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[Parisbre56]

"Nope, nobody listens to the wise old man's suggestions. I'm just gonna have to go there and save them myself, aren't I?"

Keep running towards the base. Any estimate on how long it's going to take? Would using my rockets change anything?

[Unholy_Pariah]

((If we survive this does anyone else want to search for the pet store nest and adopt baby sandworms collect researchable materials?))

[Sean Mirrsen]

((No. For one, if this is true-ish to the source, there is no nest. In fact, if it's true-ish to the source, we better hope there is no nest.

Because this here thing wouldn't be an adult form then, but... more of an adolescent. And although this form is by far the most dangerous, it's also the least numerous.

Although I'm having some trouble imagining the next stage of this one, if it eats electronics. Does it morph into a robot army?))

[Kriellya]

(( I don't think it's eating electronics so much as hunting by radio wave, which electronics throw off like crazy ))

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Which only raises further questions. What does it normally hunt? About the only thing here emitting anything like radiowaves was the crystal monster.

Well, the only thing that we know.))

[PyroDesu]

(( I don't think it's eating electronics so much as hunting by radio wave, which electronics throw off like crazy ))

((Electronics don't emit radio waves (nor any kind of waves with the exception of anything that lights up, which emit visible light waves), but they do emit an electromagnetic field. Which makes me think this thing is drawn to its target by EM radiation, then consumes based on local EM fields.))

[Toaster]

((So why aren't they attracted to the electric field zone?))

[Thearpox]

((So why aren't they attracted to the electric field zone?))

((Evolution? Everything nutricious is harmfull in large amounts, so the electric fields might actually be harmful to them. Or maybe they have other predators in the above-mentioned electric fields.))

[Toaster]

((Or maybe that's what the momma worm eats.

Also, we don't know what's out in the outlands beyond the designated areas, so there's no telling what yummy things to eat are there.  Could be alien cities for all we know.))

[Kriellya]

(( I don't think it's eating electronics so much as hunting by radio wave, which electronics throw off like crazy ))

((Electronics don't emit radio waves (nor any kind of waves with the exception of anything that lights up, which emit visible light waves), but they do emit an electromagnetic field. Which makes me think this thing is drawn to its target by EM radiation, then consumes based on local EM fields.))

(( radio waves are a kind of EM radiation
There's a reason you're asked to 'turn off all electronics' in aircraft. It's because they're concerned that the minor radio waves thrown off by electronics could interfere with sensitive equipment at the most dangerous portion of the flight. In recent years, I'm pretty sure there's little to be concerned with (assuming you aren't using a transmitter to intentional foul the equipment) but I can certainly believe that earlier commercial electronics were much less efficient about not generating EM waves, and older aircraft equipment much more able to be affected by them. ))

[piecewise]

"O Cog-azaon, I beseech you!  Grant me the knowledge of reproducing a pressurized helmet!  O Hal-mon, guide my hand as I construct it!  Pathmas, may our team be ever in your favor.  Algis, may you bless us with your shielding hands.  Steve, I love you!"

See if I can jury-rig a helmet from whatever is here.  Pray for divine guidance.

[handi:4]
You, using a large glass container and some plastic...something? to make a replacement helmet. You think that it might give you a minute or so worth of not dying in the vacuum before it implodes or you die of lack of air or heat or something.

"They're after... OH FRAK! ALVIN!"

The realization dawning on him, Anton prepares to shout a warning into the radio, but immediately stops when he realizes that doing so will attract the creatures to him.

"А, чтоб тебя! Let's hope this works..."

Without a moment to lose, Anton types a message into the datapad, sets it to broadcast at maximum urgency, and leaves it on the ground, speeding off in the direction he last saw Bishop. Get his attention and relay the message to him in case something goes wrong with the radio.

ALVIN, EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN! CUT ALL POWER TO BASE FACILITIES!

The creatures are going after electronics, active electronics! We have to lure them away or the base is done for. And our life support and ALVIN are underground.

ALVIN, EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN! CUT ALL POWER TO BASE FACILITIES!

You set your pad to broadcast and throw it on the ground before zooming, or more accurately slowly rolling, out toward bishop.

((By the way, for everyone's knowledge. As far as I remember, the MPV is still outside the base, loaded with shuttle-parts, as nobody touched it after Jack brought it to base. Or am I forgetting something?

Oh, and Sean. I think Alvin is already dead. Along with all the data he stored. Okay, maybe not all the data.))

Turning on his radio, Vich really hoped that the sermons Lars was singing stopped.

"Okay, do you think we triggered something? HOW? Nevermind, this planetoid has managed to surprise me once again. Every time it seems to me as if I had figured out it's tricks, it manages to surprise me. And this time apparently, it's the movement of several people affecting the entire giant storm. Unless of course it wasn't us, but we will probably never know that. Probably just me being paranoid.

Okay, I hope it's painfully obvious to everyone that we need to start moving away from this thing. And even if it isn't moving fast enough now, it can always speed up. Hm, the one good thing about this situation is that we can observe the effects of it colliding with other anomalies. But the food we left might become a liability."

(Let's just assume it was before Anton's emergency message, okay? To make it make sense.) To Base: "Base, what exactly is happening over there? Remember, we're far away, so we can't exactly see it.
Because what is happening over here, is that the huge storm we've been following all this time has decided to start moving forward. I haven't estimated yet how fast it is moving, and it is pretty far away from the base. However, it might be in our best interests to displace the reserve food supplies by the broken shuttle-half before the storm reaches them. We have no vehicles, so it might be difficult for us to do it, but anyone with a robot, an MPV, or a shuttle, should manage."

Turn on my radio.
How fast is the storm moving? Faster than us walking? Is it speeding up?
Will the storm be able to reach the base before our time on this planet runs out?

Leave a single drone to monitor the storm's progress, by moving back as the storm moves forward. In other words, every time storm moves a subhex forward, the drone moves a subhex back.
Send a drone to map out the direction we were walking in, following the storm, but once again, moving back as the storm moves forward. The idea, is following the pinging signals from the drone, to know how much further the storm extends.
Send a drone to map out the unexplored hex between where we stand right now and the electric field. Once it finishes, have it return on the Dry Lake Bed for us to pick up.

Use Zephyris's skills to do it if I need to roll Aux at any point. If I can send the drone, but some of the variables I specified are too hard to do ir comprehend, send them anyway, we don't have time for a Q&A session.

That done, walk/jog North. Don't do the whole drone thing if we have no time for this, and have to literally run for out lives.
After reaching the Dry Lake Bed and picking up the drone, follow Denzel, and help him with the supplies.

The storm appears to be moving fairly quickly. Not run for your life fast but not sit around and watch slow. You send out your drones and head north. The one set to explore the area south of the electric fields goes dark soon after entering the area.

You make it up to the dry lake bed.

"Damn, this is really bad.

I suggest anyone still in the base get the hell out off there. Right the frak now.

Everyone else, if you have an idea to lure that thing away from base, now would be the time. I think anyone who still has some flight capability should put their radio transmitters to max and start blasting while moving away from the group. Then, when it starts going toward the new source, that person puts out his radio and flies away full speed. That might buy us some time at the very least."


Try to think if I could boost my or someone else's radio transmitter. Then start spreading out the people who are in the group here, close enough to stay in sight but far enough not to be swallowed whole if it were to show up here.

You could boost it, but it would require some hardware.

You motion for everyone to spread out a bit.

Put radio to ma.x

"Putting radio to max!"

You turn it up to 11.

walk closer to base set radio to maximum and begin singing about how tasty i am.
If i get the worms attention turn and flee, if the worms begin to catch up shut off my radio and run straight to gilgamesh.

((Actually lets not go closer, ive survived this long by not taking stupid risks, lets keep it that way... silly actions are a completely different story however.))

Despite your attempts, the worms seem more interested in something else. Escaping from something, but the look of it.

"The supplies are in the way of the storm, right? Let's move them over to the shuttle half- it's good shelter."

Run up to the supplies, and move them to the shuttle half, nutri-packs first if I can't carry them all.

The shuttle, at least most of it, has long ago been stripped and carted over to near the base; though not actually in it.

"HOLD ON LARS!"

Return to base, and find Lars. Give him his helmet, and tell him to get out. Search for any ammo I can find, or failing that, any other guns. If attacked, beat them with my shovel.

You run back into the base find lars in the freezer. You give him back his helmet and take the shitty spare one he made. You push him out and tell him to run. He does.

"You got it. I'm becoming a flying distraction. I sure hope I don't get eaten."

Radio transmitter power to max and fly away from everyone and the base. Watch for jumping worms.

You do as so many do, attempting to lead the worms away.

Wait and see what happens (from a safe distance)

You lower your rifle and watch.

"Nope, nobody listens to the wise old man's suggestions. I'm just gonna have to go there and save them myself, aren't I?"

Keep running towards the base. Any estimate on how long it's going to take? Would using my rockets change anything?

Don't worry, it will all be over soon.






The thing that comes from the ground is...well it's not a worm. It's hard to tell what it really is; the team only sees a small part of it. What they see looks like a beak; enormous and black, studded with sharpened ridges and protrusions like the teeth of a tunnel grinder. It punches through the stone on either side of the base and then closes. The Base is half torn, half collapses down into the great sinkhole. A mass of flesh, cyclopean gray scales, and a ridge of squirming centipede legs crest the surface and then it's gone. All that remains of the base is a few buildings on it's outer edge and a black shaft where it used to stand.

[Kriellya]

(( Welp. Been a good run for some of you. You will be sorely missed. ))

[Thearpox]

((No, the kitchen is still standing. I don't think anyone actually died.

So you know what guys, I think we should take a lesson from this. When your job is to explore an extremely dangerous and unknown planetoid, and your base sustain some damage, don't waste several months fixing the base into perfect shape. Make it livable, leave a couple people to continue repair it, and then continue exploring. Also, I blame Pyrodesu for everything. ("Blame" doesn't mean "mad at".) ))

To Denzel: "Base hasn't been responding to any of my messages for the last few turns. Too busy dealing with their own problems. I can hear a lot of screaming, and I can gather that they're in trouble, and that the inside of the base is invaded, but that's about it. But what that basically means, is that until they finally deal with it, we're kind of on our own. I will continue pestering them of course.

Anyway, considering that Piecewise keeping saying that the mission will end very soon, I'm thinking that we might just abandon the food supplies, since we won't really need them. And in addition, my out of character knowledge says that the base kitchen survived anyway. So what do you think, should we spread out and see what happens when the storm intersects with different anomalies, or keep exploring the areas North of us?"


Does this mean all of the samples stored in the base have vanished? If so, could we get a list of what vanished, and what we still have? Just so we don't run into disagreements later.

What about the third drone I have sent South-East to map out the rest of the Storm?


Move to the Crystal Field where we have stored food.

Along the way, sample the Dry Lake Bed ground.
Sample the crystals in the Crystal Field.
Sample the atmosphere in the Crystal Field.
Find the hole where we extracted a sample of the Crystal Fluid. (Bishop found the thinnest patch of the ground, and used a pole to break through it. Inside we saw the Crystal Fluid, and sampled it.)
Sample the fluid out of it. In necessary, use the pole to break through it again. (Should be easier doing it again, right?) If necessary, use exaggerated movements mode. If failed, have Zephyris try it. If failed again, move on.
Label all of these. (Object, Location. Example: Atmosphere, Crystal Field.)

Then load myself (and my pet) with food in addition to all these samples, and head back to base with Denzel.
(I know it's a lot of sampling actions, but since we're doing many-hours treks in a single turn, the time it should take compared to walking is miniscule.)

[Parisbre56]

Run to base. See which parts survived. See if I can follow the creature through the hole.

[Tavik Toth]

On radio"Crap. What do we do now?"

form up nearest team member.