[The Galactic Depression: Breaking the Chains]

[Luke Lavin]

OOC: This is the only OOC post I wish to see in this thread.  This is for the people that skipped the Galaxt Depression in the setting Forge and OOC chat.

Rules:
#1 Read Galaxy Depression in setting forge so you know what this is about.
#2 My word is law.
#3 Put tid bits and any technology you introduce that follows the concepts in of this thread in the OOC thread.
#4 Follow the Rules.

Begin.


A red siren light flared marking the end of a very long day for miner Amos Knight.  He hefted the power hammer on his shoulder and headed down the tunnel back to security checkpoint.  He waved at another red Powersuited miner who came out of a branching tunnel.

"d**n Warden had me up working near of vein of cordite the whole day." Duke's voice buzzed across the tight beam transmiter that allowed for communication in the mineral filled mines.  

"How is your suit?" Amos grunted in reply, a certain amount of worry in his voice.  Cordite was highly corrisive and was used in it's liquid state for high energy batteries.  The guards made any miner with a damaged suit repair it himself in detention.  Which usually meant missing meal period and loosing presicious hours.

"I think I got some damage on my left manipulator some of the sutff liquified when I was extracting some and burned part of my elbow actuator." Duke groaned back.  

Amos nodded his head sympatheticly, guards were brutal on the miners especially if they could find something to make life more miserable for them, it was the only joy they could take.

As they approached the security checkpoint a blue powersuited guard waving a stun baton menacing grinned. "Well, well what have we here?"

"Come on man I've been in that d**n cordite tunnel for eightteen hours let me off will ya?" Duke muttered, "You don't want to me messing with me today."

"What is that insubordination I here?!  Here's some mercy for ya!"  The guard raised the stun baton and meant to bring down on Duke, letting the electricity fry him.  

"Bad move, ass clown." Duke shouted, grabbing the baton he snapped it out of the guards grip.  He shoved it in the guards face plate and flipped it on, then shoved it further stabbing the electryfing spokes into the guards helmet there was a muffled scream and the guard dropped his face plate.  

"Holy s**t, man!" Amos shouted.  

"Amos take this," Duke handed him the 12mm auto pistol the guard had for back up.  "I'm part of Faction 1105 and the revolution is beginning now, brother."

[Alec_Shadowkin]

This shift is finally almost over! He thought to himself. Twelve hours of watching security camera feeds and tracking securiy equipment malfunction had Krya's brain almost fried. He moved his light blue hand toward a selector knob and switched the main monitor to a camera in shaft 18.

But what was this?! He leaned in toward the monitor and stared wide eyed and slack-jawed as a miner grabbed a guard's baton and killed him with it. Krya gasped as the miner tossed the guard's auto-pistol to his companion. Was this guy crazy? How did he expect to get away with this?! The guards would kill them all!

Krya began switching the other monitors to other cameras in shaft 18, not wanting to lose sight of these mutinous miners. If only they could survive long enough to gain support from the othe miners, or maybe even that Faction 1105 that everyone heard rumors about. Imagine if they could over throw the guards and take over the mines.....

[Luke Lavin]

It was only few seconds before the guards at the next station arrived they came with stun batons out.  Obviouslt they hadn't Amos yet only Duke, the guards didn't even bother hurling curses they came at Duke with batons waving menacly.  Duke's words rang in Amos' ears.  Faction 1105.  Revolution.  Yes, he did owe these basterds some pay back, whole friggin cart loads of pay back.  Amos walked through the security check point grinning of course for the camera.  

"Who is the digging their own grave now, punk." Amos said quoting a favorite holomovie he had seen.  Then pulled the trigger, the first two shots went ride to the right the third shot grazed the guards helmet, the fourth him in the left side of his forhead and took away half his brain.  The pistol's ammunition preserver clicked to stop him from emptying the clip.  A second guard started for his pistol while the third came running at Duke with the stun baton.  

Just as the second guard got his pistol out Amos squeezed the trigger again his aim better this time he fired only two shots.  The first shot went between his legs and plowed into the rock floor, the second shot kneecapped the guard.  Duke met the third guard head and blocked stun baton swing with his baton and shoulder the man into the rock.  Miner's powersuits were bulky and more powerful that had to deal with the hazards of mining.  Singsing knew that dead workers were workers not working so it kept them better equiped than most of it's employees for survival in hazerdous enviroments.  The powersuit smashed the man into a pulp in his light padded armor vacsuit against the rock wall.  

"Good ridance," Duke mutterd.  He walked over to the wailing security guard took his pistol and executed him with his own gun which he had forgotten.  

"Nice work, Amos."

"Thanks," Amos said riding down his adrenilin rush.  

"We need to get out of this mine and into the barracks and free our other brothers and sisters and spread the revolution." Duke said handing amos two clips he had picked up from the guard and taking the third guard's gun and spare clip that he had dropped.

"Alright but I once this is done I want to take down the Warden.  Too many years have been wasted here with forced labor."  Amos said bloodlust in his voice.

"Don't worry Amos, we'll get that basterd and alot of other basterds too.  Alot of punishment needs to be spread around here." Duke replied, "The lift shaft is upahead lets go and see if any others are left."

[Shadoweagle]

About halfway to the lift shaft, Amos and Duke were greeted with an interesting sight. A miner in full gear, was holding a guard against the wall and a few inches off the floor by the throat. The guard had a stun-baton in hand, but for some reason was not using it. As the two get closer, they would notice the reason for this: The miners glove was not on the hand he was choking with, and the neck of the guard seemed to be... well, decomposing at an alarming rate. The Sychrian miner was using his biological manipulation gift as a weapon, destroying the mans throat. A few seconds later, the guard slumped dead to the ground - his head only half-attatched to his body - followed closely by the miner, who fell to his knees, exhausted by his effort. He rose his hands to his miners helm and drew it off. Black, matted hair was mixed with sweat and blood, and his black eyes were half-closed. Though he looked extremely similar to a human, it was obvious by his actions that he was Sychrian.

At the sound of Duke and Amos's footsteps however, The exhausted miner scrambled up to a standing position, before stumbling and lowering to a kneel, too tired to stand for the moment. He backed away slightly, raising his hands protectively in front of him. "Wait! Please! He... he threw me against the wall for no reason! He deserved it! I... Don't kill me!"

[Luke Lavin]

Duke pulled back his helmet screen revealing a pale face that bulged with muscles, red firey hair and stuble covered his head and face. But his face instead of anger greeted the man with a smile full of joy.  Amos mimiced his motion revealing pale white skin over thick muscles but he had hazel eyes contrasting to Duke's own green, and slightly longer black hair.  

"My brother do not worry about what you have done to this beast surely deserved that death more than anyone.  I am Duke and this is comrad Amos we are Faction 1105 and I tell you the Revolution has begun!"  Duke said, he had a distinct flair for drama.  

"Join with us friend we are going to free our brothers and sisters in the barrack and spread the revolution.  Anyone who has been ground under the heal of these evil creatures who mimic humans but do not have human feelings."  Duke said.

Amos extended his hand a gesture of distinct trust since most people were afraid of Sychrians touching them.  "Tonight is the beginning of new era, lets make it happen."  

"Take cover comrads here they come!" Duke said pulling his helmet screen down.  The elevator came down with four guards three had riot shields and pistols and one wielded a shotgun.  

Amos bent low and quickly handed the dead guard's autopistol to the Sychrian pushing him behind a stalagmite. Amos grabbed cover behing a nook in the wall while Duke took cover behind another stalagmite.  "Get ready!"

[Shadoweagle]

The Sychrian took all this in with an almost unbelieving expression, but he nodded and took Amos's hand, rising up once more, and this time staying standing. He was then pushed behind the stalagmite. The man coughed slightly, then nodded once more. His grip tightened on the autopistol and he swung head and arm quickly around the stalagmite, firing four potshots at two of the guards with shields. First shot aimed at the upper part of the first guards riot shield, then the next at his left ankle whilst the shield was raised in defence. The next two shots were similar, but on the second guard. His aim was fairly good, though not perfect - he had used pistols some times before, but not for the last few years and he was out of practice. He kept his head out just long enough to see whether or not his shots hit their mark, before ducking back in behind the spike of rock. The exhausted Sychrian coughed once more, before speaking, "I am Hyroth, by the way. In case I die before you know me."

[Luke Lavin]

Amos nodded, and shouted. "Good to meet you, today is a good day to for them to die!"  He leaned out of his nook and fired two quick shots one which clipped a guards shield the other bouced off the elevator's back wall and hit the shotgun toter but it had lost to much velocity from bouncing and didn't penetrate the man's padded armor.  

Duke who hadn't bothered with his gun had snagged an explosive pack out of a cargo pocket, primed it and leaned out to throw the packet.  But the shotgun toting guard had leaned between his two uninjured pals and got off a shot.  The small tunnel confines made it dealy the explosive got hit and detonated.  It was a small incineration charge meant for tactical use it completely disintergrated everything in a one meter radius.  Duke was dead before he knew what happened.  

Amos screamed inarticulate rage, Duke had been one of his only friends on this rock, fanactical yes but a friend.  Whatever reservations Amos had had before were forgotten he rolled forward.  Ejecting the empty clip and loading the spare Duke had given him.  He fired the full four rounf burst into the shotgun toting guard who fell back dead two shots to the head one in the groin and one in the left arm.  Amos had gotten close enough he snaked his foot in fluid motion tripping the closet guard and triggering a three shot burst two hit the shield but the guard had lowered it to protect his feet from getting tripped and the last shot grazed his and punching a hole in the jugular vein.  Blood geyzered everywhere.  

Amos rolled on top of the downed guards shield and and stuck his gun in the guard's face plate and trigged the gun the bullet smashed through the glass and lodged in the guards nasal cavity for the coup de grace.   The guard was killed by the glass that cut into his eye and frontal lobe of his brain.  Amos stood up blood splattered.  Not quite knowing what he had done Amos leaned against the elevator door breathing heavily clenching and unclenching his fist.  

He stood for a full minute.  Then turned to Hyroth, "Let's go there's alot of blood that needs to be spilled." Amos said grimly.  He ejected his empty magazine and picked one off a guard and picked up the guards pistol holding one in each hand.

[Alec_Shadowkin]

The miners were still alive! Krya madly switched cameras, trying to keep them in view. The had killed a number more guards, found another miner to join them and then lost one of them as the miner was blown up. The other human guard went berzerk and slaughtered the three guards with amazing skill.

Krya's blue fingers flew on the console as he hacked into the security intercom at the base of the elevator. He wanted to talk to them, to talk to them if he could. Find out what was going on..... there! He had a live feed to and from the intercom.

"Miners! I am a friend. Do not be alarmed. I am watching you on the security feeds and have seen what you've done. I will not turn you in. I hate SingSing as well, and I will help you." He took his hand off the button, waiting anxiously for a reply from the two miners.....

[Shadoweagle]

Hyroth felt ill. Not more than 10 minutes ago, he was working as he had done for a long time. Now, he had killed three people,  joined in a large-scale revolution, and seen an ally blown into little more than segments of flesh right near him. It was enough to make him vomit, which he almost did, but managed to swallow it back for now. The brutal attack by Amos had unnerved him a bit too, but he was empathic - if a friend of HIS had just been eradicated, he might well act in a similar manner.

The Sychrian checked the counter at the rear of his weapon - two bullets remaining. He threw the pistol down and took up the shotgun, which had a good seven spare shots, in his right hand, and collected a riot shield. An awkward combination of gear, yes, but the Sychrian could manage. "Okay, lets go."
He hadnt taken a few steps, however, before the voice echoed down the mine from the intercom. He didnt speak, merely looking to Amos questioningly - Hyroth did not know what to do - this was Amos's call.

[Luke Lavin]

Amos stared darkly at the speaker, weighing decisions.  He turned back to Hyroth, "I don't think we can afford to pick and choose our allies.  I say we listen to him for now."

Amos pulled back his helmet and rested the comm headset that was on a wire in the elevator's comm booth.  "So do you have a name, friend?  We're trying to get to the barracks to free our other comrads, can you give us any help with that?"

[Alec_Shadowkin]

Krya waited anxiously as the two miners clearly weighed their hesitation to speak with him, then the original rebel began speaking.

"My name is Krya, I am a Rish and I work as a security systems monitor. I happen to be quite good at hacking, and I hate the corporation as much as you obviously do. I'll give any help I can provide, with the understanding that you will free me as well, once we get the barracks cleared. To begin with I can disable the defense systems outside the barracks, as well as give you details about guard movements and obstacles, plus I should be able to hack into corporate systems and get any access codes you need, among other information. Do we have a deal?"

[Luke Lavin]

"Deal, when we free our friends we should have enough firepower to come break you out too.  I'm not sure how secure this elevator phone is, once we can get to  another guard checkpoint I'll contact you on a secure line.  OH and I am Amos this is Hyroth.  After freeing you and the rest we can work out a plan to get off this rock."  Amos set the headset down and mashed the up button on the elevator. The elevator hissed then lifted up the long shaft.  It was more than a five hundred foot climb to the top.  

Sounds of machine gun fire and heavy machinery whirring came from above towards the end of the shaft.

[Luke Lavin]

As the shaft cleared the ledge of the top Amos could see what was going on.  A large mine tunnel at the opposite end was filled with guards equiped with a wide assortment of weapons.  Three miners had taken the elevator by dumping storage crates infront of where it left off and taking cover behind those. The roar of machinery and moving parts came from down the tunnel.  A huge Ripper class tank moved behind, a ponderous two legged beast, normaly it would carry a duet of 40mm cannons or one 80mm cannon.  For safety instead this version carried an undercarriage gattling gun.  It was thirty feet down the tunnel still but allowed to get farther it would get into the common area and Amos didn't care to think about that.  

Amos looked around wildy for a second, mine tunnel, sceurity checkpoint, conveyor belt.  Wait... The security check points had door controls...

[Alec_Shadowkin]

Krya rapidly switched camera's, wanting a look at the top of the elevator before the rebels got there. The Ripper was going to cause them an awful lot of trouble, but... there! A security door. He couldn't tell the two miners to use it, he'd just have to hope they weren't stupid, but he could at least unlock it for them.

His fingers flew across the panels as he located the door controls and hacked into them. These were rather simple, and it was only a few more seconds before the doors began to quietly side open....

[Scrasamax]

Cary Ripton sat behind the control console of the cordite hauler, the electrostatic engine hissing and popping as the core turbine hummed a deeper baritone. The console blinked with half a dozen warning and system failure lights, just a normal day. The power coupling between the battery cells was running hot, nearly 250 degrees F, the right illumination display was down, the intercomm/radio was dead and had been for the last six months. Motorpool was a joke, just a bunch of drug dazed gearheads with a little corporate seniority, bunch of lazt bastards. He tapped several diagnostic keys and dropped the hauler back into drive gear.

The onboard computer, older than his grandfather began running futile diagnostics, but it would shut up for an hour or two. That might give him some time to think. The manual for the hauler was hard to read, and the diagrams of the power coupling cooling line made his hurt. The intercomm was beyond his meagre skill to fix, but he was lucky that he wasn't like one of the suitjocks who actually had to mine the stuff out of the earth, and had to repair their own suits.

He pulled a small strip of paper out of his sock, several small words were imprinted on it, in the miniscule type of a manual typewriter, something not attached to the planetary/SingSing network.

Faction 1105 the Revolution is Begining

He looked up to see several suitjocks ahead at one of the security doors. Bearing down on them was a Corptank, a triple gunned beast.

Cary said a very nasty word.

[Shadoweagle]

Hyroth took a few moments to take in the situation, and a few more to ease the pain in his gut. Since this whole ordeal had started, he had constantly felt as though he was about to empty the contents of his stomach. the Sychrians gaze fell onto that security door which had just opened, and the moment he noticed nobody was immediately on the other side of it, he gave his fellow miner a nudge, then ran for it, hoping Amos would follow his example. As he ran, he shifted the shield on his arm to face the direction of the miners and rippers. All he had to do was provide enough cover for the both of them until they reached the door.

[Luke Lavin]

Amos quickly weiched his choices he and Hyroth could make an escape of relative ease by going out the security door.  But that would leave the rest of the miners in a porbaly suicicdal battle with the Ripper.  Amos looked around, the security door was bout twenty feet from their cover, the security checkpoint was another twenty to the left of that.  The Ripper and guards were on the opposite side of the room but had heavier weapons but couldn't brake out of the tunnel unto the ripper could provide cover.  

"Hyroth, watch our back door out of here, I'm going to try to help the miners."  Amos said into the comm and transmitted the message to Hyroth.  The gunfire noise blocked out any normal communications.

"GO!" Amos rolled out from beehind the crate and zig zaged back and forth to the security checkpoint he got in last second just as the Ripper started tracking him.   He looked over hte control panel, luckily most of the guards were pretty stupid and had everything labled.  He mashed down on a red button that sealed off the mine tunnels.  A large armored blast door lowered down from the cieling blocking the Ripper from getting through for now.  The three guards skilled enough but also unlucky enough to trapped on this side were cut down with relative ease .  

"Let's go that door won't hold them long!" Amos shouted at everyone.  He dodged down the security door and patched a line to Kyra, "Any idea where this leads to?"

[Alec_Shadowkin]

"Any idea where this leads to?"

Krya turned his overhead monitor on and quickly brought up a map of that section of the mine shaft and scanned it, looking for the information.

He patched a message back to Amos.
"Yeah, this tunnel should take you directly to the shaft's tram-way system. I should be able to unlock the controls so you can take it right to the barracks."

[Luke Lavin]

The passage way winded down for a about another 200 meters.  Then the group came to an empty platform looking over a transcent rail.  Amos walked up to the station call pad and mashed the button marked call.  

"Everyone take defensive positions, who knows who'll be on this one."  Tension was high for a few minutes then when a deserted tramp showed up Amos let out a small sigh of relief, "Let's go."  

All of them boarded the tram and it took off automaticaly after waiting a few minutes, there was Amos and Hyroth and about eight others.  The tram slowed at next station marked 'barracks'.

"Alright, move out."  The platform was utterly deserted, and three doors branched off from it, they were labled A, B, and C.  "Ok Hyroth take that guy there and go down door A, I'll take this guy here and head down door B, you two take door C, the last two of you hold the platform here and call the tram if we need it.  You can sset up some of those crates their for cover. Kyra radio us if anything heads our way. Everyone got that? Ok."  With that Amos and his partner swept door B and proceeded down it slowly. Things were definately quiet...

[Scrasamax]

Cary killed the cordite hauler. The electrostatic engine gave a loud pop, and arced with one of the ceiling beams. The air stank of hot ozone and electricity, with the faint scent of overheated hydrocarbons. The cabin door popped as the locks disengaged. He climbed down and jumped as the Ripper turned its guns agains the blast door.

He picked up the only weapon he could find, a laser cutter stowed in the tool compartment. He hefted the weapon and trotted along after the two other workers. He caught up, but felt like a rube following the miners. They carried real weapons, and moved with determination and a measure of grace while he stumbled along behind with a makeshift cutter.

"Are you guys Faction 1105?" he asked, partially out of breath.

[Luke Lavin]

One of the miners looked over his shoulder, "No were with them but we don't have any connections.  The man that was our contact died before he could give us any way to contact more of the Faction.  But I think this isn't just about Faction 1105 anymore as soon as the word spread around every miner I've heard on the comm that can has armed himself and taken it to the Execs and their lapdogs."  

***

Amos traversed down the hall slowly checking each room they passed, but all of them were empty.  This was definately was the miner barracks but not a soul of the ten thousand miners were here.  Either theyhad broken out and moved on or something more sinister was at play.  Then he heard voices from the instersection ahead.  It sounded like two guards.

"Are they all loaded up?"  

"Yeah, as soon the fighting broke out of the mine tunnels we started shipping 'em over to hte dentention camp set up on the farside of the planet."

"Good, that leaves only a hundred or so here."

"Yeah."

Amos motioned for the woman behind him, Ronena, to step into the room they just past.  The guards continued to the intersection and beyond not everything looked deserted.  As far as they were concerned they were alone.  

Amos played the conservation back that suit's external speakers had picked up then transmitted it to the others.

"Everyone get that?  There is a suborbital bay on the floor below it opens into a cave that leads to the surface.  That would be the easiet and fastest way for them to transport the miners.  Try to get down there without making too much noise but if you have to kill then go ahead and do it.  Delta team you will follow Charlie team hook up with them and head down to the suboribtal bay.  We will all hook up down there."  Alpha team was the two man group that went down corridor A, Beta for B, Charlie for C, Delta held the fall back to the tram.  "Their are several guard check points in the miner area to prevent riots.  Most of the sutff they have it riot gear but I'll but you a couple of stock vouchers that they have heavy equipement in there too.  If you cang et into one and get some thin it'll make it easier to take the suborbital bay.

[Scrasamax]

Cary nodded, he knew the bay the Amos spoke of, it was only a few meters from the motor pool maintainence department. It wasn't a very active bay, usually only holding a few Semi-Ballistic transports and a few light craft.

"I dont have clearance or a license, but I can fly most any craft in that bay." He said, hoping that there would be a better weapon than the laser cutter in one of the security checkpoints.

[Shadoweagle]

Hyroth sent his confirmation through his comm link to Amos that he heard it, then nodded to his partner. "Lets move on."

The two headed down the passageway, keeping a steady eye out for both guards and workers, but they, too, found none. A good ten minutes of their travelling, Hyroth noticed the corridoor came to an end just ahead, with a metal door marked "Sec. A-03". A security station.

But Hyroths gaze didnt stay on the door for very long. his gaze fell to the slumped form of two miners, against the rocky wall next to the station. The first miner had one arm, and a bleeding stump for the other, and the other miner quite literally had half a mind - a quarter of his skull was missing. Both were dead.

Hyroth watched these two bodies for a good few minutes, before he lowered onto hands and knees, and finally vomited. He was not used to such slaughter, and seeing this death finally overwhelmed what he was trying to keep down. Was this how he was most likely going to end up as? a forgotten corpse in these mines!?

Another minute or so, plus the patience of Mathen - his comrade - and Hyroth was back on his feet, wiping his mouth and looking around. "Ok, lets go." He was going to have to stop these thoughts - be strong. And right now, he was going to have to avenge the deaths of these miners. The two made their way silently up to the door, and Hyroth held his shotgun out, aiming at the metal, whilst Mathen pulled open the door quickly and backed out of the way.
In the guard station, the two guards glanced up, then stood in panic, searching for their weapons. By the time they were standing, one of the guards felt hot shards of a shotgun shell sear through his chest-plate and enter his lungs. The second guard had grabbed his pistol from the desk he was at and aimed it at Hyroth as the sychrian charged in. He got off two shots - the first hit Hyroths shotgun-hand, causing him to scream and drop the weapon, but the second ricochetted off the riot shield which he rose. By this time, Hyroth was close to the guard, and down came the metal shield, smashing against the guards head, concussing him and knocking him unconscious.

It was over in a few seconds, but it felt like a long time. His gaze lowered to his hand, which was bleeding profusely, though was only grazed, but he ignored it for the moment. His gaze passed over the small security station - with two desks, a filing cabinet, and... An arms cabinet. He dropped the riot shield for the moment, and grabbed the shotgun with his good hand before bunting the security lock with the butt of the rifle, breaking it off. In the cabinet was ammunition for the standard pistols, an S-05 Assault rifle with one clip of fifty bullets, and a single Se-G2 Beam pistol, but uncharched and with no charge pack. Either way, Hyroth pocketed the beam pistol and ammunition - in case one of the other miners needed ammo - threw the assault rifle to his comrade who had just entered the room, and then headed out the other door to the shaft which led to the lower section floor of the area.

[Luke Lavin]

Amos moved as quielty as he could down the hall way which wasnt easy in the powersuit.  Which while compact and light still had it own self contained antimatter generator that hummed away and several moving parts such as the strength enhancements.  Which inadvertently saved his life, an extremely jumpy guard who sat at the controls of a Thunderstroke.  The huge slug blew through the corner of the wall and blew through the next wall and so on.  

Amos knew that the Thunderstroke had a long recharge time from what he had read in catalogs but wasn't sure how long it was.  The guard would probaly send the next slug threw the wall guessing they were afraid of coming at him.  Amos acted, he threw himself into a slide down the hall, he caought the gunner by surprise and sent four slugs at him, two from each pistol.  The first two were off mark in a sense, a second gaurd was in the corridor too behind some sandbags but he had come out to cover his buddy as reaimed the Thunderstroke.  THe first bullet deflected off the lip of an armor helmet he had on but the second was aimed a little lower and struck the guard in the ear and into his skull.  He was dead before he knew what him.   The other two shots were aimed slightly better one burried itself in the guards left shoulder pad, the other did the most significant damage it hit the capacitor coils that charged the gauss rifle's rail.  In a second the a brilliant blue explosion rattled the corridor and killing the guard.  


Luckily for Amos the sand bags deflected most of the blast from him bouncing it back into the guards.  Amos stood up carefully lits bits of everything were eveywhere.  Where the sandbags were, a molten pile of glass mixed with other bits.

"Nice work," Ronena said in a subdued tone.  Amos nodded.

"Lets move quickly that blast is going to bring down alot of guards on our heads." Amos replied.

 The two headed torwards a door at the end of the corridor when it opened a guard carring a Howler stepped out.  Before Amos could even bring up his two pistols Ronena's shotgun boomed twice in quick succession.  A doulbe shot was the shotgun's alternate feature but used up more two of the eight rounds in the gun effectively reducing the number of blasts by half. But the doubled firepower, the shotgun was deadly in closed confines like thism it had passed thorugh the man's like padded vest as if it were an afterthought.  Pulping his vital organs in one swift deadly action.  Amos burst into the small room but no one else was in it.  Two cups of coffee were on a nearby tray.  Both were hot.  The other guard must of ran for help.  The small room was one of several security stations for the guards to monitor the miners free time.  As well as reglate too.  Ronena had picked up the dead man's Howler and picked a small ammunition locker she had busted into dry.  

Amos looked over the confiscated weapon locker it had a small thumb print pad to unlock it.  Amos grabbed the dead man's hand and tried the lock with his thumb.  It beeped once then the shudder rolled up revealing a wide arrangement of weapons.  In two self contained enviroment canisters were Sychrian weapons, one held a Hec Neflit or Hornet Cannon. A creature nest that could be persuaded into launching a swarm of suicidal insects that that attacked the hottest and closest heat source by splatting at high velocity into the target and spreading a liquid nerotoxin everywhere that reacted on skin contact. The other Retyoth or Fire Lizerd that when induced to do so it could throw up a ball or highly reactive chemicals that aheared to what other they touched and explosively reacted ten seconds later. The chemical combination was kept inthe creation's three stomachs.  

Amos grabbed the Reyoth container and put it in a duffel bag he grabbed from the corner.  Then something caught his eye a human egineered PAC pistol.  It was reversed egineered Rish technology, it used a powerful micro antimatter powelant that used almost an unmeasurable amount of antimatter to provide unlimited shots and a powerful kick and a decent rate of fire.  The only draw back was that every month it's containment unit had to be recharged to keep the antimatter from touching matter and resulting in annhilation.

Amos grinned and picked it up it had a chrome finish all over it and had a sleek look about it's round semi circle fireing mechanism.  Ronena whistled appreciatively at it.  Amos had no idea how a gun like this got into a locker like this.  Then he noticed the careful labeling on the locker.  All of these weapons were slated to be sent to an incinerator the next day.  He gave Ronena his other 12mm pistol as a back up and hid the other one in a chest container in his armor.  He took the Human PAC Pistol in his hand admirring the finish, the label in the locker dubbed is a Lasher.  

"Ok Ronena lets keep moving," Amos said.

"Wait one Amos," Ronena mumbled, she was looking at a map on the wall.  "According to this we can get down to the suborbital bay from this maintenace stair way.  It's probaly lightly guarded adn it's not that far from here.  Not the closest but not more than a twenty minute hike." She spent a minute memorizing the map then headed to the door.  

"You lead the way Ronena, I got you back."

[Scrasamax]

Preferring stealth over gunfire, Cary slunk through a narrow access hallway that ran parallel with the main causeway. He and his partner, a nervous looking woman named Antha found what he was looking for. He used the laser cutter to open a ventilator duct that lead into the lower maintainence locker in the motor pool.

The cutter beam was hot as it liquified steel, and opened the door of the locker from the inside. He cringed as the handle fell and clanged against the floor. Antha held her breath, beads of stress sweat gleaming on her upper lip, on her forhead.

"Almost there, it will be okay." Cary said, dropping the now overheated and underpowered cutter. He punched in the access code to one of the repair lockers, the door opened to a room of weaponry, and equipment, most of it either stripped down for pieces or in some state of repair. No automatics, no slug throwers, nothing that easy was to be found.

"Where is it, Drek told me about something from one of the higher ups being here to be fixed, something about the optics being out of phase, Drek was d**n proud that he fixed it." Cary said to himself. Antha said nothing, her hands were starting to tremble. He laid his hands on the weapon, and Excaliber Mk. IV Laser rifle. He hefted the weapon and slapped a power cell into the weapon. Two more were dropped into a belt pack, along with another cutter.

He looked up in time to see two security personel kick open the door to the maintainence department. The doorjamb near one of them exploded in a hail of fragments as Antha fired several rounds at the two of them. Both professional, one backed out of the room while the other rolled forward. Two shots were fired, the first hit Antha in the gut, painting the wall behind her red with blood. The second jerked her back like a pupper, her pretty, if thin, face dissolving in a spray of blood.

Neither guard saw the emerald beam of light that sliced through them. One man fell, his arm severed, head severed, and hand, all falling in different pieces. The other blinked for a moment, having seen the slim figure holding the laser. It looked like he was trying to raise his weapon, but couldnt as the beam had severed the spinal cord just above his heart. The man wobbled and collapsed in a fountain of blood.

Cary was sick. Blood didnt disturb him, he had seem plenty of that running the Cordite carrier, or doing stints as copilot on a semi-ballistic. He had never discharged a weapon in anger, never killed another person human or otherwise.

Done being sick, but still queasy he moved gingerly around the neatly sliced pieces of guard, and moved into the hall. No one came, and he relaxed his grip on the laser. He moved across the access hall, and pulled the laser cutter and sliced through the door to the hangar.

He was the first to arrive, but likely the others had taken the long way, and didnt know about the various access ways and shortcuts.