Max sat in on the stone floor of the prison cell he occupied and tried to breathe deep and regular. the Germans had beat him hard but he was still alive, and still thinking about a way out. He'd get out of here - he knew it.

It had all started well - the mission that is. But when the plane was attacked Max had been ready; his gear consisted of the usual stuff along with his explosive kit and his Thompson and as much ammo as he could carry. When the call to jump now had come he was up and out the door in no time. The jump however didn’t go so smoothly.

Not long after his chute opened he felt an impact and he started to plummet downward; looking up he saw that a body from the plane had crashed into his open chute. The falling body had continued on to its doom but in passing it ripped a gaping hole in his chute. Quickly he drew his knife and cut away the main chute and once clear he deployed his back up chute. When it opened he was perilously close to the tree line and he crashed down through the trees and along the way he struck his head on a large branch and was knocked out.

Coming too he felt someone moving him; he thought it must be his fellow rangers but they seemed to be a bit rough with him. As he came fully awake he heard them speaking German and knew he had been captured. By the time he was awake he had been stripped of all of his weapons and gear and his hands were tied behind his back. They questioned them but he only told them his name and rank in English; no sense in letting them know he understood everything they said.

After awhile more troops came, they must have been searching for more survivors of the crash. He was glad to see no other captives; that meant they would carry on with the mission. The German soldiers blindfolded him and hauled him into a truck and drove him someplace. Once he arrived they kept him blind until they had him inside a building in a cell where they did a proper interrogation of him.

A German sergeant took great care in his interrogation techniques; he managed to beat on Keller and most of the time kept him from passing out. In the end he learned nothing from him. they put him back into the cell to await further interrogation. But Max knew something else was wrong. Something had these guys scared. They were talking about experiments and monsters. This was supposed to be a rocket fuel site! What was going on?

But all he could do was wait. Scared people make mistakes, and he'd be waiting for any chance to pay back his capturers.

The door opened and two guards yelled at him to get up. he didn't move, letting them pick him up and drag him back. Let them think he was weaker than he was....

Staff Sergeant Max Keller, Demolitions expert for the 82nd Airbourne Rangers, rolled over on the cold stone floor and moaned from the pain. They had worked him over very well; they knew their business but he could tell that they seem preoccupied with other problems. They seemed scared of something. Just when they seemed to be getting into the heavy stuff they had stopped and dumped him back in his cell and taken off.

He had passed our for awhile and when he had come too he managed to prop himself up against a wall and wait. He knew he would get out of this eventually, he had faith that something would happen that would help him escape. He just had the right kind of luck; he always seemed to find a way out of things.

Max was sure this would be no different. He had seen several others bail out of the plane and was sure that he was in the place that was the object of their mission. They would find him and he would help to fulfill their mission. He had seen the Germans take his demolitions kit and it had to be here somewhere; after he was free he would find it and they would blow this place.

When he heard sounds in the hallway, sounds of approaching footsteps, he slumped his head down to his chest looking beaten.

The door opened and two guards yelled at him to get up. he didn't move, letting them pick him up and drag him back. Let them think he was weaker than he was.

They dragged him from the cell as he slumped between them, his head still hanging he seemed oblivious to everything but in reality he was studying his surroundings. He never knew when an intimate knowledge of the layout of this place would come in handy later.

(Stop here so as not to go too far.)

As Romo translated he got the feeling that ‘Goldstein’ was telling the truth, however as things turned out in the next few minutes, it really did not matter.

Suddenly and without warning ‘Goldstein’ started to cough and hack, his breathing forced and hard. As Doc moved to see what the problem was ‘Goldstein’ again suddenly broke free and ran for the front door. As Brutal moved to intercept there was a crash and bang from the front of the castle as the doors burst open before the white coated ‘Goldstein’ could reach them. A familiar tentacle swiftly reached into the room and grabbing ‘Goldstein‘. He screams, The monster bellows a angry cry clearly It is the creature from the bridge, now trying to get into the castle but only able to reach an couple of arms in. The German man is pulled out screaming until a gut wrenching crunch and ripping of flesh and bone puts silence to his protests.

"SONOFABITCH!" Brutal yells, ""How often do we have to kill this!?"
Romo acted quickly in his orders, not wasting time waiting on the Captain.

“Hold fire!, hold fire!” He yelled to the others "“Move out of reach, don’t waste your ammo!”
Romo covered the rest of the group as each moved himself or herself out of the creatures reach, then turned to Captain Edintore.

“Captain we need to move out of this area now!, What are your orders sir!"

When the scientist suddenly broke free was torn to pieces by an all too familiar tentacle, Luke realized that what the man had just told them was vital information. Not necessarily vital to their mission, but certainly vital to themselves. If they could destroy the power source, no rift could exist. If no rift existed, no more monsters would be finding their way into the castle from whatever hell they crawled out of. At least, that’s as far as Luke gathered it.

Of course, no power meant no light sources. Well, no artificial light sources anyway.

He turned to the only person who would be able to tell them anything about his musings; Mrs Hoffstetter.

“Miss? Is it possible that creature’s are still coming from this rift as we stand here? If so, we need to kill the power as soon as we can. Any idea where we can find these generators that poor fellow was talking about?”

Corban listened with one ear as the scientist described the experiments in the castle. His attention was focused on watching everything else going on around them. His eyes were consistently drawn back to the suit of armor. Given everything he had seen so far, it almost seemed odd that the armor had NOT come to life. Yet. It hadn't come to life "yet" he reminded himself as he continued to scan the area.

"Fire and iron" the lady had said. Or was it "fire and steel?" Their bullets seemed effective, if not as effective as they would be on normal creatures. But these things could be killed. Corban hoped they wouldn't end up needing to take the sword from the knight and fight with weapons like that. He was good with a gun, not a sword.

When the scientist screamed and ran out of the room, Corban was torn between disgust for his panic and sympathy for the terror that drove him to panic. What would it have been like hiding in this place alone for hours and hours?

Hiding must have been better than the end the man received. The sniper's gun was coming up when the order to "hold fire" came. Smart. It was a good order, if completely against instinct. Smart.

When the captain asked the lady about the generators, Corban smiled. Something about the story had been ticking away in the back of his head but he couldn't quite make it come out, until the captain had spoken it for him. Power, that had been a key part of the story. Find the generators. He was beginning to like the officers here. Even with the insanity into which they had stepped, they were making good decisions. He liked that. His life depended on that.

And so did the life of the prisoner. Corban did not want to leave that man here. He wondered which one it was as his eyes continued to sweep the room and the entrances.

"SONOFABITCH!" Brutal yells, ""How often do we have to kill this!?"

Romo acted quickly in his orders, not wasting time waiting on the Captain.

“Hold fire!, hold fire!” He yelled to the others "“Move out of reach, don’t waste your ammo!”

Romo covered the rest of the group as each moved himself or herself out of the creatures reach, then turned to Captain Edintore.

“Captain we need to move out of this area now!, What are your orders sir!"

“Miss? Is it possible that creature’s are still coming from this rift as we stand here? If so, we need to kill the power as soon as we can. Any idea where we can find these generators that poor fellow was talking about?”

"The crypts below!" She shouted over the growling of the creature. "The stairs by the armour is the fastest way!"

Two large tentacles thrust into the room again, searching blindly for someone to grab. As they trash wildly, they break through mortar and blocks. The whole building structure shakes and rocks with the strength of the creature. Brutal was moving forward when the Sarge called halt. Pure training caused him to halt as a large block lands where he would have been.

(Yes, I decided to keep him alive)

"It is going to bring the roof down!" Greta yells and starts moving toward the stairwell.

Down Below
The two guards threw Max into a chair and both of them grabbed an arm each and pulled it back behind him,. The older German who questioned him before came forward, pushing with his foot a car battery with a pair of jumper cables, while carrying a bottle in his hands. He dumps the content of the bottle on Max -old smelly cooking oil.

"Now you will tell us what you know American" he says with badly accented English as he takes the cables and dramatically touches them together to create sparks.

Suddenly there was a crash from above, and more sounds like stones crashing on the roof above. Startled, the two guards relax there grip as they look up and away from the captive.

Scared people make mistakes Max Keller thought as he took what could be his last chance. Could be, but probably not.....

OOC: Max can easily break free of his restrainers and attack. Both guards have knives and sidearm in sheath and holster. The old torturer has a sidearm but is holding the jumper cables. you choose who to go for and how.

The two guards threw Max into a chair and both of them grabbed an arm each and pulled it back behind him,. The older German who questioned him before came forward, pushing with his foot a car battery with a pair of jumper cables, while carrying a bottle in his hands. He dumps the content of the bottle on Max -old smelly cooking oil.

"Now you will tell us what you know American" he says with badly accented English as he takes the cables and dramatically touches them together to create sparks.

Sniffing at the Oil, Max grinned at the German’ words, “Hey if you wanted a date all you had to do was ask.” He tried to sound brave but braced himself for the pain he knew as coming. The strange thing was that he didn’t have much to tell them even if he talked. He wasn’t sure any of the others had survived and even if he did he could only tell them that they were headed here; if he was right about this being the Castle. It seemed about right from the dungeons he had seen.

Suddenly there was a crash from above, and more sounds like stones crashing on the roof above. Startled, the two guards relax there grip as they look up and away from the captive.

Scared people make mistakes Max Keller thought as he took what could be his last chance. Could be, but probably not.....

Feeling the guard's grip relaxed he didn’t hesitate as he knew his life hung in the balance; he jumped up ignoring the sore muscles that screamed at him, and yanking his arms free of the two behind him he moved towards the German in front of him.

He ducked under the outstretched arms of the man with the battery cables and attempted to get behind him and grabbing his shoulder to heave him towards the direction of the guards that had stood behind him. (Using Judo skill here) He would grab at the sidearm the man had on his belt as he heaved; hoping that the cables might help to ‘electrify’ one of the guards. If he got the gun he would point it towards any guard that was a threat and fire off as many shots at as many targets as he could.

(My first combat of this type so I don’t know how the action(s) work and how many I am allowed. Those are his intentions, he will attempt as many in that order as he can get. He will not attempt to subdue them by threats, he will open fire at any that are not entangled, and then move to any that are still moving. If he doesn’t get the gun; well then we will have to rethink next round. )

The natural impulse to help drove Doc to aid the scared lab tech. But when he man broke down and ran Jack just stood there staring.

The man reached doors just as they burst open from the force of massive tentacles. Bellowing an angry cry the mote monster grabbed the man and yanked him from the room. The terrified screams were cut short by the gut wrenching crunch and ripping of flesh and bone.

The Doc stood helpless as Brutal yelled, "SONOFABITCH!"……, ""How often do we have to kill this!?"

As they all drew weapons Romo yelled, “Hold fire!, hold fire!” ….."“Move out of reach, don’t waste your ammo!” “Captain we need to move out of this area now!, ……What are your orders sir!"

Grabbing his gear and weapon Jack ignored the pain to follow the sergeant and the captain’s orders.

The Captain looked to team’s guide for advice, “Miss? Is it possible that creature’s are still coming from this rift as we stand here? If so, we need to kill the power as soon as we can. Any idea where we can find these generators that poor fellow was talking about?”

"The crypts below!" She shouted over the growling of the creature. "The stairs by the armour is the fastest way!"
Tentacles thrust into the room again, searching blindly, thrashing wildly, they break through mortar and blocks. The structure shakes and rocks.

Brutal was moving forward when the Sarge called, “Halt”. Jake snapped to a stop as a large block lands where he would have been.

Jack gasped as he saw the building stone just miss him comrade. “Geeze, I’m glad you listen to someone, now get your a** down them steps and clear the way.”

"It is going to bring the roof down!" Greta yells and starts moving toward the stairwell.
Moving out Doc followed to the stairs.

As the last of what had been a carefully selected airborne assault unit, now only numbering five soldiers, stood and watched the reaching tentacles of a creature up till now existing only in science fiction, they knew their world had changed forever. No longer was the mission to destroy German research into a possibly super weapon, but to close whatever gate or rift those same Germans had opened.

As Romo watched the rest of the team maneuver away from the tentacles, he saw Clements moving into the path of a large falling brick.

“Clements! HALT!!” he called out quickly hoping against hope that the Corporal would heed the warning. Romo could not help but breathe a sigh of relief as the NCO did just that.

“Miss? Is it possible that creature’s are still coming from this rift as we stand here? If so, we need to kill the power as soon as we can. Any idea where we can find these generators that poor fellow was talking about?”
"The crypts below! The stairs by the armor is the fastest way! It is going to bring the roof down!" Greta yelled in reply as she started moving quickly towards, then down the stairwell.

“Ok you heard the lady, move your asses, Clements your lead once more, I’ll be right behind, the rest follow on me.” He yelled as Brutal moved in front of him and then the Corporal too was down the stairway. Taking a last look at the flailing tentacles Romo followed disappearing into the darkness below........


(OOC: Sorry about the long wait for a post, just when you think it's ok to go outside, life pulls a fast one and kicks you in the balls once more. Will try to keep up better)

“It’s going to bring the roof down!” Greta yelled, and Luke could only acknowledge her observation.

He quickly scanned the room for anything that would burn. If they were going deeper into the castle, there would be a fair chance that it was going to be an expedition in darkness from now on. Besides, didn’t miss Hoffstetter tell them that fire was something these demons didn’t like? It wouldn’t hurt to have a torch or two within reach.

As the building was collapsing around them, he ran for the stairwell down. He halted upon reaching it, to make sure everybody was coming, and nobody got left behind. He’ll go back to aid anybody who falls (especially keeping an eye on the wounded Doc, and Miss Hoffstetter), and will be the last to descend.

(OOC: It’s not much, but I hope it’s sufficient. He’ll grab torches, broken pieces of furniture or anything else that’s wooden and hand-holdable. If there is time he’ll snatch a piece of cloth from wherever he can find it (maybe a nice embroidered, decorative table dresser) and tie it around the wooden thing to make a torch-like unit.)

Downstairs near the dungeons
Feeling the guard's grip relaxed he didn’t hesitate as he knew his life hung in the balance; he jumped up ignoring the sore muscles that screamed at him, and yanking his arms free of the two behind him he moved towards the German in front of him. He is free for a moment, but the guards react quickly, grabbing him by his shoulders to drive him back to the chair.

However, fate is not without a sense of irony and both guards grips slide due to the cooking oil on Max's body. The harder they squeeze , the faster he pops out of their grip. He moves towards the older German to grab him by the shoulder and barrel him toward the guards but the Kraut moves fast for an old guy and slashes Max across the back with the jumper cables. However when he moves to slash at Max, he pulled one of the connections off the battery so Max was lucky to be moving.

Thinking quickly, Max rolled and did a fast foot sweep to bring his opponent down as he was drawing his gun. The luger was jarred out of his hand and skittered across the floor. The other two came in with lugers out and anger in their eyes. It was time for a risk or else Max would be captured. He charged towards and dove under the commander as he was getting up. The guards in their eagerness open fire without thinking of the consequences and gun down their own man. As the two recoil from what they did, Max leaps on them to bring them both down. There is a scuffle of hands, feet and knives drawn. Max strikes out blindly and with deadly intent. He breaks one of their noses, and manages to get his hand on the commander's gun. After a few seconds and few explosive rounds fired way too close for comfort, Max emerges from the melee alive. He breaths heavily for a minute or two and then forces himself to get moving.

The dead leave him with three lugers, five magazines full and one with 6 rounds spent. Three trench knives, a car battery and a pair of jumper cables. Not to mention a desperate need for a towel. The wound on his shoulder is painfully but not bleeding as bad as he expected.

Upstair moving down
Brutal takes the lead and head towards the circular stairs. As he does he brings up the shotgun and blows apart the suit of armour standing by the hallway. "It would've come alive or something anyways." He says to no one in particular.

As the team moves down the circular stairs the sound of the room collapsing echoes behind them and then there is an almost eerie silence. There is nowhere to proceed now except downwards and hope that Mrs. Hoffstetter is correct about the hidden exit. The captain finds some torches still in the scones of the stairways as you down. There are old, but would probably work, however you do have the light from the flashlights you found as well. The roundness of the stairs makes it hard to cover against anything that might be moving towards you. The Sarge and Brutal take alternating sides to get down the stairs. just as you are passing a doorway to the next level, you hear the sound of small arms being fired. The sounds are muffled, but nearby.

OOC: Marching order as I picture it is Brutal, Romo, Reid, Hoffstetter, McGuiness and Luke.

Max has taken 3 Wounds & 3 Stun. The 3 stun he can walk off after a bit of a rest. The 3 wounds will need attention eventually.

As the smoke cleared Max stood there for a couple seconds in disbelief and looked down at his battered and bruised body; no holes that was good. He lowered the smoking Luger and then let out a breath that he hadn’t even realized he had been holding and got to work.

Quickly he gathered up anything useful he could find; he came away with three lugers and a decent amount of ammo. Slapping a fresh mag into the handgun he pocketed the rest. He took a shirt off one of the dead and wiped off as much of the oil as he could and then put on the jacket of one of the guards. He didn’t bother buttoning it but just left it open; his dog tags visible; he didn’t want to cover them up with a lousy German uniform.

He slipped one of the knives in his boot and the other in his belt with the sheath from the dead guard. After making sure that he wasn’t leaving anything useful behind; he didn’t see a use right now for the car battery and cables so he left it there. It might come in handy later and he wasn’t going to carry it around. With a loaded luger in his right hand, the other two tucked in his belt; he went to the door and checked it to see if it was unlocked. He didn’t recall them locking it when they drug him in; why would they?

If it was unlocked he would slowly open it a crack while standing to the side and peer out into the hallway. He didn’t know the layout of this place down here and someone had to have heard those shots; he had to move fast if he was going to escape. He wondered if any of the others had been captured; he would have to keep his eye out and check other cells if he ran across them. Also it would be nice if he found his munitions kit; the explosives would come in handy and he would love to blow this place to smithereens.

(Ok he will peer out and see if anyone is coming before he will move out only if it is clear. If he hears anyone he will stay there and hope to ambush anyone coming to check out the shots. Of course if he sees any of the group, he would probably recognized them, especially Brutal’s big body. )

As the group raced towards and then down the stairs, McGuiness had all he could do to not fall down the stairs laughing. He'd seen Brutal blast the suit of armor - the same suit that he had been staring at ever since the Gargoyles had been defeated. Way to go Brutal! He hadn't envisioned himself sharing thoughts with the muscle very often, but on this one they were of one mind. Maybe Brutal was more clever than he looked after all.

Smirking a bit at the chunks of armor smoking on the ground as he provided a rear guard as the group descended, McGuiness tried to make sure that none of the tentacles followed them down.

Once the dust settled and the group moved down, he simply did his job - watch carefully for anything that might come alive and kill them. When they heard the shots, Corban's first thought was of the prisoner. Who else would be shooting here? Well, besides anyone lucky enough to still be alive and desiring to stay that way. Was running towards gunfire the same things as running towards monsters?

Who knew? The only truth at the moment was that all the truths they thought they knew about the world had been turned upside down, and they clearly did not understand the truths of this new world they found themselves in.

Such contorted thoughts just made him snort - quietly. They weren't much use. One truth he did know was that survival seemed most likely in a group. So he was prepared to follow orders. Hopefully the captain would prove wise.

Luke halted, as they all did, when the sound of gunfire entered the winding stairway from a doorway to the right. His first instinct was to order the team to investigate, but he paused. This was a castle filled with German soldiers, and it was being overrun by enemy forces. Even if these enemy forces weren’t human, there would still be a lot of bullets flying. They simply couldn’t afford checking out every sound they heard.
The sooner they would destroy that portal the better.

“We can’t be delayed,” he stated. “Mrs Hoffstetter, do we need to go further down?”

His tone implied that they needed to keep moving. Down if that was their destination.

(OOC: If she indicates that they need to take this exit, he’ll send in the team in the usual manner. On another note, he’ll not use the flashlights unless he really has to, preferring torches; those have flames.)

In the Stairwell
“We can’t be delayed,” the captain said “Mrs Hoffstetter, do we need to go further down?”

She thought for a moment and then replied, "No. If we go further we will have to work our way around to the catacombs which will waste time and possible ... other things in the dark. Here we can move to the main stairwell down."

"Doesn't matter either way." Brutal says as he signals a stop. the Sarge close behind him sees what Brutal is looking at and shakes his head. The lower part of the stairwell ends in black water so high that the next door down can't be seen. " Sorry Captain. I didn't think to pack swimming trunks." Brutal Says as he returns up the stairs to take the lead going through the door. He listens briefly and then opens the door to a ten foot wide corridor going north for 20 feet and ending in another door. The hall is dark and musty smelling, with no electric lights strung here at all.

Brutal steps forward with machine gun at ready. He takes two steps and suddenly the floor opens up beneath him with a loud crash as the false floor swings open beneath his feet. "What the Fff......." he cries as he falls into the pit trap.

Before anyone can scramble over to see if brutal is okay, there is the sound of someone calling out in german. Romo hears what he says

"What the! Quick! Check that out now! You two cover him!"

Near the dungeons
Max look around the room and realizes he has three options. There is the door he came through that leads to the prison, and other door to the south and a set of double door to the east. He checks the double doors and finds they are unlocked but as he touched the handle he hears the sound of bootsteps heading toward him from the other side, a number of them actually, probably alerted to the sound of the gunfire. Then he hears a loud bang from somewhere nearby, like a door swinging hard into a stone wall. it clearly surprised the germans as he hears one of them call out.

"What the! Quick! Check that out now! You two cover him!"