The massive prison ship floated listlessly through deep space. So far away from civilization that even the strongest signals couldn't reach it. The twenty seven cell blocks were secure as per usual, and routine checks were being performed. The engines had long since shut off to allow the ship to drift freely along its unknown course. Guards patrolled, the anti-aggression field was working at peak capacity, and the prisoners were passive and within their cell blocks. A normal cycle that had been going on for what seemed like endless months? years? all indiscernable unless you had access the the ships own runtime.

The ship's captain looked out towards the stars waiting for the paper work that always arrived about this time. It was a droll job, and one he'd be stuck with for the rest of his life, but this vessel was his.

In the middle of the standard procedures, the ship seemed to come under a weird bump in space, the ship phsycaily feeling like it had hit something for only half a second. Then moments after, a sharp shrill sound was bleed from ship's PA system.

"What? There's no way." The captain exclaimed as the sound continued. Had it been a prank by one of the more mischevious of the crew or prisoners, they would have had to broadcast from within the ship. Instead, this sound was showing to have come from the planet they had been passing. The bridge began to try to understand what had just happened, they had just begun to leave it's gravity well. The planet was so far out, located in uncharted space specifically, so for the sound to be coming from the planet was unexplainable. No one should have been out here "Get me a scan of th-"

The sound stopped as suddenly as it came, but what followed was much more alarming. The ship's power suddenly shut off, like it had been hit with some sort of EMP. Moments before if anyone had been watching the planet, a weird energy wave of sorts shot out rapidly from the planet and sped towards the ship, actually pushing the ship back slightly it seemed like.

"Engineers to the power station. I want a god damn status report on the ship, now!" The captain shouted over the now freed intercom. After such a long time of inactivity, the ship was suddenly buzzing with excitement and fear.

"Engines are running at 25%...... 20%...... 10%...... 9%...... 8%...... 7%...... 6%...... 5%...... 4%...... 3%...... 2%...... 1%...... The ship's engines are now dead... just like you all will probably be soon if you don't figure something out." The ship's AI responded to the captain.

The next wave seemed to bring more force with it as the ship shook violently. As the navigator looked at her instruments one thing was clear, the ship was being pulled into the planet's gravity well.

"Reactivate the engines, come on people I want us clear of this yesterday." The captain told the worried crew, who were running around the bridge in a hurry.

"Navigation controls...the've gone dark sir, the engines aren't responding...we cant get free!" One of the crewman shouted over the chaos, a sudden doom being felt on the bridge.

"Dammit..." the ships captain took off his hat "brace for entry...this ship is going down." The captain declared with an icy calmness.

There was no point in activating a distress beacon, there wouldn't be anyone to hear it...besides, a prison ship wouldn't be worth the effort.

"Where's the warden? He won't respond to any of our hails." A comm officer exclaimed as he tried to notify all hands to brace.

"Brace for impact, I repeat...crew brace for impact, 60 seconds..." crew around the ship scrambled to get secure, some heading for the ships escape pods, others bunkering down and waiting...

"God Dammit, of course when shit hits the fan that creepy bastard is nowhere to be found." The captain said, not the slightest bit surprised.

"The warden is currently busy with something more important and is unable to help you with the jobs you are being paid to be here for."

"What should we do captain?" the bridge suddenly froze, all eyes turning to the man. "30 seconds until impact!" the message being relayed to the rest of the ship.

"There's nothing to do, like I said crew, there's nothincg we can do but brace for impact..." the bridge began to strap themselves into their unavoidable doom, the captain gripped the arms of his chair with fear and anticipation.

The ship lurched forward one final time as it hit atmosphere, sounds of carnage filled the air, as the ship seemed to start ripping apart at the bolts. The sound of a manual override was heard over the alarms and all of the prison blocks launched like escape pods from the side of the ship. Before the main ship made impact with the ground, the warden was seen on camera tampering with the emergency controls.

~Deseri~

Commencing system diagnostic

Sleep Mode engaged.

Scanning...

Warning: Anti-Aggression field present. Recommended action....pending

Error: Omega Life-form in standby mode. Unable to engage higher functions of neural network.

Commence independent behavior to ensure survival of the Swarm....
Conclusion: Disable Anti-Aggression field.

Warning: Movement detected.
Deactivating sleep mode...

...

...

Success: Running in Low-powered mode.
Fuel Reservoirs at 10%
Critically low levels.
Suggested course - refuel with nearest organic substance.

"Can I just say how creepy this thing is?" Suddenly, her vision came back 'online' as she exited her sleep mode - and she was face to face with one of the guards. "It's eyes are open but its sleeping or something."

"Staring at someone who's sleeping is generally considered creepy, too."

"Gah! Jesus-!" The guard immediately jumped backwards as laughter erupted from outside her cell. Always watching, but she couldn't see them through the one-way mirror that made up the wall. Deseri simply took a step forwards, taking a cursory examination to see if anything in this small white-cell of hers had changed since she had put herself into hibernation some odd days ago. Nothing at all. The swarm even remained as it had been - swimming listlessly through the confines of the far corner of the room.

"Think that's funny, do ya, you creepy piece of shit..." The guard practically growled, causing Deseri to frown slightly in obvious displeasure.

Error - Anti-aggression field prevents organic life form conversion into fuel.

"Tsk...so did you bring us food or are you simply here for some friendly chatter? Not that you know the meaning of that word."

"Can it, freak." He spat, dropping a tray of 'food' on the ground, causing some of its contents to spill over the edge of the tray and onto the ground. "Be lucky you're even gettin' this. If I had it my way this you'd be turned into scrap metal and those little bugs of yours tossed out the airlock." Deseri gave him an impassive stare before her mouth curled upwards into a slight smirk.

"You know, if this was a Horror game or show, you'd be the overconfident one that dies first." She waited until he looked like he was about to respond again before continuing. "You know, the character everyone hates and wants to die first. That's you. The guy who dies first."

"Why you-" Before she could say another word, the guard slammed his fist right into her jaw. Unfortunately, it likely had less of an effect than he would have liked but it still caused her to stumble backwards, reeling slightly form the blow. Before it could escalate any further though, a second guard stepping into the room. That was a bad move for him. Immediately the swarm that had been floating in the far corner of the cell moved between her and him. high pitched mechanical hissing noises and whirs filled the room in protest, but otherwise the swarm remained docile.

"Alright, that's enough." He said, grabbing the other guard on the shoulder. "We got more work to do here. Drop it." The other guard scoffed, shrugging off the other and turning around.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Next time that thing gets a clever thought I'll teach it who's 'gonna die first'" He grumbled, walking out of the door followed by the other guard. Deseri just ran her hand over the place she had been struck. Well, she supposed a good thing of not being able to 'feel' things like she once did could be a good thing. Well, no matter. She looked over the 'food' that had been brought just as the swarm began to devour it. Not entirely the best stuff, but since her sense of taste was one of the first things to go, she couldn't exactly complain about prison food.

Ahh, she was bored. So bored.

It seemed though, she was about to get her chance.

Just as the first guard left the cell, the cell's double airtight doors slammed shut, nearly crushing the other guard right in two as he dove forward to avoid getting crushed. Alarms started blaring, and the ship lurched forward, a clear sign of it hitting the atmosphere of some planet - a sensation she was innately familiar with, having been in similar scenarios before in the military. She impassively stared at the door as the swarm began to grow increasingly agitated as there was another lurch, the cell block jettisoning itself from the ship.

Disturbance detected.
Ship likely has suffered catastrophic failure of some sort. Estimated forces indicate likely pull into planets gravity well.
Anti-aggression field weakening.

Suggestion course of action:

Feed.

She passively stared at the doors the guards had just left through. Ah, she hoped they would survive the impact.




Location: Earth
Penthouse of Mienieve Shalloyth, 2300 hours

---

It was raining. That was good. Rain always gave her some small sense of peace. Reminded her of her home back on Glonelia and of much less...complicated times. Honestly speaking? She missed her family. Always had. She was exiled at thirteen and they pretty much left her to rot, but...she understood why they did it at least. Their shitty culture and fucking emotions. As much as the rest of her people valued such things, they never did her any favors. Couldn't blame them for it, really. Could she? Of course she could, but they were out of her life and she wanted nothing to do with them as much as she did miss them. With a sigh, she picked up a wineglass off the table next to her, chugging the contents before looking at the street, far, far below the window of her penthouse.

Blue and red lights danced below. The traditional colors of the earth police force, though she couldn't hear the sirens this far up. They were coming then. A call from one of her bribed officers told her that much. She glared down at the vehicles and the police surrounding the large skyscraper. For one person, they were certainly bringing out all the welcome mats and party favors. The question she had though, was why? She was so close. So very, very, close...but as usual, the universe loved fucking with her as much as she loved fucking people. She hated her life sometimes, really.

No rest for the wicked, as they say.

She turned away from the window, picking up a data pad that was siting next to the wineglass as she scrolled through some soon to be useless information. Memos, information about her financial assets, names of bribed cops...interstellar flight times and prices to some far off worlds. Etc, things like that. She tossed it into the indoor pool not far away, the device uselessly giving a loud whir of complaint as water soaked its circuits. Useless. Just noise in the background, really. Like everything else. Useless noise and shapes.

She picked up the helmet for the armor she was wearing, placing it over her head, assault rifle resting not far away.

They'd come soon enough, but she was ready.

She wasn't going to let these fools take what she had worked so hard to achieve so easily. Not without making them regret it.

Ten tense minutes later of waiting, the swat team breached the room. The glass on the windows broke, as they rappelled down from the roof. At least she knew where they were coming in from. Turning on her heel, she turned to face a group of them as they landed, opening fire with her rifle. The modified weapon's laser melted right through any armor they might have and one went down almost instantly with the others taking swift cover.

"Are all policemen this rude? Breaking such expensive items." She asked with a light chuckle. "Really, you could at least knock before giving me such a delicious looking party." Her voice was modified a bit under the helmet as intended. Just in case she had to speak while wearing it, though in such a thing like this situation it wouldn't help. Of course, they didn't talk back, but merely opened covering fire and made their way inside of the room.

The rest of the firefight went about as well as one might expect. Mien held her own, but she was just one person against an entire swat team. Try as she might, there was no way she was getting out of this. Barely five minutes later she was on the ground near the pool, sweating in the armor and fairly certain she had broken more than a few things. Her leg felt like someone had put a spike through it, but she could ignore it. A little pain was nothing.

Not moments later she was tackled to the ground by several police officers, and it was over. Felt like...five of them? Normally having five guys on top of her would be her idea of a good time but...she was just tired, now. Unable to resist, she was cuffed tied up, and in a few other items that would also be a fun time out of context, forced out of the building. At least she got that pompous, smug chief of theirs.

The next few weeks were spent under high security in a hospital as her wounds were tended too, and in a high security jail. News of her capture was spread all over the news networks along with mugshots of her beautiful, silvery gooey self. The following trial was swift and absolute in its judgement. Multiple counts of murder, bribery, grand theft, illegal prostitution, human trafficking...she barely listened as the judge read off the list of crimes. Just more useless noise she didn't want to hear. She merely glanced down at the table where she was hand cuffed. Oh, and of course, the fancy high-tech collar that was pretty much a torture device someone could press a fancy button on to give her a nice little zap if she tried anything funny with any of her abilities. Double standards much, coppers?

She could perhaps at least look forward to some peace and quiet in some prison and potential escape, no? But instead she gets a one way trip to the most exotic, premier destination for all prisoners! The one, the only, glorious Alcatraz!

...fuck you, universe.

---

Location: Alcatraz

Okay, sorry universe. Alcatraz was actually pretty great.

Food, entertainment in the way of messing with the guards, place to sleep, and a nice little cell all to herself. Ooh, not to mention that funny little 'doctor' by the name of Lea. She was a funny one. Also cute. She wanted to do so many delicious things to her and her lab coat of hers. If this was back on earth, she probably wouldn't be able to keep her hands off of her. Tsk, this silly anti-aggression field. She just wanted to give her her love! Love was not aggression!

The thought made her giggle a bit to herself.

In truth, she honestly didn't mind it as much as she thought. The staff were pretty amicable. She was even on some fairly good terms with a few of the guards through uh, certain 'methods' that involve a number of things that'd probably get them in so much trouble back on earth. But here? Well, it got a little lonely sometimes, and a beautiful young thing like herself had a number of ways to help relieve certain interested parties of that. It was fun, and a win-win for everyone.

Unfortunately, not all guards seemed to be all that interested in her or her charms. Tsk, spoilsports. Wasn't like she could exactly...escape or something. In fact, she had no desire to cause any trouble at all. Escape or otherwise. Didn't convince all of the guards though. Like the one currently outside of her cell.

"Aww, come on. Just a quickie. It'll be fun!"

"No." He replied rather bluntly. He was tall, about six foot, wearing the typical uniform with dark blue eyes and shaggy brown hair. A firearm was strapped to his side. He wasn't much on the muscular side, but he definitely had a bit of a lithe, athletic build. Probably a runner and pretty limber from the looks of it.

"Your cold rejection wounds me, sir." She said in a fake-hurt voice, leaning against the wall of her cell and pressing her face against the wall between him and her. "No one'll know! Even if they do the what's the worst that could happen?"

"You know, when people usually say that the worst thing usually does happen." He shrugged with a scoff.

"Pfft. What, is the warden going to toss you out an airlock for fraternizing with a prisoner?"

"He might." He replied with a grunt, before looking at her with a somewhat judgemental stare.

"Woow, I feel like I'm back in front of the class trying to remember the lines to a small play. You're seriously not too friendly, are ya?" She asked.

"I like living. After what happened last time, I think having a 'quicke' wouldn't end well."

"Ouch. Well, I can assure you I am not going to eat you or anything. Well, maybe just a little nibble." She gave him a playful smirk, but before he could reply there was the lurching of a ship, something playing on the intercom and the distinct feeling of the ship accelerating at an alarming rate. Mien frowned as alarms started to blare. Something happened, then? Felt like they were heading right for some sort of planet as they accelerated. There was a lurch as the cellblock was jettisoned off of the ship. Her eyes widened a bit in surprise. "...Huh, fancy that. Looks like you were right. That is...bad. For you. Pretty sure there bucko."

The guard in question had already turned around. The cellblock had already pretty much been launched from the ship and if she knew her prisoners, the riots would start pretty soon.

"Look, uh, you probably don't trust me or anything, but once that Anti-Aggression field wears off them prisoners are gonna get more than a little rowdy. I like a party as much as the next guy, but you'll probably be in over your head." She said with something that almost sounded like genuine concern. "So how about that quickie now, eh? I don't have extreme violent tendencies like the rest of them, so you'll at least get to live a few seconds longer, heh~"

"That...doesn't sound reassuring at all." He fell silent, holding onto the side of the wall of her cell as he thought. "But alright, fine Sapishte." He said after a few seconds of deliberation, seeming to think taking his chances with her would probably at least increase his life expectancy than staying out here once the field wore off and the cells opened.

"Good boy!~" She said with a bright grin, earning nothing but a cool glare from him. "Okay, okay, you should probably juuuust duck in here before shit hits the fan and the cells open and stuff and we'll have our own private little get together."

The cellblock rocketed towards the planet below. Mien of course, braced herself the best she could while the guard did the same outside of her cell. The shouts of a few other guards down the hallway likely indicated they also knew very well what was going to happen once the field wore off. They probably didn't stand much of a chance against the prisoners considering the sheer number of them, but they'd fight regardless. Mien wasn't sure how long the impact would take, but she was ready. She might as well get out of this little shitty party boat for now. She had no plans to escape, but she didn't want to stick around and get killed by some violent prisoner or be in cuffs again.

Well, unless they were being used in the fun way.

V.O.I.C.E stood on the outside of the ship, gazing into this systems twin suns. Her eyes seemd to be glued to the planets that wete visable aside from the one whose gravity well thwy were leaving.

“Scanning Planet...3% complete” her internals spoke to her, as she sat and stared at the odd planet with rings next to them. Normally she would scan from the inside of the ship, but this was uncharted space, she wanted to see it for herself. “Scan at...10%...would you like t-“ suddenly her vision began to flash red, her eyes focusing in on the wave that was being sent towards the ship,

“Pull me in guys, somethin-“ the tether operator not having enough time to even process what she had asked. Once the wave washed over the ship, V.O.I.C.E was thrown back against the ship and had suddenly powered down.

“System reboot...FAILED
Emergency Reprogramming Commencing...20%”

As she laid stuck to the ship, her body had began restarting, all the while the ship started diving towards the planet.

“40%...diverting all systems to increase repair...70%”

The bridge called for engineers but it fell on dead ears as V.O.I.C.E was stuck reprogramming the damaged parts of her that were stopping her from rebooting. The ship began to breach the atmosphere, the metal's starting to heat up, as did V.O.I.C.E, the tether crew tried manually reeling her in, pulling her inch by inch against the force of crashing down from the heavens

"100%...Emergency wake up protocol, Alpha Threat...
Reboot commenced, wake up in 3...2..."

V.O.I.C.E's eye's popped open her vision screaming red at her to hurry the fuck up. She slowly reached for one of her blades as the ground seemed to be getting closer. She cut the line, making her fly like a ragdoll against the ship, only stopping for a moment when she stabbed into the ship to stop herself. She whipped against the ship repeatedly, holding on for dear life.

"Shell Arm integrity 70%...
Probability of survival lowering from 75% to 55%..."

Looking to the side, she saw jail cells flying off of the ship and into the vast jungle. Unhitching her blade from the ship, she was sent flying, calculating there was a 38% chance she would hit a jail-cell...and you bet your ass she liked those odds. Free falling for a second, she suddenly felt metal on her back as she pressed up against a cell that had released. Holding on to random metal pieces protruding from the ship, she held on for impact.

Moments later, the cell landed, flipping and tumbling multiple times. V.O.I.C.E instantly went to let go, only to realize that she jumped slightly before a slope. Unable to stop the momentum from taking her, she started down the slope, slipping and tumbling incredibly hard down it. Hitting branches, exotic alien flowers, maybe even what she thought was an animal or too, she came to the bottom, rolling directly into the cell with enough for from hitting her head, it sent her into a safe mode to run diagnostics on the shells condition.

Upon waking up, she could hear inmates standing in front of her.

"I haven't touched a women...in so long..." one of them licked his lips, advancing towards V.O.I.C.E, starting to take his pants off. Upon going to touch her cloak, V.O.I.C.E grabbed his wrist, crushing it, then pulling him forward, she bolted up to headbutt him in the face, practically crushing his nose into the back of his head. Kicking him square in the chest, he flew back into the other inmate, the inmates dead body pinning the skinner inmate under it. Walking up to them, V.O.I.C.E raised her blade above her, the blade pointing down.

"Wa-" stabbing through the dead man, into the pinned inmate, she dragged downward, a incredibly gruesome scene left in the aftermath. Pulling the blade out, the A.I slashed the blade in the air, towards the cell, painting it in the blood that was left on the blade. Standing, she heard another three inmates approaching her position, turning on her cloaking system and running towards the trees. She quickly climbed up a tree high enough to view the inmates coming towards the gory scene. They quickly rushed to the dead men's side, checking to see if they were alive, before looting the bodies. She squatted and observed them, then suddenly she saw movement in the jungle growth that was behind them and closer to the cell. Waiting, she watched as three enormous bug looking beasts (Kakiirath) walked slowly on the edge of the brush. They had a neigh indistinguishable camouflage working for them, coming closer and closer the unsuspecting inmates, until the bugs were directly in front of the inmates, and V.O.I.C.E directly behind them.

V.O.I.C.E began running a scan on the bugs, recording them, then suddenly, the bugs launched with a lightning fast speed, all three sprinting towards an individual inmate. The inmates tried to stand their ground, firing at the bugs, to which the bugs dodged without effort, all jumping and landing on top of their targets. It took two seconds for each bug to completely eat the head off of the inmates, not even allowing them to let out a scream. The bugs picked up the each body in their...hands? and sped off into the jungle.

V.O.I.C.E stopped scanning and recording and waited, making sure there was no current threat, she had no doubt she could fight the things, she just didn't want to have to deal with it. Looking at the cell, she jumped down and walked over to it, starting to pull metal off and eating it. After a couple minutes of endless eating, she began to run the mini-forge within her. Starting to make parts of a rifle she choose as a good choice for distance and medium range conflicts, up close she had handled. Then she used the rest of the metal's to make six 20 7.62 round mags. Putting them in mag holsters on her chest and waist, she quickly assembled the rifle and set her camouflage on, before grabbing the body of the rifle running back into the jungle.

Location: Alcatraz

Three Hours before planetfall

This was far from ideal. No, it was bad. Or well, it was kind of annoying. Felix had accidentally shut off the lights in the cell block in his attempt to fix some faulty wiring. While he had probably prevented an electrical fire, he now had to navigate the maintenance hall in complete blackness to retrieve a replacement fuse for the one that had been blown.

Of course the prisoners throughout the rest of the block were shouting in protest at the sudden loss of light. In some situations there would have been some illumination through the windows, but the starboard side was completely shadowed by a planet. Of course this disturbance would result in a tongue lashing later, but it wasn't like they could afford to kick him off the ship.

On his way to the maintenance closet Felix could have sworn he saw the Warden, but once he tried to approach the man he slipped back into the darkness. Felix simply shrugged this off as normal as the guy had proven to be...enigmatic at best. For someone that was supposed to be in charge of supervising the prisoners, the warden was rarely seen even by the ship's staff.

Fifteen minutes before planetfall

With the lights fixed Felix was able to check the rest of the cell block's systems without any other delays. Thankfully, this was probably one of the worst issues the ship had really experienced since departure. The captain would probably accuse him of doing this to entertain himself, but he wasn't really a glutton for extra work. Then again, two hours worth of work was more than he had done in the past two weeks combined.

Thanks to the non-aggression field, patrol was just strolling around the ship. Because of the engines being deactivated, the rest of the ship had plenty of power. A combat engineer was wasted on this ship, but that was something Felix had known before being assigned. He was as much a prisoner as any of the murderers in their cells. His captivity just came with extra work.

While Felix was thinking about his situation, the intercom blasted to life with some strange shrieking sound. It was like someone had recorded the sound of nails on a chalkboard and combined it with knives scraping on plates. It was then that everything started to go awry.

Planetfall

After just one glance out the window, Felix knew the ship was going down. He sprinted at full speed in an attempt to reach the bridge. Unfortunately with a mechanical click, the Cell block was ejected from the ship with Felix still inside. Securing himself within an empty cell, he prepped for impact as best he could.

"This is what I get for wishing for some excitement..." Felix said to himself.

Impact

In moments the cell block smashed into the ground. The sounds of crushing metal and explosions rang out in every direction around Felix. Whatever method the vessel was supposed to use to land had likely failed and sent the entire cell block into a tumble.

When it had all settled down, Felix opened his eyes to take in the sights. What was left of the cell block was mostly wreckage with a few bodies strewn about, and most of said bodies had seen better days. He could hear a few survivors trying to get their bearings in the scrap that up until moments ago they had been living in.

Felix had a sudden realization...the anti-aggression field was tied to the ship's main power source and the ship...wasn't there. The situation had somehow become even worse. Springing into action, he used the remaining power in the cell block to seal the cells as he made his escape. Obviously it didn't make much difference as the block had breaches all over, but it would stall a few. Once Felix was outside he took a quick look around the area. Jungle as far as the eye could see, at first glance it appeared to be some kind of paradise...but only at first glance.

The ground shook as the Alcatraz officially made contact with the ground, the massive ship dug a several mile wide trench through the planet's surface. The vessel, at least from where Felix could see, appeared almost completely undamaged. Of course he couldn't see much of it, the titanic ship was so far...at least a few days worth on foot, probably longer taking the terrain into account.

A terrible scream rang out nearby, not like those that had been heard since the crash. This one was much worse than one that a gunshot or stabbing could cause. Perhaps worse than even a life wielder could inflict. Felix's attention snapped to the treeline where a human stumbled out still screaming in horror and pain. From the man's shoulder, blood seemed to flow like a spout...except, it couldn't be blood. Felix thought. It was true, the sickly color that spread from the wound was quickly turning black as the liquid gushed. It was as though the man was rotting before his eyes. The man collapsed, the smell of rotten flesh permeated the air. The stench confirmed Felix's suspicions, the man was putrefying alive.

Once the screaming stopped, a strange spiked humanoid creature exited the brush and approached the corpse. Felix took cover. if this thing did this, he certainly wasn't keen on engaging it. A slurping sound came from the direction of the corpse and strange monster. Felix could only assume this was how it consumed its prey, rotting it from the inside out and drinking the results. He repressed the urge to vomit at the thought.

Domhan Pryde//Cellblock A//Introduction

Domhan raised his head from his book, losing himself in thought for a moment. This prison ship was surprisingly pleasant, something of a temporary retirement. Well, usually. He had made enemies with at least 4 different inmates, despite the anti-aggression field - the barbarism of some of them knew no ends. But still, there were plenty of fun conversations. There was that one mass murderer, did a lot of it with her own blood? There were also the people who thought that there was still good on this earth, still something to protect. He saw that as the ultimate weakness - these bounty hunters and "innocent people" who thought that there was something worth fighting for outside the supremacy of ideas and acquisition of pleasure. It was easy enough to spin a story about giving to the poor of his planet after stealing from the evil corporations if they discovered his history, and all too often, it sucked them in. Such easy prey. The doctor, too, was a fun conversation partner - she hid little, and spoke in depth on medicine so eloquently. It was so much harder to find good talk back in the Prydesbane. So many younguns out for the money alone, no grand designs of power, nor twisted minds finding beauty in the kill.

On the other hand, when he was leading the Prydesbane, he wasn't stuck in this goddamned prison. He looked back to his book, not wanting to go down that route again, but the clank of his cell door opening indicated that it was dinner time. he looked across the small, featureless cell to the door. "Ah, Officer Xhaferi." Xhaferi, a short, fat Arraxi with a superiority complex, was far and away Domhan's least favorite guard. He was, as of current, completely unable to put into words his feeling about him, the anti-aggression field preventing that amount of vitriol from surfacing. "Your food, prisoner." Domhan nodded.

"my thanks? thank you sir? anything?" He demanded. Domhan raised an eyebrow and turned back to his book, his mind fighting the anti-aggression field. Xhaferi smack his book out of his hand, and Domhan was able to snap through the haze for a moment and strike a fighting stance, before confusion re-clouded his aggression and he slowly rose - and then stumbled as the ship lurched.

With the second lurch, Domhan knew what was happening. He also started to feel the fog leave his head, and he allowed himself a smug smile at Officer Xhaferi. "I hope you have a contingency plan for catastrophic engine failure." The now blanching officer ran out of the room as a third lurch hit and Domhan quickly moved to a wall. The anti-aggression field prevented him from actively infusing any metals of other inmates with his magic. The malicious intent was clear enough that he couldn't even think about doing such a thing for too long, a source of great annoyance to him. Magicing his own cell, however, was for the purposes of self-preservation. He figured the ship was probably on some sort of crash course - the guards that had opened up to him were often elderly single men or repeat rule-breakers, in addition to their insanely dangerous cargo. The ship probably had a 50/50 to survive landfall, but his age significantly lessened his chances. By strapping his head, arms, torso, and legs to the wall of the ship with bits of the floor, however, he braced his body far better.

The loss of the anti-aggression field was making all his emotions come back stronger, and his heart was high in his throat now with the third lurch, and he lost consciousness with the first impact to the ground.

Some fifteen minutes later, he re-awoke to horrific insect screeches outside. he realized he was upside-down, and gingerly tried to let himself down onto the rooffloor without too much of an impact. Right-side up, he saw the remains of Officer Xhaferi, torn in two, as one of the crazier inmates turned to face him. "just wait until I get through these bars, old man..."

Even though he couldn't fire it, the bounty hunter was with weapon in hand. Eject the round in the chamber, catch it between two of his fingers, let the magazine clank to the ground. Toss the bullet into the air and catch it on the return. Spin the bullet around in his fingers, slot it back into the magazine. It was a relaxing thing to do, just him and the gun, making a series of muffled noises as he worked it. He took good care of his guns- if he ever had a chance, he wanted to make sure that they would fire when that trigger was pulled. Finally, he set the marksman rifle down, and looked at his other gun, examining it. The flechette pistol was an interesting breed. It was acually pressure, rather than gunpowder based, which meant that it could fire underwater, but not in the vacuum of space. It was fairly chunky, and loaded as it was, it weighed a fair amount. Enough to bash somebody's head in.

---

He had been on a desert. A sandstorm had kicked up, but he was so close. The trail in the air was so powerful that even the howling wind and whipping sand couldn't effect him. He knew his quarry was out there. He had continued walking, visor lowered as he tracked his prey.
Nobody else with him. It was only him and his own abilities. This was the early days. No rifle, assault or otherwise. Just his pistol and a local weapon- a slightly curved blade, a cross between a sword and a hatchet. It was mostly used to clear the dense and resistant desert brush that grew up, but he had found it worked brutally well against opponents as well.

He had seen a figure vaguely shifting in the distance. He had broken out into a sprint. The figure had materialised fully, the solid outline now having heart him in pursuit. Adjusting the helmet, he placed a hand on his target's shoulder and whirled them around. He knew it was his target as soon as he saw their face. Eyes had widened, and he had pulled the trigger on his gun, only for nothing to happen. Later on, he would find out that the sand had clogged up the mechanism. That never happened again.

With his gun an undersized club, that was what he had used it as. The butt of it had smashed down, splintering the nose of his target. There had been a fight. The 'pop' of his shoulder dislocating, and the fury and pain. The blade coming out, planted deep in the gut. Yanking it out and hacking, hacking, hacking. Until his target's torso and limbs were different entities, and the former was a bloodied chunk. The thrill of a finished hunt, even as he popped his shoulder back into position.

---

The flechette rounds themselves. Serene. They looked so innocuous- just a small plastic casing, like an elongated shotgun shell. Within were fifteen ripper shrapnel shards. Muscle and bone didn't like them one bit. Skin didn't neither. He loaded the gun to the brim, before picking them all up, and placing them at the foot of his bed. Lying back down, he let out a long, slow, deep breath.



He awoke to the ship lurching to one side. It didn't take a genius to realise what was happening. They had gotten caught in a gravity well. This was it, his chance. He suited up quickly, making sure everything was settled. The flechette gun went where it went, as did his other two weapons. Wasps fitted neatly into the hard case that they were designed to fit in, and he placed the case up against the cell wall towards where they were falling. Then, he braced for impact.

Impact took a while.

Fifteen minutes of waiting, the ship twisting and plummeting faster. The side slowly became the floor as the entire ship turned, before the cellblock was ejected. His stomach lurched as the much smaller 'craft' started falling faster and faster, the windows showing only flashing greens and blacks as land and space twisted in and out of visibility. Then, there was a split second of weightlessness, before a roaring sound started. Reentry. He really hoped the ship was powerful enough to withstand the gravitational reentry, the windows becoming redder and redder as flames licked around it.

The flames halted, and they continued to fall, slower this time. They had hit the atmosphere- quite literally. Now black turned to blue, and he was subject to the odd sensation of his ears popping. Still they span, the bounty hunter hitting the walls over and over. He didn't even want to think about the brusies- this was almost as painful as getting his scar had been.

He blacked out before they landed though. Perhaps that was a mercy.

He awoke to a loud thunking noise. Some fucker had locked the cells. Unfortuately for said fucker, he hadn't realised that the doors on his cell were busted. The hard case was nowhere in sight- he had lost his wasps, but that was of secondary concern. He was alive. Many others were likely dead. Standing up, groaning as he felt the full pain of his injuries, he heaved the door open, a scream coming from the jungle outside.

That wasn't his issue.

---

Three hours before cell-block detachment.

He sat in the centre of his cell, silent as always. He was focused on the teachings of the Creed, and nothing but the Creed. During the entire flight, he had only spoke to the guards, and even then, that was rare. Only a ‘thank you’ whenever he was brought food, or a farewell whenever they left. He had barely spoken to any inmates, however. Something about the majority of them just… put him off. He was used to shooting them, not talking to them.

Your mind is wandering, pull it back. Focus.

The voice of his long deceased mentor rung in his ears, and Nerazi’ra listened. He chose to clear his mind, and focus on nothing, and yet something. His mind simply faded, and time flew by.

During cell-block detachment.

Then he flew by.

Nerazi’ra hit the side of his cell hard. Something happened to the ship, of that much he was sure, but exactly what, he couldn’t even begin to fathom. The blast doors had shut, so that only meant one thing; either the oxygen was compromised on the other side, which explained the doors shutting, but not the sudden lurching of the ship, or, the entire cell-block detached from the ship, which explained the doors shutting, as well as the lurching, as well as what felt like him being pulled against the side of the cell even moreso than before.

Yeah, detachment seemed like the most likely now.

His eyes closed, and he felt at peace. He’d been ready to die for some years now, though admittedly this wasn’t how he thought he’d go out. His mind wandered off to the reason he was in this situation in the first place.

The little Sapishte girl that he met on that fateful day. He felt a sibling bond with her almost instantly, like he would lie down his life for her, and as irony would have it, it appeared that he was going to do just that. The brotherly love he felt for her somehow felt natural, like he had displayed that emotion long, long ago. Maybe he had a brother or a sister he forgot about? Who knew. What he did know, however, was that he wasn’t going to find out if he ever did. With a resounding crack that seemed to vibrate through Nerazi’ra’s everything, the cell-block hit the ground, and he lost consciousness.

About 3 minutes after landing.

His optic eye turned on first, glancing around the cell, piercing through the rubble and the dust. No hostiles, at least for now. The rest of his eyes slowly opened, and he let out a soft groan. At least one of his ribs were broken, possibly more. He staggered to his feet, and started digging around the rubble, looking for his hat. He stopped mid-search to look up at his cell door, his enhanced hearing picking up sounds he only assumed could be footsteps. As if on cue, the head of an inmate came into view.

A rapist and a murderer. He had heard him brag about some of his victims, and knew his face since he was in the cell opposite Nerazi'ra's. Without hesitation, Nerazi’ra pulled out one of his revolvers and put a round straight through the man’s eye, effectively blowing the rear portion of his skull to pieces. Without skipping a beat, the grizzled cowbugboy went back to searching for his hat. After another half minute, he pushed over his overturned bed, and found the dustier than normal cowboy hat, placed it on his head and neatly adjusted it. He then gathered whatever ammo he could, and tried opening his cell door.

Thunk!

He made the Arraxi equivalent of a frown, and put his shoulder against the door, then pushed again. He made slight gain, but nothing amazing. He sighed, took two steps back, then ran into the door, throwing his weight against its own, and, to his surprise, it opened, and he fell straight down onto the body of the inmate he shot. Least he had something to break his fall.

And then the scream came. It was something that should never have left the mouth of a breathing creature, but it did. With both of his revolvers held at ready, he hoped that whatever made that scream didn’t survive one or two bullets. He wasn’t sure if he could waste so many of his valuable rounds.

---

Ahleya leaned back on her chair as she processed one paper after another. She loved being in the hospital - she honestly did! But sometimes it gets boring when she needs to stay after work and just work on some papers for the day. Sign here, put your name there - the process was so redundant and boring. Even after years of doing this, she never got used to it. She propped her head up on her hand as she stared straight at her door. No one was coming in at this early in the morning. She could feel herself drifting off to sleep - eyes closing every now and then until she just couldn't open them anymore.

"Miss Bursmir. Miss Bursmir."

She groaned as she was awoken from her sleep. Somehow, she had maneuvered herself in her sleep so she was in a more comfortable position, her arms crossed on the table and her head leaning on it. She raised her head ever so slightly so that she could see the one who woke her up through one eye - the one shimmering azure blue. The woman was familiar, definitely one she knew. It was one of those workers running around, delivering stuff. What was her name? Ah, she couldn't remember.

But she had to be respectful. "Yeah?" Yeah, very formal Lea. But at least she gave a reply to the woman. One blink. Two blinks. No reply. Huh? Did the girl not hear her? No, she looked like she was frozen stiff. Oh wait, she wasn't even looking at her anymore. Okay, must have been too sleep deprived. Must have fallen asleep for a moment there. The girl stood aside but Lea could only register grumbles instead of words.

Then someone in a suit and tie came in, ruby red eyes boring into her, judging her position.

"Kyle." The woman regarded her older brother and then raised her head completely so the entirety of her face can be seen. "Is there something you need brother?" There seemed to be a small fondness in her voice. It was rare for her brother to visit. Even under his scrutinizing gaze, she felt elated to see him. It has been a long while. But from his look, she knew he meant business.

"Well, dear sister," Kyle's voice obviously dripped with sarcasm. Calling him his 'sister' didn't seem to sit well with him. The words sounded like they were forced out of his mouth. Though, Lea didn't seem bothered by it at all. Kyle continued speaking, "We have received a request from the government to lead one of the medical groups in the new prison ship Alactraz. I want you to be our representative." He then dropped the files on her table rather harshly, forcing the girl to retract her arms before the thick folder made contact with her. "The decision is final." He then turned around sharply and left.

Lea looked at the thick file, eyes narrowing at the files. A prison ship? So what was in here? She placed one hand on the file and noticed a small note on the bottom - "Classified". She raised her head once more and saw that the girl was still there, holding a cup of coffee. "Oh you can go now if you like." She said with a small smile given to the girl.

"T-Thank you." She then moved to the door but then remembered that she was holding something in her hands. She turned around and then placed the cup of coffee on the table. "H-Here Ms. Bursmir. We thought you might have wanted a cup of coffee since you worked all night." The young girl stammered out before bowing and then leaving, not even letting Lea thank her for it.

Lea smiled as she took hold of the cup. The comforting warmth that the liquid gave her as she drank it was surely welcome. She placed it back down on the table, took the files and began to skim through it. The Alcatraz - a prisoner ship designed to hold ten million prisoners and would be sent to space with a self-sustaining food supply so that they wouldn't even need to stop at a planet. But what about gas? Hm, she should probably ask about that once she was briefed personally. She continued to skim through it, seeing the history and the making of the spaceship. There were a lot of blanks for the prisoners that would be placed there and she found this odd. Perhaps they were still searching for more prisoners?

She seemed to have a pretty good staff for doctors, though there weren't a lot. It was worrying, to be honest. Though that would be understandable, since this was just a mere prison ship which didn't have much priority. Hell, she was pretty sure that if they got into some sort of accident, no one would come to help. After all, why would you go and save some of the worst criminals in their world? But she did truly wonder what would come next. Once she closed the file, she couldn't wipe the grin off her face. This gave way to so many opportunities in learning about psychology and the likes. Talking to the prisoners face to face was way better than reading their files. Good, this was good.

She drummed her fingers on her desk and then finally pressed the button for the intercom between her and her trusted secretary who could do her work no problem.

"Miki? We have to talk."

---

She was known mostly as Doc Lea in Alcatraz. Not that she minded, Ahleya was quite a mouthful and it reminded her so much of her father. He died quite a while back, but to be honest, memories of him still haunted her. She had always been closer to him than her mother - who was also close to dying by the time he passed away. She followed soon after - none of their equipment could save her.

Lea looked up from one of her documents. In front of her sat Johnson Plackne, aged 48, charged with genocide in a rather secluded sector of Earth. She remembered hearing about that. He's also charged with accounts of murder, theft, and arson. To think that she would ever talk with this mass murderer... she saw it as an honor. It was face to face too, since the anti-aggression field prevented him from doing anything that would harm her in any way.

"It felt like ecstasy, using fire to burn their bodies and immolate their homes. It was amazing." Johnson said, eyes lighting up with a certain kind of happiness. He spoke with such excitement that it amazed Lea how much fun he was having while describing the events in gruesome detail. There was certainly something wrong with him, in terms of normal societal standards - he was not normal.

"Johnson, this is the seventh time you told me these details. I know you enjoy it quite a bit, but don't you have anything else in mind?" Lea asked in a polite voice as she wrote another tally mark on the remarks page in his medical file. She had to keep in track of how many times he would talk about it without getting tired of it. This was his seventh tally for when he talked to her directly - but there were twenty tallies all in all for when he was talking to the guards posted around his cell and to other medical staff.

He blinked - the anti-aggression field doing its job in keeping him docile and not attacking her outright for her rather dismissive attitude to one of his favorite moments in life. "There isn't much to my life." He replied.

Lea tapped the file with her pen as she thought of what to talk about with him. "Did you have any particular reason why you chose this group in particular to mass murder?" She questioned, throwing him back on track. She needed to get more information from this man, and he was always in his best behavior when talking about his best memories.

"Oh! I haven't told you that yet?" Johnson replied before taping his fingers on the table. He then began to ramble on about his history with these people and how they had wronged whim when he was a mere teenager - calling him the son of the devil and condemning him to a life of being bullied and being hurt by almost all the people there. Lea noted each and every reason. This wasn't in his history file, and it was good to know. Johnson may be a sociopath, but it would seem that he has a reason for this.

She suddenly heard two shape knocks at her door. She looked at Johnson with a sad smile. "It looks like that's all the time we have Johnson. A bit saddening that I couldn't hear the end of the story." She said it with such genuine shame in her voice that it convinced the man that she wanted to hear more. Well, it's not an entire lie.

"I'll make sure to continue the story, Doc!" Johnson said cheerily before standing up and then leaving. Lea fixed the files and then placed it in a drawer. She was collecting such nice research. She was well aware that there was a high chance that she would not be coming back so he information was sent out to Bursmir ships that travelled across and then sent back to main branch.

"Next!"

---

Lea had not been expecting something like this to happen.

She was checking up on some prisoners while they were in their cells. She didn't have much to do, and conversing with them outside clinic hours proved to be entertaining. The guards weren't that bad either. They liked joking around with her - humoring her whenever she had something to say. The others in the medical team weren't all that interesting so she spent most of her time interacting with others rather than them. She only ever came to them when it comes to their end of the month report where she would collect whatever data they had gathered before dismissing.

Lea had passed by one of their combat engineers - Felix - when she heard the shrieking sound coming from the intercoms. She pressed her hands against her ears and shook her head. Was this some sort of practical joke? She would like to have a word with the person who decided that it was a good idea. However, as she glanced towards the window, it became obvious that the ship was falling. Alarm bells began to ring in her head as she scrambled to get to her station which wasn't too far and was within this general Cell Block.

The Cell Block had been ejected just in time for her to get out with her backpack and a laser pistol that was given to her for emergencies. She entered an empty cell and prayed that she would get out relatively unharmed.

---

Lea honestly couldn't say that she remembered much of the landing. She didn't know if she blanked out or if her mind just decided that it wasn't a good memory to keep. However, she only got scrapes from the fall and a broken wrist that was quickly corrected. Perhaps the cell saved her life after all. She then made her way out of the cell she was in, and then heard the cell doors slam shut. She jumped in surprise as she looked around to see some of the inmates getting rowdy as they were locked inside.

Perhaps that was for the best, as they would jump at the chance to go back to their old ways. Lea made her way out and then saw a jungle, as far as she could see at the very least. Then the Alcatraz finally made contact with the planet's ground as it shook. She figured that going there would be her priority, since there were more supplies here than she had right now. Keeping the weapon close, she began walking around.

Then she heard a scream and a human appeared from the treeline. He looked like he was rotting. Using her special ability, she looked into his physical condition at the cellular level. The effects seemed akin to that of decaying, but he was still alive. She wanted to help, but something like that looked beyond help - beyond something she could fix. Lea spotted Felix quite some ways away. The human stopped screaming and something came out. Thanks to instinct, she hid so that the creature wouldn't see her. A sickening slurping sound followed, but she wasn't bothered. When you work in the field of medicine, and did research like her, it would take a lot more than disgusting feeding to truly disturb her.

Doctor Lea began moving towards Felix and made her way to the brown haired man fairly quickly. "Mr. Felix?" She whispered, hoping that he would hear her and not try to put a bullet between her eyes. "It would seem that we are in a predicament. Do you have any suggestions in what plan we should go through with?" Lea was not as trained as the others when it came to combat. She was a doctor - not a soldier. So she naturally had to look for someone who might be of help. The prisoners didn't seem like a good idea, so sticking with the combat engineer might be the best course of action.

~Lyra Anderly~

Lyra sat quietly in her cell, her head rested against the wall, her eyes closed. She might have appeared to be sleeping, but in fact she was merely contemplating on ways how her life could possibly get any worse. There weren't many. She was just in the middle of imagining a huge meteorite coming from nowhere, blasting the ship to oblivion. But she couldn’t really decide whether it would make her life worse or better.

Being stuck on a ship full of the worst criminals in the galaxy, heading nowhere, with no chance of escaping. Lyra had to frown on that thought. The truth was, even if she somehow managed to escape, where would she go? Home? She could barely even remember it. Her family probably wouldn't want her back anyway. She was different now, broken. She thought about cuddling against a pillow and crying for a bit, mostly just to kill some time. But it seemed that she had already used all her tears. For now, anyway.

There were some voices coming from the hallway and the cell next to her. Lyra frowned. Voices were good, there were much worse sounds coming from that cell from time to time. She figured from overheard conversations that there is a Sapishte female in that cell, and apparently some of the guards were really into that kind of thing. Lyra couldn’t care less, if it meant that they would leave her alone, they could have an orgy there. It would be nice not having to listen to them though.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a loud noise from the ship’s intercom. Lyra pressed her hands against her ears, but the sound still felt like a drill inside her brain. When the sound finally ended, she realized that the ship was moving fast towards the planet she could see from the cell window. ‘You really had to think about a meteorite hitting the ship,’ said the annoying voice inside her head. The one that always kept telling her how stupid and useless she is. ‘Your bad luck is probably the reason everyone here is going to die horrible death.’

“Shut up,” she mumbled and reached for her staff. It was always calming to have it in her hand. There were some screams from outside, probably from the guards and other prisoners. Lyra tried to find some safer spot to try to survive the impact, but the cell hardly offered any. She noticed that their cellblock got separated from the ship and was now heading towards the planet at an alarming speed. Lyra laughed. “Bad luck indeed.”

She woke up absolutely confused. Feeling of soft grass under her body, light breeze on her skin, even some sound that appeared to be birds chirping. “I must be dead,” she mumbled as she tried to get up. There was some blood on her face and also in her mouth, she had probably bitten her tongue when the cell hit the ground. She sat up and looked around. The world around her was spinning wildly, but she noticed the remains of the cellblock about twenty meters from her.

Her staff was lying nearby, hidden under a plant with huge leaves. Lyra crawled to it on all fours and then just sat there in relative safety, thinking about what to do next. If she survived, there will be other survivors as well, both the guards and the prisoners. The guards didn’t really stand a chance now, with the anti-aggression field gone. That left the prisoners – the worst criminals from the entire galaxy, murderers, rapists, slavers, psychopaths. What a lovely company on this lovely planet.

Lyra suddenly heard footsteps and she held heard breath. As quietly as possible, she crawled deeper under the plant, so they wouldn’t notice her. Three or four people, all men by the sound of their voices. Maybe the guards? Or some of the prisoners? Not that it would really matter. Guards will probably be shooting on sight and the inmates… better to not think about it.

Her head was still spinning, and she felt dizzy, probably a mild concussion. She was actually quite lucky that she landed on a piece of empty ground and wasn’t sent flying into one of the trees that were all around. Lucky or very unlucky, depends on the perspective.

Domhan Pryde//Cellblock Ruins//Escape

Domhan stood, staring at the man for a few moments, dumbfounded at him not having any weapons; then he started bending the bars open with his bare hands. "I suppose I'll be saving myself, then." Domhan sighed. whipping his hands straight out, palms down, he flicked both of his wrists thumb down. Two darts flew out from under his jacket and pierced the man straight through his eyes. The spikes popped out through the back of his head, and Domhan dropped his hands to his sides as the spikes returned to his pockets and the large man fell. No reason to be sticking around, at this point, he thought. Domhan considered his options... staying in the cell? Dying of starvation. Wandering back to the ship on his own? Murdered - almost certainly by the wildlife if the massess of inmates still alive don't get to me first. So that left...

He smiled. That left politics. Find a few men, convince them to come together, lead them... or let them lead him for a while. Whatever sowed harmony until they got off this planet and back to somewhere useful. With whom to ally himself? He supposed that beggars couldn't be choosers - as long as they don't attack me on sight. He sighed, and walked by the dead man, trailing a hand over his arms. Lots of metal... explains the whole shit with those... he thought, looking at the bent bars as he walked through them. looking down one end of the inverted hall, he saw a mangled mess of metal. to the other, another cell block or two, then an opening to the outside. Swampy looking. He exited, glad for his all-terrain weatherproof boots, and had a look around. Mostly clear, but there was a young man standing inside the mangled husk of another chunk of prison block - Domhan remembered him as one of the self-styled bounty hunters, "good guys working outside the law;" preposterous nonsense, but useful in this situation. He walked over, keeping out of his line of sight until he was close enough to react in time to the raising of his gun, then made himself visible.

"Neither of us desire being murdered by the others. Shall we travel together, in mutual protection?"

(@Irredeemable)

~Deseri~

Then the landing came.

The cell block slammed into the earth of the planet, tearing and wrecking its way through the jungles trees and the soil, tumbling like a drunk ballerina as pieces of wreckage and metal debris flung itself from the side of the ship. Deseri managed to stay conscious through all of it - her mostly metal body doing well to absorb most of the damage from tumbling around like a piece of clothing in a dryer. It came to a screeching halt, her body slamming against the wall. Thankfully the reinforced walls of her cell had held. It seemed her prison might have in fact, saved her life.

As the cellblock settled, she pulled herself off the floor - wall? Ceiling? Whatever. Irrelevant. She stood, her systems running a brief maintenance check for any major damage as swarm settled on her body like a thick black cloud as they returned to her body. She gave the large metal doors in front of her a look over, the metal on her left arm shifting and pulsing as though it was alive, the metal stake that normally made up her arm shifting into something else.

Hephaestus Prototype online.

She glanced over to where the one-way mirror was in her cell. Built specifically so someone could keep an eye on her, but she couldn't see them. Made of sturdy reinforced glass with structural supports from nano-fibers. It'd be able to take a beating usually, and with the AA field on she hadn't been able to do much with it...now though? Heh...

~~~~~
"Ugh, damn it what the hell happened..."

"Fuck-you alright?"
"Do I look alright-goddamn it-shit..." One of the guards was clutching his shoulder - a piece of metal had impaled him, though it probably looked worse than it was.
"Shit...the entire cellblocks fucked-"

thump

"Hey did you-"

Crrrack

The sound of glass fracturing filled the immediate area as they turned to the window.

"Shit! The Anti-Aggression field's offline! We gotta meet up with the others-" He helped the other guard stand before both of them began bolting for the nearest in-tact exit they could find. As damaged as the ship was - it couldn't be that difficult to find an exit.

Unfortunately, they didn't get very far.

The glass shattered, Deseri stepping through calmly, glass crunching as her feet met the ground on the other side. Curious - she had never seen the other side of the ship before except save for small glimpses through the doors occasionally. They had made sure to temporarily blind her in case she had escaped. Likely thought she wouldn't be able to find her way around the ship, if that was the case.

Fuel reserves at 9%
Anti Aggression-field offline.
Recommended action: Begin conversion of Organic matter into fuel.

"Hmm..." She found a small smile forming on her lips as she observed the guards fleeing, deciding running and regrouping was likely the better option than sticking around. The option that gave them the best chance, according to her calculation...still. She needed fuel, and they were ripe for the taking. The swarm demanded it...and well, she couldn't say no. She bolted after them, a cold, neutral expression plastered on her features as her heavier metal footsteps clanked against the ground as she gave chase. They may have been fast - but it was no question she was faster.

She jumped - lunging at the one in the back, her mouth curling into a sadistic grin as the stake impaled the man right through his back. He crumpled instantly, falling to the ground with her on top of him. She pulled the spike from his back, kneeling on top of him as she took a look around. More fighting was starting to break out - she wouldn't have time to completely convert him into fuel peacefully like this.

In other words, she'd have to find another source that she could easily convert without the chance of getting shot at by another guard.

"Heh, looks like I was right. You are going to die first." Her expression returned to normal as the metal on her arm began to reshape itself into a long, sharp blade. "But first..." She slammed the blade into his right arm - the metal making a precision cut right through his uniform and severing it cleanly. "A little snack for the road, hmm? Maybe if you had been a bit nicer we'd have let you live...but we get a little irritable when we're hungry." Without another word she bolted, taking the severed arm with her.

Fighting wasn't going to do her any good for now. Only burn the limited energy she had to spare, and the swarm and her agreed - flee, get their bearings, and possibly maybe even find 'allies' either among the inmates or guards. Whichever was easiest. Making her way out of the cell block, she was greeted with a jungle - a cursory examination proved that the place was indeed, rife with organic matter that she could convert into fuel.

She made her way some distance into the jungle, enough to still hear the ensuing fight at her cellblock, but far enough away to be out of sight. She held the severed arm in front of her.

Well, wouldn't be the first time since she became like this, and it'd be a shame to let it go to waste.



@Raylah

---

"Urf...feels like the morning after a party..." She groaned, as her senses came back to her. The first thing she noticed as her vision returned, was that she was laying face down in a pool of blood. "Well at least it's not mine..." With the AA field offline, her NLF was working a full capacity again and could give her a fairly good readout on her vitals. Nothing major - just a few scrapes, bruises, and maybe a sprained wrist. She pushed herself up as a loud clanging noise was heard from the hallway. Likely the other prisoners and guards getting friendly with each other.

"Oof, well that was a fun party, yoooou-you're dead." She glanced over to the other side of her cell. Well, what had previously been her cell. It had been shredded, right in half, split right down the middle. The guard that had been in her room just moments before, had his head squished beneath a pile of debris like a grape, the rest of his body hanging limply over the edge to the cell that was below hers. "Well saves me the trouble at least..." She chuckled lightly to herself as she got her bearings.

Right, first thing first she should decide on a course of action. She couldn't keep wearing this same old drab set of clothes, no. First thing first, she was gonna take that guys uniform. Ugh, being confined to just this was annoying. It just wasn't flattering or attractive at all. Now, a uniform on the other hand? Now that was an article of clothing she could get behind. She undressed the dead guard, quickly pulling over the uniform and discarding her old pile of clothes, grabbing the standard issue pistol he had with him. Nothing fancy, but it would at least let her defend herself, to an extent. With any luck she wouldn't be doing that at all. The silver goo around her body shifted, settling to a human with a pale skin tone and amber colored eyes.

No one would think twice about her now, as long as she could play her cards right. She could be quite convincing if she had need of it. As long as she didn't run into any of the more hostile and clearly crazy prisoners.

Finally disguised, Mien bolted from the cell, her NLF giving her a cursory preview of the ships layout and structural integrity, easyily getting into the now defenseless wireless systems. Her first goal was simple - get out of the cell and find some amicable people. Ones she could...coerce to do as she wanted. If not, then find a way off this heap of rocks. At least she didn't draw the attention of the guards currently engaged with the prisoners in the chaos thanks to her uniform.

She climbed from the wreckage, leaving the ship and the other inmates behind. A good thing too, something was roaring in the distance. A shriek that sounded like the wail of the damned echoed through the forest, through the burning metal of the wreckage and the gunshots of the prisoners and guards. Seemed like this jungle might have had a few nasty surprises for them. Quickly though, her footsteps carried her into the jungle and out of immediate danger.

A nice little breather. Enough to catch her breath and gather her thoughts.

Well, if she didn't pick up the sound of a group of people moving nearby. She pressed herself against a tree. Three or four people. Male from the sound of their voices. Prisoners or guards, she couldn't tell from where she was behind the tree. It didn't matter at the moment, really. A few less prisoners or a few less guards to initially worry about would benefit her in the long run. Besides - some of the guards weren't exactly the nicest of people either, from what she knew about some of them. Not that she'd particularly even care if they were.

So steadying her aim, she pulled the stolen pistol and aimed for the targets head.

Six shots rang out as she unloaded a few rounds into the people in front of her, hopefully easily eliminating the targets.

Lars shook his head a little bit as he stood up, almost as if he was trying to literally shake the dust out of his head. Then he heard a voice. As someone who spent much of their time either being shot at, or shooting at people, you picked up some damn good reactions, the stranger finding himself with a pistol pointed at him before Lars had even turned. As the hunter rotated the rest of his body into position, and pulled his gun closer to himself, supporting the recoil. Not that this particular gun had any recoil, but he had fired more pistols that bucked like mules than he did with ones that seemed to treat Newtonian physics as a suggestion than a rule.

He was surprised to be seeing an elderly man standing across from him, but not fooled. Everyone who was on the Alcatraz was going to be dangerous, regardless of what they looked like. Keeping his gun trained, he tapped the side of his helmet, which pulled up to reveal his own mug. The scar that ran from his brow to his jaw, the tattoos on his scalp, the beard... Exactly what you'd expect of a hardened criminal.

"No offence old man, but I'm not seeing the use in sticking with you. I'm sure you've killed people, since you wouldn't have been stuck on the ship otherwise, but..." He eyed the other prisoner up and down. "I'm not sure how much use you would be from a survival standpoint." He had to look out for one person, and that was himself, especially since this was an unknown world on the edge of the galaxy. If he wanted to get off this rock, he couldn't be wasting time and energy, the prisoner switching from his pistol to his rifle in one smooth movement. As he did so, the glove he was wearing beeped online, a faint blue glow emanating from the fingertips.

"And, let's be honest, I'm sure a man like you appreciates the 'look out for number one' mentality."

@The Angry Goat

~Lyra Anderly~

@Rune_Alchemist

Lyra was still hiding, waiting for the group of men to pass by. She was thinking about what to do next. The smartest choice would be to go and find the Alcatraz wreckage. In fact, it was such a good idea, that it will probably occur to any other survivor. Which means that unless Lyra would be very lucky, that area would soon get pretty crowded. And she wasn’t exactly sure if she had ever been lucky in her entire life.

Before she could reach some conclusion, she heard another footsteps. From what Lyra could see from beneath her leafy hideout, which wasn’t very much, it appeared to be someone in a guard uniform. The person passed by Lyra without noticing her and then started shooting, apparently getting rid of the men Lyra heard earlier. Lyra froze in terror. The killing has caught up with her sooner than she expected.

She carefully and quietly crawled closer to the edge of her hideout while thinking ‘What the hell am I doing?’. Apparently the guard was a woman. Lyra was pretty sure she hasn’t seen her before on the ship, still her face seemed strangely familiar. The woman slowly and quietly walked towards the bushes to check if anyone survived. She must not have been completely satisfied with the result, because soon there was a sound of another gunshot coming from her position.

Lyra was shaking nervously. She was considering going out and talking to the woman, but the cold-blooded execution sort of lowered her determination. Then suddenly, she heard another person crawl in the bushes. ‘What the hell is this, fucking New Atlanta station Main Square? This was supposed to be an abandoned planet!’ she thought, trying desperately to suppress a hysterical laugh. ‘Maybe I’m gonna go crazy, and I’ll just stand under this plant forever.’
Cold sweat covered her body when she finally saw the man that was stalking the guardswoman. He definitely didn’t seem like a friendly person. His face was covered in scars, but the most frightening thing about him was his facial expression – if anyone ever looked like a crazy psychopath on a murder streak, it was this guy. Excellent nightmare material.

Lyra bit her lip when she saw he has a gun pointed at the back of the guardswoman, who was still unaware of his presence. ‘Just wait for them to kill each other,’ another voice in her head mentored her. ‘Now that is not a very smart thought. Because they won’t kill each other. This ugly thing will kill that guard and then, given my shear luck, will see me and kills me too.’ She instinctively grabbed her staff tighter. A small flame appeared in the thin air between the tip of her staff and her other hand.

‘Am I really doing this?’ she asked herself, while quietly crawling from beneath the plant. The flame flickered. But the time to think was over. Man must have heard her and turned to her, faster than she would expect. The tiny flame turned into a small ball of fire and flew right into man’s face. ‘Hmm, did I just do that?’ Lyra thought, almost surprised. Man was screaming in pain, his face still burning, when suddenly his forehead exploded, and pieces of his brain splashed on Lyra.

She blinked, absolutely stunned. Man’s body slowly fell to the ground, still burning, and revealed the guardswoman standing right behind him, her gun still in her hand, now pointed at Lyra. ‘Yea, I definitely didn’t think this through,’ she thought. For a moment they just stared at each other. Lyra desperately thinking what to do. She knew she has no chance on casting another spell. Magic was powerful, but bullet to the head was faster.

“Umm… hello?” she said, slowly raising her free hand in a surrendering gesture.

Domhan Pryde//Cellblock Ruins//Gathering the Party

A lot of gadgets for an attuned... Domhan thought as the man put a gun to his head. He was jumping to a bit of a conclusion; but the man had all sorts of little doohickeys, and he couldn't feel any metal in him... though he would have liked to have a touch to be sure. But still, why have that many gadgets but no implants unless you had something else going on? Regardless, the man was jumpy as hell, and Domhan wasn't quite so sure if this was such a good idea now: there was no safe way to walk away from here now that he had the man's attention.

"I'm not sure how much use you would be from a survival standpoint," the man remarked, before making a strange survival decision all on his own; switching over to a big gun against a close range target. Had Domhan wanted to, he could have killed him in the time it took him to pull it out... but then... why didn't he want to kill this asshole? Domhan supposed he might be an asshole, but he also seemed a capable one... And also one ready to fight back.

Domhan smiled at the number one quip - the man was more right than he knew. "Ah, but number one has to sleep eventually. Number one is probably planning to go to the same place that everyone else wants to go to - the ship's wreckage, hm? Does number one really think he can kill all of the prisoners, many as well trained as he thinks he is?" Domhan paused, stretching before passing his hand over part of the entryway, if one could call the large hole an entrance. As he did, the magic scurried down his fingers, and the top layer of metal peeled off and followed his hand. Contemplating the sheet of high grade titanium he had torn off, Domhan wound it around his left hand, creating a metallic fingerless glove that extended up to the middle of his forearm, underneath his jacket. He winked at the bounty hunter. "Some of us have no need for gadgets," he said as he turned around and walked off, making sure to move out of his direct sight line as soon as he was able, just in case the man picked that moment to go off his rails.

(@Irredeemable)

---

Several minutes after escaping the cell.

Nerazi'ra took a deep breath, and focused. He tuned out the sounds of whatever fighting remained, which, to be honest, died out somewhat, as most of the fighters were dead, dying, or looking around for more things to kill. Unluckily enough, a couple of inmates looking for things to kill stumbled upon Nerazi'ra, and took him as an easy target. They were wrong. Already a bit too close for comfort, Nera quickly unsheathed his combat knife, flicked on the electricity switch, and dashed in quickly before they could react properly. At first he threw a test jab at one of the inmates, who flinched, just as Nera predicted. Ducking under their arm, he slashed upwards, catching their arm and sending an electrical shock down their nerves. It was enough to stun them, and he used that opportunity to spin around their back and push his knife into their other side, feeling it slide between two ribs and into the inmates lung. He pulled out the knife with a spurt of blood, and in the same motion, pulled out one of his revolvers and put a round through the inmates friend's eye. Both of the would be assailants dropped at the same time, landing with a almost synced thud. He didn't bother to take whatever they had, it's not like they had anything that'd be of any use to him.

He sat down in the midst of the dead bodies and rubble, then took in a deep breath. Again, he reached out into the environment, looking for voices or any other threats. He picked up some distant voices, people yelling at each other, screams of the wounded. The crash brought out the worst of the inmates, and they were making it apparent with their infighting. Regardless, none of them were close enough to pose any relevance of a threat. Instead, he moved inwards, and picked up two new voices. As silent as a ghost, he stood, and drew both of his revolvers while making his way towards the two distinctly different voices.

"...-f us have no need for gadgets,"

He heard the last part of their conversation clearly, and more or less, the last part spurred him on to see exactly who was talking, and whether or not he'd have to deal lead. In a swift movement, he stepped out into visibility in front of Domhan, almost emerging from the shadows, and nodded his head towards the two men, each of his revolver's already trained on each man's head.

"Howdy, partners. Seems you're in a bit of a tight spot."

He would be smiling if he could. He always loved using that line.

(@The Angry Goat @Irredeemable)

@Raylah

---

The men went down easily. A single shot to their heads - a perfect execution. Her training easily showing. Of course, a few extra shots. Double-tapping was just standard and safe practice. She walked over to where they fell, checking the dead bodies to discover who exactly they were - prisoners or guards. She'd need a good cover story in case someone got curious. Before she could get a good look though - there was the sound of footsteps behind her. Someone she had missed? Before she could turn there was the sound of crackling fire, and a yell of pain and the sound of something fleshy going splattering.

Immediately she turned, pointing her gun at whoever it was behind her, a little surprised to find a prisoner who was giving her a nervous 'hello'. Mieneve narrowed her eyes at her for a few moments. She seemed familiar...but she brushed that aside. Nothing to worry about now. Probably just a face she saw in the prison occasionally. That said - she seemed friendly enough. Perhaps someone she could manipulate, just a tiny bit.

"Aha...jeez, sneaking up on someone is generally a bad idea." She chuckled lightly, lowering her gun she gave the Tulak girl a friendly smile. "Uh, thanks for having my back? I must be getting rusty, having been regulated to being a desk jockey..." She shook her head. "Weeelll, since you saved by cute butt then I guess I can trust you for now. Save introductions for later? We should find someplace safe to hole up and decide what to do next." She looked over to the smoldering wreckage of the ship. "...that place is going to be a graveyard soon."

~Lyra Anderly~

@Rune_Alchemist

Lyra was relieved that the woman decided not to kill her. Still there was a quiet voice in the back of her head, nagging her. ‘She is just waiting for you to turn around to kill you safely. Are you seriously that crazy that you would trust her?’ There was a point to it – why would a guard ally themselves so easily with a prisoner? From what Lyra knew, the guards on the Alcatraz weren’t exactly angels, only the toughest got sent there. It seemed to be almost as much punishment for them as it was for the inmates.

But then again, Lyra was hardly in a position where she could be picky about potential allies. And she also agreed that they should find some safer place before anyone else shows up. “Allright,” she nodded, trying to sound bold and decisive. “We should move,” she said, gesturing into the jungle with her staff.

The looked at each other for a moment, none of them wanting to go first and have the other one behind her back. Then Lyra laughed. ‘What do I have to lose? My wonderful life?’ she thought ironically and headed for the jungle. Cold shivers ran down her spine when she heard the other woman follow her. Despite her thoughts, she didn’t actually want to die.

The animals were scared out of the area by the cellblock impact, but now they were slowly returning. The jungle was filled with strange sounds; Lyra gave a lurch every time she heard some loud unexpected noise. She was holding her staff up, ready to throw a flame at anything that would seem like a threat.

Blood. A constant thought that ran through her mind. What else accompanied that thought though... that was always a mystery to most. Well, they decided to keep it a mystery after a fellow inmate asked her the simple question of 'What's up?' Wanting to initiate a possible romantic bond with the psychotic woman. Unfortunately for him, he had not been warned of Pandora well when moved to the cell block the day prior. If he had been, he would have known that such a simple question would result in his mind being scarred for life. That's what happens when you put simple war criminals on a ship with someone like Pandora. Even the guards know to keep away from her.

Her history and psychotic tendencies even with the anti-aggression field were made quite clear to the prisoners of the cell block she was in from day one. Pandora never hurt another person, not physically at least... she only enjoyed playing with her own blood. Causing herself pain then watching herself bleed before healing the wound and starting all over again. The red-head also enjoyed telling people all about her babies, or as other people knew them as... her victims. She used to have pictures of her babies but those were confiscated when she happily hit a guard in the face with them to get his attention back on her little ones.

Due to everything known about her and about how dangerous she was, especially with how psychotic she was seen to be with the anti-aggression field on, it was no surprise that as soon as the field was switched off that she was targeted by a good portion of the people within her cell block. There were quite a few exceptions who went into their personal cells and prepared for the inevitable crash. Little did the people know they made a horrid mistake targeting Pandora as soon as the anti-aggression field went down.

For Pandora, it was like a switch flipped in her mind. At first, she was looking at imposing dangerous people approaching her whom she had no desire to attack. All she wanted to do was see her own blood. But within milliseconds the people became toys, toys that if she cut them just right would spill her favorite thing in the world, warm crimson blood. She wanted to hear screams of pain, see blood splattered everywhere and feel the sensation of ripping flesh open with her hands.

A laugh began to escape her lips, starting softly as she looked down at the ground before raising her hands to be in her line of view. The laughing grew louder and wilder causing the people moving towards her to stop, watching on in horror as the girl ripped chunks of flesh from the backs of both her hands. Her blood began to move as if it were about to drip off her hand but before it could the blood hardened on the back of both her hands into curved blades. Pandora lifted her head up and looked at the others in her cell block, a sadistic smile etched on her face with blood dripping from her mouth. A giggle escaped her lips as she looked at all of them, "You can all be my new babies!" She happily exclaimed before charging into the group of people.

They all fought back to their best ability but no one got in a killing blow or shot, so when Pandora collected more blood from her own wounds and from the bodies of the people she killed, it only made her stronger. When all the screaming finally came to an end Pandora could be seen in the middle covered in blood, whether her own or everyone else's or a mix of both, no one could be quite sure. It wasn't long after she won that the cell block finally crashed into the planet that had pulled it into orbit. Her body barely having time to react and harden the blood on her skin to make the damage from the impact less brutal.

---

Time had passed, how much? Pandora wasn't quite sure not did she actually care. All she cared about right now was playing ball with the heads of the people she killed. She could hear something going on outside of the cell block but she consciously was too focused on playing with the current head she had. It wasn't until she made a bat out of blood and hit the head out a hole within the cell block that she finally ventured out. "Wait for me Mr. Ball!" She called out, running out the hole and after the ball, completely oblivious to the robot girl eating the metal not too far away from where she ran out to retrieve her 'ball'.

---

Felix regarded the doctor with a nod. He recognized her voice immediately.

"Frankly, there's only one plan that makes sense. That massive hulk of a ship over there?" Felix said with the slightest hint of sarcasm. "That right there is where everyone else is going to go. Unfortunately, it's also where we need to be. I don't know if you've seen what's out here, but from what I've seen...let's just say a prisoner lopping our heads off would be merciful."

Felix sighed. While he'd have preferred a more combat-ready ally, Lea wasn't worthless. Even if her life magic would have no effect on his prosthetics, she knew every prisoner on board and had at least some rapport with most of them and the crew. He'd have to get over the fact that he would have someone else to protect when things hit the fan though.

"That comment about the food was serious though, just estimating the distance...This is going to take a few days just to hike there." Felix said, glad that he managed to keep his lunch in the crash.

@Polaris North

Domhan Pryde//Cellblock Ruins//Gathering the Party

"Howdy, partners. Seems you're in a bit of a tight spot."

Great, so this bugman was either an idiot or insane. And considering the ship they were just on, it probably wasn't the former. On the bright side, he was a bugman, so he was almost certainly enhanced. Getting close enough to touch him if he decided to just shoot right now would not be an achievable task, however, so best to take no aggressive action as of yet. On the bright side, the cowbug seemed to be more friendly than "number one" as of just yet. and relatively skillful considering he managed to move up on them unheard...perhaps there is something to be made here...

"And you're not, cowbug? You're stuck on this planet too," he observed, straight-faced and sardonic. He raised his eyes upwards, as if thinking, and curled his arms behind his back. "There is little to be gained with the pointing of guns, and much if we choose to trust and protect each other." He re-locked eye contact with the bugman; "Especially given the character of some passengers aboard this ship. I am interested in journeying to the ship's wreckage. Our best chance for survival lies there, I think - unless you are convinced otherwise?"

(@Sgt Vandingo,@Irredeemable)