Bay 12 Games Forum

Maybe we should put time and location stamps at the beginning of every post. 

Well, if he thinks they're retreating, he sure is going to get a shock when they catch up to him (which will probably be pretty soon, since they're not strolling at a leisurely pace and they know where they're going). 

The brackets indicate radio chatter, by the way.

"Hold your fire!"

As the biomass spread like wildfire through the facility, covering everything it touched, the sergeant swore in every language he knew.

{"The fuck is this? We've got a carpet of funky alien crap trying to take the lobby, Sarge, coming from your direction."}

{"Affirmative, Contingency Gamma. I'm scrubbing this mission in ten; if we're not out by then, cut your losses and get back to the boat."}

{"Copy that, Sarge. We'll try and stall this crap as long as we can, so as not to attract attention, but it'll go around us eventually."}

"Jenkins, you still got the blueprints? Good, we're double-timing to the hot zones. Tsume, get meatshields on point- everyone else, stay sharp and shoot on sight. We're on the clock here! Go! Go! GO!"

"Yes Sir!"

The squad, with ten shadow puppets in the lead, breaks into as fast a run as they can manage without tripping over the new terrain.

I plan on having Tsume be a recurring quirky midboss totally legitimate villain, assuming she survives this. 

"Clear... Clear... Clear..."

Seeing through the eyes of her shadow puppet, Tsume checks though office after office, workshop after workshop...

"Clear... Clear... Cle--"

And then, a strange green-eyed man pacing around an operating room, addressing them cordially.

The shadow stares transfixed at it, ignoring it's query, as the Tsume around the corner puts up a hand to signal a halt.

Nodding, the sergeant motions up two soldiers, who quietly prime flash and smoke grenades and toss them around the corner, while the squad readies IR goggles and ventilators.

Suddenly, the room is filled with light and sound, followed shortly by a thick cloud of smoke and ten men with assault rifles leveled, shouting "GET DOWN!", while the other two soldiers and Tsume remain outside to cover the corridor.

{"Elevators are down and turrets are up, sir. Nothing's getting in or out through here without us knowing."}

{"Affirmative, keep us posted."}

B1... B2... B3...

"Shouldn't there be more humans around here? This is boring."

The sergeant was about to snap back, but Tsume was right- even though the cultists and the ArmorForce security forces were fighting over at the gates, he'd expected sentries posted around sensitive areas to prevent people from outflanking them and sneaking in... like they were doing now.

B4... B5... B6.

"Alright, we're here. Jenkins, charge on that door, if you wou--"

"Already open, sir; someone beat us here."

"...Fuck. We're not taking any chances here- Tsume, you're on point- check each room; if anyone's in there, flash and smoke, then subdue them to make sure they haven't got anything we need. Once that's done, put them down, we can't have anyone squealing. Move up!"

"Sir!" "Hokay!" Focusing for a moment, an inky black, but slightly simpler clone of Tsume with glowing red eyes rises from the floor in front of her, and leads the group down the corridor, peeking around doorframes and corners.

Unsurprisingly, when Tsume's squad reached the laboratory's main entrance, the doors were locked down. C4 quickly rectified this, and they fanned out into the lobby, the sergeant picking off CCTV cameras with his sidearm.

"Our objective's somewhere in the labs proper- bottom three sub-levels. Bravo, kill the lifts and take up defensive positions here- constant radio contact, make sure we aren't followed. Alpha, we're taking the stairs. And you..."

Tsume's eyes brightened at the prospect of causing mayhem. The sergeant sighed.

"Stay close and don't fucking touch anything. Move out!"

She pouted. "You're no fun~"