Welcome to Gaia! ::

*Lars had finished downloading data from the computer banks but she was still having trouble hacking in. The codes were all right - it must have been the console. They just wouldn't allow access from anywhere but the flight deck. She sighed angrily and threw down the tangle of wires she'd been working on.

It was then she heard it. A soft, electronic pulsing coming from the other end of the room. She leant round the console. There was no-one there. She leant back.

((Please can someone tell me whether that beeping noise the cybermats used to make can actually be heard by people? It seems to be really loud but no-one ever notices!))

She felt a tingle down her spine. There was... something. She quickly gathered up her things, jammed the console casing clumsily back into place and stood up. Unsheathing her dagger, Lars crept round the tables, searching out the source of the noise. It sounded electronic. Perhaps some of the machinery had been switched on? None of it showed any signs of life. And there was another noise now, the hiss of metal on metal. She jumped round nervously but there was no-one. No signs of movement. Sighing again, Lars edged away from the table. Being so close to the festering corpse that had been left there was disturbing not to mention that the smell forced her to hold her breath. It was then she spotted the creature that had been hiding just out of view. She raised the dagger with a little gasp. The creature appeared to be a large, metallic slug. And it appeared to be alive.*

*Lars yelped and shook off the glowing remains of her dagger as she dived for the console, curling up behind it. Several more laser shots followed, leaving large black burn marks on the walls. Lars cursed. The beeping was getting louder, she knew there were more of them. She considered her gun. They were small and there were a lot more of them than of her, at best she could give herself cover fire...

She looked round and spotted something on a nearby wall. A large grate about a meter or so off the ground. Ventilation shaft perhaps? Lars hoped so because she was about to crawl inside it. She took a deep breath and leapt to her feet, drawing out her gun in the same movement. She let off 5 shots - not really seeing where they hit - and ran for the grate. She used her gun to blast off the screws, no time for stealth now. Ripping it out of the wall she lifted herself up and inside.*

*Scrambling down the ventilation tunnel Lars heard the beeping noise getting fainter and fainter. It was lucky that they hadn't followed her. Anything that could disintegrate her dagger was not something she wanted to meet again. But now she faced another problem - she was lost. The tunnel was large and very long and soon she came to a join. There were three different directions to choose from. She checked her computer. Now she had a map... but it didn't help much. She still didn't understand it. The rooms were colour coded, with strange symbols...

She gave up on the computer and chose a direction at random. After a little while crawling she found a vent and looked through. She saw another room - much like the one she'd been in - but this one... she shuddered. This one had live people in it. There were screams and shouts and the horrible whirring of the machinery. There were also guards present and Lars caught her first glimpse of the Cybermen. They were everything she'd imagined and more. Huge, metallic and menacing. For the first time she was worried that she'd got in over her head. Too late now. She carried on and the tunnel curved round and began to slope upwards. It was tiring and the air was dusty. Eventually the tunnel flattened off and there was another vent, much smaller than before. Lars pressed her eyes to the slits. There were no guards. She looked again. The room seemed to be... She frowned. It seemed to be some sort of prison area. She smiled. She was looking straight across a large room and into an occupied cell.*

((a very cool idea your in but could you add your name to your profile))

((I'm not sure what's happening to everyone else but we're all on a Cybercruiser full of very angry cybermen... and I'm crawling around in the ventilation shafts hoping to find someone else! If you join in can you start a fight somewhere?))

* the rani's TARDIS materialises inside the cell*
sephy opened the back door and stepped off. the rani got out the front door, took one look around and went back into her TARDIS, dematerialising.

Sephy swore. Now how was she going to get out?
She noticed someone in the cell.
that someone noticed her.
She also felt the presence of someone else.
She looked up.
There, in the ventilation shaft were two eyes looking straight back at her.

((yes you can join, cool weapons good idea))

Sephy spread her hands, palms upward.
'I'm sorry. I just came.' She took a mental note of the blaster, where it was, how the newcomer was holding it.
She stuck out a hand.
'Sephy.'