Back to the Future Options

[fistandantilus4....]

Link to back to the Future OOC

It was quiet.

The quiet bothered Andrew. He’d been all over the world, all sorts of conditions. It was hot here, but heat he could deal with. Heat, cold, raiders, paranimals, he’d seen it all. It didn’t bother him any more. The quiet bothered him.

They’d been out here three weeks now, in the Australian Outback. They’d left from Perth in a convoy of jeeps. They’d had no problems, except for one of the guards being bit by some sort of spider that had killed him before he could take two steps. Lars had wanted to catch the spider….

How had they even come to be out here? Australia had been a dangerous place since the Awakening. And so full of mana and mystery that most researchers would give their neighbor’s first born (not their own, let’s not get crazy now) to get a chance at what lay out here. But someone high up had pulled the right strings to put together a 15 man crew, half of those guards, to come put here and investigate a site. Someone in Neonet wanted to know the secrets of this place. Rumors even said someone from Black Omega had been sent before them.

No teams had been sent into Australia’s Outback in the last five years. The UTA reported that mana storm activity had decreased over all over the last few years. But the activity that there was had become stronger, and according to the rumors, directed. Corporate enclaves and research facilities had been decimated. There were hardly any corp enclaves out here any more. The talismongers had been having the same problems. The storms always seemed to find them. The rumors said that they were being directed by a dragon that lived out here. Nature or Dragon, it was clear that the corps weren’t wanted. But they’d come out here anyway.

Andrew had put together his team from some of his veterans. Lars was his botanist, and specialist in parazoology. Anna was an amazingly skilled shaman, Yoshi knew more about archaeology than most archaeologists twice his age. Andrew was their reader, a psychometrist. What some called an astral adept. He had brought them out here….

The silence stretched on….

He went over it again in his head. It didn’t make any sense. The cave tunnel descended 60 feet at a 20% grade. The cavern below had a 35’ ceiling. It should only be 12 feet tall, not 35. The pool of water was fresh and clean, but it was fed from no water source that they could find. It had some particles that read as similar to the “dragon tears” they’d “acquired” from the Shiawase team last year. It assented as being an extremely powerful site. Had he the proper equipment, he would have classified it as a class 5. But all that was destroyed in the firestorm….. it wasn’t an alchera, he’d seen those. It wasn’t aspected, it didn’t have a background count, he couldn’t even tap it’s power. He could barely even assense it! It just made no sense. The Silence stretched on.

Andrew looked around at the four faces around him , still staring at the camp fire. Diego, the last of the three mages Neonet had sent with them. Deigo was an angry elf. Angry at the failure, and his inability to do anything about it. Andrew had no doubt that all of the mages shielding would be on himself if another storm hit. Even with the three company mages and Anna shielding form the first one, they’d still lost Yoshi and one of the guards.

There was Topher, the last of his fellow researchers. He wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes after they’d identified Lars’ body three days ago. God, the blood…

At least they had found Lars. The others, Anna, Mitchell, Erika, so many guards who’s names he’d never learned… gone…. Just … gone… No sign, no screams, no blood, no nothing… they were just gone. Ever since they’d gotten to this damn cave, this damn puzzle in the ground.

Leaving wasn’t an option. The mana storm had destroyed the jeeps, and all of the communications equipment. The one mage they sent astrally for help hadn’t come back. His body just stopped breathing. Spirits did not return, none would answer summoning here….

None of it made any sense! Why were they at this cave? Why were people disappearing? Why had Lars been found, and so badly mutilated? Were the others the same? Was it the dragon? Something worst?

Andrew looked up again at the three face around the fire….

Three… not four…. Where was Diego?

Andrew looked back down. Probably just off relieving himself. Andrew tried to convince himself of that. No one else said anything. It was dark around the fire.

It was quiet.