Diplomatic

<snip>
This figure advanced and Dr. South exclaimed to the crew "It's Winnie-the-smegging-poo!" and the giant bear, (presumably built to entertain children on holiday with their families), began to lurch forward with immeasurably malicious intent. "This is just wrong!" </snip>

“What the hell is that thing!?” Ransom demanded in horror. Back where he came from, they had good, old fashioned, wholesome clowns to entertain their children, and this monstrosity was almost beyond comprehension.

Another gout of cleaning fluid arced high overhead, forcing the Dwarfers back, behind cover while the walls and floor around them were sprayed with a viscous yellow gunge, smelling so zesty and lemon-fresh, it made their eyes water.

Leaning out from behind the crate she was sheltering behind, Cass raised her rocket rifle and aimed it down the smoke filled corridor; the targeting computer pinpointing numerous weak points on the Winnie-bot, each momentarily blistering across the HUD, before she pulled the trigger.

Even in spite of the recoil suppression, the rifle kicked savagely in her hands as it sent a barrage of missiles hissing and spiralling down the passageway; each detonating against the giant robot with the sort of concussive impact you could feel in your guts.

“Are you sure that high explosives are wise, inside a space facility?” White Wolf shouted above the accompanying crackle EM-pulse fire. Like her, he too was sheltering behind one of the many cargo crates, scattering the corridor.

“We’re well away from the exterior bulkhead,” Cass yelled above the roar of a couple of grenades launched by someone else “And besides,” she shrugged after the explosions had subsided “we don’t have time to piss around”

“I think that’s done it” Phil reported after a moment “I’m not getting any movement”

Cass stood and gazed down the corridor for a moment; her eyes scanning the blackened remains of the Winnie-bot, lying twisted and broken amid a carpet of destroyed cleaning robots “We should hurry”

“It’s... It’s like... totally gone” Jaxx’s plaintive voice rose above the silence, making her turn and glare at the drama unfolding behind her.

“Baby, I’m so sorry” Eve sounded close to tears. She reached a consoling hand out to place on his shoulder, but he just shrugged it off; the movement sudden and aggressive “Oh, Baby...” she wailed.

“What's happened?” Brett glanced between the others in consternation.

“It’s dead!” Jaxx near shouted, clutching a couple of handfuls of billowing, white dust up against his chest “Dead!”

“What?” Cass was at a loss. Like the others, she had noticed they hadn't been involved in the recent fire fight, but she had been too intent on trying to stay alive to be able to do anything about it.

“The land shark” Eve bubbled

Warily approached where the two GELF’s were crouched, Cass frowned “Land shark?” she queried

“I made a weapon that makes sharks that burrow underground,” Eve wailed “and then I fired one off and then Jaxx sang a song to it and then it died!” she buried her face in her hands as she collapsed into tears at the memory.

“But... We’re on a space station” Cass said, momentarily struggling to comprehend how anyone could possibly be so stupid.

Eve let her hands fall again, to reveal her tear streaked face “I know...” she howled.

“It’s dead!” Jaxx repeated, his voice choked with emotion.

Taking a deep breath, Cass steepled the fingers of one hand to massage her forehead, while she slowly exhaled “Fucking hell” she muttered under her breath.

{schlump} Interpreting this as a command, her Archiver weapon helpfully turned into an aggressively ribbed, Horny Devil (tm) dildo, replete with flame effect illumination.

"For fucks sake"

"Jaxx, baby" Eve tried again

"No, Eve babe, it's totally non-non-non-heinous!"

Her lip curling in distaste, at the quadruple negative, Cass momentarily considered using the disturbing length of silicone in her hand, to savagely beat Jaxx and his idiot wife around the face and neck, but reluctantly dismissed the idea, reasoning that it probably wasn’t best to provoke them .

“Guys” she said patiently “We can’t have this”

“What?” Eve bubbled, dabbing at her eyes “The dildo?”

Even through her tears, you could almost see her tiny mind, hard at work, considering the sickening wealth of possibilities that the Archiver weapons offered.

“No!” Cass sounded offended “Rocket rifle!” she shook the sex toy in mid-air but nothing happened “Exawatt laser”

Still nothing

“Eeee?”

“Yeah,” Phil nodded “I reckon”

“Fucking thing’s broken” Cass said hotly and jammed it into her shoulder bag.

“Eee eee.”

“Not another fucking word from you!”

Taking a couple of deep breaths to collect herself in the sudden silence that followed, Cass turned back to the GELF’s “We can’t have you two ducking out of fights” she said, a little more calmly “Someone could have got hurt or even killed because of your inaction”

“But dude - The land shark is, like, totally dust” Jaxx protested.

Cass would have loved to have told him to get the fuck over himself and to stop acting like a fucking princess, but it would have been like kicking a puppy. The ‘man’ barely had two brain cells to rub together and whatever had happened, had quite clearly upset him; so, she reasoned, she should probably try to have at least a little compassion - if only to avoid the oaf getting pissed off and shooting her in the back, later on.

“I’ve seen land sharks deployed while I was with the STCP” she said gently “They’re just nanonic constructs. They might look and act like sharks, but they’re just biological machines, engineered to grow and decay within minutes”

“Whut?” Jaxx’s features twisted with incomprehension.

“That wasn’t a shark” Cass tried again “It was barely even a living thing.”

“It wasn’t alive?”

“Not really – It was made by tiny machines” she hurriedly pushed away the realisation that she owed her own existence to very similar processes.

“It seemed like it was...”

Shaking her head, Cass quickly changed the subject “The point is that while you two were distracted, we needed your help – One or more of us could easily have been killed” she turned to fix her attention on Eve “Let's have no more shark based weaponry from you, eh? - Stick with pulse rifles and blasters from now on. And you,” she said to Jaxx “need to keep your mind on the job – I’m sure Frankie would have a lot to say about what we’ve just seen”

This made Jaxx scramble up from the floor, his eyes widening with horror as he quickly dusted the remains of the land shark off his hands and clothes Like, no...” he gabbled.

“Don’t worry” Cass soothed “I won’t breathe a word - We just need your help from now on”

The telepathic creature would know anyway.

Turning away, she raised her voice to address the others “We can't afford to waste any more time," she called "let’s move out”



Picking their way through the blackened remains of the cleaning robots, the Dwarfers quickly made their way down into the gloomy recesses of cargo hold.

“Brett’s in charge of inventory detail” Cass announced once they were inside the main bay “Everyone split up, fan out and try to locate what he needs. White Wolf: You’re with me - I need your help disengaging the interlocks up in the control room, so we can let Jay and the others in...”

“I’m afraid that,” Grovely’s unmistakeable voice boomed out of the darkness “won’t be happening”

“How the hell did he get down here!?” Phil demanded, as Cass hurriedly fumbled the Horny Devil (tm) out of her bag, while the others all raised their weapons, their eyes nervously scanning their surroundings.

The thud of heavy footsteps, echoed about the mass of cargo crates around them.

“I’m regret to inform you,” Grovely continued “that our debt recovery department have been authorised to use lethal force”

“What!?” South was aghast

“Tara’s got to him” Cass snarled “Rocket rifle!” she shook the dildo to little effect “Oh, come on!”

“There!” Ransom pointed towards a massive, shadowy form, moving behind some of the nearby containers

"Whoa..." Jaxx's mouth fell open at the sight of Grovely, as the dull thump of the first salvos, fired by the resorts defence grid, echoed through the bay.




<tag>
There’s a somewhat upgraded Grovely down here with representatives from the debt recovery department – let’s make it a good fight!
J Team – The sky around you just lit up with hot plasma; any ideas on getting inside quickly, or can you tough it out until the action finishes inside?
</tag>