Re: The Gradual Massacre (GBS2G4) [Round 3: Las Orbitas]
04-22-2011, 08:37 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by slipsicle.
Thane paced methodically around the lab, muttering with each careful step. Periodically, his hands would flick blood onto the ground on either side. He paced in a circle, whose borders became stronger and more visible with each splatter of blood, and in its center was a beating heart.
Off to the side, slumping in a corner, was the drained body of Christopher Schmaltz. The hole in his chest still seemed to yearn for the heart that had been torn from it, and the ash-grey skin testified to the source of the blood Thane was still flinging onto the floor.
The lights had gone out a while ago. The only illumination came from the sickly purple glow of Thane's technoldritch cybomomination body, and a faint crackling of extracosmic energies racing across the circle. The ritual was nearly complete, but Thane still needed more power...
---
Chris and Douglas dragged the druggie genius and his strange machine along the hallway. They were approaching the Naval Lab, and as they did so, they could hear voices of other engineers ahead of them, around a corner. The machine provided a mobile umbra of light for them as they moved through the corridor, and was apparently noticed by a few of the engineers as well. Headlamp lights were suddenly fixated on steadily-more-illuminated bulkheads, as the engineers saw lights flickering on with no explanation. A head peeked around the corner. "Chris, Douglas!" The engineer, recognizing his crewmates, gave a friendly wave and started a quick job towards them. A few more engineers appeared from around the corner as well, mollified by their comrade's reaction.
"Hey Matthews, could you give us a hand here?" Douglas gestured with the arm that was hauling the machine. "My arm is about to fall off."
"Hey yeah sure thing. Is this what's powering the lights?"
Douglas grunted.
Matthews grabbed a couple of seemingly-randomly-placed pipes on the machine and started dragging it along the floor, puzzling over it as he did so.
"How does this... is it..." He glanced over at the pair of engineers supporting Algernon between them.
Douglas grunted again. "Yeah, it's impossible. This guy built it... we think. Good luck asking him how though, he's high out of his mind."
Matthews shook his head. "If it's impossible then it shouldn't work, but it does, so obviously it's doing something perfectly reasonable but... I just can't figure out /what/..."
The group was quickly joined by more engineers, and as they rounded the corner they could see a small crowd gathered outside what was obviously the door to Laboratory 10.
Chris and Douglas let Algernon slump against a wall, and went over to the milling engineers. Douglas turned to Matthews, and asked, "What's going on? Why are you all outside?" Matthews gestured to a blank panel by the door. "The power's out, we can't get the door op-"
The panel beeped, and lit up. Everyone looked at it, then shifted their gaze to the trembling, makeshift machine which was mysteriously lighting the corridor's lights, and apparently the panel as well.
An engineer nearest the panel reached for it. "Well, I guess that's /that/ problem solved..." He placed his hand on the panel, and the door sliced open.
---
Algernon woke to a darkened corridor, lit only by the flickering glow of some out-of-sight fires. He smelled burnt flesh. His head felt funny. Inhuman cries echoed through the pitch-black corridors. He was supposed to do something, something urgent... he just couldn't remember what it /was/. He stood up and, wobbling a little, steadied himself against the bulkhead. He felt... very odd, though he couldn't quite place why. Then he remembered the machine. In fact, that was really all he /could/ remember. He'd made a machine... how did he make it? Nevermind, he'd done it, and it did something impossible, but it provided power... and he needed power... because... of... the darkness? No no, that wasn't right. He shook his head, trying to clear it, with no real success. He decided that he had to find that machine, wherever it had gone (it obviously wasn't here, because of, y'know, /darkness/).
Leaning against the bulkhead, Algernon began to trace his way along the corridor, and away from the ruined Laboratory 10.
Thane paced methodically around the lab, muttering with each careful step. Periodically, his hands would flick blood onto the ground on either side. He paced in a circle, whose borders became stronger and more visible with each splatter of blood, and in its center was a beating heart.
Off to the side, slumping in a corner, was the drained body of Christopher Schmaltz. The hole in his chest still seemed to yearn for the heart that had been torn from it, and the ash-grey skin testified to the source of the blood Thane was still flinging onto the floor.
The lights had gone out a while ago. The only illumination came from the sickly purple glow of Thane's technoldritch cybomomination body, and a faint crackling of extracosmic energies racing across the circle. The ritual was nearly complete, but Thane still needed more power...
---
Chris and Douglas dragged the druggie genius and his strange machine along the hallway. They were approaching the Naval Lab, and as they did so, they could hear voices of other engineers ahead of them, around a corner. The machine provided a mobile umbra of light for them as they moved through the corridor, and was apparently noticed by a few of the engineers as well. Headlamp lights were suddenly fixated on steadily-more-illuminated bulkheads, as the engineers saw lights flickering on with no explanation. A head peeked around the corner. "Chris, Douglas!" The engineer, recognizing his crewmates, gave a friendly wave and started a quick job towards them. A few more engineers appeared from around the corner as well, mollified by their comrade's reaction.
"Hey Matthews, could you give us a hand here?" Douglas gestured with the arm that was hauling the machine. "My arm is about to fall off."
"Hey yeah sure thing. Is this what's powering the lights?"
Douglas grunted.
Matthews grabbed a couple of seemingly-randomly-placed pipes on the machine and started dragging it along the floor, puzzling over it as he did so.
"How does this... is it..." He glanced over at the pair of engineers supporting Algernon between them.
Douglas grunted again. "Yeah, it's impossible. This guy built it... we think. Good luck asking him how though, he's high out of his mind."
Matthews shook his head. "If it's impossible then it shouldn't work, but it does, so obviously it's doing something perfectly reasonable but... I just can't figure out /what/..."
The group was quickly joined by more engineers, and as they rounded the corner they could see a small crowd gathered outside what was obviously the door to Laboratory 10.
Chris and Douglas let Algernon slump against a wall, and went over to the milling engineers. Douglas turned to Matthews, and asked, "What's going on? Why are you all outside?" Matthews gestured to a blank panel by the door. "The power's out, we can't get the door op-"
The panel beeped, and lit up. Everyone looked at it, then shifted their gaze to the trembling, makeshift machine which was mysteriously lighting the corridor's lights, and apparently the panel as well.
An engineer nearest the panel reached for it. "Well, I guess that's /that/ problem solved..." He placed his hand on the panel, and the door sliced open.
---
Algernon woke to a darkened corridor, lit only by the flickering glow of some out-of-sight fires. He smelled burnt flesh. His head felt funny. Inhuman cries echoed through the pitch-black corridors. He was supposed to do something, something urgent... he just couldn't remember what it /was/. He stood up and, wobbling a little, steadied himself against the bulkhead. He felt... very odd, though he couldn't quite place why. Then he remembered the machine. In fact, that was really all he /could/ remember. He'd made a machine... how did he make it? Nevermind, he'd done it, and it did something impossible, but it provided power... and he needed power... because... of... the darkness? No no, that wasn't right. He shook his head, trying to clear it, with no real success. He decided that he had to find that machine, wherever it had gone (it obviously wasn't here, because of, y'know, /darkness/).
Leaning against the bulkhead, Algernon began to trace his way along the corridor, and away from the ruined Laboratory 10.