Survivalist Plot: The Envy of Eden

[meat_mooks]

Day One

Stacy calls Cedric Diggory, Diana Ladris, Guru Clef, Howard Bassem, Karis Needleteeth, The Master and Maxine Hunkel to the deck.

Planet Designation: Eden
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Sparse levels of flora, no natural fauna
Semi-Sentient Life: None
Sentient Life: Small human colonies created to mine Eden's limited precious elements. As of last Eden 'year', population 300. Settlers do not typically make permanent stays.
Water: 75.6% of the planet's surface.
Climate: Dry and moderate during the day. At nights temperatures drop to below 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Infrequent rains, risks of flash floods.
Landscape: Desert and sedimentary rock mountains. Most water is retrieved by wells or from cargo ships. Sparse vegetation.
Air: Type I (breathable)
Sky: Grey
Warnings: Electrical storms may interfere with omnicomm function.
Mission: Investigate source of distress signal picked up on Stacy's sensors.

For the most part the trip down to the atmosphere goes uneventfully, even if it is a little cramped in the shuttle, but as soon as they get within a few thousand feet of the ground things start to go wrong. Communication with Stacy cuts off; Stacy herself is cut off mid-sentence while warning the crew to use iodine in any tap water they find. The omnicomms go similarly blank. The shuttle lurches through the sky and tilts sideways. One of the engines blows. The automatic seatbelts unlock. A section of the shuttle's roof rips off, letting in thin, hardly-breathable air.

More terrifying still, the superpowered members of this crew may have time to notice that they no longer have their abilities.

About thirty feet above the ground the shuttle tips into a barrel roll, the autopilot fritzing out as it tries to right things, and the crew goes tumbling out and scatters amongst the town moments before the shuttle crashes into a far cliffside.

[OOC: Tag into your designated subthreads! In a little, once we've established what's going on a bit more, while I'll put up a thread for them all to reconvene. I will be NPCing monsters in these threads, so please drop me a line if you want the monsters to do anything specific or if I'm being slow on a tag.]

Comments

Re: Karis and Clef

[meat_mooks]

Awakened by the sound, a nasty little creature deep in the hole decides the creatures standing outside its home sound like a delightful meal. One of them seems already dead - all the better - and the other is small enough that it should be simple enough to devour.

The monster bursts from the hole in the ground. It's about six feet long, with four claws feet with too many joints in them and a shriveled rat tail. Its mouth is distended, shaped like a many-toothed lamprey's suckers, and opened wide like a snake's jaw. Its eyes are jelly-like globs slapped onto the face as carelessly as paint on a child's craft, but they glisten with intelligence.

It barrels at Karis with the speed of a motorcycle, impossibly fast for something with only ten feet to accelerate, and leaps up, seeking to fix that massive mouth on her arm and rip it right off.

Re: Karis and Clef

[teethofneedles]

"Fantastic. There has to be a way outta here, right?"

That's as far as she gets before the monster bursts out of the ground. It's ugly. It's fast. Reminds her of a tundra worm or some of the other gribblies she's had to deal with. But that all passes through her mind in an instant. She reacts, bringing up her armored arm in an effort to ward off the blow, swinging in a vicious backhand as her other hand goes for the battle-ax strapped at her waist.

"Son of a-"

Re: Karis and Clef

[meat_mooks]

The creature sees the battle axe coming up and changes direction in a instant. It drops low and left and avoids hitting Karis with its full force, though as it zips by her it takes a grapefruit-sized chunk out of her rotting thigh.

It twirls around and speeds by again, swallowing as it goes, this time making a leap for Clef's head.

Re: Karis and Clef

[bequiet_hescreamed]

Clef had a chisel - one of the larger, pointier ones - in his hand by the time the monster changed its mind about Karis. Dropping low as the monster leapt in his direction, he held his ground and stared wide-eyed into its face as it bore down on him. Strangely, he wasn't feeling as vulnerable as he had been just a few moments ago. In fact, he realized in the split-second that he was staring up at it, here was something even squishier than he was. All those rows of teeth, and the way it darted around - this was something whose main mode of offense was surprise snacking. He wondered if it would even bother with them should they prove to be too difficult to eat.

In the last instant before his head became snack food, Clef rolled out of the way and thought he heard the smacking of teeth right next to his ear as he did so. That was partially luck. There wasn't going to be any dodging this thing again, but he needed a better window of opportunity to execute the vague plan he had in his head - something where it wasn't coming at him from above. He got to his feet and into a steady stance again only a few feet away from the monster, his weapon still low in front of him.

"Hello," he said.

[meat_mooks]

The creature spins around again and leaps for Clef, jaw unhinging to open him whole. Its mouth closes around Clef, head to foot, and it runs at Karis with Clef inside as if to bowl her over.

[bequiet_hescreamed]

Clef had really wanted to make sure he'd get swallowed whole, so he even made a little jump into the creature's mouth before it closed on him. Its sharp teeth grazed his legs and then poked at him as its esophagus constricted around him.

This monster did everything quickly, including swallowing. It actually took a few tries to get Clef down because of the position in which he had entered the thing's mouth. He wailed in dismay when, for an instant, it seemed like the monster was going to choke on him. What if it died like that, with him stuck face-down and suffocating in its too-tight throat? The wet, airless expanse of its stomach was no comfort after that, but at least it allowed him a moment to regain his senses.

It was more difficult than he had expected to get the necessary leverage with the chisel. He made a few small punctures in the stomach before actually puncturing the outer skin as well. It was amazing how fresh air could go from being taken for granted to being the sweetest scent imaginable in a few short moments. Stabbing his way out was not going to be quick work, but it came with the advantage that there wasn't really anything the beast could do to stop it.

[teethofneedles]

Karis, for her part, had just watched Clef practically commit suicide. Not her problem. Well, not anymore. She spun aside from the monster's charge and whipped her ax around in a vicious blow, trying to decapitate the thing. Well, it didn't really have a neck. But decapitation should still work. Cut off the head, the body dies, right?

[meat_mooks]

The monster dodges the blow from the axe but doesn't move fast enough to avoid running into Karis. It bowls into her legs, trying to chomp at her with its teeth but slowed down by the struggling weight in its belly. With a squeal it thrashes at Karis' feet, spitting up pink foam and oozing blood from its stomach.

[teethofneedles]

Karis stumbles back and tries to keep her feet. She's not the heaviest person around, but fortunately for her she's wearing armor on her legs and the teeth scrape off. As it starts to thrash around, she regains her footing and hacks down on its head with all of her might, cursing all the while.

"Just... stay... dead... you stupid... bastard!"

[meat_mooks]

The axe cleaves right through the creature's head. It shudders, twitches a final time, and stops moving entirely.

[bequiet_hescreamed]

There. The stomach of the beast finally ripped open far enough for Clef to squeeze his way out of it, followed by a rush of liquid which could only be described as "chunky". He drew himself up as it pooled around his feet, but then looked over in Karis's direction and realized that it is very difficult to maintain any semblance of dignity while covered in the contents of another creature's guts.

No matter! He smiled at her, noting her handiwork with the battle ax.

"Let's go find that way out you mentioned."

[teethofneedles]

He was like a rabid gnome, only a bit larger. And deadlier with a piece of steel. Or just crazy. Karis snorted and wiped the gore off of the blade of her axe before hefting it and sliding it back into place on her hip.

"...you're covered in guts. You know that, right?"

She shook her head and gestured toward the edge of the quarry, "Looks like a ramp over that way. Let's get the hell out of here."

[bequiet_hescreamed]

Clef nodded once and followed in the direction of the ramp.

"I'm trying not to think about it, to tell you the truth," He said, brushing some of the very guts that he was trying not to think about off of his clothing. When covered in guts, it was important to take life one moment at a time. This moment stunk. Perhaps leaving the quarry would eventually bring other, less stinky moments to pass.

[meat_mooks]

Once they exit the quarry they'll be able to see the city, a small colony of houses that look as if they were plucked straight from a 1980's Earth suburb. There's no sign of life. Some telephone wires have been knocked over; empty cars litter the streets. Many houses have broken windows no one's bothered to repair. A thick layer of dust has settled over everything.

There are dead bodies on the ground, chests ripped open, filled with fist-sized, flesh-colored creatures that look like leeches.

[bequiet_hescreamed]

Clef's gaze swept over the scene with a mixture of disgust and awe. Whatever happened here had been sudden, thorough, and recent as well as undignified.

"The briefing said that this place had no natural fauna," he said, turning to Karis. "Didn't it?"

[teethofneedles]

"I wasn't paying attention," Karis admitted, "But this doesn't exactly look like normal life for these poor bastards."

In fact, it reminded her far too much of home a decade or so back.

"Let's keep movin'. Maybe the others are out here somewhere."