Chapter 2.1: Re-Engage the Fear Machine (IC)

Something was happening to the ship, something unlike she had ever experienced before. The screaming of metal was metal was so loud it drowned out all her other senses. The violent jerks of the ground and walls around her, kept slamming her down again and again, until she lost count. At any other time she would have examined the experience, attempted to theorise what was happening to the vessel. However it was all she could do, to keep running, to attempt to keep up with the Tau around her. She knew exactly how to return to where they had begun, it was the actual retracing which was difficult. There was an element of fear to it all, natural perhaps due to the very real sense that they were being chased but she was unable to analyse this. Instead she could only spit out blood and push herself up on battered and quivering limbs and run forward until she was down again, shins cutting against the unyielding metal grills and repeat the whole process.

Eventually they were back in sight of the bridge again and as the doors opened, three familiar figures raised their weapons. She felt a momentary twinge of surprise to see Arlene and Kanna, but quickly pushed the question back. It would do for another time.
Finally coming to a stop next to the others, she turned to lean her back against the quivering wall, taking a momentary relief in taking the weight off her feet. However now that she was still, the cries of pain from her body could no longer be ignored. It was hard to pick out any one part of her body in particular, from her swollen lip, the pounding of her head and cold dripping down her neck, her wrenched shoulders and throbbing knees and elbows. There was one pain that felt different to the others, a duller and yet somehow heavier ache from her right side. Moving her hand down she gingerly touched the space between the bottom of her rib cage and the curved bone of her hip before jerking the hand away. Fresh blood dripped from her fingers.

Looking down at her hand, she calculated. Obviously she had been punctured by something as she fell, a twisted metal shard or pipe. The blood was thick though and not flowing freely. She was wounded but it was not a critical injury, not yet anyway. Her body should still be capable of running for a while.

As the Kroot spoke, she twisted her head to look at him. Its question did not seem to make sense.
"The time we have taken has been commensurate to the length we had had to travel."
Kanna and Arlene's responses to the same question though suggested that it might have had a different intent. Something else to consider for another time.

The sixth and newest Tau responded to Kanna, mentioning the thing that had been chasing them. Images suddenly flashed in her head as she suddenly recalled the brief sight they had, had near the broken bridge. Interest sparked and it was almost beyond her control to stop herself from pausing to try and identify the creature. Arlene's order was clear though. There was to be no more death. They had to move again.

Pushing herself up from the wall again, she took a stumbling step before regaining her balance and straightening up. She was ready to move again.

Kanna readies his carbine again in a ready stance, glancing back the way the reast of the strike team came from.
"What's chasing you?" he says as he follows suit and moves away from their entrance and towards something that could provide cover.

"I've seen enough strange stuff today to last a lifetime." he adds, not mentioning that he had been way past that point since before joining the reapers.

As the Tau pointed their weapons back the way they had come, Harriet twisted her head to examine the corridor again, but it was unchanged since they had ran this way. Hearing Kanna's question, she returned to face him again. Her expression was clearly troubled and when she replied there was an uncomfortable edge to her voice, emotion beyond any she had shown to this point. She couldn't avoid answering a question, and yet it was almost intolerable to reply with such a basic answer.

"I'm... I'm not sure. Its a big creature, a quadruped I think and about twelve feet at the shoulder. Grey skinned with a tail and it appears to be organic. It didn't seem to have trouble keeping up with us."

She fell silent after this, her right hand moving down to gently cup her side, and her eyes returning to Arlene waiting on the command to move.

Kanna found himself troubled at the description. A creature of that size should have lots of trouble following them at any kind of pace.

"It's this blighted ship. We should make our way to the exit. We'really all banged up. We can't hold this position."
He looked to Arlene for confirmation. He had more command experience than her, but she had been chosen to lead this mission. By the ethereal he was going to follow her lead.

Taro brought up the rear of their little gang, making sure he was there to pick up any stragglers and get them to the same location his feet were headed. The bridge. Salvation. His muscles pumped, dodging everything that the dying ship threw at him. His mind faded at times, the images surely going to resurface in dreams of the next few years, but he kept up the pace. If there was one thing he had learned from his bonded brother, it was to never give up, and never surrender. The images continued to imprint onto his mind, but he let them. There was only one thing now. Survival.

The creature was behind them. It was the last obstacle to pass in order to bring them off this wretched ship. This ship that had claimed too much from them. And for what? A mission that should be forgotten, he thought to himself. He kept his rifle at the ready and rounded the corner quickly, bringing it up on reflex, and sighing with relief. He saluted his brother first, tears welling in his eyes. Tears he pushed back, for they were still in the thick of it. He nods to Arlene, but there would be more emotions to produce when the time was right.

"It is as Ur'Na and Harriet say, we have to make ready for this monstrosity behind us, or better yet, try to outrun it."

There was a strange familiarity to the momentary pause they were presently experiencing. While Harriet was cognisant with the concept that human writers named deja vu, it was not something she had ever given much energy to before, as it was merely an interesting example of the brains need to find patterns and had little actual function. She was feeling it though, stronger than ever before. Fourteen days ago she had stood with her former team outside a door, resting up while she unlocked it. A brief rest bite after hours of effort. And then the walls suddenly slid back and they were attacked. Some were killed on the spot, screaming as they were torn apart, while others were captured and taken elsewhere. Of the original seven, she had seen four perish, and it was highly likely that the other two had joined them. Leaving her as the lone survivor.
Her heartbeat which had returned to normal began to speed again. Interesting, she thought, the memory was making her nervous.

The moment of inner reflection, though perhaps not particularly useful for their present situation did have an unexpected side effect. Her stomach, long ignored as her brain made calculations, suddenly gave a shuddering rumble and she realised that it had been many hours since she had last consumed any nutrients. Reaching towards one of the sealed bags hanging from her waist, she unzipped it and withdrew a cooked animal limb. She had discovered it while exploring an officers cabin next to the bridge, before being driven back into her hiding place following the sounds of the Tau arrival.
While it had gathered a layer of detritus from inside her bag, its taste was surprisingly delicious and with a surprising alacrity, the bone was bare. For once she found herself wishing there might have been more to consume.

Her mind though had not been totally engrossed in consumption, as she had suddenly realised that her earlier deja vu might have been useful after all.

"I have a suggestion. If we are going to outrun this creature we could attempt to lock these doors through to the bridge after us. It might also be possible to activate the emergency klaxon. I have no evidence if sound is important to the creature, but it might serve to distract it or cover the sound of our movements. I have prior experience using the computers within the bridge."

Harriet waited for a long moment and then taking the continuing silence as an affirmation, moved past the others into the bridge. Turning her head she gave the contents of the room a quick glance, but nothing about the room seemed manifestly different from when they had last left this room. She had lived here for almost two weeks, before revealing herself to the Tau. Five days since she had finally completed her mission and then sat waiting. It had been a deeply unsettling experience. She had never been without orders for as long. That was the past though.

Reaching down to one of the bags at her hip, she withdrew her screw tool and quickly opened up the mechanism. As with the others she had opened elsewhere on the ship, it had been twisted by Chaotic energies, though not to an extent that it was no longer operational. Brushing a stray hair back behind her ear, leaving another dirty stain on her forehead, she leaned further in and continued to manipulate and adjust the mechanism. Finally the last element shifted, and she sat back satisfied. One final twist and she could lock this door. Once the rest of the Tau moved through, she would do so.

Looking across she noticed that Taro had joined her at the door and seemed to be fixing some kind of demolitions to the structure. Scooting over, she looked over his armoured shoulder and assessed his work over the next few moments.

Kor'arx and Shas'ui Irah limp over through the second set of blast doors. It wasn't a straight shot to the docking clamp by any means, but this was the home stretch.

Su'saum and Ur'na remain on the bridge, but await orders. It was almost time to go, and they would broker no hold up.

High Tower stood nearest Harriet. He didn't know why exactly. Perhaps it was the fact that they clearly both showed an affinity for the mechanical and technical. Perhaps it was how innocent she seemed - as though she didn't understand any of the nuances of what was happening around her. He decided not to focus on it.

"What I said earlier - about you being executed as a spy - I didn't mean it, you know? The Tau don't function like that - not as a standard like the Imperium, or even the Demiurg. They're better. We... are better."

He fidgeted with his pulse carbine, moving it from one arm to the other before getting comfortable and standing still.

"I think you've been a hell of an asset to the team, skinny."

As the Angry Midget started to speak, Harriet twisted her head to look at him. She was expecting an order, or perhaps a rebuke either purely vocal or mixed with physicality. However his words contained none of these. Taking a second, she reviewed his words again, but she could find no trace of a command in what he said to her.

This was odd. It was confusing. Once more she listened to the words, no longer pressed with the need to move to what he said. If she viewed the words from the outside and not connected to her, it was clear he was being reassuring. When he had mentioned execution earlier, she had no cause to doubt him. She did not want to be executed of course, but if it was a fact she could not believe against it. She felt a modicum of relief to know she did not have a certain death sentence, but the reason behind it and those final words were so perplexing. It was... Well if she viewed it clearly, it was respect. Respect for her.

A thoroughly strange warm feeling seemed to light up inside her. Unbidden and uncharacteristically her face portrayed her emotions. For the first time since she had met the Tau she looked confused, and her cheeks burned. She couldn't remember feeling quite like this before. It was similar to how she felt when she completed a particularly complicated task, but yet more intense. As strange as it was, she enjoyed the feeling.

"I am relieved to hear that. I would not want to be executed. I believed it was a strong possibility"

The next bit was harder. She had no experience to fall back on in a situation like this. This would need to be a new answer. When she next spoke there was a hesitancy and sincerity to her words, unlike anything they had heard prior.

"I... I appreciate your words. I am glad to be of service to this team 'Angry Midget'. As long as I am needed I will continue to do so"

Prior to this she would have used the chance to ask him a question. Perhaps about his language, about his home planet or even his history. But for once she didn't feel the need to ask anything else. She still had tasks to do.

As Harriet and the gruff HT had a fuzzy moment, Kanna moves to the comms station and starts to send out the call for evac. First he sent out a voice request (with the appropriate codes of course):

"Reaper 4 requesting evac. Situation untenable. We have the bridge secure. Docking port is still intact Repeat, request immediate evac."

He follows this up with a pulse encoded signal, any Tau ship should be able to recognize the code and provide assist as able.

Nothing but pure static comes back. It fades and he hears something else. Screams. Screams mixed with laughter. Then static. He highly doubts Raven-3 even heard his outgoing signal. Something would need to be worked out on the comms if they were to get through.

Spoiler:

Arlene moves into the bridge with the rest of the squad. As she listens to Kanna's message, she is struck by the reply. She noticed one of the voices sounded too similar. She tried to ignore it, but she couldn't shake the sound of Joyce's screams mixed in with the warp static. Something was terribly wrong with this place. She swallowed her fear, there were bigger issues at hand. "Kanna, HT, clean that signal up. We need to get a clear message out or we're running to our deaths. If we don't go quickly, we may be dead anyways." She takes up a position next to their exit, prepared to fire on whatever monstrosity chases them down.

Kanna works the gue'la console furiously, its doesn't respond as it should.
He pounds the console in frustration.

"I dont understand how the humans have built such a mighty empire on such inferior equipment."

Taro fiddled with the photon flash grenades and made them into a makeshift device that would trigger if the best continued to follow them. Happy with his work, he moved on to the next set of doors and set those up as well. If light affected this thing, they'd slow it down considerably. On the bridge, he listens as Kanna attempts to hail the other Reaper team for evacuation. They needed to be off the ship, more so than anything at all. It had been a harrowing experience and one that would likely etch itself onto each of their memories for some time to come. He blinked and afterimages of some of the horrific things still displayed themselves on his retinas. He shook his head to clear his mind and made his way over to Kanna.

He did his best to help Kanna with the signal, but his hands trembled slightly, unable to manage something that was rather easy on any other day. He backs away from the situation, wondering if anything he was doing would help. He waits for Kanna to try to hail them once again, hoping against hope that they could get off the ship.

Standing from her crouch Harriet inserted her screw tool into the mechanism and sealed the first set of blast doors. It should give them some additional time if the creature attempted to follow their direct footsteps. There was a chance of course that it might be following a different route but this was the most logical approach to take for now.

Her left hand, cupped tightly around her wounded side, she moved as quickly as she could through the rest of the bridge, passing Kanna, Taro, Arlene and The Angry Midget until she got to the second set of blast doors and stepped through, joining Kor'arx and the sixth Tau. Inserting her tool once again, she quietly mouthed a message of assistance to the machine spirits before repeating her actions with the mechanism until she was sure it was ready to lock.

"I can seal this door once we are ready to progress"

Looking back through to the bridge, she watched as Kanna beat the console. Such an action went against the tenets of the Tech Priests, as it would undoubtedly anger the spirits but from what she had read, the Tau did not follow such practices. She waited to see if his approach would have a better result.

Kanna pounds on the console in frustration. Once. Twice. On the third hit, the bulkhead doors that lead to the nightmare interior of the ship rattled as a monstrous force hit it from the outside.

High Tower, Su'saum, and Ur'na all have their pulse carbines and blasters up and pointed in that direction as muscle memory takes over. Kor'arx moves swiftly to the injured Tau and drapes one of the shas'ui's arms over his neck before lifting him off the ground and over his shoulder.

Spoiler:

The path back to the infiltration point would be easy to remember for everyone except Harriet who had taken a completely different path in getting aboard this vessel.

It was just up to Arlene to give the word.

Kanna looks to Arelene, "There's nothing else I can do with this console. Unless we wanna wait and try it again, I suggest we move away from here...."

Arlene trained her longshot on the door, they were already out of time. barking orders and waving her team back to the hangar bays. "Leave it! We'll call them on the way, everyone to the rendezvous!" She yells to her comrades. They already came close to two casualties here, she wouldn't risk it again.

Kanna practically leapt out the door to that order. He was wounded and not ready to fend off some insane guel'a monster conjured from a dark closet.

Still, he would relinquish the position of point or rear guard to any order or request.

Taro was one of the luckier of the group, having taken no damage from combat or from falling to an almost near death. He was at peak condition physically for a fight, but not necessarily mentally ready for one. The images continued to present themselves on his eyelids. He flicked them away as best he could and then looked over to Arlene.

"I am best suited for the rearguard, seeing as I have taken no significant injury during the course of our time here. I will keep watch from there," he takes up position waiting for everyone to file out before being the last to head towards the hangar.

Harriet waited until Taro passed through the door, before flicking her inserted screw tool. A spark flew from the instrument panel, narrowly missing her face and then the blast door slid down with a heavy clunk. Satisfied she withdrew the tool, stowed it in its bag and then moved to follow the others. She had not come across the hangers during her progress through the ship, and thus had no information about it. The Tau seemed to be aware where it was though and so she simply had to follow them in order to fulfil Arlene's orders.

This had its own disadvantages though. Without something to focus her mind on, she was increasingly aware of the pain coming from her side. While it wasn't slowing her movement unduly yet, it was dominating her thoughts more and more, threatening to drag her under. What thoughts weren't on her injury were on the creature behind them. It was chasing them, hunting them down and they were running. It was difficult not to see herself as prey on its way to oblivion.

Moving in front of Taro, she followed behind Kor'arx, her left arm still wrapped around her side, and gripping Taro's weapon in her right.

No one needed extra encouragement after the order was given. Ur'na and High Tower were more or less on point, with Su'saum and Kor'arx - Shas'ui Irah draped over his large shoulders - just behind them. They were followed by Arlene, Kanna, and finally Ta'ro. Harriet was somewhere just ahead of Ta'ro, gripping his weapon tightly.

The fact that Kor'arx had moved to assist Team 1's leader without a word may have spoken to the fact that Shas'ui Pech Irah'Gorxaal was a native to the Kroot homeworld. It might be something worth exploring later - if anyone made it off the ship alive.

The way back is familiar, terrifying, and lonely as the realization that this small group were the only survivors of the entire Reaper Unit sent inside this death-ship. This "Soul Cage." Thank the Greater Good that Teams 5 and 6 who were still out in the Void somewhere.


Everyone moved at double time until they reached a junction that looked intimately familiar to all except Harriet. There are no noises behind you. Not yet. Up ahead was the outer port. The Reapers knew that the best chance of hailing Raven-4 by standard comms was to get as close to the viewport as possible. It would also mean losing their hold on the artificial gravity, as memories of floating in from the Orca came back.

Taro begins to try and get the communications open once again. What would normally be a breeze, turns into a nervy affair as it takes him nearly a full half-minute to get the comms working again.

"Raven 4, this is Reaper 4, in need of evac as soon as possible, do you copy, over."

He relayed the message several times, hoping that they'd get a reply before that massive beast tore them all to shreds.

As the others came to a stop at the junction, Harriet welcomed the pause and the chance to be stationary again. The fingers by her side were starting to become slick and though the pain was still manageable, there was likely a time limit on this. What this might be though, she could only guess. Without additional information about the wound and...

Blinking, she realised she had lost her train of thought. The sharp coldness of this realisation, sent her heart beating that little bit faster. Not ideal.

Turning she scanned her surroundings, before looking over the Tau. She didn't know this section of the ship, but from what she knew of general design, she guessed they must be near to the outer port. None of the Tau seemed to be doing anything though. Why had they all stopped here? Had they changed their minds about facing the creature? Or were they waiting on others to join them? Considering the haste with which they made their way here, it was odd to be suddenly so still.