#1
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Prologue: Into Darkness - Guard Quarters
Darkness The Void of Space These are the notions your brain provides as you open your eyes to a pitch black existence. Fear This primal feeling is the first thing your body alerts you to when you awaken from your timeless slumber. That feeling you get when your pulse is beating from within your gut. That notion of something being terribly wrong but you can't quite grasp what it is. Suddenly... You know exactly what's missing. Air Burning lungs, desperate for oxygen, assail your mind begging for you to breathe. Obediently the body obliges as you gasp for air. Or at least you try. Panic sets in as your attempts to breathe the life sustaining gas seem thwarted by something. A liquid. Kicking and clawing, you desperately attempt to swim upwards in the blackness seeking, nay, needing it. Cold The first, quick, scissor kick upwards slams your head painfully into something cool and metallic. The silence is deafening as you seek a crack, a handle, a ledge, anything to free you from the heaving painful heaves as your lungs desperately to draw air. You want to be free! To be away from the darkness. To avoid... death. But you can't. You know you can't. And just as you accept that fact and begin to breath in... Movement The liquid around you shifts. The that feeling in your gut changes as you free fall in the darkness before slamming hard into something metallic. What little air you had left in your lungs you wheeze out. Lungs still burning, as if they were on fire when finally you gasp. Cold and refreshing, the air you so desperately sought fills your lungs. Violently you heave more of the liquid substance onto... what? Fumbling in the dark you explore the metal you are practically hugging. A grate, metal with quarter size holes from what you can feel. Your hands roam from the floor to your body. Everything feels intact and you realize you have none of your possessions but some wet shorts and a shirt. Hazy, your eyes try to focus as a long bar of light flickers not ten feet from you. Once. Twice. Then it blinks out. Rolling onto your back, as you lay on the grate waiting for your senses to return, you try remember what happened. Slowly your senses return. Sounds of hacking and wheezing near you alert you to the presence of others who seem to be in the same disoriented state as you. Darkness still dominates the room but the occasional flicker of light shows that there are no more than a handful of the pods are leaned forward like the one you emerged from. A faint sound, like you would hear from a radio losing power, reaches your ears. Another flicker shows that the others hear it too. Slowly it rises into a blaring alarm that goes on for thirty seconds before abruptly ending. A bright luminescent light illuminates over a doorway and a voice, female and electronic, crackles in and out over the dying speakers, "Hurry! Bef... .he oth...s .r. rel..sed!" The message is broken, the girl sounds injured, panicky, and the illuminated light fades with each word she speaks. There are two closed doors opposite of each other in the room you find yourselves in. One on the port side, the other starboard and eight total time suspense pods line the bow and aft. Not all the pods are open, just the ones for each of you, including the portal maker's. Well, all except one of your pods... which only just now begins to move.
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"There's a slope down toward evil, a gentle gradient that can be ignored at each step, unfelt. It's not until you look back, see the distant heights where you once lived, that you understand your journey." - Prince of Thorns |
#2
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Janus continues to coughs and splutters as he staggers to his feet. He briefly looks around and notices the others coming to as well, their names escaping him in his foggy frame of mind. The static filled message from the speakers pierced the mental fog like a dagger however. There was danger this was no time to catch his breath. I need my blade was the first clear thought to enter his mind.
"We need to get moving now! Get to the armory, get our weapons, go in turns. Do not leave the portal maker alone for any reason!" Without another word the still wobbly elf runs for the x,15door. Last edited by Chukie1188; May 8th, 2013 at 05:32 PM. |
#3
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Almost kneeling as she hacks up another bit of fluid, Morgana struggles to regain a focus on the world around her. As the blurs seem to merge together in to single images, the paladin's ears are assaulted by the alarm. Almost instinctually, Morgana stands up straight and reaches above herself, grasping at the bare metal overhead. As her fingers fail to find her blaster, the memory comes back: She was the first of the guards to have put her items in a locker in the armory, an act of following orders that in this moment made her feel like a fool.
Her attention quickly switched to Janus as he barked out orders. At least someone was still in good enough shape mentally through all this chaos to assume command. As fast as her feet would allow, the young woman Moving to Y 16moved towards the same door as the elf on her side of the room, letting out a response. "Okay, lets head out two by two. I'll go with you on the first run." The neophyte struggled to keep her calm, her first mission outside the Abby and already things were going pearshaped. She could only hope and pray that things would get better quickly.
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Wielder of the Negative Perception Roll and swearer of the Oath.
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#4
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"There are ample opportunities to use gardening as a metaphor. Take weeding. The ubiquity of the weeds, their barbed persistence, the robustness of their submerged roots — all seem to epitomize the pitfalls of life itself, the lure of settling for the feigning fix by plucking them out and leaving the buried roots behind when we know that deep-seated troubles will just re-erupt later, or somewhere else, in more numbers and stronger forms. It takes wisdom, then, to look to the garden for metaphors regarding whom we are, who our ancestors were, and where our progenies and we are headed."
Khismia can still picture his Grand Master puttering in the garden, seeking answers to the universe in his crops of peas. But like a vine-encrusted garden path of crumbling bricks, the teachings have been picked apart and slowly dismantled. After leaving the Sanctuary and traveling out on his own the realities of every day life have tested his resolve. He has developed an acrimonious distrust for others as he sees them in their shallow depths of self-preservation ignoring the plights of others and not looking out for the greater good of the whole. So it was that he came to this assignment to travel to the outer planets and escape some of these feelings that were disintegrating the wisdom he had learned in those years of study. A new fresh start lay ahead where others would no have choice but to bond together and help each other accomplish greater deeds than they could alone. He had been at peace ever since he entered the pod and began his meditation, thinking about his role in the universe and what lay ahead. He was there in the garden with the Grandmaster again, the soft gentle breeze cooling his fiery skin as they toiled tending to the plants that could not tend to themselves. Suddenly all went black as he started floating in an endless void, nothing around, no sound or feeling, just emptiness. A sudden fear swept over his soul as his future vanished from his thoughts and he lost direction. PAIN!!! He felt the pain in his lungs as he fought to breathe but there was no air, only liquid that savaged his lungs and felt crushing on his chest. He was no longer floating endlessly but was now trapped. Where and how had this come about? Then suddenly the flashes of consciousness, in one moment he could feel the wonderful bliss of endless bounty and soothing breezes in the warm sun and the next he would feel the searing burning of a thousand fires followed by endless bitter cold, so cold that it burned to the bone. What was happening to him. His eyes finally fluttered opened and he could see through the blurry liquid as it obscured his vision. He was on the ship, in that pod but something had gone wrong. He kicked to the find the surface and sought the live granting air only to bash his head into something. Suddenly he fell as the liquid was replaced with air and droped him to the bottom of the pod. He can see the flashing lights and some of the others as they scramble about outside the glass. His lungs burn as they fill with the air and his chest feels like a thousand needles being forced out from the inside. Gasping he seeks to find how to open the pod but to no avail. Yes he is trapped, only this trap is real and not in a dream. He can hear something muffled through the ships speakers but the glass is to thick and he can’t understand the garbled message. As the others turn from him and make for the door he begins ponding on the glass in a frantic effort to break free, but it is too strong even for him and his training. He bellows to the others hoping they can hear him through this monstrosity, “Please, let me out of here. I am trapped. Please before I am fated to die inside this atrocity. Please I beg of you!!”
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My apologies to all I game with, going through some challenging times with RL at the moment but I am still here and will persavere. TY for your Patience.
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#5
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As the two of you rush to the doors, Randall, the portal maker, falls to the floor from his own pod. Looking around, the fear on his face is unmistakable. "Don’t leave me!" The little man is obviously terrified. With your attention on the door, you notice a control panel next to it, but it’s blacked out... apparently lacking power.
"I.. s..ry, but the po..r for ..e do..s needs to be rero..... Please s..nd by," the mechanical childlike female voice states. Randall looks from you to the the other pods. Seeing the imposing Khismia alive, but unable to exit his own pod, "Help him!" He runs over to the pod, looking for a release valve or something similar. As you look back, you hear the unmistakable grinding of gears coming from the pod just to the right of Khismia’s as it leans forward. A distinct pop of the locks can be heard as the pod door swings open. The fluid inside hadn’t drained and spills out all over the floor, and into the grates. Nothing else falls from the pod. The monk’s pounding and cries for help are muffled but intelligible. He has little room in the confines of the pod to utilize his full strength, and his strikes do little against the protective glass of a pod designed to house the universe’s most hardened criminals. Seeing that Khismia is truly trapped, Randall throws his own fists against the glass, trying anything to free his guard.
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"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing,
doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dreamed before." Last edited by epelj1; May 10th, 2013 at 01:28 PM. |
#6
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Dr Tear falls spluttering to the ground, coughing up the last of the fluid. He is a short man, very unimposing with match stick thin arms and an oversized head.
It takes him a long time to get accustomed to the situation, as he looks around in horror at those who are trapped. Knowing he can do very little as he is, he coughs up the last of the liquid then sits on the ground. "Initiate Symbiosis, stage Two. Passcode: One One Seven Beta Six Alpha Rabbit." Suddenly, his skin seems to pulse. A tide of grey and blue water starts pouring from his skin over his body, coming from his pores and mouth and ears and... other places.
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"Live each day as if it were your last, 'cause I'm gonna kill you but I'm not super-good w/ schedules." - Joss Whedon |
#7
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"I.. s..ry, but the po..r for ..e do..s needs to be rero..... Please s..nd by," the mechanical childlike female voice seemed to be taunting him.
"So power the damn door!" Janus howls in frustration. His inability to do anything reminds him of his previous inadequacies. How am I supposed to be brave without my sword a tiny little voice seemed to say in the back of his mind, I need my blade. He kicks the door in anger. The door is suitably unimpressed. The shrill whining of the portal maker broke through Janus' self despair, he glanced around the room. Apparently only he and the little waif of a paladin were worth anything at the moment. The frail scientist was sitting on the floor seemingly more oblivious than Janus had been a moment ago and the fourth guard was trapped in his stasis pod. Janus runs over to y,19pod and urgently Dice Perception:
Last edited by Chukie1188; May 10th, 2013 at 06:39 PM. |
#8
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The adrenaline rush of coming out of stasis starts to fade, and the reality of the situation starts to make it through to the rookie Morgana. Hearing the pounding, her mind starts to go a million miles an hour. There is no enemy to fight, no target to shoot, so what does she do in this situation? Her heart starts to pound in panic, and Janus' screaming sounds as though she is under water. Her eyes are wide in her obvious shock as she stands frozen in place.
__________________
Wielder of the Negative Perception Roll and swearer of the Oath.
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#9
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Khismia was still only semi-conscious from the transport, half groggy like the moment when one wakes from a dream and after his minutes of pounding he slipped back against the far wall of the pod closing his eyes to meditate about what may have gone wrong.
Tiny shapes of wetness somewhere on his senses. Rain, maybe. Or blood. Confusion. It throbbed. It hummed. In wide, reaching arches, it roared about his body and spun around him in a suffocating wrap. It covered all of him. The lack of air, the weakened state, he felt it on the maw which permitted him to breath and the covering above the orbs which allowed him to see. He felt lethargic. He felt desperate. He thought he should fight but he didn't. Or maybe he couldn't. There in that dark world, he sensed treasures taken and treasures bestowed. Life for afterlife. Struggled for peace. One moment of torment before it was over. Just one more moment of torment; that was all. Vision was an option he robbed of himself for the moment. Everything that was part of him felt swollen. This confusion was an immovable mantle looping around him, stabbing in places, throbbing in others. All of it was made bearable by this place he was in, which was cold and dark and rushing and hot, hot, hot. It was only the fire that made it bearable. The flames leaping down his throat and his lungs, charring his guts, clawing his eyeballs beneath their closed lids. It was this pod he wanted to escape. It was this he kicked and strutted and reached against, flailing with all his might. Failing. He opened his eyes again and looked through the glass. The portal maker, Randall, searching for something outside the pod, did he even know Khismia was alive inside here. Then he saw Janus looking around too. Becoming frantic he began banging and shouting at the glass again, surely they must know he is trapped inside.
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My apologies to all I game with, going through some challenging times with RL at the moment but I am still here and will persavere. TY for your Patience.
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#10
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As Randall continues to throw himself against the glass of the pod, you’re able to keep a bit of rationality. Looking over the pod, Janus sees a lit up control panel, just to the right of the glass. The panel, while looking somewhat familiar, is labeled in a language foreign to you. Various pipes, hoses and thick wires come out the sides and back of the pod. All of these things control the functionality of the pod in one way or another. Just as you’re about to act, the intercom crackles again, and you hear the young female, "I.. trying." Her voice, not panicked this time, but shaky, wavering, almost as if she was in tears.
Seconds pass, and the intercom crackles yet again, the girl has apparently regained her composure, "Anomaly detected in Transitive Capsule 6 dash 7. Malfunction extent unknown. Status of occupant deteriorating." Panic sets in her voice as she seems to plead with whoever can hear her, "Please, help me. They’re not killing me yet." As the intercom clicks off, the port side door parts horizontally in the middle and finally slides open.
__________________
"There's a slope down toward evil, a gentle gradient that can be ignored at each step, unfelt. It's not until you look back, see the distant heights where you once lived, that you understand your journey." - Prince of Thorns |
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The time spend learning to speak half a dozen languages was apparently time ill spent. The panel remains a complete mystery to Janus.
However he realizes that the voice he had previously mistaken for some kind of automaton in control of the ship had actually responded to his out angry out burst. "You can... hear me?" he asks incredulously to the empty air in front of him. As the seconds continue to pass her words sink in a little deeper. Capsule 6 dash 7. He scans the room to double check his hypothesis. 8 Capsules.... and the one he's trapped in could be 7th depending how you count.... well or 2nd or 3rd or 6th he mentally slaps himself now is not the time to be dwelling on the excessive possibilities. He shouts to no one "If you can hear me could you perhaps open the capsule I'm in front of as well? Or maybe tell me how to open it manually? I can't read it." as the voice pleads for help he is overwhelmed by guilt hearing the fear in her voice. He felt idiotic for thinking she was a machine. " I just need to save this man and get my weapon and then I will do everything within my power to save you. Where are you? " As the door slides open the last piece clicks into place. He again addresses the air in an embarrassed tone "I'm sorry I yelled at you before I didn't realize you were a person." Last edited by Chukie1188; May 17th, 2013 at 01:32 PM. |
#12
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The guy on the ground continues to bubble with nanites, but you note the liquid isn't just dropping off him, but forming shapes, wires around his muscles and a visor on his eyes, armor plates on his arms, more..!
__________________
"Live each day as if it were your last, 'cause I'm gonna kill you but I'm not super-good w/ schedules." - Joss Whedon |
#13
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The whoosh of the opening door snapped Morgana back into reality. At first she wanted to bolt to the armory, grab her blaster and shoot the tank open. But the teachings of Iomedae halted her, one never leaves their allies behind. Struggling to keep herself steady in the here and now, the young paladin made her way over to the x 20tank. Running a hand through her hair nervously, Morgana looked over the panel, Perception Check
Dice Roll:
Dice Roll:
__________________
Wielder of the Negative Perception Roll and swearer of the Oath.
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#14
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Khismia saw the others dauntingly idling outside the pod as he remained trapped inside, what were they doing looking for a manual. He began to kick and flail, clawing at whatever was in his way. He could feel his skin and fingernails ripping and shattering as blood trickled down skin. The pod was proving impenetrable and his essence was breaking to prove that fact.
He was sealed alive. As he slumped down in the pod he slammed his fist down, crinkling at the blood splatter. What would if matter if he bled to death? He would be dead in an hour… or even less. There was little oxygen in this stupid coffin. He could feel himself gasping for air every few seconds just to check if there was enough left to continue thinking and even living for that matter.
__________________
My apologies to all I game with, going through some challenging times with RL at the moment but I am still here and will persavere. TY for your Patience.
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#15
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The loud, hollow thudding of Khismia faded as the fight seemed to drain out of him. Anyone perceptive enough might connect the lack of fight with the increasing puddle of blood that seeped out onto the metal grate. While the monk remained trapped most the others were frantically seeking ways to extract him from his dire circumstances. Well, all save one who was sitting idly on the floor as tiny nano machines were finishing hardening and forming quite the formidable suit around him. By Dr. Tear's count he had roughly You may post your character finishing his summons, doing his checks, and standing this round. Next round of posts you will have full actions.ten to fifteen seconds remaining before his creation is complete.
Meanwhile Randall seems to have tired himself after fruitlessly flinging himself against the glass of the pod. So while Janus asked his queries of the air the portal maker moved to the other side of the room and reached behind one of the still active pods. With a heavy grunt he yanked two of the copper electrical wires from the pod and the wall. Not finished, the wizard reached down and with a few yanks managed to pull up a decent sized piece of pipe. Returning to the monk's pod he decides to use the pipe first and drops the cable before hammering at the glass with the blunt weapon. Weak as he is Randall manages to chip a piece of the thick glass before once again tiring. Over the hammering of pipe against glass came the young female's voice over the intercom as she angrily snaps, "OF C..RSE I C.. HE.R ..U!" The intercom dies as Janus makes his request. Panic, anger, and frustration crackle again over the comms, "I d..'t hav. th. cycles t. ex..ain .he pr..edure! Now le.ve him .n. HELP ME!" An angry flare of light in the room fades as the intercom clicks off. With the flare of light Morgana has what is almost an epiphany regarding the language of the pod's control panel. The orange illuminated foreign characters on the screen seem to make sense and she’s pretty confident she can figure out the proper sequence in a matter of tries. So engrossed with all of their tasks no one notices until the last minute the pod that the portal maker had stripped the cables from move, flush it’s liquid, and unceremoniously dump a body into their midst.
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"There's a slope down toward evil, a gentle gradient that can be ignored at each step, unfelt. It's not until you look back, see the distant heights where you once lived, that you understand your journey." - Prince of Thorns Last edited by Mostlymad; May 22nd, 2013 at 07:54 AM. |
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