Poem: "The Bones of Truth"
Jul. 16th, 2014 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem was written outside the prompt calls, filling the "desperate" square in my 5-22-14 card for the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
origfic_bingo fest. It has been sponsored by technoshaman. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.
WARNING: This poem includes intense topics, and some of the warnings are spoilers; highlight to read. Be prepared for mass fatalities, EVERY LIVING THING in the radius is dead, heroes arriving too late to do anything but analyze what happened, war parallels, disturbing scene details, existential horror, and the aftermath of heroic sacrifice. Oh, and the villain is dead in a corner too. Not recommended for reading shortly before bed. Please consider your tastes and headspace before deciding whether to read further.
"The Bones of Truth"
All they knew, at first,
was that the Mandible had
taken over an island research facility,
intending to use germ warfare
to wipe out humanity
and that he had, somehow, been stopped.
Granny Whammy herself led the team
to find out what really happened,
her chest glittering with braid and metal
in case diplomacy was needed.
Once the Analyst confirmed that
she could detect no biohazards,
they all disembarked, with Stonewall
shielding them behind his massive form.
Skeletons lay strewn about the tarmac,
mute sign of the Mandible's terrible power.
The whole area was eerily silent.
Granny Whammy could read the signs
of a desperate battle in the scattered guns
and overturned vehicles, fires long since cooled.
Sunlight glinted on spent shell casings.
Indoors they found more skeletons
but also bodies whole and untouched.
"Death field," the Analyst murmured
as she twiddled with her instruments.
"That isn't the Mandible's power,"
Granny Whammy said,
"or at least it wasn't."
"I would suspect a failsafe,"
the Analyst said with a nod, "meant to
terminate everyone on the island
in case of a violent takeover,
to thwart plans like the Mandible's."
A death ray could be converted
into a sort of bomb with a field effect.
Granny Whammy hadn't seen that
since World War II, and she had
hoped never to see it again.
Silently she removed her helmet
and bowed her head in a moment of respect,
then put it back on and marched forward.
"Blood trail," Granny Whammy said,
pointing toward a spatter of red
that turned into a widening swath.
"That heads toward the control room,"
the Analyst said, showing them on her map.
"Let's follow it," Granny Whammy said,
leading her team deeper into the building.
They almost didn't recognize the Mandible
when they found him, because his trademark glow
had been extinguished, his corpse lying in shadow.
"Looks like someone finally got the bastard,"
Stonewall said. "I wonder who it was."
"Him," Granny Whammy said, pointing
to a skeleton draped over a control board,
phalanges still clasping a switch.
"He was a brave man. He saved the world."
"She," the Analyst said quietly.
"What?" Granny Whammy said.
"Look at the pelvic girdle," the Analyst said.
"That was a woman. Based on their positions,
the Mandible killed her as she activated the failsafe."
"She was a brave woman. She saved the world,"
Granny Whammy said. From her uniform
she detached a Purple Heart and a Medal of Valor,
then lay them reverently inside the ribcage.
After a long moment of silence,
the team moved onward, documenting
what the unknown hera had accomplished.
* * *
The Mandible (Harvey Williams) -- His body is average height and build, but he has no hair left; his nose and genitals were also smoothed away in the transformation. His lower jaw is enlarged and thrust forward, making it difficult for him to speak clearly.
Origin: He snuck through a fence in pursuit of fossils, not knowing that secret weapons testing was about to commence. Struck by a beam of unknown origin, his body transformed into a skeletal horror. He can open his mouth and emit a greenish beam that destroys soft tissue but leaves the skeleton intact. It also tends to dissolve organic fabric, although it leaves some synthetics alone.
Uniform: None. He goes nude. His soft tissues are dark and translucent, like smoky quartz, and his bones glow a lurid greenish white.
Qualities: Master (+6) Intelligence, Master (+6) Plans, Expert (+4) Intimidation, Good (+2) Dinosaur Fan, Good (+2) Gambler, Good (+2) Tough
Poor (-2) Hates Scientists
Powers: Good (+2) Flensing Beam
Average (0) Minions: The Knucklebones have seven named lieutenants and many nameless goons. Two of the lieutenants and about two hundred goons are killed alongside their leader.
Motivation: "The world is corrupt. You'll see! Someday I'll kill you all!"
The Analyst (Josephine Turner) -- She is average height and full-figured. She keeps her blonde hair cut short for convenience. Her father is a policeman; her mother is a librarian. Her childhood role model was Velma from Scooby-Doo, who also could not see without her glasses but did not let that stop her from solving mysteries. Now she works for SPOON, specializing in the analysis of incidents involving superpowers.
Origin: Her powers grew in slowly over time.
Uniform: She dresses in a version of the SPOON uniform with lots of pockets in her pants and vest, plus a toolbelt
Qualities: Expert (+4) Deduction, Expert (+4) Know-It-All, Good (+2) Determination, Good (+2) Dexterity, Good (+2) Friends on the Force
Poor (-2) Runner
Powers: Expert (+4) Super-Gizmology, Expert (+4) Super-Intellect
Expert (+4) Spic-n-Spanner: a portable super-gizmo with a vast array of scanning and analytical equipment.
Good (+2) Utility Belt: a compact way to carry many ordinary tools and small super-gizmos, thus ensuring she usually has the right tool for the job. Any job.
Vulnerability: Her eyesight is so bad that she is legally blind without her glasses. Her combat glasses have an elastic strap, and her everyday glasses have a jeweled chain, to reduce the chance of losing them.
Motivation: To find out what happened.
Stonewall (Aaron Jackson) -- Originally he was a black man with dark curly hair and brown eyes. Now he is about eight feet tall, and very bulky, three feet wide at the shoulders. His body is sandstone, primarily chocolate with swirls of caramel and red ochre. Unfortunately he has only two fingers and a thumb on each hand, which contributes to his poor dexterity. He smokes, and one of his habits is striking matches against his skin. ("Yeah, I know, I'm a shitty role model. Deal with it.")
Origin: A rock fell on him while he was exploring the southwest desert. He lay trapped beneath it for days, periodically trying different ways to get loose, without success. Slowly his body began to transform, taking on the characteristics of the nearby stone. As his size and shape changed, so did the balance of the boulder atop him, and eventually he managed to roll it off. By the time he made it back to civilization, he was a fully formed rock-man.
Uniform: Brown dexflan, similar to a weightlifting singlet.
Qualities: Master (+6) Strength, Good (+2) Campfire Tales, Good (+2) Loyalty, Good (+2) Survival Skills
Poor (-2) Dexterity
Powers: Good (+2) Invulnerability, Good (+2) Super-Armor, Good (+2) Super-Endurance
Motivation: To keep people safe.
* * *
The Sterbenfeld device, whose name literally means "death field," was a German invention during World War II. It's what the Axis powers were working on instead of an atomic bomb. They never got the killing field that wide, but they did make a very effective tool for killing every living thing within its radius, without affecting anything else. It is profoundly creepy in a way that's difficult to specify. Here it was used as a type of doomsday device or self-destruct mechanism. Mainstream media uses these all the time, but they almost never work exactly as intended; here it did. The result is that everybody's dead and the island is too quiet, both signs that some serious shit went down.
Self-sacrifice raises interesting ethical questions. Here we have a heroic sacrifice resulting in a mutual kill. By someone who almost certainly was not a superhero or even supernary, just an ordinary person determined to stop one of the truly batshit crazy supervillains from getting his hands on lethal goods.
Sexing skeletons is possible based on bone structure and other signs, and even has a scale of certainty. To be told at a glance, this skeleton probably belonged to a wide-hipped woman.
Sometimes soldiers will hand off their own medals as a show of respect. The Purple Heart goes to people wounded or killed in action. The Medal of Valor comes in multiple flavors, all relating to heroism.
origfic_bingo fest. It has been sponsored by technoshaman. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.WARNING: This poem includes intense topics, and some of the warnings are spoilers; highlight to read. Be prepared for mass fatalities, EVERY LIVING THING in the radius is dead, heroes arriving too late to do anything but analyze what happened, war parallels, disturbing scene details, existential horror, and the aftermath of heroic sacrifice. Oh, and the villain is dead in a corner too. Not recommended for reading shortly before bed. Please consider your tastes and headspace before deciding whether to read further.
"The Bones of Truth"
All they knew, at first,
was that the Mandible had
taken over an island research facility,
intending to use germ warfare
to wipe out humanity
and that he had, somehow, been stopped.
Granny Whammy herself led the team
to find out what really happened,
her chest glittering with braid and metal
in case diplomacy was needed.
Once the Analyst confirmed that
she could detect no biohazards,
they all disembarked, with Stonewall
shielding them behind his massive form.
Skeletons lay strewn about the tarmac,
mute sign of the Mandible's terrible power.
The whole area was eerily silent.
Granny Whammy could read the signs
of a desperate battle in the scattered guns
and overturned vehicles, fires long since cooled.
Sunlight glinted on spent shell casings.
Indoors they found more skeletons
but also bodies whole and untouched.
"Death field," the Analyst murmured
as she twiddled with her instruments.
"That isn't the Mandible's power,"
Granny Whammy said,
"or at least it wasn't."
"I would suspect a failsafe,"
the Analyst said with a nod, "meant to
terminate everyone on the island
in case of a violent takeover,
to thwart plans like the Mandible's."
A death ray could be converted
into a sort of bomb with a field effect.
Granny Whammy hadn't seen that
since World War II, and she had
hoped never to see it again.
Silently she removed her helmet
and bowed her head in a moment of respect,
then put it back on and marched forward.
"Blood trail," Granny Whammy said,
pointing toward a spatter of red
that turned into a widening swath.
"That heads toward the control room,"
the Analyst said, showing them on her map.
"Let's follow it," Granny Whammy said,
leading her team deeper into the building.
They almost didn't recognize the Mandible
when they found him, because his trademark glow
had been extinguished, his corpse lying in shadow.
"Looks like someone finally got the bastard,"
Stonewall said. "I wonder who it was."
"Him," Granny Whammy said, pointing
to a skeleton draped over a control board,
phalanges still clasping a switch.
"He was a brave man. He saved the world."
"She," the Analyst said quietly.
"What?" Granny Whammy said.
"Look at the pelvic girdle," the Analyst said.
"That was a woman. Based on their positions,
the Mandible killed her as she activated the failsafe."
"She was a brave woman. She saved the world,"
Granny Whammy said. From her uniform
she detached a Purple Heart and a Medal of Valor,
then lay them reverently inside the ribcage.
After a long moment of silence,
the team moved onward, documenting
what the unknown hera had accomplished.
* * *
The Mandible (Harvey Williams) -- His body is average height and build, but he has no hair left; his nose and genitals were also smoothed away in the transformation. His lower jaw is enlarged and thrust forward, making it difficult for him to speak clearly.
Origin: He snuck through a fence in pursuit of fossils, not knowing that secret weapons testing was about to commence. Struck by a beam of unknown origin, his body transformed into a skeletal horror. He can open his mouth and emit a greenish beam that destroys soft tissue but leaves the skeleton intact. It also tends to dissolve organic fabric, although it leaves some synthetics alone.
Uniform: None. He goes nude. His soft tissues are dark and translucent, like smoky quartz, and his bones glow a lurid greenish white.
Qualities: Master (+6) Intelligence, Master (+6) Plans, Expert (+4) Intimidation, Good (+2) Dinosaur Fan, Good (+2) Gambler, Good (+2) Tough
Poor (-2) Hates Scientists
Powers: Good (+2) Flensing Beam
Average (0) Minions: The Knucklebones have seven named lieutenants and many nameless goons. Two of the lieutenants and about two hundred goons are killed alongside their leader.
Motivation: "The world is corrupt. You'll see! Someday I'll kill you all!"
The Analyst (Josephine Turner) -- She is average height and full-figured. She keeps her blonde hair cut short for convenience. Her father is a policeman; her mother is a librarian. Her childhood role model was Velma from Scooby-Doo, who also could not see without her glasses but did not let that stop her from solving mysteries. Now she works for SPOON, specializing in the analysis of incidents involving superpowers.
Origin: Her powers grew in slowly over time.
Uniform: She dresses in a version of the SPOON uniform with lots of pockets in her pants and vest, plus a toolbelt
Qualities: Expert (+4) Deduction, Expert (+4) Know-It-All, Good (+2) Determination, Good (+2) Dexterity, Good (+2) Friends on the Force
Poor (-2) Runner
Powers: Expert (+4) Super-Gizmology, Expert (+4) Super-Intellect
Expert (+4) Spic-n-Spanner: a portable super-gizmo with a vast array of scanning and analytical equipment.
Good (+2) Utility Belt: a compact way to carry many ordinary tools and small super-gizmos, thus ensuring she usually has the right tool for the job. Any job.
Vulnerability: Her eyesight is so bad that she is legally blind without her glasses. Her combat glasses have an elastic strap, and her everyday glasses have a jeweled chain, to reduce the chance of losing them.
Motivation: To find out what happened.
Stonewall (Aaron Jackson) -- Originally he was a black man with dark curly hair and brown eyes. Now he is about eight feet tall, and very bulky, three feet wide at the shoulders. His body is sandstone, primarily chocolate with swirls of caramel and red ochre. Unfortunately he has only two fingers and a thumb on each hand, which contributes to his poor dexterity. He smokes, and one of his habits is striking matches against his skin. ("Yeah, I know, I'm a shitty role model. Deal with it.")
Origin: A rock fell on him while he was exploring the southwest desert. He lay trapped beneath it for days, periodically trying different ways to get loose, without success. Slowly his body began to transform, taking on the characteristics of the nearby stone. As his size and shape changed, so did the balance of the boulder atop him, and eventually he managed to roll it off. By the time he made it back to civilization, he was a fully formed rock-man.
Uniform: Brown dexflan, similar to a weightlifting singlet.
Qualities: Master (+6) Strength, Good (+2) Campfire Tales, Good (+2) Loyalty, Good (+2) Survival Skills
Poor (-2) Dexterity
Powers: Good (+2) Invulnerability, Good (+2) Super-Armor, Good (+2) Super-Endurance
Motivation: To keep people safe.
* * *
The Sterbenfeld device, whose name literally means "death field," was a German invention during World War II. It's what the Axis powers were working on instead of an atomic bomb. They never got the killing field that wide, but they did make a very effective tool for killing every living thing within its radius, without affecting anything else. It is profoundly creepy in a way that's difficult to specify. Here it was used as a type of doomsday device or self-destruct mechanism. Mainstream media uses these all the time, but they almost never work exactly as intended; here it did. The result is that everybody's dead and the island is too quiet, both signs that some serious shit went down.
Self-sacrifice raises interesting ethical questions. Here we have a heroic sacrifice resulting in a mutual kill. By someone who almost certainly was not a superhero or even supernary, just an ordinary person determined to stop one of the truly batshit crazy supervillains from getting his hands on lethal goods.
Sexing skeletons is possible based on bone structure and other signs, and even has a scale of certainty. To be told at a glance, this skeleton probably belonged to a wide-hipped woman.
Sometimes soldiers will hand off their own medals as a show of respect. The Purple Heart goes to people wounded or killed in action. The Medal of Valor comes in multiple flavors, all relating to heroism.
Shocking, dark, and thought-provoking
Date: 2014-07-16 11:15 pm (UTC)Dark, because so many people are portrayed as mere skeletal set dressing. That disturbs me in this universe, because it's NOT commonly done, unlike Marvel (where nobody bothers to point out how many people died when the stadium went for a walk) or in DC, where it's hovering at the line of 'gore porn' almost by default. This... is far more effectively done.
Thought provoking, because I wonder if anyone escaped the field, or if the field interacted with non-mammalian life. Does it kill plants, too? How low on the 'life' scale? Yeast? Etc. You see where I'm heading; yet another incident with very, very unpredictable consequences.
Sometimes, all someone has is the /hope/ that they've done the right thing. She was a hero.
Re: Shocking, dark, and thought-provoking
Date: 2014-07-17 12:07 am (UTC)Because that installation had something that the Mandible wanted and thought (mistakenly) he could get. He underestimated not just the caliber of material defenses -- he probably didn't know they had the Sterbenfeld because it's not the kind of thing people admit to having -- but also the quality of personnel.
Most supervillains have a consistent motive, even the headcases. The Mandible was really into creating mass casualties. So despite the collateral losses, everyone's going to be glad that he's gone. A lot of supervillains are into power, or money, or attention. These are reasons why they hit population centers. But if they're after things then that's more often a base attack -- they're going to hit someone else's lair or lab or vehicl -- which are often in more isolated locations. Villains put theirs out of reach for paranoia; good people do it to cut down the risk to innocent bystanders.
>> Dark, because so many people are portrayed as mere skeletal set dressing. That disturbs me in this universe, because it's NOT commonly done, unlike Marvel (where nobody bothers to point out how many people died when the stadium went for a walk) or in DC, where it's hovering at the line of 'gore porn' almost by default. This... is far more effectively done. <<
Yaaaaayyyyyy! My hypothesis has proved out, thank you for the confirmation. I believe that if you make everything the same, it loses its effectiveness. If every female character dresses and acts like a slut, then you can't really run a femme fatale effectively because they're all doing that. If there are bodies scattered all over the place, people get numb to it. But if those things are not common, then they have more impact. It has been literally about 70 years since Granny Whammy put her boots on the ground after a Sterbenfeld event. There may have been a few others go off in that time, but not much.
>> Thought provoking, because I wonder if anyone escaped the field, <<
No.
>> or if the field interacted with non-mammalian life. <<
Yes.
>> Does it kill plants, too? How low on the 'life' scale? Yeast? Etc. <<
It kills EVERY LIVING THING. Mammals, reptiles, plants, mold, bacteria, the whole shebang. You know what's really creepy? Three-day-old corpses that haven't rotted because the entire detritus foodweb is dead and hasn't recolonized yet. This isn't a physical-damage weapon; it doesn't so much kill as cause to cease living. It severs the life energy from the body. It's one of the few things that can kill a soup with Regeneration, although it tends not to affect Immortality (which typically makes for an uncuttable life thread).
You can see why Dr. Infanta has nightmares about things like this. And Granny Whammy isn't going to be sleeping through the night for a while.
In fact, a leading reason why people are even still working with death energy at all is because they'd like to figure out how to use it for sterilizing things. But they haven't been able to make it small enough or safe enough for that, and besides, it's so disturbing that most people refuse to have anything to do with it. The researchers in this area are the kind of people who grow up poking dead things with sticks.
>> You see where I'm heading; yet another incident with very, very unpredictable consequences. <<
Yes, I do. But if you're working with extremely dangerous microbes, it is rational and responsible to have a way of making SURE they can't get loose and wreak havoc.
>> Sometimes, all someone has is the /hope/ that they've done the right thing. She was a hero. <<
Sooth.
Re: Shocking, dark, and thought-provoking
Date: 2014-07-17 12:59 am (UTC)Shudder.
Gah. Now /I/ might not sleep tonight!
Even with the potential to kill things like Ebola and the so-called superbugs...No. Just. NO. How deeply is the soil affected? You know it's completely sterilized now?
Talk about salting the earth!
Even MORE 'no'.
Re: Shocking, dark, and thought-provoking
Date: 2014-07-17 01:24 am (UTC)Shudder. <<
Well, it WAS invented by Nazis. They were batshit crazy fucktards. Of course, as with the first hydrogen bomb, they had no way of knowing it wouldn't obliterate all life on Earth. They were just "pretty sure" it would stop somewhere. And they did it anyway.
>> Gah. Now /I/ might not sleep tonight! <<
Sorry. I went back and put warnings on this one.
>> Even with the potential to kill things like Ebola and the so-called superbugs...No. Just. NO. <<
Yeah, this may be the rare case where it really is possible to kill everything. Unless something has Immortality. I don't think I'd consider that justification for using it. I mean, what if something went wrong with the damn thing? The use to which it was put here is just about the only halfway-reasonable one I can think of.
>> How deeply is the soil affected? <<
Not very. It's a planar field, not a globe. Might have some upward curve in the center? It would wipe out at least the top foot of earth, which is most or all of the topsoil and ground life in most regions. I doubt it would go much deeper. Well, unless you set it off below ground to kill bunkers.
>> You know it's completely sterilized now? <<
Yep.
>> Talk about salting the earth! <<
Unlike salt, this is temporary. The physical structures are fine. There is some kind of lingering sensation for a few days but it doesn't seem to cause any detectable harm. You could plant things and they'd grow.
The Nazis were trying to make it permanent (remember, bugfuck idiots) but never did figure out how. Fortunately.
>> Even MORE 'no'. <<
Yeah. Even supervillains mostly agree on that point.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-07-17 12:43 am (UTC)and as an aside, although we don't have anything quite like the Sterbenfeld device, [thankfully] some really serious bio-containment labs have something like a 'gamma bomb' [specifically a sub-critical fission impulse device designed to produce gamma rays] or megawatt X-ray generator intended to do pretty much exactly that job. Kill everything within a specific radius.
Oh..and that's one nasty superpower Mandible had...and one very brave woman.
containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-17 01:01 am (UTC)Now I'm creeped out by wondering what kind of biohazards are IN that facility.
Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-17 01:20 am (UTC)Put it this way.. things like ebola and the reconstructed 1918 flu [and smallpox if they had it] are contained in a category 5 containment facility.. this, this is the sort of thing they use for cat 7 labs.
Whatever it is, it's serious shit... and very, very classified.
Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-17 01:42 am (UTC)Let me ask the most pertinent question, rather than fuss around looking for a more precise definition-- Things within half a mile or so go directly to the afterlife of their choice, do not pass 'go,' do not collect cancerous cells and genetic damage?
Or more like a souped-up hydrogen bomb? Smaller bomb, larger and more immediately lethal blast of radiation? BUT, given a certain distance past the main pulse, survivors may have genetic effects?
I'm not even going to /begin/ to theorize about what could be /so/ dangerous, or volatile, as to warrant that kind of response, beyond half-jokingly suggesting that the "black oil" from the X-Files seems like a good candidate.
Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-17 10:34 am (UTC)Which is basically how a gamma bomb works. You have a sub-critical mass of plutonium or uranium, so that when you smack them together it don't quite explode... but it does produce a chain reaction generating an intense neutron burst [lasting several tens of seconds before it burns itself out]. This you wrap in a couple of feet of plastic, water and lithium so the neutrons then produce a hailstorm of secondary radiation, mostly gamma and some x-ray...
You are correct insofar as the edges of 'blast' are non-lethal but damaging. However, this is electromagnetic radiation not particle radiation. Basically, it'll fry stuff up to a point, after which it drops off sharply [inverse square law] so the area of affect goes from lethal to damaging to non-lethal fairly sharply... typically under a 100 feet or so.
Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-17 07:01 pm (UTC)That makes sense. It's like knapping flint. You wind up with a fucking mess of flakes everywhere.
>> [it's named after what happens to the inside surface of armour when you fire a shell at it, even if it doesn't penetrate, it blasts stuff off the other side.] <<
Which is one reason why depleted uranium is a problem.
>> Basically, it'll fry stuff up to a point, after which it drops off sharply [inverse square law] so the area of affect goes from lethal to damaging to non-lethal fairly sharply... typically under a 100 feet or so. <<
That's convenient.
Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-18 01:44 am (UTC)Thanks for the explanation.
Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-17 02:06 am (UTC)Also, wouldn't the shielding on-site be layered? A sandwich of high-density material like lead with a low-density material like Plexiglas or water in between, to help offset both the initial radiation and the bremsstrahlung radiation? Would sheets of flowing, circulated water, like sheet fountains, be more effective than pipes? Or are we talking several feet of water between layers of lead?
I've no idea, just tossing off questions as they occur to me, as this is the first time I've met this concept.
Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-17 10:40 am (UTC)Actually, I'm not sure why they bothered with shielding.. given that the facility is located somewhere very isolated. [the actual location of course is classified, probably to stop madmen trying to break in.] I'd presume there's more to the facility, support staff etc, outside the death zone.
Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-17 06:10 pm (UTC)Possibly to control the size or shape of the blast radius to desired parameters.
Far as I know, the Sterbenfeld device doesn't have shielding. It goes through everything. It's possible that someone would have a way of shielding against it that hasn't been tested for lack of access; there are many more superpowers now than when it was invented. But it's an instant effect, so you'd have to know it was coming and get the shield up in advance to test the premise.
Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-18 01:45 am (UTC)Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-17 04:32 am (UTC)Fascinating.
>> Put it this way.. things like ebola and the reconstructed 1918 flu [and smallpox if they had it] are contained in a category 5 containment facility.. this, this is the sort of thing they use for cat 7 labs. <<
This is the first I've heard of that scale even going past 5.
>> Whatever it is, it's serious shit... and very, very classified. <<
So presumably, bioweapons. That's nice. They've made things two ranks worse than stuff that already had potential to wipe out humanity if things went wrong enough. I swear, some days I think the whole damn species is actively trying for a Darwin Award.
Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-17 10:49 am (UTC)Cat 5 is pandemic stuff, kills lots of people but not threatening on a species level. Cat 6 probably deals with bioweapons etc.. cat 7 is supposed to deal with things that could cause extinction level events. But even the existence of such labs is classified, no-one will confirm nor deny that they've been built much less where and why.
Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-17 06:59 pm (UTC)Oh yes. I remember that one. I rolled my eyes, said "GREEN goo. That's brilliant," and moved on.
>> Cat 5 is pandemic stuff, kills lots of people but not threatening on a species level. <<
*sigh* It requires a little extrapolation to get why this level could tank humanity. First, people aren't as well adapted to pandemics as they used to be; the population has lost much of its biological and social resilience. We've developed a bad habit of living close to the edge of fault tolerance in terms of social function. A bad plague could very easily destabilize sociopolitical function. Then it would be a matter of squabbles turning into wars. And there's a ton of stuff going in the technosphere all the time that requires constant expert maintenance not to boil over; lose even a small percentage of that and you have a huge problem very quickly, as has been described in several of the "future without us" scenarios. A plague needn't kill every last human, just as a bomb needed destroy a whole building, if it hits the load-bearing columns.
>> Cat 6 probably deals with bioweapons etc.. cat 7 is supposed to deal with things that could cause extinction level events. <<
Alongside global warming. Whee.
>> But even the existence of such labs is classified, no-one will confirm nor deny that they've been built much less where and why. <<
In the absence of transparency, I tend to assume the worst and double or triple the damage estimate. Even I underestimated the fallout from Deepwater Horizon by a factor of about 10. So I'll just assume that somebody is poking at things that could sterilize the planet.
*sigh* I should probably tinker with my emergency backup spell. Right now it's really only set to jumpstart the environment if humanity wipes itself out. Having an extra layer in case life needs to be relaunched from component particles would also seem prudent.
Re: containment procedure
Date: 2014-07-17 01:37 am (UTC)Yes.
>> It isn't likely to affect an area larger than the facility, right? <<
Correct. They set it to cover the whole island, which is not all that big. It can be as small as a building; they've been used as security for labs before.
The Germans tried to get the blast radius as wide as possible, but just couldn't stretch it far enough to do what they wanted. They were so fucked up, I don't think they realized the sheer horror factor of it. I mean these are the morally bankrupt guys who invented deathcamps. They just didn't feel the same way about it as a normal person would. Most of the action was either testing, setting them on enemy army bases, or scorched earth at the end of the war. They only ever had a few of the things. But I suspect if the Nazis could have snuck one into London and Paris, that would've had the same effect as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It's not always about size.
>> And they're not going to deploy it for something as banal as smallpox, either.
Now I'm creeped out by wondering what kind of biohazards are IN that facility. <<
Smallpox probably was one of the things in there. Don't let it fool you. It is utterly deadly, and that was before we lit up the biosphere with radiation and chemicals. Also consider things like HIV, ebola, anthrax, influenza, and black plague. Danger factors include things that spread easily, spread fast, are prone to mutating, and/or have a high cripple or kill rate. And then consider that sometimes people try to weaponize germs, so there are probably some of those as well. You can't stop what you don't understand, so study is required; but the damn things are still extremely hazardous. Hence the failsafe.
Thank you!
Date: 2014-07-17 05:13 am (UTC)I'm glad that worked.
>> and as an aside, although we don't have anything quite like the Sterbenfeld device, [thankfully] some really serious bio-containment labs have something like a 'gamma bomb' [specifically a sub-critical fission impulse device designed to produce gamma rays] or megawatt X-ray generator intended to do pretty much exactly that job. Kill everything within a specific radius. <<
Useful to know; thanks for sharing.
>> Oh..and that's one nasty superpower Mandible had... <<
True. In effect, it's the same as any other "death ray" type power; it changes people from being alive to being dead. But the nature of it is different and disturbing.
>> and one very brave woman. <<
Agreed.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-07-17 01:02 am (UTC)(shakes head) Whoof!
That's a powerful story.
Thank you!
Date: 2014-07-17 01:13 am (UTC)Ack, I forgot to put warnings on it! That's fixed now.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2014-07-17 01:47 am (UTC)I know it seems incongruous that I'm asking all kinds of questions about /real/ containment, for a /theoretical/ breach, but I can COPE with that just fine.
That visceral, gut-punch 'DEAD down to MICROBE levels' in the story ITSELF warrants the warning, though. That's what's going to make me want to lift weights until I can't any longer, before trying to sleep.
Putting a warning on it isn't overreacting, because it's the /shock/ and /horror/ that merits the warning, not the procedure alone, at least in my opinion.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2014-07-17 07:08 am (UTC)Usually I remember to add those before posting, but this time I was running behind and forgot. Then the "oh shit" messages started arriving, and I realized that I had better go fix that.
>> I know it seems incongruous that I'm asking all kinds of questions about /real/ containment, for a /theoretical/ breach, but I can COPE with that just fine. <<
No, it makes perfect sense to me.
>> That visceral, gut-punch 'DEAD down to MICROBE levels' in the story ITSELF warrants the warning, though. <<
I'm glad that aspect carried through so clearly ...
>> That's what's going to make me want to lift weights until I can't any longer, before trying to sleep. <<
... though I'm sorry if you lose sleep over it.
>> Putting a warning on it isn't overreacting, because it's the /shock/ and /horror/ that merits the warning, not the procedure alone, at least in my opinion. <<
I don't write a lot of horror, but when I do, it tends to spook people for real. Blood and guts, meh. I'm more likely to go for things that create a real sense of wrongness.
In many ways, Terramagne is a nicer place to live. The ugly parts of it are profoundly disturbing, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-07-17 03:08 pm (UTC)It took a moment for it to sink in that the bodies hadn't decayed, because there was nothing to cause them to decay, and then another moment to wonder how long that field effect lasted, that nothing has recolonized them yet. Sure, bacteria creeping across a surface are slow, but the wind blows. Granny Whammy is a brave woman, to walk back into that.
Thank you!
Date: 2014-07-17 06:27 pm (UTC)I am honored. I appreciate the feedback.
>> It took a moment for it to sink in that the bodies hadn't decayed, because there was nothing to cause them to decay, <<
Exactly. The first time somebody fired this weapon, it took them a while to figure out what was happening and why.
>> and then another moment to wonder how long that field effect lasted, <<
Not very. It comes and goes quickly. It does leave some kind of energy residue which is profoundly unnerving, but that does no known harm and fades within a few days. It's kind of like how a lighting strike leaves a smell of ozone.
>> that nothing has recolonized them yet. Sure, bacteria creeping across a surface are slow, but the wind blows. <<
Remember, this happened on an island, which is isolated precisely because it had bad things on it. As with a volcanic eruption, it will be recolonized eventually, but that's going to take time. Wind and ocean currents will bring new life, as you extrapolate.
However, decay in a human body begins from inside. That's why they bloat. All that stuff is as dead as the meat around it. Those organisms are far less prone to floating on air or water. Of course, when the SPOON team arrived, they brought with them vast invisible clouds of microlife, they're breathing out bacteria, etc. That will help restore the microbe population of the island. But they're going to zip up the corpses in body bags and take them away before anything has time to decay.
Now in a terrestrial strike, there is no such moat. The wind replaces aerial microbes pretty fast. But the bodies still decay very slowly, because the internal flora are gone, and the external sources of decay are delayed. Animals tend to avoid ground zero for a few days. Insects return before mammals, but even there, little is left to attract them: the blood will have dried, so the "signals" that tell the detritus food chain it has a job to do are wrong. They have to stumble across the corpses.
>> Granny Whammy is a brave woman, to walk back into that. <<
Agreed. I think one reason she did was so that someone else wouldn't have to. She'd already seen the aftermath of Sterbenfeld disruption in the war, so flashback potential aside, she was better prepared to deal with it. They didn't know for sure what had happened on the island, but they suspected this or something similar. Better for someone to go who is familiar with the sight of a battleground.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2014-07-21 09:51 pm (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2014-07-21 10:07 pm (UTC)impressions of starkness
Date: 2016-10-12 06:10 am (UTC)You succeeded brilliantly with this piece. It probably helps that I have memories of driving around our metro area in mid-December 2006, after the windstorm that took out ALL the
powerelectricity in a 20+ mile radius. Some areas were withoutpowerelectricity for a week or more. Seeing miles and miles of human habitations all dark, with nobody on the streets, was unsettling in a way I'll never forget.>> The first time somebody fired this weapon, it took them a while to figure out what was happening and why. <<
SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT! *THIS* wasn't the first time?! *shudder*
Part of me wants to ask, and another part does *not* want to know. Gonna go with the latter on this.
My favorite part of the poem is when Granny Whammy took off her Purple Heart and Medal of Valor and put them *inside* the corpse of the (as yet) unknown hera. The solemnity of the gesture, and the weight of meaning to it, really impressed me.
I'm wondering, *will* we ever find out the name of that hera? Somebody *somewhere* must have personnel records for the facility; they should at least be able to narrow it down to a handful of people, right? I can see how they might not be able to identify the exact person, if whatever that lethal device was obliterated all the DNA along with the soft tissue.
Overall, I find the piece... sobering, but not disturbing or devastating. Perhaps my life experience "buffers" me in ways that others don't have the benefit of.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-07-17 05:06 pm (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2014-07-17 06:32 pm (UTC)I believe Stonewall is working for SPOON as a free agent rather than on dedicated assignment, so he's available as security for analytical excursions or combat where they need the protection.
This was interesting
Date: 2016-11-04 01:02 am (UTC)Because now you also have my brain going "wait what?! Their guts would begin being a bit soupy at least internally not from the presence of bacteria but because of the intestinal enzymes and acids related to digestion...peptids, -lases, HCl, and the like are only buffered by the constant work of the mucosal lining producing mucous that keeps those compounds from digesting the tissues they are produced by (the failure or death of those mucous producing cells can be a cause of very painful peptic ulcers in some people) so without the mucous production, eventually those digestive juices would begin the process of breaking down the tissues from the inside....
resulting in ick. Even in the presence of sterility...
Unless the Field has the ability to denature enzymes as well as rip the ATP production process apart (nearly every living thing uses ATP processes for cellular energy from blue whales to plants to fungi to single celled bacteria...cut that off at the pass and...well. Dead. Everything Is Dead.) Which is a scarier thought.
Because if you've figured out how to halt ATP production or usage in an instant...that is some Serious Shit.
Re: This was interesting
Date: 2016-11-04 04:23 am (UTC)Yep.
>> Because now you also have my brain going "wait what?! Their guts would begin being a bit soupy at least internally not from the presence of bacteria but because of the intestinal enzymes and acids related to digestion...peptids, -lases, HCl, and the like are only buffered by the constant work of the mucosal lining producing mucous that keeps those compounds from digesting the tissues they are produced by (the failure or death of those mucous producing cells can be a cause of very painful peptic ulcers in some people) so without the mucous production, eventually those digestive juices would begin the process of breaking down the tissues from the inside.... <<
What I know is that the Sterbenfeld device kills everything within its range and severs the connection between spirit and body. Bodies do not decompose at normal speed. This correlates to some (rather creepy) tests that have been done using various types of radiation to sterilize bodies for preservation. 0_o There is still some mechanical and chemical breakdown of tissues, if they're left long enough, even without recolonization. But it really doesn't look normal, it's obviously creepy -- there's a lingering resonance for a few days that discourages animals or insects from approaching, and humans don't like it either. It doesn't seem harmful but it's about as much fun as wading through a pit of cockroaches. So there may be some effects on other things that usually happen. I don't know if it would actually destroy cell processes or tamper with chemical composition of acids, but I wouldn't rule it out without close examination. The bodies have no visible cause of death, though. They just drop.
*ponder* Ashley's superpowers span venom and Sterbenfeld-like effects. And at point-blank range they do dissolve things and have weird effects on chemistry. So it's not impossible.
>>Unless the Field has the ability to denature enzymes as well as rip the ATP production process apart (nearly every living thing uses ATP processes for cellular energy from blue whales to plants to fungi to single celled bacteria...cut that off at the pass and...well. Dead. Everything Is Dead.) Which is a scarier thought.<<
Possibly?
I've seen an author kill every living thing on Earth -- TWICE -- and keep going without noticing. I can only assume there was a severe need to put beans-on-table as fast as possible. Even if you allow aliens to change the laws of physics, if you 1) make electricity stop working, and 2) make gas expansion/compression stop working, then 3) nerves and lungs don't work anymore, and the whole biosphere is doornail.
>>Because if you've figured out how to halt ATP production or usage in an instant...that is some Serious Shit. <<
That might be a collateral effect. The Sterbenfeld cuts the relation between material and immaterial. So if ATP is one of the universal attachment points, and you yank out the soul, that could get damaged. But there's no obvious physical damage until the bodies start breaking down, either from mechanical or reintroduced biological means. Freshly killed, it looks like they just stopped.
Re: This was interesting
Date: 2016-11-07 04:08 am (UTC)the comment about Ashley makes me wonder if someone at SPAZMAT is about ready to vibrate out of their clothes with the excitement of that possibility, Ashley utilizing her powers for things like guaranteed Total Sterilization (since if you can develop a material that withstands the venom cloud, I think even friggin PRIONS would be eradicated, and that would make any scientist/biologist/medical professional worth their salt absolutely SALIVATE since prions are the only known biological contaminants at the moment which cannot be destroyed by traditional autoclaving technique...they're an enzymatic protein which denature any tissue they target and transform the building blocks of that tissue into more of themselves
O_O IS CHAYNE A FRIGGIN ZECTECTIC PRION?!?!?! SCARY STUFF THAT THOUGHT!
Re: This was interesting
Date: 2016-11-07 05:11 am (UTC)Yes, it is.
>> the comment about Ashley makes me wonder if someone at SPAZMAT is about ready to vibrate out of their clothes with the excitement of that possibility, Ashley utilizing her powers for things like guaranteed Total Sterilization <<
:D They are now that they've seen what she did to the abandoned park. SPAZMAT is working on plans for Ashley to practice with her powers in some of their trouble spots. That will give her opportunities to develop more control, and to use her powers in positive ways. With a little luck, there's a bayou that will quit producing mutant crabs every time it floods.
>> (since if you can develop a material that withstands the venom cloud, I think even friggin PRIONS would be eradicated, and that would make any scientist/biologist/medical professional worth their salt absolutely SALIVATE since prions are the only known biological contaminants at the moment which cannot be destroyed by traditional autoclaving technique...they're an enzymatic protein which denature any tissue they target and transform the building blocks of that tissue into more of themselves <<
Yeah, prions are even more of a pain than viruses. Thinking about Ashley's superpowers work, they degrade even many inorganic materials at close range. So they ought to destroy prions, but ask
>> O_O IS CHAYNE A FRIGGIN ZECTECTIC PRION?!?!?! SCARY STUFF THAT THOUGHT! <<
No, chayne is nanotech, a version of gray goo which is limited to spreading through flesh. It can't "jump" from one victim to another through air or across inorganic materials such as pavement. It can only spread through direct contact. That's about the only good thing about it.