Scene #8124: The Blood-Drunk Miner

Owner	Pose
Friz	MEGACRYPT DEBT-LABOR SITE 01 PRESENTED BY: COMPANY DEBT CONSOLIDATION SERVICES(tm)! Friz's request might have pulled through. It looks like nobody can get authorization to bring a ship near the station, but through a Company-authorized teleportation system linked to the warpgates, they can get some access -- or just buck the company's demands and visit with their own. The interior is all oil-stained, semi-oxidized metal, old industrial alloys starting to turn strange colors as they react with inadequately-shielded cosmic rays. The gateway room leads out to a main hallway, and a woman there with short cropped hair, a tactical-looking gray turtleneck, a red-trimmed holster, and a pained frown perpetually on her face, leads the group from there to the cargo docks. She's tall, a bit taller than most of The Average Boys (of which maybe only one is here if any, probably Phreak). She seems short-souled, though, judging by her fretting nature. A team's coming together near the entrance to a cargo bay that looks a bit like the front of a filthy convenience store, just with airlocks where doors ought to be. Friz is here, and so are a pair of Debtor Volunteer Security Department officers, a man and a woman in red who flank the cargo bay uneasily (the man, oddly, is unarmed). There's some cargo folks rubbernecking as well, a tired-looking bearded guy and a woman with cargo-tan-colored cap hiding her eyes. There's also a number of light spacesuits set on the cargo counter, waiting for those who choose to prepare. Friz looks to those who arrive, tying her hair up in a messy bun as she speaks. "Okay, um. Been trying to brief on the radio, so, just, quick rundown. One of the Shaft Miners has gone off the deep end. He's been... getting in fights with a lot of the others, and he's stopped making any deliveries, doing a lot of hoarding. Some roughhousing is kind of normal, but it's gotten out of hand, and if he keeps the hoarding up, cargo won't make quota and they'll turn off our Tressell... We can't afford that after the last pandemic." She rubs her face. "So, we've got to arrest him and... I don't know. Calm him down. Get him out of this messed up situation. Please don't kill him, but... there's a really good chance that by now, his armor's heavy enough, you'd have to try really hard. He's been looting and killing out there for weeks..."
Remee Halcyon	Remee doesn't have her own ship, so she arrives on foot, through the warpgate, rifle slung over her shoulder as usual. "Oh dear - we can't have that! Here, will this be enough to cover a new tres sail?" she says, pulling a checkbook out of her pocket, scribbling down a number on it, and pulling off the check to press into Friz's hands. "So - piercing rounds for the armor, got it," she says, going to click some fresh ammo into her gun. "At least to get through the armor, and then I'll see about tranquilizers."
Hellwarming Trio	"Out... This far?" Satori sounds baffled as she floats down the hallways, a cat with two tails and a raven with a chest-eye tucked under each arm. "Uhuh! The highest place, remember?" Utsuho/the raven replies, flapping her wings once before gawking at the officers in passing. "We were lookin' all over, too!" Rin/the cat adds, lazing around bonelessly in that grip and peering at Friz once she gives them the short version of what's going on. They take a brief detour to change into some spacesuits of their own, although it takes a bit of convincing for Satori to actually understand the dangers of SPACE before she joins in. They pick out white, black, and blue suits, of course, but Rin still has her covered cart with her by the time they rejoin Friz and company. Clearly, it's to hold the helmets and nothing else. "Even after he's killed people, you still want to spare his life?" "Weird, right? But humans are just like that." "Hey, sis! Do you need us to bring the dead ones back for ya, or... No?" The reason for bringing the cart might be a little more obvious after that last comment.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	The present Average Boy appears first as a sky-blue polygon wireframe in the shape of a space elf twink. Gradually, the wireframe burns away to reveal a copper-colored hardsuit with grey trim, until his grey pointed ears and frowning face are on display. The hardsuit is all sleek lines and compact plating--seems like it was designed with high speed, low or no-G combat in mind--possibly with atmo, given the curve seem to suggest a thought was given to aerodynamics. A manufacturer's stamp on the back of the neck reads 'OFAB.' He had opted for his own method of telportation. "Let me get this straight," says the fixer, removing a ridiculously large sub-machine gun from some kind of magnetic (or magnetic-like) thigh holster integrated into his armor. "This guy's offing people he knows and works with, like a wild animal--hoarding, enough to fuck everybody else over big-time. But you don't want us to Take Care of him." His incredulous expression and the audible capital letters should convey what he means. Phreak turns away check the sights on the gun, then holsters it and does the same for its mismatched, but equally oversized twin. With a shake of his head, he runs an armored hand through his hair. "Whatever," he says after pushing out an aggrieved sigh. After a glance towards Satori, "Glad I'm not the only one scratching my head. But it's not my circus." His golden eyes fix on Friz. Firmly, "I do this for you, and we're even."
Rita Ma	Rita- emerging through the warpgate shortly after Remee- is dressed in exactly the thing she should not be, in exactly the one place she should not wear it: a comfy oversized windbreaker with a certain color scheme. This is simultaneously not a coincedence, and wholly unintentional. She mainly occupies herself- after a period of gawking in wonderment at how pretty the corrosion is- with semi-surreptitiously snapping photos of various, probably-inconsequential things with her phone. 'Things', exclusively, and not people. "I think they need him. Right? She said 'meeting quotas'. And you don't just get replacements out here." The spacesuits at first delight her, and then give her pause, and then make her frown. The reason why isn't entirely clear, but she suits up anyway, remarkably familiar with the process by analogy. Somewhere between tightening the helmet and adjusting the gloves, she thinks to ask: "Who's 'they', Ms. Friz? And what's the Tressell?"
Friz	"I mean, he hasn't killed anyone!" Friz clarifies! "Couple people hurt bad, but not dead... Thank god. It got a bit close but our Head Surgeon is really good at her job. That kind of... well, not straw that broke the camel's back, big pack that broke it. I know it's bad, but I investigated it and it looks like he hasn't slept for almost a week... he can't be in a good state." She starts to rub her face... One of the rubernecking cargo workers nearby speaks up. "Station finances need him. Would be a shame if he died and we stopped getting his great quota-fills." She lights up an obnoxious cigarette and goes back to sitting behind one of the counters.
Friz	Remee's check is taken, looked at. Her eyes shoot a bit wide and she hands it to the Security Chief. She breaks the perpetual frown to smile and pat Remee's shoulder in an appreciative way, saying, "I'll get it to the Services Manager. 'Buy' us some time, at least." She chuckles briefly at her own joke, then goes back to perpetual frowning. Remee's wealth buys a lot (ha ha) but the Company's unique forms of debt must be pretty well-defended. The man near the airlock explains Rita's question. "The Tressell! You must not have Tressell-type gravity generators where you're from. We're renting our gravity, and if the station goes below quota, we lose 'down' for the week." He also explains the precise mathematics of how the quota-meeting (measured in "debt consolidation units") becomes a specific amount of rented gravity-time above and below specific thresholds of activation, complete with a few visual aids scrawled in dry-erase marker on the reinforced cargo-bay window.
Friz	The other security member, the woman, signals to the Security Chief silently, brandishing a stun-gun in one hand while she watches security cameras on a PDA in the other. The Chief puts her hand up. "He's aboard again. He's been sleep-deprived, and working hard, and stressed all week... remember to be gentle getting him back to the brig, so he can get back to work sooner instead of later. Okay?" She signals a short "go" signal to the woman, who pops the airlock and dashes madly in, clearing a path of open airlocks towards the mining bay. She's shouting. "Hey! Two-Fifteen, it's DVSD! We need--" A short click, then a heavy thud. She's tossed, back up the stairs, out of the cargo bay. She skids along the ground, grunting in pain, loking dizzy. Further beyond, down the stairs, is the darkened main mining bay, its lights shattered and blasted by incidents of violence. Crates, lockers, consoles, an exterior airlock, and then... a shadowy figure of a man in bulky armor, at the console, poking at it. A hammer, a heavy gun, a large drill, all strapped over his back.
Remee Halcyon	Remee hears some things she doesn't really like much. "Really... they're putting him right back to work..." There's wildlife out by the Megacrypt, though? Or possibly 'wildlife'? Either is fine, really, Remee's gone after both wildlife and 'wildlife'. Maybe there'll be time to go check it out. <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "What do they taste like?" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Please don't eat something that comes from 'the Megacrypt'!" <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "Why?" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Because-" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Because!" <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "Fine, fine..." She's still totally gonna go eat the megacrypt things, though. And then - suddenly, the target, appearing in bulky armor. Remee makes herself scarce, turning and running back up the hallway. Just far enough to get some distance, and some cover... ... And then she turns, takes position, and aims. One shot. She shouldn't need more than that.
Hellwarming Trio	"It would be rude if we responded to this call just to do whatever we wanted." Satori relents with an understanding nod towards Phreak, furrowing her brow again when Rita mentions quotas and Friz emphasizes the need to keep their target alive and in good condition. Naturally, Utsuho and Rin both look apprehensive about that latter part. "I guess I could hit him with the back of my rod." "And I could... Not set him on fire? As much?" "I'll manage. Between those tranquilizers and my powers, calming or scaring him into submission should be simple." Satori sounds far more confident about the matter than the two youkai behind her, at least, and she sounds like she might already have some vague sort of plan involving Remee. She doesn't explain anything, though, and just heads onwards once the signal to go is given. When the person leading them gets tossed right back up the stairs, though, Satori slows down to get a better read on the situation in the most literal sense: She's trying to detect the miner's thoughts, to see if she can't sift through whatever might be going through his mind to figure out what he might be afraid of or wary about in this particular situation. Utsuho and Rin, meanwhile, have no such ideas forthcoming as they begin their own attack on the armored target. Utsuho starts swinging her control rod wildly with a whole lot of heat and brute force coming with each strike, and Rin just starts firing colorful arrangements of magical flaming orbs at him in steady, spiraling patterns to start battering him down to gauge how much actual firepower might be needed here.
Rita Ma	Rita's nose wrinkles inside her helmet when the man explains. "But... don't people get really sick if the gravity's off for too long? That's not just an inconvenience, is it?" She doesn't know space, but an operative told her that once! "Oh, he's inside? So I won't need the suit after all?" Rita pops the helmet, tucking it under her arm with visible relief. But, just a little ways down the hall- "Ms. Officer!!" Rita reaches out for the fallen detective, then falls short. Her pupils dilate- there's a skinned knee, a scrape, something. She stands there frozen for a second or two, and then hurriedly, as if there's a poison in the air, puts her helmet back on and flicks the oxygen. "Okay. It's okay. We'll get it figured out, Ms. Officer," she says, speaking slowly enough that one might imagine she's reassuring herself. In the background, Remee's gunshot punctuates her words. "You'll be okay, right? Here." Some rustic medical supplies and painkillers are foisted on the fallen detective. She grabs a crowbar from a busted-open crate and approaches the miner at an almost leisurely jog, weaving past the party's ranged attackers. Wearing the spacesuit means no invisibility, no decoys, no tentacle attacks, no horrible acids or natural weapons. That's okay though. It'll be okay. Breathe. In the last few strides before the distance is closed, Rita betrays her true agility by rocketing forwards. The crowbar is swung against the miner's armor, and the crowbar breaks noisily. Rita keeps going past him, skidding to a halt on the other side of the bay.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	"So you're slaves. Got it." Phreak eventually just decides to put up his suit's helmet, as he can only scowl so much. Looking over his shoulder at Satori, "I can wait until after the call to do what I wanna do." The Chief goes flying past. Phreak, face hidden behind a reflective, copper-colored faceplate, slaps together a program to make sure nothing's broken. She'll see an AR display helpfully notifying her (after what's clearly a bootleg loading screen for a crack of some kind of medical nanite program) that 'kitchensinksuture.np' was successfully booted up. Both SMGs are out, held akimbo. His eyes, hidden behind the faceplate, navigate through menus projected onto the helmet's HUD, calling up another nanoprogram as he runs along the wall of the hallway. Rita finds it easier to move in her suit. It's not exactly a second skin, but it should be an improvement over out-of-box. Inside the hallway, Phreak leaps into the air to keep out of Remee's sight lines, and fires them single-shot. Five barks of the guns, bullets aimed not directly at the armored figure, but at the heavy gun strapped over his back.
Friz	The Shaft Miner moves inhumanly. Before the sights even land on him, as if by some sort of fucked up intuition, he snatches and slams his hammer into the ground, launching himself sliding to one side, gliding back from Remee's shot and seemingly suffering nothing for the trouble besides some lost territory, if she can push that advantage. So he's already skidding when the control rod swings at him, leaving him capable of somehow weaving out of the way like he's been doing this for weeks, always knowing exactly where to adjust his motion to slip in the gaps of the colorful light. His near-precognitive behavior is a stark contrast to him just staring past Rita as she breaks the crowbar over his body. His eyes, barely visible in the dark, under the hood, behind the sealed gas mask, are glazed... And shots to the back slam him, peppering his plate. Still, somehow the industrial equipment doesn't suffer much, some strained circuitry at worst. This is meant to endure cave-ins, the heat of lava, the violence of ancient beings. Gonna be tough to snap the gun, but it's wearing down. He brandishes the hammer as he skids to a stop. "Leave. I'm not stopping." His voice sounds hoarse, like he hasn't spoken in weeks. His armor's a little clearer in the light now: Grand, horrible organic plates strapped directly to an already armored jumpsuit. A heavy, armored hood and gas mask feels more suited to looting an exclusion zone, but the bone plating added over everything is like something out of a fantasy novel. A long bandolier of shimmering artifacts hangs over his torso, and torn-out organs from massive animals hang over his shoulders. He raises the powered hammer-pickaxe, adorned with trophies, eyes scanning around blankly, selecting...
Friz	...Phreak. The one who targeted his gear. "Never touch my things." He twists the hammer, and Phreak will be suddenly aware that a dozen holoprojections are being emitted by the hammer, towards him, analyzing the quickest, simplest, and most brutal ways to annihilate this particular "rock formation". Slamming the hammer against the ground, he skids over the plating and bounces between targets, swinging huge slams to try to bounce off of and head towards the next target -- and for those who stay distant, he slams the ground, kicking up a spray of floor tiles that he slaps out of the air like batting practice, lethal metal payloads that threaten to concuss their targets. But Phreak gets the worst of it, likely keenly aware that direct contact with that hammer will mean massive damage!
Remee Halcyon	The hammer swings at Remee, who suddenly is - just simply not there. There is a flash of quick moving fur, close to the ground, where she was previously - making an escape. Wolf-Remee darts across the cargo bay, getting over on the other side and regrouping behind whatever cover she can find, before switching back into her usual form. "... Right... can't get hit by that..." she says to herself, as she loads another round into her rifle. She'd probably survive, but wolf pancakes are grumpy pancakes. Back to aiming. A bit more carefully this time. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Adjust for gravity - while there's still gravity. No wind in this artificial environment. Watch how he moves, take aim... ... and at the right moment, squeeze the trigger.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	>I'm not stopping. "Wrong-o." Generally speaking, most things that actually manage to hit Phreak do massive damage. 'Manage to' is the operative word. The hammer impacts--but the fixer rolls with the impact to his ribs, springing up with one hand to vault over it. A backflip carries him away, the bloodsoaked crack in his armor sealing itself. "I promise you--" A turn sideways to twirl on his heels, avoiding two floor tiles. "You're gonna. One way or another." Dipping low into a roll, running up the wall of the bay and pivoting midway up to fire a burst at the armored fingers gripping the hammer. A flurry of tiles zips upwards to greet him, all finding purchase. Nothing happens--they fly right through the featureless blue polygon-man in Phreak's place, holding his guns. The holes in his body encode themselves closed, and Phreak is suddenly a blur. Erratic paths, zipping into and out of close range, stopping dead, starting anew, sliding under, leaping over. The SMGs spew bright streams of projectiles throughout, forming near contiguous arcs, cones and helixes as bidden by Phreak's arms--an obnoxious stream to rival those of the floor tiles.
Hellwarming Trio	'Leave. I'm not stopping.' ""... Wait. Didn't they mention something about overworking before? "Yeah! Hey, you! You're going way overboard with this!" "If you keep going at this rate, you'll burn out too quickly and everyone really will hate you." As Satori just kind of spits that out with the tact of a sledgehammer to the face, all three of them are bombarded with floor tiles to the face. Thankfully, their helmets are... Well, they're helmets, but the impact still rattles them as they're not quite ready to evade effectively in this unfamiliar environment. Utsuho gets caught by the bouncing hammer head on with only her control rod blunting the impact somewhat, Rin intercepts some of that tile spray flying for Satori with her body, and Satori gets it relatively easier than the other two with only a couple of scratches in comparison rather than full on impacts. Undeterred, Utsuho continues chasing after the leaping miner, her control rod starting to glow with the building heat within it indicating it might actually melt something in a bad way if the miner slows down long enough to smack him with it. Rin, after a quick shout back and forth with Satori, starts firing more of her trailing wisps of flame around the miner, trying to pen him in as a new challenger appears out of nowhere: A 12'something blood beast with massive clawed hands and jutting bones! It quite literally appears out of nowhere, too, as though it just formed out of the ether to snarl and charge at the miner to try and smash right into the miner, seemingly on the side of those trying to stop his rampage. The physical details of the monster might not be fully accurate to whatever's in various databases, but it's certainly close enough to the person Satori drew that mental image from.
Rita Ma	A soft gasp escapes Rita's throat when she glances back at the miner. The shattered handle of the crowbar falls from her hand. She hadn't expected it to do much to the armor. But for the man himself not to flinch- I should take the suit off. I'll have to smell the blood, but it's the only way I can do anything. ... But this is a whole new community. They haven't seen that. Even Ms. Friz hasn't seen it, not really. If I can make it through like this, if I can help them without showing my guts, maybe they'll like me. But if I do, there's no chance at all. Rita leaps out of the way of the hammer-swing meant for her, a glimmer of blue briefly visible inside her helmet as she does. Darting back in before the miner can recover, she slams her fist into the armored chestplate with a resounding crack. The floor-tiles that come later, she weaves around with equally uncanny aplomb. Somewhere in that flurry of dodges, she leaps up to land on the ceiling, then kicks down off of it violently to plunge towards the miner from above. Mid-descent, she wraps her arm around his neck- a chokehold that is, briefly, viciously gravity-assisted. Aside from threatening his airway, it also conveniently immobilizes him for- "Ms. Remee!" If he dodged the first time, that must mean it could hurt him, right?
Friz	Rita grabs him. She plunges her hand into the chestplate. He struggles in her surprisingly tight grasp, somehow unable to predict Rita's motion. He strains his chest to avoid the armor-piercing shot, or at least roll with it. The shot cracks against bone armor, glacing off barely. Wide eyes flare with an orange light, and suddenly, Rita had better let go or hang on for dear life. He's overstimulated, sleepless, accessing some faculty for humans that was once meant to keep them alive when being pursued by a wolf in sleepless marathon. He stances harshly, gripping the hammer with both hands and enduring a storm over his body with the practice of a man who has endured a volcanic erruption in his vicinity. Then, the twelve-foot monster. The scream of violence the man emits comes from something primal. Every muscle clenches, every bit of his focus is on the beast, twisting, maneuvering, marking it and it alone for termination purely on instinct and somehow surging his bloodlust to the level of rolling near-damage-free off of Utsuho's attacks. Now Satori will get the big strike. The manifested fear would have had a physical form even if Satori's magic didn't give it one. Somehow, her magic is being influenced by a dread slaughter-force within the Megacrypt, granting it greater power. The miner, obsessed, strikes with so much force that surreal lances of light blast in every direction, threatening to pierce all other targets and rocking the hull and nearby windows with weakening force.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Moving. Always moving. Phreak's polygonal form grinds with blue sparks against the floor of the bay as he slides beneath a salvo of light-lances. Another forces him back onto his feet, piercing through his throat and revealing a mote of light rapidly zipping through the empty air inside his 'body' before the wound seals itself shut. A forward dive over a third, landing, tuck-roll. "Christ, he was gone before," calls Phreak over the din of battle. "But this is gone-gone." If nothing else, the last few seconds of his Grid Armor afford him the opportunity to touch the giant's stuff. Jumping in place, his legs form a perfect split to avoid another burst of light-lances, while both arms, held straight out, aim for the point in the armor just behind the bend of the knee. "Trying to do every goddamn thing yourself is making it worse, not better."
Rita Ma	Of her two options, Rita chooses 'hang on for dear life'. She can't keep him immobilized, but she can maintain the choke: bracing both her feet on his back and leaning backwards, she pushes off of his own body to keep that crushing pressure up, however badly he thrashes. Blood from his gory trophies slicks her spacesuit and clouds her visor, making it harder to see. His wild swings force her to duck and lean away from incidental impacts. The lances of light force her to angle herself to use his body as a shield. But she holds on, even if her arms are starting to ache. And being that close gives her a chance to talk. "You're not sleeping. You're not resting. You're just going out there to hurt and be hurt, for days and weeks! Why? Your friends, your coworkers... everyone just wants you to take a break. To be kind to yourself." Another ferocious attack. She twists out of the way of the backswing, maintaining her hold. "Why do you want this so badly? Why are you trying so hard to be awful?" She waits for the miner to get close to one of the airlocks, then hooks her foot into the doorframe, effectively 'tethering' the miner to it with her own body. Given that she's tougher than the metal, the only way to get free is to be strong enough to rend steel- so he probably will. But that gives her time to consolidate her grip and immobilize him for a further pummeling. The armor is likely to start groaning under the pressure she's exerting on it. "Please just stop. It's okay to. I promise."
Remee Halcyon	"This guy..." The lance blasts. Remee once again isn't there. She's over on the other side of the cargo bay again, slotting a dart into her rifle this time, and taking aim...
Hellwarming Trio	It's working! Kind of. It works a little too well, even, and that scream actually has the youkai reeling a bit as they're not quite used to humans making /that/ kind of noise. Still, with his attention focused as it is on Satori's recreated beast from his mind, there's relatively more room for the three to focus their efforts on actually pinning the miner down. The recreated beast, though, isn't nearly as sturdy as the real thing, as it's only really capable of howling and swinging at the miner while being torn to shreds by his attacks. Satori's only able to base its reactions from what the miner has experienced of such things, after all, and she's not actually sure how durable it is! It eventually fades back into nothingness rather than the expected gore pile as the trio from hell are forced to scatter when his attacks surge outwards at them. Unlike before, though, they're actually prepared to evade the splash this time around! Mostly. They weave around in the air rather than sticking to the ground, spinning and twisting around to avoid taking direct hits, although they're still left catapulting around before long and bouncing off walls lightly to stay mobile. "What a pain... Dude! You're swingin' at ghosts now!" "Ghosts? No, that was a monster." "A monster of your own creation, even. Working yourself to madness like this will only make your performance worse." "Yeah, bro! You gotta take it easy sometimes!" "Please, enjoy the show, and take a break. It's for your own good." This time around, the three actually focus their attacks on the miner in a somewhat more unified manner: Three sets of colorful blasts, coming in at him from three different angles and in different patterns while still being hot enough to scorch him, if not quite hot enough to actually set him on fire. Utsuho's, as expected, are fairly straightforward and large. Rin's are more complex and wavy in comparison, and Satori's are practically artistic in the way the patterns pulse back and forth through the air before descending on the miner.
Friz	There's a moment of quiet after the pink monster is reduced back to magic and psychology, a moment of quiet dominated by the panting, heavy breathing of the Shaft Miner, scrambling for loot from the beast that isn't there. "Where is it where is it where is it where is it..." He's ranting under his breath. Rita is still on his neck, crushing the armor inwards and threatening his airways. His arm, thick and heavy, latches onto her forearm. The blasts to the back of the knee get him stumbling back, trying to ready himself, even though he doesn't suffer too much damage. His response is to both -- and to the youkai. "You don't get it." His voice whispers in the staggering. His voice, briefly, shifts into something that sounds more like a human being. "It's easy for you. Where'm I gonna be if they find out I'm--" He's hooked. Can't move around more. He's suffering more and more loss of oxygen. He's letting out a longer, more sustained grunt of pain. "Nnnnghhh... NO!" His eyes glaze, his body shudders, and he forces himself back into that sleepwalker state. He doesn't even look when he brings up his hand, somehow snatching Remee's dart out of mid-air and crushing it. Too bad he can't do the same with Rin, Satori, and Utsuho, who superheat the man in his heavy monster-hunter-ass armor. He slams back, tries to kick off into high-speed movement with his hammer again... No. Rita has too good a grip. "They can't know." He slams the hammer to one side, against the damaged windows near the airlock. The entire mining bay is exposed to space, air blasting out of it. Upstairs, the cargo bay shuts emergency seals, leaving the group in with the Miner. "<Low pressure environment detected.>" The gun emits a quiet radio broadcast. The man moves like he's screaming, and Rita can even hear it, when he yanks his heavy rifle out. In the vacuum, it can unfold, unfurl, bloom into a modded, high-level super-tech rifle meant to take down high-grade asteroid megafauna. He slams back against the shattered glass, trying to crunch Rita against it and then brace against it to fire at Remee, a bolt so brutal it would tear through solid asteroid rock for meters out! With lesser charge, he starts to lash out at Phreak and the youkai as well, surprisigly rapid blasts for such a heavy kinetic projector!
Remee Halcyon	Remee's approach to dealing with escaping oxygen... ... is to take a deep breath and hold it, as long as she can. Asphyxiation is a 'deal with it later' problem. The more immediate problem is the escaping air throwing off her aim - suddenly the windless environment has wind. Wait for the vaccuum to stabilize, then- - quickly dodge the massive shot aimed at her... ... and then pull the trigger. Nothing happens. Oh. Nothing's happening because her trigger finger is gone along with the arm it was previously attached to. The three-quarters werewolf, now in more than one sense of the word, goes to desperately try to reaim with her remaining hand, working out how to hold it steady and still with her remaining shoulder, and then brace it there while she goes for the trigger. Oh, and there's still no air in the room. Now she can worry about that problem.
Rita Ma	Rita glances back at her oxygen tank, just to double-check it's still flowing. The spacesuit that's been a handicap to her this whole fight is finally a boon: going for an emergency canister now would mean giving up her grip on the miner. Instead, she leans back- perilously, straining- and hooks the toe of her spacesuit boot under the jagged edge of a floor tile, getting just a little traction. Again, an anchor point to slow the miner's movements. Then she can undergo the ordeal of holding on with just one hand, her fingers digging into the armor plates of his shoulder for purchase. That means he's not choking anymore. But that's okay. The mechanics of drowning are something Rita's keenly familiar with. There is no amount of oxygen deprivation to the brain that is really 'safe'. Whatever can knock someone out can also grievously harm them. But Friz had said the doctors- or doctor, singular- here is pretty good. She'll have to trust in 'pretty good'. The miner's suit must have an oxygen tank. She reaches for it by feel, and then crushes it in one hand, letting its precious oxygen bleed out into space. For a moment longer, her helmet touches the miner's, and she whispers through the conduction: "I'm really sorry." Then she vaults over his shoulders, lands in front of him, and delivers one more punch directly to his solar plexus. Drive out the remaining air, and let him take a deep lungful of void.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Phreak is briefly lifted off his feet by the rush of air, flailing in surprise. "Is it worth wrecking the station, you crazy bastard? Huh?!" As the polygon-armor fades to reveal his copper-hued hardsuit, Phreak grunts in frustration, his back hitting the wall before the seals kick in. Internals kick in, a faint indicator joining the array of many before Phreak's eyes. Dropped unceremoniously to the ground, the fixer rights himself not with impressive athletic prowess, but the sharp, pragmatic hiss of microthrusters. "All those people out there want is for you to get better, you fucking giamoke!" The rapid-fire spray hits him--pierces clean through his heart--but his approach isn't slowed for it. A hoverboard appears below his foot before it strikes the ground, and he's off. His nanites have already stopped the bleeding, sealed the hole in the armor. Internals are another story, but you don't run programs like 'Dr. Hack n' Quack' for five-star medical care. A hard, serpentines series of banks, as if the oncoming stream of projectiles were a set of slaloms. "Whatever it is, they don't care." His heel strikes the board, keeping the electromag lifter clear of the projector's stream with a kickflip. Spent clips, glowing-hot, fly from the guns, but Phreak races ever closer. A hoverboard assisted shoulder-check, hit-and-run style, timed to hit him just before Rita's gut-punch. Click-click--new clips in, a vertical loop, and Phreak has both guns pointed downward, bottom of the board level with the ceiling. He takes aim at the kinetic projector and holds both triggers down.
Hellwarming Trio	"Can't know? About that... Uh." "They already know, ya dingus!" "That's the reason we're here. You need to stop and think, for your own good and... Their coinpurses, I guess." "They use cards these days, master." "With shiny bits on 'em!" The rifle comes out, and the miner's rifle turns into something that's practically incomprehensible to the youkai. They're barely even familiar with how early guns work, after all, so something as high-tech and weird as this just ends up impressing its danger on them through sheer size. Perhaps sensing the danger, Utsuho flaps her wings to fling herself over to where Rin and Satori are, practically immolating herself in sheer nuclear energy to try and melt as much of those projectiles coming their way as she can. It doesn't really work as well as she'd hope as she still ends up getting shot right in the everywhere, but it does at least cauterize the wounds almost as quickly as they're opening up. "Gh.. You think that's enough?!" "Okuu! Geh, alright, dude! You asked for it!" "You..! Alright, let's finish this quickly and bring him back!" Luckily for the youkai, they've had their helmets on this whole time, so they haven't actually noticed that the oxygen in the room has ceased being there. Unfortunately, that almost means they have to put far more effort into actually launching their flaming attacks at the miner, but it doesn't take long for Utsuho and Rin to adjust. Utsuho concentrates that fiery aura into her control rod before hurling herself at him with a broad enough swing to try and smash his equipment into molten slag. Satori, meanwhile, directs her attack against the miner's psyche. The bloody head of the beast from before reappears as it starts floating towards him, wreathed in (Rin's) flames before being followed by another. And another. And another. They're swarming in from multiple directions, even, coming in like an unyielding wave of flaming heads with all of their eyes focused on the miner, partially in an effort to terrify him into submission.
Friz	Spray, spray, spray. Shots from the accelerator tear up the hull and the body. But Remee slings her first solid hit, that tranquilizing agent finally seeping into his circulatory system. A pulse pounding hard only brings it through more of his body. He jolts, trying to power through it as the hoverboard shoulder-check comes in now. Slam, a shoulder-check to his body, and he stumbles hard, grabbing raw shattered glass with an armored hand to stay onboard, brandishing the kinetic accelerator with the other. Then, it's slammed, knocked down by Utsuho and Phreak simultaneously while Rita crushes his oxygen. It starts leaking, but at least it's not choking him immediately. He's left unarmed, unarmed as the horrifying monster-head warm approaches. His voice chokes, and he tries to re-enter that sustainable sleep-deprived trance again. No, no. There's not enough, Rita drills a solid jab straight into his solar plexus, stealing his breath. And he's out like a light, surely about to collapse. Not yet. His body moves without thought. There is a deep orange flickering beneath those closing eyelids. It is seeking to fulfill the function of a Shaft Miner: To harvest from the monster. While he was more conscious, he would often ignore Rita, until she forced the issue. But now, less conscious, the monster-hunter reaches out to her, holding tight. By pure muscle memory, the near-limp body manages to forcefully draw a skinning knife hidden in his boot, intended to tear into the nearby monster that, on some deep, low level, a monster-hunter somehow recognizes. Security, including Friz, are starting to get here. Officer Nye with the cuffs, officer Sandiego (recovered from her beating), Detective Friz, and the Security Chief, all circling around and spacewalking over here to accelerate the recovery. But he's out like a light, as soon as that horrid knife maneuver is resolved...
Remee Halcyon	Remee is dying. At this point she's gone through all of her oxygen and right now her body is slowly shutting down. The bigger worry is floating off. The artificial gravity here is preventing floating away - Remee can come back to life, but that's about it. Some time would pass, then she'd wake up fully formed in the middle of space, and then immediately die again from lack of oxygen, and then she'd wake back up, and then- Best not to think about it. Or what would happen if she ended up drifting too close to a sun. Not that she can think too much right now. Right now - she's focused on trying to load another dart into her gun, aim it, and fire - a task she's doing one handed, and that is taking up the entirety of her oxygen-deprived mental processing power. She hasn't even realized that her target's already out. Eventually she does sorta keel over and die, though.
Hellwarming Trio	The miner is finally out of commission, and he's still alive! Probably. He seems alive enough to the youkai, anyway, and the three exchange slow nods in that very refined golf-audience sort of way. Satori turns to to Phreak, Remee, and Rita with a somewhat awkward-looking thumbs-up, and she opens her mouth to congratulate the group when she's cut off by Utsuho and Rin cheering and hamming it up like the pair of loud, boisterous idiots that they are. "Yeah! We did it!" "Got him alive and everything! We're the best!" "... Good work, everyone. Everything went according to plan." As the two dumbasses continue celebrating, she approaches Friz and the security officers. "As promised, your miner is alive, and with only... Some damage to the area." She deliberately avoids looking at any of the collateral damage from the battle, although it's definitely none too subtle. Or subtle at all, even.
Rita Ma	The miner grabs her and draws his knife. At first Rita tries to squirm away, but as soon as she realizes what he's doing, she's paralyzed. Deer in the headlights. Like she'd said to Kale, not all that long ago: 'They judge what's human and what's a threat. What needs to die and what doesn't. If I put myself in front of a Harpoonist, and they condemn me, then... I don't think I could take it.' 'Because she's 'a person who fights monsters', if she thought I was bad, then I really must be.' The knife descends. It pierces her spacesuit, right over her chest. In that moment of shock, Rita can't find the will to defend herself. But something else does. At the moment of impact, her spacesuit squirms like there are snakes inside it. Her hands are by her sides, but something grabs the knife in the fraction of an inch between spacesuit and skin. Somehow realizing that she wasn't stabbed is more of a revolting shock to her than the alternative. Rita staggers backwards as her suit hisses air, and the knife falls to the ground, bloodless. Was anyone on the security team watching her? Or were they all too focused on the collapsing miner? She can't bear to look at them and find out. Remee collapsing provides a convenient distraction from her own woes, though. She runs over to fuss and fret unnecessarily over the possibly-a-corpse, she's not really medically trained to tell, and eventually try to get them both out of this airless hell.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Phreak returns the thumbs-up, dismounting from the hoverboard. It disintegrates under a wave of blue light. "Rita, O2 leak," he says in passing, clipping both guns to the contact holsters on his armor's thighs. For a guy with his frame and general threat presentation, Phreak is surprisingly strong. He pauses beside Remee, kneeling to get her dubiously on her feet, with assistance, helping her back upstairs. You can't spell upstairs without air, after all. Once it's certain the new Watch member isn't going to die for real, Phreak dematerializes the helmet and helps himself to a drink somewhere there's air. "Even," he utters, should Friz pass by.
Friz	All four security members rush as fast as they can to snatch anyone who isn't moving themselves. They didn't really help much with the combat, for obvious reasons, being relatively mundane folks... but they can help with clinching this. Officer Nye, the unarmed one, brings in first a small emergency oxygen tank, then a pair of handcuffs. The Security Chief moves to quickly snatch Remee. Officer Sandiego, the one who got blasted back earlier, is rushing to help Phreak and get him back up to the lobby. And Friz reaches into Nye's backpack, grabbing a hull-foam grenade at his direction, and detonating it to re-seal the breached environment with metal foam, as she urgently grabs at Rita. Did she see the knife? Did she see the absence of the blood? Did she see the breached spacesuit? What did she see? What did she really see? Dirt: I wonder... Savvy: No time! Gotta get this cleaned up! Grit: The oxygen loss should have been no more than ten seconds. Moxie: Is he moving! Dirt, is the Shaft Miner moving?! Savvy: He can't be, those weeks of sleep deprivation have to be... Moxie: Dirt! Moxie: DIRT! Dirt: Huh? Moxie: What are you doing?! Dirt: I thought I saw... Dirt: ... Dirt: Never mind. I'll figure it out later. LATER... The recovery ward of the medbay is well goddamn crowded. Remee and the miner, as well as the Security Chief and Friz. Dirt: You know, she was real generous. Grit: This is lethal. Savvy: Why? Grit: It is. The more you think about the debts, the more lethal it is. Dirt: She's the second one to push for helping out. Grit: Twice the lethality. Savvy: God, just fucking stop already! Adrenaline every time we're near money, any time we think about money, I'm fucking sick of it! Grit: No. Savvy: Then fuck off! Moxie: We should... leave, and go talk to someone. Clear our head. She wanders by Phreak at the bar. This, at least, is less stressful. A simple barter. An uneasy topic, but in a more intimately familiar way. She sits down, hunching over some kind of bastardized small irish coffee. Dirt: Did he really owe us for what happened with his "dad"? Savvy: We were party to an assassination. Grit: We were part of a necessary cycle. Moxie: We need more caffeine. Savvy: And we need to settle that account. "Yeah." She says, nodding. "Here, out here, it's..." She pauses for a long time. "It's different. Thanks for understanding." She slugs back too much of the coffee at once and heads out. Sometime later, the Security Chief is speaking to the youkai. "Good work! You know, I know the damage looks bad, but our engineers are used to that sort of thing. What's really important is making the arrest cleanly, it's such an important part of the criminal-and-law relationship. And you did do that, mostly... So good work." She rambles idly, patiently walking them back to the gateway so that the insurance liability isn't here any longer than needed...