
Either or... |

Marco slid the card through the door and it slid open. The first bits of light hit Marco and he had to wait a moment to let his eye adjust to the red. He floated into the substation, a walkway lead straight ahead to another door. In the middle of the walkway a path branched off to the left which led to a metal door that led into a small office with a moon shaped circle of control panels.
As he entered Marco heard the soft hiss of static. He saw that several monitors all displayed static, 3 computer office chairs, a set of head phones, a hat, an engraved Revolver, a bloody jacket with obviously ripped sides, and a radio all floating around in the room.
He caught the words:
"Over and out, Xander."

Nexus Alexander |

Nexus was startled for a moment as he continued to shut off shower heads This- who is this? Xander? I'm on shower head 8, shutting off, copy back for me Xander.
That... didn't sound like Xander... I hope nothing happened to him. If something did... Well...
Nexus chuckled as he took his finger off the speak button for the mike I've got, hiiiihiiigh hopes, he's got, high in the sky he's got hiiiigh hopes.
Performance/ Singing Quality: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15
Come on Xander. Don't ruin this now- I've almost got all the shower heads off.

Marco Everstone |

Marco listened to the surprise of the person on the other side of the radio. "No. This is Marco. I am an engineer...Though I don't remember what ship this is or what our mission was. Can you give me an idea of what's going on here?" Marco then waited for a response as he checked out the revolver.

Xander Nivore |

Xander laughed softly when the man gave his name as Marco. "Polo!" He grinned as he floated slowly towards the door he had not gone through. "Things are f~&%ed up Marco. Everything is gone pearshaped and we have no idea why. I'm Xander. My friend will give you his name as he wishes. Oh and in that manner, copy on the 8th shower head. I'm here buddy!"

Nexus Alexander |

Hm. Xander seems to trust this other voice right away. I'm not so sure- they just popped out of no where. So did Xander- but he made first contact, not me. Interesting.
Marco- One of us is near a security room, the other cryo sleep and communal- you say you know about engineering- you happen to know anything about what is wrong with the ship, where the command bridge or console is, or anything of the sort? Neither of us have any clue as to what's really going on.

Either or... |

Calista easily navigated the computer and managed to bring up the voice recording menu on the monitor and clicked on the first file.
...
......
Test files one… This is first the recording of Doctor Owen Bradshaw. It is day 3 of the S.S. military vessel, Javelin's search and rescue mission. The testing is underway and initial results have yet to be verified. There have been unusually high levels of nightmares among the crew members of the ship. Initial tests of brain activity have showed an increase in nearly all subjects so far. I may have to increase the number of staff on this project, we can't afford to have a xeno epidemic this early on.

Either or... |

The first file closed down and she played the next.
This is Doctor Owen Bradshaw... day 7? Of the... S.S. military vessel, Javelin's search and rescue mission. Even more of the crews sleep is growing disturbed, we've had several violent occurrences already. The most dangerous of which have been moved into deep cryo.
Fortunately, we have isolated the potential cause of this issue. Subject 7, we'll have to move her here for further study. Hopefully we can mitigate these effects.
Day... 12... I don't know what's happening anymore. People are disappearing all over the ship. We've stored all personnel we can in deep cryo. The captain has called for the ships lock down. All but key personnel have been assigned to their rooms.
I think I know what I have to do.
The breathing became erratic on the monitor.
Huh he, huh he. I can't... I just can't...
The voice recorder just stops there.
A man, wearing a white lab coat with short black hair was doubled over, obviously in pain.
"There's something... inside of me! It feels like it's coming up."
His nose and ears began bleeding out, and she could hear the sickening crack of bones as he threw his head back. Underneath the arms she could see slithering movements of something under his skin and something large and bulbous moving up, distending his throat. He was sputtering and gasping.
"Aack heh kkk." Then as he fell to the ground, the screen went black.

Either or... |

Xander moved out of the room he was in, across the initial room with the 3-D imaging table to the other door.
Like the others, it opened freely. The room inside was dark, there were no light sources in here. From the light spilling into the room, he could see what appeared to be a monitor room, 6 different screens lined the wall of to the right. It was obvious there was no power.

Xander Nivore |

Xander swore sharply before pressing the broadcast button. "I ain't got no power here. I'll wait till you finish before I look at the thing I mentioned earlier!" He released the button and floated back in to the first room, to continue fashioning his Torch.
"It might be dangerous but hey... At least you ain't gonna be alone no more hey?"

Either or... |

Nexus moved over and finished turning off the remaining shower heads in the secondary room. His song echoed through the room. There was only one room left for him to shut off the water. He exited the second communal bath area and headed for the final area.
In the next area, it turned out that there were six personal showers. Each had its own stall, and each had a white curtain drawn closed to give it some privacy.
Nexus then heard something he was not expecting. A woman sobbing uncontrollably.
"Why did I do it? Why did I do it?"
As he stared, he could see a fair amount of blood running out of the stall from under the curtain.

Nexus Alexander |

Ah, finally. Silence. Well, sort of.
Nexus turned the final shower head, singing into the mike now Oooooh Shower Head 12 is done, done, done and we're gonna have some fun, fun, fun!
Performance: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12
Alright, now it's my turn. I'm going to stay put here, Xander, you go ahead and investigate. Sorry for the tactics and paranoia, but we still don't know what we're up against- so if one of us disappears, especially with no camera feed, we're going to need to give as much detail as possible with one another. That way we can either avoid what is happening, or, avoid the place they... "disappeared"... from.
He could finally start thinking strategically again. Only two or three steps ahead, sure, but at least it was more than responding to a crisis.
It felt good to be back in control, so good that it made Nexus feel like snapping his fingers to himself as he stood at attention near the twelfth shower head he had turned off.
Remembering there was now a third person on the mike, Nexus put a palm to his face with a sigh Marco, sorry for my brashness earlier. I'm Nexus, Nexus Alexander. Just trying to figure out what's going on on the ship, and am... Well... cautious, of any new faces. We don't know or remember one another, after all.
GM and everyone else, since we awkwardly posted at the same time, please consider this to be BEFORE the GM's post <3

Marco Everstone |

Consider this before the GM post as well. Don't worry about it Nexus I understand. In a situation like this it is best to be cautious... As Marco finishes speaking. He considers for a brief moment about telling Xander about the gun. Marco figures he can probably hear him as well as Nexus. Marco then quickly decides against it. self preservation was more important to him anyways.

Either or... |

Nexus moved over and finished turning off the remaining shower heads in the secondary room. His song echoed through the room. There was only one room left for him to shut off the water. He exited the second communal bath area and headed for the final area.
In the next area, it turned out that there were six personal showers. Each had its own stall, and each had a white curtain drawn closed to give it some privacy.
Nexus then heard something he was not expecting. A woman sobbing uncontrollably.
"Why did I do it? Why did I do it?"
As he stared, he could see a fair amount of blood running out of the stall from under the curtain.

Doctor Calista De-Romana |

sat till for a while, playing the videos over and over, she looked over the computer files to see any refinance to subject 7. If it was a Xeno-bio affection the whole ship would be a death trap. She was the only Cyobod here, so it looked very much like she was subject 7. The root of the bad dreams. Had she been projecting? Knowing something was wrong and projecting from Cyro. She knew she could. She scanned herself for a second mind.

Either or... |

Calista felt inside of her mind. There was nothing strange she was immediately aware of. No second mind within her thoughts. But then she recalled a memory from long ago, almost completely forgotten. She had once heard that minds, all minds, were connected on some level while asleep. They were far more willing to accept other influences.
Perhaps, now that she was awake, she had cut herself off from this separate influence.

Nexus Alexander |

Nexus froze- he could hear his heart beat. It wasn't erratic, not yet, but silenced and calmed in disbelief.
Idiot- did she hear me singing? Now it is quiet in here- I'm unsure of how to assess this quietly and calmly. Do not go to her- not yet, retreat my friend. If you must be an example- do it fully informed.
Nexus, much to his protest, silenced his radio; He couldn't have it going off before he could assess what exactly was going on now.
Action Withdraw to safely move 10 feet away from the girl instead of 5 feet- He IS considering this as a potential fight and threat, same as he did with Xander and Marco
Stealth Check on 10 feet back movement: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13

Xander Nivore |

Earlier
"Okay Nexus. I'm gonna check this place out, praying for a generator or something. I'm gonna be a little silent here for a moment. You look after yourself. If this goes sour you two take care and I hope ya'll get home in one piece!" He flipped off the radio before moving back to the central room.
Now
Xander pulled his make shift Torch from his clothing and pulled out the cutting torch, trying to spark it to life. As he worked he floated slowly in to the half darkened room. He kept the crowbar held tight, ready to swing at anything that assaulted him.

Either or... |

A sudden white blue flame sparked out in front of Xander, from his activation of the cutting torch. It was a blinding flash of bright light against the dim red glow of the emergency lights within the room.
He knew instantly that it was powerful enough to cut through the gate.
Xander, make a reflex save, Dc. 13. Should you fail that, make a Dc. 13 fortitude save.

Doctor Calista De-Romana |

She had done this before many time, she pushed off into space and hung there eyes closed.
Then she let her mind focus on the her inner point, deep meditation, something was close, something was trying to communicate, just out of reach.
Autohypnosis 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

Nexus Alexander |

S~~&. Well- I did say even if I was a pawn, I would do my job well
Nexus flicked on the mike as he now braced for combat while he whispered Do NOT come into the communal shower room or the cryo pods on whichever part of the ship I am on, warning again, do NOT come into the communal shower I have contact with a threat, warning- I DO have contact with a threat!
Nexus left the mike on- he was unsure of what was going to happen next. He had had a feeling since he woke up that he would be confronted with this sort of scenario, a blow for blow deal.
He had always tried to train his mind to be prepared for death- if *he* was the one to be the pawn, and the others the King, fine, as long as he served his purpose well.
Nexus put the mike back in its holster that surrounded his jump suit, and remembered the gore he had seen in the locker. He was not going to become like that- not without a fight first.
As he attempted to calm his nerves, he braced, keeping the blood trail led shower and curtain in his sight as he sang in his lowest voice, loud as he could ...Forget your troubles, come on, get happy.... You better chase all your cares away... Shout hallelujah, come on, get happy- get reaaady for the judgement day. The sun is shinin' come on get happy, the Lord is waiting to take your hand.
That's right b+~&*- you aren't GOING to know who I am, or my friends. Some come on out here and reveal yourself.
[dice=Performance of Judy Garland's "Get Happy"] 1d20+8= [/dice]
Nexus may be ok- his master is NOT! Do not like, I TOLD you to keep the damn doors closed! I warned you ALL I said "Keeeeeep the doors closed!" :P

Marco Everstone |

Marco listened intently to what Xander and Nexus had to say without interruption. At the voicing of a threat Marco's brow furrowed. He paused for a moment pondering his next move on whether to reply in some way or...Marco then remembered where he was and began swimming through the air to one of the control panel's. He thought maybe he could get it to bring up a map of some kind. He may have tried this with the terminal he found earlier but...

Either or... |

Calista let out a deep breath and reached out with her mind. Again she felt herself "pulse" out into the blackness. But this time it wasn't so much a pulse as it was as though opening the door and beckoning for someone, anyone, or anything to answer.
??? 07: 1d100 ⇒ 5
Her pulse echoed out, and at last, instead of just dissipating into the ether, something answered back.
In her mind, her tiny pulse, her little ripple on the water was met by another larger, more incomprehensible pulse. It echoed all across the ship, it felt like a heartbeat.
A vision suddenly filled her mind. An eye snapped open. Then another, and another, soon it felt as though over a thousand eyes opened all at once. They began moving, searching around frantically looking in all directions!
It felt distant to Calista and all too close at the same time. They were searching and she knew they were looking for her.
Calista you are stunned for a round.

Either or... |

Pulse
Clara snapped awake with a startled cry as she jolted upright in her cryo pod. Her intuition told her that something awful had forced her awake.
It was cold, and she could feel the air leaking in from some kind of damage to her pod. On her right there was a small blinking light as her control panel read:
Warning! Pod integrity compromised. Emergency lock release activated.

Either or... |

Nexus sang his song, bracing himself against what was to come. Then came something he could feel throughout his body.
Pulse
There was a pause where nothing happened and the world seemed silent except for the rushing water... and then
"Rrrrrraaaaaaaggggghhhh!!!"
an incomprehensible shriek as the woman began to thrash and tear at the curtain, ripping it down in a wild frenzy. As the curtain fell, she too hit the water with a splash!
Nexus got his first real look at her. She was pale with shoulder length black hair, cuts all over her body exuded blood which clouded the water she was in, obscuring her image as she started half swimming, half dragging herself toward Nexus.
There was something, Nexus wasn't exactly sure what in the dim red light, but something was horribly wrong with the way she moved.
Nexus, roll initiative. 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Either or... |

Clara looked around her pod and found herself in a very strange room. There were pods all over the place. As many as thirty. They were full of people. Most of the pods seemed to lack power. Emergency lights filled the area with a red glow. Off to her left she saw what looked like a door with a card reader. It had a green glow around it. Off to her right, there was what appeared to be a short hallway that ended in a cross section. She also noted what appeared to be a large amount of bullet holes in the walls and on a fair amount of the cryo pods.
It was extremely cold in here.

Either or... |

Marco spent a little while re-configuring the the sub-station monitors.
Eventually he managed to pull up what appeared to be a map of the ships diagnostics.
S.S. Javelin... Military Freighter,
1800 transport class series (Augmented)
Current Mission... Reconnaissance, Search and rescue at space anomaly.
Location... Unknown planetary orbit.
Status:
Power Levels... Emergency power only.
Life Support... Functioning
Communications... Offline
Engines... Offline
Security... Malfunctioning
Auto-pilot... Dis-engaged.
Gravity...
Deck 1 Deep Cryo-Stable.
Deck 2 Barracks/Mess Hall- Stable
Deck 3 Security/Officers Barracks- Disabled
Deck 4 Engineering/Helm- Disabled
Cargo bay/Labs - Disabled
Ship Integrity... 83%
Fuel Reserves... 46%
Water Reserves... 65%
Orbital Decay...in progress... estimated time until impact 1 day, 14 hours, 37 minutes, 28 seconds and counting.

Nexus Alexander |

Initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18
This may be my last message, guys, so here it is- Do NOT come into the communal showers or cryo sleep pods, and, Marco, get these f#*!ing doors closed again.
Well, now I get to see the true difference between when a king played chess with his steward, and when the King actually walked on the battlefield.
Nexus, remembering the pocket knife from the locker, replaced that in his hand as he re-holstered his mic, most likely for the last time.
He would not retreat- there was no point. Retreating could lead to more of whatever she was, or it would lead her to the others. His job now would be determined on whether he lived or not. Death meant he was a worthy pawn keeping the enemy's queen at bay until the pieces were set for a check mate. Life meant he was a knight, quickly disposing away with those who stood in way of the king.
Well you are one UGLY b#!!%, aren't you?
GM, I armed myself with the pocket knife from earlier assuming it does more damage than my fists- mind giving me a damage read out for attack rolls?

Either or... |

Xander shielded his eyes from the most intense part of the cutting torch, and soon he had cut his way through the metal gate, kicking the last parts of it out of the way to make a roughly man sized hole inside. He then made it into the back of the room with the low humming machine.
Now that he was on the other side of the gate with the torch still burning, he could see the blood smear drag mark being pulled straight into a rough tear in the metal flooring going down.
The humming itself was coming from what looked like some kind of generator. There was another one just like it about 10 feet behind the first. It was silent and appeared to have been damaged.

Xander Nivore |

Xander floated over to the generator and looked it over for a moment, pursing his lips. He took a moment to compare the two, before returning to the damaged one and removing the toolkit from his pouch. He pondered his next move, as he kept his eye on the back of the room and the tear in the flooring. He clicked the broadcast button, before beginning to talk. "Cut through the gate, found two generators, one damaged, one functional. Drag mark of blood leads to a large tear in the floor, leading down. Going to attempt to repair the broken generator!"
Knowledge Engineering?1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25
Perception1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

Either or... |

Clara wandered down the hallway. Her gaze shifted from right to left on the two pathways before her.
To her right, the path led to a door that was ajar, she noted it looked like there was a hand shoved into the door keeping it from closing.
On her left, there was a silhouetted figure standing in an open doorway. It looked like a person slightly hunched over but he made no move to acknowledge her, nor did he seem to do anything. Except stare in her direction.

Nexus Alexander |

Nexus advanced at the girl five feet, closing the distance he had just so recently put between them.
Shave and a hair cut, knock KNOCK!
Upon the word Knock Nexus attacked the woman with his pocket knife. His heart now pounded outside of his chest so loud that he could no longer hear anything other than his heart beat. He couldn't hear her sloshing through the water, not really. He had tunnel vision- when was the last time he was in a fight?
Didn't matter now- no time for regrets or practice.
Attack Roll: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14
Successful Hit: 1d4 ⇒ 2

Clara Jenkins |

Clara quickly steps back into the hallway.
'Well now I'm awake," she joked to herself trying to calm her nerves "definitely do not want to go down there,"
She moved back down the hallway from where she came hoping that whatever that was at the end of the hallway either didn't hear her, or was another person and her imagination was getting the better of her.
stealth: 1d20 + 8 - 2 ⇒ (8) + 8 - 2 = 14
perception: 1d20 + 6 - 2 + 1d6 ⇒ (11) + 6 - 2 + (4) = 19
sense motive: 1d20 + 5 - 2 + 1d6 ⇒ (7) + 5 - 2 + (3) = 13
sense motive is to determine if I think whatever that thing is noticed me

Doctor Calista De-Romana |

She hung there, as soon as she hit the hive mind she shut down her mental contact. The ship was infested with them. Mentality linked, telepathic. She had ever felt anything, anything so Alien before. They where awake now and looking for her. She thought hard, could it be the crew, sleep was the root. Something out there, 100s of eyes looking. What has been happening here. She needed more information, She moved to the computer and looked for a deck plan. Control center, fight deck anything would help. Most ships had deck plans an the walls she looked for one now.

Either or... |

Nexus, you actually get to add sneak attack for this round since you beat her in initiative.
Nexus drove the knife down into the back of the woman. More blood spilled from her newly opened wound into the water, unfortunately it didn't stop her from moving. She was upon Nexus now, grabbing up at his leg and trying to pull his leg out from under him.Trip: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
But her grip wasn't solid enough as Nexus staggered back away from her, wrenching his leg free.

Either or... |

Clara stepped back away from the silhouette. Ignoring the hallway entirely. She was fairly sure she had seen a person standing there but didn't know for sure if the figure had registered or even saw her.
She didn't hear any footsteps chasing after her, so she figured she was probably safe, at least for now.