Grayditch

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The scene that presents itself to the people arriving from Milliways is one of devastation old and new. The shattered, weathered remains of what had once been a city street spill out to either side, and half-standing, half-slumping outer walls are all that remain of most of the buildings. There are no people here, no animals, no life to be seen...

Well, no. That's not necessarily true. Here and there, fires burn merrily, and the occasional scratching scuttling sound can be heard on the sullen August winds that wind through the empty streets.

"This is it," Ellen says. "Welcome to Grayditch."

Comments

[time_dancer]

Val's not sure what to do, follow Tanya or check out the cellar? Her indecision is interrupted by an ant coming into the front door. That shriek Tanya heard my have been from the ant or Val.

The ant pulls its head back, opens its mandibles, and lets forth a cone of fire. Or would have if Val hadn't encased its head in a bubble. Her next force field delivers blunt force trauma but the thing's exoskeleton seems to be of harder stuff than Val expected. Still it seems to be pinned.

[alertcommando]

Tanya comes back to check of course. Two bursts to the giant ant's body should be enough, the spitzer bullets breaking and tumbling inside the monster, causing massive tissue damage.

"The ground is clear, lets go up quickly. The scent will attract more of those things."

[time_dancer]

"Okay," Val replies and heads towards the stairs. She'd love to blockage the front door but it takes a lot of concentration to keep a field active without line of sight.

"Did you find anything in the other rooms?"

[alertcommando]

"No, nothing, all clear. lets see if we didcover who is dead upstairs."

There are two bedrooms and a master bath upstairs. The smaller bedroom has a child's bed in it and a few scorched toys; the larger bedroom has two dead ants that are easily a head longer than Ellen is tall, and a man who can't have been dead more than a few hours.

"Ew..."

[time_dancer]

Remember that being sick Val managed to put off? Well it's back. She manages to make it to the railing of the staircase before it hits.

After a moment she reenters the room but looks at anything but the corpse. "Sorry," she says feeling useless.

[alertcommando]

"No worries." But Tanya is faintly amused.

Just faintly so. She touches the headset, calling. "Ellen? We found a body in a house; burned by ants, it seems he got two of them down before they killed him."

"There are bugs in the basement as well. Maybe they are tunneling under the city."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I'm here," Ellen responds over the headset. "I guess he doesn't have a name tag, huh?"

(He doesn't, but some more rummaging through the room will eventually turn up a photograph labeled Fred and Bryan, and Ellen did mention the little boy's name being Bryan Wilks at one point.)

[alertcommando]

(Letting Val find the picture, since she is looking at everything but the corpse, and Tanya is checking the corpse)

[time_dancer]

Val crosses the room to look out of the window. She's getting a view really, it's nothing to do with fresh air. After a lung full or two she turns around and spots a bookcase that's been knocked over. She lifts it to see if there are any books worth taking and stands back up holding one. Peeking out of the pages is a photo.

"What's this?" she says and pulls it out. She reads the names Fred and Bryan and can't help the tears. "I think it's him."

She shows the photo to Tanya.

[alertcommando]

Tanya moves over, nodding, relaying the find to Ellen "You mentioned the boy's name was Bryan, right? I am guessing this might be Fred here."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I think you're right," Ellen's voice says. "Hellboy and I will go let Bryan know. After that I'll call Spoon and Yuuno. I think it might not be a bad idea to track these things back to their source, before anybody else gets hurt."

[time_dancer]

At Ellen's words, Val pales. She walks back to the window to collect her thoughts. This was nothing like what she was expecting. As her nerves are about to get the best of her she remembers something her uncle told her once, "Doesn't matter if yer scared, just don't quit. If there's a job to be done or somethin' ta hit, ya just do it. Folks 'r countin' on us. Who else is there?"

Her resolve fortified, Val turns back and, summoning some scientific detachment, studies the body. How was it killed? Are there sign of attack or did the ants rely on their fire? The answers can tell us how the act and fight.

[alertcommando]

Tanya switches places with Val, checking the window and then the hallway, listening for ants. "So, we should go back to the start point, or meet somewhere else?"

[time_dancer]

"Are we just going to leave the body here?" Val asks. "Shouldn't we do something with it?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Best to meet up at the start point. We're going to need to stick together if we're going to go into those tunnels. These things are nasty."

[alertcommando]

"Check, Ellen. See you soon." She leavs the headset on standby, not transmitting, while she turns to talk with Val.

"Bury it? Unless you have a shovel and some speed-undertaker skills... I don't think we have the time."

[time_dancer]

"You just don't quit."

Val raises her gauntlets and twin blasts of charged plasma turn the corpse to ash. "I'm not letting a father become food."

[alertcommando]

Tanya just nods, and starts moving out... back to the start point to meet up with Ellen and the others.

[time_dancer]

Val follows along. To be safe she's put a field in front of them as they head down the stair case. It will keep pace with Tanya and once they reach the bottom, assuming the meet no ants, she'll turn it off.

[alertcommando]

Tanya slows down a bit, and gives a sigh. "If I seem cold... sorry, it is a self-defense mechanism. Three years fighting a war carved out much of emotional niceties."

[time_dancer]

"I understand," Val says hesitantly and then almost as a whisper, "That was the first dead body I've ever seen. I didn't think this would be so...messy."

[alertcommando]

The woman shakes head, looking around and pulling the magazine from her gun, reloading it with the ease of long practice. "Remind me not to take you to my war-torn Europe. Minus the giant ants, several of our cities look like this or worse, after the Reds came."

"Conventional artillery barrage, then a nuke to wipe out resistance."

[time_dancer]

"I'll keep that in mind," Val says with a weak grin. "But why bother with the artillery barrage if you're going to nuke the site anyway? Seems wasteful to me."

[alertcommando]

"Weakens shelters. Damage bunkers, so the radiation can kill everybody." Oh, fun...

She reloads the magazine into the gun, heading back to their gathering point.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

[OOC: And you guys can head down to here!]