Babylon 5: Outrageous Fortune

[Shayuri]

"Give it a few minutes," Ash suggests. "Long enough that you'll see them coming in time to cut power again in a hurry if they're still close. Once you're up and running again, come over to the shuttle. There's wounded here we have to move over. Faster we get it done, the faster we can get out of here."

"And I don't know about you, but I'd like to get out of here as fast as we can."

 

[Dr Simon]

"Roger that," says Lars. He turns to Croft. "So... one of us needs to take the stretcher equipment over to the shuttle while the other stays here. Paper scissors rock?"

 

[Vertexx69]

Nobody can see the the look of sheer excitement in Croft's wide blue eyes as the swarm of shadowtech beetles crawl within inches of his face on the other side of the windshield.

Once they are gone the young Centari must be accidentally leaning on the coms button since he seems to be talking to himself in a soft whisper. "...I could have learned so much more with a live specimen..." but lets the thought go considering where they are.

He shakes his head as Lars is looking expectantly at him. Croft cocks an eyebrow at the driver whos arms are twice the size of his own, before returning his gaze to the landscape outside. "Now when you're carrying those things down there it would probably be safer to take that route around to that ridge-line there, and you'll want to take extra care not to slip down that rock wash half way down or you could take a nasty tumble."

 

[Dr Simon]

Grumbling, Lars sets about heading out with the rescue equipment and, after some tense moments in the open, eventually everyone is returned to the crawlers. Ireen Dyson seems in reasonable physical shape but soon falls asleep. The other two passengers are unconscious but stable, the shuttle crew are beyond help.

The comms system indicates an incoming call.

"Shuttle 5, can you read me? This is Colonel Sif of Lison Close Orbit Command. We have a fix on your position and are coming to assist. Shuttle 5, repeat, can you read me?"

 

[Leif]

Kirth Warren

The comms system indicates an incoming call.

"Shuttle 5, can you read me? This is Colonel Sif of Lison Close Orbit Command. We have a fix on your position and are coming to assist. Shuttle 5, repeat, can you read me?"

Seeing that everyone else is busy being useful, Kirth answers the call, "Shuttle 5 here, roger that Colonel Sif, not a moment too soon, over."

 

[Dr Simon]

"Roger, shuttle 5. Stay calm and maintain your position, we will be with you shortly. Sif out."

And indeed, they are. An atmospheric shuttle comes over the horizon and begins to settle about 100 metres away with much disturbance of dust and ice.

"Uh-oh," says Lars, watching the sensors.

"I'm not liking the sound of that," says Sakura. "Uh-oh what, Mr. Pieterssen?"

"Uh-oh as in there's that swarm of bug things on it's way back, uh-oh," replies Lars. "ETA 5 minutes."

 

[Leif]

Kirth Warren

Into the com, Kirth says, "Come in Colonel -- we have a situation here. There is a large mass of bug-like creatures closing in on us, if you have any heavy weapons you might want to give us a little help."

 

[Shayuri]

"Five minutes," Ashley says, scrubbing her fingers through her hair. "Is that enough time to load that shuttle and get out of here?"

She opens her comm and says, "Colonel Sif, the...entity..that brought down Shuttle five is still active. It can be avoided by powering all systems down, and we show it being back here in just under five minutes. We either have to be out of here by then, or completely dark. We've got all the wounded and survivors from the shuttle on this crawler...if you have some kind of vehicle bay, we can just drive it on in. Otherwise we'll need to get everyone over on stretchers and..."

She shakes her head.

"Please advise. Quickly."

 

[Dr Simon]

"Start moving your people over," says Sif. An image appears on the visual comms, slightly blocky due to interference. Sif, it appears, is a Llort. "You'll have to do it on foot, there's no room for your crawler"

The shuttle ramp descends, and a team of four soldiers in combat e-suits deploys at the bottom, PPG rifles scanning all directions.

Four minutes.

Luckily, everyone is still dressed in e-suits from exploring the shuttle, and it doesn't take long to carry the injured across to Sif's shuttle. Lars delays, insisting on staying to power down his crawler.

"I'd rather come back and have to defrost her than find her torn to bits by those things," he says. He is the last on board the rescue shuttle, and the marines are still on the ramp as it is closing and the shuttle is lifting off.

One minute.

Colonel Sif's shuttle is at a height of 200 metres when then beetle swarm reaches the crawlers. The wounded passengers, Lars, Sarhat, Sakura and Max fill the shuttle's cramped passenger bay, so Ashley, Kirth, Croft and Vector are forced to squeeze into dickie-seats on the command deck.

And so they are able to see the beetle swarm as the killer creatures that comprise it open their semi-orgnaic wing cases and take to the sky in pursuit of the shuttle.

Sif turns around in his seat.

"You've encountered these before? Can we outrun them?"

[sblock=Croft]
Knowing Shadow tech as you do, it may be possible that between you and Ashley, as powerful telepaths, that you can jam or confuse the swarm in some way, but that usually works with larger tech that involves a sentient being as the core.
[/sblock]

[sblock=Kirth and Vector]
Croft's idea of creating an explosion to encompass the swarm may have one thing going for it - this planet has large pools of liquid oxygen just lying around. Igniting one may do the trick.
[/sblock]

 

[Leif]

Kirth Warren

Kirth helpfully suggests, "Colonel, if we can draw the swarm down near one of these ubiquitous pools of liquid oxygen, and then somehow ignite the pool, our problems may be quickly toasted."