<span style='color:White'> "I've seen these before, Pretty sure only the Grid can open it normally." *Ed hits a few controls on Wynona and takes aim.* "But let's hope AP Will work as a skeleton key!"
[Ed, after everyone is behind him, begins to fire at the doorframe with single shots, If the rounds seem to do damage, He continues firing until the door gives way, otherewise he stops.]</span>
<span style='color:orange'><b>"If there's still some power in that panel, I can download myself into it and open the door from inside."</b> <i>"Let's see if Ed gets anywhere with this first."</i></span> <b>Incase you can't tell, I'm with the data storage group.</b>
<b>Ok, first a question I've been wondering about for some time. Where exactly is Merc? Comp system, Nanogrid(nah, that one's dead), PDA?
Second, the thread was stickied back when it was the only RPG. And guess it kinda stuck untill now. Not really any reason for it being sticky any longer.</b>
<i>Data storage group - The bulletholes in the door don't actually open it, but they do penetrate, weakening the structure of the door. When the first bullet hits, a short burst of sparks spring from the left side of the door (Ed and spin recognize those as being the alarm failing to go off because there's no nanogrid left)
Gwahir - You see the initial labs entrance. A long corridor with 3 doors to either side. A few tables with (empty and clean) vials are standing around the corridor</i>
<b><span style='font-family:Arial'><span style='color:blue'> *Follows Gwahir inside* "Looks empty. Ok we'll start with the right side and work our way up from there."
"Ok we do a thorough search of each room to make sure we don't miss anything important. Check under every desk and beaker."
*Looks around the corridor* "Man, I need a beer. Terran, I think you need a beer too, remind me to get us some when we get back."
[Heads over and opens the right door, checking inside for any and all things that might tell us something] </span></span></b>
<span style='color:gray'>*Takes the time to thoroughly sweep each trrom, keeping an eye out for an active terminal* "I just had an idea. I'm not entirely sure how we can pull it off though. We still have some military grade nano-tech with us to flush the system under normal circumstances right? So if we can find a nano-grid port, we can still introduce some good nano-tech. This won't be nearly enough to get the grid working however. But it could get to be if we somehow provided some nano-sludge for self replication. The grid would also have to repair itself along the way. The problem is this: How do we harvest the nano-sludge to provide the grid with building materials? Normally we just build a resource tower over a delivery node but the network is down so we can' build it. We need the nano-grid to get the nano-grid back, catch 22. But if we can just provide enough of a trickle, we might be able to build a tower and get the process under way. What do you guys think?"</span>
<span style='color:purple'>"Merc, feel free to try and download yourself into that pannel, but its dead-er than a week dead mouse." *Stabs a few buttons on the door pannel again without anything showing up or the screen even responding at all, remaining black* "See? Anyway, looks like the door's a little busted now, maybe we could break it in?"</span>
<span style='color:green'>"We're still going to need to cut those bars." *puts med canister away, and sighs* "My kingdom for a welder." *kicks the door*</span>
<i>Lab group: You proceed through the individual rooms:
1st right: Seems to be the lifeform storage room. Around 5 cages in the sizes of small alien lifeforms are spread around the room, and a large structure of bars that was probably used to secure a hive hangs from the ceiling. Two of the cages are destroyed, as if something inside it just grew too large for the cage, and the cage failed to contain it any longer (of cause, still completely cleaned).
1st left: The room looks like a chemist's lab. Vials, bottles and pipes spread over 3 equally large long tables. Some of the bottles still have fluids or powders in them, some are empty.
2nd right: The room looks like a staff resting room. Pool table, couches and an (empty) aquarium.
2nd left: Door is locked, but there's several scratchmarks on the outside.
3rd right: The room itself isnt very small. But there's a <b>thick</b> glass window and a reinforced metal door leading to a large hall with no other entrance, the hall is completely empty, and there's no windows, no vents and no doors but for the one leading to you. The walls of the hall are pure metal, no patterns or welds are visible. There's a huge hole in the glass window with cracks spreading all over the window. Something big forced it's way through this door.
3rd left: A number of containers, made of metal but with glass windows in the front, stand along the walls. To each of the containers, a note with the name of an alien lifeform (none larger than lerk) is attached, along with a number of notes regarding observations of the lifeform that must've been inside the container.
Data storage group: the door creaks, but does not break from Night Shades kick.</i>
<span style='color:White'> *Ed gets an idea* "You thinking what im thinking?" *Ed puts Wynona down, takes a few steps back, and waits for the remainder of the group* "on 3?" [If everyone agreees, Ed rushes the door after 3 with the rest of the group.] </span>
<span style='color:purple'>"Yup Ed." *Moves back into position* "Hit the door on 3 then. Hope this nano-armor crap helps cushion the hit, dont want to break my shoulder on that thing."</span>
<i>Data storage group: As the group charges the door, the bars reinforcing it breaks, and with that gone taking down the door is easy. Behind the door is the data storage facility. Huge server racks stand 4 metres tall, like shelves of a library, with a slight humming of coolers coming from each of them. In the two far corners of the room are two computers that are hooked on to both the server machines and the nano-grid network.</i>
<span style='color:purple'>"YES!" *Hugs the computer terminal* "Finaly something worth comming here for. Hang on I'll try to find out whats up with the nanogrid..." [Attempts to get a history readout of all the latest nanogrid activities </span>
<span style='color:red'><span style='font-family:courier'> *walks into the chemists lab* "Hmm...just like college. A mess after the last period class." *examines the suriving material* "Let's get this stuffle in some transport containers and then run away." *searches the floor and finds a few random scattered test tube caps* *caps the surviving tubes and puts them in an ammo pouch* *the ammo that was in the ammo pouch is now in a pants pocket* "Hey, Grim. You find anything? I've got a few test tubes." </span></span>
<span style='color:White'> *Ed, looking over Khaim's shoulder, notices the [Classified, access rights level A required]* "That looks odd, can you hack it Khaim?"</span>
<b><span style='font-family:Arial'><span style='color:blue'> *Picks up the notes from room #3Left* "Yea Terran, I've found some notes and whatnot. These might be useful to they xeno boys back home." [Checks the areas for any data disks, cubes, ect that might have been missed]
"Mmmmm.... Hey Terran, give me a hand here, see if we can get this door open here. Hopefuly there is something behind it that will tell us what happend."
[Goes over to #2left door and tries to get it open with Terran]
"Poor ****, I look like it all went bad fast." *Crosses himself and mutters a prayer* </span></span></b>
<span style='color:purple'>"Yeah sure Ed, and after that maybe I can try and get the nanogrid back online, might work, might be a bad idea tho, it might still have the purge data in it." [Pulls out his PDA and a couple cords, plugging them into the CPU, attempting to exploit the computing into thinking he is a Administrator] "Hell, just the fact that they couldnt contain small C class aliens shows something must have been up here. Hey darkness, ya want to put merc to work on that nanogrid? I'll finish up with the access rights here." *Waves behind him at darkness as he talks*</span>
<span style='color:red'><span style='font-family:courier'> *hear's Grims comment* "Yea...I hear that. Let's just hope it doesn't go like that for us." *tries to open the door normally again* *door doesn't open* *shakes the door trying to open it* "Oh...what the hell? It's just a door, so you wanna kick it in or beat it down with our rifles. Either way, I'm happy." *pauses a bit* "Or you know, we could just blow it down with rifle fire. That'd work too..." *awaits to begin bashing the door either way when Grim replies* </span></span>
<b>Merc's on the PDA, I haven't said I transferred her into anything, did I?</b> <span style='color:orange'><i>"That's no problem Khaim. Ready Merc?"</i> <b>"Ready as I'll ever be."</b> <i>*plugs the PDA into the nano-grid console, letting Mercura transfer herself into the system*</i> <b>"Sh!t, this place is deader than Microsoft's servers." *looks around, all of the programs are lying on the 'ground' in sleep mode, although it looks like they're dead* "I've got a lot of work to do."</span></b>
<b><span style='font-family:Arial'><span style='color:blue'> "Ok Terran, let's try kicking it down first. If it doesn't come open, then we shoot the lock apart."
[Kicks door down with Terran's help/or shoot's the lock apart with Terran's help] </span></span></b>
<span style='color:blue'>[No data disks lying around] [After a few well-placed kicks, the door, already weak from alien attacks, breaks open]</span> <span style='color:purple'>[Doesn't take long to convince that one. Appearantly it wasnt designed for people to plug in PDAs when cracking it.]</span>
<i>Kharaa research group: The second room on the left seems to be an office. It has several desks standing around, and chairs for each of them. There's a snack dispenser in the corner, and on one of the tables stands a laptop. If the indicators are right, there's only 10 minutes or so worth of power left, must've been running for weeks now. The laptop is currently on the desktop with a conversation log, a data file and a game of solitaire open (but minimized). Both icons on the desktop and open programs are protected by access codes.
Data storage group: The computer starts loading. The classified section contain a message log, a data report and the log of an orbital station approaching the station from a long-distance run.</i>
<b><span style='font-family:Arial'><span style='color:blue'>"Ohhh.... Gwahir looks like you have lest than ten minutes to get that data saved before it shuts down." *Looks around* "Ok Terran lets look and see of we can finda a spare powerpack or recharge cable."
[Checks all the desks, under the desk and snack dispencer for power cords, adapter, packe, ect] </span></span></b>
<span style='color:purple'>"Yeah one sec, I'll read it off." *Keys up the message log...* "Spin you want to look around and see if we can use any of the stuff in here?"</span>
<span style='color:blue'><b>[Nope, nothing that looks like it could do the job]</span> <span style='color:gray'>[There's a huge load of computer hardware lying around, pretty expensive stuff actually, but nothing else worth noting.]</span></b>
<i>Data storage group:
The computer has pages of conversation logs, but only a few logs seems to adress anything but normal day-to-day matters. Top-level Classified message log from inter-station conversation 7 weeks ago:
"Log BEGIN AD34: Have you seen, those shady research guys are making another pass in a little less than two months. GE46: About time something happened, nothing but dull basics here. Not even any aliens left to dissect. AD34: I hear you, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea for them to come close again already. Wouldn't want them to be discovered. People might not approve of their research. GE46: True, must admit I wouldn't want to do it either, but the results are invaluable. AD34: Yeah, just a shame that last one went wrong, those critters could've told us loads of important stuff. GE46: Yeah, wonder what they're gonna have this time. AD34: Gotta be something big, they sounded excited when I talked to them. Listen, this isnt being logged is it. GE46: Nope, no one but me will know once I close this thing. AD34: Good, if someone found out, we might just miss out on something interesting. Listen, boss is coming, better close this so he doesnt see us talking about it. Log END"
Yellow (medium) restricted log from a week and two days ago:
Log BEGIN GE46: Finally, something happens. They've brought in a new Kharaa specimen. Some failed frontiersman squad, unbdoubtly gone insane from their experiences, explains that these kharaa are "stronger" than the earlier ones. Sounds like a good excuse for failure. We're supposed to be carefull, but they've only classified class C lifeforms, and what can they possibly do with only one hive at each bacterial network? IB50: Well, I never got comfortable with those things. I actually prefer not having them here, no matter how few hives. GE46: Aw come on, what could possibly happen? I mean, it's not like they're actually going to get out when the worst they can do with one hive is that funny little bird thing. They can't even leave the ground in those cages. IB50: Sure, but I still don't like it. You mention those things could be stronger, what if they got out. GE46: Relax, they won't. IB50: But what if they do? GE46: They won't, ok? Stop acting like such a coward and get over here, it's time to get going again, been ages since I've been able to toy with one of those things. IB50: Guess you're right, I'll be right over. Log END</i>
<span style='color:White'> "Fools, no wonder the base was abandoned." *Ed walks over to a server rack and begins looking around.* "Im surprised this base still has power, i thought the reactors shut down after all biosigns are off the station..." *Ed gets a chill down his spine. He then activates the VOicecom in the armor.* "Hey, Lab team. We found some odd things on the server, Hows your progress down there? Oh, and i suggest we leave the coms open, in case anything happens."</span>
Comments
<span style='color:purple'><b>
Spyder looks at this thread up and down...
Spyder doesn't understand why it's more important than any other RPG here in this forum...
Spyder unwebs...
</span></b>
*Ed hits a few controls on Wynona and takes aim.*
"But let's hope AP Will work as a skeleton key!"
[Ed, after everyone is behind him, begins to fire at the doorframe with single shots, If the rounds seem to do damage, He continues firing until the door gives way, otherewise he stops.]</span>
<i>"Let's see if Ed gets anywhere with this first."</i></span>
<b>Incase you can't tell, I'm with the data storage group.</b>
Second, the thread was stickied back when it was the only RPG. And guess it kinda stuck untill now. Not really any reason for it being sticky any longer.</b>
<i>Data storage group - The bulletholes in the door don't actually open it, but they do penetrate, weakening the structure of the door. When the first bullet hits, a short burst of sparks spring from the left side of the door (Ed and spin recognize those as being the alarm failing to go off because there's no nanogrid left)
Gwahir - You see the initial labs entrance. A long corridor with 3 doors to either side. A few tables with (empty and clean) vials are standing around the corridor</i>
"Ok we do a thorough search of each room to make sure we don't miss anything important. Check under every desk and beaker."
*Looks around the corridor* "Man, I need a beer. Terran, I think you need a beer too, remind me to get us some when we get back."
[Heads over and opens the right door, checking inside for any and all things that might tell us something] </span></span></b>
"I just had an idea. I'm not entirely sure how we can pull it off though. We still have some military grade nano-tech with us to flush the system under normal circumstances right? So if we can find a nano-grid port, we can still introduce some good nano-tech. This won't be nearly enough to get the grid working however. But it could get to be if we somehow provided some nano-sludge for self replication. The grid would also have to repair itself along the way. The problem is this: How do we harvest the nano-sludge to provide the grid with building materials? Normally we just build a resource tower over a delivery node but the network is down so we can' build it. We need the nano-grid to get the nano-grid back, catch 22. But if we can just provide enough of a trickle, we might be able to build a tower and get the process under way. What do you guys think?"</span>
*Stabs a few buttons on the door pannel again without anything showing up or the screen even responding at all, remaining black*
"See? Anyway, looks like the door's a little busted now, maybe we could break it in?"</span>
*puts med canister away, and sighs*
"My kingdom for a welder."
*kicks the door*</span>
1st right: Seems to be the lifeform storage room. Around 5 cages in the sizes of small alien lifeforms are spread around the room, and a large structure of bars that was probably used to secure a hive hangs from the ceiling. Two of the cages are destroyed, as if something inside it just grew too large for the cage, and the cage failed to contain it any longer (of cause, still completely cleaned).
1st left: The room looks like a chemist's lab. Vials, bottles and pipes spread over 3 equally large long tables. Some of the bottles still have fluids or powders in them, some are empty.
2nd right: The room looks like a staff resting room. Pool table, couches and an (empty) aquarium.
2nd left: Door is locked, but there's several scratchmarks on the outside.
3rd right: The room itself isnt very small. But there's a <b>thick</b> glass window and a reinforced metal door leading to a large hall with no other entrance, the hall is completely empty, and there's no windows, no vents and no doors but for the one leading to you. The walls of the hall are pure metal, no patterns or welds are visible. There's a huge hole in the glass window with cracks spreading all over the window. Something big forced it's way through this door.
3rd left: A number of containers, made of metal but with glass windows in the front, stand along the walls. To each of the containers, a note with the name of an alien lifeform (none larger than lerk) is attached, along with a number of notes regarding observations of the lifeform that must've been inside the container.
Data storage group: the door creaks, but does not break from Night Shades kick.</i>
"You thinking what im thinking?"
*Ed puts Wynona down, takes a few steps back, and waits for the remainder of the group*
"on 3?"
[If everyone agreees, Ed rushes the door after 3 with the rest of the group.]
</span>
*Moves back into position*
"Hit the door on 3 then. Hope this nano-armor crap helps cushion the hit, dont want to break my shoulder on that thing."</span>
*Hugs the computer terminal*
"Finaly something worth comming here for. Hang on I'll try to find out whats up with the nanogrid..."
[Attempts to get a history readout of all the latest nanogrid activities
</span>
*walks into the chemists lab*
"Hmm...just like college. A mess after the last period class."
*examines the suriving material*
"Let's get this stuffle in some transport containers and then run away."
*searches the floor and finds a few random scattered test tube caps*
*caps the surviving tubes and puts them in an ammo pouch*
*the ammo that was in the ammo pouch is now in a pants pocket*
"Hey, Grim. You find anything? I've got a few test tubes."
</span></span>
<i>Data Storage Group:
These are the major activities recorded during the last 3 months:
10 weeks, 2 days, 14 hours ago:
Ship "Aurora" docked.
10 weeks, 2 days ago:
Supplies unloaded from ship "Aurora".
10 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour ago:
Ship "Aurora" checked and prepared for launch.
10 weeks, 2 days, ½ hour ago:
Ship "Aurora" released from dock.
7 weeks ago:
[Classified, access rights level A required]
4 weeks, 5 days, 22 hours ago:
Ship "Heeria" docked.
4 weeks, 5 days, 15 hours ago:
Supplies unloaded from ship Heeria
4 weeks, 5 days, 10 hours ago:
Ship "Heeria" checked and prepared for launch.
4 weeks, 5 days, 8 hours ago:
Ship "Heeria" released from dock.
3 weeks, 1 day, 5 hours ago:
Ship "Aligan" emergency dock, major engine fault. Performing maintenance.
2 weeks, 6 days, 14 hours ago:
Ship "Aligan" maintenance complete, performing check.
2 weeks, 5 days, 22 hours ago:
Ship "Aligan" released from dock.
1 week, 4 days, 9 hours ago:
Kharaa specimen arrived at station, security measures at kharaa labs activated. Authorized handling of class C lifeforms.
1 week, 3 days, 20 hours ago:
RED ALERT, RED ALERT! Hostile lifeform detected, containment failed.
1 week, 1 day, 2 hours ago:
Major nano-network damage. Emergency systems activated. Functionality reduced.
6 days, 6 hours ago:
Emergency functionality failed, system hibernating.
4 days, 19 hours ago:
Warning, system purge initiated, initiate evacuation. Station will purge in 1 hour 10 minutes.
4 days, 18 hours ago:
Purge initiated.</i>
"That looks odd, can you hack it Khaim?"</span>
"Mmmmm.... Hey Terran, give me a hand here, see if we can get this door open here. Hopefuly there is something behind it that will tell us what happend."
[Goes over to #2left door and tries to get it open with Terran]
"Poor ****, I look like it all went bad fast." *Crosses himself and mutters a prayer* </span></span></b>
[Pulls out his PDA and a couple cords, plugging them into the CPU, attempting to exploit the computing into thinking he is a Administrator]
"Hell, just the fact that they couldnt contain small C class aliens shows something must have been up here. Hey darkness, ya want to put merc to work on that nanogrid? I'll finish up with the access rights here."
*Waves behind him at darkness as he talks*</span>
*hear's Grims comment*
"Yea...I hear that. Let's just hope it doesn't go like that for us."
*tries to open the door normally again*
*door doesn't open*
*shakes the door trying to open it*
"Oh...what the hell? It's just a door, so you wanna kick it in or beat it down with our rifles. Either way, I'm happy."
*pauses a bit*
"Or you know, we could just blow it down with rifle fire. That'd work too..."
*awaits to begin bashing the door either way when Grim replies*
</span></span>
<span style='color:orange'><i>"That's no problem Khaim. Ready Merc?"</i>
<b>"Ready as I'll ever be."</b>
<i>*plugs the PDA into the nano-grid console, letting Mercura transfer herself into the system*</i>
<b>"Sh!t, this place is deader than Microsoft's servers."
*looks around, all of the programs are lying on the 'ground' in sleep mode, although it looks like they're dead*
"I've got a lot of work to do."</span></b>
[Kicks door down with Terran's help/or shoot's the lock apart with Terran's help]
</span></span></b>
<span style='color:blue'>[No data disks lying around]
[After a few well-placed kicks, the door, already weak from alien attacks, breaks open]</span>
<span style='color:purple'>[Doesn't take long to convince that one. Appearantly it wasnt designed for people to plug in PDAs when cracking it.]</span>
<i>Kharaa research group:
The second room on the left seems to be an office. It has several desks standing around, and chairs for each of them. There's a snack dispenser in the corner, and on one of the tables stands a laptop. If the indicators are right, there's only 10 minutes or so worth of power left, must've been running for weeks now. The laptop is currently on the desktop with a conversation log, a data file and a game of solitaire open (but minimized). Both icons on the desktop and open programs are protected by access codes.
Data storage group:
The computer starts loading. The classified section contain a message log, a data report and the log of an orbital station approaching the station from a long-distance run.</i>
[Checks all the desks, under the desk and snack dispencer for power cords, adapter, packe, ect] </span></span></b>
*Keys up the message log...*
"Spin you want to look around and see if we can use any of the stuff in here?"</span>
<span style='color:gray'>[There's a huge load of computer hardware lying around, pretty expensive stuff actually, but nothing else worth noting.]</span></b>
<i>Data storage group:
The computer has pages of conversation logs, but only a few logs seems to adress anything but normal day-to-day matters.
Top-level Classified message log from inter-station conversation 7 weeks ago:
"Log BEGIN
AD34: Have you seen, those shady research guys are making another pass in a little less than two months.
GE46: About time something happened, nothing but dull basics here. Not even any aliens left to dissect.
AD34: I hear you, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea for them to come close again already. Wouldn't want them to be discovered. People might not approve of their research.
GE46: True, must admit I wouldn't want to do it either, but the results are invaluable.
AD34: Yeah, just a shame that last one went wrong, those critters could've told us loads of important stuff.
GE46: Yeah, wonder what they're gonna have this time.
AD34: Gotta be something big, they sounded excited when I talked to them. Listen, this isnt being logged is it.
GE46: Nope, no one but me will know once I close this thing.
AD34: Good, if someone found out, we might just miss out on something interesting. Listen, boss is coming, better close this so he doesnt see us talking about it.
Log END"
Yellow (medium) restricted log from a week and two days ago:
Log BEGIN
GE46: Finally, something happens. They've brought in a new Kharaa specimen. Some failed frontiersman squad, unbdoubtly gone insane from their experiences, explains that these kharaa are "stronger" than the earlier ones. Sounds like a good excuse for failure. We're supposed to be carefull, but they've only classified class C lifeforms, and what can they possibly do with only one hive at each bacterial network?
IB50: Well, I never got comfortable with those things. I actually prefer not having them here, no matter how few hives.
GE46: Aw come on, what could possibly happen? I mean, it's not like they're actually going to get out when the worst they can do with one hive is that funny little bird thing. They can't even leave the ground in those cages.
IB50: Sure, but I still don't like it. You mention those things could be stronger, what if they got out.
GE46: Relax, they won't.
IB50: But what if they do?
GE46: They won't, ok? Stop acting like such a coward and get over here, it's time to get going again, been ages since I've been able to toy with one of those things.
IB50: Guess you're right, I'll be right over.
Log END</i>
*Ed walks over to a server rack and begins looking around.*
"Im surprised this base still has power, i thought the reactors shut down after all biosigns are off the station..."
*Ed gets a chill down his spine. He then activates the VOicecom in the armor.*
"Hey, Lab team. We found some odd things on the server, Hows your progress down there? Oh, and i suggest we leave the coms open, in case anything happens."</span>