Chapter 1: Survival instincts

[Midnightmoon]

"Can't breath." The limber alien struggled, he was submerged in a liquid and he couldn't breath! He started to gasp. Muted sounds blared around him in the liquid, insistant. He struggled more and then the liquid disapeared and he realised he was sitting in a... something. Metal walls almost touching his sides and another clear wall inches from his face. "Ok, not underwater, but..." he still couldn't breath. Twisting, he reach up a hand, squeezing it between him and the glass and tore off the something that was over his face... air mask. Now he could breath, he gasped, gulping the air. He hardly got his breath back when he started to press against the glass, ears flicked back. Then something "bleep-bip-ed" And something on his left forearm booted up. As it booted up the glass opened up like double doors down the center and slowly flipped to the sides. The air that entered tasted cleaner then the stuff in the casket but it was tainted by smoke and burn. Sitting up he put a hand to his head. "Uuhhh. Rude bootup." He was just getting out when he noticed both the still forms. "Looks like I'm not the only one with fried circuts." From the look of the one sprawled out he knew that she was gone, but the other was just blacked out. "Huh, uuum..." Looking around he grabbed the black stick thing on the ground beside his pod and shuffled over to the second form, squinting due to the ocational blinding spark. "Ok, so you shut down for some reason- couldn't be from external damage- there's non that i can see-maybe..." He mumbled to himself, trying to figure out how to bring her back online.

(ooc: he doesn't realise anything yet. you don't realise you don't know something unless someone says you should and you don't refer to yourself by name when your talking to yourself.)

[Morty]

"Very well. Though she is in no immediate danger I suppose we must explore the ship sooner or later. We have flashlights, batteries-- what's this now?" Kiruza exclaimed as on the screen another cryo chamber swung open, and a lanky purple alien crawled out, appearing to take an interest in the prone Ariaka. "It seems we have another survivor. Can you hear me, sir?" she called into the mic. "We should proceed with haste to the laboratory. I will need to treat this survivor as soon as possible. Please stay where you are, help is coming. Miss Coren, are you coming?" She put the rest of the cryo chambers on pause as she gathered up a few medical supplies and waited for the marine to arrive.

[Nohiki]

#Reboot sequence initiated#
Formatting Random Access Memory...
Restoring system from backup...
Restore complete.
Checking for robot damage...
Circuit AE-35 damaged, checking for bypass...
Emergency solution found.
Repair recommended.
Servo 4x2 offline.
Hydraulic motion systems engaged.
Repair necessary.
Checking armor for damage...
Armor integrity 100%
Testing power grid...
Power distribution optimal, power supply 50% charged.
Compiling crash log...
Starting operating system...
engaging neural network...
[red]Data of unknown origin found.[/red]
Powering up...

Ariaka came back on line. She didn't remember the last 30 minutes, but all the information should be accessible in the error log. She stood up, the hydraulics in her leg usually used for heavy lifting substituting for her damaged right knee servo. she quickly read the error log and found the suspicious data. One of her logic circuits was damaged, so she assumed it to be just bogus. The more her surprise when the data actually made sense. It showed a schematic of an unexplored part of the ship. From what she could piece together, it was one of it's four data cores. It was only after that she started paying attention to her surroundings. She saw a trashed lab, a burnt corpse and another survivor,probably the one who's distress beacon she went to answer. She shook her head. "Hello. My name is Ariaka. Do you remember your name?" she asked right away.

[Morty]

"Hold on... Ariaka is back online." reported Kiruza, returning to the console as her eye was caught by the movement on the screen. "Ariaka, are you there?" She picked up the radio mic again and awaited a reaction. "Do you require assistance?" she asked carefully, not sure how extensive the damage caused by the sudden crash would be.

[Nohiki]

"Mechanics wise i lost a knee, but it's being substituted. One of my logic circuits was fried by overload of errors i don't remember and because of the damage, can't repicate to debug. It is possible that one of the hardware failures lead to discharge of my power cell that caused the other as i lost 30% power in the crash." she summarized her physical damage, "Operating system is restored as is the neural network. My memory has been formatted but i have most of my history saved. I can't recall last 5 seconds before the crash. Do we have any security footage?" she asked, hoping that could help her piece together why her relatively new construct was failing. "Also you have a patient here. Seems OK to me." she turned to the purple alien. "can you move? We need to get to the front of the ship where it's safer." Ariaka withdrawn the map from the others, still regarding it as a glitch and thus unnecessary to worry the crew about.

[Kauria]

Rucha sighed and set down her pack, her initial flurry of frustration spent the first time her plans had been forced to change. First I was going, and then we weren't, then we were, and now we're not.
"To be clear, Ariaka and her new friend are going to come find us, correct?"

[Nohiki]

"Yeah about that... I know more or less in which part of the ship we are and the general direction to go, but i have no clue how the ship looks like on the inside." said Ariaka, trying to get any information out of her database, but she never had a chance to download full schematics, being busy dodging attacks. "I would have to interface with the ship and the only place to do that is the bridge. Unfortunately the marine can't help, i locked the mainframe to me only in case we got boarded. But listen, take everyone and scout around the bridge, hopefully you'll stumble upon internal sensors or life signs detector. Maybe you can use that to lead us out."

[Kauria]

"Nice." Rucha grinned. She flipped open her bag and briefly knelt beside it, casting cursory glance over its contents. She pulled on a pair of gray trousers over her wetsuit, and withdrew a half-armored jacket from the pack. "Niiice," she murmured again, shrugging it onto her shoulders. "I'm ready," she announced. "You coming this time?"

[Morty]

"Yes, I believe the circumstances are now appropriate for me to relinquish my post." said Kiruza, as she picked up one of the handheld communication devices probably belonging to a dead crewmate. Flexing her wrist she removed her IV patch, suggesting Rucha do the same. She loaded herself up with medication from the pharmacy drawer for when the side effects of the long drawn-out cryogenic sleep would strike. She also equipped herself with a flashlight and a ventral water filtration device. She'd been splashing water on her gills every so often since she left the pod, but a longer journey would require more technological measures. When she was fully prepared she returned to the console to commune with the android. "I've acquired a map that will take us within range of your position, Ariaka. I think I may be able to send it to you." she said, typing in a few haphazard commands. "How are you both holding up?" she asked, opening the viewport again to check on the new patient. The ones in the pods would have to wait. "It's important that you don't exert yourself for the first few hours after awakening. Our bodies are all still unused to the strain." she warned, both for the new one and for Rucha, who seemed impatient to be going.

[Awesomoman]

"Then stay close." Lance said walking up behind the two. "I seem to be the best equipped so ill take the lead. Kiruza was it? I want you to focus on navigating us through this ship. You...Rucha. You seem to be the only one with a gun so I need you ready and alert, anything in the distance is your territory so i hope you know how to shoot. Now are we ready?"

[Morty]

((Up to you if you receive the map, Nohi. XD))

The Shis nodded affirmative. "Yes, Kiruza. And you?" she asked colloquially, after having used the computer's visualize function to check that the hallways were safe. Most of them were well-lit and nondescript, but some were interfered with or blacked out entirely. She put all the medical equipment on the understorey of a rolling stretcher and proceeding after the cyborg. With her lower two hands she pushed the stretcher and with the other she held the communication device, projecting a holographic map of the path to their objective. The hallway was of a clinical white metal, dimly lit with sickly yellowish lights. Though their circumstances were unnerving, the dull sulphuric glow of the lights was oddly comforting to the meticulous Shis. Despite their bleak situation the peaceful quiet of the medical wing put her at ease, against her better judgement.

[Kauria]

Rucha nodded, fighting down the surge of anticipation of advancing into the unknown — perhaps she had been familiar with the ship at some point, but that time was not now. Every inch of the hallways was new. Despite the fact that one of her companions was in heavy armor, the other pushing a medical cart, she instinctively clicked her claws into the upright position to soften her footsteps.

[Zetherus]

Tal'set was suddenly awakened by his defense systems bring him out of cryo-sleep. "Ah, what is it now." He sat and ignored the sirens as he rubbed his eyes. As he began to grab the ships controls a odd shake moved his ship and a beam of light shoot over the cockpit. "What the hell."

Tal'set grabbed the jets controls in time and banks left out of the way of some type of projectile. He saw a ship drifting in the distance but had know idea what was following him. "Mayday, mayday do you copy? Is anyone in there I need assistance?"

[Kauria]

"What was that?" Rucha spun, pistol raised. "Did anyone else just hear something?"

[Nohiki]

Ariaka sprinted out of the lab and into the hangar deck with apologetic expression on her face when she looked at the other inhabitant of the lab. "Unidentified vessel, this is the Croatoan. DO NOT approach, repeat, do not approach! Our point-defense guns are set to auto target and are armed! We can not shut them down in time, change your course! We are sending fighter drones to assist. Hang in there!" she shouted to the mic, tapping on the keyboard quickly. Five transformer like things dropped out of the ceiling in the bay she could see through the deck's glass, assumed shape of a fighter and flown out, attempting to eliminate the inbound fighter's pursuer. "Guys stay where you are we have a problem, it appears like the scout fighter of the guys that nearly shot us down. I have the map you sent, hopefully i can make it in time. Radar and fire control are left and right front of the helm's chair respectively, those seats need to be populated if we're to survive!" she said and went back to the thrashed lab. "Come with me!" she yelled at the purple alien and ran out of the room, heading towards the bridge.

Ten clicks behind, five rifts opened and enemy ships arrived. One was a battleship, comparable in size to the Croatoan but with heavier armor. It was escorted by four smaller vessels. Federation cruisers. But how the hell do i know? though Ariaka, now really puzzled. If they get out of this jam, she will have to do some research.