Clusterfrag

Between the two of them, Max and Sinjin manage to wedge the elevator doors apart and reveal a large shaft that descends into darkness.

Adams places his foot on the threshold, and peers cautiously down.

"So who wants to go first into the pit of doom? Tyros, do you have our descent covered?"

Max picks Marlowe back up from the ground and makes sure to check that the safety is off before he scans the shaft both for the location of the elevator within as well as any manual access ladders or offshoot ducting. Unable to resist the urge, Max hawks up something from the bowls of hell itself and casually spits it into the abyss. The elf's finger smarts loudly as he considers the pill bottle in his pocket with this fingertips on the opposite hand.

Tyros strides up to the open elevator shaft and peers skeptically down the shaft. "What happened to heading to the security room first? I thought it was on this floor? And which floor are we going down to? Sub-basement 2 or 3?"

The research assistant thumbs a touchscreen display next to the elevator.

"The elevator is in service mode--doesn't look like its moving. It's currently on the ground floor, so you'd be exiting there... presumably."

Max raises his weapon and shoots through the cable responsible for moving the elevator up and down the shaft. Smugly, he turns over his shoulder and says,

"And that's where it'll stay."

Tyros looks at the Orc researcher and says in his ghostly voice, "Where is the security center?"

The ork looks around and--failing to register a speaker--turns to Doc.

"The security center is near the entrance, on the ground floor."

"Down we go then. Think happy thoughts!"

Tyros waves an invisible hand (centering), and lofts the team as well as the researcher off the floor and moves them swiftly down the elevator shaft the the first flow (levitate, f5).

The team lifts off the floor and drifts through the darkness of the elevator shaft until their toes touch down on the roof of the elevator car.

Max searches the top of the elevator for the access hatch that will lead the team down into the car. Locating the hatch, the elf cups his ear against the small door and listens for activity below before cautiously opening it.

The elf strains to hear anything beyond the steel plate that separates the team from the ground floor, but is unable to pick out any sounds beyond its metal recess.

(( And I'm back, ladies and gents! Huzzah! ))

"Cover the hatch."

Reaching down, Tyros' muscular arms flex briefly before he lifts the steel hatch plate off the top of the elevator car.

Max his ear away from the hatch, somewhat amused by the brash troll. The team has its characters. Max pulls a grenade off its loop on his shoulder straps and threads his left index finger through the pull ring. Holding the grenade in his right hand, the elf crouches at the ready to drop the explosive into the elevator below and gives Tyros an affirmative nod. 'Good to go.'

Tyros pulls the access hatch away and glances down into the elevator. He switches his vision over to astral to find himself face to face with a watcher spirit!

Max peers intently into the elevator. With nothing apparent to him, the elf quickly re-loops the grenade and drops nimbly down to the elevator floor.

Max lands easily on the carriage floor, spreading out his arms to steady himself.

The elevator has been placed in service mode and, as a result, it's doors are wide open. The entrance lobby is beyond, dotted with planters and couches. To the right, the broken husk of the security station resides, surrounded by a sea of glittering glass fragments.

The elf's ears perk as he hears foot steps closing quickly from around the corner of the security station.

Max dives forward into the room beyond the elevator doors and behind one of the massive planter boxes. Landing with a hard thud against the box as glass scoots swiftly from beneath his slide, the elf takes a moment to catch his breath. Comming out to the team, Max calls,

<We've got incoming hostiles! Get the frag out of the shaft; you're sitting fraggin' ducks!>

Eying the flexicam scope, Max looks out from behind cover toward the bombed out security station.

Adams drops through the hatch, and rolls as he lands thudding to the floor. He takes position just inside the elevator, up against the old fashioned button controls.

At an angle, he can see the elf pressed up against the planter, and gives him a querying look.

Max points in the direction of the footfalls with a head gesture.

Rifle primed an ready, Adams stays just out of sight of the opening to the elevator. Despite his intense focus on the incoming footsteps, he can't shake the feeling of being watched. The hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and he is filled with a powerful urge--a childlike panic--to run from the elevator as fast as he can.

He suppresses those feelings, and tries to stay focused on the task at hand.

Tyros, Sinjin and Val slip through the hatch and scramble to cover near Max.

A group of figures pounds through the security station and seeks cover of their own. Their makeup is generally identical to what the team has seen so far: lightly armored humans with gas masks. But, accompanying them is a humanoid figure that pulses and shimmers as though composed of wind currents and temporal distortions--an air spirit!

[ Doc = 57 ]
[ Max = 52 ]
[ Spirit = 48 ]
[ Sinjin = 45 ]
[ Val = 44 ]
[ Eco-Terrorist 1 = deceased ]
[ Eco-Terrorist 2 = deceased ]
[ Eco-Terrorist 3 = 33 ]
[ Tyros = 27 ]
[ Eco-Terrorist 4 = 25 ]

Doc's stomach tightens at the sight of the air spirit.

You can't do anything about that, keep your focus.

He does his best to pick out the least armed (or unarmed) eco terrorist, hoping that he's correctly picked out the mage, and opens fire.

(( BF Narrow, AV ammo ))

(( 12P DAMAGE! ))

Doc bursts down his first target, sending rivulets of crimson splattering through the adjacent ficus.

Doc retargets on the next contestant, and fires again.

Doc's second burst rips across the planter, sending up a cascade of soil, ceramic and glass, but failing to register a kill-shot.

Max's keen eyes track the spray of blood from the ecoterrorist as he explodes in plumes of gore and tissue. The terrorist's final expression on the mortal stage is one of agony; he drops his weapon and clutches at his chest as the gun goes chattering to the ground. Disbelief washes across the man's face as the color drains from it and redeposits itself on the floor beneath him. His clothes grow heavy and sodden with arterial red so deep in shade that it appears black. Max turns his attention back to the battle at hand as he falls to his knees and finally to his face. The crack of another gunshot announces itself in the same instant as an explosion of building materials breaks from the wall behind another terrorist. Following the terrorist's feint, Max sights in on his target and fires a burst into his viscera.

The first trio of slugs from Marlowe scatter across the tile, adding plumes of dust to the rapidly expanding fog of war.

Max curses the shot; it would seem as though he's rusty! Using his smartlink to switch to a single bullet, Max fires again.

(( 12P DAMAGE! ))

The eco-terrorist's head snaps back as Max's slug blows out the back of his skull.

The spirit emanates a violent hissing noise, like a gale force storm being forced into a coke bottle. The flickering, ethereal silhouette of its form shifts and reforms over Doc, locking him in a sort of wind tunnel tomb.
(( 2S DAMAGE! ))

Doc's limbs are frozen in place by the raw power of the howling gusts. A searing pain rips through his ribcage as the winds attempt to crush him!

(( Give us a writing lesson, Sinjin! ))

Sinjin stares hyptmotised as Doc struggles for breath, enveloped by a raging maelstrom of air and wind. He sees the pain on his friends face, and watches horrified as the powerful magics exact a fearsome punishment to his constitution. A shotgun shell bounces along the floor and rolls to a stop. Glancing at the knives in his hand, he frowns, looks again to Doc, and let's them fall to the floor.

Springing cat-like to the top of the planter, and off again in an instant, Sinjins 'claws' are bared, his cry feral, and his fury terrible as he falls upon the nearest prey.

((Sorry, didn't see we were in combat! Not a lot of down time up here.))

Sinjin hops a planter and lands next to a startled terrorist.

(( Assuming killing hands & critical strike. ))
(( 9P DAMAGE! ))

Sinjin tears away a chunk of the man's unprotected neck and hurls it to the floor.

Hoping to finish off Sinjin's mangled target, Val swings his rifle around the corner of a planter and fires a burst before the flesh from the gravely wounded terrorist's neck completes its trip to the ground.