Log, ongoing - GROUP THREE

[major_west]

Who: Major West, Dr. Horrible, Ralph Cifaretto, Testament; OPEN TO NPCs
When: 1st day of Port
Where: LV-426, Colony, on the way to the reactor

Comments

[major_west]

"So then the question becomes: to what end?" West remarked, flashing a light on the holes Billy was commenting on. "What would that accomplish?" It hadn't yet occurred to him that the source of the acid could've been from a living creature-- that was so far out of the realm of possibility to him that the thought didn't even cross his mind in jest.

He turned to the other two, wondering if they had any ideas, but before he could say anything, Kaylee's voice came through the comlink. The colonists had clustered around the fusion reactor, leaving them with the option of putting away all firearms or... blowing themselves up.

"Fantastic," West replied dryly. "Got it. Over." Then he looked to the others-- particularly Ralph. "You heard her. No firearms. Put them away. Those of you who've brought flamethrowers, ready them." As he said that, he slung his own rifle back and began fiddling with the flamethrower to ready it for use.

After they trekked further towards the reactor, West couldn't help but notice some... changes. At first, he thought he was simply seeing things-- shadows, and the like. And then, the changes became too great, too unavoidable, and all at once, they seemed to envelop their surroundings. West stopped in his tracks.

"This is..." He looked up and around them. It looked as though some black, twisted growth had consumed... everything. "This is insane."

[my_freeze_ray]

Dr Horrible shouldered his gun and pulled the flame thrower round, checking over the settings quickly before continuing on with the group. As the black growth began to coil around the walls he felt his stomach tighten ever so slightly, the feeling that they were walking into something more sinister than he'd first imagined was suddenly quite intense.

He pulled a slightly disgusted expression, pulling in slightly towards the others. Dr Horrible doubted that proximity to Testament would really have that much impact on his chances of survival if something went wrong, but still, he couldn't get past the feeling that the closer he was to the others, the further he was from whatever on earth was now spread across the walls. When he finally spoke he managed not to sound quite as disturbed as he felt. Instead he actually managed to come across as slightly whiny, "What... what is that?"

He paused for a moment, before adding, in a moment of brilliant deductive reasoning,

"Should we burn it?"

[swiss_gear]

Testament glanced over at Dr. Horrible from beneath lowered lids. In most cases, he would have made a sarcastic attack upon the poor doctor. However, Billy was one of the few on the Barge who had made a conscious effort not to offend the Gear, even if his great interest in the weapon and overzealous attitude were a bit annoying at time. Instead, he offered a tinny, "I think it would be better if we determined what exactly this substance is..."

He glanced to the others in the party. "Well? Does anyone have an idea?"

[fathersbludgeon]

"What?"

Unsurprisingly, Ralph had cottoned onto West's lingering glance, and that quickly proved to be enough to further raise those well-risen hackles. The hand within his armor was swiftly withdrawn and he kept his eyes on the Major, offering a disapproving little shake of his head, before slinging the main gun back over his shoulder in a series of unnecessarily exaggerated motions.

He was still busy attempting to screw the canister into the bottom of his flamethrower when the others began to let out their chorus of, what, horror? Confusion?

Click.

Huh. It looked like he'd done it right. Not like he'd been given any real instructions, but...

"Hoh--"

Having actually taken the time to look up and away from himself, he too stood gawking at their sudden surroundings. Christ. Never in his life had he...

Granted, he hadn't come across plantoids or whatever the fuck either, but this? He gave a nervous laugh.

"--How about we don't cazzeggiare 'round here, hah?" Rephrase. "I mean -- this place? Looks like fuckin'... carcass architecture." He grimaced, gesturing with the barrel of his flamethrower---only to hesitate as he noticed the flicker of flame at the end of it. So he had done it right. "Uh - Like I said," he continued, "Survivors my ass."

[major_west]

West automatically shook his head in response to Billy's suggestion, then threw him an odd sort of "Are you serious?" look. "Burn it? That doesn't sound like a terribly scientific solution," he said, trying to keep the teasing tone out of his voice. He needed to sound neutral, professional.

He turned to Testament and shook his head. "No idea. It's..." He reached out and gingerly touched some of the structure, namely to get a feel for it. He drew his hand back quickly, taking some odd... viscous substance with it. "Are you getting this?" he asked over the com-link, hoping the tech support crew had some answers.

Then, West turned his attention to Ralph, scowling as the man was using his gun as a glorified pointer. "Stop waving that around. It's not a toy," he said sternly. "Come on. Let's just get this over with."

He really didn't want to be here any longer than he had to. After taking a few cautious steps forward, West regained his careful stride, keeping an eye out for any movement, any signs of life at all--

And that's when he let out a startled gasp at the sight of his latest discovery.

"Looks like we found one," he murmured, attempting to regain his calm demeanor. And by "one" he meant the "twisted, bound remains of a colonist". He'd almost gone unnoticed-- the 'carcass architecture' had consumed his body, kept him as a sort of... fixture in the wall. Worse yet, the chest was gaping and open, as though his heart had simply exploded out of it. Judging by the frozen scream agony on the dead man's face, the expulsion hadn't been post-mortem.

West quickly shone his light down, then around, trying to see if there was anything else worth noting. Another colonist strapped to the wall and some... small pods on the ground that almost resembled blossomed flowers.

"You'd better have an answer for all of this. Over," he said, quite grumpily (what better way to hide the growing feelings of fear and anticipation!) over the com-link.

[my_freeze_ray]

Dr Horrible was considering pointing out that there was a time for science and a time for getting rid of the awful stuff all over the walls, and right now? Getting rid of the stuff seemed like a good idea. He glanced across at West as the man replied, and couldn't help but give the other man a small, rueful smile, "Sometimes complex problems require simple solutions." Okay, no more smiling in the middle of the creepiest situation he'd ever been in. Billy allowed his expression to drop slightly as he glanced at the walls, then sidelong back to West. Okay, so having his friend there made Billy feel better, not safer, or less like the mysterious black mess was preparing to attack him, but better.

Privately? Dr Horrible was inclined to agree with Ralph on this one. Getting while the getting was good sounded like a really, really good idea to him, he knew they wouldn't, and he knew that they really shouldn't, but it didn't stop him from thinking ever so slightly better of Ralph for actually suggesting it. As they moved onwards, ever cautious, the next discovery did nothing to dissuade him from this theory.

It occurred to him briefly, as he stared at the body being swallowed up by the wall, was that aside from at a funeral? He'd never actually seen a dead body before. In fact, as he stared at the thrashed open chest cavity, Dr Horrible was suddenly and painfully aware of just how not like anything he ever had seen before this was. there was none of the clinical detachment you got with a dissection in college, none of the oft invisible damage done by ray based weapons he'd majored in, no, it was huge and red and dripping and horrifically real and almost immediately he was turning away and bringing his free hand up to cover his mouth, gagging slightly.

He was not going to be sick. He was here to be useful, not to be squeamish... still.

[swiss_gear]

The discovery of the body was one Testament hadn't been expecting. True, he had expected to run across some evidence that not all of the colonists had made it, but nothing to this extreme. He'd seen many mutilated bodies, either from the Gear's initial revolution or his time at war, but it never made it any better to bear. He leaned in towards the corpse and examined it (still keeping his distance, lest there be a strange gas given off) before remarking:

"I cannot see anything here that relates this man to the acid damage we've been seeing...this injury is not chemical at all."

No one had asked if it was chemical or organic, but the Gear felt compelled to point it out anyhow. In fact, given the appearance of the damage, Testament was incline to say something had come out of the man...

[fathersbludgeon]

"You think I'm fuckin' stupid?" Ralph called back, "The saftey's on!" He stuck his chin up with just the slightest edge of indignation and --- shrugged, lowering the weapon to hang at his side. Despite his well informed suggestion, they were gonna keep going. Wasn't this the bit where the movies'd have the camera do some creepy kinda overhead-camera maneuver? Just before they all got picked off? And why, he mused, had he signed up to get involved in the first place? Was he really that desperate to get off the Barge or what? Hell, he still hadn't managed to convince himself that the Barge itself was real, so... it wasn't really worth dwelling on, was it? He just knew he'd give Dr. Horrible's pinky to be back on board.

And then West let out that damning gasp and Ralph's lip curled in turn.

Great. A body. That's exactly what they needed, right?

...Well, what's that they say? Every cloud?

Ralph silently stepped out of their loose formation and tucked the flamethrower against an arm pit. As the others distracted themselves, he didn't hesitate to tap out a quick line along his thumb. "This--" He glanced up at the back of West's head as he gave a muffled snort. "--S'fucked up."

Holding his ground that little bit longer, reeling, he tried to follow the snippets of conversation, before he made his way to their sides.

"Christ."

Ralph being Ralph had seen "Faces of Death" more than was probably acceptable in society. Being a 'family' man, he'd also seen to it that people's nipples'd be left to be scraped off the fine leather upholstery of car seats. He'd made some of those hits himself.

...Which was all well and good, but then he wasn't used to seeing splayed out ribs and the inside of a guy's chest. And considering the situation, he simply reverted to mild panic and backed off again, bringing his weapon up against his own chest.

"That one dead too?" he asked, (his voice was suitably strained) staring over at the other colonist.

[major_west]

"You're right," West said in agreement with Testament. "Absolutely right," he murmured softly, mostly to himself, as he peered closer at the corpse. It was horrific, but he'd seen so much in that last month of his life that yet another body (no matter how odd the circumstances of death were) didn't do too much to phase him.

As Kaylee's static-y voice came through the com-link, West looked over at Ralph, then the other body and nodded in response to the man's question. "Quite dead."

He came closer to the strange 'pods', peering down at them. All had been 'opened' except for one. "Are you getting this?" he asked again, as the voice in the com-link cut out. "Do you copy?" A bit more urgently this time.

Through the static, the only thing he could hear was a sudden "Major!" which caused him to move back, away from the pods.

"What?"

And it was then that the one unopened pod blossomed open.

[tlv_xenomorph]

Life...

Dormant hibernation gave way to its unmistakeable detection, triggering a chemical reaction guaranteed to awaken something coiled within its leathery womb. A shell of thick flesh parting atop itself to reveal the nightmarish cargo, still laying within. From one birth had come another and now, with prey so very close, another, too, would give way to a fresh emergence.

Like the petals of some obscene flower, the thing had parted, exposing its pollen of death to the air. Skeletal fingers coming alive to slowly extend over those lips, as tail slid in on itself in readiness. Its destination was chosen in barely seconds. The explosive blur of movement took considerably less. It had no eyes and yet could see... See, desire and claim.

With one impossibly ferocious leap, there would be no mercy. Only strangulation, a vice-like grip and horrific seed of life...

[my_freeze_ray]

"AGH!"

Billy looked up up just in time to see the thing...whatever it was, launch itself at their party members face and let out a strangled yelp of shock. He brought the flame-thrower up in an instant, leveling it towards the monster, before realizing that the moment he pulled the trigger he shot a plume of flame at not only whatever had launched itself up from the pod, but also at Ralph.

This... really wasn't good, He wanted to move forward, to try and get the damn thing off, but on the other hand his mind was now flooding through the way that thing had moved, so fast he'd barely seen it go and what if it could leave an acidic discharge and this was what had caused the damage tot he floor and did he really want to touch it? They had to do something though, his eyes were locked onto Ralph as Dr Horrible remained with the flame-thrower trained on him, torn between whether pulling the trigger would actually do more help than harm...

[swiss_gear]

Testament pulled back himself, moving away from both the attack and the line of fire Dr. Horrible unleashed. Clearly, going near anything unknown was a bad idea. Of course, Testament would have told anyone that, but that idiotic human had to go investigate.

"Get out of the way," Testament stated firmly, no hint of emotion in his voice. He moved next to Dr. Horrible (what interest was Ralph's well being to him? He had no vested interest in the Mafioso) and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Move aside."

With deadly intent, the Gear aimed his flamethrower at the clusterfuck group surrounding Ralphie, setting the man in his sights. Sure, he'd kill them all if he had his way, but it would ensure that that THING didn't get away alive either.

[fathersbludgeon]

When West had approached the pods, Ralph was stood a good few paces back; his flame-thrower still clutched against his chest. Eventually a hand moved up while he remained otherwise frozen - rooted with an inevitable dread and that familiar, guarded suspense. Having then, on compulsion, wiped his nose again, he dropped his arm to his side, only to graze his knuckle across the hot barrel.

A simple, sharp hiss.

Whipping his fingers out in front of him, he cast one last short glance over at the other men.

It was hardly a graceful first date.

His weapon hit the ground and, with legs twisting beneath him in some sort of awkward momentum, he kicked out. A double-step. The world turned and he made another. His knees bent further and the steps came quicker, but eventually, with one final trip, he felt his shoulder crashing into the ground. One fist had shot up - palm to the coiled black walls; the other making a vain attempt at hooking around whatever was squeezing his throat.

He couldn't see a goddamn thing and he needed to breathe in. And so he did. A good, hard lungful of air.

He couldn't have screamed even if he'd wanted to.

It was then only mere seconds till his struggling slowed to a stop and the hand clawing at his neck slackened, before flopping down uselessly.

[major_west]

And in under a second, things had managed to deteriorate spectacularly. Some sort of... spider-crab had launched itself from the pod (oh thank God, thank God he'd moved away) and directly at Ralph's face, while Billy aimed his flamethrower-- thankfully, he hadn't been feeling trigger-happy-- and Testament did the same. The difference between the doctor and the Gear, however? He trusted Billy not to pull the trigger.

"Stop!" he shouted in Testament's direction, turning off his own flamethrower and slinging it over his shoulder. Given the situation with Ralph and the creature, he was caught in a difficult place. His priority was, of course, to try to keep Ralph safe and alive. Naturally, he couldn't do that if the two of them were on fire. He drew his side arm, aiming it at Testament, and shot Billy a quick look and nodded his head to indicate to the mad scientist to do the same.

"You will lower your weapon and stand down. That's an order. If you so much as look like you're about to fire, I will shoot you."

Hopefully, Billy would follow his lead and get a good aim on Testament so he could quickly tend to Ralph, see what they could do to get the thing off his face before too much damage was done.

[my_freeze_ray]

"Okay! Okay, shooting each other? Bad Idea, remember? We got given weapons on the condition that using them on one another gets us left behind. So while I am generally in favor of stopping the crab monster, taking Ralph out with it would be kind of counterproductive!"

Dr Horrible stepped forward slightly, he was fairly sure that Testament had some sense of self preservation, and West was almost certainly more interested in keeping them all alive than actually having to kill Testament. There was no reason for this to escalate. Still, his flame-thrower was up and now wandering somewhere noncommittal between West and Testament. He suspected that the Gear wouldn't be too cooperative with both weapons pointed at him, but if he had to cover West in order for them to get rid of that thing without this ending in someone's death then he would.

He was actually more concerned by the prospect of Testament or West being left here than he was by the possibility that Ralph had been suffocated while they were arguing. Sure it would be better if the Mafioso was alive, but honestly, Billy didn't know him well enough to feel more than a slightly obligated concern for his survival.

[swiss_gear]

"Counter-productive?" spat the Gear with more emotion than he had shown thus far. "And what do you suppose will happen if we allow that creature to run about? You heard the intercom." And here, he was referring to Kaylee's message. He was fairly certain that neither Horrible nor West was particularly enthusiastic about having a giant bug force its way out through their chest cavity. "I am doing us all a favor."

Testament didn't lower his flame thrower, but he didn't fire either. He wasn't ignorant: were he to do as he wished before the other two came to their senses, he would meet with a less than desirable fate. However, he was very firmly grounded in his opinion and he'd be damned if he'd lower his weapon for any human.

They would either see things his way or he'd have to do this the hard way.