Chapter 1: Survival instincts

[Morty]

"Who knows, perhaps this exchange is essential to the expansion of our memory database. I did hear the word 'federation', and that seems to be important. The newcomer may know more about our current situation than we do." she said, the tinny inflections of her voice giving her a very mechanical air. "What's in the bag?" she asked, curiously.

[Awesomoman]

"An assortment of various weapons and ammo. I pretty much just picked up anything that looked like you guys could hold and fire without hurting yourselves. Figure if we need to defend ourselves its better to be over prepared, plus they're good for hunting if you don't use the big guns and shoot half of the meat off." He replied calmly.

[Zetherus]

Tal'set shook his head in annoyance. "Like I said before. I don't know where or who this ship belongs to. It could belong to a group of mad individuals that was trying to destroy or create some type of bio-weapon. All I know is that this ship looks more dangerous then an exploding battle ship with you still in it! Anything else you know is more then me." Tal'set explained before he noticed two others outside the shuttle.

"So what does this planet's structures you're talking about look like?" Tal'set stood up and began examining the structures on the computer screen. "That could be anything...!" He stared closer to the building in the screen hiding his expression under his mask. "That can't be. Why it looks like ,like, Zenith. That building is... What!" He mumbled the planets name under his breath one more time then sat back down in his seat in silence.

[Kauria]

Rucha followed Tal'set's gaze to the two others outside the shuttle. "Thought I saw someone out there," she muttered, leaning out. "Hey! You two coming or what?"
She settled back into her chair just in time to hear the last of Tal'set's words. "Zenith?"

[Nohiki]

"Whatever world that is there are only ruined cities now. I didn't pick up any presence of a power source, though i have extreme anomalies in heat on the surface. Some areas are 20 or more kelvins hotter than others, and it is not because of volcanic activity. Might be something to explore if you'd like." said the Android, calling out for everybody to get in. She then typed few more commands. "I'll leave the shuttle with you in case the weather get's bad. I don't assume you are gonna be attacked but if you do, the shuttle is relatively easy to handle. Left stick is throttle and strafe, right is classic pitch-yaw-bank. I'll have a drone give me a tow back on the ship." she said just as one of the machines appeared waiting for the shuttle on the outside.

[Awesomoman]

"Well then i think its time for us to go." Lance headed over to the shuttle and pushed his bag over to a seat in the middle and sat down, eagerly waiting for take off.

[Morty]

"Right, of course." said Kiruza, ducking into the shuttle. She coiled herself on one of the spacious back seats and strapped herself in, with a bit of difficulty. Her kind were a bit difficult to tailor for, she was well aware.

[Midnightmoon]

Lee squirmed when the IV was attached, "He- ugh, fine." Then when the thing took off to explore the room he had just left and then exited down the hall before he could order his thoughts. "Hey! You didn't answer my question!" He called after it, but it seemed to not hear him. Drooping he glanced at the IV then the data pad. Seeing as he wouldn't be going anywhere very fast he leaned up against the wall and said to it, "Fine then, you tell me." It didn't respond. Pressing the button he had pressed before he tried again, "Status." Blip-bloop-ing to life it spouted in a monitone voice details on the condition of the ship, which was in bad shape, the crew, which was drastically depleted, then it gave a current update of the sittuation. Then the IV clicked and stopped dripping liquid.

"Finally!"Carefuly yanking the thing out he jogged down the hall and took the first turn he saw the alien head down, continueing down that passage. "Hhm, shuttle location?" Bleep-blip. A little skimatic map showed up on the screen. "Right." Glancing at the map Lee had a fealing of reconition, but he still had to glance at the screen every once and a while. Finally he reached the shuttle bay. "Hey, ya, thanks for waiting up." He said with a glance of annoyance at the long alien that stuck him with the IV. Before he got into the ship though he ran over to a locker of sorts. He remembered reading in the items list that some of the stuff would be here. Unlocking it he grabbed the two bags and threw them over one shoulder, he'd look at the items later. Running over he jumped into the shuttle, climbing in behind the pilots seat. After quickly clipping in he pressed the silence button on the data pad before asking, "Now can I have someone who isn't a small brick of circutes tell me what's going on? I had to have this thing tell me who I was." He asked waving his arm with the data pad.

[Nohiki]

"If a BIG brick of circuits will suffice, i'll be happy to." said Ariaka, flipping a switch on the overhead panel. "All aboard, closing hatch. Make sure your safety belts are fastened and that all equipment is in the lockers. We don't want stuff flying around when we hit atmosphere." she noticed as the door in the back of the shuttle closed with loud hissing. "Launch in 15, 14, ... 3 ..." The engines ignited and went full throttle, "2, 1, MARK!" the electromagnetic catapult flung the shuttle out of the bay. "ETA 30 minutes, atmospheric entry in 20 minutes. Now ask away noobie." she said while sending Lee his profile, along with sending all other profiles to Rucha as she requested. Ariaka cut the engines and used the thrusters to rotate the shuttle 90°. "In the starboard windows you can see the ship you all woke up on, the Croatoan." she started, knowing most of the crew already know most of what she's gonna tell but at least it'll kill some of those 20 minutes. "Ship is approximately one click long, main propulsion being three ion drives located on the rear. The big gray things in the center and on the front is the landing gear, pending investigation and possible return to active duty. That would require us to find fuel for the boosters however. As you probably noticed we launched from the drone bay which is the long tube on the side. We currently have sixty working combat drones with parts to build 30 more which are being kept for repairs. Tle large thing on the top is our main cannon which is, unfortunately, stuck in long range dispersion mode, making it effectively useless for combat. Our main weapons thus become the beam cannons on the front." the android reported and then turned the shuttle back to it's heading.

"On the inside news, so far we have not determined the ship's or our origin. To the best of our knowledge, we are pursued by federation forces, the nature of our enemy unknown. As are it's reasons. From what i can guess, they still think the ship is flying autopilot, though our last engagement might have caused them to reconsider. It might be worth the effort to try and contact them, IF they can find us ever again." she summarized.
The sensors bleeped right into her face. "There is is again, heat anomaly on the surface. Magnify!" she instructed the computer, but saw nothing of interest. "Hopefully those are just geysers." she said and paid no attention to it further.

"Contact!" shouted Ariaka, "Hold your lunches!" as the shuttle slammed against the atmosphere, shaking and rumbling.

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End
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