This is the story of a team of researchers who are studying the Valles Marineris, on Mars. Suddenly, a large tectonic shift occurs, sending them out of they're base into the alien jungle found at the bottom of the canyon. The researchers have to survive getting to the other research base on the other side, fighting aliens along the way.
The Unusual Suspects
The team of researchers includes four unusual types that stand out:
Trailing behind, Hog-Beq looks from side to side, paranoid that an alien will jump out at them at any moment, armed only with a pickaxe and the sandwiches they're scarfing down. "I should have never taken this job," Hog-Beq mutters.
"Quit your whining," Ttirb retorts, waving a laser pistol in Hog-Beq's general direction before burying their nose back into their terrain scanner. "According to my thorough analysis, we should be relatively safe as long as we stay in this cave system--"
"Last time you said something like that," La Acoi interjects, "the xenobiology lab was on lockdown for two weeks."
Ttirb turns to La Acoi, clearly insulted. "That was one time!"
"And I still remember it in vivid detail!" retorts La Acoi, thrusting the lit flare they hold in their hand in Ttirb's direction for emphasis.
Hog-Beq shudders. "The horror..."
"Quiet," says Yelsh, leading the group, and marking something up ahead with a laser pointer. "There's something up ahead."
"An alien?" Hog-Beq gulps.
"Not just any alien," Yelsh says. "This one's different..."
Trailing behind, Hog-Beq looks from side to side, paranoid that an alien will jump out at them at any moment, armed only with a pickaxe and the sandwiches they're scarfing down. "I should have never taken this job," Hog-Beq mutters.
"Quit your whining," Ttirb retorts, waving a laser pistol in Hog-Beq's general direction before burying their nose back into their terrain scanner. "According to my thorough analysis, we should be relatively safe as long as we stay in this cave system--"
"Last time you said something like that," La Acoi interjects, "the xenobiology lab was on lockdown for two weeks."
Ttirb turns to La Acoi, clearly insulted. "That was one time!"
"And I still remember it in vivid detail!" retorts La Acoi, thrusting the lit flare they hold in their hand in Ttirb's direction for emphasis.
Hog-Beq shudders. "The horror..."
"Quiet," says Yelsh, leading the group, and marking something up ahead with a laser pointer. "There's something up ahead."
"An alien?" Hog-Beq gulps.
"Not just any alien," Yelsh says. "This one's different..."
Ttirb squeals in excitement as La Acoi throws a flare to highlight the creature at the spot marked by Yelsh's pointer. "Wow! A bona fide giant alien creature!"
Hog-Beq whimpers in horror. "A giant ant! Or a giant spider?"
"Some hybrid of both, I think!" Ttirb says excitedly, eyes roving over the shed exoskeleton that lies before them.
Yelsh frowns at La Acoi. "That could have gone poorly. If it was a live alien rather than a shed exoskeleton, it might've attacked when you used the flare."
"This way we could have seen it coming," shrugs La Acoi. "Also, it's easier to get Hog-Beq to stand and fight when he can see what's coming, instead of his imagination conjuring up even worse things to lurk in the dark."
Yelsh rubs his temples, tuning out Ttirb's excited gushing and Hog-Beq's fearful murmuring in the background. "You're a xenopsychologist, here to study any alien psychological patterns. None of us are aliens, so you don't have a mandate to evoke fear responses and study them."
"I do if it helps our group be more effective in surviving this trip," La Acoi shrugs again.
Yelsh sighs. La Acoi's pragmatic cynicism might be the death of him, but it's true it might save him several times first.
Hog-Beq whimpers in horror. "A giant ant! Or a giant spider?"
"Some hybrid of both, I think!" Ttirb says excitedly, eyes roving over the shed exoskeleton that lies before them.
Yelsh frowns at La Acoi. "That could have gone poorly. If it was a live alien rather than a shed exoskeleton, it might've attacked when you used the flare."
"This way we could have seen it coming," shrugs La Acoi. "Also, it's easier to get Hog-Beq to stand and fight when he can see what's coming, instead of his imagination conjuring up even worse things to lurk in the dark."
Yelsh rubs his temples, tuning out Ttirb's excited gushing and Hog-Beq's fearful murmuring in the background. "You're a xenopsychologist, here to study any alien psychological patterns. None of us are aliens, so you don't have a mandate to evoke fear responses and study them."
"I do if it helps our group be more effective in surviving this trip," La Acoi shrugs again.
Yelsh sighs. La Acoi's pragmatic cynicism might be the death of him, but it's true it might save him several times first.
Ttrib looks at her scanner. "I think the cave is going to open up, we need to follow the left wall to the first enterance.
Bog-Heq is still scared by the encounter with the exoskleleton. "I think I saw movemnt over there..."
"No, of course its empty!" La Acoi says, annoyed.
The group hears a clicking up ahead.
"Hog-Beq is right" Yelsh whispers "Look"
Up ahead, the cave opens out into a massive cavern, filled with the forms of hundreds of the ant-spider aliens. The group huddles in an alcove in the wall
"Castechus indoyi" La Acoi says "Tunneling horrors"
Hog-Beq shivers "At least they cant-"
A Tunneling Horror is coming up the wall towards them.
Hog-Beq screams.
And slowly, all the heads of the Tunneling Horrors turn to them, there eyes glowing a hungry red.
The Ants charge. The group runs.
Bog-Heq is still scared by the encounter with the exoskleleton. "I think I saw movemnt over there..."
"No, of course its empty!" La Acoi says, annoyed.
The group hears a clicking up ahead.
"Hog-Beq is right" Yelsh whispers "Look"
Up ahead, the cave opens out into a massive cavern, filled with the forms of hundreds of the ant-spider aliens. The group huddles in an alcove in the wall
"Castechus indoyi" La Acoi says "Tunneling horrors"
Hog-Beq shivers "At least they cant-"
A Tunneling Horror is coming up the wall towards them.
Hog-Beq screams.
And slowly, all the heads of the Tunneling Horrors turn to them, there eyes glowing a hungry red.
The Ants charge. The group runs.
The four run blindly though the dark.
"Why did you have to scream!?" Al Acoi says.
"Im-" Hog-Beq begins to say.
"Less talking, more running, please." remarks Ttrib, attempting to follow her scanner and shoot alien spiders at once, ending with everyone dodging laser bullets and no bullets hitting the Tunneling Horrors.
The group abruptly emerges into a jet of rock that is surrounded by the mushroom-like xenoflora that dominate the Canyon.
"See, I actually made us escape!" Ttrib says joyfully.
"Ummm... I don't think so," says Al Acoi.
Ttrib immediatly raises her pistol.
"It's not them," Al Acoi says, waving a hand in the general direction of the tunneling horrors, who have stopped at the cave mouth. "It's the fact that the only other safe place in and around the Canyon is base Beta-07. 2500 miles away. And in between us and Beta-07 is the Ruins."
The group shivers.
"Would it be easier to climb out?" Suggests Bog-Heq
"Climb 5 kilometers without resting at a ledge?" Ttrib says "I don't think so."
"But we would have to go through the Ruins!" Protests Bog-Heq.
"Not just any Ruins," Al Acoi says grimly "We would have to go through Deaths Net itself"
"You mean..." Ttrib says, audibly scared
"Yes, Ttrib" Al Acoi says, "The place were not one, but five camps got the Corruption. Consecutively. In two years. The place were the Two Sky and Silver rivers meet, but Corruption turns them to blood. The place were to survive one day is to be a feat almost never achieved, two practically impossible. That place."
"I would rather climb 5 kilometers please" pleads Bog-Heq.
"We don't have that option. Too high for a professional with the right equipment." Ttrib states coldly
"We go now, before it gets dark." Yelsh said, who had waited patiently for the outcome of the plan.
The four descent into the alies jungle, most likely never to emerge.
"Why did you have to scream!?" Al Acoi says.
"Im-" Hog-Beq begins to say.
"Less talking, more running, please." remarks Ttrib, attempting to follow her scanner and shoot alien spiders at once, ending with everyone dodging laser bullets and no bullets hitting the Tunneling Horrors.
The group abruptly emerges into a jet of rock that is surrounded by the mushroom-like xenoflora that dominate the Canyon.
"See, I actually made us escape!" Ttrib says joyfully.
"Ummm... I don't think so," says Al Acoi.
Ttrib immediatly raises her pistol.
"It's not them," Al Acoi says, waving a hand in the general direction of the tunneling horrors, who have stopped at the cave mouth. "It's the fact that the only other safe place in and around the Canyon is base Beta-07. 2500 miles away. And in between us and Beta-07 is the Ruins."
The group shivers.
"Would it be easier to climb out?" Suggests Bog-Heq
"Climb 5 kilometers without resting at a ledge?" Ttrib says "I don't think so."
"But we would have to go through the Ruins!" Protests Bog-Heq.
"Not just any Ruins," Al Acoi says grimly "We would have to go through Deaths Net itself"
"You mean..." Ttrib says, audibly scared
"Yes, Ttrib" Al Acoi says, "The place were not one, but five camps got the Corruption. Consecutively. In two years. The place were the Two Sky and Silver rivers meet, but Corruption turns them to blood. The place were to survive one day is to be a feat almost never achieved, two practically impossible. That place."
"I would rather climb 5 kilometers please" pleads Bog-Heq.
"We don't have that option. Too high for a professional with the right equipment." Ttrib states coldly
"We go now, before it gets dark." Yelsh said, who had waited patiently for the outcome of the plan.
The four descent into the alies jungle, most likely never to emerge.
"At least tell me we'll be stopping for snacks, T-bone," Hog-beq pleads.
"Are you serious?" Ttirb retorts. "And don't call me that, Hog."
"Yes, I ran out of sandwiches," Hog says, "and no, you're name is too hard to remember."
"Seriously?" T-bone says.
"It's true, Tea" La Acoi chimes in. "To be fair, the auto-logs mess up all our names. It'll be real confusing for anyone reading over our posthumous accounts."
"Ack," Tea says, "you must be joking,"
"Why the dismayed alarm?" Ack asks. Tea stares back.
"You're right," Ack says. "You almost certainly endanger the world's tea supply with your tea-drinking habits alone. Think of the socio-economic chaos that will cause."
"Now see here--" Tea starts before being interrupted by Yelsh.
"Focus, people!" Yelsh's interruption echoes in the space. The silence afterwards hangs heavy over everyone.
"No need to yell," Hog mutters.
"Are you serious?" Ttirb retorts. "And don't call me that, Hog."
"Yes, I ran out of sandwiches," Hog says, "and no, you're name is too hard to remember."
"Seriously?" T-bone says.
"It's true, Tea" La Acoi chimes in. "To be fair, the auto-logs mess up all our names. It'll be real confusing for anyone reading over our posthumous accounts."
"Ack," Tea says, "you must be joking,"
"Why the dismayed alarm?" Ack asks. Tea stares back.
"You're right," Ack says. "You almost certainly endanger the world's tea supply with your tea-drinking habits alone. Think of the socio-economic chaos that will cause."
"Now see here--" Tea starts before being interrupted by Yelsh.
"Focus, people!" Yelsh's interruption echoes in the space. The silence afterwards hangs heavy over everyone.
"No need to yell," Hog mutters.
Tea checks her scanner, looks around, and says, "We're nearing the Ruins now."
"I still vote we scale the cliffs," Hog whispers dramatically.
Ack snorts. "Feel free to try. One less mouth to feed once we start rationing."
"Rationing? As in, less food?" Hog looks even more horrified than when they faced the tunneling horrors.
"How can you tell, Tea?" Yelsh brings them back to the task at hand. "Is it your scanner?"
"No," Tea answers.
"Is it the strange pulsating red veins along the leaves surrounding us?"
"Logical, but also no," Tea replies again.
"Is it the sudden lack of ambient sound due to a lack of local animal life around us?"
"Still no," Tea answers.
Yelsh appears stumped for a moment, then thrusts a finger up in an aha moment. "Is it Hog's even paler pallor?"
"Try saying that ten times fast," Ack mutters.
Hog, eager for any distraction, starts chanting, "Paler pallor, paler pallor, paler pallor--"
"Not you," Ack retorts in annoyance.
"Why?" Yelsh narrows his eyes at the group's xenopsychologist.
Ack shrugs. "Gives me some insight into how stressed you are right now. We don't need our fearless leader hiding everything he's feeling until breaking down without warning in the middle of the ruins."
Yelsh's reply is as dry as the jungle is damp. "Your concern is noted."
"So how do you know we're nearing the Ruins, Tea?" Hog asks, eyes wide.
Tea gestures. "This big obvious sign saying Ruins."
Everyone stares at it. It's a placard clearly placed by one of the lost archaeological teams that originally explored the Ruins.
"Oh yeah, that would do it," Ack nods.
"What's that noise?" Hog jumps.
Tea frowns and turns her scanner in that direction. "Incoming signatures. Bipedal, shambling..."
Yelsh says, "If you tell me we're going to face zombies, I--"
A bunch of skeletons appear out of the underbrush, shambling towards them with bony claws outstretched.
"I wasn't," Tea says calmly. "Fascinating bits of biological architecture here."
"Eeeep! Undead!" Hog starts trying to scramble up a tree.
"They're not undead," Tea says.
"Sure look like it," Yelsh says, flicking on his laser pointer to shine right at the advancing skeletons' feet. The skeletons pause and start following the red dot as Yelsh leads them around by the nose.
"They're being animated by the fungus growing on the osseus surfaces," Tea notes.
"Hack them apart with your pickaxe," Yelsh orders Hog, whose face tightens in fear before he obeys, hesitantly trudging towards the distracted skeletons.
"No, not yet!" Ack protests. "I'm discovering so much about their behavior patterns!" He's observing the skeletons as they fruitlessly try to catch the red dot. "Fungus with a non-sapient consciousness of its own, even if it is mostly instinctual! The papers I could write on this!"
"I still vote we scale the cliffs," Hog whispers dramatically.
Ack snorts. "Feel free to try. One less mouth to feed once we start rationing."
"Rationing? As in, less food?" Hog looks even more horrified than when they faced the tunneling horrors.
"How can you tell, Tea?" Yelsh brings them back to the task at hand. "Is it your scanner?"
"No," Tea answers.
"Is it the strange pulsating red veins along the leaves surrounding us?"
"Logical, but also no," Tea replies again.
"Is it the sudden lack of ambient sound due to a lack of local animal life around us?"
"Still no," Tea answers.
Yelsh appears stumped for a moment, then thrusts a finger up in an aha moment. "Is it Hog's even paler pallor?"
"Try saying that ten times fast," Ack mutters.
Hog, eager for any distraction, starts chanting, "Paler pallor, paler pallor, paler pallor--"
"Not you," Ack retorts in annoyance.
"Why?" Yelsh narrows his eyes at the group's xenopsychologist.
Ack shrugs. "Gives me some insight into how stressed you are right now. We don't need our fearless leader hiding everything he's feeling until breaking down without warning in the middle of the ruins."
Yelsh's reply is as dry as the jungle is damp. "Your concern is noted."
"So how do you know we're nearing the Ruins, Tea?" Hog asks, eyes wide.
Tea gestures. "This big obvious sign saying Ruins."
Everyone stares at it. It's a placard clearly placed by one of the lost archaeological teams that originally explored the Ruins.
"Oh yeah, that would do it," Ack nods.
"What's that noise?" Hog jumps.
Tea frowns and turns her scanner in that direction. "Incoming signatures. Bipedal, shambling..."
Yelsh says, "If you tell me we're going to face zombies, I--"
A bunch of skeletons appear out of the underbrush, shambling towards them with bony claws outstretched.
"I wasn't," Tea says calmly. "Fascinating bits of biological architecture here."
"Eeeep! Undead!" Hog starts trying to scramble up a tree.
"They're not undead," Tea says.
"Sure look like it," Yelsh says, flicking on his laser pointer to shine right at the advancing skeletons' feet. The skeletons pause and start following the red dot as Yelsh leads them around by the nose.
"They're being animated by the fungus growing on the osseus surfaces," Tea notes.
"Hack them apart with your pickaxe," Yelsh orders Hog, whose face tightens in fear before he obeys, hesitantly trudging towards the distracted skeletons.
"No, not yet!" Ack protests. "I'm discovering so much about their behavior patterns!" He's observing the skeletons as they fruitlessly try to catch the red dot. "Fungus with a non-sapient consciousness of its own, even if it is mostly instinctual! The papers I could write on this!"
The skeletons continue to follow the laser pointer around the clearing.
"Interesting," Ack says, "The mycelium must have been ingested by the archaeological team. The fungus grew into their muscles and bones, eventually controlling them"
"Enough rambling about zombie mushrooms," Yelsh says, "Kill the stupid things"
Hog dispatches the skeletons with quick swipes of their pickaxe.
"Oh well," Ack says "On to the Ruins"
The group look at the metal structure. Strands of red mist coil around the beams and girders, like overgrown boas.
"In we go" Ack says, flatly.
The group walks to the open doors, and then through them.
"Interesting," Ack says, "The mycelium must have been ingested by the archaeological team. The fungus grew into their muscles and bones, eventually controlling them"
"Enough rambling about zombie mushrooms," Yelsh says, "Kill the stupid things"
Hog dispatches the skeletons with quick swipes of their pickaxe.
"Oh well," Ack says "On to the Ruins"
The group look at the metal structure. Strands of red mist coil around the beams and girders, like overgrown boas.
"In we go" Ack says, flatly.
The group walks to the open doors, and then through them.
The doors swing shut with a loud clang behind them. Hog leaps into Ack's arms.
Ack: "Abnormal stress response. Now get off me."
He drops Hog to the ground, who quickly stands up and brandishes his pickaxe, looking around fearfully.
Tea: "Not getting any good readings from the scanner. Something about the metal of these walls is interfering."
Yelsh: "Ack, give us a look."
Ack tosses a flare away from them, and it lights up an expansive chamber with coils of red mist curling around everything. It slowly twines across the floor and starts coiling around their ankles and lower legs.
Hog: "Get it off me, get it off me!"
He swings fruitlessly at the red mist, but fails to do anything. Instead of dispersing, it starts coiling around the head of the pickaxe.
Yelsh: "What does your scanner make of this mist?"
Tea: "It's not poisonous, toxic, acidic, or radioactive, so far as I can tell. But there are some strange compounds in its molecular structure, I don't recognize them."
Suddenly the mist recedes from them with a sharp hiss. Everyone freezes.
Then they hear clacking and chittering, getting louder and closer.
Hog: "Oh no, more of those giant ant things!"
Yelsh: "Relax. It's not them."
Hog slumps in relief.
Hog: "Thank goodness!"
Yelsh: "It sounds faster and bigger, after all."
Hog leaps into Ack's arms again, or tries to. Ack deftly sidesteps, and Hog lands on the ground with a thud. A tendril of mist reaches out for him, coils sinuously around his waist - and then YANKS. As if suddenly solid, it pulls Hog away into the darkness with a rapid furling of itself.
Hog: "HHHHEEEEEllllllppppppppp!"
Before the others can react, the approaching creature they heard appears out of the shadows, rearing up before them...
Ack: "Abnormal stress response. Now get off me."
He drops Hog to the ground, who quickly stands up and brandishes his pickaxe, looking around fearfully.
Tea: "Not getting any good readings from the scanner. Something about the metal of these walls is interfering."
Yelsh: "Ack, give us a look."
Ack tosses a flare away from them, and it lights up an expansive chamber with coils of red mist curling around everything. It slowly twines across the floor and starts coiling around their ankles and lower legs.
Hog: "Get it off me, get it off me!"
He swings fruitlessly at the red mist, but fails to do anything. Instead of dispersing, it starts coiling around the head of the pickaxe.
Yelsh: "What does your scanner make of this mist?"
Tea: "It's not poisonous, toxic, acidic, or radioactive, so far as I can tell. But there are some strange compounds in its molecular structure, I don't recognize them."
Suddenly the mist recedes from them with a sharp hiss. Everyone freezes.
Then they hear clacking and chittering, getting louder and closer.
Hog: "Oh no, more of those giant ant things!"
Yelsh: "Relax. It's not them."
Hog slumps in relief.
Hog: "Thank goodness!"
Yelsh: "It sounds faster and bigger, after all."
Hog leaps into Ack's arms again, or tries to. Ack deftly sidesteps, and Hog lands on the ground with a thud. A tendril of mist reaches out for him, coils sinuously around his waist - and then YANKS. As if suddenly solid, it pulls Hog away into the darkness with a rapid furling of itself.
Hog: "HHHHEEEEEllllllppppppppp!"
Before the others can react, the approaching creature they heard appears out of the shadows, rearing up before them...
The creature resembles a humanoid mass of fungi, with trails of the Corruption coming from its eyes
Tea shoots the aberration. It screams, and red mist spews out of the bullet hole. The mist suddenly stops, and the thing turns away, and walks away towards were hog vanished. Hog emerges, with no apparent injury, still holding the pickaxe.
Hog: "No no no stay away"
A stream of mist suddenly rears out of the darkness above Hog. Before any of them can react, it drags them back into the darkness
Hog: "Aaa-"
Hog walks out of the darkness, red tendrils trailing out of their eyes. They raise the pickaxe.
Hog: "NO NO IM SORRY BUT IT"
The mist around Hog grows more substantial.
Hog, Corrupted: "AIEEEEEEEEEE!"
Yelsh: "Hog, don't-"
Hog charges, pickaxe raised
Hog, Corrupted: "AAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Tea shoots the aberration. It screams, and red mist spews out of the bullet hole. The mist suddenly stops, and the thing turns away, and walks away towards were hog vanished. Hog emerges, with no apparent injury, still holding the pickaxe.
Hog: "No no no stay away"
A stream of mist suddenly rears out of the darkness above Hog. Before any of them can react, it drags them back into the darkness
Hog: "Aaa-"
Hog walks out of the darkness, red tendrils trailing out of their eyes. They raise the pickaxe.
Hog: "NO NO IM SORRY BUT IT"
The mist around Hog grows more substantial.
Hog, Corrupted: "AIEEEEEEEEEE!"
Yelsh: "Hog, don't-"
Hog charges, pickaxe raised
Hog, Corrupted: "AAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The group runs through the dark rooms, the sound of Hog' s footsteps getting quieter.
Yelsh: whew. I think we lost them
Ack: still one less person to feed when we start rationing
Tea looks angrily at Ack at that remark
Tea: Well this place looks mildly defendable. Lets camp.
The group begins the process of camping for the night
Yelsh: whew. I think we lost them
Ack: still one less person to feed when we start rationing
Tea looks angrily at Ack at that remark
Tea: Well this place looks mildly defendable. Lets camp.
The group begins the process of camping for the night
Prayer
Tea: “Are you… praying?”
Yelsh opened one of his eyes.
Yelsh: “Yes.”
Tea: “You don’t really think some deity is going to swoop down and save us, do you?”
Yelsh: “No. I’m praying for our lost friend, may his soul go to whatever afterlife he believed in.”
Tea: “You think there’s no way to free them from this Corruption?”
Yelsh: “Has anyone else come back?”
The two sat in silence for a moment, but it was disturbed by the sudden snoring of La Acoi.
Tea: “He has the right idea, though. You should get some rest too, I’m on watch.”
Tea moved to the edge of their perch. They had found a small cave with a raised plateau that overlooked the room, the only way up and down it was a short three-metre climb. Yelsh settled down against a rock and watched Tea gaze down at the room below as he drifted into an uneasy sleep.
Yelsh opened one of his eyes.
Yelsh: “Yes.”
Tea: “You don’t really think some deity is going to swoop down and save us, do you?”
Yelsh: “No. I’m praying for our lost friend, may his soul go to whatever afterlife he believed in.”
Tea: “You think there’s no way to free them from this Corruption?”
Yelsh: “Has anyone else come back?”
The two sat in silence for a moment, but it was disturbed by the sudden snoring of La Acoi.
Tea: “He has the right idea, though. You should get some rest too, I’m on watch.”
Tea moved to the edge of their perch. They had found a small cave with a raised plateau that overlooked the room, the only way up and down it was a short three-metre climb. Yelsh settled down against a rock and watched Tea gaze down at the room below as he drifted into an uneasy sleep.
La Acoi and Yelsh woke the next morning and looked around to find Tea was gone.
Ack was silent this time about rationing. Were they really down to only the two of them? His sarcastic defense mechanism was shattered. Heavy bags were under his eyes after a night of pretending to sleep while stifling tears.
Yelsh broke the silence.
Yelsh: "We should get going."
His voice was callous, harsh - their camradarie broken with the loss of their teammates.
Ack nodded quietly, then looked down at his scanner. His eyes went wide.
Ack: "Yelsh... wait a minute... Look at this."
Yelsh walked over and glanced down at the scanner. His eyebrows smashed together and his face contorted into a hard frown.
Yelsh: "It's broken, ignore it. C'mon help me clear the foliage off the entrance."
The entrance to the cave had become covered in a thick mycelium that spread out over it like a web with multiple cascading layers. Without the pickaxe it took a long time to clear, but it didn't take much before they both stepped back in horror at what they saw on the other side.
Yelsh: "It's... It's impossible..."
Ack: "So it's not broken..."
Before them where the ruins of Deaths Net once stood, was a large factory with smoke stacks billowing pink fumes. Worker drones moved around carrying crates containing rows of clear canisters, filled with what looked like a red liquid.
Ack and Yelsh both looked down again at the scanner. The digital numbers in the corner of the screen that were powered by an internal atomic cloud showed unreadable symbols where the date and time should have been.
They both looked at each other in equal wide eyed amazement. How much time had passed? Did Tea escape?
They didn't need to say the words. Their faces spoke for themselves. They looked again out the porthole they cleared through the mycelium web, at a world which had completely changed.
Ack was silent this time about rationing. Were they really down to only the two of them? His sarcastic defense mechanism was shattered. Heavy bags were under his eyes after a night of pretending to sleep while stifling tears.
Yelsh broke the silence.
Yelsh: "We should get going."
His voice was callous, harsh - their camradarie broken with the loss of their teammates.
Ack nodded quietly, then looked down at his scanner. His eyes went wide.
Ack: "Yelsh... wait a minute... Look at this."
Yelsh walked over and glanced down at the scanner. His eyebrows smashed together and his face contorted into a hard frown.
Yelsh: "It's broken, ignore it. C'mon help me clear the foliage off the entrance."
The entrance to the cave had become covered in a thick mycelium that spread out over it like a web with multiple cascading layers. Without the pickaxe it took a long time to clear, but it didn't take much before they both stepped back in horror at what they saw on the other side.
Yelsh: "It's... It's impossible..."
Ack: "So it's not broken..."
Before them where the ruins of Deaths Net once stood, was a large factory with smoke stacks billowing pink fumes. Worker drones moved around carrying crates containing rows of clear canisters, filled with what looked like a red liquid.
Ack and Yelsh both looked down again at the scanner. The digital numbers in the corner of the screen that were powered by an internal atomic cloud showed unreadable symbols where the date and time should have been.
They both looked at each other in equal wide eyed amazement. How much time had passed? Did Tea escape?
They didn't need to say the words. Their faces spoke for themselves. They looked again out the porthole they cleared through the mycelium web, at a world which had completely changed.
Welcome to the Plot Hole! What brings you here? Glad to have you :)
***
The previous night.
So to speak.
Tea restlessly waved the barrel of her laser pistol back and forth from her perch at the lip of the cave, ready to blast anything that approached them. Yelsh was sleeping like a log - somehow - while Ack was shifting restlessly, but his even breathing seemed to indicate he'd fallen into exhausted, if uneasy, slumber.
A faint hiss drew her attention down below, where a streamer of red mist meandered among the ruins. Tea tensed, but the mist didn't seem to be heading their way. After a moment, she grabbed her scanner and tried to get a detailed breakdown of it again.
"I just don't understand it," she murmured to herself, examining the readings. "They appear unstable, but not in any way that makes sense. Almost as if..." She trailed off, dawning horror in her tone. "As if they're aging backwards."
Minor temporal phenomena were rare and poorly understood, but some had been documented. Groves where someone could spend a day and emerge weeks later, a 857-second time loop caused by a failed physics experiment one time, which hadn't been replicated since. Could the entire Ruins be subject to a temporal anomaly? If so, this was on a larger scale than any other previously documented time shenanigans.
She scanned other materials within range of the device, from the cavern walls to the ruined pillars below, but none of them exhibited the same temporal anomalousness. "Hypothesis: circumstantial evidence indicates that the mist is either the only thing affected by the temporal anomaly - or is the cause of it." She spoke by habit, even though she didn't have her personal recorder with her, having lost it in their flight through the ruins earlier.
An odd susurrus that sounded much closer hissed into her ears. Alarmed, she looked up from the scanner and glanced around. Nothing down below. Nothing upwards either. Frowning, she looked back down at the scanner, fiddling with its controls as she turned and walked back into the cave.
The suddenly louder hiss startled her. Jerking her head up from the scanner, she saw that the red mist was seeping out of the cavern walls! "No!" She yelped. In a panic, she dropped the scanner and leapt back. Just in time.
She'd opened her mouth to wake Yelsh and Ack, but the mist had billowed outward all of sudden, covering the small campsite in its entirety as Yelsh stumbled backwards away from it. She nearly fell off the lip of the cavern opening, and risked a glance down and behind her to see if she could climb down quickly enough to escape, but looking back at the red mist revealed it to have completely disappeared as quickly as it had come.
The campsite, and the two men sleeping in it, were gone.
***
The previous night.
So to speak.
Tea restlessly waved the barrel of her laser pistol back and forth from her perch at the lip of the cave, ready to blast anything that approached them. Yelsh was sleeping like a log - somehow - while Ack was shifting restlessly, but his even breathing seemed to indicate he'd fallen into exhausted, if uneasy, slumber.
A faint hiss drew her attention down below, where a streamer of red mist meandered among the ruins. Tea tensed, but the mist didn't seem to be heading their way. After a moment, she grabbed her scanner and tried to get a detailed breakdown of it again.
"I just don't understand it," she murmured to herself, examining the readings. "They appear unstable, but not in any way that makes sense. Almost as if..." She trailed off, dawning horror in her tone. "As if they're aging backwards."
Minor temporal phenomena were rare and poorly understood, but some had been documented. Groves where someone could spend a day and emerge weeks later, a 857-second time loop caused by a failed physics experiment one time, which hadn't been replicated since. Could the entire Ruins be subject to a temporal anomaly? If so, this was on a larger scale than any other previously documented time shenanigans.
She scanned other materials within range of the device, from the cavern walls to the ruined pillars below, but none of them exhibited the same temporal anomalousness. "Hypothesis: circumstantial evidence indicates that the mist is either the only thing affected by the temporal anomaly - or is the cause of it." She spoke by habit, even though she didn't have her personal recorder with her, having lost it in their flight through the ruins earlier.
An odd susurrus that sounded much closer hissed into her ears. Alarmed, she looked up from the scanner and glanced around. Nothing down below. Nothing upwards either. Frowning, she looked back down at the scanner, fiddling with its controls as she turned and walked back into the cave.
The suddenly louder hiss startled her. Jerking her head up from the scanner, she saw that the red mist was seeping out of the cavern walls! "No!" She yelped. In a panic, she dropped the scanner and leapt back. Just in time.
She'd opened her mouth to wake Yelsh and Ack, but the mist had billowed outward all of sudden, covering the small campsite in its entirety as Yelsh stumbled backwards away from it. She nearly fell off the lip of the cavern opening, and risked a glance down and behind her to see if she could climb down quickly enough to escape, but looking back at the red mist revealed it to have completely disappeared as quickly as it had come.
The campsite, and the two men sleeping in it, were gone.
{{Thank you for the welcome, nothing specific in particular, just stumbled upon the site. =D }}
***
Tea ran a hand through her hair and paced back and forth. Her other hand held her laser pistol with a white knuckled grip.
Tea: "What is going on here... Earlier the red mist pulled Hog away and they came back... corrupted. Now it took Yelsh and Ack, but they just disappeared... The same mist turned rivers to blood, or so it appeared to be blood, we never did get to analyze it..."
Tea stopped her pacing and holstered the pistol. She pulled out her scanner again, pointing it toward the mist in the distance.
Tea: "A cluster of miniscule or tiny organisms acting with a group intelligence is possible. Fungi exhibit similar behavior, sometimes growing for miles underground with interconnected networks. It doesn't explain the temporal effects, but the active interaction with the environment, and they way it corrupted Hog... these are signs of an intelligence."
The readings partially confirmed her hypothesis. Tiny electrical signals moved throughout the mist. The scanner sent out a pulse that performed atomic level analysis. The mist exhibited similar characteristics seen in siphonophores, where each zooid interacts with the other to form a collective superorganism. Yet the low level structure was more similar to mycelium, mimicking neural networks, but more instinctive in behavior.
Tea: "This still doesn't explain the temporal effect. Unless..."
Tea changed a setting on the incredible multifunction scanner. A thin harmless laser shot out and cross-sected tendrils of mist writhing in the distance. The analysis slowly streamed onto the screen, stressing the onboard quantum processors. The superposition effects and wave function of particle interactions at the subatomic level were failing; showing results that seemed impossible. It was as if the particles were being affected by another force or field that her scanner couldn't detect.
Tea: "Wait... could it be... what if... the mist colony is a multi-dimensional organism?"
***
Tea ran a hand through her hair and paced back and forth. Her other hand held her laser pistol with a white knuckled grip.
Tea: "What is going on here... Earlier the red mist pulled Hog away and they came back... corrupted. Now it took Yelsh and Ack, but they just disappeared... The same mist turned rivers to blood, or so it appeared to be blood, we never did get to analyze it..."
Tea stopped her pacing and holstered the pistol. She pulled out her scanner again, pointing it toward the mist in the distance.
Tea: "A cluster of miniscule or tiny organisms acting with a group intelligence is possible. Fungi exhibit similar behavior, sometimes growing for miles underground with interconnected networks. It doesn't explain the temporal effects, but the active interaction with the environment, and they way it corrupted Hog... these are signs of an intelligence."
The readings partially confirmed her hypothesis. Tiny electrical signals moved throughout the mist. The scanner sent out a pulse that performed atomic level analysis. The mist exhibited similar characteristics seen in siphonophores, where each zooid interacts with the other to form a collective superorganism. Yet the low level structure was more similar to mycelium, mimicking neural networks, but more instinctive in behavior.
Tea: "This still doesn't explain the temporal effect. Unless..."
Tea changed a setting on the incredible multifunction scanner. A thin harmless laser shot out and cross-sected tendrils of mist writhing in the distance. The analysis slowly streamed onto the screen, stressing the onboard quantum processors. The superposition effects and wave function of particle interactions at the subatomic level were failing; showing results that seemed impossible. It was as if the particles were being affected by another force or field that her scanner couldn't detect.
Tea: "Wait... could it be... what if... the mist colony is a multi-dimensional organism?"
Cool! =D I encourage you to check out our "flagship" story if you have any interest, The Never-ending Story Thread 3-D, which is just a wacky (but at times epic) tale, and you can't mess it up, we embrace plot holes for the zaniness XD You don't even have to read it before posting, other than maybe the latest two or three posts. The latest story arc is that the heroes (and some B-list villains) have been audited and have had to return to university for remedial hero (or villain) courses XD
***
Ack: "Now I wish I'd paid more attention when Tea started rambling about temporal anomalies during that late shift we shared a few months ago."
Yelsh: "But are we in the future? Or the past?"
Ack's eyes widened.
Ack: "I hadn't considered that! Do any of these architectural lines look similar to the Death's Net ruins from, well, our time? Architecture's not my forte."
Yelsh: "I thought architecture was a great insight into the xenopsychology of the beings who created them."
Ack: "It's still not my forte. Certainly not enough to do any kind of analysis for a first contact with a species that's not remotely humanoid."
Yelsh grunted, and surveyed the mycelium-ridden landscape, fighting the creeping horror gnawing in his gut.
Yelsh: "Maybe. Too much mycelium in the way to be sure. We have more practical concerns right now."
Ack: "Like staying hidden and not getting eaten."
Yelsh: "Like foraging for food, more like."
Ack paled. After a moment, he turned to regard the cave, which looked almost exactly as he remembered from - well, not last night, but what was last night for him.
Ack: "Maybe it'd be better to stay here? If something about this place shifted us here, it might be able to shift us back, right?"
Yelsh paused.
Yelsh: "That's a possibility. But it's not one we can depend on. We need to find sources of food and water."
Ack: "That the giant spider-ants aren't already monopolizing. Won't do us any good to find food and water if that's where they all go."
Yelsh: "Haven't you dreamt of leading a first-contact scenario?"
Ack: "Not when my survival is at stake, in another time period."
The two men carefully exited the cave. The lip of the cave was level with the ground outside, rather than three meters up as they remembered - an argument for them being in the past, with less erosion having occurred at this point. Neither brought it up, grimly hugging the cliff face as they did their best to avoid the potentially hostile, altogether unknown aliens, and hoped they could find viable sources of food and water.
***
Ack: "Now I wish I'd paid more attention when Tea started rambling about temporal anomalies during that late shift we shared a few months ago."
Yelsh: "But are we in the future? Or the past?"
Ack's eyes widened.
Ack: "I hadn't considered that! Do any of these architectural lines look similar to the Death's Net ruins from, well, our time? Architecture's not my forte."
Yelsh: "I thought architecture was a great insight into the xenopsychology of the beings who created them."
Ack: "It's still not my forte. Certainly not enough to do any kind of analysis for a first contact with a species that's not remotely humanoid."
Yelsh grunted, and surveyed the mycelium-ridden landscape, fighting the creeping horror gnawing in his gut.
Yelsh: "Maybe. Too much mycelium in the way to be sure. We have more practical concerns right now."
Ack: "Like staying hidden and not getting eaten."
Yelsh: "Like foraging for food, more like."
Ack paled. After a moment, he turned to regard the cave, which looked almost exactly as he remembered from - well, not last night, but what was last night for him.
Ack: "Maybe it'd be better to stay here? If something about this place shifted us here, it might be able to shift us back, right?"
Yelsh paused.
Yelsh: "That's a possibility. But it's not one we can depend on. We need to find sources of food and water."
Ack: "That the giant spider-ants aren't already monopolizing. Won't do us any good to find food and water if that's where they all go."
Yelsh: "Haven't you dreamt of leading a first-contact scenario?"
Ack: "Not when my survival is at stake, in another time period."
The two men carefully exited the cave. The lip of the cave was level with the ground outside, rather than three meters up as they remembered - an argument for them being in the past, with less erosion having occurred at this point. Neither brought it up, grimly hugging the cliff face as they did their best to avoid the potentially hostile, altogether unknown aliens, and hoped they could find viable sources of food and water.
((XD sounds great I'll go check it out.))
***
Tea's stomach grumbled. The strange fungi colonies growing everywhere were starting to look appetizing. Maybe even a nibble of mycelium...
She licked her lips then shook her head and turned away, putting her arms across her stomach.
Tea: "Ok, what are my options... The research base is...", She tapped away at the scanner, "40 clicks that way... Scheiße."
She put away the scanner and put her hands on her hips. The cave wasn't high enough to see past the short horizon on this blasted planet. Not that it would do her much good on Earth either, the research station was at least a day's hike away. She might be able to make that trip without food or water, but it was risky.
Her thoughts went back to the "rivers of blood" again.
Tea: "If I gather readings by alternating between the spectrometer and spectrophotometer settings, I might be able to analyze the water without a sample... but I'll at least need to get line of sight again. That means I'll have to go back down there..."
She sighed and holstered her scanner on her other thigh opposite her laser pistol. She climbed down the cave entrance, and gave a wide berth to the Death's Net, keeping her distance from the writhing tendrils which wiggled around the area like earthworms surfacing after the rain.
She found a line of sight to one of the red rivers, and crouched amid some local fauna, aiming her scanner at the water. She pushed a few buttons and the scanner made a clicking noise every few seconds, shooting out various wavelengths as it attempted to analyze the water from a distance.
Tea: "This is definitely not blood... OR water... My my, what are you..."
***
Tea's stomach grumbled. The strange fungi colonies growing everywhere were starting to look appetizing. Maybe even a nibble of mycelium...
She licked her lips then shook her head and turned away, putting her arms across her stomach.
Tea: "Ok, what are my options... The research base is...", She tapped away at the scanner, "40 clicks that way... Scheiße."
She put away the scanner and put her hands on her hips. The cave wasn't high enough to see past the short horizon on this blasted planet. Not that it would do her much good on Earth either, the research station was at least a day's hike away. She might be able to make that trip without food or water, but it was risky.
Her thoughts went back to the "rivers of blood" again.
Tea: "If I gather readings by alternating between the spectrometer and spectrophotometer settings, I might be able to analyze the water without a sample... but I'll at least need to get line of sight again. That means I'll have to go back down there..."
She sighed and holstered her scanner on her other thigh opposite her laser pistol. She climbed down the cave entrance, and gave a wide berth to the Death's Net, keeping her distance from the writhing tendrils which wiggled around the area like earthworms surfacing after the rain.
She found a line of sight to one of the red rivers, and crouched amid some local fauna, aiming her scanner at the water. She pushed a few buttons and the scanner made a clicking noise every few seconds, shooting out various wavelengths as it attempted to analyze the water from a distance.
Tea: "This is definitely not blood... OR water... My my, what are you..."
Tea: "Could it be. . . dimensional slurry? Particles flowing across multiple dimensions? Are these some sort of veins for this hypothetical multi-dimensional organism? And how do the spider-ants play a role in all this?"
Hog: "I thought you'd never ask."
Tea looks up in surprise, to see the missing Hog standing on the other side of the river from her. He looks haggard and ragged, his clothes are more ripped than intact, he clutches his disturbingly pickaxe close, and a crazed scarlet glint still shines in his eyes.
Tea: "Hog! I thought you were dead!"
Hog: "Dead? Me? DEAD?!"
He shouts in anger, but then changes to gibbering, mad laughter.
Hog: "Don't be silly. Of course I'm not dead. You're the dead one."
Tea: "Hog, I don't know what's happened to you, but clear it's affect your mind. Just take a deep breath."
Hog: "YOU'RE NOT ACK! YOU'RE NOT A PSYCHOLOGIST! STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!"
Tea winces. She kind of wishes she had any psychological training like Ack. It might be handy now.
Hog abruptly calms down.
Hog: "But since you're not Ack, that means I can like you!"
Tea: "Um. . . That's good. . . right?"
Hog: "Yes! Don't worry, Tea! I'll rescue you and bring you back to life from this dead world!"
In a feat of inhuman strength, he leaps across the river, wildly swinging his pickaxe. Tea yelps and dodges. Her mind races. Hog is clearly strengthened by whatever corruption has taken hold of him, but he recognizes her, so he's not completely gone. Think, how can she use this?
It comes to her as she barely manages to dodge another blow. She reaches into her satchel and pulls a bag of chips.
Tea: "Here, Hog! Food! Food for you, from me to you!"
Hog pauses, and licks his lips.
Hog: "Food?"
Soon, Hog has devoured the bag of chips and sits on his haunches next to Tea like a happy dog.
Tea: "Could really use some psych training about now. . ."
Hog: "I thought you'd never ask."
Tea looks up in surprise, to see the missing Hog standing on the other side of the river from her. He looks haggard and ragged, his clothes are more ripped than intact, he clutches his disturbingly pickaxe close, and a crazed scarlet glint still shines in his eyes.
Tea: "Hog! I thought you were dead!"
Hog: "Dead? Me? DEAD?!"
He shouts in anger, but then changes to gibbering, mad laughter.
Hog: "Don't be silly. Of course I'm not dead. You're the dead one."
Tea: "Hog, I don't know what's happened to you, but clear it's affect your mind. Just take a deep breath."
Hog: "YOU'RE NOT ACK! YOU'RE NOT A PSYCHOLOGIST! STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!"
Tea winces. She kind of wishes she had any psychological training like Ack. It might be handy now.
Hog abruptly calms down.
Hog: "But since you're not Ack, that means I can like you!"
Tea: "Um. . . That's good. . . right?"
Hog: "Yes! Don't worry, Tea! I'll rescue you and bring you back to life from this dead world!"
In a feat of inhuman strength, he leaps across the river, wildly swinging his pickaxe. Tea yelps and dodges. Her mind races. Hog is clearly strengthened by whatever corruption has taken hold of him, but he recognizes her, so he's not completely gone. Think, how can she use this?
It comes to her as she barely manages to dodge another blow. She reaches into her satchel and pulls a bag of chips.
Tea: "Here, Hog! Food! Food for you, from me to you!"
Hog pauses, and licks his lips.
Hog: "Food?"
Soon, Hog has devoured the bag of chips and sits on his haunches next to Tea like a happy dog.
Tea: "Could really use some psych training about now. . ."
After greedily scarfing down Tea's remaining freeze-dried chips, Hog seemed satisfied. Though it was hard to tell exactly since he stopped speaking words. He stayed haunched on all fours and hopped up and down excitedly making ape-like noises.
Tea: "You liked those huh Hog? You sure did hog them down."
Hog: "hoo-hoo-hoo"
While Tea and Hog started their trek to the research station, Hog hopping happily behind on his haunches, she had spotted an old research site that must have been setup as a remote station for Death's Net. She had been fiddling with a computer attached to a small sattelite dish for quite some time. Scavenging the site revealed a few more freeze dried chips, some of which she actually got to eat after an 80/20 split with Hog.
They were a quarter of the way to the research station, but she was worried about Hog wandering off or his condition worsening, and the small comm equipment afforded the chance to give the research base a heads up and possibly even meet them on the way. She excitedly tapped away at the screen after angling the antenna and sent a short-range transmission. It was a short pit-stop, and wouldn't take long to send a message. It was worth a shot.
Bill: "Whoa this signal is messy, Let me see if I can clear up some of this interference."
He fiddles with some knobs on the device, then finally pushes a button on the screen which rewinds back the signal, then presses play.
Tea's transmission: "Stardate ... ccchhhhh, bzzz, bzz, ccchhh... from Valles Marineris on Mars. I've lost contact... cchhh, bzz... other two researchers. Ack and Yelsh were... cchhhh, chhhh... I'm reunited with Hog... cchhh, chhhh... unrecoverable.... bzz, bzzz. Death's Net... ccchhhh, cchhh, bzzz... multi-dimensional organism. Hog... ccchhh, cchhhh... chimpanzee... bzzz, bzzz... temporal effects... ccchhhh, cchhhh... red mist, bzz, ccchhhh, bzz... devolutionary or unstable side effects in his dna."
Bill: "Jumpin jiminy, did she say Death's Net? No one's been out there in ages... Why is there so much static, let me see if I can triangulate the signal."
Tea: "You liked those huh Hog? You sure did hog them down."
Hog: "hoo-hoo-hoo"
While Tea and Hog started their trek to the research station, Hog hopping happily behind on his haunches, she had spotted an old research site that must have been setup as a remote station for Death's Net. She had been fiddling with a computer attached to a small sattelite dish for quite some time. Scavenging the site revealed a few more freeze dried chips, some of which she actually got to eat after an 80/20 split with Hog.
They were a quarter of the way to the research station, but she was worried about Hog wandering off or his condition worsening, and the small comm equipment afforded the chance to give the research base a heads up and possibly even meet them on the way. She excitedly tapped away at the screen after angling the antenna and sent a short-range transmission. It was a short pit-stop, and wouldn't take long to send a message. It was worth a shot.
***
At the remote research base, a man sitting at a monitoring station tapped on his legs with a pair of drumsticks while listening to loud music on a pair of headphones. The song is from the old earth era, in a genre once classified as death metal. He watches a dizzying array of small screens processing various signals on different spectrums and frequencies. He has on a nondescript blue jumpsuit and a white nametag that reads "BILL". One of the screens blips in a strange waveform and Bill recognizes the hertz frequency in the range of human speech. He pauses tapping his drumsticks and his eyes widen.Bill: "Whoa this signal is messy, Let me see if I can clear up some of this interference."
He fiddles with some knobs on the device, then finally pushes a button on the screen which rewinds back the signal, then presses play.
Tea's transmission: "Stardate ... ccchhhhh, bzzz, bzz, ccchhh... from Valles Marineris on Mars. I've lost contact... cchhh, bzz... other two researchers. Ack and Yelsh were... cchhhh, chhhh... I'm reunited with Hog... cchhh, chhhh... unrecoverable.... bzz, bzzz. Death's Net... ccchhhh, cchhh, bzzz... multi-dimensional organism. Hog... ccchhh, cchhhh... chimpanzee... bzzz, bzzz... temporal effects... ccchhhh, cchhhh... red mist, bzz, ccchhhh, bzz... devolutionary or unstable side effects in his dna."
Bill: "Jumpin jiminy, did she say Death's Net? No one's been out there in ages... Why is there so much static, let me see if I can triangulate the signal."
An open transport is soon flying across the Martian skies, from an orbital docking station towards the Death's Net ruins, after Bill called in the distress signal. One woman and three men are in the transport. The first man is a grizzled old pilot, who flies more by instinct than instrument. The second man is unimportant. The third man is a bespectacled greenhorn with a perfectly pressed suit.
Specs: "Sarge, it's against regulations not to be strapped in for a flight."
The woman, Sarge, doesn't answer, her thousand-yard stare scanning across the Martian horizon as if expecting a threat at any time. She takes a sip of her liquor rather than answering.
Specs tries again.
Specs: "Sarge, it's not safe if you--"
Sarge: "Nowhere safer than in my own skin."
Specs and the unimportant man shuffle in their seats uncomfortably. Rumor fly about Sarge's past, but no one knows for sure, and the one guy who had the nerve to ask her once came back from that conversation and immediately dropped out of boot camp.
Specs: "Drinking liquor on mission is against the regs too, Sarge."
Grizzled Old Pilot: "Stuff it, Specs. Regs are guard rails for people who need them. Sarge is the most dangerous woman alive. Just shut up and let her do your jobs for you."
Specs: "Do our jobs? Do we look like--"
Sarge: "You'll die otherwise. They always do."
She takes another sip.
Sarge: " 'Course, sometimes they die anyway."
Grizzled Old Pilot: "We're coming up on the source of the distress signal. What Bill managed to clean out out of the static indicates only two of the four researchers are there."
Sarge: "Better two than none."
Specs and the unimportant man are putting on their parachutes.
Specs: "Ready to go, Sarge?"
Sarge: "I'm always ready."
She leaps out of the transport towards the ground. Specs and the unimportant man stare after her, horrified.
Grizzled Old Pilot: "I still don't know how she does it, but she never needs a parachute. Out you go, men. The Death's Net is a Class-A forbidden zone, so I can't touch down in it, and I can't hover over it for more than 90 seconds. Go."
***
The next night, long into the past...
Ack: "That can't possibly be right."
The other men shrug. They're dressed in tatters of rugged old uniforms, old soldiers and researchers that were lost at Death's Net in the past. Now all here. Apparently they were pulled into the past, same as Ack and Yelsh.
Survivor Leader: "Hard to tell, the stars aren't right and salvaging clocks was the least of our worries."
Yelsh: "100 years without aging is hard to swallow, but no harder than time travel."
While foraging for safe sources of food and clean water, the two researchers had been found by one of the survivors, other people presumed lost in the ruins who had apparently been tugged back here too, and banded together.
And survived.
For a century.
Ack: "Forget that, I just want to get back home."
Survivor Leader: "We've tried. Haven't had any luck."
Yelsh: "But you say it's always from that cave when new people show up?"
Survivor Leader: "A cave. It's always from a cave. Not just that one. But Smithers here dropped out of that same one."
Smithers, a woman with an eyepatch, grunts as her name is called, but doesn't stop whittling some piece of wood with her knife.
Yelsh: "There must be some way to reverse the method somehow. If only Tea were here, she could figure something out."
Ack: "You know, I've been dying to ask. How do the spider-ants treat you? Are they hostile? Friendly?"
The survivors look blankly at them.
Survivor Leader: "Spider-ants?"
Ack and Yelsh stare back at them with concern.
Ack: "The giant alien monsters who look like crosses between spiders and ants? Infesting the whole place? Building things out of that weird red mycelium?"
The survivors look even more confused.
Smithers: "Think he means the giant teapot plants, boss."
Yelsh: "Teapot. . . plants?"
Survivor Leader: "Yeah, those giant plants that look like tea kettles. That weird hissing noise that sounds like a boiling kettle and lets out mist, throws off weird shadows, makes it seem like they move when they don't. Played tricks on our eyes several times."
Yelsh: "We haven't seen any of those."
Now it's the survivors' turn to look at Ack and Yelsh in concern.
Smithers: "You blind? They're gigantic. And everywhere."
Yelsh: "The spider-ants are the ones that are gigantic and everywhere."
Ack: "If there's two things that are both gigantic and ubiquitous, but each of us only sees one of them - then somehow we're seeing the same thing, but very differently."
Their conversation is brought to an abrupt halt when zing of a high-powered laser rifle is heard.
Survivor Leader: "Smithers! With me! We'll check it out. Everyone else, eyes sharp, no one goes anywhere alone."
Yelsh: "We're coming with you."
Survivor Leader: "Can't stop you. Don't get in the way."
Smithers: "We're only going to find a corpse. When our old laser rifles were still working and some of the men used the teapot plants for target practice, the blighters were barely sunburnt."
They trudge out of the little settlement in a massive hollow tree that the old survivors had made, through the mycelium forest, towards the sound of laser rifle.
Survivor Leader: "Those rifles are still going, Smithers. Maybe we won't find a corpse after all."
Yelsh: "Rifle."
Smithers: "Huh?"
Yelsh: "It's just one laser rifle, firing repeatedly."
Ack: "How can you tell?"
Yelsh: "It's the pitch, I--"
They all draw up short as they come into a clearing. Burning mycelium strands crisscross the air. The giant spider-ants are gone, apparently following the source of the laser shots, which carved a huge tunnel out of the mycelium across the clearing from them.
Sarge: "They're tough, but that red web stuff isn't. I just baited them away. Who are you lot, and are you who we're here to rescue?"
The veteran Sarge hefts her laser rifle as she looks at them, and pauses to take a swig from her liquor.
Ack: "Who're you?"
Yelsh: "Did you just come out of a cave near here?"
Sarge: "Aye. Cave. Red mist. New place. Red web stuff. Giant teapot plants."
Yelsh: "Wait, what was that last?"
Ack: "This could be a fascinating case study of--"
Yelsh: "Not now, Ack!"
Survivor Leader: "Why do you look so much like Smithers?"
Sarge screws the cap back on her liquor and glances at Smithers, but freezing.
Sarge: "Grandma?!"
Specs: "Sarge, it's against regulations not to be strapped in for a flight."
The woman, Sarge, doesn't answer, her thousand-yard stare scanning across the Martian horizon as if expecting a threat at any time. She takes a sip of her liquor rather than answering.
Specs tries again.
Specs: "Sarge, it's not safe if you--"
Sarge: "Nowhere safer than in my own skin."
Specs and the unimportant man shuffle in their seats uncomfortably. Rumor fly about Sarge's past, but no one knows for sure, and the one guy who had the nerve to ask her once came back from that conversation and immediately dropped out of boot camp.
Specs: "Drinking liquor on mission is against the regs too, Sarge."
Grizzled Old Pilot: "Stuff it, Specs. Regs are guard rails for people who need them. Sarge is the most dangerous woman alive. Just shut up and let her do your jobs for you."
Specs: "Do our jobs? Do we look like--"
Sarge: "You'll die otherwise. They always do."
She takes another sip.
Sarge: " 'Course, sometimes they die anyway."
Grizzled Old Pilot: "We're coming up on the source of the distress signal. What Bill managed to clean out out of the static indicates only two of the four researchers are there."
Sarge: "Better two than none."
Specs and the unimportant man are putting on their parachutes.
Specs: "Ready to go, Sarge?"
Sarge: "I'm always ready."
She leaps out of the transport towards the ground. Specs and the unimportant man stare after her, horrified.
Grizzled Old Pilot: "I still don't know how she does it, but she never needs a parachute. Out you go, men. The Death's Net is a Class-A forbidden zone, so I can't touch down in it, and I can't hover over it for more than 90 seconds. Go."
***
The next night, long into the past...
Ack: "That can't possibly be right."
The other men shrug. They're dressed in tatters of rugged old uniforms, old soldiers and researchers that were lost at Death's Net in the past. Now all here. Apparently they were pulled into the past, same as Ack and Yelsh.
Survivor Leader: "Hard to tell, the stars aren't right and salvaging clocks was the least of our worries."
Yelsh: "100 years without aging is hard to swallow, but no harder than time travel."
While foraging for safe sources of food and clean water, the two researchers had been found by one of the survivors, other people presumed lost in the ruins who had apparently been tugged back here too, and banded together.
And survived.
For a century.
Ack: "Forget that, I just want to get back home."
Survivor Leader: "We've tried. Haven't had any luck."
Yelsh: "But you say it's always from that cave when new people show up?"
Survivor Leader: "A cave. It's always from a cave. Not just that one. But Smithers here dropped out of that same one."
Smithers, a woman with an eyepatch, grunts as her name is called, but doesn't stop whittling some piece of wood with her knife.
Yelsh: "There must be some way to reverse the method somehow. If only Tea were here, she could figure something out."
Ack: "You know, I've been dying to ask. How do the spider-ants treat you? Are they hostile? Friendly?"
The survivors look blankly at them.
Survivor Leader: "Spider-ants?"
Ack and Yelsh stare back at them with concern.
Ack: "The giant alien monsters who look like crosses between spiders and ants? Infesting the whole place? Building things out of that weird red mycelium?"
The survivors look even more confused.
Smithers: "Think he means the giant teapot plants, boss."
Yelsh: "Teapot. . . plants?"
Survivor Leader: "Yeah, those giant plants that look like tea kettles. That weird hissing noise that sounds like a boiling kettle and lets out mist, throws off weird shadows, makes it seem like they move when they don't. Played tricks on our eyes several times."
Yelsh: "We haven't seen any of those."
Now it's the survivors' turn to look at Ack and Yelsh in concern.
Smithers: "You blind? They're gigantic. And everywhere."
Yelsh: "The spider-ants are the ones that are gigantic and everywhere."
Ack: "If there's two things that are both gigantic and ubiquitous, but each of us only sees one of them - then somehow we're seeing the same thing, but very differently."
Their conversation is brought to an abrupt halt when zing of a high-powered laser rifle is heard.
Survivor Leader: "Smithers! With me! We'll check it out. Everyone else, eyes sharp, no one goes anywhere alone."
Yelsh: "We're coming with you."
Survivor Leader: "Can't stop you. Don't get in the way."
Smithers: "We're only going to find a corpse. When our old laser rifles were still working and some of the men used the teapot plants for target practice, the blighters were barely sunburnt."
They trudge out of the little settlement in a massive hollow tree that the old survivors had made, through the mycelium forest, towards the sound of laser rifle.
Survivor Leader: "Those rifles are still going, Smithers. Maybe we won't find a corpse after all."
Yelsh: "Rifle."
Smithers: "Huh?"
Yelsh: "It's just one laser rifle, firing repeatedly."
Ack: "How can you tell?"
Yelsh: "It's the pitch, I--"
They all draw up short as they come into a clearing. Burning mycelium strands crisscross the air. The giant spider-ants are gone, apparently following the source of the laser shots, which carved a huge tunnel out of the mycelium across the clearing from them.
Sarge: "They're tough, but that red web stuff isn't. I just baited them away. Who are you lot, and are you who we're here to rescue?"
The veteran Sarge hefts her laser rifle as she looks at them, and pauses to take a swig from her liquor.
Ack: "Who're you?"
Yelsh: "Did you just come out of a cave near here?"
Sarge: "Aye. Cave. Red mist. New place. Red web stuff. Giant teapot plants."
Yelsh: "Wait, what was that last?"
Ack: "This could be a fascinating case study of--"
Yelsh: "Not now, Ack!"
Survivor Leader: "Why do you look so much like Smithers?"
Sarge screws the cap back on her liquor and glances at Smithers, but freezing.
Sarge: "Grandma?!"