Alioth- the beginning

Ette opened the door into a dark room, though the lights flicked on a few seconds later. This appeared to be some kind of mess hall or refectory. Under a table at the side of the room laid an injured woman wearing a tattered uniform. Her injuries were infected and beyond repair, and she stared fearfully at Ette until she noticed his uniform. "You ... you're not an Umbra ..."

"Um, no? I'm a medic, actually. I don't really know what an Umbra is. Who are you?" Ette stared at the woman, unable to recognize her uniform or her face. She looked terrible. Ette walked over to the woman and knelt beside her, opening his bag. He pulled out several medicines, his bright blue eyes running over the woman's injuries quickly. He bit his lip worriedly. She looked near-dead and her wounds were heavy. Perhaps... he reached for a bottle of liquid and offered it to the woman.

The woman was quiet and still as the medic approached, conserving what little strength she had left. "The Umbra killed everyone here ... I was trying to hide and mask my life signs ..." She reached up to clasp the collar of his uniform when he knelt, staring feverishly up into his eyes. She ignored the bottle, finding her message more important to get across. Her eyes slowly went more and more glassy. "Tell them ... tell them the Umbra are coming! You must ..." Her grip on his shirt weakened and she slumped back to the floor, life signs dwindling to nothing.

Ette's eyes widened and he dropped the bottle. It broke with a clink, the liquid seeping out onto the floor. He backed away from the woman, then slowly approached her. He checked for a heartbeat quickly. Nothing. She was dead. Dead for sure. Ette turned and ran out of the room, looking for his other crewmates, his heart thumping in fear.

What was going on here?

Quill walked in and his eyes went wide when he saw the person. "What just happened Ette?" He held his pistol up and glanced around, making sure there wasn't anything else here.

(thank you so much everyone! And sivwikkas for pushing the plot forward a bit. I apologise for being inactive but its the weekend now should should be on frequently!)

Hearing Ettes voice echo around her Rose got confused. He was alone wasn't he? Making her way to Ettes location she joined with Quill and both stood eyes wide in the door way. "What just happened Ette?" She heard Quill ask.

Fear overtook Rose as she saw a woman, still alive not to long ago, now lying lifeless on the cold floor. Dead. Speaking softly through her trembling lips she said," we can't just leave her like this..." Addressing the latter statement to no one in particular she then looked at the two fearful men infront of her. "Did she say anything before she died?'

Sivwikkas was analyzing the medical files as the data flowed in over the wireless link. The Isswas soon began to frown as they looked over the data at the end of the stream. "What ... what's all this? Captain, you better take a look at this ..."

Wikkas opened the comm to the away team and hailed them. "There's something off about this medical data. Most of the crew's life signs were terminated abruptly, as if they left the station ... but there are no logs of shuttle departures. And there's one life sign, very weak ... wait, no, no, it's gone." Wikkas frowned at the console. "What's happening over there?"

Ette swallowed. "She said that... that the Umbra are coming." He finished quietly, his blue eyes riveted to the floor. He felt the same sinister, creeping feeling that he had when he'd first entered the room. "Something is wrong with this ship. She had severe injuries that were unattended to, which means that something powerful attacked the ship. Also, her wounds were already in a heavily infected stage. That means that she's been there for quite a while, or something dirty touched her. We have to... get off this ship..."

Quill nodded, this ship creeped him out. "Alright let's go, we got what we needed." His eyes darted around, expecting something to come out of nowhere. "Any idea what the Umbra are?"

"No, no idea at all..." Ette trailed off, looking behind his shoulder. He saw Quill looking around as well, which made his heart beat even faster. Perhaps, if Quill was uneasily, then there really was something...

If anything, Genevieve just felt empty. From the gnawing hunger in her stomach to the torn-open wounds crisscrossing her skin, her situation seemed completely hopeless. The life-sign scrambler had kept her alive for a few hours, but it was wearing off quickly. The Umbra were sure to return soon. They'd find her. She couldn't fight them like this.

The screen implanted in the back of her hand lit up. She heard noises somewhere on the ship -- voices. Quiet. Fearful. The scrambler shorted out briefly, causing a stinging sensation to run up her spine. It was running out. No, not yet. Not yet, just a few more minutes...

Genevieve put one shaking hand on her gun. She was going to die anyway -- better to die with honor. She rounded the corner. Her vision blurred as the scrambler jolted again. A group of dark shapes were standing in the mess hall around someone slumped on the floor. Were they... were there...

The scrambler pulsed again, its dying breath. The figures fell out of focus as her legs gave out beneath her and she crumpled ungraciously, her gun skittering across the floor.

"Wait, I'm--I'm picking up another life sign!" exclaimed Sivwikkas, their heart racing in their chest. "No, lost it again ... something is wrong here."

Deft fingers raced over the console, searching the database for any information on Umbra. "It's all classified--we need to bring this before the captain ... you guys should head back to the airlock and board the shuttle."

The flickering life sign suddenly sprang back into existence, and this time it wasn't fading. "You're not alone!" The Isswas focused in on Rose, Ette, and Quill, preparing to beam them out in an emergency, though it would be a major drain on resources. Better to give them a chance to get back to the shuttle first.

"W-What?!" Ette jumped when he heard Sivwikkas's voice come through the comms. He spun around on his heel, looking around frantically. There was a life sign, but not? It was just like that woman back there... Ette swallowed hard, forcing himself to calm down. He'd seen worse than that before. He was a medic, after all. It was his job.

Another strong jolt of fear rippled through him like pain. His heart hammered so hard that it nearly hurt him.

"Where's the life signal emmiting from?" Rose asked as she,Ette and Quill wandered through the ships corridor in almost pitch black. They could hear nothing but the clanks on their boots across the metal floor and the flickering of light. All of a sudden another sound was added to the mix. A groan. Taking that slight groan as a sign of life, Rose disassembled the group and began to head over to the noise.

Turning a corner she saw a woman sprawled across the floor clutching a gun in her pale hands. "Hello?" She asked not wanting to spook her, "We're from the organisation Draita Kroi, we're here to help you..." Turning her head she whispered loudly down the almost empty corridor. "Ette, Quill, I've found someone. They're still alive!"

As soon as Ette heard Rose's call, he rushed over, zipping open his bag. He immediately spotted the woman sprawled on the floor and began to examine her, checking her vital signs. He lifted her wrist and felt around for a pulse.

"She's weak. She has injuries just like that woman back in that strange room. They're almost in the same place, too. She's in about the same state as that woman. They might have been here for around the same amount of time." Ette let the woman's wrist fall. He took out the same bottle that he had proffered to the other woman and offered it to the woman before him.

Quill glanced around. "Who are you and what happened here?" He wanted to help this woman just as much as Rose and Ette but this place was getting creepier and creepier.

The voices were closer. Her fall had caused her to become ever more dizzy and disoriented, and she couldn't quite tell what they were saying. They sounded... human. Impossible. Was she dead? The rest of the crew, as far as she knew, hadn't made it.

Genevieve opened her eyes. A few people were standing around her, one offering her a bottle of strange grey liquid. She reached to take it, but her injured arms hurt too much and she had to stop.

"Get out," she rasped. She winced at the sound of her own voice. "Get out if you... want... to live. These are dangerous skies now..."

Genevieve paused to catch her breath. "The Umbra came. They... they will return." She tried to make eye contact with at least one of the strangers.

Ette opened the bottle and put it right in front of the woman's hand. "Do you... want help?" He asked. His hands were shaking slightly as he heard the woman's warning. The Umbra. He tried to stop his hands from shaking. He took a deep breath, then focused on saving the woman.

"I'm fine." Genevieve took the bottle into her shaking hands and raised it to her lips, taking a sip. The grey liquid tasted horribly bitter, but it soothed her burning, parched throat and made her feel a little bit better. She swallowed, lifting her head to glance at the people around her. None of them seemed to be a day over twenty-five. What was such a young crew doing here?

She set the bottle down on the floor beside her. "Thank you... I can't thank you enough." Managing a weak smile that looked more like a grimace, she continued. "Who are you?"

Quill smiled slightly. "Name's Quill, this orb here is Peter." The small orb floated around the group.