Terror from the Deep: Atlantis Invaded!

[telerib]

Adam Archer, doing his best "International Man of Mystery" impersonation, intrigued the consulate secretary sufficiently for her to meet him after work. He spun a hush-hush story of the Greenland buyer being a potential international criminal - indeed, one of the masterminds behind the flying discs a few months ago! Miss O'Shea was very eager indeed to help stop this possible threat to her country, and to keep the Danes out of what would be a very embarrassing international incident, if it came out that they unintentionally collaborated with such a person! She promised to dig up what she could, and queer the deal as much as possible. The buyer, "Mr. Smith," had only been communicating via telegraph and telephone to iron out the details of the purchase. The transaction was to take place in Denmark in a few weeks. Also, he'd been particularly interested in a single spot within the property, and she passed those coordinates along.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group staked out a bank, to wait for the metal men. And they obligingly showed up! The group took advantage of the robots' meager intellect, waiting until three of the four were in the vault, loading up on gold. Max Carnent heaved the last one in, and Phineas slammed the vault door shut behind them. Dr. Olsson called the cops for a pickup, with large guns. Case closed?

Not quite. Reg wanted to track the robots to their lair, so there was a motion before the board to allow the robots out, so they could be scent-marked and let loose.

• One robot had its eyes taken out by Phineas, so it started stumbling blindly through the streets. The waiting NYPD hosed it down with BFGs until the thing stopped moving.
  
• Max wrestled (!) another robot into submission, twisting various limbs so that they couldn't move.
  
• After a lot of marginal attempts, Phineas finally managed to throw some knives hard enough to wedge them into the leg joints, immobilizing another one.
  
• Reg smashed a bottle of peppermint oil on the body of the fourth, and it was allowed to retreat to the sewers.
  

Where was Dr. Olsson for all this? Why, heading back to the Smythe-Worthington Building at top speed, because Chief Robot #1 had radioed to inform Her Majesty, Queen Kar'Ree'Na of Atlantis, that "Lemurian Bottomwalkers, v2.0" had been seen walking Atlantean streets and attempting to remove equipment! What should they do about these intruders? The queen's orders were to prevent the removal of any equipment, and stop the invaders!

En route, Chief Robot reported that an organic intruder was also spotted; that one was ordered to be captured. When the group arrived at the sunken city via the underground monorail, they found things in an uneasy equilibrium. Atlantean robots were successful in blocking the Lemurian Bottomwalkers from their goals, but the other robots were still mobile. And the "man," in some sort of diving suit, had been captured.

The "Lemurian Bottomwalkers" were the same robots that had been robbing the NYC banks!

Dr. Olsson ordered her robots to destroy all but five of the Lemurian 'bots, and to hold the remaining five. Then attention was turned to the captive.

Through the dive helmet, the group could make out some vague chirping and popping noises. A close look through the diving helmet revealed that the captive wasn't human! Chief Robot indicated that this was an "emergency contingency-modified Lemurian" and offered to translate. Through this medium, the interview took place. The captive, very aware of his vulnerable state, was very prompt with his replies.

It seemed that the Lemurian contingency plans for the cataclysm didn't go off exactly as planned, and the modified Lemurians had only fairly recently been active. They had thought Atlantis was abandoned, and so had come here to scavenge for equipment and tools to refurbish their decayed captial. The captive was very surprised to see who he thought were Atlanteans and was curious to know why they were still here. He professed to know nothing about the gold robberies. He mentioned a Lemurian colony of a few hundred nearby, and that he'd come in a ship of some sort. He suggested that, despite old rivalries between the empires of Lemuria and Atlantis, a new common bond could be forged in this new world.

Max and Phineas went out in an Atlantean sub to look for this ship. They found it - along with more Lemurians and Bottomwalkers! THe Lemurians, surprised to see the sub and perhaps thinking it part of an automated defense system, scattered for cover while the dim Bottomwalkers watched. The pair in the sub decided this had to be reported, and returned to Atlantis.

Adam kept the captive talking while Dr. Olsson scrambled for Atlantean records. Cataclysm? Emergency-contingency? It turned out that, an ice age or two ago, when more water was locked into the polar ice caps, sea levels were low enough that the lands of Atlantis and Lemuria were above sea level. As the ice age ended, sea levels started rising! The Lemurians planned physical modifications to their race to allow them to survive underwater.

Goodwill gestures were made on both sides, with Dr. Olsson giving the Lemurian some of the non-essential, non-weapons-grade equipment he needed. He in turn promised to send a powerful radio transmitter, now useless to the water-dwelling Lemurians, which the Atlanteans might use to contact "their brethren," who Adam had said they had been unable to contact thus far. He would also bring communications devices by which the two parties might conduct further talks, and promised to bring their request that attacks against surface targets be stopped to the Ptah, the Lemurian ruler. He and his surviving five Bottomwalkers were then released.

Invasion repulsed, the group took a collective breath. The sudden appearance of these relics from Atlantis's past spawned a new curiosity in the group, and Reg asked a robot what the great columns outside the city dome were. He'd always wondered why the dome didn't include them, after all. The robot replied that they were launch towers! "What for?" Reg asked. "Lifepods," the robot answered. Here, then, was the Atlantean emergency contingency plan! But where did the lifepods go?

Apparently, to the fourth planet from the sun!