down, she wastes no time in exiting the vehicle and approaching her teammates. "So who's focusing on the actual hacking part?" she inquires. "There was a 'datamass' mentioned ..."

Kushiko has posed:
Funny thing about the Tenno. The actual suits, whatever passes for speaking just isn't there. So the voice that comes is a voice born on the wind, on local communicators and the like; masked, fairly androgynous if probably young adult in configuration. Or is it masked? Who knows!

"Always is. But that's okay. We're here to get rid of it for as long as we can suppress it. Which, reminds me. We're going to be killing lots of them, granting them mercy, but we're not focus on that. The goal here's the data and the data only," that voice concludes. Nova on the other hand shifts her weight just so, twisting her wrist and checking the quad-barreled Vaykor Hek for a moment as the faceless visage turns towards the others beyond Setsuko.

A nod is given to Maaka, remembering her not just from before but from the ship as well. She was interesting in her own way. Knew that she wanted to 'speak' with the Lotus, perhaps even her, Kushiko quietly mused from afar. Iria too, but hey, even if you're doing things for a good cause, it helps to get paid if only to help ensure you can take care of yourself after. Traded material or simple credits, which the Corpus were happy to spend. Or not spend.

The Lotus elected to speak now as Kotone and Black Arachnia arrived, a visual of her provided as Nova turned out her hand, an emitter displaying a visual stream of her for the moment: "That is correct. Typically, one of my Tenno will deliver and upload the necessary network protocols linked to hardware that can be modularly installed." Nova cants her head slightly, gesturing to the datamass for Kotone to pick up; it's about the size of a tall computer, but thinner and with a handle on it.

"But with at least two of you skilled and capable of working with the systems as I understand it, we may be able to collect more information quicker, reducing how many terminals we need to obtain the information necessary. Therefore, those choices exist: use the datamass to upload me to their systems and keep it safe while I work, or work with me while others keep the terminal and an additional hacker safe. The Infested will respond to the system coming online, after all."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    There was something curious about the Tenno and her benefactor, Maaka can't deny that much. There was a lot to the Tenno that didn't meet the eye, but that could wait until another, more social time.

    It's time for business, and so the cyborg mercenary claps Kotone on the shoulder before she heads up ahead. "I got you, Ko'. I'll keep you covered, just focus on getting the payload where it needs to be." She says calmly, before she motions for Iria and Setsuko to follow her as well. "Us three should be able to keep the Infested at bay long as our tech heads are still alive."

Iria (215) has posed:
"Just say the word," Iria says as she loads a clip into her assault rifle, "And I'll make the Infested regret messing with us!" She smiles an evil smile, almost like that of eagerness and slight arrogance. "Don't you worry about a thing! We're gonna make sure everything goes according to plan!" She does this while attaching a laser sight to her rifle.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    "If one of you chooses to hack," Setsuko says simply, "I will guarantee that none of them reach you." She rests a hand on her sword, her expression serious.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"If you can direct us to the terminals in some semblance of optimal order," Black Arachnia suggests to the Lotus, "I could probably serve best by hurrying ahead and trying to secure the routes to said terminal that we *won't* be using. At the very least I can string enough webbing across hatches and the like to slow the Infested down, maybe even give us some advance warning which way they're coming from. Or should we assume they'll come from every direction that doesn't take significant intelligence to navigate?"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "I getcha, we get in we get the data and we get out. Right?"

Kotone as she looks over the feed from the Lotus for a moment.

"Gotcha."

She'll move to pick up the datamass and look it over for a moment letting out a whistle.

"Impressive, hardware."

She'll make sure all things are hookced up, and she'll get the datamass taking a pistol in her other hand as she gets ready to move out.

"I think I can take a crack at one of the terminals if I can get the cover I need."

She looks to Maaka smiling happy for the cover she's going to get.

"Shall we?"

Kushiko has posed:
"Remember. Focus on the data. While destroying the Infested here will do some good, it will only be a short term relief and there will be a continuous amount of them surging this area once you've begun." the Lotus offers at final.

At the question of ther terminals themselves, the visual interface changes; it uploads for those who have the secondary kit for it, but it's basically a map, with elevation indicators: each terminal marked with a yellow square, with at least two of them indicating that once they've gone further in, there's probably an elevator they need to go up and down on, or some other means of a shaft to pass through.

It's more of a 2D topographical presentation than anything.

"If you can, by all means," the other voice remarks. "I'll point out a few places where they tend to come from." Would make sense the Tenno knows. "Just have to see the location itself to know for certain. Vents are usually too small except for Mutalist-Ospreys trying to carry in crawlers, the bulk of them will be using the same corridors and passages we would, waiting until we've moved on to start massing and pursuing. We don't want to be bogged down either."

She closes her hand with a quick motion and turns towards the facilty itself. "Let's go!" With that utterance, she's moving--more to the point as she breaks into a sprint, she launches herself, energy surging towards her feet that rockets her forward and practically /gliding/ a little bit through the air before rolling across the walkway she lands on.

There's some air vents in the next area that are pressurized enough that they can float anyone up over a fairly massive gap which the Tenno simply leaps over the rail barricade to let the air carry her across. For those less inclined to parkour and swing, there's two paths around and over that descend further, though the sight of Infested milling around as the Nova approaches them might put some on edge.

Not the Nova Prime, it seems: she fires off a cluster of pellets from her shotgun as she glides over, practically gibbing the Infested chargers; quadrupedal and animalistic which gets a few other chargers annoyed as she lands and rolls to her feet.

Yet, even as they begin to, she's lifted her hand up and released a radial /wave/ of lilac-pink energy, lines of light criss-crossing as the band expands around her. A demonstration, perhaps? Those with the sensory equipment identify one certain thing about it: it's antimatter energy, bathing Infested with those particles, causing rippling waves of energy to outline them and slow them down. And we mean, /really/ slow them down: even the ones trying to jump through the air to bound after the newly arrived Warframe can't go through the air as fast.

This wave will reach others who are following her, but it will only pass by them like a wind. It really /should/ affect others, surely, but she's exhibiting a selective degree of targeting--impressively so.

Kushiko has posed:
In addition, as the group begins to proceed forwards, there's more fibrous growths and biomass that simply cling to wall, as if calcifying it in some places, and trying to spread their spores and basically terraform and overtake places from the look of it.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka takes off after Nova Prime, following the Warframe loyally while she keeps her minigun's rotary barrels rotating rapidly. Taking a leap at the vent, she uses her suit's boosters to keep her airborne as she glides after Nova.

    THe weapon's already spooled up by the time enemies come in sight, and Maaka lets off a burst of 7.8mm rounds downrange in short, controlled bursts. She's got a new custom rig on the weapon, giving it a stabilizing arm-rig that attaches to her suit. It handles recoil just fine, making it much more of a point and shoot weapon than without, good for Maaka to target hostiles as she goes to mowing Infested left and right.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Let's go indeed.

    Setsuko lunges into movement alongside Kushiko, taking a long and gliding leap right along with the Tenno before coming down on the other side. She still doesn't dare unleash her cutting energy or her full-sized blade in a facility that will probably see use later; thus, Nova will get all the ranged kills, with Setsuko only drawing her blade and starting to carve through them once she's landed and is within reach. But then, her blade moves fast, striking with swift and powerful hits. Especially when the Molecular Prime wave fires off - slowing them down so much makes them child's play to carve apart, and they detonate rather nicely when struck.

Iria (215) has posed:
Running fast is one of Iria's key skills. She takes off alongside the others, her assault rifle clutched tightly in both hands. She could use her sword, but she prefers to use a little automatic gunfire now and then. She only opens fire when she's sure she has the shot, not wanting to risk any collateral damage here. "You picked the wrong elites to mess with!" She yells at the Infested.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Even in spider mode, Black Arachnia can make pretty good time overland - but her proposal of 'going ahead and trying to secure a perimeter' seems to have fallen by the wayside; she's not THAT fast, and the Tenno isn't giving her a chance to take enough of a lead to do anything productive with it.

So the Maximal spider just runs, eight legs moving in tandem to maintain a steady clip, keeping pace with the humans. Robot mode could probably keep up more easily, and she makes a mental note of that for the next leg of the trip ... no pun intended, though.

On the downside (inasmuch as it counts as a downside), she can't lay down any fire to keep the Infested at bay along the way. Still, that shouldn't REALLY be a problem, the other Elites (plus the Tenno) have plenty of firepower among them. Meanwhile, Black Arachnia is 'mapping' as she goes, and could probably share that data with anyone else who needs it or wants it (and can handle data transmissions).

On the upside, though, once the group is inside she can switch to a wall or ceiling, and even start webbing up some ducts just in case any of the little infiltrator-types the Tenno mentioned might come knocking.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa got the mantra of focus on the data, get the data and then get the hel out. WIth the group seemingly making ready to head out she's going to just use her pistol when she gets the odd shot should she need it. She moves head keeping with Maaka and Nova prime as she goes she's going to try to get to the point as quickly as she can.

<<It's like someone took humanotu's nightmares and vomited them up>>

She keeps moving and will be wise to make sure of any priming the Nova does to do even more damage to the infested.

Kushiko has posed:
Others would discover quickly, there's more in the area ahead and then some--then again, with the Molecular Prime wave from Nova slowing them down, it would be heinously easy to kill them, and kill them quickly as Setsuko, Alexis, and Iria are discovering.

With each voluminous weaponry impact, there's a concussive explosion that erupts from them, the very bodies imploding and breaking apart. Seems the wave of antimatter serves a second, lovely purpose: eradication down to the very atom, the Infested bodies dissipating, though some of them occasional seem to pop little cubes and other odd geometric shapes; those with matter manipulators and other forms of conversion might find themselves able to recharge and add to their ammo stores this way.

Though purely by chance, a nearby Infested finds themselves on the back end of a doubly-timed swing--the blade of Setsuko striking from one angle, and Jat Kittag being swung around as Nova sweeps low, the thrusters on the hammer spinning her around to slam it's side as she hurdles past.

With the group killing quickly and efficiently, it is quite literally no time at all and they happen upon the first terminal itself; bullets, and blades earning a nice window of breathing room as the Lotus announces, "You've arrived at the first terminal. Begin the upload, and we'll see what information we can pull from here, Kotone."

Towards the Maximal spider, the Warframe turns. The petite frame might have the body language of something more apologetic given the offered plan, but she gestures down one of the other corridors; the pneumatic hiss of a door shuttering in the distance amidst the screeches and shrieks of Infested growing more cacophonic.

"You can head that way; we're going to need two terminals one way or another, I'm sure. But be careful going through the vents. They can fit you but it may be tight, and if they can fit you they can fit Infested too." Seems the plan didn't /quite/ fall by the wayside, just that it was more prudent to establish their presence at /one/ before letting the Infested get wind of what the Maximal was planning.

Speaking of, let's mind the area the group has arrived in: multileveled, with a catwalk going across at least twenty feet up in the air. Other than the way they came in, there's two other doors that lead to supply and staffing rooms, or simply adjoining areas for utility purposes and the like. Sometimes generators, control rooms, conduits, you name it you can probably suss it's nearby.

Add in one last dominating path towards the next terminal after this being a good 150 meters away, and you have the lay of the land at present, with the possible vectors from which they'll be arriving (or in this case, departing) -- though, of note there's additional routes to escape the place other than simply coming back the way they came, depending on the remote piloting abilities of anyone's ship.

Either way, with the howls and sound of claws and muted footsteps on industrial paths, there's no escaping that the Infested are already converging towards the group. If Arachnia wants to skitter her way towards the next point to establish some trappings and expediency, now's the time.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa Says "Understood Lotus."

Is Kotone's reply as they reach the terminal she'll pull one cable out of her neck and jack it in and also jack on into the datamass to be on the safe side as she gets to work.

"Give some cover here I'm going to be a might busy!"

SO she's going into the system to seek out the data they need to get and pull the information off as fast as she can do so. Man it's like a last moment backup of something imporant cept for the horrible alien monsters trying to eat them all.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"Sounds like a plan," Black Arachnia says. "I'll cordon it off along the way." The detail about the vents is noted for reference along the way, and Black ARachnia skitters off - trying to get a head start before the main group starts drawing attention by actually accessing the terminal. She's sticking to walls and ceilings by preference - and as she goes, she enables her electro-disruptor, cloaking her presence from sensors and vanishing from sight. There might still be some movement noise, but the Maximal should be a lot harder for ANYTHING to detect, friend or foe.

That just leaves the issues of protecting the path so her allies can follow it in relative safety. Zombie hordes are always a problem in any kind of terrain, so Black Arachnia focuses on throwing obstacles into place along the way - sealing off side passages, webbing vents closed where none of her allies will be going through them, maybe rigging a few traps that her allies can trigger so that paths the Infected COULD use can be turned against them. She doesn't have a whole lot of time to work with, so Black Arachnia has to be efficient about her 'sabotage' ... but that doesn't mean she can't enjoy her work to the extent that time allows.

If the rest of the party gets the opportunity to see the fruits of her labors, they might be glad the Maximal spider is on their side. Either way, once Black Arachnia gets to the second terminal that the Tenno mentioned, she takes stock of the perimeter, looking for additional points of access that could be closed off - but also identifying some that she *will* leave open, since at least one of them will likely be needed as an exit route, but also so the Infected can be 'channeled' into those routes for easier combat.

... although as she's setting things up, Black Arachnia has another idea, and may be heard snickering softly over the radio when she gets to that point.

Iria (215) has posed:
"You want cover?" Iria says as she loads a new clip into her rifle. "You got it!" She double-checks the laser sighting on her rifle before looking to the others. "If anyone else wants to cover me, go ahead. Otherwise, our friend here is going to need me to cover her." She stares down the barrel of her rifle, waiting for any nearby Infested to show up.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    If there's one place where Setsuko shines, it's fighting a force with numerical superiority. She leaps up to the upper level and dives right in among the Infested, and Zanjintou begins to swing and slash without end; with no one around her but enemies, her blade can go in just about any direction and find a foe. And she does a very good job of thinning the herd, so to speak. The Infested fall in droves around her, reducing their numbers in such a way that whatever gets past her is enough that iria can handle it easily, leaving Kotone to focus and Arachnia to prepare ahead. And with her mobility, she can easily move from one horde to the next - which she will do, staying mobile, killing as many as she can.

Kushiko has posed:
At first, things seem pretty well straight forward; when Kotone accesses the system, there's an audible pulsation from the Corpus systems. They're kind of a mess, a temporary scramble/encryption occurred due to the lockdown and the honest fear that the Infested could access them.

It was enough of a deterrent, but given the system disarray it's in, obtaining vector data about where the Infested came from will take a minute at least, thanks in part to Kotone assisting the Lotus as she verifies. "I'm in; let's get what data we can from this system so we can move on to the next." Generally, the concept of, 'spending as little time as possible here' seems to be the operating tone.

And for good reason. Arachnia moving on ahead reveals more and more of the corpulent, cancerous growths of bio-organic tissue, pulsing amidst swarms of spores and insects drifting throughout. It's nothing that will harm Arachnia, but she'll probably want to make sure she's thoroughly decontaminated later if she has to proceed through them.

Even then, those will be by chance. Some of the Infested she observes are starting to get into really /freakish/ forms: it has to be some measure of humanoids made into the quadrupedal chargers; a head bobs out of the underside of one as the presence of active computer systems is driving them to act. It is, at least, funneling them and more to the group. More distressing beyond that is the presence of a MOA.

More specifically, a heavily infested MOA that is so twisted by the Infestation that it's hardly the same thing, only the same shape as it heads towards the terminal room the group's at. And it's not the only one monstrosity.

Certain familiar shapes would make their presence known: Ancients, powerful Infested that have long since lost their original shape begin to shamble in from the sides: Iria in her case won't like hers as it seems to coruscate with bluish energy; an Ancient Disruptor whereas the one approaching from another side can only be ID'd as a Caustic Ancient Eximus.

"Watch it!" Kushiko's voice hisses through the radio; just a hint of a more feminine voice than the typical androgyny of the voicemasking bleeds through.

This one simply unleashes an inferno of flames outwards not unlike Molecular Prime from Nova, but at the very least it's nowhere near the terminal: it is however buffing it's fellow Infested with fire, which forces Nova to, buffeted backwards by the wave of fire--to somersault backwards, half-gliding as she surges the room with another wave of antimatter force. While it may slow down the group currently encroaching the room, there's other issues.

Namely, eagle eyed observation beyond the immediate, somewhat slowed threat would catch sight of Infested pouring down the corridors from each and every direction. A blast of her shotgun staggering the Ancient Eximus for just a moment, but exploding at least two other Infested around it as she lands.

The fight is certainly /on/ that's for sure.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is going to have to thank everyone here later for covering her,. She catches sight of just how good Setsuko is at fighting sarms up close. She's still however focused on getting the data and it was a bit strange. Okay it was hyperly messed up and the Corpus had been smart to lock thing down, to try and keep these horrors from it. It really spoke of how bad these things were, that it made everyone in the origin system? Stop fighting turn around and jointly try to kill the infestation.

She moves to get the data s quickly as she can.

"Copy that I'm in as well going after what I can get."

Then she does keep note of what's going ona round her and to her horror she sees a moa, an infested moa. Even a body of synethics is not safe from becoming a nightmare of twisted flesh.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Aw hell. That's a lot of them.

    Some sense of Setsuko's allows the demigod to move on at just the right time; she can feel the flow of the battle, she can sense when the pressure in one area is light enough that another needs her attention more urgently. She's very good at stemming the tide, in short. Unfortunately, her boots hit the deck right in front of the Caustic Ancient just as it unleashes a shockwave of fire, and she's blown right off her feet, her skin seared and scorched in more than one place. No sooner has her back hit the ground, however, than she turns it into a roll and lunges back in. Working through her own pain, setting it aside entirely, so as to dive in and take down that Acient Eximus as quickly as she can. It, and all the Infested around it.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka is quick to catch up with the others, and she fires burst after burst of minigun fire into the horde of Infested. Eventually however, she stops, only because she notices a blip on her HUD indicating low ammo. There goes the chance to keep spraying at these things, time for Maaka to get her hands dirty.

    She draws her chainsword, the weapon roaring to life with the press of the throttle, and she charges into combat just in time for the caustic ancient to send forth a wave of flames. "-shit!" She's sent to a knee, staggering to her feet as her armor weathers the assault despite an angry glow of heat radiating off of it, before the cyborg goes back to work. She charges the Ancient and its buddies, cleaving through Infested with her chainsword with savage glee in every swing she takes with the crude implement of righteous killing.

Iria (215) has posed:
Meanwhile, Iria is reloading her weapon and trying to take cover while the Infested continue to come in. She pulls back just a little to give herself a little extra space before opening fire again. "There's just no end to these things!" She says with a scowl. "How many more are there?"

Kushiko has posed:
On the one hand, with the Lotus and Kotone working in tandem, the data acquired is much quicker than expected to boot; after all the less time needed to be spent here, the better for it. Even if the group was working pretty damn well to ensure the many spectacular deaths of the Infested and to keep the amounts at a stead flow instead of a chaotic flow (with Arachnia cordoning and blocking some passages) it would be endless.

Indeed, while Arachania was doing a good job of delaying that inevitability, she was given a cognizant angle--intelligencewise--that there would be more and more as time moved on, and they would break through what she did eventually to swarm the group--later, rather than sooner, at least.

The Caustic Ancient Eximus is dealt with in rather spectacular fashion, the heavily mutated and evolved figure staggering backwards at first, before the impact and cutting of chainsaw and blade alike, sending what remains of it's bodymass careening down and into a few more of the Infested, the combined efforts between Setsuko and Alexis doing a handy job.

However that leaves a dire need to actually establish some breathing room as it were; something that Nova provides. Twin orbs of golden, solid antimatter energy are cast forth by her. The combined efforts of the group: some of the shots being slung by Iria, some of her own shotgun fire are made to basically 'prime' both orbs as she brings them down into the groups.

The resultant explosion buffets the group harmlessly (if shockingly violent!), but for the Infested? Their reduction into particulate matter and energy serves as to the result of antimatter 'drops' that seemed to magnify the damage from not just the Elites but the Infested as well.

The slaughter is, without a doubt, completely brutal at times. And yet, there's a wrinkle to it. Because as Kotone and the Lotus secure some data, lights, hell the vision of everyone throughout the facility flickers for just an instant. Accompanying that changing in lighting is a reverberating

        ROARbloodMUSTANSWERblood HOWLING AND SCRAPING

--that seems to practically resonate throughout the facility itself. Those Infested that aren't molecularly primed, massed at times when they aren't being killed seem to be overtaken by a yellowish aura. The Tenno knows what it means. For a few, fleeting seconds, Setsuko would instinctively sense it's meaning as all Infested that /were/ primed? No longer the case.

Now, now they came at a much quicker clip, forcing Nova to shift and deal with the Tar-Mutalist MOA that sprinted in amidst the others, leaping and bounding away from Setsuko--it had a REALLY freakish sense of when someone was trying to get in close to kill it, it seemed, discharging a blast from her shotgun to send it into a wall on the far side.

The Lotus answers Iria's question as well while the 'frame looks to help convert some ammo with the varied means she has. "Their numbers are presently endless. Because that was a Juggernaut. They are drawn to the death of Infested. Lay low, and it should go away, or amp up the the fight to bring it out."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is able to ge the data working with Lotus? Kotone has only seen one other person who was remotely like this in terms of skill and she feels more than alittle humbled but together they are able to get more.She pauses t the lighting and wait was that a voice? She's chilled by it and wants to get out of here before something else drops in. She'll pull her jacks out quickly. She takes the mass up again, and with her pistol in her off hand she'll get moving and pot shot a few infested as tey go.

"Lay low? Got it."

With that Kotone's optic cameo kicks in and she'll look to try and find somewhere to avoid attention as they press on or hide.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    That roar stops Setsuko cold. It hits her at the most instinctive level, warns her of a fierce foe, nudges at her warrior's intuition and her divine senses both. If they draw that thing's attention? They're going to ahve a tough fight on their hands. And yet, Lotus seems to think drawing it out is a viable option. With the Tenno there to provide them experience and information... well, the Union could use something like that to take home and examine, properly quarantined.

    Plus, some part of Setsuko rallies to the prospect of a strong foe.

    So the swordswoman takes her blade in both hands and goes to town. Moving through the facility to meet with Arachnia at the second extraction site, but more importantly, carving her way through the Infested hordes with a /purpose/. Every step brings a slash down, every slash heralds another step forward. Advancing and attacking are one. And on the hallways where she can get away with it, where there's a straight corridor long enough to allow it? She even begins to sling one or two short-lived divine energy cutters. Crescents of blue-white, well-defined and bright, they cut just as sharply as her blade, which means even steel is no obstacle. They only travel a short distance before dissipating entirely; she doesn't dare fire longer-range slashes at all. But they're still dangerous to anything in front of her.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
To a certain extent, Black Arachnia is well out of her depth here. To be sure, sneaking around and enacting various forms of conniving and skulduggery *is* her niche as a Maximal - and she's been enjoying a certain amount of the preparations she's laid around the second terminal on the team's route. But the sudden roar of a Juggernaut catches her by very, VERY ugly surprise, sending her internal systems into full combat alert mode - those which weren't already primed for personally doing battle, at least.

She makes one more circuit of the terminal room, checks a couple of tiny devices she'd set up next to certain passages ... and at Setsuko's recommendation, she moves back over to the terminal, uttering a few words. They are not a prayer.

"Black Arachnia, *maximize*: assault mode."

The transformation into her robot mode is swift and smooth, but rather than assuming her normal configuration, she winds up with a large shield which can close around her torso, shielding the front of her main body and giving her spider-legs - and the laser emitters which they house - full freedom of movement. She runs a thin cable into the terminal's main input output jack, makes sure it'll clear the extra layer of protection ... then closes the shield and begins accessing the terminal, setting up a secondary wireless link with the Tenno who's assisting the team if that'll be necessary.

As soon as the Infested start trying to breach the terminal room, she'll be on them with her lasers - although she likely has to start by taking out the infestation-masses which were already quietly residing on the edges of said room ...

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka drips with ichor as she sweeps clean any gore from her chainsword, the weapon leaving a trail of guts as the team begins to head to the next terminal. They're stopped midway by the massive roar of fury from /something/ ahead. A juggernaut, a creature enraged by the slaughter of infested and drawn to any who leave a swath of death behind it.

    This thing commands a careful, quiet approach, but in this case, the Tenno's encouraging the opposite of that. THey got this, right?

    Maaka hopes so, as she revs her chainsword again and draws the sawed-off in her off-hand, blasting away at distant Infested before closing in to chop away at mutated hordes with her roaring weapon. There's little technique here, Maaka is hardly the elegant asskicker Setsuko is, but she IS just as effective with most weapons. So, she goes to slashing away.

Iria (215) has posed:
Upon hearing that roar, Iria is briefly reminded of the pack of mutated gorillas she came upon while doing a bounty hunt in Zimbabwe-1278 fairly recently, but compared to this, she'd rather face the gorillas than whatever's coming. She doesn't like the look of what's coming at her one bit, and to make matters worse, she's out of assault rifle ammo. Or rather, she can't reload in time because that thing is getting closer quickly.

    With a swift somersault backwards, Iria gives herself as much space as possible while she swiftly changes from her assault rifle to her chainsword (yeah, she has one too, watch the OVA!) Then she points it forward. "Come and get some!" She yells.

Kushiko has posed:
For what it's worth, two options really do exist: slowing down how quickly one kills is certainly part of it: the group would find by demonstration of the Nova that it's rather handy to simply run and parkour past some Infested. Of course that assumes certain degrees of ninja skill that would distract them from the somewhat slow-ish moving group.

Even then, there's enough telegraphing that if one stays clearheaded and focused, they can avoid the occasional swing of a claw or fist.

"I'll prime it when it shows up," Kushiko offers. Not that anyone save Setsuko knows it's her voice over the local band, speaking to the others. "It charges and throws spines that you really don't want to get hit by, but with what I do it'll be slowed enough to give you a chance to avoid it." Nova pivots slightly, discharging the last of her shotgun clip into an Infested before reloading, discarding the spent canister in exchange for a fresh one.

"If it can't get you that way, it likes to sling toxic tar, bombarding a small are. When it rears up to charge, that's your best opportunity, otherwise... well. There's another option." Not that she favored using it because of the implication.

In the meantime, Nova moves relative to Kotone for a moment as the group begins to push forward. More and more Infested begin to fall, though this time they're a bit less clustered up. Another Molecular Prime ensures the group has little trouble, only chance and coincidental catches midswing have any hope of finding purchase on Maaka, Iria or Setsuko.

In the case of the Maximal spider, she's... actually had somewhat of a better time than most. Infested that have begun to act in response and accordance with the much larger group occasionally find their bodies cut to ribbons now with the turreting--some of her work has ensured that flying types, specifically the Mutalist Ospreys carrying what /look/ like malformed, armed torsos of Infested are forced to go paths that leave them exposed.

Some of the other smaller ones are milling about and fruitlessly attempting to get through the places Black Arachnia has already trapped, completely heedless of the potential danger they may have been in. The need for blood has sortof stymied their greater thought processes there, if only for a few moments.

The tension draws itself thick for a moment as the second terminal hack begins; the Lotus will be linked up shortly, as will Kotone once she arrives along with the group. Nova opens a wormhole in some of the straightaway corridors, allowing the group to cross the distances /very/ quickly. But as one particular Ancient falls, it's body crumpling, a new roar is heard. A howling, screaming sound of

                I'VE FOUND YOU

--it's sound reverberating and echoing off the wall as the group is treated to the sound of a massive quadrupedal creature from behind, at the least by the way the floors beneath them reverberate. There's maybe all of ten secconds the group has to reach somewhere vaguely open before the Infested beast tears apart one of the many automatic doors in the facility, erupting as it SLAMS into Nova with it's charge, sending her SKIDDING violently across the ground, but the momentum is used to at least help kip herself back up as she slows enough to push from her hands behind her shoulders.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
And that's not all Black Arachnia did. Some of the passages that she seemingly left open? They actually stay open long enough for a bunch of Infested to crowd into them, and it seems like there's nothing to stop them from rushing down the passageway to get at the terminal and the Maximal who's hacking it ...

Up until the Maximal's gaze flicks towards the doorway at her end, and smirks.

Hatches at both ends of that passageway automatically slide close and seal shut - and in the next instant, conduits which could be rigged to overload within the bulkheads of said passage, turning it into a deathtrap of heat and electricity and maybe plasma as well, depending on how the place is built. Some precisely-placed explosives detonate for good measure, turning the terminal-room end of said corridor into so much twisted wreckage, hopefully impassable even for the Infested.

Black Arachnia's smirk remains unabated as she keeps lasering the Infested who manage to get into the chamber with her, splitting her attention between that task and the terminal itself. It's just a simple matter of multitasking ... made simpler by the fact that she has little in the way of a fallback strategy. It's not even a 'tower defense' scenario except for triggering a couple of her other traps - and she couldn't rig EVERY passage that way, for obvious reasons: the team will be coming in one way (and Primus willing they will NOT have a Juggernaut chasing them) and they'll all be leaving another way, and she wanted to leave an option or two for the exit route.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Going through those portals, moving swiftly through the corridors... it's an odd experience for Setsuko. But she adapts swiftly, and her blade never stops lashing out. Not, that is, until a thunderous, furious cry fills the corridor. Though there may be no words, the swordswoman understands it all the same. The ferocity in it is enough to give her pause, her eyes widening - and widening more still when it smashes open a door and bowls their Warframe-wielding ally clean over.

    Had she known, she might have stuck to her guns about proceeding cautiously.

    But no, it's there now, and they have their course of action. It's gotta die. So Setsuko lunges. Full speed, straight ahead. As she runs, the Nova is treated to a sight she might not have expected; for all Setsuko's caution about damaging their surroundings, she has concluded that killing this thing takes precedence over minimizing damage to the facility. So she holds Zanjintou at her side, and then there's a /snap/-

    A /fwoosh/-

    The grip and hilt expand, shifting size for a much bigger blade, one that takes shape with a swift rush of blue-white leaving behind gleaming steel-

    -and the immense blade of Zanjintou, fully twelve feet long, swings up and over Setsuko as she attempts to simply bring it down full-force on the Juggernaut. Anything in the way - catwalks, floor, support beams, anything above her whatsoever - doesn't so much as slow it down. "HAAAA!"

Iria (215) has posed:
Meanwhile, Iria's finally seen the beast and she's scowling big time. "You wanna ruin things for us? Then I'll show ya what we do to freaks like you!" She attempts to dive in quickly and thrust her sword at the creature. Hopefully this should prove she's not kidding around.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is keeping with the push but she's not taking too many shots given her optical claoking is up but she will take out any primed enemies she can here and there. That should nopefully not got them too much attention but it seems. She jumps through worm holes and is glad Nova is along ot this would be even worse but it seems something has found them somthing else is coming. She snipes another infested but can't help to cringe. That one was intact enough to know they used to be a corpus crewman and she just shudders inwardly.

<<We got compamy and it doesn't sound happy."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka goes through the portal, adapting to the sensation of teleportation and zipping through corridor after corridor. As she hears the beast come closer, she grips her chainsword and shotgun tight before steeling herself mentally for the Juggernaut's arrival.

    'Come and get me.' she thinks, just as it arrives to greet the team.

    She gapes a bit at Setsuko's full sized sword, before she gets back to focusing on the threat at hand, going wide as she fires off both barrels at the Juggernaut before calmly holstering her shotgun, going solely for melee as she gets in a slash at the beast's side.

Kushiko has posed:
Howls of agony and surprise are the kinds of special noises that greet Arachnia in terms of her works; splattered and shorn of their existence, husks staggered and crumpling down to the cobalt steel of ventilation passages and corridors. "So far so good," the Lotus remarks, "Impressive work." Seems she's got herself a sensor feed as well--but given the skill she demonstrates in remote hacking, it should be little surprise to anyone.

In fact, going over the data streams going in and out demonstrate, she signals to Kotone as she grants another former Corpus some degree of mercy; there appears to be /just/ enough of a clearence window put forth by what the team's done so far that she can get over to where Arachnia is and finish the hacking job. If she gets there, they won't need to get a third terminal of data.

<<"Focus, Kotone. We can get done here sooner if we hurry while the rest of the team deals with the Juggernaut.">>


A monster: not twisted flesh but fully and completely evolved is what one can describe the Juggernaut as. While it vaguely resembles a Charger in some degree, it's far more powerfully built, digitgrade legs that end in ways not dissimilar to a rhinocerous of Earth lore. It's plates shift ever so slightly, but beyond the tentacles wavering above, pseudopods loaded with toxins to bombard an area.

It howls as if to answer Setsuko's charge at first. That's when the entire facility going at least 200 meters out simply /buckles/ from the epicenter of the impact itself. Electrical outbursts race up and down some parts of the corridor, bulkheads crumpling inward as the voluminous IMPACT resonates throughout the gas refinery, a cacophonic noise of catwalks and flooring giving way under the slice itself.

Yet impossibly, two things have happened here: the Juggernaut still stands, though not without pain, not without suffering. The blade bites, but has only slammed the Juggernaut down to an almost flattened position, the corridor sunken downwards from that impact of the blade striking even if Zanjintou did not strike as deeply as Setsuko, nor even Nova would have preferred.

However... there's another little weakness that not many seize upon due to the nature of the Juggernaut's predeliction for high speed movement: two of it's tentacles are severed, ichor and blood spraying and gurgling in equal measure as it attempts to push itself upwards to try and launch a torrential barrage of spines in retaliation to how much it HURT thanks to the demigod.

The beast is /pissed/ off. But as pissed as it is, as shotgun ammunition makes it catch fire partway, it simply is unilaterally /focused/ on what's brought blood of the Infested forth in such a primal way. But whether or not it's spines succeed in finding purchase in either Setsuko or Maaka, the Juggernaut is suddenly moving a great deal slowly as a new wave of antimatter surges outward.

Nova's back in action. With Maaka and Setsuko engaged, she's turned her attention to the few groups heading in, raining down explosive blasts with a combination of her shotgun and antimatter that she wields. The plan is quickly clear: have Setsuko and Maaka wear down or at least blast those tentacles off, and try to finish it off when it rears up while she deals with the Infested that attempt to reinforce.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Just how the Lotus is watching, Black Arachnia honestly doesn't care right now; she doesn't mind having a friendly audience, and she's got bigger things to worry about than how Mission Control is monitoring her performance. Like that Juggernaut the others are trying to deal with.

And the fact that it could very well kill them all just by bringing the whole station down on their heads, or something, if the direct combatants don't figure out how to stop it.

No pressure, guys. None whatsoever.

The Maximal turns some more attention to the progress of the data-grab, a pair of lasers intersecting across the optics of an Infested that's trying to enter the room at the same moment. Even if the beams don't burn through its brain and kill it, the damage to its eyes should make it as much a hazard to other Infested as to Black Arachnia herself. If there's anything the hacker, spy, and saboteur can do to speed up the downloading, she'll try and spare a moment to do so. Otherwise, she keeps on lasering corrupted mutants, and hoping she doesn't get killed by sudden acute architectural failure brought about by a rampaging super-monster.

She may have to slow down with the lasers soon, though; she can only cycle their firing capacitors at this rate for so long ...

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
<<Right, right I got to keep focused.>>

The Cyborg turns her full attention back onto the job t hand and she's going to as ever have to trust in her friends and comrades here s she works to get the data there's not muc else ot think about she'll get to work even as the others are engaging the infested horror why are there things like this beyond her world? It's making some of the horrors there seem down right mundane in comparison.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Down comes the Zanjintou with all the force Setsuko can muster from sheer arm-strength - and the heavy, brutally powerful Juggernaut takes it. Its hide is tough enough to stop the Zanjintou cold, even if the combined force smashes it down hard enough to buckle the ground. Setsuko has an instant of wide-eyed shock-

    -and then spines drive themselves into her body. A couple in the thighs, her arms, her abdomen, one even catches her low in the ribcage. She only just manages to use her sword's bulk to shield her chest and head from something worse. But 'worse' is relative; the hits are enough to stagger her back, dropping her to her knees in dangerously close range. A cough comes up bloody, and with something between worried pain and deep irritation, she reaches up and /pulls/ the spine out of her ribs, tossing it aside.

    Then she stands up again, taking Zanjintou in both hands. The pain is bone-deep, but even now she sets it aside, forces herself to focus. She's physically incapable of bringing more force than that in this particular arena, but they have a different window of attack. Those tendrils. Around her the blade of Zanjintou whips, swinging around to pick up speed, and then heaving it in full-strength towards the Juggernaut. She's aiming to hack those tentacles off - and at the same time, carve damage in any other way she can besides.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka grunts in pain as she feels a few spines find purchase within her side. Blood leaks from her suit, and she clutches her injured side with one arm while she backs off, slinging her chainsword again. She takes a deep breath, noticing a punctured lung. Well that's just fan-bloody tastic. Coughing, she tastes copper before her suit automatically applies repair nanites to stem the wound.

    She also produces a few incendiary grenades, priming and tossing them at the Juggernaut while she draws her shotgun again, loading it up with some nasty shells; DRAGON'S BREATH rounds to be specific. The double-barrel has a heat-treaded alloy, making it resistant to flame, thus she doesn't hesitate in letting off a blast of flame powered buckshot scorch the Infested behemoth.

Kushiko has posed:
The tension is so thick it could be damn well cut with a knife. Or claw.

At one end, we have Black Arachnia, Kotone and the Lotus--though in regards to the Lotus hers is more of the remote system linking. Between the three, the data itself is going to be obtained at a rate of expediency normally not afforded.

Such is the benefit of dedicated agentry like now.

While the datamining is underway, the matter of Infested is growing increasingly high pressure. At the very least the use of those beams to make one of them blind has a wonderful result of the poor thing being almost /confused/ somehow, the Infested charger turning and bounding to slam a runner in another direction, the thing stumbling and flailing to the ground.

Well it would be a poor thing if it weren't a twisted amalgamation of metamorphic technorganic plague, we suppose. Less to worry about as the facility seems to stabilize otherwise.

And at the other end, we have the Juggernaut vs. those who still aren't a mass of twisted flesh. A good analogy is the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. The sheer imperviousness of the armor is a massive factor going as to why the facility /shook/ the way it did. But now with the group refocused the way they are, it's somewhat easier to sort through what needs to be done.

Zanjintou is an excellent tool in this regard. As steadied as the Juggernaut is, the impact of the sword meeting originally plainly trashed enough of the stability beneath it that a combination of that plus the Dragon's Breath round send it skidding backwards under the onslaught. It's on fire now, and as much as it might be doing damage in some degree?

It just doesn't /care/.

It does, however care when the blade and shotgun shells do damage to those tentacles. More toxic bile spills, blood and ichor spraying the ground beneath it to start to corrode that industrial metal beneath it's feet. It has been bloodied, and the Infested are finally beginning to dwindle, explosions of pink-black antimatter smoke occasionally on the edge of one's senses.

And as much pain as it's in, it rears up, because it still has a target: the demigod and the cyborg. But it rises slowly, physical-defyingly sluggish thanks to the antimatter particles it's been bathed in. Yet as it rears up, a new opportunity might be seen because of a floating orb of Antimatter that was being guided around and towards that underbelly.

There's just enough time for a pair of someones to maybe /drive it home/ as it slows /just right/...

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka spits against her visor before she holsters the shotgun. Buckshot won't do enough good against that orb coming the Juggernaut's way, so she decides to do something a bit more drastic instead.

    She draws out an MGL grenade launcher, loaded with high-explosive rounds. Bracing it against her shoulder, she begins to fire all six rounds into the orb, trying to power it up instinctually with each shot before she swaps to her Kama, firing the 10mm to divert the Juggernaut's attention with a few shots to its side. "OVER HERE, UGLY!" She growls loudly, running like hell to avoid getting pinned down.

    And yes, the grenade launcher DOES go bloop with every shot. Hence the nickname.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    It is a name that puzzles Setsuko. But she'll have time to wonder about it later. Right now, there's an enemy presenting a target to them; a weak point to finally finish it. Nova's presented them with a means, and Maaka's unloading enough power into that means to give it a potent kick when it hits. All that remains is to ensure it's delivered.

    Setsuko Kaminagi is not one to waste chances. She lunges into motion, unhindered by the lung that's already mending itself or the other spines still stuck in her. But at the same time, the huge blade she's been swinging against the Juggernaut disappears, collapsing back down to the size of a common katana blade. This, she holds horizontal, straight ahead, aiming to drive it right into... the ball of antimatter. She pushes the blade right in, aiming to skewer it on her sword - and then KEEP GOING, charging in at full speed so that she can drive Zanjintou's curved blade, and the antimatter with it, into the beast's underbelly.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
The faster the required data is obtained, the happier Black Arachnia will be - but she'll only really relax when we're safely off the station. (And ideally, watching it blow up in a gratuitously large explosion, taking out every last Infested with it, but that's not her call to make.)

Meanwhile, there are still Infested around her terminal room, and even more trying to get in. The spidery Maximal triggers another corridor trap - one which several Infested already made their way in through, as a matter of fact - and finishes off the survivors who'd made it through before the hatches slammed shut. With a lot of luck, the fact that it's happened TWICE is going to start making the Infested hivemind think that maybe going through corridors isn't really such a good idea ...

Eh, she can hope. Not like Black Arachnia ever puts much stock in anyone else's higher-order intelligence.

Either way, it'd be really nice if the flow of Infested into the second terminal room eases up; her lasers need to cool down and their capacitors need to recharge. Without a break in firing, she'll likely have to go to the CR Chamber upon returning to home base, even if the Infested never lay their smallest appendage upon her.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is hacking away at this point trying to get all the data they can get and it looks like they are going to be hopefully done shortly but this is going to be a very good thing given the infested are still coming. The more of them they are? The smarter the swarm gets, it's quite a hell of a thing to deal with and worse the Juggernaut is here nd Kotone is just trying to focus on her job to get th data and get out of here with everyone else.

<<Almost got it...>>

Kushiko has posed:
Have you ever wondered what it was like to see something truly and utterly disintegrated?

For a few fleeting moments, Setsuko is privy to a certain feeling: anyone can wield energy and throw it at people, but the way it's wielded by Nova makes it feel like it's very much /alive/, exulting in the power being brandished at it by not just her, but the telltale /bloops/ from the grenade launcher hungrily devouring that kinetic power, the backwash of explosive ordnance somehow directed back towards the Juggernaut.

It's a beautiful, cosmic explosion, coruscating sparks lilac coursing and twisting through the air as for a few fleeting moments, everything /feels/ like it's shaking, if only for an instant as the supercharged antimatter finds it's home through Zanjintou's final push. Because for that precious moment, the orb goes from a raw, golden nebulous state to an inverted shade of black and lilac as it, quite frankly, hits critical mass.

The energy radiates like a cool wind for Setsuko and Maaka. But for the Juggernaut, for the few remaining Infested in the general vicinity, they're simply /disintegrated/, explosions of antimatter rippling through them, tearing their bodies apart at the molecular level, mist of lilac and black flaring before collapsing inward on itself.

Only one piece of the Juggernaut remains, resting on the blunt side of the blade.

ITEM(S) OBTAINED: CHITINOUS HUSK, 313 NANO SPORES (from some of the Infested)

As much as anyone might want to, complete destruction of the facility is a null-sum game; abandoning this place simply means the Infested get to devour it and make it a twisted part of themselves with enough time. It's like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Purging the source of the Infestation is the smarter long term solution, as the remainder is simply killing the Infested that remain.

Within the terminal room, the datastreams pouring through begin to reveal key information relative to the earlier datamining: specific details about the spread pattern of the current Infestation Outbreak; more information on Phorid -- it seems to be located on one of the moons of Jupiter from the looks of it. Kotone finally obtains the last bit of knowledge with Arachnia's hacking work.

SOURCE VECTOR CONFIRMED: AMALTHEA

The moon. Not the robot unicorn made of rainbows.

"We've got everything we came for," comes Lotus' voice over the radio. "Head for extraction; I've arranged for a shuttle to get you clear and back to your own ships."

The explosion that rocks the world of the Juggernaut behemoth washes past the terminal room, eliciting squeals and hisses of agonized death as the Infested seem to be dying in a shockwave of force. There's enough of a path now for the group to escape through: notable is with what Arachnia did they end up needing to avoid an elevator, but can go up a massive processing chamber, up and past some ramps towards the other side of the facility.

It's a familiar sight; were it not for the lack of ships present until the group approaches that it looks to be a docking bay of some kind, open aired that shows the Liset of the Tenno coming in along with the shuttle. Nova occasionally firing off a Molecular Prime as they progress through because other than her Carrier drone popping off mini-shotgun shells off, she has no care for further engagment.

Time to get out of here.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Well, the Corpus might not be happy about all the damage, but they can just sit and be glad they got their facility back with minimal loss of life. Especially against that /thing/. For now, though, it's time to be leaving. They'll have some stuff to give to Union R&D, and Setsuko will probably be spending a while in quarantine - it's the first time she's been so deeply wounded, and that infestation virus is nothing to mess around with. Reminded of that, the demigod sets about making a few swift movements, yanking out one spine after another, seemingly unconcerned about the deep gouges bleeding freely.

    It becomes clear why, though; by the time they reach the landing pad to board that shuttle, the wounds have ceased bleeding. Her body must have rushed the healing on her lung, too, because she's breathing evenly by that point.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "Yep. Time to go." Maaka doesn't need much else to take the hint as the data is secured, and she holsters her weapons. Ripping out some of the spines, she grunts in pain before she hobbles along, trying to ignore the gushing blood as her wounds seal up.

    "Fucking hell..." She grunts, clutching her side. She might be stuck with in medical for a while as her wounds are treated, especially with that virus.

    In any case, she focuses more on getting the hell outta dodge instead of fighting.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Three cheers for 'time to leave'; Black Arachnia disconnects from the terminal once it's confirmed that her work there is done, and she sets off the last of her corridor traps while leaving through one of the un-trapped passages. It's a good thing her electro-disruptor had time to refresh while she was working with the computer (and her lasers), too, because she has a feeling she's gonna need it. Badly.

She'll be making the best time she can while mostly avoiding Infested wherever possible. She'd *still* be happier if she knew this place was going to explode, but ...

Drat. She should have left some viruses in the computer network, shouldn't she? Something to keep the Infested from making any use of the computers after the group was done with them.

Ah well. If the Tenno wanted the computers burned, presumably they had something in place to do that via the datamass. Black Arachnia puts it out of her mind, and skedaddles to the extraction point, killing only as many Infested as she can't avoid. (Which might still be a large number.)

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is digging for data, she keeps digging to get all the information they need and get out finally they seem to have it, it's one of theo ther moons. Amalthea seems to be it and it has nothing to do with the famous Union Elite. Kotone almost dances over the data, the moment they have what they need? She jacks out, pulls her jack out of the system and gets ready to mvoe she does not want to stay here a moment longer than she has to. It's time to bolt and she's going to make fo the evac zone with all due haste.

Kushiko has posed:
For the most part, there's little true concern for the Elites; the brevity of combat ensured that the spore count that they were exposed to was minimal, but when they get away from here, standard and Warframe-fueled decontamination processes will ensue.

The Liset actually demonstrates having a secondary 'cargo' compartment that converts into a passenger compartment, something that can be taken advantage of by the few who may not have a direct ship here, before they are all taken to disembark--and reembark--on Union and Lotus-supplied craft.

            MISSION SUCCESSFUL