Post by CAPT Issac R. Madden on Feb 5, 2012 21:22:09 GMT 1
Come on… almost there, the runner thinks as he runs down the dark, mist-filled corridor. Noticing a group of red laser lights shining past him from his pursuers, he turns around, drops to one knee, and fires several shots from his rifle, a short barreled Noveske AR-15 with a suppressor and an Aimpoint red dot sight. Seeing the sources of the lights fall to the deck, he starts running again. Turning a corner, he pulls up short as he comes face to face with a horrifying sight: one of his fellow crew members who he thought was dead.
His skin is no longer the deep tan that the runner remembers, but is a deathly gray color instead. The crewman’s right arm has been replaced by some kind of robotic limb, and his right eye has been similarly replaced. While all this registers in the runner’s mind, the cyborg strikes, swinging wildly at the runner’s head. Ducking under the swing, the runner rises from his crouch and slams the butt stock of the rifle into the cyborg’s jaw to knock it off balance. Not taking any chances, he fires a trio of rounds into its face at point-blank range and takes off running again. A couple minutes later, he reaches his destination: what appears to be a cooling hub for the vessel’s reactor. Assuming anything makes any kind of sense on this fucking ship, he thinks bitterly.
Wasting no time, he sets several explosive charges, rigging them with older mechanical detonators rather than more modern electronic hardware. These bastards are too adept at dealing with electronics, he thinks as he works, remembering how ineffective his shipmates' EM weapons had been against the enemy.
Finished with the main charges, he sets a couple of booby traps: planting the last of the claymores he’d brought with him and setting them with tripwires before hauling ass back to the bay where his ship is held. Almost there Your Majesty, he thinks, using his pet name for the ship; her proper name is the Cassiopeia. Upon entering the bay, he sees a group of the cyborgs heading in his direction.
Letting his rifle hang from its sling, he pulls out a fragmentation grenade, pulls the pin and lets it fly. When it detonates and drops a few of the cyborgs, he darts into the bay, firing at everything that moves and boards the ship. After clearing it and sealing the access hatches deck by deck, he gets to the bridge and starts the engine, firing up the weapon systems. I just hope the scientists back home were right about the capabilities of the laser canon, he thinks, praying they weren’t exaggerating.
The small screen in front of him lights up as the laser turret lowers from the bottom of the hull. Here goes…
Aiming the barrel at the assembly holding his ship hostage, he opens fire, the laser firing a staccato series of pale orange bolts, burning through the metal of the assembly’s claws and the Cassiopeia breaks free. A couple button presses on the helm control panel and the fusion rockets ignite, blasting the Cassiopeia free from her prison. Working quickly, he slaves the laser turret to the helm and blasts his way out of the corridor out into space.
Holy shit that thing’s huge, he thinks as he gets his first look at the ship that had been holding him captive; an obscenely large cube of black and green. Not long after he clear the enemy ship, the charges he set detonate in sequence and the cube breaks off pursuit. Some time later, the black void flashes as the entire cube goes up. It’s over… Now where the hell am I?
Using the ship’s instruments, he scans the area, not finding any interstellar landmarks that he can recognize; according to the internal navigation computer and the ship’s chronometer shows that the year is 2137: 117 years after the Cassiopeia was launched from Cape Canaveral. No fucking way, he thinks, trying to see if the readout is malfunctioning, but all the diganostics come back normal.
Still in shock, his training takes over as he plots a heading that backtracks the ships previous course, hoping it’ll take him back to Earth, engages the ion engines, shuts down the fusion rockets, and activates the ship’s log.
“This is Sean Conall, Chief of Security for Project Lightrunner. The following is an after action report. According to the ship’s computer, at 14:42 on 17 November, 2022, the Cassiopeia encountered some kind of spatial anomaly outside of the Sol system and was transported to an unknown region of space. Ship’s crew were unharmed; all sleeper pods undamaged and fully operational. On 15 April, 2137, ship encountered unknown vessel; crew revived from hibernation.”
“The Cassiopeia was then attacked captured and boarded by unknown hostiles from unidentified vessel. Hostiles appeared to be half-organic, half-machine. Ship’s crew deployed with the new EM weapons issued prior to mission launch with little effect; after killing a dozen of the invaders, the remaining attackers suddenly became immune to the weapon discharges, as if they adapted in some way. Chief of Security employed his personal sidearm, a SIG-Sauer P229 9mm loaded with armor piercing rounds to repel the threat until they retreated.”
“Security Chief evaded capture and performed reconnaissance on enemy vessel. Ship’s crew was converted into human-robot hybrids and were unable to be rescued. Security Chief then returned to the Cassiopeia, selected a load-out to include Noveske AR-15 carbine chambered in .300 Blackout, several claymore anti-personnel mines, several one-pound C4 charges, and additional ammunition for his sidearm. Security Chief returned to enemy ship, sabotaged its cooling systems, and escaped.”
“Final casualty list: Lieutenant Colonel Todd Roberts: Commanding Officer. Lieutenant Commander Jane Moore: Executive Officer and Pilot. Doctor James Hunter: Ship’s Medic. Lieutenant Jack Kent and Ensign Ryan Chan, Science Officers. 2nd Lieutenants Robert Jones and Eric Johnson: Ship’s Engineers. Lieutenant John Logan: Security Officer. Gunnery Sergeant Jason Morgan: Security Personnel. Petty Officers 1st class Laura Batts and William Brooks, Medical Personnel. Staff Sergeants Edward Anderson, and Thomas Bell: Security Personnel. Sergeants Joseph Hickson, Andrew McCall, Maria Velasquez, and Samuel Holt, Security Personnel. Petty Officers 2nd class Gabriel Falcone, Katherine Hayes, and Lawrence Poole, Engineering Personnel. All crew killed in the line of duty.”
“I have programmed the ship to backtrack the path it had followed to this point. With luck I may be able to return to the Earth Solar System. End report.”
Turning off the voice recorder, he sets a couple improvised booby traps at the only unsealed hatches, reloads his sidearm, and lays down in his hibernation pod. I’ll get back home, he thinks as the pod closes around him and the hibernation technology starts to put him under. No matter what it takes.
His skin is no longer the deep tan that the runner remembers, but is a deathly gray color instead. The crewman’s right arm has been replaced by some kind of robotic limb, and his right eye has been similarly replaced. While all this registers in the runner’s mind, the cyborg strikes, swinging wildly at the runner’s head. Ducking under the swing, the runner rises from his crouch and slams the butt stock of the rifle into the cyborg’s jaw to knock it off balance. Not taking any chances, he fires a trio of rounds into its face at point-blank range and takes off running again. A couple minutes later, he reaches his destination: what appears to be a cooling hub for the vessel’s reactor. Assuming anything makes any kind of sense on this fucking ship, he thinks bitterly.
Wasting no time, he sets several explosive charges, rigging them with older mechanical detonators rather than more modern electronic hardware. These bastards are too adept at dealing with electronics, he thinks as he works, remembering how ineffective his shipmates' EM weapons had been against the enemy.
Finished with the main charges, he sets a couple of booby traps: planting the last of the claymores he’d brought with him and setting them with tripwires before hauling ass back to the bay where his ship is held. Almost there Your Majesty, he thinks, using his pet name for the ship; her proper name is the Cassiopeia. Upon entering the bay, he sees a group of the cyborgs heading in his direction.
Letting his rifle hang from its sling, he pulls out a fragmentation grenade, pulls the pin and lets it fly. When it detonates and drops a few of the cyborgs, he darts into the bay, firing at everything that moves and boards the ship. After clearing it and sealing the access hatches deck by deck, he gets to the bridge and starts the engine, firing up the weapon systems. I just hope the scientists back home were right about the capabilities of the laser canon, he thinks, praying they weren’t exaggerating.
The small screen in front of him lights up as the laser turret lowers from the bottom of the hull. Here goes…
Aiming the barrel at the assembly holding his ship hostage, he opens fire, the laser firing a staccato series of pale orange bolts, burning through the metal of the assembly’s claws and the Cassiopeia breaks free. A couple button presses on the helm control panel and the fusion rockets ignite, blasting the Cassiopeia free from her prison. Working quickly, he slaves the laser turret to the helm and blasts his way out of the corridor out into space.
Holy shit that thing’s huge, he thinks as he gets his first look at the ship that had been holding him captive; an obscenely large cube of black and green. Not long after he clear the enemy ship, the charges he set detonate in sequence and the cube breaks off pursuit. Some time later, the black void flashes as the entire cube goes up. It’s over… Now where the hell am I?
Using the ship’s instruments, he scans the area, not finding any interstellar landmarks that he can recognize; according to the internal navigation computer and the ship’s chronometer shows that the year is 2137: 117 years after the Cassiopeia was launched from Cape Canaveral. No fucking way, he thinks, trying to see if the readout is malfunctioning, but all the diganostics come back normal.
Still in shock, his training takes over as he plots a heading that backtracks the ships previous course, hoping it’ll take him back to Earth, engages the ion engines, shuts down the fusion rockets, and activates the ship’s log.
“This is Sean Conall, Chief of Security for Project Lightrunner. The following is an after action report. According to the ship’s computer, at 14:42 on 17 November, 2022, the Cassiopeia encountered some kind of spatial anomaly outside of the Sol system and was transported to an unknown region of space. Ship’s crew were unharmed; all sleeper pods undamaged and fully operational. On 15 April, 2137, ship encountered unknown vessel; crew revived from hibernation.”
“The Cassiopeia was then attacked captured and boarded by unknown hostiles from unidentified vessel. Hostiles appeared to be half-organic, half-machine. Ship’s crew deployed with the new EM weapons issued prior to mission launch with little effect; after killing a dozen of the invaders, the remaining attackers suddenly became immune to the weapon discharges, as if they adapted in some way. Chief of Security employed his personal sidearm, a SIG-Sauer P229 9mm loaded with armor piercing rounds to repel the threat until they retreated.”
“Security Chief evaded capture and performed reconnaissance on enemy vessel. Ship’s crew was converted into human-robot hybrids and were unable to be rescued. Security Chief then returned to the Cassiopeia, selected a load-out to include Noveske AR-15 carbine chambered in .300 Blackout, several claymore anti-personnel mines, several one-pound C4 charges, and additional ammunition for his sidearm. Security Chief returned to enemy ship, sabotaged its cooling systems, and escaped.”
“Final casualty list: Lieutenant Colonel Todd Roberts: Commanding Officer. Lieutenant Commander Jane Moore: Executive Officer and Pilot. Doctor James Hunter: Ship’s Medic. Lieutenant Jack Kent and Ensign Ryan Chan, Science Officers. 2nd Lieutenants Robert Jones and Eric Johnson: Ship’s Engineers. Lieutenant John Logan: Security Officer. Gunnery Sergeant Jason Morgan: Security Personnel. Petty Officers 1st class Laura Batts and William Brooks, Medical Personnel. Staff Sergeants Edward Anderson, and Thomas Bell: Security Personnel. Sergeants Joseph Hickson, Andrew McCall, Maria Velasquez, and Samuel Holt, Security Personnel. Petty Officers 2nd class Gabriel Falcone, Katherine Hayes, and Lawrence Poole, Engineering Personnel. All crew killed in the line of duty.”
“I have programmed the ship to backtrack the path it had followed to this point. With luck I may be able to return to the Earth Solar System. End report.”
Turning off the voice recorder, he sets a couple improvised booby traps at the only unsealed hatches, reloads his sidearm, and lays down in his hibernation pod. I’ll get back home, he thinks as the pod closes around him and the hibernation technology starts to put him under. No matter what it takes.