[Meanwhile, outside, the plane had a problem with it. TJ's still out guarding it and Ryan, being the little technophile that he is, went to tinker. He's almost finished up about now.] [Start here as well.] * Ryan tinkers away, stuck in the plane up to his torso and reaching blindly for his tools despite deafness being his problem. Every once in a while, something clangs or clatters or spurts out or *something*, and then he's off and cursing in another language. Or two. Or three. * T.J. starts at the crashing noises. He goes over to check how Ryan's doing. "You need a hand?" Hm? Yes. No. Actually, hold this for me? * Ryan hands back a grease-covered wrench. "Sure." T.J. reaches down and holds the proferred wrench. Thanks. * Ryan goes back to work and, with a little grunt, follows up with, "This should be done soon. Just don't want it to break down when we need it later." "Yeah. It's a real pain when planes die in the air." * Ryan looks up at T.J. "That ever happen to you?" "Just once. You can still glide in for a landing, if it's the right type of plane, and if you're lucky and know what you're doing." * Ryan nods. "The rear roter of our copter exploded once. I was sure we were going to die." He looks back at his handiwork, frowns a little, and offers up a small screwdriver. "Trade you for that wrench." * T.J. makes the trade. "What happened?" Well... * Ryan sticks his head back in the plane, along with both arms and the wrench. "Without getting too dramatic, Senada-san has an evil double. Or something. She basically walked up to the copter, planted the explosives, and walked off. Crash landed us in a desert in China." "How'd you survive?" I'm not really sure how we managed to land. Don't know the first thing about piloting. But we were picked up by a guy who came by a few hours later, and he took us to the closest village... turns out he was also a part of another shadow corp, so there was some competition there. But we got out okay. "I don't know how you deal with all this. Me, I've thought better of it. Soon as I can, I'm getting out." Smart man. I'd get out, too, if I could. "Why can't you?" T.J. takes off his ballcap to wipe his brow, then returns it. * Ryan shrugs. "In too deep, really." If you want to get out, doing it right after this stuff is over is the way to go. I'll back you up on it. "Thanks." T.J. stretches his arms. "So, is it that girl you went off with?" What? Oh, Senada-san? Yeah, that's the one that didn't try to blow us up. * Ryan tightens one last screw and pulls himself out of the engine. He's covered in grease and oil and God knows what else, but he looks pretty satisfied. "That should do it." * T.J. smiles. "No, man, I mean, is she why you can't leave?" * Ryan looks at T.J., blinks almost incomprehendingly, and then laughs. "I guess... yeah, she's one reason I can't." [T.J. hears a sound of metal hitting metal. It sounds like it came from the top of one of the wings.] "Hey, did you-" T.J. breaks off, a bit embarrassed. "I heard something. Hang on." He goes to check out the sound. * Ryan blinks. "Sure?" He closes the plane-version-of-the-hood and packs up his tools while T.J. does that. [T.J. shines the flashlight in the distance. Jumping off the wing and skittering off westward is a little metallic robot, about the size of a cat, with 6 legs spread out of the bottom. Mounted on the body is something that looks vaguely like a camera.] "It's some sort of robot," T.J. reports. A what? * Ryan goes to look, now that he's done with that nonsense. "It looked like a bug and I think there was a camera in it." Shit. Shoot it! (Init for you guys) * Ryan is already reaching for his gun as he says so and tries to get a look at this thing with a maybe camera, because maybe cameras are bad! * T.J. nods, reaching for his gun. [Order: Ryan, Robot, TJ.] [Ryan!] * Ryan shoots the stupid robot! Stupid robot. [Ryan shoots and hits the outer shell of the robot. It dents it and the robot staggers a little, but keeps on skittering away. Antennae spring out of it too.] [TJ's turn.] * T.J. takes a deep breath, trying to focus on aiming. He squints a little and gently squeezes the trigger. Bang! [The robot takes another shot and staggers a little. It's looking like it might be going a little slower now.] [Ryan.] * Ryan frowns a little. "Come on, you stupid thing." He tries to hold the gun steady and fires. (Yup.) [It takes another shot and slows down again. The antennae start to spark between them and it takes a few more steps and collapses to one side.] "What is that thing?" [Ryan and TJ notices that the sparks that it's giving off are bad. It might be setting off an overload and self-destruct.] ... Less wondering, more running and ducking for cover! * T.J. doesn't bother to respond, preferring to run and duck for cover. * Ryan does the same, diving behind the plane, which is the nearest convenient big piece of something he can find. [Just in time. The robot explodes, sending nearby twigs and rocks flying (and yes, it's loud enough that even Ryan can hear it juuuust fine.) They bounce against the nearby trees and off the body of the plane, but it's just superficial damage.] * Ryan nrgs and waits for the explosion to die down... after that happens, he moves to check for damage. "You okay?" he calls to T.J. "I am definitely quitting." Hope you have the chance. "What *was* that thing?" T.J. repeats. * Ryan finishes looking over the plane. "Seems okay. What?" He looks over at T.J. "The robot thing." It was one of those spiders we found last time we were here, but they didn't have a self-destruct sequence then. Was probably just spying on us. "Should we get out of here?" They're nasty little buggers. And we can't just fly out; we have to wait for the others, at least... * Ryan frowns and puts on his headset, activating it. ~Guys, remember those spiders from last time? They explode now.~ I'm willing to bet it didn't report its info yet, at least. * Ryan speaks into the headset again, this time going straight to the other channel and not playing the copy/paste game. * Ryan looks to T.J. "What do you think?" "If that thing sent out a report, they know our plane's here. They could attack it." Yeah, and catching up with them's gonna be a pain in the ass. Still... "I can wait here if you want to catch up with them." * Ryan waffles for a second, then shakes his head. "Olivia's with them. She can take care of any security problems. It's probably not a good idea for you to be stuck here with exploding spiders by yourself." (Don't say I didn't try to let you go get in on the action.O (Ha.) (If they haven't, then we can both just go. ;P) (I'm just being IC. It's a reasonable policy and prevents me getting headaches.) (I know.) (Just sayin'.) (Hey, are you guys saying exploding robot spiders isn't action? :P) (This is the most fun KS session I've had in ages. It's also the ONLY one I've had in ages, but still, it was nice.) (It is turning out better than I'd hoped, yes.) * Ryan looks to T.J. "We're clear. You want to head in? It's probably safer out here." (It's the best one you've had all year.) * T.J. pauses. "I dunno how much good I'd be in there, and someone should make sure no other robots show up here." (Ha. Yes.) * Ryan nods. "If you're sure..." He starts speaking into the headphones again. "I don't know 'bout you, but I don't want us gettin' stuck here." Me neither. * Ryan looks at the complex and shrugs a little, then rubs at the back of his neck. "Just a little nervous about you out here and them in there... no right answer, right? But they probably need me more. Let me know if it looks like the plane's about to break again." "Will do." T.J. taps the lid of his ballcap in salute. "Good luck." * Ryan salutes in return. "Thanks. You too." And he heads off. TOWARDS HIS DOOM. (The end?) [Ryan goes off into the dark. He is eaten by a grue. Well not really, but he makes it towards the base! And end of file here too.]