The Swarm: Stay

[atlasmods]

Who: These Interlopers
When: IC Day 5.5-6
Where: The Boneyard
What: The Swarm Event

THE SWARM: STAY PRELUDE. Five days have passed since you, The First, woke on the strange and barren planet of Kharas. Four days since the pods housing you exploded when tampered with, and Three since the strange Trilobite-like sand crabs began hesitantly crawling their way into and around the boneyard. At first there was only a few brave specimens to be found, keeping mostly to the shadows and scuttling this way and that. Now, however, at least a hundred of them can be found in and around the boneyard in various placed, commonly grouped together in batches of two or three, sometimes even four. Notably they do not interact much with one another despite their groups and are much more interested in scouting out their surroundings for fibrous materials. On the odd chance that they manage to obtain any scraps they will begin to wander back towards the tracks your counterparts began following earlier. Odd, isn't it? As the softer morning sun overhead slowly begins to heat up with the encroaching afternoon more of the Trilobites begin to fill the area. Only unlike their predecessors these ones do not wander around aimlessly, and instead beeline their way to any Coral stalks that remain in the area. They bury into the sand beneath them to avoid their harsh shells and attack the roots until they topple and collapse under their own weight. Once this happens they practically swarm, working to segment it into pieces with their mandibles. When the Coral's shell cracks the Trilobites pry all vegetable matter from within and begin dragging it into the desert. And that's not all: these new Trilobites seem much braver and more interested in you than their predecessors. They will openly wander up to characters and gnaw uselessly at their ankles or feet, chittering and chattering. If enough of them happen to get together around an individual they will form a tiny ankle-gnawing mob intent on clambering all over you. As the daily eclipse nears their numbers will begin to grow even further. Odd tremors can be felt beneath the ground, even in spite of all the sand, but characters won't get much of a chance to look into the matter before their wrist communicators begin to emit that same strange static from the mist. ...Only there's none to be seen in any direction whatsoever.
OOC	IC Days 5.5 - 6 (Oct 26th - 28th)
This log starts during the afternoon of IC day 5.5 and continues on until the morning of day 6 (with the rest of that day being the aftermath/conclusion). There will be a time-sensitive event which will run for 24 hours starting on the 27th at 8:00AM EST. It will conclude on the 28th at 8:00AM EST. This time-sensitive event cannot be "failed" by running out of time and will affect the lore of the game. Please direct any and all questions about this event here.

Comments

[falsesmile]

[ It was certainly a very noble thing to do. Noble, kind, brave, helplessly stupid -- not her style, personally, but something she could appreciate. And it was a fascinating ability
.
In the short run, the safest thing to do would probably have been to listen to him -- to scramble up the bones and wait for the danger to pass. But in the long run -- he would be a useful person to have around later, and an even more useful person to get thinking well of her.

Some risks were just worth running.

She moved toward him through the swarm with gymnastic grace, a thin shard of pod wreckage in each hand like clubs or swords. She ducked away from some trilobites, batted others away with her bludgeons, and -- subtly, without needing to gesture -- used the Force to nudge others just slightly past her. She couldn't avoid them all before they got to her suit, but she was still in surprisingly good condition by the time she made it to his side. ]

I have your back, [ she said, pitching her voice loud enough to be heard over the swarm but otherwise calm under fire, and smacking an incoming trilobite away for emphasis. ]

[anewhope]

[ Cue the music.

Clark stares at her for a few seconds, dumb founded. He's not used to people having his back (or needing to have his back) but to his credit, the surprise doesn't last and he's all business once more. He nods curtly. ]

I can hold them off for a while, but the power of the suit can't handle it for long. Can you help people up the bones?

[falsesmile]

[ There's an almost imperceptible moment of hesitation before she responds, which she covers by lashing out at a low-approaching trilobyte with a kick. She can help people -- she can hoist them up with the Force almost effortlessly -- but she's still not certain that overt uses of the Force are wise with not-quite-Luke Skywalker around. ]

"The suit can't handle it?" [ she echoes, buying another seconds to mull it over. ]

[anewhope]

[ Clark nods, batting away a couple of trilobites nearby with a flick of his wrist. The other trilobites seem to backing away from him at least, wary of the beams of heat.]

Using our powers drains the suit. I don't want to know what happens when we run out.

[ Though Clark won't fight against the possibility - he'll do whatever it takes. ]

[falsesmile]

[ She's been keeping her Force use to a minimum, so that takes her genuinely aback. And when she checks -- yes, there it is, even her minute nudges against the trilobites has put a small dent in the counter. She grits her teeth. That kind of limit on Force use throws a serious wrench in her survival calculations. ]

I -- [ there's two cracks in short succession as she bludgeons one trilobite like a ball, hitting it back into one of its fellow ] -- can help a few.

What will you do when you hit zero?

[anewhope]

[ Another burst of furious light and heat sends another swarm skittering to the sides. He makes sure it cuts a swathe around the bones, marking the territory.

Her question gives him pause. His expression makes it clear he hasn't thought about it and wasn't going to. ]

Hope it doesn't.

[falsesmile]

We need tactical thinking, not wishful thinking, [ she said, letting some exasperation creep into her voice as she whacked another couple of trilobites. ]

Make a dash for the high ground and then keep -- [ a pause, here, while she thought about how to describe what he had done and also to kick a trilobite away ] -- keep blasting. You do the same amount of good, [ she threw this in deliberately. He seemed like the sort of person for whom it would matter, ] and you're relatively safe when you... can't blast anymore.

[anewhope]

I can do more than blast things.

[ His formidable strength and speed were still great assets, though not as much as his heat vision was right now. ]

And I can hold out long enough for people to get to safety.

[ He assumes. Factoring in the suit's power and his own. A fine line, but Clark was used to balancing acts of great power and usage. ]