OOC: OK, let's say the following hold true:

- Smoke Alarm can get anyone who wants to go, to the SPOT, through the interior of the base.  That's basically going to be it for any internal movement, before the place floods completely and suffers more internal structural problems.

- From post #42, recall that they made a semi-permanent seal attaching the ship.  Something will have to be done to disengage it, and it's really not feasible to work on the stuff from inside the vessel.

- It's possible to double up on the cycles, but they're not necessarily designed for it; it could lead to issues.

- Assume that the cycles are easy enough to use that anyone could at least make the attempt with a few pointers.

- Assume that the SPOT is a sophisticated deep-sea exploration vessel that is going to be challenging to pilot for the untrained.

OOC: I don't see why we're going back to the SPOT; especially not now. I think I'd prefer to risk the doubling up on cycles if we have to, get everyone to safety.

OOC: I was thinking of if we needed the SPOT to get the UNIT people out. But if it's too difficult and we can use the cycles, then we ought to just use them. I'm good either way though.

OOC: Let's just leave then. Sereth will go last, making sure everyone else gets out first. Because he's a damned paladin.

If he needs to double-up with someone to get everyone else out, most likely with Rayburn; as a gesture from military to military.

This message was deleted by the player at 14:09, Mon 21 Sept 2015.

'Oh.' Smoke Alarm ran through her mind-map of the tower, tracking back through several routes and guesstimating the spreading damage. It would be close, and they would need to move with all speed. 'Mayhaps we could track back before time, but the tower won't be so shape-ship and sound. We'll all fire-escape on pool-bikes. We can ride piggy-back.' Smoke Alarm pulled her dive helmet on, checking all the seals as she'd been shown. 'Ready steady?'

The UNIT crew are dogging down the seals on their hard-shell suits as well.  Rayburn gives Smoke Alarm a thumbs-up.

When he works the control that opens the inner airlock hatch, it shudders and hesitates, but finally opens all the way.  Eight at a time through the airlock seems like it would be a tight fit.

Smoke Alarm grimaced at the poky little cupboard-like space. While she knew how many Kangs could fit in a talkiphone box, big Inbetweens in bulky dive suits was a different matter. 'We go in two-by-two-by-two, with ones you're riding pool-bikes with. Buddy system!' With a few gentle shoves, she paired Trav and Rayburn, Stan and Flynn, Sereth and Lin, and herself and the other one. It wasn't just a matter of putting someone who had the knowhow to ride the pool-bikes and how to track back through the wormhole in each pair, but also the least weight on each bike and keeping friends in togetherness. 'There, shape-ship and sound and safe. Hold righty-tighty and 'ware pool-cleaners and leviathans. Ready steady?'


OOC: Proposing two groups of four, as listed. Smoke can go first to lead the way.

In Smoke's carefully laid plans, she had forgotten one variable. Sereth.

"I go last."

The look in his eyes was unmistakeable - if need be, he would sacrifice himself before he let anyone go after him. Whether this was his culture, him, or some new form of superiority games was anyone's guess, but it was quite clear he meant what he said.

Smoke Alarm eyespied Sereth for a long ticktock. Go last? Among Kangs, going last was for slowpokes and cowardly cutlets. It was going first – into danger, into the unknown – that was dangerous, that was for the bravest and boldest of Kangs. But she knew Sereth wasn't a slowpoke or a cowardly cutlet, he just had a different kind of brave and bold. Besides, it didn't mess up her fire-escape plan any, and there were no ticktocks to squabble in. 'Okay.' she agreed. 'But remember you're not outgoing alone. Lin's your buddy unless you swaps.' Smoke Alarm had perhaps surprised everyone by taking charge on the evacuation, with a calm head and quick thinking and a safety-first strategy. But it was no surprise to a Kang: she was Smoke Alarm, warner of hazards; she was boss of fire escapes.

With no more time for talky, Smoke grabbed Reed and hauled him into the airlock. 'Stan, Flynn, come-out next!' she beckoned, thinking of Flynn's broke leg. 'Door unlocked, unlatched, ready to outgo?' she asked, because the squishy thing was kind of beyond her.

"On our way." Stanley replies and he helps Flynn get in the airlock.

Once Smoke and Reed, Stanley and Flynn assemble in the airlock, Rayburn closes it again.  After the iris seals behind them, water starts to glisten on its walls, rapidly beading, then running, then torrenting down around them until the chamber is filled with water.  More time passes, until Smoke Alarm starts wondering what the to-do is, but Stanley realizes that the system has to finish equalizing the pressure.

When it finally does and the outer iris opens, those within the airlock are surprised by what they find outside.  There are lights moving in the blackness -- iridescent, shimmering sources that are indistinct and distant in the murk, but which make erratic, darting movements.  And they're reflecting off another surface that occults about half of the view.

The bikes are nearby, just where they've been left.  The four can feel a faint vibration on the outside of the suits, from the direction of the great surface that Smoke and Stanley can both easily guess is "Poppa".

Locked in the cupboard, with water rushing in like lots of broken taps, Smoke Alarm grew increasingly agitated, footing about as much as she was able and banging on the exit door as if that might hurry things along. She couldn't wait in here while the tower fell apart and Trav and Sereth were stuck on the other side. More, she felt trapped like a rat, fearing that the exit door might never open, that they might drown in this box of water in this falling-apart tower. The Kang wanted to move.

So when the exit door whirled open, Smoke Alarm kicked off the wall and shot out like an arrow from an arrowgun, swimming eel-like in the direction of the pool-bikes. 'Come-out! All speed!' she urged over comms, flopping into her seat but outlooking up in wonder at the huge leviathans swimming about up high, like living towers that swam.

Going back inside the collapsing structure is not really an option, but when Stanley sees all those lights, all those ships, out there he briefly wonders if going back wouldn't be safer. It wouldn't and they need to get to the aquabikes as quickly as possible, but he feels small and outnumbered. It doesn't help that it is dark out here. Smoke is already making her way to the bikes and urging them to follow. Stanley does what she says and tries to quickly swim to the bikes.

Outside:

The bikes are tethered close enough that it's fairly easy to reach them.  Stanley notices that Flynn seems a good deal less hampered by her injury, now that they're out in the water.  Shortly, both Smoke Alarm and Stanley are seated on their respective sea-bike with one their UNIT "boddy" riding pillion.

Inside:

Rayburn watches the controls.  "There," he says shortly, "the airlock's been evacuated again.  Now we can get out of here, too."

When he keys in the control sequence just as he did before, however, there's an unusual grinding noise, and the iris does not open.  Instead, luminescent panels around it come to life in a dim red color, the same as the warning lights that went off around the control center.

"We may be in a world of trouble here...." Rayburn says slowly.

A solemn nod.

"You need not fear. YOu have me."

Rayburn meets Sereth's eyes.  "It ain't about being afraid.  It is kind of about the laws of physics.  Forcing this thing open isn't even the part that worries me, it's how we're going to get the outer lock open without getting smacked in the face with the pressure differential from the water outside."

Trav curses, as the place starts to crack open, try as she might. "That's not me. This place is finally coming apart. We have to go!" She follows everyone out to the airlock.

"I could try to hack into the system and work some controlled explosions from elsewhere inside the structure, so as to stabilize the pressure release in a more controlled fashion. I can try to flood inside here, here and here. I'm staying. I made a promise to Baby and Poppa." Trav checks her watch again. How much countdown time do they have, and what's the distance to the corridor?

Smoke Alarm motored her pool-bike closer to the exit door of the airlock, leading the other tethered bikes behind it so the others could hop on quicker. But she started to worry when Trav and Sereth and the rest didn't come-out when expected. 'Why're you loitering? Come out!' she urged over the comms.

Inside:

Trav's inertial locator tells her that they've come 12.7 kilometers from the anomaly.  While they have spent a fair about of time trying to check over the base and then manage the removal of Baby, there is still a substantial amount of time on the countdown -- over 150 hours, in fact.

Outside:

As Smoke Alarm and Stanley continue to wait, there's a sudden shift of pressure that shifts their vehicles sideways a little, coming from the base.  They spot a long vertical crack that has opened on the structure, where its rim starts to curve down toward its underbelly.

As they look in that direction, they see a warm reddish-orange light coming around the rim of the structure.  The source of the light drift up into view: it's a broad, flattish shape about as thick as one of the bikes and about three bike-lengths across.  Stubby protuberances around its edge push and paddle gently to propel it upwards, and they can see on its upper surface a ring of roundish, slitted patches.  It's slowly coming their way.

"I can deal with the pressure change. I'll stay here and make the adjustments. You people get out once the pressure stabilizes, and get to Sweet Boy."

Trav is seizing control of what's left of the circuitry of this place, as it's coming apart. Her Gallifreyan metabolism can deal with the changes in air pressure and she can work on the other side of the air lock. As the strange shape approaches, she says, "What is that thing? More scumbags?"

OOC: Ingenuity+Tech+Sonic for controlled venting?

"I think it is an enemy ship. Has it seen us?" Stanley ask over the comms. The rest needs to get out and on the bikes as soon as possible. "They probably heard us leaving and are here to stop us."

OOC: That works, go for it.

The nueral circuitry along the ship corpse lights up, and small explosions go BAMF BAMF BAMF BAMF BAMF along the outside, as the pressure equalizes between the inside and the outside. Hopefully, Trav executes this in a safe manner.

OOC:23:01, Today: The Traveller rolled 11 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,5.  2d6+Ingenuity 8+Technology 6+Sonic 2 - controlled pressure venting. (OOC - Derp, forgot to add 16, total 27.)

Water starts to seep in around the feet of the four people still waiting inside the structure, but the level rises slowly, not like a hammerblow.  Between them, Sereth and Rayburn are able to wrench the inner airlock open.  They find that the outer iris has released on its own: Trav surmises that her manipulation of the osmotic valves controlling the original pumping mechanism may have triggered it.

Now they're able to move out into the open water.  The oxygen capacity of the less advanced UNIT suits is now the real limiting factor affecting matters, but Lin has assured Trav that they're rated for hours of operation -- they should have more than enough range to get back to the anomaly,

The large form approaching the group turns this way and that, occasionally making short, tentative, yet somewhat alarming motions toward one individual or another....