Freeform Archive · Legacy archive
Gothic Space Horror
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Gothic Space Horror
#201Micky's shoulders slumped as she issued a sigh of relief. She looked to Ao and Severin with a sheepish grin. "Oops." No doubt they probably thought she was a bit high strung. "I think I am going to go check the air ducts." Ok, she knew she had over reacted a bit, but what if it hadnt been a reset? Besides, this place was creepy and she had no desire to wade around in trash. -
Gothic Space Horror
#202Ao had fallen backwards in an attempt to escape the supposed "crushing", and now righted himself sheepishly.
"You do that," he said to Micky, and turned his attention to figuring out how he might poke around in the sewage without having to actually step in it.
"Maybe we should just say there isn't anything and leave it at that." -
Gothic Space Horror
#203Severin had panicked to the extent that he couldn't move and slowly the panic receded. His heart beat intensely and his breathing was difficult. He looked around and saw Micky and Ao. With a forced smile and a shrug he lent Ao a hand. "You scare easily Lunar!" Severin said. He tried to laugh but the laughter was strained and he looked nervous.
"I can't see anything in this chamber, so I agree. Let us send Micky into the air ducts while we wait for her in a more pleasant location".
Before they left, Severin activated the thermal scanning function of his helmet and scanned the room. Something might have changed now that the ship had thawed. -
Gothic Space Horror
#204Micky stripped out of the suit, though she still wore her flight gear underneath. She unbuttoned her shirt and removed it. Underneath she was wearing a black tank top. Placing her hands on her hips she looked up at the AirDuct access. This was going to be fun...not. She sighed. -
Gothic Space Horror
#205The air duct was a tight squeeze, but compared to the rest of the ship, it was downright tropical as the freshly reproccessed and heated air blew in Micky's face. The ducts ran the length of the ship, and were partitioned off by sealable bulkheads in case one section of the ship suffered decompression the rest wouldnt bleed oxygen. The braces squeaked and groaned as the ducts held her weight. The ducts seemed clear...
*****
The knife moved with the hypnotic grace of a serpent, rising in a half cresent motion only to return down again, slicing into the bare flesh of forearm. Blood welled up from the cut, beaded and ran down the arm.
"Man, I'll be a captain one day!" young Jimmy Raynor said, riding in a swing, kicking himself higher, as if the swing itself might reach the moon if he kicked hard enough. "And you can be my first mate!"
"What if I want to be the captain?"
"You'll be captain if I am killed, you will have to save the ship, its easy you'll know my passwords and codes for the top secret computers, and weapons and stuff." Jimmy said, "Then, you'll have to get revenge!"
"Revenge?"
"Yup, you'll have to kill em all, no survivors, not a one. You see that is how pirate captains keep their ships. Because their first mates are pledged to kill the entire crew in case of mutiny." They both laughed.
"Like in that holomovie?"
"Just like it. Just like it." Jimmy said. "My favorite part was the part where the first mate used a knife to kill most of the mutineers even though he had all of the cool lasers and stuff. Promise you'll use a knife, if anything happens to you, I'll use a knife on however did it."
"Sounds like a blood oath..."
"I've got a pocket knife, maybe we should make it a blood oath." He unfolded a small red pocketknife and sliced the palm of his hand, and gave the knife over. It had hurt, but there had been a bond then between them, one that could not be denied.
Please Enter Access Code...
*****-*****
Welcome Commander Raynor, access granted
It worked, Jimmy had kept his promise, the access code had been what he said it would be, even though it had been years since that fatefull afternoon. The screen illuminated the room with a pale green light, the blood running from the neat rows of cuts in the arm looked black... -
Gothic Space Horror
#206Micky moved carefully through the air ducts. Extremely grateful she was wearing a tank top. Moving through each section she would check in with Ao and Severin. "So far it's clear." She moved witha feline type grace. Spreading her weight evenly, as though she were moving across ice.
The heat in the ducts reduced her hair to wet curls clinging to her head. At one point she paused along the way to remove her gloves from her pants pocket. She slipped them on. Then continued on her way. Just encase the metal around her heated up more.
Everything seemed clear, there were no obstructions in the ducts. Air was moving just fine....and as far as she could tell there were no strange odors.
"Guys, I'm not finding anything. Meet me at the next duct access."
Micky made her way to the nearest duct opening. She pushed on the vent until it popped open. Hinges on one side prevented the vent cover from hitting the ground. Laying on her stomach she peaked her head out, looking around and feeling the cool air of her faces.
She waited for Ao and Severin to arrive. -
Gothic Space Horror
#207Ao came to vent where Micky had emerged.
"What now?," he said, and peered into the duct, gazing into the humid shadows. -
Gothic Space Horror
#208Hue left the medlab a little disappointed nothing had been learned about the kadaver although the ice had preserved him nicely it had also caused immediate frost bite to any exposed skin any wounds that could have been found were dead, all the topical skin was the charcol black of severe freezer burn. The conclusion was he died when the ship was opened to space and the cold killed him before explosive decompression or he was killed with a cryo-weapon. -
Gothic Space Horror
#209Micky looked down at Ao. "All looks clear up here." Bracing her hands in the rim of the opening she slid forward and down. Easing herself down out of the duct until her feet were pointed towards the floor. She was careful not to hit Ao in the process.
She released her grip and land on her feet. She straightened back up and looked at Ao. "It's definately warmer up there" She pointed towards the duct.
Micky ran a hand through her sweat soaked hair. She dried her glove on her pants leg.
She could already feel her skin begining to cool just a bit. She sighed. Micky then looked to Ao. "So we checked the compactor and the airducts..nothing. Where do you guys want to check next?" -
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#210Hue walked in he had gotten a little loist leaving the medlab, "We checked that Kadaver didn't find out much the freezer bite obscured alot of the wounds and skin. Guess he died of extreme cold, whether exposure or a cryo weapon we couldn't tell. You want a hnad with this?" -
Gothic Space Horror
#211"How about crew lockers? I can think of more than one example on the Moon when a killer stuffs his victims in a locker, and they aren't found until they start to stink the place up." said Ao gloomily, popping his knuckles. -
Gothic Space Horror
#212Micky nodded. "Fun." She didnt like the idea of a person crammed into a locker. Let alone a frozen one. She took off down the hallway. The sooner they checked the sooner they would be done. -
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#213Severin chuckled at Ao's suggestion. Not that he disapproved or anything, but the notion of finding 80 men and women stuffed into the lockers of the spaceship was ridiculous. Well, it was one thing he would not fear though, not like the airducts and trash compactors, he had seen way too many horror movies about those places. "Yes, let us check out the lockers" he said with a renewed vigour.
"And perhaps the bodies have been dropped off in space? Should we check the ships logs and see if any of the doors has been opened or if any garbage has been jettisoned at any point?" Severin was rubbing his chin as he pondered the possibilities. -
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#214Micky turned and looked to Severin. "You may be onto something there." She went to the nearest Com Port. "Captain, Severin has a good idea. Someone needs to access the ships's log to see when and if where any outer doors on the ship were opened and the last time that waste was deposited into space from this ship." She knew the Captain would have the easiest time accessing those files...or finding someone who could. "Also, the compactor and air ducts are clear." -
Gothic Space Horror
#215Hue nodded and went with the group he changed from the spacer suit and had stashed his gear in the assitant medic's quarters which had been easy to find, only one door down from sickbay. He had changed into a dull gray jump suit and combat boots, he had dumped his bags in favor of easy to use emergency medpak and strapped his Sunjet into the armpit holster under his jumpsuit for concealment. He had left the bigger pistol with a trigger lock on it in his duffel bag. That heald most of his other medical gear. The little medpak with him had utensils for minor wounds and a little biorecorder which would help tag bodies if they found any with a crew list of names and picutes he had downloaded while on the bridge. -
Gothic Space Horror
#216Working alone, as she often preferred, Lt. Marney began to clean up the autopsy table. The examination had been dissappointing, There was no trace fo chemical or biological agents at work in the body of the cadaver. There was no access to ships computer so she couldnt check against DNA records to find out who he was.
"Is everything going okay so far?" she asked, hearing someone walk into the medbay.
"Its going fine." She stood up to see who it was. Pain slashed through her body as a knife sank hilt deep into her chest, between her ribs. She shuddered involuntarily, trapped in those eyes. She wanted to scream, wanted to flail, claw at that face, pull the knife out and run, anything would be better. Cold began to seep through her body as she slumped to the floor. The knife was pulled out, blood peppered the white wall, arterial blood. The pressure was already dropping as the eyes found her again. This is what it was like to be the rat caught in the serpents gaze.
Left laying on the floor, the knife rose and fell with silent grace, imitating the cuts and procedures of an autopsy, but on a partially living patient instead of a cold dead corpse. By the time the blade was wiped clean, and returned to its sheath Lt. Kim Marney of the old United States of America, now a fractuous territory of the United Earth, was blissfully dead, released from the constant pain of the knife. -
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#217Micky tensed as an uneasy feeling crept over her. She shuddered slightly. She then looked to the others there, before turning her attention back to the ComPort. Her brow wrinkled together in a determined look as she pressed the button again. "Captain?" He had not responded yet, which wasnt like a captain to do.
Micky released the button. Turning to the others. "Something is wrong. It may just be the Com system.But something doesnt feel right about this place.We should check it out." -
Gothic Space Horror
#218"I would love to Micky," the captain crackled over the comlink. She could hear the metallic sound of a flak being closed, caught in mid-drink. "But our beloved James Raynor locked the system out...about fifteen minutes ago according to the ships computer. We have been locked out of everything but primary and secondary access ways. And the Antennae array has powered itself down." he sounded haggard.
The Captain took another drink of the whickey in his flask and looked back at the holographics displayed. There were no critical problems, he panned the midship camera to see the AE-35 antenna array, and upon visual inspection, the array was in fine shape, but had already rotated into the locked position, the recievers and transmitters protected by the synthsteel shells of the parabolics. He looked back down at his small display, someone had accessed a I/O post in the medlab and somehow had the access codes to the ship, and had entered them.
It was mutiny as far as he was concerned that someone had known the codes and hadnt volunteered them upon computer request. He checked his pistol, the autopistol carried fifteen rounds and one in the chamber, heavy enough to knock even a gorilla down. When he found out, they were a dead person.
Assuming it was a person. He had heard tales before of haunted ships, ones that took on a mind of their own. Systems going on and off, locks dissabled, the computer 'possessed' as if by the vengeful ghost of a dead crewman. Where in the HELL was the crew of this ship! -
Gothic Space Horror
#219Hue looked a little worried if the Captain was drinking already things couldn't be to good. "This ship is huge were not likely to find alot the four of us bunched up together like this. Since it was Severin's idea to check the crew lockers why don't you and Ao check that area out while me and Micky head lower and work away along the cargo holds and weapon magazines." -
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#220"Actually," said Ao, "I suggested that we check the lockers. But whatever. C'mon, Severin." His footsteps rang into the distance as he disappeared down the passage in a direction which he was not quite certain was the right way. -
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#221"Oh sorry. See you around then," Hue headed to the ladder, "Come on Micky lets see what we can find. -
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#222The search for the crew lockers was a short one, the locker area was well marked on the internal map of the ship, and a path lead straight to it by the means of an unbroken green line, much like the red lines that ran to engineering. There were no fewer than ten rows of lockers, each some twenty berths long. A few had locks of differing sorts hanging from them, ranging from archaic tumbler and pin locks to more advanced electronic locks, keypad locks, and fingerprinters. The air had finally become warm, but there was no rank smell emanating from any of the lockers.
There was, however, a smeared bloody handprint on the wall...
*****
The trip from the central area of the ship out to the extremeties where the vast cargo holds were was a tiresome one. Corridors ran back and forth, but none ran out in a radial pattern from the central spine of the ship to the outermost hull.
The cargo holds were locked, the access screen blinking red, asking for James Raynors ten digit password. -
Gothic Space Horror
#223"Ao, look at that handprint on the wall! Someone has been hurt" Severin said.
Severin rubbed his broken nose and scratched his head. He looked at the colour of the blood and tried to determine if it was old or new. He looked at the floor in an attempt to spot drops of blood that might show where the wounded person had gone.
He turned on his communication software and transmitted to all crewmembers "Ao and Severin reporting from the lockers area. We have found a bloody handprint on the wall, and we will investigate further."
"You know, I'd feel alot safer if I had a sidearm" he said to Ao. -
Gothic Space Horror
#224To Severin's surprise, the blood on the wall was fresh, it had dried in places, but where it was thicker, the blood still had a liquid consistancy. A few drops spattered on the floor, but there was only a partial trail, perhaps ten feet long before the spattering stopped.
"Someone injured?" The captain said, buzzing the intercom. "I havent had any injury reports, Marney isnt doing anything, I'll send her up to where you are with a med kit. From what I can tell, Hue is on the other side of the ship about now." There was a long silence.
"Marney isnt responding to the commlink. I dont want to leave the bridge of the ship unmanned, otherwise I would go and see what she is doing. Sometimes she will turn the commlink off if she wants some privacy..." -
Gothic Space Horror
#225Micky had been thinking to herself as she followed Hue. The Captain said that James Raynor, the corpse-sicle, and had locked them out of the computer less than half an hour ago.
She was staring at the screen that wanted James Raynor's access code. Something didnt feel right. Just then the Coms activated, receiving Ao and Severin's message.
Micky looked to Hue. "We should go check it out. We can stop and get Marney on the way." -
Gothic Space Horror
#226"Alright we're not going to make any head way here, it's strange though when we boarded the ship I remember seeing stuff like this on the way to the bridge but none of it was actively locked like now. Wonder what are fellow James did before getting iced." Hue lead the way to the medbay it took fifeteen minutes to get there.
Something was funny though the door was open to the sickbay, Hue couldn't see in from here, and he had a funny feeling kinda. He drew the slim little Sunjet and eased through the door way into the medbay... -
Gothic Space Horror
#227Severin turned on his thermal scanner and searched the room for hot signatures, like those from blood or metal heated by body temperature.
"I'd definitely like a sidearm" he said and headed for the lockers after finishing the scan. The ship was a military vessel and the crew might keep their arms in their lockers. "You got anything to crack these locks open with Ao?" he asked, before he checked all the exits for traces of blood or any corpses.
"You know this blood is fresh, Ao. It is fresh! You know what that means, someone has recently got hurt and since the temperature has been freezing in here, and since the scan of the ship showed no living creature within this ship. Well, my guess is that someone among our crew got hurt!" Severin shaked his head and tried to make sense of the situation.
After a moment he turned on the com-speakers "Everyone this is Severin and Ao again. The blood is fresh. I repeat, the blood is fresh. Someone has just put a palmful of blood against the lockerroom wall!".
Severin looked at Ao again "do you think it might be a military bot gone amok Ao? A bot would not show on the thermal scan you know!". -
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#228"A military bot? Unlikely. This isn't some hokey 20th century science fiction slowfilm. They code those things so heavily that there is no way for them to go haywire. They use the Asimov Protocols." He stepped closer to the handprint to examine it, then, sheepishly, explained himself: "My ex-boyfriend was a cyberneticist." -
Gothic Space Horror
#229Severin got agitated "Ooh, but in the recent blockbuster movie, 'Mars Trouble IV', Kevin Romero faced a military bot that had g... *sigh* Nevermind... Aasimov protocol you say? Hmmm, I never heard about that one"
Severin kicked a discarded pen across the room in sheer frustration. "What's happening here, Ao? Let's go to the medlab and talk this over with Marney, ehh?".
Severin retrieved the pen and scraped a sample of blood off the wall. "She'll be able to analyze this" he said before leaving the locker room, "ehhh, are you coming?" Severin begged. -
Gothic Space Horror
#230During his tour at Diamunde, Hue had seen some horrible things. Assault shotguns, masers, and fragmentation grenades didnt leave clean wounds, instead laving gaping holes torn in flesh, pools of blood and grown men screaming and mewling like children, or mauled animals. It did prepare him for what he found.
Marney lay stretched out on the autopsy table, split from the base of the throat all the way down to her crotch. He could even see a blood matted patch of pubic hair amid the blood. In the manner of autopry, the muscle layers of the torse were peeled back, and the chest cavity cracked open, the rib expanded still sitting in the cavity of her torso. The walls were slick with blood, the floor slippery with it. On the examination table her organs had been removed, though not with the skill of a surgeon, but that of a hunter cleaning his prey.
He could see her face, drawn tight. Death had come slow and agonizing, perhaps she had screamed and only the thick walls of the ship prevented any aid coming to her. He had seen that face before, an infantryman who had taken sixteen hours to die, pieced through the abdomen. His body had only surrendered to death after a long series of convulsions brought on by neurotoxins released by the retreating enemy forces. -
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#231Micky entered the Medlab behind Hue,her foot slipping slighty. She glanced down at the floor, seeing the blood she turned her attention quickly to what was in front of Hue.. "Oh my god!" Her hand flew up to her mouth as her eyes went wide at the horror before her. She paled as she turned her head away quickly. Micky took a few slippery steps back out of the room. Leaning against the opposite wall. One hand covering her face.
She couldnt believe what she had just seen. It couldnt be real. Not Marney.With a shaky hand she pressed the com button. Her voice a bit shaky. "Captain ........ we ...have..a problem. Marney ....is" A pause as Micky recomposed herself. "Captain, Marney is dead." -
Gothic Space Horror
#232Hue stood there shocked for a second, as Micky called to the Captain, Hue walked over to the med closet and grabbed a blanket. He tucked it under his arm, and walked over to Marney's corpse. He could see that the torture episode had gone on for more than hours. Whoever did this had done it in such a way she had died only at the very end, probaly very near after her ribs were cracked open. Hue closed Marney's eyes then drapped a blaknet over her body. He whipsered quietly, "Don't fret around here Marney you go on, I'll get the son of a bitch who did this. Micky you better call everyone down here. Oh shit, wheres that kadaver, Raynor?" -
Gothic Space Horror
#233"What?" Micky looked to Hue."Isnt it here?" She stayed focused on Hue, not wanting to look at the rest of the mess that was not covered by a blanket. She looked away.
Micky felt ill to her stomach as a cold dread began to seep into her bones. Micky was pilot, she wasnt use to being up close to a body. Especially one so brutallly mutilated.
She clenched her hands a few times. Trying to get them to stop shaking. She didnt want to think about what had happened in there.
Micky pressed the com once more. "Everyone, please report to the MedLab. I repeat. Everyone please report to the MedLab." -
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#234Severin received Micky's transmission and noticed the dread in her voice. "Let us go Ao!" he said and started running towards the medlab. -
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#235"What the tanj..." muttered Ao, as he and Severin bustled towards the MedBay. As they arrived, he looked into the MedBay.
At first he thought it was a prank.
"Oh, for ****'s sake, Hue...," his voice trailed off. "What is this?" he said, quietly, voice shaking. -
Gothic Space Horror
#236"No joke Ao, we have one sick son of a bitch on board," He walked over to Ao and handed him his Sunjet, "It's a Sunjet type laser, it's got a recharging cell, but be careful the recharger still takes a couple minutes so don't use it all at once, I'll feel more comfortable with my combat pistol anyways." Hue left the medbay and returned in a minute later with a large DX-2 combat pistol in his hand and a belt with two power packs and a holster. He strapped the belt on. He gave the Sunjet to Ao because he was with Hue on the boarding, he felt he could trust Ao. -
Gothic Space Horror
#237Severin entered the room after Ao and just stood gaping. He watched the blanket draped body and stated "That's m-m-Marney!" with a quivering voice. Tears filled his eyes and he unconsciously started to shake his head and whisper "no, no, no". He took a few steps towards the corpse and stretched his hand out, as if to remove the blanket. His hand was shaking badly and his mind was flooded with unpleasant memories of another place and another time. -
Gothic Space Horror
#238"Mother of God..." Captain Stern said, his eyes falling on the shrouded form of his former first officer. The captain was silent for a long time, his eyes thick with tears, the archaic revolver heavy in its holster.
"I am going to find out who did this, when I do, I am going to put a bullet in the skull of the sadistic sonnafabitch who did this." he said, the corners of his eyes drawn tight with anger and grief.
"By god, I want to know who was here first, who found her...and where in the Frag did you all get weapons." he said, a dangerous tone in his voice, a sour smell on his breath. -
Gothic Space Horror
#239Micky, who was standing near the door, looked to the Captain. "Hue and I found her.' A weary glance was given to the weapons. As a pilot there were certain restrictions, she was not allowed to bring a weapong on board...so she didnt. She thought of something then. "Where is Pockets and Pliers?" She had seen them board the ship. -
Gothic Space Horror
#240Hue stood grim faced before the Captain, "That would be my fault sire but I never travel anywhere unarmed, this is the way that I am, and I think it's a good thing I brought them to. Jame's corpse is missing sir."