"It is like we are arcologists, you and I. Watch me now. I will touch large stone. Shoot me slightly if needed. If I turn into Eater, follow me and see where I go."
Take a deep breath, then touch one of the larger stones in the room. Make sure Dubley keeps an eye and a gun on me as I do so.
If nothing adverse begins to happen or is hinted at by any feelings, grab the large stone, deposit in inventory. Or give it to Dubley, he seems to have plenty of room.
Also, is the tube the vertical tunnel? Does it continue further down? If yes, and I can check it in the same turn, see how far down does it appear to go - first look into it, then try the rope+camera test.
If it's horizontal and I can check it, simply look into it with the light.
"Sure thing Chief.
Hope this tube doesn't become a deathtube. Hey, weren't you the one asking about deathtubes in the shuttle?"
Watch Chief as she picks up the stone. Restrain her if it possesses her, and put it in my bag if it's safe.
Then begin marching down the tunnel. If I can, prepare a dynamic aux bonus for evacuating the tunnel via jetpack in case it get's hot in here.
The chief touches one of the larger stones. It's slightly warm and so perfectly smooth that lifting it up is far harder then she expected; like lifting a block of greased ice.
The tube is horizontal, like a tunnel that bisects the room. You look down both sides but see no end to it in the short distance your light can reach.
Dubley starts marching down one of the tunnels...well, marching as best he can in a 3 foot tall passage. He gets about 50 feet before the tunnel splits into 3 more tunnels, one of which is no more then a foot wide shaft snaking down off the main tunnel at a 40 degree angle.
Something rumbles in the distance.
"Any relevant facts or myths about it? Site of the first Eater or last capital, perhaps?"
Ask Steve. Amp-shovel sand over the host, not enough to bury him, but to buy time.
Str 3; Dex 3; End 3; Cha 10; Int 6; Wil 15//Spe 0; Int 1; Han 0 (-1); Con 4; Unc 0; Exo 12; Aux 3 (+1); Med 0
Mk II Suit; Microwave PK Amp; Mass manip PK Amp; laser rifle (fired once); 0 tokens: normal cigarettes; blue smokes; datapad (with platformer shooter); nanoghosts; shock trigger (with Morul); white skin-tight node-covered black-shell stasis suit worn under Mk II.
Appearance: 5'11'', 170 pounds in a rather unmuscular frame, shoulder-long brown hair, short goatee, brown eyes, a rather long chin that earned him his nickname. Age 32
Half a robot foot. Robot right arm. Wears basic clothes when not in the Mk II.
>Nothing that specific. Supposedly this entire area was the site of the first capital and the landing place of the first eater. Anywhere around here might be significant. You psychically grab a huge mass of sand, lifting it into the air above the advancing eater and then releasing it in a steady stream, burying the thing without just smashing it.
(In the case of the other system, he would have managed to bury it about halfway, since he only rolled a 3.)
"Hey, arsewipes playing in the hole. The Eater's just knicked off from us, vap'ed Dern's body and might be going down a volcano's hole. Get ready for it to get pretty fucking hot in your cozy little cunt of a life."
Sambo keeps running after the Eater, cranks his laser up to full power/medium dispersion, and keeps firing. If the Eater does go into the volcano cauldera, or any hole within 30 miles, Sambo keeps firing, but keeps his distance (a good 100' or so, maybe more).
"Zap! motherfucker!"
((I am fine with it if those are Sambo's last words.))
Edit: Laser power edit. No reason to suicide. Not funny enough yet.
Eater is buried for the moment.
Also, you've clearly got a death wish.
"Holy shit! Thank god I didn't attempt to tackle that thing! As dangerous as amp usage is, I think we need to attempt to restrain it slash hold it to the ground via some good ol' space magic... someone ask Steve to remind us what he knows about the known containment procedures for this thing" Continue chasing after the eater, discontinue wasting my battery, and for the love of god do not touch the thing that is boiling it's own blood
For the moment the eater has stopped moving, buried somewhere under the sand.
"I think I'll go the other way in the tunnels- more coverage that way."
Enter the hole carefully, making sure I can get out without too much issue. Then, if Chief is fine, head into the intersecting tunnel in the opposite direction of the Chief and Dubley. Also, if the Chief is fine, pick up a few of the smaller/medium size stones and put them in my inventory.
You manage to get a few of the smaller ones, because you can get your hands around them, but the medium ones are too slippery; they just keep squirting out of between your fingers.
You take the other tunnel. It stays singular for the entire 50 foot length you get, but the ceiling does start to get much shorter, forcing you to crawl.
Steve, where is it going. WHY is it going? Between the heat-balls coming out of the desert and this thing moving towards a volcano...either someone else is trying to cook this thing, or our intel is god-awful and we're missing something major. Can you give us ANYTHING?
Scurry after the Eater.
>I wouldn't know. All I can say is that you probably shouldn't trust local tradition implicitly. Who knows how they may have misinterpreted the situation. Humans do have a bad habit of interpreting things as always being related to them.
"Shit, why won't you stay down!"
Use my mass amp to assist in covering the Eater in sand.
[6+1]
You drop several tons of sand onto the eater in one go, draining basically your entire "brain ammo" and maybe killing the eater. Hard to tell. It certainly didn't look healthy.
(In the other system he would have dropped the sand in a more controlled way but overextended himself and maybe ended up unconscious.)
"I uh dont know what to do"
slow chase of fire-murder-thulu slightly and consider what to do
Turn on light lamps to act as fog lights, helping others target the Eater through the steam.
And you guys were rendered mostly useless now.
The burial mound that our friendly amp user's formed around the eater is shifting slightly and glowing very dully with internal heat. Steam is still hissing up through it, forming little volcanic vents in the top.
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Topic: Mission 18: The final sunset (Read 182225 times)