The Butterfly Effect (Formerly Caprica)

[Cobalt3924]

Suru’Kai coughed a bit as he panted desperately: trying to cool his body down naturally. Without his AC unit to keep him and his blood cool: his body was rapidly overheating in the arid air with his insulating Fur; and any core body temperature for a Rakai above 35 degrees Centigrade was lethal. At the moment: his was hovering around 40 degrees.
If his armour wasn’t repaired in time: he would die very slowly and incredibly painfully.
“Ac… ac… Rk'Ivjet… Iecrjhr… kcu… Rk'Ivjet… Iecrjhr… kcu… tzz” Suru’Kai whispered in his unconscious state; like someone talking in their sleep.

[Cobalt3924]

(OOC: Can someone post already? I don't want this RP to crash and burn like the last one I participated in.)

[BIos_Reaper]

Servos... Circuits... Layered carapace armor... By now Quanta had gone through every single adaptation and repair sequence he could see the armor requiring. He returned to Suru'Kai's side after a short period of time. Systematically disassembling the armor and placing it segmentally upon his body, re-attaching and re-initializing the armor segments. If the technology was capable of what the analyzed data suggested, Suru'Kai would be all right, but this all depended on his engineering skill set of repair and maintenance...

[Arratra]

Arratra flexed his arm, growling slightly, then proceeded to mentally search the area for other Psionics. He encountered the one with the GSA squad, but quickly went around him; he was far too weak to be the one he was looking for. Besides which, this guy was a dragon, not a Rakai.
"Can't find him," Arratra said after a short while, frowning, "Either he's out of range, or he's masking himself somehow..."

[Brome Teks]

Darien will begin to put his engineering skills to use and will help to repair the damaged cooling systems on his comrade's armor.

[Cobalt3924]

(OOC: Longest Post I've ever done...)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<...>
<...>
<...>
<...>
<...>
<Plasmite Generator Offline.>
<Emergency power cell Online.>
Beginning Emergency System Diagnostics.>
<...>
<Power setting: 20%>
<...>
<No fault detected.>
<Rescanning at 35%>
<...>
<No Fault Detected.>
<Rescanning at 50%.>
<...>
<Fault Detected: Plasmite Generator Severely Damaged.>
<Fracure in Cooling System Detected.>
<Commensing auto-Repair sequence.>
<ALERT: External assistance in Repairing Cooling System Detected.>
<Intergrating Repairs.>
<...>
<....
<...>
<Sequence Complete.>
<System power at 100%.>
<All Energy Systems Restored.>
<Cooling System Repaired.>
<Beginning Full System Diagnostics.>
<Diagnostics Complete.>
<ALERT: New Systems Installed.>
<ALERT: New Hardware Installed
<Scanning for Upgrades...>
<...>
<Scan Complete.>
<Listing upgraded systems:>
<Automatic Air Condition Stabilisation Unit Upgraded: Secondary Unit Installed.>
<Automatic Combat Heads-Up Display Upgraded: Updated from Version VI to Version X.>
<Mobility Servos Upgraded: Efficiency increased 150%.>
<End of list.>
<Calculating for new Maximum Energy Output.>
<...>
<...>
<...>
<Calculations Complete.>
<ALERT: New Power Requirements are below optimal Power generation.>
<Diverting additional power to Deflection Shield Array.>
<Diverting additional power to Onboard Weapon Systems.>
<System Power Optimised.>
<Weapons System Power Allocation at 223% Normal Limits.>
<Deflection Shield System Power Allocation at 197% Normal Limits.>
<Scanning "IRON" Databanks for Cause of System Failure.>
<...>
<Datafiles Found.>
<Cause of Shut Down: Power Surge to Plasmite Core.>
<Secondary Cause of Shut Down: Thermal Shock to Generator Cooling Systems.>
<Estimated time of deactivation: 1 Hour.>
<Scanning interior.>
<No breach detected.>
<Scanning for occupant.>
<Occupant Detected.>
<Scanning for Life Signs.>
<...>
<No Life Signs Detected.>
<ALERT: Occupant Deceased.>
<Scanning For Cause of Death.>
<...>
<Scan Complete.>
<Cause of Death: Hyperthermia due to inability to reduce core body temprature below 35 Degrees Centigrade.>
<Scanning for Bio-Soul Containment Device.>
<Device Detected.>
<Scanning Integrity of Bio-Soul Containment Device.>
<...>
<Scan Complete: Device is Undamaged.>
<Scanning memory contents.>
<Contents Scanned: Occupant is Suru'Kai Tre'Kara.>
<Occupation Analysis: Warmaster.>
<Priority-A59 Engaged.>
<Commencing Revival Procedures.>
<Reducing Internal temperature to manageable level.>
<...>
<Temperature Stable at 10 degrees centigrade.>
<injecting restoration Nanomachines into Occupant.>
<Nanomachines injected. Beginning internal Body reconstruction.>
<...>
<...>
<...>
<Reconstruction complete.>
<Activating Circulatory System Bypass.>
<Inserting Draining tubes into vital Arteries.>
<Inserting Pumping tubes into vital Veins.>
<Additional Blood Cycle Engaged.>
<Reducing Blood Temperature to safe maximum of 20 degrees.>
<Activating Artificial Heart Cycle.>
<...>
<...>
<...>
<...>
<...>
<Blood Temperature Stable at 19.5 Degrees.>
<Continuing Artificial Heart Cycle until Heartbeat Detected.>
<Commencing Ressusitation Procedures.>
<Defibrilation in...>
< 3...>
< 2...>
< 1...>
<Defibrilation administered.>
<Scanning for life signs.>
<...>
<No Life Signs Detected.>
<Beginning AAR.>
<...>
<...>
<...>
<AAR complete.>
<Defibrilation in...>
< 3...>
< 2...>
< 1...>
<Defibrilation administered.>
<Scanning for life signs.>
<...>
<No Life Signs Detected.>
<Beginning AAR.>
<...>
<...>
<...>
<AAR complete.>
<Defibrilation in...>
< 3...>
< 2...>
< 1...>
<Defibrilation administered.>
<Scanning for life signs.>
<...>
<Life Signs Detected.>
<Disengaging Artificial Heart Cycle.>
<Heartbeat Detected: Fluxuating at 60BPM and 2000BPM.>
<Scanning Blood Oxygen level.>
<Scan Complete. Blood Oxygen level below acceptable limits.>
<Raising Oxygen level to 40%.>
<...>
<Oxygen sucessfully raised.>
<Scanning Occupant...>
<Heartbeat stabilised: remaining steady at 120BPM.>
<Life signs Stabilised.>
<Uploading Bio-Soul Containment Memory to Occupant.>
<...>
<Upload Sucessful.>
<Commensing Torr'Korr and Adrenaline injections.>
<...>
<Injections complete.>
<Beginning final sequence.>
<...>
<Sequence complete.>
<Reviving Suru'Kai Tre'Kara... Welcome Back, Warmaster.>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suru'Kai gave a Startled Shuddering breath and convulsed before descending into a Coughing Fit: Emptying his lungs of the fluid that had built up while when was gone and venting it all over the floor.
"*Cough, cough. Cough.* Urgh... That *Cough.* Sucks..."
Shakily, he sat up and rubbed his head through his helmet.
"Oowww... How long was I out?"

[BIos_Reaper]

Seated before the previously disabled war master, japanese-style(actually Atinian standard but it looks japanese for reference)he allowed himself a small smile.

"Successful repairs conducted. You were inactive for approximately one hour, 10 minutes and 57 seconds.

A long time to be dead, but I've seen people revived after a period of five years. The damage was extensive, but I made upgrades to your suit. A couple the internal registry did not detect, don't worry, it will once they power up. Welcome back though... "

Standing up he scanned the area as he was used to. Remnant psionic field distortions of alpha, beta and minute traces of gamma waves were still in the air, screwing up his more sensitive instrumentation but basic systems were unaffected.

Internal repairs were completed and he was back to 100% functionality, a fact that he was glad that so was Suru'Kai.

[Cobalt3924]

“Grgh… Thanks Quanta. You too Darien…”
Suru’Kai rolled over and unsteadily got to his feet, stretching his fixed wings with a loud crunch as he cricked the joints.
“Ahh… At least I didn’t have to fully Resurrect…” Suru’Kai muttered to himself as his new targeting system calibrated to him and his suits weapons and Deflection Shields Cycle up to effective power levels. Suru’Kai then downloaded a program onto a pair of Rakai Data Storage Devices and handed it to Quanta and Darien.
“Take these. It’s a Rakeese Translator: It should help if we run into more Mutated Rakai. Where’s the Unconscious one by the way? We should get him back to the Thunder before we move on.”

[Arratra]

"I can't find him," Arratra said over the communicator, "There are three posibilities. He's out of range, masking himself... or dead. It is... potentially possible that masking himself may be an automatic defense, or that his powers fade away when sleeping."
Several seconds of static came across the communicator; it was the flat, unchanging sort that came from an open microphone that was not picking up anything.
"This place is really giving me the creeps," Arratra said eventually, "This entire place... screams of suffering to my senses. I can smell the blood, the fear... taste the malice in the air... and even the psionic sense of this place is... disturbing. And yet I do not see a bloodstain anywhere... Well, aside from the fluid that escaped Quanti. And... there are Ghosts here."
Ghosts were not actually the ethereal beings this word was usually associated with. These were actually psionic echoes or imprints in the fabric of energy. They generally formed where there were large amounts of intense emotion. Some could be pleasant, such as a maternity ward or a wedding venue. Others were much less so. Only psionic individuals could pick up on these reliably, although almost anyone would get a creepy feeling in them. Many psionics would actually manage to make out some of the events that had caused the imprint to form, usually in the form of ghostly, glowing figures that would interact or even speak. One of the most powerful ones on record could even interact with those within it, to the extent that it could even have conversations with psionic individuals passing through.

"Scientists, I think," Arratra said after a long pause, "Just walking around and looking at the displays. This Ghost isn't that strong... I'm not getting any sound. The emotion is... expectant... And then downcast. Something went wrong with a big test."

[Cobalt3924]

“I’ve never heard of a Psionic be able to turn their powers off when they sleep; Even more so with a Rakai Psionic. We Rakai are almost immune to Telepathy in all form- Arratra?” Suru’Kai asked when he heard the static.
“Arratra, are you there? Arratra…? ARRATRA!”
“-This place is really giving me the creeps.” Arratra replied.
“Nce nupfd dtfj...” Suru’Kai snarled under his breath: taking a hesitant step, but overshooting the step because of his suits Enhanced Servo System; stumbling and falling back onto the Bed in a heap.
“Whoa-whoa-whoa! Oof! Argh… did you change the Servo strength too Quanta?”

[Nelle Kozera]

(Sorry for my absence...I dragged my self to the computer for yall. )

The compound had the eerie feel that came with any place that was empty, bleak and full of old emotional wounds. Though this was simply the loading dock, the place itself was barren aside from the broken air shuttles that where laying in the corner of the hanger. The entrance to the compound was still open though the Rakai himself was gone. He had been moved by something, though the reason for his disappearance was a mystery, it seemed that in his exist he must have triggered something be a recording was playing in the room on the other side of the corridor. It seems to have been set to repeat as the message began set to replay itself.

-Log 3849-

“This is head researcher Anastasiya.” It was a female copper head snake. “Subject 3792304, is show enhanced Psionic abilities far beyond anything seen in the captured SCION reports, and of course the captured SCION operatives was a help, where the hell this Katinians get there skill is a mystery. The running theory for the boost in Psionic potential is because we did not rely on an outside element with psionic properties and instead went for directly altering the brain chemistry and dimensional reality attachment. Though no living being we have yet encountered has evolved in such a manor to exist partially connected to the high energy membranes, and this has cause the rates of insanity to increase tenfold.” Her accent gave it away that she was from one of the more distant colonies in the GSA, even though she spoke GSA common almost perfectly.

“The Rakai have been difficult to deal with, this red one, subject 0284903, seems to one of the few Rakai that can be used as Psionic nodes, this means that he can used in the Psionic sensor network, which is ment to go online next year. Secondly he seems to be unstable, I watched as he tore his eyes out with his own claws. Mr.Cartwright was here when that happened and he was not pleased from the sight, personally I think he’s the breakthrough we have been looking for if he can be brought back to the realm of sanity in the Sensor research.”

“One thing that Cartwright mentioned in his visit here, that this was similar to Dichotomy Project, of which I felt a disturbing about the comparison, but all a little pride as well. Sure only three of the test subjects come out of that test alive and with their sanity intact, puls that fact that our benefactor mister Cartwright being one of them. Though I won’t question the comparison farther because whatever his goal here is, he must some value in it worth the ninety trillion Varan1 he sinks into this lab every year. Regardless I’m just happy he decided to combat the Dark Core SCION programs."

-End of log 3849-

1. (GSA standard currency worth 1.3 galactic credits)

[BIos_Reaper]

Quanti barely managed to contain his snickering at Suru'Kai's rather comical introduction to his suits upgraded servo-mechanisms. Standing up he extended his hand and aided him in standing back up again.

"I did. I made a few modifications. I'm somewhat of an expert in taking the technology of other species and upgrading it with what I have to work with. The benefit of being an AI is that I can never get bored... Heh"

He was rather bad at making humor, being a techie after all. His ears perked as he heard the message. He curled his hands into fists, noticeable shaken to his core of POW's being experimented on by some demented corporation in search of profit?

Furious... He stomped out, sought the exact location from where the sound was coming from, and shot the device often enough with his optical lasers to reduce any conceivable chance of repairing it to absolute zero... However, as an AI he was not stupid, nor blinded by rage.

He made a detailed and accurate copy of all the data within the device before destroying it. He simply did not care to hear the voice of the degenerate filth that called itself a scientist.

"You tried to turn a sentient life-form into a beast of war, a mere "Node" in a flawed psionic sensor grid... And you paid for it with all that you ever had. A fitting end... For a pathetic excuse of a scientist. "

Returning to the vessel his eyes returned to their nominal, soft glowing green as opposed to his blaring, blood-red ones. He smiled, looking over at Suru'Kai.

"The systems might take some time getting used to, but no worry I included a fast-paced SMART VI learning package that ought to enable the suit to follow you, as opposed to you following the suit.

It will take a few minutes but after that you'll hardly feel a difference, other than that, well... You can run and hit harder than before off course.."

He swished his tail to an fro, twitching his ears. It was right, what Arratra said... The place was eerie. Even though he wasn't psionic he too could pick up the ghostly shapes with his quantum-sensor arrays.

The energy levels were minimal, sufficient only to interfere with minutely sensitive readings, beyond that they were of no significant value.


"Whatever it was that they did here. It cost them their lives... I cant say I feel even the slightest bit of grief for them. Scientists who experiment on prisoners of war are to be executed on sight and all records of the experiment permanently purged from any system.

If possible I would prefer the total annihilation of this facility and all it's records and data banks... I am beginning to despise the GSA... I am starting to wonder if I should have just left the moment I arrived in this twisted hellhole of a galaxy..."

[Arratra]

"Why did Cartwright fund this?" Arratra said, sounding appalled, "What did they find out about the SCIONs?"
Silence crackled across the link as Arratra shifted, his armour scraping over itself.
"Did Cartwright know about this?" he continued eventually, "And why did they do it?!"

[Nelle Kozera]

(Arratra, they didn't, they avoided use E-X and went a different route.)

[Cobalt3924]

Suru’Kai snarled and got to his feet; using his Vortex Rife as a makeshift Crutch until he got his strength back.
“I think there’s more to Mr. Dresden than we first thought…” Suru’Kai snarled; his eyes glowing bright red through his tinted visor; a trait of the Rakai as their eyes changed colour according to their emotions. “And if he’s responsible for enslaving these Rakai, then he’s going to wish he’d never been born…”
With a loud scraping metallic sound, a set of long bladed claws erupted from one of his hands. His suit rapidly integrated with his body; adapting to him with relative ease due to the new systems installed.
“I need to find that Psionic Rakai. If its Soul-Chip is intact; we can use it to find out what happened.”

[Brome Teks]

"The what-chip?" Darien stands and walks with Suru’Kai. "What does it do?"

[Cobalt3924]

“The Soul-Chip. It’s Proper name is the Bio-Soul Containment System. The easiest way to put it: Think of it like a Hard Drive that can store an entire consciousness on it.:
Suru’Kai slid down one of the plates on the back on his neck; revealing a small marble sized lump on the back of his neck.
“All Rakai have them: Its how our Resurrection Technology works. If his one is still intact: we can get a copy of his entire consciousness and find out what happened here and anything else he’s seen.”
Suru’Kai slid the plate back with a sigh.
“My chips had a workout. It’s had to record 13 Lifetimes worth of information. No-one has found the limit of these chips. Not even I know how they’re made.”

[Akhil.WhiteWolf]

"Well, that's fascinating. They only work on Rakai, then?" Rashek tries to lighten the mood. He folds his ears back slightly, fearing it didn't work.
Extremely unlike himself, this encounter seems to have shaken him to the very core. Old memories he had locked down came free, and now he was becoming unstable, as he had only once before. He's extremely nervous, and not nearly as rough as he used to be.
"So...So, what do we do now?"

[Cobalt3924]

Suru'Kai looked over at Rashek. It was hard to tell through his helmet what mood he was in, but a small laugh signalled he was smiling.
"Luckily for you: No, it isn't restricted to Rakai. You could be fitted with one if you wanted, but you wouldn't be able to regenerate unless you were happy being reborn into a Fledgelet Rakai Body; and it's a very strange feeling; regressing to a fledgelet in what seems like a few minutes."
Suru straighened up and started walking normally: the Adrenaline and Torr'Korr injected into him from his suit healing him far faster than normal.
"In your case, if you died with the Soul-Chip and didn't have a body to be transferred into; you'd essentially become an Organic AI. Sorry if that's insulting to you Quanta."

[Brome Teks]

Darien takes mental notes of these potential technologies as he listens to the folks banter back and forth.

[BIos_Reaper]

Quanta had been listening intently. Akhils emotions had become considerable differentiated ever since the ESP incident. Possible the event had shaken his core psyche and unearthed a more... He chuckled at the thought. "Alive" Akhil than before? The tech behind Rakai organic-reconstruction differed greatly from Atinian engineering in many ways but was no less effective.

"Interesting, I second that. Atinian biological-reconstruction has a similar goal of bringing the person back, except there we recycle the body, re-build it from the ground up, add a few extra components and then psyche downloading can commence to return the persons mind in it's original state.

I am however curious.

What exactly is it that went on down here? I see evidences of bio-tech research into psionic tendencies of the kinetic variety yet undoubtedly something went tragically wrong down here.

My olfactory sensors are picking up a host of smells ranging from dried blood to putrid decay and my scanners are being subtly disrupted by psionic disturbance other than what just occurred.

There has been killing here, and not too long ago. Suggestion: Akhil, we ought to arm ourselves and go deeper into the facility. As inclined I am to remain behind as a coordinator I would not be called a coward and my technical aptitude may be necessary at a later point.

In other words... Who wants to back into the creepy underground bunker?

Geez... That sounded like a two-liner from a cheesy b-grade horror vid."

He stood up, twitching his ears, swaying his tail, his expression impossible to read. A machine could mask it's feelings better than the galaxy's most elite poker player. What went on down here? He had to know...

[Akhil.WhiteWolf]

Rashek smiles nervously, swinging around his rifle. "Alright, I guess. Who's gonna go with?"

[Arratra]

"I'm already down here," Arratra said, "I can go with you."

[Cobalt3924]

“Count me in.” Suru’Kai said, reloading his Vortex Rifle with a fresh energy cell.
“Although if you want some heavier firepower, Rashek or any of you; there’s a BTV Hailstorm Cannon in the Thunder you can use.”

[Brome Teks]

"I... Have no combat expertise. If you were going into a combat situation, I'd be too much of a liability. I could probably give you pointers if you come up against locked doors or any other mechanical impediments."

[Nelle Kozera]

(Spooky bunker! XD)

The corridor directly after the room with now ruined log projector was clean, far to clean. It seemed as if sterilized daily, most likely to prevent contamination of the rest of the facility. Though this clean room now had a perfectly cut hole where the other door should have been. Something cut its way through that door. On the other side of this opening was a seemingly untouched workspace, it was what used to the Security section of the Lab. Most readily noticeable where the presence of two very large caliber free floating Rail rifles. Spectral analysis would revile that Rifles where held aloft via Inertial negation systems reducing there effective mass so very weak thrusters could maneuver them with little effort. These systems where mostly controlled by an AI.

[Arratra]

Arratra carefully stepped through into the room, swinging his rifle over the interior, before moving to the pedestals.
"One of these is a SCION-issue weapon," he said, eyeing the one in question, "Heavily modified... Serial numbers match the weapon issued to SCION 12... She's been missing for years!"

[BIos_Reaper]

Exiting the vehicle Quanta ran multiple passive and active sensor and scanner equipment making up the bulk of his electronic and cyber-warfare suites.


The psionic emissions though still present, had largely ebbed away with time, permitting a more accurate read-out of the situation.

Approaching the free-floating gunnery defense drones he made his intentions clear through simple gestures. Approaching one of the terminals slowly he patched into it's multi-utility port, running a million search and answer protocols simultaneously to determine weather the defense AI in charge of the rooms security was hostile or not.

Since the systems in the security room appeared to be at least partially mechanical he would have no trouble contacting the AI, but it took a few precious minutes to adapt to the AI's method of communication.

"Request facility status update: Location of any surviving members of facility bio-medical staff and psionic researchers: Priority Alpha, request IFF admittance to system security to avoid possible hindrance of investigatory force applied with express authority on behalf of Sky Dragon Innovations."

Hopefully this would convince the AI to communicate and aid them in locating any surviving members of the facility's science staff and weather or not they could be permitted basic access to the facility in order to better navigate it.


Rule number one in scenarios if infiltrating a seemingly computer overseen slaughter house... Establish communication with overseeing AI first.

[Brome Teks]

Darien goes over to a computer terminal within the ship. "If anyone has cameras on their suits, I can hook them up and be able to give you Technical and strategic support from here. Like I said, I'm too much of a liability in combat..."

[Nelle Kozera]

On board the Shadows Thunder, the organic screens in front of Darien light up. It seems that the AI of the vessel had granted his wish, at least partially. These seemed to be security feeds from the surveillance equipment in the research laboratory, and adjacent areas. It was apparent than this complex was massive. The holographic projector station in the center of the room lit up, it showed a projected display of the station showing that it the area consisted of at least one hundred levels. In total and the scale, it was similar in size to Manhattan Island.

“Clearance assigned…” Said a voice through the communication systems of the room, “I should note that some requested Data may be restricted because you do not have the proper clearance level to access such data.” It was apparent that this was a beta level, meant to function if the primary Laboratory intelligence was offline or damaged. The voice itself was gender neutral. “For much of the information you have requested is not at my disposal, or you do not have proper clearance to access such information. If you need this data you must repair the Pandora level’s core processor units deeper into the heart of the station.”

“Warning, High level inertial fields surrounding the core. These fields must be deactivated to permit, you may ether remove the reason for the field to be in place or override the defense system manually. You have been labeled as friendly on the stations security systems, though many of the free floating turrets are off line and will not be able to provide you with assistance should the need arise…”