"Private Thanfield, this is Holly Taelor, scientist - would you happen to know anything about the current abnormally tilted position of our station?" Holly's voice broke in over the radio through her wristwatch computer. She was currently arming the air rifle, because what with the events of the last few hours, you couldn't be too careful.

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Winter clamped his hand down on a smile before it could fully form. With both Thanfield and the Sergeant now covered in alien guts, too, the entire squad now matched. Still, he had to vent the emotion somehow. Casting a furtive glance in Thanfield's direction, he laughed. He cut it short before the Private could do more than glare, but it had served its purpose.

Of course, there was the matter of the somewhat flustered-looking scientists and engineers around them. And the portal-thing, too.

"Isn't that the thing that we're supposed to go through?" he asked Cortez. If so, he could only hope it wasn't damaged--that would stink. His earlier apprehension gone, he felt very much like going through the portal right now. It might even be fun.

Of course, there was always the chance that he would be stuck getting his head smashed into the frame of the Puma again, or 'falling' down the stairs in the barracks building, or being targeted by ever other player on the paintball course. Those things he wouldn't mind missing again--everyone else thought they were funny, and even did what they could to make sure they continued, but they just annoyed him. Of course, once he was annoyed, they 'fell' down the stairs, too, or lost the paintball match. And then they got mad at him for getting upset at them, yet did it all over again a few days later.

He could never understand other people. They were just so confusing all the time, and now there were these Engineers and Scientists staring at them, confusion, relief, or both paramount on their faces. What was so confusing to them? Other people were supposed to be able to figure these things out, so they could tell him.

Maybe they had been smiling before.

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Scanning their group, Thanfield couldn't help but wince. Salvation had come for this lot incarnate in three panting pukes covered in alien guts. And one of them was laughing. He could almost see the wheels turning in the civilian scientists' nerdy heads. But then again, he was a gung ho marine who was only supposed to worry about the next enemy to shoot and finding his way to the nearest urinal.

He took his turn saluting the crowd, then went over to examine the portal and the intricate blinking consoles surrounding it. The space station complained with yet another lurch, reminding them of the desperation of their situation. A glance at the survelliance on the far wall told him the Bhorki mother ship was spawning again - not brutes, but a dozen more of the huge specimen they'd shot at earlier, a representative of which was gushed in the doorframe.

"We going to rock this party or what?" he said, shifting his gaze from the portal to Cortez.

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((I'm going to hurry us along, so y'all aren't waiting for us. lol))
After going down several more hallways, Carson and Michele were the door they needed. There hadn't been many aliens in the hallways, but the pair had been able to shoot and dodge the ones that were there.
Carson punched in his code, then the other he knew, and stepped back to let Michele enter her's.

Michele quickly entered in her code, and the doors eased open, allowing them access to the space now filled with people.

"So!" Michele spoke rather loudly as they entered, announcing their arrival, "What in the name of goodness are we going to do now?"

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

(okay, I'm going to say that you two entered through the fire escape, since there's a ravening who-knows-what trapped in the main doors)

"Well, we did," Alanna responded to the Marine sergeant's question. She paused as the fire escape door opened, admitting two more scientists - the ones on the radio. Good. Things that she didn't have to shoot. "Unfortunately we had a power spike that got past the surge protectors, so it's going to take a little attention to get it back up and running again. However, I think we have bigger problems." She nodded to the slavering jaw still struggling ferociously in the door, the target of most of the techies' weapons.

"I'm Alanna Yeh," she added. She started to hold out her hand, but looked at the sergeant's condition and thought better of it. "I'm the most senior engineer in the room right now, but my speciality is not holding off invading alien monsters - I assume that's yours." Pulling off the grease-stained denim shirt she habitually wore over her nicer, more professional clothes, Alanna offered it to the man. "You also look like you need this."

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<center>Nothing but the Rain</center>

"Do we have another option?" replied Holly scathingly from where she was positioned by said door. "Nothing we've thrown at it has made any difference. Whether anyone likes it or not this thing is staying alive."

Another scuffle in which the air rifle was used several times and she added over her shoulder by way of introduction, "Biologist Holly Taelor."

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((good point, Valera. lol I didn't realize which door that was))

Carson stepped into the room. He offered his hand to Cortez. "Carson Reid." he said. "We're bloody glad you're here."

Michele nodded in agreement with Carson, and extended her small hand as well.

"Michele Deriecho. Its good to escape the flood." She attempted a smile, "But I assume its no where near over, is it?"

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

((I have a question-can the Portal move in time and space? Like, could it go back in time to France, for example?))

So....if this station is on the moon, and it goes back in time to a location up to ten miles distant...how is all that going to work?

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Well, that was helpful. Thanks, Ellie.

I misunderstood your post to imply that it was within ten miles of the point of origin, not of the target destination.

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((I get it! lol Thanks for explaining that))

(lol. sure, i can technoBS.)

Alanna waited until the seemingly necessary introductions were over, then raised a skeptical eyebrow when she had Cortez's attention again. "Show you how it works? That could be slightly difficult, since it's not working, at the moment. But the basic idea is that the Portal enables us to create wormholes through the space-time continuum. It used to be considered impossible, due to the amount of energy involved, but the time crystals have shown us that energy is not an issue; that problem is circumvented by the specific interaction of the crystals with the surrounding space. I'm not going to explain that - it would take someone with a Ph.D. in string theory to do it properly. Suffice it to say that the crystals allow us very fine control over gaps in the fabric of space-time, without using more energy than it would take to power - oh, say, Singapura."

She grabbed a nearby console as the station shifted again. "Your turn. Tell me how we're going to get out of this situation. And by that I mean the giant bugs and the moving station."

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<center>Nothing but the Rain</center>

"Whatever you're doing to fix the thing, I suggest you do it fast," Thanfield said from the main entrance. He'd procured a towel from one of the cabinets. Having Bhorki kidneys and God knows what else splattered all over his face didn't exactly appeal to his sense of comfort. The bloodstains were stubborn little beasts, but at least now his gray combat fatigues had colorful maroon polka dots.

To emphasize his earlier point, he lightly touched his fingers to the floor and made a slashing gesture at the others. Once everyone stopped fidgeting, he felt it again. A faint tremor in the floor, as though someone was dropping lead weights at timed intervals. Footsteps, and whatever it was seriously needed to discover Weight Watchers. Could there be more than one...? His eyes darted to the hulking monster gushed in the doorframe, still oozing blood and brains onto the medically clean floor.

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"What?" hissed Holly, temporarily ceasing her manic jabbing at the keyboard to feel those ominous quakes, slight disturbances that should have been prevented from happening. Not good. "What are our options?" she demanded, computer forgotten. "If we all hope to live I think some action is required."

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