NationStates Jolt Archive

"Huh?" Miguel raises an eyebrow, then blinks. "I didn't say anything to you other than 'it's right there.' I didn't call you anything."

Dergan smiles, and his frame shakes with barely controlled laughter.

OOC: so, did it work or did i get dekker pissed off for no apparant reason?

*The dark blob in Beth's shadoiw is hit by the phaser ray. It dislodges, and seems to grow larger, into a humanoid shape. As the blob gets larger, it becomes more detailed, the inky blacjness being replaced with colors. It takes the form of Beth's son at a young age, around ten or so. The blob looks at Beth with surprusungly realistic eyes full of fear.*

???(Beth's point of view): "Mommy, I'm scared! Let's go home please! Let's go home to Earth!"

*Celesatial blinks, seeing the blob not as Beth's son, but as her brother Buchi.*

???(Celestial's point of view): "Little Sister, this place isn't safe. Come, let us return home, home to Earth."

Celestial: "Buchi..."


((OOC: Basically everyone will see the parasite differently, in the form of someone they care about or love, such as a son/duaghter, brother/sister, or even mentor. It will also request basically the same thing: to be taken back to Earth. Each person will hear the request differently.))

"My son is in the academy on Mars. I got a letter from him before we left. Why are you doing this? Why do you want to go to Earth? So you can feed?"

Beth was tired, and the sight of her son made her eyes water. Still - she knew it wasn't real. It couldn't be. "Someone - someone shoot it. Kill it."

((OOC: Waiting for the other's reaction before posting.))

Miguel was thoroughly confused... but, scary thing was, he was getting used to it.

Standing in front of him is a girl he'd fallen for pretty hard a few years back who brushed him off. He thought he'd been over it right now, but the rejection was the primary motive for joining the SDF... an effective way to escape the problem.

Of course, said girl had just evolved from some blob on the ground, and the Captain just said that it was her son. Rojacamiseta, getting tired of having his emotions constantly manipulated from every angle (and still harboring a bit of spite against the person the blob attempted to emulate) reaches for his phaser. "Not a problem, ma'am..."

His hand brushes against his empty holster. "Oh... yeah... you have my phaser pistol, Captain. May I have it back momentarily?"

"Hm. Dr. Hilary. Thought he was on Venus. But, whatever....."

"Sure..." Beth held it up. She didn't think she could pull the trigger, but perhaps someone else could. Someone stronger than she was.

"Oh, it was you..." Dekker says with a hint of anger in his voice, turing to Dergan. "Mr. Blue-Guy. The name's DEKKER, not Billy-Bob." He shoulders the rifle. "What did you guys want me to shoot?"

Miguel takes back his phaser pistol and levels it at the blob who looks like his ex-girlfriend. Okay, it's not her, she's still on Mars, probably has about sixty STD's by now, the friggin' wench...

Aw, man, just be logical for once...

He hesitates.

Dekker shrugs, then takes aim and fires at the blob. "Kapow!" He says as the thing explodes into a million slimy pieces.

Whiptail rolls his eyes in annoyance as blob pieces splash onto his suit.

"Dekker huh? Well, if you insist on being called that, Billy Bob, it's fine with me." Dergan shrugs, then turns to Miguel and puts a claw over the phaser and pushes it down. "It's ok, it's gone now. You too capytan, relax. The thing is gone." He glances around the area, then whispers under his breath. "I hope it is, anyway."

Beth stands there, stunned slightly. She shakes it off after a moment though. "We should get a sample. When we get out of here we might want to scan for it again, just in case it survives.

Whiptail scrapes some of it off of his suit. "Here." He says.

"Smeg. Yucky."

Dekker shrugs, then takes aim and fires at the blob. "Kapow!" He says as the thing explodes into a million slimy pieces.
(OOC: I bloody well knew it! I was going for the blob to do something like 'please don't shoot me,' which would push Miguel over the edge with its blatant manipulation and he'd zap her.

Of course, I knew Billy-Bob would just shoot. Grr.)

Miguel blinks. "I would've gotten it eventually."

*Celestial falls to her knnes, reaching out a hand to where the blob once was before Billy Joe Bob blew it into a million pieces.*

Celestial: "Big brother! Don't leave me..."

*Her voice was full of sadness...*

Dekker shrugs, then takes aim and fires at the blob. "Kapow!" He says as the thing explodes into a million slimy pieces.
(OOC: I bloody well knew it! I was going for the blob to do something like 'please don't shoot me,' which would push Miguel over the edge with its blatant manipulation and he'd zap her.

Of course, I knew Billy-Bob would just shoot. Grr.)

Miguel blinks. "I would've gotten it eventually."

((OOC: Pardon the double postie. ^_^ More realistically, it would have said something along the lines of "But Miguel, I love you. Please, don't let the others hurt me. Let's leave, just you and me together." Needless to say, it loves to toy with the emotions of pretty much anything it can.))

"It's okay, Celestial, it's just some mind-bending parasite like the rest of this bloody ship." Odd that I'm feeling so calm now... "Let's just get out of here. It's been a long day."

"It's okay, Celestial, it's just some mind-bending parasite like the rest of this bloody ship." Odd that I'm feeling so calm now... "Let's just get out of here. It's been a long day."

*Celestial sniffles.*

Celestial: "Yeah, let's try to find a way out. My emotions and nerves are fried..."

*She stands, then looks further down the corridor.*

Celestial: "Keep pressing on, or let Beth rest first?"

"I'm feeling a little better - maybe just confidence now that it's dead, but I think we can press on."

Beth took a couple steps, wobbly, but she managed to keep going.

"Lets just hope there arn't more suprises in store. I'd like to get out of this suit as quickly as possible."

*Celestial nods, Glock held ready.*

Celestial: "Right. I'll take point, since I got the best vision."

*Seeing as how no one objected, Celestial takes the lead ahead of Beth.*

Celestial: "This way..."

"That is certainly open for debate, Khajit." Whiptail says as he brings his MP5.

"I'll walk along in the middle, and hold the 'corder with both hands. Where's my cane and shawl?"

Beth pantomimes an old lady hobbling forward. 'Though I don't feel much better myself...'

"Not too fast whippersnappers."

"Keep up, granny. You always said you walked twenty miles to school every day, with no shoes on." Dekker says over his shoulder.

"Through a vacuum and at 2x Earth normal gravity. That's what my grandfather said at least." Beth straightened up - the more she walked the better she felt. "So if it's a ship, and we find a control room, maybe we can take it home with us."

*Celestial ignores Whiptail's comment.*

Celestial: "That's assuming the owner lets us. We've only seen those drone thingies so far, and I don't think any of them are smart enough to fly this thing."

*An off-turn was fast apporaching on the left, another corridor intersecting the current one.*

Celestial: "Heads up, got a side passage..."

*Celestial catfoots ahead, peeking around the corner. She gags, and withdraws quickly. Her face is pale.*

Celestial: "It-It-It'sa... It'sa... A whole..."

*She stops herself, trying to collect her nerves.*

Celestial: "It's a wall of dead bodies!"

Beth sits down at this, suddenly drained again. "Great. Are they in the same condition or can you tell?" Beth didn't want to look, so she moved slowly up to the corner and stuck her 'corder around the wall.

"They sure are dead all right."

Miguel turns the corner, blinks, prepares to panic, and suddenly...

...something snaps inside him. His emotions, stretched and skewed and manipulated every which possible way, both intentionally and unintentionally, just break and rattle around in his head. Looking at the wall sullenly, he steps up and kicks one of the bodies at the bottom with a boot. "Yeah, they're dead. Not a threat."

He looks back at the rest of the team. "Well, are we going to move these out of the way or what?" He doesn't sound angry, sullen, annoyed, or enthusiastic... he just sounds tired. Tired and uninterested, like someone commenting on some uneventful happening earlier in the day.

"There seems to be a pattern developing here. It's rather dull. Dead body, weird emotions, random event. Rinse, repeat. Perhaps we should go back outside, and find something more interesting?"

"That sounds great to me, but I see one problem with that idea. We can't get out." He stumbles, then rights himself, bracing against the wall. "Im getting pretty tired. We should rest pretty soon."

Miguel nods slowly, feeling the fatigue just wash around. Maybe there's some sort of feedback thing going. "Yeah, as much as I hate to say it, maybe it'd be best if we rested now and got out later."

"Why not? Lets have a little break. Steady eye out though - don't want anything sneaking up on us."

Beth pointed her 'corder at the majority. "If anything funny happens to your readings though, I'm blasting you though, got it?"

Sitting down she reclined, closed her eyes, and almost instantly she was asleep.

Celestia sighs and goes to examine the wall, mewing sofly to herself.*

Celestial: "I wonder who put this wall up? And why?" It looks deliberate, the way the bodies are twisted so that they interetwine with one another... It's interesting in a disturbing sort of way. Maybe it was put up to keep the virus out?

"Interesting notion. I've got a guess, but it conflicts with other information we have."

Beth paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts.

"Perhaps the wall was created by one of the controllers to keep the parasite out. If the parasite caused the crash, guessing that it was a crash, then the power may have failed. Given their technology, I would think they could just create a wall, but if the power failed - no wall."

"But the power is clearly back now. Maybe it took some time to repair, neccessitating the wall."

Miguel yawns. "Ya... question is, do we want to tear down the wall without putting something back up in its place? There could be more than one parasite."

*Celestial blinks.*

Celestial: "Yeah, we should put up a forc shield or something..."

"I don't think we have any, unless someone brought one and didn't mention it. Attila may be our answer though - can you create a barrier if we burn through the bodies? It will be one gross crawl, but close your eyes and you won't even notice."

"I don't think we have any, unless someone brought one and didn't mention it. Attila may be our answer though - can you create a barrier if we burn through the bodies? It will be one gross crawl, but close your eyes and you won't even notice."

"It could make a foglet wall, but that's not going to be airtight." Jerome was quiet for a moment. "Methinks that the large irregular glob near the gash in the wing was a more direct cause of the crash than any disease."

Dekker seems to be getting a wee bit pissed. "Next person to call me Billy Bob is gonna have to be scraped off of the walls." He jerks a thumb towards himself. "I'm Dekker. D-E-K-K-E-R, got it?"

"I don't think it's a question of air-tight - it was in my shadow, correct? Perhaps it is a question of light-tight. Or perhaps the wall was a failure. Never the less - it blocks our passage. We can either pull it down, burn through it, or use enough HE to line the passage with salsa."

'No one volunteer for the third option, please'. Beth was already feeling pretty wheezy.

"Well, I can't help on the force-shield thing. I only have my personal shield and it doesn't have the output to cover us all." Yawning, he walks over to inspect the wall. "This wall, however, looks like it could be sliced open pretty easily with a laser of some type. Anyone happen to have one of those?"

*Celestial yowls very cat-like.*

Celestial: "Let's just knock the wall down. I wanna get off this stupid ship, building, Intergalatic Giant Space Amenoba, or whatever this thing is!"

Dekker throws himself at the wall, slamming his shoulder into it.

Dekker throws himself at the wall, slamming his shoulder into it.

*The wall bends slightly, but doesn't yield to Dekker.*

Celestial: "That worked well..."

Miguel looks down at his phaser, still set to Kung-Pow Hole-In-Chest, then back at the wall of bodies. Shrugging, he takes aim near the bottom. "Stand clear."

ZAP!

"Maybe if I get a runnin' start..." He steps back a few feet, then charges the wall again.

Whiptail groans and shakes his head. "Dekker, some things can be solved without use of force." He watches Miguel take aim, waiting for results.

Dergan winces, then leans close to Celestial. "You probably shouldn't mention space amoebas around the cap'n. That was nasty buisness, and she don't like it too much." He straightens up, and looks at Dekker. "You're not going to get very far like that. Back up Joe, and let me try something."

Dergan unslings his blaster rifle, then reaches into his pack and pulls out something that looks like a really long, cylincrical (sp?) mirror and attaches it to the barrel. "You're not the only one who brings firepower."

OOC: You mean cylindrical? (I think....)

IC: "What did I just say?" Dekker says in annoyance. He pulls a sonic grenade out of a utility pocket.

"Hey now, the only body parts I want to see flying are these. I wonder how much water they consist of? The more the better for us - more water vapor instead of salsa."

Beth unslings her rifle and blasts away at the same portion as Miguel. Its something easy to do, and she needs some excuse to stand there for a minute.

OOC: Yea, i guess i forgot the "d"

"You just said that if anyone called you Billy Bob, you would kill them. I called you Joe, which is not either Billy or Bob, so you cannot kill me." He grunts with effort, levering his augmented laser rifle into firing position. "Besides, I could blow you and the wall behind you into pieces so small we'd never find enough of you to put together a finger nail."

Dekker puts the grenade away. "I'm about ready to shove you fancy rifle up your ass and blow your head off. Call me by my name, and we won't have any trouble. I don't like people who start stuff."

OOC: He's got a real short fuse for smart-asses, his brother being a huge one. Dekker would disarm his ass before he could pull the trigger.

Whiptail taps Dergan on the shoulder. "I've seen him kill people like yourself with little or no effort, large weapon or not. If you choose to fire on him, I will tear you throat out and feast apon your life-blood." His golden eyes slowly begin to turn red, a sign of his bloodlust emerging.

"No problem, Dekker." He smiles, then rotates and takes aim at the wall. "You guys might want to step back little. This things got a little bit of a kick." He braces his legs, then fires at the wall. An ear-splitting shriek erupts from the barrel as a flash of light blinds everyone within 100ft. When your vision returns, you can see Dergan just getting up from the floor near the wall, grinning. "I always liked doing that."

"Stop that you three. This is a exploration mission, not a chance to show off. Let's keep it professional."

At that moment the phaser beam hit something large and full of water, which chose to explode in a large cloud of steam. What were likely vital organs and bits sprayed out of the hole, splattering all of them with purple and green iccor.

"I ain't showin' off. I just want to be called by my name, then tech-boy threatens to shoot me. I ain't gonna take that lyin' down." Dekker says with an annoyed sigh. "But since we're shootin' stuff...." He takes aim with his phaser, and fires several times.

"No one is 'showing off' as you softskins put it. It is a grave insult in my culture to call someone by something other than the name they give you." Whiptail steps backwards into the shadows, watching the proceedings.

OOC: it's so much fun getting people mad

OOC: I agree with you, but not when the person you're taunting makes his living by killing stuff. I love to piss people off, but I'm usually a smartass. That's a lot more fun.

OOC: Thats a good point. Dergan's problem is that he grew up among a rich family, so he's not only a smart smartass, he's arrogant too.

OOC: And now for my favorite smiley: :twisted:

"Oi, everyone calm down." Miguel manages to force annoyance into his voice. "If we start fragging each other, then it will just be easier for the spookies to get whoever's left. Let's leave the violence for whatever's smegging with us, okay?"

'Sides, I don't really want to see Derg splatted. 'S been nice enough to me, which is a welcome change.

Dekker doesn't look up. He continues shooting, seemingly enjoying himself.

"Hey, Dekker, those sonic grenades would work pretty good here. Just set them into the wall near the bottom, and the wall will collapse in on itself."

"Here." He flings a grenade to Dergan. "Knock yourself out." He says, stepping back.

He nodds towords Dekker. "Thanks, but I'll try to stay conscious." He walks up to the wall and sticks his hand in to the spot the captain was shooting at. Finding the right place, he sets the timer and backs away. The grenade went off, and some of the bodies went flying out of the wall. The rest of the wall rose a few inches, then dropped down and fell outwards, strewing bodies all over the floor. "Ha, I was right!" Then he looks at the bodies. "Kinda disgusting though, isn't it?"

"I believe that was what softskins call a 'joke', an amusing statement." Whiptail steps over the bodies, not bothered by the gore. "Reminds me of the battle of Swift-tail's Plain...." He says, ignoring the fleeting memory.

Dergan's skin darkens for one second, and Miguel gets a feeling that seems to say "Thank you", then his skin returns to it's normal color. "Well, at least now I know not to tell Whiptail a joke to lighten the mood."

*Beyond the wall o' corpses is a room, large and spacious. Littered here and there are tables, organic in constrution and material. They appeared to have grown out of the walls or floor. None are occupied by anything of any significant value to anyone. Celestial had managed to step over the dead bodies without losing her lunch.*

Celestial: "Is this some kind of mess hall?"

"Or some kind of planning room. I would check it out in infrared, but my implant is shot."

"It's a mess alright." Dekker says with a laugh. He looks at Beth. "You might not wanna look at the floor...." He kicks a severed head aside. "Swift-Tail's Plain wasn't bad. Gave the grass a new color, instead of that dead, yellow look."

Dergan's skin darkens for one second, and Miguel gets a feeling that seems to say "Thank you", then his skin returns to it's normal color. "Well, at least now I know not to tell Whiptail a joke to lighten the mood."
Not a problem. Miguel actively thinks it, figuring that, ya, something was up... and that's not so bad.

"I don't think it's a mess hall; there aren't any dispensers or receptacles or any orifices that'd serve those purposes." Flipping out his tricorder, he scans the area. "Hmmm... oh yeah, tricorders don't work." He replaces it on his belt sullenly.

"I have a feeling that whoever built the wall is going to be at least mildly annoyed with us. Let's keep moving."

"When one builds a wall out of corpses, one is usually not liked by others, or he would have nothing to build with." Whiptail says to Migel, as non-chalant as ever.

*Celestial falls in step behind Miguel.*

Celestial: "I wonder if we're close to the control room yet?"

"According to Murphy's law, we ain't anywhere near it." Dekker adds, poking around the room with his rifle.

"According to Murphy's law, we ain't anywhere near it." Dekker adds, poking around the room with his rifle.

*Celestial blinks several times.*

Celestial: "Muphy's law? Um... Riiiiiight...."

*She makes it a point to take two steps away from Dekker.*

He watches her walk away. "I seem to have that effect on people."

*Celestial jestingly sticks her tongue out at Whiptail.*

Celestial: "Nyoo!"

*She quickly hides behind Miguel...*

Dergan moves up next to Whiptail and puts a claw on his shoulder. "Yeah, the ladies can be confusing. Sometimes they want you to be sensitive, other times they want you to be rough. I haven't figured it out yet either. But for you, I think it's your smile. Maybe if you didn't show so many sharp teeth, the ladies wouldn't freak out all the time." He shrugs. "Just an idea." He starts chuckling as he walks towords the permanent wall right next to the hole in the wall, looking for any clue as to what was used to make the wall of bodies.

"Laugh all you want. My mate was killed in cold blood many years ago, along with our hatchlings." Whiptail says in a chilling tone. "I will kill you where you stand if you make one jest about her."

Dergan starts whispering to himself while he looks. "Can't even make one joke without someone threatening to kill me. I call Dekker a different name twice and threatens to kill me, then I start to innocently jest with Whiptail about women, and he threatens to kill me for making fun of his mate. Why do I always have this sort of luck with people?" Shaking his head, Dergan inspects some scratch marks near the opening.

"I am stating a fact, since you seem to enjoy teasing others. I have a simple solution: You should stop teasing people, then the death threats will stop." Whiptail reguards him with his angry golden glare. "Now, on with our exploration. There is much to be seen."

"I'm sorry, pal. I got a real short fuse for smart-asses. My brother is a huge smart-ass, and I had to put up with that for seventeen years. Now I don't know where he is, so I don't feel like I have to put up with it anylonger." Dekker shrugs. "What's wrong with Murphy's Law?"

Shaking his head again for underestimating his companion's hearing, Dergan stands up and turns around. "Whenever this wall was made, we know it wasn't made of corpses initially. These drones put themsleves in this position. Look at these claw marks. They start close to the wall and move outward. These drones used the wall to get themselves in this position."

"Interesting. Why did they do this?" Whiptail leans down a bit, letting his MP5 hang by its strap. "They must not have any knowledge of masnory, otherwise there would be no corpse wall."

"According to Murphy's law, we ain't anywhere near it." Dekker adds, poking around the room with his rifle.

"'If something can go wrong, it will.' I do not see the applicability. Perhaps Stapp's law is better suited to the situation."

"What's Stapp's law? Believe me, that paradrop into Grenada was a prime example of Murphy's law." Dekker replies, shouldering his rifle.

"Help me, I'm going to bloody drown in all the bugger testosterone." Miguel stands, arms akimbo, not really noticing Celestial behind him. "Dekker, Whiptail, grow thicker skins. Derg does not intend any insult and thus it makes bloody little sense to take it. Derg, now that you know that these two are... less than amused, maybe it'd be best if you limited your jibes to others. I've always had a self-depricating sense of humor, at least."

Besides, Derg, it'd really pain me to have to scrape you off a wall or try to avenge you or some such. 'Specially 'cause I'd probably lose that last bit.

"Why would they have to know masonry? This ship was probably grown. Maybe... maybe the drones can act as CHON for the ship to absorb into itself, like platelets or something... but the ship is dead, so the wall of corpses remained a wall of corpses."

"Don't you start on me, red-shirt. So tell me, what's Stapp's Law?" Dekker says with a twinge of anger in his voice.

OOC: He's got a slightly twisted sense of humor. Too much battle fatigue with out ample recovery time will do that to ya.

Dergan nods at Miguel. "I'll take that into account in the future. If we think of it that way, the part we just came through could be considered an infection or tumor. Which means we are on the right part of the ship."

While looking at Miguel, his skin begins to darken again.

Yea, it would be kind of interesting to see you try and fight either of these two. However, I don't fancy getting blown to bits or sliced apart. Thanks for the support there.

((OOC: *Pulls Testerone counter and scans the RP. The counter short circuits an explodes.* Erm... Wow...))


*Celestial peeks out from behind Miguel, then pats him on the shoulder.*

Celestial: "Thanks for the cover, bro."

*She steps out from behind him, going near Dergan.*

Celestal: "I'm not all that sciency typ, but the most logical answr to why they did it would be to keep something out. Or..."

*A shudder runs down her spine. Her ears lay back, flattening against her head.*

Celestial: "Or to keep something in... Gawd, I hate my over reactive imagiation!"

*Already she was imagining whole armies of those shadowy blob things, just waiting to get them all.*

Dergan turns to look at Celestial. "No, it would be to keep something out. There were no scratch marks on the outside. That means that the people who were making the decisions were on the inside. Would you decide to have all your workers sacrifice themselves to lock something in with you? Also, the bodies on the outside of the wall were dry, just like that body we found earlier. That means they were trying to keep the parasite out, not something in. I hope."

*Celestial blinks, Dergan's words makin sense.*

Celestial: "Makes sense. So then that means all we gotta do is find our wonderful host on this side of the wall and thank him for fucking with our heads by putting a bullet in his. Or her's. I don't care either way right now... Gawd, all I wanna do is take a nice, long hot shower!"

*She punches the wall, her balled up fist impacting with a wet whump against the wall.*

Pointedly ignoring Dekker, Miguel says, aloud, as Celestial passes: "No problem." He might be directing the statement to Dergan though, or Celestial, or both.

"Well, we've already tried the other side and found it. Are there any other exits to this room?" He begins to wander around the room, looking for other corridors, idly examining the tables.

Finding a shiny black object on one, he picks it up. It resembles a beetle's wing shell, made of glossy black chitin; one of its curved sides is totally smooth, while the other side has a nerve- or vein-looking network under something that resembles a compound eye made out of millions of miniscule cells.

"Can I use a laser rifle instead?" Dergan looks hopeful.

*Celestial shrugs.*

Celestial: "Sure, why not? But I get to shoot him, her, it in the head, so yu beter leave enough for me, gotcha?"

*She flashes Dergan a grin, her two sharp fang like teeth showing. She thenturns her attention to Miguel.*

Celestial: "Got a new toy?"

Miguel turns the object slowly in his hand. "I dunno. It's odd, whatever it is."

Dergan follows Celestial over. "Have you looked for a matching orrofice around the room?"

*Celestial does a little victory dance.*

Celestial: "Way to use your noggin! Score one for the good guys!"

Dergan waves to an imaginary crowd, bowing and smiling and blowing kisses. "No, thank you. I really couldn't have done it without the help of every one of you."

Dergan waves to an imaginary crowd, bowing and smiling and blowing kisses. "No, thank you. I really couldn't have done it without the help of every one of you."

*Celestial giggles.*

Celestial: "Who you talking to? If you talk to yorself, tha's okay. But if you answer yourself, I'm hiding from you."

Dergans laughs, his whole suit shaking from the vibrations.

"It doesn't really look like it goes into anything." Miguel indicates the compound-eye bit. "Looks too delicate to get mashed against anything."

While handing it to Dergan, Miguel depresses a node on the odd vein-like lattice and the 'eye' lights up. "Hum. Lookit that."

*Celestial eeps as the eye lights up.*

Celestial: "Oh no! We're all gonna die! But I'm too young and pretty to die!"

*She dives under a nearby table, her soft-suited rear showing to all, tail swishing back and forth absently.*

Miguel looks down at the object and taps a different node. Several segments of the eye change color, displaying a sort of two-color pattern.

"I... don't think it's a bomb, Celestial."

(OOC: And it's bedtime for me.)

Miguel looks down at the object and taps a different node. Several segments of the eye change color, displaying a sort of two-color pattern.

"I... don't think it's a bomb, Celestial."

(OOC: And it's bedtime for me.)

((OOC: Aw.. Well, sweet dreams. ^_^))

*Celestial doesn't move.*

Celestial: "That's what they want you to think! Then just when you least expect it... BOOM! It'sa bomb!"

"What's Stapp's law?"

"Stapp's Law: The Universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment a miracle."

"So you're saying that they grow their ships out of organic material? Odd, but not unheard of." Dekker kicks the lower part of a wall. It cracks open under the force. "This thing must have been dead for a long time, it's starting to rot."

"What's Stapp's law?"

"Stapp's Law: The Universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment a miracle."

*Celestial crawls out from under her table and hops to her feet, batting both hands at an imaginary thing in the air.*

Celestial: "Well, I'm not human. I'm a neko! Nyoo!"

"The law was made when and where non-human sentients were unknow. It's easily extendable."

"So they came in here, to protect themselves from the parasite. So where are they now? Did they simple evaporate or are they invisible?"

Beth takes out her 'corder and swings it around the room, even walking back over the pile of bodies and checking the next tunnel.

"I'm trying the same settings I used to track them in the other ship - we don't have the convient fog for their passage to heat though. Attilla - could you flood the room with fog up to 6cm above the highest table?"

"Not enough foglets available. I do my best."

The leetle robot began expelling clouds of foglets until they covered the floor six inches deep.

"All gone."

"Didn't those little bastards come out of the fog last time?" Dekker says, glancing around warily.

"Hmm, I don't think that will help. You can pull them back in. If they were in here, they are gone now. I suspect they were not though - if they were they would have gotten out long ago."

Beth sat down at the table where everyone was looking at the node thing.

"Any ideas?"

"Let's see what else catwoman's 'bomb' does." Dekker says, referring to the blinking wing thingie.

Miguel hands the wing over to someone else. "I dunno. Maybe this array here is a sort of display, and the nodes of these vein-things are controls of some sort."

"That is a viable hypothesis. Perhaps you should 'stimulate' one of the nerves." Whiptail ambles over, and gently prods one of the tiny nerves with a foreclaw.

OOC: In response to Kinslayer's earlier remark, Whiptail is affable, meaning he will understand jokes, but he is completely humorless. He can't smile either, even if he wanted to. He's a reptile, so he doesn't have lips.

*Celestial plops down a table, yawning and streaching her arms above her head.*

Celestial: "That thing's gonna explode or something, just you wait and see. And then I'll say 'I told you so.'"

*She yawns and leans back on her hands, arching her back inward.*

"That is a viable hypothesis. Perhaps you should 'stimulate' one of the nerves." Whiptail ambles over, and gently prods one of the tiny nerves with a foreclaw.
The pattern changes, looking to be a sort of abstract "T" shape with serifs on the ends of the cross-bar. A small dot blinks a little to the left of center in the middle of the up-down portion of the "T."

"Nifty." Dekker says. "Wonder what that button does?"

OOC: Famous last words. :P

"Nifty." Dekker says. "Wonder what that button does?"
A horrible screeching howl fills the room, echoing down the corridors and nearly stunning all who hear. It screams for five seconds before falling silent, still echoing. Ears ringing, Miguel leans against one of the tables growing from the walls, hands against his helmet. "Oi... I wonder if we got anyone's attention."

"It might be good if we do, might be bad too. Better to know they are here than not. Still - we can bring it with us. I'm feeling a lot better, we should keep moving."

Beth stood up, picked up her gear, and stowed it. Gingerly making her way across the corpses she stood there for a moment.

"Attila - Do you have any self-replicating foglets that could break these bodies down? A Snel ship once did that in order to stop a biomass from engulfing the 'Columbia'. Your technology seems similar, in some ways."

"Attila - Do you have any self-replicating foglets that could break these bodies down? A Snel ship once did that in order to stop a biomass from engulfing the 'Columbia'. Your technology seems similar, in some ways."

"Foglets, no. Military grade nanophage, though, no problem."

And zee leetle robot did eets thing.

"You know, I've been thinking. I've been wondering about the significance of the stuffed monkeys and, more precisely, the claw we found outside the ship. Before my implant went haywire, I had chance to check it out in a couple different spectrums. It had some elements in it that I have never seen before. It was also found near the rift in the hull. It is possible that whatever that claw came from is also responsible for whatever happened here on the ship." A wondering expression crosses Dergan's face. "Can you imagin the genetics of a creature that could cause such destruction. Maybe not even genetics, but something far more advanced." Dergan trails off into mutters as he walks out of the room.

"Don't bring up the stuffed monkeys - the only thing I can figure is a FTL cargo-ship dumped it's cargo here sometime in the past. Though why they came here..."

Beth mapped the new hallway they were walking down into her 'corder.

"By my guess, we only have one area left in this 'wing' of the ship to explore, then we will have to go back down. We haven't seen a lot of rooms, but I would imagine this as perhaps a fighter or frigate - lots of machinery to repair behind the walls."

"Nifty." Dekker says. "Wonder what that button does?"
A horrible screeching howl fills the room, echoing down the corridors and nearly stunning all who hear. It screams for five seconds before falling silent, still echoing. Ears ringing, Miguel leans against one of the tables growing from the walls, hands against his helmet. "Oi... I wonder if we got anyone's attention."

*Celestial was holding her head where her ears were, sobbing quietly. Her sense of hearing was much more sensitive then the others and the screech had hurt her ears.*

Celestial: "That hurt."

((OOC: Bumpy de bump.))

Beth stopped. "Are you ok Celestial?"

After making sure she was ok, she kept moving - if she didn't, she would get tired again.

"Why would you put a seating area off by itself?" she asked aloud as she looked for more rooms.

*Celestial nods slowly.*

Celestial: "My ears hurt, but I'm okay..."

*Celestial goes over to one of the tables and begins to examine it very closely.*

Celestial: "I've been going in my head over and over what use this room would have. So far the only things I can come up with is mess hall and experimentation chambers. Ooh! I have a hypothosis! Maybe, the aliens were working on something, and they discovered the parasite thingie, and told their drones to block the passage so that it couldn't spread to the rest of the ship. But if that was the case, where are the alien bodies?"

*She looks up... And sees nothing but the ceiling.*

"And the equipment - based on Janice's description of the 'implant' procedure there should at least be some equipment. Instead of just the beetle thing. And why keep it out of the rest of the ship? No one else has showed up - last time they were there pretty quickly."

Celestial: "Maybe the equipment is hidden somewhere? Boy, we should have brought Mr. Alien from Hoth with us. He'd know what to do and what is what."

*She kicks a table with her foot.*

Celestial: "Um... Why did we come in here again?"

"Um... that 'Janice' person in sickbay? That much I've gathered." Miguel shrugs. "Then again, as Dekker so rightfully said, I'm just a stupid redshirt so no one ever tells me anything."

"Well, your in deep now. And since I'll have to kill you all when this is done..." Beth grins and hands over her tricorder. It has notes and pictures of the previous expedition on it. "May as well get all the information we can out in the open - it might help to get us out of here."

"Don't be puttin' words in my mouth. I never said you were stupid. Attitude like that and you'll wind up like every other un-named redshirt. I'll try to prevent that from happening." Dekker says as he exits the room.

(OOC: Well, unlike everyone else in the room, Miguel gets quietly sullen when insulted. Self-deprecating sense of humor coupled with the not-highest self-esteem multiplied by a relative lack of ego equals taking things a bit too much to heart.

And good job, Dekker just made it worse. Beth's little quip didn't help much either.)

"Great." Miguel turns rather listless, following the group.

(OOC: Well, unlike everyone else in the room, Miguel gets quietly sullen when insulted. Self-deprecating sense of humor coupled with the not-highest self-esteem multiplied by a relative lack of ego equals taking things a bit too much to heart.

And good job, Dekker just made it worse. Beth's little quip didn't help much either.)

"Great." Miguel turns rather listless, following the group.

*Celestial notes Miguel's rather depressed behavior. She falls into step alongside him.*

Celestial: "For what it's worth, I don't think you're stupid."

Beth took no notice - well, she did, but she noted it for later. Right now she had higher concerns on her mind. Like survival.

"Here's a new one," she said, turning into a new passageway. "Likely pretty short - we are only 5 meters from the wall according to the map."

///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\
Back in the "Tables"room...
\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\///

*As the last member of the Away Team left the room, nothing happened for a good few minutes. When such time has past that it could be sure that the Intruders were out of range, a part of the wall began to quiver, then streatched outward as if something was pushing on it from the inside. The wall tore, breaking away to reveal a hidden compartment. Within it was another one of the short dark skinned creatures like the one discovered on Rime.*

???(Alien): I must get to the cockpit before they do. The technology of the Graf'Ilk'Kunna ((Pronouced: graaf-ILK-koonuh. ^.~)) cannot fall into the hands of aliens!

*The creature thought to itself as it stepped into the room more fully. Weither the Graf'Ilk'Kunna was the name of this ship of the name of the creature's species was unknown.*


((OOC2: To them, we're the aliens. ^_^))

OOC: Aha! So we are not alone.

IC:

They had stepped into a room - it was remarkably similar to the first room they had entered on Rime. Except for the single hallway of course. A spire of material rose out of the center, studded with controls and displays only slightly raised above the rest of the material.

"So is it a weapon or a control of some kind? We never did figure that out. It is pointing at one of the portals on the 'roof' though."

'Damnit - why didn't I think of that earlier?' "Totally off topic - but what if the parasite wasn't a parasite? What if it was a defense mechanism? The draining effect... Janice. What if there is one of those things latched onto Janice somehow? The transporters should have caught it, but..."

Dergan walks up to the controls and taps his chin with a claw. "Well, it's obviously nothing that I've ever seen before. The only way to find out what it is is to press random buttons until they do something." He starts to reach for a big one, but stops and pulls back. "Maybe one of you should do it. My luck hasn't been the best today."

*Celestial sighs, then steps forward, her hand raised.*

Celestial: "I'll press da button."

*She moves to hit it with her left palm. However, just before her palm actually makes contact, a bolt of searing light comes whizzing through the air, just barely missing her arm. Celestial yelps and jumps back, pulling her hand away. In the direction the bolt came from, stood the creature that was hiding in the "Tables" room, an odd organic device in it's seven fingered hands. The rod-like device it held looked to be organic in nature, like alot of other things on this ship, and one end was larger then then the other. This end was pointed at the group. Apparently it was some sort of weapon. The alien spoke to them in it's native tongue.*

???(Alien): "Move and my next shot won't miss."


((OOC: Only Attlita will know what it's saying. Also, if you've seen Stargate SG-1, then you'll probably will recognize it's weapon as a non-metal version of the 'blaster' staves T'elk uses almost all the time. Just imagine it with a kinda leathery texture and without the cobra head opposite the business end and there you have it. ^_^))

(OOC: Grrr... and the USAF is nowhere to be found... *looks down* Oh yeah...)

Miguel's first instinct: Situation--under fire. Response--move for weapon and fire.

He suppresses it successfully but does flinch at the shot, hand staying close enough to the weapon at his hip, crouched halfway in a defensive stance. Noting that it was a miss, the creature hadn't fired yet and was talking to boot, he figures that maybe a less aggressive stance is called for. "Um, Captain, none of the aliens happened to look like that one, did they?"

"Methinks it wants us to go away."

"Methinks we should listen to Attila."

"Um, greet it. Leave Rime out of it though." Beth hoped her point got across.

Dergan flinches at the shot. He was a scientist, and very unacustomed to combat. He looks at the creature and his skin starts to change back to the color black and his eyes start to shine brighter. He focuses on the creature, trying to get a sense of its emotions, while simultaniously stretching his mind to moniter everyone else.

Beth, did something like this happen on the last planet? Man he's ugly.

No. The sentient there was reasonable enough to deal with, but this one likely doesn't know about our previous dealings.

Oh, great. Not only is he ugly, he also probably wants to kill us. Wonderful. Today is my lucky day. Dekker, do you have anything that could incapacitate that thing?

Dekker pats one of his .45 Hardballers. "Don't know how it responds to bullets. That, or I could blow off a hand or a knee..." Dekker shrugs, raising the rifle to cover the alien. "Point it at me an' see what happens." He says to the alien over his phaser, knowing it won't understand him.

Were it possible for Gage to look worried, he would've.

"Mr. Dekker, that's probably... not, not a good idea."

Meanwhile, Attila was taking full advantage of a previous sampling of alien language coupled with a statistical analysis translator.

"Hello! Would you mind telling us exactly who's home we've unwittingly invaded this time?"

"Hey, I'm just makin' sure he doesn't fire on us again, shown' him he's outgunned and might as well try to talk. Aggressive negotiations, if you will." Dekker says with a slight shrug, so as not to disturb his unwavering aim.

How do you know there aren't others that we can't see?

Ugh. See a problem, shoot a problem, problem solved. Doesn't diplomacy mean anything to anyone nowadays?

Miguel takes the most passive posture he can think of at the moment. He sits down.

'That seems like a good idea.' Beth sits down as well - may as well rebuild her energy. If it shoots her, it shoots her. Hopefully it will respond to Attila.

Taking a sip of water, she leans back and closes her eyes, keeping a veiled eye on the creature and one hand close to her phaser.

*The creature turns it's elongated head towards Attilla, but keeps the weapon pointed in the general direction of the group. If it was capable of facial expression, it probably would have been surprised to hear the odd alien device speak it's language.*

???(Alien): "This is not my home. This is Research Vessel Un'Teruk, I am called Jik. Leave this vessal, as there is a creature about which single handedly dispatched most of the Morungas assigned to me. Lasdats have no effect on it... But perhaps... You're alien weapons will......

*It pauses, considering what it had just proposed.*

Jik: "No, leave this ship at once. The creature must not be allowed to escape, nor will I allow the research data I've collected or this vessal to fall into alien hands!"

*Celestial holds her hands up.*

Celestial: "Man, and I left my SMG on the ship too... Remember, if we kill this thing, I get to put a bullet in it's head."

"Um... it says it wants us to leave. Something's not allowed to escape, and it doesn't want us to know stuff."

OOC: Well darn it, I thought they created their own drones. I'll have to edit that when we figure out how they are made.

"Um, what's not allowed to leave? And research? Ask it about the thing - maybe we killed it." Beth crossed her fingers. 'Com'on - be a reasonable odd-looking alien.'

"Jik, what exactly is the creature that's bot allowed to leave? And this other one wants to know if we killed anything."

((OOC: No, drones are mass bred in giant genetic spawning pools. ^_^))

Jik: "A darken blotch on a Morunga's lightcast. Lasdats are absorbed. As a final defense, I made the last of my surviving Morungas construct a wall using themselves and sealed myself in the examination chamber. Killed? There is nothing to kill besides myself and that creature, and our advanced weapons had no effect on it."

Dekker lowers his rifle and slaps Whiptail on the shoulder. "That's why I always have these little beauties..." Dekker pats the handguns holstered under his shoulders. "These might work, and Whiptail's got an MP5 and a pair of Berrettas."

"That is correct." Whiptail says. "Inform the creature that we will assist him in leaving the ship, and killing his opponent if nessecary."

The creature it is looking for is dead. We may want to ask it about the other planet. It might know how to save our friend.

Eh? You mean the one in sickbay? Can't hurt. We can point out the Cap'n as proof that we blew away that shadowy thing.

"Jik, I am but a lowly synthetic intelligence, but I think my companions are trying to tell you that they killed the creature. And, do you know anything about some people like you that we found on another planet 'round here? Stuck some slithery thing in one of our friends?"

Could Attlia have been any more vague?

*Jik puased, thinking over what the alien device told it.*

Jik: "Some people like me? On another planet around here? I am aware of no others of my kind in this system. Stuck some slithery thing into one of your friends? A Gasu, perhaps? Or was it more like an Isaayun? If it was the latter, then I am afraid that your alien compainon is already dead and it's corpse is housing the Isaayun's offsprings."

*Celestial's arms begin to tire.*

Celestial: "Yeah yeah yeah, let's just shoot the thing and be done with it! My arms are getting tired..."

((OOC: Isaayun, a parasitic worm/centepede-like creature simiular to a Gasu, but larger and more deadly. It resides in a host for several hours, then kills it by consuming it's vital organs. Once the host is dead, the Isaayun lays its eggs and chews it's way through the stomach area, then finds another host. The eggs hatch after five hours, and the larval Isaayuns feed on the corpse for 24 hours, when they pass the larvel stage and molt into full grown adults. All in all, being infected by an Isaayun is a painful way to go.))

Miguel sighs. "No shooting things while they're talking, Celestial. Not a good way to make friends, for sure. Why don't you just sit down and watch?"

*Celestial drops her arms, resting her hands on her hips.*

Celestial: "I'll stand."

*Jik either didn't notice, or didn't care that Celestial no longer had her hands in the air.*

"Your call." Miguel lies down, making sure he can still see the short little alien and has a free range of motion to the pistol on his hip. "Gee, why didn't I take that gun-kata class at the Academy? 'Oh, I'll never have to clear a room artfully using maxiumum-kill arcs. All I have to do is hit a target twenty-five meters away forty out of fifty times.' Bah."

"Is the critter he's talkin' about that blob thing that I splattered the walls with a while back?" Dekker asks, still keeping the rifle aimed at the alien.

"Is the critter he's talkin' about that blob thing that I splattered the walls with a while back?" Dekker asks, still keeping the rifle aimed at the alien.

"I'd say that's a good guess."

"Jik, did the creature look like a shadowy blob?"

Beth wakes up with a start. "Hmm? What I miss? We dead yet?"

She stretches and stands up, pulling out her 'corder and scanning herself.

"Wonderful what 3 minutes of sleep will do for you."

Glad you are back with us captain. Nothing much has happened, besides us convincing Celestial not to shoot him and us learning that our friend could be infected with a deadly parasite. Have a nice rest?

Yes.

"Ok, a deadly creature. On my ship. What is this thing again?"

Some sort of parasite that lays its eggs in its host, kills the host, and leaves the host to let its offspring to feed on the host's corpse.

*Jik's eyeless head gleamed smoothly, light glistening off of the jet black surface of it's head.*

Jik: "Define shadowy. As I said earlier, the creature was a darken blotch on a Morunga's lightcast. Lasdats had no effect on it."

"Yup. That was definitely the thingy we blew up. I guess you don't have to worry about that anymore. So, would you mind telling us how to get out of here?"

((OOC: I'm assuming that Attila translate everything Jik says.))


*Jik started to point the weapon elsewhere, but then it seemed to have gotten a thought.*

Jik: "No, you are not going anywhere. If the creature truely is dead, as you claim, then I may continue my research. As of this moment, you are all to be detained for research and examination purposes! Comply, and no harm will befall you. Disobey, and perish."

*To show it was serious, it triggered the weapon, the end splitting open and charging with energy. Celestial cursed, her hand scrambling to draw her Glock as she saw the creature charge up the weapon.*

Celestial, calm down NOW! Everyone stay calm

Dergan sends Celestial some calming emotions, then tries to inject a debilitating fear into the creature, even though its emotions are different than his.

"Hey now - I've had my trip through the probe-u-lator. It was not fun in the least."

Beth went for her phaser, flicking it to stun as she raised it. Instead of moving forward into a shooting stance she dropped down onto her back, shooting from between her legs. She pumped the trigger, sending energy bolts across the space toward the creature.

*Celestial felt calm, for some reason. Even as the cap'n started shooting her phaser at Jik. The creature was hit in the torso area at the same time it released it's finger on the trigger. But due to Beth dropping, the bolt of energy soars gracefully over her head, impacting with the far wall and leaving a nice scorch mark, suggesting it was set on anything but stun. The creature stumbles back, seems dazed, but recovers in time to seek cover behind a wall. Celestial tilts her head at Beth.*

Celestial: "I told you we should have killed it when we had the chance."

*She said, her voice oddly calm.*

"Hate to kill it - Attila, talk to it. Tell it we don't want to fight."

Beth rolled to the side, behind an obstruction. She jammed a hand in her belt pouch, and pulled out a round object. With a flick she sent it spiralling over toward the creature.

"Stun grenade - cover!"

"Just great, a firefight with an alien with a big gun and I'm the biggest target." He squats down so he wasn't as big a target and pulled out his blaster pistol. He set it to stun and fired. A blue bolt was emitted from the muzzel and shot towords the alien.

((OOC: Is the stun grenade like a flashbang? Makes a very bright flash of light and lotsa noise?))

(OOC: Scolo here.)

Miguel rolls over behind whatever's appropriate. "Oi! Can we just not win or something?"

"Hello Miguel. Nice of you to use me as cover, but somehow I don't think I like this situation." He continues to pour stun bolts into the alien as his skin turns back to blue. "You got any stun shots with that thing?"

"Not my fault you're big." Miguel pulls his phaser and turns it from Kung-Pow Hole-In-Chest to heavy stun. "How about I lie down on the floor here, fire at that thing, you get cover, then cover me, and I run for cover?" He immediately lies down, takes aim at the alien, and fires.

Looks around the room. "I don't see much cover in here for me. How about this. You find cover, and fire at him so much that he won't notice me here. Go." He steps up the pace of his firing, making an almost continuos, if not very accurate, stream of blue energy pouring at the alien.

Miguel gets to his feet, crouching low, and starts running towards a niche in the wall. It's closer to the alien, but at least offers some cover.

That's about when he sees something metallic on the ground. The stun grenade. Face falling, still moving, his voice takes on the mildly annoyed tone of someone who has just been reminded of some forgotten thing of interest.

"Oh yeah..."

Boom.

(OOC: Sleepytime for Miguel... and me.)

Opps. Stun grenades have essentially the same effect as a phaser on heavy stun - they will knock out a human for about an hour. Tougher species like Klingons will go down for about 15 minutes.

The grenade exploded with a burst of light and Beth saw Miguel fall. "Miguel is down - Keep it's head down..." She grabbed two more grenades from her belt, armed them, and chucked them a little more accurately this time. The first was a flash-bang, the second was another stun grenade.

"Flash!" Beth stabbed a button on her arm, polarizing her faceplate and shutting off outside audio. She pulled out her phaser rifle and switched it to stun - a weapon in each hand she prepared to rush to flank it.

'Thousand 1, Thousand 2...' *Flash* *Crack* *WVVRM*

Hate to kill it - Attila, talk to it. Tell it we don't want to fight."

Gage leaned against a wall. "Interesting, isn't it Attila? How I always seem to end up being mostly ignored by the bad guys? Everyone else running around, falling over, going crazy, and here I am just leaning against the wall being peaceful."

"Yes. Jik, if you're still in good enough condition to hear me, we don't really want to fight you, so...." (OOC: Crap. Forgot to say what happened to the UF. Hmm... employing retroactive plot device!) The cloud of foglets that had been following them about slowly crept into the room and draped over the alien, immobilizing it.

"Dang, out of power." Dergan ejects his power pack from his pistol, searching for a new one in his pocket. He shoots an angry look over at Gage. "Either help us out or shut up." He finally finds a new power pack and slaps it in, then sets his pistol to kill and sights it towords the alien, waiting to see if the fog works.

Miguel sorta flies towards the wall, hits it with a muffled whud, then rolls back down to the floor in a heap. No great surprise there, but it doesn't sound like anything too bad has happened.

*All the stun shots and grenades seem mostly to have little effect on the creature. It returns fire with it's Lasdat, however the constant onslought of phaser fire making it seek cover around it's corner then firing. The flashbang Beth threw have no effect, as it apparently has no eyes or ears. It was pretty much a stalemate with neither side gaining any advantage until the Utility Fog appeared on scene, enwrapping the creature and holding it in place. It struggles, squuezes the firing mechenism on it's weapon, but the foglets soon force it's weapon out of it's hand.*

Beth charged up to it and cranked the phasers up to full power.

"Freeze!" It struck her as funny, but she didn't laugh.

She kicked the weapon away, into an open area just in case it exploded.

"Geeze these things go down hard. And why? Its not like we want to eat them. Someone check on Miguel..."

((OOC: My 700th post! Yay! ^.^))


*Jik curses Beth in it's alien tongue. Or was it complimenting her hairstyle? Hard to tell, as Attilla either wasn't able to translate, or didn't catch the last spoken sentence.
*Celestial found herself on her back, a burning sensation in her stomach. She touched a gloved hand to where it hurt, withdraw it and saw blood.*

Celestial: "... Damn..."

*It came back to her, what had happened. Shortly after the fighting broke out, the creature had managed to hit her. The pain of the energy bolt searing through her body had knocked her out, and she was just now waking. She tilts her head. Strange, for having a hole the size of her head in her stomach, it didn't hurt. She felt disconnected, as if it wasn't happening to her, but to some other neko, far away.*


((OOC2: For the curious, it had cursed the creature who had given birth to Beth and wished that any future offspring she may have die shortly after birth via implosion. It had also wished that Beth lost her name, which to it's race is the worse thing that came happen to someone. ^_^
Poor Celestial. V_V In all that fighting, someone had to get hit.))

((OOC: You don't see this. La de da do dee la do. Nope, no double post here. ^_^ Move along folks, you're not actually seeing this....))

OOC: We can save her, we have the technology... The lifesaver donut. Slap it around someone's neck, severs their head and keeps their brain alive. I don't think we would have brought one along though.

OOC: We can save her, we have the technology... The lifesaver donut. Slap it around someone's neck, severs their head and keeps their brain alive. I don't think we would have brought one along though.

OOC: Ah, too bad. Well, I guess that means Celestial is no more. V_V *Sobs.* And she was such a good main chara too! I guess this means I'll play the occassional alien lifeform, maybe a NPC or two.))

OOC: I wouldn't say that. I can think of ways to save her, but I want to give a chance for others to see it and respond.

IC:
Beth covered the alien as someone pulled Miguel up against the wall. Then someone said something that made her ignore the being. "Captain - Celestial is down!"

OOC: I wouldn't say that. I can think of ways to save her, but I want to give a chance for others to see it and respond.

IC:
Beth covered the alien as someone pulled Miguel up against the wall. Then someone said something that made her ignore the being. "Captain - Celestial is down!"

*Upon seeing the down alien, Jik started to luagh. Or at least, it would have been a luagh if it wasn't so down right scary sounding.*

Jik: I have taken one of their kind. Now they know I meant business... Now to find a way to destroy this alien device so I mayst free myself...

*checks watch* Hm. I'm going to be out of this for a while...

--Scolo

(OOC: ARG! Evil forum, eating last night's post!)

"Oh, now Jerome is noticed! Others not care that Jerome made Attila, Jerome is just an annoying person off to the side...."
...
"Hm. Bad wound. She will require freezing to prevent total information death. Otherwise, infomorphism impossible."

OOC: Dammit, I missed the shooting!

IC: Dekker lowers his smoking phaser rifle, then walks over to the alien and fires a few more shots into its head. Satisfied, he walks over to the others. "We've gotta get her back to the ship, ASAP. I can carry her, or we can beam her out." He looks at Beth. "Your call, Cap'n."

((OOC: Ah, you killed it. Now with Celestial out of commission and Jik dead, I have no more charas to RP for this dungeon. And remember, they still have to find a way out. Unless they want to blast through one of the outer walls. But is that wise? Celestial does have a hole the size of her head in her stomach...
Oo oh! Hee hee! I got a thought! Here goes!))


*Celestial was dimly aware. Her consciousness faded slowly to black. Her vision tunneled, the edges dark and foreboding. At the end of this tunnel was a light. The light felt soothing,giving her a sense of peace and tranquility.
*The large column in the center of the room sprang to life, pulsating and thrumming with life. An alien voice sprang from it. The voice was synthetic sounded, like that of a robot.*

Ship: "Pilot life signs terminated. Research Vessel Graf'Ilk'Kunna auto-returning to Research Outpost World Ji'Keekk'Sooonuh..."

*The entire vessel started to rumble, the buried ship trying it's best to force itself free of the planet that held it captive. The powerful engines flared to life, directional thrusters scattered all over the ship's hull flaring off, attempting to jar the vessel free.*

Dekker curses angrily, then pulls a small syringe out of a cargo pocket. He injects the contents into Celestial. "Adrenal combat stimulant, should keep her kicking for a bit longer..." He growls, then shoots the alien corpse again. "Think you're funny, don't ya? Trappin' us on this rusty hulk and havin' it take off..."

Dekker curses angrily, then pulls a small syringe out of a cargo pocket. He injects the contents into Celestial. "Adrenal combat stimulant, should keep her kicking for a bit longer..." He growls, then shoots the alien corpse again. "Think you're funny, don't ya? Trappin' us on this rusty hulk and havin' it take off..."

*The light at the end of Celestial's tunnel faded, the edges of the world no longer dark anymore. She felt a slight prick. Something was keeping her in this realm*

Dekker watches her twitch. "That's right, nobody in my squad dies without a fight..." He stands, casting the empty syringe aside. "Cap'n? How are we gonna get outta here? I've got three more doses of that stuff, and it lasts for about an hour..."

"Well, then we need to get out. Best way would be to figure out the controls, and pull up a map. And hope the 'Columbia' doesn't hole us."

Beth went over to the controls and looked at them.

"They think a lot different, so maybe we should just have the machines interface. Attila?"

"Maybe we could blow the engines?" Dekker suggests.

*The vessel jerked to one side, then abruptly to the other, knocking almost everyone down. More and more of it was comming loose from the crushing grip of Reason.*

"They think a lot different, so maybe we should just have the machines interface. Attila?"

"Incompatible system."

"At least they consistantly think different. Ok - we could just push buttons and hope..."

Beth was getting a little frantic. The drain, and the fight, and Celestials's injury were taking their toll and she was a moment away from going into shock.

Dergan smiles. "Sounds good to me. I'll do the honors." Dergan walks over and taps his chin. He picks out the big red one he was going to press earlier and reaches for it.

*Dergan mashes his hand firmly down on the red button, and Attila translate what the ship was saying.*

Ship: "Auto-Self Defense mode engaged. Weapons systems online. Acquiring target..."

*Something like a view screen appeared on the column, and the Columbia appeared on said screen.*

Ship: "Target acquired. Ship matches no known classifactions. Suggested course of action: Capture alien vessel for further research. Override Auto-Self Defense and engage manual control?"

*The red button started flashing, and a blue one next to it sprang to life as well.*

OOC: The 'Columbia' will be at alert - full shields, etc. A strange ship moving around would definately raise a few eyebrows.

IC:

Beth chooses that moment to collapse in a heap on the floor.

OOC: The 'Columbia' will be at alert - full shields, etc. A strange ship moving around would definately raise a few eyebrows.

IC:

Beth chooses that moment to collapse in a heap on the floor.

((OOC Oops! Muh bad. ^.^ lol, poor Beth... This entire trip has shaved at least ten years off her life.))

Dergan presses the glowing button, hoping to save the 'Columbia'.

Dergan presses the glowing button, hoping to save the 'Columbia'.

((OOC: Which one? Red or blue?))

OOC: A cliffhanger!

IC:

Aboard the 'Columbia' the First Officer had rushed to the bridge as soon as the ship had come online. Taking the big chair he watched the ship try to tear itself loose.

"Science - what do you have for me?" "Heavy energy readings - I'm guess drives are powered up, as well as whatever plant it uses. Pretty heavy for a ship, if it is a ship, of that size. Energy scale is about the same as a single one of our plants." 'Holy cow - and we are 10 times as big as it, at least...'

"Shields up - full power on everything. We haven't heard anything from the Captain, so we must assume the target could be hostile." Behind him he could hear the tactical officer, who was soon joined by 2 more, bring the weapon systems to full. He could almost swear he could feel the torpedo tubed being loaded - the torps running through their loading arrays and into firing position.

"Tactical - prepare a full burst. Given what we know from the Rime creature, the ship could be quite powerful. If we have to fire back, I want to kill it on the first blow. Helm - back us off to 10,000km. I want some manuvering room."

((OOC: Waiting for Kinslayer to clairfy wheither his char pushed the red button, or the blue one. I'm not saying which does which. :P))

OOC: he presses both

Dekker injected Celestial with the second adrenal stim. "One left, then she's most likely a goner." Dekker growls as he tosses the empty syringe aside.

*Dergan mashes down both buttons at the same time. Attilta translates the effects.*

Ship: "Manual controls engaged. Auto-Self Defense engaged. Suggest evasive manuvers. Charging weapons systems. Please stand by, preparing to fire first salvo. Fifteen (Untranslatable) remaining until weapons fully charged and ready for salvo fire..."

*A section of the column splits open, revealing a compartment for someone to sit in. Perhaps the pilot sits here?*

Dergan curses something in his native language. He decides to press the blue button once more, then turns to the rest of the group. "Is anyone certified to fly anything?"

OOC: Beth is, and Miguel should be rated on at least shuttles and fighters. But you've got two unconsious pilots.

OOC: well, that would just go right along with my luck

Whiptail snorts. "Let us simply say that I prefer to walk, I do not trust creatures crafted of metal instead of flesh and bone." His golden eyes flicker red for a moment, remebering the one time he rode in a dropship, which was unfortunately shot down, injuring himself and his war party.

((OOC: You don't have to be certified. Just anyone hop in. Learn on the fly! ^_^ But better act quick, you have less then two minutes until the ship fires on the Columbia!))

"Shit, get outta my damn way..." Dekker grumbles as he jumps into the pilot's seat.

"Shit, get outta my damn way..." Dekker grumbles as he jumps into the pilot's seat. He mutters to himself for a few seconds, then finds the throttle, and sets it at maximum, driving the ship deeper into the surface of Rime. Dekker plays with a set of buttons, trying to locate the weapons controls, and finding them, searches for a disarm button. Frustrated, he kicks the control panel with a booted foot, his usual solution to technical problems. "Dammit..."

((OOC: Sometimes, I wished I had mod powers... *Sighs...* Here's what should of happened...))


*Dekker hops into the compartment, and the column closes around him. Everything goes pitch black in the organic chamber, then suddenly Dekker finds himself seeing through the 'eyes' of the ship. He could sense the ship as if it were now apart of him. His could feel that the ship had something of a mind. Itt comunicated directly to his.*

Mind: "Merger is complete. You are not the assigned pilot. Who are you?"

*The voice was soft and feminie, like the voice of an angel. It spoke English to him.*

"This ain't good..." Dekker mutters. "Uhh, I'm trying to keep this thing from shooting at my ride off of this rock. What's it to ya?" The voice sounded oddly familiar...

OOC: I'll change my post, no worries.

*There was silence.*

Mind: "If you wish to not fire on the alien ship above us, just will it to be so. This ship will respond to your thoughts. Will it to move, and it will move. Will it to fire or not fire, and the ship shall carry out your demands."

*Meanwhile, outside.*

Ship: 5 (Untranslatable) remaining until salvo fire. All primary weapons charged. Secondary weapons at 75% and rising..."

"O.K....." Dekker says to nothing in particular. He willed the ship to shut off the weapons, and move itself up towards the 'Columbia'.

*The ship responds, powering down weapons. It tried moving, but was still partly stuck in the planet.*

Mind: "The Gal'Ilk'Kunna is stuck in the planet. Suggested course of action: Fire Linear Cannons at area surrounding the Gal'Ilk'Kunna to blast away the rock."

*Outside the pilot area, where the others are.*

Ship: "Weapons powering down. Full manual control engaged. Auto-Self Defense disengaged."

*The Columbia disappeared from the view screen.*

Dekker would have rubbed his hands together in excitement, had his conciousness not been used to control the ship. "Alrighty. Target weapons at rock around the Gal'Ilk' thingie. Once they're targeted, open fire on the rock, and the rock only. I don't feel like getting shot today."

*A moment passes, then the sound of a loud bomm followed by an explosion just outside could be heard by all. The ship began to fire on it's surroundings, the small yet powerful Linear Cannon lugging out explosive orbs at sub-sonic velocities, blasting away the area around the ship. This continues for a few minutes, and then the ship is free.*

Mind: "Status report: The Graf'Ilk'Kunna is now free to move about freely. Weapons report: Linear Cannon ammo supply at 30%. Phased Particle Accelerator non-functioning. Estimated time until self repair complete. Ten days. Heavy Lasdat Cannons fully functional. Shield generators at 20% and falling 1% per day. Estimated time until self repairs complete: One hundred and twenty three days. Suggested course of action: Immediately return to Research Outpost World Ji'Keekk'Sooonuh for resupply and repair. Warning, Y Drive non-functioning. Gatejumps are not possible until Y Drive is repaired. Estimated time until self repair is complete: Nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety nine days."

"I think we'll just head back to the columbia...." Dekker mutters, willing it to do so.

*The ship rose up, rising upwards towards the Columbia.*

Mind: "The alien vessel is preparing to fire."

*The mind of the ship said calmly to Dekker.*

"Commander - the ship has blasted it's way out of the surface. Powerful stuff - if it can keep the fire up it might be able to drop the shields before we kill it."

Commander O'neal had been over at the science station, thus had not watched the ship blast it's way loose. He hurried back over to the command chair.

"Keep it targetted. Comms - send a message to fleet. No way we can get reinforcements, but we can give them the rundown. Full logs, all information recovered."

"In progress Commander."

O'neal looked over his displays, pulling up power reading and acceleration information. "Keep backing us off helm - bring us to 100,000km as quick as possible. We might outrange it, and I want every advantage we can have."

'Captain, if you are piloting that thing I hope you figure out the comm's system quick...'

Dekker understood. "Send 'em a message, tell 'em it's the Cap'n and the exporation team."

Dergan's skin turns black once more, as he realised (sp?) that the 'Columbia' was getting ready to fight them. He reached out with his mind, trying to find the Commander's mind before something bad happens. He had just reached his mind when the strain became too much, and he collapsed, only having time to project an image of Beth on the ship.

*The ship complies, however, due to the incapability of the two ship's systems, it is unable to comply.*

Mind: "Unable to comply. The communications technology of the alien vessel is inferior to that of the Graf'Ilk'Kunna, and therefore is incompatable. Suggested course of action: Destroy or Disable and capture Alien Vessel before it fires."

*The Mind of the ship, although able to communicate telepathically with Dekker, apparently doesn't understand that he's from the Columbia, the ship in question.*

The ship was still approaching, though it did not fire or attempt to communicate.

"Commander - it is possible that it does not use any of the methods we have had experience with. If the Captain is aboard, we may need to use a more primitive, physical form of communication."

"Such as?"

"Flash the lights at it. SOS."

"Do it."

The floodlights on the hull, normally unused except in dock or for repairs, began to blink. Short, short, short, long, long, long, short, short, short. They waited 20 seconds, then repeated.

Commander O'neal watched then suddenly got a image of Beth, standing aboard the ship. 'Premonition? Hope? Or a message...' O'neal mulled it over in his head for several seconds.

"Try a question now - make it simple. 'R U OK'".