Posted by Lieutenant Commander Paris Carisi (Chief of Security) in Taking a Break

Posted by Commander Mason Black (Executive Officer) in Taking a Break

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Paris Carisi (Chief of Security) in Taking a Break

Snip

As Mason looked back, a fountain of lava seemed to erupt in the distance back where they had entered the underground cavern, and more sprouted even before the globs of molten rock from the first landed amongst the still escaping insects. A large indistinct black shape began to form between them and the lava, and as more fountains erupted closer the glow of the lava revealed a huge, horse sized spider crawling towards the exit they stood in front of. Deciding not to draw attention to it, Mason turned back to Paris.

“Yeah we’re not staying here, somebody has to save our skins. Into the chute Princess.” Before giving her time to respond, Mason lifted his boot and placed it squarely on Paris’ rear end. ‘Placed’ was a subjective term really, it was a firm ‘place’ that could easily be mistaken for a strong, sudden shove that propelled Paris headfirst into the chute far enough that she wasn’t going to back out quickly, and right behind her Mason crawled in as well.

As Paris got her bearing from falling face-first into the chutes dirt and rock floor, she also got her voice back. “Mason, when we get out of here I’m going to kill you. I have ways of taking down man bigger than you and it does not involve happy happy fun time,” her voice echoed with a tinny quality. The helmet and hazmat suit protected her when Mason indicated where they should go; however, it also prevented her from clearly expressing her displeasure. It toned down the shrillness in her voice making at least Paris think Mason was not understanding how grumpy she was with him right now.

Paris she knew she had to go down the shoot. It was just the method Mason had used to get her to proceed where city girls fear to tread. Also that he didn’t want to discuss it in committee for an hour but she would have to admit time was of the essence. Since she couldn’t sound as grumpy as she was, Paris decided to make her words more clear to impart how unhappy she was at the current turn of events. “”Mason no nookie for you tonight. None. You are going to owe me a massage and spa day and ugghhhhh,” her expletive was more out of teen scream drama queen that anything else. ” What is that what? What s that? What is that,” she squealed stopping dead in her tracks as her body felt the sensation of a million feet all over her. It was only a second later that she realized it was not her imagination as several centipedes and spider-like cave denizens scuttled over her face mask trying to out crawl her and using her body as if it were a mountain range.

They’re all over me. Mason I can’t do this,” her shrill angry girlfriend voice instantly went to deep and grumbling. Being from Mars, Paris had not grown up with a large variety of animals that were not neatly contained in specific areas. The domes and engineering habitats made Mars a thriving colony with it’s main city as advanced as anu city yet Mars did not have oceans teeming with life or jungles echoing with the sounds of a million creatures. Maybe that’s why Paris was so off-balance trapped in this cave surrounded by creepy Crawley‘s. The cave was like home. Everything was rock, sand, and dust but the insectoid army descending upon her what a new twist

Lt. Paris Carisi COS

“Move it, the only way out is forward unless you want a whole cavern of crawlies behind us to get grumpy that the Humans think burning alive is more preferable to living.” A sudden and large jolt and cracking sound behind them lent weight to Mason’s urging to move. Seeing that she wasn’t yet moving, Mason let out a breathe and raised his hand, bringing it down hard on Paris’ rump. “Mush! Woman! Git moving!”

Cmdr Black, XO

The sharp crack which was amplified by her suit design more than anything else echoed in the chute. Paris turned around to face Mason as one large millipede ventured down her faceplate.

“Ah, Honey, I think you got a little…” Mason muttered via the suits radio while dragging a finger down his face visor where the bug was on Paris’ face, then reaching forward, he flicked it via thumb and forefinger so that in flew off and hit the wall, dropping down beside them.

“Mason I told you that is only used for special occasions,” she said snapped and then winked. “I am not happy though. Not one bit and you are going to pay dearly for this,” she promised as her knee came down on something. Paris couldn’t tell except for the brief second her knee dug into something soft. “Ewww,” she moaned knowing it had to be the once body of some bug or was it. Instantly the ground began to slope down and become extremely slippery. Paris slid her knees out which stopped her from moving forward. “Mason,” she said stopping before slipping down what had now turned into a mucous lined slide into the unknown, “uh…we have a problem.” This escape route was becoming more and more difficult. She had no idea where they were going but down the chute was not an option.

Lt.Commander Paris Carisi

Looking past her, Mason noted the tunnel wall slope sharply downward although it wasn’t stopping the multitude of bugs going past them from taking the chute. The pause meant that something at least as big as him seemed to bump into his rear end and come to a stop, and Mason had to swallow and stop himself from turning around. “Baby we can’t stop here. Wherever this goes the bugs are taking it, so it has to be safe even if it’s going towards the lava. We can’t go back…” Something seemed to bump into him again from behind, more forcefully and in his mind flashed the thought that most creepy crawlies had fangs… “uh, we have to move forward.”

“Towards the lava! Mason, I can’t do this,” her voice had a pleading quality to it. “You are right. We should go back to the room. Curiosity killed the cat and you know how a despise cats so back up and we can go back to the room,” she started to ramble as she began to back up straight into Mason’s face. She didn’t get far with her backward crawl. Mason’s hand immediately stopped her rump in place.

“Baby, head down and ass up okay, I’m right here and I got you but I am telling you, we aren’t stopping now!” Mason said a bit more forcefully as a third bump told him they were holding up proceedings. “Just take a deep breath, close your eyes and we’ll take it slow and easy, okay. Trust me, you can take my hand and squeeze when you need to, just trust me love.”

Mason reached forwards, past her rear end and placed his hand on her shoulder, “Just take my hand okay, I’ll hold your ankle and we’ll slide right into it together.”

At that moment, whatever was behind Mason got tired of waiting for the Humans to move and pushed, hard, into him. It was hard enough that in the chute with the slimy footholds, Mason was never going to resist the push and was propelled headfirst into Paris, sending them both hard and fast into the dark and slimy hole before them. Mason could only grip her hand hard and hold onto her ankle like he said, wherever they were going, they were going there fast now and gaining momentum with every second.

Cmdr Black, XO

“May son,” Paris gripped his hand tightly as the slimy chute turned to four-inch mucous that literally was slicker than snot. Her Uncle Ben said that all the time and as Paris careened down the slide, she pondered if this was the origin of such a saying. Her hand never let go of his. True to his word Mason held on to her ankle until he couldn’t. It really wasn’t his fault though. The water park esque launch of them from the chute surprised even Paris. With her arms pinwheeling she flew through the air about three feet before landing in a shallow pool of mucous. It reacted like water splashing around her. Paris froze in her seated position on her butt with her knees bent and slightly spread apart. She looked around as if stunned and raised her arms slowly. Nothing was actually touching her. The sensation she was covered in cold, slimy goo, was only in her mind but the mind was powerful at times. “Mason,” she yelled out not seeing him.

Taking in her surroundings, Paris felt like she was going to be sick. The pool of goo was not in the cavern anymore. It was outside of it and tucked into what could only have been the side of an ancient volcano. The color blended in with the rock and dust so it would have been next to impossible to see from an aerial view. Paris’ survey of her surroundings was cut short though as another figure emerged from the chute. He was not spinning madly like she was but had somehow turned around and was riding the flow in almost a superman pose, on his stomach, with his hands stretched out in front of him. He was also sailing like a speeding bullet directly at her. There was no time to react as Mason dropped about six inches from her lap facing her. The goop burbled up around him splattering Paris’ face mask blinding her.

Mason was thankful that the landing had been soft, that he had found Paris and that he was wearing a fully enclosed Hazmat suit with visor, especially as his landing had placed him face first in the goop with his head between Pari’s thighs. Lifting his head and looking upwards, he could see only glimpses of Paris as the goo slid awkwardly off his visor and he had to raise a goo covered hand to try and wipe away more. “Yee haa!” he exclaimed with adrenalin in his system. “Now wasn’t that fun?”

“Ewww Mason. You got it all over my face,” she moaned wiping the eye shield with her fingers. The mucous clung to her hands like a glue and smeared the faceplate obscuring a large part of her vision. “I hate it when I can’t see,” she groaned using the cleanish spot on the back of her wrist to wipe away as much of the sticky mess as possible. Finally clearing a section of the mask she looked between her legs at the head rising up to meet her gaze.

“I am glad you finally came but what do we do now,” she asked looking down at him.

Lt. Commander Paris Carisi COS

“Wanna snuggle?” Mason asked her, his face a clear grin even through the slightly cloudy faceplate of the visor.

Mason opened his mouth to reply but a noise from the tunnel behind them made him look around. It was a loud sucking, slurping sound and it made Mason curse. “Move it Princess, now!” He all but ordered but he didn’t get up, it would have taken too long. Instead he grabbed Paris’s legs, his arms tight around her thighs and hugging to his chest, his visor all but in her pelvis once more and he rolled to one side, rolling Paris with him in the goop.

Rolling several times despite Paris’ protests, Mason finally came to a stop with the both of them facing the middle of the goop pond as a large figure shot out of the tunnel they had existed from and landed plop right where the two of them had been, splashing them with goo once more. Mostly submerged when it landed, the figure rose out of the goo before them, horn first. It resembled something like a Giant Atlas Beetle from Earth, except this one was actually Giant Sized and Mason thought that if he had a saddle, he could have happily ridden it as it stood tall. How it folded itself into that tunnel he couldn’t imagine, but he could imagine that horn butting him in the rear end only moments earlier in an attempt to escape the lava, and what might have happened if Paris hadn’t of slipped down the tunnel. “My god that’s big,” Mason said as he watched the large horn swaying back and forth.

The giant beetle wandered off on the opposite direction from where they stood, and Mason let go of Paris’ legs and stood, pulling her to her feet beside him. “Okay we are out, now we just have to figure out where we are. We can’t be too far from the colony.” He had barely finished talking when a loud explosion sounded above and behind them, loud enough that the two of them could feel it as they stood and the goo they were in rippled violently. Turning around, Mason noticed now the thick black plume of smoke coming from the top of the ancient volcano, and the large flaming rocks that were now falling from the top and landing on the slopes above them with a spatter. The rumbling in the ground had grown now, and began to shake violently as sharp Earthquakes began to make it hard for the two of them to stand. “Paris!” Mason called out, grabbing her hand.

“We need to move, again. I don’t think this place likes us!” Wading through the goop, he pulled Paris with him. “This planet is supposed to be stable!” He almost yelled angrily. “The Terraforming is supposed to be a success, and there are supposed to be no active faults in this section of the crust, what the hell is going on?”

Cmdr Black, XO