Chapter 3: Encounter

[Morty]

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Chapter 3: Encounter
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SOMEWHERE IN SPACE....

You are a member of an alien species. You and four others awoke on the interstellar spacecraft known as the CROATOAN with no memory of your lives or your past selves before your awakening. As far as you know, you are perhaps the last survivors aboard this kilometer-long vessel drifting through space, with only the clues the ship's heavily damaged facilities and your own fragmented memories to help you remember your pasts.
Moments ago you escaped from a hostile planet while on a mission to the surface to get supplies. You and your comrades are gathered in the landing bay aboard the Croatoan, having just exited the shuttle after an exceptionally bumpy emergency exit. What will you do?

[Awesomoman]

--> Get ye flask.

[Zetherus]

Tal'set walked slowly down the corridor showing his anger by punching the wall on his right. He walked toward the landing bay where his jet fighter is so he could recycle his sniper riffle rounds he used for nothing. "I can't believe that I wasn't able to at least enter the first room of my ancestor's defense center." He spoke to himself until he heard a loud screeching of steal then a very loud "BOOM" as if something massively heavy fell off of something. Tal'set backed himself against the left wall pulling out his handgun and aimed it at the door he recently just passed. He was alone in the corridor with no one else around and the odd noise began to worsen. "It might just be one of the androids that I saw earlier." He holstered his handgun and as soon as he began walking again the door he was aware of made a loud "DINK" as if someone on the other side just took a hundred fifty pound sledge hammer to the thing.

At that moment he started to hear a weird growl of voices that sounded like a incomprehensible language that could break your neck from trying to speak it. "That is no android!" He said as he without hesitation lifted up his comm-link and tried to contact the bridge but the mic was being jammed and the slamming on the door stopped when he activated it. Tal'set ripped his mic off of his arm and ran down the corridor and pulled out his riffle when he ran around the corner for cover. He peaked around the corner to see if the slamming would return but it had not. He turned to look down the corridor he had took cover behind then to his gun pulling out the clip and saw five rounds left in it. When he wasn't paying attention at the time. The door he had a bad feeling about suddenly bent open and a huge figure standing thirteen feet tall that was wearing armor of ancient origin rushed to Tal'set's comm-link and grabbed it. When Tal'set was about to get a glimpse of the thing it jumped into the ceiling leaving a hole leading to the upper locked labs.

[Midnightmoon]

When they got back to the ship the first thing Lee did was locate his sleeping quarters via the data pad. When there he made a bee line to the bathroom, to wash up. The sap from the vines that had assulted them had hardened into a stong stiff substance that he had a hard time just chipping off his claws and he didn't dare try his blade, it felt disrespectful to the weapon. He took off his data pad setting it to the side and rolled up his sleeves. Nothing looked familiar. There were a few personal belongings that looked like they could be his, or at least his race, but nothing concrete that brought back any memories. Hooking his claws under the lever and pulling it up the water started streaming out the bottom. Lee found himself hesitating before dunking his hands under the hot water, reaching for the bottle beside it and slopping the mixture into his hands. After a few minutes of struggling and scrubbing he got most of the sap off. "Scan the ship, status report." Lee told the data pad. <<SCANNING... DATA RECEIVED... DATA INCOMPLETE...>> "Report." <<SHIP AT MINIMUM OPERATIONAL CAPACITY. SEVERAL COMPONENTS INCOMPASITATED, REPARE REQUIRED ASAP.>> During this Lee had started to clean the blade. "What about the casualty in the... lab." <<...UNKNOWN...>> Now Lee said nothing.

When he was finished with the blade he slammed the button down and cut the water flow, backing away from the liquid. Turning he looked at the pack with the tools in it. "Locate the most extensive sensor damage." <<... LOCATED...>> Lee grabbed the bags, flinging one over his shoulder and the other around his waist and headed for the door.

[Zetherus]

Tal'set walked up to the bent open door and saw the large hole that lead to a unknown floor of the ship not far from the door's entrance. He wasn't going to follow it for the act would be foolish to go alone. He looked to where he tossed his comm-link and saw it wasn't there. Instead he saw the ships fire alarm button near the destroyed door and went for it until the loud screeching of steal came back then the grate under his feat shook from something behind him landing on it. At this moment Tal'set had things running through his mind on what would happen to him.

He jumped forward down corridor to where the shuttle was and rolled from fear then looked behind him looking right into the giant shadowy figure's blood thirsty eyes. It started growling out a voice while it stood there staring at Tal'set. "VOL LUM KNOK TIEL FUIL SLUSEM XALTFOK." The creature charged at Tal'set letting out a deafening growl that echoed through out the ship. Tal'set yelled out "F*CK!" as the creature chased him down the hallway making the grate shake violently as he ran. The creature was gaining on him. Tal'set pulled out his handgun and started shooting the thing while his riffle rested in his left hand. The pulse rounds of Tal'set's gun were ricocheting off of the intruder's armor.

[Midnightmoon]

With his goggles back on Lee found the damage no problem; it was in the lab he woke up in. When he entered the room he found the body still there. Putting the sachel down by her he first went over to his pod. The doors were still open and the mask hung at the side. A further examination gave him insight on why he couldn't breath when he woke up; the side of the pod was damaged, puncturing the tube that then threaded into his pod. So in the end no oxygen got to him through the mask but the damage to the pod allowed air to leak in. Moving away from the pod he turned in a circle to look at all the other damage. "Harung-ga... how in the world am I to fix all this? Ugh." He went back to the body. Sitting back on his honches he looked her over, not daring to touch her to roll her over. "Identify." <<IDENTIFY WHAT?>> "Identify personelle in the lab." <<...IDENTIFIED. PERSONEL LE-HILA, RACE: LALUNGIL, OCCUPATION: MECHANIC... >>

[Nohiki]

When Ariaka made it to the hangar, the two most enigmatic crewmen were already gone again. "where do those two always vanish?" she asked the remaining people. "Is everyone unharmed? Looked pretty rough on the video. If so, follow me, i have a surprise i think you'll like." she said with a smile.

-> Assign everyone the refurbished quarters on the deck below the bridge. Make your guys comfortable

[Awesomoman]

Lance --> Thanks Ariaka and heads straight for his quarters.

Lance got out of the shuttle and nodded, "Thank you, this was quiet a trip." He grabbed the gun bag and dropped it off near the bridge on his way. When he arrived he walked into a room with his name over it. He only noticed two things when he walked in, a weapon rack on which he quickly put up his sword and H9, and his bed which he instantly crashed on. After a head wound, a massive blast, and a plant attack, he was ready to rest and keep himself ready for the next challenge.

[Nohiki]

Ariaka was walking back to the bridge. She noticed that it took her 1.5 seconds longer than usual. If you are a human, you won't notice, but as a machine, that becomes an alarming anomaly. She sat down in her chair and ran a system check. To her alarm, her suspicion was correct - her processors were working only at 97% capacity. She didn't think it would be hardware degradation. Not this soon. She thought that interfacing with the ship will help her solve the problem, but if it was software malfunction, she could infect the ship and that wasn't a good idea. Instead she decided to use the machine in the armory. However, before she made it all the way, she lost control of her right leg. At this point it was clear. Somehow she was infected with a virus. She thought it might have been during the fight with federation drones, or perhaps Tal'Set wasn't as friendly as he claimed to be. That was the least of her worries right now. She couldn't contact the others through wireless because the virus could spread through the transmission. In desperation, she jumped over to the ship's intercom, but before she could contact anyone, her other leg refused to obey her as well and she fell down to the ground. She tried to shout for help, but only bleeping came out of her mouth. At this point she understood that the virus threatened her survival. The only way to protect herself was to cut her data storage from the neural network. She loaded as much essential information to her RAMs and severed the connection. It wasn't much, but it sufficed for a few directives, among them indication of no hostiles on the ship and necessity to restore at the armory, not from the ship's terminals. As the rest of her body was shutting down to prevent further infection, she heard terrible growls and running, both getting closer. Great... she thought, already within standby mode. With any luck, whatever that was will consider her inactive and just pass by.

[Zetherus]

Tal'set was running for his life now that his gun had no effect on the intruder. It was now close enough to reach out and try to grab the fleeing Merc. At the end of the corridor, the walkway turned to the right just after the shuttle leading toward Ariaka's direction. The turn was sharp, too sharp, enough that when the sprinting Anero'nolmi met the harsh corner he toppled and ran full force into Lance's room door. The creature was right on top of him grabbing Tal'set by the neck and chucked him like a rag doll toward the infected droid still lying on the grate. Tal'set hit the wall with such force that the wall he hit bent into a power coupling causing a small ion blast which caused the alarm to go off in the sector. He lied down next to the droid he saw earlier and wondered why it wasn't moving. It was only a brief second before the intruder started charging after Tal'set again. He stood up grabbing the droid so that she wouldn't get crushed by the intruder and began running once more to get to a large enough area to drop off the droid and face this thing.

OCC: If you're are going to attack then I'd recommend to use a plan to trap it first! Don't go fighting it in close quarters. THIS THING IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!!!

[Nohiki]

Intruder alert
System check
Powering up
Engaging combat control unit
ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE

"Wait... No no no no no! What are you doing? Stop!" yelled Ariaka from the inside, but was unable to do anything as she deliberately locked herself out of her body's systems. That had an unfortunate unforeseen side effect of shifting the control back to the original computer present in the android. The robot body freed itself from Tal'Set's grab and ran forwards to the nearest Arm's locker. To her relief, this also meant that the virus was somewhere in her motion control, as the original systems were unaffected. She focused on that area and started to purge it from the virus.

The android body came out again with a minigun armed with explosive rounds. The glow substituting eyes that was normally blue now shone in dark crimson. Ariaka gasped inside as she saw on the HUD that both Tal and the big ugly thing were marked as targets. She could do nothing but count on the merc's suspicion however. The gun begun to spin and shortly after, exploding rounds started pouring into the hallway at 600 shots per minute.

[Zetherus]

Tal'set felt the droid struggle then drop from his arms. It then ran to a nearby gun locker and pulled out a massive multi-barreled cannon. "No, don't even try to shoot it. The bullets just bounce off!" He yelled to the droid before it aimed the cannon at him. Tal'set just stopped raising his hands to not be shot at by the monstrous gun aiming at him and the intruder. At that moment Tal'set didn't care about the thirteen foot juggernaut behind him but the cannon loaded with explosive rounds rotating it's barrels at his direction. The massive being grabbed Tal'set like a caveman on steroids then turned it's back to the cannon attempting to rip Tal'set in half by grabbing him by his left leg and right arm with each hand. As Tal'set tried to free himself he heard the cannon go off. The dark passage was then lit up by the cannon revealing the intruder's appearance.( 1.bp.blogspot.com/-rF3JeDVKDq0/Tu-dX65JdLI/AAAAAAAACs4/nMSpSktjRRY/s1600/godmode+daryl+mandryk+concept+futuristic+soldier+exo+suit+combat+armor+mech+mecha+gattling+gun+cannon+snow+warrior+sci+fi.JPG ) The Cannon's fire started to explode everything that was in sight including the ancient warrior. The bullets of the cannon were so strong that the intruder went flying all the way back at the end of the corridor with Tal'set. Tal'set pulled his knife out and cut the intruder's face to free himself. The attack sort of succeeded only because the berserker has let go of him when the droid shot him.

Tal'set got up and grabbed his riffle laying near the door he ran into where the berserker had tossed him from. When he got his riffle the ancient warrior had already began to try and grab his feet. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTddJvFXbDE
He ran into the shuttle bay seeing a hundred foot wide clear area well lighted while he heard the berserker's feat stomping running up behind him. Tal'set turned switching magazines in the processes then started to shoot the being in the chest actually leaving small dents into his thick armor. The warrior lunged at Tal'set with a war-blade appearing from his wrist. Tal'set got cut across the chest when he tried to step out of the way of the attack. He then ran at the wall far from the intruder to avoid he from grabbing him. The berserker recovered and charged at the fleeing Merc heading toward the wall. He was already at arms length with the evader. Tal'set jumped at the wall then pushed himself off launching him through the air upside down above the the advancer. At that moment everything in Tal'set's eyes were going in slow motion. He pulled out his knife and jabbed it in the berserker's collar area causing blood to run down his ancient armor. The advancer grabbed Tal'set's knife and pulled it out showing no pain as a halo appeared above his head and immediately started to close the wounds and repair the dents in his armor. "What does it take to at least stop this thing from moving if I can't injure it." Said Tal'set to himself holding the cut in his chest as he started to back up if the enemy where to advance again.

[Nohiki]

"gotcha little bugger!" said Ariaka as she finished repairs to her system and plugged herself back into control. By now the gun was out of ammo. She turned 360°and tossed the cannon on the intruder, aiming for one of the spots where the armor was thinnest. The two ran off and she followed. "Hangar bay?" said Ariaka for herself and a smile appeared on her face. She went to the side room and started messing with the controls. In few seconds, the drones stored there converted into ground mode, their energy weapons aimed at the intruder. "If explosion or impact cannot harm it, fine by me, but everything can melt given enough time." she said and instructed the drones to fire.

[Midnightmoon]

<<IDENTIFIED. PERSONEL ARIadne AKAni, RACE: EARTHLING, HUMAN, OCCUPATION: MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE- ERROR, ACCESS DENIED>> "What?! you give me that much then-" Lee didn't finish what he was saying because he suddenly heard a lot of shooting echoing through the ship. Ears flicking forward in interest then back in unease he grabbed his bag once again. Exiting the room quickly he tried to figure out what was going on. "Can you give me a visual of the disturbance." The screen went black then flickered through a series of different images before settling on Ariaka the pilot of the scouter and a small pack of drones. "What's with the big dude?!" he said through the ships comm.

[Zetherus]

The berserker threw Tal'set's knife into the smooth metal floor sticking the sharp blade into it like the floor were a piece of wood. He turned around and stared at the Merc with a deadly glare ignoring the droids that appeared behind him. As the droids heard the attack from Ariaka and began firing at him, his shields were reflecting the energy based weapons back at them destroying them with their own guns. He then made this weapon appear from a weird projector on his right shoulder. The weapon was massive, it was like a huge rocket launcher but something odd about it's design. It had the same purple glowing canister, but larger and more bulkier looking then Tal'set's, that lined from the bottom of the barrel swirling in dark energy. At this moment Tal'set was staring the menacing weapon down when it then activated making a loud humming that yet to worsen more into a glass crushing , electric popping noise. The gun started to emit a small black hole the size of a BB in the barrel that began sucking the air around it. The ancient being then aimed the BFG right at Tal'set smiling as the gun charged the canister to a bright violet light. Tal'set stared right into the face of death until he lowered his riffle and raised his left arm at the ceiling clenching his fist making his cylinders glow just as bright. "So you can resist energy based weapons, but I bet you can't survive in space! Well of course we will both die if one of us go blasting off our weapons and this whole sector will go to hell if I do so I dare you to fire. You will go first because you don't have a re-breather like I do." He took a few steps forward to show that he was serious. The ancient berserker's smile had just disappeared when he saw the device. He lowered his cannon then deactivated it making the BB sized black hole explode into a three foot wide shock wave and the humming suddenly died out. He dropped his gun then lunged at Tal'set growling out the same ancient language. "HUME VOKE KILJ." Tal'set shrugged when he saw the charging giant. "Exactly where I want ya!" To Tal'set's left he knew that a huge open containment crate that looked as if it were constructed to hold a massive war droid would be perfect to trap the berserker in.

Tal'set strife jumped to the being's right just out of the way of the attack and then lunged at his side slamming the cylindered device into his left ribcage. Tal'set's device made a eight foot wide pulse shock wave that launched the berserker into the direction of the crate successfully making him land inside. Tal'set screamed in pain as his left arm just broke in five different locations in his whole arm. He held his arm for only a few seconds before he brought up enough strength to ignore the pain then rush to the crate to attempt and lock the dazed warrior inside. He started to press random buttons on a small padlock on the left side of the crate near the lid and successfully closed the thing before the berserker realized what he was in. Tal'set collapsed then fell to the ground when he realized that he was running off of pure adrenaline when he had lost tons of blood from the cut and pain from the broken bones. There he laid passed out next to the crate with his left arm in a "S" like form laying next to him.