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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Audrik" data-source="post: 6442826" data-attributes="member: 73653">Killer Out of Space - Session 6aThe decision was made to wait until nightfall and watch the well. As it was early afternoon, the agents had some waiting to do, and time passed rather uneventfully. Night did eventually fall, and when it did, the ball of kaleidoscopic light rose from the well as they had predicted. They watched as it floated through the wheat field to the south. Once it was out of sight, they made their move.The agents quickly crossed the dirt road and hiked through the overgrown field to the well. Just as they had done earlier that day, Agent SETH set the rope, and Agent SID slid down into the well, sinking into the mud. RUBY held a flashlight, and ROSE kept watch.SID felt around beneath the mud with his hands, and he felt several of the softball-sized orbs. He scooped one into his backpack, but the second one cracked in his hand. As the vivid, colorful insides leaked out onto his skin, he began to feel an intense burning with an odd sucking sensation. The contents of the orb soaked into his skin, and almost immediately his hand began turning grey. His flesh dried and cracked as he watched, and it was slowly moving up his arm. It was past his wrist before he managed to start climbing the rope with his left hand. He was right-handed, and he’d already lost the use of it.Once he was back on ground level, Agent SID showed the others what was happening. ROSE and SETH paused with wide eyes, and RUBY held out her knife in a no-nonsense, “you know what to do” sort of manner. Agent SID took the knife with his left hand and looked at the spreading death of his dominant arm. It was half-way to his elbow.SETH discouraged him from actually attempting to cut off his own arm, and for his part, SID was relieved. He sincerely doubted he had what it would take to go through with the operation. Instead, he pointed to the southwest with his good arm and announced his intention to return once more to the makeshift infirmary in Gove. RUBY was already on her way down the rope, and ROSE was lighting her way, but SETH wished him luck.Agent RUBY’s feet sank in the thick mud at the bottom of the well, and she immediately set to work gently fishing the orbs out with a board and rolling them into her purse and two backpacks. There were still many left when her containers were full, but she left them. Climbing as carefully as she could, she made it back to the surface. She set the bags down about twenty feet or so from the well and motioned for ROSE to follow her.The two members of R-Cell headed for the ruins of the barn to search for anything which could be used as an object of destruction; sledgehammer, explosives, tractor … They managed to find a rake and a ten-gallon gas can which was nearly full. RUBY carried the gas can back to the well and began casually dumping the contents to the bottom. She made sure to coat the entirety of the rope before lighting it and stepping back. The fire burned for quite a while, and the night air was filled with crackling, sizzling, popping, and whistling. Once the job was done, the agents each took up a bag and headed back toward the junkyard.Agent SID stumbled for what seemed like miles through a dark corn field, and he hoped he was headed in the right direction. The fact that he found the edge of the field was a good sign, and the dirt road he saw was an even better one.It was hard to see but easy to feel the progress of the creeping death of his arm. It was now past his elbow. He knew he didn’t have much more time, and his mind was already preparing him. That’s why he wasn’t surprised when he saw the ball of color coming down the road toward him followed by an odd rumbling sound.The rumbling quieted as the ball stopped in front of him and spoke. In English.“You there! This area is under quarantine. Come on out.”Agent SID did as the rumbling ball of kaleidoscopic light ordered, and he put his hands in the air. As he did so, his right hand simply crumbled into dust. The ball of light then spoke in two different voices.“Jesus! Did you see that?”“Yeah! That’s messed up!”“Damn it, man! Get in the jeep!”The ball of light grabbed him … somehow, and the rumbling started back up as it sped him off toward town. He must have passed out because the trip was almost instantaneous, and when he regained his senses, two people in NBC suits were lifting him out of a jeep. They carried him into a building, and he once again lost consciousness.The other three agents arrived at the junkyard to see what had become usual activity; one person in an NBC suit at each of the three magnets, four people in NBC suits with rifles patrolling, and two people in NBC suits standing next to a man in a dark suit with a NASA badge.SETH took up his usual observational spot in the field while RUBY and ROSE simply walked right through the front gate. One of the guards saw them and headed them off.“Who are you? What are you doing here? This area is restricted.”Agent RUBY flashed her fake NASA credentials while Agent ROSE tried to look like she belonged.“You’ll need to talk to Dr. Hudson.”The guard motioned toward the man in the dark suit and led them over.Dr. Hudson looked at them as if he expected them to explain their presence. Agent RUBY once again flashed her NASA credentials while Agent ROSE just fit in.“Amelia Larce, NASA.”The man raised his eyebrow.“Doctor Morris Hudson, also NASA. You no doubt know I’m the head of field operations here, but I don’t believe I know your role.”Agent RUBY explained that she knew about the ball of color, where it rested during the day, and what it did at night. She also explained that she and her team had found what they believed to be the creature’s eggs. To emphasize this, she gently lifted one from her purse.Dr. Hudson made a thoughtful sound as he nodded slowly.“Assuming this is in fact an egg, what were you planning to do with it?”“I know you and your team have been having trouble capturing this thing, so I thought I would help. We can use them as bait.” She smiled to indicate that she was really only questioning his competency in a friendly manner.Dr. Hudson sighed and nodded. One of the people standing next to him took the orb from her and looked at it for a moment. RUBY told him to be careful with it just as he squeezed a little too hard. The orb cracked. When the colorful contents oozed out, it dissolved a hole through his glove. The man in the NBC suit held up his arm and screamed as he dropped to one knee. He then rolled over onto his side, flailing and eventually only twitching.Dr. Hudson barked an order, and one of the guards ended the man’s suffering with a single bullet. The doctor then turned a disapproving look toward Agent RUBY. She simply shrugged and reminded him the orbs were dangerous. The doctor told her to place the rest herself, and she did so.Agent SETH had used the distraction to climb the fence and place the two backpacks in the trunk of a junked car. RUBY saw him, and he held a finger to his lips. No one else seemed to have noticed him, and so he climbed back over the fence to watch from the field.While RUBY didn’t exactly call out Agent SETH, she did indicate to Dr. Hudson that she had another associate in the area. She suggested that part of the problem might be that there was only one person manning each magnet, and that she and her team might be able to serve as fail-safes. Dr. Hudson agreed, and so Agent RUBY called SETH over. Each agent took up a spot next to a person manning a magnet, and all that was left was to wait.</blockquote>

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