#dr. gemini: substratum protocol

[solobeegames]

The Fracture

"Mo, you ready to initiate sampling?" Gem inquires of her sampling droid. The little droid's round maroon bubble head nods up and down in an affirmative, and he makes a little cooing sound before descending into gaping maw of the Fracture. The Substratum team has been stationed at the opening for 18 hours, and the plan is to spend the next 24 hours sampling and exploring the Fracture opening.

"Mo's in place, point five kilometers and holding steady," Gem speaks through her exosuit's intercom system to the rest of her team.

"Shit!" a gruff voice answers. Ramsey, the source of the outburst, hits the side of his suit's helmet. "Latest and greatest in exosuit tech my ass! I wouldn't power a microwave with this crap!" His bushy red eyebrows are deeply furrowed as he finally pairs up all their suit telemetry systems. Eventually Mo's sampling data starts streaming on all their screens.

"Starting early today are we, Ram?" Gem comments with a gentle smirk.

"I don't think he ever finished," Dr. Vincent replies wryly as he combs through the data of their other retcon sampling droid, BeepBoBop - Beep for short. He is having him sample the rock and minerals around the Fracture's opening.

"We all know that if I had been in the room this pile of tin wouldn't have gotten passed mock ups!" Ramsey boasts.

"Undoubtedly," Dr. Vincent continues to comment in his wry tone.

"Focus, Doc! If anything happens to Beep I'll throw yer ass into the Fracture, the world be damned!"

"Hold up," interjects Seo-jun. He looks up from where he was doing calculations in his notebook - something he prefers doing over utilizing computers and calculators. "I believe Mo might have isolated something!" His eyes pour over the data streaming on his helmet screen and without looking down, his hands move rapidly over his notebook pages, almost as if he were a computer himself.

"This is amazing!" he exclaims in wonder. "The gravitational fluctuations are shifting rapidly - almost like bubbles forming, collapsing, and reforming!"

"Damn," replies Ramsey, impressed. Gem's golden brown eyes glisten with excitement and extreme fascination.

"Mo, focus on sector N59NE35 - I want to see what kind of data we can collect in the center of one these gravitational bubbles themselves!"

The droid replies affirmative, but just as he makes his way in the new direction, there is a deep, ominous rumble that builds up from the underneath their feet. The ground begins to shiver and shake. Gem loses her footing and almost falls over, but Dr. Vincent quickly maneuvers and catches her fall. And just as sudden as the earthquake began, it stops. The eerie silence that follows and echoes back at them from deep out of the surrounding green jungles is somehow more ominous than the earthquake itself.

"Are you guys seeing this?!" exclaims Seo-jun excitedly, as if he hadn't even registered that there had been an earthquake. "These gravitational fluctuations are changing so rapidly! I've never seen anything like this!"

Both Gem and Dr. Vincent look over at Seo-jun, notice simultaneously that Gem is still in his arms, and quickly pull away from one another awkwardly.

"Thank you," Gem says to him quietly, and begins pouring through the same information as her mathematician. Suddenly a loud electronic wail is heard and Mo shoots rapidly out of the Fracture's opening and high up into the air.

"Mo!" exclaims Gem in distress. She moves rapidly to gain control of the droid and maneuver it back towards their base camp. Mo reappears above them and falls right into Ramsey's outstretched arms.

"Calm yerself, little guy!" he affirms gently, his hardened demeanor shifting almost to the softness of a mother with her child, as he looks the droid over to assess any damage.

"Is he okay?" Gem rushes over.

"Yeah, he's fine! Whatever gravitational pocket he hit must have been a doozy!"

"Here, there be dragons," Dr. Vincent says poetically. He is referencing to the fact that no matter how one approaches the Anomaly, it is met with resistance, confusion, and the inexplicable. The fact that they have been able to collect any data at all without losing their wits is a miracle in of itself. The same could not be said of the original analysts who had studied the Anomaly data at the beginning. They are still in the psych ward, catatonic. Dr. Vincent's life-long friend and colleague is one of those analysts.

Gem's eyes harden in resolve. "Alright, Ram - I want you to pack up the habitat we are cutting observation of the Fracture short and we will start our descent immediately! Kim, I want you to find us a safe entrance into the Fracture!"

"Yes, ma'am!" the both of them respond and get to work.

"Dr. Gemini, I do believe you are making a rash decision here," interjects Dr. Vincent very coolly. "We've barely gotten any useful preliminary readings, and I wanted to sample the mineral content within this area before we left."

"I understand that, Vincent," Gem replies curtly. "I just do not believe we are going to find any useful data here. It is best not to waste time on dead ends."

"And you believe jumping blind right into the Fracture is really the wisest course of action?"

"Doctor, I really don't have time for you to second guess my every decision right now! I've made myself very clear, this isn't up for debate!"

This was not their first argument, and if they made it through this thing, it would not be their last. It has been this way almost from the very beginning that they were introduced and briefed on the first exhibition of the Substratum Protocol. Everyone knew that Dr. Vincent believed he should have been chosen as the team leader, and he and Gemini rarely saw eye to eye on anything.

"No, but we are a scientific team chosen specifically for our specialized knowledge not yes men to fall in line with whatever the great Dr. Gemini dictates!"

"Excuse me, but how many successful missions have you headed, Doctor?"

"If we are to have - as they say - a dick measuring contest, my credentials are as every bit as impressive as yours, and certainly I would exceed them considering I've had more experience with geological locations and excavations, as well as having a significant hand in creating the very procedures of the Substratum Protocol." Gem rolls her eyes.

"As you never cease to remind me, but considering it was I who was chosen for this mission, doesn't hold much weight!"

The both of them square off eye to eye, although Dr. Vincent is almost a head taller than Gem, and she is a tall woman herself. Gem hates how Dr. Vincent's eyes cut into her, his steel meeting her own, never backing down.

"Hey! Will you two lovebirds quit it!" exclaims Ramsey with a broad smirk on his face. "We don't have time for this little foreplay you guys got going on!"

Gem shoots an angry glance at Ramsey, but before she could say anything there is another sickening rumble from the Earth's bowels and the ground begins to shift and shiver once more. However, this time the ground crumbles like fine sand, and before any of them could move it gives away completely! The chasm widens and the Substratum team plunges deep into the darkness, the earth swallowing them whole.

| Substratum Protocol by Pandion Games.

[solobeegames]

The Crystalline Caves and The Jellyfish

The next day they reach Sector Level Three. As they pass through to that threshold, they behold an incredible sight! As far as their eyes could see, endless caverns are filled to the brim with crystals of all colors, all shapes, and all glowing with their own inner light. Some crystals are larger than five story buildings, and others are so small they litter the ground like extremely fine thread. For those few hours the team can say nothing. They even forget, for a brief moment, that this is a desperate mission and simply marvel at the spectacular beauty of the myriad crystalline structures.

They can almost feel the mounting pressures that have shaped this environment. There is certainly a profound level of heat at this level, and the crystals begin to drip like melting icicles around them, a testament to the tumultuous forces at work here. Dr. Vincent wonders out loud at what could possibly be creating the bioluminescent light that emanates from them, or the sudden low buzzing hum that they hear in the silence as they walk. Vincent's eyes burn with the desire to explore this place. Gem can feel his curiosity and passion at discovering such a rich vein of geological knowledge absolutely radiating from him as strongly as the light and sound from the crystals themselves.

The crystals do make the journey hard going, however, and they move more slowly than Gem would have liked. The crystals are razor sharp and cumbersome to get around. Many of them easily shatter and become crushed under the boots of their exosuit like fine dust, which causes Vincent much pain. Gem decides that she will show some mercy on him and allow them to set up camp and do a little bit of studying. She gives them 24 hours.

It is hour seven, and the Substratum team are settled in their pressurized habitat. Vincent has been doing nonstop experiments on the various crystals Beep had collected for him. Ramsey is tinkering with his suit, as he usually would do, and Seo-jun is writing furiously into his notebook, which he has been doing more and more of lately. Gem pours herself a second cup of coffee - made from powder and recycled water, which was very unpleasant, but was better than nothing. She turns to look at her boys, when suddenly there is a loud thwack on the outside of their habitat! All of them stop immediately what they are doing and go very still.

There is another thwack and all four of them move towards the center of the habitat.

"Fuck!" exclaims Ramsey as he holds up a screwdriver as a brandished weapon.

"Easy!" Gem assures as she tries to keep her team calm and in control. Suddenly there are multiple hits bombarding their habitat at once! It is like something - multiple somethings - are attacking their habitat! There is no way of discerning who or what their assailants are, as only the top of their habitat has a clear sunroof. Whatever it is that is attacking them, it is coming from the cave floor and not above.

The sound is loud and unsettling, and the onslaught is unending! Whatever they are, they are very persistent and do not seem to give up easily. Thankfully, their habitat holds, and while the attack is terrifying to endure, they realize that they are safe within it. They get very uneasy and poor sleep, however, and Gem finds herself falling into a delirious state of being half awake and half asleep, listening to those bodies hitting the side of their habitat over and over again.

Eventually, the onslaught does end, and the Substratum team gingerly steps out of their habitat, tired and overstressed. There is no sign of their assailants, just the endless humming, glowing crystals around them. Gem is just about to give a sigh of deep relief when there comes a loud shout from back inside the habitat! Seo-jun cries out again and comes crawling out of the habitat on his backside, sliding across the cave floor backwards. What follows him from inside is a bizarre sight!

Standing at about three feet tall is a elongated creature that looks like a walking jellyfish! It has a floppy head, glowing green tendrils and strange gangly legs.

"Fuck!" Ramsey exclaims again. "What in the crap is that supposed to be!?"

"Steady!" Gem exclaims as she slowly walks towards the creature to put herself between it and her mathematician. "Kim, slow and steady!" The creature doesn't seem to want to attack any of them - yet anyway. It turns its body towards her and very small bulbs poke out of its head, which Gem assumes are eyes of some sort.

Suddenly Vincent dashes from behind the creature and wraps it with his sleeping bag! Then he takes duct tape and tapes it all around tightly. Ramsey runs and helps him with it. The creature is cumbersome, but not overly strong and is a little delicate.

"Try not to kill it!" Vincent exclaims.

"Better him than me!" answers Ramsey.

"Be careful!" Gem warns, not wanting the creature to have some surprise poisonous defense mechanism, if it is anything like an actual jellyfish at all.

"I found it next to our storage compartments," explains Seo-jun as he hesitantly steps forward. "It seemed like it wanted something in there."

"What could it possibly want in there?" wonders Vincent. "There is nothing in there except - " He pauses, remembering, and his eyes light up. He dashes back inside their habitat. Ramsey has his hand over the creature who is perfectly still underneath the bundle of sleeping bag and duct tape. Vincent returns quickly again with a container of red-spore liquid he had obtained from their storage unit. Gem deduces where his train of thought is going.

"I'm going to try an experiment," he explains. "Ramsey, hold it down if you can."

"I don't think this is a good idea, Doc!" exclaims Ramsey, looking very uneasy. Yet before any of them are able to take any further action, the creature seems to gain an incredible amount of strength, and bursts its way from out its bonds, knocking them all over. The container of red-spore liquid breaks and spills on the ground. The creature immediately wobbles over to the spilled liquid and begins to feed upon it.

"Fascinating," comments Vincent from the ground.

"Yeah, real brilliant!" groans Ramsey rolling his eyes. They all watch the creature feed on the red liquid for a moment or two. As it finishes its meal, however, the green tendrils begin to glow with a bioluminescent light and white sparks start flashing. It is now Ramsey's turn to have his eyes light up with interest.

"Hey now! That would be interesting!" he exclaims and starts to power up the 3D printer on his exosuit.

"What are you thinking, Ram?" Gem asks.

"If that creature can generate some kind of bioelectric force, we could use that!" he explains.

"Ah yes, discover a here hitherto unknown lifeform and all you can think about is how to exploit it for resources," Vincent remarks sarcastically.

"Doc, this is about survival, and anything that helps us survive this shit is valuable in my book! Now, help me with this thing."

Ramsey had his 3D printer generate a strong mesh net, as he intends to capture it once more. Gem supervises the capture, and they soon have the creature securely fastened back in their habitat.

"I don't know about this," Seo-jun says as he watches the creature wearily.

"It is a good idea," Gem assures. "We will just have to be cautious. So far it has not exhibited any incredibly dangerous tendencies."

"None of us have any knowledge or experience with biological lifeforms," Vincent points out. "I don't see how Ramsey is going to be able to utilize its bioelectric mechanism in any kind of effective manner."

"I trust in Ram," Gem says with her hands on her hips as she watches Ramsey gingerly poke at the creature. The creature responds by zapping him with a mild shock with one of its glowing tendrils. Ramsey gives a barking shout and clenches his fist in pain. Vincent gives Gem a sidelong glance of extreme skepticism. Gem purses her lips nervously.

"Let's just get back to work," she says changing the subject. "We have to be packed and ready to go in twelve hours."

The Substratum team responds accordingly.

| Substratum Protocol by Pandion Games.

[solobeegames]

The Conversation

They are somewhere between 800 to 900 kilometers deep within the Earth. There is light snoring coming from the direction of Seo-jun's section of the habitat. Gem is lying awake in her sleeping bag, looking out into the darkness, listening to the rumblings, drips, and creaks of a subterranean environment. In a way, it is almost peaceful. In the pressurized environment nestled in the heart of the Earth you almost couldn't believe there was some catastrophic event destroying the world. Gem's mind drifts far away from the last year and the half of insanity and allows herself to be soothed by the sounds of the groaning Earth.

"Dr. Gemini," Dr. Vincent's voice drifts over to her and she feels rustling next to her.

"Yes, Doctor," Gem replies, but doesn't get up from her comfortable position.

"I would like to speak to you concerning recent events," his voice is very restrained, overly polite.

"And you thought now would be a good time to do that?" Gem asks.

"I would rather it be a private conversation between you and I, and it is difficult to find the requisite time to do so during our travels."

Gem sighs deeply, and then turns over and sits up. Vincent turns on a small LED light. It illuminates both of their faces. Gem hopes she doesn't look as haggard and tired as he does.

"I would like to address a sensitive subject and I would hope, as a professional and a scientist, you will hear my concerns from an objective frame of mind."

"Of course."

"I believe it would be prudent to put into effect Protocol 12, in the event you find yourself incapacitated and unable to lead this mission."

"What makes you believe that my capacity as a leader is in question?"

"The events in that laboratory with the blue jar - "

Gem lifts up her hand to stop him. "I understand, Doctor, but I have been functioning optimally since then and have not had any further incidents."

They both stare into one another's eyes for a moment.

"Gemini," Vincent says, dropping the honorific, "if you were in my place what would you do?"

Gemini sighs and turns her eyes downward. She pauses a moment before answering.

"Honestly, Vincent, I cannot guarantee that I have not been compromised in some way. However, I can assure you that I have my full mental faculties."

"I appreciate your honesty, but I need you to help me understand what exactly is going on with you." They look into each other's eyes again, as if communicating with some unspoken language. Gemini smiles a small compassionate smile.

"I understand that what has happened with me might be. . .triggering, considering your past experience."

Gem is, of course, referring to Vincent's colleague, the one who is now in the psych ward, with no hope of making a full recovery. Vincent lowers his eyes and flexes his right hand in nervousness.

"You know that whatever our differences have been that my intentions are always centered on the success of this mission and that I would sacrifice myself to achieve our goal by whatever means necessary."

"Vincent," Gem reaches out her hand towards him. "You know that I have never questioned that about you."

"Then help me understand, I want more than anything in the world for you to make me understand," he says, his voice suddenly thick with emotion. He leans forward and their hands are nearly touching. Gem realizes that the emotion he is feeling is fear.

"I can't fully explain it in a way that will make scientific sense, Vincent," she replies. "Whatever this Anomaly is, it isn't fully a material, tangible object or enemy. It is metaphysical. It is something that cannot be grasped by scientific means. Everything that we have come to know and understand about our universe is being flipped on its head right now, and we have to allow ourselves to be transformed by it or die. There is really no other option."

Vincent is silent for a few moments, digesting what she has just said.

"I see," he says finally. "Thank you. I shall endeavor to do so." He pauses then adds, "For the sake of the mission."

"Vincent," Gem begins but doesn't finish. Their eyes catch on one another again. His demeanor softens.

"Dr. Gemini - "

"Call me Gem," she says. Vincent stiffens a little, but then relaxes again.

"Alright. . . Gem."

"Okay, now that's really weird!" Gem laughs quietly, a genuine broad smile breaking on her face, softening it considerably. Vincent smiles in response, unable to look away from her.

"If ya two aren't going to fuck each other, then can we please get some sleep?!" comes a gruff voice from the direction of Ramsey's corner. Vincent is unamused by the crude comment, but Gem smirks shaking her head.

"I guess we need to let Ram get his beauty sleep. Goodnight, Vincent," she says.

"Goodnight. . .Gem," he responds and turning off the LED light, returns to his sleeping bag. Gem lays back down and smiles into the darkness. The world turned upside down, indeed.

| Substratum Protocol by Pandion Games

[solobeegames]

The Singing Stars

No one has said anything for the last ten minutes, as they each explore the various corners of that room. Yet they can all feel the alien mural hovering over them, the Anomaly Symbol staring out at them like a great all-seeing eye and burrowing into their backs. Gem feels it like an icy cold shiver up her spine. She shudders to herself and finally is able to open a strange metal cabinet she has been working on, the hinges squeaking as a bunch of dust and grime rise into the air. When she looks inside her eyes land like a magnet on a long blue jar. The curve of its neck springs forward like a spout of water. It's base is oblong and inside is a ball of glowing light. It is very dim because the glass seems extremely thick, but Gem's eyes burrow into that jar and into that spot of light.

"Gemini," comes Dr. Vincent's voice, its usual equanimity breaking with worry. "What's wrong?" He rushes to her side. Gem hasn't moved her eyes away from it. She stands transfixed.

"It's a star," she replies flatly.

"What?" asks Dr. Vincent in extreme confusion. Ramsey, noticing what was going on, walks over to join them. The three of them all stare at the blue jar.

"That glass bottle contains a star," she says again.

"Er…boss, you okay? You don't look so hot," observes Ramsey. Dr. Vincent gently puts his hand on her arm and lowers his voice.

"Gemini, you aren't making any sense. I think you need to rest for a moment."

Gem pulls her arm away from him and finally turns her head to glare at him. "I'm an astrophysicist, I think I know a star when I see one," she snaps.

"Yes," Dr. Vincent draws out slowly. "But usually we don't find them contained in jars."

"You are a condescending ass, you know that, Vincent?" Gem snaps again and wants more than anything to just leave that place. Dr. Vincent raises his eyebrows, and doesn't respond.

"Well, you know, Doc - after all we've seen, maybe the aliens found a way to compress stars into jars. I don't know, doesn't seem that far-fetched to me."

"Um, no, Ramsey. I don't believe so," Dr. Vincent replies with a tone one uses when being patient with a child.

"Why not?"

"Firstly, we aren't living in Middle Earth, and secondly, we haven't even established any of the aforementioned assumptions about aliens and their technology, or why we should even assume that this is a star in the first place! There can be any number of explanations for all this."

"Oh really?" Ramsey crosses his arms. "Name one."

"I shall be happy to do so once I run more tests and obtain more data."

"You are so full of shit, Doc, it ain't even funny!"

Gem rubs her temples and let's her awareness drift away from their arguing. There is a sharp pain in head and her eyes ache considerably. As she continues to rub her temples harder, she begins to hear the sound of frogs chirping and the wind blowing through trees. She opens her eyes and sees a woman's face, deeply sensitive with a sweet smile and gentle eyes.

"Aurora, look!" the woman says, and she looks down at the woman's enclosed hands. There is something glowing underneath them. The woman's hands open just slightly and Gem can see a small firefly crawling contentedly within. There is the sound of a little girl's laughter and the firefly is set free, flying up into the night sky full of stars.

Suddenly all the stars of the sky are contained in one small mason jar. They are entangled together and begin flashing different colors, red, violet, blue, and green. Gem is in her bedroom, the glow of the twinkle lights in the mason jar on her nightstand glimmer back at her. She can hear many voices and people moving downstairs. This is her mother's memorial. Gem is thirteen.

"Aurora, honey," a male voice drifts from behind her bedroom door. "Are you in there?" Gemini reaches up and knocks over the mason jar and it completely shatters on the floor. The twinkle lights are scattered like entrails, and the lights glow even brighter. They glow so bright that it fills the entire room and they begin to spin and swirl with gases and light. That's when they begin to sing, a clear, glorious song that resonates into Gemini's very being and shakes the very core of the Earth.

"Gemini!"

Gem snaps her head and sees her team looking at her with concerned expressions on their face. Dr. Vincent is by her side again, but he doesn't reach out to her this time.

"Have any of you been experiencing any unusual cognitive symptoms?" Gem asks of her team.

"Uh, no," Ramsey answers looking at the rest, who shake their heads.

"Gemini, what is going on?" Dr. Vincent asks with a heaviness in his voice that Gem hasn't heard before.

"Just now I was experiencing migraine pain and my mind brought up memories from my past, but the way they occurred wasn't exactly accurate."

"What do you mean?"

"They seem to blend together, memories of my mother and then after her death. The stars are alive, and they are in my bedroom back home and they are singing."

Her team looks at one another with very worried expressions on their faces. Gemini understands what they must think.

"Alright, we will discuss this later," she says. "Kim, we've got to go."

"Yes, ma'am," he replies. "I was able to figure out that this place seems to be powered by a field of massive cylinders that seem to reach to their very center of the Anomaly itself. I can only imagine that is what was causing the high levels of radiation. Otherwise, I wasn't able to find anything useful."

"Good work, Kim," Gemini replies with a nod of approval. "We will take the knowledge we've collected here and get back on mission."

Gemini leads her team out of that strange laboratory room, more than happy to leave all of its mysteries behind. Only she knows that isn't true. She understands that for whatever reason and to whatever purpose the Anomaly has singled her out. Whatever its effects might be or however it reaches out to communicate, she's going to be the only one to experience it. This absolutely terrifies her, but in another way it fills her with an excitement that causes her blood to race and her heart to swell.

That's why when she is finally able to fall asleep later on in their journey and she dreams of a twisting crystalline structures that spin wheels within wheels, pulling at her mind with all their beauty and mystery, she doesn't say anything to the rest of her team. She simply just listens to their song.

| The Substratum Protocol by Pandion Games.

[solobeegames]

The Civilization

They made it to Sector Level Two exactly thirteen days and four hours later. Seo-jun is even quieter than usual after his encounter with the red-spore microorganisms. The first twenty-four hours he had run a high fever, but eventually his body pushed through and as soon as he was conscious enough, he was back with his nose in his notebook, writing down whatever mathematical mysteries he was working on. Gem figures that means he is back to normal, although he has barely said two words to anyone.

Dr. Vincent had successfully obtained a sample of the microorganism and was studying it in great length. "This is absolutely fascinating!" he exclaimed to her one evening as they were bathed in the halogen light of their habitat. "It appears that this organism is a fusion of carbon and silicon based life! It cannot survive separate from the rocky environment in which we found it! Can you imagine how this revolutionizes our whole understanding of how life works?! As a child obsessed with rocks, you always imagined them as being alive - to actually find one is a geologist's dream!" Gem watched his face light up with the joy of the discovery - noticing how his earnest emotion softened his features to make him look even more boyish than usual and quite handsome - and her eyes glinted in response to his enthusiasm. However, she felt a pang in her heart for the loss she knew was inevitable. Did any of these discoveries matter?

Now that they have arrived at Sector Level Two, they have been suddenly thrust upon an even greater discovery. As they found themselves stepping out into the most massive cavern they had ever seen, a city of ruins sprawls itself out before them. Over six hundred kilometers beneath the Earth and they discover an ancient civilization! Even in the limited light, they could tell that this city was once beautiful, with intricate construction with a myriad of undulating and intertwining designs. For a full hour they are all speechless as they travel through the ancient roads of that city, looking at the countless buildings and structures that sprouted from out of the Earth.

Suddenly, a piercing alarm breaks that hushed silence and startles them all. It is coming from Ramsey's exosuit, but soon all of their suits one by one start raising the alarm. It is the radiation alarm. Radiation had increased to a dangerous level, triggering their exosuit's countermeasures, and it is continuing to increase.

"What the hell?" Ramsey growls in annoyance. They all turn off their alarms, but the lights are still flashing bright green.

"We are going to have to go back," Gem says. "We can't survive this level of radiation for very long."

As they head back the way they had come, Gem receives an incoming transmission from Mission Control.

"Substratum Team: Receiving!"

"Mission Control: Substratum Team, we have registered dangerous levels of radiation in your area!"

"No shit," mutters Ramsey rolling his eyes.

"Yes, we are aware," Gem responds, smiling at Ramsey. "We are heading back towards the entrance of Sector Two."

"Negative, Substratum Team. You will not be able to reach Sector Three except by passing through Sector Two!"

"Well, uh, we are going to need another route," Gem replies.

"Roger that! We - " the voice of Mission Control gets cut off and dissolves into a garbled mess.

"Mission Control! Mission Control! Can you read?" exclaims Gem, hitting the side of her helmet. "The radiation must be playing havoc with our com systems!"

"Fuck!" exclaims Ramsey vehemently. "These suits are pieces of crap! I could make something better out of duct tape and cardboard!"

Despite the technical difficulties, they are eventually able to reestablish connection with Mission Control and are given an alternate route through the city. It is one that takes them deep within, and soon they are passing buildings (homes?) filled with the ghosts of some civilization that defies explanation or logic. Gem has a bad feeling about this, and wishes that they did not have to pass through this inexplicable graveyard of otherworldly buildings. The silence feels pregnant and she has an unsettling feeling that they are being watched.

"Sooo, are we going to talk about the fact that some whole ass ancient civilization exists beneath the Amazon or what?" interjects Ramsey into the silence.

"It is not wise to theorize before obtaining facts," Dr. Vincent responds calmly.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure those facts are staring ya right in the face, Doc! How about ancient alien civilization for starters."

"While anything is possible, one must not believe everything one sees."

"Why the hell not? Seems like my eyes, which made it through the eons of evolutionary process, have been pretty reliable!"

"Fair point, but we know that human perception can be fooled or twist reality. At our next rest stop I intend to do a variety of tests, particularly to determine just exactly how old these buildings are."

"Doc, you would test to see if your ass was still connected to your body."

"That makes absolutely no sense," Dr. Vincent responds dryly. Ramsey only grins wolfishly, his mass of hair frizzling in the orange-tinted light of his suit.

"I don't intend for us to take many rest stops here," interjects Gem. "I want to make it to Sector Level Three ahead of schedule if we can."

Dr. Vincent turns sharply to look at her, but does not raise any objection this time.

"Gem! Look!" exclaims Seo-jun all of sudden as he gestures excitedly to a strange building. "I think I see a light source!" He doesn't wait for anyone to respond or follow, but walks quickly into the building.

"Kim! Wait…ugh!" Gem sighs in exasperation. "We can't get distracted by side quests!"

The team enters the building, which is nondescript, but otherworldly the same as the rest of the city, but Seo-jun is following a light source, which leads them deeper into the building.

"It isn't wise for us to walk through these buildings!" explains Gem. "We are taking an unnecessary risk!"

"No! Look!" exclaims Seo-jun, his eyes alive more than they have been for the last two weeks. They enter a brilliant room full of what is clearly technology of some sort, and it still seems to be connected to some power source. Underneath mounds of dust and rock are machines with blinking lights and screens. The machines look like old analog technology from the late 1970s/early 1980s. Seo-jun wipes away the dirt from a screen and starts trying to access the machine by pressing its strange giant buttons that have strange symbols on it.

"I feel like I'm on an episode of Star Trek," Ramsey comments, as he stares in awe around the room.

"Ram, I didn't take you for a trekkie," replies Gem in surprise.

"Oh yeah! I had the hots for that Deanna Troi!" explains Ramsey with a grin. "She was one sexy weird-ass chick!" Gem finds herself laughing suddenly, truly a genuine laugh in a long, long while. Dr. Vincent glances over at her and then returns to examining the room.

"I think I might be able to access these systems and perhaps with it some useful information," says Seo-jun, his eyes locked on the screen, as his fingers move swiftly over the buttons.

"Okay, we take fifteen and then we have to leave," concedes Gem.

"Gemini," comes Dr. Vincent's voice from across the room, deadly calm. "I think you need to see this." Gem looks over at him and joins him at his side of the room. There, the light from their headlamps illuminates the lower section of a large wall and upon it is a massive mural. Out of everything Gem has seen so far, this wall image is one that stuns her speechless and chills her to the bone. It depicts giant humanoid beings with their arms outstretched towards a symbol - a circle with an upside-down triangle within its center. Wavy lines, perhaps depicting solar or light rays of some kind, burst out of it. There are also layers and layers of some sort of bizarre writing that radiate outwards in strange undulating patterns.

"Holy shit," Ramsey exclaims in utter disbelief. Gem's jaw tightens, her fists clench, and her breath hardens as that image burns into the deep recesses of her mind.

| Substratum Protocol by Pandion Games.

[solobeegames]

The Wall of Blood

Gem hits the subterranean waters hard, and is swept up into their currents, her exosuit battered by falling rocks crashing around her. Her suit's systems are going haywire and she can't see anything in front of her. All sounds recede from her awareness except for her heavy labored breathing. She has an almost out of body experience, as if it were someone else being swept up in the inky currents, falling deeper and deeper into the void that had swallow her and her team whole. Gem finds herself unresponsive and unable to move, time seems almost frozen in place.

Suddenly, a orange-tinted light bursts into her awareness and she feels her body being pulled from the waters like being brought out of a baptism. She finds herself looking into the weathered visage of Ramsey - his hairy face looking like it is on fire underneath his orange-tinted head lamp.

"Status," she is able to stumble out as she clings to Ramsey's strong arm, unsteady on her feet but not falling over.

"How about not dead," replies Ramsey sarcastically.

"It seems we have fallen into some kind of subterrean river," answers Dr. Vincent. He is breathing heavily on the ground next to Seo-jun who is lying prone next to him, but breathing.

"No shit, Doc!" Ramsey growls and helps Gem up further away from the water. The four of them all rest for a few seconds, trying to get their breath and their bearings. They are in complete darkness, save for each of their headlamps which give them some visibility. It is clear they are in a cavern interior, but how large it is or if there is any way out of it, remains to be seen.

"Mo!" Gem exclaims, remembering her little droid.

"Don't worry," Ramsey responds. "I have him with me, along with Beep." The droids make little cooing noises from within Ramsey's exosuit where they are temporarily housed. Gem sighs in relief.

"And our supplies?"

"It is a good thing you had me pack it all up, as I was able to keep it tethered to me through that little detour we took."

"Good work," Gem states and she stands up, trying to get a sense of her surroundings. She takes a few tentative steps ahead of her and begins to shoot off over a dozen of her red flares. She creates a circle around them and the light provides some sense of how large the cavern is. It is fairly large, with a whole collection of stalagmites and stalactites that unfortunately give the impression they are sitting inside the gaping maw of some large creature's teeth. There is no immediate exit to be seen.

Gem radios Mission Control. It takes a few moments for them to connect, but thankfully she is able to get through.

"Mission Control: Boy, are we glad to hear from you, Substratum Team!," the voice comes sharp and clear through their intercom system.

"Substratum Team: No one is more relieved than we are!" responds Gem with a small, tired smile.

"What happened? We registered about a dozen micro-earthquakes in your area."

"Yep, and it caused a massive cave in fracture in which we were unfortunately trapped and carried into the depths. We will need a telemetry read out of our current location as well as a new route calculated to our destination."

"Copy that! Stand by!"

It isn't too much longer when their exosuits received the download of their current position and how far off course they were.

"It looks like you are three days off course," the voice from Mission Control explains, "approximately two-hundred and forty-one kilometers beneath the surface. There is an exit in the north eastern direction of your current location. We are unable to get any other readings in your area."

"Thanks, Mission Control. Substratum Protocol is operational. Days until we reach Sector Level Two: thirteen. Stand by!" Gem turns off her radio and addresses her team. "We will take ten here, but I want us to move out immediately."

"Do ya have a date, boss?"

"Yeah, with the apocalypse before it completely annihilates our planet." Gem looks over at Seo-jun who hasn't moved from his position. "Are you okay, Kim?" Seo-jun responds by giving the A-OK sign with his hand. Gem nods and turns to see Dr. Vincent studying the cavern walls closely.

"What is it, Vincent?" Gem inquires as she joins his side. "I don't think that is water that is running down these cavern walls." Gem feels goosebumps run up her spine and over her flesh. It is something that she didn't allow herself to think about, even if it was something she had always thought about before the Anomaly occurred: alien life. There were many inexplicable things that have occurred, but one of them was the sudden appearance of strange life signs. They weren't able to discover anything more about the nature of them because the analysts who had looked at that data had lost their minds, so no one dared tried to decipher it beyond the preliminary readings.

Gemini didn't allow herself to speculate or theorize, even if a part of her is dying to do so. She is as idealistic as any scientist in love with the stars could be, but she is also a pragmatist. In the end, it didn't matter what scientific or existential knowledge that could be gained from this Anomaly. It needed to be stopped and eradicated. No questions asked. Time is running out.

Yet here they are, in the middle of the Earth's bowels looking upon some strange event. Gemini allows herself to be swept up in Dr. Vincent's curiosity. He switches his blue-tinted light to white light in order to get a better sense of what they are looking at. Once he did so, the walls revealed great oozing sheets of red liquid as if the rock themselves were bleeding. It is a grotesque sight.

"What is it?" Gem asks breathlessly.

"I don't know, but there seems to be some kind of spore-like microorganism accreting this red liquid," Dr. Vincent replies.

"I take it that isn't normal for it to do?"

"No, not normal," he replies calmly as he studies the walls with meticulous attention. "I would like to procure a sample of this before we leave."

"Of course." Gem turns to look at Ramsey. "Ram! We would like to use Beep for a second." She then turns her head to look at Seo-jun, who has finally gotten up from his place by the water's shore and is now sitting back against a giant stalagmite.

It all happens at once, Gem seeing the wet, oozing liquid weeping from the stone and the warning shout bubbling up in her throat in response, and Seo-jun leaning his arm against it and suddenly crying out in pain, his body collapsing. All three of them immediately dash over to Seo-jun, and Gem is the first to see that the red spore liquid dissolving the arm of his exosuit like acid.

"Everyone! Back! Back! Pull him back! Get away from the walls!" Gem shouts as they pull Seo-jun away. He tries to touch the infected area in his suffered flailing, but Gem prevents him from doing so.

"Sodium biocarbonate!" shouts Dr. Vincent. Gem has had the same idea and is already utilizing her 3D atomic printer within her suit to generate the substance. Once printing is complete, she throws the white powder on top of the red liquid in hopes of neutralizing it. Unfortunately, it makes no effect and Seo-jun's screams are blood curdling.

"Shit!" Gem throws caution to the wind and rips off the arm of his exosuit, making sure she doesn't get any of the red liquid on herself, and throws it into the black waters below.

They can now see where the red liquid had dissolved through to Seo-jun's skin, the blistering and sizzling caustic fluid created a fist-sized patch on his arm. Gem knows when to accept when she is defeated, at least for the moment.

"Ram! Get the habitat set up!"

"Right!" Ramsey rushes towards their supply cube and sets up their pressurized habitat.

They will have no choice but to remain here for the night and tend to Seo-jun's wound - which thankfully the red liquid didn't seem to be spreading any further than what it had touched. It will also take at least eight hours for the PHARM module to repair that much damage to Seo-jun's suit.

As Gem cradles Seo-jun's head in her lap, as he drifts in and out of consciousness, she looks up at those jagged weeping walls covered in blood and her whole demeanor hardens with a resolve that reaches to the very depths of the Earth itself.

| Substratum Protocol by Pandion Games.

[solobeegames]

The Team

Gem met her team four months into the events after the Anomaly burst from Earth's core and changed the world forever. Neither of them knew one another before this and they were selected by the powers that be as the best of the best. It was a small team, but exceptional in their chosen fields of expertise - expertise that the Substratum Protocol and the world was now counting on to stem the apocalypse. They are as follows:

Professor Kim Seo-jun. He was the youngest professor at Yale and is one of the most prestigious mathematicians in the world. His shy and scatterbrained demeanor may not inspire confidence, but watch him calculate formulas and solve problems, and you will quickly realize you are in a presence of a genius. It was rumored that before the Anomaly, he had been secretly working for the FBI. He neither confirms nor denies this fact, but he is certainly a powerful asset for the SP team!

Travis Ramsey. A striking, hulking figure with translucent white skin and covered all over in bright orange, red hair, Ramsey is an exceptional engineer. He has done impressive work for NASA, and is the patent owner of more than a dozen new technologies. Give him a screwdriver, duct tape, and a thick cigar, and he can create, fix, jury-rig anything! He prefers to work freelance - and he is difficult to work with, being extremely arrogant and brash, but he is honest. His self-confidence, fearlessness, and talents will be invaluable to the SP team.

Dr. Archibald Vincent. Logical, level-headed, cool as a cucumber, Dr. Vincent comes to the team with much prestige. He is the most internationally celebrated and famous geologist - having worked with more than two dozen countries and has lead countless geology exhibitions and has spoken at a myriad of conventions. (He speaks more than seven languages himself!) He is an original and founding member of the Substratum Protocol and was actually on the continent when the Anomaly occurred. This made him one of the first responders to the catastrophe and he has already lost several colleagues to the Anomaly. This makes him the most emotionally compromised in the group, but his expertise is too invaluable to exclude him from this exhibition. A tall, wiry-framed middle-aged man with a boyish complexion and almost feminine demeanor, his deep, brown eyes contain multitudes.

| The Substratum Protocol by Pandion Games

[solobeegames]

The Anomaly

She was neck deep in data, two months out from Project THEOPHANY's launch, when the Anomaly occurred. It didn't come from the sky, but from a great rumbling in the bowels of the Earth. Massive earthquakes throughout the world announced its arrival. And with it the end of the world.

Dr. Gemini ("Gem" to her colleagues) was taken away from her passion project and life long dream of exploring new worlds, and was swept up into the chaotic and nightmarish months that followed. Cities collapsed, governments raged, and the socio-economic systems of the world were thrown into apocalyptical extremes. Everyone truly believed that human civilization was done for right then and there, but after the initial shock and cataclysmic events, there was a calming period - like the eye of a storm - where human ingenuity and perseverance was able to gather together the best and the brightest to understand what had just broken the world. The Substratum Protocol was one of such initiatives.

The Substratum Protocol had already been set in motion many years before the Anomaly arrived in the event that an emergency subterranean expedition was ever needed. So they had the man power and resources to respond immediately, and that was how the Fracture Observatory was built. In the heart of the South American rainforests this massive structure housed the largest collection of scientists and engineers in the world. They were able to study and observe the Anomaly up close and personal through the sixteen hundred kilometer fracture that manifested in that area, all this with the intention of understanding the Anomaly and somehow preventing it from completely destroying the Earth.

Gem, like most people, was not aware of this initiative, and even when it was announced to a trembling and vulnerable world what they intended to do, she was not involved in the settling of the Fracture Observatory. The indomitable Dr. Gemini was indispensable to her country, the United States, and she was influential in helping Washington and the President to get ahead of this thing and make sure the populace could reach equilibrium faster. The impact of the Anomaly was devastating, but Gem's calm resourcefulness and no-nonsense tenacity lessened the impact of the fall out. This keenness of spirit and strength of mind was what inevitably brought her to the attention of the Substratum Protocol initiative, and why they chose her to be the leader of the first ever exhibition team down into the center of the Earth and to the heart of the Anomaly.

Gem had always dreamed of discovering new life on other planets, but instead by a dreadful twist of fate she was about to find it within very center of the Earth. And instead of the discovery being celebrated as a marvelous gift and nurtured through the growth of knowledge, she would have to eradicate and destroy whatever she found there in the deep recesses of the earth. This broke her heart, but she took that emotion and kept it locked deep in the center of her own being. She had a job to do, and Dr. Aurora Gemini, astrophysicist and project director of more than a dozen successful scientific missions, did not accept failure as an option.

| Substratum Protocol by Pandion Games