NationStates Jolt Archive

Message to Lady McBeth

Shall we call the Fleet? We have one not far from here, only 3 or 4 star systems over.

Message to Lady McBeth

Shall we call the Fleet? We have one not far from here, only 3 or 4 star systems over.

The Neoman X.O relayed a message

"No, we will handel this. We want to make allies not enemys,"

His meditation finished, the Metal Man stood and, discarding his robe, walked, slowly and deliberately, over to a rather large column located at the exact center of Brain Jar. If anybody had been in the room with him--and he would have welcomed anyone who wished to meditate with him--they would have noticed a strange, I-shaped scar on his chest and that even this, his most organic-like suit, had no organs of procreation. A cyborg's life.

As he stood before the column, a door within it opened in front of him, and a timeless ritual once again played out. He closed his eyes, and grimaced slightly from the pain, as blades within his body cut his chest open along the path of the scar, and a pair of bay doors within the suit opened. Slowly, carefully, a rounded, black tank--the true essence of the Metal Man, was thrust out of the body and into the column. It turned a half-circle as the column doors closed.

All sentience drained from it, the organic suit closed back up. Within a minute, the cuts had healed, with only a slight redness on the scar and a bit of moisture from the clear blood that had flowed from it to show that it had ever been open in the first place--and these, too, would soon fade.

The Metal Man was about to return to the Kirisoban ship to which Brain Jar was docked when he felt the shockwave of a reasonably distant explosion. Reestablishing contact with Brain Jar's internal systems, he brought himself up to speed on the latest developments, including reading the com beacon of the Super-Power ship that had entered this sector of space.

Agamemnon, eh? he thought. Hope she doesn't suffer the fate of her namesake*--or of the French Battleship that bore her name for Napoleon.**

It would be appropritate to return to the Kirisoban vessel. They would probably want to keep tabs on him anyway. Best to choose the combat suit for the later mission so that they can look it over. With any luck, he might even be able to convince them to help him fix Brain Jar's main plasma cannon so she would be able to come to their aid if they got caught in a hot situation.

This situation wasn't hot yet. The Neomans, for all their bluster, were firing warning shots--they were trying the diplomatic course. If the people of the Agamemnon were aboard that colony, the warning couldn't have come too soon. Those poor people could be in deep trouble before they understood what was happening to them.

* Murdered.
** Sunk by British forces off the coast of Egypt.

"Arg - this probe doesn't look friendly; we'll head back to the Agamemnon and figure out what to do from there," said commander Heinrich after being grazed by a bullet from the droid. "Give me some suppressive fire!"

In the process of exit the command room, the HazMat team let out a burst of fire from their guns to hold the droid back. Once they were clear of the droid the team made a mad dash back to the Agamemnon.

The HazMat team made it back to the Agamemnon, having learned of the shells that were fired upon them by an unknown ship, claiming to be of Neoman origin.

The captain decided he would try to establish their peaceful intent with the ship. "If that fails we'll simply retreat and figure out what to do next." The Agamemnon's captain then sent a communication to the Neoman ship:

This is the captain of Super-power's Agamemnon cruiser. We apologize for trespassing upon your colony; this was the first instance that our sensors picked up the colony in this Lagrange point and we went to investigate. If you still wish for us to retreat, we will be on our way

"Arg - this probe doesn't look friendly; we'll head back to the Agamemnon and figure out what to do from there," said commander Heinrich after being grazed by a bullet from the droid. "Give me some suppressive fire!"

In the process of exit the command room, the HazMat team let out a burst of fire from their guns to hold the droid back. Once they were clear of the droid[,] the team made a mad dash back to the [I]Agamemnon.

The HazMat team made it back to the Agamemnon, having learned of the shells that were fired upon them by an unknown ship, claiming to be of Neoman origin.

The captain decided he would try to establish their peaceful intent with the ship. "If that fails[,] we'll simply retreat and figure out what to do next." The Agamemnon's captain then sent a communication to the Neoman ship:


Nice job, boys, the Metal Man thought. That little thing off your port bow is a quarantine boey, broadcasting in multiple languages. Anybody with half a clue would've known enough to keep back as far as the range of its signal--but YOU GUYS decided that it was an INVITATION. Why do I always end up dealing with ameteurs masquerading as pros? Again, he kept his thoughts to himself. He had other tasks to perform, anyway--most notably, the start-up check on his combat suit.

The suit was built over one of his more versatile yet tried-and-true designs. To the casual observer, "The Box" looked like a dull, black rectangular solid, square at the top and twice as tall as it was wide. Four of them would have made a cube. Yet, from The Box could emerge a four-pack of plasma cannons, several types of manipulator arms, a variety of sensory packages and even the occasional bomb. Its surface was black as part of its stealth technology, and it easily defeated most scanning equipment. It also had a cloaking shield and a weak but present force field which could be used either defensively or to deliver a broad-ranging electric shock.

The Box was turned on its side now, and an armored fitting placed against its bottom, leading to "The Platform." Perched on four legs-with-treads, the Plaform had enough ground clearance to avoid obstacles, enough speed and agility to get itself out of trouble and enough armor so that it didn't need to get itself out of ALL trouble--for this mission, the Metal Man had supplemented his emissives with some good, ol' fashioned Kirisoban composites. It had shaved 4% off the suit's weight.

The real value of The Platform, however, was in what was on top of it. A missile launcher, a battering ram and front- and rear-facing wave-motion guns (emitted microwaves) rounded out the suit's arsenal. Taken together, it combined firepower, durability and versatility.

As a final benefit, The Box and the Platform could still be separated, allowing The Box to maneuver on a set of antigravs located at its corners.

The Metal Man went through the last check on the power cells. All systems go. Time to rejoin the Kiris and see what critique the boys from the cargo ship may have had--from what he had seen of them so far, it would be much heat but little light. Then again, they acted like combat veterans--that is, unlike the Kiris, they were a no-frills, no-nonsense bunch. The Metal Man wondered if the Kiris, for all their precious civilization, might not have been rendered incapable of battle by the luxuries that they surrounded themselves with. It was a good thing that he was there to help protect them.

As he started to the airlock, the Metal Man tuned in the frequency of the probe he had fabricated. It was inside the colony now, and he felt that he could stand to watch some of the show. As he did, he noted the Agamemnon's boarding party coming into contact with it. The probe acted as any polite Kirisoban warrior did--it stood its ground while not making any threatening gestures. The boarding party decided that they didn't like the looks of it. The Metal Man didn't blame them. It looked like a giant, wingless, metal cockroach. Most humanoids felt an instinctive revulsion toward the things. By the time that they backed off, however, it had already homed in on their biosigns and gotten in some pretty good recon on their phyisiology (standard human), their armor (almost nonexistant), and...their weapons. Those idiots were using fire projectile weapons--the absolute worst thing to carry onboard a space ship, especially when none of them were wearing space suits. The first time they used those weapons--and they already had, right in the middle of the colony's command center--they would run the risk of opening up the hull. Bye bye, atmosphere; hello, explosive decompression. It was a very good thing that they were pulling back. The Metal Man hoped against hope that they hadn't irreparably damaged any of the control systems.

The Metal Man watched as the probe went back about its business, slowly working its way deeper and deeper into the colony ship. There was a mess, and a few bodies, but nothing substantiative. It might have helped if the controller had had more time to learn to fully use the probe's capabilities. Though he was proficient in its use, he lacked imagination when it came to the probe's ability to scale walls, hop onto elevated countertops and use its sample collectors. They had never even stopped to analyze the blood for anomalies. They had never stopped to inspect the damage that the Agamemnon's bording party had left.

Time to re-enter the scene. The Metal Man opened the door that led back onto the Kirisoban ship, and, finding his heavily-armed guard all present and accounted for, rolled out into their midst so that they could all have a good look.

---------

OOC:

The "droid" can't shoot bullets. It has NO offensive weapons. Whatever hit Heinrich, it didn't come from the probe.

I've been taking it easy on this thread because Neo, our thread master (mistress?) knows things that I don't. I'm not sure how much longer I will continue to do this.

Opinions expressed--particularly TMM's opinion of the crew of the Agamemnon--are those of the CHARACTER toward other CHARACTERS, not those of the AUTHOR toward other AUTHORS. Nothing personal here, just giving an IC reaction to what was in the posts.

Dastardly Stench']Nice job, boys, the Metal Man thought. That little thing off your port bow is a quarantine boey, broadcasting in multiple languages. Anybody with half a clue would've known enough to keep back as far as the range of its signal--but YOU GUYS decided that it was an INVITATION. Why do I always end up dealing with amateurs masquerading as pros? Again, he kept his thoughts to himself. He had other tasks to perform, anyway--most notably, the start-up check on his combat suit.

The suit was built over one of his more versatile yet tried-and-true designs. To the casual observer, "The Box" looked like a dull, black rectangular solid, square at the top and twice as tall as it was wide. Four of them would have made a cube. Yet, from The Box could emerge a four-pack of plasma cannons, several types of manipulator arms, a variety of sensory packages and even the occasional bomb. Its surface was black as part of its stealth technology, and it easily defeated most scanning equipment. It also had a cloaking shield and a weak but present force field which could be used either defensively or to deliver a broad-ranging electric shock.

The Box was turned on its side now, and an armored fitting placed against its bottom, leading to "The Platform." Perched on four legs-with-treads, the Platform had enough ground clearance to avoid obstacles, enough speed and agility to get itself out of trouble and enough armor so that it didn't need to get itself out of ALL trouble--for this mission, the Metal Man had supplemented his emissives with some good, IL' fashioned Kristan composites. It had shaved 4% off the suit's weight.

The real value of The Platform, however, was in what was on top of it. A missile launcher, a battering ram and front- and rear-facing wave-motion guns (emitted microwaves) rounded out the suit's arsenal. Taken together, it combined firepower, durability and versatility.

As a final benefit, The Box and the Platform could still be separated, allowing The Box to maneuver on a set of antigravs located at its corners.

The Metal Man went through the last check on the power cells. All systems go. Time to rejoin the Kiri's and see what critique the boys from the cargo ship may have had--from what he had seen of them so far, it would be much heat but little light. Then again, they acted like combat veterans--that is, unlike the Kiri's, they were a no-frills, no-nonsense bunch. The Metal Man wondered if the Kiris, for all their precious civilization, might not have been rendered incapable of battle by the luxuries that they surrounded themselves with. It was a good thing that he was there to help protect them.

As he started to the airlock, the Metal Man tuned in the frequency of the probe he had fabricated. It was inside the colony now, and he felt that he could stand to watch some of the show. As he did, he noted the Agamemnon's boarding party coming into contact with it. The probe acted as any polite Kirisoban warrior did--it stood its ground while not making any threatening gestures. The boarding party decided that they didn't like the looks of it. The Metal Man didn't blame them. It looked like a giant, wingless, metal cockroach. Most humanoids felt an instinctive revulsion toward the things. By the time that they backed off, however, it had already homed in on their bio signs and gotten in some pretty good reckon on their phyisiology (standard human), their armor (almost nonexistant), and...their weapons. Those idiots were using fire projectile weapons--the absolute worst thing to carry onboard a space ship, especially when none of them were wearing space suits. The first time they used those weapons--and they already had, right in the middle of the colony's command center--they would run the risk of opening up the hull. Bye bye, atmosphere; hello, explosive decompression. It was a very good thing that they were pulling back. The Metal Man hoped against hope that they hadn't irreparably damaged any of the control systems.

The Metal Man watched as the probe went back about its business, slowly working its way deeper and deeper into the colony ship. There was a mess, and a few bodies, but nothing substantiative. It might have helped if the controller had had more time to learn to fully use the probe's capabilities. Though he was proficient in its use, he lacked imagination when it came to the probe's ability to scale walls, hop onto elevated counter tops and use its sample collectors. They had never even stopped to analyze the blood for anomalies. They had never stopped to inspect the damage that the Agamemnon's bording party had left.

Time to re-enter the scene. The Metal Man opened the door that led back onto the Kirisoban ship, and, finding his heavily-armed guard all present and accounted for, rolled out into their midst so that they could all have a good look.

---------

OOC:

The "droid" can't shoot bullets. It has NO offensive weapons. Whatever hit Heinrich, it didn't come from the probe.

I've been taking it easy on this thread because Neo, our thread master (mistress?) knows things that I don't. I'm not sure how much longer I will continue to do this.

Opinions expressed--particularly TMM's opinion of the crew of the Agamemnon--are those of the CHARACTER toward other CHARACTERS, not those of the AUTHOR toward other AUTHORS. Nothing personal here, just giving an IC reaction to what was in the posts.

The Neoman X.O received the message and sent a reply.

We fired upon you for the reason that 200,000 people went missing inside that colony and we don't know what the situation is, We already lost a man to unknown forces so we fired on you to protect you,"

---

Kelly had been listening in to the conversation threw her comm. implant and smiled.

"Seems we have a new force to deal with,"

ooc: I AM the thread master!!! j/k :roll eyes:

Dastardly Stench']The "droid" can't shoot bullets. It has NO offensive weapons. Whatever hit Heinrich, it didn't come from the probe.
OOC: Whoops....I misread the fire from the MacBeth as from the droid.

The kirisuban team nodded when they seen the metal man enter their airlock.

One hit her comm badge and spoke in kirisuban to keep Captain Toda informed of developments.

Captain Toda had left the mess hall and made her way to the airlock once she knew the metal man was aboard.

after the usual bow she asked "Metal man san what did you find?"

"All right men, keep alert. The time for fighting is coming soon." Max said to his men as they got ready for battle for the tenth time. He paced restlessly and finally decided to call the Kirisubians.

To Kirisubians
When shall we suit up? My men are getting restless. Also, I heard the commmotion with the other ship. Is it anything new or just an intruder?

The kirisuban team nodded when they seen the metal man enter their airlock.

One hit her comm badge and spoke in kirisuban to keep Captain Toda informed of developments.

Captain Toda had left the mess hall and made her way to the airlock once she knew the metal man was aboard.

after the usual bow she asked "Metal man san what did you find?"

If there had been a head on this suit, the Metal Man would have shaken it. "Only that our newest friends may need to be protected from themselves," he replied. "They are standard humanoids by physiology and they like to use projectile weapons in space colonies without wearing proper space suits. The probe found little inside the colony--only blood and a few bodies, mostly killed by close-range plasma bursts, judging by the burns--but, since it was under your control the entire time, you should know that. The--," he almost said "so-called," but thought better of it, "--Super-Powerans let loose a volley of weapons fire before they left the command center. I didn't get a chance to see what kind of damage it did to the main computer terminal, but there is always hope. I did notice, though, that the probe can't get in any further under remote control due to some form of interferance.

"The ease with which the Super-Powerans gained access to the control center surprised me. Based on this, I think that we should send an armed team to retake the control center and use whatever of the colony's resources it makes available to further reconoiter the situation."

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

OOC: Actually, the Super-Powerans' post may be useful. It gives our protagonists the opportunity to be taken by surprise later on. :) :) :)

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

IC:

"Toward that end, I've added two weapons to this suit that aren't shown on the schematic. I replaced one of the wave-motion guns with a columnized electron beam, and I added in a flash-fired steam thrower in the front."

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

OOC: There will be a prize (an ebook--action/suspense novel) to anyone who can figure out what those two weapons have in common before I make my next post. Hint: it will help a LOT if you're Brittish and were born before 1962.

"then once our people suit up I think we'll be ready to enter the control centre" Captain Toda replies as she's interupted by her comm badge going off.

"Max, we had a group of intruders and the probe did its job before we lost contact with it. the control centre looks fairly intact as well.

Get suited up while we wait in the Neomans to decide the next move"

"All right." Max said, then turned off the communicator. He turned to his engineer. "Fix up the Biohazard-Bots. We'll need them." he said. He turned to his men. "All right men, suit up! We'll be moving out soon." The men started getting ready for battle.

"All right." Max said, then turned off the communicator. He turned to his engineer. "Fix up the Biohazard-Bots. We'll need them." he said. He turned to his men. "All right men, suit up! We'll be moving out soon." The men started getting ready for battle.

The NNS Lady Macbeth's air lock was filled with platoons of soldiers, they checked their weapons and tools.

The plan was that Lt. Marlo's Platoon would be first in and if they need extraction the other platoons would assault the colony.

Lt. Marlo's limp could even be seen threw his Mark 6 armor.

He turned to his men and nodded at them. This time they were going down with support, they were taking a Battle suit and an APC.

They piled into the APC and the driver drove them into one of the larger drop ships.

Kelly sent a message to Captain Toda.

"Were ready on this end,"

"we're ready as well" Commander Arisu Tsubaki replied. I've Kimiko with me as well as one of her friends. We're about to transport over now"

the three female Kirisubans were in space suits with magnetic boots, oxygen tanks and all were carrying plasma rifles and short straight swords.

they were certainly ready to go back to the colony.

Arisu ran her scanner to make sure it was still functioning and joined up with the Neomans.

"energise" she ordered and they reappeared by the airlock just as they had done before..

"we're ready as well" Commander Arisu Tsubaki replied. I've Kimiko with me as well as one of her friends. We're about to transport over now"

the three female Kirisubans were in space suits with magnetic boots, oxygen tanks and all were carrying plasma rifles and short straight swords.

they were certainly ready to go back to the colony.

Arisu ran her scanner to make sure it was still functioning and joined up with the Neomans.

"energise" she ordered and they reappeared by the airlock just as they had done before..

The drop ships engines were running, wind and bits of dirt flew around the drop ship.

The main door was down and Lt. Marlo and Cpl. Troy were standing in the door.

They helped the women in and they found them seats onboard the APC.

Lt. Marlo smiled when he saw them looking at the battle suit. Its massive frame took up most of the room left over by APC.

Lt. Marlo pointed at the battlesuit "This is Beta 221, Don't worry its going to be using 9mm lead bullets. So they wont puncture the superstructure if were get attacked.

Beta 221 stood idle it spun its Gatling gun a few times.

"Greetings," Its voice box boomed as they passed.

"hello Beta 221" Arisu replies in return as the women take their seats.

She certainly felt more confident now that they had something that tough and had a lot of firepower with them.

"hello Beta 221" Arisu replies in return as the women take their seats.

She certainly felt more confident now that they had something that tough and had a lot of firepower with them.

Lt. Marlo took his seat at the head of the APC, and Cpl Troy sat down next to Arisu.

He didn't say anything but he would get payback even if he had to die to get it.

"Stay frosty," Lt. Marlo told his men as the drop ships engines roared into life as the drop ship lifted off the deck.

They all felt Gravity slipping away as they exited the the ship.

Arisu could sense that Cpl Troy wanted payback. She would have been the same.

Still she had to find out what was going on.

"Lt Marlo once we get on board I'll look for a computer port. Accesing the logs might tell us a lot more" she says passing him a spare scanner set to english.

"you might find this useful" she adds

Arisu could sense that Cpl Troy wanted payback. She would have been the same.

Still she had to find out what was going.

"Lt Marlo once we get on board I'll look for a computer port. Accesing the logs might tell us a lot more" she says passing him a spare scanner set to english.

"you might find this useful" she adds

Lt. Marlo nodded and put it in one of the containers around his waist.

The colony's airlock doors opened and the dropship moved threw.

It hovered 6ft above the ground and the doors opened, The APC driver pushed the steering wheel forward and the APC shot forward.

It smashed into the ground and the drop ship sped away.

The APC pushed its way over the colony doors. It tore off threw the colony toward the command center, Beta 221 being towed behind it.

the ride may have started with a bump but they were certainly going to get to the command centre in one piece.

all Arisu and her team could do now was wait until they got there..

OOc: So the plan is the mine and other platoons come and rescue you if you need it, or after a while do the other platoons come in?

OOc: So the plan is the mine and other platoons come and rescue you if you need it, or after a while do the other platoons come in?


ooc: basically this is an exploration party, if they get into it they will need to be pulled out.

note: Kirisubo, people can beam out when there on the top part I:E the city, but they can when in the superstructure.

---

The APC took some sharp turns every few minutes.

The men talked amongst themselves in soft voices as they were transported to the superstructures access point.

The driver looked back at them "15 minutes!" he shouted over the engines.

Lt. Marlo got up and walked over to the women, stumbling as the APC went into a corner he wasn't expecting.

He knelt down in front of Arisu "Alright, were going in hot. Once we exit the APC its going to fall back to a safe position."

He looked at Troy for a second and then back at Arisu.

"Don't get caught away from the group, If you get attacked we may not be able to pull you out,"

Lt. Marlo stood and started to walk back to his seat, he stopped and looked over his shoulder "And don't do anything stupid, like getting yourself killed."

Cpl. Troy chuckled and shook his head he looked at Arisu "He gave me the "Don't so anything stupid" line too, but i was just a recruit back then."

He noticed the new women with them and held out his hand "Cpl Troy Miles,"

Arisu chuckles and replies "do i look that stupid? I want to be around to command that bird up there"

Mikiko had already met Troy but the new girl Midori Hasagawa hadn't.

she wore the one dark pip of a security guard just like Mikiko and introduced herself.

Arisu chuckles and replies "do i look that stupid? I want to be around to command that bird up there"

Mikiko had already met Troy but the new girl Midori Hasagawa hadn't.

she wore the one dark pip of a security guard just like Mikiko and introduced herself.

"Five minutes!," The APC driver shouted.

Lt. Marlo stood up and gripped the closes hand rail. "Get tactical!," He barked. His men stood and did the same.

"Its a pleaser Miss? Hasagawa, but I got to go to work now," Troy said as he stood up.

Being back to work took Troys mind of his brother... but the rage from his death still nipped at his soul.

Midori smiled before getting into the frame of mind she needed for the mission. There were hostiles where they were going and she needed to make every shot cound if it came to that.

she popped open the sniper sight on her rifle and was now ready.

Midori smiled before getting into the frame of mind she needed for the mission. There were hostiles where they were going and she needed to make every shot cound if it came to that.

she popped open the sniper sight on her rifle and was now ready.

The APC came to a halt and the ramp door came crashing down and the men piled out secureing the area. Once all the men and gear were unloaded the APC sped away.

They were in the middel of a cauldisace but instead of houses they were surrouned by rolling hills and forests. Imbeded in the side of the hill infront of them was a lage service tunnel. Its doors were shut and and Warning sign placed upon the door. It read "Warning: EXTREME ELECTRICAL CURRENTS"

Beta 221 walked slowly toward the door and turned to Lt. Marlo "Door Secured!" Its voice box bellowed.

Lt. Marlo nodded "Beta 221 run operational program S1,"

"Acknowledged," Beta 221 said softly

Arisu and her team exited the APC and they set their weapons to heavy stun.

Looking around Arisu wondered what it would have been like to live here before the disaster.

she and her team were alert while they waited for Beta 221 worked away, Arisu scanning round her.

Arisu and her team exited the APC and they set their weapons to heavy stun.

Looking around Arisu wondered what it would have been like to live here before the disaster.

she and her team were alert while they waited for Beta 221 worked away, Arisu scanning round her.

Beta 221 and on of Lt. Marlo's men were working on the door, The control panel was open and the mans hands moved quickly.

"Got it!," He shouted as the door slid open.

"Everyone get inside!," Lt. Marlo barked.

The men stood and jogged inside.

Once everyone was inside Lt. Marlo shut the door.

The corridor was dark, the emergency lighting only gave of enough light to eliminate the walk way.

Lt. Marlo put his hand to his shoulder and a beams of light shot out of each of his shoulders.

He pushed a button on his gun and another flashlight kicked on.

"Hopkins, you got point," He whispered as the men fell in around him.

A soldier with wavy blond hair nodded and moved to about 10m ahead of the group.

"This is just like the haunted house's at the carnivals back home," One of the men said softly.

Lt. Marlo chuckled and turned around "Yea, but the ghost there aren't trying to kill you," he said while backpedaling.

Arisu moved to the middle of the group with her two guards either side of her.

Still scanning as they walked down the corridor she wasn't picking up much apart from the team.

so far so good..

Arisu moved to the middle of the group with her two guards either side of her.

Still scanning as they walked down the corridor she wasn't picking up much apart from the team.

so far so good..

The corridor had a slow descending angle and was about 3 clicks.

The group came to another door and its automatic sensors opened the door.

It was an elevator, it was smeared with blood and shell casings.

The group entered the large service elevator and began the slow trip into the center of the colony.

"We're on the elevator to hell... Goin' down!," One of the men said with a smile.

Beta 221 had to crouch low to fit inside of the elevator and even though it was a AI controlled robot it seemed uncomfortable.

Lt. Marlo smiled again "Okay people we got a job to do, were going to come out in engineering and we got a long way to walk until we get to the control center. So in other words were still soldiers and we got a job to do and we 'aint getting paid by the hour."

The men nodded.

Arisu nodded and conversed with her people in Kirisuban making sure they were ready for anything.

she could figure out herself that a fight took place here and it was likely that they would find more evidence when they hit engineering.

Her guards also worked that out themselves and flicked the safety catches of their plasma rifles raising the optical sights.

Arisu nodded and conversed with her people in Kirisuban making sure they were ready for anything.

she could figure out herself that a fight took place here and it was likely that they would find more evidence when they hit engineering.

Her guards also worked that out themselves and flicked the safety catches of their plasma rifles raising the optical sights.

The elevator came to a slow halt, its doors came open slowly as the mens flashlights pierced the darkness revealing a large room with huge cauldrons the hummed softly as jets of steam were released to regulate pressure. along side the room there were box's piled almost twice a mans height.

The men filled out of the elevator and took up defensive positions.

Cpl Troy walked up to one of the cauldrons and picked up a small clipboard attached to one of them. It was a inspection log.

He read the scribbles words and smiled

"Well, it seems that the last log was two days after the beckon went down."

Lt. Marlo nodded and put his hand to his ear.

"Ma'am, we inside. We found a log of Daily inspections for the plasma reactors and the last log was twp days after the beckon was terminated." His voice was calm but hints of fear broke there way threw.

ooc: sensors are going to pick up a life from coming towards them.

Having passed muster, the Metal Man was now permitted to join the Kirisoban battle group. He stood on the transporter pad.

"Energise, please," he said. In a moment, he was with them.

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

OOC:

No prize given this time. :( The book was written by Andy J. W. Davie, and was titled "Diary of a Curtain Twitcher." Anyway...

Trivia Answer:

Any follower of "Doctor Who," the longest-running sci-fi series in TV history (now making a comeback after several years in hiatus) should know that a steam thrower and a columnized electron beam were, at different times, the preferred weapon of...the Daleks. They're both Dalek guns.

Dastardly Stench']Having passed muster, the Metal Man was now permitted to join the Kirisoban battle group. He stood on the transporter pad.

"Energise, please," he said. In a moment, he was with them.

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

OOC:

No prize given this time. :( The book was written by Andy J. W. Davie, and was titled "Diary of a Curtain Twitcher." Anyway...

Trivia Answer:

Any follower of "Doctor Who," the longest-running sci-fi series in TV history (now making a comeback after several years in hiatus) should know that a steam thrower and a columnized electron beam were, at different times, the preferred weapon of...the Daleks. They're both Dalek guns.

The brilliant flash of light startled many of the men.

Beta 221 Spun around his Gatling Gun spinning furiously.

"Intruder halt or i will open fire upon you!," Its voice box boomed

http://www.games-workshop.pt/warhammer40k/razas/space_marines/images/index/dib_dreadnought.gif

Midori, one of the guards had seen the metal man before and she spoke up.

"thats the metal man. theres no need to shoot" she says

Midori, one of the guards had seen the metal man before and she spoke up.

"thats the metal man. theres no need to shoot" she says

Beta 221s Gatling gun slowed and stopped.

"Forgive my ignorance," Its voice box said in at a normal volume.

Suddenly Lt. Marlo spun the scanner in his hand "Cover," He whispered to his men.

The men and Beta 221 ran behind the box's at the side of the room and took up defensive positions.

When Arisu and her team joined him Lt. Marlo handed the scanner to her.

The scanner showed a blip at 435m and it was closing in on them.

Arisu read the scanner and in clipped Kirisuban told her people to fire on her order.

the two women raised their plasma rifles to their shoulders and aimed their shots ready to fire.

Arisu read the scanner and in clipped Kirisuban told her people to fire on her order.

the two women raised their plasma rifles to their shoulders and aimed their shots ready to fire.

They waited for a few minutes befor ethe life form appeared.

Its was roughfly huminoid and had a shaggy brow coat covering its entire body, Lt. Marlo could almost say for certain he was looking at the Sasquatch from Earth.

"Hold your fire," He breathed softly as the being walked up to one of the couldrins and began a strange kind of inspection. When it was finnished it walked away.

"what was that?" Arisu asked Lt Marlo adding "you seemed to recognise it"

Lt. Marlo looked at Arisu and shook his head. "I don't know what the hell that was. But i remember people from earth talking about some kind of ape the was bi pedal, some called it Sasquatch others called it big foot."

Arisu raises and eyebrow and replies "our legends from the Kirisuban empire on Earth also describe similiar creatures.

Maybe that was one of the colonists in their changed form"

Still alert but with their weapons lowered the other kirisubans keep scanning for life signs and movement.

Submitting to examination had paid unexpected dividends. In his current form,

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

OOC:

http://www.nls.net/mp/413/platform_n_box.png

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

the Metal Man would have been difficult to recognise. Naturally, the battle automaton that found him in its midst could not do so. Fortunately, its AI was sufficiently well-designed that it could respond to a Kirisoban countermand.

Then, the creature had made its appearance. The Metal Man had simply remained in place and cloaked--which allowed him to remain undetected without moving but rendered his main sensors ineffective. He could see it, but the kind of detailed analysis that he was used to would be impossible. In fact, he couldn't even tell if the creature was native-born or genetically altered.

This did strike him as particularly important at the time, though. He could use his columnized electron beam to stun one of those creatures later. Right now, this one had done something that was MUCH more tantilizing to his curiosity.


Arisu raises and eyebrow and replies "our legends from the Kirisuban empire on Earth also describe similiar creatures.

Maybe that was one of the colonists in their changed form"

Still alert but with their weapons lowered the other kirisubans keep scanning for life signs and movement.


The Metal Man decloaked.

"More importantly," he said, "what's in the cauldron that it was looking at?"

Dastardly Stench']Submitting to examination had paid unexpected dividends. In his current form,

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

OOC:

http://www.nls.net/mp/413/platform_n_box.png

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

the Metal Man would have been difficult to recognise. Naturally, the battle automaton that found him in its midst could not do so. Fortunately, its AI was sufficiently well-designed that it could respond to a Kirisoban countermand.

Then, the creature had made its appearance. The Metal Man had simply remained in place and cloaked--which allowed him to remain undetected without moving but rendered his main sensors ineffective. He could see it, but the kind of detailed analysis that he was used to would be impossible. In fact, he couldn't even tell if the creature was native-born or genetically altered.

This did strike him as particularly important at the time, though. He could use his columnized electron beam to stun one of those creatures later. Right now, this one had done something that was MUCH more tantilizing to his curiosity.



The Metal Man decloaked.

"More importantly," he said, "what's in the cauldron that it was looking at?"

Lt. Marlo smiled "Plasma, Its used as the night cycles power system so that the fusion reactors can be inspected."

Cpl Troy moved up to the corridor that the being had just entered. "Coord almighty," He whispered as he moved back to the group.

Beta 221walked up to Lt. Marlo, its heavy feet clanking against the metal floor.

"Sir, After re-evaluating the target I have noticed abnormal harmonics comeing from the... beast,"

"we use plasma as the power source for our weapons " Arisu replies before asking 221 "what do you mean by unusual harmonics?"

Mental Note, the Metal Man dropped into his Mental Notepad, discuss the relationship between this stuff and the encapsulated plasma weapons that these creatures appear to be using. If it turns out, as I fear it will, that there are no colonists left, might it not be worth shutting the colony down just to get the stuff out of their hands?

Dastardly Stench']Mental Note, the Metal Man dropped into his Mental Notepad, discuss the relationship between this stuff and the encapsulated plasma weapons that these creatures appear to be using. If it turns out, as I fear it will, that there are no colonists left, might it not be worth shutting the colony down just to get the stuff out of their hands?

Beta 221 turned to Arisu

"It was sending harmonic signals, they were at extreme levels. The pitch to high for humans to hear,"

It turned back to Lt. Marlo

Lt. Marlo looked down the corridor and smiled. "We need to go in that direction, maybe we will see it again,"

Arisu nodded to Beta 221 and picked up 'bigfoot' on her scanner.

"I can track the creature easily" she replies "and maybe those harmonic signals are how they comunicate with their own kind.

It wouldn't surprise me if we were dealing with a pack mentality.

Lead on Lt."

Arisu nodded to Beta 221 and picked up 'bigfoot' on her scanner.

"I can track the creature easily" she replies "and maybe those harmonic signals are how they comunicate with their own kind.

It wouldn't surprise me if we were dealing with a pack mentality.

Lead on Lt."

Lt. Marlo nodded and turned to Troy "Corporal, you got point,"

Cpl. Troy thumbed the safety on his Gauss cannon and it came hunting to life,

"Gee, thanks Lieutenant," He said with a smile

He moved down the long dark corridor.

And here's where things take an interesting twist.

"Battle drone," the Metal Man said, "my cloaking system interfered with my ability to register the creature's signals. Did you save a copy of its transmissions? Could you send me a copy on another band so that I might try to decode them?"

Dastardly Stench']"Battle drone," the Metal Man said, "my cloaking system interfered with my ability to register the creature's signals. Did you save a copy of its transmissions? Could you send me a copy on another band so that I might try to decode them?"

Beta 221 shifted it weight and turned to Lt. Marlo. Lt. Marlo nodded and a hatch on Beta 221s back popped open exposing a flat panel with two small connections. one said output, the other input.

"Touch input and ill smite you," Beta 221 said softly with a strange hint of humor coming out of its voice box.

Cpl Troy slunk along the wall as they reached a intersection.

He gazed down the corridors and gave the all clear.

He jogged back to the group briefly smiling at Arisu "Sir, all clear as far as i can see. The command center is about half a click away,"

"then I hope it stays clear" Arisu says softly and waves her two guards forward to scout ahead.

"then I hope it stays clear" Arisu says softly and waves her two guards forward to scout ahead.

Lt. Marlo nodded "Usually doesn't though, Ever been in a fire fight?" He asked Arisu with a serious look on his face.

"once" she replies "on what we though was a derelict ship. once we stunned the crew with no casualties of our own we managed to convince them that we were able to help and even fixed their engines for them before their life support gave out.

we can handle ourselves"

"once" she replies "on what we though was a derelict ship. once we stunned the crew with no casualties of our own we managed to convince them that we were able to help and even fixed their engines for them before their life support gave out.

we can handle ourselves"

Lt. Marlo nodded "Good, at least thats one more person i dont have to worry about," He gave he a smile

"Hell, i've lost count how many times i've been in the shit. Lost my leg in one."
He said as his eyes glazed over as he remembered.

"you're a warrior and that is our lot in life" Arisu replies softly as they continue walking onwards.

ooc: its still kirisubo posting

Removing the interface wire from the battle drone's "Output" port as he had finished downloading the requested data, the Metal Man joined in the conversation. He had, for the momen,t ignored the battle drone's sarcastic commentary--it had to know that he would not disobey its instructions.

"We've all been through this sort of thing," he commented. "I'm more concerned about our teamwork. Our different cultural backgrounds dictate different responses under fire. We must be willing to forgive each other when some of us inevitably do things that the others consider...less than fully acceptable."

He played back the large creature's brief appearance, superimposing the new transmission data on the original scene.

"I'd also like to know if it was a coincidence that the creature handled those control panels like a board-certified engineer. I'm not completely certain, but, if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that what the battle drone recorded was an all clear signal."

Dastardly Stench']Removing the interface wire from the battle drone's "Output" port as he had finished downloading the requested data, the Metal Man joined in the conversation. He had, for the momen,t ignored the battle drone's sarcastic commentary--it had to know that he would not disobey its instructions.

"We've all been through this sort of thing," he commented. "I'm more concerned about our teamwork. Our different cultural backgrounds dictate different responses under fire. We must be willing to forgive each other when some of us inevitably do things that the others consider...less than fully acceptable."

He played back the large creature's brief appearance, superimposing the new transmission data on the original scene.

"I'd also like to know if it was a coincidence that the creature handled those control panels like a board-certified engineer. I'm not completely certain, but, if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that what the battle drone recorded was an all clear signal."

Lt. Marlo nodded and smiled at the metal man.

"True, I for one am not the least bit shy of takeing my knife and chargeing the enemy. Its how we are really, You gain the most honor by seeing your enemys eyes as you kill him."

Lt. Marlo turned around and backpedaled slowly

"But, Im not going to be stupid and try to stab that hairy bastard. But your observation is quiet interesting, Im not so sure if all the crew are "dead","

Arisu looked puzzled.

"an all clear signal" she repeats adding "if all the crew isn't dead at least some of them must have transformed into other forms like bigfoot"

Arisu looked puzzled.

"an all clear signal" she repeats adding "if all the crew isn't dead at least some of them must have transformed into other forms like bigfoot"

Cpl Troy looked at Arisu "This whole station is one big reactor, Plamsa and Anti-matter reactors need to be checked and maintaind or the entire ship would go critical,"

Cpl Troy shifted "Im not likeing this, 200,000 people are missing and they could have been transformed. Not very good odds,"

"Not all of them were transformed," the Metal Man noted. "Many died in the safety bunkers. There isn't enough room down here for two hundred thousand of those creatures. You'd be lucky to be able to support a quarter of that number. But that's a minor semantic problem--the glaring anomaly here is that the creature we saw should have a brain about one third the size of a human and somewhere between three and seven times the strength.* Even if it once was human, it shouldn't have the mental capacity to run something as complicated as a multiphasic fusion core. Somebody's got to be looking over its shoulder."

*Chimpanzee

Chimps don't have three to seven times the strength of humans! I think. Aren't chimps smaller than humans?

Chimps don't have three to seven times the strength of humans! I think. Aren't chimps smaller than humans?

ooc: A chimp could rip a mans arm off.

OOC:

YES, a chimpanzee is between three and seven times as strong as a man. If you saw it, you would think it was incredible. A chimpanzee can swing by one arm and pick up a 5-gallon jug of water with the other like you or I would pick up a lunch box. Men are much, much smarter, but chimps are much, much stronger.

OOc: Huh, I always thought that chimps were those three foot tall monkeys. but they're not. I just read something about it. Oh well, it least I'm still smarter than they are.

"If we're dealing with a pack of creatures then theres bound to be some alphas who lead them. I'm sure theres smarter ones out there" Arisu comments back.

"If we're dealing with a pack of creatures then theres bound to be some alphas who lead them. I'm sure theres smarter ones out there" Arisu comments back.


Lt. Marlo nodded "Yes but the fact is we only opened one bunker,"

"I still dont like whats going on here," Cpl Troy said as they turned the corner to the command center.

"I did request battle simulations," the Metal Man replied. "One of my concerns was what we would do in the event that some members of our party were captured and their captors attempted to transform them. I know that a Kirisoban will die before allowing himself (or herself) to be captured, and I can also self-destruct.

"This is a miserable place to discuss strategy, though. If anyone...or any...thing...hears us..."

Arisu can still pick up 'big foot' on her scanner as he moves away from them.

now at the command centre she scans the building looking for life signs, her guards alert.

The Metal Man follows, dropping a telemetry boey and hoping that these people know more than they're showing about maintaining a secure line back to the mothership.

He still needed to ask why the creatures were warehousing plasma--it's just superheated gas (some even argued that plasma was a state of matter, like liquid, solid and gas), and it's much easier to make it just before you use it than it is to keep it in storage vats (the stuff has to be kept heated and circulated--the energy requirements are enormous). Something here just didn't add up.

A metal arm and hand extended from the box and reached out in front of Lt. Marlo. "We need to speak privately," the Metal Man said.

Dastardly Stench']The Metal Man follows, dropping a telemetry boey and hoping that these people know more than they're showing about maintaining a secure line back to the mothership.

He still needed to ask why the creatures were warehousing plasma--it's just superheated gas (some even argued that plasma was a state of matter, like liquid, solid and gas), and it's much easier to make it just before you use it than it is to keep it in storage vats (the stuff has to be kept heated and circulated--the energy requirements are enormous). Something here just didn't add up.

A metal arm and hand extended from the box and reached out in front of Lt. Marlo. "We need to speak privately," the Metal Man said.

Lt. Marlo nodded "Sure,"

He turned toward the group "Hold up here, We will be back,"

Lt. Marlo nodded to a storage closet and opened the door and walked in and closed it behind The metal man. He pulled a pinch of chewing tobacco from his shirt pocket and started to chew the brown plant.

"Whats up?" Lt. Marlo asked his hand resting on his belt.

---

The group knelt down and took a break while two guarded the group.

Cpl Troy knelt down next to Arisu and pulled a flask from his shirt pocket.

He took a quick swig and offered it to Arisu.

Arisu accepted and took a little of the flask before passing it back.

she wondered what was so private that she had to be left out but didn't worry about it.

"There is simply no way that the stuff is being used as a power source," the Metal Man said, "it simply doesn't last long enough--and it's the exact same composition as the stuff that blew holes in the scouting parties that first came here. I don't know what, but something's going on. Truth is, I don't even know if either you or the Neomans are in on it--it could be the work of a clique within their military, or it could be from outside influences."

He had already spoken with Marlo about the plasma cauldron, and how it was too expensive to store the stuff in plasma form when the gas could much more easily--and safely--be compressed and bottled until needed. Plasma was a good catalyst for certain chemical reactions, he had explained, but it made a horrible power source. It was too hard to control. It made a decent weapon because the right gas, when plasmasized, would support a magnetic bubble that was put around it until it hit something--encapsulated plasma.

"So...bearing in mind that I can analyze the stress in your voice and will know instantly if you're lieing, do you know what's going on?"

Dastardly Stench']"There is simply no way that the stuff is being used as a power source," the Metal Man said, "it simply doesn't last long enough--and it's the exact same composition as the stuff that blew holes in the scouting parties that first came here. I don't know what, but something's going on. Truth is, I don't even know if either you or the Neomans are in on it--it could be the work of a clique within their military, or it could be from outside influences."

He had already spoken with Marlo about the plasma cauldron, and how it was too expensive to store the stuff in plasma form when the gas could much more easily--and safely--be compressed and bottled until needed. Plasma was a good catalyst for certain chemical reactions, he had explained, but it made a horrible power source. It was too hard to control. It made a decent weapon because the right gas, when plasmasized, would support a magnetic bubble that was put around it until it hit something--encapsulated plasma.

"So...bearing in mind that I can analyze the stress in your voice and will know instantly if you're lieing, do you know what's going on?"

Lt. Marlo scoffed "I have an idea about what going on but I was told by my superiors that the Plasma was being used for powering the colony during the night cycle so that the Anti-matter drives could be inspected and maintained,"

Lt. Marlo spit

"Listen to me Metal man, I dont care what the plasma is beign used for. All i know is that 200,000 Neomans are ether dead or deformed. That is all i care about,"

---

Troy sighed and sat down on the cold ground.

"Another day in the corp,"

Not a hint of dishonesty. Whatever it was, Marlo wasn't in on it.

"I understand your concerns, Marlo," the Metal Man replied. "In fact, I share them. That's my point. If that plasma is part of what's deforming your people, then you have an obligation to shut it down--before it gets turned on you."

The Metal Man would not have been at all surprised if some members of the Neoman High Command (or whatever sufficed for one over there) knew more than they had told Marlo. He was just the guy in the trenches, and the bosses seldom respected men like him until their lives depended on it.

"Forgive me if I seem paranoid," he said at length. "It's just that, with all my technology and all the friends I make, I'm not used to flying blind. The truth is that we don't have enough information to know whether we can secure our objective, and that scares me. That's why every detail I can find is going to receive special scrutiny. We've got to leave as little as possible to chance--it's our lives that we're risking here.

"And something is wrong with that stuff being there. If it's used against us because we just walked on by when we could have put an end to it, we're the ones who are going to pay for our ignorance."

Neoma, man, you need to post in the Galatic Threat thread.

Neoma, man, you need to post in the Galatic Threat thread.

ooc: ight i know i know,

IC:

Lt. Marlo smiled "Its James, Lt. James Marlo."

"But anyway i dought that the plasma is changing anyone, I mean the stuff has been used for centuries by many types of nations and beings."

Lt. Marlo smiled "Then again im not a scientist im only a grunt,"

He opened the door to the corridor and smiled to his men.

"Did you have fun you two?" Cpl. Troy asked which got a chuckle from some of the men.

Arisu smiles and asks "did you find out anything new that could help us?"

Arisu smiles and asks "did you find out anything new that could help us?"

Lt Marlo smiled "No, we just had a little disscussion. Needed to level some things out."

I never said that the stuff was mutating people, the Metal Man thought, only that it might be the energy source for the plasma weapons that they're using. Oh well. I'll have to play this one out with a trump card showing in the other side's hand. Either way, I'm going to keep a montoring boey in with those tanks just to make sure they're not misused.

He rolled back to join the group.

"well now we're here we might as well enter the command centre" Arisu replies and waves her guards forward, their weapons ready.

"well now we're here we might as well enter the command centre" Arisu replies and waves her guards forward, their weapons ready.

When they got to the command center the probes was sitting there idle.

Lt. Marlo put his hand on the palm scanner and the door gave a hiss and opened revealing a large room with many different control panels. Above each control panels monitor it had various labels. Climate control, Anti-matter Drives, Plasma drives, History log ect. ect.

"Well, this is interesting," Lt. Marlo said as he say a control panel with the label "Project Black"

Arisu raises an eyebrow and ponders briefly.

"could it be something secret that they were working on? if you can access the computers here we could learn more about it as well as being able to access the last logs" she replies

Arisu raises an eyebrow and ponders briefly.

"could it be something secret that they were working on? if you can access the computers here we could learn more about it as well as being able to access the last logs" she replies

Lt. Marlo nodded and sat down in the chair, the text that came up was in another language. "Good god, old Gothic," Lt. Marlo breathed threw his teeth as he tried to remember the lessons he was taught back in high school.

Arisu knew it wasn't a language that she recognised and she had seen and heard quite a few while serving with the exploration fleet.

she opens a pocket in her jacket and gets out a universal translator. as the device downloaded some of the text it got to work in comparing it with languages it was already programmed for.

with luck the device would be able to translate what was on the screen.

Arisu knew it wasn't a language that she recognised and she had seen and heard quite a few while serving with the exploration fleet.

she opens a pocket in her jacket and gets out a universal translator. as the device downloaded some of the text it got to work in comparing it with languages it was already programmed for.

with luck the device would be able to translate what was on the screen.

The device worked and transulated most of the words into english others on the other hand stayed in old Gothic.

"Sweet," Lt. Malro said

"its one of the standard tools we use. Maybe its something your scientists could build once they look at it" Arisu comments as the second page gets translated gaps being understandable since she'd never dealt with old gothic before.

"its one of the standard tools we use. Maybe its something your scientists could build once they look at it" Arisu comments as the second page gets translated gaps being understandable since she'd never dealt with old gothic before.

Lt. Marlo nodded "Old Gothics a bitch but..."

He began to read the text.

"Seems Project black was the testing of plasma under different environment... Seeing how far they could manipulate it."

He began to read a little more "Oh, Shit"

Arisu frowned as she looked at the partial translation she was getting back. This wasn't making pleasant reading even although she couldn't understand much of it.

Arisu frowned as she looked at the partial translation she was getting back. This wasn't making pleasant reading even although she couldn't understand much of it.

"2 and a half years ago... A worker was Exposed? to.... I don't know what that says... It manipulates his DNA. He was quarantined? but whatever happened he wasn't able to be treated,"

"so if this process changed his DNA this means he transformed. if the quaritine didn't hold then the whole population could well have been infected" Arisu comments in reply.

"perhaps they need the plasma to survive in their present form?" she adds

"so if this process changed his DNA this means he transformed. if the quaritine didn't hold then the whole population could well have been infected" Arisu comments in reply.

"perhaps they need the plasma to survive in their present form?" she adds

"Thats a good point, but if thats the fact were in deep shit. Those cauldrons hold massive amounts of plasma and the reactor itself can produce amounts to refill those cauldrons in a few hours."

Lt. Marlo leaned back in his chair.

In a burst of energetic light, a lone Cav'Sanalam class (http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b91/SeaQuest_Sim/Schematics/SeaQuest%20DSV/heavyshuttle_cavsanalam.jpg) heavy shuttle dropped out of Slipstream. Leaving a visable trail behind as several deep gashes in the hull releashed various fumes.

Cockpit

"Reactor is going to go critical!"

"Shut it down!"

"No time!"

"Eject! Eject it!"

"Ejecting now!"

Throughout the chaos of the Lancers working to save their lives and keep the ship from devolving into a ball of fire, the one in charge, a woman in the uniform of Argosy Special Ops and sporting the pips of a Major, remained calm. It was almost as if she was in a meditative trance. Of course, that could have something to do with the injuries she had sustained, but it might not.

Exterior

A small hatch spiraled open on the ventral side of the craft as thrusters pushed it upwards and the M/AM core downwards. Anyone watching would be able to see that they wouldn't get out of range in time prior to the core overloading.

Of course, it wasn't that noticable, but if one bothered to check, they would find that the shuttle had dissapeared in a flash of blue light mere nanoseconds prior to the dumped core detonating like a mini-sun.

Colony - Interior - Upper Section

The shuttle emerged from the premptu(sp?) tesseract inside the main section of the Neoman colony. Not having had real time to prepare, the jump had been purely random, destination wise that is.

Upon entering the pressurized enviroment, the craft's pilot struggled to keep the nose up as the miniscule ship dived towards the ground. Upon impact, her already damaged structure lost a few bits here and there while digging a furrow through the dirt a few kilometers long.

OOC: That a'right, Neoma? Its close to the rough draft version I sent you in the TG.

snip.

ooc: that be ight

IC: Admiral Kelly Saldana was awoken form her peaceful sleep by the loud chirping of her her comm.

She rolled out of bed and picked it up "Yes?" she said sleepily and she sat up in bed

She listened to her X.Os report she hurriedly got into her uniform and walked to the bridge.

--
The APC was parked out side a grocery store and the crew sat outside dinning on their MREs.

They heard a sonic boom but didn't investigate.

Suddenly there orders came threw there Comms. and the hurriedly got into there APC and were off.

--

5 minutes later the APC came onto the scene, The back hatch opened and the co-driver steeped out his rifle trained on the crashed shuttle.

"Is anyone alive?" He shouted at the smoldering shuttle craft.

Arisu's ears pricked up when she heard the sonic boom.

she couldn't pin it where it was coming from and she didn't know what to expect.

"Lt. do you hear that?" she says cocking her head in the general direction of the noise which seemed quite distant.

Arisu's ears pricked up when she heard the sonic boom.

she couldn't pin it where it was coming from and she didn't know what to expect.

"Lt. do you hear that?" she says cocking her head in the general direction of the noise which seemed quite distant.

Lt. Marlo nodded "Yes, i did"

Troy thumbed the safety on his APBR and pulled the bolt back.

For a few moments, the only response was the creaking and groaing of stressed metal, the occasional burst of sparks, and a slight hiss as the internal and external pressure slowly equalized through the gaping wholes in the hull. Then came sounds of pounding for a moment in the general area of the outer air-lock hatch. If one went by the muffling quality of the shuttle's hull in how it softened the strikes, it could be easy to think that the Neoman's hail would be missed or lost in the background noise.

While the name and other identifing marks had been worn off by this point, the crest of the Light Empire was still partially identifiable.

Shuttle - Interior

"The hatch is jammed."

"Looks like an M-class enviroment out there."

"Hey! I think I saw something moving outside."

"Get your weapons ready and see if you can access the manual controls for the hatch."

The Lancers working at the door pryed open a panel close to the floor on the left side of the hatch. Inside was a few control crystals and the manual release lever. They worked at moving and removing the control crystal's in a predesignated sequence before the closest one went for the lever. It took some terse moments before the lever, which was slightly stuck due to lack of use, would even begin to budge.

"Remind me to have them start keeping these things greased up no matter what," grunted the Lancer working at the lever.

The comment was met by some a few chuckles throughout the group. Even the stoic Major grinned slightly at it.

OOC: I'll probably have them get out in the next post.

For a few moments, the only response was the creaking and groaing of stressed metal, the occasional burst of sparks, and a slight hiss as the internal and external pressure slowly equalized through the gaping wholes in the hull. Then came sounds of pounding for a moment in the general area of the outer air-lock hatch. If one went by the muffling quality of the shuttle's hull in how it softened the strikes, it could be easy to think that the Neoman's hail would be missed or lost in the background noise.

While the name and other identifing marks had been worn off by this point, the crest of the Light Empire was still partially identifiable.

Shuttle - Interior

"The hatch is jammed."

"Looks like an M-class enviroment out there."

"Hey! I think I saw something moving outside."

"Get your weapons ready and see if you can access the manual controls for the hatch."

The Lancers working at the door pryed open a panel close to the floor on the left side of the hatch. Inside was a few control crystals and the manual release lever. They worked at moving and removing the control crystal's in a predesignated sequence before the closest one went for the lever. It took some terse moments before the lever, which was slightly stuck due to lack of use, would even begin to budge.

"Remind me to have them start keeping these things greased up no matter what," grunted the Lancer working at the lever.

The comment was met by some a few chuckles throughout the group. Even the stoic Major grinned slightly at it.

OOC: I'll probably have them get out in the next post.

The crew got inside there APC and drove it causiously to the crashed shuttle.

The parked the front of the APC faceing the hatch and the co--driver exited the APC and trained his weapon at the hatch.

Arisu took the safety catch of her plasma pistol and tried to place the sound.

she shakes her head and calls over Midori who readies her weapon as well.

It took around a grand total of thirty seconds for the release lever to be moved into the unlock position. When the hiss of the hatch's locking mechanisms released, a sound that could be heard on both sides, the Lancers began working at prying open the doors.

"You find them yet?"

"Yes, but having a little trouble reaching them through the debris."

"Well, keep at it. In the meantime, hand be that crowbar."

One Lancer began moving aside bits and pieces of the crashed shuttle's interior that had fallen. Eventually, he reached the container that had been buried. Pulling it up onto a relatively level beam, he opened it and passed the contents over to those at the door.

While all but one Lancer, who was attaching the two disks, one to each half of the door, moved out of the way, the remaining Lancer began using the tools to rapidly force both halves of the door into their respective slots in the walls. As this left him in a vunerable position to any potential enemies that would be outside, other Lancers held their Force Lances, set on stun, at the ready in case they were needed.

Removing the pads from the forced doors, he looked down at the Neoman with the cocked weapon.

It took around a grand total of thirty seconds for the release lever to be moved into the unlock position. When the hiss of the hatch's locking mechanisms released, a sound that could be heard on both sides, the Lancers began working at prying open the doors.

"You find them yet?"

"Yes, but having a little trouble reaching them through the debris."

"Well, keep at it. In the meantime, hand be that crowbar."

One Lancer began moving aside bits and pieces of the crashed shuttle's interior that had fallen. Eventually, he reached the container that had been buried. Pulling it up onto a relatively level beam, he opened it and passed the contents over to those at the door.

While all but one Lancer, who was attaching the two disks, one to each half of the door, moved out of the way, the remaining Lancer began using the tools to rapidly force both halves of the door into their respective slots in the walls. As this left him in a vunerable position to any potential enemies that would be outside, other Lancers held their Force Lances, set on stun, at the ready in case they were needed.

Removing the pads from the forced doors, he looked down at the Neoman with the cocked weapon.

"On the ground, Now!," He bellowed as he trained a rifle at closest one.

---
Lt. Marlo picked up his comm. "Whats going on?"

There was a few moments of static before a reply came over the comm.

"A shuttle jumped right into the colony and crashed, we are.... securing them know."

Still holding the two tools he had used to force the door open with, the Lancer replied, "Kind of hard to do that consdering we are in space still. At least I think we still are. I doubt we got that far all things considering. Though if you mean 'ground' in the figurative sense and not the literal sense, then that's a different animal all together."

As the man continued with his rather pointless, and hopefully distracting, speach the other's were working at getting into the cargo hold so they could grab some Bracers as well as some other items. Of course, two still kept the one at the door covered with their Force Lances at the ready.

With a grunt that should be audiable outside the crashed shuttle, the Major picked herself up. After a quick self-check found little more than a few bruised bones, sore muscles, a few cuts and scrapes, some rips in her uniform, and a possible twisted ankle, she unholstered one of her Force Lances, extended it to its full length, and used it to prop herself up.

"Stow that chatter, Staff Sergeant," she ordered, "Now, get out of my way."

The Lancer in the doorway stopped talking mid-sentence and moved to the side with a short, "Yes, ma'am".

"Need any help, Major?" could be heard from one of the Lancer's inside.

It was followed by a terse, "No! I can handle myself."

After a few moments, the Major appeared in the pried open hatch.

"Now," she said glaring down with an air of authority at the Neoman soldier, "is their any reason why I should have my Lancers do what you did not ask them to do at all politely?"

If one looked closely, one could see a slight soap-bubble like effect around her. Normally, the belt worn personal shield generator created an invisible barrier, but her's had been knocked slightly out of tune during the crash.

Still holding the two tools he had used to force the door open with, the Lancer replied, "Kind of hard to do that consdering we are in space still. At least I think we still are. I doubt we got that far all things considering. Though if you mean 'ground' in the figurative sense and not the literal sense, then that's a different animal all together."

As the man continued with his rather pointless, and hopefully distracting, speach the other's were working at getting into the cargo hold so they could grab some Bracers as well as some other items. Of course, two still kept the one at the door covered with their Force Lances at the ready.

With a grunt that should be audiable outside the crashed shuttle, the Major picked herself up. After a quick self-check found little more than a few bruised bones, sore muscles, a few cuts and scrapes, some rips in her uniform, and a possible twisted ankle, she unholstered one of her Force Lances, extended it to its full length, and used it to prop herself up.

"Stow that chatter, Staff Sergeant," she ordered, "Now, get out of my way."

The Lancer in the doorway stopped talking mid-sentence and moved to the side with a short, "Yes, ma'am".

"Need any help, Major?" could be heard from one of the Lancer's inside.

It was followed by a terse, "No! I can handle myself."

After a few moments, the Major appeared in the pried open hatch.

"Now," she said glaring down with an air of authority at the Neoman soldier, "is their any reason why I should have my Lancers do what you did not ask them to do at all politely?"

If one looked closely, one could see a slight soap-bubble like effect around her. Normally, the belt worn personal shield generator created an invisible barrier, but her's had been knocked slightly out of tune during the crash.

The Neoman soldier gave her a malicious smile "First, Your tresspassing on Neoman terriorty, Secondly Im the guy with the gun, And thirdly the big ass APC behind me has a gatlin gun trained on you. We dont have time to chat Ma'am this area is not secure. Now please, Face down on the ground. I will not ask you again,"

The Neoman soldier gave her a malicious smile "First, Your tresspassing on Neoman terriorty, Secondly Im the guy with the gun, And thirdly the big ass APC behind me has a gatlin gun trained on you. We dont have time to chat Ma'am this area is not secure. Now please, Face down on the ground. I will not ask you again,"

"Look here," she snapped, "I don't care where we are. And I am most certainly not putting my face in the dirt. I had enough trouble getting up from a sitting position as is! Now, I can compromise by exiting the shuttle. If we leave, that's dependent on the situation, but there are things we can't and won't leave behind. Now, if you'll kindly move out of my way, I'll be out momentarily."

"If we hadn't opened the hatch," one Lancer could be heared muttering to another, "we probably would be the most secure spot in the area."

"Look here," she snapped, "I don't care where we are. And I am most certainly not putting my face in the dirt. I had enough trouble getting up from a sitting position as is! Now, I can compromise by exiting the shuttle. If we leave, that's dependent on the situation, but there are things we can't and won't leave behind. Now, if you'll kindly move out of my way, I'll be out momentarily."

"If we hadn't opened the hatch," one Lancer could be heared muttering to another, "we probably would be the most secure spot in the area."

The Neoman soldier shrugged "I dont care about your little toys, this colony is compramised and i have clear orders, I am to search anyone inside the colony and to take them to evac zone."

He took a few steps away from the shuttle.

"Get your ignorant asses out of there,"

The Neoman soldier shrugged "I dont care about your little toys, this colony is compramised and i have clear orders, I am to search anyone inside the colony and to take them to evac zone."

He took a few steps away from the shuttle.

"Get your ignorant asses out of there,"

"You watch how you talk to the Major," shouted a Lancer with Sergeant Major pips.

The Major, of course, silenced him with a glare.

Suddenly, there was a loud clang as the Lancers inside the shuttle managed to pry open the internal hatch to the cargo bay. Of course, by this time, the Major was already carefully climbing down from the shuttle while being careful of her bum ankle.

"You can lower that pea shooter of yours, boy," she said with a grunt as she touched bottom, "its not going to do you much good and I suspect you may want to conserve your ammo for later."

OOC: Excluding the Major, and a little something I've got packed in the cargo hold, all the Lancers in the shuttle are, as they say, cannon fodder.

"You watch how you talk to the Major," shouted a Lancer with Sergeant Major pips.

The Major, of course, silenced him with a glare.

Suddenly, there was a loud clang as the Lancers inside the shuttle managed to pry open the internal hatch to the cargo bay. Of course, by this time, the Major was already carefully climbing down from the shuttle while being careful of her bum ankle.

"You can lower that pea shooter of yours, boy," she said with a grunt as she touched bottom, "its not going to do you much good and I suspect you may want to conserve your ammo for later."

OOC: Excluding the Major, and a little something I've got packed in the cargo hold, all the Lancers in the shuttle are, as they say, cannon fodder.

The Neoman soldier smiled "Pea shooter or not, I've spent most of my life learning how to use this thing."

"Your buddies too, get them out here where i can see them,"

The Neoman soldier smiled inside he liked how this "Major" controlled her people.

The Neoman soldier smiled "Pea shooter or not, i've spent most of my life learning how to use this thing."

"Your buddies too, get them out here where i can see them,"

The Neoman soldier smiled inside he liked how this "Major" controled her people
OOC: Question, just what is his rank anyways?

IC: A group of Lancers emerged dragging 'crates' out. A few jumped out and raced around back to begin working at prying the external cargo hold hatch open. Their Bracers, Gauss Guns, Force Lances, and Banders apparent.

The Major smiled, "Like I said, there are things we can't and won't leave behind."

OOC: Some descriptions.
Force Lance: A primary tool and weapon of every High Guardsman, the Force-Lance (commonly called the F-Lance) looks like a harmless metallic tube approximately 1/3 meter in length. But when deployed for battle, it can be extended into a quarterstaff almost two meters long, and when used in melee, the F-Lance can be charged with an electrical current, shocking anyone it hits into unconsciousness. But the F-Lance is more than just a melee weapon. It can also fire a plasma beam, in both the extended and retracted position, which can be used in ranged combat, or as a cutting tool or light source. Finally, the F-Lance can launch a number of self-guided effectors.
Effector: Tiny attack drones launched by an F-Lance or similar weapon that can both target opponents and intercept incoming bullets and missiles.
Bander: A small self-guided device. It is the size and shape of a Human throwing disc. When tossed, the bander unwinds into a series of coils, then wraps around its target, immobilizing it.
Bracer: A bracer is worn on the arm and can also be expanded into a physical shield for defensive purposes. In shield mode, a bracer's surface is optically reflective to reflect laser beams and is strong enough to deflect bullets and other kinetic projectile attacks. In addition to their combat capacity, bracers incorporate a number of sophisticated electronic devices, including portable computers, communicators and sensors.
Gauss Gun: The most common type of personal handgun. A gauss gun accelerates a smart bullet at supersonic speeds using electromagnetic forces.
Smart Bullets: Bullets, which act like tiny guided missiles, using sensors to home in on targets.

[QUOTE=SeaQuest DSV]snipQUOTE]

ooc: Corporal

When he saw the weapons his eyes went wide and his rife snapped up.

"Stop! Hands up, all of you! Now!," He yelled as he took a few steps back changing targets from the Major to her people.

OOC: Technically, only the Gauss Guns should look like weapons. I doubt your Corporal (ahh, an Enlisted (which I can't find on my list of Enlisted Lancer ranks)) would think that metal rods (ie, the Force Lances), arm bands (ie, Bracers), and disks (ie, Banders) would be of any threat except for if they were used in melee combat. Just wanted to clear that up.

IC: The Major used her free hand to get the Neoman Corporal's attention.

"Now, now," she said, "My men have work to do and things will go alot faster if you got your people to help load the cargo into the A.P.C.."

OOC: Technically, only the Gauss Guns should look like weapons. I doubt your Corporal (ahh, an Enlisted (which I can't find on my list of Enlisted Lancer ranks)) would think that metal rods (ie, the Force Lances), arm bands (ie, Bracers), and disks (ie, Banders) would be of any threat except for if they were used in melee combat. Just wanted to clear that up.

IC: The Major used her free hand to get the Neoman Corporal's attention.

"Now, now," she said, "My men have work to do and things will go alot faster if you got your people to help load the cargo into the A.P.C.."

ooc: k

The soldier looked at her with questioning eyes his rifle still trained on her men.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked

ooc: k

The soldier looked at her with questioning eyes his rifle still trained on her men.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked

"Names are unimportant at the moment," she said, "though, as you can tell, we weren't exactly in friendly territory before we made our superluminal jump that landed us in this star system.

"Now," she continued while still using her extended Force Lance to prop herself up, "do you have someplace I can sit down to have a better look at my ankle? You can fill me in on what's going on here while I'm doing that."

A passing Lancer handed her med-kit, which she hoisted the strap of onto her shoulder using her free hand.

"Names are unimportant at the moment," she said, "though, as you can tell, we weren't exactly in friendly territory before we made our superluminal jump that landed us in this star system.

"Now," she continued while still using her extended Force Lance to prop herself up, "do you have someplace I can sit down to have a better look at my ankle? You can fill me in on what's going on here while I'm doing that."

A passing Lancer handed her med-kit, which she hoisted the strap of onto her shoulder using her free hand.

ooc: Neoman men are very chivalrous to wards women due to their religion.

The Neoman soldier slung his rife "Let me help you," He began to put her hand around his shoulder and putting his free arm around her back.

OOC: Just as long as he doesn't try to get any fan service, then he'll be fine. Otherwise, well, lets just say the Major knows a few moves that'll put him in the ol' hurt locker.

IC: Deciding to play along, she allowed him to help her to a seat. A few of the Lancers looked up in surprise as the usually fiercely independent Major played at being slightly submissive.

Once seated, she said, "Thanks. Now, will you fill me in on what's going on here? I'll be working, but my ears will be open."

With that, she brought the medkit around and opened it. After a quick scan to make sure it wasn't broken or anything permament, she noted it was just a simple sprain that probably resulted when she twisted her ankle during impact. She then pulled out a hypospray and injected some medical nanites to increase the healing process. She didn't add any pain killers as she felt she needed to be at the top of her game for now.

OOC: Just as long as he doesn't try to get any fan service, then he'll be fine. Otherwise, well, lets just say the Major knows a few moves that'll put him in the ol' hurt locker.

IC: Deciding to play along, she allowed him to help her to a seat. A few of the Lancers looked up in surprise as the usually fiercely independent Major played at being slightly submissive.

Once seated, she said, "Thanks. Now, will you fill me in on what's going on here? I'll be working, but my ears will be open."

With that, she brought the medkit around and opened it. After a quick scan to make sure it wasn't broken or anything permament, she noted it was just a simple sprain that probably resulted when she twisted her ankle during impact. She then pulled out a hypospray and injected some medical nanites to increase the healing process. She didn't add any pain killers as she felt she needed to be at the top of her game for now.

The soldier sat down and sighed "Well, this colony is a planet hopper, Its used for mass transit of colonist when Neoman didn't have and FTL travel capabilities. The colony emits a signal that always keeps in in contact with Neoma but 2 years ago that contact was severed and we thought it was a downwed transmitter but the signal never came back,"

He took a breath and continued "When we got here the city was a ghoust town, nothing seemed out of place except for the fact that in one of the bunkers we found some colonist that would rather starve to death then come outside."

He held out his hand "Corprol Dennis Farley,"

Closing the medkit, the Major leaned over and returned the handshake firmly.

"Major Susan Gale, Argosy Special Ops," she said, "Do go on, but would you mind first having your people help my Lancers move the items from the shuttle's cargo hold to the A.P.C.?"

Closing the medkit, the Major leaned over and returned the handshake firmly.

"Major Susan Gale, Argosy Special Ops," she said, "Do go on, but would you mind first having your people help my Lancers move the items from the shuttle's cargo hold to the A.P.C.?"

Dennis looked at the driver who only shrugged.

"Right now its just me and Chris, Ill help you i guess. But your going back to my Admirals ship and thats not negotiable, If you say no i have no qualms making you fend for your selves,"

Dennis looked at the driver who only shrugged.

"Right now its just me and Chris, Ill help you i guess. But your going back to my Admirals ship and thats not negotiable, If you say no i have no qualms making you fend for your selves,"

"Meh," shrugged the Major, "we'll had to have gotten access to a long-range comm system to call for a pick-up anyways. This just means its sooner than later. Of course, when the ship arrives, they'll be wanting to send a team in to retrieve the shuttle."

Just then, there was a loud crash.

"Crap! I think I turned it on."

"Damn! Well, if it is, try turing the other ones on as well. We'll need their help moving the cargo."

"I'll see what I can do."

The item that the first Lancer had accidently activated was one of four combat droids the shuttle was carrying. Unique amoung the Light Empire's combat droids was that some were coated in Vorlong armor. However, unlike the white Vorlon armor of the elites or the gold Vorlon armor of the imperial guard, these sported blue Vorlon armor. Also, unlike the normal deep blue 'eye' usually seen on Light Empire combat droids, these sported an 'eye' that was sky blue in color.

OOC: SQDSV's combat droids are modeled after the Cylon's from the new BSG series in physical design.

"So what you're saying is that we've got somekind of retrovirus? That that's responsible for the mutations? That the plasma goes hand-in-hand with the retrovirus?

"And, by the way, we've got company. The subspace pressure just went through the cieling and what you folks heard was the entire colony's superstructure shaking. Somebody just came out of a transdimensional warp somewhere in--or just outside of--this colony. I hope that our former colonists don't have new friends. Can we get in touch with the mothership and see if they know anything?"

OOC:

In the absence of other information, TMM would surmise that it is POSSIBLE that the former colonists had detected the landing party and quietly called for the aid of a transdimensional consumptor--which had just arrived. The folks on the mothership will quickly quell this theory, but it's one that he can't discount right now.

IC:

"In the meantime, I'd like to check the radar pulses that are coming from just beyond where we saw the probe we sent in. Someone might have jury-rigged a sentry device."

OOC:

This is to tie up the loose end of the Super Powerans being hit by bullets when they were in the command center. My solution to the problem is that one of the colonists set up an automatic sentry before succumbing to whatever it is that they all succumbed to, and that this device, now mindlessly shooting at anything that moves, is what the Super Powerans ran into. The probe, which is too small to attract its attention, will disable it, if that's OK with everyone else.

What happened to SP, anyway? Did they drop out?

Dastardly Stench'] snip

Lt. Marlo held up his index infgure "Never said that? I can make an accurate presumsion on what happened if i cant read what the word says."

"Im pretty sure the APC will respond to anything like that on the surface,"

---

Dennis smiled "Im sure my Admiral will let you use the comms. after she balls you out,"

"Interesting choice of words," snorted the Major, "I'm sure this Admiral whats-her-name will understand the extenuating circumstances. If not, it can't be worse than the instructors back at basic training."

OOC: Neoma, I'm willing to let you decide when the last of the cargo has been transfered. Its mostly just extra ammo, spare Gauss Guns, Banders, Bracers, and Force Lances, the four combat droids, and some items that were the reason the shuttle got all shot up and why the Major's team went in so heavily armed.

"Interesting choice of words," snorted the Major, "I'm sure this Admiral whats-her-name will understand the extenuating circumstances. If not, it can't be worse than the instructors back at basic training."

OOC: Neoma, I'm willing to let you decide when the last of the cargo has been transfered. Its mostly just extra ammo, spare Gauss Guns, Banders, Bracers, and Force Lances, the four combat droids, and some items that were the reason the shuttle got all shot up and why the Major's team went in so heavily armed.

Dennis smiled "Well, I am going to write in my report that you didn't obey my instructons... I am a nice guy but i know most of my brethren would have shot you without a second thought."

"Thank you, Lieutennant," the Metal Man's voice came. An antenna retracted back into his body.

"Well, you heard it, folks. We've got company. Lucky as can be to have appeared in a public area and not in the middle of a support column, heavily armed, and knowing next to nothing about what's going on in this colony. I hope somebody can brief them before things get rough."

The probe, which they had found earlier, was now responding to his signals. As Marlo continued to puzzle over the encrypted text in front of him, it moved up behind him.

"By the way, James," the Metal Man noted, "don't the people back on your ship have the ability to translate Old Gothic? It is, after all, native to your society. We could set up a data feed and let them do the hard work. Now that we've got it working again, the probe can record the screen images if you need it to."

OOC:

It's getting boring waiting to find out what the back story is. :) :) :) Just thought I'd mention a teeny tiny little PLOT HOLE to get things moving... :) :) :)

Dennis smiled "Well, I am going to write in my report that you didn't obey my instructons... I am a nice guy but i know most of my brethren would have shot you without a second thought."

"And they would have been in for a little surprise," responded the Major with a slight smile, "I didn't exactly come out undefended. Of course, that would have also meant we would have been justified in returning fire in self-defense, but I can assure you we would have used stun bolts only."

"And they would have been in for a little surprise," responded the Major with a slight smile, "I didn't exactly come out undefended. Of course, that would have also meant we would have been justified in returning fire in self-defense, but I can assure you we would have used stun bolts only."

Dennis smiled "And you all would have been cut down by the APC, We really need to get moving."

---

Lt. Marlo nodded "I'm sure we could round up somebody that can read this but it will take some time because Old Gothic is very complicated... thank god we have New Gothic now..."

Lt. Marlo sighed "All we need to do is set up the data feed."

"a universal translator can only get you so far" Arisu replied "but could we read the other logs in the meantime?"

"a universal translator can only get you so far" Arisu replied "but could we read the other logs in the meantime?"

Lt. Marlo nodded "Like the history logs? They should be in English seeing as how there not sensitive material."

"a daily log would be helpful. they may give us the answers to the questions we have"

Arisu settles herself down at a terminal and turns it on.

"I'll raise the ship again while you're doing that. The probe's data transponder should do the trick, if I'm here to boost its signal."

The antenna extended once again from the Metal Man's body. "Lady MacBeth, this is the Metal Man. Are you still reading me?"

Dennis smiled "And you all would have been cut down by the APC, We really need to get moving."
*Snip*

"Lets just count our blessings that it didn't come to a firefight between us," replied the Major.

OOC: Like I said, Neoma, you can say when the cargo is fully transfered and everyone's inside.

"Lets just count our blessings that it didn't come to a firefight between us," replied the Major.

OOC: Like I said, Neoma, you can say when the cargo is fully transfered and everyone's inside.

Once all the cargo was loaded onto the APC it was tied down and the back door shut.

"Strap in," Dennis said as he stood up and gripped the hand rail with his free are and held his rifle with his free hand.

The APC began to slowly pull away from the shuttle and pick up speed gradually taking wide turns that made Dennis sway back and forth at awkward angles.

---
Kelly Saldana picked up the comm. "We read you, What is your situation?"
---

"Umm..." Lt. Marlo said as he stood up and sat down at another terminal.

He typed a few keys and put his finger on the screen so they could follow him.

"Last log was two weeks after the beacon went down, It was a All points bulletin."

Lt. Marlo squinted "All soldiers report to Main operations building, Repeat All soldiers report to the Main operations building. Civilians move to bunkers, do not come out until authorized personnel contact you."

"is there anything before that which could shed some light on why that order was given?" Arisu asks

"perhaps they realised what they were dealing with and recorded it in the log"

"is there anything before that which could shed some light on why that order was given?" Arisu asks

"perhaps they realised what they were dealing with and recorded it in the log"

Lt. Marlo typed and scrolled down.

"Damn," Lt. Marlo said

"Injured patient escaped quarantine, 13 dead 25 wounded... And theres a security video."

Lt. Marlo hit a button and the screen went black. When the screen came back it was fuzzy but the camera was situated right in front of a large double steel door with two men standing on either side.

The men were talking but there was no audio. Suddenly a large bulb appeared on the door. The men brought up there weapons and slowly backpedaled away from the door.

The door busted open and a humanoid creature came threw and ripped one of the mens throats out. As the other started to fire the thing turned to him taking the bullets in its chest. The bullets hit the chest of the creature and they fell to the ground.

With one swipe of its hand it tore the mans chest open spraying blood and internal organs all over. The thing hunched down on all fours and rampaged down the corridor. and the screen went black and went back to the log menu.

"That had to hurt," Troy said as he turned from the control panel.

Lt. Marlo nodded and touched his chest "There are some other logs... There the reports of failed attemps to capture him, deaths range from 3 to 20."

"Can't raise Lady MacBeth, folks," the Metal Man said. "Probably the same source of interferance that prevented the probe from working. I don't think it's a direct threat. If no one minds, I'm going to use the probe to investigate those radar signals now.

"If that thing in the security videos was a mutated human, we're going to want to quarantine the rescue teams until we can get the source of the contamination under control. We're also going to want to get a DNA sample from each member of the team. If worse comes to worst, I know of a way we can use the Kirisoban tranmats to recode the DNA of someone who's been...modiified, if it becomes necessary. It requires an uncontaminated sample, though. It won't be much good for the former colonists. My best guess is that, since Neoma doesn't yet have transmat technology, they don't have reference samples, either."

So...they weren't dealing with an established consumptor. This was a mutagen of somekind. Perhaps it had created a consumptor, but that would mean that it was a fledgling--not yet at the height of its capablities. If it was virulent at all, it could be nipped in the bud, so to speak. Given the physiological resources of the creatures, this would not be easy, but it would be considerably easier than if they had an army in reserve--or worse--to call upon.

As the Metal Man continued to mull these things over in his head, and to lament the fate of the poor, poor colonists, the probe strode out of the console room and into the piloting chamber, following the radar signals that it had detected. Sure enough, someone had set up a machine gun to work in conjunction with the portable radar system. Not much use against the creatures, but...this was, no doubt, the work of a panicing straggler...

...which would mean that there might be some additional evidence in the piloting chamber, once the machine gun was cleared.

"so if this started with one person being infected did they spread it to others or are they the only one? thats the question" Arisu comments.

"We use transporters on a regular basis so they would have the last trace of us. it should be possible to get an uncontaminated DNA sample from hair or from the Neomans sickbay"

Once all the cargo was loaded onto the APC it was tied down and the back door shut.

"Strap in," Dennis said as he stood up and gripped the hand rail with his free are and held his rifle with his free hand.

The APC began to slowly pull away from the shuttle and pick up speed gradually taking wide turns that made Dennis sway back and forth at awkward angles.
*Snip*

The Lancer squad braced themselves, some similar to Dennis, while the Major wrapped part of the harness (OOC: Not going to say seatbealt, as that just sounds so inappropriate for the situation) around her left arm while her right arm held the extended Force Lance.

OOC: Sorry about the delay. I've been busy, and someone else was using this comp.

"I humbly suggest," the Metal Man replied, "that we get samples off of our team now, put them in the probe's collection box, marked, move the probe to a safe location and transmat it back to the Kirisoban ship. That will guarantee that we have the resources to combat this mutagen should it strike us. Hair would be particularly good, as such things don't normally alter it the way that they do living cells."

Hair is compressed protein. You can boil it in acid for 24 hours and still not completely break it down. Too bad the Metal Man didn't have any--and that his genicity was not consistent. He would have to hope that his armor held.

By now, the probe had trekked down the hall and into the piloting chamber. As it did, the radar signals got stronger. As it rounded a corner, through the wreck of a doorway, it broadcast pictures of the device that was doing the shooting.

It had been built in the center of the room. The radar had actually been scavanged from, of all things, a toilet. It made sense, actually--the device was made to detect something the size of a humanoid moving close or moving away. To this was attached a swivelbase, atop which sat a machine gun with plenty of ammo hanging on a chain that went from the gun to the floor on both sides. It had already seen plenty of use. As the probe focused its camera on the machine gun, it could be seen that it was set to fire one round at a time. Fortunately, the probe was too small to register as a humanoid. It could move in and disarm the device.

The room was bullet-shaped, with large viewscreens lining the lone curved wall. Facing the viewscreens were two broken lines of consoles, with a link to the data core--the perch on which the machine gun rested--in the center. At the back wall, another set of consoles faced away from the screens. The two rows were obviously flight-related (navigation, short and long-range maneuvering, engine control, et cetera) while the back one was devoted to engineering and the token defense that a colony ship such as this one posessed.

The central core would be invaluable. It would contain the navigational logs, including every fine adjustement that was made to the ship's course. By studying that, the Metal Man hoped to confirm or deny the theory that he had formed from the logs that he had already heard.

"By the way," he said, "might it be possible that the orders to the soldiers, telling them to gather in a single location, were in fact orders that led them to exposure to the mutagen? If so, this has a side benefit: it dramatically lowers the number of people who were exposed. The rest, if the logs hold true, were basically left to their own devices.

"There isn't enough information to say this for certain, but I think that it's quite possible."

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

OOC:

Forgive me if I got something out of place when I described the piloting chamber. A good description of the place is one thing that's been missing.

BTW, the person posting this, in case this is not painfully obvious already, is the same person who posts from the Dominion of Dastardly Stench. I've been having a problem where the forum logs me out and I can't sign back in as DS. I've had this before. I'm doing now what I did then: signing in using my "posting puppet," Marionetonia. Yes, the name is intentional. :) :) :)

"I humbly suggest," the Metal Man replied, "that we get samples off of our team now, put them in the probe's collection box, marked, move the probe to a safe location and transmat it back to the Kirisoban ship. That will guarantee that we have the resources to combat this mutagen should it strike us. Hair would be particularly good, as such things don't normally alter it the way that they do living cells."

Hair is compressed protein. You can boil it in acid for 24 hours and still not completely break it down. Too bad the Metal Man didn't have any--and that his genicity was not consistent. He would have to hope that his armor held.

By now, the probe had trekked down the hall and into the piloting chamber. As it did, the radar signals got stronger. As it rounded a corner, through the wreck of a doorway, it broadcast pictures of the device that was doing the shooting.

It had been built in the center of the room. The radar had actually been scavanged from, of all things, a toilet. It made sense, actually--the device was made to detect something the size of a humanoid moving close or moving away. To this was attached a swivelbase, atop which sat a machine gun with plenty of ammo hanging on a chain that went from the gun to the floor on both sides. It had already seen plenty of use. As the probe focused its camera on the machine gun, it could be seen that it was set to fire one round at a time. Fortunately, the probe was too small to register as a humanoid. It could move in and disarm the device.

The room was bullet-shaped, with large viewscreens lining the lone curved wall. Facing the viewscreens were two broken lines of consoles, with a link to the data core--the perch on which the machine gun rested--in the center. At the back wall, another set of consoles faced away from the screens. The two rows were obviously flight-related (navigation, short and long-range maneuvering, engine control, et cetera) while the back one was devoted to engineering and the token defense that a colony ship such as this one posessed.

The central core would be invaluable. It would contain the navigational logs, including every fine adjustement that was made to the ship's course. By studying that, the Metal Man hoped to confirm or deny the theory that he had formed from the logs that he had already heard.

"By the way," he said, "might it be possible that the orders to the soldiers, telling them to gather in a single location, were in fact orders that led them to exposure to the mutagen? If so, this has a side benefit: it dramatically lowers the number of people who were exposed. The rest, if the logs hold true, were basically left to their own devices.

"There isn't enough information to say this for certain, but I think that it's quite possible."

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

OOC:

Forgive me if I got something out of place when I described the piloting chamber. A good description of the place is one thing that's been missing.

BTW, the person posting this, in case this is not painfully obvious already, is the same person who posts from the Dominion of Dastardly Stench. I've been having a problem where the forum logs me out and I can't sign back in as DS. I've had this before. I'm doing now what I did then: signing in using my "posting puppet," Marionetonia. Yes, the name is intentional. :) :) :)

Lt. Marlo nodded "Good idea about the DNA,"

He swiveled in his chair and looked at The metal man "Those orders were probebly givin to them as a last ditch effort to hold the line but heres a better question. Did they order them to group together so they would be infested... or was it just a bad order,"

---

The APC drove for about 5 minutes before comeing to a stop, the doors opened.

Dennis held out his hand to the major to help her up.

Outside was the airlock pretty much barren except for a single dropship.

---

"What the hell?" A voice came out of a side room in the pioleting chamber


ooc: Work + lack of sleep = Little posting time :)

Arisu nods and says "once the samples are back on my ship we'll be able to use the transporter bio-filters along with the pattern buffer to reconstruct the person as they were.

its never been done before in the field but it is a strong possibility"

she turns to Lt Marlo and says "maybe they thought there would be safety in numbers"

Arisu nods and says "once the samples are back on my ship we'll be able to use the transporter bio-filters along with the pattern buffer to reconstruct the person as they were.

its never been done before in the field but it is a strong possibility"

she turns to Lt Marlo and says "maybe they thought there would be safety in numbers"

"Probebly... but the whole thing smells worse then that bunker." Troy said as took off his helmet and sat on it.

*Snip*
The APC drove for about 5 minutes before comeing to a stop, the doors opened.

Dennis held out his hand to the major to help her up.

Outside was the airlock pretty much barren except for a single dropship.
*Snip*

The Major (OOC: TBH, I'll have to go back and look her name up) gratefully accepted the hand up while using her free hand to use her extended Force Lance to help prop her back up.

"Be careful with those crates," she said, "the locks can be a little picky when an unathorized person tries to open them."

OOC: Sorry about the delay. Its what I get for sharing a computer I guess, though.

"Not done by Kirisobans," the Metal Man corrected. "Species One used the technique rather frequently."

Actually, he thought to himself, they used it too frequently. It was a torture and interrogation technique. How little the Kiris seem to realize what a dragon's egg they're sitting on.

For a moment, the Metal Man felt the weight of all of the centuries of his life, and of the horrible things that Species One had done, pressing down on him. Had not the Neos and the Kiris been so young and full of life, so desiring and in need of a better life, he might have wished for an end to his existence. In humans, he knew, each third generation must learn anew the lessons of their forefathers. He resolved to do his part to ensure that these good people would have a third generation to learn.

Fortunately, Neoman machine guns still had the same basic design characteristics as the terran models from which they were descended. Because of this, the probe was easily able to find and remove the firing pin from the autocentry in the navcon room. It scurried up to the Metal Man and opened its collection box to allow him to remove the pin.

"Our carrier has arrived," the cyborg noted, removing the pin from the sample box. "And it seems to have survived its shake-down fairly well. When this is done, we should explore the piloting chamber."

Dastardly Stench']"Not done by Kirisobans," the Metal Man corrected. "Species One used the technique rather frequently."

Actually, he thought to himself, they used it too frequently. It was a torture and interrogation technique. How little the Kiris seem to realize what a dragon's egg they're sitting on.

For a moment, the Metal Man felt the weight of all of the centuries of his life, and of the horrible things that Species One had done, pressing down on him. Had not the Neos and the Kiris been so young and full of life, so desiring and in need of a better life, he might have wished for an end to his existence. In humans, he knew, each third generation must learn anew the lessons of their forefathers. He resolved to do his part to ensure that these good people would have a third generation to learn.

Fortunately, Neoman machine guns still had the same basic design characteristics as the terran models from which they were descended. Because of this, the probe was easily able to find and remove the firing pin from the autocentry in the navcon room. It scurried up to the Metal Man and opened its collection box to allow him to remove the pin.

"Our carrier has arrived," the cyborg noted, removing the pin from the sample box. "And it seems to have survived its shake-down fairly well. When this is done, we should explore the piloting chamber."

Dennis smiled "Im may be a grunt but Im not stupid." He bent down and picked up a crate while the driver was busy shutting down the APC.

----

Lt. Marlo nodded "Alright line up," He said as his men began to form a line.

Arisu got her people together having learned all she could from the logs.

now they had to go and look in person.

She takes out her scanner and points it in the direction they need to explore trying to pick up lifesigns..

They didn't want to retreive the nav logs. No problem. It would have been interesting to learn precisely when the colony had turned back, and to be better able to guess the circumstances under which it did, but this was not absolutely necessary.

With the probe able to penetrate just enough of the sensor screen to report that it was once again communicating with the ships outside, the Metal Man prepared to rejoin his counterparts.

Dennis smiled "Im may be a grunt but Im not stupid." He bent down and picked up a crate while the driver was busy shutting down the APC.

"Never said you were," replied the Major, "just that, in my experience, humans can be a little curious about things naturally. Some just don't have any self control and have lost fingers trying to pick our locks and get at what's inside without clearance, and I assumed you would rather keep all your fingers intact."

"Never said you were," replied the Major, "just that, in my experience, humans can be a little curious about things naturally. Some just don't have any self control and have lost fingers trying to pick our locks and get at what's inside without clearance, and I assumed you would rather keep all your fingers intact."

Dennis only smiled in responce as he set the crate down inside the dropship. He walked back ot the APC and picked up another create.

"Well at least i get a workout today," he said with a smile as he walked past the Major.

Dennis only smiled in responce as he set the crate down inside the dropship. He walked back ot the APC and picked up another create.

"Well at least i get a workout today," he said with a smile as he walked past the Major.

She responded with a slight chuckle at that comment. She then signaled the Lancers to move in and help with the cargo. The combat droids also helped out with some of the heaviest containers.

One of the Lancers walked over to the Major and handed her what looked like a customized and modified Force Lance.

"Ma'am," he said, "I believe you were looking for this."

"Thank-you, Sargent," she replied, "Where did you find it?"

"It was wedged between the containers for the spare Bracers and Banders, ma'am."

She tucked the device into a special holster.

As way of explanation for Dennis, she said, "It belonged to my mother. She gave it to me when I graduated from the academy."

Can anyone sum up what has happened since I last posted?I wasn't able to log onto the forums.

She responded with a slight chuckle at that comment. She then signaled the Lancers to move in and help with the cargo. The combat droids also helped out with some of the heaviest containers.

One of the Lancers walked over to the Major and handed her what looked like a customized and modified Force Lance.

"Ma'am," he said, "I believe you were looking for this."

"Thank-you, Sargent," she replied, "Where did you find it?"

"It was wedged between the containers for the spare Bracers and Banders, ma'am."

She tucked the device into a special holster.

As way of explanation for Dennis, she said, "It belonged to my mother. She gave it to me when I graduated from the academy."

Dennis smiled "Its always good to keep tokens from loved ones,"

Once all the creates were loaded he turned to the Major "Ma'am we need to take off,"

---

Lt. Marlo sighed "Well we can go to the piloting chamber, or into the bowls of the colony."

Burst
Up
Many
Posts

"we may well have to destroy this colony or isolate it so we need to go to piloting control.

once theres power we can take it where we want to. even the middle of a star" Arisu suggests

"Won't do any good," the Metal Man replied. "Whoever set up that machine gun in there cannibalized the central data core that it's standing on to get the parts to make it work. You can't control the ship from that room. Best I can do without parts--and it could take hours--is to get the viewscreens working and look over the nav logs."

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

OOC: I realized that my earlier post about the main room was influencing the story line, and I've heard somewhere that this should only be done by the thread master...so I'm writing this to undo what I inadvertantly did. If you like, we can always have parts available on Lady MacBeth.

"Won't do any good," the Metal Man replied. "Whoever set up that machine gun in there cannibalized the central data core that it's standing on to get the parts to make it work. You can't control the ship from that room. Best I can do without parts--and it could take hours--is to get the viewscreens working and look over the nav logs."

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

OOC: I realized that my earlier post about the main room was influencing the story line, and I've heard somewhere that this should only be done by the thread master...so I'm writing this to undo what I inadvertantly did. If you like, we can always have parts available on Lady MacBeth.

"What if i go and retrieve said machine gun?" Pipped up the battle suit.

"10mm bullets will not effect me what so ever." Its arm smacked against its hull.

Lt. Marlo looked at the Metal Man "If we get the machine gun could you retrieve the cannibalized parts and install them back where they belong?"

ooc: Its aight, i just have a problem with people hijacking my creatures really. i don't mind things like what you did.

"What if i go and retrieve said machine gun?" Pipped up the battle suit.

"10mm bullets will not effect me what so ever." Its arm smacked against its hull.

Lt. Marlo looked at the Metal Man "If we get the machine gun could you retrieve the cannibalized parts and install them back where they belong?"

ooc: Its aight, i just have a problem with people hijacking my creatures really. i don't mind things like what you did.

"The machine gun is completely disabled now," the Metal Man said. "While we were busy with the logs, I had the probe go in and pull its firing pin--the probe is too small to fit the sentry's firing profile.

"As to the data core: maybe I can fix it, maybe not. Depends on how carefully the parts were removed."

-----------------
OOC: To be honest, I'd rather get on with the story.

What happened?

What happened?

The Neo/Kiri/Cargoship group went down the hall to the Control room and accessed the ship's logs. They found that the creatures were mutated crewmen, and that the Defense Corps were called to one location just before the beacon went black. They found The Roach and used it to send DNA samples back to the Kiris in case they're exposed to the mutagen and the Kiri transporters need to be used to recode their DNA.

Meanwhile, a small craft, crew played by Seaquest DSV, space warped into the middle of the Colony Ship's common area, where a Kiri/Neo guard met them. They unloaded some cargo and started getting the heck away from the quarantine zone. They haven't quite made their escape good yet, however.

Dennis smiled "Its always good to keep tokens from loved ones,"

Once all the creates were loaded he turned to the Major "Ma'am we need to take off,"

"After you," she replied as the Lancers and combat droids passed through the air-lock.

OOC: Sorry for the short post and the delay.

"After you," she replied as the Lancers and combat droids passed through the air-lock.

OOC: Sorry for the short post and the delay.

As the major and her crew got situated Dennis suddenly patted his uniform pockets.

"I'll be right back," He said as he set his rifle down and began to jog over to the APC.

Suddenly a bright white ball of fire lashed out from to the door leading inside the colony. It struck Dennis in the back, he flew a few feet before crashing into the side of the APC.

The other Neoman lept into action and stepped out from inside the drop ship and opened up with his rifle sending 10mm rounds threw the door at the unseen foe.

Dennis didn't move at first, but he slowly began to craw out of a pool of blood to cover behind the APC. He waved at them as he weakly began to pull his pistol out.

----

"Then we should go," Lt. Marlo said before standing up

"I want to find out more of what happened here as much as anyone buts its just as important to away to tell the tale " Arisu suggests.

She pauses and adds "unless we can deal with this colony in some way it'll just attract more visitors and spread the infection further afield.

Lt Marlo is there a way to self destruct this colony?"

"Before we do that, can't we see if we can treat this disease?" the Metal Man chimed in. "After all, during the time that we've been together, we've prepared a treatment that was not available to the Neomans. I humbly request that we try to find the colony's medical bay and see if they had any information on the infection."

Lt. Marlo nodded "I would suggest we go to the medical bay... Hopefully they will have something. But to answer your question Arisu we cant use the self destruct because of the fail safes that require three senior officers. But we could overload the anti-matter reactor."

"very well. sickbay first" Arisu concedes "and hopefully they'll have some information"

As the major and her crew got situated Dennis suddenly patted his uniform pockets.

"I'll be right back," He said as he set his rifle down and began to jog over to the APC.

Suddenly a bright white ball of fire lashed out from to the door leading inside the colony. It struck Dennis in the back, he flew a few feet before crashing into the side of the APC.

The other Neoman lept into action and stepped out from inside the drop ship and opened up with his rifle sending 10mm rounds threw the door at the unseen foe.

Dennis didn't move at first, but he slowly began to craw out of a pool of blood to cover behind the APC. He waved at them as he weakly began to pull his pistol out.

At a few hand gestures from the Major, a group of Lancers splintered off and darted around the far side of the Neoman APC. The rest covered the Major as she took cover inside the air-lock. With an injured leg, she would be more of a hindrance than a help and they all knew it.

The Lancers that stayed had smoothly and quickly drawn their gauss guns and began to lay down additional cover fire. Meanwhile, those that had gone around the APC had reached the far end. Silently, using hand gestures, the group leader sent a trio of Lancers to drag Dennis to safety, two to do the dragging and one for close cover, while the other's also let loose with gauss cover fire of their own.

Luckily, by pure chance, the gauss guns were loaded with effectors. As everyone was shooting in the same general direction, the smart rounds would more than likely hit any potential enemy target over there. Of course, a few did miss and strike outcroppings of rock, sections of metal, and flora. With each stray miss's strike, a shower of sparks erupted.

OOC: @Neoma: As I've not decided how many Lancers there are yet, how many does your APC carry in total (excluding your guys)?
Oh, and check your TGs.

Referencing the maps of the colony ship that the Neomans had provided, the Metal Man plotted the quickest course to the Medical Bay.

"Slight problem," he said. "Remember that chamber that the soldiers all got ordered into? Well, it's between us and the doctor's office. The only way around it is through the ventilator shafts, and neither the battle drone nor I will fit in those."

"then we'll have to be carefull" Arisu replies "and I will keep scanning ahead for any company we might run into"

"then we'll have to be carefull" Arisu replies "and I will keep scanning ahead for any company we might run into"

Lt. Marlo nodded "Load up," He told his men as they stood up.

The men began to walk the way they came.

"Like chicken with our heads cut off," Cpl. Troy said to Arisu

"Just a moment," the Metal Man said.

He went to a nearby console and jacked in. He had been shoulder surfing, and had learned Marlo's passwords. Using them, he was able to log onto the console and draw up a 3-dimensional map of the interior of the colony. Zooming in on the area around the command center, he highlighted the route they were planning on using.

"Anybody else see this?" he said. "If the enemy has small forces stationed here and here," he continued, as red dots appeared on the console, "we'll be drawn right into an ambush, and our sensors will be helpless to detect it because of the lead-lined walls around the X-ray machines. Better to take an alternate route." A new route appeared in yellow, leading a slightly more serpentine but much safer path. "If we follow this path, nothing can hit us blind without going through at least two walls first. At least we'll have warning.

"While we're at it, I'm asking Lady MacBeth to send back the probe when they're done with it. I'm going to park it at the edge of the walls and see if we can use it to break through the communications interferance. That way, we'll have some chance of calling for help if things go from bad to worse. No need to wait--it should be programmed to do what it has to, and the enemy hasn't shown any inclination to deal with it."

Bring
Up
More
Posts.

"good idea" Arisu replied "and the longer path is safer as well"

"good idea" Arisu replied "and the longer path is safer as well"

Lt. Marlo dug in a pocket of his uniform and buled out his chewing tobacco. He put a large pich in his mouth.

"Alright," He said

----

ooc: The APC can hold up to 10 people comfortably but you can cram in 14 in.

Dennis screamed out in pain as the lancers dragged him.

The other Neoman jumped down off the drop ships ramp, and fired at the unseen enemy.

Another white ball of flame lashed out at the lancers dragging Dennis


ooc: jest to let you know dastardly Neoma doesn't deploy teleporters, so for the prode to get back to the Lady Mcbeth it would have to travel to the airlock.

OOC:

Forgive me. I had thought it obvious that the Hokkaido would beam up the probe, take out the DNA samples, beam the probe back and then beam the samples to the Lady MacBeth.

ooc: lets assume it was done and the samples are now safe

"Alright, then," the Metal Man said. "Everyone look sharp. This is NOT a drill."

With that, he opened the door that led deeper into the colony and logged out of the console.

*Snip*
ooc: The APC can hold up to 10 people comfortably but you can cram in 14 in.

Dennis screamed out in pain as the lancers dragged him.

The other Neoman jumped down off the drop ships ramp, and fired at the unseen enemy.

Another white ball of flame lashed out at the lancers dragging Dennis
*Snip*
OOC: Then, including the Major, there's 10 SQDSVians in this RP (we'll say the combat droids clung to the outside of the APC).

IC: One Lancer jammed a finger into an actupuncture point where Dennis's neck connected to his torso (OOC: Think Vulcan Nerve/Neck Pince results) to knock him into unconsious, and painless, oblivion, moments before being struck in the sholder, spinning him and knocking him to the ground. He hissed in pain and gritted his teeth loudly as the plasma burned through his uniform and gave him third degree burns. The only thing that prevented him from loosing the arm right then was the fact that his personal shield, even though it was still out of alignment, converted the majority of the energy from the blast into power it could use.

Using his uninjured arm, the downed Lancer continued to lay down suppression fire from his Gauss Gun in the direction the shot had come from while his comrades carted the injured Neoman to safety on the far side of the APC close to the drop ship.

One of the Lancers close to where the Major sat looked at her with a questioning expression. Seeing her nod in respone, he returned it before ducking towards a crate. Opening the complex physical lock and using the biometric scanner to open the electronic lock, he eventually pulled a portable ELS tube (OOC: Basically, a gauss rocket launcher that shoots really big bullets). Bracing himself, he carefully aimed where the blobs of plasma were coming from. Activating the weapon's trigger, he sent the giant slug hurtling towards the target.

Leaving the lid open after pulling out a reload from the same crate, the Neomans would see that, excluding the weapon itself, the crate was filled with rounds for its use.

OOC: The personal shield is an energy conversion shield. When its fully functional, the strength is supposed to increase in an exact proportion to counter each attack. Though, as you can see here, this version is a delicate instrument and won't last long in field deployment in its fully functional form.
As for the portable ELS tube, I know I described it as a Gauss rocket launcher, but its really just a much bigger version of a standard Gauss handgun, except it shoots REALLY big bullets. This version shoots rounds as thick as a standard full grown human male's fist is wide. The rocket launcher bit comes from its big cousin version (which shoots rounds known as offensive missiles).

OOC: Then, including the Major, there's 10 SQDSVians in this RP (we'll say the combat droids clung to the outside of the APC).

IC: One Lancer jammed a finger into an actupuncture point where Dennis's neck connected to his torso (OOC: Think Vulcan Nerve/Neck Pince results) to knock him into unconsious, and painless, oblivion, moments before being struck in the sholder, spinning him and knocking him to the ground. He hissed in pain and gritted his teeth loudly as the plasma burned through his uniform and gave him third degree burns. The only thing that prevented him from loosing the arm right then was the fact that his personal shield, even though it was still out of alignment, converted the majority of the energy from the blast into power it could use.

Using his uninjured arm, the downed Lancer continued to lay down suppression fire from his Gauss Gun in the direction the shot had come from while his comrades carted the injured Neoman to safety on the far side of the APC close to the drop ship.

One of the Lancers close to where the Major sat looked at her with a questioning expression. Seeing her nod in respone, he returned it before ducking towards a crate. Opening the complex physical lock and using the biometric scanner to open the electronic lock, he eventually pulled a portable ELS tube (OOC: Basically, a gauss rocket launcher that shoots really big bullets). Bracing himself, he carefully aimed where the blobs of plasma were coming from. Activating the weapon's trigger, he sent the giant slug hurtling towards the target.

Leaving the lid open after pulling out a reload from the same crate, the Neomans would see that, excluding the weapon itself, the crate was filled with rounds for its use.

OOC: The personal shield is an energy conversion shield. When its fully functional, the strength is supposed to increase in an exact proportion to counter each attack. Though, as you can see here, this version is a delicate instrument and won't last long in field deployment in its fully functional form.
As for the portable ELS tube, I know I described it as a Gauss rocket launcher, but its really just a much bigger version of a standard Gauss handgun, except it shoots REALLY big bullets. This version shoots rounds as thick as a standard full grown human male's fist is wide. The rocket launcher bit comes from its big cousin version (which shoots rounds known as offensive missiles).

Suddenly three drop ships entered the Airlocks shields and opened up with there Gatling guns.

Repealing ropes lowered and men started the slide down.

"Get your asses in the drop ship!," He yelled as he ran past the major.

---

Lt. Marlo sucked his teeth as TMM ordered his men.

They began to walk down the corridor they had come from.

Lt. Marlo walked next to TMM "Were going to have to stop soon, my men need to rest. We should stop at the command center, good cover and visibility."

Arisu and her small team kept pace with the Neomans and the metal man, Arisu scanning quite frequently for company..

"Alright," TMM replied. "Let's do it, then. I could use a chance to get in some meditation myself."

In another ten minutes, they had made their way to the command center and secured the room.

"Alright," TMM replied. "Let's do it, then. I could use a chance to get in some meditation myself."

In another ten minutes, they had made their way to the command center and secured the room.

When they reached the command center the men fanned out and secured the area.

Lt. Marlo turned to them

"Alright you know the drill 2 awake at all times,"

The men nodded and took up there assiened roles.

Cpl. Troy and Lt. Marlo had first watch. They sat don away from the men who were starting to find comfertable positions.

Cpl. Troy dug in his backpack and pulled out an MRE and looked at Arisu. "Did you and your people bring food? If not I can round some up."

ooc: just to let you know.... thunder storm + Troys (Aka Neoma) running computer + powersurge = a very pissed off troy.

My brand new computer just fried... sooo i will be posting only once a day... Sry about the delay on the posts.... and the spelling

ooc : i hate that when it happens. windows XP died on my pc not so long ago and i had to rebuild the software again.

ic:

Arisu reached into a pocket of her padded field jacket and unzipped the outer pocket pulling out her last ration bar.

"i'm fine for now" she replied "but it's my last one"

Arisu had set one of her security people with a scanner to keep watch as well just in case..

What the heck. Since they were there, he figured, he might as well tear down the sentry and see if he could reconstitute the Main Control Unit.

Neoman technology wasn't particularly innovative. They were still using integrated circuits. Though they had gone to quantum-entwinement technology, their units were still based on electrons rather than photons. Heat control was a problem for these.

As he had feared, whoever had improvised the sentry was more concerned with getting it operational than with preserving the data pipeline underneath it. He was forced to rewire a few of the circuit boards and remount most of the components. Fortunately, the damage wasn't so bad that he couldn't fix it. As it was, it took about four hours for him to get the main computer link back up and running. Then, he set to work on the navigation station. It took another hour to restore the quantum synchronizer, log back onto the main computer and get the console to do a warm reboot.

When that was done, however, there were two main advantages: first, complete access to the navigation logs, including every course correction and the moment when it happened; and, second, the ability to monitor the navigation controls of the colony ship. That is monitor, not control. To actually get the thing to move under its own power, he would need to repair the main drive in the engineering section. As it was, they had some of the maneuvering thrusters and not much else.

That done, the Metal Man turned in for a nap. Two hours of sleep would be plenty for his altered physiology. He just had to be careful that he didn't float off into a fugue without noticing.

ooc: whats going on his that when i boot up it will go to the dell screen then my XP loading screen it will load for a few seconds then it will reboot... a continues cycle.... i think i need to replace my hard drive and reinstall the xp os. But then again i don't know much about computers :(

Cpl Troy smiled "Okay,"

He pulled the heat cord on his MRE and when he opened it he took out the small pack of necessity's "TP, no brush toothpaste, a hard brick they called a brownie, and the all essential spook.

By the time he got to eating the meal was steaming hot.

He ate in silence his eyes never leaving the city.

After a few hours he got up and found a wall, he sat down and put his back against it.

Arisu ate her bar and fell asleep beside Cpt Troy, her head resting on his shoulder. the rest of her team also got some sleep with the Kirisuban sentry getting relieved as well.

ooc: whats going on his that when i boot up it will go to the dell screen then my XP loading screen it will load for a few seconds then it will reboot... a continues cycle.... i think i need to replace my hard drive and reinstall the xp os. But then again i don't know much about computers :(



OOC: If you've got a Windows XP install disk, XP has a repair option.

ooc: actually, i called up geek squad and they said it was a problem with my hardware and i need to go to friggin best buy (30 miles) and let them fix it for 200 dollars.... thats more then i paid for the computer :( sigh.... i dont know mabey after i upgrade my mother board and CPU.... sigh..... I JUST PAID MY WOW SUBSCRIPTION! okay back to the rp....

Ic:

Cpl. Troy smiled as he started to drift to sleep.

Lt. Marlo looked at the city, a faint fog drifting over the city giving it a demonic apearance.

Beta 221 stood attention its sensors scanning the are for any movement. It spun if gatlin gun back and forth slowly out of bordom.

"You should sleep sir, you need rest if your going to properly lead us tomarrow," It said to Lt. Marlo and it turned slighly so its optical sensors could see him.

"Its a hollowed night," Lt. Marlo said his eyes never leaving to fog.

"That it is sir," Beta 221 softly replied.

The hours passed slowly, Cpl Troy was shaken awake by one of the men "You shift," he whispered as he went to find is own place to sleep.

Cpl Troy looked at Arisu and shrugged his shoulder softly to wake her up.

"Nan desu ka" Arisu mutters and opens her eyes sitting up and feeling very stiff.

"how long did I sleep for?" she asked

"Nan desu ka" Arisu mutters and opens her eyes sitting up and feeling very stiff.

"how long did I sleep for?" she asked

"Couple hours," Troy said as he thumbed the safety on his rifle. He stood up and let out a little moan.

"Its my shift," He said as he stretched his back by twisting it trying to get the blood flowing again.

Suddenly three drop ships entered the Airlocks shields and opened up with there Gatling guns.

Repealing ropes lowered and men started the slide down.

"Get your asses in the drop ship!," He yelled as he ran past the major.
*Snip*

"We don't leave people behind," she shouted rather heatedly at his back.
She then used an extended Force Lance as a 'walking stick' and moved out of the shadow of the hatch while shouting orders in Alteran to the Lancers to fall back and recover the wounded. She looked at one nearest the SeaQuestian cargo crates. He sealed the open ones and activated their transponder beacons so they could be beamed out later.
The Lancer that had been brought down by the plasma bolt had dragged himself to his feet by pulling himself up on the Neoman APC. While his grimice was one of pain, he managed to move to safety behind the APC. If anyone looked close, they would be able to see the injury to his shoulder already starting to knit itself up at an incredible rate thanks to the biological and technological enhancements common in all SeaQuestians of today. The ones found in military personel just happened to be a little more advanced then the ones available to the average civilian.

The Metal Man awoke to the prodding of his internal chronometer, but felt rested. As he roused, his internal systems started coming off standby. In a few seconds, he was completely alert and ready for action.

The probe had been zapped back to colony ship, and had taken up its position as requested. It was effective, but only partially--the party would be cut off again when they got a little further into the ship. It had been relaying telemetry for about an hour--and it had relayed the nav logs back to Lady MacBeth for analysis and matching up with other events that had happened on the ship. The Metal Man had already seen it, though. He knew what they were going to find: the ship reversed course AFTER the soldiers had been mutated. It was a deliberate act.

The Metal Man reviewed his activity logs for the time when he had been unconscious. The new arrivals, the logs showed, had encountered some of the hostiles. Perhaps they had served as a distraction--that would account for the anomaly that no patrols had found the group in a part of the ship where some of the hostiles were actually working. That, and the autosentry that had recently been disarmed. The Metal Man did not want to think about what he would have to do if the hostiles were already monitoring the party, just waiting for them to walk into an ambush.

The Metal Man was getting antsy. He wanted to meet these mutated colonists.

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

OOC: HINT!

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

IC:

There was still a chance that they could be healed--and, failing that, there was still a chance that they could be reasoned with. The Metal Man had already called off one attempt to turn this calamity into a war. It was probable that he would be called upon to repeat the process.

The ship's medical facilities could prove illuminative. They should have data on the nature of the mutagenic process that the colonists had been subjected to. The Metal Man had studied the human genome closely--before he had learned the futility of attempting to reverse his own cybernation. Unlike the colonists, the Metal Man was now more like a lichen--a collection of genetically different parts--than an actual individual. This rendered retroviruses--and most other gene-altering technoloties--useless. He hoped that he was the only case on this ship where that was so.

Arisu changed the Kirisuban sentry and lay back down herself while she thought abut what they had found so far.

although she thought the case was hopeless she really wanted to know more about the mutated colonists and to see if they could be helped. the alternative was their death.

her fatigue soon caught up with her and she was soon slumbering again.

"Neither do we," The man said as he backpedaled

The Neomans fanned out in a horseshoe shape at the front of the doors and layed waste to the area. After they unloaded a clip half of them ran back and gathered the lancers and firmly pushed them inside the drop ship.

One of the Neoman soldiers saw the wounded lancer and sprinted up to him. He threw the lancer over his shoulder and began to trudge back to the dropship. He set the lancer down on a seat inside the dropship.

He spun around and looked at the Major "We are leaving!," He shouted as he sat in the pilots chair as the hum off the engines coming online resented from the walls.

---

Cpl. Troy walked about 20 meters in front of the group and shot a look back at them. They were all resting.

He started to feel the pain and rage of losing his brother start to tear at his heart. Finally he couldn't hold it back any longer and he broke down and cryed softly.

"Neither do we," The man said as he backpedaled

The Neomans fanned out in a horseshoe shape at the front of the doors and layed waste to the area. After they unloaded a clip half of them ran back and gathered the lancers and firmly pushed them inside the drop ship.

One of the Neoman soldiers saw the wounded lancer and sprinted up to him. He threw the lancer over his shoulder and began to trudge back to the dropship. He set the lancer down on a seat inside the dropship.

He spun around and looked at the Major "We are leaving!," He shouted as he sat in the pilots chair as the hum off the engines coming online resented from the walls.
*Snip*

The Lancers looked at the Major, who nodded in confirmation, before allowing themselves to be herded like cattle. The group of combat droids layed down cover fire as they followed along, while running backwards, behind the Neoman that had grabbed the wounded Lancer. Truth be told, that Neoman was probably a little lucky that the Lancer was still a little dazed from the wound as otherwise he would have found himself trying to carry something akin to an Arkonian razorbeast.

Cpl. Troy walked about 20 meters in front of the group and shot a look back at them. They were all resting.

He started to feel the pain and rage of losing his brother start to tear at his heart. Finally he couldn't hold it back any longer and he broke down and cryed softly.


A metallic hand came to rest softly on Troy's shoulder.

"You know," a gentle voice said, "no matter how many of your loved ones you lose, it never gets any easier. The brave among us carry on, find new loved ones. They never have the same place in your heart, but some of them can make new places all their own. Others just get busy, and try to lose themselves in something else. Sometimes, it gets hard to tell who really died. Be brave. Please."

A metallic hand came to rest softly on Troy's shoulder.

"You know," a gentle voice said, "no matter how many of your loved ones you lose, it never gets any easier. The brave among us carry on, find new loved ones. They never have the same place in your heart, but some of them can make new places all their own. Others just get busy, and try to lose themselves in something else. Sometimes, it gets hard to tell who really died. Be brave. Please."


When TMM layed his hand on cpl Troys shoulder he jumped slightly. He listened to him and when he was finished Troy smiled.

"Jordan was my big brother, the only thing i had left in this world." He lifted his pants leg and pulled a sharp knife from it sheath and he stared at it.

"You don't need to worry about me," He said softly.

"But when the time is right... and I'll cut its heart out." After a few brief moments he chuckled a little.

"I'm going crazy aren't I?" He said with a smile as he looked into TMM eyes.

---

The Neomans piled into the drop ship with the lancers and the major. Two of them with large guns that had an attachment around there hip stood at the doorway.

The opened up, they didn't make the usual boom like a gun but rather a loud crack of electricity.

They had to take a step back to restrain themselves from falling over do to the recoil. The shells they fired exploded 2 meters from the entrance and about 1 meter off the ground.

They continued to pump round after round until the cargo door blocked there view.

Dennis coughed lightly as blood started to run from his nose and mouth.

*Snip*
The Neomans piled into the drop ship with the lancers and the major. Two of them with large guns that had an attachment around there hip stood at the doorway.

The opened up, they didn't make the usual boom like a gun but rather a loud crack of electricity.

They had to take a step back to restrain themselves from falling over do to the recoil. The shells they fired exploded 2 meters from the entrance and about 1 meter off the ground.

They continued to pump round after round until the cargo door blocked there view.

Dennis coughed lightly as blood started to run from his nose and mouth.
With the SeaQuestian battle droids standing behind her, the Major moved over to Dennis with a SeaQuestian medical kit. The Lancer medic, unfortunately, was still recovering from his wound, thus it was up to her to see what she could do. So, she pulled out a hypospray and injected the wounded Neoman with a vial of medical nanites. Hopefully the Neoman branch of the human species tree was close enough to the Terran human branch for it to work rather quickly, but, if not, it could take some time as the nanites in the cocktail analyzed his genetic code and used it to repair the damage to the body. Glancing up, she checked on her injured medic. She noted his wound was pretty much closed up. The new flesh would be raw and tender for some time, and he would need a new uniform to replace his damaged one, but he would live. If an infection had taken the opportunity to settle in while the wound was still open, it would find itself facing the man's technologically and biologically enhanced immune system.

Meanwhile - Exterior - Five Light Minutes From Neoman Colony Ship

Well outside weapons range, a lone High Guard Whitestar (http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b91/SeaQuest_Sim/Schematics/SeaQuestian%20Commonwealth/Ships/escort_whitestar.jpg) transited out of Slipstream. Approaching at 30 PSL, she entered an orbit around the Neoman colony ship that would keep her a safe distance from the other craft in the area until their purposes and intents could be identified.
With no visible engines based on the principles of Newton, she slid silently foward on her reactionless gravimetric engines.

Messages

Broadcast to all in area:

This is the High Guard Whitestar Ray Of Hope. We have arrived to rendevus(sp?) with a shuttle of ours that should have arrived here some time ago. If you know where our shuttle is, speak now. We await your response.

Exterior

The SeaQuestian Whitestar, far more advanced than any of the Whitestars used by other nations, waited patiently for a response and any possible sign of the shuttle carrying the team from SeaQuest DSV.

When TMM layed his hand on cpl Troys shoulder he jumped slightly. He listened to him and when he was finished Troy smiled.

"Jordan was my big brother, the only thing i had left in this world." He lifted his pants leg and pulled a sharp knife from it sheath and he stared at it.

"You don't need to worry about me," He said softly.

"But when the time is right... and I'll cut its heart out." After a few brief moments he chuckled a little.

"I'm going crazy aren't I?" He said with a smile as he looked into TMM eyes.


OOC: One of the "weaknesses" of "the Box," which TMM is now inside (it's part of the four-legged battle suit he's in now) is that it doesn't have anything that a man would recognise as a face. See

http://www.nls.net/mp/413/platform_n_box.png

for a (rather primative) drawing of TMM's current "look." The arm comes from the dark gray area on the forward edge of "the box," which lies on "the platform." It is one of four arms that TMM may extend from inside "the box."

IC:

"Hardly," the Metal Man replied. "It's only natural that you would want to punish the one who took away such a huge part of your life. It's normal to presume that he's at best an arrant moron, and, more likely, quite evil. What you need to do is find it in yourself to believe that he might have been, in his eyes, defending his family, just as you're defending yours. You've got to leave open the possibility that the two of you aren't so different--and that you may, no matter how hard it is, have to forgive him. We don't know. We should find out. Make sure you know what he truly deserves before you give it to him. I'll help."

The Neoman fleet turned and faced the Ray Of Hope. They brought their Shields on line but not the weapons.

Kelly Saldana picked up her comm. "This is Admiral Saldana of the NNS Lady Mcbeth, You shuttle came out right inside of our colony here. We are currently in the process of extracting them. Please come no closer to the colony, this entire area is under quarantine."

---

"Hold onto something!," The pilot said as he hit the thrusters. The drop ship shot out of the airlock right into open space. Inside the gravity went from normal to none and some of the un fastened equipment floated off the decking.

Dennis smiled softly "It tingles," He said before passing out

---

Troy smiled "True, but as it stands they started the killing. I'm a soldier and thats my job... to kill him back unless I'm ordered to do otherwise."

Troy smiled "True, but as it stands they started the killing. I'm a soldier and thats my job... to kill him back unless I'm ordered to do otherwise."

"I'm not saying that mercy isn't a waste of time--only that we need to know what we're dealing with. If the killing of your brother was a consciously evil act, I'll help you find those responsible, and hold them down while you cut them."

The Metal Man paused.

"There's another investigation that needs to be made, though. This was a classified government project. I would suggest that, just as we would need to know who or what is killing your recon teams, we also need to know who would deliberately expose one of their own to the process that started all of this. You may wish to extract a pound or two of flesh from those miscreants as well. I would be interested in aiding the process..."

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

OOC: In Shakespear's Merchant of Venice, from which the term "a pound of flesh" was coined, the pound of flesh to be removed was that around the victim's heart. :) :) :) (Actually, it was never removed. The courts held the contract calling for its removal to be unlawful.) Thought that someone who would name his main starship after a character in a Shakespear play might be interested in that tidbit, if he didn't already pick up the reference.

"I'm not saying that mercy isn't a waste of time--only that we need to know what we're dealing with. If the killing of your brother was a consciously evil act, I'll help you find those responsible, and hold them down while you cut them."

The Metal Man paused.

"There's another investigation that needs to be made, though. This was a classified government project. I would suggest that, just as we would need to know who or what is killing your recon teams, we also need to know who would deliberately expose one of their own to the process that started all of this. You may wish to extract a pound or two of flesh from those miscreants as well. I would be interested in aiding the process..."

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

OOC: In Shakespear's Merchant of Venice, from which the term "a pound of flesh" was coined, the pound of flesh to be removed was that around the victim's heart. :) :) :) (Actually, it was never removed. The courts held the contract calling for its removal to be unlawful.) Thought that someone who would name his main starship after a character in a Shakespear play might be interested in that tidbit, if he didn't already pick up the reference.

ooc: what?

Troy smiled "You can have my back in a fight anyday, but i really dont like whats going on here."

He looked up at the city "how far does this rabbit hole go?"

ooc: what?

OOC: The Metal Man said that, if the government was guilty, he'd like to cut THEIR hearts out.


Troy smiled "You can have my back in a fight anyday, but i really dont like whats going on here."

He looked up at the city "how far does this rabbit hole go?"

"Depends. If you mean 'nearest straight shot,' about 500 yards; if you mean 'direct route,' this feeds into one of the main throughfares for the colony. It goes on for miles."

OOC: The Metal Man said that, if the government was guilty, he'd like to cut THEIR hearts out.



"Depends. If you mean 'nearest straight shot,' about 500 yards; if you mean 'direct route,' this feeds into one of the main throughfares for the colony. It goes on for miles."

Troy shook his head and chuckled "Its from a fairy tale, I totally sure but this girl follows a rabbit into a hole and it leads her to another world."

The Neoman fleet turned and faced the Ray Of Hope. They brought their Shields on line but not the weapons.

Kelly Saldana picked up her comm. "This is Admiral Saldana of the NNS Lady Mcbeth, You shuttle came out right inside of our colony here. We are currently in the process of extracting them. Please come no closer to the colony, this entire area is under quarantine."

Messages

Response:

Admiral, we are quite capable of handling ourselves in hostile environements. I also know of no known contagion, bacterium, virul, or other, that we couldn't handle. We also have a compliment of combat droids aboard in case they are needed, be it defending our ship or recovering our shuttle craft and its cargo.

As for our team, I'll await their reports concerning how you are handling things.

Now, do you wish to continue this stand-off, or is a face-to-face more appealing to you?

Bridge

"Think they'll go for it?"

"I don't know, Ray."

"I hope they do. According to my info, the two primary nations represented here are Kirisubo and Neoma. As I understand it, both are primarily populated by human off-shoots. Ones that I can't find mention of previous encounters with in my databanks."

"Meh, your curiosity is going to get you in some serious trouble one of these days, Ray."

"Bah! You know full well that you evolved from people like them yourself. Only by the grace of the Divine have you personally evolved as far as you have currently."

"Hold onto something!," The pilot said as he hit the thrusters. The drop ship shot out of the airlock right into open space. Inside the gravity went from normal to none and some of the un fastened equipment floated off the decking.

Dennis smiled softly "It tingles," He said before passing out
*Snip*

The Major frowned in thought. She didn't know how capable the Neoman medical technology was and would prefer to get him to a SeaQuestian medical facility as soon as possible. How these people managed to get by without basic nanotechnology in their systems, let alone simple genetic enhancement, she didn't know. All she cared about for the moment was getting everyone out alive safely.

Troy shook his head and chuckled "Its from a fairy tale, I totally sure but this girl follows a rabbit into a hole and it leads her to another world."

"Actually, it was a novel," the Metal Man replied. "You might still have it in your literature archives. Makes a good bedtime story to tell the children. Its title is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Though I was alive when it was published, I was away from Earth at that time."

"Actually, it was a novel," the Metal Man replied. "You might still have it in your literature archives. Makes a good bedtime story to tell the children. Its title is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Though I was alive when it was published, I was away from Earth at that time."

Troy smiled "Coord, how old are you?"

---

Admiral Saldana sucked her teeth "This is not a stand off, i am requesting that you come no closer to my ships or the colony due to a an out break the likes of which i would rather now talk about over the comm. systems. But maybe in a few hours i will be able to meet with you face to face when we bring your people too you."

---

The drop ships made the short flight to the NNS Lady Mcbeth. Again they passes threw the air lock Shields and everything that was floating fell to the decking.

The Drop ship touched down and the large cargo door opened and a team of medics rushed in. Two knelt beside Dennis and began to check his wounds. While the other too looked at the Major "Are you and your people alright?"

OOC: think of Neoman medical technology like our modern days, but far more advanced

Arisu woke up a little later on and relieved the sentry herself.

she stood guard watching out for trouble her plasma pistol set on kill.

*Snip*
Admiral Saldana sucked her teeth "This is not a stand off, i am requesting that you come no closer to my ships or the colony due to a an out break the likes of which i would rather now talk about over the comm. systems. But maybe in a few hours i will be able to meet with you face to face when we bring your people too you."

Response:

We will still have to retrieve our shuttle as well as the cargo it was carrying. Cargo from which we are currently picking up transponder signals from. I propose a compromise, while we wait, you allow us to close to within transporter range so we can beam out the cargo and perhaps our shuttle. Does the compromise sit well with you?

The drop ships made the short flight to the NNS Lady Mcbeth. Again they passes threw the air lock Shields and everything that was floating fell to the decking.

The Drop ship touched down and the large cargo door opened and a team of medics rushed in. Two knelt beside Dennis and began to check his wounds. While the other too looked at the Major "Are you and your people alright?"

OOC: think of Neoman medical technology like our modern days, but far more advanced

OOC: How far ahead though?

IC: The Major replied, "As well as can be expected, given the circumstances. Your friend here needs your attention more than I and my people do. I managed to stabilize him with medical nanites, but due to differences in physiology, I doubt they will serve as an end-all for him."

Response:





OOC: How far ahead though?

IC: The Major replied, "As well as can be expected, given the circumstances. Your friend here needs your attention more than I and my people do. I managed to stabilize him with medical nanites, but due to differences in physiology, I doubt they will serve as an end-all for him."

ooc: Well probebly 010 or so years ahead of MT, still using scalpels and things like that.

Admiral Saldana thought for a moment.

"How far is your transporter range?"

---

The medic nodded "Yea, he will probably be fine as long as infection doesn't set in..."

He looked back at Daniel, he was being carryed off on a stretcher.

Suddenly the room snapped into attention as a man wearing a bright purple robe with the Coordist Cross stepped onto the drop ship.

He walked up to the major and held out his hand "War Priest Drake,"

Troy smiled "Coord, how old are you?"



"I don't know for sure," the Metal Man replied. "The cybernation process damaged my memory--I don't remember the name I was given at birth--and I'm not sure how your people reckon dates. To put it in perspective, however, when I was born, the most devastating long-range weapon a man could carry was a musket.

"The times have moved on."

--------------
OOC: Actually, I don't know the date when this little adventure is supposedly to take place. Can't answer the question without a little background info.

TMM was born in the 18th century, and cybernated around 1750 CE.

Troy shook his head in disbelief "That must suck so much ass, Im sorry it happened to you,"

Troy turned around and saw that Arisu was awake and he waved at her. He looked at his watch and sighed "another hour to go..."

"thats good to know" Arisu replies "i want to get going and get out of here as quickly as possible".

she looked at her slumbering team and says "my people are already an endangered species without losing more of them"

Troy shook his head in disbelief "That must suck so much ass, Im sorry it happened to you,"

The Metal Man let out a friendly chuckle.

"Every curse," he said, "has its compensation." It was obviously a phrase he had been using for a long time.

Troy shook his head with a smile "You a very interesting man," He looked at Arisu "Heard that"

Arisu smiled and got back to the watch.

"While we're on the subject of endangered species," the Metal Man said, "I've been listening in on the comm trafic outside. The people who transdimmed into the common area of the colony have friends. There's another ship outside now, and its technology makes the Neomans look like a bunch of cavemen. I had Brain Jar give it a passive scan. It's pretty impressive. They seem to be on our side, though--more interested in recovering their crew than invading their neighbors' space, at least for the moment, anyway.

"I think they've even got gaus guns--not quite as good as a columnized electron beam, but not that far removed, technologically speaking. If we can get some help from them, it would do us a great deal of good."

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

OOC: the timing really doesn't work, but what the heck. :) :) :)

Dumb point: I wrote that I was getting bored with a non-advancing story over a week ago. Nothing has happened since.

Dumb question: why haven't there been any hostile patrols?

"While we're on the subject of endangered species," the Metal Man said, "I've been listening in on the comm trafic outside. The people who transdimmed into the common area of the colony have friends. There's another ship outside now, and its technology makes the Neomans look like a bunch of cavemen. I had Brain Jar give it a passive scan. It's pretty impressive. They seem to be on our side, though--more interested in recovering their crew than invading their neighbors' space, at least for the moment, anyway.

"I think they've even got gaus guns--not quite as good as a columnized electron beam, but not that far removed, technologically speaking. If we can get some help from them, it would do us a great deal of good."

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

OOC: the timing really doesn't work, but what the heck. :) :) :)

Dumb point: I wrote that I was getting bored with a non-advancing story over a week ago. Nothing has happened since.

Dumb question: why haven't there been any hostile patrols?

Troy shook his head "Hey, Easy!" He smiled "Hell we have gauss cannons. But still... We usually don't take kindly to un announced guest."

ooc:

Answer 1: well i RP like a read books, i like allot of background. But i will speed it up if you want

Answer 2: Well the attacks i have a planned out to grow the story, but truthfuly where the story leads is into where they stay

"That's the interesting part," the Metal Man replied. "Of all the groups you've run into, with the possible exception of myself, these are the most professional. Their ship is here to collect their shuttle, and, though they will fight for their comrades if they have to, they have no desire to start a shooting war with emercaries of governments they've not dealt with before. Given their technological superiority, I'd say that, if they were a rogue empire, they'd already have attacked--and we'd be in deep trouble. Unless they have a hidden agenda, they're relatively benign. Certainly worth negotiating with."

The scary part, which the Metal Man only partially alluded to, was that, from the telemetry that Brain Jar's passive scans had provided, their ship would have easily outgunned his even if all his systems were repaired. Their firepower was massive. They were obviously at war.

What do you know when your mind goes blank?
When your heart can't think to thump?
Whom do you scold and whom do you thank
When life's road gives you a

BUMP?

"That is a good point," Lt. Marlo said as he knelt down with the group.

"I've just talked with Admiral Saldana and it seemed like they gave the APC crew hell. They landed here inside Neoma territory and didn't follow the basic protocal."

He took a pich of tobacoo and started chewing.

"That is a good point," Lt. Marlo said as he knelt down with the group.

"I've just talked with Admiral Saldana and it seemed like they gave the APC crew hell. They landed here inside Neoma territory and didn't follow the basic protocal."

He took a pich of tobacoo and started chewing.

"Good thing we have communications now. I couldn't get that from the comms. They did seem a tad on the arrogant side, though. Probably looking down on people they regard as less far along technologically." The Metal Man chuckled slightly. "I wonder what they'd make of me."

"Good thing we have communications now. I couldn't get that from the comms. They did seem a tad on the arrogant side, though. Probably looking down on people they regard as less far along technologically." The Metal Man chuckled slightly. "I wonder what they'd make of me."

Lt. Marlo shrugged "True our technology is on the low end but it doesn't mean that we will be walked on by our technological superiors. Many battles have been fought because we don't like people thinking they are better then us just because of technological differences,"

Troy leaned in to Arisu "What do you make of this?"

Arisu ponders and says "We'll know more when we meet them properly. in the meantime we've still a job to do and the newcomers might even be able to help us"

"And just because they may--or may not--be looking down at you doesn't mean that I am. The fact that I am here, trying to work and trade with you, should say more than my words can--and the fact that I have learned from our Neoman friends should attest to the wisdom of my choice."

And then, a glitch in the thrusters made the whole colony jerk. It felt as if it had just run over a small

BUMP.

Lt. Marlo nodded "But in any case we need to get moving,"

"Excellent idea, James. I'm immensely glad that you came up with it."

"Excellent idea, James. I'm immensely glad that you came up with it."

ooc: sick with mono....

James smiled and turned to his men who were already packing up.

Carefully following the route that they had laid out earlier, they reached the medical office without incident.

Arisu and her team followed with weapons on heavy stun and scanners out looking for company.

they could relax slightly in the medical office and Arisu looked for a computer that she could access.

ooc: Well probebly 010 or so years ahead of MT, still using scalpels and things like that.

Admiral Saldana thought for a moment.

"How far is your transporter range?"

Response:

Far enough distant that we can beam things easily back and forth from at least twice the distance of standard orbit around an Earth sized Class M world. Exact distance is classified.

The medic nodded "Yea, he will probably be fine as long as infection doesn't set in..."

He looked back at Daniel, he was being carryed off on a stretcher.

Suddenly the room snapped into attention as a man wearing a bright purple robe with the Coordist Cross stepped onto the drop ship.

He walked up to the major and held out his hand "War Priest Drake,"

OOC: I knew that my forgetting her name was going to come back and bite me in the arse.

IC: "Major Susan Gale," she replied with a slight incline of the head in greeting as her free hand moved to switch off her damaged personal shield.

She would have done a fuller bow, normally, but as she was currently limping around supported by her Force Lance, she did what she could. She then used her free hand to shake Drake's proffered hand firmly. It would be obvious that the grip she used wasn't as hard as she could have used (OOC: Didn't want to crush the guy's hand).

OOC: As for the arrogance thing the Metal Man's detected, its more along the lines of many SQian military personnel considering non-engineered people as lower level beings. Its about genetics, not tech.

OOC: character flaws make for better role play. That's why the Metal Man (as you will come to see) is always either breaking down or getting the crap kicked out of him in combat.

Response:





OOC: I knew that my forgetting her name was going to come back and bite me in the arse.

IC: "Major Susan Gale," she replied with a slight incline of the head in greeting as her free hand moved to switch off her damaged personal shield.

She would have done a fuller bow, normally, but as she was currently limping around supported by her Force Lance, she did what she could. She then used her free hand to shake Drake's proffered hand firmly. It would be obvious that the grip she used wasn't as hard as she could have used (OOC: Didn't want to crush the guy's hand).

OOC: As for the arrogance thing the Metal Man's detected, its more along the lines of many SQian military personnel considering non-engineered people as lower level beings. Its about genetics, not tech.

Drake smiled and looked at around the bay "This thing is getting out of hand, But anyways i do have some questions that I need answered before we get on with takeing you back to your ships."


---

The group sat crouched down infront of the medical building, Lt. Marlo could see that the door was locked and he pointed at the Tech soldier and pointed towards the door.

The young man stood and jogged to the door, he took out a small device and inserted a slip inside the card scanner and pressed a few buttons. The door slid openen and Cpl Troy, and another man cleared the door.

"Clear!," He shouted to the group and he entered the dimly lit room.

---

"Good I just need them to go threw a little debriefing then we will contact you for transport," Admiral Saldana said fro mthe bridge.

From his place at the end of the line, watching everybody's tail end, the Metal Man grew increasingly nervous.

This had been too easy. These things could go a round or two with civilizations like the Seaquestians, yet they had chosen not even to engage the recon party of which he was a part. Something didn't add up.

Drake smiled and looked at around the bay "This thing is getting out of hand, But anyways i do have some questions that I need answered before we get on with takeing you back to your ships."

"As long as any of the questions don't breach security," the Major replied, "then ask away."

"Good I just need them to go threw a little debriefing then we will contact you for transport," Admiral Saldana said fro mthe bridge.

Response:

Know now, any attempts at extracting classified material will be dealt with. Other than that, we'll wait, for now.

OOC: Just so you guys know, the strain of humanity that you'll most encounter when dealing with the Imperial Commonwealth or Dark Empire (the two current sides of SeaQuest), is known as Homo sapien seaquestus (a custom genetic cocktail I've cooked up). Other strains do exist (like the Major and her Lancers, for example), but the one I just listed is the one that is encountered more often by other nations while outside SQian space.

OOC:

Just so you folks know, this is a

BUMP.

Drake nodded "Of course, i wouldn't have you answer anything that could breach security" He licked his lips and looked at the major with a stern but still friendly look. "Why didn't you follow my men orders? It would seem to me that you didn't take the situation seriously as it was, you just crash landed in the middle of a colony ship, technically trespassing and you pretty much ignored Dennis's orders to get on the ground."

---

Admiral Saldana chuckled a little "Its nothing like that, were pretty short on information as it is and we would just like there report on the events that took place that had one of my men killed and another severely wounded,"

---

Lt. Malro lead the team to the main medical bay, it looked like who ever was in here in the last moments was trying to work frantically.

He turned to TMM "Alright, what exactly are we looking for,"

"Uh, sir i think we've found it," One of the soldiers voices called out from a back room.

When Lt. Marlo went to investigate there was a large set of cylinders one had an occupant. It was a young man wearing the same Neoman Military pants but his body was partially deformed, the jaw and nose were extended slightly and his finger nails were longer, thicker and made a sharp talon like claw.

"Oh, good Coord," Lt. Marlo said as he quickly picked up the clipboard next to the tank.

"Subject 033, sergeant Clancy. Suffered a near fatal wound by a Monasteriense? Survived treatment but only with partial success. Placed in a frozen state for observation and experimentation." Lt. Malro looked up at the young man and shook his head "They used him as a lab rat,"

Drake nodded "Of course, i wouldn't have you answer anything that could breach security" He licked his lips and looked at the major with a stern but still friendly look. "Why didn't you follow my men orders? It would seem to me that you didn't take the situation seriously as it was, you just crash landed in the middle of a colony ship, technically trespassing and you pretty much ignored Dennis's orders to get on the ground."

"I can't go into detail as to exactly how we recieved the damage," replied Major Susan, "but when we got here we were forced to dump our overloading power core. The tesseract I used to get out of the blast range was on a completly random vector. We had no way of knowing where we would end up.

"As for why we didn't descend, well, without going into the details of our mission, lets just say that we were a bit dazed from the crash and were still a little hyped up and on edge from our narrow escape only a short time prior."

Admiral Saldana chuckled a little "Its nothing like that, were pretty short on information as it is and we would just like there report on the events that took place that had one of my men killed and another severely wounded,"

Response:

Understood and acknowledged. Let us know when you are ready for the face-to-face or not.

"Oh, good Coord," Lt. Marlo said as he quickly picked up the clipboard next to the tank.

"Subject 033, sergeant Clancy. Suffered a near fatal wound by a Monasteriense? Survived treatment but only with partial success. Placed in a frozen state for observation and experimentation." Lt. Malro looked up at the young man and shook his head "They used him as a lab rat,"

"The colonists called them 'Monasteriense,'" the Metal Man said. "When the Monas wound you, it causes...the metamorphosis. Interesting...but, most interesting of all is...there's some form of treatment.

"Need I point out the obvious benefits of finding out what this treatment is? I mean, if they're going to use their own as guinea pigs, they must have been pretty desparate. Let's do what we can to make sure that their efforts weren't in vain.

"Let's start with a thorough review of Mr. Clancy." With that, the Metal Man trained his sensors on the man.

"Well...his cell structure is in a horrible state. He's been infiltrated by somekind of geneticity-altering chemicals. This was obviously before 'the treatment.' The process was halted in mid-cycle. The freezing didn't kill him, though. His kidneys shut down--probably due to the trauma. He was dead when frozen. His brain and its associated vascular tissue appear basically normal, though there are some minor changes. Judging by his blood chemistry--or what I can tell from his electromagnetic and resonance properties--he's harboring a virus of somekind. Probably the last vestages of 'the treatment'--wouldn't surprise me if they were trying to develop a retrovirus. Risky procedure, that. Too easy to make something lethal--and too easy for what you make to evolve into something lethal.

"Not really enough information. Guess we'll have to dig a little deeper.

"James, get someone to check the clipboards on the other suspension tanks. I'm going to have a word or two with the office computer. Seeing as I'll be using your security codes, you may wish to join me."

"The colonists called them 'Monasteriense,'" the Metal Man said. "When the Monas wound you, it causes...the metamorphosis. Interesting...but, most interesting of all is...there's some form of treatment.

"Need I point out the obvious benefits of finding out what this treatment is? I mean, if they're going to use their own as guinea pigs, they must have been pretty desparate. Let's do what we can to make sure that their efforts weren't in vain.

"Let's start with a thorough review of Mr. Clancy." With that, the Metal Man trained his sensors on the man.

"Well...his cell structure is in a horrible state. He's been infiltrated by somekind of geneticity-altering chemicals. This was obviously before 'the treatment.' The process was halted in mid-cycle. The freezing didn't kill him, though. His kidneys shut down--probably due to the trauma. He was dead when frozen. His brain and its associated vascular tissue appear basically normal, though there are some minor changes. Judging by his blood chemistry--or what I can tell from his electromagnetic and resonance properties--he's harboring a virus of somekind. Probably the last vestages of 'the treatment'--wouldn't surprise me if they were trying to develop a retrovirus. Risky procedure, that. Too easy to make something lethal--and too easy for what you make to evolve into something lethal.

"Not really enough information. Guess we'll have to dig a little deeper.

"James, get someone to check the clipboards on the other suspension tanks. I'm going to have a word or two with the office computer. Seeing as I'll be using your security codes, you may wish to join me."

Lt. Marlo nodded and looked at Cpl Troy "Get to it," He said as he followed TMM into the office.

The men spread out and wiped the condensation from the tanks to see various men and women of different ages and all in different states of mutation.

Cpl Troy knocked the condensation on one and let out a cry of terror. The specimen in the tank was fully deformed, and when frozen was in the middle of a stance that seemed like it was going to lash out and kill someone.

He looked at Arisu and shook his head letting out a breath.

"What do you think of all this?" He asked he as he reached for the clipboard.

---

The main office was a mess, spilled papers littered the room. It looked like someone was frantically trying to find some thing.

James looked at TMM and sighed "Even with the battle suit do you think we stand a chance in a head to head fight? I mean I've fought the Ashen, fought in the worst places imaginable but I'm going to be honest with you these thing scare the piss out of me,"

"the computer I accessed had a password protection so I didn't get very far but this is disturbing" Arisu replied.

"I suppose the other tanks will be similiar" she added as she picked up the clipboard from its neighbour.

Lt. Marlo nodded and looked at Cpl Troy. "Get to it," he said as he followed TMM into the office.

The main office was a mes. Spilled papers littered the room. It looked like someone was frantically trying to find something.

James looked at TMM and sighed. "Even with the battle suit, do you think we stand a chance in a head to head fight? I mean, I've fought the Ashen, fought in the worst places imaginable, but, I'm going to be honest with you, these things scare the piss out of me."

"Just as long as you don't let your fear detract from your combat capability. As you told me, you're a veteran. You should be able to analyze your adversary in battle.

"Don't count your armor out just yet, either. Remember: the Kirisobans have specifically retrofitted things to take some of the shock out of the weapons they used against us. It won't be as easy for them as it was last time, and it'll keep getting tougher every time they hit us.

"Still, I anticipate that we'll have trouble against them because we don't know their weaknesses yet--save one. We know that we have a good edge over those creatures in terms of innate intelligence. We can learn and adapt faster than they can. That, I believe, gives the edge in the long run.

"It's always scary to come up against an unknown adversary. We still have several choices, though. We can fight them head-on until we learn--the hard way--how to deal with them, or we can attack them indirectly. I've already told you that those plasma drums we found looked suspicious. If worse comes to worst, we can still shut the whole thing down.

"I hope that makes you feel better...because here's the office computer. The terminal screen is broken, so I'm going to have to use myself as a replacement. I'll project the image onto that wall so that you can see it, too. Let's hope that this will give us some light at the end of the wormhole that doesn't turn out to be an incoming battle cruiser."

"Just as long as you don't let your fear detract from your combat capability. As you told me, you're a veteran. You should be able to analyze your adversary in battle.

"Don't count your armor out just yet, either. Remember: the Kirisobans have specifically retrofitted things to take some of the shock out of the weapons they used against us. It won't be as easy for them as it was last time, and it'll keep getting tougher every time they hit us.

"Still, I anticipate that we'll have trouble against them because we don't know their weaknesses yet--save one. We know that we have a good edge over those creatures in terms of innate intelligence. We can learn and adapt faster than they can. That, I believe, gives the edge in the long run.

"It's always scary to come up against an unknown adversary. We still have several choices, though. We can fight them head-on until we learn--the hard way--how to deal with them, or we can attack them indirectly. I've already told you that those plasma drums we found looked suspicious. If worse comes to worst, we can still shut the whole thing down.

"I hope that makes you feel better...because here's the office computer. The terminal screen is broken, so I'm going to have to use myself as a replacement. I'll project the image onto that wall so that you can see it, too. Let's hope that this will give us some light at the end of the wormhole that doesn't turn out to be an incoming battle cruiser."

The battle suit that was with the team was outside scanning and re scanning the area.

Suddenly 6 blips came on his scanner and they were moving in fast from the east. It spun around, its Gatling gun spinning.

"Six enemys approaching from the east," It bellowed into its comm. when the message was sent it opened up with the Gatling gun. The bullets ripping the court yard to shreds as the 10mm rounds were being sent down range.

---

Lt. Marlo nodded "Lets do it, and you don't have to worry abo--," Suddenly the comm. message cut him off and the familiar roar of the Gatling gun started.

"Oh, shit," Lt. Marlo said

"Corporal! You have command," Lt. Marlo said into the comm.

---

"Its go time!," One of the men shouted as the group started to run outside.

Drake nodded unsatisfied with her response. "This near escape you mentioned... I don't like surprises, if there is something that could ultimately effect us and this fleet i do need to know about it."

Drake nodded unsatisfied with her response. "This near escape you mentioned... I don't like surprises, if there is something that could ultimately effect us and this fleet i do need to know about it."

"Due to the nature of the FTL drive we used," Major Susan replied, "the only way to track it was by jumping in as we did. As you probably would have guessed, that means anyone following us would have emerged back in Real Space at the same time we did. Something I don't recall happening."

"Mamoru Ima" Arisu ordered her security team and the 5 women took up defensive positions immediately their plasma rifles charged and cocked.

Arisu also drew her plasma pistol, cocked it and aimed in the direction of the blips just like the rest of her team.

There was simply no time to analyze the data. Whatever was coming in--and it was probably the enemy patrol that the Metal Man had been worrying about for the last day or so--it was fast. The best compromise that the cyborg could manage was to download as much information as he could and then join the others. The worst part of that was that, while he did this, he was totally exposed--there was no cover, and he couldn't use his shields without blowing the office computer to pieces. All he could do was aim his weapons behind him and fire with maximum intensity at anything that got too close.

"Cover me, James. I'll upload as much as I can and then join you."


Lady MacBeth, this is recon team. We have encountered hostiles and
are attempting to engage. We will attempt to keep you informed. Over.


Static. The comms had been cut.

Lt. Marlo nodded "Ill give you all the time I can," He said as he cocked his rifle and headed outside.

---

The Neoman soldiers got outside and dove for as much cover as they could find.

The battlesuit was in the center of the square firing at the attackers.

Cpl. Troy was behind a tree, he would step out with the Guass cannon and lob several rounds and step back behind the tree.

One of the men was carrying a M-32 Gernade launcher, he stepped into the line of fire and fired 3 rounds before going back to cover.

The sound and horrendous, APBRs and the thuddign of the gernade launchers and Gauss cannons were alll combined into one massive roar.

The Metal Man jacked in as James placed his hand against the door's opening portal. This had to be fast. There was no telling when the plasma would start flying.

As the Lieutennant stepped through the door, the civilian adjunct logged in and hit the file storage hard. If it was in memory, it got copied.

And then, the Metal Man did something that he knew was stupid even as he did it: he started looking over the files that he had in his memory unit. It was easy enough to find the files relating to Project Black, and the contents thereof got distracting in a hurry. The most recent file--the Metal Man looked at the freshest stuff first--was one in which the colony's Chief Surgeon issued a letter of resignation, mentioning as his chief reason her refusal to finish development of a retrovirus that she called "that ungodly so-called antidote." It made for interesting reading.

So...this was probably a government set-up gone wrong. That would mean that the data that the Metal Man now held would make him...very inconvenient to certain factions within the Neoman government. Only two things to do: survive and publish.

And the moment he reached that conclusion was the moment when all hell broke loose. Just as he signed off the terminal, something punched a chunk out of the office's back wall. There would be no time to raise shields. Whatever it was, he'd have to go toe-to-toe with it. And it might not be alone.


Marlo! Arisu! Look sharp! They're coming through the back walls!

The Metal Man jacked in as James placed his hand against the door's opening portal. This had to be fast. There was no telling when the plasma would start flying.

As the Lieutennant stepped through the door, the civilian adjunct logged in and hit the file storage hard. If it was in memory, it got copied.

And then, the Metal Man did something that he knew was stupid even as he did it: he started looking over the files that he had in his memory unit. It was easy enough to find the files relating to Project Black, and the contents thereof got distracting in a hurry. The most recent file--the Metal Man looked at the freshest stuff first--was one in which the colony's Chief Surgeon issued a letter of resignation, mentioning as his chief reason her refusal to finish development of a retrovirus that she called "that ungodly so-called antidote." It made for interesting reading.

So...this was probably a government set-up gone wrong. That would mean that the data that the Metal Man now held would make him...very inconvenient to certain factions within the Neoman government. Only two things to do: survive and publish.

And the moment he reached that conclusion was the moment when all hell broke loose. Just as he signed off the terminal, something punched a chunk out of the office's back wall. There would be no time to raise shields. Whatever it was, he'd have to go toe-to-toe with it. And it might not be alone.


Marlo! Arisu! Look sharp! They're coming through the back walls!


James brought up his shotgun and rammed the barrel threw the hole and fired. "Eat it!," He bellowed as he took a step back his shotgun at the ready. There was a pause then the Monas busted threw the walls and racked Jame's chest with its claws.

James fell back the Monas on top of him, He held his shotgun up to keep the Monas off of him.

Arisu reformed her team and 6 blasts of plasma fire on heavy stun hit the creatures attacking from the rear. Arisu cranked up her pistol to kill just in case it was necessary.