Toxicity:Reload (FT-Apply in OOC)

[Idoa]

OOC, please apply here
This thread is a continuation of this thread here

Ta'lace & Marina

Jeff’ dragged his two companions through the throng of people that were amazingly calm as they all silently headed towards the escape pods that would save their lives. Along their group was separated from Janine and the partial cyborg she was accompanying. As they moved through the crowd Jeff led his companions into one of the empty escape pods and punched the button that closed the airlock door after two more of the station’s vacationers entered the pod, both were an unusual breed of four armed alien that were gray skinned and looked sickly thin. Jeff shuddered as he typed into the touch screen that the pod was ready to launch.

The screen flashed red as soon as Jeff punched in the launch code again. His eyes narrowed and his breathing quickened as his fingers tapped the screen again only to have the same error message pop up again.

“No no no no.” Jeff cried as he tried again to launch the pod. “The escape pod system seems o be busted, I can’t get the pod to launch for some reason”

Jeff opened the door to the pod and looked back out into the hall that led to the pods. Others were leaning out of their pods as well and murmurs could be heard up and down the corridor.

“What’s wrong with the pods.”

“Is your’s broken too.”

“Are we trapped.”

Panic shot through jeff as he realized they might be stuck on the station. He looked back into the pod at Ta’lace and Marina, his face blank as he looked at the two woman he had just met.

“I think we’re trapped here…” said Jeff as shock set in and he collapsed to his knees. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know what’s wrong with the station.”


Toxin Cult

The berserkers cut through the lower levels like hurricanes of flesh and toxin. Even when they encountered armed resistance the bullets from guns did little to stop the insane creatures that bore down on the terrified men that futilely fought against the twisted screaming hulks.

Even when they did manage to bring down one of the mad creatures cult members were swift to move in and open fire on them with their own weapons, the resistance folding easily as the cult made its way to towards the connectors to the upper levels.

As they came closer and closer to the access routes they ran into stiffer resistance. More of the station’s security began to form around these crucial routes as the beleaguered AI tried to save the station it was supposed to protect.

[Ivory Record]

Escape Deck

For Rezlan Lolde'u, today was one of those rare moments where both of his trains of thought could be made to converge. He had left his quarters in a hurry, forgoing the traditional long robe and only wearing his close-fitting undersuit and gravlev harness, zooming along at a relatively high speed right around eye-level, when he entered the escape pod area.

Being immediately greeted by a slew of people complaining of problems with their pods made him second guess his decision to have come to the pods, when he probably could have hid reasonably well. He had every suspicion that the problem was a matter of someone's actions rather than a systems failure, but again... he was no longer so sure.

Jeff was the closest to him when he became aware of the situation, and without much to do, he levitated his way over the crouching man to have a poke at the systems himself. Not that there was much he could do to that either.

He hummed softly to himself, drifting back into the hall, and finally landing with his two diminutive feet on the ground. He was thinking, it was written on every line of his oversized face.

"... Where's system control for the station?"

He was no technologist, but he figured he could probably find at least someone on board who was. I mean, they had to do something, right?

[Neo ORB]

Ta'lace was a little annoyed to say the least, while not one unforeseen to trouble, she couldn't help but hate the fact that after they had only finally gotten to their imperial suite.She herself was and had been within walking distance of the over sized doors, with attache personnel who had opened those said doors that lead to the innermost confines of their soon to be temporary abode while watching Marina go back and forth between the rooms in a heartfelt glee that an alarm had roared outwards.

She was in fact awestruck by Jeff's fight and flight response as Jeff ripped into action after a short conversation with one of his nearby co-workers, ripping into the imperial suite practically picking up both of them and carrying them through crowds of calm orderly people. or at least to Ta'lace, that's what it had felt like as she still stood there now in an escape pod with Marina sitting beside her. Silently Ta'lace sighed and watched Jeff go back and forth within the pod to the controls, then to the hatch and again to the controls before going finally back to the hatch while opening it and conversing with fellow workers and then finally collapsing onto the pods flooring near them almost sobbingly, all the while the alarms had been roaring painfully to her ears.

So slowly she stood up after watching Jeff and Marina within the confines of the pod and did the only sensible thing that came to her mind. Her fingers started unbuttoning her suit which after a bit of skilled maneuvering fell to the floor after getting her wings out of the slits, she then removed her pants which had ripped before the elevator incident and let them fall to the ground while stepping lightly out of them, and then she removed her white shirt until she was clothed in only the bandage like suit. That had been hidden underneath her exterior clothing. As she sat down she could feel Marinas gaze after her earlier reaction to the bandages being seen, and put aside her embarrassment and then spoke.
Her voice coming out in musical tones as the translator had automatically turned off which made her poke and swipe at the collar once again in order to reactivate it and then re-spoke what she had said in a somewhat cheerful tone.

"I know...Marina... its my underwear, and I remember how I reacted priory, I'm doing my best not to cry... Jeff, I suggest as the pod is damaged that we return to our suite... I don't know whats happening but if its dangerous... i think crowding around like this would be the worst case scenario possible. "

However then something happened, a smaller being floated near Jeff and poked him, speaking rapidly enough that Ta'lace couldn't understand what was being said. However as she looked at group within the pod, being herself, Marina and the two four armed aliens she suddenly sighed and then got up and walked out of the pod while quickly grabbing Marinas wrist and Jeff by his collar and dragging them out of the pod with her before lightly letting them go and then proceeded for a few more steps from them and then stopped dead in her tracks and then placed her hands over top of each other in front of her in a prayer like fashion while closing her eyes and then began to sing, the tone however was one of deep sadness and something hidden within the lyrics far darker and ominous.

"Oh Lorthorus, Oh mother of the "Nare". You who hath Shepard us, in our quiet prayer."
"Embrace and cloak us, within thy holy light. Shelter us from evil, who threaten thy sacred plight."
"We offer you our body's, giveth you our souls... Stain us with thy darkness, and return our songs to whole."
"Let us sing thee to thy Requiem, and prepareth for our wrath..."
"The time has come once again... The "Nare" will take flight at last..."

And then as Ta'lace stopped singing her strange Hymn, she opened her eyes and turned around lightly on her heels and then looked towards Jeff and Marina, her voice was still as light as it had been as if she hadn't sung her prayer but something about her aura, her presence was completely different... and the single change however would be noticed no matter who had looked, after all her lovely green iris's had turned to a bright shade of crimson while her pupils had turned from circles to narrow slits.

"I really think we should return to our rooms, all of us... since being here is rather dangerous if we are indeed trapped.
I don't know about you all... but my race can survive in space as long as its not a long period of time due to my clothing's special properties..."

And then she held out her hand with her fingers extended as her bandage two piece full bodied underwear started to change from pure white to a greenish blue tint as small droplets of slightly luminescent gel of the same color started to leak out of them slowly forming a small gelatinous blob of gel on her palm. And then as she the closed her hand around the gel it returned into the bandages as if it had never been there.

"My peoples cryogenic technology allows for limited vacuum survival in emergencies up to a half life of one hundred years alone without a Migration capsule... However I think you can understand what would happen at the end of those one hundred years... such an end is not pretty since were awake for the duration of those one hundred years."

[Kostemetsia]

Aided by her Field Xenology Corps training, her ex officio Commonwealth Navy commission, and the FXC-Huerdaen Contingency Protocol, Final Revision, Marina had managed to bypass shock and go straight to fury. It was a state in which she had existed since being rudely removed from the Imperial Suite. The fact that they had to be in mortal danger to warrant the massive expense and inconvenience of evacuating a station this size didn't even cross her mind, only the injustice of it all. To be denied. To be denied the FXC's first really serious opportunity since 2294 for medium-term in situ observation of multiple cultures. The nerve!

She sat silently seething in the pod. She noticed the four-armed aliens, and dimly tagged them as Spur-50. Another Spur she'd never get to explore – even her sniffers picked up nothing, overwhelmed and confused by the morass of different biotypes they'd encountered on the way to the airlock, and blocked out by a heaping dose of Jeff. It was only when Jeff started to go grey in the face that she really began to pay attention to anything around her. The source of the trouble became immediately apparent – the interface data pane he was attempting to operate was flashing an obstinate red.

Reality soaked back in like a shower of rain, and she began to worry. On whatever scale, orders to escape pods could be a mistake, an inconvenience that would soon be remedied, but anyone knew that when the escape pods failed to launch, that was a different story entirely. The chorus of complaint coming from outside only reinforced her position, and slowly she began to stand, carefully keeping out of the personal space of the Spur-50s.

She was preempted by a small, floating alien (Spur-51 opened in her head) in some kind of levitation harness (another technology I'll never get to analyse, another technology we'll have to wait a hundred years to develop on our own) who floated over Jeff, prodding and poking incomprehensibly at the data pain. He was away as soon as he came, though, silently and just as unexplained. Staring at him, she stepped forward to tug on Jeff's ill-fitting uniform, trying to raise him to his feet.

No go. Ta'lace had stepped forward too, a lot more convincingly, and was now quite casually disrobing. Marina couldn't help but gawk, entirely without ulterior motives, as her elegant clothes dropped to the floor, leaving only the strange, bandage-like undersuit. Scratch that, it wasn't a casual disrobing – Ta'lace looked so tense it made Marina uncomfortable to look at her, but she was declothing nonetheless.

"I know...Marina... its my underwear, and I remember how I reacted priory, I'm doing my best not to cry... Jeff, I suggest as the pod is damaged that we return to our suite... I don't know whats happening but if its dangerous... i think crowding around like this would be the worst case scenario possible. "

“I tend to agree,” Marina answered absently. A cool visor had slid down over her thoughts, and she only had half a mind on the situation, the other half recalling and collating her memories of the way here, of every single nook and cranny of the situation. It raced to the same conclusion Ta'lace had reached, and she snapped back to reality. “Jeff, I don't know what's happening, but Ta'lace thinks it's something dangerous, and you seem very keen to leave. If it's the kind of danger that might lead to physical combat … I suggest we go back to the Imperial Suite. There's one way in that I know of, there are staff to reinforce us, and if we leave the building, you might have the home ground advantage.” She knew as she spoke that it was tactical thinking, the kind of thing she'd tried to get rid of by going FXC, the kind of thing that would undermine her 'executive assistant' cover identity, but now was not the time to care.

She was quickly cut off, though, as Ta'lace's hand closed around her wrist, and the Songbird dragged her out of the pod with surprising strength. She took a moment to regain her bearings, and found herself watching Ta'lace move into some kind of state of reverence, incongruous against the spreading panic. She intoned a hymn of some sort, and Marina found herself futilely tapping the side of her own head, reflexively, wanting to jar her translator into action. There were proper nouns she didn't have the context for – Lorthorus, Nare … There was a lot to learn, a lot that could really be important right now, but Ta'lace seemed momentarily frozen.

Then she unfroze and turned, and Marina recoiled. It seemed to be a rule of humanlike cultures that green meant go and red meant stop. Ta'lace looked like she was in the mood to stop a starliner. Weirdly, standing in her underwear in the middle of a crowded escape pod access corridor, she looked like the most combat-effective person there, easily outranking the security guards. Combat-effective. Marina hated that she'd been reduced to thinking like that once again, but the tension built up in her neck and made her jaw tense – the invisible shadow on the wall, the inaudible drumming in the floor, the unseen gleam of the Sword of Damocles unwinding its last thread. Something was really badly, seriously wrong here, and if it was going to sweep her up, she'd be damned if she wouldn't turn her head back toward shore.

The impression of Ta'lace's combat effectiveness was only reinforced by the weird, greenish-blue substance she started to exude, colouring her bindings and seeping out of her skin. Marina watched, and listened, in some degree of awe, which was not significantly lessened as the gel wicked away, disappearing as if it had never been. She revised her earlier note about 'humanlike cultures' – she'd thought Ta'lace had come from somewhere she could understand. Now that assessment was one she began to doubt. Whatever was in Ta'lace – whatever Ta'lace was – it was a Horvathist radical's wet dream, and a beautiful terror.

“Well,” she managed, after a moment, “I am a little more vulnerable to vacuum than that, myself … but then again, I think this will all be over with long before a hundred years are up.” She straightened her back, raised her chin and came to attention, hating herself every step of the way, and said with only a slight tremble in her voice, “Lead on, Macduff.”

[Idoa]

Ta'lace & Marina

Jeff gazed at Ta'lace in wonderment as she went through her metamorphosis so to speak. He wondered what he got himself into and tried to not stare too much when the birdwoman said she was in her underwear.

Jeff casually rubbed his neck from where his shirt collar diff into his skin. His fingers brushed over a tender welt that was forming angrily out of his skin. Jeff hadn't realized how strong the frail looking Nare actually was. He still felt the effects of the shock setting in however and struggled to remain on his feet as Marina and Ta'lace seemed to remain composed. Both acted as if dire situations where everyday things, like making coffee in the morning. Especially when Marina went into 'commando' mode and began rattling off tactical situations and such.

The thought that the two females were more in control then himself caused Jeff to regain his strength somewhat. Straightening himself out and standing a little taller Jeff nodded.
"I think you're probably right, we should get back to the suite, instead of..." Jeff said before he was suddenly cut off from by an authoritative voice.

Rezlan

Darrin Struthers walked confidently through the throng of murmuring people that were beginning to get looks of panic on their faces as the escape pods began to malfunction. The large man held his hands up and waved to get everyone's attention before his booming voice sounded up and down the corridor.
"I'm sorry for the inconvenience folks, there was a minor malfunction in the computer system that tripped the alarm, if you could all please return to your rooms until we have the matter sorted we would greatly appreciate it." said Darrin.
Of course he had lied, he knew that if he told the truth chaos would descend upon the station as people tried to escape towards the docks to try and get away on the multitude of private ships there. He watched people furrow their brows and think about what he said, most however shook their heads and began filing out towards the corridors that led back to their rooms.

As he was moving slowly through the crowd Darrin accidentally bumped into a smallish gray skinned humanoid that seemed to hover about before landing. Looking down at the little humanoid Darrin frowned a little when he heard the tiny man ask where system control was.

"And why might you be asking where system control is sir, is there something you want to tell me." Darrin said as he loomed over diminutive humanoid.

Any other time the comment might have solicited an explication and for some folk even a tour, today however with the current events unfolding Darrin stared at the little gray guy with a steely gaze as he awaited an explanation for why the humanoid was interested in the control room.

[Ivory Record]

Rezlan corrected for balance briefly before flexing slightly, and with the barest of bounds, his GravLev harness took up his weight again and he shot up to man-height while Darrin was speaking with him. He was alien in most sense of the word - while he shared the basic extraction of the layout of a human face, the simularities more or less ended there. Different neural heirarchy meant a different mind altogether.

He'd glower from behind his inkwell eyes as he reached eye-level with Darrin, and without saying a word, he hoped he had made it perfectly clear that he would not be "loomed" over.

The Erudites had a belief in benevolent panspermia... but just because they shared the same basic makeup, thought the Xenoveterinarian, didn't mean they were necessarily on the same level. For a moment, he simply held the human's gaze, and drifted around him once or twice, as if feeling the need to get a good look at him.

He leaned in close to Darrin, and said in a low voice he was certain the station staff would appreciate, given the valiant attempts to control the panic that was moments from ripping the station apart. "Because properly made hab stations don't suffer from accidental malfunctions that cause an evacuation alarm at the same time as disabling the escape pods. A whole lot of the right things would have to go wrong, if you follow me."

He placed a tiny hand on his frail-looking chest. "I'm a doctor. Can I be of assistance?"

[Neo ORB]

Ta'lace watched her own crimson eyes reflect from within the momentary gaze of Marinas own pupils and lightly smiled remembering the slight momentary recoil that Marina had given her. Such a reaction was in its own right the highest praise she could have received as one of the "Nare" as that recoil was a natural reaction that dignified one of the main forgotten "Nare" embodiments. It was a type of primal fear even if Marina didn't yet know it existed within her.
Listening to Marina speak however she got caught off at the word "Macduff" never having heard such a phrase before, she silently wondered what a "Macduff" actually was, what it was to do... she had said "lead on" but she couldn't understand the context of the entire structure of her words. However as confused as she was then, she decided it would simply be best to place what Marina had said away as her eyes focused on the rising Jeff.
His frame was taller, heck even a little more confident as she caught his gaze prior as he stared at the in what she could only guess was shock. Shock at having remained calm as the situation deteriorated? strange although Ta'lace couldn't help but smile at his new found courage as she agreed with their assessment of returning back to the suite. As he was talking however another newcomer came into the escape shuttle hall.

He was large in stature, his walk confident as he gently pushed his way through the blocking crowd, and his voice as he spoke was loud and authoritative as he heralded all the attention onto himself. Beyond the authority, his voice was completely calm and steady while his well practiced facial expression was as calm as a sunny day.

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience folks, there was a minor malfunction in the computer system that tripped the alarm, if you could all please return to your rooms until we have the matter sorted we would greatly appreciate it."

Ta'Lace stared hard at the man who had walked into the hall and made his grand announcement that this entire ordeal had been nothing but a system malfunction and watched as the masses bought the lie hook, line and sinker as the vacationers looked back and forth between their own partys, shaking there heads while others furrowed there brows in thought before silently agreeing before slowly shaking their own heads and quickly making their ways to exits and back to their rooms within.
As the man slowly waved his way through the pushing crowd as they headed slowly back to their rooms, Ta'lace knew instinctively that his man was at least partly brilliant as he was able to pull the wool over everyone's eyes while giving them a satisfactory answer while remaining externally calm. This simple action had made the atmosphere change instantly to how he and Triad.ltd currently wanted it, which was with as little civilian casualty's possible since once they were inside their own rooms they could likely be locked within for their own safety.

As the hall became more and more barren, their were only a few party's left standing around, one of which included Ta'lace's group. As her pupils quickly darted around the room she tried to take everything possible in before finally settling back onto the new comer who had just bumped into the small alien being who had poked Jeff only moments prior. The alien once again rapidly spoke his question, however there was enough distance between them and Ta'lace that she could make out was said.

"... Where's system control for the station?" The man went from his calm demeanor to lightly hostile faster then an Ulati in flight as he loomed over the small alien, such a reaction however was expected at least from Ta'lace as she thought about what was possibly going on somewhere on the station. The mans voice however was quick and authoritative as he replied, his eyes speaking volumes for itself as they lightly narrowed into a steely stare reflected at the small alien.

"And why might you be asking where system control is sir, is there something you want to tell me." However the small alien reacted in a intresting manner as he regained his balance after being bumped into and then jumped into the air and floated at eye level with the new comer. there stares reflected back at each other hinted that the small alien was not to be loomed over as he then started moving around the Man twice, thrice and then spoke close but low in audible tone.

"Because properly made hab stations don't suffer from accidental malfunctions that cause an evacuation alarm at the same time as disabling the escape pods. A whole lot of the right things would have to go wrong, if you follow me."
The alien blacked away slightly while placing his small hand on his chest, and spoke announcing that he was a doctor. although to Ta'lace as she watched him, he seemed to take a bit of pride in such status.

and then as she had watched the small alien float lightly, Ta'lace silently gasped before looking at her right hand and then smiling lightly as she excluded her ominous gaze slowly over onto Marina once again. Although you could only call it ominous because of the way her crimson eyes currently looked. lightly with small steps Ta'lace walked over to Marina before suddenly getting within very close personal space as she then lightly started touching and prodding Marinas body.
Comparing their fingers and hands, arms, chests, legs, hips, hidden bone structure hidden beneath the flesh and muscle, anything and everything as Ta'lace moved around rapidly, and Ta'lace did this for almost an embarrassing minute of this strange out of bounds touching.
And then she was done as quickly as she started with light smile spread across her face as she stared at Marina and lightly extended her wings outwards.

At the same time she brought her right hand to her chest and then closed her eyes and spoke lightly however her revelations and actions would be shocking in their own right as she soon initiated another hymn after she stopped contemplating out loud.

"Hmmm, our body structure's are not all that different although your bone and muscle masses are much more dense and heavy then our own...
Well they'll change with time... after all genetic infection has already started to take place within your body... although it will still be at least a year before any actual change is relatively noticed...although since "Nare" DNA and RNA has already entered you.
Eclipsed time won't be enough yet though... damn... I won't be able to migrate a "Key" into you... well at least not yet..."

"Oh Lorthorus, Oh mother of the "Nare". You who hath Shepard us, in our solemn prayer."
"Our darkness no longer sleeping, our lights faded for rest. Awake our Blight recovered, to be Befallen is civilizations crest."
"We who were once called "Demons", who fell from high above. Our blade's are now awoken, no longer are can they dulled."
"Mother, who gave us power, who demandth it's heavy price. Let this blood soak banquet ring early, return us to sleep tonight."
"Our wishes shall go unanswered, my hopes to be crushed underneath. When Nine and Nine meets Nine again, flip the number and be reprieved."
"Tonight you'll be tainted, our blood will mixed as shed... Tonight you'll met your maker, and your journey will begin again..."

As Ta'lace chanted her strange hymn, her right hand started glowing dimly at the collateral ligament between the first and second phanlax of her index, middle and ring fingers (the finger joint which bends after the knuckle). As the glow grew slightly brighter the glow revealed three small silver gems embedded within the ligaments as if they had been hidden by a mirage, but now they shone for the world to see, They were the "Keys" she had mentioned, fused as one with Ta'laces own genetic code and apart of her own being. And as such had been able to make it past security unnoticed until now. As the chant ended so did the glow, and all that was left was the small sparkling gems embedded within her right hand.

As Ta'lace opened her eyes again she smiled lightly as she brought the middle gem to her mouth and lightly kissed it, then speaking lightly at Jeff and Marina as she walked lightly forward back towards them however her crimson eyes showed with nothing within them no light, no awareness. As she moved her steps made no sound as her wings ceased any ruffling of their feathers rubbing. Her motions were perfectly fluid, graceful and soundless beyond measure any yet something was unnerving.
No if any "sane" being had seen how she looked they would have surely felt it. A primal urge that said to flee from what was before them... Because what was before them was not human, not merciful or gentle like the being that had existed before it.
No it was a being, if it could be called that, which existed only to destroy what was before them with an innocent smile etched on its face and ecstasy fueling its desires. It was like Ta'lace had completely disappeared leaving only a shell in its place, a shell that existed only to leave a scar upon all it touched... Nothing but a beautiful horror. But as she reach them Ta'lace seemed to return as if she had never left However as she spoke, she reviled her cruel design with an innocent smile.

"Marina, Jeff, Allow me to introduce myself, I am Ta'lace Sha'shara, My age is 62 although I am but a child when compared to the lifespans of our Collective.
"Nare" Collective classification, First division of the "Airdren" classification... third species "Novaarcs".
Migration capsule number 7,893. of the selected chosen of the "Migration".

We of the "Airdren" are the most alike at least in appearance to what you call Humans, although I know you have likely glimpsed some of the differences already. Our wings are one as our bone structures are lighter and hollow while our muscle mass while the same as yours is far lighter. Organs are obviously completely different in placement and some in function.
Our inability to communicate with your races without the help of either technology or the Second Classifacation of the "Nare" a Messenger who can translate for us... is unfortunately another.
Although... I feel that I should now... apologize for my prior actions, When I placed my feather onto your ears it was a gift... however it is a cursed one...I dont know why I did it, it was just a primal urge... but I've infected you with "Nare" genetics... its slow acting for the amount currently, but with the eclipse time having already passed. It will be inseparable from your own genetic structure by now.

So I feel it would be appropriate to say this since I have the time... Welcome to the "Nare" my children..."