The Edge of the World [IC]

[trollthumper]

"Oh, gladly." Cavalier took a step back, aiming his gun towards the drone's head. It was less graceful in its motions now, as if desperately trying to keep up with a dance it had fallen two steps behind. It raised its tendrils as if to defend itself - at which point he swiftly lowered to aim for the hole, firing off a high intensity blast. The blast hit home, frying the drone's circuits.

"That is not proooper patieeeennnnnt..." The drone's chirping voice wound down to a slow, deep hum, eventually dying entirely as its tendrils went limp. It fell to the ground with the crashing of a hundred tin cans, and Cavalier started to breath with relief.

He wanted to say something witty, to drive away the darkness around him. But there was no time for that. He turned to Argonaut. "So, what's the protocol here? I'm leaning towards Aliens. 'I say we take off...'"

[Brown Dynamite]

"Aliens that is one way to look at it.  The protocol...honestly reporting in and asking for a task force to act as reinforcements would be the proper thing.  Clearly the contents of the vessel are hostile.  The Terminus only breeds hostility after all."   Argonaut answered as she examined the drones.  A tightness in her chest as she took slow breaths.

 

"But, I cannot just leave the taint of the Terminus unperturbed.  The crew may need psychological aid more than medical.  We just have to confirm there is still a living crew.  These may not be proper plans of action.  However, I can recommend two courses.  We either bring the ship down to a more controlled location to better excavate its contents.  Risking something dangerous slipping loose.  Or we continue moving through the cabins documenting our findings until positive that there is no one left.  In which case.  The safest option would be to destroy the ship."

Her response was more long winded than Yves would have prefered. But it was touch subject matter. She of course left gaps in the explanation as to how she identified any connection to the Terminus. Not even considering it would serve any purpose to do so.

[trollthumper]

Neither option really seemed all that comforting to Cavalier, if he had to be honest. But, there was a clear preference. One option might mean bringing the ship down to Earth - and, given that he didn't know what sort of weird Terminus influence might be running through the ship, he didn't want to risk anything else that might be on board getting out. "We might be better off doing it room by room," he said. "That way, if we find anything that needs killing, we can take care of it before it could possibly escape."

They moved down the hallway, weapons out, keeping eyes open for any signs of movement. Cavalier had many questions to ask, starting with how Argonaut knew so much about the Terminus. But that would have to wait for a more sedate atmosphere.

[Brown Dynamite]

"Affirmative.  Hopefully that was the last of the madman's toys on this craft.  If there is still a living crew.  They won't be brought in quietly"  Argonaut paused momentarily.  Contemplating on how she would feel if she was still a prisoner inside the iron prison she now carries around.  No matter how much she wanted to leave the ship to take a breath.  If there was a crew, she couldn't be the one to give up on them.  "But everyone deserves a second chance at life."

 

Her blade poised to fire as they moved down the hallway.  She wanted to help, but she wasn't naive either.  If the pair wasn't alone.  What was to be found would not be friendly.  No one comes out of the Terminus friendlier.  She knew that much was true.  Internally she was thankful that he wasn't trying to fill the silence by pressing her for information.  There was only so much she could deal with at once.

[trollthumper]

The ship remained, for the most part, empty. There were few rooms, but the protections on some of them were stronger than others, to the point that Cavalier's EMP lockpick gun struggled to get them open. Each one told a story that Cavalier didn't want to hear. The mess hall, if it could be called as such, was more of a series of open closets, with metallic tubes like the ones in the cockpit, some of which still had faint traces of blood and a foul-smelling paste. It was a mere factory for the maintenance of flesh, with all the warmth of the assembly line.

At this point, I'd hate to think of what the privy looks like. He moved out, pushing back into the hallway. "Nothing but more nightmare fuel thus far," he said. "We'd better --"

The sound of something scuttling came from around the corner. Cavalier raised his blaster and moved forward, hugging the wall. He peered around, trying to catch a sight of the intruder, but he only caught the tail end of movement, ducking behind another corner. But what he saw was terribly familiar - the hind-quarters of some multi-legged thing, looking like a cross between a centipede and a jellyfish.

He'd seen that before. That was one of the... things that had been probing him when he was dragged off to the Cloud. It couldn't be here... it shouldn't be here...

"We've got signs of life. Or... signs of something."

[Brown Dynamite]

One of the beautiful things about the body substance isolation that her armor provided.  Smell became an optional luxury.  It only took a few rooms before she decided to pass on said option.  Yves began to theorize based off the increasing dread each room provided.  The crew if it could even be called that didn't have a life on board this ship.  They were sustained clearly.  Nothing more than being kept alive.  At least until they stopped serving their purpose.  If they've stopped serving their purpose.

 

"Hm?"  Argonaut watched as Cavalier used the corner as cover.  She hadn't caught sight of the creature scuttling about as with Cavalier on point someone had to pull rear.  The sound was hard to miss, however.  By the time she had positioned herself to take a proper look it was already gone.  

 

"Signs...of something?  Did you see another one of the doctor's robotic 'helpers'?"  

[trollthumper]

"Something like that." Cavalier didn't know what he'd seen. He traced the steps of the creature, trying to check for some sort of trail - or further signs of movement. He tried to rationalize what he'd seen. The aliens who'd abducted him, all those years ago... there was no way they were aligned with the Terminus. Otherwise, there'd been much less of a chance he would've made it out. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened - there was that time him and the rest of the Runabouts had entered that settlement with the ultrasonic experiment, and they'd almost shot each other's heads off before Moritus smashed the big box. He cracked open the next room, his fear flagging slightly. This had to be that... right?

But there was a difference between rationality and the primal sting of terror. And as the door flew open, Cavalier shifted rapidly from one to the other. There they were. Those slats, those horribly familiar slats. Slightly angled, with arm restraints lined with strange needles that laced the skin, constantly collecting samples. The slats were bloodied, and that was the least of the fluids on them. Whatever had happened here had not ended well for anyone. The light seemed to leave the room, and despite the best armor Mentor could provide, Kyle felt naked.

"No, no... no, no, no... not again..."

Moving up in response to Cavalier's distress, Argonaut found what might charitably be called the crew's sleeping quarters. Small alcoves, with straps, tubes, and strange helmets that might serve some circadian purpose. It was not happy, but compared to some of the other rooms on board, it was practically hygienic. So why was Cavalier reacting so strangely?

[Brown Dynamite]

Being given a handbook didn't exactly account for actual proper investigative training that other field agents received. She was a special case and Argonaut was alright with that. But, now when they finally got a reprieve from the seemingly endless gloom that was the ship. Now, she could really have done with a keener eye. Especially as she couldn't quite gather what was going on with Cavalier.

The room wasn't what one would call spotless. However, compared to the rest of the ship one could eat off the floor. Yet here Cavalier was acting just as spastic as she felt ever since they ran into the doctor's robot. "Hey...? Are you well? You sound as if someone started eviscerating you. Slowly."  Her concerned inquiry came from the distance.

 

Perhaps the man underneath the armor had the personality of one of those soccer moms which Yves needed more than the occasional glass of wine to survive.  And his interior decorator button had finally been pushed as a result.  It was an odd measuring stick to use, but it was hers.  There was nothing that warranted the absolute level of terror she was hearing.  But if there was something she knew enough about it was certainly terror.  Logic and Rational thinking always took a back seat.  There had to be more going on.  So she pried.  Assuming he was reacting to the only thing that she figured would be scaring her.

 

"The robot you spotted earlier is it hiding in this room?"  Her Blast Blade poked out at the ready.

[trollthumper]

"No..." It was less of a confirmation and more of a meek admittance of helplessness. Cavalier's clutch tightened on the blaster; in the distance, he thought he could hear the whirring of strange equipment, the faint screams of people and other beings undergoing horribly detailed inspection at hands that didn't care. "No, no, no. Not here. Not now." His finger slipped off of the safety and onto the trigger. "Oh... but that was before, wasn't it? You may have sucked me up and shot me around the back end of the universe. But... you didn't kill me. I picked up some tricks, some grit, and the finest goddamn walking arsenal this side of Alpha Centauri!"

He scanned the room, as if looking for the robot - and as far as Argonaut could tell, it was like he couldn't even tell she was there anymore. Which wasn't a good situation to be in, when the other person on the ship was losing his marbles and carrying a fully-charged blaster.

"Come on out, you walking seafood platter from Hell! We'll see what it's like when something hot and cauterizing gets shoved up into you!"

[Brown Dynamite]

"Careful now.  Keep waving that thing around and you might end up venting us.  Or worse.  Then it really will be a rescue mission."  Argonaut spoke with alarm.  At a loss for what was going on with Cavalier.  He didn't seem quite so unhinged when they first met.  And she knew unhinged.

 

If he needed to work through something great.  She knew a great therapist, forced to see him on a weekly basis.  However, Argonaut would rather not have a hole blown through her torso as he got lost in a daze of crazy.  His fanning of the empty room remained a worrisome sight the longer she shared the room.  They don't pay me enough for this.

 

Walking sea food platter, didn't quite sound mechanical to her  And the latter part of his sentence made absolutely no sense.  The AEGIS employed Omegadrone as just left with more burning questions.  Cautiously she tried to near the blaster totting Star Knight shield held tightly in front of her.  "Cavalier...who are you talking to?"

[trollthumper]

"Oh, come on!" It was getting stronger now - Cavalier could smell the mix of blood, ichor, and other leavings, coalescing on the floor for brief seconds before being swept up by droids for possible inspection. The screaming was stabbing at his ears like a knife, and the armor seemed to be crumpling from his body. He felt like there were eyes all over him, scrutinizing these strange muscles and this weird flesh, waiting with bated breath to make the first slice. "You can't see 'em? They're everywhere! They just keep staring! They don't do any goddamn thing else, no matter how loud you scream! How can you not --?"

And just like that, it was over. The sounds, the smells, the feeling of nudity - it had all vanished, blown away on the wind. Argonaut's words had worked their way through his head. He wasn't that scared high school graduate anymore; he was a Star Knight, in a room full of glass chambers where it looked like people were stored when they weren't being used. Not quite a place of comfort, but a hell of a lot better than where he'd been.

"...it's gone." He cleared his throat and turned to Argonaut. "Listen, what happened back there... I, uh, I went through some real crap back in the day. I'm sorry I lost it. I can't believe I --"

At that point, a groan ripped through the ship. For a second or two, it sounded like metal fatigue. But then it rose higher, more pitched than any sound of buckling metal. It sounded almost as if the ship was screaming.

"Okay, I'm officially putting this in the 'hoodoo' column. Remember that Aliens protocol I was talking about earlier? Starting to consider its merits."

[Brown Dynamite]

When his episode came to a close Argonaut didn't fully relax.  If he was walking on a fine edge.  She'd rather the next time Cavalier started seeing things he didn't actually start shooting.  Her modified Omegadrone armor was resilient.  But it wasn't impenetrable by any means.  As much as Dr. Volk would love a field test of such a fact.  Yves would prefer a change of environment for that.

 

"It's fine.  One thing I know a thing or two about is going through things.  But just what is hoodoo?"  She asked the question in such a straight manner it bordered on ridiculous.  Twenty years on the planet and some things still slipped through the cracks.  Magic practices was amongst those.

 

"You might be on to something.  There is something seriously wrong with this ship."

[trollthumper]

"Yeah, I think we passed 'thing,' singular, hours ago," Cavalier said. "Just keep your eyes open and make sure whatever you're shooting at's really there." He took a few steps forward, trying to regain his footing. He still felt like there was a layer of fuzz over his brain, like the mold on a rotted peach. He tried to clear his head and focus, but that was easier said than done.

All right, think, Kyle. This isn't the first time you went on a strange stranded vessel and got kicked in the bran. What kind of stuff screws with people like this? Ultrasonics, nerve gas --

The realization came to him. There was all that neural equipment. A finely-tuned circuit could produce a strong current, but not if you plugged a block of wood into it...

"Argonaut. You know the Terminus better than I do. How exactly do they crank out the finest product from their nightmare factories?"

[Brown Dynamite]

Yves wasn't the sort to hinge her hopes on faith of any sort.  So hoping they didn't wind up shooting at each other thinking they were taking down some unseen menace.  It lacked a sort of panache that would keep her at least with the false notion of relaxing.  Then came the heavy questions right out of the gate.  She knew the PG version would have to do.  Because, there was no way she was going through a step by step account on that fun trip through memory lane.

 

"If it's an Omegadrone the conversion involves torture, dissection, body modification, and brainwashing.  I'll spare you all the details.  Just know that you have to learn left means right if Steelgrave or Omega so inclines.  There's the fighting to the death to even earn the right to be converted.  The smell of blood, a texture you can never wash your hands off of.  Then there are the implants and your consciousness learns to take a backseat.  Annihilists, get to keep their free will.  That is after their free will has been warped to fit whatever the Doctor's definition of proper free will is.  Subservience to the Lord of Entropy."  Yves found her self making air quotes at the mention of Omega.  Despite being one of two people in existence she truly feared, there was enough defiance to not even want to give the mental idea of him the satisfaction..

 

"When the conversion comes to a close Physician Friendly enjoys inflicting 'punishment' on all the bad boys and girls.  Which in layman's terms means everyone gets an implant that allows Omega or Physician Friendly to inflict pain on them whenever they so wish.  It also functions as a kill switch of sorts.  I am not positive on where it's applied, I would imagine in a humanoid species either the spinal region, or barring that directly in the brain itself, to increase the risk of inflicting paralysis in the rare attempt of surgical removal.  But the sheer number of nanites and modifications coursing through a drone or anihilists body makes that a sort of guessing game as to which is which."  She wasn't actually guessing too much on the probable location for an ideal place to insert the implant.  After all, she had one of her own.   Though it did leave the question of where a more gelatinous being was punished.  "If someone has been converted.  There is no reasoning with them.  Because there is no them to reason with, there is only Omega.  Stab first and then ask questions later."

[trollthumper]

Cavalier remained quiet as Argonaut listed off the process of conversion. The fact that she knew it in such exacting detail, could recite it like that... he didn't want to know where she'd been. He could guess, but from her words, it was a place he never wanted to go himself. And he'd been to some real crapholes. When this was done, he would have to buy her a drink. Or five. But until then, he had to put aside the horrifying possibilities she presented... in order to focus on a horrifying possibility of his own.

"Absolute servants to Omega," he said, letting all the horror inherent in that concept creep into his voice. "And the Terminus takes from those it conquers, right? I don't think this is a Lor ship. At least, one of our Lor ships. I think this came from another universe, one that got hit hard by the Terminus."

The groaning in the depths of the ship seemed to intensify, and Argonaut swore she could hear something familiar...

"Would the Terminus be able to use Lor psychics?"

[Brown Dynamite]

"Sure.  I've heard of specialized models of omegadrone armor if a subject's powers are useful for service, but not so useful to be better served as Annihilists.  It would only take the urging of a dedicated Annihilist to get the approval for something akin to mentat shock troopers/assassins or maybe just that scene where Carrie snaps.  After it was proven they could be kept in line.  And eliminated if need be."

 

Her extent as a mentat served to provide a psionic understanding of languages.  It hardly mattered when one's not in the driver seat of their actions.  And served little purpose for a foot soldier.  But a more expansive sort of mentat could in theory provide more firepower in the expansion of Entropy.  "I wouldn't know.  Whatever use they come up with would be colored red."  The last sentence was more of a joke on her part than anything else.

[trollthumper]

"I don't think they had steel casing in mind," Cavalier said. "This ship... the cables, the droids, the utilitarian design... I think they were using the mentats as a combination of crew and power source. They plug them in, have them coordinate anything... God, they must have nearly no individuality left by that point, they form a complete circuit..."

The groaning was still there - dull, quieter now, but ever present, constantly raking at Cavalier's nerves. "I don't think this ship is supposed to be here. If it was supposed to punch its way into our reality, as an advanced scout or something... well, it wouldn't be such a mess. So... maybe it fell through. And when it did, something happened... the crew's still here. We need to find them. Because if they're still putting their heads together, then I think there's a good chance they're watching us right now..."

[Brown Dynamite]

"Steel or not it's a prison by another name."  Yves was familiar with the hive mind mentality.  A lack of individuality only compounded onto the danger.  Killing them would be a small mercy.  If it were me, death would be preferable never again.  Unfortunately, I do not wish to be so merciful.  If we can recover them alive.  It would mean...I'm allowed my few selfish pursuits.

 

"Fell through...a dimensional fold?"  Argonaut asked with a bit of understanding.  Finding them was proving easier said than done up to this point.  As far as she knew they had walked up and down most of the ship as it were.  Pacing back and forth slightly agitated Argonaut would kick a wall to vent.  Agitation was easier to digest than trying to wrap her mind around the situation.

 

"Watching...us right now."  She stopped to take a step back.  "Are we sure we haven't already seen them?  A psionic camouflage of sorts."

[trollthumper]

Well. That was a suitably hideous thought. Cavalier tried his best to put it into the back of his head, so that he could focus on the first part.

"Maybe a dimensional fold," he said. "Maybe they tried punching a hole to somewhere and got punched into somewhere else. Whatever they fell through, it may have screwed with them in some way; otherwise, they'd probably still be hanging in their posts like racks of meat..."

Finally, he was done processing. It had taken some effort and a little brute force, but he was able to reroute and refine some of the energy into his armor to expand his senses. He still had no idea how the hell that worked, but Mentor had prepared the possibility of the Star Knights encountering anything and everything. He could feel his senses opening, attuning him to the wavelengths of psychic energy...

...which was all around him, soaking into the very walls of the ship. And he could feel a presence on the other end...

"Oh, yeah. They're here."

[Brown Dynamite]

Argonaut looked around.  Trying to figure out where Cavalier had spotted them.  From what she could tell he hadn't visibly done anything differently.  Perhaps his armor was more advanced.  But, then he should have picked up on them earlier.  Then again, they were lobbying around with the space crazies.  Locked up on the S.S. Horrible was not good for anyone's mental health.

 

"Lead the way.  No offense to the decorator, but the furnishings have disgusted me enough to make IKEA look good."  It didn't help knowing that there was a chance the mentas knew that Cavalier and her knew they were there.  It was one of those weird psionically knowing what your opponent knows things.  Not that she knew much about it, technically a mentat herself her ability related to a psychic understanding of language.  Despite what the evolutionary needs on another dimension would think, the pen was not mightier than the sword in such situations.

[trollthumper]

"Yeah, I know the feeling," said Cavalier, leading the way with blaster drawn. "Man, there was a time when evil spaceships had some sense of ambiance. Skulls on the bow, consoles made of obsidian, toilets made from the bones of your enemies... now it all just looks like someone launched a run-down slaughterhouse into space."

It was a bad joke, he knew, but it was a lot better than dealing with everything else. "Everything else" in this case being the psychic presence that was likely examining him and Argonaut from all angles. They moved into the deeper recesses of the ship, senses trained in all directions. There was a trace of movement, but nothing more. The presence wasn't about to pounce, but it did seem content to pace.

At the rear of the ship lay the engine room. Whatever Lor design qualities were once here were now afterthoughts; the entire system had been redone in the style of a hell-touched forge, with twisted, interwoven pipes and inhuman engines grinding away. Only the engines were stilled, and the strange fuel that sat in the pipes lay dormant. Whatever powered this ship was broken... but the presence was thicker, to the point that Cavalier was starting to feel eyes staring at the back of his head, even beyond the superacute psionic sensors.

"All right, so why's it lurking --" The reek hit him soon after, even through the facemask on his armor.At the rear of the chamber, in what looked like a gigantic gash torn out of a quantum engine, lay a bony, desiccated arm. A few steps closer indicated it wasn't the only set of remains in the feeder. More bodies - all emaciated and filthy, with faces that seemed frozen mid-scream - lay in the receptacle.

"...and that would be the crew."

[Brown Dynamite]

"Really we should write a strongly worded letter to their supervisor.  I didn't even see an 'Ask me about my driving' sticker."  Argonaut scoffed.  Every step they took didn't make the situation any more comfortable.  It was eerily quiet, but everything had been screaming out at her.  As if her own victims were screaming out at her again.  Coffin was as accurate a comparison as any.

 

Argonaut looked at the remains.  It was pretty gross.  Even by her estimation of the word.  In the end finding the crew only brought more questions than answers.  "...well.  I'm going to go out on a lim-.  I'm going to say that whatever ravaged them, might not be considering us as potential threats.  Especially if they can do this.  We're desert."

 

Her response was cold matter of fact.  It took a certain level of detachment to refer to the potential of being left a limbless corpse that casually.  One that she wore with pride.  Especially, since Yves wasn't planning on laying down without a fight.  Her therapist would argue that it was actually just Argonaut masking stress or fear with agitation.  But she wasn't here.  And she wasn't smelling the foul odor in the room.

[Brown Dynamite]

Argonaut looked into the opening.  Half expecting something peering right back her.  Now she had to wonder if that would have been a better sight than the half open iris she had found herself privy to.  Looking around Yves ended up spotting more of the same.  It was a venerable workshop of the horrible.

 

"At least they weren't relieved of their viscera.  Tossed aside like batteries that have served their purpose."  The furnace was most curious.  It was at odds with modern technology, futuristic depending on who you asked, aboard the vessel.  Poking her blast blade into the opening Argonaut would try and see if it would at least pry open without a major show of force.  The pilot lights and furnace like system in general were worth looking into.

 

"There's something in here."

[trollthumper]

"Let me guess, it's something strange and horrible." Kyle poked his head in the iris, hoping against hope that it wouldn't close on him - but giving everything he'd dealt with today, there might be a chance of that. His eyes quickly lit on the focused nozzles at all angles and the black coating to the walls. "It's a furnace - well, a crematorium's more like it. There's not really a need for a furnace on a ship that's got warp engines. So either the broken robot hauled them all in here, or they've got something more streamlined in place for when one of the 'batteries' burns out..."

The rattling through the ship hit a new crescendo, like the bulkhead was starting to tear itself apart. The moaning grew in pitch, too, to the point that it felt like the source might be coming from the room. In fact, according to the sensors of psionic activity in Cavalier's helmet... it was.

"Yeah, I think they've finally managed to get their stuff together. Get ready; we may have --"

The walls of the engine room ripped open, as if they had exploded from the inside. Some sort of fog began to stream into the room, making it harder to see - except for the transparent form pushing its way through the mist, made almost of solid thought.

"-- contact,"

[trollthumper]

The thing in the mist loomed, like a panther waiting to pounce. Through the psionic buffers, Cavalier had a loose understanding of form - features here and there, piled on one another like double exposure, shifting in and out of phase like a kaleidoscope in motion. The thing wasn't so much human-shaped as it was a cloud of rough human features. Then, with clockwork precision, the motion halted. Even without psionic equipment, Argonaut could see form to the clear blob - seven faces, Lor-esque in features, pushing out of a twisted bulk of bodies. The heads screamed in unison, and Cavalier felt something go zooming past him. A second later, an impact rang through the engine room - something had hit one the walls with all the force of a cannonball, leaving a deep dent.

You've just got to keep that thing on you, and not the bulkheads. Hooray. Cavalier felt his pistol slide into place, the energy from the matrix powering it up. "Nice shooting, Tex. My turn." Bolts of emerald light cut across the engine room, striking the entity right in the chest and mingling with its essence. The heads had retreated into the psychic energy, and it was hard to gauge a reaction - but judging by the harsh buzzing in his head, Cavalier could guess those bolts had done more than tickle the thing.