-
Tidus
"Blank!"Tidus yelled through the intercom
"Yeah?"replied Blank.
"When your finished activating the auto-defense systems I need you to report to hanger Z-4 and grab an A-19.I will have steven send a robot to the defense room.He will alert you if anything goes wrong."
"Kick ass!Finally some action!"was Blank's reply.
"Steven!"Tidus called,"I need you to send a robot to the defense room.Blank is waiting for it."
"Yes sir!"Steven replied, happy to be doing something.
"As for me...I need to do a little piloting myself..."said Tidus under his breath.
"Steven, when you finish with that come to the bridge, take over for a bit.Im going out there."
"Will do!"said Steven Cheerfully.
Tidus stormed down the hallway towards hanger z-4 and got into an A-19 right about the same time as Blank.The A-19 was a slightly bigger less manuverable craft than the A-12's, but what it lacked in manuverability it made up in with pure weapondry.Tidus hopped into the cockpit and felt a bit out of place.He wasn't used to such small craft.He flipped a few switches and placed the crosshair goggles over his eyes.His heart skipped a beat as the roar of the Engine got louder.Blank apparently had ordered the Hangar door to be open and they took off at the same time...ready for action.
-
The outer hull of the Belantof was smooth as it reflected the twinkling of the stars. Towards the bottom, along a row of shielding with a different shade than the rest of the ship, a tiny hole emerged, growing larger until it revealed an internal hanger. All was silent, until in another instant, a medium sized fighter blasted out of the hole at hi-speeds. As if on cue, the hull of the ship turned alive with mechanical whirring. Guns, turrets, and lasers of all kinds were emerging all along the great length of the ship.
Max
“Yoo hoo!” Max was exhilarated. He was finally right where he wanted to be. Turning his accelerating ship towards the aft of the Belantof, he traced a path along the outer perimeter of the automatic basic defenses, just above the hull of the vessel.
His eyes narrowed as the unknown ships came into view. Dark and sleek, they were rapidly gaining on the Belantof. Max urged his craft faster along the rough plated surface of the ship.
The unknown vessels had pulled to about a klick away from the rear of the Belantof. Max’s HUD showed activity at the base of the foremost three of the unknown vessels. With a series of beeps, the tiny blips appeared on screen. The ships were releasing fighters themselves. The fighters were small, but fast, probably of Class F.
The comm. hissed. The computer was reactivating open communications, probably on the Captain’s orders. The computer’s voice came on.
“Warning unidentified vessels. Do not enter into the vicinity of the Belantof until specifying your purpose. We will not hesitate in opening fire in self-defense.”
Max watched as the fighters zoomed into the Belantof’s defense grid. They had either not received the message or chose to ignore it. Well, it’s your loss. Max thought as he reactivated thrusters and plotted an interception course towards the incoming fighters.
Laser turrets and other defenses activated from standby. The battle was on.
-------------
Max was confused. The ship’s main plasma defenses did not seem to register the fighters, and were still idle. Well damn. They must either be too small or have a special shield cloak.
The lasers and mg turrets were holding their own though as Max swooped in and locked onto a fighter himself. It was pure black like its mothership, with a faint white design on either side. The symbol was glowing.
Then the glow was gone, over illuminated by a bright flash of fire as the ship exploded into a million pieces. Max raised his finger off the trigger.
Two A-19 joined Max’s right flank.
“Need some help hotshot?” Blank’s voice commed over.
“Always glad to have company watching my back.” Max commed back. He relaxed a little. He wouldn’t have to solo it now. The three broke formation and engaged their own enemies.
-
In the meantime, someone had ordered the Belantof’s main plasma cannons to fire on the large motherships.
A fierce exchange of fire between the Belantof and the three larger leading enemy ships ensued. In a few seconds, it became painfully obvious that the Belantof was too much for them to handle. The main plasma cannon crippled the leading of the large vessels and destroyed another with the first shot. The third heavy cruiser was also destroyed in another few seconds. The Belantof had sustained minimal damage. Much of the returning fire from the enemy were intercepted by the Belantof’s AD anti-missile guns. Only a few shells hit the surface of the Belantof itself. Max could almost see the tiny repair robots on the hull already.
He turned back to the task at hand. The fighters apparently had seen the demise of their motherships and were fighting desperately. Blank was giving them hell with the A-19’s powerful guns.
“I can’t shake this guy!” It was the captain. He had just taken out a fighter himself but failed to spot the second one that was sneaking up behind him. The much more maneuverable fighter was proving a nuisance, following the dodging of the more bulky A-19.
“I got you covered.” A new voice said. Max saw Locke’s ship moving in. Hmmm… I’ll have to ask him what model that is later.
His HUD told him that there was only 2 fighters left of the bunch. Including the one that was tailing the Captain. About to pull a reverse flip to engage the last free fighter, Max paused.
He stared at the edge of his helmet display. There was something weird happening with edge part of the radar. A series of flashing blips had appeared for an instant and then disappeared. Max continued to look. Maybe it was his mind playing tricks on him? The blips appeared again. Max counted quickly. Five of them. Moving fast, fast towards the rear thrusters of the Belantof.
Looking up he spotted the final vessel that made up the original group of enemy ships. He had completely forgotten that there were four of them. Mainly because the last one had not done anything. Its black hull had provided an effective camouflage, hiding it for Max’s attention until now. He had thought it a transport ship, harmless.
That still didn’t explain the blips. Max touched a few controls and brought the forward sensors to focus towards the A-12’s front. The radar solidified into a picture. Max magnified it to cover his entire HUD.
It was a few seconds before Max saw them. Five oblong container shaped vessels. Small and black, they were moving at a surprisingly alarming speed towards the Belantof. Their parabolic trajectory signified that they had been released from the final vessel. Max curiously watched as the bullet-shaped objects slid through space. As Max examined them closely, his finger reached towards the comm. button. The vessels had the while glowing symbol on them also, however, one end, the front, was tapered into a sharp point. Hmm...
A chill went down Max’s back as he realized what they were. Oh my god… The hand that was frozen above the button came down with a crash.
“Shit! Captain we have enemy boarding vessels approaching fast at 9 o’clock!”
The objects had long since entered the range of the perimeter defenses. But nothing was happening. The bot that had been left in charge of the main weapon controls apparently considered them harmless. The ship was programmed to not waste fire upon asteroids or space debris.
The first of the vessels reached the Belantof. It dig in easily through the hull. The next came flying in, also embedding itself up to the middle. Max could almost hear the screech of metal that resisted the intrusion.
“Fuck, captain we’ve only got Steve and Revens in there! They're not gonna be liking this!” Max continued. “We have to wake the marines! Captain use your remote to contact the compu…”
KBOOM! KREE!
Max’s A-12 was suddenly spinning out of control. He had forgotten about that last fighter when he focused his sensor’s FOV.
Red lights flashed as three separate alarms blared at Max. He knew he wouldn’t last.
“Mayday! Mayday!” He shouted out into his mic as he smashed the brittle plastic casing over the emergency eject.
He had no time to lose. He pushed the button.
-
Steven
Steven was quite alarmed as the compter suddenly displayed 500 messages at once. Amongst the garbage, a few caught his eye.
Crew member Max, piolting fighter ship, has ejected. Tractoring escape pod.
Unidentifed breach in hull. Maximum security.
Before he could finish reading the rest of the messages, the doors slid shut. He heard them all lock around him. Further away, he could hear bulkheads closing. The lights turned off everywhere around him. It was pitch black. However, he could hear the computer speaking very softly, as if it was afraid somebody might hear him.
"I have activated all security measures on the ship. There has been a hull breach. I wouldn't of activated security unless it was for a part of communication I captured between the crew fighting. Max has ejected, telling the captain something. I have caculated his tone of voice was urgent and fearful. However, the communication was broken before I could discover what the rest of the message was.
I am still tractoring in Max's escape pod as we speak. Within a few minutes we will enter scanning and communication range.
I have also computed that somebody is probably trying to board the ship. To give us as much time as is possible, I have closed and locked all doors and bulkheads. Also, I have turned off the lights. Any enemies boarding the ship will have trouble navigating the layout of the ship; as they are unfamiliar with it.
The robot you sent out has yet to reach Blank.
I have not activated the marines, as it is hardcoded into my program that only on Captain's orders can they be activated."
"What do I do now? Do the other guys know?"
"The crew aboard the ship know. I have just told them. Wait, Steven. I will inform you of any more proceedings. Stay silent. I have activated communication ports between you and the other crew members currently on board the ship. Use them only if you must."
-
Tidus
"Steven!"Tidus yelled through the comm system.
It was no use, the communications were down.
"Shit...this is it, this is what I was trained for...."Tidus said solemnly.
Tidus turned his ship around and headed back towards the hanger.He was still able to contact the computer and had it open the hangar door.He flew in and used the nearest intercom to access the computer.
"Activate the Marines!"yelled Tidus.
"Yes sir Captain Tidus"was the computers reply.
"The marines have been activated, they are going through the defreazing process right now."
"Good..put Steven on the intercom."said Tidus.
"Yes sir?"asked Steven.
"I have activated the marines, send out droids to each group of marines to give them a quick briefing."
"Will do sir!"was Steven's hasty reply as Tidus heard the tap tap tap of the keyboard.
What a hard working, dedicated person he is...-thought Tidus.
"All set sir.The droids are on there way."
"Good, now all we can do is wait...oh yeah, what is up with the lights in here?"asked Tidus.
"The computer shut them off as a way of confusing our intruders."Replied Steven.
"Ah, I see.Very well then."said Tidus.
Suddenly Steven yelled aloud over the intercom.
"Captain!!Something has gone wrong with Max's escape pod!"
"Oh shit..."said Tidus.
-
Max
The glow of the tractor beam pulling him in was soothingly pleasant to the eye. A slow soft green glow.
Max closed his eyes and tried to relax.
----------------
February 3, 2040
Max slowed opened the door. It swung open smoothly. He found himself in a small office. A middle-aged man was leaning against the back of his leather swivel chair.
Some official documents were sprawled on the desk in front of him. There were hasty scrawlings on some, while others contained neat lines of printed type. The desk itself was made out of a hard, polished substance. The texture was dark and expensive looking. It was wood, Max realized. Wood furniture was rare among the colonies, because plants were valued for their respiratory abilities. A large part of the O2 supply depended on them.
The man was twirling a pen between his fingers and was distracted by the closing of the door.
“Oh hello.” The man said in a pleasant voice. Much different then Orion’s tired one. “You are Max correct?”
Max nodded; he wondered what was going on…
----------------
A sharp jolt made Max open his eyes. The pod was leaning strangely to the side, though it still continued towards the Belantof. Max could see an open hanger just a few hundred feet away.
Another jolt shook the pod. Max looked up. He was flying through pieces of a fighter’s debris. Quite LARGE pieces of debris.
Another one hit, followed by a shower of small metal filings of some sort. There was a silent alarm flashing by his leg. That meant a leak.
Max unclipped himself from the seat and turned around. He could see it. There was a jagged end of a piece of large black metal sticking into the compartment.
Uh oh…
Looking back towards the open doors of the hanger, Max judged he wouldn’t make it going at the speed he is now. He could already feel a lessening in air pressure. Though his flight suit with its high G-tolerance mitigated much of the effects.
He raked his mind for an idea. It was getting slow due to the lack of oxygen. He wouldn’t last much longer. Frantically he reached for a red canister secured to the side of his seat.
He snapped the safety to it and pulled the trigger. White foam spewed forth, landing on and around the edges of the jagged metal. The substance quickly solidified, effectively sealing the leak.
Max’s hands slipped and the fire extinguisher fell to the floor. It had done the trick for now. Max faintly remembered to thank Orion for teaching him the tip during training, and fell unconscious.
-
"Jesus Christ, nothing seems to be going for us right now.", Steven said.
However, as if to prove him wrong, the computer brung up a window with a message.
"Max's escape pod has had a leak. Leak was sealed, Max has yet to communicate with me."
"Droids have been sent to Marines. One has disappeared. Playing last communcation message."
A robotic voice admist the static of the playback could be heard.
"Entering corridor F4."
"Passed."
"Entering corridor F5."
"Failure, unidentifed objec-"
Zzzt.
"I guessed something was on board the ship that shouldn't be, so I've redirected the robots to take a longer, but safer, route".
"Okay. You're weird, you are, doing all the work for us."
"It's nothing weird. It's just calculations."
-
Grab a snack or something. :P
Max
Max was lying on the side of his face in an awkward position. The seat of the cockpit was also twisted at an odd angle. Groaning he sat up and looked around.
He could see that he was back in the Belantof. The darkness of a hanger enveloped him. The absence of starlight meant that the hanger was sealed and had been repressurized.
He released the lock on the Plexiglas shield and it hissed open. He made his way out, joints aching. Landing on solid floor again, he realized the landing could not have been very graceful. There was a long fifty-foot skid mark imprinted into the metal floor of hanger behind the escape pod, which itself was leaning so much that it was almost falling over.
He tapped the comm. button by his earpiece.
“Hey guys this is Max, I made it back to the hanger in one piece.” He said out loud to the cold air of the hanger.
There was no reply.
Max tried again, “This is Max, is anyone there? Over.”
Again there was nothing. Max took off his earpiece and examined it. The receiver was broken. He sighed.
“This is Max, my comm. receiver got crushed during my redocking, if anyone can hear me I’m heading up to the H-chambers to see what’s going on.” Max tapped out and threw his receiver to the ground. It wasn’t his day.
Jogging to the opposite side of the large room where he knew was a door to the weapons storage room; he fished out his ID card. All the hangers were standardized, one only had to know the layout for one of them, the rest were the same. He made it there and swiped his card through the terminal. Nothing happened.
“Great!” Max shouted aloud exasperated, furiously ramming his card through the sensor a few more times, to no avail. The ships systems must have been shutdown to prevent thorough access. That explained why there were no lights either.
He pushed the comm. button again. “Computer, if you can hear me this is Helmsmaster Nova, ID code seven-nine-six-six-two-alpha. I need the weapons room in hanger…” Max squinted at the large labels on the wall. “… hanger S-14 opened.” Max paused.
A second later there was a click, and the steel panels in front of him slid open. “Thanks.” Max stepped in. Heheh I thanked the computer? He shook his head. Well it is the most intelligent one I have ever seen…
-------------------
Zachary Tyler, PFC, Squadron Zeta
Zach opened his eyes. He was being reanimated. The dark room of what must be H-chamber Z10 loomed in front of him.
In a few moments he was down on the ground, stretching out his stiff limbs. The other of his squadron were also stirring behind him.
As blood flowed freely through his veins, Zach warmed up, becoming agile again. He swung his gun so it rested easily on in his arms. He was in a crouched position, and scoped the room from left to right.
Soon others joined them, they were all silent. The sergeant eventually thawed and moved to the front of the group, he motioned with his hands for the squad to advance forward. They moved to the gangplank in the middle of the chamber, their boots clanking a bit on the metal, echoing off the far walls. Thousands of pods were stacked below them; Zach could see their frosted shells from through the spaces between the floor.
The room was cold, but no one minded, it was warm compared to what they had been experiencing.
Zach wondered silently how long the Belantof had been traveling. And for what reason were they activated. For an instant he remembered that last day on Earth. He had left his young wife and three-year-old son at the hibernation terminals. Himself leaving for briefing and subsequent freezing later at a different location. He had hugged his family tightly and promised that he’d keep them safe, and that he’d go on leave and take them on vacation when he had arrived at the new planet. Though Zach knew that there couldn’t be a ‘vacation’ on a new unexplored planet. He had only wanted to pacify his crying son.
Zach swallowed hard. He wondered if they were in this chamber right now, sleeping among the other thousands of unknowing.
A screech and a crash exploded into the silence. It was coming through the gate at the far end of the catwalk. The sergeant motioned again; the squad took defensive positions, prone and aiming toward the noise.
There was only a minute amount of illumination provided by several emergency lights scattered around the walls. With their aid Zach could see clearly that someone or something was trying to force their way into the chamber.
Zach knew that this chamber was one of the most aft locations in the ship, so the chances of it being a crewmember were slim.
“Knock knock.” The soldier next to him on the ground softly spoke.
There were a few chuckles from the marines around them.
The sergeant motioned again for them to stay silent and hidden. Their primary orders were to protect the H-pods. Zach wished that there were automated defenses to cover them. But he knew that the Belantof was built in a hurry, and internal defenses were not implemented in many areas of the ship. The designers of the vessel had hoped that the advanced perimeter defenses would keep threats outside. That was the reason the GDA had soldiers put in semi-inanimate sleep. Besides, it would also be too risky to put extra guns in here. Zach reasoned, and lay down to wait, the hammering of the durable layered gates forming a pattern in the crisp, cool air.
-------------------
Max emerged from the weapon’s lock, hefting a large semi-automatic rifle. He had shed his lightweight G-suit, which was replaced by durable looking, blue-tinted body armor, there was the symbol of Earth imprinted on the chest.
He immediately made for a red toolbox on the floor of the hanger. Upon reaching it, he kicked it open and dug through it, emerging with a yellow tubular object and a roll of duct tape. He smiled as he worked, snapping the flashlight on and using the tape to bind it to the side of his gun. After it was finished, he examined his handiwork. It looked ghetto, but it’ll have to do, he needed to be able to see.
He jogged towards the entrance of the hanger, and soon stepped into the dark, but slightly warmer air of the corridors.
He made his way quickly and quietly. Heading for the nearest H-chamber. He knew that the high defenses around them would draw attention to the intruders. As he ran he hoped the Captain had activated the marines, he would be needing help.
-------------------
Two things happened at once.
The door at the far end of the room was blasted open, after almost consistent pounding for the past ten minutes. A gaping hole appeared in the middle of the triple layered steel gate.
At the same time, the gate behind them slid open smoothly. And Zach saw a small drone sail over the threshold, beeping. It had the symbol of Earth painted on it. One of the Belantof’s messenger bots.
The sergeant immediately gave the moving drone a swift kick, sending it into the cover of several metal barrels in front of the sectioned off area of the chamber, where the squad had just defrosted from.
“Setler! Keep that drone safe!” The sergeant yelled at one of the marines, as all hell broke loose.
-
Tyler
Tyler Setler had awoken and was rather well rested.
He noticed that a bunch of the others were standing in front of him waiting for the rest to become reanimated.They were all silently standing.He turned around as the seargeant stepped out.
He streteched a bit and then motioned for the group to advance forward.They moved onto the gangplank and Tyler noticed the bodies below them.He had left no one behind so he didn't expect familar faces, but he felt a bit of sadness as he looked about at what the human race had become.Nothing more than unconcious souls inside what was once active bodies.The entire race had been reduced to running from there own planet because of what they themselves did to it.
They went on in silence for awhile until they heard a loud crash.
"Defensive positons!"yelled the seargeant.
They stood there for what seemed like forever guns pointed towards the at the end of the room.
Suddenly the door at the far end burst open and at that same moment a messenger bot came to the group.
Tyler saw the drone fly behind a bunch of barrels and heard the captain command that he take care of it.
"Yes sir!"Was Tyler's quick response.
He took cover along the metal barrels with the drone.
He took out his pistol and held the drone right beside him.
"Shit!"Yelled the seargent.
At that moment the true ferocity of what they were dealing with came into full effect.
The 'thing' came in and picked tyler up with a 'tentacle' and through him across the room.
"Tyler!"Yelled the seargeant.
It was no use.He was was gone.Tyler was dead.
The Seargent, along with everyone else started shooting the hell out of the intruder.They were shooting in vain.Everything they through at it was deflected.The bullets just ricocheted off.
"That isn't organic! Its a machine!"was Zach's analysis.
--------------------------------
Tidus
"Oh god...this is definately not going my way."Tidus said to himself as he ran through corridor after corridor trying to reach the Hibernation Chamber.
The computer unlocked and opened every door that stood in his way as he was running.
On his way he caught up with Squall who was also on his way to the H-chamber.
They stopped at the Weapon Room and grabbed two plasma semi-machine guns.And continued running at a slightly slower pace towards the Chamber.
---------------------------------
-
Blank
He cruised through the space debris, looking at the wreckages of the enemy fighters. Seeing nothing more that needed to be done, he decided to return to the ship to help the others.
He spoke into his earpiece "Blank here, i'm retunin' to the ship."
He heard nothing but static in return.
"Repeat!" He said, slightly irritated. "Blank retunin' to the ship!"
Static was all he could hear.
"Fucking machine!" he yelled as he punched the comm system. "Those bastards must have disabled the comm system!" He turned his ship towards the Belantof and pressed the opening device for the emergency hangar on his control panel. The emergency hangar, used only in situations such as this, began to open it's doors.
The hangar doors creaked open slowly, but then the doors began to spark and stopped moving. The space wasn't wide enough to fit his ship through.
"Fuck!" Blank yelled. "It'll have to do I guess." He flipped his ship on it's side and flew towards the opening. The edges of his ship scraped along the sides of the hangar doors as he sped into the hangar. He quickly flipped his ship upright and engaged his backwards thrusters as he skidded along the hangar floor. He slowed down and slid to a halt.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he pressed a button on his ship's roof and engaged an emergency hanger door. The door shut and the hangar repressurised. Blank unlocked a compartment in his ship andHe opened the top of his ship and slid out.
Blank looked around, he tried to remember his way around the ship as he made his way to the door. He walked into the hangar control center and retrieved a plasma semi-machine gun and a portable heavy pulse cannon. He slung the cannon over his back, opened the top of the ship and slid out. He made his way over to a control panel.
"Computer!" He called.
"Yes Mr Vargas?" The computer replied.
"Is there any conflict happening inside the ship?"
"Yes, in the H-Chamber."
"Thanks." He called to the ship as he ran into the elevator. He swiped his access card in the swiper and pressed the button for the H-chamber.
-
"Yuck. That thing looks disgusting", Steven said as the computer showed him the video output from the messenger droid. "What is it?"
"I ask myself the same question. The scanners don't seem to register it on anything; mass, velocity, species, nothing seems to come up. Oh, Blank has boarded the ship."
"Oh. Obviously something really alien then. Or are the scanners just mucking up?"
"Nope, the scanners are fine. I can scan anything else and it registers perfectly."
Steven sighed as he watched the marines trying to fight the alien thing. No bullets made so much as a scratch in it.
"Shit. What do you think's going to happen?"
"I am a computer and cannot 'think'. I am simulation of thinking. Anyway, I expect the entire marines are going to get creamed. Unless they think of something else to try. Typical guns don't seem to do alot to it, perhaps they should try something else."
"Nice idea, but I don't see any other weapons around. The H-chamber wasn't given weapons."
"It was."
"No it wasn't.", Steven said.
"But it was."
"Okay then, where?"
"Well, it was not supposed to be there, it was just something they forgot to remove while they were hastily building this ship. I think it's in H-Chamber 3. Yes, that's right. In the floor is a panel secured by screws. It's camoflauged with a SEP field so the only way to see it is to know it's there."
The second the computer said this, he noticed the panel on the screen. Odd, he thought, he'd never noticed that before.
"I can see you've just seen it, because I told you it was there. Anyway, if they knew the panel was there, they could see it, remove it, and there's a small weapon chamber there full of Beta weapons that never became 'full-fledged', tested weapons. Some of them do weird things."
"Explain that again, you've confused me."
"When you are told the panel is there, only then can you see it. If they were told it was there, they could see it, remove the screws, go down into the small weapons chamber, and use the beta weapons there that were classified and never released to the general armies of Earth. They didn't remove it because they forgot to in the rush of building the ship."
"I wasn't able to tell you until now because today the areas 'Classified' status has expired. Quite lucky, eh?"
"Well, that's all perfectly great, but they don't know it's there!"
"I know. But the messenger droid does. I told it to only tell them of the area if it believes they are in a bit of a problem. Because it was built on the same deduction circuts as I am, it will also think they are going to get creamed, and will tell them about it the second they ask it to replay the message."
"But nobody's guarding it? What if they don't replay the message? Can't you tell them over PA or something?"
"PA is down because of security. We have to hope they replay it."
"What are the weapons like?"
"Well, they're weird ones that were in testing. I believe a odd time-diluter weapon is in there. Fire it at something and it slows down for about a minute. Only works once; because the object will gain resistance to time dilation- they were going to fix that but it was beta and they were too busy building the ship."
Steven crossed his fingers, hoping the hell that they would replay the message. Or perhaps the divine would intervene.
-
Etomaseth
Looking around the dark hallway Etomaseth noticed that the halls were rather low compared to the ship he had been used to riding on. He heard a loud bang down the hall. It had no doubt came from one of the other pirates who had accompanied him here with the uldubic. Thinking about how the other pirate must be laughing inside that machine right now, got him thinking of its tentacles and how he wouldn't like to be the enemy.
He pulled a small device out of his pocket. It looked like a small rounded box with a screen on it. Pulling some small cords out of another pocket he plugged them into a computer port underneath a terminal screen on the wall and started hacking into the ships system.
"An intruder is attempting to break into the system" The computer told Steven.
"Can you stop him?" He asked it.
"I am currently attempting to halt his progress, but he has already accessed the mission logs and language files" the computer told him.
-
"Crap, double crap. Uh...we can't have a hijack of this system, we're already in enough trouble. Since the messenger droid is seperated from the mainframe, they can't touch that, thank god."
"Hurry up, they're attempting to access the control panel."
"Okay, I know one good thing. You can't hack a system that has no power. Last resort, but we're in enough shit, thankyou very much. Computer, make doors work manually, since you're gonna be offlined."
"Done."
Steven leaned down and removed a panel. This set off an alarm because he didn't have a proper code to mess with the wires, but he couldn't really give a shit about that right now. He cut the power wire, and as a extra measure hit the circuit breaker.
Suddenly there was silence. The lights on the computer panel went off. The standby-messenger-droids were still alive, because they were not intergrated into the computer mainframe and acted seperately.
"Well, at least they can't hijack the mainframe now. Downside being that there are now, like, 50 locked bulkheads around different sections of the ship, elevators that don't work, and no lighting. The life support system should be okay, though. I don't even know if those aliens work better with no light, so this is a gamble... Can't repower the system unless they get in this room, but there's like 3 bulkheads around me locked, so that would take at least an hour.. No power can be given to terminals either, they won't work unless main power is onine...Dumb design, but they were in a hurry to build the ship. Shit, I'm talking to myself."
Steven sat in a black chair now and waited. He had no indication of what the hell was happening around the ship anymore. He beckoned one of the standby-messenger-droids towards him.
"Tell me everything you know, I need something to pass the time."
The robot launched into a boring lecture about it's circuts, long term memory retrieval, how it moves...Well, at least it would keep him sane.
P.S: You just witnessed my retarded RP post. :P
-
Well here's mine. :P
Zach
The marine that moved across the catwalk to guard the messenger bot was made short work of. He was thrown across the entire length of the chamber and hit the wall on the other side. Zach made a dive for the bot, practically landing on it in his haste. He quickly nudged it more safely behind the barrels and peered over the top, watching the battle. He knew better then to draw attention to the bot.
It was more like a slaughter. Zach watched as the monster flailed its numerous limbs at the wary marines. The thing had to be a machine, he was sure of it. The soldiers were getting desperate, as bullets continued to do no damage.
Whatever is operating that thing at least has a simple code of universal morals though, Zach realized. There was no gruesome tearing apart of bodies, though the machine was definitely strong enough to do so. It was merely thwacking left and right while occasionally picking up a marine and casually tossing it away, far away.
There has to be a weakness. Zach reasoned. Carefully scoping the length of the thrashing machine. As he moved closer, he accidentally bumped the messenger bot.
There was a whirr of sound as the bot came online. “Oh crap.” He scrambled to find a dial that controlled the volume. Upon seeing it he twisted to level 1.
The bot now was issuing the message in a fast, electronic voice.
“Belantof special issue all-purpose robot #LLCD12. The following message was encrypted, playing now.”
“3/15/40: Message from the Captain, the Belantof has been boarded by unknown, hostile forces.” No shit. “Landing occurred towards the last sector at the tail of the ship. All active marines are to ensure the safety of the H-pods.”
Zach waited for more, but the bot stayed quiet.
“Well that was disappointingly uninformative.” Zach said, looking towards the battle again. He ducked as a screaming marine sailed over his head. Well at least no one’s noticed the bot yet. Zach had just made ready for a dash across the pathway to report to the sergeant when the bot spoke again.
Max
Max hurried down the hall towards the sounds. Upon reaching the forward doors of the H-chamber, he turned and said: “Captain, I’m going to circle around back to see if I can flank them.” Max turned and ran further down the hallway to the other end.
Moving as fast as he could with the plasma weapon slung on his back, Max shone his makeshift light down to the end of the path. Good thing the maintenance flashlights were so powerful.
As he ran past a door, he paused. There was a light issuing from within. He carefully shut off the flashlight and peered in. There was someone at a set console controls, typing away at a device that was attached to the wall. The person was human in form, but he was unnaturally tall. Suddenly the monitor of the computer went out. Max could hear the entire system powering down. Someone must have shut off the computer. The person slammed a fist down on the control panel. Max pulled out his pistol and slowly advanced.
Kaniaz are you bored? I'm sure that it'll be fine with ffx if you rp one of the marines. In fact, you can have Zach if you want him. :)
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I suck at marines.
Fred
Fred ran across to the alien.
Fred got creamed by the alien.
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(since i havent been here in a loong time ive forgoten the personalitly of my character but i think i can mannage)
Revens was watching the chaos with the tenticaled robot on a data display in his hand as he ran to his quarters. "this thing does have a weekness" he thought to himself as he rifled through a box of antiquated weaponry he had stashed away for a momento. He reached into the box and pulled out what he had been looking for. A old design EMP chage mine, It had a extreem amount of force yet a small blast area and had been scrapped for large scale use because of this fault. But it was this very fault that would save the men on this ship. He ran full tilt to the area where the tentical machine was reeking havoc on the marines. He armed the device for a one second delay and hurrled it at his target. The blast took the machine down flat. "HEY COMPUTER, alert our tech guy that he's got a new toy to play with."
-
Uldubic Machine
The computer did not respond. The EMP charge had knocked out the recievers in the immediate area so the main terminal couldn't hear him.
SWITCHING TO AUXILLARY CIRCUITRY boomed the machine in a cold digital voice. Reactivating, the machine started to raise itself up as a set of legs mecchanised out from beneath it and the tentacles started to pick up and point towards the Marines. The ends opened up and beared the barrels of what appeared to be several types of weapons.
[b]GATLING GUN MODE the machine warned surrounding entities as the barrel of the tentacle guns started to spin.
"Take cover!" Yelled the Marines as a hail of bullets rained from each tentacle, shredding whatever they touched. The machine had missed any marines so far as they had taken cover behind heavy containers and walls. However it was shredding all the equipment in the area and making mincemeat out of some of the plating on the walls.
Meanwhile...
Etomaseth
"Damn it!" He thought as his console locked up. "The computer is shutting me out! They cut the power!" He pulled the cords out of the terminal and slammed the panel shut. He started walking towards the front of the ship, slipping his console and cords into his pockets.
Coming to a heavy door he tried the panel next to it and got no response. "Locked... I'm going to have to sneak into the main terminal room and then I can have some fun with these people..." He thought as he hoisted himself up into the oxygen and heating duct and crawled along towards the electronic heart of the ship.
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"Fuck" Revens swore under his breath slaming himself into the bulkhead of the opposite wall, narrowly dodging the spray of bullets bursting forth from the tenticaled machine. "Now i know why those EMP charges were discontinued, they dont disable auxhilurary fusion chromium drives" he shook his head at his own blunder. "damnit, i probably took out all the comunications within this area... I guess ill have to do it myself" with that he thumbed on the switch to his vibro blade, and moved cautiously into the halway. -will continue this later-
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The machine was currently bussy with gutting the marines with bullets, currently half the platoon that was sent to investigate the perimiter hull breech had been killed. It would shuffle down the hallway, taking scores of rounds to its main chassie, firing continously out of its tenical like arms. Revens was halfway to the fuel drum that the marines were currently attempting to blow up at the machines feet when the machine took it up in its tenticaled arm, and hurrled the drum at the marines, but the drum never made it to the marines. Revens threw one of his vibro knives at the drum just before it left the machines grip. The blade scored a hole through the cannister, and the electrical field sparked the fuel, and blew the drum. The shockwave of the explosion threw Revens into the bulkhead at the end of the corridor 50 feet away. Somethings in his chest cracked and he coughed up blood as he slumped out of the impression his back had left in the wall. As the smoke cleared and his body started to lose its senses, he saw a blotchy image of the machine powering down, the stumps of its weapon arms hanging limply charred and mangled on the floor.
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Steven
"Fantatstic", Steven thought to himself. "Here I am with no power and the last message I got was half the army being creamed."
His train of thoughts were interrupted as he heard some clatter through the air ducts, then fade into the distance. He sat silent for a few minutes thinking about what he just heard.
"Something in the air ducts. No, someone. Damn, the devolpers of this ship made enough security holes in it."
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(Note to everyone else who reads this) ((I NEED MEDICAL ATTENTION!!!!!!!))
Is unconsious
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Zach
Zach had saw the crew member fly across the room. The machine itself shuddered and then a dying whirr was emitted from the steel body. The sergeant stood back up, the remaining marines followed suit.
Training their weapons at the bulky metaled beast, the squadron advanced.
"Tyler! Simon! See what you can do about the injuried!" The sarge began barking orders. "The rest of you work together to make sure the machine is totally disabled."
The members of the squadron quickly dissolved formation to follow their orders. Zach went for the closest marine. He was dead. He continued to check the bodies lying on the ground. The surviving he labeled with a orange first aid tag. Grey Simon, the medic, went and wrapped up the patients as best he could.
Zach approached the crew member who was leaning against a iron bulkhead. He had coughed up blood, but was still breathing, albeit at irregular intervals. The man was unconcious and the injury looked like a fractured rib. Zach hoped that there would be no bone fragments in his lungs. If so then he was a goner.
Labeling the man with a orange tag Zach moved onto the others strewn about the catwalk. They needed to get the injuried to the hospital bay somehow, the cold atmosphere and catwalk wasn't doing any good.
The door behind them slid open. A young marine rushed through breathlessly. "Squadron Omega reporting to... Oh my god."
The marine from the H-chamber further up in the Belantof froze as his eyes drifted among the mangled bodies on the steel catwalk, finally settling down on the pile of disordered metal at the center of the carnage. The members of Zeta squadron also paused in their work.
The sarge recovered first. "Private listen to me. Check that there is no furhter danger to the ship. If your chamber is secure, I will need help here tending to the wounded. Tell your commander to send as many men as he can spare. Got that?"
-
Blank
He listened as the elevator soared up to the H-chamber. There was no longer any noise, the fighting seemed to have stopped. He wanted to get up there and see if he could help anyone in touble. Suddenly, he heard grinding noises and the elevator came to an ubrupt stop.
"What the hell?!?" He yelled to himself. He pressed the button a few more times. Nothing. He then belted the control panel with his fist. He opened the top of the elevator to get a look at what was wrong. He climbed up and peered up the elevator shaft and something caught his eye. He stared at it, then yelled.
"Oh shit!"
More plot to come later, it's late and i'm tired.
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Tidus
After Tidus seperated from Max he continued on and was very near the h-chamber now.He rounded the corner cautiously and saw a horrible scene.The aftermath of a near-massacre.He looked upon the bloody catwalk in horror.
Those poor people...they had families..friends..-thought Tidus
Just then he saw movement ahead of him.
"Sir!"said the sargent.
"Sargent?"aksked Tidus
"Yes, Im afraid we lost many a good solider today."replied the sarge.
"Have you summoned the medbots?"Tidus asked.
"There on there way, but I'm afraid they won't be of much help.Our survivors are over there."Said the sarge as he pointed towards the pile of rubble which Tidus assumed was the creature who was responsible for the slaughter.
He saw a group of 10 or so men sitting upon the ground recollecting their senses and trying to make some sense of what had happened.Many of them were weeping heads held low mourning the deaths of their friends.
Tidus saw no need to disturb them so he let them be.
Just then another group of men came back reporting to Tidus.
"Squadron Omega reporting for duty"Said a young man whom Tidus assumed was the captain of the Omega marine Squadron.
"Good, go join up with the Zeta Squadron, and be ready for the worst."Said Tidus.
Tidus had a feeling that something bad was about to happen and his feelings normally had a basis behind them.He summoned the Omega and Zeta sargeants and told them his assumptions.
"We must be on our guard, something else is in this ship, I know it, and the first place they will strike is the core of humanity, the h-chamber.He also summoned another person from Zeta.
"You, whats your name?"asked Tidus.
"Zach Tyler sir."replied the marine.
"Well Zach, I need you to go around and gather up the other Squadrons because a drone is too dangerous.Tell them to split there Squadron and send half over here to the h-chamber while making the other half stand guard.
"Will do sir!"Said Zach in such a tone you would think he was happy.
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Tidus
Tidus watched the young marine run off through the door heading towards the nearest marine station.
Suddenly there was a bright flash of light and then the lights went off.
"Humans, I need to speak with you, send forward the captain of your vessel."Said a voice that came from the darkness directly in front of Tidus.
"That would be me!"Tidus said in a stern voice.
"Alright then, come forth and we shall begin negotiations."
Tidus stepped forward and awaited for the unknown being to appear.
The 'thing' came out of the shadows and somehow reactivated the lights.
What is it?-thought Tidus as he looked upon the humanoid type creature in front of him.
"My name is Etomaseth I wish to make a deal with you in exchange for a bit of food. We are low on supplies and need to restock.We will provide you with weapondry if you can spare some food."
Said Etomaseth.
"Why would we spare anything with the likes of such hostile people?"asked Tidus.
"We are not hostile, we just had to make a point, if we didn't come in strong we couldn't make it past your defenses."Was the humanoid's hasty reply.
"Well, I suppose we could spare a bit..."Said Tidus hesitantly.
"Where is your foodstock?" asked the humanoid.
Tidus pulled out an electronic map of the Belantof and handed it too the humanoid.It wasn't long after when he realized the mistake he just made, but by then it was too late.The humanoid had apparently fled when Tidus hadn't been looking.
"Shit!"Thought Tidus as he was contemplating the consequences of his foolish action.
(p.s. You just witnessed the most horrible dialouge on the planet. :P But, at least it moves the story along. :wink: