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.

Onward: Purple

[voidtreckermods]

Rescue Efforts

Progress has been good, with many of the trapped citizens now rescued and parts of the city put to rights. There are only a couple of pockets of trapped people remaining, where it is proving difficult structurally to clear the tunnels. Even so, spirits are high; it’s believed they’ll be able to do so with the Voidtreckers’ assistance.

Work is still done in shifts and continues through the night. Voidtreckers are encouraged to rest after their shifts, and stagger themselves. It’s likely that there’s a mix of people awake and asleep as the sun rises on the third day.

Dawn Attack

Not long after dawn many of the Terran phones begin ringing with notifications and alarms, and there is a general wave of panic that spreads through the adult Terran. Followed by a rush of activity, as those asleep are quickly shaken awake to get ready.

It won’t take long, they’re told. There has been an attack. Not here, but in another segment of the city. Unknown forces, monstrosities of some kind coming down the service tunnels. Forces are holding them off but they need backup. Transport is quickly arranged and any Voidtreckers who wish to go and help can do so. 

Transport is a train, one that is sourced incredibly quickly and filled with combat-ready Terran civilians. Not all go, since people are still needed to finish the rescue efforts and prepare for any attack in this sector.

Those that do go will find a battle raging between Terran and monsters. It may be that shortly after the Voidtreckers and their Terran friends turn up they will be joined by some more adventurous members of Orange Team who followed the monsters down the tunnels.

Days of Fighting

Throughout the next few days (G7-G11), fights spring up around the city. Though the first fight was against monsters from the lab, it seems others have found ways of getting into the tunnel system. The Terran are practical and quickly set up systems of transport for quick response. They don’t have much in the way of lights; their own decorative lights are soft, which will drive the creatures back from illuminated areas but be unable to destroy them. 

They will happily accept as much help as the Voidtreckers can give. The fighting is lessened as the day goes on, as no new monsters enter the tunnels, but sunset brings fresh recruits.

For those who cannot or do not wish to fight there is plenty that needs doing. Centres are set up for the injured. Fighters need food and water. There are still collapsed tunnels that need repaired and cleaned up. The final trapped citizens need to be brought to safety. Children need to be watched and kept out of danger.

A Rumour

Talking of children, as the days go by the Terran teenagers get more and more agitated. A few times they can be seen trying to approach exhausted and stressed adults, mobile phones in their hands as they try and explain something.

They are quickly dismissed. If asked about it the teenagers will tell literally anyone who listens that they think the monsters are going after The Dweller. They will distractedly explain that it is some lifeform within the planet that ‘those Gry’ worship as a god.

‘Those Gry’ are their primary source of information, in fact, and most of their evidence seems to be coming from dream interpretation forums. Probably why they aren’t getting taken seriously by their stressed parents.

Onward: Blue

[voidtreckermods]

Flood of Monsters

After another night of strange and troubling dreams, the Gry coves are awoken by two of their number hurrying in to report that heavy rain overnight has caused a tunnel to collapse. 

Luckily, the Gry all seem to be accounted for. Unluckily, it seems that water is not the only thing that got into the tunnels. It’s not long after that a scrabbling sounds along the entries into the home caverns, and soon after those smaller tunnels are invaded by monsters.

Long-limbed and sharp of claw, the monsters try to fight their way into the main caverns of the Gry.

Draw

Through the next few days and nights the monsters continue to attack. Again, though the first entrance point was the flooded tunnel it seems that the monsters have found their way in via a number of routes, and attacks come from all directions. Unlike the monsters in the Terran tunnels these do not attack opportunistically. Instead, they all converge on the main cavern.

In some ways this makes things easier. One location is a lot easier to defend, after all. If the monsters cannot get through to the cavern they will try to besiege it, trying to dig through the walls. Any that do get into the room try and fight their way through to the back wall with single-minded viciousness.

A Calling

Days pass. The fighting is less intense in the daytime once monsters have been cleared out, and more intense at night when fresh waves enter the tunnels. The dreams don’t stop, if people manage to fall asleep. If anything, the feeling of fear increases for those who are feeling it. 

The younger Gry seem most affected, and as the days progress it is not unusual to see one grabbing their spear or sword and storming to the back of the cavern. They are always stopped and calmed by an adult. But their arguments ring clear. 

The Burrower is in danger, they cry. It needs them to fight. It is their duty to descend to the Burrower’s realm and become one of their defenders.

Onward: Red

[voidtreckermods]

Change of Plans

The night of G6 brings rain and wind, though nothing as heavy as the storm currently brewing in Orange’s location. The monsters continue attacking through the night, their numbers greater than on previous nights.

As morning dawns on the third day (G7) they may hope to rest. Their SCAs have different ideas. In unison, the SCA's of Red Team flash with the colour of the void and a holographic message appears.

Red Team

Unknown threat detected. Assignment: travel to the new location and eliminate the threat. The specifics of this threat are currently unknown, though it seems to be related to threats already present on the surface.

Travel overland. There are a number of tunnel entrances that have taken damage, trapping Terran civilians. Assignment: free them. They may wish to travel with you to aid you against this threat.

There is a new dot on their maps, showing the location of this threat as well as the places where Terran need help. The threat is a few days away and the places where people need help are scattered along the route to their final destination.

Rescuers

All the points lead to tunnels that are near the surface. The Terran are trapped within offices or small barracks. For the most part it is not difficult to free them, it just takes people on the outside to move larger rubble and debris.

Luckily these offices can also serve as refuge points once night falls, for the red team to hole up away from the monsters that roam the surface.

Or they can fight, if they wish: the monsters seem determined to get into the tunnels.

A bigger threat

The daytime is the best time for travelling, as they make their way towards the point indicated on the map. As the days go on they will see a large building on the horizon, familiar from the Orange team’s drop-off on G5. They are drawing closer to the research facility.

They will also start encountering a slight larger variation of the monsters. These are not so much taller than the original monsters but much brawnier. They are slightly more resistant to light, though sunlight and bright light shone into their eyes will still destroy them.

They will first encounter a couple of these on the night of G8 (the fourth night of the mission) but as the nights go on and they get closer to their target, more will be mixed in with the regular monsters.