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[Nov. 25th, 2009|07:30 pm] |
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| The Great Beyond: A Science Fiction Storyline |
In 1973 the largest of more than 140 subglacial lakes was found under the surface of Antarctica. In 1996 Russian and Brittish scientists began integrating a variety of data, including airborne ice-penetrating radar imaging observations and spaceborne radar imaging. The site is located beneath Russia's Vostok Station, 13,000 feet under the surface of the central Antarctic ice sheet, within the Australian Antarctic Territory. Similar to Lake Ontario in size, it is divided into two deep basins by a ridge. Research conducted by Russian scientist Ian Toskovoi--who vanished near the Vostok station in March of 2000--on "geothermal upboiling" hinted at an alternative means of purification and replenishment for the subterranean lake's atmosphere. Toskovoi's geothermal upboils were located in the so-called "ice dunes," which appeared to have been formed by thousands of bubbles of air in the ice, measuring between several feet and several hundred feet in diameter.
In the year 2003 it was determind that the lake was within the largest stabalized air pocket ever discovered, and because of this stable environment, life could plausibly be sustained within the bubble "dome", and the lake. This lake is now called Lake Vostoc, and in May of 2005 an island was decovered in the center of it.
In late 2006 a privately funded internationally-acquired team of scientists gained control of Vostok Station and began their preperation for an exploration of the dome, researching and collecting further data on the environment while pinpointing landing sites on the isle of Vostok. By the year 2008 a team had been designated for descent, with a secondary team maintaining contact and collecting data, while steering the ship via remote, at the hub of Russia's Vostok Station. The exploratory team dubbed Delta I, and the research oriented team Delta II.
Early in October of 2009 the Delta I crew began it's gradual decent towards the island. Each member secured within a designated Hypersleep Chamber for the duration of the descent, their bodies medicated and manipulated by the mechanisms within the chamber, to ready them for exposure to the oxygen rich environment and it's differing magnetic pull. Believing it to be just shy of two months later, the members of Delta I have successfully landed and been awoken, only to find themselves in a very different world. A world where dinosaurs exsist alongside primates and primatives. A dangerous arena they had severly underestimated, with magnetic feilds unlike any they'd experienced elsewhere.
They have lost contact with Delta II, and are unable to coordinate their ascent safely. Until contact is reestablished, they remain stuck, lost within The Great Beyond.
... But for these explorers, not everything is as it seems.
On October 5th of 2009 the Delta I crew, along with their ship, The Nomad, were set into a chiseled canal on the surface of the central Antarctic ice sheet. With thermal radiators coating the bottom of their cylindrical vessel, slowly the ice was heated. Melting as they gradually descended, speed was increased once they had made it safely several hundred feet below the surface. With the increase of speed and heat an unexpected amount of gas, air and energy was released as they obliterated numberous small "bubbles" or "pockets" of the vapors. As a result of this building noxious pressure there were numerous explosions at the point of entry, many members of Delta II being injured or killed by the first several eruptions.
The Delta I crew went unphased as they descended, while those still on the surface dealt with severe political reprocussions. Rumors surfacing after a leak of satallite data reached the media, and control of command at the Vostok Station was taken from the private investors by the American Government, after the facility had been flagged as a "Global Security Threat". The descent was stalled just a few hundred feet outside of the dome for a stretch of two and a half months while political war was raged and speulations ran rampent amongst the media. Eventually with the disproving of "falsified" evidence, The Nomad was reprogrammed and reactivated, continuing their decent and breaking through the ice barrier into the new world after a three month long delay.
During the reactivation the ship gained the desired speed just before breaking into an undetected air pocket of several hundred feet in diameter. The ship rocketed into the empty bubble and began to tumble as it fell through; eventually hitting the other side of the icey pocket, and breaking through while in said tumble. Ice meteors were propelled with them, into the dome.
While the small ice meteors plumetted without control- down to the island and the water surrounding it, -the ship continued to be controlled by members of Delta II. Wings similar to that of a small plane were unveiled as the ship plummeted through the air. Stabalizing just before being landed a mile off shore, within the jungle. The Nomad was then temporarily excommunicated and put on lock down, while up on the surface control over the Delta II team was being forcefully occupied by a squad of American military trained scientists.
Essentially creating a hype and subsequent cover-up bigger than that of Area 51, by the time rumors had been disproven successfully it was nearly Feburary, and the end of the summer season. To protect the eco system within the dome, the canal that had been melted away by the Nomad had to be insulated and locked down. Trapping the Delta I crew down below for the extent of the oncoming winter season. Furthermore, it is as-of-yet unknown to the Delta I team that they had been infultrated early on by several military-based spies. Cadets who had been posing as scientists for the extent of the project, feeding information to the American government and ensuring the eventual take over would be successful, whether or not it needbe hostile.
As it remains, at the surface, the Delta II team is stranded at the base until it is safe for them and their sister-team to be deported, at which point the American Government's buy-out will be complete. Below the surface, the Delta I team has just been woken. They do not know the date, but have assumed it to be late November, while it is in truth nearly April. The covert Soldier's on the ship have taken them hostage, not allowing them to leave the ship or collect the research they had intended to.
They have begun planning their escape, into the wild of the Great Beyond, not yet knowing the horror or the greatness of what awaits them. |
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