r/Rins_Basement

DONT start the culling games without me!

ooc: any suggestions for her new outfit/hairstyle would be very appreciated... also! would yall like to see her interact with the bacteria or continue with putting her in liminal spaces (idk the lore so ehhh)

I've trapped all instances of the bacterium inside my domain.

A domain where everything exists in perfect stillness.

"Mission control to sample extraction team, do you copy? Over"

A team of 4 litchmechs, each named Soma, have been marching for 16 hours. The flooded hall of chains was up to the ankles of the undead cyborgs. Boom Doomer rifles ready to splatter any wildlife in their path. The flooded streets of floor 54 have been empty since quarantine was declared. Some chains glowed with contamination. Patches of bacteria glowed in their wake. Care was taken to avoid these patches.

Highest level of personal bioprotective equipment possible allowed the litchmechs to wade thru without suffering schizophrenia like symptoms. The fate of the basement rested on this quest for a sample of the obelisk. The protective measures were so extreme that the face hatch on the helmet was welded shut.

"Sampler team leader to mission control, Roger loud and clear. Whatcha need? Over"

The sheer gravity of the situation rested heavily on this Soma clone's mind. All he could see was allspecs and weave readings. An open face hatch would not have been better In this dark hall that was once occupied by filth worshippers. He had a lover back home at Roanoke. But someone had to go. And this Soma clone drew shortest of all.

"Mission control to sampler team, what is your 20? Over"

Mission control was monitoring progress diligently. Demanding status updates every 15 minutes. For the last 16 hours. They got it lucky, they don't have to wade thru water, they don't have to dodge glowing patches of bacteria floating on the water, clung to cold corpses in the street. Sampler team leader wanted to complain. He wanted to protest. But the life of his lover was at stake.

What could she be doing right now? Shepherding the Littles in her class room, waiting for ration supplies and trying to make this crisis a teachable moment. Her tail must be whipping around behind her back in worry that the pups would catch onto her silent panic.

Sampler team leader turned around and signed a request status on the left shoulder arm. The other "Fortunate sons" of sampler team confirmed their systems nominal.

"Sampler team leader to mission control, all systems nominal. According to string map, we are almost out of floor 54, maintaining course to the objective. So far, no hostiles. Just... dead people. Please tell my girlfriend I am ok, and that I promise to give her a big hug as soon as I get out of quarantine. Over"

The long pause gave sampler team leader a chance to resume the March. Splooshing was rampant as the footfalls landed. Whenever the talking stopped, there was marching, and it was dangerously peaceful. One could easily be lulled into complacency here.

"Mission control to sampler team leader, be advised, she sends you hugs and kisses. Lemme remind you that Yall are heroes to the colony. Over"

Heroes this soma's shiny metal ass... all these four somas wanted to do was do the one thing no one would forgive them for.... desert. Sampler team collectively could agree, that they stopped feeling bad after seeing a goblin boy and his dog, glowing, in a final embrace. Sampler team leader wanted to take his lover far away. But where could she be safe? The whole basement was under pandemic alert after the initial survey of just how deserted the market was. No one outside mass co colony Roanoke self quarantined. They panicked... they fled. Who knows how many were asymptomatic. Contact tracing floor wide seemed impossible as the seemingly healthy had fled to other floors.

It was good to know this soma's lover was alive and well.

"Sampler team leader to mission control, how much farther to the cargo elevator outpost? Over"

"Mission control to sampler team, distance to checkpoint, 420 kilometers. Over"

A collective groan rang out over quantum string communications.

Well, it didn't just fizzle like normal, but it instead fucking collapsed in on itself, then the surface of the obelisk shone with some weird light, I could make out the letters "OKPJMTDJILCMEPENETWKABMXJSJRIJTR"

I feel something odd surging from the spot that was glowing

My head hurts looking at it, my hands reach towards it involuntarily

Fear is something I haven't felt in a long time

An object that was first discovered by Doctor Sekai, rumored to be the origin point in which the bacterium manifested itself in the basement.

We've also found over 10 million colonies of the bacterium in the area that further support my theory that this object in fact may be a portal to somewhere.