CORPs group (Group 1)

[i_hate_posses]

Who: Loki, Rube Sofer, Morgan Adams, Charlie Prince--NPCs WELCOME!
When: 1st day of Port
Where: LV-426; colony; on the way to the reactor--different path

Comments

[onderhaus]

Rube had mixed feelings about the way they had been grouped; there was something a little uncomfortable in the air, especially after his last encounter with Morgan and Charlie. Oh, sure, things were fine (mostly) between him and Morgan - after a bout of crying (her part) and some food (on his), things usually were right in the world, for him - but Charlie was fingering that gun a little too lovingly earlier, for his taste.

And he didn't know Loki. Loki was just that weird little factor in the equation that threw off the simple answer. The monkey in the works.

Thankfully, however, he had figured out his weapon's On/Off function - that was a good start.

Charlie's comment to Loki was heard, and politely ignored.

"If it's all the same to you three, I think we should get moving. The sooner this is over, the sooner we can leave."

[gimmethemap]

Kaylee's transmission came through, and Morgan groaned. "Well, that answers your question, Loki. Our colonists are this way, and we'll see them soon enough." A beat. She didn't much trust Charlie not to fire off if something surprised him too much. He had good reflexes, but that could be bad if what jumped out at them happened to be a colonist. "And you heard the lady, boys, unload the bullet magazines and hand them over." While she figured out how to turn on the flame thrower. Didn't take long.

She glanced at Rube a little forlornly; they needed a port with swords.

And normal pistols.

And some booze.

[i_hate_posses]

"And you heard the lady, boys, unload the bullet magazines and hand them over."

Charlie gave a Morgan a subtle glance (mostly because he didn't want her to see him acknowledging her) and turned his eyes to Loki. Well, he would show the wardens what sort of mood he was in, even if he couldn't hurt them. "You heard the lady," he smirked to his companion. He lifted his rifle and pointed it towards the floor.

And began 'unloading' the bullets.

Now, Charlie wasn't dumb. He knew exactly what Morgan meant when she gave the command. Still, he preferred fanning the flames for concern between her and Rube. 'Sides, it seemed to him they had enough extra clips of ammunition to spare. There was no problem in spendin' a little of it to redecorate the room.

[onderhaus]

"Charlie, don't be an ass," he muttered distractedly, his attention focused on how to get the bullets out of his gun. He jerked the gun's magazine sharply, slicing his hand, and shouted a rather un-Rube-like expletive.

He wiped the blood on his trousers, and had managed to wriggle the clip free just Loki's flamethrower went off.

"Hey!" Rube shouted, jumping back from the burst, figuratively and literally losing his cool entirely. He turned on Loki, trying to stay calm, but stabbing a finger in the air for emphasis. "Don't push buttons or flip switches or toggle levers if you don't know what they do. Understand?"

How the inmates were able to figure out the workings of a highly complex weapon, when it took him thirty minutes just to find the damned "on" switch,
he'd never understand.

He turned back to Morgan, handed her the bullets, and said dully, "We're fucked."

[gimmethemap]

Part of her had expected Charlie to do something much worse, like fire a shot just to show he knew what he was doing -- which in her present nervousness to do with operating a new weapon would have ended in Morgan setting the little pisser on fire. She would have preferred to get someone other than Loki, in all honesty. He hadn't been as outwardly troublesome as others on the Barge just yet, but part of her suspected this was also because he hadn't many opportunities to make it. At Rube's low utterence, she glanced his way.

"You think?" she remarked, though she couldn't help but smile a little sadly at him.

[i_hate_posses]

Charlie glanced over at Rube at the Reaper's comment. After watching as his warden sliced his hand open and cursed, Charlie nearly stomped over in frustration to do it himself. However, he quickly changed his mind when the Norse god let loose a stream of fire. In fact, Charlie backpedaled quickly, aiming whatever ammunition remained in his gun straight at Loki. It was only through sheer force of will and a last minute reaction that the Outlaw didn't actually pull the trigger

[onderhaus]

Rube came up alongside Charlie and Loki, his weapon dangling at his side in a most un-menacing manner. Rube was not much of a fighter.

"What's all the commotion?" he asked, then froze.

"What the fuck is that?"

[gimmethemap]

Morgan joined them soon enough, gazing upward at the oddness of the structure around them. It was obvious it'd been built around whatever the manmade architecture had been. This stuff looked almost...alive. She swallowed and spoke into what apparently made Kaylee hear her. "If the colonists are in there, then that's where we're going," she said, pressing onward, but watching her motion sensor now with anxiety. Of course she came screeching to a stop and nearly cried out when she came face to face to something definitely human, but no longer living.

A hand shot up to cover her mouth. The corpse fixed to the wall was noticably small, a child, face glistening with a sheen of moisture, bluish, with a gaping crevasse where the chest should have been. She stepped close to something that started to crunch under her boot, so she moved off of it, then bent down to poke at the odd thing with her rifle.

The obviously dead remains of some spidery creature lay illuminated on the ground beneath her light.

"Jesus Christ," she breathed.

[i_hate_posses]

In the light of the discovery, Charlie forgot all about his intentions to ignore and annoy his warden, turning to him with confusion. "I said, what the hell is this?" He demanded from the other man, as if he expected Rube to have the answer. He was a warden; he'd been the one to tell Charlie they had to come here in the first place; therefore, he had to know and he damned had better start talking, 'cause if he didn't have a clue,...

Well, Charlie wasn't stupid. He wasn't gonna stick around if there was somethin' in there that wasn't natural. Looking at the dead creature (which the outlaw likened to a scorpion), Charlie made the connection in his mind that perhaps all the acid residue they'd encountered was something like the venom one found on the tips of the arachnid's tails.

That wasn't entirely correct, but the cowboy wasn't too far off either. And Charlie did not want to deal with giant scorpions.

[onderhaus]

Rube had to turn away, covering his mouth. He hid his weakness by bringing his hand up to his forehead and wiping away the beads of sweat. No matter what he told the other reapers back in New Jersey, reaping a child always got to him - and this body left him feeling just as ill.

Worse, even.

To give himself something to do, he said to the Tech group, "Kaylee, you guys see what we're seeing?"

[gimmethemap]

Morgan held up a finger for quiet as she listened to the transmission Kaylee was sending through. She explained the nature of the spider creatures, and the open leathery 'flowers' in the room -- and then the hole in the child's chest. "That's...pleasant," she murmured. "So there are still colonists that're alive in this?"

A cry of alarm from Kaylee's end made her jump, particularly so when she felt her compass buzzing in one of her pockets.

West was in danger.

"Shit," she hissed, moving further inward.

[i_hate_posses]

Charlie was quick to follow. "What are you doing, Girly?"

It wasn't that he cared per se...but at the same time, the message from Kaylee had been clear. The dead child and dead-scorpion thing were not natural and Charlie had no interest in furthering the unnatural process. He glanced over his shoulder at Rube and Loki in a 'Ain't one of you gonna stop her?' manner before decided he'd just as well act as support and back her up in whatever she was fixin' to do.