EVENT: DUPRR ▒ THE SECONDARY SHUTTLE BAY

[ataraxites]

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?

Comments

[volares]

"Wouldn't call any of what just happened lucky," He growls darkly. If he looked run-ragged before the encounter, cowering from the black and fibrous alien, he looks worse now. Dark shadows form below his eyes, giving his already stubbled face a particularly haunted impression. As they move, he simply takes her lead, unable to make a judgment on whether they're heading in the right direction.

[circumitus]

No, suppose having your own killed by one of the people the aforementioned broadcast had reached -- who were supposed to help, no less -- wouldn't be considered by any means lucky.

"It wasn't supposed to happen this way." There's an ambiguous meaning hidden in her tones. But as long as she plays as Schuyler, she can keep hiding it. Play the part of the weathered soldier who's seen too much shit.

Not like she'll have to keep at it for too long.

[volares]

Russe relinquishes an unimpressed grunt on the subject, looking everywhere but Rey. In knocking William out, she's proven herself an ally of his. He doesn't feel any particular compulsion to watch her movements. Rather, he'd like to get an eye for the ship, figure out where they're going. Except he can't seem to figure out where that is, but for a swarming darkness and a steady sensation of moving down.

"No, I don't reckon it's ever supposed to happen that way."

[circumitus]

Rey knows that feeling. Remembers it. Has made amends with it. She also feels something tugging away in the back of her mind.

It's not supposed to be this way.

She ignores it.

"Mm," is all she says in response.

It's quiet. Wherever the monsters went, she can't find them in the darkness. Her senses are honed more on Russe's footfalls, ensuring that he is still following her.

Her wrist tightens around William. Even several minutes later, she doesn't tire by carrying him. She's pretty much a glorified pack mule.

After an awkward silence, she finally pipes up again: "I know you're just the pilot, but I've been wondering... Were you aware that this ship has been spacefaring for over one-hundred and thirty years?"

She's curious to know how much Van Rijn has told the DUPRR crew. But also, as Schuyler, she only attempts to make conversation while there's still time between them.

[volares]

"I know damn well how long this ship's been gone," Russe grouses. His shoulders tight, eyes flicking here and there in the dark, he doesn't look entirely personable or amenable to conversation. In fact, it only seems to be getting darker down here. It's hard to imagine there's any civilization on the other end of it. A creeping feeling persists in his chest, worse the deeper they go. "You sure this is the right direction?"

[circumitus]

Interesting.

It doesn't help that Rey isn't entirely talkative herself. Perhaps if William were conscious he'd have a thing or two to say, but as it is her priorities are keeping vigil and making sure no more stragglers surprise them.

Keeping ahead, her only indicator of Russe's presence are his footsteps behind her, and much later his question.

"Yeah, this is the way we came from." She's fairly certain of that, anyway. But after a while some things are striking her as unfamiliar. The emptiness, for one thing, does not inspire much confidence as she makes a turn down a long, stretched hallway moving out into the shadows.

[volares]

"Perhaps you should consider yourselves lucky we've come, then," Russe comments critically. "Our engineers might be able to look at the ship systems and get some light down here." By now, it's pure inky blackness, such that he can hardly see her in front of him. All he can do is follow the heavy thud of her footsteps on metal. Time, as they descend, loses meaning.

[circumitus]

Assuming any of them had made it, but fortunately Schuyler isn't as tactless as Rey would be in this scenario.

"It's good that you arrived when you did," came someone else's words right out of her mouth. Tones of gratitude and appreciation for Russe and his crew. "I don't think we'd have been able to hold out much longer here."

Whether it was three years or one-hundred and thirty, she has been here for far too long.

[volares]

"Yeah? Why's that?" Russe squints against the darkness to no avail, unable to get a read on Rey in the cover of shadows.

[circumitus]

"Look around," she quips, like she's almost surprised. "I've been trapped in this damned thing for a good while. Three years. One-hundred and thirty years. Whatever. And not once has anyone ever come to help us."

[volares]

"Funny you should say that." The complaint pierces through the darkness. "I can't fucking see anything."

[circumitus]

"Right."

She remembers something then. The flashlight William had brought. She keeps walking, but slows down to grab for it with her free hand, reaching for it in her tech pocket while still supporting William over her shoulder.

Still moving, she flicks it on and waves it in front of Russe. "Make yourself useful."

[volares]

Reaching out, he grabs the flashlight. It doesn't make the journey any faster, but at least it gives him one less thing to complain about. Eventually, Rey would get the impression that they're reaching where they need to be—even if it's not where she's consciously intended to take them. The proper, civilized parts of the ship are far away, but they do come to a door.

[circumitus]

Something isn't right, she knows. Over time the feeling becomes more palpable. And it's not just because of the quiet and the lack of people and monsters festering the hallways. It's something else, like a dark descent even with the flashlight illuminating the way.

...And there is the door, and a familiar feeling as her mission changes-- No, it doesn't change. This has been it the entire time, she's certain of that.

"There it is," the words come out. Her pace is slowing down.