Thread: Carnal Universe (PsionicCuttlefish & Queen Chaos)

Town Hall Lissa and Jade made fairly swift early progress as they began sweeping the top floor offices of the town hall. Every vine they shot recoiled and retreated from them, peeling leaves and moss back as the floral super-organism tried to protect itself from whatever was harming pieces of it. Several of the offices the pair checked were indeed filled with vines and flowers that tried to reach for them, but a grenade or a generous spray of gunfire got the plant to vacate itself from each room in a hurry. Each part of the plant retreated through broken holes in the walls, floors, and ceiling of the complex, not to return after the duo of warrior women torched what they could. But what Lissa and Jade didn't know was that they weren't harming the super-plant, not really. It gave the appearance of their efforts having an effect, but in reality there was far too much of it to meaningfully effect with two sources of small-arms fire. Its tendrils had woven through nearly the entire superstructure of the building, and it was merely shuffling itself around a little as the sniper-grenadier and CQC shotgunner blasted away plant after plant. They descended to the next floor, where the plants seemed to be a little thicker. But no matter where they went, the halls and rooms were devoid of any life other than alien greenery. And the plant had finished shuffling itself around inside the walls, its snare unseen. Cassandra knew about this alien flora. If Lissa and Jade had, then they almost certainly wouldn't want to risk themselves in 'distracting' it, even if they thought they could handle it. But then, the super-plant sprung its 'ambush' for ensnaring prey. As Jade turned a corner into a new room, a vine that ended in a large red flower-bulb reached for her. It moved like any of the other vines, that is, slow enough for Jade's hair-trigger on her shotgun to blast the thing at near-point-blank range. But when her shotgun ruptured the closed flower-bulb, it erupted, expelling a large, thick cloud of pink pollen! Lissa was fortunately just far enough back that she could backpedal out of the expanding cloud if she tried, but Jade wasn't so lucky, and was quickly engulfed by the haze of particles. The moment Jade inhaled any of the pink pollen, she began to feel woozy and dizzy... Research Facility Once the super-plant suitably distracted elsewhere had retreated enough of the vines from the main door of the research facility to allow Cassandra access, things seemed fairly easy going. Ruined vines littered the facility, the aftermath of whoever had gotten here before Cassandra. Much of the desks and computers were likewise wrecked by firearms damage. However, it didn't take Cassandra too long to find the party, guided by the inside information that she had to the most critical research vault. As she approached a corner near the vault entrance, she suddenly heard voices speaking...ones that were definitely not human. ...days, four fucking days holding this position and keeping the damn plant at bay, when it was supposed to clear us a straight path to the goods. You said you'd have that fucking door open by now. Now you're saying you need another ten hours before those damn security locks are disabled? What do I pay you for, you worthless sack of shit? One gruff voice said, in a very notably unhappy tone. A second voice replied, slightly higher but still gruff, and in an indignant tone. It's not my fault! Bastards went state-of-the-art on this thing. Hell, I think this vault was here before the collapse of the pinkskin's empire, I've never seen a system this sophisticated before, and I don't think a post-collapse faction could've built it from scratch. There's layers upon layers of encryption and authentication, each hiding a nasty surprise. After the most recent setback and what I've learned of the system because of it, at this point, I'm pretty sure that if I make one wrong move in slicing the system that actually trips the security protocols? This whole place is rigged to open up a can of instant sunshine, if you catch my drift. If I don't take this slow, I might make a mistake. Do you want to get the payday, or do you want a miniature star in your face? There was a pause before Cassandra heard the first voice again. ...Fine. Keep at it. At least the plant seems to have been trying less and less to get at us. We've got enough provisions to last a bit longer. The voices then quieted down, and once Cassandra crept forward enough to investigate, she could get a look around the corner and down the corridor. Cassandra could see four individuals who appeared to have set up a 'base camp' of crates of supplies in front of a large and impressive-looking vault door, that looked to be made of capital-ship-grade metal. The four individuals in question had vaguely bat-like faces, and rough-furred brown bodies, underneath suits of tactical armor. Ah, so it was a band of Gloroth who were trying to get the data core. One Gloroth was elbow-deep in a disassembled panel around the vault door, one of multiple disassembled panels, all hooked up to portable computers. One Gloroth looked like the leader, as he was standing up and carried himself like he was important. There were two others, one sitting down and manning a deployable turret--though his attention was dawn to his leader's tirade behind him, and he wasn't looking in Cassandra's direction. The fourth Gloroth was in a wilderness sleeping-sack, and looked like he had been woken up by his leader's rant, as the fourth one looked grouchy and seemed to be trying to get back to sleep. Cassandra had the opportunity to plan how she was going to proceed...