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[PyroDesu]

((Well, we're not going to get a merciful GM, that's for sure. C'mon, this is PW we're talking about.

Pull a mission 4 and hide in the police station while it's going off?))

[Sean Mirrsen]

((The atmosphere. Vacuum prevented the mist from spreading and multiplying, since it can't move through nothing. It... argh, I'm drawing conclusions from that novel again. I'd tell you what you could do, but there's still a chance that PW is a lot more creative than I think (a big chance), and currently "RUN LIKE HELL WHILE FENDING OFF PROTOSENTIENT NANOMACHINE SPORES" is the most sensible option. Or, well, just purge with fire, since there're no macrostructures to act defensively here.))

[PyroDesu]

((Good thing I've got some fire then, Sean.

But, if this wouldn't have happened if the room hadn't been pressurized, the why was it not somewhat like this when we first came through? It was pressurized then...))

[IronyOwl]

((If the first level is infected also, Command has probably gotten the hell out of Dodge, meaning we're gonna have to hope there's a functional ship we can steal or that Steve will come back for us before annihilating this whole place.

Alternatively, of course, Command will still be hanging around, in which case they're probably not going to be too keen on letting anyone out alive for fear of spreading it.

Basically I can't see the hangar level getting infected without Command panicking about it. On the bright side, that's probably the reason they set the elevator to ACCESS DENIED mode, so we've already survived (and possibly ruined) their first attempt at containment.))

((Good thing I've got some fire then, Sean.

But, if this wouldn't have happened if the room hadn't been pressurized, the why was it not somewhat like this when we first came through? It was pressurized then...))

((This is bugging me too. Clearly the mist has to be able to accomplish this sort of thing rather quickly, but presumably something would have had to trigger it, right? So, what was different or changed about level 2 now from when we passed through there earlier in the mission, or more importantly, the entire time it was here before us?

Nothing makes a massive amount of sense for triggering this kind of a reaction. We can probably at least assume the elevator was locked down at the same time Command noticed something was going wrong, but even with that timetable I just don't get it.))

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Good thing I've got some fire then, Sean.

But, if this wouldn't have happened if the room hadn't been pressurized, the why was it not somewhat like this when we first came through? It was pressurized then...))

((The hangar was depressurized, preserving the "mist" and the infected. There probably were some macrostructures inside the deceased. Lower levels were either cleansed by the doctors, or never got severely infected in the first place - most who were infected tried to escape and were in the hangar. The "mist" reproduces via the macrostructures, growing like a nanomachine "plant" or fungus, but it seems to need oxygen to reproduce, and the mist can't move through vacuum, because it's a nanomachine cloud, semi-sentient like a contained "hivemind", only capable of locomotion by heating or ionizing air, creating thrust. It's also only as smart and as powerful as it is large, which was what made the tunnel dangerous.

It just seems very similar to a novel by Stanislaw Lem, which is why I mention it, but even if it's so you can pretty much be sure that PW has added a few quirks of his own to the stuff. It wasn't anything like a disease, for instance. So far there was no trace of an ability the original had, either, but it'd likely fuck you up even more than you are now, so perhaps that's him being careful not to wipe the party out in one swoop.

As for the change, just pressurizing the hangar would have been enough to make it start spreading, but you also attacked the hivemind below. The mist above started to aggressively go down, hunting after you.))

[PyroDesu]

((This is bugging me too. Clearly the mist has to be able to accomplish this sort of thing rather quickly, but presumably something would have had to trigger it, right? So, what was different or changed about level 2 now from when we passed through there earlier in the mission, or more importantly, the entire time it was here before us?

Nothing makes a massive amount of sense for triggering this kind of a reaction. We can probably at least assume the elevator was locked down at the same time Command noticed something was going wrong, but even with that timetable I just don't get it.))

((Removal of the survi-

The APCs. If the mist reacts to heat up until a certain point, then some APCs, with lots of waste heat from the engines...

One or two trips wouldn't have been enough, but there were several, and several APCs per.))

[SeriousConcentrate]

(Hmm, not a great idea but what would you guys think of me attempting to melt a hole in the elevator below where Flint made the hole in the iris, then attempting to shape the iris into a funnel so that all the 'mist' flows down through the two holes and to the lower levels, hopefully missing the elevator and therefore us completely?)

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Last time you used the MWAmp inside an elevator didn't end well.

This time, the elevator shaft seems to be a few miles long.

Are you feeling lucky? ))

[PyroDesu]

((Yeah, Jim, if they're after us specifically (which I'd bet they might be), a funnel won't do diddly squat. And Sean's right.))

[Tiruin]

-mispost-

[SeriousConcentrate]

(@Sean: That was... five missions or so ago, when I had lower stats, no decomp, and an alien parasite in my brain. These circumstances are radically different.
@Pyro: Yeah, that's why I asked first before trying it, to see what other people thought.
@Tir: If Jim doesn't get any ideas from this roll and still has a chance to, I guess I could try your sabre on the mist to see what develops.)

[IronyOwl]

((Lower levels were either cleansed by the doctors, or never got severely infected in the first place - most who were infected tried to escape and were in the hangar.

((This part seems flimsy to me. The rest has some merit, but everyone who was infected conveniently dying in the hangar seems more like trying to fit the facts to a theory than vice versa.

That said, this is a reminder that we had some badly infected miner corpses up top. Or at least I think they were badly infected; I know we had trouble telling because they were so decayed, but I thought they still showed signs of plague.

However, there's also the plague-dead in the entertainment district. They had plenty of air, and still didn't do anything like this.))

The "mist" reproduces via the macrostructures, growing like a nanomachine "plant" or fungus, but it seems to need oxygen to reproduce, and the mist can't move through vacuum, because it's a nanomachine cloud, semi-sentient like a contained "hivemind", only capable of locomotion by heating or ionizing air, creating thrust. It's also only as smart and as powerful as it is large, which was what made the tunnel dangerous.

((Hm. I was about to say that can't be right because we know the plague spread by coughing, but we don't actually know that at all. We know it was claimed to have been spread that way, but the guy even mentioned that they'd lied before.

The plot thickens. I wonder if this helps explain the peculiar infection patterns we've seen- Faith seems to have gotten infected from opening her suit once to treat Sambo, and Milno presumably got it via rebar through the leg; meanwhile Mesk's suit was in tatters and he's still healthy (though that one could be his machines eating the mist to reform his normal lungs), Sambo got shot through the lung and was being treated by Faith when she presumably got infected, then blew his own arm off and got treated again and still nothing, and that one guy nearly lost his leg and, again, still healthy as far as we've seen.

Could just be as simple as End rolls/luck/immune response, but I have to wonder.))

As for the change, just pressurizing the hangar would have been enough to make it start spreading, but you also attacked the hivemind below. The mist above started to aggressively go down, hunting after you.))

((This is what I thought at first, but remember the elevator and communications stopped working well before that. I'm thinking that was when things went south, so they sealed us down here and possibly jumped ship.

Alternatively, it's possible they detected or were just concerned about some sort of breach, but it wasn't anything like this until the mist started calling to arms. The plan could very well have been to just seal us on Medical or lower and hope we help purge the place before we die.))

((Removal of the survi-

The APCs. If the mist reacts to heat up until a certain point, then some APCs, with lots of waste heat from the engines...

One or two trips wouldn't have been enough, but there were several, and several APCs per.))

((I dunno if that'd make a huge ambient difference, though. I mean, some of the tunnels leading from the elevators were pretty long, right? I wouldn't think a few degrees would be able to spark it like that.))

((Yeah, Jim, if they're after us specifically (which I'd bet they might be), a funnel won't do diddly squat. And Sean's right.))

((Hm. I think this might actually have some merit; my guess is that the mist is trying to rejoin the macrostructures, not murder us completely. I could deeeeeeeeefinitely be wrong on that, though.

That said, we're going to have to be wading through that or something anyway, so I dunno if that'd make a massive difference in the amount of being eaten we're going to have to do.))

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Lower levels were either cleansed by the doctors, or never got severely infected in the first place - most who were infected tried to escape and were in the hangar.

((This part seems flimsy to me. The rest has some merit, but everyone who was infected conveniently dying in the hangar seems more like trying to fit the facts to a theory than vice versa.

That said, this is a reminder that we had some badly infected miner corpses up top. Or at least I think they were badly infected; I know we had trouble telling because they were so decayed, but I thought they still showed signs of plague.

However, there's also the plague-dead in the entertainment district. They had plenty of air, and still didn't do anything like this.))

((It seems that the machines adapt their reproduction cycle to whatever is going on in a living body. Most dead you found were shot or burned, not merely dead of the plague, right? Perhaps killing the host prevents the machines from enacting their reproduction cycle.))

The "mist" reproduces via the macrostructures, growing like a nanomachine "plant" or fungus, but it seems to need oxygen to reproduce, and the mist can't move through vacuum, because it's a nanomachine cloud, semi-sentient like a contained "hivemind", only capable of locomotion by heating or ionizing air, creating thrust. It's also only as smart and as powerful as it is large, which was what made the tunnel dangerous.

((Hm. I was about to say that can't be right because we know the plague spread by coughing, but we don't actually know that at all. We know it was claimed to have been spread that way, but the guy even mentioned that they'd lied before.

The plot thickens. I wonder if this helps explain the peculiar infection patterns we've seen- Faith seems to have gotten infected from opening her suit once to treat Sambo, and Milno presumably got it via rebar through the leg; meanwhile Mesk's suit was in tatters and he's still healthy (though that one could be his machines eating the mist to reform his normal lungs), Sambo got shot through the lung and was being treated by Faith when she presumably got infected, then blew his own arm off and got treated again and still nothing, and that one guy nearly lost his leg and, again, still healthy as far as we've seen.

Could just be as simple as End rolls/luck/immune response, but I have to wonder.))

((Sambo... sambo... I forget, was anything about him special? I seem to recall at least one person getting most of his internal organs replaced by cybernetics after the darkness dimension mission, but that may have been the one later killed by Travis's gunnerbot. Mesk just repairs any and all damage to himself - even if the disease exists in him, it can't do anything. And the "nearly lost a leg" guy's injury happened in the hospital level - you can be sure the atmosphere there was purified. The mist is not actual mist, it's like dust, if it's machines. You can't get infected unless your flesh actually contacts a contaminated physical object, just air exposure won't do a thing.))

As for the change, just pressurizing the hangar would have been enough to make it start spreading, but you also attacked the hivemind below. The mist above started to aggressively go down, hunting after you.))

((This is what I thought at first, but remember the elevator and communications stopped working well before that. I'm thinking that was when things went south, so they sealed us down here and possibly jumped ship.

Alternatively, it's possible they detected or were just concerned about some sort of breach, but it wasn't anything like this until the mist started calling to arms. The plan could very well have been to just seal us on Medical or lower and hope we help purge the place before we die.))

((The mist started spreading as soon as the hangar was pressurized. Maybe as soon as you opened the miner suits to get inside. The people inside were definitely dead of the "plague", and you left them wide open. When Command noticed what the hell was happening, they made like Madagascar and shut. down. everything.))

[IronyOwl]

((It seems that the machines adapt their reproduction cycle to whatever is going on in a living body. Most dead you found were shot or burned, not merely dead of the plague, right? Perhaps killing the host prevents the machines from enacting their reproduction cycle.))

((Not sure what you're getting at for the first part.

For the second part, no, not at all. The entertainment district was full of plague-dead corpses, unshot and unburned. I'm not sure if we inspected the graveyard-corpses to that extent.

For the third part, that wouldn't explain why the hospital morgue was alive; presumably any bodies in there would have received the same treatment as those in the graveyard or anywhere else.))

((Sambo... sambo... I forget, was anything about him special? I seem to recall at least one person getting most of his internal organs replaced by cybernetics after the darkness dimension mission, but that may have been the one later killed by Travis's gunnerbot. Mesk just repairs any and all damage to himself - even if the disease exists in him, it can't do anything.And the "nearly lost a leg" guy's injury happened in the hospital level - you can be sure the atmosphere there was purified. The mist is not actual mist, it's like dust, if it's machines. You can't get infected unless your flesh actually contacts a contaminated physical object, just air exposure won't do a thing.))

((Nope, nothing special about Sambo.

Mesk repairs damage, but that doesn't mean he's immortal or immune to everything. A normal human body repairs damage also; that doesn't mean the mist can't do anything to it.

Define "purified." Presumably if they could wipe the mist out of the air, they would have done so fairly routinely.

The dust explanation doesn't explain Faith at all. It could explain Milno, since the rebar he took through the leg could have been contaminated, but nothing Faith touched wouldn't have been touching Sambo- she was, after all, treating him directly. I mean, it's probably possible that her skin touched some exact spot or object his didn't and that happened to be infected when the rest wasn't, but it seems like a stretch.))

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Well, I can't expect myself to be able to explain everything perfectly. After all, I may even be wrong on the source of inspiration for this.

As for Faith... you mean besides her sitting in a mecha-suit previously occupied by a guy dead of the "plague"? The whole outside of her suit would be covered in this dust. Hell, Faith may have infected him, rather than the other way around.))