UFRSivio

Discovery: A Broken Galaxy

Major Kashvi Sikander Sadek (Team Alpha)
September 24, 2190 – 3:24 PM
Central European Standard Time
Location: Derelict Ship — Aft Engineering Access

The digital ghosts of OCS wouldn’t stop whispering in the back of Kashvi’s mind. Losing a quarter of your command... an acceptable loss? She blinked the thought away, her eyes twitching across the SBR data streams. Sadek noted that Schrier’s heart rate was high, but steady enough to suggest he was functioning.

Kashvi’s lips thinned into a hard line inside her helmet. She appreciated the deference to her command, but the architecture of the ship made her skin crawl. It was nothing like the schematics of the Pluto wreck they’d studied back on Earth. This place was alien in a way that felt aggressive—predatory. The designs were nothing they have experienced before.

"Doctor, I'm not sure if you ever been in an hostile environment before, we don't 'turn left' without clearing the corners," she replied, her voice a low, gravelly rasp. "Carmicheal, you heard the good doctor. Swing the lead of the triangle to port. Charming, keep the second element tight on our six. We’re moving toward the Doctor's mark, but we’re doing it room by room. I’m not leaving a thousand-year-old stowaway at our backs. Even if they are dead."

She adjusted the grip on her carbine, her eyes flickering to Schrier’s position. He was holding his astro-scanner like a holy relic.
"Lead on, Doctor, but keep it to a brisk jog," she ordered. "And keep your head down. If your scanner picks up anything that looks like a life sign or a proximity trigger, you shout it out before you analyze it. Understood?"

Switching to the command channel, she keyed the link to the XO. "Kestrel, this is Mongoose. We’ve got a lock on the source. Schrier is behaving himself—for now. We’re pushing left toward what looks like a primary engineering junction. Note for the logs: this thing’s a completely different breed than the ships we've built and the Pluto ship. Heavier, meaner, and the internal geometry is a nightmare. I the ship looks bio-mechanical to a degree down here. How’s the weather on the bridge?"

---

Commander Alistair Kaelen Vance (Team Beta)
September 24, 2190 – 3:26 PM
Central European Standard Time
Location: Derelict Ship — Mid-Section Command Spire

Alistair Vance stood as a pillar of stillness amidst the eerie shadows of the mid-section. He listened to Sadek’s report, his thumb absentmindedly checking the safety on his coilgun. He could hear the faint, rhythmic tapping of Dr. Khouri’s datapad nearby—the only sound in a tomb that had been silent for a millennium.

"Copy, Mongoose," Alistair replied, his voice a cool, regulatory hum. "I'm glad to hear the Doctor is following protocol. Regarding your observation—I agree. The bio-mechanical integration here is... far more advanced than we ever could have imagined. Nothing like the Pluto find or anything we've seen or built since. We aren't looking at a sister ship; we are looking at a different class of technology entirely. It's unsettling."

He turned his attention back to Dr. Siti Khouri, who was currently hovering near the mummified remains of the dead alien, her light illuminating a fresh set of aggressive, mathematical glyphs.

"Doctor Khouri, report. Is the handshake successful?" Alistair ordered.

"I-I'm in, Commander," Khouri whispered, her voice trembling as the massive, iris-like valve of the bridge door began to groan. A sound like grinding bone echoed through the corridor as the ancient mechanism struggled to respond to her bypass. "The command deck is opening. But Commander... the energy readings on the other side... they’re spiking. Something in there is still receiving a signal."

"Marines, weapons hot," Alistair commanded the marines. He stepped toward the opening iris, his helmet lights cutting into the command deck beyond. "Captain Lauzon, we are breaching the bridge. Be advised: we are detecting active data transmission. This ship isn't just a wreck—it's just become active on the deck."

He stepped over the threshold, his magnetic boots clacking onto the bridge of a ship that had once helped silence a galaxy. "Kestrel entering the deck now. Mongoose, stay sharp. The ghost is awakening."

Discovery: A Broken Galaxy

-snip-

@Penny

September 24, 2190 – 1:17 PM
Central European Standard Time
Location: Derelict Ship

Alistair felt the resonant thrum of the docking clamps through the soles of his boots as Sadek's voice crackled through the comms. "Copy that, Mongoose Actual," Vance replied, his voice a calm, regulatory constant. "We've had to breach through the hull, but landing zone secure on our end, too. Maintain a tight perimeter, Major. Keep the good doctor on a short leash. Ensure the team's safety is priority as you confirm the path toward the energy source. I'm establishing sample collection as a secondary objective - anything you and your team might think be worthwhile. Kestrel Actual out."

Turning to his team, the lights of Ranger-2 reflected off the cold, reinforced glass of his visor. "Let's move out. Maintain a staggered formation," Alistair commanded. Behind him, two Marines raised their rifles as their HUDs painted the bay and corridors with tactical overlays.

Dr. Khouri, the team's linguist, stepped off the shuttle last. Their breathing was loud and jagged over the comms. "Doctor, would you mind?" the XO said, his tone firm, but not unkind, prompting her to regulate her oxygen intake.

"I apologize, Commander" she whispered, with her scanner trembling as it swept across the jagged walls. "But... the walls. They don't look like they're just metal. Look at the grain."

Alistair paused, bringing his glove close to the bulkhead. It wasn't smooth. It looked like petrified muscle fibers woven in with the metallic carbon. "They're right. Looks like bio-mechanical in nature perhaps? Scan it and let's see if we can't get a sample. I want a full analysis for the archives and testing back on the Arcadian."

As they pushed deeper towards the command deck, the war-torn nature of the ship became visceral. "Magnetic weaponry," Alistair noted, comparing the damage to USF weaponry. "Yield is different, higher frequency. The ship was potentially boarded in battle maybe? Can't say for sure. The way these aren't just shots; they are executions of the machinery itself."

The team continued to pus through the oppressive nature of the ship until a Marine signaled a halt. "Commander, look there."

The XO knelt down over the body. It was slumped against a door-control node. He keyed into his commas, "Mongoose Actual, this is Kestrel actual. We just found a body."

In the vacuum, the process of decomposition had been halted by sublimation; the corpse was mummified - a leathery, shriveled husk of a potentially multi-limbed creature. Its skin was semi-translucent.

Dr. Khouri let out a small gasp, gripping their datapad. "Is that one of them?"

"Yes," replied the XO, while scanning the remains with a clinical detachedness. "While I can't be certain due to the body the vacuum stasis, preliminary scans show that this could have been here for about a thousand years? Same age as the ship back on Pluto. No signs of rot, just total desiccation. Note the wounds in the thorax and around the arms. Hand-to-hand combat. This wasn't a clean death." He looked at the marines. "Continue to take a look around. If there's one, there's potentially more. From the way this one is positioned, it was trying to guard the bay and prevent something or someone from escaping."

As they navigated the corridors, Khouri's curiosity slowly overcame her fear. She moved towards a series of etchings above a heavy doorway. The symbols were sharp and aggressive, unlike any other script previously documented by humanity.

"Wait, Commander!" Khouri moved forward, her light reflecting off the glyphs. "I don't think this is just for decoration. It looks more like a directory. Notice the angles? They suggest a more mathematical base. I think I could potentially translate it?"

"Better make it quick, Doctor," Alistair said, his eyes scanning every inch of the ship. "Sweep the corners. So far, everything suggests some kind of struggle here. A struggle to get to the bridge, then to the docking bay. I want everything scanned for proximity hazards or lack thereof."

The silence of the ship was oppressive, broken only by the rhythmic hum of their suits and tapping of Khouri's datapad. They were walking through a tomb, and he could feel the weight of it.

"Alright, I think I have a small part of it," Khouri said. "I think going this way-" They pointed in a specific direction. "-it's the seat of the ship? Could most likely mean the bridge. Alien languages are harder than you might realize Commander, especially ones we have never seen before."

Alistair adjusted his grip on his coilgun. "The bridge. We're on the right track."

Discovery: A Broken Galaxy

@Theyra Can we write the landing? I dont want to describe things about the ship without guidance.

@Penny

Yes, you can write the landing how you want!

Discovery: A Broken Galaxy

The hangar doors of the Arcadian hangar bay groaned as they slid open, revealing the star-dusted expanse of the Polaris system and the universe beyond. On the flight deck, the twin engines of the Ranger-class shuttles began to whine and turn into a high-pitched hum.

"Rangers 1 and 2, you a cleared for departure," the flight controller's voice crackled. With a coordinated lurch, the craft drifted out of the bay before being propelled by their thrusters toward the distant alien ship.

Inside Ranger 2, Alistair Vance sat strapped into the command chair, right next to the shuttle's pilot. His helmet's HUD synced with the DRADIS feed. Tapping his gauntlet, Vance opened a three-way hololink between the shuttles and the bridge of the Arcadian.

"Shuttles away, sir," Vance said, his voice flat and professional. A hologram of the ship flickered to life in the center of both shuttles and the bridge. "Adjust approach vectors. Our sensors identified two structural apertures on the mid-section and aft of the hull. These appear to their equivalent of docking bays. They appear to be depressurized but still structurally sound. The aft section seems to be in the back third of the ship and closer to the unknown power source, but more heavily damaged. In addition, it does appear to have a more direct path to this power source. Perhaps their equivalent of an engine room or storage? Either way, whatever battle this ship has seen has left it in tatters."

Vance highlighted two points of interest in red on the hologram. "Major Sadek, you and your team will be landing in the aft section. Our resident astrophysicist, Dr. Schrier, is tasked with studying said power source and potentially bringing it aboard the Arcadian if it is safe enough. There will be secondary objectives, which I will leave up to you."

Vance then looked to the resident linguist. Siti Khouri was just as excited as Dr. Schrier. Despite being a linguist, the man could barely keep his words together at how excited he was to be there. He looked less like a pioneer and more like a kid on Christmas Day.

"Dr. Khouri," Vance said. "Best stay focused. We will be docking at the mid-section bay. The area appears to house the command center and secondary processing hubs. Our team's primary directive is data. That means symbols, logs, archives, anything that can be used to decipher their language and figure out who they were. This goes for both teams: safety is our top priority. Everything is to be inspected. We don't know if this is toxic to us or if there's some sort of dead-man's switch."

The shuttles moved ever closer to the massive ship, with the hull looming over them like a leviathan. The surface seemed to swallow or block out the light from Polaris. "While we will be viewed as heroes and pioneers, that won't excuse negligence. Don't let that get to your heads." With a series of precise bursts, the two Rangers peeled from each other. Ranger-1 dipped towards the rear third of the ship, while Ranger-2 banked towards the central mass and the docking bay.

Vance had his eyes closed as a metallic thud vibrated throughout the floorboards of the shuttle. Its magnetic clamps engaged with the alien alloy. "Magnetic lock confirmed, Commander," the Ranger-2 pilot announced. "Seal is green across the board and we are down."

The XO nodded in approval. "Make a note that the alien alloy can be magnetized," he said as he stood. "Helmets sealed, weapons hot. Let's see what the void has to offer."

Discovery: A Broken Galaxy

@Theyra I was thinking of being a stow away that could also be found to serve a purpose, but if that destroys the narrative, I can simply replace an NPC

@POOHEAD189

I think the irony is that we did in fact have a potential act of sabotage that got turned into a stowaway being caught by the XO, my character. While I think filling out one of the roles is preferable, I wouldn't mind you being said stowaway.

Discovery: A Broken Galaxy

Master Gunner that was so scraggly and drunk when he stumbled aboard everyone forgot he was there and thought he was a stowaway until they cleaned up.

@Redking0380

10/10 Only plot hole would be the XO lol but maybe this gunner is just that forgettable.

Discovery: A Broken Galaxy

Is the rp still accepting characters? I have an idea

@Queen Arya

Should still be accepting characters!

Discovery: A Broken Galaxy

24 September 2190
USF Arcadian - Bridge / Corridor / Hangar Bay

Alistair maintained his rigid posture as Captain Lauzon gave the go-ahead. His warning about unnecessary risks really hit home. On the surface, Vance may have seemed indifferent, but he took the weight of command very seriously.

"Understood, Captain," the XO replied. "The goal is data retrieval and security. I will ensure both teams prioritize safety. We will move by the book."

As he turned to leave, Vance caught the tail end of Dr. Schrier's hurried departure. His barely contained excitement was understandable, but was a variable that would need to be monitored. Science and exploration were the focus of the overall mission, but a possibly distracted scientist was a potential liability. They have to keep a close eye on him.

Walking towards the elevator, Alistair's comms chimed with Sadek's report. "Copy that, Major," Alistair responded as he stepped into the lift. "I am en route to Hangar One now. I will be assigning Dr. Schrier to your team. Be advised: he is an eager one. It is understandable, but ensure he does not wander off-mission while chasing sensor readings. I'll be taking our linguist on my team. Be sure to have whatever we need is prepped and ready for insertion and exploration of that ship."

The lift doors opened to the bustling activity of the hangar bay. The smell of recycled air and ozone filled the space as technicians prepped the necessary equipment shuttles. As he moved towards the locker bank where his personal gear was stored, Alistair noted the hard, organized work done by everyone here, as well as their nervousness when he walked into the area. Unlike the marines, his own gear did not fully require the "pyjama" that the marines needed, but it was no less a feat of engineering.

Vance slipped into something more comfortable before putting the reinforced composite astrosuit on. The USF insignia, as well as the Eden flag, were visible and caught the overhead lights. He checked the seal on his gauntlets and holstered his sidearm - the USF standard coilgun that was both cleaned and maintained.

Seeing the marines of both squads arrive, Alistair spotted Sadek. He noticed the stenciling on their armor - a "frontier" personality he'd normally frowned upon. After taking a good look at it, he sighed and said, "I know I'm a hard ass, but I'll allow it. Morale is high today and we need to keep our spirits up high as this is the official start of our exploration mission."

"Major," the XO acknowledged as he approached the boarding parties. He turned towards the specialists, noticing their anxious demeaner. Alistair raised his voiced so that it could carry throughout the hangar. "Listen up, people. We have officially crossed the threshold into unknown space. This is the first of many. That derelict ship is not just a graveyard to study, but a library of knowledge that we can use to learn about Polaris, learn about the galaxy, and more importantly, for the betterment of humanity. No one breaks formation, no one touches anything until we have a better idea of our new surroundings. We are the eyes and ears of the Federation. We are the first in a foreign system and the first on a ship that isn't human in origin. Let's act professional."

He looked at Sadek and gave a decisive nod. "Let's mount up, Major. The universe waits for no man."

Discovery: A Broken Galaxy

24 September 2190
Polaris System - Realsapce Transition

Alistair Vance's stride was measured but brisk as he walked through the corridors of the Arcadian. His datapad vibrated with the finalized security profile on their stowaway, a desperate civilian from Kepler-22 who had managed to slip past ground-side sensors and security before the Arcadian's departure. He noted that Sadek was CC'd and was pleased. The intruder was contained and processed, but Vance's focus already began to shift.

A second, more urgent chime echoed throughout the hall: the Arcadian had finally and successfully transitioned back into realspace. Alistair began receiving data from DRADIS like a flood. Before reaching the bridge, the XO used a command override to signal the bridge, ordering a high-resolution scan of the anomaly detected near Polaris B VIII, a dwarf planet that he would name Nadir. He wanted raw data processed and waiting the moment he stepped back onto the bridge.

As he entered the bridge, a junior officer at the door straightened up. "XO on deck!"

"At ease," Alistair said, moving directly next to the Captain. "I am back, Captain. The situation has been taken care of and I will be making an announcement about the stowaway as soon as I can." The XO admired the blinding spectacle that was the triple star system named Polaris. However, their mission here was far mroe pressing.

"I have made a quick skim through of the data we received from DRADIS," Alistair stated. "It is an impressive system, with many secrets needing to be unlocked. I noticed that we are in agreement that the wreckage is first priority, Captain. Whatever energy source is there is an immense mystery, and the damage that ship has taken? Who knows what battles it has seen and the measures it took to protect that source."

He looked out the bridge towards the stars, and then at the hologram of the ship near Polaris B VIII. "This ship is massive, with a unique energy signature and an intense history. It is possible we will need two insertion teams at two different points of entry: one to figure out the source of the energy, and the other to comb through the ship's records and data. One team should be led by Major Sadek, while I lead the other. I suggest that Dr. Schrier joins one team with Mr. Haspe on the other. While the teams on the ship, we should continue monitoring the system. Surface scans won't be enough, so we should boost our scans to look for resources and confirm habitable planets."

Discovery: A Broken Galaxy

@UFRSivio Can I assume that Sadek is made aware of the intruder given the marines take her to the brig

I don't have an immediate plan for Hobby until we arrive at our first destination, if anyone wants to interact with engineering let me know!

@Penny

I did not include it in the post, but yes, that would be a safe assumption. If you make a post about it, perhaps under orders from the XO, could send photos and information about this stowaway to him and the Captain. Or I could just edit the post to properly include it on my end.