Post by Nakor on Sept 4, 2010 17:55:51 GMT -5
A brief reminder of the...
RULES
1. Every living participant must post at least once in the thread during each "game day." Failure to do so more than once may result in being modkilled and replaced at my discretion. If replaced, the new participant will take whatever role the modkilled player held.
2. Dead participants may NOT post in this thread, or discuss the game with living participants in any way. Dead participants may communicate with each other outside of the thread. A Skype chat will be made available for dead participants.
2a. Dead wolves may not reveal or hint at who the other wolves were in any way, even to other dead participants or non-players. Failure to follow this could accidentally cost you the game! That's your only warning.
3. Living participants may communicate with other living participants in any manner they choose, save that they may not share their role PMs. You can use IM, PMs, email, phone... whatever.
4. The roles are:
4 Werewolves: Wolfani youths disguised as crew members. Each night, in pairs, they hunt and murder one of the ship's crew to prove themselves. They win if at at any point they outnumber the remaining crew not counting the shapeshifter.
Microbiologist: He/She's not a medical doctor Jim! Once each night in his lab s/he can examine a sample collected off a crewmember to determine if they're terran or wolfani.
Shapeshifter: The chief of security, totally not a star trek ripoff, is a Shapeshifter who, each night can hide him/herself in a crewmember's room to protect them from wolfani attack. Everybody knows who the shapeshifter is, and the shapeshifter cannot be killed by the werewolves.
Crew Member (16): Members of varying ranks and tasks among the crew, their task now is simply to survive.
4. If the humans win, the ship will be taken back to terran territory where any dead humans will be revived. If the wolves win, the ship will be taken to their territory where any dead wolves will be revived. This means even if killed, you are considered to have won the game if your team wins.
5. Personal Logs. At any time in the game a living crew member (or wolf) may record a 200 word or less personal log by sending it to me as a PM with "Personal Log" as the subject. Only the most recent one from each player will be kept, and it will be played back for the crew upon that person's death.
6. Be aware that events may happen throughout the story that could impact the game. Try to use these to your advantage.
NOTE: Because there were 3 fewer participants than planned, the game will not begin with any kills. I will have a "no lynch" option in the voting for the FIRST ROUND ONLY in case players wish to allow the wolves any kills prior to voting the first time.
The Story So Far...
DAY 1
Swift stirred with a groan, pawing gently at the floor. Everything in his body tingled... what had happened...? What--
Attack!
He quickly shook off his drowsiness and dragged himself to his feet. The monitor was flickering with static, and the entire bridge crew was still unconscious. Immediately he scrambled to the security console and brought emergency power online. The monitor clicked in quickly showing... nothing but space. The enemy ship had left.
He'd been right. It was a wolfani youth mission. And he didn't know whether he was glad for it or terrified.
Swift swiftly went about waking the others on the bridge, still moving slowly. That had surprised him; not much could do damage to a shapeshifter of his race, but that electric shock had certainly done the trick. He still felt like play-doh. One by one the bridge crew stirred. Ricky, then Ben and Norwegian, and Unfairbear. When he came around to Captain Curt, however, the man did not stir. Swift let out a gasp.
"What's wrong?" UnfairBear asked in a pained voice.
"He didn't make it...."
There was a silence in the room for several long seconds until Swift took action again. He checked over the captain's body but didn't find any wounds. "He was an old man... a couple years from retirement... the shock must've been too much."
The others could only watch on in silence, until Ben, nearest the door, spoke up. "Ship communication is down... that shot must've fried it...."
Swift blinked himself back to awareness. "Right. We need to gather the rest of the crew. Let's get them all to the main mess hall. Everyone who survived.
The others, recognizing the authority in his voice nodded. Ricky unsealed the bridge door and they spread out to gather the rest of the crew.
* * *
"This is... everyone?" Swift asked unsurely.
"Yes," replied Diana, ship's councillor. "A lot of people were..." She shook her head and wiped away a tear. Zang patted her on her shoulder.
"We should be glad as many survived as did..." Kevak said.
"I have... some bad news," said Swift. Expressions in the crowd mixed from worry to agitation that things could be any worse than they already were. "Sorry, but this is important.
"We were allowed to survive that strike, you see. The ship that attacked us was on a wolfani youth training mission." He scanned the crowd, but nobody seemed to react. "When Wolfani youth near adulthood, they disable a ship like this and beam the youth on board. Once there, the youth kill one of the crew, and disguise themselves as that member."
"They can do that?" asked Torterra. "Like you?"
"No, for Wolfani the process is much slower, and they can only take on humanoid shapes, whereas I can take any shape of roughly the right size. Anyway, the youths are instructed to pick off the rest of the crew and bring the ship back to Wolfani space. If they succeed, they are entered into adulthood and given jobs aboard war vessels. If they fail, they are left to die."
"And you're... not one of them?" Ryan ventured.
Swift morphed his arm quickly into a Terran Planetary Alliance flag. "Wolfani could not do this." A few of the more veteran crew spoke their agreement.
"In other words, I'm the only one we know for sure is not a wolf," Swift concluded. "The only way we survive this is if we can pick off the wolves before they pick us off. But... how do we determine who are the wolves...?"
* * *
NIGHT 1
Silence greeted Swift's question; not one of the crew could offer up an effective way for them to tell wolves from humans, and not one of them seemed to be willing to risk killing a fellow crew member without some inkling of who they were.
It was fair, he supposed. But this would probably become bloody sooner than later.
"Well..." he began, "at the very least we need to get this ship moving again. With as many people dead as there are, I'm afraid you'll all have to work double shifts."
He watched the small crowd as nervous glances took the place of the outrage he'd expected to hear.
"That's all. Dismissed."
The crew started to disperse when Anthony stepped forward, flanked by CoolTiger and Ryan. "Sir, a moment?"
"Yes? What is it?"
"We were thinking and... we'd like permission to bear weapons, sir."
Swift thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. The wolfani would not have need for weapons. Sadly the ship was only equipped with things that could be used as mêlée weapons -- it had no real weapons at all -- but that was better than nothing. Might as well keep things on par.
"Granted."
"Thank you, sir."
He watched as some of the crew, including the three who had spoken to him looked for weapons around the mess hall. He raised his eyebrow a bit at the sight of Raydawn testing the edge of a small paring knife, as the cooking implements quickly dwindled. A few others, such as Zang, had left without a weapon, suggesting they could find something better down in engineering, where they were needed anyway.
And what about himself? At the very least he could watch their backs. When the last crew member left, he took on a translucent form and selected one to follow....
* * *
DAY 2
"Hey Ryan," Anthony greeted.
"Hey Bryan. What's up?"
Anthony sighed. "I dunno. Just trying to keep busy, and not think... yeah, just keeping busy."
"I know the feeling," Ryan replied. "Well, we could head down to the..."
As Ryan opened the door to the lower deck storage lockers, his face turned ashen.
"What is it...? Ryan?"
Ryan stepped to one side to reveal Raydawn, laying dead upon the floor.
"They've already started..." Anthony said.
"Go get Swift. He should be told."
"Yeah... yeah, I'll go."
Ryan entered and knelt to examine the body. It was propped up against a pillar in the middle of the room, and to the left under her hand was a page of paper, too bloodied to be readable. He saw in her right hand the small knife she had taken from the mess hall. Lifting her left arm, he finally noticed the source of blood -- her wrist was slit.
"She wasn't killed... she took her own life rather than be killed."
"That's right, she beat me to it."
"Wha--?!" Ryan only had a moment to recognize his assailant's face before his own was gouged by long, unnatural claws.
"That's one... one kill." And a dark chuckle pierced the hum of the engines running.
* * *
Anthony rushed through the passageways back up to the main deck where the mess hall was; to the best of his knowledge Swift would still be there. With communications down, that was his best bet.
He spun around a corner quickly nearly at the entrance to the ladder that would take him up outside the messhall when he found himself suddenly seeing stars.
He started to try to pull himself off the floor, when he heard chuckling. "Don't bother. You terrans don't stand a chance against us."
"N... no..."
"Yes."
Anthony Bryan begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting died instantly, his neck split in two.
* * *
It was minutes later when Swift overheard the news from crewmen looking for him; Anthony had been found. He emerged from his hiding place when nobody was nearby and made his way straight to the scene. It was a gruesome sight.
"There you are!" He looked up to see Diana walking toward him, winded. "Nancy and I heard about it while we were in hydroponics. She's probably still looking for you."
Swift didn't mention that this was the conversation he'd overheard. "It's pretty nasty. And it confirms our worst fears. I'll get the body to stasis."
"It gets worse..." It was Matthew who spoke, accompanied by Kevak. "While we were looking for you down here, we found two more bodies."
* * *
"Suicide," Swift concluded. "Ryan was killed by a wolfani, but Raydawn... she took her own life. No wolfani would bother with such tactics."
"But why would she kill herself?!" Lando demanded.
Swift shook his head. The suicide note had been unrecoverable. "I don't know. Maybe from fear. Either way she's done us no favours." The crew, most of them now gathered around the scene, mumbled its agreement. "Get Ryan to stasis. But the moral code forbids taking the choice of death from someone. Hers is permanent. I'll take care of it."
There were a couple gasps in the crowd, but they all knew the code. A person who committed suicide had a right to their death. She would not be revived, even if they made it home.
"Now, does anyone have any inkling who did this?"
* * *
NIGHT 2
The crew squabbled for some time over who was where, and had what opportunities... but eventually the consensus came that nobody was quite sure. Eventually the crew elected to slay one of their number who was not assisting in the decision.
"Picnic," Swift said aloud, after counting the votes.
Picnic had been slouched in the corner, trying to pretend that they weren't just deciding which of his friends to kill, when he heard is name. "Huh? I told you, I want no part in--"
"No, Picnic," Swift said with a mix of pain and firmness, "we've voted for you."
His eyes went wide for a moment as he realized what had just been said, and then tried to scramble to his feet. Zang and Lando, who were among those who voted for Picnic, were standing nearby however, and when he attempted to bolt, they caught him by the arms.
Swift walked up and used a medical injector to administer a fast-acting, painless poison while Picnic struggled.
"Why? Why...?"
"We will revive you when we get home," Swift replied.
"...if...we......." Picnic slumped forward in the pair's arms.
Utter silenced pierced the room for a long minute until Swift finally said, "Take him to stasis."
"Then..." Ricky asked, "that means...?"
Ben answered for him. "If he were wolfani, he'd have converted by now. They can't maintain their chameleon form after death."
Lyserg closed his eyes and sighed. "That makes four dead then...."
* * *
DAY 3
The crew was dismissed, as the ship's functions required additional tending to. Swift had left orders with the crew to try to remain in pairs or greater groups when possible, but the number of crew members left aboard the ship was already dwindling from the initial attack.
So it was that Alex found himself wandering the ship alone despite knowing better.
This whole thing wasn't quite real to him yet, perhaps. He spent his time voting for himself as a jest when Swift called for the votes, but having seen Picnic ignoring the event killed for the effort was making him wonder whether those votes were more likely to kill him than the wolves.
Which was when he heard the wolves.
...fighting?
"He was to be my second kill!" yelled one of the voices in a guttural snarl.
"Hah!" came a reply. "You will always be nothing, just like your parents knew you to be!"
Alex rushed forward, wondering as he did so why he did. When he burst through the door to see who was fighting, however, he found nobody there. The wolves had already left.
They had also left the dead body of Matthew laying at Alex's feet.
Alex held his breath a moment and turned away, his face pale. Yes, this was quickly becoming all too real....
* * *
NIGHT 3
After Alex's discovery of Matthew's dead body, Swift called the crew back together to gather what evidence he could.
"Does anyone know anything that could lead to the killers?"
The crew was mostly silent until Lyserg spoke up. "What about Ben? He seemed to know a lot about the wolfani...."
Muttering passed throughout the crew as others agreed. "Yeah, he knew right away that Picnic wasn't a wolf!" and "How'd he know so fast?"
Benyamin, late to enter, overheard all this and halted in his steps. "N... now wait, guys... There's a good explanation for--"
"I'd like to hear it," said Swift.
"I..." Ben sighed and twiddled his fingers nervously. "Well, you see... I'm a microbiologist... I've studied them a lot."
Swift glanced back at his crew, but it was clear that they weren't buying it. Shouts to kill the wolf were starting.
"Sorry Ben. The crew has spoken."
Ben could barely find the capacity to take a single step back before Swift was upon him and administering the drug.
He simply stared blankly for the last few seconds of his life, before finally falling to the ground.
Minutes later, nothing had changed. Swift swore. This was getting bad.
* * *
DAY 4 - FIRST HALF
"You again?!"
He snorted, dust mites fluttering out from his snout. Taking no chances on being identified, he had taken the time to switch to full wolf form for this hunt; so had the other, it seemed. "You are inferior. You are nothing compared to me."
"I won't let you have my kill!"
"Hush!" Ears twitched. "They're coming."
"...there are two!"
"Then let us see who is stronger. I will take the one they call 'Tiger,' for I am stronger!"
"Hah, we shall see. Then I shall take the one they call 'Nor.'"
"Hush!"
Cooltiger and Norwegian's footsteps echoed through the hall as they spoke quietly to each other about girls they were interested in. Their faces showed nervousness, but nothing compared to the fear that they were about to experience.
The wolves burst out from their hiding spot alongside the wall and ran straight for them.
Norwegian and Cooltiger both reached for their blades, but far too slowly. The wolves tackled them immediately, driving them hard to the ground. As they reached for their necks, though, the tide suddenly turned again, as from nowhere a fist came flying out of what had appeared to be a trash receptacle -- Swift smashed the wolf who had been attacking Norwegian in the jaw, knocking him away from his target.
The other wolf glanced up momentarily from Cooltiger's corpse, and thought only for a second before grabbing his rival about the waist and bolting.
"You see?! You are still nothing! Useless fool!"
Swift attempted to sound the alarm and give chase, but the wolves' legs were swifter than any he could conjure for himself. The wolves had escaped. Swift swore, only to feel Norwegian's hand on his shoulder.
"You did your best," Nor said. "Don't stress it. I owe you one."
"Yeah... I guess."
"And I'm about to repay it."
That got Swift's attention. "What do you mean?"
Norwegian guided him back to where the fight had taken place, trying not to focus on Cooltiger's body laying on the ground. "Look here, in the cabinet that you knocked that bastard into."
"It's... a robotic body? What...?"
"It's a cybernetic body. We can revive one of the crew with this."
"You know how to do that?!"
Norwegian grinned. "Yep."
* * *
DAY 4 - SECOND HALF
*click*
Norwegian closed the access port on the back of the android's head. It wasn't the most human looking thing; it was somewhat uncanny valley in fact. But it would do.
"Is it ready?" asked Swift.
"It ought to be," Norwegian replied. "Shall we give it a try?"
Swift nodded. The rest of the crew seemed to take a slight step back; this level of biomechanics wasn't an every day event, and it wasn't a certain thing by any shake.
Norwegian flipped the switch; nothing appeared to happen.
"Is... is it turned on?" Jean asked.
"Yes," replied Norwegian. "It's designed to run silent to seem more human. It should only be a minute..." He noticed dotted lines starting to light behind the eyes. "Ryan? Buddy? You with us?"
"...nghh... gah?!" Ryan woke with a start and stared around the room. "Why does everyone look so... red?"
Norwegian clapped him on the back. "You were killed by the wolves. We've reinstalled your consciousness into an artificial body. You probably have infrared vision turned on; it usually takes a while to learn how to control these."
"I... was killed? I remember... oh, a few of us were... weren't we...?"
"Yeah," Jean replied. "Are you feeling alright?"
"I... I don't hurt... can I hurt?"
"You can pretty much only receive status reports about the body you're in," Norwegian answered.
"Do you remember anything about your killer?" Swift asked.
Ryan shook his head. "No... just fur, fangs, and then nothing."
Jean distracted Ryan from Swift's apparent disappointment by helping him to his feet. Slinging one arm around him, she started him toward the mess hall. "Come on, I'll give you a hand getting used to your new body."
Kevak walked over to Norwegian who was watching them go. "You should go with them. You know more about robotics and stuff, and besides, maybe you just scored some brownie points with her?" He gave Nor a playful tap on the arm.
Norwegian glanced at him startled for a moment, then shook his head clear. "Yeah. Maybe you're right."
* * *
NIGHT 4
"...and that's why I think Zang might be a wolf," Ryan concluded.
The crew was in utter disarray over the decision. A half dozen names were being tossed about, and Alex's suggestion of his own demise even seemed to be gaining attractors. When it seemed the crowd was about to break out into a fight, Swift hollered for quiet.
"Enough! We decide by vote as always. Everyone make their picks."
The names came in one by one, and in the end Zang was chosen.
"You're making a mistake..." he said, almost with a sigh.
"Sorry," Swift replied.
Zang didn't resist in the slightest as Swift injected the lethal dose of poison into his system.
"My partner will take care of you, after all."
Swift raised an eyebrow in confusion for a moment, then stepped back in surprise as Zang's body fell to the ground, reverting to its natural state of a bipedal wolf-like creature.
"That's one," commented Lyserg.
"But he wasn't alone," replied Swift.
* * *
DAY 5
The crew was dismissed, as the ship's functions required additional tending to. Swift had left orders with the crew to try to remain in pairs or greater groups when possible, but the number of crew members left aboard the ship was already dwindling from the initial attack.
So it was that Alex found himself wandering the ship alone despite knowing better.
This whole thing was starting to seem real to him. He had actually played some small hand in helping to uncover Zang as a wolf. And now he was wondering if it would be not the crew voting him off that would end his life, but the wolves after revenge.
Which was when he heard the wolf.
...laughing?
...was that guttural sound laughing?
Alex froze in his tracks... and one of the wolfani stepped out from a side door in front of him.
"Nothing, they called me. Nothing! I'll show them. I'll show them all!"
Alex staggered back from the maddened ravings of the wolf, but there was nothing he could do. Soon after his corpse was scattered across several metres of hallway, his head thankfully intact next to the door the wolf had stepped out from.
* * *
Knowing the crew were catching on, he decided it was time to play it safe. Proud though they may be of their fangs and claws, the wolfani could not be said to be unresourceful! And so he had recalled something Zang had said, and acquired a plasma discharge manifold, and made the appropriate adjustments... and waited.
Nancy and Diana were walking together down the hall. Sensing the perfect opportunity, he pressed one last button on the fairly large device, placed it on the ground next to the doorway he had sequestered himself in, and bolted down the side passage.
About a dozen seconds later, the explosion went off.
* * *
Swift walked down the hall at a brisk pace, his mind still wandering and trying to determine exactly how he could identify the remaining wolves when he saw Nancy sitting against the wall, shaking. Her clothing appeared severely burnt, and it didn't look like her skin went unharmed either.
"Oh no... Nancy... what happened...?"
Nancy pointed over toward where the hall curved around a bend, to where Diana's body lay, her torso all but gone from the blast.
Swift had to look away from the terrible sight.
This had to stop.
* * *
NIGHT 5
Time's up, no more voting. I'm going to go back and count just to make sure this isn't messed up and then post the story.
Edit: The count checks out. (Thank his noodliness.) On with the story!
* * *
"How many wolves are there?" asked Nancy.
"Three... probably," Swift replied. "They hunt in pairs, and there are at least two pairs hunting on this ship.
"I say we do a triple kill," said Nancy.
Her suggestion met stunned silence in the room. A mere ten bodies filled the place now -- Swift, Ryan and eight (apparent) regular crew. She had just suggested cutting that number by a third.
"We can't just let them keep picking us off one by one. You said there are probably three left. So I say we go for all of them."
The fact that no objections echoed from the crew showed just how desperate they were.
But when she made her more specific suggestions, all hell broke loose.
It boiled quickly down to Kevak, Ricky and Norman, who were the initial suggestions. By the time Jean had the crew settled however, it was clear that a triple kill was not going to be agreed upon. Two would be a compromise.
Lyserg grabbed Kevak while Lando grabbed Norman, and Swift applied the drug. Neither man said a word before falling to the ground in a heap.
Jean rolled over the top body, Norman's face twisted in a brief moment of pain... but remaining wholly human.
She then rolled over Kevak's body to reveal the face of the second wolfani.
* * *
DAY 6
"Hahaa... they're both dead."
"You shouldn't be happy about that you know."
"They kept mocking me! Calling me nothing! Now everyone knows I am superior."
"Uh huh."
"We are the supe--"
"Hush! Someone's coming."
The sounds of footsteps echoed distantly down the hall.
"Are we gonna kill 'em?"
"Ggh."
"Are we?"
"No, we're going to let them go."
"W--why?!"
"Of course we're going to kill them you nitwit! Now shut up and watch."
And if you don't, I may kill you next! The fool was frustrating him to the point where it seemed as though lightning might start crackling from his fingertips.
"Hush. And watch a master at work."
As the footsteps got closer, the wolf brandished his claws. And as Nancy turned stepped out of the doorway into the elevator shaft, a swift jab severed her head from her neck.
"Quiet... fast. Understand?"
* * *
After the cleanup, Swift played back Nancy's most recent personal log for the crew, in the hopes that she had something added to say. She had kept quite a series of logs, one of the few crew members to bother doing so. It read:
* * *
[0] Kevak
[0] Ricky
[0] cooltiger413
[0] Matthew
[0] Anthony Bryan
[0] TorterraOats
[0] Insane_Zang
[0] Raydawn
[0] Lyserg0Zeroz
[0] Diana
[0] NormanTheOne
[0] Benyamin
[0] TheRealNancyR
[0] UnfairBear
[0] Picnic
[0] Ryan "Sinner" Walker
[0] Norwegian
[0] landostarchaser
[0] NO LYNCH (this round only)
(In case of a draw, all tied targets will be lynched. In case of a draw between no lynch and any other names, the tied names will be lynched. Swift is the shapeshifter and cannot be killed.)
(I will be sending out PMs shortly AFTER posting this. If you do not have your PM yet, and it's been less than 10 minutes since this thread was posted, please wait patiently.)
RULES
1. Every living participant must post at least once in the thread during each "game day." Failure to do so more than once may result in being modkilled and replaced at my discretion. If replaced, the new participant will take whatever role the modkilled player held.
2. Dead participants may NOT post in this thread, or discuss the game with living participants in any way. Dead participants may communicate with each other outside of the thread. A Skype chat will be made available for dead participants.
2a. Dead wolves may not reveal or hint at who the other wolves were in any way, even to other dead participants or non-players. Failure to follow this could accidentally cost you the game! That's your only warning.
3. Living participants may communicate with other living participants in any manner they choose, save that they may not share their role PMs. You can use IM, PMs, email, phone... whatever.
4. The roles are:
4 Werewolves: Wolfani youths disguised as crew members. Each night, in pairs, they hunt and murder one of the ship's crew to prove themselves. They win if at at any point they outnumber the remaining crew not counting the shapeshifter.
Microbiologist: He/She's not a medical doctor Jim! Once each night in his lab s/he can examine a sample collected off a crewmember to determine if they're terran or wolfani.
Shapeshifter: The chief of security, totally not a star trek ripoff, is a Shapeshifter who, each night can hide him/herself in a crewmember's room to protect them from wolfani attack. Everybody knows who the shapeshifter is, and the shapeshifter cannot be killed by the werewolves.
Crew Member (16): Members of varying ranks and tasks among the crew, their task now is simply to survive.
4. If the humans win, the ship will be taken back to terran territory where any dead humans will be revived. If the wolves win, the ship will be taken to their territory where any dead wolves will be revived. This means even if killed, you are considered to have won the game if your team wins.
5. Personal Logs. At any time in the game a living crew member (or wolf) may record a 200 word or less personal log by sending it to me as a PM with "Personal Log" as the subject. Only the most recent one from each player will be kept, and it will be played back for the crew upon that person's death.
6. Be aware that events may happen throughout the story that could impact the game. Try to use these to your advantage.
NOTE: Because there were 3 fewer participants than planned, the game will not begin with any kills. I will have a "no lynch" option in the voting for the FIRST ROUND ONLY in case players wish to allow the wolves any kills prior to voting the first time.
The Story So Far...
DAY 1
Swift stirred with a groan, pawing gently at the floor. Everything in his body tingled... what had happened...? What--
Attack!
He quickly shook off his drowsiness and dragged himself to his feet. The monitor was flickering with static, and the entire bridge crew was still unconscious. Immediately he scrambled to the security console and brought emergency power online. The monitor clicked in quickly showing... nothing but space. The enemy ship had left.
He'd been right. It was a wolfani youth mission. And he didn't know whether he was glad for it or terrified.
Swift swiftly went about waking the others on the bridge, still moving slowly. That had surprised him; not much could do damage to a shapeshifter of his race, but that electric shock had certainly done the trick. He still felt like play-doh. One by one the bridge crew stirred. Ricky, then Ben and Norwegian, and Unfairbear. When he came around to Captain Curt, however, the man did not stir. Swift let out a gasp.
"What's wrong?" UnfairBear asked in a pained voice.
"He didn't make it...."
There was a silence in the room for several long seconds until Swift took action again. He checked over the captain's body but didn't find any wounds. "He was an old man... a couple years from retirement... the shock must've been too much."
The others could only watch on in silence, until Ben, nearest the door, spoke up. "Ship communication is down... that shot must've fried it...."
Swift blinked himself back to awareness. "Right. We need to gather the rest of the crew. Let's get them all to the main mess hall. Everyone who survived.
The others, recognizing the authority in his voice nodded. Ricky unsealed the bridge door and they spread out to gather the rest of the crew.
* * *
"This is... everyone?" Swift asked unsurely.
"Yes," replied Diana, ship's councillor. "A lot of people were..." She shook her head and wiped away a tear. Zang patted her on her shoulder.
"We should be glad as many survived as did..." Kevak said.
"I have... some bad news," said Swift. Expressions in the crowd mixed from worry to agitation that things could be any worse than they already were. "Sorry, but this is important.
"We were allowed to survive that strike, you see. The ship that attacked us was on a wolfani youth training mission." He scanned the crowd, but nobody seemed to react. "When Wolfani youth near adulthood, they disable a ship like this and beam the youth on board. Once there, the youth kill one of the crew, and disguise themselves as that member."
"They can do that?" asked Torterra. "Like you?"
"No, for Wolfani the process is much slower, and they can only take on humanoid shapes, whereas I can take any shape of roughly the right size. Anyway, the youths are instructed to pick off the rest of the crew and bring the ship back to Wolfani space. If they succeed, they are entered into adulthood and given jobs aboard war vessels. If they fail, they are left to die."
"And you're... not one of them?" Ryan ventured.
Swift morphed his arm quickly into a Terran Planetary Alliance flag. "Wolfani could not do this." A few of the more veteran crew spoke their agreement.
"In other words, I'm the only one we know for sure is not a wolf," Swift concluded. "The only way we survive this is if we can pick off the wolves before they pick us off. But... how do we determine who are the wolves...?"
* * *
NIGHT 1
Silence greeted Swift's question; not one of the crew could offer up an effective way for them to tell wolves from humans, and not one of them seemed to be willing to risk killing a fellow crew member without some inkling of who they were.
It was fair, he supposed. But this would probably become bloody sooner than later.
"Well..." he began, "at the very least we need to get this ship moving again. With as many people dead as there are, I'm afraid you'll all have to work double shifts."
He watched the small crowd as nervous glances took the place of the outrage he'd expected to hear.
"That's all. Dismissed."
The crew started to disperse when Anthony stepped forward, flanked by CoolTiger and Ryan. "Sir, a moment?"
"Yes? What is it?"
"We were thinking and... we'd like permission to bear weapons, sir."
Swift thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. The wolfani would not have need for weapons. Sadly the ship was only equipped with things that could be used as mêlée weapons -- it had no real weapons at all -- but that was better than nothing. Might as well keep things on par.
"Granted."
"Thank you, sir."
He watched as some of the crew, including the three who had spoken to him looked for weapons around the mess hall. He raised his eyebrow a bit at the sight of Raydawn testing the edge of a small paring knife, as the cooking implements quickly dwindled. A few others, such as Zang, had left without a weapon, suggesting they could find something better down in engineering, where they were needed anyway.
And what about himself? At the very least he could watch their backs. When the last crew member left, he took on a translucent form and selected one to follow....
* * *
DAY 2
"Hey Ryan," Anthony greeted.
"Hey Bryan. What's up?"
Anthony sighed. "I dunno. Just trying to keep busy, and not think... yeah, just keeping busy."
"I know the feeling," Ryan replied. "Well, we could head down to the..."
As Ryan opened the door to the lower deck storage lockers, his face turned ashen.
"What is it...? Ryan?"
Ryan stepped to one side to reveal Raydawn, laying dead upon the floor.
"They've already started..." Anthony said.
"Go get Swift. He should be told."
"Yeah... yeah, I'll go."
Ryan entered and knelt to examine the body. It was propped up against a pillar in the middle of the room, and to the left under her hand was a page of paper, too bloodied to be readable. He saw in her right hand the small knife she had taken from the mess hall. Lifting her left arm, he finally noticed the source of blood -- her wrist was slit.
"She wasn't killed... she took her own life rather than be killed."
"That's right, she beat me to it."
"Wha--?!" Ryan only had a moment to recognize his assailant's face before his own was gouged by long, unnatural claws.
"That's one... one kill." And a dark chuckle pierced the hum of the engines running.
* * *
Anthony rushed through the passageways back up to the main deck where the mess hall was; to the best of his knowledge Swift would still be there. With communications down, that was his best bet.
He spun around a corner quickly nearly at the entrance to the ladder that would take him up outside the messhall when he found himself suddenly seeing stars.
He started to try to pull himself off the floor, when he heard chuckling. "Don't bother. You terrans don't stand a chance against us."
"N... no..."
"Yes."
Anthony Bryan begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting died instantly, his neck split in two.
* * *
It was minutes later when Swift overheard the news from crewmen looking for him; Anthony had been found. He emerged from his hiding place when nobody was nearby and made his way straight to the scene. It was a gruesome sight.
"There you are!" He looked up to see Diana walking toward him, winded. "Nancy and I heard about it while we were in hydroponics. She's probably still looking for you."
Swift didn't mention that this was the conversation he'd overheard. "It's pretty nasty. And it confirms our worst fears. I'll get the body to stasis."
"It gets worse..." It was Matthew who spoke, accompanied by Kevak. "While we were looking for you down here, we found two more bodies."
* * *
"Suicide," Swift concluded. "Ryan was killed by a wolfani, but Raydawn... she took her own life. No wolfani would bother with such tactics."
"But why would she kill herself?!" Lando demanded.
Swift shook his head. The suicide note had been unrecoverable. "I don't know. Maybe from fear. Either way she's done us no favours." The crew, most of them now gathered around the scene, mumbled its agreement. "Get Ryan to stasis. But the moral code forbids taking the choice of death from someone. Hers is permanent. I'll take care of it."
There were a couple gasps in the crowd, but they all knew the code. A person who committed suicide had a right to their death. She would not be revived, even if they made it home.
"Now, does anyone have any inkling who did this?"
* * *
NIGHT 2
The crew squabbled for some time over who was where, and had what opportunities... but eventually the consensus came that nobody was quite sure. Eventually the crew elected to slay one of their number who was not assisting in the decision.
"Picnic," Swift said aloud, after counting the votes.
Picnic had been slouched in the corner, trying to pretend that they weren't just deciding which of his friends to kill, when he heard is name. "Huh? I told you, I want no part in--"
"No, Picnic," Swift said with a mix of pain and firmness, "we've voted for you."
His eyes went wide for a moment as he realized what had just been said, and then tried to scramble to his feet. Zang and Lando, who were among those who voted for Picnic, were standing nearby however, and when he attempted to bolt, they caught him by the arms.
Swift walked up and used a medical injector to administer a fast-acting, painless poison while Picnic struggled.
"Why? Why...?"
"We will revive you when we get home," Swift replied.
"...if...we......." Picnic slumped forward in the pair's arms.
Utter silenced pierced the room for a long minute until Swift finally said, "Take him to stasis."
"Then..." Ricky asked, "that means...?"
Ben answered for him. "If he were wolfani, he'd have converted by now. They can't maintain their chameleon form after death."
Lyserg closed his eyes and sighed. "That makes four dead then...."
* * *
DAY 3
The crew was dismissed, as the ship's functions required additional tending to. Swift had left orders with the crew to try to remain in pairs or greater groups when possible, but the number of crew members left aboard the ship was already dwindling from the initial attack.
So it was that Alex found himself wandering the ship alone despite knowing better.
This whole thing wasn't quite real to him yet, perhaps. He spent his time voting for himself as a jest when Swift called for the votes, but having seen Picnic ignoring the event killed for the effort was making him wonder whether those votes were more likely to kill him than the wolves.
Which was when he heard the wolves.
...fighting?
"He was to be my second kill!" yelled one of the voices in a guttural snarl.
"Hah!" came a reply. "You will always be nothing, just like your parents knew you to be!"
Alex rushed forward, wondering as he did so why he did. When he burst through the door to see who was fighting, however, he found nobody there. The wolves had already left.
They had also left the dead body of Matthew laying at Alex's feet.
Alex held his breath a moment and turned away, his face pale. Yes, this was quickly becoming all too real....
* * *
NIGHT 3
After Alex's discovery of Matthew's dead body, Swift called the crew back together to gather what evidence he could.
"Does anyone know anything that could lead to the killers?"
The crew was mostly silent until Lyserg spoke up. "What about Ben? He seemed to know a lot about the wolfani...."
Muttering passed throughout the crew as others agreed. "Yeah, he knew right away that Picnic wasn't a wolf!" and "How'd he know so fast?"
Benyamin, late to enter, overheard all this and halted in his steps. "N... now wait, guys... There's a good explanation for--"
"I'd like to hear it," said Swift.
"I..." Ben sighed and twiddled his fingers nervously. "Well, you see... I'm a microbiologist... I've studied them a lot."
Swift glanced back at his crew, but it was clear that they weren't buying it. Shouts to kill the wolf were starting.
"Sorry Ben. The crew has spoken."
Ben could barely find the capacity to take a single step back before Swift was upon him and administering the drug.
He simply stared blankly for the last few seconds of his life, before finally falling to the ground.
Minutes later, nothing had changed. Swift swore. This was getting bad.
* * *
DAY 4 - FIRST HALF
"You again?!"
He snorted, dust mites fluttering out from his snout. Taking no chances on being identified, he had taken the time to switch to full wolf form for this hunt; so had the other, it seemed. "You are inferior. You are nothing compared to me."
"I won't let you have my kill!"
"Hush!" Ears twitched. "They're coming."
"...there are two!"
"Then let us see who is stronger. I will take the one they call 'Tiger,' for I am stronger!"
"Hah, we shall see. Then I shall take the one they call 'Nor.'"
"Hush!"
Cooltiger and Norwegian's footsteps echoed through the hall as they spoke quietly to each other about girls they were interested in. Their faces showed nervousness, but nothing compared to the fear that they were about to experience.
The wolves burst out from their hiding spot alongside the wall and ran straight for them.
Norwegian and Cooltiger both reached for their blades, but far too slowly. The wolves tackled them immediately, driving them hard to the ground. As they reached for their necks, though, the tide suddenly turned again, as from nowhere a fist came flying out of what had appeared to be a trash receptacle -- Swift smashed the wolf who had been attacking Norwegian in the jaw, knocking him away from his target.
The other wolf glanced up momentarily from Cooltiger's corpse, and thought only for a second before grabbing his rival about the waist and bolting.
"You see?! You are still nothing! Useless fool!"
Swift attempted to sound the alarm and give chase, but the wolves' legs were swifter than any he could conjure for himself. The wolves had escaped. Swift swore, only to feel Norwegian's hand on his shoulder.
"You did your best," Nor said. "Don't stress it. I owe you one."
"Yeah... I guess."
"And I'm about to repay it."
That got Swift's attention. "What do you mean?"
Norwegian guided him back to where the fight had taken place, trying not to focus on Cooltiger's body laying on the ground. "Look here, in the cabinet that you knocked that bastard into."
"It's... a robotic body? What...?"
"It's a cybernetic body. We can revive one of the crew with this."
"You know how to do that?!"
Norwegian grinned. "Yep."
* * *
DAY 4 - SECOND HALF
*click*
Norwegian closed the access port on the back of the android's head. It wasn't the most human looking thing; it was somewhat uncanny valley in fact. But it would do.
"Is it ready?" asked Swift.
"It ought to be," Norwegian replied. "Shall we give it a try?"
Swift nodded. The rest of the crew seemed to take a slight step back; this level of biomechanics wasn't an every day event, and it wasn't a certain thing by any shake.
Norwegian flipped the switch; nothing appeared to happen.
"Is... is it turned on?" Jean asked.
"Yes," replied Norwegian. "It's designed to run silent to seem more human. It should only be a minute..." He noticed dotted lines starting to light behind the eyes. "Ryan? Buddy? You with us?"
"...nghh... gah?!" Ryan woke with a start and stared around the room. "Why does everyone look so... red?"
Norwegian clapped him on the back. "You were killed by the wolves. We've reinstalled your consciousness into an artificial body. You probably have infrared vision turned on; it usually takes a while to learn how to control these."
"I... was killed? I remember... oh, a few of us were... weren't we...?"
"Yeah," Jean replied. "Are you feeling alright?"
"I... I don't hurt... can I hurt?"
"You can pretty much only receive status reports about the body you're in," Norwegian answered.
"Do you remember anything about your killer?" Swift asked.
Ryan shook his head. "No... just fur, fangs, and then nothing."
Jean distracted Ryan from Swift's apparent disappointment by helping him to his feet. Slinging one arm around him, she started him toward the mess hall. "Come on, I'll give you a hand getting used to your new body."
Kevak walked over to Norwegian who was watching them go. "You should go with them. You know more about robotics and stuff, and besides, maybe you just scored some brownie points with her?" He gave Nor a playful tap on the arm.
Norwegian glanced at him startled for a moment, then shook his head clear. "Yeah. Maybe you're right."
* * *
NIGHT 4
"...and that's why I think Zang might be a wolf," Ryan concluded.
The crew was in utter disarray over the decision. A half dozen names were being tossed about, and Alex's suggestion of his own demise even seemed to be gaining attractors. When it seemed the crowd was about to break out into a fight, Swift hollered for quiet.
"Enough! We decide by vote as always. Everyone make their picks."
The names came in one by one, and in the end Zang was chosen.
"You're making a mistake..." he said, almost with a sigh.
"Sorry," Swift replied.
Zang didn't resist in the slightest as Swift injected the lethal dose of poison into his system.
"My partner will take care of you, after all."
Swift raised an eyebrow in confusion for a moment, then stepped back in surprise as Zang's body fell to the ground, reverting to its natural state of a bipedal wolf-like creature.
"That's one," commented Lyserg.
"But he wasn't alone," replied Swift.
* * *
DAY 5
The crew was dismissed, as the ship's functions required additional tending to. Swift had left orders with the crew to try to remain in pairs or greater groups when possible, but the number of crew members left aboard the ship was already dwindling from the initial attack.
So it was that Alex found himself wandering the ship alone despite knowing better.
This whole thing was starting to seem real to him. He had actually played some small hand in helping to uncover Zang as a wolf. And now he was wondering if it would be not the crew voting him off that would end his life, but the wolves after revenge.
Which was when he heard the wolf.
...laughing?
...was that guttural sound laughing?
Alex froze in his tracks... and one of the wolfani stepped out from a side door in front of him.
"Nothing, they called me. Nothing! I'll show them. I'll show them all!"
Alex staggered back from the maddened ravings of the wolf, but there was nothing he could do. Soon after his corpse was scattered across several metres of hallway, his head thankfully intact next to the door the wolf had stepped out from.
* * *
Knowing the crew were catching on, he decided it was time to play it safe. Proud though they may be of their fangs and claws, the wolfani could not be said to be unresourceful! And so he had recalled something Zang had said, and acquired a plasma discharge manifold, and made the appropriate adjustments... and waited.
Nancy and Diana were walking together down the hall. Sensing the perfect opportunity, he pressed one last button on the fairly large device, placed it on the ground next to the doorway he had sequestered himself in, and bolted down the side passage.
About a dozen seconds later, the explosion went off.
* * *
Swift walked down the hall at a brisk pace, his mind still wandering and trying to determine exactly how he could identify the remaining wolves when he saw Nancy sitting against the wall, shaking. Her clothing appeared severely burnt, and it didn't look like her skin went unharmed either.
"Oh no... Nancy... what happened...?"
Nancy pointed over toward where the hall curved around a bend, to where Diana's body lay, her torso all but gone from the blast.
Swift had to look away from the terrible sight.
This had to stop.
* * *
NIGHT 5
Time's up, no more voting. I'm going to go back and count just to make sure this isn't messed up and then post the story.
Edit: The count checks out. (Thank his noodliness.) On with the story!
* * *
"How many wolves are there?" asked Nancy.
"Three... probably," Swift replied. "They hunt in pairs, and there are at least two pairs hunting on this ship.
"I say we do a triple kill," said Nancy.
Her suggestion met stunned silence in the room. A mere ten bodies filled the place now -- Swift, Ryan and eight (apparent) regular crew. She had just suggested cutting that number by a third.
"We can't just let them keep picking us off one by one. You said there are probably three left. So I say we go for all of them."
The fact that no objections echoed from the crew showed just how desperate they were.
But when she made her more specific suggestions, all hell broke loose.
It boiled quickly down to Kevak, Ricky and Norman, who were the initial suggestions. By the time Jean had the crew settled however, it was clear that a triple kill was not going to be agreed upon. Two would be a compromise.
Lyserg grabbed Kevak while Lando grabbed Norman, and Swift applied the drug. Neither man said a word before falling to the ground in a heap.
Jean rolled over the top body, Norman's face twisted in a brief moment of pain... but remaining wholly human.
She then rolled over Kevak's body to reveal the face of the second wolfani.
* * *
DAY 6
"Hahaa... they're both dead."
"You shouldn't be happy about that you know."
"They kept mocking me! Calling me nothing! Now everyone knows I am superior."
"Uh huh."
"We are the supe--"
"Hush! Someone's coming."
The sounds of footsteps echoed distantly down the hall.
"Are we gonna kill 'em?"
"Ggh."
"Are we?"
"No, we're going to let them go."
"W--why?!"
"Of course we're going to kill them you nitwit! Now shut up and watch."
And if you don't, I may kill you next! The fool was frustrating him to the point where it seemed as though lightning might start crackling from his fingertips.
"Hush. And watch a master at work."
As the footsteps got closer, the wolf brandished his claws. And as Nancy turned stepped out of the doorway into the elevator shaft, a swift jab severed her head from her neck.
"Quiet... fast. Understand?"
* * *
After the cleanup, Swift played back Nancy's most recent personal log for the crew, in the hopes that she had something added to say. She had kept quite a series of logs, one of the few crew members to bother doing so. It read:
Nancy R. - Day 5
The numbers keep on changing and I am glad I did my part to make things a bit better for us. There's nothing more to say, everyone knows what's in my head. My cards are on the table, so if I die, I know that I'll have done something with a point. It's not for my selfishness only, it's for Diana and the others too. I hope that the others won't be running like blind mice after my death.
The numbers keep on changing and I am glad I did my part to make things a bit better for us. There's nothing more to say, everyone knows what's in my head. My cards are on the table, so if I die, I know that I'll have done something with a point. It's not for my selfishness only, it's for Diana and the others too. I hope that the others won't be running like blind mice after my death.
* * *
[0] Kevak
[0] Ricky
[0] cooltiger413
[0] Matthew
[0] Anthony Bryan
[0] TorterraOats
[0] Insane_Zang
[0] Raydawn
[0] Lyserg0Zeroz
[0] Diana
[0] NormanTheOne
[0] Benyamin
[0] TheRealNancyR
[0] UnfairBear
[0] Picnic
[0] Ryan "Sinner" Walker
[0] Norwegian
[0] landostarchaser
[0] NO LYNCH (this round only)
(In case of a draw, all tied targets will be lynched. In case of a draw between no lynch and any other names, the tied names will be lynched. Swift is the shapeshifter and cannot be killed.)
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