South Substation

Written by Thaen and Omni
2.3.5 SW Morning
Crowning Point > South Substation

Red decided he could handle the situation, lighting another cigarette as he studied the swarm of insects. A thought occurred to him and he pulled back his middle finger. With a deft flick, the nicotine drug sailed through the air onto the cable. He saw a few of the buggers give off a static discharge from its passage but otherwise they did not scatter. Red saw them stay away from it though, a small little area they just refused to be around. He sighed and went back down the stairs after a moment.

Down he went, shaking his head and going for yet another cigarette, this time to smoke. He got to the cart and grabbed his radio. “Red to Blue, Hettinger around? Over,” he broadcasted.

“Uh, yeah, one *tzzt*, over,” was the response. When the Assistant Manager finally got over the horn, it amounted to a lot of “solve it yourself, corporal.” Red stared at the handheld, wanting to chuck the damn thing over the edge to the waves frothing below. Instead, he put on his best calm soldier voice and said, “Yes, sir. Sargent, out.” He looked back up at the cables and thought for a second. He raised his handheld, this time calling Blue up. “Looks like Storm Flies are going at the cables down here, Blue. I could use some help down here.”

~~

Cameron Baird sat in the chair of the CommTech terminal, watching the video feed as he pulled at a piece of gum. He leaned forward to the mic, “Have you tried smoking them out? Over.”

“With what? Over.”

“Well, if you can’t get them out, they are gonna knock the power out. There should be something down there to help you,” Blue replied. “Old pesticide canister, a beekeeper’s tin… I don’t know.” He was already typing into the computer terminal, pulling up priority messaging for numerous divisions of the colony. The first went to the scientists, knowing that the white coats enjoyed biology class a bit too much. The second priority message went to the security team, with a warning to bring some protective gear against a possible Squall. The third went to engineering, to which he asked APOLLO if any were awake and to ring them up.

[[Message Prompt: PRIORITY]]

[[To: SCI/ENG/SEC]]

[[From: BLUE]]

[[Message Start]]

Okay people, we definitely have a problem that needs fixing. Got reports of Storm Flies causing damage to the South Substation. Get someone down there immediately, Corporal Sargent is on scene already. And make sure no one fucks this up, I am not eating C-Rations for a week again.

Blue

[[Message End]]