For Those Playing God, Call Me Satan

<snip>
“The storms getting worse!” Artemis said “This is wonderful!”
“Can we get movin’?” Alex said “It’s gettin’ wet…”
“This is just the start of it!” Artemis said “The weather will get more severe and more bizarre the closer we get to the outpost entrance. How wonderfully clever.”
“Well then lets move!” Plisken said striding forward to lead the group.
Another clap of thunder made Katrina wince again.
“Jay’s scared of rabbits?” Cass asked….
<snip/>

Artemis was thrown into a vent by a gust of wind. He plummeted down several stories, rammed into the walls countless times, and was thrown out into an unknown area of the outpost. He laid motionless for some time until his communicator rang. "Artemis? Artemis? Are you still alive? C'mon you just got here, don't die on us now!" Artemis tapped the receiver switch, "I'm here, who is this?" he replied. "It's Jacky, where did you go?" Artemis looked up and searched the corridor around him, nothing. "I'm in some sort of corridor, based on the amount of time it took me to get here I have to be 5, maybe 6 stories below you. I'll find my way back up to you momentarily, my scientific curiosity has gotten the better of me. Oh, and if I die, Holly has been instructed to purge my lab if anybody decides to rifle through my stuff before I re-incarnate as a hologram" Artemis switched off the communicator. "I really hope that light-bee works...." he remarked as he got back on his feet. Artemis drew his flamethrower, adjusted the settings, and started down the corridor.

The MS scanner couldn't make heads or tails of the compound, none of the scans were conclusive, but Artemis continued to record data anyway with the hopes that he could decipher it at a later time. "This place is creepy Artie" Holly commented. "You can say that again Hol" "This place is creepy Artie" Artemis tapped the watch, sending Holly reeling inside of it. "Well that wasn't nice!" Holly yelled. Artemis covered the watch and frantically looked around the room. "Do you want to get us killed you addlepated git?" Artemis whispered. He removed his hand from the watch "Well being rude isn't going to get us anywhere? I swear..." Artemis covered the watch again, he looked up to see numerous gerbils, hamsters, and other man-sized vermin surrounding him. "Okay.....this is how I die...." he remarked, backing up from the creatures, going to wield his flamethrower. The creatures laughed wildly at the patchwork weapon Artemis pointed at them. "That is the most pathetic weapon I've ever seen" one remarked. "OKAY! THAT'S IT!" Artemis shouted. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF PEOPLE CRITICIZING EVERYTHING I DO! MY FATHER, MY CO-WORKERS, THAT SOW CASS, AND I'LL BE DAMNED IF YOU BASTARDS ARE GOING TO GET THE LAST LAUGH!" Artemis cranked up the flamethrower and fired a colossal cone of white flame at the vermin. Several seconds later, he was standing amongst a ash-filled hallway. "Stupid pigs....." he commented, continuing down the hall.

It was as if he wandered into a horror film. The lab was filled with tanks and stasis-containers of genetically engineered creatures ranging from the mutant insects from the swamp to colossal humanoid hulks reaching at least twenty feet tall. Artemis tried several times to capture the specimens, but his hands kept passing through the gadgets. Artemis alternated between scanning and groping the lab equipment. He discovered wires running throughout the lab, some running into the roof. He used the MS scanner to trace the trail of the wires. As he scanned he continued to feel around for something solid. Suddenly, he was able to touch something. It was a container bearing the Space Corps insignia. Artemis scanned the shipping barcodes and discovered that the container had been stolen from a military vessel that had disappeared without a trace two years before the leak aboard Blue Dwarf. Inside was a collection of weapons and ammunition, all of which he ignored, having no use for them. He continued to sift through the human artifacts until he came across a stasis unit from the Guild of Science. "Hey Artie, isn't that the organization you worked for before the Space Corps?" Holly commented, his rhyming sentence falling against deaf ears. Artemis turned the small contained around to read the facility number. 8904-CH-3, the Charon Facility, the infamous facility that Artemis headed for most of his career. "Holly, this is from my lab! It even has my validation code embedded into it!" Artemis rotated the container until the glass lid was facing him, inside was a reptilian-esq bird of prey. "Good god, this is Venus!" "The Roman goddess of love?" Holly asked. Artemis made to insult him, but realized Holly was actually right. "Though you were....shockingly correct about your mythology, no, she's the only surviving specimen from the Perfect Pet Project! We were contracted by the Uber-Pets company to make a new line of tamable birds for rich snobs. The others were either too aggressive, or too stupid, Venus was the only one I got right!" Artemis looked up and saw other containers. Inside he found other experiments ranging from mutant lab mice to genetically-engineered super-dogs. The only ones that Artemis was interested in was Venus, his tub-grown budgie Samantha, a lab-rat with a smoking habit named Jules, and a cat sized and cat brained tarantula lovingly named Patches. Artemis quickly shoved the animals into Venus' container and shoved the container into his bag. His lab was destroyed and all construction/research would take ages, the least he could do was recover some old friends. But he wondered, why did they have an interest in his and his partner's work? Then it hit him, they were studying the lab! "Like ants in an ant farm" Artemis whispered. "What?" "These bastards were watching the Charon Facility! They stole experiments, planted bugs, and probably stole my damn Cokes from the fridge! I blamed Lindström for that, he never forgave me!" Artemis looked around the lab. "This place must die" Artemis activated his communicator and waited for somebody to pick up. "Hello? Artemis?" Katrina answered. "I've found a lab down Mrs. Chrysler, this must be where they manufactured all of the creatures up above. There's tubes and wires running up into the roof, according to my MS scanner they shoot far up into the higher levels. I'll send you their end coordinates, just in case you're interested" "Got it, anything else?" "I'm going to burn this place down. Volatile chemicals might be released, so make sure you keep you keep your psi-scanner tuned to detect any gases. Keep a mask or something handy. Once I'm done here I'll head to the medical center to help search for the cure." "Okay Artemis. I'll make sure somebody meets you there. Be careful!" Artemis shut off the communicator. He casually slipped his helmet back on and drew his flamethrower. "You take my pets, you study me like a damn lab rat, you start making genetic mutants on myturf, and you steal my Cokes. You're so god damn dead" Artemis turned off the ignitor and started shooting fuel all over the lab, leading the trail back to the entrance. He stood at the end of the lab and made sure to coat every inch with fuel. He turned the ignitor back on, but as he looked up he saw a cadre of critters waiting for him. Artemis tried to fire the flamethrower at them, but his spare fuel had been dispensed over the lab. The Roo's started closing in, Artemis tried to think of something....what do I keep in my bug-out bag? Vital experiments, food, emergency supplies....emergency supplies! Artemis pulled a flare from the bag's side-pocket and lit it. He displayed the bright red flare for all to see, and announced "For those of you playing God, I am Satan!" Artemis dropped the flare and the abomination spawning lab went up in a beautiful spectacle....

Artemis knocked the valve off a pipe with the butt of the flamethrower, causing it to leak. He tasted the liquid, "water, no good". He knocked off the valve for the next pipe and took a sip from the contents, he spit it out. "It's....gross" he used the butt of the flamethrower to scrape along the floor next to the puddle, causing the liquid to combust. The flames dissipated quickly. "Quick dissipation, won't have as long a range as the torch fuel, but it'll burn hotter" He filled the flamethrower with the liquid and started back down the hallway.

<Artemis is heading for the medical bay to meet whomever is going for the cure, he'll either be waiting for you or will walk in on your recovery efforts>