Life Onboard Serenity: #42 - Of Jobs, Vaults and Things Gone Wrong
POSTED BY: EnglishIvy
UPDATED: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 22:19
VIEWED: 30582
PAGE 3 of 14
John, Jayne and Evelyn followed the directions to where they were supposed to go. The place seemed completely bare. Maybe this would be easier than John had anticipated. "We're all clear on this end," he said into the com. Inreply though, he heard only static.
"Gorram com!" Jayne muttered.
"I'm getting static as well," John replied, "I guess should just press on anyway." Jayne walked out front, and John stood back with Evelyn. "You were disappointed with your assignment," he whispered to the woman, "so were you after Pain Ivy, or 13? More likely though the captain or Zoe or Isahiah. Wait is it Cate." he kept his senses open trying to gage a reaction from each name.
johnttf
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On the way to the Command Center
Static. Nothing, but static and an occasional word came from Mal's ear piece before more static followed. He tapped it again and asked Zoe, "Zoe? Is your comm on the fritz or is it just mine?"
Zoe tapped hers' and looked at the captain before shaking her head and saying, "No, sir. Gettin' static on every channel. Somethin' don't seem right about it, sir."
"Yeah. Somethin'." replied Mal. Turning to Isahiah, he asked, "You know anythin' thing about this, Isahiah? Could there be some sort of shieldin' preventin' our comms from transmittin'?"
"Wish I knew, Captain." replied Isahiah as he shrugged. "Like I said it's been awhile since I've been here. I don't know what's been done to the place since I was here last."
The foursome of Mal, Isahiah, Zoe, and Cate continued on to the command center, their ability to communicate with the other teams cut off. An occasional hiss and ting came from the pipes overhead, but no sounds of machinery or those made by a human. They stopped once when they heard something that sounded like a scrapping noise, but after a few moments of pointing guns every which way, it turned out to be a lone brown rat scurrying across the floor. It paused to give the foursome a look before going on its merry way, disappearing behind some old oil drums.
The Command Team made their way over to a pair of steel double doors, the caution yellow paint on them having seen better days. Dents and rust had made their home on the doors, a sign that the place had seen some neglect. The light inside the room flickered intermittently through the two small rectangular windows. Above the doors was a white and equally neglected sign that said in black bold lettering, both in English and in Chinese: COMMAND CENTER
"Guess this is the place." Cate chimed in. "Boy what a dump."
Mal and Zoe instinctively slid over to the sides of the doors with their weapons in hand. They looked at each other and nodded. Slowly Mal opened one of the doors and followed his gun into the room. Seeing that it was clear, he gave the others the all clear and let them follow him inside. It was a mess inside the command center. To Mal and the other team members it looked like a tornado had hit. Papers and things were thrown everywhere on the floor. Several of the screens on the walls showed static although one or two were completely broken. Stepping over an overturned office chair, Mal made his way over to one of the control stations.
The light overhead continued to flicker, complicating the search somewhat as well as giving Mal a headache. At the control station that Mal was looking at, exposed wiring appeared out of an open panel, which itself appeared to have been ripped open. The wires sticking out were mangled although some of them were spliced together rather deliberately.
"What happened here?" a shocked Isahiah asked as he looked at the damaged done to the command center.
"Looks like someone was here before us, sir." came Zoe's voice from the near corner of the room. "And judgin' from the mess in here, they were lookin' for somethin'."
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BigWolf18 "Way i remember it, you said you was leavin', dare say that saved us a whole peck o' trouble. now i gotta wonder what could spur on a fine disreputable man like yourself to show your fine disreputable face here again."
...Dust monkeys...
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Upper Level Hallway
Quote:
Originally posted by EnglishIvy:
"Jen dao mei," he whispered. He was getting the feeling this wasn't going to be an easy job. He turned to Ivy. "You stay close to me."
"OK." Ivy replied, walking closer up to him as they walked further down the hallway.
It was dim in the hallway they were in as only the emergency lights were on. Pain turned on the weapons light on his assault rifle and used it for better visibility, although he knew 13 didn't need it. The only sounds in there were the echos of their footsteps on the floor and the hum of the lights.
"13?" Pain whispered. "How far until we reach the elevators?"
13 scanned the hallway with his sensors, taking into account where they were and how far they needed to go. As the final readout came up, 13 said, "We got 82.3 more yards to go. We should make it there in about 8 minutes at our current pace. Oh and you don't need to whisper, since the only life signs I'm picking up in this vicinity are yours' and Ivy's."
"Oh. OK then." Pain said in his normal tone of voice as his beam of light bobbed up and down from his walking. "So do the elevators have power?"
"I would think so if this place is on emergency power." replied 13. He grinned at the two of them and added, "Otherwise we're taking the stairs and you know how chatty I am when it comes to stairs."
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13, Pain and Ivy walked into the elevator and pushed the down button to the appropriate floor. It was dark in the elevator, only a single light burned above their heads and that light blinked off and on enough to serve as a strobe light.
They were only down a couple of levels when the elevator made a horrendous scraping and screeching sound and stopped. And it stopped while slanted a little to the right.
Ivy reached up and grabbed Pain's shoulder.
"It's OK, darlin'," he said to her calmly. He turned to 13. "Let's get these doors open and see where we are."
Together, Pain and 13 pried the interior doors open to find out they were stuck between floors. The bottom of the elevator was only about a foot to 18 inches into the next floor.
"I can't get through there," Pain said, stating the obvious. "Wouldn't know how to fix this once I did."
13 looked up at the ceiling at the service hatch. It looked a bit twisted and the hinge was visibly broken. There'd be no way to force that open and as they were standing there, the elevator structure groaned a bit and tilted a little more.
"It think it's safe to say that this elevator has been damaged at some point or another. Looks like the frame is twisted," 13 told them. "Maybe an explosion? In other words, we need to get out of here."
"Well we can't exactly wave a magic wand and poof ourselves out," Pain deadpanned. "We can't go out the top and can't get out through the door."
"I can," Ivy said softly.
"What'd you say bao bei?" Pain asked as 13 made a face at the sound of Pain's term of endearment.
"I can get through there," she said again. "We used to have a lift in our barn that got stuck all the time. Maybe I can help this one along enough to make room for the both of you to climb out."
Pain looked at her, then the gap by the floor.
"That's too small, babe," he said shaking his head. "And too dangerous."
"Like staying here isn't dangerous?" quipped 13.
The elevator groaned a little more.
"I can do this," Ivy reassured him. Then she put on a smile. "I am very agile, you know."
"I don't need to know that," 13 groaned.
Pain looked at Ivy, then the gap again. Reluctantly, he looked over at 13.
"Let's get those outer doors open for her to crawl out."
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Quote:
Originally posted by EnglishIvy:
"Let's get those outer doors open for her to crawl out."
"Alright, but if she falls and dies, I'm not going to be responsible for that." replied 13 as he tightened his grip on his door.
"I wasn't expecting any special treatment from you anyway." Ivy shot back to 13.
"That's fine with me." 13 replied back. "Since I wasn't giving you any special treatment anyways."
"Can we just do this without the bickerin'?" Pain asked, slightly annoyed as he held onto the other door. "My hands are gettin' tired over here."
Ivy looked at 13 once more and then turned her sights on Pain. She gave him a smile before kneeling down and squeezing out between the doors. Pain watched her and listened as both he and 13 held onto the doors. He heard and saw her move around and then drop down into the hallway below, letting out a soft grunt as she did so.
"You OK, babe?" Pain called down to her from the elevator. When he didn't hear from her right away, he got worried when she didn't immediately respond and asked again, "Babe? You OK?"
"Yeah." Ivy replied up to him. "Just had to dust myself off."
"OK that's good." Pain replied, mentally sighing his relief that she didn't fall down the shaft. "Now can you please get us down?"
"Oh what?" 13 asked Pain, raising an eyebrow at the man. "You don't like being stuck in an elevator with lil' ol' me?" Scoffing, 13 placed a hand on his hip and with a shocked look in his eyes, added, "Well I never!"
The elevator groaned once more and lurched downward, protesting the movement every inch of the way. It started slowly and then just like that it fell quickly, causing Pain to shout at the unexpected drop before the elevator came to a sudden stop halfway between the open hallway where Ivy was standing and the shaft. Up above Pain and 13 could hear more groaning coupled by metal lines snapping and falling down on the roof.
Pain looked at 13 with wide eyes and hastily said, "That didn't sound so good."
"I agree." said 13 as more lines snapped and the elevator lurched again.
They both looked at one another before leaping out of the elevator and landing near Ivy just as the elevator itself finally let go and fell down the shaft. There was a loud metallic shrieking as it fell, followed be a muffled boom as it hit the bottom. Pain turned over onto his back and stared at the rectangular opening that previously held the elevator car the three of them had been riding in.
After a few deep breaths, Pain got up, dusted himself off and said, "Lets take the stairs this time, shall we?"
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So, now they were on the job, and other than the fact that everyone's comms were only picking up static, it seemed to be working out just fine so far, at least Evelyn thought so. That was, until John stayed back and began talking to her.
Quote:
Originally posted by johnthetheatrefreak:
"You were disappointed with your assignment," he whispered to the woman, "so were you after Pain Ivy, or 13? More likely though the captain or Zoe or Isahiah. Wait is it Cate."
She'd been warned about him to an extent, at least in regards to his questions, and she wasn't to tell him anything unless absolutely necessary. "I'm supposed to be watching Ivy for you, and that's all that really concerns you," she replied, almost snarkily.
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"See, I've secretly been kind of a fan of me for some time now. I've seen everything I've ever done. I'd love to meet me, but I'd probably just stare and not be able to say anything witty or anything." -- Joss Whedon
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"Ok, then we'll just go with that for now." They made their way trough to the vault using the stairs just in case. John couldn't help but wondering about the real people she was after. Doc was a very...multi-faceted woman. She could be after any one of them for any number of reasons. She could even be after him. Static continued to hiss through the com. He hoped the vault wouldn't be too hard to open.
johnttf
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As the trio walked down the remaining 4 floors down to their level, 13 paused for a moment.
"Somethin' wrong, Bot Boy?" Pain asked.
"Sensors getting a bit screwy," he said as he shook his head a little. "Worse by every step down we take."
"The static is making you sensors all wiggy?" Pain asked him for clarification.
13 glared at Pain as Ivy giggled a bit.
"No matter," 13 said. "I'll just have to do this the hard way... OH! I mean like the rest of you."
His comment dripped of sarcasm, but they pressed on. Pain was the first through the door, so he took the lead using the light on his assault rifle to move towards their assigned destination. Ivy was second and took a moment to glance up the stairwell as she crossed the threshold and was reminded that somehow they needed to find a new elevator to get the goods back, else they would be spending a good amount of time hauling the stuff up seven floors manually.
"Hope that's not the only lift there was for this section," Ivy said to herself.
13 brushed by her, their shoulders connecting and knocking her back a little harder than he should.
"Ow!" she whispered, rubbing her shoulder. Bot boy was certainly well built. Like a brick.
"What's the matter, Ivy?" he asked, stopping to sneer at her. "You two not able to carry your weight if it comes to that? I mean, it's perfect. If you get tired, Tommy could take over, and vice versa. You'd be unstoppable."
After saying what he wanted, he smirked at her and went off to follow Pain.
"Like your mouth," she said under her breath as he followed Pain down the hall to their destiation.
"I heard that!" he yelled back at her.
"Bù rén dào guài wu," she mumbled again.
"I heard that too!" he yelled back at her.
"Come on darlin', stay close. I think it's close," Pain called back to her.
She started to go after them, but she heard something down the hallway behind them. Not much, just a single scuffle.
"What was that?" she asked. 13 had double tracked back to her location and was looking down the opposite end of the hall. "You heard that too?"
13 gave her the "duh" look.
"You go get by Pain," he said softly as he gently pushed her in Pain's direction. He spoke a little louder so Pain could hear him. "I'll go check it out. You two keep going to the vault."
Translation:
Bù rén dào guài wu = inhuman monster or freak
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On the Quest of the Second Vault
Quote:
Originally posted by EnglishIvy:
"You go get by Pain," he said softly as he gently pushed her in Pain's direction. He spoke a little louder so Pain could hear him. "I'll go check it out. You two keep going to the vault."
"Come on." Pain said to Ivy, cocking his head in the direction they were heading. "Lets keep movin'."
Pain and Ivy plodded onwards as 13 walked back in the direction they had come. He found it rather odd that his sensors were becoming less scrambled as he walked further and further, trying to find the source of the sound both him and Ivy had heard. He walked slowly in case the sound's source was biological, making sure his footsteps were as quiet as possible to insure that he didn't alert the sound maker to his presence. 13 was armed with two sub-machine guns located in a shoulder holster on both sides of his torso. He was rather skilled in using them and being a robot, suffered no effects from the recoil of full auto fire.
In addition to those two sidearms, 13 had the gun between his legs. It was a rather peculiar location for a gun, but with its retractable barrel, it had earned 13 the nickname of 'Pistol Pants'. He had received the name during a bout of electrical drunkenness to which he "whipped" it out and fired a round into one of the galley's cupboard doors. As he made his way through the dim hallway, 13's search continued.
Back to Ivy and Pain
"Do you think he'll be OK?" Ivy asked Pain as they continued on their trek towards their goal.
"I'm not too worried about him, babe." replied Pain, as he swept his weapons light through the dimness. "He's taken care of himself before and I'm confident that he'll be more than alright." He gave her a smile and continued, "Can't say the same for whatever he runs into though."
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John, Evelyn, and Jayne had reached the vault. John began to look it over, hoping to find a way in. It actually didn't look like it would be too difficult. He tapped the com. "I doubt any of you can here this, but we're at the vault." Knowing that the captain may be unable to get the vault open, he began to hack the lock. It appeared to be an electronic seal, using a keypad, maybe a print scanner, to open. He pulled of the keypad and got to work. It was supringly eady and soon he had the door unlocked. "Wasn't there supposed to be some degree of difficulty involved here?" he asked
"Just be glad, easy payday," Jayne replied moving to the door. As he pulled it open John's heart sank. The vault was empty.
johnttf
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