Jentha realised she had been compromised--too late. She saw the android suddenly charge towards her, and took up a defensive posture, even though the oxygen situation continued to make it difficult for her to act quickly. Had it not been for this perhaps she could have intercepted the android before it made its 'attack'--but as it was her movements had become sluggish and slowed. As she moved forward in what felt like slow motion, she saw the sedative fired, and felt it hit her before she could react. Dammit! she thought frantically, finding herself utterly paralysed and unable to move. "Don't be afraid," she heard a voice, presumably the android, from near where her body had fallen. "I'm here to help you."

As Jentha was helplessly carried by the android, her mind was a flurry of shame at having been so quickly subdued--Jentha Valihiriex, a proud Centurion and Isaran, taken down by an android?--but also reconsiderations of the situation. There seemed to be other species here--that rather negated the 'Isaran military test' theory, though it in no way lessened her shame for her failure. But the fact they were all speaking her own Chalien dialect of Isaran--the fact that they were speaking Isaran at all was unusual on its own. Few Outsiders could learn the Isaran language, for a number of reasons, not least of which being the fact they were unlikely to ever actually speak it to an Isaran, and it was thus pointless to learn it. And that assumed they in turn were able to find someone to teach Isaran to them--Isarans were not exactly eager to teach Outsiders how to butcher and ruin their grand language.

As she was lowered onto the medbed, Jentha could only glare back up at the android, her angry eyes the only part of her body that was currently able to move. What the hell does this thing intend to do to me? she thought as the android began to set to work--but when it did so, Jentha realised that her breathing was starting to return to a normal, healthy pulse. The droning haze in her mind that had similarly resulted from a lack of oxygen slowly dissipated as well. The android really was helping her--though she by no means trusted the thing any more now, nor did she trust the other two individuals in the room. She had no idea what their allegiance was--what their intentions were.

As she felt her body returning to its prior, active state, Jentha was prepared to take action. But the android immediately began speaking. "The Commander left a recorded message for all of you," it said, before playing said message. Jentha remained silent and still for a moment as the message played, her expression solemn and motionless, until the Commander spoke of crushed worlds and species, at which point her expression became one of disbelief and anger. Impossible. Whatever this Ceriman Grey Empire is, they could not have toppled the mighty Isaran Hierarchy so easily. The Commander had to be lying. Jentha refused to believe it. This whole thing sounded, in fact, like exactly something the Isaran Hierarchy would have done. Thousands of worlds 'brutally destroyed' for their resources...that line sounded just like something one would read in an Outsider book describing the Isarans when they had first begun to expand into the stars.

Tal'Uhn nodded to the android and moved to the 'medbed,' as it seemed to be called. He lay down and felt the rush of fresh oxygen purge his system, and some of the cloudier areas of his mind cleared up. He also felt a relief of the pain in his leg and patagium as a cooling gel was spread over his burns. He then stood and made room for the android and the strange, pinkish creature it had tranquilized. He looked up and saw his Mirrored had returned to full strength, and the feeling in his stomach left him. He returned moved to the side, away from Aylen and the new creature.

Upon hearing the android's assertion of their equipment's location, Tal'Uhn immediately moved to the lockers and attempted to open them-they refused his entry. He was about to ask the android for assistance when the video began to play.

Tal'Uhn stopped registering the strange alien's words about halfway through the video. He was too busy with one simple word... 'Endangered'? His memory was foggy, sure, but he knew his species was still alive. They had been thriving back home. There was no reason for him to be on this ship. He was not an endangered species-a fact he was quick to state as soon as the video ended. "What does it mean, endangered? Because the Grnthat'ls are not endangered. There are 3 billion of us on my home planet. Is there some kind of multi-planet requirement for your government? No, don't answer that, of course there is. Fine. Is there someone on this ship I can talk to? Someone... not an android? Not that there's anything wrong with you, but... I was trained for contact. I think. And I need to find someone who is actually qualified for something like this. Not- a remarkable advanced security drone. Back up." Tal'Uhn stopped for a breath. "Did she...it... say 60,000 species are in this place? Then why are the three of us... four if you count the one still unconscious back in the cryo room... the only ones here?"

Tal'Uhn, as he was babbling on, finally registered the rest of the video and moved back to the lockers, leaning over for a retinal scan. He needed his RaDID. Once he found a locker that accepted him, he immediately pulled out the RaDID and started scrolling through it for any information. He looked at the last entry.

Day 3957
We are preparing for the final testing phase. My hope is that our test burn will allow us to measure the potential for interstellar travel. So far, all tests have been incredibly promising. We are still having containment issues, however-I believe the test is at a low enough output to remove any risks. Jru'ktchr disagrees. I told him I know what I'm doing, but he still went to the council to have the test run postponed.

Tal'Uhn's reading was interrupted by a sudden wave of relevant memories. The test run, the leak in containment, the council hearing- the radiation poisoning. Tal'Uhn hurriedly put the RaDID away.

Aylen bristled as the android shot into action again. The thing certainly could take a few people down and that was something she didn't exactly like but she wouldn't hurt the person, rather robot, that had helped her out.

She heard the android and quietly flicked her ears prepared for the worst. As the message played out she felt shock throttle her system. I know that my species is endangered but that's not a reason for preservation, we were doing fine without help from the outside! The elders wouldn't have allowed anyone to come into our species biology so easily. Then again, with enough pressure in the right places it could be done. All those clones. That body I saw back there in the fire. Clones of myself and others. All for 60,000 clones of what? The three living beings in here? Ridiculous but it's logical. Her jaws clenched in frustration. Tal'Uhn Her eyes turned to him as he rambled on about the predicament. She actually felt her mind feel a bit of sympathy for him, and for her. They were hunted, cloned, and unsure beings and right now having that message played only made it worse. She shifted to look back at the android. Who was this Ceriman Grey Empire? If I ever find out...I swear I'll rip them to pieces. If my people are still alive then we will kill every last one of them until we lay in our graves.

Aylen dismissed all thoughts about the message and swept toward the locker she assumed was hers, leaning forward to let it do a retinal scan. Usually on her planet she could remember that the energy would recognize it's user immediately. You didn't need scans because the energy could sense things for itself. An extension of the user. She rummaged through the locker and pulled out her uniform. It looked glorious. She quickly slipped into it and took a deep breath to allow it to accommodate her body. Perfectly comfortable. She reached for the two daggers and slipped them into the straps under her tail, then grabbed her pouches of projectile weapons and slipped those into her belt. Now that she was suited up she was sure she could face any sort of foe.

She glanced towards the pink humanoid with interest. Now that they were all settled it was time to get to know each other. Specially if they were supposedly a team but it could wait for later. Aylen turned instead to the android. "That commander said something about private quarters. I would like to get some rest or rather think about a few things. I've rested for long enough." She let out a gravelly chuckle, the humor not meeting her eyes.

As he exited the Science Labs and entered the darkened area of The Farm Deck 4 he was somewhat disapointed. He really, really wanted to kill something, and all the floating bodies couldn't really put up a decent fight, well for that matter any kind of a fight. He set about walking the rows initially, fascinated. He had seen the Farm once, and ever since he always entertained the notion of cloning more of him from a small facet of Dna, to see if he would be in control of all the bodies due to their nerve based concious. If that were the case the Tashi Empire would be unstoppable if they were able to mimic this technology. Millions, upon millions of omnipresent Kalder slaughtering their foes universal wide. Universal wide, he sighed at that remembering the delay that nearly caused his demise.

Quickly however he snapped out of that as his eyes caught sight of an out of place flashing light. Upon closer inspection, it was an armament light, one on a bomb. He suddenly realized whatever attacked the ship initially, was still on the ship, and potentially planting even more explosives. Quickly he undid his leather patch containing his engineering tools. This was more than likely the one moment off the battlefield, that his dishonorable second job as a combat engineer would come in handy.

He had to admit, it was a complicated plan but believed he had figured it out, as he moved for the final course of action to disarmament, he shut his eyes. He himself would most likely not die, but thousands of species would, as well as nearly everyone in the farm and potentially the rest of the ship. As he carried out his last action with his plasma cutter. He sighed, opening his eyes as he clearly wasn't in long term regeneration.

He grabbed the bomb and set it to the side, and began scouring the rest of the deck for explosives. There weren't alot but enough to destroy the deck he was on, and whatever was left of Deck 3 and below. However once again, the way of his own people taught him only an idiot would leave a job half finished, and knew that bombs would most likely be present upon the upper decks of the farm as well.

He didn't need to contact Jeav, the ordinance disposal definitely took priority over the assurance of saftey to sleeping bodies. He approached the lift, he was fortunate that the module was on his floor and wasn't destroyed, it was however scorched from the inital blast. He entered silently, pushing the button to go up to the next floor, the bombs from the lower floor piled up in a corner of the lift with him. If worse came to worse, he could destroy the wall, opening up a rift into empty space and easily sucking away the bombs with him and whatever were planted on the floor he was on, as well as himself.

((@Sanctimonia: I open a new place call the Farm, please move your post there. Thanks!))

"Repair cycle complete" The robots on the hull reported as she nodded to herself with a smile "Good now that the Rocket room has been sealed off, I can remotely vent atmosphere into the room and power up the Power Core" She said and tapped some commands into the computer's console, also bringing up security feeds from around the ship, shaking her head at the android's movements and the loose test subjects running amuck around the ship "Great....didnt think they would be up and about like this. Aww hell" She said and tapped more commands into the console, activating several other drones in the area to start their scans in the other areas of the ship while attempting to reboot the power core "Come on....restart you Bashtad" She said as she continued to plug incription key after code into the display to override it

"Jeav are you there? I am attempting to restart the Main Power Core now. I have the hull breach sealed in that particular wing and have Twiddle Dee and Tweedle Dumb conducting repairs. Since exterior weapons and sensors are down as well, I am attempting to use them as beacons and sensors until we get main systems online. Please make your way to Main Engineering to link up with me and where you can be better protected. I just pray your getting this" She said to her

"Kalder, this is Tasi. I have fixed the main problem and I am working on the Main Power Core now. If you can, can you please Access Junction Box 3227456B and reroute the power from the Junction to the Main Power Core. I might need the extra power" She said in a message to Kalder "Lets hope this will be enough" She said and just kept on working

While they listened to the video the fire had spread consuming all of deck 3, the wall of fire now blocked passage back to where they came from, and soon would reach the biochemistry lab.

“Please attach the universal translators to your armors. Otherwise you won’t understand one another.” It picked up the translator from Aylen’s suit and handed it to her, signaling she should put it on.

“We haven’t much time, we must go, quickly change if you must, grab what you need and follow me.” The android walked to the corner of the room and lifted a hatch with access to a ladder, “This way…this ladder leads straight to the science lab on deck 4,” and entered the space leaving you behind.

Deck One: Halls

Jeav fired her weapons at the creature before she lost sight of it again. The creature seemed to anticipate every action. She was not sure what frustrated her the most; the fact the creature had not attacked her yet, or that she could not see the creature well enough to kill it. The oxygen mask was not helping her see as well as she could, but there is nothing she can do about it, at least it still had oxygen and that she needed more than accurate vision. Inspecting her weapons energy source she realized there was not much power in them, maybe one last round left. She decided to return to command center and let the creature come to her.

Once again as she walked the halls she heard the creature’s steps behind her, it moved only when she moved, and when she glanced back it disappear. It was stalking her, it was taunting her, and it was driving her mad.

She reached the command center doors and stood in front of them, holstered her weapons, removed the irritating oxygen mask and dropped it on the floor, and turned around to face the hall. The creature was there, right behind her, its bloodshed-eyes, which were deceptively human, showed ghastly exultation. She could see the creature clearly now; the red light limned a giant anthropomorphic body; but vaster of bulk and girth than any man, and stood on two legs, though it stooped forward, and had grayish and hairless skin muddled in bloody blemishes. Its head a repugnant travesty of the human, and its long arms hung to the ground; a Changed, one of the unsuccessful mutations of species C33179.

Her legs went from under her as she dropped to the floor gasping for air in shock. How could this be? It isn’t possible. Tears filled her eyes. Her hands searched the floor for the oxygen mask. She panicked when she did not find it. A million memories flooded her mind with images of those early days. The horrors created, the lives destroyed, genetically designed clones, which formulas did not work, only to be eliminated in the quests for the Ceriman Greys perfect soldier. Those memories hunted Jeav Sai to this day. Her hands found what they searched for and quickly clasped the mask over her face. She sucked on the flowing oxygen like a baby nourishing from their mother’s bosom. She looked for the Changed but it was gone. And she knew she knew then that what she saw was nothing more than a hallucination.

The doors to command center opened and Jeav stumble inside barely reaching the comm. She struggled with her words, and inhaled several deep breaths before speaking, “Tasi, come in…Tasi…” The oxygen in the room was vast and revitalized her, she could think clearer now. She ran a sensor sweep of deck one and found nothing but her own signature. She had been right, it was a hallucination. Her hibernation cycle had begun, she was 20 days over by her calculation, she needed to rest but in under these conditions sleeping was impossible. “Can you find a way to power the lift even if it means you come up your self? There is no way I’m going down that black pit, not in my condition…my cycle has started.”

"Shit.....I am on my way. Hold on tight" She said and quickly nodded to herself as she tapped a series of commands into her Omni-Tool and laughed as the Power Core realigned itself and powered back up. All across the ship, systems restarted. Life Support, Lights, Cameras, Automated defenses, Drone crew, the Engines humming softly "YES IT WORKED" She said and muttered a prayer in her native tongue before grabbing her assault rifle and pistol to set out for the lift

Funny...how time seemed to pass. For Jeav and Tasi, their time together had been a very long one. They had known for a very long time about eachother and were very close friends. They were working towards a project that would reclaim the forgotten species from these.....Assimilated peoples....her own people taken by these bastards. Her home, her friends....all burned with fire as she watched from orbit. She knew things had to change. Quickly, she made her way to the Command Deck and to Jeav's location with a smile "Heard you needed a hand....I got two" She said with a friendly chuckle and moved to scoop Jeav under her arm "I got you old friend....Ill keep you safe from harm inside Main Engineering. Ill tell Kalder to pull back as well....its good to see you again Jeav....you crazy Banad"

((we are moving our posts to the new places: Kalder, Aylen, Jentha, Tal'Uhn (and the android) are currently on deck-4 of the farm. Please continue your posts there. Tasi and Jeav are in Main Engineering.))

Sector CC: Deck 4, Destroyed Science Lab

The ship vibrated when the main power kicked in and soon settled into a familiar hum. The android momentarily stopped ascending as it noted the change of the ship, the others followed closely behind. When they reached the top something was blocking the hatch, but with brute force the android managed to unhinge the obstacle. The android stepped into a destroyed science lab. It quickly scanned the room but it was empty. It helped the others through as one by one stepped inside the science lab.

“It appears someone briskly and carelessly searched the room,” said the Android. “Aboard the ship is a Kami Tracker, a very dangerous bounty hunter. It attacked us approximately over 90 minutes ago. First disabling the quad rocket fusion and main power source, followed by an attack on deck 3, where you all were. It seems to know the ship’s schematics and has bypassed security sensors – there where three other crew members aboard including the commander. We can safely assume someone is still alive in main engineering. However, first we must secure Sector CC, locate and eliminate the Kami Tracker, and after we can try and find other survivors.”

((@Kalder))
Jeav communicated with Kalder, “The Kami is on deck 6. There are bombs all over the farm; if one detonates they will all detonate. Allow it to leave the area before you intercept. Tasi and I are searching for its ship; we are going to destroy it. I figured if we can keep it trap aboard R7 there is a high possibility it won’t detonate those bombs. I anticipate it may try and steal one of our vessels in the hanger bay, but which bay? In either case we are securing both areas. Also sensors indicate Aylen, Jentha, and Tal Uhn are on deck 4’s science lab…by-the-way what happened to the science lab?” She knew perfectly well what happened. “Can you try and be a little gentler we can’t afford to lose more than what we already have.”

“No, Kalder has his orders,” said Jeav. “He is going to need some help, send some of your toys to assist him. You and I need to stabilize the fire first and see if anyone is still alive down there.” She held on tight to Tasi, a sisterly bond existed between them, a friendship that grew out of mutual hate for the Ceriman Greys “It’s good to see you too.”

They made their way down to Main Engineering. Immediately Jeav worked the ship’s sensory system scaning for the Kami Tracker and was surprise to find the locations of the rest of the crew. “Tasi the crew is on deck 4’s science lab…I’ve found the Kami, it is on deck 6. The entire farm is cover with bombs. It means to explode the farm and the ship with it.” Jeav paused and thought things through before she continued, “We need to locate its ship and destroy it. Unless the bounty hunter wishes to die, it won’t detonate those bombs. Otherwise why wait. If we destroy its ship it will be trap…send the biggest armada we have to hanger one and hanger two and secure our shuttles. Use whatever we got to locate its ship, most likely leaching on to R7.”

Jeav communicated with Kalder, “The Kami is on deck 6. There are bombs all over the farm; if one detonates they will all detonate. Allow it to leave the area before you intercept. Tasi and I are searching for its ship; we are going to destroy it. I figured if we can keep it trap aboard R7 there is a high possibility it won’t detonate those bombs. I anticipate it may try and steal one of our vessels in the hanger bay, but which bay? In either case we are securing both areas. Also sensors indicate Aylen, Jentha, and Tal Uhn are on deck 4’s science lab…by-the-way what happened to the science lab?” She knew perfectly well what happened. “Can you try and be a little gentler we can’t afford to lose more than what we already have.”

Aylen attached the translator the the turtleneck sweater underneath the leather and straps. The closest place to her lips and mouth. Her gaze followed the android before she was all but rushing to get up the ladder. She wasn't here to play around. She was here to survive.

She felt the sudden vibration settle into her bones and the momentary relief was so overwhelming that she almost let go of the ladder but she shook her head and smiled. Just like home. Sort of. It's not as warm and kind as my home. Aylen continued ascending and paused when the android had to work on the hatch. With all the debris around she would have never been able to do it. She moved up and let the android hoist her up before shuffling off into the wreckage of a room. Geez. Could have cleaned up a little. The dry humor rushed through her mind as she turned to look over her shoulder at the android as he explained a few details.

A Kami Tracker, huh? Sounds interesting. I would like to meet this guy in person and maybe teach him to mess with the ship I'm on. Next time he won't disturb my sleep. However, I don't like the idea of having to find other survivors. Takes too much time. We don't have that much time if the Tracker has already done this much in that amount of time.

She fidgeted, hands clenching and relaxing. "Okay. So say we go off to find the tracker, what's to say he isn't already trying to kill us again? I'm not interested in running into a little trap. I want to play cat and mouse but I think I resemble the cat a bit more. Don't you think?" She let a smirk grace her face and her eyes gleamed devilishly. Now that she felt better and was up to par with everyone else, she was ready to start kicking butt again. Her earring glinted in the faint light before going dull again.

Tal'Uhn was still trying to remember details. He knew there was a leak... as to what caused it, however, there was nothing to help him. He was broken back out of his reverie by the android indicating their leave. Tal'Uhn watched the group move for the indicated passage, his Mirrored floating around the room and through the debris and walls as they maneuvered to the ladder. Tal'Uhn watched as they began to climb. He realized there was no way the Mirrored's behavior would go unnoticed after this--ladders didn't work well with them.

Tal'Uhn was the last on the ladder, his Mirrored appearing out of the wall in front of the group and start climbing as if they were in front. As they neared Deck 4, his Mirrored climbed right past the floor, where the others were climbing out. This could get complicated, especially since his Mirrored seemed to be fading in and out of his vision again.

Tal'Uhn climbed onto the deck after the others, just in time to hear the android speaking. Quad rocket fusion... the term sounded familiar to him, but he couldn't place it. About to check his RaDID, he was interrupted by the other information the android was giving. A bounty hunter? What was a Kami Tracker? Tal'Uhn knew he couldn't do this--tracking a dangerous killer around a ship with aliens he'd never met before? He was a scientist! This would have to be a job for the other two-Aylen and... what was its name?

Tal'Uhn spoke, ignoring Aylen's strange cat-and-mouse comment. "Well, if we're going to be working together, I need to know names. Then we can work out how you're going to take down the... Kami Tracker."

Tasi chuckled and tapped some commands into her Omni-Tool and activated Tweedle Dee's sensors, assuming the External sensor net didnt take a hit "Nothing coming up on Tweedle Dee's sensors...It must be either out of ranged or somewhere where his senseors cannot detect. I am going to run a diagnostic on the Sensor Relays to see if they are working" She said and continued to tap key after key into the display

Tasi remembered very well their bond. Her and Jeav had the crazy idea a very long time ago to save as many as they could. They were almost family and in a sense, already family. It was hard for her to transcribe those words to her for they already knew "Alright....looks like we have partial sensors. Assuming they can handle a scan, we should be able to track the Kami's ship. However, our weapon systems are still offline so I dont know what good it will do. Give me a second" She said and touched the console with her three fingered hand and closed her eyes "Ugh....so much feedback and garbage........there"

All around the farm, the sentry drones that lines the floors and walls, blinked on with white lights for the eyes looking around. Quickly they stood up and set to work "I am assuming direct control over Drone 7342" She said and mentally interfaced with one of the larger drones and started to direct the clean up of the bombs, obtaining scans from them "Alright.....lets deactivate these bombs before the Kami starts to set them off.....Jeav, can you set up a dampening field around the Farm just in case the Kami cannot set the detonation signal?" She asked her through her own body while still interfaced with the drone