NationStates Jolt Archive

Years ago, the final battle against the Dark Armies of the Red Dragon took place in the orbital space over Kershaw IV. With the aid of many allies, and the force of several hundred of the Galaxy's most powerful weapons, alongside the power of several saints, the Dark Army was crippled, and the Red Dragon was bound forever, along with her demonic minions.

Since then, salvage operations have scowered the battlefield, scrounging through alien technologies, looking for anything that could sell big on the interstellar markets. Once in a while, a ship would find something of great power, or maybe an alien cloaking device.

But for one civillian salvage vessel, a Capsule Corporation Patriach class cargo ship, something in this demonic graveyard was looking for them.

A distress beacon was sent, but lasted only a few moments, before the entire crew was mysteriously killed off, and the ship floated adrift in the graveyard, alongside many other cold ships.

But something was still very much alive inside this ship.

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/ghostpatri.jpg

A single prowler class Hydra began it's aproach towards the Patriach class cargo ship. "CC ship this the the prowler Star Strike. Are you in need of asistance?" was the message that was sent over and over as the ships smaller class B AI grew tired of the repeditive task. "How much longer till we are along side the cargo ship?" the captian asked his helmsman as he paced across the bridge slightly unnerving the bridge crew. "About ten minutes sir," he replied as he looked through the port side window on the bridge and shuddered at the massive hulks drifting lifeless. "Sire may I speak freely?" the first officer said as she aproched her captain. "Go ahead comander. Whats on your mind?" "It's this grave yard. I swear we are being watched." "It's nothing this was the site of a massive battle several years before," he replied as he pulled a small pipe from his coat and stuck the end in his mouth not lighting it.
"Sir the calculations were wrong and we are beisde it now," the helms man said as he broke the silence. The prowler began moving into postion for a hard dock with the cargo ship.

The dead ship's AI and power core seem to be the only things online right now... almost everything else in the entire ship is off... dead off... energyless.

There is absolutely no detectable damage to the outside of the hull... no sign of a breach, or an attack. The ship's Information AI switches on the communication array and responds to the Hydra.

The AI's female avatar, modified in appearance by some civillian technician to look like a very attractive blonde 'dream girl', appears on the Hydra's main viewer. But something seemed wrong... she appeared almost.. scared.

"Thanks for answering my distress call! I am the Information AI for the civillian salvage vessel Jacob. You may call me Krys." She shifted her eyes around, still looking scared. "You have to help... my crew is dead... all 36 of them. Something went wrong, and I had to really try hard to get this communication out... Please, you have to save me and find out what happened to my crew! Hurry! He'll shut me off any second n--"

The transmission cut off there.. but a single light flickered on over a starboard forward airlock.

"Jesus...," the firs tofficer muttered in shock. In all of this a single man had entered the bridge. "Captain," he suddenly said as the captain almost jumped and hit the roof of the bridge. "Jesus soldire don't f*cking do that," he replied still alittle shocked. "I saw the AI there it was scared sh*tless. If you want my team can board the ship remove the AI core while you contact some officals," the man replied with a slight smirk. "Fine but you only get thirty then you get back ASAP." At that point the mans smirk grew to a disturbing grin and he quickly turned and ran to the doors.
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Only 15 minutes later a group of elites were suited in there sleak black combat armor standing over the airlock each holding new prototype pulse rifles. The Hydra's door retracted and it was right over the Jacob's airlock. They quickly began atempting to open it.

As the Hydra docks, several locking arms extend from the Jacob, and lock the ship securely to the salvage vessel. The doorlock controls activate and await commands from the Hydra's crew.

Just inside the door, a holographic projection of the Info Avatar, Krys, waits to greet them, using her tactile force field to carry a very ...civillian... Gauss Shotgun.

"Ok boys hit it," the squad leader said as one of the deckhands in the area began to open the door as the Elites hit the safties off of there weapons. "This had better not be a bloody milk run," one of the muttered as he checked his power system for his rifle.

Inside, the primary lights were completely off, and all the computer panels were blank... only a few emergency battery-powered lights dimly lit the bulkheads every 20 or 30 meters. A flashlight was attached to Krys' shotgun, along with a portable Holoemitter and remote computer terminal... the clever girl actually downloaded her avatar, along with her AI personality, into the gun!

She held her weapon in a somewhat alert position, and let out a smile of relief as the boarding crew entered the ship.

"Hello, my name is Krys, the Information avatar onboard the Jacob. Here's the sitch. Something took over all the other AIs on board... the Mechanical AI, as well as all the Robotic Personnel. I'm on an independant system, so I was able to survive. And if somehow it manages to take over my databanks, I'm preserving myself here," she says tapping the small PDA attached to the weapon. "My crew is all dead, and no one ever detected any lifesigns... all of a sudden the ship's systems and the Artificial Personnel began attacking the crew! So now I'm the only one left... We need to find out what is controlling this ship... and to do that, we need to start with the source, the Mechanical AI. I suggest we make our way down to the engineering decks, on the other side of the ship. We'll have to take service tubes, as everything mechanical is shut down. Gravity might not work in some areas, and if I were you, I certainly would not trust the environmental and life support systems."

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/krys.jpg

Krys is not exactly a warrior, but knows how to handle a weapon... let's just hope the newcomers don't get distracted lol

(OOC: Trying to find
A post is very hard
Great tag is made. (I can't remember where I heard that.)

Oh, and on a side note, I posted an order in your International Mall store. Sorry to intrude :P)

A few of the more un trained elites sickered and one gave a low whistle but there squad leader smacked one of them to get them in line once more. "Where is your memory core or whatever your system is stored in so we can remove you from the ship?" the comander asked as the team began steping through the port scanning the area, there rifles lowered ready to fire in an instant.

"Like I said, I am right here," Krys repeats, tapping the PDA on the side of her weapon. "I am the ship's information and science Intelligence, so the only thing that mainframe will have is the long-term ships logs, science data, sensor scans, and library information... but I can access it from right here. On top of that, I can not let you take my mainframe, because it is the only sane computer on this ship! It's the only thing that lets me Control what I can.

"We really should start making our way down to Main Engineering.... wait, who did you say you were with again? You sure don't look like a ZDF team."

"Were from Phalanix," the main elite said as he ushered in his team. "You're gona have to lead the way though or atleast direct us." In the back of the group two of the younger more "stupid" elites were talking about Kyrs. "Damn that guy who thought her up had the right things in mind," the first one said with a laugh over the unencrypted com set up between the two.

Krys turned to walk down the hall, her flashlight lighting up the poorly lit bulkhead. She rolled her eyes as if to say 'hey, I can hear you guys...'

She cocked back an old-fashioned pump-action on the bottom of her weapon, which opened up the capacitors to charge the first couple of rounds in her Gauss Shotgun.

"Shoot anything that moves. The entire mortal crew is dead, so we don't have to worry about killing anyone on our side... but the Artificial Personnel are pretty much all going to be under their control."

Krys led them briskly towards a sevice tunnel entrance, popping open a small hatch as if she had real hands. She leads them through the tunnel to a staircase, and down about 12 flights of stairs to a mid-section deck, then opens another hatch and they come out on a catwalk that borders the enormous cargo bay. Looking out into the bay, there is lots of junk, a few power cores, some salvaged fighters... nothing out of the ordinary. She leads them along the catwalk at a fast walking pace.

"This catwalk should lead us down to the end of the cargo bay, and engineering is just past it. It's 580 meters from our present location"

She can tell that at this pace, some of them might be getting worn out, especially after the stairs... but let's just call it payback for the comments prior.

The entire group kept moving at the same speed. The elites were used to these long runs since they were ten. "So what do we do when we reach engineering?" one of the more mature Elites asks Krys as he lets his rifle sling back to his side and he pulls his pulse pistol to inspect the charge level.

"What do we do? We manually shut down the mechanical AI. It was the first computer to go, as far as I know... once we shut it down, we can restore each system individuall--"

She was cut off by the sound of a loud clang of heavy metal on metal from somewhere down in the bay. Shining her light down into the bay and increasing the intensity, she scanned around for the noisemaker.

What looked like an armless and heavily damaged Legolas-class Mecha came alive and jumped up ontop of the pile of junk.

"Oh... crap, run!"

As she shouted the order, a machinegun ontop of the Mecha began tracing along the catwalk, covering the area with fire. Shortly after, the sound of a powering Rail cannon charging, then a flash in front of them as the Catwalk a few meters ahead burst apart and stopped the team dead in their tracks.

"Hold him off, I got a plan!" she says, firing the one charged round at the mecha, then dissappearing, allowing the gun to float in mid-air.

"On my mark prime plasma grenades and throw!" the squad leader said as everyone on the team all at once as if they were all the same person pulled a single plasma grenade off there leg belts and began to get ready to throw. Jsut when the group was about to prime the grenades a shreak of pure agony broke the group's concentration. One of the elites lay on the cat walk with four holes in his armor blood pouring from them as the self covering bio foam atempted to coer the holes only to be pressed out be the pressure of the blood. The elite closest to him started trying to open his feild med kit his gloves were covered with his comrads blood causing them to slip hwen he reached for a vile of nano bots but wa sto late as the elite's eyes rolled back his expresion of agony still on his face.

Krys suddenly reappeared in midair over the pile of junk, suspended by her own force fields. "Activate Holographic Training Program 18M."

As soon as she said that, the projector on her weapon suddenly generated a full-sized Samson-Class Mecha, with Krys in the cockpit. Obviously not as powerful, because of the limited power provided by the portable holoemitter, but it had just enough to power up the mecha enough to run up to the Legolas, Rip the Rail cannon off the top, and then swing the cannon at the Legolas like a frikkin baseball bat, knocking out the mecha and shutting it down. The Samson dissappeared quickly after, and Krys floated down to the dead Legolas.

She tore off the cockpit hatch to see who was inside, and aslump in the chair was a Red Artificial Personnel. Thinking quickly, she blew a hole in it's chest with her weapon, then ripped off it's head.

Floating back up to the marines, she searched through the cranium for the Chlorophusion power chip and primary computer bank. "something's funny about this robot," she said, landing herself on the catwalk. "Something is really screwed up with this Chlorophusion chip."

Shining a light on the unit, she made clearer the fact that the chip looked like it had grown little roots, that had imbedded themselves in the computer.

"I've never seen anything like this..."

"You could have f*cking warned uss that there were mechs on the ship!" the elite medic screamed at Krys as she looked over at there fallen squad mate his blood still dripping from is armor onto the cat walk and onto the floor below. The squad leader let out a rather loud sigh and opened a personal link with the medic. "I know you were in lvoe with him but this is combat. Remember people will always die....it's better to forget than to remember."

In a way that most alter one's feelings of Computerized Intelligences, Krys' face seems somewhat sad that the soldier died. She quickly shakes it off though. "I didn't know... it was a piece of junk... some Robot was controlling it. But seriously, look at this thing... it's... alive! This is soo not normal... and this is coming from a scientist!"

She presses a few buttons on her weapon-mounted PDA, and a force-field bubble appears around the chip. She then sticks the "jar" in a supply backpack she's currently wearing.

"We best get back on our way."

Using her holoemitter again, she erects a temporary force field to bridge the gap in the catwalk, and leads the team across and down the long, long length of the cargo bay.

OOC: I forgot what her weapon was, I remember now... it was a rail-gun shotgun... just a technical differnece :) continue!

OOC: Krys' weapon, the Gauss Shotgun:
http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/jbrc.gif
The name pretty much suggests it all.. a chlorophusion-powered gauss weapon that propells sharp fragments of metal, most of the time BB-like, at a target at high speeds, in usually a buckshot pattern, unless firing a whole slug (or a grenade or something).

Her PDA and holoemitter are attached to the side, and no, they are not affected by the EM field generated from the weapon itself.

"Lets just hurry up. I don't need any more of my squad being gunned down.....the brass is gona kill me," the squad leader said a alight bit of anger in his voice, "Strip his weapons and any salvageable gear. We'll pick him up on the way back."


OCC:The Elites are basicly 3 million each so thats why as he said "The brass is gona kill me," becasue he just lost 3 million. And thats just the armor and training and implants

The team finally reaches the end of the catwalk, and enters another brief service tunnel. After a short crawl through the tunnel, they climb out and arrive at main engineering.

Leading them along quickly through main engineering, Krys notifies them that "The Engineering AI should be just past main engineering, about 30 meters from our present... ...location..."

Krys' pace slows to a near halt as she realizes something is very wrong in main engineering... an organic mist was fogging up the lower portion of the chamber. Turning her eyes and flashlight towards the primary Chlorophusion Control Chamber, just about 10 meters to their left, her eyes widen in shock. The same kind of growing that had taken over the robot's head... had taken control of main engineering. All at once, her questions were answered, but the monstrous... slimey... pulsing organic core instantly raised a hundred more questions in her head.

"I... I don't know what happenned... it looks like this Control Chamber has... evolved!" She immediately tries to analyze it, pressing a few buttons on her PDA. "This should not be possible... these Chlorophusion plants were ground down and refined until they are just individual 'power plant' cells... but it appears that something has... rearranged the cellular structure... encouraged it to grow..." She pressed a few more buttons, and pointed her flashlight around at the core. "Well, this explains why the power has slowly faded... the Core is producing less than half it's normal power... most likely because half the cells have been rearranged and involved in Mitosis... this core has grown in size by 50 percent..."

Panning her flashlight around main engineering, it becomes clear that something is growing inside engineering... it looks like there are several eggs and cocoons being incubated in this hot and muggy complex.

Now scared nearly speechless again, she barely let's out "if anyone... has a... flamethrower...."

Seeing one of the Elites going for his flame unit, she holds out her hand "no, wait! I got an Idea. We can eject this core from remote... let's get out of here." She waves her gun and leads them through to another hall, past a bulkhead on their way to the Engineering AI core. Closing the engineering bulkheads behind them, Krys begins a cycle to perform an emergency ejection of the Power core. Several loud clanks can be heard, the sound of magnetic locks releasing, followed by sliding hull doors that clear the way for an emergency ejection route. But as the final action of the cycle begins, the actual ejection of the core, a quake is felt in the floor, followed by a large sound of straining gears and jammed motors. "Oh... $#!%, It seems the Core's growth is trapping itself in main Engineering... we can't eject it!" She sighs in frustration, "it will be about 5 minutes before the computer aborts the cycle.... maybe the vacuum will damage it a little. Let's continue but we must come back soon."

"Can't we just set plasma charges and get the hell out? The charges can easily burn up even metals so shoulden't that be all we need?" one of them asks as with a hint of a hope in his voice for getting the hell out of there. "Team also load up the HE shells in the secondary slot of your rifles. Lt. You go to your PPC but make sure you have the secondary ready," he team leader said quickly as he to began setting up his wepon for dealing with the evolving....thing.

OOC:A PPC is a Portable Plasma Cannon. It is equiped with a seocndary designed to fire off he equivilent of a plasma rifle's blasts and rate of fire. The primary is like a rocket launcher only the rocket is made up of plasma.

"Well, there's a problem with that. Plasma doesn't work that well in a vacuum... and main engineering has been a vacuum for the last 36 hours... I just hadn't tried to eject the core. This thing that our core has evolved into... it doesn't need air, it's running off it's own energy. That's what chlorophusion does... it creates energy for itself, providing we give it the nutrients it needs... but it looks like it will be providing for its own for a bit... Those cocoons... I registered human biomaterial. That moster is feeding off the dead crewmen."

"Sh*t...," one of the muttered, "Look like the only way to take out this thing would be a ship based plasma weapon. Correct?" the squad leader asked calmly, "Or do you have something else in mind?" The entrie squad at this point were looking slightly frantic. They had only been trained for ship boarding and ground combat but what they were upagainst seemed to become much more than their training had covered.

krys thought for a moment, then an idea popped in her head, "On the other side of main engineering, there's a vault... in that vault is an emergency core-killer switch, designed to inject a deadly agent into the core, killing the cells... I don't know how well it will work, given the mutation, but it's worth a shot... Maybe we should go ahead and take care of -this- before we head off to the AI?"

"Sounds like you want to kill off the hornets nest. Lets get it finshed then and we can alert some better equiped people," the squad leader said, "But first I sujest we get a few samples of this thing to study later.....if there is a later."

"We already have a sample... My readings show it to be the exact same stuff as the core. If it's possible, I'd like half of your team to head over to the kill switch... no access code needed, just a heavy door. The rest of us will go for the AI. Once we examine the AI, we'll radio for help."

"Not after what we saw in the cargo bay. Six of my team will go to the kill switch and the rest (three of them since the tenth member was killed) will go with you," the squad leader said as he pointed to six of his comarads. "You should move fast and after your done return to the airlock and reboard the Hydra and wait for us."

The team of 6 encounters nothing but a vacuumed room, filled with slimey, pulsing, organic... stuff. They have no real problem making their way over to the kill switch, and begin opening the door, but soon realize it is sealed shut by overgrowth. They realize they need to start cutting or blow the door.

Krys and the other 3 heading to the computer core found no trouble on the way, but when they arrived, they found no sign of activity in the core... the AI had been shut down for some time. Whatever Intelligence had been controlling the ship, was not a computer.

"This is beta team. The door to the kill switch is sealed. We are gona use a plasma cutter and gut this door. We'll check in when it's open," the beta team leader said as two of the elite were busy awrming up a plasma torch.
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"Christ you said that you were the only sane AI on the ship not the only AI online," one of the three said as he covered the door. "Great we're not the only ones with problems. Beta just reported that the door is jamed. They are cutting it open now."

Krys sighed, "I didn't know, I disconnected myself from the mainframe over 18 hours ago... we can still use the manual controls, but only the ones that aren't locked out. I think we should head back to your Hydra-class and radio for the ZDF."

"The captian and his crew can hadel that. I'm staying here to see if we can find anythign else that went wrong," the squad leader said then turning on his com to the rest of the team, "Listen up if you want off this ship you can get off but only if you don't have anything to do. Those who are staying move to the air lock and wait for my team." A sudden group of blue lights winked on the HUD of his helmet's display and he recived a reply from one of the beta team members "Sir we're all staying with you. But I sujest you alert the Hydra to wake a few of the better trained members of the other team they were transporting. We'll need the back up."

Krys sighed, "Well, the only reason I wanted to wait for a ZDF team, is because I don't know how to deal with FRIKKIN DEMONS! And THAT's what's going to be hatching in that freakin' Incubator that used to be Main Engineering!"

She is obviously freaking out... a quality no AI would ever be programmed to have.

She tried to calm herself down quickly, then started clearing her mind. "Look, we need to try to regain control of the ship... and we can';t do that without powering up the systems, and we can't do that if the thing powering the ship, is that monstrous piece of organic filth that used to be out power core. No, with the ejection Cycle, I've already partially seperated the core from the ship, but it's still holding on. What we need to do, after your guys kill the core, is get power from Your ship and restore environmental controls." She sighed, finally thinking clearly, "once we have your ship feeding us, we can restore life support, and an atmosphere that will be beneficial to our weapons... specifically the plasma weapons and flame units... Now, please forgive me, I'm not a military program, so if you have any better tactics, do tell."

"We don't know how to deal with most demons. Just not the ones that won't die from a few rounds from a pulse rifle. But there is one elite who can easily handel. IF you know who Eric Lancer is then you know enough," he says quickly, "But lets jsut get abck to the air lock to rearm with better suited weapons."
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Beta team had only started cutting the door open and were making excelent progress. "God this place freaks me out," one of them said as she watched the area her rifle lowered. Suddenly one of her team mates taped her on her back making her suddenly raise her rifle right at his chest. "You're defently jumpy," he said as he lowered the weapon from his chest.

"I would not mind that at all. We should get back to the airlock... I need to get some armor anyway."

She looks around, then motions with her arm for alpha team to follow, heading back towards the airlock the same way they came, this time with a bit of a jog.

One of the team members cocked his head for a second at the thought of an AI needing armor then quickly dismissed it and began to run with the group. There boots echoing as they ran.
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"Damn it the door is gona take alittle while longer. Some of you might want to go back to the air lock and meet up with the other team," one of the two working with the torch said to the others the blueish green flame burning thourgh the door.

While Krys leads the team hastily back up the stairs, the air in ain Engineering begins to return on its own. Jets of air fill the room from overhead, repressurizing it with new breathable oxygen. The new air finally allows the team to notice something that they couldn't in a vacuum... the sounds. Moaning, growling, sloshing...

"The hell?" one of the beta team members muttered as he looked around listening. "Finaly we got the door open," one of the elites with the torch said as he began to turn off the torch to hit the switch.
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"Wonder what the hell we get to play with here?" one of the alpha team elites asked hiis comrads. "I don't even want to find out," one fo them replied as they got closer to the airlock stoping to pick up there dead squadmates body.

"Do you guys have anything in a light female armor? I haven't been trained on your heavy stuff, I just need something to protect me... my forcefields can hold off some stuff, but jsut like any other shield, hit it enough times and it'll break.. and for a hologram, that's bad."

"The closest we have to light armor is a 'Spartan Suit.' Unless you want to program some of our nano-bot reservess to create something for you," the team leader replied as they reached the air lock.
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"Lets hurry up and get the hell out of here already," one of the beta team said as the switch was finaly hit.

Krys smiles, and nods excitedly at the Nanobots idea... being mostly computer, she could manipulate them very well.
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As the toggle is thrown, a loud annoying klaxon and buzzer begin blaring all over the ship, and a blue-gel-ish agent pours into the core. The power on the ship, what little there was, fades to absolutely jack. Inside main engineering, those klaxons fade away quickly, and the organic material in the room begins to sizzle and melt.

Light cheering can be heard from some of the younger elites, before the sound of ...hatching.. shuts them up. Just behind one of the Elites, a 6 foot tall Human, wearing torn up clothes of a crewman, and having seriously screwed up skin, is holding up his arm to the Elite's head. The monster's hand has sense been replaced by an overgrown organic cylindar. And inside that cylindar, something begins to glow, and grow brighter. Anyone's scanner should point out that it is some kind of energy weapon, growing on the zombie crewman's hand.

The Zombie Crewman speaks up, using somewhat plain english, in a dark, multi-phonic deep voice. "Drop your weapons, and prepare to join our glorious army."

"OPEN FIRE!!!" the team leader shouted as all at once over seventy-five pulse rifle rounds began to splater through the zombie fallowed by a single grenade. "Lets get the hell out of here!" one of them shouted as he turned to run towards the door shouting over the com about what just happened.
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"Jesus christ....," the elite that picked up the com said the tones of fear were imposible to miss. "Wake up Lancer now!," the squad leader shouted over the com directed towads the cryo ops. "Krys go over to that port and just activate it. You can alert the ZDF forces and design your armor but be quick we don't have long."

After killing the one Zombie (not to mention blowing him to shreds), one of the elites is shocked, staring straight up, pointing.

The rest look up, and see that, about 10 meters above them, the ceiling is covered in more cocoons... almost all of them hatched.

"Where the %#$& are they?"

"Somewhere in the ship I suppose, those service ducts up there look like they go everywhere."

On the other side of the room, 2 more of the 'Zombies' are pointing their similar weapons at the Elites, and begin to fire their energy weapons, rapidly sending glob-ish bursts of pure energy straight for the elites.

-----

Krys hurries herself over to the armory, and taps into the comm systems while on the way.

"Sh*t! Hit the deck!" one of them shouted as the orbs flew by. They returned fire with there pusle rifles almost an instant later all except one of the more unlucky elite who took an orb right in the chest and was floored his armor taking a massive beating burning the skin under it. "Fire your grenades that the cacoons or try to blow a hole in the wall!" one of them shouted as the one with the PPC fired a massive burst of pure red plasma into the roof.
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"We'll be outside gaurding the airlock," the alpha squad leader said as he jumped back though the airlock his rifle leveled. "And grab some grenades! You're gona need them."
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Mena while in the cryo bay the single active tube was only halfway through the waking process. "We have to speed this up," one op said as they stood over the tube. "Fine I'll load up some more stims into his system," the other replied as he hit a few imags on the tube's display. The occupants blood suddenly felt like it was on fire. His eyes flashed open as the tube's lid began to rise letting the fridged gases escape.

One of the 'zombies' was instantly fragged, but the other bolted out of the room just as the firing began.

Suddenly, like a small volcano, the core, now plagues with the killer agent, began to sizzle and fizzle, then boil, and began erupting boiling organic ooze out of it's top and sides. The elite's would find it best to get the eff outta dodge.

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After radioing for help, Krys returns from the armory, wearing some light ZDF LiquidMetal^2 light marine armor, blue and black in color, that she constructed based on a file she had in her PDA.

"A team from the ZDF should probably arrive in an hour or two," she said heading back towards Alpha team, loading up her shotgun with more ammo and slamming a new, clean, protoculture chip inside. Carrying her backpack in her other hand, she opens it up and throws in a couple of grenades, a couple tools, and some plastique explosive, then closes it back up and straps it onto her back. Reaching behind her head, she ties-up her long blonde, then reaches down and straps a Phalanix sidearm to the side of her leg.

"Ready."

"Here take these for your pistol," the team leader says as he tosses her a small pouch, "They're micro-frags and the attachment for th epistol to fire them. We're gona need all the firepower we can get."
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Beat team was already running firing grenades form there rifle's secondary weapon slots. "Keep going we're nearing the cat walk area!"
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Eric sat up in his tube. His blood felt like it was blazing but slowly cooling back to it normal. His nural network had been updated during his cryo sleep with the current situation. He swung his legs over the side of the tube and began to walk away towards the waiting armor for him. "Wait sir we need to chekc your vitals!" one fo the ops cried out but was ignored by Eric.

Krys attaches the frag launcher, and asks "where can I access your power-transfer controls? We need to override the computer systems on the Jacob and give the ship power, at least enough for gravity and life support."

"That terminal over there," the elite pointed to the one only about two meters away. "You're gona have to let Albert know who you are because he is very defensive about his job," another elite said.
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"Alpha this is beta we are coming in hard and fast. We got...something after us. We already got a man down," the beta team leader said over the com the fear in his voice was imposible to hide.

Krys walks over to the terminal and addresses the AI. "Albert, I am krys, the Science and Information AI of the Jacob. I need you to route power to the Jacob's life support systems, and use whatever hacking abilities you have to gain access to the ship's locked-out computers."

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Beta team is stopped in their tracks by the broken Catwalk, which kinda sucks since Krys isn't around to erect a force field. While they try to figure out a way around, they hear the sound of feet crawling along the walls and on the catwalk, but see nothing.

Suddenly, 3 of the 'zombies' jump up from the underside of the catwalk they were climbing along, and 4 more drop from the walls above, landing on the catwalk nehind Beta team, all weapons pointed right at them, fully chaged, glowing, and now firing full blast. (these weapons will cause paralysis to humans)

"Sh*t...," one of the muttered as they looked around there weapons still raised there thumbs on the grenade launch switch. "Go to hell!" one of them souted as suddenly he began to fire his rifle's grenades and pulse rounds. Only a quarter of a second later the rest of the team joined in opening fire knowing hey wouldn't make it out alive they had to try atleast.
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"Alright just give me a second," Albert replied as a slight dimming of power could be seen in the airlock area as it began to birghten again the Jacob's power levels began to rise slowly.

One of the grenades gets through and frags two of the monsters, another couple grenades are quite literally swept up by the energy blasts and thrown back towards the marines, exploding on impact. In short, beta team never had a chance. As 2 more get fragged by pulse rifles etc, more monsters show up and swarm the team, paralyzing them all, and dragging them off to somewhere else in the ship.

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Krys nods, "Thanks Al." She turns back to alpha team "you guys ready? What's the status on Beta?"

"Three of their bio signs just flatlined. The other three arn't in any better shape. In simple we lost them," the team leader replied as he sighed slightly, "We should wait till atleast Eric is ready for combat aswell. We're gona need every extra hand we can get now."

"Oh," Krys said mournfully, "I'm sorry to hear that. I guess we should prepare for some heavy combat now..."

"Thats right," a voice said from behind them. One of the elites turned around to look and saw a man wearing moddified elite armor and held his helmet in his arm. "Eric good to see you're alive and ready to get to work," the squad leader as he nodded to him. "Ya ya now what are we up against?" he asked as he sealed his helmet on and slung down a modded Mx 73 rifle. "Demons. Thats why you got woken up."

((The mods on the armor are basicly plasma blade ports that will project the blade from there slots and he won't hold the shaft freeing up his hands and the rifle basily has a higher calabur of bullet from 7.62mm to a 5.5mm point and they are rarely made plasma injector rounds))

Krys sighed, "I have no idea what they are. All I know is something attacked Beta team, ad my guess is it's the same thing that got my crew."

She cocks her shotgun, then raises an eyebrow, seemingly asking if they are ready to go.

"I'll take point," Eric said as he brushed past Krys. He stoped for a moment and looked her over. "You're a AI arn't you?" he asked her as he held his rifle in his hand. The other elites were already waiting covering the air lock.

"I'm a hologram, if that's what you mean. Why?"

"Just felt you were diffrent thats all. Just wondering what do you know about me?" he asks as he walks over to the air lock and he pulls back the charging level on the rifle to make sure the chamber had a round in it.

"You're from phalanix," she says, stating obviously the only thing she knows about him. "Should I know you? Because I've been locked out of my mainframe, and have no access to my libraries."

"I'm part demon. So I know how to handel them. Just remember one thing. If it hits the fan don't worry about me," he replies as he shoulders the rifle and begens to walk down into the Jacob his boots clanging agianst the floor.

Krys sighed, wishing she had a spirit scope right about now... but maybe Eric, being part demon, would have a sort of sixth sense right about now. She felt it hard to wait for the ZDF team to come.

She sinches up the straps on her backpack, readjusting them for her new armor, then follows Eric and the rest of the elites back into the ship.

Eric keep the group moving at a fair pace before he slowed down. "I smell blood," he to the group as he flicked the safty off and taped the side of his visor for a moment to prep his plasma blade's generators. "Just in case get ready."

Krys was clever enough to, while suiting up, Mount her holoprojector and PDA on the inside of her breastplate, giving her programs some better protection.

With a new sense of security, she followed closely behind Eric, looking around at the now illuminated ship. All turbolifts were working, and they could now use main corridoors. However, the organic growth found in Engineering was now beginning to be found everywhere.

Walking down the corridoors, Krys pulled out a knife and began randomly slicling open the organic material along the halls, hoping that it might hurt it somehow.

"What did you grab from the armory?" Eric as ks Krys as the group's pace slows. His suit's generators hummed quietly. The tune was almost relaxing had they not been on a demon infested ship

"Not as much as I would have liked to... I got a few grenades and weapons, of course, made my armor... but I really hope the ZDF team gets here soon"

"Any plasma weapons?" he asks calmly. The groups footsteps echoing through the hall. "I don't like this," one of the three elites muttered his rifle raised and covering there six. "Shut up and shoot anything that moves," another replied to his muttereing.

"A few plasma grenades," she says quietly, looking around alertly as they make their way through the ship. "I'm not really combat trained, so I like to just keep this thing handy..." she says, patting her shotgun.

A little way down the now-lit hall, Krys could swear she saw something dart across a bulkhead. "Did you see that?" she said, motioning with her hand to hold position. It was about 50 meters down the hall... too far to chuck a grenade. She reached into pocket on the front of her backpack strap, and pulled out a small capsule, about the size of a shotgun shell. "antimatter grenade.." she says quietly while she chambers it into the auxiluary breech of the gauss shotgun. She aims for the bulkhead where she saw the shadow and pulls the trigger. With a thud of capacitors discharging, the grenade launches out of the weapon and impacts 50 meters down the corridoor, exploding on contact, sending out a bright white flash and vaporizing everything in a 5 meter radius, even taking chunks out of the hull.

She looks down the hall to see if there is any reaction... none at first.

"Eric, do you have any sort of tracking or detection equipment?" she says, slowly advancing on the area, weapon cocked again.

"Ya each of our armors has radar. But I doubt what you just shot at is going to be there. But if it is let me take point," Eric replies as he moves foreward his finger over the trigger so that even on the slightest movement he could fire.

Krys, not feeling to safe right now, pulled out a plasma grenade as she approached the crater. She chucked it into the hole as hard as she could, and let it detonate on delay... I guess she got lucky, because sensing the Elites approaching, one of the Zombies ran out at the same time as the grenade exploded, killing it instantly.

"Right.. gone.. sure.."

"Hmm. I'll modify my sensor for there bio signs," Eric replies in his normal clam voice. He walked over to the hole and knelt by it using his rifle's scope to look at the lower level. "I think I see a target," he replied as he pulled the trigger back only a slight bit letting a single shot out. It hit the target right in he chest the weapons grade plasma entering it's system through the bullet's tip. Inside the zombie it felt like it's blood was burning when it litteraly was. It's internal organs began to slowly melt as it's skin bubbled and ozzed. Suddenly it's chest gave way and it's internal organs spilled out onto the deck. Its skin still bubbled and ozzed even as it lay there dead. "I'll never get used to that," Eric mutters as he finishes his sweep and stands up.

Krys is literally grossed out, and looks about ready to throw up. "Jeez, I really hated that guy, but seeing him die like that was just... disgusting! Can we stick to the normal weapons please?" she says with a slight chuckle.

"This is my normal weapon unless you want me to get in there face and slice them open. And besides one round equills one kill," Eric replies, "These rounds were designed as anti-infantry rounds. But were discontinued after some time."

"Yeah, I'm surprised you even have them... that kind of weaponry is outlawed in most systems... I read that once in my Library. Anyway, I was thinking it might be possible to save some of these crewmen... is there anyway you can just stun them or anything?" she asked, hopelessly.

"Ya. I have a few other types of clips that have stunning rounds. Much like the old flashbang grenades. Except they tend to inject a stunner chemical. It was to weak. But I've managed to refine the chemical," Eric replies as he pulls a clip from one of the ports on his armor. "You know you're more human than a person would think."

"Really? I haven't actually encountered too many other AIs... other than the ones on this ship really, and ships we've run across. You know, when they installed me, I was an experimental program that got trashed by the Zaran government... I don't even know who my creator was... I was just salvaged from a scrap heap about 5 years ago and wound up here."

"Well. I'm sure that if someone didn't know you were a program they would think you were human," Eric replies as he pulled out his 5mm clip from the rifle and unchambered the round placing it back in the clip. "Just to let you know. This stunner clip might posibly o.d. the target," Eric says as he slaped the clip in pulling back the charging lever placing a stunner round in the chamber.

If Krys wasn't scared crapless right now, she'd smile at what Eric first said.

"OD? YOu mean you haven't tested this stuff yet?"

"I hate but each person has difference tolerance level to the drug. One shot might not stun them but two might be to much for there bodies to handel," Eric replies as he looked down the hole . "Looks like we are going down," he says. The other elites sighed and grabbed the small coils of of titanium from there belts and tied one end to the exposed bulkhead and began to lower themselves. Eric just jumped down to the floor below landing in a crouch his rifle held ready to fire. "Looks clear," he said only seconds before a figure moved. "Shit I got movement," he said again in the com. He fired a single round at the target but the rounds seemed to ping off. "Hey did any f the crew have armor on?" he shouted up to Krys as he still tried to hit the figure that seemed to move faster than a normal zombie. "Elites stay with the hologram. I'll handel this," Eric said as he tried firing a grenade at the zombie only to watch it explode and it kept coming. But during the explosion he caught a split second glimpse of what he was firing on. Almost as he had just figured out what it as the zombie's "energy weapon's" glow could be seen. The zombie fired at Eric only to have it miss by inches. "Looks like we play the old way," Eric said with a smirk as he let his rifle slump to his side and he keyed the activator for the plasma blades he had installed in his armor. The zombie almost seemed to know now that if Eric got in close enough it would be over. But Eric was already on the move the twin blades illuminating his unique armor in a almost demonic way. Like lightning the zombie felt a almost indescribable pain as the blade sliced only a inch into it's weapon. It only managed to pull away to have that arm sliced off at the elbow. The blade cauterized the wound instantly. The zombie's haunting howls of pain be heard before Eric silenced it with a bone crunching kick to it's chest flooring it.
"Clear....," he said slightly panting from the physical demands of the fight. "I've been in cryo for to long," he muttered.

"Dude likes to play the hero, doesn't he?" she says to one of the elites near her.

She casually steps off the ledge, acting as if it were a mere step on a staircase, then hits the floor of the next deck with her boots clanking against the ground, her legs bent and one hand touching the floor.

As she stands up, she comments to Eric, "It's weird... I just made that jump, but I felt nothing... it really kinda sucks, but then again, I don't know if I'd like it any better if I could feel... imagine if you were completely numb, and felt no pain... that's what it feels like to be me."

"Personaly I know a worse thing. During the mission I became half-demon on I was captured by a so called 'ally' and used to become a so called 'super soldier.' They made me almost kill the one person I loved. I'm still disgusted that my nation keeps friendly tabs with the scum that used me," he says his tone filled with pure hate for the bastards that did that to him, "So what do we do with this sad excuse for an elite?" By this time the other three had managed to lower themselves and release the cables.

"...at least you have a body." She says, tapping the part of her breastplate that's covering her holoemitter. "My whole life, I've felt so much different from the other AIs... My only friend, Jared, was the one who gave me this holoemitter as a present... I rarely turn it off. But... now he's one of them... I'll let you know if I see him, so we can at least attempt to rescue him."

She turns and looks down at the dead former elite. "Your best bet would be to hack it up into smaller pieces, so that there's no chance of any kind of regrowth... we already know this mutated CP [Chlorophusion] is capable of growth..."

"Fine," Eric replied as the twin blades came down and sliced the elite into several smaller peices, "I'm going back to my other rounds." He then began to deactive his blades and they faded out the light they cast gone in an moment. He then took the stuner clip out and did the same thing he did before when changing his 5mm clip.

Krys is glad Eric is taking point now, frankly because she doesn't know how she'd act if one of her former crewman actually came up to her. Nonetheless, she keeps her Shotgun primed.

Eric kept walking fairly fast so that he was ahead of the group so that an zombie attack he could handel without the risk to the elites or Krys. "Hey how many elites were taken down?" Eric called back. "About six. Three of them flatlined," one of the elites called back.

The group soon found their way back to Main Engineering, where the ooze now thinly covered the floor, very sticky and slimy, orangish-brown in color.

"I guess they killed the core OK... but it doesn't look like it did much more than really tick them off."

She looked around at the open cocoons, wondering where all the monsters could possibly be.