OK, given that we have 5 minutes: take power pack and unidentified device, then don explosion resistant suit and open the southern safe with the big-ass warning on it.

Test Pattern 2010/09/19(Sun)01:06 No. 231856 ID: 4cdabb
File 128488358753.png - (13.77KB , 500x500 , TQ653.png )

>Use a suit as a shield.
I need two hands. Maybe I could try wearing one? They aren't built for me, but with the weasel bar, that's more of a suggestion. I can just chop off anything that gets in the way.
>Open it up!
I insert the ID card. Qillig's still authorized, looks like. I activate the mechanism.

Test Pattern 2010/09/19(Sun)01:11 No. 231857 ID: 4cdabb
File 128488387547.png - (14.22KB , 500x500 , TQ654.png )

Hey! It ate my card!

The whole big chunk of machinery whirrs to the side. A new switch reveals itself. I guess to close it again?

Test Pattern 2010/09/19(Sun)01:15 No. 231858 ID: 4cdabb
File 128488415839.png - (17.14KB , 500x500 , TQ655.png )

Yellow lights bathe the room. A rack slowly, smoothly slides upwards from under the floor, brandishing a pair of anti-tank grenades and a flash bomb.

"Explosive hazard," says a mechanical voice. "Lab is now in lockdown."

Loot and close.

>>231858
You won't be able to take those out of the room.
Use the switch to reset the container, then retrieve the card.

replace the grenades with the inert ones.

Lovely.

Maybe try tricking it with then bad bombs?

>>231858
Yoink.

Hmm. How are we gonna get out now? ...I know, put in the BROKEN explosives. That'll fool the weight sensor.

Ffffdarn.

Okay, try replacing the grenades with the broken ones, then closing it back up. Can't take the flash right now.
If that doesn't work... Well, I really, REALLY hope that it only requires one bomb to bust through.

Test Pattern 2010/09/19(Sun)02:07 No. 231869 ID: 4cdabb
File 128488722585.png - (18.85KB , 500x500 , TQ656.png )

>Loot and close.
Right, except that...
>You won't be able to take those out of the room.
I don't know how to...
>Maybe try tricking it with then bad bombs?
Oh, good idea.

It seems to work. I get the anti-tank grenades, but leave the third munition.

Test Pattern 2010/09/19(Sun)02:16 No. 231871 ID: 4cdabb
File 128488776095.png - (11.96KB , 600x500 , TQ657.png )

I upend a trauma bag and fill it with loot. The power pack, the grenades (carefully stowed), the mercygiver (since I'm out of good spots on my belt) and maybe anything else you guys wanted me to grab.

Not sure what to do about the armor. I can't really wear it in the air ducts, but it seems like a real shame to leave it here. I can't trust that I'll be back later. Mitzi hasn't been keen on letting me lead her places, lately.

>>231871
Can't wear it, but can you drag it along behind you?

Does the armor fold up any if you don't wear it?

I'm thinking some wacky setup where you're pushing a bag in front of you, and dragging the armor behind you with your wonderful, spaghetti-like tails. Behind, so that if it fits, awesome, you can take it with. If it doesn't fit, you can abandon it and know generally where it is.

...those explosion-resistant suits would be pretty good armor, wouldn't they?

I'm thinking... modify them for better flexibility. Try to trim down whatever wouldn't stop a bullet. Or you could leave it as is, and drag it behind you as you go through the air ducts.

>>231871
The armor, while useful, can be substituted with human armor for now. Just gotta kill a dude, but that's for later. I guess you can drag it through the vents somehow... but we probably wanna be fairly unencumbered just in case we run into trouble. Anyway, let us head back and relish in our stocking stuffers.

>>231871
You should be able to drag it along with you. Just tie it to your waist or something and it should be fine.

>>231803
>anti-contamination gear
...any counter-suppress?

>>231858
>anti-tank grenades
Do you remember the minimum safe distance for those? The thought occurs that a normal, healthy Tozol can probably throw them a hell of a long way.

>>231871
Explosion-resistant suits are not really combat armour. Scavenge proper ballistic stuff from the next human security group instead and don't cripple your mobility.

>>231894
AT grenades are usually a shaped charge of some kind, so they'd have a fairly small blast radius.

Can we try to patch the helmet? It looks ridiculous.

When you close up the explosive safe, does it spit your ID back out?

Test Pattern 2010/09/19(Sun)18:44 No. 231998 ID: 4cdabb
File 128494704367.png - (13.28KB , 500x500 , TQ658.png )

>...any counter-suppress?
'Fraid not.
>You should be able to drag it along with you.
Right.
I've got:
-Human-made shoulder and thigh armor (the rest was pounded to scraps)
-My extremely damaged helmet
-The large helmet (holed, but with intact sections Mitzi can hopefully use for a patch job)
-Blast-resistant suit
-Belt + holster
-High Security Keycard (which I've been using to open doors around here)
-Qillig's ID/passcard (did he have two?)
-Mercygiver
-Weasel Bar
-Device I haven't had time to examine. Label reads 'Hornbook' in the utility language.
-Pistol (no rounds)
-60x Rifle rounds (no rifle)
-1x tozol power pack
-2x Fragmentation Grenades
-2x tozol Anti-Tank Grenades
-0x tozol Flash Bombs (grr!)

Around a hundred pounds, all told. Mostly the blast suit.

My helmet just fits inside the big one. I pack that and most of the stuff inside the blast suit, and rope it into a bundle.

Excellent! To Mitzi! :3

>>231998
Get thee to a Mitzi-house, wench!

Let's head back.

cool, let's book it.

>>231998
>0x flash bombs
(...why did we assume that thing worked like an Indiana Jones trap, anyway, rather than just releasing lockdown when closed again? Oh well, probably too late now.)

>>231998
Most excellent. Lets be on our way then.

Make sure to boisterously shout holiday greetings as you return with gifts.

I know where you can store the weasel stick :3c

>>232081
Oh, hush, as far as we can tell, she doesn't have one. >:V

Test Pattern 2010/09/20(Mon)00:43 No. 232115 ID: 4cdabb
File 128496861325.png - (13.87KB , 500x500 , TQ659.png )

>>232081
>>232094
If my species really has been exterminated, at least it'll keep you lot out of my sex life.

I really need to figure out how to turn you off when I don't need you.

you're gonna have to slim down a bit before you think about that.

Test Pattern 2010/09/20(Mon)00:47 No. 232117 ID: 4cdabb
File 12849688748.png - (14.66KB , 500x500 , TQ660.png )

With the meat hook, I secure a line back up to the air duct.

As I'm about to climb up, I hear a faint, electronic chirp from the dropship's cockpit. A few seconds later, it repeats.

>>232117
...we'd better check that out.

yup yup check it out.

>>232115
Excellent plan. You can put that on your to-do list right after staying alive, locating your lost race, taking vengeance upon those who shot you in the head and shoved you in a tube for a couple decades, clearing the massive dose of crippling drugs out of your system, and getting the hell out of this deathtrap facility. Not to mention finding Mitzi's brother, helping her not become an emotional wreck due to her modifications, and whatever other side objectives you happen to pick up.

So yeah. We're a fucked up lot, often annoying or frivolous and occasionally taken with wild flights of utter stupidity. But you have bigger things to worry about than getting rid of us, and will continue to have such for the foreseeable future.

>>232117
If you've got a spare minute, you might as well check it. Even if it's nothing, you'll probably want to turn it off so that the people running this place don't get more information. If it's something actually useful, it would be a damned shame to pass it up.

Hurry, though.

>>231869
Hey, Penji. You never tried taking the flash bomb and closing the container to end the lockdown. You might not have to fool it with something else in its place. See if you can get the flash bomb that way.

>>232120
yup yup that's a biggin' yup yup

one of them beasties might be inside! Prepare! Bring out your sharp pointy thing you got from the ship and duel wield with your weasel stick in a super sharp and pointy tool form

>>232115
If your species is extinct then you'll need a lover capable of meeting all your needs.
Like somebody who can physically become a Tozol.
Like a shapeshifter.
Like the one who we've been trying to hook you up with for ages.
Like Mitzi.

>>232117
I hope it's Rescue!

if you are starting to question the validity of what us voices have to say, maybe you should be questioning why you have voices in your head.

Test Pattern 2010/09/20(Mon)01:47 No. 232135 ID: 4cdabb
File 128497242193.png - (8.43KB , 500x500 , TQ661.png )

>Bring out your sharp pointy thing you got from the ship and duel wield with your weasel stick
I creep into the vehicle. The chirping continues, echoing softly. It's definitely coming from the cockpit.

I can't hear anything else inside but me. Minor heat signatures snake through the walls. Electronics, conduits, machinery.

>>232135
Get in there! Quickly but sneakily.

think it's the transponder.

Do you think you could crawl on the floor? It would make you less visible and a smaller target, and with your tozolness probably wouldn't compromise your speed too much.

>>232135
Did you ever get the results of the radio diagnostics?

>>232135
Answer the phone.

"Penji Alton speaking."

Okay don't do the last part but that sounds like the phone. Proceed with caution in case it's some sort of tripmine.

>>232115
Also, I am going to say right now that I am not part of the perversion.

Despite being a construct of your pulped, charred brain's wonky regeneration, I am a homosexual, madam.

>>232135
Some automated respone might have gotten started up. Better check what it is, if it's something that might attract the diplomats then we really don't want it on. Those fuckers really seem to dislike Tozols and want to wipe you out, and they seem to have done a rather good job at it, getting them here would be a big problem.

I'm surprised there's any kind of transponder receiving/transmitting at all. Considering the fact that we're in a (presumably) heavily shielded facility.

perhaps it uses tozol waves.

>>232115

you're so cute when you're mad

Pick up the reciever.

Say "Ahoy-hoy?"

>>232243
I believe the preferred term is 'weasel waves', thank you sir.

>>232292

weasel waves of course what a silly billy I am.

get to the cockpit, be ready for sensorial overflow.

Test Pattern 2010/09/20(Mon)22:35 No. 232440 ID: 4cdabb
File 128504735763.png - (23.63KB , 500x500 , TQ662.png )

>Get in there! Quickly but sneakily.

Test Pattern 2010/09/20(Mon)22:40 No. 232442 ID: 4cdabb
File 128504762068.png - (28.05KB , 500x500 , TQ663.png )

Nothing. Compartment's clear.

Sensing my presence, the screens switch back on.

Incoming communication. Low power, tight-beam hyperwave. Seems to be nearby. Less than a kilometer. Probably somewhere inside the facility.

well answer it..


with "sup"

If your location cannot be determined by answering then see what it is. Don't let them find you.

>>232445
Wait, a second. Rescind that.

What is the origin of the signal? Is it human? Find that out before answering it.

>>232442
Answer, but cautiously. Don't offer your name, act too casual or too emotional, or give out any information you don't have to. And see if the ship can give you a direction or more precise distance for the transmission origin.

>>232442
If they're sending a message to the ship, then they know where it is anyway.

If it's someone else, though, by chance...

Yeah, go for it.

>>232442
Tight-beam hyperwave means they already know that the ship's on. It's Marcus most likely. Answer it. Make sure he knows you're pressed for time.

>>232442
"Horrid abomination loose in the facility speaking. How may I direct your call?"

this is a bad idea D=

Test Pattern 2010/09/20(Mon)23:58 No. 232474 ID: 4cdabb
File 128505231085.png - (25.64KB , 500x500 , TQ664.png )

>Answer, but cautiously
I have to go active to complete the handshake. Just a chirp. Easily overlooked, I hope.

"Hello, Tethys. This is a recording," says a voice, masculine, level, nearly inflectionless. It reminds me of Operator.

"My name is Marcus Tibur," it continues. "I used to be human. I'm a specimen now, like you. I seek the destruction of this facility and the death of all its personnel. Whatever your objectives, you must want to escape. The only way out is through the forces arrayed against you. You'll need weapons. There aren't many on level three. You also need a drug called Counter-Suppress, to clean the poison that's in your blood. There is an armory containing both, in large quantities. It's located two hundred meters west of the main lift on level two. That puts it directly above the Security section on your level. You can get inside either via the main lift, or through Security."

The voice has gained tone. Emotion. He hoped.

"If you can make it there, you'll have all the tools you need to escape. I will do what I can to help."

>>232474
>>232474
You have orders now. It's time to relay to Mitzi and move your posteriors!

Hey, can you send anything back? Ask about means of further communication, and how much Mitzi would like to speak with him. There's still a chance we can find a radio somewhere around here.

...Hell, if he has any tips for Mitzi to grow a comm relay or something, that'd work, too.

>>232474
Hopefully these count as orders and a sense of direction so that Mitzi will be able to listen to us again, albeit reluctantly.

Oh great Narrator, god of storytelling and tropes, thank you for creating the trope of the convenient gift at just the right time. Now we don't have 'splaining or diplomacy to do.

>>232483
It's called a Macguffin, sir. We are all thankful for it.

Anyways, let's go through security. Straight down. We have 2 anti-tank rounds of Tozol make, and a Weasel Bar to boot. We can totally go straight down through the floor.

>>232474
Ok. Lets return to Mitzi and get her up to speed.
Security should be mostly empty due to the rampaging beasts, but lets try the lift and hope the cameras on it are down.

Going through Security lets us disable the security systems and break into the armory at the same time. Let's do that.

"so where are you, what do you do for a living and do you give this many gifts to girls in their first dates? im kinda going trhu a emotional phase with my tentacle lesbian girlfriend crying on my shoulder because she lost her shapeshifting brother in this place."

People. It's a recording.

Penji, if it's done talking, hurry back to Mitzi! Tell her you got a message from Marcus! ...maybe ham it up before telling her. She seemed a bit low on morale.

>>232474
>That puts it directly above the Security section on your level.
>recording
Wait, we dropped down a level to get to this ship. Is this recording assuming that "your level" is the one with the ship, which means the armoury is in the security section of the level we've "normally" been on, where Mitzi is?

Get back to her anyway.

GET YOU TO LEVEL TWO.

>>232507
>>232510
now that you guys mentioned it, he apparently hacked the machine we are in, or did he actualy learned how to correctly use them?

this guy is good anyway.

Head back to Mitzi, take her with you to your new objective. She needs a morale boost and maybe some of that CS, and at the very least you need another pair of arms if there's as much plunder as Marcus says there is.

... Hmm. If that was really Marcus.

Be cautious.

>>232474
God damn, this guy must be plugged in pretty deeply into the security and monitoring systems here. He's been able to figure out where you are when the others probably don't even know that you're alive yet.

Ok, memorise the information then erase the message and go back to Mitzi. We have new stuff and new information for her. Now we take it to her and show it all to her and then figure out what to do with it all.

Chances are this isn't a trap. If security found out that you're alive and where you are then they would probably just place the area in lockdown and then call in some heavy shit to take you down. But how honest he is with his intentions can be questioned, as well as what his objectives are once he's done here. But that's for later. To Mitzi now to show her what we have found and tell her the message.

Hey guys, you're jumping the gun. We get back to Mitzi THEN decide where to go.

>>232527

Perhaps we should ask her what Marcus sounds like (assuming she herself didn't notice a change in her voice after her alteration). Better yet, get her to listen to the recording.

I just find it odd that Marcus would know about us yet not give us a message for Mitzi, that he can and would contact the tozol ship's alien comm system that only Penji can activate, and that his plan is for us to go through either the main lift, where it's simplicity itself to contain us by locking the doors, or security, the exact place someone would want to be when fighting an alien supersoldier. Why would they keep the weapons and the CS in the same place, anyway? You want to keep both of them out of the hands of any escapees, but it's still unusual.

Keep in mind, Penji, that you hinted your identity to Quillig, and the time since then has been about long enough for him to check whether you're still in your tube.

>>232546
well, if both items are of alien design, then it makes sense to keep them in the same safe. with explosives and guards.

im thinking that you may be on something about it being a trap. a recording is easier to forge and having the need to go there may not only lead to a trap, but also be a part of a experiment.

Retrieve MITZI, head to DROP POINT.

The words "main lift" give me all the bad feelings. Take the sneaky way up instead, through Security itself.

>>232546

Wait wait wait good point how do we know this guy is legit. We don't want to walk into a trap. Why would they have large amounts of CS in an armory anyway? Suppress guns I could understand, but counter-suppress?

>>232523

No, the message is being transmitted from elsewhere. The machine Penji is in is picking it up, having been controlled by her tozol awesomeness.

>>232619
>sneaky
>barging through SECURITY

What.

Time to reunite two lost siblings! With the power of VIOLENCE! Seriously, let's go back and give Mitzi the news.

Test Pattern 2010/09/22(Wed)20:46 No. 232970 ID: a09a03
File 128521360286.png - (18.98KB , 500x500 , TQ665.png )

>He's been able to figure out where you are
Not necessarily. It's a recording aimed right at the dropship. Probably pulsing the handshake signal at long intervals. He must have known I was the only thing here who could unlock the ship to hear it. Question is how he knew I'm alive.
>Can you send anything back?
His gadget must have recorded a receipt. Beyond that, if he was able and willing to talk, he wouldn't have made a recording.
>Any tips for Mitzi to grow a comm relay or something?
I've got a comms suite right here, if you can think of anything worth transmitting.
>Odd that Marcus would know about us yet not give us a message for Mitzi
Yeah.
>Why would they keep the weapons and the CS in the same place? You want to keep both of them out of the hands of any escapees...
I think that's probably it.

>>232970
The quickest way to two points is a straight line.

Ergo, I suggest going up through the floor into Security.

Get back to Mitzi. Deliver the message. Work out a plan. Get Mitzi's help making the plan.

>>232973
That'd probably be very loud and time-consuming- easier just to go the normal way and kill everything in our path. If we had some of those matter-destroying missiles, though... then it suddenly becomes much more feasible. No floor/ceiling is going to stop one of those. And it would let us get around most obstacles. We should definitely keep an eye out.

Anyway, let's lock down this message so that no one else can get at it and beat feet. There's nothing else for us here so far as I can tell, and we're short on time.

Consult Mitzi. She knows her brother better than you do.

>>232970
Maybe he doesn't know Mitzi is alive?

Anyway if you can use the comm relay to say... contact that Valcien Fleet the captured dude told us about, then do so. Otherwise, let's move out and back to Mitzi.

Quick, before you go. What was the count of Tozols aboard Zeal Like Madness and any accompanying craft?

>>232970
Well lets get to Mitzi and allow her to get in on the decision as well.

>>232983
Don't use the comm relay. You likely can't make the communications secure and tipping anyone off that you've been here is to be avoided if possible. Further, we don't know enough about the Valcien to know if contacting their fleet is something that we'd want, even if it's something that poor bastard wanted. The Tozol aren't friends with them, and who knows what they'd think of Mitzi's hybrid form.

Test Pattern 2010/09/22(Wed)23:35 No. 233028 ID: a09a03
File 128522374076.png - (15.38KB , 500x500 , TQ666.png )

>What was the count of Tozols aboard Zeal Like Madness and accompanying craft?
Five hundred twenty seven.
>If we had some of those displacer missiles, it would let us get around most obstacles
I think we know where they keep those.
>There's nothing else for us here, and we're short on time.
Yeah.

Test Pattern 2010/09/22(Wed)23:36 No. 233029 ID: a09a03
File 128522378186.png - (18.01KB , 500x500 , TQ667.png )

>You have orders now.
Understood.

awww yeahh

MetalGearQuestCount++

Let's move out soldier!