Decision

"Well, I thought it was a good plan" Jay grumbled.
"Oh, it was" Cass scowled down at her terminal for a moment before switching it off and slipping it into a pocket "I was going to suggest something similar myself"
They were stood, talking together in the flickering firelight.
"What?" he eyed her suspiciously "Seriously!?"
"Sure - Just blow a hole in the loading bay doors and we're straight in. No need to endanger ourselves, fighting through traps and hordes of mad cleaning robots, or whatever the fuck it is that's down there"
"Huh" Jay grunted, somewhat mollified "My thoughts exactly"
"If you're coming up with plans like that," Phil nudged Cass in the ribs he said as sidled in to hand her one of the Archiver weapons "you've been spending far too long, hanging around with Mr Chrysler here"
"Hey!" Jay protested in mock affront.
"Well, it's not like we have time to piss about" Cass shrugged "I was going to suggest destroying the solar arrays, to kill the power as well; although I suspect that there'll be a few backup generators, so it's probably not worth the effort"
"So which way are we going to do this?" Jay asked "Blunt but effective or bloody dangerous?"
"We'll go with bloody dangerous"
Jay groaned "Why did I know you were going to say that?"
"Well," Cass sighed "Brett made a good point about prioritising which food we need to take – Remember when all we had to eat was mushy peas?"
Phil sniggered "Who could forget Seymour nearly shitting himself?"
"Yeah, that's the point" Cass said "We don't want to make ourselves ill, having to live on the six tons of lollipops and lard, that we randomly managed to lasso into the Starbug before we had to leave. This might be the last chance we have of snagging any decent food for a long time"
"Bollocks," Jay scowled "I hadn't thought of that" he eyed the rag-tag members of the crew, inexpertly waving their Archiver weapons around "This isn't going to go well, is it?"
"A bunch of scientists" Phil mused "and a one man army, with the IQ of a glass of milk. What could possibly go wrong?"
"Fucks sake" Jay slowly shook his head.
"I'll head this one" Cass volunteered "You're the only one who can fly the 'bug, so you're going to have to hang around outside and wait for us to let you in"
Jay looked a very long way from happy at this "It should be me leading the assault"
"And I'd much rather be in the Starbug, but there you have it"
"How about I manoeuvre the 'bug around to the nearest airlock and drop you all off...?"
"I already checked" Cass shook her head "The nearest one's a real trek from the cargo bay - It'll be quicker if we just go from here"
"Nothing's ever easy is it?" Jay grumbled.
"It wouldn't be fun if it was"
They lapsed into silence, Jay shooting Phil a meaningful, sideways glance, hoping that his friend would take the hint and piss off.
Looking between the two men, Cass raised her eyebrows.
"Well," she said after a moment "I suppose I should marshal the troops"
"Yeah" Jay nodded "I suppose so"
Nobody moved until Cass turned to glare at Phil "Are you still here?"
Realising that his presence was no longer required, Phil grinned and stayed put "Apparently so" he nodded.
They waited in awkward silence for a moment longer before Jay clapped his friend on the shoulder "Mate," he said "just do one"
"Oh, I get it - You want to say your goodbyes?" Phil treated them to a massively over-exaggerated wink "No tongues" he smirked before suddenly turning away "Hey Jamie!" he called "Do you want one of these dodgy Archiver weapons? - They probably won't kill you!"
Jay watched him go for a moment before looking back at Cass "I don't like this" he confessed "but I can't see any other way around it"
"You're going to have to teach someone else to fly"
"Yeah, probably so" Jay conceded "Did you pack your nanosuit?"
"I wish I had" Cass sighed "Shorts and a vest top aren't exactly ideal combat couture"
They glanced away towards the others at the sound of raised voices; South was ranting at Brett about being a biologist for some reason.
Jay grimaced "I think we should start rounding them up"
"Yeah, if we don't, they'll either be shooting each other or swapping fucking recipes in a few minutes"
"Just... Be careful down there, okay?"
"I'm not planning on dying" Cass met Jay's gaze "This resort has a defence grid, you know? - Tara could have got to it, so you take care out there as well"
For a crazy moment, she wondered whether or not she should kiss him. She'd enjoyed a great week in his (and everyone else's) company, and given the circumstances, it seemed wildly appropriate. Her main concerns were whether he would think so as well and how he would react.
In the end she wound up hating herself for wimping out and giving him a winning smile instead.
"The defence grid won't give me any problems" Jay said "It's you-"
Fuck it Cass stepped forward and shut him up with a kiss. She had nearly been killed last week and if Brittany turned up, they might all be dead in a few hours anyway, so she figured there was absolutely nothing to lose.
The look on his face when she pulled away was priceless.
"I'm coming back" she said, her eyes searching his "I'll see you later"
Turning away, she gave her Archiver weapon an experimental shake as she padded over, towards the others "Rocket rifle" {ka-chak}
<snip> "I'd certainly like that Mr. Bishop, I certainly would! By the way," he said shifting from admiration to inquiry, "you wouldn't happen to know if they've figured out a way to make vegetarian blood pudding yet have they? Cus' as of the year 12,000 that was still a mystery."</snip>
"Right, listen up" Cass raised her voice as she approached "You're all with me. Jay's flying the 'bug around to dock inside the cargo bay. We're meeting him there to let him in and help load supplies. There's a service elevator that we can take down to the right level, just behind the hotel reception, so let's hurry it up and move out!"


Grovely was there, waiting for them, behind the reception desk, as the Dwarfer's spilled down the marble stairs, into the palatial hotel lobby. The service mechanoid wore a thin smile on his angular, plastic face and he was fidgeting with a piece of paper.
"Honoured guests" he gave a small bow "It has come to my attention that you intend to check out in the next few hours. That being the case..." he placed the piece of paper down on the desk in front of him and slid it towards the Dwarfers "there's the small matter of the bill"
"Aw, shit" Phil groaned, his Archiver weapon splattering down to the ground.


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Can we sort out the exorbitant bill, without Grovely calling in the hotel security bots? - What happens when he finds out that we can't pay?
After that (if you're keen to carry on), there's a lift to ride down to the service levels - Does the journey down there go smoothly or has the lift been sabotaged? - Are we pursued by angry security bots?
What do we find once we get down there? - We've already had cleaning robots, so what else might we encounter down in the service levels?

That's quite a lot to write in one go, so write as much or as little as you like - just give us a situation to react to and something to work with and we'll all carry on in that general direction :)
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