Present:
- Buzz "Cut". Solomani Soldier from Seven – Shane
- Dr Paczki Knodel. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Seven – Darryl
- Stella Cauthon. Solomani Rogue from Seven - Richard
- Anton Tositova. Solomani Gunner from Entrope - Ian
- Sang "Spanner" Hoang. Sword-Worlder Mechanic from Winston – Jeff
- Hoff Ende. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Winston - Kevin
- MARMALADING Heidi Vasovagal. Solomani Scientist from Seven - Steven
- Itzy Ende. Sword-Worlder Soldier from Winston - Chris
- MARMALADING Jon "Crash" Straker. Solomani Pilot from Seven – Jamie
by Darryl
"Right let's head off again and collect another one of these micro-portals" says Anton. "Hoff's all fine with us entering his brain so let's go!"
Hoff was still spitting out marmalade as some of the group filled him in on what had been happening recently, and through his dizzy state, he agreed.
"So I get to have a trip around inside my own body? That's sounds pretty cool, I always wanted to see myself from the inside out."
"Yeah, it's all good, nothing goes wrong" could be heard from the noisy group as Hoff shook his head. "Well there is a small risk..."
"What do you mean?" Hoff was able to question through the humming of conversation between Dr Knodel and his brother discussing deep science stuff.
"Well there is a small chance that your head could explode, but the odds, they are so small blah blah blah."
"Well in that case let's do it, I trust you all to have my best interests at heart." concluded Hoff as the rest of the group began organizing for another nano-bot field trip.
The group got settled down on to the beds they had used before, placed on the appropriate head equipment and set forth for Hoff's pineal gland, the pinecone-shaped region right in the middle of the brain.
"I reckon my sleep cycles will improve once we sort out what is happening in my brain." says Hoff, "maybe i won't suffer from the marmalade disease as much once we know what is going on."
We were all trapped into the nano vehicle best described as a small 4WD and set forth. Driving along we would see the odd antibody or two, but we were moving too fast and were ignored. we knew once we stopped, these antibodies would begin attacking us and it was imperative that we kept them away from the 4WD as the walk back out was going to be way too long for us to survive.
Finally we saw in the distance the strange looking structure, a pinecone shape and knew we were getting close to where a scan of Hoff had indicated the presence of the radiation that emanated from the micro-portals.
"Right, keep your eyes open guys there will be one around here somewhere," said Itzy.
"Hey yeah, there's one." says Buzz, "Why don't you have that cut out of you Hoff, looks pretty dangerous to me?"
"Yeah maybe," Hoff said "Just exploration but maybe you're right, in fact I will do it myself."
Hoff using the special surgical instrument we call a knife, that was supplied just in case then cut around the micro-portal and we hauled it onto the roof to take back.
"You did know, didn't you, Hoff, that if that knife had got stuck. your head would have exploded?" asked Stella.
"Oh, that's bad." gulped Hoff. "I don't think I will do that again."
We travel on and see a glow a little further on. As we approach, four micro-portals, quite close together can be seen, and they are surrounded by antibodies trying to attack the cluster with every so often one of the anti-bodies disappearing into the center and being whisked off to the Rose planet.
"Look, each time an antibody hits the edge of one of the portals, they move and get a little closer together." remarked Spanner.
"Zis is fascinating." Dr Knodel replied "Ve should wait and observe, i will watch what happens to ze radiation levels as zay touch."
 |
| Two merge into one |
"Zat was incredible." Dr Knodel said, "And se radiation has gone up by ze square, not so good."
"Um do we need to fix this now?" gulped Hoff.
"Let me see now I vill calculate." said Knodel. "It vill be just fine, only a 10% increase in background radiation once all four merge, you can survive this no problem."
"Right. Well then, let's get out of here before those damn anti-bodies decide to take a look at us." Anton said, and off we drove.
 |
| Stella's accident |
"Oh Dear, looks like there was a bit of slippery stuff on the ground just there."
The vehicle is a write-off and the group unbuckle themselves and exit the vehicle.
"Too far to walk I reckon." Itzy says. "We gonna need rescuing from the outside."
Dr. Knodel's brother Powidła is contacted and he says he will put a rescue team together.
The next few hours are pure hell, P53 anti-bodies arrive at regular intervals and most of the time the group is able to fight them off with no damage, but attrition begins to affect things. Dr Knodel screams and swears at his brother to hurry things up and all together fight as best they can. Anton is hit again and again eventually, despite much first-aid, goes down. Just as things begin to get desperate the rescue vehicle arrives with four nurses on-board. we strap the micro portal onto the roof, Buzz straps himself to the chest of one of the nurses and we head out to safety.
"Don't drive too quickly lads, we don't want another accident." the muffled voice of Buzz says.
We arrive safely and store yet another sample of the micro-portals.
"Zis is fantastic." Dr Powidła Knodel says, "My publishing vill be able to continue for many more years with all these specimens."
The group heads back to the Cauthon Institute and spend a few days healing up. During that time Dr. Paczki Knodel begins planning his research for the next decade, and he also receives his large screw based tunnel made from the same material as the spiky eggs that can enter and exit the portals. it is large enough to allow a person to travel through a portal.
Dr Strangelove contacts the group and asks about our space experience, there is a small task the Cauthon Institute wants done in the system. There is Zhodani activity on one of the moons around a gas giant. The institute wants to know exactly what they are up to. All of the group, except Dr Knodel are keen but he reluctantly agrees to join them all on this venture despite the pull of his research.
 |
| Fleet |
The name of the moon we are to head to is Fleet and after ship preparation, and after a few pleasantries with Space Traffic Control, head to our destination. We are aware that whatever is happening is on the radio shady side of the moon and once we are in orbit we carefully and slowly enter this part of the orbit. There are some small electronic satellites orbiting but none of them are emitting any signals but a radio signal can be identified on the surface of the moon. we remain in stealthy mode keeping our EMF signal as low as possible while trying to decode the signal. to no avail. The only way the group is going to find out what this is will be via a trip to the surface.
"We have one problem." says Stella, "No air-raft pilot. Crash has marmalade extruding from all orifices and I can pilot this ship but not an air-raft."
With our tail between our legs we return back to the planet, with the sounds of "forgot your lunch did you?" coming from Space Traffic control.
 |
| Tulsi Nostrovia, temp air-raft pilot |
"No way, snowball's chance on hell, f off, are you joking?" can be heard from various sectors of the group.
Instead we decide to recruit our own, and with our great skills in recruitment street knowledge and the like, we end up hiring a ... Zhodani air-raft pilot, in fact the very same one recommended to us by Dr Strangelove.
Then with our lunch packed and an air-raft pilot to boot, we head back to the moon called Fleet, hopefully this time, ready to land and investigate the radio signals from the surface.
[ Ironically, Crash will have returned next time, so this hire was probably moot. ]
