Jade's light flashes up, illuminating a humanoid being clutching the pipes above you.  His eyes and ears are twice the size of a normal human, his ears pointed slightly.  He is hairless and his skin is a hard, crusty black, almost like dark scales scales with luminescent diamonds in the pattern of a rattlesnake covering his body.  He hisses at the light and sound of the drill, revealing huge pointy teeth that appear to be thick and strong--strong enough, perhaps, to even bite through metal.  His hands are oversized compared to his thin frame, and claws as thick and strong as his teeth extend from each finger and each toe.

He drops.  As he does so, you hear a shot ring out behind you.  The creature lets out a scream like an ear-piercing whistle, and a gooey red blood spurts from his shoulder.  He grasps it with one claw and disappears into the darkness again.

You hear murmuring from the shadows.  There are definitely more of them nearby.  Lucky for you Ted was a good shot.

The party presses forward.  The creatures are obviously still wary.  Soon, Ted is far behind and you have gone several hundred meters into the train shaft.

Up in front of you a light flashes, and then you hear a rumbling sound.  Something is moving through the corridor like a wave.

You can't move.  And then it crosses over you.  Instantly, your flashlights go out and the drill stops.  It continues down the corridor.

Back by the EM emissions machine, the rest of the party looks from behind the white line as the rest of the party disappears down the corridor.  The flashwave approaches.  Suddenly, your EM machine flickers and turns off.

Mitose, Laz, Lot and Jade are running down the corridors.  With a quick turn of the buttons, the flashlights waver and then come back on.  The drill also starts up again.

 "Elle, Ted," Fault says with false calm, "get that machine turned back on."

Elle and Ted jump to the machine and turn it back on.  It huffs and shakes a moment, but then it appears to work.

"Oh, no," Elle says, looking closely at the machine.  Whatever just hit us nearly drained this thing's battery.  We don't have long."  She looks around nervously.  "Not long at all."

Jade chases after the others down the train shaft, pulling the trigger on the drill the whole way.  "Let's find that train.  And I mean now!"

Any chance we could power it from our rifles? Snow says, setting down the heavy duty lantern then pumping a round into his shotguns firing chamber

Elle and Ted both shrug.

"Not unless you know how to do something like that," Ted says.

 "They have heightened senses," Fault whispers to himself. "That's why they can live down here, that's why the drill pisses them off so much."
 He turns about to face Snow and the Scientists. "Snow, unless you can jury-rig a power-source for the generator, we may need to get moving. Do you think you can move? Elle, can you give me an estimate as to how long until the field drops? Ted, how much does your friend there weigh?"

Elle says, "I give it maybe a half hour to an hour.  If another one of those shockwaves hits, I doubt it'll start up again."

The unconscious programmer is a short Japanese man weighing about 140 pounds.

Mitose, Laz, Lot and Jade continue for several hundred more yards before they catch up to the train car.  It is an odd sight, for it is covered with scratches and deep cuts like knives...or very sharp claws.

You hear a man's voice as your lights search the train.  "Help!" he calls out.

The train is at a stop, and you jump up onto the next platform.  You hear the sounds of the creatures scuttling away as your lights search for the voice.  The platform is completely empty.  The man is huddled under a bench that is bolted to the ground.  In his hand, he holds a drill and a flashlight.  Both appear to have lost all energy.  There is a huge gash on the man's left leg and on his shoulder.

Her drill going full blast, Jade runs to the aid of the man.  "Are you Sam?" she asks.  "We need to get you out of here."

"Yes," he says, "I'm Sam."  He grabs his hurt shoulder, which is still bleeding.  It looks like his leg stopped bleeding hours ago, but he appears very weak.  "Who the hell are you guys?  Where's Ted?  Where's Elle?"

He throws the drill and flashlight to the ground.  "My batteries are dead."  He seems slightly disoriented.

I canmove, just not at my usual speed. We should contact the others though, tell them the situation.

Snow takes the walkie-talkie and tries to raise the other group on it.

That last emp blast shorted out the device here. We reckon we have about thirty minutes of safety left. Whats your situaion?

Lot keeps his attention on the darkness and the creatures just beyond but tries to answer Sam's questions.  "We are agents of Zion, the resistance against the machines.  An old associate of yours, a man we call Binary, escaped from the Matrix and contacted us.  We are here to rescue you and your friends, who are safely under the care of the other members of our team."

Lot steals a quick peek at Sam's wounds.  "We should tend to those wounds soon, but we need find a more secure location.  I assume there is a good reason for your not being inside the train?

Mitose kneels by Sam, gesturing for the others to stay alert, and applies what first aid he can, trying to get the man on his feet. "Does the train still work?  We had to leave a mixed group of our friends and yours, behind, and that little pulse we experienced earlier has me concerned..."

He works as quickly as possible, and helps Sam stand, if he can.

Ok people, lets try to sort out a plan if this generator goes. Do we know why these things don't like the drill sound? Does bright light hurt their senses too? If so, who has the flare gun? Can we get in contact with our ship yet?

 "I don't know for certain, but I'm willing to bet," Fault says confidently. "If they're able to function in this darkness it's likely that their eyes have enlarged to process what little light there is. If they get near us, our best defense is a flashlight and a penny-whistle."
 He paces back and forth behind the white line. "Unfortunately, I didn't grab any flares and we don't have any whistles, so we'll have to resort to screaming, should the field go."

Laz was scanning the area, the creatures seemed to be at bay for now but how much longer would that last. He looks to Mitose as he bandages Sam up and says, "Will he be able to walk?"

Responding to the questions, Sam says, "I was able to clear away the tracks and find that the train seems to function.  I got the power on but it wouldn't move.  So I went into that room over there."

He points to a door with a sign:  "Employee's Only."

"I found a control board and got it online.  I think that's what woke it or disturbed it or somehow made it know I was here.  But there was a transformer blown.  I ran down the tracks to the next stop and grabbed one to bring back.  But I was too late.  It was coming closer.  It was giving these creatures their courage, and one got my shoulder.  But I kept on.  Then it sent a shockwave through a couple hours ago.  My flashlight and the drill went almost all the way out.  One of the creatures got me in the leg, and it was all I could do to crawl over to hide under this chair."

He holds out his hand, and you see a transformer in it.  "This must replace the old one in the room.  Then we can use the train."

He glances over his shoulder and down the train shaft.  "I saw it in a brief flash when it sent the first shockwave.  It is large and slimy and not human, not machine.  I don't know what it is, but we don't have much time now.  It must have sensed you coming.  It will be descending upon us soon."

PM

Jade takes the transformer from Sam and runs to the room to replace it.  "Let's do it and get out of here quickly," she says.

"If you can install that thing I'll cover your back Jade. says Lot as he jogs to catch up with Jade.

"It might be easier to present a good defense from inside the train. It would be safer for Sam at least." he hollers back to whoever is staying with Sam.

Inside the room, Jade and Lot see various controls for the trains.  Everything seems to be online except one area, where you see that Sam has ripped a transformer out.

With the drill gone, Laz, Mitose, and Sam hear the things approaching.  Hands clamp over the sides of the train shaft.  Forms begin converging...

Lot watches from the door while Jade replaces the transformer.  The grid lights up.  This grid uses a station-to-station map and also a video relay to show if anything is on the tracks.  It shows everything from the previous tracks to the next tracks.

On one side of the tracks, you see the reflection of water where the building was damaged eons ago, and where Mitose and Fault landed safely.  On the other side, you see a clear track between this station and the next, except you can see the creatures in the shadows of the shaft converging, moving both directions.

And between this track and the next one, there is something else moving.  Something large enough to block out the camera, shifting and moving, but gaining speed as it approaches.  Its whale-sized body blots out the camera, and then the screen goes blank to static.

With the EM machine running low on power, the creatures are easing closer to where Elle, Ted, Fault, Snow, and Viper wait.  A couple of them even tentatively step inside the white line.

Ted fires the sniper rifle...and makes a solid shot to the head.  The party backs up slowly toward the EM machine.  There are at least 8 or 10 of the creatures circling slowly like a shark and its prey.

 Fault winces as a brief glimpse of the creatures' claws reminds him of the pain in his leg. Shaking it off, he steps as close as safely possible to the nearest beast and inhales deeply.
 "Back off!" he screams at the closest mutant, as loudly as he can manage.

Just to give you a visual representation, I'm going to try to put this down so you can see it:



--------------------------------------------------------
-----  WATER ----- WATER -------------------------------
_____              __________________________              ____
XXXXX|station1|XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX|station2|XXX
XXXXX|             |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX|             |XXX
______         _____________________________         _______________
--------------------------------------------------------------TRAIN-------------Whale Thing--
--------------------------------------------------------------TRAIN-------------Whale Thing--
__________________________________________________________________________


Station 1 has Fault, Snow, Viper, Elle, and Ted.
Station 2 has Mitose, Lot, Laz, Jade, and Sam.

The video cameras show the area between station 1 and station 2, and also between station 2 and station 3 (not shown).  You can't see anything else.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:43, Fri 17 Sept 2004.

Laz was looking worried as he felt the train lights up, a look of worry on his face, as he mumbles under his breath.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:14, Fri 17 Sept 2004.