Shit Hitting the Fan

JP with Omni, APatientMan and Chismevious

8.3.5 SW
20:00/21 SW-CP-Local Time
Crowning Point

Jensen bantered with the others in a sarcastic and appropriately corporate manner. "Assuming we're all good with hitting the road then?" asked Jensen. He looked at Irving. "Any chance your special comms told you about anything we should be looking out for at the reactor?"

Irving took in a breath to settle his stress and let it out as he looked as his Sutter-Lynk comm. There was one new message. He read it aloud.

- - Attention, Technicians / Linemen,

Please advise status of repairs. Administration is available to accommodate any further tools or personnel you require. - -

"Nothing, but we can ask Admin for help if we need it. Would be nice to have someone with us who actually works at the reactor."

"Something happened at the hatchery today... I wonder if its related to whatever is going on with all of the security teams. Some kind of sabotage..." said Maryam.

Irving froze, hoping like hell that the canisters in that crate weren't to blame. Had they found the hidden crate again? He hadn't heard anything about the hatchery today and now he wondered if that creature he had accidentally let loose wasn't somehow causing all of the chaos.

"What kind of sabotage? What did they find?" Irving asked, trying to hide his nerves.

Maryam shrugged. "Didn't get that much information. My flatmate works there as an aquaculture scientist and she came home very distraught. Whatever it was... I'm guessing it destroyed all of their research."

Irving thought for a moment, "Flynn, can you get any information from the security team on what is going on? I doubt Admin will be willing to give up that information."

"Don't underestimate the power of a good old-fashioned gossip session. I can sure try to get us some dirt on what's happening around here." Flynn said with a serious smile in his voice. “At the rate you all just desecrated those fuckin’ bugs, whatever is happening wherever, I don’t think they have a chance” He picked up the radio to try and broadcast to the security team. “How’s everyone feeling right now? Anyone need anything?” There was no response.

A minute later, that same security vehicle that passed by before was headed back north from where it came.

Flynn saw the headlights in the distance. He hopped out of the utility truck and started waving his arms, running like a fucking mad man to intercept the truck and hoping while doing so that they would stop and not run him over

“HEY!!! HEY!!!! STOP!!!!” he yelled.

The FAV swerved a little before slowly coming to a stop beside the utility truck.

The window rolled down and Corporal Greg Sargent leaned out. “What is it, Sharpey? Everyone alright?”

“Hey Corporal. Yeah, we got swarmed by some storm flies, but Vera, over there...”
Flynn pointed at Vera, “...stepped it up and kicked some ass. She got attacked but she's alright.” Flynn poked his head inside the FAV to see if anyone else was inside.

“Where the hell are you off to in such a fuckin’ hurry? What the fuck is going on?”

Corporal Sargent was driving, Officer Illsley sat in the passenger seat and there were two more in the back, Officers Monroe and Dokes. They were the last of the units left in town except for a couple who ran the Operations building.

Sargent looked out the window at the others in the utility truck, unsure how much he should divulge to Sharpey, “We got some weird shit going on here in the colony. Worse than these Storm Fli- -“ he was cut off by comms chatter.

tzzt Baird, come in! tzzt

tzzt Baird here. Whatcha got? tzzt

tzzt We holed up inside the maintenance room of the storage building. Just picked up an army's worth of pings at the door on the tracker. You're gonna need more n' a couple grunts to rescue us, hoss. But enough of the good news. What's to the south of this storage building? tzzt

tzzt One moment, Saygin… - -

Sargent looked to Sharpey, “Turns out a ship landed out in Wombwood, The Marshal got attacked by something and we had to drop him of at Sci-Med. Some kind of Alien organism. Saygin and the Marshal are convinced these things were brought here by Seegson privateers and someone here in the colony was helping them. Saygin lost Officer Malloy to some big black thing out there and now we’re looking for the missing colonists and Gold Squad out near the reactor... Found eggs and shit in the fuel storage. Could use some help with the cleanup. If the Marshal is right, we better do it quick before these things get out of hand.”

Baird piped in over the comms again, tzzt Saygin, you oughtta know the layout by now. Reactor is just south of there. Sargent's headed back out there with a team. Contact him or Ops for anything else. I’m staying with the Marshal just in case shit hits the fan here. Blue out. tzzt

"Take it easy, Blue. I’ll take it from here. Almost there, Saygin." responded Sargent on his handset.

Flynn acknowledged Sargent with a head nod and looked back at the other three, shouting, "Hey everyone, sounds like some serious shit is hitting the fan or about to. Sargent, if you have room for me, I’ll tag along, or, if everyone is on board, we can take the truck as well”

Flynn looked like a kid in a candy shop ready to get back in some action.

"Sharpey! I think we need to continue on to the reactor, and if that bug battle was any indication of the chaos around here we might need your firepower. Do you mind sticking with us? Does anyone else have any concerns with this approach?" Jensen asked.

"I'm with Jensen. We really need you still," Irving said in a hasty voice.

Flynn looked back at his crew, then back at Sargent.

“Sorry Corporal, I’m gonna stay here with these folk. Don’t know that they will need me per se, but they got their shit together and know how to kick ass. Hope to see you on the other side brother!”

Flynn backed away from the vehicle, gave a wave to Sargent, turned around and headed back to the technician crew.

"We will be on channel 3.8." said Sargent as he gave a nod and the FAV sped off northeastward in the rain.

"Irving, please update Colonial Administration that the repairs will have to wait until we have clear and dry weather and that we are shutting down main power supply..." Maryam ordered, then paused, shaking her head. "Damn... if this was just one tower down the line we could just reroute, but this tower splits off."

The team piled into the utility truck and headed out into the night behind the FAV.