Through the Looking Glass

[Nina]

Just as RJ spoke something flashed at the corner of her eye and she instinctively looked that way and right into the multifaceted eyes of the largest dragonfly she had ever seen.

 

And it was large, very large. Its wings stretched almost two feet on a side and its body was probably two to three feet long.  It hovered several feet away from RJ, it wings buzzing rapidly producing a sound that was akin to a remote drone. 

 

 

As soon as it had appeared the mutant beaver as RJ had called it had scurried under the root it had been sitting on.

[Shameless]

James turned his attention to the hovering dragonfly, and his eyes narrow.   "How the hell?"  

"So, when we came, we were sure of the oxygen levels and all right?  Because didn't they have giant insects like this in Earth's fossil record?   From way back in the Carboniferous and Permian eras?"  While the mutant squirrel was something, it certainly could exist, but from what he did know of science, a Dragonfly of this size should be impossible.

"Dragonfly are predatory, so be careful." 

[Asarasa]

"Jesus Fucking Christ!" RJ hissed through clenched teeth, biting back the surprised scream she really wanted to let out, in case it agitated the  - seemingly the size of an eagle or bigger - bug. If it had been within arm's reach, she would have swatted at it with her tablet, probably more to the detriment of the table than of the dragonfly.

And damn, was it loud. She didn't mind loud. She had an old gas-guzzler of a motorcycle. She loved its deep, vibrating rumble. The buzzing drone of the bug's wings sounded way more ominous to her. Living things shouldn't make sounds like that.

RJ gave McLeod a hooded look without really taking her eyes off the dragonfly and those huge, black, multifaceted eyes that seemed trained directly on her. She tried to ease back away from it without drawing its attention.

"Dammit, McLeod! I'm a physicist and engineer, not a paleontologist!" she cursed. She jerked her chin towards the team's biologist. "Ask Scarborough bout that stuff. But, it being predatory, as you say, I, for one, am fine if you want to shoot it."

[Nina]

Emily who had been staring at the monster sized dragonfly flinched at her name. "I'm a nuclear biologist, not an entomologist, but yeah, the insects at this size could have still been around in the late Jurassic. Matter of fact if I recall the largest ever found fossilized dated to the Permian era. And yes humans would have been able to breath, back then. Breathing would have been the least of their worries."

 

As Emily spoke, several more of the large insects began to flit closer from the woods. Steve who had been amused at the reaction to the big bug now grew serious and unlimbered his SAW and charged the weapon, "McLeod?" 

[Shameless]

"I know we can breathe it now, but if the oxygen levels aren't the same as that time frame, if they're like ours back home, how the hell are these guys so big?"  He answered quietly, even as he too aim.   The bug had no idea what he was doing, but it would the second he shot.   "Just a precaution."  He was watching the insects intently.  "They move fast, and damn near any direction, watch your zones."  He wasn't really talking to the doctors, but to Biggs, who'd also unlimbered his weapon and was taking aim at the oncoming bugs.   "Do not let them land on you."

[Nina]

Emily scoffed at McLeod, "Hmmph, you are making  an awful lot of assumptions based on what is primarily theoretical guesswork, for one thing..."

 

With no warning at all the bugs moved!  The attack was swift and simultaneous. If it weren't for the creatures size they wouldn't have been able to be seen much less defended against.

 

Spoiler

There are a total of 5 bugs three are attacking npcs and 1 is attacking RJ and 1 is attacking Brett i need to know if you are defending. the bugs have a defense of two because of their movement speed.

 

[Shameless]

"Goddammit."  He'd not expected bugs, especially not ones this damn big.   Still, he was a great shot, and had been mostly ready for the attack.  Immediately he shot at one of the  bugs attacking the scientists he knew didn't have combat training, trusting in Terry and Brett's ability to defend themselves, he turned to the one going after Lance and pulled the trigger.   His SAW was set to semi-auto, which was good, and sent a single round through the body and exit the left compound eye of the massive insect, the round continuing it's flight deeper into the woods.   The dragonfly jerked to the side at the impact even as it fell dead to the ground, body fluids splattering Lance somewhat.   

James didn't stop to apologize, there were still more of the things attacking, and likely more in the woods.   He moved laterally, to aim at another, as he knew Biggs was handling the other flank.

 

Spoiler

Shameless Roll: [9, 8, 8, 7, 5, 5, 3, 1] Result: 3 to shoot  2 to beat defense 1 to wound,   bug has one health so it's dead.

 

[Asarasa]

"Holy Fuck!" RJ shouted, brining up her tablet in its heavy-duty case as one of the bugs zipped straight at her.

The droning buzz of its wings was incredibly loud. There was a painful pinch and the tearing of heavy fabric as the dragonfly bit through her jumpsuit. She had a sidearm. It was in its holster, still buttoned. She'd been shown how to use it and clean it, as a precaution. But she hadn't taken any actual lessons firing it, and thinking about using the pistol in a dangerous situation hadn't been ingrained in her.

The monstrous dragonfly withdrew a few inches, a strip of RJ's jumpsuit dangling from its mandibles. The scientist took the opportunity and swatted down at it with her tablet, the impact way more jarring than it had any rate to be hitting  bug. She felt it vibrating up to her elbows as the dragonfly thumped heavily into the ground.

"Motherfucker!" she growled as she heelstomped the huge bug with the crunching of chitin, chest heaving with exertion and adrenaline. She felt bile rise up her throat at how incredibly... substantial the dragonfly was. It was comparable to an armadillo she'd kicked, one time, in Texas, in a completely unexpected incident, when surprised. The armadillo had seemed affronted when it tumbled into scrub. The mutant dragonfly seemed pissed!

[Nina]

The guns fired and shattered the sounds of the forest with explosions which were seemingly louder than they should have been. Two of the bugs burst as lead jacketed bullets ripped through their torsos. the monster bugs fell and the remaining bugs fled.

 

The forest was eerily quite once again.

 

Then in the distance they heard a sound none of them could identify. It was loud and produced an echo, it began low pitched and drove up the scale. It was like the cross between an elephants trumpeting and a crocodile's hissing with some sort of clacking grunts interspersed during its length. The call or cry or whatever it was lasted about twenty or thirty seconds, then silence for about the same amount of time, then it came again but with a different pitch or timbre.

 

And from a different direction.

 

[Shameless]

James grunted in annoyance.   "Damn."   he looked around to the others.  "Everyone ok?  Good. We need to go."   He looked to RJ, and then to Emily. "How far are we from the source of the signal?"

He still had his weapon ready.  "Doctor, you need to make the call, are we continuing on, or are we heading back to camp.  As Security chief, I reccomend going back to camp, but this is your call."

 

[Asarasa]

"Whatever made that noise sound big to anyone else? It sounded big." 

 

RJ looked towards where the sound first seemed to come, though it was hard to tell with the echoing quality, then towards the second call. She shook her head at James' question. "There's no way to tell how far the source of the signal is or how close we are to it," RJ admitted. "Don't have any sensors or tools to detect or measure it. We've just been following a heading I took as close as possible."

She pursed her lips, then blow out a frustrated sigh and shook her head again. "No, I agree with you, McLeod. We head back to camp. Given some time, I might be able to rig up a portable version of the sensor array to track the signal on the move. If not, if it stops, I'm sure I can come up with something to trace the signal with resources from back home. At the very least, we have to update home base."

RJ glanced down, trying to scrape bug guts off her boot, then at the other fallen bugs, then at her teammates. "So, uh, anyone collecting some specimens before we get the fuck out of here before whatever the hell is making that sound shows up?"