Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

[Caulder]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

Kruttz' big honker of a nose begins to flare open as he inhales. "Gork blessit, wha's dat smell?" he says aloud, sniffing about. "Smells like we're late ta' a good scrap'n they already picked the aftermath clean!" he shouts, laughing with joy. "If dis is what most'ah yer places be like, den I fink we found da right group of 'umies to help, eh boyz?" he says, following Diana with his signature limp, his limps making the steady thump-clank of his boot and pegled impacting the floor. "Yeah! Lotsa good brawls ta enjoy mefinks, Boss!" the earlier insubordinate Ork pipes up, the two following their Kaptain with equally loud, thumping boots.

 

[Dragontear]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

Unsurprisingly, the place did smell of freshly used cleaning chemicals, but even with a sense of smell magnitudes below that of an actual canine, the Jackal-Retriever knew other things probably lurked beneath that disarmingly nice, fresh scent... of industrial strength, blood and ash-clearing chemical.

Yes, he huffed to himself, he wasn't surprised that the aftermath would always leave a lingering attribute or two, no matter how much the clean-up crew scrubbed and washed.

Looking back to Ariana again, her odd attire - a leather duster, itself smelt oddly... pleasing, atop an out-dated flight suit, her helmet had previously covered up a pale, soft face with softer brown hair spilling out. He honestly could not help but... gaze for an extended length of time, but perhaps, nobody would be able to tell, given his own, faceless helmet. Save of course for the way his exposed nose and the fore of his lower jaw twitched, crinkled and shifted into a light, toothy smile. He wore no under-cloth to cover his face under the helmet, and without the respirator, it was more a face-mask than a fully enclosed helmet.

As Diana announced the result of her information gathering, he thrummed out to take one flank of her whilst listening to the harsh tongue of the Orks. St. Olessa sought to keep at least by her side or ahead - his senses would come in use in finding anything out of the ordinary, naturally searching for any potential hazard. Not that he made a show of it - he did so out of instinct and a sort of... genetic duty, as it were, to recon and spot in the stead of humans, in this case, Diana, her bodyguard-marines, the Orks and the lone woman herself in out-dated attired. All quite interesting, whilst he remained silent, carbine hefted gently as he scanned back and forth over and over. Even then, he saw nothing, yet, but something... bothered him about this place.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

The woman glanced back at him, eyes narrowing a bit as he bared his teeth at her, a canine smile. It didn't seem to bother her however, her gaze quickly leaving again to focus on the orks, her main disturbance.

She took up the rear of the group without comment, trusting her instincts to handle anything that tried to flank the group, and allowing her to keep an eye on the green skins as well. Her helmet went from under her arm to attached around the back of the duster, held by a small strap and leaving it hanging out of the way.

She felt like something was watching them, but couldn't narrow down what or where. Her psionics senses were dampened in order to avoid the noise of the ork's own presence, but what scanning she did below that came up with nothing. A few stray thoughts from the rest of diana's team, nothing of import, though she couldn't sense anything from Kisal either, which surprised her. She made a mental note to check again when there was less interference about, and out it from her mind for now.

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

Not far from the docking bay, the group would find a series of still-uncovered power grid link points. The smell of cleaning chemicals was strong near one of the link points, while the flooring near another bore signs of heat stressing, and the smoke smell was perhaps the strongest near there.

Several locations around the hallways bore the quickly drying paint, likely places where damaged wall sections were replaced. From most signs, it would seem like it might have been one of the more competent crews assigned to this clean up...

...Until the command center was reached, that is. Although clean, several of the workstation chairs were in disarray, almost as if someone cleared out of the room in a hurry, and none of the terminals were powered. A quick check, though, would reveal that the power grid connection for the new terminals had simply not been made.

 

[Hopeyouguess62]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

"This is suspicious. This clean-up job was rushed. Be ready. I'll begin data extraction." Diana kneels, using the existing connectors to bring power to the terminal, attempting to gain access to the system. "Safeties off. Look before you shoot, but be ready for anything." She places the AA-12 on the floor next to her, working to extract all recent station logs and data.

 

[Caulder]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

"You 'eard da 'umie, Boyz. Get ready ta krump anyfing what comes through dem doors." Kruttz says as he thumps over towards Dianna and turns away from her, pulling out his hand shoota in his right hand and looking around at the room. "Sumfin' jus' don't seem right. Why'd a cleanin' crew run like 'ell from an empty station?" he says, as his Boyz move to point their Shootas at the doors and vents of the room, the crude, bulky weapons loaded and ready for battle. As his men prepare, his Powerklaw flexes and grinds as he tries to figure out just what was going on with his rather small brain. "Shoot 'em if dey shoot at ya or try ta take yer faces off. If dey look like 'Umies just krump 'em wif da butt'ah yer shootas." he says, both of the Orkz nodding their heads obediently, as Ariana will feel the power of his brainwaves flowing out towards his men. Almost as if they were only partly loyal to him, and the rest was forced because he was the strongest of the three.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

"You bet. Anyone else been feeling the eyeballs on the back of their head this whole trip?" Ariana asked, staying at the door. She stood in the way of it, keeping it open as she leaned on the doorframe, watching outwards. She didn't appear to be at the ready, arms crossed and leaning as she was, but she seemed confident enough in her abilities, unworried about having to react at a moment's notice.

 

[Hopeyouguess62]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

"Scanners didn't pick up anything human... or alive... onboard. If they look human, and they're not one of us... they're probably not human."

 

[Caulder]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

"Roight den. Fuggit dat last one, Boyz. Shoot whateva' shows up." the Kaptain says as he slaps the top of his shoota into his metal jaw with a clank to make sure the thing was still working. "Whateva's been starin' at us bettah 'ope it got a good enuff look. Cus I'm gonna stick 'im wif me klaw if I find 'im."

 

[Dragontear]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

Command Centre, the focal point of any Relay Station's nerves, where it'd be bustling with activity, both humanoid and electronic, all sorts of happenings...

...except in this case, while the clean up crew had been very good so far, from the hallway leading to and going into the Command Centre itself, St. Olessa noticed a somewhat... diminished standard of repair and sanitation.

It was obvious from the disorganised manner of this chamber, that people had rapidly cleared off and left their workstations without much consideration for neatness, which bothered the VGU a tad, thus he fanned out further into the large room, making distance between himself and the others instinctively, wishing to check all corners if possible, and keep an eye out on his comrades, both permanent and temporary, Human and Ork, especially his Captain, admittedly.

As he listened to the varied murmurings, he had to agree, something felt a tad off, but he honestly didn't pick up on that sensation the others clearly did - he 'dealt' in the physical realm very well, picking up scents, sounds, feeling and what-not very well, but otherwise he was blank.

Focusing on his senses, he allowed his physical body to stand loosely, focusing on scanning his environment more and more intensely, feeling that if the others were convinced, then he'd best be ready to spot and react, half-tempted to swap out his stun-rounds for something rather more lethal. "Permission to switch to lethal rounds, Captain?" He thrummed out over their squad-comms, tilting his head gently.

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

Diana's device would be able to pull the files easily enough. A number of personal log files are flagged as damaged, but what was readily readable of those suggested the damaged files were likely just quiet rants about the banality of the owner's duties.

One of the intact logs, however, mentioned that one of the other crew seemed to be acting suspiciously whenever the Triptych rumors began making the rounds. Andrew Duvois, the mentioned crewman, is listed as having been positioned as Transmission Records Specialist, and was listed as on-duty at the time of the accident. He had previously scheduled additional periodic maintenance downtimes for the systems he was in charge of, each for roughly the same length of time, and all for the same reason: "Unusual Hardware Malfunction".

Security footage of the accident, while cut off at the moment of the explosion, placed a man of similar appearance to Duvois as one of the technicians struck, and likely killed, by the initial blast from power surge from the comet's impact.

In addition, it would appear that the security camera system has not yet been reactivated since it went offline during the incident.

 

[Hopeyouguess62]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

"Switch to lethal rounds. We're looking for this Andrew Dovois, though..." Diana brings up a picture of the technician on the viewing console. "If it is alive, I doubt it is human... but I will have questions for it. If possible, we try to incapacitate it."

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

For the briefest second, while as Diana mentioned Andrew Duvois, Ariana would pick up just the faintest flicker of another psychic presence, and would mentally hear a "whisper."

Duvois is outside.

The Perseus' psychic officer would just pick up the faintest flicker, possibly drowned out by the "noise" coming from the three Orks.

 

[Hopeyouguess62]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

The Perseus' psychic officer frowns for a moment. Then he produces his sidearm, slowly pointing his pistol at the door leading back outside and gesturing to the others. Diana nods, loading the box clip of standard shotgun rounds in the AA-12. The marines, too, have their sidearms out for a close quarters confrontation.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

"I doubt whatever we're sensing is actually alive. Leaves out plenty of-" Ari answered, falling silent as something touched the edge of her senses, straightening up in the doorway.

Who are you?

She sent a response immediately, putting enough effort behind it that Diana's officer could hear her clearly over the orks, and hopefully their univited guest as well. "Krutts. Do me a favour, keep you and your boys here for a moment." She said, starting off down the hallway without further preamble. She needed some distance to hear better.

 

[Hopeyouguess62]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

Diana nods at Ari, wordlessly motioning the marines to stay put for now as well, and gesturing St. Olessa to come along. The cyborg carries the AA-12 in a two-handed tactical grip, pointed slightly downward. Still, she gives Ari a ten foot lead, not wishing to crowd the bold psychic.

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

The only reply to Ariana's question was for the station's light to suddenly cycle off, before coming back on. While the lights were completely out, the artificial gravity system turned on, causing the scattered chairs in the control room to clatter to the floor.

The ships outside the station, in addition to the systems cycling, would detect an unusual power flicker on the station. For those inside, the feeling of being watched vanished during the darkness, almost as if something had left.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

The psychic stopped midstream as the lights turned off. Her hand reached behind her for her helmet on reflex, but the atmosphere remained stable. The presence seemed to disappear, as well, her feet settling to the floor more solidly as the gravity activated, the scene of floating chairs in the control room crashing to the ground.

Putting the helmet on anyways, she pinged her ship. "Hey Alb, you find anything leaving the station? Got some serious weirdness going on, here. I'm going to guess less than physical."

"Nothing on the main scans. I'll go full spectrum, see if anything turns up."

"Thanks, let me know if you find anything." Ari said, leaving the helmet on for now. "Diana, it was some sort of psychic presence, it said that 'Duvois is outside'. Chances are he got spaced, think it's worth looking for him out there?"

 

[Hopeyouguess62]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

"A psychic presence, related to Duvois... and it's gone now?" The cyborg frowns, having a very basic understanding of psychic phenomena, but no real sense of it. She uses the station's comm system to open a channel to the Perseus. "XO, this is the Captain. Run a full scan of the ship, especially for any psychic bandwidth shifts. Something might have found its way off the relay. We're on our way back with the downloaded logs--let me know immediately of any status changes."

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Epsilon Leonis Sector Space Thread

Neither ships' scans would prove overly useful for identifying the mysterious presence. Even if the Perseus compensated for the psychic 'noise' from the Ork ship, the only other psychic presences near the relay station would be Ariana and the ship's own PsyOff. There seemed to be some slight "residue", of sorts, in the hallway near the control room, likely from whatever had been there.

Alberik's scan would not find any signs of life, or hidden ships, near the station itself, although it would turn up that a number of the mangled work suits contained somewhat intact remains, possibly even enough for trained medical personnel to make a fairly accurate "reconstruction" for determining what the body looked like while living.