where you think you're going | Glowfic Constellation

"I'll try it."

Lengthy pause.

"You seem to be right."

from_scratch

"Yeah. Probably applies to drones trying to talk to my computer too. So I'll go through and if I don't come back and say something in... two hours... assume something's gone awry?"

slash-of-gold

"Agreed."

from_scratch

"Here goes."

Cam wraps himself in stun shield and guns the engine for the portal. He may or may not briefly turn off the communication devices so that he can produce a ridiculous war cry in the process without being overheard.

The Enemy spots him in short order and starts trying very, very hard to shoot him down.

from_scratch

Well, the ship's unprotected, he was mostly using it for momentum. Does momentum work in this weird physics sphere? WHEEEEEE.

Momentum works fine.

His ship is obliterated fairly quickly, though, and the concentrated force blasts put a serious dent in his momentum. The heat of all that fire also melts his shield-suit. Cam himself is of course as indestructible as ever.

from_scratch

He replaces suit bits as necessary. Adds a layer of force shields. Adds a jetpack. Zoom.

Successive layers of shielding are melted, shattered, or otherwise wrecked. Cam approaches the portal in an expanding cloud of diamond shards and molten metal.

But approach it he does.

The Enemy retreats, eventually.

from_scratch

Once he's close enough to get a good look at what they're shooting at him with he shreds it, interpolating it with air.

Some of the weapons thusly treated just fall apart; others violently explode, taking out what's left of the rearguard.

from_scratch

Whoops. Maybe next time he'll bubble them in something first.

Well, regardless of how it happened, the portal is now unguarded and he can cross it unopposed.

from_scratch

Lovely.

Rather Truman Show, this.

Hop.

On the other side is... a very recently-abandoned industrial complex of some kind, situated in an open field under an unnervingly low sky. If he cares to look, it's reasonably obvious how the aliens were constructing their ships here to be passed through the portal in pieces and then assembled on the other side. The portal itself was extremely well-guarded until just now, but there are no aliens left.

from_scratch

Huh.

Cam takes to the air, takes pictures, disintegrates industrial complex bits, and looks for where the aliens may have scurried off to.

It's a good thing he took pictures, because as soon as he gets the wrong industrial-complex bit, it violently explodes, and this causes other parts of the complex to violently explode, and a few minutes later when everything is done violently exploding, the dust settles and the entire interior of this smallish Sphere has been almost completely scoured of objects. There's just a layer of bedrock left at the very bottom.

Luckily, Cam can fly, and the lack of anything else whatsoever makes it really easy to spot the two other portals available. Presumably the aliens went through one of those.

from_scratch

Presumably! Cam picks one and sticks his head through.

Someone shoots at it.

from_scratch

Of course someone does! That's promising. Cam hauls the rest of the way through, takes a few pictures, disintegrates weapons.

This Sphere is larger and differently decorated, full of weird stringy sculptures that hold up surprisingly well when things start violently exploding.

from_scratch

Cam wonders if they're made of Real Physics or Actual Substances, but doesn't let this wondering distract him too much from indirectly blowing shit up. These aliens are really fond of their self-destruct mechanisms.

Aren't they just.

Soon this Sphere is empty of everything but weird art and portals. There are five, this time, counting the one he came in through.

from_scratch

Cam is going to need to make a map. He starts a map. He goes back and sticks his head through the other fork out of Ex-Industrial-Park.