Project - Prometheus Ch. 02

"I don't think that will be a problem, but I'd better grab my portable rig to be safe," Taal'ani said, as she admired the form her captain cut in the power armor. Though the suit was an older model, it still looked fearsome. It transformed the look of their kindly captain into that of a hardened warrior.

Night blue, interlocking armor plates covered most of the black vacc suit underneath. Coupled with military grade mag boots and a supply pack on her back, which contained extra mags and grenades. The helmet was designed to look both faceless and fearsome, sleek angles and smooth contours. Combined with a solid black visor, made it look like something that was more machine than human. The effect though, couldn't be denied, as chills involuntarily shot up Taal'ani's spine.

Priya's suit was similar, but an older Mark two model, which had a similar effect on the cat-girl. Korsa looked no less awe-inspiring, her interlocking armor was gold in color and gilded in silver overlay. The design of the plating was both alien and familiar, with her helmet being both simple in its design, yet elegant. The flowing form of the armor made it appear that she had emerged from some ethereal dimension.

Made from a metal native to her system, it was more resilient than titanium. One of the most notable differences, was that it was far lighter and tougher to bend or dent. It was also nigh impossible to acquire, as that was one of the few things the Khontar Empire kept strictly for themselves. Despite many ridiculously one-sided trade proposals, the Khontar people refused to trade it to anyone, even their closest allies.

In her lower arms, Korsa held a pistol in one hand and a pair of SMGs in the other. Lobbing them to both women, she crossed her arms, while pulling her Thuun'tara blade out of its sheath, on her back. Gripping it with her upper arms, she stepped away from the group, to practice sword forms with it.

Both Priya and Inari were also armed, Priya with her Night Hammer sniper rifle and a pair of pulse pistols. Inari bore her signature weapon, the Ravager auto rifle, a heavy beast of a weapon.

"This thing is a derelict. A massive one, but any threats should be long gone," Nats said, eyeing the weapons that both women held.

"While we were looking for a way in, I noted some oddities in the hull of the Perseus," Priya stated as she checked the sighting on her weapons.

"Weapon impacts?" Taal'ani asked.

"Boarding pods. The impact sites were patched up, but the outer markings were still visible."

"Any idea who, or what attacked them?" Nats inquired.

Shaking her head, Inari spoke up, "None, but it's obvious that they weren't friendly. We don't know what we'll find here, so it's best to be prepared," she finished, with the confidence and experience of a woman who had done this before. Nodding grimly, both Natalya and Taal'ani checked their weapons, set the safeties and holstered them.

"Need to run to my quarters for a moment to grab something. Talon, mind loading the grav-sled?" Nats queried.

"Full load out?" she asked.

"Yup. I'm going to need everything if we're going to both restore power and get out of here," Nats called out as she disappeared into the ship.

Sighing in exasperation, she called out to Natalya's retreating form, "Grab my rig while you're up there! It's in the green case!"

Talon then went to work, loading the all the tools and equipment that belonged to the Darkstrider's engineer. Taal'ani had just finished loading the cart as Natalya slid down the ladder, bouncing over to where her friend waited. The green case that Taal'ani had asked for was slung on her back, which Nats promptly removed and handed to the cat-girl.

Looking over the pile on the sled, Natalya tsked and walked away to a pair of large blocky cases. "You forgot these," she said as she hefted them, one at a time, to load them on the sled.

Taal'ani frowned dubiously and asked, "Are you sure? The last time you brought those along, you nearly put a hole in Pree's ass."

Feeling embarrassed, Natalya straightened out the payload before strapping it down. After locking the straps in place, she stepped behind the sled.

"It's OK. I fixed what was wrong with them. They won't cause any problems since you rewrote that targeting algorithm," the caramel skinned woman asserted, defending her project. "At least, I hope they won't," she added too quietly, even for Talon's enhanced ears to hear.

"OK, let's get going," the young woman said as she pushed the sled out of the Darkstrider and down the entry ramp. As both women stepped away from the ship, they located their crew mates, their suit lights shining against the inky darkness. They likewise activated their own suit lights, making their navigation across the hangar floor far less foreboding.

As they approached, the three women were standing by a door which led to the aft of the ship. A small terminal was wedged into the wall to the right of the door. Taal'ani stepped towards it, opened her case and pulled out the computer deck that was nestled within. Using the mag harness that was built into the frame of the deck, she activated the clamps, temporarily bonding it with the wall beneath the terminal.

Punching in a few keys, the deck then powered up, its green holographic display brightening the area around the five women. Inari and Priya had assumed a sentry stance, keeping their eyes and weapons trained on the cavernous gloom, surrounding them. Korsa stood a few paces behind them, maintaining a vigil over her daughter and the sled.

"Can you speed up the process any Talon? This blackness is starting to give me the chills," Inari said as she tightened her grip on the Ravager auto rifle.

"I have to cut through another Skorean code here, and this one is giving me more trouble than the last one," Taal'ani growled as she worked on the pattern that would grant them entry into the derelict.

"Just hurry it up, please. By Shiva, it almost feels we're being watched," Priya stuttered as she held her ground, looking in as many directions as she could.

"Not helping!" came the cat-girl's anxious reply. Fifty seconds later, the final sequence came into play, which Taal'ani pounced on, unlocking the door, with a loud clank.

"OK everyone, clear the door and lock in," Taal'ani said, stepping far enough away from the terminal and deck, where she could just reach it. Everyone else followed suit, stepping away from the door, readying themselves for the decompression. They all knelt, grabbing what ridges and handholds they could find in the floor.

Stretching out, Talon reached over and pressed the activation key on her deck, opening the doors. They opened slowly, first a small blast of air escaped, which then became a large one as the doors further separated. While mighty, the air flowing into the hangar bay wasn't enough to knock the women over, though it jostled them quite fiercely.

Just as quickly as it washed over them, the blast of air faded. In three minutes, it went from near gale force wind to a slight breeze. Standing, all five women approached the door, looking into the corridor that lay ahead. Stepping forward, her rifle pointing ahead of her, Inari took a few tentative steps into the murk. When nothing happened, she signaled the rest of her crew to follow.

"Form up ladies and look sharp. We've been lucky so far, but we do not understand what caused this ship to become lost in the first place. Stay frosty," Inari said.

"Aye captain!" the other four women chorused, as they formed up. Priya fell into step just behind Inari, Taal'ani stayed with Nats and the grav sled, with Korsa bringing up the rear. Cranking their suit lights to maximum illumination, they began their foray into the ship.

The corridor they walked into, spidered into an entire labyrinth of passageways. Most led to either living quarters or what seemed to be recreation areas. A few small offices that looked to be reserved for deck officers. Their lights bounced off of the white walls and dark grey floors, dust motes scattering wherever they trod.

Korsa had brought up a holo display on one of her arm bracers, going through a scan of some sort. Looking behind her, Nats broke the ominous silence, "What you doing Mama K?"

The large woman looked up from her holo, "Running a scan of the air quality, just to see if there're any clues that way."

Inari stopped, peering back to where Korsa stood and breathed, "Anything worth noting?"

The scan came up a lime green in color. "The air is clean, though it might be thin. I recommend that we use our air filters, at least until we can restore power to the ship," Korsa reported. Nodding, Inari switched from her own air supply to the filtration system built into her helmet. Taking a deep breath, she smelled and tasted a faint trace of mustiness coming through her filters.

"Ugh! Smells and tastes like week old ass!" Taal'ani grumbled as she made the switch with rest of her crew.

"How do you know what week old ass smells like?" Natalya asked, giggling to herself. The cat-girl turned to face Nats and though her face was obscured by the tinting of her helm, the engineer knew the look that was on her face.

The reply tumbled out, "Don't ask."

Shaking her head, Natalya continued pushing the sled forward, heading towards the aft of the ship. The corridor system they were following abruptly opened out into a wide expansive room, filled with many kinds of advanced computer and scanning equipment.
"What is this place?" Priya asked, looking at the cavernous room, the ceiling of which was at least several decks higher than it should have been.

Walking towards the equipment, Korsa looked it all over and breathed, "This was a hospital of some sort. A lot of these things are medical scanners and treatment pods. But.... the shape and sizing of them differs from anything I've ever seen." Bewildered, the Khontar woman meandered through, until she found something that left her awestruck.

"It can't be.... a Regen pod?!?" Hearing these words, Natalya scampered over to see what Korsa was looking at.

"One of those pods that mends and repairs damaged tissues and bones seamlessly?" Taal'ani wondered as she too, ambled over to get a look at the pod.

The pod was open, appearing as it hadn't been used, looking nearly as pristine as the day it had been crafted. Inside the pod was an intricate crystalline lattice that shimmered in the light from their suits.

"I've heard about tech like this on the black sites that I frequent, but it's only rumors and hearsay. I've heard vague descriptions of these things, but nothing concrete," Talon said as she stared at the marvel before them. "OK, before we go any further, I need to know something. What sort of ship was it that was found at the bottom of that sea on Earth?"

Nats looked up and recalled the tale she had told earlier, "No one really knows. The story goes that it was made by those that we call The First Race. The rest of the galaxy calls them The Primes."

"What?!? Are you telling me that humankind found an intact Prime ship? That this is a replicate of Prime technology?" Taal'ani gasped.

"That is the story. No one really knew for sure, except for those who were on the Earth High Council and the top military leaders of the time," Nats answered. "It would certainly explain some of the things we've seen here, especially that code you said wasn't supposed to exist."

Nodding mutely, the cat-girl glanced around the deserted med bay. It was truly a marvel, seeing this wonder of technology that human hands had crafted. To be standing on a ship of legends and folklore, was almost too much to take in. Shaking her head, Taal'ani came back to her senses.

"We should really keep moving. We can catalog everything once we have power restored," Inari spoke aloud, jarring everyone from their introspections.

"Aye captain," Priya said crisply. Taking a longing look at the Regen pod, Korsa tore her attention away from it, promising herself to come back to it later.

Shouldering their weapons, the team walked over to the main exit point of the med bay, a set of wide doors at the rear of the facility. Taal'ani was there first, checking the console that lay by the door.

"Dead. There's no power here, so we'll have to pry this door open."

Korsa chuckled as she hefted her Thuun'tara blade, stepping forth while the rest of the crew gave her a wide berth. Her fingers played along the hilt and grip, finding hidden catches in the weapon. Once she found them, the six-foot-long blade came apart into two. Each sword maintained its length but was a slight bit narrower and thinner than the whole.

Carefully, the Khontar woman place the tips of both blades along the central groove of the door. Once aligned, she shoved them through and slowly wedged the portal open. It gave way slowly, inching along towards fully open. Once the door was opened wide enough, Korsa let go of her blades with her lower arms, gripping the edges of the doors instead.

Once she had a firm grip, she dropped the swords completely, using all four arms to push the doors open. As the Thuun'tara blades clattered to the floor, the rest of the Darkstrider crew stepped in to help. With two on each side, pulling and pushing to clear the entryway, the way forward was soon laid bare to them.

"Odd that there would be no power on these doors, being so deep in the ship," Priya commented.

"Power is probably allocated to more essential systems that require it, but that's just a guess," Natalya replied.

Inari nodded, "Makes sense. Let's keep moving. The sooner we restore power, the sooner we can get to the bottom of this mystery."

"Agreed," Taal'ani chirped as she hoisted her SMGs to a combat stance. Korsa bent over to scoop up her swords before stepping back into the rear guard. They fell into formation again, marching through the door, but stopped in their tracks at the sight that lay before them.

"No fucking way!" Natalya cried out in awe. In front, lay a massively cavernous room, stretching from wall to wall and floor to ceiling. The room was filled with cryo pods, clustered together, with walkways and gantries crisscrossing each other everywhere. The sheer number of pods was staggering to see, what they could see was far beyond count.

The rest of the group were staring, overawed by the sheer immensity of this hold. "How many people are in here?" Nats wondered aloud.

"Thousands for sure," Inari mumbled, "Dead most likely though." Walking over to the nearest pod cluster, Inari looked it over, as though she was looking for something.

The cluster was dimly lit, each pod emitting a minimal glow from within. With clear crystalline lids, the humans sleeping in them were visible. The light framed the faces of their occupants as though they were ghosts.

"Aha! Found it!" Starwitch cried out, as she stood before a large readout panel set into the cluster. Dusting it off with her hands, she got a good look at the readouts of the pods.

"Impossible!" she exclaimed as her face was etched with incredulous awe.

"Cap, what is it?" Natalya asked, stepping forward to see what had her friend in such a state. Looking over the panel, Nats' face soon took on a similar look to her captains'.

"How can that be?? They're still alive? After all this time?!?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought I heard you say, 'They're still alive.'" Korsa queried before ambling over to see the readout for herself.

"According to this Mama K, these people sleeping in this pod cluster are still alive, after six hundred years!" Natalya intoned quietly.

"What?!?" Priya choked out.

"Let me have a look," Taal'ani said as she came towards where her crewmates were standing. Gesturing for them to give her some space, she brought up her arm deck and input several commands. She stared at the holo and watched it go though its routine checks. Pinging with a green light, the scanning program confirmed Talon's suspicions.

"This readout isn't malfunctioning; it still works properly like it should. These people ARE still alive, but by these numbers, it doesn't look like they have much time," the cat-girl went on.

"How much time?" Inari asked. "According to this, they have days, maybe weeks at most."

"We'd better hot-foot it to engineering then!" Natalya piped up, already behind her grav sled, impatient to get moving.

"Form up! Keep your eyes open ladies!" their captain barked as she assumed point position. Everyone went back to their posts and as one, they continued on, deeper into the bowels of the derelict.

"Lights up!" came a familiar command. Every member of the crew with guns, activated the lights attached to their weapons. As they progressed, they noticed what seemed to be a group of figures ahead of them. "Hold your fire and advance slowly," Inari commanded steadily. Gripping their weapons tightly, the all-female crew, walked forward cautiously.

The figures turned out to be humanoid machines, all standing still. Their stances indicative of a battle that had occurred before they were deactivated. Several of which seemed to have been badly damaged by weapons fire. Others had large chunks missing as though they had been cleaved apart.

"What are these things?" Taal'ani asked, looking at the skeletal shape of the robots.

"Sentry-Bots. Designed for security aboard ships, they could also be tasked to do a variety of things, provided you had the clearance to issue them orders," Inari supplied while looking them over.

"You've seen these before?" Korsa asked.

"Yes, but only on ships that were cruiser class of larger and even then, they were still in the prototype phase. That was before...." Inari trailed off, the memories still a bitter pill to swallow.

"Hey, don't worry love. We'll get that bastard," Priya consoled her lover. A single tear escaped, crawling down Inari's face. Sniffing for a moment, she took a deep breath and centered herself.

Focusing back on the present, Inari directed her to team to keep moving, edging around the Sentry-Bots. Several meters from the collection of sentries, they saw the reason behind their state, lying on the metal ground. The remnants of humanoid beings were strewn about the ground having been gunned down by the now frozen Sentries.

The beings had been long dead, given the state of their bones that littered the floor, and the craters that had riddled the skeletons. What they did not expect, was the telltale protrusions on the skulls, shoulder blades and the shape of the leg bones.

"Xuul'khan!" Korsa spat, instantly recognizing the species. "Is there nothing they haven't tried to destroy?!?"

"Whatever they tried to do to here, they failed. Just like they failed with your people Mama," Natalya sympathized.

Korsa growled as she grimly circled the remains, locking her blades together into a singular sword again. The so called "Demons" were a touchy subject for Korsa, as the Xuul'khani people had nearly wiped out hers. Only now, hundreds of years later, the Khontar recovered from the genocidal war that had seen millions of her people slaughtered.

"We need to keep moving. Korsa, can you keep a cool head?" Inari queried. Nodding, the Khontar woman straightened from examining the remains.

"I'm OK captain. I just didn't expect these Dershou'kaht (Pieces of shit) here!"

"None of us did. This day has been a mix of exciting and strange, with a lot of questions that need to be answered. Let's go find them," Inari said, gesturing the rest of the group forward.

Collecting themselves, the crew of the Darkstrider pressed on. They came across similar scenes of battle, each one indicative of a hard-pressed conflict on both sides. They saw what seemed to be groups of intact Sentry-Bots, frozen in mid-stride, as though they were going about regular patrols and ship business.