NationStates Jolt Archive

*Currently Xiscapia, Setulan and Greywatch are involved with the main plot.
*This will most likely open up later on, but for now there's a limit of about 5 players involved with the main plot.
*Other players can get involved with peripheral plots - particularly if you have any sort of prior relations with the current players' nations or characters. But only if you have a reason that makes sense.
*But please at no point just show up with a fleet that just happens to be in the area.
*If you want to join at any point, flip me a TG, let me know your idea for getting involved, send me any factbook or background you have.

*This is a character-oriented, RP, especially if you are putting characters onto the ship, so please introduce your characters involved.
*Sub-plots, character conflict, problem-solving, political intrigue are all welcome.
*If you have any characters involved you don't want to die or something, let me know who - actions will have consequences, sometimes deadly.

*The ship, on it's own, will not actually impact to the sun until about 30 days (IC. OOC it takes as long as it takes for this to be interesting.) have passed. However, at about 2 weeks, the heating of the thing from the outside will make it very uncomfortable and after that impossible to survive on.


http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/clomata/Kof-Mojy1.jpg

In the days of hyperspace travel, a ship traveling interstellar distances at sub-light speed could hardly be expected, or noticed. But this one was large, very large, and so when it neared a star system it was inevitably picked up on long-range telescopes that might be located there.

It was dark and cold, radiating just about no energy, no power. It was covered in hydrogen ice.

It was fast, at 2,300 kilometers/second. But, lazily, it spun about it's center of mass, drifting.

It was immense. Mass detectors and most analysis would suggest it to be about seven million metric tons, its construction heavy and rugged. More than that it was hard to see without getting closer.

Yet getting closer was what it did. Oblivious, it seemed, to its own course, to the hot sun it was now falling toward, seemingly both dead and suicidal.

Dolosus System, World of Dolosus, City of Kaji, Governor's Office...
"What have you got for me, Abram?"
The black and navy-blue uniformed kitsune officer looked solenm over the holographic link between the Governor's office and his lonely outpost. "Governor Dovenhawk, at approximently twenty-three hundred hours today our forward sensors spotted an object of roughly seven million tons moving towards the Dolosus System at an estimated rate of 1,429 miles per second. While we are at some range, the station detected no energy signatures if any kind emitting from the object. Based on our calculations, within the next three and a half weeks to a month the object will collide with Dolosus's sun."

Former Vice Admiral and now Governor Dovenhawk paled considerably, despite his already milky skin. He was a tall, slim kitsune with brown hair, tawny fur, and orange eyes. His skin tone suggested his parentage were of the pale Padgan decent, sallow in tone. A navy blue katana sword rested comfortably at his hip, shining with polish. He sat in a comfortable red leather chair in an ornate office with his back to a grand, tall window exposing a small city outside, teeming with kitsune. There was three other cities on the planet, not to mention the ships and orbital platforms in space, totaling the colony to over two billion sentients, ninety-seven percent of which were Xiscapian. He felt his black suit grow slightly wet as he sweated, wrestling with the problem before him. You couldn't simply up and evacuate two billion colonists and defense forces, there had to be time and effort.

"Abram," he finally said quietly, leaning forward closer and looking seriously at the kitsune. "You know I was a military man once, in charge of the Third Assault Fleet during the Imitator war. I know firepower, and I know we won't be able to blast whatever that is into small enough peices before it reaches us. We just don't have the range. And I know people. If word gets out that there's this giant thing coming out of nowhere to crush us all, they could panic. Riots, looting, a massive exodus of desperate sentients to get offplanet...and a rise in crime as people spend their last days doing whatever the hell they want. No word is to get out on this, do you understand me? I will inform the nesseccary people, and this will be handled safely, with everyone else none the wiser."
Abram nodded. "I hear you, Governor. I'll keep you informed."
He vanished.

Dovenhawk reclined in his seat, brow etched with worry, staring at the ceiling. He would inform the officials on Xiscapia, of course, and his Rear Admiral and Captains. But what to do...?
Accessing his computer, he logged in and put his password into the military files. Browsing for some time, he grinned when he finally found what he was looking for. With what he had in mind, even an entire incoming assault fleet would pose no threat. It would be costly, not to mention a difficult, risky manuver, but if it went though the plan would work excepting some horrible freak change of malfunction or intervention.
Reaching for his comm unit, he began to call who he needed...

Several hours later, high orbit, XIW Remembrance, Hanger Bay 2...
"Careful with that, hey bucket head, yeah I'm talkin' ta you punk, you trying to kill us all? It's a fucking bomb, what's the hell is the matter with you-"
Warrant Officer Keela sighed to herself as she watched the confused robot pick the crate back up and slowly lumber up the ramp again at her corporal's stream of obscinities. "Sergant Jake!" she roared, making the red-headed kitsune jump about two feet into the air. "At attention, you horrible little man! Get back in rank, or I'll have you scrubbing the ship's windows from the outside without a space suit! Do I make myself perfectly clear!? Is this Galactic Common that is coming out of my mouth?!"
"Yes Warrant Officer." said Jake suddenly stiff, stepping back to the other troops.

Keela sighed once more, shaking her head, long purple braided hair swinging slightly behind her. Keela was about six foot, yellow eyed with orange fur and skin even whiter than Dovenhawk's. She looked sternly down the line of troops she had been given to command for this operation: Jake, a tanned, fire headed Xiscapian with superb marksmen skills, the ability to get just about any female of any sentient species in bed with him, a swearing streak like a Tenfour dockhand, and an attitude. He was a full seven feet tall due to his mixed blood, kitsune and Alversian, giving him the fur but dark green eyes and superior strength, but lowered speed and reaction times when compared to a extremely fast purebreed kitsune.

The next was a small, only about five foot unassuming female kitsune with jet black hair, skin a little darkner than Keela's, and serious black eyes. Her rank was that of private, and her name was Nichole. She had been involved in what could have been a scandel, and to keep her away from the core worlds of the Kitsune Empire she had been assigned here, this backwater post at the edge of enemy space lightyears from nowhere. This, naturally, gave her a lot of time to reflect on the fact that what had happened to her had been entirely outside of her control to prevent, but it did occurr and she had been sent here anyway. Back on Xiscapia she had been a Marine on shore leave, and gotten a little drunk in a bar in Rio Casa. A Isan women who, unbeknonwst to her was part of the Imperial Isan Emperor's Family, helped her home and sebsequenctly attacked her. She had to feed, and Nichole was the perfect candidite, as the two bite marks on the back of her neck showed...
Nichole was a vampire.
No, she did not disintigrate when splashed with holy water, she found garlic quite tasty, she did not possess the ability to turn into a bat, and most anyone would die when stabbed though the heart with a stake, afterall. Nevertheless, she still had to drink blood to survive, and this put her in a rather unique position...

The third and last member of the bunch was the only one taller than Jake. Standing at a hulking seven foot nine inches was a gorrila-like creature, small, suspicous orange eyes perching on a head with more muscles than Keela's whole arm, black battle armor only making it seem even more massive, a huge chaingun held in it's hands like a toy. This was a Jiralhanae, or as the Xiscapians knew it, Korr, an ancient enemy of theirs. A millenia-long war had locked both races into combat until the Korr were finally defeated, fleets scattered, armies crushed, remaining leaders and soldiers fighting a civil war and their planet thrown into chaos and destruction. Some Korr had defected to the Xiscapian side, and this was one of their decendents, named Ssskrill. He packed an enormous amount of firepower, both armed and not, and served as the demolition expert for the destructive device that was to be placed on this incoming object. He was quiet and solitary, a loner, inclined to speak only when spoken to or when confirming orders. He bore the rank of private.

Keela snorted mentally as she looked them over. I ask Command for a crack squad. What do they give me? A Halfbreed, a plasma sucker and a Korr!
"Alright men," she paused, considering that one of them was only half human, the next was a women and a kitsune, and the last wasn't even the same species. "You all know our mission: Go out to that space rock and blow it into a trillion peices. It's a simple operation: In and out. You've done it in the sims a hundred times, we'll be home by tommorow. This will be real quiet, so if anyone asks, we were all at the bar-Is something funny, Private Nichole?" Keela snapped. Nichole shook her head wildly, expertly concealing the grimace of remembrance. "No Warrant Officer, nothing is funny Warrant Officer!" she said, snapping off a salute. "Good," Keela breathed, "wouldn't like to think we have a joker on the team. So load up the lot of you, we haul ass in five!"

Four minutes and thirty seconds later...
The patrol ship (http://www.galacticempiredatabank.com/CarrackCruiser.gif) lifted off from the hanger of the XIW Remembrance, exiting the Battleship (http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/6416/minmatarbattleshiphl8.jpg) with smooth grace as it glided out into the stars. Keela sat in the pilot's chair with Jake beside her in the co-pilot's, Nichole at the gunnery station and Ssskrill sitting silently in the tiny cargo bay with the crate. In a few minutes they were approaching the huge object, which they could plainly see was not an asteroid, but construct of some sort. More pressing, however, was the two ships near it. One was neatly eclipsed by the things mass, which explained why no one saw it before, and the other one was still a minute or so out if it mantained it's current speed. Keela frowned, tapping the console absentmindedly. "Message them both," she said quietly to Jake.
Attention Unidentified Ships:
You have breached Xiscapian territory. Please explain you presence and the presence of this object in this sector or we will open fire. You have twenty seconds to comply.
Of course, the patrol ship didn't have anywhere near the weaponry to take on either ship, but "we will open fire" sounded much better than "we will call for reinforcements while desperately avoiding your potshots."

Sent out on its mission to explore nine months ago, the SRV Tempest faithfully plowed through space in search of new peoples to meet with.
In the humble opinion of Captain George Mikan, the entire mission was a waste of time that had a good chance of ending the lives of his crew. They had already had one very close call where an asteroid field had appeared where it wasn't supposed to be, almost destroying the ship before it pulled out, and a dozen crew members were killed because of it.
He was brooding on the deaths of his crew when one of the officers on the bridge called out to him.
"What is it, son?" he asked, grouchy still.
"Sir, I'm picking up a massive signal aproximately four hours to our galactic west."
"Define 'Massive.'"
"As in...around seven hundred million metric tons, sir." Mikan looked up at that.
"Good lord, boy! are you sure it isn't just a planet?" The ensign snorted.
"Positive, sir."
"Huh...lets try to hail it. Set an intercept course, I want a visual on it. Max power to shields, but keep the guns down. I don't want to provoke anything."

Unidentified object, this is Captain George Mikan of the SRV Tempest. We are on a mission of exploration. Could you please identify? Over.

Mikan put down the vox microphone.
"Let's hope I didn't just hail a rock."

The Sarawki Exploration Vessel Austriki, Redesigned Fleet tender, Due to unpresidented levels of automated technology, a ship regularly manned by 300 was manned by an AI and 10 Crewmen, was now being used as both a Exploration vessel and a Drone fighter carrier. (4 are important, the other 6 are redshirts that I try to keep alive.)

"Commencing gravity burst in 3...2...1, Please stand by for maximum gravity force of 4, Barf bags are availible upon detection of regurgitation, Thank you." Said Seria, the shipboard A.I, Being as evil as it normally was. (It's main personality quirk is obsession with maccob humor)

"Save it, Se-" Captain Sraak was cut off by the sudden acceleration, caused by the blast of energy from the planet's gravitational field, Hurdling the ship at near-Hyperspeed, The ship's cameras were designed to use the emergency thrusters to stop the ship from colliding with anything.

"Jeeeeezzuuuusssss, Thisss iss uncomforrrtableeeee, Ah! There goes my lunch" Said the First officer, Serell, the only female crew member, and a complete professionalist. Along with them was Alriik and their resident doctor, Dr. Saralvis.

"Warning, Camera detects Syste, ahead, Engaging emergency stop." Said the A.I, firing off the 1st set of FSLP (Fast Stopping Liquid Propellant) and quickly slowed the craft, RCS thrusters reversed the craft and the main engines fired, Stopping the craft well outside sensor range

"Status report."

"All systems are clean, energy to fusion thruster 3 is dropping, compensating. We are outside a unplotted system captain, Scanning."

"Massive object detected, Estimate sizes are 6-8 MILLION metric tons, appears to be approaching the sun."

"Let's take a closer look, activate AUTOPILOT program B, Full ship control while the crew are away. Message me if you need to."

The crew assembled in the ready room, a room adjacent to both the locker room, which, in turn, entered into the airlock. Along with the ISTS (Intra ship Transport system, Omnidirectional turbolift.) Port.

"Folks, here's the deal, we've got a big ship drifting into an inferno, Get the guns from storage, we're going to check it out, Alriik willl take the Dagger*, the rest of us are taking a shuttle, Bring a second along as a wingman. Suit up and meet me in 5."


*= The Dagger Fighter-bomber, Capable of Ship-to-Ship and Anti-surface strikes, along with standard fighter missions, VTOL capable. It can be AI controlled, There are 5 others not including the one about to be used.

Note: My ships are designed to give off little, if any, emissions, the main ship can reflect most sensors, and the fighters and shuttles are near impossible to detect. Birds like running away.

The long, downward spiral towards the star...

It would take about a month - even at 2,300 km/s, space is huge - but with asteroidal inevitability the vessel continued onward, completely oblivious. No transmission was sent back to the Tempest: no reply, no acknowledgment, not even an ominous powering-up of weaponries.

"Wow that thing is huge!" Captain Mikan exclaimed.
"Oh yeah, sir. And covered in ice." The ship drifted about six hundred miles from the massive floating sphere, sensors powered to full so they could get a complete image.
"Well, it certainly isn't natural," Mikan said. "Lets get closer and try to hail them again..."

The ship powered forward, trying to get within twenty or so miles for a close up look.

"Woa! Somebody isn't having a good day," said Captain Mikan. He grabbed a vox microphone.

Xiscapians, we were not aware we were in your territory, and we apologize. We are the Setulanite Republican Vessel Tempest, and we were sent by our leaders on a mission of exploration. We have peaceful intentions, and were just checking out what this massive object was.

"Lets hope that does it then..."

Xiscapians, we were not aware we were in your territory, and we apologize. We are the Setulanite Republican Vessel Tempest, and we were sent by our leaders on a mission of exploration. We have peaceful intentions, and were just checking out what this massive object was.
"Hmm..." Keela mused as she viewed the message. "So they don't know either. Never heard of the 'Setulanite Republic' before, but there's a lot of people out there. Message them back:
Setulanite Republican Vessel Tempest, this object is on course to collide with an inhabited world of ours. Be advised that we intend to destroy this object before it can reach it's final destination, and the blast radius is rather large. We request that you move two to five lightyears away for your own safety while we prepare the device.
OOC: You're going to have to convince my people to explore the ship with yours I guess, otherwise they'll start strapping bombs all over it and I seriously doubt the OP intends for this thing to be blown to bits...

Ah, Xiscapian ship, not entirely sure that's a good idea. We don't even know what this thing is...for all you know, any kind of explosion could travel farther than five lightyears. Hell, it might even reach your world. Why don't we pool our efforts and actually try to find out what this thing is before we blow it away? Over.

Mikan's XO looked at him with an arched eyebrow. He glared back.
"What? I'm not some fancy dressed politician. I'm a soldier. How the hell should I stop these guys from blowing this away?" His XO kept a straight face.
"Aye aye, sir. That about does it."

Closer, now, the various ships could get a good look at the alien object.

A warship, undeniably. A brute, ugly and totally lacking in the sleek, aesthetically-pleasing style so common throughout the galaxy. All blocks and cylinders, clad in thick armor; strangely grand in it's own, brick-like fashion.

The weaponry was understated - no heavy, externally-mounted cannons as one might have expected. But numerous covered openings like gunports, placed strategically to cover every angle, hinted that it was designed to destroy.

Battle-damage. Gaping tears in the hull, black-stained streaks surrounding the great tears told of enormous explosive and thermal energy that had defeated even the massive armor of the ship. Smaller holes told of penetration by kinetic weaponry. Still the thing had not been ripped apart, at least not irrevocably - and there had been repair-work done on the more alarming of damaged areas. It drifted, but about an axis that, on cursory examination, seemed immediately unrelated to whatever battles it may have fought. The drive section seemed intact; a reaction-drive, most likely fusion, now just as cold as space.

OOC: Tagging for future post

Ah, Xiscapian ship, not entirely sure that's a good idea. We don't even know what this thing is...for all you know, any kind of explosion could travel farther than five lightyears. Hell, it might even reach your world. Why don't we pool our efforts and actually try to find out what this thing is before we blow it away? Over.
Keela read the message without expression while Jake swore beside her. "Who the hell do they think they are?" he demanded loudly. "It's OUR Qonndamned world and they think they have the right to-"
"They have a point," said Keela quietly, holding up a hand to silence the young Sergeant. "We don't know what's on that...I guess it's a ship. It could be volatile, it could destroy the whole system. It's a good idea...see if we can salvage some technology in there, find out what it is, redirect the course at least. We've got at least four days," she smiled, "plenty of time."
Roger that, Tempest, do you see any kind of hanger opening or hole in the hull that we could use to gain access?

Take your pick, the entire hull seems covered in them. This baby got into some real combat at some point and hasn't been repaired yet. Why don't you send a party over to our ship and we can try to find out what this thing is together? My troops could probably use some help searching a vessel this big. Over.

Miken snorted. "Find a hole, the entire damn thing is covered in them!" His XO smiled dutifully.
"Right you are, sir."
"Shut up. Think they will accept and come over?"
"No clue, sir. They might, they seem friendly enough."
"Except for when they were threatening to kill us, of course."
"Ah. Naturally."

Take your pick, the entire hull seems covered in them. This baby got into some real combat at some point and hasn't been repaired yet. Why don't you send a party over to our ship and we can try to find out what this thing is together? My troops could probably use some help searching a vessel this big. Over.
Apparently no pressurized area had been found. Oh well: Time to break out the Biohazard suits.
"Everyone, Biohazard suits, double time," Keela ordered from her chair. "We're going to meet these people and board that...thing. I want you looking sharp and acting professional. You're the Qonndamned XIN, you'd better impress them!
We're moving to your location now.
The patrol swooped around the side of the half destroyed husk, coming into full view of the Tempest. Finding a hanger is docked, and one by one the team of four strode down it, Keela then Jake then Nichole then Ssskrill. Clad in their Biohazard (http://miggs69.deviantart.com/art/Chemical-Warfare-Field-Medic-62450060) armor, they all looked rather formidible, or hoped they did. Their helmets were under their arms, rifles at their sides, as they stood in a line and waited to be greeted.

Miken met the arriving Xiscapians himself, along with a contingent of five Republican Guardsmen in their distinctive space combat vacuum suits, led by Major Logan. Their rifles were slung and their helmets were attached to their hips, the bulky body armor making them more imposing than they normally would be.
Disguising his surprise at the appearance of the aliens, the Captain walked forward and saluted the...thing...he took for their leader. He lowered the salute and stuck out his hand.
"Welcome to the SRV Tempest. I am Captain Miken, and this is Major Logan, the commander of the infantry forces aboard the vessel. I am glad that you could come. As you can see," he said, waving behind him, "my men are ready for the boarding action whenever you are."

Ssskrill saluted but shook his great head slowly side to side, pointing a armor-encased finger to Keela. "She be da one ye want." he growled in broken Common. Taking this as her cue Keela stepped forward, snapping of a quick salute, bowing and then taking the hand with a natural grip that made the Captain feel like his bones were being ground into powder. "Nice to meet you, Captain," she said, releasing his hand. Behind her Ssskrill watched with mild interest while Jake sized up the Guardsmen and Nichole stared at the floor. "We are ready to go now, but we'll be taking our ship," she jerked her thumb back at the patrol, "into there. Our scans suggest that the entire construct is in vacuum, but," she hefted her rifle with a predatory grin, exposing sharp, pointed teeth, "better safe than sorry."

The Sarawk ships launched, heading towards the large object. The remaining fighters would run CAP under AI control.

"Alright, here's the plan, we're spacewalking into the ship, but it looks like we've got an inhabited system, I'd rather avoid contact with these people, If you see them, we talk in Sqalik*, Better to act like we're illiterate than that we're tresspassing. Get your suits sealed, we land in 3."

*= Bird Sqwaking, Native tounge

An officer in all black was sitting out in a park on Greywatch Prime, he was waiting for someone, then that someone came. It was a man dressed in a white suit, his dark purple hair covered half his face. The officer looked up, "Great," he said sarcastically, "You're actually here, which means you've got something for me to do..." The man nodded, the officer grimaced, "Why me Shadow? Get Redemption, he's a merc, technically. Plus, I've seen you kick his ass with a hand behind your back." The man patted the officer on the head, messing up the officer's blond hair. "Redeption is not here, he's offworld. And our Pressure Space generators are down for the time being, annual inspection. So you're up, I know you can handle non-PSR travel better than anyone else." The officer nodded, "Dammit, fine."
----------------------
Two days later the same officer sat aboard a small ship. It was only meant for about one hundred people, and that would be enough. Shadow was on the ship, he looked at the officer, "You're in the wrong seat. You're going to be captain for this mission, so get it together." The officer gave a small look of suprise, "Captain John Marston? Fine then... and how many officers do I have then?" Shadow smiled, "Twenty Drones, fifteen humans, ten droids. You also have plenty of weapons and the bio/battlesuits."
"Transprtation method?"
"The ship has some blink capacity allowing you to literally disappear and reapear somewhere else not to close to where you started. It take fifteen minutes for blink generators to recharge. I suggest you use Hyperdrives, it'll be easier."
"Weapons, Shielding, Armor and Hull?"
"Plasma, railguns and howitzer cannons. You also have many various types of ammo for the railguns including some depleted uranium shells. There are five nukes onboard though I doubt you'll need them, they're small, mind you. Your shielding is medium, it can take in enough but don't go into battle against multiples with it. Your armor his much heavier and should withstand a lot, it will be particularly go against energy weapons. Your hull is decent enough but with shielding and armor, stand down and don't fight."
"Special abilities?"
"Energy absorbers on the armor and hull to make energy weapons less effective and give you some extra boosts. You're also much faster than other Greywatch ships, more handling. It also has some much better sensors, be warned though that SNC is down as well. Send comm bursts to us, we should get them in a few days depending where you are."
"So I'm essentially in charge of a recon vessel, Greywath style?"
"Yes."
"So when do I begin?"
"In a few minutes, let the Drones guide you to you're target. I will be leaving now."
---------------------------------
About a week later the ship was still flying through space, it was fast enough for everyone. No one really wanted to bother complaining about how much easier it would be for a ship with PSR. John was slumped in his captain's chair and was blankly staring out into space. Then the navigations officer looked up, "Uh, sir. We seem to be approaching something." The tactical officer looked up as well, "Yeah, and it's big. Not to mention it has some company, several other ships are around it. At least according to long range sensors..." John sat up, "Bring us in, just make sure we don't get too close. Of there are others here they should handle it, we might be on someone's home turf." The officers nodded, a Drone then entered the room, it was wearing a black robe and spoke with a deep voice, "We have detected something of interest. That is why we led you here, ignore the ships and get closer." John looked back, the officers were confused for a moment and looked at him. "No, we're staying here, curiousity be damned. We are not moving until we're either seen or something really worthwhile happens." The Drone nodded, it didn't like the decision but it wasn't going to argue with a superior.

The crew, Arriving at their destination, set the shuttle to Blend mode, where it would find a spot that made it look like it was part of a larger peice. The Manned fighter would monitor the ships nearby, while the drone would ditto the shuttle. The shuttle crew suited up, and exited one-by-one out the airlock.

(Waiting on an interior description)

Miken flexed his hand, grinning ruefully.
"I'm glad to hear it. Major, join them." Logan moved forward, the five men putting on their dark-visored helmets and unslinging their weapons.
"If you don't mind, they'll ride with you. Unfortunately, the only boarding ships we really have are boarding torpedoes, and I doubt whoever owns that thing would appreciate us drilling another hole into the side."

***

On the bridge, the XO was sitting in the command chair when his detection officer looked up.
"Sir, I'm detecting something out here. Mostly blinded by the reading from the thing we came here to investigate, but definately there." The XO nodded thoughtfully.
"Crank up max power on the sensors without turning on the targeters. I don't want them to think it's an attack. If it's something interesting, we'll inform the captain and make contact."

(the ships are blended with the hull now, No way to detect them without going over inch by inch)

ooc-that was my guys getting a faint reading of the Greywatch ship. Don't worry, I have no idea you even exist.

OOC: That's what I thought.
IC:

The tactical officer looked up, "Sir, are you sure this is a safe distance? We have good sensors only for a ship our size, but I have multiple other ships on sensors that can probably see us." John looked back, "We're a sniper of sorts amoung ships, I think we're fine for the time being. Put engines and 30% and turn off all unneccisary lights. We're going black." The tactical officer nodded and a message was sent through the ship. Then all the lights went to 15% power in the ship, giving it a eerie feeling, even on the bridge it was dark. The engines went down to 30% and the ship was very quiet and still. "Captain," said the tactical officer, "I don't know if we can run if we're detected anyway. We have to be careful." John nodded, "I know that, bare with me."

The Explorer Vessel's AI began charging a ORGB (Out of Range Gravity Burst) that would catapult the vessel onward, the drone daggers were reloaded with ASM loadouts, and the 4 drone Corsair attack bombers were readied. The shipboard drones (Battle droids) were being readied for a potential contact situation, closing all bulkheads.

The Drones aboard the shuttle were released in 3 pods of 4 drones, each equipped with a SAR-4 or SAR-16, and a backup SAR-90 SMG.

The Sarawks themselves were equipped with SAR-8 Assault rifle, and Saretta Pistol

(Every Sarawk weapon is a real weapon with the letter in front replaced with SAR, Lasers aren't in regular use yet.)


"Drone pod 1, Enter the vessel at Alpha, Pod 2 at bravo, 3 is with us, Transmit live images to the ship for later review, and send me reports" Said Sraak, placing the top-half of his suit helmet (there are two, the neck and lower beak, then the upper beak is added. They communicate using throat-mics, due to their inability to move their mouth.) on his head.

"Rodger-Rodger, Searching for life, Standard Evacuation procedures enabled, Encounters with those not from the ship are flee situations, Drone Alpha-1 out." Said the drone commander.

"Huh...just dissapeared, sir." The XO looked up in surprise.
"What? What do you mean, dissapeared?"
"It's just gone, sir. One second I was getting a read on it with increasing clarity (though not enough to really see what it was), the next, nothing." The XO looked thoughtful.
"That was the energy signature?"
"Yes sir."
"How about metallurgical?"
"No good, sir. The large mass is blocking it all. It might be nothing, commander, but..."
"But you think it's a ship."
"That is my gut feeling, yes sir."
"Better safe than sorry. We'll send a Bentnose to check it out once the Captain gets back. In the meantime, keep checking that area for anything strange. Alert me the moment something happens."
"Aye aye, sir."

"Captain," Said the tactical officer, "They're coming this way, I think our sudden going black brought their attention this way." John nodded, "So? I doubt they'll just fire on us, just stay here for now." The bridge was silent, no one understood why he was so calm but they weren't going to argue. The Drone was curious, it was different for it to see a human act like this in such a situation.

"If you don't mind, they'll ride with you. Unfortunately, the only boarding ships we really have are boarding torpedoes, and I doubt whoever owns that thing would appreciate us drilling another hole into the side."
Keela nodded, indicating the door in the side of the patrol to the five soldiers and her own little squad. "Load up, I want us ready to move in two." As they hastened to obey her orders she turned back to Miken. "We'll keep ya updated, of course, assuming no xenomorphs leap out to chew our faces off or something."
From the inside of the patrol Jake stuck his head out, waving to Keela. "Warrant Officer, you might want to take a look at this." he yelled, tone not urgent but nevertheless concerned. "Excuse me a moment," Keela gave a slight bow to the Captain and strode into the patrol, leaning on the pilot console where Jake sat. "What is it, Sergeant?"
When he spoke his voice was low, hunched over the forward readings screen.
"We've got another fucking contact. That other ship we saw before hasn't seem to have done anything yet, but nobody parks a Qonndamned Carrier-sized vessel in the middle of space and just sits there. This other one the databanks recognized, it's a craft from Greywatch, apparently the only nation here we've had contact with. It's about the size of a large recon vessel, and it faded off our scopes as it got closer, but the scanners don't lie."
Keela frowned. "Seems our little seven million ton friend has attracted some visitors. This could get out of hand. Contact Command and put in a request for backup, and when we get out there I want everyone to know, whether we can see them or not, that they are near Kitsune Imperial territory."
"Aye, Warrant Officer, I'll make sure the fucks get the message."
Keela gave the kitsune a look. "Do try to act more like a Spec Ops and less like a child, Sergeant." She said as she stepped back out of the patrol, strolling back up to the Captain. "Sorry about that sir, bit of a concern with the activity around here. With your permission, I'd like to get this operation underway."

John was very relaxed, the lights were still dim a the vessel sat there. "Well," he said with a grin, "Looks like no one knows we're actually here." The Drone tilted its head, "Really? Are you sure?" He smiled, "If they can't be bothered to send out a transmission pulse they don't know that we're here. Or they're not sure. Or they really don't care. Anyway, there's something pretty fucking huge over there, someone get a squad ready." The tactical officer looked up, "Um, with what sir?" John looked back, "Some Drones and Mechs will do. Make it a team of six." The tactical officer put the order through, "Um, sir. How are we going to get a squad to the ship?" John laughted, "We'll wait for someone to contact us, then that means there's something interesting they want to protect. Then we move forward and that'll be our cue to send in a team." The tactical officer sighed, this was an odd captain to serve under.

Miken nodded.
"Good luck." He walked back up to the bridge and saw the XO hovering over the scanner operators shoulder.
"Whats up?" he asked, curiously. The operator answered.
"Sir, I had a contact, but it faded out. Could be nothing, but I swear its a ship. We are waiting for your permission to send out a fighter to check it out."
Miken frowned.
"Alright, send out a single Bentnose. But make sure they know their job is to find out if something is there, not shoot it."
"Aye aye, sir."

Three minutes later, a Bentnose fighter rocketed out of the hanger bay and powered towards the last location of the ghost signal. Extra sensory gear had been loaded into the nose, and the pilot was sweating slightly as he accelerated. He hoped whatever was there was friendly.

Major Logan waved his men into the Xiscapian craft and followed them in.
"Alright, boys, lock and load. You know the drill."
The men started checking over their weapons, making sure the actions were functioning properly, and making sure the integrity of their suits wasn't compromised.
Logan nodded towards the Xiscapian.
"Ready when you are."

ooc-greywatch, its your choice if I find your ship.

The ship didn't move as the craft came closer to it, it wouldn't be the clearest image as the Bentnose got closer but it would be seeable. A silhouette would be visible, an area where no stars could be seen. The ship was painted black but it had no cloaking and even its faint energy signature would become very apparent. "Well looks like they may have found us." Said John with a smile, "Okay, light it up." Just then the external lights came on as well as the internal lights, the generators and engines shot to 85% and the ship and its signature became very visable.

Keela bowed as she left the Captain and resumed command of the patrol.
"Ready when you are."
Keela grinned. "That would be...now." The patrol lifted smoothly off the hanger floor and shot out into space, halting abruptly severl yards away from the Tempest. Jake typed over the communications relay, then leaned back to give Keela room. She leaned forward and began to speak via the vox:
"Attention all ships in the area. You are at the border of the Kitsune Empire of Xiscapia. Please do not enter the closest system, nor should you attempt to impede, halt or destroy Imperial operations in this sector in any way. Disobedience to this will be met with deadly force. Good day to you."
She knew all the ships in the area, even the ones they couldn't see but were undoubtably there somewhere, had gotten the message. Who would respond and what they would say would prove an interesting distraction as they made their short journey to the object. Now she readied a second transmission, this one to the Dolosus System and Naval Command, encrypted and in text.
Dolosus System Naval Command, be advised we have encountered multiple contacts in the immediate area of the object. We have made an informal alliance with one nation to explore the object, which is actually heavily damaged, probably ancient ship or starbase of some kind. Our boarding party is en route now, as are probably others. Request a show of force in the area to prevent unsightly conflict and secure the operation for smooth procedure.
A few moments later a reply came back:
Roger that Dispatch One. A flotilla is en route to your location now, ETA eight minutes.
OOC: Going offline for a bit, will be back.

The Bentnose pilot was hit in the face with floodlights as his sensors went wild. As a matter of fact, the only sensor that didn't start screaming was his target lock warning, but given that it was an alien race, he didn't feel like taking chances. Taking a rolling dive and hightailing it back to his ship at maximum thrust, he started screaming "CONTACT! CONTACT!"

On board the Tempest, the pilots warnings came a second before a ship appeared on the sensors, blazing with energy.
"Woa! Hot damn, do we have a contact!" said the sensor ensign. Miken smiled.
"Good job, Ensign. Keep up the good work." The young officer beamed as Mike turned to his XO.
"Thoughts?"
"Definately not hostile. If they wanted to, they could have blown that pilot to hell and gone, easy. I say we make contact."
"Agreed. Give me a vox link."

Unidentified vessel, this is Captain Miken of the SRV Tempest, on a mission of peaceful exploration. Please identify, over.

Major Logan smiled behind his visor. He liked this fox chick.

"Captain, External sensors have picked up a transmission, ordering all vessels to avoid entrance of the system, Shall i activate Plan Delta* in Defensive mode?" Said the A.I

"Alright, but don't waste too much, last we need is a bunch of questions coming at us about missing warheads." Said the captain

The Shipboard Crane, a feature that they could not remove from the fleet tender, was actually a blessing, During the Space Civil war, a Fleet tender once used a cargo crate filled with explosives to destroy a entire battlefleet, simply by throwing it. This tactic was added to the AI Reference library.


*= your ship + crate = Debris

OOC: Crate getting anywhere near my ship + lasers = I survive.
IC:

<*Sound of laughter* Sorry about that, didn't want to scare you but you nearly hit us. This is captain John of the... wait, dammit I never actually did name this ship. Hell, we'll call it the Shadowfoot for now, sounds good and matches it capability. Anyway, don't mind us, we were taking a look around. Seeing some sights, hoping to make a few friends, go home and see movie. That's about it on our end.>

*Grunt* I think you gave that pilot a few grey hairs. And Shadowfoot sounds about right. Why don't you come on out of hiding so we can have a face-to-face meeting?

"Lets see how friendly they really are, eh?" said the XO with an arched eyebrow.
"Yeah...I want shields ready to rock in a heartbeat, but keep weapons powered down."

Keela looked on in amusement as the fighter was sent running back to his ship by the sudden energy outburst from the Greywatch ship. From what she knew those Greywatch Xiscapia had had contact with, namely those occasions from the Forbidden Ministry on a mission paralleling whatever Xiscapian forces happened to be doing at the time. They were an odd but fundamentally okay bunch, kind of secretive but in today's galaxy who wasn't? They would probably send a team too, and if they could combine their present forces with that of the Shadowfoot for a larger, better equipped team. Still, they had a job to do here and now.
Edging the patrol forward, Keela banked and slipped inside one of the tears in the hull, the interior having just enough room to land with a few feet of space on all sides. Putting on their helmets, locking and pressurizing their Biohazard suits, the four-being squad trooped down into the ship, followed by their Republican Guardsmen comrades. Keela shut the patrol down and activated the landing lights, throwing their surroundings into gloomy contrast.
OOC: Now also waiting for interior description.

<Can I assume by face to face you mean you want us to move forward or something? We're not really in hiding anymore, we're more like assassins with f@cking neon glowsticks in our pockets. We're coming forward, moving to your position now.>

WIth that the ship initiated engines and at a decent speed went towards the ship the fighter had fled to. They stopped abuot a kilometer away.

<Well, I don't wanna trespass so I'm not going to go much further than this. Don't even know who these other kinsune characters are but the idea of being shot, or shot at, isn't appealing.>

On the bridge John noted to the crew quietly, "Especially not when we have no PSR or SCN."

Miken grubled to himself.
"Wise ass." He looked out at the screen. "Small ship." He picked up the microphone.

How about you come on over? I imagine that our craft will have better facilities than yours, given the size difference. And I wouldn't worry about the Kitsune...they seem like a friendly sort.

He looked up and nodded to one of his officers.
"If they say yes, open the hanger for them."

<Well if you say so. Hold on, we're moving forward, leaving you to direct us in.>

The ship pulled forward once more looking for an entrance...

A hanger on the flank opened up immediately, lights flashing on its side as a target drone buzzed out, lights flashing, to guide in the Greywatch vessel.
Behind the sealed doors and safe from the vacuum, Captain Miken waited for the strangers vessel to pull in. The moment it landed, atmosphere was restored to the hanger, and Miken walked in, flanked by four Republican Guardsmen on each side, each with their shock visors down and in full ceremonial armor.
Miken waited for the hatch to open.

OOC: I think you mean atmosphere was restored to the hanger.
IC:

The ship stopped and the lights on it dimmed. No hatches opened however instead there was a flash a figure appeared atop the ship. The figure was wearing black clothing and had pale skin. It made an impressive jump from the top of the ship and landed a few feet away from the captain. Its black hair settled and masked its face until it fingercombed it back. Its solid black eyes stared blankly forward. Other noticeable features were its solid black lips and nails as well as teeth, sharp as daggers. The figure bowed, "I am here on behalf of my captain."

ooc-ah crap. edited, thanks
IC:

Behind Miken, the Guardsmen tensed almpost imperceptibly at the appearance of the strange figure before them before the captain waved them at ease.
"Greetings. My name is Captain Miken, master of the SRV Tempest. You are welcome aboard our ship in peace. We hail from the Republic of Setulan, a system that consists of one planet and three inhabited moons. We were sent out to find other civilizations for peaceful purposes. Who are you personally, and from where do you come?"

"I am Drone #29 of the Frostflame Caste. I am the Cryptic Construct of the Forbidden Ministry, serving under Captain John Marston of the ship deemed Shadowfoot as of eleven minutes ago." Said the being with an emotionless voice. "Whether or not I can go further is up to my superiors at the Forbidden Ministry."

Miken frowned slightly. Forbidden Ministry? What nonsense was that?
"I see. Perhaps you could contact your Ministry so we can speak more candidly?"

The best hole to enter through was in the forward starboard side, about 200 meters from the bow of the ship and 600 meters ahead of the skinny central section.

This gaping, raggedly wounded section was scarred by explosion and perhaps radiation damage; blackened consoles, warped, fused and shattered bulkheads, debris dangerously drifting in the vacuum. The outer armor had been vaporized or sheared away here.

The entrance of the Sarahani and Kitsune shed light onto the situation. Dust and particulate matter made dense clouds. This area, open to space, had not been repaired but had simply been sealed off. The bulkheads of the cubical compartments were sturdy and thick, clearly designed to (as in this case) serve as a pressurized, outer hull if needed.

There was writing on some of it; the hatches, on pieces of long-dead equipment. The small, hard-to-read samples weren't of much use in translation, although they could perhaps be studied for some time. Some of it had been painted on; the paint now floated in glittering, confetti-like chips throughout the area.

There was no radiation, though. No light, no motion, no emissions, no electricity that could be detected. The only light came from the sun, moving about with surprising rapidity due to the crazy spinning of the derelict. Whatever had happened to this ship, it was a long time ago.

The Drone closed its eyes for a second before opening them again, "Greywatch Prime is the name of my homeworld. They sent our captain here when they detected odd energy signatures. Coming from that object."

"So you did the same thing as us. Why doesn't your captain come out here in person? And can you tell me anything else about your people?" asked Miken. The Captain found the whole aura of secrecy curious to say the least. He wondered what they were hiding.

"Unfortunantly no. He's only nineteen for starters and I doubt you'll be able to put up with him. I instead will act as hie representative. As for me not speaking about my people, I don't know that much about you either, Greywatch is naturally secrative when it comes to our affairs... though I doubt you could understand why unless I fleshed it out. However, I don't have the authority at the moment to do that." The Drone closed its eyes again and the continued, "Greywatch: The once nineteen planet empire. Peaceful and expansionist. Possessing four primary races, two sub-races." Its eyes shot back open, "I am in contact with my bretheren who are several lightyears away. I am hive minded, like all Drones. Everything I hear, so to do the other Drones in Greywatch and beyond."

Miken was impressed despite himself. The technology required for a single drone to process information to so many different drones instantaneously was a remarkable feat of technology. He was full of questions, but decided she should fill in some answers of his own if he was going to get any answers in return.

"The Republic of Setulan does not have a very long history...or rather, not a long one that can be remembered. Fifty nine years ago, a massive civil war broke out. Before the war, we had an Imperial family that had ruled for neigh on 4500 years. But one emperor...went insane. Gassed an entire moon because of a simple desire for more food and equal rights. Well, a four way struggle broke out between the Emperor, our current President Maxellian, a breakaway naval fleet, and the traitor general Mantebo. It lasted eight years. More than a third of the population was killed, and all records were destroyed. So, now you have a brief history of the Republic of Setulan."

Miken's eyes had glazed during the tale. He had terrible memories of the conflict that had ripped his world apart. He had served as an ensign in the beginning of the war, and by the end was a Lieutenant Senior Grade. He snapped out of his reverie.

"Can you tell me anything more about your people? Perhaps some kind of transaction of goods can be made?"

"Greywatch was orginially apart of New Heaven, a heavily religious empire ruled by an emperor who was believed to be a god. Some people broke off and started a new world, they were hated, there were many wars. When they founded Greywatch, they found an alien race known as the Elden. The Elden possessed an ability known as, Cryption." The Drone held out its hand, in it formed a small ball of water which then hardened into ice. "This is cryptic ice, only destructable by cryptic fire, take it." He held it out, the ice was cold like any other ice but did not melt, it was an eternally cold sphere, "This is just the beginning of our power. I'm sure you understand why we speak so little of ourselves, people may want to exploit our home to gain this ability. Very few humans from Greywatch possess it. The Elden have mastered it, they are the anscestors of humans, at least those in New Heaven and Greywatch." The Drone tilted its head, "I am a construct, created with the blood of an Elden, a human soldier, and unprocessed cryptic energy. The longer I live and train, the more pure my cryptic energy becomes and the more power I can obtain. If I die, I am reborn in Greywatch, but I am returned to a weakened state, so death is not permanent, but still serves a major problem..."

Keela and the others took a look around, activating their helmet and gun light beams. Kitsune naturally have extremely good night vision, but the occasional flashes of the sun screwed it up and in any case they took no chances, especially with the swirling dust and debris clouds potentially concealing Qonn-knew-what. Nichole stood by one of the consoles, running a finger across it and watching the blackened metal leave dark streams across the armor. She leaned forward and caught one of the twisted, burned pieces of equipment that was floating free, written in a language unknown to her and badly worn by damage and time. A Warp storm? she thought tentatively. Jake, back closer to the patrol, volunteered his opinion as he viewed the bulkheads and deck. "Looks like massive explosive damage, could be radiation too." His voice crackled though the ears of the rest of the squad and the Guardsmen. "Maybe a nuclear device detonated, or a reactor melted down, although it would be strange for anyone to build a reactor core so close to the outer hull. This could have been a direct hit, although with the state of the rest of the vessel it could just have easily been enveloped in a giant explosion. Maybe this ship got too close to a star going nova or something?" he suggested. "It's hard to imagine anything with enough force to do this kind of damage to something of this size."
Except for the little device we've still got on the patrol. Keela thought to herself. She transmitted to the Captain. "Captain Miken, we are seeing a huge amount of damage to this part of the vessel. We are unsure if this extends to the rest of the ship, although I'm inclined to believe so. Most of what we've seen is no longer recognizable, even if we could have when they were new, and there is a large amount of debris in the area. The superstructure appears to be sound, although we have not yet penetrated deeper into the construct. My team still has not detected any radiation, energy, power, biological or psionic readings from their suits. My Sergeant puts forth the thought that this was possibly a nuclear explosion, or this craft wondered too close to a dying star. If nothing more can be found here we will begin to looked deeper into the ship."

Miken took the ice and held it reverently. It was a miracle in its own right.
"I understand completely, but rest assured that Setulan will not try to exploit it. Ever since the Great War, we have always tried to be neighbourly. Trying to exploit others is...a disgusting ideal for a child of our revolution. Exploitation was the tool of the Emperors."

The Drone smiled, its black, daggerlike teeth shining in the light. "It is good to know that you understand. Perhaps your nation and mine will have good relations in the future." The Drone then closed its eyes again, Yes, you heard them. They seem trustworthy... I believe they can make good allies... yes.... I understand, I will tell them when it is time. The drones thoughts took less than a second and its eyes opened, "You may keep that as a reminder of us. Now, I do believe the object out there must be tended to..."

"Indeed. We have already sent over five Guardsmen along with the Xiscapian kill team, and I am sure that more troops would hardly be taken badly. You can locate them easily enough, we have their shuttle on our scopes."
Miken pocketed the ice, and it immediately started to make his leg go numb. He smiled-powerful stuff indeed.
"We can download the data to your ship at your liesure."

"There is a team ready on my ship already. We can most likely blink them onto the object and they can jump into a hole from there. The team consists of Drones like myself and some machines. I will stay here with you if you need, that way I can keep you updated to whatever my team finds. That is assuming they go their own way."

"Very well. Teleportation is only achievable by the battleships in our fleets. Send your men over whenever they are prepared, and hopefully we can get to the bottom of whatever this object is." Miken looked forward to yet another display of Greywatch technology.

"Affirmative." Said the Drone.
--------
Back aboard the ship, the other Drone had been describing the conversation the two were having. Everyone listened intently, John bit his lip, that was a lot of information. Unfortunantly he couldn't control the Forbidden Ministry.
-----------
The team was nearly ready, two Drone were in battle armor. The wielded plasma pistols and energy rifles. There suits had both flashlights and Night-vision along with heat vision and energy sensors. The Meachs were about the same, they stood at about seven feet and were plated in armor. Their faces were little more than five glowing red eyes, each of which used for something. They had magnetic boots and jetpacks, as did the Drones. The mechs carried heavy plasma carbines with two-foot-long bayonets and the palms of their hands could become eletrified at a moments notice. They were ready for blinking, they all stood in the transprt room; two drones and three mechs. All of them in unmarked white armor, signature Greywatch armor.
--------
"My team is ready, beginning blink process now."
---------
And with that the Drones and mechs were on the surface of the object, next to a hole in the armor. "Okay people," said the captains voice, "Be ready for anything. Keep on standby, don't hurt the others."

The team touched down on the interior. "Gravity Boots on, people, last thing we need is one of you floating off, Drones, look for a door or airlock, if not, make one." Said Captain Sraak

"Sir, why don't we just open it now?" Said Serell

"Because if we rip open another hole and there are people of any kind inside, well..."

"They would die of a very violent Decompression and likely have their lungs destroyed in milliseconds." Said Dr. Saralvis

"Right, we're moving out now, Alriik, What's up?"

"They have a team inbound, by the looks of it they've got a newcomer, just lit herself up, One of the ships launched a boarding team, Watch it, Captain."

"Will do, Fast track it, Cut into the ship." Said the captain, readying his plasma cutter. (Stealing things from upcoming titles, Priceless)

Within minutes the team had penetrated the bulkhead.

(Now waiting on interior's interior.)

Major Logan and his team searched around the gaping hole as the Kitsune examined the walls. He heard Keela make her transmission and shuddered inwardly-Setulan had never employed nuclear weapons. He looked over at Keela.
"Whatever happened, it was a long, long time ago. I don't know about you, but if we can't translate this crap, how about we cut through the hull and try to find what might be deeper in the ship?" Be swatted away a piece of debris that started drifting towards him. "This damage seems pretty superficial. Didn't penetrate deep to where you would think the reactor and command and control station would be in something this large."

The other Drone was still with the captain, "Sir, my team is on the surface of the object near a gaping hole. They are about to jump inside, at that point, I do believe they will meet with the other teams inside before breaking off to cover more ground. Is this satisfactory?"

Keela scythed her hand in the direction of the inner bulkhead so Jake and Ssskrill scurried over to it. The palms of their suits glowed for an instant as they ran them along the metal wall in a box shape, then stood back. The line where their hands had been glowed orange, then slowly detatched and began to spiral inward, floating away into darkness. Both Halfbreed and Korr aimed their weapons inside while their beams illuminated the area behind the bulkhead. Keela gestured with her gun barrel to the hole and nodded to Logan. "After you, Major."
Space...
The ships around the object would detect three vessels moving in from the direction of the nearby star system. The first was a Destroyer (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Image:Imperial_Escort_Carrier01.jpg), named the Triple Zero, flanked by the Cruisers (http://www.moddb.com/images/cache/mods/82/8237/gallery/thumbmoty_53379.jpg) Sorrow and Impend. They slowed and kept pace with the object like the other ships, watchful and looming, as a short message was sent out.
Xiscapian Imperial Warships will be escorting this object for the protection of the team.

[OOC: Sorry for any holdups folks! Also, feel free to TG me if you have any questions or ideas.]

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/clomata/Kof-Mojy3.jpg

They needn't, apparently, have bothered with cautions. An ugly, slow ventilation of mostly CO2 and some other atmospheric gasses - sans Oxygen in breathable forms - followed the penetration of the undamaged areas. No bodies, alive or otherwise. Dust told that the air, as such, had not been moving until they arrived to disturb it.

Actually, these were not undamaged as such - they had survived the blast. The compartmentalization of the ship, with its redundant, almost absurd amounts of heavy construction had also saved it from initial destruction. As the explorers got further from the entry hole the damage became quickly lighter, mitigated by the thick composite alloys which undoubtedly gave the ship much of its mass. Heat, and radiation had successfully made it further into the ship than explosive force.

The forward section of the ship was 800 meters in length and 200 meters in diameter, and was shaped a cylinder, thicker and squarer about 200 meters up from the middle section. The entire ship was just 1,540 meters in length; at an estimate, the ship must have been an average of three times the density of water.

From the inside, it was soon clear why. The inner bulkheads were not merely 'walls', but clearly pressure-tight and armored bulkheads. The hatches, too. There was hardly any space for comfort; equipment was everywhere.

The basic orientation confirmed that the ship had never had gravity-wave technology: the ship was built with the assumption of at least one standard gravity of force from the engines, like a massive office tower built on top of a nuclear rocket. (Instead of an airliner or wet-navy ship, with long, sweeping 'decks.') The compartments, mostly cubes in this area, were 2.5 meters a side, hatches on every face. Some had bunks, others had consoles, others various utility and engineering components - it was possible that the entire ship was like this, with no central, specialized living areas. The evidence suggested a bipedal, human-sized race with recognizable living traditions - mirrors and sinks, for example.

There was a 60 x 140 meter long, extruding rectangular section on the opposite side of where they were and further amidships. (It had been, clearly, even more armored than the main hull, which is why it was infeasible to enter the ship from there. Same with the skinny, 200 meter long middle section of the warship.) A large, perhaps "spinal mount" weapon port in the front indicated that along the center axis, and at least at the very bow, they could examine it from the inside. Lastly there was a cluster of square-looking armored ports about 75 meters from where they were, most reminiscent of large missile launch cells.

One thing that would be fairly noticeable by now is the formation of the hull. The outer armor had formed one layer, but beneath that was a void-space, which would help mitigate damage from kinetic strikes (the so-called "whipple shield.") The material layer was observed to be 86 centimeters at some points, almost 2 meters at others. The void, similarly, ranged from about one to two meters. The void, perhaps, could extend the entire length and circumference of ship, essentially wrapping it in a layer of cold blackness. Black until the light from the helmets besieged it, but even then such light did not penetrate too far into it. Who knew what could be there?

The Greywatch team jumped into a hole in the object and looked around. Their next order of business was to locate the other two teams before doing anything else.
------------
Meanwhile on the Shadowfoot, John tapped his fingers against his seat. The Greywatch Sniper Communications Net was down for rebooting, thus there was no instant comms system other than the Drones, and the FM sure as hell couldn't be trusted to tell the Council what he'd found. The Pressure Space Rift systems were down as well due to massive upgrades being done to the geneerators. The ship he was using didn't even have a PSR generator, thus the Shadowfoot had no FTL forms of travel. This was discomforting, especially to a Greywatch crew. John got up, "If you need me I'll be in my quarters writing up a report, prepare for an info burst to Greywatch." The crew nodded as he left, the Drone on the bridge stepped aside and then took a seat in the Captain's chair. "In the meantime I will possess control." It said in a deep, nuetral voice. The other officers gave a concerned look before returning to their duties.

The ship was silent and cold, and without gravity. Disorientation was possible in its dark, alien corridors.

Suddenly, there was the faint, echoing sound - a banging, like someone hitting a hatch somewhere with their fist, or perhaps a hammer. It came from far away. It was hard to tell where it came from, but soon the Greywatch team and anyone else in their vicinity heard it.

It seemed to be coming from the thin, central section, hundreds of meters away.

"Report." Said the captain to the crew, he could hear and see everything due to their special heltmets. A Drone nodded, "There must be atmosphere of some kind, that is the only way one would be able to hear sound." The captain shrugged, "Yes, we know. Can you identify?" One of the droids looked around, "Sir, it would seem to be two objects coliding repeartedly." "You mean like banging? The sound qualiy here is terrible without SCN." "Affirmative captain." The captain nodded, "Move forward." The group started to move towards the source of the sound.

Keela and the others of the squad glanced towards the Greywatch team, but did nothing aside from a cursory once-over with their lights and a nod of recognition. Nichole climbed though the hole ahead of them, followed by Ssskrill and Jake, and finally the kitsune Warrant Officer herself, motioning for the Setulan to follow. The sound was strange, as there was no atmosphere for it to travel though, and it was not coming though the secured link any of the four shared with each other or the Republic Guardsmen.
How, then?
It had been proven it was impossible for sound to travel without a medium. Perhaps some sort of highly advanced machine was augmenting vibration and tricking the ear into believing it actual noise? Such a device would be extremely valuable for the use it could have. Keela had been going to send her team to explore what she guessed were torpedo pods to see if any munitions remained, but this noise was an irresistible attraction. Just ahead of the Greywatch team the Xiscapian team moved wearily towards where it was estimated the noise was emitting from.
Jake stepped up to the wall and began hitting it lightly in synchronization with the banging. If there was an alien life form behind there, or a alien droid, it should know it wasn't alone. If they could make this so, it would be the first step of FC protocol communication.

The Greywatch team moved forward, weapons out, and continued down the hall at jogging speed. Each member was more-or-less emotionless and didn't pay any attention to anyone else. They simply wanted to find the source of the sound and move on.

The banging stopped. Dust that had been kicked up and away from the faintly vibrating hull now hung about, emphasizing the sudden emergence of true silence. A strange pall settled about the area.

Then it started again, louder somehow, seemingly desperate, but now there was signs of patterns. 1... 3... 5... 7... 11...

It stopped briefly.

And again: 1...1...2...3...5...8...

Apparently the entire ship was not in vacuum, and there was something alive making its presence known. Something not far away. Eventually they could pinpoint the source: a sealed-off section, the hatches still tight and apparently operative.

The airlock here was ancient, and alien, but recognizable and perhaps functional. There was room for four human-sized individuals to enter through this area at a time; the others would have to wait in turn, lest they bypass the airlock and pressure hatch and possibly decompress someone - or something - which was clearly alive....

The Greywatch team continued to move forward until coming to the airlock, "Blocked," said one of the Drones. A droid looked at the door, "An antimatter charge would get us through." Another Drone looked back, "Too much colateral damage, whatever is on the other side, we wish to study it. Not kill it."

Inside his helmet Jake's face screwed up in concentration as he listened. "Some kind of code?" he muttered over his link. "Two...two...two...then four. Then going steady, but a sudden jump in two, and then three from that..." He shook his head, then twisted it as he looked about to Nichole, who was signaling the group. "I've found something," she announced over their link. They trotted over and she pointed. "An airlock, probably leading into the room with the noise. It looks like, in our current armor, we can only send in four at a time or risk jamming up and causing whatever might be inside to decompress."
Keela looked around to the Greywatch team, a drew carefully in the dust on the wall their transmission frequency so they could join in. Ideally, one person from each of the three teams would enter the airlock, rather than the Xiscapians grabbing all the glory-or death-for themselves. She waved a hand to the Setulan Guards to advance up to them quickly. They should be in on this too, and she assumed the Major had radioed back to his Captain and told the man everything that had occurred.

"Captain," said one of the Drones, "Is visual quality sufficient?" The captain came back, "Yes, it is. Why?" The Drone looked over at the frequency code, "Please integrate this frequency into all comms systems. It would be faster than us doing it separately and would allow you to listen in on our conversations more effectively." The captain nodded to comms, "Make it so." With a nod it was done. The team looked away from the airlock to the Xiscapians, a single Drone headed towards the room.

Keela was right in her assumption that Major Loganhad been transmitting continuesly to Miken. He looked at the new arrivals with some degree of wariness-a few of them seemed to move far more fluidly then was entirely natural for a flesh and blood creature. He shook off the feeling. He listened to the Kitsune without saying a word, then gave a feral grin, hidden by his visor, when it suggested only one person from each group going into the hatch.
"Death or glory, eh? Works for me." He sent a quick message to Tempest, and nodded when a response was sent back.

"Alright. Tempest is ready to arm weapons and give support fire with six seconds notice." He shrugged out of his weapon harness and gave it to another one of the troopers, exchanging his rifle for a K-666 Devil. He quickly checked over the weapon, making sure that the belt feed connected to the hundred round magazine was not going to jam. He hooked two more hundred round boxes to his armor so they wouldn't float away.
"Let's do it, Warrant Officer."

"Let's do it, Warrant Officer."
Keela nodded, pointing to the Drone. "I guess that's they're rep, so we're with him." As she strode forward to the airlock hatch she began to bark orders. "Nichole, I want you covering the door, Ssskrill you're our mover and shaker if things go wrong, Jake, watch our flanks-"
"I'll certainly be watching yours, Warrant Officer." Jake snickered.
Keela sighed and allowed herself the luxury of a roll of her luminous yellow eyes. "I could reprimand you for insubordination, do you know that Sergeant? Do your job and I might not have you clean out the waste facilities on the Remembrance."
"But we've got automated systems for that!"
"And they can be redirected or shut down for special occasions!" Keela growled. She glanced to Logan. "Lock and load, Major." she murmured as they stepped up to the airlock. It hissed as Keela grappled and turned it before slowly disengaging to open to the decompression room beyond.

"It would be perferable for both of you to stop bickering. We must press on before concentrating on internal affairs." Said one of the droids, it was a typical response. If it sensed hostility, it pointed out logic. The Drone on the other hand only looked back but didn't say a word. The rest of the Greywatch team nodded to the single Drone and readied weapons.

Logan racked the slide back on his weapon, chambering a round. Keela opened the hatch with a hiss, and Logan covered the enterance with his support weapon. The visor in his helmet added light to the environment, allowing him to see without any lights in the chamber. He was the first through, training the gun around the decompression room. He trusted that the Xiscapians and Greywatch troops were good enough soldiers to watch his ass in case something jumped out behind him.

Moving forward in the full confidence that his impromptu allies would watch his back, he hunkered down and waited for them to follow through, scanning the entire room.

The Drone followed behind him closely and quickly without a word or a sound.

Nothingness. Just another cubical chamber in the derelict, another mysterious emptiness....

A noise and movement startled Logan. Someone was *here* and seemed to loom out of the dimly lit environment toward him.

An alien. Blue skin, thick, cord-like greenish hair, silvery eyes. But it was unarmed, and seemed on the verge of death, grasping for help instead of attack. Surprisingly, it began to speak: and in language that Logan understood perfectly.

"Water," the alien gasped. "I need water!"

Logan jumped back, shocked by the sudden appearance of the creature, and had about 4.5 lbs of pressure on a 5 lb trigger before he stopped himself.

"Good lord..." he breathed, looking at the...thing...that grasped towards him.
"Cover me, blow this thing away if it looks like a trap," he told the others with him. Slinging his Devil, he drew his pistol in one hand and detached a spare water bottle from his armor with another. Keeping the pistol firmly centered on the things forehead, he cautiously extended the hand with the bottle.

"My name is Major Logan, of the Republic of Setulan. My companions are Warrant Officer Keela of the Kitsune Empire of Xiscapia, and..." He addresed the Greywatch droid without taking his eyes off of the alien.
"Well, he can introduce himself, as I have no idea who he is. Just that he comes from Greywatch."

The alien took the offered water bottle, opening it and unceremoniously pouring it down his (its?) throat with an audible glug-glugging. After a brief moment the alien sat, panting, and moved its head in what might have been a gesture of gratitude.

Then he vomited up most of the water. Disgusting, since there was no gravity here, even if there was visibly a bit of atmosphere. The alien made as if to grab the floating globules of upchucked water. "Water," it said again, although now it wasn't clear if he was asking for more, or simply saying the word...

The Drone stepped aside as the alien appeared and was calm even though Logan wasn't. The Drone was wielding a standard plasma rifle, in case something went wrong but made no signs of being worried or, for that matter, even caring that there was a life-form there. It simply stepped to the side as the alien vomitted, then it spoke through its suit, "You should probably find an area with gavity systems before trying to drink. Otherwise your stomach may not be able to handle the new mass you're putting in it." The Drone spoke with a monotone, uncaring and unemotional.

"Gravity," the alien responded, in a dull voice almost as emotionless as that of the Drone. "Gravity... well there isn't any, hasn't been for - "

He looked around him, his silver eyes seeming to narrow in sudden suspicion. "Gravity." he repeated. Then he began to exhale in short bursts. It took a moment to realize this was laughter. "Where are you?" he asked after a moment. It wasn't clear who the alien was talking to.

"He may be delusional at this point..." Muttered the Drone. "If we could get blinking system up over here we could take him to our infirmery. Or yours, ours is probably too small..." The Drone looked to the others in the room.

Keela had nearly blasted the alien away herself, and stood slightly to the side and flank of Logan, regarding the alien with a look of deep suspicion. There was something she didn't like about it, something that tingled at the edge of her mind, a sense of wrongness. This whole situation suddenly felt bad, like they'd walked into a trap, or were teetering before a deep pit with no bottom. Outside the room Nichole shifted uncomfortably, infinitely more aware than Keela of this and wary for any sign of what she feared might be here. Keela didn't so much as twitch, but over her secured link she spoke to Logan. "Don't give him any more water. It doesn't seem to be helping," she wiped away the contents of the alien's stomach from her face plate, "and we need to know who he, she or it is and why they are here."
Aloud she spoke in answer to the xeno's question. "Here...on this ship. With you." Not an elegant, but simple and honest answer.

Logan clicked his vox once, which was a standard way to say affirmative nonverbally. He assumed she would pick up on it. Holstering his pistol, he unslung the SAW again and spoke to the drone.
"Ours would certainly be large enough. But we don't know anything about this character...for all we know, anything we might do might kill it. Besides," he added, "I'm not sure moving him would be the greatest idea. He might have friends who would object." He had already started to scan the room again. He wouldn't be surprised twice.

In the corridor, the sergeant in charge of the remaining guardsmen noticed the slight twitch from one of the Kitsune. The slight movement, the sign of discomfort, was more than enough to get his own paranoi moving at high gear. Elite troops don't just fidget for no reason. Using Guard battle cant, he told the rest of the squad to stay sharp and keep looking for anything out of the ordinary. He opened a one-to-one vox link with the Xiscapian who had moved.
"You ok?"
Normally he wouldn't have bothered, but years of leading the elite Republican Guardsmen had ingrained habits into his brain. Chief amongst them was keeping moral high.

"Ship," the alien repeated. It even nodded. Its mannerisms were eerily familiar, for an alien.

"The Kof-Mojy!" he exclaimed. "But there's only one of you... each of you... it must be past lunch-time!"

The alien groaned, clutching at its head, and then let go again as if nothing had happened.

Then: "Have we been boarded? Oh, aliens! I am a prisoner!"

The alien gasped again, and then began plucking at a very fine, almost invisible layer of facial hairs. These were more like normal, mammalian hairs, instead of the rope-like strands of green which sprung from its head. He rocked back and forth, almost losing control in the null-g environment. He plucked faster, clearly removing some of these extra-fine whiskers.

"Water," it said again, calmly.

The Greywatch team stood perfectly still and silent, almost as if nothing here was actually happening. They seemed completely calm, most of that was due to the fact that none of them really possessed emotion. Drones typically made people very uncomfortable due to their physical appearances but of course the suits prevented anyone from really seeing them. A Drone had noticed the Xiscapian move but did nothing, instantly, 49 other caste members were aware that his new alien made the Xiscapian nervous. There was no telling what the FM would do with knowledge so apparently useless but then again, the FM was no ordeinary group. The droids were a little more unaware of such small things, they were more concentrated on the alien than anything else.

The Drone with the others nodded, "True and duly noted."

The alien drew himself up, seeming to gain some semblence of composure. "I accept prisoner status. Please do not harm me. I have never seen an alien before."

Then, almost like a child, it's manner changed completely again, the voice indicating eagerness, even enthusiasm. "They say you don't exist. They say also that you're very hostile and wish to exterminate us all. I don't know which I'd rather believe...!"

[OOC: Going out downtown for now. Might be a good time to inform you that your ship's sensors still don't detect any power sources aboard the ship, such as from atmospheric processors or heat generators...]

"You ok?"
Unseen from inside her armor, Nichole bit her lip. Damn. If she'd moved enough to be noticed, it was far too much. Because of her intense proximity to the supernatural and psychic, being what she was, whatever was happening here, or had happened, or would happen, was messing with her. It was the sixth sense equivalent of being jabbed continuously with a sharp needle. She felt it, only slightly but was very much aware of it. And all these warm bodies around with all the blood pumping though their veins wasn't helping...
She shook her head. "Yeah, nothing's wrong." she muttered. Anyone would be able to see that it was the contrary, but she wasn't about to admit to feeling something only her immediate superior could. People gave you funny looks when you started talking like that.

Keela raised her eyebrows, speaking over her link. "Kof-Mojy? What the hell is that? This guy's not in the same time we are, he's not stable. I'd suggest we keep moving, but keep a guard or three back here. We can't help him and he can't help us."

"If we are to leave him a droid would be best." Said the Drone in a monotone.

Logan nodded in agreement and continued to cover the alien.
"That would be fine with me. We could bring the majority of our troops into the chamber when we advance. They can watch this joker, and besides, I like the idea of heavier firepower being close at hand if we need it. Leave a few troops as backstop outside."

The sergeant gave the Kitsune a sharp look, but he didn't press the issue. She would deal with the nerves as she saw fit. As long as she could fight at crunch time, he was ok with it.
Regardless, he continued to scan more actively than before...

"I will go ahead then, I am expendable. I do not matter, it is best for me to die first if there is a trap." Said the Drone without emotion, this was the purpose of all Drones. Then the captain's voice came over the radio for everyone to hear, "That's a negative, I'm gonna need you guys later, most likely. You are under my orders to act in a self-preserving manner." The Drone nodded, "Affirmative captain."

"Alright," Keela looked around, "but if this guy tries anything try and take him alive, will ya? If he comes 'round to a right state he might have info we'll want. The rest of you lot, let's move. We've got a lot of ground to cover out there." She turned around and trotted out the door, signaling for her squad to come with her before they became only so many bobbing lights in the darkness. Onward, now, to investigate the weapons banks.

"Affirmative." Said the Drone to Keela, "We like to learn, we will not kill him." The Drone walked forward into the blackness, its armor lit up, blue lights around its neck, on its helmet, gauntlets, boots, arms, legs, and back. "You have no reason to friendly fire me, I am quite recognizable."

Logan nodded and, after giving one last look at the alien, hurried after the rapidly retreating figure of the Kitsune. He squinted at the Greywatch drone, and his helmets auto senors adjusted to it after a few moments.
"Let's see if he has any friends."

Quietly, shaking its head sadly, the alien muttered to himself. "Worms. Worms. All the way through. Big ones, fat ones, little ones. No friends, just worms."

--

They were missile cells, squarish, armored ports in the hull beneath which the 8-meter long missiles were contained, maintained, and eventually launched. At least one supposed they were launched; none remained of the 12.

By the design it was clear they were cold-launched, perhaps kicking off away from the ship before firing their engines.

The missile launch bay was surprisingly wide, and the equipment here suggested that the cells were meant to be reloaded. That meant there could be more missiles stored somewhere.

Fired not in anger, not in intent, but in confusion... screaming, he tries to block the access panels and is literally torn apart by the teeth of two crewmembers... laughter.

Keela sensed it; the blood and death that imbued this area. Others might, too, but if so few wanted to admit it. Neither blood nor death was alien to the idea of a warship; they'd all seen their fair share. But this was different imagery, chaotic and dream-like. Perhaps a fiction.

Until she saw the rusty red stains of blood by one control console, spattered and spread as if someone had been torn apart by wild animals.

The sense was stronger, growing all the time. It made Keela and Nichole paranoid, flashing their lights into every slight shadow, fingers brushing their triggers. It was getting in the way, blocking up their logic, distracting them from their task at hand.
Nichole groaned aloud, evident though the communications link to everyone. This was not standard behavior: If you made a sound, it was a warning, order or signal. There's these images...in my head. Where?
Keela closed her eyes for a moment. This place had a history of death and bloodshed. It was natural on a warship of course, but this was as if it had been boarded, or more likely, the crew had...gone insane? Been infected by a strange disease? It was not unheard of: The Imitators, of course, not to mention the Flood. But neither could survive the cold vacuum of space, and her suit was specifically designed to repel the Imitator disease or any other parasite...
It took her a moment to understand what she saw. Blood. All over the console: The same one she'd seen in the brief, violent image of the alien being attacked by his brothers. Frozen and dried and long since ceased to be dangerous, but clear evidence that some foul fate had befallen this vessel from the inside out.
"Blood!" she gave a half shout, half yelp, pointing at it. She motioned for the others to move over as she ran a finger over the crust, coming up with a little bit of the crimson stuff on the tip. She removed a sample bag from her belt and put it inside, sealing it, and then nodded to the console as the others approached. "Carbon life form, probably the same as our mad friend back there." She didn't mention her visions. Neither, as she trotted up, looked warily unseen behind her visor, did Nichole.
"Looks like some poor bastard really bought it." Jake muttered.

The Drone, in a moment of emotion, placed its hand on Keela's shoulder, "Are you able to function at 100% capacity? Something is bothering you." It said over an open broadcast. It then looked at the blood, "A past conflict..." It lifted its weapon and readied it just in case. "We need to move forward."

Major Logan was getting steadily more paranoid as the exploration of the ship continued. The Kitsune was starting to get twitchy, and the drone...well, the drone was wierd in its own way. But it was the Kitsune that concerned him. If they went crazy, it was all their asses.
Looking at the blood, he felt calmer. Regardless of what had left it there, the old adage "If it bleeds, we can kill" was as true in space as anywhere else...and if it left that much blood, it could certainly be killed. And Major Logan excelled at killing things.

"My question is, where have the bodies gone? And what was all that talk about worms?"

During his speech, he had never stopped examining the room, and what he saw did not fill him with confidence. Lots of blood, his allies starting to bug out, and a wacky alien muttering insanely filled his mind with visions of death. The last thing they wanted was a friendly fire incident. He turned to the Warrant Officer.

"Easy, Warrant. Let's keep our fingers out of the trigger guards when we aren't moving. I don't want any accidents."

"My question is, where have the bodies gone? And what was all that talk about worms?"
"Only one way to find out." Said the Drone, smiling behind the mask of its helmet. "I'm operating partly under your orders. Give me something to do, within reason, and I'll do it."

"Hooah," said the Major with a smile that was hidden by his visor, "I like your spirit. But we need to stick together for now. Getting seperated would be a good way do be picked off like ripe fruit, and I feel like you could bring some serious firepower to any fight we might get in."

"Affirmative, concentrating on group work as of now." Muttereed the Drone. "Correct, I can indeed deliver heavy firepower to anything hostile we face." The Drone was carrying a plasma rifles after all, it also had several grenades and, if the situation called for it, an energy cannon. Of course, the cannon couldn't be seen on its body, it was a special storage unit that special Greywatch units carried around.

"Are you able to function at 100% capacity? Something is bothering you."
"It is inconsequential," Keela sighed. "I'm alright."
"Easy, Warrant. Let's keep our fingers out of the trigger guards when we aren't moving. I don't want any accidents."
"I said I'm fine," Keela growled, perhaps a bit harsher than she had intended. "Let's just see if we can find whatever made this," she waved her hand vaguely though the vacuum to encompass the spray of gore, "mess." And hope like hell it doesn't find us instead. she added silently. Stepping around the console the kitsune cautiously shined her light into the inky blackness, the hulking form of Ssskrill covering her from behind. Nichole still stood by the blood stain, staring as if transfixed. Jake, however, acted as though he was bored, and though one could not see his face, it was evident the Halfbreed was less than entertained. He slouched against a bulkhead, rifle pointing into the unknown depths of the ship, waiting for the last of his squad to advance so he could move in behind them.

The center of the ship contained a mass driver running along the drive axis. The coils were long uncharged, but the few remaining large sabot in the ammunition cache told of solid penetrators, probably driven at least 1% the speed of light; more depending on the power supply.

The weapon's small fire control station was centered amidst a mass of machinery, including electrical equipment designed to channel high-power from somewhere aft. Coolant tanks throughout the system were long emptied.

Still no bodies, living or dead.

As the team advanced through the ship they all began to feel at odds with their environment. The only light sources were what they brought with them, and the jutting pieces of debris played tricks with the light and eyes. Shadows jumped around in the dark. Thermal and other sensors were less fooled, but the fact that they showed so little that could explain what happened here was unnerving too.

--

Behind them, at the perimeter of the pressurized section, the alien prisoner sat uncomfortably fidgeting as he was surrounded by the rest of the visitors' guard contingent. He muttered to himself, making not much sense.

"...arches, arches and arches... structurally sound... hull compromised... getting inside... do you have any more water? ... they didn't, no. They didn't know. It made some sort of sense at first... in the end... two, too many of everything... not enough of some... thing... fuel? I can't... it's all... shh! Do you hear that? Be quiet! No, I don't hear it... but it's there... it was there... is it there? I remember the field..."

It was a good thing the captain had decided to send in Drones and Droids, nothing phased them. They went through more-or-less empty enviroment, they saw what appeared to be movement, they didn't bother to react. If anything worthwhile was there, they'd encounter it eventually. The leading Drone readied its weapon though, just to be safe.

The troopers guarding the alien were starting to get freaked out by its insane ramblings. The Sergeant, noticing this, reprimanded them sharply in the manner of sergeants across the universe. The muttering ceased, but the wariness was still there. He shot a look at the Greywatch troops, completely impassive, and wondered what the hell they really were.

***

Logan was slightly twitchy, but if he had learned anything at the Fist, it was that the commander was always calm. He actually ranked the Xiscapian (assuming they used the same general system Setulan did) and had no idea about the Greywatch drone, even though the team was being led by mutual agreement. Regardless, he was an officer, and for the sake of the troops, he acted as though he was perfectly happy with the way things were going.
The visor on his helmet was starting to lose any coherency, so he switched the settings from a full color view to infrared, making everything green and black.
The team had entered a massive munitions bay, and huge ordnance was arrayed on the racks. He turned to his allies.
"These look like armor-busters...can't tell the type, though." He looked around and took a shuddering breath.
What the hell have we gotten into...

Moving though the decrepit starship was more like a diving expedition to a wreck on the sea floor than exploration of empty rooms. Dust swirled without gravity, bits of wreckage floated about in though the vacuum, and everything was utterly silent. The blackness held no fear for any of them: Kitsune had never been afraid of the dark, what with their night vision and hunter affiliation, and Ssskrill knew, without the aide of weapons or supernatural powers, he could take on most any being and pound them into a pulp. The lack of bodies was not disturbing or surprising, it was hardly expected for any living ones to show up, and the dead could have dissolved into dust or floated out holes or airlocks into space long ago.

It stands to reason, Keela told herself, if this ship is as ancient as I think there would be few clues as to what happened. It could have been virtually anything, storm, attack, disease. But who were the inhabitants of this craft? Where did they come from? What was their purpose? None of the consoles work, no one recognizes the language, the only living alien has gone mad...but I'm getting a sense of disturbance. There was violence here, something that made them turn on each other, but that doesn't explain the battle damage. So whatever happened, happened externally, a outside force came and did this to them. I'm not seeing how any more searching will uncover anything more than dust and frozen, dark rooms and corridors, and this place gives me the creeps.

Still she went onward, stopping briefly by the fire control station, before looking in on the munitions storage.
"These look like armor-busters...can't tell the type, though."
"There's only one way to find out." Keela said with a grin in her voice. Despite her surroundings, she liked explosives, and if these people at least used stuff that ripped large holes in things before detonating violently then she and they could identify.
"We should try and take a few back and test fire them, see what they do." she suggested. It could be incredibly dangerous, of course, as they had no idea what these weapons did, but Keela didn't think they were nukes or super torpedoes or anything like what they had back on the patrol...

"I don't understand why such a course of action is neccisary. If they happpen to be something incredibly powerful, we could be putting everyone inside and outside the ship in serious danger." The lead Drone said. "Pardon, my armor seems to be malfuctioning slightly." The Drone opened a panel on his wrist guard of its armor and began tinkering with the controls. "How troublesome, I do hope the others are not experiencing something similar."

The Major looked at the Kitsune for a good three seconds before laughing hard enough to make his ribs hurt.
"I like the way you think, Warrant. As long as it is your ship doing the firing, it's fine with me." He cleared his throat, and looking over the shells, sobered instantly.
"It didn't help, whatever it is. Something clobbered this ship. Hard."

"I don't understand why such a course of action is neccisary. If they happpen to be something incredibly powerful, we could be putting everyone inside and outside the ship in serious danger."
Keela shook her head. "You don't think like us, or at least you don't have our impulses and emotions. You wouldn't understand. But like the man said, these look like armor busters. They'll be fired away from any ships, once we check them for malfunctions, leakage, deterioration of coverings or warhead munitions, and so on. I doubt the have galaxy-destroying capabilities." She waved a hand. "But that's for later, if I get authorization."
"It didn't help, whatever it is. Something clobbered this ship. Hard."
Keela nodded grimly. "I wouldn't want to think about anything with enough power to decimate this ship." Or a lot of little things, perhaps. said a voice in her head.

The Drone nodded, "It is true that I don't have emotions. It's also true that at times like this I feel I never want to have them. While I too doubt they have galaxy destroying capabilities, I still think it is beyond risky without having someone try to find a computer that may tell us exactly what they are." The Drone looked around, "And a more pressing issue would be finding out what is causing the suit malfuctions." I do hope they know what they are doing. This all seems rather dangerous... espesially if the weapons have homing capabilities we don't know about. The Drone looked up at Keela, "What would we do if these weapons naturally lock onto targets? More importantly, do we know where the missile exits are? If not we may accidentally hit one of our own ships." It was odd for a Drone to show this much concern for everyone else but it was in survival mode. The Drone then opened a secure channel to its ship, "Sir, I'll be forwarding you some pictures and information from my suit in a few minutes..."

Logan grimaced.
"This reminds me..." he began, thoughtfully, "Setulan lost almost all of its records in the Great War, but a few of the Naval officers, or to be specifc, a few of the Task Force Admirals (who are at least a ninety or so), talk about a space hulk that was found drifting in system. They sent a few teams aboard, but none ever left again. They ended up blowing it to pieces." The drone broke his reverie with his comment about his armor malfunction.
"Do you actually need to breath?" he asked with a wry grin. "But he...it?...does make a good point. For the time being, I think we should leave them be. It's not like they are going anywhere. And if they do, we have more problems then a tracking armor buster."

The Drone looked up from the control pad on its gauntlet, "Hmm, no, we do not need to breath. However, if my visor goes back and forth between different settings, aiming could be a little difficult. I'm wondering if there is some sort of magnetic or EMP field thtat could hindering the internal processors of the armor?" The checked its gun and looked through the scope, it then changed the scope into auto traget and looked at the others through it. Green triangles would go over them and the gun would automatically set itself to safety, the Drone turned off the autotarget and lowered the weapon. "My weapon is still functioning at full capacity. The auto-target systems recognize you as allies and will not allow me to fire at you. That's a good sign, at least I don't need to worry about accidental friendly fire."

"The warheads would be fired from an Xiscapian vessel," said Keela patiently. "far away from any of the ships gathered here. It is highly unlikely we will be able to locate a working computer on this ship, so really the only option would be to crack open one of them and see what's inside. Chances are, if we don't recognize whatever's in there, it'll be sent to a military weapons lab for analysis before any tests. We're not stupid," she sighed. "And I know Command would never allow anything that could harm any of the ships here." Except, possibly, the one we're on. she thought darkly. "But you said your suit was malfunctioning," she addressed the Drone, "in what way is it failing? No one on my team have reported any discrepancies."

"It seems the visor is going back and forth between multiple visor settings. Heat sensors, electrical output sensors, night vision... these settings seem to be going on and off at random times. At first I though nothing of it but I think that there is something on the ship causing it. However, the rest of my team has reported nothing. And my weapon's settings are fine, as I said, it will not allow me to fire at any of you." The Drone continued to tinker with the suit systems. "Ah, I think I may have found the problem, please, give me some time. A minute should be sufficient."

The Drone's sensor display made a barely-inaudible (to the Drone) click and seemed to be working perfectly again.

Multiple bipedal life forms on the thermal and infrared scan, all around them, moving along the deck as if there were gravity...

- and then they were gone. Just a derelict ship section, hulks of un-used ammunitions for a gun that hadn't fired in quite some time, darkness, debris, the other team members, biological and otherwise.

But it was quickly obvious none of the other team members had seen it. It had only been for a second or so.

The Drone stumbled back for a moment, What? What just happened? There was no malfunction... nothing... the suit was working... no, this... what is... this? The Drone's hive-mind became alive very quickly as 49 other Drones, some of whom were bck on the ship, were all trying to figure out what wa happening. "Something here is very wrong," the Drone muttered, makig sure the radio was disabled. It leveled its gun and looked around to see if anyone had seen what it had seen. "We should press on..." the Drone said in an unemotional voice after turning its comms back on, "There's much more to see."

Logan watched as the drone stumbled back, cover the room, and then intone that they should move on. What little emotion it had shown seemed to have dissapeared already.

"Yeah, lets do it." He took point again as the team kept moving.

ooc-sorry guys, I am going to be in North Carolina for three weeks, and will not be able to get on to the forum. I would understand if you could not wait three weeks, and ask Xiscapia if he/she would be kind enough to control my troops while I am gone.

OOC: I'll be assuming control of Setulan's forces for the time being, but I won't really be RPing them much. I'll try to leave character development and whatnot to Setulan if he comes back before this thread ends.
IC:
Keela cast a sharp look to the Drone as Logan and his men moved past her, suspicious. She hadn't heard what the Drone had said over his disabled radio of course, but it was obvious he was either uncomfortable or experiencing problems. The same as me. What had the strange being seen, felt or heard?

Disturbed, she followed as the Setulan soldiers took point, flanked by her team. This ship was affecting more than just her and Nichole, then, but how could the Drone have sensed something now and not before? Unless the images before were not something he could have seen, and whatever had happened to him she did not have the capacity to see? Above all, why did she see what she saw?

Residue from particularly significant events and/or strong emotions in some places was not uncommon, the past melding momentarily with the present for those able to sense such things before melting away. It was theorized that these "echoes" stayed long after the events had passed, those who had participated were dead, and even the landscape around them had changed. Powerful occurrences did not fade quickly, nor, it was suspected, did they ever vanish fully. So it was clear, whatever had happened here, had been felt though multiple mediums and was visible to more than any one person or race.

The Drone, followed by its team, got behind the Xiscapians without a word. None of the other Drones were the same caste as the one who'd experienced the problems and thus their minds were not bonded to the leader's. The lead Drone said nothing of the event to anyone and continued forward without word. It was still trying to comprehend just what it had seen, other Drones in its caste were going through archives to find any clues. The lead Drone looked at Keela but then looked away again. The error, no matter what it was, wasn't yet worth bringing up.

Finally they came to the ship's main electric power generator. Nothing particularly unusual in it's design - a MHD system leeching off the main fusion drive reactor. What was unusual, at least to Keela, was that the system appeared to be undamaged.

Reports of the other explorers confirmed that, in fact, much of the ship was basically undamaged. The hull breeches had not killed it, owing to the vessel's compartmentalized and rugged design. Although there was wear and tear from lack of maintenance, the only major obstacle to getting it operational again was a lack of various fuels.

The main propellant tanks were empty, but uncompromised. The reactor was similarly undamaged, but emptied of its helium-3 and deuterium.

If the ship could get moving under it's own power, that would save the Xiscapians from having to figure out a way to move a multi-million ton object out of the way before it slammed catastrophically into the colony.

"Strange," Keela ran her hands along the main generator. "If there was a battle, you'd think this would have been targeted, or at least suffered damage from an surge. But nothing, it seems fine." She looked to Jake, who stood a ways behind her, speaking into her transmission comm. "How do things look in propellant chambers?" Ssskrill's voice came back, deep, thick and laden with static. "Der is no more fuels to be had, Warrant Officer," he reported, "but de tanks 'ave not been blown open, and me don't detect any holes." But what kind of fuel did they use? Keela wondered. "What about you, Private Nichole?" she asked to the vampiric kitsune in the reactor room. "Same here," the Xiscapian reported back, "it appears to be in working order, but all the materials used to power it were either removed or destroyed long ago. Scans detect trace amounts of helium-3 and deuterium, so if we can get some of that shipped in from the colony, along with fuel, we might stand a chance of moving this thing instead of destroying it."
"Moving it?" Keela said, eyebrows raised behind her helmet visor. "Going to need a lot of fuel to power it, but if we can alter it's trajectory, or better, stop the damn thing, our mission will be complete." Mostly...but I'm not leaving until I find out what the hell happened here.

The Drones and Droids looked the generators up and down. "This would be amazing to study... though it's in your space. I doubt even if we could that you would let us...." The lead Drone said to Keela as it moved forward.

Keela raised a single finger. "Ah, but it's not actually in our space. Yet. True, this thing is set to collide with the sun of our nearby colony, but as it is now this...ship, I guess, is still outside of our borders. For now it's under our possession, but whether you would be allowed to study it in any case," she shrugged, "is not up to me. Certainly more hands and fresh minds would be welcome, but I can't speak for my superiors."

"Move it? Move it out of the way? Where is the fun in that?" Logan gave a wry smile and shot a look at the Warrant Officer. From his short time with her, the one thing he had picked up for certain was that she liked the idea of massive deep space explosions. Then again, who didn't? He looked around at the engine chamber deep in thought. He kept his troops in a tight perimeter-they didn't know anything about ship engines, and he wanted some heavy firepower in close.

"I don't really know about engines. We use a contained plasma reaction to power our ships. This is totally alien to me...but if I may say so, I'm not sure I would want to pilot this ship. Turn on those engines, and who knows what you wake up?"

"Really?" The Drone said with a hint of suprise in its voice, "I see. Well, it would be an honor to see how this thing works... it looks like we could learn a lot from it... however, I do respect whatever decision your higher-ups make."

"Move it? Move it out of the way? Where is the fun in that?"
"True," she gave a slight laugh. "But I have the feeling that the government would rather get it's hands of this than destroy it. There might be a nice bonus in it for me, or a promotion. As awesome as it would be to see the whole thing light up like the galaxy's biggest firework, I'm in a hazardous line of work, and I intend to make it to retirement."
"...This is totally alien to me...but if I may say so, I'm not sure I would want to pilot this ship. Turn on those engines, and who knows what you wake up?"
"Paranoid much?" she teased him, but felt uneasy at the prospect. The man was right...maybe more right than he knew. "I doubt we'll attract anything if we haven't already, and what have we got to be afraid of? More crazy blue alien dudes?" she said aloud, trying to stomp down her own fears.
"...however, I do respect whatever decision your higher-ups make."
"Really?" she said in a dry tone. "I don't, but that's typical insubordination for ya."

The Drone looked at her and then back at its team, "Well forgive me, that concept is not one I typically follow. I do as I'm told without question, as is the nature of someone who is expendable."

Logan smiled, but there was no mirth in his eyes or his voice.
"We both know, warrant, that paranoia is what keeps you alive out here."
He walked over to the drone and gave it a friendly pat on the shoulder.
"I like this guy. You would be one hell of a stand up comedian." Turning around, he flipped his visor through different settings before returning it to infrared. It was the most clear in this shit-ass ship.

"We both know, warrant, that paranoia is what keeps you alive out here."
Paranoia is a comforting state, she thought to herself, it allows you to think you matter enough for someone else to give a shit. Unfortunately, whatever made short work of this ship might care about us, and not in the loving way...
Keela didn't say anything aloud, though. Logan was correct, once again. If you let your guard down for so much as a second in enemy territory or a combat situation, you could end up dead faster than you could blink. She looked at the Drone out of the corner of her helmet visor before turning her attention back to the fuel cells.
"So what to you guys say? Should we try to move this thing now, or keep exploring the rest of it to see what else we can find? According to Command, we've got a week of time to burn just poking around, but if we can stop this ship we'll have all the time in the world."

The Drone was confused by Logan's comment, I do not understand human but if it makes you feel better then that is good... it thought. One of the other Drones raised an eyebrow behind its helmet, "Really? I did not know paranoia could keep one alive..." The lead Drone looked to Keela, "If you'd like, my team and I could push forward and alert you if anything interesting is up ahead..."

Logan considered the options that the team had. Push forward, go back. Put that way, there really was no question as to the path they must take.
"We must push on. If we just blow this thing away, who knows what we are destroying. For all we know, there are more of those goofy blue alien things, and if they have other ships out there, they would not be to thrilled at our actions." he sighed inaudibley. "Let's try to find something to stop this thing. Who knows, maybe the things that trashed this ship are gone." He said the last statement without much hope-things never worked out that well.
"Drones, if you feel the need, you can take point...but I want a few of you in close, as well. If you all get ambushed and massacred, we will be up shit creek without a paddle." He looked to Keela to see what she thought.

OOC: Yay for the new ranks of poster
IC:

The Drones looked to Logan. The lead Drone was espescially curious about this statement, "How so? You all seem rather capable... though, if it makes you feel any better I will send one Drone and one Droid to the front." It looked at Keela and then back at Logan, "Will that be sufficient?"

"There's a lot more of you then there is us," Keela pointed out, "and being droids and Drones, respectively, you have a lot more endurance and can take more damage than us regular biologicals. If you all buy the farm, we'll be stuck in the middle of enemy territory without any of those fancy Cryptic abilities to help us out." She looked at Logan. "They should take point, and we'll follow it up behind. I doubt anything will be able to stand up to the firepower we've got here, and we need to stop this vessel. Maybe there's an emergency brake somewhere? Or a panel reading 'break glass to halt"?" She joked.

"Yes ma'am," The lead Drone said with a hint of a laugh. It signalled to the others in the group. A mech and the other Drone came forward. The lead Drone was behind them. "These two will take point, I stay with you, two mechs will be in back. Is that enough?"

Logan smiled as well.
"That would be sufficient, yes." He waved the drones forward. "Lets hope that the way to stop this is as simple as breaking some glass, because I have no idea how to control a space craft." He shot the Xiscapians a look. "Unless you have an ace up your sleeve?"

"Funny you should say that," the tall kitsune named Jake stepped forward, standing straight proudly. "Ace pilot, actually. If it's got a wheel, joysticks, neural interface or even handlebars, I can fly or drive it. Cor," he nodded to the empty fuel cells, "it has ta have gas in it first."

"Well, it certainly helps," Logan responded with a grin. He looked over the other Kitsune. "You fellows are rather handy to have around, if I may so say myself." He just hoped they fought as well as they did everything else, too.
"Let's move out. The sooner I get off this damn ship, the happier I'll be. At the least, I'll settle for some serious reinforcements."

The Greywatch units taking point began to move forwards a little. The lead Drone looked to Logan, "Whenever you're ready." The Drone then put a message out on a Greywatch channel, "Keep your guard up. If there is something suspicious, be sure to alert others before moving."

"We try to be useful," responded Keela dryly as Jake stepped back to group together with Nichole and Ssskrill. "But I doubt we can expect any reinforcements from our end, barring serious danger to us until this ship has been secured." She nodded to the droid and Drone on point. "Let's move, guys. We need to keep momentum, and this thing is huge. I'll just be happy if we can secure a route from the main gash in the outer hull to here."

"Move out," Logan sent over the Guard chanel. He nodded towards his companions. "Let's do it." Following the Greywatch troops once again, he shouldered his assault weapon.

[ooc: Sorry for my lagging..]

A Compartment Behind Them

The alien continued babbling. Recording devices picked it all up for later analysis, but for now it was clear that even he didn't know what he was saying.

Well... probably.

He was just repeating a phrase, as he often did. "Two ships, two ships, two ships." Droning.

Suddenly, he stopped, saying nothing. This didn't seem to phase the drones or droids present, but the Setulan sergeant looked immediately at their 'guest.' The alien returned the gaze, it's silvery eyes wide with... confusion?... alertness?... it was impossible to tell; maybe all of his race looked like that.

Then it spoke again, quietly. "They're coming."

Sensor displays flickered briefly. The sergeant felt some kind of exhilaration, like he was rushing on stimulants.

The alien, still watching him, repeated himself: "They're coming."

The displays flickered again. This time all nearby power units were interrupted for a split second as well. The sergeant could hardly believe his eyes, but the recorder confirmed it - the alien was completely gone. It was as if it had just disappeared that instant.

The sergeant was stood stock still for half a second before reacting. He knew the feeling coursing through his veins.
The combat high that you only felt when in mortal danger. He activated his vox link and called out a warning to all the troops in the compartment with him before activating his link to Major Logan.
"Sir, the Alien just dissapeared! He was mumbling about random crap before he seemed lucid, said 'they are coming', and he fucking dissapeared! Something is wrong, sir. Very, very wrong."

Logan stopped dead and pressed a hand to his ear to better hear his sergeant.
"Uh, guys...I think things are about to get interesting." He then went on to explain what had just happened to his squadmates.

"What the hell?" Keela switched to her internal link directly to the XIN Sorrow. "Hotel, hotel, this is Echo Lead, come in hotel, over."
There was a crackle of static. "We read you Echo Lead, five-by-five, what's the situation, over."
"Hotel, I need you to run a sweep of the entire area, including the entire mass of the object and all surrounding vessels. If there is any current power signatures, residue signatures, heat forms aboard the object other than that of the combined team or any radio or transmission waves incoming or outgoing aside from this, I want to know about it, over."
"Roger that Echo Lead, wilco, response in two, over."
"Echo Lead over and out."

Keela turned her external comm back on, speaking to the rest of the team now. "One of our ships is running a scanner sweep to see the if the alien's beamed to somewhere or somehow teleported himself out."

The Drones and thought amoungst themselves for a moment as the droids went on to begin scanning. "Scanning process initiated." Their eyes went blue as they began full scans for any odd energy signatures, heat signatures, other readings that could explain what had happened.
The lead Drone looked to the others, "We should press on. While this is indeed interesting... I doubt it will be the last of the odd happenings on this ship." The other Drone readied its weapon, "I want to get to find out who is pulling the strings here."

Logan keyed his vox.
"Sergeant, meet up with us ASAP. Haul ass, boy! I want my firepower in close." He nodded to the Drone.
"Damn right. Find them, and then feed them their own intestines. If they have any."

The lead Drone looked to Logan, "We will take the appropiate action when the time comes. While this is all out of the ordinary, we still haven't been attacked. So whether this is hostile or not is questionable."

"Yeah yeah, I know. Please, permit me my fantasies." He scanned the area as he spoke to the drone. "Now, I understand you're a robot and don't feel like sentient beings do, but I'm sure the Xiscapians would agree that something on this ship doesn't like us. Call it intuition."

Keela and the rest of the group nodded in near-unison. "Something bad happened here, sure the bloodstains and our mad, vanishing friend could just be from a system malfunction or industrial accident, but I doubt it. Everyone saw the damage on the outside, we all heard the ravings of that alien. I mean, c'mon: 'They're coming'? That doesn't sound ominous to you at all?" She shook her head. "It could be nothing, but this ship's way too big and I'm way too suspicious to think otherwise."

"You're right that I don't feel things the way you do. But, I am not exactly a machine... nor am I a cyborg. I suppose the proper term is 'a ghost with a physical form.' A difficult concept but it works." The other Drone and droid began moving forward slowly. The lead Drone started to follow but stopped and looked back at Logan, "It's obvious that there's something odd here... but I don't know if it can be deemed hostile... yet. I haven't been able to collect a sufficient amount of data to make that judgement."

Logan nodded.
"I understand...I think. Regardless, I hope you'll forgive me if I'm a tad trigger happy...Right now, I'd rather shoot first and ask later."

ooc-I'm not going to have the rest of the Guardsmen join the group until I know for sure Clomata wants them too, or if he would rather they all die messily.

Keela

Keela heard back from the Sorrow with the customary crackling receiver.

No sign of the alien, but there was now definitely a faint power reading further towards the drive section. Something was drawing current there.

Hotel also reported that it was difficult for external sensors to detect even the boarding party, presumably due to the sheer mass and density of hull material (there was no sign, anyway, of jamming or some kind of active interference.) This also made it virtually impossible to distinguish (for example) between life-forms aboard the derelict, and the alien they'd reported had never showed up on any scan to begin with.

The power source, in short, might not be as faint as it appeared on the Sorrow's scans.

OOC: The other soldiers and droids (I'm assuming there's a good two dozen or so all together?) formerly guarding the alien can start to head to join the main group if so ordered, but it would take a while to make their way through the ship to do so. Might be more efficient to have them explore other areas of the ship or just secure the route in/out. But at any rate yes, you have to consider most of those guys expendable as redshirts on an away mission. (The sergeant doesn't even have a name...!)

Keela listened with apprehension. Apparently the ship was so incredibly huge that even capital-grade scanners were having trouble penetrating it to discern anything at all. Despite being closer to the outer hull the alien they had seen and reported hadn't shown up on the sensors or scanner sweeps a all, which gave the kitsune Warrant Officer the now all-too-familiar chills. Of course, it was possible the alien didn't give off any heat signatures at all in any case because he(?) was built that way naturally, but Keela had never heard of anything like it. The power source deeper into the area of their current location drew her attention, though. Faint though it was, at least according to the Sorrow, something was still functioning after Qonn-knows-how-long on this dead vessel.

Keela told the rest of the group the report, finishing with, "and there's something in this section giving off weak readings, apparently deeper in. If there's a computer terminal still online I want to access it and find a way to configure any data inside for a dump into our systems. If not, anything still working after so long here is worthy of our time. My team is going on ahead. If any of you want to stay behind," she snorted, knowing they wouldn't, "we'll go alone if we have to. Your call."

She turned to the rest of the team who were now proceeding what was loosely defined as "forward", swiveling her head to see who was following. They would go without the Drone and droid point and rear-guard if needed, but Keela knew she would feel a hell of a lot safer if they were there. Not to mention Logan, who seemed to know what he was doing even with his trigger finger.

The Drone and Droid in front of Keela and her group continued taking point. They walked at whatever pace Keela's group moved at without question. The lead Drone waited for a moment before eventually moving forward a little. It looked to Logan quickly, "Shall I leave the rear guard to wait with you for your other men?" The two Droids that were serving as rear guard waited for an answer along with the lead Drone.
----------
Back on the Shadowfoot, John was getting a little impatient. He had long since returned to his quarters, a Drone stopped by his room whenever there was an update. John began to wonder if he should send in a second team to assist the first, it was risky considering the longer he waited the further the team was going in. There was no guaruntee that a second team would do anything anyway. But it might be worth a shot, in the end he decided to put the idea to rest... for now.

Logan considered it for a second before replying.
"You can uplink any knowledge with the rest of the your troops, right? Because if you can, then absolutely. We can have them form a secondary team and explore different parts of the ship."

***

The Sergeant had started moving his team towards the main party at what was a cautious, slow pace in the beginning, but something in his head was shouting run! Throwing most caution to the winds, he and his team hauled ass to the last location of the team. It would take a while to get there, but it would be worth it for the extra firepower.
Staff Sergeant Ursel had been in the Republican guard eight years. Always attached to a fleet ship, he proudly wore the insignia of the Guard Space Division on his left shoulder. He had served in one of the last real space conflicts the Republic had taken part in, flushing out the remaining loyalist vessels. And after that, he thought he had known fear.

But the fear he had felt then was nothing like the terror he had about what was on this ship.

The Drone nodded, "The droids would be best for that, they're uplinks can be established no matter what. Because myself and the other Drone aren't in the same caste, sharing knowledge between us would be a little more difficult, possible, but slower." The two Droids looked at their leader, the Drone gave a wave to them. The Droids looked to Logan, "We will be acting as support for your team until further notice." The Drone turned and with a final nod walked to catch up with the others.

Sergeant Ursel

The honeycomb of cramped, confining metal cubes made it impossible for the entire group to advance (or was that retreat?) very well. One, maybe two at a time could advance. There was a claustrophobic, paranoid aspect to this ridiculous architecture. Hatches after hatches, compartments after compartments, all just the same. No halls or companionways.

Suddenly he stumbled to a halt. The display flickered, and then went out. He heard the power cycling down. UV, IR, all spectrum of light turned to darkness, and all comm chatter blinked out, and all he could hear was his own breathing and the beating of his heart. He looked about him for the others but saw absolutely nothing.

Keela

This part of the ship was clearly engineering. Regular compartments had given way to large machinery around which work space was crammed. It should have been a more liberating experience to visit a (somewhat) less cramped area, but it only felt like... yet farther away from a good bed and a hot meal.

They had to pry open a partially sealed hatch, no easy feat.

The machinery in the room after was rather different from what they'd seen so far. A control console jutting out of the deck in front of it, and a rather spacious circular walkway all around. The chamber was tall, and more machinery continued visibly both up and below. In the center, perhaps the main part: a smooth cylinder about ten meters in length and two in diameter, with what looked like antennae of some kind, hooked into what seemed like rather heavy-duty power systems.

Some muffled swearing, groans of muscles straining and a few grunts of effort later they were in, Keela stepping though the broken hatch to peer around the inside. She stepped up to the walkway and leaned over to stare down at the machinery, then twisted her head to stare up at the spire of metal and tubes. The lights played crazily in the darkness as she stood back, looking at the console. "Is that what's giving off the reading...?" she wondered aloud. She walked up to it, passing a gauntlet hand over the surface, stirring up dust in a tiny cloud.

Meanwhile Jake was growing complacent, taking it for granted that they hadn't met anything more nasty than a blood smear and a mad xeno. A mad, disappearing xeno, coupled with his superior officer's strange behavior, should have kept him on his toes, but it didn't.
Jake was doing the most dangerous thing a soldier could in such a situation, apart from taking off his armor...
He was relaxing.
The battle-hardened Corporal knew this was foolish, but it wasn't something he was consciously aware of. All he knew was that he hadn't inspected the room fully for threats, even though the rest of the squad had. Why bother? This whole damn mission was just one huge waste of time.

The single Greywatch droid had a bit of a time getting through such tight areas but managed. The two Drones went through as quickly as they could, difficult but they did what they had to. Immediately after arriving in the new room the droid began starting scans of the area. There had to be something interesting here. The Drones, on the other hand, simply looked around and made sure there was nothing hostile in the area.

There was an audible 'click' as Jake, in a moment of foggy thoughtlessness, leaned against a seemingly unimportant console. The sound was followed by much more ominous ones - a grinding mechanical sound from nearby, a distinctly electrical 'zap' and the distant sounds of circuitry shorting out.

And circuitry powering on. Lights overhead flickered; an evil orange glow that maybe would have been brighter in better times.

The console hummed to life, and Keela could make out alien writing on it, and through the dust of the display, green-and-black characters in the same unknown language glowed.

The space near to the behemoth was quiet one moment, just a motley collection of stars and planets millions of miles away and yet still visible from their location. None of those around the starship would notice this of course, to them, space was only interesting if there was something in it. Therefore, more than one head would turn as a vessel suddenly appeared. Firstly, the long, pointed bow seemed to materialise out of nothing, then the rest of the ship appeared as a line light spread along the concealed hull, making it visible to those in the immediate area. The turrets and RLT banks along each side identified it as a warship, no doubt about that. The tri-engined design would also enable the Xiscapians at least to identify it, for the ship was not rare in their space. It was an Alversian Warship, specifically a Cruiser.

The vessel was a member of Alversia’s Scarlet-class of Cruisers. Vessels designed mostly for patrol, escort and battle with smaller vessels. It was not a warship in terms of a Battleship or a Dreadnought and it’s size reflected this, it was dwarfed by the monster of a ship that it now droned slowly towards. The name along the side read, APS Indigo and bore the identification number, AWC-12242-C

They had approached cautiously, under cloak, in case of an unwelcome guest and had instead found a small coalition of ships. One of which could be recognised as Xiscapian while the other two were unknown to the Democratic Republic.

Within the bridge of the vessel, a small crew stood and watched nervously as they drew closer and closer to the mystery vessel. On the bridge, Captain Samantha Harrison stared around at the crew who made up her third watch, the night shift. The junior Ensigns and Lieutenants hoping to gain experience before their exams would take place in Illesia City and from there, promotions would be handed out. Ironically, many of these Ensigns and Lieutenants were not much younger than she, the APN was still feeling the affects of the SASM war and many of her personnel were younger than they would have liked. As always, she wondered if she had made the correct decision in summoning the crew to the bridge but put those thoughts of insecurity behind her. They always led to indecision and that was not what a Ship’s captain needed. She turned instead to watch as the First Watch arrived on the bridge, one by one, woken from their slumber and summoned to the bridge, the senior crew.

First into the bridge was non other than her First Officer, Lieutenant Commander John Ashbourne also known as Steele to the rest of the crew. He was one of those who was many times Samantha’s senior, yet found himself serving a teenager. He was tall, imposing and wore the tunic that bulged with muscles. There was a large scar running from his left cheek to the right of his forehead. Old hands said he had gotten the wound in the 10th Danaversian War, from a shrapnel wound. There were other rumours that he had been approached first to take command of the Indigo but he had turned it down.

Next was her Flight Officer, Lieutenant Robert Culloden. He was a rarity on the ship because he was only a week older than Stacy herself. He was young, enthusiastic and, although he could be temperamental at times, there was no doubting he had talent. Even if he did treat the ship like a Student's bedroom sometimes.

The Tactical Officer was next and Stacy watched with pride as Nexus stepped onto the bridge. Nexus was another rarity in the People's Navy and that was because she was an Alumina. A race of humanoids who resembled Cats and had been travelling the stars when most other races were still in caves. They were telepaths and also formidably smart. They were also tall and Nexus had to stoop to enter the bridge, as she had to stoop to enter every room on the ship. Like the Alumina, she was cold and aloof but Stacy was proud to have one of only a handful who served in the APN on her ship.

Next up was Voss. Voss was yet another rarity as she was a Xiscapian, and thus could have joined her own Navy like her Brethren. However, her family lived on Alversia and so it was the People's Navy she had joined. Her long, blue hair flowed behind as she swapped places at the tactical console, her katana bumping slightly against her pale grey trousers. She was another telepath.

They were also formidable fighters and Samantha knew she could trust this motley collection as they exchanged places with the Ensigns and Lieutenants who made up the Third Shift.

“Report” Ashbourne demanded as he arrived next to her on the third of three tiers, with about four feet difference between the top and bottom tiers. The crew spread out into the various stations on these three tiers and began to process the information that confronted them.

“Well?” Samantha asked after a little pause, she was impatient to know what that ship was. Her Tactical Officer, Voss, just shook her head,
“We have no information on it, Ma’am” She reported from just below the Captain’s chair.

“Eh?” Ashbourne asked, “What do you mean we have no information? Is it a ship or not?”

“It is, Sir, but…”

“…good, work from there then” Ashbourne settled down in his chair to wait for developments from the rest of the crew. Samantha joined him.

“Might as well say hello” She muttered to Ashbourne. He nodded grimly and so she turned to Voss and dictated a message to the Xiscapian vessel, identified as the XIW Remembrance

TO: Xiscapian Warship Remembrance

This is Captain Samantha Harrison of the Alversian People’s Warship
Indigo, requesting an update on the situation.

‘Brief and to the point’ Samantha thought to herself, ‘All I can hope for is a similar answer’

On the bridge of the Shadowfoot, alarms began blairing as a new contact came into the scanner's sights. It didn't matter that the ship was docked, sensors were still capable of picking up something that dropped out so suddenly. The Drone watching the brdge turned to comms, "Prepare to send a message." It then looked to tactical, "Keep that group in sights."

Unnamed System,
183 Light Years Away

The warship Kitaan was on deep-space patrol when the supply ship brought new orders from command. Orders that Commander Egute was required to open in private with security measures taken. The Star Commander's visage appeared on his cabin console.

"Commander Egute of Warship D-34," the recording said, "You are to proceed directly to the star system indicated in your mission data file, to investigate the source of a transmission intercepted 23 days before now. That transmission is also included in your mission data file. Our best analysis indicates that it is not misinformation or false. Your objective is to confirm the source of the transmission, to investigate possibilities for the Autarchy to claim the vessel, and to return and report within five days. May you achieve success. In the name of the Warlord."

And he was gone. Egute almost warily looked into his data files. His eyes widened after hearing the message. The Kof-Mojy... can it be possible?

The Kitaan made jump twenty minutes later.

OOC: Be kinda hard to message the Remembrance at this range, old chap, seeing as she's back at base. However, the Command vessel here is the Sorrow, so I'll assume you transmitted to them ;).
IC:
Engine Room(?)...
The whole team jumped, weapons up and swiveling, as the lights buzzed faintly on, preceded by a electrical hiss and the groan of old machinery. Keela had her back turned to the console and was glaring at Jake, who was inspecting the console he's leaned against.
"I found the light switch," he announced, and with a roll of her eyes Keela turned back and noticed the console was running. "Found more than that..." she muttered, extracting a PDA from her suit and looking around for an interface port. Chances were she wouldn't find one, and there was even less of a chance of it being compatible, but for now she tried to access the console, looking over the buttons to see if she could ascertain their functions.
XIN Sorrow...
TO: Xiscapian Warship Sorrow

This is Captain Samantha Harrison of the Alversian People’s Warship
Indigo, requesting an update on the situation.
The message was received and the Captain looked over it for a moment and considered before responding.
TO: Alversian Peoples Ship Indigo
This is Captain Kull of the XIN Sorrow, short version of recent events is as follows: Object you see before you has been calculated on a trajectory to crash into Dolosus colony in approximately one month standard time. A team was sent to destroy it, but it was found this vessel had attracted the attention of several other nations, that of the Republic of Setulan and a nation called Greywatch. The decision was made to explore the vessel and postpone destroying it until more was learned. At present time a joint force of Greywatch, Setulan and Xiscapian teams are investigating the craft. Be advised: Xeno found onboard, but has since vanished. Determined to be psychologically unstable, possibly insane, but unarmed probably not hostile. Fuel cells have been found along with a reactor core to possibly power the vessel and allow it to be moved or stopped for further study. Proceedings are currently under the watch of Dolosus High Command.

OOC: Ah, that was it, the Sorrow ;D

Samantha sighed at the return message and looked over it again and again. If it was heading towards the colony and would hit it in a month, then perhaps some form of evacuation would be in order? Just in case the ship could not be destroyed in time. Of course, she did not voice this opinion in fear of looking foolish. She knew the Xiscapians were more than competent and something of that form was probably already implemented without her knowledge.
'Ah well' She thought, 'Best place myself under the Dossena high Command then'. She could have sent her own Marine team in to investigate but that would just complicate things further and there was no need for a forth team at the moment. So she would wait.

In the meantime, a new message was broadcast to the Xiscapian vessel,

TO: Xiscapian vessel Sorrow

We shall remain in position until our assistance is called for or we are needed
for service elsewhere. Until then, we are under the command of the Dossena High Command.

Captain S. Smith
APS Indigo
AWC-12242-C

The arrival of the new group was, discomforting. Even though they seemed to be friendly, or at least neutral. Still, new arrivals and new information from the unknown (and now comfirmed to be) ship suggested another team should be sent in. The Drone on the bridge ran the message by John, who was still in his room, and after ten minutes of discussion, they both decided to contact the Xiscapians.

Encrypted Message to Xiscapian ship: Sorrow

<Given what we've already found onboard that ship, we want to know if you'd be for or against us deploying a second team. It will be of the same size as the first and will also consist of Drones and droids. We await your response.>

End Message

Logan shot the Xiscapian (he thought his name was Jake?) a hard glare that was concealed by his matt-black visor. A good thing too; as a fighter pilot, the Kitsune would have recognized what it felt like to come under target lock from a missile he couldn't dodge. Taking a deep breath, he turned away from the lazy pilot. He addressed Keela.
"Can you make head or tail of it?" He held his assault weapon at the low ready position as he spoke-he was worried he might point it at the lazy Kitsune otherwise. With a start, he realized he was getting angry over nothing. He shook his head to clear it and sipped some water. This ship was getting to him.

***

Ursel started to hyperventilate as everything went black out of nowhere.
"Comm check, respond team." Nothing. "Comm check! God damn it, is anybody there?" No response at all. With a supreme effort, the sergeant fought down the terror rising in his chest and started to swivel around, gun pointed into the inky blackness.
"You bastards! Come out and play, you sly sonsofbitches!"

***

"New contact, captain!" an ensign sang out. Miken hurried over.
"What?"
"Son of a bitch just appeared out of nowhere, sir. It was exchanging vox with the Xiscapians, though."
"Get me a link to the new ship, whoever the hell they are. This place is hairy enough without a dozen intruders coming out of the woodwork."
"Encrypted link, sir?"
"Nah, send it in the clear. The Xiscapians apparently already know them, and Greywatch can listen in if they want."

Recently arrived vessel, this is Captain Miken of the Setulanite Republican Vessel Tempest. Please identify and state your buisness, over.

ooc-edited. My bad, it was late and I was tired, and my contacts were getting fuzzy. =P

The space near to the behemoth was quiet one moment, just a motley collection of stars and planets millions of miles away and yet still visible from their location. None of those around the starship would notice this of course, to them, space was only interesting if there was something in it. Therefore, more than one head would turn as a vessel suddenly appeared. Firstly, the long, pointed bow seemed to materialise out of nothing, then the rest of the ship appeared as a line light spread along the concealed hull, making it visible to those in the immediate area. The turrets and RLT banks along each side identified it as a warship, no doubt about that. The tri-engined design would also enable the Xiscapians at least to identify it, for the ship was not rare in their space. It was an Alversian Warship, specifically a Cruiser.


OOC: Sorry mate if I didn't make it clear enough.

Cruiser XIW Sorrow...
<Given what we've already found onboard that ship, we want to know if you'd be for or against us deploying a second team. It will be of the same size as the first and will also consist of Drones and droids. We await your response.>
A full minute went by before a response came back:
This is the XIW Sorrow, negative on that, Greywatch vessel. More people will just get in the way of the first team, unless you have reason to believe the original team is likely to come under attack and does not possess sufficient firepower, or have found cause to explore another section of this ship. However we hold no sway over your Captain's decisions, and will not attempt to halt any team you decide to send to the craft.
Room...
Keela shook her head. "Nothing. A few of these look kinda familiar, but not enough to make out any meaning. I haven't looked the whole thing over yet, though, so maybe I'll have a breakthrough."
Jake was entirely unaware of the Setulan's anger, and was standing a few feet away from the switch he had bumped, rifle cradled casually in his arms, apparently watching Keela. Nichole stood near the door, standing more at attention and still feeling somewhat apprehensive, while Ssskrill the Korr was impassive and unreadable. Who could try to ascertain the body language of a giant ape-thing?

<Very well, we will respect your wishes on this matter. Know this: due to the information we've recieved from out Drones onboard, we will be keeping a team on standby in case something goes wrong. Or if something of interest appears in another section of the ship.>

Logan nodded. He had expected as much, but there was no harm in asking. He turned to the massive ape like thing that was part of the Xiscapian party.
"What say you, eh?" he asked playfully. Now that his desire to rip Jake limb from limb had abated, he found his humor returning.

***

Ursel snapped. He started firing randomly into the darkness and screaming bloody murder into the dead vox.

***

On the Tempest, the officer monitering the health of the boarding crew sat up suddenly.
"Sir...sir, all vox signs from Sergeant Ursel's team have dissapeared." the officer, a commander, hurried over.
"What do you mean? Were they killed?" A look of intense concentration crossed the junior officers face.
"I don't think so, sir. They were just...gone. Instantly. I don't know what the hell this is, I'm going to try to fix the link..."
"Could it be an error?" The junior snorted.
"Never happened in my time, sir."
"Oh shit..."

***

In a ready room, a full platoon (fifty five men) of the Republican Guard assigned to the ship were geared up and ready to extract the team at a moments notice. Weapons were primed, safeties were locked, and vacuum suits were sealed. They sat in a terse silence, waiting for the word...and hoping it wouldn't come.

The Drone looked to the others in the room, "We have made a new contact. In case none of you here have heard." It looked around the chamber, "Interesting place..."

Back

The lights and power still out, Ursel had no idea what he hit, but was sure by the sounds of rounds impacting into heavy objects that he hit something. The crash of his weapon broke the unnerving silence and he suspected he may have slightly dented the bulkheads.

But the silence following his weapons fire seemed all the more unnerving by contrast. Still no power, no comms. He began to wonder where the droids were at. The alarming possibility of having destroyed one or two of them by accident sparked up in his starved mind.

Room

Keela found what looked like an interface linked to the controls - a rounded, thin device that most resembled a headset. There was what looked like an input, and an output. But the way these were both located suggested that, if worn on the head, both the in and out linked to somewhere on or about the head itself.

The display screen, although displaying alien characters, had the distinct air of a basic computer awaiting data entry, with its blinking cursor-like line. The text maybe went from right to left, but otherwise familiar enough (as far as anything here could be familiar). The control console had alien buttons but she was pretty sure, at least, where the numbers went. Only was that a 0 it started with on the right, or a 1? It was, of course, impossible to tell.

"What say you, eh?"
"Dis not for I," the huge Korr rumbled like the engine on a very low, very large car. "Me demo, firep'wr, splatterer..."
"Like a bouncer," Jake explained, knowing about these kinds of things, "except Korr throw harder."
"Hey guys, I've found what might be a neural interface port," Keela called out. "Looks like one for data entry and one for exit. Maybe these people were cyborgs or something." She herself, being a ranking officer, had a chip implant at the base of her neck for large uploads and the like, but she'd never seen anything like what she saw before her now. Maybe it was some kind of VR machine? "And I might have figured out how to input numbers. 'xcept is this the one or the zero? Hmm..." She inquisitively poked what she thought was the "one" key, but could be a zero key.

One of the droids appoached Keela, "May I try hacking into the network? I have no idea what kind of technology this is, or the firewalls that may be protecting it... but usually, we droids have the ability to temporarily hack into a ship's network... which can yield all kinds of information." The Drone shook its head, "Are you sure that is the best course of action. If there is a virus... or something else. We could lose you and a major advantage in a possible firefight." The droid was silent for a moment, "That is true, in that case we may need to simply find another way."

Logan chuckled at the Korr, and then at Jake. His previous anger had boiled away as suddenly as it had come on as he watched the warrant push a random button.
"Not really sure that was a great idea..."
He listened to the byplay between the Greywatch troopers without really understanding much of it. He shrugged. As long as they wouldn't get killed, he was fine with it.

***

Ursel stopped firing, his breath ragged in his ears. He had a panicked thought-what if he had hit one of the drones coming back to reinforce him and his team?
Reason reasserted himself. They couldn't have been there that fast. They were robots, not gods. Still, the doubt niggled in the back of his mind. His brain engaged again as panick faded and the cold calm of combat set in. He had hit something. The question was what...

As she pressed the key, a monotone 'beep' sounded.

A small light on the side of the headset blinked to life.

Keela cautiously lifted the headset, examining it. Perhaps it was now engaged in...whatever it was supposed to do? "Well this thing won't be much use now...there's no way any of use would be able to use it in this environment to get anything meaningful out of it." She set the thing down. "I'll plant a beacon to mark this place as a point of interest so our teams can analyze it in detail later. I'd suggest we move on..." She glanced around. "Once we can get this thing stopped, stabilized, vented, patched and disperse some atmosphere into it our job may be done with that little terminal," She nodded to the computer, "but there's nothing we can do about it now. Besides, I'm not keen on putting some alien device by my head for it to scramble my brains or something equally painful and fatal."

The Drone let out a small chuckle, "That would be my job, would it not? Since I have no brain to destroy. But yes, I believe moving forward would be best. Whenever you are ready."

Logan arched an unseen eyebrow at the Kitsune.
"Since when did you decide to be cautious?" He grinned. "Let's get out of here and find a way to stop this thing. Then we can scramble our brains with alien headsets as much as we like."

Keela grinned back under her helmet. "I don't know, this place gets to me, and anyway I'm not exactly rash when I'm going up against an unknown enemy I can't fight. Send me against a squad of enemy soldiers and I've got balls of steel."
There was a moment of silence.
"Metaphorically speaking, of course."
"Let's move," Jake took point for the Xiscapian squad, followed by Nichole and Keela with Ssskrill taking the rearguard as they sought to uncover more mysterious of this strange craft.

"Greywatch team, moving." Said the Drone without feeling. The droid in their team moved to take point with Jake while the lead Drone positioned itself near Keela. The remaining Drone took a rearguard position.

"I would hope it was just metaphorical." He chuckled. As the team moved out, Logan fell into the formation behind the pointmen but ahead of the main party, where his heavy weapon could cover the troops on point and give time for the rest of the team to get to cover. He frowned slightly.
"Still no contact from Ursel..." without looking at him, he addressed the Greywatch drone. "Has your droid caught up with them yet?"

The Droid didn't need the Drone to tell it what to do, it immediately put out a communcation to its two fellow droids. It spoke to Logan while continuing forward, "They have not yet had contact. However, they feel they are getting close, or so they say."

After what seemed like forever, Ursel got his own power working again. Well, it started working again - he didn't do anything.

With communications back on as well he could report in and did so. The sergeant discovered that one of the team wasn't reporting in. With a feeling of dread as he began to make for the Greywatch droids, several compartments back the way he'd come, he discovered the missing soldier. The ragged wounds from Ursel's weapon were no longer bleeding.

---

In Keela's mind, something flashed briefly, as it had in the bloody torpedo room. She saw an image from her childhood - or was it a nightmare she'd once had? - and then she felt a scream, which she didn't voice, because it didn't want to just be a yell, it wanted to rage and howl and never stop, can't stop because it's the only thing, and yet a part of her mind screamed anyway, and she knew it was because she couldn't scream with her vocal chords, because they were no longer hers... nothing was hers, except pain and terror...

Then it stopped. And suddenly, the team's sensors ceased operating, communications broke, lights flickered. Not just their suits, either - the glow of this compartment's lights dimmed and the computer screen went off. They came back on briefly.

Then they went out completely and the team was drowned in darkness before they'd even left this control room.

They're coming, she thought with a chill.

---

(OOC: Sorry for my laggyness...)

The lead Drone had a very sudden, very obvious second of emotion as it uttered the one word fit for the situation, "FUCK!" The other Drone and Droid were looking around. External lights were gone as were the sensors. The Droid, remembering where its leader was before the lights went out, moved to the lead Drone's position. The two armed their weapons and prepared for the worst. The second Drone began considering the use of Cryption to find and destroy any threats that might be in the area.
------------
Meanwhile, the other two droids moved through the halls briskly. They had a contact to meet and they were already taking too long.

While the rest of the team staggered from the shock Keela fell to her hands and knees, shaking as it retching, but knowing that if she threw up in her helmet she would quickly drown in her own fluids. She suppressed the urge, panting, but as she opened her mouth to swear other words came out:
"They're coming..." she rasped.
None of her teammates could hear her, communications being down, and as it was they had to rely on their lights and natural night vision to guide them now. She felt hands grasping her and slowly lifting her upright, Ssskrill beside her making sure his superior was all right, while Jake wildly scanned the room, rifle up, looking for threats and Nichole was backed up against a wall, fighting down a sudden, inexplicable, irresistible craving for blood. For a panicked moment the team acted as four separate units rather then one, and then they all came together again.

Keela shakily got to her feet. What in all hell? She spoke. "Echo Lead, Echo One, Two, Three, please respond, over."
Nothing.
She switched frequencies.
"Hotel, Hotel, this is Echo Lead, do you read me, over?"
Dead space.
The kitsune Warrant Officer checked herself and realized she should have been checking on the Guardsmen, just as the loyal Korr under her command was doing now.

Ursel stood in mute rage as he gazed at the body of his dead soldier. He looked for a second and then turned away, fury raging through his body and death on his mind. He was going to find who had made him do this and feed them their own entrails. He tried vox again.
"For the love of all that is holy, does anybody hear me?"

***

Logan froze as all lighting went off. He turned slowly on the spot, trying to find a power source, anything to light his way, but all he saw was an inky darkness. He started to grope his way along towards where the Xiscapians had last stood, hoping to find one of them. He knew even before he tried it that his comms were out. To hell with the rational thinking of the Drones, he thought to himself. I'm going to kill the motherfucker who keeps doing this to us.
"Hello? Anybody? Keela? Greywatch?" he switched frequencies.
"Anyone?" He gave up in disgust. He continued groping around, his eyes slowly adjusting. Not well at all-all he saw where shadows that were moving. He thought he saw the massive figure of the Korr and moved towards it hesitantly. He took a deep breath. This could end badly.

Ursel's Position

His communications were now back on, of course, but he couldn't reach Keela's team or anyone else.

"For the love of all that is holy, does anybody hear me?"

Ursel waited a heartbeat. Two heartbeats. More passed before he realized he was holding his breath. He let it out in a long sigh.

"Yes, Ursel..."

The voice didn't come from the vox nor was it anyone he recognized - quite. It was more like a memory of a voice, or his own stream of consciousness... except it wasn't. Someone - something - had responded in his own head. He gasped.

"Come this way, Ursel."

Dolosus, Outer System

The warship Kitaan jumped down into normal space in less than an instant. Immediately as it did so, it boldly began a series of active scans of ships in the system. As if this wasn't enough, it then lit up its fusion torch drive at a moderate one-half thrust, expending a few terawatts as hydrogen propellant was burned at an impressive rate. Its trajectory would intercept the seven million tonne derelict - and, incidentally, the Xiscapian, Setulani and Greywatch ships, and the Alversian ship Indigo.

"Sir! New contact, something's activating! It's giving off a lot of energy. Orders?" The captain looked back to the tactical officer, "Send a communication to Greywatch of everything so far. Prepare a PSR!" The tactical officer looked stunned, "We can't, PSR is down!" The captain closed his eyes, "Shit!"

Alarm sensors went wild in the bridge of the Tempest.
"Sir, unknown contact just entered system and it is lighting us up like a Republic Day fireworks display!"
"Sir, we have been washed by sensors on multiple frequencies!"
"They have a clear target paint on us, sir, they could easily hit us with long-range weaponry."
"Captain, they probably have a lock on us for missiles and torpedoes!"
Miken remained calm.
"Inform our allies of the new contact. Tell them we are moving to intercept the new ship, we'll position ourselves between them and the hulk. All ahead full, bearing 699! Max power to shields and guns, ready torpedoes. Maximum scan capacity, light 'em up!"
The SRV Tempest kicked into life with a roar. Already on a hair trigger due to the strange occurances on the ship, the vessel was ready for combat action in thirty seconds flat. The powerful prow-mounted senors washed over the new vessel with magnetic, radio, and RADAR waves, getting a clear picture on all senors...and letting the newcomers know they were locked up with guns and torpedoes.
Miken looked at his radio operator.
"Send a signal in the clear to the new ship."

Unknown vessel, identify immediately. You are in restricted space. Comply now.

(OOC nitpick note: SONAR doesn't work in space, since sound waves need a medium like water or air to propagate.)


Warship Kitaan, Control Center

The sensor officer reported: "Incoming sensor transmissions, multiple frequencies - we've definitely been spotted. One alien vessel approaching, sir, 12 lightseconds and closing. Trajectory puts them right between us and the Kof-Mojy."

Commander Egute was sweating. They'd already confirmed the location of the target ship and its identity. Unless someone had crafted a 7 million ton replica, it was the real thing. But it was also swarming with alien ships, aliens who had probably claimed it as a derelict and might even now be sitting in the Emperor's cabin...

And that complicated things. As a Commander, he didn't have the authority to make policy, and initiating First Contact was definitely policy. A Legate could do it, but the Autarchy had sent just him. "Investigating the possibility," broad though that order was, would be difficult to do now that the Kof-Mojy was in the hands of heavily-armed aliens.

"Sir! We are receiving a transmission!"

"What kind?"

"High frequency radio waves. Source is the closest alien ship. Spoken language, alien... I'm feeding it to the computer for analysis."

Egute was relieved. The aliens had made First Contact themselves. No Legates needed in this control center.

"Sir, analysis failed, not enough data for a translation."

The Commander reached for his own console. He didn't know what the aliens had said, but it was a fairly safe bet that it was a warning.

After he was finished the Kitaan sent a transmission of their own, using the exact same frequency as the aliens had. Of course, it was in the Clomata language, which he knew was probably just as alien to the aliens as the aliens were to them.

This is Commander Egute, of the Warship D-34, of the Autarchy of Agnals, of the Clomata.
We greet you in peace. We intend no harm. We seek to communicate.

He ordered the commo officer to send an accompanying linguistic data stream intended to assist the aliens in their own translation. Perhaps they would reply in kind... perhaps they would destroy his ship.

Commander Egute sweated.

The Destroyer Triple Zero remained in position on the other side of the ship, just in case the teams need a quick evac. The Cruisers Sorrow and Impend quickly recognized the incoming ship and came for it, the Sorrow coming up above the object, the Impend below it, reinforcing the Tempest. Shields had gone up but weapons stayed powered down, for now. They detected the transmissions, and, using the provided data, used the A.I. to decode the message:
This is Commander Egute, of the Warship D-34, of the Autarchy of Agnals, of the Clomata.
We greet you in peace. We intend no harm. We seek to communicate.
"Send them one of our own, in kind," commanded the Captain, "and alert the away team that we have visitors."
"Negative, Captain, all communications with the away team are down."
"Keep trying, if they're too deep in they should come back out soon enough. If you don't receive any communications within five minutes we'll signal the others and send down another team."
The following message was sent to the vessel identifying itself as Warship D-34, in their own tongue on the same frequency:
Commander Egute of the Warship D-34 of the Autarchy of Agnals, of the Clomata, this is Captain Genko of the Xiscapian Imperial Warship Sorrow of the Xiscapian Imperial Navy of the Kitsune Empire of Xiscapia. We too come in peace. What are your intentions in this area?
Room...
Ssskrill put a hand out slowly to show Logan who he was dealing with, a slight wave and a pointed finger towards Keela. In complete silence both her and Jake were struggling to restrain their fourth team member, Nichole, who seemed to be thrashing about and trying to get free. Though nothing could be seen beneath her visor, if it could they would have seen the Xiscapian's pupils had turned blood-red and her already pointed canines had lengthened considerably, and despite there not being any sound in the vacuum and the communications being down, it was nevertheless evident to all she was screaming within her suit. Ssskrill lumbered over and bodily picked the kitsune up, holding her in one hand wrapped around her waist. The other two had fallen to the floor, and Keela was writing something in the dust as Jake stood, staring at his comrade.

Keela stood, dust swirling around her legs, and pointed, shining her light on what she had written for all to see:
LETS GET THE F OUT OF HERE

Ursel

The sergeant experienced a fading of his terror and panic. Instead he now knew a considerable loathing for the unknown enemy. There was something... infuriating about it all. He was prepared for the loss of comrades in arms, but this one affected him differently. It was his weapon that fired upon and killed Private Seward and he knew it wasn't really his fault. The enemy had played them all. Prankishly turning out the lights and on, off and on again. Like depraved children. Depraved children with an unknown power over electronics systems. And he didn't know who they were, how many, where, for what reason they were here, even what the damned things looked like.

He knew he wanted to kill them. Beneath his rage was a perplexing guilt - it was the enemy after all, not him, who had arranged this all somehow. That didn't make it any easier to look at the corpse, though, so he marched onward. The voice he'd thought he'd heard... felt... heard... whatever! - he pushed that aside for now. Too much imagination and worrying was what had fucked him up once already. He had to focus on the task at hand. Focus on the task at hand.

His weapon was ready. Maybe they were up here. He wished he'd had some of his team with him. Solo combat was frowned upon, with good reason.

He opened the next hatch. Unaware of how his body had wandered while he'd been trying to keep his mind from wandering.

"Hello, Sergeant.

Space

A reply transmission from the Kitaan came:

Captain Genko, we are responding to a Clomata distress signal.
It appears the situation is more complex than we thought.
May we meet to discuss ways in which we can assist one another?

The ship was already decelerating.

Miken smiled grimly as the two Xiscapian cruisers moved in to support, and listened to the radio byplay between the Xiscapians and the Clomatans.
"Sir, the Clomatan ship is powering down." Miken breathed an inaudible sigh of relief.
"Alright, turn off active senors and power down weapons. Maintain shields at 75%." Aboard the Clomatan warship, senors would clearly show the energy signature from the Tempest, which seconds before had been a menacing, blazing vessel of doom, powering down drastically as first weapons, and then shields were brought back to more docile levels. Miken turned around.
"Comms! Give me a link to the Clomatans!"
The signal operator sent a new contact on the same frequencies as the Xiscapian had used, hoping they could translate it more easily.

Commander Egute, this is Captain Miken of the Setulanite Republican Vessel Tempest. I apologize for the unfriendly welcome, but I'm sure you would have done the same thing in our place. Space is dangerous. If you wish to meet, we can do so at your earliest possible convenience.

"Hopefully that will cover any sore feelings they may have. Give me a link the the Xiscapian CO, encrypted."

Captain Genko, it's your territory. Tell us how you want to play it, and we'll comply. Miken out.

***

On board the ship, Logan nodded vigorously in assent. Then, using Keela's light, he scribbled his own message.
Out the way we came? Or blow new exit?
What Logan was going for, and he hoped Keela picked up on, was that instead of tracking all the way back the way they had come, they could take some of the explosives carried by the Xiscapians and blast a new entrance. In void suits, they could exit the ship and be picked up by the friendlies. He waited for her response.

"Why was I not called here immediately upon first contact, Commander?"

There are few things a captain - or as they say in Clomata, a Commander - prefers less than having to take questioning of his authority on his own command center. Egute, no less a captain than any that ever lived, didn't appreciate it much himself. But the political officer was adamant.

"Frankly, we had no idea what to expect. The possibility of combat is still not unlikely. With the ship goes the mission, and I hope you don't expect me to take your immediate needs over that of the mission, do you?"

The political officer lowered his voice. The other bridge officers went about their routine, pretending not to notice. "Do not play games with me, Commander. You are treading a very thin line."

"I have good balance."

The political officer smiled dryly, humorlessly. "You keep me in the dark at the risk of us all."

"You're not in the dark. You know as much as we know."

"Which is what, exactly? You've stumbled across not just one, but at least two and likely several more different alien species, of advanced technology, in possession of our mission target, and are now gambling with it all by inviting 'discussion?'"

Egute smiled himself. "That's pretty much it, yes."

A moment of tense silence. Then the political officer finally gave a snorting little laugh. "Impressive. Very well. But you're not equipped for this. There will be a meeting, and someone will have to go over there."

Egute clapped a hand to the officer's shoulder. "And I wouldn't dream of depriving you of your moment of expertise. Just so long as you're aware of one thing."

The political officer didn't oblige by asking what it was. Egute sighed inwardly. He would have troubles with this man later on. The commander went on without invite: "We don't have any weight here. Other than the fact that we are Clomata, and the ship is Clomata, and they likely have no idea what's going on. We have nothing to bluff with, nothing to bargain with, and if they turn hostile, we will be defeated."

The political officer shook his head. "You are quite the pessimist, Commander. We need not bluff nor bargain. All we need to do is observe and report. Which is all you should have done in the first place."

Moments later a reply was sent to the Setulanites.

The Clomata thank you for your consideration, Captain Miken.
As we understand it, you have boarded the derelict and are no doubt curious as to its origins.
We have our own curiosity to satisfy.
A meeting as soon as possible is therefore prudent for us both.

XIN Sorrow...
Captain Genko looked over the message as it came back, the encrypted Setulan one overlaying it. He nodded to the communications officer, and began to dictate:
TO: Commander Egute
We would be delighted to accept your hospitality on your vessel, or to host an official of your own on one of ours. I cannot speak for my counterpart in Captain Miken, but XIW ships are open to be used as a meeting ground if you wish. Indicate whether you wish to come to us or if we should come to you and the appropriate preparations will be made.
A separate message:
TO: Captain Miken
SRV Tempest
We'll play along for now. Send a diplomat or officer to meet with them wherever they choose, but either sent someone who knows how to defend themselves or send guards with them, and whatever you do, don't send someone you're not prepared to lose. Things could still turn out to get very ugly, very fast. Use caution: We know nothing of these people. I would recommend sending a trained diplomat, if you possess one.

Kof-Mojy...
Keela considered the question inscribed in the dust for a few moments before writing back with her finger:
Have no explosives only the black hole bomb if you have bombs share but if no we need backtrack fast

Miken read the communique from the Xiscapians first. He snorted.
"Diplomat? Yeah, right. Get Captain Roe up here."
He read over the message from the Clomatans quickly.
"Now we're talking..." He turned to his commo officer.
"Send this one, same encryption as last time, but also send the exact same thing to the Xiscapians."
"Yes, sir."

Commander, that is more than acceptable. If you could send a courier or representative over to the XIN Sorrow, we will meet you there with one of our own.

It would be obvious to the Clomatans that a request made by three ships of the line was not really a request at all.
And it simply made more sense to use quarters on the Sorrow anway. The Tempest was a warship and had no places to greet a foreign dignitary, even a potentially hostile one. He could only hope that the Xiscapian vessel had more suitable accomodations.
Genko should be happy; this way, they had all the aces-numbers, vastly superior firepower, and a hostage.
Captain Roe walked into the bridge and immediately went to the Miken.
"Yes, sir?" Miken showed him the communiques. He read over them and gave a soft grunt at the end.
"You think they will fall for that, sir?"
"They don't have much of a choice. Go put on your dress uniform and pick five guards for honor's sake. Prepare to go to the Xiscapian ship."
"Yes, sir."

***

Logan looked at the message and grimaced. He indicated his grenades and then shrugged. He then pointed to to the words "backtrack fast." He wrote on the ground
Grab Greywatch and lets move.

He wanted to leave...fast.

The Commander acknowledged both messages and informed the aliens that meeting on the Sorrow was acceptable.

Meanwhile the Kitaan continued to decelerate until its velocity matched that of the Kof-Mojy and the nearby vessels. The multi-million degree torch died down. Space around the old ship was filling up pretty quick. The Clomata destroyer and the other ships were now all within visual range; at this distance it was easy to see the design similarities between the monstrous derelict and the newcomer even though the latter was much smaller and lighter.

Egute was in strange territory now - literally so. But there was no leaving for hours yet anyway.

And while he had been concerned about the hostility of the aliens, at this point if someone began shooting it wouldn't be mere hostilities but mutual suicide. The Kitaan was equipped with torpedoes whose warheads would easily wreck havoc on the dense cluster of multi-species warships, and Egute was certain the aliens had similar firepower at their disposal. It was one reason, he mused, that battles were not fought at this kind of distance.

Egute stood at the command center, looking over the sensor reports and analysis. Yes, it was the Kof-Mojy, damaged and derelict but not destroyed after all. It was hard not to feel a sense of awe, looking at a piece of history on the scopes.

"Commander," said the political officer. "I am ready to depart."

"Good," Egute said curtly. Then he added: "You know we will have to examine the thing ourselves."

He stared at the commander, mute protest at the question. Finally he sighed and nodded barely. Egute turned away, apparently satisfied.

Idiot, thought the political officer.

--
A solitary representative approached a designated airlock on the Sorrow. His space suit was thin and efficient, the envy of belters or scavs of any race, but he was more properly served by his implants.

He was tall, red-headed, the very model of an Independent Clomata male, handsome and intelligent. His enhancements would allow recording, some extra optical data - and some of that same intelligence too. Nothing too menacing, as far as enhancements went, but...

Political Officer Icho Beral carried the rank of Subcommander in the Autarchy of Agnals, but he carried another rank, and he had another name, and the following discussions would prove to be much more interesting than anyone suspected.

The Setulan shuttle was greeted by duel lines of Marines with the Executive Officer at the end awaiting them. However, he seemed to be engaged in something else at the moment as he spoke into his vox as though it had personally offended him:
"What? What do you mean, no ship? Where's their rep?"
There was a moment of silence.
"He's outside the bloody ship?!" the voice was partially a howl and a shriek, mingling disbelief, perplexity, fear and astonishment. "Well open an airlock for him, damnit, maybe this is their standard method of sending an envoy. Send a Marine team to the closest airlock to him and open it remotely."
Sorrow, further along the starboard side...
Five Marine troopers marched along to one of the airlocks, fully armored, rifles at their sides, and waited as it opened into space, allowing the Clomatan entry. Their suits gave little hint as to their forms, and from what they could see the emissary was more or less human, although they knew looks could often be deceiving. The one in the lead bowed, speaking though his open communicator as the airlock shut and sealed itself.
"Please follow me to the conference room," he said, voice mechanical and dead though the speakers of his helmet.
Kof-Mojy...
Keela nodded and glanced to Ssskrill, who was still holding Nichole. The vampire seemed subdued now, not moving, but Keela knew Ssskrill would know better than to let go or relax his grip. Jake was busy motioning to their Greywatch counterparts, inefficiently trying to communicate his teammates desire to vacate the area.

Sorrow

Icho the political officer raised his faceplate once his suits sensors determined that the atmosphere and environment were safe. His relatively human appearance was as much a surprise to his hosts as theirs was to him.

Meanwhile he began taking note of everything. The soldiers and their rifles. The hull. The airlock. The gravity - they had no spin*, and the ship was not under thrust, yet there was a definite 'down.' Felt about like the 9.5 m/s/s of gravitic acceleration back on his homeworld. Their suits and their translation circuits.

After a while they arrived at the conference room. Seeing that he was preceded by the others - the Setulanite shuttle had proved quicker than he was at suiting up - he wasted no time.

He spoke in his own language, although he could patch up a translation circuit now that the Kitaan's computer had translated one of the alien languages. Unfortunately there were at least two races present, presumably with different languages, and so he took the opportunity to test their ability to decipher spoken Clomata.

"I am Subcommander Icho Beral, Political Officer of D-34 Kitaan. In the name of peace and friendship, on behalf of all Clomata, I greet you."

*(OOC: I will edit if I'm wrong, but I'm presuming artificial gravity generators of some kind. )

Captain Roe watched the Xiscapian officer who greeted him with an arched eyebrow. The two men behind him were in their own ceremonial armor.
"Whenever you are ready, sir."

They had made it to the conference room before their guest, four Marines guarding the door, two inside, two outside, with the Executive Officer and the Setulan rep sitting at a long, deep gray table that spanned the length of the room with enough seats to hold over a dozen people. The kitsune, a tawny furred, yellow eyed, blond haired and male of average height, regarded the Clomatan with curiosity as he spoke. Waving his hand he seemed to talk to the ceiling. "Can I get a trans on that?"
Moments later a reply echoed back from apparently nowhere, repeating the words in mechanical, emotionless Galactic Common:
"I am Subcommander Icho Beral, Political Officer of D-34 Kitaan. In the name of peace and friendship, on behalf of all Clomata, I greet you."
"And I, you," the X.O. stood and bowed before seating himself again. "Executive Officer Shink of the XIW Sorrow. I understand we have much to speak about."

Captain Roe debated for a moment, and then decided to keep his beret on. It added to the look. He also managed-just-to conceal his surprise at the technology displayed by the Xiscapian with the translation. He waited for the Kitsune to speak first, and then spoke up on his own. He had a deep voice and grey eyes that locked onto the alien with the precision of a laser sight.

"Captain Roe, Commanding Officer of Alpha Company, Fourth Battalion, 5th Republican Guard Infantry, currently attached to the vessel Tempest."
He left it at an introduction. Shink had said it well enough for both of them.

Conference Room

The Clomata officer remained standing. He looked between the two alien officers, taking note of their bearings as best he could. The biology was strikingly, though perhaps only superficially similar. There was much to learn there, he suspected.

"Now that we have concluded the introductions," he said to Shink, "The subject most relevant would be our warship which you and your allies," he glanced briefly at Captain Roe, "...have boarded and taken possession of. My Commander, for one, would like to know why you have done so."

Shink nodded. "Of course. Please," he waved a hand to one of the seats, "sit down. Now, the trajectory of this vessel of yours has been calculated to, in roughly a month, take it to collide directly with the sun in a system owned by the Kitsune Empire, with an inhabited colony in it. The result would be catastrophic, and destroy the colony, which could not be allowed. We dispatched a team to attempt to destroy the object. However, upon coming closer we realized it was a ship, and a object of such size attracted the attention of several other nations. Our combined teams have been exploring the vessel, and we have found that, despite the damage evident, your warship still possesses many systems and it's propulsion intact. Our objective has changed with the intent to either change the trajectory of the ship or make it cease movement entirely and section it off for further study."

Shink did not tell the Political Officer about the vanishing, mad alien, who did not appear to be of the same species as him, nor did he mention that they had entirely lost contact with all teams for several minutes now. By nature the XO distrusted 'Political Officers', being an unknown alien only made things worse, and it was all tied together by the fact that something awful appeared to have happened to this warship. No need to let the being know too much, there was no telling to how he might react to the news he had already been given...

"Perhaps," Roe began, "You can tell us what your interest in the ship happens to be?" The Captain understood completely why the Xiscapian did not mention the strange occurances. He hoped this alien would screw up and mention something...and give him an excuse to take out his anger. All the guardsmen were pissed off about what was happening aboard the ship.

For now, however, he kept it bottled up.

Beral looked briefly at the seat before seeming to concede a brief and minor argument in his head and sitting down. He clasped his hands together thoughtfully.


"Now, the trajectory of this vessel of yours has been calculated to, in roughly a month, take it to collide directly with the sun in a system owned by the Kitsune Empire, with an inhabited colony in it. The result would be catastrophic, and destroy the colony, which could not be allowed. We dispatched a team to attempt to destroy the object. However, upon coming closer we realized it was a ship, and a object of such size attracted the attention of several other nations. Our combined teams have been exploring the vessel, and we have found that, despite the damage evident, your warship still possesses many systems and it's propulsion intact. Our objective has changed with the intent to either change the trajectory of the ship or make it cease movement entirely and section it off for further study."

"I see. There was some question over whether you had captured and brought the ship here on your own. I of course can see that it's not being towed at all and if it were, you would probably not choose a trajectory designed to obliterate your own colony."

If that's even your colony, he thought, again painfully aware of how unarmed he and the entire Clomata were in this situation. He went on:

"And I am likewise relieved to know you are no longer going to attempt to destroy it." How the aliens planned on doing that without bombarding their own colony with the fragments was a good subject for questioning... later.

He turned to Captain Roe. "As for our interest, I apologize for not having made that clear before now. A few days ago, our deep space listening outposts picked up a Clomata ship-in-distress transmission. The source of that transmission - a ship we thought lost over 400 years ago, called Kof-Mojy - is the very ship in question."

Great gods, though Shink, four hundred years? No wonder it looks so devastated! But to be drifting in space for so long...how did that one alien survive for that length of time? How are any of the systems still functioning, or even recognizable for what they were? And why, of all things, did nobody ever notice this gigantic hulk drifting though space before?
"What is the exact nature of this...Kof-Mojy? It is a warship, we realize that, but more to the point, what circumstances surrounded it's loss? Was it lost in some war, or mysteriously vanished while on a mission to never be found again?" he asked. He hoped the alien would answer his questions, he had answered his after all, and the exchange of information would have to be sped up if anything useful was going to come from this encounter, never mind gaining their trust.

Sorrow, Conference Room

Beral's eyes narrowed briefly before he replied. "The Kof-Mojy was lost and presumed destroyed during the - during a battle."

He continued doggedly. "Records from that time are incomplete, and obviously we were wrong. I suppose that nuke going off helped fool everyone at the time - who knew it could survive such a thing?"

"But history is neither here nor there," He said with a rather human-like shrug. "I'm certain it will prove a fascinating archaeological site, but it is currently a hazard. How progresses the mission to reactivate the drive and push it out of the way?"

Kof-Mojy

Staff Sergeant Ursel went here, went there, went there again, his suit experiencing power.

When he'd passed his latest here and went to there, he languished by a console, staring at it. The dusted, cracked display was dead. He lifted the headset gingerly, and set it back down again.

Then he pushed a button.

This compartment lit up with a hiss of atmospheric gases and the clean-sucking sound of sealing airlocks and metal hatches.

---

Keela, Logan and their remnants were pushing ahead in the darkness, all of them (with the exception of droid) experiencing deep anticipation. Something was going wrong here, and when their technologies and suits failed them, it made them worry. You didn't get very far in space without technology.

And then, blindingly, the lights flickered back on, and there was a rush of atmospheric gases, and airlocks closed nearby. A heavy metal hatch clanged down into the bulkhead behind them.

Ursel looked up from the console and turned around to see them from across a distance of five meters: Keela, Logan, Nichole, Jake, the lead Drone and the Droid which had taken point.

As eyes adjusted to the sudden infusion of light, the appearance of this room seemed brighter, whiter, sterile even - with the exception of the usual layer of detritus, and a cracked console display. Another compartment, another heavy metal hatch lay behind Ursel.

Ursel flipped his faceplate. "Hello," he said in a calm voice.

OOC: F@CK! Sry, I just got to college and setting everything up has been a little bit of a hassle... and this thread has suddenly become active whilest I'm not around... summary pls. TG it too me so this doesn't get cluttered.

EDIT: Okay, Setulan filled me in on the improtant stuff... I'm just gonna say my team reunited and is following everyone else. And my ship had some major failure and I couldn't do anything...

"About as well as you would expect," Roe replied. It was a nuetral comment. The alien could take it as he would.
"So you are saying that the manner of Koff-Mojy's loss were strange?"

***

Logan flinched when the lights came on, expecting an attack. Too many things had happened for his paranoi to go down. He stopped dead when he saw Ursel.
"Sergeant? When did you get here?" He looked behind him.
"And where hell are the rest of the troopers? Or the Greywatch drones?"

ooc-I'll fill you in.

Sorrow Conference Room...
"Our last report indicated that the drive and necessary systems and parts to propel the vessel were intact and apparently operable, but they lacked the fuel needed. None of the team knows how to manipulate the machines, however, and none are willing to attempt a potentially fatal and disastrous attempt to activate and utilize any consoles or terminals." responded Shink, with a barest flick of his yellow eyes in Roe's direction. The statement from the Setulan had been too evasive: Would Beral suspect something?
Kof-Mojy...
Keela stood by Logan, Jake fanning out to the left, Ssskrill and Nichole to the other side. Something wasn't right, she could sense it. Hearing the man, she knew the room was full of oxygen, and evidently safe to breath. She cautiously lowered her own faceplate, hoping that if the area suddenly depressurized the automatic lock would still activate to shut before the vacuum killed her. She held her weapon casually in both hands, but it was ready to come up in a moments notice.

The Drones and Droids had been following closely without sayiong a word, the other two droid had met up with them some minutes ago and now it seemed the group was facing yet another obstical.

Sorrow, Conference Room

"About as well as you would expect," Roe replied.

"Our last report indicated that the drive and necessary systems and parts to propel the vessel were intact and apparently operable, but they lacked the fuel needed. None of the team knows how to manipulate the machines, however, and none are willing to attempt a potentially fatal and disastrous attempt to activate and utilize any consoles or terminals," responded Shink, with a barest flick of his yellow eyes in Roe's direction.

Beral nodded steadily. "Of course, that was most prudent of your people. You would not have a detailed knowledge of the ship's systems as we do. Of course, our knowledge isn't total; as I said the ship was lost over four hundred years ago."

Captain Roe asked, "So you are saying that the manner of Kof-Mojy's loss were strange?"

The political officer replied, "According to history, it was simply defeated in glorious battle, presumably picked clean and dissected by opportunists in later eras. So you might say, that the fact it has survived more or less intact all the way til now is strange."

"Regardless," he said with another shrug, "the crew of the Kitaan is not only bound to be familiar with the ship enough to help speed up the mission, but doubtless eager and enthusiastic to be a part of an historic event such as this! I offer seven of our engineers and techs to deploy to the ship and rendezvous with your team."

His dull red hair and easy smile was convincing, but his eyes were like chips of ice refusing to melt before their gazes.

Kof-Mojy...

Sergeant Ursel looked at his superior officer with relief. But there was something else, too, behind that mask...

"Major Logan!" he said. "I got separated from my damn team. Power kept flickering on and off, finally went off. Don't know where they are, sir, but I guess I was stumbling around here in the dark and, I don't know, I accidentally hit something just now, some power switch for the life support. And then here you were."

His eyes darted from between the various Kitsune, humans, drone and droid.

"I don't know what's going on in this bloody ship," he added.

The droids who had set out to find Ursel's team finally did, three men with itchty trigger fingers who swung their weapons to cover the Greywatch team. After a moment, the leader, a corporal, lowered his weapon in relief.
"For all thats holy, you gave us a scare." He let out a deep, shuddering breath. "What the fuck is going on in this ship? Our Sergeant just wandered away after blowing away one of our squadmates, and we been here ever since."

Logan watched Ursel very suspiciously. He had not raised his visor, and all Ursel would see was the midnight-black screen from his helmet.
"You lost your team." He said flatly. "And you didn't bother to look for them?"
Maybe it was his paranoia. Maybe it was the craziness of the entire damn ship...but something wasn't right about his squad sergeant. He lifted his visor and shot a quick look to Keela and held her gaze for a moment, trying with all his might to let her know he thought something was wrong.
"It's good to see you, Ursel. I'm glad you're still alive. Have you tried to raise your team in the past few minutes?"


***

Roe flinched inwardly. He was very good at reading body language, but not so good at this diplomatic horseshit. He had picked up on that flickering of the eyes...but more importantly for all involved, he could see the steely resolve in the aliens gaze.
"I offer seven of our engineers and techs to deploy to the ship and rendezvous with your team"
Roe leaned back and didn't say a word. He had decided to observe more, talk less, and leave the diplomacy to the diplomats. He waited for a response from the Kitsune.

"Apologies," said one of the droids. "From the link up we've had... your leader is with the other team on the ship. Though, something seems wrong and I do not believe he has the trust of the Drones." The two droids looked to each other, "We are under your command for the time being, we will follow your orders."
------
The other Greywatch team looked over Ursel, the droid felt nothing but the two Drones didn't trust this man. They were suspicious but did not show it. Everyone seemed to be trying out the new enviroment, the Drones didn't bother. They didn't need air and they felt much safer being fully armored.

Sorrow, Conference Room...
Shink considered for a moment, then nodded. "That would be fine. Fresh eyes and more knowledgeable persons could help the situation greatly. As I mentioned, our primary objective is to stop the," the slightest pause, "Kof-Mojy from moving. I'll have someone send you a list of the fuel and power materials we identified by residue or signatures in the propulsion drive."
Shink didn't trust the being as far as he could throw him, but he had no grounds and no past basis for refusing. In any case, he didn't want to start hostilities because the kitsune were denying them entry to a vessel that was, technically, theirs.
Kof-Mojy...
The man dosen't seem strange...but there's still that feeling, the one you get that makes you dive for cover seconds before a bomb hits the spot you were just occupying... Keela shifted slightly, unsure of how the situation would play out. Her teammates were as still as statues.

OOC: Sorry, no the GW/Set/Xis team still is without comm or most power. Shoulda made that clearer. Which is one reason Ursel was there to conveniently activate some atmosphere in which to talk and stuff rather than having everyone pantomime all further dialogue. :)

Sorrow Conference Room

Beral nodded, somewhat softer than his curt, up-down introductory gesture earlier. "That would be fine. Although I have to say I know that the ship would need thousands of tons of propellant, and we don't exactly carry around that much in our reserves. I don't suppose there's a small ice moon in these parts no one would miss?"

He smiled slightly, indicating he was joking. But only slightly.

Kof-Mojy (Habitat Control Room)

Ursel knew they were suspicious but tried to think of what he might say to the Major if everything was normal... under these circumstances.

"I lost my team, my team lost me, I don't know exactly. Power kept going out, sensors, comm. I was looking for them when I hit some damn control console here just now."

He looked at the faces of each survivor, trying to read something that might not be there. "Didn't find that alien," he said gloomily. "Have you found anything, sir?"

ooc-sorry, I thought when Ursel turned the lights on, power came back to our suits. edited.
IC:

Logan remained impassive, but that niggling feeling of doubt didn't go away.
"I didn't know you had tried to look for it," he said. "That was somewhat foolhardy of you, sergeant. You don't know what is on this ship."

The Corporal nodded.
"Something went wrong, all right. Started acting like he was batshit insane. Can you lead us back to the Major? Then, maybe we can get off this fucking ship."

Sorrow Conference Room...
"I'm afraid not," said Shirk seriously to the alien's question. "Not one in our system, anyway, although I'm sure a thirty light year search radius from this point could procure one. If we cannot find a sufficient fuel in time or manage to move the ship in some other way we will be forced to destroy it, historical artifact, warship and mystery though it may be. No vessel is worth the lives of millions of colonists. I don't suppose you have any means of moving it yourselves?"

Sorrow Conference Room

The political officer blinked, and noted the mention of what was at risk to the aliens, and what they would do to avoid it. But all they had to do was move the thing, and then there could be a clear discussion of ownership, which is of course what the Autarchy wanted. Meanwhile he mentally ran through the Kof-Mojy and its systems before answering:

"Luckily, we do not actually need a whole moon, but we would need a good deal of propellant. The engines back then were versatile, they could take just about any kind of propellant. Obviously the greater the percentage of hydrogen, the better, but we can't be too picky. Water or ice, even methane or what-have-you. For the system we're in it looks like a delta-V of, oh, about ten kilometers per second. So to be safe we'd need, assuming the tanks are dry, about," and he paused as the computation finished, "500,000 tons of propellant. Can you manage that in time? We cannot; we're a week away from the nearest fueling facility."

Before Shirk could answer, he brought up the other possibility, as if he'd just thought of it. "Actually, it might be easier to simply repair and refuel the ship's hyperspace drive and jump out of the system."

Shink immediately shook his head at the last suggestion. The governor would personally skin him alive if he let this thing go. "We can supply the fuel, liquid water, and have it all here in a few days if we keep up consistent transport. Only if we reach the eleventh hour and we still are unable to move the ship should we resort to attempting a drive jump. Forgive me, but a ship that's been floating for hundreds of years in space without maintenance of any kind is going to be risky to operate as it is, never mind the inticracies and potential disaster faster-than-light travel represents."

Logan remained impassive, but that niggling feeling of doubt didn't go away.
"I didn't know you had tried to look for it," he said. "That was somewhat foolhardy of you, sergeant. You don't know what is on this ship."

The Corporal nodded.
"Something went wrong, all right. Started acting like he was batshit insane. Can you lead us back to the Major? Then, maybe we can get off this fucking ship."

The Drones deactivated the suits showing their gothic features. They looked over this man carefully and said nothing. Their eyes were completely impenetrable and their faces were expressionless. This was interesting, and slighty discomforting.
---------
The droids looked to each other, "That may be possible. We had less that a second of communications with our fellow droid elsewhere on the ship and then comms failed. We can only assume where they are at this moment. It would probably be best if we worked to get off this ship so as to regain solid footing. Not to mention that then we may be able to get ahold of some reinforements."

The Corporal thought for a moment.
"I hate to leave men behind, but...you said your buddies have made contact with him. Ok, let's get the hell off of this ship. The place we secured entry isn't that far from here." He waved the droids on, and they headed off to the hole in the ship.

***

In the conference room, Roe also shook his head at the hyperdrive suggestion. He looked at the Kitsune, and then back at the Clomatan alien.
"The Tempest, and all Setulanite vessels capable of entering close orbit, have massive...I suppose the word is hoses...we used to clean up the atmosphere of our planet after the great war. Using them to absorb water, or the hydrogen from air, would not be too great of a challenge. I would of course need to speak to the engineers and Captain Miken, but if the Tempest can get to a moon with an atmosphere and back in time, it might prove an answer to your dilemna."
And make sure they don't dissapear with it, he thought. Hyperdrive, indeed.

"Roger," Said the Droids as they moved to follow.

Conference

Beral nodded vigorously at Shink's rebuke, as if to admit it had been a crazy idea and that he'd only been throwing it out there for conversation's sake. "If enough propellant can be supplied in time, then moving the ship by conventional means is the best solution; on that we can all agree."

He didn't quite like being dependent on the aliens. And their threat to destroy the ship - well, that was no good, but he didn't have grounds to disagree. If he pushed the Clomata ownership angle too hard, they might start to ask questions for which he'd prefer not to come up with lies to answer.

He clasped his hands together, seemingly in eager anticipation. "I should alert my Commander that the engineer team can depart for the repair and rendezvous. From our records we know of several viable points of entry; where is your team currently located?"

And he watched carefully the response; the aliens had shown themselves far more rational and sophisticated than media vids back home portrayed them. Now he wondered for himself: did they prefer to lie or to bluff?

Kof-Mojy Habitat Control

"Yessir, yes that's all too true," Ursel agreed with the major. "And I want to go find them, sir, but - "

He gestured around himself in a vague way. "With the atmosphere going, I don't want explosive decompression next time we open up a hatch. I for one would like to know what places in this rustbucket are now pressurized and which aren't, but I can't make sense of this console."

"We aren't actually sure," Shink met the eyes of the political officer. "They have evidently penetrated so deeply into the vessel that we have lost all contact with them, the signals are being warped and blocked by the sheer mass between us and our team. However, I can give you the hole though which they accessed the ship."
He did not voice his terrible feeling that something had happened to the team. They couldn't send a second team in to look for the first without looking as though they were suspicious of the Clomatan aliens. For the moment, until either the team came back into contact range or this team of technicians found them, they were stuck.

Kof-Mojy Habitat Control...
"Does it matter that much?" Keela asked, irritated. "Can your suits not withstand that? We need to get out of here now!"

The lead Drone nodded, "True Keela, but knowing this ship, explosive decompression could mean 'royally fucked,' even with our suits. Human term I picked up."

Conference

Beral nodded slowly, a bit surprised. "We expected that might be the case. Well, transmit their entry position to my ship, and hopefully our team will encounter them on the way to the engine controls."

"Well, I believe that covers the essentials," he said as he stood up. "Although I would like to lodge a request, for the sake of everyone's sanity. If the propellant solution doesn't work, we will try the hyperspace solution before you try the destruction solution?"

Roe nodded in agreement and turned to the Xiscapian.
"If you transmit the coordinates of the nearest moon or planet we can use, the Tempest can head off their immediately.

***

Logan agreed with Keela.
"Yes, they can. Suit up, Ursel. We're leaving. Now." He slid the mask back over his face and looked to Keela.
"Let's get the hell out of here."

The rest of the team with the two Greywatch droids hurried to the blast hole, testing their commuications the entire way.
"Tempest, do you read? Tempest, come in."

ooc: Clomata, does the other team have comms back yet?

"We will only try destroying the ship if nothing else works and the vessel draws too close to the colony system." Shink affirmed, turning to Roe. "With the amounts you're talking about, half a million tons, I think it would be safe to draw the water from the colony. I'll put in a request to the Captain to have this ship send you the coordinates to the colony. Ground control will direct you to an ocean or inland sea for the retrieval."
Kof-Mojy Habitat Control...
Keela nodded, grateful someone was seeing her point of view. As she was about to issue the command to move out, however, she noticed Nichole was bending over the console the Setulan Sergeant had been indicating. "Warrant Officer, you might want to see this..." she said, tapping the side of the terminal. "I think, based on the symbols, that if we can figure out how, we can pressurize the entire ship and make it safe for the teams who come later to study."

Keela was torn, for a moment, between duty and honor, and self-preservation and every instinct that was screaming at her that she needed to get as far away from the ship as she could. Being a soldier, in the end duty and honor won out, but she wasn't willing to jeopardize the rest of the team for it. "What do you guys think?" she gestured helplessly to the console. "This is what we were sent here to do, creepy paranormal disturbances or not. We can't just...leave." She couldn't believe the words that were coming out of her mouth, but she had been assigned this mission and she'd be damned, now, if she aborted it because the her fur was started to poof.*
*Not unlike the hairs standing up on the back of your neck for a human.

The lead Drone tilted its head for a moment, "This is what we were sent here to do, creepy paranormal disturbances or not. We can't just...leave." It played her words back in its mind, Well we could, or you could at least. Since we are expendable by nature we could have the best of both worlds.... The Drone discarded the thought, Keela had something that many other sentients seemed to possess, honor. As long as she had that, there was really no sense in trying to talk her out of staying on the ship and doing her duty. The Drone nodded before finally saying, "Whatever your order, we will heed it."

(OOC: Nope, and almost entirely no power to the suits either. Or the droids, actually - I'd at first intended it for a COMPLETE lack of power, but then I realized that would mean the droids essentially drop dead along with weapons and such, so instead it's just a big power drain that comes and goes, at different times and places.)

Conference

Subcommander Beral was visibly relieved at the assurance. Having the ship destroyed wasn't acceptable to any of his employers.

He seemed to twitch his head, opening a comm channel to the Kitaan using a neural link. "Kitaan, this is Beral. We are to proceed with a joint operation. Our job will be to repair the ship's engine and controls; they have agreed to provide a supply of propellant. Then we will move the ship safely out of its impact trajectory."

He seemed to listen, and then: "Are you certain, Commander? The ship's mass is interfering with their transmissions as well, and we'll likely be out of contact... ah. Yes, of course, sir. Yes. Very well, Beral out."

The political officer turned to his host. "It seems Commander Egute will lead the engineering team himself. He does have experience with salvage expeditions, which is of course why he was chosen for our mission. Anyway, I will need to leave and brief him before he departs."

Kof-Mojy Habitat Control

Sergeant Ursel shifted his feet uncomfortably while the others talked. He'd just realized that his weapon was missing some ammunition and was doing his best not to draw attention to it.

At the question that the Kitsune Warrant Officer posed, he looked toward Major Logan. This decision isn't mine, he thought.

"No matter what, we should at least stay to find the rest of my men," he suggested.

The lead Drone gave an annoyed look for a moment, We should have brought more Drones... only we can function unhindered in places that block comms. The other Drone looked to Logan, "Are you certain? Chances are, your team is trying to do the same. If we stay, we'll all just be blindly wandering around this ships halls, hoping that we'll be reunited... for the moment, we should be concerned about getting ourselves off this vessel. Then we can make a new battle plan and come back in with more people and probably better supplies."

Logan nodded at the Drone's words.
"It was not I that suggested it. I'm sure they are doing the exact same thing we are." He looked at Ursel.
"Sergeant, you are bang out of order. Get your shit together, and fast. The team is either dead or trying to get the fuck out of here." He saw the slight shift of the weapon.
"And what the hell are you doing with your rifle?"

The Corporal stopped trying to communicate over the radio with a sound of disgust. He looked at the Greywatch troops.
"Any luck with you?"

***

Roe nodded.
"Send the coordinates to the Tempest as soon as you can. I'm sure if you explain the situation to the Captain, he would be more than willing to hurry to the colony and collect."

"My mistake," said the Drone, "Understood."


The Droids looked to each other and then to the Corporal, "Nothing. Whatever is blocking the comms systems is also minimizing our own power packs. We're not currently able to function at full capacity."

"Well, I'm all too happy to get off this damn boat," Ursel grumbled agreeably.

He evenly met Logan's gaze and blinked at the question about his rifle. "I'm not doing anything with my weapon, sir." He shrugged.

Conference Room...
"The Captain tells me the coordinates have been sent," Shink nodded to Roe. "I would suggest haste, the faster this can get done the less we'll need to worry about that ship getting too close." He stood, bowing to both. "We will contact our teams as soon as we can. For now, I must attend to the bridge."
Kof-Mojy Habitat Control...
"Then it's settled," Keela nodded. "We'll stay to find the Major's team and try to figure out how to make this ship...safe." She doubted they'd be able to find a solution, but it was true that they needed to find the others before leaving. They couldn't just abandon them, who knew what else lurked on this ship?
"Does anyone have an ideas on how to locate the other time?" Keela looked around, directing Nichole to the console she had been examining. Cautiously, the vampiric kitsune pressed a button that looked as though it might activate the terminal.

Logan shook off the feeling. He would deal with any problems when they came.
"Alright, Ursel. Let's find them."

***

Miken read the ops order with a slight frown.
"Engine room, I am entering coordinates for immediate jump to a friendly-held system." He entered the coordinates into the computer.
"Sir, systems are go. We are ready for jump."
"On my mark. Three, two, one, mark!"
The Tempest entered jump and appeared, minutes later, in realspace. They were on the edge of the system.
"Get me a link to somebody important!"
Tempest started to broadcast across all bands. While the powerful radio might very well disrupt local broadcasting towers, it was worth the effort.

Xiscapian control, this is the SRV Tempest. We have just arrived in system. Give us some directions.

Kitaan Airlock

"Suited up? Just a moment, it's been a while since I fit into one of these," Commander Egute said, finishing the clasps to his space suit. The seven members of the team were ready.

Leading amongst them was Junior Subcommander Dietrel, an engineering specialist assigned to the ship just prior to leaving 'known' space. He was tall, almost absurdly so at just under 7', with a bright shock of red hair that was currently being encased within his helmet. He'd read up on the Kof-Mojy before leaving, just to make sure of some things. Though there was a lot one could never be sure of...

Master Sergeant Karn, another new transfer, was a boarding-action veteran and a known marksman. He was the only combat specialist in the team, although all were armed and trained. He'd brought his own weapon; a coilgun with enough armor-penetrating rounds to make sure he'd die before having a chance to empty the magazine into something. He stated often enough that he wouldn't feel comfortable dying before then, though. He also brought along a 'tool pack' with various 'goodies'...

The other members of the team were all from the Engineering section, including the ship's Engineer, Lieutenant Rellim. They sported their bulky engineering equipment along with laser pistols. Commander Egute carried the standard-issue boarding action laser rifle, and only deferred the honor of leading the boarding itself to Sergeant Karn when he insisted on security's sake.

"Sergeant, lead us in," Egute said after depressurization. The outer hatch opened and eight Clomata in spacesuits launched themselves towards the Kof-Mojy's gaping blast-wound.

At the control center, Beral had little to do but sit and wait for his agent to do his job. He had confidence in the man, but the mission had so many variables now. They might have to destroy the thing, after all.

Kof-Mojy Habitat Control Room

The powered console reacted instantly, as no doubt it must have done for the sergeant before when he activated the pressurized atmosphere.

A loud, penetrating klaxon began to sound, and red lights flashed in the room. On the display, a grid of labeled cubes, representing the compartments of the ship, now showed one cube surrounded by blinking red lines.

A mechanized voice began speaking around them in an alien language; one-syllable words every two seconds. It was difficult to be sure, but it sounded distinctly like a countdown.

"Shit," Sergeant Ursel exclaimed, sounding both disgusted and tired.

The Setulan warship would find eight ships in orbit around the colony world of Dolosus, the Battleships Wrath and Remembrance, the Destroyers Resolve and Destiny, the Carriers Saber and Unifier, and the Medical Ships Forewarned and Dream. Obviously the Sorrow had transmitted ahead to alert the defenses of the imminent arrival of the Tempest, as no warning was given and the Resolve and Destiny moved aside to allow the Tempest direct passage down to the planet. As the radio message hit every communications-equipped device within several AU one could almost discern the annoyance coming from the planet, but a response was sent after a few moments, a official, authoritative voice vox:
SRV Tempest, this is Dolosus Ground Control. You have been authorized to break atmosphere at point 008794 as indicated on the planetary map arriving with this message. From there two XIN fightercraft will place a beacon on the point of a large inland sea for you to follow. Once you have deployed your retrieval devices and have the necessary amount of fluid, you are to exit in the same manner you arrived. Please do not divert from the course laid for you or we will be forced to take measures to protect the people, structures and landscape of this colony. You may begin your approach when you feel ready. Control out."

Kof-Mojy Habitat Control Room...
"What the hell did you do?!" yelled Keela at her corporal. Nichole cowered under her superiors wrath. "It looked like a command start-up, I didn't know it activated security measures!" she cried. Keela looked around wildly. "Shit, shit, shit!" She made for the terminal, pushing Nichole out of the way, staring at the alien console. "Fuck..." She slammed a fist down onto the same button again, hoping to silence the alarm.

Kof-Mojy Habitat Control

The lights and klaxons ceased. On the display, the red highlights turned to green.

There was a sound as the hatches to the compartment re-locked.

On the display, the other cubes remained dim gray.

Main Hull Breech

"Passing through outer hull perimeter," reported Sergeant Karn.

Dietrel said, "Looks like a small nuclear warhead detonated. Fried the outer surface and tore this hole open."

"Making contact with bulkhead in five seconds. Four. Three. Two." There was a soft exhalation as the Sergeant impacted on the wounded metal surface. Like those that came before he then lead the team through the vacuum-exposed compartments until he got to the relatively-undamaged ones beneath.

"The hatches are opened, but not forced open or damaged," Dietrel commented. "They must have been open when the rupture occurred. Which indicates that the hull breech caused a decompression."

"Would also explain the lack of bodies," Karn agreed. "Except the force would have cleared a lot of this debris away. The hatches may have been opened after the explosion."

"We don't know enough yet," Egute concluded. "Let's continue to the engine."

The team made its way into the ship.

Logan looked around wildly as the klaxons rang out, desperately looking for a point of cover and finding...nothing. They were screwed.
Then the klaxons stopped sounding, atmosphere returned, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He gave a sigh of relief.
"Bloody hell. This ship is a fucking death trap. Let's find the rest of the team and get the hell off of this ship."

The Corporal held up a hand to halt the team and cautiously raised his rifle.
"Do you hear that? It sounds like something is coming from the direction of the hull breech...."

***

Miken noted the calm response and looked over the map of the planet, locating the coordinates in question.
"Alright...helm, take us there." the XO picked up an inter-ship vox link. His voice blared over the loudspeakers.
"All crew, prepare for atmospheric entry." The XO looked at his captain.
"Sir, has this actually ever been done?" Miken shook his head.
"No. That being said, Cobra destroyers are used to transport troops in secured drop zones, and we aren't all that much bigger than them. One for the textbooks, XO!" Miken smiled.
"Max power to shields. I don't want to risk a burn-up upon entry."
The Tempest entered atmosphere, the heat causing the shields to burn...but not anything like enough to damage them or the ship.
All across the planet, citizens could look up and see a massive trail of fire being sketched across their sky...directly on the entry course proscribed by the Xiscapians. The Tempest pulled out of its entrance dive at exactly the right spot, coming to a hover a thousand feet above the water. The probes extended, landing in the sea.
"Activate pumps!" Miken shouted out.
"Activated!" replied the chief engineer. Miken let out a long sigh.
"Sweet merciful gods. That was one hell of a trip." He shot a grin at his helmsman.
"Bloody brilliant, Lieutenant!"

The Drones didn't make a move as the alarms went off, nor did the droid. When everything went back to 'normal' the lead Drone just looked around at the group, "No more touching buttons... please." It said in a dull monotone. It was slightly annoyed, a feat for a Drone, that Keela had decided to stay, but it was technically operating under her command and wasn't going to complain. "Whenever you're ready to move."

Keela was visibly shaken by the experience. "Maybe your right," she conceded, humiliated. "Let's just find the others and get out." she muttered. Then she and the others of the team heard the distant, echoing noises coming from the direction of the slit in the hull they had entered though. "Maybe the others have found the way out?" wondered Nichole aloud. Jake shook his head but Keela looked in that direction too. "I hope so..." she trailed off, lifting her rifle slightly. "Let's make tracks, if they're there we can all get out of here together."

Dolosus, City of Kaji, Governor's Office...
"By the gods..."
The marine looked over at his Governor but said nothing as the kitsune stayed at the window, staring though an ornate pair of field glasses at the distant smoking fireball that was actually a friendly ship. The tentative updates he had been receiving from the fleet told him it was from a human nation called Setulan, wherever the hell that was. Now the massive tubes splashed down into the sea, and he knew the ship was sucking up water at an unimaginable rate. But none of this concerned Dovenhawk: He could see the damn thing though these field glasses, and if he could do that, it meant others could see it too. Anyone who might have noticed the massive, alien ship cruising though the atmosphere, anyone near, by or in the sea, all of those manning the orbital and planetary defenses, all of them would have seen this.

And wondered why they were here and what they were doing. Obviously if they hadn't been destroyed, shot down or were being attacked they weren't hostile, but nothing like this had ever happened at the colony. People would talk. Of course, there was no way anyone would ever guess the true purpose of the vessel, and the teams and crews of the ships involved could be made to sign a pact of silence, but the Governor had the feeling he would be receiving not a few calls before this was all wrapped up. Now he had to figure out a good cover story, and good lies were always close enough to the truth to be plausible. So the ship was here to pick up water, not for any other ship, but for itself, and it was here because the object had attracted it and while keeping pace with the thing it had run low on fuel, or basic clean water, and the Xiscapians had graciously allowed them to use their resources.

Dovenhawk felt a small smile cross his lips as he lowered the glasses. Aye, there's the rub. They would believe him: Why wouldn't they? He was the Governor Dovenhawk, hero of the Imitator war, leader and protector of Dolosus. One day, he supposed, the truth would come out. But not yet, certainly not while the aliens were still poking around out there and the ship was still speeding towards the sun at a terrifying rate.

The droids only needed to give one word as an answer: "Affirmative."
-------
The Greywatch team began checking their weapons. It didn't matter what the hell got thrown at them, they weren't going anywhere until they did their job.
"Let's just find the others and get out."
"Yes ma'am." Said the lead Drone as it looked around, listening to the echoing sound. "interesting."
"Maybe the others have found the way out?"
"If they have we'll know about it." muttered the second Drone.
With Keela's last statement the droid took point.
-------
Aboard the Shadowfoot, which had been dormant for awhile now, a very impatient captain felt it was time to bring himself back into the loop. And so, doing what anyone inside another ship's hold would do, he contacted whoever happened to be on the bridge at the time.
<This is Captain John, sorry if I'm interupting anything but... we just detected another ship in the system and then we detected a jump. Now, as far as our systems show, we're in the atmosphere of some planet. Sorry about my silence up until now, there were a few technical difficulties aboard the ship that disabled comms.>

OOC: Looking back on the early stuff, I saw I left a Drone with Captain Miken somewhere on the third or forth page....

Kof-Mojy, The Breach

The Clomatan team now entered the honeycomb of cubical compartments.

"Hold," Dietrel said, looking at his scanner.

"I'm picking it up too," said someone else, "The alien team?"

"Must be," Egute said, though for some reason he now wondered if there could be anyone else aboard the wreck. "Proceed."

Weapons went up at first visual contact - spacesuits and robots. Egute clung to a ventilation duct as he halted his forward drifting. He fiddled with his communicator for a moment, searching for the friendly frequency he'd been given during Beral's briefing.

But the suits they saw had no lights, despite the near-perfect darkness. Why? he wondered to himself. (OOC: No power->no communications so they can't receive the comm, if you'll recall.)

Habitat Control

The multinational team proceeded out of the control room, following a droid. Ursel took the rearguard. He felt cautiously hopeful... maybe they'd get out of this alive, and sane... then he could retire, maybe, go back to construction...

Then something came over him, and he realized that he had to do something. Had to. Part of him tried to speak to the others, but his voice didn't agree with the decision. Suddenly, he launched himself from the hatch back toward the control console. He dimly saw the others turn and move as he did, but he got to the console quickly, slamming painfully into it in the low-g environment, and thumped his suited fist down onto the control. Klaxons sounded again! And he socked it again!

Kof-Mojy, Near the Breach

Machinery started to crank to life, inexplicably. In a moment, the ventilation ducts blasted forth a rush of gases... the force of which propelled Egute like a rocket away from the duct and against the deck, bouncing off and ricocheting about out of control.

Pressure began to build in the vacuum environment. Hatches sealed everywhere aboard the ship, containing the atmosphere as it flooded throughout. But the old wreck's wounds were still sore; oxygen and nitrogen began pumping out into space as well.

Kitaan Control

"Sir," the sensor officer, working at his console: "I'm reading gas ventilation from the Kof-Mojy!"

Subcommander Beral frowned. "What gas?"

"Probably atmospheric gases, but I can't be certain. Ventilating from two areas."

"The main breach?"

"No, sir, well, looks like two minor breaches."

Beral thought quickly. The fact that the main breach wasn't venting meant it had been sealed off and repaired.. by someone.

But the fact that there was gas venting at all meant someone had managed to activate the biological support system. And he was sure it couldn't be Egute or his team. There was no way they could have gotten there in this short a time. Something was wrong.

"Get me the Sorrow."

The Droids saw the other beings appoahing the breach in the hull, interesting, they had some newcomers to deal with. And apparently there was really no way of talking to them... just perfect.
-------------
Meanwhile the Greywatch group wasn't able to even ask what Ursel was doing before he began smashing the control console. It was then that the rest of the Greywatch team began focusing on the sound of hatches closing all over the ship. What the hell had Ursel done?