[IC] Earth's Dawn, [Closed Game] Oh... the HORROR! Options

[Toptomcat]

Shit. Spirits = elemental attack, that's the reason I carry these things around in the first place. I panicked, is all...not that anyone could blame me, with this freakshow going down!
With an embarrased wince, James snatches a red-striped grenade from a bandolier, bites off the pull-ring, and gives a 'slow' toss underhand, his movements still registering as a blur to those without boosting.
Trapped like a rat behind a barrier, no room for stealth, finesse, etiquette, street smarts, anything but raw force. The skills I've spent the last fifteen years of my life getting my grubby paws on are now worse than useless...
Sweat begins to bead on James' forehead, adulterated with the immunosuppressants, hormones and enzymes that are the invisible Mark of Cain of those with 'ware. Time seems to slow down as he nervously scans the invisible wall that separates him with Dante's goddamn Inferno.
"Can you mages reinforce that?"

[ Spoiler ]

Initiative: 8 + 3d6
Offense: 10 dice (9 from Strength, 1 from EI, defaulting)
Defense: 10 dice (10 from Combat Pool, distributed as needed)

Readying and Throwing an Incindiary Grenade: Defaulting to Quickness, scatter is 1d6 meters -2 meters per success, TN 8.
Weapon Damage: 8M, half Impact applies, elemental and thus ignores Immunity to Normal Weapons
Ballaistic/Impact: 9, 8: Impact 9 in melee
5 pts Fire Resistance
3 pts Nonconductive
8 pts Thermal Dampening
5 pts Insulation

[Tarantula]

Sleel watches all the commotion shortly after his drones got in the air. Lock damn you, LOCK.
Target locked.
I got that fragger now... I just don't know if we need more help holding back this wave of zombies, or in getting rid of the master... I guess I'll concentrate fire on the big one, and then if that doesn't help out, start blasting those freaks.

[ Spoiler ]

Rigged Initiative: 12 + 4d6

Complex Action: Order Hernando's and Gunther's to fire at the demonic figure until it is dead.

Hernando's: 4 dice each (2 Pilot + ½Sensor(5))
MMG:10 rounds each, 3 pts Recoil Compensation (no double recoil modifier).
(9S base)19D dmg for full-auto burst.
TN: Sig of Demonic + 4 (-3 direct LOS, +7 recoil)
Defense: 1 vehicle armor, 2 body

Gunther's: 3 dice each (3 Pilot + ½Sensor(1))
LMG: 10 rounds each, 4 pts Recoil Compensation (no double recoil modifier).
(7S base)17D dmg each full-auto burst.
TN: Sig of Demonic + 3 (-3 direct LOS, +6 recoil)
Defense: 4 vehicle armor, 1 body

[HeySparky]

Slinky nods as her rounds take the zombies down and her eyes widen, hope flaring briefly as the zombies check themselves violently against the barrier. She spares a moment to glance around and assess. Sleel's up. Drones too. She sighs in relief. Gypsy, tense but okay. Tense. Who isn't? What the hell is going on? She glances over her shoulder. Tall, dark and wormy's getting up again. We'll see about that.

She moderates her voice, but speaks loud enough for Gypsy to hear her with his ears as well as broadcast her move to the team over the comm system. "180 Gyp. Cover." She drops to a knee and rolls, the speed and closeness of her passage fluttering the tails of Gypsy's long coat. She rises to a knee and brings her guns to bear on the worm-demon. The world falls away and Slinky enters a space where only she, the gun, her rounds and the demon exist. A timeless place. A place of stillness and clarity.

A place disturbed by a noise. A small noise. A hard noise for the young woman to ignore. The pin of a grenade. She struggles to maintain focus.

Willpower meets firepower.

[ Spoiler ]

Athletics: 5 dice

Willpower against Flashbacks, Explosions: 4 dice

Initiative: 6+1d6 (not 5+1d6, sorry about that)
Offense: 10 (6 from skill, 4 from Combat pool)
Defense: 4 (4 from Combat pool)

Damage APIII: 7M (Knockdown against TN 7 for Gel rounds)
Damage Ceska: 4L (Knockdown against TN 4 for Gel rounds)

Modifiers: Power -2 for gel rounds (already calculated); Ambidexterity +6 ( +1 to off hand TN - left hand, Ceska); Smartlink II on each gun (-2 TN)

Zombies must make a Body test for Knockdown against the Power of each attack.

Intent: The move she signaled to Gypsy indicates that she's turning 180 degrees and their backs will be exposed as long as he doesn't cover her. If she doesn't succumb to explosion related flashbacks she will fire two rounds into the worm-demon.

[Fortune]

As he watches his spell impact uselessly against the Ward, Gypsy shakes his head in frustration.

"I fraggin' knew it!"

A quick glance around tells the elf that the whole team was busy dealing with the threats, but there was nothing he could do to directly help them until the Ward came down. The same Ward that was keeping out the zombie-like beings was also preventing him from using his spells in any kind of offensive manner.

Gypsy figures that the barrier won't hold much longer though, and his hands are already moving in their intricate dance as he prepares to cast another spell. His dampened ears faintly register Slinky's voice, but he ignores her for the moment as he puts everything he has into releasing the spell, which he then links to the onyx ring on his right middle finger.

[ Spoiler ]

Initiative: 7 + 1d6

Defence: 11 (Combat Pool)

Casting Dice: 14 (7 Spellcasting/7 Spell Pool)
Drain Resistance: 7 (Willpower)

Free Action: Shift dice from Spell Defence to Spellcasting.
Complex Action: Casting Force 1 Personal Increase Reflexes 3 [Drain 3S]

[Sphynx]

Quickly recovering from a round of near-surprise, the team begins working in a near unison from years of training together. The comforting sound of automatic fire from above indicates to the team that the drones have entered into the fray, and it seems to show. The Wormskull looks like someone was taking an egg beater to it, it's dead-like flesh rippling like a lake during rain. Sickeningly, it looks like the flesh just absorbs the gun fire though, and this time it's not surprised enough to fall back down. At about that time though, a huge explosion rechocets throughout the chamber, as a grenade falls center-mass on the left flank of cadavers, leaving nothing but burning corpses, and a slightly singed, though undamaged worm skull. Within seconds 2 major factors take place. Most of the remaining Cadavers fall to the relentless fire of the well placed team, leaving only 8 cadavers standing as the Ward suddenly drops, allowing them to charge at the team.Sword arms raised, they charge into the team, ready to wreak havoc, when suddenly they stop, and start attacking each other instead. At this point the Wormskull drops to the ground, apparently though not appearing injured, the drone attacks were enough to take it down.

The remaining cadavers take each other out without the need to waste more ammo, giving the team time to notice that Slinky seems to have withdrawn into herself, a look of absolute terror in her eyes which seem unable to focus. Aside from that, the team seems relatively unscathed, thanks in no small part to the Ward that had blocked the army of cadavers from charing in immediately.

The sound of quickly scampering feet are heard running up the tunnel to the right.

[ Spoiler ]

Slinky: You never had a chance to fire your rounds this turn due to Flashbacks kicking in (as well as being due to the fact that the Wormskull was dead by the time it was your go at things :P).

[Gremish]

"Damn" Gremish Says with a smirk. "i was loking for a good fight." Cracking his neck he checks the rest of the Team for obvoius wounds and with none in sight begins looking his way through the carnage. " Anyone got an idea what the drek is down that right hall, and a better question anyone really wanna find out?"

Examining this worm skull creature he takes note of its appearence so that he can be prepared better for another if it arises.
"So where do you all sapose we got ploped?"

[Sandoval Smith]

Jack popped the empty clip out of his Cobra, pocketing it (waste not want not) and sliding a fresh ExEx in. He kept it trained on the worm eaten thing on the ground. It didn't actually look hurt. It could just be playing dead for all they knew. It was an unknown situational modifer. He heard scampering footfalls coming from a tunnel on the right, and he quickly scanned to see if there were any other exits that they had overlooked in the intial chaos. Keeping an eye an anything that might move, he hefted his gear by the carrying strap, settling it over his shoulder.

"Next move Boss?" Jack asked Dogma, faintly mimicing Gremish's vocal patterns.

------------------

[ Spoiler ]

Reload, get stuff, prepare for orders.

[Backgammon]

(Very much edited)

The room was littered with decomposing corpses. Ripped apart flesh revealed bluish intestines. It was difficult to pinpoint single bodies from the carpet mass of rotting flesh everywhere.

The team checked ammo and changed clips, nervously looking around and lightly kicking nearby corpses.

"Next move Boss?" asked Jack to Dogma, lightening the air a bit by immitating Gremish's unmistakable accent.

"Alright, let's figure out what the frag is going on here. James and Jack, check out that other tunnel." Dogma pointed to the other tunnel, that seemed quiet enough. "Stay in touch. Synch up to Frequency 3. Back off if you get into trouble. Be careful" Dogma patted James on both shoulders and the two stealth masters were off.

"Sleel, set up a perimeter with your drones for now, and send one or two down the other tunnel. Don't waste ammo, this only recon."

"Mages, no astral projection just yet. I don't want to deal with your bodies getting possessed while you're out. Everyone else, within arm's reach of at least 1 other person at all times." Dogma finished his instructions and his team moved into action.

Dogma noticed Gypsy was crouched near Slinky, talking softly in her ear. The grenade... damn. Dogma came next to the girl.

"Slinky, sweety, we gotta stay focused."

Slinky had tears in her eyes, but she raised her chin up and nodded. She got up, dusted herself off, and headed away towards where her equipement bag lay.

Gypsy raised himself from where he was crouching, and Dogma put his arm on his shoulder. He also caught the eye of Rebo, Gremish and Tevos and beconned for them to come closer. The five of them made a small circle in the middle of the geometric design in the cave.

"Alright guys, you're the ones best suited to figure out what the frag is going on here. Where are we? How do we leave? Any theories, G? That circle looked hermetic... can you use it? Send us back or something?" asked Dogma, looking to his Awakened teammates for answers, trying not to think too much about the demons he'd just witnessed.

[ Spoiler ]

G = Gypsy ;)

[Toptomcat]

(To clarify, I used an incindiary, not an explosive.)
"Right. I hope not everything in this buggered place is a para, or my ruthenium and thermal dampening won't be nearly as effective as it normally is.
Ghost time."
Keep it light, keep it light. Pretend we haven't been sent to Hell through the mother of all astral Veg-O-Matic mana warps, and maybe I'll make it through this with my sanity intact.

James threw the ruthenium cloak over his head, and his teammates heard a muffled hiss as his motley outfit sealed in his body heat. He moved like a ghost, only No'One, Dogma, and Ana able to hear so much as a whisper with their amped hearing. Gliding over the nauseatingly squishy floor, Jack slowly approaches the tunnel, his modified eyes sweeping for threats.
Now I can be sneaky again. Good. Odd that the only time I really feel at home is when I'm damn near invisible, but there you go.

[ Spoiler ]

Ruthie cloak adds +12 to all tests to see with anything that isn't radar, thermo or ultrasound, dampening adds +8 to see with thermo and +8 to vehicle Signature. Stealth 7, Aptitude (Stealth) grants -1 TN to Stealth tests.
Making a Perception test: Cat's eyes grant low-light vision, treated as natural vision. Perceptive edge grants -1 TN for Perception tests, Intelligence 6.
Re-loading and replacing Remington Roomsweeper with Bola rounds, drawing Morissey Alta.

[Fortune]

Gypsy watches in concern as Slinky moves unsteadily away. In response to Dogma's inquiries, the elf pauses and looks over the designs in question once again.

"The elements certainly should appear familiar, but I don't even remotely recognize any of the symbology involved. Of course, I haven't really had a chance to examine the Circle in any more than a cursory manner."

He regretfully shakes his head, glancing along the passage before continuing.

"Perhaps with a bit more study I could figure out its purpose, but I'm doubting we'll be given enough time."

[Tarantula]

Sleel nods to Dogma as his drones begin moving. With a quick glance at Slinky to check that shes doing at least somewhat ok, he looks back at the cratered and beaten demonic corpse and smiles grimly.
One Hernando and Gunther fly on either side of each tunnel entrance. Their standing orders of get a lock on anything coming through, and return fire if attacked. The 2 Arty drones spread out near the ceiling widening their areas of coverage, while the two Little Bird drones flutter off one down each tunnel. Finally, the two Ajax drones widen out over the team, orders to defend the team. Little birds instructions are to scout and alert Sleel of anything other than more tunnel, if they detect anyone/anything to come back ASAP and let him know.

[ Spoiler ]

Little birds have 4 dice to understand order/make decisions based off it that are beneficial to me.

[HeySparky]

The rattled girl mumbles an apology to Dogma and the rest of the team. She busies herself sorting out her and Gypsy's gear and waves off Sleel's looks of concern, chastising herself with mutters curses under her breath. She runs a hand over her braided hair. She shakes her head and takes a few deep breaths, still unsettled as much by the explosion as by the beyond unimaginable circumstances the team has found itself in now.

Dear Ghostwalker, it is with great regret that I wish to tender my resignation from... no. That's not quite right. Dear Pale and Scaly, what sort of nightmarish demon 'reasearch mission' do you think... no. Too caustic... hmm... To whom it may concern: Frag fragging demons and dragons. Frag you all. Love, Slinky. She nods, satisfied, and makes herself into Jack's shadow.

"So, uh. Want to take a look around while the mana-heads investigate the circle?" She looks around and has second thoughts, but looks back at the chameleon man as she checks the ammo on her weapons.

[Sandoval Smith]

Jack took up a defensive position, ready to go down either tunnel if he got the order. The lull was good for him. He needed time to get his feet back under him. He didn't think that anyone'd particularly noticed his momentary breakdown. Too much gunfire, shouting, and everyone else simultaneously trying to keep their own hoops intact.

He adjusted the heavy weight on his back, casting a nervous eye over the recently un-undead strewn about the floor, and the still intact worm faced thing. He wanted to go over there and poke it, just to make sure it was really dead. He knew how these sort of scripts went though. He'd only have two options at that point. He could poke it, then turn around and declare it good and murdered, and then watch his team mates terrified expressions when it reared up behind him. Or he could lean over really close, and then get his face torn off. Bad plan. Very bad plan. He hoped that he wasn't classified as the obnoxious comic relief. That would also guarantee that he'd end up with his face being eaten right off of his skull.

He wondered what ruthenium dermal sheathing tasted like.

Magic was the problem. Because of magic, he had no idea where they were. Because of magic, he didn't dare turn his back on the dead things on the floor, just in case they weren't as dead as they should've been.

Jack shook his head, trying to keep his attention focused. There was too much mana, too much 'I'm sorry, it does what?' floating around here. It was freaking him out.

His attention went back to the zombies on the floor. The skin contrasts caused by decomposition were rather interesting. He'd never really tried mimicing a pattern that complicated before, and his skin started to flucuate in tones as he tried to reproduce the effect.

[Sandoval Smith]

Jack continued to play around with his skin tones in the back of his mind as he scoped out the tunnel. It made him more than a little nervous that it felt so familar. He tried to brush it off. Tunnels full of rocks were tunnels full of rocks. They probably all looked alike the world over.

What caves worldwide probably didn't share was that one tight spot, where his pack had gotten stuck going through, with that pattern in the cave wall just above it that made him think of Dunkelzahn eating an aircraft carrier.

He knew he shouldn't say it. He didn't want to say it. He was guranteeing his early and untimely demise by saying it, but he couldn't help himself. "I have a bad feeling about this."

He pressed on just a little farther, seeing further confirmation of familar rockforms. "Hey Boss," he radioed back to Dogma. "I think I have some bad news. Y'know, that place we were in Ireland, the one that suffered a serious lack of walking dead? It looks we're still there. This passage is the same passage we came down earlier today. "

[HMHVV Hunter]

Rebo walks around the perimeter of the mystical circle, taking a long look at the symbols on the off chance that he recognizes anything. It was probably a waste of time for him; he didn't believe in any of this mysticism that so many people connected with psi powers, but apparently these..."demons" did, and that left him at something of a disadvantage trying to understand this circle.

Giving up, he goes over to the tunnel and stands ready in case something comes out of it.

[Toptomcat]

John jumps, the ruthenium 'skipping' for a moment with his sudden movement.
"Eep! When did you get there?"

He turns the stealth equipment off, the cloak going a dull gray as he unseals his thermo damping.
"However you managed to sneak up on me, you're right. This looks like the way out... and I don't like it either."

A nasty, nasty, nasty thought occurs to him as he walks back into the main chamber. Bending down to find a corpse- re-corpse- whatever the hell you call a dead zombie, he shuffles through the blood-soaked floor and overpowering smells to see if any of them have familiar faces through the basketball-sized wound cavities, months of decomposition and general ickiness.

[ Spoiler ]

Another Percep

[Backgammon]

Dogma sat re-reading on his pocket secretary for the tenth time the research data the team had accumulated on the anomaly before it has swallowed them. There were no answers, of course. His Awakened team mates could no more explain things now then they could before. He didn't blame them. What a cluster frag.

Jack's voice came in his head: "I think I have some bad news. Y'know, that place we were in Ireland, the one that suffered a serious lack of walking dead? It looks we're still there. This passage is the same passage we came down earlier today."

Dogma stayed perfectly still for a moment. What?. He remembered himself and sent a quick <<Copy that. Head back here>> message to the recon team.

No no no no no. This can't be. He raised his head. A sort of dry panic had taken him. The impossibility of things made his head spin. He looked over to where the mages were assembled, quietly talking and trading uncertain theories. He looked to each other of his team members, as they stood in proximity of each other, weapons in hand, never quite taking their eyes off the corpses around them.

Dogma closed his eyes. Alright. Frag the uncertain. Nothing is differant than any other circumstance. Recon, defend, regroup. Stay chill.

He waited till James and Jack came back from their reconnaissance of the tunnel. Before asking everyone to listen up.

"Alright, here's the situation." Dogma paused slightly. What was the situation?. "We've lost the primairy objective. We need to get back to it." He looked at his men, seeing that applying these familiar tactical terms to even such a FUBAR situation as this had a calming effect on everyone. "Intel indicates we're either somehow in the same cave that we were before we got swallowed, or we're in a very similar cave. There's no indication that we can make the anomaly undo or whatever what it did to us. So there's no point in staying here. We're going to head topside and investigate our surroundings. There's no way to tell what to expect, so stay alert. We have a lot of ammo also, but there's no telling when or even if we'll be able to resupply, so conserve ammo. No shooting at shadows. Continue to stay in pairs at all times."

"Move out."

[Fortune]

Gypsy looks over in surprise when he hears Dogma's instructions. While he definitely agreed that there was nothing to be learned from the strange Circle, the thought of leaving before fully following up all possibilities goes against his scholarly nature.

Gathering what little gear he has, Gypsy wanders over and pulls the other elf aside.

"Do you think it's a good idea to leave just yet? From what Sleel says, that tunnel ends in a cave-in. Since he found no sign of whatever we heard going that way after the fight, it might be a good idea to see just how extensive the blockage really is. Whatever was making those sounds had to go somewhere, after all."

Gypsy reaches up and re-ties the black-and-green bandanna around his head as he looks around once again at the bodies scattered about the cavern.

"Besides, these things were here for a reason. I think we should try and find out why."

[Backgammon]

Dogma thinks it over for a brief moment, and nods.

"It'll take us some time to move all of the drones and gear up through those tight passages anyway. Take whoever you need to assist you. We'll start moving the stuff. Let me know if you find anything."

[Fortune]

The slender elven sorcerer ponders who would be best for the task at hand. Ideally, he would need someone that can Astrally Project, which would mean Rebo, though the psychic warrior will obviously call it something completely different. He would also need someone capable of moving the obstacles if it becomes necessary. A Spirit would probably be best for this job, and Spirits are Tevos' forte. Of course, physical backup would be nice, and since he's already teamed with Slinky, she should come as well to fill that role.

The decision made, Gypsy gathers the three others together and fills them in on the plan.

"We need to explore the tunnel there. We can be sure that there was some kind of life down that way, but Sleel reports that the whole passage is empty and sealed by a cave-in."

[Toptomcat]

"If we're going to be splitting up anyway, it'd be best to make it more or less even...and I think that answers to this are more likely to be found down here than up there. I'll go as well."
James checks his gun, chambers a round, and walks to the enterence of the other tunnel, waiting to see if anyone else will join the impromptu recon team.

[HMHVV Hunter]

OOC edit: never mind

[Fortune]

Gypsy moves to where James has taken position near the tunnel entrance and lays his hand gently on the stealthy warrior's shoulder.

"Dogma's surface team is more-than-likely going to run into trouble sooner than we do down here. When he does, he's going to be needing your help, as he'll be a little short of magical aid until we can link up again, and will need every gun he can get. Especially yours!"

[Toptomcat]

"All right..."
James switches groups, heading topside.

[Sandoval Smith]

Jack briefly considers leaving his pack down below. He doesn't want to get stuck in that crevice again, but he doesn't want to get to the top and realize that he really needs one of those nifty toys he left behind. He links his chip juke box to the datajack behind his ear, slotting a couple chips, swapping out the ones in his chipjack, twitching slightly as his mind adapts to its new facets. He slings the Cobra, pulling his Predator from his pack, screwing on it's silencer, and sliding his Slivergun into it's thigh holster.

"Gremish, why don't we take the lead? I'll keep my eyes and ears peeled on this plane of existence, if you keep track of what's going down on the other one."

As they start down the passage, he gives the rock bearing the pattern of Dunklezahn and the aircraf carrier one last look. He managed to stave off the sensation of reality dysfunction, of the same image, the same passage, the same structure somehow existing in two different places. It was because of something related to magic, and for now he would just have to leave it at that.

"I'll keep sending updates as long as I have a signal," his transducer sends to Dogma over his radio. "Maybe we'll get lucky and contact won't be broken so soon. Do you want to take video recordings of the whole passage for later review, or just anything interesting that we come across?"
------------------------

[ Spoiler ]

Jack is going to be proceding with amplified hearing, and keeping an eye open in case anyone has left any surprises since the last(?) time they've been there.

Chips slotted:
Sprethiel 4(headware)
Pistols 4: Expert driver +3
Intimidation Mental: 5
Jukebox:
Ettiquette: 4
SMG: 4
Security Devices: 3 (activated)
Security Systems: 4