Dragonnova
Well-Known Member
It had all happened so fast.
When the local garrison in the system responded to a distress call, they had only found wreckage of a merchant vessel, stripped bare of nearly everything but a few electronics and its black box. A few armor plates were in the area, but not of the aforementioned vessel. On one of them was a crushed insectoid alien that had never been documented before. Taking the cadaver on board, they brought it to the nearest station in the Shinjiyuu system, a terrestrial starport on the barren moon of Oni. It was there they began to autopsy and examine the creature.
However, it was not quite as dead as they had thought.
Severely injured and broken in numerous places, the stubborn alien let loose a shrill shriek, causing nearby communications to disrupt. When it used its elongated appendages to strike at nearby medical staff, it was put down quickly in response.
It was far from over, however. In less than half a standard solar day, A tremendous craft arrived in system, biological in nature but covered in pieces of numerous starships. From it, thousands of the insectoid creatures emerged from it, completely undeterred by the vacuum of space, and swarmed towards the starport.
Lacking a means of travel any faster than their own furious wings, The hour it took for them to approach the range of the station's defenses let almost all civilians and staff escape. Almost. The time it took to prep and preserve the cadaver cut it too close. The fastest insects arrived ahead of the swarm, and manged to climb into the hanger housing the last evacuation shuttle, disabling it. While the hanger was quickly sealed, and the automated defenses activated, it was too late to save the craft.
All hope is not lost though, a mercenary frigate in the system offered it's assistance for considerable compensation. It would take time for it to arrive and navigate a path through the swarm, but it would come if they could keep a hanger secure. Closing the empty hangers until they arrived, the guards, medical staff, and any civillians that stayed behind for their own reasons would have to hold out against the furious horde clawing their way into the facility...
The insects themselves, from looking at the corpse, appeared to have six limbs. Two body sections with the lower thorax holding the four legs they used to skitter along the floor and over obstacles with surprising deftness, and two long mantis like appendages that could be used to stab, hook, and tear just about any material. The head seemed oddly attached to the upper part of the body, the carapaced head spreading out much like a triceratops' skull would, a jaw that could distend and bite with as much force as its appendages to boot.
===Waiting Area===
The second large room in the facility, the first being the front lobby, was quietly busy. The number of people that stayed behind were few, and not up for chatting it seemed, but they were trying to do whatever they could to prepare defenses. The lobby itself was connected via a large, long hallway with moving walkways to the south. The blast doors at the far end were closed, but the repeated clangs of the invader's sharp appendages tearing at them meant they wouldn't last forever.
The waiting area itself had many, many chairs. Some were faced to the large screen that would display departure times and arriving shuttles in a more normal situation. Right now the screen was blank, leaving little in the way of distractions for the unlucky defenders. Off to the western side of the open area was a cafeteria, partitioned off only by a low waist high wall where people may sit and eat from a meager menu. Next to it were the public restrooms, usually spotless since the staff had little else to do on slow days.
To the east was where the staff usually lived on site, the passageway marked as employees only on the large automatic door. The north, of course, led to the facilities. Cargo, medbay, hangers, and so on. So far the rest of the facility had no other entrances other than the sealed off hangers and the lobby.
In the room with the associated civilians and mercs that had remained, was two guards for the starport carrying heavy automatic rifles meant to ensure no visitors got any ideas. One was a tall, almost lanky man who looked like he had never really had to exercise his authority. The other was a stocky man of tan complexion who looked very much like he could use a smoke. An older woman in the janitor's uniform was moving a table out of the cafeteria area and placing it in a makeshift barricade by the corridor leading to the lobby in hopes of slowing them down even just a bit.
Over the speakers, a man with a slight accent that could only vaguely described as lorath reminded everyone what their objective was. "I can confirm the mercenary group IS coming, although it will take some time for them arrive. Please, do whatever you all can to keep them from getting to the hangers, or else there will be nowhere for them to land... and nowhere for us to run. We can do this." The man didn't sound very convinced, but they were all in a dire situation.
When the local garrison in the system responded to a distress call, they had only found wreckage of a merchant vessel, stripped bare of nearly everything but a few electronics and its black box. A few armor plates were in the area, but not of the aforementioned vessel. On one of them was a crushed insectoid alien that had never been documented before. Taking the cadaver on board, they brought it to the nearest station in the Shinjiyuu system, a terrestrial starport on the barren moon of Oni. It was there they began to autopsy and examine the creature.
However, it was not quite as dead as they had thought.
Severely injured and broken in numerous places, the stubborn alien let loose a shrill shriek, causing nearby communications to disrupt. When it used its elongated appendages to strike at nearby medical staff, it was put down quickly in response.
It was far from over, however. In less than half a standard solar day, A tremendous craft arrived in system, biological in nature but covered in pieces of numerous starships. From it, thousands of the insectoid creatures emerged from it, completely undeterred by the vacuum of space, and swarmed towards the starport.
Lacking a means of travel any faster than their own furious wings, The hour it took for them to approach the range of the station's defenses let almost all civilians and staff escape. Almost. The time it took to prep and preserve the cadaver cut it too close. The fastest insects arrived ahead of the swarm, and manged to climb into the hanger housing the last evacuation shuttle, disabling it. While the hanger was quickly sealed, and the automated defenses activated, it was too late to save the craft.
All hope is not lost though, a mercenary frigate in the system offered it's assistance for considerable compensation. It would take time for it to arrive and navigate a path through the swarm, but it would come if they could keep a hanger secure. Closing the empty hangers until they arrived, the guards, medical staff, and any civillians that stayed behind for their own reasons would have to hold out against the furious horde clawing their way into the facility...
The insects themselves, from looking at the corpse, appeared to have six limbs. Two body sections with the lower thorax holding the four legs they used to skitter along the floor and over obstacles with surprising deftness, and two long mantis like appendages that could be used to stab, hook, and tear just about any material. The head seemed oddly attached to the upper part of the body, the carapaced head spreading out much like a triceratops' skull would, a jaw that could distend and bite with as much force as its appendages to boot.
===Waiting Area===
The second large room in the facility, the first being the front lobby, was quietly busy. The number of people that stayed behind were few, and not up for chatting it seemed, but they were trying to do whatever they could to prepare defenses. The lobby itself was connected via a large, long hallway with moving walkways to the south. The blast doors at the far end were closed, but the repeated clangs of the invader's sharp appendages tearing at them meant they wouldn't last forever.
The waiting area itself had many, many chairs. Some were faced to the large screen that would display departure times and arriving shuttles in a more normal situation. Right now the screen was blank, leaving little in the way of distractions for the unlucky defenders. Off to the western side of the open area was a cafeteria, partitioned off only by a low waist high wall where people may sit and eat from a meager menu. Next to it were the public restrooms, usually spotless since the staff had little else to do on slow days.
To the east was where the staff usually lived on site, the passageway marked as employees only on the large automatic door. The north, of course, led to the facilities. Cargo, medbay, hangers, and so on. So far the rest of the facility had no other entrances other than the sealed off hangers and the lobby.
In the room with the associated civilians and mercs that had remained, was two guards for the starport carrying heavy automatic rifles meant to ensure no visitors got any ideas. One was a tall, almost lanky man who looked like he had never really had to exercise his authority. The other was a stocky man of tan complexion who looked very much like he could use a smoke. An older woman in the janitor's uniform was moving a table out of the cafeteria area and placing it in a makeshift barricade by the corridor leading to the lobby in hopes of slowing them down even just a bit.
Over the speakers, a man with a slight accent that could only vaguely described as lorath reminded everyone what their objective was. "I can confirm the mercenary group IS coming, although it will take some time for them arrive. Please, do whatever you all can to keep them from getting to the hangers, or else there will be nowhere for them to land... and nowhere for us to run. We can do this." The man didn't sound very convinced, but they were all in a dire situation.
