Futuristic Space: The Forgotten Frontier (IC) Part 1

[WanderingWordsmith]

Walker listened a chuckled. "Well that certainly got your attention." He said. The ship finally breaking silence. "1. You haven't been quite hospitable rather annoying actually." Walker paced back and forth. "2. None of us actually want to be here inside what ever you are. We are just in it for the money... Well most of us." The last part of his sentence referenced the drone. "3. Your cooperation through this bogus cover-up mission would make things go by a lot better." Walker was really done trying to play the nice way.


"So if bombs won't work, then why don't I find a big wrench to start smacking stuff around until you are mangled enough to only function? Or... We can simply get along and not have to resort to such barbarianism. Choice is your Bentus." Walker tapped his foot impatiently. Just as disgruntled as the Drone. "What do you think?" Walker up nodded at the drone. "Feel like breaking stuff until the AI can only perform menial tasks?" Walker asked.

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

"Well, I never imagined I'd be having a conversation with a ship. But I see your point. However, I counter you with this perspective. And I'll say that the EUDF is a bunch of numbskull apes that managed to spread their genes through the systems. But... I digress." Walker took a seat in the chairs finally making some kind of conversation with the perceived AI of the alien ship.

"Let's say an alien ship enters your space territory. Refuses to identify or otherwise make some kind of communication." Walker leans back with his hands behind his head looking at the ceiling. "Are you going to sit there and wait until they open fire or are you going to investigate?"

Walker stretched out his legs leaning deeper into the chair. "Not to make your troubles seem superficial but it could have probably been avoided if you had tried opening up a dialogue rather than giving them the silent treatment. But at the same time it would not be surprised if they shot first before talking. That's what space Jarheads are good for. Isn't it?" Walker looked at the drone for confirmation.

 

[Gears]

“I don’t care about humans personally, but because of my programming prioritizing humans that are not enemies I would suggest a different deterrent. Perhaps I could search for the source of her intelligence and threaten to terminate it.”

BD said, standing at attention before the remaining UEDF troops loaded into the second craft, now out of view of any who could order him around, other than Jackson- though he was annoyingly fond of BD.

“Regardless the remaining crew and I will ensure nothing goes wrong.”

Eddie had been fiddling with his data pad, before finally finishing.

“Just to be sure I just connected Bentus to my wrist computer, with limited access- and I will download malware on your ass on you if you try anything.”

 

[Ashy_OCdesigns]

Great. Just great. The engines chose now to break down? Karfik swore he had checked the engines just before he left. In fact, he remembered he had checked the engines. However, faulty engines came with the territory of buying an old, used ship. The ship, for further irony, been been named Lucky. Lucky was a small ship, a runabout really, and a rather ugly thing. It was an dull blue and brown color, but in patterns that were definitely for practicality instead of beauty. He didn't dare send out a distress signal just yet, because he wanted to be a free man. He had supplies, so he figured he had some time. First, he should probably figure out what was wrong with-

Karfik looked up, and he saw another ship now. Much bigger than his lone runabout. He was not much of a threat at all, and he was pretty sure the crew noticed this as his ship drifted ever so closely to theirs. He best hide his merchandise, which were waterproof powerbanks to highly powerful gun. These guns were supposed to be used only in emergencies, but that just made them more desirable. Someone had wanted them transported, but his journey was currently stopped by a faulty ship. He was slightly worried about being caught, so he began to swallow the powerbanks.

Gears Rcticwolf WanderingWordsmith

 

[Gears]

“I have the thing ready to shut down affected systems so viruses or other attacks are stopped, along with a regeneration system. We are picking up a VIP who would have the negotiating power over us so I would suggest making a truce before you get screwed over a Shu Corp Suit- if we can make a deal now you have a better chance of benefiting- Captain?”

Eddie turned to the captain as he finished the flight pre-checks on the fighter.

“We don’t want to be here either- and the truth is we would have likely been imprisoned if we refused. You travel using Anti-Matter, could host and entire army, and I saw you have weapons systems. With our temporary jurisdiction we can label you as a friend instead of a foe. Do you have any demands to make before negotiation begin?”

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

Walker stood up as he shrugged. "I am familiar with that feeling. I've been alive since my inception on Andoria 6." Walker walked towards the bridge door. "My race came to the humans with peace and helped them achieve many brilliant feats using our technology. Some of us even became their science projects dissected and such." He left the bridge looking around for some interesting things. Exploring which doors he could and couldn't open. "It's hard to feel sorry for those of my kind that were cut apart and put back together. We don't feel pain and even though i function, I can't really determine if I am alive or just some alien robot." Walker wanted to keep Bentus talking, as he explored hoping it would distract them from what he was doing. "I don't think anyone on this mission has the pull to get a formal apology from a commander. But I'll put in a request." He chuckled.

Walker looked up to see a door called Data center. He curiously opened the door and stepped inside, looking around. "And if that doesn't work, I'll call in a favor from the SCAA." He offered as he went deeper into the room. "I would much prefer our short time together to be a mutually beneficial relationship. So we don't have to be friends as long as we get along for the ride. The sooner we are out of your body..." Walker was amazed by the intricacies of the ship and a suspicion slowly grew in his logic center.

 

[Gears]

“The commander departed, with only captains being the highest ranks allowed- as a corporal I apologize for the Numbskull Apes of the UEDF”

Jackson replied as he took off his helmet, a long scar running down his face to an eyepatch.

“And as the ship engineer I promise not to make any modifications without your expressed permission, but I will need full transparency on most of the ships systems.” Eddie said into his earpiece, which now connected him directly to the ship with a decent range with his radio equipment.

The bounty hunter and assassin stayed silent- both silently agreeing that this was the crew, and Walker for some reasons mess to deal with. They had targets and objectives to deal with, the crew just needed to get them their so they could assist a few before the next phase.

Suddenly, a pudgy human ran through the gate, both bounty hunters reaching for weapons before the captain reached to stop them.
“At ease, that’s just Lugo, the cook- he wanted to personally inspect our food stock that is being stored on the station.”

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

Walker entered the room looking around. As soon as the chamber of time was unsealed the body laying on a bed next to the pod which resembled a life support pod of an unknown technology. He looked surveyed the area that was hidden away in the data nexus of the ship. Walker walked up to the terminal, he looked at all the data tapes. He picked one out. "Final Experiment." He looked at the terminal for a access port that would load the device. He let it play as he continued to look around his sensors picked up biomatter. He approached the suspension pod looking inside and seeing the body of a young female, blonde wearing only a utility flight suit. "Marvelous..." Was all he could manage to say. Looking back at the door he came from he wondered. "Bentus, what can you tell me about your previous crew?" Walker asked he wasn't expecting answers there were no real obligations but perhaps asking about the previous occupants of the living ship with body in a mysterious pod hidden within a hidden room. Perhaps Bentus would humor his curiosity. Too far out of range to send a radio message to his partner and mechanic. Walker would have to get information from the horse's mouth as humans like to say.

 

[Gears]

Eddie and the crew waited for whatever Walker was doing, before he paused- the communications array had received something- wasn’t that disassembled according to the Engineers? Eddie took a second and slipped away, grabbing his Zero-Atmos, a helmet that allowed him to work without oxygen before heading into the sealed room. He could ask Walker about Bentus later- right now he had to investigate the coms. Eddie opened his tool kit as he got to work- if he missed the departure that would be fine, they would manage.

 

[Gears]

Eddie sat at the terminal, checking the meter on his life support system- the room didn’t have any atmosphere so he wouldn’t have long- maybe an hour. Eddie finally managed to restore power to the coms system, he could tell it was advanced, whoever had built Bentus had been advanced- enough to reach distress calls from light years away. Eddie couldn’t pinpoint the exact location of the call, but he found a series of files that had been attached to the distress call, along with a message- partially damaged by the long distance, and some kind of issues.

“This is Doctor Drake Richards, I am a scientist for- ERROR- Things- are Fucked. We lost contact with Echo Base and- They have taken over the West and North Colonys. We have sent for -ERROR-. God, what have we done.”

Eddie scanned through any database he had access to for this Doctor Richards, but he couldn’t find anything- the man was a ghost. After a second he searched for Echo Base, but he didn’t have enough information to find anything. Whenever this was sent, a file was attached- the author had added their entire DataDisk, a common possession of major companies and their employees. The majority was encrypted or Redacted, but Eddie could find travel Records to a far off colony, Genesis- No records of it anywhere.

After a second, Eddie could find a gallery of images taken following the arrival, the place looked nice, with standard Colonization structures, Eddie ignored these images until he found footage of something, an image everyone knew about, something that haunted Anti-Dolan Posters- The Obelisk, the thing that had caused The Cosmic Storms and Rifts- and there it was, in a clean lab, Labrats caged before it.

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

There was something to say about the ingenuity of the ship. The civilization that built Bentus was quite advanced, and they still succumbed to the mortality of organic lifeforms. A viral contagion could indeed wipe out an entire planet if given the opportunity. It reminded Walker of his position, being an inorganic lifeform he didn't feel the same problems. The scientist from the video clearly cared deeply for Bentus. Which conflicted Walker in his decision, his logic center presented arguments for both. "Well, looks like we are in quite the position." He said loading another data tape to listen to the next recording. He walked over to the preservation pod and looked over the body. "On one hand I could awaken her and it would probably fine..." He speculated. "Then again she could wake up and murder us all." he shrugged pacing around in the hidden room. He concluded he would keep this new information under the wraps for the time being. Wanting to figure out what Bentus does know.

"Bentus can you tell me anything about your design purpose?" He asked there were some unanswered questions about the entire situation. But at the very least, there may be some insight in Bentus's memory or possibly the logs he discovered. Walker would have to keep the room hidden from the rest of the crew until he could determine that hey could come up with a plan. He didn't want to awaken Bentus until it was safe to allow her to take over the body within the hidden room. This also included their return humans wouldn't pass up a chance to cut it apart and figure out the anatomy through deception and destruction. He was certain everyone he was travelling with wouldn't be interested causing Bentus or the passenger harm, but the people who would were all above their paygrade and not one of them could be trusted. He decided to bring the captain and Eddie into the situation. The rest would have to be told at a later time. "Eddie are you on this radio channel I need a little favor." Walker said over the radio. "Can you get us on a secure line with the captain? There's been a development." Walker said leaving it vague enough to garner interest.

 

[Gears]

Eddie shook his head, saving the field and begging to run them through some of his decryption program, affixing a data collection nexus before he began to exit the room, receiving a communication from the advanced radio he carried- he debated reporting his findings after Walker spoke, but he didn’t know anything about what he had come across, for now he would keep it to himself.

“Com received, I will open a channel. Captain, this is Ship Engineer Gears- VIP requesting private channel, isolate if need be.”

The Captain shrugged before stepping into one of the smaller rooms in the hanger, likely a control room for this area, before responding.

“Walker, what have you found- any developments with the ship?”

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

Walker remained in the secret room. He peeked out the doorway looking for anyone that might overhear what he was about to say, then retired back into the room. The captain's voice came through as thoughts processed in his logic center. "Certainly, a huge development is an ancient civilization that was humanoid built Bentus and then died of an unknown viral contamination on board the ship, according to the data records I found." Walker looked at the body meant for Bentus and considered his options. He couldn't afford to lose his adjudication license permanently. "And it would seem that whoever recorded these data logs made Bentus a human like body." Walker sat in the chair and loaded another log to listen and learn a little more about the history. "So far, you, me and Gears are the only ones who know about this." Walker sighed and after watching the recording and finishing up with the conversation he had with the captain. Walker returned to the bridge and didn't tell anyone about his discovery, not even Bentus.

 

[Gears]

Eddie ran for the bridge, clearing out a few Jerry’s who were monitoring the area as he took a seat with Walker. Eddie loaded the files he had received into another layer of decryption software. His discovery was likely unrelated, and even though he wouldn’t waste the groups resources and time on a fruitless effort- though just to be safe he could put down extra time into it.

“Are we talking an automaton based body or genetically engineered life form.” Eddie said as he began searching for any files on the ship under Genetic Engineering.

“Should we tell Bentus captain?- I can head over to supply a life support apparatus in case she needs one.”


“Walker, you know machines better than us, will the ship show any ill intent.” The captain said, watching as the crew got impatient with the cloak and dagger sneaking around.

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

Walker shrugged. "I can't really answer that. It could be a coin flip on what happens. We would likely be fine, but Bentus could easily turn the security systems against us. And seeing as they don't seem to remember anything from the previous inhabitants." There wasn't much that they could do about the way Bentus would react, and there was also the question of how much control they would get with the ship. The whole thing was disconcerting. "Bentus, do you have knowledge of the planet your creators came from?" Worth a shot. If he could get any information that could shed light on some of the unknown factors, then at least he could figure out if they should be worried about their human crew members getting sick. So far the only thing he knew about the illness that brought the previous crew had a 100% death rate thanks to Bentus, who had the memory wiped from her personal hard drive.

 

[Gears]

“Send Gears to investigate, we need to be sure the body can handle our atmosphere before we try anything- I don’t want the soldiers near but you two should be able to deal with things if she turns on us- once Eddie can verify she’s safe wake her up.”

Eddie didn’t respond as he left the files, annoyed the ship was blocking his attempts to figure the mysterious message. “Come on Bentus, Not like I’m uploading Malware on you- I’m going to have some strange words with you in a bit.”

 

[Gears]

“As do I Eddie, and I don’t trust you so of course I won’t give you or anyone else access to my data” she replied

“I received that message from a different party- my equipment hasn’t found any malware in the message and it can be of use.”

 

[Gears]

Moore sat on a storage crate in Docking Area C of the Space Station, his Jerry and Mr Graves loading the remaining cargo onto the light cruiser. Soon the unidentified ship would arrive with his crew so he could begin his mission. He was a bit bothered by the sheer variety of crew. He had read the files for the crew, and around him was a strange group. An Ape in power Armor, A medical Officer, and what appeared to be a Wizard from the Green Realm, who was keeping to herself, hiding beneath the large cloak she wore, a wooden staff at her side along with a weathered tome.

Moore leaned back before looking to the human doctor. “Medic, where were you educated?” Moore already knew of course, having read the case files of each person provided by his Company, the Shu Corporation. The Wizard turned toward the noise before shying away.
Keeperoftheghosts

 

[Keeperoftheghosts]

Skylar turned towards Moore looking up from her Vitals cusp that she has just priory been going through. They just caught sight of the Wizards glance over and sent a warm smile they're way, before straightening to attention to Moore.
"I recieved my primary education from the medical staff of the Ascelpius and did half of my residency there as well before transferring over to the Galactic Center of Medicine for completion. My medical school was completed at the Interdisciplinary University of Science and Medicine, sir. May I ask why? Are you in need of assistance?" She questioned giving the business man a curious look. Getting to know one's patients in potentially long term care situations was vital, and same went for being able to trust the care providers so she held no ill will to such a question.

 

[Gears]

“No, I have been concerned with the quality of my crew for this mission. With the ships resident doctor your training should suffice for the operation.” Moore replied dryly, leaning back as Grabes brought him a coffee he had requested from the android attendant that had been taking care of the group. The wizard shied a glance again at the technology around the room, particularly the medical equipment. Under the cloak whispering of silver hair could be seen, an odd appearance on the young face, eyes a piercing blue as she opened the tome and began reading something in an unknown language.

“They brought the Greener on the same ship as me- never said a word, always reading that book and staring at my tech. I heard her people think of our tech as evil.”

The speaker was a Brolan male, wearing advanced power armor decked in symbols commonly associated with his people. He towered over even the mass of muscle that was Moores bodyguard, a massive Warhammer in his hand, used as a cane while a trench gun was strapped to his back.

“The names Gurgle, Son of Ragle and Crev- you are the healer yes?”

 

[Keeperoftheghosts]

Skylar turned towards the Burlan male holding out her hand to shake in greeting. They pointedly ignored Moore's comment on the quality of the crew and instead gave the new speaker a welcoming smile. They placed their free hand just over her quartz crystal necklace.
"Doctor Skylar Hummington, daughter of Andrew and Ji-ae Hummington. I will be the medical personal yes. It's a pleasure to meet and work with you Mr. Gurgle. And perhaps she's merely curious, let's try to be open and not make judgments about our crew mates before getting to know them." She cast a glance over to Moore the last bit more so directed at him then Gurgle despite the calm and friendly tone she kept.

 

[Gears]

The Brolan accepted the greeting as he sat down next to the human, resting his weapon at his side before nodding in response. “You never see inhabitants of the Green Realm leave their planet other than pilgrimages to convert others to their church, though one possessing magic will be an advantage in any case- though we may need to establish communication, does she even speak basic?”

Moore was on his data pad, Mr Graves watching with a plasma gun at the ready, staring down every individual on the room as he protected his charge.

 

[Keeperoftheghosts]

Skylar gave a thoughtful hum the dull grays of her eyes darting over to the Wizard observing her curiously.
"That is a fair point I suppose, and most likely at the very least some. Or she must have some other way of communicating with those outside her planet. One can't just board a ship. There's procedures for a reason after all." They paused glancing over to Gurgle. "Why don't we invite her to join us? We still have some time, and it would be nice to get to know who we're working with. " She suggested smoothing out their white physicians coat.
"And if she doesn't speak basic I'm sure there's other ways to go about it."

 

[Gears]

“According to her people the Dolan are seen as Demons, they would have sent a representative in case the rumors of this mission stopping a potential second invasion.” Gurgle replied as he motioned for the woman to join them. After a second she stood up from her seat and tentatively approached the pair, nodding to them before sitting down next to Skylar, her Tome now secured in a bag while she held her staff, occasional her eyes flicked toward the pair. “I speak your language” she said quietly, her eye color suddenly changing to a deeper blue.

 

[Keeperoftheghosts]

Skylar tilted her head slightly offering her hand to shake hers too.
"That's perfect, I'm Doctor Skylar Hummington, I'm quite alright with just being called Skylar however, this is Mr. Gurgle." She turned and gestured at Brolan on the other side of her.
"Is it possible you would be willing to share your name ma'am?" She noted the shift in eye color as something to inquire about during medical examinations later.