Chapter 1: Survival instincts

[Nohiki]

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Chapter 1: Survival instincts
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www.mp3item.com/soundeffects/alarm.wav
The alarm rumbled through the ship. Metal was screeching as support beams were giving up and the hull was being compromised. In the center of it all, a lone crewman was attempting to escape destruction.

Hull breach on deck 12.
Sealing breached compartments.
Enemies at coordinates sigma 3 H.
Fire in shield emitter 3.
Firing main weapon.
Venting atmosphere from emitter 3.
Stardrive charged 99%.
Fire extinguished.
JUMP!

Said the machine entangled in the helm's chair as it was trying to get the ship out of trouble. A rift opened in front of the ship and it slipped through, arriving into another star system, escaping it's enemies once again. The chair apparatus retracted, freeing the android inside. Ariaka stumbled towards the captain's seat and looked at the monitors. This battle did severe damage and knowing her pursuers, they will show up again soon, and without the full shield, they will destroy the ship. Herself she has to recharge soon or else she will drop powerless in the middle of the defense.
She has to act.
She needs a crew.
Ariaka looked at another monitor and pulled out the ship's schematics. The transporters weren't working for a long time, she will have to take the stairs, but the stasis chambers were relatively close. She went there and started reviving the passengers.

[Morty]

Kiruza lay comatose in her chamber, numb to the cool currents that circulated around around the water-tight pod. The sound of the sirens was completely nullified inside the chamber, the only noise coming from the water filter, which periodically pulsed out a cloud of oxygen, bubbling to the top of the tank and passing over the unconscious Shis's gill fronds. Suddenly a soft hiss filled the chamber, breaking the airtight seal, cold mist floating from the water's surface. The Shis stirred, a shiver passing through her carapaced frame, her cold muscles stiff from disuse. She rose from the water and crawled out of the pod, her segmented limbs clacking against the hard surface of the hull floor. She heaved herself over the edge and painstakingly dragged herself upright, using the tank as a prop, freezing water dripping from her spiny mane onto the cold white tiles. The sirens blared, sending a wave of pain through her cerebral cortex, leaning heavily on the wall for support while she collected her senses. Is was then that she realized, she had no idea who she was.

[Nohiki]

"Kiruza... KIRUZA!" shouted the android, trying to make the crewman snap out of it's sleepy state. Ariaka abandoned the control console and went to aid the Shis. "What is your name, who are you, do you remember?" she asked, worried that the long stasis might have had some unforeseen side effects. It was only then when she saw the full arc of the hibernation chamber. Over 90% of the pods were dark, with only the red "malfunction" sign shining over their panels. Most of the crew is dead. "Bummer." said the android for herself.

[Awesomoman]

Under a pile of machinery and chunks of metal, a being of flesh and metal sleeps, unintentionally of course. Slowly he regained consciousness to a crushing darkness. Words suddenly appeared.
>Scanning armor...
>All functions operating.
>Scanning personnel...
>Major head trauma detected.
>Medical distress signal sending.
Without thinking he simply said "Override. activate regular vision." The words disappeared and his helmet switched to normal viewing. There was metal and junk all around him, there was only one way he figured to get out of this, he punched a hole through it all and cleared everything away from him. His surroundings were about the same as what he had just broken out of, but he had bigger problems, he didn't know who or where he was.

[Morty]

Kiruza reeled, her serpentine form doubling over in pain. She latched on to the unfamiliar robot gratefully, not wasting time being picky about her choice of crutch. "Nkishhhh rtragal... Iisshhon ku.." she rasped, her own voice sounding strange to her. She did not realize it was because it returned to her in her own tongue; the mechanical human voice she was unaware she was used to was nowhere to be heard. The familiar sensation of ice-locked joints awakened her instinct to seek an IV drip; dragging herself to the chemical storage she picked out the container with the familiar name and set about preparing the IV that would return her systems to normal. She diagnosed herself expertly without knowing why; thoracic fluid pump brittle, best not touch it until the IV does its work. Lightheadedness, check. Headache.. Check. Her attention turned to the rest of the cryogenic chambers, the red glow of the pod stat screens leaving nothing to the imagination. They were dead. Kiruza allowed herself a moment of shock, dull horror doing nothing to alleviate her confusion. She was certain they were dead, and that she was terrified, but she had no idea what was going on. She turned to the robot. It had mentioned a name? Her basic memory matched the language it has spoken with one she knew, and she tried to communicate, doing her best to enunciate clearly. The sound rattled out like air being let out of a tire. "Hhhh..Huu-at hhaahhened?"

[Nohiki]

It took a second for Ariaka to realize what the shis said. "It's allright, you're on a ship, slept in stasis for quite some time. Unfortunately we came under series of attacks and the pod chamber was damaged. Most of the crew is dead and you seem to have amnesia. Tell me, are you alright and do you remember how to operate this?" the android said and pointed to the control console, trying to bring the stasis specialist in Kiruza out of the void so she could respond to a distress call she received.

[Morty]

The Shis nodded dazedly. "Ohkay." she replied distractedly, choosing words she could pronounce. Her memory still clouded. A ship? A spaceship. She tried to remember what occasion she had to embark on a spaceship, but it was no use. The android was right. Her memory was almost completely gone. She did remember how to perform what she robot had just requested, however. Thankfully her training, presuming she'd had any, still stuck. She managed to shuffle over to the control screen, IV drip in tow. Her beetle-like hands hovered over the holographic keyboard. "Iss gone." she intoned as the medical blinker disappeared from the screen. "Lohcate last dissstresss callh." she ordered clearly. The computer responded, pinpointing the location of the truncated signal. "Zissualize?" she attempted, groaning as the computer refused her command. If only she had her translator.. Of course! Now she remembered; a brief flash of her stripping herself of electronics before.. Before what? That part was still a blur. She slinked over to the place she remembered putting it; the compact electronic translator was still where she left it, in a compartment near her stasis pod. She equipped it and returned to the console. "Computer, visualize area of distress signal." said the clipped mechanical voice, and the console screen sprung to life. The caved-in wreck of the military bunkers flickered to life on her screen, bisected by buckling metal struts and obscured by the fallen slab of ceiling that blocked the rest of the hallway. "Oh." Well, that was another one dead. The call must have been cut short when the ceiling fell in. Kiruza backed away from the monitor and assessed the rest of the stasis pods. Her first duty was to awaken the rest of the crew, but she needed to gather information about their situation first. She set the stasis chambers to defrost. That would give her enough time to explore some of the ship before she would be needed. The android was the only intelligent construct in range, for now. "How badly is the ship damaged?" she asked, wondering how much time they had left. "Why were we attacked?"

[Nohiki]

"I can't remember. I was only activated when the ship already went critical and the autopilot failed." said Ariaka, "I took some damage myself, i know what profession you do and your name but that's about it. One of our shield emmiters is gone, our hull is minced meat. I can repair it but i need the surviving crew to watch the bridge. Will you be allright? I have to investigate a distress call, it seems like a marine." she said, "Oh and call me Ariaka if you'd like."

[Awesomoman]

The marine saw a door partially uncovered and figured it was his best bet out of here. He grabbed the only metal beam leaning on it and pulled it out of the way. It made a clear way to the door but he almost fell over in the process, his head was causing him so much pain it was hard to keep balance. That wasn't going to stop him though, he stumbled over to the door and held tight to the frame around it. First kick, didn't seem to do much to the door. Second kick, a dent started to appear. Third was the charm, the steel door went flying off. The marine let go of the frame, leaving it crushed where he was holding. Walking out he started stumbling again until he finally just fell over.

[Kauria]

The ship shuddered, and one of the stasis tanks' occupants slit her brown eyes open. It was silent. Apart from the bubbles that trickled from the edges of her breathing mask, all she could see was an indistinct red glow outside the tank. That, some instinct told her, was a bad sign. Something was wrong. Distantly, she was thankful her thoughts came so slowly. It was harder to panic when still mostly comatose.
Another revelation seeped into her mind, and it made her blood run cold in a way that had nothing to do with the freezing solution around her.
She had no idea who she was.

[Nohiki]

Ariaka looked on the yellow blip on one of the pods: "Another one!" she shouted and went to the pod, seeing as the inhabitant might need help like the other did, trusting the Shis with the computer. She waited for the pod to empty and open, ready to catch the being inside if it needed support.

[Awesomoman]

The man didnt stay to rest, he pushed himself off of the ground. He found he had just broken into a main hallway, perfect, there would have to be a map somewhere here to help guide people. Unfortunately with the power being almost gone, none of the monitors were working properly and all he found were blurry screen. But one thing caught his eye, a door was still operational. He walked over and looked at the sign above it. CRYO CHAMBERS. Without hesitation he walked in, the doors opening to his movement. The room looked messed up just like the others, only difference was there were survivors. A Shis and a robot, one appeared to be waiting for another pod to open. He approached them and asked, "Any of you require aid?"

[Nohiki]

"Looks like you do. Come over here." said the android, preparing the medpack she had from earlier, taking a disinfection and bandaid out of it. "Please tell me you remember what the ship is and what is it urpose, because nobody in this room does. Who are you?"

[Kauria]

The liquid in the tank drained, and the respiratory mask gurgled as it sucked uselessly at the air. The humanoid who wore it reached up and pulled it off, taking her first rattling breath of air. No longer buoyed by the solution, her feet brushed the bottom of the tank, and she hooked her claws on the grate for support. The liquid gone, the tank opened with a hiss, and the female Ceretai had barely managed to climb out of it before she collapsed forward, limbs shaking.

[Awesomoman]

The marine pulled his helmet off and walked over, half of his face was covered with blood. He shook his head, "I'm sorry but i don't even remember what date it is....wait." Looking at his shoulder plates he saw a symbol and some sort of metals that were familiar to him. "It would seem I'm a Lieutenant." Just then the pod opened to reveal a Ceretai. "Whoa, careful." He said grabbing her as she fell. "Please tell there was a least a medic here that survived, most of us need one."