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Post by Tessan Toov on Jan 31, 2012 21:35:07 GMT -5
Someone intelligent would question Donal Costigan using 'slag' as a swear word. Tessan is decidedly not.
The crack of shots ringing out underground is... homey, for her. Painful, yes, but home usually was.
She rises from #1, who is not moving anymore, and she launches herself at #4, trying to crack his back into the wall. Tessan grunts, "Nice shooting, Donal Costigan."
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Hellbender
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Post by Hellbender on Jan 31, 2012 21:53:18 GMT -5
"Spent a lot of time at the range. Nice fighting style you got there, ma'am. USMC?" Costigan wades forward, squinting off into the distance, looking for trouble, before holstering his gun and turning back to Tessan. He switches to a two-handed grip on the pipe wrench.
"If you flip him over this way, Ah might be able knock some of the enthusiasm out of him," he offers.
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Post by Tessan Toov on Jan 31, 2012 22:18:35 GMT -5
"I'm, uh... not allowed to talk about it," Tessan replies, which is as close as she gets to being subtle. It's really the best she could have managed, anyway. She doesn't have any memories of being human, so she couldn't fake anything specific very convincingly.
She lets #4 drop, but Donal Costigan is going to be disappointed, because it isn't moving. She holds up a finger and advises, "Keep that ready. You'll need it soon."
Then, in an uncommon display of caution, she peeks slowly around the corner.
There, in a vast dome cavern beyond, is a small encampment of Sub-Atlanticans, clearly gearing up to invade Detroit. Also, there is the source of the water, just rushing in like a river.
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Post by Hellbender on Feb 1, 2012 19:50:28 GMT -5
"Oh, one of those careers. What have we here?" Costigan peers over her shoulder. He studies the cavern silently for a few moments.
"Damn. That's going to make sealing this tricky. We have to get all the way up the channel past the salt dome to the impermeable rock before blasting it down. We'll NEED those explosives, and being real good at holding your breath and swimming upstream would help." He points one callused finger at the camp. "Bet those fellows aren't going to cooperate one bit. Though if they have some kind of stone-cutter tech we can steal and use..."
He stops and carefully changes out his pistol magazine for a spare magazine concealed under the other arm, and replaces the partial magazine in it's holster. "Range is too long for pistol work. Got any ideas?"
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Post by Tessan Toov on Feb 1, 2012 20:05:12 GMT -5
The reason why Tessan has not actually been firing the rifle is that Sub-Atlanticans telepathically control their gadgets, so there is no trigger or buttons or controls of any kind on the rifle.
Now, the only reason that she has not charged that camp solo is that Donal Costigan is here, and she would not want what she considers to be an innocent bystander to get hurt in the fracas that would result. This, combined with his questions, is forcing her to be a mite reflective.
Tessan looks at the laser rifle and asks, "I wonder what these run on and if it explodes. And if so, where they keep the ammo depot." She starts to try to take it apart, though she won't object if Donal Costigan also wants to get into the 'disassemble fishman tech' action.
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Post by Hellbender on Feb 1, 2012 20:33:31 GMT -5
For himself, Donal Costigan expresses far more concern over how to salvage the mine than over the fact that Deep Ones appear to be invading because he's signed a contract at triple rates to do the best he can to solve the flooding problem. Costigan has a very strong work ethic; he believes in doing the best job he can for his employers.
"If we didn't need to get that flood sealed up pronto, Ah'd be going upstairs and calling 911 for the MCU boys. If Ah do that, they're going to take over the scene and shut me out until the fishpeople are cleared out, and it'll be too late for the mine by then. Salt water will back flood to wherever it's coming in from--probably the Rouge River, based on the bearing of that aqueduct--and that much brine can't be good for Lake Eirie's ecology, neither. The company loses the mine AND gets to be responsible for an ecological disaster--yeah, no, that's not the kind of results they pay me for," Costigan says, thinking aloud.
He turns toward Tessan. "Ah'm more concerned about what they're using for communication? Did you see any radios on that patrol? Either they got some, and someone over there is expectin' 'em to check in, or they don't, and they're supposed to report back on foot."
Looking for the answer to his own question, Costigan starts checking over the scaly bodies. He doesn't seem too bothered by manhandling corpses, or by the fact that the two of them just killed four sentient beings--in self-defense, of course. He'll wonder about that later, and wonder more that at the time, it seemed familiar and routine.
"Good point about an ammo dump. Even if it runs off a power-pack of some kind, they have to stockpile those, too, and a high-power battery is usually made of something a bit volatile. Or flammable." He glances over at Tessan's assault on the rifle.
"Here. You can borrow this." Costigan proffers a well-used Swiss Army knife.
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Post by Tessan Toov on Feb 1, 2012 22:33:25 GMT -5
"I don't know what this stuff is," Tessan answers honestly, "But there really wasn't anything at all that looked like radios on the Sub-Atlanticans."
That is because they are telepaths, but she doesn't know that.
She takes the knife and manages to pry the laser rifle open. The fuel cell looks awfully familiar to her. She punctures the glowing pink rectangle and is quite delighted, exclaiming, "Energon!" as it spurts over her fingers.
Tessan promptly puts one of her fingers in her mouth and just as promptly spits it all back out. She spends a moment hacking it all up, wide-eyed, and then she cautions Donal Constigan, "Don't eat this stuff. It's very flammable and explosive, though. If we can find enough of it..."
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Post by Hellbender on Feb 3, 2012 20:14:36 GMT -5
Costigan finishes searching the corpses. "Nothin' like radios here. They must report in person." He stands up and studies the encampment for a bit. Dimly-glowing globes of green phosphorescence illuminate the camp; the shadows lay deeply on the cave beyond it in all directions.
He squints, and points. "Toward the left back of the camp, away from the inflood--looks like some kind of bunker. If there's something delicate but important in their camp, it's probably there. Ah reckon we can sneak in purty close if we keep to the shadows."
Then Tessan dismantles to rifle and... tastes the battery fuel? Donal looks at her oddly. "Ah, Ah'm not in the habit of taste-testing strange chemicals, no. So how do you detonate this here 'energon' stuff?"
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Post by Tessan Toov on Feb 6, 2012 13:00:40 GMT -5
"You look at it funny," Tessan replies, and she is not entirely kidding. "Shaking it, dropping it, kicking it, heating it up, shooting it, electric shocking it, setting it on fire... any of that can make it explode."
"So, let's hit those shadows."
She moves off to do just so.
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Post by Hellbender on Feb 7, 2012 15:48:38 GMT -5
"Sounds like nitro. Well, that makes it easy if all we want is a big boom. Might be trickier if we need to blow the cave in a particular spot. Ah'll have to look at it when we get there."
Costigan again notices that Tessan seems as comfortable in dark caves as he does. Perhaps she has enhanced night vision of one sort or the other. He moves confidently in the deep shadows, avoiding any loud splashing as he wades along the edge of the cavern.
After carefully maneuvering around the perimeter, Costigan (and Tessan, if she follows without incident) finds himself behind the bunker--which, on closer inspection, it definitely is. The door is on the opposite side, facing in toward the camp; Costigan's pretty sure he saw a guard in front of it as he worked his way around.
He leans back against the cave wall, almost as if he was bracing it with his back, fingers outstretched and drumming against the wall. "Hmm..."
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Post by Tessan Toov on Feb 7, 2012 16:36:14 GMT -5
"Nitro doesn't taste as good," Tessan mutters, "and you can't burn it as easily in an internal combustion engine."
Though nitro is good for treating heart disease, so there is that.
Tessan does follow Costigan without incident, looking around furtively.
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Post by Hellbender on Feb 8, 2012 17:05:09 GMT -5
"Edge of the salt dome is closer in than I thought we were," Costigan observes, rapping the rock--not salt--with a knuckle. "Siltstone--pretty friable stuff. Ah think we might be able to bring down the tunnel if that bunker can be persuaded to blow up and a little bit over. If it's built like most bunkers, Ah reckon it's designed to blow the top off easily to channel any accidental detonations away from the troops, so that's already working in our favor. Just have to loosen the blast walls on one side a bit."
He glances over at Tessan and hefts the big pipe wrench. "Let's get that guard. Hopefully he's got the door opener clicky." (Because everyone uses those instead of keys nowadays, right?)
Costigan sidles alongside the bunker, carefully working his way around toward the front. He freezes whenever a guard wanders toward them...
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Post by Tessan Toov on Feb 10, 2012 10:57:50 GMT -5
Tessan does not so much freeze as she simply stops moving but keeps herself limber enough to start moving again at the drop of a hat. She is very clearly unworried, even if she ought to be worried.
If anything, she looks... hopeful. Tessan hasn't had this good a time in a long time.
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Post by Hellbender on Feb 10, 2012 13:45:45 GMT -5
Costigan moves forward-- something alerts the guard at the last instant, and the fishman turns--
Too late! Costigan swings the massive 3 foot pipe wrench like he was using it to drive railroad spikes--straight down onto the Sub-Atlantican's skull. The result is predictably messy.
The mining engineer grapples for the sinking body in the dark floodwater, dropping the wrench to do so. Hoisting it up against the bunker wall, he searches for keys, door clicker, something that might be used to operate the bunker's locked door.
"Slag and damnation!" he mutters, coming up empty-handed. "Don't think they trusted him with the keys. Can you drill the lock out?"
For all his keen senses, Costigan missed one important detail: every single fishman froze and looked around, startled, when the guard went down. They are telepaths, after all, and something is very wrong.
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Post by Tessan Toov on Feb 10, 2012 22:18:07 GMT -5
Miraculously, Tessan's drills seem to have dried out enough that they are now working again. She replies, "Sure thing, Donal Costigan," apparently unphased by the violence.
She moves forward to drill out the lock, a look of near ecstasy on her face. This woman really, really likes drilling things. The door is still very heavy, though, even with the lock gone...
Tessan continues to not notice the peculiar thing going on with the fishmen.
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