Gareth draws his weapon and focuses his fire on the grave lifts of the nearest robot.

"Take out their grave lifters!"

After a mad minute (or about five seconds until everyone's magazines run dry), the firing stops. The robots, and a goodly portion of the wall behind them, are fairly riddled with Imperial 7mm ACR rounds. The machines are lying on the floor in the hallway intersection, bleeding fluids.

Brent rises slowly, shaking a bit as the tension of the combat evaporates.  He glances down both corridors for other threats and then back at the group.  "Is everyone alright?"

"I took a laser hit in the faceplate," Joxe reports. "It didn't penetrate, but I can't see too well on my left side." She removes the empty magazine from her rifle, and replaces it with a fresh one.

"I'm fine," Malcolm reports. "Apparently, their lasers couldn't penetrate our armor."

"My suit's right elbow is locked," Veronica says tersely. "They must have gotten a lucky hit that scrambled the actuator. I thought they'd shot me in the arm when the circuit blew."

Brent remembers the hit he took in the chest. His armor is reporting that it's still sealed and working properly.

Brent looks at Joxe with especial relief and reaches out to touch her shoulder.  He then looks down at his own chest.  "If they'd had higher power lasers at least two or three of us would be dead."  He cycles a fresh magazine as well taking care to save the empty.  "Can you fix the arm joint Veronica enough to regain some mobility?"

Looking over at the two destroyed robots he frowned.  "Joxe, do you want to help me examine these things?  You're the most familiar with the tech.  We might at least salvage the lasers once we can get the missile defenses shut down."

Gareth approaches the disabled robots and attempts to determine if they were being remotely controlled or on some kind of automatic patrol.

All Gareth can determine is that the robots have lots of holes punched through them. He can see that the battery packs have been compromised, and that the ruined cells are arcing inside the cases in the low atmospheric pressure.

Brent notes a small dent in his chest plate that certainly didn't come from a laser. The front of his armor is also spattered with scorch marks.

Malcolm goes to Veronica's aid, and helps the woman to her feet. "I think I can get it moving again," she reports after a moment.



Joxe steps up beside Gareth. "These are low power lasers. Like you said, we'd be dead if they weren't. These bots were set up for mostly unarmed patrol when I was last here. They are only dangerous if you're not wearing armor."

Brent glances at the robots.  "So these were standard patrol and security 'bots?  Did the police control them?"

"No," Joxe replies as she stoops down to examine one of the fallen machines. "They are more for businesses and such than for the police." She sighs and straightens. "They're shot up so badly I can't see if they had markings on them."

Brent goes over and looks at the 'bots.  "Are there other security 'bots or systems that we might need to be concerned about?"

Joxe shakes her head. "I don't really know. To be honest, I didn't pay much mind to them."

"Ah, I got it!" Veronica exclaims as she flexes her right elbow. "I think I'll be okay to continue."

Brent nods and then gives Veronica a thumbs up.  "Everyone reload and let's move out toward the far end of the building.  We'll work our way through the dome in as much cover as possible and keep heading toward the launch site."

"Before we go any further," Veronica says laconically, "might I suggest that we all select burst mode instead of full auto?"

Joxe giggles. "Yeah, good idea. We killed the robots and the wall dead."

If anyone bothers to count, there are over a hundred holes in the wall behind the robots.

Brent blushes a bit and laughs.  "Good point," he says as he flips his selector on the weapon.

Gareth can't shake the feeling that everyone is being led around by the nose, but stays quiet and switches his weapon to burst mode.

The group makes their way to the far side of the building without further incident, and find a doorway leading into the street. The energy blast from outside didn't make it this far through the building, so it is merely abandoned and dusty.

Through the windows, the street is equally dusty and abandoned.

"The government center is at the middle of the dome, one street to the right, and four or five down from there," Joxe says.

"Let's head to the government house then.  There may be some immediate information there that might tell us what happened.  The buildings are largely intact so surely people could have survived here even with the hole in the dome."

"The doors and windows are pressure tight," Veronica confirms.

With Veronica and Malcolm leading the way, the group makes their way to the dome's center. The street opens onto a large quadrangle that once held trees and, presumably, grass. All that remains of the vegetation is spires of wood, desiccated by the near-vacuum atmosphere. A square building occupies the center of the space; an edifice made to look like natural stone in a different style than the buildings surrounding it.

No one picks up any heat sources, nor any other indication of life or other activity.

Brent looks about the place with sadness mixed in with his wariness.  When there is no further sign of life or power he motions to the government building. "Let's make a quick pass through there.  QUick though, we need to resolve this hostile attack."

A few minutes later, the group gathers at the building's main door. The door is still there, or at least a gaping hole is there.

"That's from a breaching charge," Malcolm says as he peeks inside from the edge of the ragged opening.

"No heat sources, and nothing is moving," Veronica reports.

BRent shakes his head.  "Damn... well at least they saved us the trouble of knocking.  Let's get inside."  He headed into the building carefully.  "Where might be the best records Joxe?"

Veronica and Malcolm go first, and the rest of the group follows. Veronica steps around a makeshift barrier of office furniture and rocks to a halt. "Oh, shit," she breathes over the comm. "Boss, you gotta see this."

Brent sees the barricade and sighs.  He heads up to take a look.  "What do we have?"

Veronica steps aside for Brent, pointing mutely behind the barricade.

The building's foyer is about twenty meters across from the outside door to the back wall. A reception desk served as the central anchor for the barricade, with furniture thrown up in front and on both sides in a rough semicircle.

Behind the barricade, Brent sees two dozen or so figures clad in environment suits lying on the floor. Some are huddled in pairs or small groups, and others are lying where defenders would have been emplaced behind the barricade.

The wall behind the barricade is riddled with bullet holes and marred with scorch marks and melted holes. The piled furniture is similarly scarred, and the environment suits also have holes and marks on them.

Joxe steps up behind Brent and cries out as she takes in the scene. "Some of them are children," she says breathlessly.

A closer look reveals that several of the dead are much smaller than the others.