Re: Grand Battle S3G1! (Round Two: The Great Battlefield)
11-13-2011, 12:41 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by SleepingOrange.
Watching TinTen move on land was, as anyone in the battle could have told you by now, not particularly impressive. It was firmly for the best that he spent so much time perched on Huebert's back, as the alternative was a slithering hop that came of having no real legs or bones. In the water, though, was another matter entirely: as Tengeri whipped snakelike through the depths, TinTen descended like a particularly Lovecraftian angel, lab coat fluttering behind him gracefully and tentacles threshing the still water. Leviath and Meipi split apart, reasoning wordlessly that staying together would just lengthen the search, and spiraled through the lake with the elegance afforded by movement in all three dimensions.
Truth be told, they could have stuck next to one another and still had little trouble and taken little time finding an entrance: whoever had designed the facility hadn't expected many invaders more at home in sea than on soil. As soon as the pair had reached any depth worth talking about, the building itself rose obviously out of the murk; it was an airtight, utilitarian affair, and rather smaller than either had expected from the control center that housed the Great Battlefield's ultimate end.
Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any real way in, at least from the within lake itself. Apparently a species as terrestrial as humanity didn't leave a lot of flooded backdoors in its architecture, and a smallish body of water like the lake wasn't particularly hospitable to submersibles. Besides, any kind of dock for them would have made the whole place painfully obvious, defeating the purpose of hiding underwater in the first place. Still, that all at least meant there was almost certainly some kind of entrance on the surface somewhere that suited their companions better; all that remained was to find some place they could force their way in without flooding a nuclear silo.
It was only minutes later that TinTen's distorted voice was announcing the presence of a hatch: Tengeri wove her way around the marine spires of the complex and joined him; by the looks of it, it was a waste disposal chute, which was probably sensible. No sense constantly having to deal with the problem of emptying the trash covertly when you have a nice big pond to dump it all in from below. TinTen's rather emaciated tentacles had difficulty finding purchase in the hatch's frame, and it was clearly not designed to be opened from without. Tengeri's mechanical augmentations had no such limitations though, and peeled the steel back carefully but forcefully. A large bubble escaped the presumable airlock, and TinTen found his malleable frame being pulled in with a large quantity of water; his fellow scientist and aquatic organism joined him after a moment, forcing the hatch-door back into a pretty good approximation of its previous form and location.
She moved as though to do likewise to the opposite hatch, but TinTen laid an appendage on her back and gestured to the wall: there was a bright red button labeled EMERGENCY RELEASE; both actively avoided wondering how they could read a label that had ostensibly been designed without their languages in mind as Tengeri's mechanical arm depressed the switch. There was a gurgle followed by a clank, and the airlock sped open, depositing a sodden pair of researchers on the cold steel floor. TinTen stood himself up as Tengeri gathered an aqueous sphere around herself, muttering "Now to find more accessible entrance."
"My systems are currently creating a map of the building, aided by my scans of the exterior." purred the surprisingly-smooth voice of the leviath.
"Approximate time to completion?"
Tengeri gave a very serpentine shrug. "Hard to say, really. Probably only a few minutes, even if this place is larger than I anticipate."
TinTen shook out his coat; for a moment, his tentacle hovered over his grenade launcher, but as much as he wanted some field testing of a few choice explosives underwater in a sealed environment probably wan't the place to do it. He grabbed a sleek sidearm instead, deactivated the waterproof seal, and reattached the power source. "No sense waiting in meantime," he said with a smile Tengeri almost certainly missed. "Perhaps old-fashioned way can beat sophisticated sensors."
He bustled to the nearest door, threading his cable-camera under it with one hand and brandishing his weapon enthusiastically in the other. Tengeri hung back, writhing slightly nervously.
"How can you be so gung-ho about this?"
Without looking back at her, TinTen shrugged. Apparently satisfied that the corridor beyond was unoccupied, he clumsily opened the door and wobbled out it.
"Was not only scientist back in own world. Was hunter, adventurer, freedom fighter. War against cruel Duchess, space battles, land campaigns. Exploring uncharted worlds, battling pirates."
He finally turned back to his reluctant companion. "For first time since Fool appeared, am in own element."
He beckoned and disappeared down a random direction in the corridor. "Come, time is of essence now."
Watching TinTen move on land was, as anyone in the battle could have told you by now, not particularly impressive. It was firmly for the best that he spent so much time perched on Huebert's back, as the alternative was a slithering hop that came of having no real legs or bones. In the water, though, was another matter entirely: as Tengeri whipped snakelike through the depths, TinTen descended like a particularly Lovecraftian angel, lab coat fluttering behind him gracefully and tentacles threshing the still water. Leviath and Meipi split apart, reasoning wordlessly that staying together would just lengthen the search, and spiraled through the lake with the elegance afforded by movement in all three dimensions.
Truth be told, they could have stuck next to one another and still had little trouble and taken little time finding an entrance: whoever had designed the facility hadn't expected many invaders more at home in sea than on soil. As soon as the pair had reached any depth worth talking about, the building itself rose obviously out of the murk; it was an airtight, utilitarian affair, and rather smaller than either had expected from the control center that housed the Great Battlefield's ultimate end.
Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any real way in, at least from the within lake itself. Apparently a species as terrestrial as humanity didn't leave a lot of flooded backdoors in its architecture, and a smallish body of water like the lake wasn't particularly hospitable to submersibles. Besides, any kind of dock for them would have made the whole place painfully obvious, defeating the purpose of hiding underwater in the first place. Still, that all at least meant there was almost certainly some kind of entrance on the surface somewhere that suited their companions better; all that remained was to find some place they could force their way in without flooding a nuclear silo.
It was only minutes later that TinTen's distorted voice was announcing the presence of a hatch: Tengeri wove her way around the marine spires of the complex and joined him; by the looks of it, it was a waste disposal chute, which was probably sensible. No sense constantly having to deal with the problem of emptying the trash covertly when you have a nice big pond to dump it all in from below. TinTen's rather emaciated tentacles had difficulty finding purchase in the hatch's frame, and it was clearly not designed to be opened from without. Tengeri's mechanical augmentations had no such limitations though, and peeled the steel back carefully but forcefully. A large bubble escaped the presumable airlock, and TinTen found his malleable frame being pulled in with a large quantity of water; his fellow scientist and aquatic organism joined him after a moment, forcing the hatch-door back into a pretty good approximation of its previous form and location.
She moved as though to do likewise to the opposite hatch, but TinTen laid an appendage on her back and gestured to the wall: there was a bright red button labeled EMERGENCY RELEASE; both actively avoided wondering how they could read a label that had ostensibly been designed without their languages in mind as Tengeri's mechanical arm depressed the switch. There was a gurgle followed by a clank, and the airlock sped open, depositing a sodden pair of researchers on the cold steel floor. TinTen stood himself up as Tengeri gathered an aqueous sphere around herself, muttering "Now to find more accessible entrance."
"My systems are currently creating a map of the building, aided by my scans of the exterior." purred the surprisingly-smooth voice of the leviath.
"Approximate time to completion?"
Tengeri gave a very serpentine shrug. "Hard to say, really. Probably only a few minutes, even if this place is larger than I anticipate."
TinTen shook out his coat; for a moment, his tentacle hovered over his grenade launcher, but as much as he wanted some field testing of a few choice explosives underwater in a sealed environment probably wan't the place to do it. He grabbed a sleek sidearm instead, deactivated the waterproof seal, and reattached the power source. "No sense waiting in meantime," he said with a smile Tengeri almost certainly missed. "Perhaps old-fashioned way can beat sophisticated sensors."
He bustled to the nearest door, threading his cable-camera under it with one hand and brandishing his weapon enthusiastically in the other. Tengeri hung back, writhing slightly nervously.
"How can you be so gung-ho about this?"
Without looking back at her, TinTen shrugged. Apparently satisfied that the corridor beyond was unoccupied, he clumsily opened the door and wobbled out it.
"Was not only scientist back in own world. Was hunter, adventurer, freedom fighter. War against cruel Duchess, space battles, land campaigns. Exploring uncharted worlds, battling pirates."
He finally turned back to his reluctant companion. "For first time since Fool appeared, am in own element."
He beckoned and disappeared down a random direction in the corridor. "Come, time is of essence now."