Futuristic LIMBO - A Spacefaring Rogue-like (Chapter One -- IC Thread)

[Kloudy]

You have awoken in an unfamiliar room. You don’t recognise any of its features, from the strange luminescent tubes running along the ceiling and floor to the complete and utter blackness outside the nearby window: you have no idea where you currently are. There are others in the five-metre by five-metre chrome-steel room with you, but you don’t know any of them. They seem just as confused as yourself. Behind you lies what appears to be some kind of oval-shaped glass sarcophagus, still draining itself of an unknown fluid. You realise you also have this fluid on you and that you must have just emerged from the curious pod in question.

The lights flicker uncertainly, almost reflecting your state of mind. Who are you? Who were you? Why are you here and why can’t you seem to remember anything? Perhaps most importantly, what is this place and what is Project XXXXXX? Why is that name the only thing present when you try to think back?

Enter...

LIMBO​

 

[DankBoi333]

Harold was startled by the setting he found himself in. He looks around the area trying to figure out where he is, Eventually finding the etching on his jumpsuit.

Harold Von Hapsburg
921300

"I assume this is my name? Rather odd one" He thought to himself as he reads the tag. "Whats this number for? Hell why cant I remember anything?" Dread begins to overtake his mind as he looks around the room noting its design. "Am I a prisoner or something? Why the hell am I here?" Looking at the pod he thinks of what to do next.

"I think I should look for the people in charge around here..." Harold thought as he walked to right side of the room, Looking for a exit or maintenance shaft. "I just hope I can get out of this prison." Walking to the end of the room listening for anything that could indicate a exit.

 

[Lord Mitmar]

#552489 - Caplan, Emily
​

She couldn't see. She couldn't hear. Hell, she couldn't remember a damned thing. Not her name, not where she was, not who she was. It was as if she didn't really exist, but that couldn't be right. Of course it couldn't. She was here, wherever 'here' was, she was conscious, she could think, and she could feel. The thought that she may be dead invaded her mind, though she dismissed it almost immediately. Too immediately. Habitually. Reflexively. Still, that was confirmation in and of itself, was it not? For something to be so familiar meant she must have experienced it before, right? She was alive. That much was obvious. She had been alive. She was certain of that, but that didn't answer her questions. Didn't slow her panicked breath. Breathing. Air. Life. She was alive. She had to be alive. Why couldn't she see? Why couldn't she remember? Who was she? Where was she? Why was she here? She could feel the thundering of her own heart, the pounding of her veins, the crawling of her flesh. Something was wrong. Something had to be wrong. This couldn't be right. Her head throbbed. Her fingers slipped away into the darkness, no longer touching, no longer feeling. Bursts of the most pearly white she'd ever seen danced at the edge of her vision, ducking behind the black veil only to leap forth once more. She realized she wasn't breathing. Hadn't been breathing. Couldn't breathe. She could feel the world slipping away again, taken from her before she'd even come to know it. Her heart seemed entirely unshackled, racing onwards with reckless abandon. Something was wrong. Something had to be wrong. Had to be wrong. Had to be. Had to~

The darkness parted, driven away by a blinding, unnatural, fluorescent light. She collapsed forward, reaching for the warped, twisting floor until it met her with a resounding thud. She felt herself moving as if from very far away. Heard the desperate rush of air filling her starved lungs. The wild hacking and foul, convulsive retching. Neither had much purpose and, slowly, eventually, they faded. The world ceased its relentless spinning, and the feeling slipped back into her trembling hands. She was alive. That was all that mattered. She tried to move, to lift her head, to look around. The world moved with her, returning to its nauseating spin. She stopped, and again the world slowed. She clasped her head in her hands, only now noticing the sickly ooze that covered her face, her arms, her eyes. She retched again, expelling only more of the grey mucus. This time, however, her head seemed to clear. The world settled and became sharper, the air felt right again, and, with wobbling uncertainty, she rose to her feet. A wave of nausea sent her back to the floor and there she stayed, her shoulders pressed against the smooth curvature of the open sarcophagus door; the surrounding room and its contents entirely forgotten as she struggled to wipe the viscous resin from herself. A glint of metal caught her eye through the grey mess that was her clothing and she stopped. Part of her was almost afraid to acknowledge the silver plate. Why, exactly, she couldn't say. In the end, her curiosity won out, and, using one of the last clean bits of her sleeve, she wiped away the vile film. Emily, it read. That was her name. Emily Caplan. She laughed. It was a bitter thing, one that only lasted a few breaths before it was joined by an onslaught of tears. She couldn't believe it, but she was alive and she knew her name. No, it wasn't much, not by any measure, but it was a start, and that was all she needed.

 

[Trektek]

Alvin Gardner
Location: Unknown

Darkness....stray thoughts....memories just ever out of grasp.

The darkness was eternal. It was the quiet stillness that existed all around him. It was all that was. What else could exist within the darkness but his own thoughts. However he came to be here was irrelevant. Here he was. For all to be and always. There would be nothing more.

Unless of course, there was something more. His thoughts began to stray. Was there something else outside that darkness? Could this endless void of thought not be all that was and could be?

Just out of reach he could see traces of things that held no meaning to him. Where they lost memories? Were they even his, or some one elses?

These thoughts came to an abrupt end when he was ejected from the darkness onto a cold and hard floor. His hands lifted himself up and his stomach began to turn with the end result being the full dispensing of the contents of said stomach.

The retching was painful and took a few moments before he used his arm to wipe away the residue that remained.

As he pulled himself up from the floor, he noticed others. Looking back, it looked as though they all came from some kind of machines that contained a life sustaining goop of some kind.

The room looked stale and lifeless, but what continued to catch his eye was the other people in the room. Perhaps they knew what was going on.

Whi was he? Where was he? But the thought that superceded that was what condition they were in.

He spoke to everyone nearby.

"Are any of you hurt?"

 

[ElenaIsCool]

Darkness was the only thing she could see. It made no sense, since someone can't see in the dark.
Everything was black, the colour of darkness was black, that was for sure so she could see it. It was very quiet. Too quiet, in a way that she couldn't describe.
There was a blurry colour, white. It started to grow and be brighter. She felt her eyes flutter open. The whiteness was still there, nothing black nearby.
She felt like something was dropping, as if falling in an endless void, except it wasn't so endless.

THUD!

The contact against the floor was painful, but thankfully painful enough to make her grunt. The grunt was enough to make her retch out liquid. Gross.
Who was she? Herself? Did she have a name? She sat up and wiped away the liquid, making her notice the black jumpsuit she was wearing. There was a silver plate with an incripton with a name and a number. Her name and her number.

Ravis Renchi 278699

"Ravis..? Rae veez?"

Ravis tried to say her name. It sounded right. Looking behind, the raven could see a fluid filled oval thing. That was probably where she fell from. She looked around and saw people, different people in the black jumpsuit and behind them, the same oval things behind them.

One was a man. He was looking for something that would probably be either a change of clothes or an exit. His back was facing the afro-ish girl so she couldn't see the name on the silver plate, that would still be difficult to read if she could see it. DankBoi333

Another was a woman, probaby older? Wait how old was she anyway? Ravis added that to her Must-Know list along with many other things. This lady was crying? There were tears streaming down her eyes like a waterfall but she made no sound. Ravis walked over to her, with some stumbling since the retch sapped some of her energy, and pat her shoulder to console her. Lord Mitmar

"Are any of you hurt?"

That was the voice of a man. Ravis felt like rolling her eyes. Yeah sure, the fall and the retch definately made no damage at all, that's what she thought but with a croaky voice, she said

"Not really?"
Trektek

 

[TheresaMelania]

Kate Mendoza/120698

Spoiler: Picture

The air in her lungs felt stale or maybe it was her lungs that were stale, unused to breathing air. At first when she awoke there didn’t seem to be any air, she had coughed and choked before her lungs finally filled properly. Still, it felt strange. Almost unfamiliar although she was certain she must have breathed before. She didn’t think she was new, especially looking down at herself and seeing small scars and calluses on her hands and wrists as evidence that she had lived. Her limbs felt strange and it was hard to move at first but as she was inspecting herself, slowly and carefully, she noticed a name and a number on her jumpsuit. Kate Mendoza. Interesting. She understood what the symbols meant and recognized these words as a name. Her name, she assumed.

“Are any of you hurt?” “Not really?”

The sound of other voices worked its way through her mind and she sat up, stretching all of her limbs to make sure they were all right while she looked at the people around her. Everything about her seemed intact, as far as she could tell.

“I believe I’m all right,” Kate replied, moving to the knees and then onto her unsteady feet. The goo on her felt strangely heavy and, perhaps unsurprisingly, sticky. What was it made of? Where exactly had it come from? What was its purpose? Questions flooded her mind and she began examining the oval-shaped glass sarcophagus, looking for any hints as to its purpose and why she, along with everyone else, had been inside of it.

 

[Kloudy]

(Event #0-0)

​

As sample #921300, predesignation: Harold Von Hapsburg, approached the sliding doors, a small panel next to the frame's outline slid open. A glass surface was revealed and a dull blue light began to glow as if the last remains of whatever power left in this ship had been directed to their lighting and this particular door access panel. The mechanical show did very little to instil one with much confidence. With no obvious prompt, Harold did the only obvious thing to him and pressed his right palm against the glowing glass. A few moments of silence passed before a delayed confirmatory beep responded to his touch and the autodoor parted at the sides before the man.

Beyond the autodoor was a wall of many compartments and ridges, grooves, pipes, paint lines and power cables. The ceiling looked the most exposed, but at least there was no obvious damage. To either side ran a long corridor decorated with similar features, the painted directional lines running off into the darkness. A light flickered directly overhead, marking their cryopod chamber (#002005) with somewhat stable illumination. The rest of the corridor houses a few ceiling lights, but most of them were already flickering as if clutching on to their dying breath. Some were completely dark altogether, apparently void of a power connection. The reason was completely unknown, but a closer look would reveal that there was no exterior damage done to them. Perhaps age had eroded their wiring, or perhaps there just simply wasn't enough energy to go around.

Back in the cryopod chamber, the oval-glass coffins had begun to reseal, their lids shifting back into place via what appeared to be hydraulic pistons. Now drained of liquid, they simply remained there, unused. Aside from the six pods the newcomers had emerged from, there were no other cryopods present in the room. Indeed, besides the door and its access panel, the cryopods, the overhead light and the individuals now inhabiting it: the only other feature present in the room was the rectangular window directly adjacent to the autodoor. Pure blackness existed beyond it, ensuring it was impossible to determine what infinity laid beyond. Upon closer inspection, tiny white dots scattered about haphazardly in the distance could be made out...

DankBoi333 v e n u s ElenaIsCool TheresaMelania Trektek Lord Mitmar

 

[Trektek]

Alvin Gardner
Location: Unknown

At least he received an all okay from the two of the women that he was in the room with. The man that had walked further down the room and the other woman had not acknowledged him yet. But it was all still a lot to take in. Truly, where were they and who were they? Everyone else at least seemed just as confused as he did.

Looking down at his clothes he saw a number and a name. At least that was something. The number was completely meaningless, but the name, that seemed to spark something in him. It was had a ring of familiarity about it. Alvin Gardner. So it must be his. It felt right. At least that was what he thought and felt within his heart. And some sort of memory wipe wouldn't have changed that feeling. Could it?

Alvin's gaze followed the sound of a door sliding open into the corridor beyond. He wasn't yet ready to leave yet. At least not until he assessed that everyone was okay and if they could scrounge together some supplies moving forward. There was truly no idea to know what it was to expect.

His gaze returned back into the interior of their room as the cryopods began to seal back up now that they were all out of it. And he wondered if they were being watched from somewhere else deeper into where ever they were.

He walked closer to the door and up to Harold. "Excuse me. How are you feeling? Are you injured?"

 

[DankBoi333]

Harold exited the room with the pods and stepped into the hallway greeted by the darkness of the corridor. He looked at the two options laid before him.

"Left or Right huh?" He thought to himself. "Well Right IS right." As Harold began to walk to the RIGHT side of the corridor hoping none of the others would follow him. As he traveled he looked up and down for something he could use. Tools,Weapons, Anything at all.

"I just hope there IS a captain to find and not some space monster." He thought as his steps echoed in the empty corridor. "This ships..station...thing seems like it has been abandoned for a while, There might only be a corpse left." The more he thought about the fate of the facility the more he worried.

 

[Kloudy]

(Event 0-0: The Bridge)

Flickering lights seemed to be all that greeted Harold as he trudged down the dim corridor. Streaks of faint orange running along the walls and into the distance, almost mirroring what strange phantasmal memories the man was chasing in his mind. Unpowered door signs occasionally came by from side doors, but none of the autodoors in question would open. Not even the access panels desired to be accessed. A minute of walking passed before a larger set of autodoors directly ahead parted before Harold, the sign above it unpowered but harbouring the words "Cryogenic Hold" crudely scratched over the glass. There were no indications how it may have been that had etched in such markings.

Continuing on, Harold finally found what he had been searching for. Another set of large double autodoors and a sign above, this one faintly powered. 'Bridge'. He was in the right place then. The access panel's exterior slid open seemlessly, exposing the glass necessary for scanning one's biometrics to gain entry. Harold did so and strode forward purposefully. The sight he was greeted with was strangely momentus yet pitiful all at once. Most systems were powered down aside from the main holotable, there only remained dull emergency lighting and there was definitely no one else around. Or at least from what he could see. There was a certain creeping feeling about, as if he were being watched by someone.

Or something...

DankBoi333

 

[ElenaIsCool]

The movement at the corner of her eye made Ravis look over, only to see the oval thing she and the others came from close themselves. The view gave her a strange sense of reief, for an unknown reason. The sound of a sliding door and fading footsteps made Ravis's curiosity to take over, seeing one of the men follow the man that left earlier. With a last glance at the raven woman, the brown skinned girl followed suit. Lord Mitmar Trektek

After a walk throught the dark corridor, the flickering lights unnerving her, but nothing close to actual fear. With only the footsteps of the man to guide her, Ravis arrived at the room empty roomm labeled 'Bridge' and stood next to the man, with a high guard.

"Do you think there's someone in there?"

Ravis made sure to whisper, since she didnt want to wake whatever the thing in the 'Bridge' was.

DankBoi333

 

[DankBoi333]

Harold looked around the empty bridge taking in the mothballed state of the room. His eyes focused on the holotable and what information it still holds. "Navigational data perhaps? Maybe crew and cargo manifests? Hopefully a mission statement or a distress signal." The possibilities ran through Harold's mind as he approached the table carefully walking as not to disturb anything.

As he walked he felt someone or something watching him. "Hello?" He asked aloud. "Is anyone here?" Harold hoped for a answer from someone maybe a bridge officer or someone with similar authority. Maybe then he could figure out what this ship is, Who he is.

Maybe there was hope he could leave waking nightmare.

 

[TheresaMelania]

Her mind just wasn't working quite right yet, still a bit foggy from unconsciousness. The sarcophagus in front of her certainly wasn't giving up any of its secrets it seemed and remained just a vaguely... disconcerting. Shaking her head, Kate decided to give up on deciphering its secrets so far, especially since they had closed themselves. Perhaps there would be something slightly less complicated elsewhere on the ship. By the time she had made this decision, it appeared that several of her compatriots had moved on to other parts of the ship.

I wonder who these people are to me... I don't remember anything before waking up here. Do any of them? Maybe they know who I am. Perhaps they are more than just compatriots?

Kate stumbled a bit as she moved forward, managing to find her feet as she moved toward the open autodoor and down the corridor toward where she could hear the faint voices of the other people with her. As she walked she became more steady, thankfully. She made her way into the 'Bridge' where everyone else was. An odd sensation of being watched settled over her shoulders and she shivered a bit, looking around for something causing that feeling. It seemed the others also noticed the feeling as well. Shrugging, Kate figured that they could deal with that and she would check out the room more thoroughly. She began inspecting the area, looking for any way to power on the facilities and in particular looking for any sort of text or data on where they were.

"Does anyone know where we are and what's going on?" DankBoi333 ElenaIsCool

 

[Trektek]

Alvin Gardner
Location: Bridge

The man did not respond to him. Either he was having hearing issues or he was flat out ignoring him. He had no idea why. He merely wanted to check on his health and make sure that none of them were injured from whatever ordeal they arrived from.

He followed Harold further along to where there was a bridge of sorts. It looked run down and as though it was full of issues a plenty, but he did not believe that mechanical issues were his area of expertise. His gut was telling him that the physical issues of people was what he was good at repairing.

Some of the others began to follow them to the bridge as well. Hopefully someone would be able to make use of what was all around them. If not, they might just continue to be stuck here for a long time.

"I'm not even sure if any of us knows who we are. At least other than our name. And that was only because it's written on our clothes."

 

[Kloudy]

(Event 0-0: The Bridge)

​

As the others began voicing their concerns and curiosities, the display in front of them seemed to glow almost imperceptibly brighter. In a near-reactive manner, a cyan hologram began to project from the holotable's glass surface in direct view of the group. It appeared to be a visual display of several rotating circles, some being added and disappearing from the overall menagerie of concentrated light procedurally. After several seconds of watching the revolutions of each of the individual circles, the full picture completed itself and a brighter ball appeared in the centre. It seemed to focus on Harold, who had been first to speak.

"Human corpus detected. Identification: Subject #921300, Harold Von Hapsburg. Welcome back to the UES LIMBO."

The voice was muted and robotic, nothing like one would expect from any sort of science-fiction movie. Of course, no one present could remember any movies of any genre to begin with. A dull thrum could be heard from the holotable as power coursed through it, but none of the other systems seemed to activate themselves. While the bridge hadn't sustained any noticeable physical damage, it was clear it hadn't been used in quite a while. Dust had collected in places and nothing looked like it had been disturbed by human contact in a considerable amount of time. Perhaps the most interesting point of interest to be found on the bridge, there were an array of windows running the length of half the bridge's interior, but all of their blastdoors had apparently been closed.

The mysterious hologram continued to swirl before the group, it's singular glowing eye concentrated on Harold for some kind of response.

DankBoi333

 

[ElenaIsCool]

They man just ignored her and just asked the room a question, kinda rude. Not soon after she arrived, some more people arrived, a guy and a girl to be exact.

"Does anyone know where we are and what's going on?" The lady had asked. Ravis shrugged and was about to answer before the man answered Trektek TheresaMelania DankBoi333

"I'm not even sure if any of us knows who we are. At least other than our name. And that was only because it's written on our clothes." Ravis nodded "Yeah, what he said"

A glowing oval suddenly inspected them and a voice spoke, one that belonged to none of them

"Human corpus detected. Identification: Subject #921300, Harold Von Hapsburg. Welcome back to the UES LIMBO."

She assumed the UES LIMBO was the name of the place they were in. Wait, welcome back? That meant that they had a past there.

"What do you mean by welcome back?"

Kloudy

 

[DankBoi333]

Harold looked at the floating circle. It reminisced something he could not remember but what he could remember was this was a computer of some sort. "Maybe it has some answers." He though

Harold readied the questions he had and was hoping this machine would give answered. "First off, What kind of ship are we on and what is its mission?" "Second, Where is the captain and other crew members of this ship?." "Third, Is the ship still operational?" "Fourth, Where is the nearest civilized space?" "Fifth, Who or what owns this ship?"

With the questions asked Harold hoped that this computer thing would give some answers, If not he was going to inspect the holotable itself and see if their was a manual input device, Like a keyboard or something of that ilk. Maybe now he could have some answers.

 

[Lord Mitmar]

#552489 - Caplan, Emily​

So, she had a name. That was something, but it certainly didn't answer anywhere near as many questions as it asked. Who was she, really? What was she, before? Why couldn't she remember? The questions came as readily as the tears. Each one only stirring a hundred more, each of those; a thousand. They seemed endless. Hopeless. It all seemed hopeless. She was hopeless. She could feel herself slipping back into panic. It was a... A... Familiar feeling. She couldn't say what, exactly, that actually meant, but it did give her pause. She tried to focus. If she could just remember why it felt so normal, perhaps she could recall more? It was a desperate thing to grasp for, but it was-

Then she felt it. What, exactly, 'it' was, she didn't know, but that didn't matter. For the first time since she'd regained consciousness -and she was now entirely certain that this was not the first time she'd been a part of the land of the living-, she became suddenly and very acutely aware that she was not alone. Someone, or possibly, horribly, something was nearby, and it was very much alive. She immediately fell silent, unconsciously pressing herself further into the shallow, smooth curvature of the semi-opaque door. She could hear it now, too. The muffled footfalls from her left, the ragged breaths and coughing that echoed from every direction, the laboured, staggering movements that seemed to lurch ever nearer by the very moment. She took a heavy breath to steel herself for whatever was to come, and looked up.

It was a woman. Hell, that was probably being overly generous. A girl, more like. A perfectly normal, as far as Emily could gather, girl. Not a monster. Not at all, and yet... And yet somehow that made everything so much worse. She remained entirely still as the girl approached and placed a ginger hand atop her shoulder. Then came a man's voice, then a pair more. Exhilaration. Suspicion. Horror. None of them quite came close to describing the flood of emotion that overtook Emily's thoughts as she realized that, no, she most definitely was not alone. Realized that this was not some twisted nightmare. Realized that she was just one amongst the crowd; that they were all very much here, and that there was very likely a reason for all of this. She gave in to panic, then. Swept away by the endless tide of unknowns and wild, horrible fantasies.

When she finally regained control, she found herself coiled against the cool silver of the room's busiest wall, back pressed against the corner and knees squeezed to her chest by the first of the towering steel sarcophagi. The room was empty. Silent. Slowly, ever so slowly, she got to her feet; using the walls to steady herself until she was certain she could stand. Her first steps were clumsy, but they grew more confident with each passing moment. She stopped at the window, inexplicably drawn to the endless void and countless specks of light it revealed. Almost reflexively, she reached to place a hand against the glass, only to recoil as a wave of pain tore at her arm. She looked down in exhausted shock, now vaguely aware of the dull throbbing that pounded in both of her palms and the scarlet stains that ran along her nails. A moment's investigation found that, most importantly, she'd, more or less, stopped bleeding. Still, she'd managed to cut herself remarkably deeply and it would be best to cover the wounds before long. Maybe she could find something of use elsewhere. Maybe not. Whatever the case, there wasn't any point in staying where she was, and, with only a brief hesitation, she passed through the still-opened doorway, taking a sharp left and pacing down the narrow hallway, unknowingly leaving her only companions behind.