ISR -- Lotus
DATE: 06.27.2020
Transcribed by Courtney Lambert
[Background:]
A ship called the Lotus was caught in a space anomaly caused by a thermal explosion. They are now far away from home and trying to make their way to familiar space.
The anomaly that pulled their ship also pulled Cervius, an Earther, out of his time and into another dimension where the Lotus is.
[Note from the Decryptor:]
The data tablets have become a little more degraded since we first discovered them. We've had to use greater care in removing and decrypting the data in order to not compromise its integrity. Due to the time it took, reports of our findings will become a little bit sparser. Without further delay here is the decryption report:
[Decryption of Transmission Start:]
Julianne asks if everyone wants to hail the the station. They agree to do so and hail it. The Felhammer declare that the tech cannot be touched, that they are not worthy of it.
Lotus approaches the vessel. As they approach, they see tendrils stretching out from the ship, somewhere. The Felhammer approach the ship and pull it out. As they do, there is am momentary empty, clear space before being filled again by the green gloop of Viren space. The ship is covered by the Viren film, like an algae covered rock. There is a clear weapon's gash on the hull: the Viren have contaminated the vessel.
The Felhammer assumed that the life signs are probably in the cryo-pods. They debate on how to access the pods. Usi is assigned to select a boarding party to board the Viren-infested ship. Valmara, Zeynerx, and Adrogenes agree.
They decide to electrify the hull. They receive notifications that the hull upgrade is complete. Valmara picks up some stuff from the med-bay. Usi asks Osias to join. He agrees to, commenting that it would be good to see the weapons of the enemy. This causes the Felhammer to bristle.
Zeynerx reminds that the Protians were at war with the Tiandong so it would be advisable to not include them on the boarding party, in case the Tiandongs in the cryotubes wake up and get angered. (The Protians practiced piracy of some of the Tiandong's tech, adapting and improving it.)
The boarding party reaches the shuttle. It is a lot more armored and in good condition, having been made Zeynerx-proofed a bit. Cadaran electrifies the hull with his arm and warns everyone to not touch it.
Osias suggests that they board while he remains as pilot. They board the shuttle and lift off. The Felhammer is lying above the Tiandong vessel, and the Lotus is just below it. They approach the vessel, but they cannot find a suitable landing spot without opening the already present gash wider (an action that would anger the Felhammer). Zeynerx scans the vessel for a hanger, but there none.
They land the ship on the hull of the ship. As they land, Nyx sees a portion of the Viren cloud reaching toward the vessel and another arm reaching from the ship toward the cloud. She relates what she sees to the rest.
Usi suggests electrifying the suits. They each do so before entering the ship. Nyx clings to the back of Adrogenes. Zeynerx suggests that Osias keep an eye on the tendrils. They leave the ship. The Viren tendrils creep toward them and then are zapped back from their boots by the electricity surging through the suits.
The shuttle lifts off and lingers nearby, gatling guns ready. They approach the gash in the ship. The armor about it is charred by weapon's damage.
Adrogenes and Zeynerx look up information about the ship. They estimate that it could have been weapons from Seraphim or Infinity weaponry that caused the damage. Zeynerx goes in first, Valmara gingerly follows, creating a staff as she does, Adrogenes with Nyx holding onto his back, (like a baby in a carrier) follows. Cadaran follows in the rear.
They go inside the vessel, the Viren spores and moss is more visible inside the craft, crawling around and throughout the craft. They span a good portion of the ship's interior, covering every surface. It is a sickly green-yellow color. Every few seconds there is a pulse of light going through the vein-like growths.
Usi starts to feel sick at the sight of the Viren.
Each time they step, the growth dissipates, and then regrows, grabbing their feet. In reaction, they increase electricity in their suits, particularly in their boots.
Valmara senses the Viren and gets a multitude of brain waves, seeking to reconnect. She tells the rest that. She reaches out her hand and touches the Viren stuff, it encloses her hand and she electrifies it. The Viren material starts to grow back, reaching for her hand. Valmara pulls back, but small particles of the Viren material starts to float into the space. One lands on Nyx. It doesn't grow, having no material to use. Adrogenes destroys it.
Adrogenes, Nyx, Valmara, and Zeynerx go to the armory. Adrogenes keeps an eye on the Prakkum as she enters. Zeynerx finds a box with three spheres in them. They move when he opens it so he closes it. He takes the box and decides to take it on the ship. They are singularity grenades. Nyx opens a cabinet door, which breaks off, the Viren material on it, drifting away. There is a rifle in the cabinet. She shows the rifle to the Felhammer.
Adrogenes recommends that Cadaran look at it. He does not recognize it. The gun is rather large, almost too big to be a rifle. Nyx finds another linear blade. Usi finds another linear blade and asks Adrogenes if it is okay for him to take it. Adrogenes questions him and Usi says he will keep it with his life. Valmara looks around and doesn't find anything because she is the last in the room. Adrogenes finds a token shield.
The spread of the Viren in the armory is not much. Zeynerx thinks that the pods are probably untouched, if the armory is untouched. Usi mag-locks himself to Adrogenes. They move on to the core of the ship. There is glow to it. It is a flux core. The Viren material is grown up around the tubes, in some spots there are hardened points of Viren. It looks like the Viren is feeding off of it.
The Felhammer suggests doing a flux- vent. Cadaran suggests though that they power the pods by another source.
They contact the Felhammer. Zeynerx and Valmara go to look for a generator. The engineering bay is very heavily covered by Viren space. They have to navigate very carefully through the green tendrils.
Valmara and Zeynerx find a secondary engineering bay. There is a smaller generator with smaller back up batteries close by. Zeynerx contacts Usi and reports his find. Usi tells him to take it to the cryo pods and connect it there. He will join them and get Cadaran and Adrogenes will help with the core. He tries to pick the generator, but realizes it cannot be moved because it is directly attached to the ship. Valmara checks to see if the generator is attached to the pods. It is not, but the power can be routed to it.
Zeynerx takes the batteries and leaves for the pods. Valmara waits by the generator to reroute the power. Zeynerx goes to grab the batteries. He picks it up and finds it very large. He leaves and walks over to the cryo pods. The room is in a centralized part of the ship. There are 20 pods. All but nine are active. Frozen people are in the pods, their faces not visible. There is Viren presence in the room. Some are in the broken pods. Other pods have tendrils covering the surface of the glass. Zeynerx goes up to the pod and stabs the empty one with his energy blade as a precaution.
As he stabs the tube, the Viren mushes around. The central mass shakes a bit. When he withdraws the blade, the glass shatters and mass falls out of the tube. Whatever was a person, is no longer a person, almost a zombie-like husk of what had been something. Zeynerx tries to bend the form's will to his own. He tries to connect to the Viren, but recognizes that there is an entire mind connected to it. He succeeds in taking over this one Viren form. It tries to resist. It looks like a humanoid-form with a snake-like tail. It looks immature as if not fully formed. Zeynerx orders it to kill itself. It stabs itself to death.
This part of the ship is segregated from the rest of the Viren mind. Zeynerx tries to bend will of all the Viren in room. He does and triggers flight and fight in the Viren matter. It goes back to its position. He then searches for other minds and checks for other broken pods.
Adrogenes asks Zeynerx for the status of his situation. He says that some of the crew had been consumed by the Viren. He says that they are weak and fun to play with. He says he has the batteries and is waiting for the rest to arrive. Adrogenes turns to Cadaran for ideas for opening a pod. He suggests redirecting power and creatinga local area of life support.
They find life support in engineering and it is damaged. There is a possible way to repair it. Cadaran looks over the system and thinks he can fix it with slight modifications. He gives a list of things he needs from the Lotus.
Usi sends Osias a message and meets him at the opening. The materials are brought to the ship and Usi brings them to engineering.
Valmara looks at the terminals for information and finds logs from before the ship was taken over. She finds 20 thousand years of logs. Seeing so many, she scrolls all the way to the bottom. She downloads 5 of the more important logs. The ship appears to have gone into a
hyper sleep and had been attacked. The ship then went into Viren space.
Valmara redirects the power to the cryopods, per Usi's request. Valmara senses again and finds that the Viren mind is still trying to connect and then it says grow. Osias hails them and informs them that the ship is now connected again to the main body. She feels smacked by something. She starts to make her way over to where the rest are.
Zeynerx decides to seal the room but suggests that they put guards outside. Zeynerx goes off to check the other cryotube. The pods have been filled with Viren material but there are no masses in there. No one senses any other minds except the ones in the pods and the green matter. They then seal the room.
Adrogenes decides to open one of the tubes. Usi decides to stay well away from the tubes. The person inside is in a cryosuit. He is Genoan. Usi backs up into a corner. The liquid in the tube is drained, and pod 3 opens.
Adrogenes salutes in the Triumverate manner and old Matrix traditions. Both of the two nearest hold out their arms to help the person out of the tube. He grabs both and pulls himself out. He asks who they are. The man is informed that he has missed 20 thousand years of history. The man seems puzzled, eyes the Prakkum, and the Radrian.
Adrogenes asks why they did not meet at Realm 0. The man says that they were exploring a space and were attacked by Sentinels. They said they hid in this area and froze themselves. He asks whom they are. They introduce themselves. He introduces himself as Nova Mortis. He is the first officer, and he points to the ninth pod and informs them that the captain is in there.
Nova Mortis says that he is in their debt. They inform him that the ship is infected and that they will try to cleanse the ship. He tells them some information about accessing the data.
Adrogenes asks Nova if he saw the end of the war. Nova says he did. Adrogenes tells him the Akrenar (sp?) lives again. Nova sounds surprises and then tells him to relate this later.
Zeynerx starts to turn on parts of the ship. The cryopods start to open up, Nova helping to get the occupants adjusted. The large majority of the crew have woken up.
Adrogenes nods to the Triumvirate symbol. He introduces himself. One of the crew seems to be a bit gruff, and his name is Bruse. Nyx eyes the newly awakened crew and thinks: "Later."
One of the crew asks who is in charge. Valmara points to Usi. The girl sticks her hip out and comments on how it is a Protian. The captain tells her to be civil, and she catches Nyx's interest. Nyx offers to give the gun back. The captain says that it is okay for her to keep it. The one girl comments that it is too big for Nyx.
Bruse takes them to the armory. He tosses a weapon to Usi. Usi catches it, a bit of his breath gone from his body when it hits him. Nyx continues to give a report to the Captain. She also turns to the captain for the name of the ship and her name. She says that her name is Lenir. Nyx says that she and the captain might get along.
Adrogenes mentions that the captain is a direct descendent of Zola. They return the bridge. Usi and Bruse are clearing the Viren. They comment on the ships outside and wonder which they will go to. One of the crew looks at the scanners and tells the captain that there is a ship coming out of the cloud.
Out of the cloud emerges a ship covered in spines. The captain of the ship tells the that they should beam out to the Lotus.