Near Baffin Jumphole, Tau-29, aboard the [TAZ]Chao's.Eyes
"Captain, we are ready to jump to Baffin. All systems green. Standing by your orders sir."
"Ah, Bannon, ready all scanners for any ships trying to pass through our home system. We've been told by the E-prime to password protect it."
"Aye Captain"
Suddenly a distress message was heard.
Quote:AUTOMATIC BROADCAST FROM NOVERIA AI
SHIP INTEGRITY COMPROMISED
HULL STATUS : 1%
LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS OFFLINE
ENGINES OFFLINE
WEAPONRY OFFLINE
LIFE SIGNS : 2 out of 220 registered ADDITIONAL UNIDENTIFIED LIFE SIGN DETECTED
Launching last recording...
- Larry Patty here... Chief Engineer of The Noveria. I finally managed to hack the ship AI, two damn weeks...
Everything went wrong. Everything is still wrong, but I need to be quick before we run out of energy.
We were operating outside of Sirius, we've discovered new systems and even an habitable planet, jungle type. We've been on it and the science team installed a small camp and a satellite. We discovered life and intelligent species, although they are primitive. But something happened, an unknown ship appeared on our scanners, something veeeeeery big, it was organic at first but we saw something that looked like metal on a few sides. Anyway, it started to open fire at us and the jungle started to burn. We managed to evacuate everyone back to The Noveria and tried to escape. But the little guys didn't have only one gun. We managed to exit the atmosphere but we were still being shot at. Just imagine the power they have, our shields absorbed only five shots. FIVE SHOTS !
*sigh*
Two shots later we lost deck 5, 6 and 7 along with the engines. Then we used the experimental "that should not be used before we can test it" hyperspace device, some nomad thing we stole from a... very guarded place at the cost of lives, good thing they were mercenaries.
We used it, it worked, and I calculated our coordinates. I assume we are in the Kepler System, somewhere around B2.
Commander Hectic is still unconcious, this blue glowing butterfly thing we retrieved from the Planet managed to end in this escape pod, don't ask me how. But this morning when I woke up, I've found the Commander stuck against the wall, some kind of plant has started to grow on her, and it's still growing very fast. I can't see anymore her amputated left arm, the plant is hiding it with... roots or something like that. She's still breathing, heartbeat is normal... I noticed that the nails of her right arm are blue, and the butterfly dissapeared. I don't like this at all.
Ah crap, I've been talking too long. There is some serious wrong things going on here, and I'd like assistance ASAP. Energy is at 15% and we only have 40h of air left and... twenty chocolate bars... and five bottles of water.
I guess it's time to talk with the wall again.
"Hold that jump sequence! There's something going there aboard that ship. Bannon, call Doctor Carlisle."
"What going on Captain?"
"Doctor Carlisle, there's something you might want to see. If you would, please assess the situation onboard that ship."
"It appears that the specimen they took from the Planet was not well contained. I would suggest to Mr Patty that he stay away as much as possible to the plant. It may be contagious. And judging from the descriptions given by Mr Patty, the ship they encountered has some sort of description of a Nomad ship but I can't be sure."
"Bannon, how many hours before we reach Kepler?"
"24hrs max sir but if we hurry we can reach them in 18 hrs."
"That leaves them abou-"
"16 hrs! We've better hurry Captain."
"Alright Doctor. See if you can extract more data about this ship and its history."
"Right Sir."
"Bannon, put all crew on standby. Set scanner to Maximum range. Activate Cruise Engines! Do we have enough provisions for the trip and the survivors?"
"Enough to last for decades."
"Right, I hope they're still alive by the time we get there. Um Doctor Carlisle, we might need some protection against those specimen they brought..... Any chance you've encountered them?"
"Let me check. I think I have but I'll have to see for myself."
"Just in case we need to board the ship. Ready our bio suits,chemical equipment and arrange a boarding party."