NationStates Jolt Archive

A battered, lonely ship floated freely in the cold darkness of space, well off any used trade routes, nowhere near any star systems. The ship turned slowly, but uncontrollably. Pitch black it was, its armor plating almost nonextant probably from constant warfare or millennia of being the target of showers of micrometeors, the hull twisted in a curious manner. No life support was present and with it no signs of life, the ship was as cold inside as the void itself, although it was as though the ship's electronics still functioned to a degree, and a weak gravity was present within the confines of the wreckage.

It was as though an abandoned ship of some ancient civilization from days long past, waiting to be claimed by the bloodthirsty and curious peoples of today.

((OOC: With this certain lack of participation, and this thread being unable to start without posters...

Well. Anyone with FTish space ship capability can take part in this, but preferably with a low number of ships. Wouldn't make much sense sending a massive fleet for a single ship that's just rotating on its own now would it? The ship isn't giving out any identifying data or any somesuch randomness, so finding out from where it is and the likes should be practically impossible, as it is something not seen before - not all that often anyway.))

One of the many scout ships that cruised the universe, compiling data and whatnot, entered an area of rather desolate space between systems as it's sensors had picked up an unusualality.

"Hey we have what appears to be a dutchman nearby, and incidentally checkmate in two moves." The AS for the Slfynir commented.
"Ah, well send a hail to it then begin scanning it, and," He moved one of the second-board bishops, "Checkmate." He added with a grin at outfoxing his ship.

To Vessel
Please respond if you are not a deralict.

As the transmission reached the ship, the sickly green lights within its blackened bridge turned red and began blinking as the ship's rudimentary AI reactivated itself from standby for the first time in who knows how long a time. But the AI itself was too simple to cultivate a response to anything - without its makers it was practically useless.

Thus, the ship remained silent, rotating lazily on its own.

"There appeared to be a minor powerspike, thought origins and reason for spike are unknown." Slfynir commented
"Then take us in. Since I'm a scout, I've got to scout it out after all."
As Gabriel began getting ready to explore the dutchman, Slfynir slowly slid closer to the vessel, looking for an airlock.

Seven X-wings zoomed through cold, empty space. A voice crackled over the intercom.

"Why are we even out here, sir?"

"Damn it, Johnson! If you ask that stupid question again I'm getting you transferred to Io! We're looking for planets rich in resources and low in natives. Shut your trap!"

"Yes, sir...What's that?"

The dark shape of a space ship twirled slowly through the void. A different ship was keeping pace with it.

"Er...Looks like a junked ship. No life signs, no life support...a whole lot o' nothin'," Said a deeper voice. "Probably a scout or somethin' next to it. Should we prepare for combat, sir?"

"Nah, haven't shot at us yet, let's call em' friendlies."

The Flight leader hailed the scout ship.

"Uh...What's up? This one of yours? Need any help?"

He sat back in his cockpit and awaited a response.

"I'm telling you, There was somethin' there" protested Warner Roberts.
"Bull" responded Igan Cull.
"And just what is so wrong for me to be right?"
"You're you, that's what."

A t-shaped ship reverted to real space roughly a few hundred klicks away. about a hundred meters long, it looked as though a round column had been attatched to a thick block of a drive section.

"I told you."
"Shove it, Warner." Cull frowned at what he saw: a derelict, another ship of unknown type, and seven X-Wings which were assumed to be escorts.
"You know, I'm thinking we should leave."
"For once I agree with you, Roberts. Get ready to raise shields and run like hell. I don't think they'll be happy to have us around."

Slfynir considered the message by the seven x-wings before replying, Ours by right of first salvage, but no, not ours by development or design.

The ravages of time had taken its toll on the wreck. The ship's airlocks were in poor condition and did not quite open as they were supposed to anymore, automatically nor manually.

The other parties brought forth the same reaction within the ship as the first one had - the AI was quite fast to pick up the transmissions being sent in the close proximity of the ship, and as before, it made the bridge's lighting blink with a red color until the system reset itself and the lights became sickly green as they had been for so long. That was, as they say, the extent of its power.

Seeing the condition of the locks, Gabriel slid on the helmet of his suit and ensured it was locked down, that is to say could only be unlocked in a stable atmosphere. With the Slfynir scant meters away from the flying dutchman, he 'hopped' the gap, using momentum and a micro burst from his thrusters.

Catching hold of a clamp, he swung his boots down to lock onto the hull, while he set to work cutting a large enough hole into the airlock so he could at least enter the vessel.

ooc: Last post till after school

"Cull?"
"What do you want, Warner?"
"The derelict is blinking."
Igan swore. "Well that's just great. Run a sweep to see if we missed something, and try to figure out how we can leave without atracting undue notice."
"If we flew backwards they might not notice that we were leaving right away."
Igan sighed. "Shut up Warner."

While the airlock was damaged and the ship's armor plating had deteriorated beyond repair, it would still take some time for him to break through into the ship - the airlock was only slightly thinner than the outer shell of the ship itself, and as such, it would have been almost as easy to break in from any part of the ship than from it. If one does not count the bridge, that is, for it is fortified.

4 Raptors appeared in a flash of light a few 100 kilometres away from the wreak.

“Red Flight, this is Moonbeam, we’re 5 by 5 on target,” the pilot took a quick look at his sensor display, “wreak, marked Sierra One is 85 kilo off our port bow.”

“Red One, Got that lead,” came a crackle on the radio.
“Red Two, Got that lead.”
“Red Three, Got that lead.”

“Space Station Grouper, this is Red Leader,” said Moonbeam, “We’ve got eyes on the wreak, it looks bad but salvageable. Looks like the information was correct.”

“Hello Red Leader, this is Grouper… your to proceed with soft seal dock procedures and inspect the hulk for possible towage,” came a crack from the radio.

The proximity alarm bleeped in the cockpit, moonbeam quickly consulted the sensors again.

“Red Leader, errrr Grouper it looks like we’ve been beaten to it… I’m seeing a under strength squadron of military snub-fighters which have… I’m reading FTL signatures. One other vessel, unknown type.”

“Grouper, Red Leader were dispatching the CAP to your location. ETA 10 minutes. Proceed with docking operations, if threaten you are clear to make an emergency jump.”

“Got that Grouper, this is Red Leader sign out, out.” Said Moonbeam, switching the comm. Over to the squadron channel, “Keep an eye on the fighters Two, we’re going in for a soft seal on the….” he checked the sensors again, “underside of the hull.”

According to Murphy’s Law, something is bound to go wrong on the maiden voyage of a ship. Be it as major as having artificial gravity generator fail for a bit, to as minor as the captain coffee pot not working. There have been times in the past where this has been disproved. However, with the maiden voyage of the Nexus something did go wrong, the crew just didn’t now it yet.

In a momentary flash of greenish-blue light, the Nexus came out of Hyperspace. She was a new ship, with a mix of veteran and green crew members. In command of the Nexus was Commander Edic Huxley. This was not his first command, but this was the first he had served on the Nexus. His XO was new to his position as was most of him command staff aboard. However the a good many of the enlisted crewman knew what they were doing. But all were chocked when they didn’t see the Geia shipyards in front of them. A moment later the lights flickered right before the was a faint shudder felt in the ship

Before Edic could say a word the engineering officer called the bridge. “Sir, we got smoke and sparks everywhere, looks like a plasma conduit burst near the core.”

“It is critical Lieutenant?” Damage like that could easily cause a small ship like the Nexus to explode with little warning. She was only a Scout Ship for the Western Might SDF.

“No sir, it was only a small leak, and the safeties are holding. But it will take some time to fix.”

“Can we still maintain sub-light speed?”

“Yes sir I can give you everything but FTL travel in 10 minutes”

“Good, get to it Lieutenant” Edic closed the com-link looking to his bridge crew. “Petty Officer Spencer, get a navigation fix on now, I want to know how far off course we are. Seaman Morris, check the sensors and see if anything is out there.” Edic sat back in his seat, angered that this happen with him. While Spencer was still getting a fix on their position, Morris reported what the sensors told him.

“Sir I’m reading almost a dozen fighter like craft split into two different groups. Along with larger ships. One looks to be dead in space. All of them being around 15,000KM away. But without the main sensors, we are to far away to get class reading on any of the ships.”

“Edic sighed, rubbing his temples as a headache formed. He hoped that it was just by chance that this many ships were in the same area. “Ok move us in a bit so we can get a better reading, but hold off on communication. Jaccs gets shield up as best as you can we might have company soon.”

“Clamps check,” said Moonbeam, “Soft seal…. Check”

“Red One, soft seal complete, starting to cut,”
“Red Three, soft seal complete, starting to cut. Out.”
“Red Two, we’re having problems with our tubing lead, we’re going to be a few minutes longer. Out” cracked the radio.

Moonbeam took another look at his check list, everything was going ok on his Raptor so far… “Ok, lieutenant,” he said turning around and looking into the main compartment of the Raptor, “Your boys are up.”

“Right, you heard the man, Watts and Jenkins start cutting, everyone else get ready to go,” said Lieutenant Boys, the commander of the boarding group.

The group was a mix and match of various crewmen and marines from Space Station Grouper. In Raptors’ Lead and One he had his marines. In Raptors’ Three and Two however he had a mix of engineers and deckhands as well as a scattering of medics. Overall his team was about 20 men strong.

Moonbeam tapped on Boys’ shoulder, “Look, I don’t like the look of all those mil tech ships out there, when you lot are in, seal the beach cause I’m going to break off and get into an orbit… I don’t like the idea of just sitting here.”

”Right.”

As the four vessels appeared and approached the wreck, Slfynir sent a message to them, as well as all other vessels in the vicinity.

To all vessels investigating the deralict vessel
We would request that all vessels that are presently, or comtemplating entering the vessel cease and desist. As we have claimed the right of first salvage on this vessel, any actions of active boarding by any nation that has not been granted permission to enter may be viewed as an act of war and acted accordingly.

As Slfynir dealt with the various other vessels, Gabriel pulled out a fission-cutter, a device that could slice rather readily through hull plating. Setting it to medium power, he began cutting into the airlock.

In it current situation and condition, all the Nexus of the transmission was static and a few garbled words. Commander Edic didn't even ask if they could clean it up, the transmission was far to scrambled. "Ok bring us closer and Hurry up with those repairs. I don't like being half blind and deaf." The Nexus still had her claws though, still a blind tiger with sharp claws was still a blind tiger.

Moonbeam flicked his comm-link on, “Negative unidentified vessel, salvage rights belong to the boarders… not passers by… I suggest you stop sending threats and help your cutting crews.”

“How long?” yelled Boys, looking down at his 2 men cutting into the hull.

“2 minutes!”

"They don't seem to want us here, sir." Said Johnson.

The Flight leader nibbled his tounge.

"Uh...We didn't hear that transmission, did we?" He asked his companions.

"What transmission, sir?"

"Not a thing."

"My com must be faulty, sir."

The Flight leader rubbed his hands together. He opened up his com once more.

"Fleet command, this is X-wing patrol Delta Charlie. We've found a junk at co-ordinates five two two niner. Request transport and salvage teams."

A new voice replied.

"That's a green light, Flight leader. Additional ships are en route now."

--A few minutes later--

A transport and five more X-wings came hurtling out of hyperspace. Captain Shod of the transport grinned as he saw the congregation of ships.

"Looks like we got ourselves a good old fashioned gold rush, eh, Flight leader?"

"That's an affirmative, sir. Everyone wants a piece."

"Okay men, get us close to the hull, and cut ourselves a cat-flap. I want a team of marines and some archaeologists aboard, we're looking for the reason this thing is dead. Full space tech, do not confront other boarding parties." Shod ordered

The transport docked and began to cut away at the ancient hull.

Gabriel had been following the entire conversation between the vessels and with a few commands, Slfynir sent a message into the cosmos. Gabriel chuckled as he finished slicing throught the lock. He knew at least one CADRE was within about a minute jump from his location, and considering the known skills of even the least of the CADRE, should be able to tear through the combined ships that were claim jumping, or failing that turn the wreck to dust.

Still blissfully unaware of any military backlash, the Martians continued to cut through the hull.

"Okay," Said Dr Jibbajab. " We've got ourselves a door. Let's hope nobody's home."

Sargeant Toros approached a crowd of burly men in space suits.

"Okay men. If another party is sighted, do not engage. A friendly wave and a goodbye is all that's necessary. Blue group, set up base camp in main engineering. Green group, find the bridge and tell us why this things dead. You have your orders, move out."

The men and women made thier way into the darkness, weapons and clipboards at the ready.

Intruders had breached the hull, but nothing, in effect, changed - the ship was as silent as a tomb. There was no oxygen inside the old ship, probably having had leaked out due to some so far undetected crack in the ship's shell many years ago, as well as for the ship's life support systems having obviously broken down - if there had even been such.

A certain kind of unease would make its home into the minds of those who enter the ship, as though something was there. Something... Human, but not quite. As though something was watching their every move. Paranoia, perhaps, but what else would such an ancient ship cause?

A dim green light was the only form of lighting within the pitch black interior of the ship, crackling from time to time. Odd green flames would burst from them at random, as though they were close to breaking down. Unless one used something to enhance his view, one would only see several meters in front of him. Only the lighting and the weak gravity which was still operational showed that the wreck had not completely broken down as of yet.

They would quickly find out that the corridor they had breached into was littered with human-like corpses in odd, black suits, still clutching to their rather sizeable weaponry. They would seem well preserved, as though time itself had forgotten about them and left them to their grim fate.

Private second class Brick Furlough felt uneasy...like he was being watched, there was a tight knot in his gut. Even though everyone had their torches on the darkness was still there, as though it was stifling the light. A couple of jarheads were working on opening a security door.

"Hey! We got it sir!" A marine cried out.

The door shuddered and whined as the age old systems sprang to life. The doors came slowly open.

"Okay," Brick shouted. "Blue group, let's saddle--What the hell is that?!"

A pale corpse had fallen through the doors. It lay spread eagled on the floor, rising from time to time under the weak gravity. A couple of marines lost their head and opened fire.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire! It ain't a livey. Tag the body and bring it back to the ship, get the boys in forensics to check it out. The nerds will have a field day here."

A few lamps were set up through the corridor. A handful of scientists and a couple of marines were left behind, checking out the other bodies and weapons they'd found. The rest of Blue group continued in their search for main engineering.

OOC: Ooh, getting spooky now.

Lieutenant Boys was the first to drop into the corridor, “All clear… Red Lead has beached the hull… we’re moving to point…” he checked his computer mounted on the arm of his suit, “… Point Alpha.”

The Five marines started to move down the corridor, weapons in the alert position and strong lights mounted on their suits piercing the darkness.

The radio crackled, “Red One and Red Two, hull beached… moving to rally Alpha. Out”

“Red Three, hull beached… moving to rally Alpha Out.”

As Gabriel walked down the corridor, he activated his helmet's DND system and proceeded down the corridor, avoiding the corpses as he headed for the bridge.

Meanwhile another vessel, of similar size thought radically different design than the Slfynir, arrived. It then sent out a message to the various interlopers.
As my companion stated, we must request that you vacate the deralict vessel, immediately.

Warrant Officer Mackinny tapped a few commands into his suit computer and waved it in front of a bulk head.

“I’m reading some seriously strange signals here Lieutenant…” said Mackinny.

Lieutenant Boys was occupied shifting through the pockets of an important looking corpse on the floor… “Theres some serious tech here isn’t there W.O?”

“Yes sir, we need a larger team and sensor packages to catalogue it all.”

“HMS Minotaur is at Grouper, we can request that she comes and gives us an hand, might scare off our friends too.” Said the Lieutenant, taping at his computer, “Hello Red Lead this is Team One, rout this transmission back to Grouper… Hulk is salvageable, request Minotaur to assist with assessment and recovery operations. Out.”

Moonbeam’s voice came over the comm, “Minotaur has been re-routed to our location One, they’ll be in system in the next 20 minutes. Out.”

After a while from their entry into the wreckage, these newcomers would begin hearing whispering. As though thousands of unseen beings were speaking in some incoherent language just below the threshold of hearing, mocking their efforts. But how this could be, as the ship held nothing that would let voices travel? Maybe it was just their minds playing tricks on them? Or maybe something was there?

Every single group that had entered the ship and ventured forward from their points of entry would also notice something else... As though blast doors or other constructs of such sort had begun sprouting from the walls behind them, cutting the way back to the holes they had created. But as if that had not been enough - the range of their communications suddenly dropped severely. The only ones they could speak with now were their closest comrades.

As for the corpses being investigated by some of the groups - they held their weaponry with quite a lot of power. Nothing excluding desecrating the dead would grant the investigators full access to them.

“Sir the damage was worse than I thought, I can’t make the repairs here. However I have looked over the scan we have gotten form the ship the dead ship, I think they might have what we need to get out of here and back home.”

The commander nodded, though he didn’t much care for going about the ship, however he would not ask the other nearby ships for help. He was to stubborn for that. “Good job getting everything else back online Lieutenant and yes, we will be going about that ship.” Least that way he would save some face. “Ready a team of 8 to go aboard, but make sure you are quick, I don’t want to be here long.”

The Engineering officer nodded, closing the comlink to get his team ready. “ Con, bring us closer to that ship, but make it slow, I don’t want to alarm the other ships.”

“Aye sir” Slowly the Nexus moves closer to the wreaked ship, all the while the Commander was a little worried.

"You say somethin', private?" Sargeant Toros asked a private.

"No sir, not a thing. We're coming up on another blast door."

A couple of marines walked towards the door with thier plasma torches, only to trip over on something. The rest of the team started laughing, only to find a black-clad corpse as the obstacle.

"Sweet Metallica! This stiff ain't lettin' go of his gun, sir!" A marine said, tugging at the larger than normal gun.

"Yeah, Brick said this would happen. Tag the bodies. Tag the weapons," Said Toros.

Another voice crackled over the com, it was very quiet. The ships hull must have interfering in some way.

"Green group, Blue group. This is Captain Shod. The other guys out here are getting pushy, you stay aboard, we'll come back for you when things die down here. Shod out."

"Affirmative, sir. Toros out."

Great, Toros thought. All alone out here. Better rendevouz with Blue group soon.

Toros tried the com. There was no response from Blue group.

That's just great.

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

"Doctor. What's this?" Brick asked, running his hand along a computer terminal.

"Please don't touch that!" Doctor Fineline shouted. "It's a computer. We might be able to find a map from here."

She puched in a few commands. A sickly green light appeared on screen, it turned red for a brief moment. It almost looked as if it was sizing the team up, but it was just a computer in a rundown space ship, right? Some complex blueprints opened up.

"Okay, I don't know how to read this, so it'll take me a while to find engineering, you keep...guarding, or whatever it is you marines are suppose to be doing. And tell your men to stop that whispering."

Brick looked puzzled, his men weren't whispering. Ah well, you probably went a bit crazy after a few years of studying on computers in dark rooms.

He just wished he couldn't hear it too.

Gabriel just shrugged at the phantomic appearence of blast doors. He wasn't bothered by the ghostly voices by the simple expediant that he couldn't hear them. Catching a foot on one of the weapons, he made to kick it, but found that it was held tightly. With another shrug, he forged on deeper into the vessel and closer to the bridge.

Private Hifiv Hootenany was getting steadily more scared. He was the only black guy in the group, and this place looked more and more like the set of a horror movie. And he knew what happened to black guys in horror movies. A couple of men had already wandered from the computer terminal, they thought they'd heard something, it had been fifteen minutes and they hadn't come back yet. Hifiv got out a pad and started writing his will.

"Doc, do you know where we're going yet?" Brick asked hurredly. He had grown uneasy just standing around.

"Okay, I've got us a map, let's not stand around, eh?" Fineline replied.

Brick picked up his pack.

"Okay ladies and gents, let's move out. Hootenanny, Bruskey, you two stay here with doctor Jibbajab, wait for the other two men to come back. The rest of you, to main engineering we go."

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

"You sure you can break through this?" Toros asked his men.

They had found the bridge, at least, they had found the door. It was thicker than all the other blast doors. But there was no turning back now, doors kept closing behind them, sealing them from the rest of the men on board.

"Maybe. You got a lightsaber handy?" A smartarse private replied.

Toros smacked the guy's helmet.

"Sir!" Another private yelled. "We've got a new contact, someone else is heading straight for the bridge!"

Toros sighed.

"Then you best get cutting, private!" He yelled.

As the men left behind from the so called blue group were going through the corpses around them, the lamps they had set not too long ago had begun to lose power, and an odd tinge of green had crept into them.

If they had noticed or not... Would not matter.

Strange, fear-evoking shrieks came from the distance, from the unbarred side of the corridor, the way they had not sent men to. Strange indeed, as they were sounds without sound, much louder and concrete than the whispers they had heard before.

Whilst the shrieking persisted, streaky green lights, maybe even muzzleflashes, ones coming from the same approximate direction as the sounds seemed to be hitting the floor of the ship not too far away from them, sometimes ricocheting into the walls or the ceiling, sometimes disappearing into the ground. And this phenomenon seemed to come closer to them by the second at staggering speed. It would not take much to realize that something had aimed its weaponry at them, and that they would soon be shredded to death by whatever was behind it.

--

Just as Gabriel was navigating through the corridors, suddenly, almost right above him, the lights crackled more violently than before and a part of the ceiling came crashing down with another corpse clad in black coming down from the higher level, motionless, burning with green flames.

Neither the flames nor the flashing bothered him, thanks to both the design and materials used in a standard scout suit. The weight was more of a problem, but with a heave he lifted the scrapped metal off and continued along the corridor, to the bridge. He did take one precaution and tapped in both the various sensor systems, and suits internals to PCM.

The Nexus was able to get within 100 meters on the wreck. Now with sensors fully operational Commander Edic knew there were life signs aboard. However he guessed most were from crewmembers from the surrounding ships. "Lieutenant is your team ready?

"Yes sir, I got three other engineers, three troopers and a medic. We are all armed."

"A medic...never mind, we are bringing in the ship to within 90 feet of the ship. That way you can get aboard her without trouble. Remember don't be long, this doesn't feel right”

"Aye sir I'll be as quick as I can."

"Ok, we are in position now, good hunting''
*******
The bay doors opened up on the starboard side of the Nexus and Lieutenant Hawthorn aimed a grappler at the hull of the wreck. With the pull of the trigger the alloy bolt shot forward and connected with the hull of the wrecked ship. "Ok boys hook up and let’s get going."

"Yes sir"

One by one each member of the crew crossed the line to the other ship. The first one over had a cutter and was already starting. "Should be done in a little over two minute’s sir."

The men left at the first corridor hadn't made much progress, a few forensic nerds were gushing about how well preserved the bodies were.

"This place is so cold it'd be like a big fridge. These bodies are ancient, it looks like they died yesterday!" Dr Slope exclaimed.

"Ain't that somethin'?" A marine said, sort of wishing he hadn't got up that morning.

A lamp buzzed, it flickered, and died. It was followed by every other lamp in the corridor. A green light replaced it.

"Hey Sparky," The Marine said. "Can you check the generator?"

"Sure thing." Sparky replied.

Sparky bent over the various cables and wires. Checking that things were in working order. He jumped as an ear-splitting shriek travelled down the corridor.

"Is that one of our guys?" Slope asked fearfully, reaching for the blaster pistol on his hip.

"I-I dunno!" Sparky cried.

Sparky and the other marine raised thier rifles. The three forensic scientists whipped out thier blaster pistols. Strange green flashes were bouncing through the pitch black hall with amazing speed.

The marine turned towards the team.

"Okay guys, let's fall ba--

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

"What was that?!" Hifiv asked.

"I dunno, sounded like that guy Sparky's always hangin' with. Screamin'." Private Brusky replied.

"Should we check it out?" Dr Jibbajab asked, straining his eyes trying to see down the corridor from which they came.

"Hell no!" Hifiv yelled. "We're meeting up with Brick and the others! We'd probably get ripped apart or...have an alien egg laid in us! The other two guys are probably dead aswell, I'm just saying what you're all thinking!"

The three men at the computer terminal fled, in a desperate search for Private Brick.

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

"How's it going private?" Toros asked, wishing he'd brought a book or a pack of cards or something.

"We're nearly through, just give me a few more moments." Private Slackjore answered, still cutting through the blast door.

"Okay, bout' time for a checkup on Blue group anyways."

Toros switched on his com.

"How's it going Blue group? Blue group? Entrance point? Computer terminal? Please respond. What is your status?!"

A faint voice, and a lot of static, was his answer.

"We're good...Coming up on main engineer..."

The voice fizzled out. Toros frowned.

"Okay men, fan out. Set up the lamps, I want as much light in here as possible. Fineline, get on these computers and give us full gravity and life support, you can worry about the lighting systems later on. And somebody get in touch with the rest of Blue group, I want a full head count." Brick ordered his men.

"It won't be as simple as that--" Fineline began.

"Save it, doctor. You got a problem, take it to the rest of your team."

The men and women fanned out into main engineering, setting up large lightposts and oxygen refill tanks. A technician looked up from a console.

"We got some form of com, sir. You might be able to get Green group on it."

"Very good."

Brick entered the frequency into the com system, and opened up a broadcast.

"Any and all Blue group, forward to main engineering. Green group, just letting you know we're alright."

Brick hoped no other teams picked up on the transmission, he wasn't left long to this thought, as three of Blue group hurried into the complex.

"You look a mite out of breath there Hootenanny. What's wrong?" Brick asked as Hifiv collapsed to his knees.

"Sparky...Slant...everybody...all dead. Something got em'..."

Brick remained emotionless. He turned to his remaining men.

"Get a lock on those bulkheads. Nothing gets in here, understood?"

There was a chorus of "Yes, sir!"

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

"And..we...got it!" Slackjore yelled.

The doors were pushed aside, the bridge was thiers.

Green group filed into the bridge, taking positions at various stations. They got out repair kits and worked on reinstalling power systems. A technician looked up from a sensor console.

"Okay sir. Another team is on the hull, working on getting in. The contact from before is still making his way towards the bridge, despite a minor accident in the sector, and I'm guessing that's Blue group messing around in main engieering at the moment. I'm not reading any lifesigns at our point of entry, or the computer terminal from before."

Toros put this out of his mind.

"How we looking for the engines? Gravity? Life support?"

"Still broken or damaged, sir. At least, I guess they are, the computer is too broken to tell me." Another techie said.

Toros sighed, the sooner he was off this accursed ship, the better.

The makeshift holes they had made into the doors that had kept them out of "main engineering" and from the bridge suddenly shut themselves once again not too long after the last men had gone into them. Whatever the substance was, it was stronger than what they had faced before - as though something wanted to keep them confined in those rather small spaces.

Indeed, nothing would get in. An odd cold which permeated their very suits manifested itself within those now confined rooms. Was it real, or was it just their imagination?

Shortly afterwards, the manned terminals all over the ship suddenly turned from green to purple, and bursted with an unholy light, burning its way through their gear and causing severe decay on whoever happened to be watching them in close range. After this the terminals still showed signs of life until they shut themselves down on their own.

“I think its this way…”

“You think?” said the Lieutenant

“The sensors are going crazy… its like something’s trying to jam them.”

“Just get us to the bridge W.O”

The team moved down the corridor, whisperings kept the point man on edge, he spent the majority of his time on his knee, checking the shadows with his flash-light.

“Red Lead come in, Red Lead come in?” the Lieutenant shook his head and shut off his comm., they were being jammed…

Gabriel arrived at the bridge, and finding the odd patch that was much more difficult to cut into, set to work cutting a path into the bridge paralle to the prior hole.

The lights died out around the entrance to the bridge and the way suddenly opened itself. A shriek and something, something which was moving with unfathomable speed hit Gabriel from the back, forcing him into the bridge. After that had happened, the doorway shut itself once more.

It all only took such a short period of time... And once it had happened, everything was dead quiet once more, with only the whispers ever present.

Having been knocked inside, Gabriel set to work cutting a hole from the bridge to the void of space, cutting directly into the hull to make the pat.

(( OOC: Um, the bridge is fortified as was first stated. You can't "cut through it to the void of space" that easily. Not to mention that MC43's people are in the same room. And people just died in their faces. What are you trying to accomplish, Theao? ))

(( OOC: Um, the bridge is fortified as was first stated. You can't "cut through it to the void of space" that easily. Not to mention that MC43's people are in the same room. And people just died in their faces. What are you trying to accomplish, Theao? ))
ooc: Gabriel doesn't realize they've had companions die, and he figures that they have some method of surviving space(or they wouldn't be here). Lastly, he doesn't expect it to be fast/easy to cut throught.

But he would soon notice that his cutting equipment was highly ineffective on the material put before him, and he would sooner die out of old age than get through it with what he had with him.

He was trapped in with people he did not know.

--

The group from WinTrees would find the same as those who had come before them: Blastdoors shutting behind them as they advanced further into the depths of the dark ship, cutting their way back and their access to their other groups within the wreck, as though inviting them to whatever was in the way they were venturing forth to.

Just as had happened with the others.

The team from Red Three was the last to link up with the main body, their commander a Crewman Roberts was trying to get one of the blastdoors to open, he was having no luck.

“Jack… is there any other way around this door?” asked Roberts, giving the door a kick.

”No… I think this is the only way.”

“Well were head back to the boat, cut in through another corridor,” said Roberts

“Errr boss, the blastdoor back down the corridor just shut…”

Roberts took a look around, “where does this corridor lead Jack?” he said looking at the inter-section.

“No idea, the sensors have completely gone…” said Jack, tapping at his computer.

"Well lets head that way anyway, we ain't got no cutting equipment." said Roberts, heading down the corridor.

In the two minutes it took for engineering tem form the Nexus to cut though the hull, all the events with the ship had taken place. Leaving the team to enter the ship oblivious to what had happened.

Looking around, a corporal in the ships Trooper contingent was the first to step inside the ship. “Sir, this is looking spooky.”

Lieutenant Hawthorn nodded, looking at his quad-scanner. “I agree, this is some sort of freaky. However we need that part, so let’s get moving. Engineering should be in the aft part of the ship.”

The rest of the team was now in the ship, two troopers took point while the other covered the team’s rear.

Toros picked himself up. What had just happened? The computers had gone haywire, there was a flash, and Toros had been knocked out. A private ran to his side.

"Are you all right, sir?"

"Dandy. What happened?" He replied.

The private surveyed the damage.

"Uh...The computers started glowing...They melted most of the techies..."

"Melted, private?" Toros asked, astonished.

"See for yourself, sir."

The mutated bodies of the Martian technicians lay still on the floor. The dark blue material of thier space suits was twisted and burned into charred black flesh, thier visible skulls were hanging open, still frozen in a look of terror.

"Grif, Dimsdale, get the I.D on those bodies. Slackjore, get us out of here." Toros ordered.

I've lost nine men already. How fast will this ship take my last eleven? He thought.

Slackjore approached the newly sealed door with his cutting torch. The doors opened for a small moment, and another man was pushed inside. His space gear wasn't Martian. The newcomer took out his version of a cutting torch and began having at the hull. He hadn't seemed to notice them.

Toros pulled a blaster form his hip and stuck it in the newcomer's face.

"You've got exactly three seconds to tell me what in the hells goin' on."

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

"Report!" Brick shouted as everyone rose form the ground.

"Dunno sir! The computers went nuts! All our techies are dead." A Marine shouted.

Jibbajab pulled himself up.

"Not all of them, sir. Me, Fineline, and Kwikdrore or alive. Kwikdrore's blind, though."

Ok, Brick thought. I had thirteen left alive when I got to engineering, five techies died just then. Just great. I bet Toros is having the time of his life up there on the bridge.

The very first thing, as the ones before them, the group from Western Might would notice that every time they had walked forwards for a little while, a blastdoor shut behind them, barring them the ability to withdraw to their damaged ship. And this happened quite often, thus making any attempt to return arduous at best.

--

A cold, twisted voice laughed in the comms of the people who were trapped within the bridge. It was obvious enough that it was not one of their own.

"Ahh. I can almost feel it..."

There was yet another corpse, kneeling with its left hand touching the floor, almost in the middle of the bridge. A torn, red cape was on its back, and its pitch black armor was far heavier than that of those they had seen before.

And this one, this one was the first to actually move. It burned with green light as it clenched its left hand and hit the floor, leaving a rather sizable dent on it. Then it spoke out.

"Tell me," it said, and began to rise up, "Tell me why you are here... Is it greed? Lust for power? Curiosity? Why?"

As it finished the question, it had stood up, and was now looking at them, the intruding parties. The green light had subsided, and now the armor, from time to time, seemed to release flames from its seams.

"Answer true... And wisely... For that answer shall determine your fate."

"How the bleedy hell should I know what's going on in this deralict." Gabriel replied, "And put that peashooter away." He added as one of the 'corpses' began moving and asking questions. "What I'm doing here is my job, exploring, studying and classification." He replied to Red Cloak.

Toros lowered his blaster, and turned towards the cloaked abomination.

"I'm Sargeant John Toros of the Martian armed forces. Me and my men are here for purely archealogical reasons. We're wondering why this hunk-a-junk is out here in the middle of nowhere."

He raised his blaster again, pointing it at the flaming nightmare. His men got the idea and raised thier guns aswell.

"We're also a little curious as to why a bunch of innocent men were just killed by your computers, care to shed any light?"

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

The lamps in engineering flickered. They had been doing so for a good ten minutes. They gave their last buzz, and died. The whispering increased, and the eight remaining people of Blue group looked more and more scared. Private Hootenanny added the last touch to his will.

"Sir," Private Bruskey piped up. "We're not hiding in here, we're locked in."

He smacked the sealed blastdoor, to emphasise his point.

"Affirmitive. It would seem there was a dormant hostile A.I aboard, or this damn deathtrap is haunted." Brick replied.

That last bit didn't sound too crazy now. Jibbajab looked up from one of the sensors the Martians had brought with them.

"Seems to be another team headed towards engineering, sir. I count seven life forms."

Brick put a battery clip into his blaster.

"Maybe these guys are what killed the others. Lock and load everybody."

When the first blast door had slammed shut behind them everyone in the team jumped visibly, even the troopers. Most there had been in hostile environments at some point in their careers, but this was just plan freaky.

As the team moved further and Further down the corridor, Lieutenant Hawthorn looked at the scanner on the forearm of his power armor. "Looks like another 20 meters or so before we get to engineering... hold on I am reading body signals as well. Hold Everyone hold here. Corporal Chase, you come with me, you to Blair" Hawthorn said referring to their medic.

Leaving the two other troopers and three of his engineers behind in the corridor, Hawthorn moved ahead with the Trooper and the medic, edging close to where he the life sign were coming from.

"Both of you say it is because you have been ordered to. Because it is your duty. Hmph. As though you would assume that to remove your responsibility for your own actions. It is still you who are here and no one else. Now... You cannot evade the fate you have cast upon yourselves."

It did not show any emotion nor did it do any excess movement as it raised its massive weapon and pointed it at Toros in response to him and his men pointing their weaponry at it.

"Death is a natural extension of life. As for what happened to your men... Let us call it an 'internal defense system'. You would not fathom nor survive the truth."

--

The blastdoor which was currently keeping the two groups away from each other at the "main engineering" suddenly withdrew, and others erupted in several other locations, leaving the group from Western Might nowhere else to go to than the location they had looked for.

The two groups were now sealed in, together.

The doors in main engineering sprang open. Seven other people were outside, trapped with the Martian team.

Brick lowered his blaster rifle, these people were similar to the Martian teams, thier suits were different, but they had the same confused expressions as Brick's men. They were practically the Martian's best friends now.

Brick advanced towards them, gun lowered.

"I'm Private Brick Furlough, Martian armed forces. Please identify yourselves."

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

Toros listened patiently to Red Cloak's little speech. He considered what he had said, and furrowed his brow when Red pointed his large gun at them.

"So," He said to himself. "This guy's the reason why the other's are dead...He's got a gun trained on me..."

Toros sounded like he was talking himself into something. He raised his blaster and shot directly at Red Cloak's head. He dived behind a console near a corpse, making sure to blast the console lest it melt him aswell.

"Now you are the one confused." Gabriel replied, "I chose to join the scout force as that was what I wanted to do with my life, not what I had cast upon me."

The hit ricocheted off its armor into the ceiling.

"No, I did not do what you accuse me of. But if you value your life, that was indeed the wrong path to take."

Quickly, it pulled its weapon's trigger, now aimed at what remained of Toros' group. In quick succession, its multiple barrels began turning with awesome speed and then there were innumerable green muzzleflashes, with bullets which burnt with green flames coming forth from the accursed weapon.

After a while, whilst still shooting, it turned its face towards Toros, its eyes burning with a green light, which had an odd purple hue to it. Or, as it were, its armor's equivalent part did.

It dropped its massive weapon and pulled out two short swords from just below its arms, which quickly after it had pulled them out, were lighted - in green. Soon, it began walking towards the console behind which Toros was hiding.

"... It did not have to end this way. Know this, whilst I dispatch you from this mortal coil."

What Toros had done had made it practically ignore Gabriel's statement.

Slackjore and another marine had managed to get to cover as Red Cloak sprayed shots everywhere. The rest of Green group was done for. Slackjore peered over a console to see Red Cloak advancing towards Toros.

"...It did not have to end this way. Know this, whilst I dispatch you from this mortal coil." Red Cloak hissed.

Slackjore grimaced. Who did this guy think he was, Shakespeare?

Red Cloak dropped his gun and pulled out two swords. Slackjore jumped out of his hiding place, and picked up the large gun. His knees bent at the strain of carrying it. He turned it at Red Cloak.

"Drop your weapon!" He demanded.

Toros and the other Marine raised thier blaster rifles.

"I'd do it," Toros said in a strange monotone voice. "That kid is crazy."

Toros just hoped Red Cloak didn't know he was dealing with a kid who'd been sheltered all his life, not to mention the worst shot in the unit.

The fact that the being was avoiding him was something Gabriel had to be thankful for. As he thought back to what it had said, he asked, "What is the truth you spoke of earlier?"

OOC: Ermor, just gotta ask. Are there any portholes or veiwscreens on the bridge?

((OOC: Portholes? No. Viewscreens? Well, you'd think the terminals would have those, for instance. So yes on viewscreens I guess.))

IC:

For a few seconds, it laughed most darkly once more.

"You cannot kill what is not alive," it said, mockingly, "nor can you bring forth death without ammunition."

Then, with great speed and precision, it threw one of its swords at Slackjore, aiming between his eyes. It did not wait long to see whether or not death had been served - instead, it began walking towards Toros rather slowly.

"It is a pity you cannot hear in the void, for it made your comrade waste his life."

But whilst this all was taking place, for Gabriel, the whispering had quieted down, as a cold, inhuman voice spoke out to him within the confines of his mind. It was not the same voice as that of the being slaughtering the men he did not know, no, it was... Someone... Something else.

You shall see, soon enough. For the actions of others have sealed your fate as well. Indeed, you shall see...

Gabriel commented urbanely to the phantom voice, "Fate is mutable, and can never be sealed."

Slackjore's body hit the floor. A sword sticking out the front of his face. Toros stepped back, his back resting on the doors. The last marine, Drummer, took a place at Toros' side.

"We're going to die, sir." He said.

"No doubt, private." Toros replied.

"Might as well try and kill this barstard, though. What've we got to lose?"

"Our lives." Toros answered flatly.

The two remaining men pointed their guns at Red Cloak, and opened fire.

The shots harmlessly ricocheted off its armor once more, causing more damage to the surroundings than the creature itself.

"Ahh. I can almost feel it!"

Then it began walking quite slowly at them and at the same time, an energy shield of some sort came forth from the back of its left wrist, as though to show how meaningless their resistance had been and still was.

"You cannot win. You have crossed the point of no return. As you yourselves pointed out so correctly... You will die."

"Then kill us. Stupid bastard," Drummer said. He spat at Red Cloak, only to realize he was wearing a space suit, and the mucus dripped down his visor.

Toros punched Drummer lightly in the arm. He looked at the approaching Red Cloak, who was waving around it's energy shield. He turned to Drummer again.

"Been a pleasure working with you, private. Just wish we could've been in another RP together..."

"What was that last bit, sir?"

"Don't worry private. Goodbye."

Red Cloak was a hair's breadth away from them now...

Gabriel watched as the something, prepared to finish off the crew that had attacked it.