Latest revision as of 06:35, 20 December 2013

Participants

• Arano
• Cerris
• Dio
• Edel
• Buzamu
• Martiya
• Pog
• Xhianil

Date

22/7/2013

Log

The sound of skitter claws and an odd cackling can be heard here and there. A few lights flicker weakly here and there but several heavy industrial flood lights bathe a few raised gratings and loading docks with blinding white light that some how actually punctuates the darkness within due to the poor angles they are sat at as if hastily turned on and abandoned or more likely, judging by the marks around the area, they were knocked about in a scuffle.

A joint military/Corporate channel is broadcasting and has been designated 'The Bridge' and is being used to funnel information and requests back and forth as needed. Of course, that is just a formality right?

<This is USHC CIC...we are updating GPS coordinates for the last known position of the missing agents we've been requested to find...use all do caution...this isn't a bag and tag...this is recon and retrieval.>

Those not from the USHC will here the same message over their individual communications equipment, or will receive text info on the subject or barring that are just shit out of luck when it comes to updates.

Edel shuffles onto the scene, slipping a hand under her hood to rub at her neck as her goggled eyes peer around the area. "Shouldn't be too difficult, in any case." She didn't bring her rifle, today, but she had her handgun and the other usual equipment. And whatever was in that duffel bag of hers. "I'll let someone else take point, though."

Head tilting up and lips parted faintly, Martiya tasted the air with a slow inhalation. A faint, nearly soundless grunt was offered before those silver eyes scanned the area and narrowed slightly at the glaring brightness cast by the lights to ward back the darkness. Lacking any firearms, the feline tucked the large wings at their back in closer to keep them out of the way as a moment was given to survey the others assembled.

Kneeling next to the Jackal in a trench coat, the nearly formed shadow was tapping on a dimly lit tablet, that upon closer inspection was located on it's arm. "I'm getting the info on the subjects we need to recover now. We'll at least have a series of images of what they looked like prior to this to go by." Glein says, turning off the tablet's screen, and looking over the situation. RSX had hired some new-time contractors to set up the lighting, and in the resulting scuffle between them and the current 'occupants' of the warehouse they were eyeballing right now, gave the pair a solid read on the lighting's arrangement.
"I'm also hearing over various tacnets that there are at least 4 other contractors in route to this location. I think we know a couple of them, but the jumble is making it hard to tell." She says, standing up, and looking over the dock itself. "Not gonna be a fun job, this one." Glein muses, glancing down at Edel, not in superiority but due to her greater height over her friend.

Xhianil flies in and quickly hides in the shadows, waiting to see who all comes before walking out. She tucks her wings around her and gets her claw extenders and gravity cannon ready under them.

Receiving the message on his communication unit, a semi-formally dressed silver lion makes his way to the location with shotgun securely held within his hands. He looks about the rather eerie environment but soon finds himself near the growing group, noticing some familiar faces in his journey towards them. Dio lowers his shotgun and flashes a small smile. "Recon duty," he mutters. "Where do you think we should begin investigating?"

In the time it takes for the various agents, yahoos, weirdos and freaks to gather, a hip-level mist begins rolling down the streets. It is cool and natural to the touch, rolling and roiling as it it collides with anything that the gentle breeze drives it into.

A deep throaty snarl echoes within the building, a few frantic placating shrieks replying before a solid crunch can be heard and then one of the lowered storm doors dents outward with a small humanoid imprint before a deep gravely laugh fades away.

Pog is slithering around nearby, surveying the area carefully, feline ears twitching at every feral noise nearby- one of which has a tracking ear tag in it, courtesy of the USHC. Having just been checking in with her parole officer not too far away, she managed to catch a small amount of comms chatter about the situation, just enough to pique her interests, and now that she was actually here she could tell there was something very curious at hand, perhaps even something to partake of! Noticing a decent amount of activity from the group, she carefully slithers in towards them, and then nearly jumps a foot in the air when the noise goes from the feral ambiance to loud metallic slamming, letting out a loud hiss as her back straightens. So much for quietly learning the situation. "Whazzawhotheregonnapunchya?!" She spins around dumbly, holding her fists up like she was getting ready to box someone. Silly, silly coatlcat.

Arano made his way to the warehouse, for once not doing anything to mask his approach. He knew there'd be friends here, but also they would be armed... and whoever else happened to show up would also likely have a bunch of guns, and jumping out of the shadows when there are a bunch of heavily armed individuals around is generally a BAD thing. Stepping near the group with his rifle in hand, he waved a friendly greetings at the familiar gathering, "Hey everybody - damn small world. So, what have I missed?" Noticing another figure in the dark, he raises his rifle slightly, "And, who the hell is that?" he asks, pointing at the shadow dragon skulking in the dark. The small feline suddenly showing up caused him to arch an eyebrow... or rather, the draconic equivalent of one, in curiosity before turning his attention back to the group. The sudden screech made him jump and aim his rifle at the warehouse, his eyes suddenly shifting into a dead focus as he decided it might be wise to shut his trap at this point, rifle aimed directly at the screech.

Glein jumps at the screech, her rifle snapping up and pointing at the building, Arano's question lost at the sound. "Sounded like a Night Stalker. That's gonna make this fight interesting." Glein says, looking between Dio, Arano, Edel, and the newcomer. "I was going to say we stay out of the lights, observe what we can, but that... event, just now, tells me that we don't have the time to fuck around." she says, giving a simple nod. "Arano, you are still air capable, yes?" Glein asked, using only her eyes to look at Arano. "Edel, can you and Dio swing around on either side of hte lights, low and calm, until you reach the warehouse walls, and get close to the rear of the building?" She then asked, not sure what to do with the new comer.

The sudden fog quickly catches Dio's interest, looking down and feeling the cool coolness of cool fog upon his lower-half. At first, he seemed worried about the situation, but soon turned his attention towards the awful commotion within the building. With a click, the lion turned off his saftey and raised the shotgun to his shoulders and aimed towards the newly imprinted dent within the wall, attempting to figure out just what the creature could be, but drew a complete blank after racking his brain for a bit. "Remember," he says in a low tone as he looks towards the newcomers. "This is a recon job, not a shootin' one." Putting his gun back down, he nods to Glein and looks towards Edel. "Well, I'm up for it if you are ma'am."

Edel shrugs, ears perking. "Sure, might as well. Hopefully this will be fun!" She sets her hand on the grip of the pistol holstered to her leg as she moves off, closer to the warehouse as she tries to circle around to the back.

Roar, roar, thud, clang screech. Awesome. That series of noises made a mildly curious situation into a faintly ominous one. And series of clicks and clacks from weapons being readied furthered the tigress's unease. Dual tails flicking in indication of the turmoil within those thoughts, the dark figure moved closer to the group now. "Fun, fun.." was the only thing spoke both in droll estimation of the situation and in greeting to the others as Martiya peered at the warehouse.

Flexing his wings for a moment, Arano nodded once at Glein, saying in a clipped tone, "Yah, where do you want me?" Far as he was concerned, Glein was in charge until somebody says otherwise. Suddenly the mysterious figure in the shadows seemed... irrelevant.

Pog peers around. Dio caught her eye for a long moment in which she gave a little wave, almost forgetting that things were being banged apart just a second ago, then over Edel, then Glein, then back to Edel where her eyes stay fixed. She stares. She stares long and hard, even as she leaves, and sits there somewhat slackjawed. That woman SHOT HER. She shakes her head and rubs her temples before focusing back on Glein. Vaguely familiar, not nearly as vivid as her memory of Edel. "... What'sss- What's," she stutters, "going on here? Why are there sss- hnnff, so, many people in this plasss- grrrh!... place?"

As the mist continues to gather, it's tendrils slide upwards as if being shaved off by a blade, curling back on themselves from the main bank of mist like wood shavings. Soon the mist would reach chest height, visibility clearly fading with the encroaching weather.

'kekekekeke' echoes the laughter of several somethings that apparently are not only comfortable in this weather but are delighting in it and with each passing moment, new cackles are answering throughout the district as they are encouraged to come out and play.

With a quick nod, Glein looks at Arano dead in the eye. "We're taking to the roof. Just be careful with your rifle, we have hostages in there, don't want to risk turning them to mush." Glein says, checking the straps on her weapons, armor and gear one last time, before turning to the one who just walked up. "I wouldn't call this fun." She states, before turning her gaze to Pog. "Hostage rescue." Glein simply explains, before with a couple of solid flaps of wings, lifted herself into the air, and quietly drifts to the roof of hte warehouse. Landing upon it, she silently prayed the gentle clacks of her claws upon the corrugated roof wouldn't echo down to those in the building.

Dio nods at Edel and gives his suit a good tuck and pull. If you're going to be under attack, you might as well look good when you're trashed and beaten about right? Not far behind Edel, he follows after her and sticks to the walls, trailing and attempting to get behind the building as well. The growing mist continues to give the lion some concern, wondering if this were the same series of events that happened to the other missing agents. When it reaches head height...

With a simple nod of acknowledgement, Arano followed Glein into the air, flying up to the top of the warehouse, glancing at the mists and wondering just what the hell was up with the weather here. Noting Glein's attempt at a gentle landing, he mimics her movements while hoping that he doesn't make any noise in the process.

Perhaps it was the wind, or the weather, but where Glein landed neatly and safely, Arano landed on...a window? Some asshat apparently went to great trouble to disguise the window as the rest of the roof and Arano will find themselves falling through broken glass into a hanging net made latticed razor wire. One might get the impression that random visitors were NOT appreciated here.

Xhianil uncurls her wings and follows Arano, but stays in the air above the roof, she eeps when she sees him fall and rushes close to the hole.

Edel pauses for just a moment to tap a button on the side of her goggles. "Of course. Everything I do, I try to do with style!" As the fog continues to rise, she removes her hand from the pistol, and instead draws her sword, ducking low. The fog works in her favour, as well, with her size.

With an 'oof', Arano hits the net, glancing up to see the window he just fell through... some days he hated being so big. Glancing around beneath him, he carefully tries to avoid getting himself cut up further (even if his clothes aren't taking the damage well) as he looks around the razor wire to see what he could see - figure he could at least try and get some intel from this cockup.

Martiya exhale a short breath, not quite a snort but certainly harder than a normal exhalation. Hooking one of four shoulders, the multi-armed feline watched the pair launch into the air. Some people were just so serious.. The double dragons were graceful enough, but the shiny one's landing..made the tiger facepalm. The third dragon winging in their wake urged the arching of a brow but no further note. Leaving the reptiles to their aerial escapades, the tigress moved to follow Dio and Edel, attempting to stay close in the thickening fog.

Glein turns just her upper body at the sound of something crashing, and seeing the hole of what had, at a glance been roof, but in reality, turned out to be a window. "SHIT!" Glein hisses, taking a few tentative steps towards the now lit window. Crouching and leaning over the window, Glein looks down. "Arano! You alright down there?" Glein asked, hoping to go things weren't about to hell in a hand basket because of this.

Recon time! Look at things, and look at them hard with your oculars. Dio looks around the back for any sort of rear entry, but he was never much of a rear-man he had to admit. The crash shoots the lion's gaze upwards to the roof, but he hoped those with him would help the poor fellow out. When he thinks he's found the rear entry, he walks over to it and stacks up upon the doorknob's side, gesturing towards the others that followed.

Pog tilts her head back and aside a bit in a rather serpentine motion of curiosity at Glein's answer. "But who--" is all she manages to blurt out before Glein takes flight, leaving the coatlcat feeling a bit dour, ears pinned down. Perhaps that handsome lion would be nicer..? The crash of glass fades into just another part of the background noise to her, though it does get a shudder out of her, trying to filter out the sounds in that 'la la la creepy things aren't happening' way. She slowly slithers around behind him to follow, barely turning about in time to see him gesture towards the door. She scratches the back of her head in a moment of uncertainty and lazily snakes forwards towards it, keeping her torso relatively low to the ground. She's not making much of an effort to stay quiet, though.

Looking around, Arano glances up at Glein, "I'm all right," he says back in as low a voice as he can manage with Glein still hearing him, "there are traps like this all over... guess I got lucky." He glances at the door opposite his position, there is something... odd... there, he didn't know what it was but he figured it'd be bad for anybody going in the back door, "There's something at the door opposite where I am - whoever is going in the back, tell them to be careful." He responds as he thinks for a moment about how to get out of this here net without carving himself up like a damn turkey...

Glein nods. "Roger that. Get yourself untangled as best you can." Glein says, before tapping her earpiece. "Edel, heads up, Arano warns against going in through the rear door. He landed in a razor wire net, so it's not exactly safe for me up here." She reports, hoping the pair down there heard it in time. As for herself... Well, if all the roof windows were rigged like this, then getting aerial views of the situation would be difficult at best. Still... "I would ask if you got bolt cutters, but I doubt it." Glein mused to Arano, trying to think of how to use this now opened window to their advantage.

Xhianil asks Arano "you need any help or are you having fun down there?" and giggles.

Edel reaches out to poke at the door. "How do you want to get it open? We could see if it's unlocked, kick it in, shoot it in... Go somewhere else? I'll leave it up to you!" She didn't want to open it, at least. As Glein's words come through, she frowns and looks to Dio. "This IS the backdoor, right? I'm not really sure where we are."

Dio looks over at the tiny slithering feline with a curious expression. However, there was a job to do. A job to look at things. Look at things no others could look at. However, as time went on, it was getting harder and harder to do said job, so time was of the essence. He puts a large and fuzzy paw on the doorknob, but then stops in his tracks after realizing that perhaps the door could be trapped. Who knows? He crouches down, looking over the door carefully in an attempt to search for traps.

Outside the mist has now reached head height for the average six foot being, which means aside from the oddly refracted and distorted flood lights, movement outside was going to start getting very problematic.

Skittering could be heard getting closer, it seems someone out there might be going for a joy run.

Scowling at Xhianil's giggles, Arano raises his fist and flips her off briefly - he nearly got cut to ribbons and now she's laughing at him? He only just now noticed exactly WHO the other shadow dragon was, and groaned to himself - this is no place for a nympho civilian... he carefully looked around at the net - no way was he getting himself out of this. He looked up at the two shadow dragons and sighed, "Don't suppose you two would be able to cut me down?" Next on his shopping list - proper armor, and some specially designed boots.

Xhianil says "Maybe I can melt a hole in it. And don't flip me off, you're OK aren't you?" and flips off Arano.

Glein sighes. "No, no flames, no anything of that sort." Glein says, before grabbing a hold of the frame of the window, and leaning down and in, seeing if she could locate the points in which the wire was held up. If she could spot the install points, she could maybe cut them out enough to get Arano out without serious harm. There was no way she could do it without him getting harmed, it was the nature of the trap. But serious harm? That she could try to mitigate.

Actually, perhaps it would be best for the silly lion not to check for traps. Usually he had other people do that for him instead. With a shrug, Dio backs off of the door and decides to let someone else handle the trap searching. However, the skittering about draws his attention as he raises his gun back to his shoulder and listens in closely to find the source of the sound, seeing as his eyes weren't going to be the best thing to rely on.

Edel pokes at the door a few times and kneels down, trying to poke around under the door with a knife. "You may wish to stand clear of the door. If I don't find anything, I'm going to try to bust it down from around the corner. Would be better to not be standing in the way of anything that comes out, if you know what I mean."

Staying absolutely still, Arano looks up at those above him, still waiting for rescue - no way was he getting out of this. At least his gun was in one piece...

Pog starts to squint, trying to see through the thickening fog. She keeps slithering forward in the direction she was pretty sure Dio was in, and nearly bumps her head right into his leg, snapping backwards and letting out a quiet 'sss' in her brief surprise. She peers up and back over at the door, as well as at the vague outline of Edel. She didn't feel like getting revenge at the moment, it was fairly nice to finally be out of prison, and going back was the very last thing on her 'to-do' list. She gropes around for a moment until she's pressed up against the door. She backs up a few feet as advised by Edel, taking mental note of its position, every muscle in her body slowly coiling up like a spring as she adjusts her pose, poised to strike. Considering she's tiny it's almost adorable, but she does manage to look quite fierce.

Seeing how it was installed, simple screws holding the clipped ends in place, Glein looked at Arano. "Don't move TOO much. If you struggle too much, or I cut this wrong, it's not gonna be pretty." Glein says, reaching behind her, and pulling out her ka-bar, and after making sure the battery was off, began to gently pry at the first screw, attempting to loosen it out of it's hold to help release Arano.

Edel uses the tip of the same knife to work on removing the screws to disarm the trap. "Ah, we should be alright. This seems easy enough to get rid of. Just watch my back while I get this settled..." Even once she thinks the trap is disarmed, she doesn't open it. Instead, she stands up and slides the knife back into its thigh holster. "Should be good to go...?"

Edel is able to open the door inward after discovering the traps, inside the door there are three piles of jagged scraps with grenades at the center, seems the pins were nailed down and this trap would have sloppily pulled the grenades loose and then things would be messy. Worse still had the door been kicked open, this would place the grenades right against the door as they went off.

Dio's senses, tuned to their limit are JUST able to make out three shapes in the mist. The one in the middle is the cat/snake mix that is Pog. But on either side of Pog, unbeknownst to her are a pair of shadowy forms poised to attack, claws raised.

As the net finally comes free, he finds himself falling out - the razor wire doing some damage to his clothes, but not so much they're shredded, his own body escaping with just the odd cut and scrape. As he falls, he instinctively extends his wings which catch the air, slowing his decent so that he hits the ground as gracefully as if he had just fast-roped down from a helicopter - rifle raised and sweeping his immediate area for targets. Activating his radio, he reports in, "I'm on the ground and alive, sweeping the warehouse now."

Dio listens in closely to finger out the source of the noise and soon turns his vision to the relative location of the possible threat. With a heavy squint, he notices the shadowy figures and prepares to fire, but doesn't quite yet as per his orders. "GET DOWN OR BE FIRED UPON," he shouts at the figures, keeping his shotgun aimed if they don't comply.

Edel blinks, ears perking as Dio calls out. That's all the notice she needs to open the door. She draws her sword and, for a moment, almost puts her back to the now-open door, but decides against that and steps in, keeping her back to Dio, instead. "Trap avoided, yes. If you need to fall back, that may be an option, now."

Once Arano was loose, Glein proceeded to continue pulling out screws until half had been loosened, leaving the 'net' hanging in such a way to let them in. "Roof route opened, entering now." Glein says, hearing as Dio calling out something, not concerned as she hung over the edge, keeping her wings tight as she hung down, and with a quick look down, let go, and opened her wings to slow her decent once she was past the razor wire.

Pog rather instinctively slaps her entire form down to the ground the moment she hears Dio shout, letting out a soft 'oomph' as she hits the ground. She did not want to be shot. Again. That was second to last on her list of things to do. She slaps her paws over her head and closes her eyes, growling quietly and basically playing dead besides making dissatisfied noises, coiling her tail around herself.

The mist swirls with emptiness as Dio's demand, the sound of skittering letting it be known that whatever it was in the fog didn't want a real fight, just sneak attacks.

Arano sweeps his rifle around the warehouse, looking for the hostages, targets, anything really...

Tail lashing once at the sudden yell from the lion, Martiya's body was at an angle to keep both Dio and Edel in sight, eyes darting back and forth between the pair. Long claws extending from sheathes, the tigress glared into the fog and wondered where that little slithery thing had gotten off to. Not that the thick mist was letting out many clues. Grunting faintly, a lower hand was pressed lightly against the door in subconscious need to maintain a landmark. When no fights immediately broke out, another flick of those twin tails was given before a step was taken towards the building.

Xhianil flies just down, still hovering, and says "Good to see your OK Arano. Now do you want my help, I can fight too ya know."

Inside the building a low muffled moan can be heard, it was like someone was trying to cry through a gag or something of the sort. There is a sound not unlike an electrical discharge and that moaning rises to a new level, accompanied by the cruel cackling of several high pitched voices. Here is why no one had come to investigate the breaking glass, Nailed to a wall by her wings, a female? was having her exposed nipples electrocuted with a forklift battery and nipple clamps that have been jury rigged into a TNS device. Odd thing while there is a name tag on the floor from having her shirt ripped off, she lacks a mouth, so where is the moaning coming from?

Glein lands with some grace, her rifle also raised. The difference between having a 25mm Bushmaster and a 7.62 rifle most obvious at this point in time. Stepping backwards two steps, she spins and stacks up behind Arano. "Friendly at your six." Glein says, clapping Arano on the shoulder, giving him the signal that she was ready. Taking a deep breath, she clapped his shoulder twice to signal move out. That was one thing about soldiers, they learned to communicate important matters with nothing but a few hand signals.

Not wanting to shoot the... Friendly? Was that cat thingy a friend? It wasn't attacking him earlier, so that's something. A spread shot weapon with an ally in the fog wouldn't be the wisest of choices, so instead he begins moving backwards slowly until his back makes contact with a wall, at least covering one of his flanks. "Let's head in and try and find the fate of those agents and get out," he mutters towards wherever Edel might be and slides his way over to the door frame, hearing the awful moaning and looking about for the source inside the building. "Oh my..."

Pog peeks her head up briefly, and after a moment of contemplation, she realizes that he wasn't talking to her. Confused and more than a little shaken, she slowly rises and slithers forwards towards the open door, stopping right at the frame and taking a brief glance inside to make sure she wasn't walking right into another horrible situation before slinking inside. "Eeeh..."

Edel blinks behind her goggles and rushes towards the one nailed to a wall. "Oh dear... Oh dear. I'm, uh, going to try to get you down! Uh." While she keeps one hand occupied with the sword, she reaches out to try to remove the clamps with the other. "We need to find the other one, too..."

Noticing the victim, Arano turns to indicate to Glein that he is going to help her... when the other shadow dragon suddenly swoops in and asks to help - well, at least she is helping SOMEBODY here, perhaps just not the good guys. Looking to Xhianil who he figured would not know the sign language, said in a clipped, quiet voice, "Get down and shut up." Shouldering his rifle, he signaled for Glein to cover him as he went to help the known victim - looking at the setup to make sure it wasn't booby trapped or anything.

With all eyes on the victim nailed to the wall, folks missed the sight of of the half dozen goblins that were in various states of masturbation as they watched the mouth-less Nephilim suffer, stranger still was the one who had been just turning the corner with a bucket of nanite hypos. With Edel blowing past, the rest burst into outraged shrieking as they struggle to rise around half opened rags.

As Arano stepped forward into the open area, Glein followed suit, only instead of looking forward, since that was Arano's zone, Glein turned to the left, rifle sweeping over the area, before spotting the Goblins. As Edel rushed to the victim, and the goblins reacted and so did Glein. "CONTACT!" She yelled, bracing the rifle and taking aim, having flicked the safety on her rifle to 'SEMI' as she called out the alert. She was focusing her first shot on the lead goblin. She hoped to god none of them where the hostages converted, but Glein didn't have time to swap to her blue taped magazines, so she was focusing on non-lethal shots. Knees, shoulders, points that would disable them as opposed to killing.

Dio looks about at the crazy scene, his attention mostly focused upon the very strange female nailed and tortured to the wall. However, the shrieking certainly draws his attention immediately as he raises his gun towards the individuals. The lion draws in a mighty breath, starting with a gentle growl, and then turning into an gigantic LION ROAR! "DOWN ON THE GROUND OR I'll PUT YOU DOWN," he growls in anger.

Pog stares at the Nephilim in mesmerization. It had no mouth, that was certainly... different, and heavens that was a neat little rig they had set up for it! She tilted her head and before she could decide to slither closer, her senses were assailed by awful, awful shrieking. She slaps her paws over her ears and immediately lets out a rumbling, growling noise which grows into a thunderous, feral roar- well, thunderous for a knee-height coatlcat, which is not actually that thunderous but still quite loud. There was going to be a lot of blood spilled in the following seconds one way or another.

As he marches into the room, looking around as he walks in, he sees the host of goblins surrounding her just after Glein shouts a warning. Turning his attention to the circle-jerk in progress, he extends his claws - it was too tight for him to use his rifle, so forward into the melee he charges, ready to rip his targets asunder.

Martiya bit back a soft curse as Edel ran headlong into the unknown on a rescue attempt. Moving after the smaller woman, the tigress focused on staying close just in case. As it turned out, this was likely a good thing as green forms surged forward on the attack. Snarling in a low meter at the sudden swarm, the tigress was caught further off guard by the lion's bellowing roar. Ears flicking, a wince was given as Martiya tried to steady herself and took on a defensive stance.

Xhianil hears Arano's yell and turns to the area and releases a skunk blast there, still hovering.

The goblins had been moving like a swarm, A moment longer and Edel would have likely been buried in horny green minions, but then The twin roars ring out and the tide parts like the red sea, cowering the goblins creep back. Then the air fills with nano tear gas and then openly flee into the rows and racks.

Just one thing...from the other end of the warehouse comes an answering roar...Dio, Pog? Sounds like you just summoned trouble.

Glein sighes, seeing the goblins run. Granted, teh blast of skunk musk was less than appealing, but it now gave Glein time to drop the magazine, put it away, and pull out a magazine filled with rubber bullets. They still stung like a sumbitch, but they weren't as likely to kill someone due to reduced gunpowder and the flat nose. "Get them down! See if you can't ID them, or find the others!" Glein barks, flicking on her flashlight to try and spot what was growling.

Having been in the room when the skunk spray landed, Arano took the full blast. He did a quick mental tally - today he fell in a razor wire net, marched into a room of masturbating goblins, and now got gassed by an idiot friendly. At least the enemy was fleeing, but now that roar... fuck his day just keeps getting better and better. Coughing and gagging a bit from the spray, he shouts out, "I've got the hostage," glancing to the shadow dragon who just gassed them, "Xhianil... just stay down and out of our way," he commented as he got to work, expecting his allies to keep him covered.

With a small snarl, Dio comes down from his adrenaline fueled roar and watches the little goblins scurry about in fear, causing a slight smile to grow upon his face. However, the skunk blast quickly turned that smile upside down as he attempted desperately not to rub at his eyes, knowing it'll only make the pain worse should he rub it in. The lion walks backwards once more until his back makes contact with the wall, shuffling towards the door if escape is needed. His leonine ears twitch towards the roar and he aims his weapon towards the disturbance. "SPEAK UP AND GET DOWN OR I'LL FILL YOU FULL OF HOLES," he shouts towards the roar.

The victim on the other hand, for their part pretty much slumps limply once the current is removed. This had been going on long enough that Edel has no struggle from them when it comes to getting them to move. The burning of the spray is almost pleasant compared to what they've suffered and another muffled moan rises from them and with Edel pressed close she might even notice where it is coming from.

Pog is looking triumphant and powerful as ever, and her eyes briefly fall on Xhianil. They go wide, then almost as quickly slap shut, barely in time to swing her arms up and shield her eyes from the brunt of the blast. Still, her eyes water up and she hisses loudly, dropping flat to the ground again and pressing her head against the floor, coughing and growling even as her feral nanites try to soothe the pain.

Edel blinks a little, coughing. While her goggles kept the awfulness from her eyes, her nose was another story. "For the love of... I'm going to..." She snarls and rests a hand on the victim's shoulder. "We're going to get you out of here. Can you move?" She stands and turns to look towards the general direction of the hostiles. "Running away already? Get back over here so I can properly butcher you!"

Seeing Edel has the victim in hand, Arano turned to face the likely direction of the enemy, these close quarters... still not a good place for his rifle - he was more ranged support, not close in. Still, his claws were out and he assumed a battle stance, resisting the urge to try to wipe away the gas, having to keep focused on the matter at hand.

Xhianil uses a weak wind buffet to push away the skunk blast, toward where the goblins are fleeing and yells out "Sorry!"

The guns being waved about honestly made Martiya uneasy, mostly because she had an aversion to getting shot. The acrid stench that wafted down from one of the dragons erased thoughts of stray bullets and instead made the tigress pray for one. Gagging and sputtering, a scrap of cloth was produced and quickly tied over the tigress's muzzle in an attempt at warding off the cloud. But what the hell was that? The answering roar drew the feline's attention, squinting through the spray into the dark unknown just in time to catch a second dose of the rank moisture as when the dragon began to stir the spray up with its wings.

Glein kneels. "Arano! Cover me, I'm going to attempt to find the other hostages!" She barks, inching over to Arano, and clapping him on the shoulder before spinning around and looking over the area, hoping to find some sign of the other hostages.

With his back still at the wall, Dio continues to shuffle his way towards the door until he feels a gentle breeze upon his arm, indicating the entrance now turned exit he came in through. "Let's get out of here," he yells near the doorway.

A row of plastic dividers is swept aside to allow the passage of a massive scarred Orc. But that wasn't what stole the show with this guy, he was wearing a harness of nanite hypos and a massive spiked collar that only partially covered a nasty gnarled scar on his throat. In either hand he held chain leashes that were connected to another pair of female forms, both mouthless, though one had a body that in parts was obviously that of a Valkyrie while the other was mostly human save the lack of mouth. Hmm, these might be the other hostages, but what had happened? Would one believe that ferals were purposefully making these hostages largely unable to speak?

The Orc gives the scene a once over, looking over the intruders with a menacing snarl, but that snarl turns into a murderous gape jawed roar of outrage as he spots Edel with the third hostage. Reaching up to rub his throat, he shoves the hostages back and beats his fists on his chest and roars again, this time answering shrieks can be heard from outside and behind him.

Glein turns around at the sound of something being pushed aside in the confined space, and gaped at the sight. "Arano, if your gonna use that thing, aim high." Glein says, popping out the magazine she had in her rifle, and put it away, opening a another compartment, and this time, pulling out the only clip she had with a red tape on it. "Edel, I think your new bullets are about to get a test!" Glein says, slamming in the clip and priming the weapon.

Edel gives a little grin and stands fully, to face the Orc. "Hah, it's you, isn't it? You're the unlucky one that got hit by my knife! That was supposed to kill you, you know. I'll try no to miss, this time." She drops into a defensive stance, keeping the third hostage behind her. "If you can move, you should probably get out." While goggled, her eyes are kept on the Orc.

Seeing the Orc, Arano was already swinging his rifle back to his shoulder, on the barked command, Arano was already aiming towards the upper torso and head. It was a BIG motherfucker - which is precisely what his weapon was designed to deal with. Pulling the trigger, he fired 25mm slugs directly into the giant, aiming high so as not to hit the hostages.

Pog waves the last of the stinging stink away from her head as she rises, just in time to see the roaring Orc. She stared at him in terror and opted to slink back against a wall, though she stayed inside the building, watching and waiting for the perfect opportunity to do... well, something. Even she was never sure just what she had in mind, but still she coiled back up and waited, poised to spring if she does end up attracting unwanted attention.

The big Orc finally in view, Dio raises his shotgun back to his shoulder and aims it towards the big target, but holds his fire for the time being. It would seem that his attention was gathered by the little goggle lady. The hostages now free, Dio gives a whistle towards them and gestures them over towards the door, soon letting out another roar to hopefully lower the morale of the goblins once more.

Xhianil grabs the first hostage and tries to fly her up and out through the window.

Martiya calls out, "Oi! Remember there's critter's outside! Keep em in a corner!" Waving one hand towards Dio and another up at Xhianil.

The Orc stares down at Edel with a sort of cold fury that belies the clear understanding there. But when Arano opens fire, there is a series of shattering sounds as capsules are pierced by incoming rounds, the Orc stumbling back, roaring in pain and outrage as his would-be revenge is interrupted.

On the other end Dio's roar is answered with a number of hisses, the more cowardly opting to stay out of this battle of dominants.

Of course the Orc isn't one to just take being gunned down easily. and in a display of insane rage or perhaps suicidal fury he grabs two fist fulls of hypos ans and begins stabbing himself all over, veins bulging and turning black as fluids rush all through his system. In a matter of wall shaking fury raging moments, the Orc stops being an Orc and becomes a towering ogre.

Glein groans, glad she'd gotten the weapon loaded with the new potent bullet. "I hate Primes." Glein grunts, flicking the safety to the 'AUTO' and sighting the creature's chest. It was a practical reason she did. When she pulled the trigger, the rifle would rise, and as it rose, it'd climb up the target, eventually hitting the head, especially since this guy WAS so large. "Here's hoping these work." Glein quietly mutters, giving a silent prayer for success before pulling the trigger.

Pog watches the orc transform into an ogre, grimacing slightly as she made an active effort to keep herself nice and hidden in her corner, relaxing so she can low and coil up while the others distracted it with gunfire. She keeps her eyes trained on the door he came from and waits for an opportunity. The sound of gunfire did make her flinch, though, and she warily took note of precisely how high they were shooting as she slunk a little lower to the ground with her torso. "Hmmmffh.. come on, move.."

Carefully stepping back as the orc gets... bigger, Arano keeps firing into the damned thing - heavy rounds, normally of the kind used by the Bradley, and just kept firing his gun. Keeping his shots controlled - concerned primarily with placing his rounds on target - not wanting to get anywhere close to the damn thing as he shoots.

The hostages were the number one priority at the moment, at least for Dio. His eyes briefly flash towards the transformation, but soon they return towards his prize. The lion continues to growl, roar, and snarl at the goblins as he makes his way towards the hostage and grabs her hand, forcing her backwards and keeping his shotgun nice and leveled towards the group as he attempts to shuffle his way back to the door with the hostage, preparing to fire on any false moves.

Edel maintains her stance, blade ready if the Orc, now an ogre, tries to advance. "You can be as big as you want to be, but you know you won't win. You might as well retreat again!"

Grunting in annoying, Martiya dropped low and darted out in a feat of Feline Agility, weaving in a serpentine motion to make a less obvious target of hirself (both to friendly and unfriendly fire) as shi moved to claim the final hostage. Unceremoniously tossing the dazed creature over one shoulder, the tigress retreated and moved towards Dio to keep the two girls close.

Xhianil's wing gets caught on the net and she gets stuck, she attempts to keep herself level at that height with her other wing.

The Ogre's massive arms are used to protect it's head and neck as the pair open fire on it, it's foot raised and coming down in a massive stomp meant to shake them off their feet but a large part of the force is absorbed by poor Pog's tail as he crushes it. The resulting stumble creates an opening that Dio apparently magnificently slips through and to a lesser degree a momentarily stumbling Martiya. But Then the he heavy crash of the Ogre's body against one storage rack begins tipping it forward, the nanite decayed framework crumbling like a tipped stack of dominoes scattering ruined parts and machinery in a hail of dust debris and metallic rain. The side door is no longer an option, that means escape is now throw the lit door or the roof.

Pog is happily coiled away trying to avoid being stomped or noticed by the ogre when she looks up and sees his descending foot. Too slow to slither out of the way fast enough, the next few moments become a white flash of extreme pain, and she passes out almost immediately; the moment the ogre's foot is off her, her nanites are quick to try to patch her back together, prone and groaning form of the coatlcat twisting and crunching slightly as misplaced and broken bones snap back into place. "Hblghhhtruck.."

Edel watches the Ogre stumble about, tilting her head. "Well. I didn't even need to do anything, so far." She glances towards the exit and begins to scoot in that direction. "Perhaps we should try to get the hostages out of here...? Seems like a good idea!"

Xhianil puts the hostage on the roof before grasping the edge herself, and trying to pull her wing free.

Glein stands up, and slowly backs up as the Ogre tried stomp forward, but then it's stumble after nearly crushing Pog gave them a small opening to get the hostages and possibly themselves out. Course, there was the matter of debris and crashing materials all over, but Glein was more concerned with their ally now stuck near the Ogre. "Covering fire!" Glein barked, rushing to Pog, and grabbing a hold of them. They were fairly small, which made picking them up easy. However, that did mean she was now ungodly close to the Ogre, and she could only run so fast. So suffice to say, she was not sitting still, even as more sections of the warehouse tumbled down.

As the ogre collapses to he ground, Arano considers pausing for a split second, but something that big - he wasn't going to stop just yet. Before he could attack, he quickly dove out of the way of incoming debris and stood back up, watching Glein dash for a downed member. Obeying his request, Arano starts to march forward, firing yet more rounds into the ogres prone form, making damn sure it wouldn't get back up.

Edel yelps and manages to avoid the falling debris, if only barely. "If this place is going to start coming down on us, we really need to try to get out." She couldn't tell if things were just falling, or if the building was breaking. From her position, it was all the same, really.

Pog gets bonked several more times on the head and slightly squished by a series of debris before she's swept up just in time by Glein not to be pancaked by a rock twice her size- not a hard accomplishment, but still. She's still fairly insensate, grumbling and making several sick crackling noises as her tail straightens back out and her nanites repair the new bruises made by the falling debris. She'd be back in relatively working order fairly soon, as long as she didn't keep getting beat up, though that seems to be a trend.

Heading for the front door in a rapid pace, hostage in tow, the large hazard of fallen objects immediately ceases Dio's movements as he yanks the hostage back and attempts to dodge out of the way by the skin of his teeth. "Unless someone's picking me up," he shouts as he looks towards the roof, "Then there's only way out." Tugging the hostage once more, he sprints his way, as fast as he can with a hostage anyways, and makes his way for the lit door.

Though stumbling initially, Martiya found the trip away from the tumbling brute quite a bit easier. Vaulting and darting away from the rain of scrap and decaying metal, the tigress came up near Dio's side in a slight crouch when the door was blocked off. Sliding the girl down and adjusting the hold to have the hostage held against hir chest instead of slung like a sack over a shoulder, silver eyes were narrowed against the dust inevitably kicked up by such collapses. Keeping hir lower set of arms around the hostage to keep them close, the feline held the upper pair of arms at the ready, shielding the girl from dirt and incidental debris. "Door number two it is," she calls out, spinning on a heel and sprinting towards the remaining ground floor exit.

The groan of metal and creaking supports begins as the opposing row of storage racks begins to sway. Soon there is another apocalyptic cascade of debris. By the time the last person was out, the warehouse was pretty well sealed up to ground entry, so anything in there without wings was going to have a helluva way getting out.

Now outside, the fog is still fairly thick, but a row of night stalkers can be seen at the edge of the docks watching, likely waiting to see if their leader was to emerge. When only heroes and hostages come forth, they scatter into the thinning mist like ebony wraiths.

Xhianil pulls herself onto the roof and begins sucking on her nipple, milk flows from it.

As everything began to fall apart around them, keeping a tight hold on Pog, Glein flew up to the open window, and well, there was that razor wire that she ran the risk of getting caught in, and seeing the torn segments of wing membrane, yeah, Glein wasn't gonna risk that. They needed a new exit, and Glein didn't want to change a window. Which means, they needed to make one. "Arano! You still got that beast loaded?! We need a new exit, now!" Glein ordered, flapping her way towards the solar dragon.

The jackal didn't have to deal with aerial theatrics much. She just opted to use the door. "At least the opposition seems to have cleared out..." Edel makes her way through the fog, back towards the original meeting spot before looking around to see who else made it out with her.

With all the regular exist sealed and only the roof available by which to escape, Arano did an accounting of who was still stuck inside with them. Figuring he'd have to carry one out, he first followed instructions and took aim at an empty section of ceiling, blasting a new hole with the remaining rounds he had left in the magazine. Shouldering his rifle, he quickly leapt into the air and flew out the new skylight. He moved off to the side and hovered while loading a new clip, scanning what he could see just to make sure nobody was around to take a shot at his allies and spotting... really? She's doing this NOW? Priorities Xhianil... priorities...

More debris! Less doorways! There is only one thing left to do. No, not go through the window or all that silly stuff. Time to get serious, really serious. Dio finds a large piece of debris and places his hands upon it. No way he could lift it, right? Wrong! With a roaring grunt, he lifts it up and immediately tosses it towards a metal retractable garage door and smashes through it! With the best door around now created, he takes the hostage in hand and yanks her towards the opening.

Glein flies through the hole made by Arano, and hands him Pog. "Get them out of here. I'll pick up the remaining hostage, and we'll call in RSX to collect their people." She says, quickly getting over to the location where Xhianil and the hostage were resting, and scooping up the traumatized woman, before gliding back to what she and Edel had set up waiting for the rest of their 'team' to arrive for this. There she found Edel, and with a tired sigh, landing in a less than graceful or glamorous pile, the hostage definitely not on the bottom of the pile for this. "Next time, we tell Ripley we need more trustworthy help for this. Nearly had 1 person screw this all over, and another who might need hospitalization for a while." Glein muses, looking over the situation.

Pog is generally still noodlely and groaning, as well as snapping back into place. The nanites seem to be putting the finishing touches- a cracked rib fixed here, some, err, 'minor' internal bleeding fixed there... On the overall she's still incapacitated and still badly injured, but it is a situation priming to remedy itself in the passing moments.

Heading out, Arano made his way towards the rendezvous point, dropping off the wounded Pog and setting her down CAREFULLY, not doing anything to disrupt the repairs - in fact, he actually sets a hand on her and directs his own nanites to help accelerate the healing process before sitting down and glancing back at the warehouse, muttering to himself, "Well now... THAT was a shitshow..."

It's hard to say exactly how Edel got out, or when, but it's clear she did. "Well. I'd call it a general mission success. I need a bit of a bath, but other than that, I'm out unscathed!" She brushes off her sleeve. "And we got the hostages, I think. I hope. Good job, team, yeah." Her goggles get pushed back up onto her forehead. "No one else was... Too terribly injured, right?"

Dio let's go of the hostage and takes a moment to recover from his adrenaline super show with a few heavy breaths. He looks towards the group with an incredulous look. A look of silence... Questioning... Choosing not to say a word, the lion spins around and heads off into the distance.

Xhianil gets up and flies to the point and says "Sorry, I'm so sorry." before flying off crying.

Hissing softly at the sight of the creatures amasses outside, Martiya was pleased to see them scatter now that their leader was absent. Reaching up with a free hand, the makeshift cloth mask was pulled away from the tiger's muzzle and discarded with a sharp flick of the wrist. Looking about to do a quick headcount, those silver eyes eventually settled on Edel and a slow nod was given to the shorter female. "Fun, fun.." came the gruff response, a reiteration of hir earlier sarcastic statement. Glancing down at the hostage in hir arms, the feline clicked hir tongue softly. "Should get them back now..poor things.."

Glein sighs, and nods. Tapping her earpeice, she looks over the situation. "Command, this is Rescue team. We had a few, unexpected kinks in the operation, but all three hostages have been recovered. Recommend RSX be ready for some odd mutations. They seem to have had their mouths... relocated." Glein reports, resting her head against the rusted vehicle.

The line is silent briefly before an RSX agent clicks in. <Thank you rescue team, we have an APT in the area, it will swing round to take our employees in and see that they receive proper medical treatment...judging by your description, we know the infection. One of the agents in question is going to be very angry later, but the other two we can fix right up. Thank you for your diligence, we hope no unrequired harm or infections occurred.>

A few moments later USHC CIC comes online with the obvious voice of LT. Ripley, her tone strained with annoyance. <Took you lot long enough to report in...head home for rest and debriefing ASAP.>

Apparently the personnel transport was very close as the massive armored vehicle grinds up within minutes of the call, medics and encounter suited agents spilling out to take the victims in and rush them to triage.