8. Mars

[dakota]

McKenna was frozen with fear as the thing passed them. Once Joe spoke, she snapped out of it a bit, enough to exclaim" What the [EXPLICIT] was that?"

[Mierin]

Jessica also looks a bit unnerved by the sight of the spider cyclops creature that skittered by them and when Miner Joe asks if they should follow it, she turns to him and asks, her voice full of surprise. "Are you joking? Unless you've got some weapons capable of fighting that thing hidden on your person, absolutely not!"

[Renekin Skywalker]

"I have my charm." Miner Joe retorted. Despite the strength in his personality, charm was not something he had really come to master. For the record.

"We don't have any other route to take." Thing 2 added, glumly. "If we wait at the door for it to open, it'll be another one of those things anyways."

[Dome]

Foreman shrugs, "its not a dangerous martian alien or bug or anything, after all those only exists in movies so...," he trails off obviously being sarcastic.

Then he says, "if we are behind it, its not behind us. I agree we should get after it."

[Mierin]

Jessica shakes her head at Foreman, not impressed with his being sarcastic. "I disagree. Our being behind it doesn't make us safer - it can just as easily turn around and attack us."

[Renekin Skywalker]

"Well, it's gone now." Thing 1 interrupted, getting frustrated with the situation. "How about we just walk quietly and hope for an exit sign, huh?"

With a shrug, Miner Joe continued on, deeper into the tunnel.


And deeper, and deeper, and deeper…

Until!

Something else happened!

Oh, and it was a surprising thing! And a Her-prising thing!

The walls disappeared and the roof disappeared! And, refracted in what could only be described as a hollowed-out underground glacier (since that’s what it was), were the eyes of about a dozen of the spider-things, chipping away at the ice.

The cavern itself was quite large, being at leastv50 feet tall, 100 feet deep, and 200-300 feet long (about the size of the smaller NFL field, as opposed to the larger, better-funded stadiums housing them), and off to the right, in the distance seemed to be another tunnel (larger than theirs, though not seemingly as busy). The Spider creatures would pile their ice chunks just inside the second tunnel, then return for more.

Throughout the glacier, minitunnels, large enough for the spiders, were carved, though their purposes unknown.

Miner Joe, without thinking, pushed everyone back into tunnel.

Over the noise of the mining Martian monsters, the group could feel a thrum in the gound.

"I see them!" Thing 2 exclaimed in a hoarse whisper, pointing to something across the space. "I think."

[dakota]

"I guess it's too late to argue with Tawfeek to stay back on the ship?" McKenna tried not to sound too panicked. "you see who?"

[Dome]

Foreman tries to look in the direction the guy #ed 2 is referring to. He says, "I don't know what you see. We need to figure out what to do here. There's a dozen or so of those things that we can see. Who knows how many more elsewhere. The people from the bus were taken by those things. If these things are aggressive, we have no way of fighting them off. Does anyone have any idea what we should do?"

[Mierin]

Jessica smirks at McKenna, trying to hide her uneasiness about the situation, especially given that she was unarmed and replies. "Sadly, it is." Turning to Foreman, she whispers, "We should get the hell out of here as quickly as possible and do our best to avoid being noticed."

[Dome]

"You probably right Jess, but its almost like some force or invisible being has been pushing and prodding us to get to this point. I mean those two (he motions to the last two "survivors") show up and keep urging us on? Miner Joe leading us right here. I just get this feeling that for the moment this is where we are supposed to be."

[dakota]

"Flip, you're talking crazy now." McKenna said lowly so only her crewmates could hear, trying to hide she was beginning to beleive him. " Jess, you have any ideas? Wait, how do we know for sure the bus really was destroyed?"

[Renekin Skywalker]

"Finding God when trapped in a cave facing your doom is a common thing, miss," Miner Joe said to MacKenna. "The good news is, he's usually flattered enough by the sentiment to get you a way out."

"The bus was destroyed, and the other passengers are right there." Thing 1 said, quickly. The tip of his finger pointed across the cave, where the others were merged with the glacier in ice-blankets.

It was about that time that the spider creatures noticed them, the GM decided. (It should be noted that the GM is not God, but will still, grudgingly, accept sacrifices of gold. No maidens: he's a PG-rated notgod, now.)

To speed things up, a [PLOT ANVIL]Scooby-Doo-style chase ensued[/PLOT ANVIL] in and out of all the mini-tunnels.

Eventually, the group managed to evade them, running, rather breathlessly into the tunnel where they creatures were depositing the ice. That was about the time that Jessica tripped. The trip itself, much like the overall trip, so far, was unexpected and disappointing. What she tripped on, through, was a...

"Conveyor belt?!" Thing 2 exclAimed.

[Dome]

Flip looks around the room, "so these things are gathering Ice and apparently people and bringing them to these conveyor belts. Maybe these things aren't natural. Some kind of creation made to mine the ice and move it to the processing center. I say we follow the belt and see where it goes."

[Mierin]

Jessica jumps up after her fall on the conveyer belt and looks around, sighing. Checking to make sure she hadn't hurt herself, she thinks to herself that she doesn't really care if they're natural or someone's creation, she just wants to get back to the ship.

"Fine." Jessica says quietly. "I just want to get back to the ship." It seems clear Jessica is getting crankier by the minute when she stops talking and keeps looking around.

[dakota]

"I second that notion." McKenna nodded in agreement with Jessics," I'd even work hydroponics raather than this. And no more of Captains bright Ideas for sightseeing."