Main Room
"Theres a secure room on the other side of this one." Black stated, to the point, a finger pointing at the wall of screens idle as she rose and hovered over Hermit, her still strange feel to the auditor dyed with concern but also apprehension and caution.
"We didn't give them permission to enter without-" Black started as she paused and the hackles rose on everyone present regardless of psychic potential as a scream sounded somehow through a secure and soundproof wall. It was neither male nor female, young nor old, it was brief and faded in the half second it sounded but despite all that could not be completely recalled as something happened in the other room.
The Marine Lieutenant was on his feet, Pistol in hand but pointed down. The Liquidator, Tuesday, had a hand on a holter under one arm ready to draw as well.
Black had a hand over her stomach and looked as though she were about to vomit.
There was a brief moment of silence following the muffled scream before it was cut off as the bright white lights of the blacksite dimmed yellow and were cut by a flashing red light in the corner and the very slow but building whine of a Claxon siren as one alarm at a nearby corner of the base started and was then followed by another at a distance, and then another.
Secure Room
La'Gran lunged at the pale, nails digging into soft white skin only for her nose to practically explode inwards in a fountain of blood as the Xenos forced an elbow into her face as a reaction as he violently shook Judgement. As the older Augur fell back in recoil the current asphyxiation victim struck out, his hammer hitting the joint and despite feeling the vibration of hitting something solid felt nothing break but a snarl from the aliens mouth as something tore inside judgements throat as the pales nails dug deep into the sides of his neck.
And yet despite his blindness. Despite the fog in his mind and perception being hyper focussed on his attacker Judgement and everyone else present in the blacksites secure holding room felt when Katherin wrapped a hand around the hilt of his hypergeometric knife. Even the Pale looked up, anger and hatred ebbing slighting into a semblance of confusion as the room was filled with an agonized scream that was the blade sliding out of its holster like the strain of metal against metal as the knife was drawn.
It was six inches long, straight, and had only one edge where the blade was snapped in the middle at likely half of what its original length would be leaving a jagged violent point of dull brushed gray and rust spotting of the unkempt artefact. With a simple copper-wrapped handle that ended in a brass ball of a counter weight Katherine drew it above him as if to plunge it down as he lunged forwards at the Pale.
The scream lasted only half a second from the drawing to the thrust but felt like an eternity of painful screeching that did not hurt, harm, or deafen anyone but left a clear resettlement of the psyche as the blade commanded all attention at its point as it drove down towards the Pale as it pulled back, grip lessening on Judgement only for the long chain attached to its writs to pull taught and stop any backpeddling.
The knife sunk two inches of its unnatural point into the forearm of the pale.
And nothing happened.
As the blade stuck and hit bone the Pale looked up, clearly just as confused as Katherine did at the anticlimax of the action.
And then like an overfull balloon the pale expanded from its normal size to twice that in an instant and exploded into a red mist of gore and organs that painted the walls in every direction with the sound of wet slapping leather.
There was a long moment of intense silence as the Augurs stared in confusion processing what just happened as Katherine pulled off his shades, brushed off his tongue of gore, and looked at the empty handle of the knife now lacking a blade and then back to the spot the Pale had just been.
"So that's what that does to a person..." He mused to himself and then started at how loud his murmur seemed in the silence of the room.
Blacksite
Marines swarmed around the base as the alert was rescinded but still patrols past by the blacksite as the two marine intel officers, the three marine guards in their OST armor, Tuesday, Black, and the Augurs all stood across from the monitor screens looking at a formerly white room.
Katherine stood off to the side, bucket and rag in hand wiping gore off himself as he tossed a fresh rag to judgement who was also painted redish-black as he carefully massaged the slowly but much faster than a normal persons marks on his throat while the internal bruising on his windpipe was already nearly back to normal all the while La'gran twisted her hair like a washcloth to wash out the blood.
"What do you mean, Gone?" Niles, one of the intel lieutenants asked his comically unsettling appearing comrade who sat at one of the tables nursing a cup of coffee, waving the other man down silently as if he was being too loud.
"A gas sack or organ maybe we missed..." Harper guessed, then shaking his head as he side-eyed the Augurs, his surface emotions hecktic but suspicion and confusion chief amongst them.
"Harp-" Niles started until Tuesday cleared her throat.
"Moving forward I am invoking the Privacy and Secrets act for everyone in this room." She stated, essentially swearing those without the same clearance as her or Black; The marines, to utmost secrecy or be subject to a charge of treason. "Everyone not one of my agents, Trooper Katherine, or Lieutenant Harper are to self-quarantine upstairs until the arrival of the OIA's SPG team for debriefing and inspection." She declared, getting a look despite wearing their OST armor from the three marines that helped for a tense moment before Lieutenant Niles barked a hesitant order and the four men filed out.
"What did you do, Katherine?" Black asked, sounding tired as she did, sitting once again at a seat compared to the standing Tuesday who crossed her arms and paced about the room.
"Classified." Katherine grinned, his red-face flashing his pearly whites in a way that he clearly enjoyed saying to the two high-ranking OIA agents.
"Bullshit." Black groaned, not caring at all for any games.
"Trooper-" Black warned as Katherine began waving his hands, splashing pink-tinted water everywhere as he did.
"No, Seriously! Class-two hypergeometric artefacts are classified at a military alpha-contractual level. I could tell the Lieutenant over there more than I could tell the rest of you." he admitted before quickly correcting with a "Not that I can tell him either, sorry, sir. Our group has special directives granted by both the Lord Admiral herself and the directors of the OIA and BTS to handle them. "
"It's a hypergeometry weapon." La'gran observed, looking, or pretending to look confused like she normally did as she said it. "But that shouldn't be possible. Hypergeometry by it's nature has no quantifiable form; Even we have no way beyond theory of giving it physical or even metaphysical form outside out minds, let alone containing it." She stated.
"Classified." Katherine pointed out again apologetically as Lieutenant Harper tried to make sense of everything being said before Tuesday looked over at him.
"You should be typing, Lieutenant." She admonished as the officer jumped to his terminal but hesitated a stained sticky finger over the keys before starting.
"We have..." Tusday sighed, looking at a chronometer. "Less than three hours before the OIA's SPG team arrives at the earliest. This operation is a failure but doesn't have to be a critical one. The asset might be gone but we still have all of it's equipment, some of its writing, tools, and enough samples of it's language to make heads or tails of. What do any of you have; Is it enough?" She asked, the question hanging in the air on if any or altogether the lot of them were confident in finding the overall prize that was the Pales hypothetical ship.
