+- Discovery Gaming Community (https://discoverygc.com/forums)
+-- Forum: Role-Playing (https://discoverygc.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=9)
+--- Forum: Stories and Biographies (https://discoverygc.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=56)
+--- Thread: Iscariot (/showthread.php?tid=116296)
Iscariot - Zapp - 06-06-2014
Goodwinn wasn’t sure what to make of it—the low keening coming across the emergency channel. She was in the middle of nowhere, floating about and scanning for new and exciting things. She had found a jump hole in the Omicron Delta system to a strange and empty system, save a couple of uninhabitable planets.
And there was someone’s death rattle on the emergency channel.
Winn—as folks called her—decided to answer the phone.
“Hello? Is anyone there?”
The groan ceased, and then an old voice listed a set of coordinates. He finished with as much emphasis as he could probably muster: “Hurry.”
She wasted no time. In about half an hour, she came across a strange looking ship. Its hull was pockmarked with holes that looked more the result of corrosion than weapons fire. Her Eagle’s sensors couldn’t penetrate the hull. The ship had two swooping wings dropping off what appeared to be the main fuselage. There was much more debris floating around the ship than appeared to have come from it. With more than a little trepidation, Winn maneuvered her Eagle over a docking hatch and made the connection. She donned her EV suit, just in case there were parts of the ship that didn’t have any atmosphere, and boarded it.
The entry hallway was devoid of light. Even the emergency lighting had failed, but the flashlights on Winn’s helmet revealed a ghastly scene. Corpses floated about, as the ship’s gravity plating had failed. She flew along the halls, afraid to say anything for fear of angering the spirits of the crew.
At first, she was too nervous to give a closer inspection. But once she did, she realized that there were two distinct uniforms. One she recognized as belonging to the Order. The other, she had never seen before. How strange, she thought. This was no Order ship she had ever seen, so who were the others?
She came to the first junction and looked both ways. To the left, she saw a bulkier figure floating next to a console that emitted weak light. She pushed off towards the figure. Up close, she saw it was more like armor than an EV suit. But he—she? it?—was completely covered from head to toe. She marveled at the intricate and brutish design.
Then its arm moved and grabbed Winn’s arm. She screamed and tried to move back, but the grip was a vise. Then, she heard the same voice she had heard over the emergency channel.
“Help. Almost. No. Air.”
She wasted no time in bringing him back to her ship, though along the way she began to have doubts. The man’s armor looked downright sinister. Who would design something like that? How had he survived? This ship looked like it had been dead for a long time.
RE: Iscariot - Zapp - 06-10-2014
Once she cycled her ship’s hatch shut, the man yanked his helmet off and took a deep breath. He had a scraggly beard, and frost clung to it. His hair was gray, and his features were hard. His eyes were sharp, though. They were in her ship’s cargo hold, which was otherwise empty. A set of metal stairs on the far end of the room ran up to a hatch that led to the cockpit.
“Hello, I’m Goodwinn. What’s your name?”
He started to make an ‘eh’ sound, then stopped and grimaced. He tried again with the same result.
“There are some who call me . . . Iscariot.”
She waited a moment, to see if he’d volunteer any more information. When he didn’t, she pressed him about what had happened on the ship. He was reluctant, but eventually gave in.
“The ship was like that when I found it. I tried to fix it enough to fly to Freeport 11, but that didn’t work. Then some other folks came by. Blew my ship off the docking hatch, docked their own ship, and tried to take it from me. Must’ve been a cruiser, and Order by the uniforms. I killed most of them.”
At that, her jaw dropped, but he continued as if he had commented on an everyday occurrence.
“When they realized it was futile, they left right before I could get onto their ship. I’m lucky they didn’t think to blow the wreck up with me on it, but I guess they figured they’d let me suffocate instead.”
She examined him closer. His armor was obsidian, and seemed to kill light that touched it. It was unmarred. He had no visible weapons.
“Who are you, really?”
His lips pursed—he was done answering her. Instead, he asked: “What’s a young thing like you doing out here?”
Winn harrumphed and stalked towards the cockpit. Call her young, would he! He must be over seventy. She called over her shoulder: “I’ll be setting a course to Freeport 11.”
He trailed her into the cockpit, and asked for food and water. She gave him a ration pack and canteen. She sat in the pilot seat, and he sat behind her.
“You know,” he said, “sitting with your back to me—or anyone—is a mistake. It would take me less than a second to break your neck and steal your ship.”
Her shoulders tensed, but she said nothing and didn’t turn around. He chuckled dryly.
RE: Iscariot - Zapp - 06-12-2014
“You have spunk. I’m a good sense of character.”
She still didn’t reply. She heard his hand run through his hair, and a sigh.
“I . . . have done some bad things. Horrible things. I’m a murderer, a terrorist, a monster. I’m what goes bump in the night.”
As he continued to talk, as if the words had been pent up in him for years, she got a sickening dread in her stomach. Who had she rescued?
“And at the end of the day, the only mark I’ll leave on Sirius is a trail of destruction. The only reason I tell you this is because I have nobody left. Everyone I’ve ever cared for is dead, burned away. I am the last of my kind, as far as I’m aware—the last Phantom. I can’t even say the name I was born with anymore, they’ve erased it from me. I’ll die Iscariot, the monster in black.”
They jumped to Omicron Delta.
Winn’s hands clenched the controls, even though autopilot flew the craft. A Phantom. A real, live Phantom. He really could kill her in less than a second, and likely without a second thought. What could she do?
He continued.
“I tell you this because my conscience is getting the best of me. It’s coming back. I need to atone. Can you please take me back to Liberty? Cut through Zeta, Minor, and Ellesmere. Once there, the LSF should take care of me.”
She was silent, and then sputtered, “Take care of YOU? They’ll take care of us! Do you think they’ll just take you away in handcuffs? They’ll blow up the ship!”
“They won’t. They’ll want to take me alive, and may even pay you a bounty. Please, just do it. I’m tired of fighting. My old bones ache.”
She adjusted the course without a word. She had a bad feeling in her stomach about this, but something about the man seemed genuine. She imagined he had done unspeakable things. And then her morbid curiosity got the best of her. Unspeakable? She shifted in her seat and smiled a little. Winn was a Freelancer after adventure and fortune, not a Zoner like her parents. And this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Such was the way with her: fear was short-lived, often outpaced by wonder.
“So,” she began coyly. “How does one become a Phantom?”
“Painfully.” He stopped for a moment. “It’s a process called indoctrination. They break down who you are, bit by bit, then build you back as a drone. Most Phantoms were mindless pawns, but some—like me—were unfortunate enough to retain our critical thinking. We were the officers.”
She mulled that over for a bit. “And they teach you how to kill things?”
He shook his head. “You can’t teach that. You experience it. I was already a soldier, before. I was in the Liberty Navy.”
“What about the armor you’re wearing, what’s—”
He cut her off.
“You’re treading thin ice. Be careful how many questions you ask, it’s a topic best left with the rest of the Phantoms: in the grave.”
The rest of the flight went by in silence.
RE: Iscariot - Zapp - 06-14-2014
The LSF found them before they even made it to Ellesmere. In Omicron Minor, two LSF ships disrupted her engines. She told them that she had a prisoner who wanted to surrender to the LSF. They told her to follow them. They turned and flew away from the jump hole, but she followed. After a short distance, a LNS signal popped up—it appeared to be a cruiser, though it was hard to tell through the green mist and asteroids. She had a bad feeling about it. Iscariot was lost in his thoughts, not aware of what was going on.
Then, the comm crackled to life.
“Dock with the LNS Tundra for prisoner transfer.”
That snapped Iscariot out of his reverie.
“No Goodwinn! Get us out of here!”
He almost knocked her out of the seat as he tried to wrestle the controls away from her.
“What’s wrong with you?” she shouted. “I thought—”
“That’s no Navy ship, and those aren’t LSF fighters, now get us out of here!”
By then, the ships realized her hesitation. The LNS Tundra turned around, and she saw the front side and gasped. The last thing she saw was bolts of purple flying from all directions.
Goodwinn awoke in her ship, but out the window was the inside of a docking bay. Iscariot was on the floor behind her, still unconscious. They must’ve dragged us in. What’s going on here?
“Iscariot, wake up,” she said, getting on her knees to push him. He shook his head groggily and muttered something about escaping.
The hatch to her ship exploded inwards, and soldiers wearing Liberty Navy uniforms filed through the cargo bay and ran up the stairs. Iscariot snapped to attention and lunged at them. He grabbed the first soldier by the head and smashed it against the bulkhead. It exploded like a rotten melon. The soldiers below—on the stairs and main cargo hold floor—opened fire. Most of the bolts struck his armor and were absorbed, others missed. He shielded his head with his arm, as his helmet was still in the cargo hold.
“Listen Goodwinn,” he said desperately. “Those aren’t humans. The Tundra is a Nomad ship. Don’t let them—”
Whatever he was about to say was cut off as Nomads began loping into the ship. Iscariot lunged down the stairs with abandon, crushing anything that came up against him. He left a trail of destruction, but without his helmet, he was vulnerable. The weight of fire finally caught his head, and he fell to his knees. He tried to continue, but couldn’t move with the armor’s weight on him anymore. As the Nomads closed on him, a concealed dagger thrust out of his armor from his wrist and he cut his own throat.
Thus the sordid career of Iscariot came to an end.
RE: Iscariot - Zapp - 06-15-2014
Goodwinn watched all of this in horror, unable to move. Then the Nomads advanced towards the cockpit.
She woke an indeterminate amount of time later, in a hibernation pod. She was wearing an LSF uniform. She could feel it inside her. She was terrified, and had no control over her body. The pod opened, and she climbed out. She wished she had never left Freeport 10 and her parents. She wished she had never sought adventure.
She realized that her lot in life was as sad and pathetic as Iscariot’s, and her end would likely be as bloody. Yet she could do nothing. When they asked her what she would like her callsign to be, and allowed her to answer, she simply said:
“Iscariot.”