Episode Twenty Three: Eighth Wonder

[Troy Loveridge]

Previously, on Stargate Delta

Colonel Loveridge was in his office with Doctor Collins debating his future in light of the mission failure that lead to Doctor Garcia and Major Logan being captured and now held by the enemy. Frank Kepler returns to the base after spending time on Earth arguing for the expedition's future and announces he's reigned as a Major General and is now an IOA representive, with Troy taking his place as expedition leader. Meanwhile, Captain Cromin detects a strange electromagnetic signiture in a cave near the base while on an F-302 training run and reports it to the base. Troy sends out a team including new expedition member Ensign Caleb Dorian to investigate while Cromin locates the lost Puddle Jumper Hippocrates in the cave, which has been overgrown by a strange crystal-based lifeform. The Captain briefs the team on his findings, with Corporal Keller suspecting the lifeform may extend to the City of Akrotiri and be drawing power from its ZPM. Nolen and Cromin prepare mini UAvs to further investigate the cave system with Troy's approval.

And now, the conclusion....

OOC: Restarting missions due to the July 2010 Proboards crash - more info HERE.

Attachments:

[Robert "Scarecrow" Cromin]

1310
Cave system
Outskirts of Akotiri

Captain Cromin had just finished ordering Sergeant Blaine to go prep the UAVs back in the city when he heard a voice say that he had them already prepped for flight. Cromin recognized the voice and when he turned around it was Nolen. "Thank you sir, that just made my job easier, nice seeing you again, what are you doing out of bed?" Cromin exchanged plesantries with the squad leader and quickly informed him of what he was about to do. The turning to Sergeant Blaine he said "Alright Blaine, I want you to get the pilots together over there and prep for launch, we will go on my command. The ground team will go in afterwards."

And so the UAVs were launched and Cromin monitored all the feeds they were sending back, it wasn't just video feeds but the heat sensors also picked up spiking temperatures as the UAV flew close to some of the crystals. The UAV scans showed that the Crystals had made its way into the foundations of the city, nothing major but just a little chunk was attached to a power node built into the city's foundation. It seemed that the crystals needed energy to function and what better energy source than the ZPM lodged in the city's power room.

Captain Cromin called over a scientist standing by and asked what it meant for the Crystal to be attached to the power node and as the captain suspected, it was bad. The scientist explained that if it could get to two more nodes then it would get direct power from the ZPM. Cromin saw tactics and he saw intelligence, he knew what had to be done next. This crystal wasn't just an occurence, it was making its way to the city and if they had not found out it could have been worse, just before he could finish his thought process the UAVs all of a sudden stopped sending feeds back all at the same time. Captain Cromin definitely knew something was going on. So he informed the Colonel of his findings and suggested that he lead a team to sever the crystals from the power node.

<Tag Loveridge and base personel>

[Troy Loveridge]

1310
Cave System
Outskirts of Akotiri

Standing under the canopy that had been hastily erected to provide a forward command centre of sorts, Troy watched the feeds from the mini-UAV's as they further explored the cave system. Their sensors sent back information that suggested the crystal was more wide spread than first suspected, having reached out in all directions underground, and even making contact with the foundations of Akrotiri, apparently after the energy of the ZPM. The UAV's suddenly went offline, their signals lost all at once.

Captain Cromin suggested a team be sent down the tunnels to sever the crystals connection to the city's foundations. "Did the sensors tell us what we're up against?" Troy asked the scientists present. "Are we even going to be able to cut the damn thing?" Diamonds and crystals back on Earth were known to be some of the strongest materials, very difficult to cut especially in the large amounts that seemed to be in the tunnels. "And what happened to the UAVs?"

< Tag Scientists >

Regardless, they needed more information, and it seemed that the UAV's had done all they could. "We'll need some volunteers." Getting a closer look at the crystal could prove dangerous, but they'd need to take samples and closer readings to figure out what they were up against.

< Tag Base Personnel >

[Matthew Keller]

1310
Cave System
Outskirts of Akotiri

Matt had overheard Cromin suggesting to sever the crystal. He walked towards the Colonel pulling his tablet from its pouch on his vest on the way. "Sir, from our readings any attempt to sever or destroy the crystal lifeform will result in it accelerating in growth, either creating new crystal that can expand further than can be controlled, what we need to test is weither it can travel through the cave walls, if it can maybe a power source powerful enough could draw it away, I'll take a team and run a test if you wish it", he says showing the readings to the Colonel on the tablet.

< Tag Troy >

1320
Cave System
Outskirts of Akotiri

Matt had made his way through one of the offshoot tunnels, a deactivated Naquada Generator in his hands. The people following along with him would need to monitor what they were about to setup. A test to determine if they could lead the crystal away from the city, or trap it somehow.

< Tag Anyone >

[Troy Loveridge]

1320
Cave System
Outskirts of Akotiri

Standing in front of his monitor, Troy watched as the tech's replayed the final moments of video sent back from the MALP being they lost signal. The small unmanned craft were gliding down the long and winding tunnels with ease, at no point coming close to crashing, and yet they all lost their signals at once. They were at different depths and distance from the command station so the likelihood of them all leaving radio range at the same time was very slim indeed, or so it was explained to him by a tech. His limited understanding of mineralogy aside, the Colonel knew something was up.

Corporal Keller's findings didn't help. "Any attempt to sever or destroy the crystal life form will result in it accelerating in growth," he explained, before offering up his plan to draw the crystal away from the city with an alternate power supply. He showed Troy the readings and results he'd gathered, and though it meant little to the Colonel Keller seemed confident enough. He'd never let Troy down when he'd been his XO back in the glory days of SD-1. "A portable generator is the best we could do on short notice," he replied. "I'll see what the techs think about powering down the city ZPM, might encourage the crystal to find another food source."

Matthew gathered up a team and a generator and made his way down into the caves, Troy monitoring their progress from the helmet-mounted cameras a number of team members were carrying. "Do we have any idea where this thing came from?" he asked those still present in the tent. The bomb Athena had set up twelve months ago that had destroyed their first base had done a good job of killing off the native wildlife.

< Tag Base Personnel! >

[Robert "Scarecrow" Cromin]

1321
Cave System
Outskirts of Akrotiri

Having heard the Colonel's decision Cromin responded positively to his decision but raised his concern saying "If we shut down the city in order to lure the Crystals else where, doesn't that leave us deaf and blind especially since we have teams out on missions and our long range radar system will not function without power, I will suggest that the Aenied move to our orbit ASAP and become our eyes, ears and even our trigger finger incase there is a surprise. Just a thought except you already have a solution for that"

Cromin waited for a response from the Colonel and at the same time he was considering a way for them to get rid of this crystal and the option he had was melt the crystal using the only kind of temperature that a gatebuster can generate but that would mean moving the city away from the blast area of the nuke and that would only be a last resort so he didn't even mention it. everything has a a breaking point and this crystal was no different.

<Tag base personnel>

[Vanessa Collins]

1320
Cave System
Outskirts of Akotiri

Collins watched the feedback with a interest as the images popped up on the screen. Heard Troy's questions and wondered the same thing. But if this was a life forms, how were they going to communicate with them. Language barrier was always going to be a problem. Another thing was that it was going to hard to figure out if the thing was a friend or a foe. Their origins was another piece of puzzle that needed to be solved.

Quitely listening to the debate, Vanessa was against any type of violence again the thing whatever it was really. There had to be better ways, "Any chance of trying to find a way to communicate with the crystals? I'm sure we can find something. Before we try all these options." Between all of them, they could have figured something out.

<<Tag Base Personnels>>

((Short, sweet yet lame at the same time ))

[Troy Loveridge]

1321
Cave System
Outskirts of Akrotiri

As Keller and his team made their way down into the caves to gather more samples of the crystals the group who remained behind in the command tent bounced ideas back and forth off each other. Even though he knew his place should have been behind his desk in his office back in the city the Colonel found it impossible to drag himself away. If the crystal was growing and draining the power from their ZPM the whole expedition was at risk, and there was no way he was standing by while it all went down the drain. It wouldn't be good to lose the entire base on his first day as its commander!

Next to him Captain Cromin expressed his concerns regarding Troy's suggestion of powering down the city so the crystal's growth could be drawn away to another power source. It was good to have someone around that wasn't afraid to question the Colonel; he wasn't a fan of 'yes men'. "It's a risk isn't it," Troy replied. With the city powered down the gate would be offline, and teams would need to reroute to the Alpha Site as per operating procedure. Losing the city's sensors could also put them in danger if an Olympian ship decided to try their luck at retaking the planet.

Mind you, the alternative was losing the city's power entirely to the crystals.

"Aeneid will do what she can," Troy explained, reminded of the huge damage the ship had taken escaping from Tartaros and Charium a month earlier. Until the Iliad returned the expedition was somewhat defenceless against a large enemy assault.

He returned his attention to the monitors, hoping Keller's team had found something.

< Tag Base Personnel >

[Robert "Scarecrow" Cromin]

1322
Cave System
Outskirts of Akrotiri

Having finished with the Colonel and the decision he just made, Captain Cromin called over one of his pilots. "Lt Garett, I need you to get a jumper and go hang out in orbit for a little while, recon only, that means stealth mode, you hear anything, relay it down to us, you see anything relay it down to us . . . you understand strictly stealth mode" The Lt responded positively to his orders. Meanwhile the Captain was prepping another mission, he was going to take a team deep into the cave, he wanted first hand knowledge of what was happening in there, he wasn't sure how the Colonel was going to responded considering what happened to the UAV's, but the truth ws no body really knew, what they did know was that it wasn't a coincidence. They needed intel bad and he heft that was the next thing for him to do rather standing aroun not doing much.

Captain Cromin got his team together and briefed them on what was happening, why it was necessary to go deep in to the cave. After he was done with that, he went to the Colonel to request permission for this recon op. "Colonel except you have something else for me, I am requesting permission to lead a four man team deep into the caves on a recon op only, sir we need to know what happened to those UAVs and we also need to know whats happening in those caves."

<Tal Loveridge and base personnel>

[Matthew Keller]

1322
Cave System
Outskirts of Akotiri

Matt had setup the Naquada Generator deactivated on the ground, and had pulled out his knife to mark out where they crystal currently sat, to measure if it dissipates. He stood back, a remote in his hand, pressing on his earpiece he speaks, "Central this is Keller, activating generator in 2, power down city for 3 minutes, test commencing", he spoke as he saw the readouts of the city's power decreasing on his tablet.

Once the power was completely off from the city he pressed the button on the remote, activating the generator. He stood back getting closer to the way out in case something went wrong. He threw down a couple of sensors close to the generator, hoping that the crystal would absorb them as well giving them any readouts they may need later on.

The crystal began to move, he watched it with his own eyes creep closer and closer to the generator. His tablet suddenly lit up with power readouts from the city itself, "Colonel, this is Keller, we've got a bit of a problem here, I'll be back at command in a few minutes, out", he said turning around and running back to the command center that had been setup.

1325
Cave System
Outskirts of Akotiri

Matt had ran the entire way, he pulled his tablet from under his arm and put it towards Troy, "Sir, I think the crystal had already reached an outer unmapped part of the city, its acting as a conduit to the city, any power it receives goes into the city's systems, but when we power up the city it acts as a buffer, storing the energy it receives, think of this lifeform as a living charger, its not enough to power the city, unless it was in a smaller form", he said knowing full well what the implications would be.

He looked at his readouts again, the city was active but the ZPM levels were holding steady, going between levels in a small increments. "Sir, if we could somehow 'take' a piece of this crystal and learn from it we could essentially charge ZPM's, or create entirely new power sources, but the problem being this thing has the ability to drain our entire ZPM in just a few seconds".

< Tag Troy >

[Troy Loveridge]

1322
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

Watching the helmet mounted cameras that members of Keller team wore, Troy observed their progress. The plan to shut down the city's power and turn on the generator as a way of drawing away the crystal's growth was going to plan. The Corporal activated his radio, relaying orders to the city central to power down the city. Without their sensors, shields and weapons the expedition was now a blind and unarmed sitting duck with only a badly damaged cruiser in orbit to defend them. It was a huge risk, but it was better than losing the city to the crystals.

Dead silence fell on the FOP as the city's power shut down, stopping the crystals growth for a moment, only for it to resume as the portable generator was activated. Everything seemed to be going to plan until the Corporal reported some strange readings, and informed Troy they had a problem. "I'll be back at command in a few minutes," he explained, hurrying down the tunnels and back to the FOP.

Captain Cromin approached the Colonel, asking for a team to lead down the tunnels on a recon mission. "We're short on people sadly Captain," Troy explained. "Once Keller and his team results you can take them back down and find out what happened to the UAV."

1325
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

The scientists and engineers in the forward observation post continued to pour over the results of the test as Keller made his way back to the FOP with all haste. He explained what he had observed - that the crystal was able to store large amounts of power and could be a huge advancement forward in energy storage if it was explained. "And what's the bad news?" Troy asked, knowing something like this always came at a price.

"This thing has the ability to drain our entire ZPM in just a few seconds," Keller explained.

And there it was, Catch 22. It was always the case with new discoveries made through the Stargate, they always came at a huge price. Troy weighed up the situation for a moment. The expedition had been accused of not bringing back enough alien technology considering how much time, money and personnel it cost to keep the base running. Something like this could solve Earth's reliance on fossil fuels altogether, but it still had the potential to drain the city of power and leave them all stranded here for eternity. That was not a pleasant thought at all.

"So we can cut the crystal because it will make it grow faster," the Colonel said thinking out loud. "And it's already connected to the edge of the city." The tent remained silent for a moment. "Let's leave the generator going," he finally said, knowing the need to take action. "Captain, Corporal, take a team down the tunnels and find out what happened to those mini-UAVs. They might have taken some samples that could help us crack this one wide open."

< Tag Base Personnel >

[Robert "Jackal" Walker]

1325
Forward Observation Post

Walker, who had been tending to other issues to this point in the background, approached the two men and waited before saying, "Regardless of the past, I'm here to help wherever needed. If that means in the FOP or with Cromin, Keller, or anyone else, just say the word Troy." The Marine has bitten off the singed pride stemming from the board's decision to doubt his focus, and realized that regardless of what he was doing, his skills could be put to use.

<Tag Troy>

OOC: Just a post to get him in the game ... wherever you want

[Vanessa Collins]

1325
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

Since her question had went unanswered, Vanessa scanned the horizon for anything that might seen odd. While she found nothing, but Walker's appearance was a surprise. She hadn't expected the man to be out and about after what happened to Kat's clone. She sensed he was behaving the same as Jerry. But only hiding it better.

Walking over to the man, "Robert, are you sure your up for this?"

<<Tag Robert>>

Looking at Troy, "These seem to behave like a virus or bacteria." she muttered, "and we know they aren't."

<<Tag Troy/All>>

[/b]

((No one answered her question ))[/blockquote]

[Ronald "Ron" Williams]

1325
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

Williams was just leaning up against, not really speaking. He had just been assigned to Delta last month from Atlantis, and he didn't even know about it until the very last minute. He was just listening to the group about some energy drawn crystal like life-forms, and what to do with them. He kept his mouth shut due to the fact that most everyone in the observation post were his superiors, and the fact that he's really just an enlisted engineer. He then looked at the screen showing what was going on. He gets the strangest feeling like he's seen this before, but as he turns and looks the other direction, he looks at the person standing right next to him, clearly a superior. Standing straight up off of the wall, he salutes and said, "Sir," acknowledging his superior.

<Tag Whoever is higher in rank than him>

[Troy Loveridge]

1325
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

Faces old and new arrived at the forward observation post. At one end of the small tent structure that had been put up as a field headquarters for the investigation into the crystal a group of techs and scientists gathered around the monitor, replaying the footage from the mini-UAVs again and again, trying to spot any tiny hints that would explain the sudden crash of the probes. While everything the UAVs saw and detected was relayed straight back to the FOP Troy was told there might be a chance that their black box recorders had picked up something and not had time to send it back to the base station. It was a long shot, but they didn't have much else to go on.

At the other end of the FOP, the team that was about to go down the tunnels to retrieve the black box recorders were gathering their equipment. "Grab what you think you'll need," he explained to everyone who had just arrived. Cromin and Keller would appreciate having some extra help for their trek down into the tunnels. "We need that black box and we needed it ten minutes ago."

He moved back to where Doctor Collins was working thing over in her heard. "What did you mean by communicate?" he asked her. "You think this might be more than just an expanding rock formation?"

< Tag Vanessa >