Chapter 4: Borderline

[Nohiki]

"That bad, huh?" said an old man with a white coat on him, "Cryo chamber." he explained to the guard, "Take him to the spaceport's facility, now. Tel my assistant what race is he and what happened to him, i'll go see if we have a room free." said the doctor and started walking, calling another assistant. "I could have sworn that was ambassador Coren." the old doctor noticed. "All the Ceretai look the same to me. I have trouble distinguishing their males and females." the assistant opposed. "I suppose you're right. Find me a free op table." he said and vanished in his office.

Ariaka linked the internal sensors feed to her, keeping an eye on her guest at all times, while she armed herself and started miking her way towards the main cannon. The ship was making a lot of creepy noises in that area, ranging from ventilators running in slow revolutions to screeching of metal being torn. Ariaka took her stunner and pushed herself against the wall. She quickly stormed around a corner. Nothing. What is going on? she thought as she noticed some disturbingly high activity of her body, judging from it'S sudden increase in power consumption. Another plate gave way and a high pitch noise cut through the area. Ariaka ducked in a corner. Several warnings popped up on her HUD. Then she felt the ship shake. a man ran from around a corner, his clothes on fire. After few feet, he dropped down, dead. Ariaka jumpd out of her cover and ran for the bridge, as she heard a message from an intercom, telling her that they have been hit and her area is venting atmosphere. The hallway behind her then begun to crumple and explode. She quickly pulled the emergency lever on the bulkhead, sealing the compartment. Then her vision shifted. The light was gone, and the door she could swear she just shut was wide open. "Another memory?" she said for herself, her hands shaking with fear.

[Kauria]

"All right." Rucha ducked back into the shuttle and lowered her voice back into English. "Kiruza, I have no idea how to move this guy without breaking him, so you're either gonna have to teach us how or do it yourself. Also, I have no idea what he is, so you're probably on your own there, too." A thought occurred to her and she paused. "You could understand what people were saying just then, right?"

[Morty]

Kiruza nodded. "It should not be difficult to move him with the cart, but I should accompany you nonetheless. Perhaps if we meet another Shis I can ask them about.. about.." Kiruza trailed off, remembering the state of her planet. How long had it been destroyed? Why? Would her presence be suspicious, considering, for all she knew, her species could be extinct? "Miss Coren, I have something to disclose." she said urgently, her gaze flicking to the human in the helmet, hoping he couldn't understand. "I.. may not be welcome here. My planet no longer exists. I do not know how or why this happened, but it may be that my presence will arouse suspicion. I am unsure of how to proceed." she admitted, eyes pale, her tail fanning worriedly.

[Kauria]

"damn, hadn't thought of that." She'd read Kiruza's profile, seen what it'd said, yet she had failed to consider how a past loss could be a future obstacle. She hadn't even thought of how it must have been for the Shis, to learn that she'd never have a chance to go home, even to one she couldn't remember.
You stupid, inconsiderate— Rucha shook her head. They couldn't risk splitting their small group even more.
So she dropped the pressure on someone else.
"Lance? Ideas?"

[Awesomoman]

Lance wasn't expecting to be part of the planning comity but it seemed they were short on ideas. "Well, I could say you being with us is confidential military business. Then you would have to be allowed in with no questions asked. But then again that all depends on if these people are friends with the Empire. If not....Well then were in even more trouble than we could have imagined." Lance realized he was still in his power armor meaning there was no way of hiding him being an Imperial marine. And since they obviously knew where the shuttle was it would be even harder to hide the weapons they brought. This could turn really bad really fast.

[Nohiki]

Ariaka was slowly making progress through the ship. The farther she went, the more damage she noticed. The structure of the ship was relatively untouched, but there was no power. The thought that her 'memories' now came to her as hallucinations was haunting her. She couldn't shake the feeling that she's gonna sleepwalk right into the airlock and blow herself away. Carefully she opened a bulkhead ahead of her, and all the wind rushed out into space, as she figured out what was wrong with the main cannon. Half of it's base was missing, and the barrel was just hanging down on few cables. "So much for that idea." she said for herself.

[Kauria]

"Best chance we've got. This is a fringe world, so chances might be that no one even knew Kiruza's planet was gone." Rucha winced. "Not to sound harsh, of course. If we're confronted, we go with Lance's plan, and if we're caught, I'm not sticking my neck out for the sniper. We leave him and hightail it out of this system. Don't offer any information unless asked."
She checked the time. "We've got less than three hours until we have to check in with Ariaka." She had no idea how long an hour was, but it had apparently taken one of them to get here.
"Lance, could I just go through the weapons quickly? I've got room for a second gun, and this one only shoots bullets."

[Morty]

Kiruza bobbed her anterior end hesitantly, not minding the mention of her planet. She still wasn't so sure this was a good idea. Still, they had an injured crew-member to take care of, and duty came first. She was not terribly adverse to the notion of abandoning their torpid payload, however. It would be a shame if they got themselves killed on account of this strange pilot. "Then let's not waste any time." she said, taking charge of the insensate Anero'nolmi and rigging the cryogenic fluids to their cart. "....Perhaps I should arm myself, aswell..." she said doubtfully, skeptical of her own skills armed combat.

[Nohiki]

"So?" asked the Guard, visiting a customs office, "Is it a match?"
"Hold on a second, Jesus!" barked the lady at the monitor.
The computer was running through several photos of various Shis. "I have one, 69% chance. That is not enough. You're gonna have to get a DNA sample." she said. The guard nodded and pressed a button on his Link: "Doctor? Why don't you offer the quests something to drink while you patch their wounded guy up? Make sure to keep the glasses." After a second of silence, a response came: "Got it."

"Right this way!" said the Doctor, waving at the party. Several nurses ran in and took Tal'Set from them, vanishing in the op room. "This will take a while. Why don't you go down a level and grab something to eat? You look exhausted. Also, please take this. We call it quarantine. It is a mild antibiotic, should prevent you from falling victim to some local mutation of any disease you might not have antibodies for. Come check in an hour, we'll see if we're finished here." the doctor said, putting on a coat and rubber gloves, then he left as well.

[Zetherus]

Keilumtol was almost done with his generator. The last part was the core itself so he retrieved it out of his left shoulder compartment and placed the glowing teal sphere into the machine. He closed the hatch by pressing multiple buttons which activated the Pulse Generator. "Awe there we go! This time if it overheats it will simply shut itself off, now to test it?" He grabbed the linking cable from his chest and hooked up the ports into it's circuitry. The commando turned on the device by pressing a few buttons on his wrist computer and instantly it began to work like a dream. The device activated with a simple growl then into a slight humming noise as it already brought his armor's power capacity up to 25%. The V.I beeped, "Armor power source has achieved 25%, one forth of it's full compatible level. Designated time to charge the armor's reactors to the fullest will take an estimated fifteen minutes!" Keilumtol grabbed a nearby stool and sat down carefully observing the newly built machine then contacted Ariake of his progress. "Captain I have fully finished rebuilding my generator! Permission to search the ship of unwanted material and possible repairs after fifteen minutes of this contact? My first place of interest is the hanger bey that me and the mercenary had fought in?" The giant left his wrist computer on standby for an answer as he rested his hand on his knee still studying the device.

[Nohiki]

Unfortunately, Ariaka was in the part of the ship that lost power and the intercom wasn't working. She made her way further into the ship. There was nothing interesting, mostly quarters with floating corpses where the gravity failed. Ariaka wasn't particularly happy with her solution, but she simply left them where they were. As much as the thought was terrible, those guys can wait. She finally stumbled upon what she was searching for. "Stasis chamber 2. Finally." she said for herself and pulled out a plasma torch. In five minutes, she was through the door. There was no atmosphere in the room, so waking up the possible survivors was not an option. She walked in and cleaned the glass on one of the pods that was lit up. "An.... Ant?" she said quizzically for herself and studied the pod further. Unfortunately, they were hardwired to the wall, just like in the other room. She opened the pannel below and checked the pwoer levels on the pod. Fortunately, there was enough power to sustain the people inside for several years. That led her to another idea. She stripped few wires off the wall in the corridor and hooked up the pod's power source to a nearby console. "Ariaka to bridge, anyone read me?" she said to the intercom, hoping she wasn't too far from the comm relay.

[Kauria]

Rucha took the glass by the rim, awkwardly supporting it between her fingertips. "Down a level . . ." She glanced down the hallway and took a sip of quarantine. "You know, for some reason I was expecting this to taste terrible, but that would be stupid." She adjusted her grip on the glass and picked a direction. "This way, probably?"

[Awesomoman]

Lance quickly reached in and tossed them some weapons (Your pick) to hide before the doctor came. When handed the quarantine he just looked at it. Since he was completely covered in armor he wasn't exposed to even the slightest germ, and his helmet provided a filter which protected him from air born viruses. "It doesn't seem necessary for me to drink this.." Lance set the glass aside and followed Rucha.

[Nohiki]

"The marine is definitely from the New human Empire." said the lady the guard was checking in with. "While technically his presence doesn't endanger us, it is a strange mix of people on that shuttle, i tell you that corporal. Anero'Nolmi makes it even stranger." the operator said, handing him few files labeled 'confidential'. "Get these to the doctor for comparsion." she said, returning to her own business. the guard went away to deliver the materials.

OOC: Zeth, feel free to wake Tal'Set up any time. The sooner the guys are off the planet the better for them

[Zetherus]

Tal'set awoke with much confusion, not knowing where he is, he brought his right hand to his face and rubbed his eyes of his blurred vision. The mercenary sat up alarmed as if he was still fighting the creature on the Croatoan but noticed he was wearing nothing but a thin white overcoat made of cloth. "What the... Am I dead?" He asked himself as he looked down and saw his entire chest wrapped up in bandages. The next thing he noticed was his left arm wrapped in a hard cast with a metal brace containing nails that were sticking into his arm holding his arm's shattered skeletal structure in place. The nurse came in and gasped dropping a tray of narcotics when she saw him sitting up. She rushed over to him and yelled in surprise, "You need to be more careful with the doctor's work! Just wait and lay down until he comes back then you will be free to do what you want." She said irritated as the doors behind her swung open with the doctor walking through avoiding the calamity on the ground. "It's alright nurse he can move without injuring himself! Now how are you feeling?" He asked the merc as the nurse looked at the doctor and nodded handing him a file. She walked to the door and began to pick up the mess on the floor. "So now then..." He opened the file and studied his patent's file coursing his eyes across the pages. "So your an Anero'nolmi, interesting! Are you feeling any discomfort at all with you injuries?" Tal'set looked at his casted arm and responded, "No, but I am feeling a bit sick though!" The doctor brought up a flashlight and shined it in his eyes then said, "Yeah you lost a lot of blood so we had to fill what ever you lost with a special plasma to keep you from dieing. Your vitals seem to be working just fine so maybe you just might be able to leave today, unless of course you lied to me and your not feeling well!" The mercenary looked around and noticed he couldn't see his armor anywhere. "Hey what did you do to my belongings?" He grunted aggressively when he jerked a muscle in his chest from turning to fast. "Whoa be careful your stuff is in the footlocker over there just we couldn't save your chest plate because it was in the way, so we cut it off to get to that gash in your chest. By the way, what caused this to happen to you?" The doctor said as he pointed out the foot locker in the corner near the door. Tal'set moved to the edge of his bed and sat up with his feat on the floor holding his bandaged chest with his right hand. "Nothing! It was just a ship engine blowing up in my face while I was repairing it." He lied as he tried to not to sound too foolish. "Yeah if it was an explosion your whole body would be damaged not your chest and arm. That cut looks as if it was created by a large flat blade like object! And also why were you using a gun to repair an engine?" Responded the doc as he began to suspect something of this person when he found his handgun still in it's holster on the merc's armor they took off during the procedure. "Look, I'm a mercenary and a mechanic so stop trying to interrogate me on my own terms! I know what happened and I say explosion, now if you don't mind I wish to rejoin my comrades." Spoke Tal'set as he shown frustration in the doctor's questions. The doctor felt like this guy and his friends were hiding something but remained quiet about it as he noticed him getting frustrated. "Alright if your feeling like I'm interrogating you then leave when you feel free. I'm not stopping you just we are a peaceful colony and we don't need any trouble here!" He said as he gathered his things and left the room. When the doors closed though, the doctor headed straight for the authorities not to his office.

The mercenary stood up slowly and walked over to the footlocker in the corner next the door hunching over painfully as he walked. He ducked down on his right knee to opened the container with his uninjured hand and saw his stuff packed in like the doc said, including his armor chest plate they destroyed. Tal'set grabbed everything out of the box and immediately but slowly strapped on his leggings and boots first to cover the exposed areas holstering his handgun when he finished. Next he pulled of the hospital gown and left it on a nearby table replacing his shirtless torso with his yellow cowl he wrapped around his shoulders and head. He carried the rest of his armor like the gauntlets, chest plate, and helmet all bundled up in the hospital gown he wore and carried it like a sack as he walked out the door and into the lobby where the Croatoan gang waited. "Still alive and kicking like the humans say, eh?" He boasted as he walked up to the group expecting a party.