Deeper Darkness: Space's Shadow

[Tyracus]

Jason Times - Tyberius V

Floating through the void Jason flew mostly by the feel of inertia. This trick he'd learned on one of his early space training missions allowed him to focus more closely on his other readouts to avoid any nasty surprises. As the group approached the airlock Jason brought the laser gatling on his units shoulder begin cycling and the capacitors filled to their full auto levels. Taking up a position similar to Tanaka's on the side opposite her he paid close attention not only to the void before him, but also to any indications of what may be lurking on the other side of the door before he begins to talk in a calm clipped tone.

"Anyone care to guess if this is a good omen or a bad one? I never thought that quiet in space could be so ominous. I usually like the silence but this seems more like a tomb." The last comes in an even more subdued tone, a stark contrast of Jason's regular exuberance.

[Dark_Prophet]

Hades XV moves in a way that almost seems to mimic laughing in response to Jason's comment - its pretty obvious Seran is enjoying himself, although not broadcasting anything. He moves up to take point right near the other side of the door from Tyberius V, casually readying his beam scythe to slice both against anything that comes through the door and anything that comes at him along the dome, the red and black mecha nodding its head to Nova as he signals a all clear sign with his free hand.

[ChronicLunacy]

Izumi - Peacemaker

Izumi let out a wholly unfeminine growling sound and jabbed her communications board, switching channels and tight-beaming a transmission to Jason. "Cut the chatter Tyberius V. This isn't a walk in the park. No more transmissions on the wide-band, or do you want them tracking us?" she snapped in that drill-sergeant way all military officers seemed to learn.

The white mobile armor Izumi piloted moved to the side of the door near Hades XV, its beam rifle raised but not aimed at anything in particular. The sensor suites on its head whirred faintly, a vibration Izumi could feel in the cockpit, as they focused, trying to screen out the debris and background radiation. If the Others chose to attack them, Izumi hoped she would be able to catch a flash of something, anything, before they were ambushed. hopefully Vincent could get the door open and they could get out of so vulnerable a position soon. She really didn't feel like finding another way in.

[Tyracus]

Jason - Tyberius V

Switching the com controls from narrowband to tightbeam Jason replies. "Roger, I think this whole thing just has us... nervous." The pause is heavy as if nervous wasn't really the first word that came to mind. "I'm also worried about our companions. When the shooting starts I know you'll stay calm and probably follow sensible procedures. Val seems too excited and Vincent a little too cautious to really be dependable so I have a dread that if the **** hits the fan we'll be the ones left stuck in the path."

[ChronicLunacy]

Tanaka Izumi - Peacemaker

"Tch..." Izumi shook her head, feeling the weight of the helmet settle a little. "They're not the ones making rookie mistakes, Tyberius V. You just worry about your job. Let me worry about the others. Now get off this line unless you have something tactically important to add." she ordered, the visor on her Peacemaker glowing briefly as if to punctuate it.

Izumi knew that Jason meant well, but she could practically smell how nervous he was. They were all a little on edge...except for maybe Val Seran over there. She didn't know what was going through his head half the time, but at least he was in high spirits. She just hoped that it wouldn't get in the way of Jason's performance. She needed them all at their best if they were going to pull this off.

[Tyracus]

Jason - Tyberius V

Sighing as he killed the circuit Jason knew that Izumi was right. The quiet of the situation unsettled him. Even in the training areas there was always others, or a ship. At the very least he could exult in the joy of pushing the envelope of his flying skills. Here he had to sit and wait silently while the greatest enemy mankind had ever known was somewhere around them. Jason thought about blazing out with his thrusters at full to weave through the rubble at a speed most would consider reckless at the very least. That would call out the others quickly and he could either kill off those who came at him or rejoin Clarice, the odds of doing both were also rather high.

He shook his head and closed his eyes, relying on the HUD his display contacts projected to prevent any nasty surprises. He keyed in a code on his right keypad that unlocked a program hidden in the recesses of his OS that played his sister's favorite song through a loop back in the com system. Nobody else could hear but the soft music played and Jason slowly opened his eyes.

There's a reason why I wanted the more active plan. But I guess I can't blame them for wanting a plan with a much higher success chance. If things don't get moving again soon I won't have an option but to take the pills.

Jason heaves a long sigh as he opens his eyes once more. "And so adrift in the cacophony of silence he faced the truth of his life, while he had faced the horrors of the world in doing so he had turned his back upon it. Torn between the darkness before him and light he had turned from he descended deeper, swallowed in the end by the shadows of space..." Jason shakes his head and shifts his pill bottle from his suit pocket to a more readily accessible storage compartment. Another one of those bad signs, waxing poetic. I'm sure the others would just LOVE to know just how screwed up I get in this type of situation. At least I got a clean enough bill of health to keep things out of my records so they can't find out unless I screw up somehow...

[WhiteKnight777]

Vincent - Nova

Vincent gave a clipped reply over the channel as he moved. Like the man himself, the mecha moved with an eerie precision - though the mechanical exactitude of its motion seemed more natural in the obviously robotic frame than it did in Vincent's seemingly human one. With practised ease he accessed the generator, plugging a heavy black power cable that snaked out of the stomach of the mecha like a mechanical umbilical cord. Lights at both ends went from red to a cool blue, indicating that power was flowing between the two units.

Nova here. Plugged in and charging. Running diagonostics to make sure everything's in working order, but it all seems pristine...

He trailed off. Despite lacking the organic capacity for true fear - no adrenal glands, no chemicals or hormones - he found the whole situation disturbing. Something about the Others, their presence, their handiwork, unsettled even him. It was like a redundancy error, like an endless program loop - in human terms, it was like trying to contemplate the truth of infinity - or the dark heart of oblivion.

[Callos_DeTerran]

All of the mechanized armor units huddled around the space dock's doors as Vincent connected to the powered doors and started the flow of power into them...at first there was no reaction whatsoever, no churning as the airlock doors were tugged ope, nothing and the sense...the feeling of being watched increased ten-fold as Vincet tried once more...this time the doors shuddering and displacing years of moon dust that had accumulated against the surface as it silently opened to reveal the dock within as the mecha hurried in out of the exposed open space behind them. Once within it was obvious why there had been trouble, the entire dock was simply...ruined.

All of the catwalks and heavy machinary had been thrust towards the walls hard enough that their shapes had crumpled and distorted into hardly recognizable shapes, sometimes even leaving smears of mechanical fluids across the floor below. It seemed there had been a freighter at dock when the attack had occurred, only having disengaged half of the magnetic locks that held it in place, the tail end having fish-tailed around to slam into the control booth barely visible past it's bulk. But the entire dock had sustained damage, as if a great field of some unknown force had suddenly made itself none in the exact center. The bulkheads had contorted from the force of whatever it was, looking almost like ripples in water that spread out to cover all of the walls in the bizarre effect, the freighter having been bored open like a carcass by a hungry to cast ruined bits of metal and parts into the airless void of the space dock. Perhaps most disconcerting of all though were the small 'clouds' of red droplets, unmistakably blood, that drifted about lazily and rebounding in a new direction when ever it hit a wall.

Numerous human sized doors lead into the dock, likely leading to maintenance and personal quarters, but there was only one door large enough to accommodate the mechanized armor and it faced towards the interior of the dome and the small empty metropolis that lay beyond it. This wasn't too surprising since the dome, and it's base, usually didn't have hollowed out rooms large enough for anything larger then a big meeting hall or a small housing complex to save space. Most of the more important facilities and such were thus scattered about the interior so there'd be no 'concentrated' spots that were obviously a better targets then the areas around them. It endangered civilians but then again this was a former UEDF and there could have been replacement moon-colonists ready at a moments notice to fill the void. That was just common knowledge though.

---

Aboard the Black Wyrm the crew seemed to become even edgier without the protection of the mechanized armor close by anymore, even with the freighter's own weapons already powered up and raring to go. Lora had ceased playing her games, instead looking into the true view screens for the weapons and locking unto different anomalies fed into her targeting computer by Mac the moment they appeared but not firing. Mac twitched nervously every now and then as he worked, a nervous tic working in his right eye that stirred in Brenda's memory a certain Colonel.

Dante, for his part, seem far more collect as he sat in the co-pilots chair, drumming the fingers of his right hand across the arm-rest of his chair, eyes focused on the starry expanse ahead of him. It came with some surprise when he jolted in his chair, eyes widening as he whispered harshly.

"We just received a message!" As one the three turned to look at Brenda, looking for guidance without the presence of Seran to guide them.

[ChronicLunacy]

Tanaka Izumi - Peacemaker

As the squad moved through the open doors, Izumi's mech held up two fingers and pointed at Nova and Hades XV. Then, it pointed right towards one side of the dock. Next, it pointed to Tyberius V and to itself and then to the left. Finally, it held up an open hand showing five fingers and then moved its hand in a horizontal circle.

Pair up. Vincent and Val, you're together. Jason, you're with me. Five minute search pattern, then meet back here.

Izumi opened up a tight beam transmission to the Tyberius with a flick of a switch as she began moving her mech carefully over the rubble, keeping its head and sensors up and scanning for any movement. "Tyberius XV, you stick to my ass like duct tape, you understand? If you see anything, alert me with three rapid beeps from your comm system. Acknowledge now with one beep."

[Tyracus]

Jason - Tyberius V

Jason killed the music playback as he slowly turned into the dock. Upon seeing the destruction he shook his head and began a cursory search. Upon seeing a small bright blue object he zoomed in to find a stuffed animal floating with old dried blood upon it.

Guess like most other spacer families they brought their kids along. As sad as it is to see that it's still probably easier than the life they would have had as orphans of this conflict.

As Tanaka motions and then contacts him via tightbeam Jason drifts back towards her adjusting his thrust to match her velocity while facing backwards to cover their rear. With a simple flick of the wrist he hits the com button once to send the signal before adjusting his weapon systems to kill the rotation of his gatling. No telling how sensitive the others may be and Jason didn't want the sound or vibration bringing them running if they entered a location with atmosphere.

[ChronicLunacy]

Tanaka Izumi

Keeping her eyes on her sensors, Izumi opened the channel back up to Jason's mech as they moved. Izumi had been on many a combat mission. She knew the feelings associated with the battlefield and thought by now she had come to terms with them. She felt the reassuring vibrations of the Peacemaker's steps and the ever-present thrum of the mech's powerful generator and took some comfort from it, but her voice still held an edge of concern as she spoke. Something wasn't right.

"Peacemaker to Tyberius. Have you seen the clouds of blood droplets scattered about? Do you find anything odd about that?"

[Tyracus]

James - Tyberius V

Reopening the com channel as Jason hones on the next door they pass he replies to Izumi.

"Yeah, if the Others were physically striking or consuming people there wouldn't be either large splatters or very little blood at all. Also the way they've kept together for so long is unnatural. Over time they would have lost momentum to non-elastic collisions and they would have bounced off of each other to make a uniform mist, not those collective clouds we saw earlier. What also gets me is the way the freighter and dock looked. Almost as if whatever attacked just materialized there and pushed away everything. Did you happen to run a check on any background radiation or residual ionization while we were in there? It might offer some clues as to what really happened there. The descriptions of black voids attacking from the workers who tried to clear this may also be related to that. Until we get some solid data this is all just speculation. When we get back to the hanger I'd like to request clearance to check the freighter and control booth. If they were recording the docking process as is standard there may still be some information live in their recorders. It could be a good clue as to what we're up against seeing as docking bays are well and uniformly lit."

[ChronicLunacy]

Tanaka Izumi

"Very good observations, Tyberius...assuming this was a space station or ship wreck." Izumi replied, smirking just a bit. "What I was referring to, however, was the fact that there are floating clouds at all. The moon has gravity. Why is the blood floating instead of falling to the floor of the hangar?" She left the question in the air for Jason to think about and called up the scans she'd made of the hangar while he did so. Jason had had a point about checking the radiation and ionization levels...if there was a spike the readings might tell them something about how they could track the Others based on it.

[Tyracus]

Jason

Pausing momentarily at Izumi's comments Jason thinks for a minute then replies.

"Hmm... The moon's gravity isn't that much, perhaps the vibrations of the door opening could have disturbed some of it. Or since the dock doors were obviously closed at the time of the attack the atmosphere from the freighter would have vented into the dock. Also I think the hydraulic fluid vaporizes even at low temperatures if it's not kept under pressure. Those gasses would have built a pressure differential which may have vented unnoticed by us. That could actually explain the clouds of blood seeing as it would have pooled in the low areas and would have been moved shortly before we entered."

Jason pauses to think a little longer and to see if his ideas had sparked anything from his partner. As he does so he takes a sip from the catch packets in his suit to soothe his dry throat but blanches slightly at it's warmth and the slight salty taste of it.

They can make giant robots but they can't make a decent cooling system for a suit's water reclamation system. I also wish they'd do something about the salt taste, I understand the why of it but it really tastes like crap.

[ChronicLunacy]

Tanaka Izumi

"We should have seen the blood falling once the pressure had equalized. Still, I hope you're right, Jason. There's enough about these creatures that make my skin crawl." Izumi replied, uncharacteristically using Jason's name, her voice dropping out of that officer tone for just a moment before she cut the line and continued moving forward.

[Tyracus]

Jason

Smiling as the line was cut Jason adjusted his camera feeds to better cover the corridor and to keep an eye out behind Izumi just in case his hunch about the others transportation abilities was right. He didn't want either of them getting killed by something that materialized between them.

Things seem to be going much better now that I'm in my element. Guess now that I've really got something to do I don't have time for my pointless musings to get me in trouble.

[WhiteKnight777]

Vincent

Vincent moved out quietly. He kept his thoughts to himself, at least for the moment, as he manuvered his mecha through the void. Nonetheless, though he didn't know it, he was sharing some of the thoughts of the others - these creatures disturbed him, too. So much that was simply unnatural. Not just wrong... horribly so. They broke the rules by which the universe worked. It was like looking through a window into a terrible universe where a square moon gibbered in the sky and terrible red-eyed shadows moved through an endless night cast by a shadow-sun that drank in the light of a blank white sky. He shuddered a little at the though, wondering where it had come from - reading too many bad horror movies, probably. It was a tasteless and ill-described little flight of fancy. But back to the business at hand. On full alert, Vincent continued to scan the docks, searching for clues as to what abomination had occurred here.

[Dark_Prophet]

Hades floats over ahead of Nova, opening a com with Nova and the rest of the team, his voice still warm and amused sounding, with a strange lilt to it. "Hades here. Now this brings back memories. I've definitely seen this before somewhere...back at the base. Did you know they never found any bodies, only those who were still alive? Putting it on the log for reference in case we see any."

He tightbeams another transmission to Vincent, his mecha hefting the beam scythe across his shoulder, fully ignited and whirring quietly as the hellish mecha waits carefully, glancing here and there. "Nova, I've got you covered - when you're done, let me know, and I'll give it a scan myself."

(OOC: Equivalent of readying to attack any Others or unidentified life forms that appear - nonhumans or mecha.)

[The_Snark]

Brenda

The doctor rises to look over Dante's shoulder. Subconsciously and maybe consciously, she'd been expecting this; there is tension in her face, but no surprise. The Others were somehow very good at knowing where people were. Objectively, that was one of their most worrying aspects; right now, she just accepted it and moved on.

Just like last time, the others were looking to her; she falls back into her role easily. "A radio transmission?" she asks quietly, voice calm. Nervousness was to be expected, but the crew couldn't get too spooked in a situation like this. "Broadband, or directed right to us?"

[Callos_DeTerran]

Dante's fingers flew across the console in front of him, trying to divulge some sort of information about the signal being sent out. Finally he gave a sigh of relief and shot Brenda a grin. "It's broadband and on a repeat timer too. I think the message is sent about once every hour until it hits a possible recipient then delays for three hours before resuming the pattern.."

The big man paused then, brow furrowing as he experimentally went through a surprisingly dexterous series of motions. "That's weird...it's narrowing in on us. Should I scramble it?"

Dante asks, remarkably calmly at that, glancing up to the only person who wasn't an actual part of the crew. Without Seran on-board apparently they had been instructed to turn to whomever was left for orders. Mac and Lora both shifted as well, calming some when they discovered it was an ordinary message and not something more sinister.

---

Action was swift as the various mechanized armor units began to move about on their various tasks and Tyberius and Peacemaker open up communication with each other. There proved to be very little radiation in the hangar, unsurprising considering how much time had passed since the dome cracked, but what little was found seemed ominous. Hawking radiation suffused everything, except for the mecha, which was in and off itself a peculiarity. Hawking radiation was generally considered to be the emissions of white holes or black holes, a type of thermal radiation that had been difficult to prove for quite a while considering the dangers of getting close enough to the sources of it. To find it here was...well...impossible.

Seran's hellish looking suit stood close to Vincent's offering a measure of security as the beam-scythe was ignited and the man came on the look-out for danger that he noticed one of the clouds of blood drifting towards Hades and a slight shift moved him out of it's path and he paid it no more mind until as it began to drift between Hades legs. Until the cloud, as a whole, made a sharp right turn to suddenly dive towards the armored metal leg, not bouncing off it as one might expect but disappearing within it with ripples as if the metal was naught but water and the cloud had fallen into a puddle. Val's reflexes proved too slow to realize the danger, if that's what it really was, in time until it had already seeped within.

Spoiler

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Spot DC 20 to notice what the cloud did.

[Dark_Prophet]

Hades bursts into movement, vaulting over and distancing itself over apart from the others, and watching the other floating areas of blood with its drawn beam scythe. His radio crackles, his voice dead flat compared to its usual boisterous and relaxed character. "This is Val. I'm not sure what happened, but it looks like I've got a unwelcome passenger seeping in - probably a Other or some manifestation. Stay clear of the rest of the blood; I'll maintain quarantine distance until we can determine whats going on here - I've got my escape pod ready if needed. Activating maintenance systems to see if I can get a better readout on whats going on in here...nothing yet, I'm going to continue diagnostics. Stay cool and keep your eyes out, everyone."

Spoiler

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Repair for mecha diagnostics (1d20+11)[26]

[Tyracus]

Jason

Freezing immediately upon hearing the distress call Jason thumbs the communication controls to re-open the tightbeam connection.

"Sounds like our friends managed to find something interesting. Too bad they did it in a really bad way. I imagine this is a good time to play the falling back contingency, nothing we have is going to be too effective on blood. Not unless you happen to have an AL3K dragon hidden somewhere, I could probably manage for a short while with my M-21 Comet, though it's pretty loud so I'm sure the others would notice quickly."

Jason begins to slowly drift back towards Val's unit as he speaks. His desire to rush back edges into his voice but his desire not to make a bad situation worse checks his enthusiasm.

[ChronicLunacy]

Tanaka Izumi

Damn it. Already?

Izumi's mobile suit turned quickly the other way, blocking Jason from going much farther in Val's direction. "Everyone back to the door. Stay away from the blood." she broadcasted to the rest of her team, risking detection for a few seconds. She needed to see how this would affect Val before they went any further, and aborting the mission was foremost on her mind. Jason was right, they couldn't really do much against sentient blood. Maybe it would be prudent to take what sensor readings they had already gathered...especially the presence of Hawking radiation...and quit while they were ahead. They could always attempt another sortie at a later time.

If and when she could shoot a tight beam transmission to Val's suit, she asked, "Hades, I need an update." while her suit waved the others to back away from Seran until she could see what was going on. Peacemaker focused is impressive sensor package on Hades's leg section, trying to pinpoint the foreign substance and analyze it.

[The_Snark]

Brenda Wells

She only now realizes that the message was not necessarily coming from the Others; she had assumed that it had without thinking. A recorded message could date from the initial attacks, it could be a warning set in place by the UEDF... or it could be a trap. One of her clearest memories of the Others was the trap they had set with the repaired security camera.

"Take the message," she orders after a moment's deliberation. Contacting Tanaka or Val Seran would be far more likely to give them away, and they were here to gather information, after all. "Nothing but audio, mind, and don't send anything in response. If you think they're getting a lock on our position somehow, scramble it."

[Tyracus]

Jason - Tyberius V

Following Izumi's commands Jason takes up a high position by the door that gives him the clearest line of fire he can get. When he arrives he quickly switches his targeting system from his rifle to his chaingun and begins to cover Izumi while he rests his rifle facing towards Hades' leg joints, ready to switch systems if need be to try to separate the contaminant from the main body of the mecha.

[Callos_DeTerran]

All of the suits back away from from Seran's after the blood disappears inside of it, maintaining a safe distance even as they kept away from the other, suddenly malicious seeming, clouds of blood that hovered in the empty expanse of the space port. The seconds seemed to tic by at a phenomenally slow rate, each of you expecting to hear screams or an update from Seran that spoke of horrible horrible things happening...but nothing. Seran himself was forced to realize that despite the fact blood had disappeared into a metal construction without a trace...nothing had happened...

---

"Sure thing, just give me a second to isolate the signal so I can filter it..." Dante mutters to himself as the other two rise from their stations and take the couple of steps neccesary for them to hover anxiously over the big man's back to look at his console as if expecting Hell itself to come pouring out of the speaker.

"...This is.....we've been cut off from the space port.." A man's voice came over the speaker, distorted and full of static. The sound of explosions could be heard in the distance as well as horrible horrible screaming that chilled to the bone. "Something...it murdered everyone it co...It hasn't stopped yet...mobile armor is supposed to be en route but.."

"Sorry Ms. Brenda. I'll try to clear it up." Dante said, almost as if embarrassed about the poor quality of the sound feed. Thick fingers danced across the controls and then...

Nothing.

The sound feed cut out entirely and Dante's fingers paused as the other two crewmen glanced at each other.

"That doesn't seem good Dante, what did you do?"

"Just be quiet a second Mac!" The man growled, experimentally trying again.

SSSSSSKKKKKRRRRRYYYYYYYTTTTTT!

The second time Dante tried to clear up the static a noise akin to a yowling cat dragging it's claws across glass chalkboard filled the cabin, drilling into all there's minds with it's sharp piercing noise. Sparks flew out of several panels as delicate circuitry fried from the vibrations. Several panels, one of which was the weapons, began to blink red as various systems began shutting down or malfunctioning until Mac leaned over to slam down on the button to shut off the feed.

"What the hell was that?!"

"Who cares?! See what went offline and try to fix it!"

Spoiler

Show

Could Brenda make a spot check please?

[Dark_Prophet]

After a long moment, Val's voice crackles over the radio. "All systems are green, cross-referenced with the original schematics that I built myself. There's a slight irregularity in the knee where it entered, but nothing more then that. Lets not worry about it for now. I'll keep a trace on it, though and let you guys know if anything changes - lets keep moving and alert." Still hefting the activated beam scythe, Hades moves quickly towards the the airlocks, checking their integrity and the access with one hand, before punching in a set of commands. "All right, I'm opening the doors, everyone get ready to head in..." The airlock doors slowly slide open...

Spoiler

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Search (1d20+1)[12]
Computer Use (1d20+11)[25]

[ChronicLunacy]

Tanaka

"Alright, everyone, let's keep moving in. Single file with Hades up front. Use your beam scythe to boil away any clouds of blood you find blocking your path." Izumi ordered, repeating the order to everyone on a tight-beam individually. This would allow them to keep on while keeping Hades in easy view of the entire team in case something went wrong. Izumi would be right behind him.

[Tyracus]

Jason

"Hold it Val, we still don't know what's going on with your unit. It could be working it's way up towards your cockpit without compromising your unit. We also have the freighter here that may have some information." Still holding back Jason kept a keen eye out for anything out of the ordinary.

Spoiler

Show

Spot - (1d20+1)[20]

[WhiteKnight777]

Vincent

Vincent maintained a safe distance, his mecha already loading one of the massive shells into the rail cannon that served as its primary armament. He hoped his new ally was right about the lack of danger - but ready should he prove wrong.

Spoiler

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Readying an attack action should anything nasty pop out...