If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at stararmy@gmail.com or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
"Alright, Thank you Icarus." said Raduriel. She lowered the transceiver from her lips and lent against the wall, closing her eyes and thinking. "If i can get access to the main network, i might be able to pull up schematics of the ship." She opened her eyes and said out loud "Maintenance Diagrams! Hey Icarus, Any idea where maintenance might be on the ship? Or even just a networked terminal. i might be able to pull maintenance diagrams from it to give us a better idea of where we are, as well as run some system diagnostics to determine the stability of the artificial gravity."
Senna also peeked over the edge again as Sofiel slowly made her way down. The small Elysian let out a soft huff as her friend had landed safely. Glancing at her toolbelt, she rolled her shoulders momentarily and let out a soft murmur under her breath. Before heading to work on fastening herself to the rope. Slowly cracking her knuckles as she put her feet on the edge. Before slowly rappeling down. Glancing down at the odd sight of the three already standing on the wall.
When she finally reached the gravity spike, Senna stumbled onto the floor between the three, letting out a soft giggle. "Majestic as ever, sorry to keep you waiting."
Alexia lowered a hand to help up their newest member on the wall regain her feet with a suppressed giggle, at least the tension seemed to have died down in the group as they all lightened up a bit. "Well I guess we should keep moving, we've spent a lot of time just getting in here after all." She said.
ECV Raven - Bridge
"The engineering department is close to the rear from preliminary scans and the existing maps we have, if you want to try and pull any information from it I suggest you get moving the power seems to still be rising and I still have no idea why it is or when it will peak."
"Yeah, like Alexia said, we need to get a move on." said Raduriel. She reached down and grabbed some of the rope that was next to her, tying it onto a nearby pole. "Everyone hold onto this as we go, that way if the gravity suddenly drops off we won't fall to our deaths." she said, nervously. Slowly she began to walk towards the back of the ship. "Also, Keep an eye out for anything that looks like a network port, the sooner i can get in, the better off we'll be."
Alexia continued down the hall with Raduriel close behind, nodding at the other elysians earlier comment the raven sister had the length of cable firmly in her grasp as she walked her way down the hall, her helmeted head moving from side to side, up and down with the attached light both lighting their way and looking out for points of interest. "Keep the magnetic clamp from your pack handy too Raduriel, I haven't seen anything interesting looking yet although we are in a long hall so I doubt there will be much more than doors." She said over her shoulder to the other girl.
With gravity on their side, the team was able to make fast work traversing the hall with no signs of system failure before they reached the door at the end which connected to a large common are according to Icarus and Senna's map. Unlike the airlock this door simple shuddered and managed to grind open as they approached, several thousand years overdue machine grease squeezing out between the door and its frame as it attempted to retract. Almost immediately the air became thick with the smell of machines and their inner components, the sight on the other side of those doors however was vastly more grim than the entrance to the ship.
Empyrean - Common Zone 1
As expected all the furniture had crashed into a heap at the far wall as a result of the lack of gravity until recently, on the floor were several very faint stains which could have once been blood outlined in such a way to suggest a body dragging itself or being dragged across the floor in some fashion. Unlike the door the odor of the room beyond was simply stale, after such a long time anything which had once had a smell had long since lost its scent, in the far left corner atop the pile of tables, chairs, shelves and other assorted items was a large mess of shiny mucus which had now spilled onto the floor slightly.
Unlike the hall the lights in this room were either turned on or completely destroyed with an uneven light shape cast over the environment although there was plenty of light to see from any point in the room. Somewhere just below the surface of the mucus a soft blue light blinked slowly at the explorers as if waiting for someone to save it from it's squishy prison. It was obvious that many of the connecting doors to the common area were non-functioning as some were damaged and others simply had no indicator lights, however on the right side wall a larger sliding door labeled "Crew Only" seemed to still be in working condition with several other doors indicating they had been manually locked within the system.
"Well, I guess we have completed the first leg of the trip." Alexia said while gingerly stepping through the doorway to test if the gravity was also active in this section of the ship, which to her delight it was. "Well, we know we need to get to the engineering area to find out what's causing this phenomenon, but does anyone else think it might be a good idea to look around before we leave again?" The raven sister asked, her eyes already on the other doors of the room.
Room is rectangular with sloped corners, at the far end a large collection of furniture is blocking the engineering doorway with the sign barely visible unless properly inspected.
to their immediate left is a small open kitchen area suitable for 2 people cooking at once, all the cupboard doors have been torn off and some are visible in the pile at the bottom.
There is a maintenance hatch in the ceiling easily big enough for an elysian (the ship was made by birbs after all)
The blood stains are like drag marks although very faint and no other signs to suggest either violence or a corpse being in or having happened in the room.
The only working doors are the crew only on their right, engineering which is not visible without inspection of the pile and cannot be reached, kitchen store room also on the left is the final unlocked door. There is a total of 6 other doors which are damaged or locked with a second door covered by the debris leading to the medical wing, this door is also invisible without closer inspection and is currently half open but stuck.
"Hey what's going on in ther~" the Dove's cheery question cut itself off as she took in the sight before her - the blood, the gunk, the general eeriness... it made the already pale girl's expression behind her mask pale further as she took in the grim scene.
"...well this isn't good..." the civillian engineer managed to mutter after a few seconds as she finally managed to snap out of the initial shock, admittedly Sofiel was the furthest thing from relaxed in this moment but she was at least closer to it - if only by a fraction.
"We should look around a bit, methinks..." the Dove-winged woman continued to speak half-heartedly as she looked around, those large eyes of a golden hue squinting to see if she could get a better focus on the glowing thing inside the amorphous blob but to no avail - leading to curiosity getting the better of her as young Miss Castien picked up what looked like it had once been a shelf support and poked it into the blob to try and pry the glowy thing free, ready to leap back at a moment's notice.
The two military folk hopped off the edge, ready to cancel their momentum with rope and 'jetpack' once they hit the artificial gravity field. The moment they hit, they pulled on the rope, stopping themselves within the first bubble. They slowly pseudo-rappeled themselves down this way, slowly descending the corridor.
Common Zone 1
"Eww..." came Meissa's first reaction. She was no stranger to blood, but it was more a sense of primal disgust rather than horror. The intelligence agent, however, was already on the case.
"No signs of violence, so it could have been a butchered livestock of some sort. Or the creature was recently deceased when probable incision was made." the much older intelligence agent began analyzing. "I don't have a field kit on hand, so deep analysis isn't possible. It may be possible that the blood trail could have led from another room where a fight broke out, and then cleaned or fallen away. But that hypothesis cannot be true since it makes no sense that it would go partways."
"Alternatively...it may not have been a creature being dragged out, but a creature dragged in." Corvina finished. "It could be something dying that sat right where the trail ended, then when the gravity system broke, fell into the pile. I find that to be the most likely outcome of the three."
Alexia continued to poke around several of the locked and sealed doors, the labels had either been damaged or removed in most cases except for a few which happened to belong to the open doors. "Yeah looking around sounds good. I can see two open doors from here, we got a store room and restricted access by the looks of it, maybe security of some kind?" Alexia mused, turning to shrug at the team a little as she poked her head into the store room finding nothing but a small pile of ruined storage containers.
As Sofiel poked at the gunk the faint glow continued as consistent as always, within a few moments the piece of debri she'd been using as a tool paid off and the small device was pried from the slime with a pop. On its surface was a number, '02' and the trademark buttons of a basic recording device.
VI, VIII, MMMCDLXII
I have been here for the worst of fifteen days. It would appear that some of the others have grown accustomed to each other. Miserable things. I would explain what in particular about this behaviour makes me feel so. Yet alas, I have no explanation. Perhaps I feel that it is pathetic to seek consolation with others. I could conceive that requiring another for emotional security would be piteous at the least. Though in sincerity, I am unsure.
- JG
As Raduriel walked into the common Zone, she turned her nose up at the sight of blood. She had never been a huge fan but was no stranger. Trying to avoid looking at it, she began walking through the room, casting a glance over everything. As she scanned, the blinking blue light caught her attention. Walking over to it, she gently brushed the mucus off the surface, hoping to have found some form of computer.
"Could not agree with you more, Alexia. Who knows what might be down here. Hell, not even Icarus knows what caused this ship to end up here, there could be any sort of unspeakable monsters down here." She said, feigning confidence. "Also, since where in what appears to be a common area, everyone keep your eyes out for a computer of some kind, even if its just a working door controller would give me enough access to run diagnostics and maybe find a map."
She looked around at the team and thought to Herself "What brought us all here? Such an unusual crew"
Senna took Alexia's hand with a meek yet thankful nod, pulling herself up as she cleared her throat. "Yeah, let's," she agreed with the Elysian that offered to help her up, dusting off her robes before lgancing down the the hall. Following the rest, she couldn't help but glance around, though there was nothing of note in the walls that surrounded them. Though, feeling a pang of anxiety as she realized they were descending to what in essence was a mass grave.
Upon entering the crew room, Senna's nose crinkled slightly. "That smell, it's-... Quite something," she said, taking a deep breath through her mouth. Before shaking her head. Dessicated corpses, something she had come in contact with before. But the humid warmth that wafted in her face was something the lithe Elysian could never get used to. The dragmarks, the ripped out cupboard doors, she regarded them with empty eyes. A last, desperate attempt to not fall to their deaths.
Exhaling a soft sigh, she glanced over to the rotting heap at the far end of the room. Senna took it upon herself to inspect the barricaded door, passing a hand across the sign to smear off whatever gunk covered it. Before taking a step back. Wiping a hand under her nose in a futile attempt to get rid of the disgusting scent that stung her nostrils. Vile enough that tears had set in her eyes.
"Oh my, well that was quite~" The Dove pondered for a second after hearing the overly analytical, rather haunting recording she'd just discovered - the engineer assumed everyone else in the small space had heard it too but took a second to inspect the device for some kind of date she might be able to find before storing it in her satchel. "~y...yeah... anyway, hm," was what the engineer bumbled out before she began looking around for a computer, network node - hell anything she or her military equivalent could work with, hopefully together to speed things along.
Alexia looked over towards where Sofiel had found the tape as she heard it play upon being picked up. Moving over slowly she eventually stood beside the other girl as the recording ended. "Yeah no kidding, who do you think this JG is?" Alexia asked, given how old the ship was they could only speculate really. Since the others were all still looking for some sort of terminal the raven sister went back to searching herself, she checked over a couple of the door terminals but it didn't look like they could be accessed.
Of the visible doors, only the 'select crew only' door had a working console beside it with a faint light blinking slowly. In a similarly eerie fashion the console had a compatible connection port despite the age of the ship. Without warning, a distant siren went off in a room elsewhere in the ship followed by the various sounds of a room sliding up into a wall as its gravity field fluctuated. The power seemed to be returning to the ship differently to Icarus' initial predictions.
Alexia jumped at the distant crashing and tried to pinpoint the source, with so many doors in such a large room it was nearly impossible to tell which one would lead that way.
The shifting of the Empyrean as she awoke bellowed across her interior. The crashing echoed throughout the room and beyond, the sound bouncing across the many walls and doors, repeating several times even after the crash had reached a finale. An army of smaller rattles, scrapes and bangs hid behind the bedlam. Although intense, this was an occurrence the brains of each Elysian would undoubtedly be accustomed to. It only makes sense. A large shift in structure cascades into many smaller ones until inevitably, the chaos ends.
They were not prepared for what happened next. A loud, corporeal thudding against the walls of the common room. At first, it was easily mistakable as a part of the previous clamor. Yet, as silence befell the Empyrean, the thudding became uncanny clawing. It raced its way up the walls in what felt like multiple directions, vibrations bounding from wall to wall until it began echoing throughout the ship on its own. Despite the distinct lack of intensity, hearts skipped beats. Eyes darted across the walls. A loud, disembodied, metallic screech came from everywhere at once as the lights that still worked flickered in desperation, as though the mere presence of hope was savagely screaming for escape. They almost shut off entirely before the grating hell stopped, releasing its grasp on them. The last thing that was heard during this mayhem was a slight skittering. It was although a cockroach was eating away at the tissue of the mind. The moment it stopped, a crack in the ceiling began bleeding. The substance that oozed out was a sort of slime, not unlike the mucus they had just observed. Although, this was marginally distinct. Clumps of red hair like you would find in the drain of an overused shower were steadily sliding through the sticky, yellow glue. There was no doubt in the world: It was fresh.
Senna flinched as the crashing ocurred. Setting in motion a chain of events. More and more furniture crashing down, for as far as she knew. Feeling it thrum throughout the ship. The Elysian exhaled a soft breath, patting down the furniture that barricaded the door, before murmuring 'nothing' to herself. With a shake of her head, she turned on her feet, intent on joining the rest of the ship.
Though halting in her step as she heard the sudden thudding. Eyes widening as she glanced around. It was closer than the rest of the crashing she had heard. Way closer, glancing at the wall, she turned on her feet. Though the then, the clawing began, darting up the walls. Causing Senna to stumble back and fall flat on her butt. Feeling her stomach turn and squeeze together as a painful, almost deafening screech resounded. Loud enough to even cause the lights to flicker.
"What-... In damnation," she murmured, before goop slowly trickled down in her lap. The Elysian glanced up, seeing the mess slowly dribble down. At this point, she couldn't handle it nomore. With a loud scream of fear, the winged girl stomped her way backwards, away from the ooze-bleeding crack. Thudding against the wall. Face paled, eyes wide in shock. "T-...There-..." She trembled visibly, stammering words together. "I-... Is-... S-somet-...Thing."
Sofiel had a similar reaction to what the ship's arty bird was going through - initially she had brushed off the sounds as just the ship expanding from the heat that came with it powering up in seemingly random increments but as the sounds continued it became harder to keep telling herself that's what they were. The Dove remained rooted in place as she began believing something was moving about the ship's carapace rapidly, she couldn't run nor utter even a meep let alone a scream as the colour drained from Sofiel's already pale features.
She wished it was her flight or flight instincts, something primordial and baked into her very genes that had kicked the civilian engineer into action but in reality it was Senna's cries of utter terror that finally snapped the Dove back to the present. She turned around, head whipping with such ferocity that the nerdy girl's snow-white waves of hair floated for a second and flicked up before settling back as a curtain down her shoulders.
Still though, she didn't scream, didn't cry out in terror or fear but the expression on her face screamed that she wanted to - golden eyes as wide as saucers and her skin with almost a transparent quality as she studied the ooze before flicking back to Senna. The goo from before hadn't melted the stick she used to retrieve the audio device but you could never be too sure, so she began quickly trying to wipe away the ooze with her sleeves while meekly muttering something along the lines of, "...need to... get it off you..."
Usually Ms. Castien loved confined spaces, they made her feel safe and comfortable - yet nothing about their current situation felt safe any longer, there was terror in the unknown and this unknown certainly seemed terrifying.
"I uh, I think we should get going now..." Alexia said gulping, looking at the ceiling to see the sickly goop flow down from a crack. Moving to Senna's side with Sofiel she took one of the other girls arms to help steady her and began moving in the direction of the 'Crew Only' door on their right, hoping it would lead somewhere away from whatever fresh hell was leaking from the ship around them. "Sofiel help me with her we need to go now!" The rising urgency in the raven sisters voice was clear now as she tried to move faster and faster away from the room they'd stumbled into.
"Come on everyone, we need to move!" She called back to the other three.
Crew Only - Storage Corridor
Finally crossing the threshold of this new area the lights struggled to life, illuminating some sort of storage corridor which seemed to run adjacent to the first hallway, and luckily in the same direction they were trying to go to reach the engine room. Alexia looked around for a way to close the door behind them but only found a busted panel which would be of little help, and decided just running would be the best for now. She didn't know how long this compartment would be or if they could get out on the other end but that was a problem for future Alexia.
"No one said there was slime monsters in the ship." She whispered more to herself than anyone else as she continued to try dragging Senna along.
That managed to snap Sofiel into gear a second or two after Alexia began dragging the arty bird off, the engineering Dove turned to follow but her knees suddenly transmogrified into jelly and caused her to stumble before falling to the ground in a pile of comfy clothes and white feathers - though not before managing to clip her mask against a hard bench on the way down and crack the visor, causing a spider web effect to spread across the side of her vision as the material failed. It took a moment for the Dove to register what had just happened, to realize that hissing sound meant her mask was compromised and then her shaky hands to begin fiddling around with the roll of molecure tape that Sofiel kept on her hip, it was hardly a real fix but the black strip of adhesive material would be considered 'good enough for now' as the civilian engineer \hauled herself onto her feet and ran to catch up with the other two, wings tucked in by her sides defensively.
"Wh~ what the fuck was that~" her frightened words came out as more of a statement before Sofiel grabbed one of Senna's arms to also help haul the girl away, they just... they just had to get away from here.
Sofi really wished her big sister was here, Ariel would know what to do and it would make the younger Dove's nerves settle slightly instead of having to put her trust in these strangers.
Senna, completely panicked still, felt her arms grabbed. Dragged away from the gunk that had set one of her most primal instincts.
Fear
Though feeling the rough grip of both Sofiel and Alexia managed to calm the smaller Elysian down for just a bit. Her legs that dragged over the floor, began to find traction again as she pushed herself up, backing up with the two. She was still weak in the legs. Wings twitched as she backed against the wall. "What-..." She uttered, before Sofiel managed to finish her sentence. She opted to swallow thickly, taking in a few, shaky breaths.
Common Zone
Standing in the middle of the area, Raduriel felt something grip her. Something non-physical. a feeling that immobilised her. She stood, in the middle of the room as the slime monster slowly dripped down in front of her, blocking her way towards the Crew only door. "Oh god. This is how I'm going to go. Not like as a hero like dad, but as a coward, frozen in fear" slowly, as the thought of an impending death dawned on her, Raduriel reached for the Adrenaline Gear's crossbow. She pushed herself to grab it, pulling it up and loading a bolt. Her military instincts kicked in and she zeroed in on the slime, preparing to send a bolt right through it.
"Hey Raduriel! You need to run, a zipline launcher isn't gonna work!" The raven winged sister yelled as she caught a glimpse of the other explorer aiming her crossbow at the slime dripping from the ceiling, its unknown origin still hidden behind the ventilation grating. At this point Alexia was struggling to not just drop Senna and run for her life, but the thought of what this creature of an impossible age would do to them if it caught a single one was beyond imagination. Even with her military training this kind of scenario was beyond her, Alexia simply ran and ran, tripping herself up on several occasions but managing to recover without falling. All around the team the lights grew more and more intense, a faint humming audible if they had only stopped and stayed silent for a moment.
"Power surging, non-essential systems rebooting."
The last thing any of them wanted to hear at a time like this, without warning their journey down the corridor became significantly easier as the gravity began to fluctuate, every footfall pushing them further towards the center of the space as the team went into free fall. A sealed blast door rushed up to greet the falling Elysians with a metallic grin, daring them to try and avoid a fatal impact, it opened its jaws wide a darkness waiting to engulf them.
Alexia screamed, holding onto Senna for dear life and shutting her eyes tight as the ship around them groaned with the shift in gravity as the hungry doors swallowed up Alexia, Senna and Sofiel. Depositing all three in a pitch black room behind the door.
Radurial had one chance to run after the screams from the corridor her team mates had gone down, their fate still unknown to her as she leveled the utility crossbow at a pile of slime still dripping down and splattering on the floor. Behind her the two other members of their team, the only current serving military personnel couldn't believe their eyes, living creatures inside this sealed tomb which had lay dormant for millennia was impossible. No amount of pay was going to make them take another step forwards and with the speed and precision of trained professionals they turned and dashed back the way they had come in, the hush money they were sure to get would be more than enough if they could escape.