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[Toaster]

"Brother Tek, is it?  I am familiar with the idea, and indeed have met Steve in another guise of his; that other form is indeed what led me here in the first place.  As far as the Pantheon, there may be some multipledimensionality of some of the members, but I am not aware of any other particular instance.  Excepting that I feel Pathmas may be another guise of Steve; that said, keeping prayers separate is best now in case I am wrong!  It would not do to offend."

[Nunzillor]

"Yes, Tek is Tek.  Tek asked because his experiences suggest that all divinity flows from the same source.  He was wondering your thoughts on this since you are clearly a deeply religious man.

If Tek may ask, how did you know that the one you previously worshipped was merely a guise of Steve?  Why not the other way around?  Could those gods, and perhaps all gods, be equal?  Cut from the same cloth?

Tek does not mean to ask too many questions.  He has simply heard of many gods.  The comb.  Pathmas.  Steve.  Perhaps they are all one."

[Toaster]

"It was all part of a divine plan to lead me to my true purpose here on the Sword.  I started preaching the word of Gazer Sek, who valued wisdom, inner reflection, and of course obedience to commands.  After an... incident, I was shipped off to the Sword, where I met Steve, praise his name.  It became clear to me after some reflection that the two were just two sides of the same coin.  It is entirely possible that Steve has other faces out there as well, doing things in his divine way to bring other pilgrims into the fold.

Steve is the true face because he has appeared to me in his divine avatar, and spoken directly to me clearly and frankly.  The others of the Pantheon are all birthed from Pathmas; perhaps one could consider that the apples did not fall far from the divine tree, as it were."

[Nunzillor]

"Ah, so you have seen Steve firsthand.  It is much the opposite for Tek.  Steve has spoken to him only over speakers or through others, whereas the comb has granted Tek visions and spoken directly into his mind.  Steve is powerful, surely, but he is not always direct."

"Yes, thank you for your insight.  But Tek knows now that this is something he must decide for himself.  He will be on the lookout this mission for a sign.  One that he hopes will reveal to him the true nature of these gods."

[piecewise]

((Well, looks like I'm not going to see or do much this mission.))

You may be thankful of that in a bit.

[Hapah]

((Well, looks like I'm not going to see or do much this mission.))

You may be thankful of that in a bit.

Oh balls.

[Kriellya]

((Well, looks like I'm not going to see or do much this mission.))

You may be thankful of that in a bit.

(( What was that you were saying about not blowing your load in the first level? ))

[Dutrius]

((Well, looks like I'm not going to see or do much this mission.))

You may be thankful of that in a bit.

((That's always encouraging. Good luck guys.))

[piecewise]

See if I can stabilize myself, don't move too much, but try and get my mcp-2 to recognize that I'm currently dieing. Alot.

It's saving your brain.

Thats more then I can say for others.

Go over the biosensor data from the dead troopers, sods and gunnerbots. Can I deduce what happened or how it happened? Anything useful to learn there?

Did the suits pick up anything from that pulse? Any sort of vibration perhaps? And did the brainwave monitors and such pick up anything interesting (eg if the suits/Steve didn't hear anything, but their auditory brainsections still lit up, that's another clue in the direction of direct medium-less mind fuckery).

Then, have the surviving sods pile the dead ones and the dead gunnerbots in a shuttle, after which they keep the elevator guarded for now.

Well, you can deduce that even the ones that are still alive are injured. It's effecting the entire body as well, not just one part or piece. It also appear to be continuing to a degree, or at least it is proving hard for their bodies to fight off.

The suits didn't really pick up anything, aside from the bodies of the sods very suddenly starting to melt. Odd.

You let the sods pile the dead and then guard the elevator.

((Welp, can someone poke me?))

Try not be dead.

No.

If there's anything I can do to help heal the people who got hit by the pulse, do that.

You...don't appear to be on a team xan, friend. What is this?

SHALLOW

"You heard the boss. Team shallow, with me!"

Lead my team onto floor 10.

Are you sure I have muscle damage? Got a robot body from the neck down.

In that case, enjoy your brain damage.

Flint Westwood - Shallow
"I find this designation offensive. You callin me shallow?" Flint joked.

EDIT3: Oh, does this colony have the iris thing in the elevator for preserving atmosphere inside the colony? If not, can I retroactively close the door to the entrance to preserve atmosphere?

Keep looking around with my Hydra gun and cameyes.
If we reach the floor we're supposed to reach, exit and see what's on this level.

EDIT: Ask Steve if he can take the shuttle with the dead sods, dogs and ARMy men and try to revive them or at least put them in stasis. Not so that they can rejoin the mission, just so that they don't permadie by turning into man-soup.
And maybe so that the infirmary can check the dead and tell us how they're dying, what's happening to their bodies, so we can see if there's any chance we can do something to increase our chances of surviving.

EDIT2: And ask Steve if he knows which level their mining and processing areas are and on which level their scientific areas are, since if they uncovered something Alien, it's likely to be stored there. Unless they found it on the surface and put it in someone's personal quarters or one of the family spheres got it.

Well, we can definitely try and fly them away if the team leaders give the go ahead to it.

The levels you're probably looking for, since they don't really have a "science" level, are the lowest ones. Those are the processing areas.

And yeah, iris to preserve oxygen.

Check myself to be sure I'm in combat condition after the whole bleeding incident.

You feel very shit, but you think you're able to move around and keep fighting for the moment.


Kind outta time here so I'll just tell you that this current level you're on is a sort of mall/entertainment level so you're gonna be coming out in a large donut shaped area with the elevator shaft in the center and shops and such along the outer surface.


DEEP

Squad Deep

Check the health of both manipulator brains.  Think about what can be done to treat confusion and dizziness.  Get off on floor 25.

ooo good call. One of them is dead. The other is bleeding a lot.
And nothing can be done about that because your brain is likewise dead and bleeding

As the elevator started, Brother Lars pressed the numbers for the first and last floor.  "Brothers and sisters of Steve, this will test us greatly, but yea, by the brilliant light of Steve, we shall prevail.  Brother Dubley!  I ask that you lead Flint, Vanessa, Elias, and Judas out at the first stop and work downward.  The rest of us will follow me to the depths.  Yea, we shall seek the source of this evil and subdue it mightily.  For we walk in the light of Steve, have the shielding hands of Algis to protect us, and Ingram and Vo-Nos to guide our attacks.  May we be ever in the favor of Pathmas.  Amen."

Hit the stops for 10 and 25.  Lars rides all the way down.



Squad Deep
Lars
Lyra
Yancy
Tek
Taddok

Squad Shallow
Dubley
Vanessa
Elias
Flint
Judas

I lie down on the elevator, my fur to cloaking me again, and rest, trying to figure out if I'm in physical pain or mental pain, and let myself begin to recover from either.

Stand ready to shoot anything that pops out to eat us when the elevator stops, otherwise chill.

Jumping all the way down to level 25 at first eh? Well, ok, that will be fun.

You come out into what amounts in a really massive and pretty open warehouse with lots of metal support pillars set up at regular intervals around the place. It's big, lit fairly poorly and carved straight out of the stone of the planet. There are a fair number of corpses around here, most of which are clustered around a shipping container next to a stack of other containers, apparently probably ones that were coming down from the warehouse up top.

[Toaster]

Brother Lars- Team Deep

"Okay, brothers. Let us split up and search; I will check that shipping container.  May Algis shield us all from danger."

Quick prayer to Algis for protection.  Check that big solo totally-not-suspicious container surrounded by corpses.

[Parisbre56]

Flint Westwood - Shallow

@Miyamoto::I think it would be best if we sent the injured back to the Sword so that they don't keep melting if another pulse hits them. I also suggest sending the dead sods first, in case there's some kind of field around the planet that does anything strange to them when they go through it. You can send another shuttle in the meantime:

@Team: :Doesn't look like there's anything interesting here. I say we just make a quick sweep and continue up or down. Probably down.
Do we keep quiet or announce our presence and hope we find someone lucky enough to be immune to this thing? Or at least attract some interesting alien monster? I'm for the loud option, but I also have a giant suit of armour so I might be a bit biased.:

What about any security or administration levels? Any place that could have camera feeds or logs of what was going on? Or maybe a flight control room or mission control room that could have info about recent expeditions? Does Steve know anything about those?

Hospitals, medical centres, things like that? Any of those around?

Unless ordered otherwise, do a quick search and scan (cameyes+hydra heads) of the floor and then return to the elevator. While moving, after I get some distance from my teammates (I'm assuming we're searching different areas to finish faster), start periodically announcing my presence and see if I can attract the attention of anything in here: "This is a rescue team responding to your colony's distress signal. We are friends. We are here to help. We can provide medical assistance and help you evacuate. If anyone is listening, please respond."

Are there more dead/melted people here? And the same strange particles in the atmosphere as outside?
Is there any food stores or restaurants? Or plants? Have stuff there been turned into soup too?
What about newspaper stands, announcement boards or TVs in cafeterias, anything that would hold info about potentially important events?
Anything else of interest?

EDIT: If another sound wave approaches, try dispelling it with the power of music by singing Lost in the Supermarket by the Clash (or some other mall-themed song) in as cool manner as possible.

[Hapah]

DEEP TEAM: Taddok Find

"Okay, brothers. Let us split up and search; I will check that shipping container.  May Algis shield us all from danger."

You got it.

Look around for anything that looks unusual or out of place (Intuition roll go!) If nothing catches my eye check on something...to the right of the elevator door?

[NAV]

Dubley Steptimus - Shallow Team Leader

"Perform a quick sweep of the level then we're heading...wait, Flint, are you reading my mind or something?

Perform a quick sweep then we're heading down. Spread out to cover more ground, take whatever you want, but be quick! Don't cause too much noise or chaos, I'm looking at you Elias."

Quickly explore the mall level with my team. Search for clues or survivors or useful loot.

Keep an eye on all the sensors.
Set up miniscreen thing in my helmet that rotates through the feeds from everyone else's cams.
My faceplate being covered in blood isn't causing any problems, is it? Cause if it is then I guess I'll have to lick it clean. Ewwww.

Program all our suits to play very loud dubstep designed to counteract the soundwave. Probably won't help much especially if the soundwave isn't real sound, but it's worth a try.

[Toaster]

((Might want to put an underlined header in your posts with name and team, for the benefit of PW.))

[HavingPhun]

Shuttle - injured/dead -- Ian Smith:

If possible, ensure that my MKII is doing what it can to help me health wise. Otherwise, continue to be a motionless heap of flesh. Just posting this to show that I am still here.