one_man_army | (no subject)

(no subject)

When he steps through the door from Milliways, he's expecting to find the interior of his tent, which is why his head is ducked. His rucksack is over his shoulder - he'd thought it might be a good idea to bring some certain items from the Bar through in case things went wrong with his room - but when he suddenly runs his face smack into a rack of metal shelving, he yelps with surprise and confusion.

(Also? That is going to leave a bruise.)

Carl glances around at the room he's found himself in, realizes he's not in his tent (and therefore probably not in Africa, either) and immediately steps back with one hand poised to grab the doorknob back to the Bar.

Except the doorknob isn't there either.

Just where the hell is he, and why is he in what appears to be a storage closet?

+++

He spends two minutes quickly mapping out the room, while digging out his sidearm and stashing it at the small of his back where it'll be hidden safely in his concealed-carry holster. He's glanced at some labels on shipping crates and all it tells him is the department the items (whatever may be in the crates - he doesn't check) are intended for.

Science. R&D. Technical.

So he's...in a lab. Maybe.

Wherever he is, he can't stay in this storage closet forever. He tries his cell phone - no service, but it figures.

He hears footsteps outside of the door (hallway? offices?) and freezes, but relaxes once they pass.

Obviously he is going to need to get out of here and figure out where the hell he is. Carl shifts his bag on his shoulder and walks towards the door, waiting until there is relative quiet before he opens it and walks out like he's belonged here this entire time.

It's a hallway. Slick walls and smooth floors, signs posted near the doors. All right, he can manage this. He starts off in the direction he hears voices - lots of voices - figuring that at least then, he can try to blend into a crowd (hopefully) and figure out what the heck the Bar has gotten himself into.

He rounds the corner and finds himself staring at a huge open room, full of hundreds of people that appear to be packing (and unpacking) various boxes, bags, and crates. The tech is definitely nothing he's ever seen before, and a lot of them seem to be carrying what looks like gas masks at their sides.

One of the larger crates is lazer-stamped with three letters on the side: RDA

And then it clicks.

He's on Pandora. (Probably, anyway.)

"...shit."

He has got to find Trudy.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Despite the laughter, Farzan still gives Carl a thorough once-over.

"You're new, you're...hell. Systems-tech, they always have to work here for a while before they are actually useful. People won't ask you for help. Being new also covers you being out of place. You knew me and Trudes back when we were in Cali, so I'm showing you around - and if we really get stuck talking, being ex-Army explains why the barracks. Being one of the Marines ain't gonna be a smart idea, because then the others'll want to take a look at you."

Beat.

"And keep radiating bland like you were before. Y'right with goin' outside? We'll avoid more folk that way, although it's a little...jumpy right now."

"Outside is fine," he says, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. "I don't have a mask, though, obviously. We'd have to get me one of those, right?"

Bland, systems-tech, knew them back in California, and not a Marine.

(He will never be a Marine. No offense to Trudy or Farzan.)

"Easy done, we've got them everywhere. I'll grab some for us at the door."

He rocks back a little on his heels, and grins again. It's an altogether sharper grin.

"And just while I have your attention, Captain. I've never seen Trudy like this, with anyone before, and I've known the girl since flight-school. Fuck her up, and I'll find a way to go back in time, and fuck your shit up. Got it?"

"Yes, sir," Carl replies, without any hint of sarcasm in the sir, because while the man is grinning at him, this is Trudy they are talking about and Carl is very serious about not fucking things up between them.

A hint of a smile does creep onto his face, however, when Farzan mentions that Trudy has never been like this with anyone before. That makes him a little bit proud, and very happy.

"I know you don't know me aside from what she's told you," he adds. "But you can trust me as far as she's concerned. I...I care for her, a hell of a lot. I will not be fucking anything up about this."

All cheer again, "You got her to get back to Africa. That's impressive." Then, without changing tone, "outside we've got a bit of a sting-bat problem. No point in shooting them all - and besides, the scientists will start screaming the freaking place down." This is of less concern than the waste of bullets, but bears a mention. "You armed?"

Carl nods, unholstering the Glock 19 from the holster at his back. "I've got this."

Which he is well aware is likely a historical relic as far as any sort of weaponry on this base is concerned, but it's got a full clip (and he has a spare on his person) and he's deadly accurate with it.

"She's never told me about sting-bats."

Relic? Given the way Farzan just blinks at it (holy shit, he really is from the past)...yeah. Relic.

"Ok. Hopefully, you won't need it, but be ready to draw it. Stingbats...look, normally they are out in the jungle, doing what the do, and you can avoid them. There's a flock of 'em outside, though, all freaking confused. They sting you, and...I'll have to drag you to the infirmary. Hopefully won't actually attack us, though."

"All right."

He has no desire at all to be attacked by what he has surmised as flying stingrays - not just because of the questions it would raise when Farzan dragged him into medical.

"Anything else?"

Farzan smirks.

"Welcome to Pandora, Captain."

And with that, he steps back towards the door, making it slide open.

"Thank you, Warrant Officer."

He follows out the door into the corridor, making sure to keep pace with Farzan (and radiate 'bland' like he's never radiated 'bland' before) as they make their way through the base, towards what he is assuming is the door outside.

It takes awhile; this place is big, and while the layout is relatively straightforward as far as installations go, there are people everywhere. Most of them know where they're going, but he notices several others looking just as confused as he feels, a few being led around by others.

He's relieved when they make it to what he assumes (by the way Farzan moves to gather up two masks) is the door or airlock out of the base, though a new kind of tension is running under his skin at the thought of going out there, where the air kills and things try to eat men and women on a daily basis.

Farzan make sure Carl's mask is on, and the filter system hooked securely on his belt, before doing the same for himself. And then out they go.

It's a jungle out there.

The sky is blue, the weather hot and humid; the air is oddly thick, and the gravity shift...Well, Farzan's used to it. He leads Carl out onto the tarmac (mostly, Hell's Gate is runway, is a processing plant; there are three-storey high trucks, the whine and rumble of aircraft coming and going, shouted orders), and automatically he looks up before looking left and right.

Out over the fence is the jungle, and rolling hills, and the colouration of the trees in the distance isn't quite...

Right.

It certainly isn't Africa.

He keeps close to the other man and also checks his surroundings, trying not to look like he has no idea what the hell is going on here - but there's no hope of him not staring just a little bit as they make their way across the tarmac.

It's a hive of activity, and he begins to understand Trudy better with every thing he sees.

And the gravity shift...is just odd. He feels somewhat like he's slowed down, walking through the super-dense air, but he also feels...lighter.

They pause to avoid getting run over by a massive machine - it looks like a giant walking robot, to him anyway - and then keep moving.

The brilliant thing about pretending that Carl is new? Well, the staring is normal. And still, Farzan checks the surrounds, checks the sky-

Shit.

"When I say, run to the door, hit the giant button next to it," he says calmly as he picks up the pace. He doesn't want to run, because that is code for 'prey', and stingbats swarm to attack larger prey, like hexapedes. Like humans.

But he'll run if he has to, if the swarm flying over decide to swoop low.

"Run."

Carl notices the way Farzan glances up when he picks up the pace, and he first follows the man's gaze to the sky before glancing at the door, mapping a path there in his head before he glances back up at the stingbats.

They're giant - in his mind, anyway. To the residents of Hell's Gate, they're probably just a nuisance, but Carl isn't a resident of Hell's Gate. They're also pretty cool looking, but he doesn't have time to appreciate that because Farzan is telling him to run.

So he does, tightening the grip on the strap of his rucksack as he bolts across the tarmac, years of conditioning eliminating the gravity effect. He hits the button with the palm of one hand as he spins and draws the Glock with the other - not shooting, but covering, depending on how far behind (not very, he could hear bootsteps behind him) Farzan is.

Farzan isn't more then a few steps behind him, but he turns, fires, moves closer, then turns again and fires, all far faster than one might suppose.

Then again, those who don't get used to moving fast in this gravity and air pressure die.

One of the bats drop, but Farzan doesn't wait to see if the swarm wheels off; he just gets into the airlock with Carl, and lets the door slid shut.

"Fuck," he laughs, taking off his mask. "That was fun."

Edited 2012-02-13 12:24 (UTC)

Carl just sort of stares at the way the man is laughing after nearly getting stabbed by a giant flying alien bat with a massive stinger, and suddenly his girlfriend's joy for near-injury and death situations makes a lot more sense. Clearly, this place makes people crazy.

(He still loves her, but Jesus.)

"Yeah," he says, as he pulls off his mask. "Just what would one of those done, anyway?"

"If you're lucky," Farzan says, leading him through the second door of the airlock and hanging up the mask at the rack next to it, "large amounts of pain and convulsions. If you are very unlucky, it'll attack your nervous system and send you into cardiac arrest."

Here you go, Carl, a Marine admitted that something may hurt. You may feel free to be impressed!

Fortunately for them both, the barracks is mostly quiet at this time in the afternoon, and Farzan just nods and says 'hey there' to a few people (men and women both; usually wearing black armbands with beadwork, with hair everything from crew-cuts to dreadlocks; the mixture of dress that Carl saw out in the base is replicated here, too).

A few more twists and turns, and Farzan swipes his ID card down a lock, and leads Carl into a room. Trudy's room.

He hangs his mask up as well, and manages not to make a face at the description of the effects of the stingbat's attack - though he is impressed by the Marine's admission that something might hurt. He may even have to joke about that later with Trudy, if she's not in a piss-poor mood due to the fact that he's here and she has to find something to do with him, if they can't get back to the bar.

(As much as he'd like to stay a little while, he knows it would be a giant pain in the ass - not to mention he'd only been here an hour and something had already tried to kill him.)

Carl steps into the room, grateful to have made it without major incident.

"Okay," he says, glancing around. "That done."

Now he has to wait until Trudy gets back. Whenever that may end up being.

Farzon takes a long look at his face, and cracks up.

"I'll set the privacy setting so only she can get in," he says, pressing a button on a screen next to the door. "Have fun!"

And with that, he walks away, still laughing.

Once Farzan has gone, Carl is at a momentary loss. He checks his watch to make a note of the time (his time, anyway - that way he can figure out just how long he's been waiting) and then moves into the room, setting his bag down by the foot of the bed.

He moves around the room, looking at what she's done with the space (and notes the photographs that cover one board on a wall, but doesn't look at them in detail, yet - it almost feels like he'd be spying on her, somehow, and he'd rather wait until she was back to tell him about the people in them) before eventually settling down on the couch to wait for her to return.

(He's trying to figure out what to tell her.)

It's another few hours before Trudy walks in - tired, hot, shoving the top half of her flightsuit down as soon as she can - and she's already frowning.

Farzan told her there was a surprise before he cracked up, which is never a good thing.

She digs her IC card out of her pocket (it should be around her neck, but fuck that, it's not her dog-tags), swipes it to get in, and steps in.

Cautiously.

She sees Carl.

"...the fuck?"

"That was what I said, too."

Carl gives her a tight smile, because while the fact of the matter is simple: he's temporarily (he hopes) stuck here on this base, in the future, in a world where the wildlife tries to eat you on a daily basis...it's still Trudy, and he is happy to see her, regardless of the situation.

"I guess...I should say 'hi', though. That might help."

He's not sure anything will really help how fucked up this situation is.

Her hands on her hips, and her mouth still hasn't fully closed.

"Uh-huh. Hi. Um." There is a smile, because it's him, but it's a tight one that quickly fades.

"Okay, I'm gonna say it again. The fuck?"

"I was stepping out the door," he explains, motioning at his back. "Heading back to my tent, in Africa, okay? And then I run smack into a metal shelf. Which wouldn't be that hard to imagine, except the shelf wasn't in my tent. It was in one of your R&D labs."

He pauses.

"Something...bad, is wrong with the bar. It's malfunctioning. I guess the door must be, too, because I shouldn't be able to get here on my own."

She nods, and almost absently resets the privacy setting on her door back to her card only.

"Okay, and I...I take it that your door's vanish, huh?" she says, taking off her gun belt and hanging it up (clip is slid out of her gun, gun put in besides table with an electronic lock). She sits on the bed and starts untying her boots.

"Malfunctioning how? I mean, I haven't been there for a few weeks."