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

[alertcommando]

Disturbing, yes. Tanya is used to her targets dropping with one or two shots, but those insects... well, they were much like knocking down a cow with a slingshot.

"I knew I should have brought the Big Gun..."

[bprd_agent_red]

"You. Don't. Set. People. On. Fire!"

Each word is punctuated by a hit and by the time Red is through the ant is not only dead, it's missing a few limbs and it's head isn't attached as well as it once was.

Straightening up from the bug carcass Red takes a look around, throwing an impressed head tilt in Spoon's direction when he sees the state of the ant he's been handling.

[time_dancer]

"Up you guys go!" Val yells out feeling a bit embarrassed that she just put Tayna back down but how could she have know the ants would be so nice as to come to them? "Same two meters as before and a waist high wall for each of you to duck behind. I think we're at four now aren't we?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I think so!" Ellen takes the opportunity to reload her laser pistol. "One left, then, and then we can run like- huh..."

There's a cable running along the rough, unfinished floor of the tunnel, she's just realized. If she squints along its length into the darkness, there's a faint glow: the scientist's terminal, near the Ant Queen's hatchery chamber.

And in the shadows beyond that something huge heaves its bulk along the floor with a low thrumm.

"I think the queen's down there," she murmurs. "I think that's where the scientist has his generator and his equipment. So we need to find that last ant and kill it and get out of here."

[magic_ferret]

One more? They can totally do one more. Right?

"And not break the gear," adds Yuuno. He may have spent to much time in the field with the forwards. They get a bit hard on the walls (and the ceiling and the floor...) when they're in a hurry.

He pulls closer to the ceiling for a better look down and, "Chain Bind!"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The last of the nest guardians scrabbles out of the shadows- or would, if Yuuno's Bind hadn't slammed into it. It tosses its head as far as it can and clacks its mandibles, struggling to ready its fires.

[alertcommando]

Tanya did not survive this long by not having interesting ideas.

She takes aim, times for a second, and fires twice, hitting the ant at the base of the mandibles as they close, right in the joints.

Spit fire now, bug.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

That hurt it, to be certain, but it's not enough to actually stop the last guardian. Now it's in pain and angry- and getting ready to charge.

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

Spoon finishes his ant off and (after a moment of thought) stuffs a mandible in his belt. Totally trophy material. Then he gets his back to the wall and starts firing the plasma cannon at the wanting-to-charge ant.

[time_dancer]

With a moments concentration Val plugs each ant's mouth with a force field and reshapes the "sword" she had previously made into a sort of spiked hammer. She then charges the nearest one and yelling, "It's Clobberin' Time!" and gives it a good whack.

It's not out of the game but there is a big hole in its head now. "Tanya, got a nice bull's eye for ya here."

[bprd_agent_red]

Red might be headstrong but he's not stupid, if people are going to be shooting at the last ant he's not going to run in to tackle it.

Instead he goes for the Samaritan and suddenly remembers the grenade things Ellen gave him. Pulling one out he arms it and tosses it at the bug.

"Heads up and fire in the hole!"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

They're good grenades. This one rolls to a stop directly under the massive insect's central mass. The explosion moments later is thunderous, especially in these tunnels. When the smoke clears the ant is more a mass of exoskeleton and pulp than anything genuinely insect-like.

"... I think that's it," Ellen says after a few moments' silence. "Does anyone mind if I take its head back to the scientist to make sure we got the right five ants?"

[magic_ferret]

"No, let's go," says Yuuno as he lands, "Things won't get more finished here."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods, roots about in her pack briefly, and finds that combat knife she took off a dead mercenary. There's not that much left to sever, but the ant head's a little large and awkward; she's going to have to move carefully as the party progresses, because she can either see people around her or see where she's going, not both.



(OOC: That would be the IC excuse for her not to head in the same direction as the people who walk through that spontaneously appearing door that'll send folks back to the Bar- the one we discussed in that email a while back. Okay with you guys?)

[time_dancer]

"Yeah we better go before more of the soldier ants show up to investigate all the noise!" Val says cough a bit at all the dust.

[alertcommando]

Tanya did not need to shoot more, after all: plasma bolts, grenades, forcefield, squished ant.

"Let's move then, clear the way up to the queen." She nods to Ellen, intelligence confirmations are good.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"We're not supposed to go near the queen," Ellen points out. "That there? That's the man's lab. That's as far as he needs to go. There's no farther to push than where we are now."

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

"Right, then. Hunt Leader has spoken, the Hunt is over, lets go home." Yes, if it were his Hunt he'd go after the queen.

Spoon is not sane, he knows he's not sane, and Ellen let him come Hunt in her world. He'd rather go home now than muck up a second chance. (Even if the queen sounds fun. The queen sounds fun.)

He makes sure his trophies are well settled, then turns to head back the way they came. "Oi, Yunno, you still doing alright?"

[magic_ferret]

"I'll be OK Spoon," says Yuuno, "Let's head back so we can get Bryan somewhere safer than around here."

Yuuno's not sure that there's anywhere that's actually safe in Ellen's world, but there has to be places that are better than here.

[time_dancer]

Val's feeling a bit woozily from all the fields she's been making so she just follows along quietly yet keeping her eye out for any soldier ants.

[alertcommando]

Tanya follows along, a bit disappointed.

She did not get to blow anything up properly.

Ah well, at least a boy was saved from becoming giant ant food.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The tunnel is a relatively straightforward run from here, as the ants appear to have decided to be somewhere that doesn't involve guns and lasers for the moment. As a matter of fact, there's no hazards left between the band of travelers and the door back to the scientist's lab.

Well.

It looks like the door back to the scientist's lab. Even if it leads to Milliways for everyone who steps through it but one...