Condition Red RP thread

[Digital Vulpine]

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!

[Geary]

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?"

[Stormkit]

"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.

[AlexShrub]

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?"

[Geary]

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."

[Digital Vulpine]

"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.

[Stormkit]

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.

[Geary]

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.

[Stormkit]

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."

[Geary]

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.

[AlexShrub]

"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.

[Digital Vulpine]

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.

[Stormkit]

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.

[AlexShrub]

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.

[Geary]

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.