Chapter 5: Lost and stranded

[Nohiki]

Fear. Confusion. Anger. Sadness? What was it about the Lagunil that created such sorrow in her? She barely knew the guy. She purged her mind of any thoughts and fully blended with the ship. Why?[/] That was the question all of the others led to. She realized Lee had to have been awake longer than the others. that is why he actually had any memory of the past outside of training. Of course, that is why they found him in the trashed lab, instead of the cryo chamber like everyone else. Why was he there, and what were they doing with the burned scientist?

A memory flash kicked in, just like she hoped it would. If it only provided some answers. She was seeing a bright ceiling. It was the lab before it got trashed. She only heard one sound, the ship's master alarm. They were being overrun.
"We need to go, NOW." She commanded. Lee's head popped up into her cone of view. "But, the procedure is not read-" "NOW! Hit the damn button and get to your life pod!" She screamed in a high pitch, angered voice. Then she heard the pod close and her mind started to slip away, until finally the explosion swallowed her. Then her mind was blown. the next thing she remembered, she was waking up as herself, unplugging herself from a very complex machine and crawling out of what seemed to be life support tank, heading to armor up and to the bridge. Her suspicion was right.

She accessed her file. She had no doubt that what she thought would be there. She remembered now. Her architecture WAS in fact organic. that explained the concussion like state she suffered after she crashed her drone in the hangar. That explained why the beast could manipulate her. That explained why she was capable of running such advanced AI as herself on such small piece of hardware. And that also meant that fixing her leg will not be that easy, but she had more pressing matters at hand.

She was a monster. She killed so many. In a split second, millions of lives were lost, all because of her. No... she resisted. Not me. SHE did. I was supposed to be her, but i am not. It failed. The monster have been killed. I have my own will. I will not harm them. they are my friends, and i'd die to protect them. she thought with resolution, but then sighed. They must know. For bette ror for worse, they must know, EVERYTHING. She corrected the ship's heading and plotted a stae sourse, disengaged from the Core and started shuffling towards the bridge, wondering what she is going to tell them. HOW she is going to tell them.

[Morty]

Kiruza had just finished putting Lance's blood-soaked armor into the cleaning droid's dextrous hands when the call came from over the intercom.
Luckily, the portable kit she had assembled for treating Lance with was still resting on the counter. She swept it up, gathering a few other things she might need, and raced out of the medical wing.
Her sluggish body caused her to arrive rather late. She appeared on the bridge to find Rucha and an unknown alien crouched around the Lalungil's prone form. "What happened?" she hissed, having expected to find a broken leg, or electrocution burns, but not this. He did not even appear injured.
The large brown spider that had been standing their wringing its hands bobbed nervously. "He was just using one of the consoles when he started screaming! I have no idea what happened." he cried, writhing.
The Shis slithered over, where Rucha was kneeling, to inspect her ailing crewmate. She placed a clawed hand on his throat. His pulse was fine, his temperature normal.. What could have possibly caused this?

[Nohiki]

No. Simulation failed. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. No approach she could thought of worked. Ariaka stopped at the last corner. Should she hide? Disarm the ship, activate distress beacon so the rescue party picks up her friends, take a shuttle, warp away and hide?
She heard Kiruza coming by and stepped back into the shadows to avoid being seen. She peeked from around the corner. Seeing the Shis clueless to how to solve his trouble, she realized that Lee is in need of proper medical facility. This was more serious than they could handle. She turned around and walked away. After minutes of goalless roaming, she wound up in the room where she was activated. She looked at the machine she used to be hung up to with hate. Walking in, she opened the locker that was in there. It only contained an uniform. A very disgusting, overly decorated dark blue uniform. She picked it up and thrown it on the floor in the middle of the room, as she did with any personal possession her progenitor had stored here. When it was all the pile, she set the stuff on fire with her rifle. "Be erased. I am here now, and you're not gonna haunt MY life." she said, watching the flames, though it didn't really made her feel any better.
she sighed and went back, heading for the bridge. walking across the open room, she stepped onto some piece of the broken equipment. she didn't mind. She was apathetic to everything, even the now numerous crew on the bridge. She sat in fron t of the giant window and just stared at the stars.

[Zetherus]

Tal'set was wondering around when he walked through the bridge door to see Ariaka standing in front of the window. He walked up beside the android and stopped staring out the window the same. "So uh, how's it been dispite all this crazy crap happening?" The sniper activating his onboard computer as he spoke to the android. Tal'set turned his body and held his arm out to show the android a huge ship twice the leinth and mass of the Croatoan baring huge hellish like spines and several small ships following beside it on his wrist computer. "I was searching through the data reports of nearby star systems in my fighter when I came across this... It's Dii'Vok. This could be bad if it's following us you know cause the last reports of it's wereabouts was from that planet you had me healed on. Sorry to break it to you Ariaka but that planet is dead now." The Anero'nolmi shut his screen off then started for the door when he stopped a few feat from behind Ariaka. "I'm sort of sure that you might want to keep this a secret from the others and if you want me to explain more then seek me out in my fighter's docking bey." he said as continued through the door and vanished back to his jet in the docking bey.

[Nohiki]

One of the few undamaged consoles on the bridge flared up. Ariaka shuffled towards the panel, Tal's words ringing in her head. This ship wouldn't last any engagement, let alone an enemy like the Anero'Nolmi was describing. She just silently prayed that wasn't what she knew it to be.

A first glance on the controls confirmed it indeed was. Another ship appeared behind them, and the energy readings were spiking. "Too late!" The android yelled and the ship shook as shots impacted the shields. Ariaka plugged herself to the nearby connector and used it to relay orders to the drones. "Any way we can kill them?!" She yelled a question at Tal'set, thinking about it herself. "Find Keilumtol! Tell him that if he wanded a ship to ship battle here it is. He can take one of the shuttles!" She said as she put the ship onto an evasive course and looking for a way to escape this mess.

[Zetherus]

Tal'set was walking back to his jet when the ship shook throwing him into a wall panel in the wall hearing a voice echo through the corridors. "What the... it cant be..." The Anero'nolmi recovered and stood back up just in time when the a door on his right hissed and collapsed into the void of space. The sniper grabbed a nearby wall before being vacuumed revealing a black tube like metallic object magnetizing to the ship kind of saving his life in the processes. He stepped down on the Vok grate and backed up pulling his riffle off his back hearing an awful screeching noise as clinking metal neared his location. "OH VUCK!" An odd creature made up of other faces and teeth jumped out and on top of Tal. Tal'set grabbed his pulse hand gun and tried to fight as it attempted to sink its horrific fangs into his neck when Kiel came out of the door next and made quick work out of the creature. "GET UP AND RUN YOU FOOL." Ordered the monster as the remains of the creature dangled in his huge hands. The merc got up heeding his words and made a break for his ship as the giant placed a barricade in the entry way where the Thrime"Vok entered from.

Keilumtol's V.I flared up in an alert, "Warning: The battlestar that attacked Zenith has be located in the vicinity. Battlestar identification confirmed: Plagued Life. One of the few leading flag ships that directed the downfall of the Anero empire and initiated the evacuation is indeed attacking the Croatoan." Keil's eyes widened in surprise then fell to be consumed by his revenge. "They are the ones that destroyed my people? They are the ones THAT KILLED MY BRETHREN!?" The roar of the ancient warrior echoed down the corridor as he broke through the blast door that led to Ariaka in the bridge. "Orders captain?" The look on Kiel's face meant "no return" as the burning stare in his eyes meant "death" to his greatest enemy.

[Nohiki]

Ariaka looked at the source of the shouts and saw just whom she was looking for. "Take one of the shuttles and BUY US TIME!" She roared, "This ship is going down in flames!" She said as the damage reports arrived. She dug intensly in the files she unlocked before, looking for a way out. Their main weapon was offline, that left only two options. And the stardrive wasn't anywhere near charged yet.

"EVERYONE! On your feet! Abandon ship!" She said as red alarm light lit up everywhere and only few white lines on the floor shown the way to safety. Ariaka didn't have time to check on the evacuation as she quickly ran to the control core and plugged herself back in. She quickly found the abandon protocols and engaged them. On the lower side of the ship, several charges detonated and armor plates were launched from the ship, revealing a third hangar with the escape craft. All stasis pods were automatically transported on board along with supplies and other equipment. The only problem was the broken autopilot. that would have to be replaced.

An explosion shook the ship as one of the engines went up in flames. It was pretty clear to her right there she wasn't making it off the ship. Least she could do now was to help others escape, and so she did. clearing a pipeline to the escape ship, she uploaded her consciousness into it's computers. A moment later a massive chain of explosions rumbled through Croatoan, converting it into a smoldering hulk. There was no time left. Now occupying the escape craft instead of an android, she closed the hatches and launched. Hopefully everyone made it on board by then. She powered the stardrive and jumped anywhere but here, just as Croatoan gave way and exploded in a fireball.

OOC: Unwanted characters are to blow up along with the ship and new ones (if wanted) will then be in the transferred pods in new chapter.

[Zetherus]

Keilumtol stood still at the bridge looking out the window as the ship started to turn slowly from the recent explosion in the back. The Croatoan drifted to where it faced Plagued Life and the warrior staring down his opponent. "I have found you Plagued Life and now you destruction is at hand... MY HAND!" Keil lifted his right hand projecting his D.M.E Cannon aiming the ancient nuke at the Vok battlestar. "Initialize boarding port. Take me to the enemy." He said when his V.I activated with a series of ancient warnings and beeps, "Import DME self destruct code to confirm." The ancient warrior activated the code by thinking it when the ship he was in erupted in flames then exploded.

A beam of light shoot from the bridge of Croatoan's last appearance before it turned into a blinding light of destruction and debris. The beam then disappeared into Plagued Life... (To be continued...)

"crap, crap, crap!" Tal'set jumped into his fighter and activated the engines as he cursed all the way until his jet hummed with the beautiful sound of his jet ready for flight. He spun 180º in the docking bey aiming at the shutter doors about to fire when the doors where blown open by direct fire from the Vok cruiser. "There's my escape," He yelled punching full force through the scrapped door and into space where he changed direction and followed after the escape boat and vanished along with the survivors destroying any hostile followers along the way.

[Kauria]

"Oh God." Rucha bolted to her feet, the practice of endless evacuation drills flooding her muscles. In her mind, the maze of passages became a map to the escape ship that would save them. First things first. She crouched again beside Lee and draped the alien's arms around her neck, lifting her unconscious crewmate as best she could. Kiruza could get out on her own, she hoped. Another blast shook the ship, and Rucha only barely managed to keep her balance. "Time to get out of here." She pushed off into a run down the ship's hallways, her acceleration reduced by a burden that weighed as much as she did. She slammed into the turns only twice, and slowed her pace only once. At the armory. The white evac lines led past it, and instinct screamed at her to continue, can't you feel the ship breaking? She stepped into the armory. Her bag lay there on the floor, knocked from the shelf by the ship's shaking. Rucha ducked and scooped her belongings inside, then strapped it to her front. She was about to move on when a flash of white caught her eye. The cat was crouched in a corner, its fur standing nearly on end.
It was a strange relief to see it again. "Are you coming, or do I have to carry you too?" She hefted Lee a little higher onto her back.
As if prompted into action, the cat shot past her legs and down the hallway, and Rucha laughed despite herself. "There we go!" She sprinted after it and into the emergency hangar, barely in time to board the escape ship. She gathered herself, held Lee a little tighter, and took a flying leap through the hatch, the heat of an explosion at her back. They landed hard on the smaller ship's floor in a jumble. Rucha stood, leaving Lee on the floor and removing her pack with a sigh of relief and weariness, her minute of strength and nerves spent. She slid down a wall and closed her eyes, too shaken and tired to check on anything or anyone.

[Midnightmoon]

(ooc: because you'll probably like more then 3 players playing I figured I better jump back in again. hopefully this time round i can play him the way i had intended.)

Lee stired. First his ears twitched slowly a couple of times, then he tried to get up which made him groan. He was sore like he'd climbed a mountain and his head pounded in so many places he thought he saw stars. "Testing, one two three, testing." He mumbled, using the term he said when he finally got something working after a long struggle. "And we have life." He got this hands and knees and flipped over to sit against a wall instead of trying to stand. He finally noticed Rucha, who he was sharing the wall with. "And the verdict?" He asked, still a bit out of it from his head after finding himself on the floor. Why had he been on the floor anyway? He tried to focus after that.

[Kauria]

Rucha turned her head, her plates scraping on the wall behind her. "Lee . . ." Her brown eyes widened in surprise, and, legs still feeling like jelly, the Ceretai lurched towards her crewmate and threw her arms around him in an embrace. "You're alive! I was worried I'd wasted my time hauling you out of there." She drew back. "And by 'there,' I mean our ship. We were attacked. I think it blew up."
Rucha gestured at the ceiling. "We're on the escape ship right now, and I don't know who else made it." The heaviness of her own words seemed to finally strike her, and her voice faltered in fear. Who else made it? She forced herself to shake it off, ignore the stabbing grief of imagined loss. "You all right? You were kind of a mess just minutes ago."