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The Amazing Flying Circus Crew
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 Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:49 pm
((Okay; I'll stick to just terms, then. Sorry xd ))
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Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 7:12 pm
((Oh, yes, your location was wrong. It's actually better that you meet at Empire--the Alpha Shuttle only runs counterclockwise, so you must go Empire to Sydney to ... the Russian one... to Empire, in that order.))
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Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 7:24 pm
"All right," said Ledger, stepping in, "I've come up with an idea. Basically, we try to get through Empire alive. The goal might as well be the Alpha Shuttle. If we can get to the Sydney Station... it has to be better than Empire. I saw... some video feeds...."
He cleared his throat and finally said, "It... wasn't pretty. As for the shotgun," he continued, "that might irritate it, or blow it back, maybe blow it apart. We're dealing with a liquid-thing, people."
"That's not entirely accurate," the unnamed, auburn-haired woman interjected. As (presumably) all eyes turned to her, she blushed slightly, but stepped forward.
"My name is Elle Gramsworth, assistant researcher. Under the prestigious Todd Barney." A small silence followed, as if Elle had expected for some recognition of this name to occur. "Ah," she cleared her throat, "that is, we're part of a small side organization specializing in the use and behavioral study--"
Elle noticed that no one much cared for this, or would understand the lengthy list of credentials she had been about to divulge. Quietly, she squeaked.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:22 am
Andromeda swallowed. "Nice plan," she squeaked hoarsely.
Dane gritted his teeth, fingers tightening around the Arietta 570(Google ftw biggrin ). "It can do more than your little pea shooter," he growled under his breath. An irrational thought breezed quickly through his mind of giving a demonstration. But even he wasn't that crazy.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 3:10 pm
"Ahem," Elle stepped in. "Your little toys aren't going to solve this problem. If you are speaking about the chemical I think you are, then the guns will just be dissolved for a higher mass content. The chemical in question is called Xectosperma, or the X-Seed. It is filled with microorganisms with only one purpose: to consume. Eventually, it will settle and originate itself into a sizable mass of, well, basically coral. But not until it's done growing, which may take days or years. Or, it could freeze... only to be unleashed again by unwitting nincompoops."
Elle possessed a voice tainted by a heavy East Oriental accent, possibly Korean or Japanese. Her English was flawless, but her accent was very noticeable. She adjusted the glasses, which rested low on her nose ridge. Despite her efforts to elevate them, the glasses slipped lower once again.
"So," Ledger asked, "how do we stop it?"
Elle glanced at Ledger, then peered out of the train, at the passing railway cavern walls. "I think," she answered, "that it would take some time to seep through this... tunnel. The X-Seed isn't going to be a problem for the rest of the station."
"Wait," Ledger interrupted. "What about Empire? What went wrong there?"
Elle shrugged.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 3:39 pm
Bruce slipped into the scene from one of the trams other cars. His gas mask, with its ominous skull dangled around his neck. "It seems I am the only one noticing that this woman seems to be the only one aware of such a... being," he had to search for a proper word, "Existing in these tunnels. Why weren't we warned of it?" His eyes were weary from lack of sleep. "Perhaps Miss Gramsworth could also tell us about any other things in this cave that might very well eat us in the most disgusting manner possible," he added bluntly. Though he was a biological expert, his current studies were focused on gases, many of them toxic, some explosive, and a select few... unknown, that were trapped in small pockets of the glacial ice... nothing interesting, but he was being payed for it at the very least.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 3:51 pm
"So we're all going to die? That's just it? And we can't do s**t about it?" Dane groaned, leaning his head against the glass. "And I was thinking of taking today off..."
Andromeda sighed and sat down as well, a couple seats away from the miner. "I had heard about trouble, but I never expected it to happen to me."
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 4:11 pm
"No."
Ledger's voice was firm and stalwart, immovable on this matter. "We are not going to die," he said insistently. Unlike before, his voice was not hopeful and optimistic, but instead filled with a resounding certainty. With set jaw and hard eyes, he slowly glanced at everyone in the room.
When he spoke, it was with the voice of an authoritative military officer.
"I don't know about that liquid stuff, but apparently we're safe from it. Now, whatever the hell else there is up ahead, in Empire, we can get through it. It's a long journey through Empire--being the second-largest station in Antarctica--to the internal Alpha Shuttle, but if we stick together and ration our weapons, we can do this. It's out of the way, but I can take us straight to an armory once we reach Empire. Assuming we move light and fast, and stay on our feet, we can all arrive there safely and stock up on weapons."
Elle had lowered her gaze to the ground upon Bruce's timely arrival and blunt statements, as well as suggestively derogatory, negative assumptions.
She glanced up again, and met Bruce's eyes. Her voice was soft but truthful when she said, "I wasn't aware of anything beyond the X-Seed having gone wrong, sir, until a couple minutes ago. I couldn't tell you in the slightest degree... what else is out there... I only know the properties of the Xectosperma... although similar derived phylum may have erupted in different areas of the compound...."
She had trailed off. Surprisingly, to one who was not actually there, the air underground was actually life-sustainably warm. Geothermal energy was largely powered by three core heat generators in Empire. The Sydney Station possessed even more, while the Russian station had one extremely large generator (being located directly over a semi-active volcanic region). Along with the massive amount of body heat generated by all the numerous residents of the mega-compound, heat was generally easy to sustain. If the temperature suddenly dropped below acceptable levels, it would either mean a generator failure, or... a large drop in warm-bodied lifeforms in the compound.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 4:20 pm
"What, you've got clairvoyance now?" Dane snorted, crossing his arms. "This plan of yours isn't going to work. It's suicide. We need to be smart about this."
Andromeda shot Dane a cold glare. "Stop mouthing off, will you? I don't see you coming up with anything better."
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:17 pm
Bruce grumbled, "Going wrong? So... it was one of the researchers little projects before someone pissed it off, no?" He paused for a moment, shaking his head and redirecting his attention to Ledger, "I believe that we'll need to do more than just flee through Empire. What's to say that this Xectosperma doesn't gain speed and catch up with us? Or what if there's more than just that one blob? We need to stock up on weapons, yes, but we also need to contain this as we go. If we've got a barking dog with no leash running around the tunnels, it's probably gonna find friends..." He paused, "We have to block off all contaminated sectors, probably cave them in. It's the best insurance we have to contain the goop, but given the fact that this God forsaken railroad only travels in one direction... if we never need to go back here, we'll be doing so on foot,"
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:06 pm
"Yeah, what the hell is with the Sci-Fi thing going on?" Ledger cut in, staring accusingly at Elle. The woman blushed self-consciously and turned away.
"Who's to say it won't speed up and kill us?" Ledger cut in and asked. "Oh well. If it does, we're done for. But if not... maybe a good plan would be better to have than to not have. Besides, we can double back with explosives and collapse the tunnel we're going through anyway."
"That won't work," Elle said, frustrated. "You do that, you open up the compound to the outside. That'll get every door within the area locked down, permanently--as far as we're concerned. We'll be at Empire, all right--stuck right outside the back door in the cold with a monster at our tail. It'll slip through any blockade of objects you make--I think. But it is slow. We should be out of Empire or dead long before it comes, I would think."
Ledger glanced in Elle's direction. "You... are all right, right? I know that your brother, he...."
Elle shrugged. "There are more important things right now."
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 8:29 am
"So do we know what's already IN Empire?" Dane scowled, staring out the window. "That would help, you know?"
"Am I the only person that doesn't know what to do when that thing gets here?!" Andromeda squeaked.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 9:54 am
"True" Bruce cut in, "But we don't exactly know what kind of friendlies are waiting for us in Empire, now do we?" The man sat down on one of the uncomfortable tram chairs and stared at the ceiling blankly, "We need to stalk up on weapons in Empire, and right now we assume Sydney's our only finite safe haven... If we set off charges in the tunnels once we've got our weapons. We could also use the time to set off some emergency beacons. It'll close off all of Empire, save for auxiliary escapes to the surface, but it should be a big enough barrier to stop the X-seed... and if need be, it'll lock in any other things that we meet inside empire," He gave the woman a vicious look, "We can escape through the emergency exit, to the surface and Re-enter through one of the Alpha Shuttle's ventilation points, then make a B-line for Sydney..." There was an awkward pause. "Well yeah, it's a bit drastic, but I think we should make sure that green goop doesn't follow us anywhere, no?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 2:26 pm
"'Green'?" Ledger echoed softly.
"Does anybody remember the handbook?" asked Elle. She glanced around. "You know, the big book that outlines safety procedures, among other things? It has a perfect piece of advice in it for us right now."
The scientist glanced around again, meeting eyes. "Come on, nobody?" Her shoulders drooped. Sighing, she turned slowly in a full circle, apparently glancing for something. "Not here," she said under her breath. "I was sure...."
Abruptly, Elle sat down. Facing the rest of the group, she gestured with her hands, as if to say, 'Oh, typical.'
"Section Two, Employee protocol. Subsection Two, Safety. Chapters Five to Nine, Environmental hazards. Paragraph--whichever one. Anyway," she continued, "overland treks are expressly forbidden, as employees have and do die up there. We haven't the proper equipment or safety gear to travel over snow, ice, invisible chasms, and avoid blinding snowstorms or weather them safely! That's a preposterous idea, you, you--whatever your name is!" Elle was not shouting, but her voice did sound very... critical. She stood. "The Alpha Shuttle was installed to save lives, and I for one simply will not go to the surface without--"
Elle sat down suddenly, not looking at anything in particular. "That's right," she murmured. "The helicopters. We could use those...."
((Note that what Elle says is not law. It is perfectly possible to survive a surface trek, although it would be strenuous. She's just a naysayer. ^^ ))
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The Amazing Flying Circus Crew
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 4:26 pm
In the oddity of it all, Ace was struck with a question, "Why the hell DON'T we have gear to travel on ice? We're in frakking Antarctica!"
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