Play by Post: Alien Lost Souls Part 3 - Shadows and Rocks

When we last left off, Manni was set out to help Tammy, the pilot of the Glorious.

---Manni

"I'm telling you Captain, she's not here!" Manni continues to search around the aft thrusters feeling nervous as the shadows of the asteroids keep moving around the ship. "What do you want me to do?"

---MUTHUR

Hold, on.. Peter says... let me have a look!

After what seems like forever, but really only 2 or 3 minutes, Peter comes back on the radio. Her beacon is saying she is about 50m from the ship? he says with a perplexed tone.

Go, see what she doing! Frack sake's! What the hell does she think she is doing.. he mumbles before his mic switches off.

You look at the dark asteroid terrain ahead of you.. and a shiver runs up your spine.

---Manni
"Alright Captain, I'll go see what she's doing and bring her back!" Manni isn't happy about walking out there especially with the way the asteroids keep impacting the surface.

---MUTHUR
It doesnt take long for you to loose sight of the ship as you round a huge boulder, there are many chasms, craters, large rocky protrusions

You still see no sign of Tammy, but about another 50 meters away, you see what looks like to be some large surface pipes (Coming from the direction of where the station is located). These pipes are about 6 feet in diameter, and are covered in some form of grating, one of these gratings is damaged and bent outwards away from the entrance.

---Manni

Manni doesn't like being out of view of the ship but if it was him out here he would want them to be looking for him. Manni moves over towards the pipes and wonders why the grating is pushed outwards. What could have caused it?

---MUTHUR
As you get a little closer, you can see that some of the grating looks like it was melted or dissolved.

Near the damaged crating, appear to be scuff marks and prints on the ground leading up to the entrance. Just inside of the grating, you can see a pair of legs, feet towards you, laying prone on the surface.

---Manni
Manni sees what looks like Tammy's leg in the tunnel trying to figure out what she's doing especially being out here without letting anyone know. "Tammy, what the hell are you doing in there? Quit messing around we need to fix the ship!" Manni has a strange feeling he's not alone out here and keeps looking around his eyes darting back and forth between Tammy's legs and the shadows.

---MUTHUR
Motion catches your attention inside the pipe, first it was a dark shadow moving. Then over top of the body that is in the pipe emerges a living horror, as if pulled from your nightmares of your deepest fears.

A dark slender body with a large smooth head, with a long whipping tail, thin arms ending with long point razor sharp talons. For a second, the teeth glint, like steel blades.

It lounges towards you, bursting through the already damaged grating..

---Manni
"Oh my God, Oh my God" Manni sees the dark shadow as it climbs over the body. Not having any kind of weapon Manni attempts to get out of the creatures sight and run back to the ship.

---MUTHUR

This demon, with its tale whipping and lashing, lunges against the grating, You turn to run. You slip on the ground and you stumble over your feet falling forward. Although you can not see it, you know that what ever is emerging from that culvert is now moving swiftly towards you! If you can just make it back to the ship!

---Manni
Manni starts to panic as he sees the creature coming out of the grating. He opens his com to the rest of the group. "Everyone, you have to watch out! There's some kind of creature out here that got Tammy and he's coming after me!"

---MUTHUR
In a flash, the slender terror is upon you. When you turn to face it, you are just mere inches away from its elongated eyeless head. It pauses, almost as if it is judging you, sensing if you are worthy to kill, to grab or to let live..

---Manni
Manni looks around for anything he can use for a weapon!

---MUTHUR
You rummage quickly through the bag and its spilled contents, looking frantically for anything that can be used as a weapon or a device to defend yourself, but in your haste you can only find a short screw driver, and a roll of duct tape. Nothing considered sturdy..

Although you feel like you are about to soil yourself, you manage to keep your wits.. You keep a close eye on the creature which is staring at you.. waiting, watching preparing to pounce.

You hear over the radio; Bjorn responding to your call for help... .
"What do you mean some kind of creature Manni????".

You then hear Matt over the radio.
A creature!? Manni, where are you?

All that is heard in return is the frantic breathing of Manni over the radio

Stay Tuned for Part 4, Play By Post Alien: Lost Souls

Play by Post: Alien Lost Souls Part 2

------- Matt

 Matt is thinking about how friggin' awesome the future at this company just became, if he is able to bring this back to the corporate board. He gets lost in a forward flash of his new found life, the prosperity, power, and influence and all the amenities the come with it. He would have to admit that this kind of thing gets the blood pumping to the ol' extremities and unfortunately it gets the oxygen pumping as well.

-------- Bjorn

Bjorn steps out into the darkness, opening a general comm channel to the group, "Alright, let's make some money." As he makes his way towards the station entrance with Tim, he notices that his air supply drop a little quicker than he would expect. "It must be all the excitement", he thinks to himself.

---------- MU-TH-UR

The bulky suits slow your progress as you walk inside the main station hanger. On the deck in front of you, you can see the tracks of the two roughnecks in the frozen condensate. It seems like power to the station has been turned off for awhile. You both notice several other passage ways lead from the Hanger to various parts of the station, they are all opened. In front of you, is a small ATV like vehicle, with various doodads and gizmos attached. This ATV is parked near another door, which seems large enough for it to drive through. Above the door is a sign stating that all people entering the laboratory workspace must where full protective equipment.

 The large hanger door has section of reinforced safety glass (The type with the wire mesh) You can see a cracks in some of the pane, near the edge of the window frame. And one large star shaped crack in the middle of one of the panes. Beyond and through the glass, is eerie blackness.

------ Jack, the Roughneck enters the scene. Coming from the station control.

Before we get too busy, I want to talk about the shares situation? I mean I'm not getting much on this job as it is, and if we find something valuable we can salvage in this place, I want assurance me and Deborah will get full shares?

I'm going to go find engineering and see if I can get the power back on. We'll get a lot more answers with lights and access to the mainframe.

--------- Matt Leshainko

 "Let's take a look at this hanger and determine if there is any useful equipment at hand." Matt says in a routine manner. After taking a careful stock of any protective equipment or casualty safety gear at hand, I want to shine a light through that glass door and see what's inside and if there is any indications of the origin of that star shaped crack. I take a beat to listen and see if there are any sounds that can be identified or seem abnormal.

 ------ MU-TH-UR

 The noise of crunching footprints can be heard as Jack walks from station control into the hanger. After searching through the dark hangar, Jack finds a doorway, with the sign next to it that reads. Engineering Control Sub Level 1 This sliding door is almost completely shut, except for a small gap of maybe an inch. They are powered doors, but they do not activate when getting close, and the door control panel seems to be powered off.

The radio chirps in..

The voice of Debrah is heard by everyone.I hope you do not treat the laddies in your life like this, and just leave them to pay the bill!

 The radio cuts in again, this time, its Peter. Well, I am not sure what happen on our approach to the station, but it wasnt a rock that struck the ship.. thats for bloody sure! I will be submitting a claim to you, Matt. This is over and beyond our contract expectations! The light beam from Matt's suit shines onto the Lab Access door. The shinny frozen water droplets sparkle. Looking at the glass, Matt can see that a larger crack is on the opposite side. It looks like something struck it.

 Beyond the crack, the light does not seem to penetrate very deeply into the access way, it all appears dark. But you can just barely make out a shape of something on the floor roughly 20 feet down the hallway.. but your light is not strong enough to really see what it is.

------ Matt

 Matt eyes the unidentified mass on the floor, notes the ice and surmises this is an environment to clear later. He surmises that room is in vacuum and if the hanger gets equalized, that's going to out a lot of stress on that crack in the window. Sterile, cool, electronic light from his helmet's interior highlights the furrow in his brow as he replies to Peter. "Peter, let me ask you a question: When our corporation decided to sign your contract, do you think the major deciding factor was your cost or your particular brand of work ethic?" I'll carefully head towards Jack's direction and enter the next area, keeping my sense alert for anything unusual -- other than a large, long abandoned derelict that no one has any knowledge of.

 ------ Jack

Jack squints through the dark crack in the door. He reaches out and tests the doors by pushing them a touch. Not enough to open them, but to see if the lack of power has left the hydraulics off. Once that is settled, Jack takes a step back to inspect the ground. He drops to a crouch, grimacing at the angry groan of his bad knee. He scans the ground looking for the source and nature of the crunch he heard walking through the hangar.

----- Bjorn

Bjorn surveys the room watching Jack head off to get try and get power back on. He moves up beside Matt as he investigates the crack in the glass. I say to Matt, "I don't know Matt, people don't just abandon stations for no reason. Something bad happened here. I don't like it." Not liking the situation I check my pistol and make sure it is ready before following Matt into the next area to find Jack.

 As he speaks, everyone feels a slight tremor rumble through the station.

 ----- Jack

 "Bjorn brings up a good point. What if someone went nuts and spaced everyone here? What if that psycho is still here?"

 ------

Meanwhile back on the Glorious,  Manni, has been assigned to stay behind and help Susan setup her portable lab equipment and assist her in what ever she needs. The hanger, if you want to call it that, is more of a medium sized room with a few cargo crates for supplies, large enough to hold two large cars side my side if this was a garage back home.

 Over the radio comms, you can here the conversations and comments from Debrah to Jack over the radio. Manni is moving a few crates to make space for some crazy gizmo for Susan when the outer airlock hisses open.

Looking up through the port hole, you can see Peter coming inside. The airlock does its normal equalization process and allows Peter to remove his helmet of his compression suit before opening. He can be heard complaining about some damage sustained as they were landing.. Peters face is a little pale, and he looks to be slightly confused.

 Manni, he barks.. Get your suit on, and get out there and help Tammy with what ever she needs.

The doctor here, nodding to Susan, will have to wait if she wants her toys set up.

The sound of the airlock disengaging, and the air getting sucked out of the room causes that sensation of being kicked in the stomach, but with out the pain. Manni steps outside onto the large barren surface of this asteroid, looking above you you can see other asteroids floating in the darkness of space. Its almost kind of disorienting but its an amazing sight to behold. Manni walks aft, to where the he was told to go.

The first thing Manni notices on the haul, is not damage from an impact of a rock, but rather weird splotchy patterns in the haul. In the gaps below you can see the exposed electronics, that are very apparently damaged. Seeing an open toolbox on the ground, placed near where the largest hole in the haul is found. Which is roughly the size of a football. But there are several of them, peppered along the length of the after section of the haul. But Tammy is no where to be seen.. 

---- Manni

Manni is awed by the site of the asteroids floating around. He can't believe the wonders he's seen since shipping out with the crew. So much better than being dirtside. He looks around the ship trying to see if he can see Tammy but when he can't he opens his comm,

"Tammy this is Manni, I'm out here on the hull and spotted your toolbox. Where are you at?"

 ----- Only the quiet hissing of static can be heard in reply. There is no response from Tammy Suddenly, a crack or fissure opens up underneath your feet, and a small burst of pressurized gas blows up from underneath your feet, nothing serious, just enough to give you a good start and to send the toolbag into the air about 10 feet. Tools going every where!

 ----- Manni Manni squeals as the pressurized gas blows up at him causing him to loose his balance. He's grateful that his fellow roughnecks aren't around to see hear his reaction. Manni then works his way over to the tool kit to try to collect as many of the tools as he can. "Tammy, where the hell are you?" He then changes his channel to talk to his captain. "Captain, I can't find Tammy out here! Can you pick her up on the sensors?"

 ------ MU-TH-UR

 Peter responds: What do you mean she is not there? She was standing right next to the aft thruster. He pauses for a second as he adjust his radio. Tammy, stop messing around! I want to get this fixed ASAP and you can sight see later.

Tammy, come in, over. There is no response from Tammy.

While standing near the aft thruster, Manni feels a sense of dread creep over you. And you begin to notice shadows flick and move around you. Although these shadows are being caused by hundreds of nearby floating asteroids, drifting through the belt. You keep getting the sensation that you are not alone out here.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of Alien: Lost Souls.

Play by Post: Alien: Lost Souls Part 1

Background: Alien Lost Souls

The FreeSpace Corporation is a small minor affiliated partner of Seegson. Seegson a major global corporation and an active competitor to Wheyland.

FreeSpace is contracted on occasion by Seegson, to perform sometimes less then above board operations that need a somewhat of a discreet touch in the corporate battleground. But in many of these cases, the contracted firms are not aware of the larger picture and in their minds, a job is a job.

This is just the case in this adventure.

FreeSpace Corp have hired the Small Tug vessel "The Glorious" to perform a survey mission in a small asteroid field just outside WY sphere of influence past the out rim worlds.

The crew of the Glorious consist of.
Peter (Officer)
Tammy (Pilot)
Jack (Roughneck)
Debrah (Roughneck)
Manni (Roughneck)


All three roughnecks are recently hired on to the crew, at typical bargain day rates. This lowest price as possible is typical for Peter and his most precious "Bottom line" This is the first trip for the roughnecks joining Peter and Tammy.

The Glorious is accompanied by 3 FreeSpace Corp Representatives.

Matt (Co Man)
Susan (Scientist)
Bjorn (Marshall)

The story will start in the later stages of the mission which so far as proved to be pointless and a huge waste of money for FreeSpace. It is only now, that the crew has discovered a weak signal coming from the backside of one of the asteroids in the field and are headed to investigate.