NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC: BTW, this is semi-open, if you can think of a good way of joining in. And in case you couldn't already tell, it's FT.)

“Get a hold of that power output ye scurvy dog!” Captain Claw yelled at one of the men under his command as he paced the small control room of his sloop. The forward window was obscured by the pure black nebula which had suddenly appeared in their path. It was throwing them around like ragdolls, and they couldn’t get the ship to come about, so they had to plough straight through it.

“Starboard engine nacelle buckling!” one crewman yelled. Claw braced himself against a low-slung metal brace as the ship lurched again. He grabbed the crewman’s arm who nearly fell over whilst trying to run across to the console.

“Watch thee self, crewman,” Claw warned. “These be dangerous waters; ye be losin’ a limb if ye keep runnin’ around like that. Now get to it!”

The crewman nodded as another conduit exploded, and immediately started work on the engine.



The small ship was being thrown side to side, up and down, as every force imaginable slammed into them in waves. The hull was blackened in places where internal systems had overloaded, and the starboard engine nacelle was leaving a trail of bright yellow plasma, leaving a trail marking their erratic course.
Electricity slashed through the completely black nebula, drawn to the ship like a lightning rod. Her shields had long since failed, and she continued to sustain more and more damage. She was on the verge of total destruction when…

…silence. She broke through the black cloud, into a vast clearing. The clearing was at the centre of the huge black nebula, and the black gasses could be seen all around. It was still dark, but it was clear and there were no devastating forces threatening to blow them apart. Once in a while the area was lit up by a stray spark of electricity from the surrounding nebula.



Claw leaned up against the forward console and put his face against the window, peering out. He grinned. His gold tooth sparkled each time the area was lit up. He span around and held his fist up in the air victoriously.

“We be through, lads!” he roared. “We can rest fer a wee while. Get those conduits under control and get t’ bed, crewmen.”

Standing amidst debris and gas vents, the tired crew perked up and yelled out in victory. One of them stopped cheering though, and cocked his head to one side curiously. He gazed out of the window. Claw noticed him, and looked outside. Nothing.

“What be the matter, lad?” Claw asked. “We be through! Ye can stop worryin’, fer a while at least.”

“I saw somethin’, cap’n,” the crewman said. “I saw somethin’, over yonder. When the lightin’ lit us up, it lit up somethin’ else…”

Claw squinted suspiciously, but turned to watch anyway. It was dark. Not even a star could be seen. Then, a flash of light temporarily highlighted the edge of the black, swirling nebula and… something else. Apparently, right in the centre of the vast nebula. It looked like a ship, only it was too far away to tell. And it was only a silhouette, rather than a shiny metal surface.

“Have we any sensors?” Claw called back, not taking his eyes off the scene outside. The light had subsided again.

“Sensors be completely dead in this ‘ere nebula, cap’n,” a crewman called back after trying something on his console.

“Alrighty then,” Claw said quietly. “Right mateys, ‘ere’s what we be doin’. Switch on the forward floodlights. If we can’t be scannin’ our way around, we’ll be lookin’. We head for the dead centre of this nebula, t’ see if there be anythin’ worth salvagin’. Then once we’ve fixed up this ship, we be gettin’ out of ‘ere. Y’all with me?”

“Aye!” the crew chanted. Survival AND plunder. How could they say no?

“Alrighty; let’s be getting’ on with it then!”



The ‘Nelson’, as was the sloop’s name, slowly pushed forward on its one engine. Two bright lights suddenly blared across the empty expanse, illuminating what seemed to be two tiny metal spots in the distance. What they would find there was unknown to them. But if they could sell it, then it was more than enough reason to go there.

[More Later]

The entire crew sat silent as they approached potential plunder, a good hour after setting off. They could see what appeared to be hull plating now that they were closer, illuminated by their front spotlights. But other than that, they could not see a thing. So they were waiting for another flash of light from the surrounding nebula to illuminate their prey.

And they got it.

A vast ship, a good 7km long, could be seen as a silhouette against the backdrop of temporarily illuminated cloud. Its sleek design and nearly-black hull colour could be seen in all its majesty, and its form was unmistakable.

“The Black Sky…” Claw said, in awe at the significance. “The Black Sky!”

“What?” one crewman asked.

“What ye mean, what?” Claw exclaimed, looking at him.

“I mean what is the Black Sky?” the crewman repeated. Claw sighed.

“Ten years ago, two colossal sister ships were launched from Caribbean,” Claw told him. “Both huge, both heavily armed, both the same design. They were the grandest ships ever built, the most feared in space. They were the Red Horizon… and the Black Sky…”

“I know of the Red Horizon, but I never be hearin’ of the Black Sky,” the crewman snorted.

“I not be surprised, matey,” Claw exclaimed. “She was lost in space little more than a week after she launched. No debris. No trail. No crew. No trace. Nothing. She were ne’er heard from again. Till now. An’ the settlements didn’t exactly shout about her loss after all the money they put into her. Crewman, can we be talkin’ to ‘er?”

“’Fraid not, cap’n,” the crewman shook his head. “The old loudspeaker don’t work in here any more than sensors. We’re dead an’ dumb here.”

“There be no lights on,” another crewman said, peering up at her. They were now very close, flying parallel alongside the enormous vessel. “Her crew may have perished in this nebula. Either that or they not be ‘avin’ any power. So they couldn’t hear us even if we could talk to them.”

“An’ we still can’t scan ‘em, to see if there be any lifesigns or power?” Claw asked, frustrated with the general lack of… well, anything.

“Still no, cap’n,” the crewman shook his head. “I’ve been tryin’, I ‘ave, but there be nothin’ I can do for the moment.”

“Let’s be findin’ an airlock on that beast then,” Claw said, pushing away from the console. “We be goin’ aboard. If there be crew, we’ll find ‘em. If not, we’ll be takin’ this whale of a ship through the nebula instead of ours. A much grander prize than simple scrap metal…”



The Nelson had stopped leaking engine fuel now, but it still operated on one engine. It slowly made its way across the hull of the vessel, until it slowed down near what appeared to be an airlock. The sloop slowly turned in space, bringing its rear end to face the Black Sky. She reversed gently, closing the gap between the two ships as carefully as she could. With a clunk, the two contrasting ships connected firmly, and the airlock clamps locked down. There was power, at least.

[Bump for the night]

“There be atmosphere, cap’n,” Crewman Jack ‘Flash’ O’Leary said, reading off the pressure sensor of the airlock. He’d earned his nickname due his seemingly supernatural speed with a cutlass. Even Claw couldn’t beat him in a duel. “It be weak, but it be breathable.”

“Will ye be bettin’ thee life on that, Flash?” Claw asked as he prodded the door controls.

“Aye,” Flash nodded.

“Well, we be findin’ out for certain now, don’t we?” Claw said. “Hold on t’ somethin’…”

Claw reached down and tapped the final button in the sequence. The airlock slowly whirred open. The men who stood waiting grasped on to handholds, half expecting to be blasted into a vacuum, but there was nothing. Pressure was equal on either side.

“Well, that be an anti-climax,” Claw said, amused. He let go of a handhold and was about to step through the door when a sudden blast of air threw him backwards into the wall. Two crewmembers rushed to help him, while the rest grasped on to the handholds even harder.

“Ye be alright, sir?” Flash asked, picking him up to his feet.

“Aye, I’ll be fine,” Claw nodded, dusting off his black longcoat. “That aint’ normal for any airlock… if it were goin’ to be blastin’ us out, it would have done it instantly. They must be havin’ some problems with their envrionmentals.”

“Reason enough to wear suits, I’d wager,” First Mate Will piped up. “What harm it be doin’ wearin’ a suit when we don’t need one, compared to the harm that be done if we need a suit and not be wearin’ one?”

“Plenty of harm, if we encounter a crew with weapons,” Claw said. “Now, let’s go through an’ see if we can’t wake her up.”

Claw stepped forward, more cautiously this time. No blast of air. He shrugged and grabbed the edges of the airlock, and threw himself through.

He landed with a loud ‘clang’ on the deck of the Black Sky. It certainly lived up to its name; it was as dark as the belly of a space whale in here. All the lights were out, even the emergency lights that usually shone up from the deck plating. He looked back at the airlock as Flash and Will followed him inside, followed by the other six men followed shortly afterwards. Flash handed Claw a flashlight, and he took it graciously.

When he clicked it on, nothing particularly interesting was illuminated. This was one of many very wide, very tall, very long corridors that ran along the sides of the ship. On the Red Horizon, small electric buggies were used to quickly get from one end of the vast ship to the other on these indoor ‘roads’. It was empty now, except for the odd trace of junk or broken circuitry.

“It be a dead ship, I think,” Bill said from the rear, following the light of the torch with his eyes. “I feel… something…”

“Quit yer superstitious ramblin’, man,” Claw said. “’Ere’s what we be doin; Flash, ye be leadin’ a team to the engine room. Try an’ get some power back to this heap o’ bolts. Will, ye be takin some crewmen to the bridge. Get control of this ship. The rest of ye are with me; we’ll be tryin’ t’ find out if any souls still reside on this boat. Let’s go, mateys.”

The crew mumbled various unenthusiastic acknowledgements and started to argue about who went with who. When they finally decided on their teams they split up; Flash took the right direction down the corridor, towards the centre of the ship, whilst Will took his team to the left, towards the front of the ship. Claw shook his head as they walked away, bickering over who got to keep what if they found anything of value.

“Alright ye scurvy dogs,” Claw said when the other teams were out of ear shot. “Let’s get to it. We got a crew of more than 9,000 souls missing; let’s be seeing if we can find ‘em.”

[Bump, new post coming soon]

Claw tentatively reached out and clicked the door release button. Nothing happened. Duh. Power was offline. He sighed and slapped himself on the forehead, and jammed his cutlass between the door and the frame, and began to pry it open. It groaned in protest, screaming and whirring as he grabbed the edge and pulled the thick chunk of metal to one side.

“Hand me a torch,” he growled, panting. He was too old for this. One of his crewmen handed him a torch, and he aimed it into the room. The sickbay. If they were going to find any crewmen that were alive, this seemed like the best place to start.

He waved the torch around, scanning the room. The bunks were all empty; the doctor’s office was disused. Medical instruments lay across the floor, glistening as he shone the torch across them. He grunted as he shoved the door one last time, propping it open, and stepped inside.

“Wait there,” he said. “That there door might automatically shut if power comes on, an’ I need someone to open it.” The two men nodded vigorously.

Claw continued on, glancing around as he stepped carefully across the littered floor. No sign of blood, nor bodies. A good sign? Could be. The morgue was just around the corner at the back of the medium-sized room. He placed his feet down carefully on the metal deck plating, clanging quietly as he did so.

“Arr…” he growled curiously. He picked up what looked like a gold and ruby ring off the floor, and looked it over in the torchlight. He bit into it, nodded, and put it in his longcoat pocket. “Well, they won’t be needin’ it anymore…”

He looked up as the lights flicked on.

“Arrr,” he growled, holding up his communicator. “Good work Flash!”

“I haven’t done any…ng yet, ca…n, wh…alk…bout?” Flash replied, his voice obscured with crackling.

“Flash? Damn piece of junk,” Claw slammed the communicator down onto a bunk with a clang. He span around as he heard something… like, whispering in his ear. “Who be that? You two, stop playin’ tricks on me!”

The two crewmen at the door shrugged unknowingly, looking around nervously. They appeared even more scared when the light shut off again and the door whirred closed, clanging against the doorframe. Claw waved his torch around, but it was shutting off. He was sure he replaced the battery before he left…

“Claaaaaaaaw…” a voice whispered. The noises were getting stronger now, more of them speaking all the time, repeating his name over and over. Claw span around, swinging his cutlass as he tried to hit whoever it was that was playing at trick on him. For a split second, the room was lit up by bursts of fire from the floor. The walls and the floor were covered in thick layers of oozing blood, dripping down from the blood soaked ceiling. Mutilated bodies lay on all of the bunks, writhing around in agony as their internal organs appeared to be… hanging out. They all suddenly jolted upright, revealing their bloody, torn faces, and roared, “CLAAAW!”

Claw screamed as it went dark again and the door whirred open. His torch came back on, and he span around. The walls, the floor, seemed normal. The bunks were empty. Claw wasn’t going to waste any time finding out what had just happened. He stumbled over a large piece of medical equipment, knocking it over in a clang, and bolted out of the door. The two nervous crewmen ran after him, not wanting to be left alone.

(OOC: damn good thread so far. dont see much of a way for anyone to join in other than just stumbling across the same place though. hmm. still a good thread. you should be a writer if you can keep that kind of quality up ;) )

tag

“I be tellin' ye, I saw it,” Claw insisted. The crew stood together in a cluster, in some part of the long corridor they had come from initially.

“Maybe it be a trick of the light?” Flash suggested. “There be plenty o' shadows to confuse thee, maybe that be it?”

“Shadows don't speak to ye, Flash,” Claw snapped, waving his fist around. “Shadows don’t colour the walls red with blood. Shadows don’t have faces. I be tellin’ ye, this ship is cursed.”

“Ye said it yerrself, cap’n, don’t be superstitious,” Flash shook his head. “Did either of ye hear any of what the cap’n describes?”

Flash glanced over at the nervous-looking crewmen who had accompanied Claw. They were more nervous by what he described, than by anything they themselves had encountered.

“Now that ye mention it… no, I didn’t see or hear a thing,” one of the crewmen shrugged. The other glanced at him, and then nodded in agreement.

“Y’see, cap’n?” Flash said. “There must’ve been excess charge in the capacitors that thee triggered when ye forced the door open. It flicked the lights on and shut the door automatically. Ye must have been nervous enough to imagine the rest, sir.”

Claw looked at him, growling and squinting angrily, and then looked at the dark metal floor. Could he have imagined it? It seemed plenty real enough to him. He could almost feel their breath down his neck… but he knew such stories were ludicrous. Tales of fancy from buccaneers long passed.

“Maybe yer right,” Claw nodded finally. “I suppose I should be layin’ off the rum for a while. But I think we should be regroupin’ back on the Nelson for the night.”

“Ye won’t be getting’ any disagreement from me on that, cap’n,” Flash said, shaking a bag around. It made some jangling noises. “I be finding a few trinkets on me search.”

Claw fingered the lone ruby ring he’d found enviously, and nodded.

“Let’s be getting’ back to the airlock, then,” Claw said. He gestured to the crew to lead the way. They started to walk down the long corridor. It seemed to be endless, though they had barely covered a fraction of the ship since arriving. The dark gloom seemed almost natural now. Though confident that he imagined whatever it was that he saw, Claw still clutched his disrupter pistol nervously as he walked.

They reached the airlock. Flash made a peculiar grunt and walked ahead of them, and began tapping buttons on the dead panel beside it.

“What be the matter, Flash?” Claw asked, walking over to him.

“The airlock is sealed, cap’n,” Flash said, confusion in his voice. “I told ‘em not to shut it. We can’t open it from here; I tied the door controls into our ship systems to power ‘em.”

Claw looked around nervously, peering into the blackness. He would have sworn on his life that he could see shapes, moving around in the dark. Tormenting him. He clutched his disrupter pistol so hard he was worried he’d break it. The vast ship was creaking and groaning loudly. It had been doing it since they arrived, and Claw had put it down to normal wear and tear. Without the hum of the power distribution grid to mask it, all the smallest noises could be heard. But now, he wasn’t so sure…

“Flash to the Nelson,” Flash said. Claw could hear him, but he was too busy looking around. The crewmen had noticed his nervous movements, and were now alert, aware and nervous themselves.

“Flash to the Nelson, what the hell are ye playin’ at? Open the bloody airlock, will ye?” Flash continued, yelling into his communicator.

Claw couldn’t retrain himself anymore. He yanked his disrupter pistol from its holster and lifted it up quickly, aiming it randomly and frequently at all the different shapes he thought he could see. Several of the unnerved crewmen followed his lead. One of them shouted something and began firing green bolts of light into the darkness. It was all it took. Every last one of them began firing their pistols, lighting the entire area up in an eerie green glow. Flash dropped his communicator and began firing his own pistol, despite being unsure of what he was shooting at.

After a while of continuous shooting, they stopped, noticing that Claw had stopped some time ago. The sounds of the blasts echoed off down the vast corridor, disappearing from their range.

“What were we shooting at?” Flash asked, confused. The crewmen shrugged, jerking their disrupters around nervously.

“Nothin’,” Claw said. “Like ye be sayin’, it was nothin’.”

The light from their disrupters had probably driven off whatever it was that had been tormenting him anyway, Claw thought to himself.

“Right,” Flash nodded. “Erm, anyway, I can’t be openin’ this airlock from here. We need to get power back up, an’ then head for the bridge.”

“Nobody on the Nelson responded?” Claw asked, glancing over his shoulder.

“Not a soul,” Flash shook his head. “Either our communications are jammed by this ‘ere nebula, or there not be anyone on board. Maybe they went off explorin’… it’s been a while since we looted a ship, after all.”

“Let’s get to it, Flash,” Claw growled. “The sooner this place has lights, the better.”

Flash nodded. “This way!” He started walking down the corridor, and the crewmen followed. Claw stood where he was for a while. Those same faint whispers again, uttering senseless sentences all around him… shapes in the darkness... this was definitely not his imagination. He turned and jogged to catch up with the rest of his party. He really wanted the lights to come on.

The huge antimatter core loomed over them. It was as dead as the ship, with all its reactions stopped. Flash stood at one of the many complicated consoles which plastered the walls of the engine room, trying pointlessly to activate the engine with a dead control panel.

Claw was not acting himself. He swore he could see things, moving around in the darkness, just outside the range of his flashlight. He was constantly jerking his head around as he saw things, or even heard things scurrying about. The crewmen were somewhat worried about his behaviour, but he was an experienced buccaneer. He knew what he could hear. He knew what he could see. This ship wasn’t as dead as they thought. Or it was more dead than they could possibly imagine…

“I ain’t getting’ this core online any time soon,” Flash said. “It’s amazin’ that the storage pods ain’t ruptured, but there seems to be power going to those. I guess that means that either the fusion reactors are still kickin’ around, or the batteries still have a drop o’ rum left in ‘em. Either way, I might be able to get enough power from one of ‘em to get the airlock open.”

“Just get a move on, will ye?” Claw snapped, looking over at him, wide eyed. “This ship is cursed. We’ll be cursed if we don’t get off soon.”

“Aye sir… as ye keep sayin’…” Flash nodded patronisingly. Claw glanced back at him and snarled. He jumped to his feet and slammed up against Flash, pinning him to the wall. Flash was about to react just afterwards when he noticed the sharp blade of a cutlass against his neck.

“This ship is cursed!” Claw roared, spitting in Flash’s face. Flash noticed beads of sweat dripping down Claw’s stubble-covered face, which was odd as it was quite cold.

“Alright sir!” Flash nodded nervously, trying not to breathe too much for fear of cutting his own throat. “The sooner ye let me go, the sooner I can be fixin’ the airlock an’ gettin’ us out of here!”

Claw raised an eyebrow, and rubbed the sweat from his forehead. He nodded, and released Flash, patting him on the shoulder.

“I be sorry, matey… I’m a wee bit jumpy…” Claw said, sitting back down. Flash rubbed his throat and shook his head.

Claw stepped down from the higher tier of the engine room. He was about to sit down when he thought he saw something. He looked up, squinting. A dot of light, in the distance. It was growing larger, very quickly. Claw lifted his flashlight up to see what it was, but his flashlight had stopped working…

There was a horrendous, blood-curdling scream. The light he saw was a translucent, luminous entity. Its legs were missing, seemingly tore off. Half of its flesh was gone, leaving only bones and pulsating organs. It flew towards Claw, screaming loudly. It cleared the distance between them incredibly quickly, entered the engine room and slammed into Claw’s chest. It passed right through him and disappeared, but it sent Claw flying up into the air. He slammed into the wall high above, and landed with a thud on the upper tier.

He lifted his head, coughing. Partly from pain, partly from a disgusting, gut-wrenching stench. His flashlight came back on again, and he found himself face-to-face with the bloody corpse of one of the Black Sky’s crew. It had been there for years, but it was still rotting. It was partially eaten by… something, with most of its skin gone. Claw screamed and jumped up to his feet, finding himself surrounded by corpses. He leapt over the rail and swung himself to the tier below, and nearly slipped on the ocean of blood that covered this deck. Another corpse suddenly dangled in front of him, its twisted, mutilated face hanging right in front of him.

He slipped over the barrier and landed with a thud on the main engineering deck. He groaned and opened his eyes slightly, and saw Flash and several other crewmen standing over him. Flash held out his hand, and when Claw took it he pulled his captain to his feet.

“Maybe ye be onto somethin’, Cap’n…” Flash said nervously. “The sooner we get out of ‘ere, the better, I be thinkin’… We need to go several decks below t’ get t’ the fusion generators.”

“Best speed, Flash,” Claw said, panting. They all filed nervously out of the engine room and began to search for a way down.

OOC: yikes! this is a hell of a thread, and i'll say again, you should be an author, if youre not already.

ooc: NICE! Tag

Three of the crew had been sent by Flash to check on the emergency batteries while he investigated the fusion generators. The batteries were located almost 1km away from the fusion generators, so it was best for them to split up. Of course, they had seen those horror movies from the 20th century – they knew better than to go alone, so they went in groups of three if they had to split up. They also maintained communications, but they would all meet up on the bridge after finishing their respective duties.

Will was the leader of this group, and he was determined to appear brave and display good leadership qualities. He was hoping to gather together a crew of his own one day, and command a sloop of his own with whatever plunder he could save. His dream was to be the most feared buccaneer in the Mutara sector, dwarfing the achievements of even the Red Horizon, which operated there.

For now though, he was still a dogsbody. A dogsbody with a disrupter pistol, perhaps, but a dogsbody all the same. He clutched his mass-produced pistol tightly as he led the small party through the narrow back-corridors of the vast ship. His flashlight was held up beside his head, and constantly panned the surroundings to make sure there was nothing lurking in the darkness. The musky, stale air was discomforting to them all. It reeked of death.

They seemed to be alone, though, much to their relief. They could hear moaning sounds once in a while, and creaking metal-on-metal sounds, which were disturbing to say the least. But nothing happened. Will’s flashlight stayed on. Nothing threw them around like Claw had experienced. Will was starting to wonder if it was the ship that was cursed, or just Claw himself. But such thoughts were mutinous, and so he didn’t dwell on them for now.

“So Will,” one of the crewman spoke up. “Have ye a plan fer gettin’ us out of this ‘ere ship? Hijack the Nelson, maybe? Or even the Black Sky herself… she be a mighty prize for any buccaneer to haul home as their own. He may even be able to command her for himself, if he were lucky and kept the wind in his sails...”

“Mind yer thoughts, matey,” Will snapped in a whisper. “Claw be a popular cap’n, an’ a mutiny wouldn’t go very far without the support of the rest of the crew.”

“Aye… but are ye admittin’ to havin’ mutinous thoughts of thee own, First Mate Will?” the crewman smirked, displaying his unfortunate teeth. Gaps, rots, and base-metal replacements. Not a pretty sight. This crewman obviously preferred to spend his share of the bounty on alcohol and sweets rather than good dental care.

“Not exactly,” Will shook his head. “But have ye noticed how these ghosties, they only seem t’ be interested in the cap’n? It may be a coincidence, but…”

“Aye, I see where ye be comin’ from, matey,” the crewman nodded. “Ye be thinkin’; is it the Black Sky or Cap’n Claw who be damned with a curse?”

“I’m sure it is me mind playin’ tricks, though,” Will said. “’Till a spirit of the damned tells me it is so, I be ready to die for the Cap’n, as should ye all.”

The crewmen both nodded, not wanting to provoke the younger crewman into a fight, or into telling their Captain of this conversation. They kept on walking through the dark, narrow corridors silently.

Will looked intently as he saw something ahead of them. He kept walking until he could see it clearer, and stopped at what he decided was a safe distance. He held up his hand and the two crewmen also stopped, staying behind him and squinting ahead of them. It may have been nothing, but they pulled out their pistols just in case.

Will stepped forward slightly to take a closer look. It was a cloud, a cloud of blackness. It swirled gently in the corridor ahead of them, completely blocking their path. It made no sound, nor did it generate any light. It was just… there, swirling around calmly as though it was supposed to be there and had always been there.

“That looks like part of the nebula we be stuck in,” one of the crewmen observed, looking at the small patch of the cloud that Will’s flashlight caught. “A breach in the hull?”

“If there were a breach, we’d be blasted overboard by now,” Will said thoughtfully. “If there were a breach that were since sealed by force shields, this cloud would’ve been removed by the air filters. This shouldn’t be…”

“Well it is, matey,” the crewman said impatiently. “What ‘er we goin’ t’ do ‘bout it?”

“Well I won’t be goin’ in there,” Will said, stepping back again. “There be no way I’m goin’ anywhere near that.” He glanced over his shoulders at each of the crewmen, who both shrugged and shook their heads. “We’ll ‘ave to be findin’ another way round then.”

Will sighed, and picked up his communicator. “Cap’n Claw, we be havin’ a wee problem down ‘ere…”

He was greeted not with the gruff voice of his captain, but instead with static. He looked down at the communicator angrily and tapped it. Still static. He banged it against the metal wall a few times to try and get it to kick to life, but there was nothing. The clangs echoed down the silent corridors, and the static remained. He grunted with frustration and just clicked it off.

“This cloud must be interferin’ with the signal,” Will said. “Just like the nebula does.”

Some of the cloud started to swirl about more vigorously, and move away from the main bulk. A clump of it hung in front of them, separate from the main cloud and swirling around rapidly. Some electricity sparked from it, splashing against the metal walls on either side and illuminating the dark corridor. The three men stepped back slowly. Will turned and started jogging away, beckoning the other two crewmen to follow, but they were mesmerised by the movements of the cloud, which now glowed with constant bolts of lightning.

“Come on!” Will shouted, but they ignored him. The clump of cloud lowered gently to the ground, swirling at an incredibly high speed, and generating quite a gust of wind in the process. And then, in a flash of light, it changed into… something.

A small, four-legged creature of some kind, appeared in front of them. Will held his flashlight up, shining the beam between the two crewmen and straight at where the broken-off cloud had been. The creature was pure black, and was covered completely in fuzzy, short black fur. It had a human-like head on a longish neck, completely furry of course, but two small spiked ears poked up at the top instead of at the sides. Its eyes were apparently bright red, though it may just have been the light from the flashlight shining at the wrong angle.
The creature gnashed its small, human-like mouth open and closed, revealing a nasty-looking set of razor-sharp, brilliant-white teeth. It moved around on all fours, though. Its legs were all like human arms, only they were spread out at each ‘corner’ and splayed out around it, so that it moved around like some bizarre crab/spider half-breed.

The creature made an interesting, high-pitched clicking sound as it cocked its head slightly, looking the two nearest crewmen over. It clicked merrily and leapt at them. It slashed one crewman across the face with its foot as it passed, tearing the flesh straight from his skull and knocking him down, blood splashing all over the place. It landed on top of the second crewman, knocking him to the ground roughly, and eagerly began to chew on the poor soul’s throat with its sharp teeth. It tore away chunks of flesh and devoured them. As it threw back its head to swallow, it noticed Will. It hissed ominously.

As the strange creature leapt into the air, Will panicked and fired off his disrupter with his eyes closed. A bolt of green light flicked across the small space between them and hit the creature square in the centre of its chest. It was knocked from its trajectory violently and headed straight backwards instead, and slammed against a wall. It writhed around on its back for a few moments after it fell to the floor, before it stopped moving completely. Its furry legs curled inwards like a dead spider, and it remained motionless.

Will sighed in relief, mopping sweat off his brow. His relief was short-lived, though. The dead creature suddenly dissolved into the black gas again, and the cloud moved back to the main bulk of the black swirling mass. Several more clumps of cloud broke away as that one merged with it, and began to swirl ever-more rapidly, sending sparks flying every now and then.

Will wasn’t going to wait around for more of those… things to appear. He turned and ran as fast as he could. He ran through the dark corridors, the only sounds he could hear were his beating heart and his pounding footsteps as he sprinted through the weaving passageways. He turned his shoulder and aimed his flashlight backwards to see if he was being followed.

He only lived long enough to see one of the creatures leaping through the air, straight at him.

[Bump]

TAG.

Dude, this is good stuff so far. I may just have one of my deep space fleets
come in on this.

ooc: I've already said this, but AWESOME! You're great at staying IC!

I agree with Huntaer, but I'd only send a small ship (Corellian Corvette or Gunship... possibly a Nebulon B Frigate or MC10 at most)

nice