886/Site Recon

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Site Recon
Date of Scene: 31 October 2014
Location: Earth-115
Synopsis: Newfoundland. A small fishing village. Noone has entered, or left the area for several days. The local government sent in a recon team to find out what was happening, who went dark.

Strike Two deployed to find out what happened, and this, is their story.

Thanks to: Everyone who attended. You guys are awesome.
Cast of Characters: Kotone Yamakawa, Staren, 62, 530, 554, 559


Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    "Alright... I understand. Yes, I will inform the Commander immediately... We will look into this Prime Minister, I assure you. Goodbye." Bradford heaved a sigh as the Canadian Prime Minister ended the transmission. He gave himself a moment to collect his thoughts before connecting through to the Commander in her office. "Commander? Sorry to bother you, but the Canadian Prime Minister just got off the line. A small fishing village in Newfoundland went dark a few days ago, and they sent in a search team. That team went dark about five minutes after landing. He wants us to send one of our Strike Teams to find out what happened."

    Elise listened carefully. Canada was less panicked than some areas of the world, but anything to take pressure off would be welcome. "Alright, have Bravo squad dispatch in ten minutes. Link me through to them so I can observe." Bradford paused. "... You're not deploying?" Elise shrugged. "I have other tasks on my plate now, Bradford. And besides, this is a glorified hide and seek mission."

        45 MINUTES LATER

    "COMMAND?! WE NEED BACKUP DOWN HERE. Zombies coming out of the woodwork and Walker thought he saw a Bug skittering around in the shadows!" The Squad Leader barked hoarsely, before bringing up his rifle to gun down a lurching corpse.

    The Village, on arrival, was deserted. The locals had done some decorating for the holiday. Jack-o-lanterns, bats on strings, fake cobwebs in windows. Then, the Zombies came. Not true zombies in the brain-eating sense, these were unfortunate victims of a Chryssalid, impregnated with one of their hideous offspring. The team, for now, was holding position in a fishmongers stall, two Supports staunching a wounded Heavy Weapons specialist, who was resolutely keeping the LMG she carried well used. A sniper has dared clamber up atop the stall to get a better view, and the attached MEC was in the thick of things, swatting away the shambling mess with his KSM and powerful servo motors.

    "Strike Two, copy that." Bradford acknowledged, switching to broadband comms. "XCOM Central to any Elite presence within rapid response range of Newfoundland on Earth-115. We have a Strike Team pinned down in need of assistance. Anyone willing to assist will be rewarded for their time and effort, Repeat..." he let the AI take over, repeating the call a few times, while he watched, helpless at the Geoscape. "Hold on... Just hold on."

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen had overheard the broadcast and figured 'hey, I'm free.' and here he was. His ship, the X-70 Phantom landed nearby, stealth systems active. The members of XCOM would see a number of alien contacts suddenly fall, each one having a new hole in their head. Clearly, there was another sniper in the midst.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa had come to the ant farm to help out with some work she wanted to be safe somewhere on Halloween and Dr. Shen could use a hand right? Well that's the plan after dealing with Jack eariler in the morning however it was not. It was a simple field mission, right she's come along it was suposed to be a simpled search mission, right what tyhey found on the ground? Was hell, no it was worse in someways than Kingsmouth. She'd also been working with Shen to test out her ability to remote operate a Shiv, it was fornate they had the machine along when eveyrthing went to hell. She was cltuching her rifle and issuing orders to the SHIV to back up the MEC. She was trying to keep calm but this was not what she was expectin. There was also a whispe rin the back of her mind she couldn't be infected but they could still rip her apart or what if worse her cybernatic body would let them spawn ... multiple young? She didn't want to find out on that as the chaingun on the SHIV chatters away.

"...they got the whole town and the Canadian Recon team... What's this places's population?!"

She'a already hitting up a internet uplink to check the town's total population as she fights.

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     Armsmaster has always wanted to go to Newfoundland, although it was impossible. On his Earth, the entire island had been sunk beneath the waves by one of the Endbringers, leaving death, destruction and displaced people in its wake. As Armsmaster steps out of the warp gate, his Halberd held in one hand, he wonders what it was about this place that had made Dragon the best Tinker in his world.

     Switching his Halberd into a two-handed grip, holding the weapon up and ready to strike at any zombie or creature that gets too close to him, he makes for the Strike Team pinned down near the fishmonger's stall.

Rocket (559) has posed:
    Rewarded, you say? If there's anyone who loves money, it's a certain pint-sized raccoon and his walking houseplant. He had hitched a ride over with a pick-up that obviously wasn't his and haphazardly running it through the hordes. Though it also doesn't help he's struggling to reach the pedals and see out the windshield at the same time, resulting in him 'parking' the truck in the side of a nearby building, Groot flopping out of the rear and brushing himself off, Rocket himself dragging himself out of the driver's window. Notably, both are wearing a similar get-up; a deep blue jacket and pants with red trim, Rocket adding red gloves as well.

"I am Groot. <Perhaps next time, I should drive?>", Groot says, glancing over at Rocket.

    "And end up a few hours late to the pay-off?" Rocket shoots back, fishing around in a duffel bag in the truck bed, drawing out a pair of small energy blasters. "Not a chance. You're a terrible driver. You follow the rules and everything. Now quit whining and start breaking some necks of anyone who isn't our employers."

Groot frowns at Rocket, glancing over to the zombies and soldiers hunkered down. Rocket, meanwhile, ducks between the slow zombies, vaulting the wall and poking one of the XCOM soldiers with his gun.

    "Hey, you. Which one of you is in charge of this mess, we need to talk payment."

Staren has posed:
It's night, so it's hard to see, but the sound of engines approaching can be heard clearly, before it... gets really close, and then stops approaching, before the Star Hawk, now in humanoid mode, lands in front of the fishmonger stall. A 40ft tall war machine of shiny metal, thrusters in the legs allowing it to hover. The ground shakes a bit as it makes contact. "XCOM Team, this is Staren of the Union. Did I hear correctly that you have /zombies/?" Then Staren seems to mutter in range of the microphone, "I thought It was /aliens/ on this world... Now you have zombies /and/ aliens... great..." Then, directly into the mic again. "This isn't my first zombie apocalypse. We can get through this. I'll escort you back to the Skyranger. Do you have any injured or civilians?"

    In the meantime, Staren steps on or kicks any zombies that approach his machine, occasionally firing some railgun shots at any isolated zombies. The results for the street if he misses aren't so good, but it's a bit late to worry about collateral damage now.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Normally, fresh holes in allies braincases would cause some form of panic in an oncoming force. These, however, are mindless shambling horrors. The shot ones fall limp, taken down by the lethal strikes from Garen.

    Kotone's SHIV fares just about as well as to be expected. The chaingun chatters away, slicing oncoming zombies to shreds and killing the half-formed Chryssalids in their chest cavities before they can mature and become a far more dangerous threat. Speaking of Chryssalids, as Armsmaster exits the Gate, the Emergency Biohazard system kicks in and seals it with an Iris-like reinforced hatch.

    Armsmaster got through in time, and cuts a path to the Strike Team.. only to have a large, purple monstrocity leap out from behind one of the small wooden buildines, flailing razor sharp claws and gnashing mandibles in his face while making an unearthly groaning roar.

    Rocket and Groot's arrival makes the horde turn and groan at the crashed pickup, some shambling that way, while others, run down and bashed aside, come clawing over with shattered legs or broken backs, spurred on by the unearthly larva within. Groot would find the things to be slow, but surprisingly strong, though no match for the plant-being. One of the rifle-toting Assaults turns to peer at the talking Racoon. "Once we're clear, we'll patch you through to the Commander. Kinda busy right now." he replies, before returning to the fray.

    That same Assault clicks on his radio. "Samuels got unlucky and one of the Bugs managed to slash her on the leg. Rodrigues and Porter have her stable. No civilian survivors. The Bugs are coming from the docks though... we can see a crashed ship out there. Someone should take a look, I don't like the smell of this, and it isn't the fish."

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen continue's his sniper onslaught, picking off aliens that are evil and unwelcome. "Whomever is down there, I would like to pass on a word of advice when we meet...DO NOT SHOOT THE BLUE-SKINNED SNIPER!" He says, taking another shot as if to emphasize the point.

Staren has posed:
    The Star Hawk looks around at the assembling Elites, down at the Assault, and then in the indicated direction towards the docks. It nods. "Will you be able to make it back to the Skyranger yourselves, or would you like escort before we check out the ship?"

Rocket (559) has posed:
    Rocket grumbles, climbing up onto the walls and firing wildly into the zombie horde with electrical blasts. "Fine, you amateurs sit this one out and let us pros do the work. Point me at the ship and try not to wet yourselves." He keeps firing, blasts occasionally hitting and frying a zombie. Groot, meanwhile, goes for the more physical route, yelling out as he swings his powerful, wooden arms and sending bodies flying through the air and making them prime targets for heavy firepower.

Staren has posed:
    Staren sighs, and leans over to address Rocket. "They're not amateurs. They're professionals. Professional /alien/ fighters." It waves a hand in the direction of the team. "And they're still alive, so they're doing /pretty well/ for their first time getting caught in a zombie outbreak."

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     Whatever it is, it's probably not human, and that makes Armsmaster feel better.

     His combat prediction software doesn't have enough data yet on these... things, whatever they are, so he falls back on old instincts. He shifts his grip on his polearm, turning the incredibly sharp tip of the weapon towards the monstrosity, and then simply pulling to his right as he feels the weapon sink deep, aiming to bisect the creature.

     He pulls his head back, trying to keep his vulnerable lower face and jaw out of the creature's grip. He really needs to do something about a full helmet.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is still issueing orders trying to cut down the zombies, every one is one less space bug to worry about. The sad thought that this entire town has been utterly wiped out plays through her mind. There's nothing that can be done other than put the bugs down and find the ones who put them there in the first place.

Kotone pops of a shot at some of the zombies.

with backup coming this is good hopefully they can get the wounded the hell out of here and figure out why the bugs are coming from the docks.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Garen's transmission is received with a pause. Then a standard acknowledgement. The XCOM Sniper joining in with the kills, her rifle resonantly reporting with each .50cal slug it fires.

    The Assault looks up at the Mecha, and snorts. "We're not goin' ANYWHERE. Not when there's aliens to shoot. They're on our planet and we plan on kickin' their sorry arses back into space. We form up, and move to the dock area."

    Rocket and Groot manage to start clearing out the horde, the town was only relatively small, about 80 people, most of them practically living on their fishing boats. There's nowhere near the number here, but a vast majority of of the town seems to have been infested. Also, anyone looking towards the waterline would see... is that shark twitching?

    The Halberd finds hard chitin plating. These monsters are built tough, but the sharp edge, and the power augmented strike bite through and successfully bisect the monster, upper body detaching from the lower, leaving the four razor-sharp claw-limbs twitching before they collapse and it falls over. The upper half roars again, fluid spewing from the mandibles before it too falls limp.

    Kotone's SHIV, and the added weight of fire from Rocket, Garen, Staren's Mecha stomping and shooting, as well as Groot's raw strength, thin out the zombie hordes to a few lone shamblers that the snipers likely finish off.

    The Assault, once the initial danger has passed, stands and gestures to form up. Samuels, the female Heavy, limps over resolutely.. but is waved back. "Samuels, head back to the Skyranger, we might need to egress quickly and we can't wait for you. Cover the ship and keep out exit route clear. Porter, go with her." The Heavy grumbles, but nods, hefting her LMG and limping back toward the dropship. Porter falls in beside her, offering to help but getting snippily waved off. The Assault then pipes up. "Alright, first, I'd like to thank you all for pulling our arses out of the fire. Without you all, we'd be more of those mindless monsters." he looks up at the Star Hawk. "You're Doctor Staren, right? You should know about the Bugs and what they do to people, but I'll give you the cliffnotes version anyway. The Bugs, Vahlen calls them Chryssalids, infest their victims with a larva that grows inside the body. It animates the body for some reason, then bursts clear of it after about twenty minutes into a new, fully capable Chryssalid." as he's talking, the Shark at the waterfront jerks... then EXPLODES in a cloud of visera, a fully formed Chryssalid appearing in its place, before it rears up, clawing the air and charging in for close range... targetting the two troopers that broke from the group!

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen turns and eyes the shark, and once it bursts he was already firing like a madman. He even chucked a few grenades into the percieved path. "HEADS UP!" He shouts. Once done, he moves while still firing, heading towards the team.

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods at their request to take the fight to the aliens together.

    One of these days, Staren will have to tell them he's not actually a doctor. The Star Hawk looks around suddenly. "Oh. OHHHHH. /That's/ what's going on?? I figured... with Halloween... and the Multiverse... eh... heh..." the mecha rubs the back of its head.

    "...That's still messed up. Twenty minutes? The energy required and the rate of use must be /immense/! How does it manage it?" Okay, that's a question for Dr. Vahlen, not these guys, but Staren can't help wondering aloud.

    SHARKSPLOSION! Staren turns towards it, then fires a burst of railgun fire. "They can infest sharks too? Can they infest /any/ animal?"

Rocket (559) has posed:
    "Oh great, as if killing you wasn't bad enough. What planet did you humies tick off this time?" Rocket says, heading back over to the wrecked truck, pulling out his trademark cannon, powering it up as it unfolds. Groot meanwhile gives the XCOM squads an apologetic look, glancing back down to Rocket. He seems about ready to speak when a nearby shark explodes, an alien creature bursting out. Groot wastes no time, throwing his hand outwards in its direction, his arm morphing into a long, sharp wooden whip in an attempt to spear the Chryssalid. Rocket seems content to leave it to Groot for now, cannon ready as he speaks with the squad leader.

    "So tell me you have some plan of attack that isn't 'knock down the front door and hope they don't murder everything'."

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     One more down. Armsmaster punctuates his dispatching of the Chryssalid by putting his power armored boot through the thing's mandibles and head. With that done, he makes his way towards the group of soldiers. He listens as the Assault talks. "Armsmaster, Protectorate East-North-East. This position is untenable."

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    The Assault looks at Armsmaster. "More tenable than Washington was, and we held out there. More tenable than Detroit, and Oslo, and Sydney. We've seen plenty of shit, ArmsmasterProtectorateEastNorthEast." he returns bluntly. "We press on, find out where the Bugs are coming from, and eliminate it." The ChryssaShark is shot, exploded, shot some more, blasted with missiles, then speared. Whatever meaty chunks and giblets are left clatter messily to the wooden deck, having barely gotten ten feet.

    Parker, the other Assault, hefts her shotgun and pulls out a small holoprojector. Elise's head appears above it. "Jones, sitrep."

    The Squad Leader salutes. "The town's a loss, Commander. Bugs everywhere. We're going to see if we can find the source. Elite presence is on station. Samuels is wounded and I've sent her back to the Skyranger with Porter." Elise nods. "I'll have Bradford task another RecSat to the area, we lost the window of the last one about two minutes ago. We'll have eyes on in five." The holoprojector clicks off, then Jones points to the docks. "Alright, lets move, keep tight, Racoon... uh, what was your name? If you could take point with Parker, Staren, take overwatch. Lasalle, get a high perch with the blue sniper, give us some covering fire from long range. Gonzales, how's the suit holding up?"

    The MEC stamps on one last Zombie, stilling its struggles with a meaty squealch. "Armour Integrity at 78%. Ammunition stores depleted. KSM online." he replies with the vaguely synthetic voice of a Cyborg. "Good, lets move, and keep your eyes peeled."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa takes this time to reload her rifle and just in time too as a freaking alien bursts out of one of the sharks that had been caught. She stares with more than a bit of a look of horror on her face for a half secon. She brings her rifle up and opens fire upon the Chryssalid. Did the fishermen catch some infected creature? Are the aliens infecting sea going life? The idea of an alien plague from the seas was a rather horrifying one.

She lookc to Rocket, and thinks better of the comment was was about to make. She's moving keep with the group and put the SHIV out front it's disposable after all right?

"I'm thinking it might have been something the local fishermen caught that was infected to start. With these damn things it just takes one."

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen runs up the the group, revealing himself. He was blue skinned, and bore red eyes, and also spoke with an english accent to his voice. "I take it that we are going to get out of here, right?" He asks, checking his rifle's ammo count. He also somehow expected to get gawked at for a bit.

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     Armsmaster nods to the Assault. "You have plenty of spirit, and an objective in mind. Let us hope it's enough. If you can provide me with data on the movements of these creatures, I should be able to plot their movement patterns and track down an area where they might be coming from."

     He's reminded of a cape, Nilbog. S-class threat. An entire town cordoned off for all time. That won't happen here.

Rocket (559) has posed:
    "I am Groot. <I am Groot>", the tree responds, nodding to the squad leader and taking up position, holding up an arm to form a portable riot shield, large enough for the others to duck behind if needed.
    Rocket meanwhile hefts his cannon over his shoulder. "The name's Rocket. What's a 'raccoon', anyways?" he says, following up with Groot, climbing the tree-man and setting up on a shoulder, giving him a slight thump. "One thing. You said one of you was injured. Don't these things make more of themselves? You don't think they were infected and you just sent them to tear up our ride out? And the robot's got a point, if these things are in your sea, you've got major problems humie."

Staren has posed:
    "Sure thing." Staren nods the Star Hawk's head.

    He looks at the MEC trooper for a moment, but... he has no weapons of the appropriate scale. He turns back to the squad leader. "For future reference, I have a railgun, some energy weapons, and a whole lot of missiles." He actually brought /extra/ missiles instead of his biggest guns, because this is a zombie outbreak, not a kaiju attack.

    Staren waits expectantly for Rocket and Parker to move ahead, then starts walking behind them, watching for unfriendly movement.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Parker racks the slide on her shotgun, fills the tube magazine with more shells, then sets it back, before stalking toward the docks, weapon ready. Jones falls in behind the Star Hawk, while Rodrigues and Gonzales form up. Lasalle remains in her perch atop the stall, trailing her scope across the grounded whaling ship. "Movement on the ship. I can see multiple bugs scurrying around. It almost looks like an ants nest..." Ominous.

    Samuels and Porter, for their part, only notice they were nearly Chryssalid chow when the severed upper face lands in front of them. They look back, before pressing on, Samuels punting the grotesque thing out into the lapping waves.

    "Chryssalids can't swim. Every instance of water makes the damn things redirect unless it's a trivial amount. They hate water." That's Parker, chattering over to Rocket.

Garen (530) has posed:
    "If we're logical, we should look at the possible points. If they were in the shark, they likely used it as a transport. It would be fair to suggest that isn't the only thing. If there are no civilians around, I would suggest levelling the area, just to be safe." Garen says. He pulls up his rifle and aims towards where the shark was, scanning for contacts.

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods. "They hate water, huh? So if we could make it rain somehow..." He thinks about that as he follows towards the ship. At Garen's suggestion, he chimes in, "Sounds good to me. Is there any reason /not/ to just blow up the ship?"

Rocket (559) has posed:
    "And what about your wounded? Kinda skipped over that," Rocket says, peering through the scope of his cannon in the direction of the ship. "And we don't know that yet, Blue. We're getting paid to check for survivors. As creepy as these fracking bugs are, we gotta check it out first."

    "I am Groot <I agree. Though slim, there is a chance of survivors. However, we should prepare for the worst.>"

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     "Just because they hate water doesn't mean it is lethal to them," Armsmaster states, "And destroying the ship would risk scattering the creatures, making them harder to completely eliminate and boosting the chances of an epidemic situation."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa Says "They have to phsyically get a hold of them and shove an embyro down their throat. So no they didn't suffer a interspecies french kiss. Let's move, so yes and if they do that yhey go zombie pretty quickly after."

She pauses for a moment at the mention of the bugs about the ship.

"The thing is we need to know how they got in here however leveling the place once we're done is a very good idea. If we don't find the vector they will do this again I fear and yes we got to check to see any information on how this went down. If they came in one shark there could be another means or more on board...humm but why would it take so long for the shark to burst one...."

The shark was hung up clearly before the outbreak happened after all.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    "They infest with a bite to the throat. Samuels got a slash on the leg. From all the reports we've ever had, no cases of infestation have occured from claw slashes. They're poisonous, sure, but our Medikits have been tuned to sterilize the toxins now we've had a chance to study them." That's Rodrigues, the remaining Support.

    "Detonating the ship could, as ArmsmasterProtectorateblahblahblah said, make them scatter and threaten other towns nearby. We contain them here, if need be we call in the fast movers and run like hell." Jones states grimly. "From every scenario involving Chryssalids... there's been no civilian survivors unless Strike Teams arrive within ten minutes. We got here two days late."

    Kotone's little triad makes the troopers pause. "That's true... that Shark was there before we got here. Maybe humans make better incubators?" Rodrigues again, musing. "We'll have to file a report to Vahlen about this once we're done."

    Jones sighs. "Didn't you hear? They only care about water if it's a significant amount, Rain doesn't do anything to 'em."

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods. "Perhaps I brought the wrong armament... Oh well, I can do more than blow things up." He looks back to the leader. "So, we go in and... see what there is to see, and make sure we eliminate every chryssalide, no survivors?"

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen thinks for a moment. "Hmm....doesn't fire destroy most poisons? Perhaps a napalm strike on the location? Sounds like it would work if your concerned about escape. My suggestion is that you evac your wounded, and we take a set amount of time to seek out any possible survivors, as Mr. Groot and the racoon suggested." He suggests.

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     "I can call in the rest of my team," Armsmaster says, "Providing I have clearance from the local authorities. That would give us five more people. I'd advise that we set people to watch the ship from all angles while those of us who can prevail against these creatures head into the ship and clear it, level by level."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "If we're lucky we might find logs or footage on the ship that might have information on what happened. As for the shark? I don't know unless they implanted it afterwards which would raise questions about their life cycle."

The Shiv's on point it's made to do the really dangerous stuff like be the first thing in after all right? She does wonder what's up with these aliens and what sort of world /spawns/ these things.

Rocket (559) has posed:
    "I am Groot. <It could simply be that the rapidly growing child requires a certain environment or simply a supply of food?>", Groot says to Rodrigues, the wooden shield growing spikes in an attempt to dissuade the Chryssalids from charging in. Futile, but perhaps beneficial.

    "So you want this place gone? Then you got the right guy for the job. I can get it done," glancing back to the group. "I'll need a few things, though. I'll need to get to that ship's engines and make sure they're operational."

    "On top of that," he says, pointing to Staren's mech. "I'll need a couple of energy batteries if you have them. Preferrably high-yield. Some cabling too to hook them up."

    "You guys have some grenades too," he says to the XCOM soldiers. "I'll need them. As many as you can spare to pack some punch. If you got anything flammable, even better."

    He then looks to Garen and the XCOM sniper. "You guys I'll need to set them off. When we give the signal, you'll need to shoot the set-up at the exact right moment."

"There's one other thing I'll need if we go with this plan," he declares, standing on Groot's shoulders and suddenly pointing to the MEC. "That guy's arm."

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods to Rocket. "I have power and a lot of warheads, mostly plasma. What are you planning?"

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Bradford chimes in. "RecSat Charlie is on station... holy mother of god, there's a MASSIVE thermal signature in that wrecked ship, highlighting it on your HUD now. Scans show no other lifesigns in the immediate five kilometer area, nothing Human-size at least. They seem to be, congregating aroun the ship." there's a pause, perhaps some off-mic discussion. "The Commander has a line with the Canadians, they have a flight of F-16s enroute with napalm payload."

    As Rocket starts asking for various items, Jones blinks. "You're just like a tiny, fuzzy version of that detective on TV. They show the reruns late at night."

    Lasalle glances over to Garen, then smirks in challenge. "Think you can make that kinda shot, big blue?" she challenges. "I'm not the Commander, but I'm a damn good shot. Top five in our marksmanship trials." Puffing up a bit with pride.

    Gonzales blinks as well, behind the faceplate of his full-helmet. "I hope you don't mean removing the arm. It's integral to the chassis." he states simply, bringing one giant metal limb up to touch the other in a very human gesture.

    "If you can get a beacon working aboard the ship, we can vector in the fast movers." chimes in Bradford over the radio again. "Causing confusion with the Aliens might buy us the time we need to level the area though, scorched earth, with these things, it's the only way to be sure."

Rocket (559) has posed:
    "I can rig up the engines and explosives to cause a power overload," Rocket explains. "If you've got plasma, even better. It'll be contained, but when the snipers shoot the grenades, it'll flood the whole area with burning plasma and burn out these freaks in about a half-mile if they're high-yield. Would vaporize everything." He does turn to the MEC, nodding his head. "Of course I mean removing the arm, hand it over," he says, gesturing. "It's critical. I need it. It'll save your boss a lot of money and having to scramble those bombers."

Staren has posed:
    The Star Hawk cocks its head to the side, although there is no expression on its lack-of-a-face. "I thought you just said levelling the area was a /bad/ idea?"

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen looks over and grins widely. "Champion marksman at age 12, and I shot a missile from a moving dropship with the pain of a broken leg and broken ribs. I can easily hit the target." He says, matching Lasalle's challenge. Then he looks to Rocket. "You are an interesting creature. I'd like to learn more about you at some point. You too as well, Mr. Groot."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa does not take the marksmans as compairing whose better she just takes it they got two very good shots who can work in tandem that's the imporant thing right? She hears and she muses for a moment to her self thinking of a classic scifi movie where the horrible space bugs had a /queen/ oh she hopes that's not the case here hte SHIV's going ahead first and whe the bboard it will go point.

"If there's a computer system on board and we have tme I can grab the local files the entire hard drive shouldn't tke long to copy over to my cyberbraina nd I can dump it off later."

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     "In any case," Armsmaster cuts in, "There's aircraft inbound with a significant payload. Ther needs to be a plan - fast."

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Jones calls the pause. Chryssalids are starting to take notice of the approaching group, but oddly, don't move to attack just yet. "Alright, Gonzales, just give him the arm, we'll get Shen to hook up a new one. I know you just had it painted but this is more important." The cyborg makes a show of sighing, then opens the access pannel on his Kinetic module arm. Jamming in the emergency eject button, the entire assembly disconnects explosively, bolts severing connectors, and causing the entire thing to THUD heavily on the wooden deck. "At least take the mural panel off. One of the kids in our last mission drew that for me." he says, pointing to a bright little pastel colour doodle of what might be a dog. Or a sausage with legs. It's enameled onto the metal.

    "Plan being worked on mister pushy." bites back Jones, glaring at Armsmaster. "Kotone, pull the SHIV back for now... we could use it to remotely place the explosives or find the beacon and log files." He then gathers up. "Okay, so summary. Rocket makes an improvized plasma explosive. We pool our grenades to act as a trigger mechanism. We set this up near the engines and fuel reserves and retreat to a safe distance. While one team does that, the other heads to the bridge, triggers the locator beacon and downloads any relevant log files while the bugs are chasing us around the interior of the ship. Any questions?"

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen quietly contemplates the plan. He shakes his head no, rather looking over to Lassale. "Anywhere you want to base up?" He asks simply.

Rocket (559) has posed:
    "Well I'm gonna need you to carry it there, you daft idiot," Rocket says to Gonzales, hefting his rifle and turning back to face the ship, Groot making the approach now. "Take it off yourself. And somewhere you can get a clear line to where I set up. Might need you to snipe out the back of the Skyranger if we're gonna pull this off, unless the droid there blows itself up in the process."

    Meanwhile, seeing as the group has been approaching the ship for a while now, Rocket starts taking potshots at the Chryssalids he sees through the holes in the hull, probably getting a bit of attention drawn their way. "In the meantime, shoot every insectoid freak you see."

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods. "When we get close, I will get the materials out of my machine, then... Well, I guess I can go on either team, really. I do computer stuff /and/ I have heavy weapons. Who needs me?"

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Lasalle presses a finger to her right ear. "Big Sky, combat pick-up. Gonna need you to pull another Athens." she says. The pilot's baritone voice groans softly, but the sound of the dropship powering up is all the response needed. It flies overhead, drops a pair of rappel lines for the snipers and waits for them to ascend. It then hovers around, giving the snipers a better vantage point to snipe from.

    Gonzales looks over at his squadmates pleadingly. Parker shoves Jones, before moving to take the panel from the arm. Gonzales looks appreciative as the Assault puts the sheet of armour plate in her backpack for safe keeping. The MEC then hefts the arm in his remaining limb, and falls in with Rocket.

    Jones oofs, then huffs softly. "I think the infiltration team should be Me, Parker, Rocket and Armsmaster at least. Gonzales can lift some of the heavy material and I think Groot can help. I thing we need you out here providing distraction and cover fire, Staren." he says. "Kotone, take the SHIV and head to the Bridge. Lasalle and our blue friend can provide cover fire for you from the Skyranger." he then turns, and starts taking shots at the Chryssalids.

    Both Rocket and Jones seem to have kicked the proverbial hornets nest. It isn't a swarm of beyond numbers... but there's at least twenty Chryssalids now tearing down the ship's hull, and skittering across the wood toward the group of fighters, all drooling continuously, and all making those groaning, strangled roaring sounds that makes them so creepy.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa pauses for a moment and nods to Jones.

"Understood."

She pulls the Shiv back geting his idea. The reote use of it would be the best idea she listens as Rocket's plan is to make some sort of plasma explosive she gets the idea and nods she can see the loic in that she'll sollow orders and move in as needed she's not sure wha thorror is in there. She nods and is going to make for the bridge with the Shiv a tthis point and well she just hopes she's not a appealing mean to the bugs.

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen climbs up the rappel line, and points at the chryssalids. "Let's see if you take out more then me." He says to Lassale, a challenge offered. He then immidiately starts snapping off shots with deadly accuracy at the evil bugs.

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     Armsmaster crosses his arms, Halberd held to rest against his left shoulder, and simply waits.

Rocket (559) has posed:
    "Alright, let's go! Groot!" Rocket says, bumping his fist against Groot's head. "Let's get this show going!"

    "I. Am. GROOT! <You creatures will harm no more!>" Groot yells, the wooden shield shrinking away as he rushes forward, swinging his arms at the Chryssalids as he forces his way inside the hull. Rocket meanwhile is firing a few shots with his cannon, his own loud yelling interspersed with laughter as one of the insects gets heavily frazzled from the energy shots, glancing around to try and spot the engines...

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods. "I can do that. Good luck in there."

    And then they poke the alien hornet nest. "Wait, I thought you wanted the battery and explosives first! Damn, I can't use my missiles here..." Staren comments, as the bugs cover the ship they don't want to blow up yet and the fragile (relatively) wooden dock. He settles for firing the gatling railgun on the mech's right arm in semiauto mode, pelting chryssalids and hopefully not shooting /too/ many holes in the dock when he misses. Also, the leg packs fire a set of small energy beams that curve around and home in on the chrysallids -- they're not as powerful as the other weaponry, but hey, homing!

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Chryssalids are pretty tough and in packs can be very dangerous. However, the sheer weight of fire being leveled at them is enough to shred the carapace and spray sickly yellow-green ichor all over the dock, and the ship hull. There's a lull then. Perhaps those were the only defenders ready and active? Jones takes it as a sign. "MOVE! GO GO GO!" he bellows, setting off at a dead sprint towards the ship. The engines are, as on most naval ships, at the back of the vehicle, while the fuel is lined within special tanks in the midships hull. There's a huge gash in the starboard hull, well above the waterline. The metal melted. Looks like plasma damage. Perhaps the Aliens seeded the Chryssalids on this ship, and somehow got it to head right here?

    "We're lucky it wasn't a damn Cruise Liner... We need that beacon active Strike Two. Nothing against our fuzzy little friend, but the Canadians feel it best to wipe the area clean, make sure none of those things survive." That's Bradford, his calm demeanor acting as an anchor point for the team, even as most of them are sprinting across open terrain.

    Lasalle smirks at Garen, while helping thin out the Chryssalids. BLAM, clu-chik. "Three..." BLAM, clu-chik. "Four..." she counts off, before there's no more targets visible.

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen smirks back to Lasalle. While she had to reload, he just kept firing. "Five....Six..." He says, shot after shot, hit after hit. "your not bad. You'd benefit more from an energy weapon, though."

Staren has posed:
    "Alright. We got 'em. Go quick, I'll make sure reinforcements don't come from outside." Staren looks around for any movement coming from the beach or the city.

Rocket (559) has posed:
    "That's what my plan does, you idiot," Rocket barks back at Bradford, who probably can't even hear him over the sound of gunfire, rushing towards the ship's engines. "Groot, keep 'em off me. Get me those parts," he barks, already getting to work on pulling cables and boards out of a loose panel in the engines.

    Groot, meanwhile, is doing just that, swinging his arms at the Chryssalids, occasionally grabbing one to throw at the others. It seems he's trying to toss them into range of the snipers so they can land the killing blows as they try to right themselves. Teamwork in action.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is making her way with all due speed hopefully this nightmare can end here she doesn't know what lays within. She's making for the bridge now as order moving as fast as she can with the SHIV acting as cover for her she's going to try to find the ship's computer grab it's hard drive one way or another and get the hell out. Also carrying out her other orders as well. The Canadians are coming, they are being agressive. That's a rare stance, she is from Canada albeit another one so she's got an idea of how serious it is if they are going to burn this villiage right off the map.

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     Sprinting with the soldiers, Armsmaster heads right for where the fighting is thickest, barreling into a group of Chryssalids, his Halberd sweeping in long, broad arcs. The blade hums as it sweeps through the air, and Armsmaster spins it this way and that, practically creating a circle around him that no alien can cross as he moves, slow and inexorable, towards the damaged vessel!

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    The Chryssalids seem to have made a 'Nest' out of a caught whale nestled in the ships cargo hold. Bulbous growths form along the huge carcass, and occasionally, explode violently, expelling another murderous alien hellbeast, before another growth takes its place. How many hundreds, or thousands could a beast like that play host to?

    Kotone finds her path largely unblocked. One Chryssalid instantly leaping onto the deck after 'spawning' only to be gunned down in the whining staccatto of the SHIV's autocannon. The little drone switches to its internal AI to relieve Kotone of the burden of operating it, and the thing instantly takes an almost canine-like posture, articulating itself to look menacing and emitting an electronic version of a 'growl' as it keeps its autocannon spinning, almost daring anything to try and attack its charge.

    Armsmaster, Rocket, Groot and the others find more Chryssalids inside the superstructure, but between Gonzales and Groot, the monsters have a hard time getting close, and with the snipers outside picking off easy targets, the swarm is kept in check.

    Lasalle shrugs. "The eggheads are working on DEWs. Say they have some functional prototypes but need lab-space to refine the designs. Lot of the others have petitioned the Commander to prioritize the project... bullets are starting to bounce off the newer alien's armour."

Garen (530) has posed:
    "I see...Hopefully your commander will requisition the space." Garen says, after another trio of shots seek a new home. He then changes over to the others. "Best hurry up down there. Before our national hosts decide we're all dead."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa leaves the SHIV to do it's work and is thankful for it's firepower she moves past the dead bug and makes for the bridge it takes her a second to curse as it hits her this ship's older than her dad, Which means it's full out analog. Still she goes to remove the black box it's somewhat heavy but she should be able to do it once it's ready to move she's going to set the becon, grab the black box and move to get the heck out of here. The Canadians are waiting for no one. The infesation is a risk to the entire provice and that's the least bad thing that could happen if they get out of this town.

Staren has posed:
    Now they they have a reprieve, Staren has his mech kneel down and lay its gunpod on the ground and then the cockpit opens, a canopy-like section of armor swinging out, allowing Staren to climb out. He's carrying some cables which he tosses to Rocket.

    His piloting armor consists of a leathery material and a harder vest in white and safety orange, worn over a spandex-like, skintight nanofiber suit with a collar connected to a helmet -- looking closely, one might notice the small air tank by the neck. "Okay. I'm not carrying /spares/ of this stuff, so we gotta get it out like I would for maintenance. The warheads..." Staren climbs down to the gunpods, finding a small access hatch and working with some tools to make a larger panel come loose. "Can your strong friend there give me a hand?" Once the panel's off, the racks of rockets can be pulled out -- Staren identifies which type makes the biggest fireball, then runs around back and uses his grapple tag to climb on the back of the meck, a similar procedure allowing him to access a battery for extraction.

    "There you go... sorry about the inconvenience, I wasn't really expecting to have to do this."

Rocket (559) has posed:
    Rocket is already working away, hooking up cables and stuffing the grenades into the engine's housing. "Shut up and let me work!" he yells at Garen, twisting a cable onto a loose computer board. Groot meanwhile is able to assist between knocking the odd Chryssalid back, laying them next to Rocket's impromptu workspace before running back to the fray. Rocket meanwhile is working away as ever, unscrewing the warheads from the main body of the rockets and wiring them up. The MEC arm meanwhile goes untouched amidst the pile of discarded parts. Eventually, there's a loud bang, followed by the rumble of the engines firing up, the motors disconnected from the propellers, but winding up quickly nonetheless.

    "Alright, get clear! Then someone take the shot! It's rigged to blow and take this whole town and everything with it!"

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Jones fires another burst down a corridor, nailing the Chryssalid just as it rounds the corner and roars, cut short by hot lead punching through its carapace. It thuds to the ground, twitches then goes limp. "You heard the man, get moving! Double time!" he shouts over radio, then switches to the broader Tac-Band. "Big Sky, emergency extraction, get the Specialist out at all costs. She's too valuable to be left on the ground." refering to Kotone, of course. "Remaining Strike elements are expendable. We'll get clear of the blast radius if we can. I can see a vehicle. Parker, get to hotwiring the thing. Gonzales, you're on the 'ranger too."

    Gonzales nods, while the others get to clearing the vehicle and Parker starts hotwiring. The Skyranger descends, landing in a nearby open area so Kotone and the MEC can board. "Staren, can you airlift anyone out on that thing?" Jones again, even as he's doing what he can to strip the vehicle of unnecessary bulk, clearing the flatbed of old toolboxes and fishing tackle.

    Lasalle glances to Garen. "You wanna do the honours or should I?" she asks, even as she helps the others aboard, though offering a hand to a MEC isn't a good idea.

    With everyone getting clear of the ship, Bradford chimes in. "Airstrike inbound Strike Two. They'll be there in a matter of minutes."

Armsmaster (554) has posed:
     Armsmaster is one of the last Elites to board, keeping his distance and cutting down any Chryssalid that decides it might try for the people heading for the Skyranger. The ichor and gore seems to just slide off his Halberd but, eventually, he turns and climbs aboard. He doesn't talk much, it seems.

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen smirks. "With pleasure." He says. He keeps his eye on his allies, waiting for his moment. Once it arrived, and once everyone was safely aboard their escape vessel, he took aim and let loose his shot. He then grins towards Lasalle. "I hope they enjoy our little treat."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa grimnces at hearing the strike elements are eexpendabkle she doesn't want them to die for her sake she couldn't live with her self. She's a tech head and knows the teams will protect eachother but. She's going to make use of the SHIV one last time as she aims to use it to cover the living personel on their way out. That thing is utterly disposable not that she hates it the drone is ghostless and she knows it's doing what it's made to as she makes for the evac hanging on to the black boxes.

"Move let's not leave anyone behind!"

Rocket (559) has posed:
    Rocket climbs Groot, thumping the side of his head lightly as the pair start a retreat to the Skyranger, Rocket firing off blasts to keep the Chryssalids away. Sure, Groot has to duck down to fit inside the Skyranger, but he manages it. When the explosion goes off, it's a big one, the shockwave hitting the Skyranger hard and obliterating the town, frying that it misses with plasma. Of course, there's still the airstrike to mop up anything that was missed, but Rocket just grins as he watches his destruction unfold, turning back to the group.

    "Not bad, huh? See? I know my stuff," he says, breaking shortly into a little laugh and pointing at Gonzales. "And did you see this guy, flailing around with the one arm? Wasn't he hilarious? 'Oh, boo hoo hoo not the arm with the kiddy art', hah!"

    Seems the little raccoon is a huge jerk.

Staren has posed:
    "I got a passenger seat, and hands..." Staren comments. The latter option won't be comfortable, but people need to get out of there one way or another!

    In the end, Staren will watch the fireball from a safe distance. "Woooooah. I /gotta/ know how he /did/ that... Though, wasn't that maybe kind of overkill?"

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Gonzales looks at Groot. Silently asking if he'd mind a sudden flick at the fuzzball. He's not going to argue with the giant living treeman, but that's going a little too far.

    Jones, Parker and Rodrigues make it out, gunning the hotwired pickup and barely escaping the blast zone. The Beacon falls silent, but the fighters have their bearing and location now, and fly over the area, dropping napalm canisters that airburst in staccatto, saturating the already burning area with MORE FIRE. The few Chryssalids that survived the initial blast, scream and flail as their carapaces are set ablaze, being cooked alive in the inferno that now engulfs the former town. "Strike Two actual to Central... Area sanitized, repeat. Area sanitized. We're RTB to nearest warpgate. Strike Two-Four, Two-Five, Two-Six and Specialist are aboard Big Sky. Elite units also present aboard Big Sky. Callsigns E-1 E-2 and E-3. Rocket, Groot and Armsmaster." reports Jones as he sits hunched in the open bed of the pickup.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Big Sky addendes, "Central, Big Sky. Additional Elite aboard. Callsign Cipher Nine. ETA, 2-0 minutes to homeplate. Put the kettle on and drop the toast."