Log:Array Consortium: The Castle Breached

The Castle Breached

Location: Bandit's Castle
Participants: Bar'duur, Dosk, Sion & Tamrae

Though the Bandit's Castle has brought them to victory often of late, the members of its crew and of the Consortium's greater captaincy will suddenly find their powerhouse endangered, and things will never be the same on board again.

          Razia arches both brows. Well, it is just skin above the brows really, she has no actual brows. "That sounds like it was incredibly fun. I would love to go on a true hunt on day. I have hunted -people- but that is just business. Going hunting to take down incredible beasts? Now -that- sounds amazing!" She seems to be impressed. She reaches for her fruit and begins to cut chunks of fruity flesh off the pit it clings to. "We could get several of us and you could show us the ways of the hunt." (repose)

          Bar'duur is sitting to one side of the room, he's got a tray with some sort of nuts, some jerky and some leafy vegitables, and his spear, wich he seems to have been sharpening with a composite sharpening rod. He's speaking with Razia in a casual manner, but he smiles a little at that. "Hunting parties can be very fun, with the right group.. I have hunted in groups on the very dangerous worlds, but I dont go to those alone.. I think this is a good idea." He nods his horned head and smiles a bit more warmly before biting a bit more jerky away for consumption.

          Sion peeks into the room, then steps fully inside, clad in her usual off-duty attire: A cropped pink tee and black sweats with thick pink stripes up the legs. She lifts a hand in casual greeting to Bar'duur and Razia, glancing curiously at the Rattataki woman for a bit longer than strictly necessary. She pauses at the cooler to find a bottle of mineral water.

          Dosk walks into the crew lounge of The Castle, not really looking at who was inside before making his way over to pour himself a cup of caf. At the sound of Bar'duur's voice, the Codru'ji looks over and sees everyone hanging out. "Oh hey guys, hows it going?" He asks casually. Turning around slowly as he sips from his mug.

          The lights flicker. Just a bit.

          Razia stuffs a chunk of the red fruity flesh into her mouth before chewing. The fruit is so sweet and so juicy, even a cold-ass like Razia has to admit how amazing it is. When the lights flicker, she simply glances up. Though, she thinks nothing of it and continues with her meal. "Oh, now that sounds like a treat. Go for the big game eh?" She glances to Sion and then Dosk, offering them a single nod of polite greetings. "Hello." Her words were polite, but not -too- friendly. She simply doesn't know them. "We were just talking about the possibility of scheduling a hunt. I think that would be exciting."

          The lights flicker again.

          Bar'duur smiles at Sion. "Hey Sion, Dosk." He says casually, throwing some nuts into his mouth and chomping a bit before he looks up and around. Being the cautious sort he frowns a little, a second, before he reaches for his communicator and speaks into it. "Engineering crew, are you having power problems?"

          "I remember hunting with you, Bar," Sion says, shutting the cooler and leaning her hip against it as she opens the water bottle. "Something like that? Or less sentient game?"

          She nods to Razia, and blinks at the flickering lights. "That shouldn't be happening..."

          "Hunting is big on my home world. Our senses are tuned for it, would be fun." Dosk says as he looks around. "Where's Tamrae at? Cant she look into that?" A hand pointing up to the lights as he moves closer to the group. "Wonder if there is anything to hunt on Socorro"

          "Reading some abnormal power flux in the reactor, sir!" A tinny voice emits from Bar'duur's commlink. "We're locking it down, dont' worry!

          Razia starts to get a little nervous now. "Last ship I was on with weird power fluxes exploded." She looses interest in her food, lowering her bits back down to the plate. "Then again, something exploded and shrapnel caused all the fluxes in everything."

          Bar'duur smirks a little at Sion. "Well, I was talking about hunting animals.. but most of my trips are not about the hunting but about the challenge." He shrugs a little bit. "My favorite place to go is more about just not letting the planet kill you, only for people good at surviving." He listens to the comm and just frowns a little more for one reason or another. He glances over to Razia, and back to Dosk. "Dont know where Tamarae is, doing something for the captain I think. I've never been to Socorro, myself."

          "It was home for me," Sion says, with a worried look at Razia, and another at Bar. "There are some dangerous beasts there, but they're mostly the kind to avoid, not hunt. There's hunting there, but most of it, you have to get to the beast before something nastier does."

          Her eyes fall on Dosk. "I haven't seen Tam all day. Maybe she's off the ship on business?"

          Dosk nods and sips from his glass. Looking up at the lights again. "Well it is an older ship I suppose"

          Another dip, this one far worse. The lights are practically off - everything around you - until they flare, so bright that it seems almost the the sun has exploded inside the lounge, threatening to sear your eyes...

          And then all goes dark for a moment, just before the blue lamps of the emergency lights come on.

          "Sir? Sir, are you there?" Another voice, mingled dread and something else. Horror? Maybe.

          Razia turns her attention back to the meal. She reaches for her sandwich and lifts it to her lips. Noone else seems concerned, so why should she? This is her thought process. Well, it was her thoughts until darkness. Then BLINDING light! She throws her hands up to protect her eyes, letting out a grunt of discomfort. Then.. darkness. Even with the blue lights, it takes her a moment to refocus. She sighs, the sandwich is put down and her chai canbe heard scooting as she stands up. "I swear, if there is a hostile causing this, I will shove my sandwich up his nose."

          Bar'duur grunts. "A bit older, big ships tend to be older unless you can afford a cutting edge one or military." He nods over to Sion and smirks a bit. but then the power is out, switching over to emergency. He stands up to his feet immedeately. "What is it?" He says on the comm. This as he makes a gesture with his hand a sort of circle in the air as if to try and get everyone up and moving.

          "Sir, there's a problem." Slight snap of static. "You'd better get down here."

          Dosk is already standing and kind of steps to the side while covering his eyes as they brighten, then when they go off and the emergency ones come on he blinks to himself a couple times. "Well, that can't be good." Saying just before Bar'duur signals. As he does, Dosk motions to follow the Zabrack. Dosk basically only knew how to get to the hangar and the crew lounge since he never got to finish his guided tour.

          "It does have a few years on it," Sion agrees... and yelps, throwing up her arms over her eyes reflexively, as the lights suddenly flare incredibly! The ship is plunged into deep darkness the next instant!

          Mercifully, the emergency lights come on within a second, but that moment... brr. Sion looks hurriedly around, and realizes she's splashed with water from the bottle that had jerked up along with her hand. She sighs gustily. "I guess they didn't get it locked down. I'll go change and meet you in Engineering," she says, tossing back what's left of her water and disposing of the bottle as she turns towards the door, already stripping off her soaked sweatpants, her white athletic briefs almost glowing in the murky light. She slips out the door in a hurry.

          Bar'duur remains standing, blinking a few times after the lights just went really bright and now only the blue emergency lights are on. He's holding a communicator. "Right, on my way." He says with a frown and starts moving toward the Engineering section. "I want everyone on alert." He calls out.

          The lights are off, but the emergency lamps in the engineering bay are far brighter; orange-suited technicians are clustered around the reactor vessel, a large cylindrical device largely obscured by the ship's enormous engines. Specifically, they are looking /under/ the reactor, murmuring at something that appears to be there through the decking. Curious.

          Bar'duur makes his way into the engine room, he doesnt know a damned thing about this stuff to be truthful, machines have always baffled him in some ways, even if he's learned how to use them well. "What's going on?" He asks and halts, not getting too close, since everyone seems to be wearing protective gear.

          Sion arrives moments later, having stopped in her quarters to slip into her familiar riding leathers and strap on her blaster, just in case. She's not much better with these kinds of things than Bar, but she does have a little knowledge of the systems in question. "What's down there?" she has to ask, pausing close to one of the engineering ratings and pointing down into the hole beneath the decking.

          Dosk enters behind Bar'duur, a hand resting on his blaster the whole stroll from the crew lounge as they move. Like the previous two, Dosk knows next to nothing about these types of things. But curiosity led him to follow the first mate here in lieu of merely walking down the ramp and back to his own, lighted ship.

          Skidding in behind the first three, Tamrae promptly barks her shin on the doorframe, hissing out a long strong of swearing as she hops for a moment, then cautiously approaches the group, looking around uncertainly. "What's goin' on? I step on th' ship an' everythin' in emergency mode...did th' reactor destablize?" she murmurs to Dosk as she comes up behind him.

          Bar'duur blinks, hearing Tamrae. "Oh your here." He waves at her to get her to stand a bit closer since she's more technically minded.

          Sion glances back with a relieved sigh, seeing Tamrae coming in. "Thank the Maker," she murmurs, nodding to the Codru-Ji. "We've got a small problem."

          "None of us know whats going on Tam, this is more your field than ours. We were all just in the lounge, a few times the lights blinked, then they got super bright and cut off." Dosk explains to Tamrae with a shrug of his upper arms.

          Tamrae frowns, shouldering her tools as she nods. "Lemme take a look..." she says, putting on a confident front to cover nervousness as she moves past. In the dim light, her eyes shine slightly, a bit like a cat's as she walks over to the reactor to peer down. "What is it?" she says, rummaging in her tool kit and pulling out a glow stick to see if she can shine it down on the grating to help with whatever is being searched for...

          Before she even gets the light properly shining down, Tamrae's nose is wrinkling in distaste at the smell of...carbonized flesh that's wafting up from the floor decking. When the light does fall across what's down below, Tamrae turns a little green. "Dosh..." she swears, swallowing. "...there's a body down here." she says, looking back at the group she followed in. "Engineering coverall...looks like something burnt his face off." She swallows again, trying vainly to cover her nose with her lower left hand as she steps in, carefully looking for signs of loose wires or sparks, from a distance. "Anyone see what happened?" she asks the engineering ratings nearby.

          Bar'duur moves up closer as well but lets Tamrae take a look, the man is frowning a bit, he looks toward the exit. "Are all members of this Engineering team accounted for? I want a headcount right now, and close the hatch, noone leaves."

          "Yes," says one of the engineers, a Durosi named Valix. He emerges from the group, nodding to Bar'duur. "Sir. Sorry, sir, I had to make sure the power flux hadn't damaged any of the conduits - looks like we're safe there, but..." Valix nods down at the corpse. "I also needed to check his code cylinder. That is - was - Crewman Bannus. One of ours."

          Sion winces. "Maker... what a way to go," she murmurs, putting a hand over her mouth cautiously. But a hard question has to be asked. "What was he doing down there?"

          The smell permiates Dosk's nostrils, the burnt flesh and ozone hitting him just as Tamrae announces the body. Remaining where is is at, he remains quiet at this point. He didnt really know most of the crew aside from the other 3 he entered with.

          Tamrae sighs a bit, then mmphs. "Let me check ta make sure there's nothin' loose there, I can....ah...Dosk, actually, can ya gimmee a hand here?" She braces with her lower hands so she can lean down to try and hang down into the workspace, her nostrils flaring as she scents the air, trying to figure out what that strange smell is she's picking up. "There's something down here...might be from a chemical fire when it happened...." She reaches down, then taps the back of her fingertips against the code cylinder, to make sure there's no charge running through the body. But for now, it looks good...and if it is, she'll pull the cylinder free and hand it back up to Bar'duur since he's close.

          The cylinder is actually with Valix, who offers it to Bar'duur. "Sir," he says, "This cylinder should only allow him into the workrooms. Instead it let him into the reactor crawlways. It has to be falsified." He looks down at the corpes and sniffs irritably, "We haven't been able to figure out what he was trying to do down there, but I'm pretty sure he was trying to sabotage the reactor."

          Bar'duur reaches to accept the cylinder, from Tamrae first but then from Valix as he explains, his brow knits mildly and he nods a little. "How long has he been with us?" The horned man asks. "I want you, and Tamrae to personall inspect every inch of this engine bay, understood?" His voice lowers somewhat.

          Sion frowns. "Sounds like I've got some terminal jockeying to do," she murmurs, with a final glance at the dead man. "If he's here, somebody had to hire him. That might merit checking in its own right."

          Dosk nods as Tam asks for his help. heading in the fellow Codru'ji's direction and standing by once he gets there. "Sure, what do you need help with?" Asking as he eyes the body more carefully now that he is closer to it. "May want to have his quarters searched too. May be some clues there or something. Do you guys get your own rooms on here?"

          Tamrae sets down her toolkit, then pops it open, pulling out two pairs of work gloves, one of which she tosses to Dosk. "Gotta get him outta there before we can see what he was doin' there." she explains, sliding the gloves on her upper hands. She nods to Bar'duur. "On it. Let's see what he did ta th' reactor first, but, yes' ma'am..." she says to Sion. "If ya could figure out where he went on th' ship that he wasn't supposed ta be goin', that'd be really helpful." She leans over carefully to do a once over of the body again, shining the light around him, before she makes room so she and Dosk are in a position to pull it out.

          Several hours pass as the incident is thoroughly investigated. The body is removed - what's left of it - and taken away to the medbay, while Valix and Tamrae scour the reactor. What's found is...disheartening. The dead man apparently had used a magpulse charge against the ship's reactor, trying to trigger a complete system overload and detonation of the reactor - destroying the ship, the hangar, and a chunk of the starport. But someting went wrong with the device, and it dumped its considerable charge into his body, carbonizing his body - but also damaging the magnetic bottle generator and other systems of the reactor significantly. The ship's entire power system is damaged as well - and though it can be repaired, and can be used in the void, the aging ship's systems may not survive another combat sortie.

          Meanwhile, Bar'duur, Sion and Dosk work together to research the man himself, and discover...that he doesn't exist, at least not behind a veritable wall of falsified data. He is a complete cipher, and because if his carbonization, genetic data will be difficult to extract. Perhaps Dr. Q may be able to share some light on things...but for now, you have a damaged ship, a dead saboteur, and far more questions than answers.

          And the Captain is due back soon...