Thomas, RayAnne Shadow, the two techs and the Body guard travel deeper into the base
Feel free to let me know if you like reading this adventure log.
Lady RayAnne Shadow takes a moment and says. "Ok, the blood is old, dried. So hopefully Melanies pet has left the base to find more food."
Ertis standing by the door, looking down the hall. "We don't know that!" He is carrying Carters arm. "She never let anyone examine that thing and it was invisible to everything except alpha radiation and motion sensors."
Thomas speaks up. "This base have any alpha radiation detectors?"
Jonny shakes his head. "Alpha rads are very short lived. Any detector and emitter that you would use puts you within 5 feet of that thing." He nods to Lady Shadow. "Lets hope she's right and its left the base."
"This base have an armory? You mentioned a Blaster. Can you find some." Asks lady shadow.
Jonny nods. "Yeah down the hall there is a security station on the other side of the base. That should have a weapons locker."
RayAnne walks to the doorway and looks down the hall. "Right. Lets get to the security station and arm up." She looks at Ertis. "Could you drop that arm?"
Ertis looks at her for a second. "Biometrics." He holds the arm up. "Carter had the highest clearance on the base. His hand should be able to unlock just about anything,"
Lady Shadow's eyebrow arches upward. "Oh, So you are not just a whiny bastard after all."
Ertis nods. "Yeah... hey!" Jonny snickers.
RayAnne. "We should also find out if Melanie's shuttle is here, maybe we can use it."
Jonny and Ertis "Good idea!"
Everyone hears a musical tone and look at Thomas. His eyes dart back and forth at the other three. "What?"
Lady Shadow. "What did you do?"
Thomas. "Nuthin! Why you always blaming me for stuff."
Jonny steps over to where Thomas is standing, near Melanies body. "He pressed the green button!"
RayAnne is puzzled.
"Whatever was on that message, he just sent it." Jonny glares at the kid.
The kid glares back and then steps away from the booth. "I was trying to figure out the message.. and stuff."
"Can you tell who it went too?" Lady Shadow moves toward Jonny.
Jonny shakes his head. "No, these booths are privacy comms. We could pull the address out of the master comm unit." he points a thumb over his shoulder at the trashed console. "But how much time do you want to spend here?"
RayAnne nods. "lets go."
The five step back into the lite hall and move toward the security station. As they cautiously step through the debris they find more limbs, but no torso's. Ahead. A mist is billowing into the hall.
"Whats that?" Asks Thomas.
"Shower room." Jonny stops and kneels, the others do so too. "Must have a busted hot water pipe. to be spewing out all that fog."
"You guys don't watch much alien monster movies do you." Thomas looks at RayAnne.
"He's right." She says.
Ertis and Jonny look at each other. "Huh?" they chime at the same time.
"Alien plus bodies plus shower plus fog plus abandoned base." Thomas ticks off on his fingers. "One of you are about to die." He smiles.
Ertis, shaken says. "What the hell are you talking about!"
Lady Shadow says. "Stop screwing with the red shirts."
The bodyguard steps forward. "I go."
RayAnne opens her mouth to stop him, but does not say anything. The Bodyguard fades into the fog and into the shower room.
Tense seconds later he reappears. Motioning the others to follow. He goes back into the shower. Lady Shadow tells Thomas and Ertis to wait and cover her and Jonny, they go into the shower room.
Inside laid out neatly are a dozen torso's, basking in the humid heat of the flowing hot water.
"What..." Says Jonny he leans forward." RayAnne puts her hand on his arm.
"Don't get close. I saw this movie. The torso's have eggs in them, Melanies pet is breeding. You get too close and one will jump you."
Jonny looks at her in horror.
"lets go." she orders and backs out of the shower room.
Back in the hall. Jonny is looking at both Thomas and Lady shadow.
Thomas. "Breeders?"
RayAnne. "Yes."
Thomas "thought so."
Jonny, aghast says. "What the hell kinda planet do you two come from that, A. you know what that creatures is doing. and B. that you are so frebbed calm about it!"
"Earth." Thomas smiles.
"Earth." Lady Shadow smiles.
Ertis confused, looks at the three. "Whats in there?"
"Melanie's creature is using the torso's of the base personnel to breed baby creatures." Says Thomas. "Correct?"
"Correct." Says Rayanne.
"Yeah... saw that coming."
"Please, you would have been yaking about it, if you had." scolds Lady Shadow.
"Well.. three minutes ago I saw it coming."
"Can we move on." Ertis nervously eyes the shower room door. "Was the pet in there?"
RayAnne shakes her head. "We did not see it. I am betting its on the other floors doing the same thing. How many large shower rooms this place have?"
Jonny thinks for a moment. "One other on the third floor and a sauna on the 5th.. er 6th floor."
RayAnne nods. "I think once we get the lock out codes, that this base should also be a target."
Everyone nods.
Lady Shadow motions for Jonny to continue on down the hall.
At the security station they find the door broken inward and blood, limbs scattered around the room. The side arms still in the holsters on the the over turned chairs.
"Just how fast is that thing. These guys never had a chance!" Ertis wanders the room. gathering weapons and laying them on a desk.
Jonny is busy at a console. typing. A click is heard and a cabinet door opens. Rifles can be seen.
"Ertis, give them a quick lesson on shooting beam weapons. I want to..." He concentrates on the computer screen before him. "find something... Ah!"
The group crowds around. Question flow.
"I found the security video of the comm room. We can see how this all started." He presses a button. On the view screen is the comm room. Not destroyed. Melanie is seated at a comm booth. she appears to be typing. Two other people are in the room working at console stations.
The door opens and a man and two security types.
Ertis points at the man. "Thats Carter."
Jonny touches a button. The people in the comm room can be heard speaking.
"Melanie. I am placing you under arrest." Says Carter.
"Not a good idea, Winston." Melanie says with a chortle.
Carter motions to his body guards."Shoot into the corner of the room to her left". He points.
"Stop what you are doing." he orders Melanie.
She leans back, the green light begins flashing. "Yeah.. No," she raises her hand to press the button. Carter closes his eyes. The Bodyguards fire into the corner, gooey nets cover the area, something is pinned beneath the mass. Struggling.
Blood spurts from Melanies nose. She puts her hand to her head, in pain. "Big mistake carte..." Her head falls to the console.
A roar is heard as the webbing is instantly shredded and what ever was trapped springs free. The bodyguard's head flies from his body, then the second one. Carter throws his arm in front of him and it is ripped free from his body. In a flash carter vanishes from the room. The other two techs have but a second to spin around to look and their heads and arms are spun across the room. The door bursts outward and brief screams are heard in the hall.
Jonny turns off the screen.
"Uh.. five seconds." He says.
"What, what about five seconds." asks Ertis.
"From when it burst the webbing, killed four people, to when it broke down the door... five seconds."
"Shit." says Thomas.
"uh Listen.' Starts Thomas. "I can make us all into shadow forms... very costly in mana. But I can."
"Ok." Says RayAnne. "Talk to us."
"Well... you cannot carry anything, no weapons, no gear.. no arm."
"Oh freb no!" Sputters Ertis. "I am not leaving my weapons behind." he huges the arm and his new rifle.
"I can take Jonny with me and we can shadow form down to the commanders office. To get the Code." Continues Thomas.
"We need the arm to open the safe." Says Jonny.
"Are you positive?" asks Thomas.
"Not 100%. but as fast as this thing moves. I bet the commander never stood a chance. not even to take a breath to ask what was going on. Do you want to make the trip down there and have to come back for the arm?"
"No." says Thomas sullenly."Well there goes my plan."
Lady Shadow shakes her head. "No, we might be able to still use your plan."
Thomas smiles.
RayAnne turns to Jonny. "Is Melanie's shuttle available?"
Ertis leans over the console and presses a few buttons. "No, her's is in the repair bay. But I am registering a shuttle transport in the hanger. Its on standby?" he frowns. as he studies the read outs.
Thomas pipes up. "That reminds me is there is anything of particular importance on the base that we need to know about, loose experiments, toxins, bad stuff that might have been released or that we might want to know about light sabres big blaster weapons, jet packs, cool stuff that will impress the guys back home...I mean useful stuff or anything else we might have missed that might save our lives." Thomas grins. "Lastly, we need to set up a rendezvous spot that is well fortified -- I might suggest the medical bay -- and a back up place in case the first is overrun, destroyed or just stinky. We also should have some signals we could leave behind to communicate with one another like "Oh, there is the circle on the floor, let's go to the backup site." OR "Oh, there is a heart with an arrow, let's run like hell!"
RayAnne raises an eyebrow. "Wow.. Thomas, you just spoke more in the last few seconds then in the last 2 months!"
Jonny nods. "This can be the primary defense position. If I can get all the monitors up, and the shuttle in the launch bay can be the fall back."
"Ok, can you make the arm shadow too?" asks RayAnne.
"No, the shadow form does not allow gear to be taken, just clothing."
RayAnne thinks for a few moments. "Ok, you, Ertis and.."
Ertis screams. "Hell No! I am not going downstairs" he thrusts the arm at Thomas. "Here! you take it!"
RayAnne sighs. "Can you bring the security station up to speed if Jonny goes?"
Ertis nods emphatically, "Yes. I can."
"Ok, Thomas, you, Jonny and the bodyguard go to the commanders office and get the codes. Ertis and I will set up the defensive positions and make sure the shuttle is ready.
Jonny nods. He taps the desk and a drawer pops out. He picks up two communicators. "Here." he hands one to RayAnne. "Short range, but they should do the trick inside the base."
Thomas, The bodyguard and Jonny begin the descent to the next floor. RayAnne and Ertis get started in the defenses.
.
Lady RayAnne Shadow takes a moment and says. "Ok, the blood is old, dried. So hopefully Melanies pet has left the base to find more food."
Ertis standing by the door, looking down the hall. "We don't know that!" He is carrying Carters arm. "She never let anyone examine that thing and it was invisible to everything except alpha radiation and motion sensors."
Thomas speaks up. "This base have any alpha radiation detectors?"
Jonny shakes his head. "Alpha rads are very short lived. Any detector and emitter that you would use puts you within 5 feet of that thing." He nods to Lady Shadow. "Lets hope she's right and its left the base."
"This base have an armory? You mentioned a Blaster. Can you find some." Asks lady shadow.
Jonny nods. "Yeah down the hall there is a security station on the other side of the base. That should have a weapons locker."
RayAnne walks to the doorway and looks down the hall. "Right. Lets get to the security station and arm up." She looks at Ertis. "Could you drop that arm?"
Ertis looks at her for a second. "Biometrics." He holds the arm up. "Carter had the highest clearance on the base. His hand should be able to unlock just about anything,"
Lady Shadow's eyebrow arches upward. "Oh, So you are not just a whiny bastard after all."
Ertis nods. "Yeah... hey!" Jonny snickers.
RayAnne. "We should also find out if Melanie's shuttle is here, maybe we can use it."
Jonny and Ertis "Good idea!"
Everyone hears a musical tone and look at Thomas. His eyes dart back and forth at the other three. "What?"
Lady Shadow. "What did you do?"
Thomas. "Nuthin! Why you always blaming me for stuff."
Jonny steps over to where Thomas is standing, near Melanies body. "He pressed the green button!"
RayAnne is puzzled.
"Whatever was on that message, he just sent it." Jonny glares at the kid.
The kid glares back and then steps away from the booth. "I was trying to figure out the message.. and stuff."
"Can you tell who it went too?" Lady Shadow moves toward Jonny.
Jonny shakes his head. "No, these booths are privacy comms. We could pull the address out of the master comm unit." he points a thumb over his shoulder at the trashed console. "But how much time do you want to spend here?"
RayAnne nods. "lets go."
The five step back into the lite hall and move toward the security station. As they cautiously step through the debris they find more limbs, but no torso's. Ahead. A mist is billowing into the hall.
"Whats that?" Asks Thomas.
"Shower room." Jonny stops and kneels, the others do so too. "Must have a busted hot water pipe. to be spewing out all that fog."
"You guys don't watch much alien monster movies do you." Thomas looks at RayAnne.
"He's right." She says.
Ertis and Jonny look at each other. "Huh?" they chime at the same time.
"Alien plus bodies plus shower plus fog plus abandoned base." Thomas ticks off on his fingers. "One of you are about to die." He smiles.
Ertis, shaken says. "What the hell are you talking about!"
Lady Shadow says. "Stop screwing with the red shirts."
The bodyguard steps forward. "I go."
RayAnne opens her mouth to stop him, but does not say anything. The Bodyguard fades into the fog and into the shower room.
Tense seconds later he reappears. Motioning the others to follow. He goes back into the shower. Lady Shadow tells Thomas and Ertis to wait and cover her and Jonny, they go into the shower room.
Inside laid out neatly are a dozen torso's, basking in the humid heat of the flowing hot water.
"What..." Says Jonny he leans forward." RayAnne puts her hand on his arm.
"Don't get close. I saw this movie. The torso's have eggs in them, Melanies pet is breeding. You get too close and one will jump you."
Jonny looks at her in horror.
"lets go." she orders and backs out of the shower room.
Back in the hall. Jonny is looking at both Thomas and Lady shadow.
Thomas. "Breeders?"
RayAnne. "Yes."
Thomas "thought so."
Jonny, aghast says. "What the hell kinda planet do you two come from that, A. you know what that creatures is doing. and B. that you are so frebbed calm about it!"
"Earth." Thomas smiles.
"Earth." Lady Shadow smiles.
Ertis confused, looks at the three. "Whats in there?"
"Melanie's creature is using the torso's of the base personnel to breed baby creatures." Says Thomas. "Correct?"
"Correct." Says Rayanne.
"Yeah... saw that coming."
"Please, you would have been yaking about it, if you had." scolds Lady Shadow.
"Well.. three minutes ago I saw it coming."
"Can we move on." Ertis nervously eyes the shower room door. "Was the pet in there?"
RayAnne shakes her head. "We did not see it. I am betting its on the other floors doing the same thing. How many large shower rooms this place have?"
Jonny thinks for a moment. "One other on the third floor and a sauna on the 5th.. er 6th floor."
RayAnne nods. "I think once we get the lock out codes, that this base should also be a target."
Everyone nods.
Lady Shadow motions for Jonny to continue on down the hall.
At the security station they find the door broken inward and blood, limbs scattered around the room. The side arms still in the holsters on the the over turned chairs.
"Just how fast is that thing. These guys never had a chance!" Ertis wanders the room. gathering weapons and laying them on a desk.
Jonny is busy at a console. typing. A click is heard and a cabinet door opens. Rifles can be seen.
"Ertis, give them a quick lesson on shooting beam weapons. I want to..." He concentrates on the computer screen before him. "find something... Ah!"
The group crowds around. Question flow.
"I found the security video of the comm room. We can see how this all started." He presses a button. On the view screen is the comm room. Not destroyed. Melanie is seated at a comm booth. she appears to be typing. Two other people are in the room working at console stations.
The door opens and a man and two security types.
Ertis points at the man. "Thats Carter."
Jonny touches a button. The people in the comm room can be heard speaking.
"Melanie. I am placing you under arrest." Says Carter.
"Not a good idea, Winston." Melanie says with a chortle.
Carter motions to his body guards."Shoot into the corner of the room to her left". He points.
"Stop what you are doing." he orders Melanie.
She leans back, the green light begins flashing. "Yeah.. No," she raises her hand to press the button. Carter closes his eyes. The Bodyguards fire into the corner, gooey nets cover the area, something is pinned beneath the mass. Struggling.
Blood spurts from Melanies nose. She puts her hand to her head, in pain. "Big mistake carte..." Her head falls to the console.
A roar is heard as the webbing is instantly shredded and what ever was trapped springs free. The bodyguard's head flies from his body, then the second one. Carter throws his arm in front of him and it is ripped free from his body. In a flash carter vanishes from the room. The other two techs have but a second to spin around to look and their heads and arms are spun across the room. The door bursts outward and brief screams are heard in the hall.
Jonny turns off the screen.
"Uh.. five seconds." He says.
"What, what about five seconds." asks Ertis.
"From when it burst the webbing, killed four people, to when it broke down the door... five seconds."
"Shit." says Thomas.
"uh Listen.' Starts Thomas. "I can make us all into shadow forms... very costly in mana. But I can."
"Ok." Says RayAnne. "Talk to us."
"Well... you cannot carry anything, no weapons, no gear.. no arm."
"Oh freb no!" Sputters Ertis. "I am not leaving my weapons behind." he huges the arm and his new rifle.
"I can take Jonny with me and we can shadow form down to the commanders office. To get the Code." Continues Thomas.
"We need the arm to open the safe." Says Jonny.
"Are you positive?" asks Thomas.
"Not 100%. but as fast as this thing moves. I bet the commander never stood a chance. not even to take a breath to ask what was going on. Do you want to make the trip down there and have to come back for the arm?"
"No." says Thomas sullenly."Well there goes my plan."
Lady Shadow shakes her head. "No, we might be able to still use your plan."
Thomas smiles.
RayAnne turns to Jonny. "Is Melanie's shuttle available?"
Ertis leans over the console and presses a few buttons. "No, her's is in the repair bay. But I am registering a shuttle transport in the hanger. Its on standby?" he frowns. as he studies the read outs.
Thomas pipes up. "That reminds me is there is anything of particular importance on the base that we need to know about, loose experiments, toxins, bad stuff that might have been released or that we might want to know about light sabres big blaster weapons, jet packs, cool stuff that will impress the guys back home...I mean useful stuff or anything else we might have missed that might save our lives." Thomas grins. "Lastly, we need to set up a rendezvous spot that is well fortified -- I might suggest the medical bay -- and a back up place in case the first is overrun, destroyed or just stinky. We also should have some signals we could leave behind to communicate with one another like "Oh, there is the circle on the floor, let's go to the backup site." OR "Oh, there is a heart with an arrow, let's run like hell!"
RayAnne raises an eyebrow. "Wow.. Thomas, you just spoke more in the last few seconds then in the last 2 months!"
Jonny nods. "This can be the primary defense position. If I can get all the monitors up, and the shuttle in the launch bay can be the fall back."
"Ok, can you make the arm shadow too?" asks RayAnne.
"No, the shadow form does not allow gear to be taken, just clothing."
RayAnne thinks for a few moments. "Ok, you, Ertis and.."
Ertis screams. "Hell No! I am not going downstairs" he thrusts the arm at Thomas. "Here! you take it!"
RayAnne sighs. "Can you bring the security station up to speed if Jonny goes?"
Ertis nods emphatically, "Yes. I can."
"Ok, Thomas, you, Jonny and the bodyguard go to the commanders office and get the codes. Ertis and I will set up the defensive positions and make sure the shuttle is ready.
Jonny nods. He taps the desk and a drawer pops out. He picks up two communicators. "Here." he hands one to RayAnne. "Short range, but they should do the trick inside the base."
Thomas, The bodyguard and Jonny begin the descent to the next floor. RayAnne and Ertis get started in the defenses.
.