UER Rickenbacker

Damon inched across the broken glass, into the room, the Bruiser circling him, it's hungry eyes fixed completely on him. Damon then eyed Fettel's dropped weapon, a pulse rifle with grenades. He then slowly picked up a shard of shattered glass, and then threw it at a corner. The Bruiser, being low on intelligence, turned to face the corner, and then Damon leapt for the pulse rifle and aimed at the Bruiser, teeth bared.

The Bruiser stared back at Damon, and then rushed angrily at him. Damon leapt out of the way and fired for the Bruiser's weak spot, the back of the head. Several pulse rounds planted themselves into the Bruiser's soft point, causing it to bellow in anger. Damon smirked, ready to fire again. But this time, the Bruiser had memorized his tactics, and suddenly swiped at him, sending him into a wall. Damon yelled out in pain as he felt a bone snap in his arm, but still managed to get up and aim again. The Bruiser growled, poised for the next attack.

The Beast continued to search his way through. He wanted to kill the rest of the plauge on this ship. He wanted to finish it. He wanted to return. By now, this ship was annoying the hell out of him.
He grunted and waved his head around, trying to pick up yet another scent trail, human OR hybrid, it didn't matter. But this being the place where he had gotten hurt in a long time made him nearly desperate to get out of here, but he didn't allow himself to show it.

Instead, he just snarled and started to walk down the hallway again, his nose had picked up a bloody scent that ran along the path.

Damon waited for the creature to make it's next move. Right now, it was just poising itself for anything Damon might try.
"Come on you ugly motherfucker..." Damon said, grinning. The creature then leap at him in anger, but Damon had predicted this, and leapt out of the way, only to then jump onto the creature's back and find the back of it's head. The creature roared and suddenly grabbed Damon and tried to him off. But Damon finally found the weak point, and with all the strength he had left, he thrusted his knife through, over and over again, the creature letting go of him and staggering around in pain. Damon then jumped off and watched the creature as it grabbed at it's own head, then collapsed, groaning it's last few while it did. Damon was surprised. The knife must have gone through it's brain, as it had reacted so fast.
"Woah..." he muttered, before backing off slowly, making sure it was dead, then leaving the room. He still had to get the hell out of the Von Braun.

The Beast stopped. Farther ahead he heard screaming. Followed by guttural cries and ripping sound. From what he heard, someone was getting... well, hurt. Dismembered and killed.
The Beast snorted, he wasn't pleased with that someone else was taking his play from him. His giant head cocked as he tried to listen and locate from where the sound came from.
After a moment of listening, he judged that the sound came from farther ahead in the corridor. So his paws started to move silently again, at the same time as his hide switched colour and disappeared into invisibility.

Damon was dashing down a corridor, the ship shaking again, when his comm chimed in.
"I just lost all of Fettel's vitals. Is he dead? Oh god..." Daniels said, shocked. Damon rushed through another door, and nearly collided with someone. It was Croker.
"Dayum, you still here? Where are the rest?" he asked Damon, who shrugged.
"Oh, nevermind that! We gotta get outta here. They stopped firing, but I think the Von Braun's portside hull's been breached badly. Come on!" Croker replied, before running off, Damon following him.
"You said it was Commander Jackson who's doing this? Goddamn crazy son of a bitch, and to think we all trusted him with our lives..." Croker said. Damon chuckled, but kept on following.

She had already reached the Hydroponics. In front of her laid several mauled bodies, it was hard to tell who were females and who were men. The torsoes and lower bodies had been severely damaged, whole limbs ripped off at their joints. She noticed horrible bite marks here and there, some faces had been chewed off. She recognized the damages easily. This had been caused by Nexus, at least two of them. She noticed their footprints all over the place.
Kirito walked over to one of the less damaged bodies and nudged it with her foot. The corpse rolled over, baring its chest and face. This one had not had its face damaged, and with a short scan she had identified the woman. She had been a part of a scientist group under the watch of a certain Ramirez. She grinned. So much for protecting them, ey? Fate can be a real bitch sometimes. Though she was a little disappointed that she never had gotten a chance to dismember the survivors by her own. But it seemed like the Nexu had managed the execution by themselves.

She looked up, and sensed activity by the canons again. This time she managed to handle it, rejecting the activity. But she noticed that whoever was controlling the canons, it had a big interest in the Von Braun, connected above them. On second thought, Kirito wouldn't need the Von Braun for anything. Why not disconnect with it already.

In the next second, a hollow alarm was suddenly sent off by the Von Braun/Rickenbacker connection, at the same time as a red light began to blink. A female voice warned about the comitting disconnection, but was drowned by the alarm.
Loud hissing sounded as the airlocks was activated.

Damon and Croker heard the alarm. The ship was about to undock!
"Oh ****! Damon keep going! The umbilical's not far!" Croker yelled to Damon, who was way ahead.
"But what about you?" Damon yelled back.
"Just go!" Croker replied. Damon rushed as fast as he could, almost tripping over the ladder when he reached it. He grabbed hold of the ladder rungs and climbed down. He sighed, hoping he wasn't too late. He hoped the other marines were out by now.
When he finally reached the umbilical, it was starting to disconnect. But Damon was determined. Quickly, he activated his helmet, then quickly opened the connecting doors. The umbilical had already disconnected, but Damon jumped down, the air quickly being sucked out of the room. Damon was protected by his helmet though. Suddenly, he was floating in space, the Von Braun above him, the Rickenbacker below. He looked around frantically for the Rickenbacker's airlock, and floated over to the mining vessel's hull. Then he saw it. It was a distance away, but Damon thought he could make it. Watching his footing carefully, and checking his helmet to make sure he still had enough air, he scaled the hull, working his way upwards, until he reached the airlock. But relief turned to horror as he discovered the airlock was locked down. He bashed at the control panel, but nothing happened. Damon looked back, and noticed the Von Braun. Without anyone at it's helm, the ship would just drift to wherever until it hit somewhere. He wondered if Croker would make it. He doubted it.

Suddenly, the airlock hydraulics hissed as the mechanism unlocked itself and opened. Damon quickly hurried inside, as his air meter was very low. The airlock shut behind him, and Damon found himself back in the Rickenbacker's second command tram stop. He was about to take off his helmet, when someone called him on his comm.
"You didn't think I'd leave you hangin' out there, didja?" Daniels asked. Damon chuckled, and deactivated his helmet, needing it no longer.

The Beast stared at the hybrid in front of him. It was enjoying itself with a nice bufé of shredded human limbs, followed by the torso as dessert. The Beast could smell in the air that this prey had newly been taken down, the warmth of the body still around. He licked his lips, waiting for a little bit longer. Of course, the hybrid could not see him, not sense him, his invisibility cloaked him from whatever eye would look, and the smell of the blood covered the little smell he gave. His breath was as silent as a breeze.
He took a little step closer, making ready for the charge.

Meanwhile, the cyborg took her last look at the massacre and then glanced around a little. She couldn't see or sense something directly around, but she assumed that the Nexus would be located at the same floor as her. But they were nothing to worry.
No, she'd rather find whoever tried to hack the canons. And whoever was constantly taking over the radio lines on this ship, because somebody was transmitting, without her allowance.

Damon walked over to the tram, which was sitting at the station, the cafe on the upper ledge above Damon. Damon entered the tram, and set it for the command deck entrance lobby. The tram doors closed, and it was off.

When the tram stopped, Damon got off and looked around him. Nothing new, just a pair of corpses and used bullets. Damon walked down the corridors and turned a corner, the faint sound of a hybrid in the upper vents ringing through the area. Soon, Damon reached the elevator which linked Command and Recreational. He stepped inside, and pressed the panel. The elevator doors shut and the car went down.

Down on Recreational, Damon had just stepped into the large main room of the deck, when Daniels contacted him again.
"So, they undocked the two ships, huh? Since no one's drivin' the Von Braun, who knows what'll happen to it? Okay, Damon, I don't know what Fettel was about to tell you, though I may have a way of finding out for myself. For now, have a look through Ops or Medical or whatever for anything...useful. I'll contact you again soon" Daniels said in a worried voice. Damon sighed. It seemed this whole situation was getting to her.

But where could the hackers be? Operations. Possibly. She lifted her head a little, closed her eyes, as she let her mind search through the map for a short moment. Then she slowly opened her eyes again, looking down, on the same time a small projection of the level's map was illustrated on her cornea, but disappear after a second. By what she could see, there was nothing interesting on the Hydrophonics, right now. Instead, she pinpointed the tram on the map that now was illustrated on the map, and then started to move.

He pounced! With a silent step, he had clamped his jaws around the hybrid's arm, thrusting it away into the wall. The hybrid roared and got up, its arm bleeding badly, hanging from the shoulder, only some flesh and skin was keeping it together.
The Beast roared back, baring his whole greyish-blue body in an instant. His shining eye became apparent in a blink, just before he lunged again. The hybrid lashed out with its only functioning arm, causing no harm on The Beast's thick, hard hide. The chimaere's maw clamped down again, ripping bone from bone as he tore away the turnk from its lower-body, and swallowing it down. The lower-body slumped still on the ground, and the Beast turned to enjoy the rests of the human.

Damon rushed from corridor corridor, until he reached the elevator. There were many corpses on the way. But just as Damon saw the elevator, he nearly slipped on something. He looked down. A corpse with the neck broken and the abdomen sliced open, a blood-spattered knife laid nearby. No hybrid would bother breaking the neck like that, nor would they bother with a knife to cut open the chest. The cyborg? Maybe. Damon just looked away, and then got inside the elevator. He had a hard time deciding between Operations and Medical, but in the end, he chose Medical. The doors closed, and he was off.

When the elevator dinged and opened up, Damon stepped out into the Medical deck. As he'd expected, the area was deserted, with equipment scattered around some blood on the walls. Damon sighed, and went on.

Soon, he reached a double door marked "Cryo Recovery A". When he tried the door, a female voice said "Life Support and Climate Systems malfunction in Cryo A. Access Denied". Damon scoffed, and decided against opening the door. Nearby, something growled, but Damon ignored it.

Kirito entered the Operations through the tram, and shot a quick glance around herself. The place was completely empty, except for some dismembered bodies farther away - both from hybrids and humans. An eerie wind, comming from the vents, swept through the hallwind - raising the hair in the necks on whoever noticed it. But that wasn't Kirito.
She took another glance around herself, but suddenly froze. Her head tilted slightly, as if she was listening. And yes, after a couple of more seconds, a hollow rattling could be heard from above, inside the ventilation duct. She looked up some, followed the duct as the rattling continued on. As if she was watching as the unseen creature was passing through.
Kirito stayed put for a couple of more seconds, then she continued once again. Her eyes flicked into heat-vision as she started to trail whoever was activating the canons.

Damon turned back, after finding there was no other way to go in Cryo Access, and decided to head back to the reception area. Daniels hadn't called him for a while now, and he was starting to get anxious. He shivered. Not only was this ship getting to her, it was getting to him too.

At the Science Wing reception desk, Damon found the entrance door to the Medical Wing. It required a functioning power cell to work, and, with no surprise to Damon, there was no power cell there. He sighed, annoyed. He looked around himself. There was a corpse with smoking wisping from a charred wound. Maybe the power cell had overloaded and killed him.

Damon soon found himself back at the elevator, finding it hard to navigate through the corridors of the Medical Deck. He was leant against a wall, trying to think up a plan of action. Something clanged nearby, followed by shrill footsteps. Damon turned around, but saw nothing. In the end, he gave up, and decided to head through R&D, as maybe vital information was stored there. More growling was heard, so Damon moved quickly. There was no telling what could have watching him at that very moment.

Kirito's eyes swept over the place wherever she walked. Heatprints - heat tracks - could be seen occasionally, but when she tracked them she only found dead bodies. None living, and none that would indicate that they were the hackers of the canons either.

As she walked, she did a small background check about the mission that was the catalysator of the hybrid invasion of the ship. Apparently it had been controlled by Jankowski, along with a certain Commander Jackson, on the Von Braun.
If Kronos' story was true, and that Jankowski actually had "mutated" - or something - something told her that Commander Jackson also had trouble, or would have. And he was almost for certain the one that fired the turrets.

As Damon entered the R&D sector, the lights pulsed for a brief moment, then returned to normal. Damon looked in all directions, but saw nothing which could have caused it. Maybe a stray EMP or something. Trying to ignore it, Damon kept on going, determined to get some answers on what the hell was going on onboard the Rickenbacker.

Some time later, Damon found himself in a small crew quarters section of R&D. He guessed the higher ranking medical officers resided here, or once resided here. Further ahead, a railing on the balcony was broken off. Damon looked over the railing. It overlooked the quarters area only a short distance below. Below the broken railing was a body, with what looked like an audio log next to it. Damon backed up and headed down to the corpse and picked up the slightly blood-spattered log. He clicked it on.
"They're coming...oh god...Edwards is dead, and we've already lost most of the deck staff. I'm...I'm going to try to reach the archives from here...maybe I can find some answers...with the right information I might even...wait...who's that? Watts? Murdoch? Po---AAAAAAUUGH..." a slurred male voice emitted from the log. Damon sighed and clicked it off. So he wasn't getting much, if any help down here.

A warning horn suddenly went off inside the ship, just to be followed by a sudden shake the second after. The bridge that had connected with the Von Braun had returned to the Rickenbacker.
Another shake. The Von Braun had detatched from the mining ship, now soaring in space alone.

An eerie silence followed, echoed through the corridors without stopping. Kirito tilted her head a little and listened. The silence was still there, not disturbed. Perhaps the hybrids was cared now, as the survivors. And as long the ship wasn't too damaged, it could always be returned to the Fire Planet.

Damon had searched the R&D sector top to bottom, but had found no survivors, just a few leftover hybrids and more corpses. Damon had picked up a couiple of audio logs too. Maybe they could help him gain more insight on what had happened to the ship. Choosing one log, he clicked it on and listened.

MYERS 22.JUL.32
"Myers here. Just talked to Croker on the Von Braun, and frankly, he's not happy. Some asshole marine panicked and blew out the driver core by accident. And they thought packing this ship with high explosives was a GOOD thing. Damn Malick and his incapability to keep that **** working. I just hope that when, if, we get back, Matt won't be to mad that I uh...oh forget it..."

Damon thought hard. So the driver core was the reason the Von Braun was in bad shape when he got there. That didn't explain how a freaking Bruiser got onboard the warship, as the only way to and from the Rickenbacker was the umbilical, which had detached from the Von Braun. He turned on the other log, hoping this one would give him more information.

WOOD 21.JUL.32
"Damn. I'd better be dreaming again. Somebody has changed the access codes to the weapons locker, which also contained the access card for the shuttle bay, and now we can't get it. I think Myers is the likely suspect. All that guy thinks about is conspiracy theories and naked girls"

Apparently, somebody had wanted to keep the shuttle card away from everyone else, and that guy, Wood seemed to think Myers had done it.

The Beast moved forward in a slow pace, his feet silently touching the ground. His head swung around periodically, watching after potential victims.
He didn't see any.

Instead, the place was scattered with body remains, industrial junk, and blood was smeared across the walls. He lifted his head as he watched the walls, seeing an message written in the now dried blood. Two letters. Whatever had tried to write it, had not been able to escape his fate.
As to strengthen that message, he also saw an ripped off arm lying by the wall, with blood covering its fingertips. He looked at the words again:
The Lamb. It simply said. The Beast snorted. These pitiful humans were turning to insanity in their final hour.
That would be fun to play with.
He grinned with his hidious face, and moved on.

Damon had just entered the next room across, when suddenly, his comm beeped loudly. WHen he picked it up and clicked it on, the voice wasn't human. In fact, it sounded like a very distorted and computerized male voice. Shaking, Damon clicked the comm off and put it away. Breathing harder this time, Damon took time to recollect himself. Then he heard the voice again. Only this time, it was coming from inside the ship.
"Whaaaaat...is this? Iss ittttt...someone new? The cyyyyborggg...is still heeeere..." the computer voice said. Damon looked around for a possible source, but saw none. Had that been Xerxes? Or...Damon didn't want to think about it. Instead, he just continued through the room, and found a computer. It was logged on with the username "Malick, J". Damon frowned and looked closer.

Meanwhile, Jackson was stood at a computer, checking for any trace of his so-called ally, Jankowski, who had not contacted him since the night before.
"Dammit Ben, where the hell are you?" Jackson whispered to himself. Then he came across a ship schematic of some sort. Except it was just the Rickenbacker. The Von Braun was missing from the schematic.

The lights flickered on and off as the cyborg passed. Some of the fluorescent lights was crushed, others had already failed to light.
Some spots of the wall was covered with symbols and text, the ink they had used had been their own blood, some still fresh, but the majority was since long dried up. The dry air had made it so within a few hours.

Kirito crouched down by a spot covered by blood. Her metallic hand stretched forward, touching the floor lightly. On the same time, her eyes moved frantically about as they searched the blood trails. Focusing, moving, focusing, scanning, focusing. She searched for any kind of tissue that could reveal who had been the victim here.

She eventually found a piece of skin lying on the floor, but as she tested it, she was disappointed. It was a sample from a hybrid, completely unwanted.
She rose back up, and then continued her search for Jackson.

Damon was running now. He had heard screeching in the vents above and below him. Hybrid screeches. Damon wasn't willing to meet them anytime soon.
But just as he'd dashed into the Emergency Conduit Room, a beam of plasma missed him by an inch, and he took cover by a crate. He peeked out, and saw what looked wierdly like a Xenomorph, though it was brandishing a gun. An "Archeus" as he'd overhead them being called. The creature aimed, and fired again, putting a around clean through the crate, slightly scraping his left shoulder pad. Damon peered again, and noticed that the Archeus was injured. It was limping, as something had recently done a job on it's right leg. A hybrid maybe. The Archeus readied to fire again, and Damon took several pot shots at the creature. None of them hit, as the Archeus simply ducked.
"Dammit!" Damon exclaimed, annoyed while the alien crept closer, taking cover behind a crate of it's own.

The Beast lowered his head as he sniffed after fresh tracks. There were hundreds of scents in the ship, but none of them seemed fairly fresh. They couldn't possibly had put down all the resistance already. The place seemed to be filled by crawling hybrids and creeping rebels, irritating the hell out of him.
Now, it had all come to a final peace. Right?

He lifted his head and looked around. Perhaps it was time to return to the cyborg, so they could do a final cleanse around here. Then they could leave.

He once again started to walk, careful to keep as silent as possible. You never know.

Damon remained crouched behind the crate, the Archeus skillfully making it's way towards him. Damon peeked out once again, and noticed that the creature was now behind a tipped table, and was now trying for a killing shot. Problem was, it just couldn't seem to hit Damon, as he quickly moved from the crate and took a shot at the Archeus. The bullet slammed into the creature's neck, causing it to screech and reel back in pain. Just as Damon aimed for another shot at the creature, the Archeus fired and clipped him in the side, piercing his armor and doing a number on his ribs. Damon grabbed his side in pain, but kept his gun up.

The Archeus then moved closer yet again, sure that Damon would likely have trouble fighting back with his wound. It walked up to him, and before he could fire a shot, the Archeus had grabbed him by the neck and was pointing a gun in his face. It smirked, but didn't anticipate Damon's next move. He quickly grabbed hold of the Archeus' arms and thrusted his fingers through the gaping wound in it's leg, causing it to screech yet again and toss him aside. The two recoiled from the fight, and soon, the two had their weapons pointed at each others heads. Damon sighed, annoyed.
"How did I know this was gonna happen?" he complained. The Archeus didn't answer, instead staring into his face with it's evil eyes.

All the commotion of the Archeus and the human was recorded by several sensors placed throughout the sector, directly connected to the defense system of the ship. With the help of cameras and the sensors, Rickenbacker's computer pinpointed out what was going on and where. When it had, the defense system activated, and a hatch slid open as a laser turret lowered from the roof. It immediately locked aim, switching target between the Archeus and Matt, and on the same time sent the information to the computer.

Kirito froze momentarily as she recieved a deviant file of information. It had came from sensors in the Emergency Conduit Room. Quickly, she got the video of it in view, and she easily recognized who stood there. One Archeus, and that human. She hadn't found much information of him in the ship's computer last time she'd seen him, instead she had come to the conclusion that he was from outside. A few maps had been there though - from the rebel headquarters - and apparently, the man was called Andrew Damon.
And seemingly, he had survived since their encounter.
The video disappeared from her view as she continued searching, she wouldn't bother Damon this time. The Archeus would be sure to take him out.

No, her prime target was still Jackson. Which was nowhere to be seen by the ship.

Damon stared in all directions, making sure the Archeus didn't have anyone else to back it up. From what he could see, they were the only ones in the room. Damon still couldn't shake the feeling that something was afoot, and just before he turned back to the Archeus, it ducked and pushed Damon away, long enough for it to get a clean shot at him.
It was a hit. Right through the shoulder. Damon grabbed his shoulder in pain and fired at the Archeus, this time though, he aimed for the leg. The bullet brushed against it's wounded leg, forcing it to back away and use the crate nearby for support. Damon decided he wouldn't have much chance of defeating even a wounded Archeus, and slowly left the room, weapon still high. The Archeus was apparently too busy tending to it's wounds, which had grown quite severe in such a short time.

Damon meanwhile entered a lab somewhere, which he assumed was a surgery room of some sort. He checked his shoulder wound. It was bleeding badly. The round had gone clean through the armor and through the shoulder. Not willing to wait around, he pressed himself against the wall, near the closest medkit he could find, and wacked it open. He then tore out some bandages and a few med hypos and set to work. Meanwhile, his comm beeped for the first time in two hours.
"Jesus, you okay?" Daniels' voice said anxiously.
"Yeah. Fuckin' peachy..." Damon replied.