Futuristic Space: The Forgotten Frontier (IC) Part 1

[Gears]

The room was quiet, something unusual when in the company of the Auroras Crew. Eddie Gears sat in the back, a strange gadget in his hand, a simple fidget toy. At 0700, Earth time, the crew had docked their shuttle, Aurora on the Fearless. The star ship was barley a ship, more a station with limited maneuverability, not even able to use Light Travel.

The room was cramped but most have each other enough room to keep it somewhat comfortable- Space Farers rarely complained about tight quarters. The man speaking was a commander in the United Earth Defense force, the same rank The Captain had before he retired. Eddie spun one face on the device, met with a low Click

“You are probably wondering why we are involving individuals of your vast variety in this mission, with Earth Defense Forces, Mercenary’s, Tradesmen- but this threat has the potential to put all of us at risk. The Dolan.”

Click

The room filled with groans, Mostly from the Defense Force Grunts and the crew, while a man in a lab coat gave a smile, an unsettling smile that screamed at Eddie to shoot the stranger- as usual Eddie ignored the paranoia.

“Recently, one of the outer planets that focused on surveillance between us and The Origin has gone dark. A Earth Defense Convoy was sent to investigate and after sending men to the surface- we lost all contact.”

Clic-

Eddie stopped, and looked to the Captain, his face emotionless, like usual. Quiet whispers filled the room, a convoy could range from a Medium Troop Carrier with a few escort fighters to a small fleet, capable of taking on an entire Borg planet.

“Despite the Unkown danger that may await you, we know the threat of a Dolan invasion could cripple all of our military’s, especially if they unite with the Borgs. We have recently recovered a craft of questionable origins but we have tested that it can pierce the minor Cosmic Tempest that the area has been going through with little damage.”

“We call upon you not because of a minor rebel incursion, not to do the bidding of a shady corporation, but to save your homes from a horde of faceless monsters willing to steal your identity’s to kill your friends and family.”

Bullshit

Ashy_OCdesigns WanderingWordsmith Rcticwolf

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

Walker, since his suspension from a cushy job that was in a grey area of legality when he thought expansively but there may have been some extremes taken, four galactic cycles into a five cycle suspension and he has been scraping by trying to get his personal ship back up and running after his friends at the Bunker Cantina on mars salvaged it from a scrapyard. This has brought him to the Aroura. The corporate worm spoke on the television. Gears played with his fidget toy, the captain stoic as ever. They must have been picking the bottom of the barrel when they recruited this rag tag of individuals. Walker's only attraction to this was it paid enough to get himself some extra parts and Fix the Samurai. Just in time to get back to doing what he does best. Hunting down bad guys. But not that he was in the Aroura looking at everyone. He wondered if this was the right crew. He felt slightly out-of-place being a Xyber, classed as a cyborg because of his organic metal composition. But he didn't fit into either classification. Living technology is the adopted term for his kind, called Borgs in a derogatory way. "I'm Walker. Don't suppose you all have names?" Walker made his introduction.

Sure he was a pilot but he had never flown a ship this large, but why would they need someone with explosive expertise to come along? This whole thing seemed like there was something that the corporate vermin weren't telling him and the rest of the crew. "Nice speech... Real inspiring." Walker groaned in sarcasm, his metallic voice adding insult to injury. He looked at the Captain. "They aren't giving us the full story." Walker surveyed the rest of the crew. "And a ship from questionable origins." Walker found a chair to sit down, leaning back. "This entire job seems shady, never mind the corporation." He sighed. He looked at the ceiling. Shady nameless planet, shady ship, Shady mysterious mercenary crewmembers; including himself. Shady Dolan. Walker has encountered the Dolan before touch bunch of faceless freaks. But nothing enough hot lead and a plasma grenade couldn't handle.

 

[Gears]

Eddie leaned back in his chair, beginning to toss the gadget in the air over and over again before The Captain caught it midair, returning it to Eddie before stepping onto the stage.

“I know we may have questions, and like usual they aren’t telling us anything, but this isn’t about that, no matter what is going on there, we are capable enough to fix some equipment and get the hell out of there- and for any sociopaths who don’t give a shit about the security of the galaxy, they are paying an exuberant amount.”

The general sounds of discontent stopped, it was clear the captain had wanted the respect of his crew, but the silence was interrupted by an artificial voice, clearly made to sound human but sounding just off.

“I for one don’t give a shit about filthy flesh bags, and I’m not being paid- but I will be scrapped if I even think about deserting.”

The United Earth Defense soldiers chuckled, one shoving the automaton in a friendly way, while the captain chuckled.

“Then I guess you have no choice but to deal with it like the rest of us Drone- make friendly with one another and head to the ship, the UEDF sent their only available engineers to slow sure it was safe- but since they don’t want to come you’ll have to rely on Eddie and the Jerry’s to keep us afloat once we leave port”.
WanderingWordsmith

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

Walker looked at the "Drone" that was speaking. If he had eyes, they would have rolled at the words. Walker stood deciding to mingle with the others for the time while they were waiting to board this mysterious ship. "Well, aren't you just a ray of sunshine?" Walker said to the Drone. He walked past and towards the one he assumed was Eddy. He was the only one that looked like an engineer in the small room. Walker is naturally interested in that sort of thing and he's been the pilot of his own ship for several years. "Eddy, was it? I'm Walker." Walker introduced himself. A walking, talking, engineering marvel is what Walker was. Technology that had evolved on a planet that shouldn't support life. Walker looked around at the others. Eddy and the Captain were the only ones that struck him with any kind of service or discipline. The others, mostly mercenaries, some of them he had seen on the fugitive list once or twice. None of them were hard criminals that he normally hunted. But they were definitely people who were no stranger to breaking galactic laws.

 

[Gears]

“Well, try having every part of your life dictated by a program that will erase your memory if you so much break it for a moment- then we can talk.”

The drone stood up and left the room, the other soldiers following, the rest of the crew could faintly hear something about a bar.

“Shit, gonna be late if they are going to the Lotus Bar- names Jackson by the way.”

One of the soldiers had stayed, his uniform was well pressed, helmet in his hand with cleaning material he was likely using during the briefing.

“They sure have assembled a strange group for this- I’m pretty sure that is a Mist Assassin over there.”

In the back was a woman in strange armor, currently manipulating a cloud of mist into various shapes.

Eddie looked, having been lost in thought, clearing his throat as he stood up, bringing up the schematic of the ship with his wrist computer.

“Yeah, ships name is unknown, weapons systems and ships log are locked along with any other non-vital systems.”

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

The 'Drone' walked away. "It's hard out here for the bots..." He said looking around. The grunt Jackson introduced himself seemed like a good guy. He scurried off to the Lotus. "EUDF grunts, Bitter Bots." Walker watched the others disappear to the bar. "questionably sober engineer, Jerries, a Mist Assassin." Walker looked over at the woman manipulating the moisture in the air. "Well, this should go splendidly. Though I'm still confused." Walker cupped his chin in contemplation. "Why would they need an EOD Specialist? Unless it's because I am a Xyber." Walker was here under a defense contract as he hadn't been on active duty since his honourable discharge from the Martian Forces in 2994. Not that he had a problem with authority, he just had a problem with authority he didn't respect. He would have to get to know the captain a little more before deciding if he was someone worth taking orders from. He looked at Eddie. "Well, I guess it could be from the perspective of my NanoTech's adaptability. I might be able to help with that... But who knows? Doesn't always work with complex systems like a ship's CPU." Walker looked at the captain. With plenty of credits available, he might as well buy some drinks for the rest. "What do you say we get a drink before we head out? My treat." Walker looked at everyone who stood around. "Captain, Mystery Mist Woman?" He extended invitations.

 

[Gears]

“Job pays well, better than the usual hits.” The assassin said as the mist shifted into a knife, she tested the sharpened before letting it fade into the constant cloud that followed her. “Names Sal, Walker right?”

Eddie stood up, grabbing his computer. “And I never drink- my sanity is questionable, but anyone on the crew can confirm that I’m the best engineer the Aurora has seen- I’m Farley certain we can get into the ship with some elbow grease, for now the critical systems are online so we have nothing to worry about.”

Eddie secured his computer to the wrist module before turning to the captain.
“I’m going to check out the ship- what’s the name the UEDF engineers gave it- Unnamed 37, If I crack into the computers I should be able to figure out her original name.”

The Captain nodded, following Eddie and leaving Sal, Walker, and the last figure, a humanoid covered in expensive armor, though it was well worn from combat. He stayed silent, rifle at his side.

 

[Gears]

Eddie delved his wrist computer, making sure the oxygen levels on his life support apparatus was online, the UEDF Engineers had said the ship was safe, he rarely trusted their opinion. The rail car system was effective, but if he bet he could make it faster in a few days, though the crew would likely have him turn it back to normal- the rest weren’t used to intense G-Forces, but with the long down time he might as well do so.

Eddie looked along the console for any sort of port to connect his instruments and wrist computer, it was unlikely he had anything compatible but he could try and reconstruct something based on whatever system he found. Most devices worked by a single touch to connect, but Eddie often used wire based connections- resistant to minor Cosmic Disruptions, aftershocks from the first stones that could take down electrical systems in better cases, spawn sudden terrain in others.

“Let’s see if I can bump up your life support- Captain wouldn’t like half of the grunts to die before we even reach the planet.” Eddie said as he downloaded the engineers report- freezing when he saw the author of the report.

That bastard

Eddie shrugged off his initial feelings, he had grieved over it enough, he needed to get this done before his daily emotional breakdown.

 

[Gears]

“Huh, voice based controls- open ships log, and bring up life support for an average humans requirements.”

Not many ships without an AI system could use voice commands, but this could help. Eddie added the development to the ships notes, looking under the carbon dating to see how old the ship was, along with what a Data Nexus was. It was offline but he had no idea what it was for, most would ignore a random system, but for all they knew it could be vital to the ship.

“And define Data Nexus.” Eddie wasn’t sure how advanced the ships linguistic sensors where, unless it was a minor AI program, but it clearly knew English, so that was a start for figuring out the origin.

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

"Guess I better get going." Walker said making the long trek to the ship they were to take to this nameless planet. The mystery ship was massive. Probably had enough space to house his small ship that was taken apart back at his place on mars. Living in the colony wasn't so bad, but he would like to live somewhere like Titan around Saturn. He entered the ship, and it was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Intrigued, he ventured deeper into the ship exploring the pathways.

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

Walker navigated himself to the bridge. It wasn't a full tour but he saw what he could and found himself there. He entered the bridge. "Well this is just cool." He said looking around the place was awesome but there was something keeping it from being fully operational. The doors he tried on his way to the bridge wouldn't open. He looked for some kind of port that would let him inject his nanobots.

 

[Gears]

Eddie reached for a radio the initial scouting group had set up, a simple wave based coms device, able to resist Cosmic Storms.
“Welcome onboard the temporarily named Jane Doe, until we can find her original name- please stick to the following rooms, unless you want to die a slow agonizing death.”

Eddie listed off the secure rooms, sending a command to a few labor drones to seal every other room, something the Jerry’s would do if the vacuum wasn’t a threat. Eddie quickly checked an analogue security system, the wired cameras showing the soldiers walk in, a few drunk while the drone and a sober Jackson led the group.

“Prepare hyperjump, let’s not keep the captain and bridge command waiting.” Eddie said as he stood up from his chair, after a second connecting his Computer to whatever system this ship ran on, might as well try and crack it while he set up his quarters.

The captain and bridge crew walked through the door, quickly preparing the ship for takeoff. Eddie nodded to the captain as he walked out, finding Walker.

“In case you didn’t hear the PSA, I wouldn’t recommend poking around- ship didn’t tell me much but the majority of the ship isn’t habitable at the moment.”

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

Walker looked at Eddie. "Relax. Most of the time, it only repairs any damages." He said. He didn't touch, only looked around. The ship wasn't of any design he was familiar with. But it seemed to operate like any other ship meant for the black sea.

 

[Gears]

“I wouldn’t recommend plugging it into an unkown ship- might have defense systems built to stop infiltrators.” Eddie said as the mercenary walked past him. Eddie stared for a moment, checking his wrist computer for a moment.

“Expensive stuff that is, full Briolanian Plate with modern hardware installed- can’t find anything on the net, but his rate is higher than the Mists. Wonder why they hired an infamous mercenary and top notch assassin.”

 

[Gears]

Eddie had memorized the course, sending a message to the bridge before his computer began sparking. “What did I say.” Eddie said as he quickly took off the worst computer, throwing it aside as he rubbed his arm. “Though to be fair it could have been me.” Eddie said as he walked to a deck officer, thinking for a moment before speaking.

“I think I triggered some fail safe, any changes in the system- let’s hope we aren’t locked out.”

While Eddie spoke with the officer, Sal walked up to Walker, the cloud of mist that followed her swirling into a tempest.

“I swear Borg, if you screwed up this job you’re dead.”

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

"Me? I haven't tried anything yet." Walker says putting his hands up. "Besides my nanotech isn't just some computer plugged in." Walker pointed out in a matter of fact type of way annoyance in his voice.

Walker went to where Eddie had been plugged in. He stuck his index out and the nanobots formed a jack that would allow him to use a similar connection. However, different from what Eddie was trying to do the bots would immediately begin finding ways to make the ship operation through a repair means. This wasn't a ship that was meant to be operated manually at least not in any design he had encountered. Hopefully, the nanobots would help reboot and get the ship functioning normally so they could get some answers.

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

"Tell us who or what you are and I will." He said. Looking around the first thing he looked at was the people wondering if they heard the voice too. Then he looked around the ship wondering if there was a pilot hidden somewhere, an AI in the ship's command system, or if there was something more to the ship it self than anyone knew. "Fascinating... Did any of you hear that?" He asked the group. He prepared to eject but wondered if he could manage to get more communication if he stayed.

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

"Well, Bentus. I am Walker. Pleasure to meet you. I'd like to communicate further if you want to install a comm-link. Ejection in approximately 5 seconds." Walker spoke out loud.

 

[Gears]

Eddie could recognize binary, but with the message being a short one he wasn’t able to hear much, only “My System”

Eddie picked up his worst computer, setting the translator to binary so he could get the rest of any new messages. “So human based? Or at least a civilization that knew about humans.”

“Not much, but we may be looking at an AI we didn’t know about- hopefully we aren’t dealing with a Hal in this situation.”

Eddie saw light for a moment before finding him in a black void-

Oh come on, not here again

Sure enough, no one else was unfortunate enough to be trapped there, his body was likely spasming. He called this place the nowhere, a place he occasionally saw when he went through any faster than light travel. Hopefully the new form of light travel didn’t trap him there forever.

Eddie sighed and walked through the void, might as well explore a bit until The Medic could wake him up.

The Captain watched as some deckhands carried Eddie away, the crew gathered in the room as they continued this unknown form of FTL travel. Bridge hands had figured out they where heading the right direction, but who knows how long it would take.

“Because of our situation I am putting us under a code 32, no wandering on your own. Walker is declared a temporary VIP because he can communicate with the system. Because our engineer is down we are going to need to be careful, until he wakes up we can’t jeopardize the ship. All non-core personnel are to stay in their quarters until the Code is lifted.”

 

[Gears]

Crew members scrambled to the different consoles displaying the message, yelling to brace as they began to exit the Unkown form of Faster than Light Travel. The mercenary remained calm, taking a seat at one console and monitoring any new messages.

“Send a message to Orion that we are ahead of schedule, once we get the doctor on board we can adjust the navigation system for the new developments.”

CD stepped him, his mechanical footfalls muffled by the clamor and rumbling of engineers. “I heard the ship may have some sort of AI system?” The automaton asked Walker as he scanned a nearby console displaying the messages from the ship.

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

Walker kept his eyes on the display as they arrived at their destination. He had worked on some of the best FTL engines with every update he gave his own ship... But this was no way human. He used the information he witnessed to process what had happened until he heard the Automaton talk to him. "I don't think it's an AI, there is something different about this ship. Something foreign yet somehow familiar." Walker said looking back at the display, most of the engies scrambled trying to assess damage control.

Walker sat back in a chair hearing a binary signal float through. "Bentus what is the problem? Why are you so exasperated?" Walker thought about his words carefully and standoffish seemed a little harsher than what he wanted. 'Bentus only raises more questions than answers...' Walker thought absently as he waited for the planetfall.

 

[Gears]

Eddie awoke in the medical bay, cotton over his eyes and the doctor was already prepping her surgical equipment.

“For the last time Ivy, I don’t need any more of your ‘Improvements’, last time I asked for you to fix my hand you took off the entire arm.”

Ivy wore a lab coat coated in oil and blood, likely from experimenting on a few Jerry’s. She tucked her surgical glasses in her pocket, revealing a robotic eye underneath.

“Mecha your so boring- everyone needs some modifications every once in a while, besides- I wanted to test your “Condition”, not every day someone is a catatonic into my lab who doesn’t-“

Eddie threw a nearby rag at her, us table shutting her up.

“Involuntary Anesthetic and Consciousness Receivers are very expensive Engi.”

“You were going to chloroform me?”

“Only so you didn’t wake up during the experiment and bonus modifications- people pay good money for those.”

Eddie grabbed his jacket as he stood up, grabbing his arm from the table and securing it into place.

“I swear, if you did anything this time- I will dismantle your spare parts collection again.”

Eddie walked back into the bridge, finding the planet rapidly approaching. “God that stuff gives me headaches, any news on the ship.”

The Combat Drone was leaning on a console, tempted to connect with the system but after a second responded.

“It wants us off, and because of that I will stay onboard since it was an asshole and sent us through FTL before I could power down, so I am staying just to annoy it.”

 

[Gears]

“Make me asshole, you ah e plenty of time while the others re-supply.”

Eddie shook his head, checking the coordinates. “Bagen Dorn, wasn’t that station abandoned during the war?”

The captain turned to Eddie, behind him the ships window showed the approaching space station, dark and abandoned.

“Our clients wanted discretion, a ship this far out of this size could attract the wrong attention.”

Eddie sighed before taking a seat at one console, monitoring machines in case a system broke down randomly.

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

Walker sits in his chair in contemplation. The whole situation seemed a little preposterous. This shit "Bentus" is otherwise uncooperative. "Well there is one way to ensure compliance from Bentus." Walker speculated. He stood up from his chair. "I brought enough magnetic explosives to level a battleship. You never know when you need to make things go boom. Why don't we just put them at the reactor." It didn't really matter to Walker if Bentus listened. In fact he had hoped for that.

"I suggest this because well we need insurance that the ship won't leave us stranded." Walker paced as he thought about it.

 

[Gears]

“I will trigger them if the ship try’s anything, even if it does something to me I will be able to reboot in time to take it out.”

The crew walked to the hanger, where 2 drop ships waited, along with it was a second ship, an advanced two person craft with odd symbols on it.

“Our orders are to leave the majority of the military attachment, for now we will bring Private Jackson, along with our engineer, and the recent additions.”

The captain pulled out his officers pistol, checking the well cleaned weapon as he stepped into the spacious craft, the military escort already securing weapons in the second craft while everyone else (and Jackson where directed to the captains craft.

“Bridge, we have spotted an unidentified ship in our air space, do you think you can check it out, we are getting to energy readings, but one life form.”

The captain activated his radio, responding. “We’ll send the escort to secure the station, my crew will check it out.”

Ashy_OCdesigns WanderingWordsmith Rcticwolf