Deathclaw Tunnels

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

When the door opens, it opens into a stone-walled tunnel that bears the marks of long-ago machinery. Some poor fool took it into his head that there'd be a tourism market for caves in the region and carved a small but natural passage into something much bigger and wider and easier to traverse. Judging by the stink of dead meat and living animal, he made it easier to traverse for all the wrong things.

"Delores and the others are just around that bend," Ellen says. "We're not far from where the deathclaws apparently like to nest."

Comments

[katyafeline]

Katya, looking awfully fancy for a monster hunt in a jeans jacket and her habitual jewelry, steps into the corridor and wrinkles her nose. Smells like a vampire's den in here.

"Charming locale."

[cutting_edgex23]

"No," X says, agreeing with Ellen (and perhaps disagreeing with Katya, who can say?), nostrils flaring as she scents the air.

"We are not."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"There's apparently going to be a lot of deathclaws here," says Ellen; she's wearing her stealth suit, although her headpiece is down just at the moment and she's as visible as usual. "We're only here after the six or eight biggest. The rest are younger, but still pretty big- we're going to leave those alive for the moment, if we can. Obviously if they start being a problem during the fight we can attack them too, although Delores will probably get upset about that- but she's not the one risking her neck, so as far as I'm concerned she doesn't really get to complain."

[boston_bruiser]

"You ask me, only thing we're doin' wrong is stoppin' at eight."

No, Voodoo still hasn't let go of how one scratched him up on a mission a few years back.

"Like goddamn roaches. 'cept eight fucktillion feet taller 'n with claws."

Possibly he will be unapologetic if Delores overheard that.

He picked up a stick of gum from Bar, and spits it out on the ground as he pushes his sunglasses further up the bridge of his nose.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"The last time we did an extermination I had to have Ben Grimm and the She-Hulk along for the ride, remember?" says Ellen. "That was Olney. No offense to you or D0G or anyone else here but this isn't the time for a complete wipeout. I promise you, if Elder Lyons says he wants this place cleansed, I'll come and get you personally and you can come along for the operation. We'll even get you some plasma grenades if you want."

"All right, who here's ready?"

[1nv1nc1ble]

"Ready," says Invincible. He probably looks even more out of place than Katya, in his blue and yellow uniform with the stylized I on the front of it. "I hope these caves are stable," he says, looking up at the ceiling. He'd hate to accidentally bring the roof down on someone.

[katyafeline]

Katya flashes a smile at Voodoo that's full of approval and fellow-sympathy. She's never much loved the idea of anything other than clearing the slate, and has been called to heel more than once over it.

"Da, da, just waiting on the word."

[cutting_edgex23]

X shrugs, one-shouldered and quick.

"We do what is necessary."

Her gaze flicks to Ellen.

"I am ready. When you tell me."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"All right," says Ellen. "Delores?"

The elderly, leather-faced woman (the Wasteland sun and wind are not kind to skin) who hobbles out from around a bend in the tunnel ahead looks a little disgruntled as she says, "I don't know where you got these people from, but if they're going to help, they can stay. Just don't pull an army out of your ass or something."

"I've been accused of having contact with a civilization of subterranean mole people before," says Ellen. "Not the other thing."

"They don't look like mole people." Delores turns to the newcomers. "I don't know how much she's told you, but up ahead the tunnel splits into a Y shape. The left branch leads down to the low levels of the main caverns, where most of the deathclaws nest and eat. The right branch goes up, and it's pretty steep. There's some cave galleries up there with a good line of sight, but the openings aren't really big enough for anything other than a couple of eyes and a rifle. Hatchlings might make it up there if they were curious enough, but the adults won't fit. Especially not the older adults, the ones you're supposed to be killing."

[boston_bruiser]

"I'll go right. Any'a you wanna go left 'n get your jollies in hand-to-hand, fine by me."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Bwoop eep! says D0G, who's been here all along if a little quiet.

"I have no idea what that sound meant, but that was either volunteering to go down to the main cavern-" The robot shakes its head furiously. "Or to guard the intersection in case anything tries to come up on us from behind." That gets a cheerful nod.

"Okay then. Considering that I brought most of my energy weapons with me I can go in either direction as necessary. Does anybody who's going straight into the ground level fight want to borrow a supersledge? It's no Mjolnir, but it's a respectable enough enhanced kinetic energy weapon that my friend Fawkes has used one against some of the biggest mutants in the Wasteland and come out on top."

[cutting_edgex23]

"If you already have a sniper -- "

X's gaze flicks to Voodoo and then away again. Quickly.

" -- I will be more effective on the ground."

Beat.

"You will not have to be careful of your aim. Any of you."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I'll remember that," Ellen says. "Invincible, I'm guessing you're going down for hand-to-claw stuff, so that mostly leaves Katya."

[1nv1nc1ble]

"Yeah," says Invincible, nodding. He gives X a curious glance at her assessment, but says, "What she says goes for me as well." He pauses, then adds, "That being said, I'd prefer if you didn't caused a cave-in."

[katyafeline]

"I have ever been more comfortable with close quarters, but I will go where you need me." She shrugs, dutifully not asking about armies one stores in one's ass.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Down, then," says Ellen. "Which means I'll be joining Voodoo up top to provide covering fire for you guys with this-"

She holds up a scoped rifle with a peculiar ringed barrel.

"This is my Gauss rifle. There are maybe three others like it in the Wasteland, currently. I've gotten a number of kills on younger deathclaws with it, and the ones it doesn't kill straight out it knocks off their feet and leaves vulnerable for several seconds. It takes longer than I'd like to recharge between rounds, so it's better used at a distance."

"That being said, I have a number of plasma grenades and I know how to use them without bringing the cavern roof down. Unless anyone wants Delores' bottlecap mines we'll split up and get to our positions."

[cutting_edgex23]

"I am okay," X says matter-of-factly.

She's already focusing on the sensory input she can gain from the left-handed passage.

It pays to be prepared.

[1nv1nc1ble]

"None for me," says Invincible. "I wouldn't really know what to do with them." He spares a glance over at Delores. She probably thinks I'm crazy, he thinks. This should be interesting.

"Still," he adds, "don't be afraid to use the grenades, if it looks like I need them."

[katyafeline]

Katya simply shakes her head, her silver earrings glittering in the light with the movement. She's always hated this part, honestly - the waiting before the hunt begins.

[boston_bruiser]

Voodoo nods, once. "Fuckin' awesome." He pulls back the Mark 14's bolt, and the gleam of a brass cartridge comes from the chamber. He releases it, and it flies home with a CLACK.

"Let's get to killin'."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Down in the caverns, something bellows.

"That'd be one of the big ones," observes Delores. "They don't sound hungry, for what it's worth."

"Let's not give them the chance to get hungry," Ellen says, and gestures to the fork in the tunnels before heading upward to the right, Gauss rifle at the ready.

***

The tunnel that wends downward has the irregular, lumpy-but-not-jagged floor of a passage carved by water rather than beaten down by feet. It's a vaguely triangular passage perhaps wide enough to admit a motor vehicle, although one that would scrape its paint viciously on the sides, and high enough that the ceiling disappears into the blackness. The smell of reptile and the stench of things that reptiles haven't finished eating grows stronger the further down it goes; as it curves around to the right it opens out into a massive chamber reminiscent of the chambers at Luray.

Well, except for the part where there aren't big, hulking shapes flitting through the shadows in Luray.

Also there are a lot fewer animal skulls in Luray. Bad for the tourists.

The tunnel that extends upward is far narrower and bears almost no marks of reptile claws, but it's not an easy climb; this was also a drip-carved passage. It's not a long one, though, and it does offer a marvelous vantage point over the stalagmite-spiked vista of the cavern floor. The lighting's not great, since there's only so much that can filter through cracks in the rock and rodent-small passages, but with the right equipment that isn't so much of a problem. Especially when the thing that bellowed before shuffles out from behind a cavern pillar, hunched over and snuffling around for the source of new smells.

"Good Lord," Ellen breathes, "that thing's nearly as big as the mother in Olney..."

[1nv1nc1ble]

Invincible makes his way down into the lower caverns, nose wrinkling at the increasingly unpleasant smell. "Man," he says quietly, mostly to himself, "it's like the Reptile House at the LA Zoo down here."

He stops just before it opens out, and looking at X and Katya, whispers, "I'm obviously the most brightly colored person here." He gestures to his uniform for emphasis. "How about I step out and give them something to look at?"

[cutting_edgex23]

X shrugs, one-shouldered and quick, then reaches out to pat Invincible's shoulder.

Once.

It's kind of like 'sure'.

Then she flicks a quick glance at Katya before slipping off into the shadows.

Climbing stalagmites is quick and entertaining! And it will give her a perch to leap from.

Once there is an appropriate distraction, of course. (Provided Deathclaws rely on their sight, too. X sure doesn't.)

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Mostly they do. Oh, they have excellent senses of smell, of course- predators so often do- but color and motion draw their attention more easily.

A smaller deathclaw, more distinctly pinkish in color, trots over towards the big one. She hisses and swipes at it with one enormous clawed hand; it flails and skitters hastily out of her range.

[1nv1nc1ble]

Invincible thinks that it has to be odd, even to the Deathclaws' small, lizardy brains, for a bright yellow and blue figure to stroll into the open cavern, whistling "Hey, Jude." He reflects that, if he saw such a spectacle, he'd know it was a trap. He can only hope they aren't that smart.

Smart or not, he's moving out into the relatively open space in the center of the cavern, making himself as obvious a target as possible. He pauses in his whistling to say, in a clear, loud voice, "Good afternoon, reptilians and reptiloids. Today's Blue Plate Special is Viltrumite. Supplies are limited so it's first come, first ser-- holy crap that's a big lizard...."