Spaceships, Sixguns, and Cylcopean Horrors Log

[Steerpike]

[ic=Regroup]The bank robbers are dead or dying.  The one Hadrian and Sthena took down is coughing up his guts in the street.  Ramsay, you and Ashley are still in the bank.  Apart from their weapons the robbers were carrying a large bag which has partly spilled open, revealing some plastic explosives inside.

Ramsay takes the bag of explosives and, after double-checking the bank is clear, exits to the street.

Hadrian walks up to the downed would-be-Robber and nudges him with his boot.  "Doesn't seem like such a good idea now, eh?"

The robber coughs and splutters, spraying blood.  "Flathing nafl-hupadgh," he spits.

Hadrian chuckles "Whatever, buddy. I'm not the one on the ground bleedin' out."  He whistles quietly and walks away, to lean up against the bank, his rifle on his shoulder.

The Mayor and several bystanders have gathered.  Judith, the healer, appears as well.  "Is anyone hurt?" she asks.

Sthena raises an eyebrow. "Yes. All of the robbers are hurt. Quite badly."

"No one was hurt, except for the robbers, who are dead," Ramsay says.

Hadrian snaps his fingers and points lazily at the robber on the ground.

Ramsay approaches the Mayor. "We took care of the bank robbers for you."

"I'll see about compensating you folks.  You have our thanks.  I should speak with your Captain."

"We can get you in touch with him over a radio."

The Mayor nods.

Hadrian yawns.  Sthena stands around looking badass and awesome and hot.

Gideon's voice crackles over the radio: "Greetings Mayor. You wanted to have a word with me about that?"

Doc Tenebrous jumps a little from the voice on the radio on his belt. He hastily reaches down and grabs it and gives the receiver to the Mayor.

"Hello there Captain," the Mayor says.  "We've had a little incident here.  I think perhaps you should come into town.  Your crew did Menhir a real service."

"Well mayor, that's right kind of you. I'll head on your way, think I'm feelin' well enough to make the walk."

Sakhr tries to speak loud enough to be heard over the radio the others are holding.  "Captain, there is also another who wishes to bring a deal to the table with you."

From his seat in the ship, Gideon winces.  "Throdding flathing..." he mutters as he stands, too low to be heard over the radio. Louder. "Then I'll meet with him or her or it when I get over there. Doc, mind fixing up a batch of some of the ilyaa'hriiamine for me when I get there? Still a bit stiff."

Sthena wanders around, seeing if there is anything useful that can be scavenged from the downed robbers.

There's not a lot to loot.  A few spare credits and their weapons and ammunition.  The man on the ground coughs up a piece of himself.

Ramsay glares at the downed man. "Do we need to interrogate that one? If not, it'd be better to put him down."

Sthena takes his pistol, figuring it might be useful to have a backup sidearm. "If you have anything to say, now would seem to be a good time," she says to the dying robber.

"Nice tits ftaghu'ebumna," he croaks at Sthena.

Sthena nods, and tests the pistol. On him.

Gideon gets on the hovercycle, remembering that he has it. "Don't need to ask Ramsay. You're still in charge right now, your call."

Hadrian strolls back around behind the bank to the hoverwagon and, opens the door to the cab and climbs in.  He scrabbles around in the dead get-away driver's pockets, looking for keys.

You find them.

Hadrian opens the other door and pushes the corpse out of the front seat and onto the ground.

Meanwhile, Father Blake holsters his pistols and walks over to the corpse.  He looks down at the man and begins drawing the Yellow Sign on his forehead with a ceremonial stylus.  The cleric shakes his head, mumuring prayers to Hastur, and heads into the bank.

Doc Tenebrous puts the radio, now not being used, back on his belt and reaches into his medical bag to comply with Cpt. Gideon's request for more ilyaa'hriiamine.

"These individuals seem opportunistic," Sakhr notes.  "Do you think it is at all possible they have anything to do with our original goal?

"While it would make sense that they may be associated with rustlers, it would seem that that's not what's been causing cattle to be lost here," Ramsay replies.

Hadrian puts the keys in the ignition, and brings the hoverwagon back around to the street.

Ashley Crow walks out of the bank just as Gideon arrives.

Gideon brings the hovercycle to a halt, not crashing into the hoverwagon on the street. "Ashley." He winces as he gets off. "Gonna need the Doc 'fore I can get caught up on things."

Ashley nods.

Ramsay salutes Gideon as he rejoins the group. "Captain."

Captain Gideon tips his hat.

"Mmm," Sakhr muses. "Yet they must have a hide-out, correct? A place to hide after robbing this facility."

"Could be," Ramsay admits. "But I don't think it'd be worth the trouble to go look for it. We have more pressing work at hand, anyway."

"Maybe the 'rustlers' are using a similar form of safe house that is relatively well hidden. If there is an indication on then as to their destination or origin, it may give us any clues about anything else to keep our eyes open for.

"Or maybe they're is no connection at all. In which case we'd be wasting valuable time being sidetracked."

Sthena interjects, "The waitress in the cafe stated she had seen visions of some sort of cave."

"I was under the impression that the 'scum-sucking-parasitic-frotters' of society tended not to tolerate their own ilk within their territory to some degree," Sakhr points out. "Do we have reason to suspect this group was entirely unaware of other criminals operating within their territory?"

"Right now, we don't have reason to suspect much," Ramsay insists.

Sakhr grunts unhappily.

Sthena offers, "I recommend for the time being that we pursue our current lead and proceed to the Horn ranch."

"I agree," Ramsay adds.

"Captain," Ashley says.  "I'll fill you in on what's going on while we make our way to the ranch."

Gideon nods to Ashley. "Sure thing, soon as I talk to the Mayor here."

Hadrian leans out the front window, observing the goings on somewhat half-interestedly.

Doc Tenebrous walks over to Gideon with the newly made drug he asked for. "Your medicine, Captain."

"Thank you kindly, Doc."

"No need to thank me, Captain. It's my job to keep you all alive after all."

Hadrian waves lazily at Gideon until he catches his attention.

Gideon doses himself. "Throdding y'hah, but I needed that." He nods at Doc. "Alright, take me to the-" cuts off as he sees Hadrian waving "-random grah'n waving us down."  Gideon heads over to Hadrian.

"Oh, Captain, this individual, Hadrian, wishes to speak with you. He has a proposal in mind," Sakhr says, joining Hadrian and Gideon.

Doc Tenebrous follows behind Gideon to where the rest of the group is standing.

"Afternoon - Hadrian, was it?" Gideon says. "Sakhr here says you have somethin' you want to talk about?"

Hadrian nods. "You must be Captain Carter."

"I'd be an or'luhnyth if I said I ain't."

Hadrian extends a hand out of the cab. "Hadrian Saxon-Sorne. Good to meet you."

Gideon takes it "I'd say the same, but right now I'm a bit uncertain who the flath you are. What'd you have in mind?"

"Right, well. As I've been sayin' I was hired by Brantham – shit little town down the road a ways – to look into what's been going on around here. Same as you and your crew, I've gathered. "

"That's about the size of it, yeah."

"Anyways, I've been out scouting the terrain, been up to the Reekwood a time or two. Figure I could show you guys up there, maybe we could solve both our problems same time, eh?"

Gideon ponders for a minute. "Alright, guess that'll work out just fine. You got hired by a different town, so no worry about who's gettin paid by who."

"And... maybe you give me a lift off of this suncooked rock before I go fuckin' crazy? How about it?"

Gideon pauses at the bit about the ride.

"I am willing to vouch for him, Captain," Sakhr says. "From what I have seen, I believe he is someone worth assisting. And I think he is probably trustworthy. Much more so than most of the locals I have encountered.

Ashley steps forward. "I agree," she says.  "He's a fair shot."

Sakhr tilts his head sideways as he looks at Hadrian, then back to Gideon.

"I have no objections," Ramsay adds.

Doc Tenebrous watches the scene develop with detachment and in silence.

"Alright, that bit is somethin' I'm not gonna say yes or no too right off the bat," Gideon says. "The crew seems to like ya well enough, but I'd want to get to see some more myself 'fore I make that call. Not sayin' yes or no yet."

"Well, I got a nice new hoverwagon," Hadrian says. "Might make getting around a bit easier for you and your crew while you're on Mandragora.. eh? Ride for a ride? Seems fair to me."

Sakhr stares at Hadrian for a moment. "Just don't run that wagon into me." Sakhr pointedly glances at Sthena for a moment.

Sthena raises an eyebrow. "The collision would have been far worse had I not made an effort to avert it, albeit not an entirely successful one."

"Mmm, and were you as capable as you believed, perhaps you would have avoided the collision entirely."

Sthena turns away. "Perhaps the next time I find myself in such a situation, I won't bother."

"Down the road in a wagon's bit different cross space on a ship," Gideon says.

Hadrian shrugs "Well, walking's always good excercise, I hear. Look. How about you just think about it. I'll throw in the ride for free. I'm not cruel, place is shitty enough without having to walk. Trust me."

Gideon 's eyes narrow for a moment, then he laughs. "I'll say this, you're doin' a fair bit to help your case. Alright, thanks for the lift."

The Mayor looks over to you.  "I'll tell you what Captain.  Your crew did a fine job.  I'd say you've earned a good reward.  How's twenty credits for each of you?  Including the fella from Brantham."

Hadrian nods appreciatively. "I'll take it."

Gideon nods. "Sounds like a fair bargain to me."

"Aye," Ramsay agrees. "Yog-Sothoth knows we could use a bit of extra."

Gideon says to Ramsay. "Noden's beard, but you're right about that."

Mayor Crofton spits in his hand and offers it to you.

Gideon returns the gesture.

You shake, sealing the deal.

Sakhr seems to be smiling. That, or there's a chunk of someone's femur stuck in his gums.

Mayor Crofton tips his hat to Ramsay and Gideon and heads back to the Town Hall. Some of the locals tend to the bodies.

Gideon nods to the Mayor.  "Let's get headed out - Ramsay, want to have a word with ya on the way."

"Oh, Cap. We confiscated these from the bank-robbers." Ramsay shows the bag full of plastic explosives. "Might come in handy."

Gideon 's eyes widen. "Throd me, but that's somethin' nice. And if we don't need em, know a bug that'll pay for them, so we're good either way."

"So! Who's up front with me?" Hadrian turns to look at Ashley. "How about the lovely lady?"

Ashley avoids Hadrian's gaze.  "I'll ride with the Captain.  Have to fill him in on what's happened."

Hadrian shrugs. "Suit yourself."

Father Blake steps forward.  "I'll ride with you, good sir," the priest says.

Hadrian rolls his eyes. "Well step on up, Padre. Room in the back for the rest of y'all."

The lama of Hastur steps inside. Gideon climbs in. Ramsay hops on the hoverwagon, taking a place near Gideon. Sakhr is more than pleased with not having to share a space with the Father for an extended period of time. He is more than happy to ride on the outside. Hadrian turns the radio on and cranks the volume.

Sthena will take the bike. With Doc, if he wants.

Doc Tenebrous walks over to the bike and finds Sthena already there. "Pardon me, Sthena. Did you mind if I ride along with you?"

Sthena nods. "Not at all." She hears the music playing from the wagon and is glad she's not riding in it.[/ic]

[Steerpike]

[ic=The Horn Family Ranch]You head out along a crude road to the ranches that surround Menhir.

"What did you want to have a word about, Cap?" Ramsay asks.

"Didn't want you thinkin' I was stepin' in because I didn't think you were doin a good job with this. Seemed to be goin fine - hell, usually when I get us into random scraps, we end up owing people money, not gettin' paid."

Ramsay nods.

"No worries, Cap. It's good to have you with us again, though."

"Good to be back. Was going cult waiting to know what was going on."

Doc Tenebrous hears the music and cringes slightly. "Thank you, Sthena. You don't know what a service you're doing me."

Ashley recaps the mission so far to Gideon while Father Blake bores Hadrian to tears with an impromptu sermon which Hadrian forgets as soon as the lama finishes.

Hadrian curses to himself as the volume knob has gone as high as it can.

Sthena zips off on the bike. She seems drive a bit like a maniac, but the Yith reflexes keep everything well within safe limits. Mostly, anyway. Maybe Sakhr had a point.

Gideon is grateful that the music and Ashley drown out the sermon.

Ramsay has covered his ears with headphones, playing deep one trash metal from a portable player to shield himself from the radio

Sthena pleasantly queries the Doctor on what he knows about organic polymers while they ride.

Doc Tenebrous answers all of Sthena's questions as thoroughly as possible.

The Horn family ranch is a large, rambling complex reachable by a rough dirt road.  Most of the ranch consists of an abundant open range, currently empty: all of the livestock have been corralled into fenced enclosures, presumably to deter further cattle-raiding.  The central farmhouse is a sprawling wooden structure of several levels.  A few barns and small patches of farmland are also evident.  A large, somewhat rusty hoverwagon is parked not far from the main building, and other bits of machinery are scattered about.  To the northeast rise the hills and the brooding forest beyond.

The beasts themselves are kept in pens segregated by species.  Terrestrial cows make up most of the herd, but there are also many vortlups - creatures something like horny lizards and something like llamas, long-necked and ugly but also hardy and dependable - as well as horses, and even a pair of shantak-birds - leathery, horse-headed creatures the size of small elephants - with their wings pinioned, kept secure behind an electrified fence.  A couple of stockgrowers are tending to these creatures, one of them feeding the equine-faced animals a great slew of raw beef while another carefully collects the creatures' head-sized, glistening eggs, cutting free the membranous sac which encases them with a small laser cutter and depositing the eggs in a lightweight canister.

Hadrian brings the hoverwagon to a stop out front of the main house.

The farmhand - a tall, bearded man in his late twenties - approaches the vehicle, setting down the canister of eggs.

Sthena stops next to the hoverwagon, taking a moment to study the interesting animals. Including, really, the terrestrial cows. They're probably as new to Sthena as anything else.

"You folks must be them bounty hunters," he says, eyeing you with a mixture of interest and suspicion.  "Name's Thomas Horn.  My pa owns the ranch."

"That's right. You probably want to talk to Captain Carter." Hadrian jerks a thumb towards the back

"Is your 'pa' home?" Ramsay asks.

"No sir.  Down in Brantham sellin' some beasts."

Gideon steps out. "And that'd be me. Pleased to meet you."

He nods at Gideon.  "Hello there Cap'n.  Pleasure's all mine, I'm sure." His gaze travels over to the others, lingering on Sthena for a moment.  His eyes widen as Sakhr emerges.

Sakhr removes himself from the hovercoach with a heavy 'thud' as he lands on the ground, his stone wings flaring to assist with balance. He begins to examine the assortment of creatures.

Doc Tenebrous gets off the bike and begins to sniff the air of the ranch. The scent is intoxicating with its smell of animals. "Mmmm..." Doc murmurs to himself.

Hadrian trains a careful eye on the hoverwagon's console, then smacks the dash and mutters quietly. "Fucker doesn't even play chips."

Gideon smiles. "So you got rustled pretty bad last night I hear. Care to share what happened while some of my friends look for any traces?"

"Yessir," Thomas says.  "Damn rustlers took the last lot from right under our noses.  Me an' Billy were patrollin' round the corral here with shotguns when we one o' the cows makin' a great fuss.  I came runnin' fast as I could and found all the cows backed up in a corner, like they was scared outta their minds.  No broken fence, no sign o' the rustlers 'cept some queer prints.  They snatched the beasts quicker'n I woulda thought possible - and I dunno how they got 'em over the fence.  Billy swears he seen somethin' else but... well he's got what you might call a poetical bent.  Head in the clouds, if ya follow."

"Mm, yes. I see. Have they taken all forms of animals, or have they favoured a single type to steal?"

"No Shantaks yet, but everythin' else. Probly scared ta get near them bigger critters."  He grins.

"Perhaps we could have a word with this Billy, just to be sure," Ramsay says.

Gideon nods to Sthena and Tenebrous. "You guys look around, see what you can find. We'll talk to Billy...Thomas, you wouldn't happen to recollect what billy thought he saw now, would you?"

Hadrian opens the driver's side door and plants his feet in the dust. Standing up, he stretches, his armour creaking along with his joints.

Sthena is already wandering around, so she might as well make use of the opportunity to investigate. Or just look at the funny animals. One or the other.

Hadrian shuts the door heavily. "I'll take perimeter." He slings his rifle over his shoulder and wanders off along the fence.

Thomas whistles, gesturing, and the other rancher - the brave fellow who fed the shantaks earlier - approaches.  Billy is a youth on the verge of manhood.  He tips his hat to you politely.  "He can tell ya hisself," Thomas says as Billy nears.  "I don't pay him no mind."

Billy greets you.  "How can I help, sir?"

"From what Thomas said, you saw somethin' when y'all got yourselves rustled. Any idea what it was?"

"I dunno what I seen, exactly," Billy says.  "But when I came runnin' after the noise with Thomas... well, there was a moment when the clouds parted and a sliver o' the Pale Lady shone down.  Out on the plain I thought I saw somethin' movin' fast towards the hills, boundin' on four legs.  It was big, near as big as a Shantak, with arms or hair or somethin' bristling on top, an' a cow caught up in them tentacles or whatever they were.  I only saw it fer a moment.  Pa says I got an overactive 'magination.  Ma says I'm touched in the head."  He chuckles.  "But I know what I saw.  I got eyes same as everyone else, an' I know the difference 'tween what's real and what's fantastical.  Whatever it was, it was here last night."

"You saw a critter big enough to carry a cow like that? How fast was it movin'?"

Billy whistles quietly.  "Near big as a Shantak I'd say, maybe a little bigger even."  He looks at your vehicle.  "Bit bigger than that wagon there, maybe."

"Hm. Big beasts," Ramsay muses. "Might take a quite a bit of firepower to take one out."

Sthena, you find some tracks.  The prints are extremely strange.  There aren't any human footprints at all, nor are there any cow-prints leading away from the ranch.  There are, however, several much larger prints leading both to and away from the ranch: deep hoof-prints, far bigger than any cow would be capable of creating.

Hadrian, you find some of the tracks as well.

Sthena bends down to take a close look at the tracks, and then attempts to follow them a short way, to see if anything about them changes, if she can deduce any more about them, or the like.

They lead up towards the hills and the Reekwood.

Hadrian puts two fingers in his mouth and whistles loudly.  "Tracks up here."

Gideon looks over at Hadrian, nodding that he heard.

Sthena walks back. "As best as I can tell, nothing about his account is invalidated by the available evidence."

Gideon keeps his face impassive. "You see the same tracks as Hadrian?"

Sthena nods.

"Big enough for a critter like he's describin'?"

Sthena nods again. "I can't be entirely sure from just the footprints, but they are large and deep. So it is consistent."

"I believe we have discovered a use for our new-found explosives," Sakhr comments.

"I tell ya what I think," Thomas interjects loudly.  "I think you saw a hoverwagon, Billy.  That's why there ain't no tracks.  Hoverwagon with a crane to get them beasts outta the pen.  And as for those prints, maybe they got some critter with em to help haul more cattle round with, or somethin'."

Sthena glances at Thomas. "A plausible alternate theory."

"In either case, the tracks should provide us a good lead," Ramsay observes.

Gideon looks at Thomas, opens his mouth, and then just sighs. "Ramsay's right. Either way, that's a good idea of where the grah'n headed."

"If there's no further information to be found here, I suggest that we get on the trail," Ramsay adds.  "I for one am eager for the hunt."

Ramsay is actually more eager to get the mission done with, just so that he can get away from the blasting sunlight of this hellish planet

Hadrian scans the plain through his rifle scope.

Hadrian, through your scope you catch a glimpse of a strange figure standing amidst the trees at the border of the forest, looking straight at you: a woman with pitch black skin, nude and massively pregnant, with huge recurved horns emerging from her head and hooves in place of feet.  Her pendulous breasts leak ichor from their swollen nipples.  The woman's huge yellow eyes gleam like a beast's out of the gloom, and then she is gone, slipping into the darkness of the undergrowth, swallowed so swiftly by the dense shadows between the trees that you half-wonder if you saw her at all...

Hadrian whispers to himself "What in the mother of fuck.."  He fiddles with a control on his gauntlet "Range is spotty... but maybe." He brings his wrist closer to his mouth.  "Unit 01, do you copy?"  Hadrian taps his wrist. "Ah hell. Unit 02....?"

No response.

"Figures. Cheap pieces of shit."

Sthena wanders up to Hadrian. "To whom are you speaking?"

"I've been saddled with a pair of festering boils that SparTech glowingly refers to as 'eminently capable peace enforcers'.  Probably broken down. Or choosing to ignore me. Fuckers."  Hadrian kicks some dirt and starts walking back to the hoverwagon.

Sthena licks her lips slightly. "With proper tools, it's likely I am capable of repairing them. Depending on their state, anyhow."

"Oh, could be they're just fine and in a mood," Hardian responds.  "But I'll take the help if it comes to it."

Doc Tenebrous, you pick up a strange beast-scent quite distinct from the other animals here.  Its a queer mixture equal parts open grave, hircine rancidity, and fecund fungal aroma.  Bizarre.  It leads to the woods.

Doc Tenebrous wrinkles up his snout as he smells the odd odour. He walks up to the group and says to the group, "There is the smell of a large... beast. Unlike anything I have smelled before. It would lend credulity to the young man's story of a creature."

Gideon nods. "I'll trust your nose Doc. Looks like we've got some flathing beast to worry about - maybe with the rustlers, or maybe the throdding thing is the rustlers. Either way, keep an eye and lets get movin'. Thanks for your help Thomas, Billy."

"A large creature. Interesting," Sakhr says.  "Is there any local fauna this could be?"

Billy, hearing Sakhr's question, says, "Nothin' I heard of."

"Hope you find them rustlers," Thomas says.  "Come on Billy, there's work to be done."

"An interesting question Sakhr," Doc Tenebrous says.  "I'm looking forward to finding out... but I'm none too happy about what the consequences of an encounter with such a beast would leave on our crew."

"Hmm," Sakhr says.  "If it is not local, then it begs the question of how it got here in the first place – why do I sense another big, ugly frotter waiting ahead for us?"

"We'll head out to where I dug Unit 01 in," Hadrian says.  "He's not that far."  Hadrian hops in the cab and starts her up.

Ramsay gets back on the hoverwagon.

"Captain Carter," Hadrian says.  "I've got a couple old Warhawks camo'd up out here, just inside the woods. Figure we should check them out, not getting a response on comm."[/ic]

[Steerpike]

[ic=Into the Woods]You near the Gibbet Hills, a craggy series of low, rocky mounds crowned by a primeval mass of red-leafed, alien oaks which, like the grass, are native to Mandragora: twisted things with uncanny, sanguineous sap and scabrous bark the colour of a moonless midnight sky.  Though broadly speaking these trees morphologically resemble the trees of Earth (having evolved in a parallel manner), there is something intangibly but definitively unsettling about them, something subtly wrong with the weird, snarled angles of their limbs, the fleshy texture of their black bark, the blackish-red of their leaves - an effect of the dim, orange sun which Mandragora orbits.  Most disturbing of all is the peculiar smell the wood exudes: an acrid tang paradoxically suggestive both of decay's sour putrescence and of cloying fecundity.  The closely-set trees intertwine with one another like orgiastic lovers locked in a grotesque mass-embrace.  The crimson lushness of the place amidst the brittle dryness of the surrounding plains seems somehow obscene, as if the over-nourished trees were drawing energy vampirically from the nearby countryside with their serpentine roots.  Indeed, the landscape leading up to the forest is curiously barren - possibly a deliberate firebreak created around the Reekwood by the townsfolk of Menhir.  It is as if the grass of the nearby plains-country were unwilling to grow near the eaves of the woodland.

Your vehicles are far too large to bring into the close-set tunnels of vegetation.

Sthena rides towards the woods.  Doc Tenebrous gets on the bike and rides with Sthena once again.  

Hadrian hops out.

Sthena parks next to the wagon, hopping off. She surveys the local flora with her usual mild curiosity.

Gideon gets out.

Doc Tenebrous follows suit as the rest and gets off the bike. He sniffs the air and tries to find the scent trail of the thing he smelled before.

The scent leads into the woods, and mingles with them.

"We're pretty close. Should get a signal now," Hadrian says.  "Unit 01, do you copy?"

Nothing, Hadrian.  No signal.

"Huh. Still nothing, well, let's go take a look, eh?"

Sthena says, "The waitress had a vision of a cave to be found somewhere in these woods. I am not sure what relevance it may be, only that the other parts of her vision have so far corresponded with the hard evidence we have found."

Gideon mutters to himself, looking at the tangle of underbrush. "Long as this don't curve back in on itself in another throdding 1060 degree circle."

"Just up this ways a bit, Captain," Hadrian says.  "Follow close, footing can get bad."

"I'd advise everyone to be mindful about the trees here," Ramsay suggests.  "As I recall, the mad Sheriff rambled about how "the trees took them all". It could be that his men were ambushed by enemies concealed in the foliage? Or perhaps the trees themselves are somehow... dangerous?"

Sthena nods, concurring with Ramsay.
Ashley Crow has her carbine out.  Father Blake looks about.

"Great," Gideon groans.  "Alright people, watch what's in the trees, watch what's under the trees, keep an eye on the sky above the trees, and watch the throdding trees too. Let's go in."  Gideon draws his weapon.

"In other words, pay attention to everything," Sakhr says sardonically.  "Understood."

"Captain," the Doc says, "The tree smell is almost the same as the Beast smell."  Doc Tenebrous looks pointedly at Gideon.

"Wait."  Gideon looks at Doc. "Come again?"

"The trees smell almost identical to the 'Beast' I smelled at the ranch."

"You don't happen to mean the smell of the beast is all over the trees like it brushed by them, do you?"

"No, Captain," he says grimly, "Not at all."

Hadrian sets off into the woods, rifle held in a relaxed position.

"Um.  Perhaps someone should stay with the vehicles?" the priest suggests.

Hadrian calls back: "How about you, Padre?"

Yes.  I think I will remain here."
"Everyone keep a very close eye on the trees," Gideon says.  "And yeah, Father, keep an eye on the rides."  Gideon enters grimly, following Hadrian since he knows where he's going.

Doc Tenebrous follows the group, almost reluctantly, into the forest.

Entering the wood is like being immersed in blood: everything goes red, as the light from above streams down through the thick crimson canopy.  The rancid smell of corruption and rank virility fills your nostrils.  The trees press close.

"This is singularly unpleasant," Sakhr notes.

Hadrian keeps clear of the roots, checking through gaps in the trees with his thermal sight from time to time.

Ramsay finds the forest strangely pleasant, probably because he's finally getting some shade from that accursed sun!

Hadrian, a short way in you find your Warhawk - or, rather, what remains of it.  Bits and pieces of the angular machine are strewn about the undergrowth.  Something very powerful tore the security bot to shreds.

"Shit. Are you serious? Useless hunk of junk!"

Sthena walks with the group. "It could be there is something hazardous about the trees themselves. I'm reminded of the Carniferns of I'ghk III. Quite a fascinating method of killing and digesting their prey, and..." She stops as they come upon the warhawk. "I cannot repair that."

Hadrian kicks a hunk of its torso. Hard.

Gideon glances at Hadrian. "How strong was this throdding piece of scrap supposed to be?"

"You fucking deserved it too! Gods how many times I wanted to rip your stupid little head off myself. Your beady little eyes, staring! Always staring!" Hadrian calms down and turns towards the Captain. "Ahem. Well, they ain't bad in combat, if they know what the fuck they're supposed to shoot at."

Gideon eyes Hadrian a bit more closely, slightly curious as to his sanity.

"...This is not a promising start to our joint venture," Sakhr says worriedly.

"Indeed," Doc Tenebrous adds quietly.

Sthena examines the wreckage for anything useful, such as the exact nature of the damage. Or parts to salvage, probably.

"Might be we could get a feed out of its mainframe... if its intact," Hadrian says.

"It's worth a try," Ramsay says. "With some luck, we might learn something about our targets."

The machine was torn forcibly apart.  Sthena, you salvage a few choice pieces - including the "black box" of the machine.  You could rig this fragment to replay whatever the Warhawk's audio sensors were recording when it was destroyed.

Hadrian sits down heavily against the trunk of a tree, and tries his comm again.  "Let me guess 02, you got junked too eh? Good riddance."

No response.

"That's what I thought."

"Sthena, can you get the n'gha box workin'?" Gideon asks.

Sthena nods, wiring up a few scavenged parts, shunting power from her lightning gun. "I believe so."

"Is there evidence that the Warhawks fought back?" Sakhr asks. "Or were they destroyed without fight?"

You replay the contents of the recorder.  You hear a lot of laser fire, crashing undergrowth, something stamping loudly... and a hideous bleating noise that scrapes at the inside of your skull.

Doc Tenebrous winces at the bleating noise "That is less than pleasant."

Hadrian stands up.

Gideon winces. "What the flathing throd is that?"

"Throd! It's worse than the local excuse for music," Ramsay exclaims.

Doc Tenebrous does not agree with Ramsay's appraisal, but keeps his opinion to himself.

Sthena hands the black box to Hadrian if he wants it. She keeps anything that is small and worth keeping. The rest is just worthless junk.

"We could check 02 if y'all want," Hadrian suggests. "He's just a bit further in, my guess is he's toast like 01 here. Weird shit going on in this wood."

"Likely the source of whatever destroyed this unit," Sakhr comments.

Hadrian pockets the memory chip of 01.

"It'd be worth a shot, the other n'gha box might have gotten more data than that," Gideon says.

You press on.  A single stone rises out of the forest floor up ahead, quite tall and rather regular in shape.  The stone is overgrown with reddish lichens.  Doc Tenebrous, Gideon, you spot some carvings underneath the lichens!

Doc Tenebrous goes up to investigate the carvings. Trying to smell anything out of the ordinary as he approaches.

"What in Noden's name..." Gideon murmurs, following the Doc. "Any reason we shouldn't touch those plants?"

Doc Tenebrous tentatively tries to clear away the moss.

Clearing away the lichens you discover that the stone has been carved with a single pictogram: a tree that seems to be moving on its own roots.  The tree's trunk is covered in circles ringed with triangles - what look like fanged mouths.  The hairs on the back of your neck raise as you suddenly feel as if you're being watched...

"Throdding flath, vulgtlagln-syha'h," Gideon curses.

"You can say that again, Captain."

"Find anything interesting?" Hadrian asks.

"Everyone, let's back out of here nice and easy like..." Gideon says.

Sthena continues telling her story about the fascinating Carniferns of I'ghk III. It seems even more relevant now!

"...Alright," Hadrian says.

"...I think this is the equivalent of a 'Beware of Dangerous, Mortal-Devouring Plants' sign," Sakhr observes.

"Sthena?" Gideon says.

Sthena follows the group. "The most fascinating trait, in my estimation, is their adaptive digestive enzyme..." She pauses. "Yes, Captain?"

"Not the throdding time."

Hadrian scans the woods around them, flicking his thermal sight on.

"Well, I guess the theory about ambushers hiding in the trees can be dropped," Ramsay concludes. "Though I would have preferred it to be the case.
Gideon watches the woods, gun drawn.

Doc Tenebrous snatches some of the lichens for medicinal study later before following the group out of the clearing.

Sthena opens her mouth slightly to say something else, and then just shrugs a bit, following along, watching out carefully, lightning gun at the ready.

Sakhr readies himself for combat, carefully assessing the most likely avenues of attack.

Hadrian, you catch a very brief flicker of something warm moving through the undergrowth to one side.  An animal?  You can't tell.  It's gone almost immediately, and you can't find it again.

Hadrian snaps to where it was.

"I think we should just put the whole throdding forest to the torch, see what's left from the ashes," Ramsay suggests.

"I had movement. Gone now," Hadrian says.

"Move faster, everyone. Save ideas for how to deal with the creepy throdding woods once we're out of the creepy throdding woods," Gideon orders.  "So we don't upset the man-eating trees."

"Yes, Captain," Sakhr says.

You start to head back.  Turning round, you see that some of the trees nearby are spattered with dark stains.  There's no sign of any bodies - neither livestock nor human corpses - but the stains certainly look like blood.  Further on you see something metal glint amidst the leaves.  As you draw closer you see that several weapons - cheap metasplamsa pistols and a couple of crude gunpowder rifles and shotguns - are strewn about here.  A couple of tree-trunks are scorched or pockmarked from bullets or metaplasma blasts.

"This must be the site where the sheriff's men were attacked," Ramsay says.

Hadrian pulls up his comm one more time. "02, if you're reading this, just get out of the fucking woods."

You hear something off in the woods - a distant, echoing bleat, repetitive and distorted by the gnarled trees.  It came, you think, from off to the northwest.  An answering bleating can be heard a moment later to the east.

Sthena, you hear a small rustling sound in the undergrowth, the snap of a twig somewhere to one side, in the dense arboreal gloom.  The hideous smell of the forest intensifies suddenly.

"Alright people, come on. Let's hustle it up," Hadrian says.

Sthena quickly glances in that direction, motioning to where she heard the noise.

"Hey, Hadrian. I'm the throdding Captain here, last I checked."  Gideon looks at the group. "C'mon people, let's hustle out of –" Gideon cuts off at Sthena's gesture.

Doc Tenebrous sniffs the air in the direction that Sthena indicates and suddenly wishes that he hadn't.

You spot a hunched figure, humanoid in form, creeping through the darkness.  Its legs are bowed and hoofed, its body slick and muscular, its head crowned with a pair of small horns.  Its face is monstrous, combining features of human and beast, the nose a grotesque goat-like snout, the eyes beady and yellow with, with horizontal pupils.  The warped faun-thing's fingers are tipped with talons.  As you spot the creature your gaze meets its own jaundiced stare; it bleats horribly, a sound immediately echoed by more bestial cries from every direction.

Sakhr is not light on his feet, and tends to thud and stomp around enough that listening to the fine noises of the environment is utterly lost to him. Being pointed directly to the vile creature, however, is a different matter entirely.

Suddenly the wood is full of the abominable, malformed satyrs, stamping through the undergrowth and baring long fangs, horns lowered and claws ready to strike!

"Oh. Motherfucker. Motherfucker," Hadrian swears.  "Get some, bitches!" Hadrian brings his rifle up and pulls the trigger, but the weapon just clicks. "Ah, shit." He furiously ejects the clip and starts loading a new one.

The nearest faun-thing leaps at Sthena and, with goatish glee, makes to grab her!

Sthena, the creature's hairy arms encircle your body and pinion your limbs.

Sthena snarls softly. "This is wholly unnecessary, you know."

"Noden's Throdding beard! Throdding ilyaa'hrii mnah'-gof'nn nafl-hupadghh grah'n!" Gideon spits a string of oaths.

Ramsay roars at the satyr-thing,shouting at the top of his lungs: "Li'hee-sll'ha-n'gha!"

The other satyrs lope through the woods, bleating.

Sakhr says nothing – he steps back and sinks into a low fighting stance. his wings flare open behind him, serving primarily as a means of balance, allowing him to rest forward on the ends of his clawed feet in a stance otherwise impossible to maintain.

"Sakhr! Pull that throdding grah'n off her!" Gideon takes a shot at the next nearest satyr.

The creature chuckles and ducks behind a tree.  Your metaplasma bolt hits wood.

Ramsay lets out a strange ululation, mimicking a deep one battle-cry, as he leaps at the monster grappling Sthena.

You wrench the creature aside.  It bleats angrily.

"Hupadgh'Shub-Niggurath! Cthulhu take you!" Ramsay bellows.

Ashley curses.  "Gun's jammed," she says.

Doc Tenebrous draws his weapon from his hip and steps up to the grappled satyr.

Doc, you fire and hit Ramsay's torso by mistake in the melee!

Ramsay grunts in pain, coughing blood.

Sakhr follows the captain's orders. He flaps his wings sharply as he dashes forward, accelerating quickly despite his bulk. He closes quickly on the Satyr that had recently assaulted Sthena; his left claw forms a sharp spear-point, which he attempts to drive through the saty'rs armpit, bypassing the more durable ribcage.

You sink your claws deep into the creature's flesh.  It bleats with pain.

Sthena falls backwards, wrestled free, just in time to watch Ramsay get shot. "Doctor, if you wish to practice your medical talents in the field, I could think of better ways."

Sthena fires at one of the others, so as not to accidentally hit someone or have them get caught in an arc. She discharges her lightning gun with a thunderclap, striking one of them in a large, sparking explosion, that stuns two more. Once again, proving herself the only competent member of the team.

Hadrian slams the new clip home. "Oorah!" He fires.

Your shots hit trees, Hadrian.

The satyr lowers its horns and slams into Sakhr.  Another of the faun-things has grabbed Ashley Crow and is wrestling her off into the woods.

Gideon shoots again.

Your second shot takes the goat-man in the head, vaporizing most of his skull.

Ramsay curses as he rolls ont he ground, miry blood drippign all over him. Somehow he manages to raise one knee, take aim with his shotgun and loose a shot at the first satyr he sees. He is too distracted by pain; his hands shake and his aim is ruined

The faun-thing leaps and dodges the brunt of your shot.  It is grazed by some of your shot nonetheless.

Ashley Crow pushes the faun grappling her away and scrambles for her pistol.

Doc Tenebrous holsters his gun and bends down to tend to Ramsey whom he accidentally injured in the initial struggle.

Sakhr reaches out to grab the satyr by the horns.  Trying to rip its head down as he brings a stone knee up towards the creature's face.

Ramsay groans as the Doc gets to work on his wounds, but endures the pain stoically

"Forgive me Ramsey, I was aiming for the beast."

"You... are forgiven," Ramsay says between deep breaths

Sthena flips herself around, attempting to bring her oh-so-fashionable boot right down on the thing's head.

You kick the creature in the head.  It shakes its horns angrily and looks towards you.

Sakhr grabs the Satyr's horns and torques its head to the side, throwing it off-balance, then he pulls its head down, mashing his knee into its muzzle. For a moment, the beast falls limp, granting Sakhr a precious moment to violently wretch the creature's neck in a quick semi-circle. There is a satisfying snap as its spine is sheared apart.

"So much for being the only one with a throdding use - unless you were tryin' to piss it off," Gideon says to Sthena.

Hadrian takes aim at a Satyr and fires another burst.

Your shots continue to patter off trees.  The fauns use the foliage to their advantage, their hides blending in with the undergrowth.

Sthena, the faun-thing you kicked grabs you and pins your arms, then makes to retreat into the forest.  Its fellows, seeing their ilk being killed, bleat and halt in their advance, retreating.

"Throd that!" Gideon curses. "I'm trying to quip at her, you flathing grah'n!" He shoots at the faun-thing while running towards Sthena, aiming high so to not hit her.

The creature drops dead as you blow through the back of its skull.

Sthena struggles. "Incinerating one of them and stunning two more is not enough, I take it?" As its head is blown off, she falls, picking herself up. "Thank you, nonetheless."

"Didn't day you did bad. Just said you're not perfect, just like the rest of us." He grins at her.

Ashley Crow takes aim with her pistol and drops another.

The remaining satyrs are fleeing.

Sthena thinks a moment. "I find it interesting that myself and Ashley were the main targets. While this could be for a variety of reasons, we are also the only females in the group."

"See if you can catch one alive!" Gideon says.

Sthena nods. "Of course, Captain. Hence my use of a nonlethal attack. I merely slightly underestimated the amount of force I needed to apply." Even when she's wrong, she's still right.

Gideon looks at Sthena. "Mnahn'nw" he mutters, seemingly to himself. "I think you're right about that."

Ramsay ignores the pain still searing his body and dashes madly forth, spurred on by rage as he watched the things try and drag Sthena off. He blasts his boomstick on one of the fleeing forms in the woods.

You drop the creature - one of those that Sthena had previously stunned.  Its blood spatters the trees.

Gideon looks at Sthena, and just shakes his head.

Hadrian brings his scope up, trying to get a bead on a target through the trees.  "Goddamn satyrs."

You have one in your sights - and then it vanishes into the undergrowth.

"...Fucker."

Sakhr decides to not pursue the beasts into the forest – without a weapon to shoot at them from range, running ahead on his own seems a terrible idea. He prepares to intercept any other interlopers, however.

Doc Tenebrous walks up to Ramsey and slathers some more poultice on his wound.

Sthena just tries to see if she can determine which way they're fleeing.

All directions – they're dispersing into the wood.

Sthena shrugs a bit, checking her lightning gun's capacitors.

"They expected weaker enemies," Sakhr says.  "They will regroup and return in greater numbers. I would."

Sakhr, looking down at the cadaver of the goat-man you killed, a horrid realization fills you with vertigo.  The face of the dead faun-thing, though monstrously misshapen, is uncannily familiar: you have seen it in a photograph handed to you by his human kin.  Whatever they have become these beings were once men - members of the armed band that set out into the woods to retrieve the stolen cattle.

"...We have found the missing posse..."

"Say what...?" Ramsay says, looking to Sakhr.

"What? You found a body?" Gideon asks, reloading his Headsman Model 7.

"Yes."  Sakhr kicks the corpse at his feet.

"Y'hah, best news we've had all day, we can take it back and get out... oh."

Doc Tenebrous raises an eyebrow. "Interesting"

"Iä." Ramsay shakes his head

"These beasts are not the 'rustlers'," Sakhr says. "They are the result of something... else." Sakhr would gulp, were he subject to normal biological functions.

Hadrian wanders over to another satyr corpse, he picks it up, and looks at its ruined half-face.  "Huh. Yeah, could be. "

"Something else did this to them. Maybe... maybe we should return and examine the Sheriff in greater detail."

"Doc, check the bodies," Gideon instructs. "Are they all the posse?" Gideon is oddly flat in his tone.

"Well, townsfolk wanted their dead, right? Might as well bring them back," Hadrian says.

"...Yes. That is true," Sakhr replies.  "Maybe we should stick the pictures on their foreheads, to assist in determining the proper owners."

"We may not have time to return to the town," Ramsay says. "But we could radio Richard, and ask him to warn the mayor to keep an eye on the Sheriff."

Sthena points out that the one she killed will likely be a bit difficult to identify. A bit more cheerfully than is probably appropriate.

Doc Tenebrous goes around and checks the bodies to see if they were all once part of the posse.

They are all former posse members, as far as you can tell, though some were killed by shots to the head, so it's impossible to tell with those.

"Do it," Gideon orders. "Radio to Richard. Pick up the bodies we can identify. And let's get out of the woods."[/ic]

[Steerpike]

[ic=Dark Young]Hadrian shrugs, observing all the bodies of the faun-things.  "Well, not my contract. None of these things look like old Renaldo."

"Renaldo may have been one that fled," Sakhr points out.

"Or one of the headless ones," Gideon says.  "Job was find either cattle or the rustlers or the posse. We found the posse. Job's done.  Enough flathing about. Let's get these bodies and get out of here."  Gideon has that same neutral tone to his voice.

Ramsay grabs a satyr's corpse by the horns and slings it over his shoulder.

"So we inform the locals of the nightmares descending upon them. Then we abandon them. An interesting choice, Captain," Sakhr says.

Gideon has no initial reaction to Sakhr's comment.

"Well. If I recall, Mayor still wants the cattle or the rustlers, regardless of any bodies," Hadrian says. "But, not my mission. Not my call."

Gideon, you think you are leading the group back out of the woods – the trees are thinning up ahead.  But instead, you find a small clearing – you must have got turned around during the fight.  At the clearing's center a particularly large tree stands, tall and menacing.  Its lesser brethren seem to shrug away from its black bulk as if afraid.  Carved into the bark of this enormous tree are weird glyphs – some ancient version of R'lyehian.  The marks are recent: red sap still oozes from the ornate letters, dribbling down the wood as if the tree were bleeding.  Set at the bottom of the tree is a crudely carved wooden bowl into which the sap trickles, mingling with what looks like actual semi-coagulate blood.  Hammered partway up, above the glyphs, a cow's skull has been affixed.

The day is getting on, the orange sun sinking.  Soon it will be night.

Gideon stares long and hard at the cow skull, in silence.

"Someone is responsible for this," Sakhr states. "This does not simply... happen, to trees..."

Doc Tenebrous walks forward to investigate the red sap.

Sthena steps up to the glyphs, examining them.

Sthena, this is what the glyphs mean:

Mighty Mother of brood scattered to the wandering stars!
Wife of He-Who-Is-Not-To-Be-Named!
Black Goat in the Woods with a Thousand Young!
All-Mother!  Irresistible One!  Magna Mater!
O Most High and Holy Shub-Niggurath!
Here is our gift of consecrated blood!

She gives the group a translation, but is careful to paraphrase, lest anything strange happen as a result of reading them out loud. Sthena also no doubt peppers her paraphrased translations with far too much information. Some of it might even be useful. But not likely.

Doc Tenebrous reaches into his medicine bag and pulls out a small vial to collect a sample of the sap/blood mixture.

Hadrian hums Sweet Home Alabama quietly as he watches the sun go down

Gideon finally speaks. "So it's a list of names for the Goat?"

"What use is this to us, then?" Sakhr asks. "Aside from being... alarmingly bothersome."

Ashley Crow speaks up.   "I've taken down her cults before, on New Arkham.  Shub-Niggurath is said to possess the ability to reproduce without a mate, creating armies of monstrosities and even clonal daughters which, though not as powerful as she is, can nonetheless spread her foul brood across the universe."  She lets the implications of that sink in.

Gideon 's face hardens.

Sthena looks up. "This is not likely a place we wish to be come nightfall."

"Agreed," Doc Tenebrous says.

"We ain't goin after it at night," Gideon responds. "Take the bodies back to town. I'll want to talk to the Mayor, and we meet back up at the ship."

"Hate to say it, boys and girls. But my bearings are all screwed up. Not quite sure which way... is out," Hadrian says.

"Throd," Gideon curses.

Doc Tenebrous sniffs the air, trying to pick out the crew's back-trail.

You pick up the party's scent!

"Follow me, everyone. I can follow our own smell back to the edge of the forest."

You lead the group back into the woods, out of the clearing.

"That's a good nose you've got there, Doc," Hadrian observes.

Doc Tenebrous leads the party on.

Ramsay moves with haste, still carrying the dead satyr.

There's something pale lying on the ground up ahead, in the shadow of a large boulder.

Doc Tenebrous stops.

Gideon looks at the pale object.

The gnawed, fragmented skeleton of a vortlups is scattered about here, picked quite clean.  The boulder is covered in mosses and half-snared in the roots of a tree, but you can glimpse some carvings partially concealed beneath the moss.

"Hm. More weird carvings. Fun," Hadrian says sarcastically.

Gideon moves aside the moss.

Sthena examines the carvings.

The carvings show a series of scenes: a star falling from the sky; a strange, amorphous entity emerging from the crater; the same being, now coalescing into a goat-horned, wide-hipped female humanoid, presiding over a forest; walking trees tormenting and devouring various beasts and vaguely human-like figures; similar quasi-humanoid figures setting the forest on fire; the horned woman retreating into a cave; the forest beginning to grow once again, the woman touching the ceiling of the cave; the humanoid figures ritually burning the forest again and again.

Sthena points to the cave carving. "The cave again. Much like the waitress's vision."

"That's where the spawn is, then," Gideon reasons. "Anything that indicates how to get there?"

"Finding the cave should then lead us to this... 'daughter'?" Ramsay asks.

Doc, the forest smell has suddenly become extremely intense.

"Why can we not simply... report this to authorities more properly suited to destroying Beast Cults?" Sakhr says.

"Hah, you think any folks in Miskatonic or Arcturus give two shits about Mandragora?" Hadrian points out. "Good fucking luck."

Doc Tenebrous has a strange look that comes over his face.  "Captain, The forest smell is much stronger again."

Sakhr sighs. "Great. More fighting again."

Gideon looks at Doc. "How bad?"

Sthena motions to Ashley. "If my appraisal of their tactics based on our previous encounter is correct, we will be the primary targets. We should thus position ourselves strategically."

Ashley nods.

"Stay in the middle of us," Gideon says.

Hadrian flicks his thermal sight on again and scans the forest. "I'm not seeing anything. "

"At this point I'm inclined to trust Doc's nose over your gadgets," Ramsay says.

"Maybe they don't show up on thermal at all..." Sakhr suggests

Doc, you can smell it off to the left somewhere...

Doc Tenebrous turns to the left. "The smell is stronger in that direction!"

A shape, which you previously took to be one of the alien oaks, detaches itself from the woods and lumbers towards you.  The horror stamps on four legs like massive roots or tree-trunks, terminating in glinting hooves  Its central mass is mottled with lichens and patches of hair and sports half a dozen fanged mouths which gape like monstrous knotholes; atop this grotesque mound of bark-like flesh writhes a huge mass of twisted black tentacles you took to be branches.  The monstrosity's mouths open and the creature bleats hideously in a horrifying chorus, a sound which makes the bestial gurgling of the satyrs seem a weak imitation.

"Nah, I seen the little guys on it. They're not here." Hadrian follows everyone else's gaze "...And holy shit."

"Vulgtlagln-syha'h," Gideon curses. "KILL IT!"  He fires.

Your shot takes it through one of its mouths.  It bleats in agony but keeps coming!

"Li'hee-syha'h-n'ghft, it's about time to put these explosives to use!" Ramsay grunts.

Sthena is caught slightly distracted, and can't see the tree through the forest.

Ramsay will hand out plastic explosives to anyone who needs one.

Sakhr should probably not be trusted with high explosives.

Hadrian backs up and takes cover behind a tree.

"Those aren't grenades, Ramsay! You can't just chuck 'em around!" Hadrian says, firing his rifle at the oncoming monstrosity.

Doc Tenebrous draws his weapon quickly and fires a round into the animate tree-thing.

Gideon takes one of the explosives, looking furious, grasping it with his fungal arm.

Sthena quickly explains how to properly use plastic explosives. As quickly as it's possible for her to explain anything, anyway.

Gideon grasps his explosive in his fungal arm.

"If you think I'm going to tackle that thing, Captain, I think you may want to consider brain surgery..." Sakhr warns.

"What? You tackled Nyarlathotep once, and this thing scares you?"

Ignoring your shot the thing's tentacles snake forward and snatch Ramsay and Gideon up, coiling round their bodies, while it swats Sthena and Doc Tenebrous  aside.

Ashley Crow fires her carbine at the beast.  It screams as the metaplasma sears its flesh, dropping Ramsay.

Sthena falls to the ground. "Apparently, this creature lacks the discriminating palate of the lesser entities." She rises to a knee and discharges her lightning gun at some portion of the beast rather far from where Gideon is being held, to minimize the risk to him.

"Ygotha'ai n'gha gof'nn, nyth-shogg!" Ramsay screams as he scrabbles out of the thing's reaching branches.

Sakhr decides that tackling the beast is not what he wants to do. Instead, he decides to get Gideon the hell away from it! He rushes in with the speed only a rock creature is incapable of and tries to wrest Gideon from its grasp, hopefully keeping him intact in the process.

The creature kicks you aside with a hoofed foot, Sakhr.

Sthena, you electrocute the creature with your lightning gun.  It bleats monstrously as it catches on fire, like a tree might.  Gideon also receives a minor shock (though nowhere near as severe as the horror's), though the creature releases him a moment later as it collapses, bark-flesh crisping and blackening.

Hadrian lowers his rifle, somewhat disappointed. "Man."

Gideon lands, singed and convulsing, slipping into momentary unconsciousness.

"Throd! Captain?!?" Ramsay bellows.  He rushes over to Gideon. "He seems to be alive! We got to get him out of here!"

Sakhr is too busy picking himself up out of the bushes to have caught sight of what happened to the beast in the end.

Doc Tenebrous recovers from his run-in with flight.

You hear more bleating, distantly.

"Yeah. Huh. Might want to get back to the vehicles," Hadrian suggests. "Sounds like he has some friends on the way."

"I told you they would regroup," Sakhr says. "I will take Gideon. Hurry!"[/ic]

[Steerpike]

[ic=The Cave]"Can your nose still smell our way out, Herr Doctor?" Hadrian asks.

"Ramsay - you have a firearm," Sakhr points out. "You cannot use it and carry the Captain. Your weapon may be needed more than my claws. Besides, I only have a few cracks in me. You look like the organic version of the things Sthena pulls out of junkyards."

Sthena shakes her head a bit and helps Sakhr with Gideon.

All of you hear more horrible bleating sounds off to the north, closer than before.  Answering calls come from the west and south.

Doc, the smell of roasting Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath fills your nostrils; you've lost the trail.

Doc Tenebrous sniffs the air. "The scent is gone. The smoke is too thick."

"Well we can't fucking stand around. South. Let's push it!" Hadrian says emphatically.

Sakhr runs in the direction loosely determined as 'south', Gideon on his shoulder.

Three of the monstrous satyrs scuttle through the woods on cloven hooves from the north, another of the many-mouthed, goatish tree-horrors lumbering close behind them.  Two more faun-things and a second of the Dark Young closes in from the south, and yet more of the twisted hircine humanoids are distantly evident in the west.

Hadrian comes to an abrupt stop. "Ahhh. Ok, east it is!" He abruptly changes direction

The terrain is becoming hillier but the woods do not thin.  You are now deep in the Gibbet Gills, surrounded on all sides by thick forest.

"I see only two blocking our way," Ramsay yells. "We could take them."

Sakhr follows the person in the front with the gun.  Sthena follows along.

The faun-things up ahead bleat hungrily and charge towards you.

Doc Tenebrous turns quickly and blasts one of the charging goats.

You fire into the woods, but running in the darkening forest makes aiming tricky.

Sakhr tries to stay from the fray, with the wounded Gideon, but if any of the satyrs make it to Sthena or Ashley, he will intercept them.

Sthena, your gun is still recharging.

Sthena takes a potshot with the backup pistol she grabbed.

Hadrian taps his comm as he runs. "02, if you're not a pile of blasted shit, now would be a good time to help!"

Sthena fires at the fauns as they charge into Hadrian and Doc Tenebrous, raking with claws and butting with their horns.

"Motherfucker!" Hadrian rips his Henrick V-Edge out of its sheathe and attacks, stabbing the creature in the chest.

It gurgles and slides off your blade, stone dead.

Ramsay fires at the satyr assaulting Doc, blowing its head off.

Doc Tenebrous gets grazed by one of the fauns as they swipe at them with deadly claws.  He is sprayed with blood as the creature is killed by Ramsay.

Gideon is banged around, unconscious.

You hear more bleating and stamping close behind you as the other horrors close in fast.

Sakhr is having a tough time deciding between keeping Gideon safe, and diving into the melee himself - despite the ferocity of the attack, however, he maintains his vigil in guarding the Captain, the Yith, and the pain in the ass.

"Everyone, move it!" Ramsay orders.

Doc Tenebrous takes another shot as the horror close in behind the group.

You kill the nearest faun, your shot hitting it right between the eyes!  One of the Dark Young tramples it beneath its hoofed feet.

Hadrian hauls himself up and tries to keep running, stumbling a few times.

An ugly mound of earth and stone rises up ahead, topped by many especially large trees.  At the base of this knoll a cave-mouth gapes blackly open - a dark gash in the earth.  The noisome stench of the Reekwood, which you had almost gotten used to, redoubles in intensity here.

"Well isn't that just throdding fantastic!" Ramsay grunts.

As you approach the cave some of you think you catch a brief glimpse of a figure watching you from the darkness: a woman with midnight-black skin and terrible but beautiful features, a pair of massive horns erupting from her scalp, her shapely legs terminating in cloven hooves.  The figure is grotesquely pregnant; her enormous breasts dribble some sort of ichor.  This image, though vivid, is but fleeting - for the moment you catch sight of it the creature melts into the gloom of the cave.

Sthena raises an eyebrow as the cave approaches. "This is a most interesting turn of events." As she sights the figure, she reiterates - "Most interesting."

Doc Tenebrous turns back and runs towards the group attempting to catch up once more.

Ramsay, Sakhr, you are drawn into the cave by an irresistible force.

"Oh shit. Motherfucking shit," Hadrian swears as their pursuers close in. "What do we do?"

"Cave! More defensible!" Sakhr says, a strange look in his eyes.

"Yes. We must enter. Must enter!" Ramsay echoes Sakhr.

"Right, right," Hadrian says. "Makes sense. Let's go!"

More cow, horse, and vortlups bones are strewn about the floor of the cave.  The ceiling is high and the tunnel broad, sloping down into the earth.  Roots from the trees above poke through the ceiling and writhe down the walls.

As you make your descent you see carvings on the walls of the cave, half-obscured by roots.

Sthena hesitates. "Are you sure this is the wisest course of action?" She goes with the group, observing Ramsay and Sakhr carefully.

Hadrian fires a few shots into the darkness.

The primitive carvings depict three monstrous figures: a kind of cloud full of gnashing mouths; a voluptuous, pregnant, horned woman; a squat, goatish thing with a multitude of tentacles and swollen teats, an orifice at its base spilling corruption.

Ramsay blinks, then shakes his head.

"We would not be able to outrun them much longer, Sthena. We needed to regroup, ourselves. This is a natural defense," Sakhr observes. "And apparently important to someone's vision. I think." Sakhr looks at the carvings. "I say again, why do these things always have to look so... freakish? Would their... plots and machinations not be easier by being appealing, and holding their followers in a genuine thrall? Not a gaggle of maddened fools bent on ending existence because they weren't loved enough as children."

"Doc! Tend to the captain," Ramsay instructs. "The rest of us, set up a guard."

Doc Tenebrous nods to Ramsay. "Sakhr, could you please place the Captain down here? I should tend to his wounds."

Sakhr nods, complying with the doctor's orders.

Doc Tenebrous tends to Captain Gideons wounds.

Hadrian winces and presses a hand to his ribs, but he keeps his rifle up.

Gideon, the Doc patches you up.  You are restored to conscious.  You're sore but you seem to have recovered most of your strength.

Hadrian presses a hand against his abdomen. "Hey Doc, got any painkillers? Fucker smashed my ribs up pretty bad... armour's designed to cradle a fracture, but it doesn't do shit for the pain."

Doc Tenebrous fishes round in his medical bag and hands Hadrian a syringe.

Hadrian slams the needle into the injection port on his thigh.

Gideon groans as he gets up. "Throdding flath it, Sthena, doesn't that throdding thing have a dial?" He looks at the spawn coming. "Oh. Li'hee-syha'h-n'ghft, vulgtlagln-syha'h."

Sthena raises an eyebrow. "The shot was calculated to have maximal effect on the creature but minimal effect on you. You are alive, it is not. Would you have preferred to remain in its custody?"

"Do we descend further or make a fight here, Captain?" Sakhr asks.

"If we go deeper into the cave, they will simply follow us there," Ramsay points out. "We'd end up backed into a corner – or caught between these things and whatever lies within the cave."

"We're in a corner already," Gideon says.

While you're debating one the bleating fauns scrambles up towards the cave, a crude bone club in one hand.

"We back in far enough where those throdding tentacles can't reach from outside."  Gideon pauses to shoot the satyr. " – and stand from there."

Your shot sends the creature flying off the cliff.  It hits the ground with a sickening smack below.  Its fellows scramble over it.

Ramsay fires at the nearest standing satyr.

Hadrian presses himself behind an outcropping of rock, takes aim with his rifle, and fires.

Your shot staggers an incoming satyr but des little else.

"Remember, stay far enough back where those throdding tentacles can't reach us," Gideon says.

Ramsay backs away from the cave entrance.

"...Ramsay! You still got those plastics?" Gideon yells.

"Sure do. It'd be dangerous to use 'em here though. We could collapse the cave on our heads."

"Give 'em to Sakhr to set up - they're a good throdding last resort."

Two more twisted fauns charge up the slope into your incoming fire while the others split up so that you will have to spread out your shots.

"As you wish, Cap." Ramsay hands over the bag of explosives to Sakhr. "Be careful with those."

Sthena fires the scavenged metaplasma pistol at one of the fauns.

The faun ducks and your shot goes over its head.

Sakhr takes the bag, staring at the plastic bricks like they are something new, edible, and delicious. "What do I do with them?"

"Whatever the Captain tells you to."

Sakhr nods, as if that explains everything perfectly.

"Put them at the entrance," Gideon orders. "Sthena, give him the simple version of how to set them up."

Sthena looks away from the entrance, turning to Sakhr. To give him the 'simple version.' Right. Sthena, giving the simple version of anything. She begins to explain the exact chemical composition of the explosive, and such things. She does eventually get into the detonation procedure, though.

Ashley takes aim and drops one faun with a shot from her carbine.

The Doc gets into position and aims carefully.

Ramsay fires at the nearest faun he sees.

The faun leaps into the air as you fire, dodging your shot.

"Chew on some fucking tungsten!" Hadrian snarls, firing at the approaching satyrs.

You gun down the satyr that Ramsay missed.

"What's the plan, Gideon?" Ramsay says. "We blow up the entrance, we'll likely be stuck in this hellhole for good."

"Blowing the entrance is only for if these nafl-hupadgh are gonna overwhelm us," Gideon replies. "Right now, hopin' they're not so dense as to run into a meat grinder."

Sakhr begins placing and arming the explosives. Hopefully they are remote-triggered, and not timers.

Hadrian, you hear a snatch of garbled static from your equipment.

Hadrian brings his wrist up to his mouth "02? Is that you? Who's on this frequency?"

As if in answer to Hadrian's query, you hear a mechanical roaring sound from overhead, following by the pulse of laser fire.  The second Warhawk, Unit 02, appears above the trees.  The security bot looks badly damaged: sparks sputter from an ugly tear in its plating, a gash in the metal which dangles cabling.  The weapons systems, however, are fully operational.

"Don't fucking blow it! We've got backup." Hadrian grins

The Warhawk's lasers shred off half the tentacles of one of the two Dark Young galloping up the hill.

"I hope your friend is not... moody, as you put it, Hadrian," Sakhr says.

The fauns have taken cover - they are waiting for the Dark Young to reach your position.

"02, assume strafing pattern, keep some fire on those fuckers!" Hadrian commands.

Gideon cheers. "Y'hah!"

Sthena will go last this time because she's still blathering on about detonation procedures.

"Take down the big one!" Gideon says. "Hopefully the nafl-hupadgh will back off after that." He fires at the approaching monstrosity.

Your shot hits the advancing creature but doesn't even slow it.  The Warhawk swoops, strafing low.  Its grenade launcher fires, sending an explosive straight towards one of the Dark Young!  The explosion rocks the creature.

The horror rears up on its hind legs so that its tentacles can reach the Warhawk, entangling it.  The spawn of Shub-Niggurath bleats in triumph and hurls the Warhawk towards you!

"Oh, fuck," Hadrian swears.

"Noden's throdding beard!" Gideon echoes.

The bot slams into the cliff with a crunch, hitting the Doc and Ramsay; everyone else managed to get out of the way.  It looks mostly intact, but it's now inert.  Sthena, if you work fast you might just be able to get it back into operation – maybe.

"I know how these work, Sthena!" Sakhr says. "Fix that thing!"

Sthena is disrupted from her lecture on the wonders of plastic explosives by a thing flying at her. She rolls to the ground, dusting herself. "Well, that was impolite," she says, dusting herself off, and advancing briskly toward the Warhawk, tearing off a panel and seeing what's up.

Ramsay curses and yanks a piece of the Warhawk's frame off his shoulder

"You rusty piece of shit, 02!" Hadrian yells. "Get back on your useless feet!"

Sthena, you can repair this.  It won't be fully operational and it will take a couple of moments but it will be able to fire, if not fly.

Sthena smirks a bit to herself. "The problem is simply that I need to bypass the tertiary void-capacitor bank, as it has been hopelessly damaged. One moment." She begins furiously patching wires, using her lightning gun on very low power as a makeshift soldering iron.

Ashley and the Doc fire at the advancing Dark Young.  Their shots bury themselves in its thick hide.

Hadrian opens up on one of the Dark Young. "Oorah! Get some!"

Your shots riddle the creature that the Warhawk had already wounded.  It collapses with a thud only twenty feet from your current position.

Sthena is shaken a bit by the thud. "If you wouldn't mind keeping it a bit down. I am trying to concentrate on my work." She smiles cheerfully and resumes.

Ramsay pops out from cover for just long enough to aim his shotgun at the next Dark Young coming up the hill. He fires a quick, roaring shot and then ducks back into cover.

The shotgun blast actually manages to slow the creature a little!

"The explosives are positioned and ready!" Sakhr hurriedly moves away from his handiwork, quite sure that he doesn't want to be nearby if it is decided they need to be triggered.

Sthena pauses a moment, finding an electroplasma energizing coil beyond repair. She sighs a bit to herself, deciding she'll have to use the one that she salvaged earlier from 01. Easy come, easy go, as the humans say.

The fauns leap out of their cover and charge towards you.  One clutches a crude stone knife.  The other simply levels its horns.

"We got this, Sakhr! These assholes are goin' down!" Hadrian growls.

"It's not the little ones I'm worried about!"

Ramsay hits the charging faun in the face with the butt of his shotgun, stunning it.

The remaining tree-creature charges up to the hill and plants its front legs on top of the Warhawk.  Its tentacles writhe towards Ashley, Sakhr, and Hadrian.

"Fuckfuckfuck!" Hadrian swears as the tentacles snake round him.

Your armour protects you from serious harm as the creature begins to squeeze, but it seems to be sapping your strength somehow, draining your energy.

Hadrian grimaces in pain.

Ashley grunts in pain as the tentacles snake round her waist and squeeze, crushing her.

Gideon fights off a charging faun. "'Fhalma throdder!" He shoots at the Dark Young, carefully aiming away from those grappled.

Your shot blows through the creature leaving a huge hole in its body.  It stumbles, bleating, foul blood spewing from its many mouths.

Sthena presses herself against the wall of the cave, avoiding the slithering tentacles, while she continues to make repairs. Seeing Hadrian in that state, she patches into the command processor, as well. While it's not particularly user-friendly, the particle emitter of her lightning gun should be able to send properly modulated command codes.

The creature constricts its tentacles.  The being is perched with its front legs on the Warhawk, tentacles reaching in, groping for those in the cave, straining to reach.

Sakhr is in quite the terribly state, with broken chunks of masonry falling off of him as tentacles fling him around and try to crush him.

"Mother of shit! Get the fuck off me you crusty shitsink!" Hadrian shouts.

Sthena takes a step back, a sparkling blue stream flashing from her lightning gun for a moment. After a brief check to ensure her allies are not in the line of fire, she commands any weapon arrays that the Dark Young is currently in contact with to fire.

The Warhawk fires all weapon systems simultaneously.  Lasers burst through the Dark Young's belly followed by a small explosion as a grenade hits the beast point-blank.  The Dark Young isn't so much thrown off as eviscerated.  It drops those it had in its grasp as it is blown apart.

Sthena looks rather pleased with herself.

Doc Tenebrous hits one of the fauns with a shot from his pistol.

Hadrian rolls over onto his belly and fires a burst at one of the fauns.

Ramsay shoves his shotgun in the face of the faun he stunned, intent on blasting its head off.

Ramsay blows one faun-thing to shreds while Hadrian riddles another with holes.  Any remaining satyrs stay in the woods.  For now, you are victorious.

Gideon surveys the carnage. "Hadrian?"

"Sup Captain?"

"You've got that ride."

Hadrian grins.  "Well, thanks! I'm pretty fuckin' tired of this place, if you can believe it."[/ic]

[Steerpike]

[ic=The Black Goat in the Woods with a Thousand Young]"Now Doc, see if you can patch up Sakhr," Gideon says.

Doc Tenebrous shakes his canine head.  "I'll see what I can do but I'm a doctor, not a stonemason."

"Well, that was some throdded up shit," Ramsay comments.

Sthena re-interfaces with the Warhawk to get a detailed summary of what is and is not functional.

Sthena, its weapons systems are operational and with some work you could get it to walk.

"T-Thank you, Sthena," Sakhr says. "That was well timed.  And thank you, too, 02..."

Hadrian walks over to 02 and kicks it lightly. "You sure took your damn time."

Sthena sees a wire hanging. She quickly reconnects its speech processor.

"You looked like you needed some help," the machine croaks

"No, really? What could have possibly given you that idea?"

"You seemed to be firing at trees instead of targets.  I remedied this error."

Hadrian sniffs. "Least you showed up. First time I'm glad to see your sorry ass."

Gideon swears. "Sthena, if you can get that thing operational, I've got the beginnings of a plan. Sakhr...how bad is it?"

"No worse than the last time... which is to say, distinctly unpleasant," Sakhr replies.

The Doc patches Sakhr up as best he can, which isn't very.

"You still throdded flathers up," Gideon says. "So sounds like you're in alright shape."

Sthena, you hear the dim echo of a scream from the depths of the caves.

Sthena is about to go work on the Warhawk some more when she tenses, and turns around, facing the darkness of the cave. "Did anyone else hear that?

Hadrian shrugs. "I didn't hear anything."

"No, but I trust your ears," the Captain says. "What'd you hear?"

Sthena peers into the darkness. "I distinctly heard a scream. I could not tell what sort, but it was definitely... a creature of some sort."

"Huh," Hadrian says. "Maybe some of the townies are still alive after all." Hadrian yells into the cave: "Hey Renaldo! Scream if you're still alive!"

"Iä. Iä iä throdding iä. No chance to throdding rest – we got to figure out what that was. 02, right? Can you still shoot?"

"Better than Saxon-Sorne, anyway," the bot snarks.

"I only hear this group speaking..." Sakhr says.

You all hear the scream now – someone begging for mercy.

Hadrian nods sagely. "Sounds like Renaldo."

"...I think it is time for us to intervene once more," Sakhr reasons. "Is 02 able to accompany us?"

"How about it you bucket of bolts, think you can walk?"

Sthena, you can get this thing walking in a few moments.  It won't be pretty but it can limp.  It's a good thing you're a mechanical genius, though.

Hadrian watches her work. "Nice mechanical work you've got there. It'd take me weeks to fix this fucker."

"For once, can't these things descend into lw'naf-shogg a little bit at a time?" Gideon mutters. "For a change of throdding pace? We gotta get moving, someone's gettin' killed down there!"

Sthena walks around to the side of the machine. "Here, here, and here. If I overdrive the only functional motor, it could hold the machine's weight, albeit clumsily. And then I just need to recharge these power cells." She takes a step back. "Stand clear." She discharges her lightning gun on a moderate setting into the power cell, and the creature's motors roar to life.

Unit 02 lumbers clumsily to its feet. "Ow," it groans.

"Come on slagheap, let's go, we've got some farmers to save!" Hadrian says, clapping it on the shoulder-plate and heading back into the cave

"Nice work, Sthena," Gideon says approvingly.

Sthena smiles to herself. "Why yes. Even if I do say so myself."

"We'll need a rearguard in case some of those fauns try to sneak up on us," Ramsay suggests.

"Alright, Ramsay, you're in charge goin' in. Ashley and I will cover the entrance." From his face, it's obvious Gideon's old wounds and new ones are beginning to pain him again.

Ashley nods. "We'll take care of anything coming up the hill."

"We'll trust you to cover our backs then," Ramsay says.

"That sounds suitable," Sakhr agrees.

"Alright, I'll go with Ramsay, then," the Doc says.

"And I'll trust you all to stay alive," Gideon says. "Give Nyarlathotep's own luck to the throdding grah'ns."

Ramsay moves deeper into the cave, shotgun held at ready.

The tunnel winds deeper into the earth.  It is warm and humid down here, and the last of any natural light is gone.  The darkness seems to caress you, to run spindly fingers across your skin - you can almost feel it.  The cave hums with the trapped residues of echoes, like cries of the damned reverberating endlessly off the walls.  The stench now is incredibly strong - both unbearable and intoxicating.

"Oorah! Come on!" Hadrian hustles in.

You hear a voice which seems both to emanate from the darkness and to come from within your own mind: "Come to me, little fleshlings, and I will make you free of terror and want.  Suckle of my bosom and receive your salvation."

You are pulled onwards, unable to refuse the command.  "Yessss," the voice continues, whispering seductively.  "Closer, children!  Come back to Mother, back into the darkness, where you will be safe and warm forever!"  The voice seems to mingle with a plaintive, sensuous bleating.

The tunnel tilts downwards still further.  It is moist and black.  With each nostril-full of malodorous air you breathe in you feel ripples of pleasure spread throughout your body, suffusing your limbs with shivers of unspeakable ecstasy.

Sthena finds something very, very familiar about that voice. Too familiar. Way too familiar.

Hadrian mumbles to himself

The tunnel broadens still further and the ceiling yawns overhead, roots from the alien oaks of the Reekwood spreading across it.  At the far end of the chamber, something very large stirs in the blackness.  You hear the scrape of keratin on stone, the squelch of primordial slime, the slick slap of tendrils.  The fecund, hircine rancidity is now overpowering.  Each lungful of air makes you want to vomit or else tremble with obscene pleasure.

Sthena takes a deep breath. "Mmm... I have not been in a place this invigorating since the Great Library of the Great Race..." she says far too pleasantly.

"02, cue the lights, please," Hadrian commands the security bot.

Unit 02 powers up its floodlights to illuminate the cavern.

Hadrian, this is what you see: a massive being squats in the cavern in a pool of disgusting ichor - a nauseating knee-high slurry of blood, aberrant milk, and foetid amnion.  Her contours are difficult to discern; her form is chaotic, roiling, quasi-amorphous.  There is a kind of head with huge horns and a sickening vertical mouth ringed with ropy, root-like tentacles that drip a viscous spittle; clusters of goat-like yellow eyes with horizontal pupils; a loathsome, gleaming, dribbling mass of gigantic bestial teats which confirm her essential femininity.  Dozens of thick, bowed, hoofed legs support the revolting being.  At the base of her abominable bulk a membranous orifice flutters and throbs.  Weird appendages and ganglia extrude from her vile, appallingly alluring body - for despite the abject horror of the creature's utterly repulsive form, she possesses a repugnant sensuality, an attraction of the most loathsome, profane, nauseating kind.  The monstrosity holds Renaldo in one tentacle.

Everyone else sees this: instead of the unspeakable monstrosity you see a black-skinned, horned woman lying with her hoofed legs open and beckoning you onwards seductively with one hand, the other placed on her bloated belly.  Her breasts leak milk and her yellow goat-eyes enthral you.  She opens her black lips and bleats pleadingly.  A moan of desire escapes your own lips unbidden - a bleat in response to her own.  Overcome with raw animal lust the likes of which you have never experienced you find yourself moving towards the Goddess.

"Oh, sweet zombie Jesus," Hadrian curses. "02 blow that thing to shit! ...also don't kill Renaldo." Hadrian brings his rifle up
.
Sthena licks her lips, taking off her glasses, snarling. "I used to be an exotic dancer, you know. I'm very flexible," she says in a sultry tone.

Ramsay is now very visibly excited. He swallows, with a lecherous grin on his face, as he moves toward the creature.

Unit 02 opens fire with its lasers.

Sthena sees the shooting start and this momentarily snaps her out of it, although not in any particularly fashion. "Really, is this necessary? I was simply trying to speak with her!"

The Daughter of Shub-Niggurath shudders with twisted masochistic pleasure as the lasers riddle Her with holes.  She seems barely hurt by the Warhawk's attack.

"Can't you see this fucker? Gods damn!" Hadrian says, firing.

You hit the tentacle and Renaldo falls to the floor with a splash.  The Black Goat in the Woods bleats in hideous pain or pleasure as the tentacle is severed.

Sthena shakes her head. "I see nothing that warrants such a violent response," she says with a frown.

"It's the fucking thing! The fucking thing that's causing all this shit!" Hadrian slams a new clip into his rifle.

Sthena, you snap out of it.  The image of the "Goddess" wavers, replaced by the monstrosity Hadrian could see.

Sthena turns back to speak to her again, and sees something different. "Where did... she..." She shakes her head, and puts her glasses back on. "Oh my."

Sakhr, you likewise come out of the trance.

Ramsay ignores the spray of bullets. He tears off his clothes and approaches the being to embrace it.

The Doc grabs for Ramsay and tries to stop him, but Ramsay shoves him away.

Sakhr stares at the creature, not really understanding what it is she wants.

Hadrian puts another burst of rifle fire into the beast.

The creature moans, bleeding.  Its vast bulk ripples and squirms.  Your shots stop the tentacles snaking towards the crew, blowing them to shreds.

Sthena figures there's only one way out. It's Ramsay. It's worth a shot. She unbuttons the rest of her uniform, baring her breasts, and steps in front of Ramsay. "Hello."

Ramsay, the sight of a partially unclothed Sthena makes you snap out of your trance.

Sthena has a great many tattoos. Perhaps more than you realized.

Renaldo splashes through the puddle towards you.

Doc Tenebrous  helps him up.

"Keep it up, keep it up!" Hadrian says, emptying another clip into the creature.

Ramsay blinks, shakes his head and shivers.

"I will get Renaldo, Doc! You keep shooting!" Sakhr says.

Hadrian crouches next to 02, preparing to fire another burst.

"Throd! What was I doing?" Ramsay asks.

Sthena quickly zips her uniform back up. "Nothing good."

"We've got Renaldo, lets get out of here!" Doc Tenebrous yells, handing Renaldo over to Sakhr.

Sthena turns to Doc. "Are there any other survivors?"

"None that I can see!"

Ramsay grips his boomstick and positions himself to provide covering fire as the others retreat.

A questing tentacle snakes towards you Ramsay.

Ramsay fires, blowing it away.

"Let's back it out of here, 02! Everyone, go!" Hadrian urges.

"I seem to recall that the Captain wished to kill this beast!" Sakhr says.

The Warhawk fires a grenade.  The monstrosity bleats in agony, or possibly ecstasy.

Sakhr is busy carrying the survivor out.

"We can just plant the whole cave with explosives! Let's go!" Ramsay urges.

Sthena nods. "An orderly retreat and finishing off this creature are not mutually exclusive." She takes a pot-shot with her backup sidearm as she backs off.

The lower sphincter of the being squelches and one of the Dark Young slides out of the beast's body.  It bellows and charges towards you.

Hadrian reloads and fires again, backing up.

You shoot a questing tendril off.

"Alright, alright, I got this! Back it up people. NOW." Hadrian looks at the grenade on his belt wistfully, and then grips it firmly. "MOVE!"

Sakhr scurries to comply.

Ramsay waits for the crew to exit the cavern and then moves out himself.

Hadrian throws the grenade and books it.

Sthena makes her departure as well.

You hurl the fusion grenade.  As everyone runs from the cavern white light flares as a small, contained nuclear explosion goes off behind you, deafeningly loud.  You hear a horrid bleating followed by the crash of rock as the cavern collapses behind you!

Sakhr decides to try and run faster.

You reach the cave-mouth.

"What the throd was that?" Gideon asks.

"Something I like," Sakhr says.

"I wish I knew," Ramsay says.

"Ah, just a little party favour, courtesy of Thiessen-Suwei," Hadrian says.

"They must throw excellent parties," Sakhr quips.

"Oh. For sure."

"It seems that we blew it up, but I can't be sure," Ramsay pants.

Sthena smirks a bit. "It might be prudent to seal the cave here, as well."

"Agreed.  Then let's get the flath out of here," Gideon agrees.  "And let's make sure we get these bodies back to Menhir." The Captain gestures to the dead faun-things strewn about the hillside.

"So, what's up, Renaldo?" Hadrian asks. "How you holding up? Gonna take you back to Brantham, you'll be just fine."

Renaldo is moaning and bleating a little.  He seems traumatized by his experiences...

Hadrian pats him on the shoulder reassuringly.

"He should still be observed for a short time," Sakhr suggests. "He may end up like the Sheriff. Or not, if it can be helped."

"Sure, sure. I'll tell 'em."

"He's lucky to be alive," Ramsay observes.

"Now, if you don't mind, would someone please blow up those... 'throdding' explosives you had me set?" Sakhr says.

"We did some good work today, 02," Hadrian commends the Warhawk. "Maybe there's hope for you after all."

"Not if I stick with you," the bot drones.

Gideon hits the detonator and the cave-mouthed explodes, sealing the cavern-complex.

If that thing survived - which seems unlikely - it's trapped now.

"We should advise the folk of Menhir to burn this forest to the ground," Gideon says.  "But let's concentrate on getting out of here and getting paid..."[/ic]

[Steerpike]

Full Metaplasma Jacket

Six Years Ago

[ooc]Sparkletwist GMed this excellent session using her own Asura system.  Great job sparkle![/ooc]
[ic=Background]The main belligerents in the War are the Sovereigntist Alliance, centered in the Miskatonic System, and the Xothic League, centered, of course, in the Xoth system. Humans form the backbone of both factions, but the sinister, enigmatic Polypous Race are the mysterious hidden overlords of Xoth. The Sovereigntist Alliance is much more inclusive, also counting among its members numerous other races, most significantly the Ghouls, Deep Ones, Tcho-Tcho, and Mi-go. Naturally, there is a good amount of tension between all of these differing species, but the Sovereigntist Alliance is in general characterized by a general live and let live attitude, driven by a strong need for unity in the face of the Xothic menace.

The Sovereigntists have recently won some great and resounding victories against the Xothic League, but they have come at a high price. Sovereigntist Alliance resources, never as vast as the League's to begin with, are left spread dangerously thin, and the Alliance command worries that a Xothic League counterattack could break their advantage and send their forces into a full-scale retreat.[/ic][ic=Briefing] Early in the War, a battle in the Arcturus system had skirmishers break off dangerously close to Fomalhaut, resulting in several Xoth ships disturbing Cthugha. Enraged, Cthugha lashed out; while the exact circumstances of the Great Old One's reaction are not known to the Alliance, it is known that a nearby nearly-complete Xothic space station that was under construction was subsequently abandoned and left adrift. This abandoned station has recently drifted back into the Arcturus system, which is currently tenuously held by the Sovereigntists. As the station is a formidable one, built using a mixture of the finest human, Xothic, and Yith technology, it would be quite the defensive asset to the Alliance... if it can be secured and made operational.

Given the general lack of resources that the Sovereigntist Alliance has available, a full-scale occupation of the station is not currently possible. It has decided to instead send in a small, elite team in order to secure the station - aboard none other than the fastest ship in the fleet, the newly-constructed Demoiselle d'Ys. If there is any enemy activity, they will certainly be quite outnumbered, but, hopefully, not outmatched. The team has, for the most part, been hand-picked by Major Karl Hahn, aside for the inclusion of George Murphy that was forced upon the Major.[/ic] [ic=The Crew]None other than Lt. Gideon Carter -  played by Xathan

As Major Hahn's XO and protege, a certain (younger) Lt. Gideon Carter was placed in command of the mission aboard the station after the Major was forced to give up command. Both men hate this turn of events, but orders are orders, and Major Hahn has complete confidence in the younger soldier to head up the team.

Sgt. Xer W'ton – played by Ghostman

Xer W'ton is a full-blooded Deep One, resembling something like a cross between a fish and a frog, and quite an imposing one at that. He stands well over six feet tall, with a form that possesses both significant bulk as well as significant muscle. He is gruff and rude, and his gurgling, croaking manner of speech seems to only emphasize his frequently antisocial demeanor. He is nearly always ready with a curse word or ten, be it in English, R'lyehian, or some other tongue. He usually wears a shabby uniform, and his helmet, which barely fits his bulbous head, resembles an old-style stahlhelm as opposed to the current issue of the Sovereigntist Alliance.

However, what makes him in demand is not his social skills (which is fortunate, considering how he lacks them) but rather his significant combat prowess. He first caught Major Hahn's attention when he led a daring ambush on the Xoth in the swamps outside of New Arkham, wiping out two entire squads of Xoth aberrations before taking out their obscenemancer commanders. Since that time, Sgt. W'ton has led several other bold strikes at the League, and proven himself worthy of membership on any elite combat team. He is a good shot with nearly any firearm, but is particularly fond of his high-power Suwei Series 77 quantum metaplasma rifle. His melee combat expertise is no less impressive. Additionally, he has a small degree of control over the element of water, through ancient Deep One rituals passed down through the cults of Father Dagon and Mother Hydra; he does believe, albeit not as fervently as some of his kind. When using this power, his croaking voice takes on an otherworldly resonance, and a revolting smell of rotting fish seems to permeate wherever he is.

He is always armed with a waterproofed Suwei Series 77 quantum metaplasma rifle, possessing superior hitting power and accuracy but a slower rate of fire than conventional metaplasma coils. Should enemies be unfortunate enough to find themselves close enough to him that the clean, quick death of being shot dead by him is not an option, he prefers to cut them down with his hand weapon, resembling a corroded, jagged, serrated scimitar. It seems to be some sort of centuries-old Deep One relic, and is apparently a prized possession of his.

Sgt. Hiroko Suzuki

Hiroko Suzuki was a platoon leader during the Second battle of Sol, skilled at the more abstract planning aspects of combat as well as actual fighting. She bravely beat back the Xothic League's ground forces as well as the Elder Things residing on Earth that, while not formally allied with Xoth, certainly considered the Sovereigntists their primary foe. Her greatest moment of triumph (and also her greatest tragedy) was when, upon realizing her metaplasma rifle could no longer fire, she picked up some kind of Elder Thing weapon that had been dropped on the battlefield and charged forth with her men, spewing purple energies that impacted with the screech of banshees. She fired this weapon until she could no longer, inflicting heavy casualties on the Xothic forces. She eventually collapsed, shivering and babbling in some dialect of R'lyehian.

While she retains the visage of a relatively attractive young Asian woman, her hair has turned prematurely white, and her eyes are now hued with an inhuman purple shade. While she was initially thought to be lost forever, frequent visits from her family as well as her commanding officers (such as Gideon, as well as the Major) eventually brought her back to some semblance of sanity, though she was a very changed person. She now spoke only R'lyehian, and barely spoke it at that, only capable of short, nearly nonsensical locutions. Yet, those around her soon noticed that, no matter how little she spoke, they always seemed to understand her intent, even relatively complex thoughts that nonverbal communication would not seem to be able to convey. More remarkably, this gift of universal communication she seems to have acquired also applied to animals, other species, and... stranger things entirely. Now recovered, Sgt. Suzuki has returned to duty, this time as a part of the Alliance's new Special Operations Council. She is pleased to be back under the command of Gideon, whom she trusts greatly.

After her experience, she seems a bit mellowed, and tends to try to use her faculties for communication to solve problems before resorting to violence. Should it become necessary, she is still a great shot with her Anathema M-55 metaplasma rifle, however.

Ndembu – played by Weave

Over fifty thousand years ago, before the dawn of time, Ndembu was a warrior and hunter on the plains of Africa. He was a strong, confident young man, who always aspired to more than the primeval, nomadic existence his place in history seemed to destine for him. It was his aspirations that led him far beyond the ancestral home of his tribe, and out into the great wilds of the south, where he saw things no man had ever seen, or perhaps was ever meant to see. He emerged in the lands of the so-called "great-headed brown people," a civilization of humanoids of great technological acumen, thanks to their absorption of many Atlantean and Yith secrets. They initially welcomed him, but, when one of their greatest generals was pulled back in time by the Yith, the strange newcomer was blamed for the mysterious events, and Ndembu was captured and sentenced to eternal imprisonment. He was kept in a semi-conscious, dreamlike state, basically unaware of the passage of time yet not entirely unaware of it, either. His prison, buried underground in one of the many cataclysms that befell the Earth, continued to operate long after the civilization that had incarcerated him had been destroyed. Finally, during the First Battle of Sol, it was broken open, and Ndembu emerged, bewildered, into a much-changed world.

Wandering about, he was promptly captured by Sovereigntist forces operating in the area. He was completely out of place in this new world, yet, he was also a man of astute intellect, and possessing interesting perspectives on a wide variety of ancient and modern problems. Fifty thousand years of thought allowed him to independently derive many of the fruits of civilization, and he proved to have a keen philosophical and mathematical mind. He learned to speak the modern language, albeit haltingly, and he still carefully enunciates every word. He is a generally cheerful man and a quick study, having mastered many fundamentals of modern technology and engineering. However, popular culture generally eludes him, and he is quick to anger when he believes himself to be the butt of a joke. On the other hand, he loves to tell stories of hunting on the great plains or of his time with the now long-extinct great-headed brown people.

With nowhere else to go, and the heart of a warrior still strong within him, he joined the Special Operations Council. He is an expert at hand-to-hand combat, but also has submitted somewhat to modern ways, frequently using a Bugbear Model 3X metaplasma carbine.

The Doctor - played by Light Dragon

As his name is utterly unpronounceable to most humanoids, the Mi-go medic of the team is known as simply "The Doctor." While his (or, more properly, its, for gender has no meaning to the Mi-go) lack of familiarity with humanoid social graces as well as his bizarre appearance may initially put someone off, he is actually quite a likable fellow (or fungus, as the case may be), albeit with a sense of humor that seems to be entirely incomprehensible to most. What he lacks in bedside manner, he certainly makes up for in talent, possessing the chiurgical skills for which his race is renowned. He also has an insatiable curiosity, and a diverse smattering of knowledge in a wide variety of scientific and esoteric topics.

The Doctor first worked with then-Lieutenant Hahn during the First battle of Sol, patching up men thought beyond saving with a mixture of forbidden Mi-go technique and good old fashioned medical instinct. Indeed, some of his work was too effective, leaving men alive in states that a sane man would have rather died from. However, in general, his work was quite good, and Hahn hand-selected him for this mission, both for his medical expertise as well as for his various esoteric knowledge that will certainly come in handy.

While the Doctor much prefers to save life rather than take it, he always carries on his person a small voidglass jar containing a small black crustacean-like creature he calls "Douglas." Douglas can survive nearly any temperature extreme, has teeth and claws harder than diamonds, moves at inhuman speed, and is able to regurgitate a potent acid once per encounter. If the Doctor has any problems in a combat situation, Douglas is typically able to deal with them quite well.

George Murphy played by CoyoteCamouflage

Wherever there is trouble, George Murphy is rarely far behind. Gambler, prestidigitator, and occultist, he is a man of many talents, although few of them thought useful by more pragmatic sorts. Although short and a bit scrawny, he's also wry of wit and quite plucky, generally relying on his sharp tongue and the flexibility and mobility of his smaller size to get him out of tough situations. Some people find him genial, handsome, and likable, though, to others, including Major Hahn, he exudes an aura of sleaziness, self-centeredness, and being entirely more trouble than he's worth.

He is not a member of the normal military chain of command, having been assigned directly to Major Hahn's command by the Alliance's Occult Bureau. That is, he was not a choice of the Major, but rather was chosen for him. The reason, of course, is Murphy's ace in the hole: having studied numerous occult texts and other things that humanity was perhaps not meant to know, he has gained a fairly competent grasp of the telekinetic arts. He has also developed the mental discipline to (usually) withstand the deleterious effects on his psyche that the unleashing of such powers usually causes.

Originally, he gained this knowledge simply to cheat at various games of chance, but acquiring forbidden knowledge turned out to even more addictive than gambling. Over the course of further study, he gained the ability to move larger objects. While he can make the small motions required to cheat at cards and dice without being detected, any significant application of his power causes his eyes to blaze in an unholy fashion, and his entire body to be surrounded by harmless but profoundly disturbing eldritch blue flames.

When his powers fail him, he can always fall back on his fast-talking, his self-taught Arcturan Kickboxing techniques, or his trusty Morella pocket pistol.

Marie-Anne "Flayer" Kalma - created and played by Steerpike

Half Ghoul by birth, Marie-Anne Kalma grew up with her (human) father in the gloomy wilderness of Achlys, a frontier world of dank forests, gloomy mountains, shadowy badlands, and murky fens.  Here she learned to shoot, stalk, and trap, hunting feral Ghasts and the six-legged elk-like beasts common on the steppes where she was raised.  By twelve she was able to take down a charging Gnoph-keh using her father's old Barghest 97 laser-rifle at well over 400 yards; to strip a Zoog of fur and eviscerate it in under a minute; to sneak up on a herd of wild Vortlups without startling them.  Her father taught her to always say thanks to Nodens, Elder God of the hunt, after a kill; to track a creature by its spoor; to find shelter in a storm.  Far from civilization, her childhood was free of the prejudice that afflicts most Ghouls and other quasi-humans.  Making their home in a small cabin in the hills far from Nova Stygia and the other cities of Achlys, Marie-Anne and her father led a simple but contented life.

Everything changed when the Xothic League launched their incursion, annexing Achlys and setting up their garrisons.  Sovereigntist rebels took shelter in the hills and woods around their home, and sometimes Marie-Anne's father would give them spare meat or firewood or directions.  The Leaguers came in the middle of the night, kicked down the door and subdued her father with a hastily muttered spell from their magus-officer.  Their interrogation was brutal: they needed to know everything her father could tell them about the rebels: their location, numbers, equipment, etcetera.  Some of their torture-methods were mundane, others more exotic.  When they were finished her father's body and mind were both in tatters, though he'd held on to the Sovereigntists' secrets, refused to tell the Leaguers anything.  Marrie-Anne had watched from a hiding place under the stairs, having promised her father not to interfere.  When they were finished they shot him in the head and set the cabin on fire.

She fled the burning wreckage with her father's Barghest 97 clutched in her grasp and her trusty skinning knife in her belt.  The Leaguers were mounted, but Marrie-Anne knew all the shortcuts and secret ways, could stalk them swiftly and silently.  When they came to the pass that led up towards their mountain-fortress, she was waiting with rifle in hand, crouched high on a crag, well-concealed.  Five shots, in quick succession, took care of the lot.  She left the empty skins of the Leaguers hanging from tree-branches for other Xothic troops to find and fed the fleshless bodies to the local fauna as a sacrifice to Nodens.  Shortly later she joined a group of rebels.  In a few months she found herself in the Sovereigntist Ranger Training Program, having achieved record-breaking scores on stealth, survival, and sniping assessments.  Some time after that she transferred to Special Ops.  Since then Marie-Anne has seen action on a dozen worlds, killed dozens of Xothic officers, taken part in a number of key covert assaults, and provided invaluable reconnaissance for Sovereigntist troops.  Her penchant for skinning her victims earned her the nickname "Flayer," a moniker she silently accepted.

Physically Marie-Anne Kalma is rather unremarkable, her Ghoul blood noticeable only on close inspection: pronounced canine teeth, red irises, pointed ears, greyish skin, claw-like nails, a very slight whiff of something like an open grave.  She is now eighteen years old.  Wiry in musculature, she keeps her head shaved and typically wears some form of camouflage – or, failing that, a Special Operations Sovereigntist uniform.[/ic][ic=Soundtrack]Space Station Approach

The Promenade[/ic][ic=Docking]The Demoiselle d'Ys nears the edge of the Arcturus system. The gas giant Swati, outermost planet of Arcturus, looms large; muted reds and greys mingle in perpetually swirling maelstroms and tumultuous vortices. The huge proto-star seems to glow with its own light, but, shining beyond it, faint vestiges of the mad expanse that is Fomalhaut also come into sight. Like some kind of hell-spawned nebula, its tendrils extend out into the aether, the resting place of the dread Cthugha lighting up the sky with orange, yellow, green, and white, as well as every other hue of the rainbow in lesser proportions. Initially, this horrifically beautiful visage is all that can be seen, but eventually, a small black silhouette becomes evident in front of the gas giant.

As the Demoiselle draws closer, more detail can be seen, the small black shape expanding into an imposing monolith in its own right; it is a huge extruded hexagon of pure ebon black, ringed with conduits the color of black carapace and spires of a slightly glossier tone. The entire thing looks like a sort of twisted parody of a tulip. At the top, the command center stands proudly, a geodesic dome of blackened glass, ringed by coilgun turrets. Indeed, as the Demoiselle flies closer still, it can be seen that the entire exterior of the station is covered in various defensive systems, and, if it were operational and manned, the ship would have been cut apart in less than a minute. Fortunately, however, it is clearly not manned, and it is barely operational. There are windows along its exterior, but they peer only into blackness as dark as the station's exterior. Only a faint blue glow of two small conduits circling its upper portion reveals that it retains any function whatsoever. As impressive as this spectacle is, the way the bottom of the station dissolves into scaffold and jagged corrugated metal reveals that it was not yet complete at the time it was abandoned.

"Throdding hell," Major Hahn grumbles as he glances out a window. "I don't like the looks of that ebumna-n'ghft Xothic space station. Not one bit. You don't build something like that and then just abandon it unless something seriously n'gha h'geb happened."

The ship circles the station, inspecting its exterior, taking note of its design. "Six docking bays, one on each side, but it looks like only one of them is actually functional," the Demoiselle's pilot says, glancing from scanner to window, flying the small craft deftly around the behemoth. Upon finding a suitable docking port, the Demoiselle maneuvers into position, aligning with the docking port with a dull thud. "Docking is confirmed. No main power or gravity, but at least Cthugha kept it nice and warm in there for you. I'm reading an atmosphere on the other side, but most life support systems are down. It's a big enough station you'd have to stay in there for weeks to use up all the oxygen, though."

"Nobody's planning on staying there for nearly that long. We're gonna recon it, and then we're gonna get the throd out of there," Hahn says. "You know the mission. Secure the station, and see if it can be made operational. Right now it's caught in Swati's gravity well, and it'll fall in unless it can thruster itself out. The point of no return is in twelve hours. Main power, life support, and of course maneuvering thrusters are our priorities. All that firepower would sure be nice to have on our side, defending Arcturus." Hahn continues, "If it's just completely unsalvageable, or if.." He pauses. "if some kind of shit happens. Then we're going to resort to plan B." He pauses. "We'll just let nature take its course. But let's hope it doesn't come to that." He stands up. "Meet me at the airlock in five."

Lieutenant Gideon salutes. "Y'hah, Major," and heads towards the airlock.

Ndembu stares at the station silently, deep in thought

"Of course, Captain," George says. "Wouldn't want to delay any longer than necessary, what with the looming threat of it falling from the sky."

Marie-Anne checks her Barghest 97, now with custom scope. She favours the other crewmembers with a sharp-toothed, canine grin.

Xer grips his metaplasma rifle, an eager gleam in his bulbous eyes. He grunts and marches to the airlock after Gideon.

George adjusts his sleeves, finicking with his clothing while he walks. He never had developed any sort of love for military kit. It wasn't even tailored - the sleeves were too long, the shoulders too narrow, and don't even get him started about the thrice-damned boots. Shards of glass may be more comfortable.

The crew assembles in the airlock.

Ndembu nods as if acknowledging a presence beyond him, and looks to his comrades.  "Shall we depart?"

"Any thoughts on what manner o' booby traps might be waitin' for us, Major?  Or anythin' else we should be expectin'?" Marie-Anne queries.

Lieutenant Gideon checks his two Headsman's with casual ease, as well as his extra ammo.

Hahn shrugs. "Your guess is as good as mine. If I know the Xoth, they've got some kind of security drones still up and running. I don't know how much else they've got. They ran out of there awful quick."

Through the airlock: the interior of the station is built with the same cold, imposing, spartan ethos that the exterior exudes. The floor is a matte darkened grey, the walls a slightly more blueish tint but also subdued, with an occasional darkened touchscreen control console.

If main power were active, this area would be illuminated by soft lights that shine on the walls from small recesses in the floor and ceiling. As it stands, the only illumination at all is the soft blue glow of a single emergency light.

The passageway terminates in an elevator door, which is currently nonfunctional. It branches off three directions; one way, toward the core of the station, with a stairway leading downward marked "Reactor," the other way, heading outward, is marked "Cryogenic Storage."

Otherwise, the hallway continues around the periphery of the station. This way is marked "Airlocks" and leads around to the other docking ports-- right now, given that they are incomplete, they are just sealed doors with nothing behind them but the abyss of space.

Lieutenant Gideon looks around. "First step's gotta be turning back on the throdding main power, otherwise we're going to be stumbling around in the nyth."

"Cryogenic Storage... intriguing," Ndembu says.

"Huh. Freezers," George says. "Maybe we should check and see if there any locals running on emergency power."

"Where d'ya want me?" Marie-Anne says, glancing down the darkened corridors with reddish eyes.  "Shall I scout ahead, or stay with the group fer now?

Hahn points to "Reactor," bounding off a wall and floating over there. "Gideon's got it. First step's power."

"Lieutenant Gideon, would you suggest the reactors, then?" Ndembu nods to Hahn and Gideon

"Of course sir, lead the way," George snarks.

Hahn gives George a look. "Throdding civvies..." he mumbles to his XO.

Lieutenant Gideon nods along with the Major. "Much as I'd love to see if any of the grah'n are in cryo right now, we'd have to be a pack of mnah'n-gof'n to wander in there in the dark."

Marie-Anne keeps her eyes peeled as she makes her way towards the Reactor stairwell.

Lieutenant Gideon looks over at Hahn and grins slightly.

The Reactor Room is constructed in the same subdued, blueish tones as the rest of the station, only the floor here is metal grating, raised, so that various pipes and conduits can be laid underneath. The centerpiece of the room is what looks like a polished column of basalt, inscribed with what seem to be Yith runes. It is a reactor of some esoteric design; currently, it is deactivate.

A few of the panels are removed, various tubes and wires connecting to four fusion power cells, which could also provide backup power. One of the fusion power cells is completely destroyed, but the other three appear to be operable, albeit completely nonfunctional due to the fact that many essential components seem to have been removed.

Stairs lead up, back to the docking section of the station. Two sealed doors lead out of the Reactor Room, but they currently cannot be opened. The only other exit is a ladder leading downward to some sort of storage area.

Xer is content to leave the planning to the major. He's happy to see that they'll be following a straight forward course, though.

Marie-Anne shakes her head at all the tech. It's been too long since she's smelled trees and fresh air.

George grumbles about the method of transportation. He had some training in Zero-G. Once. Probably. "Huh. Now, then, what do we have here? Hmm, 'on' button, 'on' button..."

Hahn surveys the room. "I don't think we can do anything with that reactor. Gideon, Hiroko, Ndembu. See what you can do about those power cells."

"Yes sir," Gideon replies. Ndembu nods.

George begins looking about for any big, shiny buttons. Or anything suitably appropriate.

Lieutenant Gideon heads over to one of the power cells and looks at it carefully.

Marie-Anne conducts a quick survey of the room, investigating any nooks and crannies, keeping an eye open for anything unusual.

There is a security drone enclosure on the ceiling, currently inactive. Currently.

Marie-Anne gestures towards the ceiling with her weapon. "Bot on the ceiling.  Careful everyone.  Take a bead - thing might wake up once power's back on."

Xer leaves the tech-savvy ones to do their thing. While they are working on the cells, he stands on guard by the exit, peering up the stairs keenly.

Ndembu looks up. " Make sure you are in a safe position once the gravity is restored."

"So what's stopping you from pulling its batteries now, while its napping?" George asks.

"I don't know that kinda fm'latggh-'bthnk, George.  Someone else go tamper with it."

"Just keep your gun on it," Ndembu says.

"Yeah yeah. Honestly, neither do I," George says. "But I don't see why we need to wait for it to start shooting us before we put some holes through its important parts."

Marie-Anne spits, then wishes she hadn't when her saliva just floats in front of her. "Thing might not come online automatically.  No need to cause a ruckus without cause."

"If the bot is a threat then I say we take it out first, then restore the throdding power," Xer grumbles.

If these power cell components could be replaced, most of the station's power could definitely be restored, at least to essential systems. Gravity and most other life support functionality would definitely work. The main reactor is locked out from the control room high above, and won't function until those lockouts are removed.

"Problem is gettin' the throdding cells," Gideon notes. "Ndembu, anythin' on these indicate what kind of power cells these need?"

Hahn peers around the room. "Storage room down there. Someone quick and nimble go rummage around in there." He eyes Marie.

Ndembu looks at Gideon and shakes his head

"Right. Well, you fine individuals see if you can get it working," George says. "I'm going to see if I can figure out how it works." George begins nosing around the reactor, looking for any kind of access panel or other means to directly access parts of it that work.

Marie-Anne is waiting patiently with her weapon trained on the security drone.  She is leaving the high-falutin technical stuff to those with book-learnin.'

The reactor seems to be in a state of shutdown. However, it's quite a sophisticated design.  If the station falls into Swati and burns up, all of the unholy cosmic power bottled up in that Yith reactor will go up with quite an explosion. Nothing harmful in the grand scheme of things, mind, but it'll be quite the fireworks show for any passing ships. The Great Old Ones might even glance in its general direction for a moment.

Xer stay by the stairs, casting glances back and forth between the exit and the drone.

Ndembu grows frustrated.

Hahn grumbles. "Someone go down to that throdding store room. NOW."

"C'mon Marie, let's get the flathing cells," Gideon says.

Marie-Anne moves to comply.

Lieutenant Gideon goes with her.

"Hmm," George muses. "I can safely say that, in the event of Plan B, we should be far, far away from here when this thing goes 'boom'."

Xer begins to emit strange, wheezing sounds that are somehow suggestive of whistling, interrupted by occasional gurgling noises.

The claustrophobic storeroom contains tools and spare parts for the reactor above. It was once meticulously organized, no doubt, but the loss of gravity means that the components are now all drifting about the room at random. It's also quite dusty in here, small clouds of it billowing about in zero gravity.

Marie-Anne looks for the damn cells.

"Li'hee-syha'h-n'ghft, it's nothing but lw'naf-shog in here," Gideon mutters.

You find a wide variety of power cells. Even though Ndembu couldn't identify what was really needed, Marie's keen eyesight picks out a cell that is exactly the right shape. That one has to be it.

"This the one?" she asks, waving the thing around.  "All this stuff looks the same to me." Marie-Anne looks at it. "Looks like the right shape, though..."

Lieutenant Gideon eyes it. "Right throdding shape, so I'd bet that's the flather."

Hahn peers down. "Good work."

"About throdding time," Xer adds.

"I suggest pointing some guns at the drone before we pop the batteries back in," George says.

"And hold onto something," Hahn says. "Or it's gonna be fun when the grav comes back."

Marie-Anne returns to the Reactor room with cells in tow.

"Here are yer machine parts."

Ndembu continually tinkers with the reactor, occasionally cursing in an ancient tongue

Ndembu looks up, surprised.

Ndembu, you're ready to turn the power cells back on.

Lieutenant Gideon kicks off the wall out of the storage room, grabbing the door on his way out to slow himself, pointing one of his guns at the drone.

"Get ready, everyone," Ndembu says.

George makes ready.  Xer holds on to a railing by the stairs.  Marie-Anne gets into position near the floor and aims her rifle carefully, leaning back against a wall.

"Iä, this is gonna be throdding wonderful," Gideon murmurs.

Ndembu aims his gun at the drone, and with the other hand activates the power cells.

With a buzz of electronics and machinery, the station's main power is restored. Lights come on throughout the Reactor room, and, presumably, beyond. Then, a faint buzzing sound as the artificial gravity comes back-- followed almost immediately by a resounding, clattering cacophony echoing throughout the station as everything that was adrift falls to the ground.

Amid this noise, something fainter is heard, a surprised gasp, followed by a whispering voice that seems to come from every direction. "Who's there?" it asks quickly, sharply. At least, it seems to be a voice. As station systems continue to power up, piston engages, venting some air. "Psshhr!" Maybe it was just that..

Xer hisses and adopts a hunched fighting posture

Marie-Anne looks around, bewildered.

George thinks it's just the piston. "Hmm. Creepy tech they got here."

Gideon, you can tell there's something... otherworldly about it. It was a definite voice, but it wasn't a human whisper. It was in your mind somehow. Not too much time to ponder.

Marie-Anne sniffs the air, lips pulling back in a wolfish grimace of distrust.

"Intruder Alert. Intruder Alert," a pleasant and rather bland computerized female voice suddenly begins repeating. A security drone suddenly drops down from a storage bay in the ceiling!

The security drone is little more than a processor core, a sensory device, and a counter-gravity unit. As the discharge of a metaplasma weapon in close proximity to the reactor core could be undesirable, it is instead equipped with gyroscopically stabilized blades, spinning at high velocity and designed to cut down intruders the old fashioned way.

Marie-Anne returns her attention immediately to the nasty little drone, firing her laser rifle.

"Throd," Gideon growls. "What kind of - Noden's beard!"

George pulls his sidearm and shoots - unless the others would be kind enough to shoot it first.

Lieutenant Gideon takes a quick shot at the drone.

Gideon grazes one of the spinning blades. The shot pings.

Ndembu fires.

Xer attacks the bot with his rifle, uncaring of any potential danger to the reactor.

Xer and Marie-Anne blast the drone with withering metaplasma fire, causing it to spark and explode, spewing parts everywhere!

"Y'hah, nice shooting." Gideon declares.

"Huh... Those are interesting," George says.

Its spinning blade rips off its casing, and goes whirling through the air like some kind of shuriken.  It smacks right into Major Hahn, cutting into the back of his leg, sending him sprawling to the ground.

Marie-Anne mutters a quick thanks to Nodens.

"Iä! Throddin' piece of fm'latggh-'bthnk!" Xer curses.

"Ugh, throdding security, throdding Xoth," Hahn growls, hissing in pain as he tries to sit up. While he attempts to keep his game face on, it's obvious from the extensive damage to his body armor as well as the blood that currently stains the front of his fatigues that he is not in very good shape. "If I'm gonna go out, I want it to at least be by a man who I can look in the eye."

The Doctor hurries over to tend to him.

"Throd," Gideon swears quietly.  He moves over to the Major, though gives the Doctor space to work.

"I must get the Major into a medical stasis bay immediately or he won't survive," the Doctor chitters.

George makes an unpleasant face.

"Throd it. Get him there, now," Gideon says.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's throdding get the move on," Xer grumbles.

"Throd... I guess you're in command, Gideon," the Major growls. He doesn't like being out of action. But he's been medically relieved of duty. Nothing he can do.

"Everyone, move! Keep your eyes open for any more throdding drones," Gideon says. "Alright, major. First thing we're doin' is makin' sure your throdding back on the ship safely.

Marie-Anne nods, teeth bared.

"Where to now, the control center?" George says.

The Doctor helps Hahn up, and he and Hiroko take him back to the ship. We'll be fine, Hiroko's eyes seem to say.

Lieutenant Gideon nods.

Now that the power is back on, the elevator is functional.

"Control center,"Gideon orders. "We can get more information there. Keep alert - li'hee-syha'h-n'ghft, I'd like to check Cryo, but we can get information on it from the CC."

"Of course. Without power, they may be somewhat less than fresh, at any rate," George notes.[/ic]

[Steerpike]

[ic=The Control Room]The elevator goes all the way to the top.  The station's control room seems as though it is just sitting out in space, as the entire structure is contained in a dome of voidglass that grants a panoramic view of the heavens. Control consoles line the wall, some darkened, but most others displaying a dizzying array of startup information and system diagnostics, not to mention security alerts that the incursion triggered.

Yet, it may be hard to pay them any attention, at least at first, when the vastness of the universe itself sprawls out in all directions, close enough as though it could be touched. A million points of light stand out in front of a backdrop of a million more fainter ones, while diaphanous nebulae spread out to touch them all.

In the center of the room, there is a round table with more consoles, an unbroken circle of black touchscreens and small, flat yellow and blue buttons. At the center, floating in the air, is a semitransparent holographic representation of the station, outlined in blue wireframe, with currently nonfunctional systems flashing in red. Naturally, there is quite a bit of red.

There is a smashed security drone on the floor.

Lieutenant Gideon whispers, almost reverently "Noden flath it, but that's quite a setup."

"Hmm, let's see what secrets this station is hiding," George murmurs.

"Lieutenant," Marie-Anne says. "You want me to stay here?  I could go have a sniff around."

George looks for any kind of access console, computer, or interface device.

Xer makes a croaking sound. He kicks the smashed up bot contemptuously.

As you step into the room and look around, you notice that sitting in two of the chairs are charred corpses! They are blackened and cracked, with little remaining but little bits of blackened flesh and clothing on top of charred bone, as though they burned quite hot and fast.

Lieutenant Gideon shakes his head. "Splittin' up is a good way to get n'gha. Marie, Xer, you two cover the door incase some nyth-shogg comes up. Everyone else, see what you can figure out. Carefully." He adds the last bit, eying the corpses.

Marie-Anne shrugs and follows orders.

Most of the systems can be restored from here to some degree of working order, and it's also possible to take care of the state of security alert. However, some systems, most notably the maneuvering thrusters, are still offline. It's unlikely too much can be done, although the only access (and the only way to be sure) is back down by the reactor room.

Oddly, the control system for the station's fire suppression system has been destroyed. Not just disabled, too, but utterly destroyed: the control boards for it have been ripped out, the crystals fused together.

Xer grunts and stands by the doorway. Marie-Anne whistles an old mountain folk-tune. Xer makes rhythmic croaks, apparently trying to match Marie-Anne's tune, but failing cacophonously.

"Some nafl-hupadgh destroyed fire suppression systems - which doesn't bode all that well, considerin' these throdding bodies," Gideon notes.

"On the bright side, if an explosion did this, I do not think there is much left to explode," George comments.

The components are generally in good shape. It was not likely an explosion. It seemed more precise.

"Alright, we can turn off the alarm and turn back on some of the minor systems from here," Gideon says. "Once we do that, it's back to reactor room - need to figure out for sure if thursters are offline."

"Sounds like a plan," Marie says, fairly disinterested in the technical specifics.

The elevator descends, called from below. The Doctor radios in. "I am returning to meet you."

"Alright, Doc," Gideon confirms, fiddling with the systems for a bit, activating all vital systems he can and deactivating any potentially dangerous ones he can.

That whispered voice that you thought you heard before speaks up again. It's not the computer voice, it's something different, as though it's in your heads. All of your heads. All at once. "What are you doing? Leave that alone!" it whispers sharply. At the same time, the lights and the control consoles flash and flicker, and the elevator door opens and closes on its own.

Ndembu looks around. "Of what nature is this voice..."

"Throding flath!" Gideon swears. "Who is this?" He pulls back from the console, at least momentarily.

"The elevator seems to be accelerating!" the Doctor chitters rather nervously.

Marie-Anne makes the Elder Sign in front of her with one hand. She doesn't like this. At all.

"Oh, shit," George exclaims. "Listen to the damn voice!"

"Throd it, it's gonna kill the Doc!" Gideon yells.

"So stop turning more things on! Try to kill the power from here!" George says.

Lieutenant Gideon attempts to stop the elevator, but does not attempt anything else. "Listen, stop the elevator and I won't touch any more of the damn buttons!" He shouts, hoping the voice can hear him/"

"Gimme somthin' I can shoot," Marie-Anne mutters under her breath.  "Throddin' spooks..."

The elevator goes speeding up the elevator shaft. Gideon manages to cut the power, but the elevator has a great deal of momentum. It zooms up, the Doctor and Hiroko go leaping out, just before it goes smashing into the ceiling. There is a loud hiss as part of the ceiling is smashed, but pressure only escapes for a moment, as a large blast door seals off the elevator shaft.

If you're going to go back down, you'll have to take the long way through stairwells and maintenance corridors.

"Throd," Gideon growls. "Throdding flathers throdding flathing flather throding. Alright, whoever you are, you got our attention and we ain't pushin buttons. Care to talk?"

Xer groans and... frowns, in a manner that only a deep-one can frown. The prospect of losing the Doctor to a throdding elevator displeases him; as it happens he dislikes the doc less than the rest of the crew.

Hiroko dusts herself off. She screeches some R'lyehian invectives, some of which Gideon might not even know. Then she returns to her calm demeanor.

There is no response save for a hissing sound that may or may not be the voice.

"Stop hiding you throdding lamprey! Come out here and I'll rip out your spleen and offer it to Father Dagon! Ygotha'ai  n'gha gof'nn!" Xer grumbles to the strange voice in his head.

Marie-Anne glances disparagingly at Xer. "Shut yer trap you mnahn'-gof'n," she whispers.

"Ugh... More voices. Wonderful," George says.

"I can't throdding understand you," Gideon says. "Look, we're willin' to talk with you - so far, looks like you killed some people we wanted to kill anyway, so we might be able to work somthin' out."

No response.

"Throd."

"This is getting us nowhere," Ndembu says.

"Doc, the Major awake?" Gideon asks.

The Doctor shakes his head. "Negative. He needed to go into medical stasis."

"Hmm," George ponders. "Gideon, does the station have any logs that you might be able to safely access?"

"Worth a shot." Gideon looks up. "If you're listenin', we just want to read the throdding logs, ain't gonna do nothing to change any systems." He heads cautiously over to a computer.

"One does not wait for your prey to fall upon you, you must hunt it, stay one step ahead of it," Ndembu says wisely. "Should we continue to waste our time here, I fear we will fall prey to the very thing we dare provoke."

The logs show... well, not as much as they should. A lot of the memory cores have been damaged as well. It shows some sort of incursion. There is security camera footage, however.

"We must know what to hunt before we may succeed in that endeavour," George says. "Know your prey."

"Thanks for the throdding fortune cookie, Ndembu, but right now I don't think we're the flathing hunters." Gideon pulls up the security footage.

A strange fire burns, while a man dressed in a Xothic uniform looks on in a mindless trance. He shambles forward slowly toward the fire, or whatever it is. It burns crimson and purple, and has an odd crackling, shimmering, dancing shape, resembling lightning or other plasmas as much as a flame.

A 'hand' seems to form out of the flame, beckoning the man closer. He complies, shambling into its grasp. As he steps forward, another 'hand' reaches around from the other direction, gripping his shoulders. The flame burns through his uniform and sears his skin, but he stays in his mindless trance.

It takes only seconds before blood starts oozing from his mouth and ears, but quickly drying, turning into a vapor that is inhaled by the flame-thing. The man convulses briefly, his head wrenched back. With a brief flick of a flame tendril, the man's neck is sliced open, blood-vapor flowing from the wound while the man's skin turns brown and shriveled around it.

Finally, the creature presses its tendrils fully into him, the rest of his body drying out, appearing to be a mummified corpse for a moment, before glowing red seams form in his cracked flesh, like an undersea volcanic eruption. With a sizzling sound, he explodes into flames, burning brightly and then collapsing; nothing is left but a smoldering charred corpse.

Ndembu is about to respond to George and Gideon, but watches the footage.

Marie-Anne watches avidly, enjoying the sight of the Leaguer being consumed.

"There is your prey, hunter!" Xer croaks.

Ndembu watches it closely. "Then let us find it."

"Somehow I doubt a rifle'd be much use against one o' those... things," Marie-Anne says, disappointed.  She was hoping to skin some Leaguers.

With the elevator shaft sealed off, the only way out of here is the stairwell in the back.

Ndembu makes his way towards the stairwell.

Marie-Anne will take point if no one objects.  Hiroko and the Doctor follow.

Xer follows, gritting his sharp teeth in anticipation of confronting this fire-grah'n

"Douglas doesn't like it here," the Doctor chitters.

Ndembu secures his rifle.[/ic]

[Steerpike]

[ic=Cadavers]The deck immediately below the control room contains offices and some storage. It is dimly lit, because several of the light fixtures have been destroyed. Large boxes marked with the Xothic League insignia are piled haphazardly, having drifted about when the gravity went out. Lying on the ground here are two more charred corpses, in the same condition as before.

Marie-Anne is moving as quietly as she can, which is the next closest thing to silent. "More roast Leaguers," she says, aiming her rifle at pockets of shadow, at doors.

Ndembu moves towards the corpses with caution, examining them.

The Doctor examines them as well. "A most rapid sort of combustion," he muses.

"I do not like this creature, whatever it may be," Ndembu says.

Marie, someone jumps down from the rafters to ambush you!

Marie-Anne darts aside as fast as she can.

There is a loud, resonating thud, and a sickening crunch! From the rafters above, another dead body falls, landing and breaking open, a bit of blackened blood splattering, and the nauseating smell of death filling the room.  It is partially burned, but intact, and wearing a Xothic Uniform. It has started to decompose, but the relatively sterile environment of the station has left it in reasonable condition. Well, as reasonable as it can be, anyway. The head is completely blown apart, looking like a metaplasma blast at close range.

Hiroko screeches.

"It makes a beautiful pattern... but I pity our chances." The Doctor is thoughtful.

Ndembu spins on his heels, rifle armed, and targets the body.

George tries to find the source of whatever is making Hiroko go crazy.

Marie-Anne looks at the body with approval. Dead Leaguers always make her happy. When Hiroko screams she rolls her eyes and looks towards her. "Would you shut yer damn trap!  We're trying to conduct a covert operation here!"

"Throdding hell," Gideon mutters. "Alright, everyone, deep breath now, we're not vulgtlagl-syha'h."

"It is difficult to tell with the state of the bodies, but the nature of the security footage seemed to imply that the being responsible does not need to resort to physical actions to kill - it may very well be capable of mental manipulation," George says. "Which is, well, a problem."

"Hm," Xer muses. "Is this a fresh kill? If so, we have throdding Leaguers sneaking about!"
Not that fresh. The thing is rotting. The only thing keeping it from rotting more is the rather sterile station air.

"I feared this much," Ndembu says.

Xer sniffs, the air, and grunts. "These grah'n don't mind feasting on old cadavers"

"Feasting? What are you talking about?" George asks.

"You saw the same footage, right?  Those fire-thingies looked like they were drinkin' blood.  Sorta." Marie-Anne shrugs. "That's what it looked to me."

"Is that not what it was doing? Why else hunt them, if not for feeding?" Xer asks. "Soul. Blood. Does it matter? Whatever drives one's hunger away."

"For amusement?" George suggests.

This body was clearly shot, not feasted upon.

"Eh. For all we know, they could have been eating the Xothics' souls. The blood was just a bonus. Like a sociopath," George says.

"True," Marie-Anne concedes. "But this one's been shot.  Metaplasma weapon.  Not drained dry. That might mean someone else came through here.  Ain't Sovereigntists neither."

"This one wasn't food," Gideon says. "Why'd a Xothic shoot one of their own?"

"Maybe went crazy.  Maybe that voice we been hearin' made him do it.  Maybe he offed hisself."

Hiroko points to the burns. She points to its hand. She looks at them. If you were burning to death, might you take the easy way out?

"To make a beautiful pattern, perhaps?" The Doctor chitters. "Decomposition-art has been known to have adherents among many cultures. Many enjoy traditional Mi-go aesthetics."

Marie-Anne looks over at the Mi-go. "Throddin bugs..." she murmurs, too quiet to hear.

Lieutenant Gideon shakes his head. "Throd it, actually. Mission was to assess this flathing station, and it's completely throdded, since their is somethin' here still. We're getting back to the ship. Swati can have this flathing place. Not worth the risk."

Walking back to the docking bay should be no more difficult than walking back to the reactor room. No more easy, either.

"Didn't take you for the craven type, lieutenant," Marie-Anne says.  "A spooky voice and a few crispy bodies enough to scare you off, eh?"

"It is a new challenge, a new threat... it has been so long since I have felt the thrill of the hunt..." Ndembu says. "This creature, however, challenges my practiced skills."

"As bad as it is, we still know nothing about it," George points out. "Maybe we should seek the source of the voices, at the very least."

Gideon shoots Marie-Anne a look. "There's a throdding nyth-sogg made of fire that's eatin' people on this damn station, and somethin' that's controllin it that tried to kill the doc. I ain't riskin' anyone's life on a throdding suicide mission."

Hiroko looks at Gideon. Ultimately, it's his call.

"We do not know that the voice and the fire-being have anything in common besides location."

"Well, it's not suicide if it kills us." The Doctor shrugs. "That would presuppose, however, that it is doing something and this is not a product of hallucinated minds."

"I wish to press onward," Ndembu says.

For what it's worth, 'onward' and 'back to the ship' are the same direction right now.

"I'm all for killing these hlirghs, but running after them all over this ebumna-n'ghft seems a waste of time when the place is about to go out in a bang," Xer croaks.

"Then we should endeavour to maintain the station's status and continued existence. Then we can worry about what else is on board," George says.

Lieutenant Gideon taps his insignia. "Last I checked, this wasn't a throdding democracy. We're gonna go to the reactor room, at least try to get the thrusters back online. After that, we're reassessing, but next time I give a throdding command we're not going to have so many flathing questions, understood?"

Marie-Anne nods. "Understood, Lieutenant."

"Mm." The Doctor nods.

Xer grunts and nods. "Aye!"

The Doctor takes a sample from the dead person and shaves off part of the burned hand and the point of bullet-entry.

"Alright, head on," Gideon orders.

Marie-Anne heads back to the stairs.

On one side of the next corridor is a large panoramic window, looking out on Swati. The other is relatively plain wall, with a broken access console. There is also writing scratched into the wall here. "THE CHILD MUST DIE."

Marie-Anne raises an eyebrow. "Good thing that's not terrible creepifyin'."

"It may be an obvious relation to our mysterious voice, as well," George says.

"Y'hah, I was hopin' to have some throdding reassurance," Gideon says. "Glad to see this nafl-hupadgh station was willin' to provide. Marie-Anne, give it a sniff, see if you can figure somethin' out about it."

Marie-Anne complies, inhaling.

Gideon, you can tell someone is here. And approaching.

"Fm'latggh-'bthnk, ready weapons, we've got incoming." Gideon drops to one knee, pointing guns at the direction of the approacher. "Halt or die, one warning!"

Marie-Anne instantly brings her Barghest 97 up.

A man dressed in a tattered Xothic uniform shambles out of the darkness. His skin is a sickly yellow, his eyes glazed over. He has strange wounds on his skin, and it seems like there are some electronic components embedded into him; he is not a cyborg or anything of that sort, however, the job appears quite hasty and poorly done, and lacking a clear function.

Xer readies his metaplasma rifle without thought, looking around

"Kill the monsters!" hisses the whispering voice from before. It penetrates the psyche once again, something not so much 'heard' as 'felt.'

"Flath it," Gideon says.

"Let's make this fair..." Ndembu puts away his rifle and readies his fists.

George considers shooting both of them. The Xothic because of what he is, and Ndembu for being an idiot.

"Throd fair," Gideon says, firing.

The man lunges at Ndembu!

Marie-Anne will aim for his knees.  Her rifle flashes.

Gideon blows his head off. Marie blows his leg off.

Ndembu glances a little disappointedly at Gideon, slowly lowering his fist

"He might have told us somethin' useful, you know," Marie-Anne points out. "Then we coulda killed him."

"That grah'n wasn't sayin' anythin', did you see him?" Gideon says. "Throdder weren't there anymore, just the body."

"You want to play with the tele-tubby," George says. "We'll save the next one for you. Until then, I like Gideon's shooting them on sight."

There seem to be more of these things lurking about. Fortunately, from the direction it came, there is also a maintenance hatch leading further down.

"I thought we had a lady along with us just for those sorts o' communications problems," Marie-Anne grumbles. "But hey, I'm not the lieutenant here.  Yer probably right - nothin' but a shell."

"And Ndembu, no touchin' them," Gideon says. "We don't know if there's some disease they have."

"A disease that makes them walk up to a floating fireball and give it a great big hug," George quips.

"Li'hee-syha'h-n'ghft, but I've heard of stranger," Gideon says.

"I'd wish such a disease upon all the throdding Leaguers." Xer croaks, and spits on the corpse.

Ndembu draws his rifle again. "As you say..." Ndembu longs for the days of old.

Hiroko nods.

The Doctor walks over to the dead body and takes a sample of the electronic chips.

These are some of the components that have been ripped out of the power cells and the control systems.  While you're pondering, another of them shambles up.

"Well. Here they come," George says.

Gideon takes a shot at the things legs.

It grabs Gideon, landing a sturdy punch. Gideon shrugs it off.

Xer levels his rifle on the nearest approaching foe and opens fire.

Its legs get blown out from under it. It is then ripped to pieces by Xer.

The lights are dim. There are... a lot of these things. They seem to not be paying a lot of attention, but all the shooting is making them shamble more this way. As mentioned before, there is a hatch leading downward.

"I think it's time we take this conversation elsewhere," George suggests.

"Throd it, we're out numbered bad. Down the hatch!" Gideon says.

Marie-Anne aims carefully. "I'll cover you."

"Throdding nyth-shoggs." Xer takes a shot before descending the hatch.

Marie blasts one as it tries to follow them down the hatch.

"Xer down first! I'm down last. Everyone else, go!" Gideon instructs.

George complies.

"Come Douglas! To safety." The Doctor cops a feel on his glass jar that contains his best friend and associate.

At this rate the numbers might not be a problem. But you do make it down the hatch and seal it tightly.

Ndembu heads down.

Marie-Anne reluctantly retreats down the hatch.[/ic]

[Steerpike]

[ic=Living Quarters]This deck appears to have been intended to be quarters, but many of the rooms are not yet complete. A sickening, festering smell of death fills the entire area. All can smell it, except the Doctor, but he soon gets the idea something is amiss as well.

A large splatter of dried blood covers the wall. Scratched into it is the text "SALVATION" along with a bunch of R'lyehian writing. While it's possible for many of you to decipher the script, it's not quite clear what it says, as the actual words aren't known to you.

There is a dead body here, badly mutilated, wearing a Xothic uniform. Like before, the relatively sterile environment of the station has left it in decent condition, but again, perhaps that simply enables the sight to be gruesome, for instead of mere desiccated bones, the visceral sight of blackened entrails and a splatter of coagulated blood everywhere remains.

Lying next to the body is a standard-issue Xoth combat shotgun, which also appears to be the cause of its gruesome death.
Gideon heads down once everyone else is safely down.

The Doctor gets out a piece of cloth and makes a rubbing of the R'lyehian writing. "This is a good opportunity for increasing our knowledge of this impenetrable language."

Marie-Anne licks her lips.

George, while you can't tell what this is, it's definitely a spell in the same form as a Necronomicon spell. It's some kind of incantation. But you can't tell what it does.

"Looks to me like some mnahn'nw was using R'lyehian letters to write words in their own throdding tongue," Xer says.

"Careful with that Doctor," George says to the Mi-go. "That's not just random scribbling. That has a purpose. And I'd rather you not bother with it too closely, unless you know what it does."

"It's a throdding spell, but I don't know what they were tryin' to do," Gideon comments. "Doc, careful with that paper."

"Of course it's a spell - what writing in R'lyehian isn't a spell?" the Doctor says.

"The writing that doesn't lead to your mind being pillaged, raped, and broken, then having your soul torn out and deposited at the feet of a bored Old One," George responds. "So, in other words. Be careful. That's all. We'll find out what it does later."

"I've been lucky thus far." The Doctor shrugs another response to George's whining.

"Luck runs out, Doctor."

"Then perhaps I've been skilled enough to avoid complications. That is rather a better way of looking at it, is it not? If it makes you feel better."

Marie-Anne investigates all of the rooms methodically, rifle out, to make sure there aren't any more surprises waiting for them on this floor. "I'm gonna make sure there aren't any more o' those things here with us," she says.

Xer follows Marie-Anne, but keeps a good distance behind.

Gideon looks over at Ndembu. "Cover her."

Marie finds a kitchen. It is a fairly standard large institutional kitchen, with everything being in chrome, though it's in bad shape at the moment. Pots, pans, various kitchen tools, and badly decomposed food are strewn about everywhere. There is a row of refrigerators and freezers on one wall, and various grills and other cooking surfaces along the other.

"Messy eaters," Marie-Anne says quietly.

The loss of gravity seems to have made a mess of the kitchen. But everything is in general working order.

Xer follows just far enough behind that he won't lose track of Marie-Anne.

Gideon waits for the scouting party to return.

The scouting team reports that there is a kitchen ahead, with an apparent way through.

"As you will," the Doctor continues. "Although, it would be odd to not worry about one's source of healing and succor.

"Heh. That's funny, coming from you," George says.

"I didn't realize I made a ... what do you humans call it... a joke?" the Doctor says. "I am glad, however, to have given you laughter. Laughter leads to healing. Nine out of ten Mi-go physicians agree on that principle."

George is glad to continue on once an all-clear is given

"Alright, let's keep moving. Keep your eyes open," Gideon orders.

Uh oh.  Down the next corridor, it looks like there is some sort of fire burning, at least at first. From its crimson and purple shade and its unnatural motion, it definitely seems to be another one of those fire vampires. It seems to almost have a 'head' atop its dancing form that turns to regard the group approaching.

Hiroko freezes. Glares at anyone still talking.

George knows damn well to shut up at this point in time.

Gideon freezes as well, holding up the hand signal for silence.

Hiroko tilts her head. It speaks one word to her. Hunger. That is the message she conveys.

Xer snaps still, his hands reflexively bringing his rifle to bear.

Gideon turns his pistols towards the fire vampire. "Pain."

"Vulgtlagln-syha'h..." George swears.

Xer glances at Gideon with his bulbous eyes, awaiting the order to shoot

"Kill the throdder!" Gideon orders.

Hiroko opens fire.

Marie-Anne fires at the approaching fire-vampire, though she doubts a laser will do much good.

Xer croaks a litany of curses and opens fire at the flaming thing.

The flaming shape turns, lunging forward. A partially insubstantial skeletal jaw and fanged mouth seem to form out of the incoherent energies. It appears in some ways solid, but ultimately just a tighter, more definitively shaped concentration of the same energetic flames and plasmas that comprise the entire creature.

George reaches out with his mental powers, attempting to seize the fiery being. Once he feels his powers envelop the flame, he rips it back, dragging the beats bodily down the hallway away from them with little more than pure force - delicacy long since abandoned.

George grabs onto the beast, but he can't hold on. It slithers and squirms, escaping the grip of his mind. Fortunately (perhaps) it escapes into withering gunfire.  Gideon hits it solidly. Metaplasma does little.  Marie-Anne's laser shot does nothing either.

Hiroko actually misses. She hits a cryogenic duct, which sends supercooled oxygen blasting out onto the creature. It makes a horrific, unearthly sound, and tries to escape.

"The ducts!" Marie-Anne says to herself.

The cloud clears as the duct's auto-seal kicks in. The creature is gone.

"Throddin' hell," Xer swears. "That thing can just laugh off our shots. But it seems that we found out it's weakness.

Marie-Anne nods.

"At least something that annoys it," the Doctor chitters.

"Should have thought of that. Ice against fire," Gideon says.

Xer looks around the kitchen for any source of water

There are sinks and such. It's a kitchen!

Xer grabs a kettle or other suitable container and sets to fill it with water. "Perhaps water will also work against it? Worth a try."[/ic]

[Steerpike]

[ic=Hallucination]Marie-Anne whistles softly.  "What in Nodens' name was that...?"

"Marie-Anne, if you figure that out, throdding let me know because that thing was a flathing nightmare," Gideon says.

Xer finishes "arming" himself with buckets of water, a sharky grin on his face.

Marie-Anne hefts a fire extinguisher.

Gideon grabs a fire extinguisher. "Keep an eye out for cryo conduits - shootin' one of those is probably our best bet, since we only have so many of these."

"Maybe we could lure it into the cryo chamber?" Marie-Anne suggests.

"Not a bad idea. Any idea how we can bait the flathing thing?"

"Based on that vid, it likes blood.  By the way, Gideon... that 'extinguisher' you've got there is insecticide."

"Insecticide? That's a blowtorch!" Xer exclaims.  "What's wrong with your eyes?"

Marie-Anne closes her eyes and looks again.  "Is that throdding voice messing with our sight now?!"

Ndembu scratches his head. "What good is a vacuum cleaner going to do us, Captain?"

George scowls. "So, what, do we have to vote on what things are, now?"

"Try using it... carefully," Marie-Anne says.

"Li’hee-syha’h-n’ghft, we better get the throddin' move on here before our senses erode even more," Xer growls.

"Oh throdding hell," Gideon curses.  "Alright quick question - who all sees that I have a fire extinguisher in my flathing hands?"

There are two ways out of the kitchen: the way you came in initially, and the way you were going before you met up with the fire vampire.

"Still looks like a throdding blowtorch to me," Xer mumbles.

Ndembu shakes his head. Hiroko shrugs. Only George nods. "Yeah, it's a fire extinguisher."

"Everyone else saw something different, two people saw the same thing," Gideon says. "I don't throdding like it, but it's safe to assume for now that if there's a disagreement on what something is, and George and I agree, that's probably what it is."

Hiroko suddenly perks. There's someone outside, circling around, trying to get behind us.

"Now, let's get mov- oh throdding hell. Hostile?"

Hiroko doesn't know. But this place isn't exactly crawling with friendlies.

Gideon raises fire extinguisher in one hand and marksman with other. "Let's throdding move, people. Hiroko, keep us updated on that things location."

Xer grunts and loads his metaplasma rifle.

George shakes his head. "Yeah, because plasma did wonders last time."

Marie-Anne bares her teeth.

"We don't know what is out there," Xer says.  "Could be the fiery thing, could be something else too."

"Plasma did a great job against the throdding corpses that were walking around," Gideon notes.

Marie-Anne slinks towards the exit, trying to be as stealthy as possible.

The Doctor chitters a correction. "They were not truly corpses, Captain. They were living humans, albeit kept in a state of life preservation much unlike normal biological processes."

Gideon nods, letting the sneaky person go first...then realizes we can't trust what she sees, and motions Marie-Anne back.

Marie-Anne withdraws.

"Y'hah, Doc, but I'm feeling throdding enlightened now that I know the biological nature of the grah'n We've been shooting.

"Let's just get the out of this ebumna-n'ghft."

"Agreed."  Gideon leads the group in the direction of the ship.

Marie-Anne follows, eyes darting from side to side.

Two more charred corpses, one seeming to be gazing out a small window. The other is still smoldering a bit; it seems to be far fresher. A recent meal?  Fortunately, there is also a maintenance hatch allowing further access downward.

Marie-Anne heads down the hatch.

Xer watches the party's back with his bulbous eyes, awkwardly hauling a bucket of water in one hand while the other grips his rifle.

Ndembu eyes the smoldering corpse. "A fresh kill means the beast is near."

Gideon before heading down the hatch, puts a metaplasma round in the head of each of the corpses... just in case. "Then that's a good reason for us to be far."

George coughs a bit. "This smells worse than... ugh... everything."

"Can't trust our eyes in this place. Should you trust your nose?" Xer growls.

You enter an infirmary. Windows peer out into the blackness, and two doors exit, in opposite directions from the maintenance hatch where the group emerges.

There are dead bodies in a few of the beds, probably having succumbed to whatever caused them to be in there in the first place, although one of them is completely charred, much like the other corpses found throughout. Most of the cabinets are ransacked, but a few usable supplies can be seen. A medical assistance robot lies overturned in the corner.

"Don't start thinkin' too hard like that, or we might as well just start offerin' sacrifices to Cthulhu right now, since we'll just drive ourselves madder," Gideon says.  "Let's not turn the robot back on yet, don't want it to draw attention...but let's remember it's here."

Marie-Anne nods and draws the Elder Sign in the air in front of her.  She heads towards the one leading to the ship, if she can figure that out.

Ndembu abruptly stands tall, bringing his rifle to bear. "The beast! It is here!" He's got a wild look in his eyes.

"Ndembu! Hold fire!" Gideon shouts.  "Plasma doesn't work on the flathing thing, remember?"

"Where!? What do you see?" Xer asks.

Ndembu takes that to mean he should toss his rifle aside and go charging into one of the doors without any weapon. Yeah, he's lost it a bit.  "PREPARE TO DIE, BEAST!"

"Throdding flathing...we gotta restrain him."  Gideon sighs.

"Throdding nafl-hupadgh! What's got into his brain?" Xer asks.

"Same thing that made you think I've got a throdding blowtorch. Let's go - George, can you grab him? If not, Xer, could you do it the old fashioned way?" Gideon heads after Ndembu, muttering. "Really flathing subtle. In case Ndembu's shouting wasn't enough..."

Xer puts down the bucket and leaps at the running man, letting out a deep-one battlecry as he does so

George nods, his eyes blazing, a strange blue flame surrounding him. In this sanity-poor environment, that doesn't do much for already frayed minds. But, combined with Xer, it does restrain Ndembu.

Ndembu growls and thrashes at air, before he realizes it's futile, and perhaps regains a bit of his senses.

"I... I apologize," he sighs.

"Hunter! Snap out of it, lest you become the prey felled," Xer says.

Ndembu nods. "I... yes. Please let me go. I will not run off again."

Xer grunts and loosen his grip. "You better throdding not. We don't got time to chase you down these hallways."

Gideon watches Ndembu carefully. "Ndembu, it could be a hallucination. Not sayin' it definitely was, but gotta consider that with strange sensations."

Ndembu collects his rifle. "It was here. I sensed its presence. It was here."

Xer retreives the bucket and resumes watch, although a glint of uncertainty in his eyes reveals that he does not entirely trust his faculties either.

"Throd, we gotta get back to Marie-Anne," Giodeon says.  "C'mon."

Marie-Anne, presumably, didn't wander far. These corridors all kind of look the same, anyway.[/ic]

[Steerpike]

[ic=The Birth]This area was supposed to be an idyllic public promenade, a sprawling deck circled by large windows looking out into space and lined with reflecting pools, trees, and greenery. It was, perhaps, intended to be the Xothic vision of perfection; nature neatly manicured into a thing of docile beauty, so the humans who resided here could forget the true ugliness of the cause they served.

Instead, neglected by human hands and bathed in the corrupting light of Cthugha, the trees have grown into sinewy, twisted masses of roots, branches, and brambles, extending in every direction. The reflecting pools are empty, save for greater concentrations of the same odd brownish-green muck that seems to coat every artificial surface in here.

The lack of gravity made it an even bigger mess, of course. Lights flicker, having been shorted out from water droplets floating about everywhere.

Marie-Anne shakes her head in disgust. Seeing this grotesque parody of nature irks her.  "You're right Gideon.  Let's leave this place to the planet's gravity well."

"You there," one of the trees whispers. Yes, one of the trees.

"Um.  Does everyone else hear the tree speaking?" Marie-Anne asks.

"Y'hah, glad you agre – oh throd it, I'm going crazy now too," Gideon says. "...you heard that too?

No corpses, and no apparent hostiles, but the whole area has this feeling that it's crawling with... something. You're all on edge.

Ndembu looks like he's going to run off again, but he restrains himself.

"Which thing are we imagining? The voice or the tree?" Xer asks.

"The voice comin' from the tree?" Gideon suggests.

"Yeah.  Hiroko... you're supposed to be our communications expert," Marie-Anne says.  "What the throdding hell is going on?"

Hiroko looks thoughtful. She goes over to the tree, pulls a branch away.

Ok, it wasn't a tree. It's someone who has apparently grown into the tree. Like, it's half a human torso, the rest of it is the tree.

"You there!" the person whispers again, harshly.  "I have something to tell you... something very important..." he says in a soft voice.

"...alright, go on..." Gideon says.

"YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!"  He starts laughing in an unearthly fashion.

"Li'hee-syha'h-n'ghft vulgtlagln-syha'h," Marie-Anne mutters under her breath.

Gideon sighs, pulls out gun, and attempts to put a bullet into the person's head.

The laughing tree-man slumps over.

"Oh throdding ygotha'ai n'gha gof'nn!" Xer swears.

Ndembu nods. "You did him a service. Better death claim him rather than to continue to live in that state."

"Y'hah," Marie-Anne agrees with Ndembu.

"Everyone saw and heard why I just shot a throdding tree, right?" Gideon says.

"Sure thing Captain... I think," Marie-Anne replies.

George shrugs. "I... ok, I'm just glad I'm not the only one who saw that. I wasn't gonna say anything, just in case."

"Iä. Whatever the throd it was it's better off dead," Xer says.

"Alright. A person in a tree just gave us a li'hee-sll'ha-n'gha.  Let's get the throd off this station as fast as possible," Gideon suggests.

"It's what we've been trying for a while now, isn't it?" Xer asks.

You seem to have attracted some attention. Shadowy figures seem to be emerging from the various ruined shops and just the darkness between the trees.

A strange looking woman runs out of one of the overgrown shops, wearing a torn Xothic League uniform. Her skin is an unnaturally pallid shade, and the same sinewy growths that seem to pervade the room also seem to be erupting from her skin. Her eyes are glassy, and dried blood trails are evident all over her face, particularly around her mouth.

"We had talked about maybe gettin' the engines fire up, but throd that flath, we're getting out of here. Let's move...oh THRODDING FLATH IT."  Giedon stares at the woman.

"It's mine!" she shouts in a raspy, insane screech. "Praise the Burning One!" She holds up a large, ornate wooden box with joy, as though she had just found a great prize. "It's mine and you can't have it!" she snarls, holding the box to herself protectively.

Marie-Anne puts her extinguisher down and gets out her trusty Barghest laser rifle.

"Alright, lady, we won't touch it," Gideon says.  "Can we walk by?""

"I'm really gettin tired of this fm'latggh-'bthnk," Xer mutters.

She grins, showing decayed teeth. "But you are guests... you must stay for the birth!"

"Any reason we shouldn't just shoot her, Cap?" Xer asks.

She isn't pregnant, so it's not clear what she's talking about.  The other figures are just hanging around in the shadows for now.

"Because there's a flathing lot of them...and we don't want to be rude guests by shootin', now would we."

Gideon gives Xer a wink to show he's not gone crazy too.

"What is she flapping her ugly Xothic gums about...?" Marie-Anne whispers to George.

Xer grumbles in R'lyehian.

Her eyes glance over to the dead tree-man. "Oh, you shot him. No matter. He was negative." She grins that disgusting grin again.

George shrugs. "Your guess is as good as mine. Birth of... what? I don't know. Probably something bad."

"Of course. And, much as we appreciate the hospitality, we are in a bit of a rush - it'd be a pretty bad thing for a hostess to detain her guests, now wouldn't it?" Gideon says.

"Real smooth, Lieutenant..." Marie-Anne says sarcastically.

She holds the box out a bit. "But you have to look, you have to at least look!"  The figures get a bit closer.

"Alright, alright...once we look, can we go?"

Marie-Anne keeps her rifle up.

"But the birth! You must see the birth! The child of flames shall be born in flames! The child shall emerge from the fires of our deaths! From the dead ball of star-matter, a new star shall be born, the child of the Burning One!"

"Birth of a whole star, you say?" Gideon muses. "What if we promise to stay close enough once we leave where we can still see it? Then you can be a good host, we can be good guests, and everyone wins, y'hah?"

Xer takes aim at the figures in the background.

"I think we can take em, don't you Xer?" Marie-Anne asks the Deep One in a low voice.

Xer hums agreeably.

She grins. "The whole cosmos shall see! Watch from wherever you like!"

"Promise we will." Gideon smiles politely. "In that case, can we go to choose where we want to watch from?"

George grabs Gideon's arm. "Captain, a word, if I may?"

"Of course." Gideon looks at the woman. "If you'll excuse me, our host?"

"I'm not entirely sure what's going on here. But this station's about to fall into a gas giant, right?"

Gideon turns to George. "Throdding fm'latggh-'bthnk, yeah, it is. You thinkin' that's gonna be part of a ritual of some kind?"

George nods. "All this talk about births and star-matter."

"Throd it. I'll try and get some more information out of the crazy tree woman then." Gideon turns back to the woman. "Our host, this birth, I'd like to hear more of it."

As long as everyone's just conversing politely, the other crew members seem content to just hang around on the periphery.

She holds out the box a little, but still keeps a firm grip on it. "I... I can show you, just a little. Then you'll know. You will know everything. The glory of the master, and of the child!"

"Alright. I'll look, but I promise I won't touch." Gideon mutters quietly. "Fm'latggh-'bthnk, I'm going to regret this."

Marie-Anne thinks this may be the worst idea ever.

She slowly opens the box...

Marie-Anne tenses, preparing to fire if something alarming happens.

Inside of the box, stored in elegant silken padding, is a black sphere, perhaps made of obsidian or the like. At first, it seems entirely opaque, but, upon closer inspection, red lights can be seen to be emanating from inside. It is not just a uniform glow, but rather, many small points of red light, like a galaxy in microcosm, spinning and twisting about inside of the ebon sphere.

It all makes sense to Gideon. Perfect sense. Perfect logical sense. It's never made more sense. Nothing's ever made more sense.

The woman closes the box and grins at him, and he grins back. "Settle in, guys. This is gonna be the party of the throdding millennium. We can't miss this."

Xer snarls at Gideon. "Captain! Get a hold of yourself!"

"Um.  Doctor," Marie-Anne says worriedly.  "I think your skills may be required."

The Doctor steps forward. "I am a physician, not a psychologist. I will do what I can." Gideon tries to wave him away. "Doc, I'm fine." He is! He's remarkably calm and level headed about the whole thing!

Marie-Anne takes a deep breath. The Captain has clearly lost his mind. She steals herself and prepares to fire at the Xothic woman.

"Throd!" Xer curses. "I'm assuming command for the time being! Vulgtlagln-syha'h..."

"Good enough for me," Marie-Anne says quietly to Xer.  "Want me to waste the bitch?"

Gideon waves Xer away, too. "You'll do no such thing. I'm giving an order to stay put. We stay put."

"You are out of your mind, Captain. It's now my responsibility to throdding see us all out of here. Yourself included."

George frowns. "Did anyone else not see this coming? Seriously, even -I- wouldn't have looked in the box."

Gideon gets in Xer's face. "Stand down, Sergeant."

Xer glances at Doc, trying to convey that he should perhaps restrain the captain, should things take an ugly turn. But it may be that conveying such a nonverbal message isn't easy, from a deep-one to a Mi-Go

The Doctor might get the idea, anyway. He's got a hypodermic of something, which he holds up, behind the Captain.

"Captain, for the last time," Xer warns. "If you don't comply, we'll have to force the matter."

Meanwhile, the woman seems pleased with herself. "I am glad you decided to stay! It will be glorious!"

Xer watches Gideon very closely, ready to act in case the captain tries to draw his weapon

Gideon looks like he's going to say something, but instead, he grabs his head and steps back. He looks different when he opens his eyes.

"...Captain?"

"The fiends have gotten to you!" the woman snarls. "You need to look again! You are forgetting the truth!"

"Doc, do you think he's getting better?" Xer glares at the woman. "He's already seen too much. No more!" He roars. "Marie-Anne, make sure she doesn't try anything funny."

The woman offers the box to Xer tentatively. "Perhaps you would like to see, Deep One. Your kind knows the call of true masters, does it not? Glorious truth is in this box... nothing more!"

"You can take your throdding box and shove it where Chthugha doesn't shine, hlirgh."

She looks a bit offended. She then turns to Hiroko and Marie-Anne. "You then, my sisters."

"Uh.  I don't think so," Marie-Anne says.

Hiroko frowns.

"Enough," Xer croaks. "We've wasted too much time here already. We'll continue our way to the ship. And if you try to stop us, we'll shoot the living fm'latggh-'bthnk out of you." Xer motions for the team to get the move on.

Marie-Anne nods.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is tending to Gideon. He is a bit worse for wear, a bit psychologically frayed, but the way he grumbles as the Doctor tries to shine a light his eyes does seem like their Captain.

The woman sighs, stepping aside. "Go, if you must. The entire cosmos shall witness the birth. All who live shall know the burning era. If you wish to watch from the sidelines when you could have been the midwife... so be it..."

Xer grunts and eyes the woman and her shadowy company as they make their way out of the room

George looks back. "I'd like to get out of here as much as anyone, but is anyone else a bit concerned that we may not be able to get far away enough from... whatever this is... that's gonna happen? As in, because you CAN'T get far enough away from it?"

"I don't like the sound of this birthing business at all," Marie-Anne agrees.  "I say we get the thrusters working and then cut life support in this place."

"I am agreeable to that plan," Xer growls.

"Throdding flath, Doc, get that thing out of my eyes." Gideon sounds somewhat shaken.

Xer glances at Gideon, noting that the captain sounds like his usual self. "Feeling better, Cap? Still want us to 'stay for the party'?"

"Yeah, right as R'lyeh. And throd that."

Xer grins happily.

"Glad to have you back, Captain," Marie-Anne adds.

"Marie's right," Gideon says. "We gotta get the thrusters back online and cut life support - only thing I'm worried about now is that doing so won't be enough."

"How'd you figure?" Marie-Anne asks.

"Nothing in that plan stops one of those hlirgh from cutting the thrusters again."

"Well, if life support's cut, that might be tricky for em."

Hiroko eyes the woman, holding the box. Perhaps it is not best to keep the object intact.

"Without knowing how this shit works, we're left at guessing at what might work," Xer observes.

"Hiroko's right - gotta get that throdding sphere destroyed," Gideon reasons. "Only way we can be more sure."

George agrees. "I like the whole idea of cutting life support, but we're talking about people who survived being stuck in trees and having weird electronics stuck in their faces."

"Hmm.  Good point there," Marie-Anne agrees.

Gideon nods with George. "I'm positive that if that sphere enters the gas giant, we're looking at the birth of a Great Old One. And I don't want to think about what kind of lw'nafh-shogg that'll create."

"Alright.  Plan of attack, then?"

"I'll be happy enough to kill these nyth-shoggs," Xer states.

The woman has retreated into one of the ruined houses, saying a soft prayer to Cthugha.

"Alright," Gideon says. "Soon as we go for the woman and the box, the skulkers are gonna come running, but we can't risk losing her. We go in, kill her has quick as possible, bunker down against her backup, and then destroy that sphere. And you'd have to be a complete mnahn'gof'n to look at the throdding thing, so don't do it.

"Got it." Marie-Anne nods. "Want me to take her out, or stay back to cover our retreat?"

"Maybe we should just take the box and make a gunning run to the ship?" Xer ponders. "We can worry about destroying it when we have time for it. At least it wouldn't be crashing the planet then. And if we have to waste time here trying to destroy what-ever-the-throd that thing is, we might end up just as dead."

Hiroko likes the idea of being sure the sphere is destroyed. Ndembu agrees with Xer's plan, though. So the NPCs aren't going to influence the vote.

"Only problem with that, Xer, is that fire thing is still out there, and if we go runnin with the box it might show up, kill us all, and then the rest of the universe is completely throdded," Gideon reasons. "This way, even if we die, at least that throdding sphere is dealt with."

The Doctor helpfully interjects that most of the universe will be fine. At worst, two or three systems will be taken out. He's always an optimist!

Gideon looks ready to argue, then thinks.

George peers back into the promenade and then looks at Xer and Gideon. "Look, whatever we're gonna do, let's just do it. Time's ticking, those cultists are getting antsy, and we don't know if and when that other thing is coming back."

"Y'hah.  Your call, Captain."

"Li'hee syha'h n'ghft, but we got to get rid of that now," Gideon curses. "It's a mnahn'-gof'n's risk to not make sure we destroy it when we get the chance."

"As you wish, Captain," Xer says obedidently.

Ndembu looks eager, but not wild-eyed like before. "To the hunt."

"And Marie, for your earlier question, we all go in together and out together - we don't split up, we don't take that risk."

Marie-Anne nods. "Then let's get to it!" Marie-Anne checks her laser rifle, and prepares to head out.

Gideon checks his gun to make sure the ammo is full. "Y'hah."[/ic]