[Occam's Razor] [Occam's Razor] Occam's Razor: The Colorado Incident

"USE IT!!"...Nadia heard Jace's voice roar over the sound of the descending hordes as the chain gun was hoisted through the air toward them. She was a little amazed at the fact that he managed to toss it back toward them, but then again he looked like he could. With Ethan now close to her side she went to grab the chain-gun, instantly happy that she had gotten her feet under her. It weighed a lot more than she might have anticipated, but it had looked damn heavy from the get-g0.


Get to the lift, Protect the civilian, don't wait for us...Those were words that Malcom had said, and although she had heard it all, there was one of those that she just could't do. She looked to Ethan. "Keep moving! Head for the lift and stay inside!" she yelled as she began to strap the chain-gun around her. It was a beast of machinery and she could only imagine how it was going to feel once she opened fire. Once she had it on her person she began to take slow steps backwards toward the lift, so as not to fall and to assure that she would have some balance if she needed to open fire. There was no way in hell that she was about to leave her comrades behind but she also had to be able to secure the lift and be able to provide adequate cover-fire for there hasty retreat.


She looked back quickly to gauge her distance to the lift, and making sure Ethan was still standing, and then turning back and focusing on the hall leading to the lift she tapped her comm. "You guys need to start making your way back here, I got the lift and the civ, and thanks to Jace..." a phrase she didn't think she utter, "I'll be able to cover you guys...stick to the left side of the wall as you come down, and I'll rain some death on these bastards." she lightly clicked the trigger just to hear the whirring of the barrels. Quite intimidating, even though she was the one brandishing the weapon. She moved all the way to the lift and the positioned herself just inside the lift to her left, making sure to have Ethan stand behind her, and making sure there would be enough space for the other two to run, slide, dive, or roll in.


"This lift doesn't leave until both of you are on it! Let's get in going!" she opted for a forceful tone into the comms rather than yelling, didn't want to throw them off while they in the middle of a melee battle with wave after waves of enemy combatants. She switched over just the CC channel. "Hey Captain, do you mind keeping me updated on their status and the number of enemies we got? There sure was a shitload and I don't think it's gotten any smaller down here. I got the lift and the civ secured, just got to wait for the two heroes of the group to high-tail it back here, and don't worry...we'll definitely all be coming back up there." she sturdied herself, making sure she had a firm base.
 
The situation was far worse then Malcom could have dreamed of, as he looked onto the wave of enemies, he shivered, thinking aloud, "We are so dead.."He looked back at Nadia, already soaked in blood, another of the creatures was trying to get past him, and it was taking all of his strength to hold the thing back. He kicked it's legs out from under it and growled inwardly before he crushed it's head in with his boot, he shouted down the hallway, "Get the civilian OUT Nadia, that is an Order!" He put as much emphasis as he could without yelling at her as he could as he buried his kukiri into the face of another of the creatures as it passed him by. Two more pressed against him as he yelled, "Jace, We need to fall back a bit, There are too many!" He was just out of reach of the man as the screaming horde pressed on. Seeming to ignore the both of them, intent on Nadia and Ethan.
 
Ugh! Damnit!!! she screamed in her head as she looked back at Ethan and then at the mob that seemed to be slowly swallowing them. Damnit! Damnit! Damnit! she cursed in her head as she looked to the lift panel. She had reserves about this order but she knew what was expected of her and what she must do. "F***!" she muttered under her breath as she slapped the corresponding button that would ascend them back to whence they had originally set off from. She could see that they were struggling and she wanted to fire down the hallway to at least give some sort of help, but with the weight of the gun and the lift slowly jerking to life, she wasn't confident she wouldn't accidentally hit one of them.


As the doors closed and the lift began to ascend, Nadia kicked at the sealed lift in frustration. She wasn't sure exactly what those two planned to do about the hordes they were facing, aside from a final stand, and she didn't like leaving the two men behind, even though she wasn't particularly fond of one. She hoped that Malcom had a plan of escape and hadn't just thought of the safety of civilian alone, but as it was, she had her orders and would worry about the other two once she got him safety back to the Command Center. "Woods, I'm coming up with the civ." she kept her tone even and unwavering, even though she felt like crap and was a little on edge at the turn of events.
 
Jace took out a second razer wire, whirling both of them around without much heed. He was now cutting down at least one more than normal but the creatures had started to somehow learn the rhythm at which they were being chucked. And so with a frustrated roar, Jace snapped his vision to Malcom. "Shut up and HELP ME!!" His second hand stopped whirling the wire around long enough to chuck a long, eighty pound coil of industrial 'steel-rope' at him. His belt now completely empty save for his gun. "Just make a NET! We need to funnel them. I know what I'm asking for, just do it!" He said this last part with distain, eyeing the support structure behind the both of them as well as the thick metal pipes that were anchored into the concrete walls. He knew very well that something that makeshift would not hold. Then again, he also knew that being able to funnel them, even for a second, would be fundamentally important to change their current situation. His face looked strained from all of the talking, as well as continued to practically juggle the spinning of the two coils of sharp wire. The thick steel rope that was slid across the ground to him was at least long enough for two 'loops' along the width of the hallway.


As he heard the lift start up he'd yell up as it was leaving. "Hey, army girl! Take a good look!" He'd say as he whipped the razer wire down in a crisscross pattern, then spun them in their continual movement into whirling side to side slashes. "The last you're going to see of me-" His voice was cut off as one of the creatures leaped, landing on its stomach on top of Jace's shoulder, getting a wire wrapped around its throat. And with a grunt, he'd yank it clear, rolling its head along the floor as he shifted his shoulder, throwing it off and starting to back up with a bit more pace. "-And my FINE ASS!! Rrrraaah-haah-haah-haaah!!!" After it was too far gone, Jace grunted out. "We're going to di-" He'd head-butt another creature in the face. "The F.U.C.K. off me!" His eyes not even looking back to see if Malcom was doing as asked yet. He just knew either way, they were screwed if they didn't have a plan. And seeing as how Jace was out of 'equipment', and seeing how the rest of it was in the duffle bag on the lift, this would probably be their last 'option'.
 
Woods swore as the console let off a delicate ping! as it finally managed to whip the cameras in the corridor into some semblance of working order.


He almost wished it hadn't. The sight before him filled him with an absolute, almost primal terror and dread. He watched as the slobbering macabre horde of vaguely humanesque figures descended upon his newfound allies. It gave him a sense of profound wrong and he couldn't prevent a strong wave of panic that nearly overcame him.


It took him all of his military training and martial arts discipline to beat it all down to something he could shove to the back of his mind. He'd probably need a shrink after all this apocalypse nonsense was over and done with, but it could wait.


He shook his head, focusing on the camera feeds. The cameras were the heavy duty, top-of-the-line stuff... Zero delay, no frame-skipping... Full color HD. He clenched his teeth in frustration, analyzing anything they could do to improve their situation... There was nothing he could see.


There was no way they'd survive if they didn't get out now.


'Woods, I'm coming up with the civ.'


Shit. There goes that brilliant plan.
 
Malcom was fast to react, the coil was in his hands and he went to work, He yelled out to Jace, "Catch." He tossed one of his two Kukiri towards the man, right into the head of one of the approaching monsters. He took the cord and looped it through a support beam, then wrapped it into a quick boleyn knot and then slid across the floor to the other side, he pulled the cord around the next pillar, and then wrapped it back up over a beam that jutted out, he repeated the process across the hall, moving back and forth, he shouted out, "You wanna move back, Or are you staying for the..." He paused to kick one of the creatures in the face as it tried to crawl passed Jace, but then he noticed it, all of the creatures were slowing, stopping, coming to a halt in their pursuit, even some of them were turning back. He frowned as they nearly retreated from Jace. He looked to the man and said, "Jace, Hold on, pull back a moment." He held the cord loosely in his hands, the frown still across his face, many of the creatures were moving into the vents, others still were pawing at the door at the end of the hall, trying to go back the way they had come.
 
Jace caught the blade with a snapped grip, causing the rubber to split around the sides of his right fist. The palm of both hands (for the short time they were open and visable) had deep lashes from where he had held onto the constantly-in-motion razor wire. His left hand went and grasped his make-shift knife as he seemed to wildly slash and cut into them. A sickening squelch echoed out of one of the creatures temples as he ripped the top of the skull off like the top of a chip canister. However that analogy would cease as soon as the brain matter, of course in place of the loose chips, would fly about. A second gut wrenching sloshing noise poured forth as his second blade tore through the belly of another creature, emptying the contents of its stomach onto the floor. Amidst them of course were several pieces of bone, flesh, and the most disturbing was a finger complete with a wedding ring; female.


Upon the order to move back, he'd surprisingly leaped back without hesitation, hoping they would keep coming and feed his crazed state further. He was highly disappointed, glaring at them as they seemed to ignore the two of them. Especially inducing his rage was the fact that making the 'net' now seemed like a worthless endeavor. "Hey!! Don't ignore me! This is the flesh you want, right? COME GET IT!!" He'd say with a spit in the direction of one of the humanoid being's face. His eyes, bloodshot and shaking in several directions, fell towards Malcom. His breath a constant huffing and puffing as a little bit of saliva strung itself outwards, dangling from his chin. "The hell is going on?"
 
Malcom let his arms drop to his sides, his face slowly paling, he stared at the hallway, shaking his head, "I... I don't know..." He slid the kukiri in his grasp back into it's sheath before he stumbled over to the wall with a slight shudder. After bracing himself against it, he let the natural reaction in his stomach take effect, and he vomited, despite there being little more then acid and bile. He shivered and shook his head, muttering, "Adreniline fatigue... Not going to be able to keep this pace up Jace." He pushed himself away from his own mess and took a look towards the lift, there was a second across the hall.


Malcom took several steps towards it before pausing, "When we were in New York... My squad was detailed to the city zoo. We came upon the lions... They had mutated, busted out." He made a face, "But they weren't killing any of the infected humans, they were just after my squad..." He wiped his mouth, he went on after a moment, "They ignored a guy in my squad, Alvarez, he'd been bitten by one of the infected humans, and he beat it's face so bad blood got into the cut... We figured out later..." He cleared his nose, rolling his shoulders as he then cleared his throat, "That the infection takes about two... Three hours or so, before it starts setting in, before they stop trying to kill you..." He looked to Jace, his face ashen, "How long ago did we kill the big one in the hall..." He whispered.
 
Jace looked the man over, knowing the kind of strain it was putting on him to keep going as he normally would. But in his every day struggle in the 'kill-or-be-killed' business, Jace's adrenaline was still pumping throughout his system. His eyes still giving the occasional erratic twitch as he came down from a Blood-High. "Couldn't tell you." Would be as detailed as he would get, looking over at the mess he had made and kicked at the finger that had been gutted out of the creature's stomach. And with a grunt, his foot came down, smashing the creature's head at the ear. "...Was more than an hour, though." He'd exhale, staggering sideways as he audibly growled, sticking his foot flat on the ground and forcing himself to upright again. His blood dripped from the knife and kukiri, forming little spots of red splatter on the ground. Quite thick for fresh wounds. "If I'm going to change into that-" he'd pause, grinning as his eyes dilated. "I'll make sure to kill as many before I do."
 
Malcom shook his head, He'd stepped over to the second lift and was looking it's door over carefully. It's door was jammed shut and he knew it would be a challenge just to tear the door open. He looked the hydraulic cam that held the door shut over and saw the obvious collapse of it's internal valves and bladders. He sighed and motioned to Jace, "Come over here, We need to get this damned door open." He put his boot against the ram's arm and levered as much pressure onto it as he could. What surprised him was that the metal tore, it didn't just buckle, it tore off. His face was cold as he reached down, grasping the shell of the ram in his hands, he wrenched it upwards and tore it off of it's housing. The jarring motion sent him off of his feet, and skidding across the floor slightly. He snorted, saying, "Just like Alvarez..." He looked over at Jace, asking, despite knowing it would sound like a rhetorical or philosophical question, "How well do you know your own sanity Jace..." His face was a mixed mask of dread and chilled training, "Because Alvarez put a nine to his own head and pulled the trigger after the whispers started... I don't know about you... But I've survived far too long for that... I'll kill them all before I do that."

-Flashback-

​



Malcom stared on in horror, the rest of his squad looking at one of their own squad, standing before them, his sidearm pressed against his chin, he was shaking, "Alvarez... Put it down... We can get you help... Just have to get you back to-" Alvarez cut him off, "With all due respect sir, I'm not sure I want to come back from this... Malcom... I can hear it... I can hear this shit in my head, It's like..." He closed his eyes for a moment, continuing as he shook, "Like a thousand million voices, screaming, and crying... I..." He started praying and then with a squeeze of his finger, Alvarez fell back. Malcom grit his teeth as the rest of his squad stood by. His fist was still held tight in a hold positions hand order. Alvarez had broken away from the group, and had appeared in front of a doorway just ahead of Malcom. He turned back to his squad and said, his voice choking back emotion, "Move out..."


-End Flashback-

​



Malcom threw the remains of the ram aside and stood up, moving to the door he started pushing against it. He nodded to Jace, "With as strong as you are physically, You could probably put your fist through a wall at this point, if it wasn't for how weak our skin and bones are..." He shrugged, then resumed working the door to little result. He nodded to the man again, "Care to help me out?"
 
Jace's eyes seemed to focus on Malcom's hands as he performed a double-take on what had just occurred. The man before him had just ripped a hydraulic cylinder off of a door meant to keep the creatures out. The same ones that were already within the area. This notion struck him more than the fact that he was even capable of doing so himself, knowing that if they could do it, those creatures had been capable of doing so as well. However at the inquiry as to how 'sane' he was, Jace audibly scoffed at the question. "Pffff... Listen to yourself." He said this in a mocking tone as he slowly walked over to said door, wiping the smile off of his own face as his eyes sharpened focus like an enraged gorilla's. "Every victim was someone I met. I got to look them in the eyes as I stole their lives. Every one ending the same way right at the end. Their eyes always had the same look of fear. And yet they always searched for some glimps of hope. I've killed more than a town's worth. And it was always after I got to hear their voice. Shouldn't the question you be asking right now be 'How much sanity does he have left'?" Of course Jace said 'he' as if he were speaking in a third person's point of view. "I don't think you could call this sane."


Jace grabbed the hydraulic cylinder and looked at the door as if he had some sort of idea. That being to use the metal bar like a lever. With a grunt and grit of his teeth, slamming the metal column into the wall on the other side of where it was tore from, he plunged the metal through the wall and out onto the other side. The veins in his arms, neck, and even in his arm-pits and those running along his sternum bulged out. And with a wrathful, wild, jerking motion, he ripped himself backwards, going head over heals rolling backwards as the door shifted with a pop. The thick metal rod slipping abruptly from his grip and banging itself along the floor behind Malcom, in between the two of them. The door of course would still be held up by how wedged it was. But it was now at least possible to pass through it. This action, of course, further cementing the ease at which he lobbed the chain-gun up onto the lift with the lot of them. However they'd find (if they used it) just how much kick the piece of equipment has, in addition to how hard it would be to aim it without a grounded pivot point. In fact, the chain gun was very much intended to be bolted onto a stand or a rotating platform the operator stands upon.
 
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With a sigh and a shrug, Malcom replied, "Were both killers Jace, Just when I did it, people called me a hero." He looked down into the shaft of the lift. It had been un-powered for a very long time, Malcom made a face and sighed, saying, "We know whats up Jace. We know very well what were going back to. That there are going to be questions raised..." He looked down into the shaft, then back to the man, "But you know something. When I looked at the motion sensor map of this place. The dot's near the bottom kept coming and going. There was a spot near the bottom..." He pulled his data pad out, having almost forgotten about it. He tapped it on, displaying the information of the facilities maps and the creatures that moved about. He motioned to the bottom, where the elevator shaft they were looking at would let out, "See... Right here." he tapped the shaft. "There isnt a control room, or anything. It just keeps going." He figured the man would catch on pretty quickly. "So before the monsters inside us get out. What do you say we find out whats at the bottom of that shaft..."
 
As the lift carried them up Nadia was cursing herself in her head the entire ride, and once it stopped she regained her composure. "Come on!" she shouted, a bit of anger and frustration slipping into her tone. She kept Ethan behind her as she hurried, to the best of her ability, while luging the giant gun. She had made Ethan pickup the other bag that had all the other weapons in it and bring it with as the traversed their way back to CC. "Woods, you there? We're almost to the CC, how are those two doing down there?" she was a bit worried. She was sweating profusely as she lumbered along toward the CC, and every moment that she wasn't able to help the others the more agitated she became.
 
The hiss of her cryo tube and amino nutrients exploding from her stomach and out through her mouth was not the wake-up Revelia had been looking forward to. That said, it also wasn't her worst wake-up with the number of times she'd, well, 'been legal on paper' at the bars. Still, it was far from pleasant, and as she was quickly realising that she was suffering from something else. She was completely numb.


It wasn't unheard of, per say. Apparently it could happen if the system thawed you out too quick. Your nerves still had to catch up and you were numb for the next ten minutes or so. No biggie, right?


"The hell happened to this place?"


Stumbling out of her tube to lean against her locker, Revelia couldn't help but marvel at the absolute mess that hall of tubes was in, or the number of corpses that littered the place. Quickly jerking her locker open, Revelia stripped off her cryo suit and started pulling on her real clothes. Albeit in a frustratingly slow and stumbling manner due to her numb nerves.


Once fully clothed, in her own clothes that she loved, Revelia grabbed her brother's dogtags and let them dangle in front of her. Stepping back to get a better look, her luck couldn't have gotten any better as something went flying by in front of her, knocking her on her butt. Doing her best to scramble around, Revelia found herself looking at something the size of, but most definitely not, and english bulldog. And to top it off, hanging from its jowls was her brother's tags.


Eyes narrowing, but knowing how nasty these things were before the freeze, Revelia scanned the ground for a weapon and quickly wrapped her hands around the small end of what seemed to have been someone's femur.


"Alright then, you little shit, those are mine!" she growled as she got back to her feet, brandishing her makeshift club threateningly. She knew better than to make the first move though, and sure enough her patience paid off. The creature lunged at her, and with her best swing she could muster in her condition Revelia smashed the thick end of the femur into its head.


"Huh, not nearly as tough as I remember you guys used to be. Bunch of patsys if you ask me."


Retrieving her brother's tags, Revelia noticed that she'd cut her hands on a crack in the femur, and that she hadn't noticed, meaning she hadn't regained feeling yet. Taking her cryo suit and finding some broken glass, she cut it into strips and quickly wrapped them around the femur to complete her makeshift weapon. Seconds later the sounds of more than one somethings came from further down the hall, and a quick glance up told Revelia all she needed to know. Scrambling up a cryotube, she couldn't help but grin as she took the high ground.


Now all there was to do was to wait, and hope she started feeling again soon. A dull throb from her cut hand told her that she wouldn't have to wait long.


The nearing scuffles told the same of whatever else was in the hall.


They sounded bigger than the puppy sized, pulverised punk she'd just killed.
 
"I hope you've got a damn good reason for abandoning your comrades in the line of duty, soldier." Woods barked into his comm, using the voice he reserved for recruits and his cat when ever he coughed a hair ball onto the carpet. Needless to say he was far from pleased by such behavior, especially from a fellow Ranger. Even if the Commander was a damn Jarhead Marine, he was still the current leader of the free world. And if he died... Well, Woods didn't want to have that kind of responsibility. Which is exactly why his ex had gotten him a cat, commitment issues...


He growled a little under his breath at the thought, world's gone to hell and two hundred years have passed, and the bitch was still haunting him. "I'm going to be nice and assume you acted under orders, since you were thoughtful enough to ask for his status." He grunted, looking to the 3D display and checking the cameras. They looked to be fine, and seemed to have accessed a second lift.


"Alpha is looking clean, Staff Sergeant. They appear to have secured an alternate route. How's Omega, ah, that is the civ?" Hw asked, his voice seemingly much calmer now that his comrades appeared to be safe. At least as safe as they could be in a sealed metal vault containing vast numbers of flesh-eating creatures, deep underground. It was a cheerful thought that seemed to bring with it a high chance of mental breakdown.


He tapped the comm to turn of his mic, sighing heavily. He hadn't been awake an hour and he already felt a bone-deep weariness settling in. Just what he needed, too. Wonder if the med-boys thought to stock some Motrin. He'd have to check later, he felt a migraine coming on.


Shrugging it off, he moved to the CC's door controls when the main console beeped, displaying a civilian marker somewhere on the fourth floor... Great, another liability.


"Computer, open the new Civ's file, and send a copy to the Commander's handheld. Just like last time, and see if you can't get me eyes on her. Oh, and reassign designation Omega to her as well."


The computer executed his commands without a word, which was spooky as hell. He'd grown used to it's robotic voice, even if it did appear to be vaguely insulting at times.


He tapped his comm, directing it towards Malcom. "Com- That is, Malcom, the fun isn't over yet. New civ, fresh off the ice. Female, nineteen, name Revelia Valentine. Brother was a Marine Scout Sniper. Looks like you'll have something to talk about when ya get her... Shit, which had better be soon. Scan's are showin' hostiles en route to her position. Level four." He tapped it again.


He backed away from the console, running his fingers through his close-cropped hair, hoping they reached her in time.
 
Malcom paused, and frowned as Wood's message came over the comm, "Great... Another one..." He tapped his comm open, saying into it, "Jace and I are on our way down, I sent Nadia up with the other civilian. See to them then switch out with Nadia, make your way to Jace and I soon as your..." He pulled his remote out and tapped the controls on it, pulling up the new civilians file. He looked at the locator and whistled, muttering, "That's a whole lot of red... And that's a whole mess of broken doors..." He memorized the route to her within a moment and looked to Jace, "Looks like we're back on the clock." He slid the remote away, looking to the shaft, "Down one floor then I guess." He remarked with a sigh, he and Jace would have to enter the ventalation shafts in the lift shaft and make their way to the far end of the facility, twenty whole sections between them. Quite the trek.
 
Nadia tapped her com to respond back to Woods as she trudged along the corridors to his location. "Yeah," she voice was a little low and had lost some of its fire, "I was ordered to leave and bring the civ back to the CC," the fire in her voice quickly returning, "Trust me, I didn't ask to be put on transport duty. I should still be down there with them...no offense." she said over her shoulder to Ethan as they continued toward the CC.


She was happy to hear that Alpha team was okay and let out a deep sigh of relief and hoped that they remained that way, knowing what kind of hell she had left them in. She wondered and hoped that there would be something she could do for them once she dropped off the civ, but knew that if so, she was going to have to unload the chain gun, she couldn't really maneuver as swiftly as she needed to while lugging this thing around. "The civ is fine, he may be a little bit overwhelmed by the situation at the moment, but he hasn't collapsed or anything yet," she looked back at him and smiled, "We'll be there in 5."


This wasn't exactly the situation in which she saw herself in and even more so that she would be up on a more secure floor and leaving her teammates behind to fend for themselves, orders or not she didn't like the current state of affairs. She was sweating like crazy and her muscles ached from totting the chain gun all this way, but her determination to do something for Malcom and Jace, who had both stayed behind in the mist of an army of mutated freaks, drove her to keep it moving and even pick up the pace a little bit.
 
Revelia felt every muscle in her body grow taut as the creatures moved closer to her perch. The plan was to leap off and crush the first one's skull and then deal with the second one. She knew there were two due to the sound of eight legs rhythmically thumping into the ground, and since the small one had four legs, it made sense that two adults would have eight legs total.


Unable to see, but listening intently, Revelia suddenly threw herself from her perch and cracked her club down on the first fleshy thing she saw. The experience was like swinging a metal bat at a brick wall, and she was happy her forearms and hands were still a little numb, because she knew they were hurting. Hitting the ground and rolling, she came up to find she had made a severe tactical error.


This was not like the little one.


This one had mandibles, and eight legs, and looked like a monstrous cross between a spider and a centipede covered in thick fur. It was also about a metre taller than her and now very, very angry.


Hefting her club up and holding it by the middle, she knew she had only one choice to make. Staring the beast down as it recovered from the blow, Revelia promptly flipped it the bird, spun about and bolted straight down the hallway with an eloquent 'Eff that shit!' echoing in her wake.


Making a break for the first door way Revelia spun around and, with a cocky grin tossed at the skittering beast, slammed her hand down on the control panel to close the door and watched...as absolutely nothing happened. Cursing again, the girl geared herself up for a run, about faced and continued down the hallway, hoping the size of the beast would at least somewhat impede it as it ran.


On the plus side, despite being a big one, it was still just one beast, so that was good.


For now.
 
Jace's expression took on a rollercoaster's worth of ups and downs. The thought of being able to go into the very 'root' of the problem did seem like fun in the eyes of this mad-man. But upon hearing the next words spoken from Malcom and Woods about the need to go save someone else, his happiness quickly faded. Of course the glum look on his face perked back up as he heard the emphasis on just how many there were. "Great... Another guy to get in my way-" He paused about the time that Woods had exposed the details as to the gender of who they were about to save. "What are we waiting for?! HOP TO IT!" He'd declare, not even listening past the part where he was informed she was 'legal' and took ahold of the bar of the hydraulic cylinder, as well as one of the pieces to it that had been torn apart and started to slam each one into the side of the deep 'well' that made up the length of the lift's shaft. And so down he would travel, one 'stab' at a time. The hydraulic cylinder in his right hand, the sharp metal (bent) bar in his left. If the cement shaft were swapped out with a frost-covered mountain, one would have thought Jace to be just another mountain climber. Except for using a pickaxe, he was using blunt metal rods.


On his way downwards, he would peer up at Malcom laughing. "So how many are there?" He'd ask, making sure to look back down at the knife and the Kukiri he had placed within the many thick belts he had on his own waist, knowing he might need them soon. "And how is she?" He'd ask, knowing that Malcom wouldn't want to keep things too secretive of the person's location and situation since they WERE going to said person to help them. If he heard anything about the girl being chase, Jace would pick up the pace without any hesitation. He would fight through all loss of breath, huffing and puffing as he made pace not unlike that of a man who was out to save his lover. Frantic-... Urgent. Of course this would also give Malcom another hint and 'leverage' as to how to deal with said maniac.


Though, if Malcom didn't say anything about her needing aid PRONTO, then Jace would keep his normal pace. And he would just whistle along, only to stop at ventelation shafts along the way as he made sure to be on the look out for which one to enter into. And upon doing so, would show just how much expertise he had at slinking through vents, making quite the pace but without so much as a single 'bang'. Using his hands themselves to pull on each side and slide his legs along the metal surface, keeping his boots up off of it as to not create more friction OR noise. This information would be given instead. Information as to how exactly he had been able to stalk the both of himself and Nidelia during the first incident of their meeting. Although if he was in such a rush upon hearing of her immediate danger, he wouldn't care about making noise. And would slam himself through the vent like a rabid monster.
 
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Malcom tucked his remote away, replying, "Surrounded, by many, with many more advancing." He took an alternate method, jumping from one corner to the next, carefully as he could be grasped hold of surrounding structure, and this method was probably what saved him. As they moved down, so too began the lift car that was above them on the top floor. Malcom was mid leap when he heard it, mid grasp when he realized what it was and he was flat against the wall when it was just overhead, he looked at it, in what seemed like slow motion, before sliding a meter down into a service hatch that was just large enough to contain him yelling, "The Car!" He would just barely make it to the hatch as the car sailed past, his heart racing as it did. He looked below, watching it tear the fourth, sixth, and ninth floor doors open before vanishing from even his improved eyesight. He sat there a moment, clinging to the wall, he opened his comm to Alexander and Nadia, "Really glad I sent you back with the civilian, no offense Nadia, but... You'd be at the bottom of a big hole right now if you were with us..." Without closing his comm, he looked to around to try to find Jace, "Still with me Jace?"
 
Jace made a huff, pulling himself back out of a ventilation shaft he had kicked and slid inwards, pulling the bars out and pulling his arms IN the vent just before the lift fell upon them. After all, he did have ahold of the metal bars that he was stabbing into the sides of said shaft. He would have been able to feel its decent from the vibrations it made as it plummeted towards them. But only JUST before it would have been too late by how fast it was dropping. "Yeah... Great heads up." He said this almost sarcastically before getting half-way out of the vent. "Can I get to her from here?" He'd ask with a bit of an antsy tone in his voice. Even though he was in a rush, he still wanted to know that he was going the right way. A sort of 'lemme at'em' kind of look to his eyes.
 
Malcom gauged the vent where Jace was and mulled it over in his head, they were on the right floor now, but across the facility from her, so he shrugged, "Not really, but it's the first step. Go out the shaft, into the hall, we need to..." He began climbing down again, being that he wasn't as low as Jace yet, "Get to the main access corridor, and head down to... I think it was block ten. Just get us out of this shaft and I'll lead you there." He was beside the vent now, waiting for Jace to slide in and make his way towards the exterior, back towards the hallways.
 
Nadia had just reached the CC when she heard Malcom over her comm. "I guess I should thank you then," a hint of sarcasm in her voice detectable, "Just be sure that you two make it back up here in 1 piece." She understood that it was the best possible move at the moment, but she was still a bit upset that she couldn't be down there in the fray with the others. She opened her comm to Woods as she lumbered the last few feet to the CC, "Woods, I'm here." She felt that the two down below were more than capable of handling there own and that it would only be a matter of time before they handled business and made their way back up, probably leaving the lower levels a bloody mess in their wake, Jace was down there after all.
 
The words 'It's the first step.' and 'I'll lead you there' would be all he needed to hear. And so he would turn himself around, moving head first through the vent as if he himself was a monster. If the woman made her way in his location, and he saw her through the vent, he would definitely waste no time in dropping in from above. However if that were not the case, he would simply do as told and drop into the largest corridor, knowing exactly the way those things looked. It was, after all, the means of getting to all of the other pods that branched off and forked out from the main hallway. And if this really was the case, Jace would have made his way through the vent with his lips pulled across his face, the communicator still quite on as he ushered out the most slimy words. "Don't worry, dame... Jace is comin' for ya'."


Once he found the area mentioned (or if something came across his way next to said place), he would drop down from the ceiling with a fist shoving its way through the slotted vent door and half-flipped down landing (on top of said creature if something did happen to cross his path) and started tapping his foot, arms crossed.
 
The relief was palpable as Revelia squeezed her way through a number of broken beam and cryo tubes that almost blocked off the next door way. Her small size meant that she could just barely get through, and the big ugly behind her would probably be left behind. As she reached the end of the pile and heaved herself over one last broken cryo tube she felt some latch onto her ankle. Turning about, she realised that the thing had reached through and grabbed her boot with a small pincer on the end of one of its legs.


Swing viciously, she did her best to beat the thing's grip off of her all while it thrashed on the other side of the wreckage. With one final swing it let go and slammed itself bodily into the other side of the barricade as Revelia took a step back, chest heaving, and fell into a seated position, her legs feeling like jelly.


"That's right punk. Y'don't have crap on me now. What're you gon' do?"


The rubble shook as the thing pounded harder and harder on the other end, and in the process a locker bent out of shape enough that a mil. spec. assault rifle came out, along with eight magazines of ammo. Laughing maniacally at the stroke of luck, Revelia scooped up the rifle and began to load it, noting that the persistent bugger on the other side was actually managing to break through rather well.


Just as she slammed home a magazine and pulled the charging handle, the creature forced it's head through the gap she herself had crawled through and roared. Leveling the rifle, Revelia pulled the trigger and a deafening bang echoed as the inner mechanisms broke and the outer side of the rifle exploded outward. Staring at the now ruined weapon dumbly for a minute, she decided to do the only thing she could think of with it.


She threw it straight into the face of the roaring beast, recollected her club and looked about wildly before seeing what seemed to be a maintenance closet. Dashing inside, Revelia pushed a couple shelves in front of the door and wedged them tightly before sitting in the furthest back corner.


Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her brother's tags and looked about the dark room as the loneliness started to creep in on her, and a few tears began to fall.
 
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