video/text

[quark_assassin]

[Rather than diving straight into an explanation for why he's bothering to publicly address the network, Dustin decides that simply showing everyone will illustrate his point much more clearly.

[The recording starts from low to the ground, tilted slightly upward and facing a central, ruined road overgrown with plants, which some might recognize as the "Gateway" leading to the Power Plant. Some edges of errant leaves occasionally drift over the tablet camera's lens, but for the most part the view is unobstructed - like a trail camera set up in a clearing. That was the idea, anyway.

[There's a few leading seconds of silence. Then, a dull, distant thud. Silence. Thud, a bit louder this time. By half a minute, the sound is accompanied by a perceptible shake of the camera as the vibrations disturb the tree it's strapped to.

[Then the Deerclops finally comes into view. The camera is twisted at just the right angle so that its wide lens captures most of its body passing into the clearing as it stoops through the overgrowth, save the points of its massive antlers, but the cascade of leaves in its wake give them away. The monster is only in frame for two huge strides before it disappears again. Its footsteps become distant, the vibrations cease, and then the recording ends.

[Dustin's caption for the video is comparatively brief.]

In case anyone was wondering what took out the power.
Problem is self-evident.
Need to get rid of this thing.

Comments

[Text]

[thepurpleone]

WTH

Is that some kind of mutant??

Seconded, do we have a plan?

text

[quark_assassin]

Exact taxonomy unclear.
Going to go with "BFA" (Big Fuckoff Alien) for now.
Will handle more precise classification when it is not actively trying to murder me.

I have some ideas.
Not sure if any will actually work.
Or if I can implement any of them without staying in one place for too long.
Fucker has some chemoreception bullshit or something.
Tracks me down as soon as I get within a mile of the power plant.

[thepurpleone]

Under the circumstances I will not argue this temporary designation.

Definitely looks like some conglomeration of animals...sort of- well, in any case, heightened senses probably shouldn't be a surprise.

Really hate to go in without my battle shell but that thing is going to be a problem if it's left traipsing around the power plant. Heading over. At least two will be harder to keep tabs on. We can take turns distracting it.

[quark_assassin]

[Again with the people just...showing up...Dustin's anxiety is not enjoying this.]

I mean I guess
Gladio is on the way too.
I'll try and circle around to meet both of you near the gateway without dragging it with me.

As long as you or me makes it into the guts of this place, one of us should be able to fix it.
Or diagnose how badly fucked it is so we can come back with the right parts.
Might have to take Engineering though to get it done quickly.
At least the data point is in the main building.

[thepurpleone]

You do what you have to.

::frowny face emoji:: Guess that's sufficient reason for a point-switch. Anyway we'll worry about that after we deal with whatever that thing is. It'd be pointless trying to do anything if it's still there to do damage.

[quark_assassin]

Agreed.
Unsure if the best route is to kill it, lure it somewhere else, disable it, or some combination of those three things.
Ideas?

[thepurpleone]

All of the above does sound ideal given it looks hostile and the likelihood that something that size comes in a four pack at any given time around here just seems highly suspect for it to be a natural phenomenon.

[quark_assassin]

fucking
what
There's four of these fuckers??
when the fuck

[Someone - not naming names - has not left Cyan in the past two days and has no idea what Donnie is talking about.]

[beyourzoomer]

Four?

[ziedrich_bearer]

Inbound now. What have you observed?

[quark_assassin]

[Dustin types a series of protests at Gladio's insistence to just. Run out and meet him where the monster lives. But he deletes all of them in a huff, realizing that his worries are not only pointless (Gladio will ignore them and come anyway), but also hypocritical. Compared to himself, Gladio is really much more equipped to deal with being ambushed by a Deerclops.]

A lot less than I would like.
Chases me whenever I get too close, makes long-term observation difficult.
Definitely territorial of the power plant.
Lack of depth-perception from only one eye could be exploitable.
Air gets noticeably colder whenever it's around.

[ziedrich_bearer]

[Ah, but for him this is completely common and acceptable practice. His entire life for the ten years before coming here was based in fighting monsters and daemons for the greater good. It's encoded in his brain now to do this.]

We need the power plant. I LIKE running water thanks.

Cold doesn't bother me. Any chance the thing's legs look flimsy?

[quark_assassin]

You and everyone else.
I don't even want to think about the kinds of alien parasites living in the water around here.

About as flimsy as a fifteen-meter-tall ungulate's legs would be, sure.
Assuming a comparable internal anatomy, hitting the joints in its legs would be the fastest way to disable it.
I think getting close enough to do that is going to be the hard part.
The cold, for example.
Not saying it gets a little chilly and you should bring a sweater or whatever.
I mean, it gets cold.
Definitely feels like some kind of power.
Haven't stuck around long enough to figure out if it's just a passive environmental effect or

hold on, I can test this.
Be back in ten.

[ziedrich_bearer]

Alien parasites later. Giant evil cyclops deer now.

Sweaters would only slow me down, but I'm throwing on my coat. Also don't test things!

[quark_assassin]

[Too late Gladio, Dustin has already put his communicator down and is Testing Things. Specifically: Can he get the creature to actually attack something so he can observe its patterns of aggression? He's never been able to watch it hunt or eat, since it seems to zero in on his presence as soon as he gets close (and the trail camera idea only resulted in a couple of drive-by images as it pursued him across the map), but building a decoy to leave behind could result in some interesting data.

[Slapping together an old blanket, a rock, and some sturdy vines into an attention-grabbing projectile only takes a minute, and then tracking down the Deerclops itself is another four. But it's the better part of twenty minutes before Dustin is able to dash to safety and answer his messages again.]

definitely more than passive
ice projectiles
very bad

[ziedrich_bearer]

You're an IDIOT sometimes, you know that, right? You could have gotten hurt!

[quark_assassin]

calculated risk

[ riiiiiight ]

also, hypocrite, you're running here yourself
You know just as well as I do that none of this shit's going to be safe.

[beyourzoomer]

[Well if that isn't the sight of the ground dropping out beneath all of their feet...Monsters. Because of course. She's not bitter at all. Nope.]

Any idea how we get rid of it?

[quark_assassin]

Work in progress.
Killing it isn't completely unfathomable, at least from what I've observed.
It interacts with the environment and doesn't look impervious to scrapes from trees and shit.
Considering that it's about fifteen meters tall without the antlers, though, I think that's going to be difficult.

Could try and figure out what has it so attached to the power plant and lure it away to somewhere more favorable.
Maybe it has electroreceptors that make it drawn to the generators.
Or it's been eating the crystals.
I'd say we could bring it to the beach caves instead, but I don't think it will fit.

[beyourzoomer]

Having electroreceptors makes sense.

[Like the magnet/gate effect in Hawkins.]

So we need to draw it away from the power plant and...trap it somewhere so that we can get the power back.

[quark_assassin]

That's a solid first and second step.
Might have to disable it permanently to keep it from just, you know
Escaping and coming back later to fuck things up again.
Like I said, work in progress.
You have any ideas?

[beyourzoomer]

[Her first thought is of El, but...El's not here. So that's definitely not an option.]

Are there any weapons in this place? Guns or...anything? [She'd watched Nancy saw a shotgun barrel off so that she wouldn't miss hitting Vecna if she had the chance. But there was no telling if a gun would even work against -- whatever this monster was.]

[quark_assassin]

Yes.
Mostly personal weapons though.
You've got a few more options if you're willing to put your brain in the grinder and grab the Security data point.
I'd offer to make you one but I am a little busy at the moment.
Trying not to get eaten by a fucking cyclops reindeer alien, etc.
I guess I could give you one of mine if you know how to use them.
Knife? Crossbow??

[beyourzoomer]

Yeah, don't -- get eaten. [She hesitates, and she's probably going to regret this but --]

If you want to get out of there, I can distract it.

[quark_assassin]

Not exactly looking for an exit strategy.
At least not until I get the power fixed and we make sure it stays that way.
If you're willing to be a runner so I can get inside the power plant, though, I won't argue against it.
Gladio and Donatello are already on the way to keep it occupied.
But if it's got some kind of instinct or instruction to keep us out of the power plant, it might ignore them if it sees me going for it.
Having both of us run towards it might split its focus enough so at least one of us makes it inside.