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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5164976" data-attributes="member: 143">Session 20 (September 8, 2008)Chapter 79“DOWN!” Vasily yelled, instinct overruling through as he lunged out and slapped the alien grenade, sending it skittering across the blacktop.  He dropped below the lip of the driveway at the same instant that it exploded, the concussive force knocking both him and Catalina prone despite the protection of the concrete barrier.  He quickly blinked and started to rise, only to flinch as a plasma bolt exploded against the concrete a scant foot in front of his face.  He looked up and saw the floater that had shot Jane, closer now, barely twenty meters away.  The barrel of its plasma rifle looked as big as a gaping chasm as it pointed it as Vasily, a bright glow forming as another plasma bolt was created, the alien weapon’s Elerium crystal amplifying its power to a deadly level.  Vasily felt as though his arm was frozen in thick syrup as he lifted weapon to fire, knowing it was too late.But even as the glow of the alien’s rifle flared bright, it jerked roughly to the side.  The plasma bolt streaked uselessly into the air.  Vasily glanced over to see Hadrian approaching across the open street, his rifle at his shoulder, firing perfectly aimed shots into the floater’s body.  The alien tried to turn to face him, but a bullet shattered its arm, and the plasma rifle fell to the ground.  The floater tried to escape, but a few more cracks of the rifle and it settled to the ground, blood oozing out of rents in its body.  Vasily pulled himself to his feet and scanned the battlefield.  The last alien from the group they’d ambushed was gone, but the other four were all dead.  Catalina was helping Jane to her feet, having already used her medikit to stabilize the wounded agent.  Vasily’s ears rung a bit, but he wasn’t seriously hurt; the powered armor worked as advertised.  “You okay?” he asked Jane. “A bit hurt, but I can go on,” she replied. “More weapons here, if you need them,” Catalina said, pointing to the plasma rifles left by the aliens.  She recovered the one that the alien Hadrian had killed had dropped, checking it to make sure that the containment cell was intact.  “Do we have any more medikits?” Jane asked.  Hadrian shook his head, but Vasily said, “Have one.  Do you need it?”Jane shook her head.  “I just hope we’re not walking into a trap.”“Longer we dawdle, longer they have to sort trap out,” Vasily said.  After scanning the area to verify that the aliens weren’t waiting for them outside the warehouse, they approached their target.  The building was much like the others, if slightly larger.  It too showed the subtle signs of recent repair, although a casual look showed the same rust-stained sheet metal, the same streaks of water damage under the eaves high above.  When they got closer, however, they saw that the doors were crafted of heavy plate steel.  Catalina went to work on it, taking out her burglar’s tools while the others covered.  “Security system” she reported.  “Pretty good, but I’m better.  Just a moment…”“Okay,” Vasily told the others.  “ID targets before you shoot.  We want prisoners.  We want know what is going on here.  Medics, leaders, anything new.  Do not shoot them.”“I’ve no stunner,” Hadrian said. “We get you one.  For now, cover me and Jane.”“Ready,” Catalina said.  “Say when.”“When!” Vasily yelled.  Catalina kicked the door open, and the Russian darted through, into the cavernous interior of the warehouse. The booby trap was located in the floor, just a few steps inside the door.  It unleashed a tremendous jolt of electrical energy from a series of capacitors, a flare that enveloped Vasily in tendrils of blazing power.  The backblast flashed into the walls and door, slicing the other Alphas as it discharged.Vasily screamed and stiffened as the power coursed through him, overloading the circuits in his armor, which twitched and jerked of their own accord.  His problems became more serious a moment later as the trap was followed by a thunderous barrage of fire, from deeper within the warehouse, which enveloped him in a blazing wreath of plasma explosions that surrounded his entire body inside a halo of deadly white flame.</blockquote>

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