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"Good to know Ears. Arm up appropriately." Akkedis looks skeptically at Marino, "Are you sure you wish to risk yourself Captain? I'm impressed by your bravery but to risk our ranking officer?" He looks over the group to see if there are any other takers, it's unclear if he's nervous, assessing tactical abilities or both.
Akkedis waits for the team finish searching the room before moving on, "Not much left to search, let's try the rooms with power first?" He moves careful down the hall and stops in front of the next set of doors.
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Akkedis goes his own way. But while he is careful in his search for danger (though he finds none), Mustachio sticks to his own guns and opens the door. The lashunta isn't punished for this with anything more than another macabre sight.
The northern wall of this chamber is so forcibly compacted to the south that the chamber extends only about ten feet from the door. Several person-sized crates are fused into the distorted hull, obviously melted by extreme heat. Space is visible from between several gaps in the northern wall, accented by the occasional shimmer of a force field. One of the containers has a right arm and leg stuck to its outside.
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Before they leave the training room, Kato will ask if he could use the baton ”Hey captain, I could use that baton, I may not be a big and tough as our Vesk friend here, but I know how to hit them were it counts. I could use that baton to make some tricky attacks on the ghost if and when we see it.” If Mustachio gives it to him, Kato will have both the baton and pistol out.
Kato walks into the room. He looks around at the small store room trying to figure out what happened here. ”Great heat was needed to fuse these crates to the hull. Perhaps a blast from a starship. But these gashes in the hull doesn’t seem to make sense. Clearly these limbs are from an android. It seems like they were ripped off by the claws of some great alien beast. We are not dealing with only a ghost on this ship. Let’s see who the last person was to enter this room,,,,”
Kato walks over to the panel and types in a few commands. ”Hmm that makes sense. The last person to enter was a crew member named BlueSky-101. That sounds like an android name to me. Part of him is still here, but where is the rest? Let’s check theses crates before we move on. If the alien is hiding in here we do not want it to surprise us from the rear and we continue to explore the ship.” Kato then begins to check the crates
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Akkedis follows Kato into the room, again sweeping the area for potential threats.
"I think your assessment is correct Kato, and it appears the android fought well. He and his opponent both bled deeply." Akkedis points out the mysterious blood and android fluids mixed in the jumble of crates.
Akkedis will remove the arm and leg from the pile of cargo if they appear to belong to a crew member he finds something to cover them and says a few words of prayer and respect, if their appear to belong to something else he call over the team to try and identify what they belong to.
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Ears steps into the room and right up to the gashes in the hull. He's careful not to disturb the force field while he inspects the edges of the metal, although he can't help looking through the gashes and into the void beyond.
"Summing up. There's an attack or collision. Something breached the hull. Blue Sky comes in to activate the atmospheric containment force field. That makes sense because he could survive the vacuum. And something bad happens. Could something have come in through the breach?"
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"Or perhaps he tried to eject an invader through the breach and something went wrong?" Akkedis looks over the pile of crates jammed into the breach, "His remains were lodged in with the crates, they were all pulled into the breach."
"We should seal this room as best we can, in case something damages the force field generators... Like that storm."
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"Hmm this is interesting. Yotto was in this room when it was hit and BlueSky came in after. We know that Yotto turned into some ghost creature. Perhaps she is the one that attacked BlueSky. Either way, we need more information. Let us continue to explore the ship. I suggest we continue towards the bridge and clear each room as we go." Kato will begin to move with the others towards the powered room on the port side of the ship.
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Akkedis nods as Kato leaves the hold and heads to the next section of the ship. He moves to guard the door before Kato, but keeps on eye on the other two. As always he sweeps the hall for threats with military precision.
Once the team has formed up in the hall, he turns to Kato, "Would you prefer to enter, or shall I?
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No threats are detected, so the team proceeds. Cracks mar the surface of this room’s western wall. A constant thrum of power is audible within the area, clearly emanating from an immense engine embedded into the northern wall. A standalone module sits opposite the only entrance to the room, but the thick cable that should connect it to the humming engine is irrevocably split. Three rectangular stacks of brick-sized batteries fill the southern end of the engine room.
All of these batteries, however, are drained dry or broken. A small grid of those still working lies on the opposite wall. Each is connected to an individual power terminal. Two stations are missing batteries, and as such writing can be seen on them. One is labeled "Mess" is black marker, the other bears the word "Bridge."
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"Aha! By fixing these batteries,and then placing the fixed ones in the proper port, power shall return to the ship! Specifically, to the mess hall and bridge! Indeed, you are all lucky to have Dr. Muztazio Mazino's forensic abilities on this team, as this was a puzzle far to complex for any of you."
Mustachio says all of this while leaning against the wall, watching the others work while doing nothing himself but supervising.
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Akkedis comes to the conclusion that the cable is irreparable. Just before he can mention it, Kato starts to work on a fix. The only result is a wild shock to the man's fingers, while the lights flicker!
With the cord broken, Akkedis believes the best bet for more power is more batteries. New ones, that is. The sparring robot had one, if at low capacity.
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"Kato! Are you all right?" Ears scrambles over to the injured man. "The crew have probably jury-rigged a hundred things on this old crate. We'll have to be careful working on their systems."
The ysoki nods while Akkedis explains that the cord is not reparable. "Then we'll try the robot battery. I'll hazard hooking it up if someone goes to fetch it."
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Per Kato's analysis, using normal batteries would probably just drain them to no effect. Engines capable of charging other things and powering themselves are usually custom-made and quite rare.
Ears need simply put the battery in its socket to see results. Akkedis, Oda, and the others watch the door forward clank open. Inside, a ceremonial table can be seen, with some bloodstains spattering and the floor. But to know more, you'll have to enter!
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Mustachio follows right behind Akkedis, back into this Muztazio role. "Ah! An ornate table...and bloodstains. This all points to...murder.... murder most foul. Dr. Muztazio, foremost forensic investigator of Absalom station, pulls out his medkit and starts conducts a forensic sweep on the evidence."
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This room resembles a charnel house. The remains of two dead kasathas are piled in the northwest corner, surrounded by knocked-over chairs. A ceremonial table setting in the center of the chamber is spattered with blood. The stench of decay is palpable in this room, and even the sink along the southern wall is coated in a dark-red shade. Storage containers fill the eastern side of the room, each similarly spattered by gore. An impressive set of double doors bars passage to the north.
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Ears follows behind Akkedis. He gets a sight of the room from around the vesk and shudders before muttering, "I'll have blood all over my armor."
Suddenly he straightens out of his customary slouch.
"Frior War, were there power spikes coming from the bridge?! There should have been no power in there."
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Akkedis gives Ears a pat on the shoulder, and whispers "Worry less about the blood you find, it washes off. Worry more about the blood you spill, that can stain you for life."
Seeing Mustachio hustle into the room, Akkedis quickly turns and follows. "Let's set up some guards, I've got the bridge doors. Those bodies look like they were attacked by something with multiple arms... Could the crew have done this to each other?" He steps up to the bridge doors watching them while keeping Mustachio in his peripheral vision (along with the corpses).
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"Vomit rushes to his mouth as Dr. Muztazio realizes that this is indeed far, far, far, worse than the case of the Dismembered Vesk."
Mustachio stumbles back, feeling quite naseous from what he just noticed and waves and points. "Gross... look...there.. larvae."
Then he rushes over to barf in the corner of the room.
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Wincing as he sees Mustachio's reaction to the larvae, "Kasatha couldn't do that... At least not that I've heard... Can anyone safely identify the creatures? Maybe remove and store them if it may be a new species?"
Akkedis continues to watch the doors, but offers to aid in the larvae removal if needed.