"Wait, let me get this straight.  You want them to come CLOSER?"

Shadow held his rifle as the beasts began closing, his hand and fingers resting nervously upon the trigger.

"I would like to say I REALLY don't want to end up as worm food."

Shadow wayches the creatures as they close in.  An unhappy look upon his face.

"Boss... you're crazy... in case you forgot, we already lost someone in a training exercise today," Dracos eyed the group, sitting at the computer console waiting.

"The future of Zion and humanity is at stake here," Locke says.  "These creatures have been able to survive on the surface amidst the machines and keep them at bay, even destroy them.  You want to pass up that opportunity?  Now, do you have any ideas about how to capture them alive, especially that worm creature?"

"No... the future of this ship is at stake here. I'm all for kicking 01's mechanical ass back to the stone age," he retorts, "but I'm not for trying to tangle with some new mutated worm creatures that may break out and eat Zion, or us."

Cistron was getting a little unnerved by the implications of the metaphorical slang that was being flippantly thrown about; and agitated because no one was answering her query, and she was getting more and more despirate for answers.

"Would someone tell me what the hell is going on?!"

"We just finished a training mission and these mutant creatures and the worm came out from the caves.  We've got to get back to Zion, and I want to bring some samples with us."

Just then, the worm lets out a sound like a humpback whale.  You remember that sound...the EM pulse it emits.

The Hyperion's lights go out, and the Hyperion stalls a moment.  Its bottom scrapes the underside of the tunnel and you hear grinding metal as you are thrown toward the front of the ship.

Locke is thrown against a wall.  His head is bleeding.  He says, "Silicon, forget my plan!  Get us out of here!"

The Hyperion had gotten a little ahead of the creature before its EM pulse.  Now, you can hear them approaching from the rear.  Because the Hyperion's lights and power are out, you cannot see them, but you know they are back there.

"Silly!" Locke says into the intercom.  "Silicon, answer me!"

There is no answer, so Locke says, "Keep this area clear of those things.  We've got to get out now."  He begins moving toward the front of the ship to check on Silicon.

The Hyperion is dark, and you are standing there (doing nothing, I suppose).  In a moment, Locke calls back, "Silicon's hurt real bad.  Who else can fly this thing?  We need a pilot and we need one now."

The engines begin to hum again and the lights come on as Locke reignites the ignition.  But around you can be heard the sounds of scrabbling claws on rocks and the seal-like bellow of the worm not too distant.  They are close, maybe 30 seconds away.

"Hold on I'm coming."

Shadow spekas towards Jade,

"Guess that's my cue.  See ya later."

Shadow begins moving his way closer to the cockpit as fast as he can.

Shadow gets up to the front and gets the Hyperion up and running.  Just as it starts moving, and as Locke is pulling Silicon away for medical treatment, red lights flood the inside of the ship.

"Hull compromised," bleats an alarm.  "Intruder aboard."

Jade says, "One of those creatures is on board.  EM rifles are no good.  Grab something."  She looks down at her LAW rocket launcher.  "Guess I can't use this inside the ship."  She pulls out her knife.  "What guns we got, boss?"

"Find something and kill that thing.  Gun, knife, harsh language, bad jokes, whatever just kill that thing!"

Shadow jumps into the pilot seat and grabs the controls,

"Hold on to your hats people, this may get messy."

Cistron scrambled, looking for anything that would serve as some sort of defence. As she reached the corridor, she pulled the fire axe from the wall. -Likely a weak weapon against the intruder, but not completely inneffective. (At least until she could find something better.)

-She turned, and made her way to the ship's armory
This message was last edited by the player at 17:26, Sat 28 Apr 2007.

All you find are a bunch of steel pipes, the axe that Cistron found, 2 pistols, a welding torch, and a flare gun.  The armory, although not much to begin with since most of your fighting is inside the Matrix, was one of the areas devastated when you were bouncing off the walls and being attacked by Sentinels.

Dracos grabs the pistols... readying them for the upcoming fight...

Screed grabs an EM rifle and a tool kit.  He locks himself in a chair and starts stripping the gun down.  He calls out without looking, "Someone grab a drill and get it running, NOW!  They hate that stuff."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 04:32, Tue 01 May 2007.

"Why don't you share those guns there, Dracos?  Either give one to Cistron or I'll take it."  She finds a drill.  "This is deja vu all over again."  She looks for something aerosal.  "If we can spray something into the welding torch, we'll get a good flamethrower effect."

"...Or burn your arm off..." Cistron adds "..But Jade has the right of it Dracos, we can't afford to commit all the munitions to a single person, if you get downed we don't want to be left helpless."

He tosses one of the pistols to Jade.

Jade gives it to Cistron.

"I hope Screed is coming along with that EMP rifle."

Jade will stick with a drill and a blowtorch for now, her knife sheathed.

"I can use the LAW," she says, "if you don't mind the ship being badly damaged by it.  Maybe for an emergency?"  She straps it over her back.

Ciston nods in acknowledgement, cocks the gun; and heads down the corridor. She was thankful to Jade for the pistol. Going into battle with naught but a fire axe was not an ideal scenerio in any circumstance.

OOC:  Okay, back in town now.  Note, I'll be out again this weekend.

You hear the screeching sound of claws against metal and wires being ripped apart.  The lights go out.

Shadow finds that the Hyperion is pulling down quickly with a loss of sudden power.  He will have to either try to land it on its belly or "punch" power from below.  The first action could create a crash or damage the ship; the second could make you hit the cavern ceiling and get damaged or crash.  The belly landing seems more likely to succeed, but it would also possibly allow the worm-whale-like mutant creature and other mutants to get closer to the ship.


From the armory, the others turn quickly when they hear--in the pitch darkness--the sound of heavy breathing and footsteps, feet falling on metal without shoes and breathing that does not sound human.

Jade immediately lights up the blowtorch and starts up the drill.

Shadow's mind is racing faster than the ship, he knows the ramifications of any action he takes here.

Crash and they eat us.  Land and they eat us. What's a boy to do?

Fighting furiously with the unreactive controls, Shadow has already made his mind up.

"Hold on everybody, gonna have to use a little more power, hold on to something!"

Shadow is extra loud, not because of fear but of pure adrenaline.

Power is sent to the bottom thrusters in an attempt to gain altitude while Shadow attempts to guide the ship with less then favorable controls.

Screed squeezes his legs together to hold onto the gun better after the warning.  He keeps fussing with it, trying to get it just right like he had read about in the debriefings.

Cistron instinctively knew something of earthquake emergency protocol- (and a shakey ship was not unlike that.) Quickly she gets to a door jamb, and braces her back against the inner wall. Squatting down as pushed her legs outward against the opposing Jambs; Locking her knees into a stable position. Using her free hand she locks the clip and holds it upward in a ready position.

"Shadow, whatever you got in mind...I hope it's genius. I don't feel like going into a face to face melee with this thing...!"