02-28-2014, 06:45 AM
Garrett woke up from a sound sleep with alarms blaring and red lights flashing intermittently. At first, he thought that the Temple of the Damned was under attack. Who would be stupid enough to try that, he asked himself. Visions of militant Zoners flashed in his mind.
Nah, that can't be it.
He pulled himself out of bed quickly, and he heard a splash as his feet hit the floor.
What in the world...
His entire bedroom was flooded clear up to his ankles. He checked to see if his waterbed had sprung a leak.
Nope.
Confused, he hurriedly dressed himself, trying to keep as dry as possible. Where did all this water come from? He was distressed to discover that the water level was slowly rising. Meanwhile, the alarms continued their deafening call, adding even more stress to his already frayed nerves.
He opened the door to get knocked over by an even greater wave of water from the corridor. Panic started to creep its way into his mind. Where is all this water coming from, he wondered? There shouldn't be this much water in the entire Temple. None of this made any sense.
With water now up to his waist, he slowly waded toward the one place where he could find some answers, Central Command. Maybe there would be another Admin there that could enlighten him as to what was going on.
Surprisingly, Garrett found Central Command abandoned. The water was now up to his chest. If he didn't find some way to stop this water from rising, he was going to drown. Swallowing down his fear, he approached a terminal and started to run system diagnostics.
The monitor flickered on, the display highlighting the schematic of the entire Temple with danger zones flashing in red. Garrett noticed there was a lot of red, nearly the entire Temple.
He pushed a few more buttons to see if he could isolate the source of the water. Immediately, the monitor responded and displayed a broken water main, gushing out water at an alarming rate.
"That can't be right," Garrett said, aloud. There was no way the main could be driving out water of that magnitude. It should have ran dry long ago.
A thought suddenly occurred to him. Wait a minute. He tasted the water. It was sweet. This was not water after all. These were Zoner tears.
He thought back to a recent Dev decision to take away many of the Zoner capital ships.
Oh Crap! he thought. That Dev decision and the resulting wave of Zoner misery was going to kill him. What could he do?
He tried to reverse the flow. No success. The force of the tears was too great.
He tried to activate the bilge pumps. That too, failed. The automated systems were shorted out.
Garrett was at a loss as to what to do. Drowning was quickly becoming a reality. There was no way to stop the tears from flowing. There was only one option left. He had to find someway to redirect the flow.
He quickly hammered away at the keyboard, hoping that the automated systems would last long enough to redirect the main to the proper connection. He watched and prayed as he observed the main line shift from its original location and reconnect to an adjacent line.
Immediately, the tears stopped rising and the bilge pumps came online. Garrett activated the bilge pumps and proceeded to direct all Zoner tears through the new line. He breathed a huge sigh of relief. The tears were receding. Within minutes, the mighty bilge pumps did their work and nearly all traces of Zoner tears were gone.
He watched the Temple schematic on the monitor as it slowly changed from red to yellow to green. The alarm finally stopped blaring and the emergency lights returned to normal. I can finally get some sleep, Garrett thought. I need to get out of these wet clothes. He looked at the monitor one more time and made certain that all Zoner tears were redirected to the right place.
Garrett smiled. All was back to normal again.
Nah, that can't be it.
He pulled himself out of bed quickly, and he heard a splash as his feet hit the floor.
What in the world...
His entire bedroom was flooded clear up to his ankles. He checked to see if his waterbed had sprung a leak.
Nope.
Confused, he hurriedly dressed himself, trying to keep as dry as possible. Where did all this water come from? He was distressed to discover that the water level was slowly rising. Meanwhile, the alarms continued their deafening call, adding even more stress to his already frayed nerves.
He opened the door to get knocked over by an even greater wave of water from the corridor. Panic started to creep its way into his mind. Where is all this water coming from, he wondered? There shouldn't be this much water in the entire Temple. None of this made any sense.
With water now up to his waist, he slowly waded toward the one place where he could find some answers, Central Command. Maybe there would be another Admin there that could enlighten him as to what was going on.
Surprisingly, Garrett found Central Command abandoned. The water was now up to his chest. If he didn't find some way to stop this water from rising, he was going to drown. Swallowing down his fear, he approached a terminal and started to run system diagnostics.
The monitor flickered on, the display highlighting the schematic of the entire Temple with danger zones flashing in red. Garrett noticed there was a lot of red, nearly the entire Temple.
He pushed a few more buttons to see if he could isolate the source of the water. Immediately, the monitor responded and displayed a broken water main, gushing out water at an alarming rate.
"That can't be right," Garrett said, aloud. There was no way the main could be driving out water of that magnitude. It should have ran dry long ago.
A thought suddenly occurred to him. Wait a minute. He tasted the water. It was sweet. This was not water after all. These were Zoner tears.
He thought back to a recent Dev decision to take away many of the Zoner capital ships.
Oh Crap! he thought. That Dev decision and the resulting wave of Zoner misery was going to kill him. What could he do?
He tried to reverse the flow. No success. The force of the tears was too great.
He tried to activate the bilge pumps. That too, failed. The automated systems were shorted out.
Garrett was at a loss as to what to do. Drowning was quickly becoming a reality. There was no way to stop the tears from flowing. There was only one option left. He had to find someway to redirect the flow.
He quickly hammered away at the keyboard, hoping that the automated systems would last long enough to redirect the main to the proper connection. He watched and prayed as he observed the main line shift from its original location and reconnect to an adjacent line.
Immediately, the tears stopped rising and the bilge pumps came online. Garrett activated the bilge pumps and proceeded to direct all Zoner tears through the new line. He breathed a huge sigh of relief. The tears were receding. Within minutes, the mighty bilge pumps did their work and nearly all traces of Zoner tears were gone.
He watched the Temple schematic on the monitor as it slowly changed from red to yellow to green. The alarm finally stopped blaring and the emergency lights returned to normal. I can finally get some sleep, Garrett thought. I need to get out of these wet clothes. He looked at the monitor one more time and made certain that all Zoner tears were redirected to the right place.
Garrett smiled. All was back to normal again.