Still quietly, "Well, we're altering his plans to save his research, so that should count for something, right?  His next drop isn't for at least a few days, if I heard correctly. We just set up the transponders and head out to your research site.  I can't think of a better way to get out of here without him starting some kind of alarm and putting an instant target on each of us.  I'd prefer not to kill him, if we don't have to."

Not sure how to react, Hemon simple stays there silently and looks around him in search of every opportunities for a distraction in case it was needed.

Roam stays quiet and pays careful attention to the maps.  Learning where the escape routes were if anything should threaten the good Dr.  He had no problem harming Dr. Cole.  He had no problem leaving him here.  He did have a problem with anything becoming a danger to his charge.  Maybe I should just let Tarla eat him........
This message was last edited by the player at 03:57, Thu 24 Sept 2020.

Dr. Cole turns back with the maps in place and presents the tablet to the group with a little more confidence. "There!  Everything should be all together now!  Just give me your DNA impression, and I'll submit these soon as I can.  Then I can start getting together the transmitters."  He hands the tablet to Coralian for the moment, and then picks up a smaller device, tapping on it, then expanding a holographic screen.  The piskis suddenly come to attention, and Dr. Cole untabs part of the containment net that parts with the touch of his thumb.  "Go.  Gather.  Assemble spike sticks in Launch Bay," he says into the device.  The piskis, each with the tiny diodes on their heads, all fly out in formation, heading to a table in the corner.  Two each land on more of the tranmitter rods, carrying them in pairs downstairs.

Coralian smiles as she receives the tablet and begins reviewing the information in it.  Assuming everything is correct and the reasons for the redeployment are listed, she'll hand the device toward "Dr. Lewis?"

Dr. Lewis seems to have taken a moment to calm herself and imprints the tablet with a confident-seeming smile.  It gives a little musical chime, and Dr. Cole nods.

"All right!  The piskis will have everything assembled in about twenty minutes, so all you have to do is follow the maps.  When do you think you'll have them placed?  I'll sent out the PAS-squad about when you say you'll be done, and you can run a field test... Try to keep them intact, please?  I have more embryos, but I don't want them to die if they don't have to."  He hands over a smaller tablet with the maps on it, and points to a small file in the corner.  "Once all the transmitters are in place, the commands will become available for use.  If the PAS-squad is in auditory range, there's a list of commands they can follow.  If it works at that distance, give one of them the 'home' command and tie a note to them so I can report on their progress."

Coralian smiles as she eyes the verification table.  The fingers of her left hand wiggle almost imperceptibly.  Handing the map device to Roam, she says "Dr. Cole, would you be so kind as to demonstrate the deployment procedure for the transponders, please?  No sense in courting a mistake from lack of preparation, and that will give us a better sense of how long it will take to deploy them."

Dr. Cole goes into a careful explanation, going on about the spacing and a need to put them close enough to vegetation to provide a certain level of protection.  "It pulls in solar power, but the cells can pick up a good amount of energy without direct exposure.  Between the weather and the dinosaurs, it's more important to have the transponders near some kind of protection so that they're less likely to be dislodged.  If you can find stone outcroppings or boulders, those would be ideal.  Once they're well-spaced, you just hit the activation on the remote program I showed you and-"

The long-winded explanation is suddenly interrupted by a loud fizzing sound as something near the bench where Dr. Cole had left the authorization tablet has erupted into bubbling green froth that has enveloped the tablet and most of the table!  Dr. Cole yelps with dismay and starts running around looking for something, anything, to stop what's going on!

Coralian will look surprised and try to find a fire extinguisher, as it's the only thing she can think of to spray to deal with this sort of emergency.  "What's going on?!"

“Acid?  Um need a base liquid to neutralise, right?”
Roam looked but made no move to help in the strange lab.

Seeing the green thing covering the tablet, Hemon doesn't act. He knows technology to well to be sure that it can't be a simple accident and takes a mental note that he will have to ask his new companion what they did. Nonetheless, he tries to look a bit afraid by what's happening so he doesn't triggers an alarm in Dr Cole's mind.

"We'll let you handle that, Dr. Cole.  We're going to get going with the transponders."  Coralian motions for the others to follow and begins using whatever cart Cole has the transponders stacked on to carry them into the wilds to be set up.

Roam pushes off the wall he was leaning against.  Standing straight he motions for Dr. Lewis to follow Coralian.  Deep down Roam wants to smash this mans face into the floor repeatedly, but that may just be leftover aggression toward those in Haven that tried to kill him.  Stupid scientists.
With a deep breath he lets his memory of Mira, Geytha, Jase and Quill release some of the anger.  After a moment he starts walking away ready to focus on new things.

Dr. Cole yelps and runs around the lap, finding one beaker, then another, before finding a third that seems to hold what he wants and casting it upon the bubbling mess.  As Coralian takes advantage of the hoopla to make an exit, Dr. Cole barely notices, fluttering around the fizzy mess while the piskis shriek in excitement and the Teslasaurus snorts in annoyance.

Gathering up the transmitters and making a quick escape before Dr. Cole can get himself together, the group leaves the lab behind.  It's midafternoon, and stormclouds are slowly starting to gather, but the wind hasn't picked up yet.  Likely you still have an hour or two before the storm breaks.

Dr. Lewis looks back at the lab with astonishment as you emerge back into the jungle.  "What in the world happened back there?  Did something just break?  I mean, I didn't particularly want to clean it up, but..."

Coralian smiles briefly as she walks with purpose.  "I made sure, as much as I'm able, that the records of our visit were irretrievable.  Now, let's get these set up, run his little test, and get going where we're supposed to be."

The taller woman sighs and trudges onward.  "I don't particularly care for his research, but I don't really have the power to find a peaceful end to it right now.  Setting up the transponders will be harm reduction, if nothing else."

Dr. Lewis looks a little confused, but then nods.  "I guess it wouldn't do us a lot of good if SATI found out we were pretending to be Dr. Cole's superiors.  I... wouldn't really know what to say if they asked us why we did it!"

She pats Foozle's flank, and her 'mimus nuzzles her, clearly relieved to be back out on the road.

"So... we head north, plant the transponders, and then move somewhere else?"

The group heads north, going along the path for now, knowing it will take until dark until they are able to get where they want to start planting the transponders.  They are vigilant about encountering anything else (as the wilds are nothing to joke about), and in enough time before dark you're able to rig a camp in a protected area of fallen trees buttressed by a few boulders. Taking watches, you don't see much more at night than a few dinos at a distance, though from some distant howling and crashing in the underbrush, there are definitely a goodly number of them out there.

By morning you're on the path again, and deviate to place the transponders.  As each one is secured, it powers up, and by mid-afternoon you have them placed and can get back to the game trail you were using.  By close to sundown you are drawing near the Sea of Tranquility, a rocky, barren zone that should take you another couple of days to cross, and after that should be the zone of dinos Dr. Lewis needs for her research.  Making camp this night is more involved, as a storm is definitely brewing above and beyond the usual powerful rainstorms of this area.

It takes all of you to rig a decent roof and sides to shed the rain and any falling smaller branches, giving you a small protected space from the water and wind.  It makes watches more difficult, but at least the weather will likely keep the number of predators down.

But it's not the sound of predators that Coralian hears during her midnight watch.  In the slackening rain, she hears a buzzing drone, not a dino, not an insect, but a regular metallic buzz that sounds... mechanical.

Coralian will begin to try to spot the source of the buzzing sound, moving slowly to as not to draw attention.  Hopefully, Ajax can help her to locate the offending machine.


She taps her human companions gently to wake them, although her gaze continues out into the storm.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:47, Thu 29 Oct 2020.

Roam feels the shake and his eyes flash open.  He tenses, but doesn't move.  Listening and looking toward she-who-shakes, his hand slowly slides toward his weapons.

Half-sleeping because of the storm, Hemon is quickly woken up by Coralian. After a quick moment, he starts to hear the buzzing sound so he starts looking around him and take his bow, ready to use it if needed.

The group had finished their researched for Dr. Cole, finding that the implanted animal scouts he had sent with them responded to the listed commands promptly and at even a little farther distance than initially projected.

Whatever else Dr. Cole might be a part of, his application of technologies was sound.

But now, at night during the storm, Coralian wakes the others, Hemon and Roam quietly awakening, Dr. Lewis starting up out of a deep sleep with a surprised snort, looking around in confusion.  But upon seeing Hemon with his bow, she sits up and grabs her own, staring out into the darkness that is occasionally thrown back by lightning strikes.

During one of those strikes, you all see something burrowing its way out of the ground, something large and blunt, shining in the lightning, with tiny lights embedded all around it.  The buzzing comes again, and it rises further out of the ground, insectile appendages unfolding from it and settling against the ground, pushing it higher...

"WOW! WOW! WOW!" shouts Hemon at the sight of the creature. "Is that what I think it is? Some kind of giant worm or I don't know what? I'm sure it has too many legs anyway." he says, clearly uncomfortable with the sight he just had. "If it get any closer to me, I will fire an arrow!"

Roam looked where instructed and spotted something pushing through the ground.  With a grunt he pushed to his feet and looked quickly.
"Dr. Lewis, Please get up and stay behind me."  Roam pulled his sword in one hand and his laser in the other.
Roam looked at the limbs and the pushed dirt as it tracked through the dirt.  His lips pursed as he wracked his brain...

Coralian nocked an arrow and scanned around them, in case there were signs more of the ... machines (?) were in the area.  At this point, she was praying for a lightning strike that might do their work for them.

Lightning does begin to flicker, illuminating the area in brief, stark flashes.  The "worm" looks metallic, articulated scales of metal overlapping where small points of light don't otherwise emerge.  The legs that are pushing it from the ground, however, look disturbingly organically insectile in the uncertain light.


It pauses briefly in its emergence, making a series of rapid clicking sounds that echo across the expanse.  Dr. Lewis has her bow out, hands steady though her expression is taut with fear.

Then the creature begins to push up again, exposing more of its lengthy body, now beginning to taper into a drill-like end.

From the distance, more the clicking echoes back.  Or is that not an echo?