NationStates Jolt Archive

“This is The Mournhold calling, this is an emergency, please respond. We are in trouble, please respond…”

The distress signal had been sent out, but by then it was too late for the crew of the research vessel The Mournhold as it drifted aimlessly through space. All aboard the ship had seemingly vanished, it was now a ghost ship. The automated features still worked, the cleaning droids would still wander the corridors on their regular schedules.

What happened to the crew, nobody knew. At least not until a rescue ship would be able to board the stricken ship. Since it was being deployed from Draconis Nightcrawlis, that was going to take a few days travel and in the meantime, the ghost ship was vulnerable to any other ship in the area. However, any body that saw the ship as easy prey would be in for a shock.

OOC: Ok this is open to anyone with future tech. What I'm looking for are adventurer/scavenger types, whether alone or in a small group. This could get messy :)

*Mournhold, this is TSC Way Farer, we have you on telemetry. What is the exact nature of your emergency? Please reply."

The Way Farer's hologram materialized in the Captain's small but lavishly furnished quarters

"Still no reply Cam. And if they have an AI- it's not answering either, I've tried the reserved fequencies and not gotten a response."

Camlökewen looked up from the old fashioned book she had been absorbed in, and flicked her whiskers in interest. Setting the book aside the slender Xa Cz'nni stretched briefly, muscles rippling under silky ginger golden fur.

"And that full external scan showed no signs of traumatic decompression, hull breach, drive over load?" The Xa Cz'nni pondered aloud as she stood and began readying her herself for a trip over to the derelict. She hated wearing skinsuits, they always left her fur standing spikey, but the protection they granted was much appreciated. She checked her weapons. She hoped she wouldn't need them, but better to be prepared than sorry.

"And no life forms that my sensors can recognise as such " WayFarer added as the hologram followed the felinoid out to the primary hold. "I don't suppose you'd wait for back up?"

Cam just shook her head as she climbed lithly into the small personal runabout, making sure to tuck her tail in before closeing the hatch. The medi kit she had requested ws waiting already, fetched by one of Way Farer's 'bots.

"You say that the universal docking port will work, and that there are areas your scanners can't penetrate. There may be people still alive, but injured. I can't let that question go unanswered. Start broad casting that a small rescue group will be there shortly."

In just minutes the runabout was gliding out of the depressurized hold and heading towards the stricken ship.

OOC: Cam (http://www.atddm.com/cam.jpg) her hair is a very dark gold not black and her body fur has no 'tiger stripeing', but has rich dapples on her back and flanks. Her tail is very long and is prehensile. She wears a very short kilt like wrap skirt and a small dark brown leather bolero type vest, when not in a skinsuit ( a lightweight, form fitting type of hostile envrionment suit )

The ships corridors were silent, save for a cleaning droid, rumbling down a dimly lit corridor. It had run its sheduled cleaning and was returning to its droid bay when something reached from the shadows and grabbed it. The droid was crashed and taking into the walls, all that remained were a few scattered componants. Something was stirring and having heard the broadcast, was eagerly awaiting their arrival.

The Mournhold creaked before falling silent again.

The INV Faded Fortunes, an Explorer vessel of the Indoan navy, broke off its general system sweep when it picked up the transmission. The Vadra-E-class corvette increased speed and altered course, on a interception heading with the source of the transmission.

~ A request for help? I suppose we'd better go and have a look, see if we can be of assistance.

The Mind used the vessel's powerful sensors to scan the unknown ship as it approached, cataloguing the basic schematics of the design and searching for any weapons emplacements.

The Faded Fortunes slowed as it neared the unknown vessel, reaching a zero rate of closure at a distance of four hundred kilometres. It was also at zero relative velocity, sitting off the vessel's port bow, slightly above the plane of movement.

[Voice Transmission]
{The Mournhold, this is the INV Faded Fortunes. We copy your request for assistance. What is your problem?}
[End Transmission]
***

The Mind put out a message across the Faded Fortunes's PA system.

"We have a vessel in distress. Any volunteers for a boarding party? Looking for six of you. Preferably with two Rangers, and at least one medic. A pilot is necessary. Volunteers should report to main hangar when ready."

A number of members of the vessel's crew reported their wish to be part of the boarding party. The Mind quickly chose six of them, and told them to hurry up.

It took ten minutes, but the six were eventually ready. The two Rangers were both Matrai, one male and one female, wearing their ABERA combat suits and carrying carbines. The medic was another female Matrai, the pilot another Matrai male. The last two members of the team were both Douran, and both male. All four of the naval crew were issued with a sidearm, lightweight bodyarmour and a pair of 'glasses', as per regulations. They also carried two medikits.

The Mind had got one of the corvette's two shuttles ready, and it was sitting in the hangar, waiting for the team to board it. They did, and the pilot settled into the seat in the cockpit. One of the ship's avatars was waiting inside the shuttle.

"The Mind wants us to wait. To see if the ship responds," the pale-blue-skinned artificial Matrai stated simply.


OOC: For details on my species (Matrai, Douran), go here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=399389)

The ship stayed silent, it made no attempt to reply. The walls seemed to moan, yet the ship stayed silent. If anyone were to wait for a reply from the ship then they were in for a long wait.

The small Blockcade Runner was pretty easy to miss. The Eletronic Scramblers installed in the hull were designed to give it the appearance of a random piece of metallic space junk to all but the most advanced scanners, and against the inky blackness of outer space, seeing the pitch black painted hull was nigh impossible.

But, even if one did glance a look at it, even the least experianced spacer could tell it was designed for speed above anything else. Streamlined and sleek, the crew of this particular Blockcade Runner boasted that it could outrun any ship in the known galaxy, and with the massive ammount of money they had paid to have the engines altered and enhanced with Black Market parts, it had better be worth every bit of cash.

The crew itself was a rag-tag bunch, five in all, consisting of one human and four Krowemohians. Scavengers, pirates, and smugglers, they drift from system to system, taking anything they can get their hands on from ships, passenger cruisers and every space diralect they can find.

"Lone... Is that the ship right there?" Asked the 'unofficial' leader of this group, a tall tanned Neko, dressed in black leather straps arranged on her body to offer just the bare needed coverage to protect her modesty, despite her obvious lack of it.

"Yes, B. Queen. I'm also picking up another ship. From the looks of it, they're going to be attempting a rescue operation." Lone Ghunman said, the sole human of this group. An ace with hand guns as well as an excellent pilot, Lone wears a light green combat suit, lightly armored to provide some protection, yet leaving him enough mobility to effectively use his dual pistols.

The leader, obviously 'B. Queen,' smirks. "Fine. Let them. Try to find an access hatch on the opposite side of that ship. Let the goody-doers do as they please, but we won't let them get in our way of profit, shall we?"

The last one in the cockpit, another female Krowemohian, smirked, running a finger along the length of her Rail Driver. "Heh heh heh..." The two two members assumably were back in the cargo holder of the ship.

The ship raced on towards the ghost vessal, making sure to keep the ship between themselves and the other larger craft at all times. After-all, if the ship tries to fire at them, they'd have to manuever around the diralect vessal, and by that time, the Blockcade Runner would have already forced their way into the ship's hanger bay and deployed its scavenger team...


((OOC: Hope this is okay?))

OOC: Thats fine.

* IVN Faded Fortunes, this is TSC Way Farer. Please be advised I have my partner headed over to the Mournhold in a personal runabout with universal dock. There are some anamalous readings on my sensors and we are uncertain as to the state of the crew at this time.*

Way Farer watched as Cam guided the runabout delicately up to mate with the primary personel dock. Her sensors advised her that a proper seal had been obtained, while another part of her went about scanning the IVN for future reference.

"Okay Cam, it looks green for go. Keep me informed, please? No just haring off and leaving me to wonder whats making your pulse and biostats go all wonky. Also another ship has arrived. I interecpted their signals. It's an polity we've never directly dealt with. The ship is the IVN Faded Fortunes. I've let them know you're there."

Cam chuffed amused at Way Farers worrying "Okay Way, I'll keep you apprised. Here" The XaCz'nni activated on the micro camera that was built into the skinsuits 'helm'. "Local readings confirm breathable atmosphere, no unusual levels or kinds of radiation. I'm going in"

OOC: Draconis, what does The Mournhold look like? How big is it? Does it have a docking/hangar bay?

IC:
~ Oh dear. That's a blow to my ego. I never even noticed that one. So they heard the message as well.

In an attempt to sooth its wounded ego, the Mind pushed the ship's sensors to full power and swept the system, as well as scanning the Way Farer.

~ That's strange. The mass and radiation sensors seem to be picking up something behind The Mournhold. Is there another ship there? Better have a look.

[Voice Transmission]
{TSC Way Farer, the INV Faded Fortunes copies that. We are preparing to put a team aboard The Mournhold to assist.
Our sensors have picked up an anomalous contact on the far side of The Mournhold, can you confirm?}
[End Transmission]

Then the Mind resent the message to the ship in distress. Then it decided that, since it knew it had recieved the first message, someone on board the ship must need help. It gave the avatar aboard the shuttle some instructions, then told it to leave as soon as they were complete.
***

The avatar dispatched the shuttle team to carry out the Mind's instructions, which consisted of adding some items to the shuttle's cargo, which may or may not be wanted. As they did so, one of the unmanned Kestrel fighters was spooling up, preparing to launch. The pilot queried this with the avatar.

"It's going to escort us over to the target, then conduct a search of the immediate surroundings," the avatar explained, then it shrugged. "I don't claim to understand why?" it said defensively.

The crew reboarded the shuttle, closed the hatches and activated the engines. The fighter, and a small blocky object, exited the hangar first, the Condor shuttle following them. The blocky object shot off in a completely different direction to the one the shuttle turned in. The Kestrel fighter cruised just behind and to the right of the shuttle.

[Voice Datalink Transmission]
{Faded Fortunes, this is shuttle Salequin. Proceeding to destination now.}
{End Transmission]

The Mind acknowledged the message, as the shuttle accelerated towards the forbidding bulk of The Mournhold.

OOC:

http://www.jonathan.bennett5.btinternet.co.uk/Starship.jpg
About 1km in length, and yes it does have a docking bay/hanger.

IC:

This ship became interested in those heading towards it. The docking bay sprang to life, awaiting its visitors. Droids were on hand to welcome them as they were programmed to do. Everything seemed in place, except for the fact that the crew were missing.

With Cam inside, a small droid headed up to her and in an computerised voice, welcomed her. "Welcome to The Mournhold, the captain will be pleased to greet you."

Way Farer let herself 'drop' a little in relation to the Mournhold and sent a pawfull of drones out to augment her own powerful sensors. The returns she got had her chuckling.'Pretty ship underneath that disguise, wonder who built her' the Way Farer wondered to herself.[/i]

*IVN Faded Fortune, you picked that one up smartly. They're doing a very good imitatioon of assorted orts and mathims. Want to let them go on thinking that we don't know they're there? They're well within 'knife fight' range if they try anything inhopsitable.*

A small part of her attention monitored the actions fed to her by the micro camera that Cam carried, and passed along the information that the Faded Fortune was sending over a shuttle.

******************Aboard the Mournhold********************

Cam checked the readings once again. The air was roughly 'terran normal' and nothing in the way of airborn bacteria or viruses that her scanner could pick up. 'and there's always the chance of something new, something not in the data base...and I'm not dead yet!' she chuffed mentally as she disengaged the skinsuits helm and let it retract into the collar. Her ears swivelled and she flemmed slightly, Her hearing was as good as a Terran cat's and her sense of smell some what better. Vertically ovoid pupils closed slightly, the lighting was a bit more intense that what she prefered ut not discomfortingly so. While she might look relaxed, every sense was completely alert.

"An' I would be most pleased to meet the Mournhold's Captain, can thou take me to him?"

The Mournhold was too quiet a place, and her nose was picking up the faintest of odors, out of place in the near sterility of the corridors that the 'droid was leading her through

The ship seemed to creak at the request. The droid just made a beeping nose, an air of uneasy drifted through. The droid beeped once more as the sound of laughter drifted through the air.

"I'm sorry," the droid began. "But I can't seem to locate the captain right now. May I take a message for her?"

Cam's fur ruffled and her ears went flat againste her skull....'If the A.I.'s lost it...you don't play games with an entity that can kill you with a thought. I just hope that this ship is not equiped with nano defenses' she thought as she looked along the bulkheads for anything resembling a computer access or intercomm. She been in a few actions boarding a hostile ship. It was bad enough having the crew trying to kill you - when the ship itself was...it became a whole different dance.

Spying what seemed to be a data padd just a short way down the left hand bulk head she moved to it and began examining it. If she could fingure a way to link into it she could have Way Farer interface with the Mournhold and she knew that there wasn't an A.I. out there that could withstand the mentate power behind the Way Farer. She was designed to be a first contact ship, and first interface with alien A.I. sentiences, much like Cam herself ...'No we were designed to kill things, WE made ourselves explorers and finders of new people.'...She shook that off as she found what she was looking for and began to connect a lazer data link with her comm system that would link with WayFarer with the Mournholds A.I.

* Just about ready here, and careful yourself Way...this ship makes my fur go all spidershivery* Cam let her partner know as she powered up the link, with temporary buffers inplace incase of surge or over load. Way Farer would have her defenses up. Laughter likwe that was nothing to ignore...or maybe she was just watching too many old videos lately

The blocky object launched from the Faded Fortunes was actually a reconnaissance drone. It coasted along in a straight line, its course angled such that it was continually closing on the new contact, while not appearing to go near it at all.

It scanned the ship, recording the specifics for later use. It transmitted all the readings back to the corvette's Mind, who noticed the faint contact and sleek visual appearance.
***

[Voice Transmission]
{Works for us, Way Farer. I can always vector the fighter onto it if necessary, and, as you say, it's well within range. We'll just keep an eye on them for the moment.}
[End Transmission]
***

The shuttle Salequin coasted towards The Mournhold, the Kestrel fighter floating almost lazily behind it. As the shuttle bridged the gap between the Indoan corvette and the silent research vessel, the avatar sat at the controls as the pilot and the three naval crew donned their own exposure suits. The battle armour that the Rangers wore was already fully rated for exposure to a vacuum, so they did nothing. If regulations didn't require that the shuttle have two pilots on board, the pilot wouldn't even be there, since the avatar could fly the shuttle perfectly well by itself.

As the pilot slid back into his seat, the avatar transmitted to The Mournhold:
{Mournhold, the is shuttle Salequin of the INV Faded Fortunes. We are coming into the hangar. Do you copy?}

Silence over the comm.

The shuttle reduced power as it vectored into the vessel's hangar bay, using its AG drive to guide the craft to a clear spot in the hangar, before deploying the landing skids and settling gently to the deck.

The avatar conducted a scan of the environment outside the shuttle.

"Seems safe," it announced. "But keep the suits on just in case."

The hatch opened, and the team stepped out of the shuttle. To an inexperienced observer, they would look very unusual. Two partially invisible things with guns, three humanoids, two with white, one with blue skin, and two small orange-brown furry creatures.
***

The accompanying fighter accelerated slightly and vectored away from the maw of the hangar entrance, circling around the vessel once, before heading towards the Way Farer.

{Just a friendly flyby. So that our friend thinks he's still invisible. Plus your ship interests us,} transmitted the AI aboard the Kestrel fighter to the Way Farer.

The droid beeped. "What are you doing?" it asked. "The captain won't like that, I must ask you to stop."

The ship creaked as the droid noticed the new visitors.

"Welcome to The Mournhold, the captain will be pleased to greet you."

This is The Mournhold calling, this is an emergency, please respond. We are in trouble, please respond...

Space seemed to explode as the ship exited the singularity point. As soon as it exited it responded.

"This is FH-725, your message has been received and we are ready to come aboard or evacuate. What is the nature of your emergency?"

It wasn't until then that the other ships were noticed.

"Looks like they have company already."

Foster sat back down in the pilots seat and looked at the scanned images. No match could be found in central worlds database for any of the ships in the area.

"Maria shaltin's?" Foster asked, referring to 'The comprehensive ship guide of the past century'. Anything older would be unlikely, though Helva checked the information she had anyway.

"Nothing", she replied and opened a wide band comm channel.

"This is the FH-725 out of Central Worlds. We are responding to an emergency call. We are an unarmed exploration vessel acting under government policy to assist any distress calls."

The ship was six hundred meters in length. Any central worlds commissioned ship tended to be of larger size. Being a nation who focused on prolonging and preserving life, any ship was required to assist with emergencies be it a rescue mission like this or a planetary emergency that might require vast medical supplies or evacuation of planets or stations. Aside from low powered meteorite deflectors and point defense lasers for larger space rubble she was unarmed. The titanium skin was often enough to ward off most smaller bits and even take some punishment, but it was obvious that this was no war vessel.

"What is that near the distressed ship?" Foster asked, noting the piece of metallic space junk.

"I'm not sure. A piece of the distressed vessel maybe", Helva replied.

The ship slowed it's approach, waiting to see how the other vessels would respond.

About 50 A.U.'s away a massive energy surge builds up, and a gigantic wormhole opens in space... Out of it lumbers a gigatic ship, just over 3km long, and 1.2km in width, bearing the name TRSS Poseidon BSG-30...

The massive vessel comes to a halt as the gigatic wormhole slams shut behind it. Energy begins eminating from scanning arrays, sweeping the sector.

'Ye great gnu'z and little fishes! Resucers by the pawfull are just popping out of nowhere! And not a one of them matching anything in Janes! Wheeeeee New people to meet...oh Tao will just be so jealous!' [i]Way Farer thought to herself as she began the delicate, and often dangerous, process of invadeing an unknown A.I. Part of her responded to the various communications; there was enough of her to go around

*IVN Faded Fortune - a fly by is welcome, I've got nothing to hide. Maybe we can visit after this problem is dealt with*


*FH-725 this is TSC Way Farer, I am recieving your transmission to the Mournhold. Just to let you know I've been cycling over all freq's includeing those reserved for A.I. to A.I. for over an hour and still have no response. My scans show areas with in the ship that are blocked from penetration by my technology, and my captain is aboard to check if there are any alive in those areas. Please be advised that I am an armed exploratory vessel but I really hate useing them*

The FH-725 opened the high frequency A.I. channel to the Way Farer.

"Well I'm glad to hear you don't like to use them as I have none of my own to speak of. I'm Helva, pleasure to meet you. Should I tell Foster to join your captain or shall we wait?"

"One minute Foster", Helva said. "I'm in communication with one of the vessels called the Way Farer, they have a rescue operation in progress."

"Let me know if they can use a hand", he replied.

"Checking now."

*Have him wait one Helva. Cam has set up a link...*

When one lives at light speed, even a nano second is pregnant with suspense. Then she was in partially protected, initially, by the buffers, visualized as sleek form fitting armor that glowed like emerald in the twilight of cyberspace. She looked about the formlesness, not likeing the chaos that filled the cyberspace, both sub and super script. Normally an A.I.'s cyberspace was orderly on one of the two main levels but this... Her voice was low, half distracted as she resumed communication with Helva

*Helva, lets just say I don't like this ship. And Cam's fur is standing spikey.

*IVN Faded Fortune, I'm in Mournhold's cyberspace*

(OOC - Well I see I wasn't the only one having trouble with the forum)

"Hold on Foster", she said on the main cabin speakers, "I think I have the A.I. on the way farer."

"And?"

"Wait, she's slipping into the distressed ships mainframe. Her Captain is aboard and, if I understand correctly, nervous."

"Her?"

"Pretty advanced A.I., more so than anything we have. Well, except maybe for Joat's."

Foster nodded, "Move in close and tell her that I'm standing ready to assist."

"Way Farer, I'm moving in closer and Foster is standing ready to assist your captain."

The FH-725 moved in closer and Helva scanned the piece of space debris. "You know, I'm not so sure that's a piece of debris", she said.

"Then what is it?"

"Hard to say, which is exactly why I don't think it's what it appears to be. I'm going to shift to the far side of the derelict."

Foster nodded, "Good call."

Helva adjusted her plane and moved closer going over the vessel to the far side.

Lone piloted the Blackcade Runner into the wiating and very open docking bay. There were no other ships here currently. Extending its landing struts, the spacecraft alights solidly on the deck, and begins to power down...

Inside, the crew begins to make preperations to leave the ship. "Air's breathable." Shouted Lone Ghunman, reading off the sensor data on the ship's computer. "And, none of the other ships noticed us. They won't know we're here." He nods slowly, smirking.

B. Queen grins, "Good. Anya, you suit up in one of those lovely Vector A.G.W.S., and try to hack the hangar bay so we can shut the doors."

The dark brown combat leather clad Krowemohian with the Rail Driver nods. "Gotcha, boss." Leaping over her seat, she races thgrough the open hatch into the rear compartment of the ship, where the D'bo twins are. "Hey, the Egg be ready?" Anya asked.

Twin brother and sister, Jet and Vex D'bo both wear identical beige bodysuits. "Yeah. The A.G.W.S. is ready for you. We're heading out?" Vex, the D'bo sister, said.

"Yup. Queen's wants Anya to hack the hangar. Anya's good at hacking. Heehee..." She chuckled as she passed her Rail Driver to Jet, then crawled into the Vector Industries made Mecha. Currently, it was in a sitting position, so it could be stored onboard the Blockcade Runner. A crane moved into position above the A.G.W.S., and latched onto its harness. A large cargo loading hatch slides up into the ceiling, and the crane moves the mecha out of the ship and into the hangar bay.

The A.G.W.S. unfolded itself and moved into a standing position, standing at a full four and a half meters. With Anya's hands at the controls, she retrieves the Mecha's weapons from a side storage compartment: A Prog-Knife, and a Mech Sub-Machine Gun. The Mecha then begins to walk towards the nearest computer terminal. Or at least, what Anya assumed was a computer terminal.

Meanwhile, with the D'bo twins in tow, Queen leads the small group of scavengers out of the Runner, glancing around the bay.

Wrapped around one of Queen's arms is a tightly cored leather whip, the handle hanging lossely, and at her hip is a plasma pistol. Jet D'bo wields the Rail Driver, where his sister brandishes a set of Katars on each wrist. Lone Ghunman is never without his trusty dual pistols.

"Hmmm... Alright. Nothing ye-" Queen starts to say. However, she's cut short by a droid rolling up to them. Instantly, Lone's hands fly, drawing both of his pistols and aiming them at the droid. Yet, he does not fire, as the droid speaks.

"Welcome to The Mournhold, the captain will be pleased to greet you." It spoke in a polite tone.

"The Captain... Hmmm? Well, we're not interested in meeting the Captain just yet. Say, why don't you be a dear and help our friend over there close and lock the hangar bay?" Queen spoke with a tone smooth as fine silk, motioning with one hand towards Anya in the Mecha.


((OOC: THIS (http://premium1.uploadit.org/BetaVerisonX//ag_ft_01.jpg) is the A.G.W.S. Anya is in. This particular model is designed for Hostile Boarding Combat. It's shown with a Beam Splitter Shield on the left shoulder, and a Mech Sub-Machine Gun. The Sub-Machine Gun fires depleted Uranium Ore spikes, designed to piece even the thickest armor plating. What isn't shown, is the Prog-Knife. It's a Mech-Sized Vibro-Dagger, basically. The Prog-Knife's blade vibrates at ultra-sonic velocities. The knife is stored in a compartment in the left arm.
The pilot sits in the torso area, with his/her head just below the 'head' of the Mecha.
According to my understanding, the Mournhold hjas two possible access ports. An Umbillical Docking Port, where a ship can attach an umbillical and board that way, and a hangar bay. So far, it seems no one has landed in the hangar bay, and Cam is at the Umbilical port. If I'm mistaken, please state where I am mistaken andI'll edit my post to fit accordingly. Thanks.))

OOC: My shuttle landed in the hangar bay. And if I know anything about ship construction, there isn't room inside for a mech (except in the hangar bay). There certainly isn't in mine.

Tanara/Draconis: Is Cam in the hangar bay, or somewhere else?

IC:
~ How many ships are there? And how can something that size be classed as a rescue ship?

[Voice Transmission]
{FH-725, this is the INV Faded Fortunes. We also have a team aboard The Mournhold. We'll inform you of the situation as soon as we know, then you can decide what to do about it. Okay?}
[End Transmission]

{So what's it look like, Way Farer. Anything useful? Any indication of what happened?}

~ Hey, that contact on the far side is moving. It's heading towards The Mournhold. This could be good or bad. Probably bad, since they have not communicated with it.
***

The fighter made its flyby on the Way Farer, then vanished. Or only half vanished, depending on what you were looking at it with.

The corvette made no visible moves, but three more 'vanished' Kestrel fighters came out of the hangar bay and flew towards their comrade. The fighters were using their camouflage systems, invisible to some sensors, while unchanged on others. They split into two pairs after linking up, and headed toward the far contact, the one that was weak, sometimes seeming to be space junk.
***

"Uh, yeah. Where is everyone? What is your emergency?" the medic, Kate Riesco, asked the droid.

The two Rangers, Cpls Nikolai Kane and Evelyn Reid, watched silently, their weapons held loosely in their hands. The pilot and the avatar were the last off the shuttle.

"So what do you think, Andie?" asked Lt. Ferrante quietly, the pilot of the shuttle.

"Seems awfully quiet for a ship this size, Jann," replied the avatar, Anderaleigh, in a similarly low tone.

The two Douran, Dex Achevarria and Riv Lassai, stood looking out the hangar entrance, watching the sleek ship move towards them.

*Aboard the TRSS Poseidon.

"Sir," says Lt. Regent, the science officer. "I am picking up multiple vessels, unknown configuration, unknown species, about 50 AU's distance, 245 mark 73."

"Mr. Sloan", says Vice Admiral Nordstrom, the Poseidon's Commanding Officer, turning to the comm officer, "Any traffic."

"Not on any standard channels we know of sir." says Lt. Sloan.

"Helm," command VADM Nordstrom, "plot K-tube insertion, put us within 100,000 kilometers of those vessels... and Mr. Sloan, begin broadcasting friendship greetings on all frequencies..."

The 35 million metric ton Poseidon begins emiting massive amounts of energy, in the form of neutrino radiation. Within moments another wormhole opens, one end mere meters in front of the Poseidon, the other 50 AU's away, 100,000 kilometers from the derelict and other ships... The Poseidon slips effortlessly into the wormhole, emerging from the other end... She slowly takes up station on the other end, as the wormhole slams shut behind her... and a message starts droning our, and repeating....

This is the Tekanian Republic Stellar Ship Poseidon, Bravo-Sigma-Gamma-Three-Zero, Sector Control Vessel of the Constitutional Republic of Tekania, Vice Admiral Nikolas Nordstrom commanding... We are an exploratory and defensive vessel of the Republic. We are on a peaceful mission and mean you no harm.

OOC: IIRC, Cam left the hanger bay and is in a corridor.

IC:

Krowemoh: The droid began beeping. "The captain doesn't seem to be around anyway," it said before moving over to Anya. "Droid-74-007 at your service."

Others aboard the ship: A low howl drifted through the ship. The lights flickered on and off. After a moment of silence following the howl, a quiet laughter was heard followed by softly spoken words. You are all going to die. The laughter returned.

OOC: What about the droid talking to my team? We're in the same hangar aren't we?

IC:
~ That monster is an exploration vessel? I'm an exploration vessel! I could fit inside that thing about a hundred times. Still...

The Mind recalled the recent events when one of it's sister ships had entered the Sol system.

~ Sometimes, a larger vessel would be appropriate, it was forced to admit.

OOC: What about the droid talking to my team? We're in the same hangar aren't we?




OOC: Opps, sorry slight mistake on my part.

IC: The droid beeped. "I... don't... know..." the droid said slowly. "The captain always tells us when he leaves the ship. Accessing memory bank to recall the captain leaving the ship." The droid starting beeping in rapid succession. "The captain did not mention leaving the ship, oh my... we are in trouble."

OOC:

TRSS Poseidon, BSG-30.

Kali Class Sector Control Vessel:
Mass: 35,200,000 Metric Tons
Length: 3,060 meters
Height: 650 meters
Beam: 1200 meters

Total Compliment: 8,500(standard)9,500(maximum)
Crew: 3,100
Marines: 3,400
Flight Wing:2,000
Reserve Spacing:1,000

Component materials:
Duranium/Tritanium composite. Neutronium.

Power Generation, 4 Zero-Point Matter Reactors. 10 Fusion powered backup generation units.

Main propulstion:
9 Reactionless Impulse units.
1 Kraskinov Wormhole generator (for FTL).

~~~~~~~~

"XO", commands VADM Nordstrom, "prep a marine detail to board the derelict."

"Aye sir," responds Commodore Marcus.

OOC: It's okay. We are in the same hangar, right?

IC:
"Riight," stated Riesco, "Your ship sent out a distress signal. We're here to help. Andie, link it."

The blue-skinned avatar used its link to the Faded Fortunes to download the message and played it through the loudspeaker on Cpl. Kane's battlesuit.

"This is The Mournhold calling, this is an emergency, please respond. We are in trouble, please respond..."

"Whatever is going on, we're going to have a look around. Is that okay?" announced Lt. Ferrante.

The two Douran were still watching the other ship as it settled into the hangar and a number of beings disembarked. They glanced at each other nervously.

OOC: As far as I know, yeaa.

IC:

The droid beeped. "Captain?" it said. "The captain is in trouble." A couple more beeps came from the droid. "The captain, you must help her."

The ship creaked and groaned.

A single Aurora class assult shuttle slips from the port landing bay of the TRSS Poseidon... Onboard, four marines and one pilot are prepping for landing in the derelict...

"Lieutenant", says Major Raines, talking to the Naval pilot, "put us in that hangar deck there..." he says pointing to his scanning console at the port station."

"Aye sir," responds the pilot. Prepping for landing...

The Aurora slips into the hangar, struts deploying from its under-side, and settling down softly on the hangar deck. Within moments, a side door opens, and three armed marines deploy from the craft, Corporal Samuel Thorton, Corporal James Martin, and Seargent Victor Hastingson.

*Well, if you'd use a more common frequency some one might just respond to you* The Way Farer's reply over the main frequency used by TRSS Poseidon, BSG-30 definitely carried a sniff TRSS Poseidon, BSG-30. This is TSC Way Farer, and I guess that IVN Faded Fortunes and I, by the virtue of having arrived first are in charge of this rescue effort.

She made the next broadcast to ALL the ships that had arrived.

Okay folks I'm not going to let us work at cross purposes or stepping on each others toes. My sensors show that every one save Central Worlds ship Helva has put some one aboard - and that includes the ship masquerading as so much space junk.

Way Farer took a look around the desolate chaos of the Mournholds cyberspace and shivered, then continued her broadcast

Helva if your captain wishes to come aboard why doesn't he do so now. Every one else hold in the hanger bay and then when all are assembled we can split into teams and cover the ship thoroughly. I'm asking my captain, Cam, to go to the hanger now to meet with those there.

She just hoped every one would cooperate.

********* Mournhold secondary corridor near universal docking ring ****

Cam snarled softly as the howl and the laughter that swilred through the ship. Way Farer hadn't reported anything yet and that in itself was unnerving.

"You're all going to die" came the voice from everywhere and yet no where. That flattened ehr ears and had her tail lashing like an angry metronome.

*"Way?"*

*"I'm in, I don't like the looks of this. We've more rescuers popping up and I've kinda taken charge, trying to get every one to assemble in the hanger, so things can be some what coordinated,- commos set on the same frequency, people knowing which part of the ship they are responsible for covering, etc. Why don't you head that way...and be careful"*

*"On my way... and I really don't like the way this ship smells, just outside of figureing what the smell is."* Cam moved at an easy jog, following the schematic Way Farer had sent to her skinsuits data padd.

This is the Tekanian Republic Stellar Ship Poseidon, Bravo-Sigma-Gamma-Three-Zero, Sector Control Vessel of the Constitutional Republic of Tekania, Vice Admiral Nikolas Nordstrom commanding... We are an exploratory and defensive vessel of the Republic. We are on a peaceful mission and mean you no harm.

"Great Ghu", Foster muttered, "what is that?"

"Says it's and exploration and defensive vessel", Helva replied.

"Exploration? It's as big as the colony ships from the early days. Devensive, maybe, but even our warships are only about a kilometer in length", he said.

Helva if your captain wishes to come aboard why doesn't he do so now. Every one else hold in the hanger bay and then when all are assembled we can split into teams and cover the ship thoroughly. I'm asking my captain, Cam, to go to the hanger now to meet with those there.

"We read you Way Farer. I acknowledge your assumption of control for this rescue and informing Foster. We'll coordinate with you."

"Foster? Way Farer is assuming control of the rescue efforts, we'll be coordinating with them."

"Excellent", Foster replied, "thier Captain?"

"Will be meeting you in the hanger deck, you'll need to take a skiff."

"Very good, thank you my dear", Foster replied.

A small skiff left the hold of the FH-725 and moved toward the bay of the derelict.

"Captain Cam it was right?" Foster asked.

"I believe so."

"Way Farer, your captain is Cam? Foster would like to know."

"Right. If your captain is in trouble, we'll go and find her, so we can help," Ferrante told the droid. The pilot and the battle-suited Rangers began to move towards the hangar exit.

"Jann, wait. Faded Fortunes wants us to stay here for the moment," the avatar announced. The pilot turned and sighed.

"Fine. We'll wait. Just don't blame me if everyone's dead," he groused.

Riesco walked back to the shuttle and sat on the access ramp, putting her kit down at her feet. The two Rangers just stood there, still partially invisible to the naked eye.

****

As the Faded Fortunes monitored the communications flying around, the four camouflaged fighters coasted around to The Mournhold's hangar bay and floated just outside, invisible to those in the hangar. The Mind just did not trust that Blockade Runner.

{Thanks for including me there, Way Farer, although I have to ask why, since you were here first. You think that monster will tolerate us being in charge? Hsu, that thing is big. Plus, I don't trust that 'space junk' ship. I think they may be raiders.
What did you find in The Mournhold's cyberspace? Anything useful?}

The corvette's Mind then sent a message to the monster ship.

[Voice Transmission]
{TRSS Poseidon, the INV Faded Fortunes copies your transmission. I think all craft that have so far communicated are here for peaceful reasons. What did you send to The Mournhold. It looked like a combat vessel, please clarify.}
[End Transmission]

~ Honestly. Why bring a ship that size? It's bigger than the largest vessel in the Indoan Fleet. What reason could you possibly have for using a ship that size for exploration? M'eh. As long as they don't start threatening people, I don't care.

The droid beeped, it's metallic blue serface glinted from the hanger lights. "Wait, are you sure?" it asked.

The shadows in the hanger seemed to move as if it were reaching at the droid. The droid of course didn't take notice, its pupose aboard the ship was to take notice of anyone entering the hanger and to greet guests, not to notice moving shadows.

The ship groaned once more.

Foster had removed his helmet and looked about as the shadows moved and the ship groaned.

"That's bizarre", Helva said from his mastoid implant just at the inner ear.

"Down right gothic if you ask me", Foster subvocalized into the molar implant.

"I would ask but then I would have to ask you what gothic is", Helva replied.

Foster chuckled, "I find it hard to believe you don't know."

"I was joking", she said, "I'm picking up fluctuations in the scans from the button."

"Like what?", he asked her.

"I don't know, but it's making MY spine shiver."

To those assembled he said, "Greetings, I'm Foster Amontillado Y Medoc. I seek Captain Cam of the Way Farer."

OOC: Is it too late to get in this? If so just ignore the following post... otherwise...

IC: About a thousand kilometers off of the bow of the derelict a small ship rapidly and unstabely came out of a small and very unstable worm hole. The ship was of very poor design and had obviously been made from third rate materials. The ship contained a small crew of deserters. Life under the Qax was a terrible one, and the sickest part of it was that almost none of those oppressed even realized that they were oppressed. Most were hollow remnents of themselves addicted to the drugs pumped out for the population by the Qax. Some individuals manage to "kick" the habit however and realise what is going on. Most are caught and put on even more potent drugs, but a rare few manage to escape the clutches of the Empire to try and find better lives.

This crew had build this ship secretly underground while still serving their oppressors for many years. Finally just a week ago they fled from the home planet and escaped into the far reaches of space. Sadly the poor quality made its jump technology highly unstable. It, in an extremely poor turn of luck, has just came out of a worm hole near a ghost ship. The ship drifted towards the derelict at dangerous speeds and only with the luck of a small piece of space debree manage to have their path altered and slowed so that when they finally hit the derelict they were not completely destroyed. They quickly fired hooks and came to a halt on the side of the derelect.

Haedrane the mastermind of the escape looked up from his console at the command ship. It was black. He looked around, he could see the shapes of multiple other Arixians slowly stirring from the crash. Their reaction times were still greatly slowed, a damage done by the withdrawl from the drugs.

Haedrane mumbled, "Damage report..."

A response did not come for a few seconds.

A voice called out, "What the hell do you think, pretty damn bad..."

Arixians were and incredibly hot blooded race and were highly aggresive and very testy. This was all hidden by the Qax, but an Arixian off of the drugs was a very short tempered being indeed.

"Alright we are going to need to find out what the hell we just hit, it could be anything, an asteroid, moon... god even a planet for all we know."

"Ok sir... send a few Ju Thagens for a walk?"

"Yea... I guess"

Ju Thagens were a creation of the Qax, masters of all things biological. They were beast of burden and war. At the shoulders with four legs on the ground they stoof a terrifying ten feet tall. A Ju Thagen has two arms and four legs. The arms can be used as another set of legs to traverse vertical terrain and also allow them to assumer a far small stature. Their immense size hides their ability to compress. With a long and lanky body they can crawl almost flat to the ground and with a little work fit through a human sized doorway.

A large hatch openned up on what was the rear of the ship. Out came four large hulking beasts, Ju Thagens. The cold void of space bit at their exposed flesh as they slowly filed out on to the derelect. Ju Thagens were engineared to survive in the void, but the temperature was extreme. They began to quickly crawl towards what appeared to be the nearest hanger.

OOC: The nearest hanger is the one the blockade runners landed in, thought it would be a little more interesting that way.

'Great Ghu', Helva thought, "Forester? Your not going to believe this, there's company coming."

"Why wouldn't I", he responded subvocally as her voice came across the scrambled mastoid channel.

"Because these creatures have no suits and that ringing you hear was a ship hitting the derelict."

"Wha?" Foster stood confused, but waited to see who Captain Cam was as he wondered about the creatures on their way to the hanger.

"Attention unknown craft", Helva said, using all known frequencies, "This is the FH-725, if can, respond please." 'Well', she thought, 'at least the unknown craft that had RECENTLY made it's appearance.'

((OOC: That works for me, Infinate Cruicible. Since no one else seems to be on the same time as me, it'll work better if there were two hangar bays. I hope this is okay, Draconis Nightcrawlis.))

Of course, no one was in the Blockcade Runner to hear the Way Farer's lovely transmission. To the crew, they were still under the impression their presense had gone mostly unnoticed.

Anya grinned down at the droid as it rolled up to her. "Okay, Droid. Anya wants you to log into the terminal and close hangar bay. And lock it too. We don't want no one landing here." A blip on her HUD alerted her to movement outside the hull. "Oi. Anya picking up something here..."

She piloted the AGWS into a kneeling position facing the void of outer space (I assume there's some sort of energy field that keeps the vaccum out, but lets solid objects pass.), raising the Mech SMG to bear, ready to make the first thing she saw dance to the rymthn of lead. "Droid, Anya needs the hangar bay doors closed, like right now."

Queen nodded slowly. "Anya, handles things here. We're going deeper to find salvage. Maybe there's a cargo room we can... Liberate." She said with a smirk. With Lone at her side and the D'bo twins behind her, B. Queen sets off to explore the ship, switching on a portable floodlamp to light up the way ahead of them...

As they leave the hangar, they hear a howl echo though the corridor. Lights flickered on and off after that, followed by a voice saying "You are all going to die." Followed by bone-chilling laughter.

Out of the corner of her eye, B. Queen noticed that Lone was twirling one of his pistols around his forefinger. She instantly knew what that meant: He was spooked, and would probably shoot the first thing that moved into his field of vision, regardless of what it was. Knowing full well how a confrontation with one of the other groups would turn out, she unravels her whip, letting the end trail.

Taking their leader's cue, the D'bo twins too begin to ready themselves for probable combat. The Rail Driver begins to hum with energy as the magnetic fields are prepped to fire, and Vex tightens her fists around the handle bars of her wristblades, her grip causing the blades to discreete a paralyzing posion along the edges...


((OOC2: Free Eagles, when you think Mecha, you're probably thinking of one of those forty feet tall, fifty ton behemoths from BattleTech/MechWarrior. However, A.G.W.S. are only thirteen or so feet tall, and weigh less then four tons. Vector Industries deisgned these mechs specifically for ship-to-ship boarding combat. To fit inside the Blockcade Runner, it can sit down, decreasing it's hieght significantly. If a hallway is too big for it to walk through, it can crawl on it's hands and knees, too. The fact that the crew owns one would suggest a connection to Vector Industries, but I'm not saying if such a suggestion would be true. :P
And Infinate C, Anya probably will kill the first Ju Thagen she sees. She's one trigger happy scavenger... >_>;; ))

OOC: Actually, I was thinking of around about 8-15 feet tall. The corridors on my ships don't exceed 7'6" at any time. This ship I don't know about, but I would assume they're similar. And if you are in a different hangar, my fighters (currently invisible) are floating around outside your hangar, since they are watching you.

IC:
The camouflaged AI fighters automatically dodged when the mech swung around towards them, but then stopped and held position again as it failed to track them.

Then they recieved the data from the Faded Fortunes that there was yet another ship in the area, and that this one had crashed into the derelict and clamped on, before releasing four creatures, that were roaming the exterior of the ship without suits, and heading their way.

***

The Indoans in the hangar were watching the arrival of a fourth craft, when suddenly their attention was drawn to the sounds of a rifle being armed.

Cpl. Kane had his weapon at his shoulder, and was pointing it at the far wall behind the droid, constantly shifting his aimpoint.

"Kane. What's up?" asked Ferrante. Kane lowered his weapon and turned to face the pilot again.

"Sorry sir. Coulda sworn the shadows moved, and that groan. Like something alive, it was," he told them.

Great. We haven't even started yet, and already my Rangers are jumpy, thought Ferrante.

"What's the Fortunes want us to wait for anyway?" he asked the avatar.

"The Way Farer requested that everyone meet in a hangar bay, so we can sort out a proper search. We're waiting for its captain, Jann," explained the avatar.

"Yes, we're sure. We know what we're doing," Reid told the droid, her voice emanating from her suit's speaker.

The occupant of the latest ship walked up to them and said something. The Indoans didn't initially understand, but then their neural threads kicked in with a translator and they understood. [1]

"Hi there, Foster. I'm Lieutenant Jann Ferrante, Indoan Air Force, off the INV Faded Fortunes. This is my team. And I think we're all waiting for Captain Cam," announced the pilot. His neural thread translated the words before he spoke, so it appeared the the pilot was speaking English.

The two Douran were walking around the other ships in the hangar, examining the alien designs with interest, but ignoring the occupants of those ships.


[1] - Indoans can't speak English, but their neural interfaces can translate it for them. From now on it will be instant, as if they speak English. That first time the translator hadn't been running. When they talk to each other though, it will be in Indoan.

OOC2: Again, if you haven't seen it yet, go here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=399389) for info on my species.

Transmission Received*******************
[Begin]
TRSS Poseidon, the INV Faded Fortunes copies your transmission. I think all craft that have so far communicated are here for peaceful reasons. What did you send to The Mournhold. It looked like a combat vessel, please clarify.
[end]


"Open up a channel to the Faded Fortunes..." commands VADM Nordstom...

____________________________________
INV Faded Fortunes... This is Vice Admiral Nordstrom on the Poseidon. The vessel we sent over is an Aurora Class Marine Assault Shuttle. It is fielded with 5 persons. One Tekanian Stellar Forces naval pilot, and 4 marines attached to the Marine Expeditionary Engineers. While trained in some combat, they are primarily engineers for unknown and possibly dangerous missions. We will not be sending over any other armed personnel unless the situation is deemed hostile... And extraction is necessary. On a further note, I do not want you to feel intimidated by the Poseidon. The Tekanian Stellar Forces are primarily an exploratory and defensive organization. Our ships are capable of long-term exploration duty, covering several galaxies. And, also, we sometimes use these ships for colonization duties. The Poseidon is what we call an "SCV", Sector Control Vessel, it is designed to serve the purpose of, what effectively would be a "mobile star-base".... We can discuss further if you would like.... Message ends...



[b]Way Farer and INV Faded Fortunes... The TRSS Poseidon stands at your disposal for any operational needs. We have presently dispatched a small detail of Marine Expliditionary Engineers to the derelict vessel, consisting of 4 personnel, in addition we are fielding standard Naval engineers in our flight deck, should you need more assistance in recovery efforts... The Poseidon is standing by.... Message ends...

The droid beeped and moved over to the terminal. It beeped again as it prodded the droid connection and communicated with the terminal. Another beep signalled that it was done and the droid withdrew.

"Hanger bay doors are locked," it told her.

***

A shadow reached across the floor and grabbed B. Queen's whip.

***

"Understood," the droid replied to Reid.

~ Oh damn. They locked the hangar doors. Now how am I supposed to watch them? Hmmm. Maybe if I...

***

The four Kestrel fighters switched off their camouflage systems, reappearing on the sensors again. They immediately rotated, and accelerated away from the vessel, heading back towards the Faded Fortunes. Two returned to the hangar bay, while the other two began orbiting the corvette, on hand if they were needed.

***

"Kane, Reid. Switch off the optics, will you. It'll save power and we can see you better," ordered Ferrante.

The two Rangers complied, their forms no longer transparent and the armour returned to its normal dark-blue colour. The avatar suddenly looked up, in communication with the Faded Fortunes.

Behind them, a tiny spider drone scuttled out of the Indoan shuttle. So quiet was it, that even Naval Sergeant Riesco, sitting a mere metre from it, did not hear it. It scuttled across the hangar deck and out into the corridors, heading for the other hangar, so that the Faded Fortunes could continue to monitor the Blockade Runner.

OOC: Apologies all. I had a huge, lovely post last night and my net connection dies and ate it. Trying again...(sigh, my cable modem hates me of late)

EDITED * PLEASE SEE MY NEXT POST r save for Cam's litle runabout which is docked at an universal docking ring some distance away. ( and the new comer which is crashed on the Mournholds hull )

and lol Cam is an Xa'Cz'nni - a living universal translator if you will (designed that way )

**************WayFarer (http://www.atddm.com/WayFarer.jpg)**************

* There's nothing here the interface visualization, the A.I. is either hiding or the core programing has been destroyed. And those beings on the Mournhold's hull are showing distress. I am going to override.* WayFarer broadcast to all as she sent tendril of command to the hanger door control and reopened the doors, over riding the droids orders and allowing the new comers to enter.

Cam entered the hanger from the sub corridor just in time to see shadow animate and snatch the whip from a unnoticing Krowemohian female. Her CK MarkV pistol was out and the shadow disintegrated beneath the pinpoint stellar brightness of encapsulated photons releasing abruptly. The slightly scorched whip dropped to the deck.

"Oh by the depths! We have an infestation of Shadow aboard!" Cam's voice was a snarl as she lowered her weapon but did not reholster it, prepared to be elsewhere in 'notime' if any one fired upon her

Foster reacted instantly to the shot, leaping, balled and rolling behind the skiff he had arrived in. Though an older looking gentleman with grey shot black hair he certainly didn't seem to suffer from age. He snatched the pistol from his own holster and rolled up into a crouch, leveling the gun toward the attacker. It was only then that he realized the shot was meant for the shadow and not the woman standing there. He tilted the gun upward and held out one hand in peace.

"My apologies", he said to the feline looking woman, "I'm Foster Amontillado Y Medoc from the FH-725, I seek Captain Cam." As he spoke he rose slowly to his feet, slipping the needler back into it's holster.

'Helva', he subvocalized, 'did you see that?'

'You have surgically installed audio and visual implants in your molar, mastoid and retina, I can't miss it unless I disconnect', she replied.

'It was a retorical question. Next time I see one of those shadows I'll try to get close enough for the contact button to scan it.'

((OOC: Tanara, I've RPed with you before, and I both trust and respect your RP ability. But, I don't like how your trying to force my characters to interact with everyone elses at the moment. Of course I want to interact with the others, but not right now.
This is Draconis Nightcrawlis' RP, and it is his ship. So far, he has given me the impression that he okaies the idea of the Mournhold having two seperate Hangar bays. Draconis Nightcrawlis, if you don't, and want me to be in the same hangar as everyone else, please say so and I'll change my post to fit, okay?
Free Eagles, your ship only has halls that are just a little over seven feet tall? That doesn't mean much room for really, really tall creatures. >_>

Wait a minute, I just got a brainstorm. The two (Or even more, if DN okaies it) hangar bays could be next to each other. You know, seperate docking bays for multiple ships, that way they don't all bump into each other in the same bay. Cam meant to enter the one with the others in it but accidently (Or purposely, if you want) enters the one with the scavangers.
By the way, Lone Ghunman is the only human of this group. All Krowemohians are catpeople. :D So, it'd be a very inapproriately dressed catgirl, not human. :D Nudity isn't that big of a deal in Krowemoh (Due to a massive lack of Judeo-Christan influence), hence why B. Queen wears so little and it doesn't bother her or anyone else in her group, least of Lone, who may or may be a pervert. :P If need be, I can write up a bio for the entire team.))

Anya smiled as she raises her A.G.W.S. from its kneeling position. She turns to the droid. "Good job droid! Anya would reward you, but Anya not be knowing what droids consider reward." Her Mech's external sensors picked up an audio disturbance, a shot being fired. Using the built-in zoom function, she frowns as she sees the others surrounding a lone female. "Droid, Anya needs to be knowing if this ship has internal security measures, like ceiling guns or something. Can Anya access these functions from here?"

Meanwhile, Cam's little intervenetion didn't exactly raised pleased responses from the scavagener team. B. Queen dropped her now ruined whip, drawing her Plasma pistol as she leapt to one side, the flood lamp landing on the deck, illuminating most of the surrounding area. Lone Ghunman already had his pistols trained on the interloper, and Jet too brought his Rail Driver to bear on the woman as he dropped to one knee. Vex dropped into an offensive Claw of the Goddess stance, behind Jet and slightly off-set to his left, spreading her weight evenly between her two feet, one Katar leading (The tip is faced towards Cam) while the other hangs low, the tip facing away from Cam.

Queen spoke quickly, with a commanding tone. "B*tch! Do you know how much it costs to have one of those custom-made? A lot of Tidercs! Are you going to pay to have it replaced?" She flashed Cam a vicious smirk.

Lone Ghunman diverted one pistol off of Cam and towards the older human who appeared in a hurry from around a partion, "Queen, on your left." He informed their leader, covering both of them, but it was quite obvious he didn't think either of them were the real threat here. I don't think anyone else saw that. Something grabbed Queen's whip before that woman blow it away. Something ain't right, here...


((OOC2: .... Well, let's see how this ends... >_> ))

OOC: I don't mind, either way the characters get stalked :D

IC:

The droid beeped. "Droids do not need rewards, we are programmed to be of use, not to ask for rewards," the droid replied. "The ship only has external weapons, though the crew carry their own."

***

The shadow crossed the corridor in between the before hiding in another shadow. The ship once again groaned and creaked.

OOC: Okay Krowemoh - I honestly couldn't tell if DN was wanting multiple hangers or not - most any ship of size that I have have multiple hangers so it's fine by me..I'll be glad to say that they are multiple, seperate but interlinked hangers with your people in one all by themselves for the moment.

And my apologies for misremembering your leaders species - i'll go fix that in just a moment ( my connection is like a yoyo today grrrr! ) and deliberate is just fine by me - feline face off here since Xa'Cz'nni were created from proto feline stock Camlõkewen - but not tiger stripes and her hair is a dark red gold not black (http://www.atddm.com/cam.jpg)

*****************Mournhold hanger bay 2 *******

Cams return smile was a similar, a carnivor's fangbearing smile that was no human smile at all. She replied in the same language the whip wielder did

"Nope, not important in the slightest measured against the fact that if I hadn't you'd be elsewhere, and more than likely dead. You've got senses, USE them! Take a whiff of the far end of your whip."

Cam was far more concerned about the Shadow, they were far more trouble than this lot of scavengers. She'd wish a plague of Shadow on no one.

She spared a nod for the man who'd introduced himself as Foster, a name she'd always liked, and refrained from offering a comment about liking wine as well, he probably heard a lot of such.

OOC: Well, my ships are only meant for Indoans. Tallest Indoan species is about 6'6", so it's not a problem to us. Although, as the crew of another of my vessels have found out, it can be very useful when somebody boards them.

IC:
The spider drone scuttled along the corridor and into the other hangar. Its visual recorders showed a group of four beings and a mech pointing weapons at another being.

The visual feed was being watched by the Faded Fortunes Mind, and it communicated with the avatar on board The Mournhold.

***

"What the fuck?" exclaimed Kane.

"Somebody's firing weapons. Let's rock, Nik," declared Reid, her rifle already at her shoulder. The two Rangers moved towards the hangar exit, covering each other, as they went.

"Rangers!" called Ferrante. Both stopped and looked at the pilot. "Hold it."

"Actually, the Fortunes wants you to go investigate," said the avatar.

"Yes! Thanks, Andie. Got your back, Eve," stated Kane, delight evident in his voice.

"Aren't you forgetting something, Kane?" asked Ferrante.

"What?" replied the Ranger, mildly annoyed. This airhead was shortening his shooting time.

"Optics, Corporal. Optics. And I'm coming with you," explained the pilot.

Ferrante drew his pistol as the Rangers returned to partial invisibility and headed towards the door. The other Indoans stayed with the shuttle, although Riesco and Lassai did draw their own pistols.

"I don't like this ship, Andie," said Riesco quietly as something groaned again.

"I know what you mean, Kate," agreed the avatar.

***

"Go right. First door," instructed the Faded Fortunes over Kane's comm unit. The Ranger complied, entering the adjacent hangar. They saw the same scene as the spider drone, which was still sitting on the deck, safely to one side.

The Rangers moved through the door then into the hangar, the camouflage systems in their armour adapting as they moved. Jann Ferrante followed them, staying behind them so as not to present an easy target.

They stopped, weapons leveled at the unknowns. None of the three said anything, since they didn't want to trigger something.

Cam heard and smelled the arrival of another group but didn't turn her eyes from the scavenger's leader. Her whiskers twitched and she gave a small chuff of laughter

"Lets all be calm here why not. Tis not each other that we should be pointing weapons at, and most weapons won't do a damned thing to Shadow."

She hoped she was getting through to the heavily armed group of scavengers. She didn't have a problem with them claiming some salvage profits, but they really ought to stay alive long enough to at least apply for it

((OOC: FE, do the optics render them completely invisible, or is it like Predator, where if you look close enough, you can still kinda sorta see the blur of the person's outline? (Not like it'll matter in this dark. :D) Also, Anya's on the other side of the hangar bay, near their blockcade runner, and she isn't exactly pointing her gun at Cam, yet. :D Oh, and one last thing. Do the optics filter out their other tracable emissions, like heat, eletrconics, metal, and all that? Or is it just visual only? What I'm asking is, can Anya see them if she uses InfraRed vision mode on her AGWS?))


B. Queen smirked right back, not the least bit intimidated by the full-fledged feline woman. "Hmphm..."

"Queen, she's right. I don't think you saw it, but just before she came in, it was like a shadow or something tried to eat your whip. I know guns, and she wasn't aiming for your whip." Lone Ghunman said, lowering his pistol a little. "Something ain't right here. I say we shove on out of here and forget we ever saw this place."

Queen cut her eyes at Lone. "When I want your opinoin, I'll beat you with a cue card. We're here for a reason: To rescue any survivors on this ship. Which brings us to you, kitty. Why are YOU here? You some sort of Scavenger?" Queen turned her attention towards Cam once more, bringing her full gaze onto the woman as she stood to her full five and a half feet height, her tail flicking back and forth quickly, angerly.

Jet and Vex made no move, still retaining their positions...


Anya nodded, knowing full well the droid couldn't see her inside the Mecha. "Okay. So, Anya be getting the impression that there's an armory on board this ship? Do you know if its still stocked?" Weapons always sell for good Tidercs. Queen will be happy Anya getting weapons all on her own.


((OOC2: Remember, Italics represents what the character is thinking. :D))

The droid began beeping. "No armoury," it replied. "Just personal weapons."

A shadow swirled around Anya's feet.

((OOC: When you say Anya's feet, I assume you mean the Mecha's feet... >_> Free feel to grab Anya. I doubt I'll be able to use her abilities much in this particular RP. If you plan to kill her though, I want to do the death scene, okay?))


Anya heaved a heavy sigh, not noticing the shadow gathering around the feet of her AGWS. "Anya sees. Ah well. C'mon, let's seeing what the others are doing, okay? Oh... Can Anya call you Kabu-Robo?" The Mech pivots slightly to face the others. Anya felt reasonably safe in her AGWS. Vector Industries made this things to be sturdy. Even if fighting did break out, the chance of any of them having enough firepower to bring her Mech down was slim...

The droid began beeping in alarm. "The crew, the crew," it said. "The shadows got them, at your feet."

(Okay, now at least I have an idea of where people are and such. I'll just assume I landed in the scavengers bay to make things easy.)

Foster moved slowly over next to Captain Cam, examining her before returning his attention to the rest.

'Foster', Helva said into mastoid implant, which couldn't be heard and was a scrambled channel, 'your heart rate jumped, beyond the previous action.'

'Yeah well', he subvocalized into the molar implant (which could be heard by vampires. Felines might be able to if thier close enough, only Cam is, so that's cam's call if she hears him. It's also a scrambled frequency.) 'I'm older than most brawns but I'm not dead you know', he said with a glance at Cam.

'Softshells and thier hormones', Helva mumbled.

'Helva', he said, raising voice just enough to make sure Cam heard but not the other felines in the room, 'ready sonics, high pitch, feline range. If worse comes to worse I'll try to take down the human while you knock out the others.'

"Ladies and Gentlemen", he said in a diplomatic tone, "let's not fall to fighting amongst each other. Something is very wrong here and we may need each other before long. If any hadn't heard I'm here for a rescue mission, a rescue only, Helva and I don't deal in salvage. I just want to see if anyone is left alive and see if we can find out what happened, then I'll be on my way."

Cams tail was slower more deliberate of its movements. The various factors had been measured, weighed, and accounted for. She let her lips droop a little covering most of her fangs

"Not a scavenger, currently preplotting for the Universal University. Million students onboard and don't want to jump them into something their parent might have fits about." She turned her attention to the human male the Krowemohian leader had just threatened, and nodded slightly

"Thank you. Shadow is...sneaky and very cunning, and hard to erase. I've only encountered it five times in my 365 years of jaunting about the universes.

Ears adapted to hear the faintest of stirings caught the all but sub vocalized comments of the Central World's Captain Foster, and she moved close to him, casually placing a hand upon his shoulder..'gallant gentlemen ought not to be caught in crossfire that could be avoided and I can avoid' she thought, then her thoughts stilled as her ears most certainly caugh the alarmed beeping of the droid by the mech's feet and it's warning.

The Cam was stepping into the sub universe/ state of existance her race had long ago designated 'notime', taking Foster with her. Then emerging elsewhere in the hanger bay, her pistol up and targeting on the gathering shadow at the mechs feet.

"Ware Shadows!" Her warning cry alerting every one to the dangers return

Anya blinked. "Huh?" The AGWS tilted down, looking at its feet. "Carps!" She cursed as she saw the shadow, quickly causing the Mecha to jump back out of the puddle of shadow. "Piking hell!" She thumbed a switch on one of the control rods, causing the 'eye' of the Mecha to emit a beam of light, (Talk about headlights. :D) directing the light at the pool of shadows, to see if that had any effect...


At first, Queen made no reply, simply sizing up both Cam and the man who introduced himself.

It was Lone who finally made the first move, holstering his pistols and steeping forward, offering one hand for a handshake. "I'm called Lone Ghunman(Pronounced 'gun-man'). That's Jet and Vex D'bo (Pronounced 'DA-bou'), and she's B. Queen." He motioned to each in the group, then jerked a thumb towards the way back. "And Anya is in the AGWS (Pronounced 'eggs') back there."

Queen shook her head, holstering her plasma pistol. "So be it. Let's call this a truce then. Still, I think it'd be best if our two groups work... Independently of each other."

Laughter filled the air as the shadow withdrew. "Pathetic fools, did you not stop to think as to why a perfectly good ship was abandoned like this before attempting to plunder it?" a calm, eiree voice told them.

The droid moved back a bit, beeping heavily. "The shadows, the shadows, they took the crew," it said.

Foster's heart jumped up in it's pace as Cam's hand rested on his shoulder. 'To long alone he muttered, neither to Cam nor Helva, but to himself. Suddenly he was elsewhere after the other's introduced themselves and before he could reply. "Wha.." was all he got out before instinct and training took over. The needler leveled at the shadow and a spray of paravenom darts struck sparks from the flooring, the paralyzing needler being ineffective against whatever it was that was assaulting the mech.

'What was that?' Helva asked, 'I lost you for a moment, where are you?'

Hopelessly outdated, even in his own system he stepped between the shadow and the Captain as his innate chivalry took over.

'Is that wise?' Helva asked him.

"No", he said out loud, seeming, to the others present,to talk to the shadow itself.

OOC: My apologies if I wasn't clear enough - Cam heard the words of the Mournhold droid and literally vanished from before every ones eyes, taking Foster with her. She then, near instantly reappeared ( as did Foster ) elsewhere in the hanger - in a clear area where she would have a very good view of /aim at the mechs feet. Its not teleportation, just looks like it and is one of the two extraodrinary abilities of the race. ( Translation of any language * 'notime*)

******************WayFarer****************

Way Farer nodded to herself as she ceased her explorations of the Mournhold's cyber space. The Shadow had gotten the A.I. as well. She'd seen it before, though it didn't always go after artificial intellegences, sentient or not. She was much older than Cam and had encountered the malicious entities that had been dubbed 'Shadow' many more times. Now she needed to find out what the Mournhold had been doing to open themselves to the invasion...but there was no A.I. left to querry. Hopefully there would be some independant cyber systems in the ship, data padds and notebooks that could be mined for information. There was just so little known about Shadow. She broadcast to all...

*To Faded Fortune, Helva, Poseidon, and any one else in the vicinity. We have an intrusion of Shadow. I suggest most strongly that all personell aboard the Mournhold, and the craft that brought them be quarentined until the intrusion can be destroyed and the ship pronounced clear.*

Foster still kept his eye on the shadow as he spoke, "Helva", he said out loud, fear for her overriding his normal presence of mind to subvocalize, "get clear."

"I believe", came Helva's rich, beautiful voice from the contact button he wore, "that Way Farer's statement included me." Though she used the A.I. frequency to Way Farer her voice definitly trembled from fear, as though she were a human responding.

Foster sighed, hanging his head slightly, though still watching the shadow. "Alright", he said, "scan the ship, see if you can find the most likely place for the Captain's cabin."

"Way not check the ship's logs on the bridge?" Helva asked.

"Because if the Captain didn't know what she or he was dealing with, I sure as hell don't..." he turned to Cam, "Apologies, Ladies", he said, "then they may not have noted it in ship's logs for fear of reprisal from whoever employed them for whatever loses they may have suffered. Ship's Captains become eccentric over long periods of time in space sometimes."

OOC: Sorry for late responce, but I dont have too much free time in my life.

IC: The Ju Thagens had almost reached the hanger bay when the light rumble of the doors closing could be felt rippling through the hull of the ship. The lead Ju Thagen known as Tefestus let out the equivalent of a curse and ordered the rest of the team to speed up. Even at their incredible speed they were too late in reaching the hanger bay. Time was running out as the extreme heat bacteria in their body were being used up at an alarming rate.

A Ju Thagen engineer approached the now closed bulkhead and lit up a bio eroder. This was the equivalent of a very powerful blowtorch that released a nano organism that eats away at metel in a very small and controlled area. Slowly the bulkhead began to melt away under the putride green gas that was shooting out of the small object. The Ju Thagens began to pound at the bulkhead in an effort to find if there were any other possible spots which could we easily broken. The final Ju Thagen on watch began to look around, to see where they were. Near this ship were multiple others, most of which looked un-armed. They must be on a rescue mission of some sort. Far away the Ju Thagen's eyes picked up an enormous behemoth of a ship. This sent a chill through its back bringing back memories of the Spline Warship aroung its homeplanet. This new ship wasn't as big though.

Slowly they finally made some progress and managed to break down the locking mechanisms of the large bulkhead. Now came the very difficult task of opening the door. Each Ju Thagen postioned itself between the twin interlocking doors of the bulk head and began to push outwards with all their might. Slowly the doors opened...

**On the Ship**
It was still dark as the small crew frantically scrambled to bring the downed systems online. All around the ship the team was welding and fixing systems. Curses of epic proportion could be heared flying at random. The Arixians were angry.

After many minutes of toil they managed to bring their comm files back up. A single message had been received. They read it over and knew that they needed to send a responce... sadly the outgoing comm system had been totally destroyed. The ship was mute.

Frustrated at the silence from the other ship and the danger the beings were in Helva did the only thing she could to help.

'Foster', she said, this time through the implant, 'I'm sending a worker bot over to the newly arrived vessel. I don't know if they're not responding or if they can't.'

'Alright', Foster replied.

A small worker bot trundled it's way to the bay. Helva opened the doors once it arrived and it used it's correctional jets to make it's way to the damaged ship. Once there it inserted a small probe into the locking mechanism and sent the data to Helva who began the process of unlocking the external airlock.

"Yes we do tend to do that don't we" Her golden eyes were warm as she looked up at him. She started to move in front of him, but refrained, honoring his choice. She made sure her voice carried for she would not let the Shadow's comment go unanswered.

"You say we have come to plunder. You are mistaken, and I shall not let the crew's deaths pass unanswered."

She turned to B. Queens group, and her voice was approving

"Thank you for not 'freaking out', that says much to the good for you. And I have no problem working independantly, as long as there is some intergroup co-ordination. It's illogical to go over ground already covered by another group, at least on the first sweep. Way Farer is in the cyber core and says the central A.I. is gone. Why don't we all take seperate areas to start off with?"

She asked WayFarer to open communications with each group and once each had responded she passed the suggestion on to each group. Holographic images showed the Mournhold divided into sections and labeled.

She suggested that the TRSS Poseidon's engineers take the engineering spaces, the powerplant, drives, and environmental. "Your engineers will do the most good there and have the skills to note anomalies that non engineers might miss."

She looked interestedly at the trio from the Faded Fortunes and her whiskers twitched. She definitely would want to visit with them under more pleasant circumstances.[/i]

"Faded Fortunes why don't you take the research section"

She gave a brief fang bareing grin to B.Queen "Since you say you are here to rescue survivors, why don't you take the escape pod bays and the crew quarters."

Then she looked back at Foster, ears pricked forward, whiskers arched, eyes lively.

"Care to check out the bridge with me? We can make a swing by the captian's cabin as well. You are probably quite correct in your thoughts concerning their response to what was occuring"

She added one last thing to every group

"Most of the time physical weapons don't seem to affect Shadow. Energy weapons seem to damage them, particularly light or plasma weapons, though some times sonics work too. Be cautious and don't assume...and don't be afraid to yell of help!"

'Can I guess your answer to her umm .. proposal?' Helva asked in his implant, out loud (from the contact button) she said, "I think that's wise."

Foster smiled at Cam and nodded.

'Helva', he subvocalized, loud enough to be heard by Cam by not the others, 'I'll get close to that shadow. Scan it and see if you can come up with a sonic frequency that you can use across the contact button.'

'I don't like that idea', she stated through the implant, 'that's terribly close for my comfort, I can only scan to a distance of three meters.'

'I know three meters is the scanning range, but I have no choice', he said, holstering the needler that was useless to him now.

'Foster.'

'Yeah.'

'Be careful.'

'My dear Lady I'm always careful.'

'Your always in trouble.'

'Yeah, well, it's not my fault trouble follows me around. I certainly don't invite it along.'

Slowly he moved closer to the shadow. Once within range Helva scanned it and began her analysis of the readings.

Edit: Sorry, my mistake.

(OOC - Draconis - It's okay, removing this so that it can found out by the others through RP.)

OOC: LOL! Sheesh I have connection problems for a couple of hours and I miss all the good stuff!

******************************************


Cam shook her head with a small smile playing over her lips, humans were often gallant mad and Foster seemed inclined to live up to that. She moved a few steps to the side and kept pace with him, so she had a good angle of fire if Shadow swirled closer to him that she thought sensible. Her furr wanted to stand on end in atavastic response but was kept flat by the close hold of the skinsuit. That made her ears itch something fierce

(OOC - HAHA, Cam will just have to find out about Foster the old fashioned way. ;) )

Foster stopped close enough for Helva to take a reading. After an eternity he asked, "What's taking so long?"

"It's been two point three seven seconds. Even I need SOME time", came Helva's rich, beautiful voice.

Foster watched the stuff, "Amazing how fluid time runs like molasses in winter time sometimes."

"Got it, analyzing now."

He stepped back and waited for her to analyze her data.

"Odd", she said in a subdued voice, "I could spend centuries examining this."

"Yeah? Well I don't live that long, Dear Lady, so if you would cut the sonic disruption part it would be greatly appreciated."

"Soft shells", she replied with a static sound that suspiciously resembled a snort. "Got it, it shouldn't harm feline ears but they'll hear it. It's short range, no more than scanner range."

"Well if it's that close I don't think it's asking to dance."

"Depends on how you define dancing I guess", she replied as he stepped forward again. "For instance, Simeon keeps mentioning a dance called Horizontal Mambo. Silly since you can't dance horizontally and I can't find any reference in any literature related to dancing."

Foster stopped, blinking and then couldn't help but laugh, "Leave it to Simeon. He cut his teeth on a mining outpost, lets leave it at that." He stepped the rest of the way forward and Helva let loose the sonic attack, it's waves disrupting the shadow essence.

"Can I COOK or CAN'T I?" Helva asked.

"You most certainly can, my dear, you most certainly can."

Cam's ears twitched and the itch intensified abruptly then stilled. Eyes wide she watched the Shadow become no more than normal shadow

"Oh my that really smoked it!" She breathed in delight

"Whats the freq! by Sun and Sonic I will abide!" Her long slender tail looping in laughter

"I'm sending the frequency to all ships", she said and proceeded to do so. "I don't think it'll work on a large scale though, the high frequency won't penetrate the hull."

"It'll do", Foster replied and began to remove his space suit after removing her contact button.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

He stepped out of the suit wearing a greyish black skin suit with a number of devices. Though his hair was shot with grey he certainly didn't have the physique of an old man. He wasn't a massively built man but the muscles slid against the skin suit giving him a tigrish looking strength, one for quickness rather than brute strength.

"We can't destroy this stuff with a large scale attack and I still need to find out what happened here. If I have move about in here, and quickly, I certainly can't do it in a bulky space suit."

He reached behind him and pulled out a slender tube from a small canister on the back and placed a mouthpiece in his mouth, taking an experimental breath.

"What's that?" she asked.

"It'll provide about twenty minutes of oxygen in a void. It's also a rebreather, it can last from a few hours in worst conditions to a few days in best." He replaced the contact button on his chest and it molecularly adhered to the material. "Besides, it's a flak suit with energy reflection. Powerful weapons will get through but not standard sidearms."

"That's military issue for special ops", she replied.

"Sure is", he said as he reached down and gathered a few more things from the space suit he left on the skiff. Various electronic equipement and his PDA which was also military issue and housed the most powerful computer they could pack into it. He left the needler knowing that it was useless and if he should attempt to use it out of habit then he would a best waste his time and worst get himself killed. Once he had gathered his things he turned to Cam and bowed deeply.

"If the Lovely Lady would be so kind as to grant me her company", he said and turning he set a steady ground eating pace that wouldn't leave him winded.

((OOC: Working my way up from my last post to current.))

B. Queen sighed as Cam handed out orders like she was someone important. A grin came to her face. "Fine. Escape pod room and crew quarters works for us. Jet, head into the Runner and grab us lots of flooplamps, and some plasma weapons. Lone, your slugthrowers have gotta go." Jet moved to carry out her orders.

With a dejected sigh, Lone Ghunman nodded slowly. "I know." It was like forcing him to part with a limp. While he wouldn't leave his pistols here, the fact he wouldn't be using them still left him leaving somewhat more... Naked.

"Anya. I want you to stay with the ship and keep an eye on it. Get out of that AGWS, you'll notice the... Things, better that way." B. Queen spoke into a cleverly hidden communicator slipped between two overlapping strips of black leather.

Leaving the dealing of the Shadow to Cam and the other man, Anya moves to AGWS closer to the Blockcade Runner, and it kneels, the 'head' portion pops open. Anya crawls out of it like a snake shedding an old set of skin. "Kabu-Robo! C'mon, you can help Anya look after the ship!" She said to it, as she busied herself with loading the AGWS back into it's storage compartment onboard the Blockcade Runner...


Jet returns with the needed items, passing them out to each member of the group.

As Cam and Foster messed around with sonics, B. Queen made sure that each member of her crew was properly luminated so as to not cast any shadows, each bearing either a Plasma Rifle or pistol, according to preference.

Thus, B. Queen lead her group out of the hangar bay, and deeper into the ship, heading towards the Crew qaurters.

"Keep sharp people." Lone warned warily...

OOC: Damn, I missed a lot. Krowemoh, the suit optics are pretty poor (worse than Predator). If they are standing still, you can see an outline, but have to concentrate on it; if they move, they become more visible. This is because of all the other functions the suit has to perform. We have perfect optic camo, but not here. And you can see them with infra-red, plus anythig they carry outside the suit is fully visible (rifle, pistol)

IC:
"What in Hsu's name is going on in this ship?" asked Kane. The three had watched the shadows surround the mech, as well as the cat-woman teleporting, who presumably was the Captain Cam from the Way Farer.

"I told you I didn't like this ship," declared Reid. Jann, who was the only Indoan clearly visible, was clearly shaken.

"Fucking A, Eve. Ship's aren't supposed to talk like that," agreed Kane.

"Andie," Jann said into his comm unit, "I don't know if you saw that, but this ship is screwed. I think we should be leaving right about now."

"Sorry, Jann. We can't leave yet. Someone just issued a quarantine notice," responded the avatar.

The teleporting cat-woman was talking.

"Uh, yeah. We can take the research section. Are you sure about projectile weapons being ineffective?" Jann asked Cam.

Cam nodded. On seeing this, the two Rangers shouldered their rifles and drew their pistols, checking the power pack charge level, before holding them in a ready position.

"What about lights, like torches or something? Does that keep them at bay? And what comm frequencies are we using?" asked Reid.

***

~ Oh great. Now I'm stuck here. Why did we even get involved? We don't know any of the other races here. They've never done anything for us. And now I have six of my crew in immediate danger, complained the Mind.

The transmission from the Way Farer effectively prevented it from doing anything. While it would dearly love to send over the rest of the complement of Rangers, armed appropriately, it would not be allowed to do so. Equally, it couldn't just leave, abandoning the crew was unacceptable. It would not Displace them off the ship, the Displacers were too unreliable to use to move living beings.

***

The four Indoans still with the shuttle were listening in through Kane's battle armour. When they realised what was going on, Riesco and the avatar went inside the shuttle. Riesco went to the cockpit, and switched on the shuttle's exterior lights, brightly lighting the hangar. The avatar had gone to one of the cargo crates they had brought with them, and withdrew three laser carbines, a number of power packs for both pistols and the carbines, and some small lights that could be attached to the glasses they were wearing.

The ship creaked and groaned before it began shaking violently. Most people would have been thrown to the floor. And then it stopped, for a few moments just eiree silence.

"You are all going to die," came a young girls voice.

The Hanger doors slowly creaked open. A great rumbling could be felt throughout the hull as the Ju Thagens slowly pushed open the door. Finally after a few minutes of agonising effort they managed to get it open far enough to crawl through.

The Ju Thagens powerful bodies pulled them through the gap. The temperature quickly rose and their survival was now assured.

Tefestus slowly crawled in. Powerful muscles could we seen rippling over his body as he descended the large hanger door. He quickly took in the surroundings and made as much sense as he could of the data. It appeared their was one foreign life form in the hanger along with a small slick black ship. Tefestus also spotted a large machine in a kneeling position.

He slowly returned to quadraped locamotion and approached the lifeform. He raised his enormous grey hand in the symbol of friendship. Behind him the three other Ju Thagens approached. In the hands of one was a Hellraiser Rifle. A hellraiser rifle used rather primitive technology. It fired projectile ammunition that would explode a few seconds after piercing their subject. It was belt fed. The weapons belt extended into a large pack on his back. Another Ju Thagen was the engineer and had numerous construction tools. The final was simply an extra hand to help with whatever the team did. The soldier was named Yul-Tan, the engineer Ult-Kasa, and the final Ju Thagen was named Ra-Unith.

Tefestus hoped that this small creature would not be intimidated by their presence.

**On the Crashed ship**
The back cabin was slowly illuminated as light from the void filtered in as the repair droid opened the bulkhead. A rather small Ju Thagen looked up in curiousity. It walked up the droid and grabbed it with its two large hands and pulled it into the cabin. The door closed once the droid was safely inside. After a few moments the air recycled into the room and the Ju Thagen opened the second door. The captain would want to see this.

Haedrane's face was covered in grime and grease as he looked up from the console he was repairing. The emergency lights had just been brought back up online and things were finally starting to look up, but he still couldn't contact the other ships. The entire communications output relay had been lost in the worm hole. It was now floating around in some random far flung corner of space. Suddenly he heared a sound behind him and turned around.

The youngest Ju Thagen Fin-Olo had brought something into the bridge. It was a small droid that looked to be fully operational. He smiled, finally some good news.

He gave the droid this message.

We are Arixians, and our rather large friends are Ju Thagens. We have just escaped from the Qax regime and were fleeing to safer space when our worm hole destabalized and we popped out here. If you can spare any help, please send a repair team. Also... what the hell did we hit?

He smiled... at least they weren't stuck to some asteroid in the middle of nowhere.

We are Arixians, and our rather large friends are Ju Thagens. We have just escaped from the Qax regime and were fleeing to safer space when our worm hole destabalized and we popped out here. If you can spare any help, please send a repair team. Also... what the hell did we hit?

A woman's voice issued from the bot. It was a well trained, beautiful voice, "I'm Helva, one of the ships near you. I sent my worker bot over to try to establish communications. I can send more bots to assist with your repairs and once I have an idea of your ships systems I might be abled to supply repair parts as well.

What you hit was derelict ship that had sent out a distress signal to which we have responded, as well as others. We are presently attempting to ascertain what has occured on board that vessel.

If you would stand by your air lock I'm dispatching the worker bots now." True to her word she dispatched another dozen worker bots as well as a half dozen bees to clear away debris from the impact before it became a major hazard, especially with the situation on board being what it was.

She sent the message that she had recieved to the other ships so they would know who the newcomers were, "I'm assisting them with thier repairs now, but I only have worker bots and I'm no engineer. If anyone has a real engineering team it would be greatly apperciated."

'Foster, I've contacted the newcomers, they're refugees. I've not established thier base nation as yet, it's not on file. I'll extend central's courtesy, once I can establish reliable communication.'

Foster nodded and continued his jogging/run pace.

"You are all going to die."

Despite himself, Kane grinned at that, as he hoisted Jann back onto his feet. The Rangers had staggered when the ship shook, but remained upright thanks to the nanohydraulics in the suits.

"Nothing more certain than that," he announced lightly.

Reid looked at him strangely from within her suit.

"I get the feeling it means we're all going to die soon. But I'd sure as hell like to know what keeps saying those things. It's spooky hearing voices without a body to them," she said uneasily.

"Eve, it's only like when the Fortunes comes over the speaker," Kane reassured her.

"No, Nik. I know where the voice is coming from then. The Fortunes Mind, which is in the central core. This is coming from nowhere, since any AI has been wiped according to the Fortunes," she explained.

***

The Faded Fortunes picked up the transmission, and replied.

{I don't have a team I can provide, as such, Helva, but I can send you some repair drones to help. I have to oversee any repairs to this ship in the field, so I know quite a lot about this field. Plus, they came in on a worm, and that's something we know a lot about.}

The Faded Fortunes instructed a team of repair drones to attach themselves to a remote recon drone, which it launched in the direction of the damaged vessel. This was necessary, since the repair drones were unable to transit space. The recon drone slowed and coupled itself to the hull of the damaged vessel, allowing the repair drones to transfer from one to the other.

A bright light erupted at the far end of the corridor, sending the shadows away. It wasn't for long however as the light faded and the shadows returned. Stood in the place where the bright light had come from, the dark shape of a young girl was seen. She appeared to be looking directly at them.

"You are all going to die,"

*ASC SAT-REDRUM-5 REPORT*
*UNKOWN SHIP SPOTTED IN SECTOR 8*
*SENDING MARKER SIGNAL TO SC1*
*REQUESTING BACK-UP, LIFEFORMS SCANNED*

Back at SC1 comms array-9...

"Sir, we have a marker beacon in sector 8. We are sending some F.A.R.Q.s to check it out."A comms controller spins around and speaks into a mic.

"Hmm... Sector 8? What would be there?"Leo, the leader of ASC, says in low tone.

*Loading F.A.R.Q.s into MCs 1+3*
A group of 20 F.A.R.Q.s load up and prep for launch. Each carrying a large Heavy Metal railgun.

OOC: This is now closed, there are plenty in this now otherwise it'll get really confusing.

After pauseing to admire the powerful grace with which he moved ( and flourish a courtsey in return to his deep bow )Cam kept pace with Foster, liking him even more for his choice of words. She was almost more comfortable around humans than her own race -that was because she'd been raised by humans, an orphaned, injured cub, the sole survivor of a small newly founded colony over run and destroyed by slavers. Found by Tanaran explorers still wedged, bone thin and near death from dehydration, in the hideyhole her mother had shoved her into as the slavers attacked she'd been mute and uncommunicative for years.

Her mind jerked abruptly for that memory as the ship groaned violently then shuddered in a manner that would have sent most flying. Cam just flexed her center of gravity and used her tail for additional ballance. Once again the voice, now a child's voice came from every where and no where. Cam growled low in her throat as she flicked her eyes to Foster.

Then a movement, a flash of light, caught the corner of her eye. Like all felines Cam was highly attuned to the slightest motion. She turned slightly to face the corridors end full on and every fiber of her being stiffened, a low buzzsaw of snarl rumbling from deep in her chest.


Children were precious to the Xa, sanctrosact, never to be harmed or endangered, it was genetically coded in to the species. Shadow could not have chosen a more perfect aspect with which to enrage Cam. To know intellectually that there may well have been children aboard the Mournhold was one thing. To know for certain that there had been and were now victims....another thing entirely...

Cams body tensed, every bit of fur standing on end, despite the near skin tightness of the skinsuit, and the snarl became a senses stunning battle cry, as she began an attack leap that would take her on to the girl-child-Shadow creature.

"Hey," called Reid, "What about..." she trailed off. The feline had gone, taking the human with her.

Jann knew what she was after. "Fortunes, can you get the Way Farer to contact its captain and find out what frequency she's on? And where is the research section, anyway?" he asked his comm unit.

"Will do, Lieutenant. For now, get back to the others," the ship replied in his ear.

The three Indoans exited the hangar and returned to the adjacent one, where their shuttle was now illuminating a large area. As Jann explained what was going on, the avatar handed out the laser carbines and extra power packs. Kane refused the carbine, opting to keep his rifle and swap some magazines for a larger amount of power packs. Reid surrendered her rifle completely, taking one of the carbines. The other two carbines went to Jann and Riesco.

The avatar was also handing out the small clip-on lights that it had found. They were dutifully clipped to weapon barrels and personal HUDs. The Rangers already had lights built into their suit helmets.

Reid walked over to the wall, where a part of the shadow was moving. She flipped on the light in her suit's helmet, and looked directly at the shadow, bathing it in light. Would the light keep it away? she thought, finding out herself, since the feline had neglected to answer her question.

***

As promised, the Faded Fortunes sent the request to the Way Farer, hoping that this message, unlike most of its recent ones, would not go ignored.

{Way Farer, your captain seems to have neglected to tell my team what comm frequency she is using. Can you correct this so that they remain in contact, please. Your experience in this situation must have taught you the benefits of constant communication, yes? Also, what can you tell me about this 'shadow' entity?}

When the ship shook violently Foster lost his footing. He went down, curling himself into a ball and rolled, stopping only after he hit the wall. He wasn't sure if the flash of light had been someing in the corrider or his head smacking into the metal. Suddenly a loud cry went up near him and regained his feet. He saw Cam leaping toward a child, not quite understanding until the voice that had profisied thier doom his home. The child was no child at all.

'Foster are you alright?' Helva asked.

'Yes' he replied and leaped forward, though he didn't have prayer of matching the speed of the feline woman, 'ready the sonic.'

'Understood.'

*"My apologies Faded Fortunes. Here's Cam's frequency and a link to the micro camera if you wish visual as well."* The image Way Farer sent was suitably abashed. She hadn't meant to ignore the Indo Navy ship. She was letting the destruction of the Mournholds A.I. spook her too much. Quickly she sent them Cam's frequency

She sent a very detailed hologram of the ship with the areas she believed to be the research highlighted, along with various entrances and exits marked. She was unable to provide the exact layout of the interior of that section from her scans, but then she found an a sub system, a data padd still physically linked down in the engineering section. Happily it held a basic schema of the research sections lay out.

She sent this on quickly to Faded Fortunes to fill in the blanks of her scans.

*The various data I have on Shadow indicates that yes most times very bright light in an area keeps it at bay. It's not something I have studied extensively, as the various reports of those who have come in contact with it - and survived to make a report -are often at odds with one another. Sometimes sonics work, sometimes not. Mostly 'physical' ammunitions does not have any effect on it at all! Light seems to be the one constant, but it can seemingly effect light producing systems at range, causing them to fail unexpectedly and in a variety of ways."

Way Farer stopped and quickly made it a broadcast to all the ships, filling them in on previous information and quickly going on

*" If I may sound very organic for a moment - it seems to enjoy taunting and toying with its victims, and it has been postulated that it feeds on the energies an organic sentient emits when fear, rage, pain, dispair, and other negative emotions come into play. Some reports state that it has left the physical remains of its vicitms behind, other times not a trace. And it can apparently casue hallucinations, or some sort of very realistic illusion. I'd say be ready for anything. I'm sorry I don't have more information. I'll gladly transmit the various reports I have in data, perhaps fresh eyes can sus out something we've missed"*

The Faded Fortunes Mind performed the equivalent of breathing a sigh of relief. This message, perhaps the most important yet, had been replied to. It flashed a {Thanks} at the Way Farer, before resending all the data to the avatar aboard the derelict.

***

The shadow recoiled and slunk away. Reid smiled in satisfaction as she sighted her pistol and fired at the retreating shadow, the coherent light beam tinting the area blue as it hit the target. The shadow dissolved into the natural shadows, and when Reid waved her gun light in that direction, there was nothing there.

Happy, she holstered the pistol, the light switching off automatically to save power, and readied the carbine, the light on this weapon snapping on.

"Alright. Light can keep them at bay, lasers kill them. Just be careful at range. Andie, see if you can find some more powerful lights, and tell the Fortunes to keep the shuttle running. If the hangar doors close, I want the Kestrels to blast it open again," ordered Jann.

The avatar made the transmission, and searched the shuttle rapidly, producing two powerful spotlights from the crash survival kit. However, they were too bulky to carry easily so Jann and Riesco set them up just inside the shuttle, bathing the entry ramp in what seemed to be the glow of a minature sun.

They set their comm units to the frequency the Fortunes had given them, as they left the hangar.

"Stick together, people," stated Jann, "We stand a better chance as a group than individually."

He tested the comm unit: "Cam, this is Jann Ferrante, Indoan group. We're just starting towards the research section now. Is it just me, or did we get the biggest area to check out?"

Helva recieved the information and opened a link to the Captains com and visual while keeping open the ones to Foster's and the Way Farer. What she saw Cam's was confusing for a moment before she realized that the Captain was leaping into a midst of shadows. In the contact button button from Foster she could see the Captain charging the shadows. Not understanding for a moment she checked the retinal image, this was processed by Foster's brain, in this one she saw a child standing in the hallway among the shadows. She quickly checked the other two again, not seeing the child in the strictly mechanical pickups. This all took place in a matter of less than a second, as fast as thought, which was exactly how she switched from one to the other.

"Captain Cam", she said over the Captain's own frequency, "the child isn't real. Way Farer says it can create illusions or a hallucinations."

On Foster's own frequency, 'Stop her, she's heading into an ambush.'

'I'm trying, I don't have her speed.'

**CAM HOLD!!** WayFarers voice at full volume over the Mournhold's speakers as she too saw the trap her partner had fallen for.



A small part of Cam was yammering that something was not right, but that was all but unheard as millions of generations, hard wired genetic heritage, insisted that a child was in danger. A voice she didn't know was somehow sounding over her commo, while Way's own voice roared at her from all sides.

Then she was with in final leap range and her muscles gathering, bunching to power what would be a full thirty five foot plus leap, her extraordinarily long tail straight out behind her. Claws grabbing for every bit of traction possible on the non skid flooring of the starships corridore.

"Cam, you hear me?" asked Jann over the comm. Then he heard Helva's transmission.

"Seems like they found trouble already," he said.

"Boss, in case you haven't worked it out yet, we're going to the research section. That's probably where this whole problem started. I'm sure we'll be in plenty of trouble soon," Kane told him.

"Hey, these shadows give off heat by any chance?" inquired Kate Riesco.

"Dunno," Jann shrugged. "Ask over the comm. That way, anyone who knows the answer can respond."

Riesco did so: "This is Riesco. Do these shadows give off heat? They show up on infra-red?"

The seven Indoans were moving carefully up a corridor, towards where the ship schematic said the research section was. Corporal Reid was leading them, the butt of her laser carbine sitting snugly in her shoulder, ready for anything. Kane was covering their back, walking backwards so that their backs were not in shadow. The others were carefully illuminating the walls and ceiling with the lights mounted on their weapons.

So far everything seemed quiet near them. But all of them were sure it would not stay that way.

"SONIC IN TWO!" Foster shouted and tore the button from the skin suit, throwing it hard past cam. He leaped in mid throw and then reached out to try to catch the only thing available that he might reach on short notice as he noticed Cam's muscles tensing for her own leap .... her tail.

Helva time it let loose the sonic burst as the button reached the shadows, at the same time checking her own recordings.

"Riesco this is Helva, I read nothing on the thermals."

Then she held her breath, so to speak, as the life support systems on the FH-275 stopped processing and hoped Foster could reach the Captain. Of course what neither of them had thought of was what would happen when eighty two kilograms landed on the Captains tail.

The girl began to walk towards them. Within a blink of an eye she was walking along the ceiling before returning to the floor. Trails of blood began dripping down the walls as the screams of a thousand crew echoed through the ship. The screams were painful, thumping at their eardrums, giving them headaches. The girl laughed and vanished into thin air.

OOC: Thanks!...and LOL ouch?!

*******************

It wasn't pretty, no matter how delicately one tried to parse it. Every vertibrae in Cam's tail was damaged to one extent or another, many crushed, some wrenched out of alignment, others -muscles and tendons detatched violently from their ligature points.

The fall, flat on her face in the grand tradition of prattfalls everywhere ( but this one was a lifesaving one if ever there was one such ) was just as messy. The blood flooding down the walls had covered the corridor with gory rapidity, and Cam too.

The screams hammered at her sensitive ears, battering her into near unconsciousness, leaving her dazed and gasping unable to do more than endure for several minute

Blood and fur make a most unlovely combination- fortunately her skinsuit covered most of her save her face and hair which by the time she managed to muzzily turn her self over - as best as she was able to, having her tail pinned by eighty two kilograms ( are you sure it seems to be a ton )- was thoroughly coated.

Her skinsuits medicomputer responded to the whole thing by stiffening the tail sheath into an impromptu air cast, dosing her with strong pain medications and a double dose of trauma nanobots.

"Foster...when I trip you I'm supposed to land on top" At least that was what she intended to say. Her lips were split and her nose as well, both were beginning to swell. She wasn't certain if what came out was discernable. And the massive headache was most unpleasant. She was pretty certain that much more movement than she had just managed was out of the question.

"This blood is fresh, warm" Some part of her noted and commented.

Anya, meanwhile, was safe in the hangar bay with her group's ship, chatting with the droid she had dubbed 'Kabu-Robo.' She was asking about the ship, its port of call, and about the Captain.

Then, THEY appeared. Four large, multi-limbed creatures. Anya's eyes went wide. "HOLYMOTHEROFCORI!" She shrieked as one came near her, raising one hand in some sort of hand signal. Naturally, she assumed it meant 'attack, kill, maim, decapitate and otherwise hurt real badly the person in front of me,' whom at the moment was Anya. She took a step backwards as she fumbled for the Ripper† at her thigh, but she trips over her own feet and falls flat on her butt. "Don't hurt Anya! Anya only Hacker!" She begged as she crab-crawled backwards from the creatures, fear overtaking her.


~~~~~~~~~

The corridor door to the Crew Quarters slid open, Lone taking points as he quickly steps in, Plasma Pistols at the ready, sweeping the sub-corridor they find themselves in. The D'bo twins come in after him, one high the other low, sweeping to the opposite side of Lone. Finally, B. Queen enters, nodding approvingly. "Well, we're here..."


((OOC: DN, what do we see? :D
†: A Ripper is basically a hand-held, knife like Mini-Chainsaw. It's really good for knife fights, as one hit is usually enough to shred large chucks of flesh and induce blinding pain. :D))

(OOC - 82 kilograms is about 180 Lbs)

Foster pushed himself up and scrambled to his feet only to have them slip out from under him in blood building up on the floor. He lay for a moment, trying to get his bearings.

Foster...when I trip you I'm supposed to land on top

"Duly noted, my Lady. I am forced to admit that it wasn't the best executed rescue I've taken part in", he said with an embarrassed grin. "I must say, however", he continued as he began a more careful process of getting to his feet, "that your a much more pleasing querry than any I've had to bring down before."

Now that he had regained his feet he saw Cam, "Great Ghu." He cast about and finally located the contact button and brought it over to her, placing it on her chest.

"Scan, please, Helva."

"Every vertibrae in her tail is damaged to one extent or another, many crushed, some wrenched out of alignment, others -muscles and tendons detatched from their ligature points. Her lips are split and her nose as well. Cerebral scans she that she most likely has a massive headache."

Foster winced in sympathized pain and removed the contact button, replacing it on his chest. He opened one of his kits and took out a hypo and injected it, the compressed air pushing the medication into her system. Almost immedietly the headache subsided and most of the pain. (Or the rest if there are already pain meds in her system) He removed a knitter and with Helva's instructions repaired as much damage as he could to the bone structure.

"Great Ghu"
inject hypo
"I'm sorry my Lady"
beginning knitting the bones, a sensation that seemed like an itch during the procedure
"I meant only to stop you"
look around, move to her face, adjust the knitter, knit the skin tissue

"Well" he said when he had finished, "I can honestly say that your STILL a sight to behold." He smiled tentatively at her.

"Foster, two broken ribs."

Foster eyed Cam's tight skinsuit and the tantalizing figure that it simply enhanced. "Ahh, I ah, I don't think I should be the one to deal with her ribs."

"Me either, especially since I meant that YOU have two broken ribs. Though I have to admit that if you were to deal with her ribs and the shadows feed on hatred and fear you would kill them in no time."

"My dear Lady, I am professional", he said indignitly. Not that he argued with her, he wasn't sure he trusted himself at the moment.

"Professional what? I checked your records, it says you were brawn for thirty years. Brawns don't get military issue flak suits. Besides which it says that you've brawned ME for thirty years, which is odd since it's only been three."

'Dolts', he mumbled as he turned the knitter on himself, only now beginning to feel the pain.

"Other side, Foster."

"oh", he switched sides and by careful probing located the damaged ribs and knitted the bones. He then stood again, carefully, and offered a hand to Cam.

"Thanks Helva. Ah well, it was worth a try. Somebody have their HUD flip through vision modes. Maybe they'll show up on something else," suggested Riesco.

Reid gave a thought command to her suit, and one side of the HUD began cycling through the modes, staying on each one for four seconds.

Four quick shots in rapid succession from behind them made them all jump.

"Sorry, got distracted. Bastard tried to sneak up on us when I wasn't looking," said Kane.

They went through another door. According to the schematic Jann was looking at through one eye, they were now in the research section.

"Well, the map says we're here. Start clearing," he said. "You think we should split up."

Four voices told him 'No'. Another, which he recognised as Kane, made an obscene comment. The avatar had remained silent.

OOC: What do they see here, DN?

"Riesco? If your gear has the capability you could set it for micro changes in air density. These Shadows are physical to some extent, I mean they can grab you, therefore it would stand to reason that they affect air around them. I'll test that theory the next chance I get, if you get to try first then please inform us of the results."

Helva left open her other channels and opened a private channel to Way Farer, "I'm sorry about Captain Cam", she said, "Foster was only trying to stop her.

*Corporal Reid* WayFarer contacted the Indoan * "It's just been noted that the substance the Shadow produced scans out as human blood, still body temperature and uncoagulated. Nothing in my records matches with that"*

She passed that along to Helva and the other groups.

Over the private channel that Helva had opened, Way just snorted. *"Don't be sorry. I'd far rather my friend alive and bolloxed up than dead and a lovely corpse. Thank you, and Foster. You can let him know there is no reason to keep on calling her Captain Cam. It's just something we use around outsiders, and I think you two have come far from that.. You know I think we need to exchange medical tech. I was thinking I'd have to have some of my bots tractor over a regen tube, and toss her in that for a day."*

*****************Mournhold, corridor of blood***

Cam lay quietly, content to let his medical tools and gentle hand work wonders. Her skinsuits medi computer recorded all and hummed quietly to itself, finally deflateing the aircast about her tail. The itch Fosters equipment brought was one she was not familiar with so she distracted herself by paying close attention to the sensation. It would have been terribly impolite to stare at Foster, though much more enjoyable.

"I meant only to stop you"

"and I thank you for that" Cam mumbled around swollen lips "You saved my life...I was stupid and caught up in incorrect perceptions"

She returned his smile, her long white whiskers arching forward, and her eyes a twinkle as natural good humor reasserted itself

"A sight to behold? One for the old horror holos I guess" Cam chuckled as she glanced down at the mess the blood had made of her. Watching as he dealt with his own injuries she sighed in relief that his machines were so advanced. It distressed her that he had been injured saving her from her mistake. She wouldn't let that happen again.

She took the prooffered hand gladly and stood, as gingerly as he did. Her body twanged as her spine took the shock of standing then settled down to a dull ache. The pain medications conbined to work very well together and Cam's warm smile lit her face and eyes once again.

It dimmed a little as she examined the blood still flowing down the walls

"The suits built in sensors are correct. It's human blood, with some abnormalities, it's still body temperature, and its not setting, not drying, even where the coating is thin"

She moved closer to Foster, looking up at him from her five and a half foot of height. Squareing her shoulders, she wrinkled her nose, the hard, hot scent of the blood tainting every breath.

"Lets get to the Captains cabin"

*"Don't be sorry. I'd far rather my friend alive and bolloxed up than dead and a lovely corpse. Thank you, and Foster. You can let him know there is no reason to keep on calling her Captain Cam. It's just something we use around outsiders, and I think you two have come far from that.. You know I think we need to exchange medical tech. I was thinking I'd have to have some of my bots tractor over a regen tube, and toss her in that for a day."*

Helva sent the message to Foster, "understood", he replied. "Foster is not a Captain either, he's my brawn. No official rank since it's only he and I. We're referred to as a BB team, Brain/Brawn. I being the brain, of course, as I'm not foolish enough to go wandering around like that." Her tone was joking, though her intonation held an undercurrent of concern.

She moved closer to Foster, looking up at him from her five and a half foot of height. Squareing her shoulders, she wrinkled her nose, the hard, hot scent of the blood tainting every breath.

"Lets get to the Captains cabin"

For a moment all he could do is stare into her eyes, lost in thier depths as they seemed to become his whole world.

'Foster', Helva said through his implant.

Suddenly his hand went up to his right ear as Helva let out a high pitch squeal to wake him from his reverie.

"AHHHHH!, What was THAT for?", he asked out loud, now fully in the here and now.

"The captain's cabin? The shadows? Danger on board? Any of this register in your organic and faulty memory banks?"

He blushed, glancing again at Cam, 'Sorry, my dear', he subvocalized, not aware yet that Cam could hear him, 'She's just ... enchanting.'

'So I've noticed, please continued, Way Farer and I are concerned for you both.'

He nodded and started down the hallway.

"Foster? The other way."

Blushing again he turned around, checked the holo on his PDA and continued on.

"As for our medical technology", Helva continued at the same time on the private channel to Way Farer, "I can provide only a limited amount of information as I don't have full diplomatic authority. Foster does, however, and considering how taken he is with your shipmate I think he'll be easily convinced to share it with you. Typically we would ask for an exchange of information, so if he forgets, it would be appreciated. Are all your softshells as easily distracted as ours?"

Foster followed the route he had memorized from the holo, stopping at intersections to look both ways before continuing. He wished he had PPG or better yet a plasma rifle with plenty of deuterium pellets. When he spotted a shadow he would point it out to Cam for her to deal with, with her weapon and then continue on. Once he reached the lift he pushed the button but nothing happened. He took out a molecular seperator and removed the panel then opened another pouch on his belt and expertly bypassed it. The lift started and then immedietly stopped again.

"Helva?"

"The A.I. overrode the power in the lift. I don't think it wants you getting to the bridge or the captain's quarters."

"Well I intend to get to the bridge", he stated and replaced his bypass equipement then checked the holo again.

He looked down at her, their eye's meeting... 'oh, my he has such beautiful eyes'... she found herself going up on tip toe, quite forgetting to breathe, to every so lightly touch her nose to his...as his hand flashed up to his right ear, a sharp squeal sounding from that region of his cranimum.

Then she stumbled back two steps, lost in her own whirling thoughts...'oh dear, he smells so right, his voice makes my ears happy, oh little fishes...I want to wrap myself around him and purr...'

Her daze continued but it did not in any way interfere with her actions and reactions. her aiming was precise and the photon packets dispensed by her pistol disentegrated Shadow admirably. She wished she had thought to bring extra weapons though.

When the lift refused to co operate, she contacted Way, her ears flattening back.

*"Way? Whats going on here"*

*"Softshells?"* Way gave a peal of laughter over the private channel *"You mean short lives, bright lives. Yes they are...and we'll gladly share our tech. It's part of what we do.and as I am 'Mother's eldest daughter', I have full authority to hand out nearly anything on my own say so save stuff thats too destructive for any ones own good...wisdom seems to come so slowly at times to the more epihmeral races. B/B team? never heard of an A.I. bio pairing called that before. Most A.I.'s have Avatars and they can out muscle and out react any biological*

Way Farer broke of from her leisurely conversation with Helva*"I've no control...and I should..something is blocking me out...I think it's Shadow that doesn't want you there... Fosters hologram is correct, Helva's scans are as accurate as mine, there is a manual ladder though that maintence hatch back down the corridor some fifty feet. It looks like you two are in for some climbing."*

"Understood", Foster replied. He trotted with Cam to the maintenance ladder. He opened it and looked up then nodded. "Ladies first", he said bowing slightly. It wasn't his preference but she was the only one armed. Following her up he couldn't help but think that perhaps his choice wasn't the best one, though the scenery was just this side heaven.

'Could you look around occasionaly? It would help me with my scans', Helva told him.

'I'll try, but I can't make any promises', he replied.

Helva heaved a mental sigh.

"A.I. bio? What gave you the idea that I was an A.I.?

"Hmmm. Air density changes," muttered Reid, "Fortunes, can the suit do that?" she asked the Mind. Real blood? Hope we don't see that. She shivered in her suit at the thought of the corridor where Cam and Foster were.

"Hold on a second, Corporal. It can't do it by design, but I may be able to recalibrate some of the functions to perform the same task," replied the ship, as it used its effector to remote access the suit and 'fiddle' with the settings.

Reid's visor HUD went blank.
"Uh, Fortunes..." she started.

"Sorry." The HUD came back on. "Try that, it should work."

Reid thanked the Mind, which promptly began 'fiddling' with a spare suit back on board the Indoan corvette to see what other sensing modes it could coax out of the relatively simple combat suit. A soldier generally only needed IR and NV vision enhancement, so that was basically all the suit offered.

"Where the hell are we going?" asked Dex.

"We're not 'going' anywhere, Dex. We're clearing this section of the ship. As soon as it's clear, we're leaving," replied Jann.

"Good. It may be quiet now, but I'm not looking forward to when that changes," the Douran muttered.

Once they had made the climb and were back in the corridor Foster checked the holo. There was the bridge. "The bridge is that way", he said, point toward the bow of the ship. He grabbed her hand and took off running but halfway to the bridge he cut right, heading down a stairwell. On the next deck down he was heading toward the bow again but stopped outside of a set of door. He quickly made the same override on them as he had on the elevator. They stopped but not soon enough and he crossed the circuit to burn out the mechanism.

"Captain's quarters", he said as he stepped in. "I pushed getting to the bridge hoping the shadow would wait for us there once I realized they were intelligent."

He sat down at the computer, but it was locked. He hoped it wasn't attached to the main frame as he shut it down and brought it back up, forcing it into programming mode. Quickly he hacked in and disabled the password security measure and then rebooted again. Once it woke up he began searching for the Captain's personal log.

Helva had realized the answer to her own question. "Yes", she said, "I have access the A.I. frequency. You've seen our medical technology. We believe in the preservation and prolongation of life. We've defeated disease, except those that mutate and previously unknown ones from new worlds we explore. The average lifespan a few centuries ago was about sixty years, now it's about one hundred and twenty on the average with one hundred and eighty being more and more frequent. We can repair most damage, except extension damage that causes death before we can get to it, or replace the parts we can't fix with cybernetic enhancements. What we haven't been able to fix yet is congenital birth defects.

I was born missing a particular strand of DNA that would have killed me before long as it left me open to any infection, regardless of inoculations. When an infant shows birth defects that will cause it's death, the brain is tested, the one thing we can't really fix yet, and if it's normal then the infant is put into the shell program. We, our whole body, is encapsulated and put on the proper life support systems. We then begin training. We learn to use manipulators and other tools like soft shells learn to use hands and arms. We use wheels and treads like hands or feet. We learn to talk and see and hear just like any infant. We're also given intense education year round, UNLIKE soft shells, or at least most of them.

When we begin to show an aptitude for something we begin more intense training in that area and later, when we show an interest in something, our training becomes even more intense in an area that will match our aptitude and interest. I showed an aptitude for flying and an interest in seeing new things, therefore I became an exploration ship. Once training is complete we're put into our new role.

There's a great deal of expense in this of course. The shells that supply our nutreint feeds. The neuro connects to the fiber threads that connect us to our assignment, in my case this ship. The education. All very expensive. So we start out contracted to Central but SPRiM and MM see to it that we get fair compensation so that eventually we can by out our contracts. For instance I'm a free ship, so is Hypatia Cade, the oldest ever to have been encapsulated at the age of seven when an unknown virus made her a quadropolegic and she needed life support because her diaphragm could no longer move. Many others as well.

Central worlds haven't been able to build actually intelligent, by that I mean self aware, A.I.s. Well, except for Joat's. This is partially do to a lack of knowledge and expertise in that area, but also because most of our research and funding goes into our medical programs."

Cam chuckled softly, pleased at Fosters strategy. She didn't think that Shadow could be every where at once - or at least she hoped not. Hanging over his shoulder would have been impolite and stareing at the spacious bed would been just too fast and too dangerous, despite her utter desire to ...

[i]Casting about for something safer to contemplate, Cam noticed the the spacious bathroom and she could suddenly not bear the blood matting her face and hair. Wanting to, but wisdom making her unwilling to, take off the skin suit, even if she was itching fiercely beneath it, she settled for scrubbing off her face and hair. A damp washcloth cleaned what the skinsuits slower acting nanos hadn't and she felt some what presentable again.

"Have you found anything Foster?" Cam asked as she began examining the rest of the Mournhold's Captain's cabin

***********************************

When Helva had finished her explaination, Way Farer was silent for a full minute.Then she replied thoughtfully

"Oh my, we had never thought of that. We use nanotechnology almost exclusively. It's slower though. And as I understand it most Tanarans - they and the Universal University are my current employeers - use genetic engineering to remove genetic errors. The Central Worlds sound most enlightened and very compassionate. Not that any one needs me to approve" Her voice was merry at that then sobered again

"Cams out here alone save for me, because of me. This is the fifth hull I've worn. My last one... some idiot terrorists decided that the University had to be destroyed and smuggled aboard some nanite bombs. They went off prematurely and killed my crew. I haven't wanted a crew since then, but the cyber shrinks from the university say it's not healthy" A not so delicate snort "So Cam volunteered.. We've worked together for twenty years now, returning to the University very seldom."

"Have you found anything Foster?" Cam asked as she began examining the rest of the Mournhold's Captain's cabin.

Foster had been watching as Cam went into the bathroom and then returned and began going through the cabin.

"Yes", he said admiring her figure, and then realized what she was asking. He turned back to the computer and began searching through it again, "I think so", he said as though it's what he meant all along, "I believe the file should be somewhere in here", he continued, nodding toward the personal file he was going through now.

***********************************

"Cams out here alone save for me, because of me. This is the fifth hull I've worn. My last one... some idiot terrorists decided that the University had to be destroyed and smuggled aboard some nanite bombs. They went off prematurely and killed my crew. I haven't wanted a crew since then, but the cyber shrinks from the university say it's not healthy" A not so delicate snort "So Cam volunteered.. We've worked together for twenty years now, returning to the University very seldom."

Helva let out a sigh across the line. "I know how that can feel, though we have only one brawn at a time. Well, except for the military ships. I lost my first brawn, one that I had loved deeply. I know how it can be. The shrinks in central STILL won't leave me alone. They continue to psych me whenever I'm in port. That's the one thing that I don't understand. They know all about us and where we come from, but they seem to expect us to have no more emotions than an A.I. I know some ships have gone rogue, but we are human."

Way's chuckle was rich "Oh if your A.I.'s don't have emotions then no they aren't sentient. Emotions are what make us sentient I think. And any one can go rogue. Organic or cyber, it's part of being alive.."

********* ********* ********** **********

looking over to where Foster sat working with the captains computer, Cam didn't have time to cry warning as the Shadow materialized out of thin air, reaching for him. She was turning, her pistol came out and she fired from the hip. The shadow screamed, a pitch that tore at her ears, then vanished

"Foster, are you all right" Cam leapt to his side, frightened for him, ignoring the ringing in her ears. She began checking him over, she had not been able to tell if the Shadow had made actual contact.

Foster had been engrossed in the search for the journal. 'Alright', he thought to himself, 'half of me was, the other half was busy thinking about not thinking about Cam'. As she checked him for possible injury he couldn't help but reach up and touch her face, his own face moving closer to her. He knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that she still had injuries that even marine medpacs couldn't fix. She would need the med facilities on the Pride of Albion, the best medical spacestation in Central, but he couldn't resist her softness, her touch or her scent in this close proximity...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I meant no insult to you, I meant the A.I.s of Central."

At the shouted warning Helva began to check his vitals. He wasn't injured, although his heart was beginning to race, his pulse accelerate and he was beginning to get warmer, but she was getting used to that.

"Two questions", she said to Way Farer. "One, what will happen if a shadow does touch one of those on board the vessel and two, being as becoming far more familiar with it than I would like, what, exactly, is his fascination with Cam's ahhh .... posterior?"

hi my name is matt

"Hey cool," announced Reid suddenly. She raised her carbine and fired a single shot into the darkness. Something let out a howl, and vanished from her HUD.

"Helva, this is Reid. Your air density sensor works, just smoked one from fifteen metres," she said over the comm.

"Corporal, do you mind if I try something else with your suit?" asked the Faded Fortunes.

"No. What have you got, Fortunes?" responded Reid.

As the ship used its effector to 'fiddle' again, Reid's visor went blank again momentarily, the ship said, "It's a rudimentary mass sensor. The range is short, at most fifteen metres, but it might work."

One half of Reid's visor was still on the air density sensor, the other was running the experimental mass sensor. The ship then used it's effector to adjust Kane's HUD to the air density sensor, followed by the personal HUDs of the other Indoans.

As Kane's visor came back online, he swore.
"Holy shit," he cried, firing several shots into the darkness.

"What's up, Kane?" asked Jann.

"About four of them were stalking us, just out of range of my light. Waiting for me to look away. One of the bastards was on the ceiling, just outside arm's reach," the Ranger replied. "That was too close. Talk about in the nick of time with the upgrade, Fortunes. You saved our cans."

They entered one of the large research labs, equipment scattered everywhere. Not expecting anything to happen, Riesco pressed the light switch just inside the door, just in case they still worked.

"I'm glad to hear it, Reid."

'I think', she thought to herself, "Way Farer? Reid said that my air density sensor works and that they just smoked one from fifteen metres. Is smoking one good? I'm assuming it is by the tone of voice and inflection.

Way chuckled evilly "Thats good. 'Shoft Shell' targetting can be so terribly inaccurate at times. I'm glad to hear that the air density changes can be picked up. I'll program Cam's skinsuit sensors for that"

Falling silent for a second she answered Helvas previous question "It's hormonal, part of mateing. When I meet a fellow A.I. who arouses my interest, I find myself wandering through their library programing, admireing the archictecture inordinately...I can't seem to help myself." There was definitely a blush in her voice, which fled as she began to answer the other question Helva had posed

"There are some visuals in the data about Shadow...they show a shadow reaching out , touching a person, then wrapping over them, enveloping them...and then there is nothing, just empty space where there had been a person. One clip shows five seconds later a human skin, sans body, just a skin, falling out of nowhere to land on the floor. Other reports say that their touch leaves massive, chemical like burns, or deep cold - liquid nitrogen cold - burns."

Way went on to detail a few of the even less pleasant occurances that filled the sparse reports.

**********************************

Cam found herself unable to breath as Foster looked up at her from where he sat at the captains desk, and then he touched her. Breathing was not an option, it just wasn't .

Somehow she foundherself in his lap, and then so fast it was almost a teleport with a painfilled yowrl she was out of it. Tears spilled and her hands went back to hold the base of her tail carefully

"Oh great galloping Gnuz and the many tanks o' tuna!!" She moaned painfully "I don't think sitting anywhere is going to be possible any time soon

Her face was a study in misery as she looked apologetically at Foster. To her additional dismay she found her lower lip trembling

Way chuckled evilly "Thats good. 'Shoft Shell' targetting can be so terribly inaccurate at times. I'm glad to hear that the air density changes can be picked up. I'll program Cam's skinsuit sensors for that"

Falling silent for a second she answered Helvas previous question "It's hormonal, part of mateing. When I meet a fellow A.I. who arouses my interest, I find myself wandering through their library programing, admireing the archictecture inordinately...I can't seem to help myself." There was definitely a blush in her voice, which fled as she began to answer the other question Helva had posed

"I'm glad I can control my hormone levels."

"There are some visuals in the data about Shadow...they show a shadow reaching out , touching a person, then wrapping over them, enveloping them...and then there is nothing, just empty space where there had been a person. One clip shows five seconds later a human skin, sans body, just a skin, falling out of nowhere to land on the floor. Other reports say that their touch leaves massive, chemical like burns, or deep cold - liquid nitrogen cold - burns."

Way went on to detail a few of the even less pleasant occurances that filled the sparse reports.

"Okay, okay", Helva said in a shakey voice as she began to fill her nutrient feeds with endorphins to counter the adrenaline that began to rush in.

**********************************

"Oh great galloping Gnuz and the many tanks o' tuna!!" She moaned painfully "I don't think sitting anywhere is going to be possible any time soon

Her face was a study in misery as she looked apologetically at Foster. To her additional dismay she found her lower lip trembling

Foster was shocked at first but quickly stood. Gently he ran a finger along her trembling lip and then kissed her softly.

"Helva", he said, "contact the Pride of Albion via Vega base and tell them they'll have a patient just as soon as I'm done here." His eyes had never left Cam's, "I can't wait too long to have you in my lap", he said just above a whisper. "Dr. Uhua-Sorg is the best on the best medical facility in Central."

(OOC - Draconis Nightcrawlis - I was just wondering if you were still doing the RP. A few things need descriptions, like free eagles area of the ship and Cam and Foster's quest for the captain's log.)

Cam returned the kiss, soft, gentle, unhurried but too soon over. Sighing she laid her head on his shoulder.[i]

*"Way get with Helva about a flight plan and contact The University about a course change. Tell them to rev up the medical section for exchange and such"* [i]She knew that her partner would take care of the fine details

Way Farer acknowledged just as many of the various optical sensors on the Mournhold began filming over with a thick scarlet liquid, and other sensors simply ceased responding. Her contact with Cam filled with staticky hash as well

*"Cam..."* *"Cam!"*

*"Helva if you can get through to Foster let them know that Shadow has stepped up attacks and I'm going to withdraw from the Mournhold's cybersystem. It's been fighting me for somethime and there no sense in me staying there. I'll leave enough presence there to keep the automatics on line. I also haven't had any further contact with the that military ship or it's team of engineers they sent over. Faded Fortunes and their team is doing a good job of taking care of themselves though"*

"Foster? Foster?"

Nothing but static met the open channels as Helva kept trying, keeping open her link to Way Farer.

"Helva? Did you get that?"

Helva had gotten his message but her reply went unheard as the shadow entity pressed it's attack.

Foster straightened with concern in his eyes, "Helva? HELVA?!" He grabbed the small PDA, hoping that the information he needed had downloaded and leaned in close to cam, subvocalizing. 'We'll get to your transport as it's nowhere near the dock.' Then he straightened and out loud said, "Let's get back to the docking bay."

Cam nodded at Foster, hearing his words clearly

"Hanger Bay, good idea"

She laid a hand lightly on his and went 'notime'. Her little runabout was a keyed location, one of the places she could get to from anywhere. Other wise 'notime' took line of sight, though she knew some elders that could do go to places seen over optical sensors. She was not where near that ability yet. In 'notime' she and Foster were in the cramped, but room emough of the small vessel.


"Try Helva from here"

"Helva?"

"FOSTER! Where ... How did you get there?"

"No time, we're coming in, did you get my message?"

"Yes. I've sent a tightbeam to central, Pride of Albion, to expect a patient. Are you okay? What about Cam? How hurt is she?" Helva sounded as close to panic as a shell person could get, dumping endorphins in as fast as she could.

"We're okay. Cam's tail, my fault. Doctor Uhua-Sorg will need to complete the repairs on it, I'd done all I could." He looked apologetically at Cam as he spoke.

"Understood, the logs?"

"You'll need to check them, we got rushed. I'll download it on an isolated system so we can be sure there's no shadow influence."

Helva prepared the system and waited while the two returned to her.

"Your ship, your command", he said to Cam smiling. He reached out and took her hand, bringing it to his lips, "Orders?" he asked.

"Uh, Jann..." started Reid.

"What's up, Reid? Holy..." asked Jann, his voice trailing off as he saw what she was talking about.
"Cam? Foster? Do you see this?" Silence over the comm. "Cam?" A light hiss came through the open channel.
"Static? This is a digital datalink, there is no static, ever. What the hell?"

"Shadow!" shouted Reid, firing three shots into the darkness. "Fortunes, get rid of the mass sensor, it doesn't work. But don't turn my HUD off," she said over the comm. The mass sensor obligingly disappeared, the entire HUD reverting to the air displacement sensor.

"Got 'em back here too," said Kane, blasting away with his pistol at the group of targets in his view. Riesco turned and fired a couple of shots behind them in support.

"Fortunes? Are you still there?" asked Jann.

"Yes, Lieutenant," replied the Mind.

"Then why can't we talk to Cam? The comm still works, so what's up?"

"I don't know, Lieutenant. Maybe whatever it is only affects transmissions within the ship, or maybe the problem is with Cam's transmitter. I will try and reestablish contact for you. In the meantime, be careful. My spiders are reporting strange activity, and I see through your HUDs that you see it as well. It might be best to head back to the shuttle now."

***

The Faded Fortunes communicated with the other vessels.

{Way Farer, Helva, are you seeing this as well? My team appears to have lost contact with your representitives, and a number of odd events seem to be occuring on board the vessel. Do you know what is going on?}

"I've lost contact..." Helva began, speaking to the Fortunes, but then it was re-established, "Wait, I've got them. They're on Captain Cam's shuttle. I don't know how they managed that one. They're bringing the captain's log. I'll let you know what I get."

((OOC: Draconis Nightcrawlis has withdrawn from this, so if someone else wants to take over so that we know what's going on, they can.))

(Okay, Tanara and I were discussing this last night actually. I have a couple of RPs in mind for Foster and Cam since they've clicked so well but we want to finish this. Tanara can do a post, though not for a few hours. If that's alright with whomever is still in this thread.)

(By the way, the threads I have in mind are not necessarily going to be closed, I just meant that I have ones so that we can still RP Cam and Foster but mose likely they'll be open. If anyone is interested. And actually some military might be good.)

(OOC: I think that other than you and Tanara, it's just me left. I might be up for something else. If it requires some military grunts, the Indoans will be happy to oblige. I would like to finish this though...)

(OOC - Oh I hate it when a thread dies. Tanara is messaging everyone with her idea to end it. Pretty much get out of dodge and let the shadows sunbathe after towing the derelict and shoving it into the nearest sun. If you want to join the RP I have in mind it will take place in central. You could go for medical treatment (Central's primary research interest) or some R&R on the station that will be involoved (which won't be much R&R, but the idea would be nice).

(OOC: I was hoping this would go somewhere interesting. Besides, why even bother to search it (it was Tanara who suggested the quarantine) if you're going to sun-dump it? The logic doesn't follow. Will your RP actually involve any need for a military presence, because if it doesn't, there's not a lot of point in my involvement, because the Faded Fortunes is a military exploration vessel.)

(OOC - I was hoping it would too, it was looking very interesting. And that's true, it doesn't make sense to have suggested a search only if it was going to be sun dumped, then again I'm sure she wasn't anticipating the thread master to just drop out. Considering the recent postings of major activity, however, it's reasonable to order a withdraw and let there be no more risk to the living. It might not be the stuff of movies but it's closer to RL.

As for my thread, a military presence would more than make sense and be more than useful. I don't want to give away too much. I'll just say that it's got to do with a station, a pirate orginization and a pirate leader that's furious at the station manager. I don't want a ship to ship battle either, but marines on the station would be an unexpected surprise to the pirates.)

OOC:Sorry to be so late to this - my connection is acting up, but then again so is jolt ( kicks it in the shins for slow down ). I'm not going to try and telegram every one. If they haven't bothered to look at or post in the thread in as many days as its just been you Free Eagles, DragonsReach and I, thats their look out...(which has been more than 7 days by the way )

When my character suggested a divide and search, I thought the GM ws going to stay with the thread/ game. I was not expecting DN to drop out, but hey it happens.

I have too much on my plate to devote the time I feel is necesary to GM the thread ( a vastly different propositon from being a player in a thread/ game ).

********************************************

Cam waited until the automatics had seperated the two vessels, then looked at Foster, shaking her head.

"Forget the log. Shadow is accelerating it's attacks, and we have found no one and nothing of significance. Faded Fortunes's group has found no one in the shielded research areas, the only place where some one might have been still alive. Every one else has reported no survivors, nothing that merits further attention. The ship that crashed against the hull - I can send more bots to help Helva's cocoon it off and I have a small craft that can get them to the nearest DN planet. It might be a little uncomfortable but they'll be okay."

Cam looked at Foster with a raised eyebrow. She could tell he was concerned for her, and she was concerned as well. The nanites that dumped pain medications into her system had limited 'gernerations' plus her physiology made long term pain medications troublesome.She made a quick decission. She could not leave a Shadow infested ship floating about to become a peril to any who boarded her.

*" Faded Fortunes, Posidon, and Queen B 'n company. Every one withdraw from the Mournhold. With the air sensors ablet to tell if Shadow is present I think you can declare your selves individually uninfected'. Once we are clear of the Mournhold I'm going to dump her into the sun. The Way Farers normal space engines are powerful enough to do this, but if you all would stand by incase of problems that would be appreciated. Helva, Way would you pass this along to those that crashed, that we're going to cocoon them and mesh them to a spare craft and once they have transfered over to it, you can program in the coordinates,....and give them a short course in running the ship"*

Helva sent the message to the crashed ship and waited for Way Farer to dispatch a small one they could use as she only had skiffs for short hops where it was pointless to burn all the fuel it would take to relocate herself.

"You should let Helva and I take you to the Pride of Albion once we're finished here. Doctor Kennet Uhua-Sorg would be able to patch you up. Not to mention the fact that he would recommend some rest, probably three or four days, you know how doctors are, and Vega Station is just a short jump away. The Perimeter is the best resaurant this side of Central and..." he looked up at her hopefully, "they have a beautiful suite on the northern globe."

B. Queen frowned as the information came over her comm unit. She clicked it, and spoke back. "This is B. Queen. We're still in the Crew Quarters. We're Com..." She points one finger, and Lone nods, shooting his plasma pistol at random spots on the ground. The other two follow suit, creating believable background noise as B. Queen spoke. "Damnit! Shadows are swarming the entry hatch. We can handle them though. Just, push the ship off towards the sun. Don't worry about us. We'll get out before then. Over." She looked to the others, making sure the comm was off. "Okay. That SHOULD buy us some time to grab some loot before we go. Grab anything that isn't nailed down, keep an eye out for Shadows, and get to the ship."

The group splits up, Vex handing each member a large knapsack she had snagged from the Blockcade Runner, each entering a different room. They grab anything that looks to be of value. Personal weapons are favored, as well as jewelry, money, and datapads, especially those which may contain tech-specific information.


((OOC: Tanara, act as you please. RP pushing the ship off. My next post will be, of course, the group getting to the ship and launching. :D))

OOC: DragonsReach, you got an interested group of Rangers now. They'll be there, and I'm sure I can find a way to keep the Fortunes out of the battle. (It's sort of my speciality, I've disabled two ships for the good of RPs in the few FT RPs that I've done).

IC:
"Um, if we're withdrawing, how do we know there's not someone left alive? We ain't exactly gone through a lot of this research area, y'know," asked Dex, his pistol waving about randomly as he watched for targets.

"We don't," replied Riesco. "Hey, the furball's got a point there, Jann. There could be someone left. I'll admit it's unlikely, but its possible."

The shuttle pilot made a snap decision. "Alright. Two minutes, two groups, search as much as you can," he told them. "Kane, Riv, Andie, you with me. Kate, you take Dex and Reid."

They split and dashed through the room, nipping into the smaller siderooms and quickly checking them with IR, then returning to the larger room.

"Cam, Jann. We're not done yet. We barely managed to start searching the research area. We're doing it now, as fast as we can. Give us some time to finish here and get back to our shuttle," the pilot said over the comm.

"Come on, quickly. We've got at least two more of these large rooms to search-" he was interrupted by a burst of fire from Kane's pistol, the blue laser bolts dissipating a shadow. "And stay alert."

(OOC - free eagles - cool. we could do a rapid strike from the pirates to disable offensive. they're experts at that anyway. near the end we could have fortunes repair crew finally get things back online, after fending off boarding, since a warship like that would be a great prize for the pirates and they would try for it. then she could help with mop up as they run again. one reason I would trained personel is that like most things in central the station is unarmed, largely. they beat them before through cunning by luring them into thinking that they had the station ai under control when the shell person actually still had control. but they know about him now.)

IC - "Jann, this is Helva. I estimate forty-two seconds for tractor lock and shear test. Three minutes and twenty-seven seconds for max velocity and eight minutes and thirty-two seconds to reach the nearest star. Six minutes and thirty-two seconds, based on Central Worlds drive engines for point of no return star gravity well. I believe your time table will be best judged by shadow attack intensity and less on time to point of no return."

((OOC: When you say, 'Pirates' are you referring to my characters?
EDIT: LOL Nevermind. I backread a bit more and saw what you meant. If you don't mind, I wouldn't be against hoping in that one too. Even smugglers have to resupply, as well as offload their loot. :D))

(OOC - Krowemoh - Your more than welcome. Central is strict on proving the lawful rights for the material, but salvage is allowed and it is on the frontier so they could find someone who knows someone. Probably would suggest going through new destinies station. But it could make for some interesting RP. who knows maybe your people would think about siding with the pirates until they find out exactly what they think of anyone not thier own race. then more RP to have the stationers trust them enough to let them help them. Just an idea.)

((OOC: Sounds like a plan. ^_^ Will this be in this thread, or another?))

(OOC - Another thread, I'll TG with the title when it starts.)

(OOC - Another thread, I'll TG with the title when it starts.)

((OOC: Kinky! I'm now just waiting for Tanara. Plus, I gotta go now anyways. Laters. ^_~ ))

"We'll probably need some more time, Helva. I reckon it'll take us that long to finish searching and get back to the hangar. Without any shadow involvement. Give us an extra minute," responded Jann after some quick thinking.

The two groups of Indoans linked up to pass through into the next room, then split again to search it thoroughly. Jann and his group entered another small room off the large one. The stuttered whine of rapid laser fire could be heard from back out in the main room.

"Riesco, report."

"We got jumped by a couple. We're okay," replied the medic.

"Copy." Jann looked at Kane, who shook his head. No-one in here. They moved on and looked in the next room. It took them thirty seconds to search the second research lab, before they moved on to the third, and last lab.

In the third room Jann's group checked, Kane caught a faint IR smudge at the far end. They entered the room, more laser whines greeting their ears as they moved. Riesco and Reid had found more targets.

The thermal signature was coming from a large storage unit with a sealed door. Kane stepped up to the door, glanced at Jann, who had moved to cover the inside of the unit, and pulled the door open.

"I don't believe it. It's a fucking kid," announced the Ranger. He held out his hand, but the child, a girl of about eight, shrunk away.

"Guess she ain't too friendly," he observed.

"With what she's probably seen on this ship? Are you kidding?" stated Jann. "Riv, can you put her out?"

The diminuative creature nodded and pulled an injector gun from his medical kit, inserting a sedative as he did so.

"Kane, grab her," ordered Jann.

"Wait," cried the avatar. It stepped forwards and looked carefully at the child. "Okay. She seems clean."

The Ranger holstered his pistol and lunged forward, grabbing the child and gripping her in a bearhug. He turned around, facing the Douran medic and knealt down, restraining the struggling child as best he could. "Get her, Riv. Quick."

The Douran's left arm shot out and grasped one of the child's legs, holding it firmly. The injector gun in the right hand came forward and jabbed into the child's leg. Riv pulled the trigger, injecting the sedative. Almost instantly, the girl's struggles began to tail off, eventually falling limp in Kane's arms.

He stood and held the limp body out to the avatar. "Andie, you mind carrying her?"

The avatar reached out and took the child, placing her over its shoulder. Kane drew his pistol again, as Jann took down a shadow with a well aimed shot.

"Jann, we've finished checking the rest of this lab," Riesco told him over the comm.

"Good. Let's get out of here. We found a goddamn kid. She appears to be clean, but we'll restrain her as soon as we get to the shuttle," Jann replied.

They left the room and began moving swiftly back in the direction of the hangar, through the other two labs first.

Jann made a transmission to the others as they moved. "Fortunes, Helva, we found a survivor. A little girl, looks to be about nine. We're bringing her out. And we're on our way back to the hangar now."

Under Way's guidance a small ship, barely 150 meters long detatched itself from where it had been clamped to the largers ships bottom hull. It would provide room and life support for those in the crashed ship and the Ju-thurgens that had reached Mournholds second hold. It was old but wel maintained, and should the refugees decide to see it, would fetch enough to sell it then all comfortably settled.

Cam stood before the runabouts controlls, having discovered that it was simply not possible for her to sit down. The pain was too severe.

*"Queen B, Jann, I can give you the time you need, don't worry but don't be forever either."*

Cam watched as Way set about manuevering her shipself into tractor range. The invisible, but clearly displayed on sensor readings, beams of tractor and pressor's lashed out and began surrounding the Mournhold's bulk. It was a little tricky with the Mournhold being considerably more massive than the Way Farer, despite there only being 300 meters difference in length.

Helva shot up and away from the ship, moving toward the runabout. She opened her hold bay and moved to a position where the runabout could slip in, hoping Cam was an expert pilot as it would be a tight fit. At least she hoped that she was better than Foster, who, though capable wouldn't be able to perform the flying that Helva was now asking of Cam.

'Helva', Foster subvocalized, 'as soon as things are settled make haste for Albion, Cam's in alot of pain. Can you keep her comfortable?'

'She'll need to strap in but we can put her on medical bed', she sent back through the mastoid implant.

'Alright, have it ready.'

It was then that Foster looked up at the narrow bay opening and grabbed the arms of the chair until his knuckles were white.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Understood Jann", Helva replied while she spoke to Foster. "Can you keep her sedated until we can get her to med facility for a full workup? I'll be taking Cam to the Pride of Albion, I'm sending the co-ordinates to all ships now in case medical treatment is needed. Foster, also, will need to be checked out, though I think he should be fine. I think that may have been the little girl who's image the shadow used to try to bait Cam and Foster earlier, I want to be absolutely sure she's clean."

Cam shook her head.

"Foster, I'm going to have to drop you off. I'm needed to pilot the Way Farer. We may have Deep Midnight's Voice but the flight time is still much shorter if an organic pilots the slipstream."

She grinned a little as she noticed Fosters white knuckles. She'd learned to pilot fighters, this little excursion was kit's play to her.

"Way Finder has the co-ordinates for Albion then. I'll see you there." He spoke in a calm voice, despite his tight grip on the arms of the chair. 'If we survive this entry', he thought. He had never understood how pilots managed things like this. He knew that there were those that could, and he wasn't one to question a pilot, he just hoped that Cam was as good a pilot as she was on his eyes. If she was then this wouldn't be hard at all.

Cam's whiskers twitched as she chucled to herself and sent the runabout speeding towards the perfecty adequate entryway. Then in the lash of a tail they were in Helva's small hanger, the hatch closeing behind them.

"There Foster, it wsn't hard at all"

She looked at him bright eyed, and ever so slightly teasing.

"Has Helva passed on theo coordinates for any one wishing to travel with us? I'm going to ask Way to pass along the contact info for the University, so any who want to head there first, or hitch a ride with them can do so"

Foster smiled, his respect, and feelings, for Cam growing even greater. A beautiful woman was easy to find. An intelligent and beautiful woman was more difficult. But a skilled woman of beauty and intelligence was rare indeed. He stood slowly, keeping his eyes locked with hers. A rough hand touched her face with a gentleness that belied it surface and his lips, ghostlike, brushed against hers.

"Easy indeed", he said, looking into her eyes. He referred to her beauty, though he understood her question.

"They have the coordinates", he said huskily and barely above a whisper, "Helva has sent them already."

"Already done, Helva. The brat wouldn't have come if we ha- shit." Jann broke off, his laser carbine spitting a cluster of bolts at a image on his HUD. The other two carbines opened up as well, the whole corridor flashing in the sapphire light.

A mass of targets had suddenly appeared, from two sides. Kane ejected a spent power pack from his pistol, slipped a new one in, then grabbed Jann's pistol from his holster. With two guns in hand, the Ranger scythed a path through the shadow mass and darted forward, the others following before the gap closed. They reached the door out of the research labs, Riesco slammed a hand against the switch, but the door remained closed.

"Shit," she screamed, "The fucking door's locked."

Kane pushed her out of the way, and threw one of his pistols to Dex. "Get away from the door. Form a circle facing outwards," he ordered. His remaining pistol went into his holster, and the projectile rifle was unslung. He pumped the action on the launch tube under the main barrel.

"Shit. Kane, no! There's not enough space," cried Jann.

The Ranger either failed to hear the pilot, or just plain ignored him. He levelled the rifle at the door and bellowed "Fire in the hole!" as he pulled the trigger.

The noise from the rocket was huge in the confines of the lab. It whooshed out from the launcher and slammed into the door, blasting it apart in a blinding flash of light and a huge boom. The blast was so powerful that the shadows surrounding them withdrew several metres instantly. The door was a ragged hole in the wall now. They quickly moved through, taking advantage of the momentary cessation in the shadow assault.

Kane reslung his rifle and deftly caught his second pistol as it was thrown back to him. He did not draw the first again, instead detaching a small object from his battlesuit. The Ranger had just remembered what else he was carrying. He hit the thumb catch and span the object through the blast hole.

The flashbang grenade exploded with a massive noise and a blinding flash, made worse by the dim conditions in the corridor. The Indoans personal HUDs darkened instantly to protect them from the flash, but the noise still hit those not wearing helmets.

Kane sprayed a multitude of fire back through the door as they advanced, Jann and Reid taking the lead with their carbines blazing blue death. Between them were Riesco, the two Douran and the avatar with the child slung over its shoulder.

***

The Faded Fortunes was monitoring the progress of its team through the visual link in the HUDs, and recognising that their progress would be slowed by the combat, used its effector to prepare the shuttle sitting in the hangar for launch. The two fusion engines burst into life, leaving a large scorch mark on the hangar wall behind the craft.

It wanted to use its effector to ensure that all the doors on the way to the hangar remained unlocked and open, but refrained from doing so as the corrupt AI onboard the derelict might infect its own systems if it tried that.

The Mind had received the location co-ordinates from Helva, but had a question,

{Helva, how long will it take you to get to this station? At that distance, and with our drives, it'll take us just a few minutes.}

Helva was already opening a channel as she registered the heavy fighting. She was dumping endorphins into her system to try to remain calm as fear for the people on the Mournhold stabbed at her heart. The question only served to make her more fearful for them.

"Are your people alright?" she asked. "We use a singularity drive. There's difference in time between real time and time spent in singularity. If your asking for the purpose of meeting with us then figure about forty-five minutes real space-time. For purposes of singularity travel we can make it in six minutes should you need wounded taken quickly to Albion."

She hoped that faded fortunes had an A.I. capable of understanding the difference. Most soft shells couldn't understand how two different times could be arrived at.

{Don't worry about my people. They're Indoans, they'll come through in one piece. The Rangers are the best troops we have, the two on the ship are among the best I have. I was asking for purposes of co-ordinating our arrival. It would make things easier for me if we arrived at the same time or after you. We'll ride a worm to get there, it'll take just a few minutes real time. I was wondering when I should leave in relation to you to accomplish this.}

Despite its confident message, the Mind was worried for the safety of its crew. No Indoan had ever faced anything such as this, and the Mind genuinely cared for each of the lives entrusted to it's care.

***

An image flashed through Kane's head, a shadow reaching out for his head. He whirled and blasted the offending shadow at point blank range, then spun around again and fired more shots into the hoard developing behind them.

"Riesco, cover the ceiling. One got above us just then. Would have got me if I hadn't blinked," the Ranger called as he shot yet another shadow.

The medic agreed and watched the ceiling, her HUD light illuminating the dull grey surface.

One of Kane's pistols flashed empty. He ejected the useless power pack, firing off three shots from his other pistol as he did so. He then holstered the second, and withdrew another power pack, slamming it into the empty pistol. He triggered off a number of shots as he retreived the other gun.

"I'm down to three packs. Having two guns is expensive on ammo," he called.

"Riesco, take the back. Let Kane restock," ordered Jann. The medic complied, her carbine flashing blue. The avatar was carrying a pack containing a large number of pistol power packs. Kane grabbed several and shoved them into the ammo pouch on his battlesuit. He turned and allowed Riesco to move past him. As he replaced her once more, she resumed her watch of the ceiling.

They moved quickly through the dim corridors, edging ever closer to the hangar and the safety of the shuttle.

"Let me jump first then wait two minutes for your own jump. That should put you at the rendezvous shortly after me. I'll need to find out the drive capabilities of anyone else going to Albion. Central would not attack unless provoked but it would speed up things if there is a Central Worlds ship to vouch for any ship in Central space."

Helva monitered the two as they flew into the cargo hold. The speed at which they entered set her nerves jingling but Cam handled the runabout expertly. She began to monitor a rise in Foster's heartrate, temperature and pheromone level. 'Not AGAIN', she thought. 'They really need to find a way to control thier bodys.'

Jann was unsure whether it was because of the girl they were carrying, or if the shadows had just gotten bored of letting them roam the ship unchallenged, but the assault just kept coming and never slackened in intensity.

"Andie, how much further to the hangar?" he asked his comm unit.

The blue-skinned avatar checked the schematic they had picked up on its HUD.

"About fifty metres," it replied, its silky voice carrying over the noise of battle to be heard even without the comm.

They were firing nearly constantly now, they pace slowed down to a crawl by the onslaught of targets. They were now so many targets that it no longer mattered whether a shot was aimed or not, it would still strike home on an enemy.

All of them were firing now, not just those at the front and rear. The avatar was taking careful potshots past Jann and Reid as it wielded the pistol one-handed, the other being used to keep the unconscious child over its shoulder. Dex and Riv were shooting past either side of Kane's legs, which the Ranger found mildly disconcerting, although it did not worry him overly. Riesco was picking off the gradually increasing number of targets coming at them from the ceiling, despite her efforts to use her lights to repel them.

Something flashed out at the medic, and she cried out in pain. Her carbine wasted the shadow but it had still gotten her with something. A quick glance revealed a long, fairly deep cut on her left forearm, and blood quickly began flowing from it, running down her arm to her elbow, since it was elevated by aiming the carbine at the ceiling.

There was no time to treat it properly now, although she knew that it might cause adverse effects, as they knew nothing about the shadows. Instead, she pulled an autojet from her medical kit and stabbed it into herself, injecting the medical nanobots into her blood. The avatar looked at her when she cried out, and quickly told the Faded Fortunes what had happened over the comm.

***

The news hit the Mind hard, it immediately began worrying and readying its medical facilities.

{Helva, what kind of weapons do the shadows have? One of my team has incurred what appears to be a knife wound. Are there any dangers I should be aware of?}

Way overheard the communication from the Faded Forunes Mind to Helva and responded

*"Faded Fortunes, thats an entirely likely wound. The Shadow uses its own substance as a weapon. Your personell may find that the wound won't clot untill exposed to extremely bright light. Let me try to reestablish a like with the programing I left in Mournholds cyberspace. I may be able to give your troops a bit of aid."*

Way ruthlessly stepped up the out put and after several seconds managed to make contact long enough to send through a burst packet of data.

*"Fortuen, tell your team, ten seconds and cover their eyes I've programed an over load of the lighting between them and the ahnger bay and in the bay itself. They'll need to move fast once the 'bright' hits*

One

two

three..

"Faded, as Way indicated it's shadow itself. The injury could be severe, at least worst than any normal knife wound. Way is far more knowledgable. But I stand ready to make a rapid jump to Albion if you wish to send your crew to me, assuming their shuttle can fit in my hold. I can leave word that you and the others will be arriving so your passage from the jump point to Albion will not be hindered." Helva's tone held a note of fear for the injured person but the endorphins she added to her nutrient feeds were keeping her calm.

The Faded Fortunes performed the AI equivalent of a laugh.

{I told you that I can get there within a few minutes. The shuttle can do exactly the same, and if that pod was a tight fit to your hold, our shuttle probably won't fit. They've still got to get off the damn thing first, though.}

***

Riesco had taken to swearing loudly and randomly as she blasted smoking holes in the ceiling with her carbine. The freely flowing blood was dripping from her elbow and spattering softly against the metal deck underfoot. Her jacket sleeve was rapidly turning from white to red as blood soaked into it, and her fingers were starting to go numb.

"Crap." A shot. "Fuck." Another shot. "Fuck!" Two shots. "Fucking hell, my arm hurts." Four shots. It was a credit to her determination, or more probably her desire for revenge, that most of her shots were hitting targets, despite the increasing difficulty she was having aiming her weapon properly as her arm got weaker.

Their HUD visors all went very dark. Before any of them could complain, the corridor lights blasted out a ridiculously bright light. Despite the tinting, most of them still flinched, but before they could do anything about it, the lights went out completely in their section. They could see lights still on further down the corridor in both directions, but their section was now dark except for the light from their personal lights.

"Andie, what the hell just happened?" shouted Jann over Riesco's cursing.

"Somebody tried to use the lights to repel the shadows, and apparently to fix Riesco's arm as well. But the lights blew, or were disabled by the shadows," the avatar shouted back.

"Where's the hangar?" asked Reid. The dim corridor was lit up by a blue light, which she recognised as that of a fusion engine. "Never mind. I see it." She dashed forwards, taking advantage of the shadow's momentary retreat from the bright light, and reached the hangar door. It slid shut as she approached. She swore.

"Kane! Get the rifle over here. Blast through the door." The Ranger complied, throwing a pistol to Riv again, and returning the other to the ammo pouch. He unslung the rifle and fed his other rocket into the launcher, pumping the action to prep it.

"Stand clear. Fire in the hole," he bellowed as he pulled the trigger. Again, the noise of the rocket in the confined space was immense, the shockwave nearly knocking them over. The acrid stink of melted materials assailed their nostrils through the filter masks. They made their way through the opening, one by one.

They dashed across the hangar floor to the shuttle sitting there and ran up the ramp. Jann jumped into the pilot's seat and withdrew the landing gear, leaving the craft floating on its AG cushion. As soon as the last person, Reid, was aboard, he hit the button to close the hatch and slammed the throttles forward to maximum power.

Huge streaks of blue plasma came out of the back of the engines, melting a large portion of the wall behind them and scorching what was left. The shuttle accelerated massively, and shot out of the hangar doors, melting more metal on the way.

Now free of the derelict, the shuttle looped around in a wide turn, and shot towards the Faded Fortunes.

Inside the shuttle, the avatar laid the unconscious child down on one of the seats and went to look at Riesco. The wound on her arm was still bleeding copiously, and would require another dose of nanobots to help fix it properly. Even better, it needed the Fortunes medical suite. Kane sat down heavily on a seat, then grimaced. He looked at the reason, and poked a finger at it.

"Well, I'll be damned. Fragged myself with my own rocket," the Ranger said quietly, a smile emerging on his face. The wound was small, and not really dangerous, but the shrapnel fragment would need extracting or disintegrating. He dug around the supplies, then gave up and asked Riv to find some nanos for him. He removed his helmet to give the Douran some exposed skin to inject the nanobots into.

Cam and Way both sighed loudly as the Faded Fortunes shuttle blasted free.

*"Cam get on back over here! Queen B you are the only group left on the Mournhold. Get off now, as I'm putting her into the stellar coronasphere in ten minutes."*

Way broadcast as the Posidon's shuttle too left the doomed ship's hangers.

Cam gave Foster a breathy kiss and urged him out of the runabout.

"I'll see you soon. I don't know how long its going to take, the quantum strings can do strange things."

Once he was gone and the hanger depressurized she guided the runabout back out and over to the Way Farer as she began tractoring the Mournhold into the sun

Foster ran for the pilot's cabin and gave Helva's column a quick smile and nod on his way past. He dumped himself quickly into the pilot's seat and threw on his harness.

"Fortunes, Helva. Unless your crewmember is in immediate need to reach Albion I'll wait until everyone is ready before I jump." She was feeling better since she registered the entire crew on the shuttle. They had had no losses and all of them had seemed to make it in under thier own power. Her only worries now were the B. Queen and her people. She moved gracefully away from the Mournhold as Way began to tractor the ship toward the nearest sun.

As it approached the Faded Fortunes, the shuttle slowed to a more reasonable speed, the searing blue trails of plasma shrinking back into the engine exhausts.

"Faded Fortunes, this is shuttle Salequin. Request PTA, we have two wounded aboard. But we're all here, we're all alive, and we have a passenger," transmitted Jann.

"Salequin, PTA granted to hangar bay. A medical team will be standing by," replied the Mind.

Kane had removed his armour, and was examining the hole in his arm with interest. It was barely bleeding, even though it was an inch long and had a chunk of metal embedded in it, and he felt very little pain.

He looked up. "None of you mentions this to anyone," he told them, humour crossing with a vaguely threatening tone, "I'll never live it down. Fragging myself with my own rocket. Damn!"

Riesco's arm continued to bleed freely, and the avatar noticed her face was abmormally pale, even for a Matrai. The nanobots in her blood were working feverishly to seal the wound, but the sheer size made it a difficult task. At least she wasn't in pain anymore, having finally accepted the medication.

Jann skillfully piloted the shuttle into the waiting hangar, deployed the landing skids, and set it down on the deck. As the engines went through their auto shut down sequence, he slumped back in his seat. I never thought I'd be this glad to see this hangar, he thought. Funny how things change like that.

The avatar helped Riesco down the ramp, where she was promptly handed over to two medics, who supported her from both sides and carried her to the medical suite. Kane abandoned his equipment on the shuttle and followed them, to fix his arm faster.

The avatar went back into the shuttle, picked up the child and carried her over its shoulder as it left the shuttle again and headed after the medics, following the trail of blood droplets from Riesco's arm.

Jann, Reid, Dex and Riv slowly came out of the shuttle one after the other and stopped. As one, they whooped for joy, and embraced each other, basking in the wonder of their survival.

"Fortunes, Helva", she said opening the link once more, "I register your crew as offloaded. Please convey my relief as to thier well being and congradulations on a well done job."

She then opened another link to Way Farer, privately on the A.I. channel. "Although I'm sure that Foster will happily, ummm, congradulate and show his relief to Cam later, would you convey mine to her?"

{Will do, Helva. They deserve it. The same to yours. We'll be waiting for your signal to jump to the station.}

~ They deserve a hell of a lot more than congratulations. I'll put them in for some leave, and try and wangle them a commendation or something.
***

In the medical bay, Riesco lay on a bed, fast asleep after being given a sedative. As she dreamed peacefully, about three squirrels in a forest, the automated medical unit used its surgical laser to seal the cut on her arm, allowing the nanobots to fix it more easily. She was also given a blood transfusion, to replace that lost by bleeding.

Kane sat on the bed next to her, watching with interest as a medical drone used its own laser and grappling field to extract the shrapnel from his wrist.

The child was still sedated, and was in a magnetically sealed isolation bay, undergoing a complete medical scan. The Mind was looking after the girl as best it could while still protecting the safety of the ship and crew.

The other four members of the boarding team had submitted to quick medical scans before attempting to find some food. As Reid had put it: Danger made them hungry.

Compared to the others, B. Queen's group had encountered very light Shadow Attacks. This was either due to dumb luck, or some deity's laziliness.

At any rate, the group returns to the ship with a small load of sellable items, varying from personal weapons, to jewelry, to a few datacubes/digital storage devices.

They could already feel that the ship was beinnging to move. "Okay people! Hurry it up! No slacking! Get into the 'Runner, and let's get the hell out of here!"{ B. Queen didn't have to remind her group to do so.

Piling into the ship, the rag-tag crew begins the process of powering up the ship. B. Queen turned on her comlink. "This is B. Queen. We're leaving the Hangar Bay now. Over."

The Blockcade Runner lifts itself off the deck, backing out of the bay and into the vaccumm of space.

Then, something happened. A swell of Shadow covered the entire hangar bay, reaching out to grab hold of the Blockcade Runner, forcing it back halfway into the hangar bay. "Carps! This is the Runner! We're caught up by a large Shadow form!" B. Queen's voice came over the comm to the other ships. She turned to Lone as he forward all power to the engines, trying to force the ship out of the Shadow's grip, to no avail. "Lone, fire up our Point Defense guns! See if that has any effect on it!"

Lone nodded, flipping on a switch. Turrets lowered from the bottom of the ship, and began to spew laser bolts at the Shadow. But, the Anti-Asteroid defensive gun wasn't strong enough to affect the Shadow in any significant way.

The ship seemed hell bent on taking at least one of them with it into the sun. The Blockcade Runners were just unlucky in being the last ones out...

((OOC: Okay. Post saving the Runner, then shoving that thing into the sun... Unless you guys want the Smugglers dead? :())

(OOC - Well it will have to be someone other than me. Helva doesn't have anything but point defense lasers to ward off larger meteorites.)

((OOC: See? Aren't you glad the military expedition ship stuck around? :p))

(OOC - Actually the question is aren't YOU glad the military expidition ship stuck around. :D )

OOC: *Fortunes slinks off quietly, ignoring the smugglers plight* Oh alright then, we'll help.

IC:
The Faded Fortunes heard the transmission from the Blockade Runner, and performed the Mind equivalent of a grumpy sigh.

~ Why now? I'm trying to look after my injured crew. I suppose I could leave them, I never trusted them anyway. Oh, Hsu! Did I really just think that? I can't just let them die.

The corvette accelerated rapidly, coming up alongside the hangar bay entrance where the Blockade Runner was stuck. The sensor arrays confirmed the situation, so the Mind powered up the tractor beam and the main laser batteries.

All the batteries capable of being brought to bear on the hangar interior were, and the tractor beam was latched on to the Blockade Runner.

~ I don't know if this will even work, but it's the best I can do.

The laser batteries fired in sequence, bathing the hangar bay in blue and purple light, the powerful anti-ship lasers melting the deck as they destroyed the shadows.

As the Blockade Runner came free of the shadows' pull, it shot out of the hangar, accelerated by the tractor beam as well as its own engines. The tractor beam quickly reversed its pull, and deflected the Runner away from the corvette, so they did not collide.

In a fit of anger, the Mind armed a missile launcher, and fired a single missile into the now empty hangar bay, the antimatter explosion shredding it.

It examined the Runner with the sensors to find out if it was still in one piece.

~ What's that? Shadow!

Another laser battery aimed at the Runner and fired a short burst, vaporising a shadow that had clung to the hull of the Runner.

*"WAAAHHHHHOOOO !"* Way yelled happily over the ether *"Good shooting Fortunes...don't let any one ever day your skills are fadeing away!*

As Cam's roundabout settled into her hanger, Way began the countdown. Zero would see the Mournhold slung into the stellar body. The Shadow would have no way to escape that

*"See you all at Albion. I've enjoyed working with all of you! And a little R&R will be greastly appreciated by all of us I think"*

With that the Way Farer finished her countdown and released the Mournhold on a high C trajectory towards the local sun. Then she was whirling agilely about and racing for the Frankel Limit, her exotic matter lense focusing the proton beam into azure lightening that ripped a hole into the quantum universe.

Privately Way sent to Helva *" Don't worry I will and convery mine to Foster. See ya soon Helva! and I may have a gift for you"*

As the WayFarer vanished into the wierdling strings that jumped her from an ever so slow speed of light into a universe where space and time didn't matter, just knwoing where you were going and making the right decissions

A faint trail of song marked her passage

"I'm so happy doin' the neutron dance
And I'm just burning doin' the neutron dance
I'm so happy doin' the neutron dance
I'm just burning doin' the neutron dance.."

See ya'll in the next RP!

'A gift?' Helva thought.

"Fortunes? Helva, I'm jumping now. Runner, your welcome to join us. We'll be heading to Albion medical first but then to Vega base. I think everyone needs some down time."

With that she formed the singularity, space seeming to explode. She dove in, riding the crashing, closing singularity behind her, enjoying the feel of something she knew all to well.

See everyone next thread, I'll TG everyone with the title once I post it.

The Faded Fortunes coasted through the inky blackness of space, waiting for enough time to pass so that they would arrive after Helva. The departures of the other two ships had been of great interest to the Mind, their long-range drives were so different to that of Indoan vessels.

As the Mind watched the seconds tick away, an exercise it found even more boring than its crew would have done, since it thought much faster, it checked on the status of each of the boarding team.

Riesco was sleeping peacefully in the medbay, still dreaming of squirrels and sunshine, Kane was wandering the corridors of the ship, as was his habit when he was off duty, and the other four were in the canteen. All appeared to be avoiding mental trauma so far. The Mind would continue to monitor them closely for at least a week, just to make sure they had no problems.

When five minutes had passed, it activated the wormhole actuator, ripping a hole in the fabric of space-time, setting up a link between their current location and a point offset from Albion station. It then just cruised in to the wormhole, still running on its normal engines.

~ Estimated arrival time: 00:06:45