Chapter One: Deep Space Music

[Kunanaki]

Thorchan listen intently to what the scientist was saying. When she mentioned going to action he had to put away all the other thing he had just seen. As Professor Paternoster turn and went away he quickly grabbed his portable mic and said " Attention everyone from my crew. We are going hot. Repeat, we are going hot. Get your asses back on the ship and ready to rock and roll. Flyboy, I want that shuttle out of the hanger bay the moment I step on. Anyone who arrives to the shuttle after me will not be invited to the party. That means you laughing boy." He turns to Alice and tells her "Im sorry but we have to leave NOW! Please tell me we have everything you need because we have officially run out of time. Each minute passed right now is an inch closer to failure of the mission and possibly death. I don't need a PhD to know we are in some serious shit right now. So what's it going to be little girl? "

[CarcerKango]

Jake was already in the cockpit, warming up the reactor. "Engine's hot, ready to go," he reported. He'd look at that damage on the wing later, there were more pressing matters to be dealt with. He activated the bay door remotely and it swung open. After a moment, he asked, "Weapons free?"

[Kunanaki]

Thorchan brings up the mic again. " Sure, why not. Not really sure what to expect so let's expect the worse."

[Akirapryde]

Alice glanced down at her shoulder bag, “I think…..Maybe….” she answered with uncertainty in her voice. She quickly shifted her body and pulled up her shoulder bag up towards her chest for a better look. She flipped open the flap and started to shift the things around. She moved through the things in her shoulder bag double checking everything. “yeah, I…..I think I have everything” she answered but in the back of her mind, she wasn’t completely sure.

The crew arrived back at the shuttle and boarded it just as the main hanger doors start to open. Within seconds the shuttle was on its way back to the ark. The distance between the party and the ark started to tick away. As the crew were strapped in to their seats behind Jake, he was going through the basics of piloting the shuttle. It wasn't a hard thing to do. They weren't in combat so it was basically fly a straight line. However his mind raced. Things were not adding up. On his short range sensors, he could see the Kellington as the shuttle continued its approach to the ark. The five hundred meter long Jumpship hung over the star with it’s over kilometer wide sail still fully deployed. For a pilot like Jake, this was strange. If the Kellington was preparing to jump out of system, the sail should have been stored or at least in the middle of being safely stored away prior to the jump taking place. The sail was vital to the ship being able to recharge its massive K-F Drive. Loosing the sail would be a critical issue for the jumpship.

The mystery continued when Jake's sensors reported six small returns speeding away from the Jumpship. The trajectory of the objects and the repeating signal emanating from the objects told Jake that the objects were escape pods. But there was no reason to explain why the escape pods of the Invader Class Jumpship had been jettisoned. For what Jake could tell, the Jumpship was not damaged or in danger. As Jake scanned the Jumpship, he already knew that the Sckicksal had disconnected from the larger ship. The only ship still connected to the Jumpship was the Ark.

To make matters worse, strange magnetic anomalies were starting to make piloting a test of Jake’s abilities. It was if waves of force were attempting to slow the small craft down or risk tossing it off course. These waves were tossing the small craft up and down and side to side like a child. The waves were becoming more intense and more frequent.

Then all of a sudden Jake's headset came to life. “Straker… Sckicksal here,” the voice of Julian Rothbauer calling to Jake personally. Julian Rothbauer was one of the few members of the Merc unit that didn’t have a military background. Julian took to space like most people take to walking and breathing. The man was a natural at feeling his way through space travel. Hired because of this natural ability, Julian’s role with the outfit was as the Executive Officer of the Sckicksal. Jake could hear Rothbauer’s voice through the headphones of his helmet, which was strange that the communication was taking place like this. It only took a glance from Jake to see that the transmission was coming over a secured ship to ship channel.

Unlike the outfit’s personal communicators, which were non-secured, this channel was heavily encrypted to prevent others from ease dropping. It is normally only used during combat situations. At the moment, only Jake and the Schicksal knew the nature of this conversation. While not completely out of the ordinary, normally the Captain would order that communications be changed to a secured channel. However Rothbauer must have felt the situation had changed enough to make the call himself.

Over the channel Jake could hear the sounds the Schicksal’s bridge crew rushing through their task getting the ship ready for combat. Back aboard the Schicksal were nearly twenty other members of the outfit. The twelve member crew of the Schicksal and seven support personal made up the rest of the merc outfit. “Straker, I have you on our sensors. You are five by five with no hostiles in your neighborhood. I got the Captains orders and the techs are getting the mechs ready for deployments as we speak. Let the Captain know that they will be ready when you get here.” There was a pause as the sounds of the Schicksal became muffled. It was if Rothbauer was moved away from the others and covered the mic to speak more…privately.

Rothbauer continued, “Orion Station said that there are raiders on approach but we can’t find them on our search sensors. A few moments ago, the comms went dead with the Kellington. Now we see escape pods from the Jumpship. Straker, do you guys know what the hell is going on?”

It didn’t take much more to convince the rookie pilot that nothing was making sense about what was going on. He turned around in his seat to see the six passengers aboard his shuttle all strapped in to their seats. Alice was going through her bag with a look of concern on her face. It was clear to anyone that she was just as confused at the situation as everyone else was. Jake’s eyes fell upon Lyona who was still playing with her noteputer and headphones. Her eyes seemed to be peering through the bulkhead of the shuttle as if looking through a window in to another word. Her fingers played over the noteputer as if she was dialing in something……

Echoing in Lyona’s ears was the voice of a man sounding like he was giving a speech of some kind. It was sketchy as if she was listening to an old radio transmission. “With communities and families no longer divided, let us never forget that it is what we have in common that give us the strength to build tomorrow. Let us never forget that we are one people, one community, and one world.” As her fingers dialed in the sound more clearly, she could hear a thousand voices overlapping. As the shuttle continued its flight towards the ark, Lyona was finding it easier to pick a voice and clear up the distortion and make it barely audible.

OOC Narrator Notes: I will give Jake and Lyona three questions that can be asked about this post. Jake your questions must be from your character’s perspective. Lyona the same goes for your character. Everyone else will get to ask one question. However please make sure that you help each other out. Offer up suggestions on our KIK Group Chat for which questions should be asked. Anyone can ask any question they want as long as it is within the scope of what their character would know. Asking these questions could make all the difference in what your group knows going in to the next chapter.

If you are not on the KIK chat, KIK me at Akirapryde2006 and let me know who you are. There are between one and three Narration Posts left in this chapter. If you don’t have a character sheet up or need help with your character sheet please let me know. Also, at the end of this Chapter I will be awarding Adventure Points (AKA XP) and Skill Points in my final post for this chapter. AKIRA

[CarcerKango]

"I'm detecting a large mass visible on electromagnetic scanners," said Jake quietly into the mic, not wanting to panic anyone. "Can't see it on visuals, but it seems to be upwards of 170,000 tons. Can't get a lock on it. Are you getting this too, sir?"
He continued to fly, being buffeted briefly by another wave of force. He warmed up the shuttle's lasers...just in case. He muttered a curse as he swerved wildly on the crest of another shockwave, kicking the maneuvering thrusters up a notch to regain control for the time being.
While waiting for a reply, he relayed the requested message to the Captain.

[Akirapryde]

The interference in Jake’s headset continued to grow as the small craft attempted to make its way towards the ark, “Straker, This is Orion Observatory,” the soft voice of a female echoed over the intercom. Everyone on the small craft could hear what the woman was saying. While there was some interference, it wasn’t so much that someone couldn’t understand what was being said. “Straker, you have come to a standstill. Is there something wrong?” the woman’s voice questioned. It was clear that there was stress in her voice.

A moment later a male voice interjected, “You have to reach the ark. You need to get those engines going and reach the ark at all costs. Is that clear” It sounded a lot like Professor Angsoft. It didn’t take Jake long to realize that his engines were pushing the red zone as he was fighting his way through the waves. They used up nearly half of their fuel already on a trip that should have only used a small fraction. Two massive shutters told everyone in the craft that something was going terribly wrong.

As everyone in the shuttle was being made aware of the crisis they were in the middle of, Jake’s headphones came alive again, “Straker,” it was the voice of Julian Rothbauer back on the Sckicksal. “Our sensors are all over the place here. Some kind of interference……” His voice faded out as the interference grew louder in Jake’s ears. There was another voice, a voice that Jake couldn’t recognize but heard the voice with clarity. “This is Captain Albaf, All hands abandon ship. The K-F Drive is overloading! ABANDON………..”

It wasn’t what Jake heard that drew his attention from his controls and piloting. It was what was before him in his main window. At first it appeared to be a large fog bank slowly taking shape. But within seconds that large fog bank slowly became solid. Between the Mark VII shuttle and the Schicksal was a massive Jumpship. The large Comstar markings on the haul of the ship told Jake that it was a Comstar Explorer Corps ship. The ship was massive and covered the entire front window. Jake’s attention was snapped back to piloting when his anti-collision alerts went off.

For Captain Thorchan Eraden, his side window had another horrifying image. He could make out the Schicksal next to the massive Comstar ship. However parts of his dropship were now touching the Comstar ship. It was if the two ships had become one strange ship. He could also see bright blue beam pulsating from the Orion Station and hitting the Jump sail of both Jumpships. The blue energy worked its way down the tethers of the sails towards both Jumpships giving them a strange blue glow.


(OOC: Everyone now knows that something horrible is going on. Anyone can see the large ship in the main view screen or on the side windows. It’s impossible to miss. While everyone can see the strange blue glow at this moment and until he points it out, only Captain Eraden is aware of the beam and the condition of the Schicksal. If you have questions please PM me or use the questions thread. When I get back from my vacation on Monday night I will work on a next post. Please make sure that you have something up before then. End OOC)

[CarcerKango]

Jake whispered to himself, "Holy shit..." as he snap-rolled to evade the incoming objects. /Explorer Corps,/ he thought to himself. /What are they doing here?/ Not wanting to draw attention to the shuttle, he refrained from hailing the newcomer. Instead, he moved to skirt below it, avoiding detection.

[Akirapryde]

It was one thing to avoid detection from the larger Jumpship, but for our hero pilot avoiding the massive Jumpship that appeared nearly on top of his small shuttle was a completely different story. It took plenty of skill to slipped the shuttle in to an inverted dive under and around the Jumpship. Once the shuttle was safe within its maneuver, Jake was able to breathe a sigh of relief. It was only then that he noticed his targeting radar wasn’t detecting the massive ship just above the shuttle. He could see the ship and his magnetic sensors told him that the ship was there, but according to the radar, it simply wasn’t there.

Jake shifted his eyes up and down the ship as if to search the area for himself. Jake’s mind told him that the ship was there. He could see it plain as day. However, the radar didn’t detect anything around him. Nothing, not his own dropship or the Kellington. As the shuttle moved further under the Jumpship, a lone dropship attached to the Comstar ship came in to view. The ship was Fortress Class combat dropship. Clearly modified to be larger than a standard Fortress, Jake could see a pair of Sub-Capital Cannons near the nose of the massive dropship. It was an unusual pairing for Comstar, but not unheard of. Dodging a group of antennas coming from the Jumpship, Jake was able to see the name of the dropship. It was called the “Prince of Wales”.

As Jake continued his closer than desired pass on the Comstar ships, he saw a partially open hanger door on the Jumpship. The doors were in a strange position, but it allowed Jake to see in to the hanger. There were ground crews that were clearly visible to Jake’s eyes. He could make out their white Comstar uniforms and even tell their hair color at this range. As the Mark VII shuttle passed, Jake searched the hanger and found it strange that the ground crew seemed to be frozen in place. He could see one of them in midair as if leaping from a small nearby tug. The crewmember didn’t fall or floated away. He just hung there in the air as if frozen in time. There seemed to be an expression of urgency on their faces. A set of red lights glowed but didn’t flash across the hanger.

It was the first warning that something was wrong, then it was gone! Just as Jake was looking at the scene in the Comstar Hanger, the Comstar Jumpship seemed to pull away from the shuttle. It appeared to move as if an angry child snatched the ship away from the shuttle. There were violent jolts and shutters as the ship started to move further away. Suddenly it became clear that the ship was shrinking away towards the Kellington or where the Kellington used to be. As the Comstar Jumpship vanished in to nothing, Jake saw that everything else around the shuttle was also gone. The Kellington, the Sckicksal, the escape pods, the Comstar Jumpship, everything around the shuttle were GONE!

Before Jake could even think about the situation, the Mark VII shuttered violently without warning. The shuttle tumbled in the same direction that the Comstar ship had moved. The shuttle shuttered with so violence that there were sounds of groaning and metal twisting. Jake was slammed back against his seat with so much force that his hands slipped from the controls. The shuttle tumbled and shuttered as if it was falling from the sky. Jake could feel the changes of force upon his body.

As if the force upon Jake’s body and the confusion wasn’t enough, the flight deck of the shuttle became flooded with swirling cascade of lights and shadows. The lights and shadows danced across the cockpit viewing windows of the shuttle nearly blinding Jake. Through the lights and shadows, Jake was able to make out the massive form of the Comstar Jumpship near by the shuttle. It was the only thing Jake could zero his vision on through the lights and shadows.

To confuse the situation, the atmosphere flight indicators confirmed that the ship was falling. The Magnetic compass, the artificial horizon, and the heading indicator all spun and flipped around reflecting that the shuttle was falling from the sky. But it was impossible as this was deep space. Jake searched for some measure of sense from his flight instruments, but found none.

Instead, sparks erupted across the flight control panel as the shuttle let out a deep groan. The force pulling at Jake was so much that it took nearly all of his effort just to move his hands back to the flight controls. His training kicked in and he trusted his instincts. Hs craft was falling and he had to bring the ship under control if he was to save the shuttle and its occupants.

Taking breaths were hard as he struggled with the controls. It felt like a twenty ton mech standing on his chest. Jake’s head was forced back against the headrest and the rush of blood nearly caused him to black out. It was the kind of G’s that no pilot ever wanted to experience in any given situation, let alone like this one. But Jake was focused, he had to bring the craft under control.

Despite the thoughts running through his mind, he couldn’t help but wonder if this was the result of a misjump. Jake had known about them in training, but luckily had never experienced one before. He knew that they were the source of nightmares to space pilots. While misjumps are typically destructive to the ship they could easily turn deadly in a blink of an eye. This had to be a misjump, but he never heard of any kind of misjump with this level of radius.

The craft started to fill like it was slowly getting under control. While he could feel the pressure lifting off his chest a bit, it was still so very hard to breathe. His Flight Instruments started to reflect what his body was telling him. The fall was slowly coming under control. Jake scanned his instruments and paused at his flight speed indicator. His eyes blinked in disbelief as he starred at it. According to the airspeed indicator the shuttle was traveling at 99999.99 knots. Jake knew that this couldn’t be correct as the shuttle would be traveling nearly 115,100 miles per hour! Or at least that was the maximum reading the indicator could show.

The shuttle was going through stresses it was never designed to handle, and it was giving warnings to this fact. A slam against the main window of the cockpit brought Jake’s attention back up again. A Comstar crew member slammed in to the front windows of the Mark VII. There was terror across her face as she looked right in to Jake’s eyes. She couldn’t have been beyond her mid-twenties. Jake watched as the woman seemed to age right before his eyes. She continued to age in seconds as her body grew older till her face softened with death. But the aging didn’t stop there. Her body seemed to decay away in to nothing before Jake’s eyes.

[CarcerKango]

"Holy shit," Jake breathed again, wide-eyed. "What--what the hell is this?" he demanded. "Everyone remain calm," he said, strained, over the intercom. "We're experiencing some...some issues," stammered the rookie pilot. He moved to kick in the reverse thrusters to try to halt the rapid descent, got no response, and his mind began to race. What to do...what to DO? He breathed deeply as best he could, trying to avoid panic.

[Akirapryde]

The force against Jake’s chest was unbelievable as he fought to keep the shuttle on an angle that would limit the force within the shuttle its self. He fought hard against the controls of the shuttle and managed to stabilize the shuttle in to a controlled fall. It started to become clear to Jake that there were some kind of forces beyond the shuttle that were interacting with the wings and the body of the shuttle. Using this force like wind across the wings, Jake worked the shuttle’s controls and maintained control over the shuttle. Because these forces were turbulent and unpredictable, it was, at best, a manageable solution to the crisis but not a lasting one. Jake knew that this situation couldn’t be maintained for long. He had to get the shuttle out of this vortex before it broke apart.

Through the lights and shadows, Jake could start to make out the other ships around the shuttle. The vortex was ripping the ships to shreds. Adding to this, the debris around the area was only causing more damage to the ships trapped within the vortex. It took nearly all of Jake’s skill to avoid destruction by the debris. The shuttle twisted and vaulted up and down, and side to side in an attempt to being slammed in to by debris.

Sweat dripped from Jake’s face as he focused all of his efforts at noting getting hit by pieces of broken ships. Because there was so much debris around the shuttle, it was a never ending threat of destruction. Jake knew it was only a matter of time before something struck the shuttle. Even IF Jake managed to keep everything from hitting the shuttle, the forces and stress on the shuttle were risking ripping the shuttle apart.

Jakes’ eyes fell upon the Sckicksal. The way the dropship was tumbling and moving, it was clear that there was no power or control being exerted over the dropship. Jake switched the heads-up display to magnify the image so he could get a closer look at the party’s dropship. What he saw made his heart sink. There was a long rip along the spine of the Buccaneer as if a jagged twisted line was sliced along the spine of the dropship. The rip seemed to start near or above the bridge and ran all the way in to the engineering sections of the dropship.

Jake searched for any sign of life aboard his dropship and saw none. He could make out corridors and rooms within the dropship, even floating bodies nearby. It didn’t take long to realize that whoever was left onboard had perished. The good news was that the cargo bays seemed to be sealed and secured. This meant that the party’s mechs were still safe. Based on the power outputs of the engines, Jake assumed that the ship’s computer shut them down. From what Jake could tell, despite the damage that the dropship was relativity intact even though it was lifeless. Jake knew without power that he couldn’t attempt a landing. Someone would have to go over there and manual open a bay door. Given the current situation, that would be nearly impossible.

Jake turned his attention towards the closest object to the shuttle, which was the Comstar Jumpship. It wasn’t fairing any better than the other ships within the vortex. A series of small explosions near the engineering section spelled the death of the Jumpship. It was only a matter of time till the entire ship broke up. Jake watched as the ship twisted and tumbled. The Jumpship shuttered as massive chunks of the ship broke free and tumbled around the ship. It was clear that this whirling tunnel of lights and shadows was ripping the ships apart.

As Jake assessed the situation, he watched the Fortress fire its nose weapons and broke free from its collar on the jumpship. Within moments, its massive engine came alive as it slowly turned. The Fortress turned its engines towards the direction that everything was ‘falling’ as if trying to slow their fall. Once the Fortress was positioned correctly, the engines fired at full power creating four powerful plums of fire from the base of the dropship. The flames were twisted and danced around due to the force within the vortex. Jake’s shuttle started to move past the Fortress, as the dropship continued to slow down.

Jake thought for a moment about doing the same thing, but realized that the shuttle simply didn’t have to the power to match the maneuver. He had to come up with a new plan if he was to save the shuttle and all those aboard. He continued to watch the Fortress as his mind raced with possible ideas. The hope of maybe boarding the Fortress and using them for shelter came to mind. With this hope in mind, Jake scanned the area between the shuttle and the Fortress.

Jake realized that he was unable to close on the dropship due to the debris field caused by the Comstar Jumpship breaking up. As Jake was considering his options, the Comstar Fortress slowly started to roll towards the edge of the light. Jake paid close attention to the actions of the Fortress as it slowly worked its way towards the edge of the vortex. The engines of the Fortress were glowing red hot as it fought against the forces within the Vortex. Once the Fortress reached the edge of the vortex, the mighty dropship shuttered as if it slammed in to a massive solid wall.

As the Fortress pressed through the vortex, large layers of armor were stripped from the dropship as it pushed through the wall. Jake realized that the Fortress gave him a means to exit the vortex, but he also knew that the shuttle didn’t have the armor to soak that kind of damage. He had to find a way to penetrate the wall of the vortex without letting the shuttle get ripped to shreds. Jake watched the Fortress vanish from sight through the walls of the vortex.

His eyes shifted deeper in to the vortex and saw the Kellington and the Ark. The two ships were tumbling and twisting as they moved through the vortex. Jake could see cables from the Jumpship whipping around. The cables were the supports for the Jumpsail which had been ripped to shreds by the vortex. Now the cables whipped around like long razors, slicing through anything they touch. It was clear that one of these cables caused the damage to the Sckicksal. Any approach on the Kellington or the Ark would be suicidal.

As Jake searched the vortex, his eyes fell upon something further down. He couldn’t make it out but realized that there was something deeper in the Vortex. He magnified the image as much as possible and horror crossed his face. He saw a planet directly within their path. He couldn’t gain any information on the large world other than it had large oceans on it. Not that that matted. What did matter as the fact that Jake knew that the shuttle would never survive the impact. The situation had just gone from worse to ‘Oh My God!’.

A bright flash brought Jake’s attention back to the Kellington. The aft section of the Kellington erupted in to a fireball as other flashes climbed up the spin of the ship. The force of the explosion ripped the Ark from the Kellington and sent a powerful shockwave through the vortex. By the time it reached the shuttle, the wave had lost enough force that Jake was able to maintain control. However, Jake did notice that the shock wave caused the Sckicksal to tumble closer to the edge of the vortex. This gave Jake an idea.

Desperately Jake charged up the shuttles medium lasers and started a control fall towards the Schicksal. The change in direction increased the forces within the shuttle greatly. Jake knew that there was no other way to save the shuttle and everyone on board. But navigating through the Vortex was nearly impossible. He had limited reference points for navigation. Using the Schicksal helped but he needed more. Something to help him judge distance between the shuttle and the edges of the vortex. At that moment, he started to hear something coming over the communication channels.

Jake used the communication controls and dialed in the signal. It was a signal from somewhere outside the vortex. The frequency the signal was being transmitted on was one that was commonly used by the party. Jake wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth as he set the communication suite to directional finder. This signal gave Jake something to follow as he worked through the Vortex. It didn’t take him long to realize that the signal was music….but not just music, he could hear someone singing.

With the signal dialed in to the directional finder, this second reference point helped Jake judge distance. He switched channels on his headset so that he could hear the music. Within seconds his headphones were flooded with the sounds of a woman singing. The language was strange for him, but he understood a few of words that were repeated only twice. Those words were, “I’m your only one.”

Using the signal as his guide, he calculated his angle of attack on the Schicksal. Fighting against the forces of the Vortex increased the force within the shuttle causing everyone to scream out in pain. As Jake continued to maneuver the shuttle closer to the Schicksal, the forces within the shuttle grew. Once more, that mech stepped hard down upon Jake’s chest. He worked the engines carefully not to over shot his target as he positioned the shuttle in to a firing position on the party’s dropship.

The weight on his chest was so great, that even Jake couldn’t hold back the scream as he tried to move in to firing position. The controls felt as if he was flying through sludge. Jake knew that he had to be careful as he didn’t want to destroy the Schicksal. He had to have his angle of attack just right to get the dropship to do what he needed.

He needed to use it as a ram through the vortex wall, and hopefully follow behind in its wake. Jake targeted a section of the dropship where he knew that the armor was at its thickest. As the music play in his ears, he lined up the attack. Jake heard the engines groaned while the edges of his vision started to blur. He felt the darkness threatening. Jake pulled the trigger and the medium lasers fired.

To Jake’s shock and horror, the beams twisted and bent as if the laws of reality no longer applied here. In the back of Jake’s mind and in his periphery vision, that unnamed world was rapidly approaching. As time slowly counted down, death loomed upon Jake and everyone else in the shuttle. Jake glance behind him and saw that everyone else in the shuttle had slumped over. The force upon them must have caused them to black out. Jake felt darkness pressing down against his mind and body. Letting could seemed so tempting, but to let go now meant death!

Jake focused on the woman’s lyrics as he resisted. In the music he heard people clapping along with the song as if it was some kind of live performance. Her voice filled his imagination as he focused his eyes at the Schicksal. Holding on to every beat and every word from this imaginary singer, he searched the space between him and the Schicksal. Then in that moment he saw the bubble of space that caused his first attack to fail. With darkness creeping further in to his vision, Jake moved the shuttle to the side so to avoid the bubble. His body was starting to fail him as he let out a scream.

He pulled the trigger once more and the beams of his medium lasers reached out for the Schicksal. Jake didn’t wait for them to hit. He activated his engines and afterburners at full. The shuttle groaned once more and threatened to break apart as it leaped forward. Jake couldn’t focus on the Schicksal any longer as his vision started to fail. Within seconds ether the shuttle would be free of the vortex or everyone would be dead. In his ears, Jake could hear the last words from that phantom singer, “Même sans moi, tu connais la fin…..”