Futuristic Unknown Crisis IC (full)

[TrashRabbit]

The ruins of the old ship gave way. And the two of them may have been ready for Jiian black ops agents, or terrorist or a mad scientist. But what they were not ready for is an ousary of bone and metal- and crawling all through it the glinting carapaces of silica based exnofauna- their shells glass like and their insides visible and bio luminescent. Each one the size of a diner plate. They coalesce like a wave, parting as you walk like a receding sea, reveal more gnawn metal- clearly the remains of the synthetic and non synthetic citizens of New Io above. The cyber brains of the dead are revealed now and again, holes bored into them like something out of a coral reef. At the end of the cathedral there is a natural tunnel heading down. It all seems very peaceful when the silica bugs swarm you- they eat complex alloys and they think your suits are the tastiest thing in cemetery.

Both data packets hit the team Chanel at almost the same time.
“You know,” Dr. Finch said, sitting behind and to the right of Goody, “I fucking hate admitting I have no idea what something is.” He tapped his finger at a breakneck pace against the table. The design on the crystal piece of technology was not giving him any love. He pinged Tina and Billy.
Goody snorted. He at least had an answer to give.
“I'm gonna go on a limb and rule out electrical discharge, none of the victims had signs of that. There's a pretty common scam on the fringe stations of wiring up transmitters several floors down to scan the devices of passerby using the architecture as an antenna. My guess is some ones using the struts to do the same thing. You must have a damn good nose cause, it would be the persons hardware overloading- I dunno if your seeing what Donny just fed us but I don't know how an over load is etching designs into peoples heads?”

 

[theunderwolf]

"Well Doctor Euuuphemia you're always just going to be the cutest smartest doctor I know, formal or not " Mako blushed even fiercer, "Didn't know you could do that with your hair... I guess I just assumed but it ...." She was severely panicking now of course. of course she "painted?" her hair, that was so cool. humans could do their own weird body modifications. It made her happy. But of course, there was business to attend to. The new information came in and she took it in, slowly. She sat warily on the edge of a nearby wall, guiding Eppie with her. The brains were less of an immediate concern but she did have an idea. "So they're using it to spy on people," She said out loud, "Scanning for cyber brains and teaching them somehow? I can only assume that they could, rewrite memory pathways and that's what patterns them?"

 

[TrashRabbit]

"You're on to something. Lets assume the engraved pattern is a data packet of some kind being broadcast, and lets not worry about the hows- Why? If they were trying to spy wouldn't they be stealthier? If they were rewriting memories why are they going comatose?" Goody spoke.

 

[CelticSol]

Eppie Cross
​

She tucks her mentioned hair behind her ear with almost shy smile, a blush that’s just dark enough to match her hair lighting up her cheeks as she lets Mako guide her towards the wall. While Mako has the benefit of being able to just sit, Eppie has to hop up in order to sit on the wall, listening carefully to the conversation between Mako and Goody to absorb the information and hypothesize, twirling the a strand of hair around her hair as she tries to consider her options.

But it is then, and only then, as Eppie is trying to theorize why someone has weaponized a radio frequency to render victims comatose, that Eppie remembers that Mako is, in fact, incredibly, wonderfully muscular, and oh boy, Eppie is uselessly gay. She’s seen Mako perform some pretty incredible feats, and there is such clear strength in the woman’s hands, arms, and shoulders, and... wow. She throws back to holding Mako’s arm on Ferav9V, where they were all wearing the rather snug exosuits, and -

Now she’s thinking about the interaction of Mako picking her up and guiding her to the wall involving a little more force and AAAAAAAAAAA-

Eppie forces her gay ass to breathe because she needs to focus, but even flustered, she hasn’t failed to notice how often she’s caught Mako’s eyes following her since she dyed her hair, and Eppie is nothing if not a tease. So she slips the earpiece of her comm from her ear and onto her lap, just in case, and shifts closer to Mako’s side, putting her arm over Mako’s shoulders, “You’re very sweet to call me cute, kitten. I’m glad you like the new hair.”

Taking her free hand, Eppie gently holds Mako’s chin in place and presses her lips to the other’s woman’s cheek. She leans back away, pulling her arm from Mako’s shoulders before she slips her comm back into her ear and turns it on, “Do you think the etches on the brains have any actual relevance? Like a calling card of some sort? If they don’t, do the fractures look resemble anything from past medical records?”

 

[theunderwolf]

Mako thought hard, as she chewed her lip with a canine that was just ever so slightly too long. She though as she made sure Eppie was safely perched on the wall. It was not helping that she was more then a little hypnotized by the pink strand of hair that was playing around Eppies finger. But that shot an idea in her head, Shrines to LOVE! Of Course! She remembered now that her people wrote data into intricate patterns on stone, so they could be read and stored by computers. it seemed rather primitive in this area but just maybe if they interpreted the scarring as data... but what was the human interpretation of thaaaaaa why were Eppie''s fingers on her chin why were her lips on her cheeeeeeeeeeek oh sweet pashsash!

"Odina?" Mako asked the AI as she switched on the rooms console and watche hologram flicker to life. Odina waved cheerfully as part of her bootup sequence and grinned. "Oh Hi~" the AI said somehow being both icy and flirty, "Did you need something from me Mako? Or are you perhaps.... here for me? Its not like I l-l-like you or anything though."
Mako sighed, she really needed to fix Odina's personality files but she was useless with human tech, "What is the thing when someone... puts their lips on you?"
"Kissing! Oh I love kissing, not that Id want to k-k-kiss you or anything BAKA!"
"What does it mean?"
"I can show you some files if you like, including top ten Anime kisses of all time! (you won't believe number 6) (not clickbait)(pls like and subscribe) and many anime and films on the subject!"
...8 hours later mako was very confused but also blushing quite furiously. Kissing seemed so... odd. But it was a gesture so very...human. Fferids were more subtle about such intimate gestures. Human body language needed more obvious overtures of course. It was near indecent to her but the idea of entwining mouths and being so close was...inticing. She had another question though. "Odina? What were those round things those girls kept giving eachother and talking about how cool and retro they were?"
"Those were Laser Discs! A primitive form of data recording centered around engraving fine patterns into...

Mako burst into freckles. Literally. The sudden kiss confused her human mimicking nervous system to the point where she burst into a smattering light freckles all over her body instead of blushing. Oh dear. Trying not to freak out Mako's hands flailed a moment before she snapped back to focus. Mission first, friendly trip to quaint coffee shop later. "I've got it!" She said excitedly into the comms, "laser discs! No um...Cds! Or old tech! they used to physically engrave data into metal! What if whatever's doing this is trying to save data into peoples brains in an outdated way!?"

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Well- shit," Said goody in her ear, " I'll have to computer go through the encryption database for....laser discs. That might take a minute because; data bases." Goody sent the markings and the note to the sisters Delaisier because this sort of thing was out of his league.

Donny was watching the procedure Dr. Cho had begun. Mitch had told him that usually once a cyber brain was installed the skull was rarely tampered with- so seeing one like this was not a good representation of their medicine. Dr. Cho also had what looked like a small gem polisher in his hand and we methodically smoothing the pattern off the surface. That is- until every other patient in the room sat up in unison.

"Oh I hate this~" Mitch said, "Wow I hate this a lot~" He half sung as he spoke, they way humans often sang things when they were frightened.

The signal Kevin was tracking spiked with the strangth of a long distance ship communicator, three or four hundred times stronger than the weak signal before. But Then Kevin and Miloj are a little busy.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal jumped and moved closer to Donny as the other patients sat up. Judging by Mitch's sing-song, this was weird even for New Io.

"Hi, friends," he said, looking around the medbay. "Y'all have a nice nap?"

 

[TrashRabbit]

Donny Grabbed Cathal, one impercievable moment before the chaos hit. The patients surged on Dr. Cho like a terrible renaissance painting and he screamed. Bodies streamed past the pair- but they had eyes and blows only for the doctor.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal had seen a lot of weird shit in his life, and had learned that most things could be solved with the liberal application of either smiles, duct tape, or lead. Two hundred half-robot zombies was not most things, however.
"We should go," Cathal said, grabbing Mitch by the arm and towing him out of the medbay while pushing Donny in front of him. He didn't particularly want to find out what they'd do after they finished with poor Dr. Cho. He closed the medbay doors behind them poked at the interface on it in a mostly useless attempt to lock it behind them.
"Well, the good news is, I think we're on to something," Cathal said. "The bad news is that whoever's doing it knows."

 

[TrashRabbit]

Dr. Cho's screams were drowned out by the doors shutting behind them. If Cathal had acted half a moment later, Donny would have tried to get to him. Through he med bay window they could still see the carnage. Not so much blood or gore but a thronging mass of bodies. And then just as suddenly as it started they all stood silent in place, as if on standby.

"What the fuck," Donny said quietly but with considerable feeling.

Unbeknowst to the three of them in the med bay the radio spike had ended.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"What the fuck," Cathal agreed, also with feeling. "So...do you think whatever made that on the brains is still in there? Can they hear us?" Cathal squinted through the window. "What the fuck," he said again.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Mitch reached out and manipulated something in the cryfi. The door beeped and opened and he stepped in.

"Or that," Donny said also with a lot of feeling.

"My Wife is in here," Mitch said fearlessly.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"They just pulled a robot apart!" Cathal said, waving his hands. He looked at Donny, and said, "Chaya will kill me if he gets killed," flatly, and then followed Mitch back in.

 

[TrashRabbit]

"And I'll fucking Kill Chaya if anything happens to Two," He said. The patients inside stood motionless as they approached. Donny, poked one, once then back away, and then several more times with increasing vigor. It was very scientific. The were able to maneuver between the patients and even gently re-position them. Donny confirmed that the Doctor was dead or at least- damaged beyond functionality.

"Hey gang," He said into the coms, "The entire patient group has decided to hive mind and move around. They're still unresponsive. They uh also killed a man. I love new io. Wow. Any luck on your ends?"

Mitch located his wife and was doing his best assesment to see if she was secretly still in there some where behind her eyes.

 

[Graystone713]

Kevin Starr​

Kevin wasn’t certain he’d have nightmares, but it sure seemed like he could. He was surrounded by squished/fried bugs, torn-off bits of his suit, and rocks. He quickly checked himself, and taped over the sealant foam as best he could. Then he looked around... shit. He checked his wristcomp and couldn’t confirm his or Miloj’s position. The Iotech tablet had been lost in the struggle. But that signal was going strong... Active transmission. Shit. He continued towards it for a moment before he heard Donny. Oh shit.
“Miloj and I had an encounter with the bugs... And we’re separated. Miloj, are you okay? Miloj?... Shit. SHIT. More are coming for me, Miloj, I’m making a dash for the signal, you should pull out, now! And... Send someone looking if I’m not back in three hours!”
He said, running along towards the signal, unaware that Miloj had handled his encounter far better than he had... and once the scuttling stopped, so did Kevin. And he waited... Okay, he was clear for now. So, zapper drawn, he slowly began approaching the signal’s source again... ever wary. Ever observant. Hoping he was wrong about the signal sender setting traps everywhere.

 

[TrashRabbit]

The tunnel is dim but the white-blue walls shimmer under whats left of Kevin's lights. There are machine marks and scars along the walls- this tunnel was mined. Kevin has left the bugs far behind and the signal leads him down the winding path- which is regular in size thankfully. The tunnel doesn't open up but there is a sudden sense of space. Above, on the other side of the deposited you can see into a large ship. It is like the ship was crystallized in what ever this material is and was later bored into- its easy to see where the edges of the ship parts intersected with the tunnel. The signal is coming from inside this ship to the right of the tunnel, just about ten feet away. The tunnel goes deeper though. But ten feet inside the ship looks like a bridge.

The back of the pilots chair is emblazoned with a symbol not seen out side of text books. The flag of the Ajiian Replublic has three white stars on a black field. The Jiian empire is three black stars on a red field. This flag is definetly white on black. The age of the ship if its from that era doesn't make sense to be down here- New Io was founded by an old earth generation ship- right?

 

[Graystone713]

Kevin Starr​

Kevin was careful. No missteps, but no traps existed for him to trip, really. Kevin wasn’t a historian... But this didn’t seem right. Like finding a katana inside of pyramid. This ship was old Jian, and they were a post-space power, right? Io started as a generation ship from old earth. Did this make sense?... Maybe, Kevin wasn’t here to theorize. No-one was here, though... And the cockpit was mostly encased in crystal. Crap. Well, he was right next to the source of the signal... Yeah, he wasn’t gonna play around.
“Signal source is a really old Jian ship, probably pre-empire? The cockpit is unreachable, so I’m gonna set my comms to jam the source. Grab some miners, a few experienced bug killers, at least one drill that can get through this crystal, a spare air tank, and another suit patch kit. I’m going comms dark, and I need you guys to bring all that stuff down here. See you soon.”
He said, right before he tweaked his comms and completely drowned out the signal. Then he flashed a ‘peace out’ at the cockpit (which he assumed had a webcam in there somewhere) and sat down, trying to relax. He’d be okay. With the signal jammed, the Ionians would stop ripping each other apart, and his team would have ample time to get down here with everything they needed to shut that radio down... he’d be okay. He just had to breathe, and relax. He could wait the twenty minutes or however long it was.

 

[TrashRabbit]

The Patients standing around collapsed suddenly like rag dolls. "You heard the man," Donny said to Cathal and then to Mitch, "I don't think they'll be getting up again get your people in here- that procedure is obviously something they don't like."
"Some one's already on their way," Mitch said.
"Miloj- do you copy?" He called into the open channel, "what's your status?"

Else where Goody and the sisters Delasier were loading up a second shuttle. If the words Pre-jiian empire and Drills couldn't summon Goody to the field in attack mode then nothing could. launch, transfer and docking took a solid seven minutes.

"I brought drills. I'm in the garden," Goody said.


Meanwhile down in the cavern with Kevin- somethings not right. Role nerd.

 

[Graystone713]

Kevin Starr​

Kevin hadn’t been waiting long when he felt his implants getting warm and decided to look at his wristcomp. He expected to maybe have a hardware issue. Instead he saw the command prompt for his implants, moving like lightning. Oh shit. OH SHIT. He quickly pulled up a few anti hacker executables, but after a moment, he could tell it wasn’t working. The code he was fighting was crazy old, and hard to decipher. Jian tech. How the fuck was it in his system? His wristcomp had wireless disabled, and his implants didn’t even have a receiver! He briefly considered calling for help, but... No, he couldn’t unjam the signal.
“This is gonna hurt...”
He said, launching CLEANSWEEP.EXE. It was basically a program that deleted everything on his system, then shut it off. He braced himself and hoped the team would be along soon because once the program was done, he’d feel some feedback from his nerves. The implants did a few things to convince him they were a part of his body, and once they stopped, he’d be really aware of how much they weren’t. As he said, this would hurt.

 

[Daimao]

Miloj
​

"Well shit," Miloj mumbled as the bugs swarmed him, popping many of them with quick shots from his rifle. One made it through his barrage, only for it to find itself punted across the room. Miloj simply swore repeatedly in Russian as Kevin was carried off, the mass of weird bug things separating them from eachother. "If I had known there would be bugs I would have brought flamer," he mumbled as he reloaded, swift kicks keeping the bugs away from him. At Donny's hailing, Miloj immediately replied as he blasted, kicked, and squished his way in the direction that Kevin was carried off. "I'm fine, lots of bugs, going after Kevin," he replied simply, gunshots punctuating his words.

 

[CelticSol]

Eppie Cross
Roll For Unknown: (6+2)+3 = 11​

As she listens to Donny’s report, the smug smile for inspiring a breakthrough with a kiss to Mako’s sweet cheek falls right off her face. She takes a moment, not for the first time, to reflect that immortality through tech is a fucking scam, and the Old Order lunatics back home may have a point that technology is from the Devil if its being used to create cyborg zombies. Then, with a deep breath, she turns on her comm and says crisply into the mic, “Hey, Mitch? Some constructive criticism - your planet fucking sucks,” Then, with feeling, “What in the actual, literal fuck?”

The next thing she hears is that Kevin is turning off his comms and needs backup and supplies, and hops off the wall, flicking to Goody’s channel, “I’m heading to Kev to offer backup, wait up for me?”

She hears Goody’s customer service voice come onto the line, a hum of affirmation in his tone, “I’ll meet up with you there.”

Eppie pats Mako on the shoulder, “I’m heading out, kitten. Stay safe!” She presses her lips to Mako’s cheek once more, then winks impishly, “For good luck.”

She slides on her helmet as turns to the crowd, holding back a groan as she realizes how tightly packed it is, some holding out devices to record her and Mako - videos of which she prays to God never reaches her parents, since they are as well-meaning as they are nosy. Eppie notices a small railing with a ledge allowing pedestrians to overlook the views of New Io, and she runs to it, hopping onto the ledge. Carefully but quickly, she runs along the concrete, hopping off as she gets around the worst of the crowd. From there, given that many of the people there stand much taller than Eppie, it is relatively easy to get to the access panel leading to the abandon skeleton of the station.

It doesn’t take her as long as thought to get down into the cavernous bones of the ancient ship, sliding down ladders and slipping down access vents with ease given her size. At the end, Eppie is dropped out of one of the vent-slid, getting dumped out the end and rolling until she finally comes to a stop. Eppie notices Goody first as he drops down into the cave, about to call to him, until her eyes lock on bugs. But not just normal bugs - they look to be the size of fucking dinner plates.

Because of fucking course they have to be freakishly large. And of fucking course they’ve got to be between her and her precious son, Kevin.

She is not entirely sure if they’ve seen her yet, but as she shakes off the shock of there suddenly being a huge amount of enormous bugs in front of her, she recognizes them. Sylica based, non-carbon and synthetic life-form, incredibly rare. She would be hyped to discover them, but Eppie knows where they originate, and it is in micro gravity environments on the opposite side of the galaxy -

Stop remembering useless details, Euphie - focus, she scolds herself, running through other information, until her mind settles on the important bits: they eat metal, these fuckers flock to vibration and sound like moths to a flame. Looking around the ground quickly, she spots what appears to be a metal... arm? Finally picking up on the fact that she is absolutely in a graveyard, Eppie shudders a bit at what she is about to do, but crouches into the gravel, bracing one foot on the almost cleanly decomposed rib cage, and taking the arm in both hands. With a grunt of effort, she pulls hard on the arm, pulling the arm from the socket and throwing herself flat on her ass in the process.

She scrambles up, knowing the bugs probably heard her fall and want to chew on her suit and her, and races to the vent she fell out of. Holding the arm of some poor Ioanian sap like a baseball bat, she winds back and slams the arm into the metal vent with enough force to make her teeth rattle.

She doesn’t wait for the bugs to race for the vent as the impact vibrates and echoes in the vent - she throws the arm to the ground and sprints for the tunnel, grabbing Goody’s arm as she races by, “Go, go, go, go!”

 

[TrashRabbit]

They catch up with Miloj just as they come to the up to the ship trapped with in the crystal, and Kevin's prone form. Goody, hauling the oxygen tank doesn't hesitate to step forward. He makes it three steps on to the ship- before the intrusion alarm on his HUD went off and he stopped short-
"I can't see," He signed, holding out the oxygen to the air so that how ever could take it from him, "My whole system just crashed."

Every device on Miloj and Eppie simultaneously crash as well- Lefty, Eppie's leg, their personal devices- down in an instant. The radios, upon inspection will be found to still work- however Kevin is still jamming the the immediate airspace.

Daimao CelticSol

 

[Daimao]

Miloj
​

{Shit,} Miloj swore as Lefty shut down without warning, suddenly leaving him half blind. The swearing continued as his armor shut down, making it feel as if he was moving through water, the armored plates and servos just that much dead weight. {Fuck,} he grumbled in Russian as he took the oxygen tank from Goody and slowly waded his way towards Kevin, the servos in his armor whining in protest as he forced them to move. Reaching where Kevin was laying on the floor, Miloj slowly lifted him up. "Wakey wakey, Robot Boy. It is time to be doing the science things," he said. "Because I have no idea what in the fuck is going on here."

 

[Graystone713]

Kevin Starr
​

Kevin felt every piece. Every cable and node and piece felt ill-fitting, and there was a tingle. The sort you got after you’d taken a hard fall and landed on a joint or something. But worse, so much worse. He could feel static, and he was jittering. It wasn’t a seizure, but he was so shaky, so unstable. He closed his eyes and tried to control his breathing, gi through his mental exercises... He was in control. He was in control. He was-GRABBED! Kevin jolted to the wall, head slammed into the crystal, and shook off a hand. Miloj, fuck. What was he saying? Goody had signed something but he didn’t see what. Miloj has the air tank. Goody had everything else. Eppie was on the floor, her leg malfunctioning. Kevin had to do things in order. He took the patch kit and got to work on his suit, which was the only damaged one. It didn’t take long. Then the air bottle was hooked into his auxiliary supply hose, and hung from his belt. Okay, he had an hour or two to work. How the AI or hacker or whatever broke into his system, he had no fucking clue. But the signal came from that cockpit, he was certain of it. He originally planned to just disable the transmitter and then negotiate. This thing was too dangerous. If it died, he’d take responsibility. If it lived, it could pose a threat to all transhumans in the known universe and beyond, potentially posing an end-of-civilization scenario. If it died, it was justified. He took the drill, set it to high power, and started drilling towards a control panel. Normally, he’d lower the power as he got close to something he didn’t want to damage. He kept it high power. He couldn’t delay. He couldn’t stop. The risk was too high.
“My circuits slow, I’m not scared anymore... My circuits slow, I’m not scared anymore...”
He repeated to himself, his muffled voice likely inaudible to those outside. His motions as he drilled were jittery, his nerves felt like they were wires not built to handle whatever voltage was coursing through them, and Kevin wasn’t sure he’d be able to stay standing. Kevin wasn’t sure if the AI was going to do something crazy to his friends. All he could do was keep drilling.

 

[CelticSol]

Eppie Cross​

She only hears a small but urgent *beep, beep, beep* before her leg shuts down, then completely disengages off her body, “Fuck!” Having been moving at a helter-kelter sprint, her leg randomly powering off completely shatters her strides and sends Eppie crashing to the ground in a rather spectacular tumble that finally ends with her flat on her back. She sits up, almost laughing at the sight of her leg being obviously detatched from her thigh inside her suit as she engages a pressure seal in her suit to isolate her leg so she doesn’t lose any oxygen. Rather unceremoniously, her entire leg comes off with boot as she removes, having completely detached from the automated socket attached to what is left of her knee and her lower thigh.

She opens the panel controlling the power in the leg, and finds that there isn’t even an error message to explain why her leg suddenly crashed. She looks up to Goody, who signs that his entire system has crashed, then to Miloj, who is just swearing and doing what looks like a very difficult walk towards Kevkev with the oxygen he needs. Chanelling the two years she spent without a leg on New Eden, she flips onto her stomach to push herself to her knee, then carefully pushes herself onto her foot and stands. Figuring Miloj has Kev handled, she hops over to Goody, leaving her useless leg on the ground. When she comes to his side, she grabs his arm for balance, “You okay, sweetie?”