UER Rickenbacker

(lulwut? no, talking bout regenerating hybrid, like urs? )

The grav-lift towards the Bridge had been activated. And that would not be tolerated.
With a short order from her head, the grav-lift suddenly stopped dead in its tracks. Damon was now frozen in the void between the Bridge and the level beneath. Truth be told, if Damon ever would reach the Bridge, he wouldn't find a nice sight.
Bodies would be scattered over the place, and by the command, Archeus commanders.

Once again she heard snorting, and in the next second, something burst out in a vent behind her. Another hybrid, but slow as well. Kirito fastened her phase, closer to the elevator than ever.

(urgh...w/e lol)

Damon couldn't believe it. The lift had stopped halfway up to the Bridge. Wonderful. Now what was he supposed to do? Just then, his comm activated.
"Oh...well that wasn't expected. Seems someone doesn't want you going up there. Neither do I, Damon..." Daniels said. "I just checked a map of the ship and...the area is teeming with hostiles. Hold on. I'll try to get that lift to shift. Gimme a minute or two" she said.

Kirito grined. As planned. By stopping the elevator, she had attracted Damon's partner out from her hiding and exposed her access to the ship's system. All she had to do now was to refuse the access.

All of a sudden, a hybrid bursted out of the vent outside of her. Kirito had to temporarily drop her attention to the computer system, and instead focused on the hybrid. With a metallic ring, the claws shot out, just so they could decapitate the hybrid in the next moment. She ran past as the body dropped, and once again she focused back to the ship system. Almost immediately she found the intruding presence, but in the next second it disappeared. She had banned it. It would no longer disturb her.

The elevator was already waiting for her when she reached it, and closed as she entered. Almost immediately, her breathing calmed down. Her body hissed as they shifted to rest mode, now only waiting for the elevator to reach its destination.
Meanwhile, Kirito activated the camera inside of the grav-lift's car, and why yes, there he was. Damon. With his face away from the camera.

Damon looked around. He switched his comm on.
"Shit! Damon! I've been locked out of the systems by someone...nearby...you have to get the hell out of that lift!" Daniels told him. Damon looked around again. How in god's name was he supposed to do that? He could try breaking the glass and jumping down. Grabbing his power-saw, he jabbed it into the glass like an axe and pulled it down. Only a dent. Damn. Bulletproof glass. But that giant thing had had no problems fracturing it, so it was possible.

Kirito frowned irritated as she saw what Damon was trying to do. Fool. He was going to break out from the elevator. But she wouldn't allow that. No.

With a sudden, threatening rack! the elevator suddenly started to move again. But this time downwards. And much faster, faster and faster by each second. Kirito had shut off the lift's brake system, nothing could keep the car from crashing into the comming stop. Either Damon would die by a collision, or the elevator would stop in time to open for the cyborg to enter.

Meanwhile, the elevator stopped. As the door opened, a loud howling roar reached her ears. A Bruiser. Seemed that the hybrids had started to take over the Commands too. Not good. Not good at all.

Damon was thrown off his feet as the grav-lift suddenly started crashing down. Knowing what would happen, Damon frantically looked around for an exit, but there was none.
"Shit" he mouthed, gripping the power-saw. As the lift neared the bottom, Damon thrusted the saw into the glass as hard as he could, sticking in it, Damon hanging onto it, as the lift continued down. Damon sighed, and pulled an irritated expression.

Kirito snorted, but hid herself behind the wall as a hybrid walked past. The grunting and snorting it made as it breathed and moved revealed itself early, giving her plenty of time to hide, since now - she didn't feel like encounter another hybrid. She had to take care of that Bruiser, and get to Damon.

Meanwhile, in the elevator shack, the car suddenly braked, just inches away from the ground. The elevator camera could no longer see the human, the cyborg had assumed that he somehow had escaped the lift car. No need to destroy a completely functioning part of the lift if you wouldn't get anything out of it.
Shrill screeching sounded as the gear suddenly fighted against the power of the speed, and as the metal wires tried to keep the car on hold.

Damon looked down. The lift had stopped, and was still. He sighed in relief, and looked through the glass. The shaft the lift went up and down through went up through the upper levels of the Command Deck, and Damon was looking directly at level 3. Not wanting to be around when the cyborg or that Bruiser found him, Damon pounded the glass in front of him with the saw as hard as he could, until there was a hole he could crawl through. When he had, he found himself in front of a door leading to the Command Crew Quarters. So he had time to have a peek around before risking the Bridge.

Kirito kept her gaze locked at the Bruiser. It was seemingly restless, starting to walk in circle in the corridor it was located. The corridor going towards the final grav-lift, all the way to the Bridge. She would have to take it out, but fast. Something told her that Damon was still alive.
She quickly glanced over towards the monitor screen on her arm, watching the video from the camera in the lift shack. She flipped through them, until she suddenly saw a hole, big enough for an adult man, in the glass. She switched video, showing the hole from the other side of the glass - and inside the Command Crew Quarters. Once again she started to browse through the videos of the Crew Quarters. He was there.

She looked up from the monitor and back at the Bruiser. Just a distraction would be enough to give her time to enter the elevator.

Inside the shack, the lift stopped by the ground floor, just some meters away from the Bruiser.
On the same time, two laser turrets lowered themselves behind and in front of the Bruiser from the roof.

The Bruiser snorted, angry that three potential victims had gotten away from it. It then focused back on the lift shaft. The grav-lift had returned to the current floor. The Bruiser then heard whirring, as two turrets lowered from the ceiling and aimed at the creature. The Bruiser looked up, surprised.

Damon meanwhile was inside one of the Crew Quarters rooms, bunks built into the walls. He guessed only the command crew were allowed in the area, though that hardly mattered now. He had to find out how many people were left alive on the ship. A crew roster he'd read earlier stated that the rebellion had requested 1481 people for the voyage, almost double what they'd originally had in mind. But he'd seen several crew members on his way here, and they'd all died of their wounds or committed suicide for no apparent reason.

The Bruiser was still looking dumb at the turrets, seemingly confused over why they were there.
Carefully, silently, behind the creature was the elevator door opening. It didn't notice anything. Now... just to distract the Bruiser so she could pass without be bothered.

A high-pitch sound was suddenly heard as one of the turrets loaded, glimps of light seen in the gun barrel, just before it fired a discharge into the Bruiser's shoulder. It roared loud and snapped around at the turret, and on the same time lowered its guard from the other. The Bruiser got a burning hit in the back by the other turret. It turned around and roared at it too, but got a hit from the first turret at the same time.

Slightly amused by the sight of the stupid creature, trying to chase its own tail, Kirito started to prepare herself. She waited a little more, checking that the Bruiser was fully involved with the chase of the two turrets, before she took off.

The Bruiser hardly reacted as she passed, but for a moment stopped and cocked its head, sniffing in the air. But then the turrets fired once again, hitting it on the side of its head. It turned around and snapped at the turrets, but both of them slunk back in the roof before it succeeded to reach.
On the same time, the elevator door closed, with the cyborg inside it.

Damon turned around. He'd heard the Bruiser again. And it was very angry. Not good. Stopping to grab an audio log he'd found clenched inside a severed hand, Damon soon left the room and looked around. He saw a hybrid walking with it's back to him through a door, but decided it would be best to leave it alone. He had to know what to do next.
"So um...Bridge doesn't want you going up? Okay then...I have a better idea. If the captain's on the Bridge, you can't get to him. Maybe you should check out the Von Braun. Maybe the things haven't gotten that far. But, be careful. The umbillical joining the two ships together is badly damaged. You'll have to go up, but you'll need a helmet on or something. I'll call you again soon" Daniels said on the comm. Damon took one more look around the crew section, then slowly headed back to the tram. He would have to get past the Bruiser on the way. Perfect.

Once on the tram, Damon set it for the central stop, and waited. When the tram stopped, and the doors opened, Damon stepped onto the station. The station had a second floor with a cafe aswell, but he was in no mood for that. The umbilical was right ahead. He just had to get through it. He stepped through the large opening, past the bloodied corpse of a marine propped up against the opening wall. More dead marines lay ahead, plus many bullet holes in the walls. Damon guessed that cyborg had been here recently.

Damon activated his helmet and prepared himself. He then entered the umbilical, which had been emptied of all it's air since it had been sabotaged by the Rickenbacker's cannons. Slowly climbing up via the jutting areas in the walls, Damon could see the giant morsal of the Von Braun destroyer above him through the breach in the wall. He kept on going.

Once he finally exited the umbilical, Damon found himself inside a small waiting room on board the Von Braun. Two corpses and a offlined sentry bot occupied the eerily quiet room. Damon looked around. The room was a mess. Ahead was a ladder, and a sign reading "Cargo Bay" He guessed that was the only way to go, and headed on.

Meanwhile, back on the Rickenbacker, Commander Jackson smiled and pressed a button which gave him control of the ship's cannons. He set them to aim at the Von Braun. Chuckling, he readied himself.

Kirito noticed, from the monitor in her arm, that Damon had left the Crew Quarters. She browsed quickly through the camera videos, but couldn't find him. He had left. And there was no indication from the computers that he had moved upwards towards the Bridge. Rather the contrary, he had left the fifth level.
The cyborg chuffed satisfied. At least she had cut his run towards the Bridge. On the same time, there were Archeus on the Bridge, controlling the ship right now. Perhaps they would have been able to take him down. But that wasn't to think about now.

What she could do, instead, was to control how the Bridge was doing. She was already on her way.

Meanwhile, The Beast had gotten fully healed and was now standing up. His leg wasn't flinching a bit under his weight, insuring him that it was healed. With a satisfied grunt, he climbed through the hole made by Damon and dropped the rifle he had aquired from the Archeus. He wouldn't need it anymore.

(Can we PLEASE get this thread more active? I'm lonely )

So, this was the Von Braun, Damon thought to himself, climbing the ladder. In little compartments inside the ladder shaft, there were deactivated turrets. Good thing they were off, otherwise he'd be history. He wondered what was in the cargo bay.

Once he was up there, he looked around. To his right, a ladder led up to an observation station. Directly in front of him was a large crate that was blocking the way to the rest of the bay. Maybe there were survivors on the Von Braun, and maybe not. But he had too look. He climbed up the ladder to the observation booth, and found a mutilated corpse. An audio log was in it's hand. Damn picked up the log and clicked it on. A male voice came from it.
"Well, hopefully that package should delay the creatures for now. Wonder how I'm gonna get back in though. I bet they knew I was gonna pick that fucking short straw...anyways, standing here talking's not gonna help. Better get go...what the...AAAARGH!!!" There were hybrid growls, followed by gunshots and the tearing of flesh. The log then switched off. Damon shivered. He had to move, now.

(Erm...still no inspiration? )

(nopes. )

The cyborg entered the Bridge, the control straight ahead. The Archeus commanders had settled down in it, by the panels, mostly just looking. Occasionaly she could see them finger on the buttons of the dashboard.
She glanced to her right, and saw the bodies of the Command crew lay scattered in a loose pile. The captain's ravaged body too.

The signal from the elevator announced her arrival, and all of the Archeus snapped around with their head towards it. They immediately noticed the cyborg, who stood lifeless by the body pile they had made quickly before. Kirito looked back at the Archeus, who gave her a short hiss before they turned back to the panels.

Kirito glanced around on the controls, and checked with her own computer, after some kind of strange activity on the ship. She noticed, to her delight, that the hybrid numbers had decreased succesfully. And the numbers were still dropping, as she noticed Nexu and Archeus activity around them.
Someone was moving through the connection between Von Braun and Rickenbacker.
And she noticed a new activity too, the largest in the ship. She read it as the Beast.

The Beast now moved quickly through the corridors. The path was pretty much clear from hindrance now, as both Kirito and others had moved through here.
He stopped for a moment as he reached 3 hybrid bodies, reaching down and sniffing on them. His long, grey tongue reached out and licked it, but then he grunted and got up again. Hybrids did, honestly, not taste good.
He moved on.

Damon saw another ladded climb up to some kind of heavy-lifting platform. Walking towards it, Damon thought he heard voices behind the large crate. Once he was up the ladder, Damon surveyed the controls. He guessed "Re-Locate Primary Cargo" was the one that moved the crate. And it was. A large claw extended from the roof of the cargo bay, and latched itself around the giant metal object. It then raised it up, and the control screen read "Require further re-location?". Damon selected "No" and climbed back down the ladder. He then walked below the create, entering the larger area ahead. Suddenly, someone walked up behind him and pointed a gun at him.
"Don't you fuckin' move" a female voice said. Damon sighed, and stood where he was, as two male marines walked up to him, brandishing pulse rifles. They were suspicious of him.
"No ID" the female marine said. "Who the **** are you?" she asked Damon.
"I...my name is Damon. I...we arrived on a rescue shuttle six hours ago. I got seperated and..." he tried to explain.
"That's enough..." the brown-haired marine in front of him said. Suddenly, the whole Von Braun shook as something slammed into it's hull.
"What the **** was that?!" the woman asked.
"It's the Rickenbacker! They're firing on us!" someone yelled from behind some crates.
"But why..."
"It's Jackson..." Damon said. The marines just stared at him in disbelief.

The Beast snapped up with his head as he caught a new scent trail, from something still living.
Where the path was met by another, creating a crossing, the Beast continued straight forward, despite the trail of blood and mutilated bodies went in the path to the right. Because that scent was old, he could even see it. This one, though, had the scent of living. He grunted and carried on moving, his nose switching from sticking up in the air to following the floor.
Yet he couldn't decide if this was a human's scent or a hybrid's. Maybe both.

Kirito stayed up by the Control some more time, watching how the work progressed up there. Yet it seemed like it worked on fine, the ship continued its orbit.
She turned around and started to leave.

But just feet away from the elevator, the whole ship suddenly rocked hard. She heard the Archeus screeching behind her at each other, demanding explanation.
Asteroid?! One of their translators said.
Kirito shrugged her head. No, that wasn't an asteroid, she had noticed activity in the ship. Someone had taken control of the ship's canons.

The marines, Damon, and an engineer who had just joined them all rushed to a nearby control center, and surveyed the damage.
"Von Braun had been damaged, Rickenbacker is fine. Must be their cannons, But why would Jackson want to shoot us?" the engineer asked.
"He's gone nuts. He even sent a regenerating hybrid of some sort after me. I think it's still on the loose" Damon explained.
"Where's Croker?" a marine asked in an irritated voice.
"Down in the training center, fixing up some ****. We gotta warn him..." someone started, before their comm switched on.
"Don't sweat it, amigos! I'm fine! I'm heading up now, got shook pretty badly when the ship was hit. I think I broke a rib, but I'll be fine!" Croker said on the radio. The marines sighed with relief. Damon just stood around, confused.

The Beast pushed away a couple of wooden boxes that had fallen in the way by the collision. He heard scratching farther away, something that his ears had made attentive, which was now spinning around at every direction. His jaws clapped a little against each other and he started to move again, slower this time. His paws was pretty much soundless, just a soft thud that sounded as his pads met the ground. His eye swung around in its socket, scanning the hallway for any visible traces of his new prey.

The scratching again, farther off this time.

His phase fastened, yet he kept it as soundless as he could.

Kirito entered the elevator. Whoever controlled the canons must be found. If she would just deny the contact by computer, there would be a risk for re-entrance. The weed would have to be pulled out by the roots.
And she had an idea from where the shooting order had came from.

The cannons fired again. This time, one slammed into the Von Braun's bridge, shaking the military ship even more. Damon and the others were swept off their feet. The lights flickered, then died out, and objects were scattered everywhere. Damon's comm suddenly beeped.
"Damon? You okay? ****, those cannon's are doing a number up there! Just...you have to get out of the Von Braun...find the..." Daniels said, just before Fettel butted in.
"Damon! I'm comin' up there now! You just keep going! And take those survivors with you!" he yelled, before turning the comm off. Damon then turned to the marines.
"I hope Croker's a fast mover, cos' we're leaving now" the lead marine said, before immediately sliding down the nearest ladder back down to the cargo bay. The other marines shrugged then followed him. Damon was about to follow, but another violent shake of the ship split the ladder, causing it to fall off. Damon looked down at the marines.
"Damon! Go! It's too far, you'll break a leg! Find another route! We're gonna keep going! Move it!" one marine yelled up to him. Damon nodded reluctantly, then ran off in the opposite direction, hoping to find another way off the Von Braun.

It was a human! One of the last survivors! The Beast felt the bullets rattling against his chain-mail hide, flying off into every direction directly after the hit. Though he didn't see the human yet, but he saw the riffle barrel sticking out between a pile of boxes, which collapsed as the second shot rocked the Rickenbacker.
The Beast took the opportunity to strike. With a long leap, he landed in front of the boxes which he shoveled out of the way with his snout and then struck down with it. His jaws clamped around the body of the marine, pulled him up just to swallow him down in the next moment, still wriggling. That would complete his healing. Some food.

The cyborg left through the grav lift, just to see the back of the Bruiser just some feet away. Yet it hadn't noticed her, but now it turned around, eyes immediately locking at the cyborg. Its teeth bared, and in the next second it uttered a loud roar.
Kirito frowned slightly. She would've prefered to just ignore this creature, but it would continue to be a hindrance. It would be good to kill this one now.

Damon ran through the corridors of the Von Braun. Another tremendous thump nearly sent Damon into a wall, but he kept on going, until he reached an observation room of some sort. Through the glass, he saw another room, but the door was locked. Damon sighed, and banged at the glass, but it wouldn't break.

After a few minutes, someone ran into the next room from another entrance. It was Fettel.
"Damon! Oh, christ! Good to see you're alive, but we still gotta get outta here! I think I found a way off the ship! Listen...there's a...! he begun, before something released a tremendous roar nearby. Fettel turned around, but kept talking.
"Get to the bay! Find the remaining...oh ****..." he said, just before a Bruiser emerged into the room where Fettel was standing. The Bruiser roared at Fettel, who, for a moment, was paralyzed with fear. Still, he managed to regain his courage, and started firing at the large creature, yelling angrily. However, the bullets simply bounced off the creature's armor. The Bruiser then swiped at Fettel, knocking him against the window. It then picked him up and slammed him into the floor repeatedly, all the while he was yelling in pain. It then dropped him, then with another roar, it grabbed his right arm, and ripped it clean off. Fettel yelled in pain as the creature then picked him up, and with one more roar, tossed him straight at the glass, shattering it. Done with Fettel, the Bruiser then set it's eyes on Damon, who backed away, eyes wide open.

The Bruiser roared and charged, though the cyborg was quick to react and jumped out of the charging body's way. She continued her move, even before the creature managed to reach a stop. She knew where a Bruiser were most vulnerable, that she had learned from her last kill. A Bruiser's body was highly reinforced, except one spot, right behind its head. That little part of the neck where the brain and the rest of the spine was connected, the brainstem.
Her claws shot out, and she leapt. The Bruiser roared loud as it felt the sudden weight on top of his body, though it had its armoured body, it still felt the weight of the metal against its back. It felt her moving across it. Once again it roared, thrashing with its head in a try to get a bite of the thing on its back. The cyborg stopped, and almost immediately the Bruiser stopped too, believing that she had dropped off. Kirito stared at the creature's head as it started to calm down, just to start looking around after his prey. She stared at its neck. She wanted it bared.

And it was. When the Bruiser stretched down its neck to sniff on the ground, Kirito saw her opportunity, and she jabbed her long knives into the neck of the Bruiser. The creature roared loud, pulling up with its head just in time for Kirito to draw her knives out and leap off the Bruiser. The creature snapped around with its head, its jaws smacked together close to the cyborg. It got ready, and charged.
But just some feet in front of the cyborg, it collapsed. She had torn off vital nerve fibers, so it had only been a matter of time before it would fail. And now it had.
The cyborg glanced at the body for a brief moment, before she turned and left.