Keep an eye out for those flying things.
Well, assuming you followed Lars out of the towers and on over to sector 19, you don't see anything flying around out here, at least nowhere near by.
((Where are you moving Piecewise? Leaving Las Vegas?
I love the flat zone stuff. And that sea is kinda freaky. Plus, the towers breed so many questions. And Life! I wonder what the records are of other expeditions on the planetoids. Some data from other expeditions would be really helpful, as we wouldn't want to be exploring the same old stuff would we? Then our data would be useless. Also, still want pictures.))
Blue Team
Yeah, I'm out of my depth here. Starting to feel slightly uncomfortable.
Continue mapping out the other side of black towers with my team. Still waiting for a response from Zephyris.
(Moving around inside the city. New house in a different part of town.)
Map mapple map. Hope you're not waiting for me to write a response from him . Probably not.
"And now you know. Barring any other requests, I'm heading home."
Head home.
"Hope none of you wanted a ride home. Or medical attention. Because now ya got neither. Later bitches."
You fly your ass home and land the shuttle out near the hanger.
"Now then...what the heck am I gonna do here?"
Vich: "Sorry. It kinda sounded like..uh..nevermind. I..think we got that sorted out at last. Do you have any other questions?"
Follow Bishop. Help out with mapping. Do something useful!
You stick close to Bishop, but when it comes to doing something useful, that might be hard. A big group of people doing nothing but map doesn't really have much for it's individual components to do. Least not right now. Maybe when the giant flesh devouring bees come.
Flint Westwood - Blue squad - Sector 18
Get some more samples (make sure to take small samples from multiple towers so as not to compormise their structural integrity) and store them in containers and labeled "Black Tower Samples (Sector 18)" with "nutrition?" noted with smaller letters.
Remember whether or not I saw any cameras back at base. If not, contemplate whether or not I could use the mapping drones as cameras.
If I can see a "trunk" that seems to be without carvings, place a camera drone with its camera pointed at it, so that I can hopefully see what's carving them.
Mark some positions with spraypaint on a "trunk" and on the ground around it so that I can tell wether or not the towers expand upwards or sideways overtime. Note their positions and distance with my pole as a measure if I have no other method of measurement available.
Follow the leader.
((Basically thinking of putting some cameras around to document the wildlife here, National Geographic style.Many animals usually behave differently when humans are visible. ))
You place a drone down next to one of the sections that has no carving on it and set it to record using minimum battery and lower resolution. Gonna result in lots of footage to comb through, but hey, thats what people at base are for. That done, you mark the ground level of one tower near the camera and then play follow the leader, hardcore style.
"Shiit. These things have both the high ground, and the home field advantage. I would advise against angering them."
Continue watching "treetops" follow Lars.
((Turns out I do get Internet here.))
You follow Lars straight out of the towers and over to the purple expanse of gunk.
"Ah, death comes from below this time, rather then above. Good thing too, that was starting to make my neck sore, staring up like that."
Blue Team
Keep going and mapping. Make sure to keep tossing out rocks in front of us to check for stuff we can't see.
Map map map map
follow Lars and assist his experimentation by poking the gel with my melted rod
You naughty boy.
Yeah, you jab the gel with the rod a few times. The film over the top is quite tough and resistant, it doesn't seem like you'll be able to pierce it unless you actually try to jam your hard rod into it's quivering, moist mass.
"Did anyone bring a stick?"
Stand back and throw a rock in. If nothing horrible happens, throw one in from up close. If still nothing horrible happens, hold a rock and dip it in. Observe. If nothing horrible still happens, collect a sample of gel and label it.
Rock one: Bounces on the surface a few times, then comes to a halt.
Rock the rest of them: Same deal, even when thrown quite hard.
Sampling attempt: Your container kind of just skids around on the surface, deforming it but not letting you get any of the stuff into the container.
Go with mesk
You take the mesk train back to the main base. Woo woo.
"Ooookay. Definitely not what I was expecting. But very curious." Anton opens a channel to Base team and Red Leader XO Simus, with his helmetcam's video feed. "Base, XO, are you seeing this? I have encountered some lifeforms deeper inside the Flatlands. Given the area's nature and the fact that some drones were lost here, I suspect that these creatures may feed off certain types of energy. I will maintain my distance from these, and try to find a path deeper in that doesn't intersect their habitat."
Steer clear of the lifeforms, maintain a distance of at least two to three hundred meters from them at all times. Go east, try to find a patch of flatland unoccupied by the creatures that leads deeper towards the anomaly center.
You coast toward the east, trying to find an unoccupied place but it all seems...well..occupied. There's no straight empty corridor without creatures, and from what you can tell, the area doesn't really have a specific center either. It's rather oddly shaped really, not like the blue radiation zone; which seems very geometric.
map
http://i.imgur.com/WSjNSma.png