BD rebels - 'Shafted'

Who: Andy, Efof, Rufus, Rosette
Where: Ventilation shafts.
When: 2 hours after Reuben's Actionette
Andy had crawled up and down through the snaking maintenance tunnels
on most days. When he was felling up to it he would even go through
the Skutter vents. Despite the fact that they were half the size the
vents were undoubtedly the fastest way to get anyway due to actually
heading in a straight line.
In hindsight he should've taken the maintenance tunnels.
"Ergh… I can barely breathe in here!" Rufus complained as he shuffled
on all fours through the ventilation shaft in almost complete
darkness. His face lit only by the torchlight strapped to the side of
his head.
"Yeah, well, if any of you let one go. I swear I'm going to stick my
knifes in places they were never meant to go." Rosette growled; she
was right behind Andy. Better to have the battle-ready in the front
the Janitor reasoned.
Efof was as usual generally oblivious to the stifling conditions;
instead taking it a moment to slake his unending curiosity. He'd
volunteered to bring up the rear as they moved forward. "Wow… I've
been here for years and I've never seen these parts of the ship. Andy,
didn't you say you go through here pretty much every day?"
The Janitor didn't look back, knowing that halting movement would halt
the whole que and complaining would commence. "Yeah but it's not like
I learnt it straight off the bat. My first week on the job I was told
to clean up after Mini-Phil apparently did something in the vents,
let's never speak of this again. Anyway, after crawling around for
about three hours I realised I was lost. It wasn't until four days
later that Jed actually noticed that I was missing and it was only
because Holly locked his booze closet and told him to find me."
Andy trailed off. He'd had a bad habit of rambling sometimes. Never
did go into the vents again until he activated the three Skutters and
they actually showed him around. Now it was like his backyard.
~~
<Snip> "Sir, we're detecting disturbances in some of the lower decks.
Seems
like some crew members forming a resistance."
"Send down a few squads of men, and maybe try convincing one or two of
the GELF gangs down in the maintenance decks to give them some trouble."
The young man saluted Boris and raced back out of the room.
<End Snip>
The human's eyes scanned the hallway intently. The scanners had said
that they were near this area before. A submachine gun at his side and
a dozen similarly armed GELF at his back, he was ready for anything.
"Tracker; to me." The leader demanded. A wolf-man ran to his side, the
desire to please was evident even behind the bloodthirsty eyes. He'd
lived on his ship even before they had high-jacked it. Now this former
bloodhound-gang member served him.
"Yes, master?" The dog growled earnestly. "Has something passed this
way?" He asked the wolf-man, spreading out his arm for effect.
Immediately slumping to its knees the creature intently sniffed at the
ground. At first practically inhaling the floor, the tracker's sniffs
eventually trailed off. "Nothing…wait!" The wolf's ear suddenly
pricked up. "The vents… they're in the vents!!"
~~
"What are we exactly going to do when we get there?" Rufus called over
the constant shuffling. "Didn't you already ask me this?" Andy called
back. "I did, numerous times. I'm hoping that repetition will help you
to reconsider." The scientist replied.
Andy groaned then reached down to his waist and held up his bio-spray
gun. "Supplies for starters; besides I didn't hear any of you giving
suggestions." "But we have!" Efof stated in a somewhat confused voice.
"Five times… each." Rosette added in a more aggressive tone. "And you
refused to tell us how to get there!" Rufus ended the rant.
"Yeah…well… those places sucked!" The janitor shot back.
"If *that's* your argument then I'm taking my chances on my own." The
only female in the group stated. She completely halted then turned to
the other two. "You guys with-?" Her speech was cut short as a beam of
light bisected the vent.
"Holy shit, get back!!" Andy screamed, his arms flopping out and
pulling the woman away from the hole in the shaft.
"Shit, he was right! Fire at the ceiling!!" A voice yelled from under
the hole. Screams and blasts issued from the end of the laser weapons,
boring various holes up and down the vents.
"Andy! Throw your little spray-bottle thingy into the hole!" Rufus's
mind immediately went ticking. "But it's-!!" "DO IT!!" The boy didn't
yell often, he just wasn't that kind of person, but he had been
holding it in and was now being shot at the same time.
The Janitor wanted to correct him on the fact that his 'spray-gun' was
technically a bio-spray dispenser but wised realised that he just
didn't have the time for the resulting argument.
Already having it in his hand the cleaner lobbed the thing down the
still-glowing red hole. A quiet clonk resulted afterwards. Rufus's had
already pulled out his own custom-side arm and seconds afters Andy had
thrown it, the scientist's arms tensed and pulled the trigger.
Suddenly the shooting stopped. Then the screaming began. The
half-human, half-GELF sighed in relief that his plain had worked. When
super-heat a corrosive substance; you get lethal gas. Now they had
seconds to get out of here before it started to affect them too.
"Andy, get Rosette out of here!" Rufus said as he pushed Efof back
into the vents. The second he saw the protest on their faces he
immediately cut then off. "Don't argue, just go!"
Andy's legs took a few seconds to work before they started to function
again. When they did, he grabbed Rosette by the shirt and dragged her
away down the vents and into parts unknown.
<Okay, Andy with Rose and Efof with Rufus. Do we reunite or wreak
havoc on our own?>
OOC: I realise that a dozen people where all shooting at the vents
with automatic lasers and I didn't mention that one of the guys didn't
get hit. This can be up to you if they got shot and just haven't
noticed it due to the adrenal rush.