"We can't take that thing in a straight on fight. It could probably cross a hundred metres in the time I'd take to get two or three shots off. How the hell are we supposed to fight something like that?" Elsa demands, over the transdimensional link. In the distance, she can hear another scream of rage, and a brief staccato of automatic gunfire that cuts off all too abruptly. At least the screams are only loud, not ear deafening--thank the stars for implants that automatically dampen noises that exceed a certain volume. She's reminded that Jazmin doesn't have any such implants when the Junior Operative covers her ears.
"Think of something. Use that brain of yours. Set up a trap to catch her. Something. I'm sure you can think of plans that don't involve pissing off the enraged godling even further if you try." Nichols replies. On her infrared sensors, Elsa can pick out a growing number of hot spots. It's fortunate that the area they're in still has oxygen and isn't filled with smoke.
Elsa mentally curses, and reviews her assets. Herself, in a cyborg combat chassis roughly equal to a HITMark in fighting power. One rifle, with assorted ammunition; she's running rather low on that. One Junior Operative, a complete novice who hasn't been in the field once and armed with a pistol she barely knows how to use and which would be useless against the machete armed madwoman anyway. Some improvised chemical weapons, which probably won't work on her opponent, who is completely synthetic. A few improvised explosive devices, which she suspects will at best annoy the monster--her train of thought is interrupted by something that sounds like a rocket launcher firing, followed by an explosion.
"YOU REALLY ARE TRAITORS TO CONTROL, AREN'T YOU! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" Henrietta shrieks.
Right, she definitely wishes she had far heavier ordnance than this. "We don't have enough firepower to kill that damn thing! I wouldn't go up against something like that without a railgun or a heavy plasma cannon at the least!" Elsa shouts.
"And I would really like to have a fleet of Qui La Machinae here to deal with this situation, but that isn't going to happen. I'd suggest making do with what you have, unless you want to be its next victim." Urgh. Elsa hopes that not all senior Void Engineers are like this. And on another note, the intermittent screams of rage are getting louder and louder. Calculating the distance from the sound intensity--shit, she can't be more than a few rooms away from their position.
Jazmin speaks up nervously. "Um, I think I have an idea to deal with the-" Elsa grabs the Junior Operative by the hand. "Not now. We have to move!" Elsa pulls Jazmin out into the hallway, and down a corridor that she hopes will lead them away from the insane murdering monster.
"WHERE ARE YOU HIDING? I'LL FIND YOU AND KILL YOU, EVEN IF I HAVE TO BURN DOWN THIS ENTIRE PLACE!"
It is a while before Elsa deems it safe enough for them to stop running. That thing is way too fast. And way too tough. And way too lethal with that machete of hers. But she should have bought them a dozen minutes of respite before Henriette finds them again, at least. Jazmin is in a corner of the room they're in, panting heavily.
"Sorry for slowing you down. I still--haven't undergone--the Advanced Physical Training Course--yet." Jazmin pants. Elsa suspects that she would be in a similar condition to Jazmin right now if not for her cybernetics.
"It's all right. What were you trying to tell me earlier?" Elsa asks.
Jazmin straightens herself up. "Well, I was thinking--you said we don't have enough firepower, and you mentioned traps, and I remembered that a good Operative should always-"
"Get to the point." Elsa cuts of Jazmin, before she mentions another line she probably memorised from another NWO manual or something.
At the interruption, Jazmin looks slightly embarrassed for a moment before she continues. "Well, I thought that with the bombs I improvised, if we could plant them in strategic positions around a room. If we caught the--uh--machete wielder--in the room and detonated the charges, we could cause the ceiling to collapse in and bury her under a pile of rubble. Um, well, at least that's the idea."
"You should be embarrassed. Belltower is a completely inexperienced past version of herself and she manages to do better than you in the ideas department. My, what have the Void Engineers come to these days." Nichols says sardonically.
Elsa's attention is fortunately diverted away from the jackass ex-Void Engineer by Jazmin choosing this moment to speak up. "So, is it a good idea or a bad one? I thought it might help," Jazmin asks nervously.
Elsa considers the suggestion. "Hmm... We'd need to find a suitable room to plant the charges in, and then we need a way to lure the target into the room so we can detonate the charges." Jazmin seems to deflate slightly at that. "It's a good idea, don't get me wrong." Elsa adds hurriedly.
She can hear more screams of rage echoing in the distance. It's really helpful that the crazy machete armed vampire murderess they're being hunted by is making it easy to keep track of how far away she is. It's just unfortunate that she's dangerous enough that she's likely to find them and kill them both anyway, despite not bothering with stealth.
"Um, I was actually thinking, this room might work? There are cracks on that pillar there," Jazmin says, "and I was thinking, if we could plant the bombs we have over there, there, and there, we would have a good chance of causing the entire area above us to come crashing down."
From the screams that are getting more and more audible, Elsa guesses they still have some time before Henrietta gets here. "Your plan. Can you plant the bombs in the locations you pointed out? I'll rig them up to a motion sensor system so that when she enters the room, the bombs will go off." Elsa pauses. "I think we could also try the same voice trick again, but this time to draw out opponent into the trap."
Nichols' voice comes in again, suddenly. "What is it now?" Elsa asks.
"I just remembered something. We are trying to save Hollywood, not blow it up and hopefully kill the Nephandic godling in the process. So keep that in mind and try not to cause too much structural damage."
At least, Elsa muses as she works on setting up the trap, senior Virtual Adepts weren't this annoying.
[X] Collapse the building on Khornetta
