Animus Veritas: Humanity's Last Home

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Steven Jones and S.A.L.U.S.​

Steven was not one to question his betters. Veritas, his parents, Zeetch's brother, anyone above him in the chain of command was there to be followed, not questioned. They were sometimes wrong in the orders or advise they gave, but it was not Steven's place to ignore or deny them. On the subject of his muteness, he had only heard two truths from his betters. His parents and Veritas all said that it was impossible to fix, and (at first) the healers said they were confident that they could fix it. Steven was still a child when he'd given up hope that he could be made whole, and in the years since, the healers' insistence that they could fix him had become an annoyance. Zeetch was no different. Steven would enjoy the moment where, after this mission, Zeetch would be humbled.

The group moved through the ship, Steven quickly realizing that he did not recognize some of the tech he was walking past. He'd joined the squad at Veritas' request, but he would have volunteered anyway just for this opportunity. If the mission wasn't so important, he could spend days breaking apart these different machines and seeing how the gears turned, literally and figuratively. Some of what he walked past seemed simple, easily understood despite being designed differently than the tech he was used to, but there were devices that he didn't at first understand the purpose of. Resolved in following the directive of the mission, he forced himself to continue through the ship with his group, hoping that he would still be granted the opportunity to have a longer look at this ship afterwards.

Some of these items had yellow liquid on them, which Sally and Zeetch had both identified as some kind of insect blood. When Aimee and Sade started forming a plan of action, Steven checked his gun to make sure that Sally's combat application was online before nodding in agreement with Sade's plan and standing beside them. He followed orders. So long as they didn't get him killed, Steven didn't care who they came from.
 
April "Anthony" Abel – Middle Deck​


A sad expression formed on Anthony's face as the group proceeded from exterior to interior decks. Unintelligible rooms, roots growing through the decks. It was in a sad shape. He wished he could help it like he was helping Animus Veritas. Anthony kept his Materializer Box pressed to his chest as they made their way to the cargo hold. He followed Nolan's motion and halted. Anthony took that time to take out his map and check their surroundings. Once Nolan began speaking again, Anthony looked up at him.

"I-I'd rather we try not and confront anything really big…I vote we press on," spoke Anthony in a low tone. He tried to match Nolan's tone but couldn't quite get it. "…There also seems to be a console in the middle of the room according to my map. Um, perhaps that may be a point of interest as well?"
 
Thoko - Midfielders
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-----------"Ruth here, from the lower deck team. Whatever it was that attacked the people here, Ah think we found it at the bottom of the ship. It's an insect, or somethin' lahke it, and it's big… and it's already gotten one've ours. Kholar."-------------


Fuck. The word clung so tight in Thoko's throat that he could not even speak it. The mission had lasted a handful of minutes and there was already another dead body to recover, another family to mourn, and another reason to question why the hell he was here. He recognized the voice of Ruth before she finished her name. He had heard the voce many a time in the hydroponics bays. Much more than she had heard his. It was the accent of an uneducated hillbilly bumpkin and yet endearing, genuine, and strangely captivating. Were anyone else to talk like that it would drive him slightly mad. And yet it was not anyone, it was Ruth. It was clear others felt similarly about it or she wouldn't have been such a poster child of the hydroponics team. Her charisma had quickly found her in management. Thoko's charisma had him left him cleaning the plumbing.

Thoko's feet seemed to ache with each step. His body was begging him to not press forward. But he did. Ruth's voice didn't seem too concerned about what lived in these barren halls. Perhaps this would be just like his childhood chasing rats through the bowels of Veritas. This was just a game. It was only a game. He would be fine. This was a one sided sport. He repeated those words in his head like a mantra as report was given from Nolan. Signs of something big. It was still a game. Big could be handled. Big could be slow. Thoko's left hand gently slid up to the launcher system strapped across his back, caressing its metallic curves subconsciously. He would only pull it out if necessary to keep the dexterity of his pistol, but the cool touch of the cannon soothed his nerves. After the meeker report from Anthony, Thoko finally stomached a voice that was not his own. It was a voice that reminded him of his father.

"I want that console. Accessing that thing could be more productive than this entire operation." His mind had assured itself that a successful snatch of that console might mean they could gather more intel about this place and leave. Perhaps they could give this insane mission to some team of experts who would practice and prepare every inch of a new plan to be executed in the future. A plan that did not involve Thoko. However, a hunger that was not his own dripped in his voice. Something in his body truly wanted to know what this place was, wanted to use the information from that console, wanted to fight.

"We are in the beast's lair; I'm not sure how that translates to us setting a trap. If there is a trap to be set than I'm sure it's waiting for us… The violence of action is to our advantage."
 
'So much for that,' was the thought as he stepped aside to let Aimee slip past his frame that would have otherwise blocked off a good deal of the entrance. As the more agile scout slipped up the ladders with agility that he could only wish to match, Morris nonetheless reslung his weapon and proceeded up after her. It took a bit of time for everyone else to gather on the floor and in that time their scout had already dashed on ahead and out of view. With a muffled sigh, he grasped sword and board before moving forward after her trail.

For a while there doesn't seem to be much signs of a struggle. While there are the occasional blood stains, quickly revealed to be insect in origin, for the most part it looked to be more decrepit and rundown than the aftermath of a fight for the crew's survival. While catching up hadn't been a priority, the moment his comm crackled to life with Aimee's voice and her discovery, he gave a sharp nod to signal an increase in pace and the group arrived at the hall in short order.

While Sade and Steven busied themselves with the rooms to their right, Morris made his way towards the room at the end of the hallway. The scene that had startled Aimee wasn't hard to miss and he only glanced at it for a moment before surveying his surroundings more carefully. While morbidly curious at what lay within the furthest room, Morris pushed that curiosity aside as he withdrew back towards the others. It didn't look like they'd have too much issue running into trouble as the situation was, no need to go out of his way to find some.
 
Upper Deck Team
(Map.)​

As Sade opens the first door, she would find a small assortment of toys scattered across the metallic floor, along with a bag. Most of them depicted creatures that were unfamiliar to her. Within the room was an electronic terminal, though it had long since been salvaged or destroyed for parts. There were three bunk beds on each side of the room, maximizing the efficiency of the space with footlockers built into the base of each bed. Just as it seemed as though there was nothing more to investigate in the room, Sade would be able to hear high pitched, though quiet chittering, followed with the sound of one of the footlockers quickly closing. It was the footlocker on the bunk bed closest to the door on the left side of the room. Something was inside.

Aimee's search through the hallway quietly and quickly turned up a hidden vent. The ship had a similar configuration to Animus Veritas, and thus it wasn't difficult to find the disguised vent behind the thin wall panel. It was still locked, implying that no animal had broken it recently. Unless they were intelligent enough to figure out locked panels. It appeared mechanically locked instead of electronically on Animus Veritas, meaning that it would be easier to break. Before she could even consider such an action however, a scream is heard from the third room. Veritas quickly spoke in their radios mid-scream. "Scream matches voice patterns of Egidia Fullcrum to within 98.4% probability. Unknown low-band distortion detected."

Zeetch Vanderfeld looked at the third room and immediately scrambled for his materializer box as he hid behind Morris. He hesitates, then smiles a little. "Well... She's still alive. I think. Someone want to go first?" He was nervous, and plainly not suited for the front line of combat.

Middle Deck Team
(Map.)​

Katrina glanced to Kain as he spoke about Anthony. She shakes her head as a sly smile crosses her lips. "Envious, are we?" As they catch up to Nolan, she whistles and has her drones return to her. Looking to everyone around her, she waits for one of the men to proceed. She looks to Nolan first, then Thoko: Neither of them appeared to do anything. Kain was busy protecting Anthony, who gave a most astounding revelation: There was a console at the center of the room. Though she tried to hide the irritation on her face, it was plain and obvious for everyone to see as she rested her face in her palms for a moment and sighed. "You're all not very used to team work, are you?" She whispers to her drones and sends them scattering across the room. "Cover me." Readying her laser rifle, she waits a few moments for the four drones to scatter, and then bolts over to the console.

There was no interference.

With little effort, Katrina slides over-top of the console looks around the room. Scratching the back of her head, she lowers her rifle, though keeps it held in one hand as she looks over the console. Before she could investigate further, one of her probes squeaks in terror before the sound of metal being shredded graces the ears of everyone in the room. She suddenly turns and pulls her rifle up, looking in the direction of her dead drone. "Uh, boys... I can either watch my ass, or work on the console. I can't do both at the same time. It has some power damage but I can fix it, but uh... If I can get a little... You know... Cover. For my ass."

Lower Deck Team
(Map.)​

Marietta nods with approval as Ruth, Kyine, and Irving join her on the lower deck. She focuses her firearm's flashlight at the left passage's corner as damsel turns it. Everyone took their positions without issue as Damsel disappeared around the corner. Damsel would find itself looking through a virtually alien environment, looking more like an artificially terraformed hive than anything else. The deck plating was coated in a dark green-black, silicon-based substance that remained dry despite the humid climate the rest of the planet was subjected to. Looking around, Damsel's sensors would detect the low, foreign growl of an unknown entity that leaps from the shadows at it. Though Damsel manages to flirt with death and flits backward at the last second, an almost metallic-looking scythe rips through its frontal displays, damaging them and leaving a great deal of static in its vision.

As Damsel falls back into the hall, the creature pursues and leaps after it. It misses Damsel on its second strike, burying one of its scythe-like claws into the ship's hull. It shrieks as it is shot by Marietta Cowen and Irving in one of its six legs and its torso each respectively. It turns to leap on them, but seems momentarily trapped between a fight or flight response upon sighting Kyine. This proves a fatal error on the creature's part as Ruth plants a close range spread-shot blast to its head, blowing apart the brain cavity and sending a mixture of yellow and black blood spraying against the wall. Damsel, meanwhile, returns to Ruth with a badly damaged head: Though it remained functional, its ability to discern the environment visually would take several minutes to repair even with a Materializer Box on standby.

As the heat cools off the barrel of Marietta's laser rifle, she turns to see Clyde trot over to Irving, having been lowered safely. With Alkazar and Kiera presumably immediately behind them, Marietta looks to the group, and then to the corpse of the alien. She adjusts her collar, and then speaks quietly into her radio to her entire squad. "If anyone here is a doctor or biologist, you might want to get a look at the corpse and see if it has any weak points... We should also determine a leader while Kiera and Alkazar reroute to us. We can't have multiple people calling the shots at once. A chain of command must be established before we pick a path and proceed." She maintains a lookout position, protecting the group and being ready to fire in reaction to any additional creatures if necessary. Leadership was still not plainly a comfortable position for her, though it seemed she would do it if nobody else would.​
 
Varsel | Upper Decks​

Although he was a little late to arrive in the room with the others, Varsel heard the reports of Edgia's scream given by Lord Veritas themself. His body tensed a little with worry. 98.4% probability... there was no doubt that was Edgia, and they had to get moving as soon as possible. Varsel had considered other options thanks to the useful scouting information provided, but now Edgia's life took full priority. Surely the 1.6% chance and the 'low-band distortion' couldn't be anything else... could it? The chances of these beetles or whatever being able to mimic voices sounded very unlikely.

"We should make haste. I'll check there's no immediate danger behind the door, then we'll move up." Varsel whispered hurriedly; he would've spent time for the more tactical members of the group to make a plan, but doing so could mean Edgia would be killed or injured in the time doing so. Sending in drones or scouts could be an option, but something could be directly behind the door for all they knew. That was why Varsel was going to take a defensive point first, then move up once everything was clear. He did his best to remain quiet enough not to alert everything in the ship, but doing so wasn't Varsel's speciality.

Quietly, Varsel opened the door, crouching into his >Unbreakable position with his shield as the door opened. He crouched low enough for others to hop over him if need be, but if any hostiles were sighted, Varsel would ensure they'd have a hard time getting to the others behind him.

Squinting as he surveyed the room, Varsel finds the room to be empty--the only two things of interest he could note were a broken terminal, and a strange insectoid. It has a humanoid-like structure to it, being bipedal with two arms. It, however, shared more in common with insects than humans, having a pair of folded wings on its back similar to those of a grasshopper. Exoskeletal armour coated its limbs and torso, save at joints, with a dark green colouration to it. Its hands, strangely, seemed nearly identical to human hands.

In its hands was a helmet, likely the one that Egidia wore as its built-in camera was replaying a series of events. The insectoid drops the helmet as Varsel opens the door, and hisses at him. Its hands retract into the large exoskeletal armour around its wrists, with a pair of short, serrated, knife-like weapons, taking the place of its hands. It crouches low, seemingly ready to pounce and attack anyone who approached it.

Varsel's stance became more rigid as he took in this strange, insectoid creature. He wasn't scared, for he knew Veritas was behind him, but he was certainly confused. The human hands... what did they mean?
"A helmet. Perhaps that will give us some clues to what's going on. As for this... creature... it seems hostile, but not fully aggressive. We should proceed with caution; we may be able to avoid a fight." Varsel mumbled.

If any of his brothers or sisters needed him for this situation, he would gladly serve as their shield. But he was sure everybody in the room had their own plan of how to approach this situation in their head.

>Varsel will defend anyone who wants to move up upon request.
>Varsel will distract/hold off the insectoid upon request.
>Varsel will remain in >Unbreakable< stance in the doorway upon request.
 
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Sade Bilbrey
Upper Deck
​
At first, the skittering noise had piqued her curiosity, and she was about to take a step forward to investigate when she heard Vertias' voice in her ear. A 90 whatever percent chance was more than good enough for her and she decided to leave the first room untouched for now. She turned to Steven, "Change of plans, guy. Egidia takes priority over snooping." Not knowing what exactly had been running around in those quarters, the blonde took the initiative to seal the door back up. That would put a little bit of time and distance between them in case whatever it was became hostile. It seemed like they would be dealing with others beyond the doorway where Varsel was currently crouched.

She didn't want to crowd him, but she also wasn't suicidal. Charging past him wasn't likely to result in anything more pleasant than stab wounds. The insectoid creature bore some rather sharp looking excuses for hands and she was suddenly quite glad that she'd closed the other door. Last thing they needed was a stabbing sneak attack from one of its comrades.


Standing behind Varsel, Sade whispered, "Don't go charging in just yet." Time was of the essence, but rushing in didn't seem too smart just yet. She gestured and brought Angry Johnny close, giving the instruction, "Prepare a nice pile of boom in case this goes sour." Piloting the drone forward into the room, she watched as he shed a bit of light over the floor as he moved almost soundlessly. She wondered if the creature would understand them if they communicated with it. It wasn't her first choice to engage in combat, as she was worried about something happening to the helmet. Clearing her throat, she glanced back at Zeetch, as if questioning what she was about to do.

"Uh hey... hey there. I don't know if you know what I'm saying, but we're not here to hurt you. We just want a look at that helmet, the one you just dropped," the techie spoke directly towards the alien, careful to keep her tone light. She knew she wasn't going to be winning any diplomacy awards with that attempt, but it was better than nothing. Tapping Varsel on the shoulder, she suggested, "Maybe we should move a bit closer. I want to be as close as possible to that helmet in case things don't go over peacefully."
​
Irving Forfax
Lower Deck
​
Irving stood, marveling at the creature. Even past the brain splatter, it was incredibly interesting. First and foremost, though, he turned back to his mechanical companion, "Go make yourself useful, will ya?" He waved a hand to the left, indicating the direction where this thing had come from. Clyde trundled forward and positioned himself in front of that entrance. Once the bull was in place, Irving touched his beard lightly and thought for a moment. He decided to investigate the corpse that was left behind. Marietta was right. If they were going to get any further down here, they would probably have to deal with a few more. Any weaknesses they could ascertain would only serve to save their hides in the not-so-distant future.

Registering what the woman had said, he responded without turning back to face the group, "If any of you are getting impatient, feel free to urge Clyde forward. Just stay behind him." Reaching out to tap the blade that had gotten embedded in the hull, he continued, "I'm going to see what I can learn from this bugger."​
 
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April "Anthony" Abel – Middle Deck​

"You're all not very used to team work, are you?" That was accurate. Anthony watched as Katrina made her way to, and then investigates, the console. Anthony took a few steps forward before squeaks of terror and then the shredding of metal resonating in his ears caused him to halt. Instinctively he took a step back biting his lower lip. It seemed as if his wish of not wanting to confront anything big probably wasn't coming true. Though, knowing he was surrounded by people with high-powered rifles while having someone ordered to protect him helped his confidence, he didn't want to wait until someone got hurt to be useful.

Soon would he make his way to the console as well, and as he passed Katrina he would mutter an apology. Anthony stationed himself north of the console. He figured he probably should have awaited orders from Nolan, someone obviously more experienced, but it was a bit too late for that. He awaited a scolding from both Nolan and Kain. Anthony placed his Materializer Box beside him before kneeling and focusing on the containers from which the sounds originated from. Anthony took the tranquilizer rifle from his back then aimed forward. If something were to pop out he hoped they were vulnerable to sedative. To slow whatever…thing was there so the others could take advantage.
 
Ruth Sampson
Lower Deck

Ruth squeezed the trigger of her shotgun, firing off a snap shot at the creature as it tumbled in from around the corner. She had seen it appear on Damsel's screen, if only for the briefest moment, and when Damsel backed up and came into view Ruth knew exactly what was coming next. Marrietta and Irving had both made shots of their own at the alien, at its legs and torso respective, but Ruth was aiming for something much more vital. An explosion of metal blades erupted from the barrel of the gun, the tight spread of the weapon striking the side of the creature's head, and caving in its skull in an instant. It collapsed to the ground, most of its brain matter sprayed against the wall, and the fighting ended as quickly as it had started. Ruth never lowered her weapon, her eyes locked on the passage that the creature had come from, as she slowly, manually guided Damsel back to her side. The feed to her headpiece had been disrupted, and the cameras that took the place of Damsel's "eyes" had been completely crippled by the attack.

Only when she was completely convinced that nothing else was going to attack them, and Irving's mechanical bull blocked the passage with his huge, hulking frame, did Ruth lower her shotgun. She let Damsel rest upon her now extended forearm and retracted his wings, allowing her to investigate the injuries in greater detail. The damage to Damsel's exoskeleton, particularly along his face, was extensive, although it had shielded the majority of his internal components well. The cameras were almost beyond repair though. In ideal conditions with a suitable replacement, fixing a new camera to Damsel would take only moments, but Ruth had not brought a replacement with her and she worried even an artificer's magic box would not be able to produce a replacement in an instant.

Ruth cursed under her breath, before turning to face her team. "Damsel's eyes've been completely torn t'pieces. Don't suppose any of ya' could use your fancy magic boxes to whip up a new camera for him, could you? Ah don't have a replacement on me," she asked, her vision flitting between Alkazar and Kiera. She would allow either of them to inspect Damsel's damages if they were willing to help and so wished to so they could see what was needed produce a suitable replacement. Ruth allowed Damsel to rest in the meantime, his legs coiling around her forearm and holding on tightly.

"What about the other path? Do we want to be snuck up on from behahnd?" asked Ruth, as she very tentatively peered down the right passage, making sure to keep her gun raised and ready to fire just in case one of those things appeared again. "Ah don't think we should split up, but who knows how many of those things mahght be down here. If this ladder is our only way back, we don't want it blocked off by some giant alien insect."
 
Lower Deck - Kiera
​
Kiera hopped off the ladder shortly after Marietta finished giving her suggestions for how they should proceed. She thought for a short moment before pointing to Clyde. "Clyde is the strongest, and he's Irving's companion, so that means Irving is the leader." There was not a shred of doubt in her voice, despite what others might view as dubious reasoning at best.

With the matter of leadership settled as far as she was concerned, Kiera hurried over to Ruth and Damsel. "I'll help him!" She looked over the damaged hardware while murmuring quietly to the mechanical dragonfly. "Poor Damsel. We'll get you fixed up in no time, don't you worry. Good thing that mean old monster is dead, else I'd shove a grenade down its throat for doing this to you." As soon as she was familiar enough with the camera to envision a duplicate, she sent her Materializer Box a mental command to start producing one. It didn't take long at all due to the diminutive size of what was being made, and so she handed Ruth a replacement for the cameras after only a brief wait and gave the woman a broad grin. "No problem at all for my Hyperdrive Materilizer Box, see?"

Ruth's worry about attackers coming from behind became Kiera's next task to tackle, because she had an idea that she'd wanted to use for a very long time but never had the opportunity to try safely. She'd seen all sorts of useful explosives in a book she'd found when exploring Animus Veritas once, and one of them would be perfect for securing a hall: a claymore mine. One of those would send hundreds of small steel balls shooting down the hall for about one hundred meters, and that was using positively ancient levels of explosive technology. She could make it better by creating a high explosive version, and instead of the manual detonation switch the old ones used she could instead create it with a directional motion sensor that would trigger it to activate if anything came into the kill zone. Given the size of the ship and the relatively low load of explosive material in such a mine, it was possible they'd get too far away to hear the claymore go off and would have no idea that more baddies might be following behind whatever got blasted by the steel balls, so she also decided to make a small speaker with a transmitter linked up to the motion sensor that would make an annoying buzzing sound if the mine went off. With her creations in mind, Kiera set her Materializer Box to make them. She figured it would be a good idea to inform her companions of her new toy in the making, and so she did: "Don't worry about our backs, I'm gonna set up a trap in the hall we don't take. Anything trying to sneak up on us will be shredded and deaded. I just need to know which way we're going so I can put the mine in the other hall."​
 
Keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings revealed no visible dangers, but Morris nevertheless kept vigilant as the others of the group explored and investigated the area. Eerie atmosphere aside, things seemed relatively calm for the most part until, of course, that air was shattered by a distinctively human and female scream. He spared only a moment to glance in the room's direction before he quickly scanned the surrounding area once more, watchful for anything that might have been attracted by the noise.

Given that Varsel had already begun to move towards the door, Morris simply spun around to watch the path the group had come from; the doorway wasn't large enough for two power armors. Upon actually seeing Zeetch, Morris gave a slight nod to indicate the man should move once more to stay behind him. "Looks like Varsel's got it." The door opened with a hiss and he shifted slightly to keep Varsel just in his periphery vision even if his attention was mostly focused back down the hall. A few steps back to put the second door just slightly ahead of him made that all the easier.

Apparently there was something inside the room that wasn't Egidia, but curiosity was quashed for making sure nothing sprung up on the group. Given that Sade seemed to have sealed the first door behind her, he could only imagine that there had been something in that room. Still… with her in the middle of talking with something, it didn't seem like the best time to ask her a question and working with the assumption that something might come bursting out of that room was manageable anyways.
 
Steven Jones and S.A.L.U.S.
Upper Deck​

Following Sade's lead, Steven joined the rest of the group at the doorway to the third room. Everyone was readying themselves for a potential attack, but no one was acting unreasonably confrontational or hostile towards the monster in the room. Lowering the setting of his voice application to a whisper, he sent a quiet message to his teammates: "This creature has basic shell-based armor and fights with melee weapons. Either its the insect equivalent of our Warriors or it belongs to a more primitive species. If we can't communicate with it peacefully, I don't expect the fight to be much of a challenge, but obviously that's best avoiced. Zeetch, you're not exactly intimidating, so I suggest you try talking to it."

Steven then wrote up a command to S.A.L.U.S. and linked her connection to Animus Veritas. Using her already-on scavenger scanning application, he directed her sensors to the creature and gave Sally the orders to gather all the information she could, then send it to Animus Veritas. Sally's information storage was impressive, but the Animus Veritas' was vastly superior, and even if the creature wasn't in the files, the information given by Sally might give the team something helpful in regards to communicating with or fighting the monster. "Orders received. Scanning now."
 
Kain - Middle Deck
​
Kain stood befuddled for a moment at Katrina's quip, but soon followed after her and the medic with giant strides. "Hardly," was his belated response as he caught the pair at the mouth of the hold. He, like the others, had been waiting on Nolan to issue orders when Katrina had recalled her drones and had remained silent when the girl remarked on their teamwork. However, the frown he had glued to his face since the onset of the expedition probably revealed that he didn't much care for his teammates, never mind know how to work with them.

When the drone muffled its death scream his hand sped to his weapon. After a moment to register his grip the sword magnetically disengaged from his armor with a swift tug and slid to extend as he brought it before himself, the other hand rushing to grasp the handle. The teeth of the blade whisked out in a satisfying click. Weapon drawn, he was scanning the limitless ceiling when the medic had slipped away from him and advanced into the room. By the time the young boy was passing the console Kain was in pursuit, rushing forward with quick, heavy strides slowing only once as his eyes darted anxiously across the darkness. "What the fuck are you doing?" He scolded, still a few paces behind the boy and apparently no longer trying to be mindful of noise.
 
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Thoko-- Middle Deck​

There was a crisp moment of awkwardness after Thoko's words. Perhaps his team was thinking. Perhaps they too were terrified of this strange, damp, dangerous place. Perhaps the one person without any qualms about running head ling into the lair was Katrina. After a quick tort at the group's apprehension, she peeled off at full speed towards the center of the room. When Thoko had mentioned aggression this was certainly not his idea of the phrase. Slow was smooth. Smooth was fast. This was mania.

Thoko cycled the action of his pistol and positioned himself behind the hulking mass of Kain. He kept his left arm outstretched to maintian a gentle touchpoint on the warrior's back in order to match his pace as he shuffled side step covering the pair's East flank. Thoko had moved with team cover before on multiple occasions but only ever in combat with raiders, and then only ever to disarm a known explosive near Veritas's hull. This was a different ball game entirely. He had no idea what was lurking in this place. He didn't even know if the other two teams were still alive.

Thoko's jaw clenched tighter as he felt Kain hesitate before moving past the last perimeter of cover. Katrina had pressed further into the bowels of the cargo hold directly for the console. Sweat poured down Thoko's pistol wielding hand as he maintained his axis of fire on the empty crates. Perhaps the center of this room would be the best place for them after all. Those containers and crevices could hold any manner of vile creatures. At least the center would provide them with a ranged buffer from any kind of crazed-entropic-melee-berserker-insect-villain-vortex-of-murder-pain-and-broken-dreams.

As Kain passed the console, Thoko broke from his shadowing position and immediately slid knees first to the ancient device. "I'll take the console. You cover my ass." Thoko immediately holstered his pistol under his left shoulder and started to work on unlocking the secrets of the console. He scanned the device with his hands for a way to turn it on or at least pry it open in order to see its contents. "Veritas. Talk to me old lady. What am I looking at here." He said between gritted teeth.
 
Aimee Vera - Upper Deck​

She crouches down and begins to work on the locks as everyone else begins to dart towards the door which the scream had come from. Whatever was that way, they had crowded the door and there would be more than enough there to cover it. Here, there was some use for her talents. Licking her lips, her stealth features begin to take hold once more as she jiggers the lock open. The vent swings wide open and she smiles widely behind her visor. Over the commsystem, she relays to her squadmates, "Investigating the ventilation system. Going to see if we can get to the other side of the blocked room from here. Be careful." She starts into the ventilation shaft and unknown.

She would find herself amongst an intricate series of ducts, that seemed to sprawl in every direction. If she chose to pursue such options further, she'd be working in low light conditions, and would be separated from the group.

Aimee huddles over herself and fumbles with the map in her hand, unsure and not liking the maze she was seeing at first. She adjusts the settings to track the pathways she would be taking in order to keep a breadcrumb trail to retrace in order to be able to make it back as she starts off at an angle to the left.

It doesn't take her long to find a vent above the room in question, though it was not above the insectoid itself.

Aimee looks down at the scene below silently and removes the vent cover as quiet as can be. She smirks and attempts to slip down, stealthily to disarm and subdue the insectoid from behind.

Kyine Lherox - Lower Deck​
Kyine furrows her brow at what Kiera said about Irving being the leader. "Only so long as the good doctor wishes the duty," she rolls her shoulders, looking out ahead at Clyde's haunches and the silicon-coated room beyond. "If he does not, I will bear the task of leadership." She nods towards everyone, "Good idea to cover the other route, I think Clyde and I will take a quick peek up ahead." She pats Clyde and murmurs for him to head on up towards the silicon area so that she could better investigate the silicon structures, their purpose and what they could tell them about the creatures that reside down here; hopefully without getting too close or out of sight from the group.[/hr]
 
Alkazar: Lower Deck​

Having rejoined the team Alkazar began examining the ship section they were in with disgust. Nothing of worth would allow such decay to set in. "Allow the meat-sack as leader. No I would not. The leader should be someone with the expertise required by our objective, like myself or Kiera, since she does not apparently seek leadership, it should be I." Alkazar stated. "But I certainly will not tolerate some mud-dragger being put in as leader on the mentally handicapped piece of logic that because he has a mechanical bull he should be leader."

He examined the hull and began orienting on the expected objective area. "But let's get moving, now."
 
"Silent McBroody? More like small, dark and gorgeous. Brilliant, as well. Any woman who can shoot like I've heard she does has to know a thing or two about being a hunter." -Kyine Lherox, Page 1.

Upper Deck Team
(Map.)​

As Varsel takes a protective stance at the doorway, Zeetch approaches from behind Varsel. Slipping past the armoured man, but remaining close enough to duck for cover in case of trouble, he raises both of his hands, trying to show that he was non-threatening to the creature along with Sade. He motions to the helmet, drawing the creature's eyes there. "Intelligence... Maybe... He was trying to figure out what the device was?" His optimism shined through only briefly as Aimee descends onto the creature from above. The creature reacts in time to evade the attack, leaping aside and swinging for Aimee's torso. It only manages to scratch her cheek as her feet leap away from the creature the moment they hit the deck. A rather superficial cut, but it bled nonetheless, and stung too.

The creature hisses lowly, now a half a dozen feet away from the helmet as Zeetch slowly approached it. "Hey... It's okay... Nobody meant to hurt you..." He tries saying, only to watch the creature hiss at him and raise both of its knife-carrying limbs. At that range and angle, both Aimee and Zeetch were quickly able to determine that it couldn't be disarmed without literally ripping a piece of its arm off, as they seemed to be incredibly sophisticated spines of some sort. Zeetch motions to the helmet, and the creature looks at it again. The medic then motions to himself, then back to the helmet, before slowly approaching it once more. The creature allowed it this time, though remained highly tense as Zeetch retrieved the helmet and quickly took several steps back.

Zeetch quickly glances over the helmet, and scratches the back of his head as SALUS finishes her scan and the process of sending it back to Animus Veritas. The ship replies, though the AI sounded somewhat confused by the data. "Limited information broadcast due to long distance. Physical structure implies unnatural evolution rather than natural adaption, possibly by genetic mutation or advanced cross-species breeding from multiple generations in its ancestry. No capacity to speak human languages and human capacity to understand its vocalizations is highly limited, though a device could be created if the creature were returned for further observation. Creature is likely of on par intelligence to homo sapiens, though further analysis can only be derived by detailed and intensive brain scan. SALUS unit is not capable of such a scan without significant time. Suggest communication through common body language, hand gestures should prove especially effective."

The medic starts contacting the ship about the data in the helmet, though he glanced at Aimee's wound with open concern in his eyes.

Middle Deck Team
(Map.)​

Katrina watches as everyone else approaches over with appreciation, though found herself quickly shoved aside by Thoko as he moved to examine the console with Veritas' support. As everyone watches his back, a few moments of silence pass before Animus Veritas replies to Thoko's question with a surprising speed. "I have come to the conclusion that the console is in an unpowered state. Have you tried checking the power cables, or looked for a power switch?" The AI seemed mildly amused in its response as Katrina rolled her eyes and shoved Thoko out of the way to rip a panel out from underneath the console. "Boys and their toys," she mutters with a frustrated tone of voice given previous comments by others towards her. Whatever creature took out one of her drones appeared to remain in hiding for the given moment, assuming it was still in that location as Katrina finished bringing the console to life. "There, sunshine! Now you can ask Veritas. In fact, I'll do it for you. Mom, any idea what the console does?" Animus Veritas replies after a brief delay. "It appears to be a switch board of identical configuration to some of my own. It controls the doors to the other cargo rooms. It should also have a sensor panel at the center of the console. If it does, you can attempt to track the movements of possible forces, though given the age and damage to it, it will likely only tell you the number of living things per room, rather than give a precise location or identify friend or foe."

Lower Deck Team
(Map.)​

Marietta nodded in agreement to Irving taking command, though irritation crossed her face at multiple people demanding the same role. Nonetheless, noting that the right side was aptly covered, she slipped past Irving and moved ahead with Kyine to cover her advance. Wordlessly, she moved swiftly and silently against the metal deck plating, which gave way to the silicone materials underneath her feet. Glancing around at them with suspicion, she pulled out her map and quietly spoke into her radio to Animus Veritas. "Which direction to the vital component?" The AI hesitates a moment before responding to the entire group. "Unknown, the ship configuration is similar to mine, but not identical." Marietta bites her lip and speaks again. "Take a guess then." The AI replies, simply. "North of your current position." Marietta closes her eyes momentarily, and then sets to keeping an eye on the hallway southward until the others caught up.

Irving wouldn't be able to discover too much from the corpse underneath his feet. Several signs pointed to a natural evolution given the planet's environment, though it didn't appear capable of creating any of the artificial silicone environment in the nearby room. Given its configuration however, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that they were both fast and strong, and fairly durable. It would be difficult to take them down. On the other hand, they appeared bound to melee, with their forward limbs appearing to be heavier than what was most efficient for their overall size--meaning that if they missed their initial lunge, it took them a few moments to recover to try again.

Ruth is easily able to repair Damsel given materials by Kiera, and Kiera finds no interruption in planting her claymore.
 
Steven Jones, S.A.L.U.S. and The Bug (Brovo)
Upper Deck​

Immediately after hearing Animus Veritas' conclusion, Steven moved past Varsel while writing a simple message that was sent to everyone's headset. "Stand down, all. This will take more than words." He then took a few slow steps to Zeetch, lowering his gun as he got between the medic and the monster. Bowing slightly forward, Steven set his gun to his side, to show the monster that he was disarming himself but not giving the gun to it. Looking to Aimee, he lightly pressed on Sally's screen and sent her the message "Leave. Morris should look at that cut."

Steven then begun gesturing at himself and his friends while looking at the monster, then began looking at the ground as if searching for something, then pointed at the helmet Zeetch was holding. We were searching for this, Steven tried to say in these actions. This is all that we were here for.

The insectoid glanced over Steven, looking at his finger as it pointed at the floor, then at the helmet. It didn't appear to understand the message Steven was attempting to send, but the disarmament was met in kind as the insectoid retracted its blades back into its large forearm-exoskeletal pads, and brought its own hands back out. It points at itself, then motions towards the door, past Varsel. It then points towards the opposite wall, then brings its arms together over its stomach, hands together gently, making a cradling motion back and forth briefly. It takes a step away from the wall toward Steven, seemingly seeking understanding, as its hands drop back down to its sides. That close to it, it was very clear that while its eyes were embedded in its head akin to those of mammals, that its eyes were compound eyes: That is, hundreds of hexagonal cylinders, rather than a smooth surface like with human eyes.

So Animus Veritas was right. It wasn't a primitive or lesser creature, simply another being, something potentially created in a lab but certainly not something worth disrespecting. Steven and the bug-like creature were equals, and had shown equal respect towards one another. Furthermore, it seemed that they were both on a mission, both looking for something lost. The creature was, unless Steven didn't understand it properly, looking for some sort of baby or toddler. They'd seen a toy in the outer hall, but not a child, nor any other living creatures. The best Steven could offer was a way out of the room. He nodded in understanding at the creature's pantomimes and wrote a quick message to the group. "Bug's looking for a missing kid. Varsel, let it pass." To allow the bug to understand, he also looked at Varsel, pointing at him and then gesturing to the side, letting the creature know that he was telling the man to move out of the way.
 
Sade Bilbrey
Upper Deck
​
Sade stepped aside immediately. Getting between any type of animal that was on edge and looking for a child was bad news in any situation. She got Angry Johnny back by her side, making sure that the insectoid could see that the weaponized hunk of metal was no longer in range to be a threat. With Steven's interpretation alongside what she saw the bug doing with her own eyes, she wagered a guess. Taking her hands and imitating the cradling motion, she pointed down the hall, back towards the door she had originally opened and closed once she heard movement from within. The floor had been littered with toys and something had definitely been in there. Miming opening a door, she repeated the rocking motion once more. Hopefully that would convey the fact that she was pretty sure there'd been a child in that first living quarters they had entered.

"I'll go and open the door real quick," she suggested to the team. Walking a few slow steps back, leaving AJ behind with the group, palms open and exposed to the creature, she took a few steps towards the door once more. She gestured outwards and then back to herself, indicating that she hoped the bug would follow her.
​
Irving Forfax
Lower Deck
​
He wasn't satisfied by what he discovered about the bug. In fact, he'd been hoping to discover a weakness so glaring that he'd be able to tell the sharpshooter exactly where to aim and fire. Alas, he relayed the information back to the group, "Killing another one of these is going to be hard, but keeping our distance should be as good a strategy as any. They don't look like they can use weapons with these blades of theirs." With that said, he stood up straight and tapped Alkazar on the shoulder, "So that puts you at the helm. Point and shoot and don't get us killed."

On the one hand, he was glad the responsibility of leading had been passed off over his head. At the same time, he admitted a bit of disdain for the metal man. He didn't seem qualified for the task of guiding anyone over a river, let alone a whole group through the bowels of a ship. Not having a better suggestion, however, he left it alone. Irving was the type of man to more or less silently do his duty. He'd protect anyone who needed it, if he could.

Approaching Kyine, Marietta, and Clyde, he peered in the direction of the silicon room and added one last thing, "It doesn't look like our bugs produced this stuff on the floor, either. So watch out in case there's something nasty lurking down that way." He waited for the artificer to point in a direction and send them forward. Clyde continued to mull around, but began drifting off in the towards the northern region of the hall.​
 
Lower Deck - Kiera​

Kiera paid little attention to the bickering about leadership, partly due to being absorbed in setting up the claymore mine and partly due to dismissing alternate claims of leadership since she'd already declared Irving the leader by the only criteria that made sense to her. Once the trap was set she hurried off to join the others. She paid more attention to the new and strange silicone floor than her surroundings and almost walked straight into Marietta. Kiera caught the end of Irving's musing about the possible dangers of the mysterious silicone, but that only intrigued her. There was a chance that it was something new and useful that Veritas could analyze and make use of, so of course she had to do something about it. "Samples, gotta get samples," she murmured quietly enough that the nearby Marietta was likely the only one to hear.

As she ambled down toward the apparent source of the silicone material, Kiera set her materializer box to make a little scalpel and a small, clear plastic box. They were simple objects and so took very little time to be created. Once they were done, she used them to cut a piece of the silicone away and placed it in the box. Task completed, Kiera felt that it wasn't enough. A sample was okay, but if she could find out how or why the stuff was made then it would be even more helpful. She stowed the box away in a bag and headed down the southward hall, not paying much attention at all to her companions, just intent on investigating the silcone room for the sake of Veritas.
 
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