A Strange New World IC

[Samantha Arrow]

Current Players

Reaper of the Righteous as, Stath Tiandeqi Shi (dragon-like)
Assassin

AlWayZFrE3 as, Rayne Ryder (wolf-like)
Infantryman

Brome Teks as, Lukken Tresholiha (pocket dragon)
Engineer

Samantha Arrow as, Mar' Nalia Green (fox-like)
Scientist

Arratra as, Avartiath Drakenguard (dragon-like)
Heavy Infantry

Buzzwolf as, Alex Leto (tiger/wolf-like)
Recon Soldier

Macrorufus as, AR-783 'Art' (Drone*robot-like*)
Medic Variant

BIos_Reaper as, Setsuna "Raphael" Kiyoshi (lion-like*android*)
Medical Doctor

((New characters currently locked, however PM me and we can discuss it))

The Situation

The year is 3572. Our races have been interacting in space for hundreds of years, for better or for worse, but mostly for the worse. However, an extremely advanced race has invaded our region of space. The empires are falling one by one, the only hope to stop it was to assemble a massive armada formed by all the races. It didn't work.

All of our ships are being blow apart. Only one vessel seems to be escaping damage, a Wolvend dreadnought hanging near the bottom of the fight. It won't respond to hails, and no life-signs are detected. However, the hanger to the Wolvend ship is open, shielded to hold in the atmosphere. It seems the only safe place to go...

((First posts will be to explain how you escape from your ship and your arrival on the dreadnought.))

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Nalia was on the bridge of a Lightfirean battleship called the Nazar. She was sitting at the sensor and intellignece station, trying to feed information on weak-spots on the enemy ships to the tactical officer - it wasn't working very well.

Shields were constantly failing, the engineer kept pulling miracles of of his hat but eventually he'd run out and the shields would fall completely. Baryonic armor alone couldn't save the ship more than ten seconds of direct fire from such firepower.

Nalia noticed a power fluctuation in one of the enemy vessel's guns, and it was slowly turning towards the Nazar. Judging by the energy build up inside if it, it had enough power to drop the shields and would overloaded the shield generator. Nalia wasn't about to warn them though, if she did there would be a mad dash for the escape pods, she might not make it herself. Plus if they weren't aware they would hold them off longer, giving her more time to get to safety.

"I got an idea! I'll be back!" Nalia lied, running to one of the elevators and closed the door. "Nearest shuttle bay! Maximum speed!" The elevator moved so quickly it thew her around inside of it when it lunged downward. She arrived on a new floor and ran down the hall to the shuttle bay.

When she was in the bay, she realized she had forgot something. She ran to a object transfer device, "One years worth of Rabies Type 2 treatment." A bottle soon came out, one month's worth. Before another could arrive the entire ship shook violently and the power went out. She was thrown to the floor, then the auxiliary power kicked on. She knew the energy build-up she had detected hit the Nazar - she had little time.

She grabbed her pills and looked back at the transfer device, it was offline now, she didn't have time to get it working for the rest of the treatment. Sirens started to sound and she heard the captain giving the orders to abandon ship. She ran down the ramp and to a shuttle, almost knocked down to the floor again as the ship was ravaged with it's shields down. She climbed abord and shut the hatch quickly behind her, dropping the pill bottle to the floor in her rush to the pilot's seat.

She powered up the shuttle, she saw people rushing into the shuttlebay now. They started yelping to her for help, but she knew there was no time to wait for them. Suddenly the ship shook more violently than ever and power was lost again, this time it didn't turn back on - the ship was being destroyed as she was still inside. She threw the shuttle into full speed and navigated it out of the shuttle bay.

The Nazar was split in half, it would explode soon. Nalia plotted a course to the Wolvend ship she noticed was still in perfect condition. She sat curled in her seat as the ship flew itself there, guns, lasers, and plasma roaring around her ship as the battle continued around her. She was almost there when a missile detonated near her shuttle.

Sirens blared around her and her ship was thrown around like a doll. Shields were down and one wing was blown off, she was also pretty sure most of the electronics were destroyed, but she didn't have time to check which ones. She put it back in manual control and struggled to aim it at the dreadnought's shuttle bay.

She had her aim right, but she was coming in too fast. The shuttle crash landed into the hanger, grinding against the floor till it was stopped by a wall. It knocked her unconscious.

[macrorufus]

The CCA fought like a mauled animal, the remnants of the CCA vessels going all out. Jump drones suicided into enemy vessels, jumped into weapon arrays, carried CCA drones inside the enemy's vessels. Cargo bays filled with jump drones and attached combat drones jumped regularly. Fewer and fewer jump drones returned.
"Signal from Tsars onboard the enemy vessel classified as the 'Lucifer', they have secured a beachhead, and require a medic."
"Send the medical drone."
"AR-783 Prep for jump!"
The medical drone shambled forward, a Volunteer Brigade Drone (and marked so), designed to field patch other Tsar Combat Drones.
Art attached himself to the jump drone. They jumped aboard the Lucifer, into what appeared to be a cargo bay, the jump drone was surrounded by seven Tsars firing at the Lucifer's crew. Weapons fire thumped all around the drones, an eighth drone struggled to raise itself, its left leg was simply gone.
Art thumped over to the downed drone, crouching involuntarily from the weapon's fire. Looking around, Art's optics saw the missing leg. Moving behind the firing drones, he picked it up, and worked on welding it onto the 'wounded' drone's leg. It wouldn't function, but it'd be an acceptable prop to stand on. Though, as time went on, the drones began to lose. Art signalled his ship, asking why there were no more Tsars coming to support the attack aboard the Lucifer, only to recieve the response.
"AR-783, there are no CCA drones left in the fleet that can board the vessel."
As the boarders were slowly reduced, one by one by the defending aliens, Art's E-Brain had had enough. He didn't want to die. He did the only thing he could to save himself.
Turning back to the jump drone, Art connected his diagnostics cables and reprogrammed the jump drone. Using its fleet links, he 'saw' the combined fleets' imminent defeat, and also the vessel left untouched. Attaching himself he commanded the drone to jump itself into the dreadnought's hangar. Within the hangar though, the moment AR-783 disconnected his diagnostics cable, the jump drone returned to its original programming and jumped to throw itself at an enemy ship.

[Brome Teks]

Lukken was the head of an understaffed engineering team on one of the many rapiers the Pocket dragons had provided for the battle. "Keep the force planes running!" he shouted to one of the other engineers as he worked on boosting the power they could get out of the generator. He pull out his aide as he moves on to the next task, finding that the propulsion system was acting up. He quickly goes over to that and replaces a fried component. As he does that, his aide rings out an alert. "Pestilence has been destroyed!" He pulls it onto his screen and watches in horror as the Horsemen class ship, one of the strongest of the PD vessels, is blasted in half and then torn to shreds.

"Engineering, we may need to pull out." The captain says over the intercom "Pestilence is gone and War won't last much longer. The Goliaths can't make any progress, the talons are getting their tails kicked and the other rapiers are dropping like flies! Command is not sending in Famine or Death, leaving them and the remaining fleet to protect our home world. We may have to leave in a hurry, begin spooling up the step-through generator."

Just as the captain finishes saying that, that Rapier takes a direct hit on the force planes and overloads the system running them. A panel on the far side of engineering explodes off the wall, exposing the destroyed circuitry and killing an engineer in the process. The panel flies across the room and smashes into the step-through generator, damaging it severely. "Uh, we'll get back to you on that, captain!" He says alarms start to blare, "Shields down! Emergency depressurization in 200 seconds!" Lukken hurries over to the nearest shelter and pulls on his mechanical counter-pressure flight suit and seals his helmet. As he makes his way back to engineering as the air is pulled out of the ship's interior and back into the safety of the life support systems.

The benefits of depressurizing the ship in this condition were twofold. If there was a hull breech, the air pressure wouldn't push anyone into space, and it put out the fires in engineering. The ship grows eerily silent as he heads back to engineering to try and restore shields and buy time to repair the step-through generator. He quickly runs down to storage and pulls out some spare shield driving components and returns to engineering, pulling out the fried parts and beginning to put in new ones. Just before he finishes, a rail gun round pierces the ship, sending a shudder across the superstructure. Lukken turns around and sees in horror that the round had passed clean through engineering and annihilated the step-through generator. He goes over to the hole and look out, it passed through all the ship decks and into space beyond it.

He contacts the bridge. "This is engineer Tresholiha. The step-through generator is gone, we can't leave in this ship."

There was a pause on the other end. "Very well, I'm issuing general evacuation order Omega. All personnel are to evacuate to the escape pods and make their way to other Zrackli vessels."

"Sir, I think I can get the shields back on line long enough for the ship to cover the escape pods."

Another pause. "Very well. I'm reserving one for you near engineering, get to it as soon as the shields are back online."

"Aye sir." He begins to put the shields back online as others make their way to the escape pods. Another hit rumbles the ship, and Lukken manages to reattach the broken power feeds, causing the shields to glow back to life as they begin to surround the ship. "Shields up, I'm out of here."

No response, the captain had already been evacuated. Lukken begins towards his escape pod, but then gets a better idea. He heads up the ship and into the command deck. It was devoid of people at the moment. He sits at the helmsman's chair. "AI, can you confirm that every one else has been evacuated?" he asks over the radio.

"Confirmed." The AI said back calmly.

Lukken nods to himself as he begins to plug in a course. "AI, as ranking officer aboard this vessel, I order you to take command of the weapons systems."

The AI thinks for a second and says back. "Confirmed."

"Select targets in order of strategic priority Cernan. Lock on and fire at will. Aim the bow at the nearest enemy cruiser." He watches as the ship aligns itself, and the three remaining turrets begin to unleash themselves upon a couple nearby corvettes. "Disable proximity protocols. Launch all gravimetric torpedoes and set main rail gun to fire at full power as often as possible." He watches as the ship begins to fire. "All ahead full, maximum acceleration. Set collision course to that ship and download yourself to my aide as soon as you've set up your subroutines to handle the weapons."

"Aye sir." The AI begins to process as Lukken turns and begins towards the escape pod. As he winds his way through the ship as fast as he can go, the ship shudders as more systems go offline. His aide bings to indicate that the AI is on as he steps into the escape pod. "Warning: shields offline. Ten seconds to collision."

"Launch escape pod!" He shouts as he buckles himself in. He gets pressed back in his seat as his escape pod jettisons from the rapier. He syncs his aide with the external camera on the escape pod as he watches the rapier plow into the enemy ship, guns blazing until the last minute. He smiles with grim satisfaction as the enemy cruiser is tremendously damaged by the rapier as the tiny ship's core ruptures, causing a localized quantum vacuum collapse, releasing a huge amount of energy. The blast rends the enemy cruiser in two.

"Warning," the AI says from his aide, "All Zrackli ships in the area are currently engaged. If we are to dock with one, they would have to lower their shields again. Suggest we find an alternative ship."

Lukken nods and pulls up a map showing all the ships currently engaged in the battle. "There, that one." He indicates, touching the icon of a certain Wolvend cruiser. "They still have full integrity" The pod makes it's way down to that ship. On it's way in, the tiny pod (It's less than a foot across) by some stupendously bad luck gets hit by a stray low velocity round. The pod starts spinning as it flies into the open bay and crashes into a wall, jostling the little pocket dragon. "Ow... dammit..." He rubs his head as he unbuckles himself. "Blow the hatch."

The hatch on the escape pod blows off by means of explosive bolts. Lukken clambers out and drops to the ground, sitting against the pod and rubbing his sore back. "That was not a pretty landing..."

[Nelle Kozera]

Reaver Stealth technology had kept them from targeting most of the Reaver vessels directly. The Alien vessels from what the Priests of the Reaver vessels could tell was that the enemy was using blind fire to, and some sort of energy flak to root out their vessels, one by one. The Divine Rebirth was a midsized stealth destroyer one of many in this is battle, by default all Reaver vessels next to no armor, or shields. They where stealth vessel their main defense was their own speed and invisibility. On board the Divine Rebirth, few Reavers where moving about with the exception of the Assassin, she was restless. The assassins of the Guild where vessels for a single reason, to repel all attempted to enter the sacred ground, though they were here only a formality, no was expected to make their way onto such a vessel in the first place, but it was still mandatory.

The Ship shook.

The cruiser had taken a near miss from one of the flak weapons that the enemy was using.

It Shook again, but this time there was groaning, the sound of metal on metal. The vessel had taken a direct hit. The Crew was scrambling, fire suppression systems kicked in. Alarms where blaring, it was chaos. Stath had to leave, and leave now, time was of the essence. She was a member of the Inquisition, a member of the Assassin guild. The righteous spear of the priesthood and she had to report this transgression to the high priests in person. Stath came sliding to a halt as the rear end of the ship gave way, the entire rear half of the destroyer had be torn off by some weapon she was not able to observe, the deck rapidly decompressed as a massive section was exposed to space causing her pressure suit in engage. She had two hours of air left in her suit. “Shadows help me…” She said to herself praying a silent prayer as she was running back, she had far less time to live, Reaver ships didn’t explode so much as lose stability before entering a metastate in which they are drawn into the next universe taking anything nearby with it. She had two minutes before that happened, even less to get to a safe distance. She was on deck three, and had to get to deck five. Her only choice was to jump, she had one chance. She ran as fast as her talon tipped feet would carry her into a jump across the void. She moved floating across the void, she was able to see the light lagged images of the battle. The Reaver vessels, invisible to the enemy had taken up a flanking position in which they could engage the enemy on their exposed sides. So far the Reavers had taken the least amount of losses. But each one hurt, each one destroyed was the loss of Astral technology. Such was a direct insult to any Reaver.

She landed with a silent thud feet first. And luckly it was next to an escape pod. Opening the pod and then slamming the hatch she smashed the release rune with her fist causing a minute antimatter charge to blow all the pins holding it in place, followed by the fast burn of an Antimatter/matter reaction. Stealth was a gift from the gods themselves to the Reavers, so vital to them even their escape pods had such shielding. Once the initial burn was complete manual control would have be achievable. Every member of the Inquisition was given the necessary training to pilot an escape pod of which she about to put to good use now as she piloted herself away from the vessel. She watched it on the 'window' of the craft. The Divine Rebrith’s optical cloak had been long destroyed and much of its passive stealth been rendered moot because of it's level of damage. The Engine section of the ship had set an intercept course for the enemy vessel. It was only a quarter the size of the enemy vessel at this point but she doubted the priesthood would care at this point. Once within three hundred meters the vessel totally lost stability opening a metagate. The ‘gate’ drew in the vessel that had crippled the Divine Rebirth into limbo, but with out the same stabilization systems of the Reaver vessel it was only a matter of time before limbo would rip the cursed ship to shreds, she predicted it would take about five minutes total.

It was then that she noticed that one vessel had escaped all fire; it was as if it was being ignored by both enemy fleets. “Well, I guess I have a ticket out of here…” She said to herself, before growling in spite of herself. She saw which species that the vessel belonged to, but it was her only option. An energy weapon of some sort tore by the vessel, the bleed off alone from the near miss has caused he engines to go haywire. She didn’t say anything, just another prayer, she knew she only had so much time, and from this distance there was only way that she was going to be able to get onboard. She checked her back and sides; she had all of her Ark blade weapons though not much else. “It’ll do…” She said the escape pod was never going to make it to the shuttle bay; she had to find another route. She aimed for one of the massive opening for the mass drivers. They were not firing; she only prayed that they didn’t decide to start anytime soon. The pod fit into the opening but only just as the pod slid along the electromagnetic rails of the cannon. It took a moment but it came to a stop, she was brutally aware that she could be killed at any moment, and that she was on borrowed time at the moment.

She took a moment to switch to internal air before slamming the “eject door” rune on the inside of the pod. Explosive pins fired violently shooting the door back down the cannon. She rolled out gracefully into the mighty weapon of the vessel. She went to the nearest wall only a few feet away. Before activating her short sword ark blade, she knew this area of the ship would have several feet of shielding she would need to whittle it down a till she could cut through. In the span of six seconds she was able to remove a section of the shielding some half a meter thick in the shape of a V before switch to her secondary blade and making another cut in the shielding before turning to her long blade. A 1.7 meter long weapon that could cut through anything.

She activated it before ramming the plasma encased sword through several feet of shielding before cutting herself a door. With the Air rushing out she knew she was successful in getting through. It took her another two minutes to cut herself an opening large enough for her to pass through. She took a step on the now depressurized deck. “…heretic vessels…” She loathed for a moment before she shook her head and activated her cloaking systems. Disappearing from view…

[BIos_Reaper]

The Altinian Foralkus-class battle cruiser "Hipoforakus" was in deep trouble. The enemy had singled it out on account of its enormous size and was pummeling away it's sturdy shielding like bugs trying to claw through body armor.

Quantum charged-particle beams flew left and right, utterly atomizing small-scale vessels whereas bigger ones at the very least reconsidered their method of attack. It was a loosing fight and the captain knew it, but so far it had been successful in its mission, acting as a shield for its damaged allies as only an Altinian ship could. The captain was hoping the damaged ships could get their crews to safety but the Hipoforakus' endurance was being tested.

The enemy weapons were extremely advanced, but their defenses thankfully left something to be desired. For hours and hours the ship continued to pummel away alongside its sister ships the "Toralkus" and "Aeonir" and successfully putting down a number of vessels but the fighting was taking its toll on their energy reserves to when finally the shields gave in, and it was up to the structural integrity field to maintain the ships armor as the shield energy was re-directed to the weapons, it didn't last long... Gauges were torn out of its armor almost instantly.

"Hang on! It's only minor damage!" I yelled, applying self-constricting bandages to a gash on a rather good looking engineer's leg, I knew it wasn't the time to be picking up hotties but still! Spraying nano-med gel over the material as explosions sounded all around me, circuitry and wiring blowing open as panels fell off and alarms blared all over. It was my job as an emergency medic to help the people aboard this massive ship do their jobs so we could all come out alive, and that's just what I aimed top do!

The nano-med gel self-sealed and mended the engineers damaged tissues, coagulating to keep his muscle fibers tightly knit and his skin nice and sealed, he could go for a week with just that, more than enough to let him get back up to do his work-station.

The Hipoforakus was taking a serious beating, shields were offline, the enemy had taken out one of the main gun batteries, the main bridge was damaged on account of multiple concussive impacts and the superstructure underneath the powered armor was giving in. CIC was in chaos as far as I could tell from my wireless QEC connection to the ships network. All emergency med-tech engineers were on active duty and coping. Another wounded, I rushed over, applying my boundless medical knowledge to re-attach his severed arm, it was bionic thankfully.

A colossal explosion rocked the ship, causing me to loose my otherwise sure footing and fly into the nearest wall, banging my head quite hard I half lost consciousness until the same engineer whose life I had saved yanked me to my feet... "Alert! Alert! Significant hull-breech! Sealing off sections A-10 through B-20!" The message had barely finished before a shock that seemed like it would jar my skeletal structure asunder caused the entire structure of the ship to creak with an ear piercing metallic screech! "All personnel evacuate! All personnel evacuate! Evacuate the Hipoforakus! The Megazone attack has been authorized! Get to the escape modules now!" The Taisho's words stung harder than any blade.

The Hipoforakus, it had been less than a year since its construction, now was not its time, but I was not about to disobey a direct order as I knew what the Megazone attack was... A suicide run.

Running as fast as I could, yelling through the ships extensive Person-to-Person communications system at my fellow Yakuzai and Kangohei to get the medi-bay's personnel and occupants to the medical evacuation shuttles, I doubled my bounding speed as secondary explosions wracked the ships damaged neurological circuitry. For an android that is something, the synthetic muscle tissue in my legs and armor providing a significant boost as the ship appeared to be coming apart at it's seamless joints all around me. I never thought I'd remain active long enough to see the day that a Foralkus-class went down... The first one since the great exodus three hundred thousand years ago.

Alarms blared all across the ship as personnel, much less than what you would normally find on a ship this big made it to the escape modules and shuttles evacuated the hangar bay in droves, leaping to a safe distance using their quick drives, a technology secretly observed from the IoS and developed for medivac shuttles. Skidding to a halt I picked up my side-arm from the dispenser module next to the pod and a compact rifle which I slid across my back, sealing my suit hermetically I placed my helmet on and booted the systems.

Everything read green! A soldier next to me got hit by flying debris, sending him straight into a wall, knocking him out! Without stopping to think of my safety I hoisted him up and dumped him into the podule, hitting the manual release panel next to the door before grabbing hold of the wire just as the ship lost gravimetric central control power and swung myself into the pod... My suit locked in place as I was fastened and secured, security gel filling the pod as the hatch sealed and bolted itself before the pod was magnetically accelerated out of its tube, its particle engine drive kicking in as I sped away from the Hipoforakus' dying frame...

Linking my neural-net to the pods external holo-optics I witnessed an almost satisfying view. The Hipoforakus' engine drives ignited all at once an the ships weapons blared to life, the Taisho's order came through. Mentally saluting the man I witnessed the Hipoforakus' pick out the single largest ship in the enemy fleet and ram straight into it, firing all of the main batteries, emptying every single kinetic drone tube at once and self-breaching the Zero-point Energy Modules, all 3 at simultaneously! The enemy was doomed...

The explosion was a magnificent tsunami of death and destruction! The sheer impacting force atomized the enemy ship and burst several others as the nearly 10 kilometer vessel roared its last, the hull peeling off, the shock wave breaking smaller enemy vessels apart like they were made of domino's! It would have been a true "Up YOURS! YOU F%&#/"ING MONSTERS!" moment had the energy wave not hit my pod and shut down its drive, sending me spinning around so madly I am sure I would have vomited had I been able to... Android vomit... Mayhap I'd put in a request for some upgrading on my internal organs in the future mayhap... Spinning madly out of control I mentally interfaced and rebooted the command protocols, the shields and engines flared to life again, only to have my view screen filled with a whole bunch of metal!

Spiral rolling to the side I narrowly avoided colliding with the breast of an enormous Wolvend dreadnought! Running a quick analysis I determined the ship was... Intact!? The enemy wasn't even firing on it yet!? Oh thank chaos theory for this utterly random yet completely beneficial event! Navigating my way along the length of the ship I found an opening, a hangar-bay of some sorts and it looked like other ships had had the same I had. Initiating the pods transformation sequence it's manipulator arms, legs and holo-optic head unit emerged, making it look like a small robot drone as it entered the magnetic field, landing gracefully next to the wreckage of another shuttle, it looked recently crashed!

Popping the hatch on my pod I had to push my body out of the emergency gel which was like slime, but once I was out it coagulated and peeled off easily enough I made a mad dash for the crashed shuttle, producing a laser cutter I sliced through the nearest hatch and peeked my head inside, switching on my helmet light-casters I looked around for any survivors. "Hello!? Is anyone alive in here!?" I called out, stepping inside, feeling my way around the smashed up ship, making my way towards the pilot section. If anyone was still alive I'd be damned if I let them die...

[AlWayZFrE3]

"Soldier, what the hell are you waiting for?! Get your fuzzy ass on the line!" Rayne roared at a private currently hunkering down in a corner. When the poor bastard didn't move, Rayne lowered his rifle, picked the younger Riharian up with one hand, and slammed him into the wall of the corridoor so hard the material dented. "When I say move, you f#@king move!"


Rayne picked up the soldier's fallen weapon and shoved it into his hands, then brought his own rifle back up to bear and opened up hard against the enemy. It'd been about forty three minutes since the first boarding party, and they were hitting the Riharian ships hard. Almost all of them were taken to some extent, the Exile and Omnus being the only exceptions. The Exile was still launching rounds into the fray with all four of its rail guns, though doing little else. The almost fully designated sniper ship was just too far out to be a bother until the main force was dealt with. The Omnus was another story. Though no rail or energy weapons were equipted to it, the Omnus had nearly thousands of missiles on board, and the exploding hail that it unleashed was enough to light up the void for a good bit of the star system. Any boarding vessle that got close was like a snowflake in a hurricane. A snowball in hell had better chances.


Rayne's ship, though, was not so lucky. Luna's Luck was among the light assault cruisers that was made for hit and run attacks, not prolonged battles. And her use was showing. Already, two whole decks were breached and half of the crew was dead. Rayne's team was one of only seven still operational, and that number was being generous. It wasn't counting that teams thirteen and five were downed with wounded, or that six and two had been pinned for over half an hour. Rayne himself was in thirteen, or was supposed to be. He had remnants of fours squads and they barely made a whole one.


Suddenly, the Riharian dove into someone's quarters and slammed his back against the doorway. Unlike other races, so far as he knew, Riharians kept the standard design of a door: it swung open, it swung closed, and it was armor plated for just such an occasion. But the enemy wasn't aiming at Rayne. The soldier he'd been talking to fell before a lead hail, litterally flying apart after a few seconds. A series of howls went up almost instantly. Twelve Riharian warriors, all aged and highly trained, roared forward from positions of cover, Rayne leading them. Bullets pinged off his REIKETSUKAN armor, but it was built to whitstand something like this. Glancing blows didn't even slow them down. Yaw, a long time friend of Rayne's, however, didn't have it so lucky. Two plasma rounds found his chest, and another his face. The old Riharian fell, but only after throwing his body to the side, into someone else's quarters, to avoid hampering his allies' progress.


Rayne opened fire at the last second, almost point blank into an enemy soldier. The gun, a projectile shooting heavy assault rifle, tore the soldier apart and sent rounds into the one behind him. Up here, so close, Rayne was able to get a solid look at the numbers. There were twenty five, not including the two he'd just killed, or the eight the other Riharians were shredding at the moment, behind cover and around the corner. Throwing caution to the wind, Rayne slapped the self destruct button on the side of his gun and flung it into the hands of a wounded enemy soldier, already drawing his knives as the whole fire team rushed past.


The team ripped through the soldiers like plasma through butter, not stopping at all but killing everything in their path. When they finally broke the line, every one of them kept going. They got down the hall by the time the enemy started shooting again, and were around the next corner by the time Rayne's and other brave soldiers' rifles went off, killing everything not dead in the hallway. Rayne paused a moment to lower his head and mourn the loss of one barely out of the 'cub' stage of his life, and of one that had seen many through just that stage. Yaw would be missed.


Rayne reached up, sheathed his knives, and pulled the helmet of his suit from its resting place between his shoulder blades. "Command of Luna's Luck, this is Ryder with mixed team in corridoor nine requesting sitrep," he said slowly.


The captain answered, in a voice Rayne had never heard. "All units of Luna's Luck deffensive force, I am initiating code 'Lower Arms'. Do not resist. It has been an honor to serve with all of you, and I am loathe to relinquish my life for this, but...LUNA DAMN THEM ALL!" The captain's sudden roar stunned Rayne, just before he recognized the code. 'Lower Arms' was a trojan horse of sorts. It was the code a captain used when the bridge was taken but crewmen were still on the ship. It meant, almost to the letter, 'Abandon ship and honor me with an extra shot at the bar, this mother's gonna blow big.'


Over the coms, Rayne heard a rapid fire, low calliber submachine gun go off, then heavier fire and finally silence. Rayne growled to his team, rage barely in check. "Abandon ship, scramble all pods, and good luck," he said.


The effect was instant. Rayne's whole squad gave one final salute before rushing off to the nearest escape pod. Rayne grabbed Kara, a younger member, and spoke to her in a low tone. "Anyone who's getting off it already off. We need to make it to the core and set her to blow."


Kara nodded but did not answer. Yaw was her brother, far off in age though they were. Rayne did not wait, but took off down the corridoor and ducked into a net tube. Unlike other races in this aspect as well, Riharian ships had tubes with solid, durrable nets that soldiers and crew could use to traverse the ship. The duo hopped in and grabbed hold, then shot sideways and down. They dodged out of the net tube and rolled into position, Rayne with his standard issue sidearm, Kara with her small carbine. There was no threat to deal with, so they kept moving. Strangely, there was no opposition on the way. They made it to the central drive core and set it to go nuclear in ten minutes, then worked the manual controls and secondaries until the ship ran in circles, spewing death out one side whenever that side faced the enemy. Done with that, they started sprinting for the escape pods that shot out the bottom of the ship.


But something was waiting for them. A lone enemy soldier carrying heavy explosives rounded the corner and saw them, just outside of Rayne's effective range. Kara didn't see him. She was facing the other way. The soldier opened fire with his heavy assault rifle.


Rayne dove to protect Kara, but failed. The enemy's first shot tore through her back and lodged next to her heart. Her rifle fell out of her hands, and she collapsed. Rayne glared at the enemy, whose gun had jammed. He dropped his knife. He tore off the top half of his armor. And then he rushed forward. Rayne slammed into the terrified soldier before he could react and tore the rifle from his shaking hands. The Riharian fell with the enemy, pinning his arms with his knees. Then he began to pound in the soldier's face with his bare hands. Rayne slammed his fists home over and over again, roaring until his voice cracked and he was sure the soldier was dead.


Then, slowly, he rose, pulled his armor back on, and ran to Kara's side. "Hey, wake up soldier, you're gonna be fine," he said, half knowing already, half hoping he didn't have to lost what had once been his mate and one of his best friends all in one day. Even the best of soldiers couldn't take that much without heavy regret.


Kara only smiled groggily. "Don't kid yourself, Rayne. Gimme a grenade and get your ass out of here," she mumbled.


"Like hell." Rayne slung her rifle over his shoulder and picked her up. "I'm not losing my best friend, my ship, my squad, AND my mate in one damned day. Cut that BS, corporal," he growled. Quickly, he made his way to the nearest escape pod and opened it up. The pod, obviously, was only going to fit one.


"Just leave me," Kara tried to push Rayne away, but her strength was waning. The suit had automatically sealed her wound with synthskin, but the bullet had to come out or she would surely die. The suit...


"What part of 'like hell' don't you understand?" Rayne asked. He pulled out a combat knife and sliced away parts of her suit. "I don't care if we both have to get into that pod naked," he growled, a smile pulling at his muzzle. "But you're coming with me."


Kara, thankfully, stopped resisting and let him strip off the armor. Beneath was a skintight suit that only covered from her collar to her groin. Rayne gently set her in the pod, then, making sure there was room, he stored his armor where food and other survival supplies were to be kept before jumping in after her. Unlike other soldiers, Rayne wore leggings instead of the skintight suit. It just felt more comfortable and easier to move. They both fit, so Rayne closed it up and launched, holding Kara gently but tightly to keep her from bouncing around.


He didn't see where they were going, but he did know they were catching flak. Finally, something breeched the pod and atmosphere began rushing out through a small crack. Rayne, thinking fast, locked lips with Kara and forced her to breathe. About five seconds later, they impacted with the Wolvend ship and both blacked out.


Riharians don't stay down. Rayne came alive a minute after landing, blowing the pod open with the touch of a button and flinging himself out. If there were enemy elements aboard, he was dead. But he didn't think about that. He reached back into the pod and pulled his former mate out, then dropped from exhaustion, managing to prop them both up against the pod. There, he wrapped his arms around Kara and smiled. "Well, shit, ain't this familiar," he said, voice hoarse.


Kara smiled too. "Rayne, I'm starting to go black. Don't let me die slowly," she said.


Tears began to flow from Rayne's eyes. He knew what had to be done. No Riharian ever died of old age, and only the most unlucky or dishonorable died from long working wounds. Rayne reached into the storage compartment and pulled one of his knives out. Before either could say more, he slid the knife into the bullet wound and jerked slightly, piercing her heart. Kara let out a short sigh, then was still.


Rayne pulled out his knife and gently lay her body in the pod. After retrieving his gear, he ripped Kara's tags from her neck and primed his last grenade. With the last of his power, and a ton of help from his suit, he dragged then shoved the pod back into space, flinging in the grenade and closing it before it cleared the field. Rayne turned away from the explosion.


He cleared his eyes and checked Kara's rifle. Regular rounds, few extra clips, few specialized clips. Chambering a round, he strode forward, helmet down, and stood waiting. There were, as he now noticed, others in the bay. They'd been hidden by the pod when Rayne had done the deed. Rayne slung his rifle and approached a shuttle that looked semi damaged. One wing was missing and sparks were still flying here and there. Rayne rounded the vessle to find it already cut open. He banged lightly on the hull. "Ryder of the Riharian assault team. Anyone in there?"

[Arratra]

Avartiath lifted up the helmet of his "Solaris" powered suit, and slid it over his head. It sealed, and the holographic displays in the transparent section of the faceplate blinked into life.
"All systems green," he said, his voice slightly distorted by the external speakers on the suit, "Seals are good. Nothings getting in or out of this suit without permission."
"That's good to know," his CO commented, also from within a powered suit. Unlike Avartiath's, it was an "Aegis" model; massive, slow, and incredibly tough. Both suits were old, reliable technology, rather than bleeding-edge tech, but both were modular, meaning updates to technology and repairs could be done quickly and efficiently; none of the fooling around that a few of the original power suits required.
Relics of the Draconic Wars.

"Looks like the Stormer division gets a chance to-" another of the group began, before being interrupted by a panel blowing out and slamming into him. He wasn't killed; he was already in armour. Unfortunately, however, his wings were smashed; he was out of the mission.
"Report to med bay, immediately," the officer ordered, "You're out of this mission sol-."
He, too was interupted, this time by the lights going out.
"What just happened?" several voices said at once.
"Hell if I know," came the reply.
Avartiath squinted as helmet-mounted lights came on, before the faint emergency lighting also wavered on.
Which was when a klaxon started.
"Reactor core breached," the ship's AI said via the radio, "Secondary reactors offline. Tertiary fuel cells down to 50%. Reactor core destabilising. Evacuate immediately."
"You heard her," the officer yelled, "Get the wounded to the med bay and eject her. Avartiath?"
"Yes, sir?"
"you're going by a different route," he said, "Your suit's designed to handle space. You're going out the nearest airlock."
Avartiath barely had time to start voicing a protest before a HIVLEC was shoved into his arms, and some other supplies were secured in his suit's backpack.
"We don't have time to argue, soldier," the officer said, "Get out there, and do some damage."
Avartiath didn't reply, instead turning and running down the corridor from the armoury. The nearest airlock was actually the fighter launch facilities.

Leaping out of the launch bay caused some of the techs to cry out as they made their way to the escape pods. But Avartiath ignored them, spinning around and centring his targeters on one of the enemy ships. The hyper-velocity slug exploded from the muzzle of the weapon... and also sent Avartiath skidding backwards through space. It took him about twenty seconds to stabilise, now facing upside down relative to his original position.
He could see the ship he had been on accelerating towards the enemy; the cloud of escape pods, plus the larger medical bay, which, like on all Draconian ships, could be ejected, and had its own independent life support, drives, and navigation, were jetting in the opposite direction, towards a cluster of carriers at the rear of the fleet. IR and neutrino scopes showed that the Draconian ship was venting highly radioactive coolant, fortunately away from the escape pods.
Avartiath wisely turned his head away.

The explosion was incredibly bright, as the reaction inside the power core of the ship, running wildly out of control, reached supercritical phase; where the matter used to fuel the reaction started slamming into itself hard enough to create antimatter.
The Draconians had never developed antimatter-containment technology.

Avartiath was lining up another enemy ship when a nearby explosion sent him spinning wildly.
By a one in a million chance, the fighter bay of that particular Wolvend dreadnought happened to intersect his flight path.
But not that of his gun.
Avartiath slammed into the deck, skidding across it until he hit the bulkhead; his shields punched a dent into the metal, but they held. Which was fortunate for the Draconian; he had landed back-first. Not a good position for a Draconian.
"Augh," he groaned; he had still had the breath blasted out of him by the impact. He went to swing his gun into standby position, but missed the forward grip. Looking down, he discovered that more than half the weapon was missing.
"aw no," he grumbled, tossing the remnants of the weapon onto the deck.

[Buzzwolf]

Another shudder shook the massive ship, The Achilles, one of the largest ships in the allied fleet. "Report!" the Captain, a ancient tiger, bellowed to his bridge Crew as another warning klaxon blared it's warning to them "And someone shut of those damn alarms!"

"Hull Integrety at eighty percent and dropping sir! We've got breaches on decks six, nine, twenty-seven, and Thirty-two. All port side!" Alex called from a station floating around a central holoplate. Three lights began flashing on a collsion course, barely far enough to register before crashing into the hull "Sir! We've got boarders!" more lights flashed as the ship's AI readjusted the systems sensors, further out, but too close to anything more but prepare for impact.

"Fireteams! To your posts! prepare to repel boarders!" Alex Kicked off his console, three others around him doing the same, preparing to defend the bridge with their lives "hold you're post Corporal. I need you right where you were" Alex kicked hard into the deck platine to keep himself from stumbling into the wall as he looked up in suprise at the request of his captain. The old tiger merely stared at him, giving no explanation "That was an order Soldier!" he barked

A quick "Yes Sir!" and he kicked off the deck again, resuming his position at ops. he chanced a glance down to the rest of is team, a white furred Recin, and a couple Deitrans. The Female Deitran Grinned up at him and tapped her comm

"Don worry 'bout us Alpha! these jokers'll be a fuckin' cakewalk compared to what you train us fer" the glowing green dyed Deitran by the call-sigh 'Biohazard' Called out. Alex Nodded. they were his team, of course they could handle themselves, they weren't FT-1 for no reason afterall.

"What in the HELL are you three still doing on my bridge!?!" The three scrambled for the door under the glaring eyes of their furious captain, their heavy armored suits thudding as they magnitized to the floor for combat situations "I have Boarders all over my ship and you three can still find time to ch--" the captain was suddenly cut off as a comm fizzled to life

"Captain! This is Lance Corporal *Zzzzt* they're forc--*bzzt* toward engineering! Fireteams eighteen *Bzzzt* twenty-four are down sir! my position is being over*Bzzt*!" More impacts shook the ship as more boarding ships wedged themselves into the hull breaches "My god! there's--" a large explosion was heard followed by a burst of Static, and a vibration through the hull

"Corporal? What is your situation?!" silence "Corporal! Respond Corporal!" the comm fizzled to life, but it wasn't the Corporal

"They're everywhere! My god they're everywhere! there just too many of them!" Wild heavy arms fire filled the comm covered only by a garbled screaming before the comm died

"Fuck! That was Fireteam Three Sir!" Fireteam three was the first line of defense for the bridge, one of the more heavily armed ones to boot, residing a mere six decks down. Alex glanced desperately at the doorway. his team would need him for this fight, no matter how ready tey were, they were going to need all the help they could get
"Permission to--"

"Denied Corporal." the captain cut him off before he could even ask. another resonance wracked the hull as another boarding ship hit one of the weak points in the hull "Sitrep!"

a moments hesitation before Alex rattled off the readouts"Structural integrity at eighty-eight percent. breaches on all decks but five, fourty, and Bridge level. Armor plating is ineffective at this point Sir" an alarm sounded, and the holo image zoomed in on engineering the section, teh doors flashing "They're attempting to breach engineering!" Fuck! he thought. that meant they'd made their way past, or through. fireteams twenty-four through thirty

The captain let out a tired Sigh, his age suddenly showing in his old features for the first time in years "Remind me to have those doors reinforced when we get back to drydock" the captain sat back in his chair, deaf now to the alarms going off around the bridge. he knew the ship wasn't going to be making it back, not now, not ever. he keyed up gold colored holoscreen on his chairs interface. the only gold screen on the entire bridge. "Activate Protocol Omega nine. Authorization, nine-nine-seven-one-eight-three-sigma-delta-two." the gold interface screen flashed, turning a sickly red, with a countdown timer on it. the timer over-rode teh lower section of the main viewer, and a series of calculations ran on the main holoprojector with an image of then enemy fleet, calculating the point of greatest damage. a point confirmed and the timer started in according to that point. He then activated the comm, waiting a moment before speaking as he stood up "This is your captain. Omega Protocol Nine has been initiated. it has been a true Honor to serve with you all..." he waited a moment, as though hoping for some miracal to save them, in that instant of time "..All Crew, to the escape pods, Abandon Ship. I repeat, Abandon Ship" he turned the comm off, his clawed finger staying on the switch far longer than was necessary as he sighed and sat back down in the captains chair. The bridge erupted around him as the crewmen scrambled for the doors to the escape pods. "Corporal...Alex. a moment if you would." the captain never addressed his crew by first name. he stopped a few steps from the door. by the time Alex looked back to the captain, he was holding a small glowing cube "I have one last mission for you Corporal" he tossed him the glowing cube "Make sure that makes it to high command"

"Sir? you won't be joining us? I'm sure there's more than enough.." the captain put his hand up to stop him

"Not this time" he 'petted' the arm of his chair "This ol' girl have been through some tough times...made 'em through 'em all" The captain was rambling at this point, remembering some long past days "Our time has come Alex....Besides, Someone has to stay behind and make sure this ol' girl goes down with a bang. I believe you have a mission complete Corporal" The captains voice suddenly turning stern

Alex started to open his mouth as though to protest, but shut it, snapping to attention, he gave the Captain a salute "Godspeed Sir" he ducked out the door

"God gave up on us a long time ago..." he said to himself after the door had shut "Computer, seal the bridge. no in or out, seal engineering once all our men are out, adn let no one back in." The computer dinged a comfirmation, and a small hatch released beside the captains chair. inside was a single glass sitting next to a bottle of five hundred year old whiskey, a bottle placed there upon the building of the ship. he removed them gingerly, pouring the glass, he held it up ot the main viewscreen "To the good times, eh, ol' girl?" he spoke to the onboard AI, waiting for the timer to reach it's final digits.

Alex Dashed down the hallways, random fire bursts tearing through the silence as he headed for the nearest shuttle pods, eyes jumping between every body he ran across, hoping he'd never find his team, that they'd already blown clear of the ship. "No! KIRA!" the White furred Recin sat propped against a wall next to the door to the escape pods, holes littered her armor, and part of her left leg was missing. she swung the rifle she was carrying toward him, it dropped to the floor, realizing who it was. "Kira! What the hell happened" he dropped to a knee next to her

She smiled, her ice blue eyes the essence of calm. she'd already come to peace with it "Had to...*cough* had to...make sure you guys got away" she pointed down an alternate hallway. Blood covered the walls, and bodies littered the floor. "...bastards...splatter pretty nice" she grinned, her teeth stained red.

"You've done a great Job Kira...You do the Orions and the Recins Proud...now let's get you to an escape pod and get the fuck off this ship" he made as if to help her to her feet

She waved him off "No good Alex...Pods're all launched already...I'm not going anywhere" a sudden firefight broke out down the hallway opposite of them. She shoved her 1210 into his hands "Link it up to your suit...It'll do you more good than me at this point"

He magnitized it to the back of his armor, ignoring the request for the moment "Then we'll just use rifts! we've got enough to get well clear of the blast of this thing!" she shook her head, and grabed his arm, linking up a power transfer to Alex's suit, along with a set of coordinates

"You do...I've got a open wound Alex...I can't survive a space venture...it's over for me...The others will meet up with you...as soon...as they can" she was fading fast. "You...need to get out of here..." she didn't wait for a response before pulling the grenades from his armor, and priming one of them "Now get out of here! You don't have any more time!" she shook her head, trying to clear the building cobwebs "GO!"

He hugged her as best he could in her condition "It's been truly, an honor, to serve by your side...Give 'em hell 'n a half" a rift tore through the space in the doorway. his suit automatically iniated the protective particle field around his head upon opening a rift into open space, he launched himself through it as the roar of light arms fire opened up behind him.

another rift opened up in dead open space, launching Alex out into the clear Void far below the field of battle. he watched in silent awe as the Achilles tore itself apart, a disturbing silence to go with the incredible lightshow above him, tearing a hole in the very fabric of space-time, dragging as many ships as she could possibly take with her before the rift began to close up. a scrap of debris glanced off of his particle field, reminding him that he wasn't in the clear just yet. he rotated himself around, looking for any of the escape pods, finding only a wolvend Dreadnaut...an..undamaged Wolvend Dreadnaut. "What in the hell...?" he checked his rift capacitors. not enough juice for another jump for another day or two. he sighed and fired up his suits thrusters, aiming for the open shuttle bay. he hit with a heavy thud after rotating himself to hit feet first, and stepped through the field, heavy 1210 rifle in hand. a jingling caught his ear as he stepped into the air. he shook te gun, and a pair of dogtags fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. he scooped them up, wrapping his hand tight around them, before looping them around his neck and tucking them away i his armor. he looked up to find various others already spread out through the shuttle bay, some of the others were already attenting to them, so he looked around for the nearest console, maybe he could be of some use and find what the hell was up with this ship

[Brome Teks]

Lukken pulls himself together. He couldn’t allow himself to panic. Not in a situation like this. He pulls his gloves off and sticks them in one of the cargo pockets of his flight suit, and then reaches back and undoes some parts of his suit, allowing his wings to unfurl. (They wouldn’t be much use in space anyways) He pushes a button on his suit’s collar, which unseals his helmet and allows it to fold into a neat compact form, which retracts into the collar of the suit.

He turns around and begins to climb up into the escape pod. In there, he retrieves a spare bottle of oxygen, thinking it might come in handy later. He climbs back out and gets to the top of the little pod, looking over the room. He pulls out his aide and points the camera in the direction of the other ships. “AI, Identify those other beings.”

The AI in the Aide runs checks against its database. “There is a Calerian Core Alliance repair drone, a Lightfirean Union shuttle being opened by an Altian, A Riharian who just ended the other one’s life, a draconian, and a Ricinarian.”

“Are there any other Zrackli escape pods in here?” he asks.

The AI searches for a AGSF transponder, but comes up negative.

“Shit…” He says, ducking back into his escape pod. He was stuck on a cruiser with a buch of huge races which could end his life just by not looking where they were stepping.

His suit chimes. “Biometrics show signs of imminent hyperventilation.” His helmet seals back up. “Altering air composition to compensate.” He sighs. The suit was programmed to help keep his body at an ideal balance, hyperventilating did not help that, so the suit compensated by changing the composition of the air he was breathing. He looks down at his suit.

“Disable compensation.” He opens his helmet back up, it seals back into the collar. He climbs out of his pod and begins to flutter around the bay, looking for a corridor or vent he could use to get away from the giant hazards to his health.

[BIos_Reaper]

(Excuse me Brome Teks but, we aren't supposed to know each others identities and it is not possible to look at an Altinian android in medic powered armor and know it is an android, sensor blocks.)

[Nelle Kozera]

It took a moment or Stath to see the bulkhead leading out of that the hallway in which she was in. She didn’t hesitate when she saw that the door was not closed off, presumably to allow people in the depressurized sections into the other sections of the ship where they could breathe again. She jabbed the open the button, or at least what she thought was the switch that would open the door. When it didn’t open immediately she cursed the heretical machine before jabbing it again, this time it opened but there was no rush of air. For a moment she thought that the air was lost on more than one section of the ship.

The door closed behind her and then air was violent forced back into the section of the ship that she currently inhabited. When she looked behind her she saw that the door had sealed itself, she figured it was to keep people from going for a short walk in space. To anyone in the section it would have seemed like the door opened and closed to its own accord. The Reaver was invisible for the moment, on a ship she had no knowledge of, it wasn’t her day. From what little she knew of these heretic ships, she knew that the vessels command center would be in the center of the ship, protected from all but the most extreme of damage. So that was her destination, she found it rather convenient that the walls had arrows on them with directions, low level intelligence programs where able to translate the offensive writing into something easier of the eyes of the Reaver.

On the inside of her visor the interior of the ship was shown in the X-Ray spectrum, shapes of white and gray illuminated the interior of the ship, the main reason for this was that the lights in this section had been shut off for reasons unknown to Stath. It took only a moment before she come across a another opening. This one opened to a lighted hall near an internal elevator of the vessel with for the moment was locked…

[Brome Teks]

(Excuse me Brome Teks but, we aren't supposed to know each others identities and it is not possible to look at an Altinian android in medic powered armor and know it is an android, sensor blocks.)

{Our species have been interacting for years in this RP.

The Situation

The year is 3572. Our races have been interacting in space for hundreds of years, for better or for worse, but mostly for the worse.

It would follow that they recognize each other's body styles and builds. But I will remove the android part, you make a good point. Besides, All I'm getting is the races, not a full personal biography.}

[BIos_Reaper]

(All I meant was that if you know right from the get-go that I am not organic it ruins the whole mystery that I aimed to bring to this RP. Altinian androids are designed to look EXACTLY like normal Altinians, they just have different innards, are stronger, faster, more durable and more intelligent than an average Altinian, plus he is wearing medical powered armor and is in the process of aiding someone. If our species have been interacting for hundreds of years you would know Altinians, while condescending to species they consider barbaric and vain never cause unintended aggression and the last thing an Altinian would do was step on a Zrakli.)

[Brome Teks]

(All I meant was that if you know right from the get-go that I am not organic it ruins the whole mystery that I aimed to bring to this RP. Altinian androids are designed to look EXACTLY like normal Altinians, they just have different innards, are stronger, faster, more durable and more intelligent than an average Altinian, plus he is wearing medical powered armor and is in the process of aiding someone. If our species have been interacting for hundreds of years you would know Altinians, while condescending to species they consider barbaric and vain never cause unintended aggression and the last thing an Altinian would do was step on a Zrakli.)

{That does not change his fear, which is his primary downfall, and I already removed the android part. And I have to admit, being condescending but never causing conflict/aggression is self-contradictory.}

[BIos_Reaper]

Hearing the banging on the hull I made my way back towards where I originally entered the shuttle, remembering to switch off my light casters to avoid accidentally blinding whoever it was on the other end because even if the casters were designed to operate solely in the uv spectrum it had come to be known by our scientists that some species could see in the ultra-violet spectrum. I peeked my head outside, looking around a bit and spotting the person who had been banging on the wrenched metal of the shuttle, a Riharian assault trooper. I'd seen documentations on them in the past but nothing beyond guesswork really, they were well a equipped force to be reckoned with and damn good soldiers at that. It was a shame it took a galaxy wide threat for an Altinian to finally meet a Riharian. I didn't know if anyone else was still alive inside the shuttle so I wasn't about to waste much time.

"Riharian, over here." I waved from the cut-out hatch. "Ishisuna Kiyoshi of the Altinian Foralkus-class battlecruiser Hipoforakus, rapid-response medical. If you need any medical assistance it will have to wait for a bit, I think there might still be someone left alive in this heap and I'm not about to let them die if they are wounder or worse, dying. I'll be back." I turned around and moved back towards the cockpit section of the shuttle, switching my light casters back on as I arrived at the pilot section door which was hopelessly jammed in place by miniature shifts of the metal work frame surrounding it.

"Amp time."

I smirked as I ramped up the power in my muscles and my suits power supply I grabbed the sides of the door and pulled. The metal work creaked and bent, the alloy squealing loudly until finally the damn door gave in and it came right off its hinges, causing me to nearly topple with it I slung it to the side and made my way inside the cockpit, looking around until I spotted a Lightfirean female in the main control chair. "Hey! Are you all right? Do you require medical assistance?"

[Samantha Arrow]

[I think there might be a slight bit of confusion, this is mainly directed towards Reaper. Calling the Wolvend ship 'heretic' might not be the right term. The Wolvends are in fact rather honorable, hoever they are a servant race to the Lightfireans who could very well be classified as 'heretics' since they are a bit evil.]


(@Stath) Stath would notice something stange about the 'railgun' she landed in. There seemed to be something glowing at the far inside of it, and there were lenses at points along the length of the cannon. Upon closer inspection it could even be noticed that there were no magnetic accelerators. In fact the whole thing looked like a massive energy weapon rather than a railgun. There is no record anywhere ever showing a Wolvend vessel to carry such a weapon...

(@main-group) Once Alex landed in the shuttlebay the large hanger doors quickly sealed shut. Dull green lights turned on somewhere on the ceiling, providing only an eerie glow to illuminate the room. there was a slight metallic groaning sound and the lights flickered for a moment, but after there was complete silence. Someone just making a footstep would seem to echo throughout the entire room. The bay itself was massive, but dull. Everything was plain dark metal, the only places there seemed to be disturbances on the surface was where the various pods and shuttle had contacted the surface - the largest caused by the shuttle.

Occasionally, there would be a shrieking noise, almost describable as someone in screaming in horror. Upon inspection however, the group would see small panels were being pulled away by some automated system - most likely to feed new air in the room or keep it at the same temperature. Most of these were on the ceiling, but some were on the wall. They had a vent like coverings on them however. The only other opening was a small set of stairs that led up to one door, about ten feet high. It was closed, but there was a small panel next to it, it had buttons on it but nothing anyone without experience with it would understand.

Sam woke to someone calling at here, but it sounded slurred to here. As she slowly gained consciousness she could understand it more clearly. She looked around her crashed shuttle and tried pressing some of the keys, nothing happened. She unbuckled herself and squirmed out of her seat, still a bit overwhelmed by the crash. She didn't answer the creature talking to her for a while, exploring around the shuttle and opening various compartments. She seemed to find what she was looking for in a small device that was similar to a laptop and in a bottle of pills.

She finally answered, "I think I'm ok." She looked over the creature who was asking and smirked, "Mmm you're cute!" She commented as she got to her feet. She tried making her way to the back of the shuttle, pressing some buttons on a panel the door released, however something was damaged in the mechanism so it dropped suddenly, smacking against the floor with a loud crash that seemed to tear into the silence like a knife through butter.

[Brome Teks]

Lukken winces in midair as he hears the metal shrieking. His eyes widen as he sees a potential route away from all the other races. “I am so out of here.” He says to himself as he flies towards the nearest vent and lands on the wall next to it, using his gecko-like hands to hold onto the wall. “Hmm, bet I could fit through…” He folds up his wings and wriggles into the vent through a gap in the cover.

He lands in the ventilation duct, and looks around. He pulls out his aide and uses the screen to light the way before him. He begins traversing the vents, looking to distance himself from the larger, clumsier races. He wanders for what seems like hours, but is really just a few minutes. Eventually he comes to another ventilation duct cover. He peers out of it, and then looks to his aide. He unfolds it (It is very similar to the Nokia Morph Concept Phone) and looks at the screen. “AI, have you been keeping track of the distance I’ve traveled?”

“Affirmative.”

“Show me a map of the ship and vents, based on what we’ve seen.” The aide displays a 3D diagram of the ship’s exterior, and then shows the shuttle bay where he entered, and the vents he traveled inside of it. He nods and folds up the aide and wraps it around his wrist. He looks around and sees that there is no one in sight, and thinks he’s gotten far enough away from the giants to be safe, for now. He wriggles out through the vent and clings to the wall. He brushes himself off and launches himself from the wall, using his wings to flutter down the corridors, quite possibly in close proximity to a certain invisible assassin…

[BIos_Reaper]

(Umm... Samantha? I have my helmet on and it does not show my face <.<)

[Nelle Kozera]

(Anything that is not Reaver Tech is considered Heretic technology, unless they really really like you. Then its 'Tainted' technology.)

Staths echolocation systems picked up the noise of movement, she froze before turning to face the sound. At first she saw nothing, and for a moment she thought that it was nothing but the ducts shifting. When she began to walk away her systems picked up more movement this time she saw the small winged reptile crawl out of the vent. That puzzled her, not that it was in the vent but because he was on the ship in the first place. ‘Well…this could be helpful for me…’ she said taking soundless steps towards the oblivious Zrakli. She watched him flutter about for a moment, nearly flying into her visor as he flew about.

A moment later an invisible hand grabbed the little reptile in mid flight with an iron grip. She held him for a moment looking him over before her optical cloak faded away to revile a black armored Reaver assassin, a member of the Reaver inquisition, a Zealot, best assassins in the galaxy, along with many other names. “Little thing do you have any hacking or engineering skills?” The voice was quite, silky smooth. Carrying respect, though that could change at any moment…

[macrorufus]

AR-783's acoustic systems picked up the shrieking, and the drone winced. Switching to thermal optics, Art raised his over-sized head upwards to view the distraction. Aware of the nearby aliens he hung back. For all intents and purposes, he was so still, he almost looked offline were it not for the glow of his optics. Without warning he switched on his stablights and began washing the lights over the roof. The bright lights swept back and forth to the different points of sounds. Apparently satisfied Art switched his lamps off.
"Nothing hostile."
Could a drone's voice sound relieved?

[Brome Teks]

Lukken flies around the corridors, being a bit more relieved. Suddenly, something snatches him in the air with an iron grip. He struggles, starting to panic. His suit beeps. “Biometrics show signs of---“

“Oh, stuff it!” He tells his suit as he keeps struggling in the iron grip of an invisible being. He keeps struggling. Suddenly, the being decloaks and he finds himself face to face with a giant in pitch black armor and an unsettling helmet. He suddenly finds himself thankful that space suits include diapers.

H e looks over the armor, seeing that it is one of the rumored zealots. .oO(I’m dead…) He thinks to himself as he closes his eyes and prepares for his demise. Then the voice speaks up.

“Little thing, do you have any hacking or engineering skills?”

He cracks open an eye. “Commander Lukken Tresholiha, 174729388, chief engineer aboard Rapier 1196 ‘Rosebud’.” He says in the standard language, a far cry from the smooth chirps and whistles of his own language. He is giving the standard response for captured officers of the AGSF navy. Nonetheless, it gave the Reaver the answer she was looking for.

[AlWayZFrE3]

Under his helmet, Rayne's eye twitched and he froze. Then, suddenly, he slammed his fist into the hull of the ship in rage so hard that it dented in half a foot and roared in the aggressive, rapid fire language of Riharia (Sounds like a mix between Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and Russian...basically jibberish to other species. Translation technology has a very hard time deciphering it, because there are more than a few ways to say one thing. Oh, while I'm at it, Brome. Riharians use a special material in their escape pods that doesn't allow signals through and creates a distortive field around it. Your character wouldn't have been able to penetrate it with standard gear. Don't mean to snap, just stating a fact. Oh yeah, this is only with escape pods and some weapons. It's not standard (To keep it fair in this world )). "You mean there was a fucking medic here the WHOLE TIME?!"

Even through his helmet, the roar still echoed throughout the bay for a solid thirty seconds. A Riharian's rage was a force to be reckoned with on a good day. After the roar died away, all that could be heard from Rayne was slow, heavy, ragged breathing. Thousands of thoughts ran through his head, and eventually it became too much for even the steely Riharian's mind. He ripped off his helmet, knelt by the only good side of the transport, and showed himself his own breakfast. Tears ran freely down his face. The only other Riharian that shared his shame, the only other Riharian he'd ever felt emotion other than comradeship for, had died for almost no reason.

Something clinked around his neck, outside of his armor. Kara's tags glittered in the dull light. 'What the hell?' he thought. 'Riharian tags are brushed with steel wire so they don't shine...' Curious, he gently grabbed the tags and looked through them. Two, as was standard, were the normal tags with all of Kara's service information on it. Kara Satori, Service number 159003745-13, Breaks (the tribal designs all over their bodies, there are three different types: smooth, jagged, and circuit) Jagged, Eyes-Indigo, Last will-burn body and comit ashes to Void. But another tag was attatched to the second, the one that would come off in combat if she fell. The thought made Rayne growl to himself. But the tag made him stop. It was a copy of Rayne's, fresh off the press and unbrushed, yet still dinged and worn from combat. It was one of the copies that had Rayne's eye color wrong, the one that said Indigo instead of Silver. She's always said he'd look better with indigo eyes...

Rayne shook his head and stood, then walked pulled up his helmet. He had to keep going, had to contact the others. He walked away, looking for a way out, and activated his com. "Ryder First Thirteen of Luna's Luck, does anyone copy, over."

A reply came almost instantly, though Rayne could barely make it out. "Ryder...una's Luck, this is Omnus control...equesting imediate sitrep...mand of...iral Icarus Thane."

Rayne caught 'sitrep' and the fleet grandmaster's name, and from there figured it out. "Luna's Luck has been taken over by boarders and destroyed as per honor code. Unknown amount of hands lost, definite half gone possibly more. Have landed on unnamed Wolvend ship. Requesting combat update, over," he shot off, still in rapid fire Riharian.

It took a minute for the reply to come through. "Ry...rders are to...ort back to a...rian ship and..." the rest was static.

Through that, Rayne understood that he needed to get back. Trying to get another reply only resulted in more static. Rayne shook his head clear, forced his mind into the Zen mindset that he used while sniping, and renewed his efforts to find a door.

[Brome Teks]

But he didn't think about that. He reached back into the pod and pulled his former mate out, then dropped from exhaustion, managing to prop them both up against the pod. There, he wrapped his arms around Kara and smiled. "Well, shit, ain't this familiar," he said, voice hoarse.

Oh, while I'm at it, Brome. Riharians use a special material in their escape pods that doesn't allow signals through and creates a distortive field around it. Your character wouldn't have been able to penetrate it with standard gear. Don't mean to snap, just stating a fact. Oh yeah, this is only with escape pods and some weapons. It's not standard (To keep it fair in this world )). .

He turns around and begins to climb up into the escape pod. In there, he retrieves a spare bottle of oxygen, thinking it might come in handy later. He climbs back out and gets to the top of the little pod, looking over the room. He pulls out his aide and points the camera in the direction of the other ships. "AI, Identify those other beings."

The AI in the Aide runs checks against its database. "There is a Calerian Core Alliance repair drone, a Lightfirean Union shuttle being opened by an Altian, A Riharian who just ended the other one's life, a draconian, and a Ricinarian."

[You were outside the escape pod and it was a visual scan. Nothing needed to be penetrated with sensors in the first place. I will remove the part about killing the other Riharian if you so desire, but your character was standing in plain view.]

[Samantha Arrow]

[AlWayZ, please stop harassing people. On another note, I will most in the morning]

[AlWayZFrE3]

(("doesn't allow signals through and creates a distortive field around it." They were touching the pod, so the field covered them quite easily. It's a minor detail. But, uh, I have a minor concern. Could we please keep the OOC to the designated thread?))

EDIT:: Wait, what did I do?

[Arratra]

Avartiath stood up, his powered armour whining as he moved. He reached into his backpack, and felt the familiar plastic-ceramic plating of standard Draconian armour, and the familiar stock of an ARK-series weapon.
Tugging the weapon out instantly told him what it was, before it even reached his view.
"ARK-27 carbine," he said, examining it for a moment, before putting it away, now on the strip on his backpack where weapons like it were kept.

He pulled out his pistol, then, and pulled the slide back, then released it; the gun made a satisfying clack as the first round cycled into the chamber.
He tapped the transmission key on the side of his helmet; he slapped it again an instant later when a wall of noise blasted out of the speakers and into his ears.
"COMS are down," he muttered, shaking his head to clear the disorientation, as he shut down his suit's radio. He then checked the atmospheric composition in the now pressurised bay.
"Breathable atmosphere," he noted, then unsealed and removed his helmet... which was when the first scream sounded.
Instinctively he released his helmet, which clattered to the floor, and snapped his pistol up into firing position. A rapid search of the bay turned up nothing.
"What, by the divines, was that?" he said loudly to the bay at large, scooping up his helmet and securing it on his belt; he didn't want to be half-blinded by an improperly worn helmet should something suddenly attack.

[BIos_Reaper]

(I suggest from now on nobody does anything that has to do with seemingly penetrating each others technology. Each of our species is unique and I'd suggest we simply hint, leaving the post open to interpretation. AlWayZFrE3, if I might suggest. Altinian nano-med technology could still be of use to you, if her mind is freshly deceased it can be stored in digital format, for whatever that is worth)

Running a brief cursory analysis sweep on the Lightfirean I was satisfied she suffered no serious physical ailments or anomalies of any kind, making my way back towards the shuttles exit, I heard the metallic screeching noise and if it hadn't been for my suits sub-sonic filtration devices I might have cringed at the uncomfortable noise my sensitive ears were being subjected to, looking up I saw it was only the simple ships ventilation system and as such gave it no thought, flicking on my multiple-connections QEC.

[" ([ stands for mental communication, I.E. like a computer talking to another computer) Ishisuna Kiyoshi, 3rd Chui of the Foralkus-class warship Hipoforakus, second rapid-response medical, is anyone reading me?"] I hoped for a response, it was supposedly impossible to intercept or interfere with QE communications relays.

["Chio Ishisuna! This is Taisho Setsuna of the Foralkus-class warship Flightorakus! Where the are you? We detected multiple pod launches from the Hipoforakus but one veered off course, we're being hammered and we could sure use an additional medical unit!"] Gulping I answered quickly.

["I'm on a Wolvend dreadnought to the back of the fleet but I have no way of leaving, the damn thing sealed the fighter-launch bay but it appears to be deserted, nobody's even firing at it! At least, not yet]"

["Nobody's firing at it!? Have the Wolvend come up with some method of remaining undetected while in plain sight? Either way, your situation is acknowledged but make haste to attempt and return, while we are fighting alongside these other species I wouldn't trust most of them with one of our most sensitive technological advances to date. Taisho Setsuna out, and Ishisuna? Itterashai!"]

With that the communications line closed, the quantum cryptology code re-writing itself, it would be at least an hour before it could dial up another connection. So, for now I guessed I was stuck with these other races, most of them were the honorable sort... Allowing myself a rather ironic thought though that it would be just like the universe to let a Reaver get stranded on the same ship, that would just make my already cruddy day...

(Note I do not know there is one, he just hates most Reavers so XD)

[Brome Teks]

[Didn't he put the female into the escape pod, then put a grenade in that escape pod and shove it into space where it exploded brilliantly, Bios? Even for your character, that might make things difficult.]

[BIos_Reaper]

(yikes <.< I was totally out of it when I wrote that post)

[Samantha Arrow]

[Hate to disappoint a few of you with this next post, but...]

(@everyone) All attempts at communication were not responded to at all. The ship was either emitting some kind of jamming field or it was no longer in range of any of the vessels. If the communicator technology at question was sophisticated enough to tell, the ships were no longer in range, nor anything else hail-able.

Nalia frowned at the disturbance she made and looked around the room at to see what all was around her. She counted four people, and some kind of large robot.

She tried looking for anyone or any race she knew much about. Her eyes locked on the wolf, Rayne "Hey you're a Wolvend! Do you serve on this ship?" She called out to him suddenly, oblivious to the fact he was really a different species.