Pale Oculi's Story

Pale wasn't the only one stranded on the world though Pale took a more direct path to the ground. As the craft started breaking up in reentry Pale dove through a flaming hole in the frame as it desperately tried to level off. Aiming for a patch of thick greenery Pale broke nearly all his limbs and fractured his carapace ramming through the canopy. It hurt, a lot, but being in a ball of fire healed much less well than breaking limbs.

Tangled in vines and debris Pale just hung for a while as carapace promptly sealed shut though milky drops escaped toward the floor. Once his organs recovered enough to move he started eating his way through greenery to the floor using what few limbs still worked. Juddering all the while from pain and planetary screaming. He had no vocal flaps to contribute his own screams but a small pip in the RF noise floor. Several dozen pounds of greenery later his legs had grown back by the time the hip-height spider hit the surface. Though a devastation of greenery left behind him by the energy demands. The medics, however, ate meat just fine and the remains of his own body soon located and 'recycled'.

Pale didn't know if the planet had much fluorine and he couldn't afford to lose any until he could get off it. Though he thought he didn't taste terribly good. His other senses continued to be assaulted by loud persistent screech like a crowd screaming at his shoulder at all times. White Quietus didn't work under the din and it didn't seem like the planet would have a spaceport. He phased away from the light and investigated the area for signs of life finding it in the coming and goings of small humans. Later finding them dwarves he hung at the fringes waiting for some way to get off the planet. Though he did spray a few dwarves now and again separated and crushed by debris. Though the reddish coating left behind at times had a telltale honeyed smell. It was the holes inside those rings of pried off metal showing healthy flesh they'd likely notice first. Then every so often they started showing up passed out in disused tunnels with scars or missing eyeballs so he fixed them. Corked small kegs made him worry they knew the phased gardener healer was there. He couldn't get drunk, he had two livers and two spares after all, but between the ale and fungus below he didn't starve or dehydrate at least. Keeping to the sturdier tunnels kept him safe when the shaking came.

Then the chaos of the exodus started centered around a gate. His way out. A nearly invisible spider with a range of psionic amnesia found it easier to hitch a ride on a golem's shoulder blade. Leveraging the rocky creature's surface a small blur clung on tightly just behind the head. Quite worried that one of the people out of his range could see the faint interference blur of his invisibility. He could hear sirens. The small bug had only its beaten-up and singed merc ID left of its things after so long underground.

As the minutes ticked by, the local law enforcement agencies of Caprica City continued to mobilize. The location of Riverwalk Park being relatively central to the rest of Downtown Caprica City meant that the local law enforcement could reach the park relatively easily, and quickly.

Caprican radio chatter filled the air waves, as dozens of local agencies attempted to coordinate with the breach. Local patrol units would be on scene first to secure the area and move civilians away, while the CPF, City Police, and the Imperial Defense Force deployed to establish a more permanent cordon around the park.

It started with a chorus of phone notifications chirping through the crowd.

'EMERGENCY ALERT - Go Indoors immediately, proceed to nearest civil defense checkpoint, avoid main roads, call 9999 for emergencies only!'

A few moments later, and the distant police sirens were drowned out by an ever present wail that engulfed the park, and from distant echoes, this ever present wail seemed to engulf the entire city.

It was deafening, and seemed to echo eerily off of the glass and concrete skyscrapers of Caprica City.

The people gathered around the dwarves began to scatter, running away in a panic as the blare of the sirens filled the park, others checked their phones to read the emergency text message sent to them, before joining the panicked crowd in running away from the portal, and the gathered dwarves.

"Unit Alpha One Niner approaching the scene... Civilians have begun to disperse."

"Acknowledged Alpha One Nine, use extreme caution!"

The Police radio chimed for one lone Caprica City police officer as he pulled his cruiser onto the dirt, slamming on the brakes and bringing the car to a stop. He was the first officer on scene, before a second police car screeched to a halt, doors thrown open, and officers climbing out, rushing to herd the panicked parkgoers away from the assembled dwarves.

Arda's words too fell on deaf ears, at least for now as a panicked people ran quickly away from them, and towards the police officers, their panicked cries drowned out by the wailing of Aschen police sirens, and the City's warning sirens.

The Officers on scene didn't pay much heed to the dwarves at the moment, not much more than watchful eyes and drawn weapons from the cover of their police cruisers.

They chattered on their communicators, honing a perimeter around the park itself.

Symbols of the Aschen Empire were evident all around them, and though the Dwarves likely didn't recognize them, perhaps the Gardener would, and could shed light on their situation.

Propaganda posters were affixed to concrete sculptures, and the towering effigy of Big Brother, the metaphorical symbol for the party currently in control hung like an ominous specter upon a large building overlooking the park.

The first Aschen voices carried across the green of the park, from the police cruisers on the street, through a megaphone in one of the police cruisers.

"Drop your weapons, and identify yourselves at once!" The officer called out in Galactic Common.

All while a pair of Police officers in an adjacent cruiser worked to configure their disruptor rifle, issued to them by the City, before pointing it directly at Arda from behind the doors of their cruisers.

Distant sirens grew louder under the wail of the city's warning sirens.

Arda seemed rather confused as she upon the shoulders of two stone golems that held her aloft above her people and that of the planet they came to. Her gaze fell back to her own people as they looked confused and scared wondering what was going on or what would happen to them. Many of the dwarves did indeed carry weapons of a sort. Some held walking axes and others had swords and bows strapped and secured to their persons.




Arda began to frantically look to each of her people only to raise her hands giving herself a moment to allow the magic of the spell to switch over back to her native tongue. Once she was able she raised a single hand high above her head and began to speak slowly towards her people.

"These people want us to disarm ourselves! They are cautious, as they aught to be, and we must respect their customs and laws!"


Many of the dwarves looked confused. Some angry at the notion of throwing down their weapons. However, each and every one would comply with Arda's wishes, and with that their leader turned their attention back to the Confederation Forces. She also took this time to remove her knife and tossed it to the ground at the feet of the golems.

Pale weighed his options with the armed response playing out. Pale didn't recognize the soldiers that got him and Earthrend but they could have been Ashen. All the Gardeners knew of the Ashen by way of the various encounters of Nemesis's mercenaries with them though mostly by proxy. The general assessment was you make nice, give them what they want, and hope they're feeling generous. Pale had been told that the Ashen weren't ones that reacted well to any other authority much less threats. Most of the medical corps that spoke well learned how to say their role in a few problematic languages. Though almost all, including pale, couldn't actually speak it. Singing corrupt Quietus to sound like english over RF was hard enough. Across a civilian RF channel it heard insistent voices chattering back and forth and tuned his pitched singsong voice to the range.

At hopefully high enough gain that the parked humans could hear it Pale transmitted a response, "Pale Oculi, Humanitatis ratione medicus MilNet Contractor ID#9492bbc709, Inactive. Lost and requesting safe passage off-world."

The tongues spell cast by Ada certainly might hear the small spider 'speaking' hidden a scant few meters away clung to the back of a golem. However to rectify a nonsense speech in one language used to represent another in a different mode of speaking is quite the muddy proposition. A melodious humming carrier upon which language arose by an agglomeration of individually meaningless jabber. Perhaps a crowd chattering, whispering, with the sense of the meaning only assembled by whole of a crowd's constant melodious muttering. Their speaking habits were a hack in the first place. They didn't have any vocal flaps to make noise with.

While the distant police sirens continued to grow in volume, along with the city's ominous howl from it's own civil defense infrastructure, the Aschen police noted the Dwarves as they began to drop their weapons. There was little in the way of response, as the Aschen kept their weapons drawn and readied.

High above the commotion, a news helicopter droned overhead, circling the group, with cameras focused on the unfolding event, the helicopter itself was white, with a large eye like symbol emblazoned on the tail section of the helicopter, and the letters CAP in Anquietas.

By now there was some sort of order among the Aschen police force, a Central Protection Force lieutenant, identified by his crisp, clean white uniform, and aire of authority.

He was promptly handed a bullhorn, which made a shrill screech as he powered it on. George cleared his throat, and called out to Arda.

"You, leader of these people, approach me slowly, make no sudden moves or you will be shot, keep your hands where we can see them!" The CPF Lieutenant called out.

---

Inside a command tent that was being erected, radio chatter came across some of the more sensitive equipment, it would take awhile for the technicians to isolate it, and lock it down, and it was eliciting some confusion inside the nearby news helicopter.

Many of the dwarves seemed fascinated by the level of technology that was thrown at them while a few seemed almost terrified as they realized there was some kind of mistake as Jorn was not there to great them or any of their other kin. What made matters seemingly worse was the man who approached the situation by shouting that he would have his men open fire upon Arda if she didn't comply with their wishes. A few of the clergy that came along with their leader were about to raise up and defend the one who brought them but found themselves silenced as Arda simply had her golems lower her slowly down from her lofty position.

"We wish for no trouble!" Arda called out as she revealed her empty hands only to slowly approach the man with the strange device that allowed him to amplify his voice.

She found herself glancing at her surroundings as she continued to walk slowly towards what she assumed was the lawman of these parts only to realize that she was as alien to these people as they were to her kin.

A conversation mostly required someone be listening and Pale wasn't entirely sure anyone had heard his transmission to let them know he was there. He did hear the ones talking back at the dwarves though and they didn't seem to have said anything indicating they heard. He didn't have any weapons and couldn't very well put parts of his face down so Pale just stayed perfectly still. At the helicopter's distance he was a slightly distorted light volume though his cloak worked better for those in proximity. Pale figured as long as he didn't move it wouldn't be obvious he was stuck to the back of the rough golem even at that distance. Given the reactions of the other humans here to dwarves as the eyes flit about the scene it definitely wasn't a good idea to chance letting go of the shroud he held up. At least for now.

He tried again to see if someone answered across whatever spectrum he was on though the voice polished to a posh accent left a bleak absence of any background noise, "Unknown station this is Pale Oculi. While I can hear the park announcement Gardeners don't have vocal flaps to speak with. I am noncombat personnel not under Dwarf authority. Please acknowledge, over."

Getting moved to Origin was a little more wet than Pale had planned. Mother Oculi could get a reference point from Earthrend and they tried again but he still ended up somewhere different off shore of an island. A good thing he remembered the waterproof backpack! Oculi thankfully wasn't too far off shore bobbing neutrally undersea though having to flail to get to the surface was really tiring. Fish were curious at the white spider creature out of place so he ate some that got too close while he was down here. There weren't any plants unless he wanted to dive but his line could eat meat. Healers must not starve or leave broken remains about!

But a shiny object under the sea threw a glint across his eyes. Pale ducked under the water eyes adjusting to the incidence enough to see mouth more than able to hold shut against the water pressure. limbs and telekinetics flailing to thrust him further under water a sticky limb just managed to grab the long metal object before having to bob up to the surface the well-anchored backpack dragging it up like a cork to shallower depths. The shining object came with him, stuck fast to a gripping arm, wobbled as he shot up toward the shore. Landing with a splash Pale loosed a warble in RF, staggered, then walked forward to dry land to breathe and examine his prize. A flute? Marked with words he did not understand. He felt the Matriarch of war's inquisitive eye watching from inside him. She would care for Pale on behalf of the tired Oculi to see that Pale was okay.

Several hours of drills and maneuvers later Pale just wanted to nap. A last exhaustion to impress Nemesis the placid state of mind filled only with a single pretty tree he blew a small gout through the blowgun. An ardent slow note shot a luminous white dart impacting the tree. Fauna and moss exploded in the vicinity within eyeshot from the town as Nemesis celebrated and Pale could collapse on all his legs to stuff grass in reach to his mouth. Or a bug or two. He was really hungry now and felt empty. The part invisible bug relaxed his psionic camouflage appearing in the grass breathing heavily.

Oculi poured a warm feeling to his mind and plotted his genetic line. Pale was just happy mother was pleased so he could rest.

While Master Nazku was working on his own work back at the Sanctuary, Midorimaru, or Emtu for short, was here watching to see if any interesting people arrived like her master predicted. He was the dependable sort, and knew soon they would arrive...and she also knew those two bothersome people, Lyrian LeCross and Jaune Al'asfar would not be too far behind....although seeing her brother Kimaru would be nice, they were both just too energetic for her.

They had absolutely no clue of the definition of sitting still.

As for Lyrian, he was fairly decent, but he had odd tastes and shopping for him as a guest could be bothersome.

And then, something was spotted out of the corner of her eye. It was something she had not entirely expected to see, but it appeared to be a spider. Unlike any normal girl, Emtu was the human form of the Armor Spirit Midorimaru, and therefore bugs did not creep her out or bother her. In fact...

"Hmmm....what an interesting specimen".

...sometimes she cooked them in the past, but surely she was not thinking of eating this spider right now...right?

"Hey Mr. Spider, you think anyone interesting will be coming today?"

The young squat spider aptly named Pale arrived on Yellowstone to assist the matriarch seeker Sprinkles. The Gardener Matriarchs as a matter of necessity were interested in any planet with extremophiles or just odd-natures. As generally neutral parties rather than participate in the war they opted not to sell weapons, but foodstuffs, medicine, filters, and other sundries. Their interest in flora was for its noxious nature rather than weapons dealers and such bought particular live flora or seeds. This did not mean nemesis did not send a security contingent to the area with a seeker however. A careful eye kept Sprinkles from being shot at or ransomed as well as eyed developments for coming threats.

This is what brought to their attention that a foreign false Matriarch had entered the locale known as Cenote. Various parties knew what they disliked and leaked information for different reasons. While they wouldn't interfere with the conflict between the natives other than humanitarian reasons, imprisoned foreign parties were another matter. Thus they'd sent Pale to gain information in lieu of any of the Intel caste among Sprinkle's employ. A mixed-lineage birth of healer by Matriarch Oculi with both physical and psionic cloaking.

Dispatched to gather information about the false Matriarch Pale's time was limited by supplies so was well-fed before leaving. Though to properly use his abilities he could not carry much if anything at all. An illusory bush with a gun or a water bottle attached was too obvious. Pale's ability was a combination of natural cloaking with a psionic amplification of pareidolia. It didn't work quite as well on the resistant or immune and the cover 'object' tended toward increasing incongruity. Which unfortunately Pale could rather not tell unless they started looking at him while frozen in place. An odd attraction indeed a wooden sign saying 'THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK' arrived in a corner of the room with hoofprints trailing it.

While remaining out of direct eye or camera sight as much has he could stayed in the fringes until a moment he could get inside. That moment came after a set of particular unfortunates surprised the guards. The lot of them walking toward the door Pale shuffles quietly from cover to cover his pointed legs leaving little to scuffle for noise. Then pale heard what he recognized as the vocal fold noises of a false Matriarch! Freezing in place when a camera panned over him his natural psionics tried to reach across to impart his particular infectious pareidolia to them that the monitor would change as well. Though random corridors might appear to acquire odd boxes or shifting piles of flora. When the shot rang out from the open door Pale climbed up a wall to the ceiling corner.

Pale tried very hard to concentrate on being an innocuous mushroom pile while crouched into a ceiling corner. Especially as people with guns approached.

Rei paused at the scuffle between the twins, it stirred something in her battered and beaten brain cells for the briefest of moments. She could have sworn that she had had a similar relationship with someone as a child, but she was quick to dismiss the idea. There was no telling what had been in the drugs they had given her, or what sort of reaction they had had with her system. But all it was right now as the distraction she needed to get out of the current predicament.

"Hey tweddle dumbass and tweddle dipshit, make yourselves useful before I decide to shoot you." Rei commented tightening her grip on the now squirming guard. She spoke with heavily accented common, clearly used to another language as her native tongue. If she could use the two to her advantage, all the better. "You know how to shoot? Grab the rifles and let's get going!" She commanded, giving neither of the twins room for any questions. "I've got business with the head honcho and a bug to find. You two just happen to be my ticket out of here."

Rei wasn't terribly adverse to using others like this, especially given the state of mind between the two men. They appeared to be more concerned with whom had slept with whom, and whose fault it was than actually getting anything accomplished. In her opinion, they didn't seem to have two brain cells to rub together past what was required to fight.

Time however was limited, no doubt news by now had reached reenforcements elsewhere in the Cenote. She hadn't been exactly quite with the gun, and sound tended to carry in strange ways this deep underground. It didn't take long either, and she could hear the shouts and footfalls not far from the cell. "Look I don't care if either of you die here, but I'm getting out!"

Joke was on her! Neither ONE of them could shoot a gun! ... Guys why were you trying to be drug dealers!? With that said. The pair snapped their attention back to the woman. Who made her intentions very clear. Back her up. Or be left behind. And they did not want to STAY in this hell hole. So the two did what they were told. Automatic High Caliber Rifle and Advanced Plasma Rifle between the two of them following behind their now apparent rescuer.

"Wait!" Almario finally snapped out of the situation. Now in the corridor as he tried to use the keys the Rebels had used to lock the pair in.

"...We need a plan. There are five others up there." Even with the three of them. He didn't like those odds. "Look! Most of this is underground! Which means some of it might cave in! Which means the builders have had to design another route out incase something like that happens yes?" He asked her. Trying to interrogate Rei of a way to slip out entirely unnoticed.

On the floor above. The group remaining had began to secure the cenote. At least they would have. If not something awful had just happened. When Pale had stumbled upon the scene. One of the Rebels was now on the ground. Violently shaking and having a full on seizure. The group had opened the biocontainer the twins had brought in. Hundreds of round cubes of solid Dernasus Spice. A highly illegal hallucinogenic that was so illegal not by the effects of the drug, but that they often amplified the ESPER abilities of Physics. Making it a dangerous substance for the stability of most world governments.

What made it worst is that one of the fighters had mistaken the cube for food. And had taken a huge bite out of it. And that was the person now on the floor. Having ingested a large amount of something you were supposed to shave a small shaving off to inhale into smoke or put into a drink.

"<Get the doctor in there! Get Alberto and Maria back up here!>" They would need to pump this guys stomach and make sure that their heart didn't stop. Three of the rebels now making a hustle for the downward cells.

Pale's weapons were very limited by their nature. It could not carry weapons other than what came by nature. Thus when three men ran past it, knowing there were five it had passed, Pale wheeled about. Skittering was not something uncommon to the cenote even if somewhat louder as Pale returned to the previous corner. One guard focused on a compatriot the other twitching on the ground. Food of some kind in cubes on the floor. Even while he was of a kind to survive the toxic shock the plants here left Pale still knew better. It remembered the three that passed in a hurry their images marked as hostile in its memory. Only one too focused on the soldier too sick to respond. Pale wasted no time now that a false Matriarch had called for help from these imprisoners. Retribution pounded for attention as deep drums thrumming the pace of thoughts in his brain.

Fauna on Yellowstone did not spare the unwary and Gardener healers acceded to no Hippocratic oath. His instincts called for the removal of a threat to a Matriarch and since the Blood war, any matriarch. Fangs sprinted toward the man looking with care for his twitching comrade laden not with healing but wrathful cancer. A psionic disease was communicable by sight to the threats imprinted by Pale's mind. 3" fangs rammed through pant legs deep within the thickest muscle of the body to forcibly inject ounces of white fluid. Pale didn't stay for the scream as he withdrew his fangs a twitching paleness spreading through the veins as something worse than black sepsis. That the injected victim laid eyes on the already inflicted man painted him with the same affliction. Five men marked for death by a psionic infestation of Pale's chimera cells intentionally throwing human cells in the hated to a self-destructive cancerous rage.

Immune to any screaming suffering of ones that imprison a false Matriarch pale skitters in chase of where three men went. Out of sight, they would still pose a threat until the infected looked at them.

Kicking the guard viciously back into the holding cell, Rei turned her attention to Almario fumbling with a nonexistent lock. "Primitive electronic system, it locks once the door shuts." She explained plainly. Things weren't exactly up to date on Sky's Edge, with some systems being positively ancient compared to elsewhere in the system or even outside of the Eradani system. "It buys some time," Rei explained as she considered her next move. She didn't know her way through the cenote, not like the men they had just used to replace themselves in the holding cell. "Best I'm able to figure is they'll have a drone come do a thermal scan and see three adults and move on. They're too lazy to do anything else." Lazy or short handed, Rei didn't care, the faction that had taken the cenote had made their choice.

"If I knew my way through this cenote, I would be out of here by now. So you can stop acting you might actually know shit, or you two idiots wouldn't be here." Granted she wasn't sure how she exactly got there herself, waking up in strange places was starting to become almost normal for her; something that she didn't like. "But if you remember your way to the surface, I'd be quite grateful." Rei drawled. She was less worried about a cave in than either of the twins, and wasn't interested in entertaining any type of self fulfilling prophecy of the sort.

In the meantime however, she would have to teach two ne'er to do wells how to shoot and not panic at the sight of someone bigger than them, in addition to finding her navigator and first mate. "Now it's not gonna do to just stand here jabbering, time to get moving. I think there's another cell not too far off, likely up toward the entrance, I heard something awhile back." It seemed likely to her that whatever had sent half of the other guys running would only work to their benefit for so long. But she couldn't have asked for a more perfect distraction than what Pale had done, never mind the fact that she had yet to have any knowledge of the other bug.

"Besides.. five against three is good odds and not odd goods." Rei grinned at the other two.

Almario flinched back for a moment. There was small sneer on his face. Vaguely indignant of his SHIT being called out like that. Yet while the two were still talking, Edmund had pressed his ear against the wall. Feeling the rush of the current between his fingertips. The strange feel of the rock.

"Limestone..." He muttered outloud for a moment. What?

"Edmund we need to focus-" "Wait!" He called out to the two for the moment. "The material of this cavern is naturally limestone still!" "...so?" "SO! If you paid attention to our tutors! Limestone naturally erodes over time in the presence of water! And this place is mostly water!" He purposed.

"If we follow the sound of water beneath this part of the wall! I think we CAN find a way out!" Another way to the surface! And it was at THAT moment when the three who had departed back downstairs finally caught sight of the three escaping prisoners. "<Enemies! OPEN FIRE!>" One in the center cried to her compatriots. All three now priming their long arms as they BLASTED into the corridor.

Both twins panicked and JUMPED for the nearby corner of the naturally carved archways of the doors that led to different cells. Chunks of rock being RIPPED apart in a sudden barrage!

Upstairs the remaining man radioing in for the physician had not noticed anything... only up until that sudden BITE into the other man's leg. The sheer physic space of violence was like lifting a veil over his eyes. Like he had not notice the creature UP until it started to enact violence on his comrade. "<What is-!" He uttered half horrified as he naturally went for his side knife attempting to SLASH at Pale as it skittered past them for the squad that had hustled downward.

Pale got a slice to the abdomen coating the man's knife in a cloying white ichor. Unlike true spiders their leathery carapace was for pressure and armor, not structure. Slower to move as perfluorocarbon but burning blood sacs for speed blood shoots out and laid a trail behind. Small marshmallows or a trail of milk addled by the pain left inconsistent imprints as Pale had to hurry and couldn't concentrate lest the false Matriarch got shot. Pale had to hope the infectious disease would spread by the eye of the one he'd bit to the other to slow them down. Polymorphic wound cells on the offensive intent injected to cause cancer where they went and flashing themselves between windows for the mind among those Pale marked for its ire.

As in its own body they regenerated flesh instead the trail of white slowly ebbed. A blur of his head flickered to wash a sensory plate back and forth over the air. The humans rather smelled even if his own blood dominated his senses. The sweat and gunfire drove pale to the right locale if not the rapport across a concrete box. Thus the bleeding shift of distorted space and pained incongruity hoped he wouldn't draw more attention before found the False Matriarch it was already looking for. He crawled along the ceiling checking the next corner before rounding it. Though the psychically resistant would likely see more than its distortion by the effort Pale was making.

Rei smirked, "Hit a nerve there did I little man?" Not that she particuarly cared either way. The two were just a means to an end, and to her they were expendable. "So what of it?" She asked looking through the gloom at the other idiot in the pair. "No.. no boy, that's not how that works." Rei said shaking her head. "You see, even if you followed it you'd only end up deeper into the cenote." She explained. What they were proposing meant to send them deeper into the complex, when that way would almost certainly lead to more trouble than they were already in.

Their argument was soon interupted by other members of the guerilla group that had finally made their way down into the tunnels. "Fuck!" Rei swore as she pressed herself against the damp walls of the corridor. They had spent too much time talking and arguing, and their window to move had been spent. "Don't just stand there... shoot!!" She shouted at the twins. They were utterly useless, and more likely to endanger others more than themselves.

Releasing the safety on the pistol she had stolen from the guard, Rei made rough estimate, aimed, and fired. The first few shots only served to knock loose rock out of the ceiling of the tunnel, the next few seemed to hit home judging from the howls of anger. "Getting out of practice.." She thought out loud as she took a quick look at the magazine capacity on the gun. There was perhaps 50% left on the magazine cell's capacity, and that was assuming that the cell hadn't been illegally modified to hold a higher capcity or damaged in such a way that she was more likely to have it explode in her hand than anything else.

Pale nearly fell off the wall as the loss of blood started to get to him. The small bug looked back and saw the deep cut refused to heal. In the hurry to get out when the other man shouted expended more chimera cells than he planned to bite the man. Pale dropped his camouflage as the white and black furry bug metastasized from an out of place sign or distortion on one wall down the hall from Rei. A slowing fountain of white on one side as his regenerative capacity finally returned to seal his wounds shut even weak as he was.

Gardeners did not make noise as they attacked and neither did Pale. Soft clacking toward the rear man alerted his notice and wide eyes yelped as Pale lunged at him fangs bared. Behind a box that now served as pale's cover rather than the man's loud and incoherent yelling and screaming issued from behind them. Pale was strong enough to keep the man's sidearm from pointing at his head and a spare leg to ram under the gun trigger.

Bloody gurgling sounds came as Pale bit the man's head and throat repeatedly. Adrenaline alone an unfortunate miracle keeping him alive for the assault. Pale's white insectoid legs seen clasped to the floor just beyond the man's upturned body. A struggle of wills between kicking feet and moving cling-legs for Pale to keep himself on top. He hoped the false Matriarch would shoot the others before they got to him.

The bullet had punctured through the leg of the woman standing in the center of the small firing line. Blood pooling down her pantleg as she fell to the floor. The other two soldiers began to call out. "<Wounded! Pull back! Pull back! Back into a side cavern!>" The other two still were releasing bursts of autofire!

Slowly pulling their comrade back up the stairs to most likely attack in a much more concise manner.

The last fighter tried to go down kicking and slashing. But it had finished as quickly as it had begun upstairs. There was some chatter on their radio. Sounds of calling in and shortly there after a request to send an adjacent squadron to investigate.

The two brother had...! Not shot a lot. Almario had tried to shoot his longarm and it had failed miserably. Mostly he succeeded to get the clip out of his own gun in an accidental ejection. Shit! SHIT! He scrambled to the floor to pick it back up.

Edmund on the other hand had the mining laser. Instead of shooting he had been... studying the wall! COMMON! USELESS! Or maybe not... He marked the part of the lime stone. "Stepback!" He didn't ask for permission. Instead he charged the mining laser to full power. Dangerously unstable as he released the powerful ray into the weakest part of the wall.

In a few moments the wall itself began to break, streams and jets of water spilling out. "Prepare to swim!" He told the pair. Freedom was above the surface, he was going to make them a route out.

"You idiot-!" Rei yelled as she watched Edmund turn the laser on a spot in the wall. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!" She asked wading through the now flooded tunnel. Thankfully he hadn't hit anything major, and the water would soon drain away to the lowest point in the tunnel. "You could have killed us all you stupid brat!" Rei added snatching the laser out of Edmund's grasp, but not before smacking him hard across the back of the head. The woman hit hard, and was clearly stronger than most baseline humans; either by physical or genetic modifications. "Water fucking flows to the lowest point you bloody dipshit, not the highest!" These two were going to get them killed before they could even get out of the cenote.

A cenote wasn't just a sunken cave somewhere, it was also a series of tunnels that had been dug and carved into the native rock of the planet. The sedemintary limestone was allowed to wear away and harder igenous intrusions, reenforced by hyperdiamond mesh in the tunnels, had been allowed to remain. This particular cenote was halfway between how it had been found, and any reenforcements. For the most part it had been abandoned in place, and over time taken by one faction or another, each adding their own particular requirements to make the space workable and potentially liveable.

Wading further through the water, with muck swirling around her ankles, Rei went to observe what little handiwork they had managed in the tunnel. By her reckoning, there should be at least two dead whose equipment and radios they could scavenge; that was if they even still worked after their brief drenching. Equipment and communications on Sky's Edge was old, but not all of it was robust enough to take the sort of dunking that they'd just been subjected to.

Flailing and confusion soaked Pale in blood as well as another unfortunate decoration. Pale eyed a knife jammed between its legs on one side now aware the others had yelled and retreated to a cross hallway out of line with the cell. While more forgiving than a bullet Pale had to be careful to pull the metal blade out. A careful pull at the knife felt the wound fizz and burble as his regenerative capacity sealed veins shut. One of his legs was numb and the nerves bundle would take more time to regrow. As Pale was approaching deep hunger couldn't afford to take too much more injury. A huge black on white gardener stood out against the grey cenote.

As the knife finally came free Pale looted the ruined corpse to remove the sidearm, a few credits, and an energy clip. Too weak to distort Pale had to gear up. As healer caste Pale did not have much weapons practice except as an off-world Gardener. Some was required and pistols were more suited to its strengths. It preferred silenced ones and these were very loud. Though flickers its head as it picked up scents from the dead man. A small box containing some plant leaf sticks stuck out of in the man's coat pocket. One end was some sort of inedible fiber but the food was food.

Pale held the middle numb leg with the other and carefully looked down the tunnel. There had to be more alarms going off and he was running out of time. The white striped bug waved as he spotted Rei's bright blue hair to catch her eye but stopped at the waterline to wave and cross his arms down and forward. A gesture of supplication. He didn't want to wade through the disgusting water while sporting injuries. Pale was idly eating a pack of cigars while bleeding from two slashes. Unable to carry much of anything with it hoped the False Matriarch wouldn't fire at a friendly Gardener with a gun, clip, and credit chit stuck to an upraised foreleg.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Edmund peeped out! He had believed it would have worked! With them swimming up the underground cavern lake after the tunnel had flooded! The SMACK made him whine a little but he held himself from not falling over. Thankfully Almario had FINALLY reloaded the longarm. Seeing the boots of soldiers trying to make their way down again. SHIT! SHIT!

He did a wild spray and pray! Which didn't had hit anything but had spooked the two fighters to retreat back up the stairs giving them a little bit more time. He turned to now see pale and let out a sudden "AH!" Trying to turn the give heavy gun his way. Not really firing but more trying to keep it between them and it as a warning.

Edmund also let out a SHRIEK! Trying to go behind Rei for protection! "HUGE BUG! HUGE BUG!" he cried out in panic! At that moment he took out some water lodged equipment. Feeling horribly guilty for causing it to malfunction he tried to open it up. And saw inside now useless rubbish that couldn't be repaired quickly.

Unable to speak as humans did Pale did understand their language just fine as well as body language. Human sign language was impractical however for a four-fingered hand with entirely opposing digits. So Pale used what little their options were as a race with the strange trivia of having the largest relative population of online players of various charades games. So he mimed.

Half-eaten side down Pale put his hand over that fist and swiped at his chest and jabbed near the leg that barely twitched. While the white brushed off his chest at a slash actively vanishing then pointed at the dripping stab near one of his legs and seesawed his hands. The leg was not numb anymore, he twitched the leg holding the pistol and clip, but Pale couldn't walk with it quite yet. Pale took a crunch off the cigar and was about figuring out how to gesture approval when he followed the False Matriarch's Gaze.

It came to Pale at once as the lights swirled when Rei said she had a crewmate which was a Gardener. An alert went out 6 earth hours after the Matriarchy sensed contact lost with Sprinkles. Matriarchs couldn't just be ensconced in a fortress and never allowed to leave as they'd be weak with their mind devoid of color. Nor could they coddle the Matriarch Seekers for the same reason. This did not mean that the Gardeners spread all over creation did not keep tabs on Sprinkles health at every possible opportunity. After 12 hours Nemesis alerted her mercenary networks. Pale was one of those sent to Sky's Edge not expressly to support their sundries store but also to look for Sprinkles the Seeker and her overseeing False Matriarch.

Running out of time Pale stuffed his face with the remains of the cigar and gestured pointedly at Rei with excited fidgeting of his mouthparts. his hands pointed up past his head as the front pair of legs bent to his back and curled back and forth.

He whirled in mild apprehension as instinct fired his psionic camouflage though badly incongruent by his thoughts. As light distorted around Pale to the immune perhaps a monitor proclaiming 'This drive no longer valid>' otherwise as its focus was rather disjointed. The camouflage dropped once more as his fingers made an L shape by its head then pointed hurriedly at himself. Pale needed to get a message out. Pale could call for help while too deep in the Cenote to do so himself.