Derelict / Rise of the Rrellkhan [FT]

[Capsule Corporation]

The Raysian people have a reputation, a reputation for being stargazers. It is often said that they watch the stars like most people watch sporting events. They study them with such a deep curiosity that it wasn't a stretch of the imagination to see them traveling faster than light only a few centuries after they had lived in a bronze age.

On one of the many deep-scope observatories in orbit of Raysia, a man was simply returning from his break. He expected to return to a large viewscreen projecting utter blackness, with a few stars highlighted with captioned reticules. Exciting things rarely happened at his post, at least, not anything that would be exciting to anyone foreign to his interests. But as he sat back down at his station, a single reticule was blinking and flashing red. Potential Guardian Contact was all it said. He raised an eyebrow, and lazily put his feet up on his console and pressed a control key that would enhance the remote telescopes onto that area of space. The viewscreen expanded and zoomed in look at the contact. It was distant, about 5000 c-clicks Northeast of Raysia, and visible only through one of the remote observatories that had been placed, itself about 4500 c-clicks away. He enhanced it a little more, and squinted his eyes a little bit. "Hey, chief," he shouted, beckoning for his superior, "is this one of ours?"

A voice came from a distant room, saying "what kind of question is that? Remember we've only been FTL for 18 years, kid."

"Well then, you might want to see this," the operator said to the chief as he entered the room.

"What the hell is that? Is that one of ours?"

"That's what I said! But that's an image coming from station sierra-three-niner. It's 500 ly out, and on optics only. That's guardian."

"But that looks exactly like one of our ships."

"Yeah, well, the legends did say the memories of the ancient Guardians had been carried through the generations.."

The chief stared at the screen, slowly walking closer. "A ship of the original Capsule Corporation. I guess I better call this in..."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Deep Space, approximately 5,000 c-clicks* 'northeast' of Rillkhan Raysia



The RMF Dan'Kish defolded about 500km from the site of the derelict Guardian vessel, and immediately kicked on their flood lights. The command decks of the Raysian Militia Vessel roared with chatter between crewmembers as they pulled along side the dark cold hulk. The forward decks all shared the same viewscreen images, and the same large window out the front of the ship. High above all the lower decks, a balcony overlooked everything, a balcony that was referred to as the bridge.

The science officer spoke up while still staring at her console, "Commander, it's perfectly preserved. Energy stores were long-ago exhausted. It probably got stranded here well over a thousand years ago, but the background radiation from the nearby nebulae hid it from sensors. No life signs, whatsoever."

"Tac, open a subspace communication channel back to AdamWorks research on Raysia."

The tactical officer nodded, and simply stated "channel open, video feeds transmitting."

"AdamWorks, this is Commander Hewlett, RMF Dan'Kish, we're sending you the live video feeds now. Markings appear to be legitimately Capsule Corp, ancient. It's certainly a guardian vessel. We're closing in to gather more data now."

A voice came over the radio, "understood, Dan'Kish. Keep transmitting, we want to see what you see."

The commander smiled, "not a problem. We're sending a few shuttles over right now, they should be boarding in just a moment."

A sudden charge of energy sounded an alarm in the bridge, a piercing and blaring klaxon. The science officer shouted over the commotion, "Commander Hewlett, there's a massive buildup of energy on the other ship! I haven't seen anything like this before, and I couldn't-- "

The tactical officer cut off the other crewman by shouting "it's discharging!"

A blinding red light filled the interior decks of the Raysian vessel, as red streams of plasma conveyed an energy straight into the ship. The lights flickered, and screams were heard across the widely-civillian vessel.



The video feed suddenly cut, then the Dan'Kish flickered dark.

A lone shuttle had already left the hangar, and the pilot, rather scared, paged the ship. "RMF, AdamWorks, is shuttle Alpha oh-seven, what's going on over there? is everything okay? Can anybody read us?"

Their message reached nothing but silence, and they received only the same silence in return.

The pilot turned around in his chair, looking around through the viewports to see what he could. Every light that had illuminated the arena was now gone. "Gunny, " he said, shouting down to the gunner who sat in the station below him, "get AdamWorks back on the long-range communications. Route through the observatory network if you have to!"

The gunner came over the internals, shyly, saying "it's going to be on a fairly powerful delay, but they should at least receive our messages. Go ahead."

"AdamWorks, Raysia, this is RMF Dan'Kish, Gunship Alpha-oh-seven. We just lost contact with our main. A powerful surge of energy just discharged from the Guardian ship and rendered our ship silent. We're outside on EVA right now, and we can't seem to gain contact with anyone. Please send backup for investigation and proceed with caution-- wait. Something else is happening now."

The view from the gunship/shuttle showed a dark brown cloud of what seemed like dust, floating quickly from the Guardian ship to the Raysian ship. It seemed to walk straight into the ship through some hole breeches caused by the plasma discharges.

"This... this is unreal. Some sort of spore-cloud is floating over to the Dan'Kish. We are seriously freaking out here, and we could use an extraction!"

The gunship tried to gain some distance. A boarding team lay in the payload bay, but they remained oblivious due to the lack of windows. The voice of the gunner came over the internals, saying "we have a bit of a situation, sit tight. We've lost contact with our ships."

The pilot came on the internal comm to quickly say "We're probably looking at a few hours till we can get backup..."

After a few moments, the RMF Dan'Kish flickered back to life.

"There, see? I told you it was nothing to worry about," said the pilot, lying through his teeth.

The gunner, in a shaky voice, shouted "plasma shell forming around the Dan'Kish. She's charging shields. No wait, she's charging her fold drive!"

The pilot quickly mashed the 'talk-all' button that would broadcast on all frequencies in a panic, "Wait! We're still out here! Dan'Kish, this is Alpha-oh-seven, don't leave without us!"

The gunner shouted up to the pilot seat, "punch it! Get us over there before they fold!"

"I can't, they're too far!" The gunship accelerated anyway, pulling several g's trying to make it into the field of the fold drive, but it only took a few seconds until they disappeared.

The pilot sighed, cut engines, and began transmitting again to mission control. "AdamWorks, Raysia, this is Alpha-oh-seven. Dan'Kish has abandoned us. We have no explanation. Please send an extraction team as soon as possible. A-Oh-Seven, out."




OOC: This RP is going to involve lots of one-on-one ship battles, plenty of mystery, possibly even some bug-hunting. If you're interested, send me a telegram or catch me on MSN. I especially need someone to RP as a ship to handle the next encounter with this mysterious force, or possibly to be the next hapless victim.. I'm not going to be Borg-like with assimilations, but you better be ready for a random fight to be picked. Anyone up for it?

*c-click = 1.05 light years, 10 trillion kilometers, and northeast is based on, of course, Sol being south of the galactic center

[The Kafers]

Iron Spear sailed through interstellar space at a clip that was neither leisurely nor excessive; it had no specific objective, but was simply on a mission of general exploration. On its bridge, a single Ylii Beta was monitoring the ship's incoming telemetry stream; a cho'kaav sat looking vacant in the command chair while two other Vah sat in other duty posts near the entry hatch, each looking equally absent. For the most part, the ship was running on autopilot, with only the Beta truly paying attention to what was going on.

OOC: All yours, CC...

[Kormanthor]

In Deep Space

http://usera.ImageCave.com/Kormanthor/sf_maiden_flight.jpg

Aboard the Kor Star Carrier, UKS Nightshade Bravo Shift had just taken over and Captain Ron Korte was on his way to the Officers Mess. For him it had been a long, but rewarding day of supervising ship wide drills to bring up the crews reaction times as they started another deep space cruise. He was satisfied that his flight crews were among the top ten in the fleet, but from his point of view that wasn’t good enough. They had to be among the cream of the crop and he would make darn sure of that. They had worked hard today, and he was proud of them. But right now all he was looking forward to was a nice big plate of steak and fried potatoes, washed down with a chilled glass of wine. As he approached the Officers Mess the doors automatically slid open, and immediately the aroma of steak entered his nostrils causing his mouth to start watering.

Suddenly the stern strong voice of Danielle Matheny his First Officer blared in his headset, “ General Quarters, General Quarters, the ships is now at General Quarters. This is not a drill, I repeat this is NOT a drill, all flight crews to their ships, all gunners to their weapons batteries, all other personnel are to report to their battle stations, that is all."
“
Immediately he tapped his belt communication device that he knew would contact his First Officer directly and spoke into his headset, “ What’s up Danni? “ he asked, “ Well Sir “ she replied, “ We just received an emergency communication package on the Holonet Transciever from Kor Star Com Pact reporting that the Raysian Home World Government has requested us to rescue a stranded shuttle that was investigating a derelict starship they found near here.

Apparently her mother ship for some unknown reason just mysteriously fired up their there fold drive and vanished leaving them stranded. Because of that our orders have been temporarily changed. Star Com Pact has given us coordinates for the shuttles last known location and assigned us the task of finding and rescuing the Raysian shuttle and it’s crew with the utmost haste. “

“ Interesting to say the least.” he stated, “ But you seem to have things well in hand, I on the other hand am starving and in bad need of a shower, not to mention a fresh uniform and hopefully a couple hours of shut eye. So lets get there as fast as possible, and as soon as we get close start broadcasting friendship messages and our orders to the shuttle. Finally call me if you need me before we arrive, I’ll be in my personal quarters … Korte Out.”

[Capsule Corporation]

Onboard the shuttle gunship, the pilot's main concern for the last hour had been simply getting as much distance as possible from the Guardian vessel. They hadn't planned on carrying much fuel, and were easily past their point of no return.

"Hey, Josh," said the gunner as he looked up at the pilot of the shuttle, "we've got a text message coming through."

"Well what are you waiting for? Patch it through, Gabe!"

From AdamWorks Mission Control: To: RMF Dan'Kish, Gunship Shuttle α-07: Rescue contractor inbound. Expect a visit from a Kor Star Carrier. They should be in your vicinity shortly. Sit tight, and keep your passengers calm.

"Oh, shi-. Have you even heard from the passengers?"

Josh shook his head, then shouted down to his gunner below, "damn techs probably forgot to rig up the internal comms to the payload bay. These quick-config shuttle converts tend to be glitchy. Try filling them in again, let them know we're still over here."

The pilot and gunner each sat in combat chairs that were stacked on top of each other, both situated in a sealed off compartment behind the main payload bay of the Kumen-class gunship. Passengers usually didn't need to communicate much with the pilot and gunner.

Gabe pressed the talk button for the internal comm, and said, quickly, "we have a rescue ship inbound. ETA unknown. Is everyone in there alright?" He waited a few seconds, then shouted up to the pilot, "nothing! Dude, if a stray bolt hit them, they could all be dead."

"Yeah, gunny, it's possible. I can't get a video signal or any of the monitors to show up. I don't think the plasma discharge did any damage to this ship... it seems more like its been switched off."

"What do you mean, switched off? Why wouldn't they want to talk to us? You think they hate your flying that much?"

"Hah, I honestly have no idea. It's mostly militia, but there's a few squints in that pod as well."

A loud thud was suddenly heard from the payload bay, followed quickly by another. "What the hell? Dude, I'm running a full diagnostic on this, I'm starting get a little worried about them." Gabe flipped a couple switches to power off all systems and test a few circuits. The darkness seemed to last longer than it should.

"What's going on with that diagnostic? I hate drifting around in the dark!"

"I'm trying, but it seems like there's a power drain in the bay. The energy readings seem to be similar to the plasma discharge from the Guardian ship."

"Are you serious? Shut down the OZP's, switch to reserve batteries. We'll reboot in 10 minutes, and restart life support inside the payload."

"Right, power cycling should do the trick." The gunner flipped a few more switches, and threw a rather large toggle alongside his seat. The main power core shut down, and the few things that weren't already dark went completely silent. A couple of independently powered console lights blinked, and the gunner's diagnostic computer remained active.

A loud pounding noise came from the payload bay again.

"This is... just... not not-terrifying. Hey, where'd you set my rifle?"

"What, you need your security blanket, Josh?" The gunner chuckled lightly.

"Just pass it up!" The pilot reached down as the gunner passed up the EM-shotgun. Josh quickly loaded in a few CQC rounds and audibly chambered one just in time with another loud pounding noise from the payload. He tried to slow his near-panicky breath, clinging to the weapon to regain his composure.

"Hey, dude, I'm going to transmit a signal on short-range FTL... see if I can't notify the Kor Star ship of our situation."

From: RMF Dan'Kish, Gunship Shuttle α-07: To: Inbound Kor Star extraction vessel. We understand you are coming to our rescue, and we thank you. Please approach with caution, situation is very...

"Hey, Josh, what word would you use to describe the situation?"

"omgIhopethere'snotahoardeofzombiesinmytrunk? Does that count as a word?"

From: RMF Dan'Kish, Gunship Shuttle α-07: To: Inbound Kor Star extraction vessel. We understand you are coming to our rescue, and we thank you. Please approach with caution, situation is omgIhopethere'snotahoardeofzombiesinmytrunk. Please take this into consideration, and have a security team ready for when we open our cargo bay. Our pilot thinks zombies, I think it's just a communication problem... the latter is more likely. We are near-zero on fuel, and not equipped for more than short-range operations. α-07, Out.

___________________________________________________________________________________


A bubble of flickering light appeared just ahead of the position of the Iron Spear, although traveling much slower, to the point where the Kafers ship would overtake it and pass it in a matter of seconds. Barely visible through the shell of plasma was the outline of the ship registered as the RMF Dan'Kish. The bubble did not flicker away, as in a normal defold procedure. Instead, the shell of plasma began to glow with an appearance like lightning bolts. All this was happening in mere seconds, and just at the instant the Kafer's ship passed by the shell, it disappeared. The shell had poofed away into a cloudy form, with only a few sparks dancing between charged particles. The Raysian vessel suddenly had the exact same velocity vector as the Kafers ship, traveling in a flawlessly parallel path. With its thrusters, it inched closer.

It had only been about 20 seconds since defold, and the Raysian vessel was now less than 500 meters off the starboard side of the Iron Spear.

The ship ran with lights off, internally and externally. The glow of the thrusters was all that remained as it drew closer.

[The Kafers]

The Ylii practically yelped when the unknown vessel materialized out of nowhere just a few hundred meters away. Chittering as though someone had set its fur on fire, it slapped a large red button on its console, sending electrical shocks coursing through the wrists of the cho'kaav sitting in the command chair and both of the other two Vah on duty.

All three snarled with rage at the jolt, only to fall silent as the voder at the Ylii's throat began to spit out a stream of nearly incoherent words in Gah: The poor terrified Ylii was speaking too fast for its processor to keep up.

"Unidentified incoming ... unknown ... starboard ... [untranslatable squawk] ... alert ... battle stations! ... now!!!" the voder box blurted out. The Beta looked like it was about to faint.

The cho'kaav, its mind and reflexes sharpened by prior action, seemed to snap into lucidity first. It popped a plate on its left armrest and slammed a three-fingered fist into the now-exposed button.

Klaxons went off across the ship and interior lights began to flash. Undeterred, the cho'kaav yelled, "Helm, evasive manuevers. Get us as far from the unknown as possible." Whatever else they might have been designed to do, Vah warships could not effectively engage an enemy at 500 meters.

A moment later, a chirp came across the intercom. "Blood Destiny here," came the voice of the ship's Gnich*. "What's going on up there?"

Gnich* - Literally, "thinker" or "planner"; effectively, a command officer.
Chok'aav - Literally, "survivor" or "veteran"; effectively, a junior officer or non-com.
Vah - Literally, "the people"; what Kafers call themselves ("Kafer" is Bavarian slang for "cockroach", a reference to the way Vah look to humans).
Gah - Literally, "the speech"; the language spoken by the Vah.
Ylii - A sentient slave species under the control of the Vah, most commonly used as engineers and technicians. Most Ylii are docile and would never think of attempting resistance; this is especially true of the Beta sub-species, who are usually the only Ylii brought aboard ship.

[Capsule Corporation]

The 810m Kryptonite-class vessel banked and turned to port in order to face the Kafers ship with its spinal weapons. The 6 large Ion blasters began to glow as the system primed, and the ship converted itself into assault mode. The beam-weapon turrets extended out from beneath their covers on the surface of the hull, and in a similar manner they began to glow.

Without so much as an ultimatum, an intense blast of charged particles flung themselves towards the Kafers ship, with the intent of draining power from exposed circuitry and overcharging their target's hull in such a way that it would temporarily disable every circuit that was connected to any part of hull.

In the same volley, a number of the turreted beam cannons targeted and fired upon a few points where one would think the hull to be thinnest, intending to punch a few small holes into the ship.

As if the volley wasn't enough, a cloud of spores began to migrate its way towards the ship slowly, waiting to find an entry point




If one were to actively scan the ship, one would see all sorts of panic and discord. Several areas of the ship, like the command decks, seemed to be cold and still, relatively unoccupied except for a few people on the bridge. Other decks contained large huddles of beings far warmer than humans should be. Inside the hangars, a war was being waged. It would be fairly obvious that one side was losing horribly, a few normal signatures having backed themselves into the corner and letting off a lot of ammunition from small-arms.

A number of gunships seemed to be at war with each other inside the cargo bay, thousands of metal rounds being traded back and forth, life being destroyed at every angle on board the Dan'Kish.

A cloud of plasma began to flow in the gap between the ship's twin hulls, and the field began to glow bright for a few seconds. A trio of gunships managed to fight their way out of the hangar decks and into the middle of this cloud of plasma. The cloud began to take shape, accelerating its particles around in a cylindrical shell. It only took a few more seconds before the shell disappeared in a bright flash. The three badly damaged gunships vanished with the same flash.

______________

The trio reappeared hundreds of light years away, adrift in deep space. The gunships hadn't exactly been configured for space operations, but managed to carry enough propellant to maneuver into safe positions. Each held a number of survivors inside their payload bays.

A message was sent out on all bands,

General Distress Call: We are survivors of the RMF Dan'Kish. We have passengers in our cargo bay. We need medical assistance and rescue immediately. We have wounded, and some possibly infected. Send help immediately. Quarantine recommended. -RMF Dan'Kish shuttles Charlie03, Alpha21, Charlie09

The message repeated itself as a beacon, transmitting on all bands in realspace and short-range subspace.

[Kormanthor]

In Deep Space one AU from the Last Known Coordinates

Danielle Matheny, First Officer of the Star Carrier Nightshade had sat in the command chair watching the view screen on the forward bulkhead of the Bridge for the past hour. All around her the bridge crew diligently worked each of their individual boards. She felt confident that her people knew their jobs so she didn’t wish to distract them. Although she was a seasoned bridge officer she found herself wishing she could make the ship go faster, unfortunately they were already traveling at the ships flank speed of Warp 9.9.

She then found herself remembering a file she had been shown by the Chief Engineer just two days ago. The file outlined the details of the new Space Fold Drive the Empire had been developing, the new drive was called “ The Coaxial Subspace Inversion Drive or CSID ”. He had continued on in his attempt to explain that the CSID boosts the warp drive by manipulating subspace with three exponentially enhancing effects, all of which he went into in detail explaining, unfortunately all he really accomplished was to effectively confuse the heck out of her.

Suffice to say this new drive would give the Starships of the Empire the ability to travel much, much faster. Unfortunately for now, the best the Nightshade could do
didn’t seem good enough to her because peoples lives could be at stake. But it did give her new hope for the near future because the file also said that the new drive had successfully been completed and was now being installed as a experimental new drive backed up by tried and true Warp Drive Nacelles in a few of the Empires newest Starships until the testing stage could be completed.

Suddenly as she was brought out of her revelry by Sensor Officer Mercer her thoughts of more speed didn‘t matter any more,

“ Maam I am picking up a shuttle class ship drifting one half of a AU dead ahead. ”

“ Thank You Mr. Mercer, please continue to keep a close eye on the shuttle as well as the surrounding space, also ready four Class One Sensor Pods and launch immediately upon our arrival.

“ Yes Maam,” replied Lt. Mercer.

Then she spoke to the Helm Officer , ” Lt. Sirback please give me all stop immediately, I don’t want to get to close before we have a chance to check the surrounding area for possible dangers to this ship.”

“ Aye Maam,” replied Lt. Sirback.

She then swiveled the command chair to face the Communications Console to speak, “ Lt. Commander Vanmeter please open a secure channel to the shuttle.” she ordered.

“ Right away Maam, ” replied the Lt. Commander as her skilled fingers effectively danced across the Nightshade’s Communications Console. Mere seconds later she continued by saying, “ Channel is Open Maam, go ahead ”.

Immediately Danielle began her greeting as she watched the space ahead on the view screen,

“ This is Danielle Matheny, First Officer of the Star Carrier Nightshade speaking to the RMF Dan'Kish, Gunship Alpha-oh-seven. Do you copy this transmission Alpha-oh-seven? We are here on a rescue mission on your behalf at the request of the Raysian Home World Government, do you copy Alpha-oh-seven …. please respond.”

[Capsule Corporation]

Gabe, the gunner, looked down at his diagnostics computer. "Alright, I don't think I'm going to get rid of this power drain. I've restored power to the bay to give these guys some life support.. but... wait, hold on. Transmission coming through...." He looked over the data available on the computer. He listened closely to the quiet speaker on the diagnosic computer, then shouted up to the pilot. "It's the Kor Star carrier, identifying themselves as the Nightshade."

Josh, the pilot, shouted a hoorah, then yelled down to his gunner, "what are you waiting for, send a reply! This is the first good news all day!"

Gabe leaned in close to take advantage of the limited communications ability of his diagnostic comp, then pressed a button that would allow him to transmit on the secure channel. "This is gunship Alpha-oh-seven. Come get us. We may have wounded, I am not entirely sure."

A loud thud came from the cargo bay, making both pilot and gunner pause out of nervousness.

"Nightshade, we are a shuttle gunship and have no FTL capabilities. If you come close we can dock, but right now I can't even guarantee that we have working engines... I should be able to have them back online when you get here, but if you have some sort of arresting device to pull us in, we could sure use it. I am uncertain of the condition of our payload personnel, but I recommend a security detail.

"Be advised, there is a derelict vessel about 300,000 kilometers from our location, steer clear. We have a team working on an investigation. Over."

Gabe released the talk button and furiously tried to restart the engines while he awaited a reply.

[Arivada]

OOC:Watch me fail miserably at this.Tell me what i do wrong

Arivadian Interstellar Command:

"Sir there was an attack on an Raysian ship in an unknown system an distress signal was sent out"Sgt.Frankng said
"Who was it?"Admiral Geor said.
"Unknown sir"
"Send in Battlegroup D,rescue the distressees." He was in the station looking out at the massive fleet.Only ten were going. All the ships were living Organid ships.The fleet was 1 Mothership,2 Heavy Fighters,3 Medium Fighters and 4 Light Fighters.

Omnicruiser MotherShip,Battlegroup D:

"Capitian we are suppose to e headed for the Raysa system not Vigor system"
"I know. This is a shortcut."
"Sir?"
"Trust me we will get a surprise attack on them" The mothership genes were some of the most powerful in the Arivadian fleet. Hopefully all the beams and Bulletships will be effctive enough.

[The Kafers]

The best way to cripple a Vah warship is to catch it by surprise.

All across Iron Spear, the crew were struggling to come to order and focus on the tasks needed to bring their ship into a state of full combat readiness. Because this was a process that could take some time, much effort went into keeping the ship in fighting order. Still, personnel could not man their battle stations constantly and systems could not be kept charged all the time; some preparation was necessary - and in this case there simply wasn't enough time to do it.

The Beta sitting at the helm had increased power to Iron Spear's warp drives and begun to peel away from the unknown vessel; in another second the stutterwarp systems would have responded to the Ylii's command and a slight change in the geometry of the recurring bubble of localized warped space surrounding the battlecruiser would have borne it several hundred kilometers away in the blink of an eye.

But this was not to be. The charged particle streams from Dan'Kish's ion blasters caught the outer edge of the changing warp interface and were drawn straight inside the next recurring bubble right along with the ship. The only felicitous thing about this state of affairs is that the ion streams were severely attenuated in power as they entered the warp field; if they had not been, Iron Spear - caught unshielded and unprepared for combat - would have been instantly blown to atoms.

Instead, the charged particle beams became something like a localized plasma storm that rippled along Iron Spear's hull like St. Elmo's Fire, frying exposed electronics both inside and outside the ship. And all this was without considering the impact of what amounted to six incredibly powerful lightning strikes on the hull simultaneously.

Iron Spear shook and shuddered under the impact; the nascent warp field formed only partially, then collapsed. During the fraction of a second it existed, the vessel was hurled nearly half a kilometer away, to Dan'Kish's starboard quarter. There it came to a rest, unable to move, revolving slowly in space, gently outgassing, a near derelict.

[Capsule Corporation]

A cloud of reddish-brown spores migrated into the ship, but were having difficulties getting through airlocks and bulkheads. Different tactics would need to be used.

The dark Dan'Kish gently maneuvered itself into a position such that the Kafers ship was floating between the twin hulls of the Raysian Vessel. A shell of plasma gently formed between the twin hulls, enclosing the Iron Spear and the port-side hangar. A thin atmosphere was quickly pumped into the plasma shell, and several thick arrestor cables attached themselves to the captured vessel. As if completely skipping the process of boarding gunships, dozens of men waited right next to the shield wall of the hangar, holding all sorts of weapons, from shotguns to pipes to axes.

The wall collapsed and the men on the edge of the hangar were carelessly flung towards the Kafers vessel by the decompressing air. Some missed, but many latched onto the hull and began to pry their way inside. The clanking of axes and pry-bars, the burning of crude torches, would all be echoing quietly through the ship. If one had cameras monitoring the situation, one would see the eyes of the men and women glowing red. Their postures were not savage, they appeared to be fine, but their behavior seemed to be fearless, driven by something that had stripped them of their individuality.

[Arivada]

Edited but i still think it needs work.

[Capsule Corporation]

Edited but i still think it needs work.

Ooc: writing in correct English would probably help... Plus you haven't really done anything that anyone can react to yet. Let's try to keep OOC comments to a minimum. Telegram me if you have questions

[Kormanthor]

In Deep Space; one Light minute from RMF Dan'Kish, Gunship Alpha-oh-seven

Seconds pass as the Bridge Crew of the Nightshade waits on pins and needles to hear if the crew of the Alpha-oh-seven will answer. Then just as First Officer Matheny is about to key the mike again they hear,

"This is gunship Alpha-oh-seven. Come get us. We may have wounded, I am not entirely sure."

"Nightshade, we are a shuttle gunship and have no FTL capabilities. If you come close we can dock, but right now I can't even guarantee that we have working engines... I should be able to have them back online when you get here, but if you have some sort of arresting device to pull us in, we could sure use it. I am uncertain of the condition of our payload personnel, but I recommend a security detail.

"Be advised, there is a derelict vessel about 300,000 kilometers from our location, steer clear. We have a team working on an investigation. Over. "


Danielle Matheny relaxed just a tad, glad that at least someone had survived up to this point. Behind her she hears signs of relief from most of her bridge crew. But she knows that this rescue has just started. She can’t allow herself or her people to relax to quickly. It’s not over yet, there could still be hidden danger/s. Motivated by these thoughts she says, “ OK people …. lets stay sharp!” There’s just something very strange going on here she thought to herself. I can’t put a finger on it but my intuition is causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up.

Turning towards the Sensor Console she asks, “ Mr. Mercer what are the readings from
our Sensor Pods telling us?”

“ Well Maam they are showing two male Raysians on the flight deck and an undetermined number of Raysians in a closed and sealed cargo hold. They have
some power because they have life support for the moment. However there seems
to be some type of weird power drain within the shuttles systems. The sensors are
also verifying a derelict vessel approximately 300,000 kilometers from their location, ” reported the Sensor Officer.

Curious Danielle asked. “ Define weird power drain Mr. Mercer.”

“ Maam that’s just it, the cause of the power drain is not readily discernable. Maam
it’s of a type never before encountered by the Empire.” reports Mercer.

“ I don’t like the sound of that Mr. Mercer. But I guess all we can do is to continue active
sensor sweeps on the entire area. ” replied Danielle.

Turning forward again Danielle said, “ Helm plot a course for the shuttle and engage at one quarter impulse until we reach tractor beam range then give me all stop.”

Swiveling the command chair 180 degrees to face the Weapons Console she said, “ Mr. Donavan ready all weapons to standby and fully activate our tractor beam. As soon as we
stop I want you to lock onto that shuttle and pull it into shuttle bay six.

I want four squads of Security in bay six to meet the shuttle as it enters the bay. Further I want the bays bulkhead plating galvanized to contain electrical discharges and interior bay force fields activated before the shuttle enters. Finally I want the ships shields raised as soon as the shuttle has entered the bay. ”

“ Aye Number One “, replied Mr. Donavan with a Scottish draw.

Outside the Great Star Carrier slowly and carefully started to move towards the victimized
Shuttle as all her weapons begin to lightly glow . Not unlike a crouched tiger she warily approached as if sensing the possibility of a trap or some unknown danger.


OCC NOTE: Our Locations in Space have been corrected

[The Kafers]

"I'm not sure I believe this is happening," said Tk'gik, the cho'kaav who had been on bridge duty when the unidentified vessel had attacked. It was gazing at the exterior cameras, watching the ravening crowd of gnakshik! pounding at the hull with every imaginable implement of destruction.

"I'm sure I don't believe that it's happening," Blood Destiny replied acerbically, "But all the same..." The Gnich* reached to the nearby console and keyed the intercom.

Attention all crew.  Get into environment suits and take up arms immediately.  Hull breach and hostile
boarding imminent.

Turning to Tk'gik, it ordered: "Monitor the breaches as they happen and coordinate our withdrawal from compromised areas. Use the blast doors to seal corridors whenever and wherever needed." The Gnich* then pointed at the Ylii and commanded, "Prepare a logic bomb to fry the mass storage systems when the bridge can no longer be held, then stay with Tk'gik wherever it goes."

Turning back to the cho'kaav Blood Destiny added softly, "Kill the Ylii if necessary to keep it from falling into the hands of the gnakshik!."

The Gnich* then pushed off towards the door, the internal gravity systems having failed. Looking back, it added: "I'm heading for the armory to take charge of the Marine contingent. Good luck, and - if it should come to that - die well."

Gnakshik! - Literally, "meat being" or "soft skin"; Vah term for humans and human lookalikes.

[Capsule Corporation]

ooc: as a note, I must say that this is nowhere near Raysian space... we're 5000 light years from the nearest Capsule Corp world. That's... a long way away from Raysian space No biggie

The shuttle shook violently as the tractor beam took hold.

Josh shouted down to the gunner's seat below him, "hey, what's going on here?"

"Haven't you ever seen a sci-fi movie? We're in some sort of a tractor beam!"

The pilot laughed, and took his hands off the flight controls.

Gabe routed sensor control into his diagnostic computer, "looks like it's some sort of focused space-bending arrestor beam. We're being pulled towards a ship that's a few hundred kilometers from us now."

Josh, the only one in the shuttle with a window seat, looked out and saw the rapidly approaching Kor Star vessel. He took control of a few manual maneuvering thrusters to help guide the gunship into the bay.

As the Kumen-class gunship pulled into the shuttlebay, the hatches unlocked, and the pilot's canopy opened. Josh pulled himself up and stood on the dorsal hull of the shuttle, even before the the shuttle landed. He left his shotgun inside the cockpit at first, out of respect, then shouted down to the security team in the bay. "I don't know if anyone's still alive inside that cargo bay, but I'd suggest you all get ready for anything!" he looked down into the pilot hole to shot down at the gunner, "Pop the top hatch!" He reached down and grabbed his shotgun, being careful only to point it down at his own shuttle as to not startle the security team. He aimed it down at the top hatch as the hydraulics lifted it open.

Faintly echoing through the shuttlebay, a shout could be heard from inside the payload bay, "put the damn gun down, Josh!"

Josh, thoroughly disappointed, flipped a safety switch and threw his arm through a strap, slinging the shotgun around to his back. "You know, I was really hoping you guys were zombies."

"Oh, thanks. Now do you mind telling us why we've been crammed in this pod for the last HOUR? What happened to our ship?"

Josh smiled, and shouted down to the gunner, "go ahead and unlock the passenger doors." He jumped down the full height of the shuttle, landing on the deck of the shuttlebay. He was athletically built, wearing a tactical vest over a patch-laden uniform flight shirt. Brown eyes looked through medium-length brown hair as he stood up and approached the security team. "Oh man you have no idea how good gravity feels after being stuck in that shuttle for 2 hours." He extended his hand to whomever looked important, "Name's Josh, I'm the pilot. So, this is a Kor Star Carrier, eh? Pretty impressive if I do say so myself."

Gabe crawled out through the open canopy, shouting "oh will you shut up and thank them for the rescue?"

Josh smiled warmly, and said "yes, obviously I am extremely grateful. I assure you that my company will reimburse you for your trouble."

Doors opened on the side of the shuttle, and immediately a small group of people stepped out, ranging from scientists to marines. The first one out shouted "hey, we need a medic over here, there's something wrong with this Militia girl here." He gestured towards a limp girl that had obviously been tranquilized into unconsciousness, as she was being dragged out of the shuttle.

---

As men and women, all who seemed to normally be fairly civilized folk, continued to rip away at the outer hull, the atmosphere began to approach normal levels. The red-eyed Raysians were probably experiencing all sorts of discomforts and pains going from one atmospheric pressure level to another, but they all seemed to have no care whatsoever for their own selves.

A number of gunships drifted out into the small space around the Iron Spear, and several more locked themselves into positions inside the hangar. Large double-mount gatling guns pointed themselves at the captured ship, and began to unload thousands of rounds of ammunition onto the hull, trying to weaken some key areas to help the 'workers.' Several of the red-eyed savages were easily torn to shreds, as large anti-material rounds carelessly fired at the hull.

A large group began to form around a particularly weak spot, waiting to jump into the hull.

More and more of the Dan'Kish crew ran out into the hangar, and then jumped towards the Kafer vessel. A steady stream of humans threw themselves towards the hull. Some carried heavy weapons, others carried whatever they could find along the way. Most did not think to take armor, but merely floated through the grav-less atmosphere wearing nothing more than a basic flight uniform.

[Kormanthor]

Nicholas Vagnier the Lead Security Officer in Shuttle Bay Six relaxed visibly lowering his type six Phaser /Gauss Rifle and signaling his four security squads surrounding the shuttle to do the same as one of the Raysian pilots wearing a tactical vest over a patch-laden uniform flight shirt jumped down the full height of the shuttle, landing on the deck of the shuttle bay.

Nick a athletically built young man with electric blue eyes and a short blonde hair cut in a sever flat top style wore the standard issue ominous looking black armored security outfit with a microphone / ear set on the left side of his head.

As the man approached Nick he said. " Oh man you have no idea how good gravity feels after being stuck in that shuttle for 2 hours, names Josh, I'm the pilot, So, this is a Kor Star Carrier, eh? Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. "

From on top the shuttle another Raysian crawled out through the open canopy, shouting "oh will you shut up and thank them for the rescue?"

Josh smiled warmly, and said " yes, obviously I am extremely grateful. I assure you that my company will reimburse you for your trouble."

Returning Josh’s smile Nick said, “ We are glad to have been in a position to help you out. To tell you the truth we weren’t sure what to expect so we figured it would be better to
be ready for whatever might happen as you advised. Our engineering dept is standing by to help you repair your shuttle craft.”

As the two men continued to speak the shuttle began to rise on a number of jacks, like landing gear, and the main cargo doors opened. A floor lowered out of the bottom of the ship, revealing a number of personnel that had been strapped into chairs. A few of them crawled out right away, stretching their legs. The first one out shouted "hey, we need a medic over here, there's something wrong with this Militia girl here." He gestured towards a limp girl that had obviously been tranquilized into unconsciousness

Nick motioned his squads corpsman to take a look at her with a look of concern on his face and watched as the corpsman ran to the girls side and started to examine her.

“ I’m sure you are all hungry and thirsty,” Nick said as he continued there conversation. ” The machines you see in front of your shuttle is a type of food and drink dispenser which is called a “ Replicator “. Its operation is simple, you simply tell it what you want to eat or drink and it will provide it. It is programmed with recipes from across the known universes.

As soon as my corpsmen have given you a clean bill of health, you will have full access to living quarters as well as, our 10-Forward lounge, a mess hall with full replicator functions,
eight holodecks, a gymnasium, a theatre, a play / concert hall, a salon for the ladies among you and a barber for the Gentlemen

As I said earlier our engineering dept is standing ready to assist you in repairing your shuttle
and you have full access to any equipment needed to repair your shuttle. However I must caution you, please do not try to enter unauthorized areas without permission and / or a security escort. I’m sure you can understand our concerns and I hope you enjoy your time aboard the Nightshade. ”

OCC NOTE: Cap I hope you don't mind my use of some of your post to enhance the storyline.

[Capsule Corporation]

Josh raised an eyebrow, "wow, really? I was expecting a military carrier, but I guess I just got rescued by one of the finest cruise ships I've ever seen! Well, all of that fixing up will not be necessary, I'm sure the mechanics back home can have her fixed easily. I'm afraid that I haven't been able to communicate with my mission control too much, do you know if they're sending a ship to rendezvous with this carrier? Or are you all taking us back home? I think it's about five thousand light years... " he took a second to get his bearings, then pointed out in a seemingly arbitrary direction, "out that way."

"She's starting to wake up," shouted a militiaman still near the shuttle, "Find something to strap her down to!" He began looking around for some plastic zip-ties to hold her down.

Gabe jumped down from the top of the shuttle, landing with bent knees, then quickly hopped up and walked over to where the girl was. "What's the deal with her? Why should we strap down a sick girl?"

The militiaman, still searching through a supply box on the shuttle, shouted back "she started acting strange when that red plasma hit us, she was spazzing out for a moment, then she just started to --" he found what he was looking for, and tossed the pair of zip-ties over to another officer, "she just started to act... non-like her. She got extremely hostile and demanded we turn the ship over to her... wasn't exactly something we wanted to do or could do... so we knocked her out."

The other officer tied the girl's hands down to an emergency stretcher that had been pulled out of the shuttle, then did the same for her feet. The moment the last zip-tie went on, the girl shook awake. Her eyes flashed brightly for a second, then settled on a calm red. She struggled for a moment while some a few of the militiamen held her down.

Appearing to be about 20 years old, the young woman had, hours ago, been a research squint assigned to investigate the derelict guardian vessel. Her blue-highlighted blonde hair flailed around her face as she struggled at the restraints. After realizing the futility of her struggle, she looked around for someone to speak to. Seeing Gabe walking towards her, she spoke in a low voice, coupled with an unusual overtone, "you! You were the one I sensed beyond the wall of the payload bay. You are responsible for trapping me in that awful pod with these disobedient radicals. I demand you release me now."

Gabe swung a tactical assault rifle around from his back, quickly and calmly aiming it straight at her eye as he approached. The other militiamen drew their weapons and likewise aimed them at her. "Hah," said the shuttle's gunner, "you really aren't in a position to be making demands. Seems how I've got the gun here, how about you answer some questions. Who are you, and what did you do with the girl you stole that body from?"

"Oh her," the red-eyed girl spoke with a smirk, "I doubt she survived the transfer. I would pretty much write her off as a sacrifice to your new god. Or, I guess that should be goddess now."

"Oh give it up, will you?" Gabe visibly chambered a round into the rifle, still aimed at her face, "I don't know what you are, or how you survived so long on that ship, but you're not going to get anywhere going around with that god complex you have."

Josh had been watching from a short distance away, still standing with the Nightshade's security team. He remained mindful of the shotgun on his back, still hoping for the chance to shoot something. "Say, Nick, you wouldn't happen to have a secure Isolation chamber we could throw her in, would you? Perhaps a The Brig?"

[The Kafers]

Blood Destiny rapidly hauled his way along one corridor after another, using the handholds the designers had graciously placed at various intervals to assist in the process, until a last he arrived at Iron Spear's armory. A huge throng of Vah had already assembled there, almost all in environment suits and most armed.

Cursing, the Gnich* slammed the button on the nearest comm console and roared into it.

Blood Destiny here.  Everyone who is not yet in an environment suit, stop whatever you're doing and get
in one now.  Once you're in an environment suit, get a weapon.  If you're already in an environment suit,
get a weapon now.  I want everyone suited and armed before they do anything else.  No exceptions!

A ripping sound shuddered through the hull, and then another, but this time from another location. Some of the Vah nearby froze in surprise for a second, but then snapped out of it as they decided it was not a good idea to disobey the Gnich*'s orders right in front of it.

Slamming the comm button again, Blood Destiny yelled to the bridge: "Tk'gik, what is that sound?!?"

Tk'gik's voice crackled back across the intercom: "They've got several small vessels armed with what appear to be miniguns and are trying to shoot their way through the hull." A pause, and then: "They do not seem to be behaving the way I would expect gnakshik! to. For one thing, they seem unconcerned about each others' physical well being; I've seen them shoot several of their own trying to get through the hull."

"In all," the cho'kaav concluded, "They are acting more like rabid gha'khar than gnakshik!."

"Oh, that's just wonderful," snarled Blood Destiny. "Where are they making their breach?"

"The starboard aft weapons bay," replied Tk'gik. "Far too close to the bridge for my liking."

Another ripping sound was followed by a thump and a crash.

"They're through," said the cho'kaav. "We've got an armored bulkhead and a set of blast doors between us and the breach, but that won't last long."

Blood Destiny swore.

"Abandon the bridge," it ordered. "We'll use the armory as our command post."

Gha'khar - Literally "fur fang"; a small, vicious predator found on the Vah homeworld, notorious for being hard to kill.

[Capsule Corporation]

Reckless, but hardly stupid, the horde of red-eyed humans formed themselves up in ranks around the hull breech, intending to attack in waves and draw their targets towards them, into the open. Detecting the breached area to be a sort of storage bay, one of the gunships in the hangar fired a few consecutive rail-shots into the hole, trying to widen it and clear out an open fighting ground. Hopefully nothing would explode violently, but if it did, they didn't seem to care. It should be fairly obvious that they want to capture the ship in a usable condition, as they tried to avoid causing any irreparable damage. They clearly had the power to crush the ship with little effort if they really wanted to.

A cloud of spores began to migrate its way into the ship, hoping that the air pressure outside the breach would trick the ship's computer into not sealing off the bulkheads. If so, they would surely find their way into the minds of anyone not in pressure-suits, converting them into the kind of persona-less drone that currently threatened the ship from outside. If they were blocked, they would simply wait till an opportunity presented itself.

The madding crowd of ravagers waited for the rail volley to finish, then sent the first wave in with close-quarters weaponry, shotguns, and fragmentation grenades. The second wave would wait just outside the wall for their turn. They jumped into the weapons bay, ready to shoot anyone left in the room on their way into the ship.

[The Kafers]

The rail-gun rounds slammed into Iron Spear's starboard aft weapons bay, sending showers of hot metal flying across the room. Fortunately, the bay was unoccupied. Unfortunately, there were still plenty of combustibles lying around waiting to be ignited; Vah missiles, after all, use hydrox fuel cells to power their stutterwarp systems on their one-way trip to oblivion.

And hydrogen is nastily flammable.

A series of loud thumps came from the weapons bay, followed by multiple geysers of flame erupting out of the breach in Iron Spear's hull as the expanding gasses followed the only path available to them. This was not a good thing for the first wave of attackers, but it was great for the ones that followed, as they - or whatever was controlling them - instantly realized that this must mean the space just on the other side of the breach was now clear of resistance, and began surging through. Past the wrecked and blackened weapons bay, they found a weakened set of blast doors which had - at least in theory - performed their fundamental function of containing the fuel cell explosion. It took no time at all to tear these open, after which the onrushing horde of once-human maniacs found their way to Iron Spear's bridge.

Alas, still no joy: Aside from sparking circuitry and dead computer screens in the wake of the former owners' vandalism, the only prize was a small, furry biped in an environment suit. A very dead biped, its small mouthless head torn nearly off its throat by what must have been a single .57 caliber round to its temple. Two more equally destructive holes had been torn in its pathetic torso after the head shot, just to make sure; the extensive powder burns suggested fire at point-blank range.

Surging further down the hallways and corridors of the ship, the invaders at last found what they were seeking: A makeshift barricade held by a group of half a dozen large, beetle-like humanoids in hard-shell environment suits. Very excited, very determined beetle-like humanoids, armed - interestingly enough - with almost the same thing as the attackers.

Which is to say, assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, grenades (both thrown and rifle-launched), and - just for good measure - what appeared to be hand axes with nasty spikes opposite their blades.

Save for one little difference: The defenders had a belt-fed light machine gun, and lots of ammunition, whose use they were all too happy to demonstrate.

That was when the fun really began.

---

OOC: Remember that this fight is in zero-g, so people will need to be braced against recoil and impact, and they're going to have to pull themselves along the corridors using those handholds the designers were so kind as to provide in abundance, or launching themselves along with their legs. It's going to be a godawful mess...

[Capsule Corporation]

The red-eyed ravagers, after clearing out the weapons bay, all entered to make it their new staging ground. The advance team on the bridge quickly began pressing random buttons, trying to activate consoles, but to no avail.

They seemed to all pause for a moment, as if listening to new orders. A few seconds later, they began a mission to make their way down to engineering, their goal being to determine if the ship was still operable, and if so to take over control of the vessel.

The bulk of the ravagers pulled themselves towards one side of the boarded vessel's weapons bay, and waited there for a moment. Meanwhile the advance team used their shotgun-like weapons, which were in actuality infantry rail guns, to propel themselves around the ship. They made their way to the barricade, and took positions behind bulkhead walls as the firefight ensued.

A spore that controlled one of the ravagers transmitted a quick piece of information to an unseen leader aboard the Dan'Kish. It took only a few seconds after they found the barricade for the Dan'Kish to engage her engines and tighten up on the tow cables that suspended the Iron Spear in between the twin hulls. Every Ravager held on for their life, holding on to ladders or bulkheads or anything else they could find, anticipating the sudden jerk. Hopefully they would catch the Kafers off guard when their ship suddenly gained a degree of gravity. With about half of earth-normal gravity, the Ravagers now stood at the top of a relative pit, watching the unprepared at the barricade fall to the bottom of the pit that had once been a lateral corridor. The advanced units tossed down fragmentation grenades and began to fire a constant spray of bullets down into the pit. Once cleared, reinforcements would come in and they would all jump down to the bottom of the pit, and then restore null gravity.

They would repeat with this attack pattern at each encounter, analyzing the enemy's position and finding the best way to inflict a gravity to their advantage.

[The Kafers]

The sudden application of gravity in a fashion not at all favorable to the Vah defenders had precisely the desired effect: The barricade and its defenders went hurtling back up the corridor and slammed into the far bulkhead with quite a bit of force. Most of them probably would have recovered had it not been for the torrent of bullets and grenades that followed.

Sadly, that torrent was quite enough to snuff out the lives of the first half dozen defenders to have met the oncoming horde.

The next barricade's defenders were no more fortunate, although some of them, anticipating another gravity shift, managed to wedge themselves in place well enough to be able to stay put when floor became wall. Not that this helped much; while they were able to return fire for a few seconds, their relative lack of cover proved quite fatal. The invaders were making good progress.

The third time they tried the tactic was not so pretty, however. The defenders were talking over their suit comm links, and the fate of the first two groups of defenders was now well known. The next group of defenders ducked into side rooms the minute the local gravity field changed, and then endeavored to set up a crossfire between them to slow the attackers as best they could, while popping out and sending bullets flying back up the corridor at their enemies. Not that this helped much; the attackers simply laid down covering fire, climbed down the corridor in spite of casualties, and lobbed grenades into each of the side chambers. Simple, really.

It was when they reached the bottom of the corridor that the invaders - or the intelligence directing them - realized they might have a problem.

For the moment the first invaders dropped onto what had once been the corridor's far wall, so too did a barrage of vvaach*, lobbed along what were - at that moment in time, anyway - horizontal passages.

Vvaach* - [No translation available]; 30mm rifle grenades, launched from tubes slung underneath Vah assault rifles.

---

OOC: Some are smoke and some are high explosive; the idea is to obscure the invaders' vision, even if only for a few seconds.

[Capsule Corporation]

Seeing the effectiveness of their tactics drop significantly at each encounter, the frontline of ravagers paused for a moment to regroup. Reinforcements flooded in from the weapons bay, meeting up with the frontliners and taking control of points already taken.

The Dan'Kish cut her engines, restoring null gravity to the captured ship. dozens more vaulted their way from the hangar over to the breach in the Iron Spear

Inside the Spear, the front line of ravagers began a new tactic, chambering fragmentation grenades into the shotgun-like accelerator weapons, and jumping out from the bulkheads they braced themselves behind. Grenades rifled in flawlessly straight lines through the null-g air, exploding with hot shrapnel on both impact and in some cases airburst, depending on the ammo loaded. The ravagers who carried automatic weapons continued to unload their kinetic ammunition towards the enemy, with the aim of skilled soldiers.

After fighting a little bit without the aid of gravity, a message sent to the drones instructing them to hold on. They all braced themselves against the walls of the hallways, expecting the enemy to see quickly run to do the same. However, when the engines engaged at full throttle, a hard acceleration of 2g's came opposite of their previous tactics. Expecting the enemy to be bracing for the opposite direction, the ravagers would now be at the bottom of the pit, with unfastened enemies falling helplessly straight towards them. Everyone fired a spray of bullets and pellets ready to rip apart anything that fell down. Grenades accelerated from rifles to explode right above the opponents who did manage to brace themselves, hoping to knock them loose into the relative pit, straight into the crossfire.

Their current goal was to fight their way down to engineering, but if the loss of life became too great, they would immediately abort and leave the ship. They had an unlimited number of alternative uses for this ship, even if it were a wreck.

[The Kafers]

The new tactics didn't quite work as well as the invaders hoped, as more and more of the Vah defenders had become accustomed to using doorways and side rooms as boltholes to avoid getting tossed around like rag dolls. Unfortunately, attrition was beginning to take its toll on Iron Spear's crew; there were just not enough of them to hold back the tide.

Then, too, odd things began happening. Vah who had been wounded began getting up - not at all unusual, considering their strong psychological impulse to die on their feet - and then turning on their comrades. Almost every time this happened, the "traitor" was quickly gunned down, but it was beginning to prove disruptive enough to make the defenders' job even harder.

Corridor by corridor, blast door by blast door, the onslaught continued. Blood Destiny, directing the fight from the ship's armory, could see that the invaders were trying to take engineering. Presumably, this was because they believed doing so would give them control of the ship. In truth, it was the auxiliary bridge they really should have sought - although it scarcely would have mattered, as this latter target was directly adjacent to the armory itself.