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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5180285" data-attributes="member: 143">The Alphas were thinking along the same lines. Capturing one of each alien race and type became a primary objective for Vasily's player. In the heat of battle, however, the group often adopted a shoot-first-ask-questions-later mentality. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />* * * * * Session 21 (September 15, 2008)Chapter 85Catalina burst into the room to see Vasily on his knees before a robed alien.  The alien held a gun pointed toward the Russian’s head, and as it looked up at her she fired reflexively.  The plasma bolt missed its target, but splashed off of the wall next to the alien.  Hot gases splashed over its robes, which did not catch fire, but the creature drew back, an unholy wail coming from within the dark depths of its cowl.  Catalina shifted her aim to put a blast right in the center of that darkness, but before she could shoot she felt a hammer slam into the confines of her mind.  She screamed and fell to the ground, her pistol clattering away uselessly as the back of her head clanged hard against the dense alien material of the floor.  She felt as though every nerve ending in her body was on fire, and her hands clawed at the ground as her back arched, the muscles twitching beyond her control. Vasily felt as though a switch had gone off in his head, as clarity returned in an instant.  He looked up to see the robed alien focused on something behind him.  He didn’t hesitate, lurching up, the stun rod coming into his hands almost like a magician’s trick wand.  He activated the trigger and stabbed the end into the creature in one motion, roaring as he charged forward, the alien twitching on the end of the rod as the electrical charge coursed into it.  They didn’t stop until they hit the far wall, and Vasily could hear the audible crunch of the alien’s bones as they hit.  The thing crumpled under him, but he gave it a few extra whacks for good measure, until he could see the wisps of smoke rising from its garment where he’d hit it repeatedly with the stun rod.  “Uhhhh,” Catalina said, groaning from the floor behind them.  After one more wary look at the limp thing at his feet, he turned and walked back over to her.  She was conscious and lucid, although it was obvious from the way she moved that she was still in a lot of pain. “You okay?” he asked, offering a hand.  She took it, and let herself be helped to her feet.  “Yeah, but that hurt,” she said, bending to pick up her pistol.  “What the hell is that thing?” she said, indicating the fallen alien. Vasily shrugged.  “New alien.”  A hissing static sounded over their com units; Vasily could just make out Jane’s voice.  He activated his.  “Is all… okay, Jane.  Is all okay,” he said.  James appeared in the doorway, supporting Hadrian, who seemed pale if mostly intact, with a pressure bandage jammed into the ruined space in his armor.  “Are we clear?” the doctor asked. Catalina checked her motion sensor.  “Looks like it, but we passed a few rooms, better check the rest of the ship before we send the all-clear.”It was only about ten minutes later when the first of the Betas stepped into the cluttered wreckage of the alien engine room.  “Clean up, Aisle 1!” Perez yelled, laughing.  “Is everything all right?” Jürgen Ritter asked, waving a hand in a vain effort to clear away the lingering smoke that still rose off of the ruined alien engine, filling the room faster than it could seep out through the open doorway.      “Everything’s okay,” Jane said, greeting them as they came in.  “The others are up above.”  She tapped her comlink.  “Beta’s here,” she announced.  “Welcome to the party,” she told them. “Aliens clear?” Ama Ngunyi asked, grimacing as she looked at the sectoid bodies scattered across the room.  The floor was slick with their blood, which gathered in a small pool in one corner where the slight list in the surface drew the viscid substance.  “Lot of dead ones,” Sveinn Ögmundsson said.  The big Icelander looked a bit disappointed. Jürgen turned back to the entry and activated his comlink.  “Engineering team, Ritter here.  Looks like Alpha has secured the ship.”  The lift port opened, and the other Alphas descended from above.  “Man, you guys made a mess,” Alyssa Sanders said, shaking her head as she checked the bottom of a boot slick with sectoid intestines.  “You guys didn’t leave us any to play with!” Eleazar said, as Vasily clomped forward, the unconscious robed alien bound and slung over his shoulder.  “This lot not play nice,” he said.  “What you got there?”“Found a new one that does a good job giving you the heebie jeebies,” James said. “The engineering team can take custody of that,” Jürgen said, as Vasily paused at the exit.  “They’re bringing in carts for the Elerium extraction.”“Hey man, don’t forget your tin can!” Eleazar yelled after them.  Vasily didn’t turn, just dropped the alien at Jürgen’s feet and headed out the door.  The others followed behind; as they left they could hear Eleazar shouting out orders to set up a security perimeter, collect what intel they could, and loot everything that wasn’t nailed down.  Catalina paused to tell Jürgen what they’d found in the control room above, and then hurried after the others.  They passed the engineering team as they left the ship, six men and women in biosuits escorting two powered carts laden with tools and the bulky Elerium extraction units.  As soon as they had exited the outer door and stepped out into the clear air of the day Vasily punched the seals on his helmet and yanked it off his head.  He stood there for a moment and just breathed, deeply, looking off toward the gray mountains in the distance.  Finally, he turned to his companions.  “Hadrian—” he began. “Don’t sweat it,” the Marine said.  Vasily frowned and opened his mouth to say something else, but he was cut off as their com units buzzed loudly.  Now that they were clear of the interference present inside the alien ship, Ken’s voice was crystal clear in their ears.  “Did Beta get in there all right?  Tell them to hurry, Firestorm’s indicating three enemy cruisers are headed our way.  ETA 18 minutes!” “Hear that, Beta?” Catalina said.  There was a slight pause, then they heard Sveinn’s voice, clicking as the signal struggled to make its way through ship’s hull.  “Ya, ya, we make with the hurry, got it.”“Do we stay, or do we go?” Catalina asked.“What more can we do?” Vasily said.  “Good luck,” he said through the comlink.“Brainiacs here, loading fuel,” Sveinn returned.  “We be out, ten minutes.”“Roger that,” Ken said.  “We… what the hell?”The Alphas all looked up together.  “Now what?” Jane asked. “Ken?” Vasily asked. “Firestorm, confirm that… where the hell did he come from?” “Ken!”“I’ve got a small ship… crap, it got inside our perimeter somehow, it’s landing to the west of the crash site.”“If they get inside ship while tech team still inside, it massacre in making,” Vasily said, hefting his autocannon.  “Crap!” Ken reported.  “I’m reading snakes on the decoder.”“Beta not equip to handle snakemen.”“They have landed and are approaching from the west,” Ken reported. “Got ‘em,” Catalina said, looking down at her motion sensor. “Let’s go,” Jane said. “On me,” Vasily growled, lifting his weapon and heading toward the line of trees to the west.</blockquote>

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