[gilga]

Things escalated very quickly and as a rumor arrived to the dance floor that the hive was exposed. If Ares already knew about the hive there was little room to keep appearances, many of the dancers started sporting terrifying tentacles and the doors were locked tight. That party just got a whole lot louder and wider as the horror cries of the soon to be bugs raised through the roof.

ICE texted >> I am not sure that I brought enough bullets, fight or flight people?

This was all he said before a nasty bug entered the toilets, ICE dispatched that bug with a full automatic burst and then instructed his spirits to make murder voices instead. That would buy them some time... he thought.  ICE had to admit that the girls got creative and warped themselves with blood and well - they looked... like sexy zombies.

ICE quickly wrote ---> "sexy zombie" as a costume to halloween. 

[Aria]

[Wednesday March 6th, 2075; Anarchy Nightclub, Tacoma, Seattle]

Frag it!  Dern made sure that only his own team could hear him as he spat a few invectives about shit intel and fragging amateur street runners…

“Parker, sanitise the club floor, nobody gets past the external marker, lethal response, we’ll deal with the fallout later!  Tell Commander Jones we are going to need that cordon after all, code Broken Glaive”

Keying the comm channel to put him back in touch with the runners

>>We are going to Neurostun the club floor.  Anything that is still standing in the next ten seconds is to be considered hostile!  We are entering the hive now, Plan A is already hosed, so clean up here and then follow us in!  I want a clear route back to the surface!

***

The Wolfhound drones sweeping the perimeter circled in and deployed the laser guided munitions in via blacked out windows or air vents…rather than titanic explosions there was the sound of breaking glass and then the hiss of escaping gas as the knock-out compound filled the main hall, barely heard over the pounding of the beat and the screams of the patrons that are only now beginning to realise that something is wrong…

***

#04  PP/1

[Jack_Spade]

[Wednesday March 6th, 2075; Anarchy Nightclub, manager's office Tacoma, Seattle]

<<Acknowledged.>>
"Damnit, this toy is not gonna cut it. Wait here, I'll be right back."
Kynos ignored the teeming masses of bugs and hybrids looking up from below and instead stormed of to the cellar, kicking in the cheap plastic door and half run, half fell down the stairs to his equipment stash. There was no time to don his armor, but the rifle was where it was supposed to be. Going by the position of the club owner's office, Kynos guessed where the trapdoor led to. And didn't you know, there was indeed a small locked fire door, leading to the lair. Without hesitation he sent a small burst at the lock, hopefully not hitting one of his trapped chummers. With another mighty kick he opened the door, despite the gunk that the bugs spread over the walls.
"On your feet soldiers."

[adamu]

Warned by Steel, Al rolled aside just in time to avoid the flaming form crashing to where he had just been lying. Scooting back a couple of meters on his ass, he gave a thumbs up to the troll above. He took a few seconds to enjoy the screeching, flailing spectacle of the burning man-bug, but the thing was tough, and when it became apparent that his agonized screams were going to continue for a while, Al turned to other tasks.

He spoke into his commlink, mouth close to the pick-up to be heard over the wails of the burner. <<Yeah, Cap'n, acknowledged is right. :Cept we's already done our own, uh, tactical insertation of the, um, subfloor stratums. So looks like y'all's gon' be watchin' our six. Do a good job, alrighty?>>

And then the big elf was in the room. "Reckon ya got ol' Al mixed up with someone else, kemo sabe," Al replied as he dragged himself painfully to his feet. Slipping on his brass knuckles, he took a good look around. The way their light source was writhing around made the shadows flicker and shift erratically, but it was clear the room they were in was no ordinary club cellar. The periphery of the chamber was lined with what could only be metahuman-sized coccoons. Most were open and empty, but corpses of half-emerged bad-merges with impossible anatomies were half-hanging from the walls here and there. He could see three passages - more like burrowed tunnels, really, but big enough to walk through - leading who-knew-where.

He called up to the troll: "Looks like the party's down here, giant amigo. You an' Ice Cream Man comin' down?"

[gilga]

ICE grabbed a box of ice cream and then stormed an orphan Segway, knocking the original occupant on the ground. He drove it through the dance floor, while shooting in the air above peoples head to prevent anyone from approaching the segway. His two hotties just giggled glading above the menace as if it did not disturb them. This world was nothing but a dream to them... an erotic horror movie perhaps.

ICE crushed the segway through the cellar door, and then crushed into whatever was on the other side. He stood up, dusted his leather jacket and with a serious note he asked "Ice cream anyone?" pointing to a box of ice cream that remained intact. Without looking for approval, and understanding that he may be dead in a few seconds anyhow, ICE took an ice cream cone and begun licking the chocolate flavored ice cream. He enjoyed it as if it was his last meal - and perhaps it was.
 

[Mercy Merchant]

Steel looks over the edge of the pit and sees Al and Kynos below him.  "What about the bugs in the main room?  Just leave them or stay and take care of them?"

[Jack_Spade]

"If you don't mind, take out one after the other." Kynos called up, reaching out a hand towards the little man, to help him stand up.

[Beta]

The flaming corpse cast enough light to cause Vish’s eyes to shift back to normal vision while he dove out of line with the door.  When the shooting stopped and his sight had stabilized , he was relieved to see that the movements he’d heard were just normal bugs feasting on the remains in the room.

But the remains of the failed transformation …. those were stomach turning.  Vish’s years of discipline kept him from adding to the mess, and apparently Al’s life had rendered him immune to such horrors.  One particular case held his eye – except where chitin coated its head the entire six limbed body was writing with maggots except where it was being harvested by roaches.  It was a distracting enough site that at first Vish missed the truly disturbing part.

He called out, loud enough to be heard above as below,  “Hard hats and overalls.  Looks like they were changing construction workers of some kind.  Does anyone else find bugs who know construction to be an extra-disturbing idea?”

After a moment he added “And if one of you could open up the ice cream tubs and toss me down my Uzi, I would be most appreciative.  It seems safe enough down here right now, but I find a trustworthy weapon helps bring calmness to my spirit.”

Before anyone could answer the maggot infested corpse groaned and rolled up onto four limbs, staggering towards the dwarf’s voice while scything the exposed bones of its remaining two limbs back and forth in front of it.

[adamu]

"Much obliged, keebo sabe," Al said, accepting the proferred hand. He was fully upright before he'd flexed his legs, hauled to his feet weightlessly by the augmented elf.

He was in the middle of another coughing fit when his eyes followed Vish's gaze...

[Jack_Spade]

From the perspective below the three runners could vaguely see the troll begin to fight in earnest, his two monoswords flashed faster than the unaugmented eye could follow and when he fell back into his starting stance it suddenly rained the remains of one of the bodyguards that had entered the room immediately after the screams of their boss had drawn them in.

Kynos tried counting the footsteps he heard from above but gave up: A fucking army began to fill the upstairs room...

[Mercy Merchant]

Steel grinned as the door opened and more of the bugs began to shoulder into the room.  The pit in the floor narrowed their approach, at least until one started to climb the wall in an attempt to use the wall and ceiling as a path around the pit.  Steel holds his swords in the ready position, not wasting effort or muscle as he waits for the next bug to get within range.  He yells out in response to Kynos' words.  "Looks like I got a few to take care of, Boss.  I will let you know when I am done up here.  Everyone else down there with you by now?"

[Aria]

[Wednesday March 6th, 2075; Anarchy Nightclub, Tacoma, Seattle]
 
The scene becomes nightmarish as the upper levels of the building are wreathed in choking white smoke that soon renders the majority of the patrons unconscious...bodies slumped against one another on the dance floor and in the corridors...it is the ones that remain standing that will stick in the mind though, hideous parodies of the host bodies they were concealed within, the chitinous beasts swarm forwards in ripped glad rags, mini skirts and crop tops revealing all too clearly the bugs within...mandibles chattering an unintelligible but strangely alluring beat that clearly communicate their desire to either add you to their number or to feed their impregnated young...
 
***
 
#05  PP/1

[Jack_Spade]

"I think I need to change into something more comfortable. I suggest you follow me and we create a chokepoint to nullify their advantage in numbers."
Falling back into his military speech pattern came back as second nature to Kynos. It was a bit funny how fast this had escalated - and it hadn't even been him throwing the first punch. 'Must be getting old'
Without haste but with the speed of years of practice, Kynos moved back into the storage cellar, leaned his rifle against the wall and slipped on his Armor Jacket and Helmet.
Picking up his rifle again he yelled: "Fall back, we have to clean house before we can start on the tunnels."
With that he pulled the trigger, shooting at a grotesque flesh form trying to storm down the stairs

[adamu]

Al stepped aside to make a landing space for the giant troll in case he decided to drop down with them as directed - apparently the soldier-Spock was giving the orders, which was fine with Al, but he wasn't sure yet who else would be following them.

His movement took him away from the dwarf and his new maggot-infested friend, but Al figured the little guy could handle one bug himself or he wouldn't have been invited to the party. So he moved over to help with this chokepoint thing they were supposed to be doing. With the keeb going at the descending bugs with some grade-A bang-bang, and with his own shotgun still in the ice cream truck, Al figured he could watch the guy's back, tangle with any bugs that got past his assault rifle's barrage.

It was, in fact, a plan calculated to leave him with a few moments to light a fresh Lucky Strike and contemplate the carnage intensifying around him. Sadly, however, he'd barely put flame to cigarette when something that might once have been the DJ skittered along the roof to right over the elf's head. Al jumped up, grabbed a leg, and yanked the thing down before it could drop on the guy, then leaped onto it and started pummelling like a madman. As his mangled fists worked up and down like pistons, he muttered some sort of glossalolic chant around the cigarette clamped between his teeth..

[Beta]

Seeing his Uzi not miraculously get tossed to him, Vish wisely decides to protect the group's most magical asset, and hurries to the other room, [ossing a chaotic world spell into the room he was vacating.

The spirit-ridden shambles of a body that had keyed in on his voice seemed initially confused by the bursts of sound all around the room, but then seemed to have heard the gunfire, and started following that.