Coalition Operations III: Deception of the Iron Bear

[Sohdakin]

Sohdakin grinned, just a little, when he felt Minthe grip his arm firmly as he flew towards the POC. Though, he kept his eyes forward as he knew the area wasn't exactly safe and he needed to get back on the ground.  The longer he was in the air with her, the greater the chance of him getting shot at and with Minthe being barely attached to him, he would not have the ability to dodge much in the air.  "I got you" he said over the com as the wind and raging storm around them didn't allow for external communication. While the storm did provide some cover, it also made the flight a bit....bumpy. 

He followed the waypoint to the POC entrance and gripped Minthe tighter as he flew in for a quick landing, his large wings snapping open fully to brake his forward momentum and land with a light jog.  Once on the ground he would kneel and quickly detach the Ram before standing back up and pointing straight ahead to the door.  The high winds and rain still making it difficult to see potential danger as it also interfered with his sensors.  "Stand back, behind me but keep an eye out for trouble" he said to Minthe over the com channel and tried the new codes he got from the security complex, hoping that it would work.

When Sohdakin heard the satisfying hiss of the door seal releasing he smiled and took a step back, bringing his rifle to bear as the large doors opened up.  He did a quick check of the entrance for any signs of a trap and stepped in.  He turned to wave Minthe in and once she and anyone else got inside, would he then shut the doors to seal off the weather.  His suits floodlights kicking after the door closed, cutting through the pitch black as the power was still out.  "We are in, proceeding to the beacon controls and waiting for the power to get turned back on."  If the Yautja had a presence here, they all had to keep on alert.

"Lets see if we cant find you a proper weapon" he said to Minthe and after a brief search he found a small arms closet with a few Pulse Rifles and several full magazines inside.  He would pull one out and offer it to the small Ram "You know how to use one of these?"

[Weaver]

"To be fair," Lithian began, "I only accepted this job under the assumption that this," he motioned around, "wouldn't have happened. I wanted a step down from what I usually did. I assume most who join Weylend were looking for a step up rather than a step down."

"Fix the generators? It was never my job, but I do know a thing or two about them. I had to construct my own body after all. The generators shouldn't be too far from here, though I wonder why they went offline?"

During the trip, Lithian finally got his comms synced up with the team, transmitting a small test message, "One, two, check. Is this thing working?" Of course, being that he just synchronized his comms, Lithian completely missed the fact he was supposed to head to the control room.

Upon arrival, he made sure that both him and Ori were standing off to the side of the door before opening it to avoid any kind of trap. Then just to be extra safe, he threw some debris left on the ground inside. "Okay, we should be clear."

The generator inside was a bit of a mess. It was supplying barely enough power to power the doors and other critical functions. Whoever built it didn't do a bad job however. The generator still functioning after the damage it received was a testament to their skill.

"Ah crap. Looks like someone messed with the generator," Lithian muttered, looking over the generator, "I can jury-rig a fix. It won't completely fix the problem, but I can route what extra power I can squeeze out to the POC. We need the proper parts and more time if we want to completely fix this," he grabbed a spare toolbox, "this shouldn't take too long. If you can watch the door and make sure nobody gets in, I should be able to get enough power to... uh... wait what do we need the power for? Don't tell me the beacon doesn't have its own independent power supply. It has its own battery... right?"

[Rayleonarde]

Valentine stepped around within the dropship, following Krystel at a distance. The machine she was tasked with fixing was foreign to her just as before. Her paws weren’t trained for maintenance, especially for military vehicles. Meanwhile, she reached out, trying to divine the future. It wasn’t taking, which troubled the Mongdrigan greatly. With a sigh through her nose, Valentine returned her attention to the machine.

[XIII]

"Ori is reporting - Lithian and me at the POC and about to bring the power supply back. Hang on in the air for a while". Female Orokin said right before Lithian had landed. Then she continued walking with him further. Course, she has seen the dragon with the new member of the team but was too busy to talk. "Hm... you probably do know, that the most of local workers are laborers who were criminals with death sentences verdict. Have you volunteered here on your own or you have been bought out by the corporation? Also, do you aware of Eisenberg researches?"

The fact that the facility had a single power generator sounded for Ori unrealistic. WY saves money on people, not on equipment for their job. That is why the girl in warframe inspected the map on her helm' HUD once more and spotted a small room, or rather a basement, not too far from her and Lithian position. It looked like there was some sort of an auxiliary generator and maybe they should activate it now, than wasting their time for fixing the current one. They were short on time; hence, quick solutions of any kind of problem were very welcomed here, especially when Viktor' dropship was still in the air.

"I don't know. From the schematics retrieved by Sohdakin, it appears, that the power supply of the complex is centralized. I guess we can wait for Lacar, and I suppose he can help with this. But, hold on... I see one more generator in a room right under the landing platform. Maybe we should activate it and hope, and it will have enough power to supply the facility. Let's check it out, mate". Ori said and neared to a hole next to the landing bay. There was a ladder, leading down. She jumped down and observed some kind of a tunnel filled with red, alarming lights on walls. According to the map, the auxiliary generator at the end of the tunnel. And she would continue, but Ori was unsure if she can activate it on her own. Thus she enabled her comlinks to talk with the shark and gargoyle, examining the interior. "Lacar, I hope you're fine. When you get here, see if you can fix the primary generator. If not, don't waste your time. Lithian, let's go and see if we can activate the second generator".

[MintPlush]

Yah know, flying in any other circumstances may not be so bad.. Minthe thought as the turbulence bounced her around and the threat of being shot out of the air loomed over them. She was grateful for him gripping her to help her feel more stable as he landed. She felt her stomach flip as his wings extended and the bounce of him jogging to a stop on the ground.
She had never been so thankful to be unattached to someone and on the ground in her entire life. "Gotcha." She replied to Sohda, watching his back.

Entering the building once she was told to do so, she let him lead again. She switched on two small lights on the shoulders of her suit to assist her in the darkness. Minthe took the weapon and rounds he'd located for her, loading it casually. "Not formally trained, but yes I do. After you." She once again fell back behind him, feeling much better with a weapon that had some kick to it.

She heard Lithian over the comm and acknowledged him. "I read you. Minthe here. Sounds like your comm is working."

[Weaver]

Lithian paused for a moment, locking eyes with Ori "I came here on my own under a contract. I got a tip from a friend. As for the criminal thing, I figured that most employees here were vetted, considering the nature of the facility. Either way, I got to know these people, and most of them seem like pretty alright. I'd trust them in a gun fight. As for Eisenburg, I've never head of that."

He nodded to Ori's mention of an auxiliary generator, "That seems like a better idea. I'll follow you." Lithian didn't know of any other generators. Being a security guard, he didn't exactly have access or need to have that information.

"By the way, you never answered my question. What do we need the power for? The beacon has its own battery right?"

The duo traveled down the tunnel, reaching the generator at the other side. It was smaller than the previous, but otherwise looked untouched. "Oh, this should be as easy as hitting the power button."

It wasn't.

After a solid minute of tinkering with the generator and a little bit of a kick, Lithian managed to get it up and running.

And with the generator, what broken remains of the security system slowly came to life. Across the compound a garbled siren began to sound. Turrets either failed to deploy or had long ran out of ammo. At this point, security was only good for making a very loud noise. A noise that would draw the attention of everyone and everything within a large radius.

"I... think I know why the other generator was damaged, and I don't think it was for malicious reasons. This could be bad."

Lithian aimed his shotgun towards the only entrance... and only exit.

[Sohdakin]

Sohdakin checked Minthe over quickly as to make sure he removed all the cabling so it wouldn't trip her up should she need to maneuver in her armor.  "Good, grab some extra magazines, lets go" he said and went to the door that would enter the hallway they needed that should take them to the beacon controls.  "Ori, we are proceeding to the beacon controls." he said then checked his map "ETA should be 5 mikes"  He looked back to Minthe again to make sure she was good to go before proceeding down the hallway.  As they made the trek, he would occasionally glance behind him at the small Ram to make sure she was doing alright.  Sure, he could see her position on his map, but his map didn't tell him her state of presence. 

As he predicted, they reached the beacon control room just before he felt a shudder run along the floor and a faint rumbling sound as the power kicked in and lights slowly began to turn on.  It was at that moment his audio receptors caught a soft hissing sound and it seemed to come from everywhere.  "Crap....." he muttered and then ran over to the beacon controls and began to get the systems back online so he could activate the beacon "Viktor, I think we just woke up the hornets nest!" he warned everyone and looked to Minthe "Lock and load, we may be getting unwanted company...." he gruffed and activated his motion sensors. "Lets hope they wont come our way"  He would jack K2 into the terminal so he could go back and pickup his own rifle and made sure it was ready to defend the two of them "Ori, get your skinny ass up here!" He said as he checked his map to see where Ori, Lithian and Lacar were located and had K2 estimate the path they will potentially take and marked it so he knew where to expect them to come from.  "Minthe! We should have friendlies coming down that hallway..." he pointed out to his left, "...so shoot anything that moves from this one" he said as he pointed to his right and proceeded to begin sealing and closing the doors that went further into the complex and potentially where the Xenos would come from.  "Goddess help us if they figure out how to open doors"

[XIII]

"Looks like Weyland keeping their workers are dumb enough not to let them figure out the actual state of the things. Can't say it's something bad, but UNSC's auditor reports never lie. You probably want to read them all now." Ori has said, upon she made the way to the auxiliary generator along with Lithian. His answer was pretty expected as the corporation doing anything they can to prevent laborers from getting access to auditor's report. Otherwise, the laborers would raise a rebellion against their employer. And Ori would be glad in case it could happen because it would mean less headache for the UNSC who has a lot of tasks in the present days aside from the WY. She then added once she was able to track the electric circuit of the landing beacon. "Seems like the beacon is powered up from power generators. So, turn the generator on.".

Once Lithian has started the generator, quite soon, warframe' motion detector started to pick signs of lifeforms, and the rate of detecting signals was high. If those lifeforms were what Ori assumed, the ground team would get a good experience at shooting practice. And today's practice they'll remember for the rest of their life as their lives will depend on how strong their shooting skills are. Since Ori was closest to the exit from the basement, she rushed to exit and with a single high jump, got on the POC' landing platform. There are the galaxy-skinned one noted an opened gates, which were closed a couple of minutes ago. After checking the map, it turned out, that it was a security station. But what was worth to note, is an APC inside its garage. And no doubt, it was the Weyland' armored transport. Even from the position where Ori stand, she could say that the car was huge. And so she decided to report this to Viktor.

"Viktor, there is a Weland's APC next to the landing platform. I suggest to make use of it, provided it's still working-". The female Orokin said and wanted to continue, but then two Xenomorphs appeared from the same room where the APC was standing and rushed to Ori. Luckily, the distance between her and two hostiles was big enough to kill them with her link gun before any of them able to reach the girl. But it was just the start of the party, as the hissing and clicking sounds were getting louder. Course, she can't leave Lithian behind, so Ori resolved to wait for the gargoyle and then move on. With her abilities, she wouldn't have any problems at killing Xenomorphs, but most of her offensive skills are for mass destruction. In this way, Ori was afraid to harm anyone or the POC itself.

"This skinny ass can kick yours in a blink of an eye. Me and Lithian en route." The female Orokin replied on Sohdakin' request and then rushed inside the POC control room, watching for more aliens. She thought that with Sohdakin' support, Lithian and Minthe have good chances of surviving the waves of vicious creatures attack, even though they were in the building. And Ori might wait for Viktor and his team to land, providing covering fire. But then she figured, that firing from a high would be better and thus, she proceeded further.

[MintPlush]

She was just grabbing a few extra magazines, strapping them to her side for easy access before following. Minthe picked up Sohda's chatter to Ori, nodding to herself as she reaffirmed that they were heading to the beacon controls as she suspected.

A week in this place had been enough to know how the Xenos worked and traveled in the base. She was on her toes as she backed him, quiet and careful yet easily keeping up with him. Yea, she was scared...If you weren't scared of a swarm of Xenos then something was definitely wrong with your brain..but she was also determined and flat out angry that she was put at the base and left to die for the reasons she suspected. She'd made a promise that she wouldn't die so easily long ago and this was one of the times she'd need to prove her words were true. Minthe was a survivor and she'd be as savage as she needed to stay alive. That was why, when Sohda glanced back he would see a soldier behind him instead of a medic.

They entered the beacon control room just as the power began to surge back on. The low garbled siren sending a shiver down her own spine. "This is going to get bad.." She whispered, remembering how awful things had gotten beforehand. She double checked her weapon and brought up her shield, readying herself to the door on the right but also keeping the vents within view. "10/4" She acknowledged Sohda. "Don't forget to watch the vents." She advised. "I sure hope your friends are ready..And I hope they are quick.." She aimed her weapon at the skittering and hissing noises she could hear.

As soon as a Xeno popped out of the vent closest to her, she shot it quickly and accurately, downing it right there and helping keep the vent clogged.  She could hear sharp noises as they began shredding the door on the right to reach them. Minthe re-centered and held her own, breaths even and slow. She would get out of this hellhole alive.

[Romulan_Furry]

"Ground team, status report!" Viktor barked, having since returned to the bridge of his ship (hopefully with Krystel and Valentine). "Sensors are picking up multiple contacts all over! What the hell's going on down there?!" He looked to his helmsman. "Helm, ETA to LZ?"

"Two minutes and counting," the droid replied.

"Team, regroup and hold the line - we are inbound aboard the flagship! ETA, two minutes! Copy?" Viktor spoke to his team.

[Alessia Starfurr]

"Should I bring the weapons online?" Krystal asked as she moved to the tactical station. she couldn't establish a telepathic link with the team at this range....so there was little left for her to do.

[Rayleonarde]

Valentine stood leaning heavily on her staff, head bowed. She concentrated heavily on divination, but it was foggy at best. Grunting in frustration, she righted herself and shook her head. “This place is cursed. I can’t...divine...anything.”

[Weaver]

Lithian followed Ori as best he could, as his motion tracker began to light up like a christmas tree. "I don't think we have enough bullets for this... are we sure we don't want to back off and wait for the storm to die down before trying again?" Despite his apprehension, he followed Ori inside the POC. He assumed they were heading inside to better protect other non-flying teammates, as out-ranging most of the aliens by flight seemed like a better idea.

Throughout the building he could hear skittering, clawing, the sound of metal breaking and tearing, "This place is a death trap! I sure hope you know what you're doing," Lithian kept up a quick pace, though fell slightly behind Ori as he took the time to fire a few shots with his blaster to jam a vent closed.

With a loud screeching sound that pierced the air, several doors between the duo were torn to shreds, pouring out aliens into the hallway. Lithian made a mistake on instinct, letting a shotgun round loose into the nearest hostile. The death throes of the xenomorph sprayed acid all over Lithian, which burned away at his energy shields. He let out a few choice words before being forced to retreat back the way he came to create space, which only further separated Lithian and Ori.

[Sohdakin]

"Well get in line..." Sohdakn growled in response to Ori's message about kicking his tail, the growl tho, was not directed at her but at the Xenos that had dropped from a vent nearby, he did not turn to check on Minthe as he heard her Pulse rifle report and continued to fire at her own targets.  He had purposefully chose his spot as there were no vents above or below him so it would lessen the chance of a Xenos dropping in on him as he focused on the door down the hallway.  "Minthe, let me know if you get overwhelmed" he said as he kept his own rifle aimed down the hallway, he could hear the dull thuds of the Xenos as they rammed the heavy door repeatedly, it wouldn't be long till they would break through.

"Sir! I have a medic with me, we are holding the control room just south of the landing pad entrance, waiting on the others to show up and assist with defending the control station.  The Xenos have broken through two other security doors and are working on the last, some are dropping in from the vents but our newbie has that covered for now." he said and fired on a Xenos that dropped from a vent down the hallway just as  Ori arrived in the control room. "About time! They are slowly breaking through the doors but that should break them up enough to not completely overwhelm us." he reported rather calmly and fired on another Xenos that dropped from the nearby vent "Where is Lithian, thought he was with you?" he said and looked up to notice that Lithian's icon was further back and seemed to be retreating "Lithain! Do you need assistance?" he growled and look to Ori as she was probably the best to help the Gargoyle as he had to hold the control room with Minthe.

[XIII]

"Shtako! Sohdakin, as you're a dragon, can you breathe with fire? Those monsters are afraid of it like the plague.". Ori said and figured, that her rifle in given circumstances, not the best option. Her gun is supposed for accurate, medium-range shots, without harming everyone around her, what may happen upon using her abilities. Preferably for a few targets. Therefore, she resolved to use the destructive power of her suit to assist with some Xenos here and then to help Lithian. So, once she detected, that something was coming next to her right side, in a ground vent, she produced dense, long fire beams from both hands, similar to napalm. Filling the shaft with flame and burning every creature inside. Judging by a loud, screeching noise from the hole, Ori' has fried some of the bugs. "Lithian, I'm coming for you. Stay where you are. I have to fry some bugs first."

Because the ground team should leave this building soon, Ori scorches every room which was separate her from the Gargoyle, filling the air with even more screeching sounds of burning aliens. Luckily, there were no any high-explosive things in the control room. Hearths of flames the female Orokin creating serve as a sort of a barrier. The fire not only harms Xenos but seeing the flame the bugs tend to fall back. Ori couldn't find why it so, as there were no explanations on why in the UNSC archives, but it works. In this way, she reached Lithian, but this time is operating with her rifle to save some energy of her suit for more destruction, which would inevitably happen later. It seems like this facility is full of these creatures.

"Have you panicked or what? If you're not wounded, I suggest moving on and regroup with the rest of the team.". Ori suggested, killing a Xeno. All in all, the situation was not as bad as it could be. But a little help would be much appreciated. Hence, her next speech Ori had addressed to Viktor before another Xenomorph attempted to jump on her. "Viktor, if you can land now, do it."