[RP]Prelude-Cydonia Rising [IC: 'Dying Embers']

[sunphoenix]

Stormrage listens to Softsapphire's report form the shuttle's limited sensor returns.

"It could just as easily be a Umiak probe... Without a farseer we have no idea if more Umiak are on their way to this system. I'd prefer death to capture."

Stormrage adjusts the shuttle's course toward the direction of the incoming data-stream then one last burst of main drives she powers down the drives letting the shuttle continue on the last course. Then she shuts off the Radar and any active emissions...

"I'm conserving fuel... and powering down to lower our signature. We're going dark. Until we have some idea what the source of that Data-stream is."

Storm leans back in her seat her head throbbing in pain and her urge to sleep growing, {I mustn't fall asleep... that is dangerous with a concussion...}

She sanzai's... weakly, {Doranzer Mazil Paiad... I- I'm injurd. A blow to the head... cracked even my combat armored helm. I'm feeling sleepy. I'm sure I have a concussion, it hurts to sanzai. I know others are in greater need but I could use something to keep me awake until others more severely injured are seen to. Please.}

[bunnyboy]

Paiad helped the Copperspear and another woundeds to get in their seats and after launch of the shuttle, she started to look them and giving first aid. The sororin was worst and with the meedical gears present in shuttle were very little to help her. She couldn't do much for internal bleeding, but at least Copperspear was still breathing. Paiad give soroin some pain depressant, which also slowed her body funcktions so she could servive with less oxygen and added sealant to sororin's vacc-suit to harden it as improvised cast to prevent broken bones moving.

Paiad didn't removed her own sealed vacc-suit, because the germs she carried could be disastroys to weakened loroi. She didn't mention her fear to anyone and hoped that everyone else would mistake her fear for coverdy of travel. When Stormrage called her, she gave next loroi to keep watch on Copperspear and call immadiately if something happen. The she get in cockpit.

{I wan't you leave your place to someone another for while, but I'm afraid that it's not an option, is that so? But I can give you some stimulants.}
Not waiting for the response she removed Stormrage's helmet and looked her injure. She added little coolant on the wound, which lifted off most of the pain, but her next sending was faded like they were different sides of capital starship and not next of each other.
{These pills helps you staing awake, but with the coolant, your sanzai may be little off. This syringe is for emergency only and I may need it for Copperspear if she stop breathing. Push it on your neck and you will be fully awaken for moment, but when it wears of, you can't move a muscle for hours or days, depending on your condition.}

Rolls (I forgot add the stat in roller): Taking care of Copperspear 15; Stormrage 16.
Medical rolls (2d6+4=9, 2d6+4=10)

[Suederwind]

[OOC: Here it comes, the next part. This time for humans _and_ loroi, what a shock! Its the same time line for all characters from now on. The music this time, at least for the first part: Link]

The human side (Thanks again Beliskner!):

SpoilerShow

The whole bridge was silent for several minutes, as the probes camera had finally focused on the once magnificent, dagger shaped ship. Parts of molten debris from the scarab flow away from that scene, nothing bigger than the captains chair as the sensor data suggests.
The ship itself looked even worse than before. Parts of its hull had been molten away by the intense heat of the explosion, leaving vast parts of its hull open to the vacuum of space and small blue flashes of energy sparkled over parts of the ship. It looked like a total mess now. What a sad and depressing view.

[Sir, the probes sensor data indicates that this was a powerful... antimatter annihilation-reaction... Its a total miracle that their ship is still in one piece.]
Ensign Anderson said in a low voice and looked doubting on her console, checking the data again and again. This was far beyond anything Humans can do. A ship powered by antimatter...

[Captain, There is no more contacts, too much energy bleeding in sector to find anything using the telescope, but there is still wreckage which could be salvageable.]
Ferox reported to the Captain, after taking a short look on the sensor station, much to the "delight" of the young Ensign.
{He is doing it... again!} she thought to herself and tried to stay calm.

Did we still not receive any kind of transmission? No distress signals? Have you checked the trade frequencies?
Blake asked in disbelief and looked over to the com-station

After some minutes and a lot of buttons being pressed:
[Nothing, sir!]
It yelled from there.

{We don´t know who they are, but for sure they are stuck in a mess they hardly can pull themself out on their own. But, risking my ship and its crew for some Aliens or their remains? Hm...}
After this short moment, Blake looked trough some of the sensor data on his station, remaining quiet for a long while.

He then said:
[I will not risk Cydonia and its entire crew for some rubble. But we can not afford to miss this chance, to learn more about those aliens. Lt Cmdr Ferox, Ensign Anderson, prepare the shuttle craft and choose an away team and then take a closer look on whats out there or whats left of it. We will try not reveal Cydonias position at the moment. But if you find any survivors, try to contact and help them, without risking your own life. If anything goes wrong, we will show them what Cydonias guns are capable of. Understood?]

Just in this very moment. As Ferox wanted to answer, a bright flash of light filled the bridge.

[Good Lord! What was that?]
Captain Blake shouted at once, rubbing his eyes.

The screen only showed pieces of images that had passed and white noise artifacts. After a while, it was switched off and turned black. The air of the bridge was filled with the sound of activity. Buttons being pressed, commands were spoken in low voice and the flashing lights of emergency signals gave it an eerie, strange look.

The first who answered was Ensign Anderson:
[The... ship... its gone. Again signs of an Antimatter Annihilation... Strong gamma radiation...]
she said in a low and sad voice.

Meanwhile, the screen switched on again, showing the same region of space. The transmission was disturbed by the radiation and artifacts were all over it. Making it hard to even guess what was still out there.

To the Loroi side:
[OOC:New music from now on: Link]

SpoilerShow

Parat Twilightsaber moved to the cockpit, she knew she had no time to lose. She quickly checked the sensor data and it showed that an nearby asteroid was the source of that transmission.
{Some form of drone maybe? Its not like anything umiak-made I have ever seen or heard of. I know its risky, but our only chance to survive is to send an emergency signal. Maybe that drone or whatever it is will pick it up and we are saved? Check those emergency signals SG 51 had picked up from that human ambassador and then send one or more of them, Softsapphire. If humans are in this sector, they will most likely react to one of those. Its a shame that he refused to tell us what they mean. Lets hope that this won´t be a problem.}

I rolled a dice over what comes next, a d20. 1 = shuttle crew will see the flash and nothing more, 2-10 = shuttle is at a save distance, is shocked by the blast but not damaged, 11-19 = shuttle is damaged (higher = more damage, crew injured), 20 = ; I rolled this: 1d20 → [4] = (4)
Lucky you!

At this moment, the shuttle was shaken by the explosion of Argent Fire. Most of its crew was able to hold on something and luckily, no one was hurt and the shuttle was undamaged. Some looked out of the shuttles tiny windows with tears in their eyes and tried to find at least some remains of their former home, but failed to do so.

Back to Captain Blake and his crew:

SpoilerShow

Ensign Metzger rubbed his eyes ins disbelief. He could have sworn that he had seen something moving in that mess, the screen showed them. The radiation was still not back to normal and the probes sensors had a hard time, trying to adapt to that.
There, again!
A tiny object drifting away from the position, were once that beautiful ship had been. He tickled his own chin and tried to get some information out of his targeting sensors, or whatever that probe had instead.
It was nothing like the pieces of debris flying around everywhere in that place now. Hell, it even changed its course to avoid being hit! It was about 30m long, streamlined...
A craft! And now dangerously close to the top right edge of the main screen...
{No one noticed THAT? Time to say something...}

[Ähm... Captain, sir... there is something... moving... through that mess. On the top right edge of the screen... approximately 30m long. It looks like a small craft... or an escape pod of some sort. I have never seen something moving like that!]
Ensign Metzger pointed out, turning away from his station, directly to the Captain.

Everyone was gazing at the screen now, Ensign Anderson tried to get a sensor log with that probe on whatever was out there. Suddenly the screen magnified a part of the top right and it indeed showed something.
Stunned they saw a small streamlined shuttle, trying to avoid parts of the debris. The focus shifted as the probe was still not fully able to compensate that high radiation levels.
The craft looked like nothing they had ever seen before, but its hull, painted in silver and green, clearly showed that this was not part of the scarab ship.
Somehow everyone felt relived.

Hadrid stood up from his console and approached Captain Blakes chair.

["Shall we engage first contact scenario protocols, Sir?"]

[sunphoenix]

To the Loroi side:
Parat Twilightsaber moved to the cockpit, she knew she had no time to lose. She quickly checked the sensor data and it showed that an nearby asteroid was the source of that transmission.
{Some form of drone maybe? Its not like anything umiak-made I have ever seen or heard of. I know its risky, but our only chance to survive is to send an emergency signal. Maybe that drone or whatever it is will pick it up and we are saved? Check those emergency signals SG 51 had picked up from that human ambassador and then send one or more of them, Softsapphire. If humans are in this sector, they will most likely react to one of those. Its a shame that he refused to tell us what they mean. Lets hope that this won´t be a problem.}

Storm nodded and smiled slightly to Paiad taking the pills and letting Paiad at least treat her head injury.

Replying in sanzai, {No. I cannot turn this over to someone else just yet... but thank you, sister.}

Turning her attention back to the flight telemetry, listening to Twilightsaber she concurred in sanzai {You are correct Mizol. That probe is not an Umiak design. Planet or no..we are not dead yet! But our options are indeed very limited... I propose.. a compromise. I'll settle the shuttle against one of the asteroidal debris to hide our presence and then... Softsapphire and I will EVA to this probe and try to get it to tell us where its mothership may be... and determine its origin. We find out where help may be ... or a new threat.. and won't reveal our location... until we're ready to do so.}

[Suederwind]

The Mizol thought for a brief moment.
{Stormrage, this is an acceptable, but very risky compromise. Bring us behind one of these Asteroids close to that drone, that should buy us some time and I don´t like being watched by an possible unknown foe. Bear in mind, that the thick hull of this shuttle saved us from the heat of the explosion and most of the radiation. We need to check the radiation levels around the shuttle first. You are injured, too...}

Twilightsaber quickly checked the sensors on radiation. It was still risky to get out there, as the radiation level was very high. Longer than 600 solon would be lethal to anyone, even someone protected by an armored suit.

{Who ever goes out there, has to be quick. Not more than 600 solon for this mission to be accomplished. That is not much time... Other suggestions, Softsapphire?}

[Yiuel]

The Mizol thought for a brief moment.
{Stormrage, this is an acceptable, but very risky compromise. Bring us behind one of these Asteroids close to that drone, that should buy us some time and I don´t like being watched by an possible unknown foe. Bear in mind, that the thick hull of this shuttle saved us from the heat of the explosion and most of the radiation. We need to check the radiation levels around the shuttle first. You are injured, too...}

Twilightsaber quickly checked the sensors on radiation. It was still risky to get out there, as the radiation level was very high. Longer than 600 solon would be lethal to anyone, even someone protected by an armored suit.

{Who ever goes out there, has to be quick. Not more than 600 solon for this mission to be accomplished. That is not much time... Other suggestions, Softsapphire?}

{Do we have someone here who's better with analysing technological devices. I the Science Girl, not the Tech Girl.}

Softsapphire turned around the crew to get an answer.

{As for the radiation levels, get me some time to check the whole thing.}

Softsapphire gets on the sensors to detect all the radiations that are outside. She determines the levels of all dangerous radiations she knows of. (2d6+8 (Mind)+4 (Physical Sciences)+ 2(Heightened Awareness)) 23
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3866243/

After getting her results on the radiations, she compares it to the levels Loroi can support. (2d6+8+4 (Biological Sciences)) 18
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3866249/

[VonWolffe]

Meanwhile aboard the Cydonia -

SpoilerShow

1st Lieutenant Wolffe seemed to visibly bristle at the Captain's instruction to the Lieutenant Commander and Ensign to begin forming an Away team. He managed to recover and cleared his throat rather loudly to attract the Captain's attention.

"Sir, a word please."

When dealing with high ranking officers about to make a mistake one could not simply say so and undermine his authority in front of his subordinates, especially when his subordinates knew better. One look at Wolffe's eyes through his sealed visor would be enough to indicate to the Captain that what Wolffe had to say was not only pertinent but necessary. When the man had a free moment to detach himself from the incoming reports Wolffe would speak to him in hushed but final tones.

"Sir, permission to speak freely as Security Officer-"

Wolffe went on when given permission.

"- but what the hell do you have a Boarding Party for if you aren't going to use us? Why are there Marines on your boat if you aren't going to let us do our job? Frankly Sir, we're not just highly trained Security Guards paid to hang around and guard hallways. You don't just send your First Officer, an Engineer, and a random female crewmember onto a possibly hostile ship like some old Star Trek episode. These Marines that you hand picked have been trained for years to handle first contact, and failing that to fight to defend the ship with their lives. Picking random crew and tossing weapons in their hands and asking them to carry out a boarding operation, who have not trained to do so is a mistake Sir. You wouldn't send me to fix the engine and you shouldn't shove a rifle in an Ensign's hand and tell him to do my job. We know how to provide emergency services and how to defend ourselves Sir. Let us."

1st Lieutenant Wolffe straightened up, having said what needed to be said. The Captain was eccentric, but not only was the idea of an Away team a complete departure from military protocol, it put members of his crew in harm's way who were not properly equipped to deal with the situation. The lack of courtesy that the Naval Captain had just shown the Marines was enormous, trying to circumvent their entire purpose aboard the Cydonia. Wolffe however had pulled the Captain aside to not voice his concerns in front of his men. Doctrine was on Wolffe's side, and good officers knew when to listen to the experts around them.

[Suederwind]

Back to Captain Blake...
(WIP)

SpoilerShow

Captain Blake thought a while about the request from his first officer, as 1. Lt Wolff approched him and asked for a few words in private. He granted his request and as he had finished, the Captain answered him:

[You don't need to be alarmed 1st Lt. I had no intention of letting our First Officer leave without the protection of you and your men. This is no old Sci-Fi story, this is very real and the lifes of everyone on this ship, earth and the colonies could depend on our actions here. We have to be carefull. Besides, did you really think I have forgotten what happend the last time, when Anderson got her hands on a rifle?]

Speaking louder now, so that the others could listen, he said:

[Make that shuttle ready for take off. Wolff assemble an away team and take Ferrox with you. As first contact protocol requests to have a commanding officer close by. I know this is dangerous, so bring me my First Officer, your men and yourself back alive. Try to reach that unknown craft as fast as you can and contact them. Find out, who they are and what they want here. If anything goes wrong, we will be there to protect you as fast as we can. Metzger, bring your weapons online. Helm and navigation, just in case: set a course to the position of that craft and be ready to break orbit any time. Doctor, prepare you and your team for any possibilitys. Other suggestions or additions? Ladys and gentelmen, this is no drill or training, so speak freely.]

[sunphoenix]

Stormrage only nodded in silence to the Mizol's directions. Adjusting the maneuvering thrusters... studiously refraining from use of the main high-energy drives... she 'nudged' the "Slipper" along the course toward one of the larger Asteroid rocks - a 100 meter chunk of likely nickel and cobalt considering how the megnetometers {compass} were spinning the closer the "Slipper" maneuvered toward the spinning chunk of shattered worldlet.

Getting close to it was not the issue... matching velocities... THAT was the trick!
Stormrage was a tense figure of concentration as she slowly executed the difficult maneuver...

Skill: Piloting [Spacecraft] Lvl1 = 2d6 + 6 + 2 → [6,3,6,2] = (17)
* +6 {Av B/M/S}, +2 {skill + specialization}
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3867692/ { Wow! Really? Same roll three times? That's NEVER happened before! lol! }

It is a nerve-wracking few moments as Storm adjusts attitude, yaw and pitch... firing the docking thrusters to get just the right roll to match vector and spin to the large rock to close with it in a relative geosynchronous orbit and then land upon its pock-marked surface with a ...little rougher landing that Storm would have wanted but one that sustained no damage to the "Slipper". Activating the magnetic landing struts that would normally lock the slipper to a armored deck the mostly impure metal spacerock should hopefully hold the "Slipper" in place.

Storm leaned back in her seat a released with a soft gasp the breath she had been holding... unconsciously.

Brushing her luxurious golden lockes from her face she unbuckled and stood and finally ran her hand over the treated head wound curious. Turning to Paiad she handed back the hypo-syringe refraining from Sanzai, prudently, she speaks, "...Copperspear's need is greater. I am Unsheathed... Always! If I must break the blade of my spirit in order to see to it my sisters are safe.. then so be it! 600 solons? We'll do it in 400."

Storm without permission takes Paiad's medical scanner from her belt holster and reads the display - noting every crew member in the count she had recorded present on the shuttle... then handed it back to her.

Looking over the survivors again speaking, "Mizol Losat Malidasaria (Thoughtvenom), I require your assistance... your records lists electronics as one of your specialties. The Listel Sazet is better serving here. Get your suit on... your with me."

Storm removes her Amplifier Crest from within her breached armored helmet. As she moves back through the shuttle compartment she gives a look to a Soroin Pideir and without a word the Soroin hands Storm her armored helmet as a replacement. Continuing on to the emergency storage lockers in the back and she retrieves two EVA maneuver packs and loads the fuel canisters into them.

Storm casts an expectant eye towards Thoughtvenom as she dons her new helmet and attaches the EVA maneuver pack to the attachment ports on her armor. She elbows the open button the the rear airlock inner door.

[Hālian]

Malidasaria stands up and begins donning her vacuum suit, a task made awkward by the fact that her extraordinary height requires her to bend over in the cramped quarters of the shuttle. Eventually, though, she finishes putting it on, taking the EVA maneuver pack from Sonnidezi and attaching it to her suit before joining the Teidar in the airlock.

The raven-haired Mizol secured the inner airlock hatch, then begins the process of evacuating the airlock atmosphere.

"I am here, Sezon. Deinar prevails."

And with that, Mallidasaria opens the outer hatch and steps onto the surface of the asteroid.

[Beliskner]

empty post please delete...

[Suederwind]

[OOC: Back after a way to short break... Edit: removed a few lines.]
Aboard Cydona:

SpoilerShow

Suddenly, the voice of Ensign Anderson filled the bridge:

Sir, the unknown shuttle... Its... gone?

Just a moment before she realized that this thing was closing in on the nearest probe. It should have passed behind that large Asteroid and should be back on screen a minute ago. But it didn't. Did it crash against that hughe rock in space? Without any other working probes close by, she couldn't be shure.

[sunphoenix]

Malidasaria stands up and begins donning her vacuum suit, a task made awkward by the fact that her extraordinary height requires her to bend over in the cramped quarters of the shuttle. Eventually, though, she finishes putting it on, taking the EVA maneuver pack from Sonnidezi and attaching it to her suit before joining the Teidar in the airlock.

The raven-haired Mizol secured the inner airlock hatch, then begins the process of evacuating the airlock atmosphere.

"I am here, Sezon. Deinar prevails."

And with that, Mallidasaria opens the outer hatch and steps onto the surface of the asteroid.

Storm smiles at the tall Loroi, and sanzai's {We are Loroi sister... we always prevail!}

With that she exits the airlock shutting the outer door and pushing off. Her eyes are seen to glow in her armored helm as she calls up her powers... its now a throbbing ache in her head to do so but an acceptable burden she will bear in silence. Storm gestures to Thoughtvenom to hold position briefly and with a agility and accuracy far beyond any mechanical maneuver pack could provide Storm Telekinetically flies gracefully in the Zero-G environment first to circle the "Slipper" shuttle to check the landing struts and the hull for any breaches or damage.

Awareness check: Perception = 2d6 + 5 + 1 → [1,2,5,1] = (9)
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3868454/
* +5 {Mind}, +1 {Heightened Awareness}

She does not spot anything... obviously damaged and flies back over to Thoughtvenom, with the radiation - Radio transmission is very static-filled and could give away their position so she sanzais, {Thoughtvenom... the maneuver packs are for emergency use only.. I'll take us to the probe. Set your internal timer for 300 solon... we turn back at the point. We don't want to bring anything irradiated back into the shuttle... including our gear. Hang on.}

With that Storm gestures at the Mizol touching her with a gentle telekinetic force. Maneuvering her next to the Teidar as she flies both of them at a acceleration of 10 meters a second around the bulk of the docked Asteroid out into open space. Adjusting their course she sends them on trajectory toward the alien probe swiftly and with a acrobatic and almost inertia-less movement.

Skill: Acrobatics [Tumbling] Lvl2 = 2d6 + 6 + 3 → [1,4,6,3] = (14)
* +6 {Body}, +3 {skill + specialization}
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3868460/

[Yiuel]

Softsapphire sanzais at Malidasaria.

{Losat, can you give me a description of any mark you can see on the probe as soon as you get near the thing?}

[Suederwind]

[OOC: I changed and added some lines for Captain Blake in the last posts. I hope this will solve that problem. As an addition, some calm and relaxing classical music: link. I hope this bring us all back on track.]

Malidasaria and Stormrage were on their way to the location of the alien probe, carefully trying to avoid detection and in the same time trying not to lose any time, as well as not being hit by smaller parts of debris or Asteroids.

[Rolled a dice: 1= No detection and a very fast course gaining back 60 solon; 2-10 no detection; 11-19 beeing detected by the probe; 20 =
I rolled: 1d20 → [17] = (17) Link]

Meanwhile aboard Cydonia:

SpoilerShow

Ensign Anderson wasn´t sure at first, but after calibrating the sensors once again, she was sure: there was something approaching the probe.

[Sir, there are two objects coming in at our probe... Approximately 2m in length, drifting there at an unusual high speed... Definitely not Asteroids or parts of the debris... No image at the moment. We will have to wait till they are closer. But... those readings... they are similar to that... bodies from earlier... I´ll try to get a lock on whatever that is.]

The whole bridge crew watched in disbelieve at the readings on the main screen. Could it be, that they were trying a Spacewalk to that probe? That was sheer madness... or bravery... The sound of Ensign Anderson working on her station filled the air. Something was about to happen...

Back to the Loroi:

They finally reached the location of the probe and they had 200 solon left for their activities. They looked on a smaller Asteroid, about 1/3 of the length of their shuttle in diameter. Just an ugly, pockmarked and gray piece of stone or so it seamed at first sight. There were clearly artificial additions to that gray piece of dirt: a gray, small and round antenna, as well as something that looked like a small mechanical arm, with some form of instruments, small boxes, lenses and other things, attached to it. To their horror, that arm suddenly moved in their direction, pointing directly at them...

[sunphoenix]

Stormrage flexed her Telekinetic skills only slightly... in zero-G it was much easier to utilize her Telekinetic talents without major stress.. though her head still throbbed with the effort it was more an annoyance than actual pain at present.

Shortly they Flew up to the asteroid that had obviously been modified with a strange... oddly simple technology... fragile looking actually.. but cunningly hidden.

Storm maneuvered them both close to the largest collection of devices installed in the rock.

Storm thought, {This is certainly no species technology I have ever seen...!}

Casting her eyes at Thoughtvenom, she sanzaied {Here Mizol, try to gain access to the components of these devices... can you identify their species origin...~?}

...when suddenly one of the devices appendages moved and pointed at the two Loroi!

Stormrage reacted without thinking she Telekinetically positioned herself in front of the Mizol and quickdrew her Heavy Blaster in one fluid motion. Also, calling on her Teidar Combat training her will flashed and suddenly she was surrounded by a shimmering distortion of electromagnetic energies as her Electro-Static Field Crackled into existence! Stormrage bathed in arcing lightning and a visual distortion of twisted magnetic and electrical plasma floated ready to block any self-defense system the probe had activated obviously on their close proximity...

She almost fired her heavy blaster... but years of constant training and combat under live-fire had given her a cool hand and a sharp eye for details the ... appendage did not look like an energy weapon. The wide lens being far too dust covered from its time in asteroid field to be a effective focal aperture for energy discharge. Something.. perhaps a gut feeling, made her hold her fire for a moment...

She sanzaied after the moment passed, {If that were a self-defense energy weapon.. surely it would have fired by now? Perhaps it is drained of charge? Thoughtvenom I'll approach it and ascertain its threat, you continue your examination of the devices... be careful of any other moving appendages. There may be autonomous defense drones.}

Storm lowered her blaster and moved closer looking at the odd appendage... {How primitive? It looks like a simple optical sensor of some sort.}

A sudden thought came to her... Storm stopped concentrating on her Electro-Static Shield and it vanished with a releasing of will. She urgently sanzaied to her companion, {Spirits preserve me for a fool! Whoever owns this device.. their watching us now! Thoughtvenom hurry we must leave this area as quickly as possible ...the aliens may be on their way here even now!}

Storm look away from the probe devices looking around the asteroid trying to see any telle-tell visual displays of any active drives streaking in the velvet sea of stars around her....

Meanwhile, onboard the Cydonia Bridge...

SpoilerShow

{OOC: Remember Humanity has no idea what the Loroi look like! And no clue as to the Loroi technical superiority }

Two figures suddenly come into view. It is a shock to see them clearly... they are Human! The proportion of their heads, torso, arms and legs.. there can be no doubt! The way their limbs bend and move.. even their posture floating in the weightless environment. One shorter than the other about 5'10 'perhaps' is in a completely slate grey heavily armored vacc-suit with no markings of any sort... however the hourglass shape of the figure's body & hips, the slight enticing bulge of the chest, the slender waist and proportional width of the shoulders even though clad in the bulky armored vacc-suit lead no doubt - this is a female! Her companion much taller perhaps 6'5"{?} is obviously female as well... and similarly wearing the same slate gray unadorned armored vacc-suit. On her larger frame; her shapely feminine curves were more clearly pronounced! Both are wearing some kind of EVA maneuver pack but thermal sensors do not read any heat from their exhausts.. so how are they maneuvering so precisely? Their gear does not look like any human style of standard space gear. Were the two, obviously, human women somehow captured? Did they steal the gear from captors? But why would it fit them so well? They were both armed, the tall one with some kind of rifle weapon and a long curved sheathed blade and the smaller with only a holstered sidearm.

The shorter armored one noticed the movement of the camera almost immediately and those with military training on the bridge recognize a trained soldier's reaction to a perceived threat as suddenly she moves to interpose for the other and in a flash that sidearm is in her hand pointed at the camera. Again... its baffling - how is she doing that? Moving so effortlessly without a obvious means of propulsion or maneuvering vernier firing - and seemingly with no inertia!

But the next thing shocks everyone on the bridge into stunned disbelief; as suddenly an arcing field of lightning and magnetic plasma forms suddenly around the shorter one... the probe's sensors go literally crazy trying to identify what its observing and failing utterly! They have personal defensive screens? How is that possible... what power source could be miniaturized enough to carry one on ones person?

But the marines on the bridge must give credit to whoever trained the reflexes of the shorter woman as the expected end of the transmission from the weapon being fired does not come. The shorter woman did not fire but watched the camera mount for a moment and lowers her weapon somewhat.

To the military experts on the bridge they at first laughed thinking if she had fired it would have put her into a uncontrollable spin from the recoil... but her lowering of the weapon shows no kind of slugthrower they have ever seen. There are no exhaust ports or gas-vent stabilizers... perhaps it is a guass weapon? But there is no receiver, and it is seemingly made of one solid piece of polymer or metal no moving parts. The probe returns a powerful energy signature in the EM band coming from the weapon... personal hand-held energy weapons? How?

She turns to her companion and her face can be seen in the angle of the light on her helmet visor... definitely a woman! She oddly enough does not speak her lips not moving but her companion moves out of the line of the camera angle.

The smaller woman approaches the camera looking at it closely.. there is no mistaking she is quite lovely, her eyes calm and almost elfin in shape. Though the tint of her visor makes getting any color of hair and eyes impossible. The crackling field emitting from her suit/ body causing odd distortions in the camera pick up.

Then she scowls slightly {a very human-like expression of recognition flashing across her lovely features} and the crackling field of energy just vanished! It was there one moment gone the next and no mechanical activation/deactivation noticeable on her part. Looking up and around woman soldier was obviously alarmed though she does not speak a word. She backed away from the camera {again moving without any sign of artificial propulsion} and begins searching the space around her ignoring the camera completely. Obviously, she has realized that she is on camera - being watched and is alerted, looking for some approaching vessel...!

[Suederwind]

[OOC: Took me way longer than expected to start working on this post. Just some small additions for the Loroi shuttle and something more for the humans. Please bear in mind, that the humans do not know how the Loroi or Umiak look like, unless we hear something different or a proper in game first contact is made. Most likeley they won´t know what a defense screen look like, or how it works. Anyway: some more music for you: Link. I hope you like that. As always, this is WIP!
Edit: Good lord, I have forgotten a part... ]

Meanwhile, back on the Loroi shuttle:
{305,304,303,302,301,... I knew that this Teidar was not easy to handle, but she did not even give the slightest report. Are they still alive? ...297,296,295,294,... Time is running out! They need to hurry! ...288,287,286,...}

Mizol Parat Thwilightsaber thought this, while tapping with her fingers on one of the consoles. Waiting in this situation was not what she liked. She looked back to the other crewsisters, saw their sorrow and pain filled faces. Most of them were very young, had never experienced such a situation before and she could feel, that some of them were near the edge of breakdown. This was too much for such young warriors, she felt that they had not much time left.

{Was I this weak and soft back then?} she wondered about her calm mood herself.

{However, there is no time for such emotions. There is a war going on and we need to do our job! 256,255,254,253,...}

After a brief moment, she sanzaied directly to Softsapphire:

{Still no message from Stormrage? Did the Data-stream change somehow?}

and after that to Doranzer Mazil Paiad:

{How are the sisters doing? How many are badly injured? Can you help them somehow? How much time do they have left?}

Back on Cydonias bridge:

SpoilerShow

Captain Blake was quite as he saw this pictures and started to clean his glasses, something only rarely ever seen when he was on the bridge. This was not a good sign...

{That can´t be...} he thought while he tried to regain his composure.

Ensign Metzger was the first who regained his voice and said smiling:

[Frauen im Weltall? What a nice surprise...]

Hadrid turned towards captain, turning away from screen.
[Well... that was delighting... Sir, I'm not sure, but this... this may be Loroi or Umiak, the races which the Orgus told us about. The intel provided by the Orgus mentioned that they are fighting a war against each other... then what we have seen before could be skirmish between those two races.]


[That... would at least make some sense...]
Captain Blake answered in a dim voice.

[Sir, perhaps we should send a forward warning to a sensor probe near the jumpzone back home?]

The Captain but his glasses back on, laid his hands on his temples and gently massaged them. Everyone knew that he was fully focusing on that new information and the problems around it.
[Thats a good idea. We can´t be sure if they are hostile to us or not and if anything happens, the next of our ships that enters this system is warned. Anderson, what was this... bubble... surrounding the smaller one?]

Anderson cleared her throat and reported:
[I´m sorry sir... the sensor readings made not much sense. It appears to be some form of thin... plasma field... But we did not detect an energiesource powerful enough to create something like this. That makes no sense to me. What are they doing there?]

[Shall we still carry out the shuttle mission, sir? Perhaps we should lay low until Alberta arrives?]
Ferrox asked the Captain.

The Captain had his eyes closed, still massaging his head:
[Yes, Ferrox. That is even more urgent than before. You and Wolffe, get going as fast as you can... And forget that salvage part, we still can do that afterwards. What- or whoever they might be, a spacewalk in such an irradiated area is very risky and they might need our help. Besides, I don´t think that the Alberta would make much difference in a full blown attack from those aliens, after all I have seen.]

[Aye Captain! With respect... IF we make contact with them what should we tell them? Or should we just simply transmit the connection to Cydonia?]

Thinking a while over this question, he answered:
[IF you make contact with them, find out who they are, what they want and if they need help. After that you report to Cydonia what you found out at once and await further orders. Is that clear? And please... don´t play the hero... both of you. They appear to be heavily armed and they have that... plasma bubble... thing... so be cautious! And now: Get going!]

[bunnyboy]

Paiad answers to Twilightsaber in edge of panic. { I don't know. I'm expert of viruses! I'm doing best what I can, but I don't have space or equipments. I believe that Copperspear has internal bleeding and she wouldn't live a hour. We could give her more time if we could reduce her temperature, but I have already used everything on this ship. }
She touch her own stomach, because of growing pain and which worries her, because she couldn't say, if it is because of the alien germs, some internal damage from the impact of explosions, empatical flooding from the unconscious loroi or just a stress.

[Suederwind]

That was really no what she wanted to hear from Paiad. Thanks to her Mizol training she recognised that there was something more, that Paiad didn´t want to tell her. Something that deeply worried her. She wasn´t sure if she should ask her now, too close was her mind to this edge of chaos, that had corrupted so many minds after the fall of Seren.

{Fear not, sister Paiad. I´m sure Stormrage and Thoughtvenom will be back soon. There will be someone in this system, that drone proves it and they will help us. If you need my help, just ask...}

She tried to calm Paiad and hoped she wouldn´t feel her own fears, trying to shield them as good as she could..

{What if that thing is just some old piece of junk or worse a umiak sentry drone that has already killed Stormrage and Thoughtvenom? Will we all die in this shuttle? Whats taking them so long?}

She looked at the lifeless body of her Soroin opponent. Her blazing rage and will to fight was gone now. Merely an hour left? Even she deserved better. No one should die like this... She could only hope, that those two found out that this was a human made thing and not a Umiak weapons platform of some sort. 217,216,215,...

[Hālian]

{Losat, can you give me a description of any mark you can see on the probe as soon as you get near the thing?}

Casting her eyes at Thoughtvenom, she sanzaied {Here Mizol, try to gain access to the components of these devices... can you identify their species origin...~?}

Malidasaria examines the probe carefully, looking for anything that might even vaguely qualify as an identifying mark. (Mind 8 + Heightened Awareness 3 + Military Sciences (Hardware Recognition) 3)
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3871451/

She then flips on her suit radio and reports back to Sonnidezi and Softsapphire.

If she sees no or unidentifiable markings:
"Whatever this may seem to be, I cannot identify it."

If she sees human markings:
"I believe that this is an artifact of humaniti."

If she sees umiak markings:
"Spirits save me, this is the Enemy's work."