[Guild Quest] - Approach on Diamond Dust

Rez felt proud that someone he just met thought he was capable of helping them if the team got into a pinch. His beak widened into a smile before quickly flipping upside down into a frown when they had to crawl back into a small hole.

“I’m getting really sick of crawling through this tunnel.” Rez mumbled to himself.

“I’m getting sick of waiting for you guys to crawl through this tunnel.” Spiral squeaked, which got a small chuckle out of Rez.

“Don’t worry buddy, we’re almost there.” Rez said as he gave the wisp a pat on the head.

"Well, keep in mind that they are commanded by a genius, Darken, their automatic mode programming is not nearly as intelligent."

That being said, and discomfort being noted, it was likely that Slash would have made it to the end of the tunnel.

"We're finally coming out, exit slowly."

Slash would then climb out into the room, it seemed to be empty of threats, but they couldn't be certain.
Slash runs a scan of the area, just in case.

Everyone could breath a sigh of relief as The Tunnel^tm Finally came to an end, and they were all able to step out into the... rather scrappy looking room at the other end. It looked like some kind of decrepit boiler room, except for the fact that all of the boilers had been stripped out and the tunnel they'd just emerged from had been drilled into the concrete. Certainly a new addition to the floor plan.

As previously mentioned, there were stacks of broken metal frames, frames that seemed as though they used to be cubes used in some kind of structure, as well as the robotic carcasses of numerous badniks. Thankfully, the mangled remains of these badniks didn't have any flickies in them anymore. Though perhaps the large circular indent in their carapaces- for those that still had them- would explain that, seemed Slash wasn't the only hedgehog to have spun-dash into these things.

"That's... something" The grey fox whispered under his breath upon seeing the scrapheaps, tenderly wiping the dirt off of his bandaged hands and his trouser'd knees. "These may be designed by a man with megalomania, but they are killing machines. A toaster produces toast, this produces death." Darken grimly reminded the group, crouching down in front of a crocodile-shaped badnik and inserting a spanner to act as a makeshift lever to lift off a panel and inspect inside, just incase there were any straggler flickies. His reminder was mostly directed to Slash, whose comment had come off to the fox as an attempt to downplay the danger of a badnik, but was equally applicable as general commentary.

Slash's scans of the room would initially return negative, but as they extended in range - if they extended in range - it would become evidently clear that in the room next door to this one, a collection of vaguely ant-shaped badniks were lying in wait, along with a single grounder. Currently the only visible way to enter or exit this storage room was through the adjacent one, via a rolling door wide enough to fit all 4 mobians side-by-side.

"You should be able to come out now Spiral..." Darken said quietly, acknowledging they were currently in what was obviously Empire territory, but not aware of the possible ambush lying just outside the door.

"Thank fucking Chaos..." was all that managed to escape the phoenix's beak as they heard they were close to the end and finally, finally crawl out of the hole.
She looks around the room as she stands up and brushes herself off, walking around both to stretch her legs and to get a closer look at everything, inspecting the room for threats or anything they need to grab for the job.
"So uh... Empire people really don't keep up with the upkeep of their bases, do they? I'm gonna be blunt, this place looks like shit."

Rez climbed into the room and unzipped his jacket to let Spiral out. Spiral flew up and spun around a bit, finally happy to be able to move around.

After smiling at Spiral’s happiness, Rez took a look around the room. His face was suddenly not so happy. He walked over to a scrapped motobug and slid his hand along the metal shell. He stood there for a while, just staring at the lifeless robot before hearing what Darken had said.

“Yeah… I know that all too well.” Rez responded as he clenched his fist that was on the badnik.

Spiral flew back over to Rez and placed a tentacle on his shoulder. Rez looked over to the wisp and gave a little smile, but he still seemed sad. “Okay, so what’s next Darken?”

Downplaying the dangers of a badnik he was, but specifically for when they are not commanded, things like Egg Pawns are near-harmless unless commanded, after all.

That aside, he nods at Darken's reminder, as the second cycle of his scanner was going out, letting him know about the badniks in the other room.

"You'd be right, Pyra, usually after Sonic or his friends destroy a base, he leaves to go make another elsewhere, though, he has rebuilt old bases before..."

"On another note, I am picking up active signals in a storage room nearby; Multiple Antons and a Grounder." 

Slash points towards the entrance to the adjacent room's door, clicking and whirring noises coming from his hands.

"If we wish to continue on, we should prepare ourselves when entering the next room before it."

Indeed it was odd to see an Empire facility in disrepair, even the old bases on Angel Island were frequently kept in working order by the not-so-good Doctor himself, despite the careful watch of a certain legendary Echidna over the entire floating continent. "As far as I'm aware, the Eggman set his eyes on this place as a quick and easy source of badnik energy, what with all the unguarded flickies here. When the Blue Blur put a spanner in those plans, the Empire didn't really have a reason to come back here. Trying to kidnap the flickies again was just going to be a circular war without any gain, and this place doesn't present much of a strategic foothold compared to Coco Island in the south or Soleanna in the east. So there was no real reason to come back."

The grey fox looked to Rez, but then nodded to Slash. "Slash's right, we should prep up if we want to keep moving forwards, this place clearly has active badniks around somewhere, and there's a lot more room for ambushes now that we aren't in the confines of a tunnel." His commentary was in respect to the nonchalant notification that there was indeed a possible ambush waiting for them in the next room. 

The grey fox kicked a little bit of dirt from the grooves of his GUN boots and slipped a bandaged hand into a pocket on his navy trousers. "I've got an EMP grenade, but I've only got 2. If you want me to use it, I'd suggest you stand at the other end of the room, as the radiation radius is quite large." The warning was directed entirely at Slash, who probably would appreciate not being shut down along with the badniks. "I'm open for other suggestions, or if you need a moment to breath."

"I might not be the brightest bird," Pyra begins as she slowly walks toward where Slash was pointing, "but I don't think setting off something like an EMP at risk to one of our team is a smart idea, dude. Especially when you've got so few - it's not like it goes off and 'whoopsie, we'll be more careful next time, you lose that resource as well?" 

Pyra crosses her wings as she stares at the door, then she turns to look back at the group. "I mean what I said back in the tunnel, most of us are very capable of handling a couple badniks, right? Eggman doesn't know we're here, they're not being commanded, so they aren't as much of a threat. Unless anyone has objections or another suggestion, I say we just take them on!"

Rez walked away from the badnik and looked towards the door that Slash was pointing at. Spiral rested in the hood of Rez’s coat as he looked towards the door as well.

“I like Pyra’s idea. With Spiral’s help I could take a few out in literal seconds.” Rez said as he punched a fist into his palm. “Let’s hit ‘em fast, and hit ‘em hard!”

Spiral wasn’t sure if the idea was the best option himself. He didn’t think poorly of Rez’s, or the others’ capability to fight the badniks, but he knew that Rez’s mind was slightly clouded with a longing for revenge for what happened to his village.

“I don’t know Rez. Your head is probably not in the right place right now. I know you want to get back at the Eggman empire for what happened with your village and your family, but maybe we should hold off on the fighting if we can.”

“My head is exactly in the right place right now Spiral. I know what I’m doing.” Rez said out loud, as if everyone else could understand what Spiral was actually saying.

Slash looked back at Darken, his voice a tad exasperated.

"Darken, what I meant by prep up is that we shouldn't simply stroll in there, be ready to fight. Don't waste such a valuable resource."

He then hears Pyra, he agreed, they're not as big a threat as they could've been, and they'd be saving those grenades that could probably put him out of commission at best.

And then Rez, which, while he couldn't understand the wisp, he felt like he knew what it said.
"Do what you think is right."

"That being said, sounds like we have a plan. We charge on 3."

"1..."

"2..."

Slash then revealed the reason for the whirring noises from his hands, he was prepping some suppressing fire using the guns on his fingers, which he fires now, rising to the door.
If he hit something, that was just an added bonus.

He stops firing as he shouts:

"3!"

The fox nodded, he didn't necessarily feel like everyone was jumping on him for his suggestion, but certainly removed that card from the table with some amount of anxiety. With that in mind, the current running plan for the group was to charge headfirst into an obvious ambush. Something he wasn't going to stop seeing as indeed they were all clearly combat capable- with the exclusion of himself- currently.


"The three of you can go on ahead, I'll find some cover. I'd prefer to stay out of any direct fire." Darken mumbles as they all ready up for their assault.

The robotic hedgehog began is countdown and the grey, mummified fox dived for cover behind one of the scrapped badniks, hitting the ground right before the gunfire began.

As for the Anton badniks, as soon as the barrage began, it would be clear to Slash that they had begun fleeing, making a swift departure for some hidden doorway at the far end of the adjacent room.

Ready for the attack, Pyra rushes forward chasing after the escaping badniks after Slash's gunfire died down, all while spewing flames from her beak to hit any badniks within a few yards in front of her. She chases them toward the hidden doorway, and if she could, she'd chase them even further past it, all while wandering where the hell are they going...?

As Slash began the countdown, Rez fused with Spiral and took a readying stance in preparation to fight the badniks.

Once Slash finished his countdown, Rez was about to rush in with his super speed, but then noticed that the antons were quickly retreating from them.

‘I can catch them…’ Rez thought to himself. He then heard Spiral’s voice talk to him in his head.

“Rez, don’t! It’s too dangerous to go after the badniks! Especially since we don’t know what is actually in that room!”

But Rez was not listening to his friend. He quickly dashed towards the door to the other room, Dashing around Pyra and leaping over her fire blast, all within an instant. What he would find in the other room however, he had no idea what was inside.

Slash would follow behind as backup for the other two, noticing with his sensors that the Antons were wheeling over to another room.

...What could they be running to?

Possibly reinforcements, so Slash keeps his weapons armed, as they presumably followed the Antons in.