Thread: Hidden Planet RPG

-Lana-

“Hey, whoever is out there, try and swing away from the ground on your chains, and strike the ground. If we hit hard enough, that should get someone's attention.”

Lana assumed she was referring to what had been the ground before the ship crashed, but what was technically more like a wall now. Pretty much a solid sheet of metal, it would certainly make a fair noise if all the restrained prisoners kicked into it. But the sounds would likely be a crashing one, and Lana couldn’t help but think that rather than getting attention from the prisoners below them it would send them into a further panic thinking the ship was falling again.

Not to mention she wasn’t sure how precariously the ship was balanced, and whether or not the combine weight off them all crashing into it would send the ship toppling over.

But, she considered as she braced her feet against the wall to swing into it, it wasn’t like she had a better idea.

- Tigs (Guard) -

Tigs sat curled into the farthest crevice of the engine room with the rifle pointed at the end of the center gallery opening. His breathing was shallow, sweat dripped from his face and rolled down his neck, soaking the collar of his uniform as his own heartbeat thundered in his ears. The smoke curled into the room like a hunting serpent, stinging his nose and filling his mouth as he panted.

He was no hero, he had an ordinary build and had just signed up for the pay. The flights didn't usually require any interaction with the prisoners and he was fine with that.

The body of Bethany Torro, the guard he'd slipped back here with during the flight, was splayed out on the sloping floor, very dead. He had no idea why the crash had killed her and left him with a few scrapes and bruises.

His eyes were wide, fixed, he felt certain of only one thing; he was alone with a whole ship full of convicts and he didn't know that they'd treat a guard very well if they got loose. At least the violent ones were chained, still.

The holding pens, though, they might be open. They might not. The smoke could kill as easily as flames in the enclosed areas. Maybe they'd all quietly die and he'd be safe.

About that time the chains, extending in through the wall, began to flex and move. The noise started. Prisoners were stamping and yelling, voices loud, hoarse, frightened, and angry.

Ashen-faced, Tigs shut his eyes for a moment. They were still people, weren't they? He gave the levers that would release the chains and retract the mesh walls an anguished look.

The noise went on, desperation from the others side of the metal wall thicker even than the smoke.

Coughing, Tigs couldn't stand it anymore. He held the rifle with one hand as he crawled to the first lever and hesitated.

He simply held it for a moment then gritted his teeth and pulled. One after the other he pulled the levers before he could change his mind.

GM NOTE:

Restraints have opened, releasing your wrists and the mesh walls are retracting. Unless the prisoners in the Restrained areas grab onto something for some reason you'll slide briskly down the floor to join those in your Holding Pens below. Men and women are still separate.

Kam has made a hole-widening device for the bulkhead. Any guys who can get through that hole are welcome to do so. There is a small hole (too small to squeeze through) in the women's area.

Don't forget that along the center gallery between the two holding pens there would probably be observation windows but they'd be difficult to break. Still, I'm sure you can think of something!

Depending on your character's personality and outlook, you need to continue to work on getting the others free.

Maddy

Without any warning the restraint let go of her right wrist and as she had been close to losing consciousness she slit down without trying to hang on to anything and abruptly halted when she slammed into another woman lying on the floor. That was where she remained for a moment until her mind cleared enough for her to be able to focus. Maddy opened her eyes and looked around her. Some of the female daywalkers were not moving at all and those that were all seemed to be in panic. She hesitated for a moment as she felt inclined to just try and leave and ignore them all. Maddy sighed, daywalkers or not they were in need of medical assistance and the little knowledge she had made it her responsibility to at least try. She knew she would be useless in trying to break out so she would have to leave that up to others and focus on what she was able to do instead.

Maddy touched the back of her head to assess the head wound. It needed stitching, but that was not something she was able to do on her own head and even if she could have she did not have the medical kit that she needed. In her ‘ home’ she had always kept a small one that Daisy had stolen from the daywalkers, but in here she had nothing. Maddy ripped a piece of her sleeve and bound it around her head to stop the bleeding. That would do for now so she was ready to start.

She started with the female that she had slammed into and checked her vital signs; she was dead. Maddy moved over to the next unconscious female and although she had a faint heartbeat Maddy left her anyway. The seriousness of her injuries were beyond Maddy’s healing abilities and, cold as it was, she had to focus on those she could actually hope to make a different for. Maddy moved over to one of the females who only moments ago had been in the restrains with her. She was conscious so Maddy said “Do you need help? Are you hurt?”

Gabriel's eyes widdened as the restraints suddenly retracted, sending him sliding downwards towards one of the unrestrained holding areas. He swore and scrambled to catched hold of something that would keep him from either being dashed against one of the observation windows or falling onto some of the crazed inmates bellow him. More by luck than judgement, one of his fingers caught in one of the squares of the ship's metal grating of a floor. The digit held valiently against the weight of his body but broke none the less. Pain rushed through his body and he was only just able to stick some more fingers into the floor grating before his broken finger slid out.

Dangling by a few fingers, Gabriel sighed and tried to get his breathing under control so as to manage the pain better. With the pain less urgent, he began to slowly move across the grating, as if climbing along the side of a cliff. He looked down when he realised that he was now dangling above the unrestrained males holding area, near the inside wall. He closed his eyes when he focused on the observation windows. Not for the first time, he almost cursed his God for giving him such a kind nature. He let go of the grated floor and began to fall. With a grunt of effort he reached out quickly with one of his hands. Once again his luck prevailed and he caught onto the edge of one the observation windows that let him peer across the hallway and through the opposite observation window to look into the female area. Unfortunately his momentum didn't stop there and his right knee slammed into the metal wall, jarring painfully. Gabriel bit down on his lip to keep from screaming before looking through the window,

"Is anyone still okay in there?" he called out, best to get the best ones out first.

-Lana-

As she swung herself back, ready to bring her feet around with forced into the ‘ground’, the restraint suddenly opened with a faint click and the chain retracted. Briefly she considered the irony of the situation before turning her mind to the fact that she was now free-falling down towards the other prisoners; she hit what had been the floor first, her should scraping painfully down the metal, and scrabbled for any kind of foot or handhold to break her fall or give her balance.

As a result she ended up half surfing the last few feet of the wall before crashing headlong into the heaving mass of female prisoners. There were a few muffled screams and she was bashed about between bodies, spots dancing before her eyes as she was shoved, crushed, and trampled before slamming back into the wall and managing to shakily push herself to her feet. Glancing down she realised with a sick jolt that she was standing on a dead body, the woman’s eyes staring unseeingly at her, an expression of fear and horror frozen on her face and only just visible between bruising, swelling and what were unmistakably the imprints of many pairs of feet.

She lifted a hand to her mouth, fighting her gag reflex, and began shooting her eyes around the holding cell. Way out ... there had to be a way out. Most of the women seemed to be scrabbling around a hole that was clearly too small for anyone over the age of about eight to squeeze through, but a few of them were putting out small burst of fire with ... gunge?

“Do you need help?” It took a moment to realise the voice was addressing her. She looked down into a pair of wide brown eyes, set in the face of a tiny, emaciated looking girl who seemed little more than a baby. “Are you hurt?”

“No.” That was clearly a lie; there was matted blood in her hair, the jumpsuit was shredded around her shoulder revealing long red welts and friction burns, she could feel bruises on almost every part of her body, and there was a wide circle around her wrist where the manacle had chafed her skin raw. But none of that mattered. She was alive and free, and she intended to stay that way as long as possible.

But how to get out? The hole was too small, and the windows would be too thick to break with only her hands. They needed something to work with.

“Look for debris,” she turned back to the girl, “Rocks, bits of metal ... anything you can find. Anything we can use to make that hole bigger or break open the windows.”

--Tueurnino--

Tueurnino heard a crash beside her - obviously someone had implemented her plan, but she'd really been hoping for a bit of coordination. In respose to this, she prepared to finally launch herself. The moment before pushing off the wall, she felt her shackle suddenly release, and fell painfully onto her back. She slid down the floor towards the holding area, with nothing but a painful collision with a wall awaiting at the other end.

More than one dead body slid passively beside her; not everyone had survived the initial impact, and they were about to meet an even messier end. Something clicked in the back of Tueurnino's mind - the rate at which that had been happening today was starting to annoy her - and with all doubts cast aside, she grabbed onto one of the lifeless corpses. Dragging it in front of her was difficult, but she eventually got it there. As the wall approached, her feet moved to the shoulders of the corpses, the rest of her body braced for impact.

The corpse struck the wall first, and crumpled sickeningly under the impact. However, this slowed Tueurnino down considerably. She struck the dead prisoner with a dull thud. It was almost impossible to recognise the corpse as a former human being, and Tueurnino was covered in bits of human body that were not her own. She wanted to be sick, but knew that disgusted, alive and unharmed was better than painfully injured.

"Look for debris. Rocks, bits of metal... anything that you can find. Anything that we can use to make the hole bigger or break open the windows." This wasn't going to be easy, and she had no idea where to start. On the plus side, at least being down the bottom of the area meant that smoke was no longer such an issue.

Maddy

Slowely it became easier for Maddy to focus as the clouds in her head faded. She looked the female into her brown eyes. ‘No’ she said, but judging from the blood and the other obvious signs of injury it was clearly a lie. Maddy shrugged. It made no difference to her; if the daywalker didn’t want help that was fine, besides the female was strong enough to move and getting out was the highest priority right now.

“Look for debris. Rocks, bits of metal ... anything you can find. Anything we can use to make that hole bigger or break open the windows.”Maddy nodded and was going to turn around to do just that, but then hesitated. The injuries could wait, but the smoke couldn’t. She ripped another piece of her sleeve and placed it on her mouth. “I suggest you do the same,” she said to the female “or the smoke will get you, before we find our way out.”

Maddy turned to look for the debris that the female had asked for. It wasn’t easy, because it was not like the place was filled with stuff lying around, other than bodies. They were not a pleasant sight, but Maddy had lived with the other shadows of the city all her life and had seen death before. Despite that she still felt sick. It took some time before she spotted the female that had a piece of metal sticking out of her chest that must have broken off when it hit her. Maddy had no clue what it was, but it looked as though it was what the female needed.

Maddy crawled over to the other side trying to hurt as few dayswalkers as possible, but the moans she heard told her she was not entirely succesful. When she reached the female it was obvious from the stare in her eyes that she was dead. Maddy placed her hand on the metal objected, braced herself and then ripped it out in one go. She felt like throwing up, but instead turned around and crawled back to the female that had asked her to get it. “Do you think this will help?”

--Kamisama--

After the guard took the rock out the device, the springs pushed and the hole on the men's side was large enough for a normal human being to squeeze through. Maybe not all of them though, he thought, as he did have a glance or two at some pretty fat ones. And in the general panic, he saw a bunch of them cutting themselves on the sharp edges, others being literally pushed out, trampled, pulled back in to make way for another, name it. A real zoo.

But Kami did his part on this side. He found a way to get them out, but getting out per say was their problem. Not like there was anything he could do to help there anyway. But as he was watching the men get out, he realized that no women was. He knew the ship had women, he even saw a few when they were all lined up to get on the ship. He especially remembered a tiny girl with very short black hair. She stuck in his mind because of her body frame, so different from everybody else, yet similar to a typical Japanese girl. He also remembered narrowing his eyes at the sight of the hair cut. Short hair was definitely not his type. A shame too, since she would have been attractive with longer hair. At least for a gaijin.

With that in mind, he started to go around the ship to see what was going on on the other side. He saw a little old man pushing things inside the wreck using a little hole. He observed for a little while and then realized that very little smoke was going out that hole. On the men's side, there was plenty. How come ? The link between the fruit and the lack of smoke never crossed his mind as he just shrugged and thought the girls were just slightly luckier on the fire problem.

Kamisama looked at the side of the ship. The hole was obviously too small to get through, even for him. He couldn't repeat the pole trick either, as there was no spring that size with enough power to tear metal apart. The way the ship crashed, the doors were buried, so even by opening those, that wasn't going to help. Any way he looked at it, the girls were stuck and in trouble. Kami didn't know any of them, but letting girls die was not on his to-do list. That's just wrong. He had to try something. So, as a last resort for hints, he started to climb on the ship, and walked carefully on the roof above the women's pen.

Needless to say that he had to check that roof fast. The fire was spreading, and the heat was making the hull unstable and weak.

-Lana-

The girl nodded but stopped for a moment to tear off part of her sleeve and tie it over her mouth; the closest thing they were going to get to a filter mask to stop the smoke from asphyxiating them before they got out.

“I suggest you do the same,” she said, voice muffled by the material, “or the smoke will get you, before we find our way out.”

“Cover your nose, too,” Lana nodded, already tearing off the bottom of her own sleeve.

As she tied her makeshift mask over her mouth and nose, she began looking around for any debris that might have broken off in the crash. There wasn’t much, the pen filled only with the heaving mass of terrified female prisoners and the corpses they were trampling underfoot. But there were a few splinters of metal that had come loose, so if she could find one big enough ...

Ignoring the urge to gag at the sight of the corpses, Lana began shifting through them. She was sure she had spotted one woman with a large shard protruding from her skull. It took some time, but eventually she found the body buried near the wall. Feeling sick at the sight of the matted hair and blood around the wound that had obviously killed the woman, Lana braced herself and began tugging on the shard. It took a few sharp pulls, but eventually it came loose.

Warped and twisted, it fit snugly in the palm of her hand. The edges were wickedly jagged, glinting in the artificial orange lights that hadn’t been broken or shut off by the crash. It might just work ...

“Do you think this will help?”

Turning, she saw the black-haired girl had returned with a chunk of metal of her own.

“Only one way to find out,” Lana shrugged. “Come on. Let’s hack at the windows.”

Lee had been shoved away from the hole by the other women, many of whom outweighed her and were taller. It wasn't like they could get out that way anyway. Not far away two other girls had sharp pieces of metal smeared with red...Lee's eyes widened and her stomach roiled. Still, what other choice did they have?

“Do you think this will help?”


“Only one way to find out,” Lana shrugged. “Come on. Let’s hack at the windows.”

The voices were muffled by the cloth over their mouths. Lee hadn't thought of that, hadn't needed to being closer to the fresh air from outside. Now she looked at the material of her own sleeve. She might need that sleeve later, instead she looked down at an outflung arm.

Trying not to think about it she bent and tried to rip the material. It was very tough but eventually gave way and she slid the dead woman's arm out of it, carefully not looking at the blank-eyed face. She tied the material on as the other two had done and looked up, they would have to climb up there to hack at the windows. It looked hopeless, still...

"Maybe we can boost each other up," she said, half yelling so the two girls with the metal could hear her over the noise.

-- Vince --

The restraint came loose, and instantly, Vince looked down to try and guess how and where he would fall. The floor against which they’d been laying sloped away steeply, and he found himself sliding down along it, pulled down by gravity. He turned so he was going down on his back. While the metal floor grating hurt, at least his hands and stomach wouldn’t be taking the abuse. His fall was slowed as he crashed through the mesh separating the two holding areas. A bit of the protruding ledge slammed hard against his right shoulderblade. A very bad bruise, but not dislocated...he hoped.

His crash onto the new bottom of the ship was cushioned by bodies. Some dead, some alive. There was the haze of smoke, made orange by the glow of emergency lights. But to his left, there was a bright patch of daylight. He wasn’t the first to see it. He clambered out, having to shove his way into the order, and slid out feet first into the alien day. He turned when he got out, reflexively helping the few surviving men escape. The women were still trapped on the other side. Moving backward, Vince took several steps away from the wreck, looking for clues that might help. One of the men had made it to the top of the ship and was looking around for something.

Vincent ran around to the opposite side. A faint smoke was issuing out of a hole. They had to make that hole bigger. He looked about him, and found a heavy jagged rock. Holding it in both hands, he went to the hole and began chipping away at the edge. The weakened material of the ship began to slowly fragment away. He hoped whoever was alive in there would stay that way for just a few minutes.

Maddy

“Only one way to find out. Come on. Let’s hack at the windows.” The female said and Maddy noticed that she too was holding a piece of metal equally bloody to the one she had. Maddy did not want to consider where she had gotten the piece of metal from as she imagined it wouldn’t be better than where she had found her own. Maddy had pulled up her ‘ mask’ to cover both her mouth and nose.

Maddy looked up at the window and tried to figure out a way to get up there. Is had been one thing to find a metal object, let alone two, but how the hell were they supposed to get up there. "Maybe we can boost each other up" The answer to the question came as a complete surprise and she looked into the direction it came from only to see a female who had made a similar sort of mask to cover her face as they had. “We can try.” She moved over to the female handing the piece of metal over to her and she got her hands ready to give a boost. It made more sense for someone else to go up there as Maddy simply wouldn’t have the strength to do it.

-Lana-

Pushing their way through the throng of prisoners and over to the wall with the observation windows was one thing; now came the challenge of getting up there to try and smash the windows open. There was nothing to hold onto to clamber up, and it was too high for Lana to try and jump to grab the window frames.

She glanced down at the girl beside her. She’d have to try and lift her up onto her shoulders, so she could reach the windows. But she was so thin, Lana wondered if she could smash the metal against the glass hard enough to break it.

“Maybe we can boost each other up.” Someone seemed to have read her mind.

She turned around and found another young girl that looked barely more than a child coming up to them. But, unlike the dark-haired pixie girl, although she was small of stature she was more filled out and looked like she had some strength to her.

“We can try.”

Pixie shoved her lump of metal into the blonde girl’s hands and cupped her hands together into a step for her. Moving forward, Lana put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head before the blonde girl could step on.

“I’m taller,” she said by way of explanation, “Let me.”

Hunching down, she glanced up at Blondie.

“C’mon. Get on my shoulders.”

--Ithika Uli--

When the bag had been released Uli had fallen backwards on his fat ass. He sat there and stared at the women's hole for a while but first the woman who zoned him into reminiscence of Helen of Troy disappeared, and then a fellow came and pounded at it with a rock. Uli wasn't that sure what he thought of rock pounding technology in this day and age but anyway he was getting too hungry to think. Basically hunger never left him anymore, his cells had morphed into little fat warehouses and the pain of remodeling them was more than he could bear. He sniffed at a piece of the Turtle-Back plant. It came apart in his hand with seven of the little kiwi cells clinging together in a tube which reminded him of a spaceship. He decided not to taste it and when he tossed it away, it rolled to a stop.

Uli was a man who understood the importance of women and even this hungry he thought it would probably be best if they could be rescued. Even if a bunch of them were ninjas and assassins. How much worse would that be anyway? The problem, as Uli understood it, was that the ship rested on the hatches to the women's quarters. The ship was round, like that piece of rolling Turtle-Back. It was precariously balanced, looked like a smashed pod was all that was holding it, which might be moved, maybe by some fuel explosion, if it could be contained. After that it might take a lever to start it moving. Stopping would be the trick. Well, he could lay down in it's path. That would stop anything.

That skinny dark haired guy with the unpronounceable name seemed clever to Uli. He'd fashioned some sort of drive piston out of landing gear. Uli was surprised he found landing gear on an interplanetary transport but maybe it carried a lander or something. Right now the guy was climbing on top of the ship for some reason, where Uli thought the men's hatches were supposed to be. It wasn't clear that the fellow, Uli called him Elpenor but that was a private joke, spoke much of Uli's language but he tried to get his attention and started pantomiming rolling the ship by pointing at the place where the women's hatches were and rotating his arm in a big circle. He went over to the smashed pod and pantomimed blowing it up. The fire had spread fast and looked bad but its fuel was pretty scanty. Maybe the rock pounder fellow would help spread some of the fire-suppressant vegetation, to buy time for MacGiver/Elpenor/Ryuutarou to go into action. Or pile up something at the spot it needed to stop rolling.

Gabriel looked through the observation window he was clinging to, across the walkway separating the two holding areas, and through a second window to see a group of women trying to position themselves so that they could hack at the window with broken pieces of metal. He looked around the man's holding area and noticed that the hole in the mesh was now large enough to let reasonably sized human beings through, not just the smallest of them. With a grunt of pain, caused by his broken finger, he let go of the observation window and fell on top of the man who had fought his way to the front of the disorganised rabble for the the only exit. Gabriel shook his head sadly when he realised that he'd killed the man by landing directly on his neck and snapping it. With a shrug, he quickly wormed his way through the hole in the mesh.

Now that he was outside of the male holding area, Gabriel began to search along the walls of the ship for the container that he needed. He smiled as he found it. With his unharmed hand, he punched the glass covering the box and pulled out the fire axe.

Now, an ordinary, earth-bound, fire axe wouldn't have done him any good on this ship made entirely of strengthened metal but this wasn't an ordinary fire axe. Even the totalitarian reign on earth had not been enough to curb the world's need for safety measures. So this fire axe's head had been constructed of the same tough metal alloy as that of the ship, and sharpened to a very fine point. Gabriel smiled a little as he moved over to the small hole in the women's area and stuck at it's edge with the axe. The hole widdened a little. He fought not to grin and turned to the women trying to make their way through the still too small hole,

"Stand back from the hole or I'll end up cutting your fingers off!" he warned.