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Dark Frontier (Game Thread)


GargantuaBlarg

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

Judith let out a small "Ack!" when Ausel smashed open the panel. She supposed he was right, though... if he was infected, they really didn't want to dawdle around. His blood being out worried her a little bit - would she get infected if she touched it? Would it turn into some sort of horrifying tiny-blood-Tentak if it was allowed to sit? - but it wasn't a very major concern - the former being easily circumventable, and the latter unlikely to manifest soon enough to threaten her unless she really screwed around.

Inside, she glanced around, looking for the main interface she needed, while Ausel immediately went to test himself. He'd know the procedure better than she would, so she didn't immediately bother him - but once the test began, she wandered over, looking over his shoulder. After he opted not to respond to her inquiries, she tried to follow along what he was doing on the screen - wondering if what she'd learned in Academy would allow her that much proficiency.

When he delivered the grim news, she pursed her lips into a dissatisfied line. Dammit... not that it was surprising, but the confirmation was all too unpleasant nonetheless.

"Alright," she said, walking with him over to the cryogenic tubes. If she noticed any latex gloves, she'd veer a little to grab some, quickly snapping them on.

Just before he went in, she pulled him into a half-hug, shoulder to shoulder. "...I'm sorry, Ausel," she whispered, before helping him get in and starting the cryonic freezing. Her med/sci training should allow her to do that properly... though, she wouldn't refuse his directions if he had any. It was inappropriately sized, after all, and she was unsure if she should tweak the settings upwards to compensate for his increased body mass and volume, and if so, how much.
 

Shrike7

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

The scientist breathed a sigh of relief as the dart finally died, glancing at the wall it had originally shot from to make sure no more were forthcoming. She seemed safe for the moment, finally, so she moved back to the console at Bernard's desk, typing furiously as she discovered more and more of the redundant security measures the man had put into place. She couldn't get through them all in the time she had, so she started looking at other options.

The dart came to mind, it was small enough to slip out and into the rest of the station through the vent system, but even if she could manage to pilot it to somebody, there was little way for whoever she found to think of it as anything but a security measure. It wasn't built for communication, after all.

She'd have to find a way to communicate with it. She could scratch a message onto it's plating, but that would likely take too long for the message she had in mind. it wouldn't help enough if she came across a member of the visiting ship first, either. Her gaze settled onto her portable console, sitting forgotten on the desk. It had no access to the rest of the station either, but it had a simple notepad program, she could leave a message on that, and possibly give the recipient a map of the station as well. The dart could lift it, but she had no way to attach it to the thing. Welding would be too permanent, she had no glue, or string... Fabric, that would work.

Working quickly, she tore off two strips of fabric from her lab coat, setting them aside for a moment. Moving to her console next, she locked the onboard research on it with a simple password she made up on the spot, leaving the station's map and the note she wrote outside of the protection, the note up for easy perusal. She tied one strip of fabric around it tightly, weaving a portion around the handhold to make sure it didn't slip though. Moving to the dart, she carefully worked on it for another few minutes, routing it to the security she had unlocked at the desk so far so she could track and control it, before redoing the wiring, making it functional again. Closing the panel she had torn open, she tied the second loop of fabric around it, making sure to not cover any of the tiny jets it used for propulsion, then tied the ends of the two strips together, moving to the desk to manually tell it to lift off, testing the weight. It flew awkwardly, but well enough, so she opened the vent hatch in the room and sent it through, heading for the cafeteria first, the last place she knew any of either crew had been for certain.

Code:
There are biological contaminates loose on board the station. Dr. Bernard
has orchestrated it, and is likely infected himself. I am locked in his
office. Dr. Jane is using it to her own ends, and plans to steal the Urania
and the station's research to turn over to the Xaloxians. There is a map of
the station on this console, use it to gather what uninfected you can, and 
prevent Jane from taking the ship. By my estimate, the station itself is not
recoverable, and will need to be destroyed once the research is safe. I can
track this drone well enough to answer simple questions, but I must insist
you free me as soon as possible to aid in the evacuation.

Dr. Caitlin Sefton
 
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BlueSlime

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

(In the crew quarters, bedroom, upper level)

"HSSSSSSS!!!"

Tentacles flailed outwards, threatening to wrap around the surprised doctor, but the trained reflexes of Sonya and Athryn were up to the task, their blast pistols rising and firing simultaneously.

*Zzzap!* *Zzzap!*

Each shot left a burning, glowing orange hole in the torso of the former female scientist, evoking a hideous shriek. Tentacles reflexively caved inward, protectively, but the damage had already been done and the woman-turned-tentak lost her purchase on the ceiling, falling to the floor with a squelching thud. Rachel narrowly side stepped the body. The creature squealed and clawed on the floor, and for a moment, the creature's voice became human again, turning into a sob, before it went still.

Rachel scrambled backward against the wall, then looked at her hand, the one that had brushed off the slime that had dripped from the ceiling.

"Eyah!" She said, before wiping the strange excretion from her hand onto the label of her labcoat, before throwing the whole coat off of her onto the floor. Immediately she activated her wrist analyzer and began to scan her hand. Even as she did this, a groan that turned to anguish arose from the bed across the chamber.

"Gnnuh... Gnnngh... Nuoo... No... Maria!"

The man began to change rapidly, his cry of anguish becoming an inhuman roar. His skin replaced itself with a hard chitinous plate, his face widening and his arms growing obscenely in length. A third eye, then a fourth, and an even larger fifth appeared on his forehead. A final roar, and the creature broke free of the adhesive restraints, its strength obviously having grown with its horrific transformation.

Sonya turned her blast pistol on it. "That one looks bigger!"

"GRRRUUUUUUUUU!"

------------------------------------

(In the central lab)

Ausel tucked himself into a fetal position, hugging his knees tightly against his chest. Judith could see him shaking slightly all over.

"Mmph... getting cold just thinking about cryosleep," he said. "Either that or my body's resistances are starting to fail. Close it tight. And... and Judith. Thanks for this. No matter how it turns out."

It was then that she moved to hug him, and not surprisingly, he uncurled and clung back tightly. The scientist had not been one to show a great deal of intimate emotion with anyone in the little time that she had known him, so this unusual display was suggestive of just how intense the moment was. She could feel his body trembling. He must be quite scared, but when he pulled back he was wearing a smile and shrugging.

Nodding to her one last time, Ausel tucked his head down and waited for the engineer to close the cryotube's hatch. Once done, she would have to hurry to initiate the stasis process. Typing in the command, she waited until the hiss of the machinery working confirmed that the process was underway. After that, she was free to search the lab for a way out or a way to signal the crew.

Accessing the main control panel, she was confronted by a security code for the locks and communication systems. However, other systems such as life support and minor engine thrusters were not cut off at this terminal. This left her with some options, such as rerouting power in the station.

Unfortunately, if she cut off power to this area, it would only keep the bolted doors stuck in that position and the cryo chamber she had just put Ausel in would cease to function - potentially lethal to him.

------------
(Leaving the Cafeteria)

"I'm with you, Captain," Kenneth said, his demeanor switching instantly into that of a consummate soldier. His blast pistol was free of its holster and ready for combat. Tammie likewise had her stun gun out. Despite not being a marine, she moved with the athletic grace of a natural fighter. The trio moved quickly down the halls.

"It came from the upper level. It's this way," Tammie said. "I know the basic schematics of Federation research bases. I helped build one when I was doing on-site training in the academy."

"Life story later, Skoveld, just show us," Kenneth said, keeping his eyes alert while they moved.

"Ass," Tammie replied, but led on anyway.

They made it to the middle landing between levels when they bumped into the Vulpar scientist, carrying over her shoulder a large duffle bag. It looked as though she were going somewhere.

"Oh! Thank goodness you're here. I heard a shot from up there!" She moved to the side to let them pass. Just as she did this, there came the sound of an awful hiss and two more blast pistol discharges fired. A horrid squeal followed.

----------------------------------

(Cafeteria, moments after the Captain leaves)

Dr. Tully looked agitated. Extremely agitated. In fact, his face was going redder and redder. He was sweating. Odessa noticed these things. Years of reading minds had led to her noticing the visual indicators. There was something Dr. Tully was not saying.

"I really hope they don't intend to use those weapons!" He said, wringing his hands. "This station does not have reinforced hull plating, and there are delicate modules here that will take forever to get the replacement parts for!"

Perhaps that was what he was worried about. Still, the man didn't seem to be wondering about what had *caused* the blast in the first place. Now why would that be?

"Maybe I ought to go with them. I'm responsible for anything that happens on board this station, I can't let armed marines run about unaccompanied!"

"Director, I'm certain that Federation service laws would acknowledge that any discharge committed by a member of the Urania crew would reflect upon Captain Elise, not yourself," Nicolas said in a calming tone that seemed to not reassure the lead scientist.

At that point a buzzing could be heard, followed by occassional whirs, and finally a blurring motion brought into view a flying seeker dart with a small data tablet hanging from the end by two strips of cloth. The projectile flew awkwardly, constantly reconfiguring for the weight of the swinging tablet.

Caitlin was guiding the dart from her monitor display in Bernard's office. On the small screen she could make out Bernard, as well as three crew members, one male in diplomatic colors, one female logistical officer, and the blonde empath, all staring right at her makeshift electronic messenger.

Bernard made to approach the dart first, only Odessa being as close as he to the object.
 

GargantuaBlarg

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

Goddammit, of course they were locked from here too. She wasn't sure if she could hack it either, since it was a password, and not an easily-bypassable hardware lock. There were a few other systems she could meddle with, but she didn't think any of them would be of any use to her... station thrusters, not likely, life support, she definitely needed that... Had they really planned to do this all in advance? They'd probably had a few hours to plan it all when they showed up on their sensors... They'd undoubtedly planned to have an engineer from the Urania accompany Sparky down to fix reactor, and thus they would've known to lock all the important stuff in here remotely, since she would've known how to hack through it locally...

Hmmm...

Was Sparky still locked in here with her? She hadn't seen or heard him leave... maybe there was an exit she could use in the lab he'd disappeared into? She tried to see if the terminal she was at stored blueprints for the room he'd gone into, and if she could find a maintenance tunnel entrance or anything in there. She also checked to see if she could tell what had been studied in there - she wouldn't want any unpleasant surprises, after all. Hmm... perhaps she could access the security camera network from here, as well...? She could check the labs to see if there was anything to watch out for, or anything that might come in handy... or maybe even something incriminating?
 

Shrike7

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

Caitlin tensed a bit, seeing the director in the cafeteria. She made teh dart jump awkwardly sideways when he lunged for it, zeroing in on the empath she had met earlier, trying to keep Odessa between Bernard and the vital information she was carrying, hoping one of the Urania's crew would get the idea and grab the datapad.
 

Tassadar

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

That the thing actually went down under their combined fire was nothing if not a tremendous relief to Athryn, and while Rachel tried to get the goo off of her hand the marine kept her pistol trained on the prone creature, watching it go through its death throes with a deep scowl. She almost forgot about the man lying on the bed.... Until he decided to join the fun with a loud, ear-splitting roar. Spinning and leveling her gun, Athryn took careful aim at the creature as its body began to change, arms elongating and chitinous plates coverings it body. Additional eyes appeared on its head, one of which was larger than the others, and it was at that that Athryn centered her aim. "Fucking monsters..." she muttered to herself, centering all of her attention onto the massive armored tentak that was about to charge her and the two crewmen beside her. While she was still very much conscious of the fact that these creatures had once been human, she was equally conscious of the fact that they weren't any longer, and thus didn't even hesitate as she prepared to fire.

"Don't aim for the plates," the marine replied calmly to Sonya's outburst, "Go for the eyes!"

Use Sniper if she had time to prepare for it while the dude was getting up. If not, then just shoot.
 

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

Elise's face kept her serious disposition as Ken and Tammie followed her through the hall, though inwardly she was grinning at their banter. As captain, she had to maintain an air of calm and professionalism during potentially dangerous situations. As such, she kept her own blast pistol safely secured in it's holster as they moved. 'There's no reason to ready a weapon unless you're ready to use it' had been a saying the Academy had drilled into the cadets in basic. At the time, Elise had just laughed it off as a silly motto meant to keep some of the less disciplined recruits from getting too trigger happy with their new toys. Now, though, she realized there was more to it than that. "Glad to know we aren't just wandering around blindly," Elise said to Tammie. To Ken, she asserted, "Stay cool, Weiss, it could still just be an accidental discharge."

Dr. Tully had been acting strangely, but the Vulpar's behavior immediately struck Elise as odd. The fox woman's pointed out the blast, and it made sense that a civilian might hurry away from something sounding dangerous, but she appeared to be moving rather determinedly for some other reason. For her to also not even seem surprised to see them gave Elise a strange feeling. She had already considered some kind of mutiny on board, could this Vulpar woman be a part of it? "Yes, actually we were just on our way to check that out," Elise said, stepping in front of the fox woman, preventing her from moving. The sudden commotion, though, caused Elise's head to spin in the direction it came from, her weapon now coming to hand in a swift motion.

"Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to come with us until we figure out what's going on," Elise asserted, her free hand motioning the fox woman to walk with them. The captain gave the Vulpar woman a long look, remembering that Ken and Odessa had mentioned a Vulpar named Jane as being the last person seen with Ausel. Narrowing her eyes slightly, Elise added "My crew and I aren't particularly familiar with this station's layout and could use a guide, Jane." She added the name as a test both to see if that was indeed the woman's name, as well as to see how she would react seeing as how the two of them were never introduced. "I can assure you that my crew and I can handle whatever may have made those noises. You'll be safe with us."
 

Takimaru

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

Odessa quickly noticed the changes in Dr. Tully's expression, and it didn't take a psychic to tell that something was wrong. However, it would require one to pin down the specifics, and so she kept her gaze on him as casually as possible, feigning a concerned look as she initiated a true read on the man. It might not exactly be a direct order by the Captain, but as it stood, she'd have easily placed the lives of the crew she knew over whatever secrets were hidden here. Secrets had their place, and she knew it better than most. The real question was the cost of keeping them. Would they be part of the bargain if things went wrong? While not exactly known as the most disloyal of officers, the psion wasn't quite keen to the idea to being a sacrifice for even the Federation's dirtiest of secrets.

And though she wanted to ask about what initially made the discharge, Nicolas spoke first. Probably better that way, as she wasn't always quite as diplomatic as him. Not to mention, she didn't want his trail of thought straying too far from where it originally was, so she sharpened her focus to get the read as quickly as possible while the scientist was distracted with the others.

After she finished, Odessa caught the whirring object from the corner of her eye, noticing its apparent proximity to her. She wasn't quite as good at catching the intent of machines instead of people, but this one was being controlled by someone, no doubt, and as such it certainly seemed to have that 'grab me' look as its flight path veered away from Bernard and closer to herself--an opportunity that she was quick to capitalize on. She swiftly grabbed the datapad and hugged it to herself.

"Oops, sorry! This one's for me. Uhmm, Caitlin and I were just talking about mushrooms earlier, and she mentioned sending me the specifics for ones she had been interested in lately." Not her best of excuses, she realized, but she did her best to play it off by way of body language before taking a glance at the pad and feigning only mild interest. After all, she certainly couldn't find any other subjects that the female scientist might be interested in. Saying that they were talking about her powers was just a good way to remind Dr. Tully that she was a mind-reader, which wasn't what she needed right now, and to try and claim that the two were doing 'girl-talk' or something of the like... well, it just didn't seem likely, and would have been an even more incriminating excuse overall. She could pretend sharing an interest in mushrooms for the time being, as it likely wouldn't be the worst stain on her record.

What she saw was a message far more disturbing in nature than what she was ready for. It took her a few seconds to digest, and as such she wasn't able to catch the Captain, Nicolas, or Tammie with telepathy before they made their way out. Nicolas was there, however, and she'd have to settle for practically any other member of the crew at this point, relaying the information without needing to speak to them. "I know you told me not to use my powers earlier, but this time it concerns all of us. Something that Dr. Sefton described as 'biological contaminates' are loose on board--Dr. Jane and Dr. Tully are not to be trusted. The former is even allegedly doing business with the Xaloxians, but I need to go to where Dr. Sefton is to confirm this in detail. Distract him, and I'll be back before long. Also, don't eat the food." She simply couldn't take 'no' for an answer with the telepathy, nor was she in a mood to argue with Nicolas about this. Inwardly, she grimaced after realizing that Caitlin was part of her original excuse, but it wasn't as if she necessarily meant to see her right away. After copying the message to Ami, Odessa was ready to go, and as such, she politely excused herself before making a roundabout way to Dr. Tully's office, so as to avoid further suspicion. "I'll be just a moment, need to use the little girls' room," said the empath. Sure, she might be gone for longer than she thought, but as long as she could get out of there for the time being--plus it wouldn't make any sense for Bernard to follow her at that point, unless he wanted to look like some kind of shameless pervert, so she thought.

Do a scan on Dr. Tully. Then relay the message to the other crewmates before taking off.
 
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BlueSlime

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

(Odessa)

Odessa's read of Dr. Tully was startling, for she had felt nothing like it in all her years of training. The surface thoughts of the man were a jumble of fear, frustration, rising anger, and paranoia. His plans, it seemed, were disintegrating around him, and he was edging closer and closer toward desperate, violent action. This near psychosis bubbling under the surface of Dr. Tully's mind was not the unsettling thing however. It was the sense, Odessa felt, that there were two brainwave patterns at work. One, the familiar human part, was the panicking one, the one thinking about the logical progression of events and realizing that there was no favorable outcome. The other pattern was the angry one, the violent one, and most interestingly, the dominant one.

Pushing further below the surface, Odessa saw that her hunch was correct. Something entirely alien was residing inside of Dr. Tully. It's inner thoughts were impossible to decipher but she could tell it was thinking about many things. It was the mind-reading equivalent of listening to someone speak in a language you didn't understand. All she could go by was tone and context.

At some point, Dr. Tully had been exposed to this alien presence, and from that point forward, it had subtlely merged with his personality, taking him over without him realizing it. Subverting his original self, becoming a mimic with its own agenda. She knew this because Dr. Tully's human memories of recent times had no desire or conscious decision making tied to them.

Gathering what she could from visual memory alone, Dr. Tully had locked Caitlin in his office. Just prior to this, he had shut down all communications on the station, both internally and externally, and had unleashed a crawler sized Tentac alien from isolation in the inner research area of this station - which Odessa now realized was dedicated to studying this particular organism.

Relaying the basics of this discovery to Nicolas, she watched as the diplomat displayed amazing emotional control, his poker face betraying nothing of the revelations she was feeding him. He turned to her and gave the barest of nods.

Meanwhile Tully was looking hard at Odessa.

"C-Caitlin you say? That message is from Caitlin?" He tilted his head, his eyes taking on a glassy shine and his chin raising slightly, looking own his nose at her.

"It seems we're losing everyone to some disturbance or another. Come Dr. Tully, let's you, I, and Amy sit down, have a glass of wine and we'll start in on dinner together. Odessa will be back in a flash I'm sure." Nicolas said, trying to distract Tully.

"Hmm? Dinner... yes, yes, let's start dinner. The rest will join us after." Bernard said. In the meantime, Ami had stiffened in her posture by quite a bit, having just received the information from Odessa before the empath left the dining room.

Without looking back, Odessa ran as quickly as she could toward the director's office. Fortunately for her, he didn't seem to be watching her as she passed the nearby women's lavatory and continued onward. In the next twenty seconds, she had made it to his office door, which she found was naturally locked.

~~~~
(Caitlin)

From her monitoring station, Caitlin watched as the blonde empath swiped the datapad away from Bernard's reach and skimmed over it. It was hard at first to guage her reaction, but soon enough she had made her excuse and left the dining room. The monitor's visuals followed the seeker dart, so she could either have the floating piece of metal stay in the dining room to watch things or she could follow the empath out of the room.

Whatever she decided, 20 seconds later, footsteps would appear outside of the office door and someone would try to open it, discovering what she already knew: that it was locked tight and only Bernard's access card or vitals would open it.

~~~~
(Judith)

In the inner lab area, Judith was moving in the direction she had last seen Sparky, wondering where the odd-looking engineer had gone. She knew that he had moved to the right upon entering through the now bolted doors. That must mean that he was in one of four lab rooms that she had yet to inspect. She moved from room to room, looking at various sets of microscopes, beakers, molecular analyzers, monitoring stations, force field experimentation cages, and other odds and ends that were relevant to the studies the scientists performed. Much of it was beyond her - instead, she was focusing on the station's structure as it pertained to each room. If there were some kind of escape vent built in, then it must be...

She found it. After determining that Sparky was not in the vicinity, it followed that he would have had to escape somehow. That method of egress was a maintenance shaft hidden partially behind a desk, whose entrance had been hastily welded shut from the other side. She could remove it with her own engineer's multitool. It would only take her a minute.

A scuttling from the hallway sent alarm bells off in Judith's mind. Something was heading for the room she was in, and fast. If she rushed she might be able to close the door in time, but it would be close. Her other option would be to use these precious few seconds to hide. She could get behind the far lab desk or she could try squeezing herself into one of the cabinets along the wall. Her final option, if she chose to take it, would be to fight whatever was coming towards her.

~~~~
(Athryn)

Athryn and Sonya fired simultaneously, both of them aiming for the oncoming creature's eyes. Twin red blasts sizzled through the air, igniting oxygen molecules on their way towards the tentac mutant. The creature's roaring charge was the stuff of nightmares, and it took all of Athryn's training to stand in place and return fire.

Both blasts hit the creature in the face. Athryn's shot took off half its mouth, tearing away at its left jowl and revealing the full extent of its maw, melting away what might be its ear and the back molars. Sonya's blast, be it either luck, skill, nerves of steel, or some combination of all three, pierced right through the mutant's eye, seering into its skull cavity.

The beast's roar became an unearthly howl, yet still it came on, directly at Athryn.

"Look out!" Sonya shouted, but it was too late. The creature barreled into the marine with blinding rage, its mucus covered knee striking the soldier in the ribs, sending her flying backward through the doorway into the hall and scuttling over the top landing of the stairs, where, her head spinning and her body aching horribly, she would see Captain Elise, Kenneth, Tammie, and the Vulpar scientist standing only a small flight of stairs away from her, all of them with looks of surprise on their faces.

Behind her, she could hear Rachel shriek and a giant crunch as the creature sent a spiked fist through the wall in an effort to get through. Somewhere in that room, Sonya and Rachel were still trapped with the wounded and now quite berserk alien.

~~~~
(Elise)

Before Jane could answer Elise, the roar interrupted her, followed by twin blast pistols discharging not far from them. Next thing they knew, they were seeing a red shirt marine woman flying towards them, her body tumbling hard against the floor on top of the landing.

"Oh screw this! I'm not combat trained!" Jane said, making to flee down the landing as quickly as possible, her fluffy tail flailing behind her. If Elise wanted, she could attempt to hold onto the fleeing Vulpar, or she could turn to help Athryn and the other members of her crew.

Kenneth was already charging up the stairs, while Tammie was reaching a hand out to touch Athryn to check and see if she were okay.

Athryn takes 3 damage and is knocked down. If she tries to fire next turn, it must be from a prone position (no movement) and will be at a -3 penalty. Or she can use the turn to gather herself and stand back up.
 

Tassadar

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

Too slow. She was too god damn slow. The monster took the two shots to the face (I just got outshot by a god damn rookie!) without taking anything more than moderate offense, and had promptly rushed her. Adrenaline rushing through her system, Athryn tried and failed to get out of its path, and thus did she ended up flying through the door to slam against the wall. Pain rushed up her back, the impact of her spine against the hard surface causing her entire body to tingle and go momentarily numb.

The adrenaline of combat was rushing through her though, and Athryn was quick to recover from her numbness. The presence of her fellow crewmen was noted, but for the moment it was ignored in favor of the more pressing issue. The monster was still alive, and now that she was far enough away it would be targeting Sonya. It was her job to make sure that that didn't happen, and so Athryn swallowed her panic and raised her pistol. Firing from a prone position like this was hardly ideal, and would throw off her accuracy significantly, but she couldn't afford the time it would take to scramble to her feet and angle a better shot.

Her mind was working in concert with her body, however, and as she aimed and fired the marine shouted; "Tentaks! Infected! Station crew!"
 

Shrike7

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

Caitlin moved the dart away after the psychic took the datapad, hovering it up near the ceiling to give her a wide angle on the events. Odessa left, but she kept the dart where it was, figuring she knew where the woman was headed, and wanting to keep an eye on Bernard.

Less than a minute later, the sounds at the door drew her attention. Getting up and stepping to it quickly, she gave a knock to let Odessa knew she was in the right place. "It's locked. I'm cracking his security, but it will likely take far too long. We need an engineer to get the door open, or the man himself, likely subdued." She called out, raising her voice to be heard through the door, she hoped. "Our engineer was with Jane, from the information I have, he won't be able to help. Do you know where yours is?"
 

GargantuaBlarg

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

Searching through the labs for Sparky - and now her own - escape route, Judith wondered if she'd run into the station's engineer again. That bastard, locking her in here to get eaten up and worse by a Tentak - and worse yet, a Tentak infesting one of her crewmates... She really wanted to blow a hole in him, but even with her training, she wasn't entirely sure if she could bring herself to gun him down, especially if he were unarmed...

Thoughts cut short by a dreadful sound coming from out in the hall, fear and panic shot through Judy as she turned towards it. She scrambled to her feet, dashing as fast as she could to the doorway to close it, a loud, singular "NO" screaming through her psyche.

She'd frozen him! Why was he out?! Why had he turned!? She tugged the gun from her holster - Judy prayed she'd get to the door before whatever that was did, but if she didn't...

Fuck! She wasn't meant for personal combat like this! She'd always planned to be on the ship, with marines, bots, and ship defense systems in-between her and any boarder and Tentak that were threatening them! Why hadn't she thought to ask someone to come with her? Why hadn't she brought one of her robots?!
 

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

Elise should have known better than to try some stupid subtle test in the middle of a possible crisis. As soon as the roar and weapon blasts rang out she cursed herself as a fool as she spun back to face their origin, only to reel in surprise as Athryn came flying towards them. Damn it, what the hell is going on up there?" she shouted as her pistol came up once again.

Almost immediately, upon landing, Athryn spouted out a hurried warning. Her words nearly caused Elise' face to drain in shock. 'Tentaks? Here?!' she thought, having never even considered the possibility of the strange creatures and the danger to her crew. It was at that moment that Jane turned to flee, the sudden motion bringing a swift reaction from the combat trained captain. She lunged for the Vulpar, throwing all her weight into bearing the woman against the station's wall. Athryn's mention of infection meant Elise couldn't take any chances in letting the woman getting away. There was no telling what kind of havoc a Tentak could wreak on the remaining crew members that didn't know about their presence. "Freeze!" she growled, bringing her blast pistol up to the Vulpar's chin. "Talk! NOW!"

Glancing over she saw Weiss disappearing down the corridor while Tammie knelt at Athryn's side. "WEISS! CONFIRM TENTAK! SHOOT TO KILL!" she yelled, knowing that the marine's priority had to be dealing with any threat before anything else. To Tammie, the captain issued a quick question, "Skoveld! Is she alright?" The engineer was certainly not equipped to fight anything like a Tentak, and Elise wasn't expecting her to. She was still a soldier, though. "Get her on her feet, then get back to the lounge and warn the others! Keep away from Tully!"
 
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Takimaru

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

It took all of Odessa's training to be able to maintain concentration without visibly grimacing or otherwise reacting to the terrifying mess that was Dr. Tully's current state of mind. She barely overcame the challenge, and though she might have given away a few facial tics, she at least succeeded in not screaming out like her first instincts told her to. The empath could only guess the reasoning behind all of this, and yet feeling it first-hand in only the way someone with her gift could was simply mortifying.

Though the temptation to yell out a warning to the other two came almost immediately, she opted to communicate as much via telepathy while they remained in her line of sight. "It would take forever for me to describe what's going on in Tully's head, but let's just say he's not in his right mind--at all. Do not let him so much as touch you. I need to get Caitlin out, as I'm sure she has at least some of the answers we're looking for."

"Yes, from earlier," was all that she said to the now suspect doctor. "She said she'd send a datapad my way, and it's already overdue regardless. I'll be right back!"

A rush of relief came over the blonde as she finally separated herself from the scene. Even being that close to the man, whose mind was constantly swirling with disturbing thoughts, sent chills running up and down her spine, and so she was glad to at least be free of the potential threat if only for a few minutes. Still, the feeling was short-lived as concern for Nicolas and Ami lingered. "Once I get Caitlin out from the outside, we can get right back and confront him," she thought to herself as she finally reached her destination.

Those hopes in her chest died out, only to be replaced by a sense of dread, as the door failed to open. She fussed with the manual opening for a few seconds. It was locked. Of course it was! Odessa had failed to expect as much between attempting to figure out what was going on with Tully and relay the most important information back to the other crewmates. "Damn it!" With a fist she pounded on the door several times. "Can you hear me? Okay, good. No idea about Tammie--I think she went to check out a disturbance with Athryn. I can't even send her messages from here... and two of us are still back there with Bernard."

There were so many questions she had for the female researcher, things she could have yelled at her for, but now was not the time. Her thoughts went back to the dinner scene and what it might look like. "It might take me a while to get Tammie over here. I can see about getting her over here though, while I go back for Tully. His mind is... listen, I don't know exactly what kinds of things your team was working on, but it's clear that somebody didn't follow protocol. Can you wait here for just a few minutes longer? I'm worried about the others. If all else fails, we can have him open this door at gunpoint if need be. If he doesn't comply, I can force it."

Unless the researcher had any other ideas or plans of her own, she would then rush back to where she was before. Hopefully the scene hadn't turned into what she feared most by the time she returned.
 

Shrike7

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

"Protocol seems to have been thrown out the airlock, the whole station is going crazy." Caitlin agreed through the door, sighing. "Go, make sure none of your team eat anything. If you can force him to open the door, that will work, but be careful. I suspect he's been subject to a Tentak infection, try to avoid contact with the man. I'll keep working at this console, see if I can find a way to be of aid."

She remained at the door to answer any other questions before Odessa left, then went back to the chair herself, planting herself in front of the workstation and starting to type again, working at Bernard's security furiously, sparing a glance every few seconds at the screen showing the feed from the drone's camera, and the security feed following their engineer, watching that situation steadily get worse as well.
 

Takimaru

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Re: Dark Frontier (Game Thread)

"Tell me about it," replied the psion in a voice loud enough for the other woman to hear through the door. "I already told them not to touch the food. And as for Dr. Tully, I can confirm your suspicions. I scanned him earlier, and it was... like nothing I had ever felt before. I might not be as educated as you are on the nature of these things, but something is definitely controlling his behavior, dominating his brain for the most part. Alright, well, hang tight," she said reassuringly. Without any further questions for the time being, she hurried back to where the others were about to have dinner.
 
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