Curtiz - JULY 14 - 7:43am
MedSci Deck
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I ran down the hall past the elevator into the chemical storeroom. I thought I'd be safe there. Luckily I found a rather worn pistol that should keep me alive for a little longer. I was scared. I wanted to be at home, with my wife, and my kids, just having a regular family dinner and watching a late movie. But NO, this blasted ship and it's blasted crew have ruined my life. "Maybe if I play my cards right, I might be able to see that day once more". I gripped my newfound pistol and placed a small Nav marker incase anyone should have a AutoMap unit. "Boy if I had a dime for every minute of silence on this ship I would be a billionaire. You know what they say, Silence is Golden." I jumped up and grabbed a container of what looked like arsenic. But it didn't look like it. Looked like a green acid of some sort. "Maybe this could come in handy if I run into that guy with the cyber implants." I opened the door to find a hybird standing next to the entrance smoking a cigarette. I unloaded 4 bullets into him. "Nasty habit my friend" as I extinguished the cigarette. I walked down the hall a little toward the elevator and heard someone activate an energy recharger. "Hmmm, Could be the cyborg-marine guy running around here again". I turned around and walked toward the storage room. I heard a couple of gunshots and laser bolts. "Yup, thats him alright, Bein' a hero and taking out turrets without the security system off". Soon after I heard a small explosion. I kept going and peered out onto the lower level storage. I saw a bunch of crates and sure enough, dead turrets, and a cyborg standing there looking at me. I hopped down onto the cold metal floor. I asked him what he was doing and he simply replied "Just grabbing a refill for the energy pistol" he replied. "Hey I got something for your 'rig to analyze. Take a look at this..." I said as I pulled out the chemical container i grabbed earlier. I handed it to him and heard a few clicks and whirs from his eyepiece. "Looks like some sort of acid. Very powerful at that. Geez this stuff could melt through the Von Braun's hull"~! "Man, and I thought it was some kind of silly putty". The Marine smiled and laughed a little. "I've got a camp not to far from here in Engineering's Fluidics Control. You look like you could use some weapons and armor and a few med hypos. Come on before a security bot shows up". I followed him to the emergency maintenance shaft near the elevator. I jumped down and he handed me a slug box. "Hold this while I pry this door open". Jesus this guy is strong. Didn't even need a wrench. "Hurry up, I got a funny feeling just now...". And frankly I didn't like that sound of that. I jumped on the ladder and climbed down it only to find another door. "Just land on it, it will give way". Sure enough when I let go I came crashing through. I picked myself and my pistol up and looked around. I saw an arm on the floor and a desk in the next chamber. I stepped in the chamber and saw a data computer on the wall. I accessed it to see the status of the area. "ALL-CLEAR FROM HERE TO ENGINE CORE MAN" I yelled. "ALRIGHT THEN, HOLD ON I'LL BE DOWN THERE IN A SECOND" he screamed back. I waited a few and in a moment a hybrid came bursting through the door, come to find my pistol had no more ammo, I darted up the stairs grabbing a anti-rad hypo on my way up. My Marine friend came into view and pulled his laser pistol out and shot the hybrid 6 times before it kicked the bucket. I headed back down and this time he followed. We proceeded through the twisted corridors of Engineering. At one point I saw a security crate and went over to hack it. Mr. Marine over there didn't want to stay for too long and he said if I couldn't break in it than we would continue. But in the middle of his sentance I opened the top and pulled out another pistol in excellent condition, 2 med hypos, a psi hypo, and 24 standard bullets. I injected the psi hypo in my arm as I knew that they had a brain stimulant that eased your stress. "That felt better". "Man your good at hacking huh? I have a security crate up in the camp that could use a good hacking, uh, no pun intended". I laughed a little and carried on with the journey. I stopped at a supply closet and picked up a anti-radiation suit and a strength booster. All was going well until we saw one of those hybrids poke around the corner and aim a shotgun at my Marine buddy. Lucky for him I had a pistol ready to pump 4 holes in his body. I reloaded and he pulled his laser rapier out because his laser pistol had broken due the radiation around. Cautiously, we continued down the hall until we heard a protocal droid nearby. The corridors we so close it was hard to tell where it was actually. We ran and hid in a closet hoping the radiation would block it's proximity sensors. Lucky for us it passed by and we waited until it went a little ways and jumped and ran for the nearest exit. We took some bad radiation damage from it but we managed to pull ourseleves together. We were nearing the camp when another protocal droid walked toward us ready to explode when my buddy pulled out a fragmentation grenade and activated it manually and tossed it at the damn thing. Lucky for us it killed it, or badly wounded it because it was still babbling on about Tri-Op. Speaking of which I can't stand them now. We continued on until we reached the grav shafts and entered and went up to fluidics. when I looked around, I saw a bunch of broken shotguns and ammo clips. He punched in a code and enetered, closing the door behind him. There I saw enough medical supplies to satisfy a WW IV general. I took a seat in one of the chairs and saw Delacroix on a vidscreen. She said hello, and I replied, "So I guess your still alive eh?". I looked around and saw that security crate and a turret. "Must be hacked because it isn't attacking us". I went over to the security crate to see if I could break it. It was harder than any I've seen before. My HackSoft said it had an initial difficulty of 180%. "Yikes, this is one hell of a hack for me"~! I kept at it while Delacroix talked to my marine friend. I finally opened the crate to find various chemicals and something I couldn't imagine. "No wonder this was so hard ot hack". My buddy turned and looked at the device I was holding in my shaking hands. "My God, looks like an incenderary explosive. And it's using the same chemical that I analyzed for you. Aw man. If my 'rig is right, that little bit combined with a few ounces of pure thermo-uranium extract could wipe out this entire ship. INSTANTLY~!" he said. "Shit. And Im the one who had to find it" I said sighing. "Dont worry, I can run it down to the shuttle bay past the security office and pump it into space. No problem" he said. I agreeded because something of this magnitude wasn't in the ship's cargo manifest log. "Must have been something Tri-Op cooked up for us in case something should have went wrong and didn't want the public to know" I said to Delacroix. "No surprise. I dont trust those Tri-Op basterds with a drained laser pistol. But if you think about it and look at it from their perspective, you could see why" Delacroix replied. "Yes but it didn't have a subnet-radio transmitter or reciever on it so that means...". "That they had to of had someone detonate in manually. Whoever it was is probably dead anyway. You my find some clue in the cargo bays. Cargo B needs the access card, but the card is in Cargo A, and it's swarming with maintenance droids and those damn hybrids with their shotguns". "Maybe I can find something of use around to help me" I said gazing around. I saw a pistol with a green clip in it. I went over to have a closer look and the pistol was in excellent condition and had a modification level of 2 with 24 shots of armor-piercing shots. "This should work" I said as I went over and picked it up. I grabbed a small stack of med hypos and a medical kit and some medium armor. I was ready to take out an entire Tri-Op military base. I headed out to the grav shafts when I heard footsteps. I looked down the conduit opening in the floor and saw some strange looking hybrids carrying something large. I waited until they passed by and jetted down the grav shafts and opened fire on them. I shot one with 3 Anti-Personnel shots when it finally dropped. I pulled out a disruption grenade and activated it manually and tossed it at the other three. I took cover behind a small opening where someone was working on something. As I heard the grenade explode and hybrid parts fly over me, I saw some kind of implant. I picked it up and stashed it with me. I continued down the hall and come upon a hacked laser turret. I took a glance inside the security station and found a dead crewman with a access card in his hand. I picked it up and realized that it was the Cargo Bay B access card. "Heh, Lucky me". I proceeded through the bulkhead doors and saw my marine friend lying on the floor with burn wounds. I pulled out a med hypo and injected him with it. I ran a medical kit's diagnostic check on his internal functions. He was still alive and was getting better from the med hypo. I stuck another med hypo in him and he was recovering more rapidly. I then took out another hypo, a psi hypo, and stuck him with that too. Within a few minutes, he was back on his feet, but limping. I led him back to the security office and laid him on the medical bed. "Ahh shit, those damn bots surprised me. 2 of them, exploded right in my face, Aghhhhh." he said aching in pain. I handed him a pistol with 12 shots loaded and six armor-piercing shots and 2 med hypos. "Here take these and head back to fluidics. He thanked me and told me he would go a little later after he felt a little better. I wasn't comfortable leaving him here so I left a mobile turret at the security computer behind the first door incase something tried to get in. I continued on toward Cargo A and when I finally got there, a security bot was wating. Lucky for me he had his back turned. I deactivated him and reprogrammed him like Idid the turrets. "That should help us a bit". I journeyed into Cargo A with my newfound bodygurard behind me. I knew not what The Many held for me in Cargo A. All I knew that whomever, or whatever, was in there, was toast if they got in my way. I gripped my pistol and ventured into the unknown...

To Be Continued...