Crimson Flag Comic Forums
Other Realms => Role Play Theater => Topic started by: Digital Vulpine on April 02, 2010, 05:44:50 PM
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Condition Red is now starting. Here's the introduction, which I've been using to advertise the RP.
You are in a secret government facility, deep underneath the Rocky Mountains. It's August
23, 1992, the third anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Cold War is over, and
the Media is increasingly critical of continued Defense spending. You're being pressured to
come up with a working prototype ASAP, before anything happens to your funding. This facility
houses the Department of Defense's most advanced, most secret research. Today you're testing
a new device, the Subspace Transporter, which, if successful, could revolutionize
transportation and logistics, as well as open up numerous military applications. The
scientists among you wish you had more time to run smaller scaled tests, and work out
the equations, but the higher-ups want something they can take with them if the project
gets axed. The entire testing room is a giant Faraday Cage, to keep electronics from
picking up the huge magnetic field generated by the prototype.
You have just arrived in the testing chamber, and the device is currently being prepared. Jake is bolting the device onto the testing platform, Desmond and Andrew are standing by the door in the observation area, keeping watch over the testing area. The testing area has been cleared of all items except for the Subspace Transporter, its power cables, and Jake's toolbox. The observation area has several file cabinets, a computer terminal, and a very cluttered desk.
Make your initial posts, and the game will get underway!
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Jake gulped down the last of his bottled water as he finished bolting the machine down. "Dang, I wish this room had some air conditioning... though I guess that would defeat that purpose of this entire room... meh, either way, my work here is done." Jake packed away tools and made his way out of the room, his thick white tail swaying behind him. He entered the observation deck, a privilege given to him by one of his friends in the project, to watch the machine activate. "Humor me, what's this thing supposed to do again?"
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"Well it's SUPPOSED to be a subspace transporter, allowing us to bend objects through a fourth dimension to bring them here or send them elsewhere. In layman's terms, this is a teleport device," said one of the scientists known by the people around the work area as 'Cosmo'. He looked human and had light shoulder length hair, a pair of glasses on his face, and a very long labcoat that was almost brushing the floor. Poking out underneath you could see the tips of his sneakers and on his forehead was sported a headband and pair of perscription goggles which were worked under his hair, which he brushed out of his eyes as he continued, "I'm worried though, the higher ups haven't given me much time for experimenting, so I get the feeling we're playing with fire here." He stared through the window at the machine with a slight frown, and a careful observer might notice the bottom of his trenchcoat fluttering a very small amount as the tip of his tail twitched in agitation.
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Andrew Zaner stood on the observation platform, panting slightly from the heat of his combined show-coat fur and armor. Being the mandatory security guard assigned to oversee the progress of the operation along with Desmond, he really didn't have much to do, aside from keeping him company as Des was in the same predicament. Andrew saw that he had nothing better to do so he took out his pack of playing cards, cleared some room off of the desk, and proceeded to play solitaire while watching the progress on the computer screen. Pulling a microphone over to him, he asked "Everythin goin on okay in there, no hiccups?"
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Jake absently listened to what Cosmo said, storing the information in the back of his head and focusing on what interested him most. Giggling and swishing his white tail behind him, he said, "So, we've got a teleportation device, probably unstable, certainly funded by shady corporations who want a piece of it, in a military laboratory miles under the surface. I bet you my pudding that something will go horribly wrong."
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"Ein Teleporter! Nein, eet eez much more zan zat!"
Standing in the entrance of the Observation Area is a very old man, with a bushy mustache, crazy white hair, and a big nose. He's wearing a wrinkled, unbuttoned labcoat over a light blue buttoned shirt with a red tie. The shirt is tucked into a pair of black pants, which a set of black suspenders is holding just a little too high. It's Professor Durchgeknalt, the chief scientist for the Subspace Transporter project. He's both brilliant and eccentric, and depending on who you ask he's either the reason that the project still exists, or the reason that they're afraid to continue it. He taps his cane on the ground and continues,
"Ze Subspaze Tranzporter openz ein N-dimenzional tunnel een spaze-time, connectingk two deeztant pointz vith ein short diztance! Vith ze proper equationz, ve can zend objekts to anyvere, vith almozt no delay!"
He then points his cane at Jake and says,
"You! Veasel boy! Zee prototype eez zekure, ja?"
Before Jake can say anything, the professer says,
"Goot! Now vere eez zee test subject? Fritz! Bringk zee test subjekt!"
An assistant picks up an orange and brings it to him, muttering,
"My name is Joe..."
The professor now waves his cane at Fritz Joe and yells,
"Not to me, dummkopf! To zee platform! Eez eet impozzible to find help zeez days?!"
The professer is now walking around and harassing various assistants, so you all find that you have some time to look around before everything is ready.
One of the assistants was about to give a thumbs-up to Andrew, but now he's trying to look busy to avoid catching the professor's attention.
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Cosmo sighed with a slight rueful shake of his head. That was the Professor alright... brilliant as Einstein and just as senile. He was sure it had something to do with both of them being German. Cosmo didn't even bother pointing out that it's pointless to try to explain higher dimensional physics to the non-scientists who would never be able to understand the principles of it because the professor himself didn't understand such a thing as a lack of understanding, an ironical twist to be sure. Instead he started a last moment check of everything that could possibly go wrong and whether or not it was accounted for, staring with a slightly unfocused gaze towards the ceiling. He may have gotten to where he was by brilliance and goofing off, but he probably wouldn't stay there long if he messed up.
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Jake nodded and 'mhmm'ed while the Professor tried to explain the device to him. Please stop... I don't... ...weasel? After the professor walked away to blabber at the lab assistants, Jake turned to Cosmo and whispered, "Why is it that the person who thinks himself the smartest and is most obsessed with science, built a teleporter, and is probably the richest scientist here, can't even tell an otter from a weasel?" Jake observed the professor nagging all the assistants he came across for a distance.
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Cosmo transferred his gaze from the ceiling to the engineer next to him, calculations tumbling in his head as his thoughts flying every which way including, 'He's an otter? I thought for sure he was a mink...' After a second or two to gather his scattered thoughts he replied, "I believe it's cause the more specialized you are, the less likely you are to know other stuff. Also I have a theory that the professor likes to just insult people and be able to get away with it due to eccentricity. Haven't been able to prove it though. But try not to hold it against him, he just has an odd sense of humor."
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Jake sighed. "It doesn't seem to stop him from giving us all a hard time. On an unrelated note, is this thing going to start up soon? They finally got me some shellfish, things like clams and oysters, and missing lunch is the last thing I plan on doing, hehe." Jake started salivating at the thought of the shellfish, even though he had never tasted one before in his life.
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"I'll save ya a shrimp or something, so long as I don't eat em all first!" Andrew chuckled at his joke, swiveled a 180 in his chair, and therefore received a stern glare from the Professor. "Eh heh, heh ...", Andrew turned back towards the computer terminal, "Carry on, Gentlemen." Geez the professor is scary, I'd better be glad he didn't catch me playin cards.
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Joe places the orange on a table in the testing area, and gets out of there quickly. One of the assistants types some commands into her computer terminal and says,
Initiating test sequence. Power levels stable, coordinates locked..."
You all hear a humming noise as the machine starts to power up. Various indicator lights are flashing, assistants are typing stuff into computers and monitoring graphs, and overall the test seems to be going well.
While all this is going on Desmond notices an unauthorized roll of Goose-brand tape on one of the desks... but he's never heard of Goose tape. "Minuteman" is written on the inside of the roll.
The testing area starts to look warped as spatial distortions build up around the prototype, the orange, and over an empty table in the testing area. Joe sits down at a computer terminal and says,
"The spatial distortions are fluctuating, adjusting subspace resonance frequencies to compensate."
Professor Durchgeknalt raises his cane in the air, his beaming face looking at least a decade younger, and shouts,
"Eet eez vorkingk! Just ein bit more, und ze tunnel vill form!"
As the spatial distortions continue to build up, Cosmo notices that his right shoe feels uncomfortable, as if there's something stuck inside it.
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Cosmo frowned slightly as he felt something in his shoe. Lifting his foot, he slid the shoe off long enough to pull out... a piece of paper? That didn't seem right and he couldn't recall putting it there, but now was not the time for distractions so he put his shoe back on and slipped the piece of paper into a free pocket with a few pens. Matter quickly forgotten he turned his attention back to the experiment as the tunnel started to activate.
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Andrew watched in anticipation for the event. However, images containing tripods, a man in a blue suit, and watermelons entered involuntarily into his mind. Shaking it off, he continued to stare at the table, machine, orange, and back again. He was going to ask Desmond who a certain 'Free-man' was at the next break.
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Jake observed the machine in disbelief, and felt a tinge of excitement fill him as he kept switching his gaze between the orange, the machine, and the empty table. "...Amazing..." Suddenly a sharp pain filled Jake's head and forced him to close his eyes and grip his skull for a few moments.
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The spatial distortions suddenly intensify, and take on a menacing appearance. Flashes of light blink out of empty space, and the hum has turned into a warped, menacing growl. Assistants are frantically typing commands into their computer terminals, and Joe yells,
"The spatial distortions are intensifying, we can't control them!"
The professor's face turns as white as his hair, which is now verifiably standing on end.
"Shut eet down! Ve must stop eet!"
You now hear frantic chatter as the prototype spirals out of control.
"Power levels exceeding safe parameters by 30% and climbing!"
"Shutting down reactors two and three... power levels are continuing to climb."
"The subspace structure has begun self-resonating, we can't stop it!"
"Shut it down, dammit! Cut the power lines!"
"The lines ARE cut, sir! The machine's still drawing power from somewhere!"
"Vat? Eempossible!"
"It can't be, check the backup power!"
"Backup lines are cut too, sir!"
"Good god... get out of here! Get the hell out! I'll stabilize it as long as--AAAAARRRG!"
The room disappears in a blinding flash of light, and you all feel as if you've been hit by a powerful shockwave, except instead of knocking you back it passed right through you. You hear screams as the light quickly fades, and find yourselves in total darkness. You can't even see the hand in front of your face, but you can hear coughing and heavy breathing. It sounds like some people may have got hurt, but all of you are apparently fine other than getting tossed around a bit.
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Jake checked himself for any serious wounds, and, after finding none, questioned to see who was still alive. "Everybody with a pulse, groan." Jake began rubbing his eyes to get any residue dust out of them. Something tells me that wasn't supposed to happen... I hope the others are okay... the otter stood up, wobbly from the shock, and dried to see through the remaining smoke.
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"It just keeps getting better and better....." DJ Groaned. "Mom was right, I should have been an Actor." Desmond checked his body to see if anything was broken. The good thing was: there wasn't any broken bones. The bad thing...... he could feel blood coming from the right side of his stomach. "Well it doesn't seem like it'll be serious, but it needs to be patched up fast. "Everybody with a pulse, groan." Desmond heard a voice from a distance, it sounded like that white thing from the lab. Desmond took a piece of gum from his pocket and threw it in his mouth. "Hey *chew chew* White Ferret-thing, I'm *chew* over here and I kinda need some first aid." I love watermelon flavor
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"Medic?" whimpered Andrew. He could taste blood on the inside of his cheek and was sore as Hell. In the darkness, it was hard to see if anything besides a bleeding mouth was wrong, but he was pretty sure he was fine. Feeling behind him for his rifle, he felt his fingers on the lever of the action and carefully dragged it over. Using it as an aid, he picked himself up and began to trudge over to where he heard Desmond's and Jake's voices.
*step* "Ow." *step* "Ow." *step* "Ow." *step*...
It'll take all the belly-rubs in the World to take away this soreness.
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Jake sighed at Desmond's statement. "Dang it Desmond, I'm an otter and you know it." Jake rubbed his head, feeling a warm liquid dripping down his forehead. "Dammit, that hurt. Okay, what's wrong with you two at the moment? Broken leg, broken arm, deep cut, impaled, broken spine? Those would be the things and engineer cannot help you with. Desmond, you have military training, right? Didn't they teach you how to improvise bandages?"
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"bah, all of you animals look the same." Desmond stood up and felt a sharp pain in his leg. "Ow....that smarts." DJ then fell right back down to were he was. "Well it seems I have a sprain in my leg.... or its broken......or some sort of fracture.............. or whatever." "Besides I'm a weapons and leadership specialist, first aid isn't really my forte." It was JUST then DJ noticed something...... "Say, where the hell are we and why is it darker then my grandma's basement!?"
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Cosmo landed, but not hard enough to really hurt anything. He was a little sore and had a scratch on his cheek (it stung anyway) but hopefully nothing was worse than that. He did a quick pat down and found nothing missing or out of place, though there was a brief moment of panic when he found one of his pockets was wet. 'That had BETTER not be the isopropyl alcohol,' he thought as he brought his hands up to his nose to sniff... grape? "Aw man... that was my lunch!" he exclaimed, pulling out the soggy remains of a sandwich from his pocket morosely. Not really hungry anymore and knowing that the sandwich wouldn't last, Cosmo tossed it aside and fumbled around his pockets to pull out his keychain mini-light and taking a look around.
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You still seem to be in the observation area, but all the lights are out and there are obviously no windows so far underground, which explains the darkness... The beam from Cosmo's keylight shines weakly through thick dust that was kicked up. It seems that not everything was in exactly the same place, with...unfortunate consequences for some assistants that shared space with the moved equipment. Besides that, some stuff seems to have been knocked over and fell on other unfortunate people. It seems that you four are the only survivors...
Wait...
You hear coughing and see something moving under a pile of toppled boxes! Perhaps someone else survived?
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OC: Of.... course we're the only survivors >.>
After a quick look around, Cosmo realized that of the four people clearly alive, only two of them were injury free. The engineer was looking at one and the other one was prone to playing up injuries for sympathy and would probably be fine, so he started looking at the rest of the room in the meanwhile. He winced a little as he passed over what were surely dead bodies (no one could survive being crushed at the waist, and even if they did, it might be better they didn't. However there were a few boxes moving a little and Cosmo moved over to try clearing them out of the way. They were pretty light, which was probably why the person under them was still fine so Cosmo had no trouble lifting them out of the way to find... the professor! "You survived!" Cosmo exclaimed, helping him to his feet. "Looks like you're uninjured. Do you know what went wrong?"
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"Oh, Great. The wackjob hast returned! I'ma take a nap now..." And Andrew did take a nap, a rather uncomfortable one consisting of him falling to the ground and his rifle smacking him across the nose; thankfully by that time he was already unconscious.
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Cosmo stared owlishly for a brief moment at the golden retriever before returning his attention to the professor. Looks like he HADN'T playing it up time, but there wasn't any way for Cosmo to have known that.
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Jake sighed. He never particularly liked the soldiers and guards who were posted around the compound, but it had to be his luck that these two were the ones he was stuck with. "Aside from our muscle being wounded and unconscious, what do you have to report Cos?" Jake tore a dozen thin strips from Andrew's shirt before using them as bandages to cover his wounds. "With all this dust, it's be best to cover any wounds before they get infected."
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Aside for the cut on his waist and his now bunk right leg, Desmond seemed to be feeling better. The sight of people he was once acquainted with now dead was a horrifying sight. "This is why I'm not to fond of science ....." He sat up and took a look to his left and dimly saw that one of those heavy metal shelves had been knocked over and was lying very close to him. . . . . .. . . He looked up to the ceiling. "That's your way of saying I should go to church more, isn't it......?"
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(Off, or rather on topic but not in context of the RP, but as a banter between participants...
Andrew is not a Golden Retriever, he is an Australian Shepherd.
I know it is Andrew you speak of, as he is the only dog, so please, Aussie, not Goldy.
That is all, no hard feelings.)
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"I Heard zat, you... vake up! I'm not done eenzulting you! Hmf."
It was indeed the Professor, and other than a few scrapes he seems to be just fine. He picks his glasses up off the ground, cleans them off and says,
"Zank you, ich bin gut. Zee subspace tranzporter seemz to haf malfunctioned, zee reaction vent out of control, und created ein self-rezonating spaze-time bubble. Ve vere trapped een zee bubble ven eet collapsed, und zent here."
The professor looks around a bit and continues,
"Zenz ve zeem to be een zee zame place, I can only conclude zat ve haf traveled through time! Ve must find ein vay to aktivate zee emergency power zupply, zen ve vill zee vere ve are... oh! you dropped zis."
The professor hands Cosmo the piece of paper, which apparently fell out of his pocket. It says, "Apollo". Desmond sees that roll of tape again... it must have gotten transported with you. In addition, you notice that one of the boxes fell open, spilling some flashlights and a first-aid kit on the ground.
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"First to aid, last to die" Andrew says, waking up and reaching for the medkit.
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Jake nodded to the professor, not understanding a word he said. "Alright then professor, would you care to lead the way? You are, after all, the smartest man in the compound, and as such you must know the fastest route to the back-up generator.
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Orr..... maybe he was. Cosmo resisted the urge to facepalm as he considered the professor's words. It look a bit of extra time to translate the heavily accented words to english, but he quickly got the gist of it. "Through time? Can't be backwards or there wouldn't be an empty room here, so I guess we went forwards. Huh, I wonder if future technology will be able to get us back to our time," he pondered as he absentmindedly stared at the paper in his hands. "I agree. Those of us not injured should take a look around and see what we can find."
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"Ah, first aid. That sounds very nice right now." "Say, can one of you throw me some bandages and a flash light?" DJ then looked around to see where his Assault Rifle went; luckily it was still strapped onto his back. He looked over to the dim light that Cosmo was making. "Hey Cosmo, since I spent most of my teen aged life going to the movie theater. I know for a fact that anything that involves time travel to the future usually has some sort of radioactive-zombie-monster-post WWIII-stuff going on, so I'll lend you my Rifle seeings how I won't be moving for a while." With that DJ then took his gun and chucked it at the dim light where most of the people who where still alive were.
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DJ's gun clatters on the floor next to Cosmo.
The first aid kit contains:
*1 fl oz. isopropyl alcohol (about 30mL)
* 2 absorbent compress dressings (5 x 9 inches)
* 25 adhesive bandages (assorted sizes)
* 1 roll of adhesive cloth tape (10 yards x 1 inch)
* 5 antibiotic ointment packets (approximately 1 gram)
* 5 antiseptic wipe packets
* 8 packets of aspirin (81 mg each)
* 1 blanket (space blanket)
* 1 breathing barrier (with one-way valve)
* 1 instant cold compress
* 2 pair of nonlatex gloves (size: large)
* 2 hydrocortisone ointment packets (approximately 1 gram each)
* Scissors
* 1 roller bandage (3 inches wide)
* 1 roller bandage (4 inches wide)
* 5 sterile gauze pads (3 x 3 inches)
* 5 sterile gauze pads (4 x 4 inches)
* Oral thermometer (non-mercury/nonglass)
* 2 triangular bandages
* Tweezers
* First aid instruction booklet
This is probably more than enough to treat everybody's injuries.
The Professor nods and says,
"Zee backup generator for zeez zektor should be two floorz down. Zee elevator eez out, zo ve must take zee ztairs."
He takes one of the flashlights and goes over to the door, shining it on a black and yellow striped handle labeled "Emergency Manual Release". He pulls the handle, and you can hear a clanking sound as the door's motor disengages, allowing it to be opened by hand.
((Keep in mind that right now the entire facility is very dark. You are unlikely to find anything unless you look for it, and you have a flashlight.))
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"Hmm..." said Cosmo looking over the interior of the first aid kit. "I think some of this might be useful later. Let me know if there's anything left after you guys finish treating each other okay? Meanwhile I will look around for the generator along with anyone who wants to join me." With a nod towards the soldier that probably wasn't very visable, Cosmo bent down and picked up the rifle before opening the door and walking down the hallway and turning left. From the extra light and movement behind him he could tell that at least the engineer and the professor had followed him out. After another turn he got to an elevator, pushed the 'down' button, and started to wait for it to arrive. A moment later Jake caught up and after a brief pause, cleared his throat. "Are you sure the elevator works when the power's out?" He paused to let that sit for a moment as he moved his flashlight off to the side to point at a door. "I think the staircase is over here," Jake continued, moving the open the door and descend two floors to where the generator should be. "Right...." Cosmo trailed off weakly, glad that in the darkness no one could see his heavy blush as he followed the otter down the stairs. In short order their party arrived at the generator and started looking around to see if they could figure out how to get it running.
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Jake examined the generator thoroughly. "Hm... It seems to be in working condition, but a few parts seem to be missing. It should only take a minute to figure out what they are, then we can go back and get my toolbox or go to the supply room."
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As you go through the dark hallways, you notice thick dust everywhere. All the hallways look eerily similar, with doors lining both sides. The stairwell is at one end of the hallways, presumably the elevator is on the other. There are signs near the stairwell on each floor that say,
Sign 1:
Floor B5--
Room B501--Storage
Room B502--Time/Space experiments
Room B503--Multipurpose lab 04
Room B504--L**** *e**o** *u* *5
************************
**********************
... the rest of the sign is unreadable, maybe if you could find something to clean it off?
Sign 2:
Floor B6--
Room B601--Local Network Hub B6
Room B602--Data Processing Center
Room B603--Air Filtration Hub 2
Room B604--Synthetic Materials Lab
Room B605--Janitor's Closet
Room B606--Reactor 1 Control Room
Sign 3:
Floor B7--
Room B701--Surveillance station 1
Room B702--Waste Disposal Facility 2
Room B703--Water Purification Facility 2
Room B704--Emergency Generator
Room B705--Medical Bay 1
Room B706--Local Network Hub B7
The generator certainly looks old, and appears to be gasoline-powered. The machinery seems to be fine, but the rubber drive belts are horribly corroded. Or at least, you figure that there were drive belts there at one point. The room is well-ventilated, and fairly plain. It's obvious that it was built specifically to house the generator, and nothing else. Oh, and there's a rather large picture of Ronald Reagan on the wall. Wait, what's that doing there?
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"Wait, what's that doing there?" Jake stated, indicating to the picture on the wall. Jake began thinking of movie cliches, then told his acquaintance, "Hmm, maybe somebody put treasure under it? Meh, either way, we can't be bothered to lug around junk when we have no idea where- or when rather- we are."
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"Well it looks like it needs new parts. Think they'd be in one of the rooms? I think I saw some signs back at the staircase," Cosmo said thoughtfully before heading back to inspect the signs. As he read the various signs he started muttering to himself, "Network Hub... that'll be worth a look when we get the generator working. Heh, a janitor closet? Seems so out of place among the rest of this.... Synthetic Materials Lab... now that looks promising..... Maybe we'll find something in storage? Hmm... I wonder what the rest of this sign says." Frowning to himself, Cosmo tried to rub off the dirt with a finger to little avail. Then, remembering the janitor's closet, he headed to the sixth floor to see if he could get some cleaning materials to make the sign more legible.
OOC: Please assume Cosmo goes as far in this task as he is able. It's just silly making an entire post to say he goes to the janitor's room to see what's there, and then another one to come back and clean off the sign.
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"I'm gonna go along with Cosmo for a bit, I see a Medical bay on the seventh floor and I might be able to find some supplies to carry down." Andrew proceeded to follow him, pausing at the sign to try and wipe a bit of dirt off with his handkerchief, failing in the process. "Oh well." He paused to look at Sign 3. "Might as well get some water to bring back and see if I can get the emergency generator running as well." Andrew then walked off down the hallway after Cosmo.
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Cosmo finds a bottle of Clean-All(tm) all-purpose cleaner and a rag. With it he is able to uncover the following portion of the sign:
Room B504--Local Network Hub B5
Room B505--Self-contained Stasis Chamber
Room B506--Chemical Storage
The Janitor's closet also contained a bottle of Ammonia, a bottle of Bleach, two brooms, a mop, and two buckets.
The Synthetic Materials Lab is quite locked. There's no emergency release on this side, it seems that those are designed to let people out, not in. If you got the power on and had a keycard with the right clearance you could get in though.
The Water Purification Facility requires power to run. Once local power is restored it will pipe water to water fountains, sinks, faucets, bathrooms and such throughout this sector.
The picture of Ronald Reagan continues to look out of place. He's looking off to the right, and he seems to be looking at a spot on the wall where a good deal of dust has settled onto some unusual scratches.
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Still perplexed by the picture, Jake noticed it appeared to be looking at a specific spot on the wall. "Whait a minute..." Jake observed the scratch marks. "No animal in the facility could do this, be they feral or hybrid. So what did?"
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Looking closely at the scratch marks they seem to resemble writing. You wipe the dust away and find the word "Berlin" has been scratched into the wall. Curiouser and curiouser.
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"Ooo! Network hub! I'll have to check that after we get the power running again," Cosmo said to no one in particular as he read the sign. However there was no new revealed information that would help with the generator so he headed over to the synthetic materials lab to see if he could manage something like rubber belts for the generator, however he found the doors quite locked and requiring power to get in at all. It seems almost nothing could be done around here without power.
Cosmo decided that perhaps a better first order of business might be to figure out what DID work and what rooms he could get into at all, so started down the first hallway trying the various doors to look everywhere.
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You explore the three floors that you've been through so far, and discover that the doors on all the stairwells, storage rooms, janitor's closets, and, conveniently, the backup generator room, are ordinary doors with ordinary handles that can be opened easily. The doors to more important places like the labs are mechanical doors driven by electric motors. The time/space lab, of course, has already been opened from the inside.
In the storage room, you find a box full of rubber drive belts! Unfortunately they've been exposed to the atmosphere for far too long, and crumble when you pick them up. There are quite a few other cardboard boxes in the storage room, containing things like nails, first-aid kits, batteries (mostly expired), light bulbs, paper, and other random stuff. It would take a long time to search through all of this.
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So close! If Cosmo weren't an athiest, he'd be convinced that god did that on purpose to spite him. But nonetheless, it was clear that continuing to search through the storage room would be pointless as even if he did find more belts they would probably be just as fragile as the first.
Returning to the generator room to report his findings, Cosmo's eye was caught once more by the obnoxious out of place painting. His eye twitched visibly, and under his headband, his ear did so as well. Such a painting really had NO business being in the generator room and was just out of place and somehow it being there on top of getting flung through time just broke Cosmo's last straw of temper. So instead of telling the mechanic about his (lack of) progress, he grasped the painting by the edges, turned around and brought it to storage where he set it down again. Then since there was really nothing better to do he started to open random boxes on the off chance of finding anything useful.
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Where the painting once was, you see a large safe in the wall. A small LCD screen glows a faint bluish green, and there's a small keyboard underneath it, which contains only letters. You can only assume that it's powered by an atomic battery. From the looks of it there's enough room on the screen for six letters.
As Cosmo storms up and down the hallway he can almost hear a faint, deep chuckle, as if some invisible entity was mildly amused by his predicament. He dismisses it as his imagination though.
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Jake walked over to the LCD screen. "Hmm... If only I knew the combo... might as well guess... let's see, there's enough room for six letters... A-L-B-I-N-O," Jake said, typing as he spelled out the first six-letter word that came to mind. Granted, it was an easy one, he had been ridiculed for it throughout his life, he better darn well know the word by heart.
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The screen flashes red, Jake hears a buzzing sound, and the letters are blanked out. The safe remains locked. After continuing to flash red for a few seconds, it returns to its normal blue-green glow, patiently awaiting the password.
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Jake giggled to himself, knowing the password wouldn't work, but silently hoping it would. "Well, let's see..." Jake tried two more passwords, this time being 'RONALD' and 'REAGAN'.
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The first password is rejected, just as before. The second... yeah it was wrong too. Figures, that would have just been too easy. The flashing red light taunts Jake's inability to find the password. Fortunately, it seems to be content to let you keep trying. This would be a whole lot easier if he could just tear down this wall.
Desmond and Andrew continue to stand there and watch Jake mess with the safe. They've been awfully quiet.
-
Jake sighed. "Well, so much for that. Might as well see what we can actually get open in this darn facility." Jake walked out of the room, paying no further heed to the LCD screen behind him.
-
Andrew spoke up with an idea,"Ya know, if we somehow cut connection to the battery, would that disengage the lock? Or would it just block us from any attempt at opening it?
If that fails, how about trying to find a way to pry it open? There's gotta be some gadget around here that could be used to pull off the door."
As the others thought about this, Andrew proceeded to type 'Shepherd' into the pad, only realizing after the act that the two extra letters would either not appear or boot the first two off the screen.
-
The panel flashes red yet again. Apparently "Shephe" is not the password. Whatever is in that safe must be important, but what could the password be? Maybe there are some clues lying around.
You can't see the battery anywhere, it must be inside the safe too. It doesn't look like it could be pried open, either. If you can't figure out the password you'd probably need explosives or a cutting torch to get it open.
-
(irrelevant to real RPing) *chk chk* *FWOOSH!* "Where there's an imagination, there's a way."
Andrew saidas he proceeded to blowtorch the safe open.
-
While walking away from the pad, Jake had an epiphany, and rushed back before entering in the most likely password. "B-E-R-L-I-N!"
-
The light blinks bright green for a second, then goes out. Something clicks, and the door cracks open with a hissing noise. Opening it the rest of the way you discover a full set of drive belts, preserved in plastic packaging, a sealed container of gasoline, and some WD-40. You should be able to get the generator running with this. The gasoline looks like enough to provide about three hours of power for the facility.
This is taken to its logical conclusion, and soon the generator is running and the lights are on. Your keycards will now allow you to access most rooms in this sector. What do you do now?
-
Jake sighed out of relief when he heard the generator start working again. "Yes! I'm going to go take a nap, if anybody needs me, I'll be out cold in my bed." Jake made his way to his living quarters and took a much needed rest.
-
For quite some time something had bothered DJ for a really long time. He didn't feel like it was important but he just had to bring it up. He walked up to Andrew and asked. "Hey, if we're in the future or what ever. What do you think it looks like outside the base?"
-
"Hmmm..., Well..., If it is the future, seeing the disrepair this place in is, and the fact that it is basically a bunker, I'd say that topside has pretty much gone to [heck]. Either that or everything is all fine-and-dandy and they just forgot about the facility. But all in all I'd say that it'd probably look alot better than down here."
-
Cosmo was halfway through a box of random clothing* when all of a sudden the lights flickered on. "Yes!" he said, "Our mechanic must be a genius! I wonder how he did it." He then stood up, stretched, and headed over the the information hub which should be open now in order to do a search for important information prioritizing anything that might explain their current situation.
-
The Network Hub has several large mainframes, and some desks with computer terminals on them. Accessing one of the terminals you are prompted for a password. Fortunately, your personal password works and you are able to access the network. Unfortunately, you don't recognize the operating system at all! Instead of the simple prompt you were expecting, after logging in you were greeted by a logo for "Portals 8", followed by a bunch of icons with a white logo that looks like a trapezoid sitting atop a thick line in the background. In a circle around that you see the words:
"DARPA White Plateau Facility"
The icons each have labels under them, and you discover a hand-sized device next to the keyboard with two buttons and a wheel on it that seems to be plugged in to the computer. The labels read as follows:
--The compass-like Icon is labeled "Map"
--The icon that looks like two computers linked together is labeled "Remote Access"
--The folder icon is labeled "Documents"
--The icon that looks like an empty basket is labeled "Recycle Bin"
--The white square with a blue W on it is labeled "Word"
--The blue E is labeled "Internet Exploder"
In the bottom left-hand corner of the screen you can see the Portals logo and the word "Start".
Jake goes to room B304 and falls asleep. Just as he's starting to drift off he can almost hear a little tune playing...
-
Cosmo looked thoughtfully at the computer. It was rather smaller than he was used to and he didn't really quite know what to do with the white thing. This was clearly more advanced technology than he was used to which supported the whole 'in the future' theory.
Cosmo poked the white thing somewhat suspiciously. It moved. He pushed one of the buttons. It made a clicking sound. The other button also made a clicking noise and the wheel didn't seem to do anything at all. Aside from that nothing seemed to happen.
So shrugging, Cosmo turned his attention to the icons and was rather surprised to see a white box with words in it had popped up. He tried moving the white thing and this time noticed that there was a white arrow on the screen which moved and highlighted the words in the box. After a quick trial and error run he managed to figure out mostly how it worked and moved the arrow to 'Documents' which seemed to be the most promising thing on the screen. Cosmo wondered what he would find as he clicked it to highlight and then hit 'enter'.
-
A white box appears on the screen, with the word "Documents" in a bar at the top. There are several icons that look like folders, labeled "Spyglass", "Valley Forge", "Express", and "Journal". You also see the blue W again, labeled "Hello Cosmo".
((note: there are several computers, and since you are using your personal log-ins you'll all have access to different files))
-
Well... that quite possibly made things incredibly easy. Unless of course Cosmo was the one who had actually written this document (and with time travel you never know) in which case he might have made it vague and riddled with obscure hints just to piss himself off. Cosmo wouldn't put it past himself to do that just for laughs sometime in the vague far off future even if it incredibly inconvenienced him in the present. After all, if you live through something it can't be too bad right? "Oh god, please don't let me be that much of an asshole to myself until later," he muttered in what would be a prayer if he were religious as he selected the document and opened it.
-
The file opens in Word. It is typed in single-spaced twelve point Times New Roman font. It contains the following text:
Cosmo,
If you’re reading this that means you at least managed to get the backup generator running. Congratulations, I hope it didn’t cause too much trouble. In case you haven’t figured it out yet you’re in the future. Well, a future. There’s more than one and it’s… complicated. If you haven’t got the reactor started yet I recommend you take care of that quickly. With the power on you should be able to do it from the computer. Oh yeah, there was also a little… accident in the past, so there might be someone else in the facility with you. If you haven’t met him yet he may be in a different sector. I hope he’s not dead, I sort of feel sorry for, uh, never mind. That’s not important. Just remember the future is not set, and it may have already been changed.
-- Publius
-
Well that was sort of helpful and sort of not. Cosmo found himself staring at the line saying how he could activate the reactor from the computer. Gesturing aimlessly with both hands at the computer screen, he asked in a somewhat bewildered and somewhat annoyed voice, "How?!?!?"
After a minute or two of glum thought he went back to where he started and decided to try the 'remote access' function in hopes that it was related to the reactor.
-
A box opens with four buttons labeled "Sector A" through "Sector D". The A and D buttons are grayed out. Text at the top of the box says "Welcome to the DARPA Remote Access Terminal System, please select the sector you would like to access."
-
Hmm... still not very descriptive but Cosmo guessed sectors A and D didn't have power or something else was wrong with them so he tried opening sector C instead. After all C stood for Cosmo right?
-
The four buttons shrink and move into the upper right corner. The center of the screen now has a vertical bar divided into boxes labeled C1-C12. The text now reads,
"Which floor would you like to access?"
-
"Oh!" Exclaimed Cosmo as the new screen went up. The sectors must refer to the general areas. If Cosmo remembered right they were currently in section B5 so he went back to the previous screen (by clicking on the minimized squares) and going to section B instead, making sure to choose floor five.
-
Now the list of floors runs along the left side of the screen, with the sectors still being in the upper-right corner. In the center a double-row of squares lists rooms, labled B501-6. B501 and B506 (storage and chemical storage) are grayed out. It looks like the system is starting to make sense now.
-
Hmmmm.... thought Cosmo. First order of business seemed to be figuring out just what the difference between the regular areas and ones that were grayed out. On a hunch he started navigating randomly through various floors to see if anything interesting popped up and if other gray areas also had the word 'storage' in their name. He quickly ascertained that gray had more to do with lack of connection than any sort of storage. On floor six however he found the Reactor 1 Control Room and opened it up saying, "Jackpot!"
-
You see the radiation hazard symbol and the words, "Reactor one status: Offline."
There are a few options for what you can do, but your security clearance doesn't seem to be high enough to activate the reactor from here. You can: access the intercom, send a message to the control room's terminal, view the reactor's status, make a video-call to the control room, or open the door. You suddenly remember that only Reactor Technicians are cleared to make adjustments to the reactors, including turning them on or off. If you could find a reactor technician's security card, all you'd have to do then was push the "on" button.
It seems that this place was abandoned in a hurry, maybe some reactor tech left his card laying around somewhere?
As a side note, it looks like any room with a mechanical door can be opened remotely using this system, as long as you would have clearance to open it anyway.
-
Well that was certainly a disappointment. Cosmo logged off and considered where he might be able to find what he was looking for. It stood to reason that the most likely place for someone to leave an ID relavent to the reactor was in the reactor control room, so Cosmo turned out the hall, took the elevator (successfully this time) and entered the reactor control room to see what he could find.
-
There are two computer terminals in the Reactor Control room, as well as a panel with an array of switches, knobs, and buttons. The place was left in disarray, there's a desk with a stack of papers on it, and one of the computer terminals has a note taped to it. It says,
"Senior Technician Roberts,
The laundry crew in C502 reported finding wrappers, paperclips, and other miscellaneous items in the pockets of your department's uniforms. This is unacceptable; foreign objects such as that can fall into the washing machine's mechanisms and damage them, costing this facility hundreds in repair bills. Please instruct your technicians to thoroughly empty their pockets before turning in their uniforms for cleaning. You can retrieve the items found thus far at the Reclamation Office, C705, but I've ordered the laundry crew to confiscate further violations. In addition, the $73 in cash we have recovered in this manner has been withheld as a fine. Honestly, one of these days one of you guys will leave your ID card in there, and we'll all be in trouble then won't we?
--Charles Dreyfus, Chief Inspector"
Jake wakes up from his nap, feeling refreshed. He gets the vague impression that his HP and MP would be restored, if he had them.
-
Jake yawned from his nap. The otter stood up and stretched his limbs, retrieved his apron, and began wondering what all happened while he was asleep. Before Jake could think of anything else to do, he got the thought to rummage through his roommate's stuff. He's not here, he won't miss any of that junk.
-
Well... that made his next step fairly apparent. Now if only he knew how to get to C705 or C502... Looks like the situation called for a map! A good memory would probably work also, but Cosmo was notorious for forgetting directions from one location to another unless he used them recently or frequently. As the C block constituted of neither of these, Cosmo opted to go back to the computer room, log in and open the map function to see if he could find a way to the necessary rooms.
-
The map operates in a manner similar to the RATS, except the rooms are labeled by name as well as number, and it has a function that allows you to get directions from one room to another. It seems that every fourth floor has a junction that allows you to access the other sectors, and the first floor is not even divided into sectors, so all four can be accessed from there as well. The elevators in B and C sectors work since the power's on there, but why does sector C even have power...
Apparently Jake's roommate was meticulously tidy, and made sure to pick up all his stuff before leaving the facility. However, under his own pillow he managed to find a 9mm handgun, with a spare 12-round magazine. He doesn't really have anywhere handy to keep it though, other than his tool belt.
-
All right! With directions in hand (or in mind really) Cosmo went over to the claims room to look for a left behind badge. After checking there, he would then visit the laundry room. However just before leaving (and logging out) he checked over the map for other important looking rooms like the C block reactor, generator, or network hub area. He would have to look around given the chance to see if anything was important.
OOC: Just assume I go to them in order unless there's something blocking the elevators and hallways, etc.
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In the Reclamation Office you find; 3 sticks of gum (empty wrappers were tossed out), 7 paperclips, 1 pocket calculator, 1 lunch box (thankfully empty), 1 Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 2 baseball caps, 1 bottle of soda (quite flat), 12 marbles, 4 6-sided dice, a deck of cards, a razor (for shaving), a screwdriver, and a copy of the Federalist Papers. Unfortunately, you don't find an ID card.
Sector C does have its own reactor, Reactor 3, which is inactive. It seems that the Backup Generator in Sector C was activated 45 minutes ago. Interesting. There is one network hub on every floor, for convenience and accessibility. Each sector has its own Air Filtration and Water Purification facilities. Sector C seems to mostly be utility stuff though, the Cafeteria, Laundry Room, Incinerator, stuff like that.
In the laundry room there is quite a bit of laundry. Some clean, some dirty. There are also several washing machines and dryers. Some are closed, some are open. There is also a locked closet. The door looks like it could be broken with the proper tools.
-
Jake sighed and picked up the handgun he found. "Dang it. Always hated these things..." Jake removed the clip and placed the gun and ammo in opposite sides of his belt, so as to have easy access to both of them if he ever needs them. Jake strapped on his tool kit a brought along his spare tool box, seeing as the first was lost in the 'incident'. Jake made his way towards his scientist friend, finding the scent trail easy to follow, regardless of his non-canine species.
-
Well Cosmo decided to keep the gum, marbles, dice, and calculator. He already had a swiss tool with a screwdriver and a deck of cards, and the rest of it was either uninteresting or unwieldy. As for the laundry room... well Cosmo always kept a small lockpick set handy in one... of... Cosmo started fumbling around his different pockets before managing to find what he was looking for in an inner labcoat pocket. He then set to work trying to open the door.
-
While attempting to pick the lock, a 20-sided die fell out of one of Cosmo's pockets. It came to rest on the floor with "2" facing up. While this technically would have no effect on his ability to pick locks, the noise distracted him and caused him to drop the torsion wrench. This might take longer than he thought. For now, he picks up the wrench and keeps trying.
Jake, who presumably started walking at the same time Cosmo left the Reclamation Office, arrives after Cosmo has been trying to get through the lock for 15 minutes. It's a simple door, probably made of medium-density fiberboard or plywood, and painted.
-
Jake observed the door silently before speaking up. "Coz, why are you trying to pick the lock to a plywood door? Those things break if you sneeze on them."
-
OOC: Hehe, for the record though, I don't actually have any dice aside from the three I just picked up.
"Well you see... I want to know what's on the other side and I don't like breaking stuff." Cosmo said, blushing a little as he tried to cover his oversight. Really, it was things like this that gave him the nickname he had, 'brilliant as the stars, but mind oh so far away.' "I've been at this for a bit though so if you want to just break it down, go ahead."
-
"Hold the door." Jake reached into his tool belt and pulled out a screwdriver, spun it around in his hand, and made short work of the screws on the hinges. "Brute force isn't my thing, and taking things apart is much more fun." Jake grabbed the edge of the door and eased it to the ground.
-
OOC: Actually the screws holding the hinges of a door in are on the inseam, not accessible when the door is closed. It would be far more effective to pop the pins out. This is of course assuming the hinges are on the right side of the door.
-
OOC: We're assuming these doors weren't made for security, considering they're made of plywood, so the screws could be facing out.
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OOC: The hinges maybe, but the screws themselves are not accessible unless the door is already open. Unless you mean the ones on the knob.
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((Using my own closet door as a reference, the screws to the hinges are inside the frame, so no matter which way the door opens they are not exposed while the door is closed. The hinges themselves, however, are exposed, as any closet door necessarily opens to the outside. So, with a hammer and chisel [or a flat-head screwdriver] it would be possible to pop the pins out, separating the two halves of each hinge. Alternatively, you could disassemble or destroy the handle, which would take the locking mechanism with it.))
Jake is unable to unscrew the hinges, because if he could access the screws that would mean the door was already open, and then he'd have no reason to unscrew them. He'll have to look for another way to open the door. The actual hinges are exposed, held together by simple pins, and the handle itself seems to have been installed with the screws facing outward.
-
Jake scowled at his temporary incompetence. The otter opened up his tool kit, rummaged around while muttering under his breath, and stood back up, a hammer in hand. Jake made several forceful swings at the handle, not wanting to bother with taking it apart at the moment.
-
Hammering out the helpless handle, you beat back the broken barrier to discover a considerable collection of confiscated contraband. After everyone searches for about an hour you discover two Reactor Technician's ID cards and $7 in change.
You're starting to feel a bit hungry. Considering that this facility is out in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, you probably won't find any food for a while. Fortunately, this facility is also designed to survive a nuclear war, so there should be a large stash of MREs around here somewhere.
-
Curiosity struck Cosmo when he found the seven dollars. Pulling out a bit of money from his own wallet, he examined the universe's versions of money compared to his own, were they different at all? After reaching a conclusion he put his money back in his wallet leaving the $7 for the otter since he had his own money. He then turned his attention to the next orders of business, food and power. Well first thing was first, Cosmo was going to start up that reactor. This wouldn't be the first time Cosmo had shorted himself of food and indeed he was actually somewhat used to it by now. So taking one of the ID cards, he headed to where the C-block reactor room was located on the map to start up the reactor. After he did that he'd move on to the task of locating food.
-
((Due to unfortunate circumstances Condition Red is on hiatus for the next three months or so. If continuing after this time period has passed does not seem feasible, Condition Red may be rebooted if there is sufficient interest. Don't expect everything to be in the same place if that happens though. {;) ))
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Well frik. I was having fun with this thing too... Guess I'm back down to only two active forum RPs...
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((And we're back! Ain't we lucky?))
The money seems to all be pocket change, a bunch of coins, none higher in value than a quarter. However, it is still the same currency. The paper money is probably out of date, since it changes more frequently, but any coins you have are still good, despite technically being out of circulation by now.
In the reactor room you look for instructions on how to start the reactor. Fortunately, you find them posted between two computer terminals. The instructions read as follows:
1: Insert security key and turn 90 degrees counter-clockwise. Leave the key in that position.
2: Insert key cards into terminals A and B at the same time.
3: Turn the red knob 45 degrees clockwise to the first mark.
4: Slide the yellow handle into the "down" position.
5: Turn the red knob to the second mark.
6: Push the green button labeled "start".
There is a small key hanging from a nail in the sign. Looks like you have everything you need to start. Unfortunately, you discover that the terminals are too far apart to reach both of them.
-
Well drat. Cosmo ran back out of the room looking for that darned weasel. "Jake! I need your help with something! " He might be able to finangle something to push both cards in at once, but he left the other card with Jake! Where HAD that ferret gotten off to?
-
Jake grumbled as he finished re-packing his equipment back into the case, having had to move several things to reach the hammer. Grabbing the ID card Cosmo left, possibly due to brain lapse, the otter made his way over to where Cosmo's voice was coming from. "What is it? Need another plywood door opened?"
-
If you're waiting for a narrative post, neither of you has initiated an action yet, beyond talking to each other. In the future, take note that this post is unnecessary, except to remind you that it is unnecessary. Carry on.
Some time passes.
-
OOC: No I got that, it just took me a while to get around to this ^.^;
Cosmo stopped in front of Jake, panting slightly. Running with all this crap in his pockets wasn't all that easy. "Something like that," he said. "I need to start up the reactor and it needs two cards and two people to do it." Walking back he showed Geary Jake what they needed to do.
-
Jake listened to Cosmo, memorizing what he'd have to do and when he'd have to do it. "Okay, got it. Just answer me one question: Why are you panting? You don't look like you got the morphing treatment."
-
"Because I'm out of breath! Everyone pants when they're out of breath." Cosmo replied. It was true actually and he hadn't done the treatment on himself enough for that to be the cause. "Anyway let's get this started." Cosmo went over to one side and started up the process.
OOC: He's not trying to actively hide it, he just feels that it's really not the thing you TALK about, kind of like person information. It's the same reason he wouldn't say anything about his sexual preference or his tattoo. When it becomes important he'll bring it up. Until then maybe you can try asking again if he starts using his claws :p
-
You successfully activate the reactor. The lights get brighter and you can almost hear the entire facility humming to life. Shortly, however, the sound is interrupted by the grumbling of your own bellies. Best to see about getting some rations before setting off into the mountain wilderness.
-
"Phwew, glad that's done with. Let's see if we can find the cafeteria. I bet a thousand years can't make the food there any worse than it already was." Cosmo left the room and headed to the nearest network hub he could find to try and locate any room with food in it that may have lasted past a month or so of abandonment. Canned goods, doritos, marshmellow peeps.... stuff like that.
-
After some searching for some time you discover a cafeteria in C305, which directly connects to a ration storage area. This facility was designed to survive a nuclear war, after all. But wait, what's this? From the looks of things the security system has detected a life sign in there...
-
A lifeform? Did one of the others make their way over? But no, a quick check of the other block showed they were still back in the other block (or the right amount anyway). Could this be the mysterious 'maybe other person' the letter on his computer account talked of? Only one way to find out! And that was to go eat something.
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Cosmo: You enter the cafeteria and discover that most of the tables are overturned. You can't see whoever was supposed to be in here, but a group of tables seems to have been arranged into a shelter. You can see a stove in the back, and some open cans and MRE containers are scattered around it. The door to the storage room is ajar.
?????: You hear someone opening the door. Peering out from where you are concealed you can see someone wearing a labcoat. He seems to have grayish white hair with dark splotches, he's also wearing glasses, a headband, and a pair of gloves. Something seems off about the labcoat, like there's something under there. What do you do?
-
OOC: Actually Cosmo doesn't have dark blotches in his hair, it's just that streaks are lighter or darker than they should be. If he had a buzz cut it might be identifiable as spots, but with the length of his hair it just looks like highlights or something. Plus the variation is between light blond and dark blond, not as noticeable as you'd think.
Well whoever WAS in here didn't seem to be anymore. Or if he was he was hiding somewhere in the tables. Either way it didn't seem imperative to seek the fellow out just yet. Cosmo decided he'd let whoever it was reveal themself in their own due time. So instead he headed over to the door which was a jar. Heading in he was able to find some decent source of food which he then went to eat.
OOC: If there are chairs, he sets one up at a table and eats there, otherwise he sits on a box or something. And don't tell me he can't open the food, there must be available food for the new guy to still be alive and even if it's in hard to open stuff, Cosmo has sharp knives and ingenuity, I'm sure he'll manage somehow.
-
A figure shifts unseen in a shadowy hiding spot, but calls out-
"State your name, purpose, and potential possession of cheesy junk food snacks!"
-
Well now that was a voice Cosmo didn't recognize. Must be the mystery fellow the computer had indicated. "My name is Cosmo, my current purpose is to find something to eat, and the potential of my possessing such a snack as you describe is roughly equal to the chance that your hair is a glow in the dark shade of pink. Yourself?"
-
"I'll have you know my hair was grey last time I checked! Or was it.. blue? puce... no, it was most certainly probably grey!"
The unknown entity climbs out of his pile of various rubble and brushes off his lab coat.
"I am Dr. something or other. call me Mannick. I live here."
-
"Well I suppose it's nice to meet you. Have you been here long?" Cosmo asked, mentally evaluating how long if must have been for this level of insanity to have set on. Unless he was always like this. Not quite the best of people to get stuck with in a place like this, but with luck Mannick was the harmless sort of insane person rather than the type who might attack without notice because you were under the control of the invading Zygglendiff Ducks from the Zeta Galaxy. He'd had a roommate like that once... it hadn't been much fun.
-
"I have been living here for about.. AHA!"
Mannick reaches into his pocket and pulls out a gun with an elongated barrel, and fires a round into the nearest corner of the room.
"I have been hunting that warblesnactch for almost three minutes. my vengeance is complete.
...Oh, right! I've been living here for... awhile. I haven't left yet, and kind of lost track of the days somewhere around... five?"
-
Cosmo flinched slightly. It was partly because guns are loud, but also partly because he didn't expect the guy to pull out a gun so suddenly. Perhaps he wasn't quite so harmless, but hopefully he was still friendly. From the sound of it, this fellow had always been a little off the rocker, or at least he had been since he got here. "Well myself and four others just got here recently and I'm afraid we haven't had anything to eat yet. I don't know about the others but I was hoping to eat here. I think we've figured out how to get out though so if you don't want us we can probably be out of your hair shortly.
OOC: Geary, DJ, the professor, and whoever 'twas had the show dog character if I remember right...
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"Oh, umm. Yeah, I think I have food over here still. Mostly canned stuff, I think... I stashed it in the kitchen over there."
Mannick wanders over to the kitchen, motioning for Cosmo to follow.
"There used to be a lot more, but food is meant to be eaten, so I did... Ahm, here we go."
Mannick opens the various food containment devices (cupboards, fridge) and takes stock of the food left in them.
OOC:I'll leave what's inside to DV since he's kinda in charge here.
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Dr. Mannik Faol has joined your party! His character sheet can be found on the Character List (http://crimsonflagcomic.com/forum/index.php?topic=328.0).
You search the Cafeteria and Food Storage. You find:
4 cans of beans
15 ration bars ("Marksman's Mystery" flavor)
6 MREs (allegedly Chicken)
6 canteens of water
2 large sacks
1 military backpack
There's no way one person can carry all of this. You're going to have to divide up the loot. Professor Durchgeknalt shuffles in with a rather large, heavy bag over his shoulder. Apparently he was busy salvaging the Subspace Transporter while you guys were doing more important things like figuring out how to stay alive. Oh well, he looks like he can handle carrying it, but he won't really be able to carry much else.
"Vas? You expekt me to geeve up mein life's vork?"
((What? You expected the NPC to make himself useful? :P))
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"Beans... my god, the beans. I thought I told you to get out of here! YOU BLOODY BEANS! YOU'RE IN EVERY SINGLE CAN I FIND, AREN'T YOU?!?"
Mannick puts the cans of beans, an MRE and 3 ration bars, and one of the canteens into the backpack and slings it over his shoulders.
"Take what you can. I'm going to show these beans what happens to unwanted enemies in cans who would dare show their tin in my presence!"
-
Cosmo grabs a ration bar or two before hurriedly intercepting Mannick. "Why don't I take the beans then?" he asked, slightly worried that the crazy fellow would throw away perfectly good food. He might be tired of beans by now, but the rest of the group wasn't.
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"The beans will be perfectly fine... IN HELL!"
Mannick throws the beans into a one foot deep hole.
"In retrospect that was much more impressive when I was thinking about it and the hole was a bottomless pit."
Mannick wanders back to the kitchen and picks up 3 more bars and another MRE.
-
"Eee----yeah..." Cosmo trailed off, picking up the only slightly dented can of beans on his way back into the cafeteria, handing off several bars and MREs to the professor to put in the bag. They should fit after all...
-
Mannick follows Cosmo back to the kitchen.
"So... Where are these friends of yours? It's been a long time since I've seen anyone else."
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"Well you've met the professor... kind of. He's a little hard to understand sometimes, but he's good at what he does. There's me of course, and then three more guys running around here... somewhere. Just a warning though, some of them aren't quite human anymore. One's a dog and the other is a ferret. Sorta. Well you'll see what I mean when you meet them." Wow, a whole paragraph. 'That was practically a speech', reflected Cosmo as they reached the kitchen and went inside.
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"Right. More you-type things. I can handle that, at least you aren't ugly like warblesnatches are. Talking, too. Warblesnatches never talked. They just did warblesnatch things. Anyway, where are these animal people thing guys of yours? They'll have to carry some of this food too."
Mannick stashes the remaining foodstuffs into one of the sacks and gives it to Cosmo.
"I left some important things of mine somewhere, and I'm gonna go get them. Wait here or I'll throw a warblesnatch at your face when I get back."
Mannick runs off with the other sack, and returns after a few minutes with it filled by clattering, metallic things.
"Righty, those friendpeoples of yours then."
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Everyone finally meets up in the cafeteria. Keep in mind how much of each item you found, because that's how much you have to divide among yourselves unless you want to spend a few hours opening crates ((which is a perfectly viable option if you feel like being crazy prepared)). ((also, please list exactly how much of each item you want to take, because I'm going to be updating your character's inventories. And no using NPCs as infinite resource generators. {;) ))
You're just about ready to head to the surface.
((P.S. Part of this "inventory check" is to determine who is still playing. If you miss out you'll still get one more chance, but after that, well, unfortunate things may happen.))
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ok, Mannick has got:
1 Sack (Filled with clunky metal things, some of which do things and most of which are parts for things that may do things in the future)
1 Backpack
2 MREs (supposedly chicken)
6 Ration Bars (Marksman's Mystery Flavor)
1 Canteen
in addition to the stuff he already had.
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((Note: Dr. Faol already had a backpack. Therefore, there is still one available.))
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Cosmo snags one of the large sacks into which he places three of the MREs, the rest of the ration bars, and the four cans of beans. As an afterthought he snags two of the canteens as well. He's used to carrying a lot so the only thing to make sure is that his pockets don't mix with the sack. He also figures that with a limited number of carrying containers it's better for the food to be relatively grouped together.
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Having gotten introduced (as much as any introducing actually went on) and stocked up on supplies, everyone heads up to the first floor. It's a single large room, resembling a huge hangar or parking lot. The roof is a large, arching dome, and there is a monumental set of double doors that you could probably fly a plane through. A swipe of the security card is sufficient to activate the now-powered doors. The hydraulics kick in, and the doors slowly start to slide open with a great deal of noise.
As the doors pull apart, a blast of cold air rushes in and you can see large quantities of snow being shaken off the exterior, as well as a rather bundled up soldier with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and a shocked expression on his face. He's wearing a thickly padded uniform that obviously has several layers under it, a scarf that he has apparently pushed aside while he was smoking, and a black fuzzy hat with a hammer and sickle on it. The doors finish opening, and while he's staring at you you can see that some sort of convoy had come to a stop behind him, and had unloaded several containers of fuel for their vehicles.
He drops his cigarette and runs off toward the convoy, yelling something in Russian. Soldiers that were tending to the vehicles stop what they're doing and start scrambling for their guns, but it seems you've caught them off guard. Immediately outside the doors and to the right there are some large broken-up boulders, towards the left there is a small drop-off, that looks just low enough that you could duck inside and stand up to look over the top, and the doors themselves are obviously thick enough to stop whatever they might shoot at you. The convoy itself is about 85 meters away from the door. It would probably be a good idea to make your move before they get their act together.
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Mannick takes a "Jangler"* out of his sack 'o junk and turns to Cosmo quickly, asking:
"Run or Surrender?"
*A Jangler is similar to a janitorial ring of keys, in that it is a big ring with metal things hanging on it. The keys aren't keys, but rather random bits of metal. It's kind of distracting, and it's more or less what all unusable scrap metal Mannick finds goes to, so he has four at the moment.
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Cosmo froze in indecision for a second or two. Back in the base lay safety, but it was also a trap. There was no other way out and it would only be a matter of (probably short) time before they ran out of food or these soldiers got in. On the other hand, the rocks offered a modicum of safety for a short while, and it offered much more freedom. In the end it was knowledge of how long it would probably take the doors to close that made his decision and he dived behind the boulders. Dived in a relatively careful way anyway. Last thing he needed was for two volatile chemical vials to break and mix and explode on his person. Which is to say that in midair he twisted to land on his back instead of his front.
Call him cautious, but he wasn't too fond of surrendering to a bunch of people with guns who didn't speak his language very well. Anyway, his point of action should probably answer Mannik's question.
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"Fair enough! Off we go!"
Mannick throws the Jangler into the midst of the Russian-speaking people and runs for the Rock Of Protection, attempting to get a rough estimate of the number of adversaries in the meantime.
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Following the lead of his comrades, Jake leaped behind the rocks. He pulled out the handgun he pick up earlier and holds it to the other two. "I hope one of you two know how to use this, 'cause I couldn't hit a cow if I put the barrel against it's hide." The otter shivers, wishing for once that he had some form of clothing that provided warmth.
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Cosmo got to his feet in a crouch behind the boulder and looked at the pistol. It had been a while but back in boyscouts he had gotten a merit badge for guns. Granted it was for rifle and shotgun, but he'd seen tv shows, and it couldn't be THAT different, so he picked it up. Making sure the cock was back and all that other stuff, he leaned against the boulder and hoped really hard that something was going to get them out of this, cause a jangly ring of metal and a small gun weren't going to help much.
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One of the soldiers, apparently mistaking the thrown object for a grenade, dives behind one of the vehicles. The others, still surprised and now startled by this apparent act of aggression and the sudden movements of their targets, open fire. Andrew and Desmond, apparently unable to recover from the shock, are mowed down by a hail of bullets.
The rattle of automatic gunfire hammers against the ears of those still alive, and bullets ricochet dangerously off the rocks. Being all in one place like that makes the situation all the more dangerous, as a shot intended for one of you may very well strike another...
The Professor is nowhere to be seen, he seems to have run off and hidden. His bag is in the snow near the small ledge.
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Well that was a fantastically brilliant idea then. Bullets flying wildly and no real cover to speak of. Cosmo's only consolation is that he hadn't been given much choice and hopefully this one would be good enough.
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Mannick takes another Jangler out of his sack and tosses it over the rock, if it distracts the attackers to draw their fire then he looks out from the side to take a shot at one of them.
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Not falling for the same trick twice, the soldiers keep on firing. The fire seems a little lighter now though, and you can hear shouting. Out of the corner of your eye you notice that a particularly brave (or foolish) soldier has moved to your right and was trying to sneak up on you. His comrades now have to be more careful to avoid hitting him, but from his position the rocks aren't providing cover, making him a threat.
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Seeing a soldier coming up, Cosmo started panicking. He pointed his gun at the soldier, but couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. Instead, he swung the gun down a little, and holding the gun with both hands at arms length, aiming down the top of the gun, tried to shoot the other soldier in the leg.
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Unfortunately trick shots are not the best thing to try while panicking. Your shot goes wide, plowing into the snow near him. The soldier jumps to the side and dives into the snow. He's not in a position to fire yet, but once he steadies his aim it looks like he plans to take the shot from there. The gunfire gets lighter as soldiers start to run out of ammo and reload, and a grenade goes off several feet to your left. Fortunately, none of you are hit by shrapnel.
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Things were starting to get tight, but the grenade gave Cosmo an idea. Luckily he had several water canteens and various chemicals on his person. Specifically several rare earth metals. If he couldn't hit the leg of this guy there was no way he'd manage to hit his form lying down so he put down the gun, uncapped a water canteen, and fumbled in various pockets until he found the one with pellets of Rb in it.
He opened the bag, pulled one out, closed the bag again (it was cold enough that humidity was probably pretty low but no sense taking chances), popped open a canteen, dropped the pellet inside, pushed the lid shut, and hurled it backwards over the rock trusting to memory and the high target density for a hit. Thank goodness for chemistry and make-shift weapons. He then took what cover he could and set off trying to aim at the prone soldier in the snow. Cosmo realizes his aim really isn't good enough to need to worry about killing people so he just aims at the soldier and pulls off another two shots before taking cover.
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The first shot goes low, plowing into the snow just in front of the soldier. To your amazement though, the recoil brought the barrel up enough that the second shot rips straight into the soldier's head, cutting in just under the helmet. He dies instantly, the shocked expression frozen on his face. There is a great outcry from the main group of soldiers, but they are soon drowned out by something else. You hear a buzzing sound, and the rapid, rhythmic thumping noise of helicopter blades. The sound seems to be coming from the north-east, where you can just see the rotors starting to rise up over the ridge line...
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Well that was it then. The troops had pulled in reinforcements and the tiny band was doomed. Cosmo slumped back against the rock in defeat. There was just no way they were getting through this.
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Mannick takes note of the rising helicopter blades, and prepares to take a shot at whoever is piloting the vehicle if he can, if they are with the enemies that is...
There has to be a reason there are people with weapons way out here.
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A sleek, dark-gray attack helicopter rises over the ridgeline, with two bulkier transport helicopters in close formation behind it. To your great surprise the helicopters do not bear a red star, but are instead marked with a white star set in a blue circle, flanked by white and red stripes. As the attack helicopter strafes the convoy with a rocket barrage you realize that it's the US Air Force! Communist soldiers are mowed down by machinegun fire from the helicopters as soldiers in white-and-gray combat uniforms rope out of the transports and rapidly move to secure what's left of the convoy. In moments, the battle is over and they are loading the wounded onto choppers and calling additional transports to collect prisoners.
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"Hooray! We're not going to get killed by inexplicable Russians! Put your gun away before they think we're hostile."
Mannick stashes his gun and waves to some of the members of the Air Force to get their attention.
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One of the allied soldiers notices Dr. Faol's waving and shouts,
"Sir, we've got some more survivors! You there, by the rocks, put your hands up and step out where we can see you!"
The Professor is already standing up from where he was hiding with his hands up, and a soldier is checking him for weapons. You can see that several of the soldiers have different facemasks on their helmet, apparently accommodating a muzzle for hybrids, but there's still enough standardization that you can't pick out specific species due to how much the uniforms cover up.
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Cosmo had already dropped his gun back when he first saw the helicopters. However he almost didn't dare to realize what just happened. First of all that they were safe and second that all of those attacking soldiers were dead. Shakily, he stood up and turned to face the new people. It seemed that they were friendly enough so he approached with his hands up. "I'm unarmed!" he called out.
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Jake stood up without hesitation and raised his hands in the air, sighing with relief that they were now safe. I wonder what the odds are that we got rescued this easily... certainly not very high. "I am unarmed as well, though there are a few tools in my apron, belt, and the kit lying next to me."
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Mannick walks out from the rock with his hands up as well, and walks over to whoever is in charge of the searching.
"All I've got is this gun, other than that I'm unarmed."
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One soldier, a Sergeant judging by the patches on his uniform, walks over to you after you're done being searched and most of your equipment is taken. He looks you over and says,
"Americans huh? I have no idea how you ended up here, but you're sure lucky we showed up when we did. If the Commie's didn't get you you probably would have froze to death, especially your ferret friend there. We'll take you back to base and get you some warm drinks, then we'll talk about what you were doing in an abandoned mountain facility in the middle of winter."
He takes you over to a helicopter that just landed, helps you all climb in, and you take off, flying over the mountains. You're taken to a military base a few miles northeast of the facility, all your stuff is returned to you, and you're left waiting in a lobby, with a coffee machine and a hot chocolate dispenser, while the Sergeant walks into an office to talk to someone.
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Jake grumbles after receiving his hot drink, wondering what he ever did to the gods to curse him with being surrounded by people who can't tell the difference between two distinct species. In less silly, ridiculous, and pointless news, he sipped the drink in content.
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"I am going to need my things back eventually, Sergent, though I understand your position. A warm drink sounds wonderful though."
Mannick walks over to Jake, after getting a cup of liquid warm of his own.
"Don't look so down, my parakeet friend! We're saved!"
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Jake scowled at Mannick. "Sometimes I wonder if you people want me to go insane and strangle everybody who can't tell the difference between the letters A and B."
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Cosmo smiled softly into his mug of hot chocolate which he cupped with both hands. The warmth was welcome though not really necessary for even without fur Cosmo was generally fairly well accustomed to the cold. He was doing his best not to dwell on how many people probably just died, which was easy considering how strange their situation was. There was a lot to occupy his mind in the meanwhile.
OOC: Judging from start point, accents, and direction and length of time travelled, about where are we? This is something Cosmo would have checked while flying and one of his random items (if not confiscated) is a small compass.
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After you've had time to sit for a while, the sergeant steps out of the office and says,
"Okay, the Colonel wants to talk to you. Come on in."
Inside, several chairs have been set up facing a desk. Behind the desk is a man probably in his mid 40's, his black hair, what little there is, showing just a bit of gray around the edges. He's wearing a well-starched dress uniform, displaying a considerable collection of ribbons and medals. A name plate on his desk reads "Col. J. Frost". He acknowledges you as you enter and says,
"Welcome to Montana. I'm afraid I can't tell you exactly where we are just yet, but rest assured you're safe here. I'm Colonel Frost, the commanding officer of this base. Now, how about you tell me what a bunch of civvies like you were doing out in front of a facility so secret that I still can't get clearance to know it exists?"
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"Well..." began Cosmo, "I think the answer should be obvious. We were in that base because we aren't actually civilians. That research facility was devoted to various research into the nature of the universe. Before we continue though, may I ask what year it is?" Cosmo figured that should throw Frost for a bit of a loop. Call it a prejudice, but he had never been terribly fond of military folk (even ones who had just recently saved his life) and the more medals they had, the more wary he tended to be. You never knew how many of those medals were ceremonial after all.
As an afterthought Cosmo added, "And while you're at it, I'd like to know what Russians are doing in North America. I've never been good at international events and history, but I thought the Cold War was over."
OOC: Obviously Cosmo hasn't been paying attention as the Cold War was still going when they left. He thinks the Cold War was over when the Cuban Missle Crisis blew over. He was never good at history and current events even BEFORE he joined the facility and started devoting time to research instead of a social life.
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Jake thought for a moment, recalling everything he heard about the Cold War from the news and papers before starting work in the compound. "Cosmo, from what we've just seen I think we can assume that the Cold War is over, and either both countries agreed not to use nuclear weapons, or..." The otter swallowed his fear of the most likely possibility before saying it. "...Or they've already used them, and this area was spared. A giant mound of rocks isn't exactly a high-priority target, especially when the compound is so secret that they probably haven't told anybody of lower authority than the President and his cabinet of it's existence."
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Colonel Frost looks at you with a half skeptical, half dumbfounded look on his face.
"Have you clowns been locked in there since the Gorbachev assassination or something? Whether the Cold War is over may depend on your definition, but for your information this war has been anything but cold for the last decade!"
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"Guess negotiations failed then," Cosmo stated, leaning his elbows on the desk in front of him an lacing his fingers together and leaning his chin on them giving Frost a very cool stare. "So I ask again... what year is it?"
OOC: If this were a movie this moment would totally have a zoom in on my face with dramatic music and a fade out to black afterwards. This is an epic moment, don't spoil it >.<
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Colonel Frost leans forward and rests his elbows on the desk. Steepling his fingers in front of his mouth, he says,
"2015."
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Jake rolled his eyes at the overly dramatic display. "Well, nice to know we didn't go too far into the future. I assume that we don't have hover cars and jet packs yet?"
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OOC: Shush you Geary, drama is cool! Even if the Colonel was making fun of me ^.^
Cosmo leaned back in the chair again and replied, "Well Jake it seems almost twenty five years have passed while we were in there, I wouldn't be surprised if they had jet packs by now. Hover cars maybe not, luxury tech is never a priority during wars."
Turning back to the Colonel he finished, "Anyway, there you have it. We are time travelers from the past so we really have no idea what's been going on for the past two decades. Don't know why the research facility was abandoned, don't know how the Russians got here, and I don't know what we're going to do here, but that facility is top secret (assuming anyone even remembers the secret) because of the high nature of research we were doing."
OOC: DV... Cold War ended in 1991, but this RP started in 1992. Soviet Union collapsed a year before the story started. How is it even possible for this war to be taking place? Gorbechev was popular, but not enough so that his assasination AFTER the union collapsed would cause them to pull themselves together and declare war.
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(( Who said that in this timeline it ended in 1991? ))
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(In this timeline Gorbachev was assassinated before the Berlin wall fell. A new government took over, backed and puppeteered by the organization that committed the assassination. There was an uneasy peace for a decade or so while the new government consolidated power, followed by periodic skirmishes and another period of peace, with the current war starting in 2007. I'll be posting a short history and some useful information in the Rules thread...soon. Also, say hi to Dragyn!)
"It seems that the first thing we need to do is bring you all up to speed on current events. Sergeant Nash, get that hacker, Trei, and tell him we've got another job for him."
The Sergeant goes out, and comes back with a small-framed feline hybrid in a light-blue buttoned shirt and a pair of cargo shorts.
"Meet Ardusk Trei, he's the hacker that cracked the Commie's communications. Without him we wouldn't have found that convoy that had you pinned down, so you can thank him for saving you. Trei, I want you to bring these three up to speed on the war and current events. ((you don't literally have to tell them anything, it'll be assumed. Basically just say hi to each other.))"
You are escorted back to the lobby, where you are left to wait and talk again.
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((Well, it's a good thing I'm not expected to actually fill anyone in, since I think I know even less about anything than y'all do. :P ))
Ardusk Trei looks the party over, and tilts his head. "So, you're the group we found at the facility, huh? Looks like I cracked the code just in time."
I drum my fingers against my laptop case, slung over one shoulder. "So...you guys say you traveled through time?"
((Even if I shouldn't formally know about that claim, I'm sure the rumors got to me, one way or another.))
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OOC: Eh... technically we only revealed it to Frost just now, but sure, why not? Guess the professor had loose lips.
Now this was someone Cosmo was far more inclined to like. Someone else who knew his way around a computer, and someone who didn't really fit directly into the military hierarchy that led to people like Frost and that other fellow who had died at the facility. They got things done just fine, but Cosmo didn't really like them as a 'general' rule.
In regards to Trei's question though... "Yeah, that's right. We seem to have skipped about twenty or so years of history. Hey, can we see a map maybe? Like who owns what territory, and what places still exist... stuff like that."
OOC: So is this future alternate to history IRL only? Or would someone up to date on current events notice that the Soviet Union collapsed 'last year' and now suddenly history has changed farther back than our group even came from?
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Trei unshoulders his laptop and opens it, waking it from it's slumber. He opens a window with a map of the world, with pertinent information (though nothing classified. Even if he has it, he isn't gonna' just show them right off.)
"Is this what you're after?"
((I have no idea what the map would look like. I'm not the GM here. :P))
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The map revealed is quite disturbing; the crimson tide of Communism has swept across Asia, Europe, and South America. The West Indies are a chaotic mix of red and blue spots where NATO forces defending Australia battle the Communists for control of the islands and the seas, Alaska is highly contested, and the Communists have consolidated control of most of America's west coast. The entire continent of Africa is marked an ominous black...
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Cosmo frowned looking at the map. "That really isn't very encouraging... I hesitate to ask this but... what does the black in Africa mean? Is that another faction?" Indeed things would be optimistic if there were three factions because then the two underwhelmed factions could team up against the third. On the other hand if that was another enemy than things would be bad. And of course in the middle would be a no man's land that neither side could enter because they were the new Switzerland. Though it really was a pity about the old Switzerland, seems the 'not taking sides' thing didn't work out in the end.
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Sergeant Nash overhears and shakes his head,
"You don't have to worry about anyone in Africa. They're all dead, none of the African countries had ABM defenses, so they couldn't protect themselves when the Commies started their blitz by nuking everything. Not so much as a mosquito left on that whole continent."
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Jake had an objection, remembering something he learned by listening to scientists in the compound talk about bombs at lunch. "Wait, nuclear fallout doesn't last very long, wouldn't somebody have built some artificial outposts there by now?"
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Trei shrugs. "Possibly. Maybe even probably. If so, they've not gone through any official channels, and are off the grid. Nothing that would show up on my map."
((Taking some liberties, here, yeah. The bossman can always contradict me, but that's what would make most sense to me.))
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((All right, you are now up to speed. Your characters may now be considered to pretty much know everything on the Rules thread. For future reference, you may treat any information I put on the Rules thread as "common knowledge". This means that in most circumstances you may assume your character knows it, unless you have decided they don't know it previously, then they have to find out somehow. If you have any specific questions, you can ask something you'd expect to have been in the briefing out of character, or you can ask an NPC anything in-character at any time.))
Sergeant Nash stops as if he's listening to something, mutters something into a communicator, listens a bit more, then says to you guys,
"Bad news, we just found out Professor Durchgeknalt doesn't have that machine that supposedly got you here. We've secured the facility, but at his age the cold hit him pretty hard. We're going to need you guys on site to find and identify the machine. We're loading up some scientists in ten minutes to look at what we found, and Colonel Frost wants you on the chopper with them."