Charmaylarg Dufrain
🎖️ Game Master
Shuttle Exterior
With little more than personal lights the true darkness of the hour and the biting winds kept everyone squinting at best as little more than personal lights and one of the nearby glow-poles the mercenaries left behind that stretched out towards likely the other shelter remained as the only thing keeping them from being swallowed up by the dark.
Even the shuttle, a stones throw away, could have disappeared entirely the light cast so short as it reflected off the whipping snow.
There was a tense atmosphere from the abandonment as tempers flared, morale and cohesion became fragile, and the true weight of the situation began to weigh. Masato and Haisley were now with them, outsiders of a sort but joined with them in the shared situation dispelling some of the suspiscion for just plain weariness from already tired individuals both physically and mentally.
With Tobias and Caffran both taking charge preemptively, there was a pause in the mental gears as training, loyalty, and a desire to simply be led out of the situation warred. The orders were similar enough that it didnt feel like taking sides or a line to be drawn.
The skimmer, only somewhat buried under the tarps and its windbreak was still there and waiting for use. It would still be cramped, slower than a crawl, and a bastard to try to steer but the part of the exposed battery bank and the heat it would give off, and the mass of bodies would keep everyone warmer than they were current when it started running. It has a sled jury-rigged as well just waiting to be loaded with supplies enough for a day or mores travel; Though with more bodies and the required supplies, it would weigh more and no doubt require more power to move and, hence, make it travel less distance.
Power though was the major issue. With the barely charged and scrounged batteries, the skimmer would make barely five leagues; Less than twenty miles and not even to the treeline where the closest ground-located signal was seen. If it werent snow, if they wouldnt sink and slog then they could take turns half in and half out walking along the skimmer, but to do so in the deep snow would run them dry even faster just waiting for them to catch up.
It would run. It could get them all most of the way there. But without more power in the half-full batteries, the skimmer would only make them die tired.
Whats more, part of the front hatch of the skimmer was already uncovered and someone was inside...
Nearby, while Molotra and the others worried about their survival there was more important work to be done as Lupin appraised the prize at hand. The Yeti that had attacked the shuttle was massive. And even with all the gunshots, plasma, and grenades looked entirely intact that had he not seen its death himself Lupin might think it still asleep.
The Yeti was the first Megafauna he had seen up close and even fought. The ones he and Caffran had tussled with had been crushed under the Terrene but the one at the shuttle; Even larger than those, was entirely intact. It had enough of a pelt that given time could cover an Agressor like a poncho with room for a smaller suit of Powered armor, and each finger ended in a wicked nail like a claw that was as long as any of his fingers and thrice as wide.
The real prize, however, was in its mouth.
With its massive maw hanging open with a tongue the side of his bicep hanging out Lupid was greeted with a proverbial treasure trove. Thirty-Two teeth lined its mouth in various stages of repair with a few of them being cracked, chipped, or broken. Each was as long as his index finger and ended in a sharp flute-like flat that implied the Yeti were more carnivorous than herbivores. There was gore and detritus and cloth stuck in between several of the teeth but what transfixed Lupin even more than those were the canines as four of its longest and sharpest teeth extended thrice the length of the others and were almost a foot long of four pointed porcelain daggers each as long as his forearm and as thick around as two of his fingers while being wider at the base and slightly narrowing at the points.
Shuttle Interior
A sound like a child's cough in the silence of the shelter drew Carina's attention from her thoughts as Francis began coughing weakly before wheezing for breath. With one of the glowsticks hanging above her Carina still had enough light to see that she wasn't lucid and had not coughed up blood thankfully but beside risking tearing her wound back open she was anything but still.
Francis shook and trembled like a leaf as a combination of the dropping temperatures now that all the other occupants had left, her considerable blood loss, and being soaked through her own blood and bodily fluids was dropping her internal temperature fast. The Fever was still there, trying in vain to keep her temperature rising but it was a losing battle. In her state it was more than likely that she would rapidly succumb to hypothermia as the cold and her lack of proper blood circulation slowly shut down or caused her organs to fail or stop her heart altogether.
It was blow after blow to her condition as everything fought for its turn to kill Francis Euphoria with Carina as the only stopgap to prevent or delay it. She could refill her medical supplies with what was left behind by the mercenaries such as various medical instruments, bags, drugs, and the like. But unless Francis got treatment soon she was fighting against the clock and against all odds as it was increasingly drawing that she would not make it through the night if left alone.
She needed treatment, she needed blood, and she needed to get warm as fast as possible otherwise Carina would simply be choosing which would kill her...
Shuttle Exterior
The large overwrap was not too hard to find from where Waller had remembered it last. Delayed only by the dark and wind he needed only to brush off the layer of thickly-packed snow that had obscured it from most investigation earlier as just more snow-covered debris as Waller first pulled, and then wrestles, and finally cut through the thick material until something was revealed.
A thick and sturdy metal greeted him that upon revealing more seemed like a massive drum of some kind used for storing materials but much larger. Pulling more an more of the tarp away his hand brushed the container and he recoiled in instinct as a tingle passed up his wrist and up his arm like pins and needles. Having pulled the tarp away from an entire face of the massive object his first approximation was wrong; While it was cylindrical in nature it was no storage drum.
A cylinder in the middle of a box-like metal construct it was robust and sealed by seams of massive bolts that lines its length in dark gray industrial metal. Various ports and connectors were bare on one side of it as a million warning labels, text, stickers, and symbols covered its mass in a way even an illiterate imbecile would know better than to meddle with what his mind was starting to put together what he was quickly coming to the conclusion of what this massive device was.
The size of a main battle tank; Such an Antimatter container was 90% containment for a small core within no doubt the size of his fist which was just another containment measure all its own. Large enough to power a small starship the Antimatter Container likely held enough condensed antimatter in its core that if ruptured and not dissoluted into the atmosphere could, under the right conditions, destroy an entire city...
And it had crashed with the shuttle and them...
With little more than personal lights the true darkness of the hour and the biting winds kept everyone squinting at best as little more than personal lights and one of the nearby glow-poles the mercenaries left behind that stretched out towards likely the other shelter remained as the only thing keeping them from being swallowed up by the dark.
Even the shuttle, a stones throw away, could have disappeared entirely the light cast so short as it reflected off the whipping snow.
There was a tense atmosphere from the abandonment as tempers flared, morale and cohesion became fragile, and the true weight of the situation began to weigh. Masato and Haisley were now with them, outsiders of a sort but joined with them in the shared situation dispelling some of the suspiscion for just plain weariness from already tired individuals both physically and mentally.
With Tobias and Caffran both taking charge preemptively, there was a pause in the mental gears as training, loyalty, and a desire to simply be led out of the situation warred. The orders were similar enough that it didnt feel like taking sides or a line to be drawn.
The skimmer, only somewhat buried under the tarps and its windbreak was still there and waiting for use. It would still be cramped, slower than a crawl, and a bastard to try to steer but the part of the exposed battery bank and the heat it would give off, and the mass of bodies would keep everyone warmer than they were current when it started running. It has a sled jury-rigged as well just waiting to be loaded with supplies enough for a day or mores travel; Though with more bodies and the required supplies, it would weigh more and no doubt require more power to move and, hence, make it travel less distance.
Power though was the major issue. With the barely charged and scrounged batteries, the skimmer would make barely five leagues; Less than twenty miles and not even to the treeline where the closest ground-located signal was seen. If it werent snow, if they wouldnt sink and slog then they could take turns half in and half out walking along the skimmer, but to do so in the deep snow would run them dry even faster just waiting for them to catch up.
It would run. It could get them all most of the way there. But without more power in the half-full batteries, the skimmer would only make them die tired.
Whats more, part of the front hatch of the skimmer was already uncovered and someone was inside...
Nearby, while Molotra and the others worried about their survival there was more important work to be done as Lupin appraised the prize at hand. The Yeti that had attacked the shuttle was massive. And even with all the gunshots, plasma, and grenades looked entirely intact that had he not seen its death himself Lupin might think it still asleep.
The Yeti was the first Megafauna he had seen up close and even fought. The ones he and Caffran had tussled with had been crushed under the Terrene but the one at the shuttle; Even larger than those, was entirely intact. It had enough of a pelt that given time could cover an Agressor like a poncho with room for a smaller suit of Powered armor, and each finger ended in a wicked nail like a claw that was as long as any of his fingers and thrice as wide.
The real prize, however, was in its mouth.
With its massive maw hanging open with a tongue the side of his bicep hanging out Lupid was greeted with a proverbial treasure trove. Thirty-Two teeth lined its mouth in various stages of repair with a few of them being cracked, chipped, or broken. Each was as long as his index finger and ended in a sharp flute-like flat that implied the Yeti were more carnivorous than herbivores. There was gore and detritus and cloth stuck in between several of the teeth but what transfixed Lupin even more than those were the canines as four of its longest and sharpest teeth extended thrice the length of the others and were almost a foot long of four pointed porcelain daggers each as long as his forearm and as thick around as two of his fingers while being wider at the base and slightly narrowing at the points.
Shuttle Interior
A sound like a child's cough in the silence of the shelter drew Carina's attention from her thoughts as Francis began coughing weakly before wheezing for breath. With one of the glowsticks hanging above her Carina still had enough light to see that she wasn't lucid and had not coughed up blood thankfully but beside risking tearing her wound back open she was anything but still.
Francis shook and trembled like a leaf as a combination of the dropping temperatures now that all the other occupants had left, her considerable blood loss, and being soaked through her own blood and bodily fluids was dropping her internal temperature fast. The Fever was still there, trying in vain to keep her temperature rising but it was a losing battle. In her state it was more than likely that she would rapidly succumb to hypothermia as the cold and her lack of proper blood circulation slowly shut down or caused her organs to fail or stop her heart altogether.
It was blow after blow to her condition as everything fought for its turn to kill Francis Euphoria with Carina as the only stopgap to prevent or delay it. She could refill her medical supplies with what was left behind by the mercenaries such as various medical instruments, bags, drugs, and the like. But unless Francis got treatment soon she was fighting against the clock and against all odds as it was increasingly drawing that she would not make it through the night if left alone.
She needed treatment, she needed blood, and she needed to get warm as fast as possible otherwise Carina would simply be choosing which would kill her...
Shuttle Exterior
The large overwrap was not too hard to find from where Waller had remembered it last. Delayed only by the dark and wind he needed only to brush off the layer of thickly-packed snow that had obscured it from most investigation earlier as just more snow-covered debris as Waller first pulled, and then wrestles, and finally cut through the thick material until something was revealed.
A thick and sturdy metal greeted him that upon revealing more seemed like a massive drum of some kind used for storing materials but much larger. Pulling more an more of the tarp away his hand brushed the container and he recoiled in instinct as a tingle passed up his wrist and up his arm like pins and needles. Having pulled the tarp away from an entire face of the massive object his first approximation was wrong; While it was cylindrical in nature it was no storage drum.
A cylinder in the middle of a box-like metal construct it was robust and sealed by seams of massive bolts that lines its length in dark gray industrial metal. Various ports and connectors were bare on one side of it as a million warning labels, text, stickers, and symbols covered its mass in a way even an illiterate imbecile would know better than to meddle with what his mind was starting to put together what he was quickly coming to the conclusion of what this massive device was.
The size of a main battle tank; Such an Antimatter container was 90% containment for a small core within no doubt the size of his fist which was just another containment measure all its own. Large enough to power a small starship the Antimatter Container likely held enough condensed antimatter in its core that if ruptured and not dissoluted into the atmosphere could, under the right conditions, destroy an entire city...
And it had crashed with the shuttle and them...