The hallways were a lot more crowded than a few minutes before as Peopler scampered for their quarters, or safe zones and emergency personnel headed towards the rouble not away from it. People tended to make a hole rather quickly when Security got into a hallway.

 A sharp shove a  boot to the foot, or an accidental body check by a man in full kit moving at a brisk jog repeated a few hundred times over the years made that an ingrained response.

the lifts were on lockdown so the only route to the emergency zone was the stairs or by grabbing the pole at the center of the staircase and doing a fireman's slide, three levels, and into a mess of indeterminate nature.

The blood-red lighting, half a level to dim for most, klaxons now audible in the locked stairwell. the wafting black smoke, blueish haze of fire suppression gasses and bits of black soot, added to the smell of smoke, hot metal and something, noxious would make the rapid descent notion even less preferable to most people. another fact would be immediately off putting...no one was coming up the stairs...this was not normal.


OOC:
a quick swipe of a security card, and you can be on your way

As if the situation was not tense enough, the mask made even normal movement in armor and duty belt that much more demanding.

As they paused at the door, the steady wheeze-click of Kohlers respirator had picked up pace, and the mask had fogged around the edges.

"I got it" he let the others know as he walked up to the reader out if the path of the door. He shifted his 10mm automatic into his right hand, retrieved his card from his vest, and after a glance around to make sure the others were ready, he swiped it.

"There should be people rushing out of there," Addison said, a sense of greater unease settling in her stomach.

"Maybe everyone down there is unconscious." Or dead, she added in her mind. No use dwelling on worst case scenarios.

She pulled the flashlight from her kit and aimed it at the stairs. The others all had weapons, so she figured it was up to her to help light the way.

Mm, no contact yet. Bob wavered a moment, but it was probably not yet time to move to cover and move. Grabbing the pole, he slid down. At the bottom he got out his torch and shone it around.

"How's it look down there?" Addison called out to Bob after he suddenly slid down the emergency pole. She'd been hoping to take the stairs, but would jump down if need be.

At the bottom of the stairwell, the scene looks like something out of low-budget sci-fi horror. smoke, flashing emergency lights, smoke, mangled ruptured pipes, and bodies. four bodies, wearing stained work jumpsuits and respirators.

all four look as if they had been badly beaten, cut and stabbed...facemasks of respirators are cracked and gouged by an edged weapon.


annndddd... there is something seriously off, there is water up to the knee, clean water, not the sort of sludge that should be flowing out of the ruptured pipes around the central shaft, the pipes that lead from the mulchers, and recyclers upstairs to the waste incinerators down in this area...

Anyone who has been on this level knows the stink and look of the water and sludge so contaminated it can't be reprocessed and has to be incinerated this is not that sort of foul sludge.It definitely does not belong here, with those pipes ruptured so badly you should be up to your knees in raw sewage.


More info on Spot/listen/investigate etc..checks...

Kohler moved down the stairs at a brisk pace, pausing very briefly on the landings to glance over the side as they went.

The squeak of boots on a polished surface, the way the the flashing strobes shone through the layer of thin smoke, the profiles of the four of them in the relatively dim red light.

When they reached the bottom, Kohler paused when he saw the bodies, his face strained and grim behind the respirator mask. He keyed his mic with his off hand and spoke over the gurgling, rushing water and the klaxons.
"Dispatch, Security four two Kohler...we've got...four casualties at the bottom of Section 23 Access"

When he let go of the mic he shook his head as if trying to process what was happening. "Uh...Addison. Does it look like they were attacked to you?" He asked her over his shoulder.

Addison followed behind at a clip as they descended through the dark stairwell.

When the silhouettes of the people in the water came into view, she moved towards them on instinct. It was only after she'd taken a few steps towards them that Addison realized that they were corpses--savagely beaten corpses. A chill set over her.

"This was definitely an attack. No way these injuries are the result of an accident. Hard to say if they died of the beating or the stabbing," she answered. Addison bent down closer to the bodies to inspect them.

OOC: Could I roll profession to see if I can learn anything from the bodies?

Multiple weapons, Multiple attackers very recently deceased...Movement with earshot metal striking on metal, striking very hard against metal to be precise...you have a rough direction and distance of about ten meters down a side shaft...that leads to a disused section of the bunker.




multiple wounds, multiple wound types, death within 20 minutes from the look of the blood not yet coagulating completely.
treat wound, or Profession

Drawing his pistol, bob clipped the light onto it then brought it up to tactical present. "You got a line up to Dispatch?" he asked John. "Water is too clean, looks like we may have a mains leak." Riots were one thing, the loss of potable water threatened the entire complex.

Looking around at the clanging, he pointed weapon and advanced on it in an odd high-stepping gait forced on him by the water and the uncertain footing.

00:56, Today: Addison rolled 23 using 1d20+9.

Having followed the others, Arthur is quiet but focused on the area around them, looking for any clues or danger.


19:14, Today: Arthur Shane rolled 20 using 1d20+8.  Listen.

19:13, Today: Arthur Shane rolled 18 using 1d20+8.  Spot.

Kohler nodded and while Bob as he waited for the line to clear, hand on his mic. "Dispatch, additional, we've got a lot of clear water flowing down here. Can we stage a repair team to come in behind us after we clear the sector?"

"Alright guys, up on line..." He said with some nervous tension in his voice as he joined the others, shoulder to shoulder, and began to advance towards the nearby noise. He did spare a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure Addison was still with them.

Addison stepped away from the bodies as the team turned to head towards the noise. She held her gear close. The sloshing of the water seemed jarringly loud as she waded carefully through.

When John peered over his shoulder at her, she raised a thumbs up. The gesture seemed out of place in the grim situation, but it was an easy shorthand for All Good.

As the group stacks up someone dashes out of cover and away from the group. In the poor lighting and flashing strobes, the only thing obvious is. Human, large, and not wearing a jumpsuit, and an axe in hand.

Distance: 10 meters
Direction: directly away from you down a service passage.
Bonus Actions available: free shot at fleeing shape

Kohler hustled along, a light sheen of sweat upon his face from the constant effort of moving, observing, on edge for minutes at a time.

When the sudden movement presented itself, his words were practically simultaneous with the concussive "FREEZE!" BOOM! of his pistol going off, a momentarily flash of light, and the ping of the brass bouncing around the hallway.

For those that could still hear that was. Kohlers heard nothing but a high pitched whine himself as his ears protested the abuse.

"What the hell? He was running away, not attacking" Bob chided. "Lets not get trigger-happy." He kept moving forward, curious as to what the man had been doing in that cover.

Addison took a few, rapid steps backwards when the axe wielding figure lunged out into view.

A number of grim scenarios filled her mind. Did that axe hack up those corpses? Is it about to do the same to them? The rapidly shifting thoughts were interrupted by the bang of the gunshot.

If the person was still standing after John's shot, Addison remembered the injector gun loaded with tranquilizer in her hand, raised it, and fired.