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November 10, 2009

Generate this!

by Dr. Adel Urda-Na

I look wildly around to see if I can spot any of the computer controllers like we found at the previous lab. I don't see any out in the open, but there are some odd contraptions in two of the nearby flower beds. I see a small moss man close to one of those flowerbeds and walk casually that way to see if I can just walk past him to go investigate. Nope! He sprouts thorns and shoots at me which forces me to do a tai chi move to allow them to fly past me. I hear them hit the bushes behind me and then from my right I see another creature stretch out long vines to entangle me. I attempt to jump above the vines, but they manage to snag my right leg. Now what do I do? Then suddenly, it is ripped off of me by a ball of water and the moss creature gurgles in fear and scampers off to attack Trevor who is able to defend with his data disc.
 
Since I am now free, and Amethyst has managed to paralyze the moss matron - and it took out all of the moss creatures as well. I take advantage of this and walk carefully into the planter to my west. There is a large variety of plant life, some thorny, some pretty, and some delicate. If the situation was not as dire, I would enjoy this interlude in nature, but plants should not attack! In the center of this planter, I find a modest sized water barrel with barely a third sunk into the ground. I open it up and find water - big surprise - but the water only occupies the top third of the barrel. I pull out my tri-comm and do a scan to see if I sense anything hiding inside the barrel before I go in hand first.
 
I reach down carefully and I can feel a false bottom or maybe just the bottom of an insert. I feel around the top of the barrel, and I undo four latches and carefully pull the insert filled with water up and out of the way. I can hear the hum of machinery underneath, but at the same time I sense movement out of the corner of my eye. The Moss Matron is attempting to break out of the paralysis and stand! Amethyst hits her with another blast and she is down for the count - and then Samaritan tries to be cute and turns her magnetic and it starts pulling all sorts of things towards it. I shrug in defeat and turn back to my hope that I have found the generators. I look inside the barrel and use my tri-comm. Success!! I recognize most of what I see here, but there are some modifications. The good news is that this is similar to the devices I found before that keeps the plant active, the bad news is that there are four linked together and if I only take out this one the other will compensate. I glance quickly around and see that Samaritan and Ziva Gray are close to two of the four generators in the room. I quickly contact them and explain my theory that taking out three of the four generators will put such a burden on the fourth that it will burn out and the plants will be left with no life - or at least not anthropomorphized life.
 
Amethyst pipes up that he feels confident that he can get to the fourth one and take it out. He does and then Samaritan destroys the one beside him and I quickly rip wires out of this one. Ziva hasn't done hers yet, but with three down I check to see if the system is burning out, but while there is some effect, it is not as widespread and dramatic as I was hoping. While my eyes are roving around the room, my sight is caught by another generator in the middle of the Moss Matron!! And now that we have removed the drain on her energy, she is probably even stronger. Not what I intended!! I am glancing wildly around and trying to think of something to do. Suddenly I sense Amethyst and request him to do a ranged attack on her generator. He does a lightning strike and sparks start flying and then I send in my data disc to try and finish the job. We manage to crack the shielding, but it is going to need another hit at a minimum to take it out.
 
I catch my disc on its return and swipe the correct sequence to allow the disc to discharge energy when it hits the generator this time. Since we had cracked the casing, my disc enters the generator and discharges enough energy to cause the generator to fail with a fabulous display of sparks. The Moss Matron slumps to the ground and the various moss creatures around the room crumble. I am ready to shout victory, when I see Don dash up the stairs. Then he calls me over the comms spouting some nonsense about prepping for surgery. I go up the stairs and see lime green liquid in a vat attached to the city water supply. Don tells me we have to change the PH value of the fluid to be more acidic. I head over to the controls, but this is not a normal keyboard and it takes me a few minutes to figure it out. The top line is not qwertyuiop, but is instead iamgenius - ego much? As soon as I touch the keyboard, a failsafe tries to trigger, but I quickly disable it from immediately releasing the fluid into the water supply and then change the PH value to make it more acidic.
 
Then Medkit comes over the comm and says he found some documentation about some lady that will be waking up soon. Don thinks it refers to the Moss Matron. I disagree. No way we are that lucky.

Continue reading...

  1. Project Paragon
    October 15 - 17, 2009
  2. The Shadow Knows?
    October 17, 2009
  3. Mission Success?
    October 17, 2009
  4. Who am I today?
    October 19-20, 2009
  5. Hostages and heroes
    October 17, 2009
  6. The Kryptonian Connection?
    October 20, 2009
  7. Who is the real adult?
    October 20, 2009
  8. Frisbee of DOOM!
    October 20, 2009
  9. AIM for the win!
    October 20, 2009
  10. SCIENCE!
    October 20, 2009
  11. Cautious Beginning
    November 10, 2009
  12. Moss Men
    November 10, 2009
  13. Titan Online
    November 10, 2009
  14. Science Experiments
    November 10, 2009
  15. Don, PI
    November 10, 2009
  16. Green House of DOOM
    Tuesday, November 10, 2009
  17. Generate this!
    November 10, 2009
  18. Stealthy
    December 10, 2009
  19. Objectives Accomplished
    November 10, 2009