Tyranniac| There are no good handholds on the walls.
#HuntingTime – September 14, 2013
Tyranniac| A lot of the crates have broken. Several appear to have been empty. Some of them held ore and others power cells or food.
Steve sighs and lowers his weapon since it seems as though they're safe for the moment. "What do you think, Ren? Got enough juice in ya to lift us up?"
Renala sighs. "Doesn't seem like this went well," she says as she turns back towards the others. "Anyone found a way up, or anything useful that fell down?"
Renala turns to Steve, then glances up. "No," she says. "My telekinetic biotics are terrible for heavy lifting."
Steve points towards some of the larger chunks of debris. "Might want to build a base out of the heavier stuff, big guy. Those crates don't look like they can take much more." he says, taking a few steps back to stay out of the krogan's way.
Renala steps closer to the pile of debris and crates. "I think so," she says. "You two sure this will hold?"
Steve puts a hand on the debris and gives it a slight shake. "No." he says, turning back to Renala, "But we don't have many other options right now. We'll just go one at a time. Take it slowly. Once you're up top, look around and see if you can find anything to help the rest of us."
Renala nods and begins climbing the pile, a mass-lowering biotic field (~20% effect) enveloping her to make sure she leaves the least amount of strain on the structure as she can.
Tyranniac| All the doors on the second floor are closed. Only 2 of them are easily accessible. THe others can only be reached through the thin strips of floor that remains along the walls of the room.
Renala | "Four closed doors," she updates the others. "Other than that, nothing of note." She pauses and looks down. "Should I check any of them, or wait for you all?"
Wait. No sense in going it alone. They've undoubtedly heard the noise. For all we know, they could be standing on the other side of any one of those doors.
Renala | "Got it," she says as she walks over to stand near the wall between the two doors accessible doors. She then looks over the floor for anything useful and intact.
Tyranniac| There is only a single crate that hasn't fallen down. It is broken, the content consiting of some kind of spare parts having spilled out over the floor.
Iressa steadies herself on the remnants of the upper floor, moving away from the tower and out of the way. "Got it." She calls out, indicating the next person to go.
Steve approaches the tower and thumbs the safety on his SMG, securing it into one of the cargo pockets before he begins his climb. Slow and steady, he moves from one handhold to another as he makes his way up.
Steve pulls himself onto the next floor, grunting loudly as he climbs to his feet. "Only one way to find out." he says as he wipes his hands off on his pants.
Renala steps towards the edge. "Iressa," she begins, glancing at the other asari, "could you make a telekinetic or mass-lowering field on the krogan, to help lessen the strain on the structure while he's clmbing?"
Steve watches over the edge, nervously glancing towards the doors every now and then. "Would you hurry up? We're working on borrowed time here!"
Renala takes a few quick steps towards the edge, crouches down and extends a hand towards the krogan. Not that it would help unless someone else got the same idea as well.
Steve takes a knee near the edge and grabs at the krogan's arm, making an attempt at helping him up.
Steve falls onto his ass once the krogan is up and rubs at his ribs once again. "Armory is on the top floor..." he says after catching his breath and points towards the ladder suspended above the broken floor.
Renala looks at the ladder as she gets to her feet. "You sure about that?" she says. "Our gear could be on this floor, and I'm guessing they'll be keeping the armory heavily guarded."
Iressa appears more exhausted after that endevour, and speaks in between breaths, "It most definitely is." She replies, "and I find it fit to mention they have a krogan of their very own somewhere up there."
Renala approaches the door furthest from where they climbed up. "I could try locking one of these doors and changing the code," she suggests, "so if anyone's in there, they'll have to get it unlocked to follow us through the other door."
Steve sighs. "You're right, Ren. Could be on this floor. Or it could be back downstairs, somewhere beyond all that rubble. Our gear could be anywhere, truth be told. What we can count on, is that there's sure to be weaponry in their armory."
Renala glances at the ceiling hatch worriedly. "There's a slight chance our gear be on this floor," she says, "but that we'll face a brutal resistance up there... that's very likely if they keep their guns up there."
Steve climbs to his feet and looks back and forth at the others. "I'm open to suggestions. I'm certainly in no hurry to make friends with another krogan." he says, shooting Darsk a quick glance, "No offense, big guy... "
Darsk ignores the comment. "There's no way any of us are going to stand up to an armed and armored krogan. Somehow I don't expect a slaver is going to give me a fair fight."
Steve makes his way over to the door Renala is standing near. "As good of a place to start as any, I suppose." he says, removing his Locust from the cargo pocket and shifting into a shooter's stance. "Do your thing." he adds, raising the weapon in front of him.
Renala enables her omni-tool, the interface coming to life. She enables the hacking program and tries to breach the security on the door and unlock it if successful.
Renala | "Get ready," she says before she presses the haptic button on the door's interface to have it open.
Tyranniac| The door groans and slides open with a scraping sound, and boulders immediately start falling out of the doorway.
Steve quickly jumps to the side of the doorway. "Watch out!" he shouts as he presses himself against the wall.
Renala widens her eyes in shock and gets to the other side of the doorway, also standing agaisnt the wall out of the boulders path.
Renala begins walking towards the other door and takes position to the side of its doorway. "Alright, I'll try opening it, but stay out of the way." She enables her omni-tool and repeats the process on the door to try unlocking it, and opening it remotely.
Tyranniac| The door slides open, revealing a long tunnel. The floor is partially collapsed in a section near them, likely due to it being above the tunnel where they detonated their explosives.
Renala lets a few seconds pass before she peeks around the doorframe. "This tunnel looks clear," she says. "Parts of the floor is missing, though."
Steve moves over to the new door and steps into the tunnel with his weapon raised. "I'll take point." he says, careful to watch where he steps as he moves through the tunnel.
Tyranniac| The floor is collapsed to about a meter lower in the section ahead, stretching on for a few meters.
Steve crosses the section of collapsed floor, putting up a hand to indicate the others should wait until he's across before following. "Looks a bit sketchy. One at a time."
Renala jumps down to the collapsed floor and begins making her way over and rejoins the others once there.
Iressa trails behind Renala, pretty confident now that the floor has proven to hold the krogan's weight.
Tyranniac| The door unlocks, and a gush of fresh air rushes into the tunnel. The door leads out onto a small platform on the side of the cliff. The forest stretches out below while a dark, cloudy nightsky looms above.
Renala looks outside, brows raising in surprise as a gust of air hits her in the face. "Maybe we can call the shuttle from here," she thinks aloud.
Steve steps out through the door and looks around, taking a deep breath as the fresh air fills his lungs. "It's worth a shot."
Renala enables her omni-tool and locates the comm program, and then proceed to enable it with the channel infomration given by Malarus on their shuttle-trip in. "Hello," she says into the comms. "Do you hear me?"
Tyranniac| There is a path leading down the cliffside to the left, all the way down to the river flowing far below.
Iressa steps out into the night air, heading to the edge of the platform. She looks down over the forest, relishing the break from the oppressive atmosphere inside.
Renala shakes her head, and disables the interface. "Doesn't seem like he received that," she says. "Let's hope he's just sleeping." She takes a few steps outside, checking how wide the path along the cliffside is.
Renala nods. "The cliff could also obstruct our communications," she suggests, and glances at the path down again. "So, who's first?"
Steve rubs at his forehead and looks down the path. "I-... I can't leave without my equipment, Ren. I don't expect the rest of you to stick around on account of me. But I can't go yet."
Renala glances inside worriedly. "Are you sure you can't get ahold of the things you need somewhere else?"
Darsk stops and turns around. "My graal is in there, and my clan armor. They can't be replaced off of Tuchanka. But if we go back there unarmed, they're going to kill us."
Steve glances out at the vast stretch of forest before them. "There's no telling how long it'll be before we're able to raise some help out there, Ren." he says, taking another deep breath. "It's not an option for me, Ren."
Steve turns to face the krogen. "I understand, big guy. Plus you've got her to worry about." he gestures towards Iressa, "You do what you have to do, I'll do what I have to do."
Renala sighs. "There's a krogan up there, and a lot of people who are armed and ready," she says. "There is no way we'll get to your stuff, and it might as well be buried beneath rubble downstairs."
Steve glances back down the hallway they arrived through. "I don't know. But I don't have much of a choice." he says to the krogan as another shock of pain shoots through his forehead. He closes his eyes and begins massaging his temples with his thumb and index fingers as Renala speaks. "Then I'll dig it out if I have to!" he snaps. He sighs, frustrated at his own outburst. "I'm sorry... Look, I'll be fine. Try and find help."
Darsk appears conflicted, clearly wanting to help Steve recover their belongings and honor. He looks over to Iressa before finally speaking. "Best of luck, Steve. We'll do what we can for you when we find help."
Steve nods at Iressa. "Sorry about..." he pats at his shoulder, "All that." Leveling his gaze on Renala, he sighs. "You don't have to do this, Ren."
Iressa places a hand over her shoulder, mimicking his motion. "Don't worry about it." She forces a bit of a smile, looking now down the trail and at Darsk.
Renala glances at the ground for a moment, before looking up. "I can't leave you up here," she says. "I wouldn't want to live with that decision if I never saw you again."
Steve nods to himself. "I don't want to see you get hurt on account of me, Ren... But I'm in no position to turn down the help. Thank you."
Renala gives a weak smile, being silent for a few seconds before she looks at the other asari. "For the case I don't return," she begins, "could I ask a favor of you?"
Renala takes a deep breath. "Look up a company called T'Rea Software Sollutions, and find an Ylania's contact address," she says. "Call and ask her to be redirected to someone named..." She gulps, her breath growing shaky for a moemnt before she regains herself. "...Aeyna... on behalf of me." A moment of silence follows before she asks, "Please?"
Iressa quietly nods in response, "I will. Sincerely, I will." She rests her gaze to both Steve and Renala, hopeful despite the circumstances. "Be smart. We'll come back soon with help- So don't count yourselves out yet."
Steve snorts loudly. "Count ourselves out?" he smirks and glances back over the facility, "We're going to make them regret ever laying their eyes on us."
Renala nods. "Thank you, Iressa," she says. "It means a lot." She pauses. "And yeah, I'll do everything in my power to not give you the burden of bringing my kid the bad news."
Renala pauses for a moment. "Either of you bring any of the guards' omni-tools?" she says. "I could set up a comm channel."
Renala enables her own, prepares and sends over the channel information to the other omni-tool. "We'll see you again when help arrives."
Steve remains outside for a few minutes longer, watching the pair descend down the trail before turning and facing Renala. "Ready?"
Iressa proceeds down the trails cautiously, somehow less excited about being out of the compound now that they're stranded on a dark cliffside. She glances back, making sure the loud stomping behind her is indeed the friendly krogan. "How far from... well, anywhere do you think we are?" She inquires, voice low.
Darsk continues down the trail behind her. "I...I don't know. Once we get further from the cliff, we should try to raise Malarus"
Iressa nods, "Good idea." She replies, hurrying a little down the trail. "We'll keep trying until we're far enough. Let's hope he isn't actually asleep."
Tyranniac| Lightning flashes above, followed by the roar of thunder. It isn't long before rain starts to fall.
Iressa sighs, looking up and receiving a few drops on her face. "I suppose, if there's any to be found." She hurrys down the rest of the path as the end approaches, worried by the new rainfall but unable to be patient. The asari hops off the trail, waiting for the krogan by the riverbank.
Tyranniac| The trail ends at a small space of riverbank. There is a wooden dock with a fairly small plastic boat.
Iressa shrugs, pawing a little at the boat with one foot. "Only one way to find out, I suppose." She tilts her head, quite curious about the small dinghy. "Give it a try."
Iressa frowns, "I don't know what I expected. Say, what do you think this is here for?" She asks, putting more weight onto the boat.
Iressa stands completely in the boat, seemingly satisfied with it's ability to hold her- not that there was any indication it couldn't. "Seems to me we could travel much faster in this, possibly far enough to raise Malarus if it is indeed a problem with being so close to the cliffside. But, uh... I'm worried this boat wasn't built for krogan. Should we just proceed on foot?"
Iressa looks doubtful as she rocks the boat with a simple sway of her hips. "It's pretty flimsy. I know you're not going to like this." She begins, trying her best to speak above the sound of the rain. "But if I can get out there and make the call, I can come back quickly with no problem."
Iressa flinches against the rain obstructing her vision and sighs. "I know. But they need help, we need help." Careful of her footing, she climbs back onto the dock. "Give it a try, if you must. Slowly."
Iressa settles on the front of the boat, thuroughly soaked from the rain. "Alright, let's not give this thing a chance to change it's mind. Let's get moving."