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[AoshimaMichio]

Ulrich, Hasala, report on the last... several minutes, starting with right after we reached the center. Stat.

"Ugh... Let's see. I started translating texts in the room. After I finished and was about to report results the room started to expand rapidly until there was nothing but unending expanse of black. You went all stiff, floating and inside your suit was something glowing moving. Not sure what it was. I recommend checking yourself anyway. Then those frozen people appeared out of nowhere encircling us, this time all naked, white and bleeding black stuff from all holes. And... then you started to fly up somehow without rockets, up towards big black pyramid inside white fire which was coming down towards us. I flew after you, tried to bring you back down and Morul zoomed past us to the pyramid. Dunno what happened next but here were are, under the rubble."

[Nikitian]

"And... then you started to fly up somehow without rockets, up towards big black pyramid inside white fire which was coming down towards us. I flew after you, tried to bring you back down and Morul zoomed past us to the pyramid."

Boiling white rage arose, engulfing Maurice's mind as he understood what that meant.

Foolish interloper! Profane savage! Opportunistic brigand!
... I need to calm. There would be time for anger later. He might have been trying to... save me.
- And he succeeded, didn't he?..

The experience of fighting the murderous urges brought on by the Dissector Knife came unexpectedly handy here, as Dr. Sanctor gradually regained his cool.

Act first. Judge and analyse later.

Troops, the figure in the center is likely your comrade Morul Migrurkeshin, possessed by an alien entity that first tried possessing me. He is the most strong-willed trooper on the team save for Pancaek and me, so it is very likely that he is still alive somewhere in there. Furthermore, physics as we know them appear to be of secondary effect in here; the whole place appears to be governed by some strange psychic laws and entities living in that world rather than reality known to us; think of them as ghosts or spirits possessing those bodies, if you wish. Shooting the bodies would inconvenience them at most, and probably even less, now that their illusions and spiritual activity is rampant.

Konrad, remotely reduce Bartolomew's suit temperature to suitably cold levels to keep his brain fresh.
Hasala, you're next in line for Team I and overall command. If I'm down again and now for good... Prove Snapdragon was a fluke. Make General Miyamoto proud.

Burst my way out from the rubble. Use any means necessary (but not immediately disastrous; avoid those) such as: use exoskeleton strength; put the weight on the good leg and use it to assist lifting (i.e. not just with arms strength); enable Enhanced Movements Mode (rocket-assisted strength and dexterity); use main thrusters lift; remove the software limiters/overclock the exoskeleton; administer adrenaline micro-injections to facilitate a surge in organic strength.

Send "knock unconscious" shock signals to both Morul and Pancaek, for good measure. Not that they are likely to get through.

[AoshimaMichio]

"And the written texts are less important. Nothing particularly useful. Locals called the frozen people 'Stalkers' or something, very fitting term actually. They first appeared at the courtyard where we saw them too. And people who were 'taken', I assume that's those who went too close, weren't seen again. And the groups of people who tried to find way out often disappeared, despite of using 'look in every direction' trick. Weird stuff."

[Pancaek]

Any change in my situation? Just checking in.

[Corsair]

"Aye Sir"
reduce suit temperature & maintain overwatch position.

[AoshimaMichio]

And hey, I'm doing that handwaved player market purchase on mid mission because you said on IRC it's ok. I'm buying "Steve question coupon" AND I'M NOT AFRAID TO USE IT! PREPARE YOURSELF!

[piecewise]

((Oh good, I was worried I have a curse to die on every mission. Granted, it can still happen.))

Allright. Check how much I can get myself out of the rubble. Exoskeleton should help. If this doesn't result satisfaction in form of freedom, then try same with Pimp Cane. Form it into prongs and make it push stuff up and away if it can.

You shift the large slabs of concrete off yourself and stand up, shaking brick dust and bits of rebar out of your suit. You're on the ground floor, or whats left of it, and you can just barely see the white flame cloaked figure as it walks away.

I ain't getting outta this, am I.

None of us might be.

Ulrich, Hasala, report on the last... several minutes, starting with right after we reached the center. Stat.

:After we lost contact, I started detecting dangerous effects near where you were; a region of swirling temperatures, ranging from near absolute zero to millions of degrees. Radiation detection mode simply threw errors at me. Motion tracking showed air being sucked into the building rapidly. None of those effects were apparent with normal vision, though, and didn't seem to actually be affecting anything - the building should have collapsed much sooner, if they had. I tested perception with Mad Hatter at 30%, but nothing changed.

A few seconds ago, a black dome expanded from roughly your current location, and everything it touched was fixed in place on the dome and pushed outward, slowly consumed with black fire. Then it imploded and formed a normally-sized black humanoid figure, shrouded in white flames. That figure is currently walking toward the courtyard on the road to the east, where all the puppets are moving - despite being watched - and the ones already there are in concentric circles and... dancing, it looks like. The white flames of the black figure don't appear to be melting the snow.

More of the dangerous effects I mentioned earlier are happening in the center of those concentric circles, though there isn't anything physically there, as far as I can tell. I'm currently a few hundred meters above them, observing.:
Abject nonsense around the black figure? As in, the same kind in the circles and originally around the rest of Team 1 when they were trapped? Or something else?
Continue observing.

Yeah, like that, but more. And harder.

"And... then you started to fly up somehow without rockets, up towards big black pyramid inside white fire which was coming down towards us. I flew after you, tried to bring you back down and Morul zoomed past us to the pyramid."

Boiling white rage arose, engulfing Maurice's mind as he understood what that meant.

Foolish interloper! Profane savage! Opportunistic brigand!
... I need to calm. There would be time for anger later. He might have been trying to... save me.
- And he succeeded, didn't he?..

The experience of fighting the murderous urges brought on by the Dissector Knife came unexpectedly handy here, as Dr. Sanctor gradually regained his cool.

Act first. Judge and analyse later.

Troops, the figure in the center is likely your comrade Morul Migrurkeshin, possessed by an alien entity that first tried possessing me. He is the most strong-willed trooper on the team save for Pancaek and me, so it is very likely that he is still alive somewhere in there. Furthermore, physics as we know them appear to be of secondary effect in here; the whole place appears to be governed by some strange psychic laws and entities living in that world rather than reality known to us; think of them as ghosts or spirits possessing those bodies, if you wish. Shooting the bodies would inconvenience them at most, and probably even less, now that their illusions and spiritual activity is rampant.

Konrad, remotely reduce Bartolomew's suit temperature to suitably cold levels to keep his brain fresh.
Hasala, you're next in line for Team I and overall command. If I'm down again and now for good... Prove Snapdragon was a fluke. Make General Miyamoto proud.

Burst my way out from the rubble. Use any means necessary (but not immediately disastrous; avoid those) such as: use exoskeleton strength; put the weight on the good leg and use it to assist lifting (i.e. not just with arms strength); enable Enhanced Movements Mode (rocket-assisted strength and dexterity); use main thrusters lift; remove the software limiters/overclock the exoskeleton; administer adrenaline micro-injections to facilitate a surge in organic strength.

Send "knock unconscious" shock signals to both Morul and Pancaek, for good measure. Not that they are likely to get through.

You burst your way out as well.

You send the signals to morul and pancaek. Pancaek, wherever he is, doesn't seem to be effected. But morul stops walking. And he turns his head to look at you.

Any change in my situation? Just checking in.

Not yet. Well, you feel a tingling sensation.

"Aye Sir"
reduce suit temperature & maintain overwatch position.

Alright.  If thats what you wanna do.

And hey, I'm doing that handwaved player market purchase on mid mission because you said on IRC it's ok. I'm buying "Steve question coupon" AND I'M NOT AFRAID TO USE IT! PREPARE YOURSELF!

So long as you pay for it.

Also, remember, Steve isn't me. Steve is a character, an NPC. He's not omnipotent.

[piecewise]

Ok, we're in combat time now so act as though you only have a second or two to do something.

[Pancaek]

Try to, like, focus on the tingling sensation and become conscious again?

[AoshimaMichio]

Also, remember, Steve isn't me. Steve is a character, an NPC. He's not omnipotent.

((Naturally.))

Rats abandon the sinking ship, and Ulrich flies away from Maurice. That is up and towards building 16. Should Morul do anything that can be interpreted as an attack, shoot him with Testament.

[Nikitian]

Set Mad Hatter to strobing kaleidoscope of random distortion levels.

Initiate evasive manoeuvres. Fly-tackle the white-flame-clad figure. Fire up my determination and willpower; "scream" at the top of my brain.

Mine!

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

HUNKER DOWN HUNKER DOWN HUNKER DOWN.

[Dorsidwarf]

Hunker down behind the other hunkering down person for hot hunker-on-hunker action.

[kisame12794]

Retake control of my body?

[piecewise]

Try to, like, focus on the tingling sensation and become conscious again?

No dice.

Well, one die, but it's not showing me the number you want.

HUNKER DOWN HUNKER DOWN HUNKER DOWN.

Hunker down behind the other hunkering down person for hot hunker-on-hunker action.

That Good Ol' Xcom style action.

Retake control of my body?

Pancaek has a chance, you, on your own, do not.

Also, remember, Steve isn't me. Steve is a character, an NPC. He's not omnipotent.

((Naturally.))

Rats abandon the sinking ship, and Ulrich flies away from Maurice. That is up and towards building 16. Should Morul do anything that can be interpreted as an attack, shoot him with Testament.

Well you're gonna be shooting it then.

Set Mad Hatter to strobing kaleidoscope of random distortion levels.

Initiate evasive manoeuvres. Fly-tackle the white-flame-clad figure. Fire up my determination and willpower; "scream" at the top of my brain.

Mine!

Uh huh. Well lets first roll to see if, in that mode, you can even find morul. We don't have a stat for that specifically...so lets just use general knowledge.

Nope.

So Maurice activates his rockets and screams what might be a challenge or maybe a solicitation at the thing controlling morul before he rockets off in the others direction, erratically dipping and dodging around as he does.





The area where Maurice was standing, that entire building and an expanding cone of area behind it, turns solid black with palpable physical thud. And then it blows away like it was made of black glitter; a million tiny fragments, shards of glass as thin as paper, scattered to the wind.

The guy who died in the collapse? Yeah he's permadead now.




Ulrich, who I assume moved with maurice, fires a shot at the thing that was morul, but the spike bursts into white flame and burns away before it can reach his body.

Morul turns and continues walking toward the concentric rings of puppets, which are now 5 rings deep and spinning unbelievable speed.