Chapter 2. The Grey Gorilla

Luring from the direction of the room are two cavers. Their hunger from your flesh drives them forward....... One lurches towards the Doctor and Kat while another closes the distance to Tim..

Erik lets his GIC training take over and snaps off 2 rounds into the caver gnawing on Lucav's hand. (12 & 6 damage) "Hey folks, let's start double tapping bodies, da?!"

(All right, using a save point to auto-hit the zombie) Kat breathes in and out, trying to stay calm in the situation at hand. "Fucking cavers, what the fuck is happening..." she says to herself under her breath. She watches as one of them stumbles out of the darkness towards her and Veniya. In a moment of clarity, she raises the gun and fires, the bullet flying through the air and straight through the head of the caver, splattering brains and blood on the wall and ground behind it.

Veniya's aim isn't so good and her hastily levelled head shot misses. (0 success reaction shot)

Tim's eyes go wide as a shambling crew member of the Grey Gorilla lunges towards him. The man's lower jaw is stained red with blood and a dried trail of dark red stains travel down his gray jumpsuit to his abdomen. A monogrammed name is stitched high on the left side of the man's chest but the first letter is covered in dried blood so heavily only the last three letters are legible - ick. Rick, Mick, Dick. Tim doesn't spend the time to contemplate this man's name and recoils instinctively away. He quickly pulls the trigger twice and sends a tight pair of bullets into the thing's chest cavity. Dark, black blood explodes out of the *ick's back and Tim just hopes it's enough to stop the thing. [Merko L45 - ROF 2 - BDMG 4 - PSD 2 - 1 Success = 8 Total Damage]

(Brett, you did 10. 8 for the 2 rounds, and the success gives you the PSD of 2) Kat's aim is true, and she drops the Caver coming towards her. All of you can hear the feral screaming of more where that came from.. Round 2 Alright, post up everyone.

Kat lowers her pistol as the caver drops to the ground, no longer moving. "We need to get out of here," she says, moving closer to where they'd entered the Gorilla. As she moved she spotted the one still moving towards Tim. "Shit," she says, taking aim at the caver and firing. Her three rounds nail the caver in the torso, its body spurting out more dark, infected blood. (1 success on the roll. I believe I did 17 damage. 5 base for 3 ROF, and 2 PSD should be 17, right?)

** Round 2 - Reaction 3 ** *ick continues to shamble towards Tim seemingly unfazed by the pair of recently acquired bullet wounds. Tim raises his sights a bit higher and pulls the trigger once, hoping to blow *ick's head clean off his shoulder. His aim is off and the bullet only nicks the thing's ear as it flies past. [0 Successes - Aimed Head Shot]

(Correct). The cavers arm and part of its torso is is destroyed by Kat's shots. It crooks it's head towards her, she can hear and audible pop of its rotten cartallige in it's neck as it stares at her. It's dead eyes full of dark promise.

The cavers rush towards Tim and Kat, their fingers like claws, their dead bodies showing remarkable speed but they are just outside of being able to hit you. Tim and Kat are glad for the filtered air the COG's provides them, as the caver voice a silent scream as the charge at them.

Veniya starts moving back and attempts to let off a couple of rounds at the caver attacking Kat. (0 success and Botched!)

With a loud, "Clack" Veniya's weapon jams. The readout on the side flashes an "error" indication. For the moment, he weapon is rendered useless until she stops and clears the jam.

Veniya gasps in panic as the weapon malfunctions. This is going south, quickly. She’d fall back, but the others are about to be set upon and she has no idea what’s happening to the others other than they’re firing too. Or how many cavers are about to come pouring out of the door. “Run! To the other exit!” she suggests loudly.

(sorry about the disappearance guys, not sure where to come back in at this point.)

(It's your go, round 2. I shot the caver biting you, but it's not down yet.)

(You just go based on reaction score, you don't roll. Also, armor piercing rounds are illegal because when you shoot them in a ship you run a high risk of penetrating the hull and causing explosive decompression, that's why they have collapsible rounds. Just food for future thought.) As Lucav stumbles back, Erik takes aim and puts a round in the caver's head (6 damage to the head) "Go see doc. I'll make sure our friend doesn't get back up, and see if you vented us to space." Erik looks closely, and listens to his intuition, which rarely fails him (1 success on a search roll & 1 on a gut feelings, to see if we're all about to be sucked out to the void)

The Caver's body is pulped by the shots from Erik and Lucav. The last rounds by Erik finally stopped the body from moving. Lucav's rounds must have severed something, as some of the lights flicker and die.

Looking at Eric, Lucav gives a nod of agreement. He moves over to the squad's medic, Veniya. As he walked over he saw the lights flickering muttering a small curse to himself. "Doc, you over here somewhere? Got attack and hit, could you take a look at it?" He lowered his rifle and showed the doc where he was gas

Veniya doesn't really hear Lucav's inquiry as the fight in front of her in demanding her attention. She hurriedly begins to reload the pistol. (Will a reload clear it? Otherwise I might try my knife....suicidally) ( I'll give Lucav the good news and the bad news soon...)

(Kat can take a normal move action and clear her weapon as if she were reloading this round) (Leon, you can go back and edit your post. There is no way you could have missed all of the gun fire going on by everyone or gotten there swiftly in or out of combat)

(Waiting on round 3)

The Caver swings in arm at Kat, it clubs her to the side but she is still able to clear where weapon. (Kat takes 2 points from Brusing damage) Start Round 3

Lucav starts backing up from where he was in combat with the caver. Having shot it once, and it being finished off by Eric with a shot in the head. Moving back about 14 meters from where they started on this path between consoles. "We need a rally point, where is everyone at? If you can, please meet near the beginning where we started in this room. " He said that quickly to all that were in the squad in this room he was located over the Comms. (Sprinting down the aisle.)

Erik runs back to the main hallway and looks towards the sound of gunfire, weapon raised. (if I have line on one at my reaction I'll shoot. Just don't want to forget)

Kat tries to move out of the way of the Caver swiping at her, but it's faster than she expects. With a curse she backs away, and aims her pistol at the beast. She squeezes the trigger twice, both bullets fly into the caver and push it back slightly. "We're near the door, get down here so we can get back to the ship!" she says into her comms to the scout and the others. (1 success, 10 base+2 for extra hit+2 PSD = 14 damage, now that we know how guns work)

Gun cleared (was me jammed not Kat), Veniya pumps a quick shots into the caver attacking Kat. This time both round hits home thunking into the walking corpse's back. (1 success, (ROF2 Damage4/2), Damage 6 ,4 base +2 psd) - orginanlly fired twice but forgot melee mod so re-posted as single shot. (Adam your damage was 14. Both rounds get base damage, but second also gets the +2, the psd is extra to total)

" Die, you motherfucker," Tim shouts as he unloads another quick pair of shots into *ick's torso, knowing that if this doesn't stop the thing he is in for a world of trouble. The larger target is easier to hit (go figure), and the two bullet punch another pair of holes into *ick's already gore-stained coveralls. [Merko L45 - ROF 2 - BDMG 4 - PSD 2 - 1 Success = 10 Total Damage]

Andrew P. said: (Adam your damage was 14. Both rounds get base damage, but second also gets the +2, the psd is extra to total) (Ah, thanks!)

The last of the two cavers goes down. Their blood covering part of Kat and Tim. You feel lucky that your COG's cover your face. It just looks like it would smell from here. Over the radio, you hear the sounds of gunfire still coming from your ship. (Combat is now over)

Kat breathes deeply, eyes wide open as they stare at the blood spatter on her helmet and armor. She was still freaked out from earlier, and this wasn't helping. In the calm, hands trembling slightly, she manages to reload her pistol, fresh new rounds ready for whatever awaited them, whatever was causing the gunfire from the Righteous Indignation. "Let's get back," she said, starting to move to the door they'd used to enter the Gorilla.

Erik nods, and, without really considering what he says: "Let's do this stealthily. Spook, you go first, I'll give you count of 30 and follow as quietly I can. You three give us another 30 count and come after. All of you, assume anyone not of our crew is hostile & infected. I'll square it with the captain later if you kill a bystander." He takes a couple deep breathes and tries to get to the place in his mind that saw him out of a couple combat zones.

(by spook i guess you mean me. :P) Lucav takes a deep breath, and takes the lead. Giving a small nod in agreement. He wasn't use to taking a command from a civilian contractor, but he would consider more of an advice. The deep breath he took was more to center to himself, and not out of frustration. He took a 30 pace lead on the others. Taking a moment to start walking steadily and swift as he moved quietly through the corridors back to the entry point where they came in from. Back to their ship's entry point. (rolled 3 successes for stealth) Surveying everything as he progressed, keeping an eye out for more cavers.(3 successes for search rolls as moving back to the ship for more movement of cavers)

Tim falls in line with the plan, not wanting to be left alone overriding his desire not to charge headlong back into the mess of cavers now occupying the other ship. "Not what I signed up for," he says to Kat and Veniya quietly as he looks around quickly, his adrenaline still racing. [2 Successes on Search/Attention

(Spook is in-setting slang for you scouts with your nano-camouflage ) Erik gives Lucav a 30 count, during which he realises he called him a spook. Shit...most of them don't like that. I'll have to make it up to him somehow later. He then starts moving down the corridor, memories flashing back to his last action as a GIC soldier, boarding a ship much like this...the one that was supposed to be full of weapons for a raider base... he quickly pulls himself back to the present, and moves as quietly as he can remember. (2 successes stealth) He keeps his eyes open for any dangers or surviving crew, listening to the hairs on his neck as well. (1 success search, 1 success gut feeling)

Lucav's mind was racing against reality as he was not able to lead the group that the far. He made it to entrance to the small room with the safety goggles when he saw the Cavers. There were 8 in the room sniffing around like feral animals with more coming in. As he saw them, their necks turned to him, taking in the scent of his still living flesh in the air...

Lucav immediately backed up, quietly. He raised a hand in a fist for everyone to hold their position. The closed fist in the air raised over his right shoulder. He went for the control panel to close the door, there were too many of them in that room. " Next room is unsecured. We are blocked off. Too many to take on by ourselves." He said it almost whisper over the Comms.

"Shut the door!" Veniya urges in reply. She quckly looks at the deck plans on her nano display. "There's another exit the other side of this cargo bay. We can go around." "Captain, were cut off. Are you ok?" she asks over the coms. "Can you meet us at the Gorrilla's starboard air lock?" She keys Hector's channel, "Hect', come in. Are you alright?"

Kat nodded as the group planned, waiting with Veniya and Tim, giving a slight chuckle at what he said as they stood. Mostly it was out of nervousness. Waiting the time before moving, suddenly they stopped as Lucav spoke. Her eyes widened. "Come on," she muttered, not believing their luck. "All right, let's move that way then," agreeing as Veniya offered a back-up.

Over Hector's channel you hear the booming sound of his large caliber pistol.. "Busy right now Doc. Trying hard not to be eaten. Fucking Cavers!"

"Ok everyone, lets head to the other side. We need to get to the captain the soonest the better. " Turning, he scanned the area of the direction he was about to head. He used his Motion Scanner to see if anything was going to head to them from that direction as he walk towards the exit Veniya mentioned. (2 successes to read any OTHER motion that is not this squad or the cavers they are leaving behind them. Towards the new identified exit)

Erik holds up a hand. "One second, guys. Does anyone remember if we shut the door when we went through? Tim, I think you or Kat were the last ones through. Normally, we'd leave it open....soooo we might have to shoot through anyway. Maybe we should be looking for some place to circle the wagons until we thin their numbers a bit. Or we could make our way to engineering and shut off the artificial gravity. None of these crew members have their magboots on. It'd make it easier to avoid them, for sure. They've already gotten on our ship. We need to lock this door, maybe lock the other one, and do something more than run away." He looks around, gauging their reactions.

As they pull back and start to cross the large dark room, Veniya notices the wound on Lucav's arm. She moves across and grabs it to take a closer look. "You're biten! Shit Luc' why didn't you say." She pulls out a powerful disinfectant spray and applies it. If feels really cold, but relieves the pain too. She then applies a sticky bandage that swells to cover the wound and plug the COGs under mesh. (2 success first aid) She tries to run a diagnostic on her scanner but it's too soon to tell. (0 success scan) "Listen though, that bite was just a scratch, but its likely you've been infected. I can't tell on the scanner, but its too much risk to think you're not. The good news is that I've got some CAV serum. The bad news is its in the med bay. I need to get you that serum within four hours, or you're in real trouble."

Lucavs scan doesnt pick up any motion so far but with the large metal bins that are stacked everywhere its hard to know. If something was behind them he wouldn't be able to tell.

Blakkmonk said: Erik's scan doesnt pick up any motion so far but with the large metal bins that are stacked everywhere its hard to know. If something was behind them he wouldn't be able to tell. (Lucav was doing the scanning. But i will take that as answer for me)

Lt. Lucius looked on at Veniya as she explained the situation. "Shit, looks like i have more reason to get through those cavers and back on our ship." Looking over to what Erik mentioned. He thought it over. " There is also the situation that there may be more cavers in engineering as well. What was the compliment of this ship again?" He was doing the numbers in his head as to how many more could be on board, and if any were added to the crew by picking up strays.

The Captain's comm sparks to life with the sound of her immensely powerful firearms discharging rapidly. "Little busy being eaten at the moment. I told all of you to get back to the ship immediately. We've got them confined to the cargo bay but they're coming up the stairs. We need backup immediately! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?! I don't give a damn if you have to leave someone behind. Or you damn well won't have a ship to come back to!" she shouts as the sound of perhaps a dozen firearms rapidly discharging continues to ring out through the commlink.