Subnautical Naughtiness (Ocfos)

[Mashugana]

Tess paused to look at the group you'd indicated, her expression set in a tight lipped, uncomfortable stare for a moment, before she took on a troubled face and shook her head.

"You're right, I don't remember seeing them before either. Their clothes look fancy and all, but kind of... old." she answered, turning her head towards you. "They might be either rich types who just stick around in their areas or members of the original exploration ships that hit the planet first, surveyors and the like." she offered as an explanation, before gasping a little and nodding past you, towards them.

The pale woman you'd watched before had stopped conversing with her associates, and was staring in your direction.

At a glance, she may have just been percieved as somewhat statuesque, with her porcelain like skin and dark makeup, but something about her eyes, how they appeared to be huge, even with the possibility of mascara meant to evoke such an effect caused a small shiver to run down your spine, the fact that she didn't seem to be blinking didn't help matters, and even as partiers passed between your position and her's, her stare didn't fade.

"Um, Nell? She's kinda creepin' me out..."

[Ocfos]

"Me too... Maybe cap will know who they are, or we might find their species on the network or something?" She says in a hushed tone to avoid being heard by the group.

She hasn't actually seen they're looking this way, since her back is somewhat turned.

"Might just ignore it, I mean they aren't really bothering us... At least not in the way you'd expect someone to... Right now it's just a creepy curiosity to me... Even if it's leaning towards the creepy part more than the other."

She looks around a bit to try and spot somewhere to get a drink, then sees that she's actually staring right at the two, which gives her the possibly bad idea to try and wave her over to the two.

Now she's definitely seen the eyes, and Tessa can feel Nellie actually being a bit nervous, if her slightly tightening tentacle around the shoulder, and slight jolt of her grip are things to go by.

[Mashugana]

The mystery girl continued to stare for just a little longer, before licking her lip and calmly turning away, her unblinking gaze fixated on something else, just as her comrades seemed to as well, all of them looking off to the right, towards the small makeshift stage as the captain stepped up, checking his microphone. This caused Tessa to give a sigh of relief as the girl didn't appear to want to come towards you.

"Excuse me, if I could have your attention please..." the deep bass voice of captain Bartholomew B. Maze rumbled out, the bear of a man easily calling most of the partiers' attention with his barrel chested frame and stoic demeanor, with dark purple eyes and a stern looking face with it's 'beard' of small tentacles lining his jaw and upper lip. The captain's dark blue dress suit held the badge of his office, an archaic looking golden anchor, and he had what looked like an engraved plasma pistol on the holster at his hip. Judging by the scars on his face, reminiscent of burns and cuts, he was likely a soldier in his younger years, and had seen his fair share of combat engagements up close.

"First, allow me to thank you all for your continued support and good behavior on the Sashimi, I know it's been a long time since we've left our homeworlds for the opportunity to explore a new planet, with all the risks and rewards involved, and this gathering is but a small reward for your efforts, in the future, I hope that we can have many more such events, better than the last as our new homes, towns and cities develop." he said with just the faintest hint of a victorious smile. "By 0800 hours, we will have reached planetfall on one of the new world's larger islands, which our exploration team and drones have designated to be a good landing spot as well as an effective place to set up our first settlement."

Saying this, he nodded to the strange group of people, who nodded back in turn, though now it seemed as though some of them were missing.

The lights flickered overhead, before resuming their steady stream.

[Ocfos]

She doesn't break eye contact with the other woman, smiling a little at her to show she's not angry or anything, before she's distracted by the speech.

Once the speech is done, Nellie looks around with a slight bit of confusion as she sees there is a few of the group now missing, though she overall doesn't think too much about it.

"Well, doesn't seem like she wants to talk with us?" She shrugs lightly, "What are you in the mood for, Tess? The party is still young."

[Mashugana]

"Well, I guess we could..." Tess begins, before the lights flicker again, this time actually going out for over a second and causing some people to begin raising concerns, it was possible that a reactor had fried, or the circuits had gone bad. "...Uh oh." she said once the lights had come back on, noticeably dimmer. You might also notice that several guests had disappeared, just at the same time as the ones with them did as they began to call out for them in alarm before the captain raised his voice and hands in a calming gesture, getting everyone situated as your communicator went off.

"Oi, you kids near the dining area? Seems like the reactor in B5 has gone to pot, might need your help if you're not in your fancy duds." the raspy voice of Jayce, sounding more strained than normal, the thrumming noise of the reactor sounding worriedly high pitched as Tessa looks somewhat alarmed. That... didn't sound good.

[Ocfos]

Nellie looks around in a bit of shock, before looking at Tessa, knowingly. "Let's get a move on, this shit can't be good. This dress can catch fire for all I care, I don't want this mess to screw up tomorrow." Nellie says with an obvious anxiety in her tone.

This better not ruin the night either... Nellie thinks to herself, as she gets ready to get going to the reactor area with Tessa.

[Mashugana]

You push past several civilians as you and Tessa make your way to the reactor, already you can hear it's hum as you go down the hall and take the elevator down towards the bottom level of the vessel, where only crewmen were allowed. As you got closer, however, you could make out a high pitched noise not unlike wailing, like that of an old woman in pain coming from the reactor as well. Shouts were starting to sound as well, and you saw several crew members run out of the reactor chamber frantically while others came back with large vats of coolant in their hands, sweating profusely.

As the door to the reactor room opened, you and Tessa were blasted by a wave of heat that shouldn't be there, almost hitting you hard enough to take your breath away as the wailing turned to a high pitched squeal, and the red alarm light went on.

[Ocfos]

Nellie look on at the mess, probably equally horrified to Tessa.

"What the shit? The hell happened to cause THIS mess?" Nellie exclaims as she starts darting over to look at what she's able to do to help.

"Didn't we just check this part of the reactor yesterday?! It was perfectly fine!" Nellie screeches at Tessa and anyone nearby.

She's trying to see if the backup is OK, wanting to shut the main off if everything checks out.

"Requesting permission to switch to backup, to let the main stabilise so we can fix it." She checks over the comms to the captain, not even sure her own rank allows her to do that without asking first.

[Mashugana]

"We don't know! Someone thought they saw a shadow by the door and turned to look, next thing we knew the damn reactor went nuts, pressure and temperature are climbing fast!" One worker explains, desperately attempting to force the ventilation and cooling systems to work as the temperature continued to rise, causing even you and Tessa to begin sweating profusely as you both got to work, Tessa keeping as calm as she can in the dire situation. "At this rate, if this thing goes critical it'll split the damn ship in half!"

It only takes a second for your com to come live, crackling oddly as the captain's voice gets through. "Permission granted, do whatever you believe to be necessary to keep the ship intact." he growls. "Something's happening at the bridge as well, someone's been attacked. Might have something to do with whatever happened to the reactor, keep an eye out. Over."

"An attack on the bridge!? Are there terrorists on board or something!?" Tessa gasps, eyes wide as she's already on activating the backup reactor.

Reading your CAIT, you can see that something is blocking the pipes to the main ventilation system, effectively clogging it and stopping the coolant from reaching the reactor. If it over heated...

[Ocfos]

Nellie keeps at her station, trying to get the reactor to shut down electronically, not wanting to consider having to go do it manually.
She then spots something off on the CAIT, seeing a weird blockage on the sensors.

"Something's clogged up the vents to the main reactor, help me shut this thing down so we can get rid of whatever is in there!" She turns towards Tessa, "How's the backup doing? I might need to rush in there myself to manually terminate it, if I can't get this to do it for me." she grunts.

What the hell could even be blocking it...? Nellie thinks to herself, At least I'm not wearing anything beside the dress in this heat.

She wipes her brow, tapping away the best she can, starting to get afraid she might have to rush in, as she's the best suited to with her abilities.

[Mashugana]

The lights flicker and dim, and the reactor seems to whine just a tad more, but thankfully your CAIT tracks the power decreasing in the main reactor as Tessa shouts that the backup is beginning to kick in. The temperature also steadily decreases within the chamber, leaving everyone heated and tired, but at least you're no longer in immediate danger of frying. However, your Cait is also picking up that the blockage is...moving? In fact... it appeared to be...

The sound of creaking and groaning pipes came from to your left, followed by a sort of squelching noise, as you noticed the metal visibly flex and bulge for a moment, as if something was in there, headed towards the reactor.

"Backup reactor is running, it won't hold forever but it should keep us going til planetfall. But..." your companion answered, watching the pipe with wide eyes along with her fellows, and as it reached the reactor, you noticed something, a sound like bolts being pulled and twisted, the muffled wrenching and groaning of metal as whatever it was started exerting force on it's surroundings.

One of the crew members drew a large, heavy wrench from his belt, while others either backed away or similarly armed themselves. The lead foreman was reaching for a laser pistol, calling out to anyone with similar experience. "Anyone knows how to use a pistol here? Whatever's in there can't be one of us, we'd never survive the heat and it's damn well not one of our drones or other robots!"

[Ocfos]

"Ex-ranger Samotara here, I'm already packing!" Nellie shouts to the foreman.

Nellie puts herself in front of Tessa, before reaching for her own set of guns from her station.
"What the hell can that even be...?" Nellie mutters to herself, as she starts to look around carefully, just in case the thing inside there isn't alone.

"Of all times..." Nellie mumbles lowly, wanting to at least be sure Tessa is shielded by her, in case whatever that thing is bursts out. More subliminally than well thought out, though.

"Tess, do you have any idea what could be in there..?" she asks, definitely sounding a little nervous in her tone, "Because I haven't heard of anything living that can do THIS..."

[Mashugana]

Tessa shakes her head, and is about to say something when the casing bursts open, the sound of escaping, heated air and the sudden blast of heat almost singing you as you get your first look at the... THING in the shaft.

At first, you don't know what you're looking at, as it just looks like a lump of withered, dried up flesh larger than a man. However, it begins to swell, almost oozing out of the broken pipe as five, six... no, seven eyes of varying colors and number of pupils stare in multiple directions, accompanied by gibbering mouths moaning and chanting as it drags itself around with vine like limbs, eventually coming to "stand", if that's what you can call it, almost three meters in height, dwarfing you all as it screams in multiple voices.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?" you hear someone scream, a combination of shock, disgust and horror in his voice as he raises his weapon. "KILL IT, KILL IT NOW!"

[Ocfos]

Nellie stammers, definitely backing against Tessa by now, as she starts to blast the thing with her weapons. She isn't sure what the hell that thing is, but she knows she wants it dead.

shitshitshitshitshitshitshitfuckfuckfuckfuck NO! Gotta be fucking dreaming, this shit can't be real, nonononononono... Is all that runs through Nellie's mind as she tries to protect Tessa (And her other crew-mates around the room). Though, part of her tells her that the weapons won't be useful for this.

"SOMEONE SOUND THE FUCKING ALARM!" She screeches as loudly as she can, which is surprisingly loud for such a short woman.

[Mashugana]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Rolling a d100 for you and the crews' combined shots due to how there's several of you attacking this thing: 15. That's... uh. That's not good m9. Creature's response: 6. Well okay then.

The creature is lit up by well over a dozen shots of hot laser and plasma, you yourself are certain of hitting it dead in the center of it's mass at least five times, enough that you go momentarily blind from the impromptu laser light show you and your crewmates are creating as Tessa scrambles to hit the alarm, causing loud, whooping sirens to join with the chaos of battle as an automated voice mechanically starts speaking. Your mind is too distracted with the thing before you, but you distantly hear something along the lines of "in the event of an attack by alien life forms or hostile sentient life, please remain calm and remember your escape pod designation, escape pods are being prepared as we speak in case of catastrophic failure of the ship."

However, you realize that you've got other problems as your gun stops firing, making that familiar clicking noise as it's clip runs dry along with several others.

And the monster is still there, unfazed, the parts of it's body that've been hit look as though they've been lightly singed at best as it lifts it's arms up towards the ceiling, eyes staring upwards as it begins to pray in over a half dozen voices in a language you cannot begin to understand, flashes of color begin to show in your mind, yellow, green, blue, black, yellow.

The ship suddenly lurches to the side, and you're forced to grab onto the wall to stop from falling as others tumble to the floor, panicking as much from the motions of the ship as the monster before them!

[Ocfos]

Seeing nothing happen, Nellie is a little demoralised about the effectiveness of their weapons. She grips the radio to the bridge, "HOSTILE ENTITY IN THE REACTOR. SEND IN THE SOL--" is all she can get out before she's stopped by the ship suddenly flinging her away from her post.

Nellie slams into the nearby wall, trying to get a look at the reactor panel at her station again, wanting to see if it was interested in the fuel cells, since it was inside the reactor pipes.
She might have an idea on how to bait it, provided she can tell if it went for the fuel inside or not...

[Mashugana]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Dodging an attack: 15 vs 5, success!

The monster swings one of it's limbs at you, but your quick reflexes allow you to fairly easily duck the awkward attack as some of the monster's eyes followed you, before being momentarily distracted by Tessa throwing one of her shoes at it before scrambling out of the way of a tendril the size of a small tree trunk crashing down for her head!

Looking quickly through the panel, you notice tears where most of the energy was being directed, implying that the beast was, for lack of a better term, probably feeding on the radiation and energy within the reactor. If that was the case, you may have an idea on your hands!

Whatever it is, you had better come up with it soon as you can hear distant shouts and screams on the floor above you, and you see one unfortunate engineer fail to avoid a brutal swing that smashes him into a wall, leaving him crumpled and unmoving upon the floor as others fire wildly upon the creature to little effect.

[Ocfos]

Nellie wastes no time running for a reactor fuel cell, planning to, for a lack of a better term, become living bait for the beast.

She has a plan - which is probably incredibly foolish - but a plan nonetheless.

"TESSA, GET THAT CUTE FACE TO SAFETY! I'VE GOT THIS, JUST RUN!" She shouts towards her, looking between the beast and Tessa, before blowing Tessa a kiss, giving a wink, and then making a mad dash for the fuel cells to grab her bait for this beast.

Alright hun, where was the nearest airlock fat enough to spit this thing out cleanly... Come on, think you stupid brain... Nellie goes on inside her own mind, absolutely putting her agility to the test now.

If the dress gets in the way, Nellie just tears off the parts of it that would restrict her movements, throwing her metaphorical balls to the walls, since she has no actual balls to throw to the walls - Only her butt she's already sliding on the walls with right now.

All that she's focusing on right now, is getting as many lives saved here as she possibly can-- Provided it works.

[Mashugana]

"NELL!?" Tessa yells after you as you snatch a nearby cell, almost burning your hands with the heat it exhibits as the monster turns it's attention towards you, using it's appendages to pull itself after you even as your allies attempt to slow it down and Tessa scrambles to grab wounded and terrified crewmen to try and drag them away from the chaos while your abhorrent admirer follows after you, passed the doors and into the corridor. The nearest airlock would be... The trash disposal site! It'd been installed nearby as a way to get rid of any waste material generated by the reactor that couldn't just be incinerated, If you could reach it, your plan might work!

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Monster's attack: 11 vs 3! Damage 2! (8/10)

You feel a sudden, sharp sting as one of the creature's lighter limbs whip into your lower back, attempting to grab onto your waist to catch you! Though you manage to avoid being outright grabbed, you feel a small trickle of blood along your lower back as a large part of your dress is torn from you around the legs, leaving your legs exposed up to the lower thigh!

[Ocfos]

Nellie grits her teeth as she feels the monster slash at her, but does her best to keep a panicked rush towards the trash disposal, hoping they haven't emptied it yet so there's more waste in there to lure it with.

She doesn't mind the exposed thighs at all, currently having much bigger issues than a little blood dripping from her.

I better not become fast food for this freak... Come on, disposal...

She tries to contact anyone vacant, wanting to tell them; "NELLIE FROM ENGINEERING HERE! REACTOR ROOM IS SAFE. I NEED A CLEAR PATH TO THE DISPOSAL, I'M CARRYING A FUCKING HOT REACTOR FUEL CELL. DON'T TELL ME THERES SAFETY PROTOCOLS I'M BREAKING, THAT SAFETY SHIT IS OUT THE WINDOW WITH HOPEFULLY THE FUCKING FREAK CHASING ME TO EAT THIS CELL!!!!"