Deeper Darkness: Space's Shadow

[The_Snark]

Brenda

At the discordant shriek, Brenda steps away from the consoles, one hand half-raising as if to protect her face.

"Mac, Lora, check the downed systems, find out which ones are down and why. Marius, was that part of the same signal?" she asks, but her attention isn't wholly on her orders. The doctor glances about the cabin with a gun—gun?—that hadn't been there a minute before in hand, taking note of anything that looks different from before. She remembers this, too; lights and electronics bursting just before they came. It wasn't just paranoia to think they could be here, in the ship. It wasn't.

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As usual, Brenda takes 10 on Spot/Listen checks, for a 30 in each. She'll try to snap out a warning if she sees anything she thinks looks suspicious.

[Callos_DeTerran]

"Crap, crap!" Dante growls as he tries to determine the source of the noise, finally slowing as his head swiveled to look at Brenda. "No, it wasn't part of the signal. It piggy-backed on it until we picked it up."

"The radio and laser transmitters have been fried and so have the ship's decoy drones." Mac says tersely as damage reports begin to file past his glasses, lips pursued with worry and irritation from what information he was being fed. "The software seems to be fine but I think that noise shattered the circuits of the damaged components. There is good news. Escape pods, air supply, the really vital stuff, seems to have endured pretty well."

"That's not good news you nerd! We can't call for help or even divert attention in case anything spots us!" Lora snaps as her own readouts begin to filter in. "Auto-pilot is down. My targeting system has been thrown out of whack which means half of the weapons aren't going to be half as accurate as they would be. Dammit Dante! I thought you were supposed to be good at things like this, why didn't you see another signal?"

Brenda's attention was not...fully on the damage reports as they were given, a quick glance making her...not feel right. Something was different. A faint shimmer in the air, as if some sort of mirage was there, announced the presence of a small insect-like shape as it scurried soundlessly towards the back of the ****-pit towards the briefing room. At first it just seemed like a trick of the light, especially since no one else seemed to be able to see it, but that didn't change the fact that Brenda could see something.

---

After the various suits had jostled for position at the doors leading within the moon dome the signal was given and with that the door begins to grind upon as well, giving the impression that they would have been shrieking had it not been a void. As could be expected red lights began to flash in the room behind to warn it's non-existent occupants that they would shortly be sucked out into space but as the mecha stepped through and allowed the bay doors to shut they turned off without incident as the pressure stabilized and air was forced back into the chamber from reserves. Even from inside of the mechas the pilots can tell that the air is sterile but stale, as if coming from a grave instead of the freshness that usually came with scrubbed air.

Bits of trash lay scattered across the ground, suitcases and belongings scattered about, but there were no bodies or signs of violence in this big chamber. Yellow lines clearly marked where large vehicles, or suits, were supposed to travel to avoid stepping on the plastic chairs set up to accomodate people and all those lines lead to one of two massively reinforced durasteel doors. One of which continued on towards the dome interior, or at least thats what seemed most likely, while the other continued along the dome's outer wall in what was likely a passage to a guard station or repair bay.

There was an eerie stillness beginning to creep over each of you since, aside from the contact with the bizarre blood, nothing of particular note had happened and the feeling of being watched by a stalking predator hadn't returned. Had whatever been watching you stopped or found something more interesting to do? It was a difficult answer to think about but right now this entire place was beginning to feel like a death-filled silent coffin.

[Dark_Prophet]

Hades stops, as Val takes stock of the surroundings, looking around carefully at the remains for a minute then points towards the first door. Heading steadily towards the presumed dome interior, the beam scythe hums and bobs with every step as the mecha rotates its head here and there, scanning and alert. He pauses briefly halfway to check up on the mecha readout for any more changes, moving the rest of the way over.

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Repair for checking diagnoistic again (1d20+11)[26]

[Tyracus]

Jason

Moving forward cautiously Jason keeps a moderate distance behind Val as he moves through the doorway. Taking a moment to switch his targeting system back to his rifle and clear the lock on Val's leg he takes a moment on the comms.

"We should probably have someone contact the ship and report that we're moving in deeper. It has been a while since our last message and I'd hate to be left here because they think we're all dead."

[The_Snark]

Brenda

"So we can't talk, can't fight well, and can't repair any of it," Brenda sums up, following the strange flicker of movement with her eyes rather than looking at the crew. "I take it the engines are fine. Can we still pick up transmissions?" She moves quietly after the not-quite shape as she speaks, occasional thoughts on their situation flitting across her mind. As long as they had the engines, they could still accomplish their mission—there it was again...

Brenda pauses in the doorway, having lost track of the flicker as it crossed into the next room, and scans the briefing room. She almost tells Dante not to receive any more signals unless they were from the mech team, but she's holding her breath as the thought occurs, so that she can hear better. If she could hear the thing as well as see it, she might have an idea what it was.

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Taking 10 on Move Silently, Listen, and Spot.

[WhiteKnight777]

Vincent

Vincent moved through the door quickly. Looking around, he strained his sensors to the limit looking for anything, anything at all unusual - but still he found only silence, shadows, and secrets.


Like Brenda, he began to move out, slowly scanning the chamber, but making sure to keep the others in visual range at all times.

[Dark_Prophet]

Reaching the door, Seran takes a deep breath, then uses Hades to tap some of the buttons on the door control with one hand, still holding the scythe in the other. The mecha glances back at the others, before pressing the final button in the sequence, opening the door, releasing a flood of stale air.

[ChronicLunacy]

Tanaka

"Proceed to the dome interior. We're not splitting up anymore. I don't want any surprises." Izumi text-messaged to the others through their operating link as she maneuvered her suit into the room. She stayed near the front just behind Val as they moved up.

[Tyracus]

Jason

Biting down on his worries and protests Jason brings his thrusters up to low and maintains a watchful position approximately 2 dozen meters behind the lead units.

This is just getting crazier and crazier. I hope the ship is alright.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Brenda

"I think the good doctor underestimates our capabilities." Mac says softly as a grin tugs at the corner of his mouth. "We can jury rig repairs to more then a couple of those systems, they won't last forever but they'll work. Until, assuming we don't die, we can get this ship back to a proper dock with proper equipment."

"He's right. Given about ten minutes I could come up with a serviceable patch for the transmission array..the question is if we have that long." Dante grumbles, crossing his big arms across his chest and leaning back to watch as Brenda moves down out of the pit and scan the briefing room. "And no..can't receive or send transmissions until something is fixed...what the hell are you looking for?"

For a moment that very thought occurred to Brenda. What was she looking for? But then she saw the insectile shimmering shape once more, scurrying around to the opposite side of the debriefing table before the noise of fangs on metal came to her ears. What ever it was it was trying to chew a hole in the ship!

---

Jason, Tanaka, Vincent, and Seran Music

There was indeed a flood of stale air when the door opened but it didn't seem to be coming from the other side of the door way but your own side. Without much fanfare the suits thundered down the chrome plated hallway leading into the dome interior but had to pause at the sight that greeted you beyond the opened doors leading into the dome proper.

Tall decrepit buildings stab up towards the shattered dome above, like the jagged fingers of a howling madman long since frozen into claws. No lights shine bright and hopeful in the empty windows that adorn each meticulously constructed building. Some of them looked to have been somewhat...resistive of their fate, metal shudders having been closed or having the windows covered in tape as if to hold in precious oxygen though in the end all of those efforts much of been futile. Shattered shards of plexi-glass litter the street you enter out unto, practically a carpet that covered any of the debris underneath the razor-sharp pieces, but had bounced off of the abandoned vehicles that lined the sides of the street.

Here and there were signs of violence; doors ripped off to be carelessly discarded as if weighing the same as paper, large rents in the roof that opened up the car like a can opener, and more bizarre cases like one red convertible that looked as if the rear half had been...melted to allow whatever was outside in. But there was nary a body or blood stain..something that would identify that people had been here once and had been removed by violence. From what could be seen this could have just as easily been some other-wordly tabula of some ancient and forgotten race. The street hadn't escaped damage either, having been ripped and torn in places as if great clawed feet had torn through the street below with it's footsteps. Could it have been what had caused such damage in this district?

And, of course, above there was the disheartening view above of the broken dome. From the inside, looking up, it seemed so much bigger and a testament of the horrifying power of the Others. An armored dome, meant to withstand small to medium asteroid impact and warfare had been rent asunder from within by a force that humanity still didn't understand and spilled thousands of people into the heartless void that no human could survive without aid. No witnesses who had survived that and no clue about how it had been accomplished, just another boggling mystery about these enemies who seemed so...intent upon death and insanity.

A stiff breeze stirred the glass carpet along the ground below, as if to drive home the fact that no living creature dared to inhabit such a tomb as this. To think that such a vibrant and busy place had been destroyed so swiftly..the moon dome wasn't simply occupied by enemy hands, it was dead.


It is also a very large space to be voyaging through without cause or concern and NOT expect trouble to find you. Where would one begin to search for information?

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Need spot checks please..

[Tyracus]

Jason

Flying in slowly Jason begins to climb as they clear the ceiling of the docking bay. Looking over the wreckage he shakes his head as he thinks.

I thought San Francisco was bad, this place is a tomb. I just hope we can find some clues, and maybe a miraculous survivor or two.

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Spot - (1d20+1)[17]

[Dark_Prophet]

Hades stalked soundlessly in, staying on the ground, its head and visor rotating here and there as Seran scanned the area. He paid special attention to the situational damage, logging the images and taking pictures for future analysis, his robotic hand working furiously on his personal computer interface, directly connected with Hades' core functions.

Taking a slow, careful approach around the edge, staying close to the edge of the dome and avoiding venturing out directly into the open spaces, the cyborg continues on in his task, working as carefully and efficiently as possible.

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Spot (1d20)[1]
Note: Sorry about the delay - had to drop everything for a while due to some academic issues. Gonna be somewhat busy through the next week, but should be manageable.

[The_Snark]

Brenda

She makes a sharp gesture with her free hand, indicating silence as she listens to try and pinpoint the noise. "Something on board," she sums up softly, half-glancing back to be more easily audible. "Start fixing the transmitter. Don't leave the cabin, stay quiet."

She moves around the table and towards the noise in near-perfect silence, following the sound of scratching on metal. Her eyes rove the floor and walls, searching for the sort of mark it sounded like the thing was creating—it was more likely to be looking for sensitive equipment than it was to be actually chewing through the hull, but the one could be just as deadly as the other.

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Once again, taking 10 on the relevant checks.