Ship Six

[CaptainPenguin]

Darkness

Soldier Number Three, Shine to the technicians and the scientists, sat bolt upright.

A booming creak. A bang. Rattles. Darkness.

The whirring of the servos in Shine's arm could be heard faintly in the echoing vagueness of the nighted cargo cavern. He was wet, drippingly so, but he could feel the warm water chilling already- freezing to his armor.

Was that a shout, echoing somewhere in the vast blank? Creak. Hiss. Darkness.

Buzzing with tinny helmet feedback, and raspy from three centuries of disuse and cryostasis, a barely-audible voice came:
"What... When is th... Doctor... Kahn?"

Ferroceramic boots clanked on plasteel decking as Shine stood. Stood and then fell, crashing rattlingly against the deck, the roar echoing off into the darkness, bouncing off the sides of vast skyscrapers of crates and boxes, until the entire sightless world seemed to be filled with the sound of the crash.

Again, the rasp: "Doctor Kahn? Ah.. Ahg... Doctor?"

There came a scraping. Shine was crawling along the floor, gauntleted fingers clawing and skittering on smooth plasteel.
There came a thought to Soldier Number Three: His suit had a light.
A beam of radiance lit the metal surface of a titanic crate. Rayed onto the side was the label- "Assorted parts- hydrogen ramscoops (type 8, size 2)".

"Where... The lights? What's happening?"

The beam, trembling with the shaking of a nanite-boosted arm, illuminated a row of cylindrical cases- cryo-cases, matte-black and dead, standing in a metal cage on the decking. Soldier Number Three located his immediately- it lay open like a disinterred coffin, from which the walking dead were disgorged. It stood in a water which was cluttering with ice even now. It pooled and dripped on the plasteel surface, and icecicles hung from the edges. Hanging on the interior was extra equipment- was there a light in there?
A hiss distracted him. Steam began to vent from another one of the metallic coffins. The beam swept to it.

"Are you there? Are you awake?" came Shine's voice, floating to the unresponsive surface of the cryo-case.
No answer came.

[Scrasamax]

Proximity Sensor/Automated 9G-451A Tripped
...
...
...
Accessing main power coupling...charging power cells. Please stand by
...
...
...
Power Cells at maximum standard charge. All cybernetic systems functional. Begin resuscitation of organic components.
...
...
...
Organ Stasis deactivated, statis gell cycled out. Activating Organic components...

Deep inside the ferro-ceramic coffin-suit, a needle injected a healthly dose or adrenalin, ephedrine and a cocktail of other drugs into teh dormant heart of Number 7. A pulse of power surged from the cyborgs power cell, jolting the heart into activity, sending the drugs through the dormant flesh. Within minutes, the heart was functioning on its own.

Number 7 stood up with explosive force, ripping free of the gravity constraints and crashing into the far side of the wall. He screamed as his body, dormant for so long in partial stasis burned with fire. The claws of the power suit flexed into fists, only to open again into agonized claws as the phantom pain burned through the organic mind of 7.

Eventually, as drugs were administered to terminate the psychotic state, 7 become rational. The battlecomp reminded him that a proximity alarm was tripped, and he needed to investigate. Still shaking, 7 accessed the computer system with a hardline I/O jack. The AIs were offline, which was disturbing, there were no commands being issued, he didnt even know if the others were active or not. The battlecomp released decision making abilities pending the return of the AI comptrollers.

7 stood, manually reading the code to activate the sensor memory to find what set it off. There was a short visual playback, a creature walked between two rows of colonists in stasis, tripping the proximity alarm. A check of the chronometer revealed the ship was still 175 years from target. The interloper was not human...

There was a faint whine as the capacitor to the power suit's arc cannon powered up from its power cells.

[ScorpionJinx]

The coffin-like case continued to vent steam as it had open only the slightest fraction. There was no verbal answer. But the whirs and clicks of machines could be heard coming from within. 277 had been dry cryo-ed. All organic material was encased within and did not require a liquid freeze to preserve it. Within the oragnic canister nanos surged through the thick amniotic gel, administuring small electric pulses to the encased nervous systems. The gel gradually thinned into it's natural liquid state as the internal heat regulator clicked on.The brain stirred back to life.

Confusion.

The cryo-case lid ceased to vent steam. The lid rose up and to the side. Revealing it's occupant. Concealed entirely by the ferro-ceramic suit, the smaller 277 began to show signs of activity. Within the suit, where the joints met there was the faint crackling of electricty. Small blue sparks.  Systems powered up. Any frost melted away, pooling beneath 277.

Screams in the dark.

277 sat up right. It looked to Soldier 3. Beneath the helmet came the sounds of a readout being displayed. Soldier 3 had been identified as a 'Friendly'. With little wasted effort, 277 removed it's self from the cryo-case and now stood before Soldier 3. The newly awakened cyborg was shorter than the others. It reached up to remove the helmet but halted. Hands lowered once more to it's sides.

[CaptainPenguin]

Shine leaned on his elbow against one of the crates, facing 277. His flashlight beam moved to the glittering visor of the other cyborg's helmet.

"Morning, sleepyhead. There aren't any lights. It seems that..."

A great roar interrupted him- Soldier Number 7 was awake, it seemed.

[Luke Lavin]

ALERT!

Infared and Motion sensors tripped multiple times in various regions of the ship causes, unknown, investigate.

..activating Unit 1

..dumping liquids

..re-heating..

..simtulating heart rate

..activating central nervous core..

..data-link established..

..Unit 1 Statis: Aware

One awoke slower than other cyborgs in the squad because of the many organic part he still retained.  He had most of the advantages of a normal cyborg but was limited to stable atomspheres without the power armor he wore.  One's light blinked on and stepped out of his cryo-coffin, greeted with the sight of 2, 3 , and the whire of 7's arc cannon.  One was deployed with a light weight plasma carbine no bigger than a large pistol, he kept holstered at his side as he stepped.  Any threat was not in the immediate vincity. He couldn't hear the drum of the huge ships engines a great many things seemed to be amiss.  

"Looks like duty found a way to worm back into our second lives." He said with only a hint of accent.

[ScorpionJinx]

277 looked from Soldier 3 to the other active unit. A brief sensor sweep followed by  internal readout. Soldier 7 was also a 'friendly'.
Beneath the helmet there came a shuffling clicking sound. 277 was accessing vision filters.
The voice that came from beneath the helmet almost sounded human, one of the best computerized vocal systems in action.
"Lower your beam" A woman's voice. A hand was held up, trying to block the light shining into her visor. With lowlight filters on, the beam was interferring with visual readout.

[CaptainPenguin]

Soldier Number Three lowered the light, as asked.

"Anybody else awake? I count 1, 2, myself, and 7... Where are the lights?"

David.

"What was that?," Shine said, whirling around. "Anybody hear that?"

David? David.

"Who said that? Do any of you hear that?"

David.

Soldier Number Three shook his head violently.

[Sentinel]

Power Modem: ON

Full Function: 100%

...Motion Detectors picked up non-freindly...

Programming:100%

TRX-13:Aware

Soldier 4 came on calmly, as the liquid that surrounded him went down into small holes at the bottom of the case and heat came on in his suit. Shade's visor switched to infered and the color of his viosor changed to a luminous green showing what was on, the lid in which held him in squelled as the pressure went down and fell making a large noice as it hit the floor. TRX-13 stepped out and recognized allies. He turned towards them and removed from a holster at his side his rifle, he held it his hands as he looked around staying silent as he clicked the saftey off. He looked around and turned his back on them as he only picked up friendlies. One thing, he knew. The non-friendly would be here soon and they would have to move soon. They couldn't stay here.

[Shadoweagle]

movement...

Soldiers... awake... noise...

shapes...

Blurred shapes moving... bumps...

Hisssss....

Depressure of stasis chamber... Opening of coffin door. yes.

--

Soldier 9 raised himself to push open the chamber, but due to lack of activity for so long, his muscles faltered, and the soldier collapsed, falling out of the chamber and sprawling onto the floor, where he remained motionless for a good minute.
Finally, the Soldier rose himself to hands and knees, and the other soldiers would hear a sound similar to a dry wretching coming from beneath his mask. This wretching continued for several seconds, body shivering beneath the coffinsuit, before the soldier managed to push himself up and lean against the nearest container. Finally, Enigmas gaze peered over the room. His own flashlight was not activated, but he could see enough from the other soldiers lights. Enigma motioned to speak, but all that came from his throat was a ghastly rasping, which caused him to cough violently, collapsing once more to his knees an shuddering.

[Sentinel]

TRX-13 walked calmly over to Enigma and put his arm under the arm of Enigma and lifted him up.
"Lean on me."
He said as he held him up. He looked around and held his rifle with one hand while holding Enigma with the other.
"We better move."
He swtched his visor from infered to regular view, he had picked up nothing else other then the soldiers. He activated his Combat-Mode and his body instantly became tense as his body would react to any combat automatically.

[CaptainPenguin]

Shine raised his head, and swept his beam to the right, down the aisle of cryo-cases.
"Ah. Voiceless, you too? It seems like everybody's awake too early."

David, can you hear me?

"Wha- ch.. ****!" he interjected explosively. The others paused in surprise. "Ne-nevermind. Where are the godd**n lights?!" He slammed a metal-clad fist against the face of the crate, scarring the dull finish and revealing duller metal underneath.

[ScorpionJinx]

277 studied Soldier 3 before glancing at the others. Another sensor sweep. Mostly organics. She turned back to face  Soldier 3 after he slammed his fist into a nearby crate.
"Do you wish to alert the intruders of our presence?"

[Sentinel]

Shade shook his head and repeated himself more loudly.
"We must get moving, intruders will be here soon."
He said as he looked around.

[Luke Lavin]

One lowered his light, "Sorry he stepped over to a small locker marked one, all the Soldiers were equiped with weapons constantly even in cryo sleep as a just in case.  Being mostly flesh One had armor seperate from himself as the flesh had to be in contact with the liquid to preseved.  He opened the locker by inserting his hand into a slot the a small self contained lock scanned, recognized, and opened the locker.  One pulled out pieces of armor and equiped them on his person. He had a flash back of himself pulling on a wet-suit and saying, "For queen and country."

One shoke his head and plopped his helmet on, there was a smlight buzz as the helmet jacked into his senses through his data-uplink.  He felt a sensation of eggs being cracked open and poured over him.  His visual sense blinked them resumed in a complete 360 degrees view.  The armor was dull grey with a thin black band around his helmet.  That improved his sense of hearing and smell.  Most of One's body was organic but his brain was mainly cybernetic as it had been blown out, with some portions left over such as memory and parts devoted to menatl imaging or imagination.

One holstered his Plasma Carbine, and pulled out an armband that was recognizable as a MAS Sword.  "Is this everyone, things..  something not human, has inffected the ship the computer tells me but parts of it are corrupted I can't figure much out right now."

[Scrasamax]

7 stood as motionless as a statue, the only sound being the constant low whine of the arc cannon as the capacitors retained the massive charge required to power the weapon. His eyes, now a collection of crystal lenses, photoelectric sensors, and other optical sensors stared blankly at the wall as it processed its data packet.

"Primary action, activate all cyborgs." he said in a synthetic voice the came from somewhere within his chest. The arc cannon hissed softly as the capacitors bled off charge, creating an odd tesla coil effect as arcs of soft blue light, ionized gas from the capacitor, arcs in gentle loops and whorls from the end of the cannon barrel.

Soldier 7 moved with mechanical efficiency as he faced the control terminal for the closest cyborg who had not yet awakened. The cyborg, more machine than man extended his right hand, a thick silver I/O jack extended from it like an obscene organ as he plugged it into the computer terminal.

[Sentinel]

4 looked around himself and put Enigma against a crate as he took a position on the edge of where everyone else was and knelt on one leg in a sentry position looking out into the shadows with infered in case any iontruder came this way. He switched sfatey off his rifle and waited patiently. TRX-13 stood up getting nothing and started to make a perimeter around their area seeing that nothing was coming.
"Nothing."
He said to everyone, but he knew that wouldn't be true for long. The intruders would find them, they had taken the ship, and it was only a matter of time before they came here.

[ScorpionJinx]

277 approached the nearest data port. Reaching up under the the neck of the suit she removed a serious or cords, plugging them into the panel.Accessing what she could of the ships controls she proceeded to scan the ship. Checking doors and locating all active organics. For now the doors leading into this cargo room were still closed and locked. But ship sensors had located several unknowns heading in their direction. She unplugged from the data port, the wires returning to their place. The mteal plate was closed over the wires, concealing them once more.

Who sent you?

277 ignored the ghost voice. Turning her attention to the others. "So who of us is the leader of our little bunch?"

Who sent YOU!

While waiting for a reply, 277 began to remove the ferro-creamic suit. It would only hinder her movements. She started with her arms first. She undid the latches and straps. Sliding the armor guantlet off, cold grey steel like metal was revealed. But there was no mistake, steel was no where near as strong as the metal her body was made of. Those scientists had done some of their best work with her. Her cybernetic form was a thing a mechanical perfection. After discarding the guantlets were removed she tested her joints. Tiny cervos and sensors relayed commands from her brain to her synthetic limbs the way her brain use to send electrical signals to her muscles.

[Sentinel]

He looked over at 277 and nodded as he walked over to her, he stayed silent for a while watching her before speaking.
"Perimeter clear. We better get moving or the unknowns will come. I have already picked up from my motion centers that a unit of un-friendly moving our way. They will reach us in approxmately 10 minutes and three seconds."
He said as he ran the numbers off in his cybernetic brain. He came over to Soldier 7 and nodded then he walked over to the metal doors and put in the code access to open it; it came open with a whirring of sound and he knelt looking out into the corridor. He put his rifle up and held it ready to fire when he put on his visor in infered looking out.

[ScorpionJinx]

"I suggest we leave our ferro suits in our cryo-cases and relock them. Let's not give the intruders any idea that we are awake and moving." 277 finished removing the ferro suit with ease. 277 was entirely made out of tantalum carbide graphite. Though humanoid and femine the heavily resembled an android drawn by some of the finest artists back beofre some of them were even born. A metal woman, stremline and lethal. Her ferro suit was arranged in the cryo case. She closed and locked the case, setting it to refreeze. There was no telling that it had been opened recently.
277 looked to the others, her smooth head catching just a bit of the light. Luckily she had a matte finish. Nothing worse than being shiny.
"Ship schematics places an access point about 5 yards behind the approaching targets."" Pointing up to a small crawl space." I can fit through there and drop in behind them. Pincer move." She looked to Shine, without waiting for orders she climbed up quickly to the crawl space. Though she was robotic, her movements were fluid, like an animals. Silently she slid through into the crawl space.

[Sentinel]

He nodded and hand motioned to 7 to come with him, he walked out into the corridor silently as he started making his way down the corridor, he stopped and crouched on the right wall kneeling and waiting for the inturders to come down this way. He put his scope on and waited more. If this plan worked the enemy.

[Scrasamax]

"...Thais..." 7 said, removing the I/O jack from the sleeping cyborgs port. The system to revive the remaining cyborgs had been initiated. They would all soon be active. He retracted the datajack back into its ceramic lined collar in his forearm.

She drifted in his mind, her hair long and golden like wheat in the sun, the bright sun. She was in trouble, what sort he didnt know but she had called him for help, and he intended to respond regardless of what these other walking buckets of meat and bolts decided. He shifted his weight and moved to follow #4, the floorplates groaning under his impressive weight.

The thought of removing the coffin-suit was short lived as the battle-comp deleted it from active memory, the shell would remain. He felt the heat build as power again flooded from the power cells into the capacitor of the arc cannon. He raised the weapon to shoulder level, pointed towards the door. He could stand like this for hours, servo motors locked in position, alone with the hum of the capacitor and the near fever-like dreams of her.

[Sentinel]

An idea came to TRX-13 as it flashed thrugh his mind, he was out in a meadow holding a little girl and swinging her around, her golden hair flowing out as the little girl laughed and laughed, her shining blue eyes happy. He remembered saying something to her and then the memory was gone and #4 was pulled harshly back to dark reality as he looked out into the darkness in the corridor his rifle ready and he alert

[Shadoweagle]

9 rested against that crate for some time, first regaining his bearings with the world, and then studying the others - who had risen much faster than himself. He had always thought that his death would be the release of his service to the world. Now they had found a way to keep him on even after that.

Eventually, he rose from the crate and Headed to his storage.

Daggers... Yes.

Within his container, a single-strap bandolier hung, on the strap, five weighted daggers were sheathed securely. Much better than those noisy guns. 9 Picked out this bandolier and strapped it securely around his torso.

I know how to use these.

Nodding softly to himself, Enigma turned and made his way to a wall. Out of the direct brightness of the other cyborgs light, subject 9 all but melded into the shadow, disappearing from sight.
Beneath the opaque full-face helm, Enigmas eyes closed, and he listened.

[CaptainPenguin]

"Whoa, slow down," said Shine, holding his palms up. "All halt, people, you're moving too fast for me. What are you talking about? Intruders? I don't have a jack-in like you comp-heads."
Nobody listened. He beamed a message over command radio.
"All halt, battleroid units. Now this is how it's going to go:
The lights are out, and apparently, there's some sort of intruder in the ship. There's no sign of Doctor Kahn or the technicians. Before we were frozen, I was authorized to take command in case of emergencies, and this seems to qualify as an emergency to me."

[Shadoweagle]

From the darkness, Enigmas gaze turned to Shine, and his head tilted slightly to the side. He was correct, of course - they should confirm the situation before making assumptions. In response to Shines words, 9 stepped out from the darkness and leant back against a crate, folding arms in front of him and waiting - Even if he could speak, he wasnt going to offer any suggestions. Leave that part up to the others.