2020-09-10: Sealab2020 2C A Long Walk Off a Short Pier
| A Long Walk Off a Short Pier 2C | |
|---|---|
| When some of the crew from the stricken VEC Integrity abandoned the vessel to go to Deepwater their ocean crawlers were attacked. | |
| IC Date | August 30th, 2020 |
| Players | Albright, Eden Huxley (ST), Winters, Vivian Starr (as NPC_Angela) |
| Location | Ocean Floor, Mudflats, near the Technocracy Construct Deepwater |
| Prp/Tp | Sealab2020 |
| Spheres | Weaver |
Deepwater: Mudbanks
West: Immediately behind you and varying from about - two football fields away and getting as close to about twenty feet; is the coastal shelf edge of the Mariana's Trench. Falling down there would be a bad idea, besides horrific pressures and depth; a giant squid and other horrors await you.
South: This is where you came from. Going back to the Integrity is likely hopeless. The ship is running out of oxygen from its life support systems. It needs external help. Comms are limited.
North: Somewhere in that direction is Project: Deepwater. The only safe bastion in this blighted hellhole under the sea. How far away is it?
East: The main area of the mud banks. The soil appears permanently soft and slippery with a slight green tint. (Int + Science vs 9) - There are numerous holes and caverns in which giant crustaceans emerge from. It's hard to tell if they are crab, lobster, or underwater ant lions. They appear dangerous and hungry and live in this environment.
Two aquatic rovers have been toppled in ambush. The first vehicle having no major injuries; just GENE soldiers strewn about and engaging with the Drattosi. The second vehicle is mostly clear; however Eden in her giant exosuit did not make it. She is currently pinned beneath the heavy and aquatic rover. (0/50 successes to free her)
The third aquatic rover is upright but has a slipped tread. (0/12 successes to fix.)
Enemy numbers are unknown. The Drattosi seem to have you flanked and surrounded. Some aren't even in combat range, merely waiting their turn to join in or feast. They outnumber you immensely. Blood and limbs float or sink in the water; the only major light source is the underwater flare. Things are especially dire. On a scale of 1-10; higher numbers being most clusterf*cked. You likely rate at a solid FUBAR.
Lastly: If standing in mud. -1 dice to most athletic/dodging rolls, etc. (I'd raise the the difficulty. But believe it's high enough already.)
Dr Albright back away to make sure she is a safe distance from the mud, and makes sure she didn't get any on her "The mud looks like it might be radioactive, I suggest avoiding it."
Winters hears these things. "Someone is in there though!" And he'll leap from the rover and out onto all fours to scramble across the mud slowly towards the guy with his arms waving about to be rescued. He'll try to spread his weight out and clamber his way towards the one who needs to be rescued. Surely, /surely/ he'll get there soon to rescue the poor thing.
With a shriek of surprise that is suddenly cut off, Angela tumbles into the ocean mud, just barely managing to keep her feet on the slick, squishy surface. She scrambles to realign her footing, causing a spray of the foul stuff to pelt her in the face and then wiping the horrible stuff out of her eyes and off her rebreather; her ionic cloth jumpsuit will slough off the stuff, but that doesn't do anything for the exposed bits of her like her face and hair.
She struggles on her feet in the muck, absently stuffing fistfulls of the mud into her pockets in a panic reaction as she looks about wildly, taking in the rapidly deteriorating tactical situation. "We need to get the rovers righted!" she screams out before scrambling over to the rover entrance where Eden is trapped and squirming inside, rifling through the chaotic mess of bits and occasionally tossing one out. After having done so, she squirms back out and begins to assemble the various metal detritus in a makeshift ratcheting jack. She is distracted by Dr Albright's sudden declaration, her face going white as she pauses just long enough to dump the panic-mud collection out.
"Got it!" she exclaims, holding up the metal machine victoriously, "Keep 'em off me while I jack this thing up!"
The mud is this thick and slimy down here; almost like the floor of a swamp. Winters nearing the man about to be torn apart by giant claws and pincers when suddenly the illusion fades; the crazed antlion baring its teeth and dropping a wooden stick with shell prop that once made the form of the human being. Winters was isolated and alone as hostile creatures began to surround him. It was a trap!
Eden growls and kicks as Angela hops inside the aquatic rover looking for parts. Blood spilling from her mouth as the machine crushes into her, pinned into the muddy banks she can only watch on as Winters gets himself in a jam. <I'll be ok. Help Winters.>, coughing between breaths and words.
By the first Aquatic Rover the giant Drattosi crawls on top of a GENE and bites his head off. It's a maw a dangerous place to be. His left arm flailing as he fires the spear gun into the first aquatic rover. Nothing happens at first until the explosive head detonated and sends a bubble and sonic ripple out through the water. Shaking things up and highly damaging the first vehicle. However, not all the GENE's are as clumsy and they kill the other boulder sided antlion with spear guns and harpoons.
Winters is confused as the wood appears where man once was, he'll turn through the water to see others approaching. The damnable things skittering to surround him and his roar of defiance doesn't echo as well underwater. But it does signify the shift of size, of strength, of claws and teeth and Rage exploding outwards until he reaches out to skewer the nearest attacker with his claws to rend it entirely open and no longer a threat.
Dr Albright considers the cost of the damage ship, along with the costs of the broken rovers and now if they lose people as well there will be compensation for the family, or if they get hurt they will need to pay all the medical bills. The expenses are going to be disaster! Well they could mitigate the costs if they just scare off some of the creatures and avoid fighting them. She looks at the largest of the creatures and waves her hands around as she screams loudly at it, "The kraken is going to eat you! Rar!" To everyone else she doesn't appear so intimidating, though to the creature it see the kraken in it's mind and flees for the trench!
At Eden's communique, Angela hesitates and glances over at Winters' direction, though her eyes widen as she sees him change form. "I think he's fine," she says, deadpan, "I'm more worried about you and that huge honkin' exosuit." Having said that, the mousy brown haired girl turns her attention back to the overturned rover and jams the jack underneath it. She moves to the lever edge and starts pumping it as fast as she can, gritting her teeth.
The giant boulder crab flee's and tucks it tail behind it; turning into a resemblance of a rollie pollie or armadillo and begins bouncing off into the darkness and falls into the Mariana's trench.
Meanwhile, all the baby antlions starving for food begin to swarm as their parents are killed. The tiny monsters the size of normal lobsters and serving little of a threat and more of a nuisance. The ankle biters trying to claw, bite or sting into flesh - hungry little buggers.
Meanwhile the few GENE's left are bickering and fighting with each other. It doesn't last long, as titanic sharks begin circling the underwater flare - brought in by the smell of blood. They appear otherworldly and appear most interested in the garou. The giant slew just circling in a menacing fashion. Likely sentient, many of tribal like markings or trinkets - a few even have human like arms. These were Rokea. The situation turning from bad to worse as most the Drattosi fled and vanished leaving the few members stranded against a swirling entity of rage filled sharks.
Eden screams as some of the weight is lifted off her pressure suit. Something is terribly wrong as she calls out Angela to stop.
The scream from Eden causes Angela to stop her exertions, looking over at the exosuited woman in panic. "Wuh-what is it? What's wrong?" she asks. And then the weresharks arrive. Angela can barely see them in the gloom, barely lit by the flares, but she stares in horror nontheless. "Oh, no... not good," she murmurs, looking about again before looking back at Eden, "Hold on, okay?"
Winters steps through the mudpits back towards the Rover, each step sinking him down some but he does not abate his gait. To get close to the Rovers and start to reach for it until Eden screams and his grip only holds the rover right in place. But he cannot talk in a way which they would understand, not with a muzzle and these teeth.
Dr Albright moves over to Eden and her big exosuit, "Are you injured? The suit isn't flooding is it, that wouldn't be very good." She moves around it to check and see how much damage there was to the outside.
A large Goliath of a hammerhead shark swims down and changes to its warform to speak and grumble with the explorers of the ocean. He can speak English but in horrible and menacing gulps of air, his teeth engraved with tribal runes likely spirits tied to them and living fetish's. "I ... Tail-Biter ... Darkwater of the Deeps...", the Elder Roke introducing himself as other junior Rokea transformed to protect their leader. He kicked the radioactive mud, splashing Angela and Winters with low levels of nuclear waste. "We see you kill Drattosi...", pointing to the dead antlions. "...You think... good job?", shrugging and walking to a spot and digging through the mud and pulling out a leaking barrel of nuclear waste. He shakes it in anger pointing at the GENE's. "We not stupid! We clear grotto after grotto. Each time we do... new location to bury the waste. Make more Drattosi!", he was yelling, but it was hard to tell the difference between Tail-Bitter's normal talk and screaming.
"This ends. Either you help destroy giant building. Or we kill you now. Only deal on ocean floor.", lifting up the barrel of nuclear waste and shoving it whole in his mouth. Tail-biter than consumes the toxic waste, crunching into it as fluids leaked from his mouth but he swallowed that as well.
Tail-Biter was missing chunks from his own tail as if a shark had bitten him; whether he did it himself or someone else had - that was unknown. "Kill them...all but one.", pointing to the GENE's as a swarm of sharks tore into the fishmen like prey.
"QUIT POLLUTING...", pointing to the muddy banks as he watched the group get even smaller. "I don't shit in your yard. Clean up after yourselves.", he thumps his chest like a tribal warrior. "We got explosives. If you destroy the Qyrl building, we let you live. Get out of ocean alive. Good deal.", eyeing Eden in her suit and Albright as she already knew. "End now?", ripping a large propeller klaive fetish from his back offering to kill the drone.
Dr Albright looks Eden and her suit over, "Looks like a fatal wound. You will likely die soon after we move the rover." She turns her attention to the sharks, as they might all be in trouble if they don't work things out. "Wouldn't blowing it up cause even more pollution? Are you okay with that?"
Angela cringes away from the terrifying shark-man-thing as it approaches and begins to grind out the halting speech. She lets out a little squeak and flinches away, holding out her hands protectively as the radioactive mud is kicked towards her. Her eyes, wide with fear, flicker between Tail-Biter and the other sharkmen before whimpering as a group move to viciously dismantle the GENE troop.
She offers up a nervous, twitchy smile, "I'm a-all for g-getting out of ocean alive." Though that's hardly an agreement to blow up anything. Dr. Albright's diagnosis does cause the brown haired woman's attention to shift to the stricken exosuit and its inhabitant, her brows knitting. "Oh, no..." she says in a low voice, peering at the good doctor, "There's nothing that can be done for her?"
Winters step up between Rover, Eden, little almost sort of noncombatants as his fur catches some flung radioactive mud that bunches in it. A tinny roar answers some of the demands being made from the Rokea. Winters' vocalizations not carrying well through the water /at all/. But a glance towards the dying Eden has the WarForm chuffing in concern. "Wrap her?"
Tail-Biter eyes the slew as Jakob is the only GENE left alive, the elder Rokea grinning. A younger shark hands Tail-Biter a pretty pink and white conch shell. He brings it up to his head where his ears would of been and says, "Talk.", nodding and handing over the spirit fetish to Winters - obviously a way to get ahold of the Rokea somehow. His large propeller klaive put away as he shakes his head. "No cloth down here boy, only nets.", as the slew begins joining the Elder in digging; ripping out barrels of waste and consuming them. They leave the team alone, as to them... the four living members: Winters, Angela, Albright and Jakob posed no threat to them. It would be suicidal to go against the army of sharks. Eden wasn't looking to hot and requesting to have her oxygen intake lowered, eventually she would pass out and die in her sleep. The best way she could possibly go, in this moment.
While no formal agreement had been made between the Rokea and the Integrity crew, their actions would likely dictate future events. (In short: Tail-Biter will remember this...)
Dr Albright shakes her head to Angela, "There is nothing to be done medically." She looks to Eden, "However if you have any last requests, we can hear them out."
Angela nods sadly to the good Doctor, biting her lower lip and looking towards the dying Eden. It seems Albright will handle any last requests and there's still stuff to do to get the hell out of her and back to the relative safety of Darkwater. The brown haired woman carefully lets down the jack and removes it, now transferring to over to the rover with the slipped tread. "This should help get it off the mud," she says, "Make it easier to get the tread back on." She shoves the makeshift lifting device under the stern of the vehicle and begins to pump.
The sharks seem willing not to fight just yet. Especially considering they are hoping that this small ragtag team of do-gooders and Weaver Folk might do their bidding for them. All in all, a bad day already. Winters doesn't shift down yet. He is stepping off towards the upended rover and grasping at it to begin to flip it. Its tough with the mud but Jakob comes to help him get the thing moving. "Keep Eden."
... faintly humming as Eden lowers her oxygen intake to pass out in the cold darkness of the ocean. She whispers to Albright, "Know any riddles? <Cough...wheeze> Just... something to keep me... distracted...", trying to keep pressure on the wound in as fetal a position as possible. She was guarding, a natural instinct even when dying. A mental comfort or band aid.
Dr Albright thinks for a moment on a riddle before replying, "I am typically with my twin and am all around you. Though now I here with another twin, yet I am still around you."
Trying to block out the sounds of Eden slowly dying and Albright distracting her in the background, Angela concentrates on her work, the jack forcing the disabled rover out of the radioactive muck with the others. "That looks like it has it," she says, cautiously looking underneath the rover and taking an errant piece of metal to use as a prybar and helping to realign the broken tread.
With the combined efforts of Jakob the GENE secondary leader and Angela w/ Winters. The Integrity team gets the third aquatic rover moving again as the the tread is now properly realigned and rolling decently. It's disheartening to see how many had died here or were presently dying. The rover holding just the four of them now. -- Of course the radio was playing to comfort them, it was ironically another country song; singing happily about the bitter loss of things from ones life. It was either listening to that or driving in the dark silence which didn't feel any better for the bitter sweet hour ride to Deepwater.
A few vivid moments ago; Eden gripped Albright's hand with a very scared squeeze. "I don't know... that one...", hanging on for as long as possible before she choked and gasped in her suit. Liquid filling her lungs as she drowned and slipped into the cold, lifeless, embrace at the bottom of the ocean.
Deepwater is majestic, ivory or pearl white tiles. It's size is unbelievable and the ramp to the aquatic bay immense. Trillions of dollars must of gone into its construction. The pink conch shell bouncing from driving up the ramp, a reminder that the Rokea wanted this place destroyed. A conversation for another time.
