Shadows on the Ship

## Characters

* John Capriel: Last survivor of his ship
* Rangers:
	+ Inel Titus: Captain of his ranger squad
	+ Dabrius: A mutant, psychic ranger, noted for the eye symbol on her head.
	+ David Khan: The tech expert
	+ Mario Victus: Heavy weapons specialist.
* Rez: A young boy on the ship, an orphan they picked up.

## Part 1

Everything seemed silent in the corridors of the ship, tunnels of cold steel paneling, old and almost derelict, wires hung or were otherwise exposed all about the place, paired with patches of rust. Then the lights came on. The white lights turned on as unseen machines fired up, with electronic squeals and beeps. The doors in the middle of the hallway, opened, air rushed in for just a moment, filling the vacuum of a room behind it.

In marched a group of people in armor of thick armor plating, motorized endoskeletons within, multilayered materials for survival purposes and dark green livery, all wrapped around the human form within. Their armor sported metal backpacks with exhaust ports on the side constantly spewing out a stream of hot air.

Each of the four warriors sported unique modifications to their armor. One sported a red helmet, while the others sported green helmets, each with cylinders on the side of their cheeks part of the breathing apparatus. Another had an optic attachment, and a harness on their back sporting several mechanical arms, each ending with a different tool, one with a metal claw. Another had a seeming hood from their metal collar, with orbs inside the hood. The last simply sported a bulkier right arm, with which to hold the large machine gun, connected to an extra piece on his backpack, a large lump of square metal holding more ammo. The others simple carried large thick rifles.

"Well...?" asked the one with the red helmet, obvious the leader The soldier with the mechanical arms, plugged one of his arms into the control panel of the door.

"Not much..." he replied "If I didn't know any better I would say there was a system wipe, there is just the bare minimum of the operating system left, no security measures, no logs, nothing, just empty space.

"Can you recover the data?" he asked.

"Not from here. Here I can just see the gaps of where stuff used to be. If I got the to core, it would probably be quicker."

"Did we all really need to be here...?" asked the soldier with the big gun.

"Standard operations..." said the leader. He turned to the hooded warrior. They stood staring down the corridor. "Something wrong...?"

"We are not alone on this ship..." she said

"And who do we have as company...?" the heavy gunner asked "Bugs and vermin..."

"I am being serious..."

"So am I. This ship's life support has been off for who knows how long."

"Yet I sense minds, living...though a bit off, but clearly human..."

"I wouldn't be surprised if they were 'off' being in this place for so long..." said the technician "I may not know how long this ship has been adrift, but I can guess it has been a while." He continued to fiddle about with the system. "You guys can go I will try and get the systems back online."

"Do we need that...?" the psychic asked.

"It's that or haul this thing back on our own power, which is more costly and more time consuming." the leader said.

"We're not a recovery crew."

"No, but salvage is under our purview. Dabrius, you and Victus go and find these locals. Khan and I will head to the cockpit."

"Okay boss..." the technician said disconnecting from the system.

"Fine..." the psychic said with a pouting tone. The four of them split up, walking in different in the opposite directions in groups of two.

"So Victus..." the psychic said a bit nervously "We don't talk much..." the heavy gunner continued to walk down the hallway in front of her, the path too narrow for them to walk side by side. They walked one after the other, their footsteps clanging and echoing around them.

"Is there a problem with that...?" he responded with indifference.

"Well, no, but... small talk isn't so bad is it?"

"It is also a waist of time, we don't get along..."

"Seriously, do ever not do the brooding loner act...?"

"I only do that around you..." he said with a tone of disdain."

"Wait why?"

"You are not the first esper I have met, Dabarius..."

"It's Dabrius."

"That's nice." He said with no concern. Dabrius stopped and turned around.

"Did you hear that...?"

"No, I don't have voices in my head..." She turned back around glaring at him through her helmet as she continued onward, unaware of the small shadow behind her.

"As if they would like your company..." she mumbled under her voice.

"There is air in there..." said Khan as his arms fiddled with the door's control panel. He and the leader were together outside of a door at the end of a hallway. The symbols on the walls pointed this to be the bridge, the main control room for piloting the ship. There were, however, other symbols etched about the walls, arcane, alien symbols the translators in their HUDs, could not decipher, which meant it was not a human language, or it was gibberish.

Only Khan took some interest as they seemed to have been soldered into the very metal of the panels themselves, but he knew the commander cared not for that.

Within moments the hallway came alive, the lights turned on, and the hissing sound of air being pumped into the room could be heard. Then the door opened. The inches this slab of metal slid up into the bowels of the ship, revealing the inside of the bridge, the frigate's cockpit.

"The hell happened here...?" Khan asked. The inside looked trashed, the numerous control panels, were damaged, bent in or torn open, some of the chairs had their cushioning ripped art, and there were stains of dried blood about the place.

"Who are you?!" The man shouted as the jumped out from the side. He carried a rifle, and wore a civilian space suit, which was lacking a helmet. His brown hair, was almost shoulder length, and wild, while his mad beard matched his crazy brown eyes.

Upon having a gun pointed their way, the two men in power armor took aim, but noticed quickly not only was it a basic slug thrower, incapable of even so much as denting their armor, it was lacking a magazine, it was empty.

"We are Imperial Space Rangers of of her Majesty's Galactic Patrol." The captain said "I am Captain Inel Titus of this squad, identify yourself." The man looked at them mad, confused, before standing at attention in a rather forced, and almost unnatural way.

"I am John Capriel, captain of this ship, Pelican Class Freighter Frigate the Pandamine!"

"You're the captain...?" Khan said surprised. The men hunched over back into his mad stance.

"The boy, we have to kill him quick before he wakes up!"

## Part 2

"It's in here..." Dabrius said. She and Victus stood before a door, one twice the width of most of the other doors, which told them, along with the signs, it was the cargo bay.

"This better be good..." Victus grumbled. Dabrius touch the control terminal, the lights above them turned on and the door opened.

"Huh, that was surprisingly easy..." she remarked "Was sure I would going to have to use a computer spike..." The entered the airlock, and proceeded into the cargo bay, a massive room where large freights had been stored in the dark.

"Was there a fight here...?" Victus asked, noticing the dents and spent shells and magazines all over.

"Over here...!" Dabius shouted over the radio. Victus ran over towards her to see her kneeling over a youth, slouched against the wall, and unconscious. He had slightly tanned skin, with a thin creature, androgynous in build, wearing short black pants, long black sock, grey sneakers, a red vest over his grey shirt, and a long green trench coat. His hair was short curly locks of burgundy, a reddish brown visible even in the dim shadow.

"Hey...hey kid..." Dabrius said, gently shaking him, aware of the strength of her power armor. Suddenly she recoiled back, causing Victus to aim his weapons, as the boy opened his red eyes. He turned and looked at them with an almost mechanical, lifeless expression. "Uh...hello..."

"You should not be here..." he said in a monotone voice as he stood up "it is not safe here, especially for the esper."

"A what...?" Victus asked.

"A psychic..." the boy replied.

"What are you...?!" Dabrius shouted.

"What's wrong...?" Victus asked.

"His mind, it...it flared up, it...are you a psychic..." The boy looked down at her.

"You are vulnerable, you require defenses..." his eyes glowed and she passed out. Immediately Victus aimed his weapon.

It was the sound of gunfire that called them, the impact echoed through the steel, and the radio silence of Dabrius and Victus was enough to convince Khan and the commander to run towards them.

They entered the room to find...the boy...sitting with his legs cross between the two, on the floor unconscious. Khan and the commander immediately aimed their guns.

## Part 2

"It's him! Quickly, kill him!" Capriel shouted.

"Oh, they let you out, makes sense I suppose..." the boy said

"Shoot him...!"

"What is going on here...?" The commander demanded.

"Oh, well I was fortifying their minds from outside invasion. But alas, they mistook me for a threat and blanked out. They will wake up in a few, for now, you two are the only ones threatened by him..." The boy pointed to Capriel and the two soldiers laughed.

"How is he a threat?!"

"He read the code, the sanity locked, and sadly it did not settle well in his mind. It birthed...a Psi Dragon, which frankly means he had issues already, but that is neither here nor there."

"A what...?"

"A predator of psychic manifestation. What do you think the runes were there to lock in?"

"Look kid, I don't know about hocus pocus, but I know psychic powers don't work like that."

"Yeah, and you also know that computer code doesn't drive people insane from looking at it. Why do you think most of the system was purged?"

"Something sensitive was on there, or the crew went crazy!"

"Yes, and yes..."

"Stop talking to him and shoot him...!" said Capriel "He's a Jinn, he's the thing that did all of this!"

"Enough, from both of you...!" the commander shouted. "Khan, check their vitals." Khan pulled out a device, obviously some manner of scanner and scanned them.

"They're alive..." he said "Brain activity is a bit off, but other than that..."

"And our friend...?" Khan aimed the device at the boy

"He's...he's very clearly a powerful esper, and probably why they are asleep..."

"You see!" Capriel shouted "You need to end him!" He rushed for the commander's gun, only to be sent flying back when the boy glared at him, knocking him onto the floor. This caught both Khan and the commander by surprise."

"Maybe..." said Khan

"Maybe we should take note that he hasn't attacked 'us' yet. A kid like this should be brought to the Inquisition."

"The Ladies of the Third Eye, would pay a handsome price..."

"Not sure how I feel about leaving anyone with that sisterhood of weirdos..."

"Perchance..." said the boy "You two can not talk like I'm not here...?"

"Perchance you let our friends go...?" the captain asked.

"They are fine, the process of reinforcing their minds was over sometime ago, they just need to wake up."

"How...?" the boy raised an eyebrow, and then whistled, a high pitch noise seemingly uniquely designed to annoy the human ear, even through electronic equipment. Khan and the commander covered their ears, and Dabrius and Victus sat up to do the same with the man cursing as he woke up.

"What was that?!" Victus barked.

"Your commander wanted you awake." the boy replied.

"I feel different..." Dabrius said

"That would be the ringing in your ears...and the mental walls I placed around your psyche for protection."

"Why do I need protection...?" She suddenly turned and looked forward, at Capriel, who was seemingly unconscious.

"Because as a bearer of the esper gene, you are particularly targeted."