Dead Ship

Grey

Grey

Dialectical Hermeticist
Oustus, BDM, Chizoba, Antariksha





A cluster of four stasis pods, deep in the belly of a Magus ship.


Derelict, now. As you emerge, the lights are flickering or dead, the tight confines of the stasis tomb overgrown with trembling biomechanical tendrils and pulsing veins. Eerie screams echo down the distorted corridors.


And worst, you are unarmed.
 
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Blues


Awareness comes in an instant, vastly outpacing it's companion clarity. The lullaby of the void broken by the alarm clock of life, only dimly registered as eyes long closed struggle with their surroundings once again. A tomb that has lost both function and purpose awaits it, and yields quietly before it's occupant's unsteady appendages. Uncomprehending trepidation fills it's "face" as the monitor uniformly dims taking in it's own reflection, then ignites with fury. From it's maw a primal scream erupts and is silenced into coughs, choked on it's own atrophied throat. Ripping itself from the tomb, Blues Drive Monster lands unsteadily on it's feet smelling stale air and listening for the source of it's awakening. It's hands clawing absently at memory, location, self...


...Memory archive access...failed.


[dice]11015[/dice]


[1 suxx]
 
Oustus

The seams on the stasis pod hatch hiss and steam as they release the pressure long held inside, and the soulcage within slowly steps out, inhaling the fetid air, then releasing it again in a rasping wheeze accompanied by a sharp puff that sounded as that of hydraulics reaching their limit. Slowly pulsing amber and golden lights beneath the metallic dome on her head betray the equivalent of examining her surroundings. Gaining control of her limbs, Oustus again becomes aware of self, testing joints and clenching fists. ~Systemsss....ss Online: Minimal~ An internal voice creaks into awakening, running quick tests of functions of life and capabilities. ~Core Ssstable. Memory Banks: ...[corruption]... Inoperative~ Putting a hand to the top of her head in a colloquialism, as if searching for the mental capacity to remember, she pivoted her neck to look in all directions in an attempt to gain a sense of bearing, reaching out to examine and caress the throbbing tendrils that engulfed much of the walls and ceiling.


Oustus was interrupted by a feral roar, and not from deeper into the ship, from directly behind the pillar-like stem that held the stasis cores together, with their backs facing each other. Stepping around to the side, Oustus took notice of what appeared to be a much different soulcage, this one bestial and savage in manner, organic matter melding into steel fixtures as one, a being as alien and strange as it was beautiful in its own right. ~Communication Channels: Limited. Language Recall Protocol, Attempt Verbal Response Module~ She raised her hand in greeting towards it as her mouth moved in imitation of an organic creature's own, mostly for show as the voice exuded from within herself an unknown origin. It was calm and silky, yet ominous, as if recalling the patterns of an oracle of old reciting a prophecy or giving an omen;


"Greetings, brother. Where [language file corrupted]... Have we begun?"
 
Antariksha

It was like being ripped from a dream, an echoing darkness that was too suddenly replaced by eager awareness. Fear was brief in mindset before swallowed, vision as haphazard as it's touch in the moments before it calmed. The tension of electricity was thick, but a noise outside had caught it's attention, reeling back to kick the glass broken. Instead it opened slowly, unimpressed with Antariksha's effort - as the cage climbed out, the static had grown too much, leaping from the stabilizing limbs to the surrounding conductors.


The noise had been two others, crawling from traps similar to it's own, looking lost but not safe - Antariksha was defensive. Like the others beside it, it took a look around, careful to keep an eye on the two.
 
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The sounds of different metallic functions occurring through the pod came to a brief pause, before the sounds of gas escaping the pod become audible. Slowly the lid on the final remaining pod, parted ways with its initial spot giving way to a void where it once was. Initially, there was no movement, but before long a sable metallic hand gripped the outside. Followed by another, before Chizoba in her sable armor slowly emerged from her former prison.


Metallic hills clank on the ground below her, hands extended and being opened and closed as she examined them. Slowly she brought them close to her, and balled them each into a fist, before finally turning her attention to the three other figures next to her. They seemed to have been in the same predicament she was just recently in, but she didn't make any attempt to try and communicate with them, instead she took in a defensive posture.
 
The structure is familiar, if distorted. This was an Imperial Battleship, but it now appears to be host to some malign presence. Bacterial sensors float in the surprisingly dense atmosphere and tiny creatures scuttle through the fronds of tendrils.


There is little doubt the current occupant knows you are here, with such sophisticated tools.
 
Oustus

Only moments passed before the remainder of the pods began unsealing themselves, releasing their Bandi captives into the world. Oustus returned her sights from her companions to the surroundings, the shimmering air betrayed they miniscule probes that were surely observing their every motion closely. The coils of biomechanical threads quivered and rustled, as if reaching out and seeking something, or some yet-unknown being moved beneath them. A security trigger switched on inside of her inner workings, a foreboding of urgency and vulnerability began to override all other senses, and she knew they must prepare themselves for whatever lay deeper within the vessel they were imprisoned in. Searching blank memory banks for any sense of a layout plan or blueprints turned up precisely zero results, but Oustus determined to brave the corridors without them. Without acknowledging the presence newer Bandi, she set out through the nearest available hallway, recording and storing any navigational information she acquired as she went, in the event she was required to return this direction.


@Grey @Action Replay @Kagura @AkuTheWolfOkami
 
Blues


With the appearance of the first there was a jarring sensation akin to gears moving against each other. The second brought a great strain and with the third the barrier broke, and from the depths of memory arose a singular word. Bandi. Yes, they were...kin to it. Blues. Blues Drive Monster...should be it's name. One of them, but not the first. It's monitor focused into clarity, as the situation unfolded before it. It's memory retrieval could wait for the present when there was the foe about. Attempting handshake protocol...failed. Verbal response module damaged...attempting repairs.


It's flesh galvanizing tautly, it briefly studied the others forcing it's digits into flexing symbols from muscle memory. Locate enemy, hunt, kill. To draw the blood of the enemy alongside Bandi. This familiar purpose was the point of clarity amongst the red noise. Focusing in upon that nub of reasoning it stalked along the corridors of the once proud battleship.


(Burnt out, obligatory post)
 
Antariksha

Memory was tickled as the total of four stood together. Whether the sensors tipped it off or that they were all out of their pods now, Antariksha remembered this was a battleship, more like a battlefield for them. It was no longer defensive of the those around it, they were comrades, Bandi, as it recalled through the haze - the real danger was whatever was watching them. The others seem to realize at the same point, taking off for a hallway only for it to follow closely behind, Antariksha did not leave one trap to be caught in another. It wanted freedom.


Moving behind the others, it was ever vigilant of it's surroundings - remembering more than anything of the battles that took place here, rather than this eerie silence of the sensors. Whatever was watching could see them, but it didn't look as if it was reacting.


[dice]11251[/dice]
 

The rest of you have your own threads now. This one is all Stick.


For Oustus





You find the armouries of the ship empty, as if looted. More of that bizarre mass grows on and twists bulkheads you pass, and clouds of spores drift in the air.


In the distance, something shrieks, echoing through the ventilation system.





I recommend you use your Fate-Sight or roll Intuition
 
The barren armories left Oustus with a terrible unease. Under normal circumstances, these rooms would be full of weaponry and ammunition for the taking. Now only bare lockers, shelves and racks greeted her, covered instead by the twisting masses of tendrils that pulsed with some unseen energy. Whatever it was had long since stripped the derelict ship of its possessions, and Oustus intended to reclaim them and this ship.


As she was about to turn and exit the room, a feral scream rang through the ducts embedded in the ceiling and walls, amplifying the sound. Oustus could not guess where it came from, but intuitively a small system in the inner workings of her mind clicked into place, and she mentally latched onto it. After several moments, it activated, opening a window of insight into the weave of fate.


@Grey
 
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The weave is shining, golden chaos. It's natural for everything to be connected, but everything here is connected in shining threads that will not clear, no matter how much you narrow your focus.


It's as if the whole ship is a single entity, tangled up with itself.
 
Oustus began to pick her way through the strings, stretching out fingers to touch whichever ones were within reach, specifically the ones located around a nearby vent from which the screech had emanated. Perhaps this fate-thread would lead to a source or some insight into the events that had brought such a previously grand ship into ruins.
 
The ship is alive.


That's it. That's the problem; trying to focus on a single thread brings all the threads into sharper focus.


The entire vessel is overrun by some kind of infectious monster, something aware enough to have a fate.


You're functionally blind while on board. But there might still be working ships in the hangar, a way out.


Less than a mile across the vessel, if the structure is the same as the old maps in your memory.
 
So, some cosmic parasite was behind the decay and abandon of this once-mighty battleship. Oustus disengaged the Fate-Sight to clear up her physical vision, it was possible to have the two cohabitate her mind, but if the ship was one interwoven tapestry, picking out single threads would be impossible and cloud her thoughts with their intricate interconnections. She looked about the room for the exit closest to her approximation of the direction towards the hangar, and proceeded to follow her instincts and latent memories.
 
Despite a few blockages - mysterious metal-plated organs pulsing in doorways, broken automatic doors, ruptured bulkheads - you reach the intersection before the hangar easily enough.


But ahead of you is a monster. It might have been human, once, but not it is twisted sinuous, quadrupedal shape. Spines and small tentacles line its back, breaking out from between repurposed chunks of deck plating. The head still has a roughly human shape, but part of a security monitor is fused into the right eyesocket, the left is a bulging, blind organ, and the jaw is deformed to accommodate long plasteel fangs. The forelimbs are similarly armed with long talons, and as soon as it sees you the propel it forwards with impressive speed, a leap to strike you.
 
The creature barreled towards Oustus as she entered the hallway, nearly taking her by complete surprise. As it charged her, she noticed it prepare for a jump mid-stride, its body tensed and then thrust itself into a pounce. As it became airborne, Oustus' battle reflexes engaged, dropping to the ground with her small frame, attempting to launch herself totally beneath it, to slide under its body with the final destination being behind the creature, where she could then plan an attack from there.


[dice]11779[/dice]
 
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You roll under the creature, but a spur of sharpened bone or metal rakes across your back. Thankfully it doesn't penetrate your shields.

Shields are down to 2. That would've hurt, if it it.


Feel free to roll the counterattack!
 
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