SCAMPS wrote: "Thanks for the info. Will relay it to command. And yes, I have full communication with Squads 5 and 6. They're fine - some injuries, but no casualties. They're making their way to the objective and should meet you there. They're making good time. Don't leave the AO looking for them. If you do, I can't offer you assistance. ...not like I was going to anyway, but shit, don't be an asswipe about it and wander off."

"Thank God they're fine so far! Can you give us a rough ETA for them? And as it seems that they still can't reach us directly...could you perhaps relay a message for them? Please tell them that they should stay away from Vines on the ground...we had a bit of an...accident here that led to the discovery that a large area here is full of those things...and I'd guess they can seriously damage a CASKET...nothing to say of normal humans. Also tell them that half of Squad 3 will try to meet up with them a bit north from the objective after we hopefully did some scouting."

((Sorry IronDuke...but it seems that I either have a talent for finding the boring routes, evade dangers efficiently or collect our collective misfortune for in a few turns...I actually hope it's one of the first two though ._. But on that note...I expect "Party" and "Fun" pretty soon...perhaps even next turn already if I judge that blue dome correctly...Or the bush wants to kill us...also a good chance...))

((BTW: How's the Situation with Dust at the moment?))

Dinosawer wrote:

Cha0zz wrote:Oh god dammit.

Dino, we could really use the help of your squad here if you're not too busy.

"Roger that, we're done here, so we're headed your way. We'll need a few minutes to get there though.
Anything we should know?"

Yes, we encountered sever resistance from an unknown source when we decended, they seemed to target my computer, either they know that all my weapons use that thing or it's a coincidence.

And once you reach the cave, watch out for a creature that seems to be build out of pebbles, it seems to be immune to ballistic weaponry. EMP and energy weapons do the job though.

"Well, we have two Quantum cannons, 2 electrolasers, a plasma streamer, an LCD, 4 lasers and 2 electron swords, so that at least doesn't pose a problem."

TURN 12 (PART 1 OF 2)
Time passed: 21 minutes, 30 seconds (1:30 passed this turn)
Tartarus aborts mission at the 100-minute mark; no chance of rescue

SQUAD 1: Dr. Cha0zz, BFett, Ysavva, Taepilus, Kalah Grimm
Dr. Cha0zz Taepilus soon arrives, carrying Kalah's helmet in his hands. Kalah lies unconscious on the floor behind him, barely breathing. You give Taepilus the duct tape and walk over to look at Kalah's wound, giving Jimmy an order to bring you the broken drone from the cargo pod as you go.

It's bad. Not as bad as you'd originally suspected, but still pretty bad. Some of the ligaments and muscles are ripped open, but not completely shredded. She may be able to walk - or limp, if nothing else, with the help of a crutch... the more important problem right now is the bleeding. It's... bad. Very bad. You know now you should've brought a medkit along instead of trusting to the other squads to take care of all your wounds. If you had, you could've patched BFett's helmet easily, and kept Kalah awake, patched her up, and you could've used something to fix your arm up enough that it wouldn't be in horrible pain all the time. ((yes, your arm is in horrible pain. If I could just manage to bump it, I'd get to roll durability for you again. I might even get to make you pass out. I'm a cruel and unjust god.))

There's an upside to all this, though. You should be able to cauterize it... hopefully. You prepare your tools for cauterization and try to figure out the best way to do it with a broken arm. There aren't many options there. You might need an assistant, or to hold something in your teeth. An assistant would probably be the wisest bet, but you'll need to move fast if you want to save her.

As Taepilus walks up, fastening the now-taped helmet to Kalah's suit so she can breathe again, you get a message from Jimmy. "Hey, uh, boss? Your broken drone... it, uh... it kinda got... well, jammed. Can't manage to get it free with the other drone. Darn me and my lack of thumbs, right?" He chuckles nervously. "Where do I go from here?"


BFett You speak to the great Flying Spaghetti Monster. "Excuse me, Sir Noodle, but I was never introduced to Francis."

"Hmmm..." He booms slowly, seeming deep in thought. His great, low voice vibrates the dinnerware on the table before you. Several empty wine glasses shatter. "That well I know. You could have attempted to meet him, however. Had you merely treated him as an equal, I might not have brought you here. In truth, he is far beyond your mortal ken. He holds a pair of chopsticks like a hammer and anvil, never failing to gather the very best of the meal with one deft stroke. You could learn much from him."

You swallow nervously and nod. "He seems like a good man," you acknowledge, "and if he be your chosen one, then so be it. Send me back and I'll right any wrong."

"Would you now?" He says. Storms gather on the horizon. He doesn't seem to believe you. "You mistake my purpose. Think back to your childhood, young BFett. Perhaps you can come to recognize the true reason I brought you to this place, if you but look to your own past. For my Chosen Son has met with many obstacles on His path, and needs one to lead him to the Glory I have promised Him. This could be you... but only if you truly know yourself, in the way that I know you."

He speaks in riddles. Apparently there's something in your past He wants you to remember... but what could it be? Your thoughts drift back to your homeworld...


Ysavva "Amenra, watch my back!" Taepilus says. "I'm going to patch up BFett. THe last thing I want is another one of those shits attacking me."

"On it," you say, and move to the door, staying in cover behind the frame.

For a while, there's no movement at all, but you soon catch sight of one lone bug crawling along the ceiling toward you, very stealthily.

"No you don't," you mutter, firing a shot at the beast with your lasgun. The beam, all but invisible, traces a dark streak across the rock, and the monster immediately turns tail and flees. Thought it was going to sneak up, did it? Not on your watch.


Taepilus You take off Kalah's helmet, detaching it at the base, and carry it over to BFett. On the way, you take the duct tape from Dr. Cha0zz, who passes you on his way to check out Kalah's injury. You, on the other hand, continue to BFett and remove his busted helmet, replacing it with Kalah's. It'll keep BFett alive, and as you seal the last latches on his suit, you hope you'll be able to do the same for your other squadmate as well.

Sitting down on the steps, only a couple meters away from the glowing, roiling pool in the center of the floor, you begin taping up BFett's helmet. One careful strip of duct tape at a time, you begin to make progress, carefully layering each piece exactly the way you need it. After a little more work, you've completely patched the hole. Kalah won't be able to see perfectly out of the helmet, but she should be able to look around it, with some decreased ability.

You put the helmet carefully on the neck of Kalah's suit, over her head, and fasten the latches.

And Kalah begins to stir. Her eyes flutter open; she's awake.


Kalah Grimm You try not to panic. That only makes you more afraid. As the tiny insects, like demonic roaches, crawl out of your mouth, through your nose, into your eyes, your lungs convulse; you imagine they're slowly filling with maggots. Choking, you fall to your knees, grasping at your throat, and vomit onto the ground. It's clear and blue, like the sky that disappeared moments before behind the wave. You feel a presence in it, as though it has a mind, or personality. Focusing your thoughts on this, you dig your fingers into the rain-soaked grass and begin to try to clear your head. "How do I stop from going into the void?" you ask loudly, trying to speak louder than the buzzing hum of the insects and the thundering of the wave. "How do I stop the world from collapsing? How do I make this place beautiful again?" This does little; the dirt grows muddy, and before you can stop yourself, you begin sliding away from the little puddle of sky-blue vomit, down the side of the hill toward a lake as black as tar. You feel helpless.

"Stop," the voice commands. It is everywhere and nowhere, like something you'd hear in a badly-written story some half-witted hack thought they could throw together and pass off as a book. And yet, everything stills at its command; the ground beneath you hardens, stopping your descent; the last insects flee from your mouth, traveling down the insides of your clothes to the earth, where they disperse, even though the trees about you continue to swarm. "Be calm. Your time has not yet ended." There's a sorrowful note in the way she speaks, but you cannot guess the reason; it drifts about, just out of your grasp. But you do feel calmer, and the rain persists as well.

"Why do you dislike me?" you ask, beginning to get to your feet. "Why will you not show yourself?" You sense that it dislikes you, but still it wants to help, as though it doesn't hold you responsible for ... something.

But there is no response. You're with another presence, surely; the little puddle of vomit has followed you, and as the rain continues to pour, you try to scrub your wound clean. It takes some effort, but you're able to nearly completely clean your wound, practically erasing it from existence. There's still mud all over you, though. If there's anything left of your wound, it's probably infected, but there's not much you can do about it at this point.

The downpour worsens. Thunder echoes, shaking the trees around you. Bug-infested fruit, shorn off by the wind, falls to the ground and bursts with an acrid stench. You take the brush and begin to try to paint a protective bubble around yourself like a shield, but the wind buffets you as you make your delicate strokes; the brush flies away, lost in the torrential rain as lightning flashes. You draw your clothes tighter around you to protect you from the cold.

Suddenly the earth begins exploding around you, hurling dirt up into the air as though from exploding mines; you see dark streaks falling from the sky. After careful observation (and almost getting hit by another) you realize that these are your birds; these are the birds you painted earlier about the wave. Now their charred carcasses fall from the sky like bombs.

"What is happening here?" you whisper. Fear creeps into your voice. "What is going on??"

"My time with you is ending. It was not ... I was not ... strong enough ... Kalah Grimm."

~~~

You awaken, slowly. Your leg burns as though with fire - you're able to narrow down the location to just above your ankle. It's dark - almost completely - but you see the faceplate of someone's visor through your helmet. It's difficult to see... as though one half of your own helmet has been taped over. You feel groggy, and sick... what happened? You feel so weak... you're unsure if you can even move, let alone stand.

((Your roll let you wake up this turn. You got lucky. That's a 17% chance with -2 PSI.))


SQUAD 2: Hema, Unit 4965, Dak Perkins, Triggerhappy, Servius
Hema You give everyone orders after quickly strategizing, and get ready to attack. Your eyes sweep your claustrophobic battlefield, watching as the swarms of insects, or whatever they are, continue to attack and consume your allies' vehicles. Triggerhappy and Servius are already starting to group up in one corner, taking damage while they try to bait the enemies into a trap. You watch carefully, getting ready to line up your shot so you hit as many of the swarms as possible... and flip the controls for your microwave field manipulator, starting up an appropriate configuration and beginning the calculations.

No sooner do you begin than a great number of them attack you, "bouncing" off the ceiling as the cloud propels itself toward your ship, buzzing, clacking, whirring like a swarm of locusts. You use your RCS thrusters to quickly maneuver sideways out of the way.

After several moments, everything is set. Unit 4965 takes the opportunity to charge the rubble pile, sweeping his ship deftly over it. "Attacking now," you call out, and fire on the swarms of enemies, with Dak's assistance.

The result is as profound as it is immediate. The swarms attacking your allies disperse wildly, clattering against the top of the tunnel as they rip themselves away, beginning to form bizarre spider-like shapes in the center of the tunnel. Many of the parts, however, fall from where you hit them, red and glowing to the cavern floor. You managed to take out a lot of them with that shot, and that proves that they're not invincible - but you didn't kill all of them by far.

"I got some of them," you report.

Servius pulls away, but Triggerhappy remains where he is - and the swarms begin advancing back toward them, both as the original swarms, and as some sort of bizarre, many-legged monster they've formed themselves into.

Just then, you hear a loud clattering noise on the back of your craft: another swarm. It buzzes and whirs; you see tiny shards of metal fly forward, only to be caught and consumed by the small insectoid robots buzzing about your cockpit. The displays near your head inform you that your top engine has gone offline.



Unit 4965 Pulling an acid bolt out of your pack, you toss it nonchalantly at the shield in front of you, wondering what it'll do. The bolt shatters as soon as it hits the barrier; the acid simply glances off the shield and drips to the ground, sizzling on the stone with wisps of vapor.

You leave it and jump up, climbing back into your CASKET and settling down into the cockpit. You have a mission to complete. You're boldly going where no man (or machine) has ever gone before: straight past the cave-in. As you close the canopy, you take a long, hard look at the rubble that fell, and find a small gap just over a portion on the left side - just barely large enough for you to fit your CASKET.

Servius says he'll cover you. You decide to get moving.

Jetting forward at top speed, you grip the controls as bits of the swarm clouds ping and ricochet off your hull, flinging sparks as you brush through their numbers. Just before you hit the steeply-sloping rock pile, you pull back on your yoke and apply RCS as horizontal brakes, pitching your ship upwards and narrowly avoiding smashing yourself open on the ceiling. Your baseline programmed instincts kick in, twisting you back over the rubble pile, through a narrow gap, and down a steep slope beneath a crumbling roof.

You come out on the far side completely unscathed. It was a maneuver few humans could pull off, especially so magnificently. You're not even sure if you would manage it if you tried a second time. For now, though, you start looking for a way to shut down the row of shields. After shining your CASKET's headlights over everything nearby, you notice something that looks curiously akin to some kind of control panel near the left wall, and cautiously pilot your craft in that direction.

As you arrive, it becomes undeniably clear that the control panel is without power. It's aged, dusty, dirty, and dark - not at all like anything else you've seen of Quantum culture. You'd have to figure out how to turn it on.


Dak Perkins You give off a few orders and then tentatively move your CASKET out into the open, away from the advancing Wall Of Death. It's still advancing at the rate of one shield every thirty seconds or so - which is considerably faster than you're comfortable with. You can already predict when the next one is going to come up: the walls go dark, then they glow, and then another shield comes up between the two bars. Then it starts again several meters ahead with the next one.

While Triggerhappy and Servius get into position for The Plan (to use them as live bait while you and Hema fire), you check your electrolaser settings for any controls that adjust how spread out a shot can be. It seems like it would be a particularly useful thing to have... especially right now. Unfortunately, after digging through half a dozen menus, many nested inside each other, you find that the electrolaser (according to your CasketOS) seems to be stuck in something called "kiddie mode", and there aren't any clear methods you can use to get it out of that. You're just going to have to make do without it.

Meanwhile, Trigger and Servius have gathered a good number of the swarms together in a corner. You aim carefully, and at Hema's command, fire your weapon.

The effect is immediate and rather pleasing; arcs of electricity dance about among a number of the little swarming bug-like pests, and they, snapping and crackling, fall to the ground. Unfortunately these clouds are absolutely nothing like the ones that Dr. Cha0zz and the others are fighting. They have completely shed their organic parts and become pure machine; they have no true form. Well... until now. The remainder of the swarms that you and Hema attacked rush over to the center of the room, buzzing and humming, and begin to form some sort of large, spindle-legged spider-like entity, shimmering and sizzling like a metal roof on a hot day.

You're so distracted with it that you don't notice the swarm coming at you from behind.

Your CASKET lurches suddenly, tipping backwards and to the right; it catches you off guard, and you struggle to regain control. You strain with the thrusters; the swarm pushes back, and with great effort you manage to twist your ship aside, narrowly dodging yet another attack from directly ahead. Lights in your cockpit glow red: your starboard engine has shut itself down "to prevent catastrophe".

It comes to mind that you're not really sure how this trap could get any more catastrophic... except, say, if Trigger really did decide to detonate himself.


Triggerhappy "Servius, get your ship close to mine!" you call out. "Turn to face most of de svarm at Dak, and hold still! Dak, ven de svarm is on one place, shoot!"

SCAMPS said your ship had a self destruct button. He was a bit of an ass about it, but you've come to expect that from him anyway. If you absolutely have to, you're going to blow your ship to pieces, and the enemy to kingdom come. It'll be the end of you... but if there's really no way out, why not die heroically?

You turn and fly your CASKET over to the nearest corner, where Servius is already headed, trying to fly through as many of the swarms as possible on your way over. Bits and pieces of the little metallic pests clink and clang against your hull as you fly through, and the ones gnawing on your robotic arm have almost completely devoured what was left of it. More flock on as you fly past, presumably to finish off the job. You ignore them - they're just doing what you wanted anyway - and take your place beside Servius.

"Dak!" you call out. "Dis vould be a good time to shoot!" You maneuver carefully with your RCS thrusters, flinging off some of the swarm-bits that were trying to crawl inside as you face the largest mass toward Dak. Most of them are on top of you; you tilt so your cockpit is in Dak's direction.

He fires. So does Hema. To your relief, they actually manage to kill a good number - but not all of them. In desperation, you slam your ship downwards, attempting to crush the rest below. This has catastrophic consequences. As you come down at full thrust, you feel your electromagnetic clamps fold and buckle beneath you - the back goes first, tipping your ship backwards into the engines; there's a brief pause before the ship shudders again, the screeching of rending metal almost earsplitting as you ruin at least two, maybe three of your engines.

It would be an understatement of the highest degree to say that it wasn't the smartest thing you've ever done.

Meanwhile, the swarms continue to gnaw away at the front of your CASKET, completely unperturbed.


((Your CASKET has sustained very heavy damage. I rolled for an explosion (not antimatter, just normal fuel). You got lucky.))

Servius Fully aware of the mortal danger you're in, you herd the swarms over toward a corner of the tunnel, right up near the cave-in debris. Triggerhappy follows along behind you, juggling a startling number of the creatures; they buzz and clatter about him, trying to consume any metal they can find.

"We're in place!" you shout. "Hurry up and take the shot!"

"We're getting into position!" the call comes.

The swarms advance, beginning to clack and clatter against your own ship, and then thunk against the canopy itself, leaving scratches and minuscule cracks in the transparent material as they continue. They aren't ripping you apart, though, and you wonder what exactly it is they're doing: are they trying to learn about your ship somehow? Is this the only way they can sense what you are?

But their time is up. "Firing now," Hema says over the comms; you duck down, just as Dak and Hema's attacks rip apart the swarm above you, sending molten bits of the insect-like metallic parts thumping and clattering off the sides of your hull onto the ground. The attack was successful - partly. While they got some of them, they're far from being gone.

In the meantime, Unit 4965 has pulled off some impressive aerial maneuvers and made his way beyond the cave-in blockage. There's a small gap he managed to fit his ship through, and two of the swarms are already approaching it, trying to follow him. You make up your mind to stay behind and draw the enemy's attention, keeping them off your squad's medic.

Spurring your craft about with your RCS thrusters, you pull back on the stick, open the throttle, and jet over to where they are as fast as you can. As you approach, you roll your ship to the side and pitch left, swatting both of the swarms clean out of the air with the underside of your ship as you slow to a halt. Another swarm converges on you, and the two you knocked away come back to try to attack - but you realize something amusing as you see the little bot-like bits try to dig into your hull: your hull is offering quite a bit of resistance. You wanted a durable hull, and by god, you got it. For now, at least, you're completely capable of withstanding their attacks - at least until they devise a new strategy... or they decide to look for weaker portions. For now, thousands of them cling to the outside of your hull, trying uselessly to drill through, clinking, buzzing, whirring and clattering as stragglers try to find positions... but you're keeping them off 4965, and you don't seem to be in any immediate danger of dying.

Best of all, Triggerhappy doesn't seem to think blowing up his ship with antimatter is such a good idea after all.

TURN 12 (PART 2 OF 2)


SQUAD 3: Foreigner, Fawkes, Blake, Nequeba, Quackshot
Foreigner "Blake, you fukcing moron, WHY?!" you groan. It's mind control, obviously. You've known the Quantums had it from the first mission. Tartarus has the same technology, to some extent - and it's bleeding edge. Only a good PSI user can resist it, and that's not you. It might as well be blood magic for all you care, but he'll surely fire again. "Fawkes, Blake is either mind-controlled by the Quantum tech, or really, really drunk. You're in command of the rest of the squad. Act as you see necessary. I'll see if I can contact Blake."

Suddenly, something smashes onto your cockpit canopy, shattering with a loud THWACK - you jump, startled, and then raise an eyebrow quizzically when you realize that someone actually just fired a syringe at your ship. What the hell? ...No, there's no question: it could only have been Francis.

Without wasting any time, you fly away from the pillar, coming down behind a tall, rocky outcrop to the north to help hide yourself from Blake's direct line of fire. No sooner do you than alarms flash over your ship: you're being hacked. The alarms blare for a moment but then go silent with a chime as the CasketOS proudly announces that the hack has been stopped. That wasn't hard at all. It probably helps that Blake's CASKET is running on emergency power.

Quickly and decisively, you power down your ship, seal your suit, open the canopy and get out, taking cover behind a large boulder near the edge of the steep slope up the mountainside. You hear more alarms inside your ship, followed by another chiming noise: another failed hack. You're mildly amused. At least he's too incompetent under mind control to actually do any real damage. You load a bolt into your crossbow - a sticky flare - and get ready to attack in case anyone comes close.

But nobody does. Blake seems quite content to wait around over toward the pillar. He tries shooting at you, but he's woefully inaccurate.

Cautiously, you get back to your ship and climb back into the cockpit, trying to figure out your next move... and anticipate theirs.


Fawkes SCAMPS gives you the info on the other squads, and you reply with a sense of relief. "Thank God they're fine so far! Can you give us a rough ETA for them?"

"Negative. They're off the grid. We don't have markers for them, but according to satellite data, it should be sometime within the next... hour. Give or take thirty minutes. You assholes had better not get your shit fukced before then, because you're not getting backup anytime soon."

You decide to just accept it. "Could you perhaps relay a message for them? Please tell them that they should stay away from Vines on the ground."

"Funny, they wanted me to tell you the same thing. They say they'll try to meet up north or west of the objective."

The comms go silent.

You begin looking around after SCAMPS stops speaking and realize that there's not just one bush here. There's a lot of them. You left the first bush behind a good ways back. Here, there's plenty for you to look at, scattered sparsely around the plain. You slow your CASKET to a gentle roll, and then a stop. Once you're safely parked in place, you leave the cockpit, jump down off the treads, and start walking toward the nearest of the bushes.

While only half a meter tall at most, it still somehow manages to feel completely alien, and not at all like the terrestrial plants mankind has spread all over the galaxy. The "leaves" of this bush are remarkably wide and round, with an exceedingly dark coloration on the top side and an exceedingly light coloration on the bottom. They aren't green, either, but more a very dark turquoise, somewhat matching their surroundings. They don't seem to have any real similarities with the vines that Quackshot discovered earlier, and that eases your mind a little: they show no signs of having been tampered with by a higher intelligence.

Kneeling down on the ground beside it, you try scanning it with your PDA... but your settings seem to be wrong. All you're getting is a technical report on the bush's outer surface: which is most certainly 100% organic. You could tell that already, though. Sighing, you remove your backpack and get out a sample bag, and pluck a few of the leaves and twigs. The bush makes no move to attack you. Seems safe so far, at least. You pack everything up and head back to your CASKET, getting back in. Then you start driving over to the shield.

While you drive, William explains what he's thought of: that the pillar Blake discovered is likely far more powerful than Foreigner anticipates. Even though you have to get into close range for it to take control, he says he finds it likely that it can actually maintain that link over much longer distances. He explains some other stuff too. You nod and listen.

When you finally arrive at the edge of the blue dome, you slow your CASKET to a rolling stop, open the canopy, and shoot a burst with your lasgun at the shield-like curve. Your shot is effortlessly absorbed by what is almost certainly a shield.


Blake Lowe ((See, this is funny. You thought he was actually going to try to destroy you because he PM'd me. He was only going to destroy you if you forced his hand. PvP is amusing.))

You resist the urges flowing through you, but it's a massive struggle. You've practiced training your willpower before; you're tougher than the average person. Even so, you can hardly make any headway. Your body ignores you, moving your hands to the thruster controls and gently pushing your ship upwards into the sky, away from the pillar, as you track Foreigner's movements. He's starting to flee. You make a final, desperate attempt to regain control of your body, starting with your fingers... and all you manage is to regain control of the pinky on your left hand.

The voices shout at you, screaming; it feels almost animal-like. They grab hold, their pincered claws digging deeply into your mind, and force your hands to move. You can sense them accessing your memories; you see brief glimpses of the Tartarus, brief glimpses of your home - and they quickly find your knowledge of your CASKET. Without any way to resist, they begin moving your hands across your ship's control panels, opening up channels and beginning a hack. You give in, and your body attempts to hack Foreigner's ship to destroy it. It would be an incredibly difficult hack even without your ship on emergency power, and you absolutely flunk - not once, but twice. As much as you try, you simply can't manage to hack his ship. Meanwhile, he's already landed, gotten out, and is looking at you, taunting you, waiting for you to do something.

So you do something. You fire at him with your particle gun and mounted lasers, hoping to kill him. Naturally, he's too good at dodging and seems to anticipate it: he's already behind cover before you can even pull the trigger, and your shots fall short anyway.

The voices in your head are growing restless. You get the feeling that they would willingly sacrifice you in order to kill Foreigner if it came down to it. You may not even have five minutes left to figure out a plan.

At least you can think, though. And talk, too, if you tried.


Nequeba You don't have a clue of what to do, and say as much. If it's really mind control, then you're probably the best person to go in because of your psi training. But what would you do beyond that?

Fortunately, Quackshot seems to have some ideas. While Fawkes drives, Quackshot explains what he's thought of: that the pillar Blake discovered is likely far more powerful than Foreigner anticipates. Even though you have to get into close range for it to take control, he says he finds it likely that it can actually maintain that link over much longer distances. He explains some other stuff too. You nod and listen. He's seated right next to you on the side of the Fawkes' hull.

After a while, Fawkes stops the vehicle, gets out, and shoots his lasgun at the huge shield-like dome. Surprise surprise: it doesn't pass through, and does basically nothing. It's actually a shield. Who would've guessed?


Quackshot ((You got an Epic-level intuition roll.))

After SCAMPS finishes talking, you retort, "Well, you said to just get out of there and we'll call it a day, and said you'd try to get a lander sent in. What logic links are there in my squishy brain indicated that that was an order to abandon the objective. Pardon me for assuming you were using plain English; as you'd say, I'm too stupid to figure out the complicated stuff."

"And I thought you'd understand that Tartarus doesn't tolerate failure. Your lives aren't worth as much as the success of the mission. If you fail to recover the objective, we will fail to take you home. We'll make it look like an accident, too. Looks better in the reports. SCAMPS out."

The comms fall silent. You continue sitting on Fawkes' CASKET and turn your mind back to the objective. You really need to come up with some way to complete it. Everything went to hell so fast: the monsters, the dust, the random attacks, Squad 2 trapped underground, and now Blake's being mind-controlled by some kind of Quantum structure. Something about that makes you uneasy, though. A small quantum structure, sitting in the middle of nowhere, completely unprotected? The Quantums had ranged weaponry. They should know it would be easy enough to destroy their structure from a distance... so... why have they not protected it?

Or... perhaps they have. Perhaps there's some form of barrier there that Foreigner and Blake just can't see yet... some form of shielding against projectiles. It stands to reason that anyone wanting to attack the pillar would have to get close... and therefore within range of its mind-controlling abilities.

Something else bothers you. The Quantums have this powerful emitter that can control minds of a species they've never come in contact with before. It emits what seems to be two huge purple domes as well. The odds that it can only control two people are astoundingly small. In fact, you get the feeling that it can control much, much more... potentially hundreds of minds, maybe even thousands, sentient and otherwise. Foreigner mentioned he thought it was probably strained just with Blake and Fawkes, but you feel like it would be anything but. That's if your intuition is anything to go by, anyway.

You hear the sounds of Squad 2 over the comms, desperately fighting the enemies in their tunnel, directly beneath where Blake is now...


"Fawkes?" you say, speaking up. "I have some ideas about what's going on." As he collects his samples and walks back to his ship, you explain what you think you've figured out.

After a while, you all arrive at the edge of the huge shield-like dome that Fawkes has been rolling his CASKET toward. Fawkes hops out and shoots his lasgun at it, and it does no damage. It's actually a shield. That wasn't really much of a surprise.


SQUAD 4: Dinosawer, Squidhead, Andrew, Payback-13, Francis
Dinosawer As the shaft implodes around you, shards of metal falling from above with an almost deafening roar, you quickly untangle your foot from what remains of your tether. This isn't too difficult, fortunately. Then, as the walls of the column crumble, bursting in your face, you hit your heels together, rocketing upwards toward the exit with extreme speed. You do a quick spin - an unpowered drift - you leap off the far side of the column from the little entry hatch and start the jets again, rocketing out perfectly through the little hole -

- and are somewhat shocked at what you've done. Again. This seems to be a common theme in your adventures: things have a tendency to fall apart around you, particularly if they're spectacularly dangerous.

A huge portion of the column's highest reaches crashes down through the metallic walkway in front of you as you fly, tearing it away from its structuring and sending it down into the depths, clattering and ringing. Other pieces explode and crash into the huge arrays of crystals that line the walls; gigantic columns of crystal beads rip themselves from the walls, shattering as they tumble downwards all around you. Above, a huge section of the ceiling is crashing its way downward, decimating the central column as it tumbles. It's time to move.

With an enormous boost from your jets, you launch yourself forward, narrowly dodging falling debris; a huge crystalline pillar crashes down from the side of the wall, burning in an incandescent fireball as fuel pipelines rupture behind it; as the crystals burn and burst, you land on the side and leap upwards again, trying to get closer to the exit. Spatters of burning oil sear the side of your body, but with one last rocket-propelled burst, using the very last of your generator's power, you land inside the turret's entry passage, rolling and tumbling to a halt. Behind you, you hear the screeching and rattling of metal twisting and deforming under the stress as the interior of the turret continues to collapse upon itself.

No sooner do you begin to get to your feet, than something hits you squarely in the back, piercing bits of your armor. Something else hits the floor beside you and explodes into a shower of purple crystals. You know it instantly: a liquid quantum glass miniturret. As quickly as you can, you leap up and run forward through the long hallway as an unspeakable explosion echoes through the walls about you, and even more liquid shots explode around you. Dust from the collapse catches up and envelops you as you run.

Seconds later, you're back out into the twilight after leaping through the collapsed doorway. The turret behind you sags and groans as it continues to sound its death-knell. You look around and see your ship - and it looks better than when you left it. Squid must've gotten to it, but he's not here anymore. The only person you see is Andrew, sitting on the near side of your hull. "You want to hitch a ride?" you ask, dusting yourself off and checking for major injuries as you walk to your CASKET.

"Yeah, ready when you are," he replies affirmatively.

You give him a nod, swinging yourself up over the tread and climbing into your cockpit. "We're running out of time and the Doc needs help," you tell him. "Let's get going."

~~~

It isn't long before you've found Squidhead. He's back with the drones, and Payback-13 is getting into Cornflakes' cargo pod. After exchanging a few quick words with Squidhead and getting your repair kit attached back where it's supposed to be, you start back around the turret, south, toward Andrew's ship.

~~~

Andrew's ship is right where you left it. It appears fine too. Nothing has really taken interest in it; indeed, there doesn't really seem to be anything of interest anywhere nearby, except for the rocky spike plain. It looks like you finally get a chance to enjoy some (well-deserved) peace and quiet.


Squidhead You look around, trying to see if you're in any way damaged. After you've started checking yourself over thoroughly, you're appalled to find that the universe has continued its hateful trend of blasting you to little bits, every single mission. You have a bent tentacle. It's not as bad as a broken tentacle, but hey, come on, this happens every mission! You're more than tired of it. You look it over for a moment, and then give it a little tug with another one of your tentacles. It doesn't really do much. Some of your parts are warped out of shape. You'd need some better gear to fix this, and possibly some replacement parts. It's not like it's really doing much harm on its own anyway. You have plenty of other tentacles. That's why all the girls loved you back home. ((don't necessarily consider this last line canon; I couldn't help myself))

You walk back to the drone, search for a nice-looking piece of gear, and pull one out: something that appears to be part of some kind of Quantum computer system. It certainly has enough wires for it, and the chips (if those are chips?) look fairly advanced. Better yet, they have that same shifty illusion pattern. Definitely alien, definitely Quantum, definitely loot. You haul it back you your ship and shove it in the cargo pod. Then you get the repair kit, go up to the back of your ship, open a hatch, and begin fixing your power supply.

You're done in less than a minute. You're full pro.

And then you wait.


After a while, Dinosawer shows up with Andrew and Payback in tow.

"Dino! Payback! Come over here!" you say over the radio. You don't bother doing anything to get their attention; after all, it has to be rather hard to miss the smoking drones on the otherwise empty windswept plain.

When Dino comes over, you put the repair kit back on his ship and order Payback-13 into your cargo pod. Then you start following Dino, headed back toward Andrew's ship.

~~~

After a little while, you arrive back at Andrew's ship, near the plain of rocky, crystalline spikes. His ship appears to be totally fine. Nothing bothered it. That's certainly a relief. It seems you have a continued respite from all the recent action. Who knows how long that's going to last.


Andrew "Dino, I don't know what the hell you just did, but try not to do it too often!" you shout, running like hell for the exit. Payback-13 follows along behind at a similar pace.

As soon as you're back outside, rushing through the busted doorway, you climb up onto Dino's ship and wait. Payback, on the other hand, turns north and starts running along the side of the turret toward the marker on the map where Squidhead is supposed to be. You leave him to it and wait.

It isn't too much longer before Dinosawer shows up. A cloud of smoke and dust billows out the doorway in front of him well before he arrives, and he emerges from the dust tired, but otherwise unscathed. Mostly. You see a jagged scratch down one side of his metallic body, and something on a couple other parts that look like burns. As far as his capability goes, he seems to be fine.

"You want to hitch a ride?" he asks, as he swings himself up onto the treads and then into his cockpit.

"Yeah, ready when you are," you reply.

He nods, giving you a short salute as he buckles up and closes his canopy. "We're running out of time and the Doc needs help," you hear. "Let's get moving."


The journey hardly takes half a minute. Rolling over the grounds with treads going at max throttle, you soon reach Squidhead. Payback-13 is already there, and in the process of getting into Squidhead's cargo pod. Squidhead and Dino exchange words briefly, pack up Dino's repair kit, and all of you get moving south again.


After another minute or so, you're back at your ship. It wasn't really all that far off, and it's in just as pristine condition as when you left it - apart from a little dust. You kept your eyes open for enemies on the drive down here, but didn't see any. It looks like everything is leaving you alone for the moment.



Payback-13 You run toward the door you blasted open earlier, not daring to look back even as the rounds from the two minidrones hit the ground around you. By some divine miracle, they all miss - and it probably helps that they're on the far end of the hallway. Dinosawer is still somewhere in the center of the turret, but the walls are shaking around you, rattling, clanging - the noise in the turret's interior is beyond belief. Andrew runs along in front of you, not daring to look back either.

Soon, you emerge from the darkened interior, leaping through the busted doors to safety - and then you just keep running north around the side of the massive megaturret.

~~~

After running along the side for a while, and ending up on the north side, you hear Squidhead call out to you: "Dino! Payback! Come over here!" He seems to have his ship parked next to the remains of a number of fallen superdrones - like the ones that were attacking you earlier. He urges you to climb into his cargo pod (next to a bunch of rather dangerous-looking quantum tech), and, with some reservations, you do so. He closes the door behind you.

It isn't long before you're moving again, apparently toward Andrew's ship.


Francis The voices seem confused, wondering why you aren't carrying any weaponry. They seem to decide you'll have to use melee attacks instead.

You feel the urge to fly. Nothing happens, obviously, because you can't fly. Then you feel the urge to leap up into the sky and attack Foreigner's ship. Again, nothing happens, because humans can't do that. The voices are angry now - a wild, animal-like frustration. You imagine them beating their chests in a primitive, uncivilized manner. They don't understand these thoughts and seem to think you want to play some kind of game. You decide to go along with it and choose "I spy".

In your head, you think, I spy with my little eye... and begin looking around for something to use in a riddle. Your gaze falls upon some of your crossbow bolts. The alien presence seems to get excited, and you pull out your shiny crossbow from behind your back. This? You want to play with this? you think. Well, it's not going to do what you want it to, but okay...

You pull out a bolt, insert it into your crossbow, and fire it in a perfect arc up towards Foreigner's CASKET.

It's a direct hit, impacting on the dead center of his canopy.

The voices are pleased.


You decide not to tell them it was just a tranquilizer dart.

"God damnit."

"Unit, how are you over zere? Any progress vith turning off ze svarm? Vi are being eaten alive over here... it's becoming a light bozer. Zat, and my overestimation of ze integrity of zis trash bin is troubling."

Shift my casket slightly for aim and fire a Railgun slug into the shield closing in on us.

Completely shut down my Casket.
Grab my pistol.
Shoot or swat any of the swarm that get inside my cockpit ( no more than 4 shots ) without breaking my canopy further.
Try to figure out a way out of this situation. (( GK roll? Not sure. ))
Wait till the swarm dies or kills us all.

While I wait,
- Read the CASKET manual.
- Look at what is in all the compartments.
- Set the Rubber Duck on my dashboard.
- When I finish the manual,
-- Listen to the other squads comms for any valuable information.

If the swarm dies.
- Get out of my CASKET.
- Assess damage.
- Call Unit over if possible for repairs.

If the swarm is, once again, certain to kill me,
- If all my squad members are out of my blast range and/or dead,
-- Self destruct CASKET.

"Foreigner, I think that the mind-control tower is also controlling whatever squad two is fighting right now. Dunno for sure, but it might also be controlling the vines and/or the things squad one was dealing with. I think it most expedient to smash the thing."

...

"Yay. It's a shield. How are we going to get through that?"

((Actions later.))

"Thanks for the ride, Dino. Let's go save Squad 1's asses!
And Doc, I hear you're injured. I have some painkillers if you want them."

Get in my CASKET
Follow Dino to the cave
If we run into the pebble-monster-thing or Dino finds an enemy:
-Fire once at it with my electrolaser, avoiding friendlies
-If it is destroyed or we don't run into it:
-Land the CASKET and get out
-Move into the cave with the squad
-Give Doc painkillers first, then give Kalah some as well.
-If an enemy appears while we're in the cave:
--Take cover
--Shoot it a maximum of three times with my lasgun.

"Don't worry you two, strong drugs are on the way!"

BFett replies to the FSM

"Hmm, let me see, oh yes I remember! Back in 6th grade I had to memorize and present a mono-log to my classmates in drama class. The speech was from the perspective of a student who was asking a janitor for assistance in removing a container of worms from his locker. And as you probably already know, I had to use a prop for this speech. Well I did. I took spaghetti noodles, boiled them and added food coloring to give them the fleshy color of real earth worms. I then put them in a glass jar and took them to school the following morning.

When it was my turn to present I put my jar of spaghetti on the table and after removing the lid I draped a small handful of the 'worms' over the jar. As I presented my several minute speech the class exclaimed multiple times as the 'worms' slowly fell out of the jar.

As soon as I was done with the mono-log and had returned to my seat several students wondered what I had used for my 'worms'. When I informed them that it was just spaghetti with food coloring they asked if they could eat it and I said “sure”. Before I knew it I had the entire class around me, eating the spaghetti that I had made.

It was at this time that I knew I could convince anyone to become a spaghetti consumer. And that's the story from my past that I believe you were referring to."


((A true story too crazy for me to have ever made up.))

"By the goddess..fukc. What the hell happened..? Squad 1? Is everyone still alive? Shit my legs hurts, it hurts a lot. Are we..you..did we get backup?"

"... something beginning with T. Can you guess... wait, do you guys even speak English? Perhaps it doesn't begin with T in your language. Perhaps your language doesn't even have a T."

Continue to ponder the correlation between languages.

"This would be more fun with some background music."

Think of Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 loudly.

"Damn...your thoughts sound reasonably accurate, William. But this doesn't change the fact that we should come up with something fast...Actually...damn! I have a rough idea...but for this we'd need your CASKET's, it's also risky...but I can't really think of something else considering our Equipment. *Murmuring to myself* Need to be fast, flying low...what about the fliers...static? Possible...after that...He's still on Emergency power...how long does that last? 20 Minutes or so if I remember correctly...need a distraction...can't enter, too much risk...possible influences? Fliers...mind controlled hostiles...blake's weaponry, hacking...not much time...enemies will come as soon as we attack the spire...possible measures against that...not that I can think of something right now...range of the Spire...perhaps 400m judging from the map...particle gun won't be very effective on that distance.... Commander! Do you remember the VR Combat session we had before the Sedirmar-Mission when you got hacked?"

"SCAMPS? You don't have something unimportant flying around in orbit, do you? ...But even if you had something up there...you wouldn't drop it on the spire here, i guess..."

Dammit, why did those idiotic things have to break my arm.

When andrew arrives:
- Ask him for the painkillers.

Taepilus, I'll need you to assist me with cauterising this wound.

Jimmy, use the working drone to take pictures of the drone that's stuck and send them to me (I'd like a description of how the drone is stuck if possible )

If taepilus will assist me:
- cauterise the wound with his help.
Else:
- use future vision to determine the what will happen when I cauterise the wound
- Carefully cauterise the wound taking in mind what I learned from future vision.

Jimmy, use the MUSE to analyse an air sample
Scan the atmospheric composition at my location.
Send all atmospheric data to jimmy

Jimmy use this data to look if you can get a general direction of where the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced. (through the different concentrations in the analysed samples you can make a concentration gradient telling you where the oxygen source is.)

"Dak, see if you can lose the swarms on you. I know you don't have much room to maneuver, just do what you can. If you get a good shot with your electrolaser, I want you to take it.
I'm going to try and fire at the spiders on the ground, and see if I can figure out how these things are communicating.
Servius, you just need to do what you can to stay away from these things. Also, if you have the time, see what you can learn about these things from your cockpit. Any new information you can provide could possibly save our lives.
Trigger, your ship should be badly damaged right now. Do whatever you need to in order to survive, and stay out of our line of fire.
Unit, I'm not sure what you found over there, but if it looks like could help, please try to make use of it."

"Hey SCAMPS, can a CASKET be remotely controlled from another?"

((Cheeky rainbow \o/))