The Syren Conspiracy (For Floozer)

[Archangel99]

"Nah. You're a sniper. You won't have to!" Alex says, striding forwards, the map of the base in his hand. "Now let's hurry up and find that tunnel, yeah? Sooner we get out of the cold, the better for all of us. Especially you, Liv." He says. The others nod and follow him, hoping to quickly find the tunnel and enter. 


After almost teo hours of trudging through the snow and freezing their butts off, they finally reach the place where they think the base is supposed to be. "Alright... Tunnel... Tunnel... Where aaaareee youuuuuuu?" Alex calls out in a singsong voice, looking at the map and the frozen landscape around them. Zaren walks up to Alex and nudges him, pointing to what looks like a small hole in the rock, barely wide enough for Olivia's hand to fit through, much less her whole body. Unfortunately, it does seem to correspond to the location of the tunnel... Alex walks up to it and starts thumping the rock. It lets out several hollow noises when he does, and the party realises that the whole tunnel is disguised to look like a rock! "Wait... Now how do we get in...?" Alex says, looking at the hole. "Well, my guess is, they already know we're here, so why not just blow a giant hole in the tunnel?" Pyro says, shrugging. The others nod. "Aaallrrighty then... Stand back!" Alex says, before stepping back and aiming his Vortex Rifle at the hole before firing. The whole rock twists inwards before it violently explodes outwards, showering them with chunks of rock and debris. Pyro walks over to the mess and stares down into the shaft. "So.... Who wants to go first?" She mumbles. Without a word, Shekar steps forwards, attaching a grappling hook to the side of the tunnel before rapelling down the shaft. "Well, I suppose that settles it." Pyro mutters, before she too gets on the rope and slides down. 

 

[Floozer]

"Knock knock! We want to come in and ask horrible uncomfortable questions while possibly stealing your stuff!" She says in a silly voice as she follows the others down the hole.

 

[Archangel99]

The tunnel shaft is dark, cold, and damp. On the upside, they aren't exposed to the freezing winds from the surface, and they begin to warm up a bit. Shekar leads the way, striding forwards with sure footed steps, his gun trained down the hallway. Pyro follows him, followed by Alex, Brynn, Zaren, and Olivia bringing up the rear. Suddenly, Brynn's radio crackles to life. "Sir! Have you found the tunnel?" Byrne's voice asks. "We have. We're in it right now." Brynn replies. "I'm sending in twenty soldiers to assist you, sir. That leaves me with thirty in the dropship to bombard the base from orbit should you give the order, sir." He says. "Acknowledged. How long?" She says. "Approximately fifteen minutes, give or take, sir." Byrne replies. "I suppose we'll wait here, then." Brynn says. "Well, good luck sir!" Byrne says, and the radio fizzes out. "Well, I suppose we really do sit and wait." Brynn sighs, sitting on the floor and checking her weapons. The others follow suit, Alex sitting down next to Olivia and stroking her hair, trying to warm it up a bit. 

 

[Floozer]

Olivia sits down next to Alex and coos as he tries to bring life back to her hair. While he does that she takes out her revolver and checks it over. "6 sleep darts loaded here. One clip of Paralyze in the rifle... 4 clips of daylight on standby, 3 clips of everything else. Sure hope that is enough... full on war is not my specialty." 

 

[Archangel99]

"Don't worry about it. You'll be fine. Just keep that cute butt of yours out of their range!" Alex murmurs, smiling at her. 

 

[Floozer]

"That much I can do. I spent a lot of money on these darts and this gun... range is certainly something I have." 

 

[Archangel99]

"Smart move." He murmurs, still stroking her hair. 


After exactly fifteen minutes, there is a thudding of heavy bodies hitting the ground, and a few minutes later, the passage is suddenly made more lively and colourful with the appearance of twenty Lanii soldiers in bright red power armour. "Lieutenant Warren reporting for duty, sir!" A Lanius with a golden star on his shoulder plate barks. Brynn stands and nods to him. "Lieutenant Warren. Good to see you. Let's keep moving. We've wasted enough time as is." She says, turning and walking forwards. The others fall into step behind her, and the Lanii soldiers bring up the rear behind Olivia. 


They continue down the passage for a long while, until they come to a thick durasteel door. Pyro steps up with her gun and presses it to the lock, letting loose a stream of flame. The lock falls to the floor with a wet squelch and with a grin, Pyro pushes the door open, stepping through.


The next passage extends in both directions, with flickering fluorescent lights overhead. The soldiers pile in around them, scanning the place with their weapons ready. Finally, they decide the room is clear and turn to Brynn for orders. For some reason, the passage is eerily quiet, which strikes Olivia as odd. Normally, a base would send security to the site of a breach to kill any invaders, yet there was nothing. Just the eerie silence and a strange clicking noise coming from overhead. Shekar walks up to Brynn and murmurs something into her ear. She nods, and he tilts his head to Zaren, quickly walking down the left side of the passage with Zaren at his heels. Brynn turns to the rest of them. "They've gone to find the Cipher room. The rest of us should start blowing this place up. Kill everyone you see. Er... Relatively speaking, that is..." She says, looking around the place. 

 

[Floozer]

Olivia looks around the room and sticks a finger in her ear before listening again. That noise... a strange ticking noise from above. "Something isn't right here... they should be swarming us with guards right now. Plus that clicking above us." She fidgets a bit and looks at Alex "I don't like this.... you don't think that is a bomb above us and they are going to bury us under their own base do you?" 

 

[Archangel99]

He stares up at the ceiling for a few seconds. "That's not a bomb. My scans don't detect any EM signals from up there. But... My motion sensors are picking up something. And... It's not alive." He frowns bit before turning to the soldiers. "Keep moving, but be careful. Something isn't right here." He mutters. Brynn looks down at the map, then reaches up to her helmet. "Er... Byrne.... Can you do a thermal scan of the base?" She asks nervously. "Sure. One moment, sir." A few minutes later, "Okay, sir, there's a mass of red dots near the tunnel exit which I'm assuming is you, and two red dots moving down the left towards the cipher room, which I'm assuming are the twins. In that case..." There's a minute of silence. "I... I'm detecting only... Seven dots apart from yours scattered throughout the base. One is in the cipher room, one is in the armory, one is right in the centre, one is in what appears to be the med lab, one in the barracks, one in data storage, and one wandering around the rec room." He says. "Wait... Scan for brainwave activity..." Brynn says. "Scanning... What the fuck!? Scan again! Er... You're not going to believe this... But the base is blue with brainwave signals... Something is horribly wrong here..." Byrne says. Brynn glances at the others, waiting for their response. 


[Dinner]

 

[Floozer]

Olivia thinks for a moment, her mind coming up with some horrible ideas. "You guys... you don't think this entire place is infected like the freighter I met you guys at... do you? No brain waves, but still moving about. That sounds a lot like a zombie to me...." 

 

[Archangel99]

A horrible silence meets her words as everyone realises that she might be right. "Hold up. If that was the case, why haven't they attacked the red dots? In fact, they seem to be congregating around them. Not to mention, I'm sure there are some IN the room with them!" Byrne says. 

 

[Floozer]

"the information that we found was over 300 years old Byrne. That is a long time to toy around with an idea. Maybe... maybe they found a way to control them? Or to hide themselves as friendlies among them? An entire zombie army would be very potent if you could control it.... They feel no fear, no pain and will fight until they physically can't move..." 

 

[Archangel99]

Another long silence. Suddenly, "Er... Get ready guys. Sometimes is coming around the corner!" Byrne says. The soldiers behind Olivia drop to their knees and level their rifles at the turn. A shuffling sound is heard, and a small body turns around the corner. 


It's a dog. But the fur is matted, and a rotting stench emanates from it. "Er... It's just a dog..." One of the soldiers mutters. Apparently they can't smell anything through their helmets, because Olivia can smell it right away, as can the others. Before she can issue a warning, however, the flesh of the dog's back rips itself open, and three long, sharp tentacles flail into the air. The dog flicks these tentacles in the air, and Olivia catches a glimpse of something white hurtling through the air before sparks ricochet off the soldiers in the front. One lucky shot from the dog's tentacles finds its way to the chink of armour between a soldier's helmet and breastplate, and the Lanius falls back, gurgling as blood spurts from his throat. "Shit! FIRE!" Lieutenant Warren yells. There is the rapid burst of gunfire, and the dog collapses under a hail of bullets, the tentacles falling limply to the side. 

 

[Floozer]

"Son of a bitch! Well that fucking confirms it doesn't it!? They have most certainly been tampering with the fucking mutant zombie formula all this time!" She looks at the soldier and grimaces. "Shit..." She draws her rifle and loads in Daylight. Just to be safe, she fires a dart into the downed hound. "There... even a zombie needs a brain to function and that will most certainly put and end to that." 

 

[Archangel99]

"Damn... Poor Roscoe... The guy had a wife and kid back home..." One of the soldiers mutters. There is a moment of silence for the dead soldier, after which his comrades lift his body up and carry it into the tunnel, where they lay it down just beside the door. The soldiers look at each other, then at Brynn, awaiting orders. "We... We're going to push to the center of the base... But first we need a place to plan our strategy..." Brynn murmurs, almost in shock. Alex glances at her and nods, taking point as they head down the hallway. They find a mercifully empty room, and quickly crowd inside. "Okay..." Brynn takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Opinions?" She asks, looking at her group, which included Olivia, Alex, and Pyro. 


"I say we do what we came for, and wipe these bastards out while we're at it." Alex growls, earning nods from many of the soldiers. 


"I... Think we should at least cause a distraction. We have no way to contact Zaren and Shekar. Best we could do is keep them safe by making as much noise as possible, as was the plan." She murmurs, gripping her gun tightly as she unconsciously glances down at her belly. 


Brynn looks at Olivia, waiting for a response. 


[Take your time with the replies. I need to draw up a map of the base... Even I'm confusing myself with the layout. ]

 

[Floozer]

"We have a job to do right? We need to wipe these guys out while also making a distraction for the twins. However... i'm not sure how many of those things we can take at a time. We have a map of the place... lets make it so they can't ignore us. What is the most valuable room here short of the room with our target in it? We take that, make some noise and wipe out anything in our way. Of course, we need to fight defensively... they have home field advantage so no playing hero, we need soldiers not corpses."  

 

[Archangel99]

"Well... There is the armory... But it's defended..." Brynn says. 

 

[Floozer]

"Isn't this entire place defended in some way? No matter what path we take it will be dangerous right? So we either hit that or just move our way through the base without establishing a foothold." 

 

[Archangel99]

"I think we should just move." Warren says. "It would be harder for them to know exactly where we are at any given point." The others nod, agreeing with him. "I say, of we're going to take out the one in the center, who I presume is the leader, we better take out the others first before they can come to its aid." Alex says. The other soldiers don't look so enthusiastic at this suggestion. That would mean traversing the whole base, which was full of monsters, just to find and kill one person. 


[Here's the map. Please excuse my shoddy blueprint making. ]

 

[Floozer]

"Oh stop your whining. Alex raises a really good point. If we take out the lieutenants first then the commander is a sitting duck! We can't get into the cipher room, that would give away out intentions and the twins. This is the leader here so... I say we move over, take the barracks, then the med lab and then take a moment to check the map again. We can use the med lab to patch up any injured and gather more supplies, then move forward once more. Hmm, Armory, Data banks and end with the rec room before attacking the commander? I also can't help but notice these vents I could crawl through to scout ahead..."

 

[Archangel99]

"Absolutely not. You are NOT going through the vents. That clicking noise we heard? Could be a hundred of them hiding in there!" Alex says, folding his arms over his chest. "Otherwise, a very good plan." Brynn says calmly, looking at Alex, who nods. "Plus, we have fought beside these guys before. We should know their weaknesses." Pyro says, unintentionally on purpose reminding them that they were going up against traitors. The soldiers nod again, a few even growling. "You guys want to make them pay, don't you? They wiped out almost an entire platoon without remorse! We must have revenge!" Pyro says, and the soldiers nod more fiercely, a few raising their guns in a salute. 

 

[Floozer]

"Well then, sounds like we have a plan. Just keep  your hatred in check boys and girls... don't let it blind you into making a stupid choice."

 

[Archangel99]

Pyro nudges her leg gently before whispering into her ear. "Shhh. I'm trying to boost their morale. What happened back there has them in a bit of a shock..." She whispers. 

 

[Floozer]

"Morale is one thing... spurring them to make over aggressive actions is another... but fine. I will keep my yapper shut... only because I like you though" she kisses her cheek and stops interrupting. 

 

[Archangel99]

Pyro giggles and lightly smacks her butt with her tail. This doesn't go unnoticed, and a few soldiers wolf-whistle, earning a deadly glare from Alex. Brynn claps her hands. "Alright, boys, let's move out!" She says, picking up her gun and walking out of the room. 

 

[Floozer]

Olivia waits for everyone to go forward before taking up the rear as always. Her rifle in her hands and her eyes open for any threats. 

 

[Archangel99]

They manage to get a few metres ahead before the door next to them suddenly bursts open, and a swarm of monsters attack them! These monsters are ex-humans, that much she can see. But the slavering jaws and dead, empty eyes bely their true nature. These monsters are just as twisted as the dog, with huge claws coming out of their palms, their intestines spilling out over the floor from split bellies as they let out unearthly shrieks, dashing towards them in a shambling run. Olivia manages to count at least seven of them!


They set upon the group, and two soldiers immediately go down screaming, blood arcing through the air as the creatures tear right through their armour, the claws making easy work of it.  

 

[Floozer]

Olivia grits her teeth and jumps back, raising her rifle and aiming at the monsters. Once she has a clear shot, she sends Daylight darts straight at the monsters. 

 

[Archangel99]

The monsters moved a lot faster than she thought. Her first shot goes wide, the Daylight splattering against the wall. With this in mind, she fires at another monster, this time hitting it right in the head. With a shriek of pain, it grabs at its head, tearing it right off... And continues to fight, slashing around wildly and without aim. The third gets hit in the arm, and does the same, cutting off its arm and continuing to fight. The soldiers manage to take down two, blasting off their heads and both arms, effectively preventing it from moving. "The limbs! Go for the limbs!" A soldier yells. Olivia hears another scream as another soldier is eviscerated by one of the monsters, his guts spilling out over the floor. 

 

[Floozer]

She scowls and takes aim again, firing the last three shots in her clip while aiming for the limbs. She quickly ejects the clip and loads in a second one.