3X3 Far Out (Jomber, Inconspicuous, and Silence)

Silence

Silence

Anonymous Me
Journal Entry 1: Beginning the voyage.

Mike turned in his seat of the jumper craft. "Explore the galaxy they say...Aye a fine exploration it has been of the engine room in the mother ship." A grin came to his face. "So I made them bring me on this exploration trip and because it looks like we might have troubles getting out of this bog I stay here in the ship while the captain and...I don't remember his name go exploring. The only exploring I've done is..." The grin grew wider as he took note of the recorder sitting on the dashboard. "Time for my own journal entry."

Pushing the button he cleared his throat. "Ahem....Hmmm... Journal Entry 1. This is Mike Andrews the mechanic on board a ship sent to explore the unknown. Currently the puddle jumper is sitting in a puddle. The captain for all his perfection landed it here. I'm looking at the controls that he uses. They are pristine, like his teeth. Its a wonder that he risks to eat broccoli."

A sudden jolt commanded his attention and he quickly let his hand off the record button. "Aye what is this!" Throwing the back door to the craft open he saw panicked look on the other two's faces. "I'll get the engines going." Thankfully there wasn't a downstairs in something this small.

Cranking the bar to give power to the engine he yelled up toward the front. "Ready to go captain!" The closer they got to their own ship the more ominous it appeared. There was something terrible wrong with Jake. "You know I don't remember him looking like he had rabies when we left this morning." Mike pointed out the blonde fella standing near the docking bay for the puddle jumper.


@Jomber @Inconspicuous
 
Of course it was sent on the away team. It was the only expendable on the team. It didn't choose to be on this damn ship, rather, it was lent for free, like some kind of piece of property.

Well, Vessel might have looked like a robot at first glance, but it was in fact a cybernetic being. One that could be, for better or for worse, brought back from the brink. Any active teleporter link was a valid place to be thrown back into the fire.

What really didn't help with Vessel being considered expendable was its appearance. It was that of a humanoid shape, aside for having digitigrade legs. It only possessed two fingers and a thumb for each hand, and likewise, two front toes and a back toe for its feet. Its head was cylindrical, only containing a red lens with a white digital square representing an eye that nervously shifted back and forth. Most strange was the window on its chest, which revealed a purple beating heart.

Vessel didn't imagine too many people feeling sorry for his inevitable doom. It just... worked that way.

It jumped when the engineer, Mike, yelled for the captain. At least too bad had happened. At least, not yet.
 
"He's jealous. Can't you tell?" The Captain said arrogantly, grinning and showing off his impeccably white teeth. He sat down in the command seat, and pushed a few buttons seemingly at random. "Hey Jake, what's happening?" The blonde haired figure simply ignored the captain, walking towards the crew quarters. "He'll be back." He pushed a few more buttons, and the chair leaned back, as soft classical music began playing. "Mike, how much longer until we get out of here?" He asked, looking over at the engineer. He closed his eyes, humming softly to the music. He had a real name, but the crew usually just called him captain. He didn't mind that at all, of course.
 
(Ummmm they just left the island to return to the ship. Why is the captain talking about leaving again?)


Mike almost had to roll his eyes. Of course the captain was going to brag about his teeth. "Nothing to do with jealousy. Too much work to look like you do. Its unnatural. I'm talking about that crazed look." Didn't seem to matter what Mike pointed out. The entire main craft was becoming increasingly eerie as they moved the ship to its docking bay.

Then the captain like a ninny was asking when they could get out of the ship. "Well then get out. I don't care if you fall in the grease. It might do your hair some good. Let it be natural." Suddenly a crew member slammed into the side of the ship and started to gnaw at the windows. Gradually the pounding alongside the ship grew louder and louder. "Captain I think we ought to consider pulling the puddle jumper back out of bay here and get out. Crew has gone crazy."
 
Crazy was an understatement. At least the windows were resistant enough to sustain damage from conventional weapons, but there wasn't much of a way to get out safely. Vessel stayed put, grabbing at its blaster, just in case things got real hairy.

"Erm...", Vessel stuttered, "Yeah... w-we should leave. Then maybe c-call the station? S-see if this is a fluke?" After all, it could be just one stupid prank. The entire crew couldn't have gotten insane during a single mission.

"Heh... it has to be a f-fluke right?"
 
"Mike, I'm not a desk worker. Sure, my desk is the nicest on the ship, but sitting around doing nothing well I wait for the ship to get fixed isn't my thing. Besides, who enjoys paperwork anyways?" He said, not paying attention to Mike's remarks. It wasn't his fault that he was the best looking on ship, right? He then noticed the man trying to break the glass. "Relax Mike, this cockpit was designed to withstand a missi-" He was cut off by the sound of the glass cracking. It wasn't much, but the glass had cracked slightly. "Mike." He said, turning off the music and bringing the chair out of it's reclining position. "I thought you said this stuff was bulletproof." He glared accusingly at the engineer. More crew members were banging on the glass. It would take a while, but they would get through the glass if the three didn't hurry.
 
"Well excuse me!" Mike whipped around and stared at the captain. "I'm working fast as I can to get the engine on this little bugger reversed." There was no one half so irritating as his captain. Working frantically at turning the engine to reverse he muttered. "Do I have to be the only on here with brains? I thought captains were supposed to have some kind of smarts."

A sharp tink sounded and he knew exactly what that meant. Eyes a little wider yet he started the engine up again. "Well it is, but you're not bloody well looking at bullets now are you?" How simple did he have to make this whole thing for the captain. "Get moving with your little joysticks. Make sure to grab the right one you big dunce."
 
What a great dynamic they had. If the ship suddenly jumped forward because the Captain somehow managed to go forward, Vessel would not be surprised. Who was the Captain here anyway? The Engineer seemed to be barking most of the orders.

This was beginning to look less and less like some sort of elaborate prank. Smashing themselves against the ship in an attempt to scare the crew was one thing. Actually breaking the ship? That was a step too far. In fact, how did they manage to break the glass with their fists?

Vessel looked down itself. Well its chassis wasn't going to protect it very much if that was the case. Great. Just great. Not like that'd help in the current situation. If that window broke, everyone was dead, not just him.

"C-captain!? W-we're losing time!"
 
"I'm a tactician and navigator, not a tech guy." The captain said, pressing buttons on the chair. "Shut up Vessel. I don't need you to tell me we're almost out of time. Go get something to patch up that crack." The ship started to back out of the hangar, causing some of the insane crew to fall off. His expression was more serious now. "Mike, put some more power to the engines. We need to go faster."
 
Of course the captain was going to throw all of it to Mike. The engineer grabbed a grease gun and handed it to Vessel. "Put that over the crack. It'll harden and keep it from leaking air. Last thing we need is to lose pressure and suffocate." Always excuses and now the captain wanted to go faster. "Sir once I have the engines going you control the speed. Maybe if you'd adjust the thrust it would open the manifold in the back and allow for us to move more air. Therefore propel the machine forward." Even as they gained momentum he could hear something was going very wrong underneath.

"Vessel we've got a problem down here." Pointing to the floor board he stared at the other. "Suppose we got something under there? I can't afford for us to lose much pressure and we can't let it stay there either."
 
Vessel took the grease gun, giving it a brief look-over before nodding and heading towards the cracked window. It sprayed the window, thinking for a moment of how in the hell the grease was supposed to get on the other side of the window to the crack. Well, it was probably better not to question it. The situation was already tense, and questioning the ability of others was bound to end in failure.

Well then there was another problem, as Mike had pointed out.

"G-got it," Vessel said nervously, taking the grease gun with him below the panel.

It was dark underneath, but it could hear something up ahead.

Oh, it was just a broken fuel line. Nothing the gun couldn't fix- wait... what broke the fuel line?

"Ack!"

Dammit, one of those pests from the planet snuck in and was nibbling on various internals. This didn't bold well. Vessel started trying to smack the small creature in the darkness, while the thing clawed at its face with little effect.

"G-get it off!"
 
"English Mike!" The captain yelled, pulling the joystick further back. They were almost out of the hangar.

He heard Vessel screaming about something, but couldn't tell what it was. Then again, the thing- whatever he was, was usually screaming. Also, The Captain wasn't sure whether Vessel was a he or she, or something else completely different. Not that it mattered much to him.

The ship made some odd noises, and started to slow done. "Mike, something's wrong with the ship!" He shouted at the engineer. He pulled the joystick back even more, but to no effect. The ship had almost stopped, and the crazed crew was still clinging to it, banging away at the glass.
 
"You're supposed to know these parts captain. That thingy over there is the thrust!" Pointing to a small monkey bar type thing he then went back to his engine room. Below he could hear the banging and screaming. Opening the hatch he peered inside. "That's it Vessel you've nearly got him." Shutting the hatch again he sat on top of it to be sure that whatever it was underneath them wouldn't come up. Looked like a nasty fight.

Naturally the captain had to claim there was something wrong. "Aye there is captain. We've got a man eating something below that has taken a liking to some of the equipment. Feel free to frighten it with your unnatural smile." Mike remained seated for several more minutes at least until the fighting seemed to be over with. Outside there was still some banging. "I'll go down now." Nervously he picked up a wrench and opened the hatch to begin his descent. There was oil everywhere and the floor was slick with it. Eventually he came to two bodies laying near the fuel line.

Kneeling near Vessel the mechanic shook his head. "Agh...Oh laddie you look terrible. I wouldn't trade places with you for the world. This ship can't run without me as it is. I'm so sorry for all this. After I get the fuel line fixed I'll throw this nasty body out and see what I can do to patch you up."

Before he could fully examine the fuel line the intruder seemed to be coming alive. "Oh holy mother of..." Tying Vessel off to one of the pipes he then opened the hatch and allowed the other body to get sucked out into space. Closing the hatch again he blinked a few times. "I tink our crew was jes turn'd ta zombies." Mumbling along in his usual manner he worked at patching the line with a bit of mesh and some glue.

Soon as he finished the ship started into a free fall. "The thrust!" Yelling from the compartment he could only hope that the captain would do something about it. They needed more thrust now. Obviously enough had been put forth to get them out of the mother ship and away from immediate danger. Now he needed something to keep them flying. In time it leveled out and he pushed the hatch door open. In his arms he helped support Vessel. "I'm afraid he got a little torn up." Mike couldn't tell many of the various wires sticking to Vessel apart from damage. It all looked the same to him. He was never one to trust another's word when it came to these sorts of things. Had it been the captain it would be murder to get dirty.
 
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(OOC: I'd prefer if you had less control over my character. I specifically said the creature had little effect, since Vessel has a chassis and all.)

Vessel was relatively fine, just a bit dazed. Turns out the fuel sprayed all around made the damage worse that it seemed. That and during the fight Vessel managed to catch itself in a mix of wire and tubes before having Mike tie him up even more and then ejecting everything out to space.

"I-I'm fine... but... t-thanks."

Wait a minute. Was that thing infected beforehand? Why'd it turn now? That wasn't a good sign.
 
The Captain heard Mike yell something about the thrust. He ran over to to the pipe and saw a bunch of "...Levers." He pulled a few at random, and steam shot out of one of the valves. After a few more tries, he managed to do something, he wasn't sure what, to stabilize the ship.

He saw Mike and Vessel pop up out of the service hatch. "What happened down there? Whatever it was, we're safe n-" He couldn't finish, because the ships AI interrupted him, saying "Warning: unknown vessel detected"

The Captain ran over to the command chair and sat down. "All hands on deck!" He said into the intercom, before he realized that all hands were on deck.

Behind them was The Flying Dutchman , the ship they had just left. In front of them a big black ship with a skull and crossbones painted on it. "Pirates" he muttered under his breath. "Battle stations!"
 
Mike was more preoccupied with the thought of how the repairs were going to hold up. He hadn't the time to answer the captain before it was suddenly a call for all men on deck. On a little ship like this he could hear well enough. Cringing he simply looked over at the captain and then Vessel. Didn't appear to Mike that they had anyone else and if they did he was concerned.

Jumping up from his spot he did go to see what all the fuss was about. "Oh that's a great one. We've got two guns." Mike sat down at the most complicated set of guns. He didn't see the reason to get the others confused. "Captain I need you to fly like never before. Don't want to use the guns unless we have to. It drains the power." Glancing to the other Mike yelled. "Vessell you've got the rears!"
 
Vessel started trying to rip the various wires off of him, picking up the pace when the Captain yelled for battle stations. It had doubts of whether a small dinky ship like theirs was combat-fit, especially with all the damage already done. Vessel had a feeling that there would be a lot of running around making emergency repairs while trying to shoot down anything that drew near. This day was just getting better and better.

It scrambled towards the rear guns, throwing aside more pieces that were stuck on itself. While Vessel wasn't the greatest shot in the world, it certainly had experience firing back at aggressors who wanted to scrap the poor cyborg. With the threat in front of the ship, Vessel didn't have much to shoot at. Of course unless the pirates had fighters ready to deploy, but if that was the case, then they were really screwed. But surely pirates had little in the way of actually gaining such firepower, right? That was tempting fate.

"Ready to f-fire!"
 
The Captain pulled the joystick back as far as it could go, and the ship rocketed away. "Let's get out of here!" They had almost gotten away when the ship started to slow down. "I thought you fixed this thing Mike!" Then he realized: The pirates had tractor beams. "Mike, transfer all power to engines! We need more speed!"
 
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There was no winning this. Mike barely sat down and already the captain was yelling at him. Jumping up from his seat he raced for the back engines. "How about you put the ship to autopilot and start gunning. I've got a feeling we're gonna need it." True it would drain some power, but the power wouldn't matter if they weren't around. "I'm changing the power from life support. Ship has enough to last approximately half hour without it pouring in. We'll be going off reserves."

Hooking up a small pad he examined the reserves before actually carrying through with it. Grabbing one wire he pulled it from the reserves and put into an extra slot for power to the machine. "Ready when you are...Oh wait one other thing. I've a got manual setting on this here that will enhance the fuel performance. I'll need to go down into the basement to fix it." Didn't matter if it was actually a basement or not. Charging down under the hatch he took a deep breath. The fuel pump could handle the extra pressure. What he wondered about was the strength of the repair. "Here goes nothing." Turning the knob on the pump he yelled back to the captain. "Give her all you got!"
 
Well this was hell in a hand basket. They were turning off the life support just so they could have a chance of living. Is that irony? Vessel wasn't sure. Not that it mattered. To top it all off, of course the Captain was now in charge of using the most complicated of the weapons. On the bright side, Vessel still didn't have anything to shoot at. It seemed the pirates wanted to take the ship as a whole rather than blow up the entire thing up. After all, they get more scrap and prisoners if they leave the ship intact. It wasn't like they posed a threat or anything. Vessel wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"T-they don't seem to be f-firing."
 
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