IC-SWORD-Ranger Danger(Everyone but Lara)

[ryansommer]

Nicely done, Katarina, Sally thought to herself. Tucking her .45 into her waist band and covering it with her shirt, Sally hobbled out into the hallway - walking with her canes. "Hello, airman." Sally said sheepishly. "We appologize for the surprise. We came here via a tunnel downstairs that we entered via a warehouse in town."

[Mr Zombie killer]

Julie followed them out tucking her weapons as best as she could

[Mr. Handy]

In the corridor-
Zoe came out of the stairwell last. Sally's two .45s were visible on her hips, and there was no way Julie could hide her bow or sniper rifle. Zoe's shotgun and rifle were also obvious.

"A tunnel?" said Jason Baker, thinking quickly. "This is bad. This is a huge security risk. And you can't be carrying around weapons on this base."

"Please?" asked Katarina, giving him a doe-eyed stare.

"You can hold onto them for now, but I'm sure you'll have to give them up before long. I need to take you to my sergeant. He'll need to hear about this." He cleared his throat. "It's very nice to meet you ladies. I just wish the circumstances were better. I'm Airman Jason Baker. If you'll please walk this way." He motioned down the corridor. "It's straight ahead, past the intersection, and through the door at the end. I'd better announce you before you actually enter so that Sarge and the others aren't spooked."

[ryansommer]

"Nice to meet you, Airman" Sally said with a warm smile. "We've been through hell today....." she looked to her feet, her voice cracking with sorrow..." we've lost some very good friends." She wiped the forming tears from her eyes with her forearm before straightening up and looking back to Airman Baker: "I've been in the thick of this all day. I was near ground zero when it all went down and have important intel for the leaders here."

[Mr. Handy]

In the corridor-
"We've lost some good people too," said Airman Baker, a look of sadness in his eyes. "Wait, ground zero?! I didn't know there was a ground zero. This has been happening everywhere." He shook his head and led the women down the hallway. "Well, I'm sure you'll explain it all soon." He spoke into throat microphone. "Sarge, this is Baker. We have...visitors. I found four women who claim to have entered the armory through a tunnel from outside. I'm bringing them in now. Most of them are armed, but they are friendly." He stopped talking briefly. "Understood, Sarge." He stepped aside when he reached the intersection and motioned the ladies ahead of him. "After you."

The hall continued beyond the intersection, and soon they all reached a door. "We're here, Sarge," said Baker over the radio. Then the door was opened from within by another MP, this one big and tough with a thick, dark beard. His nametag said McBain. He held a pistol in his hand and pointed it at the women. Behind him and to either side stood two more. On his left stood a tall woman with black hair. Her tag said Wagner, and she also had a pistol trained on them. The man on his right had sergeant's stripes on his sleeves, the name Dauterive on his tag, and an M4 carbine in his hands. "Drop your weapons, ladies," he said with a thick Louisiana drawl. "All of them. Then step into the room."

Past the MPs, a guard room was visible. There was a table in the middle of the room with chairs around it, and the cards and chips on the table showed that a poker game had been in progress. At the far end of the room was a set of double doors leading outside into the night.

[ryansommer]

"Whoah!" Sally said throwing her hands up. "No need for the guns, gentlemen. We're friendlies." Sally began to slowly take out her pistols and lay them on the ground in front of her. "I'd like these back at some point. We've been through a lot together and those two ladies there," Sally indicated towards her .45's "have saved my ass a number of times today."

[Mr. Handy]

In the corridor-
"We don't know you yet," said Staff Sergeant Dauterive. "Until we can be sure, we're not taking any chances. You're trespassing on U.S. Air Force property, afte rall."

"Those weapons could be ours for all we know," said Airman McBain. "We've had a rash of thefts from this armory. This tunnel you got in through must be how the weapons were smuggled out. And how would you have known about this tunnel if you weren't involved in it? You can be sure we'll check the serial numbers on all these weapons." The big bear of a man pointed at Zoe. "And what is that other blonde doing with handcuffs on and grenades on her belt, huh? And the brunette's got a scoped sniper rifle!"

"I'm sure there's a logical explanation for all this," said Airman Baker.

"Yeah," said Airman Wagner, rolling her eyes. "They're involved in the thefts, like McBain said. Sounds logical to me."

Katarina shivered nervously. She hadn't done the best job of hiding her weapons, but with her skimpy outfit she couldn't have done much better. She left her pistol and knife hidden and helped Sally into the room, not wanting to leave herself defenseless. She'd had more than her fill of being helpless, and she wasn't about to put herself in that position again.

Zoe laid down her Desert Eagle, M-16, shotgun, knife, and grenades carefully. It pained her to give up her weapons, but she couldn't fight an entire military base. Then she walked into the guard room. Julie put down her rifle, .45, bow, arrows, and knife before entering as well. Baker brought up the rear.

In the guard room-
"We can explain everything," said Katarina.

"Yeah, I'll bet you can," said McBain. "And you're going to." He glanced at the sergeant. "We need to bump this up the chain of command, Sarge."

Dauterive moved his jaw back and forth, then nodded. "All right," he said. "I'll inform security command. You ladies stand up against the left wall. Wagner, you're the only woman here, so you'll have to search them."

"Me?" she said. "But what if they're infected?"

"Hell, I'd be willing do it," said McBain, grinning.

"No choice, Wagner. Regulations. It's gotta be you." He turned to Sally and the others. "If you have any more weapons, give them up now. Ammo too. If you hold back and we find anything, it won't look real good for you." He spoke into a microphone built into his helmet. "Lieutenant Wyatt, this is Staff Sergeant Dauterive in Armory A. We've got four women here who somehow got in from outside. They said they got in through a tunnel. We're going to need transport for them."

OOC,[b]Sally[/b], you still have two grenades and two flasks of acid in your pack, along with a lot of ammo. If there's anything you want to hold onto, roll Conceal to see how well you've hidden it. The base skill is 15%. Even if you fail, it still might not be found - but it might be. You also have the canes, but those are in plain sight, your leg is obviously broken, and you're using them as crutches, so you can probably get away with holding onto them for now.

[ryansommer]

Sallys lays her pack down on the floor and moves over to the all indicated by the airforce personel.

"Hold your tongue, McBain" Sally said with venom in her voice. "We came to know of this place because of some radical skinheads in the area. They had kidnapped Katarina and Zoe and were systematically raping and torturing them for pleasure. So before you spout off with another set of lewd comments, dont."
"When the skin head base was attacked by a massive worm, the surviving skin heads fled, with these weapons, and attempted to hold up at a ranger station manned by Julie here" Sally indicated towards Julie, "and another ranger named Dan. That scoped rifle was Dan's weapon. I befriended one of the skin heads and with the help of Dan and Julie, we were able to escape and kill some of them but not before two of them made off with another one of the girls. The tunnel was used by the slkinheads to steal weapons and ammo from this base. We heard them mention it and decided that it was our best bet to find safety and other humans."

Looking to the whole group: "So, here we are. Battered and beated but alive."

[Mr. Handy]

In the guard room-
McBain sheepishly looked down at his feet. For some reason they commanded his full attention. He didn't say another word.

Katarina reluctantly reached under her skirt and dropped her pistol, knife, and ammo on the floor, then helped Sally over to the wall. "Is all true," she said, tears flowing from her eyes. "They hurt us so bad. They still have my friend Lara. We need help to save her!"

"Geez," said Baker. "I'm so sorry, Katarina."

She managed a weak smile for him. Zoe unbuckled her belt with the ammo pouches and dropped it, then came to stand beside her. Katarina put a comforting arm around her. Julie removed her own ammo from her belt and set it down, then followed.

"A gigantic worm?" said Wagner as she began to pat the women down. "Really?" Her tone suggested disbelief.

"Hey, after everything that's happened today," said Baker, "maybe it's not that farfetched."

"I'll leave that one for the people with the high foreheads," said Sergeant Dauterive. "Right now I'm more concerned with this tunnel." He paused to speak into his radio. "Understood, ma'am. We'll be ready. Dauterive out." He looked back at Sally. "You've explained your friends' presence, but not your own. How did you get mixed up in all this?"

"You know," said Baker, "these skinhead perverts must've had help from inside the base. I don't see any other way they could have constructed the tunnel and kept it hidden successfully for as long as the thefts have been going on."

Dauterive frowned, then asked Sally another question. "What did you learn from the skinheads? Did they tell you anything about who on this base might have been helping them?"

[ryansommer]

"Can I sit in one of those chairs?" Sally asks, suddenly overcome with pain due to her leg injury. "I've been running for my life on a bad leg with nothing by these canes all day. It hurts like a son of a bitch."

"How did I get all mixed up in this?" Sally asks and musters a chuckle. "It's a long story but I will see if I can summarize. I was traveling through the state on my way to California, when I stopped at a small truck stop. You see, I'm a nurse, actually. Shortly after getting there people went to investigate the meteors that fell and they never came back. It was not long after that freakish coyotes and zombies started attacking and the place went to hell. The owner of the truck stop, apparently, was in cahoots with the skin heads and he had a cellar that connected to some sort of abandonned underground base that was connected to tunnels that lead to a skinhead compound. When everything went to hell, some of us escaped into the base. Unfortunately, things were worse down there and many of us died. That is where I was injured. I escaped into the tunnels with a few others and found an exit to the surface. That is when the worm attacked. I was luckily thrown free from it's first attack and was able to escape back into the tunnels. The others, they did not make it. I fled as quickly as I could until I came to the underground base again. This one, however, was under the skinhead compound. I knew I could not fight them, so I did the only thing I could - I pretended to be one of them. I earned the trust of the medic there. When the worm attacked the skinhead compund, I fled with Doc, the leaders and their captives... these ladies here. The rest, is as they say, history."

Handy,Did Sally hear anything about who at the base was a skinhead?

[Mr. Handy]

In the guard room-

Sally,No, [b]Sally[/b] didn't hear anything about who on the base might have been helping the skinheads.

Wagner frisked Sally first, then guided her over to one of the chairs and helped her sit, then returned to finish patting down the others.

"That's quite an ordeal," said Baker. "I'm just glad you made it through all that."

"Sally is very brave," said Katarina admiringly. "She save us all."

Dauterive regarded Katarina and Zoe. "You two were in the skinheads' compound," he said. "Did either of you hear anything about who on the base was helping them steal weapons?"

Zoe just shook her head.

"They never talk to me about where they get weapons," said Katarina. "Maybe other girls know, but Mei Ling and Alicia dead now." She brightened. "Maybe Lara knows! We have to save her!"

"How many skinheads survived? Do you know where they went?"

"Only two. Deadeye and Nitro. Deadeye is sniper, and Nitro, he makes bombs. Poor Lara...they so cruel. We tried to save her, but they take her and get away in van. Sally say they going to Montana to find other skinheads."

"Do you know where in Montana? It's a very big place. They don't call it 'Big Sky Country' for nothin'."

Katarina shook her head. "Not exactly, but we know rough distance. You have helicopters, you can use them to search!"

"It's not up to me, but I know what the brass is gonna say. We've already lost a few helicopters today, and we don't have any to spare. Functional flight crews are in short supply too. Not to mention that our choppers probably don't have enough fuel capacity to get there and back. We need everything we've got for our defense."

[ryansommer]

"I have some idea who might be the mole inside the base, but I'd rather wait and tell your commanders, if you don't mind" Sally said. "They could have more moles here in the base than they let on to."

Turning to Katarina: "Don't worry, Katarina. We will find them and save Laura."

[Tabs]

Dauterive regarded Katarina and Zoe. "You two were in the skinheads' compound," he said. "Did either of you hear anything about who on the base was helping them steal weapons?"

Zoe just shook her head.

"I didn't overhear anything. I was too busy surviving...."

[Mr. Handy]

In the guard room-
Dauterive frowned again. "Well, you'll get your chance to tell them soon enough, Sally," he said. "Your ride should be here in a minute or two. Let's go outside, ladies. Wagner, come with us. Baker, McBain, you two stay here and guard this room. There are some SFs coming to back you up and locate this tunnel. Where is it?"

"Is downstairs," said Katarina, moving to Sally's side to help her. "In storeroom with boots and things."

[Tabs]

Zoe whispers to Sally.

"These airforce guys are not very competent; I mean no one knew about the tunnel--doh!"

[ryansommer]

Sally followed followed Wagner outside.

[Mr. Handy]

Outside the armory-
Katarina helped Sally outside along with Zoe and Julie. Staff Sergeant Dauterive and Airman Wagner followed them. They emerged into the cool night air. USAF Security Forces troopers were outside, guarding the main entrance to the armory building.

A moment later, a Stryker APC entered the parking lot and pulled to a halt nearby. "Good timing," said Dauterive as the rear compartment opened. Nine more SF troopers clambered out, led by a sergeant who approached Dauterive. "The tunnel entrance is in one of the basement storerooms. According to the girls, it's the one where boots are stored."

"We left door open," added Katarina.

The SF sergeant nodded. "Thank you, Dauterive. We'll make sure it's secured."

"I recommend that the tunnel be sealed off ASAP," said Dauterive. "Permanently, with explosives. That sort of hole in our security is too risky to leave standing."

"It's not up to me, but I'll pass it along." He looked back at his squad. "Let's go, guys." He led them inside the building.

"I'll ride up front with the driver. Wagner, you get in back with the ladies." Dauterive pointed at the still open rear compartment.

[ryansommer]

"While it is a big risk, it is a potential escape route if things go bad, right?" Sally said. "Perhaps it would be best to rig it to colapse if neeed, but leave it protected in case we need it. Besides, the explosion may attract unwanted attention."

[Mr. Handy]

Outside the armory-
"We already have an escape route," said Dauterive, "one that will allow us to bring vehicles and equipment out freely as well. And an underground explosion shouldn't attract any attention."

"But the worm..." said Katarina.

"I don't know what to think about these stories of a giant worm, but even if it does exist, even if it followed you here somehow, it would already know you were here, explosion or no explosion. It's not my call, anyway. We're wasting time here. The sooner you get in, the sooner you'll get to talk to the officers."

[ryansommer]

"I can confirm that it exists, sir." Sally said grimly. "I've seen one and have been attacked by one and watched many people die at the hands of one. It seems to be attracted to or can sense vibrations, as it cannot see underground. While it maybe looking for us, our small footfalls would be hard for it to detect at ay distance. An explosion, however, would travel a long ways. I respect and agree to any decision you make, though, sir. "