Chapter 15
Things are not looking so good for everyone, down in the Mainetance Wing the wall of Ice and Water that Raziel and Thaylorn summoned is starting to crack and splash and fade away. The 12 foot tall cat Golem will have broken through sooner rather then later and be upon them! Upstairs in the laboratory however things are little better. Silmeria is being tracked by a massive, ceiling mountain cannon that is spinning up to firing speed and Vazkor is rushing to engage the giant mechanial Puma they escaped from earlier.... The power is on, the base is their oyster to pillage if they can just withstand the ancient technology that is trying to kill them.
"Access or not, I do not think that it will much care for us blocking off it's quarry even though we've done no harm to it.." Raziel mutters while watching the shields they put up being blown away. A brief glance is cast around and then the man points up and he races towards the stairs while grumbling something about really missing the ability to just fly up right now. "The aquarium... with the water... off of the .. room they're in.... we can flood this room," the mage puffs out while he starts running up the stairs two at a time.
"Yeah I'm quite sure it will just shoot us to death for the most part." Thaylorn adds to Raziel's statement as he begins trying to scramble up the stairs with the de-winged Aegyl, his sword clanking against the wall as he moves "That'd stop it probably, water would mess with their parts most likely..Break that glass in the room upstairs would be fastest." He remarks as he tries to move as quickly as he's able, he has to wonder if the golem is able to climb stairs easily.
Silmeria has a much greater problem to worry about, than a rampaging golem; namely, the fact that she is currently leaping *toward* an active turret that seems more than happy to shoot herself and Vazkor to death. For the moment, her Gunblade is interposed between herself and the turret's barrel, but once she closes enough the Esper twists, whipping the heavy steel blade in a wide arc, pulling the trigger the moment she feels the shock of weapon impacting the turret arm.
Vazkor isn't in any position to think about that rampaging golem either. He isn't even really in the position to think about the ceiling gun at his back, even, having to deal with that robo-puma that's at his front instead. The swashbuckler having both swords out, the blue steel edges crackling with lightning and cutting an odd, lit-up blur through the air as he swings them down to intercept the beast, meeting its leap head on.
The Golem makes a BOOM denouncement as the ice wall falls away completly and starts to clank up the stairs after Raziel and Thaylorn. It's steps making the whole staircase RING and vibrate dangerously as the two mages rush for safety. In the Biology Laboratory Silmeria's sword connects with the ceiling cannon and interupts the spin of the barrel but the shot slips underneath and SPRANGS into a metal case on one of the walls. The device telescopes another barrel out, a smaller one that points directly and Silmeria's head, pulses blue and bathes her head in a radiant blue light. Vazkor's swords swing into the laping Puma with EASE! He slices through the metallic cat like it was a slab of hot butter. It hisses and thunks onto both swords, sparks flying everywhere as it MEWLS in distress and tries to claw at Vazkor then something inside cracks odd greenish liquid froths out of its mouth as it goes limp. You page, "The blue light that washes over your head makes you feel dopey and sleepy, your magical energy being drained, your eyes clouding but you manage to shrug it off and can attack again!" to Silmeria.
Raziel looks over his shoulder, his eyes widening for an instant and then his eyes run over the room and upto the ceiling. Blinking for a moment as he spots a pair of hatches. One rimmed in blue light and the other in red. He utters a curse and then points up, "Thaylorn your the only one that can fly.. Go and get the emergency handle on the blue one.. if I'm right and it is below the right room then we'll drown this place. Just get out of the way quickly!" And after pointing that out he starts running back up the stairs again, trying not to fall from the shaking.
Raziel looks over his shoulder, his eyes widening for an instant and then his eyes run over the room and upto the ceiling. Blinking for a moment as he spots a pair of hatches. One rimmed in blue light and the other in red. He utters a curse and then points up, "Thaylorn your the only one that can fly.. Go and get the emergency handle on the blue one and then the red one.. if I'm right and it is below the right room then we'll drown this place and get out the blue one afterwards Thaylorn!" And after pointing that out he starts running back up the stairs again, trying not to fall from the shaking.
Thaylorn is much too distracted by booms and giant gun wielding cat things chasing behind him to truly look around to see anything that might be of use, but luckily Raziel isn't so focused! As the Aegyl speaks up Thaylorn quickly glances upwards towards the ceiling and the hatches there while climbing still "Will it just open then?!" The Imp asks hesitantly as he looks up then back down behind them to keep track of the golems progress. Moving as quickly as he can, the Imp leaps up into the air, his magic allowing him to float upwards towards the ceiling and the two hatches there "Just be ready to get out, then!" He calls, waiting for Raziel to be safetly out of the way of the potential waterfall that may be created from opening the red hatch before moving to use the emergency handle of it, and the blue hatch.
Silmeria starts as the secondary barrel fires, stumbling back and shaking her head to clear away the sudden drowsiness that threatens to put her out of commission. Setting her jaw, she drops into a crouch, taking hold of the hilt of her 'blade with both hands, and thrusting upwards into the center of the turret, pulling the trigger again to wrench the sword deeper into its innards, should she manage it.
Vazkor is glad his new swords seem to make short work of the Puma, undoubtedly aided by his sheer skill, and after the thing collapses, he allows himself a moment to stab one of his blades downwards into its head, grinding it around a second before pulling it back out again. Not wanting the beast to suddenly get back up behind him as he turns to check up on Silmeria... Right away seeing she might be in just a bit of trouble, and springing to the rescue with a blade arcing towards its main gun barrel just as Silmeria fires at it again.
Everything seems to happen at once, Silmeria's sword sinks into the depths of the turret, it buzzes and then discharges a wave electrical energy down into Silmeria! The girl however is made of stern stuff however and seems to just shrug it off! The turret is a mangle mess hanging from the ceiling now and as Vazkor leaps to help he lands on a floor tile that suddenly drops and snicks open, the sword master skillfully leaps off it as it reveals the maintenance room below. Raziel hits the room that used to be on fire at a dead run and slams the door behind him, a few seconds later he is through the next door onto the staircase and has that shut whilst Thaylorn pulls the handle on the red hatch second. It pretty much slams out of the ceiling as it releases and a torrent of sea water hisses into the room below but Thay being able to fly can drift safely back up through the blue hatch he opened and alight next to Vazkor as through the hatch they can see the water flooding the maintenance wing, shorting out electrical devices and starting to fill the room whilst through the large window into the flooded Ecology laboratory they can see the water bubbling and surging and flooding down through a hole in the floor. It seems the party have escaped!
Raziel makes it upto the room with Vaz and Silmeria.. the man looking up at the gun turret, over at the halved puma and then at them before he pants out, "excitement?" For a few moments the mage pants, but soon enough he's moving over to peek into the hatch and the water flooding through while looking for Thaylorn. "We /really/ need to find more of those key cards." It's a good thing Thaylorn was able to move out of the way of that exploding hatch fast enough, that probably would have put him out of comission rather quickly! Flying up the blue hatch as quickly as he can the Imp lets out a small sigh. "Well, least we won't be attacked by anything down there now." He remarks as he looks about the room at the turret and cat, and then the water flowing out of the ecology lab curiously.
"We do," Silmeria pants, wrenching her weapon out of the remains of the turret and leaning against the wall. She gets, perhaps, three breaths in, before her head snaps up, eyes wide with terror. "THAYLORN SHUT THE DOOR TO THAT POWER ROOM!!"
Vazkor looks up at the remains of the turret the moment he lands, only to see it's out of commission. Then he looks back at the open hatch which he narrowly avoided plummeting through, frowning a bit at the Imp flying up through it, "... I almost landed on that. But i guess you took care of that thing?" And he looks over at Raziel then, raising a hand in greeting at his arrival, and about to open his mouth again as he's startled slightly by Silmeria's outburst.
It is indeed a valid point, the door to the power room is still open, the cascade of water pouring down, flooding the maintenance room is rapidly spreading across the floor. At the moment it won't impede Thaylorn from flying back down and closing the door to the power room. The heavy stone door will be able to withstand the pressure but he'll have to fly quick and be brave to reach it, close it and fly back up through the blue hatch in time!
Raziel's head snaps towards the door as he looks down the hatch and then stares. "Damn, damn, damn.... Thaylorn, if you hurry I think you can make it.." He backs away from the hole and reaches towards the imp before closing his hand into a fist and dropping it. Hurling the him towards it likely won't speed things up.
Hearing Silmeria's outcry, and taking quick note of what might happen if water were to get into the power room, Thaylorn jumps into action as quickly as he can! He doesn't notice how clsoe Raziel was to just throwing him back down the hole, luckily enough! The Imp would leap back down the hatch, letting himself fall for as long as he can before floating down the rest of the way. Getting down was the quick part, probably and as he reaches the door he looks around for a way to get it to close once again. Finding the handle without too much trouble he would push it in once again, causing the door to most likely close itself once again! If there isn't any other sort of half-dead automatons still lurking around to impede his way back up, the Imp would begin flying back up more slowely than he was able to descend.
Silmeria remains tense as Thaylorn dives down the hatch, fretting at the hem of one sleeve and biting her lip. "...I know it's rather odd of me to hope he makes it," she says in a small voice, "but... Dying once is quite enough for anyone, thank you... I'd... *really* rather not die again."
Vazkor really doesn't have much to add to the situation, just standing there, frowning and peering down the open hatch to watch Thaylorn descend, and to wait for his swift return. Glancing up at Silmeria as she speaks, he nods a bit, and simply states, "I'd rather not die even a first time.""
Thaylorn ascends back through the hatch with ease and you are able to all watch as the water continues to pour in. A bit of searching finds the release switch for the hatch on your side and you are able to shut the blue floor hatch once more so the water will be contained. It seems you won't be going back down but for now everythnig is peaceful. The door out to the arobouretum is wide open, torn off its hinges but there are no more giant Puma's at least! You should be able to ascend higher into the base at long last! ) [Spoofed By: Silvante] Raziel remains kneeled down by the hatch for a few moments longer and he closes his eyes before standing. "This is beyond what we've been through before.." Shaking his head then the once-aegyl straightens and pulls out the keycard as he ascends up the stairs to the locked door that they'd discovered previously. "Let us hope we don't face yet more dangers upon immediately opening this.. Are you all ready?"
"Hopefully we've gotten past them all." Thaylorn remarks softly as he looks back down to the closed hatch for a moment, taking a couple seconds to think about what might have happened if water had gotten into the power room. Shrugging he turns about to follow Raziel as he moves towards the stairs leading upwards.
"No," Silmeria says faintly, shoulders sagging as Thaylorn emerges, none the worse for wear from his door-closing heroics. "But I think I can breathe again. Which... well it's enough, we have a job to do, after all..." And with that, the Esper shoulders her gunblade, following Thaylorn up the stairs.
Vazkor briefly smirks towards Thaylorn, and offers him a nod and a, "Good job, Imp." Before looking towards Raziel, and starting to follow after the Aegyl, keeping his swords out, "I'm sure all this was just the tip of the iceberg. You know our luck." Vazkor
The door panel now has lights on it and the key-card makes it hiss and slide open revealing an empty corridor. It goes left and right and there are lots of smaller doors off this corridor. The lights are bright and white and there is nothing up here, the air is fresh and the faint whirr of fans can just about be heard as they emerge into this new part of the base. On the wall opposite is another map and now the Maintenance wing is coloured in red....
Raziel holds his breath for a few long moments, waiting for something to pop out at them. Letting it loose eventually the man approaches the map and taps the hall that they're in. "Private offices.. ahead of us and above is the Security Command. Lets check the offices as we go through and perhaps we'll find another couple keycards, if not lets try to find a way into the Security Command. I want to rush, but we've already seen we can't do much of that, it's too dangerous. Not with an intruder being already in the Primary Command Center."
With a quick glance both direction down the corridor Thaylorn lets loose a small, somewhat relieved sigh himself "Probably won't run into anything really strange up here, but be careful all the same." He offers as he moves to open the door to the nearest small door, testing to see if it's locked and what may be within if it isn't.
"....Not making this place any more upset with us is a very good idea," Silmeria murmurs, hanging back, gunblade at the ready should Fate be tempted once too often to resist. "...So we're headed to, what... where the Guard office is? And the other person is in what's basically the Council chambers?"
Vazkor looks around the hallway as he stalks through it, following the others... And in response to some of the remarks, he states, "If these are private officer, security might be light. But ahead, at command, who knows what we'll run into." He then watches Thaylorn try the door... And shifts his stance a bit, standing at the ready incase of trouble.
The door is not locked, inside is a desk, a metal rectangle full of draws that are stuffed with mouldy paper and one of those odd terminal screens on the desk top. All the rooms are like that, some are larger then others, with more chairs or less or larger desks and a few of them have large windows that look out over the dome. You can see some parts are flooded, others are not but they are all the same, empty and long since abandoned.
"Basically, yes," the mage replies as he begins to check the offices. "Unfortunately security is only going to get tighter the closer to the Command we get, that is always the case is it not? Our best bet would be to find another key in these rooms, but I think we might be out of luck. That means we hit the Security Command.." He frowns for a moment and looks over his shoulder at each of you. "If we can take down the complex's security we won't be attacked again I think. But the person in the Command will also be able to escape at that point..."
"Think they might be trapped up there, then?" Thaylorn asks of Raziel as he continues checking the rooms without any luck on his end, either. "There might be a way to see in that security room, if they are..Maybe we can change who the defenses target or something." The Imp suggests as he glances down the hall once again with a small shrug "Least we didn't run into any trouble here yet."
"That.... might not be such a bad idea," Silmeria muses, nodding to Thaylorn. "...I suppose we just have to hope we *can* do such a thing... I'm not sure about the rest of you, but there is very, very little about this place that makes any sense at all to me..."
Vazkor nods at Raziel... And then blinks at Thaylorn, thinking for a moment before he nods, "That sounds like a plan, actually. As long as it isn't me who has to tinker with any of those kind of things." He points a sword at a screen in one of the offices, "As I'm with Silmeria on all this." He shrugs, "But if we can send some big machine thing after the intruder, I'll be happy."
The party move down the corridor, it isn't hard to follow the maps to the stairs that lead up to the security centre. There is another electronic metal door at the top of the short flight of steps and to the left of the stairs a pair of sealed glass and chrome doors that lead into some sort of glass tunnel. The lights are off and the door is locked and Raziel's Key-Card and Thaylorn's both do nothing to open the glass doors that lead further into the base. The security door however yields its secrets to Thaylorn's new card....
Go back to Stelazzio Quest Chapter 14
Go on to Stelazzio Quest Chapter 16
Or return to Sin of the People/Stelazzio Quest Directory
