Exaltica: Eden Awakening Saga, Sin Denial Options

[Sailerius]

Exaltica: The Eden Awakening Saga
Episode 1: Sin Denial

"Emergency power conservation is in effect. All non-essential systems have been taken offline."

The recording of the woman’s voice is the first sound you’re able to make sense of. A dull ache of annoyance in the back of your head suggests that you’ve heard that recording before. You’re pretty tired, though, so your eyes flutter shut again and you drift back down into the depths of unconsciousness.

"Emergency power conservation is in effect. All non-essential systems have been taken offline."

Just as you’re about to fall asleep again, the recording plays again. It’s starting to get really annoying. You probably won’t be able to get any sleep until it stops. You suppose that means you’ll just have to get up (even if only to stop that blasted recording). It makes a pretty good alarm clock.

Your feet touch the floor uncertainly. You’re not sure if it’s because you’ve been asleep or because the artificial gravity in the ship is acting up, but you have a hard time standing up straight. Wait a minute, why are you on a ship?

As you try to gather your bearings, memories flood back to you in a disorganized heap of imagery. It takes a few minutes to sort everything out and arrange the memories chronologically. There must be something missing, though; no matter how you put together the disjointed pieces of your memory, you just can’t figure out where you are or how you got there. Maybe looking around will provide you with some clues.

The only lights on in the ship are the dim red emergency lights which illuminate only the essential areas. Inside rooms (whose heavy metal doors you must manually slide open because "Emergency power conservation is in effect. All non-essential systems have been taken offline."), it’s almost completely black.

The ship you’re on is fairly large; you’re able to gather that there are six decks and a sizable docking bay. Too big to be personal transport. A supply ship would have a larger cargo bay.

More importantly, where is the crew? And where is everyone else?

You’re all located on deck 3 and wake up in different cabins. Features on this deck: Cabins, storage, lift (deactivated), stairs.

[Ganonfrog]

Plans were discussed, introductions were made, and not a single damn was given by Jun. He kept note of the names that were given out, but aside from that, he really didn't want to have to make conversation unless he absolutely had to. This place was giving him the creeps, and he really didn't want to deal with the extra stress. He would just address them when he had to, and they would do the same to him.

Either that, or they would run into him again, barreling him into the piles of junk lining the walls. Once this inevitably happened, he wound up collapsing onto a nearby tin, accumulating yet another bruise on his recently abused arms.

Aiko said something to him as he attempted to push everything out of his way, before offering her hand to him. It had all occurred so quickly that he had no way to tell who tumbled into him as it happened, but it wasn't hard to deduce that it was her, after her actions.

Even so, he reluctantly took her assistance up, and got back up to his feet in uncomfortable silence. He really wasn't sure how much more of this girl's clumsiness he could take, but, at this point, he'd much rather not have to concern himself with it. He would just keep his distance. He had less painful things to deal with, and he really didn't want to pick a fight with someone like her. For all he could tell, she could be thinking anything under that awkward exterior. Hell, what if she was crashing into him on purpose?

Jun moved to the other side of the hallway as they walked the rest of the way down, only occasionally shooting Aiko glances as he went. Zhi seemed to catch on to his discomfort, and moved over to accompany the girl he was thinking none-so-pleasant thoughts about. She kept by her side, ready to catch her by the arm if she ever lost her footing again.

"Don't get too bothered by him. He's just not used to social situations like this. He's used to keeping to himself." Zhi assured her before she could think too much about it.

----------------------------

Progress through the ship was made.

The door to the bridge opened. Something fell. A disturbing and familiar scent wafted out from the room, before the flashlight revealed the source. Blood leaked to the floor, slowly making it's way toward the doorway now that the body that it originated from was disturbed. Beyond that, the rest of the room was too disturbing to process.

Zhi stepped back from the door in horror, covering her mouth and nose as an instinctual response to the smell. Her stomach churned, but wouldn't let itself be sick. She had already seen too much. It was only her desperate desire to never see such a scene again that kept her terrified of what was laid out in front of her.

"Why is... what's going on?" She whispered from under her hand as she began to tear up. None of this should be happening. Everything about the current situation was just wrong. This wasn't just some kind of mistake anymore.

It was only after the shock of being pushed aside by Arel that Zhi could even begin to get a hold on herself, and even then, all it really managed to do was snap her out of her daze. In attempt to think the whole thing over sensibly, she steadied herself, and tried to take a better look around the room for anything aside from the dead bodies. Unfortunately, all she managed to catch were console that Arel was currently operating, and the disturbingly thin air in the room.

Figuring that Arel had found the only possible object that could give them the answers to the oxygen problem, Zhi forced herself to make her way past the slaughter, and to the other side of the chair Arel was sitting in. She watched as the other woman operated the terminal, hoping that she would be able to pull up something informative.

She did, but the answers it gave weren't as optimistic as she'd hoped for.

"Only two hours...? How long has this been happening?" She managed to croak from her quickly tightening throat. "We... no. We need to get out of here. We can't think about this right now. We don't have the time. This ship must have escape pods, correct? They must still be here... since..."

Zhi paused, before slowly glancing back behind her. The bodies of the remaining crew continued to fill her field of vision. There was no one left to take them.

---------------------------------

Jun took a little longer to get a proper look at the room, due to his newfound desire to keep his distance from the others. As a result, he noticed everyone else's reactions before the room itself. It left him confused for a moment, but as soon as his sister got her chance to respond, it quickly dawned on him. He took another step back, tightening his fists as his imagination pieced together the scene for him.

"W-wait a minute..." He murmured, the artificial voice not properly expressing the amount of fear he was actually feeling, "Don't tell me they're all dead. The crew? The other passengers on this thing?"

No response. Either everyone was ignoring him, or they were too sickened by what they saw to even process what he said. The latter seemed more likely, right now.

As his confusion quickly elevated into panic, Jun lost all of his desire to keep away, and instead went charging straight into the room, pushing and kicking aside anything that got in his way. Even once he got inside, he didn't stop moving. He kept glancing around the horrific scene with little more than fear on his mind. Nothing even truly registered until he found the one thing in room more terrifying than the rest. He stopped everything, and stared.

"... Why is he still in one piece?" He eventually snapped, staring directly at the man with the hole in his head, "Why is everyone else torn apart like this when he-- this guy! Why did get out of this with nothing more than a bullet to the brain!?"

Zhi stopped staring at the console as if it was the most important thing about the room, and looked back to Jun. The concern in her eyes only scared him more. "Please, Jun... I don't think--"

"No! Don't try to tell me this isn't important! Look at him!" He shouted back, violently turning around to face his sister, "He's different! He just-just..." Everything beyond that devolved into nothing but noise as he finally snapped. As a final act, he kicked over the corpse that was bothering him so much, before collapsing to his knees. He let out a small, strangely human cry of distress, and buried his head in his hands, unable to take anything that was happening anymore.

"God damn it, this doesn't make any sense..."

This post has been edited by Ganonfrog: Mar 20 2011, 03:54 PM

[Ereth]

Aiko shifted uncomfortably as Zhi settled in next to her, but soon quieted. The sound of her apron-knapsack thumping on her back was oddly soothing. "Don't get too bothered by him," Zhi said. "He's just not used to social situations like this. He's used to keeping to himself."

"Oh . . . okay." Aiko tried not to look at him, but he kept glancing toward her. She noticed that he had bruises from both collisions. I hope he's not in too much pain because of me.

And then they reached the bridge.

---------------------------------

It was horrible. Blood and meat and splintered bone . . . everywhere. The stench made Aiko's nose wrinkle, and she didn't know what she wanted to do more: scream, cry, or vomit. Out of the corner of one tear-filled eye, she saw Arel sidle up to a computer of some kind. Zhi followed close behind, and Aiko was left to try to process the scene as best as she could. Something had savagely torn most of these people to ribbons . . . and two people had been shot.

Shot with a bullet. Bullets came from guns. Like the one she had. She shuddered at the thought, but didn't dwell on it. The dead man (he was the only one she could call a man at this point) had a gun near him. Maybe he had shot himself to avoid a worse fate.

She could hear Zhi gasping something about two hours . . . and escape pods . . . and Jun yelling back at her about the man. Then the most heartbreaking sound entered Aiko's ears: it was Jun, and he was screaming in what seemed to be his own voice. Without another thought, she ran over and knelt beside him.

"Don't cry," she murmured. "Please don't cry. If you cry, I'll cry too." Before she could stop herself, Aiko wrapped him in a warm hug.

This post has been edited by Ereth: Mar 17 2011, 08:13 PM