Dragnix.Net

Unable to watch the Wraith go the Captains eyes stayed rooted to the horrific event happening less then three feet from his face. The blood running through veins the bounty hunter’s face and head was literally boiling and his skull seems to be liquefying. He no longer fought but twitched and shook spasmodically as his brain cooked from the heat of whatever chemical was moving through his body. His groans were replaced by wheezing and gurgling and the Captain assumed that whatever was happening to his head was happening to the whole body. A hazy smoke began to escape the eye sockets as the man’s eyes melted; spotting it the captain was alarmed.

Bringing his armored helm up and mentally setting it to internal air, he said “Iridal quickly seal this section and evacuate all air” into his comm. Finally standing and looking down at the twitching body he realized he couldn’t tell when the guy had died. Flames jumped to life here and there on the clothes but within moments Iridal was finally able to vent the oxygen from the compartment and the flames died quickly. Within the advanced view of the visor a small motion caught the corner of his eye. Looking down at his left arm he noticed an orange mess across the surface of the shield. It was dripping to the deck plating, which was what had caught his eye, and where it hit the deck; no, impossible. Holding his shield over the body he collapsed it back into its recess. The slop cascaded down across the body. He then re-expanded the shield to take a critical eye to it. There was scoring and pitting consistent with acid on metal all across the surface where the orange liquid had been. The armor and shield and the damn deck plates for that matter were designed to be impervious to corrosives; after all an acid burning a hole through one deck after another as it dropped further would be disastrous if it caused a hull breach. Just what was this chemical, It was powerful enough to eat through the deck-plates with no atmosphere.

Looking down the captain could see it eating through the deck. Thinking fast he activated the magnetic feature on his boots anchoring him to the deck-plate. “Iridal turn off the gravity to this section. Should slow this shit down enough so I can figure out how to deal with it.” “Captain with internal sensors down I am unable to determine what is happening.” From inside his armor he was unable to tell if the gravity had been deactivated at all. The body or the mushy puddle that was left of it was nearly fused to the deck. How to get rid of it? Fire, burn it out? That would mean re-pressurizing and fire in 0g was never a good thing, besides an atmosphere might accelerate its effects.

“We have some kind of corrosive agent, possibly an acid eating through the deck-plate. It can from Nah’s body as he began to..to, I don’t know how to describe it. He just boiled and cooked himself from the inside out. Liquefied his entire body and nearly all of his body armor. Only part that doesn’t seem to be deteriorating is one of his elbow braces. My visor is telling me its lined with very high traces of silicon but all I’m getting from this orange stuff is bio-matter, pure bio-matter with a question mark at the end of it.” “Silicon becomes incredibly brittle when applied with acid but will still melt with enough time emerged.” “No, It looks solid, not about to touch it yet though” the captain said standing up and taking a step back. “Then that isn't an acidic agent…” “But I’m standing right here watching it…” “I believe it’s an incredibly dense alkaline agent. Silicon as a base element is rooted in the alkaline area of the various elements. Also if it was alkaline it would make sense to be bio-matter. I can compute that an enzyme cascade could cause a run-away cellular and chemical breakdown within the body that could produce a corrosive like the one you’re describing.” “Ok now that you know what it is what do we do?” “Vinegar, douse it with Vinegar, a base of enzymes should respond best to that and should be neutralized, but be careful, it will produce toxic fumes.” “Then just keep pumping the air out.”

Running to the lift he instructed Iridal to allow him access to it. As the door open he and Cyriscel walked smack into each other as the wraith was coming out. Putting a hand to the tactical officers chest he pushed him back into the lift and against the far wall. Hitting the button for deck five they shot up to the top deck. Dragging the wraith out of the lift with him he immidiatly abandoned the officer has he dashed around the bar. Using its food protein sequencer he was able to fill a very large jug to the top with vinegar. As he ran back to the lift it sloshed and spilled small amounts here and there. Stepping from the lift the vinegar immediately began to float from the jug harden and crystallize as it froze. “We’re going to have to do this the hard way, re-pressurize and restore gravity." Moving quickly to the still bubbling orange puddle his suit picked up the faint sound of floating vinegar falling to the deck and shattering. There was air in the room but not much, sound waves couldn’t move very well through a light atmosphere and without much air there couldn't be much heat.

Turning the jug upside down from chest height he instantly realized his mistake. As the vinegar poured down onto the orange crap it splattered hard sending both chemicals flying off in every direction. He managed to jump back, saving about half the jug as he did. Acrid fumes hissed from everywhere around him and it was hard to see much through them. ‘Damn it to Otar I just can’t fucking win for trying’ he thought to himself. He got low to the floor and being very careful where he placed each hand he located several small pockets of the gunk and doused them with the vinegar. Iridal was recycling the air now and as it cleared up he finally breathed a sigh of relief when he could no longer see any more traces.

Looking around making sure nobody else was on in the area he asked “Iridal are your internal sensors still down?” “Yes, is something wrong Captain?” “No I just wanted to thank you for your help, i managed to get it all. Just keep filtering the air for now it’s still pretty thick in here.” Checking one last time to make sure nobody else had been able to gain access to the area the Captain turned to the nearest wall and slammed his fist into it with all his might, the first was followed by a second, then by a third until blows were raining on the section of wall. Keeping a steady rate of breath and making sure not to make a verbal sound so Iridal had no way to know anything had happened the captain continued until he exhausted himself and collapsed to the deck with his back against the wall. Above him was a huge concaved dent in the wall about four feet wide and at least two deep.

As he slipped away into a momentary sleep the realization of just how close his crew had been to oblivion horrified him. On waking moments later the realization of just what they were going to need to do to survive, to make it back, to move on and save this galaxy would shake him to his very core.

It had been a few days since their return to the ship, and Taji was still, surprisingly, glad to be back. The time that she had spent in the fighter with Wolfe had served to give the Shifter an appreciation for the Maelstrom... and the fact that she was still breathing. Admittedly, the woman still stumbled through the protocols of her newfound military existence, but for the time being, she seemed to take it in stride. Standing at attention, taking orders... these were still new, and it took a lot to hold her tongue when she opted not to give a smart-ass remark back. Unfortunately, that only really happened once or twice. The rest of the time, her acerbic tongue got her a combination of chuckles and damning glares that she seemed to shrug off with indifference. For all her informalities, however, she proved to be an able navigator, and surprisingly, rather a good leader, though her style left some shaking their heads.

Either way, given that she had found someone who not only listened to her and took her seriously, but related to her experiences, Taji began to feel better about her position on the ship as time progressed. Perhaps that time adrift had been the ice-breaker that she needed, as some commented later when she allowed a few of her men and even the other officers to train with her. Of course, given her questionable background, some were nervous to really engage her, and were happy when they found that at least for the time being, she had no intention of using the arsenal that she usually carried on her person. Of course, they then actually sparred with her and found that growing up in the slums had, if anything, taught the Shifter how to fight, and while there was no grace or discipline in her movements, there was purpose to each one. She also made it a point to practice with her armor (fully upgraded on the Captain's strict orders) and soon she was quite comfortable with it, though she stubbornly stuck with her normal outfit.

As her relationship with the rest of the officers slowly thawed, they became more… willing to visit her in her quarters when the need called for it, though admittedly, it was with some degree of nervousness, given her odd choice of décor- knives, swords and antique guns. Thus, it wasn’t much of a surprise to her when one day a knock resounded on her door. The woman called that it was open and went back to sharpening a rather odd knife- a balisong.

The Shifter turned at the sound of the door opening and paused in her sharpening motion when she saw the rather serious look on her guest's face. “Help you?” she said simply.

James looked at her for a second before shaking his head. “You don’t remember do you?”

“Remember what?”

“You were supposed to get something done this week… something you’ve been putting off in the interest of having ‘no patience for paperwork’.”

It took a moment, but eventually the spark of realization dawned in the woman’s onyx depths as she looked over at him and she slowly rolled her gaze ceilingward. “Shit…” she muttered. “When’s he expecting the report?” It was understood between them who “he” was, and “he” would not be happy that she had forgotten to get the task done.

“Now.”

“Fuck.” Taji muttered in frustration before sighing and standing to go. She flipped the unique knife closed with a fluid, single-handed motion. “Alright, let’s go.”

“Go?”

“Yeah, ‘go’. I’ll do the written part afterword. Let’s just go ahead and find him so we can fill him in.”

“Without the actual report.”

“Yup.”

“You realize this doesn’t bode well for you… at all, right?” A slight flash of concern darted across James’ features as the woman walked by him.

“You realize that I’m the problem-child on this ship, right? You’d think he’d have adjusted by now.” She nonchalantly responded as she continued into the hall. The sad thing was that there was an ounce of truth in her statement, and as they made their way down the corridor, the Shifter didn’t feel any remorse. It wasn’t as though she had been dallying this whole week, after all. In fact, she had been fairly busy. Not that he’ll give two shits she thought as they reached another door.

When it slid open, she registered a familiar form across the way and stopped, arching a single brow.

Stepping forward to of the Holo-Arena Wolfe could see that the Captain was performing fingertip diamond push-ups without the use of his thumbs. Whistling appreciatively under his breath Wolfe salutes and says "Captain, Petrova is here to give you her report sir."

Not even bothering to pause in his push-ups the Captain said without any shortness of breath "Alright then Petrova give me your report."

"Yes sir" replied Taji as she takes a step into the room and suddenly finds herself on her hands and knees due to intense gravity.

"Oops forgot to warn you the Captain likes to train in 10 times the normal gravity. I've gotten so used to standing outside the doorway when he trains that I usually forget why I even do it." James told her with a small smile on his face as he helped her back out the door.

“Captains log 4*15*2s9*62. The mission to the Varith system was a total disaster. It actually raised more questions then it answered and now almost a third of my crew are injured to the point they must be replaced. Petrova found a nearby station that hasn’t been taken over by the Skree yet and we are on our way there now. I am a bit unhappy about the Idea of going to Tycon’s Drift, while I have never been there myself I know of drifts like it. It and those like it are traditionally friend to smugglers and pirates. She has however assured me that it will have both the supplies and willing manpower we need to continue our mission.

“We are currently moving just a hair over half speed through this jump, Zelius has been able to repair the starboard engine enough to jump but he wont be able to repair it fully without additional materials and manpower.

“I am uncertain how long we will be at the drift taking on supplies and doing repairs. Internal Sensors are still down, the starboard wing needs several different repairs, deck four has acidic scouring and several portions of the crystallinian hull are cracked reducing the continuity of our energy bleed and absorption ability.

“I will say that I am proud of the crew, they held up well under pressure and because of them this tiny ship was able to take on a monster and win.

“Admiral Marsh, when you receive this please inform Admiral Tramieur and Grand Admiral Koliten that I haven’t yet decided which option to choose for myself.

“This ends my report, I await new orders and if I do not receive any by the time our repairs are complete I will act according to my own discretion.”

Helloeveryone. Ii just wanted to let all of you know i will be recycling this story. I've already spoken to Ciarda and i will be smudging (changing the name and altering the background )her char at her request. If anyone else would like the same treatment, post here and let me know otherwise i will do my best to keep your chars as true to your vision as i can.

Ward,

It could be the fact that I have been inundated with conferences lately, and adjusting to the summer schedule, but I recall no such conversation. Please contact me about this before you do anything with the skeleton of my character or the race that I created for her.

Thank you,

Ciarda