Hammer says, "I took the vials." He gives one to whoever has the hypo.

S'Krllk fiddles with his bodycomp a little more, then starts checking his pockets at the same time.
"I used to have a needler, but I don't remember if it was confiscated or not. Hold a sec and I'll check my pockets."

I don't think you have a needler weapon, but you have the hypo if you want to make a melee attack to inject it into the invisible creatures.

Orvo watches his new found friends plug in and turn on all sorts of screens and suits, says, "Wow, you all sure have some really neat toys."

Listening to the conversation regarding injectors, Orvo speaks up, "Hey, I have a hypo for injecting sedatives and truth sayers.  You'd be amazed how much deep space miners have stowed away in terms of repression.  Exactly.  Yikes." At that he fumbles through his pack and hands the Mechanon the hypo.  "And let me know if you want some telol."

As the door thunders and bends, Orvo mimes opening a can and sprinkling it all around in front of him.  The chunky dralasite responds to his new friends' questioning looks with, "You've got guns.  And fancy sheilds.  All I've got is this can of whoop ass."

At that, Orvo kisses all three fists and gets ready to deliver a pounding to whatever is pounding on the door.

The door gives a shudder, bending in, and then suddenly stops.  There is a shimmer in the air in front of the door, and you seem to realize that whatever the thing is, it is almost completely invisible and it has just pushed its body through the solid mass door.

A screeching sound like a whine of squeaky brakes hits your ears.  The sound does not sound pleasant...or friendly.

"What is it?" Nuna says, shrinking back into the corner as far away as possible.

OOC: Please post your moves with the Qantariate creature now in the room.  I'm assuming Hammer is handing the vials to one of the doctors to inject, like Kri'lik, assuming they have the best capability of injecting something into the creature, but the truth is that it will be a melee attack at -30% due to the invisibility of the creature and its movement.  That will go away if you can make the creature somehow visible.

Bartja looks around quickly for anything powdery or liquid that will help them see this thing.

"Paint, dust, water - throw anything on it so we can see it!  The fact that we can hear it says to me it's using technology to cloak its appearance in our universe, which means we can hit it."

Figuring the doctor would need a slower target if there was any chance of injecting this thing with the hypo, Bartja leaped onto what he thought was the alien.

Hammer fires his laser pistol at the invisible area where it seems like the alien is at.

S'Krllk grabs the nearest container of liquid or powder and throws it at the floor in front of the door, hoping to shatter it and spread the contents. As he is doing so, he says one word, "footprints".

"Oh man.  Oh man," Orvo draws a blank after blank for some great catch phrase to say, shrugs and yells, "Charge!"

Orvo barrels straight ahead, all 240 pounds of Dralasite pudding in tow, for what it surmises is the center of the noisy beast or Q-thingy.  At contact Orvo will show them what a Dralasite jab and 2 upper cuts feel like. Hint: punch strength at +3.

22:27, Today: Orvo rolled 17 using 1d100. Martial arts punchin' time.

OOC:  Heck yeah!  Needed 40% to hit with martial arts skill!

Desiraye takes a careful aim at the creature and fires a single laser Blast at it set on 4SEU (at 4d10+8 Damage).

Kri'lik loads the vial into a hypo all the while checking his forearm for the radar signatures of the invisible enemy. His device worked in seeing them on the lost starship and station so he assumed it would work here as well.

OOC: Sorry for the delays.  Real life got in the way.

Looking at the radar, you see that whatever it is before you has the shape of a tentacled monster, not humanoid at all.

Hammer fires his laser pistol, and a black dot appears where he hit the creature.

All S'Krllk can find is a big bag of lye, so he throws it, and it splatters over the floor and part of the creature's "leg," creating a little area between you and the blackness monster.

Orvo jumps and punches.  He hits it with his fist, and comes away feeling the acid eating into hit tentacled arm.  A black stain is there burning him.  (12 STA damage.)

Desiraye fires, hitting the creature.  A black spot appears in the invisible creature where she hit it.

Hammer gives the vial to Kri'lik, who loads the vial and checks against the radar signatures.  He strikes out with the vial but misses the blackness monster.

Invisible tentacles strike out.  Desiraye feels one go by her head.  The tentacles fly like whips striking.  They even brush the air and make the snapping sound a whip makes when it breaks the speed of sound.

Hammer is hit, and a black acidic burn starts up his robotic arm.  (10 STA damage.)

Both Kri'lik and S'Krllk feel something fly near them, but neither are hurt.

Bartja leaps onto where he thinks the creature is, but it apparently steps out of the way.  And a good thing too as Bartja slams into the floor and remembers that just touching the thing caused the blackness burns, and too much touching caused death and one's own body to turn into a stain of black sludge.

Nuna is in the corner but not too far away.  A whip-like tentacle slaps her straight down the face, and she screams in pain as a line of black opens up from forehead to chin.

Hammer steps back and fires again.  "Get it with the hypo," he urges Kri'lik as he looks down at the injury on his arm and tries to shake off the burn and blackness.

Orvo stumbles backward grimacing at the black gooey stuff on his gelatinous fist.  "Not cool!  And how gross!"

He looks to Kr'illik to insert the hypo as the Mechanon suggested, "Go for it dude!  Or do you want me to do it?  While I've got zero experience with black tentacled things from outer space," he looks annoyingly at whatever that creature is that just spewed on him, "I've had to handle a major psychiatric case or two before."

At that Orvo hops from foot to foot while wiping where his nose would be (if he had one) with each of his thumbs.

Hammer and Desiraye fire again. Both appear to miss the invisible creature.

The bag of lye settles, and a tentacled portion of the invisible creature is lit up.

Kri'lik seizes the moment, jumps forward, and slams the hypo into the exposed giant tentacle.

You hear an inhuman screeching squeal, and then suddenly -- like a pool of water dropping -- a large mass of black goo falls onto the floor.  It is the blackness you've seen before, and it leaves a silhouette of a strange tentacled creature for a moment before even the blackness shrivels and disappears into whatever universe it came from.  In its stead, you see an acid burnt outline on the floor as what can only be described as a squid-like outline.

But the hypo worked.  You have one vial remaining of the liquid, enough to at least give something, as promised, to Ejidali for giving you the IDs.

Nuna says, her hands clasped at the wound running down her face, "We need to get that containment unit ready as soon as possible."  She seems distracted by the acidic burns on her face, and she calls for a medic.  "It's burning," she says, distressed. (8 STA damage.)

The acid of the blackness touch is still burning Orvo and Hammer.  (Orvo loses 6 more STA, and Hammer loses 7.  Previous experience has taught you that it lasts for three rounds unless stabilized medically -- one more round to go.)

Desiraye holsters her laser pistol and moves over to where Nuna is injured and disoriented.  "Doc, get on Nuna first then check the rest of the team out.  Nuna, it's going to burn some.  How do we get the containment team in here?  How can I help?"

Bartja dusts the lye from his clothes and looks over acid scarred floor as he thinks.

"We need more of this stuff in the vial.  If the scientist who made it are now dead, maybe our contact can use what we have left to create more.  We're going to need a lot more I think.  I want them to build me a ton of Needler ammo with this stuff in it. If we're going to fight the Quantariate, I want to have every opportunity to win that we can muster."

In reply to Bartja Nemuco (msg # 158):

Orvo nods in agreement with the Yazirian's plan, then yelps out an "Ouch!" after each movement.  "And I've still got a hypo folks.  Ouch.  OK, shutting down vocal chords now.  Ouch. This stuff really hurts.  Ouch. Sheesh.  Ouch. Come on.  Ouch. Not cool."

Security arrives, along with a medical team.

You are taken for treatment and then released a little while later.  Oddly, no one really talks to you much; they all seem to be conditioned to the fact that what happens in this lab is secret and confidential.

(Everyone is healed back to normal stamina.)

As you prepare to leave, Nuna catches up with you and hands you a disposable communication device.  "I will call you if anything develops here," she says.  "Otherwise, come back tomorrow and we can see what secrets we have learned from the sphere."

Her face is bandaged from top to bottom.  Normal curative measures do not work so well on the Blackness.  Even where it has hit Orvo and Hammer, there is a long dark scar that shimmers like quicksilver.

You are now free to leave the lab complex.  You have official keycards now and can return at any time during operating hours.

It is early afternoon, and you can return to your contact by early evening if you leave now.  Otherwise, you can go somewhere else.  Nuna sees you to the front desk to see you off (in case you have any more questiosn for her, now you can ask).

Once clear of security and free to speak freely....

Bartja speaks.  "I suggest we meet our contact again and thank him for the access.  Suddenly the payment seems inconsequential compared to the usefulness of the stuff in this vial he's after.  I think we need to investigate his intentions for it and if they intend to manufacture it themselves, we try to get some use out of it ourselves."

"Thank you for helping us Nuna.  You put your neck on the line for us and we appreciate it.  Let us know if they're able to copy the stuff in the vial to use against these creatures.  WE have an important meeting this evening we must keep."

Deisraye listens to Bartja and adds, "We're going to get what we were promised as payment.  This stuff has been quite a help to us and we should get what we were promised.  I don't mind charity work sometimes but, I don't think we were given a straight story."

Orvo perks up when Desiraye says this, adds, "Oh I can vouch for that.  Stuffed in a box is not 'other duties as assigned'."

Desiraye nods to Orvo's comment, "You weren't the only one who was lied to when given your job either Orvo.  I'm not sure if it is related but, if it is, we'd be glad to have you aboard.  You seem to have a set of skills that would compliment our team.  Do you have any gear you need to retrieve?

If we go to meet our contact, I would like you to stand to the rear a little bit to see if you know this clown we're going to meet.  We could kill two birds with one stone?"

Kri'lik nods in agreement. This vial was very important it seemed and he would not wish to simply hand it over if their contact could not reproduce it easily.

Orvo nods to Desiraye's suggestion.  "I like your style.  That's a good plan.  I'll keep a watchful distance and put the feelers out for anything suspect.  Regarding equipment, no, it's this standard issue survival pack.  But if we have time for a steam bath I sure could go for one of those...but I can suck it up for the team.  Glad to be on board."