Part One: Chapter 1 - 6

In "The Terminus - Part One: Chapter 1 - 6," a ragtag team from the *Dauntless* heads to a derelict alien vessel on an exploratory mission, but things quickly spin out of control when their shuttle is sniped out of the air, forcing them to crash into the cargo hold of the foreign ship.

As they struggle to unravel the mystery behind the alien starship, they discover that their mission is not what it seems, and their lives are actually in danger. A simple exploratory mission becomes a deep-dive into a years-long conspiracy within the Colonial Military, but things take a turn for the worse when they discover that they aren't the only living things on the ship...

## **Chapter 1**

### Scene 1 - *Bridge of the Dauntless*

* Arty, the ship’s computer on board *Dauntless*, relays information regarding the abandoned, derelict, alien vessel that hovers idly nearby, on the verge of slipping into the toxic atmosphere of a nearby planet.

* Star Commander Lauren Fitzcurtis stands on the Bridge and gives finals orders to Captain Kevin Clarke, Lieutenants Maia Jacques and Raven Comstock, and Crew Specialists Theodore Sparrow and Addison Clarke: board the empty alien ship and search for any information that may have been left behind.

### Scene 2 - *Transport Shuttle*

* With the group donned in their hostile environment suits, Kevin pilots the transport shuttle toward the alien vessel while attempting to get the small team to open up to one another to encourage trust among them.

* Addison shocks the group by removing the skin-like gloves on her hands, revealing sleek metal underneath: she’s a robot.  She reveals that after having received a call that her father was presumed dead after a mission-gone-bad, she hopped on her bike, being struck and killed by a semi-truck. The next thing she remembered was waking up in an android body, her consciousness having been downloaded into it.

* “Humanity can’t lose two Clarkes.  The fleet needs you,” they’d said.

* Suddenly, the shuttle is sniped with a plasma bullet, which tears a hole through the shuttle’s hull and embeds itself into Addison’s robotic chest.  The crew works together in an attempt to salvage the vehicle, but as Theo vomits and Addison’s robot body ceases to function, the shuttle crash lands inside a cargo hold on the dark, alien ship.

## **Chapter 2**

### Scene 1 - *Derelict Alien Starship (Cargo Hold)*

* Being fleet regulation that all vehicles carrying crew members of base ships have at least one security drone on board, Kevin decides to remove Addison’s memory core, tasking Theo with installing it in one of the shuttle’s drones — a sleek silver orb the size of a bowling ball — in hopes of saving what’s left of Addison.

* Stock exits the shuttle to scout the area and finds them to be in a kind of warehouse.  Metallic crates fill the space, covered in a black, spongy, algae-like substance.  She heads back to the shuttle to report in.

* Finding many of the shuttle’s systems to be fried, Maia contacts Arty via the long-range satellite-free communicator, and his remote diagnostic confirms that the shuttle is badly damaged.  Maia leaves the shuttle with Kevin to appraise the exterior as Theo remains inside to finish Addison’s “upgrade.”

* Outside, Maia and Stock share a quiet moment as Maia recollects memories of a few chance meetings with Stock’s late fiancé, Max.

* With Theo’s project a success, Addison awakens with her memory core installed in the shuttle’s security drone, and she acclimates to her new abilities.

* After doing some scouting of his own, Kevin finds that the black spongy goo is able to be wiped away, like a thick dust, revealing a dull metal floor.  Upon further inspection, he finds a footprint from the thing that had sniped them — a three-pronged “Y” shape, like a robot’s foot.

* As the team leaves the shuttle behind and exits the alien cargo hold, Kevin silently wonders when he should tell the team about their *real* purpose for being sent to the derelict vessel…

## **Chapter 3**

### Scene 1 - *Bowels of the Alien Derelict*

* Slowly traversing through the darkened alien halls, the team comes across a four-way intersection, and they debate which way to proceed.  The group’s suspicions about the purpose of the mission begin to grow, and Kevin struggles internally with whether or not to divulge the operation’s true goal, but conversation is cut short when Maia announces that she believes she knows how to find a power source.
* Captain Clarke makes the decision to follow Maia’s advice first, and they head up the stairs toward the potential power source.

### Scene 2 - *Alien Ship: Mess Hall*

* The team heads up the stairs, and when a noise alerts them, Stock heads into the new room to search for any threats.  Kevin thinks he sees a tiny red light in the room that quickly disappears the moment he sees it.
* Stock discovers that the room, which seems to be similar to a mess hall on the alien ship, is filled with thousands of human skeletons.  Theo’s electronic scan reveals that all of the bodies were murdered — broken bones, gunshots to the head, etc.
* “There’s at least four thousand corpses in this room.  This was no small Friday night fiesta; it was the entire crew of a starship.”
* Addison discovers a military insignia pin on one of the decaying articles of clothing, and they realize that the dead bodies were from the Colonial Fleet.
* As they leave the alien Mess Hall, the tiny red light reappears in the back corner of the room, as if it’s watching them with interest…

## **Chapter 4**

### Scene 1 - *Alien Ship: Bridge*

* Following Maia’s hunch, the group finds their way onto what they assume is the bridge of the alien ship, but the main computer console doesn’t seem to be getting any power, and the wires have been sabotaged.
* Kevin approaches the other side of the room and locates two pilot chairs with a control console in front of each one, covered in foreign alien gook.  He wipes away the grime from the wall on a hunch and discovers that it is a glass windshield.
* In a flashback, Kevin remembers being called into Commander Brighton’s quarters on *Dauntless* and finding the Star Commander there as well, briefing him on a secret mission to retrieve a scientist’s data pad from an alien ship, but that the mission needed to remain a secret, so it was going on the books as an exploratory operation.  He was told that the mission was to extract the data, and that the scientist, if found, was expendable.
* Stock reveals that she feels like they’ve walked into a trap, and Kevin confides in her that he believes there’s a robot on board that’s stalking them, based upon the footprints in the Cargo Hold and the red light he glimpsed in the mess hall.
* After Theo fixes the bridge computer, Maia fires it up and is greeted with a message that changes everything:
* "*Thank you for choosing OmniColony for your intergalactic exploration needs!*  *OmniColony: We’ll take you places beyond your imagining!*  *This is an OmniColony Class IV Exploratory Starship.*  *Please login with your assigned credentials."*
* Kevin discovers that the alien ship isn’t alien at all — it’s from the Colonial Fleet.  It’s the *Magellan*, a massive exploratory starship that had gone missing two years prior.  At this news, Addison accuses Kevin of keeping secrets about the mission’s true purpose.
* During the chaos of accusations, Maia interrupts and says that she can access the Commander’s logs on the computer, because she’s actually *been* on the ship before, around two-and-a-half years ago, when she’d programmed the system.
* Kevin examines the half-closed door leading out of the bridge and notices that sections of the black algae have been rubbed away, implying that someone tried to forced the door closed recently.  He puts the pieces of information together, realizing that everything was pointing to the fact that there was something on the computer that someone didn’t want anyone to find.
* With Stock’s help, Addison analyzes a sample of the black algae and discovers that it is extremely susceptible to heat, and that the alien that created it is likely still on board.
* Searching for the Magellan Commander’s logs, Maia discovers that everything from the ship’s final mission has been deleted.  After Theo recovers the logs from a backup archive, Commander Berghoff’s logs state that his team went into a cave on an unknown planet named Clotho to retrieve an alien artifact, but something went wrong, and his team was killed.  Soon after, the same thing made its way onto the *Magellan* and slaughtered the whole crew.
* Stock springs into action and heads back out into the hallway to make sure it’s clear for their retreat, and then the door slams shut, separating her from the team.  As Maia and Theo race to try to get the door open, the bridge computer suddenly emits a holographic video into the air.
* The video seems to be an alien divulging a story about a planet that was destroyed, but none of them can understand the language.
* Outside the room, Stock comes face to face with the tiny red light, shimmering with energy from a cloaking mechanism, and it charges at her…

## **Chapter 5**

### Scene 1 - *Bridge of the Magellan*

* As everyone scrambles to find a way to unlock the bridge door to gain access to Stock, Kevin discovers a handprint scanner on the wall, partly uncovered of its algae.
* Theo and Maia set to work on hot-wiring the locking mechanism, but Addison grows restless and impatient, choosing instead to shoot the scanner with her laser turret, luckily releasing the lock.  The team works together to raise the door, finding an unconscious Stock on the floor, the side of her helmet damaged.
* Stock recounts her tale of the red light charging toward her in the hallway.  It attacked viciously, releasing a blow to the side of her head, knocking her out.  This story all but confirms to Kevin that there is a robot on the ship, cloaked by a stealth device.

* Upon further inspection, it’s assumed that Stock has gained a bad concussion from the attack, but before they have any time to rest, a distant, human male’s scream echoes through the halls.

### Scene 2 - *Magellan: Mess Hall*

* On their way through the halls toward the ship’s armory, Kevin notices Maia hesitate as they pass the Mess Hall where the bodies are piled up.  Realizing she must have known people on the ship, he tells Stock to take Theo and Addison on to the Armory and meet them back in front of the Mess Hall.  He leads Maia into the room to give her a minute of peace to pay her respects.
* In a memory, Maia recalls a night on the Lincoln Station where she met with her friend, Lieutenant Darryl James, in a cantina.  He reveals that he came to say goodbye, because the following morning, he was to leave on a new exploratory ship.
* He asks Maia to distract a young woman named Lily, because he likes her and believes she’s too innocent to be throwing her life away by following him on an exploratory adventure.
* She follows him back to his new ship, the *Magellan* — the Fleet’s premiere prototype exploration starship.  Touring the ship and its impressive engine room, Maia finally meets Lily and is immediately taken with her.  They have far too much to drink that night, and when they awaken the next morning, the *Magellan* (and Darryl) are gone, leaving Lily furious with Maia for conspiring against her.
* In a fit of anger, Lily makes it abundantly clear that she wishes to never see or speak to Maia ever again.
* Shaking the memory from her mind, Maia stares at the thousands of corpses in the Mess Hall, and she vows to Kevin that she intends to see the ship burn so the dead soldiers can rest with some dignity.

### Scene 3 - *Magellan: Comms Module*

* After retrieving weapons from the Armory, the team reunites and heads in the direction that Theo had originally wanted to go.  They find themselves in the ship’s Comms Module, and the engineers work on repairing the system in hopes of catching a glimpse of the video files from the ill-fated mission.
* As Maia and Stock demand to know the truth behind their current mission, Kevin reveals that Maia isn’t the only person that lost someone on the *Magellan* — Kevin and Addison’s father had also been stationed on the ship.
* Finally, Kevin spills the beans: “Two days ago, OmniColony requested a covert team be sent to this ship to retrieve data. The team was attacked by something, and OC lost contact with them. We are here to retrieve the data they had gathered.”
* Kevin admits that he wasn’t told that the derelict ship was actually from the Fleet, and with a stealthed robot on board stalking them, he recognizes that there are far more questions than he knows the answers to.
* Seeing that the backup logs in the computer’s directory are encrypted, Maia decides to contact Arty on *Dauntless* to get his assistance.  After he provides the encryption key and asks Kevin for a mission update, Kevin decides to keep their revelations secret until they can find out more, and he informs Arty that they’ve had “limited findings” and will check back in later.
* As they finish up the comm conversation with *Dauntless*, Addison excitedly opens the decrypted video file detailing the final mission that doomed *Magellan*.
* In the video, the team leader leads their team into a cave, marking arrows on the walls with a red aerosol spray so they can find their way back.  Traversing through the cavern, they slip into a large room with a glowing orb floating above a small lake.  It pulses and mesmerizes them.
* As the video feed continues, Kevin notices the team’s scientist — his father, Adam — performing tests on the cave’s walls and taking samples.  But after the team leader reaches out and touches the glowing orb, he turns to face his team, who now appear frightened, and the transmission cuts to black.
* Upon closer inspection of the video clip, Addison discovers a few barely-noticeable secrets: she believes something has inhabited the body of the team leader based upon his actions, she notices through a reflection in another team member’s helmet visor that he pulls a gun on them, and she deduces that the feed cuts to black because he’s turned it off himself.
* At this news, Theo digs through the system in order to locate the video feeds from the other soldiers on the team so they can view the rest of what happened.
* Discovering the proper file from the vantage point of someone else on the team, they watch as the *Magellan* team leader shoots one of his comrades and approaches the next, snapping his neck and twisting his helmet off.  He takes the helmet with him and approaches Dr. Adam Clarke, who is cowering against the wall, and he swings the helmet through the air, colliding solidly with the side of the scientist’s head, knocking him to the ground, unmoving.
* The feed follows the team leader back through the cave, across the frozen tundra, into the transport shuttle, and back up into space, where he docks with *Magellan* and begins to sabotage the Comms Module and kill everyone on board.
* Then the feed cuts to black.

## **Chapter 6**

### Scene 1 - *Magellan: Crew Lounge*

* After the shocking revelations of what exactly happened during *Magellan’s* final mission, Kevin begins to doubt the mission, realizing that it wasn’t very likely that Arty didn’t know exactly what the ship was.  This makes him wonder if Commander Brighton or the Star Commander may have ordered him to lie to Kevin’s team.
* In their continued search for the data they were sent to find, they make their way back to the intersection they’d been in before when they’d decided to follow Maia to the Bridge.  They find a door that leads into what was formerly the Crew Lounge, and they begin their search.
* As Stock’s concussion symptoms grow stronger and more frequent, Addison notices that the handprint scanner that leads out of the room has been cleared of alien gunk, implying that someone had recently used it to close the door on their way out, just like the one in the Bridge.
* Buried within the goo-covered books on the bookshelves, Theo locates a seven-inch data pad.  Noticing that it wasn’t covered in alien gunk, the crew knew it had been placed there recently and was probably the data they were sent to find.
* Stock notices movement in the hall, and she manages to tackle the person — a human male.  She forces him into the room but immediately collapses from dizziness.
* In the ensuing chaos, Kevin recognizes the man.  A man that he had long thought was dead.  His father, Adam.

### Scene 2 - *Magellan: Crew Lounge*

* The shock of seeing his father again after two-and-a-half years of thinking he was dead brings up too many conflicting emotions in Kevin, and seeing Adam clearly favor Addison sets him off, and he tackles the man to the ground.
* Once restrained, the team notices that Adam’s right forearm is injured, blood stains seeping through the HE Suit’s fabric.  He reveals that there is no one else with him on the ship.
* When Addison says that they saw the vid-comm files of the mission, Adam clarifies that he was badly injured when the team leader had hit him with the helmet, but he wasn’t dead, and he managed to crawl out of the cave and get rescued when OmniColony showed up.
* He then confides in them that two days previous, he was sent to the *Magellan* with a team to retrieve some data, but they were attacked, and so he hid.  When asked what attacked them, he replies that it was something vicious and fast with teeth, claws, and tentacles.
* Kevin, finally calm, begins to put the pieces together: “Two-and-a-half years ago, you left with the *Magellan* on a mission to locate and study an alien artifact.  Your team lands on the planet and finds the source of the signal – a cave. When you go in and find the artifact, your team leader touches it, goes into a rage, and attacks all of you.  But he leaves the cave without finishing the job, because you survived. He goes back up to *Magellan,* slaughters everyone on board, and steals the ship. But Commander Berghoff sends a distress signal to OC before he’s killed, so soon after, they show up and find you near the cave.
	+ "Instead of coming home to your family, you decide to let the world think you’ve died, and you continue working for OC. And as if what happened in that cave wasn’t a warning to stay the fuck away, OC decides to colonize the planet. They name it Clotho, and build the Washington Colony, where hundreds of people currently reside.
	+ "Now, two-and-a-half years later, *Magellan’s* signal is finally located, but it’s pretty clear a rescue operation isn’t necessary. Instead, OC wants to send a covert team to the ship to retrieve data that they thought they’d lost when the ship was hijacked. So they send you, because being the sole survivor of the *Magellan* and that mission, you would know what to look for.
	+ "Except your team is attacked *again,* by what I can only assume is the same alien entity that possessed your former team leader to begin with. Twice you were part of a mission that doomed the lives of good soldiers, but to keep your dirty secret, my team was sent here under false pretenses, in hopes that we would find your precious data and clean up the mess, never the wiser that this used to be a grand colonial ship filled with thousands of brave men and women.”
* Adam divulges more information about the mission: OmniColony had received readings of a powerful energy source on a distant uninhabited planet, and the signatures weren’t from any race of beings known to man, so they sent the *Magellan* to investigate.  The new alien race had been temporarily named “Progenitors.”
* He informs them that the data pad contains the information he discovered in the cave as his scanner had taken readings from the orb, the walls, the water, and the air in the room, and it had sent the data back to *Magellan’s* main computer for analyzing.
* Looking at the tablet, he explains that the data seems to be some kind of organic blueprints, like diagrams of cellular structures that are encrypted somehow.  Opening a folder named “Xenobiological Entries” shows four files: S-909, A-807, C-612, and T-321, each containing similar cellular diagrams as the main folder with slight differences — chemical compounds known to the humans, like NaCl, H2O, and SiO4.
* He explains that the *Magellan’s* computer had begun to categorize the data, hence the four files within the folder.  He wonders if perhaps the orb was storing information about different climate types, because one of the entries — S-909 — contained information about chemical compounds in subzero temperatures.
* When asked who the team leader was, Dr. Clarke says, “Some smarmy, arrogant prick that couldn’t keep it in his pants.  Lieutenant Darryl James.”
* Maia grows angry at this news and lunges for Adam but is restrained by Stock.  Once everyone calms down, Kevin says their mission is done, and they contact Arty on *Dauntless*.
* But they start to wonder why OC would have sent such a green team to follow up a failed covert mission to retrieve data.  They all agree that things aren’t adding up, and perhaps OC is trying to get rid of the Clarkes for knowing too much.
* Being trapped on the ship with a busted transport shuttle, Kevin decides the best course of action is to keep quiet about what they’d learned and simply ask for an extraction from Arty.  When Arty asks them to upload the data to the *Dauntless* computer before a new shuttle is sent to them, the team grows especially suspicious.
* Throughout the conversation, Arty continues to act suspicious, and then Kevin loses his patience, realizing that the mission was FUBAR before it even began.  He informs Arty that they know all about the real purpose of the mission, and he’s tired of dealing with the lies and bullshit.  He requests an unmanned shuttle to pick them up, and if Arty doesn’t comply, the data pad that OC wants so badly will end up destroyed.
* On their way out of the Crew Lounge, the ship suddenly rocks with an explosion, sending them all into the wall.  They realize they’re being fired upon by *Dauntless*, and they need to hurry to the Flight Deck to get on Adam’s shuttle.
* But on their way out, an alien beast awakens from the darkened corner of the room, standing up out of its pile of thick, black, alien goo, a dozen tentacles whipping wildly from its back, razor-sharp talons for fingers.  But the green eyes that stare back at them are human — the green eyes of a mutated Darryl James…

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