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Post by Draxy on May 29, 2016 23:06:41 GMT
It was with near physical pain that Ensign Sato ended her flyby and forced herself away from the various screens that hovered in front of her displaying the physical behemoth that lay in front of her. She had never felt so small and insignificant in her life. This was the Styx! The nigh pinnacle of mankind's engineering and practically the God of all spacefaring and yet she would be part of the team to discover it. Her! A youngster rookie fresh out the academy, from a backwater planet and a no name family. It was nigh unbelievable, and she was sure if she could feel it, her skin would be clammy and her chest would be heavy, for now she had to settle with biting her lip, a rather bad nervous habit of hers. The way the ship hung, it's engines cold and with no stabilisation, it spoke of what could only be a total navigation failure, and with its decaying orbit, she had voiced so in her report and she pitied whoever has to return her to service.
The uneasy feeling remained, this wasn't right. The Styx was supposed was supposed to be self sufficient and house millions, she shouldn't be dead in the water like this. It was just too depressing. She sighed and rubbed her aching temple. And the there was the matter of exactly how the navigation had failed, couldn't it be repaired? Frankly the entire thing reeked of sabotage but whom or what? A rouge AI? She shivered at the thought. There where horror stories like that back at the academy, because if the pilot uplink system could directly connect the pilot to the ships systems, much like that of an AI's then couldn't such a connection be used both ways? Nothing but mere speculation, complete nonsense of course, but still. Sato couldn't help but think they where about to dive feet first into danger. She sighed heavily, shaking her head out of such thoughts. She was a professional! Rookie or not, she shouldn't be having doubts like this!
The holographic screens flickered and shifted, running across the computerised background of her mindscape, that of one of the Academy's classrooms back on Earth. She scanned them all just as quick, a benefit of being connected to the system. A service hatch with little obstruction and close to the stated objective of the bridge. Perfect then for boarding.
"Access point is acquired, I'm bringing us in now Sir."
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Post by Lord Harrab on May 31, 2016 2:39:10 GMT
This time the Sanctuary was more subtle, a quick high power burn at the start of their approach, than an immediate shutdown of both ion engines, the corvette coasting in on the target point on pure inertia, maneuvering thrusters across her skin firing in tiny, microsecond bursts as sato corrected and guided its course at the speed of thought, the styx once more looming larger and larger on their screens.
Mordecai kept his eyes on his own station, watching as the corvette slipped calmly though the outer line of the passive scanners without incident, passive scans were for when a ship expected combat, but was unsure when or how the threat would materialize, checking and checking for active engines, incorrect id beacons and weapon radars, the sanctuary, moving without any of these things shouldn't even register to them.
The Sanctuary slowed as it neared the hatch the pilot had identified as the insertion point, located just behind the damaged section of the ship and in the shadow of one of those strange FTL pylons, then, with a sudden lurch and downward motion that caused those still standing to loose their balance, she engaged the magnetic docking clamps on the ships landing struts and dropped the corvette directly over the target, its belly cargo bay doors would be able to drop the crew right beside the access point.
"we're down sir." Sato announced calmly, followed up by Mordecai's affirmative nod that the Styx's defenses hadn't noticed them.
to get to the hatch you will have to activate your void suits as no direct contact could be made and the gap between your ship and the Styx is exposed to space. as for opening the hatch you have three options.
The Marine can use breaching charges to blow it open (instant. hatch cannot be closed again interior will be exposed to space.) The Data Miner can try to hack the airlock open. (will take 10-20 minutes. Hatch can be opened and closed at will) The Engineer can access the door's mechanics and disable the lock (will take 5-15 minutes, hatch can be opened and closed but not locked until repaired)
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Post by Darko on Jun 8, 2016 10:31:41 GMT
"Captain, I could use a breaching charge to get us inside the Styx without any delay," Mordecai suggested. "It's less subtle than other methods but it's also less time hanging around out here where the ship's defenses could reactivate at any moment."
"Negative, sergeant. That would leave the interior of the ship exposed to space which could cause a lot of problems, especially if we have to fall back to the ship in an emergency. Besides, I have a feeling we may need to conserve your demo charges for later."
Jones stood up, the rest of the crew were also making motions to exit the bridge, once they'd gathered all of their gear. It wasn't a very long walk to the airlock and he messaged for the rest of the crew to meet them there. Once the crew were assembled, he turned to the resident engineer.
"Nakamura - get out there and work your magic on that external hatch. Everyone else, prepare to board the Styx."
Internally he could hardly contain his excitement... and fear. The feeling of dread was starting to set in the more he wondered what terrible fate could have befallen the Styx and her crew, yet that only doubled his curiosity. He suspected the others were experiencing a mix of awe and curiosity much like he was, well, perhaps not the dataminer. He seemed relatively unperturbed by everything that was happening. Either he had balls of steel or he'd seen things, the kind of things that a man shouldn't see. The same ravenous curiosity that motivated him to scour every corner of the Styx for answers made him wonder what Mikhail had seen in his past. Perhaps he'd ask him at some point.
He didn't know much about Ensign Sato or Doctor Mitchell, the former was mostly plugged into the ship and the latter spent most of her time in the medbay when they weren't on away missions. He relished the opportunity to get to know his crew better, and exploring the Styx provided the perfect chance. It would also be good to learn their strengths and weaknesses so that they could work as a more efficient team. After all, in the cold emptiness of space, they only had each other to rely on. No one else would be coming for a long time.
"Regardless of what happens over there, at least we've made it into the history books," said Jones, allowing a moment of relaxation. "After all, we did just make the biggest historical discovery of the century."
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Post by Lord Harrab on Jun 15, 2016 13:54:51 GMT
Nakamura nodded to his captain and cycled the airlock, the soft hissing of the air being pumped out of the chamber was soon muffled as with a chime and a soft clacking noise, his helmet detected the lowering oxygen levels and transformed his suit into a self contained system.
"Internal Air reserves, active." the void suit informed him as he opened the door and stepped out on the skin of the Styx.
Walking in magboots took a certain skill manually triggering and disengaging the magnets on each shoe resulted in the inexperienced having a humorous looking and above all slow gait in zero gravity. Nakamura in contrast made the transition from ship to surface without breaking stride, Drone in tow, pausing only to look up at the pylon that towered above him before he unhooked his tools and set to work.
He tried the emergency release switch without much hope, and true enough the orange handle that should have allowed instant access to the interior for wounded engineers refused to cooperate, so with a couple of quickly entered commands into his datapad, began the more tricky work of forcing the issue.
"Manual override unsuccessful," he reported, "Looks like there's a full lockdown in effect, that'll make getting around once inside tricky."
The ship around him was suddenly bathed in light as the Styx rotated, and he cursed as his visor compensated, blinding him for a moment with every sudden change in light level.
Accessing the door's system took more time as a result, and several panels being consigned to the void, but after ten minutes of disconnecting and reconnecting wires and a moments careful cutting the hatch stuttered open on under-powered motors.
"we're in." he said, "no depressurization, so this airlock is cycled for inward access."
The rest of the crew joined him, the marine taking the lead with rifle shouldered and the airlock cycled.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANS Styx. Maintenance Sub-skin Sector 2-A, Command Section.
They were deposited into the cramped and narrow maintenance tunnels that ran through the Styx's armored belt like capillaries, restricting the boarders to travel in single file. A low corridor lead away from the airlock and ended in a ladder downwards and three other corridors branching off, illuminated by faint yellow emergency lighting. The path directly opposite the hatch ended abruptly in a new, shiny bulkhead, but the other two were in darkness.
Their Autoseal helmets informed them that this section of the ship was without oxygen and across their HUDS a timer was steadily counting downwards.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
All players are currently standing grouped together in the airlock, albeit cramped and occasionally bumping into each other, however, to navigate the corridors you will be unable to pass whoever is in front or behind you.
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Post by Darko on Jun 15, 2016 14:52:01 GMT
The six explorers shuffled down the cramped corridor, stopping at the point where it branched into several different routes. Acutely aware of their oxygen reserves steadily depleting, Jones knew they had to keep moving.
"Sergeant Blaylock, head down that ladder and scout out the area. Report back if you find anything useful. Ensign Sato, follow Blaylock's lead and watch his back. We're operating under the assumption that this is a hostile environment - whatever happened to the crew of the Styx could happen to us. Stay frosty."
"Aye sir," said Mordecai.
"Nakamura, can you cut through that shiny bulkhead? Obviously someone put it there to keep people out... or in. I want to find out why. I'm going to head down the left corridor with Doctor Mitchell."
He then glanced at the Dataminer. "Hang back with Nakamura while he cuts through this door. We'll rendezvous back here in five minutes if we don't find a viable route. Move out."
As Mordecai began to descend down the ladder, Jones stepped over his head to head down the path to the left, Doctor Mitchell following behind him. He readied his pulse carbine, feeling reassured by the familiar weight of the weapon in his hands. He activated the light mounted on the side of his helmet, illuminating the corridor as he cautiously advanced.
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coolyo294
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Slayer of Demons
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Post by coolyo294 on Jun 17, 2016 6:31:54 GMT
Climbing down the ladder took what felt like an age to Mordecai, although it only took a minute going by the digital readout in the upper left of his HUD that monitored how much time was left before oxygen ran out. As he reached the bottom of the shaft, the familiar lurching sensation of gravity restating itself gripped his gut. That was something good, at least even though there was still no oxygen.
He stepped forward and panned his pulse rifle across the room as Ensign Sato climbed down behind him. Though the room was only dimly lit by emergency lights, the powerful flashlights mounted on his rifle and helmet helped illuminate the surroundings. They were in what looked like a briefing room, with bench-lined walls surrounding a broken holoprojector in the center. Charts illegible to the Marine were pasted all over the walls and a broken Security Mech lay abandoned in the far corner next to a table.
"Sato, check out those charts. I'll check out the mech. Stay frosty. Safety off, but leave your finger off the trigger. I don't want anything or anyone to catch us off guard." Mordecai ordered. He knew she had received combat training, but she was still just a pilot and a fresh-faced greenhorn to boot. It never hurt to be careful with those types. Sato nodded her affirmation as Mordecai moved to examine the Mech.
The Mech, a much older model of the type currently in service, was obviously long gone. It had been damaged by an explosion and the bulky casing on its right arm that housed its solitary weapon was twisted and ruined. Barring some freak mechanical failure, it was very likely that someone had used a weapon to destroy this mech. Mordecai made a mental note of that and moved to the table nearby. On it was a datapad and some scattered papers titled "Project Citadel". The papers were encrypted and the datapad was password protected. He tucked both into a compartment at his waist and turned to face Sato.
"Any luck with those charts?" He asked.
"Negative." She responded. "They're navigational charts, some are fine but fire damage ruined most."
Mordecai nodded. "Then let's get out of here and check the next room."
Passing through an already open hatch, the pair emerged into another dimly lit corridor. Unlike the one above them this corridor was wide enough for four people to walk abreast. Colored lines on the wall appeared to serve as guides to other parts of the ship. If they went to their left they could access the damaged portion of the Styx that they saw from space, although that was sealed with a thick blast door. The room they had just left was labelled "navigation projection room 1". Across the hall was "navigation projection room 2". They moved to it.
"On my mark, open the hatch." Mordecai said. Sato nodded and her finger hovered over the access panel. "3... 2... 1... Go!"
As the door slid smoothly open, Mordecai ducked in and swept across with his rifle. It was empty and practically identical to the room across the hall, although this one's holoprojector was destroyed by close range gunfire. Still no sign of the crew. Mordecai was not a coward or a fool, but this whole situation still had him creeped out. He almost wished there was something he could shoot just to take his mind off of things.
Suddenly, something caught Mordecai's attention near the door and he moved to it. A dark stain was splattered across the wall, oozing down until it terminated on the floor in a black smudge.
"What is it? Did you find something?" Sato asked.
"Yeah." Mordecai responded. "Blood."
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Post by Draxy on Jun 20, 2016 20:55:31 GMT
"No bodies though" Sato stated, feeling kinda like a idiot for stating the obvious. "There's sign of battle and yet no casualties of the crew or the aggressor and then unlike outside there's been no attempt to fix the damage either, suggesting this battle may be fairly recent in the time-scale of things." Her voice remained steady despite the nerves she was feeling faced with unnaturalness of it all, it certainly didn't help that she was still worn from her earlier uplink, her limbs felt heavy and still flickered with occasional pain from the hours of forced inactivity, and then she was biting her lip again, glad for once that her tick was hidden behind the golden visor. "Suppose it could of been a mutiny, it's either that or pirates."
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coolyo294
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Slayer of Demons
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Post by coolyo294 on Jun 26, 2016 5:25:02 GMT
"I'd say pirates, given the damage we saw to the exteriors. It wouldn't do mutineers much good to blow up their own ship." Mordecai said. "Although the intel boys would've for sure picked up on a pirate gang nasty enough to take on a ship this size. None of this makes sense."
He walked around the room, glancing at the damage. As he walked a thought struck him.
"Maybe they weren't fighting in here. Maybe they were trying to destroy their navigational records." he muttered. That still wouldn't explain the blood, but it would go a way to explain the lack of bodies. "Anyways, let's keep moving. If the Captain says so we'll check this out later, but I want to explore a little more before our oxygen runs out."
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Post by Draxy on Jun 26, 2016 14:04:21 GMT
Sato found herself nodding in agreement. "The damage dealt to the projector and the navigation record consoles certainly doesn't seem like battle damage." She indicated the large console in the centre of the room. "It is most likely a scuttling attempt and with the method used they likely had little time to do so before the aggressor stormed this area and the battle raged."
She shook her head with a sigh. "This entire thing is bad news. Whatever happened the crew must of had something to hide, to attempt to destroy the navigation records....I can't think of a reason why they'd do that, unless they're Styx colonies out there they had to protect, a few of the systems on those charts back there, they where unrecognisable, and must still be in uncharted space" She paused in her monologue for a few moments seemingly gathering her thoughts, whilst moving across to the door towards the next room, she hesitated at the entrance before turning to face the marine. "Did you find anything perhaps? A external hard drive or device maybe? They might give us an idea on what they where trying to hide."
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coolyo294
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Slayer of Demons
Posts: 1,169
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Post by coolyo294 on Jun 26, 2016 19:44:33 GMT
"I found some papers and a datapad in the last room. Both are about something called 'Operation Citadel.' Pretty encrypted though, so I was gonna give 'em to the dataminer and see if he could pry something out." Mordecai said. He moved past Sato in the doorway and aimed down the hallway with his pulse rifle, alert for any sign of movement or life. When he was satisfied he lowered the rifle and turned to Sato.
"The way's clear, let's move." he said.
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