Sky's Edge

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.

Rei sighed in annoyance as Edmund's shrieks eccoed and reverberated through the tunnel. "And there goes any element of surprise we might have had." She muttered under her breath. The two men or boys, she wasn't even sure anymore what she would call them other than stupid, had cost them more time and posed more risk than anything else.

"For chrissake.. shut up and keep quiet." She hissed at Edmund. "You! Shoot anyone that comes down that passage." Rei added to Almario, who seemed to her to have more of a solid head on his shoulders than the other one.

Now closer to Pale, she frowned trying to remember what little she had learned of the Gardeners. "Bug yes.. but they're called Gardeners, one of my crew is one." She explained hurriedly, relief evident. This at least was something familiar, even if it wasn't her crewmate.

She could see the reflections of headlamps and other tactical lights dancing off the wet rock, and Rei was not terribly interested in dying in some hell hole carved into the ground. They were quite literally between a rock and a hard place, especially with neither boy having any clue how to manage the weapons they'd been given.

"Thank you for helping us, are you able to continue?" Rei then asked turning her attention to Pale. She hadn't expected to see another Gardener outside of Sprinkles, but it looked like at least someone was on her side for once. Things had gone pear shaped ever since that run in with the Aschen out on the rim. 'Damn crazy bitch.. what was with her and that insane story of hers?' she thought briefly to herself.

The sooner they got out of the Cenote and off Sky's Edge, the better as far as Rei was concerned.

Suddenly, a swirling vortex appears to the south. You can see something appear in that direction.

Rei Harkov has left the area, heading south into Warp Concretion.

Rei Harkov has arrived, coming from Epsilon Eridani.

Rei Harkov has left the area, heading south into Warp Concretion.

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.

Whot

/me

Element of surprise!? That was gone a while ago! Edmund did take a moment to shut his face just nodding after the sudden SWAT to get him back in order. His face tighten as the image of the large bug became more visible with the dropping camouflage. AHHHHHHHHHH! He was internally screaming in his head though his facial expression made that quite clear.

The other was now bleeding though. Christ. That looked bad. Surely it could last with its other legs right? Right? He held his breath and move over to Pale's side. "...I have a medpac." Something that could be applied quick, at least to stop the bleeding.

"Right!" Almario uttered out in a breath as he leaned hard against a small ledge of cover. Eyes peering at the steps as if half expecting boots to trail down once again. Then he saw it. Something was rolling back down the steps and bouncing down the corridor.

"Grenade! Take cover!" He told the whole group. He pressed his body down on his small bit of cover. Edmund tried to push Pale a little further to another piece of cover as the grenade to their knowledge was not a frag but rather a flash bang! Attempting to disorientate the group before the remaining combatants rushed in for a second attack!

Myrkul's Vein has arrived, coming from Warp Concretion.

Myrkul's Vein has left the area, heading south into Warp Concretion.

Rei swore viciously as she pressed herself down onto the ground and hard against the wall behind the crate that she'd found Pale and the body behind. The limestone of the cenote while hard to an extent, was also easily carved, worn away with water, or blasted out by man. The native rock of the planet could often be found along with the more porous sedimentary and soft limestone that made up the honeycombed cenote's. The four were in a bad place if their adversaries were resorting to throwing grenades down the tunnels.

As debris rained down on their heads, and the reverberation of the shock wave from the blast traveled down the tunnel, Rei tried to think what they might have had that would help them out of such a tight space.

Shaken, battered a bit more, and ears ringing she motioned for one of the two brothers toss her the mining laser the rifle or laser they had picked up earlier. Rei just hoped that one out of the two still worked.

Almario even in his full visor helmet could only see partial blurs of people slowly charging down the old stone carved steps again. Three once again, one which seemed to be bandaged in the torso. Horrifying sounds of gunfire permeated into the air. He felt. Hot pain as he realized right after he had been shot! OH! FUCK! He screamed a little falling to the ground as the bullets had passed through one of his legs. Ow! OW! OW!

Edmund was caught stupid. Seeing his twin fall to the ground. Oh god! Oh fuck! He saw Rei. Motioning for! His laser! He somewhat changed something on the improvised weapon. Vaguely opening and readjusting some wiring before TOSSING it for Rei. If she inspected the weapon in the split moment it would show that he had readjusted the end to fire off in a spray pattern to possibly get all three in one shot!

Almario fell to the ground. He cried in pain rolling to the ground as the trio tried to storm the somewhat desperate party. One of the three was moving over to put a bullet in his chest for good measure though at that moment he fired rather wildly with his own weapon causing said double tapper to pull back as the three were in the middle of the corridor.

As Rei dashed for the safety of the box Pale did as well though the small bug instinctively chased after her. As the bullets started flying Pale pressed as best he could into the line of fire. A bullet scraped its back in a small white fan down the hall but the bug kept its hands firmly planted to concrete refusing to move. A refrain burning in its mind from the threat to a false Matriarch that traveled with a seeker. Pale's breath was a hot wind as the mental strain pushed at the young Gardener's instincts.

A stony scrape came from the nearby limestone from the Orthodox zealot also a neophyte telekinetic as his subconscious chisels words into the walls, 'MATREM VULT. MATREM VULT. MATREM VULT.'

The twitch of his torso quieted as the gunfire paused enough to break from the short trance putting its body in the way for a false Matriarch. One twitch of his head to see an incoming weapon in his wide peripheral even as a scream of pain comes from an ally. The inert leg twitched to life to bring the small pistol to hands that it could quickly load the weapon. Pale turned about revealing a long furrow of flesh removed from its back leaking in white. The slice at its leg now ejected a broken knife-tip even as frothing flesh squirmed to put its back together.

Pale wavered from the injury but looked to Rei with a click of the safety. Intending to rise just before Rei did to open fire and give cover for the large weapon to aim.

The situation was utterly hopeless and while it was technically four against 3, they were significantly over powered. Given the two brother's inability to fight or do anything except squabble or get distracted, Rei was amazed they'd survived this long. If they ever got out of the cenote, she vowed to leave them far behind to fend for themselves.

But just when she was about to give up, one of the brothers managed to toss her the large rifle she'd pointed and motioned at. Rei got off a enough shots at the offending party to give them just long enough before the next wave came down the tunnel. This gave her time to investigate the crate she'd pressed herself behind further.

Inside, she managed to find a small comms unit packed in a polymer casing designed to keep it dry. "Would this help you any?" She asked Pale showing him the radio. They would likely have to get above ground first, unless they suddenly decided to go into the business of tapping underground coms relays.