Plea into the Night

"This is the SS Cadaver, a Ghoul-class vessel," Turner replied hesitantly, unsure of what the drone was going for.

"PLEASE PROVIDE AN ACCOUNT OF THE EVENTS THAT CAUSED YOUR SHIP TO EXPLODE." The Junker replied.

"My ship hasn't exploded, you silly ninny!" Erik barked back and then turned his headset back on, tapping in his ship's comm systems. "Can I talk to a real person instead of those stupid junk-thingies?!"

The Junker drone bobbled around in place, its numerous tendrils propping it up against different parts of the floor and remained in motion while not actually going anywhere. Its speaker again barked out, “PLEASE PROVIDE AN ACCOUNT OF THE EVENTS THAT TRANSPIRED BEFORE NOW.”

Meanwhile the other junker drones continued to try and recover the ship's computer and memory systems.

Erik gave the junker drone a glower and ignored its request in favor to speaking in his headset. "Come on! You must have a comm officer whom'll grant me the decency of a conversation. If I'd wanted to be boarded by bots, I'd have stayed behind with the nekos!"

The other junker drones needed to come up to the auxiliary control circuit to be able to access the main computer, which could be accessed from there. Unfortunately, Erik Turner seemed reluctant to accept their meddling around and his leveled firearm hinted that he might turn violent if they 'crossed a line'.

However, engine instrumentation which had survived the overload of the hyperdrive did reveal that the damage the superluminal engine sustained was due to forcing it to function within conditions which hinted at the Cadaver having been caught inside an interdiction field. The (illegal) countermeasures on the pirate ship had apparently not quite worked right and the FTL drive had paid for if after they had gone a certain distance.

Vladimirus watched his datapad screen, analyzing the footage. He was especially alarmed at the lack of any bodies present on board. Unfortunately the mans lack of cooperation was not allowing him to investigate further.

"Drei, if it'll get him to stop nagging to speak to us, spin some bullshit about communications being down or something. Or get that damned SI to settle down and pretend to be someone important."

"I AM SOMEONE IMPORTANT." The junker drone's speakers blared in a different, but still distorted, tone. "YOU MAY TALK TO ME."

"I'm talking to you, but I'd much rather shoot you. You're getting on my nerves." Turner growled, pointing his handgun in the junker drone's middle for emphasis with the finger resting on the trigger. He was obviously getting impatient.

“DAMAGING THIS DRONE IS NOT ADVISED,” The drone’s speakers blared as the other drones began to move towards the control systems of the ship, making key incisions to access the computer and data transmission equipment and cables in the ship’s electronic records. In addition to attempting to access digital copies of the ship’s records the drones would also be making deep scans of the ship’s memory systems to record the physical state of the memory for analysis. The drones did not seem to be too worried about the hang gun or the Turner.

“DAMAGING PROPERTY OF THE SPACE MILITARY OF NEPLESLIA IS GROUNDS FOR ARREST.” The drone again blared through its distorted speakers, “PLEASE PROVIDE YOUR ACCOUNT OF THE EVENTS THAT LED UP TO THIS POINT SO THAT WE MAY CONTINUE OUR INVESTIGATION.”

"Don't touch that!" Erik turned and fired with his GP-16 on the limbs extending out to the control systems, though pin-point accuracy was lacking - he threatened to damage the very systems the drones were trying to access. "I'm a true, street-raised Nep and all Neps know that the Yams are the ones whom use bots to do their dirty work - you're all part of a neko invasion force!"

The privateer promptly poured fire toward the drone whom had been talking to him - admittedly not the best idea he had ever had considering the nukes in each of the junker drones.

Ample sized indentions and gaping holes began to appear in the junker drones, exposing the ominous glow of the interior of the closest machine as the entire group moved towards Erik, their numerous clampy bits reaching out to restrain the man and remove the weapon in his hand.

Eric might have not been the sharpest tool in the toolshed, but he apparently knew his way around around a fight. He leapt back and away from the swishing limbs and concentrated his firepower on the first drone, roaring like a madman likely deluding himself into being an action hero. "DIE GIANT WATERMELON BOTS! DIIIIEE!"

The good news was that his retreat had him move away from the auxiliary control station where the drones would more easily access the computer. The bad news was that the GP-16 he had carried quite a hefty punch.

One of the shots pierced through the drone’s speaker system, locking it on and generating a high pitched, “EEEEEEEEEEEE,” as the other drones clamored over the damaged junker to reach Eric.

The mechanical junkers were able to move quickly towards Eric due in part to their special construction style as they continued to reach out and try to disarm Eric. The corridor was only wide enough for three of the junker drones to move through, leaving one to remain behind and begin its upload of the ship’s memory systems.

A finger-aching smack had the GP-16 whirl in the air to smack against a wall and bounce off on the floor, behind the junker drones whom were still advancing on Turner. The Nepleslian swore and made a break for it (even if his only avenue for escape - the bridge - was a dead end) but got parts of his jacket caught by the extended limbs of the junkers.

He was swearing profusely by the time another limb snaked around his leg to try to subdue the violent nepleslian pirate. Out of desperation, Erik snagged a grenade out of the insides of his jacket, clamped his teeth over the safety and yanked. He tried a throw, but the junkers had by then managed to trip him, ruining his throw and making the explosive hit the ceiling above, fall back over the rounded surface of the junker drones before bouncing of and landing a few inches of his head.

"FUCK!"

* * *

After a confusing flurry of activity coming from the junker drones trying to pacify the riled-up pirate, the information feed got cut off and the SS Cadaver blossomed into an explosion that entirely destroyed the ship and all its occupants.

Drei began to analyze the data that had been collected so far including what the junker drones had managed to glean off the ship’s memory systems before the detonation. Specifically cargo manifests and navigational data. This would be cross referenced with data still coming in from other sources as Drei collected details on the last ports the ship had visited, what crew members were present, and what they had purchased if it was possible to locate such records.

This would be supplemented with scans of the ship post-detonation. High resolution subspace radar data would be used to determine the pattern the ship was exploding into, velocity of debris, and remaining content density through use of directional gravitational sensors. By determining what was left of the ship and the shape of the explosion an analysis of what caused the ship to explode, how it exploded, the yield of the explosive, and from which direction the detonation came right down to where the blast emanated if it came from inside of the ship.

The Ghoul had been crewed by a single person, and yet there was evidence that the ship had recent activity from more than one person from the skin follicles found out during the little incursion of the junker drones. Sadly, further analysis yielded little more than what they had already surmised or found out about the privateer vessel's last port being the Pirate Cove. Wreckage of the Cadaver had apparently been blown up from inside by a nuclear warhead close to its command and control section.

There was nothing more to be salvaged by now. The junker drones hadn't really managed to connect to the main databank, making most of the meaty details wasted and now lost.

Fortunately the Junker drones didn’t need to physically connect with the data for the download. The high resolution scans of the ship’s memory system were passed along to Drei for a reconstruction of the ship’s memory systems which would in turn allow the computer system to piece together a considerable amount of data.

While the data reconstruction was in process, Drei began her analysis of what they had already. Detonation of a nuclear weapon onboard the ship when no signals picked up, meant that the most likely scenario was a nuclear weapon onboard with a timer or as a response to the drones trying to electronically access the computer system. Drei would summarize her analysis for the vice admiral in the form of a text file, but would hold off on a verbal summery until she had as much information as possible from the data reconstruction process.