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Mongoose Traveller Tale in the Third Imperium
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<blockquote data-quote="ptolemy" data-source="post: 9267216" data-attributes="member: 1412"><p>Day 6</p><p></p><p>We were woken in the early hours of the morning by the sensor alert! The pinging was accompanied by a projection of super hot gases and magma filling the lava tubes just below the the surface of the crater. As everyone congregated on the bridge the computer answered my questions with information predicting an eruption in 6 minutes. Images flickered across the screens as predictions were rapidly updated. The massive explosion had now become a more modest flow of lava over the lip. Peter was already strapping himself in and calling for everyone to do the same. He pulled up the visuals outside off the ship on his screens and told us that the water in the lake had started to boil. Wisps of smoke or steam were visible in places as the early morning sun inched into the sky. A larger plume of smoke billowed up from the southwest. The power plant hummed as demands were made of it. I patched the planetology data through my DD/R and, taking Vasquez with me, ran down the corridor into the engine rooms. A ship alert screamed through the ship “Missile attack, impact imminent.”! Our ship was identifying rocks shot into the air as guided missiles. While video footage on the engineering screen showing a mass of swirling and undoubtably toxic gasses the ground shuddered and we hear Kimberly howl and run the length of the ship. </p><p></p><p>“Do I have power?” came Peter’s voice.</p><p></p><p>“Get us out of here!” I replied.</p><p></p><p>Watching bushes spontaneously ignite amid more shuddering Highndry lifted into the air for the first time in months. I projected the hologram of the sensor data infront of my eye and concentrated on the mountain for a couple of moments. The pressure was dissipated and eruption in the crater was no longer being predicted. We nearly fell as Peter pulled us into a climb quicker than the grav floor plates could accommodate. Helena was on comms, I was dividing my attention between the power plant, the M-drives and the eruption while Vasquez was with me. Helena put an incoming call through an open comm:</p><p></p><p>“This is Minister Greener, come in Highndry. What the hell is going on? This is Minister Greener of Walston government. I have reports of Mount Salbarii emitting smoke and minor tremors. Can you confirm. Come in Highndry.”</p><p></p><p>Vasquez and I looked at each other not knowing what to say. The pause before Helena answered gave me the impression the others had done the same thing.</p><p></p><p>“Confirmed. Mount Salbarii is beginning to erupt. Readings aren’t clear as yet.”</p><p></p><p>Helena came over my personal comm.</p><p></p><p>“Tell me something good, sweetie. What’s happening with the mountain?”</p><p></p><p>“This is Raluca at Mayor’s office Salbarii,” a new voice, “We have had an earthquake. What’s going on?” </p><p></p><p>“Data unclear. Repeat, data unclear.” replied Helena. </p><p></p><p>“I am issuing a general alert. There are clouds massing around the peak. Please advise.”</p><p></p><p>Alan’s voice came back on:</p><p></p><p>“We are assembling all emergency service on the planet and organising a special train service to Salbarii. Grav vehicles are on route. Highndry, is it going to blow?”</p><p></p><p>I called through to P on our personal comms to start a live feed of the the mountain and for him to circle round to give us a good idea of what is happening. The data I was looking at appeared to show lava spilling out of the southwest face. This had probably saved our lives by diverting the pressure and releasing it. I need to know more. We brought up the feed off the mountain on the engineering room screens. Fortunately, the reactor and the M-drives are virtually located together on a scout and we had worked hard to clear up. I was glued to the screen. Lava was visible in several places in the crater now and could be seen escaping from new holes on the outside the mountain. However, the southwest flank of Salbarii was a river of lava. The ground sloped down and straight towards the sea. The town Salbarii was in no immediate danger. </p><p></p><p>“We have fast flowing lava moving south west from the eruption but none in the direction of the the town. Do you have many people between here and the sea?” I said to the planetary officials. </p><p></p><p>“Dozens. Scores.” That was Raluca.</p><p></p><p>“Greener here. There is a submarine base and processing plant on the coast and a few hamlets in-between you and the sea. Maybe one hundred souls. Wait. Please standby.”</p><p></p><p>I pressed the computers to give me more information about the lava flow as Peter fought to keep Highndry level in the buffeting winds. V was running from one piece of machinery to another, checking nothing was going wrong. </p><p></p><p>“… I’m doing it. This is the Mayor’s office. All citizens are to evacuate and head to Salbarii by any means possible. This is an emergency.” This was Raluca again and she carried on repeating this until Dictator Masterton’s voice came over. It was a little difficult to make out what he was saying - it sounded like he was in a very fast moving air/raft, but it became clear that he was calling for evacuation to Salbarii or the port Barvinn if Salbarii wasn’t feasible. Masterton turned his attention to us:</p><p></p><p>“Travellers in Highndry, we need your assistance. There is a road from Barvinn to Salbarii but it goes close the Mount Salbarii and might already be cut. There is also a train line between the port and Salbarii which keeps farther away. The Ocean’s Bounty will come ashore to pick up as many locals from Barvinn as it can, but it won’t be able to take everyone. I need to know if the road is open and then I need you to give me an estimate of the flow speed of the lava and it’s likely path. Then we need you to be monitoring changes. Walston needs you, will you help?”</p><p></p><p>We didn’t even discuss it. P asked me what <em>I</em> needed and I told him that he would have to sweep along toward the coast so I can get a radar map of the terrain and feed that into the computer to get reliable information for the Dictator. I was really pleased that we had taken the time to reinstall the software a second time. The sensors started mapping the ground and I was able to make a good estimate of likely flow direction. It looked like Barvinn had between one and two hours. Things would be tight. Now we had to get back to the mountain and land a few seismic monitors which had been part of the survey equipment. P insisted that it wasn’t possible at first, even as he was retracing our steps. We could use some of the tools we had brought and a rock drill from the survey equipment. I explained to V what we had to do. P hooked north and landed long enough for me to jump off. Then he swooped round to the southeast, dropped off V and came back for me. I could hear his swearing as he fought against the controls - heat pummelled the ship and winds were increasing. By the time he was picking me up V was telling H that she was ready. It felt like my clothes were about to burst into flame by the time I was back onboard. V told me later she thought the same but about her hair (which was shorter than mine in those days). </p><p></p><p>New and more accurate data started to pour in! The rate of flow had slowed, which seemed like good news to begin with, but it when I looked for a reason I saw that a plug had caused this and I didn’t think it would survive the pressure it was under for long. The mountain was going to explode and a massive pyroclastic flow was going to destroy Barvinn and kill everybody in it. We had been sending people into a trap! Salbarii was going to get covered in ash but was safe for now. We let Dictator Masterton have the somber news. He told us that a train is just about to arrive at Barvinn and will take everyone who is there. Ocean’s Bounty will wait until the last minute but some people on their way to Barvinn were not going to make it. Two groups, in fact. One was a farming community to the south which would have been safe if it hadn’t followed orders to got to Barvinn. There were 11 people in a couple of pick ups men, women and children. We knew we could just accelerate up and get out of the blast area easily, if we left now. If we tried to rescue the farmers we could probably avoid the pyroclastic flow. It would be close and we might destroy Highndry. Hey, we might all die. </p><p></p><p>Masterton went on to say it was too late for the other group. This consisted of a pair of middle aged Vargr who had refused initial evacuation orders. Their daughter was on the Dictatorial staff and she was just as stubborn. We could hear the sadness in Masterton’s voice as he condemned two of his citizens to death by asking us to ignore their plight. Trying to get to them will almost certainly mean being caught tin the pyroclastic flow which is thousands of tons of debris moving at at least 75km an hour - likely a great deal faster. At this point I noticed a radar reading - something was flying down from the north.</p><p></p><p>“Scout ship, I am going after mum and dad. Go get the others. I’m on this.” It was the daughter Masterton mentioned. She had stolen the Dictator’s air/raft and taken off on a reckless attempt to save her parent’s lives. Peter was already turning the ship towards Barvinn…</p><p></p><p>We could see the train moving away from Barvinn as we came in to land. The two pick ups got there as we did. V and I jumped out to round people up. It was pretty chaotic and V laid one out who refused to stop faffing about with some oversized luggage. He went over one of V’s shoulder and she staggered up the steps into Highndry, the last to the party. We could see the flow from the ground. We had maybe 4, 5 minutes. Even before we left the ground a distress call came in:</p><p></p><p>“Mayday... Mayday, this is Walston One. The car is damaged, drives are failing... windows are cracked,</p><p>I can’t see properly... I think I’m heading for the sea but we’re losing speed and altitude. I don’t think we’re going to make it. Is there anyone? Please?”</p><p></p><p>I could see the air/raft on the radar, it was a minute or two ahead of the flow. Peter looked at us questioningly and Helena barked “Just go.”</p><p></p><p>V and I left the kids who joined us on the mountain trying to get the new-comers to strap in or hold tight to something, anything. They knew exactly what we were going to do. V and I were ready at the airlock. The limo had gone down and in the heat and ash we couldn’t use the radar to find them, but Helena was fixed on the transponder. A wall of heat and ash met us as we jumped out - the ash falling almost horizontally at this point. We saw the three Vargr, two supporting one. We rushed over and gapped the one who was limping. The tallest, the daughter we found out later, was bleeding from their face. We bundled them up the stairs, tossed them over to the kids who were helping, ignoring the thanks of the latest passengers. I strapped myself in an emergency crash chair in engineering as the ship was buffeted and nearly flipped. We had no chance to outrun the cloud. Madman that he is, Peter turned <em>towards </em>the cloud! As many as could be were strapped into beds in staterooms. Others filled the chairs on the bridge and others still help on for dear life. Rukie had strapped themselves to Kimberly and a bed. The pyroclastic flow hit! The ship spun as it was thrown back and upwards. Peter tried to fight a hopeless battle but it was not use. The massive blow to the ship caused the power plant to overload and cut out. Lights died, grav plates failed and everything not nailed down flew around us. Emergency batteries kicked in and dim light flooded the ship. We carried on tumbling upwards as the flow buffeted us and we were thrown clear, up, up, up. </p><p></p><p>“Give me some f***ing power,” screamed Peter over our personal comms. I unfastened the straps which held me in my chair and, timing it as best I could, leapt for the power plant. Holding on for dear life I started to do what I could to get the plant out of emergency shut down. We all felt that weightless sensation as we reached the apex of our arc. We started to fall. Th plant flickered. Lights lit up and the familiar hum filled my body, pressed against the machinery as it was. From here on in it was all down to Peter. I’m not sure what happened in the next few minutes but I remember the impact as we hit the sea like a huge skipping stone and bounced back up. Sometimes, around three am when I can’t sleep, I think I’ll never forget that feeling. We skipped once, and then skimmed the waves until Peter pulled us up and we were flying as the scout was intended. I would have given just about anything just to go somewhere on my own, or perhaps with Helena. But I didn’t have that luxury. I was the most skilled medic on the ship and I had to run around, first doing triage then treating people. I didn’t touch the glass in our Vargr heroines face, that needed a proper surgeon. I had plenty to do without having to deal with that. There were some serious injuries including one open break. Kimberly also got a nasty broken leg which means she won’t be running very fast even again. On the whole though, we were damn lucky. Peter took us to Salbarii and we all slumped. Emergency services took over and we were safe. How did we live through all of that?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ptolemy, post: 9267216, member: 1412"] Day 6 We were woken in the early hours of the morning by the sensor alert! The pinging was accompanied by a projection of super hot gases and magma filling the lava tubes just below the the surface of the crater. As everyone congregated on the bridge the computer answered my questions with information predicting an eruption in 6 minutes. Images flickered across the screens as predictions were rapidly updated. The massive explosion had now become a more modest flow of lava over the lip. Peter was already strapping himself in and calling for everyone to do the same. He pulled up the visuals outside off the ship on his screens and told us that the water in the lake had started to boil. Wisps of smoke or steam were visible in places as the early morning sun inched into the sky. A larger plume of smoke billowed up from the southwest. The power plant hummed as demands were made of it. I patched the planetology data through my DD/R and, taking Vasquez with me, ran down the corridor into the engine rooms. A ship alert screamed through the ship “Missile attack, impact imminent.”! Our ship was identifying rocks shot into the air as guided missiles. While video footage on the engineering screen showing a mass of swirling and undoubtably toxic gasses the ground shuddered and we hear Kimberly howl and run the length of the ship. “Do I have power?” came Peter’s voice. “Get us out of here!” I replied. Watching bushes spontaneously ignite amid more shuddering Highndry lifted into the air for the first time in months. I projected the hologram of the sensor data infront of my eye and concentrated on the mountain for a couple of moments. The pressure was dissipated and eruption in the crater was no longer being predicted. We nearly fell as Peter pulled us into a climb quicker than the grav floor plates could accommodate. Helena was on comms, I was dividing my attention between the power plant, the M-drives and the eruption while Vasquez was with me. Helena put an incoming call through an open comm: “This is Minister Greener, come in Highndry. What the hell is going on? This is Minister Greener of Walston government. I have reports of Mount Salbarii emitting smoke and minor tremors. Can you confirm. Come in Highndry.” Vasquez and I looked at each other not knowing what to say. The pause before Helena answered gave me the impression the others had done the same thing. “Confirmed. Mount Salbarii is beginning to erupt. Readings aren’t clear as yet.” Helena came over my personal comm. “Tell me something good, sweetie. What’s happening with the mountain?” “This is Raluca at Mayor’s office Salbarii,” a new voice, “We have had an earthquake. What’s going on?” “Data unclear. Repeat, data unclear.” replied Helena. “I am issuing a general alert. There are clouds massing around the peak. Please advise.” Alan’s voice came back on: “We are assembling all emergency service on the planet and organising a special train service to Salbarii. Grav vehicles are on route. Highndry, is it going to blow?” I called through to P on our personal comms to start a live feed of the the mountain and for him to circle round to give us a good idea of what is happening. The data I was looking at appeared to show lava spilling out of the southwest face. This had probably saved our lives by diverting the pressure and releasing it. I need to know more. We brought up the feed off the mountain on the engineering room screens. Fortunately, the reactor and the M-drives are virtually located together on a scout and we had worked hard to clear up. I was glued to the screen. Lava was visible in several places in the crater now and could be seen escaping from new holes on the outside the mountain. However, the southwest flank of Salbarii was a river of lava. The ground sloped down and straight towards the sea. The town Salbarii was in no immediate danger. “We have fast flowing lava moving south west from the eruption but none in the direction of the the town. Do you have many people between here and the sea?” I said to the planetary officials. “Dozens. Scores.” That was Raluca. “Greener here. There is a submarine base and processing plant on the coast and a few hamlets in-between you and the sea. Maybe one hundred souls. Wait. Please standby.” I pressed the computers to give me more information about the lava flow as Peter fought to keep Highndry level in the buffeting winds. V was running from one piece of machinery to another, checking nothing was going wrong. “… I’m doing it. This is the Mayor’s office. All citizens are to evacuate and head to Salbarii by any means possible. This is an emergency.” This was Raluca again and she carried on repeating this until Dictator Masterton’s voice came over. It was a little difficult to make out what he was saying - it sounded like he was in a very fast moving air/raft, but it became clear that he was calling for evacuation to Salbarii or the port Barvinn if Salbarii wasn’t feasible. Masterton turned his attention to us: “Travellers in Highndry, we need your assistance. There is a road from Barvinn to Salbarii but it goes close the Mount Salbarii and might already be cut. There is also a train line between the port and Salbarii which keeps farther away. The Ocean’s Bounty will come ashore to pick up as many locals from Barvinn as it can, but it won’t be able to take everyone. I need to know if the road is open and then I need you to give me an estimate of the flow speed of the lava and it’s likely path. Then we need you to be monitoring changes. Walston needs you, will you help?” We didn’t even discuss it. P asked me what [I]I[/I] needed and I told him that he would have to sweep along toward the coast so I can get a radar map of the terrain and feed that into the computer to get reliable information for the Dictator. I was really pleased that we had taken the time to reinstall the software a second time. The sensors started mapping the ground and I was able to make a good estimate of likely flow direction. It looked like Barvinn had between one and two hours. Things would be tight. Now we had to get back to the mountain and land a few seismic monitors which had been part of the survey equipment. P insisted that it wasn’t possible at first, even as he was retracing our steps. We could use some of the tools we had brought and a rock drill from the survey equipment. I explained to V what we had to do. P hooked north and landed long enough for me to jump off. Then he swooped round to the southeast, dropped off V and came back for me. I could hear his swearing as he fought against the controls - heat pummelled the ship and winds were increasing. By the time he was picking me up V was telling H that she was ready. It felt like my clothes were about to burst into flame by the time I was back onboard. V told me later she thought the same but about her hair (which was shorter than mine in those days). New and more accurate data started to pour in! The rate of flow had slowed, which seemed like good news to begin with, but it when I looked for a reason I saw that a plug had caused this and I didn’t think it would survive the pressure it was under for long. The mountain was going to explode and a massive pyroclastic flow was going to destroy Barvinn and kill everybody in it. We had been sending people into a trap! Salbarii was going to get covered in ash but was safe for now. We let Dictator Masterton have the somber news. He told us that a train is just about to arrive at Barvinn and will take everyone who is there. Ocean’s Bounty will wait until the last minute but some people on their way to Barvinn were not going to make it. Two groups, in fact. One was a farming community to the south which would have been safe if it hadn’t followed orders to got to Barvinn. There were 11 people in a couple of pick ups men, women and children. We knew we could just accelerate up and get out of the blast area easily, if we left now. If we tried to rescue the farmers we could probably avoid the pyroclastic flow. It would be close and we might destroy Highndry. Hey, we might all die. Masterton went on to say it was too late for the other group. This consisted of a pair of middle aged Vargr who had refused initial evacuation orders. Their daughter was on the Dictatorial staff and she was just as stubborn. We could hear the sadness in Masterton’s voice as he condemned two of his citizens to death by asking us to ignore their plight. Trying to get to them will almost certainly mean being caught tin the pyroclastic flow which is thousands of tons of debris moving at at least 75km an hour - likely a great deal faster. At this point I noticed a radar reading - something was flying down from the north. “Scout ship, I am going after mum and dad. Go get the others. I’m on this.” It was the daughter Masterton mentioned. She had stolen the Dictator’s air/raft and taken off on a reckless attempt to save her parent’s lives. Peter was already turning the ship towards Barvinn… We could see the train moving away from Barvinn as we came in to land. The two pick ups got there as we did. V and I jumped out to round people up. It was pretty chaotic and V laid one out who refused to stop faffing about with some oversized luggage. He went over one of V’s shoulder and she staggered up the steps into Highndry, the last to the party. We could see the flow from the ground. We had maybe 4, 5 minutes. Even before we left the ground a distress call came in: “Mayday... Mayday, this is Walston One. The car is damaged, drives are failing... windows are cracked, I can’t see properly... I think I’m heading for the sea but we’re losing speed and altitude. I don’t think we’re going to make it. Is there anyone? Please?” I could see the air/raft on the radar, it was a minute or two ahead of the flow. Peter looked at us questioningly and Helena barked “Just go.” V and I left the kids who joined us on the mountain trying to get the new-comers to strap in or hold tight to something, anything. They knew exactly what we were going to do. V and I were ready at the airlock. The limo had gone down and in the heat and ash we couldn’t use the radar to find them, but Helena was fixed on the transponder. A wall of heat and ash met us as we jumped out - the ash falling almost horizontally at this point. We saw the three Vargr, two supporting one. We rushed over and gapped the one who was limping. The tallest, the daughter we found out later, was bleeding from their face. We bundled them up the stairs, tossed them over to the kids who were helping, ignoring the thanks of the latest passengers. I strapped myself in an emergency crash chair in engineering as the ship was buffeted and nearly flipped. We had no chance to outrun the cloud. Madman that he is, Peter turned [I]towards [/I]the cloud! As many as could be were strapped into beds in staterooms. Others filled the chairs on the bridge and others still help on for dear life. Rukie had strapped themselves to Kimberly and a bed. The pyroclastic flow hit! The ship spun as it was thrown back and upwards. Peter tried to fight a hopeless battle but it was not use. The massive blow to the ship caused the power plant to overload and cut out. Lights died, grav plates failed and everything not nailed down flew around us. Emergency batteries kicked in and dim light flooded the ship. We carried on tumbling upwards as the flow buffeted us and we were thrown clear, up, up, up. “Give me some f***ing power,” screamed Peter over our personal comms. I unfastened the straps which held me in my chair and, timing it as best I could, leapt for the power plant. Holding on for dear life I started to do what I could to get the plant out of emergency shut down. We all felt that weightless sensation as we reached the apex of our arc. We started to fall. Th plant flickered. Lights lit up and the familiar hum filled my body, pressed against the machinery as it was. From here on in it was all down to Peter. I’m not sure what happened in the next few minutes but I remember the impact as we hit the sea like a huge skipping stone and bounced back up. Sometimes, around three am when I can’t sleep, I think I’ll never forget that feeling. We skipped once, and then skimmed the waves until Peter pulled us up and we were flying as the scout was intended. I would have given just about anything just to go somewhere on my own, or perhaps with Helena. But I didn’t have that luxury. I was the most skilled medic on the ship and I had to run around, first doing triage then treating people. I didn’t touch the glass in our Vargr heroines face, that needed a proper surgeon. I had plenty to do without having to deal with that. There were some serious injuries including one open break. Kimberly also got a nasty broken leg which means she won’t be running very fast even again. On the whole though, we were damn lucky. Peter took us to Salbarii and we all slumped. Emergency services took over and we were safe. How did we live through all of that? [/QUOTE]
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