Broken Generator

[paper_stars]

For someone who has a slight fear of bugs, seeing such a thing painfully attached to your arm was extraordinarily uncomfortable. Not to mention gut wrenching and nauseating, however when Christoph did take the shot the little beastie was dislodged and half exploded into bug guts from her arm. Though not without consequence, its little claws remained in her arm and so did the stinger in her shoulder.

As a sickening thought, if left in her shoulder Olivia would get part of the specimen to study. “Eeeee…ew.” Was the only word she could muster up after the thing was shot off her arm. Though she was in pain, she was alright. As she hurried got to her feet, she would shake away any help Olivia would offer. They had a problem, and not just this little bug problem.

“No. " her heart was racing, and fear clutched in the depths of her belly but she would stand her ground.. so to speak. She was injured, she was hurting..but she wasn’t bleeding horribly, nor did she feel incapable.. and –if- it was poisonous she didn’t feel it yet.

One of the bugs had skittered along the floor by Jodie’s feet, to keep from screeching Jodie did what any normal person would do to a bug. CRUSH IT. She stepped on the blasted thing, crushing it under her shoe.

It did kill it. It was mashed almost as easily as any other bug could be smashed. So they weren’t as threatening, perhaps not even as dangerous as they seemed.

“The power is out.” She breathed, reminding Christoph. Though what she was getting at was, even if they ran, with the power still out and the generator not fixed enough to get working…the doors wouldn’t open. They’d be stuck outside, and everyone else would be stuck inside and ultimately suffocate.

The strange bug like creatures weren’t exactly quick to attack. They weren’t large, deadly predators.. perhaps they were just scavengers.

The generator still needed to be fixed.

So Jodie concluded to herself, that she would stay and they could leave. Yeah..Jodie stay with all the little creepy crawly buggies.

One of the things decided to launch itself from one of the walls. It jumped through the air today Olivia, not a smart move on the creatures part. But then again, these ones.. had the brain the size of a bug. All they had going for them were instincts and nothing more.

So out of the five, or possible six two of the buggies were dead and there seemed to be no other movement than from the ones they could see.

Jodie kicked it into overhaul, she slammed some of the wires back in place in the generator, attempting to focus on the generator rather than the bugs. She used her hands and fingers, even her nails to pull free some of the wires and change them, reroute them. She removed the wires from the broken solar panels, and rerouted the ones that did work to be the only ones. However she would need Lu’s help when she turned the generator back on to adjust the power intake from the generators. “Three seconds.”

That’s all she needed to get it going, three seconds and she’d have it running. Though with this bug infestation it cut the days down from three, to two.

Another bug decided to crawl its way up onto the generator next to the PDA and sit in front of Jodie’s face. The tip of it’s stinger pointing upward as it readied to stab. “eee…Luuuu, when I power it on I need you to adjust the power intake from the solar panels, I don’t care if this thing runs at 15% so long as it –runs-“

Given the situation she did her best and hit the on button. The machine shook, disrupting the beasties planned sting.

After she hit the button she snatched the PDA away quickly so it wouldn’t get damaged by the bug. Another little bug was quietly crawling around Christoph's feet.

[Neru Amhran]

Olivia, despite her secret want to collect a specimen, was intent on being uninjured. As she swung at one of the bugs, she would let out a grrr to try and make herself seem menacing to the little bugs, or whatever they were. However, she wished she had a box, or a metallic container to serve as a containment and collection device for one of these. Her best bet, although it didn't occur to her at the time, was one of the little automated toolbox robots.

Lucretia, however, was busy running complex algorithms and computations to lower the generator's main output to 15%. This percentage would be diverted to life support, as well as anything that would be deemed as necessity. Food containment, for example was something on that list. A blow dryer, on the other hand, wasn't.

"All set!" Lu Lu would cry as her camera caught a glimpse of the silver thing crawling close. It was then that the machine started, shaking the bug away, and she was soon snatched up in welcomed hands.

"Emergency power levels met." Lu would denote as the generator managed to sustain itself for the time being. Olivia, on the other hand, was busy trying to fend off a bug and keep from getting stung.

A moment would pass and Olivia would notice she was ok, and look towards Jodie. "Are you alright? How bad is the wound? I may have to patch that up a little." She said. In truth, she wasn't a doctor, she was a scientist, but she, like many, knew how to stop a wound from bleeding by watching those lovely government training videos. For once, they would pay off.

[Zach Kaiser]

Christoph frowned but did not argue with Jodie. It was another case of needing to balance risk with reward, and ultimately if it would only take a minute to get the generator running it was worth having to fend off the bugs for a bit. A person's life may have been depending on it, after all, and it was possible they weren't getting back inside without the power running.

He moved toward Jodie, so that he could cover her back while she worked--fortunately, despite the lot of them appearing, only a few skittered forward. He casually dispatched the one trying to get near his feet with another bullet; it may have been a bit of overkill, using ammo on a bug, but without a tool like Olivia he had no better way to take care of them without risking getting stung as he killed them.

As soon as the power was back on and Jodie jumped back, he realized one of the scorpion-like creatures had crawled almost directly in her face. He took aim, but hesitated, realizing it was too close to the equipment to risk a shot, so he quickly flipped the safety back on, turned the gun around so he was holding the barrel and smashed it.

"Good...this will have to do. We'll have to rush, but we should be ready to leave for the main facility by the time the generator goes down again."

Seeing as the other insects weren't moving, he aimed carefully and finished off any that were in sight--perhaps it wouldn't matter, but the less of them there were to potentially chew through cables, the better, and he wasn't one to take chances if he could avoid it.

[paper_stars]

“Lu make sure the main computer cannot access the power, if it turns on it may blow the whole generator.” The helper bots would be the first to skitter out of the room once they were no longer needed, and taking their place on the quad once more. “And one last thing, when are in close proximity open the damn doors for us.” She’d then tuck the PDA safely back into her pocket for now as Olivia still wielded the crowbar.

“I’m really not sure.” She said finally to Olivia about her wound, all she knew was that it hurt, in truth she knew next to nothing about wounds and how serious they could actually be.

“Christoph, let’s get out of here.” He was right, it will do for the time being. It’ll be enough time for him to assemble everyone and get them out of there before it shuts down.

And with that little interruption, she didn’t want to stay any longer.. what if there was more? More bugs.. she’d rather not be eaten alive by those things. Even if what they saw were the only ones, the question still stands however. How the hell did they get into the building? It wasn’t a hard question to answer..A rat could get inside, it wasn’t exactly perfectly sealed..but still..

The building should have been made to be perfectly sealed so nothing could get in or out.

[Neru Amhran]

"Yes ma'am!" Lu would shout as she suddenly went into a flurry of motions to safeguard the generator from being accessed by anything or anyone not authorized, including the main computer. With that she would giggle and gleefully bounce around the PDA's screen. With that she armed the codes for opening the exteriror doors once they got within range.

She was happy to help.

Olivia, on the other hand, was sorely wanting to bring something back to the lab she would call home for at least a little bit. A new pet, or maybe even a pretty little friend. However, without something to grab a hold of the little critters and keep them safe till they got inside, it was unlikely. Regardless, there would be other times. Oh yes, other times to catch, categorize, and study these strange phenomena of evolution.

"I'll have the Doc look you over once we get back, ok?" Olivia would say as she began a guarded retreat out the doors.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Right." Indeed, how the scorpion like creatures got in the building in the first place was something he'd like to know; if they were here, and this site was supposed to be secured, was their current location safe? And what of the permanent facility they were to move to? He could only pray that the place was still in usable condition; with the generator in this state, they were placing everything on being able to move to a better place.

When he got outside, the first thing he did was start swiping at the area around his bike with his fun. It probably looked a bit silly, but there was a reason behind it. "Check the vehicles; we don't want to accidentally bring any of those creatures with us." If they could turn virtually invisible, the only way would be a physical check, and lacking a crowbar like Olivia had his gun was the next best thing.

"Are you okay to drive, Jodie?" he asked, some concern slipping into his voice. Olivia didn't know how to drive one it seemed, and it would be a bit of a tight fit trying to get all three of them on one, but they could probably manage it if they had to.

[paper_stars]

Though it seemed that the darkness held secrets from the last remaining humans; when they had stirred and woke from their slumber something else also awoke from its sleep. As the volt of power had shook the ground when the facility powered on to full capacity it also disturbed something buried deep within the darkness of the world. Hunger. A powerful urge that was so over coming they cried out at the moon and called together their packs of ravenous beasts. It started with the scout that had snuck into the facility while the three of them left, then came the little creatures that were awaiting them in the generator room.

But something bigger was brought to life when the generator was powered on after being repaired. The darkness was it’s curtain, it’s companion and the humans that were now outside in it would be it’s victims.

For several hundred years after the great wars, the last few humans were taken, eaten and destroyed. The monsters that manipulated the night sky to their advantage had destroyed the remaining humans. They had thought that they killed them all, but these ones suddenly popped up.. and these humans were special. Like an expensive aged bottle of wine, they would be a rare delicacy.

These creatures could move through the darkness like a shadow itself. Unseen, unheard and completely covered under the shadow of the night. Even the largest of them could move without being detected, by the naked eye they were invisible however by the right kind of mechanical eye these things could be detected.

Jodie smiled at Olivia giving a light nod of her head. “Yeah that’d be great Olivia, thanks” The wound more than likely was bleeding, but due to the thick material of the jumpsuit wouldn’t be seen unless she removed it. No doubt her shirt underneath was stained red. She was feeling light headed and slightly sick to her stomach, though the pain was a numb throb in her shoulder. Given their certain status of just being woke from a thousand years rest, if any of them became injured then it may affect them differently than it would if they were healthy, fed and well exercised. Their bodies have been dormant for a long time, any sort of injury could be life threatening.

Something else hungered, and hunted them. In the darkness it was there waiting like a lion in the grass, for the perfect moment to strike its prey. However something else would drive its hunger to the brink of pure insanity, a smell. It was so overwhelmingly delicious that the vicious beast almost lost its wits to its silent stalk. Blood.

Jodie would be the last to leave the room and she made sure to close the door behind her. Hopefully no more of those creatures would be inside to wreck the machinery. “I think I can manage it.” She knew that Olivia wouldn’t know how to drive and it just wouldn’t be safe to have all three of them squished together. If worse comes to worse, then Olivia can help Jodie steer to keep them steady. Jodie would let Olivia check the bike while she pulled Lu out of her pocket. “Can you get me a line into the facility so I can get a message in?”

When the bikes are clear Jodie would get on first. “Olivia, I’m gonna need your help, I want you to put your hands over mine on the handles so you can get a feel of how I’m driving this thing.” She said this while she held Lu in her other hand. If Jodie does happen to pass out, Olivia will be able to take control of the bike without any problems.

Unknown to them, the creature lurked in the darkness as it waited to make its move. It’s move to strike and to send the message out to its fellows of the humans that came out of hiding.

[Toneh]

The to mechanic bots had arrived with the group, and acted like shadows running in the back ground. They unlike the others in the cryo lab ignored the monsters as they attacked the humans who were and diligently set about prepping the generator to be fixed. This was directive, this was what would save everybody, not just the ones who were outside. When the dust had settled, one of the little robots scurried back out side and took up a sentries post on and began scanning the night engulfed landscape for any other possible dangers.

That mechanical eye pried past the darkness, and through its mechanical optical receptor it detected movement. It was large, but agile, and silent. It was attempting to sneak up on their position. Several hums and click would begin firing off as it abandoned its post and ran back inside of the generator’s housing structure. Jodie would feel a soft pinch as its tiny claw reached out and grabbed her. If she looked down she would see the machine was acting spastic as it jolted back and fourth, and looked to the administrator. Like an old episode of Lassie it would be no secret that the machine was attempting to warn them of an approaching danger.

The Second mechanic bot sputtered to life, and dashed out of the structure door, its tiny treads moving it at a surprisingly fast speed as it raced off into the darkness, seemingly abandoning the hapless humans to await their doomed fate.



It sped through the dusty arid land, hiding rocks and leaping through the air as it bounded over uneven and imperfect terrain, when over 100 meters away it came to what appeared to be a dusty hill. Of course the hill was set apart, because if one got in close enough hundreds of tiny blue lights scurried over it. They were the size of insects, the lights no brighter then that of a firefly. When the mechanic bot stopped, they all stopped moving.

It must have been some form of communication for the machines, a simple radio signal, maybe even a noise frequency humans could not hear. Because the movement of the tiny lights all simultaneously stopped for about five seconds, and then with a renewed energy they began moving again, all flooding back into the hill and vanishing from the sight of the mechanic bot.

A minuet or two would pass, but then Jodie, the administrator and Olivia, even the sneaking monster would hear the sound of a powerful reactor powering up. It was a viscous, though almost serene hum that reverberated through the entire area. The Reactor spooled up, and began collecting head. The sound of metal shredding against it self could be heard as the hill started to rise from the earth.

The Mechanic bot began backing off, as the Hill rose to just over fifteen feet above the earth. A Thunderous metallic foot stepped forward, and an equally cold, metallic voice spoke unyielding, and unabashed. “WHY HAVE YOU AWOKEN ME?”

[Neru Amhran]

Offtopic: Egads! So much information to digest!

Just before exiting the doors and to somewhat safer places, Olivia paused and looked down. At her feet, or rather a bit to the side was the body of one of those things. It's exoskeleton was crushed and broken here and there, and it was most likely dead. It was then she was tempted once more. 'Well, a dead specimen is better than none at all.' She thought as she scooped up the little carcass and gingerly slid it into her lab-coat.

However, she would walk gingerly over behind Jodie, reaching the quad and getting on behind her, doing as she was told. Hopefully she wouldn't have to resort of taking a crash course in riding one of these, she hated to think of it. Yet, suddenly there was that little bot, screaming and acting strange as to denote something dangerious. In lighter humored times, she might have had the mental image of a certain bot, the word danger, and a name Will Robinson. She blinked at it and nodded slightly, thinking it had finally gone insane.

Lucretia, on the other hand, was busy trying to triangulate a link into the main facility. The processor and wireless card of the PDA was going a million miles a minute, overclocked and managing to get through to the main facility, with an act of god.

"We have direct feed." Lu Lu would cry cheerfully. The little bot's bid for attention didn't go unnoticed, she merely giggled slightly.

"What is it boy, comon' comon! What's the fuss and bother?" She would say energetically over the PDA's speaker.

[Zach Kaiser]

While the mechanic bot's sudden activity had not gone unnoticed by Christoph, he wasn't sure what it wanted. He slipped a hand to his gun just in case, though; whatever it was, if it was dangerous he needed to be ready.

That plan was abandoned as soon as the earth began to rise out of the ground. He quickly turned and skidded to a stop, kicking up a small wave of sand in the process. It appeared to be a...robot of some kind, judging by the mechanical sounds. A very, very large one.

Which made it far beyond his expertise, and he didn't want to risk answering wrong and becoming one with the sand, so to speak. Assuming that Jodie and Olivia stopped as well, he'd whisper to them, "Do you have any idea what we're dealing with?" It was more to Jodie than Olivia, given that machines were her expertise, but he'd welcome any answers from either of them.

Logic said that any machines in the area were probably made to serve them, but he wasn't quite willing to take the chance it wasn't; he was the decision maker, and part of that was knowing when to defer to someone else's judgment.

[paper_stars]

Jodie would waste no time as Lu got her connected to the main facility she’d be able to relay her message to the people inside. Her mind wasn’t on the little bot that was going nuts, she was more worried about relaying the message to the people on the inside, so they at least had an idea of what was going on. However in mid sentence of relaying her message she paused and looked over to the mound of earth that started to come to life.

“What the hell…”

Of course it would be expected that someone jumps to the defensive first, and her first thought was; What now.
Jodie glanced to Christoph, she shook her head. She was truly at a loss and her head was starting to swim. Ya, he had the right idea.. about how the robots should serve them.. but Jodie didn’t know if that was true for the bigger ones. It just depended, who made them, what for and why was it waking up now..”They did not brief us about this shit.” She muttered shrugging her shoulder. “By the looks of it, a big tank. I don’t know its purpose, probably used for fighting. I dunno.” She gritted her teeth momentarily as she felt like she could puke. Nausea, more than likely from the loss of blood.. she really needed to get inside.

Something else would stir in the night, from behind the generator building something moved along the sand. When the robot awakened, the creature decided it was time to make its move. With the sudden step it took, the ground would shake and sand would kick up into the air.

It was almost like it emerged from the darkness like it was a shadow, its feet heavy against the ground as it showed itself. The creature, whatever it was towered over the tree of them. It was twice the of a big rig. A long neck stretched outward as its jaws opened, when those jaws opened as wide as they could the beast gave out a cry so high pitched it could break glass. It was bug like in nature, similar to those little things that attacked them before. But it wasn’t completely organic either, it was part machine and organism.

It stood there over the tree of them like it was Godzilla from those old Japanese movies. Obviously the robot would be the least of their worries, the creature that stood over them lusted for blood and flesh. It hungered to taste all three of them.

Jodie, recovering from a bit of shock spoke into the mic to finish her message, but her eyes stared at the beast that hovered above them.

Carefully she placed Lu back into her pocket and laid her hand over the pocket for a moment.. her movements were very slow, she felt nervous and afraid. That thing now confronting them was defiantly worse than those little bugs.

It would happen in the time of seconds, the beast made a move towards them with its opened jaws.

[Neru Amhran]

Within the darkness of the night, Olivia shivered. This shiver wasn't born of the cold. It wasn't from anything like that. She was afraid. Her face hardened, turning impassive and cold as the colour rushed from it. And in a slight perverse way, she liked it. Some would call her insane, but that feeling of knowing you're going to die thrilled her.

By no means was she a dare devil. She wasn't a thrill seeker, nor masochistic sadist. She was human, and like any other human, she had a little twinge in her stomach telling her she wanted to live. That didn't mean her sense of self preservation was compromised, nor did it mean it was strong either.

She just felt that thrill of adrenaline.

And with that, she was ready to go! All it took was a glance to Jodie and Christoph, and Olivia would say what she hoped they were thinking too.

"Maybe W-we should go." Olivia would say, a childish side to her showing as she resisted almost clinging to what she felt most comfortable towards. However, because Lu Lu was now safely tucked in Joidie's back pocket, Olivia would have to do use Jodie for the time being. A soft hand reached out, hopefully finding something.

[Toneh]

The Machine had spoken, and the little Mechanic bot immediately turned and began racing back for the generator compound. The Large robot immediately scanned the area. To the humans in the are a this would be at best uncomfortable as they felt, the signal tickle the back of their individual skulls. Logistics began flooding his primary databank, his positronic brain processing the information instantaneously, and forming new directives, as well as vectors and proper executions.

His camera’s automatically locked onto the heat signature of the machinelike insectoid, as well as the heat signals of the humans in the vicinity. Directive: Defend all humans. “SO THERE ARE MORE.” His voice said, a mottled, harsh tone, a voice that conveyed emotion, and utter calm. It was loud, and easily heard through the desert air. Like the sun it self the Darkness that had engulfed the land would suddenly vanish as a white hot bright light engulfed the creature.

The sound of a large gun going off would echo through the entire area. This noise was the harbinger of a large jagged harpoon that had been fired from the “Hip” area of the large Robot’s chassis. It would race through the air at speeds rivaling a bullet, and could easily punch through the carapace. If the weapon connected it would deploy a set of spikes specifically designed to stick into the creature’s body. A thin metallic cord was attached to the back of the harpoon, and would soon after immediately tighten, as The Warrior would begin reeling it in. “GET OVER HERE” He snarled.

[Zach Kaiser]

Even Christoph, who had remained impassively objective when the small, camouflaged scorpion like creatures had attacked, could not help but feel fear as a very, very large insect-like creature seemed to simply appear from the darkness, and barreled at them with its jaws wide.

Instantly the need to act presented itself, and he forced his mind to perform a hard reboot, noting that while he had no idea what the creature was, it evidently saw them as food.

He completely agreed with Olivia's sentiment. "Yes, GO!" he yelled, revving his bike before shooting off to the side, out of the creature's path--and towards the robot. "Get back to the base! I'll be there shortly."

Seeing as both girls were as uninformed as he was involving the robot, he made a decision: try and bluff. "I awoke you in order to protect us!" he shouted up at it. Though, as it fired at the bug creature, he had to wonder if that wasn't its purpose already.

[paper_stars]

Jodie’s breathing was labored by this time, and her chest felt rather tight. Christoph shouted for them to go as he dodged the attack of the creature, the creature was knocked off guard however by the spike that impaled it. Though it cried out with a shriek, the beastie didn’t feel pain as it jerked its body aside and started to fight against the robot in a sort of tug of war. Its huge clawed feet dug deeply into the sand as it made to hold its ground. It would also slam its tail into the sand causing a mock wave as it anchored itself in place. The thing barely budged.

It seemed also, that the light the robot gave off had no affect on this beast like it did on the one that attacked the inside of the facility just a few moments ago.

When Olivia did reach out for something, Jodie grabbed her hand and placed it on the handle of the bike. Her foot slammed down and the bike jutted to life. The engine hummed and Jodie hit the gas by twisting the handle. The bike would jerk a bit, but she made sure that Olivia didn’t fall off and that she had a good hold on the handle bar. “Lu get those doors opened.”

With the sudden rush of adrenalin from her fear, the wound in her shoulder started to bleed more as the blood was being pumped harder through her body. She stirred the bike back toward the facility, but pain radiated through her entire right side in return.

The bike weaved a bit as she almost lost control but she was able to get it steady. “Olivia, help me steer please.” She was worried now, that she would lose complete control over the bike.