Episode 7 - Cause and Effect [SM-2 + etc.]

[Tom Chambers]

2155-2205
Landing Bay
Ark

Slowly shifting his weight between his feet he continued to peer out over the vast landing bay and between the multitude of vessels about it. He took in a deep breath as he gazed through the ships, hopefully nothing too interesting was going to happen, hopefully a quiet mission before the gathering storm they were sure was approaching after what they had found after their last mission. His thoughts were broken by Fiona. "Chambers. We'd be best finding a way out. You lead the way?" He turned around to her. He was about to speak when his gaze switched to Staff Sergeant Alexander as the man gave a response to the Irish Scientist. 

"Fiona, Doctor Black. Could you please check out the Engineering section of this ship? Chambers said it looked like something was removed. IF we can figure out what was removed from here,” Saved by Sergeant, he thought. “and from there, it might grant us some much needed intel as well as an additional way to get out of here.” He was a little surprised when Black and Maccafferty when inside with no protest to them it was more directed from the redhead to as rumor, no as he now was supposed to call it scuttlebutt, her boyfriend. 

The staff Sergeant then radioed the officers. “Sir, Ma’am, Chambers and I are going to take a look at a couple of the other Ships in the hanger. There looks like two others with their hatches open; will report when we finish or if we find anything. Alexander out.” Alexander motioned him to follow and he made his way. As they made their way towards one of the other ships with open hatches he spoke "Surprised they didn't complain," He started as they moved away, their attention was soon caught by DR black who re emerged from the first vessel they had visited. 

"Err.. Guys. I hate to be the one who keeps finding stuff but..." Something was coming at then, not a moment latter Major Callaghan was calling them to group up. "Everyone on me! Now!" He and the Staff Sergeant responded quickly. As they ran past the other scientists He said "Lets go sweat peas" They ran back towards the Major position he was facing a wall that now clearly had what could be considered a door or a hatch in markings over it. 

"Get ready to shoot that f**ker" The Major said as they arrived. He aimed down the backup red dot sigh of his weapons ACOG scope towards the centre of the door, now was time to do what they came here to do, babysit some scientists.

<TAG:Fiona Maccafferty , Ryan Alexander , Michael Black , Shauna Alice Keys , John Callaghan , Quinn Monaghan , Mikaere Glavish , Alien thingo>

[Michael Black]

2207
Landing Bay
The Ark

"Michael, what do you think might happen if I or someone with the Gene took this thing and held it where the power core was meant to be?" Fiona had asked him. Dr. Black went through a series of "umm's" and "err's" before Fiona took the ancient device and held it in the gap in the alien ship's power core. She smiled as it gently lit up the console and the ship slowly but surely hummed to life.
"Well, I'll be damned!" Michael exclaimed, "Whoever this alien race are it looks like they used a modified form of ancient tech too... At least having this ship online opens up some more options."
"Everyone on me! Now!" Came the order from Major Callaghan outside the alien ship in the jumper bay as the soldiers rallied around the commander. The blip on the handheld device was getting closer and would be at the doors to the landing bay any minute now. Michael decided that perhaps he and Fi might be safer inside the alien ship while Dr. Kells worked on a quick examination of the alien corpses.
"I was wrong," Michael heard Kells yell to Callaghan, there were three words he never felt comfortable hearing the Sun Tzu's chief medical officer say, "they died with in the the last hour of are arrival and the bodies are been turned in to a milkshakes ready for who ever to return to feed."

"Great. The word 'feed' just came up." He said looking to Fiona, his thoughts turning toward the Wraith instantly. Perhaps their exploration could wait until another day and they could just get back home to the warm comforts of Meropis, he thought.

"Get ready to shoot that f**ker," came a yell from the landing bay. Michael bravely poked his head out of the entrance of the alien vessel, having withdrawn his M9 sidearm from it's holster. He immediately wished he hadn't looked. A clunking sound grew louder and louder still. Eventually, thick metal poles shot across from the left and into the entrance way. The first one embedded itself into the open door frame. Michael could see the soldiers were just as confused as he was. Then there was another, and another. Quickly more and more appeared until there was a complicated web of metal filling the entrance way. It had appeared so very fast.

Then, there was something else. Michael squinted and took another step out of the alien craft, he was aware of Fiona pleading with him behind in the ship. He could see a dark object in the center of the web. It was almost rock like in appearance, but then... But then there was something more. Michael knew straight away this was some unholy alien creation. The rock had, a mouth? A wet, black hole in the center which reveal three sets of gently pulsating teeth. Behind them was a dark, green moist innard which looked similar to the green goo coming out of the poor alien corpses Dr. Kells had checked out. Michael thought he could see two black pin pricks where the eyes should be, but he didn't stare too much longer as the place erupted into action. The creature, whatever it was, extended another long, metallic pole from it's center mass straight toward SM-2. The pole embedded itself in the landing bay floor just short of where Callaghan stood. The creature began to move. Gunfire erupted all over.

<tag John Callaghan Tom Chambers Fiona Maccafferty Quinn Monaghan Shauna Alice Keys Ryan Alexander Amelius>
be creative, have fun with it. Tagging Amelius who will play the part of the creature now (PM me if you aren't sure what to do with it)

[John Callaghan]

2209
Landing Bay
The Ark

The three other members of SM-2 came to join the Major in his position, and all peered down the sights of their weapons. Callaghan quickly inserted a High-Explosive Dual Purpose round into the M302 Grenade Launcher attached to his rifle. This would serve as the opening shot the moment the creature decided to come through the door. They were waiting now. And though the waiting only took seconds, it could feel like minutes.

Callaghan had his weapon ready, and the instant the alien creature -words could not even begin to describe what it looked like- came into view. Immediately, the Major fired his grenade launcher. The he took up aim again, and began to open fire. The HK416 had been set to single-fire, so Callaghan had to tap the trigger for each shot that he wanted to fire. Within seconds, his magazine had run dry. Callaghan ejected the magazine, and let it just fall to the ground -he'd worry about collecting empty magazines later-, and immediately reached for a magazine pouch attached to his vest. He grabbed a full mag and inserted it into his rifle. He chambered a round and continued firing.

The Major did not know how much damage this thing could take, but he did know that at one point he and his team would run out of ammunition. And if that happened, it would be quite possible they'd die.

[Ryan Alexander]

2209
Landing Bay
The Ark

Ryan steadied himself against the entrance of corridor, bring his rifle up. Sweet Mary and Joseph. He thought to himself as the creature came barreling down the corridor. “On me.” He heard Callaghan say heart beats before he the tell-tail fump of the M203 launching from the underslung grenade launcher could be heard.

Ryan sighted down his rifle on the creature, making sure close his eye a second before the explosion so he didn’t damage his retina. He couldn’t believe what the –thing- looked like, it was repulsive. The grenade impacted with a loud Boom. The compression from the explosion echoed through the corridor. Ryan felt the heat of the explosion hoping that the creature was nothing but a smear on the bulkhead. The loud roar that flowed shattered that dream. Son of a… was all Ryan could think before the sound of HK416 thundered. Ryan quickly added the fire of his M4. But still the creature kept coming. Ryan’s bolt locked into the rear indicating he had run dry, with practiced speed and precision, he ejected the empty magazine, letting it clatter to the floor. With his free hand he slide a fresh magazine in the magazine well and pressed bolt release, and kept firing. He heard the staccato of Chambers rifle added to the fusillade that thundered down the corridor. Still the creature appeared to keep coming.

When it was paces away it leaped and crashed into Ryan. As Ryan feel, he kept firing, hearing the deafening sound of his teammate’s rifles. As the creature took him to the ground he couldn’t but help he had forgotten to tell someone something. The full weight of the creature pressed down on Ryan, however it was unmoving. Blue liquid leaked out of creature, soaking Ryan’s cammies.

Silence quickly replaced the sound of the rifle fire with no one moving or breathing. Heartbeats passed before Ryan tried to move the beast. It was heavy, it had to weight almost half a ton. He spoke up, “Uh, guys a little help? This thing weighs a ton.”

<TAG:Fiona Maccafferty  Michael Black  ;Shauna Alice Keys  ;John Callaghan  ;Quinn Monaghan ,Mikaere Glavish , Alien thingo, Tom Chambers >

[Tom Chambers]

2209
Landing Bay
The Ark

He aimed down the sights of his weapon waiting for what ever the hell was coming at them to come within view. When it did the Major led them off letting a Rifle grenade sail toward the create. He looked away as it exploded before reacquiring the alien in his sights, it was still alive, all at once they let free, he held down the trigger of his weapon all the way in bursts however still the creature cam and he was soon out of ammo. He quickly switched out the opaque yellow magaines tyhe old one falling to floor with clack that drowned out in the sound of automatic weapons fire.

Holding his aim as it moved towards Staff Sergeant Alexander. The alien crashed into the Marine NCO but then stopped moving. Tom slowly approached it his weapon ready, he didn't want to shoot it like this, but he also wasn't sure if the alien was dead. As he was a few steps away it was clear it was bleeding, well it was defiantly leaking a blue fluid, hopefully it's blood all over the American is was now on top of. 

He approached as Alexander asked for help. “Uh, guys a little help? This thing weighs a ton.” He moved his hands under the object pulling up with all his strength adding to the Staff Sergeants. "Got yourself in a bit of a pinch there mate, you alright?" He asked as they tried to move it off him. They struggled against the creatures weight. "Try sliding out..." he suggested, they had quite a bit of it's weight off him hopefully he could wriggle free and they could check him for injuries.

<TAG: Ryan Alexander , John Callaghan , Quinn Monaghan , Michael Black , Fiona Maccafferty , Shauna Alice Keys , Mikaere Glavish >

[Michael Black]

2212
Landing Bay
The Ark

They were all going to die. That's all Michael could think of right now. The creature just kept coming and coming toward them, the gunfire at first did very little to deter it. He stood frozen to the spot as SM-2 expertly and tactically swooped in front of him and Fiona for the kill. He watched in horror as both Callaghan and Alexander went through an entire magazine trying to stop the beast.

A few explosions and many more bullets later and the creature came crashing down atop the Staff Sergeant. Michael spotted a thick, slimey blue fluid oozing out from it's side. A muffled cry for help confirmed that Ryan was still alive. Relieved, the rest of the team set about shifting the large beast off of the man and helping him wriggle out to freedom. Michael caught his breath and realized at this point that his grip on Fiona's hand might be a little too tight for comfort.
"Well, now that's out of the way," he said, much to the ire of several of the military present, "How about we see what other ungodly horrors the ship holds? Or, more to the point, figure out a way to release the hold it has on our own transport and get the hell out of here before more of... THOSE, show up!" He said, turning a little pale at the thought of how many more of those aliens there could be. As much as Michael didn't like it, their only hope was to navigate the impossibly large confines of The Ark and try to find the bridge. From there, they could try and set things straight. His primary goal right about now was survival, getting the hell out of here to be precise. They could come back with an entire army later on and take the ship properly now that they knew where it was and what the front door looked like.

Gathering his things and feebly clutching at his sidearm with his left hand, he set about interfacing with an ancient panel near to the door the creature had emerged from. His tablet connected just as fine as if it were back on Meropis, which was surprising. Michael was able to download a rough schematic of the vessel. He frowned, for some reason certain areas weren't showing up. Perhaps they were damaged beyond repair and sealed off? This would mean a longer route to the bridge by the look of things.

With a few more button pushes Michael was able to bring an internal life signs detector online. He gasped. Slowly, Michael turned to show his tablet to the rest of the team. There were, THINGS, all over the ship. He couldn't tell what they were but none were registering as human. Some were in groups, some alone, some small and some, well, some were enormous. And almost all of them lay between the team and the bridge. Michael couldn't find the words to express how screwed they were.

<tag John Callaghan Tom Chambers Ryan Alexander Quinn Monaghan Fiona Maccafferty Shauna Alice Keys Mikaere Glavish>
be creative with the messed up ancient creations!

[Ryan Alexander]

2213
Landing Bay
The Ark

Ryan could feel his utilities and gear getting soaked from the creature’s secretions. He wiggled all his appendages to make sure everything still worked and nothing was broken. Finding that everything was where it still was supposed to be he tried to shift his arms so he could try and push the ting off him. He grunted trying to push the creature off of him as he heard footsteps and an Australian accented voice. "Got yourself in a bit of a pinch there mate, you alright?” Ryan would have nodded but realized he had half a ton of creature on top of him and doubted anyone would notice. “I think so, though next time you are the one to be tackled by the quarter ton creature. Wait you are an Aussie, so metric, two hundred something kilogram object.” He said with a labored laugh and good mirth in his voice.

He could see Chambers hands grab a part of the creature. “On three Chambers, One…two…THREE!” He strained as he they both tried to move the creature. He could feel the pressure lifting off him though not quite. “Try sliding out…” He heard Chambers say. Ryan started to wiggle his way out, though his boot caught on something. “Hold it for a second longer.” Ryan said he tried to untangle it. After a few heart beats he groaned as extracted himself and his tangled boot from beneath the creature. Ryan sighed, and took stock of his himself checking to make sure he wasn’t injured. “Thank you for the assist Chambers.”

After a quick inspection he seemed to be alight. “Thank god for small miracles.” He thought to himself as he started to rise, almost slipping, as he noticed something that looked like an intestine wrapped around his boot. He untangled it further, already covered in the blue blood from the creature. "How about we see what other ungodly horrors the ship holds? Or, more to the point, figure out a way to release the hold it has on our own transport and get the hell out of here before more of... THOSE, show up!" He heard the English doctor say. Ryan turned his head to regard the scientist for a moment and watched him plunk away at his tablet. He heard him gasp. “That couldn’t have been good. What do you have Doctor?” Ryan asked knowing that Doctor Kells wasn’t going to let him move much farther without a little more of an inspection.

<TAG:Fiona Maccafferty ;Michael Black Shauna Alice Keys John Callaghan Quinn Monaghan ,Mikaere Glavish , Alien thingo, Tom Chambers >

[John Callaghan]

2220
Landing Bay
The Ark

The big beast thing went down quicker than Callaghan had thought. Nonetheless, he did a quick ammo count. He was down to 4 magazines of regular ammunition, 2 magazines of tracer rounds, and 6 High-Explosive Dual-Purpose grenades for his M203 grenade launcher. That were a total of 150 shots. On top of that he still had 2 regular M67 fragmentation grenades, 2 smoke grenades -for all the good they would do indoors-, and 2 flashbangs. Finally, he still had 2 magazines for his sidearm, on top of the one in his pistol.

The Major watched Corporal Chambers help the Staff Sergeant up. That situation was under control, so he didn't need to help himself. Instead he checked if everyone was still there. Just as he had concluded that they were, one of the science guys interfaced with some kind of computer as he suggested they move on quickly. Callaghan was just about to shout an order when Black came upon a new piece of information.

It would seem that things similar to the one they had just taken down were scattered all over this ship. Ark. Whatever. And they were effectively blocking access to the bridge. That would definitely be something of a problem. "Alright. Doc, see if you can find a way to the bridge, preferably without running into any other of those things." the Major told the doctor. Then he turned to his team. "Chambers, Alexander, watch the doors. Captain, rope in the stragglers." he said, just loud enough for everyone to hear.

[Fiona Maccafferty]

2225
The Ark

Fiona stood next to Michael, gobsmacked as some...creature took down Alexander. She made a face at Micheal, and placed two pale, slender arms on each hip and turned to him.

You said there were NO creatures this time! She stamped a foot at him, and then tossed a medic kit towards Siobhan. At the appearance of the blue ooze, she made another face, and then continued her task-try to get this beast of a ship to MOVE.

Around her, the military men did...well. Whatever it was they did...something she didn't understand, didn't care about, and really didn't NEED to know about anyway.

Michael interrupted her work with a gasp. He showed her, and the rest, his tablet. There were MORE of those things? Oh, he was going to experience the full fire of her ire...an Irish redhead had the anger that burnt with the fire of a thousand suns. She muttered curses on his very life in Celtic, with Siobhan giving her the evil eye every so often.

Finally, with both heads of the nerds put together, a console light glowed steadily green. She looked up to Major Callaghan.

Sir?! I've got power.... Absently, she fingered her braid while waiting for a reply. She just hoped that reply would be something like "damn the Torpedoes, full speed ahead."

Tag: All

[Tom Chambers]

2213-2225
Landing Bay
The Ark

It wasn't a pretty sight the metallic sphere and appendages leaking blue all over the Staff Sergeant. “I think so, though next time you are the one to be tackled by the quarter ton creature. Wait you are an Aussie, so metric, two hundred something kilogram object.” The Marine said in response to his query on the mans health. Tom smirked. "Don't worry you don't need to convert for me, I'm capable of it myself, wouldn't be a good combat engineer if I couldn't." He replied some strain in his voice as they began to lift. 

“On three Chambers, One…two…THREE!” They both strained against the weight of creature, it lifted some. As Alexander began to move out from under it as his suggestion the Staff Sergeant's boot got caught. “Hold it for a second longer.” Tom kept lifting as much of the creature off his team mate untill he was clear, when he was he let the creature fall back onto the deck with a metallic clack and a bit of an organic squelch. Stepping around the creature he found the marine checking himself.

“Thank you for the assist Chambers.” He offered the marine an hand, helping him up with a small slip, seems something of the creature had wrapped itself around the man's boot. "Colourful insides it had compared to the outside and no problem Staffs." He wasn't about to go all full rank on the guy, he was after all covered in alien blood, and he was a cultural inhibition against such things.

"How about we see what other ungodly horrors the ship holds? Or, more to the point, figure out a way to release the hold it has on our own transport and get the hell out of here before more of... THOSE, show up!" It wasn't a bad idea, apart from the running away, they needed to try and come home with something other than bad news this time. Black gasped, that couldn't be good. The Major went over to investigate the mans findings, then issued his orders. 

"Alright. Doc, see if you can find a way to the bridge, preferably without running into any other of those things. Chambers, Alexander, watch the doors. Captain, rope in the stragglers."
 Chambers nodded, time to watch the doors. Looking back at the nearest doorway he wiped his hands on uniform before taking up his weapon and watch the door weapon rested across his chest but ready.

<TAG:Ryan Alexander, John Callaghan, Quinn Monaghan, Michael Black, Fiona Maccafferty, Shauna Alice Keys, Mikaere Glavish>

[Michael Black]

2250
The Ark

With Michael's device now tuned in to the ancient ship's life signs detector, they were doing just about alright at avoiding whatever those things were that were dotted around the enormous vessel. What Michael hadn't let on yet is he didn't exactly know where the ship's bridge was, he only had a rough idea but figured anything was better than standing around and waiting to be eaten. He kept checking back to make sure Fi was right by his side, although at this point it was becoming more his comfort than her safety.

He allowed himself to breath once again as the walls stopped shaking and the thudding died away. The whole team had quickly taken cover in a cargo room off of one of the corridors as the life signs detector had picked up something headed their way. Through the cracks of light shining through the door way, and the horrible smell of it, Michael could have sworn it was a genuine Tyrannosaurus Rex. His mind began to race at the possibility of the ancients having traveled to prehistoric Earth and collected samples of dinosaurs. Was it possible? Did the timelines mix just enough for that to happen? The Doctor was brought back to the here and now by Maccafferty gently tugging at his sleeve and telling him it was safe to move now.

Onwards they went, through more twists and turns. The Marine's weapons ever at the ready and the trigger fingers just shy of being dubbed 'twitchy'. Michael brought them to a halt at a large, circular door split into two down the middle.
"Looks like some sort of enormous chamber inside, perhaps for cargo or something," he informed the rest of the team in a hushed voice so as not to attract any unwanted attention, "at the end of it there appears to be a staircase of sorts leading up to what I would put money on is the bridge." He felt a little more confident this time, the positioning of the place in the grand scheme of things made sense if you knew your ancient architecture, which fortunately Dr. Black did.
"Just need to punch in this code once again and then bypass this little..." Michael trailed off in concentration as, aided by Fi, they broke into the control panel and managed to get the doors open.

Michael stepped into the gigantic chamber ahead of them and had to catch his breath once again. It was completely not what they were expecting. According to his device the room was around a mile in length and made up the main bulk of the vessel. From here until the far end were vats of various sizes. Some small like a sort of fish tank but others enormous and towering over the rest of the room. Down the sides of the room were a great number of ancient workstations set into little alcoves. The team fanned out into the entrance of the room and, cautiously, Michael approached one of the smaller vats on the outskirts of the great set up. It was a small tank, made of a metallic alloy of some sort with a dark, thick liquid inside. Michael leaned in closer and could make out a sort of embryo inside, an orange sack containing a semi-formed creature. Whatever it was made him feel sick, he looked away as the soldiers began barking orders.
"What, what is this place?" He turned to Fi. Perhaps this time they really were in over their head.

<tag Fiona Maccafferty Tom Chambers Ryan Alexander John Callaghan Shauna Alice Keys Quinn Monaghan>

[Mikaere Glavish]

2250
The Ark

Mikaere Glavish had been more quiet than usual for the majority of this mission. That was likely because for most of it (post-enormous-killer-creature) he had been doing his best to analyze the DNA structure of the creature. And quite honestly, it perplexed him. That was mostly because what was in front of him... shouldn't have been in front of him. He didn't understand how evolution could have taken such a course to end up with a creature like that. A time or two, he had been so wrapped up in his analysis that he'd felt Captain Monaghan grab hold of him and usher in certain directions like a little child.

He thought of sharing what he was seeing with Black or Kells, but he couldn't tear himself away from it. He finally looked up as they entered a rather large room. His eyes caught sight of the embryos in the tanks and then it dawned upon him. He quickly ran an algorithm on his pad and the results proved to be quite the epiphany. The conclusion he'd drawn seemed unfathomable, but it was the only thing that made sense. He snapped his finger in Fiona and Michael's direction. "Get one of these consoles working," he said. "I don't have time to hack you and see what decryption you're using."

His fingers danced across his display as he waited, and now everything made so much sense. "Don't you see?" he asked, still not having revealed his own findings. "All the creatures on this ship! It's like... Doctor Moreau's Freaky Little Shop of Horrors." Glavish moved towards a dormant console and cast an annoyed look in Maccafferty's direction. Did he really have to do everything himself?

<TAG: John Callaghan , Quinn Monaghan , Michael Black , Fiona Maccafferty , Ryan Alexander , Tom Chambers , Shauna Alice Keys >

[Quinn Monaghan]

The Ark
2251

Quinn was more than happy for things to continue as they had. Thus far, they had managed to avoid any more of whatever that had been back in the hanger. Yet, she was a firm believer in Murphy's Law. Sadly, that meant that their good luck could only last for so long. What happened if a crisis came up, and they had to high-tail it back to the Jumper? They wouldn't be able to elude those threats with the finesse they had thus far. She was, however, thankful that Glavish had finally pulled his head out of that tablet. He'd nearly walked right into a threat or two being so distracted. Yet, now he seemed rather insistent about accessing one of the terminals in this room.

Quinn turned, her weapon still drawn as she scrutinized the entire room. She wasn't comfortable staying in one spot for too long. That only increased the odds of their luck finally running out.

<TAG: John Callaghan , Tom Chambers , Ryan Alexander , Michael Black, Fiona Maccafferty , Shauna Alice Keys >