ataraxionlogs | EVENT: DUPRR ▒ THE SECONDARY SHUTTLE BAY

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EVENT: DUPRR ▒ THE SECONDARY SHUTTLE BAY

CHARACTERS: Ensemble production!
LOCATION: The secondary shuttle bay
WARNINGS: Violence, injury, graphic imagery, death etc.
SUMMARY: Discovery of the secondary shuttle bay and rescue ~~or not~~ of the DUPRR NPCs inside.
NOTES: March 30 onwards.

The doors are torn open as you arrive, metal ripped back like the skin of a fruit. Improvised barricades of tools and carts, shuttle pieces stand as obstacles to be carefully climbed through before you can stand in the shuttle bay itself. The space is vast, flashlight beams penetrating only a certain distance into the dark, but enough to sweep the floor, find the scattered, gored remains of at least three human bodies.

The ship stands as the only complete vessel in sight - or, at least, it was. Windows smashed, the hull torn at, access doors ripped open. The inside empty.

The shuttle bay is silent. But is that the silence of a catastrophe already passed, or of someone hiding, holding their breath?

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[The darkness of the corridor stretches ahead of them, maybe somehow less ominous now they know they have walked it before. The scent of two people stand as distinct against the miasma of all the others that have crossed here, heavy with fear, with scents not familiar to the ship around them. They lead forward, back to the fore of the ship, and barely seem to pause or hesitate in this path, a certainty that perhaps no outsider should have.

Blood joins the mix a day into the trail, spray and stain caught on the wall and floor before the flow was staunched. There are deep scratches in the wall, and darker, blacker blood pooled further and a dented crowbar abandoned nearby. Exhaustion and pain slow progress even as the quarry continue, inspire anticipation - they're gaining on them.]

[ The unease grows within Darcy the longer they follow the trail through the halls. The people from the shuttle should be lost, shouldn't they? The path through the corridor that Isaac leads them through seems almost simple. Like they have a map. Which is absurd, because nobody has a good map of this place. A cold knot grows hard in her stomach, and it churns as she drags her fingers over the ravines drawn into the walls. ]

This blood. Do you catch another scent? Did something attack them?

[ Darcy has nightmares about the twisted creatures that people before them had become. That they had almost become when their nanites were sabotaged. She isn't sure which scenario is preferable. ]

[he's never had to track like this. at least not for as long. with a shifted anchor and a focus he's never had before, following the trail comes almost easily to him now. and the longer that it's just the two of them and those two scents, the simpler the whole hunt seems to be.]

I think so.

[an answer to both her questions, really. something definitely attacked them, and they at least managed to escape. but they didn't get away unharmed.]

It's theirs. They got away, but--

[his gaze drops briefly to the crowbar. to the pool of blood. it's stronger than the scent they'd first stumbled upon, but it doesn't leave him trying to block it this time. instead it only makes him push on that much more. makes him more certain that they're going the right way.]

They're slowing down. Come on.

[he pushes the pace faster then. nowhere near a run just yet, but the anticipation is more than enough to have his steps speeding up a little more. they can't mess this up.]

[ Darcy doesn't have Isaac's advantages, to say the least, but she's too determined, too driven to let herself fall behind. Some would surely say it's uncharacteristic of her to be so focused, but there's a lot at stake here, and she's always been one to come through when it matters. ]

It'd be nice if he would give us a sign or something.

[ In her haste to keep up, she steps carelessly and her shoe slides on that tacky blood. She catches herself with a hand flung out to the wall, breaking a nail along one of the grooves dug in there. ]

Mother-- I take it back. Forget I said anything. I don't need any signs.

[ She presses on, hoping that whatever's slowing down the two their chasing isn't going to come after them next. But that's why she has a gun. And a companion with claws and teeth. ]

[They're rewarded within the hour, rounding a corner to see a figure in the corridor up ahead - visible due to some dim, distant light filtering through. They're getting closer to populated areas of the ship.

The woman's limping, leant hard into the wall to push herself along, makeshift bandaging tied tight around her upper thigh and her short, dark hair damp with sweat. She glances back, briefly enough to see them, but there's no relief in her expression for realising there are people there. Fear widens her eyes in a face already paler from bloodloss and pain, but her jaw tightens, determination.

She pushes away from the wall and speeds up, something closer to faster walking. Heading for the light, as if that might save her.]

[it's the sounds of shuffling up ahead that draw his attention first. it has his claws extending again, face shifting because he knows what's coming. knows what's waiting around the corner for them. so the moment she's finally in view, he's ready for her.

she's heading towards the light though, and that gives leaves him momentarily concerned. if she makes it there, if she gets away, he won't be happy. and even isaac knows better than to try his patience. there's a reason they were sent after the intruders afterall.

(there's only one of them though. they've split up. they need to find the other one before it's too late.)

he doesn't say anything before he's taking off at a sprint, speed on his side as he runs forward to block off her progress. to take her down mid-stride. it's with claws digging in to flesh that he smirks down at her. a momentary change of expression before he's digging teeth in to her neck, the smell, the taste, of fresh blood only turning his attack more aggressive with each passing moment.]

Edited (thurd time's a charm) 2015-04-28 14:00 (UTC)

[The extra burst of speed she pushes herself to means nothing. Would mean nothing in comparison to a healthy human racing after her, but for a werewolf, she's easy pickings. She goes down with little effort, crying out as claws bite into the skin of her back and send her to the floor, landing heavy, arms barely catching any of the impact as her legs crumple under her. She only has enough energy and time to twist onto her back, lift her hands in some attempt to hold her attacker at bay.

She's wiry, limbs corded with muscle, and in any other situation maybe she would have been able to hold her own. But the creature that falls down on her digs claws into her stomach, bares its teeth in something that looks like a vicious smile, and bends down to rip her throat out.

She screams, once. The sound chokes out, gurgles and splutters as blood fills her mouth, as her vocal chords are torn apart. She still struggles, hands clawing and pushing at the monster, but her efforts grow weaker by the second as she drowns on blood, as her neck and all its delicate connections is savaged and ripped away. She falls limp, finally, eyes empty and unseeing, only movement of her body the heavy shake of meat as an animal finishes its kill.

Somewhere up ahead, in the dim light of the populated corridors she'd been so close to reaching, a distant gunshot rings out. Another, and then another, in quick succession.]

[ While she may not (currently) have any moral objection to Isaac's methods, her stomach still churns. Even though she looks away, the sound of it makes her gag a little. This is everything she was warned about when she mentioned making friends with werewolves, isn't it?

The sound of gunfire brings Darcy out of her semi-fugue, and she takes off in their direction, perhaps - no, probably - foolishly. Running as fast as her legs will carry her, against her every instinct. Her firearm is clutched tightly in her hand. ]

[There's a corner, as Darcy reaches the end of the corridor, dim light turning to bright and full as she rounds into a more familiar, safer part of the ship. Blinding, stepping from darkness into light with no time to let her eyes adjust - she may almost trip over the body sprawled on the floor.

The man from the DUPRR team is dead, three gunshot wounds blooming dark and red. Two to the chest. One to the head, a splattered mess of blood and brain matter beneath his skull. Eyes open, shocked, staring up at the ceiling.

There's another man stood over him. A black, Tranquility-issue jumpsuit, gun still drawn and held steady in front of him with two hands. His aim jumps, as Darcy runs into view, from the corpse to her. Wary. Prepared. But there's a touch of recognition in his dark eyes.]

You were too slow. [He says, voice heavy with frustration and resignation.] They were almost at the bridge.

[ Darcy stumbles over the body on the floor, but manages to catch herself before she loses her balance entirely, saving her from meeting the floor face first. She isn't a soldier, so when she regains her footing properly and raises her gun to aim at Ward's chest, it's a clunky sort of movement. Her eyes are wide and her arm trembles as she processes whether or not the man is a threat to her. ]

Isaac! We've got company!

[ Ultimately, she either decides that he isn't, or wisely assumes he would drop her before her finger actually covered the trigger. She wasn't nearly as prepared as she should have been. Darcy looks down at the man on the floor, then back up at Ward as she lowers her weapon. A deep breath causes her chest to rise and fall visibly. The tension in the air is thick, and it isn't difficult to see that she not only distrusts the captain, she dislikes him as well. Someone's influence is rubbing off. ]

Were they trying to take control, do you think? Or just looking for a safe place to hole up? Speaking of, something attacked them in the halls, and I didn't see evidence of anything else dead. We should maybe consider trying to find some safety ourselves. If you've got any insights, I'm all ears.

[despite the sounds up ahead, despite darcy leaving to investigate, isaac doesn't move right away. doesn't leave his kill because it's his. his claim. and it's taking far too long for him to push past that. to remember that they have a larger goal here. that he gave them a job to do, and savoring his kill isn't going to get the task done any quicker.

it's only when she calls for him, when he hears his name being yelled aloud, that he finally moves. he leaves a bloodied trail in his wake as he speeds to her side, not realizing that he's moving on all fours as he does. it leaves him crouched by darcy's side as she finishes speaking. but her comments go largely ignored when he realizes who she's talking to in the first place.

yes, that is now a six foot werewolf growling at you, ward. sorry?]

[The train of Ward's gun jumps to Isaac immediately as he appears, and there's some quiet, smothered down fear in the grim line of his mouth. If he's especially shocked to see a transformed werewolf, though, it doesn't show.]

You look like you're capable of looking after yourselves. [The blood covering Isaac's face, chin, running down his neck.] Or you could ask him for help again.

[It's clear from the emphasis on the word that he isn't referring to Isaac, disdain a thinly hidden undercurrent.]

They were hoping to take control. We told you before, they want the Tranquility back.

Down, boy.

[ That might be a mistake, but Darcy keeps her tone light, and doesn't make any move to do something as foolish as scratch the freaking werewolf behind the ears.

Whether or not she's Ward's biggest fan (or he hers) doesn't matter right now, as she's more concerned with staying alive than she is with dealing with that. Having someone who's undoubtedly a better shot than she is as well as aforementioned werewolf on her side seems like better odds to her. When did she get so practical anyway? ]

I never had to ask for his help. [ The set of Darcy's jaw is hard, her tone steely, but only for the moment she makes that assertion. She lets the bulk of it melt away to something between resignation and pleasantry. ] And here you are, standing sentinel all by your lonesome. We want the same thing, Captain. We don't have to be assholes about it. How can we help?

[it'd be an insult any other time, but he doesn't let darcy's words get to him. doesn't want ward to get the wrong idea. he may be following darcy's lead here, but he's still more than ready to make a move against the other man too. (that isn't wolfsbane. all it'll do is hurt. not kill.)

it's only when darcy makes it clear that she wants to work with ward that he finally makes his objections clear. that he moves back to his feet, taking a moment to swipe a sleeve over his mouth. not that it does much good in clearing the blood from his face.]

We're not working with him.

[because he wouldn't want that, would he? they should just take ward down now, before he can cause them any more problems. they can take care of any other attempts on the ship by themselves. this is just a waste of time.]

[There's no surprise or disappointment in Isaac's interruption of Darcy's offer. Instead Ward's expression is more of a jaded resignation, as if he already fully knew what kind of reaction they'd have to him. His gun doesn't lower, but his weight is subtly tipped back. Ready to withdraw.]

Some are being brought back already. Under protection. [The people are idiots is easy enough to hear in his voice.] These two won't be the last to try to access ship systems.

[It seems less like an answer to Darcy's question, and more a general warning.]

Sorry, I don't like my odds in this showdown. Those bullets may not do much to you, but I'm a bit more fragile. I don't think this is the hill he wants me to die on.

[ Maybe. She's not entirely sure Isaac's going to have her back now, but she tries to catch his gaze and hope that she can convey some sort of solidarity with just a look. She doubts it, but she can wish. None of it changes the fact that her blood feels hot in her veins when she looks at Ward again. Not in the way she usually likes. ]

I'm curious about a couple things. First, how do you know the others are being brought back? [ She's reaching for her comm device, the movement slow and deliberate. Her gun stays held loosely in her hand, pointed at the floor. Is it on the network and she hasn't seen, having been in the darkened hallways? ] And second, how did you know he sent me? My closest friends don't even know.

Edited (look, i know how to use punctuation. i know how to catch my mistakes ages after the fact. don't judge me.) 2015-05-05 19:38 (UTC)

Because you know.

[Blunt, hard edged. He gestures with the gun, a sharp flick, attention on her pulling her comms out. He looks even less happy about that development than Isaac growling at him.]

This isn't the time for this.

[Twenty questions. Checking the network. Making a video of him. All of the tension in his body is coiling back, the only thing holding him in place the chances of running resulting in chasing.]

That's not an answer.

[ Not one she likes at any rate. Darcy aborts her quest to check for details on the network, now that they're back in the light. ]

What is it that he wants for us that you don't?

[ Why do they all have to be enemies anyway? ]

You don't want to hear that answer.

[He draws back a single step, slow, gun still raised as if he's expecting the movement to spook them. Or some kind of retaliation.]

Wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know.

[ For a moment, it looks like Darcy's just going to watch him back away. But there's a great hatred that's been making a fist in her sternum, and his non-answers are positively infuriating. It feels hard to breathe. Doesn't he know if he'd just answer her, she wouldn't get so angry? She turns to look at Isaac. ]

Maybe you were right. There's no point in trying to work with him.

[ The movement is swift, and the sound is deafening in the hallway when Darcy lifts her weapon just enough to fire one shot into Ward's leg. She barely looks back to do it. ]

Prick.

[ She definitely does not look back as she takes off running, hopefully before Ward can think to fire back. ]

Edited (sshhhh i'm doing the thing) 2015-05-11 20:48 (UTC)

[he's mostly silent throughout the exchange, his eyes (blue now. the gold is gone, though he doesn't know yet) tracking briefly across towards darcy when she makes her move towards her network device. it's her question though that refocuses him. the fact that she's asking about him, despite knowing that she should already trust him by now. they wouldn't be out there if they didn't.

(it's why he's there. smiley has done nothing but help him. this is a fraction of the favor being repayed. he trusts him implicitly. she should too.)

it's when the weapon is raised that isaac finally moves. the explosion of the gun is enough of a prompt for him to get going. but it's the scent of blood that has him heading in a different direction to darcy. ward is injured. he's prey. it puts him on the lowest rung of the ladder, and it's up to isaac to get rid of the weak. it's what he would want, isn't it?]

[Ward doesn't look shocked at Darcy's response, at the gun firing or even the impact to his leg. He'd been expecting an attack the second they'd run into each other - the fact they'd gone so long without only seemed like luck. And that maybe Darcy wasn't as full of conviction as she might appear.

Isaac, on the other hand, is another beast entirely. One Ward is definitely not excited to have lunging towards him. There are a very limited number of options, all of them with longer term consequences than he wants to deal with. In the split second he has to make the decision, he chooses the easiest.

Momentum already tipping back, downwards from the bullet tearing through his thigh, Ward falls backwards. Falls in, a schism of deep black and heat splintering like a fissure out from his middle, cracks breaking outward through him, through the air as if the very surface of reality was being smashed into pieces.

It's over in a second. Ward stumbles back into the dark and the rend closes around him, leaves nothing but the bloody bullet that had struck through his leg, the quickly fading scent of burning and ozone.]

[ With no gunfire in immediate response, and Isaac seeming to be bent on finishing what Darcy didn't mean to start, she skids to a stop and turns around.

Just in time to watch that was. Darcy's eyes get wide with panic and she looks around frantically, half expecting Ward to reappear behind her and plug her in the back of the head. ]

Where is he? What the fuck just happened?!

[ward's disappearance leaves isaac crouched over empty space. leaves him with nothing more than the smell of ward's blood. of gunpowder residue. of-- fire. lightning. of something he can't quite identify.

his fingers curl in to fists, claws digging in to his palms for a moment, before he hits the floor with enough force to jolt himself back to alertness again. to focus on darcy's return, and on keeping his wolf at bay despite the smell of panic in the air. it takes a while, but eventually he manages to look back at her without feeling the need to attack.]

He's gone. [completely. there's no trace of him left now, and he doesn't know what to think about that.]

We need to get out of here.

[ Darcy's heart feels like it stops in her chest for a moment when she sees that look from Isaac. Like she might make just as convenient a target as Ward had made. Her mind is frantically trying to formulate an argument that he'll listen to, but it ultimately proves unnecessary. Which is fortunate, considering that in her head, her attempts to persuade him came out sounding like the woman from the DUPRR crew just minutes earlier. She's sure she's not very convincing when she's drowning in her own blood.

She relaxes, but remains reminded of the creature she's in the company of. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she marches over to the place where Ward had stood, half expecting to step through some invisible portal, but instead finding herself precisely where she should be. She stoops down to retrieve the bullet that passed through the man's thigh. She doesn't need anyone finding this later. ]

Right. Let's go.

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EVENT: DUPRR ▒ THE SECONDARY SHUTTLE BAY

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