Prison Pit
- Characters
- Prison Library
- Logs 1
- Logs 2
- Jailbreak
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paradise hotel, leisure centre, Shelnat island, Inversar, 05:21 local time 156/1106
 DM Note: Just Derek and Gord tonight for a bijou Manx and Gripper session!. |
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As the doctor who'd patched up Wallis attended to Harohi's wounds, Manx and Gripper unpacked their corptrooper armour and shrugged it on. Gripper chalked "I am not Will" on the forehead of his helmet, then peered out of the window. Four grav speeders had been parked out front, and two of them looked undamaged. Turning to where Harohi had been settled into a bed, he sat next to him to ask some questions. The oriental scientist eyed him apprehensively, though most of his fear seemed to be directed at Alice.
"Why didn't the escape trigger any alarms?"
"There was no power, and we do not have alarms all over the place; it's bad for business."
"Are the Saurs nocturnal?"
"They can see far better in the dark than we can, but they're not nocturnal by nature."
"How intelligent are the big ones?"
"Not very; that's why there's only two of each. Only the Vr's were sufficiently advanced to make more than that. The Bo's are dim by design; who wants a clever pack animal? The Gs's and Sg's need to be enhanced again; they're not bright enough."
paradise hotel, leisure centre, Shelnat island, Inversar, 05:21 local time 156/1106
During the wait for dawn, the cons discussed ideas. Gripper was keen to try and recreate the peculiar accident that had so tragically led the saurs to the hotel - the amplified human voice. Some speakers in the car park, an amp, a radio hookup and their rescued civvies, he said, and they could lure the saurs into the killzone under the windows. It was potentially workable except for the power requirements; about the only source they had were the fuel cells of the six or so surviving robot staff and these were unlikely to be enough.
Manx and Gripper looked at each other. "Suppose we'd better go and get these prods, then," said Gripper. Manx wasn't over-enthusiastic, but as the best grav driver in the group he was the logical choice. Two of the four speeders parked in the carpark seemed to have escaped serious damage, and the pair resolved to take one up to Lab 3 along with some heavy ordanance and bag these prods.
Manx' blonde gave him a quick kiss. "Be careful," she said.
They left the barricade via the stairwell where Alice's trap had already gone off. Bits of metal were stuck in the blackened walls of the landing, and two dead Vr's bore witness to her skill. Slowly and with tremendous caution the pair picked their way down the stairs to the third floor. The landing there had a pool of blood and reptillian prints heading off down the hall.
Gripper didn't fancy the idea of leaving an enemy at his back, and - with a nervous Manx as rearguard - set off along the trail. The work he'd put in practicing stealth stood him in good stead here, though the dancing shadows thrown by the flashlight he'd taped to his rifle ratcheted the tension up as he progressed. The prints passed the first two bedrooms on the hall and then turned into one, the door to which had been smashed through.
They halted and listened. There was definitely movement inside, something large, and neither intended to get close enough to smell what it was. "Fire in the hole!" murmured Gripper, leaning into the doorway long enough to fire a RAM grenade and then ducking back.
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If he'd hit the window the munition would probably just have kept going, but his snap-shot was well-aimed and he hit the concrete pillar in the middle instead. The HEAP round drilled deep into the pillar and exploded, sending chunks of concrete, shards of reinforcement and slivers of glass flying back into the room in a wide arc. Two screams - one short, human, female; one pained and enraged from a Vr, signaled success as the fragments tore through the thin walls into the suite's side rooms. Gripper and Manx crouched as shrapnel punched through the corridor wall as well, pieces bouncing off their armour.
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As the echoes died away, the monster's scream intensified and quick, heavy, running steps became audible approaching the door. Gripper stepped back to level with Manx and lifted his rifle as a bloodied Vr with bits of glass and metal stuck in it crashed through the doorway and into the corridor. This was the closest either had ever been to one, and both were struck by the wiry power and savage cunning it projected, wounded as it was. Its' quick, evil eyes were alert as it sought out their location. Where wounds had pierced the flesh, fibres of skinweave were visible, testament to Harohi's enhancements. Manx, keyed up, fired first, but a horrible grinding crunch from Gloria announced a jam. Frantically backing off, the preacher reached for his pistol instead. As he did so, Gripper opened fire. His burst started at the leg and climbed, smashing the shin-bone, shattering the saur's spine and riddling its' guts. It dropped like a string-cut puppet.
Checking for more movement as they went, the pair entered the room. En suite to the left was a plush bedroom, now seriously trashed to make a nest. At the far end was an horrific sight - a woman's body, impaled on a lamp bracket, one arm and one leg missing. She appeared to have been killed by a piece of the shrapnel, but she'd been hung on the wall before that, presumably as a larder. Accidental death must have been a kindness, thought Manx.
Before they left, Manx stripped the action of his rifle and removed the malformed round that had jammed Gloria. While he did this, Gripper scouted around, listening for sounds of movement.
paradise hotel, leisure centre, Shelnat island, Inversar, 10:30 local time 156/1106
After half an hour's painstaking work they were down to ground level. The pitiful slashed corpses of a dozen or so dead Tallis employees were scattered across the area, along with several dead Vr's and a lot of loose robot components. A wounded man had crawled back out of the jungle and was pulling himself towards the hotel in slow agony. Gripper nodded in his direction. "Perhaps if you drive over him it will scare him enough to create the noise to lure the saurs?" he suggested callously. Manx thought this a horrible idea, so they left him where he was, and climbed into one of the speeders. It was a small, light grav vehicle with a glazed roof, not capable of true flight but intended for driving along prepared paths about a metre off the ground. Gripper considered the glass panels; they could be easily broken if needed, he thought. Manx took the controls and powered up, then swung the vehicle in a very neat 360° before heading off along the road towards the central complex
Lab three, shelnat island, inversar, 10:50 local time 156/1106
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Ten minutes later, they reached the junction with the main complex ring road. Across the neat lawns they could see two Vr's loping across said road and heading for the complex. Leaving well enough alone, Manx put the controls hard over and banked into a left turn into the road leading north towards Lab 3. Five minutes after that, they were there.
Drawing to a halt at the edge of the trees, they studied the place carefully. The lab itself comprised a low grey building in two sections, surrounded by a strip of of lawn and a heavy chainlink fence. This fence was ripped through in several places at the front, presumably by whatever had smashed through the large roll-front doors to the loading bay.
Several human bodies were scattered across the carpark, torn limb from limb by dreadful wounds from something sharp driven with tremendous force. The same weapon had destroyed all the parked vehicles and the cause squatted outside the main entrance, glazing around with the dim-witted readiness of the perfect guard. Two Model Sg's, one outside the main entrance and one lurking in the wrecked loading entrance. Close up, despite their obvious stupidity, they were daunting, great heavy muscular bodies protected by big bony plates, short but strong legs that looked capable of a good turn of speed, and a long sinewy tail tipped with a cluster of four metre-long bony spikes. The only good news was that they appeared to be herbivores; none of the bodies appeared to have been eaten.
Gripper climbed carefully out of the speeder and leaned on it, bracing himself to improve his aim. Lining up a shot at the creature's belly, which looked softer, he fired a HEAP RAM at it. His aim was less good this time, and the grenade struck the ground under the beast instead. The explosion lifted its front legs clear of the ground but wasn't enough to seriously wound it.
Nothing demonstrated the stupidity of the Model Sg better than it standing, gazing angrily round as it tried to work out what had happened and - despite the muzzle flash and trail of smoke pointing like an accusing finger back at Gripper - failing to work it out.
Not one to waste a chance, he fired again. This time he hit it cleanly in the chest, the grenade disappearing inside the body cavity to wreak terrible internal injuries. Finally, its' two-ounce brain clicked and it recognized the threat. Lumbering into a run, it set off towards them.
Wounded or not, five tons of charging armoured animal is not something to stand and wait for. Without discussion, both Manx and Gripper leaped into the speeder and Manx seized the controls. His options were limited; the Sg was already too close for him to turn around - all he could do was head towards the buildings. As they moved off, Gripper smashed out the glass roof and loaded another grenade. The road had a turning leading towards the loading bay and Manx took that - and as he did so Gripper fired.
It was an excellent shot, straight into the saur's right front knee, which was pulverized. A look of comical surprise appeared on the stupid face as it ploughed into the ground, sliding to a halt stunned in a long furrow.
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The speeder was still moving, and Manx became aware that the second Sg was also charging them. There was nowhere to go but past it. A movement caught his eye and he was just in time to see Gripper bail out and roll away across the grass. Two seconds later Manx, the speeder and the Sg all arrived at the gap in the fence together. Manx's inspired driving sent the vehicle through the gap and past the Sg - but he'd forgotten the tail. The beast whipped it around as they passed each other and smashed it into the side of the speeder.
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The impact nearly shook Manx' fillings out. The spikes didn't reach him but red lights flared across the control panel and the vehicle was knocked off course. Manx' original plan had been to drive into the loading bay and turn there, but his new angle plus the damage to the speeder had put him on a collision course with the very solid-looking corner of the building. Desperately, he hauled on the controls, and heard the zip! as the speeder cleared the corner by a couple of inches. Now all he had to do was turn again, despite the horrible noises coming from his vehicle, before he hit the chainlink...
As he rolled to a kneeling position, Gripper still had hold of his rifle - fortunate as he also still had a live bomb stuck on the end of it. Glancing to his left, he saw that the second Sg had lumbered to a halt and half-turned, presenting itself broadside on. As if he had all the time in the world, Gripper leveled his rifle and put a 4cm HEAP RAM grenade into the saur's left eye. The explosion vaporized its' head completely, and the body dropped with a ground-shaking crash.
Session Date: 3rd August 2011 (214/-2507 Imperial) |
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