Team Blue
Continue mapping the zone or go back. Whatever Bishop's orders are. Will not be able to edit this myself.
"When will it reach you? It will take us some time to get back, as we don't really have any vehicles, unless Bishop taken on on his own. If this is a radioactive object, I'd rather stay away far away from it."
Flint Westwood - Blue squad - Sector 3
@Bishop: "Okay, we'll keep on mapping, but I don't like this. If we don't hear from home team after the anomaly passes, I'm going back, with or without you."
@Base Team: "Damn it Simus, just get your team in the shuttle and fly to us or Miyamoto. Don't take risks when there's no reason to do so. Don't you remember what happened to the previous team?"
Keep mapping around the motion speed anomaly.
Try to convince base team to board the shuttle and fly to us or to Miyamoto, by reminding them that the previous team died because they underestimated alien anomalies, that alien shit are unknown and unsafe, that we don't know if the base will hold, that the shuttle might be damaged by the anomaly if left there, by using the phrase "Pneumatically driven love thrust!", anything that might get them in that shuttle and out of that zone. ((Nothing to do this turn besides map, so why don't I make a speech roll?))
"Wait a minute... if this thing is coming from zone 6 and moving towards zone 1, that means that if it keeps going, it will end up here! Good thing we're moving towards zone 8 then."
((Also, good work with the map Sean. Added it to my notes along with some sector mapping statistics. I'm also keeping a planned actions/experiments section so that we don't forget to do anything back at base or when passing near a zone, so if you have thought of an experiment or action or project that you would like to see listed there (NO BICYCLES! (just kidding, I do not discriminate)) send me a PM.
@Radio Controlled: I'll be happy to draw the team's paths and objectives once you have decidede where we should explore next. Although that decision would probably take a while, what with us having explored less then half of our sectors and the crisis back at base.))
"Yours must be the pneumatic love thrust that pierces the heavens! So great will be your girth that even simus will blush! Believe in me who sort of kinda thinks that you might be able to not fail maybe!"
The team continues to map, wandering slowly westward and throwing a cobblestone road worth of rocks as they go. Unfortunately they hit what amounts to a dead end as the effected zone curves around in front of them, blocking them off. Whats weirder is that the new two areas they map act differently. The first seems to only effect upward movement; when a rock is thrown in on an arc, it will move very slowly until it hits it's zenith and then fall like normal. The zone next to it is the exact opposite, slowing when it starts to fall.
Team Green
well fuck... i really hope that wasnt my fault says Auron watching the anomalous shard drift towards canary base although it does provide cetain opportunities...
try to determine the shards trajectory and the time it will take to reach the base, if successful send the exact impact coordinates, trajectory and velocity to the base so someone can put a radiation proof crate outside for it to fly into.
Follow lars but try to get a look at the shard with any optical zoom my visor posesses and record all batvision telemetry related to the object while it is in the xenon field.
You're at too flat an angle to get a good idea of the exact path of what you can now see as a speck of bright light trailing blue glow; you don't know any landmarks or features of the terrain to give an educated guess either. You can tell it's heading in the vague direction of the base, but as per the path it will take, you're not sure.
"Uh oh."
Do as lars says.
"Great. First zone in, and we send Command a glowy ball of radioactive doom. Nice job everybody."
Copy math from anomaly splinter, and then copy the math from the actual anomaly. Then follow Lars, scan, don't die horribly to anomalies.
You copy down as much of the math as you can, but it's always changing and there is a hell of a lot of it.
Lars grimaced, then shouted a quick prayer before turning the radio to all units.
"All personnel, this is Brother Lars. We sent a drone over the Sector 6 anomaly. It was shot down by a lightning burst, and now it appears a piece of the anomaly is breaking off and moving to home base. Repeat, a piece of the anomaly is moving to home base. This anomaly is highly radioactive and electrically charged. It is moving away from us and we are far off a course to catch it, so without further orders, we will continue scanning the area."
He turned back to his squad. "Brothers, there is nothing we can do to intercept it without going straight through the heart of this anomaly. We will continue what we are doing until countermanded. Further, do not cross the boundary we are making with ourselves or any equipment until further notice."
Continue marking the zone.
The Green team follows the edge of the radiation zone down toward the south until it, rather suddenly, turns back toward the east. It looks like they've found another edge of the perimeter.
Team Red
Back to Simus over radio link:
"Damn, I told them to wait with the experimenting. Anyway, in case it looks like whatever that is is going to impact on the base, you could take a minishuttle and fly the hell out of there. And normally I'd say to deactivate ALVIN, but luckily all his important bits are well protected."
Continue going into zone 7, see if our shadows keep being funky.
"What the hell......"
Interact with objects and people casting shadows also ascertain approximate greatest lightscorce
The greatest light source is impossible to say; the shadows are identical on some objects, varying on others. Not to mention the variety in the number of shadows. Hell, you don't even see a light source around here besides a distant sun that the planetoid is passing by.
The Red team doesn't get much farther in it's trek before strange things start happening. Miyamoto, leading the way, is the first to notice. He loses his vision in his left eye. Or rather, his vision becomes a mirror image of what he's viewing in his right. He takes a few steps back and the effect vanishes. He takes a few steps forward and it returns. Strange.
Command team
Radio to all personnel on the base, Miyamoto, and the other Team Leaders:
Everyone on the base, this is XO Simus, we've got incoming. Something highly radioactive is approaching the base, fast. I recommend that everyone who does not enjoy the idea of being fried by it make their way into either Life Support or the AI Chamber. Teams; the base is going to be dark for a bit until this anomalous event is over. Radio contact might be maintained, but I doubt it.
Go to the AI Chamber, see if I can take some manner of radiological scanning equipment down with me. Text ALVIN:
We've got a charged, radioactive anomaly headed straight for the base. Do what you need to do to keep the base intact once everyone in the base is either in the AI Chamber or Life Support.
You steal a geiger counter from the lab and scurry down to the AI core. Once there, you start talking to ALVIN about the situation.
ANOMALY IS CALCULATED TO PASS NEAR THIS INSTALLATION AND THEN FALL INTO THE GRAVITY SEEP NEAR BY.
DAMAGE PROJECTION: MINIMAL IF ABOVE GROUND SYSTEMS SHUT DOWN.
PREPARING SHUTDOWN.
"I'm more worried about... well, everything. The idea of living in an irradiated metal hellhole for the rest of the year isn't appealing."
Grab my equipment and head down underground.
You grab your gear, as well as anything that looks like it might be damaged by electricity- and isn't bolted down- from the infirmary and head down to the AI core.
((Well, ain't that a bolt from the blue. Or should I say the green?))
"Wait, what?"
Anton stops mid-stride, not sure if he'd misheard the message. "You sent a what at us? Well, isn't that just perfect. ALVIN! There's a... ah, чтоб тебя." He cursed under his breath, remembering the AI won't listen to his orders, and patches through to the team leader instead. "XO Simus! Order ALVIN to estimate the actual threat level of the.. whatever it is Green Team sent at us. It's been around here longer than we were, and should have a better idea of what the base can stand up to. As it is, we don't have enough giant metal hands here to secure and move everything, especially the food and water supplies, if they are in danger of destruction or contamination. We need to know in how much danger the base actually is.
And preemptively, permission to attempt an intercept. I would prefer if the whatever it is didn't strike anywhere near here in the first place. Actually... hold that thought."
Get to CCR, locate controls for any scanners the base has available, and get a bead on the incoming threat. Use the combined power of base computers and own brain to determine the exact trajectory of the object. If it is indeed heading straight for the base, and impact is imminent, climb down to Life Support. If it isn't heading here, determine where it is heading and inform the others. If there's still some time till impact, begin enacting intercept plan by running to the Garage and uploading the optical tracker program to a mapping drone.
((Unless the design of the base is offensive to native alien culture or ALVIN insulted their relatives in one of its previous lives, there should be little to no reason for the base to become the target of anything. The base hex, on the other hand, has something else that's quite... attractive.))
The readouts on the CCR monitors indicate that the anomaly isn't coming toward the base, more that it's doing a "fly by" on it's way to the crater. However it's going to be going close enough that it it will sweep the the base in it's effects. Time till first effects is only a few minutes away. Before you can read anything else the monitors and all the lights shut off. Oh dear.
(nice job on that map by the way.)
Map:
http://i.imgur.com/HYkDmbF.png