Session 4 – The Long way to a tall crystal thingy
Shutting down the timelocks on the spikeyfucker cages the group go back to the colony to report. It’s very obvious that Jackson is an arsehole/suspect number 1. They believe he may have headed to the nearest crystal which is almost 10 days travel away. During this conversation the room shakes and Dr Voss advises earth quakes have been slowly getting worse with Tsunamis from the nearby coast a very real concern. Predictions and current trends leads to them becoming unsustainable within 3-4 weeks so time was of the essence. The group, coercing Dr Voss to come with them, decide to drive to the crystal to see what they can find while the colony makes contingencies to evacuate… somewhere.
9 days into living in a cramp metal box annoying each other (Thatch’s de facto state not helped by this) they come across what can only be described as a swam of panicking lumisnakes. The cause of said panic turned out to be multiple spikey fuckers hunting and ripping hem apart. Seemingly for fun since they were dismembering them without the expected eating. Almost like they were human.
Reading their movements it almost seemed like the Spikey Fuckers (SF’s from now on) were herding them somewhere. Thatch sent up Skippy 1, the drone he had definitely not forgotten he had with him to see if he could spot where they might be going. He saw nothing but a drones eye view seemed to show the SF’s were mostly herding the Lumisnakes away from the crystal.
Carrying on their stuffy journey they finally reach the crystal (some, who can’t be arsed to go back and correct themselves, would call it an Obelisk). It’s huge heading up into the clouds maybe 2-300 metres away and 30m metres at a side. The weather outside is atrocious but there’s no obvious sign of the other rover however as they drive up the battery on the rover suddenly starts draining as if the obelisk was consuming it… The field seems to emanate out about 200m so Joe and Ziang head out into the inclement weather to check closer while Thatch climbs out the top hatch and provides cover with his rifle with Angelus in the drivers seat ready to react if needed (both Doctors shelter in the back out of the rain like the Academics they are). As they approach a feeling of Nausea overtakes them. Ziang fights it down but Joe Brings it all up instead to Thatch’s amusement. They circumnavigate the Obelisk, the surface smooth and, once they have gone out of site, Thatch sends out Skippy again to shadow them around the outside until his sensors spot a cold patch curiously door shaped on the opposite side. He sends word to the sacrifices Scouts who approach. The Feelings of nausea getting worse until one of them touches the wall and an opening appears. Thatch get’s angelus to drive around while they do the sensible thing and not bother to wait before heading in.
Inside is hollow with a ramp around the outside and as Joe enters the centre columns light up flowing upwards. Also their nausea ends, like the eye of a particularly vomit inducing storm.
The others join them inside (Thatch getting his comeuppance when he too chucks up his ration pack) as Ziang starts his way up. Joe decides to wait at the bottom and asks to borrow Skippys controller. Thatch says Fuck off. Angelus amazingly agrees with Joe and peer pressures (some might call it an order since he’s technically the captain) Thatch into allowing Joe to control Skippy while they head up. Joe promptly flies him straight up the middle to scout ahead right until he suddenly loses power and falls to the floor smashing. Thatch glares an extremely aggressive I told you so at Angelus.
Catching Ziang up Angelus gets tot he top of the spiral finding an open space with small blue fireflies floating around with a stone in the middle. When they both place their hands on it they can hear each others faults, Thatch just on the edge of platform wanders why they are ignoring his joke about pronouncing them Man and Homicidal Triad Hitman until they figure out anyone touching the stone can hear each others thoughts while to everyone else they are silent. However their stress and strains fall away almost like a relaxing day spa. Calling Joe up as he approached the fireflies swarm around his pack and suddenly fix Skippy and a scanner joe had broken. But fixed them not quite right. Finding this all very interesting but not really sure what it means they also notice 3 points of light on the wall. Seeming to roughly coincide with the direction of the other obelisks APART from the large main one. Bereft of ideas and a little downhearted thinking they’ve missed something important the group trudge back to spend ANOTHER 10 days in a box roughly 10 days from the nearest shower as they head back to get the shuttle and attempt to fly to the main crystal where they at least know the Laconians landed at one point.
