Tiāntáng (天堂 )
Yánjiū Jīdì 002 (研究基地零零二 )
Main Stairs
"WAAAAAAAAH!" Viz went tumbling over at the holy warrior's kick, tumbling over. Flailing her limbs about, she ended up on her back, staring up at Rikka with confusion and panic. "But the men of the woods are heretical!" she began. "If you let them near, they'll do all sorts of horrible things, and that's not mentioning how they'll trim your bushes and mow your lawns!" the blue haired priestess frantically yelled back. Hearing this commotion, the great haired being of the woods peeked up from under the shelter of its bough like arms.
"Waroo," the 'Woodsman' shook its head back and forward in a negative to Rikka. Though it couldn't speak, it did at least seem to understand however. " Ooo-wa, a-gahwoh," it then pointed at Viz with a thumb, its bellowing baritones seemingly calm despite the way it had to speak. Even so, the way it held up a hand horizontally before wobbling it about in a 'so-so' gesture was dubious.
"See?! I told you so!" Viz jabbed a finger in its direction. Seeing all this unfold, Sif kept her assault rifle leaved at the creature, but the way one of her eyes and an ear twitched made it look like she was suffering from an aneurysm. It was fortunately Brigid's voice that broke the awkward silence, salvaging what was left of the designated squad leader's rapidly diminishing sanity.
"Copy that, Miss Lifaris," Sif replied, her voice devoid of emotion. Looking at Viz and Rikka, she pointed at the stairs leading down. "Whatever the truth is, we need to keep moving. It isn't a concern," the Tigress tried to urge them on, nevermind the unanswered mystery in front of them.
Tiāntáng (天堂 )
Yánjiū Jīdì 002 (研究基地零零二 )
Emergency Stairs -> Main Lobby
Quickly moving down the stairs, Brigid and Xiao found themselves in the triangular shaped main lobby. The main 'point' of the large area was where the reception desk, personnel elevators and main stairs were at. Designed almost like a bunker, it had oversight of the long wall opposite, but something had melted through it before snaking out of the facility front. The front was a long wall opposite the reception bunker made of a series of large loading bays meant to accept captures in various sizes of cage and containers. To either side of the 'reception desk' and well within its arcs of fire were what looked like heavy lift shafts meant to carry and transport captures. These heavy lifts were all damaged quite heavily by the looks of it, and one of them was most certainly the source of whatever molten hot creature had slithered out from below. Still, having taken the emergency stairs, both Brigid and Xiao were at one of the far corners, and from their little 'emergency exit bunker' they could see that the fighting had been vicious as an entire compendium of creatures lay dead and strewn about.
A handful of
Daqinren lay about in various states of dismemberment, having been crushed, bitten or torn apart in the chaos. What looked like a hulking, tall, thick humanoid clad in chain mail lay slumped against a wall. Riddled with bullets, blood soaking through knee length beard, its massive axe lay beside it. Not too far away, a pile of ashes surrounded by red feathers smoldered away, the shadow of a Daqinren burned into the wall, the remains of a cryo-extinguisher on the floor. But more loudly, a tiny green humanoid held the bloody head of a horned white horse, bludgeoning it against a golden glob of goo the size of a bean-bag chair as others of its green kind kicked and punched the goo.
Almost bored kicking and punching the honey-golden glorb, one of their many number sniffed the air, only to quickly turn its crimson eyed gaze on Brigid and Xiao. The others quickly took note, their mouths spreading into wide, sharp toothed grins as they snickered. Crude cudgels and shivs in hand, they started to cautiously near, their pointed ears twitching in anticipation.