24th January
18:27 GMT
Another crumbler-slap and I'm out into another room, this time with three corridors leading off from it. Left is labelled 'Main Sensors', right is 'Biological Processing', which is probably sewage, and straight forward with the widest corridor is 'Component Warehouse'. Alright, yes, I suppose that it makes sense that they wouldn't link directly to the place where they manufactured them. Far easier to have the manufacturers build up a stock and have technicians install them as needed.
I'm still stealthed, still not putting weight on anything… The ship can detect power ring scans, which… I knew was possible, but I'm not scanning now and I shot out every door on the way down. And the one for the level beneath this one. So it shouldn't know where I am at the moment. The warehouse shouldn't have better connections to the main generator than anywhere else.
Shouldn't.
I fly forward, and-. Ah, the first body of a crewman that I've seen so far. A dull-blue skinned humanoid… Male? With a floating platform loaded with electronic components. The internal door to the warehouse has made a spirited attempt to slice him and his space trolley in half, but appears to have failed part way through. Either that or the computer decided not to bother. In theory these doors are supposed to be able to slam closed to prevent decompression, but there's a limit to how hard they can actually close. It's not completely surprising that someone was here, the ship was in combat when Starkaðr and Abin Sur slew Devlos-.
Huh. Wonder how that worked. I know that Green Lanterns aren't supposed to kill people, but I doubt that the Guardians would have investigated too hard if one of them reported back that Devlos was 'a victim of circumstance'. Perhaps if they blasted him into a main reactor which suffered a critical containment failure. If they weren't specifically trying to kill him…
…
Am I making a false assumption there? Did they leave him alive? In a Sciencell? That would be a very Green Lantern thing to do. But wouldn't John have said something? Or… Jordan got Abin Sur's ring. Guy got Starkaðr's. John's is relatively… John's first ring is on Hinon's finger, and was new. His current one is even more new. It's possible that the relevant information hasn't been loaded onto it. Okay, when I get out, ask him to request all data concerning the case from Clarissi Salaak.
I fly over the body and into the warehouse. Larger pieces of equipment are neatly stacked on heavily-built shelves near the entrance, while smaller shelves further in contain smaller and more delicate components. The avenues between shelves are clear except for the bodies, each… Looks like it was shot repeatedly while on the deck. Ring, any irregularities?
Genetic traces of unclear origin detected.
Show me.
Huh. Well, we might not know who they are, but plenty of people would have come through here each day. It's not really-.
That one's ungaran. That's-. No, no, the ungarans weren't always limited to their homeworld, there are plenty of reasons why a genetic trace from one might be here. Record it and see if it matches any of the dead crew I find later.
Confirmed.
A couple of the bodies in this room have outstanding bounties. I'm sure that Ungara can use the money, so I do the necessary scans to confirm their identities. Take an inventory or move on? Obviously I don't know exactly what's supposed to be here, but this is a great place for looting if you can actually get here. Hm. I fly down an aisle, having the ring take note of everything still here. I'm not seeing any obvious holes in the stock. Would the stock list be separate from the central computer? Are any of the corpses carrying personal devices? I stop to check one. Ah, yes, but the automatic guns shot them.
Hm. I don't remember seeing any damage to the ship's sensors. Not externally, anyway. So why are the trays containing parts for the FTL sensor system almost empty? Both the parts for the sensors themselves and for the computer systems that take that data and turn it into a picture of the universe. That's all reasonably valuable, but neither unique or the most expensive thing here. They… Might have been partway through a major refit, or… Just wanted to make sure that everything was in full working order before the attack on Ungara. Ring, biological traces?
Scanned.
Nothing immediately actionable. Lots of people had access to these drawers. Still, worth noting.
Alright, nothing more I can do here-. Other than try looting the place myself, but that seems pointless. Not only will the ship's computer immediately detect it, but once I have control of the computer I can just deactivate the traps and take what I want. Or hand the whole thing over to the Ungarans. They're a nice bunch, and if anyone was going to have local hegemony I'd rather it was them than just about anyone else. Only other things of note are the senior technician's station -which might have data on the inventory- and the door to the machine shop. Breaching the door will undoubtably trigger this room's traps. And I don't particularly want to wreck the place.
Ring, identify hidden weapons.
Compliance.
Wall, floor and ceiling mounted. Far more than would actually be required to kill the crew, or even a sizeable number of attackers. Whoever designed this was a nutter.
But they weren't prepared for an Illustres.
I drop stealth and a volley of precisely targeted destructive pulses shoot out the internal guns before they can deploy. A construct crumble-slap takes care of the door to the next section as the computer tries to deploy the guns anyway, and then I'm through-.
A purple beam catches me in the face, eating into my armour-.
I intensify my environmental shield and pull myself to the side, generating construct armour just as soon as the force dies down enough to make that possible.
Ah, positron beams. Didn't miss you at all.
I fly fuck! The beam hits again, reacting with the electrons in the air to batter my armour which is already cracking under the strain-.
Forget it. Back up, back through the doorway into the warehouse-.
The beam stops for a moment as I get behind the dividing wall. Okay, didn't spot exactly where that came from. And-.
I reach up to my chest plate to feel-. Oh, that's not good. My armour's just gone. Start repairing that. Construct armour should deal with positron-based attacks, but that didn't look like it was just a positron containment beam to me. I should be able to tank it long enough to get a shot-.
The wall explodes! The explosive reaction of matter and anti-matter throws out enough heat and radiation to cook a quarter of the warehouse area, and I can see my construct armour start to sag and melt. The beam hits me in the right shoulder as I half-turn, matter-antimatter reactions chewing at the construct pauldron!
Separate the plate, expand, push forward. Holding for the moment, but the computer is clearly happy to shoot through the ship's interior and when it shoots denser objects the reaction is more energetic. Options? Can't shoot into this, the air is turning to plasma, stepping out should be safe but the ship clearly has some sort of anti-Lantern gear built in…
Wait, this whole area has been wrecked and I'm not scanning. How is it seeing me?
I float left towards the melted remains of the supervisor station and the positron beam continues shooting at my previous location, scything through the warehouse section in a series of matter-antimatter explosions but I'm already flying forward and releasing chaff as I go! There!
A destructive beam leaps from my ring and I keep moving as it strikes the positron beam projector's housing-. A force field, a stronger one than the other guns employ. The computer controlling it turns it, firing a shot at the point I fired from, but I've already gotten out of the way as it shoots out a wall. Pressure all over my construct armour increasing…
This level of energy is going to be externally detectable soon. Damn it! Scan in detail. I doubt that it's producing positrons as it fires, and I don't want to make its entire reserve explode. Bottle there? Good. I crumble-slap the force field and stab construct blades into the turret, destroying the wires linking the turret to the computer at the same time as a slightly more controlled construct takes control of the positron bottle. Okay, I'll… Take that somewhere safe and detonate it late-.
Another positron beam turret descends from the ceiling and f-.
I'm already moving out of the way. The computer still can't see me, it's just firing at my estimated location. Crumble-slap, stab. Ring, any more of these?
None detected.
Okay.
I take a look around at the devastation. It hasn't quite reached the outer hull, but unlike on a plane the built-up energy can't really escape anywhere. I generate cold guns and begin the process of cooling things down. Next stop, the computer core.
Man, that meme is old.
