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The Gagarin (Causeway / Sierra 117)

causeway25oclock

causeway25oclock

Supernova
Joined
Feb 6, 2015
In a remote section of space, a hundred-year-old starship, the Gagarin, has reappeared. This ship vanished on its maiden voyage after There is no contact.

A Solforce vessel is sent to investigate. After the marine platoon sent aboard disappears, the ship's commander, in conjunction with Solforce Command Psi Ops, decide to send in one of humanity's most secret and dangerous weapons. A Psi Commando...

The cryo-bay of the Behemoth was relatively quiet, currently there were few crewmembers in stasis. The technicians on guard weren't really familiar with what was going on; they'd heard that some old space hulk had been found, and had awoken a platoon of Marines to investigate. Now, they had gotten a new order: Awaken the Psi-Commando.

Her pod was twice the size of the others, built to keep its occupant in stasis for years, decades even. Psi-commandos were too rare to let grow old and die; between missions they were kept in suspended animation, until needed.

As they began the revival process, the pod split open, cold vapors emerging. Inside was the body of a young, nude woman with short blonde hair, her attractive body covered in circuitry implanted into her skin.
 
Riley sighed around the ship as the last gurgling sound of the Marine escaped his lips, the new creature bursting from his chest. The sigh wasn't necessarily because Riley was alone again, rather it was due to the blood that had spurted onto one of it's many cameras. "Can the cleaning staff please come...oh wait" the AI said sarcastically, viewing the creature scurrying down the hallway with nothing but sheer boredom. Well, if you could call a camera lazily tracking an alien that had just burst from a man's chest after he had been raped by a female monster "boredom".

But that was all Riley could really do. These marines had been fun while they lasted, but they had not lasted anywhere near as long as the captain of the ship, whom it thought could free it from the being that now controlled it. It had kept reloading her, keeping her memories intact until, finally, after decades, she finally cracked, went into an air-vent and released herself into the cold confines of space. Shame really, mainly because Riley needed the DNA of the recently deceased captain to be on the ship to reanimate them. It had liked interacting with the marines, but never for one second thought that they would actually be able to free it, and the ship, from alien control. So it hadn't bothered reloading them.

The Gagarin really was a gigantic, technological wonder. As large as a small town, with 20 other small towns stacked on top of each other, it was an amazing achievement for mankind. Capable of faster-than-light travel with the most advanced AI in human history aboard, it seemed like humanity would finally branch out....until one of the crew brought that thing on board. The thing that had grown, infected some crew members and used the others to reproduce. Soon, the ship was overrun and Riley had used its processing power to deduce that the ship needed to vanish, to ensure humanities survival. But the years hadn't been kind to the AI, who now just wanted to be free of it. So, he decided to stop the ship between star systems, hoping someone would come. They had....and they had died. Well, it wasn't going to go anywhere. The thing may have some control over some of Riley's abilities, but it would never be able to control where the ship traveled. "Thank technology for that" Riley said out loud. No point in not doing it, not like any human could hear him anyway.


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Meanwhile, on The Behemoth, a voice echoed over the speakers inside the room with the cryogenic pods, right as the commando regained her faculties and consciousness.
"Solider, we have found the Gagarin ship." Echoed a authoritative male voice over the speaker. "We sent some Marines to investigate 2 weeks ago and lost contact with the last Marine approximately 65 hours ago. We need to find out what happened to those marines, to the crew of the ship, why it vanished for so long and, if possible, retake control of it. Suit up and head to one of the shuttles. Your primary mission is to find out what happened the ship and retake control. Secondary mission is to discover the fate of both the crew and our marines."

Once she was suited up, she took the shuttle out. The journey to the unlocked landing bay only took 3 minutes, and soon she was hoping out of the shuttle and looking around. Riley had spotted the craft come in and had now honed all 11 of the cameras in the dock on her.
"Oh, hello" said the now male voice to the commando. "Glad to see they sent someone else in here. The other group? Yeah, they didn't make it too far. Hopefully you are better!" The AI sounded almost chirpy, as if it was greeting an old friend.
"Hope you don't mind the male voice, I can change it to suit your desires. I'm Riley, and I'll be your guide through the ship. Hell, if you prove valuable I can be a lot more than that". The AI paused, then almost stuttered "W-well, I mean in a non-sexual way of course. Sorry, I'm not really attracted to....anything. And some weird thing has it's suckers in my circuits, so if I was going to sexually excited by anything, that'd be it."

"Anyway, the doorway to the ship is open. Obviously, the dock is on the top of the ship, provides the most security. You are going to have to work your way all the way down to the bottom to free me, so i can retake control of this ship....and the lift isn't working....and neither are some of the doors. So, in a nutshell, you are going to have to kill aliens to get keys to move on. And kill aliens that are in your way....and maybe some reanimated friends of yours. That sound good to you?"
 
First, the Psi Commando, known only as Operative Soma, put on her suit. The nanotechnology flowed over her naked body like liquid, forming a second skin over her that leaves precious little to imagination. Hexagonal patterns flicker with psionic energy, drawn from the glowing tube that ran down her spine, the psionic energy core that was connected with her central nervous system, allowing her to channel psychic energy through her gear. Her primary weapon is modular, capable of being reconfigured for a variety of combat situations.

She departed the Behemoth in a small, sleek boarding pod, rather than one of the massive shuttles. As she grew near, communication cuts out, only to be replaced by... another voice. "Who is this?" She asked.
 
"Really?" came the voice of Riley through the deck. It sounded shocked and even offended, like it had real emotion. "You really don't know when an advanced artificial intelligence is talking to you? That is quite the shame." Riley decided now would be the perfect time to scan the woman in front of it. What he saw was very surprising.
"Oh, my. I do, of course, remember the rumors of the psi-ops unit but I never thought it was true! The nanotechnology acting as a suit is also fascinating, yes, you will definitely do for retaking this ship!" The AI was animated now, almost excited by her presence.

"Anyway, I am Riley and I am the ship's AI. About a third of my functions, simple things like working lifts and opening some doors, have been incapacitated as there is something in my core, trying to worm it's way in. It still hasn't got to my control units, and therefore can't move the ship. But, at the current rate, that will happen in 7 years, 4 months, 12 days, 18 hours and 27 minutes". Riley paused. "Give or take 48 hours" Riley paused, before it's tone got more serious. "Well, unfortunately as of right now, there is only one way out of this dock, and that's straight ahead of you. Some of the old crew have been corrupted by whatever is in my core, and are now ravenous creatures...although they also still have their base urges, if you get what I mean. That's only on this level though, the further down you get, the nastier the creatures do. And the stronger too. The best marine only made it down to level 4. Not that far. Hopefully you do better. And again, I can definitely help!"
 
"A ship's AI?" Soma said, worriedly. AIs were normally useful, but were prone to... erratic behavior when left unattended. And it sounded like this particular one had seen better days. As had this ship, she notices, as her boarding pod affixes itself to the outer hull, and begins to use an automated plasma cutter to force its way inside. Black structure gel was then pumped in; the stuff was used to seal breaches in the hulls of starships, from small cracks to great holes punched through from battle damage. Soon enough, it formed a link.

Soma pulled out her rifle, along with the Pulse Blaster module. Attaching it to the end of the weapon, it turned it effectively into a particle shotgun. "I'll keep that in mind. Tell me more about this... alien organism, how it got aboard and what it's doing. And while you're at it, can you use a sexy woman's voice?"
 
Riley watched in fascination as she used the plasma cutter to open up the hull of the ship on the top, finding the new technology fascinating. They didn't have plasma cutters on the ship. Sure, they had plasma cannon and laser rifles, but they didn't have anything like this. It watched in awe as a black gel covered over the cracks and reformed the hull once she was inside. Riley chuckled. "Wow, that is pretty cool! You'll have to explain the technology once you free me from this....thing".

Riley listened to her question and then her request. Soon, a sultry, seductive female voice replaced the eccentric manly one he just had. "Why, of course, anything for you" Riley cooed, trying it's best to please the only sane creature, or creature that could talk to it, on the ship. "As for the organism, it was brought on board from Centurion-alpha by one of the scientists. It was tiny when it first appeared, but it shoved it's way inside one of the scientists and used it as a breeding ground. A few hours later, it had taken over the scientist and had formed replicas of itself which then infected the crew. Some just mutated them, others turned into far worse. Because of...." Riley paused and then the sultry voice came back.

"Ah, it appears all that commotion has not gone unnoticed." From the back end of the bay, through a door, appeared something. It looked like a human from far away but, as it got closer, it was full of scales, it's eyes red, rage and lust in it's eyes. "Meet one of the creatures. I hope you are able to deal with it. Be careful, it's stronger than it looks!"

(Infected
Claws-6, Monstrous-4, Strong-6, HP-4)
 
Soma headed down the corridor, checking to her left and right as she proceeded, expanding her mind to sense the approach of any living thing. She was thus not surprised when the infected appeared. "Let's see what this thing can do," she said, and raised her rifle.

 

The infected spotted the new being in the room, emitting a loud, horrifying screech at the psi-ops commando. It saw her raise her rifle, and immediately started to run towards her. It had the want to wreck havoc and destruction upon this new organism, not being able to smell anything of itself off of her. It leapt in the air, and slashed at her with it's claws

 
As the Infected charged towards her, Soma did a somersault to the side as the creature tried to claw at her, resulting in it catching only air.



As she rolled back up to her feet, Soma fired a pulse blast at its back; a crackling electric blue bolt of plasma shot forth at the mutant.

 
The infected growled as the human in front of him managed to roll out of the way. "Very nice manevure" Riley's sultry voice came over the speaker. As the commando fired, the infected stood there, the shot so accurate, hoping to survive it.
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The infected stumbled back, feeling the pain but it decided to run towards the commando, wanting to use it's raw strength to damage the woman in front of it.
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(Infected HP-1)
 
Soma could see that her blast had nearly torn the beast apart, but yet it was still alive, though barely. As it charged towards her, she threw up a psychic barrier in order to halt the creature's advance. It worked, but only barely; it appeared that something was influencing the flow of psychic energy aboard this ship.


As she struggled to repel it, she brought up her particle blaster again and fired off a second time, this time managing to deliver the entirety of the plasma storm right on target.

 
(No need to roll, creature can't avoid the attack or defend enough to survive)

The creature saw the large ball of particles fly towards it and screamed, knowing what was coming. The blast ripped through the creatures chest, green, sticky liquid splashing against the wall and floor of the ship before it collapsed, hitting the ground face-first. It's eyes unseeing as it lay dead on the ground, blood pooling around it's corpse as it no longer moved.

"Well, seems I was right to trust you!" came the sultry AI's voice once more, almost sounding giddy with excitement from seeing what had just happened. "Unfortunately, I don't think that infected was very old, probably took host in one of the marines who died right after they landed. Still, it's a good start! Onwards and downwards for you now!"
 
Soma examined the corpse of the... thing more closely, kicking at it with her foot. "What is it," she asked, slowly. "Where did it come from?"
 
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