Re: Into the Black « Result #1 on Dec 1, 2009, 11:12pm »
There was a moment when the Titan ship was fully visible through the forward viewpane. Its clean lines cut through the silent void of space; it was such an unnatural construct, and yet-- had Nyx looked up to see it--she would have found it strangely beautiful.
She didn't see it, of course. Her focus during that brief moment in time was solely on rerouting power to the engines. Perhaps, if she had looked up, if she had felt the stirring of longing the image would have sparked, she would have hesitated. As it was, she did not look up. She did not see the ship as it hung dead in space, and she certainly did not hesitate. -
Four hours to... safety?
The idea flickered in and out of her mind within a moment, registering consciously, but only just. The ship they had come from was larger and held more firepower than they had any hopes of matching.
For the moment, it was also under her control.
'In any battle situation, the duty of the programmer is to eliminate the enemy as a threat.'
She felt no remorse when she cut all power in the larger ship. - Looking out of the viewpane as the ship passed out of view, an observer would have seen all of the ship's running lights go dark in the moment the code was executed. Those with any knowledge of Titan construction knew that the outage was fixable, but tedious and time consuming. Four hours would be more than enough time for the outdated transport to reach Rebel space. - It's done.
Nyx swallowed and let her shaking hands fall still on the console. She felt chilled, lightheaded, and slightly ill. Beneath the surface, a vague impression of violence struggled to breach her conscious mind.
It wasn't me. That could not have been me.
The impression refused to fade, and a moment later she was fighting down another wave of horrified nausea. the thingypit was eerily silent. She felt her lips moving, but didn't realize she had spoken until the words were hanging in the air.
Re: Into the Black « Result #2 on Sept 20, 2009, 11:39pm »
Sora stayed at the helm, all but ignoring the lights. He assumed that Nyx would take care of it. The ship, and getting away- those were his responsibilities. He pushed the ship as far as he could. He had to keep the stupid thing going before pursuit could be arranged. He dumped the cargo from the ship to try and hamper people from following. He also set the two pathetic mines the ship had behind the ship.
He looked over at where he thought Nyx was. "Nyx, I've done all I can do. The rest is up to you. We'll be safe in 4 hours." Four hours.
A lot could happen in four hours. Indeed a lot.
He looked down at his console, watching it for incoming. If they had incoming, then they wouldn't have much chance to fight it. They would be blown to smithereens. Quickly. Without any chance at all.
Re: Into the Black « Result #3 on Sept 17, 2009, 8:37pm »
She braced herself against the dull roar of the engines; the blast of brief inertia before the dampeners kicked in on the decrepit husk of a ship.
Her fingers darted across the keyboard; the movements calculated, measured. No energy was wasted here. Administrative access wrested from the helm. Communications jammed. Shields disabled. Weapons on their way to shutdown.
The computer responded somewhat sluggishly after the speed of the portable, which was a model she hadn't seen before. New, she thought, but there was no time to examine it.
A beep from the handheld computer alerted her to the machinations of the...
enemyallyprisonhome
...ship they were only just departing. The shell that she and the...
friendannoyanceenemyally
...captain were riding in was still hooked up to Titan's control. Carefully, she brought up the necessary codes, keeping the operating system for now, but removing the the ship from the network. The lights flickered; she spared a quick glance to the screen and checked the power.
...not enough. Let the lights go out. Shutdown all unnecessary systems, let essentials go to backup. Check the power again, still going to be close, but maybe.
In the dim light from the screen, she couldn't see her hands anymore. Why didn't she want to see them? She couldn't remember.
Don't think about--
Focus. Survive. Complete the missiondecisionescapesimulation.
The ship shuddered again, she fed it more power, shutting down life support in the sparse, tiny excuse for living quarters after sealing off the bridge. The ship's power boosted into a better range, but she kept an eye on it. They were going to make it out. They had to make it out.
Re: Into the Black « Result #4 on Sept 4, 2009, 9:55pm »
He chuckled as Nyx got the door open. She probably would never fail to amaze him- such talent, probably much of it still latent. He couldn't believe how easy this was for her. He smiled as she got onto the ship. Taking a look around, he wrinkled his nose. The Titans were too clean. On the other hand, maybe Nyx would like it. He shrugged.
They entered the bridge- unlike his ship, everything was in order. The stations were all where he expected it to be. As Nyx worked on getting the power on, he made his way over to the captain's chair, and when the power flared into life, he quickly rerouted firing control, engines, and shields to his console. He quickly directed the charging of weapons and got the engines warmed up.
Then the bay doors opened.
Without looking up, he said, "You're amazing Nyx." He slowly pulled up, and the ship was off the ground. Around this point, Titans began pouring into the bay, following them. But the ship was already up, no chance. He blasted into space. He came about, weapons bared. "Just disable for now. Jam their com." He took aim, blazing a shot straight at their engines. The ancient weapons were pathetic in comparison to his normal ones, but this ship had no chance at this close range. The engines on the other ship suddenly went silent, before exploding into light. They burned the fuel in them... definitely disabled.
He came about, and went as fast as the piece of crap could go towards rebel space.
Re: Into the Black « Result #5 on Sept 3, 2009, 12:03am »
She saw him hesitate, watched him stare at the barely moving form on the floor. Her mind scrambled for a name to put with that shockingly white hair, that fine boned form, but failed. There was something in the way that the captain's body tensed, though, something nauseating about that terribly unfamiliar scent in the air...
She followed him to the armory, replacing blocks on the codes when the portable chirped its warning. Such a disloyal little machine it was, warning her so; perhaps it wasn't not so disloyal. It was, after all, just a tool. It worked for whomever played the proper tune.
Another disturbing line of thought. Her sticky hands clasped the bitterly cold metal of the pistol. It was like liquid nitrogen to her, so cold it nearly burned. The other thing had burned the same way, that instrument of--
The captain was speaking; asking if she could get them inside the dessicated hunk of metal that was their transport. Of course I can, she wanted to hiss. It's elementary. She didn't speak, though. It was as if her tongue were frozen in her mouth, numb; as if her vocal cords had lost the ability to flex and vibrate.
She jacked the portable into the port by the door, running a codebreaker to get them inside. It didn't take long, only a minute, really. Then they were inside. Their boots echoed unnaturally against the darkened hull of the interior.
The bridge was where she expected it to be. The positioning of the programmer's station just the same as it was on any standardized vessel. She settled in, abandoning the portable for the moment to breathe the spark of life into the sleeping ship.
Light flared into existence, bathing them both starkly in the fluorescence. Her breathing hitched slightly at the sight of her hands, of the sticky, flaking redness that was shed onto everything she touched.
White labcoat, vanishing in a flurry of violence.
Cascading over the screen, the code forced her to focus on the moment. She was still hooked into the Titan ship's systems, but that would do for the interim. She would need to keep them down, while getting the captain and herself out of the situation.
Re: Into the Black « Result #6 on Sept 2, 2009, 11:35pm »
Sora hardly heard Nyx, his attention focused on his previous captor. He wanted to kill this man, but knew he had to leave him. He didn't have time for the proper channels, and he wasn't going to just kill him here. He'd have to wait.
He looked over at Nyx after a few moments. "Alright then."
He stared at the body of Silas for a moment, then turned to leave it, reluctant- the job was not done.
He looked at Nyx, and gave her a silent nod of thanks. He knew this was all her doing. He'd be dead without her.
That deserved promotion at least. He grinned.
He reached into Silas's pocket to grab a key. "We should stop by the armory first." It was handily located not far from their location, and so he ran there just ahead of Nyx. He grabbed a small rifle, and then tossed Nyx a pistol. He had no idea if she could shoot, so it was best to give her something small.
After that, he checked the stolen device, and made way for the docks. It was easy enough to find, and the ship was not guarded. It was just a small ship after all. Not important. It was truly a hunk of junk though, and he hated leaving the Twilight behind...
He sighed, and knocked on the thing. "You can get us inside, right?" He turned to cover his programmer, towards the dock bay.
Re: Into the Black « Result #7 on Sept 2, 2009, 11:18pm »
Tap... taptaptap...tap... of her fingers against a keypad, moving with alternating bursts of speed. The steady entry of passcodes was hindered only by her own mind's fragmented structure.
She focused on breaking the seal on the cellblock, ignoring the fact that her fingers were splattered with slowly drying stains, sticking ever so slightly to the keys.
The door swished open.
She stood silhouetted in the hallway for long moments, not quite absorbing the scene in front of her. Even after several seconds of the stillness, it wasn't quite clicking into place as reality.
There was a man slumped against the wall, curled, actually. His white hair stood out starkly against the darkness, set aglow by the soft radiance of the emergency lighting.
White labcoat--Dark liquid spurting over her hands--the taste of copper somehow sparking in her mouth, upon her lips...
The man's hand clenched, pale fingers scrabbling weakly against the bulkhead. Not dead...
There was an odd scent in the air, she tried to ignore it.
Her eyes darted to the other figure, taller than herself, his balding head set aglow in the same way as that of the man on the floor. The mercenary captain, her mind supplied. The instigator, the catalyst. The portable chirped quietly in her hand. A code had been bypassed. She glanced down, sealed the bridge off again.
As if from another person's ears, she heard herself speak. "It's time to go. There's a small transport docked, at the moment. We should be able to commandeer it without too much trouble."
Re: Into the Black « Result #8 on Aug 31, 2009, 12:47am »
Suddenly, pain stopped.
His brain was not so quick to trust. This had happened before, and when it had awakened, the only thing that changed was that the pain would begin again in a different location. After a few moments, it felt the restraints disappear.
Curious.
It decided to investigate. Sora opened his eyes, looked around. He saw that, indeed, he was free. That Silas's machine was apparently off. That the emergency lights were lighting the area. What the hell had happened? He couldn't think correctly. Was it... maybe a rebel attack? Disable the ship? Possible, but he wasn't sure how. They'd just bring them in the same way. How would this work?
He thought a few more seconds- then it came to him.
Silas was in fear. He would not fear anything expected, and rebels were expected. It must be Nyx.
Sora, feeling strength return to him at this knowledge, pulled himself off the wall to his feet. He stood nearly a head taller than his former captor. He looked down at him with blazing blue eyes, and said, "Silas, I've been waiting for this."
He slammed his fist harshly into Silas's gut, punching up, under the ribs, into the lungs- as he did this, he took a step forward, putting more force into the blow, throwing Silas back, out of the cell, into the wall on the other side of the hallway. Just then, the door at the end of the hallway opened, to reveal...
Re: Into the Black « Result #9 on Aug 18, 2009, 11:42pm »
They walked her through pale corridors, starkly shining steel, and the brilliance of artificial lighting set into the walls. Variables swirled madly in her mind, inevitably settling in the path that she knew she was going to follow.
Why the heck am I doing this? What's he done to gain this favor?
She didn't know the answer to her own questions. She refused to look deeply enough to know, but she couldn't bring herself to act without a reason.
What has he done that makes him different?
The Titans had trained her, practically raised her after her father committed treason. They had given her access to the best education available for someone of her inclinations, had allowed her to skip over courses she didn't need, had given her a means of supporting herself and her mother in orbit.
Her mother, the traitor. Her mother, who only wanted to escape from what she saw as tyranny. Her mother, who grew attached to an ideal that was never hers.
Was she doing this for the same reasons that her mother had fled with the Rebel Spy? Was she becoming the woman she swore to cut ties with?
Why am I doing this?
They entered the sliding doors of the medical bay. A woman, presumably the doctor, met them at the doorway. She had a forgettable face, and was dressed all in white. Momentarily distracted from her thoughts, Nyx focused in on her.
"I got the call," She said pleasantly. "I'll take it from here." The guards started to argue, but the woman's face turned stern. "No weapons in the bay. Besides, it's not as though she's dangerous. This is one of our sisters. She's just been lost for a long time." The woman slung an arm around Nyx, drawing her inside.
She was directed to a cot against the far wall, while the doctor busied herself at the counter. "Don't worry, I just have to run a few tests. We can't have any diseases ravaging the crew, can we?" Something in the woman's voice rang false. Unease thrilled through her as she glanced at a monitor above her cot. The language--possibly Latin or something similar--was unfamiliar to her, but the aerial image of a human brain was not. For now the image was dark, but she could see wires hooked to the cot.
Her thoughts spiraled. Something was wrong. The woman doctor's entire manner was wrong. No doctor she'd ever seen ever acted like this. Despite her reassurances to the guards, the woman was treating her very carefully, as if afraid to startle her.
Her unease tripled, blossomed into something else when the woman turned around again. She was holding a tray with a syringe in plain sight. Accompanying the injection were cotton balls and a dish of rubbing alcohol. The doctor moved carefully to sit across from Nyx. Fight-or-flight instincts bubbled to the surface.
"This won't hurt at all, now," the doctor said as she grasped Nyx's left arm. She cleansed the site with rubbing alcohol. It's just a precaution... sometimes people have a bad reaction to the booster vaccine..."
The doctor was lying. Her eyes had shifted away as she spoke, her throat had rippled with a dry swallow, and now she was reaching for the sedative--
Nyx panicked. Her hand darted toward the needle.
There was a tussle of movement, a brief struggle, a flash of metal in the fluorescent light of the medical bay, and Nyx found herself recoiling.
Oh God... there was so much blood...
The lady doctor was dead on the floor, blood gushing from her torn throat. It was spattered over everything. Her hands, her cloths, her face, the cot...
Nyx realized that the syringe was clenched in her hand. Trembling, she forced her fingers, white from strain, to release it. It clinked lightly as it fell to the floor.
The doctor was dead.
She couldn't keep thinking about it. She could already feel madness tearing at the edges of her thoughts. She couldn't afford to lose it now.
She swallowed hard, numbly moving toward the computer. She was in in minutes, following old paths long ingrained in memory.
Why did I do that? Why am I still doing this? What did he do differently?
Dimly, she felt an answer rising to the surface of her thoughts, but her mind refused to interpret it, and the feeling receded. She looped the cameras in the medical bay, covering her own tracks first, but she knew that it had been seen. Her time was limited.
She sealed off communications, then the routes to her location, firewalling them with an ease she hadn't seen in years. Were Titan codes so far behind? Or was it just because she had designed so many? She didn't know. She didn't care. She continued locking people into their current locations, cutting all access to the main halls.
Next she cut power to the cell block. Lights went out, restraints disappeared, and one cell door opened.
She stopped wondering why she was doing this. The body behind her would drive her mad if she did.
There was a portable computer nearby, capable of jacking into a terminal aboard ship. She checked that it was adequate for her needs, then proceeded to leave the medical bay, opening and closing access as she required to pass through.
The adrenaline was wearing off, and she stumbled a few times, leaving bloody hand prints on the walls. She made a point of ignoring them.
The cell block was just ahead. The white-clad, bloody image of the doctor floated through her mind, tearing at her sanity.
Why was she doing this?
What was worth this?
She didn't know. ***
Silas had only paused for a moment to inspect the wound he had made, tracing it almost lovingly with a pale finger. He took great satisfaction in seeing how close he was to breaking the man. He set the instrument in place again, fully intending to hear this prisoner scream before the end, when his communicator buzzed in his pocket.
He considered ignoring it, but it buzzed even more insistently. He picked it up with annoyance, but when he flipped it open again there was no signal. A frown creased the skin between his brows, a thrill of unease racing up and down his spine.
Distantly, he could hear the clang of doors shutting. He looked at the communicator again, then up at the lights. They flickered once, then faded, leaving reddish emergency lighting from the hallway. Fear boiled in his skull as he watched the cell door slide open. From behind him came the sound of the prisoner's restraints retracting back into the wall.
Re: Into the Black « Result #10 on Aug 18, 2009, 10:32pm »
As he burned up his arm, the flesh became more and more sensitive, but less and less vital. He kept trying to keep the mantra going in his mind. It was hard sometimes. This bastard. He knew how to inflict pain in ways that were beyond comprehension. He didn't even open his mouth now, refusing to do anything at all. He breathed in and out through his clenched teeth, and twitched freely now.
His eyes bored into the eyes of Silas, showing him his mental fortitude this time. He wouldn't scream, not now! He couldn't!
He closed his eyes, clenching them shut. He would simply have to deny reality. The reality that his arm was screaming at him to scream out in pain, that his brain was screaming at his arm to shut up, that he was going to die, that he was twitching, that he may pass out from forcible shock soon, that if he was burned badly enough, he would not be useful even if he lived, that nothing was ever going to feel better, that he killed Old Red's family, that he failed to protect Nyx, that he had no wife or child, that the whole world was crazy.
He lost track of reality after he closed his eyes.
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