Here's Part 2 of "Plight of The Purple Dragon" a fanfic produced in real-time
by authors writing via IRC. If anyone wants information on how to join in
on the fun please post me privately.
Now on to this week's exciting episode!!!
Session Start: Sun Apr 21 20:26:13 1996
*** Now talking in #fflive2
"The Plight of The Purple Dragon"
Part 2
<Windlily> Bentley staggered up the corridor, wondering why he wasn't
registering on bio or mech systems or any life forms on the ship.
Ce-ce and Jason exchanged looks as they scrambled off the floor, forming a
protecting wall between the door and thier Captain. The voice asked
whatever it was asking one more time, then stopped. Trisha wondered if that
was a good sign or a bad one as she motioned for Jason to check the door and
see how and if they could open it.
<Mike> Jason, Trisha, and Ce-Ce were standing on what was apparently the
bridge of the ship. As far as they could tell it had been completely abandoned.
The voice, or whatever it was, was gone now, and they were having no luck in
identifying it's source. It was then that Jason noticed a small red light
blinking
on one of the sleek black control panels. Without asking, he pressed it. The
ship gave a mighty lurch and reoriented itself, accelerating. Trisha and Ce-Ce
turned to Jason, glaring. "What did you do?" Trisha snapped. Jason just
shrugged meekly.
<Panda> Trisha's eyes scanned the bridge rapidly for familiar controls, but
the strange ship yielded little in the way of clues. At Trisha's command, the
others fanned out around the room, inspecting the foreign control panels.
They were labelled with symbols consisting mostly of sharp, blade-like strokes.
Ce-Ce cried out suddenly from a corner, drawing the other crew-member's
frantic looks in his direction. Trisha cursed as she watched a pulsing blue
knife-like beam of energy stab at her communications officer's forehead.
Ce-Ce suddenly froze, as the ship probed his mind.
<Windlily> "Don't touch him!" Trisha hissed as Jason reached for his partner.
"But Captain!" Jason pleaded.
"No."
Jason lowered his hand and worried at his lower lip as the beam held Ce-ce
blank eyed and motionless. The beam blinked out of existence and both Trish
and Jason stepped forwards quickly to catch him as he slumped.
"You are not regestered as ships compliment. Explain this discrepancy and
explain where the relief bridge crew is? We are not getting any data back
from any of our other stations. Explain this anomoly.
<Mike> Suddenly there was a mighty BANG! and the groan of twisting
metal near the far wall of the bridge. Trisha and Jason looked up,
surprised, as D-Nan stepped through a smoking hole in the bulkhead carrying
a rather
evil-looking weapon. "I found the armory." He grinned
<Panda> While the crew stared at D'nan in surprise, Bentley made his way to
the bridge of The Purple Dragon, all the while running diagnostics on his
slowly recovering neural network. Reaching the Lev that would take him to
the bridge, the android entered the lift-tube, and spoke. "Bridge." The Lev
reacted immediately, carrying the artificial lifeform upwards through the
empty ship's core. Bentley stepped out of the lift-tube and surveyed the
silent bridge of the Purple Dragon without surprise. He headed straight for
the Life-Support systems controls, and checked the present crew status report;
"1 CREW ONBOARD".
<Windlily> John had taken off running as soon as he had reformed and D'nan
had paused for a moment for a viloent physical response to the unpleasant
sensation. He dodged left, then right, then right again as the soft springy
floors deaded all noise in the dimly lit corridor. The varrigated treads
made him think of running down long pieces of intestine. Not a pleasant
thought at all. There was a hum behind him and luck was with him. He tripped
and the energy bolt burned a line into the ground where the middle of his
shoulders should have been. "Shit!" He rolled right toward the recessed
circle of a door, hit the hard surface as the hovering security remote
buzzed with an angry hum and sighted on him again. The door behind him
opened and he fell through backwards. The door slid shut just as the angry
drone commanded something in a language he didn't know and advanced. He lay
on his back, staring up at low lighting as the smell of life and greenery
assailed his nose. He threw out his hands to push himself up, and jerked as
the right one connected with something unpleasant. He had just put his hand
into the remains of a humanoid being. He looked at it carefully as he wiped
his hand on the corpses fabric pants. What caught his attention right off
was the bracelet around the dead beings outstreatched wrist. He put his
fingers on it, trying to turn it around and see what the design was.
"B-2 Hydroponics. May I help you crewmember Tol?"
<Mike> Unbeknownst to the crew, their capture had not gone unnoticed...
"Time to intercept, Mr. Hawkes" "Three minutes and counting, sir."
On the bridge of the Lexington, Captain Karen Terell watched the sinister
shape of the enemy ship grow larger and larger. The Invincible-class escort,
on covert maneuveurs near Beta Orionis, had caught the tail end of a
distress call and warped into the area.
"Combat batteries to charge, Mr. Hawkes. It's time for some vengence...."
<Panda> the crew of the Lexington stared at the bridge view-screen, the
mammoth shadow ship hovering in space like a derelict. But the crew knew
better. This was the same ploy that had very nearly taken their own lives.
Now it was their turn to strike back.
Inside the Purple Dragon, Bentley was moving quickly towards the
shuttle bay, his neural net now almost fully restored. After entering the
shuttle bay and sealing the doors behind him, the android's fingers flew over
the keyboard of the control center for the airlock, and the giant bay doors
suddenly slid open. Bentley did not resist the powerful pull on his body as he
and the remaining air rushed out of the deserted bay. Bentley cast a
calculating eye at the inside of the shadow ship's own docking bay, scanning
for a handhold of some kind. His floating form was carried by the momentum
towards a small strut that protruded next to a tiny hatchway. Twisting and
turning he managed to clamp onto the metal spar with his hand, and halt his
aimless drifting. The android reached for the strange latch mechanism on the
hatchway. Grasping it tightly he looked at the circular shape, and began to
turn the latch.
Session Close: Sun Apr 21 22:05:17 1996
Panda
-----------------------------------
"Bubblegum Cross"
"The Dark Traveler"
"The Dragon's Tower"
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http://www.netzone.com/~ozymand/