Ghost Town

Quill cracks in fairly quickly and says to Syn who's probably staring in disbelief he got in so fast, "I'm an Eantelli, computers are kind of our specialty though I prefer the openness of space and the hum of a space fighter engine to the whir of a computer... and see for yourself Ryder though I don't think you're going to like this." Quill steps aside so Ryder can take a look.

*Ryder goes over and searchs through the files. Syn tries to peer over his shoulder.*

Ryder: "They determined that the fossils are ancient, possibly up to two hundred thousand years old. They wanted to try and replicate the DNA sequence into a living creature, hoping they could learn from them."

Syn: "They thought the monkeys could teach us?"

Ryder: "The files mention other dig sites that had similar fossils. They assumed these things had mastered space flight, maybe even built the Mass Relays."

Jade: "Terrians..."

"Terrians?" Mortal asked.

--

Dura and Iliad took positions and hunkered down.

--

Noct checked out the screen, "Alright. Let me know when you think we're ready."

"Woah Jade. Do you actually know what's going on here?" Quill eyes her.

*Jade stares at the blankly, unaware she said anything.*

Jade: "Ter- what?"

Syn: "You just said it, kind of eerily. Terrians."

*Syn tries to mimic a ghost-like voice. Ryder just sighs and turns around.*

Ryder: "I don't know what it was about, there's no Terrians in the files. And personally, I don't care. My priority is the council, then blowing these bastards back what ever era they came from."


Linox: "Drone is approaching the second checkpoint. Still no sign of danger. I think it'd be safe to start heading over."


*Krast checks is guns as the howling gets closer and the ground shakes more.*

Krast: "I have a bad feeling about this..."

*The apes come into view, just down the streets, crawling along the buildings towards the checkpoint.*

Krast: "Steady! Wait for them to get in range, we need every shot to count."

"I personally just want to council members, then we can blow this entire rock out of space for all I care," Mortal jerked her head towards the door, "We done here, or what?"

--

"Alright, Dr., lets get going."

--

Iliad give a thumbs up to Dura, who returns by pointing to her eyes, then towards the apes, getting her to pay attention.

Quill walks over to Jade and feels her forehead to see if she's running a fever or something that might cause her biotics to do weird things. He was all too familiar with that.

Gazelle just continues poking around the lab.

*Jade feels fine and looks better at this point. Gazelle's continued search doesn't reveal anything useful.*

Ryder: "Let's get out of here."

*Ryder heads for the door. Syn runs ahead and starts up the stairs to the bridge.*


*Linox leaves the console running and heads over to the stairs leading down to the tunnels. He programs his Omni-Tool to act as a flashlight and descends into the tunnels.*


Krast: "Open fire!"

*With the apes in range, Krast and his men start unloading on the apes. The turrets on the roof are also engaging. An occassional rocket explodes from the heavy trooper at the turrets. The roaring and earthquake feeling is getting worse.*

Noct and Zell follow along.

--

Mortal and Sab follow along.

--

Iliad opens fire on the apes in the crowd, Dura, however, coils up her body then explodes outward, sending her arms skyward and picking up a large swath of the apes in a biotic field, making them easy shots.

Linox: "Next checkpoint should take us near shuttles, we can secure it for refugees before moving on to mines."

*Linox lets his light wander as he walks, occasionally causing some dark blue liquid to glint on the floor.*


*Krast's worked with biotics before and pumps shotgun shells into the floating apes. He drops jaw as something else rounds the corner. A trio of hooved lizard creature round the corner. They're large, about the size a small house and close to the size of the security checkpoint. Each of them has an ape riding it. They charge towards the security checkpoint.*

Krast: "Focus on the riders!"

*Krast pumps all he's got into the lizards, the turrets and rockets change targets to the lead lizard. The roars and ground shaking continue, but not one beat with the lizards.*

Gazelle and Quill follow as well.

*The ascent up the stairs is quick to the floor with the bridge. Syn races across to find the door to the bridge closed and locked. She starts to mess with it, but can't connect her Omni-Tool for a hack.*

Syn: "Ugh, it's locked out! I hate these things."

Ryder: "Gazelle, would you do the honors?"

"Yes Sir!" Gazelle seems to have an innate desire to hit things. He happily steps forward, cracks his knuckles, and kicks the door with enough force that it goes flying with several dozen meters and embeds itself in a wall.

He throws his hands up in victory, "New Record WOOO!"

Syn: "Oh no..."

*Inside the bridge, five of the flying creatures were sleeping amongst dead bodies, a nest of sorts. Gazelle's display of power wakes them up and they charge the group. Luckly, one of them is crushed by the door as it was knocked in.*

Ryder: "Take them down!"

*Ryder targets the lead bird and unloads a clip into it. Jade glows with energy and slams the rear bird into the ground multiple times. Syn backlips away from the entrance activates her cloak, going invisible.*

Quill ops to simply draw his pistols and open fire on the next bird that flies near him.

Gazelle dashes forward grabs the last one and simply beats it to death.

Mortal and Sab unload into the closest bird.

--

"Alright," Noct said, walking along.

Zell looked at the liquid, and bent down to touch it. She then rubs her fingers together, "Bleh, what is this stuff?"

--

Iliad unloaded into the knees of the beast, not having a good shot at the rider. Dura, however launched a biotic blast into the air as if she was throwing a football. After sailing into the air it took a sharp turn downward knocking the rider right off of the beast.

*Linox scans it with his Omni-Tool, then looks at Noct cautiously.*

Linox: "Mixture of blood samples, one is unknown, possibly belongs to creatures. The other is... Asari."


*The lead lizard topples over, but shakily tries to get up. It's knocked back over by the other two as they pass and keep charging.*

Krast: "There legs are weaker! Bring them down!"

*Krast pumps his own shells at their legs.*


*The birds are defeated and Jade kind of just stares at Gazelle as he beats the last one to death.*

Ryder: "I think you got him."

*Syn decloaks inside the bridge, leaning over a body. She's holding the card she found in the lab next to its face.*

Syn: "Found our Salarian council member."

"Could it be a Council member?" Zell asked.

"We'd need a dna sample to confirm one way or another," Noct said.

--

Mortal let out a small sigh, "Great, one council member DOA, the rest still unaccounted for."

--

Illy continues to shoot at the animal's legs. Dura shoots her hand out, then squeezes it into a fist. Between the other lizard's legs forms a singularity crushing its legs right out from under it.

"If one's dead I think we can assume the rest are too. Contact the rest of the team and see if they've found some of the others Ryder?" Quill suggests.

OOC: *Noct said. -- made me double take

Linox: "Good thinking, scan and save the sample..."

*Linox brings up the droid's feed which is just bringing up static.*

Linox: "The droid isn't responding..."


Syn: "Well, assuming this guy didn't steal council clothes, that's two accounted for.*

*Syn is standing over a krogan corpse wearing a robe to match the Salarian's.*

*Ryder activates his comm and just gets static.*

Ryder: "Noct? Noct, do you read? Merc team, do you copy? Damn it, I can't raise the other team."


Krast: "That's how you do it!"

*The lizards fall and the forces go back to keeping the apes at bay, which are uncomfortably close now. A trio of them manage to break through fire and bum rush Iliad.*

Noct looked at Zell, who confirmed it, "Yea, I set up a link to my omni-tool as well, I'm just getting static. Either something it knocking out the signal remotely, or the droid was destroyed."

Noct readied her weapon, "Stay on guard, those shadow things were able to knock out electronics."

--

Iliad began to move back unloading a thermal clip into one of the ape's head.

Dura also sent another flying with a biotic push.

--

Mortal just shakes her head, not liking the situation more and more by the second.

"We need to get off this rock and fast" Gazelle states.

Syn: "At this point, if we haven't found the Asari councilor, I doubt her situation is much better than the other two. I say we take the shuttles off this planet and watch them blow it from orbit."

*Jade shakes her head furiously.*

Jade: "No! There are still people, we have to help them."

Ryder: "She's right. The other team found survivors, we can't just leave them behind."

Jade: "No. Terrians."

*Ryder looks back at her with a confused expression, this time Jade seems fully aware of what she said, though looks confused herself.*


*Linox readies his own gun and keeps moving cautiously. His light glints something down the hall. Upon approach, they can see it is the droid, undamaged.*

Linox: "There it is. Could have lost power."


*The third ape breaks through and tackles Iliad to the ground. It roars into her face and takes a swipe at her head with clawed hands that could slice her head off.*

"Jade might be experiencing some sort of biotic resonance" Quill theorizes.

"Is that like what happens when two chicks are together, and their twats sync up like wifi? What are you talking about?" Mortal asked. Quill was the last one to talk, but it was really an open question.

--

Iliad, having nowhere to go, jerks her body forward into the ape's chest, causing the swipe to fall short of decapitating her, and simply knock her around. Illy retaliates by shooting into the ape's gut.

Dura also sends another biotic push at the ape, hoping to send it flying off into the distance.

--

Noct gave Zell a quick look, and Zell nodded, and began to approach the droid to see what was wrong with it.