Log:The Base in the Mountain

2021/01/06 Victory Baker Anthem Grant 1

The journey so far...

Hours ago, Wayne brought up that Artemis had left to answer a calling and has yet to return. Concerned, he brought it up to Starguard's finest. After tracking the last ping signal on Artemis' smartphone, the crew flew to Antartica, only to get shot down by unknown assailants. They're currently grounded a few kilometers from where they were shot down, stuck in -90 degree temperatures. Victory has packed up some emergency blankets, flint and steel, a first aid kit, and some water purification tablets before the group journeyed forth toward the missile site.

Grant opened a gate directly to the now vacated site. The heroes discovered whomever shot their aircraft down had already departed for the crash site. Rather than pursue them, the heroes follow their tracks to where they came from, leading inland to the foot of a small mountain where the footsteps and disturbed snow hint at a hidden entrance.

After Anthem discovered the secret trigger, the wall of the mountain slid upwards, revealing a metal hall peppered with rust that descends down beneath the mountain. The metal door is heavy and thick, and the opening and ramp is about 4m wide by 4m high. The 40m long hall leads to another heavy set of blast doors. A few ceiling lights flicker on to light the way. Just as the heroes move away from the entrance, the 4m thick door rapidly falls shut, sealing them inside for now.

Victory smiles slightly, "At least we're out of the wind, right?"

Baker gives a reflexive shiver. "Yes, we are. That's better than we were a minute ago." Whether anything else is improved remains to be seen, but he'll take what he can get right now.

He looks back as the door slams shut. "... and we don't need to worry about anyone sneaking up behind us that way. Onward?" There is a hall, and another set of giant doors, and... not much anything else.

The heroes' breath is still visible in the air. While the winds outside are gone, and it's significantly warmer within, it is still cold.

Anthem still looks around for the controls. "Let's make sure we can get out as well," he suggests.

Victory nods. "It'll get warmer as we move further in, I think." He nods to Anthem. "Go for it." He keeps guard, seeing if anyone comes up toward the door from deeper inside.

Grant nods but looks around a bit nervously and tries not to think how he couldn't be more out of his element underground.

He looks to the others, grateful for his abilities and not for the first itme today. He tries to ignore that too.

"I can get us a backdoor too- I think. Probably all the way back to the ship if we wanted." Grant whispers before quietly adding, "Never tried to get out from under a mountain though."

Baker can't see through the door ahead, and has no idea how populated this base may be. He closes his eyes and extends his other senses out to try and fill in some of those blanks.

Baker hmms as he opens his eyes. "There's at least four, that I can sense. I don't have precise locations, though. At least we won't be walking into a firing line."

Victory nods. "Well, that's promising. Let's check a bit further ahead, then." He starts to scout forward, leaving his shield off for the time being, since it might draw attention.

"They're on the other side of that," Baker points to the large doors on the other end of the hall, "though not -right- on the other side of it. With any luck, they don't even know we're here."

Victory nods. "Not sure how they'd miss that door closing, though. They'll know soon enough." He glances back. "Hey, can you tell if Artemis is here? Her specifically."

"That was just a general scan, but I can look for her specifically," Baker admits. "She does tend to stand out..." Her thoughts might, too. After heading closer to the door, he pauses to focus beyond it once more; now with a specific target in mind.

Victory nods. "That's what I was thinking."

Grant nods like a goon in the background, trying to cover the rear since he'd turst Victory's shield to lead the way any day.

"Got her," Baker confirms, nodding at the blast door. "That way. Same general area as the others."

Victory nods. "So, three and her?"

"Ah, here it is!" Anthem pops open another hidden panel. "Wow, these fellows are really paranoid about their security."

"Well I can jump us through the doors... or maybe open a door for Artemis to come through... but then what?" Grant asks.

Everyone hears the whirring of mechanisms as two panels on each side of the tunnel (four total) slide up and turrets slide forward to lock into place. A light turns on in each turret at the same time and they immediately begin tracking on the heroes.

Victory looks to Grant. "Well, let's deal with the turrets first. One thing at a time."

"Turrets?" Grant asks, turning and spotting them. "Oh. Rats." He steps into a fighting position.

"Zounds!!" Anthem exclaims, then zooms forward to deliver a mighty punch to the closest turret!!

The turret shatters with a screech and crack of metal.

Victory turns his shield on...and then immediately hurls the energy from it at one of the turrets. The burst dissipates afterward and the shield reforms on his arm.

The energy shield shears through the turret, causing a minor explosion.

Grant focuses his mind's eye on a point in front of the barrel of the turret and then a point near itself hoping to cause it to shoot itelf and/or its neighbor but only obstructing the area immediately in front of thebarrel and not the sensory cluster but things start happening too quickly for him to hold it so he decides instead to focus the energies on his defensive field to deflect the next salvo away from him and the others.

As he concentrates he moves to put hismelf in front of the others as far as the turret is concerned.

Baker shifts from the recent scanning to his forte': kinetics. A personal protective field snaps up around him before he reaches out to the remnant shards from one of the destroyed turrets. They become shrapnel anew as they fly towards one of the remaining lit turrets. Hopefully these ones don't start singing.

The last remaining turret swivels and tracks on Victory and begins to charge up to shoot a laser beam his way.

The only thing strong enough to penetrate these things, aside from Anthem, and Victory's energy shield, and maybe other things... are themselves! The telekinetically-accelerated shrapnel pierces through Baker's targetted turret, rendering it inoperable.

The first one crushed, Anthem spins in midair the necessary distance to deliver a smashing back-fist to the second! Kapow!!

Victory easily avoids the incoming laser fire, not even needing to take it on the shield. He's quietly glad that he was the target rather than someone else.

Victory calls out, "I'm guessing you can hear us inside? We're coming. You had best prepare!"

"Don't give them any ideas!" Baker warns to Victory. There is a giant blast door between them and Artemis' hosts, afterall. He'd prefer that they forgot to lock it.

Victory pauses for the moment, and looks to Grant, "Can you get us beyond that door? Without killing us?"

With the last turret destroyed, and their presence noticed, it's a race to get through this not-quite-so-derelict base. Victory's taunt was heard as well, as cracking over aged speakers comes a distorted male voice with an accent. "We're well prepared for you...Agents of Starguard," it says ominously.

Slatted vents open overhead, usually used for air circulation. But instead of fresh air, a yellowish noxious gas begins to billow out of them and down onto the heroes.

Grant tries to hold his breath but its too late. Ha coughs as he nods to Victory. "I thi-AACK-nk so, Sir." He says as he tries to get open a portal for them to get through the doorway beyond. He moves forward to close the distance a bit.

He holds his hands up before him and tries to open an aperature in time and space.

It's at the very limit of Grant's ability...the gate opens on his side, and ...it opens to pure solid metal. He's stretched the gate as far as he can go at this distance, but the blast doors are thick enough that he can't reach beyond them yet.

Baker is hopeful when Grant opens up his gate .. until it reveals more door. "It might be too thick to go through. Maybe we can unlock it, or force it open?" he notes, even if that might be somewhat stating the obvious. He heads for the gate, looking for a control panel on their side. Might not be, but it's worth a shot. Probably more likely than prying that thing open.

Victory nods. "Get closer to the door, then!" He starts moving toward the door as well, breaking into a run.

Victory runs a full 20m toward the door, trying to get closer to it to make Grant's job easier.

Seeing the gas, thinking himself immune to it -- after all, he can breathe in space ! -- but seeing Grant having problems, Anthem surges forward to look for a concealed control panel on this one as well!!

Victory hurries down a little closer to the door and starts to hold his breath, and starts to look for a door mechanism as well.

Grant takes off as he nods at Victory, trying not to breathe. He gets as close as he dares to the door and tries again.

Anthem searches as he can, but does not spot a hidden plate, like the ones for the first blast door. "This is ... not good!" he exclaims, with a concerned look over at Grant. He can't believe it -- he's failing his very first Death Trap!!

The gate opens up 7 meters into the next room. This one has an 8m high ceiling, and is 35m by 25m. It looks like a large storage area of garage, with another set of doors straight ahead and twenty-eight meters away from the gate's opening.

Also twenty meters away is the welcoming committee. A four meter tall bipedal Siege Mech, accompanied by three human sized robots. Based on their chassis, these models are...definitely not top of the line. They're relics. The weapons, however, are modern. They begin to whir and prepare for motion as they sense the gate opening.

Along the sides of the storage bay are also a few stacked, abandoned weapons and storage crates.

Baker sees that the gate gets through the door this time. He also sees that they have a "Welcoming commitee! I'll run interference! You all get through!" He darts forward through the gate, moving several strides past to make room for the others. Baker then stops, putting up a wall of kinetic force ahead of him to cover the opening and the team.

The windowless doors on the far side of the storage bay are double doors sized for personnel to move through.