Blake fought a sense of growing elation when the server’s defenses started crumbling against her attacks. She knew that this only an impression, and could be formed purely out of frustration. Black tipped fingers danced over the keyboard in a rave of code writing, and finally, the screen blanked out, the unit beeped, and the contents of the root directory scrolled across the screen.

“Ha!” Blake crowed, sparing a moment to spin her chair around before remembering that she wasn’t alone in her room, working another unauthorized hack. “Sorry, boss,” she sputtered, a high point of colour on each pale cheek,” back to the job at hand!”

The tech leaned back into the monitor, scrolling through each directory, each log, each user account, but was baffled by the seeming ordinariness of it all. Peripherally, she heard the rise and fall of conversation behind her, but since it didn’t seem to involve her, she ignored it with the singularity of purpose that had made her so valuable to the military. Once launched, nothing stopped this missile.

Blake looked for anomalies; files or programs that were an odd size or type for the directory they were in, or user accounts with too much or too little activity, but that sort of thing would take a lot of time to be done properly. Fortunately, she had a sniffer program saved on her laptop, filed under “Catwoman’s Utility Belt” for just such searches, and she set it to running before moving onto another thought.

It was possible that Giles was too paranoid to keep anything on military hardware, especially if he was running something off the books. So, she looked for resources that accessed multiple network ports, and scored a win. A machine labelled “agiles” had been connected to various ports for varying lengths of time, and was presently not connected. Blake tapped out a quick re-sort command, and determined the last port used. She cross-ref’d the network schematic, overlaid the building plan on top and she knew what room to look in. (OOC: What was the system date of the last connection time? What is the current system date and time compared to our own?)
“Girlfriend’s gonna level up on these X points,” Blake crooned before turning to Kernan to translate. She nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand descended on her shoulder and Kernan’s voice sounded from directly above her left ear, “Good job, Chief.”

She resisted the urge to wriggle like a happy puppy, but knew a huge grin was spreading across her face. “Geez, boss, even cube dwellers need a little personal space. Scared me outta a year’s growth, ya did!”

The lanky tech rose to her feet, stretching out the kinks, and dispelling the workstation hump every coder formed if they weren’t careful. While she did so, Kernan called the others to attention and shared what she’d determined. When Kernan gave orders to move out and head to the sublevel, Blake took a moment to add a line to the sniffer program she was running, letting it resume while she picked up the rest of her gear. The laptop’s wireless modem would now ping her PDA if it was successful in it’s search.

When the Ell-Tee called to "saddle-up", Pearson grinned. Hell, he was gonna take the whole crew back there and give that thing what for! But his elation was short-lived. The lieutenant told Lee no-go on gettin' the sword. Evidently, the comp-tech got something they could use, and the Ell-Tee wanted to go for that first. 'Sokay, may be they'd run into something on the way, or maybe even when they got there.

Pearson had to give the Ell-Tee credit for major smarts. A few leaders he had been under had put grendiers at the back of the squad, to lob the ammo over all the others and shorten the effective range. Sometimes the target was so close that when the grenades went off, they got the point man too. 'Course that had only happened twice, and both times the squad leader got replaced -- in a hurry.

Lieutenant Kiernan had put Pearson in "short-stop" position, near the front but not immediately behind the point man. that meant that he figured Pearson to be ready and able to do what was needed. Great! Pearson wanted payback, and if he couldn't get at the thing that got them, he would take it out on the very next boogie-man they ran across, furry or not. Whatever had got the team earlier had sown hurt and would reap destruction, as far as Pearson was concerned. 'Tick for Tack;, he ma always used to say. Pearson never knew what that meant, really, but his ma said it was kinda like an eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth thing. Now that he understood from when his gramma used to read to him from her bible. Well, he was ready to reap, he was.

He stood, retrieved his pack, piece, and gear, performing a quick inventory as he did so. He winced in silence as he shrugged on the backpack. The pain wasn't as bad as it had been just after the cave fiasco. He could live with it, for now. He sure as hell wasn't gonna disappoint the Ell-Tee at this point, nossir! He check the launcher to see what he had stuffed into it after the "frag-pellet" he had used already on the machine-thing. Blue band. Okay. He popped that fragger out and put in the red-banded incendiary. To make sure the lieutenant would not be expecting one thing and get another, Pearson piped up, "Lieutenant Kiernan, sir? So ya know, I got a fire-pill loaded and ready."

{{ If asked to change it, he will, of course, and quickly. If not, he moves out as ordered. }}

Kane had been sitting, the SAW resting but at the ready just as he was. His fireteam had taken a serious hit from whatever the hell that thing in the cave was… Lee, Person, and Johannsen had been lucky to come out of it at all, he figured, and he himself was surprised that he’d managed to escape that cave with an embarrassing puke fit having been the worst of it… he was glad for the moment’s rest, it provided him with enough time to still the shaking of his nerves and reflect on what the hell was happening in this frostbitten corner of hell.

“Sergeant?” Kane’s eyes swept toward Lee, “I’m sorry I let that ‘thing’ get the best of me, I let the team down and endangered the mission and our lives. It …. took me by surprise.. it .. wont happen again.”

“No apologies, Lee,” Kane grunted, nodding shortly to the man, “It’s done and over and we lived through it. Besides, how in the hell’d we know to be expecting… whatever the frig that was?”
He tries not to wince from the pain as he speaks, but the effort of speaking is evident to anyone watching. He hefts his carbine, racking the bolt to strip off a round out of the fresh magazine he installed.

“I’m ready for some payback, Sarge!” Lee replied with a weak smile after racking the bolt on his carbine. The man’s face was as pale as Kane’s butt and, physically, he was more than a little wobbly but, like the hard-charger he was, Lee seemed eager to do battle with something.

"Sarge,” Pearson chimed in next, “If he goes, I'll back him up, I sure will! I wanna put a grenade into that thing, whether I put it in it's mouth or up it's ... ... well, anyway, I wanna put a grenade in it! I know we need rest, but I want another crack at that thing before it goes away. We gotta show it that we don't back down just because we hurt! I wanna get a chance to see what that thing does when it gets hurt. Maybe we can tame it after all. I always wanted a weird pet ..."

Kane couldn’t help but smile a bit at the balls these Rangers were showing. Neither one could scarcely muster the strength to stand up, right now, let alone open up another can of firefight on whatever else might be waiting for them out there, but they were damn sure willing to try. Shaking his head, the SSgt abandoned his rest and got on his own feet, his proud but questioning gaze ticking between Lee and Pearson. “HooAh,” he barked, acknowledging the Rangers’ ‘refuse to lie down’ attitude, “You troops’re…”

“Oh fine,” Johannsen interjected before Kane could follow up with his question as to whether the cold had maybe frostbitten their brains, “you two just go ahead and give that a try. You might make it back there if you leaned against each other or maybe crawled there. Then I can have the joy of practicing on you yet again. All I need is you to undo all the work I put in on you and start internal bleeding all over again. Sgt. Lee how many fingers am I holding up?”

Inga wasn’t holding up any fingers, of course, and Kane just smirked as his gaze travelled between the three. “You girls done pullin’ each others pigtails, now,” he asked, shouldering the SAW and clapping a hand on Lee’s shoulder. “I can appreciate the need for payback, Lee,” he said, his eyes moving from the Sgt to Pearson, “and I can appreciate Pearson, there, havin’ enough cajones to follow ya into the fire, but, in case ya missed it, troop, we got our asses handed to us and, if we went chargin’ back in there now and there turned out to be another one of those s#!^-smellin’ things waitin’ on us how much of a chance do ya think we’d have?

That’s right,” he rumbled, not waiting for an answer, “slim to friggin none! We got us an objective, Rangers, and, much as I hate ta say it, revenge and smelly-assed monsters fall under the heading targets of opportunity…”

“All right,” Kane fell silent when the Lieutenant’s attentions shifted from watching Blake and fell on them, “Chief Blake found reference to a computer that could contain the answers to our little dilemma, so that’s our next objective. I know some of you are injured—I know you want to get your sword back, Lee—but there’s a lot at stake here and I’m not about to risk it for a single weapon, no matter the sentimental value. If all works out, we’ll return for it… I’m not leaving anyone behind again seeing how well that turned out the last time we did, so pack it all up. We’re moving out in five.”

The Staff Sergeant nodded as Kernan reiterated the same points he had been getting to and, hooked a thumb in the el-tee’s direction as if to say ‘yeah, what he said.’

“ Kane…”

“Sir,” Kane nodded and made his way to the Lt’s side, “What’s the play el-tee?”

“We’re going back through that area where you found what you described as an alien. The last location we’ve got on this ‘agiles’ computer is in the administrator’s office on the sublevel. You’re going to take point so I want you to be on your game. You up to this, Ranger?”

“Born and bred, sir,” Kane acknowledged bringing the SAW into an at ready position

“Good. Then let’s get this team together and move out.”

“Roger that, sir,” Kane nodded, turning on his heel and regarding the others. “You heard the man, boys and girls. A$$holes and elbows! Shake it off, saddle up, and move ‘em out. I’m on point!”

((OOC: Rock and roll! Getting the feel for Kane and promise better posts as we go… Kane will spend the next few minutes double and triple checking his own gear, making sure everything is prepped and ready then, at the el-tee’s orders, will begin the sweep towards the admin office…))

“Oh fine,” Johannsen interjected before Kane could follow up with his question as to whether the cold had maybe frostbitten their brains, “you two just go ahead and give that a try. You might make it back there if you leaned against each other or maybe crawled there. Then I can have the joy of practicing on you yet again. All I need is you to undo all the work I put in on you and start internal bleeding all over again. Sgt. Lee how many fingers am I holding up?”

“I can appreciate the need for payback, Lee,” Kane said, his eyes moving from the Sgt to Pearson, “and I can appreciate Pearson, there, havin’ enough cajones to follow ya into the fire, but, in case ya missed it, troop, we got our asses handed to us and, if we went chargin’ back in there now and there turned out to be another one of those s#!^-smellin’ things waitin’ on us how much of a chance do ya think we’d have?

I know some of you are injured—I know you want to get your sword back, Lee—but there’s a lot at stake here and I’m not about to risk it for a single weapon, no matter the sentimental value. If all works out, we’ll return for it—“ Monty held up his hand to forestall any argument from the sergeant. “I’m not leaving anyone behind again seeing how well that turned out the last time we did, so pack it all up. We’re moving out in five. Kane…”
Sgt Lee looked at Johannsen and was no doubt preparing a nasty retort but when he could only see a blurry image of her hand, and couldn’t see how many fingers she had up he realized that he wasn’t up to going back for his sword right now even with Pearson’s help.

He realized that the LT, Ssgt and even Johannsen were correct; if they lived through this then he would go back for it, there was no way he could leave here without it. It was a family heirloom, handed down from his grandfather and if he lost it then he would bring dishonor upon his family line.

“Understood, LT and Sgt!” He said standing as tall as he could. He turned to face the medic and bowed his head slightly, “I’m Sorry!”

As the order was given, Lee fell into line where he was told to be and felt guilty for not taking the point to which he was accustomed. Deep inside he knew that he was not in shape to do point and they needed someone more alert and able, right now he was able to walk though he anytime they stopped he took the opportunity to lean against a wall to rest for a few moments. He still kept his carbine ready though he silently hoped he didn’t endanger the others with his lapse of alertness and capabilities.

Inga watched as Sgt. Lee who was about to retort to her words, but what she mostly saw was the Sgt. screwing up his face and squinting his eyes in order to see her fingers. Case wont one point to her. however her small triumph was short lived when Lt Keenan spoke up about tracing down some computer.

Inga swung around pick up her med kit slung it securely and picked up her rifle again.

She check out her gennades eack type stowed on a differnt side. If they faced one on those things again she would not hesitate to use it well before it got close to anyone of them.

Inga had a pretty good throwing arm she got it when she played on a softball team for several years in college., and also from throwing javelins on the track team. Inga preferred the individual sports of the Track team best. She was also a pretty decent at 220 and 440. Inga ran some hurdles too. Those skills had helped her when she signed up for the Army, and later when tried out for the Rangers.

"Yes si," is what she replied to the Lt. All ready to go," then she added "HooAH!". The bantering was over. It was team time regardless of their condition. they all stood ready to carry out their mission. This is what made being a Ranger meant--the team, Each one of them ready to do their part for the mission.

Hooah, indeed.

May 9th, 2025 - 1105
Communications Center, Antarctic Research Facility 36, Antarctica

The team falls into rank as per Kernan's orders, with the worst of the wounded in the center, Kane and his BFG at point, and the ell-tee taking up the rear.

As the rangers make their way cautiously through the empty corridors of ARF 36, their footsteps create hollow echoes that are the only audible sounds. Soon, they find their way back into the main laboratory (with the machine still humming away, protected by the blue force field), and then, into the northern auxilliary lab.

All is as Kane's team left it earlier - the lab itself is a charred shell of what once was. The huge, ruptured plastic husk still lies in the corner of the room, with the tangle of strange tentacles beneath it.

The dead, reptillian body of the alien - minus one eye and a large chunk of head - still lies motionless within the "pod". It would appear that nothing has disturbed this room or its lifeless occupant since the rangers left some nine hours ago.

May 9th, 2025 – 1110
Communications Center, Antarctic Research Facility 36, Antarctica

The halls were eerily silent. Monty kept glancing over his shoulder to make sure that they weren’t being snuck up on by some creepy, otherworldly being. It took some doing to make sure that his outward appearance didn’t reflect his inner anxiety. It was always a bad thing when the leader looked ready to fall apart. That usually led to chaos. So, Lt. Kernan remained the epitome of cool as he covered their six.

When they passed the machine, Monty refrained from stopping the team to investigate it himself. He momentarily considered allowing Blake the opportunity to perform her own analysis, but didn’t relish the idea of being stuck without a good defensible position, so he kept them moving. It wasn’t until they arrived at the alien “pod” that he called a halt to their progress. He allowed Kane to post watches, and made his way up to the wreckage of the pod, standing three feet from it, and scanning the whole of it, and the alien, with a critical eye. The tentacles, the state of the corpse…Monty assumed it had been killed in a firefight, and that meant it was hostile. He wondered briefly if there might be anything in the pod that could leap out at them like in the movie Alien, and nearly stepped back from it before catching himself. They had to know what was going on here, and getting edgy wouldn’t do anyone any good. Alien was a movie, and this was real life—as strange as it was getting.

Crouching, Monty took the pod in from another angle, trying to determine whether it might be booby-trapped, or otherwise recognizing any obvious threat. Once he was fairly confident that there wasn’t anything moving inside the pod, or that there wasn’t some explosive device underneath the alien form, he rose again and stepped up to do a more thorough investigation of the pod and alien, trying the whole while to appear nonchalant in his approach despite wanting to make sure he didn’t touch the alien creature.

He didn’t really know what he was looking for, but he hoped he would find something that might aid them. When he’d been younger, he’d played video games that put alien weaponry in the hands of the hero once the alien was killed. Maybe he’d find a laser pistol…

The diminished group of Rangers move down the hallway The L-Tee took up the rearguard and Kane took point. The W/O and the wounded, Pearson and herself, were between. They passed the lab with the "alien" device still surrounded in a blue field of some sort. Then finally reach the lab. As the L-Tee went forward Inga took his place as rear guard.

Whatever pains or concerns she had were put aside, Rangers did their jobs until they retired or died, that was it.

the safety was off and she carried her rifle in ready position. She had her grenades close at hand as well. This was certainly without a doubt the weirdest mission she had ever been on, and she bets it was the same for the others. If...not when they got out of here they would have free drinks for some time.

If they would be allowed to take about it, the thought crossed her mind that they might be sworn to secrecy. She never agree much with that felling people should know about these things and not have to always just wonder. But as a Ranger that was not her decision as long as she was a Ranger.

Sgt Lee was starting to feel alittle better as he made his way down the hall; he was upset though at not being in his usual spot at point. He was still mentally kicking himself for letting that thing get the best of him. He should have handled that better and not allowed himself to be almost killed. He vowed to take it more cautious and planned to get out of this place alive.

Lee was glad when his vision returned to normal during the trip to the Lab. The first thing he did was check the action of his weapon; round loaded, safety off, ready do rock. He checked the status of his other mags, they were loaded and in their proper place.

When they got to the Lab, Lee moved to cover the LT as he moved to check out the alien and it’s pod. He kept his distance from the LT; it was better to cover from here so he wouldn’t get in the way if the LT needed to retreat. He kept a watchful eye out for any sign of danger; he didn’t want a repeat of their surprise attack earlier. He now had a plan if they were attacked by a strange beast again; at the first sign of trouble he would hold his breath. He figured he could hold his breath for a minute or two, in which time the battle would be over one way or the other.

Pearson
As the team moved toward the auxiliary lab, to Pearson's mind came, all unbidden, a memory from his teen years. He used to play a game that was part board-game, part role-play -- Tunnels and Troglodytes. As a card-character, he and other players explored "unmapped" tunnels, caves, and rooms in an ever-changing underground setting. Funny thing was that he never expected to be doing just that when he was "all growed up".

And this current situation was everything that he loved about the game. Unexplored (for him) tunnels, strange rooms to search and clear of wierd critters, looking for a treasure -- even if it WAS uncertain as to what the treasure was. Olkay, so there was a down-side. The damage suffered from the wierd critters they encountered was real, and it was painful! But he had his armor, the ARBA. And he had his pistol as his "sword" for close-fire, his assault piece as his "bow and arrows", and his trusty, pill-poppin' grenade-spitter as his "spear".

These memories and "revelations" brought another quiet smile to Pearson's face as they flittered through his mind. But he was not the fool to live in them. His focus was on the here-and-now, listening carefully, eyes in constant motion to keep from getting "surprised and slaughtered" again. But the thoughts kinda brought things into perspective for Pearson. They need to be adaptable to the moment. One could be told to "expect anything", but life had a habit of injecting random chaos into the "anything". So Pearson was expecting only what he saw. THEN he would decide and act -- within his orders, of course. But he was determined not to be surprised ever again -- ever -- especially not in this place.

The sudden and relative calm these thougnts elicited in Pearson would extend, he hoped, to future orders to Pearson from the Ell-Tee. The lieutenant had the map for where they were, whether in his head or elsewhere. So Pearson didn't need to know the entire layout of the facility -- yet. Pearson knew where he had been and kept that knowledge current in relation to their present location. He could find anyplace in the complex that they had been easy enough and, with time, could know the whole place. So until he was ordered to go somewhere he hasn't been, he was comfortable with what he knew so far.

When they got to the "Ox lab", as Pearson called it, nothing seemed to have changed since they left it a few hours earlier. Hours? Is that all? It seemed more like a week ago. Such was his "new" outlook and the detachment with which Pearson viewed the place. The big blue bubble-force-field machine was still humming away in the center of the lab, or near enough to it.

After the standard "double-check sweep" by the team to verify that all was what it seemed to be, Pearson returned to help secure the lieutnant's six with Sgt. Lee while the lieutnant searched. This way each of the two of them would not have to cover less area in front of them and around their commander. The Ell-Tee was too valuable to lose here, so Pearson was gonna make sure either he or the sarge could pull the man out of danger or at least get him help before he died from whatever got to him. IF anything got to him. And, while Pearson wasn't "expecting anything": any longer, he was as "ready for anything" as he could get.

As Pearson kept glancing at the machine encomapssed in its protective blue glow, he hatched a thought about it. But only when the Ell-Tee was finished with his own investigation would Pearson ask to be allowed to try an investigation of his own ...

Charlie entered the lab with the others, pistol at the ready and senses alert to react to any stimulus. She verified her portion of the lab as the team did the sweep, then relaxed marginally as she and the others found no immediate threat.

There had once been a threat, however, as Charlie looked down at what could only be described as ET in a can. The LT bent in close for a look, so Charlie didn’t crowd him, but she took in with her eyes as much as she could, taking an inventory of features and comparing them with any record she may have come across in her wandering around classified databases. Oh, make no mistake, there had been sightings and strange events over the years, and the military, bureaucratic hive-beast that it was, had its share of carefully documented, then promptly filed and ignored, occurrences of a bizarre and possibly extraterrestrial nature.

The LT didn’t seem inclined to continue onto the administrator’s office until he’d had his look see at the alien, so Charlie waited with a patience that might have surprised the others, if they hadn’t already realized she was a mass of contradictions. Still, when her hands-off review of the alien completed, she put the same laser focus on looking at the contents of the room.Unlike the others, she hadn’t been here before, and as always, the tech was hungry for data – whether it made sense or not.