Ace pauses, briefly looking down at the smooth concrete floor, his face appearing perplexed in a "the floor is molten lava" sort of way. His indecision passes in milliseconds as he steps/side-slides across the five metres between the now-opened elevator (front?) doors and the tactical sandbag wall, shifting close to the basement wall on the left. He kneels next to it, doing a prarie-dog "hop-up-duck" to get a glance of what lies beyond, then grimaces, taking his commlink out of its shoulder-holster and holds it up, peering over the edge like a periscope. Block makes an "oh, well" face to no-one in particular and shifts to the right, gliding silently up to the tactical sandbag wall as well, winding up in the corner where the sandbags "bend" back towards the elevator, the forward wall separating Ace and Block by eight metres of vertical sand-baggery and smooth concrete floor. Above Ace and block, perched almost cheerfully on the corner sections of the wall (forming that all-too-solid footprint of the triangle) are the two MG-234s, cocked, locked, and scanning.
A quick message zips out over the group link from Ace: "Ready."
At this range you notice that the walls are "double-bagged" here, forming a double-thickness front "glacis" and reinforcing that front wall to the point where it might actually stop armor-piercing *ROCKETS*. In the cleft between the front row and the second row you note that the feed belts are carefully laid in as if the space were intended to be an extended ammo hopper; indeed the "right" and "left" sides of the improvised "ammo bin" are vertical fluid/gas tanks, with the aluminum-braid feeder hoses leading to the under-barrel spray/ejectors. In passing you note that it appears these are repainted (or over-sprayed) napalm bottles, and they appear to have been "tamper-proofed" by someone at least competent in the practice. So anybody standing at the front of the tactical sandbag fort can easily see that - in addition to the machineguns being loaded with a mix of ammo (two different rounds in alternating three-round sequence; a blue round, another blue round, and a red round. These also appear to have been "tamper-proofed", probably by the same competent guy who rigged the black-camouflaged napalm bottles, and in fact their "tamper-proofing" appears to be conjoined. It appears physically screwing around with any of this could quickly become an exercise in lethality...
X says (aloud), "Ace, see if you can find out what these guns are set to auto target. I'm not stepping in front of them until I know it's safe."
As you are taking in the sights, the elevator behind you stage-whispers something like "Thank you for making a simple elevator very happy." just as the doors nimbly (and almost totally silently) close behind you.
Looking around on the other side of the tactical sandbag wall, you all see a main hallway that could easily admit a (current-day) Hummvee-I; it is easily 3 metres wide x 2.5 metres tall. There are two hallways that cross (apparently at ninety degrees to this "main" hall) that might be just as large, one crossing at roughly 13 metres and the other crossing at (possibly) the 30 metre mark further down. The hallway appears to T-intersect all the way down at the 50 metre point, making the hallway run to 105 metres long from the sandbag wall to the far, far end.
Those tracks of blood, gore, and living/dead detritus appear to start on the left-hand side of the second hallway, in a chaotic and random fashion turning down the "main" hall coming towards the command post/triage compound. You see places where victims paused (or were maybe set down) and the splotches are concentrated at those spots - in other places it seems that there are random drips/splatters and/or drag/smear marks: it looks very much the like a scene where a pitched battle took place.
On the right-hand side of the second hallway you see something, well, *WEIRD*! It kind of looks like a spider, sort of, but after it has been swatted, and has sort of rolled up into a ball, it's legs pulled in tightly and protectively around its body. You can't see a head, but underneath it you see what might be a puddle of yellowish-green -er- *something*.
The entire area remains peaceful and silent, the MGs pinging quietly are the only sound you hear. |
