Re: Intense Struggle Season 2! (Round 1: Training Facility ONX)
08-23-2010, 07:17 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Pinary.
As the speakers clicked off, the docking clamps disengaged, sending a booming echo through the facility. Once it passed, though, all was silent. No one moved, pensive. Nothing happened.
As nothing continued to happen, people began to stir. The worm began to orient itself, deciding which of the tiny things it would eat first, and the combat-capable of the group started preparing to defend. As Marcus moved forward, Sarika started, "Don't-", but she was interrupted before she could finish.
The jettison charges detonated, knocking the facility clumsily away from the rest of the station and sending it spinning off into space.
Inside, there was chaos. In the shock of the detonation, the unstable antimatter core fluctuated wildly, making every system waver on and off. The artificial gravity went wild, flying from normal to triple to none to negative over the course of a few seconds and reverting back a few moments later. The lights flickered crazily, making things that much more chaotic. No series of coherent events could really be discerned, just flashes of tiny scenes: Charlie floating halfway above the floor in momentary null gravity; Lillian pushing her head into Karen's shoulder; the worm being shoved back down its hole- all just tiny slices of the noisy, flashing, confusing whole.
Then, a moment after it had started, it was done. The facility was still tumbling, but the charges had successfully set them on their way, and now that they weren't being jolted around, the core had settled down to merely being unstable and about to detonate.
As the core normalized, so did things in the final chamber. The lights went back to normal, the gravity came back to where it had been before, and the eight contestants were given a moment to relax. The worm was down in its hole somewhere, and for now, no one seemed to be making any aggressive moves.
Marcus, for his part, hadn't fared too badly. He was no stranger to artificial gravity, and this was far from the worst experience he'd had with it. Of course, it was hardly a pleasant one, but he couldn't really complain. He was alive, wasn't he?
There was, however, a man draped over his legs about which he could complain, since he was twisting Marcus' ankle in a rather painful way and making him rather annoyed.
Lloyd, on the other hand, was grinning madly. The lights, the gravity, the chaos, it had all come together in a way that was much more real for him than anything he had experienced before. Sure, he'd have a few bruises, and he'd want to take a few minutes to steady his stomach, but otherwise, it hadn't been so bad.
Standing up, he extended a hand to the man he'd landed on. "Marcus White, I believe?"
Marcus eyed him dubiously. "Yeah. And you're Lloyd. The bookworm."
"Exactly that. I think we should probably have a bit of a chat. No, don't look at me like that- you really should trust me on this one."
He was disgruntled and suspicious, but Marcus took the proffered hand. "Alright," he said, moving back towards Sarika, "talk." His ankle hurt like blazes, but it didn't seem any worse than it had been before.
"I've spent my life," Lloyd began, "seeing and disrupting chains of events. It gave me great pleasure to see a sequence of cause and effect thrown to the wind, and it's practically second nature to me to throw a wrench in the works whenever I can."
"And? What's your point?"
"My point, you see, is that there is such a chain of events building. It starts with one simple question: What, exactly, is the most logical thing to do when you're kidnapped by a rather powerful being?"
"Well, do what it says, I'd imagine. Cooperate. But that's ignoring-"
"Right, right. Now, it just so happens that we find ourselves in such a situation, and we've been given exactly two instructions." He held up a finger. "One: kill all the other contestants." He held up a second. "Two: do not do so until all of them have reached this room- the one we are standing in."
Marcus stopped and turned, his boots making small squishing noises in the goop as he did. He gave Lloyd an annoyed look. "What are you getting at? Are you saying I should kill you right now, because that's the 'logical' thing to do?"
Lloyd held up his hands. "No, no, far from it! We're not just rational beings, but emotional as well, and that includes things like having a conscience and a desire not to kill at the drop of a hat. But if, say, you were a purely logical being, you would think that now would be the point at which to start attacking, yeah?"
"Sure, yeah. Your point?"
"My point," Lloyd said, gesturing behind them, "is that if I were an invisible robot, armed and ready to kill, I'd be on the hunt, aiming to take out the most dangerous targets first."
Marcus saw the distinctive footsteps of the Hunterbot in the ooze on the floor behind him just as it leapt, its cloaking system rendering it just a ripple in the air.
He had a pistol in his hand sooner than Lloyd would have expected, and he got off a glancing shot before Charlie was on him, claws knocking the gun away. The two grappled, Marcus trying to reach any of his various weapons to use against the robot and Charlie trying to reach for any of Marcus' various weapons to disable and remove them.
Lloyd, glad to finally have something even vaguely his size to pick on, jumped into the fray, wrapping his towel around the Hunterbot's tail and hauling back hard. He wasn't sure it'd do a lot of good, but he'd be damned if he was going to just sit back any longer.
As the speakers clicked off, the docking clamps disengaged, sending a booming echo through the facility. Once it passed, though, all was silent. No one moved, pensive. Nothing happened.
As nothing continued to happen, people began to stir. The worm began to orient itself, deciding which of the tiny things it would eat first, and the combat-capable of the group started preparing to defend. As Marcus moved forward, Sarika started, "Don't-", but she was interrupted before she could finish.
The jettison charges detonated, knocking the facility clumsily away from the rest of the station and sending it spinning off into space.
Inside, there was chaos. In the shock of the detonation, the unstable antimatter core fluctuated wildly, making every system waver on and off. The artificial gravity went wild, flying from normal to triple to none to negative over the course of a few seconds and reverting back a few moments later. The lights flickered crazily, making things that much more chaotic. No series of coherent events could really be discerned, just flashes of tiny scenes: Charlie floating halfway above the floor in momentary null gravity; Lillian pushing her head into Karen's shoulder; the worm being shoved back down its hole- all just tiny slices of the noisy, flashing, confusing whole.
Then, a moment after it had started, it was done. The facility was still tumbling, but the charges had successfully set them on their way, and now that they weren't being jolted around, the core had settled down to merely being unstable and about to detonate.
As the core normalized, so did things in the final chamber. The lights went back to normal, the gravity came back to where it had been before, and the eight contestants were given a moment to relax. The worm was down in its hole somewhere, and for now, no one seemed to be making any aggressive moves.
Marcus, for his part, hadn't fared too badly. He was no stranger to artificial gravity, and this was far from the worst experience he'd had with it. Of course, it was hardly a pleasant one, but he couldn't really complain. He was alive, wasn't he?
There was, however, a man draped over his legs about which he could complain, since he was twisting Marcus' ankle in a rather painful way and making him rather annoyed.
Lloyd, on the other hand, was grinning madly. The lights, the gravity, the chaos, it had all come together in a way that was much more real for him than anything he had experienced before. Sure, he'd have a few bruises, and he'd want to take a few minutes to steady his stomach, but otherwise, it hadn't been so bad.
Standing up, he extended a hand to the man he'd landed on. "Marcus White, I believe?"
Marcus eyed him dubiously. "Yeah. And you're Lloyd. The bookworm."
"Exactly that. I think we should probably have a bit of a chat. No, don't look at me like that- you really should trust me on this one."
He was disgruntled and suspicious, but Marcus took the proffered hand. "Alright," he said, moving back towards Sarika, "talk." His ankle hurt like blazes, but it didn't seem any worse than it had been before.
"I've spent my life," Lloyd began, "seeing and disrupting chains of events. It gave me great pleasure to see a sequence of cause and effect thrown to the wind, and it's practically second nature to me to throw a wrench in the works whenever I can."
"And? What's your point?"
"My point, you see, is that there is such a chain of events building. It starts with one simple question: What, exactly, is the most logical thing to do when you're kidnapped by a rather powerful being?"
"Well, do what it says, I'd imagine. Cooperate. But that's ignoring-"
"Right, right. Now, it just so happens that we find ourselves in such a situation, and we've been given exactly two instructions." He held up a finger. "One: kill all the other contestants." He held up a second. "Two: do not do so until all of them have reached this room- the one we are standing in."
Marcus stopped and turned, his boots making small squishing noises in the goop as he did. He gave Lloyd an annoyed look. "What are you getting at? Are you saying I should kill you right now, because that's the 'logical' thing to do?"
Lloyd held up his hands. "No, no, far from it! We're not just rational beings, but emotional as well, and that includes things like having a conscience and a desire not to kill at the drop of a hat. But if, say, you were a purely logical being, you would think that now would be the point at which to start attacking, yeah?"
"Sure, yeah. Your point?"
"My point," Lloyd said, gesturing behind them, "is that if I were an invisible robot, armed and ready to kill, I'd be on the hunt, aiming to take out the most dangerous targets first."
Marcus saw the distinctive footsteps of the Hunterbot in the ooze on the floor behind him just as it leapt, its cloaking system rendering it just a ripple in the air.
He had a pistol in his hand sooner than Lloyd would have expected, and he got off a glancing shot before Charlie was on him, claws knocking the gun away. The two grappled, Marcus trying to reach any of his various weapons to use against the robot and Charlie trying to reach for any of Marcus' various weapons to disable and remove them.
Lloyd, glad to finally have something even vaguely his size to pick on, jumped into the fray, wrapping his towel around the Hunterbot's tail and hauling back hard. He wasn't sure it'd do a lot of good, but he'd be damned if he was going to just sit back any longer.