Onward: Orange

[voidtreckermods]

A Stormy Night

The night of day six of Grasshopper begins to get blustery, and rain begins to fall shortly after the sun sets. Just after midnight they are facing a full-on storm. It’s quite interesting to watch, for those who need a break from investigating. Especially up on the top floor, where the glass roof gives a good view; all the instruments are set up to monitor weather patterns and are operating perfectly, a fascinating watch for those interested in such things.

It’s a little noisy, but not too bad for those that want to sleep; it’s just another distraction along with the perpetual light. Still it is, for the most part, a peaceful night.

Lights OUT

Peaceful, that is, until about an hour before dawn on day seven, their third day on-world. A large clap of thunder booms overhead, a massive flash of light brightens even the sky around the station… and something hits the facility so hard that it seems to rock. The lights go out.

Every single light and screen in the building go dark at once. 

It’s only a few moments before the machines whir back to life. Monitors and equipment rebooting, a cascade of beeps and whirrs and start-up tones. The lights, however, do not come back on. Clearly emergency lighting has never been a concern for a people that can see in the dark.

It’s a concern now. From across the facility, everywhere there was an orb, there are now monsters. A lot of monsters. Grey, long limbed and ready to attack.

Luckily for the Voidtreckers, the monsters on the very bottom floor have found something more interesting than hunting them. Within moments, they smash through the grates along the floor, and begin clambering downwards.

Downwards seems to be through some kind of service shaft, though easily big enough to fit a person in. They skitter down into the darkness, if any of Orange try and follow they can. It will be a steep, treacherous descent; they may need to break out that climbing gear to descend safely. 

Something Approaches

Back in the facility, the monsters that didn’t descend are instead attacking anyone they find with mindless savagery. A little while after the attack starts those near the top floor will hear a siren, ringing out into the darkness. It is not constant, rather it peaks and fades. Anyone who goes to investigate will find it comes from a black metal machine on the top floor, its screen showing a now constantly flashing, wavy green line and the words SIGNAL FOUND. As time passes, the green wave on-screen grows taller.
Luckily, they only have to last the remaining hour until dawn and when the sunlight shines through the glass of the facility the monsters shatter. In their place rise familiar orbs. Any monsters on the sub-levels remain active whilst the facility is in darkness.

The alarm subsides during the day. The machine’s wave remains the same size, pulsing only occasionally. Once night falls on the third day (Grasshopper 7), it shrills, and the wave continues to grow.

Comments

[gundamofthedesert]

Drat, those darn monsters. Not following procedure.

Quatre was startled first by the sound of the monster as it rushed out of the closet and then by the light dragon that Curufin suddenly summoned. When they weren't in mortal danger he would HAVE to ask him more about that!

Quatre quietly shifted so he was no longer shielded by the door. The door was safer, but when had that ever stopped him when there was danger afoot?

He looked down at his SCA, suddenly remembering there was a light on it. Probably not the best light, but maybe it would work for what they were doing so he turned it on, adjusting it so that it shined into the room so they could both see what was in there.

[so_dark_a_road]

Got to send them all an office procedures manual and tell them they'll lose their monster jobs if they don't read it and follow regulations!

Curufin looked down at his own SCA, then thought that maybe he should not stop practicing using it for this monster-destroying purpose. Good to have more than one technique.

"Let's hit it with both our SCAs," he murmured to Quatre. "It's going to come out of there in a second."

And the monster, still hearing human voices, rushed out. Curufin put out his left arm and clotheslined it. It flailed, but the strong Elvish forearm was flush against its neck. With his right hand, Curufin swiftly shined his SCA directly into its eyes. If Quatre did the same, the thing might shatter too quickly to get its claws on Curufin.

[gundamofthedesert]

Quatre nodded in agreement, bracing himself for impending arrival since it was still in there and these things were not afraid of people.

As it suddenly surged at them, he put one foot back to brace himself if it did actually ram him, but it was stopped by Curufin. As Curufin raised his SCA to shine it in the creature's face, Quatre did the same, causing it to shatter the same way the other had when Curufin attacked it.

"Well, that seemed to have worked."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin laughed. "It sure did. Good teamwork, huh?"

[gundamofthedesert]

"Excellent teamwork." He smiled. "Let's see if there is anything of value in here before more show up."

He stepped cautiously further into the room, shining his light around to see if there was anything of use in there.

[so_dark_a_road]

"Yes, we'd better check," agreed Curufin, following Quatre, and likewise shining his SCA around.

[gundamofthedesert]

Quatre shined his SCA around, looking for a light or something like that. Well, anything that might be useful in general. As the light passed through the room, it landed on something.

"Does that look like it might be a light?" he asked, keeping SCA focused on it.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin came closer and took a look at the object. It seemed to be a large spotlight protected by a metal housing. There were fixtures bolted to the housing that clearly were meant to be used to fasten the floodlight to a wall or a roof ledge. In the back of it there was an aperture where a cable could be plugged in.

"Oho! Yes! This is something we can use."

[gundamofthedesert]

Quatre moved in closer as well, keeping his light trained on it as he came closer, looking at the object he had seen with interest. Now that he was closer, he could certainly see that it seemed to be a light of some sort.

"Great. We should see if we can get it power. It would be helpful for defeating the monsters and also can let people still search."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin answered, "Right! We could set it up on this floor, if we can find the electrical outlet and plug it in. Need a cable, though. Oh wait, I have one in my rucksack!"

He scrambled around in the rucksack and pulled out the coiled cable. "Now all we have to do is find an outlet. Maybe over there by the desk?" He started in that direction with his SCA light shining.

[gundamofthedesert]

Quatre began to move the light as Curufin back to search his bag for the cord. It was a bit heavy, but nothing that he couldn't move. If nothing else, that meant it would harder to knock over. At least that was the hope; the weight seemed to be in the base, not in the light.

"Yeah, let's check." And he would take the light with them, holding onto firmly. He was going to take care of this light with his life since this would help so many here. They might even be able to arrange it so that monsters trying to come through the door got blinded by it, thus so much more efficient.

[so_dark_a_road]

The electrical outlet was indeed near the desk and down at the foot of the wall. Curufin got ready to plug it in. But first he asked Quatre, "How do you want to position the light, where shall we aim it?"

[gundamofthedesert]

"If we want to use it as a weapon against them, perhaps aiming at the opening they'd be more likely to come through. That way when they round the corner, hopefully, they will be blinded by it and shatter without much work on our part."

It would make a good shield that way if it worked.

Okay if we consider this a wrap?

[so_dark_a_road]

"Okay, let's do that, then." Curufin got ready to help Quatre move the big spotlight. This was going to work just fine. Any incoming monsters were going to be so surprised!

Works for me!

[gundamofthedesert]