The fall of the space station.
The space station hung in space above the world, a white dot in an expanse of blackness, a mirror to the islands below, swallowed up and surrounded by blue ocean as they were. Inside, it bustled with fresh motion as people walked, talked, worked; every few minutes, in rooms and corridors, someone passed the hidden mechanisms of an Aperture Science
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The hissing was a little louder, as purple gas began to spew forth from each in a sideways spray, condensing at the ceiling but slowly, surely beginning to fill each room.
Even louder was the sudden crackle of speakers that had formerly carried the synthetic, modulated voice of GLaDOS, now delivering a voice more alive if also notably more tense. "This is Tony Stark. The AI in control of this station has lost it and is currently trying to flood the facility with deadly neurotoxin. If you can get to the emitter controls and work fast enough-" this sounded as if he was addressing someone in his general vicinity, as well as the station in general "-you may be able to shut them down. If you can't, and you're in an area that is filling up with purple gas..."
There was a pause. "...don't be."
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She grabbed Lex's arm and threw them both down to the ground, shouting, "GET DOWN!" to anyone in the vicinity. Shallow breaths and quick thinking were their only hope.
[Primarily for Lex, but if you have a pup that you would like to have join, let me know! Uhura's going to dismantle the circuit in the wall.]
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The cloud was growing heavier, darker, denser, blocking out any the sharp, clean corners of the ceiling. But before it did entirely, Uhura made out the shape of a nozzle. She nudged Lex and pointed, tracing a theoretical line connecting the nozzle to an access point in the wall that some curious person had already opened. Maybe the conduits connected. Maybe there was something to short circuit this room's poison dispersal units. "Maybe?" she asked, looking to him.
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She pushed up to her elbows and knees, crawling pretty damn quickly over the smooth floor, like she'd been trained in this kind of thing. (She had.) The wires and tubes were like the wires and tubes of any conduit though: nondescript and differentiated by colors and codes that meant nothing to the average layperson. Uhura started sorting through them as best she could, fearing that yanking the wrong one would result in an even worse situation, and hoped Lex had better luck on his end.
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Unfortunately, his hunch turned out to be right. Just as he reached the computer terminal, the console burst in a cascade of sparks, causing Lex to stop and cover his head. Despite this, he took a deep breath and got up on his knees to inspect the damage. The console was totally fried, completely void of a signal. Once he was back on the floor, he let off a small sigh before crawling back to Uhura. "Console's fried. Any luck?"
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She spared a breath to huff out a laugh, tilting her head to the side as she considered the wires in her hands. "Depends on how you're feeling," she said. "Green, red or blue?"
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Uhura let out a laughing cry of triumph, then stopped when she realized the dense gas wasn't going to dissipate. "What do we do with what's already there?"
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At her question, Lex began to look around. It was a lab, there had to be some sort of ventilation system or...something even better. He got up from the floor and reached into a small alcove near the panel. The canister he pulled out had a symbol he'd seen in the computer and he grinned. "This." He opened the valve and released the neutralizing agent into the air.
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"We better get going," she said, waiting only long enough for the air directly above them to clear before rising to her feet. "I'm sure this thing has more up its sleeve, aren't you?"
It was no time to celebrate just yet.
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"These things always do." He finally said with a sigh. "Let's go see what fun it has in store." He moved towards the door but stopped to one side of it so he could peering into the hallway without exposing himself.
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He spun in place, eyes rapidly scanning the walls around him. There! “Out of the way, get down!” he hollered at someone, throwing himself at the console. There had to be a way to shut it down! He'd been poking at the systems off and on for the past week. He didn't know them like he knew Destiny's, but they also weren't as complicated. He should be able to get in...
Hands shaking from fear made the whole thing harder. “Come on, come on,” he muttered to himself, not needing to glance up to know the purple cloud was getting thicker.
[For anyone who needs a hacker to shut things down! Feel free to yell at him to go faster. He's used to it.]
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"Eli" she shouted, rounding a corner and almost flying right into him. "Dude! What the hell is going on? Neurotoxins? What kinda crap is this?!" Ok, so she was freaking out like big time, but she couldn't help it.
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There, a map! “There should be a cannister over there,” he told Claudia urgently, pointing without looking. “On the wall. Neutralizing agent.” Maybe there are fans or something to help disperse it, he thought, fingers flying over the controls.
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