Space Madness Round 1 - Strange Transmission

[Dylflon]

The vast reaches of space remind us how small and insignificant we are in the grand tapestry of the universe. The blackness extends distances immeasurable making us feel so helpless and alone. But with the right perspective and circumstances, the abyss outside your sleeping pod window serves to mock you when it’s not eternal emptiness you fear, but rather the company with which you share your quarters.

The Targarian was reaching its final stages of preparation when the passengers began to board. For the last 30 GNOYS (Galactic NOrmal Year Equivalents), the Targarian served as a transport ship for raw materials between colonies in various systems and sectors. But with the new fleet of G Class Transys Cruisers, the noble ship had outlived its usefulness. Now the Targarian transports merchant wares and passengers.

Captain Germanator leaned against a Mega-Load Turbo Lift and watched the dregs pile onto his ship. As he took a drag from his cigarette he reflected on how this group looked exactly the same as every passenger load he’s taken on since the decommission. And he hated them all the more since the board of directors passed the motion to decommission the captains with their ships to save on paper work, making these passengers very much an unwanted duty. This was his first visit to Mother Colony Earth since he first started working as a deckhand on a T-6 Waste Management Ship. Luckily for him, Captain Germanator was not one for nostalgia or sentiment. As he took his final drag the hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he suddenly became too aware of the person standing behind him.
“Excuse me, sir?”, the unidentified man stammered.
Germanator flicked his cigarette away and turned to face his unwelcome visitor.
“Er…my name is Jeepnut, I’m from the Inter-System Shipping Board. They sent me to investigate the recent increase in drug use among the crew of this ship”.
Mentioning that he was from the board wore on Germanator’s second to last nerve, and the fact the he was a drug sniffing narc wore on his last. The narcs (their actual titles are Space Travel Illegal Substance Operatives or STISOs) are in fact sent on board to investigate drug abuse but the directors use them as spies to essentially audit the ship while they are on board. This almost always results in a pay decrease for the captain and his crew. Germanator mulled over what would be the right words to use in this delicate situation, eventually settling on “Fuck you, you’re not coming on board”.
Jeepnut gathered up his courage and rooted around in his travel bag pulling out a signed document from the board essentially serving as a warrant.
“A member of your crew was killed recently in a loading bay accident. We are fairly certain after extensive interviews that the man operating the Turbo-Lift was under the influence of illegal substances. Denying me access to your ship will violate several IST by-laws and this as you know is a felony”.
The Germanator took a deep breath, making sure to speak very calmly.
“All right then Mr. Jeepnut. You may board my ship. But if I so much as see your face again on this trip, I have a few other felonies in mind that I will be more than willing to commit”.
With that, the captain boarded his ship to execute pre-flight preparations. He grumbled and swore all through the preparations but his pilot and navigating crew didn’t seem disturbed as this was no more agitated than the captain seemed on any other day.

Three GNODEs into the journey, everything was normal. Jeepnut went on auditing, Swan the ship engineer tinkered, and in the common room, many of the passengers drank, debated, gambled, and conversed. A man who called himself The Professor argued at length with Manasecret, a very convincing historical re-enactor about ancient colonial politics. The humans Bube, flunkie, and Typhoid played drinking games while fellow human Angrist sat off by himself reading. A man in a bathrobe played dice games with Mario Lover, a self-title free trader with an obviously fake name. the bathrobed man Dyne on several occasions accused Mario of cheating. GameMaster, a man of science, etched out blueprints for inventions which made no sense to anyone else. Also among these passengers were a cyborg called Combine, a scarred man in a cloak who went by Yoda, and a horrifying yet well-mannered alien by the name of Teuthida.

An amphibious humanoid walked past the door of the common room, the hollering and commotion within masking the sound of his out of water breathing apparatus. He had to move quickly to the cargo bay. Every step was deliberate and urgent as he knew it was only a matter of time before the STISO would be investigating his shipment. Vampyr for years had introduced himself as a traveling merchant, traveling the systems to collect and sell various exotic antiques. The antiques however had remained the same for a very long time. His real cargo consisted of bags upon bags of ‘Dust’. Dust is a notorious and illegal psychoactive substance and the STISO would receive a big fat promotion for uncovering it as certainly as Vampyr would receive a big fat death sentence. Vampyr knew that he’d have to relocate the drugs quickly. But where?

As the GNODE came to an end, and as everyone prepared to sleep, Fyacin’s work was just beginning. He was wriggling through air ducts finding he had less space to work with than he had previously hoped. Eventually he pulled himself to his destination, the grate above the communications room. The communications officers were switching shifts so he had about twenty minutes with which to work. When the current officer finally left his post, Fyacin pushed down on the vent grate, not expecting it to come loose so easily. The grate and Fyacin crashed on the ground below. Suffering only minor scrapes and bruises, Fyacin picked himself up and seated himself in the Comm-Off chair and began working away at the access interface on the nearest computer. The challenge was easy enough; infiltrate the transport ship’s system setting a time-activated code which would change the ships ID-tag. When the Targarian pulled into port, every radar and computer would see the words ‘I love penises’ in place of the ship’s name. The exercise was proposed partly out of boredom, and partly to keep his hacking skills sharp in the long months between paid jobs.

In the pilot’s cabin Captain Germanator was half-heartedly waging a battle against sleep, and sleep was winning. He began to have the most wonderful dream about everyone dying, when one of his navigators burst into the room.
“Navigator Uber Paddler reporting sir!”, exclaimed the new recruit.
Captain Germantor did not appear to be amused.
“Sir, the prisoner we are escorting has requested a television set for his cell”
Germanator blinked very slowly, and was about to get angry when he realized that Paddler hadn’t been around here for long and didn’t know the ship’s rules yet, first and foremost being ‘do not bother the captain while he is sleeping’.
“Give Aladuf the stupid television and tell him if he sends another one of you to bother me, he’ll get to sleep in the air lock which has no television and tends to get quite draughty when I want it to”.
Uber Paddler nodded and made a quick exit. Germanator sighed, partially unnerved that his old friend is being transported to meet a death sentence, and partially that he would send someone to bug him at this hour. Aladuf knows better.

Fyacin had already worked his way through the initial three security nets. Now all he had to do was open up the communication channels for as long as it takes him to type out his code. The process should have taken no more than ten seconds but the second he took the security block off of the channels, a disturbing frequency made itself at home.

All of a sudden, a rogue broadcast appeared on every teleset on board. Even the ones that were off switched on and displayed the transmission. It was hard to define specifically what it was, but could best be described as a shifting mass of colors, some of which nobody had seen before, accompanied by extreme high and low tonal frequencies. Every living being on board was subjected to the transmission.

Something strange began to happen as the transmission carried on. The ship’s crew and passengers began to speak in a strange manner, going on about things that made no sense, mistaking people for people who weren’t even on the ship. Then some of the ship’s inhabitants began killing eachother. And then more. And then more. Before long, over half the ship was fighting, and brutally murdering one another.

Captain Germanator pushed his way to the common room. Along every corridor, people fell over eachother wielding whatever weapons they could get their hands on. One of the captain’s computer technicians came at him wielding a steel rod. Germanator ducked under the technician’s first swing and punched him in the gut. He then disarmed the man and proceeded to beat him to death with the rod. The common room would be the only room he could lock off which would have supplies enough to keep himself and possibly others alive for more than a few days. He initially sought out the kitchen but since the kitchen was on fire, the common room would have to do. After finally reaching his destination, Germanator uncovered the key lock and began inputting his emergency lockdown code. Hydraulic pumps hissed and the door began to slowly close. Fyacin jumped through what was left of the uncovered doorway mere seconds before the door locked itself into place.

Germanator turned around with bloody rod in hand to address the startled and horrified faces in front of him.

“ALL RIGHT! HOW MANY OF YOU ARE CRAZY!?”


-----

Members of this group have succumbed to some sort of strange space madness and intend to murder everyone. It is your job to find out who. At the end of each round, those who have died will be announced but their mental status will remain secret. You must think logically and decide who is not sane.

Voting is a must and inactivity will not be tolerated.


The player list:


01. Aladuf
02. Yoda9864
03. Swan
04. Angrist
05. Dyne
06. Teuthida
07. Bube
08. GameMaster
09. Vampyr
10. jeepnut
11. uber_paddler
12. Typhoid
13. Fyacin
14. flunkie44
15. The Germanator
16. manasecret
17. thatmariolover
18. Combine 017
19. Professor S

There are special abilities, but the nature of them will also be kept secret.

This round ends on Thursday June 26th at 10am PST/ 1pm Eastern


PMs will be sent out shortly.