TFF Original Space Adventure RPG: Seraphim

Xaosite

Well-Known Member
Dr. Fallax had turned his scanner towards the glowing vein. Tilting his head slightly to his side, he would press the scanner to shift the scan frequencies every few seconds. After a few presses, he stopped, and peered closly at it, then the vein, then back at the scanner, turning it upside-down and right-side back up again.

He gave a quick sweep of the area the vein would be if it visibly followed past the bulkhead, then put his free hand to rub his chin in thought, rubbing his few days of beard.

"If the readings I'm picking up here are accurate, this doesn't make any sense at all! Give me a minute or two to figure out the impossible, and I'll get back to you."
 

Aarik

Well-Known Member
Ghagi:

Hmm... 52 bodies... If that count's the two i sent in already that's 50 more bodies to drag out of there...

"Eastwood, how many bodies can your hoverbike form carry without dropping any?" I 'asked',

I haz a scheme.
 

shibosho

Well-Known Member
*Blip*

A Coalition member signal vanished without warning, causing the warning alarms in the drones to alert Adel of this development.

"WHAT THE HELL!? CAPTAIN! WE'VE LOST A MAN!" Adel shouted, "An Espatier just disappeared without warning. In the fusion reactor room, sir!"

- - - - - -

"If I use the kinesis wave, about ten I'll say, Why?" replied Eastwood.
 

Aarik

Well-Known Member
"Hmm We'll limit it to 8 just to be sure, so 6 trip's." I 'told' the droid.

Now where... Well the first load should go to the medical area, the rest should go nearby... Eh I'll let the medic's pick a spot, I'll start piling the corpses on.

"I'm gonna load you up with bodies, and you will, gently, take them to the medical area, ask them where the rest should go, once they have a spot picked out, come back, me and, hopefully, some Espatiers will have the next load of bodies ready by then, Okay?" I 'asked' the Droid.

That should set a decent pace.
 
The communications tower had been built for deep space longevity, made out of titanium and various heavy composites. Under the rather simple instructions, the transceiver was slowly attached to the tower and the linkups were made.

The only problem with this was that communications were blanked out around Barleston while this was going on, so Constance and Libby brought the Governor up to speed in the comms station manager's office.

"A war with the Neelaa?" He asked.

"Yes, my own parents migrated from an outer colony to Earth some time ago," Constance explained.

"Well, I've heard of no war," he said. "The Neelaa didn't mention one either."

- - - - - -

"Search all decks, now now now!" Clarkson ordered, as he raced out with the rest of his Espatiers. Their boots pounded on the deck of the ship as they pulled down their goggles, searching furiously for the missing Corporal.
 

Rooster455

Well-Known Member
Libby blinked from her spot by the door of the comm station office where she had a perfect view of her ship and the Captain at the same time.

"Not even a hint at the war?" She asked, slightly incredulous.
 

zerohour

Well-Known Member
"The ship logs are missing?! Are you sure Stein?" Zeros all but demanded.

"Yes sir. There's o doubt about it. I checked it,, three times, and there's no doubt about it. They're gone."

"Damn it. There are only a few reasons for ship records to be erased, and none of them are good. Download everything else you can, hopefully we'll be able to use whatever's left." Zeros responded, opening up a channel to the bridge.

"Stein just finished hacking into the ship's systems, and their logs have been completely erased. I doubt that they would have done that as they were falling to their death, and given how the ship was supposedly scrapped a year ago, it probably means they were operating under the radar, which almost never has good implications."
 
Graham was pacing cross the bridge in worry, like a caged tiger. Both landing teams had been out of contact for longer than he liked. "Try to raise the Captain or the Landing Party again, Comms." he said.
 
"Nothing," the Governor replied. "It took us a while to figure out their language, but in all the time we've known them they've never mentioned any sort of war between our peoples. Or a coalition..."

Constance frowned and looked over at Libby. "Well, this is the frontier... And they didn't have FTL communications until recently. It's possible their nearby worlds didn't get any news of the war themselves..."

"They've been very good neighbors to us, at any rate," Bill said. "They once helped deflect a solar flare away from the colony with their ship."

Constance stared. Most Neelaa ships were quite large, but to provide cover for a colony from a solar flare, it would have to be big and powerful.

"What kind of ship?"

"A really big one. A giant sphere. They said it's almost a century old but it's still kept in service. They build things to last, those Neelaa," the Governor said with a smile. "They come around on patrol every few weeks to check up on us..."

"How soon until they arrive?" Constance asked.

"Maybe a day or two?" He offered.

Constance mentally groaned. Sure, they weren't technically at war with them, but right now they were involved in a "salvage mission" of one of their ships. They might not be happy about that.

"Seraphim, this is Giiresbee, respond," she spoke to her PERCOMD.

Static.

The transceiver hasn't been finished yet, damnit!

- - - - - - - -

"Sorry sir, nothing doing," Gordon May reported apologetically. "I guess the Transceiver is online but not fully tuned."

"Commander, I've put in a request for more data on the Neelaa ship, but it's going to take some time to get a response," Maya explained to the Commander.

- - - - - - - -

Fallax, meanwhile, could hear sniffling somewhere in the engine room chamber with him.
 

shibosho

Well-Known Member
"Clear! No sign of Corporal Jennings, moving to the next area!" Said an Espatier on the ground channel. The Espatiers were searching for their missing member by systematically searching the ship, a couple of area at a time. So far no luck.

Adel kept his radar on and the drones on high alert just in case the missing Espatier showed up.

"Damn it, what the hell is going on?"

"Hey, someone go check on Fallax! He was there when the Corporal Jennings disappeared!"
 

Xaosite

Well-Known Member
Fallax paused, staring at the spot Corporal Jennings had been just moments before. "I thought I was the one that was supposed to do risky experiments." Making a few adjustments to his scanner, he went over the area.

"Well, I'm not picking up any residue. Was she disintegrated completely, did it suck her in? Or, maybe, could it have sent her..."

*Sniff. Sob, sniff.*

"Whowhatwherehowhenwho?" he said as he jerked around, glancing in all directions before homing in on the sound. Walking slowly and gently, he made his way across the room, peering around a corner.

Hidden in a small alcove was a little neelaa girl, shaking and softly crying to herself. She was sitting on the floor with her face buried in her knees with her arms wrapped around them.

"Uh, hi there. Do you, um, need anything? Do you wanna get out of here, get something to eat? Maybe let me know what happened?" He said, kneeling down and slowly extending a hand out, palm first, in an attempt to appear as non threatening and helpful as possible. As he did, she looked up, and for the first time he saw that she had glowing green eyes. Just like the vein.

"And while I'm asking questions, what's going on with your eyes? And just how did we miss you before? Were you even there before? Plus I still need to find out what happened to Jennings. We hadn't heard you before, and your eyes are glowing the same color, is there some kind of connection?" When speaking to a small crying child, his speech was slow and careful, not to mention unsure and nervous, but his mind was still going a mile a minute, asking these questions to himself.
 
The girl stared at Fallax intently, her tail raised slightly. She made an odd sound, clicking her tongue rapidly, before saying:

"Niika tawadu kn!n?"

That was odd. Order Neelaa spoke a language roughly translated as "Speed speak". It was fast, quick, and completely logical.

And absolutely nothing like what this girl was speaking.

What was more, Fallax could see some markings carved around her eyes, scars that seemed to make her eyes a bit bigger than they actually were. The black robe she wore was tight, synthetic, and simple-Again, typical Order attire. But the markings she had... The language...

- - - - - -

"Sorry sir, nothing doing. It's not a question of range, it's a question of-" May was saying, before Maya abruptly interrupted him.

"Sir! Neelaa SpaceWarp event! Bearing 034 by 124, distance is four light hours!"

She brought up the computer-generated image, courtesy of Seraphim's Otherspace sensor system. It could detect gravitational anomalies in Otherspace well outside the range of electromagnetic sensors.

Right now, it recognized the spacetime warp drive of a Neelaa starship, looking like a large oval of flowing, crinkling spacetime as it entered the solar system.
 

Xaosite

Well-Known Member
"Well, it seems we have a communication issue. Which just makes things even odder." Fallax said bemusedly to himself. "Neat."

Reaching into one of his pockets, he pulled out a PERCOMD, and was about to start fiddling with it, looking to hook into a larger database and see if he could find any way of working out the language issue. However, As he pulled it out a candy bar still in it's wrapper fell out of his pocket. He paused for a moment, looking at it, then at the girl, then back at the candy bar.

"I forgot that was there. Do you want it?" Reaching down with his free hand and holding the PERCOMD awkwardly in his other hand, he began to unwrap it.
 

The Ero-Sennin

The Eyes of Heaven
Staff member
Sal Vishiv wandered onto the bridge of the Neelaa warship, arms folded and looking as crisp, bored, and logically professional. "Captain, you appear distracted."

"We are entering the solar system, however our sensors have indicated that the heretic has arrived as well." The Captain said.

Closing his eyes, Sal nodded. "I see, there's not much that can be done about that. I hope it does not interfere with your mission, Captain."

"It should not."
 
The girl sniffed the candy bar, and cocked her head curiously. She slowly reached out for the candy bar, fingers trembling.

"Doctor Fallax!" Shouted an Espatier, running into the room. The girl squeaked in fear and rushed up the wall, before jumping on top of the destroyed reactor assembly and hiding inside it's twisted superstructure.

"Doctor Fallax, are you all right?" The man asked.

- - - - - -

"Even so Governor, things might get a bit tense when they arrive," Constance stated.

"How tense?" The governor asked.

Constance sighed. "When you hear about New Mumbai... You'll know."

A tech ran in. "Captain, Sir, the transceiver's online."

"Good!" Constance said. She activated her PERCOMD. "Seraphim, this is the Captain. Please be advised a Neelaa ship may be coming soon and-"

"Ah, Captain? This is Gordon May... It's a little late for that. The ship has arrived. It'll be here in fifteen minutes."

Constance grimaced. "This just keeps getting better... Libby! We're going! May, tell the ground crew to get out of the Neelaa ship, fast!"
 
Lambert said several colourful things, but got a grip on himself with admirable quickness. "Right. May, hail them, try and find out their intentions. All hands, we have a Neelaa Warship inbound, all hands to Battle Stations!"
 
"Y-Yes sir!" May opened the channel. "This is the United Sol Nations Starship Seraphim, to Neelaa starship. Please respond." The message was translated into standard Neelaa Speed Speak, and sent in the clear. As it was, the Seraphim was in a high orbit above Big Sky, and as a result lay right in the path of the Neelaa warship. No delay in the message at all.
 

The Ero-Sennin

The Eyes of Heaven
Staff member
"Do not be alarmed, USN Seraphim, we are only here to recover the starship that we lost contact with in this vicinity." The Captain replied. "I am Captain Charu Grin."
 
"Captain Grin, we picked up a distress signal from this sector, and have located your lost sheep. We've sent down an SAR Team to the site, and according to our most recent transmition with the team... I hate to be bearer of bad tidings, Captain, but your missing vessel crashed on Big Sky, with no survivors." Lambert informed him.
 

shibosho

Well-Known Member
Adel followed the Espatier into the reactor room. Visual optics showed that Fallax seemed unharmed. No trace of the missing Espatier though. Curiously Fallax had a candy bar out.

However the information that his scanners and sensors gave out was a different story.

They indicated that there was another life-form in the room other than them. And it was inside the destroyed reactor assembly. Life signs readings and other organic readings indicated that it was humanoid and scared.

"....Doctor Fallax, who or what is inside the reactor?"
 

Xaosite

Well-Known Member
"Look at what you did! You scared her! That was a bad thing to do, and you should feel bad about it!" Fallax, hamming it up, stood up, shaking his finger at the Espatier and Adel, who both looked very confused.

"I'm... sorry...?" they managed to say.

"Well good, but it's not me you need to apologize to." Fallax said, turning around. "Oh, and don't touch the glowy green stuff, that's bad."

The Espatier, for his part, edged a bit away from both the vein and from Fallax.

"It's all right, kiddo, it's all right. No body's gonna hurt you. If they even try I'll have to do... terrible... horrible... THINGS to them... heh... heh... hehehehe..."

Both Adel and the Espatier edged much farther away from Fallax.

It took a bit more coaxing and the offer of the candy bar, but Fallax managed to get her to come down, climbing into his arms as he awkwardly cradled her. As he came out, they stared at him for a moment, and then...

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww."

A look of surprise crossed Fallax's face as he stared back, then broke into a wide grin. "Oh, you sons of bitches." he chuckled.

The com system chose that moment to inform them of the need to quickly vacate the premises.

"Quick, close my toolbox and carry it out for me! My hands are kinda full as you can see."

"Yep. I sure can."

"Oh, just shut up and grab the thing so we can go already."

With that, they started running.
 

shibosho

Well-Known Member
Eastwood, with the aid of the kinesis tool, lugged the last group of dead bodies to the 'medical area'.

"And we are done, Ghagi! Now then, is there anything else?" Asked Eastwood. However a transmission from the ship was received by everyone in the ground.

*Attention! Neelaa ship has arrived. Evacuate area immediately and return to the ship. I repeat, Evacuate immediately!*

"Ah crud," Immediately after receiving the transmission, Eastwood switched to robot mode and began to move towards the Mustangs.

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

Adel ran along side Fallax and the Espatier, carrying the good doctor's toolbox. Every couple of seconds he would take a glimpse of the Neelaa girl that Fallax was carrying.

Adel was curious about how the girl had escaped detection before from the drones and his scanners. Though the motion sensors had probably detected her earlier.

And what was the deal with the green crystals? Fallax had told how Corporal Jennings just disappeared when she touched the crystal. Already a myriad of theories were being processed through Adel's electronic brain.

Today was not going to be a nice day. Adding to that fact was a Neelaa ship that was now in orbit above the planet.

"I hate Mondays" It was probably Monday on some other planetary time zone.
 

Legacy|iB

Well-Known Member
Yuuka was, by nature, a very calm woman. After years of careful education, patience, and an intellectual upbringing among some of the finest minds, very little fazed or irritated her. Yuuka rarely swore or raised her voice, or expressed emotions. It was almost an 'essence' of who she was, and many had recognized it as being part of her.

...which was why she nearly scared Nicole half-to-death when she unleashed a very loud and agitated string of profanities the moment the transmission came. It had to have been a joke.

"Yuuka, you heard the call!" Colin shouted, reminding Yuuka it wasn't. "Grab your things and get back to the Mustang, now!"

Yuuka hurried and scanned the dozen or so bodies closest to her. They had more than fifty Neelaa bodies from the ship and some of the ones they were able to get a closer look at displayed peculiar injuries and some had that mysterious body-vaporizing rock lodged inside them.

Under normal circumstances, Yuuka would have wanted to establish a post on the ground and examine all the bodies individually, cataloging the injuries and performing closer examinations on both the bodies and on the rock. She would have even wanted to transfer some of her heavier medical equipment from the ship down in order to do so.

But now, they were being told to drop everything and to get out. Leave the bodies, leave the materials, leave the evidence, and just get the hell out - back to the Mustangs, back to the ship.

She couldn't argue against it, but damn it if she wasn't going to take at least something back.

"Yuuka! We have to go!"

"Give me a moment..."

In addition to the dozen or so bodies she hastily scanned, her team had detailed autopsies on four bodies - counting the two they began with - and were in the process of examining another pair. As well, they had recovered the glowing rock - one from the Neelaa male, and a smaller pair from another body.

Upon news of the Espatier either vaporizing or disappearing, Colin and LeCartier were adamant on having them placed in secured isolation containers for transfer back to the ship for a more detailed analysis.

All in all, they had a fair bit of data - just not what Yuuka would have preferred. But it had to suffice.

"Yuuka!" Colin nearly pulled her by her arm to pry her away from her work.

"I'm finished, we can go now."

Yuuka followed Colin back to the Mustang. The rest of her medical team had gotten on board. LeCartier and Mitchell had the containers carrying the glowing rocks, while their PERCOMD's had the details of their autopsy.

Out of the corner of her eye, Yuuka spotted some of the others - particularly Doctor Fallax and...

She then noticed he was carrying something in his arms. A Neelaa child?

There was a survivor?

And Yuuka could have sworn the kid's eyes had the same colour as the rock...

It was something she was definitely going to take a closer look at when they get back to the Seraphim.
 
Top