Crimson Canines (Complete!)

"We lost Sart four days ago in a storm." said the worker. "He just went off for a leak in the trees one night and didn't come back." The engineer pulled out some rations and offered some to Robert.


"There's also been sightings of a ghost of a man at night, usually by the trees too. It doesn't show up in the sensors, so it can't be alive. Some blokes tried investigating, but they didn't find any footprints either. 'Course, that could be because of the grass. It's deep and springy in these areas."


@CkSmalling
 
The pack of sharkwolves pounced on Vikram's mecha, cracking the glass of the cockpit under their heavy weight and flashing their deadly teeth. Slobber and hot mist formed on the surface of the cockpit as they tried to claw their way inside.


Loud snarling and growling surrounded him as the large creatures bit and pulled at the limbs with their razor teeth. Sensors were blaring red, warning that the cockpit glass was about to break.


Some distance way, the other pack of sharkwolves who were growling at Connor were now making worried whining sounds making sniffing motions at the baby sharkwolf in his mecha's arms.


@thespacekid, @Beowulf
 
As the herd of lysaurs marched away Caine saw the alpha led the charge as it went straight for him. "Oh shit." Caine brought his rifle to bear as he opened fire at the beasts ankles, trying to starve and herd it away. But it was clear he was doing nothing more then pinging shells off of it. He stood his ground in his mech as he waited for the last possible moment like a matador as he dodged out of the way of the colossus. Standing himself back and scanning the area with his rifle


@Zer0
 
"Hmmmm sights of a man at night? Seems a little cliche for a horror movie don't you think?" Robert said as he took some of the rations and started to eat them. "BTW, these rations are good. So about that man in the dark, what have you concluded to do about it? Looks like you have given upon him. There might be a way if we think deep enough you know. And besides we are here for some time."


@Zer0
 
The lysaur, carried by its momentum, ground to a halt many, many meters away from Caine. It was slow and clumsy, but it still wasn't stopping. @DJGomez, your character felt the earth shake and rattle as though there was an oncoming avalanche from the east. Your mecha's mini-map showed twelve large brown dots converging to your position apart from the charging lysaur.


"Command-stampede, stampede!" cried Grizzly Sloth as a wall of lysaurs two hundred meters away loomed out of the stormy darkness bellowing in panic and heading straight for the construction site.


"Squad on me!" said Artemis to the others as she landed her mecha half-way between the construction site and the stampede. "Caine, lead that lysaur in front of the herd! We're going to kill it and use it like a block. Get ready to focus all your fire on its head!" she rushed out of her mecha in the rain and planted all her mines in one place. They blinked red in the dark, armed, as she clambered back inside the cockpit and flew up joined by Grizzly Sloth.


A siren went off in the construction site and mechas assembled in front of the fence. Sniper shots rang out in the dark as the combat grade mechas on the hill began engaging the stampeding lysaurs.


"Friendlies, get out of the line of fire!" yelled Master Sergeant Axel's voice through Artemis, Grizzly, Caine, Simon, and Sarah's comms.


@CkSmalling, @Orpheus, @Commissar Darman
 
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Robert heard the sound of the siren and immediately jumped into his mecha and rushed to the fence. At the distance, he saw large animals conveying towards the construction site. He pressed a button on the console and the screen turned green, enabling night vision. "holy shit!!!!!!! Who on earth pissed off those huge beasts?" He said over comms as he took his sniper rifle and aimed towards the beasts. He fired a shot at one of the Lysaur and hit it on the leg but it kept on charging, unhurt. He heard Artemis over the comms saying to aim at the head and decided to do so. He took aim and missed. "Shit. Moving targets are a small challenge" He took a deep breath and aimed again. He fired one shot at the charging lysaur.


@Zer0
 
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"Yeah yeah, I know. Here you are." Connor said as he cautiously made his way over to the closest of the sharwolves, holding the pup in one outstretched arm. The thing was squirming around uncomfortably, and he couldn't blame it. Most large dogs didn't like getting picked up, it was just to strange to them. That was probably what was going on with the pup, but the large hand of the mech was able to keep it firm grip on it. When he was a couple feet away, he placed the pup on the ground and gently pushed it in the direction of the larger sharkwolf. "Go that way." he said to himself. If he could just wrap this up and have them on their way, that would be perfect.
 
Two sharkwolves approached the cub and nudged it affectionately, then snarled at Connor as if telling him to back off. One of them picked the cub up in its jaws and trotted away. The pack followed, but not without many suspicious backwards glances at Connor.


@Beowulf
 
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"Hey guys? Could I have a little help here? I'm getting kinda ripped apart." Vikram shouted into his comms system over the blaring siren. The glass was cracked, and threatened to give way as the sharktooths trampled on it, tried to bite their way through.


I'm a frenzy, Vikram tried to look around for an eject button.
 
Artemis detonated all ten of her anti-vehicle mines the moment the Lysaur charging at Caine stepped into range, blowing part of its massive foot off. The light of the explosion illuminated their surroundings as the lysaur toppled down into the ground in an earth-shaking crash.


"Fire!" yelled Artemis. A hail of bullets fell on the lysaur's head, as a ringing shot from Robert's sniper rifle in the distance pierced through its eye and out the other one. With her squad out of the line of fire, the line of mechas in front of the construction site fence barraged the stampede.


The herd of lysaurs gave frightened moans and tried to skid to a stop, but their fellows from behind crashed into them and about four stumbled into a heap over the fallen lysaur, while the others veered to the side only to fall dead as they were riddled by hundreds of bullets.


"Cease fire, cease fire!" came Master Sergeant Axel's voice. The great bodies of thirteen lysaurs lay motionless in front of the line of mechas looking like a cluster of hills.


Artemis flew over to Vikram with Grizzly Sloth and Komodo Rhino and together the three of them shot off the sharwolves on top of Vikram's mecha and frightened off the rest.


"Get up." said Komodo Rhino, pulling Vikram's mecha into a standing position.


"What happened to you?" sniggered Grizzly Sloth, looking at the damaged parts of the dual-blade master's machine.


Just then, Master Sergeant Axel's angry voice spat out through the comms. "Romanov, Sloth, Caine, Bishop, Strangecraft! Inside the men's barracks, now."


@CkSmalling

***

​



A few minutes later, Artemis Komodo Rhino, Vikram, and her mentioned teammates were having their ears chewed off by the master sergeant who was bellowing at them like a winded lysaur inside the empty men's barracks, though she could hear some people eavesdropping on the rant outside.


They had just finished telling him what happened, but he blamed them for the stampede nonetheless.


"Both your actions could have killed someone . . ." he seethed at Simon and Caine for startling the lysaur herd. "As for you, Sergeant," he rounded on Artemis, "I have no idea why command placed a woman in charge of a squad. One of your men even damaged his mecha for starting a fight with a pack of sharkwolves!"


Artemis just stared at the opposite wall in silence.


Master Sergeant Axel shook his head. "Komodo Rhino, you're mission leader for this squad now. You, woman, you're demoted to corporal."


Artemis blinked and her jaw dropped for a moment before she closed it again and resumed staring at the wall.


@thespacekid , @Orpheus , @Commissar Darman , @DJGomez
 
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Sarah just stood there. Everything went by in a blur and before she knew it, she was getting her ass chewed by the Master Sargent. well it wasn't so much as at her since most of the yelling was directed towards those who discharged their weapons and the Sargent and he seemed to either not notice or even care about her. Still, Sarah was bewildered that they were getting screamed at right now for that damn stampede. There were flayers in the area and here they are standing around waiting for this man to finish his rant. Waiting for the Master Sargent to stop talking Sarah took the opportunity. " Master Sargent, What about the Flayers?"
 
"What about them?" he snapped. "They're just scavengers, they're probably eating the lysaurs by now."


Apart from The Boss, and the I.S. Director, only those who were part of the rescue mission in the sunken Amber Fox base knew what the flayers actually were.


""You will all spend the rest of your stay here in sanitation and construction duty." said Master Sergeant Axel coldly. "Any more trouble and it'll be demotion for the entire squad. Dismissed."


@Commissar Darman
 
Robert's mouth went agape when he heard that Artemis was demoted. He felt anger age within him but he kept his cool and began chewing another piece of straw. He looked around to see he was not the only one who was surprised by the demotion. He listened to the new instructions but there was noting new. "Construction work ain't that bad. Looks like the scenic view of this place is off the schedule." He thought to himself as he was dismissed.


"Anyone was to grab a snack at the mess? I am kinda starving here."


@Zer0 @thespacekid ekid , @Orpheus , @Commissar Darman , @DJGomez @Beowulf
 
Caine stood at attention as he took his chewing out. He kept a straight face and made no movements. This wasn't his first lecture, and it wouldn't be his last. This Master Sergeant seemed more of a careerist then a professional. Didn't seem to understand that you trust your instincts over regulations and instruments. He still wasn't sure what he saw move in the tree. It could have just been one of these "Flayers" as they called them, but something told him it might have been something else. He still felt like it was something else that caused that stampede. He wasn't surprised to here the guy demote Artemis. It was clear it was some outdated sexism motive. He'd seen it before, most times guys like the master sergeant suffered unfortunate "accidents" while on patrol, or were killed by an "enemy ambush." When Caine was dismissed he went for the barracks and Layed on his bunk, closing his eyes for a cat nap.


@Zer0
 
Earth is truly beautiful, Evie decided. With so much to see, she took a later shift and spent the first part of the day sightseeing. She left the mech in the hangar and grabbed an umbrella and her notebook. Despite the rain, Evie walked out past the construction site up onto the hill, finding a good spot to watch the herds.


She settled down on the wet grass and Egan to sketch, struggling to keep the umbrella over the paper. It was futile, but most of the pages remained dry. I'm so lucky to see all this, she thought, looking down at the valley. It was almost like the dinosaur age all over again.


Evie lost track of time as she sat on the hill. Growing tired of the chatter, she removed her comm. She knew she wasn't supposed to take so much time off, but she promised to make it up later. Real rain! And all these creatures...


A slowly growing list of observations trailed down the side of her paper as she watched the herds. How they interacted... How the smaller animals seemed fine with being dwarfed by other animals... All of the notes were the first on these creatures, and Evie felt proud to write it down. Someday people might read these in their history books...


Suddenly, Evie noticed a disturbance in the herd. What's happening? Now she could see the mechs in among the creatures. Off to the side, a mech fired at a sharkwolf for no obvious reason, sparking rage in Evie. What are they thinking? More gunfire came from the herd and Evie saw with horror that some of the lysaurs were falling.


"No, stop!" she cried, standing suddenly but still helpless. "Stop!" Tears came to her eyes as she saw the seventh lysaur fall.


Turning she saw the alarms flashing in the distance at the base. Evie ditched her umbrella as she stumbled down the hill, slipping and falling in the mud. By the time she reached the base she was soaked and covered in mud, her eyes red. She tried in vain to pull herself together before the squadron was called together. Evie hid in the back of the crowd, hoping no one would notice her.


The Master Sergeant was hard the group, but Evie understood. What were they thinking attacking those animals? After the flayers, she thought they would know better than to mess with the wildlife. When the meeting was finished Evie made her way toward the door, hoping to leave before anyone noticed her. Hopefully none of them realized she had missed the action. What I really need is a shower...





OOC: I'm back!
 
In the females lockers Sarah stood there screaming as she punched the shit out of her locker. So many emotions were welling up inside her. Rage, helplessness, guilt, sadness, the list goes on. Finally quieting down, Sarah just placed her head against the locker door. she lost it out there, pulled a rookie move and freaked out. Never before had she been so scared that she froze but something about those flayers triggered something. Looking down at her hands, She noticed they were still shaking. watching her hands, Sarah finally realized what happened. She was Terrified of them, they way they look, how they move, how they attack, and the fact they can take over your body. She was absolutely terrified of them. Letting out a snort as a tear hit her hand, Sarah couldn't help but remember what the Master Sargent said. "Scavengers my ass." Pushing herself straight, Sarah then stripped out of her armor down to her undersuit. She needed to do something to take her mind off things. but she didn't know what to do so she just stood there, replaying the days events in her head.


(reference of undersuit XxX )
 
Vikram saw Artemis' expression from the side of his eyes and decided he needs to speak up. He had made a mistake and now someone else would have to suffer for it. "Sir, this is unfair. I know my punishment will be much worse, but you can't possibly punish Artemis for something I did. If anything, it was my incompetence that led to this." He looked Master Sergeant Axel in the eyes squarely.
 
Axel's head swiveled and he glared at Vikram as if he had just punched him. "Are you telling me what to do, son?" he snarled in a quiet deadly voice, a vein throbbing in his red temple. "Come here and say that again in my ear." The Sergeant Master pointed to the side of his own head and waited, daring Vikram to come up to him.


Artemis glanced at Vikram briefly and then ever so slightly shook her head, her eyes silently asking him not to do it.


@thespacekid
 
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Your character, @Commissar Darman , heard approaching footsteps. Seconds later, the door to the locker rooms opened and a couple of girls dashed in quickly from the bathrooms accompanied by another girl who was in a muddy suit.


"Where did you last see her?" asked one of the girl's worriedly, putting on her suit quickly. They seemed to not notice Sarah.


"Um, she was hauling off the lysaur corpses with the others an hour ago, after that s-she didn't reply to her comms and no one has seen her since then." replied the girl in a suit who sounded as though she was in tears. "You don't think she was d-dragged off by an animal while we weren't looking, do you?"


"I don't know." said another girl who was finishing up and jammed her helmet into place. "Did you tell an officer?"


"Yes, they're looking for her right now, but they haven't found her yet. Oh, this is just like that engineer again who went missing during a storm too. . ."
 
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Komodo Rhino took Robert up on his offer and joined him in the common room, he also invited Grizzly Sloth, Simon, and Evie. He also asked Artemis, but she just shook her head without replying and stared at the wall looking like she wanted to be left alone.


When they were out of earshot, he immediately asked Simon, "Did you kill all the flayers?"


@Orpheus, @CkSmalling , @Musical Dragon
 
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@DJGomez , while your character was napping in the barracks after everyone had been dismissed, something slimy and smelling like rotten meat latched onto your character's face, blinding and suffocating you. It had many slithering tentacles that wrapped itself quickly around your head and pierced your spine.


By the sound of muffled yells and clattering, it seemed as though the same thing was happening to the handful of guys who were staying in the room too. Yet the storm outside was louder than the noise they were making and no one came inside to help.
 
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Vikram glanced back at Artemis, steel in his eyes. He turned back to face Sergeant Master Axel. A drop of sweat formed on his brow as the big man growled his threat at him.


"With all due respect, sir, you may punish me for insolence as well, but please do not punish someone unjustly, sir!" Vikram stared into thin air pointedly, as if ignoring Axel would make him somehow disappear, and stood in stiff attention, hands stuck firmly to his sides.
 
A vicious backhand to Vikram's cheek followed his words, then a brutal kick to the solar plexus.


Artemis gritted her teeth and stared at the wall, clenching her shaking fists as the Master Sergeant beat Vikram in places that wouldn't show the bruises when he was wearing his suit. She knew that helping him was only going to land him in more trouble, and attacking a higher ranking officer was punishable by dishonorable discharge.


"Demotion to lance corporal, soldier." hissed Axel when Vikram was on the floor. "Unjust punishment . . ." he prowled around him, "who takes responsibility for the actions of their men? Their leader! Who will The Boss call after he hears of the stampede? Will it be you?-no, it's me . . . I've been given the mission to defend this area and I will not see it destroyed by some self-righteous trigger-happy marine!" he roared, his face now purple with anger.


@thespacekid
 
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The bitterness of the day left simon with a bad taste in his mouth. the events that played out kept repeating in his head over and over again. perhaps it was regret over his choice of action, or maybe the biting feeling that something didnt make sense he switched back to his regular uniform after the full blast of his superior towards him. he wasn't in the wrong, those flayers werent just scavengers they were more than that. they attacked Bishop in the blind darkness, and he saw they split into several groups afterwards. pretty cunning for a group of fleshy scavengers. he followed komodo with the rest of his squad to grab a snack nodding at Roberts offer he needed information, he needed a cool head, something is not right.


@Musical Dragon he fizzed out the carbonated soda he noticed Evie looking a bit under the weather. She mustve seen didnt she... was she even there? he wondered.... guess she heard the whole angry spiel when they got in trouble.... either way he decided to give her some of his soda so she could relax for a bit.


@Zer0 the moment he did he had heard of Komodos question about the flayers. adjusting his voice box her responded


"I did, at least I think i did. whatever those things are they attacked bishop, a small group of them latching onto her mech and reaching out for her External cockpit lever. i stabbed the one who tried to take the lever, and shook off a few latching on to her as well...."


He didn't know about Flayers, what they do, or what they really are. after this he needed to do some extensive research on the subject
 
Robert grabbed a coulpe of burgers and a large plate of fries and went to sit on a table at the far corner. He patiently waited for the rest of the crew to arrive so that he can ponder them with questions. Once they settled, he rose up and cleared his throat.


"If i may be so blunt, would someone care to explain what the hell happened in the field today? I just killed a Lysaur for no apparent reason and i would be grateful if at least someone gave me the heads up. I am sitting in the dark here and i would like to see the light."


@Zer0 @thespacekid , @Orpheus , @Commissar Darman , @DJGomez @Beowulf
 
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