Space E-war

[dinoman666]

The door on the other side of the cargo area opened at their approach and, predictably, revealed a second docking tube. However, this was had a cluster of odd machines in it: very tall spikes made of a purple-black, burnished material and mounted on tripods. They appeared segmented, and apparently able to retract back into their bases...

[UndeadRaptor]

The soldiers move along, most trying to avoid the machines, while a couple of engineers move in to disable them, worried about what they could do after the group passed by them...

[dinoman666]

The spikes seemed inactive, and didn't respond to the squads' presence. The rest of the tube simply led to another docking door, which led out in the vacuum of space, creating a dead end...

[UndeadRaptor]

The squads go back the way they had came from, while a couple, using their jetpacks in the next room, search for a way to get to another part of the ship that would possible lead them away from the dead-end...

[dinoman666]

The only other door leading from the cargo area was the one at the far end, to the squads' left now that they were on the other side side of the cargo area. A fourth door was at the opposite end of the cargo area, locked, and hidden by a stack of crates as well...

[UndeadRaptor]

The marines keep on looking around, a few working together to shift around crates and find another way to search for anything useful on the freighter itself. Others placed beacons on the ground and used their jetpacks to find any other doors easier, while the rest move to the door they hadn't searched through yet...

[Anaclagon]

Out from hyperspace, the medium sized starfighter revealed. The pilot checked its scanners and quickly turned on into stealth mode to ensure he could navigate through the system without attracting much attention. The hull of the fighter itself is neutral and to the people of the system, it would just seem like another personalized fighter was making its way around the area. Pressing forward the pilot checked its scanners and waited.. something was bound to occur in this territory. The thoughts of GCM and GEA went on his mind.. one if not both were likely to fire upon him, he had to make all the right moves to ensure a mission complete.

[UndeadRaptor]

Nothing was picked up on scanners within the few ships encircling the G.E.A fleet itself, but no one bothered to focus on anything other than making sure nothing went in or out of the remains of their own without clearence. In the new G.C.M system, on the other hand, the moment something were to come close enough, they'd either end up being annihilated or captured.

The marines soon reach the door and leave their comrades behind, the squad getting to work to open it quickly...

[dinoman666]

The door opened with a muted hiss, revealing the corridor beyond. A door waited at the other end of the hall, and two more flanked the corridor itself, all leading into separate areas of the ship...

[Anaclagon]

The fighter flew through space swiftly making sure it kept its stealth capabilities activated to stay safe. "Interesting.." the pilot simply thought. So far there was no open engagements from the looks of it so it was tough to determine the border. The pilot then looked to the console and pressed several buttons, putting in the code. From the back of the starfighter several medium size probe droids shot out from the back. The probes were smaller then the standard ones but they would suffice as they were more of space exploring units that were capable of being placed into starfighters. The probes were then set out in multiple different locations but unlike the starfighter they did not have stealth capabilities so it would have been quite noticeable to find them but thats exactly what the pilot wanted..

[UndeadRaptor]

Several small, green dots suddenly appeared on each destroyer's radar, most of the operators looking confused and frightened. "Sir! Multiple contacts! 12 o' clock!" one man shouted to his captain, while another called out, "should we... should we try making contact?!"

The marines quickly split into teams of two, each going towards seperate doors while their comrades waited outside for the six-man squad...

[dinoman666]

The doors to either side led to separate rooms: the one of the right led to the crew quarters, and the left one led to some sort of med-bay. It was difficult to see much, though, since both rooms had more of the alien-looking, mechanical spikes lined up nearly wall to wall...

[UndeadRaptor]

The two engineers that went into the side rooms looked all at the spikes, wondering what caused them to even be there in the first place. The other two marines, on the other hand, proceeded towards the final door, making sure nothing was following them, IF anything was alive on the ship, anyhow...

[dinoman666]

The final door opened onto the ship's bridge, which was relatively cramped. None of the spikes were present, and the place seemed perfectly operational. The consoles were all undamaged, and likely had information and what exactly had happened here...

Meanwhile, back at the cargo area, the locked door silently unlocked by itself, still hidden by the crates...

[UndeadRaptor]

The three other squads of marines kept in the cargo bay, still shifting around crates in search of anything useful for their own army... or what was left of it. The two marines look around, while the rest of the squad moves into the room after seeming to find not a thing, one rushing over to the consoles to hack into the systems of the ship itself...

[dinoman666]

It wasn't long before the story was revealed through a combination of the Captain's log and the navigation log: this freighter, the MSV Cornucopia, had been out dangerously close to the Perseus Veil. Apparently they had discovered some sort of alien artifact. Believing it was Forerunner, they had brought it aboard their ship to sell later, only to have the device somehow "brainwash" the crew. The ship had plotted a course straight into the Perseus Veil, as if it wanted the Geth to find them. The ship was never heard of again... until now.

The formerly locked door slid open, and a single Collector silently emerged, pushing the crates out of the way and standing to the side. A chorus of moans echoed from the darkened passageways beyond, and a swarm of humanoid creatures, semi-organic, semi-mechanical, poured forth, winding their way through the mazelike cargo area, climbing over obstacles and charging haphazardly at the squads...

[UndeadRaptor]

"Huh?" was the response of one marine to the sudden moans, as another, younger one, standing atop a crate, shouted directly of his built-in radio set, "S**t! They're all over the place! Open fire!" Soon enough, multiple bolts of plasma wrecked into the swarm of beings, most being nothing more than mere pot-shots coming from those running in fear.

The man hacking into the ship's systems quickly threw on the power some how, while draining the ship of the logs and feeding them into a small, portable laptop. He quickly slams it shut and runs out of the room with the squad, all heading back to the rest of the group seconds after hearing their screams and bursts from guns...

[dinoman666]

The man standing on the crate was hit in the chest by a well-aimed burst of gunfire from the Collector overseer who was watching from the doorway, knocking the unfortunate man off his perch and to the floor, where a pair of the humanoid monsters began clawing and smashing him ruthlessly. The front wave of the creatures, upon getting within melee range, began to glow a bright blue, letting off bursts of EMP energy before collapsing to the floor, riddled by plasma bolts...

[UndeadRaptor]

Only a couple of soldiers weapons and suit systems were effected by this, and they ran off to the back of their comrades who keep on firing, sending multiple rounds into the two tearing up the slowly dying marine on the ground...

[dinoman666]

The creatures, unarmored, were easily cut down, but there was a lot of them. One of them, glowing red instead of blue, charged into the gunfire, absorbing some plasma fire before finally getting into melee range. Instead of trying to slash at the soldiers, however, it abruptly exploded, sending body parts flying everywhere and engulfing a small area around it in intensely hot flames. The Collector Drone in the back continued to send in potshots at the soldiers, trying to cut them down from a safe distance and from cover...