Star Brigade: A 53rd Century Adventure RP

[Bravo 21]

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"Well then we might as well get moving." Muo glanced back at the remaining food, he was still hungry, but the mission took precedent. Mentally made a note speak with the Durras soldiers later, they had fought bravely, and he felt that should be acknowledged. "Maybe he can give us a clear view of what's gone on here."

 

[TheBlueShotgun0]

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"That would be nice." James commented. Between getting surprised by the Durras and then attacked by a swarm of crab-creatures, he wanted some answers. "Please take us to him." The Durra nodded politely and set off down a hallway with the DC agents close behind.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

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"Wow, I'm amazed we made it out in one piece." remarked Tom, surveying the damage. By all means they should be dead, but the odd stroke of luck was bound to come his way sometime. He just hoped it decided to stay around the next time he was put in a life threatening situation.

Lime started to crack a particularly large Skillex that had somehow drifted into the lock with them. "Well, that's disgusting Lime." he said, looking away. Ruth walked over to Tom, smiling.

"Najeed's a good kid, but he's not much of a sailor."

"Tell me about it, I almost lost my head coming through the door." chuckled Tom.

"Come on, help me move them inside." said Ruth, motioning to the sick patients. Tom obliged, carefully moving the colonists into the jetty's control center. He noticed his signal tracker had begun to blink. Laying one of the infected down, he checked it. It was picking up a Durras Signal, and it matched the same coordinates as Thor's group. Figuring it would be best to check in, he commed the Durra signal.

"Hello? Is anyone there? This is the Diplomatic Corps, please respond."

 

[JoJo]

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Whilst Tom and Lime tried to get in contact with the other team, Ruth and Najeed tended to the patients while also making sure their own breathing masks were tightly fitted. Whilst they were doing this, the teenager had a thought.

"Hey Ruth, whatever happened to those other two guys that were with the corps?" he asked.

"Huh, who?" Ruth replied, feeling perturbed.

"You know, some Brian dude and that alien chick," Najeed recalled, before adding with a hint of concern "Where are they now?"

"They went with your father and the other healthy civilians, remember?" she told him, "That reminds me of something, stay here with the others won't you?" she asked and without waiting for a reply made her way over to the two Diplomatic Corps.

"Don't forget to stay well away from the patients since we can't protect your breathing" Ruth reminded Lime before putting a question to the two corps whilst they tried to reconnect to the others. She hoped she wasn't distracting them too much but she felt she needed to know.

"Say, how many people are there on your ship, the main one that is?"

~​

Meanwhile aboard the Star Brigade, Captain Vance strode into the infirmary, Kalade following meekly behind him. In one of the bed's lay a still figure covered by a white sheet, beside it Doctor Nate with a grim look upon his face.

"Underveen?" The Captain asked simply, Nate nodded silently in reply. "What caused this one?" The Captain asked after a moment's pause, Nate glumly shrugged his shoulders.

"No idea, there aren't any obvious external signs of injury. It could be a disease or internal problem, the autopsy later today will help shed light on those possibilities. That's if it isn't something more... sinister."

"Sinister?!" Kalade exclaimed before she could stop herself.

"Uh huh," the doctor nodded darkly "Underveen was fit and healthy when he was recruited, leading me to believe that this death was maybe, just maybe, down to nothing less than murder."

There were gasps of shock around the infirmary as this final bombshell was dropped.

 

[Tiger Sora]

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"Diplomates corps. We received a distress signal and came here to assist. We've another team elsewhere doing the same. What can you tell us though, the others weren't very forthcoming in information"? Thor was officially disgusted in the way these Durras concocted themselves. They seemed all protocol which was not helpful in most situations.

 

[Bravo 21]

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Muokilaxes stood impassively as the leader justified what had happened. He'd heard the story before, someone screwed up, and others died, then people, maybe the Solanic Union, maybe the Canopy Council, sent in people to clean up the mess, then only difference was this time he was here to listen to the rationalizing.

Then the female Durra entered and told them that Amazan had died. "Pity. He was a good soldier, even if I didn't trust him at first. Still he got a warrior's death."
Coldly looking to the leader, "You were saying something about the soldiers..."

 

[Soviet Heavy]

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Brian and Til Wing reunited with colony team in the main comm center for the upper docks. Getting there ahead of time, the pair had been able to set up a simple base camp. The door slid open as Tom stepped up into the operations room. A large holographic chart of the entire settlement emanated from the center table projectors.

"Any luck getting through to Thor's team, Til?" asked Tom. The Astrid had been at work for nearly an hour trying to get through to the other team with little success.

Til shook her head. "Not yet, Mr. Anderson. This local dialect is fascinating. I would much like to ask one of the colonists what the symbols mean. It appears to be based off of 41st Century Devanagari texts, but with some major alterations showing influence from 22nd Century Mandarin and modern Karlekki alphabets. I wonder if the colonists would mind me taking a copy to study."

Tom shrugged. "Ask them if you want. Just be sure to bring a rebreather with you to filter out any spore toxins that get through the quarantine."

Til's stiff features moved slightly. "I will, Anderson." she said with a smile. "Perhaps one of them may help us decrypt the broadcasting codes while I'm at it." The Astrid packed up her scanners and headed for the infirmiry, where Ruth and Lime were doing a headcount. Tom was left in the ops room with Brian.

Brian was a hard man to judge. He rarely spoke, and when he did, he was usually abrasive. Unlike Demexin, however, when he intended to insult someone, he actually meant it with every inch of his being. He paid no notice to Tom, and continued to field strip his sniper rifle.

Star Brigade
"No, no, no! Try it again, and this time calibrate the sensors to .46%. I know I heard that signal somewhere."

The engineer sighed. "I know, Chief, and I'm trying as hard as I can! It takes a lot of work keeping the scanners up to par after a week long jump."

Chief Engineer Demexin stood up haughtily. "You're right, ensign. I should know, I spend most of my time fixing them because you can't be assed to say on top of things! Argh, try .63%, we've got to narrow down that signal. If there's another ship in the area, I want to know about it before it can get the drop on us."

Demexin pointed to another ensign. "Find the captain wherever he is, and tell him I've got some news. If my guess is right, we might need to go to ground in a hurry."

 

[JoJo]

Ruth nodded grimly in response to Lime's answer.

"I hadn't said anything yet but you know the fifteen ill civilians we just rescued? There were six others who in the past week... passed away. None of the others have recovered. I'm sure most will be treatable if we bring them to the ship but with that a high mortality rate..." Ruth swallowed "We have to consider whether it's worth doing so. It'll be very difficult to prevent the infection from spreading in such a closed environment as a ship and potentially many more crew could die if it does get out and it proves to be especially difficult to treat... but on the other hand, leaving these people here would be a death sentence."

The woman put a hand onto Lime's armour.

"I have no family or close friends amongst the infected so I have no stake really either way, however there will be many like young Najeed who will be devastated to leave family members behind. It's your Captain and crew's call though what to do, I think you better discuss it with them."

~​

Back aboard the Star Brigade, Captain Vance slapped his own face with his palm in frustration at the conversation between Kalade and Lisa.

"Look you two," he said through gritted teeth "This is neither the time nor place to be discussing meals."

"Sorry... sir" Kalade muttered shame-faced and wandered dejectedly out of the medical bay, her birds following behind. Lisa was unusually silent.

"Alright, Nate, get on with an autopsy right away. We need to know what's going on here sooner rather than later!"

The Captain turned to leave the room but before he was even through the door he was accosted by one of Demexin's ensigns.

"What the fuck is it now?" Captain Vance snarled, the ensign stepping back in fright.

"Really sorry sir but you have to come at once! Chief Engineer has some grave news."

"Yet more bad news?" The Captain spat in disbelief but he followed the ensign all the same "What is this ship, the fucking Andromeda?" he exclaimed, referring to a particularly famous ill-fated space-cruiser from around a hundred years earlier.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

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Meeting the captain in the halls on the way from engineering, Demexin cut through the frivolities and immediately reported before Vance could speak. He shoved his scanner into the captain's hands.

"There's another ship in the system, and it's cloaked." he said bluntly. "I wouldn't have been able to find it, but the FTL drive gave it away. When a ship with an onboard FTL drive makes a jump, a low frequency resonance ping is emitted at a wavelength sensitive to an Astrid's earlobes. I should know, I helped invent the device. My point is, another ship made a jump into the system via FTL and not the Jump Gates, and it is hiding from us. I can't pinpoint a size, but it seems to be at least four classifications larger than the Star Brigade. I estimate between six and eight hundred meters in length, other specifics unknown. Whoever they are, they want to stay hidden from us, and I don't like it."

 

[TheBlueShotgun0]

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"I'll take it." James said, and followed the young alien to the communications terminal. He saw Lime on the video display and immediately regretted answering the Durras. Ever since to mission on Earth a week ago, there had been tension between Lime and James. But they where both military, and so kept things professional aboard the ship. James hoped this discussion would be the same. "Whats up?" he said.

 

[Evrant-Knight]

Far away from the others, amidst one of the few small jungles that were dotted about the planet, a lone figure was nestled amongst the undergrowth. In his hands, he clutched his sniper rifle; and despite all the foliage that would obscure his view, Gabriel could see a small group of around three Durass clearly in his scope.

With a single pull of the trigger, one went down in an instant, spooking the others. But they soon regained their senses, and could feel the brief gust of wind brush past them. They soon set off in search of their prey. But it was not meant to be. Within a few brief moments, the two other Durass lay dead on the jungle floor, and all that could be heard, was a brief chuckle from their killer.

It seems that the hunter, has become the hunted. Gabriel remarked as he reloaded his gun, resting his back on a nearby tree.

Better check in with Ruth, see how the rest of the colonists are doing. He then added in a quiet tone, turning on the headset radio, and propping the gun up next to him. A clear view screen then appeared on the headset's visor, as it began to patch into the correct frequency. After a few minutes of loading, he was connected.

On the two separate video screens, appeared to be a Crelm and another Human in conversation.

"This is White Wolf calling Mother Base. I repeat, this is White Wolf calling Mother Base. Over. " Gabriel announced in a clear voice.

 

[JoJo]

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As Tom and Lime fiddled with the video transmitters, Ruth sat on an wooden crate quietly considering contingency plans for the next possible steps the ragtag group of civilians and corps could take. She had to admit to herself that she'd never have guessed she'd end up in a situation like this when just three years ago she'd applied for a decade-long placement as an agricultural expert on an alien planet.

"Looks like I'll be seeing the hills of New Maya again sooner than I expected" she muttered to herself whilst watching her tired companions. Most where sitting quietly or napping, the one exception being the ever untiring Najeed who was attending his ill sister for what seemed like the fiftieth time.

That boy will end up catching the infection soon, mask or no mask she thought to herself before realising with a jolt that her video receiver was beeping. She scrambled to press the "accept" button and held the device close to her body.

"Shhhh, keep it on the low Gab... I mean White Wolf" Ruth said quietly, looking over her shoulder to make sure the Diplomatic Corps weren't aware of the conversation. They seemed good enough people but she wanted to keep an ace card up her sleeve just in-case. "Eh, found anything out there my canine friend?"

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Captain Vance nodded grimly in reply to Demexin, this was even worse than he had expected.

"Do you have any equipment for finding out more about this mysterious ship? I can't think of any reason an S.U. ship would want to hide from us, or Durras for that matter since they requested our help in this system in the first place. This seems too far out for Norg's normal range too..." At this point the Captain was largely speaking his thoughts aloud.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

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"Funny you should mention the Norg, captain." said Demexin skeptically. "I was under the impression that the Union had a worker's contract with the Frel, offering services for terminals. For all we know, the Norg might have replicated an onboard FTL drive from studying our ships. It would certainly have to be one of the older models I worked on; the Star Brigade's variant is the first of its kind. That means that, whatever type of ship this is, it's big."

Demexin leaned against the bulkhead as he watched Vance mull over his assumptions. "And just to give you an even more to think about, what have the reports of the away team given us? Gyrale infections. An unauthorized FTL drive on a ship that's actively attempting to hide its heat signature, arriving over a planet in record time to respond to the threat of infection? It's too convenient to be anything else. But that still leaves the question of why they're hiding from us."

 

[Evrant-Knight]

"Oh, alright, switching to low frequency transmission." Gabriel remarked in a hush tone, as he altered a few of the settings on his headset, so he would be out of the S.U's transmission range, but still on Ruth's personal frequency. After all, he was an unknown to them, perfect, in case things with them got... difficult. He then stood up, and strapped his sniper rifle on to his back, and checked his other equipment. Gabriel then started to move out of the jungle.

"Aside from a few dead Durass who were causing me some trouble, not much else to report. Although I did confirm what Pressly was rambling on about before he succumbed to the infection. I should discuss this with you in private though; considering who might be listening. Should be back within the hour, from the looks of it, the water is moving at a steady pace." He then reported on the current situation, managing a small smile afterwards.

"White Wolf Out." Gabriel abruptly ended the communication.