Stay Frosty: Memories of the Sun

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The flamethrower's arc lands straight on the cube, which lights with a green flame and begins to melt quickly. Some of gasoline gel lights the skin of the beasts, but upon the cube burning away they remain motionless, letting the flame consume them and Potter's bullets rip them to bits.

Afterwards the cinema has a strong spicy smell.

OOC: Raúl hit dead on practically, no ammo consumed
 
"Hmm...why do you think they just stood there once the cube was trashed?"
 
'Maybe it is a portal from...elsewhere, that brought them here? This all seems way above our pay grade. Should we call this in?'
 
[Is there someone to whom to call it in? I gathered we were on our own.]
 
[Let us know, either way] 'Our priority is to get production back up and running, so I guess that means we should be heading to the Science hub?'
 
Voros said:
[Let us know, either way] 'Our priority is to get production back up and running, so I guess that means we should be heading to the Science hub?'
Click to expand...
"Let's see if we can use the train to get there. Might be safer than walking electrified rails."
 
[The sphere's computer could be set to head out and jump out of system to get backup, it'd be roughly a week until they arrived]
 
I say to Potter, "We could set the computer in the Class-C Strike Sphere to jump out of the system to get backup, but it'd be a week before help arrived. In the meantime we'd be left with no way out. I'd rather keep the sphere here in case we need to bug out."
 
Dumarest said:
I say to Potter, "We could set the computer in the Class-C Strike Sphere to jump out of the system to get backup, but it'd be a week before help arrived. In the meantime we'd be left with no way out. I'd rather keep the sphere here in case we need to bug out."
Click to expand...

'Sounds good,' I say. 'Train it is.' I reload my rifle as we move towards the train.
 
I ready my rifle as we head over to the train...or whatever train controls we need to access first, as the case may be. Either way, I'm looking up, down, and all around for any more of those nasty creatures.
 
The pair get to the Science Hub train platform with no trouble. The track itself is a single magnetic rail that runs along the ground down a large transparent tube from which one can look out into space. The platform at the other end of the tube is visible from here, about a kilometer away you would estimate.

On the platform are various drink and snack machines and a poster reading:
"Robotics Team Stellar Barbecue: Tuesday 19:00"
It sports an Art Nouveau depiction of a man and a robot grilling a burger together.

The most prominent feature however is the Train itself, embedded in the platform wall. The train looks completely unharmed despite the significant damage it has done to the wall. Electric cables exposed from the collision lie sparking on the ground.
 
Is there a way to get the train back on the rails or do we need to travel on foot?
 
The strength of the magnetic rail could pull the train from the wall and onto the track, but approaching the train Raúl hears a slight hiss. Air slowly escaping through the wall. The train's rear is plugging the atmosphere from draining out into the vacuum.

Through the windows Raúl can see the front of the train has broken open a door to a room with computer terminals inside, but one would have to enter the train and climb into the room from the cockpit to reach it.
 
"Potter, this looks like a job for you! Want me to cover you while you check it out?"

(:hehe:)
 
'Ugh, alright.' Potter gingerly climbs into the train further down from the exposed wire, breaking a window with his rifle butt if needed.
 
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Raúl covers Potter with his rifle and watches the surrounding track for anything out of place.
 
Potter makes his way through the train with no problem and hops out the cockpit into the room with the terminals. The room is completely dark, lit only by the screens. All that's here are the terminals, their desks and he notices a medkit on a shelf on the back wall.

Attached to the terminals is a hacking device. The unfortunate who did it lies on the ground, corpse long rotted grasping a mini screen to read output from the hacking device. Shockingly the top of his skull is missing. The device is still working providing access to the terminals.

Outside Raúl notices no signs of activity.
 
I examine the head wound to determine how it may have happened.
 
The skull looks cleanly cut, there's no cracks or fractures and the cut is clean without rough edges. Almost as if a surgical knife was used.
 
I call out to Raul, describing the strange head wound to him. I push the corpse aside with my foot and look at the mini-screen to see what I can do with its access to the terminals.
 
I go inside to see what Potter is talking about. Is the brain still there and only part of the skull is missing? After I examine the corpse without touching it, I keep a lookout while Potter works on the hacking device/terminals situation. "I think we should torch this corpse when we're done here, just to be safe. There's no telling what this is about and if something could be communicable."
 
‘Good idea, no point in taking chances.’
 
Potter sees the hacking device is hooked into environmental controls for this train station, having adjustable sliders for:
Temperature: -100 to 100 C
Gravity: 0.0 - 5.5 Earth Gravity
Humidity: 0.5% to 95%

It seems the ranges are the theoretical maxima of the equipment, normally only restricted to safe ranges which the hacker has gotten around.

When Raúl has a look he sees the brain has been completely removed and all of the skull above the eyes has been removed. Looking over the corpse the hands are tightly clenched with an ID card inside.
 
"Hmm...did you notice the brain is missing? Esto esta jodido."

[OOC: Can I see the ID information on the card without having to touch the corpse? If so, I'll do that; if not, I'll find some object I can use to smash it out of the corpse's hands so I can get a look without touching anything.]
 
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Raúl can't quite make out the ID information, but grabbing a keyboard he manages to thump the skeletal hand a few times until the bottom fingers break and the card pops out.

It reads:
Shan Liu
Medical Center Staff Rank 2
Science Hub

The card also has a data strip along the base, presumably for swiping at card readers.
 
"I wonder if he was the brains of the operation. Well, he'll never get ahead in medicine now."

I take the ID as that data strip may be of use later.
 
"Let's see what else is on those terminals. This hacking device still seems to be functional. Maybe we can glean some useful information about what these science nerds were up to."
 
A few minutes of using the device reveals some boring features of the terminals like rescheduling arrivals, but more usefully a map of the station.

It also contains a log of transmissions. A cursory look reveals that there had been a major incident in The Square the station's social center. Strange spider like beings are recorded as flooding the streets en masse. Their four black legs are complemented by some sort of egg sack that releases a "hand" with taloned fingers. They seem to take out specific people, avoiding most of the crowd.

[Just to give an idea of the station's scale, the crowd here is in the tens not the thousands, i.e. the station is on the scale of a town not a city]

Audio logs reveal the Residential Towers had gone dark half an hour prior and Materials and Processing an hour again before that.

Ten minutes after the incident the Mencius AI cut itself off from contact after granting citizens in the Residential Towers access to every flat and unlocking the heavy weaponry in Robotics & Devices for station security.

[Thick lines are train connections, thin are streets/walkways, dashed is high security. Neutronium Research lies in a vessel outside the station reachable from the Science Hub and the Docks]
20190223_002043.jpg
 
I say to Potter: "Looks like something happened at Materials and Processing...how do you think that ties in with the spidery things? And why did they have particular targets? Programmed? Somehow connected with the AI cutting itself off afterwards? Told you this was gonna be todo jodido. Madre de Dios, why must I always be right?"
 
My eyes widen at the images on the screen. 'Jesus H Christ,' I say and cross myself. 'Who knows bro,' I say to Raul. 'This shit is way over my head. Should I adjust the enviornmental controls in any way to benefit us now? I suggest on our way back to our capsule we may want to activate Zero G to disrupt whatever may be following us.'
 
Voros said:
'Should I adjust the enviornmental controls in any way to benefit us now?'
Click to expand...
"What did you have in mind? I was wondering if there's something we can do to cramp the style of these monsters, but I don't know what would fuck 'em up. This Shan Liu nerd was looking at the environmental controls for some reason."
Voros said:
'I suggest on our way back to our capsule we may want to activate Zero G to disrupt whatever may be following us.'
Click to expand...
"Roger that!"
 
‘So still head to the Science hub then?’
 
We move out, ready and alert!
 
Potter and Raúl head along the tube to the Science hub. The transparent material from which the tube is made provides a nice vista of space, the majority of which is taken up by Hou Yi 's Northern Hemisphere.

With little trouble they reach the science hub, a three story plaza with the upper floors being mezzanines. The plaza's ground floor is filled with plants and some low quality jazz muzak plays over speakers. A reception desk on the opposite side of the plaza from the train track is half smashed into pieces with a robot missing its left arm lying beside it. The glass on the guardrails of the upper floors are pelted with bullet holes.

There seems to be six offices here on the ground floor and a large meeting room, the other two floors have ten offices each. From the train tack the pair can see a few offices on each level have their windows smashed. In one case on the first floor a body lies on the smashed window frame. On the second floor a section of the railing and the door and wall of an office seem to have been removed, with a slightly melted look on the remaining section of the wall.

The blinds on the window next to the ground floor meeting room twitch for a second as somebody peaks out quickly.
 
I use the reception desk as cover and call out 'If you're human come out with your hands in the air! We're here to help!'
 
I duck behind the desk or the robot, whatever gives the best cover, and shout, "We're going to open fire in three seconds if you don't come out with your hands over your head! Your cover won't help you when I let loose with my flamethrower!"
 
"Wait, wait..."

He opens the blinds. You can clearly see him, a middle aged asian man with a checkered shirt and blue jeans and some sort of makeshift torniquet about his leg. He holds a shotgun. Two others can be seen behind him, a younger man and woman, both carrying a pistol.

"...shit, you guys marines?!"

He opens the door and quickly looks around at the other floors and the track, motioning for Potter and Raúl to enter.
 
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I warily enter, keeping my weapon at the ready as I don't trust these people and question how they managed to stay alive. I ask, "So what happened here?"
 
Dumarest said:
I warily enter, keeping my weapon at the ready as I don't trust these people and question how they managed to stay alive. I ask, "So what happened here?"
Click to expand...
"Carnage..."

As Raúl heads into the room he sees a bunch of fridges plugged into the wall sockets and the conference screen displaying the three tunnels to Med Bay, Comms and Robotics & Devices. The screens are at the other side of the room, but from here is looks like there isn't currently any activity in the tunnels.

"...it was just a normal working day, then bam! Red alert, something going on in Residential. Next thing security are out with the heavy weapons. We were attacked an hour later. I'd like to say we heroically survived, but we were just one of the few left standing after the wave hit. Some of the others headed to get weapons and others to get to Mencius our AI, but we haven't heard from them in a month...."

He looks at Raúl ecstatically.

"So like you can get us out of here?"
 
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