Chapter 10 - A Titanic Mandate
In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 965):
Team Focus
"Look..." Whitney says, pointing at the center of the Compound. "...this isn't hard. You've got a tunnel that gets us here, right? How'd you dig it?"
"There was a small natural cavern system in place already," Abe replies. "We just expanded it a bit, is all."
"Right, ok. So you're telling me that this big, heavy fortress thing was built over porous ground?"
Bradford's eyes light up as he follows where this is going, but Candy, Huck, and Barachiel turn to look at Abe.
"Correct," Abe says. "Though not really by choice. The Compound was built around the crash site, so we mostly made do with what topography we had."
Whitney's still looking at the map of the colony.
"Do you have a map of the cavern system?"
Abe nods, and projects it side-by-side with the other map.
"Stress points for weight distribution are probably, what...here, here, and here?" Whitney says, pointing at the cavern map in a few specific places. "What do you think, Bradford?"
"Er, well...no, not that second one," Bradford replies, pointing to a location a few inches away from where Whitney had indicated. "Here, I think. Maybe. But if you want to do it right, we'd need to direct a LOT of force all at once."
"Excuse me," Abe snaps. "But do WHAT now?"
"They want to collapse the colony into the caverns." Barachiel says, gesturing toward the pair of maps.
"What?! Absolutely not!" Abe exclaims. "I want to SAVE the colony, not destroy it!"
"We uh, we'd be able to save most of it," Bradford says, as Whitney nods. "We could, er, just collapse this middle part. The, uh. The Compound. The biggest cave is just beneath the central lift tube, see. Right here. It's, er, almost perfect."
"Really? Cool, let's do it!" Candy says, though Huck and Abe silence this enthusiasm with withering looks.
"Even if we wanted to," Abe says, "which we don't, mind you. But if we did, we still wouldn't be able to do it without a significant amount of blasting materials."
Whitney and Bradford look at each other.
"Well, we could probably develop some," Whitney says. "Anything with an internal power source, or a battery, could be made to do the job. What do you have lying around?"
"Nothing expendable!" Abe says, folding his arms across his chest.
"Topstation's expendable," Candy says. "Or it will be, once we've succeeded."
"No, it's not!" Abe replies.
"What, er, what does the Compound use?" Bradford asks. "For, uh, for a power source?"
"We are not seriously considering breaching this colony's central generator!" Abe growls. "I suggest you forget this fool's errand so we can focus on developing a plan that will actually work."
Barachiel inhales deeply, then exhales, both through his nose.
We are getting nowhere fast, he muses.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:52, Tue 13 Mar 2018.