Codename Cryogas, act 1

[JennerH]

Act 1:

Drifting through space, the USS Almayer, an Arikara-class patrol vessel was dark, devoid of life. The vessel could have been mistaken for an asteroid or a piece of debris if not for a few running lights indicating its true form. Standard operating procedures were to operate on minimal systems during long voyages through outer rim sectors, as the ship didn't want to attract unwanted guests. The Almayer had been adrift for a few months, performing routine patrols in and around Tychon's Rift, a relatively new sector with a few established colonies and various research and penal stations. Currently considered one of the hotter sectors in USCM-controlled space, the colonies were constantly contested by the Colonial Liberation Front, the Union of Progressive Peoples and various pirate factions. With that in mind, the Almayer was relatively underequiped to deal with such a hotzone by itself, but the recent decline in volunteers for the Colonial Marines meant that forces had to be stretched thinly over the territories of the United Americas.

Suddenly ARES, the on-board AI booted up from standby and began processing the sudden spike in data the sensors were outputting. A few thousand scenarios played out over a few seconds, ARES determined that the object in their path was a match for the USS Providence, a prison barge roughly 2 times the size of the Almayer. As the sensors gathered more data, ARES soon discovered that the barge's reactor was offline, and the ship appeared to be on some sort of lockdown. Emergency power was operational, but no signs of life were found, visibly or otherwise. ARES decided that the best course of action was to thaw the crew and bring them up to speed, and so they did.

~

Roses.
Their beautiful smell tickled Madison's nose as she basked in the warm Nevada sun, tending to her little garden she kept in her back yard. She could hear the sounds of children playing somewhere nearby, and birds sang overhead as she stood up, walking back towards her house, ready to go inside.

As she neared the sliding glass door she started filling dizzy, her head spinning wildly as the world around her became twisted and distorted, the sky darkening from a beautiful turquoise to a dull, metallic gray. The gentle breeze and the sweet smell of roses was replaced with the cold, hard interior of a cryotube and the sterile smell of a well-maintained space ship. As the last bit of her dream was ripped away from her she became distinctly aware of 3 things; The first being that she was crying, the second being that she had vomited all over herself, and the third being that Jackson Dee was standing over her, looking quite concerned.

“Ya' feelin' alright there, lass?” he asked, reaching a hand down to help her out of the tube.

“Y-Yes, just fine, Dee,” she stammered, wiping her mouth and taking his hand. She climbed out of the pod, noting that she was probably the last person to do so. She looked more closely at Jackson, noticing a slight blue tint in his eyes. She was about to accuse him of huffing gas again, but thought better of it. He'd just helped her out of a puddle of her own vomit and besides, she needed to get cleaned up before anything else.

She thanked Dee before heading to the showers, walking as fast as she could to avoid the awkward glances. She entered the port-side extended bunks and rushed past the groups of marines making small talk as they got dressed, nearly running head first into the door before opening it.

Inside the showers were a few Delta and Charlie marines, most ignoring each other, and as Madison tried to reach an unoccupied stall a very stinky blonde stepped forward, holding her hand out to stop her.

“Well well well, look what I found,” She said, “Poor ol' Maddie covered in her own vomit. Have another nightmare?” She mussed, speaking loud enough for anyone who cared to listen in.

“Fuck off, Christine!” Madison said, trying to push past her. Christine stepped between her and the shower, gripping her shoulder tightly, grinning.

“Not so fast,” She said, as more marines began to gather around, excited at the prospect of a fight. Madison clenched her fists tightly, trying once more to push past the tall blonde before slipping as Christine pushed her, laughing. She stood back up, angrily charging at her when suddenly Christine sidestepped, sticking out her leg and causing Madison to fall head first into the stall, hitting her temple. For the second time that day her world began to spin as everyone laughed at her, before fading to oblivion.

~

“...I just feel sorry for the lass,” Jackson said, glancing down the row of Deltas where Madison sat, her head freshly bandaged with an icepack in hand. “she's just homesick is all.”

“Yeah, her and the rest of us,” Came a grumble from his right. Kaelyn Brooks was sitting next to him, a sour expression appearing from behind a tuft of dusty brown hair poking out of her helmet. Dee didn't know why he'd decided to sit by her instead of Madison, but something gave him the feeling that now wasn't a good time for Delaney, and his experience with similar situations had wizened him up to the fact that sometimes people just need space.

As briefing began to kick off, Jackson rummaged through his pockets and, realizing his mistake excused himself from briefing. To most people, his claims of forgetting his spare powerpack would've been taken at face value, but Madison noticed that he already had a spare tucked under his seat. Before she could ponder over what his real intentions were the commander announced that briefing was under way and began explaining the reason why they'd been woken up so suddenly.

“...A prison barge has been found off course and drifting without any signs of life, and every attempt at communicating with the vessel have gone unanswered. To that end, I'm sending Alpha and Delta in as a scouting party to secure the ship, with Charlie and Bravo arriving on the second drop to establish a FOB in the ship's Atrium. Once we've mapped out the ship and determined the status of the crew we'll hopefully be able to reactivate the reactors and the ship-board AI, and if needed tether it back to port. Your squad leaders have been briefed on the layout, as well as their respective team's objectives, so if you have any questions please bring it up with them. Dismissed.

As briefing came to a close, each squad stood and followed their Squad Leaders out to the hangar. Madison lagged behind, having been too deep in a day dream to pay much attention until Jackson came up to her, tapping her shoulder and motioning towards the rest of delta. They made their way to the hangar and fell in line with the rest of delta before boarding the Normandy.

Squad banter was plentiful as the pilot went through pre-flight, and a few marines were even playing with a Charlie headset they'd stolen. Madison examined her rifle, realizing that her trip to medical had caused her to forget to bother with any attachments. However, she had brought a rail light as well as a few packets of flares, and had remembered to grab a few mags too. She reached into her helmet compartment and discovered an EAT bar wrapper and a lighter, which was weird because she didn't remember eating anything.

The squad leader did a headcount and gave the go-ahead to the pilot, who started the takeoff procedure. The Normandy lowered into a dropship sized airlock before ejecting from the Almayer and hurtling towards the derelict barge. The in-flight cameras gave the marines a good view of the entire starboard side of the vessel before the Normandy passed over it, heading for the port-side hangar. The hangar doors opened automatically as atmosphere was vented, indicating a malfunctioning atmos system. Once the landing skids touched down the marines piled out, spreading out in formation to get a good assessment of their surroundings.

Madison and a few other marines began popping flares to help illuminate the hangar bay, since the lighting seemed to be out in this room. Delta was spread into 5 groups of 6, heading off into separate corridors in search of the crew. Madison's group consisted of Jackson Dee, Alan Jones, John Murry, Aiko Amano, Verena Knox and herself. Their objective was to head to Telecomms to try and establish communications, with Knox being the grease monkey chosen for the job.

As the group moved down their chosen hall, they discovered a foul odor, as well as some blood stains smeared across the floor. They moved further, encountering more and more blood before halting at a T junction, every member staring in horror at the object hanging from the ceiling.

A severed arm held tightly onto a pipe running along the ceiling, with blood smeared all over the vent cover next to it. Below the arm was a flashlight stained a rust color and a pile of unrecognizable gore. Madison gagged, looking away, trying to find something, anything to take her mind off what she'd just seen. Unfortunately, what she saw next was much, much worse...

End of Act 1.



Wow, I actually got around to writing it! I had this huge story pop into my head the other day and decided to turn it into something enjoyable, I hope you like it! I'm all for suggestions, criticism, ect so feel free to post your opinions.

link to act 2: viewtopic.php?f=134&t=18214

[AkaBinxstar]

+1 Better than anything I could write

[Sleepy Retard]

https://youtu.be/_Yhyp-_hX2s

[Kibbles]

1/10 not enough flamers


In all seriousness though, great story despite it being the first part. Had a pretty good introduction at that, nice transfer to the actual settings.

Plus the characters that have been detailed are portrayed accurately. Good job!

You can have a cookie.

[Drownie]

>implying that Charlie and Delta would ignore each other instead of starting a fight.

You can have a cookie.

She has a baguette and a cookie now.

[DriedMilk]

Why am I such a bully here

RED AND SMELLY.

[RunAwayScientist]

Blonde and uhh.....jelly?


You know, this is strangely prophetic. Just this round, we actually found Madison 'Ambulance' Staymates face down in the showers in her own blood having committed the seppuku. Most unsettling.

[JennerH]

Blonde and uhh.....jelly?


You know, this is strangely prophetic. Just this round, we actually found Madison 'Ambulance' Staymates face down in the showers in her own blood having committed the seppuku. Most unsettling.

Madison Staymates? Isn't it uh, Jayne or something

[Avalanchee]

Lit af

[Okand37]

Radical

[AmazinglyAmazing]

Why am I such a bully here

RED AND SMELLY.

I find it very accurate Oof.

Jokes aside, this is a very good read. I laugh at the stuff I write when I compare it to stuff like this cause it makes my stuff look and sound like utter garbo. Good work!