Little BillMatija and Koren
In collaboration with: @Rultaos and @superservo27
Matija was bouncing by the heels of her feet as she impatiently waited for their shuttle to come. She felt heavier than usual considering that her sniper rifle, the one that she usually prefers not taking, is on her back. Not to mention that additional magazines for her guns, all six for her pistols and four for her rifle, on her waist; plus the few extra bullets that she took just in case. ”I’m excited to not die,” she says cheerily to no one as she eyes the toes of her shoes both in anxiety and excitement. Koren was on her side, as per usual. He was looking at the partial mapping of the facility that Matija eventually looked over for a bit to have a general idea when her toes stopped being interesting. ”Just remember to turn off safety when you fire,” she says out of the blue, making the Juz’ look up to her before responding with a ”I understand.” ”Don’t forget what I told you. The trigger ain’t your enemy. Just pull it, don’t squeeze. An’ breathe, Koren. You’ll be fine. I’m there. Just don’t die, okay?” The blue alien nodded in acknowledgment before looking back down at the map and closing it.
Leaving Koren be, the Mecorian eyes Benny on her side who was stretching his neck and shoulders before he flexed his fingers and hands. She watched him fidget about before she piped up to fulfill the need to say something to the man. ”Benny, I already told Koren this. We know the gig's simple. But shit can go wrong,” she pauses as she takes in the gravity of her words. ”We might have a warband on our ass, we might not. Bottomline is, don't die. I'd be disappointed if you do,” she finishes with a small smile hidden behind her helmet’s tinted visor. Her words seemed to have amused Benny based on the snort of a chuckle and his tone of voice. "I dinnae knew I had expectations ta' live up to. I'll try not ta' disappoint,” He jested back with a nod. He then turned back towards Koren, the blue Juz' that seemed to be a close friend of Matija's. "I've been meaning to ask, how'd you an' the kid meet each other? Ya two seem to go way back,” He asked as the shuttle doors opened and some people began climbing in.
"Well...” Matija started as she thought about his question. ”How's about this. I'll tell ya all about it when we get back, yea? Juss so we'll have something to talk about if we can at least get a bit of watered down beer to swill down,” Matija responded as they began walking towards the second shuttle entrance where they all huddled aboard. Based on their current numbers, it seemed that Taleste got excluded from their little pile. This thought made Matija feel grateful and envious due to the implications of special treatment. In order to distract herself, she starts fiddling with her rifle again, adjusting the sight as she deems it fit before she got tired of it and holstered it back to her back. She looks at the blank faces of each person’s suit in the room before glanced at Benny, watching him play the old retro game in his helmet. The Mecorian finds herself grinning at the childish sight and letting out an amused snort before going back to minding her own business.
Soon enough, they were offloaded to the top of the said plateau and Matija started feeling her ears perk up in alert due to the thought of them being in such a relatively high location that could be seen by anyone willing or lucky enough to look. With the crew being directed to circle around the location plateau, Matija found it apt to pull out her rifle and looked over the direction that she was given while she swallowed back the feeling of unbearable excitement bubbling in her stomach. Koren on the other hand simply took a flat rock to sit on before pulling out his own borrowed gun that he held with both hands. Till then, they simply had to wait for the thief to not fuck up.
The silence within the group was broken by Stryker’s frantic voice later on. ”Taleste, come in.... Taleste do you read me? Damn it!” he exclaimed, making the Mecorian and Juz’ glanced towards Stryker as the two tried to make sense of what’s happening. Before they could properly piece things together, the ground shook underneath them, startling the two of them to standing upright. ”Oh wow,” Koren breathed as he watched the ground before them open up what almost seemed to be a staircase to the underworld. ”Taleste was captured, but she got the job done. If she's lucky, she's already dead, we have to honor her sacrifice by pushing forward and getting this job done,” said their Captain. Matija grinned maliciously at the thought of Taleste being captured and tortured. The Siren found it satisfying to think of such due to the mere fact that she felt one-upped so unfairly. ”Besides, they're probably gonna follow that right to us, and we have a better chance of defending ourselves down there in cover than out here in the open,” added Stryker. To which she nodded to as she lowered her weapon and started jogging towards the hole.
"They're already comin' Stryker,” called out Grayson. This resulted in the rest of the crew hustling faster inside even without Stryker’s orders.
By the time they get by the doors, Stryker was already pounding and demanding for a passage in. Whether or not he was heard by its inhabitants was a mystery to them. But at least the door opened, to which everyone felt relief over. While Koren had decided to holster his weapon so he won’t get bogged down by a weapon that he had no current use for, Matija herself found it eerily quiet save for the sounds of their crew’s footfalls and the eventual sliding of the door once they were all in. The Captain ordered the doors to stay locked, to which SAL responded to by punching the literal lights out of the entire room. He possibly turned off the entire floor’s power as well. Sans the few emergency light fixtures on the walls. Matija nodded and let out an approving hum at the act before turning on the low-light vision on her visor; helping her see in the relative darkness by outlining the objects within her line of vision.
"Ok, Grayson, Amy, Benny, you three with me, we'll grab the eggheads. The rest of you stay up here. Sure, we killed the power, but the Skaldurm are nothing if not resilient, they will break through that eventually, so grab whatever you can from the rooms up here, barricade it off, and set up some cover points in case you have to fend them off. There's another way out of here according to the blueprints I got from the Alliance. Soon as we're ready to go, I'll call up to you guys."
"Wait-” Matija muttered as she found herself feeling stupid at the realization. She looked at the group that was meant as a search party and she eyed the yellow trimmed merc that agreed to the notion. ”Let's get moving. The rest of you, don't die. They don't get another win today,” quipped Stryker as their group moved into the depths of the facility.
With nothing else to do other than to watch the rest of their team’s backs, she sighed and faced their eight-man crew. "First thing’s first,” she said as she cleared her voice. “We need to set up a barricade. Who can lift the most? We also need to prop up chairs against the doors so they have to work more to get in.” Harrison turned to the plant lady and asked, ”Harriet, right? Do you think you can set up some kind of spider-web kind of deal so we can detect when they’re going to break in? Or, like, some kind of spike trap or something?” He turned to the others and asked them, ”Does anyone have anything that explodes? We can probably convert it into some kind of landmine or tripwire. We need to set up all possible defenses in case they break through.” As he attempted to organize the group into a coherent unit, Matija became visibly angry with him. ”Um. Yeah no,” the Siren says as she tugs at the guy by the shoulder. ”New guy, you got nice suggestions, but you should hang back.”
”Anyway, what he said. We’re going to have to scour around the place for now, see what we can find. But we’re going to have to find a way to reinforce those doors. If we can pike up some metal bars against that thing, or chairs. That would be great.” Matija looks at the two robots, SAL and Tobi. ”You guys look pretty strong, think you could prop some bars or a couple of those extremely heavy desks against the door?” She tries to silence Harrison whenever he tried to speak by placing a hand on the front of his helmet and shushing him. ”Hush now and help me carry some of the things from the back,” she says as she jogs towards the workstations to drag or carry whatever furniture she can just beyond the choke towards the opening of the clearing. ”Miss Harriet, you’re a scientist, right? Do you think you can cook us up some kind of smoke bomb after you’ve made spikes?” she says as she refers to the leafy woman. ”And you, Koren. Get Unaysah to make a few tracking webs for us on the corridor. We’ll need it so they can’t see us comin’,” the Siren says with a smile on her face. ”Oh and I’ll need someone to get some of the water gallons from the kitchen. We’ll need it for the floor and Tibulus so the brutes’ll have a little surprise when they go in.”
At the mention of water on the floor, Harrison had a guess what the plan was. ”We’re setting up a shock zone, aren’t we? An area where we channel electricity into the water, right? That’s a great idea, why didn’t I think of that?” He ran to the kitchen and tried to find the biggest container he would still be able to lift and came back with a big pot. He set it down and leaned in and to whisper at Matija who was about to tell Tibulus how she needs him to use the electric trap in tandem with a surprise attack of her own when Harrison spoke, ”You may have come up with a good idea, but I’m not finished with you yet.” The Mecorian leaned away and growled at the man in response as she walked away from her. ”As I was saying. Tibulus, we’ll need a really powerful shock on my signal. You’re my only ticket outta that thicket.”
As one the group gathered water and spread it across the floor, the others continued working on the barricades. One to block off the hallway, another to back it up, and one more in case. The defense requires Harrison and Koren crouching in the middle where the tables were propped just low enough to shoot over, Tobi and SAL would be standing behind them since they were the ones with the stronger firepower, while Tibulus, Harriet, and Willow were asked to stayed behind for support. Plus there’s the reason of not knowing what the complete expanse of their abilities may be. Her plan was to stick to the walls where the Skaldurm won’t think to look with her companions shooting at them. When a good amount of them are in their trap, she would shoot as much of them as she could and run back to her team when they realize her position. All while Tibulus gives them the shock of their lifetime in hopes of distracting them long enough for the Mecorian to get to safety.
When their preparations were done, the Siren walked near the only entrance that they’ll have to go through. ”Y’all gotta trust me on this,” she says before shooting Tibulus a glance in hope that the Funganoid would keep his word. With one pistol pulled out and on the ready, she rolled her shoulders and teased the trigger with her finger while they waited...
...And waited...
. . . And waited . . .
Unaysah eventually started chittering and Koren announced “They’re here,” to the everyone in their comm beads. As the Vikings were upon the door, Harrison shouted, ”Think back to your history class in school. Back before the federation and all that, there were 2 massive planetary-scale wars. In the second, the bad guys used a technique called blitzkrieg. Do you know what that means?” As he shouted this, he slowly unfolded his spear, each part sliding into place. He glanced toward Matija who was glancing back at him. She was in the process of activating her boots when Harrison pressed a button. The spear’s blade crackled into life, electricity coursing through it. The Mecorian scoffed as she reoriented herself to walk towards the wall and pressed herself to the side so her back was against the ceiling. When the Vikings broke the door, he screamed at the top of his lungs, “IT MEANS LIGHTNING WAR!” and stabbed the spear into the water. Raw power surged through it and lit up the Vikings like Christmas lights. Just as that was happening, bullets started whizzing past Harrison’s head. The siege had started.
Exasperated, Matija pressed herself closer to the corner before glaring back at the crew. ”FUCKEN’ IDIOT!” she screams at Harrison while she kept to her corner in order to minimize her chances of being hit. ”What?! I thought that was the plan! Was it not?!”
”NO!” she cries out as she shoots one that was brave, or stupid enough to cross the threshold despite the initial shock. ”TIBULUS, NOW!”
