Cath

The Cradle

The antimatter explosions momentarily filled the valley with light. Fragments of rock skittered around their feet and down the cliff face. Distant wails wafted over on the shockwave. Athena fired again. "Theres's more appearing from their nest. Something must be getting them all riled up." She reported coolly.

Just then, the transit station began humming loudly. It built to a crescendo before exhorting a loud VUM. "Insert successful!" Dr Wetherall called. 595 immediately approached the mobile weapons trolley and grabbed a beam rifle capable of suppressing fire. "My spare suit!" Carthage gushed, backing up to the slate just as one unified, spine tingling scream electrified the valley.

"Hey, what if its our camp that's antagonising them?" Dr Ngata hypothesized, holding the last third of the deployable in his hands. Other members of the Sacred Band began firing at the creatures as they raced into range.

The Cradle

“I don’t like that plan.” Thebes responded, magnifying his vision to the maximum his suit would allow in the low-light conditions. All he could make out was a flurry of darkly-coloured material tearing it’s way toward them across a dozen different trails. “They could easily cut you off; who knows what they’re capable of. There’s no guarantee we could lay down enough suppressing fire to get you out.”

The soldier paused for a moment, feeling his team’s eyes on him. They were stuck here, at least until the supplies came through; they had to dig in and hold position. “Athena - begin your engagement sequence, see if you can funnel them. Saddam, Memnon, Knossos - fan out and take firing positions along the cliff edge.” Thebes got up and moved carefully back from the exposed cliff edge to the transit station. “Carthage, watch our six. Dr Ngata, can you set up the deployable cover on your own?” The xenobiologist, who was feverishly studying Athena’s scope feed to build up a profile of the oncoming creatures, nodded eagerly and set to it.

Finally, Thebes turned to 595, who was fiddling with her weapon. “Are you alright?” She looked up. “Yeah. It’s just my pistol got crushed earlier; I think it’s busted up pretty good inside.” Thebes took the pistol from her, examined it closely, then chucked it to one side. “That’s alright. There’ll be new weapons when the supplies come through. Stay back for now, help the guys if you can.”
“Insert in thirty seconds!” Dr Wetherall shouted, quickly hopping up on the transit plate to kick a stray stone off the surface. Thebes hefted his energy rifle and returned to the cliff edge, just as Athena fired her first shot. A cloud mushroomed from the barrel of her railgun, a deafening crack echoed off the mountain sides and a plume of water erupted from the marsh below. “No joy. Firing again.” Athena murmured to herself. She ejected the remains of her round from the side of her rifle and retrieved a fresh one from the dispenser on her thigh.

A faint wave of rattling & snapping sounds rolled across the valley, as the things drew closer.

The Cradle

Dr Wetherall peered up at the Datius like a bespectacled professor would to chastise a very tall, interrupting student. He was still plugged into the comms mast to speak with the real world team. “Well, we’ve made good progress with translation for synthetics. Nirann and I have narrowed the divergence in languages from about fifteen percent to around two percent. However, organics are proving to be a totally different kettle of fish.”

He waved his holopad around dramatically as he explained. “While the simulation appears content with simply trying to take control of synthetic materials, it actually assimilates organic matter while it’s in the simulation. So getting a pure translation back out again looks messy at this point. Freyr has told me poor Dr Dlamini will need therapy for a few weeks to recover. We’ll do what we can to separate us from the sim, and then it’s up to you whether it’s worth the risk of having more bodies in here.”

Dr Wetherall held up a hand, listening to something on a private channel. Then he clicked at Nirann to catch the droid’s attention. “They have everything. Power up for insert in two minutes, please.”

“I have movement down in the valley.” Athena reported soon after, laying down on the edge of the cliff with her railgun cradled in her arms. “Coming this way.” Thebes motioned for everyone to get down before quickly crawling over to where she lay. Athena marked targets for him. They were still very far away across the valley, but approaching fast.

The Cradle

“Understood. What is your risk assessment of this place? Knowing what you know.” Andersen asked. 595 licked blood from her lips. “It’s pretty risky. But we need more experts here to figure out what’s going on. They’ll be solidly protected; this ‘Datius’ is formidable and surprisingly altruistic.” A wave of what could only be described as static washed over the line, followed by a short tone. 595 lost the Captain for a few seconds. “-to Doctor Wetherall.”

“Copy that.” 595 guessed, unplugging the interface cable from her wrist. “Hey doc!” She called over regular short-range comms, standing still as she was well aware Knossos was connected to her. Dr Wetherall looked around at her from a jumble of wires protruding from the side of the transit station. “Bring it over here, please.” He replied distractedly, lost in thought. “Oh for fuck’s sake. Thebes, would you mind?” 595 asked, wiggling the loose cable in her hand.

The team leader plucked it from her and carefully wound the cable over to the huddle of scientists and droids. 595 turned slightly so she could watch Knossos tap away at a holopad. “Well? Everything ok?” She asked privately after a little while.” The soldier’s tinted green visor looked down at her. “What are you, lady?” 595’s jaw tightened. “Am I combat effective, yes or no?” Knossos checked the readout one more time, then nodded slowly. “You need fluids, but otherwise you’re good to go.”

“Good. Delete that and pass me some tissues with my fluids. I got a nose bleed.”

The Cradle

595 knew Thebes was qualified to handle reporting back. But she suspected someone in the real world had a very specific set of questions for her alone. That was the only reason she could think of for them to request her on comms. “Alright, fine! I’ll get myself checked out.” She sighed, setting off back down the path they’d come when Rareth asked if she remembered anything.

“Not really. I remember getting on one’s back and piercing under the plate at the back of its head. The next thing I remember is waking up in that hollow.” She answered as they walked back to the fork together. “Good luck. I’ll see you back at camp soon.” 595 said her farewell to Rareth before following the stream back out of the cave system the same way they’d come. She didn’t sprint as before, but jogged and thought about what had happened.

After a little while, 595 emerged from the pitch-black cavern onto the ridge overlooking the swampy valley. She could see her team’s silhouettes and IFF tags dotted around comms mast and half-constructed transit station. Saddam greeted her with a thumbs up that she returned. “Welcome back.” Thebes held up an interface cable attached to the comms mast as the Agent jogged over. “Private line to the Captain.”

595 took the lead from the soldier. “Thank you.” She looked over at Knossos, the medic. “Can you check my vitals please?” The olive-colored operator wordlessly gave up their position on the perimeter to jog over.

The Agent plugged the interface cable into her left arm just next to her wrist interface. Knossos plugged another cord into her suit’s diagnostics port at the back soon after. 595 accepted the call, standing still to let Knossos do his job. “Go.” She answered. After a short pause, the reply crackled through. “I’m glad you’re still alive, Agent. I won’t keep you long as Dr Lang wants to keep things moving.” Andersen spoke quickly.

“Your...colleagues on Outremer have asked if what you’ve found changes their plans at all?” 595 smirked; she’d guessed correctly. “You can tell them to proceed as planned. I will have more information tomorrow.”

Hi I'm awkward and new

Welcome to the Guild! Thank you for that lovely introduction; I think you'll do just fine here If you need anything or have questions - feel free to give me a shout.

The Cradle

595 regarded Rareth silently for a moment, her expression grim. “No need.” She replied finally. “I’m perfectly healthy. We’ll scout the place together.” She looked around at the various openings to hollows nearby. None of the centipedes had followed them back out. “I think we’ve neutralised the threats here. Let’s return to the fork and investigate the main path.”

595 turned to leave just as a wave of dizziness crashed into her like a speeding bullet. She stumbled through the pile of ash and put a hand on one of the cavern walls to support her. Nausea punched the Agent in the stomach, doubling her over. She peeled back her visor and ejected a small amount of bile onto the floor. Keeping her back to the Datius, 595 straightened up slightly and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She tasted metal.

Putting her visor back in place, she reversed the field to get a view of herself. Blood dripped slowly from one of her nostrils, which she’d now smeared across her face. She was feeling a bit better after being sick though, so she straightened up and turned back to Rareth. “I’m fine, really! Just felt a bit nauseous is all.” She insisted.

“Agent, Datius - come in.” Thebes crackled over comms. 595 jumped on it, surveying their surroundings. “Yes?”

“Ma’am. We’ve made contact with the outside.” Thebes crackled over comms. “They want to speak with both of you.” 595 looked back at Rareth. “Can you patch them through to our suits?” There was a short delay, presumably so Thebes could ask. “Negative. They need to work on all our suits.” 595 huffed. “Ok, we’ll be there shortly. How is the transit station?”

“They’re still tinkering with it, ma’am.” 595 kissed her teeth. “Copy that. Maintain your position.” She signed off, thinking of how best to proceed. “Do you want to scout the other path, while I make my way back? I’ll deal with whoever wants to talk to me before you get back, freeing up the line.”

The Cradle

595 propped herself up with one arm as her suit powered back on. She looked woozily around her as items appeared back in her HUD one by one. This must have been where they birthed new centipede things. There were different sizes of creatures here, from tiny handfuls to adults about half the size of the monsters that’d attacked them. They all kept their distance, writhing over one another as far from her prone form as they could. It didn't seem like they had any fight left in them.

The Agent got clumsily to her feet as Rareth came and towered over her. “What happened? Did you get them?” She brushed past the Datius, back out into passage and over to where the centipede corpses lay dead. She picked up her pistol from the ground and inspected it for damage, before clocking the heap of black ash on the floor. She recognised what it was immediately, but didn’t remember creating it, which was unusual. She noted that her urges were sated, at least right now. She must have been knocked out right after feeding.

595 turned to the Datius, who had followed her out. She wondered what the Rothian had seen. “Well? Did you see what happened?"

Song Reference time

See, he, tastes like you, only sweeterrrr.

Song Reference time

Instead of love (instead of love), she only saw dollar signs