Failed to initiate quarantine procedures: insufficient power. Error code: 796.

The aggravated man of science scoffed at the error given on the terminal. "Do behave yourself, won't you Maji? I'm going to borrow from you for a bit," he said as he typed furiously. At the mention of the Sapishte, Barz cocked his head to the side, cracking his neck.

"Would you stop calling that thing by a name, as if it were one of us?" he growled. "If you let that creature out, I'mma shoot it on sight."

"I'm not. I'm diverting power from the SS-GEN suppressor. With all this noise, she won't notice, even if she had a sudden change of heart and wanted to escape."

Barz scoffed at the reply. "You lab rats. Noses against the glass, studying that thing day and night. Feeding it, teaching it new tricks. You ever think that maybe you're the ones being studied? Your boss can drawl on and on about 'conditioning' and 'training' all she likes. An animal doesn't want to be kept in a cage and fed, it wants to roam free and hunt. It may act cute and timid now, but if I picked you up and tossed you at it like a T-bone steak, how long do you think it'd hesitate?"

"Your opinion as a hunter will be taken under advisement," the scientist replied, disinterested, as he confirmed the diverting of power.

Barz shook his head as the vents overhead began loudly closing. "Glonelia shoulda been left to rot. The hookers are bad enough, clinging to every other race's politicians and gaining unearned influence for theirs—but the savages from the bayous are real animals, and that one's a savage among savages. It's already proven it can play the long con: saw a chance to gain power, and stole it. That's the story, innit?"

"The 'official' story is a crock of shit," came another reply, this one more annoyed. "The company had both legal and financial motivation to call it a theft, knew she was vulnerable due to her lack of family ties, and had the leverage to silence the only witness."

"Ah, that explains the mental gymnastics. You still think of that thing as a coworker."

"Why not? She's just as invested in this research as I am. We trust each other. She'll wait for me."

"All I'm saying is, you're the one who took the shock collar off. When it stops playing coquette, it's your ass."

---

A shadowy figure emerged out of the door from which the earlier shriek came. Pitch black from head to toe, and quite indistinct, aside from the distinctly feminine features, sharply pronounced by the profile view generously offered by the hallway. For a moment, in the low light, one could have imagined that the Sapishte was merely a "shadow person," conjured by the imagination driven mad by the crisis at hand.

But she turned, smelling fresh blood in the air, towards the Tulak in the tattered shirt. She showed a gentle-looking face, with eyes wide open, staring transfixed like a fawn in headlights, paying no mind to the other prisoner creeping up behind her back. Innocent and naive; the perfect victim, or so her would-be stalker had sized her up to be. He was wrong. Without so much as turning to face him, the Sapishte gave the man a strong mule kick to the face, complete with hoof. Apparently deciding not to trust the Tulak she'd been staring blankly at for what felt like half a minute, she took off on all fours, with webbed hands and feet, crawling along the walls, her face now completely covered in black aside from her eyes.

"Yo, fuck that shit, man! What the fuck is that?!" one bug-eyed prisoner screamed, running back into his cell and slamming the door.

First, she tried the vents. Of course, those were shut tight—airtight, to be precise, though Maji couldn't guess why. Next, she tried the elevator. She could manually force the doors open, but the controls wouldn't respond. However, the maintenance hatch on the roof was easy enough for her to reach, and the lack of ladders outside was not a problem. Finally, after one long, very slimy slide to the bottom of the elevator shaft, she found what she was looking for: some kind of tunnel. The last time she'd taken this elevator, she'd noticed that it appeared as though a couple of buttons had been removed from the elevator panel. Back then, it had only maddened her with curiosity and the desire to explore for a couple of days, before she'd forgotten about it entirely. Now, it was suddenly critical information.

Hands glued to the rails of the catwalk, she creeped slowly and cautiously down the tunnel, built for unknown purpose, with no particular purpose in mind other than to get as far away from the cacophony of suffering and death behind her as possible. She soon discovered something that would terrify any woman: rats. A cat-like tongue flicked out of her mouth in the blink of an eye, licking up a drop of saliva.

...Meat.

One unthinkable and desperate act later, Maji was happily waddling along, disguised as a big black rat—one of many, deep in the bowels of the ship. Even if someone came looking for her—if they even knew where to look—their clear inability to control a rat problem on a spaceship made Maji feel pretty safe right about now. She was acting pretty carefree, until she heard something like panicked voices in the distance. At first, her peace of mind disturbed, she made herself at home among a pack of rats fleeing the scene, but then a scent caught her nose. Another Sapishte? Oh! A female one, too! Suddenly, she came to her senses. Was she just going to spend the rest of her life living as a rat?! NO!! Of course, they were going to be best friends—one of them just didn't know it yet.

As she drew close to what looked like an abandoned tram station, she began to be able to make out the voices. She was reminded, painfully, that she couldn't understand what they were saying. She considered turning around, but her curiosity drew her in. Sneaking quietly aboard the tram and darting underneath a bench, she observed the group cautiously. They seemed to be fleeing whatever crisis was going on, and they seemed to know where they were going. As if that weren't good enough, one of them seemed to be good with technology. With any luck, he'd know how to find Lea. Maybe even open doors without breaking them. The possibilities were endless!

It was quite the interesting little group they had gathered. Yvene did not have much time to evaluate her now sudden companions before they needed to move. Leaving was of course the most pressing issue, but she wasn’t exactly sure about the others. Two other Tulaks and a human seemingly. Oh well. There was no time to think more on the matter, they needed to move. As the male Tulak rather eloquently pointed out before knocking another inmate flat on their ass, everyone here was a prime target. Rage is an emotion that spares none and mixed with confusion is even more dangerous.

Grateful she was even moving and not being left to just die alone and pathetically in her cell, she swiftly followed the mechanic into the side door he had pointed out. As she stepped in she glimpsed over at the Sentries who were advancing quickly. Every gun shot made her jump just a tad, knowing well and true that could have been her on the other end. Letting out small muttering of swears and prayers only those really close to her could have heard, she dipped further into the maintenance tunnels.

“Thankfully, even among the engineers I’m one of the only people that knows how to navigate this maze without a map. Even if we’re followed they shouldn’t be able to catch up too easily.” The mechanic remarked. Yvene let out a sigh of relief. She was silently worried they were just going in circles.

“Well I am glad you know where we are because I haven’t the faintest of clues. My sense of direction is horrid.” She said, careful to make sure she stayed close enough with the group. Occasionally she would brush against an exposed pipe that was hot, causing her to bite her lip so she wouldn’t complain about the pain. Eventually they had made it an old hatch that the mechanic busted down so they could get through. Stepping out of the tunnels she sighed, taking a look around. Though there wasn’t much to see until suddenly someone flicked on the lights. Before her lay a dilapidated looking tram. Clearly it had not been used in a very, very long time. While the mechanic moved to go fix the tram, Yvene wandered slowly around the platform trying to collect her thoughts. A tiny rat scampered up to her and immediately darted away upon realizing she did not have, nor was food. Chuckling a bit she watched them run around. Rats never scared her, she shared homes with them for most of her childhood. Sides, it was nice to see life other than them. Finally someone spoke up, drawing her attention back to the others.

As Felix introduced herself, she gave a tiny smile. “I'm Yvene. I’ve been imprisoned here for reasons too.” She shrugged, not really wanting to get super friendly with these people. Not yet anyways, who knows what was going to go down.

“It’s nice to meet you..and you.” She said, turning to each of the two Tulaks, extending her hands to both as a sign of grace and politeness. She’d try to be at least a little civil.

She then jumped a little as she heard the tram whirr back to life and the old mechanical voice spokeout. "De-de-de-stination set: Medical....Ple-e-ease keep all ha-nds o....the tram will be departing the sta... mome-me-me-ntarily."

“Oh gods that is horribly creepy.” She said mindlessly, not fully realizing she stated that aloud until a moment later. Oh well. It was true, she was worried that it would even take them five meters before exploding or something ridiculous like that. She hesitated before looking back at the others, clearly not wanting to get on first.

Keeping an eye on their back as they finished deciding what to do, it wasn’t long before Typhon heard a loud blast as the Draughts finally made their move on this cell block. Thankfully his new engineer friend had a plan as he led the group into a veritable maze of tunnels that apparently not even the Draughts could reliably navigate. But Felix’s confidence made him even more comfortable with his decision to follow this man and he felt a lot better about their chances. “Well at least I know you aren’t leading us into a dead end then.”

He kept looking back while keeping up with the others, making sure none of their pursuers managed to keep up with them but hopefully they were all being kept busy by rioting prisoners. The plan was an absolute success it seemed. And to top it all off it seemed like the other prisoners were some of the more reasonable ones he had met, at least from what he could tell at a glance. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to deal with any backstabbers at this rate but he never ruled out the possibility.

After closely following the group to avoid getting lost they had eventually made it to a hatch that Felix busted open and led them all into. It was nearly pitch black, if only he had his attunement’s full power he could light this place up in an instant… As he lamented over the fact that being on this ship made him annoyingly weaker, someone managed to flip the lights on making it significantly easier for his eyes to adjust. And what he saw did not make him feel any better. A rusty and dilapidated tram station. “Are we sure this hunk of junk even works anymore?” He muttered mostly to himself as he inspected the area around him. This place hadn’t been touched in so long that they managed to get a rat problem out in the middle of space. He was almost impressed by that. Thankfully the engineer started getting to work on trying to get the place up and running and introduced himself as Felix.

The Saphiste went next, her name was Yvene apparently. He shook her extended hand slightly cautiously. Looked like neither of these two were too ecstatic to reveal what got them to end up on this hell hole of a ship. Not that he blamed them, this place was for some of the worst criminals in the galaxy. Not that he had that same level of caution though when he went to introduce himself though.

“Typhon Leverenz, greatest assassin to come from Vai’Ralu.” He said with a confident smirk. He may have been playing his cards a bit too soon but he felt it was better to get his profession out of the way early than let them find out and judge him later for keeping it hidden. And hopefully his last name wouldn’t earn him any problems with the other Tulak present if she happened to have a distaste for some of the noble families back home. Not that he’d be too bothered but infighting would be annoying.

He flinched a bit as the intercom message played out, hoping nothing was close by enough for it to give away their position. “Well that’s fucking lovely…” He said sarcastically. Yvene was right, that intercom was extremely creepy. It felt like something you’d hear in some horror movie, like some scary alien monster was ready to descend upon them or something. He chuckled a bit as he tried to push the ridiculous thoughts out of his mind. As soon as Felix managed to get the tram open and working he’d be one of the first ones on. Better to get crushed by this thing than die by the Draughts after all.

@Heckno12@Strawberry@TheDemonHound

As Ziola ran alongside the others, gunshots rang from the cell block, interspersed with cries of agony. Her jaw clenched. Something she knew all too well from her former career, and had been forced to accept, was you couldn't save everyone. Best to focus on what still could be done, and the people who had a chance.

The engineer's claim that he knew the labyrinth of tunnels reassured her somewhat. She still wasn't entirely sure she trusted the guy - what if he was just trying to save himself, and would ditch everyone else once he no longer needed their help? For now, though, she'd give him the benefit of the doubt. He had just pulled a risky move, even if there wasn't exactly anything to lose. Staying close by him as he kicked open the hatch, she jumped inside.

The place was pitch black, the only clues to its environment being squeaks and scampering noises. As she channeled her magic to her eyes, the run-down surroundings faded in through the shadows. Dust everywhere, rats skittering past - this place clearly hadn't been used in the longest time. She searched the rusted walls for a switch, but the engineer was already on it, dim lights flickering on. Lessening the sight enhancement slightly, Ziola followed him and the others to the decrepit chunk of metal that could generously be described as a tram.

She pulled back from the sudden glare as error messages flashed across its screen. Blinking away afterimages and letting her eyesight return to normal, she watched with trepidation. Well that's promising, she thought, but didn't voice her fears. The engineer had set about attempting to fix the wiring, and she wasn't going to distract or demoralise him. He was the one, however, who struck up a conversation, introducing himself as Felix.

The Sapishte woman, Yvene, replied first. As she held her hands out to both her and the other Tulak, Ziola hesitated before returning the handshake. Reasons. They all had their reasons, their dirty secrets. Even in a situation like this, it was probably best not to get too close to anyone.

Next up was the white-haired, one-horned man, Typhon Leverenz. Ziola stiffened at the mention of his last name, that of a well-known noble family on Vai'Ralu. Prisoners aboard the Alcatraz were far from the only ones with dirty secrets, and Ziola knew exactly what kind of corruption society's upper echelons kept hidden from the public. That and the way he'd so readily admitted to being an assassin... Ziola doubted she had a right to judge. She was, after all, a murderer herself. Still, his revelation didn't fill her with confidence. Inching away from him, she glanced around at the others, and took a deep breath before giving her own introduction.

"My name's Ziola." She didn't give her last name, but if Typhon connected her to that high-profile case just from her first, awkward questions would abound. "Again... reasons."

Before anyone could respond, a garbled voice sounded from the intercom, making her jump along with Yvene. "De-de-de-stination set: Medical....Ple-e-ease keep all ha-nds o....the tram will be departing the sta... mome-me-me-ntarily."

Ziola let out a small sigh of relief. "To think a message like that is actually a good sign." It said a lot about their current situation, but even if the worst happened, better to die here than at the hands of the Draughts.

Felix listened to everyone's introductions while he worked. Naturally the only one that actually revealed why they were here was an assassin. Not the quiet kind either, so either he was really good or terrible at his former profession. After crossing a few more wires and causing another shower of sparks, a countdown began to show on the screen as the tram's doors opened. "Aha, success...Probably. I'd recommend boarding now, don't think I can delay or stop the timer." Felix said as he boarded the vehicle cautiously.

The onboard lights flickered, revealing the terrible state of the interior was just as bad as the exterior. He didn't even want to consider what some of those stains might be. Regardless, in a matter of moments they'd hopefully be on their way to the medical bay to get some answers.

Of course, that was assuming the tram didn't just fling them into the side of the tunnel at full size and turn them into pancakes. After a few moments the tram got moving. It wasn't exactly a smooth ride, but at least it wasn't blasting forward dangerously. It was a bit stuttery, which of course made everyone less than comfortable. It even came to a complete and sudden stop a few times before continuing forward.

Worse still, Felix thought he'd seen a few humanoid shapes in the dark shuffling aimlessly until the tram moved by. A bit concerning, his biometric scanners didn't register any of the shapes...which shouldn't be possible. Maybe they were androids? But then why was that last one hunched over and seemingly eating? He chose not to mention it to anybody and chalk it up to a his eyes being on the fritz or something. Surely these were just some prisoners that had made their way in here and subsisted off of the rats. Not exactly a great thing to imagine, but they weren't a threat in this situation.

Felix shook himself and brought his focus back to the tram's operation. Of course, in theory it should stop once it reaches its programmed destination...but that just seemed too convenient. "N-now-now-now approaching Stat-stat-station-: Medical Bay-bay-bay. Please keep all ha-ha-ha-hands inside..." Static overtook the message, causing Felix to turn to the others with limited but palpable confidence. "Looks like it all worked ou-" Felix was cut off by the message blasting out back at full volume. "Br-br-br-ace f-f-or BRA-A-A-A-braking." Of course, because of the stutter, the Tram had already slammed on the brakes and flung Felix unceremoniously into the front window.

Thankfully he was uninjured and the window unshattered despite a few new cracks, but he still cursed the machine. Obviously he should have been holding onto something anyway, but he'd never expected the brakes to work so well. Admittedly he was more frustrated with himself for expecting a little more warning from the dilapidated machine, but they'd reached their destination. He picked himself up off the floor with a grunt as the group waited for the door to slide open.

As the tram clumsily slammed the brakes, bodies tumbled in various directions, and one came sliding from underneath a bench.

One, two, three, four...

Before anyone could fully process that their numbers had increased by one, and that the one coated in a black, tar-looking substance was not a corpse, Number Five suddenly unfurled into a catlike creature, filling the tram with more gurgling shrieks of alarm as it leapt through a broken window, morphed into something more humanoid, and quietly skittered up a nearby column and into the mess of pipes, vents and cables above. It let out one more, quieter gurgling noise, a mewling sound that seemed almost apologetic as it disappeared from sight.

---

Well, that went horribly wrong. Maji had hoped that someone, by chance, would have noticed the cute girl sleeping under a bench and said something. That certainly would've made introductions much easier than if someone had seen her in rat form, or if she had tapped someone's shoe to try to get their attention. Maji wasn't sure why she hadn't been worried about how trigger happy those two boys might be, until she was already under the bench. Maybe the thought of meeting one of her own kind had made her go a bit silly in the head. Perhaps she'd even imagined, just for a moment, that she might be a familiar face, even though the scent wasn't familiar at all.

But then, as she was scampering through the vents, she was hit with a familiar scent.

...It's Lea! Or at least, it's the medbay, which also smells like Lea!

Emboldened by the prospect of company, food, medical supplies, and at least the illusion of safety, Maji picked up the pace, and made perhaps a little too much noise as she crawled through the ceiling of the room where Lea was. Moving from the ceiling vent down to the wall vent behind a nearby desk, a pair of hoofed feet kicked the vent cover open, then meshed together and morphed into the head of a girl with long, bluish-black hair and pointed ears. Curious eyes darted here and there, peeping around the corner of the vent, then over the top of the desk, until she found who she was looking for. Eyes lit up, and Lea was met with a toothy grin.

"Ah-ohh~♪" the Sapishte greeted cheerfully with a burbling chirp.

It was highly unusual to see Maji without her escort: the mysterious lab man who had no official name, and went only by the pseudonym "Dr. Dirk," at least when speaking to Lea. He was a weird one who didn't speak much aside from strictly business, and when he did, it was usually to Maji, in some strange language only she could understand. When Lea asked Maji a question, Dirk would have to translate, and Maji was not allowed to ask Lea questions in return. It was difficult to learn much about her, other than that she seemed friendly, despite being "officially" a dangerous creature—formerly a dangerous criminal. It was hard to believe, given that she'd never shown any hostility, and would often smile at people, seemingly for no reason at all.

I wonder if she knows that I'm a 'cat burglar?' Maji thought.

Speaking of which, there was that smile. "Nnheehee~" she giggled. But despite how happy she was to see Lea, her gelatinous coat was covered in all kinds of grime and filth, and even a few stray bits of broken glass. Her unexpected arrival was seemingly only yet another element of chaos resulting from whatever was going on in the cell blocks.

---

As the minutes passed by, Lea had a lot of thoughts raging in her head. Most of it was worry about Felix and his companions. If they ever met the Draught Sentinels, she wasn't sure if they would make it through. They were brutally effective in their actions and if they were sent to exterminate everyone who was involved in the breakout, they would do it with extreme prejudice. They had no conscience to hold them back, after all. Lea had never spoken with one— against their directive or something like that— but whenever she saw them, Lea wondered if under all that armor they were still human underneath.

They were. THat's what made it terrifying.

On the other hand, they could have taken the tram. The same tram that was in disuse for a while. It worked, barely, but Lea hadn't seen it run in so long. Some of the younger medical staff used to joke about riding it every now and then to try it out but were dissuaded from ever doing so of the fear of getting stuck in it. What if the tram had broken down? If they try to contact someone to help them get out, it wouldn't end well considering he's in a tram full of prisoners. Then again, Felix was one of their engineers and surely he wouldn't have entered if it was that dysfunctional... right?

Overthinking had never been a trait associated with herself. It was more of something her brother did. This is exactly why she had never wanted the head position of her company. You had to worry about everything. But it wasn't like she could reject the offer to become the head doctor of Alcatraz— not when it came from, technically, her boss.

Something rumbled inside the vents— skittering around. Rats? It sounded so heavy. It was then that the vent behind her was kicked out and the sound made her spin around, one hand on her gun as she frantically tried to make sense of what was happening. Her eyes landed upon a very familiar form.

"... Maji? What are you doing here?" Was the first thing that came out of her mouth. She was well aware that the Saphiste couldn't communicate with her. Dr. Dirk made sure of that. Lea didn't have authority over him aside from making sure that his patient didn't keel over and die because of a lack of stimulation. Lea visibly relaxed as she fully turned her chair to look at her, leaning forward and propping her elbows on top of her legs. "Dr. Dirk? He's not with you?" Evidently not. He doubted that man would crawl through the vents with as much skill as Maji did. Was she one of the prisoners that Felix let out? Unless the odd doctor opened the doors himself, Lea couldn't think of any other explanation.

It was then that she really took in the Saphiste's appearance. Oh dear, it looked like she had gone through a lot to get there. She gestured for Maji to fully come out of the vent and sit down on one of the chairs as she stood up herself to fetch some equipment to clean her with. "Wait right there. I'll clean you up in a bit."

@Heckno12@Emeth

Swallowing down apprehension, Ziola hurried aboard the tram. Boarding this thing could well be suicide, but if they all stayed behind, their chances would be no better. Since there was no telling how fast it would go, she grabbed hold of a rail, bracing herself as she watched the countdown. Three. Two. One.

The tram juddered forward, instead of hurtling at full speed as she'd feared. Of course, now there was a new danger to worry about - every so often, the machine stopped altogether. What if it didn't start up again? Keeping her breathing steady despite the smell of rust, Ziola remained as outwardly calm as she could, although her fist clenched around the rail so tightly her knuckles turned white.

To her relief, after what felt like a much longer time than it likely was, a stuttering, static-filled message played out. They'd reached the medical bay after all. Not that the arrival was any smoother than the journey had been. The brakes slammed on at once, pitching everyone forward. Still clinging to the pole, Ziola stumbled a few steps, grunting as her shoulder seared. In front of her, Felix went flying into the front window hard enough to crack the glass.

"Felix!" She let go and rushed over to him, rolling her shoulder, which ached but didn't feel badly damaged. "Are you alright?" Her eyes flicked around the new, albeit lesser, chaos as people picked themselves up. "Is everyone alr-" She fell silent, staring as a large feline form scampered through the tram. Piercing the quiet with its shrieks, it leapt out of a broken window and... distorted itself? Before Ziola could get a good look at its limbs stretching like putty, the creature had vanished.

"Huh." She blinked a few times. While it was plausible that a cat could have snuck in before launch and lived on a diet of rat, the shifting was a tad bit harder to explain, other than by the possibility she could be hallucinating. Solitary confinement and a sudden life-or-death situation weren't the healthiest combination for the mind. "Did anyone else see that cat? Please tell me I wasn't the only one."

After his introduction Typhon kept an eye on the others. With none of them admitting much about themselves he had plenty of unknowns to contend with. While he didn’t expect much reaction to his profession given everyone here had most likely done something equally bad, he did wait to see if anyone reacted to his name. And sure enough, the other Tulak, Ziola, picked up on it. At least she decided not to be confrontational about it but he would still have to keep an eye on her, no clue who his parents had scorned. She didn’t give her last name either so that she wasn’t anyone important back home or she had something she wanted to keep hidden.

But shortly after introductions had concluded the tram was finally up and running, after a shower of sparks that he almost thought broke the horrible machine before it started. He certainly wasn’t a fan of entrusting his life to this scrap heap that was formerly a vehicle but it wasn’t like he had much choice in the end. So he quickly boarded with the others before they went on their way. Surprisingly though it worked better than he had anticipated. Sure the thing was stuttery and definitely wasn’t in perfect condition. And sure he’s had smoother rides while hiding in a cargo truck to slip past security on some of his missions, but at least it worked!

He leaned against the wall of the tram while watching the others. He certainly didn’t trust the others enough to let his guard down. At least he had the advantage in terms of weapon variety, and hopefully in experience, should any of them try anything. He did notice their impromptu conductor had his eye on something for a part of the ride there before focusing on making sure nothing happened to the tram. It was far too dark for him to see anything but it still made him curious what Felix could have been seeing…

While occupied with his thoughts he was distracted by the intercom warning them of their arrival. He let out a sigh of relief, just thankful they weren’t crushed by a giant, rusted machine. At least until the brakes were slammed on with very little warning. He grabbed a nearby pole and held tightly, managing to at least not fall on his ass. He did get to see Felix slam straight into the front windshield however. Thankfully it held up or they’d have a whole different problem on their hands. But there was also a… strange figure was the only way to describe it, that slid out from under the seats. It unfurled into a feline form and hopped out the window before transforming again. He knew there had to be some ridiculous shit on this ship but what even was that. He was too stunned to even shoot at the creature before it could escape.

As soon as the door to the tram slid open he rushed out with his weapon raised, checking all around him to see where the creature went. After clearing the area and seeing that nothing was there he signaled to the others that it was safe at least for now. He realized that they might not understand the hand sign so he lowered his weapon and told them cautiously, “looks like we’re all good. I don’t see it anywhere.” Granted the darkness didn’t help, especially when the creature was all black, but it was much better to get out of here and get somewhere safe.

Not wanting to risk taking any kind of maintenance tunnels again or trying vents or something with that thing running around, he decided he’d try the door. The door that was welded shut, just like in the previous tram station. While it was mildly annoying it wasn’t anything he couldn’t deal with. Unfortunately with no protective gear of any kind he had to squint and turn away to keep his eyes safe as he used both hands to hold his plasma rifle steady as he got to work. Thankfully he wasn’t really wasting ammo but he still hated using one of his prized weapons for such unceremonious work as trying to get a door opened. It took him a few minutes but eventually he was able to melt through the door enough to get the damned thing open. He sighed and wiped the sweat from his forehead, swapping out one plasma rifle with the other to let it recharge. “Lead the way Felix.”

Felix nodded at Typhon before stepping through into the medical bay. He gestured for the assassin to keep his weapon down, they were going into a civilian area after all. If he'd had his tools handy they'd have been able to get through the door a bit more safely, but this had worked out just fine. Even so, it was a relief to get off of that death trap and exit the tunnels. Something hadn't been sitting right with him since he saw those 'people' further back. Had those really just been prisoners that managed to escape into the tunnels?

Felix also hadn't seen the 'cat' that had startled some of the others, but he'd been busy picking himself out of the window at that point. "We should be pretty safe from here on assuming that 'cat' you saw wasn't something dangerous. Regardless, I doubt the sentries have any idea where we've gone." Naturally Felix again failed to mention the people he'd seen in the tunnel, but they'd been a fair distance away so it probably wasn't relevant. Maybe they should re-seal the door? Nah, no time. Every minute they wasted was another chance for something else to go wrong.

Felix noted the fact that the med bay still looked perfectly normal despite the chaos going on. The staffing was quite a bit lighter than he'd remembered, but at least everything seemed up to code. The remaining medical staff rushed from one area to another, likely nursing a few unlucky prisoner's stab wounds or a guard that'd gotten too close to the bars. On a ship this size incidents were all but inevitable for the less cautious. He kept his ears open for any coughs, a sound that while practically associated with the sick bay, had much heavier implications given everything they'd seen.

He guided the small group to the doctor's office to see...he wasn't exactly certain, but it kind of freaked him out. He put his hand on his holstered pistol but didn't draw it. Whatever this thing was seemed friendly for the moment, and the doctor seemed to be grabbing something for it. "Doctor?" He asked gesturing inquisitively towards the 'cat' person, still prepared to take action if necessary but trusting Lea's judgement.

At minimum, it seemed, this creature wasn't involved with the trouble they were currently in. That was reason enough for Felix to lax his grip slightly. "Think we found your 'cat' Ziola." He said, still keeping his eyes locked on whatever the shapeshifter was. He wondered if this was one of the experiments the onboard scientists had been so obsessed with, not that he really understood the point of study on an isolated ship in deep space. He assumed something similar was the cause of whatever 'plague' the Sentries had been purging so efficiently.

Admittedly, Yvene was having a bit of an out of body experience. Boarding the tram triggered a bit of an internal panicked reaction. In no way was she ready to face death, she may have resigned herself to the fate of the ship yes. However, that was many many years of living alone in solitude. No chance, well. Other than the ship going down but truthfully it would still float..whatever. No chance of being hurled at high speeds into a metal wall. She fell silent, shuffling onto the tram and grabbing onto a nearby pole to steady herself. She hoped that on the outside she felt and looked composed, just silent was all. Yvene was clutching that pole with all her might though, hoping it might mitigate some of the damage if they do happen to go flying.

Of course, the tram had to come to a screeching halt and she barely had any time to say a word or think before she saw Felix go flying into the windshield. Her lips were sealed shut, not saying a word or uttering a condolence. She was too terrified to really help him much. Her attention then whipped over to catch a brief glimpse of something bolting off the tram, though she could not catch exactly what it was. Sighing, she turned back to see the others already regrouping. Felix was fine and Typhon was seemingly scooping out the entrance way. After giving a clear signal, Yvene ran off the tram as quickly as possible, taking a quick look around. Yvene barely went to the med bay, not too keen on doctors or talking with anyone. There weren't too many ways to hurt yourself in a prison cell unless you were trying too. She had no intention of making a fuss or creating the need to speak with other people.

Tuning back into the conversation around her, she heard Ziola mentioning a cat. Was that the blob she had seen earlier? It was hard to get a look between the dissociation and the dark tram. Hopefully it was harmless, maybe it just needed to hitch a ride. That or possibly it was hanging out on the tram and they disturbed its resting spot. Something else that really ate at her mind as well, they have cats on board? Yvene bit her lip, to stop herself from clearly overthinking. There was more to focus on then the cat. If it comes back then they will deal with it then.

They made their way through the med bay, as it seemed just as chaotic as the cell block they were in before. None of the medical staff seemed to care that they were there, just focused on the patients they had. She was grateful no one was up their asses about being here. Not like she was going to leave if told anyways, not a chance in hell. Personnel were scrambling, gauze and disinfectant in hand as they moved to treat the wounded and sick. Yvene could only imagine what was going on, and could only think back to the coughing and the implied plague outbreak from before. Lowering her head she followed the group as they entered into the Doctor's office.

Ah. The cat thing was in here. She heard Felix speak about it first, mentioning to Ziola he had found the cat she saw. Moving forward to get a better look, sure enough there was a cat like thing. Wasn't so much a cat but a cat like girl instead. Felix seemed to relax and not do anything about it, so it couldn’t be that much of a threat. Right? It didn't really seem normal though, obviously. Something felt familiar, in specific terms but Yvene couldn’t place it. This was a Saphiste girl wasn't it? Maybe. It was hard to think straight, especially when her head was still a bit clouded as she tried to not think too deeply about everything going on. Was it a defense mechanism? Sure. Probably.

“Doctor. Nice to see you.” Yvene spoke, not wanting to be rude.

The doc was indeed taking them in. Though she wasn’t sure if the doctor was doing this out of the goodness of her heart or because they simply showed up and she had no choice. Either way though.

Maji couldn't parse the doctor's words exactly, but it wasn't hard to guess what kind of questions she might be asking. Probably wondering what she was doing there, and why she had no escort. "Mrawp," she chirped, as if to say nope, it's just me. Standing up from behind the desk, she faced away from the doctor and arranged her arms into an amusing caricature of how one might (very poorly) handle an assault rifle—emitting a quiet, but uncannily accurate sound from her mouth. She then dove back behind the desk, as if to take cover from this imaginary sentry, and peeked back over it again, looking meaningfully at Lea as if to say you get it, right?

Maji had had only one run-in with the draught sentries, in the which one had smacked her with the butt of his rifle simply for appearing to be more afraid of Dr. Dirk's bodyguard than she was of one of them. The other "offender," the bald Tulak, had narrowly talked his way out of trouble himself.

Having been beckoned to sit, Maji sat, not really sure what to expect. When next Lea turned to face her, she'd made her skin partially translucent, like she always did during her regular checkups. "Mrrp?" she trilled curiously, as Lea returned with a fine-toothed comb rather than a syringe. Then, her eyes lit up. Wait, wait! Is this that 'social grooming' thing humans do? It is! This means we really are friends, right! She grinned from ear to ear, happily swinging her bleeding legs to and fro while Lea worked. She'd made a friend. Mission accomplished.

Before she could get too comfortable, though, she heard familiar footsteps coming uncomfortably close. She let out a low, growl-like gurgle as her skin-mucus turned black again, her whole body tensed and ready to... well, who knew? However, Lea seemed to recognize the intruding engineer, so any hostility she might have otherwise shown to their unexpected company quickly turned into mere petulance at having been interrupted. Catching a glimpse of a fellow Sapishte, her eyes again lit with excitement briefly, before realizing that she'd accidentally left her cat ears on, and everyone was giving her funny looks. As her ears quickly slid down the sides of her head to where they should be, she turned her gaze away. Everything about her pouting face wanted to say I meant to do that! but her blush betrayed her mistake.

---

Lea considered herself lucky that Maji was so obedient and seemed to be a little better at charades than most people. Maji seemed to mimic firing an assault rifle and it made her think that she must have had some form of interaction with one of the guards. Likely why she had escaped into the vents and made her way to the Med Bay, not that it explained how quickly she got there but Lea wasn't keen on looking for more mysteries. "I hope the doctor is alright." She muttered as she grabbed the comb and moved back to Maji.

Before she could even start with cleaning the Saphiste up, the doors opened revealing Felix and his... interesting new companions. Noticing Maji's change in color, Lea placed a hand on her head as if it was a signal that she'll be fine.

"She's one of the prisoners here. Her name's Maji but she doesn't exactly... speak? Not our language at least." She introduced to the others. "She's not dangerous so..." She gestured towards the gun for him to holster it again. She'd rather not have such a tense atmosphere among them. Especially since Felix wasn't exactly with company that was completely harmless either.

"Good to see you too, Yvene. Typhon, Ziola, you too. I do hope you all are doing well... physically, at the very least." Her interactions with them had been mostly positive, as with most of the prisoners she had grown to know and appreciate on this vessel. "Come in and make yourselves comfortable... as much as you can considering the circumstances." Lea kept her eyes on the door for a few seconds as if expecting one of the guards to enter and kill them all without a second thought. She feared them as much as the prisoners did, maybe even moreso. But nothing happened, thankfully enough. She wasn't sure their luck would last for long though.

She turned back to Maji to begin cleaning her up and healing the minor injuries she incurred throughout her adventure through the vents. "I do believe I'm owed an explanation right now Felix. I trust that you didn't break out these prisoners for absolutely no reason but I'm gonna need a full story here."

Felix accepted Lea's explanation about the...odd Sapishte. It figured that there were at least a few experiments aboard. Stuff that would be best stored somewhere like the Alcatraz where they'd never be seen again. His expression towards the girl softened slightly and he fully holstered his weapon. This situation had gotten so bizarre in such a short period he almost thought that maybe he'd been knocked out trying to drag that prisoner out of the vent and this was just some weird dream.

"Very well." He said, not really intending to hide any of the information to begin with. "Though I'm sure you've already got your suspicions...and I'd wager you've got a few of them right. The Draught Sentries are secretly clearing prison blocks for some reason. There seems to be some sort of disease that either they're spreading...or they're trying to keep from spreading by purging entire blocks. Either way it seems to be out of control. With a bit of luck, we found out about this just before they managed to get to the block these prisoners were in." Felix gestured to the others before letting his arms fall to his sides. Much as he'd have liked to try for some witty retort, nothing really came to mind. Maybe part of him recognized this was no place for it.

"S'pose our conversations in the past have had an impact, because I decided not to just leave these folks to their fate." Felix said with a sigh. "Might've been a dumb move though. No clue how this plague or whatever's going around works, us just being here could have already damned everyone in this wing. Even so, these folks...mostly seem alright. I made the call to take that risk instead of guaranteeing they all got ashed. Besides, if it is some sort of illness I think bringing it to your attention is the only chance anybody aboard has."

Felix took a deep breath after that bit of exposition. He still hadn't shaken the feeling that they were in danger, nor the pit in his gut telling him they had no clue what they were dealing with. Both of those had been there for over a year now, but today's events had intensified them greatly. Normally the medical bay was a place that mostly put him at ease, but right now? He wasn't sure if anything could slow the creeping sense of dread this situation had exacerbated.

@Heckno12@Emeth@Polaris North

It wasn't just her, Ziola noted. Typhon seemed to also notice the cat, or whatever it was. Still, had it really shifted into a humanoid form, or was her sanity finally cracking? As Typhon used his plasma rifle to melt through the door, Ziola shook her head, trying not to assume the worst. If she really was losing it, at least they were conveniently taking refuge in a medical bay.

Heading after Felix to the doctor's office confirmed, however, that she hadn't just been imagining things. A woman with cat ears stood talking to Lea, or rather, making odd noises at her. "Huh, so I'm not losing it," Ziola muttered, stepping back just in case the woman proved hostile. "I guess that's one positive today." Upon noticing them, the feline girl growled, her entire body turning oily black for a moment, before her features softened. Her ears shrank down, an innocent blush forming through a layer of mucus. A Sapishte? This was the first time Ziola had seen a Sapishte take on animal features.

As Lea explained that the girl, Maji, wasn't a threat, some of the tension left Ziola's muscles. No matter the situation, Lea had a knack for putting people at ease. The medic's chats, in between long stretches of isolation, were probably all that had kept her and several others from spiralling into madness. Slowly approaching, Ziola nodded in response to her question. "We're doing well, all things considered, or at least I hope," she replied, "but it's more than can be said for many others." In the back of her mind, she could still hear screams and gunshots.

She bit the inside of her lip. No, no point in thinking about that now. Not when there were people all around the medical bay in need of help, staff rushing around the sick and injured. "I know this isn't standard practice, but is there anything I can do to help?"