Death's Horizon

[Echoes of Old]

Petty stood in the bridge of the massive cargo frigate, staring down at his console in disbelief. Earth had fallen. He couldn't believe it. He knew it was coming for a while, but he still couldn't believe that Earth had finally fallen. A comforting hand on his shoulder told him that Katryna felt the same way. He heard a soft sniffle, and turned to see Kat's face twisted into a mixture of it'll-be-ok and we're-all-going-to-die. He hugged her and whispered, "We'll be fine, baby girl. We'll be fine."

They stood like that for a minute, then Petty said, "We need to start looking for other survivors."

He broke off the hug, and strode to the captain's chair. "Start scanning the system for Human Alliance vessels. The Enemy will be looking for those of us that escaped, and we'll need to be in deep space by then." Kat was already in the pilot's seat, plotting a jump-path. Petty hit the intercom and said, "Vance, wherever you are, get your ass up to the bridge. I need to talk with you."

Vance looked up at the speaker from his seat in the mess hall. He sighed noiselessly, and looked at the drone floating beside him. It beeped at him, and he smiled. Vance stood and put his helmet on, plugging it in to the proper receptacles on his neck guard and skull. "I'll be right there," he droned after his helmet was on. He picked up his ICP rifle and walked through the lonely halls towards the bridge. He knew it would be lonely (Just how he liked it), but he didnt think it would be this bad. His drone, Pretty Fly, floated along beside him as he walked. Vance sighed, audibly and electronically this time. It was going to be a long rest of his life...

[Milk Mustache]

Ren sat in his cockpit letting the message replay again and again, the shock wearing off as the reality of the situation set in, earth no more, what’s left of us scattered and broken, and an unknown threat hunting them down. After checking the authenticity of the broadcast for the fifth time he shuts it off, if this wasn’t some sick hoax life just got a lot more serious and suddenly extracting minerals was the last thing on his mind.
Shutting off standard transmission and radio frequencies he switches on a multi-wave scanner in hopes of picking up and scanning any incoming distress signals without giving away his position to anyone, or anything that may be looking. Nestled safely on an asteroid he falls asleep waiting for some new hope.

[WeskerV2]

Cai was drifting currently, having cut unnecessary systems currently to conserve power, listening to the message loop. It was a surreal situation, Earth having fallen, seat of Humanity, gone in the blink of an eye. So much for a vacation, a rather underwhelming thought, but it at least kept him from absolutely flipping out. Considering they went from a fairly secure species, to on the run from some clearly genocidal hunters, keeping his cool was first and foremost. He shook his head and cut the message off loop, kicking on a passive scan for any human vessels or messages. He didn't have the equipment to reliably detect anyone, not at long enough distances to count right now, as it was passive. Active would light him up for whatever was hunting them down like a flare on the night side of Earth, and he really had no interest in getting caught trying to find other people.

He was drifting out towards deep space, not kicking on the engines yet, still looking and listening. Having slept until the new message came through, he was too awake to actually try and sleep now. Besides, sleeping while doing a drift spaceward was a bad idea anyways, no telling what space junk one might come across. Forget waiting, if he found something worth heading for, great, if not, well, it would be a long rest of his days. He was typing into the console, plotting out where he could go anytime soon. The message mentioned a contingency plan, but the data containing coordinates was corrupted. He could spend the rest of his life searching and never find it, or he could jump once and get lucky. Cai couldn't help but chuckle to himself, breaking the silence, at the thought of having to get lucky to find this place. So much for being part of the 'Hope for Humanity's survival' and all that. But he didn't give up, keeping an eye on the passive scanner and channel hopping on the comm, looking for anyone who might be out there right now.

[Dannyel]

Sergeant Mairin Randall hovered over the shoulder of the communications officer, listening in as the message looped over and over. The weight of her armor, a comfortable suit that covered and protected her, suddenly felt too heavy for her shoulders, and she wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and pretend the message did not exist. Such a denial was not a common response from her, but it was not every day that one learned their home planet was completely eradicated. As the message began its fourth loop, Mairin leaned forward and shut it down. The communications officer did not look at her or try to stop her, instead merely asking, “Orders, Sergeant?”

“Continue as planned,” she rasped, her voice huskier than usual. Her whole family had been back on Earth, and this could mean only one thing. But right now she had to continue as she was; there would be time for grieving later. “I need to speak with the captain.” Turning on her heel, she made her way through the ship, seeing the effects of the news spreading through the crewman. Normally she would have commanded them to settle down and focus on the tasks at hand, yet just this time she let it pass. There was nothing to be gained by pretending the worst had not happened, and the men needed to deal with it as they would. Approaching the bridge, she came up behind Captain Rinn. Schooling her face to hide the emotion she had been struggling with since the announcement, she asked, “Have you heard the news Captain?”

[RavenOperative]

An explosion nearly threw Ryan across the room and into a corridor as a fuel line detonated spectacularly. SOMETHING was attacking the ship, but he was in the cargo bay when the first volleys were being fired. He had no idea what it was, but guessed it had been what ever was responsible for attacking Earth. "WARNING - HOSTILE LAUNCHES DETECTED. INITIATING MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEMS." The computer announced as the defense lasers started firing. He had to admit... the systems on this ship were damn impressive. Far better than what he'd seen on any civilian ships, but he guessed that's what military tech was like. In the meantime, it seemed that a missile had managed to get through. He quickly hurried up to deck 4 in to help the damage control team.

"Damn that's a big hole!"

Grabbing an oxygen mask and an emergency tool kit off the wall, he set about helping the other engineers attempting to seal the massive hole that had been blown in the hull. Fortunately, the computer had managed to divert the fuel and oxygen supply from the ruptured tubes, eliminating the fire. The same thing was probably happening with the fuel line that gave him an impromptu boost in velocity towards his destination. Pipes were of little worry on this ship, just hull damage. Looking out the hole from time to time as he continued his welding, he could see volleys of missiles streaking towards them, only to be halted by the laser defense system. "TARGET LOCKED - MISSILE BARRAGE... FIRING." The ship shuttered as they returned with their own volley, dozens of missiles streaking towards something just out of view. The view only lasted a short while, as two other engineers placed a square of metal over the hole, allowing him to weld it and finish fixing the hull breach. The repair crew quickly dispersed, scrambling towards other areas of the ship in need of repair. Ryan was about to follow suit when he heard the computer make another announcement.

"WARNING - MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM OVERLOADING. ALL HANDS BRACE FOR IMPACT."

Wait, what? That system only got overloaded if it tried to shoot down too many missiles at once... If that was happening... He hurried over to a terminal and logged into one of the nanocameras on the outside of the ship. The monitor clearly showed that the space in front of them was practically glowing with laser and missile trails.

".... SHIIIIT!!!"

Running towards the center of the ship, he braced against a wall when the explosions started. The ship started groaning and it's weapons stopped firing as it shook from more and more impacts. Ryan quickly put on his oxygen mask, fearing damage to the life support systems, when the lights flickered and went out. More explosions and shaking. The sickening screech of metal on metal could be heard coming from various parts of the ship as the rain of projectiles started to shred it. Suddenly, a blinding light flashed from the end of the hallway he was in, and a massive explosion threw him against a wall, smashing his head and knocking him out.

...

......

.........

He came to several hours later, the ship miraculously still intact. Clutching the back of his head, Ryan staggered to his feet and took stock of his surroundings. There was debris floating everywhere, and his mask said he only had about 20% of it's oxygen remaining. The life support and artificial gravity systems must have gone out. He seemed to have be thrown into one of the maintenance preparation rooms, and the door leading into it was sealed. It's status indicator claiming there to be no atmosphere on the other side. Lockers lined the walls, most of the electronic locks fried from what looked like a massive power surge, though the red emergency lighting still appeared to be functional. He pried one open, and started putting on the exosuit that was stashed there. His maintenance suit allowed him to tolerate environments that were not complete vacuums in order to fix hull breaches, but it would not allow him to survive in the conditions the rest of the ship appeared to be in.

A few minutes later, he stood there, fully equipped. Opening a control panel and manually overriding the door controls, he opened it and set foot into the hallway. There were holes EVERYWHERE. This section of the ship was almost in it's direct center. Normal weapons shouldn't have been able to penetrate this far into it without sustained barrages. Ryan looked around, before heading towards a maintenance shaft and climbing his way up to the bridge. The intercom was filled with static, and the psuedo AI that ran the ship was no longer making any announcements. It was pretty safe to asume that the ship was all but dead in the water. If anyone was still on board, the computers at the bridge would probably tell him where they were. ... If they still worked, that is.

Three decks up, he started to encounter the rest of the crew... or rather the floating corpses of them. Most of them were torn apart from the shock waves, painting their surroundings with frozen droplets of blood and chunks of gore. Gritting his teeth, Ryan kept climbing, trying to ignore the spectacle. He eventually made it to the bridge, climbing out of the maintenance conduit and quickly sealing it behind him. The room was completely empty, though the door was sealed, indicating the presence of an atmosphere. He took off his mask to conserve his oxygen, before looking around the room.

The bridge was surprisingly intact, with no fires or hull breaches damaging it. From what he could see out the window, what ever had been attacking them had long since left the area, so he was in relative safety for now. Tossing his mask onto a chair, Ryan hurried over to the main computer terminal, booting it up. The system diagnostics came online first, showing that the ship had been sheared in half, and that the localized life support systems on the bridge were being powered by the emergency batteries. Almost all the other systems had been damaged to the point of being unusable, though the sensors and communications were still partially functional. The batteries seemed to have been damaged as well, though, and they would only be able to last a few days at their current rate of energy use. The interior sensors indicated that there were no other life forms present on the ship, and that there were only two other areas where the life support system was still functioning. Both of these were marked with a fire symbol. Ryan sighed, and pounded a fist against the wall. Having just gotten on board this ship as a refugee, he had not gotten to know the crew well at all, but their deaths still weighed heavily on him. Sighing, he set about doing what he could to prolong his own survival. He shut down every system but the sensors, stasis pods, and main computer. The captain's stasis pod was still functioning, so he could freeze himself in there until help arrived. The oxygen currently on the bridge wasn't going anywhere. It could wait till he woke up. Setting up the system to wake him up if the computer detected communications or sensor pings, he reduced everything to its least power draining state. As the emergency lights and monitors dimmed and shut down, he grabbed his oxygen mask and climbed into the stasis pod, before sealing it shut and activating it. He briefly wondered at his chances of being rescued, before quickly passing out as the stasis pod did its work.

((I'll check for typos later. I've got to go, and didn't want to loose all that.))

[Orchilles]

Rinn was standing in the bridge, gazing silently out into the void through the armored glass on the Sunset's prow. He'd ordered the techs to run the message through every scanner they had but everything checked out. It wasn't hacked, corrupted, or encoded. Earth was...gone. He'd always made jokes that by the time his patrol was over, the sun would have ballooned into a red giant and earth would be destroyed. His jokes now seemed crass when confronted with the reality. He turned away from the cold void and went to his command chair, pushing a few buttons and causing one of the arms to slide open. He reached inside and pulled out a bottle of whisky. Completely against naval protocol keeping this thing, but by the sound of it there weren't really a protocol left to follow. He unscrewed the cap and took a swig as a pair of footsteps went toward him. Steel on steel. A marine.

“Have you heard the news Captain?” a cold voice asked him. Rinn didn't even need to turn around to know who it was. Sergeant Randall.

Rinn nodded, placing the bottle on the chair before turning to face the sergeant. "Yes," he responded, keeping his voice taciturn. "Ran it through a half dozen times and it's all the same. Navigation is already plotting a course to the rendezvous. We'll be moving in two hours. He paused for a moment. "The men holding up?" he asked. He knew that Randall could deal with the news. He swore the woman was made of ice. But the rest of the ship was a different story.

[Skryte]

"Ethan, we get anything on scanners?" Atlas asked over the channel,
"Well we've got rocks dust and more rocks, if that's what you're looking for." Ethan replied,
"Not quite." Atlas replied, the three fighters drifted in a tight formation to conserve energy, only using RCS to maneuver. "I assume we all heard the message?" Atlas asked the team, they all pinged yes. "Then I don't have to say anything. Keep on low power, I want to spot anyone out there before they spot us. Keep our MAYDAY beacons off." Atlas said.
"Is that wise?" Ascalon asked, shifting uncomfortably in his seat,
"Well if anyone wants to blow us out of space, they'd spot us if we had them on." Atlas said.
The team stayed silent for a while.

Ethan got up out of his seat and stretched, "Man, it sure sucks for you guys to be in such cramped cockpits, I am loving this legroom." He stopped, "Wait, Earth is down, that means we're an endangered species. Atlas, does this mean I can go out and pick up a few chicks?" He asked eagerly with a grin on his face.
"Well not unless I get them all first." Ascalon grinned back,
"Well," Atlas began, "No to the both of you, because we're an endangered species, we're the last few pilots Humanity's got, so... Guess what we've got?"
"More ladies?" Ethan asked happily, leaning towards Atlas's fighter, peering through the windshield,
"No, more patrols and sorties. Be glad that you have enough time to sit down and take a shit." Atlas grinned, Ethan slumped back into his seat,
"Right. Okay. But with hotshot over there, I'm sure I can squeeze in some shitting time." He remarked,
Ascalon quickly turned his head to face Ethan's ship, "Accurate." He simply said.

[Echoes of Old]

"Dad, we've got something on our scanners!"

Petty was by his daughter's side in an instant. "It looks like a sizeable ship... bigger than ours... but they show an H.A.N. transponder. Petty murmured, "get a jump course ready." He picked up a headset from the comms station, and said, "Alliance Vessel (he peered at the transponder) Sunset, this is Human Alliance Refugee vessel Helios Rise. Confirm news bringer to verify identity."

Petty set the message to loop till it was answered as Vance walked it. "Kat, get ready to punch it." Petty had used a common tactic, asking them a question that the enemy couldn't answer. In this case referring to Admiral Cryos. He looked at Vance and said, "Vance, after this situation is resolved, we need to bury the dead refugees."

Vance nodded, not saying anything. "And break out the whiskey. I think we'll all need a drink or two after this..."

[WeskerV2]

Cai jerked up as one of the sensors pinged off, detecting something on the channel hopping as well as on the passive scans. Well, color him impressed, there seemed to be others out there after all. That also included what looked like a derelict craft, blown to all hell by the looks of it. The impacts seemed to have knocked it out his way, and he shook his head looking at the thing, initial damage reports coming through the passive scans. Whatever it was that nailed the ship, punched enough holes to kill nearly everyone on board. He said nearly, mainly because passive picked up enough energy to suggest a stasis pod on the bridge, probably the good captain of the craft jumped in before it got shot to hell and back. So much lively activity in so little time, noting that there was activity on somewhere on the channels, but he couldn't pinpoint it. Probably military, considering it wasn't on any normal civilian channel. He brought enough power to his ship to approach the derelict via his guidance thrusters scattered along the ship, keeping power activity as low as possible still. It was slow, but helped avoid too much risk in what he was doing, but damn his curiosity.

Cai kind of wished he had enlisted formally with the military some days, that probably would have made things easier. Granted, chances are he would have died trying to fight at Earth, whatever happened there, and wouldn't even be out here drifting towards a near dead ship that easily could be a trap. But, he was too bloody interested in seeing if anything was there, and it wasn't some ghost signature that he was picking up passive. It was dark, but there was a ruined hole large enough for him to park his ship next to. So he did so, locking it in place currently and resuming passive scanning up close, still looking for further information while trying to find a channel with someone on it. While risky, he did leave his identifier on in case someone did detect him and was friendly, so they didn't just assume he was some hostile and run or try and gun him down. He didn't want to just waltz in the derelict right now, on edge already for good reason, and he wasn't sure whoever was on board would be worth the effort. A plan came to mind, and he started cycling channels, using an old form of code. Three short taps, three long, three short, and wait. An old SOS code, still fairly common, that should get attention. Wasn't a lie either, the derelict was showing signs of someone alive and clearly in trouble if they hopped into a stasis pod. Best part, hostiles wouldn't be able to track it, too short, and friendlies could get his attention with a reply, whether on a secure channel or openly. Dealing with pirates did teach him a thing or two, after all, so he waited awhile after the brief SOS code, then moved on.

[Dannyel]

The Sergeant nodded at her commanding officer. “They are holding up as well as can be expected, sir,” she said as scanned the bridge. The men here were holding up fairly well, which gave Mairin hope that they might may it through this. “Some of the men are taking it hard. I figured I would give them about an hour to get their heads on straight, then I’ll crack down on them.” It was strange, finally finding a time when she could be a little lax on the men. If she were a more introspective person, she might have realized that she did it because she needed that time to cope, but that wasn’t her style. The past few years of service on the Sunset made her grow colder than she used to, and she wasn’t a particularly warm woman to begin with. Perhaps it was the lack of female camaraderie; the men on the ship were a tight knit crew and never did wrong by her, but they also never quite figured out how to respond to her. “What now, sir?”

Before Rinn could respond there was a blip from the communications consol. “Incoming vessel!” she barked, spinning around and activating her comm bead. “We cannot assume it’s hostile. However, be prepared, because there’s a good chance it’s not a friendly either. Gear up men.”