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Author Topic: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story  (Read 26915 times)

Hanslanda

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #150 on: August 03, 2016, 07:46:49 pm »

Back in Black


"Lillian, come on in. You look lovely in black." Hector said it warmly, and opened the doors to Medical with a smooth gesture. He turned to face her, a smile on his face. "Welcome to the hospital."

Lillian gave a thin-lipped smile, hardly befitting her usual exuberance, and looked around. "Kinda short staffed?" Her slim hands rested easily on her security belt, one on the handle of her pistol, the other right above her baton handle. Amir Roadman stood a bit back, holding a clipboard and pen.

Hector shook his head, "No, the Chemist is hiding away somewhere, making something for the CMO. Mr. Gallant has slipped away, I suspect on potty break." He shrugged, "They didn't give me a new nurse, so I'm the only MD on board."

Amir nodded, "Very well. Please inform Gallant I wish to see him, and show Ms. Helsbrecht your department."

Lillian smiled more sincerely this time, and nudged Hector with her elbow. "Right on, let's get it done and over with, eh?"

Hector smiled briefly and waved her forward. They walked to Medical Storage, past a few isolation cells and the Cryogenics lab. Hector said, "Lillian, we've accounted for everything. As far as supplies, nothing is missing." She nodded wordlessly, and he kept speaking, "Gallant should be back any second now. Probably nipped off to virology."

As if by summons, the door to Virology hissed open, revealing a dark haired, mid-height Caucasian human. Daniel Gallant waved awkwardly. "Hello, Hec, Madame Helsbrecht."

Lillian eyed him head to toe. He blinked oddly, as if surprised. She said, "Interesting. Where is your biosuit?"

He stammered and glanced at Hector, "I ah... I ah took it off back in the airlock. It's hung up."

Lillian nodded. "Right, right." She squinted and looked down, "And that on your shoes? What is that?"

Hector gave Daniel a icy-edged look as Daniel shuffled his feet guiltily. "It's ah. Blood, ma'am. From the monkey pens."

Lillian smiled, "Just curious, no need to get so jumpy mate. What've the monkeys got? Making 'em bleed all over the place."

Gallant stuttered, "Immuno-ah... Immunoretroviral Fascitis. Causes severe nosebleeds, cranial bleeding, and eventual death. Can't be transmitted to humans though, thankfully." He smiled awkwardly.

Lillian glanced at Hector, who sidled sideways a step. Suddenly her nerves were tense, like she'd received a jolt of lightning. Daniel was fiddling with a piece of paper on the clipboard he held. It had strange red symbols on it. Lillian stepped back just as Gallant sprang forward, lashing out with the paper. She leaned, accepting the strange attack with a diverting forearm. Gallant's arm straightened as she counter-attacked, twisting his arm around and down perfectly. The joint locked and she pushed Gallant up against the bulkhead. "Mind explaining why you attacked me, Danny?" She snarled tightly as she whipped out cuffs.

There was a flash of horrifying pain, blinding and brilliant. It flared through Lillian like fire along gasoline, and she jerked spasmodically before falling to the floor, unconscious. Hector sighed deeply as he released the few pieces of ash that remained of his rune weapon. He snatched up her cuffs and cuffed her, then took her PDA, ID, and headset. All these he stashed in his bag, then looked to Gallant, who's arm had snapped when Lillian spasmed. Gallant was gasping, holding his limp arm close to his chest. Hector said, "Grab the legs, we're taking her into Virology." Gallant nodded and grabbed Lillian's legs, and they carried her to one of the Isolation cells. There they buckled her to the bed and stuffed her things into the locker outside the cell.

Lillian came to somewhat as the cell door closed. She tried to speak but her mouth wasn't working right. She looked up, and a flash of light blinded her. When she looked back, she saw Hector, in a set of ominous black robes, with a long sword dangling from his belt. Hector stared at her but was speaking to Gallant, "Gather the others as fast as possible. Initiate the riot also, we cannot let Security focus on our efforts. Now that we've done this, there is no way out. We'll have to win. I'll have to kill them all. Even the Vile One, servant of the Nameless." Hector took a deep breathe and spoke to Lillian. "Lillian, I'm sorry. We have no choice in these times. I must save humanity." He turned and strode off before she could respond.

The light clicked out.
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Well, we could put two and two together and write a book: "The Shit that Hans and Max Did: You Won't Believe This Shit."
He's fucking with us.

Hanslanda

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #151 on: August 03, 2016, 08:19:49 pm »

Vlad and Avery


Vlad stumbled out of maintenance, eyeing the cameras dotting the halls fearfully. He took out his PDA and sent a message to Lillian, then Director Oppenheimer and Captain Owens, each detailing his experience. He kept moving down the hall, toward Medical, when a strange sight caught his attention. Five crew of various occupations were standing around a swirl on the floor. One reached down and touched it, and a flash of blood red light flared. When Vlad recovered, the five men were wearing armored robes and wielding vicious looking swords that seemed slick... Or insubstantial somehow. They turned as one to face him.

Vlad's mouth dried. "Hey uh. Hey guys. Nice outfits. Is this... Ah. Is this a DnD8e thing? I love that game." They took one step in unison towards him, and he drew his taser shakily. "Stay back. You're freaking me out- Gallant?" He eyed the middle person. "Holy fuck Gallant, what is going on?"

Gallant smiled under his hood and snarled, "Kill him."

The door behind Vladmir opened and a dark hooded form stepped out, brandishing a long cudgel made of a single, perfectly cylindrical piece of stone carved from the heart of a dead star. Avery Price slipped between the security officer and his attackers, and struck. One cultists lunged forward, blade stabbing violently, and Avery sidestepped it, pushing the man further on his way, then brought his Null Rod cracking down on the man's spine.

Avery was still moving forward, Null Rod rising up to block a slash. The blade shattered on impact, shards impaling the cultist's hand and chest, but spattering off Avery harmlessly. He flexed, bringing the rod around in a swing that struck the surprised cultist in the cheekbone, breaking his face. Avery turned to face Daniel and his two remaining cultists when Vlad finally decided to join the fight. He sprang forward bellowing something incomprehensible, taser flashing wildly. A stun baton was in his left hand, primed and ready, and he slammed it up into the crotch of one cultist as he blasted an enormous amount of electricity into the other.

Daniel lunged, a piece of paper in one hand, a sword in the other. Avery grabbed the sword-wielding wrist and wrapped around it, controlling the weapon. Daniel pressed the paper against Avery triumphantly and if flared bright red. Daniel was the only one to see the perfectly black shield that appeared around Avery to consume the energetic discharge of the rune weapon, and it frightened him. Avery twisted and broke Gallant's arm, then bashed his Null Rod into Gallant's ribs, cracking them.

Vlad grabbed Avery's wrist as it drew back again. "Avery, no. Buckle them to beds, now. And cuff them." Vlad pulled out a box of handcuffs from his backpack, and went to work securing the attackers.

Both men looked up when they realized another group of people had formed in front of the Medical lobby. Yet again, they were of random occupations, carrying normally innocuous items. Vlad keyed his comm, "We need Security to Medical like right the fuck now. All of them."
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Well, we could put two and two together and write a book: "The Shit that Hans and Max Did: You Won't Believe This Shit."
He's fucking with us.

scrdest

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #152 on: August 04, 2016, 04:11:39 pm »

It's baaaack!
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Cheedows

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #153 on: August 04, 2016, 04:26:16 pm »

I kinda wish chaplain batman would show up in a cult round one day.  :P As always though, great work Hans. Nice to have a story to look forward to again.
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Hanslanda

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #154 on: August 04, 2016, 05:37:49 pm »

Nothing to add yet today, still deciding on how to approach things. Tomorrow will see at least one update though.
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Well, we could put two and two together and write a book: "The Shit that Hans and Max Did: You Won't Believe This Shit."
He's fucking with us.

Hanslanda

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #155 on: August 29, 2016, 07:10:31 pm »

Captured


Lillian blacked out as Hector left. She came to after an interminable time had passed. She sat up, still cuffed, and looked around. The cell was sparse and unwelcoming. She pulled her right hand against the cuffs until she could reach her left wrist, and pulled out the tiny, concealed handcuff key that came in the secret pocket on her gloves. She wiggled the key around in the cuff lock until one side popped open. She unlocked the other side and shoved the cuffs into her pocket.

Lillian stood up and looked around again, intensity flaring in her eyes. She tried the door, but it flashed red. Cursing under her breath, she grabbed the end of the bed and pulled. It came up easily, not bolted down, and she gave thanks for her good luck. She yanked on the bed leg a few times experimentally, and it wiggled loosely from the two screws securing it. She flipped the bed upside down and braced herself against the wall. Then she kicked the leg, hard, her heavy jackboots slamming into it forcefully. Again and again she kicked it, til her leg burned with the impact and exertion. The leg had bent and torqued one screw out of it's socket, but the other stubbornly refused to budge.

Lillian stood and twisted the leg around the screw til she got some leverage, then she pulled hard. With a soft ping, the screw head snapped off and the leg came away in her hand. She hefted it, then slammed it into the Isolation window. The reinforced glass absorbed the blow. She swung at it in a vicious frenzy until cracks started forming, then a small hole broke out in the center of the window. She forced the leg in and started prying with it, forcing glass up and out from the hole, creating more fractures. After several long moments of this, she had a hole big enough to crawl through, but the grille still stood between her and the next window.

She picked up a long sliver of glass and reached inside the grille to one of the tightly tied cable ties holding it in place. She sawed at the tie with her makeshift knife, eventually cutting it loose. Slowly but surely, she severed all the ties, until the grille started collapsing into a neat stack of small steel poles, connected with screws. She eyed the window, the last obstacle to her freedom.

A few minutes later, Lillian was dragging herself through the shattered remains of the reinforced window. As she came out the other side, a piece of glass caught her thigh and gashed her deeply. She fell out of the window onto the floor and gasped, "Son of a fucking bitch!". She grabbed the wound and put pressure on it, then dragged herself to the Virology desk, where a medkit lay. She pulled it off the table and got out ointment, gauze, and a coagulant injector. She dressed her wound and stood unsteadily, then limped to the locker.

She tried the locker door, but it was locked. She suppressed another curse, when she heard something making metallic thumps and scrapes from the floor. She looked at the air vent in a panic, her mind filling with thoughts of the enormous, vicious, black monsters. The vent was struck from underneath, denting it outward. Then again, tearing it from it's mounting and sending it flying.

A small monkey climbed out and looked around. Lillian passed her hand in front of her eyes, trying to dispel the illusion. The monkey remained. "Hey lil fella." She croaked uneasily, her throat dry and sore. It looked at her, and the intelligence in it's eyes was frightening. It shivered all across it's body, then started shedding fur and growing in size. In a few moments, an enormous, naked man stood before her, his giant orange afro scraping the ceiling.

Axel Axel smiled at her simply and said, "Sorry about the nudity. One second." He reached into the vent and pulled out a backpack, then produced a jumpsuit, which he put on quickly. Then he strapped on the backpack and looked around. "So... You wanna get out of here?"

Lillian stared, agape, then laughed sharply. Her voice was a little shrill, "That's hilarious! I thought you were a monkey... And then yo- Turned into you! I was sure I was going crazy... But now I'm positive!"

Axel put his hand on her shoulder, "Calm yourself. Focus. You need to get out of here." He looked at the locker. "I can get that open." He pulled a crowbar out of the toolbelt on his jumpsuit and set it in the gap between the door and the edge, right next to the lock. With a single swift pull, the locker popped open and the half-inch thick lock-bolt snapped like a twig. He pulled out her backpack and handed it to her.

Lillian was pale, but she quietly put on her things and activated her headset. "Axel...?" She queried him almost wordlessly.

He sighed, "There's no time to explain. I'm an alien and I'm here to help you. Please trust me." He smiled a big, simple smile. "Can you do that?"

She nodded numbly and gestured at the door to Virology, "It's a double-airlock with triple-density bolts. There's no way you can break that down."

He frowned at the doors. "You're right." He said, easily. Then he took out a screwdriver and multitool, and popped the door panel off. He touched the tool to one wire, and the bolts snapped out of locking position. Another wire, and it sprang open. "Good thing I don't have to." He stepped into the Decon area, and she followed. The next door was as easy as the last, then they were in the Maintenance Access way. Axel pointed at Medbay, "There's a big ole brawl going on in there. We should steer clear."

Lillian gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes, then opened the door. Axel muttered, "Or not, I guess. I guess we can fight the evil cult and the swarm of psychopaths. Sounds like fun..." She stepped into Medbay, where the sounds of fighting echoed. Some of the lights had been broken, and strange runes littered the floor. They hurt the eye to look at and swam on the floor strangely. Lillian looked for signs of life, then followed the sounds. In the Cryogenics bay, five people fought, two with swords of unearthly black power, the other three with a variety of scavenged or makeshift weapons.

As Lillian took this in, one of the sword-wielders beheaded one of the scavengers with his blade, then swept it across and lodged it deeply in a second's chest. Before the man died of this, he pulled the swordsman close and jabbed his butterfly knife into the other man's throat. Blood spurted across both of them freely, and they fell to the ground dying. The other swordsman and fighter squared off. Lillian aimed her energy gun, but Axel put his hand on in. "I got a better way." He shivered violently, then held up one hand. Two slivers of some bone-like substance shot out and embedded in the combatants, who collapsed, paralyzed.

Lillian shook her head spasmodically and moved to cuff the two, but before she could, four more sword-wielders entered from the main entrance. She looked at Axel and he frowned, "I'm out for a minute. Shoot them."

Just then, there was a muted flash of bright green energy, and a figure in a black, formfitting suit was suddenly in the room, sprinting toward the swordsmen. His hand flickered lightning fast, and he was suddenly holding several green blades. They whipped across, impossibly fast, out of his hand and into two of the mysterious figure's targets. The swordsmen dropped instantly in pieces, and the figure whirled under the counter-attacks, then rolled seamlessly past the two remaining swordsmen. He stood up on the other side of them, and they turned to strike. Green blades flashed from either hand, catching the attacks behind his head. He twisted his hands, and the blades all twisted around his and then were sent flying. He spun in a low circle and both men fell, disarmed and dismembered in a matter of seconds. From the time the door opened to the time the last man fell, perhaps five seconds had passed.

Lillian groaned, "Oh fuck ME."

The figure turned to face them, his sinister black mask glinting evilly in the poorly lit room. He bowed deeply, "I am Null, milady. And I'm here to rescue you."

Axel frowned and said, "No, I'm here to rescue her."

Null stood sharply and cocked his head. "Oh. Well, then, I'm rescuing both of you." He and Axel shared an uneasy stare, then Lillian broke the tense moment.

"I'm not some fucking damsel in distress, guys. Who the fuck are you? Where did you come from? What was the green stuff? Who are these sword-toting assholes? Where the fuck is my security team? What's with the other wackos?! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN THIS GODDAMN MEDBAY?!" She shouted, near hysterically.

Null and Axel shared another look, this one of concern. Null spoke, "I am a servant of the Spider Clan. I came from space. It was pulsed-phase energy harmonized with electromagnetic fields to create a cutting edge. They're bad guys. I don't know. Again, I don't know. And we're arguing about saving you." He cocked his head again, and took a deep breath. "Feel better now?"

Lillian shook her head, but holstered her gun. "I'm... I'm just going to go with it, okay? Let's find my team and fix this fucking situation." She keyed her comm, "Please for the love of god, check in and don't be dead."

Immediately, Tina Morris replied, "WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GO GODDAMNIT?! I'VE BEEN SCOURING THIS WHOLE FUCKIN-"

Followed closely by Vlad, "Jesus-fuck! Pinned down in the Chapel by a gang of fucking thu-" Laser blasts and whines interrupted his transmission, "GET ME SOME FUCKING BACKUP!"

Lillian sighed, "Security to Chapel now, all of you."

"Helsbrecht, Owens, I'm pinned down with Roadman on the bridge. They've got some sort of ranged weapon that blinds you-"

Lillian broke into a run, and Axel followed her. Null shook his head once and vanished from sight. Lillian burst out of the Medbay into a cluster of robe-wearing cultists, standing tightly around a rune on the floor, chanting. They paused for a moment and everyone shared a look. Lillian laughed, the cultists laughed, Axel laughed. Then Lillian whipped out her baton, the steel sections falling out of each other and clicking into place right before she bashed one man in the face with it. His skull cracked sickly and the others jumped back from her, digging in their pockets for weapons, presumably.

Axel swept one hand out and smashed three of the men away from Lillian with lethal force, their broken corpses flying across the lobby to drape across chairs and tables, limbs bent at odd angles. Null flashed from concealment into one woman and she exploded violently as he stabbed another person three times in rapid succession, then jumped lithely over a fist clutching paper, his hands wrapped around their wrist. His moment carried him and he flipped the person and shattered their arm in one smooth motion. He rolled up from the ground and Lillian turned her gun on the last two, tazing them into unconsciousness.

The three looked at one another and Lillian shrugged, "Guess that works. Let's go." She hit her comm again, "By the way, don't shoot my allies. Please. I suspect it wouldn't end the way you think it would."

They charged across the gore-spattered hallway into the Chapel.

Behind a flipped over table, Avery and Vladmir were hiding, Vlad clutching a taser and Avery holding his Null Rod. Valerie was nearby, hiding in the confessional, firing her taser at the main Chapel doors, where two Cargo Technicians were holding shotguns and taking cover beside the door. They would pop out and fire a round at the Security officers, then duck back into cover. Lillian stormed in, her gun switched to lethal, and fired one shot. It filled the air with the stench of molten flesh as it cooked one Technicians head in an instant. His head exploded, spewing superheated brain matter, skull steam, and bone shrapnel. His friend screamed in terror and fired another round. Then Vlad returned fire and drilled the man in the neck with a tazer shot. He jerked and twisted as he fell. Valerie dashed over and cuffed the fallen man, then dragged him into the confessional, frisked him, and locked him inside.

Vlad and Avery rose from behind cover. "Thanks for the rescue, Lillian." Vlad said, tersely eyeing the doorway for more. "We took care of most of them in the hall, but they forced us back. We gotta get to the Captain."

With that, Tina Morris burst in from the Library, Deckard .38 in hand. "YOU!" She snarled viciously, pointing at Lillian with her free hand. She stalked up to Lillian, "If you leave my sight again, I will shoot your knees off, cuff you to a wheeled bed, and drag your happy ass around behind me like a freighter hauling ore, you FUCKING BITCH! DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO BLUESHIELDS THAT FAIL TO PROTECT THEIR CHARGES?!"

Lillian opened her mouth to speak, but Tina cut her off, "THEY DOCK OUR FUCKING PAY!" Everyone looked at Tina askance as she continued ranting, "IT'S FUCKING BULLSHIT!"

Lillian grabbed Tina's face and pulled her close, "Shut. Up. We need to get to the Bridge, right now." Tina started to speak, then stopped and nodded.

Lillian looked around. Two Security Officers, a Blueshield, a Chaplain, an insanely powerful shapeshifting Cargo Tech, a black armored energy warrior, and herself. She smiled, "Let's go fuck some people up."

They headed for the bridge.

---
On the Bridge
---

Hector looked down at Everett and Amir, his sword held weakly in one hand. He grimaced as his followers approached. "Don't kill them. Take them to the Sacrificial Chamber. Four of you stay here and wait for the rest of the Security team. We move now." He plucked the Captain ID off of Everett and most of his followers fell into line behind him, dragging the two unconscious heads of staff. They moved through the Captain's office, into Maintenance, then laterally across the station towards the AI satellite and their secret chamber.

---
Meanwhile
---

Lillian and her small, motley band of fighters burst onto the bridge, effortlessly wiping out the four cultists there. Once on the bridge, they scoured it for the Head of Personnel and Captain. Lillian turned on the Crew Monitoring Console, when a hologram shimmered into life behind her, "I wish you hadn't done that, Miss Helsbrecht."

The Bridge blast doors and emergency shutters slammed shut and bolted themselves. Then the panic syphon activated and all the air started rushing out of the room. Janus' avatar gave Lillian a sad look. "I wish it hadn't come to this, but now you know what is going on in Xenobiology, and I cannot allow a threat to the mission entrusted to myself and Horatio. I'm sorry."

Lillian stammered, "I actually have no fucking idea what you mean."

Janus paused. "Oh. Well this is awkward then." He gestured, and the syphon shut off. Air started hissing through the vents.

Null shouted, "Internals now! Weld those vents! He's pumping in a combination of N2O, CO2, and Nitrogen. Internals!"

---
To be continued in the next Chapter, ESCAPE, coming soon to a post near you.
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Well, we could put two and two together and write a book: "The Shit that Hans and Max Did: You Won't Believe This Shit."
He's fucking with us.

Aseaheru

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #156 on: August 29, 2016, 07:20:13 pm »

Lotsa paragraphs starting with Lillian.
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Hanslanda

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #157 on: August 29, 2016, 08:52:43 pm »

Sorry, I got a little rushed. I still had to weed eat the lawn before my wife came home and do the dishes. :P I can edit it, if it bothers you.
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Well, we could put two and two together and write a book: "The Shit that Hans and Max Did: You Won't Believe This Shit."
He's fucking with us.

AH

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #158 on: August 30, 2016, 09:23:08 am »

The Blueshield's lines were hilarious.

They dock our paaaaay!
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Aseaheru

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #159 on: August 30, 2016, 09:58:59 am »

 Nah, I was just pointing it out.
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Hanslanda

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #160 on: August 30, 2016, 06:20:46 pm »

The Blueshield's lines were hilarious.

They dock our paaaaay!


It might be more serious than it sounds. I envision Blueshield being a high paying job, and if you were being paid like a Corporate CEO and suddenly they cut your paycheck down to 'Janitor we call when the shitter explodes', you'd probably lose your mind on someone too. :P

Nah, I was just pointing it out.


I'll take a little more time with the next chapter. I expect the next few will be a bit longer and somewhat more detailed.

Since I only have four left until the story is complete. :)
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Well, we could put two and two together and write a book: "The Shit that Hans and Max Did: You Won't Believe This Shit."
He's fucking with us.

Hanslanda

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #161 on: September 19, 2016, 08:12:07 pm »

Escape


Null watched the others put their internals on for a split-second before he ran to the Bridge Blast Door control panel. He sliced the restraining screws off with a swipe of one hand and ripped the innards of the panel out, hunting for the right wires. Meanwhile, Axel Axel was hacking the doors at great speed. They finished at about the same time, and the egress opened with a whoosh of in-flowing air. They scrambled out, and across the hall into a Maintenance hatchway. Null said, "I'll take care of Janus."

Lillian grabbed his shoulder and he flinched at being touched, but waited. She said, "Alone?" Null nodded easily. "Right, I need to save the Captain." She looked to Tina, "You're with me. And you too Avery." She looked at Vlad and Valerie, "Rendezvous with Zalis, Gregory, Malachi and Osborn if you find them, then head to the Xenobiology lab. Arrest Oppenheimer on suspicion of Traitorous Actions and freeze the borgs til Null sorts out the AI." She took off with that, and everyone split up.

Null flashed into the darkness, and Axel Axel was alone for a moment. He considered his options for a moment, then started after Lillian's group at a slow amble, deliberately letting them get a good head start.

---
The AI Satellite, a short time later
---

Janus tracked his enemies with ease, and sent a warning to his borgs. He ordered Praetor to physically relay this to Horatio, and set about his own defenses. The Satellite was a hardened structure hanging off the main station like an enormous metal spider, devoid of weakness. It's walls were triple-thickness reinforced tritanium, with a network of internal and external lasers, tazers, foaming surfactant deterrents, energy shield generators, and EMP-shielded, hack-proof doors. He was tracking only one foe heading his direction, an unknown quantity with advanced Phase Space technology. Janus accessed secured Nanotrasen files to determine the origin of this interloper.

"Null."

Null sprinted down the hall, ignoring the booming voice echoing from his communications gear.

"I know who and what you are, Null. A Spider Clan Space Ninja. An assassin, a saboteur, a warrior supreme. I know what you've done, what you are capable of." Null didn't pause, merely teleported through another junction and ghosted down the hall soundlessly at a dead sprint. "I will destroy you if you set foot on my Satellite, Null. Perhaps we can come to a mutual agreement."

Null finally cracked, a dry chuckle answering the AI's attempt at intimidation.

Janus analyzed the sound the Ninja made for a solid two seconds, an eternity to such an advanced cybernetic mind. "Are you laughing at me?" He queried, neutral as ever.

Null laughed lightly, the laugh of a boy ignoring a chaperon's half-hearted reprimand. He flashed into the space separating the station and Satellite, a gap some five hundred meters across. He drifted through space, his inertia carrying him at a decent speed. His visor tracked the weapons systems targeting him while he deployed countermeasures. His IR and visible spectrum profiles vanished. More colloquially, he turned invisible. Janus registered this and fired at the space he'd occupied, and thirty other high-probability locations Null might have escaped to.

Null chuckled again, the infuriating sound shimmering in Janus' noospheric network as the AI calculated the Ninja's next move.

The Spider Clan operative was inside the Satellite, quite suddenly. A muted green flash and he stood in the lobby, moving forward with haste. Doors sealed with resounding clangs of heavy bolts slamming home, and electrical charge hummed as defense systems powered on. Null stopped abruptly as a containment field activated, narrowly avoiding the lethal electrical wall it created. He flashed into the AI Chamber, a large room with an enormous vaulted ceiling, focused around one central feature.

A massive mountain of metal and circuitry, culminating in an interface panel set just below Janus' real face: A medium sized monitor scrolling with system data.

Laughter filled the room, echoing off the dead walls of impossible metal. Null's laughter.

Janus' hologram filled the room with an enormous presence, a man-shaped light show fifteen feet tall. Janus growled, "You have sealed your doom. Phase scrambler activated."

The laughing operative went silent as he rolled forward, dodging laser fire. Surfactant erupted around him, filling the room to waist height with thick, oily, slick foam in an instant. Null powered through it, scrambling up the stairs towards Janus' mind. Tazers fired, sending vast amounts of electricity surging into him. His suit absorbed it instantly and he used the additional power to his advantage. He jumped free of the mire and his RCS thrusters fired, shooting him across the room like a jetpack. He slammed into Janus' monitor, where the data morphed once more to a face, or rather two. Janus and Null looked each other in the eyes as Null's hand slammed onto the interface, datajack spikes spearing into the electronics and ripping Janus' programming out in a matter of seconds.

Null chuckled grimly.

TO BE CONTINUED SOON I HOPE
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Well, we could put two and two together and write a book: "The Shit that Hans and Max Did: You Won't Believe This Shit."
He's fucking with us.

Cheedows

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #162 on: September 20, 2016, 01:49:56 pm »

them cliffhangers
Great chapter as always Hans.
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Hanslanda

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #163 on: September 20, 2016, 09:30:20 pm »

Escape: Part Vladmir, part Crispin


Crispin snapped awake, very suddenly. He was standing, muscles tight and tense, painfully so, in the Shuttle Debarkation Zone on the Research Outpost. He looked around stiffly, barely aware. His mind throbbed sluggishly with a powerful headache, and he struggled to make sense of his surroundings. He remembered only one word, and it resounded through him forcefully with every throb that spiked his brain.

Blood splattered across the windows, blue and red smears marking Skrell and Human deaths. He remembered them- Vampire- faces gripped in rictus horror as he ripped into their flesh. A broken stun baton lay by the sundered door, it's bolts still extended where they had been torn from their moorings by horrifying force. A wounded Skrell female lay huddled in the corner, whimpering in mindless fear. Crispin started to offer her assistance, his hands coming up- Vampire- he came to an abrupt stop as he hauled the male Human's writhing corpse higher inadvertently.

He looked down at the dying man, his mind shattered by a single thought, closely followed by the one word. I did this to them. I killed them. He tasted blood on his tongue, and his gaze snapped up to the reflection in the window. His face was gaunt, all bone and skin and no meat. His eyes were sunken hollows with tiny yellow pinpricks of light glowing in the gloom.

His smile was a predator's threat, four pronounced incisors on top and bottom surrounded by equally sharp, smaller teeth, all covered in blood and with bits of veins and gore stuck in the gaps. Crispin's eyes widened in terror for a moment, then a sibilant instinct took over his actions. He dropped the useless body and turned to face the whimpering Skrell woman. He advanced with terrible intent, and she gasped a wordless sob, an eloquent plea for mercy and declamation of his actions all in one. The sound of prey.

Crispin grabbed her by the throat and hauled her up, to standing position then higher, holding her upright by her neck. His voice, when it came, was thick and phlegmatic from the blood in his throat, "Who... Am... I?" He croaked fearsomely.

She shook her head violently and tears ran freely down her face. Crispin shook her roughly and she quieted a moment, to gasp out, "Crispin... Crispin Sacred... Please..."

With a snap, he shook her forcefully, breaking her neck. Then he dropped her to the floor and turned his gaze to the Shuttle console.

Blood. It will take us to more blood. A whisper quiet voice of pure malevolence said into his ear.

---
Meanwhile, on the Station above
---

Malachi waved his hand sharply, like a blade slashing across a rope, "Shut it, Vlad. Stop. We're going, and you can't pussy out man. Follow fucking orders and get in line."

Vlad glared unhappily and nodded reluctantly, "If you say so. I still think we'd be better off letting him escape to the Planet. Where's he gonna go?"

Valerie shook her head lightly, "God, what a pussy." She remarked.

Malachi waved the Security team in, "Okay, here's the plan. Vlad, secure the lobby. Osborn and I will attempt to secure the Console and deactivate the borgs. Zalis, you, Valerie, and Gregory will locate and arrest Director Oppenheimer. Keep together, keep alert, and stay alive. Let's go." The team broke apart, Vlad moving to guard the Research wing doors.

Once inside the expansive Research wing, the five of them broke apart again, three into Xenobiology and two towards the Research Director office. Osborn and Malachi stopped as they turned the corner and looked inside the windows to the office. Inside, a massive metal construct stood motionless. An Odysseus Model Mechanical Assistance Support Exoskeleton, fully loaded with Syringe cannon, Emergency Sleeper unit, and a variety of medical manipulators and tools. Malachi gestured at Osborn, who moved to cover the door while Malachi entered the office. Malachi said, "Horatio? You in there?"

The Mech stood taller as the occupant activated it, "Yes, Malachi Kelly. I am in here. What do you need?"

Malachi edged across the room laterally, and Osborn slid into the room and moved the opposite way, both of them aiming their tazers at the Mech. "Well, the AI said some screwy shit, and we think you might need to have a talk with us." Malachi said it rather calmly, despite his frayed nerves. The Syringe Cannon tracked Osborn across the room.

"Oh? Is that so? Perhaps I should fix it then."

Malachi caught the phrasing and said, "It as in the AI or it as in the situation?"

A syringe-dart shot out faster than the eye could follow and jabbed into Osborn's arm. He gasped and brushed it off easily, the needle falling out to the floor, still half full of chemicals. Osborn fired his tazer, the electrical charge flaring through the Mech and sending it's targeting system into overload. Malachi fired too, both of them pumping the full extent of their guns into the Mech with devastating effect. It slumped, motors fried and electronics smoking gently, releasing the odor of poisonously burning plastic.

Malachi raced forwards and yanked a crowbar out of his belt as he shouted, "Keep tazing the fucking thing! Or flash the photoreceptors, it'll fry their optics!" He jammed the bar into the gap between cockpit door and door-jamb, and torqued it roughly, popping the door open. Horatio Oppenheimer tumbled out, his expression one of astonishment. Malachi shouted wordlessly and whipped out cuffs. He waved Osborn forward, then stopped as he clicked the cuffs into place. He looked back for Osborn.

Osborn lay in a still heap on the floor, his face blue, his eyes bloody from oxygen deprivation. Malachi put his fingers to the fallen officer's throat, while Horatio spoke, "Potassium Chlorophoride. Most commonly used to stop the heart for surgery. Incredibly fatal when administered in the dose I gave him." Malachi turned to the Director, his face set in a murderous mask of hate. Horatio continued, "And Impedrezine. Destroys neural connections. You can't even clone it."

Malachi advanced on Horatio, his hand pulling out his stun baton almost of it's own accord. Malachi raised it up, the electric field active, to smash into Horatio's face, "Anything else you wanna tell me?" He asked rhetorically, moments before the assault.

Horatio snapped, "Yes. Praetor is here and you were dead a long time ago."

Malachi's eyes went from rage-crazed to terror-filled in an instant and he looked behind himself instinctively. Praetor loomed over him silently, and one appendage extended rapidly, flashing like a scorpion's tail as it struck. The appendage struck Malachi in the spine right below his neck, severing his spinal cord in the exact place to cause complete paraplegia. Malachi dropped, gasping and screaming weakly as his body failed him. Praetor leaned forward and extended the appendage again, carefully covering his larynx and trachea. It pressed firmly, breaking the fragile cartilage and cutting off his air supply. It held this pose for two whole minutes as Malachi died, then retracted as his body went into the final stages of death.

Horatio hauled himself up and presented his hands for the cuffs to be removed.

Praetor didn't move.

Horatio's face fell, his keen mind grasping the clues with ease. "Janus ordered me dead. No loose ends, eh?" Horatio queried, his voice breaking in fear.

The appendage rose again for the second time in ten minutes.

---
Meanwhile, in Xenobiology
---

The three man team of Security moved into Xenobiology, guns ready. Nothing untoward presented itself as they moved to the very end of the large laboratory, where the Exotic Specimens cage was. Or rather, had been. A featureless wall had replaced it. Zalis hissed in concern, "They must have hidden it, to prevent casual discovery. Check for some method of passage."

They started feeling along the wall, until Valeria found a catch, "Here!" She cried out, pressing the near-invisible button. A wall-section recessed silently, to reveal... A pitch black chamber. Nothing could be seen through the retaining windows or force fields. Nothing but a clown's face, somehow glued right up to the window.

Gregory opened the first windoor between them and the cage, "What the fuck? Is that the clown?" He moved to open the second when Zalis sprang forward in panic.

"BACK! GET BACK NOW!" The Unathi roared harshly, but it was too late. The enormous, abnormally large xenomorph within was already striking, it's armored fist shattering the second windoor and slapping the life out of Gregory. It crammed itself into the gap and started forcing itself through. Zalis grabbed Valerie, who was screaming Gregory's name, and pulled her out. They both turned and ran as the beast slammed into the false walls, casting the narrow facades down in an instant. It pursued them as they fled for the door, massive clawed hands ripping deep furrows in the deck and walls. They narrowly exited before it, and sealed the door before it followed.

A massive clang signalled it's intent to destroy them, door or no door. Zalis and Valerie shared a look and ran for the lobby as Zalis keyed his comm, "OSBORN! MALACHI! CLEAR THE FUCKING WING! WE GOT A HUGE PROBLEM!" They exited the Research Wing, to find Vlad nervously flipping a Zippo open and shut, an unlit cigarette hanging from his lips.

"What?" Vlad asked, confused by the comms message and their flight, "What'd you find?"

Zalis flipped a nearby table and dived behind it, drawing his gun, "GET IN COVER! IT'S COMING!"

BOOM.

Something slammed into the Robotic's bay shutters, bending the fleximetal outwards. Vlad gaped, his cigarette dropping out of his mouth. "OH FUCK ME." He shouted, drawing his tazer. Another boom echoed, followed by a screech-roar of terrible proportions.

And then there was blissful silence for a long moment. After that was the unmistakable sounds of laser discharge and alien screams of injury.

The three Security team members aimed their weapons at the shutters, waiting for the booms to resume. Finally, the shutters creaked open, barely functional, to reveal Praetor, hissing acid-scored armor plates oozing smoke and molten metal, several limbs ripped off, one hoverpod nonfunctional. Praetor drifted forward soundlessly into the lobby, weapons armed and aimed at them.

The tense standoff continued for a long moment, then Vlad said, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu-" His protracted curse was cut off by Zalis blasting into the Borg, followed shortly by Valerie, then Vlad. They poured energy into the deadly Cyborg, and it ineffectually attempted to dodge. After three weapons worth of fire, they stopped, Zalis slamming a new clip home into his sidearm.

Praetor straightened slightly, and it's hailer extended, "Your assistance in apprehending a violent criminal is required. Criminal profile: Sacred, Crispin B. Assignment: Xenoarcheologist. Crimes: Murder, Desecration of a Corpse, Grand Theft, Sabotage, Treasonous Actions, FILE NOT FOUND: NTSO-9727 Alpha. Suggested course of action: Immediate elimination via deadly force. Suspect is to be considered heavily armed and exceptionally dangerous." The damaged borg started drifting in circles slowly, "This unit will provide fire support."
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Well, we could put two and two together and write a book: "The Shit that Hans and Max Did: You Won't Believe This Shit."
He's fucking with us.

Hanslanda

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Re: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story
« Reply #164 on: September 20, 2016, 09:31:31 pm »

We're so very close to the end. I might have underestimated when I said four story posts and one MtA. It's actually two Meet the Antagonists and perhaps six or eight story posts, but I think that's a good thing. :)
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Well, we could put two and two together and write a book: "The Shit that Hans and Max Did: You Won't Believe This Shit."
He's fucking with us.
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