Spider sits next to Drifter and helps him try and unravel the interface.
Flatfoot cannot help his companions, so he stands back and keeps watch. That figure they have seen might come back.
As Spider and Drifter get the computers working, Flatfoot and Mascot watch the passage behind and the large, empty bay to their front.
The security computers flicker to life. It's strange seeing them connected to the ship like this - and unsettling for anyone alive in this century. How long can a ship go before the Virus seizes control?
The computers are protected by passwords and retinal scans. You can't access the data files, but you can access the cameras. Some of them, at least. A great many cameras are listed in red block letters as "OFFLINE". But you can access cameras in engineering and the corridors around it, as well as one or two in the Cryosleep chambers. Cameras are working in several of the labs. Everything else is offline.
Just then, you hear a commotion out in the common area. Someone is coming. Fast.
Spider moves to get under cover, then aims his ACR back towards the common area while he waits to see what is coming.
Drifter draws his gun and seeks cover away from the computer.
Flatfoot moves to the edge of the doorway, partially sheltering himself in case who ... or what ... is approaching has a firearm or similar weapon.
Mascot readies his static sword and puts himself opposite Flatfoot, near the door, ready to ambush whoever is coming.
A figure comes running at you fast out of the gloom. You can't see much besides the swirling cloak and the long weapon in its hands. What you -can- detect is that the noise, a deep animal growling and a higher-pitched hooting, is coming from -behind- the running figure. It sounds like many creatures coming your way.
You're guarding the only exit forward and the humanoid figure is sprinting straight for you, weapon in hand. What do you do?
Flatfoot calls out, "Drop your weapon!"
He suspects that this may be a ruse to catch the party off guard.
Mascot sees the humanoid running at them at a full sprint. He crouches down to the floor and thrusts his leg out across the doorway, hoping the creature is too focused on getting to them to notice the trip hazard.
Drifter aims and readies to shoot whatever is chasing the figure.
Spider quickly takes in the team's positions. Trusting Flatfoot and Mascot to handle the approaching figure, he switches position so that he and Drifter can catch the pursuing group in a crossfire when they appear.
The running figure tries to leap past Mascot and Flatfoot, but the big Corporal's well-placed foot sends the figure sprawling across the floor. You can see it is a young woman dressed in the ragged pieces of a uniform jumper. She has a crazy panic in her eyes.
Spider and Drifter take aim at the darkness, using their I/R scopes to illuminate the area. Suddenly, a horde of creatures can be seen, vast in number. Dozens, maybe hundreds strong, emerging from the passageways beyond the recreation area. Naked, pasty white and hairless save for a wild mane about the head, they lope along on four limbs. Long savage fangs and strong claws speak of wild animals, but they are...or were... clearly human once.
"Run!" cries the woman on the floor, and quick as lightning she rises to do just that. Flatfoot moves to cover her with his carbine.
Drifter opens fire into the crowd with his laser rifle. It is impossible not to hit an enemy with each shot, but the others come on in a rush. Spider can see that any such battle will be short and hopeless.
The map was pointing to the wrong place. You're at the hatch between the common area to the south and the hallway to the north. You can go right or left into the gantries to the PSM's, or you can retreat towards the bridge.
Yes, you could try to barricade yourselves into the security office.
"Fall back towards the bridge!" shouts Spider. He flips his rifle to automatic and lays down suppressive fire. "Go!"
Drifter heads to the next door and turns to fire back to provide cover as the team follows.
Mascot grabs the woman by the collar, trying to help her up as they sprint out of the area. "What are those things?!" he yells to her. As they pass Drifter, he looks for a place to provide cover fire for the others to retreat toward.
You fall back in a professional, if rapid, retreat, laying down suppressive fire and moving by the numbers. But the creatures are inhumanly fast and seem capable of leaping great distances.
The woman, dirty and disheveled, but fully human, probably of Vilani descent, snarls "The colonists!"
Then she kicks off the wall, spins to the right and kicks down at the back of Mascot's knee, trying to drop him to the ground.
Mascot isn't hurt, but finds himself half-sprawled along the ground with his captive bounding away at high speed to forward and a wall of mutated humans bounding towards him from aft.
The retreat becomes a rout as the mass of mutants boils into the passageways behind you, gibbering and snarling like demented wolves. You drop a dozen of them but they just keep coming. Fast, focused and incredibly aggressive, the howl for your blood. You wind up running pell-mell for the bridge. The woman is there, half crouched in the access hatch to the lower deck. Clearly she doesn't know you can access the bridge.
"You burned it open...? You idiots! We can't stop them now!"
As Spider sprints down the passageway, he grabs the lanyard hanging around his neck and pulls out the keycard. Reaching the bridge door, he wastes no time touching the card to the access panel. "Everyone in, quick!"
Drifter runs in and then turns and sends some more cover fire for the rest of the group.
"Run now, Scold later!" Mascot grabs her arm and pulls her into the bridge. Once beyond the opening, he turns to lay down suppressive fire.
Flatfoot follows his companions, squeezing through the doorway before taking a position on the other side of the doorway.
The mutant creatures come boiling into the hallway, all hairless dead-white flesh and lanky, clawed arms, screaming and gibbering.
The hatch slams. The bolts drive home. The lock shows a solid red, indicating it is sealed.
"Okay," breathes the woman with the pointy stick. "Just who the hell are you? Are you Solomani? Lucanites? Or just plain pirates?"
"You know what? I don't care. Do you have a ship?"
"How about we turn this around and you introduce yourself first." Drifter says as he frowns at the woman, "Seeing as how you tried to trip up my friend there to feed him to a hungry mob and all."
"You want off this ship? You need to start talking. Who are you and what happened here? Is anyone else here?" He waves at the pointed stick. "And how about you put that down for the moment."
"How about we turn this around and you introduce yourself first." Drifter says as he frowns at the woman, "Seeing as how you tried to trip up my friend there to feed him to a hungry mob and all."
"He tripped me first!"
"You want off this ship? You need to start talking. Who are you and what happened here? Is anyone else here?" He waves at the pointed stick. "And how about you put that down for the moment."
"I don't know, I don't know and.... yeah, alright." She puts down the makeshift spear with some reluctance.
"Look, I really need some frame of reference for you. Are you crew or what?"
She sighs. "I'm AAndiruu. AAndiruu Irkirin Managudeli Shugilamar. I'm a mechanic. I specialize in life support. I woke up from stasis and everything had gone to hell. Everyone is gone... or almost everyone, and the colonists... I thought those things were eating them. Then I thought they -were- the colonists. Now I know both things are true."
"Your turn. Where the hell are we and who the hell are you? Which faction are you with? Do -you- know what happened?"
"I am Drifter, that's Mascot, Flatfoot, and Spider who is in charge here. We are from Reformation Coalition Exploratory Service. It is the year 1204. We have a ship that can get us out of here, but things aren't great off this ship either and having this ship would be a great thing in the long run. How many of the colonists are still...human? Did you see any others? How did you come out of Stasis without help? The reactor on this ship is going down fast. If others are being freed as the power drops we can maybe save some more even if we have to let the ship go."
"1204? Okay... so you're like... my great-grandkids' generation. If I had kids." She doesn't seem fazed by the time differential.
"Look, if you can get us off of this wreck, you need to do it. You don't know how dangerous those things are."
"Okay," she says, squeezing the bridge of her nose and dropping into a chair. [b]"I do sort of know what happened to the colonists. And I have a guess about the ship."
"The ship was a super-long-range colony ship. We were intended to leave the Orion Spur... this arm of the galaxy... and head for the Perseus Arm, -way- beyond the rim of known space. The ship has jump engines no one even imagined were possible."
"We didn't know where we'd settle down, or what the conditions would be there, so all the plants, animals and people destined for the colonies had to be genetically engineered to be highly adaptable. Their genome was altered to be become unstable, adapt to their new surroundings and then catalyze into the optimal forms. It was intended to permit them to survive in high or low gravity, tainted atmospheres, even underwater if necessary. Then they were put into stasis for the long journey. And then...something happened to the ship, awakening the colonists. And now, generations later, they've adapted to this environment." A pained expression crosses her face.
"As for me, I woke up into this. The crew weren't altered. We were supposed to be awakened every few decades for a turnover. But there were only four of us and before we understood what was happening, there was only me. Those...things... wait for us to be decanted and they eat the crew while they're still weak and disoriented."
"The ship, I don't know. The ship's computer says its been thousands of years, but you say its been less than eighty. I think...I think there was a misjump. That's when a jump bubble decays in the wrong portion of space-time. When you hear about it, the survivors have jumped to new spatial coordinates. When you don't... maybe it's to a new time coordinate? I'm not a physicist, but I think the ship aged thousands of years in the jump bubble while only moving in time and space a little bit. The entire original crew would have perished before the bubble decayed. I think something about that misjump released the colonists who began to change rapidly and the crew was overwhelmed. When the bubble finally collapsed and deposited the ship here I guess no one was alive to do anything about it. But there are shuttles missing, so somebody tried something during all that time. I know the colonists didn't fly them."
"So what is the Reformation Coalition?"
Deepnight Horizon was launched in 1124. Virus hit the Imperium in 1130.
Quick correction. It's 1203, not 1204. Timeline is up.
"Evil AI wrecked everything. The Reformation Coalition is working to rebuild. You should know we are heading into a dangerous part of space. Of course, staying here is a worse idea. The question is can we space the monsters and save the ship before it explodes, or do we hope they gave up and left the door so that we can get out of here. If the drive is as good as you say, saving this ship could be a big win." Drifter says as he mulls over some way to save the ship with the mounting issues.
AAndiruu's face scrunches up and she cocks her head to one side, reminding Drifter of a beagle he once had as a kid. "'Evil AI'? What the hell does that mean? What happened to the Rebellion? Who won? God, tell me it wasn't Lucan."
"Do you have anything to eat or drink?" She licks dry lips.
"And why is the ship going to explode, exactly?"
"And, I know this is a lot of questions, but how did you get into the bridge? I've been trying to get in here for ages!"
"Virus. It's called Virus. And it destroyed ships, stations, cities, even planets. The Rebellion didn't even get settled because it came around and just killed everyone. This ship....think of this ship, every system on it, every hatch -- anything with power and a data connection -- all trying to kill you. You said you're a life support tech? Think about how that might go. Now think of the planets and cities you remember." Mascot just lets that sink in for a bit.
Then he turns on the reactor monitor. "The reactor is running dry. Even if we kill all those...things... out there this ship is dead. I guess thousands of years was a good run for it. But it got s*+%ty mileage."
"Ages? How long have you been away and running from those things? How have you been surviving?"
"Virus. It's called Virus. And it destroyed ships, stations, cities, even planets. The Rebellion didn't even get settled because it came around and just killed everyone. This ship....think of this ship, every system on it, every hatch -- anything with power and a data connection -- all trying to kill you. You said you're a life support tech? Think about how that might go. Now think of the planets and cities you remember." Mascot just lets that sink in for a bit.
She sighs, nodding. "I am definitely going to want details later. If there is a later. I'll have to take your word on it now
Then he turns on the reactor monitor. [b]"The reactor is running dry. Even if we kill all those...things... out there this ship is dead. I guess thousands of years was a good run for it. But it got s!+~ty mileage."
"Ages? How long have you been away and running from those things? How have you been surviving?"
"There's no way to tell. I haven't accessed the ship's chronometer in a long time. Weeks? Months? I don't know. I've just survived one day to the next."
She looks at Spider. "He says you're in charge. You got a plan to get us out of here?"
Spider considers Aandiruu's question, then shrugs. "No, not yet. But to be fair, since learning that this ship is overrun with mutant colonist spawn, we've spent most of our energy running for our lives." He pulls on the lanyard around his neck and shows her the datacard. "We found this on one of the system's moons - it's how we found Deepnight Horizon in the first place. It gave us access to the bridge, too."
"What are these creatures likely to do now? Will they wait in the corridor until we open the door, or get bored and wander off?"
Flatfoot listens to the conversation but his attention is mainly on the door. Thinking about the monsters outside ...
"They'll spend time looking for ways in here," AAndiruu says. "There aren't any. I've looked. Most of them will go back to engineering. It's where they sleep. They enter a kind of torpor most of the time, to save energy I would guess."
"About that food?"
???
"We need to decide now if we are going to try and save this ship, go for any surviving crew, or if we let it blow and take care of this issue for us. If there was some way to vent the rest of the ship, that would take care of the creatures, but it might kill other survivors as well." Drifter says.
Mascot shakes his head. "Might be best to just get out." He points to Aandiruu. "If the RC wants to scold us for not salvaging the ship, we got a living, breathing life support tech. With the reactor dying, there's not much to do other than try and wake up the others and they'll become food for those things as soon as we do."
"I think we get back to the ship and get going. Of course, we didn't make any repairs..."