The Lost Station (Open Location)

Final transmission from Imperium research vessel ID-10-T: “Security forces overwhelmed…test subjects’ numbers increasing at unforeseen rate…evacuation pods sealed to prevent further spread…research personnel presumed deceased…self-destruct mechanism disabled in battle…sealing all active hatches and doors…recommended course of action: destruction of vessel by external force…”

Background:

Imperium research vessel ID-10-T is (or was) a massive, interstellar research station constructed by the Abyssal Imperium. Its purpose was to provide a location where experimentation deemed too classified or hazardous to conduct on a planet could be conducted in a tightly-controlled, highly secure environment. Its superstructure was formed from a colossal asteroid, one nearly the size of some smaller moons. The interior is now a honeycombed maze of rooms, shafts, passageways, and natural caverns.

The station provided a steady stream of research and development for the Imperium, until an attempt to create a biological superweapon went horribly awry. Mutated, genetic abominations broke free from their containment units and began to rampage throughout the vessel, annihilating the security forces, crew, and research personnel with savage efficiency. Before going offline, the central computer sealed the station to prevent any escape by the alien horrors.

It has been ten years since the vessel was compromised and sealed, but the Imperium has taken no action to either reclaim or destroy the vessel, seemingly content to let it drift through uncharted space towards whatever fate awaits it…

Areas of interest:

The vessel is in a condition consistent with being subjected to a decade in the harsh depths of space without maintenance, while being ravaged within by a horde of near-mindless monstrosities. It is not pretty, in other words. Equipment has been damaged and strewn about the vessel, and the walls and floors are scored by plasma blasts and stained by the blood of the former occupants. Emergency lighting is still functional in some areas, but the bulk of the interior is swallowed in darkness. Turbolifts and other forms of transit are disabled, though a few could still function if power was restored to their sector. Passageways range from large enough to easily drive a vehicle through to cramped and claustrophobic maintenance corridors that only allow for a single human-sized individual to pass at a time.

• · Hangar bays: the surface of the vessel is dotted with these, as it was a hub of activity during its operation, with smaller craft transporting materials and personnel to and fro. Now all hangars have been sealed by the deactivated central computer, meaning that anyone wishing to gain access through one of them will need to either use force or mechanical jury-rigging to do so.
• · Research labs: these can vary widely, depending on the nature of the research being conducted within them. Most of these have been sealed, and the ones that are not will generally have been stripped bare by looters or savaged by the genetic horrors that now populate the vessel.
• · Security center: originally one of the most secure locations on the vessel, this area was heavily damaged by the battle between the mutated abominations and the vessel’s desperate, final survivors. Caches of standard Imperium combat gear (plasma rifles, grav maces, and arcanium armor) may still be tucked away in the recesses.
• · Command center: another location that suffered massive damage during the battle, there is little left of note here besides the disabled central computer. Though damage to the various systems has effectively rendered the vessel centrally inoperable, bringing the computer back online would allow some return of functionality, such as hydraulic door controls, lighting, video surveillance, and turbolift operation.
• · Central power core: though not directly damaged during the fighting, the central power core of the vessel has suffered from a decade without even the most basic of maintenance. It retains enough power to keep the internal systems functioning, but has been rendered incapable of powering the ships engines, leaving it adrift in the cosmos.

Enemies:

The genetic aberrations that have overrun the station do not have a uniform appearance, although all seem to share both simian and insectoid characteristics. Wicked-looking claws, fangs, and mandibles are all common, although there is a great deal of variance in regards to size and number. How the creatures reproduce is uncertain, but their numbers have continued to expand in the decade since they escaped imprisonment. They all possess the following traits:

• · Strength: 1-ton range. Their natural weapons can easily shred most mundane armor.
• · Durability: their carapace provides them with a degree of protection from small-arms fire, although a well-placed shot from a handgun can still penetrate a weak point (eyes, joints, etc.).
• · Speed: roughly twice that of a peak human athlete.
• · Feral: their simple, savage minds are nearly impossible to control; only the most skilled telepath would be able to exert limited control over a small group of them, and not for very long.
• · Neurotoxic blood: upon contact with flesh, the aberrations’ blood functions as a quick-acting, powerful hallucinogen. The duration of the psychosis varies with the amount of exposure.
• · Senses: can track biological prey by scent, and can see in complete darkness with no penalty.
• · Metabolism: requires no food, drink, or sleep. Exposure to the airless vacuum of space will not kill them, but will cause them to enter a torpor-like state until they are returned to an atmosphere.

Rules:

• · This is an open RPG location. Your first post should indicate how you managed to get here, seeing as the vessel is adrift in the vast expanse of space and all.
• · It’s up to you to RPG the enemies here; I won’t be responding to every post. Sell them as much as your power levels allow; they should be a deadly threat to street-level characters, a considerable challenge to mid-tiers, and can even give high-tiers a hard time, in large enough numbers.
• · Collateral damage is perfectly fine, but nothing that would destroy or otherwise render the entire ship inaccessible to other characters. Keep your damage localized.
• · If your character comes here looking for some fun alien tech, the description of what you find and what it does are up to you. However, much of what you find would still be in the experimental stage, so try to RP its imperfect and unreliable nature. Also, make sure that getting it is a bit of an adventure; all of the easy-to-grab material is long gone. What’s left is going to be in the less accessible parts of the ship, and/or where the enemies are the most densely populated.
• · Standard RPG rules apply: no godmodding, no-selling, and blah, blah, blah…I really shouldn’t have to spell this part out.
• · Have fun…that’s an order!

you put some work in here. awesome job

@anton_foucan: Thank you!

Mason was launched by a mad wizard after he trespassed into their realm, the crystal core that he sought for himself was yet again gone. He saw the world getting smaller in a matter of seconds as his surrounding became black, everything around him seems to be white shiny bits held vast distances away. His body penetrated the forcefield and landed on one of the dilapidated transports available on the hangar.

[ Nice! ]

Creeeepy!

Oh! So this is that!

Love it!

He saw a wreckage upon his wake as he regained composure after the quick route, feeling slightly disoriented he rubbed the top of his head until he picks up skitter of a thousand feet. The clicking of teeth and the faint sense of danger as the shadows in front of him began to take shape, they pounce at his granite texture and bounced away. Now one of them is dangerously close to the panels, one wrong move and the bug might send him to space...

@nordok: first off nice job second off i'll see what i can do about getting here

Nice work :D

@nordok: I love how well put together all of your threads are. Your work is inspiring.

@frenemy: @pyrogram: @kidman560: @laughingstock: @plant_man: @strigidae_23: Thanks! :D

@fukuro_zoku Yes, indeed!

@strongarm: Welcome back!

@nordok: [yaay]

They started to climb all over mason, bugs over a piece of candy. A jawbreaker does not worry of their jaw, yet is worried about the one standing next to the door hatch. With his powerful arms the stone man keeps the bugs at bay by flailing gently, just enough to shove them at each other. Not enough to kill or even maim any of them, so far it is a struggle as for each one that he pushed away two more takes its place.

@schlampe

“We’re coming up on the old rock now!” Daltar called over his shoulder, his eyes locked on his instrument panel as his practiced hands danced over the controls. Ahead, Imperium Station ID-10-T loomed in the pale luminescence of the nearby dying star that had momentarily trapped it in its gravity field. “She’s looking all nice and ominous for ya. Last chance to back out before I start the docking procedure!”

Without waiting for a response to his facetiousness, he brought his vessel up alongside the hulking station, level with a sealed hangar bay door. There was no one in the station to open it for them, of course, but his customized freighter had been readied for this. The umbilical shaft extended and adhered to the station’s hull, and an automated arc welder began cutting an entrance. “Alright, give the ‘bot a minute or two to cut an opening, another twenty seconds to depressurize the shaft, and we’re in.”

!

@cosmosis:

Behind the pilot, Trinity sat with her arms folded in gruff reclusion for almost the entirety of the ride. She'd never been the best company for anyone, her answers often cold and plain, which, oddly enough, didn't seem to affect the pilot. Sometimes he seemed downright charmed. By contrast, his wisecracking had done little to ease her feelings around him. Not that they mattered anyway. He was a means to an end, and so long as he fulfilled his purpose, he was fine.

Daltar needn't even have entered the station with her. So long as he could get her there and back, she required nothing of him. But, concerned with pay, and settling on "half of anything you find," the Delosian seemed content to take the experience to the fullest. Fine. Perfect.

Long-since departing the company of the Imperium, Trinity still had no real grasp of patience, standing to her feet as soon as the smaller craft made contact with the station. "Just open the doors. I can do it myself," she ordered tersely. Her natural abilities would allow her to survive in space, and her abilities would certainly prove enough to quickly breach the station's exterior and allow her to get straight to work.

@schlampe: "I can't 'just open the doors;' that would cause the ship to experience-and you're going to do it anyways, aren't you?" Daltar hadn't minded Malcia's rather...taciturn company. After many solo voyages and even one one week trapped in a holding orbit with an alien that communicated entirely by emitting various odors, even her rather curt personality was a welcome relief. That little voice in the back of his head had been warning him that something like this might happen, though.

Cursing under his breath in seven languages from four different planets, he punched the autopilot button and hastily climbed into his zero-g armor. If the stories were true, the beasties that now called the station home could make short work of most armor, but this would allow him to deal with any hostile environmental factors and even a total absence of gravity. His trusty plasma pistol and automatic heavy bolter would have to deal with the natives. "Alright," he grumbled, his rough voice sounding hollow and slightly digitized from behind the armor's plexishield visor. "Time to see if there's anything left in this rock."

@cosmosis: [Malcia? That you even intended to say "Malicia" is offensive to my newfound good nature. Also, something about the smell alien strikes me as cool to mention.]

In lieu of his plaintive explanation, Trinity turned and made way for the exit all her own. He'd pegged her correctly, and within reason. Without understanding much on the way space travel and craft such as his worked, she knew she could survive in the void, and that was all she figured she needed when it was time to work.

That he got with the program was just a bonus, mostly for him, she figured. As Daltar had the manners to comply, Trinity returned the courtesy of allowing him at least some time to get outfitted before releasing the bay doors.

Telekinesis guided her self-propelled flight through the emptiness. She found footing first on the exterior of Daltar's ship, then onto the lost (and found) station. Placing her hands against the meteoric surface, application of steady telekinetic force began to crumble the rock inward, commencing burrowing Trinity's path to the inside. "Come on if you're coming," she called back, forgetting momentarily that her voice would not travel through the void.

@schlampe: (It's because I know the true nature of your soul :-P).

@nordok: You don't know the half of it!

@schlampe: Still muttering profanities under his breath, Daltar finished sealing his suit, slung the bolter over his shoulder, and followed her into the passage she was boring into the very rock of the station. Noting that she was trying to tell him something, he grabbed one last item from the airlock: a small mask that would cover the lower part of her face, including her ears. The lack of oxygen obviously wasn't affecting her, but the mask would still sync up with the communicator in his suit, allowing them to talk in the vacuum and even communicate if they got separated. Not that he was intending to allow that to happen; aside from getting paid, it was simply bad business to allow a customer to die.

Catching up to her, he offered the mask, briefly tapping at his own suit near his ear to indicate its purpose. He unslung his weapon and kept his eyes on the newly-opened passage as he did so; their method of entry would probably give anything in the general vicinity of their entry point full knowledge of their presence, and he wasn't about to count on the sudden loss of pressure in this part of the station to kill them. The station had been adrift for far too long for there to be any realistic chance of finding survivors, so anything they encountered would either be one of the nasty things or rival looters, both of which were fair game, in his eyes.

@laughingstock: Shut up noob!

@_goliath_: Delayed reaction? :P

If she was telepathizing, she'd be kinda mad he thought that, and not the other way around. And call him stupid, internally.

@schlampe: He tries not to make assumptions. ;)

@cosmosis: The other way around would've been the "smart" assumption.

I meant to reply by now, but I got caught up in conversation and food.

@impero: Smarts be overrated. :P

No worries; I probably won't have another post in me until tomorrow, as it is.

@cosmosis: There's an irony somewhere there.

Alright. I'll try and make it worth your while.

@cosmosis:

With her telepathy, Trinity saw no real reason for electronic communication, but out of a sense for the slightest bit of courtesy, she accepted the device without question. Still, she had no intention of really needing it once they got inside.

Prior to continuing her excavation, her mind cast a telekinetic "bubble" around the entryway of the hole which she'd already started on, maintaining more or less stable conditions, for the time being. Following this, she reared back and, mustering a portion of the cosmic mental might inadvertently imparted upon her by Nordok and his cronies, cast it forth, the force of the telekinetic blast enough to send all in front of her crumbling, caving inward in the direction she pushed.

"Let's go," she commanded, starting forward into the station, maintaining her bubble for as long as he stood. "See if you can get a map, schematics. Find whatever powers this thing. And try not to die...Or don't." At that point, she'd been hoping for him to at least bleed a little, his life not extremely high on her priorities list.

@schlampe:

Huh, she’s handy to have around…Daltar mused, as he followed Trinity into her hand-made (mind-made?) access tunnel. Looks like there was nothing wrong with going off half-cocked as long as you had a powerful enough gun. Stepping aboard the station, he suppressed a grin at her words.

“Oh, don’t worry about me, I have no intention of giving you an excuse to not pay me. As for the power source, give me a few…” he trailed off, keying in some commands on his suit gauntlet. Connecting to his ship, he remotely activated its sensor array and had it begin to scan the station. Transport freighters didn’t generally carry what in most systems was considered military hardware, but he found that when you typically faced off against vessels that outmatched you in firepower, the ability to put your shots where they would do the most damage often evened the odds.

“Got it.” A small, holographic projection of the scanner’s results popped up from the gauntlet. “Looks like we have a binary-class reactor at the dead center of the station. It’ll likely be behind some thick doors, but I don’t think that’ll stop you. There’s also a central control center here.” He indicated a position near the upper floors. “Oh,” he grumbled, making a face, “there’s also life forms all over the place, and they’re moving.”

@nordok: Ruby is transported to this location via her mother. She has absolutely no idea how, or why, or where. She wants answers, and she wants them now. If some gray skinned short bus seat warmers abducted her, they will regret their actions.

@naamah: The artificially-created horrors that called the station home were not highly intelligent creatures. They knew little beyond a predatory desire to hunt, kill and feed. The scent of the new arrival did not strike them as anything unique or dangerous; to them, it was simply the scent of life that was not them, which made it prey. They began to creep forth, from the alcoves, compartments, and other dark areas of the station, slowly coming together to form a chaotic hunting pack, intent only on finding the new arrival and rending it limb from limb.

@cosmosis:

As the smuggler stepped aboard the station, while he retrieved the information, Trinity, using her now better trained telekinesis, lifted a mass of debris to fill the hole, and, focusing its cosmic might, commenced rapid acceleration of the molecules in the rock and steel to melt the pieces down as a cover over the entryway. She quickly followed this with a deep molecular cooling, slowing the atoms to a nigh complete halt, robbing them of almost all heat. The now solidified barrier to the outside eliminated the need to maintain a telekinetic blockade over the hole she'd made, while remaining easy to detect for when leaving became necessary.

"We'll get to the core, then the controls," Trinity firmly asserted control over the situation as she saw fit, confident in her ability to coordinate and handle anything that needed handling. "Unless you'd rather split up." A joke. Somewhat. Snide. They both knew all too well that splitting up would make things much harder, she, for her lack of knowledge of how to navigate the station, he, for the relative uncertainty in how his suit would hold against whatever dwelt inside.

As for those creatures, Trinity could feel them long before the pair's arrival aboard the station. As usual, she expressed no worry. The newly reconstructed Destructor's Might ignited in her hand and she waved him forward with a smirk. "Bring ''em on. I won't let 'em get you." Not entirely.

A laboratory seemed to be the current scenery that surrounded, the crimson skinned giantess. Her eyes gazed upon horrifically deformed prototypes, the failures as they were. None living, all of the waste that stood as a reminder of past mistakes. She was not impressed in the methods that were used, the savagery of the science made her feel pity for these monsters. She could hear the successfully created abominations heading straight for her. She knew not what to expect from these creepy crawly ones as she lowered her stance and prepared herself for brutal battle. These creatures had no weapons to use save for their own teeth and claws, and she would meet them with her own as an equal.

@schlampe: "You're such a comfort." Despite his dry humor, Daltar was growing a bit concerned. The efficiency of Trinity's impromptu entrance notwithstanding, there was no way that anything within several clicks wasn't aware of their presence. Speed would be a very good idea; if they could put some distance between themselves and the entrance, that would decrease their chances of being swarmed.

"Here we go..." he muttered to himself as he spotted an automated transport pod. A quick glance told him that the pod was powered centrally, meaning it wasn't likely to run on its own without the station's main systems online, but if he could find an external energy source, he could probably rig it up well enough to get them to the generator. "Okay, I think we-Zallak's hairy proboscis!" he cursed, catching sight of numerous glowing, red eyes down a side passage. "Think you can buy me some time to get this crate running?"

@naamah: The first half-dozen of the genetic terrors burst into the lab, glowing red eyes fixed on the avatar. They scuttled forward on six clawed limbs, but the one in the lead reared up on its rear two, brandishing four of its wicked appendages as a mouth lined with misshapen fangs opened to released a bestial roar. The creatures spread out, three charging along the floor, as two used their claws to clamber along the walls like squirrels, with the remaining one actually skittering along the ceiling. The lead creature leapt for the crimson-skinned goddess' throat...

"Ruby SMASH!"

The giantess professes as she smashes both of her fists down onto the laboratories floor before herself, the tile crumbles along with the foundation beneath it. With one powerful strike she has decimated half of the rooms floor, as it crashes down a level along with anything connected with it. Her next move was too leap up and grab the creature crawling above her, to grasp it's midsection in a mighty bear-hug and then crash with it down to the next level meeting the foundation with a massive powerbomb suplex maneuver.

@naamah: The chaotic scene descended into pure pandemonium as the scarlet avatar shattered the floor, sending all the but the one creature she singled out for annihilation tumbling onto the lower floor. The combination of the fall and the dropping debris left three shattered bodies alongside the one who Ruby's powerful wrestling move had all but reduced to genetic paste. Of the two who remained, one seemed to be more or less intact, while the uppermost two of the other's right limbs hung uselessly. Nevertheless, it snarled with no less ferocity as it pushed itself upright, and both charged, one from the left, and one from the right.

@nordok: Standing in the wasted remains of her latest victim, Ruby reaches down into the genetic paste as she uses it to mark herself with tribal symbols. Once her war-paint is applied the crimson giantess is greeted by the two remaining creatures attack efforts. Razor sharp claws and mandibles tear deeply into her flesh, which sets off a chain reaction of epic proportion. She is overcome with anger which floods her senses raising her already freakish strength to even higher levels, her base of 90 tons sky rockets to a staggering 300 tons. The visual of her flesh being torn and her blood being drawn, causes such a drastic change that she almost doubles in size, before throwing her arms outward in an attempt to break-free from her attackers. Once she throws her arms upward and outward, she then follows up with a powerful thunderclap of her hands. The force of which causes a powerful shock-wave of chaotic energy.

THOOM!

@naamah: NAAMAH!!!! (tackles her)

@wesley_odepius: (who dis?) :3

I am me

(DC)

@naamah: The sudden strength which exploded from Ruby's form was more than sufficient to shake her attackers loose and send them crashing across the room in either direction, tumbling over ruined lab equipment. The shockwave she produced ensured that this time, both stayed down, their internal organs all but liquified. The reprieve was short live, however, as feral hisses and the sinister red glow of eyes emerged from the ruptured ceiling. Three more of the abominations dropped from above, seeking to latch onto Ruby's now much broader shoulders.

@cosmosis:

"I am power. Power comforts. At least, it does for me, as I assume it would for anyone not intimidated." It as a concept being new to her, Trinity's humor needed work, but that dry retort was her idea of a joke based in truth. Somewhere within, it held the implication that perhaps his company was not something she particularly minded. Perhaps. More than anything, her nonchalance was rooted in her self-certainty, that she expected nothing within the station to be any kind of threat to her, to be able to do her any harm. This confidence guided her lax reaction to the mental signatures of the closing in creatures.

The army of eyes elicited no fear, in neither menacing quality or the striking quantity. Palpable excitement dripping from her every fiber, her own eyes shone a violent violet response. Excitement flickered in them.

The Destructor lunged. A crimson ignition illuminated the dark cavern as the reconstructed Destructor's Might and Ancient's Folly came alive in her hands. They whirred in the air for an instant and were extinguished. There was an instant of silence, as long as it was brief.

The blades ignited again, this time visibly severing several malformed appendages from ghastly forms. Fluid in motion, guided by psionic self-enhancement, Trinity danced in the dark just as well as they, with a refined grace unlike the Destructor of old, and nary a claw would have been able to touch her, but for the sheer chaotic numbers possessed by the enemy. Amidst the uncoordinated dance, a blow struck her head midair. It did no significant damage to her genetically fortified body but, off-setting the balance in her movements and hurling her to the floor, catalyzed a turning tide marked by a convergence on her singular body.

Mounting assault by the multitude of fangs and claws attempting to rend and devour her found its only primary success in keeping her off-balance, her mind from focusing, shredding portions of the armor she wore, but nevertheless failing to penetrate her body.

There was a trick, learned from the Goddess, Liberty, which had also been taught to Trinity. Considered a remnant from the days when her speed was at its apex, it involved a drastic increase in the speed of her perceptions, to a degree which made all things seem slower. Still, even. It allowed her to think a potentially virtually limitless amount of thoughts in the span of almost no time whatsoever.

The creatures halted. As did the entire universe around her. Trinity made time, and she found focus. Seizing the power within herself, she formed a tight telekinetic barrier around her body, gathering a cluster of her might...

And she released. A concussive storm which seemed to rock the very foundations of the station, accompanied by a gravitational and electromagnetic hail powerful enough to grind through the epidermis and bones of nigh every creature within her immediate vicinity.

And when they were down, Trinity rose, eyes and mind scanning the area for more enemy, and for the smuggler who had brought her in. "Hey, guy!" she shouted. "You not dead yet?"

@schlampe: I don't understand how you totally keep down the verbiage. Your posts (even long) read so smoothly!

I wanna learn to mimic you... >.>

@xenon_: It's a WIP. I'm not totally satisfied, but I may be...getting there. Gracias.

@schlampe: You should teach me how to transition from scene to scene so smoothly sometime.

I'll pay, well, I won't...Shh.

@cosmosis: @schlampe: @nordok: in the near future ill be making a sci fi RP related to my "war on peace" blogs u interested?

@mryashimora: Possibly, depending on factors. Let me see whenever it's done and I'll let you know.

@xenon_: I'll be honest, I don't have a method or way to teach. I've always admired certain things Lady Liberty has done (because, well, she's my favorite writer to have ever graced the site - especially where combat-related posts are concerned), and I'd just like to adapt those things I like to my style.