10107/Caliber Investigates the Signal!

Caliber Investigates the Signal!
Date of Scene:	19 November 2019
Location:	Big Bend National Park, Texas. Twelve miles north of the Texas/Mexico Border.
Synopsis:	Caliber flies out to the source of the mysterious signal and discovers nothing is as it seems...
Cast of Characters:	Dragonfly (Armenteros), Caliber

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Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
AIM Site-13, located in the middle of the Big Bend National Park in Texas has been broadcasting consistently for the past two weeks on a regular schedule. Satellite observation shows that, every two days, for eighteen hours, a patch of prairie is replaced by a dilapidated complex of two buildings and a rickety-looking nuclear plant and a broadcast is transmitted over AM frequencies, begging for assistance. After eighteen hours, the site vanishes again without a trace, reappearing 48 hours later, and starting all over again.

So far, there has been little investigation of this place, thanks to its remoteness from civilization and odd appearance schedule that requires a rescuer or explorer to be there when it appears.

Caliber has posed:
    A while had passed, and with just a little time with some observation satellites GeniSet had access to, Sheen had noticed the strange pattern, and even Lock had found himself curious about the facility that was phasing in and out of existence.

Caliber was just happy to have something new to do, and a chance to travel.

After a short flight, the woman's tech-spheres are the easiest way to come in toward the facility. Their shields set to platforms, Caliber was about a hundred feet up, coming in toward the coordinates from before, with a pair of binoculars in hand.

    <<Alright, I'm here..>> Caliber transmits back home.

    <<Good, good! Just let us know what you see. satellite only gives so much information.>> Sheen sends back

    <<Roger that.>>

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
GeniSet wasn't the only group interested in the site, but they happened to be the first to send someone out to investigate. From what they could tell from satellite scans, every forty-eight hours the site appeared for eighteen, then vanished into nothingness with a blink that could be argued to be simple static on the satellite feeds. Caliber's arrival coincided with the most recent appearence, and on approach during the afternoon on November 19th, she might have been surprised to see the flickering of an aurora on the horizon where it's located - during the day - before the broadcast starts up again. And this broadcast, as she arrives, sounds slightly different, in the encryption part, but the second and any subsequent broadcasts are similar to the first.

     Her first view of the facility is that of a long-abandoned factory, with shattered windows and crumbling walls. At best, it's 1980's modular blocky construction, done quickly and quietly and efficiently, barely holding together from exposure to the elements. Smoke is rising from some of the broken windows, while water pours from a standpipe at the northern end, steaming in the cool of a desert afternoon during the winter. And if she observes more closely, she'll notice that the perimeter fencing is breached in places, but that's not what stands out. What stands out is the marked change from desert savannah to what seems to be arctic tundra, melting rapidly...

Caliber has posed:
It's quite a thing to see a lot of nothing turn into something. "... Huh. That's new," she muses to herself, not bothering to transmit. What she does do, however, is start to record as soon as she gets close. Sheen and Lock wanted as much data as they could get, so as the facility comes into view, she's sure to take in everything. Nice fancy bionoculars, after all. Her radio had already been recording as she arrived, so getting the start of the transmission probably happened without her thinking about it.

    <<So, this is really odd. The facility doesn't even look like it should be here. Almost like it was transported from somewhere.. well, a lot further north. I can see snow.>>

    <<Fascinating! We're starting to get some images now..>> An excited Dr. Sheen always manages to get Caliber to grin.

    <<Copy. I'll see what else I can find out.>>

    <<Just be careful! Not to close, we have no idea what we are dealing with! It almost looks like it was attacked, recently. ... relatively. It may be on loop somehow, like the transmission.>> Lock's analytical tone was hard to mistake.

    <<I'm aware. I aleady see holes in the fences, smoke, a broken pipe... this is really weird.>>

Conversation over for now, Caliber drifts closer, starting to circle around to see if any other details come into view.

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
There are no logos on the buildings. No signs whatsoever. It's as anonymous as a building can be. If it wasn't standing out in the middle of the desert, it'd easily blend into any large city without any effort and fade into the background. It's what you get when you use the same contractors for one project that you do another.

Circling around, Caliber can see the telltale signs of tracked vehicles having entered and left from a half-closed bay door on the south side with one tracked snow cat smoldering where it had been knocked on its side, its fuel tanks ruptured. It seemed there had been a survivor, from what the evidence in the show shows, but the drag marks that go down to the permafrost below show that something dragged the person back inside the site, and not without quite a bit of resistence, judging from the splatters of black ichor and a discarded handgun at the edge of a concrete path.

A guard outpost sits abandoned at the edge of one of the fences, with a gate that leads to what looks like a high-and-dry dock and...salmon? Yes, dead fish, too, where they shouldn't be. It appears to be relatively undamaged.

Caliber has posed:
"Ugh. What in the world did they do here to make things so strange," Caliber wonders aloud as she continues around. "Is that a snow.. ... it is," she answers to herself before starting to transmit again.

    <<So there's a ruined vehicle here, treads, made for snow, this place is NOT local. Looks like someone tried to leave but was dragged back inside. Injured too, from the looks of it. Also.. there's a dry dock with fish in it. Do either of you have any clue what the hell is going on?>> There's a long pause.

    <<Someone broke physics, clearly, and you're observing the result. Lets not have you go in, just in case you get stuck on the same loop, alright?>>

Lock being concerned? ... Couldn't be. Still, she'll keep peeking about. There's only so much she knows she'll get, but how often do you get to see reality get bent and broken like this..?

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
The men on the other end of Caliber's communcation array are correct. Physics, for a short time, did not apply in the ways that they should have been, causing the massive alterations of physical terrain that she's seeing. Speakers on the outside of each building wail briefly, and an announcement in dry, professional english follows. "General Notice. Site 13 has experienced a gross breach of containment systems. Angel 13 has breached contaiment during testing. On site nuclear device is non-responsive. Thresher Protocol has been activated and will initiate in sixteen hours, forty-five minutes. Please evacuate to miniumum safe distance or your nearest safety zone." There's a click as it turns off and, more than likely, there will be another broadcast like that in fifteen minutes. A countdown to Thresher activation, it seems.

Caliber has posed:
    "Well, that's concerning," Caliber decides as the warning is broadcast, and transmitted back to GeniSet.

    <<... Containment breach? Alright, I think that's enough for today, Caliber. There's something far more serious going on here and if you're going into this alone you're going to need a bit more oomph with you.>> Sheen transmits, concern apparent.

    <<Right, yeah, I don't want to run into this 'Angel' or see whatever their safety protocols are. Should we alert someone? League? Avengers? X?>>

    <<... We can talk about that when you get back. See you soon.>>

Sigh. "Eh, can't always do everything alone, unless I have to.."

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
A gust of wind from the northwest, a cold blast, knocks open the door of the guard station showing that something has neatly carved an arc out of the backside of the building. Imagine taking a hot knife and slashing it through a building made out of plastic, then throwing away the part you cut off. This would leave a standing structure with half it's contents there, some divided completely, exposed to the elements. While there may not be a ton of information there, there may be some that can be retrieved without entering the tundra zone...

Caliber has posed:
<<... juuust a second..>> Caliber transmits before setting her drones to carry her at least a little closer. An open door is SO inviting, but instead the bionoculars are pulled up so she can get a better look inside. <<... So... whatever this is? It made short order of one side of the building..>> she transmits, speeding around to try and look at the rear of the building, trying to stay clear of where tundra starts.

    <<..she never listens!>

    <<Quiet, Lock, let her work..>>

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
It's a simple guard tower. Heavily insulated, it seems, with thick cinderblock walls with insulation packed on the inside, with wood and even more insulation on top of that. Whatever the source of heat was probably went elsewhere when the other 3/4ths of the building was left wherever it originally came from. A desk has toppled sideways, out of the building on the tundra to the desert outside, sending the contents of it's top to tumble into the desert. Papers are fluttering on tumbleweed and mesquite bushes, some blowing away on the wind to some unknown destination, but what really may get Caliber's attention? A computer tower is laying there, the upper half of it's beige case missing, the power supply and HDD still seeming to be intact.

Caliber has posed:
    At first, she's more focused on the papers. Trying to get an idea of what may be on them, a logo, anything that stands out. It's once she zooms in further on the source, and the computer, that she notices the tower. "Oh ho.. jackpot," she muses to herself before putting the scope away. "Right, not transmitting this," she asides before she rolls her shoulders, leans forward, and the drones send her racing in. She does -not- want to be in the area long. Just enough to get the tower and get out.

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
As Caliber flies closer, more things come into view that seem to mark this place as an anacronism. The calendar on the wall has a pin-up style girl in a yellow bikini with a 1950's style laser rifle, firing it at little green men, dated November 1989, and cans of Coke - New Coke - sit on the windowsill and crushed in the basket still inside the room. But, what probably is most frightening of all, is the body. Half in and half out of a trap door beneath the desk lays a man, dressed in arctic gear, his eyes open, staring into the void. He does not move in the slightest as Caliber and her drones zip in to snag the fallen tower, but his eyes do focus on her for just a second before something below the ground pulls him under, the trap door closing with a BANG.

Caliber has posed:
    The woman's focus is on the tower, nothing more. As she zooms in and gets hold of it, she's racing out just as fast. The slam of the trap door behind her gives the woman a jolt, getting her to look back. There.. was a body there, right? "I'm so not staying here," she mutters as she starts to head out. At safe distance she swings around to peer back.

    <<So .. there's a calen->>

    <<WHY DID YOU GO INTO THE FACILITY!?>>

    <<I have a tower and an intact hard drive.>> Pause. <<Also there's an incorrect calendar, some old soda can, I think this is more than being moved physically..>>

    <<... Fascinating. We'll see what we can get off the drive. -Please- head back before Lock gets even more furious than he already is?>>

    <<Mmhmm, I'll figure out a way to get this drive back. See you all soon.>>

"Not soon enough, this place is creeping me out.."