Marigold Station

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

There was a park near the mouth of the Metro station at Grayditch's eastern edge, long ago. A few of the rides are still present- the fulcrums of the see-saws, the rusted-out remnants of the monkey bars, even the pitted, corroded sheets of metal that had once been the slides. It lies a little lower than the surrounding road-beds, but it offers the easiest access to the Marigold Station metro entrance- and currently, the park is free of ants.

"Okay," says Ellen to the people following her. "Who wants to go in front, and who's going to guard our rear as we head in?"

Comments

[time_dancer]

"Yes," Val says as she adds in her own blasts to the fray. "The nests of typical ants are protected by soldier ants. They are stronger and more aggressive than the worker or scout ant."

Thank you Ms. Science.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Really?" says Ellen. "I didn't know that. Well, that explains a few things- oooh."

There's several ants outside the gap now, and one of them is near enough for her to aim for specific head-parts. "Try for the antennae!" she calls. "Red and I found out they'll go nuts and start attacking each other if you blow their antennae off!"

[alertcommando]

"Like this?" Tanya lines up her gun and starts blasting away antennae, at the very base, making sure to keep her line of fire well away from Spoon.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"That'll do it," says Ellen, as Tanya's target ant lets out a high-pitched scream and starts tearing into its fellows instead of trying to press through the hole in Val's forcefield.

It's about to get ugly out there.

[time_dancer]

Val not as good a shot but that doesn't mean she's not going to try. Plus her gauntlets are more of a shot gun type of weapon. Two more blasts are fired and then Val changes the shape of the tunnel.

She keeps the same three meters nearest the party but widens the end facing the ants, give them more room to tear into each other.

[magic_ferret]

It's so very weird to be in a fight and not be the expositi- back to the ants, ferret boy. Back to the ants.

Yuuno switches off from binding an ant with the antenna shot to an undamaged one. Well, probably undamaged. Maybe? The tunnel is a lot harder to keep track of things in than most of the fights he's been in the thick out before.

[there-is-a-me.livejournal.com]

Spoon wades in where needed, although he stays as far away from the #$(*%& gun as is possible.

If anyone had the space to breathe, they could watch him flinch with every report from the muzzle, jerking with memory.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Between the frenzies of ants with no antennae and the sheer amount of damage being dished out by the bipedal combatants, it isn't long before ant parts are scattered across the floor of the tunnel and no moving ants remain. The stink of smoke fills the dank air as Ellen says, "Is everyone all right?"

[alertcommando]

Tanya is reloading with a fresh clip, emptying the used one, counting her ammo left.

Maybe she did notice something in the chaos of battle, since she is fitting a silencer to the end of her gun's barrel

Or maybe the silencer is also a flash suppressor and the commando is more worried about getting blinded by muzzle flash in the tunnels. "I am fine and ready to move,"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Anyone else?" Ellen asks. "Because I really think we should keep going if we're going to find where these things are coming from without getting overrun."

She's not having as much trouble with the dim light as some of the other people might. The fluorescent lighting in the Vault was brighter than this, but a lot of its reaches were dimmed for the sake of conserving energy, and she's used to a nice, limited underground environment.

[magic_ferret]

"I'm ready to keep going," says Yuuno a bit loudly. His ears are ringing a bit from Tanya's shots.

[time_dancer]

Val simply nods and using a new force field cleans a path for them out of the carapaces and other bits that are left. She takes a minute to see how much force she needs to apply to squish one of the ants with a force field. Could be useful later.

She may be way out of her depth her but she will see it through to the end.

[bprd_agent_red]

Red steps back from a mess of ants, brushing off a few splotches from his coat and dropping what appears to be a leg.

"I'm good."

Since the others seem to be to he starts walking, taking the front again.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"All right, then," says Ellen, and moves along as well.

There are a few more ants along the way. They're easily handled; this group knows what they're doing, or at least gives the impression thereof. The important thing is that no one ends up scorched... and that up ahead, on the left-hand wall of the tunnel, there's a patch of greater brightness than the phosphorescent fungi can account for. Hellboy, or possibly Spoon, will likely be the first to realize that it's coming from an artificial source.

[alertcommando]

As they move, Tanya watches the back mostly: with Spoon and Red taking point they are covered from attacks from that way...

"Minus the bugs, it reminds me of the tunnels we hid in at the beginning of the War."

[there-is-a-me.livejournal.com]

Spoon chases down the light and mutters something quietly. Good news: the speakers let everyone hear. Bad news: the amplification is in Yautja.

After a minute he coughs, "Computer." and keeps right on poking at it.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Uh-oh." Ellen edges forward to have a look, or at least as safe a look as she can manage from behind Hellboy. The computer in question is a terminal set into a nook that must've once led to a subway maintenance area; it's positioned on the wall of the nook next to a heavy, obviously no-nonsense door.

A closer look at the terminal indicates that if they want the door open, they're going to have to convince the terminal to open it for them.

"Anybody here any better at talking to these things than me?" Ellen says. "I'm not much good at guessing passwords..."

[bprd_agent_red]

Hellboy steps aside to give Ellen room so she can look at the computer. He's no good with those so instead he steps up to the door, inspecting it.

It's a piece of work all right.

"Sorry guys, but we're gonna be here awhile if you leave this bit up to me."

Basically Red has two options, smash the computer and hope that opens the door up. Or, spend a whole lot of time beating down the door.

Hopefully someone has a third option.

[magic_ferret]

Yuuno's not really what you'd call experienced with Earth built electronics. He'll be off to the side too. Ready to bind any stray ants, thanks.

[time_dancer]

"Let me take a look," Val says stepping forward. She looks over the device, examining the tech, looking for any access ports. If she can hook her armor's computer up to this it would make the process much faster. "It kind of reminds me of some of my Dad's older computers. Same basic idea but this has gone in a completely different direction than anything I'm familiar with. Still I think I can crack it. Ellen, can you point me towards an access port?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It's all based on transistors," Ellen says as she reaches around the terminal to feel the back for ports. "The Vault computers were some of the highest tech around. Some of the more critical systems were vacuum-tube models, since you can't take those out with an electromagnetic pulse, but this is a pretty standard RobCo terminal. Transistors all the way... okay, here." She indicates the spot from the front, as the terminal isn't positioned in such a way that moving it would be easy. "Can you plug into it there?"

[time_dancer]

Val would laugh at the transistor based tech if it didn't make sense for the world it was developed in.

"Okay, I'm gonna need to jury rig something to bridge this with my armor's computer. Let's see," Val says and she begins to go to work. "I think I might need some extra wire for this. Does anyone see any old equipment around?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"There's a dead train car a little ways down," Ellen reports as she peers around the corner. "We could probably rip some of the wiring out of that."

[alertcommando]

"I can do that." Tanya does not like inactivity, and she has some mechanical, electrical and electronical expertise.

Anyone is welcome to follow as she moves towards the car, alert for any surprises.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

No surprises, thankfully. There are noises in the distance that probably aren't those of settling stone, but nothing approaches as Tanya rips out cable and component alike. It's a little dank and moldy, but most of the wiring is still intact.