Primal Encounters

Stepping Over the Threshold

Decker wakes up the following morning, gets dressed and heads for the mess hall. He walks in to find the rest of the group sitting at a table at the far end. Decker walks over to the self-serve bar. He finds an array of breakfast foods, everything from eggs to oatmeal and everything in-between. He pours himself a bowl of plain oatmeal, pours a cup of black coffee and walks over to where the rest of the group is eating. He sits down next to Dr. Smith and greets him.

"Morning doc." Decker says before taking a mouthful of oatmeal.

"Good morning." He cheerfully replies. "How did you sleep?"

"Fine. You?" Decker replies.

"It took me awhile; I am just so excited. This is every paleontologist's dream, to go back in time and directly observe what we have done nothing but speculate on."

"Well, be sure to take lots of notes."

"Oh, you can be sure of that."

Decker takes a drink from his coffee, then looks at the group. He then notices Prendergast walk in the room, then he starts heading for the group.

"Morning everybody. I just wanted to let you know that final suit up will be at 11:30 pm. Level 2 at the Lab for the scientists, and level 3 at the armory for security. Decker, you will suit up with security."

Everybody nods in acknowledgment. Decker looks at the clock, its 8 am. He's got 3 and a half hours to kill. "Good thing I brought a book." He thinks to himself.

Prendergast walks away. Everybody has finished their breakfast and are putting away the trays. Decker puts his away and begins walking to his Guest Quarters, with the rest of the group following suit.

Three hours later, Decker walks into the Armory. Tobias and Rygard haven't shown up yet. Decker sees a long table in the middle of the room, with all kinds of tactical gear. Decker walks up to the right end where he sees three tactical vests and belts. Assuming this is the spot to begin, he grabs one and puts it on. He hears the door open, and Tobias and Rygard walk in. They see where Decker is and they do the same, starting with their tactical vest and moving along down the table. The next item are spare Beretta 380 clips. He grabs 3 and puts them in the pouches on the left side of his tactical belt. Then he sees a set of K-Bar knives, he straps one to his belt. Moving along the table, the next items are flashbang grenades. Decker takes a few and stashes them on his vest. Then he sees a set of pouches, three that look like they are supposed to hold spare p90 mags, and three to hold spare shotgun rounds. Decker takes the latter and straps them onto his vest. Next are three field medical kits. Decker puts it in a pouch on the back of his vest. Last, but not least are three canteens. He puts one on the back of his belt. Decker waits for Tobias and Rygard to finish gearing up. Decker then notices that somebody is waiting at the entrance. Once the others are finished, the man opens the door.

"I will take you to the portal room." The man says gesturing for them to come out into the hallway.

He leads them to the elevator and presses a button with a sphere logo on it. The elevator immediately goes down. It goes so far that Decker figures that they must be underground. Once the door opens, decker sees an enormous room. He first notices all the three Tacoma's and the Predator 6.6 RV all lined up. He then notices that at the far end there is a giant machine, it looks like a big generator. Along the top there are half exposed coils. There are a series of round gears along the side. At the front there is what looks like a giant circular fan. There is a long thick cable running from the machine to a giant ring in the center of the room.  Their guide then takes them to the center of the room, by the giant ring. The rest of the group is already standing there. Prendergast dramatically clears his throat to get everyone's attention.