Bravo looks about cautiously and slowly moves to catch up with S.E.T.
"Now what, Cap?" he whispers. Then he sees the apparition. "Oh skôr..."
Krizen inches his way along behind the others, eyes peeled for apparitions. When the door to the hallway opens and they can see yet another ghostly being standing in the middle of the hallway, Krizen's last courageous nerve fries and he ducks back behind the door, hiding from the hallway. "How many ghosts are on this ship? Are we about to become more? It's the end of the line for us down here in the dark and cold.. no coming back out of this cell... " His nervous mutterings growing more grim by the minute, Krizen pulls his weapon out and clutches it nervously.
The creature continues to pound against the wall of the structure. Soundbyte realizes pretty quickly that whatever this thing is, it's corporeal.
Instinctively, he knew that this one was different then the hauntings they'd encountered previously, restless spirits of the dead with no clear purpose other then to exist in pain. Soundbyte held a hand out in front of bravo while words of warning swam along the technode embedded within his processor, speaking to Krizen and SET both. No sudden movements, don't approach, not even a single sound. Not yet.
He combed his databanks, trying to absorb every thing he could about the creature's appearance and behavior. If he were more skillful, instead of simply clipping the audio-logs and playing them back Sounbyte might've been able to slow it down and make sense of it himself. Instead he clipped the audio as best the could, and transmitted the file towards Krizen in hopes he might make sense of them.
Krizen is able to piece together some snippets of what this creature is saying, "Repairs impossible...backup routines...intruders..."
Set debates next steps, then whispers to the others, "The undead seem to block both paths forward. Unless one of you feels a need to dialogue, this one believes we should expeditiously eliminate the threat and advance."
Soundbyte racks through his mystic databanks, but comes up with nothing. He does, however, realize that this thing isn't undead.
He beeps softly, optics narrowing in thoughtful contemplation, "A pretender walks among us/ how does one define being alive? /I have no knowledge of this."
"Pretender? The Hell are you talking about Soundbyte?" Bravo asks.
"The dead do not speak. /What is that thing?" He clipped in return.
"...Okay, I'm dumb. What exactly do you mean? Of course dead things don't talk, but undead can."
Soundbyte tilted his head, not fully grasping what Bravo is having trouble understanding. He didn't know what it was, but it certainly wasn't undead either. Is that such a hard concept to convey? "Sometimes dead is better./ What is that thing?"
Set eyed the other SRO, then looked at Bravo, "And you worry about this one's corruption? Its oculus strobed softly in a silent laugh, then it gestured towards the thing in the hall with its pistol. "This one opts for making it... dead-er. Any objections?"
Krizen shakes his head firmly, staying towards the back. "Dead-er is bett-er. I have no problems with making these things go away!"
Optics dimmed as they witnessed SET questioning his fragmentation levels, before turning away with servo against his vocal modulator. Perhaps there was something wrong with the way he was speaking, audio feedback he wasn't picking up on? The concepts were leaving his processor without issue, passing through an audio library in search of tagged concepts, and passed through his forward speakers without trouble.
That was standard for his make and model. Right?
"Why don't we just try talking things out first, savvy?" He proposed, "No signs of hostility /perhaps the savage can be reasoned with afterall."
"If you think you can get through to it, Soundbyte, be my guest," Bravo says.
Set tipped its head towards the hall and made a similar gesture with its pistol, consenting to Soundbyte trying to reason with the likely insane undead abomination. It also prepared to open fire.
The thing keeps hammering it’s fist against the bulkhead, the clang reverberating through the hallway.
Bravo is ready with his gun, but waits for the others do try their methods first before opening fire.
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His shoulders hunched slightly as the dawning realization came to be that they really did honestly expect him to be the one to move forward first. It made sense from a logical perspective as well. Despite being the team's magical support, his heavy armor plating also meant he was physically the best to confront a potentially hostile, certainly very stressed looking corporeal being.
If only his language sub-systems realized how vital it was that he remain as coherent as possible. Something glitched when the search parameters crossed through to locate clips tagged as 'Peaceful', 'universal', and 'greeting'.
"Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong." Came the audio clip, as Soundbyte started to make an approach.
As Soundbyte went down the hall, SET sub-vocalized to Bravo and Krizen, "This one has a bad feeling about this..."
Krizen winces at each syllable that issues from Soundbyte's aural transmitters... "Is... is he trying to say something? Maybe he recognized the native language?" Krizen isn't willing to walk out there after Soundbyte, but does have a moment or two of forgetting about his terror of the ghostly apparitions roaming this dead-ship as he tries to puzzle out the meaning of Soundbyte's .... words?
Bravo takes one hand off his gun to facepalm.
The thing turns it’s head and lurches forward into the light. It’s humanoid, or was, at one point. It’s face is marred, an electronic eye dangling limply from a socket. The sleek synthetic material that served as some form of skin is damaged, wires poking through in places. It stands still, head cocked.
"Uh, hello?" Bravo offers.
The robotic creature's speech stops as it lurches forwards. A small panel opens in one of it's arms as a plasma cutter extends and ignites.
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As the plasma torch extended, the S.E.T. barked at Soundbyte, "Get back!" It opened fire a split second later, its pistol belching a metal projectile down the hallway, looking for a vulnerable spot.
For a brief moment Soundbyte had fooled himself into thinking he had manged to successfully coax the being without aggression, only to have that hope dashed away in moments. In the very back of his processor there was some rumbling about having required energy wafers, but there were more important things to focus upon.
He obeyed his captain, stepping back, vaugely grasping for some loose debris mentally to launch into the apparent cyber-zombie.
Krizen aims for the being as it approaches, fearful that his ammunition will not even be able to affect the thing. "Die! Die again!!!"
Bravo reaffirms his grip on his gun and opens fire.
Only SET's attack hits home. The creature advances, swinging at Soundbyte with a metallic fist. It goes wide as a spasm overtakes its body.
The diminutive S.E.T. was designed more for infiltration and precise targeting of distant hostiles than it was for close combat and melee. (It was an odd set of parameters for something putatively designed to serve more as a bodyguard and combat engineer, roles that would be more suitable for close combat.) Nonetheless, rather than withdraw from the threat to maintain distance, the SRO raised an arm and a knife suddenly materialized in its hand, then stabbed towards the hostile creature.
Bravo fires again.
"Looking for a fight eh?" He quips, shifting his stance and twirling this staff in hand, for seemingly no reason at all.
Krizen worriedly fires again, his first shot having gone wide.
The party finds their fortunes changing as all but Soundbyte connect. The creature doesn’t seem too intelligent, however, and it swings again at the robotic priest. Though a solid blow, it bounces off Soundbyte’s armor.
Bravo squeezes the trigger one more time!
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While the damage isn't surface level, the blow against this cranium momentarily makes his optics flash.
"Looking for a fight eh?" He repeats, swinging his staff in the exact same ineffectual movement as before with seeming unawareness to the percussively induced memory hitch.
Puzzled and perhaps a bit distracted by the priest's refusal to back away from the melee -- but then realizing the other SRO's heavy armor was proving quite resilient -- Set's next slice with its blade was less subtle.
Krizen takes aim once more, certain that this oncoming horror is targeting Krizen specifically!
Only SET manages to score a blow on the foe. It's badly damaged but barely hanging on as it pivots it's attention to SET and swings at the other robot, slamming into the him with a mighty blow for 10 damage!
"BrrrrrzzzzRT!" Set shuddered under the blow. Its oculus turned an angry red before lunging forth with its knife once more.
There was a brief momment of confusion as the cyber-zombie's damage status seemed more sever then he'd previously catalogued. When a powerful swing impacted his captain, Sounndbyte disregarded the mental inconsistency to fkcus ibstead on his captain.
"Blessed Sarenrae, sooth this man's wounds with your divine light." He chanted, hand aglow with sunlight.
SET jams his knife into the creature's eye socket, and it splutters a bit of gibberish before it collapses slowly to the floor, hitting against the metal with a heavy thud.
"Nice work, Cap," Bravo says, lowering his gun as the fight ends.
Set stayed where it was for a moment, the blade still buried hilt-deep into the other creature, it's own oculus pulsing red before finally fading and turning to a dull orange. It pulled itself back, then turned to look at the others. "Are you still optimally functional?"
It spun the knife in a hand before sliding into a concealed compartment in its arm. The gesture smooth enough if one had blinked it could have been missed.