thisavrou | VIDEO; BACKDATED FEB 20TH [mid-storm breakthrough]

[The video, marked as recording from Shepard's public network ID, cuts in suddenly, with little ceremony. Moving with the person it's attached to, but otherwise stable, it shows several helpful readouts along the bottom: temperature, length, time, date. It's clear from the timestamp that this feed had been previously recording—and has only just switched to live broadcast.

The scene viewers tuning in are greeted with is, effectively, Avagi's worst nightmare realized. Metal, flaked and cracked, scatters through a hallway which is filled—or filling—with the chaotic rush of the storm from the space beyond, howling with a familiar hungry emptiness. The noise sandblasts the recording with a static scream, void tearing at the edges of human hearing.

And there, barely visible for a blurry beat or more in the middle of it all, is a thin, terrifying figure, dark and drawn. For a minute, it seems to focus its impossibly vacant eyes on you—but that's impossible, you're on the other end of a recording device—before it seems as if the horrifying storm was merely playing tricks on you. That there was never anything there at all.

(Or perhaps, it's simply somewhere else.)

Despite the storm's raging, on all sides of the recording, movement can be seen, sounds heard; people are making an effort to pull bodies back, away from the storm. Various skills and abilities can be seen on display, as people attempt to repel the storm, push it back for long enough to retreat—including a dome of blue energy, seeming to originate from the near-shakycam holder herself. Competing with the volume of the grating storm, Shepard's barking orders can just be heard, in a tone that brooked no arguments:]

Ingress memorial! Fall back! NOW!

[Whatever steady hand was present prior is sacrificed entirely for movement speed, camera swinging left and right as Shepard sweeps, clears, and makes for the door. It's not until the door is closed, locked, and securely sealed that there's a beat, an exhale, and a refocusing of the camera—on an Ingress memorial full of trapped Avagi residents.]

[ooc note: both home and away team, feel free to jump into any and all threads to answer questions, or ask some of your own!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Oh, gods.

The deja-vu settles in, heavy and horrifying. Nihlus doesn't let himself be caught in it. ]

Shepard. [ Despite the steel calm he tries to level his voice out into, there's still an anxious edge to his words. ] What happened?

[ Oh, he can guess. But clarification never hurt and there was nothing else he could think to ask right now that wasn't personal. ]

[There's a lengthy pause before she responds back, as if she's collecting her own thoughts. Finally:]

The storm broke through.

[It hardly needed further explanation.]

[ The sound of the storm screaming through the ACE tore him right out of zazen, and sent him scrambling for the device. What was that in the messy dark, a quick smear of skeleton teeth and empty eyes?

Flynn's breath hitches. He coughs into the crook of his arm, a wet noise thick in his throat. ]

Shepard.

[ Centered, calm- panic helps no one, least of all in a crisis. ]

What's going on? Are there any injured?

[The camera swings back around as she adjusts it, and nods once in acknowledgement before speaking.]

Definitely some injuries. Possibly casualties. We're assessing the situation right now.

As for what—that was the storm from outside. Looks like it finally found a path inside.

[The ramifications of which hardly needed further explanation.]

If you can, get a crew together to double back and check on the path we took over here as quickly and safely as possible, in containment suits if anyone has them. No exposure of any of the senses as much as possible. If it's hit our dead end, it's definitely heading back in the other direction.

Ok. Uh. Fuck.

[ There is the sound of people running, and snippets of confused and frightened conversations, but nothing distinct. The image is classic found-footage shaky cam of a dim, smokey hallway. When Kelly Ann talks, her tone is consciously projecting calm over a very clear undercurrent of fear. She's holding herself together, at least. ]

Hey, Shepard? And the rest of you? Like. Ok that storm or whatever? It got in here. Magneto stopped it, but...

[ The camera pans to Erik, lying face-down on the floor some yards away, on the other side of a blast door. There is no other evidence of the storm that had invaded that part of the deck. ]

He's definitely not conscious. He might be dead? Do you guys know what the fuck just happened?

[It's a crisis situation, and that demanded calm, rational response. Cool heads, literally, prevailed. But confirmation of the storm flowing backwards into Avagi proper has her barely containing a a string of swears. Instead, she runs a hand over her face, disguising her brief second of frustration and helplessness.]

The only thing we know for sure is that the storm broke through over here. Was hoping you all would have a little bit more time. [Damn, damn.]

See if you can get him to the med bay—the simulation storm only stole feeling, not life completely. [As she says it, it sounds stupid. The hell would a simulation of a pared-down disaster help? But it was all they had to go by, for the moment.]

Did everyone else manage to get out of the way?

That shit was moving really fast. I think he managed to stop most of it? And when he said run everybody ran because... I mean he sounded pretty serious.

[ She knows that some people on that station are friends with the guy, but he always gave Kelly Ann the creeps and she wasn't about to argue when he told her to go somewhere else.

She peers through the window again. ]

It looks like the storm is mostly cleared out? Is it even a storm? I mean it like. Moved like it was... thinking?

[ Focus. ]

Anyway, yeah, I'm pretty sure everybody else got out of the way and I'll see about getting him to Med Bay.

[ She waves at somebody off screen to come help her. ]

[The chaos of the video makes Yori wince; she suspects it's Shepard's best effort at warning them all, in case she can't send anything better, and that isn't a good sign. Yori is optimistic enough to respond, though she does it in text to avoid distracting anyone at a bad moment. The away team will find some way to defend themselves. They've got to.]

Details when you have time?

[It's all too obvious that Shepard and Rinzler and everyone else have a big problem. Not to mention the problems already challenging those left behind. She'll watch the video several more times, looking for useful data, looking for signs of hope, looking for Rinzler.]

It's the storm—that's as much as I know for now. We've got some injuries, potentially casualties. We'll see how this pans out. I'm not giving up yet.

I've got a few readings off it, for all the good that will do. I can send those through.

How is it on your end? I heard it got all the way back.

[His nerves are greatly unsettled as he watches. The idea of terrors in space are hardly foreign to him, the topic covered extensively even in the science fiction of his youth, but this? Something so unknown, a foreign entity threatening their lives even as the empty, cold nothing of space looms behind. There’s been nothing so unforgiving in the bounds of Earth that he’s ever experience. He can only imagine the horror and dread.

He realizes there's no sense returning contact immediately. The situation is dire; they must protect themselves first, be safe enough to respond at all. He waits a few minutes before recording his response. ]

Shepard. Or whoever. What’s the situation? [A pause as he rethinks his wording.] When you’re free. I—

... Be safe.

[The pause is appreciated. There's a few more beats before the message is returned, by video, and in person.]

James. Situation's as under control as it's getting, for the moment. Storm broke through a wall, from the looks of it—and came through to both of our sides. As for safety, well...

[She gives a gesture at the surroundings, such as they are. Dusty, dirty cots, remnants of refugees from long before. Tarnished remains of desperation.]

We're doing our best. No one's giving up. We've got enough people here that we'll be able to figure something out.

WHAF T DOE S FALL BACK M EAN????

OUT of the storm, BEHIND the locked and sealed door.

Why are you texting?

[wait]

Where are you?

I DON T KNOW

[Wherever he is, he's trying not to scream while he's there.]

[She's already on her feet by the time she's finished responding to him, waiting for his response, hustling through the room full of away team, looking to see if there was anywhere else he could be.

No dice.]

Are you in the storm? Can you describe what you see?

[Sorry Shepard. If he talks, he's dead. He's so sure of it. So incredibly sure -- if he makes a sound, he's dead or worse.]

[So he just keeps typing.]

N O I DONT KNOW JUST its really dark ok

[... because he's in a storage closet.]

VIDEO; BACKDATED FEB 20TH [mid-storm breakthrough]

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