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Post by Admin on Nov 8, 2014 10:26:41 GMT
« Reply #15 on: Jan 26th, 2013, 2:39pm »
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Andrea bit her lip and Melisande just went still. The 'fist' mark had them all worried. Andrea was the one who voiced what was on all their minds. “What are they DOING up here?” What she didn't voice was her fear there was no one else left to find.
Quickly and a bit more silently than before, they circled the outer ring of the central core. All the entries to the center seemed to be sealed shut. And more than the first door had punch like marks in it as if something had tried to use brute force its way out of the central area. Andrea was suddenly not so upset the doors were as heavy and tight as they were. “Talon,” she shook her head hating the 'lesser of two evils' choice, “This door is the least dented, and seems to be the easiest to try and cut thru. What do you think?” Her face glanced towards him, and not for the first time, she wished she had some mental ability that would give her a clue as to what her team leader was thinking behind his slightly dimmed helmet.
<<modified for spelling errors>> « Last Edit: Oct 3rd, 2014, 12:48am by Llewellynn »
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Post by Admin on Nov 8, 2014 10:27:49 GMT
« Reply #16 on: Jan 26th, 2013, 5:25pm »
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ian made sure that their position at the door was secure before he inspected the panels. It had been welded shut like the others, but there was little to no damage. Reflexively he ran his hand down the weld, as if he could feel the mottled bead through his hard suit. After thinking about it, he toggled his schematic on and studied it.
"I don't like this one bit," he sighed. "Whatever was trying to get out was bigger than we are. Strong, too."
Kodiak murmured his agreement.
"There's no help for it, though: we have to get through to Central Control. Vanguard has to be warned about this. Nuke, can you get it open?"
Before Nic could respond, Kodiak tapped Ian on the shoulder. "Hey, uh, boss. You remember that time in New Berlin?"
Ian blinked. An odd time for nostalgia, especially from Anton. "What of it?"
"I was just thinking about how sweet that hotel was. Nice view, pretty concierge, soft beds... Sounds real good right about now. Even after all the shit we went through, that place knew how to treat a man right."
"Were you at the same hotel I was," Ian balked. "I hated that place. What made you--?"
Kodaik tapped him on the shoulder again, a hard gesture that almost made him stagger. "This mission must have you out of your head, boss. You gotta think back, remember the good days."
Ian was about to retort when he noticed Kodiak's particular body language. The way the normally-calm man had knocked his arm, how Anton had tapped his helm when he said "think" and talked about him being out of his head. In a flash of recognition, Talon noted that Kodiak was giving a handsign for communication. Sloppy, but if you knew what to look for...
"Compared to this place," he sighed, trying to put amusement in his voice, "it was a palace, though."
Kodiak thumped the weld with a fist. "Doors were hard to open like this, too. Remember that little dude at the front desk? How he was always jumping to let us into our rooms, day and night? Wish he was here now."
"Yeah," Ian agreed, mind racing. The way Kodiak had stressed here now and all the rest, it had to mean something. Ian remembered the mission they had shared in New Berlin, but it was far from the idyllic scene Anton was painting. True, the doors were stuck more often than not, but every aspect of the place had been lousy. They were only able to get out of there when it had been discovered the manager had been running cameras in all the rooms and tapping communications.
"Sonovabitch..." Ian growled before he could stop himself. Our comm systems are being tapped! But how to tell the others? The suits had both audio and video interlinks, so there was no way to know which of the systems had been compromised. Thinking quickly, he slid his hand along the weld again to cover his confusion.
"Remember the skyline at night?" he asked as wistfully as he could muster. "Some view, huh?"
"View was good, boss," Kodiak agreed. So it was just the audio that was compromised.
Ian turned to Nic once again. "So, can you get it open?"
"Aye," Nuke nodded, "Ah kin. Just depends on how much noise ye want tae make."
Ian grunted. "I don't want to run into whatever made those dents, so if loud is fast then go slow. I want to live to get back to my family. My sister, most of all. Plenty of people out there willing to take advantage of a pretty, deaf girl."
"Aye, we'll get ye back tae yer bonnie sis, chief. You just sit back and let ol' Nuke handle this."
Ian nodded. Good, Nic had picked up on the verbal cues, too. He turned to Melisande and held his hands up close to his chest. When he thought she was looking, he made a quick series of motions.
Do you sign?
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Post by Admin on Nov 8, 2014 10:28:35 GMT
« Reply #17 on: Jan 26th, 2013, 9:48pm »
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Melisande saw Talon's motions and for a moment was going to ask what he was doing, when she signed back Yes. Took as extra class for better helping needy patients. Why? Then she smiled. Someone listening? With signing, visuals safe still, how about technical? Can I type and not be compromised?
When Talon nodded, she smiled. I will make Andrea understand. She doesn't sign. When Talon nodded again, Paladin turned to her partner. “We need to be ready for the possibility that whatever made those holes has caused serious harm and possibly death to the scientists here. Andrea, let me see your pack list. I need to make inventory of everything we have at our disposal.” When Andrea turned to hold her arm out so Melisande could see her inventory, Mel swiftly typed onto her arm, Audio is being tapped, visual secure, typing secure. Just be careful what you say and watch me before you react. Talon is hinting at things, but I will type specifics to you as he signs them to me. Do you understand?
Andrea smiled and nodded. “Here you are. I hope the list helps. I don't think I have much that will help though.” She typed back to Melisande. I know enough to know when being monitored. I will watch what I say. Thank you.
Melisande signed to Talon that Andrea was set and in they all turned to their posts as Melisande and Andrea watched one hall and the others watched the other direction and Nuke worked on getting them into the inner core.
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Post by Admin on Nov 8, 2014 10:29:47 GMT
« Reply #18 on: Jan 27th, 2013, 12:52am »
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Orbital Platform Deep Star Three Research Wing IV 02:17 Mission Time
Talon hated waiting, it was just that simple. With someone--maybe more than one someone--monitoring their commmunication, it made the mission that much harder. The fact that they needed to get to Central Control hadn't changed, nor his determination to get his team safely out of this mess. The matter of the damaged doors was still in the back of his mind as well. Such force was dangerous. The pattern to the blows had suggested a lack of focus, possibly rage. Did one of Vanguard's experiments get loose and rampage through the station? Was anyone still alive? How were they going to get off this station once--
"Got it, boss," Nuke murmured.
After checking the hallway once more, Talon gave the okay for Nic to open the door. The demolitions expert keyed a few commands into his wrist computer and a series of small charges popped in a chain up the weld. The rapid staccato was louder than Ian would have preferred, but it might have been his nerves. The hard suits protected them all from the fragments of molten metal that pelted them, but all in all the damage to the door from the blasts had been minimum. Nic really was a surgeon when it came to explosives.
Nuke stepped back and allowed Kodiak and Drifter to heave open the door panels. Ian, Melisande, and Andrea stepped back with weapons at the ready. Talon let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding when the hallway revealed itself to be empty. Ian motioned for Apache and Paladin to move in while he took one last look down the side corridors. Nuke busied himself closing up his supply module and reattaching it to his back, just beneath the gen-pac. Once Nic was ready to go, Ian followed him into the narrow corridor. As an afterthought, he shouldered one of the panels shut.
"Tha' door will nae close again, boss," Nuke chuckled. "Well, aye, she'll close but she will nae stay closed."
Ian nodded. "That's fine. If someone comes up behind us, it'll take them a moment to get it open again. Maybe enough time to punch them with a few shots, slow em down."
Nuke nodded before joining the others down the hall. Ian followed a moment later, pistol held low and nerves screaming. Melisande was passing her arm back and forth over the door to the officer's quarters, Andrea hovering like a curious bird over her shoulder. Kodiak had his particle rifle at his shoulder, facing the high-security blast door at the opposite end, though he turned his head to look back at the women once in a while. Frowning, Ian trotted past Nic to see what was going on. What he saw on the door made his skin crawl.
"Bio-contaminant," Paladin sighed, looking at the holo read-out hovering over her wrists. She tapped the faintly-glowing symbol over the door's access panel, a tri-diplayed cruciform scythe forming a circle of warning. "There is bio-matter on the opposite side of this door, but nothing consistent with any hazardous substances in Vangard's database. A lot of bio-matter."
"Life signs?" Melisande shrugged, then shook her head. "The crew? Bodies?"
Paladin sifted through some of the data, then sighed. "I really can't say for sure. Given the readings, I'd say there's enough material to account for maybe seventeen grown adults."
Ian frowned. "Why do I feel like there's a 'but' somewhere?"
"Well," Melisande murmured, "I... I just can't make heads or tails of these readings. Maybe it's the bulkhead messing up my sensors. The command module was built to withstand more punishment than the rest of the platform."
Ian holstered his pistol, grumbling to himself. After a moment of thought, he motioned to Nic. "Open it."
"Are ye daft?" the demolitionist gasped. "Th' door is marked wi' a bio-contaminant marker! Who knows wha' may be behind tha' door. Did ye ferget th' damage done tae th' other doors?!"
"Are you disobeying a direct order, Mister O'Bannon?" There was a definate growl of challenge in Ian's voice. Kodiak adusted his posture a bit, as if he wasn't sure from which direction the greater threat would come. Melisande tried very hard to look busy studying her data. Andrea... well, Andrea just watched. "Until we make feet-dry, I am the mission commander, and you will do as you're told."
"I can open it, chief," Drifter sighed. "I'd like it on the official record that I agree with Nuke. The computer sealed the door for a reason; even if the computers were hacked and compromised, Paladin's data is inconclusive enough to provide an all-clear. Our mission is to secure DS3 and reestablish communication with Vanguard. This room is not mission-critical."
"Noted." As Anthony pried open the door lock's access panel, Ian rounded on Nic once more. "That is how you do it, Mister O'Bannon: protest respectfully and then do it anyway. Vanguard placed me in command for a reason, and that reason is I get results. I accept that this room may not be mission-critical, but finding out what happened to the crew sure as hell is. We've swept through two of this station's six leaf modules and have yet to see a single soul. Where do you expect to find one hundred and seven people, Nuke? The more rooms we clear, the more likely they're either dead or captured."
Ian stabbed a finger back down the corridor at the damaged blast door. "That is a big question in my mind, and I aim to see it answered. What did Vanguard have up here that could do that kind of damage, and is it still a threat? If so, who controls it... if anyone? The room is marked, fine. Paladin says nothing registers as a bio-contaminant, so we open the door and secure it. If Vanguard's records don't contain Vanguard's contaminents, we're in deeper shit than we're ready for. So until we meet the maker of those dents or some other hostile, we sweep for survivors and find out what the hell happened here. You got me?"
"Boss," Drifter called, his voice sounding distant and haunted. "Y-you might want to see this."
Ian turned, then blinked when Drifter was the only one anywhere near the door. Apache was patting the back of Paladin, who was doubled over against the storage room door trying to convince herself that puking in a hard suit was not the way to go. Kodiak was muttering a prayer to himself and kneeling in a fire-ready position facing the heavy security door. Talon took a step behind Anthony, sweeping the now-open door with his pistol. What he saw made even his battle-hardened stomach churn.
The door to the officer's quarters was criss-crossed with strange filiments that glistened in the faint light, dark globules hanging from their strands like macabre Christmas ornaments. An ankle-deep greenish mist wafted out of the room and ghosted down the hallway in both directions. A single emergency light was blinking at the back of the room, teasing his senses with what he needed to see yet didn't want to. Taking a deep breath against smells he would not have to experience because of his hard suit, Talon pulled down the filaments with one hand. They each broke with a wet snap, splashing something thick and noisome all over his gauntlet. Thankfully, the suit's sensors didn't scream any warnings as he took a step into the room.
The common room reminded him of the inside of a mass grave he had investigated his first tour with Vanguard, though not quite so ordinary or explainable. There were seven husks--he couldn't quite call them bodies anymore; there just wasn't enough of them left--draped over chairs surrounding the single, galley-style table in the room's center. He could only guess at their genders from the flaps of skin and shards of bone left on the corpses. Ian's mind reeled to piece together how such a thing could occur, and then he got a better look at the rest of the room. More filaments and thicker things clung to every surface of the common room, from floor to ceiling save for a few patches close to the door.
"My God," Nic breathed from his shoulder, making Ian jump despite himself. "Ah know it's goin' tae be ironic comin' from me, but it looks like they just... exploded. Everywhere."
Ian keyed the lights on his suit and weapon, throwing pale beams onto the grisly scene. Steeling himself, he took a step further into the room, wincing slightly as the floor squished and slid beneath his boot. Shining his weapon's light over the closest body, he frowned. Thicker filaments spilled forth from the ruins of the corpse's chest and onto the floor, some even stretching up to the ceiling. Somewhere deeper in the room, he could hear a thick plit plit plit of fluid that made him shudder to his very core. Ian turned away and closed his eyes, trying very hard to remove the image from his mind. Kodiak's voice came softly over the comm.
"Reminds me of when my boy turned twelve," the big man murmured. "Thought he was a big man, that he could handle Papa's shotgun. Stole my keys, my firearm, and high-tailed it to a friend's house. He and the other boy found some old cans of that funny string. You know, from before the End? When I found Nathan and my gun, he was fixing for a whoopin' and the gun was empty. He'd peppered those cans pretty good, burst a couple. When them cans explode, makes a sight looks like this. Lord knows I wish they were cans and not... well, you know."
Ian opened his eyes and saw the rest of his team gathered at the door, yet not coming in. After a moment, Melisande threw back her shoulders and strode up to him like she was reporting for duty. After her reaction to the scene, he was surprised to see her so calm.
"Permission to examine the bodies, sir," she said with a voice as fragile and cool as spun glass.
Ian nodded, and Melisande went to work. Kodiak posted himself at the door while Drifter fiddled with the door lock. Nuc stood off to the side, muttering quietly to himself about things Ian was glad he couldn't make out. After what seems like an eternity, Paladin got to her feet and turned to Talon.
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Post by Admin on Nov 8, 2014 10:30:28 GMT
« Reply #19 on: Jan 29th, 2013, 7:31pm »
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I wish I could give a better report on all of this, but my findings aren't entirely conclusive." She took a deep breath, then continued. "The good news--if any news about this can be good--is that we're not at risk for contamination. Most of what you see here is just human... matter. There are trace amounts of matter that I can't identify, possibly of xenogenic origins, as well as a latent compound I can only describe as a paralytic. Judging from the amount of tissue present in the area versus what is intact, I would say that less than seventeen percent of the victims is present here. From the bone fragments and tissue damage, I would say that both Nuke and Kodiak are correct: they exploded, and from the inside."
Ian held up a hand. "Back up from the disturbing part. What do you mean, 'xenogenic'? Are you suggesting that these people were drugged, locked in here, and... blown up? Give me your best hypothesis."
Melisande looked to Apache, who nodded, before speaking again. "As I said, each corpse contains less than seventeen percent of its original mass, based on the average human being. What's... spread about here makes up only for another twelve percent. That still leaves just over seventy percent of bio-matter that is not present. There are several chemicals present that suggests that our victims were hosts for something. The paralytic is present only within the corpses, not in the room. However, faint traces of liquor amnii are present globally."
"English, girl." Apache's mirth was strained. "Plain English."
"Oh, sorry," Melisande blushed. "If I had to guess, I would say that something invaded the victims, forced their own bodies to produce a paralytic agent while it gestated, and then consumed them from the inside until it was capable of surviving out in the station's environment. I can only assume such a birthing was violent, resulting in the--what's the right word to use, here?--mess you see here. The produced coating of tissue and filaments acted like an incubator until they reached maturity. I'd like to say that a being that goes from conception to maturity in less than forty-eight hours of the size the missing matter suggests is, well, frightening."
"How can an organism force a body to produce something that would kill it?" Ian balked, his mind struggling to take in the picture Paladin was painting.
"Parasite," Melisande corrected. "And if the right portions of the brain were excited by the parasite, it's possible that toxic levels of anything could be produced. In a way, I'm very glad it chose what it did; the victims probably had no idea what was happening to them. The only thing I can't speculate on is the latent energy reading I found in the marrow of the victims."
Melisande tapped her wrist computer a few times, pulling up a display of a fluctuating, multi-layer waveform. Drifter whistled, drawing Ian's attention.
"That I can explain, I think." Anthony flipped through his own readouts before placing his wrist display next to Melisande's. The displays were nearly identical. "I sifted through the data Vanguard gave us on the way up here, and I remember seeing this. It's the signature of the dark energy generator; Vander gave us the readings in case the generator had been moved and we needed to hunt it down."
Nic cleared his throat pointedly. "Ah hate tae break oop this science project of yer'n, but if these people died from soomthin' blowin' out of 'em, shouldn't we find out if they're still 'ere in th' room?"
Drifter and Paladin shook their heads in unison.
"I'm not detecting any life signs in here other than ours," Melisande stated. "No movement or otherwise, and the only bio-matter present outside of our team belong to the victims."
"It also looks like the door was open after the bio-contaminant protocol was initiated." Anthony shrugged. "I feel bad for whoever opened the door and let the monsters loose."
Kodiak cleared his throat. The large man was huddling over the door's control panel tapping commands into his wrist computer. "Uh, boss, that part bothers me. First, no blood or body outside this door so if someone let them out--which they didn't, by the way--that person would have to have been friendly with them. Pardon my saying so, but the way Paladin describes them I wouldn't put my money on finding those things eating with someone in the galley. Eating someone, sure."
"I feel another 'but' coming," Ian sighed. "And what do you mean by no one let them out?"
"I mean just that." Anton pointed at the door panel. "Security protocol says each door's access is recorded, especially in the event of a breach or contaminent. Looking at the records, the door was only opened twice since the containment protocols were tripped for this room--once from the outside and once from the inside. You want to take a guess who opened it from the outside? Give you two guesses, and the first five don't count."
"How in the hell could these things open a door?" Ian shook his head, focusing on the solid weight of the pistol in his hand. His world was slowly being turned upside down, and he needed some form of security and normalcy. "Even a low-security door like that has some form of biometric failsafe. You can't open any door on this station unless you belong here, and I think I can safely say these things do not belong here."
Melisande made a sound with her tongue. "I might be able to explain that. As I said, the parasites likely consumed the hosts. It's likely that it might have absorbed enough of the victims' DNA to be able to trigger the doors. It would also explain why there aren't any other damaged door panels inside the control module aside from the outer security doors."
"Great," Ian growled. "That doesn't explain the welds. Two potentially-hostile parties onboard doesn't excite me at all. Kodiak, can you tell us when the parasites opened the door?"
Anton looked at his display. "Forty hours ago, give or take a few minutes."
"Perfect. So there's a possibility that we could run into some very hungry monsters." Ian checked the charge on his weapon, then keyed a command into his wrist computer. The sides of his pistol hissed and folded out a fraction, then flipped and slid forward over the blunt nozzle. In seconds, the weapon had reshaped itself into a sleek carbine longer than his forearm. "Vanguard schematics say there's an armory just beneath Central Control. Let's get to the core, get Vanguard on the line, and get some answers. Move out!" « Last Edit: Jan 29th, 2013, 7:53pm by Jason Wolfe »
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Post by Admin on Nov 8, 2014 10:31:15 GMT
« Reply #20 on: Oct 3rd, 2014, 02:36am »
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Melisande showed Andrea very quickly and quietly how to extract a couple samples of both bone and matter off a couple of the bodies and store them in her pack. Stepping into the hallway behind the others, they then nodded and resumed their configuration for moving through the corriders and rooms of the station.
Moving to the nearest lift, Nuke stopped and held a hand up. "Hey, boss... you said down to the armory, correct? Well, it looks like the lift is out of commission." He pointed to the weld on the door. "My suggestion is we head to another section and try and go down from there." He shook his head as he spoke, to counter his verbal suggestion, and pointed to an access panel a couple feet away.
"Probably a good idea." He nodded and motioned to the others to see the access door. "I hate all this going around business though. Ok, let's go..." He started to move off and stopped after a few steps. Signalling for Nuke and Drifter to remain and work on the door, he talked to the others. "Ok, Paladin, you seem to know about this xeno thing more than the rest of us, you and Apache take lead. Nuke, want you and Drifter covering doors and checking for more of that who opened what and when stuff... and Kodiak, you and I got rear guard this time. The closer we get to the bottom of this, the more I think something is gonna come up our six and bite us in the ass." His fingers danced a counter rhythm to his words. He and Andrea would take the lead, Kodiak would take the rear with Drifter, and Melisande, Paladin, would pair up with Nuke in the middle. He hoped if someone was listening would see a regular pattern forming and proceed with either hitting the front, thinking the ladies being the weakest link and easiest to take out. Or better yet, hitting from the rear hoping to take out those of greatest threat.
Problem was, for them anyway, the pattern had shifted and each section was equally balanced now with a heavy hitter and an asset. When everyone had nodded agreement to the actual plan, Apache growled low in her comm to Melisande. "Figures... send us in first just in case there is more gore. Men..."
Melisande laughed. "They can't handle it the same, that's all, Andrea. Not their fault. Come on... I'm gonna have to sling my weapon to make this space hop. I nearly lost mine last time." They both laughed.
Talon rested a hand on Kodiak's shoulder where he was kneeling beside the access panel. He had it off and was fiddling with the power panel just inside it. A second later he slipped out. "Ok, door secured open, lassies... off ye go." He made a hand gesture that made them all realize he had manually opened the outer hatch they would have gone through if they really were leaving. Anyone monitoring the station would see the outer door had been activated.
Nodding when they all realized his quick thinking, they soon were heading into the access shaft beside the elevator and heading down to the lower level. Once on the floor, they shifted to the assigned partnerships Talon had given and rechecked their weapons.
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Post by Jashin on Sept 14, 2015 16:50:46 GMT
Orbital Platform Deep Star Three Research Wing IV 03:04 Mission Time
Ian sighed as he rounded the corner and found another dead end. The six of them had been crawling around in the service tunnels below the main deck like rats in a maze for almost an hour now, with no real results. Like the rest of DS3, the crawlspaces were pristine. Talon had as much to be thankful for as rankled at that fact. The main blast door to the central core section of the station had been sealed, re-coded, and booby trapped according to Kodiak and Nuke, so they had been forced to find other means. Ian had suggested by-passing the altered code, but Anton reported that doing so could take hours. That was when they discovered that the security protocols had been interwoven with some of the more-sophisticated detection systems Vanguard had installed. The basic result was that if anyone fiddled with the coding without knowing precisely what they were doing, or tried to force the door out of its proper alignment, the station's automated systems would trigger and jettison the entire section. Much as Ian hated to do it, he had ordered the team to split up and look for other ways to the main section that didn't involve another zero-gee leap to the next section. The team had offered their counter arguments, but Talon had silenced them with his usual growl of one simple realization:
"Two sections hobbled and nearly three hours wasted," he had stated flatly. "I'm no numbers man, but that means we're going to suck up a total of nine hours bouncing around like ping-pong balls in hopes of finding a chink in the armor. Vanguard isn't going to wait forever before sending up the next 'solution' to their problem. The next section is it, make or break."
Of course the talk of the next section was to continue the ruse to whomever had tapped their communications channel, but his point had stuck. They had a little less than thirteen hours to get Dark Star Three back into Vanguard's care, before Vander would consider the entire project lost and remove the threat. Having a target painted on his back and a clock ticking in his head, Ian did not feel there was enough time to do what needed to be done. The commander in him whispered otherwise, that it was the logical and justified method of containment in someone of Vander's position. That voice would have done the same, were the situations reversed. When the Vice-Director was recounting essential details in the hanger as they prepped to leave, there was a crack in his resolve when he stressed the type of experimentation going on-board DS3. He had been... unnerved, and Ian was beginning to understand why.
"Oi, boss." Nuke's voice in his ear made him almost jump, so lost in thought had he been. "Anoother room clear. N' sign o' life 'ere. Movin' on."
Talon queued up a schematic of the station and zoomed in to where he and the others were exploring, logged a marker on the display. That was it, then. There was no access hatch anywhere belowdecks joining the research arm to the main core section. It was either the main blast door or nothing. Well, Drifter had made the suggestion of a direct and forced insertion into the core through the main hull, but it had summarily been shot down. Besides the fact that they had not accounted for more than a handful of the Vanguard research staff, Nic was not carrying enough explosive to breach the reinforced outer hull. Before he had a chance to consider the alternatives, a hollow thunk rippled along the plating beneath him and his stomach pitched like a boat in a storm. His suit squawked a warning just before the light strips overhead went dark.
"Report!" Ian snapped.
Kodiak was the first to chime in amidst the confusion. "The power is out in this section, boss. All essential systems are down, including life support and artificial gravity. I'm guessing that secondary systems have been compromised somehow, since we're not seeing any backup lights on. I'm not sure why, since the research systems have enough redundancies to make a governmental bureau jealous. I do have some good news, however. Assuming this holds, the blast door to the central core should be safe enough to open now. Outside of a physical rig to the jettison charges, there's no way to blow the door. We're also back in control of our comm systems. If you give me a few minutes, I might be able to make our channels more secure."
"Take it," Ian nodded. "I want to be able to talk without someone eavesdropping. Before we try to open that door, however, we need to know whether or not the outage persists on the core side. I don't relish the idea of being baited into blowing ourselves into deep space by our saboteur. Comm check, team."
Everyone signed off, which was a relief. Melisande seemed a bit rattled, but Ian could hear Andrea murmuring assurances in the background.
"Whoawhoawhoa!" Kodiak sounded panicked, which made Talon reach for his weapon despite himself. "Ian, I know why we lost power and I can say for certain that it'll be safe to crack that door."
Ian chided himself, grumbling, "Clarify."
"The power isn't out, boss," Anton murmured, baffled. "It's being drawn to another section of DS3. I attempted to link with the computers in this section to get a better peek at what had happened, and my hardsuit went dark before I could blink. I'm okay, but I won't be of much use for about an hour. Personal life support and systems are down to seventeen percent. My gen-pac is stable and recharging, but its a little punch drunk from the surge. I did manage to snag a bit of data before the lights went out, but I'll need time to sift through it... assuming its worth my time."
Ian nodded again, mag-locking his weapon to his hip once more and shuffling about in the corridor. Zero gravity made it both easier and more awkward to move about in the small space, but he handled it easily enough. Once he was on the move again, he signaled the others.
"Everyone back to the blast door. We're going to hunker down for as long as we can while Nuc and Drifter get that door popped. Once we break that seal, we're going to make a beeline for central control. No deviations, no side trips. Once there, we dig in and make every effort to get a better picture of what the fuck is going on here. Kodiak, Paladin, and Apache will hold the control room while the rest of us move on to securing the power core. Power's being rerouted for some reason, and I aim to see that reason thwarted. Move!"
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