Thank you.Still excellent, Rochey.
Heh, I don't think I'm anywhere near that good.Have you ever gotten anything published?
The Madness of Glacies Prima: Part 5 is here
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Sionnach Glic
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"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
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Sionnach Glic
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Thank you.Still excellent, Rochey.
Heh, thanks, but I don't think I'm anywhere near that good.Have you ever gotten anything published?
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
-
Sionnach Glic
- 4 Star Admiral
- Posts: 26014
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- Location: Poblacht na hÉireann, Baile Átha Cliath
Wow, thanks. 
*shrug* Maybe one of these days I'll make a stab at getting something published.
*shrug* Maybe one of these days I'll make a stab at getting something published.
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
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Sionnach Glic
- 4 Star Admiral
- Posts: 26014
- Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:58 pm
- Location: Poblacht na hÉireann, Baile Átha Cliath
Part 3. Rejoice, you're getting a two-part special today.
I have part 4 almost done, so providing GTA4 doesn't distract me for the next few hours, I'll throw that up sometime tonight.
As always, comments are appreciated.
------------------------------
Part 3: Dead World
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 16 hours after The Incident
3 minutes since Mission Start
Flynn hopped out of the dropship's hatch and onto the thick layer of snow that covered the ground as far as the eye could see. He sank up to the knee in the sea of snow, almost losing his balance. He moved out of the way to let the others disembark from the ship and paused to look around.
The marines had spread themselves out in a rough circle around the dropship, some crouching behind boulders that were half-burried in the snow. The landscape of Glacies Prima was a desolate wasteland. Nothing but snow, ice and mountains extending as far as the horizon. Flynn looked around to see if he could spot the outpost, but everything just looked the same to him: white.
"Nice place." Carter remarked as he stumbled through the snow towards Flynn, followed by Quinn who seemed far more at home in these conditions than any of the others.
"Yeah, the perfect ski-resort." Flynn replied.
He looked around at the small team and located who he was looking for, Connor, talking to Sergeant Hanson, who was looking at a display screen on a briefcase sized machine that he immediately identified as a portable scanner unit.
"....sure that there's nothing?" Connor was saying, concern evident in his voice.
"Nothing." Hanson confirmed, holding the scanner up higher so it could get a better reading. "Not a damn thing. Well, nothing we're reading as human, anyway. Plenty of those bugs, but no people."
"Right." Connor said with a sigh. Until now he had hoped whatever had happened here was just an equipment malfuction. But with the residents of the base missing..... "Look, we'd better get moving. I want to get to Outpost Alpha as soon as possible." Hanson nodded in agreement, then called the team together.
"Okay people, we've found nothing on sensors, so we're going to have to check out the base ASAP. The facility is just a mile in that direction." Hanson pointed towards a distant white hill that Flynn had simply presumed to be a rock formation. Now that he looked closer, he fancied that he could pick out a glint of metal here and there. "We still don't know what's going on, so I want all of you to stay sharp and keep your weapons ready. Understood?" There was chorus of "understood"s from the civilans and marines. Flynn noticed that Carter had raised his hand to get Hanson's attention. Hanson noticed it too. "What?" He asked bluntly.
"Well, you just said that there's no one around. Why the need for all the guns and stuff? It's just an empty complex. What's there to worry about?"
"No." The Sergeant corrected. "We think there's no one in there. There're ways of hiding from scanners, or jamming them entirely. So until we know for a fact that there's nothing there then I'm going to treat that place as if the goddamn legions of Hell are hold up inside. Understand?"
"Yeah, sure." Carter said, shrugging. He obviously didn't, but wasn't interested in arguing the matter any further.
"Good. Any other questions?" The group remained silent. "Good. Let's head out. Harrison, Strauss, on point. Sven and Sinderman watch the rear. You lot," He said, pointing at the knot of civilians. "stay in the centre of the group until I say otherwise. Eagle 1," He called into his helmet's comm unit, adressing the two marines crewing the shuttle. "we'll take it from here. Head back to the Europa."
If Hanson got any response then Flynn didn't hear it. Instead, the dropship's engines flared up, instantly vapourising the surounding snow and ice, and the craft shot off towards the orbiting starship, leaving the small group of investigators alone on the dead world of Glacies Prima.
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 16 hours after The Incident
48 minutes since Mission Start
Hanson dropped to the ground quickly behind some sort of half burried tractor vehicle and trained his binoculars on the outpost. The external defensive walls were almost invisible beneath the coating of snow it had gathered in the four and a half decades since there had last been any known life in the base. If someone was still occupying it, then they obviously weren't too interested in keeping the exits clear. Only one of the complex's buildings was visible over the top of the three metre tall steel wall. There were no lights on, and Hanson could see that the windows were broken. The perimiter towers that were erected at every entrance and corner of the base were in a similar condition. No sign of life, but signs of damage.
Things didn't look good. There was no sign of any of the base staff they had come to check up on. On the plus side, there was no indication that the base was anything but dead. Still, Hanson had quickly learned that complacency just got you killed quicker. Best to be careful.
"What do you think?" He asked Private Strauss, who had acompanied him ahead of the group to reconotoir the base's exterior.
"I think it's empty, Sir." He answered, also inspecting the base through his binoculars. "I think the only thing we need to worry about is how to get into the complex in the first place." He commented, gesturing at the large piles of snow that had built up around the entrances. Hanson frowned. The soldier had a point. Getting through all that wouldn't be easy.
Still, the first thing to do would be to get the team regrouped together. The place seemed safe, so it'd be fine to bring the civies up here as well. Maybe one of them would make themselves useful and find out a way to get through that didn't involve digging.
"Hanson to Sven." He called his second in command quietly over the comms. There was a moment of silence before he got a response.
"Sven here. Go ahead."
"Corporal, where the hell are you and the others? You should have been here twenty minutes ago."
"Sorry Sir. That Carter guy took a trip down a crevasse. Ve spent a vile trying to get him out. Ve're just about 200 metres from you're position. To the south."
"Right, well hurry it up. We're going to need to dig through to the base, I think. The facility looks empty from here, but keep an eye out."
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 17 hours after The Incident
1 hour and 22 minutes since Mission Start
In the end, it had taken them about half an hour to dig away enough snow to get through to the small southern entrance. With that done, it was just a matter of entering the code and going inside. That task quickly proved to be easier in theory than practice.
"Got a problem, Sarge." Called Harrison, the squad's technical expert, from the electronic door panel he'd been inspecting.
"What is it now?" Asked Hanson, aproaching.
"Well, see this thing here's an electronic lock."
"Yeah, and?"
"And it works by electricity."
"Yes, so what?"
"There is no electricity." Harrison said, gesturing up at the perimiter tower that stood next to the entrance. The floodlight on the tower remained inactive.
"Shit." Hanson swore. "Well, now what?"
"Well, I could probably hook up one of our portable power packs to the panel. That might get us through, depending on how well made these things are. Or we could just blow the door off completely. Whatever works."
Hanson thought about it for a moment. Simply blowing the steel shutter to shreds and gaining access to the facility as quickly as possible was tempting. However, if there was anyone inside then the blast would be sure to alert them. He decided to go for the quiet option. They still didn't know what was going on, so it wouldn't be a great idea to advertise themselves.
"Hook one of the packs up." He ordered. "Just get it done quickly."
Harrison got to work, and within ten minutes got the panel functioning again. Then they hit the next problem.
"Got it!" Harrison yelled triumphantly. "We just need the code now."
"Right, let me through." Connor said, getting up off the rock he had been sitting on. He had spent the last ten minutes while they waited for the door to be powered up trying to memorise all the facility's codes, which he had written down on a piece of paper and shoved into a pouch on his space suit. Holding the piece of paper in front of his helmet so he could read it, he tapped the code into the flickering panel. Nothing happened for a moment, and then the panel gave a load bleep and displayed a message.
CODE OUTDATED
"The hell?" Connor said, frowning. He typed the code in again, but got the same result.
"How old is that code?" Hanson asked him.
"It's the newest code we have for this base. Every time the facility sent a message, well, every time they sent a proper message, they also transmitted their latest access codes. They never changed them once since the base was set up."
"Apparently they did." Hanson said, looking at the panel.
"But why'd they do that?" Quinn, who had wandered over, asked. Connor just shrugged.
"No idea." He said. "Maybe they felt they were under threat?"
"From who?" Hanson asked. "The Earth government is the only group that would have had the codes, and none of them gave a damn about this place until the Director here decided to go crazy and start screaming down the comms at Earth."
"Well...." Carter, who had just joined the steadily growing group of people at the door. "What if it wasn't Earth they were worried about?" Connor snorted derisively.
"Then who were they worried about? The only ones who knew about the codes were Earth and the scientists here themselves. Changing the codes wouldn't offer them an ounce of protection from anyone else."
"Well then, what if it was one of their own guys they were worried about?" Carter asked.
"So they decided to throw one of their own coworkers out outside the base walls to let him freeze to death? Sorry, but I don't see that happening. Now, let's get back to the real issue at hand: how we're going to get inside."
"I could try and bypass the system and get the door up." Harrison suggested.
"Right. Do it." Hanson told him.
I have part 4 almost done, so providing GTA4 doesn't distract me for the next few hours, I'll throw that up sometime tonight.
As always, comments are appreciated.
------------------------------
Part 3: Dead World
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 16 hours after The Incident
3 minutes since Mission Start
Flynn hopped out of the dropship's hatch and onto the thick layer of snow that covered the ground as far as the eye could see. He sank up to the knee in the sea of snow, almost losing his balance. He moved out of the way to let the others disembark from the ship and paused to look around.
The marines had spread themselves out in a rough circle around the dropship, some crouching behind boulders that were half-burried in the snow. The landscape of Glacies Prima was a desolate wasteland. Nothing but snow, ice and mountains extending as far as the horizon. Flynn looked around to see if he could spot the outpost, but everything just looked the same to him: white.
"Nice place." Carter remarked as he stumbled through the snow towards Flynn, followed by Quinn who seemed far more at home in these conditions than any of the others.
"Yeah, the perfect ski-resort." Flynn replied.
He looked around at the small team and located who he was looking for, Connor, talking to Sergeant Hanson, who was looking at a display screen on a briefcase sized machine that he immediately identified as a portable scanner unit.
"....sure that there's nothing?" Connor was saying, concern evident in his voice.
"Nothing." Hanson confirmed, holding the scanner up higher so it could get a better reading. "Not a damn thing. Well, nothing we're reading as human, anyway. Plenty of those bugs, but no people."
"Right." Connor said with a sigh. Until now he had hoped whatever had happened here was just an equipment malfuction. But with the residents of the base missing..... "Look, we'd better get moving. I want to get to Outpost Alpha as soon as possible." Hanson nodded in agreement, then called the team together.
"Okay people, we've found nothing on sensors, so we're going to have to check out the base ASAP. The facility is just a mile in that direction." Hanson pointed towards a distant white hill that Flynn had simply presumed to be a rock formation. Now that he looked closer, he fancied that he could pick out a glint of metal here and there. "We still don't know what's going on, so I want all of you to stay sharp and keep your weapons ready. Understood?" There was chorus of "understood"s from the civilans and marines. Flynn noticed that Carter had raised his hand to get Hanson's attention. Hanson noticed it too. "What?" He asked bluntly.
"Well, you just said that there's no one around. Why the need for all the guns and stuff? It's just an empty complex. What's there to worry about?"
"No." The Sergeant corrected. "We think there's no one in there. There're ways of hiding from scanners, or jamming them entirely. So until we know for a fact that there's nothing there then I'm going to treat that place as if the goddamn legions of Hell are hold up inside. Understand?"
"Yeah, sure." Carter said, shrugging. He obviously didn't, but wasn't interested in arguing the matter any further.
"Good. Any other questions?" The group remained silent. "Good. Let's head out. Harrison, Strauss, on point. Sven and Sinderman watch the rear. You lot," He said, pointing at the knot of civilians. "stay in the centre of the group until I say otherwise. Eagle 1," He called into his helmet's comm unit, adressing the two marines crewing the shuttle. "we'll take it from here. Head back to the Europa."
If Hanson got any response then Flynn didn't hear it. Instead, the dropship's engines flared up, instantly vapourising the surounding snow and ice, and the craft shot off towards the orbiting starship, leaving the small group of investigators alone on the dead world of Glacies Prima.
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 16 hours after The Incident
48 minutes since Mission Start
Hanson dropped to the ground quickly behind some sort of half burried tractor vehicle and trained his binoculars on the outpost. The external defensive walls were almost invisible beneath the coating of snow it had gathered in the four and a half decades since there had last been any known life in the base. If someone was still occupying it, then they obviously weren't too interested in keeping the exits clear. Only one of the complex's buildings was visible over the top of the three metre tall steel wall. There were no lights on, and Hanson could see that the windows were broken. The perimiter towers that were erected at every entrance and corner of the base were in a similar condition. No sign of life, but signs of damage.
Things didn't look good. There was no sign of any of the base staff they had come to check up on. On the plus side, there was no indication that the base was anything but dead. Still, Hanson had quickly learned that complacency just got you killed quicker. Best to be careful.
"What do you think?" He asked Private Strauss, who had acompanied him ahead of the group to reconotoir the base's exterior.
"I think it's empty, Sir." He answered, also inspecting the base through his binoculars. "I think the only thing we need to worry about is how to get into the complex in the first place." He commented, gesturing at the large piles of snow that had built up around the entrances. Hanson frowned. The soldier had a point. Getting through all that wouldn't be easy.
Still, the first thing to do would be to get the team regrouped together. The place seemed safe, so it'd be fine to bring the civies up here as well. Maybe one of them would make themselves useful and find out a way to get through that didn't involve digging.
"Hanson to Sven." He called his second in command quietly over the comms. There was a moment of silence before he got a response.
"Sven here. Go ahead."
"Corporal, where the hell are you and the others? You should have been here twenty minutes ago."
"Sorry Sir. That Carter guy took a trip down a crevasse. Ve spent a vile trying to get him out. Ve're just about 200 metres from you're position. To the south."
"Right, well hurry it up. We're going to need to dig through to the base, I think. The facility looks empty from here, but keep an eye out."
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 17 hours after The Incident
1 hour and 22 minutes since Mission Start
In the end, it had taken them about half an hour to dig away enough snow to get through to the small southern entrance. With that done, it was just a matter of entering the code and going inside. That task quickly proved to be easier in theory than practice.
"Got a problem, Sarge." Called Harrison, the squad's technical expert, from the electronic door panel he'd been inspecting.
"What is it now?" Asked Hanson, aproaching.
"Well, see this thing here's an electronic lock."
"Yeah, and?"
"And it works by electricity."
"Yes, so what?"
"There is no electricity." Harrison said, gesturing up at the perimiter tower that stood next to the entrance. The floodlight on the tower remained inactive.
"Shit." Hanson swore. "Well, now what?"
"Well, I could probably hook up one of our portable power packs to the panel. That might get us through, depending on how well made these things are. Or we could just blow the door off completely. Whatever works."
Hanson thought about it for a moment. Simply blowing the steel shutter to shreds and gaining access to the facility as quickly as possible was tempting. However, if there was anyone inside then the blast would be sure to alert them. He decided to go for the quiet option. They still didn't know what was going on, so it wouldn't be a great idea to advertise themselves.
"Hook one of the packs up." He ordered. "Just get it done quickly."
Harrison got to work, and within ten minutes got the panel functioning again. Then they hit the next problem.
"Got it!" Harrison yelled triumphantly. "We just need the code now."
"Right, let me through." Connor said, getting up off the rock he had been sitting on. He had spent the last ten minutes while they waited for the door to be powered up trying to memorise all the facility's codes, which he had written down on a piece of paper and shoved into a pouch on his space suit. Holding the piece of paper in front of his helmet so he could read it, he tapped the code into the flickering panel. Nothing happened for a moment, and then the panel gave a load bleep and displayed a message.
CODE OUTDATED
"The hell?" Connor said, frowning. He typed the code in again, but got the same result.
"How old is that code?" Hanson asked him.
"It's the newest code we have for this base. Every time the facility sent a message, well, every time they sent a proper message, they also transmitted their latest access codes. They never changed them once since the base was set up."
"Apparently they did." Hanson said, looking at the panel.
"But why'd they do that?" Quinn, who had wandered over, asked. Connor just shrugged.
"No idea." He said. "Maybe they felt they were under threat?"
"From who?" Hanson asked. "The Earth government is the only group that would have had the codes, and none of them gave a damn about this place until the Director here decided to go crazy and start screaming down the comms at Earth."
"Well...." Carter, who had just joined the steadily growing group of people at the door. "What if it wasn't Earth they were worried about?" Connor snorted derisively.
"Then who were they worried about? The only ones who knew about the codes were Earth and the scientists here themselves. Changing the codes wouldn't offer them an ounce of protection from anyone else."
"Well then, what if it was one of their own guys they were worried about?" Carter asked.
"So they decided to throw one of their own coworkers out outside the base walls to let him freeze to death? Sorry, but I don't see that happening. Now, let's get back to the real issue at hand: how we're going to get inside."
"I could try and bypass the system and get the door up." Harrison suggested.
"Right. Do it." Hanson told him.
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
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Sionnach Glic
- 4 Star Admiral
- Posts: 26014
- Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:58 pm
- Location: Poblacht na hÉireann, Baile Átha Cliath
I got sidetracked earlier, so it's unlikely that Part 4 will be up before tomorrow. Anyway, I played around in MS Pain for a bit and made up this map of the Glacies Outpost Alpha Complex, which will feature quite a bit in the story.
The red lines on the east, west and south parts of the wall are the entrances into the complex. The grey squares are watchtowers set up along the walls. The walls themselves are designed so that they can be walked along, and used as cover. Stairs up to the walls are in the same positions as the watchtowers. The brown-coloured bits represent underground areas.
1: Alpha Complex Main Research Facility.
This facility is the heart of all operations on the planet. The building extends three stories above ground, and another level below. This building contains labs, storage areas, the primary communications array, the satalite control centre, various conference rooms, and sealed labs in the underground area.
2: Alpha Complex Motorpool.
This facility was designed to hold four snowtrucks (trucks designed specificaly to deal with sub-zero conditions on a permanant basis) and a pair of more conventional wheeled jeeps. This building also contains maintanence areas and repair bays.
3: Communications Tower.
A large tower holding numerous antenae and satalite dishes. Used for both communicating with the other facilities on the planet, and sending off-world comms.
4: Storage Sheds.
A group of storage rooms, containing a variety of commodities, from food to spare parts to weapons.
5: Alpha Complex Fusion Reactor.
Burried underground and accessed via a long coridor leading from the basement floor of the Research Facility, this area supplies the power to the entire Alpha Complex. This system is designed with the latest safety features for maximum user safety. This user-friendly reactor can run itself
with virtualy no human supervision due to its sophisticated AI monitoring system. Despite this, the facility still contains a small control centre for human operators to control the reactor from. One of the most notable pieces of hardware is the cooling system, which is designed to run on simple ice.
6: Landing Pad.
The complex's main landing pad, designed to accomodate vessels as big as a class 3 transport, or a class 4 freighter.
7: Habitation Area.
This two story building contains dormitories, offices, rec rooms, dining areas and a few other bits and pieces to make the staff's stay as pleasant as possible.
The red lines on the east, west and south parts of the wall are the entrances into the complex. The grey squares are watchtowers set up along the walls. The walls themselves are designed so that they can be walked along, and used as cover. Stairs up to the walls are in the same positions as the watchtowers. The brown-coloured bits represent underground areas.
1: Alpha Complex Main Research Facility.
This facility is the heart of all operations on the planet. The building extends three stories above ground, and another level below. This building contains labs, storage areas, the primary communications array, the satalite control centre, various conference rooms, and sealed labs in the underground area.
2: Alpha Complex Motorpool.
This facility was designed to hold four snowtrucks (trucks designed specificaly to deal with sub-zero conditions on a permanant basis) and a pair of more conventional wheeled jeeps. This building also contains maintanence areas and repair bays.
3: Communications Tower.
A large tower holding numerous antenae and satalite dishes. Used for both communicating with the other facilities on the planet, and sending off-world comms.
4: Storage Sheds.
A group of storage rooms, containing a variety of commodities, from food to spare parts to weapons.
5: Alpha Complex Fusion Reactor.
Burried underground and accessed via a long coridor leading from the basement floor of the Research Facility, this area supplies the power to the entire Alpha Complex. This system is designed with the latest safety features for maximum user safety. This user-friendly reactor can run itself
with virtualy no human supervision due to its sophisticated AI monitoring system. Despite this, the facility still contains a small control centre for human operators to control the reactor from. One of the most notable pieces of hardware is the cooling system, which is designed to run on simple ice.
6: Landing Pad.
The complex's main landing pad, designed to accomodate vessels as big as a class 3 transport, or a class 4 freighter.
7: Habitation Area.
This two story building contains dormitories, offices, rec rooms, dining areas and a few other bits and pieces to make the staff's stay as pleasant as possible.
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
-
Sionnach Glic
- 4 Star Admiral
- Posts: 26014
- Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:58 pm
- Location: Poblacht na hÉireann, Baile Átha Cliath
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Sionnach Glic
- 4 Star Admiral
- Posts: 26014
- Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:58 pm
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Re: The Madness of Glacies Prima: Part 3
And we're back again. Now that I'm on a break, I'll be getting back into my writing again. I'm going to finish off this one first, since it's shortest and the most recent, then hit my other two stories one at a time. My film scripts thread will also be updated every now and again.
Part 4: Discoveries
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 17 hours after The Incident
1 hour and 37 minutes since Mission Start
"Got the bast*rd!" Harrison called out triumphantly. After a moment his claim was confirmed by a loud grinding sound and the sight of the steel shutter raising up, allowing access to the facility.
"Team two; move up and secure the area. Team one will stay with them." Hanson said quietly, gesturing at the civilians. Half the marines, led by Corporal Sven, hurried forward and disappeared into the facility's courtyard. There was a brief wait of a few minutes before Sven's voice came back briefly over the comms.
"Looks clear." He reported. "No sign of activity. Place looks dead."
"Right, we're moving up." Hanson replied, then turned to the others. "Keep an eye out. There might be someone hiding inside the buildings. And don't wander away from the group." He added to the civilians.
"We're not kids." Carter complained, too quietly for Hanson to hear, as the group strode through the entrance and into the facility itself.
Flynn's first impression was of dilapidation. Everywhere he looked, the facility showed where it had been worn down by the elements. The steel buildings' exteriors were rusting, the thick windows in all of the buildings were all either broken or cracked and the comms tower was lying on the ground, apparently after collapsing. Flynn noticed one of the marines inspecting the tower with what looked like concern.
"Well, what do we do know?" Connor asked impatiently.
"We should make sure the base is secure first. We'll clear one of the smaller buildings and let you and the other civilians wait there while we check out the base.
"Screw that!" Carter protested. "I'm not sitting around waiting for something to happen. What if whatever took out this place comes back? No, I'm going with you guys." He declared, pointing at the marines, who looked less than pleased with this decision.
"That's not a good idea, Sir." Hanson replied with strained patience. "We don't know what's in there. You'd just be in the way."
"Unfortunately, Sergeant, that is not your decision to make." Connor said. "This mission is under my command, and we are an hour behind schedule already. I'm not going to sit around doing nothing, I'm going to do what we came here to do. You are here to protect us, so you can also do what you came here to do."
"Sir, I don't think-"
"You're not paid to think, you're paid to follow orders." Connor snapped. If looks could kill, the government official would have been on the ground in seconds. "Now, I want to look around the research facility." He said, gesturing at the largest building in the compound. "You and your marines will accompany us and provide security. Are we clear?"
"Perfectly, Sir." Hanson replied venomously. "In that case, since there are four civilians and eight marines, I'm going to assign two marines to watch over-"
"Sarge, Sarge!" The marine Flynn had noticed inspecting the comms tower was rushing over towards them.
"What is it, Eryl?" Hanson asked.
"You really need to see this, Sarge. I was lookin' at the tower over there."
"Yes, and?"
"Well, looks like something blew it up!"
"What? Are you sure?"
"Blast marks all over the bottom o' the thing an' the base it was standing on."
"Sh*t." Hanson swore.
"Wait, you mean someone attacked the base?" Connor asked.
"Maybe, maybe not." Hanson replied. "We don't know yet."
"Right well, let's get inside and find out."
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 17 hours after The Incident
1 hour and 46 minutes since Mission Start
They had spent a few more minutes outside dividing up into search teams to investigate the base. Each civilian had been appointed two marines as bodyguards until they were sure the facility was secure and given strict orders not to let anyone wander off on their own.
"Let's go." Hanson called as soon as the organisation was finished, and the teams headed off towards the three story tall research facility. The civilians had become somewhat spooked with the news that someone, or something, had blown up the comms tower. This fear was only to become even stronger on the way to the research facility when Carter tripped.
"F*ck!" He swore as he felt his leg hit off something hidden in the knee-deep snow, and fell over to the amusement of the others. "I hate this place." He announced as he got back up. Frowning, he bent down and began wiping the snow off whatever it was he had fallen over as the rest of the group began to move on. The others had only gotten a couple of metres away when he screamed and jerked back as if shot.
"F*ck! F*ck, f*ck, f*ck!" He yelled, scrambling back through the snow away from whatever he had found towards the others. Hearing his yells, a pair of marines, Sinderman and Eryl, rushed forward to investigate his discovery. Quinn helped the shaking man back up.
"What is it? What did he find?" Flynn asked, hurrying over to Carter's discovery. "What is .. holy sh*t "
Part 4: Discoveries
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 17 hours after The Incident
1 hour and 37 minutes since Mission Start
"Got the bast*rd!" Harrison called out triumphantly. After a moment his claim was confirmed by a loud grinding sound and the sight of the steel shutter raising up, allowing access to the facility.
"Team two; move up and secure the area. Team one will stay with them." Hanson said quietly, gesturing at the civilians. Half the marines, led by Corporal Sven, hurried forward and disappeared into the facility's courtyard. There was a brief wait of a few minutes before Sven's voice came back briefly over the comms.
"Looks clear." He reported. "No sign of activity. Place looks dead."
"Right, we're moving up." Hanson replied, then turned to the others. "Keep an eye out. There might be someone hiding inside the buildings. And don't wander away from the group." He added to the civilians.
"We're not kids." Carter complained, too quietly for Hanson to hear, as the group strode through the entrance and into the facility itself.
Flynn's first impression was of dilapidation. Everywhere he looked, the facility showed where it had been worn down by the elements. The steel buildings' exteriors were rusting, the thick windows in all of the buildings were all either broken or cracked and the comms tower was lying on the ground, apparently after collapsing. Flynn noticed one of the marines inspecting the tower with what looked like concern.
"Well, what do we do know?" Connor asked impatiently.
"We should make sure the base is secure first. We'll clear one of the smaller buildings and let you and the other civilians wait there while we check out the base.
"Screw that!" Carter protested. "I'm not sitting around waiting for something to happen. What if whatever took out this place comes back? No, I'm going with you guys." He declared, pointing at the marines, who looked less than pleased with this decision.
"That's not a good idea, Sir." Hanson replied with strained patience. "We don't know what's in there. You'd just be in the way."
"Unfortunately, Sergeant, that is not your decision to make." Connor said. "This mission is under my command, and we are an hour behind schedule already. I'm not going to sit around doing nothing, I'm going to do what we came here to do. You are here to protect us, so you can also do what you came here to do."
"Sir, I don't think-"
"You're not paid to think, you're paid to follow orders." Connor snapped. If looks could kill, the government official would have been on the ground in seconds. "Now, I want to look around the research facility." He said, gesturing at the largest building in the compound. "You and your marines will accompany us and provide security. Are we clear?"
"Perfectly, Sir." Hanson replied venomously. "In that case, since there are four civilians and eight marines, I'm going to assign two marines to watch over-"
"Sarge, Sarge!" The marine Flynn had noticed inspecting the comms tower was rushing over towards them.
"What is it, Eryl?" Hanson asked.
"You really need to see this, Sarge. I was lookin' at the tower over there."
"Yes, and?"
"Well, looks like something blew it up!"
"What? Are you sure?"
"Blast marks all over the bottom o' the thing an' the base it was standing on."
"Sh*t." Hanson swore.
"Wait, you mean someone attacked the base?" Connor asked.
"Maybe, maybe not." Hanson replied. "We don't know yet."
"Right well, let's get inside and find out."
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 17 hours after The Incident
1 hour and 46 minutes since Mission Start
They had spent a few more minutes outside dividing up into search teams to investigate the base. Each civilian had been appointed two marines as bodyguards until they were sure the facility was secure and given strict orders not to let anyone wander off on their own.
"Let's go." Hanson called as soon as the organisation was finished, and the teams headed off towards the three story tall research facility. The civilians had become somewhat spooked with the news that someone, or something, had blown up the comms tower. This fear was only to become even stronger on the way to the research facility when Carter tripped.
"F*ck!" He swore as he felt his leg hit off something hidden in the knee-deep snow, and fell over to the amusement of the others. "I hate this place." He announced as he got back up. Frowning, he bent down and began wiping the snow off whatever it was he had fallen over as the rest of the group began to move on. The others had only gotten a couple of metres away when he screamed and jerked back as if shot.
"F*ck! F*ck, f*ck, f*ck!" He yelled, scrambling back through the snow away from whatever he had found towards the others. Hearing his yells, a pair of marines, Sinderman and Eryl, rushed forward to investigate his discovery. Quinn helped the shaking man back up.
"What is it? What did he find?" Flynn asked, hurrying over to Carter's discovery. "What is .. holy sh*t "
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
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Sionnach Glic
- 4 Star Admiral
- Posts: 26014
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- Location: Poblacht na hÉireann, Baile Átha Cliath
Re: The Madness of Glacies Prima: Part 4 now up
Ah, right.
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
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Captain Seafort
- 4 Star Admiral
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- Location: Blighty
Re: The Madness of Glacies Prima: Part 4 now up
It lives!
Great stuff Rochey - does this mean we might see updates to your other fics in the near future?
Great stuff Rochey - does this mean we might see updates to your other fics in the near future?
Only two things are infinite - the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe: Albert Einstein.
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Sionnach Glic
- 4 Star Admiral
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- Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:58 pm
- Location: Poblacht na hÉireann, Baile Átha Cliath
Re: The Madness of Glacies Prima: Part 4 now up
Thanks.
Yep, they're coming back. I'm going to finish this one, then do United Earth, and then redoing The Laithan War. Every now and again I'll get a new movie script up as well.
Yep, they're coming back. I'm going to finish this one, then do United Earth, and then redoing The Laithan War. Every now and again I'll get a new movie script up as well.
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
-
Tsukiyumi
- 4 Star Admiral
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- Location: Forward Torpedo Tube Twenty. Help!
- Contact:
Re: The Madness of Glacies Prima: Part 4 now up
I'm still digging it. Can't wait to find out what's really going on.
There is only one way of avoiding the war – that is the overthrow of this society. However, as we are too weak for this task, the war is inevitable. -L. Trotsky, 1939
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Sionnach Glic
- 4 Star Admiral
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- Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:58 pm
- Location: Poblacht na hÉireann, Baile Átha Cliath
Re: The Madness of Glacies Prima: Part 4 now up
Part 5: Enigma
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 17 hours after The Incident
1 hour and 53 minutes since Mission Start
It was a corpse. A remarkably well-preserved one. Flynn guessed that this was due to the sub-zero temperatures the planet was permanently subjected to. Carter had tripped over the body's leg and landed face first on it.
The body itself appeared to be male, wearing an old enviromental suit that could be found on every research facility across the galaxy. The glass visor on the helmet was shattered, and there was a very noticable hole on either side of the helmet. A reddish substance that Flynn didn't want to think about coated the inside of the helmet and the man's face. Eryl bent down and squinted at a name tag sewn into the sleeve.
"C. Merinson." He announced. He inspected the man's head for a moment before looking up. "Gunshot wound."
"He was shot?" Connor asked, stunned. "But...why? Who?"
"Maybe he had an argument with someone on the base?" Quinn ventured, looking as though she was trying not to vomit, which would be quite a problem given that she was wearing a sealed helmet.
"So they decided to have a shoot out over it?" Carter asked sarcasticaly, looking pale. "Yeah, right."
"Oh? So what do you suggest, then?"
"Well, maybe something else got him."
"You're both wrong." Eryl informed them calmly.
"Right then, what happened?" Flynn asked, not too sure he wanted to know the answer. Eryl began digging in the snow at the corpse's side as he replied.
"Well, the problem there's that you're all asumin' that someone else shot 'im."
"What do you mean?" Carter asked. In reply, Eryl reached down into the hole he'd dug and pulled out the body's arm so they could see. Frozen into the hand by the temperature and rigor mortis was a small handgun.
"This was self-inflicted."
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 18 hours after The Incident
2 hours since Mission Start
After leaving the unfortunate C. Merinson lying in the snow, the team progressed to the main building of the complex. A three story tall slab of imposing steel that looked more like a small fortress than a science lab. Access into the facility had been surprisingly easy. The outer airlock door had been jammed open by a length of steel pipe, and the lock on the inside door appeared broken, allowing the marines to simply pull it open.
The airlock itself led into a large room filled with crates and a handful of enviromental suits of the same type the late Merinson had worn. There were no windows into the room, so the only light came from the small amount of sunlight that slipped through the airlock, making the room seem dark and forbidding. The marines quickly flicked on flashlights attached to their weapons, playing the beams of light around the room. Three doors led out of the room in different directions.
"Looks clear." Sinderman ventured.
"Yeah." Hanson replied, though he didn't sound entirely sure. "Right, I want this building secured. Sven, Eryl and Carter can take that door to the right. Harrison, Strauss and Flynn the one on the right. Sinderman and Mr. Connor are with me. The rest of you," He said, adressing Quinn and the remaining two marines. "stay here and watch the entrance. Go slowly and carefully. Report back anything suspicious immediately." There was a chorus of "understood"s, and the team split up into their assigned trios and headed off down the darkened coridors.
"So, what do you guys think happened?" Flynn asked his two marine companions, Harison and Strauss, after they'd been walking for a few minutes. So far they'd found nothing but darkened and empty rooms. Normaly that wouldn't bother Flynn. He had nothing against dark and empty rooms. What he did have a problem with, though, were rooms which looked like they had been torn apart.
So far, they'd come across a lab full of fancy-looking equipment that had all been smashed against the floor, a kitchen that had been set fire to, a couple of dormitories with the furniture broken and the beds and chairs torn apart and an infirmary in which all the cabinets had been broken into and the contents strewn around the room. The other teams had reported back similar finds.
"No idea. Now shush for a minute." Harrison told him. During his short time on the planet with them, Flynn had deduced that they didn't like being bothered when working. Flynn just shrugged and tried to ignore what looked suspiciously like a set of bloody handprints on the wall next to him. They had spotted more than a few such implications of foul play during their trek through the facility, including bullet holes in the walls at one point. Usualy they were just once-off things that could be spotted. An occasional blood-splatter here, a bullet casing there. This time, however, the handprints continued along the ground, as though whoever had made them had started crawling. Harrison touched Strauss lightly on the elbow to get his attention, then silently pointed at the prints.
The trio continued up the coridor for a short while, following the handprints. The more they followed the prints, the more blood they found, until they weren't so much following a set of handprints as they were following a continous trail of dried blood.
The trail ended at a door at the very end of the coridor. The handprints were now splashed wildly all over the door and its handle. The three were just about to enter the room for themselves when an odd cracking noise came faintly down the coridor. The two marines tensed, then whirled around in search of the source of the noise, but it wasn't to be found in this coridor. They were just hearing an echo.
Flynn frowned. The noise sounded oddly familiar, as though he'd heard it before. Then it hit him: gunfire.
Then the comms exploded with chatter. The civilians trying to find out just what the hell was going on, the marines trying to restore some sense of order and find out who was shooting at what. Then a voice, louder than the others, butted in. Flynn recognised it as Eryl. It also became very apparent that he, or someone near him, was the one doing the shooting. It didn't take a genius to work that out, of course, as Eryl made it quite clear himself.
"This is Eryl, we're engagin' the enemy! I say again, we are engagin' the enemy!"
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 17 hours after The Incident
1 hour and 53 minutes since Mission Start
It was a corpse. A remarkably well-preserved one. Flynn guessed that this was due to the sub-zero temperatures the planet was permanently subjected to. Carter had tripped over the body's leg and landed face first on it.
The body itself appeared to be male, wearing an old enviromental suit that could be found on every research facility across the galaxy. The glass visor on the helmet was shattered, and there was a very noticable hole on either side of the helmet. A reddish substance that Flynn didn't want to think about coated the inside of the helmet and the man's face. Eryl bent down and squinted at a name tag sewn into the sleeve.
"C. Merinson." He announced. He inspected the man's head for a moment before looking up. "Gunshot wound."
"He was shot?" Connor asked, stunned. "But...why? Who?"
"Maybe he had an argument with someone on the base?" Quinn ventured, looking as though she was trying not to vomit, which would be quite a problem given that she was wearing a sealed helmet.
"So they decided to have a shoot out over it?" Carter asked sarcasticaly, looking pale. "Yeah, right."
"Oh? So what do you suggest, then?"
"Well, maybe something else got him."
"You're both wrong." Eryl informed them calmly.
"Right then, what happened?" Flynn asked, not too sure he wanted to know the answer. Eryl began digging in the snow at the corpse's side as he replied.
"Well, the problem there's that you're all asumin' that someone else shot 'im."
"What do you mean?" Carter asked. In reply, Eryl reached down into the hole he'd dug and pulled out the body's arm so they could see. Frozen into the hand by the temperature and rigor mortis was a small handgun.
"This was self-inflicted."
45 years, 3 months, 12 days and 18 hours after The Incident
2 hours since Mission Start
After leaving the unfortunate C. Merinson lying in the snow, the team progressed to the main building of the complex. A three story tall slab of imposing steel that looked more like a small fortress than a science lab. Access into the facility had been surprisingly easy. The outer airlock door had been jammed open by a length of steel pipe, and the lock on the inside door appeared broken, allowing the marines to simply pull it open.
The airlock itself led into a large room filled with crates and a handful of enviromental suits of the same type the late Merinson had worn. There were no windows into the room, so the only light came from the small amount of sunlight that slipped through the airlock, making the room seem dark and forbidding. The marines quickly flicked on flashlights attached to their weapons, playing the beams of light around the room. Three doors led out of the room in different directions.
"Looks clear." Sinderman ventured.
"Yeah." Hanson replied, though he didn't sound entirely sure. "Right, I want this building secured. Sven, Eryl and Carter can take that door to the right. Harrison, Strauss and Flynn the one on the right. Sinderman and Mr. Connor are with me. The rest of you," He said, adressing Quinn and the remaining two marines. "stay here and watch the entrance. Go slowly and carefully. Report back anything suspicious immediately." There was a chorus of "understood"s, and the team split up into their assigned trios and headed off down the darkened coridors.
"So, what do you guys think happened?" Flynn asked his two marine companions, Harison and Strauss, after they'd been walking for a few minutes. So far they'd found nothing but darkened and empty rooms. Normaly that wouldn't bother Flynn. He had nothing against dark and empty rooms. What he did have a problem with, though, were rooms which looked like they had been torn apart.
So far, they'd come across a lab full of fancy-looking equipment that had all been smashed against the floor, a kitchen that had been set fire to, a couple of dormitories with the furniture broken and the beds and chairs torn apart and an infirmary in which all the cabinets had been broken into and the contents strewn around the room. The other teams had reported back similar finds.
"No idea. Now shush for a minute." Harrison told him. During his short time on the planet with them, Flynn had deduced that they didn't like being bothered when working. Flynn just shrugged and tried to ignore what looked suspiciously like a set of bloody handprints on the wall next to him. They had spotted more than a few such implications of foul play during their trek through the facility, including bullet holes in the walls at one point. Usualy they were just once-off things that could be spotted. An occasional blood-splatter here, a bullet casing there. This time, however, the handprints continued along the ground, as though whoever had made them had started crawling. Harrison touched Strauss lightly on the elbow to get his attention, then silently pointed at the prints.
The trio continued up the coridor for a short while, following the handprints. The more they followed the prints, the more blood they found, until they weren't so much following a set of handprints as they were following a continous trail of dried blood.
The trail ended at a door at the very end of the coridor. The handprints were now splashed wildly all over the door and its handle. The three were just about to enter the room for themselves when an odd cracking noise came faintly down the coridor. The two marines tensed, then whirled around in search of the source of the noise, but it wasn't to be found in this coridor. They were just hearing an echo.
Flynn frowned. The noise sounded oddly familiar, as though he'd heard it before. Then it hit him: gunfire.
Then the comms exploded with chatter. The civilians trying to find out just what the hell was going on, the marines trying to restore some sense of order and find out who was shooting at what. Then a voice, louder than the others, butted in. Flynn recognised it as Eryl. It also became very apparent that he, or someone near him, was the one doing the shooting. It didn't take a genius to work that out, of course, as Eryl made it quite clear himself.
"This is Eryl, we're engagin' the enemy! I say again, we are engagin' the enemy!"
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"