The Scouring of Arajo

[Yeah, I don't know if you spoke with any of the others before doing so but don't decide their actions, be it speaking or otherwise, on your own. You don't want to find out what will happen if thats done again, no one will. Deciding the actions of others, without their consent in any way, is god modding and against the rules around here. Its all fine if you spoke with the controlling players ahead of time and worked something out but don't make that decision on the fly and expect them to cooperate. Do not reply to any of this here, if you feel the need to; just learn from it and go on.]

Alexious and Tabitha; You enter the room, back to back while others of the squad cover you from the doorway. Despite the lack of light, a quick sweep shows no one beyond yourselves; not to much of a surprise from what you'd heard from other platoons in the last few days. The room itself is mostly sparse, a kitchen in one corner, a defiled shrine to the Emperor in another with a table set in the middle. You make your way over to the opposing wall, where the refresher and bed must be, peering over you see nothing but a mess, blood coating the bed and something on the wall.

[Pan your lamp packs over the wall, its just more smeared blood like with the bed; nothing more really. Though where is the body? Complete your sweep of the hab and then proceed up to the next level, by the time you get there more of the squad will be checking the rooms, cover them. When you make your way up, you'll hear two shots go off and Brast all but jumping down the stairs, whatever happened he can deal with it, keep going up.]

Jonas, Serpio, and Tine; You enter the room only to discover it is not an antechamber but the hab itself. The room is a wreck, objects shattered on the floor, with what little furniture reduced to rubble or splinters. The shrine to the Emperor is simply gone, further inspection of the back of the hab shows the window behind the bed shattered, most of the shrine having been thrown out. The head of the shrine is on the bed itself, a ragged thing that shows signs of much of a struggle and much, much worse. In the corner, you find half a body, the other half torn away or eaten or worse.

Serpio; Your itchy trigger moment passes, as you and the others clear the room someone smacks you in the back of your head. Turning around with anger clearly on your face, you find yourself staring into the red eyes of sergeant Brast. "Ease off the trigger kid, don't need you accidentally shooting a survivor. No one's gonna be happy about that, least of all me when the squad is down a man because you got executed for stupidity. Now stop draggin your asses and move on." That last bit he yells to all of you before turning to leave and proceed back to the second level.

[Doesn't matter who you are, that sight must be sickening to at least one of you, maybe even all of you; its a half eaten human body after all, left in the corner of the hab like some garbage. Finish checking around the hab and proceed to the upper levels like the rest of the unit, second floor will likely be covered so proceed to the third floor. Serpio, that shadow you saw must have just been your eyes playing tricks on you, cause it doesn't seem like there was anything. Someone, who isn't Serpio, saw Brast come in and motioned towards Serpio for the shots fired and the toy on the ground.]

Eli; Brast turns to you and nods at your question, its a valid one. "If we find anyone, we continue through the blocks till we're done; if we get a call for help or something, then we leave before we finish. Otherwise we finish when we do kid, trying to speed things up only gonna run the risk of gettin' people killed." The sergeant says to you as he walks into the hab and proceeds up to the second floor. "We got a lot of ground to cover, all of us; we split up to try and make things go faster then there are less around in case something bad happens. The time to clear one hab with a whole squad or two with half in each won't be any different." He adds before signaling for you to stop. "Colt, your with Eli here, take the left." He says to the trooper right behind you. Before he has time to say much of anything else, you hear a pair of shots go off and Brast is down the steps and out of sight. Most of the squad is down there, just continue onward.

Eli and Dean; the left door is closed, but the door itself is bent out of shape as if something within had tried to force its way out. You try the handle, but its locked, looks like no sneaky way in, or at least no just opening the door.

[The hall your in is devoid of anything; more stairs leading further up are next to the stairs you just got off, with a shattered window opposite your position. What are your thoughts about the door? How are you going to get in? Any thoughts on what you saw below, of others entering the lower rooms; not the rooms themselves but the members of your squad entering them. What about that shot, what might that have been? Well, you know it was a las, but from who and why?]

Eli, Dean, and Tabitha; You take up positions around the door with Dean in front, lasgun held tightly against his chest as he kicked the door, planting his boot firmly against the damaged handle and breaking it open in one go. You all rush in, weapons at the ready as you scan the room, spartan with shattered windows boarded up. Any furniture that may have been there is either missing or left in ruin, strewn about the ground. Like the previous level this one is filled with signs of a struggle or fighting of some kind, and trails of blood on the walls and floor.

Within moments you clear the room, all you find is more destruction and a pair of withered corpses. That is until you look up in the main section of the hab, to realize there is nothing above you, no ceiling, just a large hole covered by something in front of what is likely the entrance from the third level. Just as you discover this, you hear what sounds like someone opening or bashing the door above you open, someone above is about to walk into this trap, and given the lack of light they just might fall for it.

[What do you do? Do you shout a warning to whoever may be above you? Run to try and stop them? Say nothing and let them fall? What you don't do is notice the corpse in the other room begin to stir from the noise of your movements.]

Serpio, Jonas, Tine, and Alexious; You leave the first floor habs and head to the upper levels, the officer attached to the squad, Eli, nabbing Tabitha while he and Dean clear one of the second floor habs. More of the squad are already checking out the other second floor hab, so you head to the third floor in time to see sergeant Brast and another member of the squad entering the right hab of the third level and leaving the one to the left for you.

The hall here is dark, the window at the end boarded up to block out any light that might be outside. You train your lights on the door, noticing that it has already been bashed in and then closed, though only barely; for whatever reason, you get a bad feeling about this hab but you can't place your finger on why, beyond the obvious of something already having bashed its way in.

[For those paying attention, guess who's directly below you. Depending on who posts first, do you rush in to check the room? Do you get warned in time before something bad happens? The hab itself is empty, boarded up to keep the light out, and half the floor has been covered to hide the fact that theres a trap waiting; because of the lack of light, its rather hard to notice unless you were in the room below.]

All; You clear the last of the rooms and the squad exits the hab, moving up in an overlapping fashion you advance to the next hab, easily twice as wide but equally as high as the previous one and just as dark and foreboding. Kicking in the main double doors, the squad files in, floodlights illuminating the darkness and revealing four hab units to either side with a set of steps across the way to the floor above. The main level itself is littered with refuse and discarded belongings, and on the steps there appears to be the remains of some kind of fight, but unlike the previous hab unit this one is lit somewhat. Several glo-globes flicker on and off, or the few that are not smashed do anyway.

At the signal of Brast, you make way to these doors and attempt to open them; you try trying to carefully open them, and then kicking them open when that does not work, but none of the first level doors budge.


[My apologies about the delay in an update, real life and all that. Anyway, not to much happening, but you should have something to do, after all you need to get out of one building, make your way across the relatively sparse ground to the next one, and try to open doors on the first level of the second one. Eli, as the squad enters the building Brast nods for you to break them into teams, so disposition of people to work together is up to you. For any of you with questions, feel free to PM and see what I say, who knows what you might be able to do.]

All; As you wait for order, Brast decides enough is enough; the officer cadet has no idea what he's doing yet so time for someone with experience to keep the ball moving before something bad did it for them. Smacking Melak in the side of the head, he made him spit out the toothpick in surprise before he, and everyone else, straightened up. "Relax when we finish, not before it unless ya wanna get killed or worse." He growled to them all, snatching Felix's Iho stick from his mouth. "Same goes for smokin', save that shit for when we start the ride back." This he said after a large drag, the smoke coming out of his mouth and nose like one of the beasts from home, and then stamped the rest of it out with his boot.


"Right, Colt, Glyrmyr and Tolner your with me. Cas, Fortis, Arcanius, and Xerdo you three are together; Lanz you stick with Savales and the cadet, Savales contact the other squads and see if things are cold on their end as well." He said before getting a look of anger from Eli. "Don't give me that kid, officer gotta be informed of the other squads in the area after all." Brast added with a smirk before motioning for most of the squad to follow him up.


Dean, Solamon, and Jonas; Without missing a beat you fall in behind Brast, he motions for Jonas and Solamon to take the lead before he and Dean come up as support, with the others falling in behind; far enough back that if something bad happens they can fall in as aid, but won't be in harms way if its to bad. When Brast motions for the others to take the left, you go to the right. One of the doors on this side is boarded up, leaving only two others, looks like two to a room. Solamon and Jonas take the first one, leaving the other for Dean and Brast.


Solamon and Jonas; Theres nothing to bad about Brast, he's a good sarge and would take a bullet for most of the squad, but given the choice of anyone else or him he's last on the list to work with by choice. You want to help Dean out, but someone has to be sacrificed right? Approaching the door, you notice that it is damaged, almost torn off its hinges before someone tried to put it back in its place. A swift kick breaks it free and you both rush into a scene of utter gore. Theres blood everywhere, and several corpses of what may have been workers before all this. Walking further into the hab unit, you pan around with the lights at the end of your guns before hearing something from behind you. Turning around, one of you trains a light on the nearest corpse to see it moving, the other motions his over the door frame only to see some sort of cable snap.


Suddenly, you hear Brast yelling something about getting out a second before the floor gives way and you plunge into darkness along with the other bodies in the mostly barren room.


[Yeah that was fun. You hit the ground hard, vision swimming while yu try to get back to your feet. Doesn't help that there are a half dozen corpses in the room, especially when they start moving. Solamon get your gun and help haul Jonas up. Your on the ground level and it looks like theres a shit ton of crap in front of the doors, and the walls leading to the other habs seem to have been bashed in by a sledgehammer of some kind. You can tell this as you see a man slamming a sledge into the ground Brast was just occupying, before he rolled out of the way. Right, kill the zombies (not to easy a task, gonna be a mini-update) and get to Brast.]


Dean; You look at Solamon and Jonas like a beastie caught in front of a speeding taurus hoping that one would screw over the other and fall in with you. Once Brast nudges you in the side to get your attention, that hope shatters. Taking a wall to the side of the door, Brast quickly kicks it in and covers your entry from the door frame. You see a pair of figures slumped against the far wall, it looks like one of them is breathing! Forgetting yourself for a moment, you lower your las and start forward. Then out of nowhere you hear the strangest of sounds, like something getting very taught and whining as it takes to much weight. "Oh frag it all. Get out now, trap!" You hear Brast yell before something rough grabs you and hurls you back into the doorway. You hit the ground and are able to look back into the room to see the floor give way and Brast fall. As this happens, you hear the sound of weapons discharge in one of the opposing rooms.


[That was a close one; your winded but otherwise alright. Question is what do you do? Look to try and help Brast or see about that shot and get others to help you?]


Tine, Alexious, and Melak; Following Brast and the others up, the second floor is much the same, signs of struggle and general damage but otherwise lifeless. At the motioning of Brast, you take a pair of doors to the left of the stairs. Alexious and Melak take the first door while Tine and Arcanius take the other.


Alexious and Melak; Not waiting on anything in particular, Alexious kicks open the door, not like Brast or anyone else is being terribly subtle right now. Melak rushes in, panning his heavy flamer for possible targets or anything of interest. Nothing really, just damage, some broken furniture and belongings out in the main area. You find what looks like a survivor on the bed, but theres to much blood for you to be able to tell if he or she is still alive. With Melak covering him, Alexious carefully makes his way forward to get a better look on this person. You lean in close, looking at the blood and grime smeared face and make out the features of a woman with a scar of some kind on her cheek. Its hard to make out in the near darkness, but it might be a star of some kind. Wait, you think before her eyes open and she lunges at you, a rusty knife clutched in one hand.


You jump back, missing having your throat sliced open by centimeters, before crashing into the wall.


[Alexious, that woman is almost on top of you, actually yelling curses and blasphemies while trying to bury a knife in your heart. As you hit the wall, you see someone detaching from the shadows behind Melak, but the heavy weapon trooper is more fixated on you. Can you shout him a warning while fighting off this bitch? Melak, what happens to Alexious happens fast, and in the end your left watching this figure pouncing on top of him with a knife in her hands. You hear the sound of a shot ringing out in the next room, but Alexious is in trouble here; what do you do?]


Tine and Cid; Breaking into the second hab you are greeted by a scene of utter devastation. Looks like three or four figures got into some kind of fight and recently as well. Walking through the scene of destruction, motion from the bed chamber catches your eye and you swing to it. Your lights cut into a man in dirty cover walls with blood clotting over a badly treated leg wound. "Please help me.." He rasps before collapsing, Cid rushing to him while Tine looks around the hab for anything else. Taking your eye off Arcanius and the man to look for other survivors, you can't help but wonder where the weapons of these other figures are. Turning back, you see Cid leaning in close to the man, as if he is saying something to him; while one of his hands holds something blocky and turns it to Arcanius's head. "Make this work?" Is the last thing Cid says before the man pulls the trigger of the gun in his hand, blowing a hole through Cid's head.


With a yell, you bring your own weapon to bear, but not before the man snaps off another shot, this time at you, and you are forced to dive out of the way or risk taking the shot full on in the chest.


[Cid is dead, and though that guy is wounded he has a gun in his hand. Better do him in before he does you, but what do you do after that? As you hit the deck, you hear someone slamming into a wall nearby. Do you yell for help or see what the sound was? Maybe someone else is in danger. Killing the man will not be easy, so do have a little effort with it, there will be a mini-update here for you.]


Delix, Serpio, and Eli; With Serpio busy getting in touch with the other squads, Eli and Delix are stuck essentially twiddling their thumbs. Eli, seeing the state Delix is in, tries to instill some of that leadership into the man. Serpio, you manage to get in touch with D, Felus, the squads vox operator, informs you that they haven't found anything but they thought they heard something happening over in the bastards area. Trying them next, you can't get a clear signal on one of their squads and static almost overtakes the voice of the other squad that you do actually manage to get in touch with. The trooper on the other end, Seph, theres not to much between you and him; might be because three days before hauling out here he beat you at cards and you managed to sneak out with his winnings, after Cid and another trooper helped cause a fight. Can't make out to much of what he's saying, but overall it looks like nothing to out of the ordinary, no contact with the other squad though.


[Eli, try to calm the man a bit while you wait for word from Serpio. Serpio that vox on your back is old and fairly outdated, not in the best of shape either so getting in touch with other squads isn't a cakewalk. Delix, with the attentions of Serpio and Eli slightly occupied you manage to hear the sound of a shot above while they do not. That can't be to good; nor is the loud crash you all hear, that would be the sound of some of the unit having the floor fall out from under them.]

Melak and Alexious; As Melak keeps his knife pressed against the woman's throat in an attempt to keep her still, she does the seemingly unthinkable. With a grin on her face, she lunges forward, his blade slicing her open but not before her own blade bites deep into Melak's gut, slipping between the segments of his armour before something big slammed into him. Alexious manages to stagger to his feet in time to witness Melak blasting a portion of the hab with his bulky flamer, but this completely missed the second attacker, but the spurt did manage to keep him back. As Melak deals with the woman, you move to take this guy on and keep him from the heavy weapon trooper. As you step forward though, you see metal in his hand, shortly before he levels it in your direction and pulls the trigger of his shotgun. The blast hits Alexious squarely in the chest and throws him off his feet, again, and into Melak.

[Melak, before Alexious comes crashing into you, any thoughts on what this woman just did? Oh and that blade to the gut might hurt a bit. Getting knocked into is a little disorienting, but it might have pointed you in the right direction, you know at this guy. Alexious, the blast was fragmented, your flak armour took the bulk of the blow; all your really feeling is the shock of the hit and no real damage. Getting knocked into a flamer rig might not be great, but your less disoriented by what just happened. Might be a good idea to kill this bastard and get out before those flames spread.]


Solamon and Jonas; The most well placed shots do keep these things down, but the stabs from your blades do apparently less damage. Might come down to which can do more outright damage, since lasting pain and severing vital arteries or organs would have little effect on the dead. Being new recruits on your first major campaign, and having just been dropped down a floor and now facing with a small horde of zombie's, its not hard to see that your aim is less than stellar. Solamon, you stab into the back of one zombie's head, only for it to wrench back and take your blade with it. Before you can kill the thing to get your blade, another zombie pushes into you and your forced to deal with that one first. Jonas, as Solamon has to deal with the pair, your covering his back from three more zombie's.

[Yeah, deal with a few/most of these things; they are not complete pushovers but put enough shots into a body and its not getting back up, undead or not. The windows are boarded up, all you have to work with are the lights you have on you.]


Dean; It might not be the best of moves but you jump down to the lower level, lasgun clutched tightly to your chest. Before you can hit the ground though, you crash into something, or rather someone, and you both roll across the floor. Springing back to your feet, you aim your gun at the other form in time to see Brast using a cultists head like a ball before putting a round in his chest. Looks like you just stopped an enemy from offing your sergeant, good for you.

[Brast turns to you with a smile on his face, something you can barely make out what with the severe lack of light. Time to help the others and keep them from getting overwhelmed.]


Felix; You start to run up the stairs, only to bump into someone on their way down. You manage to grab hold of the stair railing while the other person is not so fortunate and hits the bottom of the stairs. Looking down, you see the bloodied form of a man, a rather large calibre pistol just out of reach of his hand, from which it had fallen from.

[Yeah, deal with this guy and get up top; your gonna notice a room on fire with Alexious and Melak in it so if they haven't offed that guy with the shotgun then you might want to give them a hand.]

Felix, Melak, and Alexious; You haul ass from the room as what little refuse is laying about goes up. Felix is forced to all but drag Melak out, as he seems to be falling in and out of it, the knife still stuck in his side even as they get clear. Alexious is able to get out on his own, clutching his arm, blackened and slightly burned from not being able to completely get away from the flamer fast enough. Might need to have a word with Melak about that at some point after the sweeps are done. Calling for help, Tabitha runs up the stairs and crouches next to Melak and examines his wound; that is until she slaps him. "Come on get the frag up, its not bleeding that bad and the knife only went in an inch." This she says while actually taking the blade out with practiced ease, so as not to make the wound any worse. Spraying the wound with a sanitizer, the medic applies a foam to close the wound up before slapping on a bandage; then moving over to Alexious, she pulls a dose of painkiller from her kit, jabbing it into his shoulder before wrapping the exposed flesh in a bandage.

"Gonna be some scarring, and using that hand will cause you pain sooner than later; gonna need to fix you up better back at base." She said before checking out two of the other rooms, noticing that the floor to them is missing and that they simply fall out to the floor below. A crash from below calls your attention and you race to the first level.

[Melak, for the most part your fine; the knife wound was not nearly as bad as you thought it was. Alexious, looks like getting that glove might not have been the best of idea's, at least not unless you wanted some burns. Felix you will get down before the others, Alexious a little slowed by the painkillers and Melak having that larger flamer rig, and get to see the others coming out from one of the doors, having managed to get whatever is obstructing it out of the way and braking the thing down.]


Jonas, Dean, and Solamon; Jonas manages to rip a flak board from one of the window, falling flat on his ass in the process, but it looks like the effort was for very little. The sun had been setting for some time now, and what little light is left does fuck all. Not that the sergeant seems to mind, leveling his shotgun and blasting the top section away from a zombie, blowing away its head and the force ripping off an arm at the shoulder. Ramming a boot into the knee of one more, Brast quickly blows its head off in a shower of bone and brain.

"Enough of this shit, lets get the hell out of here." Brast growls before aiming the light beneath his gun at one of the doors and you al get a good look why you couldn't get in before. Heavy furniture, flak boards, defiled shrines all were piled up against the doors to prevent entry. "Don't just stand around like a bunch a ambulls, move that shit and lets get out of here."

[Well you heard the man, move that shit and get out of here; Jonas once the shit is out of the way you kick the door down, its hinges are pretty well gone. When that door goes down, you all rush out to see a body, that clearly wasn't there before. Felix, Tabitha, a slightly burned Alexious, and Melak soon come down the stairs, weapons raised.]

Serpio; As you finish making contact with the other squads, Felix suddenly dashes up the stairs. You go to follow, and only narrowly avoid running face first into someone falling down the steps; you dive to the side, landing with a thud, that vox caster pack isn't exactly light or very cushioning. Scrambling up, you turn in time to see Felix fire into the figure, a man in dirty coveralls who had been going for a large pistol, up until a round or two put an end to that.

Still stairing at the now corpse, you here Tabitha called for up above, to which the medic passes you by without a word; the sound of a fight just behind the blocked doors having come to an end. Allowing yourself a bit of a smile, you almost jump out of your skin when that dead man starts moving; you see his mouth moving as if to moan or something, but no sound comes out.

[Best put an end to this; as you kill the former cultist and now plague zombie, the others will come down before Brast and those who fell for the trap floor break back into the main section.]


All; Gathering at the main level, the bodies of fallen comrades gathered, Brast tells the medic to remain with them until the squad's transport can come by to help them. As for you, its onto the last of the habs on this block, then maybe its off to help one of the other squads or on to another location to look for people. Moving forward in pairs with overlapping fields of fire, you round the second hab and carefully pick your way through the light brush to the third one. Halfway there though, a shot rings out in the air and Brast dives to the side, ducking behind a burned out cargo hauler, a hole in his shoulder and his shotgun on the ground. "Cover now!" He yells before shots blast small holes in the ground near some of you.

[Jonas, Melak, and Solamon; your with Brast behind the hauler, rounds pinging off the hull from somewhere in the hab, likely the upper level. Whoever the shooter is is likely not a great shot, not that guardsman training makes you a marskman either, and that first shot was likely just luck. So what do you do? Try and take out the shooters from here or get inside and try to deal with them?

Dean, Alexious, Serpio, and Felix; you duck back behind the side of the second hab, you can't see the shooter or shooters, but you get a look at the front doorway of the hab. A dozen shambling figures, clad in a motley assortment of clothing barely fitting over malnourished forms. Great, more zombies, and the others don't even know they are there. If, for some reason, they decide to try and charge inside, they will be caught out in the open for what will likely be a shooting gallery for those enemies up above. What are you going to do? Over the sound of gunfire, they might not hear you; but if you do nothing they will eventually be overrun or killed.]

Jonas; As you try to find the shooters, a round nearly takes your face off; but your training kicks in at the last second and you roll away from the slug and dirt harmlessly explodes against the side of your head. You had seen that one, second floor, some antique single shot fire-arm. However a more pressing issue is the sight you got a glimpse of as you were rolling away, what looked like twenty figures on the other side of the hauler.

[Might be a good idea to tell the others of what you saw, or alternativly try to take that one shooter out first; your choice. What you decide to do occurs before what comes next and the orders of Brast. Make sure to read the next blue bit.]

Solamon and Melak; Ripping an auto-pistol from his side, Brast spits a mixture of saliva and blood onto the ground before speaking. "Frag this shit; we're hardliners people, get the job done faster and better. Sittin' here and takin' pot shots aint the way, we get in close and let these bastards burn. Melak, the rest of us are gonna toss frags and try and get 'em in the windows, when we do you haul ass to the steps and clear the way, we'll be right behind you." He says before unclipping a frag and getting ready to hurl it.

[Well you heard the man; depending on what Jonas opted to say or do, you may be aware of the enemies on the other side of the hauler, since he was the only one to actually try and see anything. There will be a mini-update for you three, however Jonas needs to act first this time rather than last as is generally so.]

Serpio; As the others hit the deck and try to get out of sight, your bulky caster makes this more of a challenge for you. Before you can get behind cover, something smacks into your side and sends you spinning to the ground and into cover. Your arm is in agony as you realize something, possibly a las-bolt, hit you and punched through your flak armour. Looking around, you want to yell for Tabitha to help you but realize she is not there, since Brasts order she hasn't been with the group. Strange, but how were you trying to have a conversation with her before when she was not there to begin with?

[Well that sucks; but there are more pressing issues than your pain stricken arm. The others are in danger and Dean seems ready to jump head-first into that danger to help the others. Do you try to join him, or get into contact with someone else? Vox transmission in this area has been patchy at best for whatever reason, but you do know that at least one squad and the reapers, the pair of sentinals accompanying both squads, are in the area. More bodies or some heavy weapons could help out here, or they might cause more harm. What do you decide to do?]

Dean and Alexious; You see Serpio take a hit but fall back next to you. At least he is out of sight, he can look after himself for now, the others need some support. You break from cover, firing at the windows from the hip; meaning you hit nothing, well the building but that hardly counts for anything. One shot manages to go so wild it hits one of the two dozen zombie's on the ground, and actually puts it down for good. Felix breaks cover with you, but another unlucky round hits him strait in the chest, throwing him from his feet and onto the ground. You don't know if he is alive or dead and can't do anything about it or you might risk getting yourself killed trying to help.

[You slide into cover behind another vehicle, this one not a burnt out husk, as shots ping off the hull. Well at the very least you took some attention off the others. From here you have some sight on the zombies; you can always try to take shots at them, or see about getting his ground car moving, maybe get in real close or provide some mobile cover or something? Or you can just screw it and get to the others; what do you choose?]

Jonas and Solamon; Hurling the grenades at the building, you force the shooters to duck back in order to avoid the worst of the frags. This gives Melak the opening he needs to haul ass towards the unguarded opening and you time to pour shots into the mob of shambling zombies. Once again it won't be a peace of cake, you aren't marksmen by any means, hell your fresh recruits, and these enemies don't seem to notice pain. "Where's the flamer?" Brast yells through a snarl, his weapon barking and taking a zombie in the chest. "Who the frag do you think we just sent in to burn those shooters out?"

Dean and Alexious; Firing blindly, Alexious hits absolutely nothing, actually coming close to almost hitting Jonas in the back once though thankfully no one else noticed that one. Exhausting his lasguns power pack, Alexious tried to rocket through reloading, but managed to fumble with the new pack and drop it to the ground. Grabbing it again, Dean points to the zombies, several now in sight as they turn their attention on the others who have broken from cover.

[Twenty-ish zombies and four of you, won't be the easiest in the world but have fun with that. These things are slow, feel little if any pain, and are looking to sink their teeth into some part of you. You might be faster, but their decaying bodies are still pretty damn strong. Jonas and Solamon, the attention of these things is on you and Brast; Dean and Alexious, while the shooters are avoiding taking grenades, might be a good idea to get in their with the rest of the squad so you can hit stuff.]


Melak; Hauling yourself up, you toss a grenade in the direction of the zombies, more to keep them away from you and from the building your running to. Diving through the entrance, you roll to a crouch with your flamer in both hands and quickly make for the second floor, grabbing an enemy at the top of the steps, shattering his kneecap, and hurling him down the steps. He might still be alive, but with that leg he's going nowhere.

[Get to that second floor, there are four more enemies up their, none aware of your coming. Three are shooters with older bolt action auto-rifles, the last one is a large man who seems to be setting up a heavy weapon, heavy stubber or heavy bolter maybe. Deal with them as you see fit; Emperor's burning justice sounds nice.]


Serpio; With a snap you open your eyes, you had blacked out after taking the hit to the arm. There were no zombies coming at you, hell there was nothing even noticing you. Everyone's attention is to the third hab unit. Your arm hurts like all hell, and you realize Tabitha has your medkit, turned over to the medic just like everyone else. Might be a good idea to lend some help to your squad, or you could run away or something; after all who would notice if the guy with the vox caster runs away rather than fight alongside his squad, or call in any help that he might be able to get through to.

[Guess the bit before was to subtle or something; interference is making the vox less than reliable at the moment, but it might be possible to get in touch with one of the other squads nearby or even the reapers.]

Jonas, Dean, and Alexious; Continuing to hammer at the infected, a high pitched whine cuts through the air just before a slew of burning red laser blasts engulf the mob. Within a matter of seconds the remaining dozen plague zombie's are torn to shreds, the armoured forms of Reaper lead and Reaper five calmly walking forward.

Melak; Bracing for the worst, you are forced to plant your elbow into the man's face as the two of you plummet to the ground. All to quickly though, the ground rushes up to meet you and things end with a thud and much pain. Rolling off the man, you notice that his chest is caved in and blood is coming out of the back of his head. Alright so he is definitely not alive anymore; at least the bruises and scrapes you sustained aren't nearly as bad.

Getting back to your feet, you look around to a scene of carnage. The mob of what was zombies lay cut down, the rest of your squad are gathered nearby. Further away though is a site that makes you smile: patrolling a bit aways are the Reapers, two of the six sentinals that are part of the Hard Liners platoon. Better than that, Gabriel Hultz, Reaper lead, took up patrol with Brast's squad C and squad D.

Serpio; As you call in for support, it dawns on you that your not part of squad B, but instead squad C. (Was mentioned in the very first post of the action thread) Quickly correcting your mistake, a voice cackles over the vox, telling you that help is on its way. The vox washes out most of the tone, so its hard to make out just who you spoke to, but you could swear those words were being slurred by a lisp of some kind. And if thats the case, then it can be only one person: Reaper lead.


All; Thanks to the timely intervention of the Reapers, and the third building burning down, all threats in the area seem to be at an end. Bad news is no survivors located this time, good news is you get to go on and check one of the four other hab blocks. You like busting in doors and possibly walking into traps right?

The sentinals finish their patrol of the area just as squad D pull into the open ground with their chimera, your own close behind with medic Jackson surveying from the top hatch. Before the transports comes to a halt, he is jumping out of the thing and running over to check out Brast and Serpio.

[Right, so no fighting in this one; how 'bout them reactions though? As the sentinals come in close, Hultz jumps down from his and walks over to Brast and squad D's sergeant to speak with them. The Reapers are the elite of the platoon, hand picked from the squad's by Reaper lead; Hultz himself hailing from squad C and an old friend of Brast. The man is held in high regards to say the least.]

All; As you gather, wondering what Brast, sergeant Hultz, and sergeant Faust Vyukes of squad D are talking about, both Brast and Vyukes turn their attention back to their respective squads and call for all of you to gather. You march to the trio without a word and proceed to take a knee as you and squad D gather round. "Should the Emperor being feeling generous, maybe we'll find some survivors and no traps. Failing that, stay alert and keep an eye out, we still got four more of these blocks to search out and I am not gonna come and save your arses every time shit goes flying." Hultz says with a bit of a grin. "The Lieutenant's orders still stand, we go through the ten stacks split up between the hard liners and reapers and the bastards and bulldogs. After that, we meet up with the rest of the platoon at the town center, hopefully with some good news for the CO." Vyukes added in before Brast spit a wad of something on the ground.

"Well why we wastin' what remains of the light then? Come on ladies, lets get a movin." He says before kicking Melak in the ass and getting him to head for the squad chimera at a real nice pace. "I swear Melak, if the quartermaster don't skin your hide I will. Ready up the heavy stubber we got, and don't you dare go losin' or destroyin' it or I'll save the commissars the trouble of punishment!" He calls out after Melak before looking to the rest of you. "Well what ya waitin' for? Open invitation? Get the hell up and lets get movin'!"


Six hours, and four blocks later; night has most assuredly fallen on the town, the darkness only just cut by the floodlamp and headlights of the chimera. In that time, you found nothing; no survivors, no more zombies, no hostiles: nothing. There were a few traps, and depraved signs of death and struggle, but little else had come from the searching. Word over the vox from the bastards was much the same, they had come under fire earlier but nothing further on. Only D had any news of worth, finding a single survivor if he could be called that. A malnourished child with wild eyes, scared silent and nearly stiff. Trauma no doubt, it would be a miracle if anything could be learned from him; but that did not stop him from being a survivor.

And thats all they had at this time, one out of over five thousand, with maybe forty others accountable as zombies. Hopefully, other squads had had more success, or could at least account for more of the population. After six hours though, searching in this place was nearly over, and you are now on route to the town center to meet up with the other squads of the hardliners.


[Right, so not to much action at this time. Mostly just to see who's still in, and who is not. What you found in those six hours is left to you, but there were no enemies or survivors. Also, the post minimum is something I would rather you try to steer away from, endevour to post more than it.]