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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5167263" data-attributes="member: 143">Session 20 (September 8, 2008)Chapter 80Grace Thelon Beluca had taken the lessons learned from Cecilia Sharp’s death to heart, and she hadn’t rested until her team had figured out how to fix the vulnerability in their Powered Armor to electrical overloads.  That attention to detail saved Vasily’s life.  His armor had absorbed most of the electrical burst, but even so it hadn’t been pleasant.  As he staggered back, dazed, blinded by the plasma bursts that hammered into him, the systems in the armor automatically cycled, the backups taking over for the burned-out primaries.  And within its protective sheath in the small of his back, the Elerium-115 power core rested securely, pouring out the incredible quantities of energy needed by the armor on demand. With Vasily overwhelmed, his companions quickly responded to the alien ambush.  Hadrian threw a grenade at a row of crates from which a volley of alien fire was coming; the bomb bounced off the far wall before landing directly behind the crates, followed a moment later by an explosion that shredded the two floaters there.  To the right, Jane darted forward into the interior, firing at another two floaters, clipping one on the shoulder and spinning it around.  The other took aim at her but was blasted in the chest by Catalina, who remained in the cover of the doorway, selecting her targets with care. The interior of the warehouse was dominated by a massive structure that extended from one side of the building to the other, but they paid it little heed at the moment, focused on dealing with the alien defenders.  One of the floaters blasted by Hadrian’s grenade was still up and able to fire, its shot narrowly missing Vasily and Hadrian both before punching into the warehouse’s wall.  The Marine fell into a crouch and snapped off a few rounds, one of which pinged off the side of the alien’s head, dropping it.  On the far side Jane ducked behind the cover of a metal pylon just as the aliens facing her laid down a series of blasts that flared as they struck the bare steel.  Jane ducked back as far as she could as tendrils of plasma seared her armor and faceplate.  Catalina kept shooting, and as soon as the aliens shifted to deal with her Jane ducked out long enough to finish the one she’d wounded with a second shot that punched a fist-sized hole through its torso.  Vasily let out a deep-throated growl as he staggered forward, the armor responding again as he regained control of his limbs and senses.  A bolt of plasma exploded right in front of him, and he looked up to see a floater perched atop the long cylindrical structure that dominated the warehouse, crammed in almost under the warehouse roof some twenty meters above. The alien fired again, but Vasily was already moving, the bolt streaking down to impact the ground where he’d just been standing.  His growl became a roar as he unleashed a barrage of shots that streaked at the alien, punching holes in the warehouse roof that bracketed the floater soldier.  The two foes exchanged several misses like that until Vasily finally stopped, aimed, and pulsed out a shot that caught the alien right between the eyes.  It fell back and toppled off of the cylinder, landing somewhere on the far side of the warehouse beyond his view. The battle was over, save for the harsh cough of Hadrian’s rifle as the Marine made sure of one of his fallen foes.  Vasily’s armor looked as though it had been through a cataclysm; black burn marks streaked the gray plating, and several of the joints ground where they’d been damaged by the punishment the suit had absorbed.  But inside the Russian was intact, if somewhat the worse for wear, and there was no doubt that any of the others would by sprawled dead on the floor of the warehouse if any of them had withstood that level of attack.  “Everyone okay?” he asked.  The others all chimed that they were, but any other discussion tapered off as their eyes were drawn to the massive thing that filled the interior of the warehouse.  It was a big cylinder, tapering at the ends, extending to the very edge of the warehouse to each side and rising to just a few meters short of the ceiling.  It had to have been almost a hundred meters long, and by the look of the heavy machinery that was jumbled into the corners and along the edges of the cavernous space, it had been assembled here.  Even now it had an unfinished look to it; the exterior dull and undecorated with paint or insignia of any sort.  A ladder rose up the side of it off to the right, near one end, to what looked like an entry of some sort.  “What the hell is that?” Vasily asked, trying to make sense of the whole. “It’s a ship,” Jane said, an odd tilt to her voice.  “A space ship.”The others looked at her dubiously, but none of them could offer a challenge to her identification.  “Guess we know what they were up to,” Catalina said.</blockquote>

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