Author Topic: Gothic Space Horror (Read 27488 times)

MoonHunter · « **Reply #150 on:** September 26, 2004, 10:22:47 AM »

Taggert watched the docking ring slowly envelope his ship's window. Tagget snickered at what St. Freud would of thought of the sight.

He had isolated a segment of his ship's computer on the careful flight over. That way, any computer glitch in the big bad ship's system would not mangle his own computer.

The rings touched and made love. No real data transfered between the two ships. It seemed the electronics were down. Tagget reached for his chin to scrape his fingers across his scruffy beard. The vylex of his helmet stopped his glove hand. With the practice of a space, he rubbed the "chin" section of his helmet. There was no way he was going to take off his suits in the proximity of this ship until someone cleared up the mystery of what happened.

Tagget thought about maybe boosting his ship's signal output to power the dead ship's cmu system, then maybe activating a few systems if their was power. "Nahhhh. The tech would have heebies if a Flight/Com like me did something technical."

*click*[[Momma Ship this is Shuttle III. Momma Ship this is Shuttle III. Automatic docking system is down. Or there is not enough power to my ring. Big suprise there. I am getting my getter key and attempting manual entry. Do you copy? ... Oh and will someone shuttle the dammed Tech over here?.]]

Tagget began to silently unclick himself from his umbilicals. It was errie that total silence in space. The only thing you can hear in your suit was your own breathing and heartbeat. The sounds that meant you were alive became oppressive after a long time. The sounds of life became tanjed annoying in your suit. Everything should be as silent as space.

Tagget floated out and over his webbed chair. He reached the shuttle door. He pranged the little box that always held the Getter. Every airlock had to have a manual entry. That was Safety 101. Lets just hope nothing jammed that friken locking mechanism.

Luke Lavin · « **Reply #151 on:** September 26, 2004, 10:49:53 AM »

Hue waited in the passenger compartment, it was pretty smal one for a shuttle to have them cooped up in. Hue opened his green bag and removed the larger DX-2 pistol. He plugged a power pack in, tested the auto-sight, and laser sight module, he kept his hand on it and rested his arm on his lap. His thump carful to not switch the safety off accindently.

Even though scans had reported a dead ship, something bothered Hue, he had a million questions he wanted to ask, but no one to answer them. Since he was closed to the air lock, he'd be the first one in.

CaptainPenguin · « **Reply #152 on:** September 26, 2004, 12:50:24 PM »

The utter silence jangled Ao's nerves as he guided his shuttle into the second docking ring. A slow hiss of particle interference sounded across his com-link earpiece. The darkness from within the ship was absolute- the blue-green glow of descending Uranus gave the outer hull a corpse-like green color.
Corpse-like. That was the wrong word to relate it to, Ao thought. Now he would be twice as jumpy.
He unlatched himself from his webchair and floated towards the airlock.

Ria Hawk · « **Reply #153 on:** September 26, 2004, 01:58:24 PM »

Somewhere in the transition between ships, Pockets had gone through a change of manner. Her normal, sub-hyperactive behavior was gone, replaced by dead seriousness. Everything on the ship was down. Completely down. She didn't like it when that happened; it made her nervous. In response to Tagget's irate request, she replied, "I'm on my way."

Luke Lavin · « **Reply #154 on:** September 26, 2004, 03:41:44 PM »

Hue worked the air-locks manual controls since it was sealed up against the ship, Hue wasn't sure whether the Celeste was void or had atomshpere so he made sure that everyone had their suits on right, then asked the pilot to depressurize the compartment. So when he worked the Celeste's airlock open, if she were open to the void they wouldn't be sucked at with the air.

The Celeste's airlock had to be opened from the manual overide, which required a good deal of strength, when it finaly clicked unlocked, Hue had to slide the door sideways with just his strength. The door luckily didn't offer much in the way of resistance just alot of wait. It took Hue twenty minutes to work the air lock open enough for a person to walk through without tearing his suit. He shined a light down the hall but it just showed floorplates and darkness. The ship either had very low atomsphere pressure or was open to void because no air buffeted him as he worked the door open. Hue held a Mag-Light over his left arm over his right arm which held his DX-2. He took a couple steps into the hall and waited for the others. "Doesn't look like anyone's home, the pressure is low, and it's cold."

Scrasamax · « **Reply #155 on:** September 27, 2004, 07:37:28 AM »

Hue was stopped cold. The light of a small flashlight illuminated the inner door of the airlock. It had taken 20 minutes to muscle the first door open, but there didnt seem to be any lip, or place he could get a handhold on to push the second set of doors open.

*****

Pockets was able to access the primary I/O of the airlock mechanism. The system was hydraulic, and seperated from the main power supply. Her handheld scanned through the prelisted protocols listed in the memory of the door lock. An access code presented itself on the screen in bold flashing numbers. Once pressed, the door popped and rotated open.

A second access code granted a similar pop as the internal door opened. Engineering would be on the Down axis of the ship, while the bridge and controls would be located on the Up axis. thankfully, there was a card on the wall, a large blue arrow emblazoned with ENGINEERING, and pointing to the left. Pockets was left facing nothing but the darkness of the Celeste, and her unseen crew.

ScorpionJinx · « **Reply #156 on:** September 28, 2004, 08:51:47 AM »

Micky proceeded to do life scans on all levels of the Celeste and her life pods. She programmed the results to be sent to her computer screen only. She didnt want to crush the Captain's hopes if no life signs were found. Since they were now umbilicled to the Celeste there was no need for drive controls. She switched Stationary Positioning. The ship would maintain it's position to the Celeste via sensor scans and short micro thrusts to keep it in motion with the Celeste, It would keep the shifts of space from snapping the connections between the two ships. She sighed. Being the pilot was sometimes a boring job. Everyone else would be able to explore the Celeste at some point or another. Unfortunately, she was stuck there in the pilot's seat, watching system readouts and sensor sweeps.

Ria Hawk · « **Reply #157 on:** September 29, 2004, 09:58:51 PM »

Pockets drifted uneasily down the corridor towards engineering. First get main power up and online, then see what she could do about life support. Then drive systems and other sundry things. Her flashlight cast eeiry shadows, and she gripped her toolbox harder. There was nothing to be afraid of; it was just that the abandoned feel of the ship gave her the creeps.

Luke Lavin · « **Reply #158 on:** September 29, 2004, 10:08:36 PM »

Hue didn't see a way to get so he left the airlock closed the door and boarded the shuttle. "Take us out of here Tagget she's locked up tight we'll have to wait for the egineer to open her up.

Scrasamax · « **Reply #159 on:** September 30, 2004, 02:30:09 AM »

Pliers lounged in the engineering bay, quite far from the relative excitement of the exploration of the Celeste. On the other hand, that also meant he was a good ways away from finding the dead bodies of fellow spacers. Give a little, get a little.

WARNING...WARNING

Breach detected in auxilliary power core

Radiation leakage at unsafe levels

A quick inspection of a data terminal displayed that the shielding around the the secondary power core, a much less powerful, and less efficient uranium fission system had developed a spiderweb of stress fractures through the outer casing. The thing was starting to irradiate the Ballard, it would reach lethal doses in less than half an hour if he didnt eject the auxilliary core.

Shadoweagle · « **Reply #160 on:** September 30, 2004, 12:15:57 PM »

Pliers quirked a brow at the warning sounds and signals, and after a half a second, jumped into action. Though a grumpy, withdrawn man at times, he knew what to do when it came to trouble, and he studied the data readouts and understood the problem - a dangerous problem, but with a rather simple answer.

A first, small button was pressed on the main console, and Pliers watched the readout drop as the secondary reactor was isolated from the power system.

Perhaps twenty seconds later, once all power was isolated, a second button was pressed, and those still onboard the Ballard would hear an audible metallic 'clang' reverberating through the ship as the outer hull plate which covered the second reactor was blown.

Pliers exhaled as his finger hovered over the third and last button which would Fire the explosive bolts connecting the reactor to the ship. It was fortunate the removal was such a simple procedure. About five seconds after he pressed his finger against the button, those in the ship would feel the rattling shake of the bolts firing and disconnecting.

Another two seconds on from that, however, an audible screeching sound of metal grating against metal would be heard. Pliers cringed painfully - that sound was NOT supposed to happen. A new warning light blinked brightly on his work panel, indicating a good amount of the bolts had not been fired, and thus the reactor had merely jolted itself, but was still hanging onto the Ballard.
Pliers stared at the readouts for a few seconds longer before reaching for the comms button to send a message.

"Er, it appears, Captain, that there has been a malfunction in separating the bolts from the secondary reactor. Only a third... perhaps a quarter of them were released..." Pliers wondered whether the radiation leakage was too great to get close enough through the maintenance shaft to attempt to ignite those bolts by another means.

Scrasamax · « **Reply #161 on:** September 30, 2004, 02:00:27 PM »

The captain sat pole-axed in his chair. The mission had gone from cut-and-dried to a disaster in the making in only a few seconds. He reconfirmed the situation with the assistant engineer before cursing.

"All hands, prepare for emergency evacuation.' he said, hitting the intercomm key. "Kim, we might need to get all of the rad-poisoning kits from the med bay before we leave the ship, no telling what is left on the Celeste." he said with a haggard tone. It would be a cramped evac as the remaining crewmen made their way into the two salvage shuttles, and over to the Celeste.

"Is there any way we could send someone into the thing, and fire the rest of the bolts?" he asked, seconding Pliers sentiments.

Marney shook her head, having been a junior engineer before gaining admittance to medical training. "There is no way for a person to manually discharge the bolts, and if they did, they would as likely be killed by the reactor shifting, as from the radiation leaking from the d**n thing." she said.

For a moment, the captain looked to entertain the though, one crewman for the safety of his ship. "I hope the Celeste is in better shape, or we are all screwed." he said. He punched in the code to power down the ship, and put her in stand-by. Hopefully, she would be rescued herself.

Aboard the Celeste
Pockets found her way to the main engineering compartment, a shining cubicle of dials, and computer screens, an engineers dream and a mechanics nightmare. A few minutes work showed that the reactor was purposfully powered down, and was set in stand-by, with the solar arrays on the outer hull providing most of the residual power.

The power core, obviously more advanced, and ten times more engineer friendly than the MMCRV-1 reactor on the Ballard. As the core returned to operational power, more than a dozen screens read out data to her, from the broad strokes of megawatts generated per second to the minutae of power transfer through the couplings, and vibration in the reactor housing.

At the Airlock
As Hue and Tagget were about the leave, the light fixtures in the airlock blinked on, and the door, reading positive pressure and motion inside, opened. The lights inside of the Celeste were still coming on, running lights, as well as the persistant hum of air recirculators coming back on line.

The air, if it was breathable would be stale, and lord only knew what smells wafted on the frozen breezes, perhaps a virus, or some other invisible pathogen that decimated the crew. There was also the reassuring whine of the O2 heaters warming the ship back to human inhabitability from the constant and penetrating cold of space.

ScorpionJinx · « **Reply #162 on:** September 30, 2004, 02:21:37 PM »

"Lt. Marney...how well can our suits shield us from the radiation?" Micky's mind was working quickly. There had to be something they could do. She didnt like the thought of abandoning ship if they could save it somehow. She knew the suits could be modified partially to decrease it's size. The Ballard was a good working ship, the Celeste was still unknown...she didnt trust unknowns. "How much radiation is leaking out?" She looked to Pliers. Micky had an idea, she just wasnt sure if it would work.

MoonHunter · « **Reply #163 on:** September 30, 2004, 04:20:22 PM »

"YES!" Tagget exclaimed. "The aux power is on. Now we won't go bumping in the dark."

Tagget began to cycle through the lock. Thinking about it, he went back for his crowbar and tool kit. Eventually the iris opened. No signs.

"NG".

His companion looked at him quizzically.

"Not Good. Now don't go taking off that helmet, for all we know it was something biological that took out the crew. Not that makes too much difference in the low volume air. And its colder than a CO's heart. The Rad count is okay for the moment."

"Hey. The relay to the Ballard is down. Just Frick'n great. Probably the damm super ship hull. So, after you."

Luke Lavin · « **Reply #164 on:** September 30, 2004, 04:36:38 PM »

Hue nodded reflexively, the threat of a pathogen seemed to be likely considering the functioning state of the ship and the absence of the crew. "Good thinking. If the relay to the Ballard is down, that could mean any number of things, but s**t happens in space. Maybe a metorite sheared off their com array, maybe the reactor is critical. Whatever it is it's out of our hands. We should try to make it to the bridge from there we can access the sceurity terminal and crew logs. Find out what the hell what happened here."

The way the ships lights came on and the utter emptiness of the ship reminded him of certain events. Things before had started jsut like this...

"It can't be them.." He said to himself, he proceeded down the corridor to the corridor intersection. "Warship's bridge is usually towards the center of the ship where the most protection from hard space is. Unless you have the floor plan with you."

Scrasamax · « **Reply #165 on:** September 30, 2004, 06:17:50 PM »

Hue's instinct paid off, and the two men found the bridge in short order. The ship remained cold as they progressed deeper into it, but the temp was slowly rising. It had come up ten degrees since they had cycled through the airlock. It was still cold enough to kil, but it would take a minute now rather than the span of a single breath.

A gruesome sight awaited the two men as the door to the bridge opened. It was nearly a hand's length thick, and double reinforced. The holovid screens were on, the computer cycling through its warm-up operations, assessng basic functions and the status of core systems. Apparently it had been shut down in standard order.

A man sat in the command chair, his face drawn into the rictus of pain and death, his seemingly last act was a snarl of defiance...or was it horror. The features of the frozen face were hard to discern with absolute clarity. The skin was pale as alabaster, the eyes bulging, with visible ruptures where the cornea had split when the vitrious gel inside of the eyeball froze and expanded. Blood ran down his face, dried to paper crispness in the absolute cold of the bridge.

All of the death and suffering at Diamunde seemed to pale in comparison to this single corpse, drifting in the dark beyond the inner reaches of the solar system, waiting for them. Like a macabre sentinel, or doorman to the darkness...

Luke Lavin · « **Reply #166 on:** September 30, 2004, 06:25:46 PM »

Hue didn't even flnch at the dead body he had been expecting it, in this cold someone had to die of the cold. "This confirms my suspicion, whoever did this it was maliscious radical drop in temputure doesn't just happen. It looked he was frozen in a span of short miuntes. I can't be sure. Nothings can be confirmed untill Marney can perform an atopsy. Here help me bag him. " Hue pulled out a black rubber bag.

CaptainPenguin · « **Reply #167 on:** September 30, 2004, 07:17:00 PM »

Ao, having followed the two onto the bridge, gasped and dropped behind a bank of controls. He clawed at the facemask of his suit.
Breathe! Must breathe!
He stood, bracing himself against some machinery.
"Wha... What? What is this?"

Shadoweagle · « **Reply #168 on:** September 30, 2004, 08:43:15 PM »

Pliers Shook his head faintly at Micky in disapproval. "If I thought there was anything I could do to save this ship right now, I would be on it. Radiation density is enough that within the core channel, exposure for three minutes would be more than enough for death. And that is rising rapidly. Captains approval or not, I will not allow anybody to risk anything. And the suits in their current state would not offer extra protection over more than thirty seconds."
The engineer had taken all that was not bound down in the engineering compartment, including all the tools. Though he was retreating for the moment, he was not about to give up on a ship - he was perhaps almost as fanatical about the Ballard as pockets, if not as verbal about it.
"However, I am hoping that the Celeste will have suits better equipped for radiation. Or at the very least, given the time I will have on the Celeste, I may be able to modify our own suits for aided protection." If he could find or make proper protection on the Celeste, he thought may be able to come back and operate a salvage ship to see if he can't get out there to separate that reactor. He paused a moment, before glancing to the captain "Do we have time to take rations? There is no telling how much is left on the Celeste..."

Scrasamax · « **Reply #169 on:** October 01, 2004, 07:34:36 AM »

"Not a bad idea, sir." the captain said as he was preparing his logs and charters to be transfered to the Celeste. "We will still need to eat, hopefully they will have the ship warmed up enough that we will be able to open our suits to eat." he said.

MoonHunter · « **Reply #170 on:** October 01, 2004, 09:00:09 AM »

At the airlock:
Tagget pulled out his PADD and pulled up the schematics. He pointed and grunted in his articulate way.

****
AT the Bridge..
"Cool", Tagget said when they saw the dead captain. "Brave Stupid CO, dying with his ship for no reason than tradition."

*****
"Yah, sure. We can bag him. We need to hurry. With any more air and heat, he will begin to expand and... well if you never seen a recompressed body... it is kind of messy. "

*struggle * "TANJ! they say these bags are one size fits all, but they really arn't. You know, I am not doing the mop duty on any of the other bodies once lifesupport kicks on full force."

"Once the computers come up, we can check the logs." After unceremoneously tossing the captain's bag off to the back of the bridge. Walking around the bridge, Tagget checked his pressure gague.

He drops back into the captain's previously held chair. He flipped on his suit "ears". There was enough air now to carry sound efficently. He was hoping to hear the familiar boot up beeps of the computer systems. What he heard was an odd rhymic rumble.. a ping of rumbles.

"What the tanj is that? No ship is supposed to make that kind of noise. Turn your ears on. What do you make of it?"

Scrasamax · « **Reply #171 on:** October 01, 2004, 09:33:40 AM »

A search of the Celeste proved futile, the unknown body in the command chair was the only one aboard, grinning with its frozen grin of death. Perhaps something in the last few seconds of life had proven funny to the man as he froze to death. The body was stowed in a the body bag, and the ships cold storage proved to be amply sized to hold the body.

Things seemed amiss aboard the ship. Personal belongings were still laying out, photographs and holos still rested on bunks, clothes were folded, some half folded in the laundry hold. Food, frozen harder than stone was still sitting on the tables in the mess. As the various systems came back on, holovids in private quarters remembered their last setting and resumed play of whatever was in them to begin with.

The ansible feeds remained blank as the bulk of the gas giant blocked most all signals from Earth. It would be three hours before the ship was habitable again, and by four hours it would be back at normal temperature.

ScorpionJinx · « **Reply #172 on:** October 06, 2004, 07:58:48 AM »

Micky sighed. "You guys go ahead. I will be over shortly." She went and found her space suit. She slipped it on, clasping latches, checking it's hoses and such. She would put the helmet on last. Micky returned to her post and punched in the remaining commands. It would keep the ship at a holding position until the others had evacuated. She drummed her fingers lightly on the armrest of her chair. Micky had a plan...or at least she was working on one.

Scrasamax · « **Reply #173 on:** October 06, 2004, 10:58:57 PM »

Captain Stern glowered through the face of his helmet, his breath hissing in his ears. The thermo on his suit registered the mess of the Celeste in the area of -200 degrees. It would be long before it was habitable again, unlike his own ship. The thought of an overdue reactor inspection made him want to throw up in his suit.

Marney and Severin were unloading the last of the supplies from the Ballard for their stay onboard the Celeste. It was primary to find out what happened to the Celeste, so that it didnt repeat itself, then they could worry about either repairing the Ballard, or using the Celeste to pull the Ballard back to a safe port of call. It would take some time to inspect both ships.

Marney would autopsy the body of the unknown man, and hopefully that might shed some light on what happened aboard the ship, and maybe give a clue to where the other 79 bodies vanished too.

Luke Lavin · « **Reply #174 on:** October 07, 2004, 07:55:03 PM »

Hue booted up the terminals on the bridge and started a diagnostic of the ship, the screen moved extremely slow as the ship did an interior scan.