"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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Carson glanced around the room quickly. The giant alien caught in the main door effectively cut off that route. They could leave by the fire escape, but what then? The odds definitly be against them if they tried to take on the aliens. He glanced towards the Portal. <i>Steady, Carson.</i> he told himself. <i>It's not that desperate yet.</i>
Despite his having worked on the plans for the Portal, the thought of going through it made him nervous. What if the Portal opened into a wall, or over an ocean, or...
Carson cut the thoughts off, trying to focus on the immediate needs.

Footsteps. Footsteps that he shouldn't have been able to feel through the floor. Whatever was coming was heavy. Big deal. In Winter's vast experience, the heavier a person was, the easier it was to defeat them. And then there was the fact that the Bhorki smiled. They seemed to enjoy evil smiles, but they were smiles nonetheless. They were going down.

Noticing that Cortez and Thanfield had both wiped off their combat uniforms--to a point, at least--Winter shrugged. He could do that, but he didn't have much doubt that it would get coated in alien guts soon after. That was just the way things went in his life. He might as well wait until the aliens were all dead before toweling off.

"I like the lady's question, Sarge--how are we going to get out of here?" he asked. If it weren't for the fact that the portal was rather big, he would have said that he and Thanfield could carry it--it didn't look too extraordinarily heavy. Of course, knowing Thanfield, the private would wimp out and complain that it was too heavy or bulky. That meant that they would probably be staying here and fighting off gads of ugly aliens, to which he was somehow related. It had to be that--smiling didn't affect Cortez or Thanfield, only him and the Bhorki. There must be a connection somewhere. He would have to figure it out later.

He felt the tremors in the floor increasing. He glared. He was actually feeling very happy, but he couldn't show that by smiling. If they were going to take down more aliens like the one that was squished under the door, today was going to be a good day, unless Thanfield wimped out again.

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As the alien started pounding on the door, Carson whipped out his pistol. It wasn't as good as the Marines' weapons, but it had still managed to stop a few aliens.
As Carnifex and his hoard burst through the door, Carson bit of a curse and started shooting. He aimed towards some of the (slightly) smaller guards, leaving the big ones to the Marines.

Holly shot gamely until she discovered that missile-based weapons, unlike lasers, needed reloading, and she hadn't a clue how to do it. Tossing the now-useless rifle aside, she dove behind a toppled desk and cast about for some means of defence.

The aliens seemed unusually intelligent, and in mere moments as Holly hunted through wet computer wiring and splintered wood one had leapt over her makeshift barricade to chitter at her, claws dripping with a substance that looked suspiciously like blood. Holly hastily snatched at a broken piece of board and struck out at it, stumbling ungracefully to her feet to stagger through ankle-deep water and debris.

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The brutes poured right in, an ugly tide of bloodlust, but the Carnifex split into three flanks to minimize the target. Years of rigorous training galvanized them, and the marines automatically formed a defensive triangle around the Portal. He discovered within the first twenty seconds of withering gunfire that the Bhorki had chosen their battle fodder well. Though not overtly efficient, the brutes were quite good at getting underfoot at exactly the wrong times.

As illustrated now. Thanfield was just lining up his shot with the Carnifex's soft underbelly when something roughly resembling a lobster claw swiped over his head, whistling over his scalp by a bare centimeter. He fired off a round at the brute's kneecap, which buckled, sending it down. The encased head looked doubtful, but one shot under the chin did finish it off.

The Carnifex was moving now, lumbering towards him with speed that belied its massive girth. It lifted its alien rifle. Thanfield launched into motion, darting left and right around the desks and consoles. A stream of green acid erupted from his enemy's barrel, spraying to his right and nearly scalding his skin off. He took cover under a desk before lining up his next round. The superhot plasma seared into the Bhorki's side, eating away at its natural armor.

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(Meldawen, I don't think there's water on the floor - the portal lab was separated from the other areas by the lockdown and it's more central, so not as affected)

As the aliens pushed through the doors, Alanna released the safety toggle on her autorifle, pumping off a few ineffective plasma shots before realizing that it was more efficient not to indiscriminately hold down the trigger.

Cover seemed like a good idea. She crouched behind the console, eyes widening in shock as she saw the effect of the Bhorki's acid on the aluminum desks. They looked like a lousy arc-welding job, with uneven gorges of rippled metal where the acid had hit.

If the Portal got scrapped because of this invasion and its side-effects - such as being destroyed by a firefight - she was going to be mad.

She brought her autorifle into action again, but it didn't seem to be doing much good. It might have been the range or the alien's armor - still, it wasn't working.

Any other ideas? Well, there was the small fact that there was enough power tapped into this room to energize, say, Singapura. Now, if only there was a way to put fried Bhorki on the evening's menu. There should be, and a brain that had passed muster at MIT and Stanford should be able to find it.

Still hunkering behind the console, Alanna Yeh shot and thought.

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<center>Nothing but the Rain</center>