Relics

Dipper

???
Original poster
LURKER MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. One post per day
  2. 1-3 posts per week
  3. One post per week
Online Availability
Shake a tin of dice and tell me what numbers they give you.
Writing Levels
  1. Adept
  2. Advanced
  3. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
Genres
Sci-Fi, Fantasy, an assortment of others. Ask and you shall receive (an answer).
Sleek appearance aside, Tararui was undoubtedly the slowest ship in the fleet. Her ShockDrive jittered, her engines spat more than they ran, and most of her engineering crew left for the Valor the moment they had the chance. She was, for all intents and purposes, a last resort ship, sent to low-value sites that were unlikely to contain anything worth bringing back to the colonies. Truly a sad little thing.

Jonathan Drake O’Malley, or JD as he so often preferred, thought she was a fine ship. His father captained her in his prime, back when she was ferrying colonists from planet to planet. Now she was little more than a glorified goose-chaser, but he loved her all the same.

JD currently sat in the ship’s small galley, sipping salty broth while his friend chattered incessantly in his ear.

“... and real, untapped iron. Can you imagine a haul like that? Three months off in compensation… Hey, you get that note from engineering?”

Verlaine leaned back against the slate-grey wall behind them. His name was Jean, but JD had never called him that. Verlaine seemed more fitting.

“Uh… about the drive?”

“Tararui’s not moving ‘till they get her drive up and running, and Command’s gettin’ real serious about this mission. JD...”

JD grumbled through a mouthful of salt.

“Think Cass’ll come along?”

“Who?” JD nearly choked. Where had all this salt come from? “The blonde? I don’t know. She’s head of security, so… I think so. Why?” He set the broth aside, appetite gone and tongue positively burning. “She’s got a pulse rifle, Jean. All the time. If you want to look down its barrel, be my guest, but I’ve got an obligation to try to convince you not to.”

Verlaine shrugged. “I know. But--”

“Leave her alone, Verlaine.”

“O’Malley?”

JD leaned forward as the staticky voice of the Captain came through. “What’s up, Captain Morely?”

“We’re heading planetside in an hour. Grab Verlaine and head down to the dock and get the Virgo ready. Morley out.”

JD ran a hand through his hair, feeling a mixture of anticipation and worry well within him. He’d flown plenty of missions, most of them planetside scouting operations to ascertain whether staying in orbit was worth the returns. Tararui’s luck was wearing thin with the amount of rock and outdated tech they’d found in the past two years, and with the ship failing despite every attempt at repairs, he wouldn’t be surprised if she were to return to a decommissioning. For now, this was their last chance to prove they could find something of value

He didn’t have high hopes, but he put on an air of confidence for Verlaine’s sake. The poor man was looking for his big break. With the way things were going, they’d all end up transferred to the Farragut, or maybe Lonesome. Both were magnetically attracted to useful scraps, nothing impressive. Nothing that could lead to the break Verlaine was waiting for.

Shoving Verlaine’s shoulder, JD stood and tossed his tin into the bin before gathering his gear and heading to the tram. Verlaine followed close behind.

Ten minutes later and they were standing in the hangar, where the Virgo sat in its dock. It was almost as old as Tararui, but never once failed and didn’t look close to it, either. A reliable, if ugly, ship. It was his, and he was damn good at flying it.

Captain Kurt Morely walked over to them and greeted them with a nod. “Rest of the crew has been notified. We’ll try to keep this one brief-- in and out, as fast as we can. If you spot anything, we can take a look, but otherwise, we’re on a tight schedule.”

“Sure thing,” JD said. “Full security?”

“Half,” Morley set his hands on his hips. “Try to go easy on them. They’re new transfers, and Tararui doesn’t need the bad rap.”

Verlaine passed by them, snatching JD’s gear from his shoulder with a smirk. “I’ll stow our gear and get Virgo warmed up. You’re better with the new kids anyways.”

JD didn’t bother retorting. He got along just fine with transfers, especially the cocky ones. They liked pilots, saw them as unassuming and harmless. JD didn’t mind. The shock of how boring these expeditions could sometimes be would break them in, and after that, they’d be much easier to work with.

He leaned his shoulder against the side of the ship and waited.
 
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It wouldn’t be long before a larger group of people would find their way to the Virgo, it appearing as though they had formed something of a posse as no doubt they had become rather close knit on the ride out into deep space. A larger man headed the group, the tilt of his smirk already spelling trouble which meant the pilot no doubt would have his hands full.

“Huh, this is the dump we’re taking? I figured it would be more… I don’t know… shinier and grandiose,” the man laughed at his own joke, a few of the others chuckling a long with him. “Senior Officer Orion Stroud, reporting.” He was obviously military by his title which meant he was nothing more than someone that knew how to handle a gun, more than likely a part of the security team.

He gave a casual salute to the man in front of them, figuring he was the pilot. “Hope you’ll be able to get us down to the surface in one piece… as long as this thing hold together,” he said as the toe of his boot gave the ship a nudge.

“Well, if you keep kicking it, no doubt it will fall apart faster,” another wise-ass said behind Stroud, the man appearing to be more of a researcher in nature, adjusting a dark set of glasses that perched on his nose. “Is this all of us? Why are we just standing around…”

“I think I’m the last one,” a woman said as she approached from the opposite direction, clearly having come from the medical bay instead of the crew quarters where the other part of the team had come from. She had a bag casually slung over her shoulder with her shorter ash brown hair dancing at her shoulders. Her eyes seemed to shift between gold and green as she looked over the crew, it appearing they were taking a bunch of transfers with them this time around. That should make this a rather interesting escapade… She didn't seem to recognize any of them with the exception of the pilot. She didn't know him well, but she had heard of him from the talk about the ship although it was hard to form an opinion without having met the man herself.

Approaching who she knew to be the pilot, she held out a hand, being the only one of the group thus far to offer such a professional exchange. “Dr. Kaiya Torres. You must be… Jonathan O’Malley? I think we’ve yet to have the pleasure of meeting… which isn’t a bad thing as that just means you’ve managed to stay out of my medical bay,” she said with an easy smile although it didn’t remain when one of the soldiers thought themselves to be humorous.

“Can someone explain to me why we’re dragging a doctor along on this surface expedition? I don’t need to be baby-sitting more pansies than I already have to,” Stroud said as he jabbed his thumb in the direction of the researcher that had spoke earlier.

“Hey… what’s that supposed to mean??”

Just another reason to why she loved flying with the new recruits. “Apparently I need to enlighten you about what kind of mission this is,” Torres said and turned toward the man that spoke as though he didn’t have a filter. “This is a scavenging mission on a dead planet, in case you were not aware. Which means I can nearly guarantee that my services are the ones that will be needed and not your own. Unless you’re going to go shooting at some rocks? Thank you in advance for the protection. I feel very safe,” she said rather sharply which only seemed to rile the solider up more.

“Why you little…”
 
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JD couldn't help but roll his eyes at their antics. Cocksure attitudes like theirs were standard fare for security teams these days, their fancy equipment, armor, and training putting them one step ahead of everyone else aboard the ship. Few would dare challenge them, and even fewer dared bother with them at all. Their joining the mission was a security matter and nothing more. JD knew that, had it not been for protocol, they'd be left behind to protect the Tararui's hull from space dust.

"O'Malley. I've flown my fair share." He patted the ship's nose fondly. "Virgo's one of the most reliable ship's in the hangar. Don't get me wrong, shiny is nice and all, but it's all appearances. I'll take rusty and trustworthy over shiny and untested any day."

Finally, a modicum of respect. Precisely what he'd expected - and hoped - from their mission-assigned doctor. Command always assigned them in the case of dangerous flora, toxic environments, and other mishaps a security team alone couldn't protect them from. Her skills would be a necessity if these were the newcomers they were taking along.

He reached out to take her hand, flashing a wry grin at her comment. "Call me JD. Nice to meet you, doctor."

Oh, right. And here's where the attitude comes in. Couldn't transfers ever play nice? JD pinched the bridge of his nose, but didn't step in. The doctor handled herself well enough, and he'd hate to stoke the fires.

"Lock it down, all of you!"

The Captain rapped his knuckles against the Virgo's hull, face twisted into an ugly frown and clearly dissatisfied with their behavior. Although JD had taken no part in it, he felt cowed and backed up so Morley get a good look at the security team. The man was good at hiding his reactions-- he didn't seem all too bothered, but JD could tell he was annoyed.

No surprises there.

"Hop aboard," he snapped. He turned to JD and Kaiya. "O'Malley, I'm sending you our coordinates once Verlaine passes the engine check. Doctor Torres? We've got a medical kit on board, so go ahead get that organized. Planet's not toxic according to readings, but the terrain looks rough. I would plan accordingly."

JD nodded curtly and entered the ship, found his pilot's seat to Verlaine's left, and finished up the system check his copilot had started.

"Engines warm and vector secured." Expanding the display for Verlaine to see, he leaned over his armrest. "You're going to love the security team, Verlaine. Just wait."

The man perked up. "Cass?

JD snickered. "You'll see."

With Verlaine's mood lifted, JD sent the Virgo's release request to command, and got an approval a moment later. The engines fired up and the ship smoothly lifted out of the dock, boarding ramp extended and waiting. When the internal sensors indicated all RIGs accounted for, he pulled the ramp up, folded up the landing gear, and slowly maneuvered the ship out of the Tararui's hangar bay.

A bright orange planet appeared below them, spattered with greens and greys here and there. An ocean near its northern hemisphere.

The Virgo rattled once it hit the vaccuum and they began their descent.
 
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Kaiya’s eyes darted to their captain and she instantly backed down, sighing softly and blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes. Ignorant meatheads…

“Yes, Captain!” The security team spoke in unison before they all clambered upon the ship. Glad to see his presence could make them all a little more well-mannered. Although Kaiya caught a glare from the one called Stroud as he passed. It was likely he would hold a grudge against her for degrading him in front of the rest of his team. She cared not though as one could only expect such treatment when they were the ones to dish it out first.

“Sure thing, Captain,” Kaiya spoke and gave a light bow of her head before turning to climb aboard. “It’ll be a pleasure flying with you, O’Malley,” she said with another easy grin coming to her lips before disappearing inside.

Upon entering, she saw most of the security team getting buckled into their seats as no doubt it was going to be a shaky ride on the way down. It always was when entering the atmosphere of a planet. She found her own seat which was thankfully far away from that prick, Stroud. Clicking her harness into place, she allowed the seat to slide back, hooking up her RIG to the main portal which would charge it up as they descended to their destination. It was also the only way the ship would move as it needed to see all signatures on board before liftoff.

The man sitting next to her gave her a smile and gave her elbow a playful jab with his own. “Got a weak stomach, Doc? I don’t have to worry about you upchucking on me, do I?” He wasn’t speaking in a patronizing manner, simply goofing off which earned him a genuine little chuckle from the woman.

“Lucky for you, this is not my first descending… although if it was then you might not have been so fortunate,” she quipped right back with an easy grin which made the man laugh.

“I like you. Call me Gryffon, Doc.”

Kaiya would have given him her own name except the roar of the engines cut her off, her hands gripping the straps of her seat tightly as her body shook with the force of the shuttle taking off. “Easy there, O’Malley,” she murmured under her breath as they began their descent.
 
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"Atmospheric readings look good," JD said. The Virgo's hull held, despite the crackling in his ears. "Thin air. Looks like we're not running any time soon."

"Storm's coming too," Verlaine noted. "East, check it out."

JD peered out of the cockpit to see rolling storm clouds, grey as the landscape around them. It would take a day or two before the picked up, so they had plenty of time. With Verlaine's help, JD set the Virgo down near a rising outcropping of rock that rose alongside matte grey steel and iron stripped bare over the years.

"Better this than a dust storm," JD said, and set the Virgo down. There, they should have cover form the storm, and a straight shot to what may have been an orbital research station. What there was to research over a barren rock like this was beyond him. Then again, scientists were scientists. They found the strangest things fascinating...

To JD's right, Verlaine clicked his tongue and whistled. "Guess old stations are as good as anything, right JD?"

"Look on the bright side," JD said as extended the landing gear. "Steel is a catch. You know what the colonies would pay for untouched steel in these times?"

"More than my salary?"

"I'd say so, yeah." He shrugged. "That storm is wreaking havoc on the Virgo's navigation... Hey Captain, are we sure this is the right place?"

The captain approached behind them to inspect the station. "Orbital. Looks like it fell apart on reentry. That's not what we're after, but we're in the right place. We'll take a look. Tech's probably fried but steel is always needed."

"Nice to see we've found something." The Virgo quieted into a hum as JD shut its systems down one by one. When the engines finally cycled down, JD extricated himself from the pilot's seat and synced the acknowledge RIGs to the ship. When that was done, he clapped Verlaine on the shoulder, grabbed his gear, and made his way to the hold.

Now that everyone was gathered in the hold, the Captain began to speak to them as a whole. "What we're dealing with here is rough terrain, thin atmosphere, and an incoming storm. If we move fast, we should be out of here before it hits." He held up a holographic display depicting the area around them, including the station. "We'll start with that station, and then gradually make our way to the surrounding area. Possible digging sites, colony remnants - you get the gist. This is a scouting mission, remember. Whatever loot you pick up is property of the Tararui, and it will be returned once we re-dock."

Morley shut down the hologram to look everyone in the eyes. "Any questions?"

"Uh, one, sir," came Verlaine's voice from the cockpit. "How much ground are we lookin' to cover, anyways?"

"A few klicks. Command was very specific about this location in particular, and I'm not a place to be questioning orders."

"... We're not stayin' the night, are we?"

"I don't know, Verlaine," Morley said. "If you slow us down we will. We've got a nice comfortable chair for you to sleep in if we do."

JD cackled at Verlaine, who was now glowering at the back of the Captain's head. For a man accustomed to long flights, he sure did like his comfy beds aboard the Tararui.

"Helmets up. Grab whatever gear you think you'll need. Drop the ramp, O'malley."

JD flipped the switch. "Aye-aye, sir."
 
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The ride down was one of the smoother descents Kaiya could remember as it seemed sooner rather than later they were docking and the roar of the engined began to fade as they were turned off. Kaiya let out a soft breath and reached down to unclip her harness, disconnecting from the RIGs station when it allowed. “Well… looks like everyone thought it was a rather smooth ride-”

She began but wouldn’t finish as a man across the way that had yet to introduce himself grabbed a bag and hurled violently into it, making everyone groan around him. At least he had managed to get it in one of the air sickness bags…

“I guess I spoke too soon…” Kaiya muttered under her breath as she turned and began to gather her materials. She still needed to go through that med-kit the Captain had mentioned so she could bring the necessary supplies along.

“Aw, man c’mon! You’ve been on like three missions!” Stroud said and punched the man playfully in the arm. Poor guy was probably going to get shit about this for weeks from his team. He spit into the bag and grimaced deeply, the color all but having left his face.

“I’m good… thanks for being worried though,” the man said sarcastically with another spit into the bag before getting up and wandering to the dispose of it. Why a person that had terrible motion sickness wanted a job in space was beyond anyone.

It was at this moment that the Captain made an appearance into the hold and all joking and talking subsided to listen to the briefing. Kaiya’s eyes glanced over to the man that appeared beside O’Malley and the Captain as she had not see him board the ship earlier on the Tararui. This must be a co-pilot of sorts.

Oh…she sure hoped they wouldn’t be stuck down here over night. She was sure her features showed her distaste at the possibility, but she supposed if it was safer than flying through a storm it would have to be so... although she didn't wish to be cooped up with all the testosterone for an entire night. She just didn’t understand what the rush was about coming down here if there was a storm heading their way… they should have waited for it to clear up and head out in the morning. However, it was not her place to say anything of the matter. She was but a doctor and still was expected to take orders.

When the Captain gave the order, everyone pushed the button on their suits which opened up a compartment on their chest that unfurled itself, placing the base of the helmet beneath their chin before climbing upward and enveloping their heads. There was a hiss as the pressure system stabilized and everyone’s comms linked up. Their helmets glowed, lighting up the space in front of them as the spacecraft whirred and buzzed as the ramp was lowered by O’Malley.

Kaiya could remember the first time she had to try on these suits, helmets included. She had nearly had a panic attack at how confined she felt within it, a sort of claustrophobia coming over her. Now, it was like a second skin to her and a comfort, like a shell meant to protect her. She bent down to resume her work, filing through the things they could possibly utilize and leaving behind anything that would just be added weight to her bag. After a solid two minutes, she was ready with everything packed up and ready to go.

“Hey Doc!” Stroud called from across the room as he grabbed his large pulse rifle from the overhang, showing it off to her. “This is the thing I’m going to be shooting at rocks. Should do the trick, don’t you think?” He said with a smirk before slinging the weapon over his back and grabbing a couple of energy pistols to also sling into holsters at his side.

Kaiya would only roll her eyes and refused to even acknowledge the brute and instead focused on securing her bag to her back, clamping it down so it couldn’t be bothersome out in the unstable weather.
 
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JD shuddered at the sound. "Just... try not to puke all over my ship, alright?"

The Virgo had been through enough. Vomit was the last thing its aged interior needed, not to mention Verlaine's hyper-possessive love for the ship that would surely spark a fight if things got out of hand. Poor, sick bastard.

JD hopped off the ramp after the rest of the crew, helmet whirring as it engaged and synced with his RIG. He should have gone for a polarizing visor; the planet was as bright as the deserts of his home colony; in fact, it looked almost exactly like that old dust ball, except the rocks here were grey rather than red, looked sharper than a fresh combat knife, and sounded less like gravel and more like broken glass wherever he stepped. These rocks spread out for as far as the eye could see to the west, and to the east, the landscape stretched upward into a range of jagged mountains whose tops were shrouded in black storm clouds. Above them, two stars shown bright blue.

"It's not the rocks you should be shooting, man," JD remarked. "Planets like these, you know, they're always hiding something. Had a whole colony of blood-drinking lizard men back home."

Verlaine cut his laugh short by covering his mouth.

"Really! They lived in the caves near my settlement and stole away colonists all the time."

Beside him, Verlaine shouldered a scanner and shoved a pistol into JD's hands, faced pinched in a poor attempt at hiding his amusement. The man was an open book, no matter how hard he tried.

"Dammit, JD. You always gotta start the day off with stories? The last thing our security team needs is nightmares!"

JD cocked his head. "Nightmares, Verlaine?" He whistled, glancing at Stroud apologetically. "Sorry. I forget - security on the Virgo always end up with nightmares. Not about lizard men, really, just... nightmares. "Cursed ship", and all that."

"One of you's not gonna make it back." Verlaine's helmet hid his grin, but his posture was enough to get his humor across. "That's the rule."

With a snap of his fingers, Captain Morley beckoned the group to follow him. He gave out quick orders to the security team to take up the rear and guard their flank, while he led the expedition down a series of shallow dips in the planet's surface toward the wreck of the station.

The Captain always knew how to command attention with the subtlest of gestures. Even Verlaine, for all his rowdiness, playful nature, and bouts of rebellion, wouldn't dare challenge the man. A demotion and transfer back to the colonies were the least of his worries when Morley had the connections to assign you latrine duty on the Tararui.

JD fell back to walk alongside the doctor, leaning in close. "Don't worry, the planet's dead - no lizardmen to be found. But if anyone's falling into a chasm... it's going to be him. That's how it goes in the movies."

It was a poor comparison considering how many security teams really did perish on these missions, but these particular men came across as a little too cocky for their own good and JD felt it right to knock them down a peg. He would gladly partake in some mockery at their expense if it could lighten the mood of everyone else. As long as they had something to pass the time, he was happy.

Fifteen minutes later and they were sanding at the base of the station's wreckage. JD reached out a hand to find that it was, surprisingly, still warm to the touch, as if its life support systems were now in overdrive trying to keep its interior livable. It had to have fallen years ago-- rust was crawling up the sides, and the glassy rocks had fitted themselves firmly into the grooves and cracks in the station's surface. No research station could maintain power for so long on its own, purely by design. Abandoned stations were better of destroyed and defunct to keep copies of its work out of the wrong hands.

"See if you can find an opening," said the Captain as he began climbed atop the wreckage in search of the airlock. "Or figure out what the hell this place is."

JD rubbed dust from a tiny inscription in the metal near the bottom. Research Sector III, or something to that effect. It was hard to tell. The doctor or their resident researcher may have a better clue, but if he had to venture a guess, it was either an observation station, or they were trying to devise better ways to contain power sources, and succeeded.
 
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“Yessir…” the man grumbled in an embarrassed manner, reaching up to rub the back of his head as he wandered over to his equipment to get ready. At least he had done the act before climbing off of the ship… otherwise he would have a helmet full of his own steaming vomit right now… Not pleasant.

Kaiya’s boots clomped on the metal ramp as she walked, taking a tentative step onto the surface and feeling the particles beneath her feet shift as she stepped. The captain wasn’t kidding, this terrain was rough. Good thing their suits were rather prepared for this sort of thing so it wasn’t like a fall to the ground was going to cut them open and make them suffocate in the thin atmosphere. With firm steps, she followed the person in front of her and allowed her eyes to take in the rather dreary looking planet. Good thing no one lived here as it was awfully boring to look at.

Although many of the men joining them on this journey were cocky transfers, the words JD had to say caught their attention instantly. “Wait.. what kind of men?” The slim one with glasses spoke, the tremor rather obvious in his voice even over the comm.

Stroud laughed and would only roll his eyes. “You’re kidding, right? Or maybe I should be hoping you’re not. I could use something to shoot!” Although even his voice seemed a little weary of whether or not the story was true. He seemed to glanced around a little more tentatively and pulled his gun off of his back, angling it at the ground, but keeping it at the ready. “Nightmares…? What kind of nightmares?” He asked, nearly demanding to know.

“Ha. Ha. Real funny. Although I have to say, I’ve never really been into ghost stories so… can you knock that shit off?” Gryffon said a little uneasily, also apparently a little superstitious. Yet, who wouldn’t feel a little jittery being on a desolate abandoned planet? It really did give off spooky vibes, especially as they were coming up on an abandoned building. Not the greatest time for ghost stories…

Everyone’s joking demeanor seemed to silence as the Captain demanded their attention with a snap of his fingers. He ushered out some quick orders of which had the security team gather in a group behind the captain, the two pilots, a couple researcher, and the doctor.

Kaiya rose a brow inquisitively as their pilot came to walk beside her, a quick comment coming from him of which she could barely stifle a chuckle, shaking her head a bit. “I’m glad to know you’ve come prepared. What did you do, have a sci-fi marathon before the expedition?” She joked casually although she kept it quiet as they followed along after Captain Morley.

As they approached the station and were ordered to look for a way in, she found herself following after JD… she’d rather hang around the professional than hang back to be harassed by Stroud. “Research Sector III, huh? I wonder what they were researching,” she said softly, reading the inscription on the metal over his shoulder. She pressed her lips together as she began to wander, her head angled back to observe the larger building. It appeared to be built on metal stints and with the harsh weather here, it had begun to blow the rock and sand away from the building, leaving a gap between the metal and a ladder up above that couldn’t quite be reached by jumping. “Hey O’Malley… think you can boost me up there?” In her suit, she wasn’t exactly light, but perhaps she would be lighter than any of the other men in their similar RIGs. She couldn’t exactly get a great view of what was up there from the ground, but a ladder had to lead somewhere… maybe she could find a door from the inside to open for them.

“Dude… we aren’t even inside yet and I already feel like this place is creepy as fuck,” Gryffon muttered as they wandered along the perimeter of the building, although they made sure that they were in eyesight of each other in case something went wrong. You never really wanted to get separated out here.
 
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"Bad ones," was all Verlaine said. "Seen it myself. It's JD's lizardmen - scramblin' up your brains, nothin' you can do to stop it..."

Lizard men would be preferable to the drab world they'd found themselves on. Or ghosts. Or both. He supposed it didn't matter much; this place exuded a haunted, disquieting aura that kept his mind plenty busy. He felt hunted for the first time in his life, in danger, and he wasn't quite sure what to do about it. He kept moving, determined not to dwell on it.

JD chuckled. "Something like that..."

It hadn't exactly been marathon, unless you counted several vids playing at once in the cockpit during the pre-flight check two days ago, and that said vids were century old flicks with terrible effects on a holoscreen meant for data, not images. Verlaine had been the one to suggest it. JD wasn't one to turn down a bad movie or two. So, despite it taking several hours of fiddling to get working, they'd jury rigged themselves a decent image projector and enjoyed a bit of downtime before Morley made them scrub the landing gear.

Not even the minor shivers the best of those vids could give compared to this. Whatever this was.

JD swiped a hand across the metal, glove coming back covered in fine dirt and rust. A research station far from any colonies, above a dead, empty world, with no descriptive title beyond "research station"... It was odd, to say the least. Who had put it there? Why? How long ago had it been abandoned, and what had caused its abandonment in the first place? Accident, or had it simply run its course? Neither was promising. He shoved those thoughts aside with a shake of his head and continued along the side of the station.

"... Sure." JD approached her and knelt down, fingers linking as he prepared to lift her up. "Watch yourself up there."

She was observant, he'd give her that. Who knew was lying in wait up there, so he decided to call her brave as well and file that little tidbit away for later.

As the silence grew, thick with anticipation, even Verlaine was beginning to nervously rock back on his booted heels. He quickly snapped back with more force than was necessary, jabbing an accusing finger in Gryffon's direction. "Keep running your mouth about it. I dare you. Your dumb ass is gonna get us jinxed..."

JD couldn't blame the man. The only reason he himself hadn't spooked was the inexplicable desire to stay put right where he was. He was quite content here, too.

Nothing about that was a good thing, but he couldn't figure out why.
 
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Graffiti Speaks
“Pffft, your lizardmen don’t sound so horrifying…” Although the big brute of a man didn’t sound quite so sure. His grip automatically tightened around his weapon. “I could kill those things in my sleep if I had too,” he muttered under his breath as if trying to reassure himself of this fact.

Kaiya offered a grin although it would not be seen behind her helmet, but it may have appeared in the lilt of her voice as she spoke. “No worries, I’ll be sure to be on the lookout for lizardmen.” She lifted her booted foot and placed it in JD’s linked hands, her own coming to rest on his shoulders for balance. This was… quite an awkward close-encounter maneuver for a man and a woman who had just met…

She was quite surprised by the pilot’s strength as he boosted her up with only a grunt, her own body straightening in the process so her arms could stretch above her and grab onto the bottom rung of the rusty ladder. It creaked and groaned with her weight, making her slightly apprehensive as she hung there for a moment to ensure it would take added pressure. When she was a little more confidence that it wasn’t about to break off of the wall, she began her ascent. With a grunt of effort she hoisted herself up from the bottom rung and to the second, doing the same thing with the third until her foot could catch the ladder as well and from there the climb was a cinch.

It was higher than she thought, but she would eventually come to a platform of which there was a manhole like door in the floor. It took quite a bit of effort on her part since the lever mechanism was quite rusted, but eventually it would pop open with a few good kicks, the metal door squeaking open as she pulled it aside as the air hissed out. Climbing down the new ladder offered to her, she hopped to the floor and allowed the glow of her suit to light the way in this new dark terrain. She made a mental note of her surroundings as she did not wish to get lost in this station on her own…

Especially now that she was inside and could see just how eerie the inside of the station was. She found that her fingers automatically brushed the energy pistol at her side just to make sure it was there. It was the only weapon she kept on her as was required by all scavengers just as a precaution. There were lights overhead, but a lot of them were either completely off or flickering from being low energy. That certainly didn’t give off a pleasant vibe. She heard the banter of the crew through her comm and couldn’t help the chuckle that followed after. “I’ve got some bad news for you, fellas. If being out there is giving you a chill, its about to get worse when you come inside.”

There wasn’t anything extremely out of the ordinary yet, except things seemed to kind of be in disarray… she peeked in through an open door, seeing supplies and papers scattered on the floor as if someone had been in a hurry to leave. “What the fuck happened here…” she murmured more to herself than anything, although anything she said would automatically be sent through the comm.

“Oh, well that’s just peachy… Doc, you’re inside?? What are you seeing up there??” Gryffon asked, clearly on edge with hearing this news.

“Not a lot… it’s dark. Very abandoned and… it seems they were in quite a hurry to leave.” Perhaps some sort of emergency evacuation from… what? Maybe a malfunction with the air filtration system? At least in this part of the station, her suit was picking up no signs of Oxygen. Something must have happened with the air lock or one of the main systems down below. Speaking of the air lock… where would that be..?

Her boots clicked on the metal flooring beneath her as she wandered the halls. Usually places like this had mapping built into the structure, pointing out various locations and the like. She hadn’t wandered too far in so it had to be around here somewhere…. She eventually stumbled upon a utility room that seemed to be in as much disarray as the previous rooms she had seen. Not to mention everything was coated with dust… how long has the station been this way? Her eyes picked out a metal crowbar of which she assumed would be immensely useful since the power seemed to be very weak in this part of the station. It would help her force open any doors that were meant to be opened electronically.

Feeling the weight of it in her hands, she pressed forward and it wasn’t too long she would find signs along the walls that pointed out a northern airlock. Finally… she was beginning to feel a rather large ball of anxiety in her core at wandering these spooky corridors by herself. “I’m heading North toward an airlock. See if you can meet me there. It should be on the same level as the entrance I came through as I haven’t went up or down any stairs as of yet.”

“Maybe over in this direction,” Stroud offered as his suit confirmed their location of being on the Northern side of the station. Although he had yet to pick out anything that looked like the entrance to an airlock.

“What about that?” The leaner man with glasses pointed to a bigger dune that covered part of the side of the station. There was a medium sized platform with a sort of small dome that looked like could be an entrance to him. They just couldn’t fully see the door because it was being half blocked by sand and rock.

“Good eye there, sniper!” Stroud laughed and clapped the man on the back. “Might be worth that we brought you around after all, Kraus!” To which the man could only sigh and roll his eyes. Even when being praised by Stroud it felt like an insult.
 
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"Question is, do I want to know what drove them away? This place is already creepy enough, but what the hell started it?"

He'd assumed it was the sight of the tattered and abandoned station that contributed to the unsettling feeling. The dead world around them only added to the dread by association. Now that they had a pair of eyes on the inside telling them the state of the station, he wasn't too sure. He'd been on plenty of missions. He'd been in worse situations with dangerous wildlife, temperamental weather, and hazardous terrain. Empty landscapes on their own didn't unsettle him.

This did. It felt wrong to let Kaiya wander around in there on her own, but he knew he was too heavy to climb that ladder after her. All he could do was follow directions and hope the feeling was just that-- a feeling, and nothing more. Void-madness from being aboard the Tararui for too long without a break. It'd happened before, it would happen again. That had to be it.

Verlaine groaned. "Yeah, you know, you didn't have to say that. Really didn't, JD, thanks though."

"What? Would you rather we go in without a damn clue what's waiting inside?" JD held his hands out, palms up in a supplicating gesture. "I'd rather be prepared."

"Ignorance is bliss!"

"Ignorance," came the endlessly stern voice of the Captain, brushing sand from his gloves, "will get you killed. You get that, Verlaine?"

Verlaine visibly recoiled, hands on his hips as if he weren't really sure what to do with them. He wasn't the bravest of men, but JD never took him for a coward. He was getting jumpy.

The Captain grunted, leaving Verlaine to consider his words. When Gryffon found the airlock, he held up a hand signalling for them to stop.

"Don't touch anything from your side, Doctor Torres. Let me have a look first." Morley dug through the sand to expose part of the entrance, taking a knee before an access panel and deftly slipping his fingers in to work it open. "These old stations oftentimes had internal security measures to keep its residents from accidentally letting themselves out." The airlock hissed. "Nothing self aware lived here, so nothing had to be kept out."

"But everything had to be kept in," JD said as realization dawned on him. "Damn. How'd they get out?"

Morley sat back on his heels as the airlock finally popped and unlocked. "Hard to say. Power failure, error in the station A.I. If the security system fails then that means the station was compromised, and the locking mechanisms automatically release. Can't say for sure until we've seen the rest of the station."

They forced the door open before slipping inside, the sudden change from bright orange light to dim, flickering artificial wall lighting made JD's head ache. He fumbled forward to lean against the wall, waiting for his eyes to adjust. Morley followed shortly after, cursing quietly as he, too, was forced to adjust to the darkness.

"Hold on." Clicking filled the silent airlock as JD held up a tiny hand-held lantern that bathed the room in a dim, cool blue. He flashed it down the hall as the second airlock door swung open. Kaiya wasn't kidding. The place was damn creepy, especially under the blue lighting. Streaks of rust, metal plates peeling from the walls like warped, unnatural flowers. Flickering illumination banks lined the ceiling as the last remnants of the station's once lively existence, if the cluttered desks and tables were anything to go by.

Morley cleared his throat. He stepped forward. "We'll take this room by room, top to bottom and back again. I want a thorough catalogue of what's in here, what was here, and what these people were after." He slipped his pistol into his hand but didn't raise it. "You find any records of anything-- research results, supply lists, name tags, meal plans, I want to know."

JD knocked his gauntlet against Stroud's. "You know what researchers all on their lonesome for years on end requisition the most?"

It was lazy attempt to throw the man off guard, or at least establish some humorous common ground between them. With Verlaine busy muttering to himself about lizardfolk and serial killers in space, he needed someone to keep his mind out of those dark places. He wasn't sure the good doctor would appreciate that little tidbit, either.

"If you're done fucking around, O'Malley," said Morley as he took the first steps down the hall.

"Sorry, sir."

The first room was nothing new. Papers and audiologs littered the desks as if they'd been deliberately scattered. The first audiolog was a message to someone named Greene, requesting time off. The second was a requisition order for charcoal, which was... interesting. Charcoal wasn't common even on the colonies. What a researcher on a distant research station would want with it was an inviting mystery to JD, who hooked the log to the belt at his waist.

The rest was paper with diagrams and chicken-scratch gibberish he couldn't decipher, along with some symbols he was fairly certain weren't in any common language he knew.

"Creepy. Look at the drawings. Who draws shit like that?" Verlaine tossed a wad of paper over his shoulder. The diagram on it wasn't bad at first glance. A human body, like something out of an old medical book. Then JD got closer.

It... wasn't a human body. Or, it was, but it had to have been stylized, or drawn by a student rather than a doctor. There was nothing inherently wrong with the image, but staring at it brought a throb to his temple. JD rubbed the side of his helmet absently and kicked the scrawling under the desk. The headache stopped.

"Just junk, Captain," he said, holding out the datapads to Morley.

Morley nodded. "Wasn't expecting much. Let's keep moving."
 
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“Not sure if I want to know that either…” Kaiya muttered through her comm as she restlessly waited for the others to join up with her. The sooner the better as she felt as though things were peering at her through the dark… but it had to be her mind playing tricks on her. Nothing could survive without a suit in this section of the station without oxygen….

“Yes, Sir,” she responded to the captain and eased herself against the wall of the tunnel she was currently standing in. Although, she would glance over her shoulder a little too periodically to make sure there was nothing sneaking up on her. She blamed those damn stories O’Malley and Verlaine kept spouting. “The power is out in here, just so you know. The doors may need some man-handling.” The conversation that happened afterward made the hair at the back of her neck stand on end, just adding to the sensation that something was very off with this particular station.

“Where the hell would they want to go??” Gryffon piped up as he glanced around their position. “We didn’t see anything else man-made on the surface, did we?” Not that they really did a thorough search of the area. They kind of just happened upon this base… but why would anyone leave to just go wandering these red sandy dunes?

“No fucking clue…” Stroud muttered and furrowed his brows, seeming rather quiet as though he was a little consumed with the matters at hand.

As they forced the two sets of doors open, Kaiya would push off to the wall she was leaning against, relief flooding through her to see not only the rest of the crew, but a stronger light source that shed some proper light in the dark corridors. “Nice of you gentlemen to join the party,” she joked easily before the Captain gave his orders.

Stroud rose a brow and glanced over at the pilot, not exactly knowing where this little jab came from, but he gave out a low chuckle regardless and nodded his head. “Not sure how the hell you would know that, but I bet I could guess.”

Kaiya sighed softly and rolled her eyes. Again with the testosterone… “Humans are simply animals after all and like such require the basic fundamentals to be fulfilled for proper functioning. Is it really that amusing?” Grown ass men still amused at the thought of anything sexual in nature… ridiculous.

“Well… guess we know where the Doctor’s mind wanders…” Stroud said with a chuckle.

With cheeks burning red, she was about to snap a retort when the Captain ended the conversation abruptly and brought their attention to the first area they were searching instead. They searched the room quickly with nothing of great value popping up before deciding to head to the next one.

It was Kaiya that would speak, “Captain, with all due respect, this place is huge… unless we split up I don’t think we’ll be able to cover the entire thing before the storm hits. But… I also don’t know how smart of an idea it would be for us to split either.”

“Oh?? So now the Doctor feels as though she needs protection…” Stroud retorted and Kaiya could have decked him a good one in if his smug face wasn’t hiding behind a helmet.

“I’m just thinking out loud,” she managed to say coolly although she was seething on the inside. Now was not the time to be a jackass… but apparently that didn’t stop Stroud. With emotions driving her, she moved toward another room as though to prove to Stroud that she was not afraid of this place…. when her heart would threaten to stop in her chest.

A startled scream left her lips as she stumbled backward from the doorway, catching the first thing that was behind her which happened to be JD, gripping his arm tightly with the gauntlet of her own. “Oh my god-!”

“What?!” Stroud would instantly come up from behind followed by Gryffon whose weapons were now aimed at the doorway Kaiya had just tried to walk through. The glow from their helmets lit up the dark space as they moved closer, sweat trickling from their brows with the apprehension… all until their light revealed a rather distorted skeleton in pieces on the ground.

“Fuck me…” Gryffon muttered and let out a breath, glad it was just a skeleton, but it was what had happened to it that worried him. “All clear. It’s just remains Sir,” he called back to Captain Morley who surely would want to have a closer look.

A tremor weaved through Kaiya’s body as she swallowed hard, looking to JD and then to her hand which was still clutching his suit. “S-Sorry…” she murmured and released him as surely he too would want to go check out the remains. She would peer over shoulders to get another glimpse herself although it would scatter goosebumps all over her body. “There’s… e-enough bones there for two people…” Perhaps they wouldn’t understand what the significance was… but as a doctor she could pick out the bones that made up the human body rather easily. Maybe it was just lack of light, but a lot of those didn’t look standard… and she couldn’t make out another skull… what the fuck was going on…?
 
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JD hunched his shoulders sheepishly, apologetically. His jokes, Verlaine's jokes, weren't appreciated, and that was made very clear by the doctor's reaction. He'd keep that in mind for the rest of the mission.

"We're not searching the entire station regardless," Morley said. "We don't have the manpower or the time. So we keep to the plan, search room by room, and get this done quickly."

It could just be JD's imagination. That tense set of his shoulders as if he were bracing wasn't part of the Captain's general behavior, considering the man was usually so calm. Stern, serious, and quick to snap if they were fooling about, but otherwise unbothered by most situations. Then again, all of them were a little tense, just a little too on edge. This damned place was getting to their heads and they hadn't even really begun their search.

"Splitting up doesn't sound like too good an idea, if you ask me." Verlaine stood near one of the view ports, peering out into the endless desert beyond. "I-I'll stay with you guys, but I ain't going nowhere alone."

"Group's safer," JD said quietly.

Morley grunted. "Then group it is."

There was a pistol in JD's hand before Kaiya had so much as twitched, mind running a mile a minute with nothing to focus on and nowhere to look until the doctor backed up and latched onto his arm. That was when he followed her gaze, promptly sucking in a painfully sharp breath as his eyes landed on the ruined human remains, which, he noted rather quickly, didn't truly look all that human at all, yet maintained a recognizably humanoid shape.

He swallowed, hands gently holding her steady as if it would help. Perhaps the contact was all either of them really needed, considering the circumstances. "S'fine... What... what the hell...?"

The captain fearlessly strode forward and knelt before the remains. He leaned in uncomfortably close for a good look, one hand reaching out to gingerly move them aside. One broke apart into several pieces, filling the air with a silvery dust JD was glad his helmet filtered out. That disproved their theories about system failures. A far worse scenario took place here long ago and JD wondered briefly what could have possibly killed this... person... in the first place. No one bothered to dispose of it, which meant the other researchers weren't aware of the body, or...

Maybe they never left. There was nothing to flee, no malfunctions in the station's systems and no subterfuge. A experiment gone wrong, as worried as it made him, was shaping up to be the most likely answer.

Eventually, the captain stood. He stood quiet for several minutes before looking to the group, head downturned.

"If you find any more, leave them. It's not our concern."

JD swiped a hand across the top of his helmet. "Not our concern? Sir, they're dead. We can't just leave them--"

"We can when it's not our job. We don't have the equipment, the room, nor the time to be dealing with corpses." Morley let out a long-suffering sigh, grabbing hold of JD's shoulder tightly. "We'll let command know when we get back. It's not a promise they'll do anything, but I'll tell them."

It wasn't out of some misplaced sense of duty or sympathy that made him speak, but extreme discomfort with the bodies themselves. Them staying here, not buried and a tantalizing mystery, somehow made the station that much worse. Putting them to rest seemed like a good idea and a surefire way to get them out of his head.

"'ve got a... a h-headache... hmmm... who the hell is hummin'?" Labored breathing filled the room. "Stop. Shit's not funny." Verlaine stumbled away from them and slumped heavily against the wall, head cradled in his hand.

JD cocked his head. "No one's humming, Ver. What's up?"

Verlaine sobbed. "Nah, no, I'm cool, it's fine. Just... Agh. Feels like m'head is gonna burst."

Morley pulled the man away from the wall. "Doctor Torres?"

"I'm fine!"

"Captain, maybe he should get back to the ship? Keep the Virgo warm for us?"

Morley stared at JD for a long moment before offering a shallow dip of his head. Verlaine's rising stress levels would only serve to hinder the mission, JD reasoned. The Virgo was safe and quiet. He'd be fine there. Verlaine, however, had a different idea.

"Man, I ain't useless! Just... give me a moment, will you?" He shook the captain's hands off of him.

"So you say," Morley said dryly. "Come on. Keep up or you're back on the ship, got that?"

Verlaine didn't so much as nod, but he began walking forward ahead of the group, head hanging. JD would confront the copilot's unusually surly behavior if he were at all interested in verbally sparring with the man. He'd grown awfully weary since they arrived, fatigue setting into his muscles the farther into the station they went.

The group continued. The next two rooms were more or less the same before they happened upon a lab filled with defunct equipment and a case full of samples. Once the power ran out the samples had effectively rotted away, so it was hard to tell what they once were. Biological at first glance, possibly native flora from the planet's northern hemisphere. On one of the desks JD found more paper, each covered in crude drawings of people, symbols, and a peculiar looking monument-- or, what he assumed was a monument. In fact, that same drawing was scattered about among all the other papers, in between letters and tiny drawings of people.

"Lots of artists around here," JD murmured. He sifted through the papers until he found an audio log underneath, screen cracked but still operational. "Who'd draw something like this? Why?"

Verlaine whined when JD held up the image for them to see. "Point that thing somewhere else."

"Sorry." JD set it down face first.

The log was the most curious discovery. He opened its contents - sixteen logs in total - and skimmed through each entry... until he reached the last one.

The artifact is stable and output is minimal, barely exceeding expectations. What a disappointment. Who said this was a good use of my time?! This thing has been nothing but trouble since we found it, and it never shuts up. Part of its natural structure emanates some kind of incessant buzzing noise that made the interns sick last week. And Walter! Walter hasn't stopped his inane gibbering since yesterday morning. I am thoroughly sick of it.

When the supply ship swings by, I'm leaving. Doctor Bailey can make his sloppy effigies all he likes, but if I have to give up my slot for coffee so he can get his paper one more time, I will lose it. I will! He damn near worships it anyways, he can have it. All his, I don't care. I am
finished.


JD's laugh was more of an amused huff as he listened, a grin pulling at his lips. "It looks like they were studying some kind of object. That can't be all though. The station's too big for one old artifact, right?"

"Artifact...? Are we talking about...?"

"Dunno, Ver, but aliens are the least of my concerns here."
 
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There was no doubt in Kaiya’s mind that this corpse was going to be a part of her nightmares tonight… she raised her arms over her head and rested her forearms there as she breathed in an attempt to calm her racing heart. The creepy atmosphere certainly had her mind entertaining the idea of running across corpses, but she never actually thought that they would. Her mind was reeling… what was the story behind this body…? She had so many questions…

She was brought out of her thoughts when Verlaine began muttering almost incoherently and her eyes moved to him quickly as he slumped against the wall. When she was addressed by the Captain, she stepped forward quickly, “Verlaine, breathe… tell me what’s going on-” She quickly stopped in her tracks as he exclaimed that he was fine, her brows furrowing slowly as she took note of his behavior just in case anyone else started doing the same thing. When he moved ahead of the group, she bit the inside of her lip and took a chance of setting him off by approaching him, her hand easing out to rest gently on his arm.

“We’re all on edge, Verlaine. It’s okay… it doesn’t mean you’re useless. When we reach a spot that is stable, let’s get your helmet off so I can take a look at you. Just as a precaution, okay?” Out here, you never wanted to take chances. If someone so much as coughed or sneezed, it was her job to make sure it was nothing serious going on. This was the main reason she was on these missions, after all.

“These fuckers can stay here for all I care…” Stroud muttered under his breath as he took another glance at the grotesque skeleton on the floor. It made him shiver and he quickly shook his head so he didn’t end up loosing it like Verlaine. “C’mon… we aren’t afraid of damn skeletons are we??”

Gryffon, who was beside him, looked a little bashful even without being able to see the features of his face behind his helmet. “Fuck no… that’s ridiculous. It’s not like they can hurt us now…” Although he didn’t speak in the most confident manner.

One of the researchers, who were oddly quiet during the entire venture so far, went into the room with the skeleton and bent down, taking off a pack and rummaging for a moment before taking out a metal vial. He scooped some of the dusty remains into it before sealing it up, making a mark on it with some sort of writing utensil before putting it back in his bag.

“…What are you doing?” Kraus asked with a raised brow, his stomach twisting a bit uncomfortably as he didn’t wish to get that close to any corpse in this place… it just didn’t seem right to be messing with them…

“Samples. We can run them through a DNA check when we get back on the ship and see if we can identify them.”

Oh… great… now they were bringing bits of the dead people on the ship with them. If anyone was superstitious at all, this would get their heart pumping a million miles a minute. Kraus shivered and walked away from the man. “Well, I’m staying as far away from your bag as I can if we have to end up staying on the Virgo tonight…” he muttered under his breath and hurried back to the rest of the group that had walked on ahead into some more rooms.

Upon entering another room, Kaiya shifted from Verlaine to give him some space so she could do some investigating of her own… although she did not wander far in fear of running across another corpse. For being a doctor, they were oddly disturbing to her and she’d rather avoid them if at all possible.

When JD found more papers with drawings on them, she wandered over and flipped the page back around that he had placed face down on the table, her eyes scanning it. “The pictures are one thing… but the fact that they are scrawled over top of documentation…” That just screamed delusional to her. Not to mention these drawings were everywhere… they had been present in the last few rooms they had gone through. “It can’t be the same person drawing these over and over again, right? How odd is that… different people are drawing the same things over and over…”

It made another shudder run through her body. This was getting more and more nightmarish the deeper they looked into this. The audio log JD found wasn’t exactly helping the feel either, her eyes tracing over the sporadic hasty etchings of the paper while the crackling voice sounded through the empty air.

“An artifact….” her voice echoed this and she reached up to rest place a hand at the back of her head, just thinking. “Is this the first time that was mentioned? Keep an eye out for any documentation on the thing. Sounds like it was a pretty big deal…” The part about the buzzing that began to make people sick particularly interested her… perhaps it was no coincidence that Verlaine started feeling ill only after they had stepped inside the station.

Once the room was cleared, they continued to head down a corridor that led to another sort of airlock looking mechanism, only this time the panel that glowed to the side was operational. “Huh… maybe there is power on the other side?” She wondered and waved her hand in front of the scanner of which it turned from yellow to green. The doors hissed open to nearly blind them with the light that emanated within.

“Fucking hell… some warning next time!” Stroud grumbled as they all stepped into the chamber, it being a bit snug, but eventually they were all within the walls so the door could hiss shut. A beep sounded as the room pressurized and the door on the opposite side of the other one opened up to reveal another corridor that seemed to be in more functioning order than the last section of the station. It was more lit although it just gave them more visibility to see the disorder of the area around them.

Upon looking down at her monitors, Kaiya noticed that the oxygen levels were stable… “If anyone wants to take a breather now would be the time. We’ve got stable oxygen levels,” she said as she reached up to press the button on her helmet, making it fold back into her suit with a whir of condensing lightweight metal. Her eyes turned to Verlaine and she offered a small grin of reassurance. “Come on… let me take a look at you before we move on.”

“I… are we sure there isn’t anything weird in the air, Doc? Maybe we shouldn’t be removing our helmets,” Gryffon noted worriedly. Perhaps there was something the people breathed in the air that began making them act so crazy…but then again, Verlaine started acting up even with having never taken his helmet off up to this point. Ah fuck, he didn’t know. This place was just an anomaly at this point and it was scaring the shit out of everyone!
 
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"There's a fuckin' knife in my skull..." With the helmet in place, all Verlaine could do was rub uselessly at the side of his head in an effort to relieve the ache. But Kaiya's words appeared to sooth him as he turned back around to face them, arms loose at his sides. "Y-yeah. Yeah. Yeah, okay. That's fine."

Illness, psychosis, possibly some form of paranoia, all of which had run rampant through this installation if the scribbles and accompanying audio log were anything to go by. From what JD gleaned from the log itself, this artifact of theirs was important, yet the term was so vague that it could be anything. His questions just kept accumulating. With no answers in sight, he felt like he as in for a long, frustrating day.

JD folded his helmet back into his suit, following it up with a deep breath.

"It's clean," he said, shutting his eyes to enjoy it. Air-in-a-can was no way to spend an expedition. "Kind of stale though."

Verlaine acquiesced by lowering himself to the ground and letting his helmet slide away, exposing a pair of tired, bloodshot eyes. Not uncommon for a pilot flying long missions. Problem was that their flight to the surface hadn't taken long at all, and Verlaine looked just fine before they left the Virgo.

JD crouched beside him. He put a hand on the top of his head to hold him still. "You alright man?"

"'m alright. Air feels good."

"Your eyes hurting?"

Verlaine squinted. "... A little. Why? They good?"

"Just red," JD said, looking to Kaiya for a possible explanation. "You'll be fine."

Captain Morley walked to the end of the corridor with JD following close on his heels. There was a junction connecting two more corridors to the left and straight ahead, as well as an atrium that split off to the right. A carved stone pillar with a brass plaque at its base was erected in the center of the atrium. The surface was covered in more of those strange symbols as high as a man could reach upon closer inspection, while the plaque, still pristine, remained untouched.

"'To Doctors Bailey, Greene, Allen, and Walter; Per aspera ad astra.' What's that mean?"

"'Through hardship to the stars'," Morley said. "Scientists like to sound important. Does it say anything else?"

JD dragged his fingertips across the plaque. "Uh... there's a name here but the plaque is cracked right through it. 'Something-something be praised'?"

"Hm."

"No idea?"

"It sounds familiar." Morley came to stand beside him. "Must have been an important team if they got a dedicated monument in their names..."

An important team, out in the middle of nowhere on a dead planet, studying an artifact with only the vaguest of descriptions, and accompanied by the strangest symbols and drawings he'd ever seen. None of the walls in the atrium bore the strange markings, just the monument. What was their meaning? Their importance?

Meanwhile, Verlaine had picked up his ramblings again. "They just... burned. Burned away into nothin'... jeez, what must that have been like...?" He exhaled harshly and didn't continue breathing until a full thirty seconds later. "No seein', no... ears... just one... beautiful... Doc, I feel sick."

He coughed, and his cough turned into retching yet nothing came up. His head lolled.

"Something's in my head," he whispered. "Doc, I'm all wrong. What's goin' on? I need to... I'm gonna head back to the ship, if that's okay Captain. I gotta go."

He sat there against the wall, unmoving until the Captain answered from down the hallway. "If you know the way back, Verlaine. Don't wander off."

Still, Verlaine didn't move, instead closing his eyes and letting his head bang against the wall. He wasn't hurting anything by lying there, but with tensions as high as they were it wouldn't be surprising if his actions got under the rest of the group's skin.

JD listened in, unsure of what to say on the matter. Perhaps Verlaine was more sensitive the aura this planet gave off, having hailed from a much greener, more populated planet than this. Offworlders visiting his home colony often complained of feeling off balance or out of place. It wasn't too far fetched, and was the only explanation he could come up with.

He didn't dare entertain the idea that it was the station itself. Just like the scientists.

They needed to find that artifact and soon.

"I'm picking up energy readings down this way. Anyone else picking up the same?" The Captain held up the scanner in his gauntlet and began walking.

The sign read testing, but JD had a sense of foreboding as he followed.
 
“Musty almost… I get what you mean,” Kaiya responded softly to JD as she made her way over to Verlaine who had taken up a spot on the ground in the corridor. She knelt on the other side of him since JD had taken up the other side. Pushing a button on the side of her gauntlets, the metal peeled away just as her helmet did, exposing her surprisingly delicate looking hands as she reached up to press a cool hand to Verlaine’s warm forehead. The gauntlets always seemed too clunky anyhow to deal with anything medical…

“He may be running a small fever,” she said although she didn’t seem too worried as of yet. Pulling off her bag, she grabbed up a small flashlight, using one hand to angle it in his eyes while the other took each in turn to hold the eyelids open. His pupils responded correctly, so that was good. Everything seemed in working order except for this weird headache he kept complaining of. She glanced up at JD and gave a small shrug. “General fatigue, perhaps? That’s my best guess. Nothing seems directly wrong…” She then looked back to Verlaine and ended up taking a spot next to him, sitting beside him as JD left to accompany Captain Morley.

“Let’s just rest for a bit. Close your eyes and relax,” she urged softly as she dug in her bag for a container of water and some general pain relievers in pill form. “Can you take these?” She asked and held them out to him.

Stroud came up to stand behind the Captain and JD, raising a brow at the statue. “Scientists praising other scientists. They are always so full of themselves…” Like he had any right to talk. He gave a disgruntled noise and shook his head a bit before continuing down the corridor with Kraus close at his heels, although they were still easily within earshot of the Doctor and Verlaine who were still perched in front of the entrance to this section of the station.

“Verlaine…?” Kaiya asked hesitantly as he seemed to be quite lost in his own thoughts as he mumbled things that she couldn’t quite understand. She furrowed her brows and shifted to her knees, her fingers reaching to rest on either side of his face, almost cradling it. She practically witnessed most of the color drain from his features in those moments. Her gut twisted uncomfortably at the words that didn’t seem to make any sense, her eyes widening as he nearly whimpered how sick he felt before beginning to cough to the side.

“Shit…” she whispered and pressed a couple fingers to the side of his neck, feeling his fluttering pulse. It was almost as if he was having some sort of panic attack. “Breathe, Verlaine. You’re going to be fine,” she assured. She furrowed her brows and looked toward the Captain as they wandered down the hall, looking as though she disapproved. “Captain, he’s experiencing some kind of vertigo. He needs assistance if he is going back to the ship.”

With a sigh, Stroud stopped in his tracks and shouldered his weapon, looking annoyed, but confident all the same. “I’ll get him back to the ship. Once he’s there and stable, I’ll make my way back to you guys.” It didn’t seem like anyone else was going to volunteer… plus he was the one that kept stating he wasn’t afraid of this place. If the Doctor could roam the corridors by herself then it ought to be a cinch for him. “Think you can survive without me for that long, Doctor?” He asked with a smirk as he made his way over, leaning down to grasp one of Verlaine’s arms and throwing it over his bulky shoulders.

“Oh, surely. In fact, I probably have a better chance of survival when your not around, considering you almost give me an aneurism every time something spews from your mouth,” Kaiya said curtly to which Stroud gave a bitter laugh. She was a little feisty one… but perhaps that is what he enjoyed about her. Wasn’t gonna go cry in a corner just because some men were giving her a hard time.

“Touche, little she-devil,” he chuckled and hoisted Verlaine up onto his noodle-like feet. “Helmet up, pilot. Let’s get you out of here.” It seemed as though he was more so being dragged than walking on his own… which made this an even better job for the brute of a man.

Kaiya sighed softly and rolled her eyes, packing her bag up and watching them go until they disappeared behind the sliding doors of the previous sector. She reached up and ran a hand through her cropped hair before getting to her feet and allowing her gauntlets to slide back in place over her hands. She wandered over to JD and gave him a reassuring grin. “There is nothing to be too concerned about. I think the stress was just getting to him. If we remove the stimulus of stress, then the reaction goes away. Simple as that.”

Kraus gave a bit of a scoff and crossed his arms as they stood there. “Yeah… hopefully it is that simple,” he said before moving down the corridor with the Captain and Gryffon. The Captain mentioned something about a new energy reading and Gryffon checked his radar, furrowing his brows in the process.

“Actually… yeah. What could be giving off that amount of energy?” Especially when it seemed parts of the station were currently drained of it. With the signals they were picking up, it should be no problem for the whole station to be up and running. “This is so fucking weird…” the man muttered and readied his weapon once more, keeping the barrel pointed at the ground.

Kaiya pressed her lips together in an almost nervous manner as she heard them speak of this, falling into step beside JD and glancing up at him. “Have you been experiencing any headaches or pains like Verlaine?” Since they had similar duties aboard the Virgo, it would only make sense that if the source of what was going on was something from the flight that JD would be experiencing the same thing. Otherwise, it was more likely that it had to do with something else. She was just trying to explore their options.
 
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Verlaine didn't put up any resistance, either too out of it, too sick, or entirely disinterested in what was happening around him. At least he was responsive enough to engage his helmet on request before dropping his chin to his chest and letting Stroud take the brunt of his weight, feet just barely carrying him along.

JD watched, utterly bewildered. "Stress? That would explain it, yeah." Verlaine was more prone to cracking than he was, more sensitive to transfers and shift changes. He'd never seen the man crack that badly, however. "Never seen that kind of reaction to stress before. Is that... normal? The," he gestured vaguely, "delirium?"

"Verlaine will be fine," Morley said. "I want to check this out before we continue on."

The Captain was abnormally cold for someone who'd lost one of his pilot so quickly. Morley could be a real bastard from time to time, but nothing on this level. Knocking Verlaine down a peg needed to be done sometimes. But this single-minded focus on the mission at hand was a tad unusual to JD, who'd worked with him before on difficult missions and never once had seen him so uncaring. As he walked alongside Kaiya, he wondered if the station was affecting them negatively, and if he'd gotten off relatively easy.

"On and off. Nothing like Verlaine's." He ran a nervous hand through his hair. "Eyestrain happens a lot. Whatever he was experiencing, though, I don't know. Didn't sound like eyestrain."

He caught the sound of a whistle from the end of the room, where Morley was standing on the threshold of what appeared to be a much larger room than even the atrium. When JD drew closer, he could just barely make out whatever Morley was staring at.

It was smaller than he expected. Twelve feet, maybe slightly more, and blacker than the void itself. Swirling runes covered its surface that seemed to glow from within, crimson light seeping from between the cracks and fine lines of the... stone? It was far too smooth to be stone, too perfect, yet there was an organic feeling to it as well. Smooth, unnatural skin over a hard, stony surface covered in a foreign language. This had to be the source of the Captain's energy readings.

Cords and cables and pulleys were draped across it, feeding information into an array of monitors placed in a semicircle. Numbers and letters flickered across the screens faster than he could memorize them. Was it keeping the monitors themselves running? That must be, or said monitors would be out just like a good portion of the lights. Whatever generators were here would going through their death throes and hardly contain the power to even keep the lights on. This had to be it.

Morley approached it, reaching out as if to touch only to think better of it and let his hand drop. "O'Malley, does this match the description of your "artifact"?"

"They were just drawings. I think so."

The twisting shape, sharp peaks, and fine runes were about right. He rubbed his eyes and looked away. The monitors were still spitting out readings, so he went to one and attempted to access the terminal.

"Guess that explains the paper," he said, squinting at the screen. "Someone must have been studying it more closely than the others. Pissed off the other scientists and drove them mad with his obsession. I heard scientists are like that sometimes."

Morley walked around to the other side of the object. "Wonder what these letters are for. Decoration? I never took these logic types for superstition."

"Next generation tech," JD said with a smile.

"Maybe."

"What do we want to do with it?"

Morley rubbed his chin in thought. "If it's providing enough power to the entire room and a good portion of the facility, this might be worth something. We'll need to figure out how to move it, if everyone's in agreement."

"Tararui could use a find like this," JD reminded him. "I'll bet that'd get her on a straight course for some upgrades."

"I'll contact Verlaine. If he's still kicking, I'll have him get the Virgo ready. See if you can disconnect those lines, O'Malley."

JD saluted and sifted through the terminal. These kinds of power lines needed to be disconnected remotely or the surge would blow the station. He discovered more logs along the way, none of them dated or even particularly detailed. Vague descriptions of tests they'd run, power output levels, measurements, and a long poetry piece in its honor. Poorly written, too. These scientists had a damn obsession alright. It was impressive for something that looked so simple, but that was about it. Maybe Morley was right; they were a superstitious lot.

The cables disengaged and fell limp and the monitors followed, their screens cutting out. Generator was definitely dead, then. Light still filtered in through the overhead skylights and a long viewing window on the other side of the room. They'd have just enough light to figure out how to move this thing.
 
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Kaiya gave a small nod as she had seen it before. “It depends on a lot of variables… but high stress environment with added effects like sleep deprivation and strain on the body… yeah. It’s definitely possible. Although, each person is very different in how they handle these variables.” She raised a hand to her chin as she thought. “For instance, you could have been in the same state as him. Little sleep, bundled nerves, perhaps lack of nutrition… yet your mind could continue to function in a stable manner.” She gave a small shrug and let out a soft sigh. “The human body is quite fascinating, but still holds plenty of mystery.”

That was quite the tangent, but she once again wanted to reassure JD that this was nothing out of the ordinary… although the Captain would speak before she had a chance to go on. Her brows furrowed just slightly and she looked more than a little irritated at the lack of worry the Captain showed for his crew member. However, she would only close her eyes for a moment as she really didn’t have a say in the matter. Plus, the sooner they got this over with, the sooner the could get back to the Tararui so she could keep a closer eye on Verlaine.

Eyestrain… I mean the lighting was god awful in this place, but it shouldn’t put someone through the sheer pain that Verlaine seemed to be in, unless he was accustomed to mind-altering migraines. “Let me know if it gets worse…” she said softly as it worried her if everyone started to experience the same symptoms.

As if on cue, they drew closer to the threshold that the Captain stood in and as her eyes passed over the black silhouette of the artifact, a pain wracked her head as fast as a bolt of lightning. The sheer unexpectedness of it nearly knocked her off her feet. Her hand reached out and gripped JD with a sort of desperation as her vision swam, her brows furrowing in a deep wince. “Fuck…” She whispered through gritted teeth. Images flashed in her mind, almost like memories, but they were not her own, nor did they depict things that she could even describe. Then again… it was probably all in her head…. because as spontaneously as the pain had appeared, it was gone.

Her eyes snapped open as a bead of sweat trickled from her temple and alongside her slender features. Her breathing was a bit heavy as she righted herself, realizing she could once again support herself on her own two feet.

“Whoa… Doctor, you alright?” Gryffon asked as he was the one that had been coming up the stairs behind her and JD. She also still seemed to not realize how tightly she was gripping onto JD’s suit.

She swallowed hard and slowly loosened her grip, giving a nod of her head that still ached faintly from the episode. “Y-Yes. I’m okay…” Although her face seemed a little flushed with her cheeks seeming to have a little extra color on them. With a little help, she took a few steps into the chamber before deciding to stay by the door as she did not wish to get any closer to that artifact. It made goosebumps rise instantaneously on her body. Her mind was still reeling a small bit, yet she caught enough of the Captain’s conversation with JD to know that she did not like it.

“…You can’t be serious,” she spoke although her voice still had a bit of a tremor to it. “O'Malley, you heard those logs… if this is the artifact they spoke of, then people were experiencing strange things in its presence. This is not a good idea-”

“What would you know?” It was one of the researchers that spoke, again Kaiya had almost forgotten they were there because they had been so quiet. “You’re a doctor. Not a scientist. This thing is a marvel…”

“We’re taking it,” The other researcher said firmly and stared at Kaiya with his beady eyes as if daring her to say anything against it. “We didn’t come here for nothing. We finally come across something worthwhile and you want us to leave it? Perhaps you’ve forgotten that our ship is nearly out of commission. We’d be out of a job soon.”

“Like she cares. She’d just get assigned to another ship. Seems like crews are always looking for to fill their medical team,” Kraus said, getting in on the conversation and crossing his arms over his chest. “I say we take it too.”

Kaiya couldn’t believe what she was hearing, shaking her head slowly. “I… this isn’t about any of that. Look at those fucking runes! You can’t tell me that this thing doesn’t make you feel uneasy-!”

“You already said your part,” one of the researchers said again and looked to the rest of the team. “What do you guys say?”

Gryffon glanced over at the Doctor for but a moment before scanning the rest of his team. “Well… something tells me Stroud would vote yes. And… I have to say that I agree. I don’t know what this thing is… but surely it will bring in a lot more even if we managed to fill the Tararui with a bunch of scrap. If this team is as desperate for cash as you’re saying… this may be your big break.”

Kaiya let out a slow breath and reached up to run a hand down her face, wiping away the light perspiration on her forehead. That was that… she was officially out voted.

Gryffon took quick steps, slinging his weapon over his back and coming to stand by the Captain. “So, how do we move this thing? It looks like its… fucking marble or something. I doubt it is going to be very light.”
 
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He didn't push the matter - she was the doctor, after all. If she said she was fine then he had nothing more to offer but his sympathies, a cordial pat on the shoulder, as professional as he could make it considering she'd grabbed a hold of him twice now. He decided not to look too deep into it, for his own sanity.

"Sure, I heard them, but... The Tararui... Look, our ship's in a bad place. Our crew is in a bad place." His brow furrowed and he smiled, almost apologetically. "This could be the start of something great for all of us."

"We'd all be out of a job." The Captain spoke as if he were talking to an insubordinate underling, tone harsher than was necessary given the circumstances. "We get it, doctor. You're afraid. But they're right - ships are always looking for medical personnel. The rest of us? Dime a dozen. I don't care what this thing is, we're hauling it back and giving our ship a second chance. We're going home to the promise of good pay this time."

And that was that. No one but the doctor had any serious objections, and even though JD could understand... he couldn't bring himself to leave the artifact behind if it had the potential to pull them all out of this hellish rut of bad luck. The logs could be hand-waved as the ramblings of a bunch of cooped up scientists who'd been away from the wider world for too long. Sure, it sent chills up his spine whenever he looked at it, and the runes looked awfully menacing, but... the Tararui needed it. He needed that payoff.

It was selfishness that drove his decision, pure and simple. He wouldn't sugarcoat it even to himself.

"Virgo's outfitted for this kind of pick up. Ship's got an autopilot for short distances, so what I'm thinking is we'll call Verlaine and get it set up so we can get the ship over here and pull this thing into cargo." The Captain explained the plan in detail; the Virgo would fly over, drop its loading platform through the skylights, and the Captain would use kinesis to haul it on board.

"Crazy things happen out here, Doctor Torres," JD assured. "Strong power sources like this sometimes drone, it's nothing new. My family had a generator that squealed when I was a kid. It was so high pitched it gave us migraines."

"Get those cables secured. Verlaine?" There was a quiet confirmation on the other side. "Autopilot to my RIG's coordinates."

A dazed, slurred 'sir' was the only reply. Satisfied, Morley quickly got to work ordering the crew abut.

JD move to comply, crawling atop the artifact's base to attach the pulleys and cables securely. He didn't dare to actually touch the thing. Kinesis would be pretty handy right about now, but the Captain's RIG was one of the few that came equipped with the module, leaving the rest of them to the good old fashioned way of getting things moved.

"Helmets up!" Shouted the Captain, his helmet folding around his face. The skylights would have to be blown out. The Virgo appeared overhead shortly after, descending close enough that its belly scraped the station's surface. The loading platform released and, with an explosive crash and whine of metal, broke through the skylight and lowered toward them. Oxygen seeped out slowly, and with the loss of power, it would run out eventually. They would have to work quickly.

"Let's get this thing moving, Captain!"

Morley obliged and activated is kinesis module. The artifact rocked, then rose steadily until its base scraped the loader. He situated it between the platform's pincers, which activated the moment they recognized the object. They clamped around tight. When the lights flashed green, Morley called to Verlaine again.

"Haul 'er up and set the Virgo to meet us by the airlock. You remember where it is?"

There was a pause before Verlaine spoke again. "Mhm, cap'n. O-on it."

JD took the momentary quiet after Verlaine disconnected to speak. "Should we head out?"

"May as well. If there's nothing else here you want to grab..." He looked pointedly at the researchers. "And we don't need scrap anymore, so, yes. We should move when we're ready."
 
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The doctor would have shot a glare toward the Captain if he wasn’t just that… the Captain. Instead, she angled the disproving gaze at his tone toward her feet and crossed her arms uneasily over her chest. It wasn’t about the fear… it was about the well-being of the crew. And yes… she did have a fear for that with this… thing being on board of which they knew nothing about. She let out a slow breath and reached up to rub her temple that still throbbed lightly from the streak of pain that she experienced only a moment ago. Her eyes glanced towards JD, pressing her lips together apprehensively before speaking softly. “I sincerely hope you are right.” That this would be a good for the whole ship.

She was the first to admit she was always a little more on the cautious side and after analyzing her actions in the moment, she hoped she hadn’t stepped out of bounds. Perhaps she had also seen one too many sci-fi films…

“I… yes. Perhaps this is just another anomaly.” She spoked in a softer tone, although the pilot’s words did little to calm her anxiety. The whole scenario was just… too fucked up. With all the evidence of delusion and no sign of the researchers besides the single pile or remains they stumbled upon… she just had a bad feeling about all of this. However, she really did hope that she was being worried for nothing.

The crew did as instructed, following the Captain’s orders as they secured the artifact. Although, it would seem that everyone else was just as hesitant to touch its surface as JD was. No one could really explain it, but the energy that radiated from the stone made the small hairs rise at the back of their necks as though in warning. Still, it did not stop them from fastening the cables around their treasure.

Everyone complied to the order, helmets whirring as they secured in place, glass showering down around them as the Virgo broke through with the loading platform. With the utilization of the kinesis module by the Captain, loading up the artifact went as smoothly as possible… although it was a good thing everyone in the lab was gone because they really did a number on the roof of their station. Not to mention the building was now completely breached and unstable as the oxygen seeped out into the thin atmosphere of the planet.

A familiar voice came through the radio as the Captain spoke to Verlaine. “Don’t worry, Captain. I’m not pilot but I remember where the airlock is.” It was Stroud’s voice as he must have decided to remain with Verlaine when they decided to take off so soon. “We’ll meet you there. Over and out.”

The researchers looked to be conflicted as they stood there, but finally gave a shake of their head. “We could remain here a week and still not feel as though we adequately found everything we would like. Let’s get out of here. We’ll have our hands full with the artifact anyhow.”

“I’m ready to leave this hellhole,” Gryffon said without hesitation, earning a chuckle from Kraus who nodded as well. It seemed they were all in agreement this time. They began traveling back the way they came although the sector that had just come through was now just as dark as the one previously because of the breach. That wasn’t really a problem for them though as Gryffon and Kraus simply pried open the doors with their hands to get them through. Everyone seemed to be in a rather excited mood at their find, except for Kaiya who remained quiet although she would say nothing against their enthusiasm. It really was an extraordinary find… she just wished she could be as enthused about it as her crew. She still couldn’t shake this… apprehension. And the quicker they got rid of the thing the sooner her unease would fade away.
 
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