A weak distress signal shot through all comm frequencies as a privateer cargo ship flotted blindly in the black void of space. Aborad the ship, there was no one, as if the crew had just vanished and in its place was the whispers from the ship itself.

"Help me.." came out from no were... Suddenly, the only sound that remined was the beeping of the distress signal from the bridge.

Ethan stood at the side of the captain as the distress signal was being caught. The woman captain of the ship had her arms crossed, her stern expression didn't change but was lessened by her long flowing black hair that flowed straight down to the center of her shoulders. She turned ever slightly to Ethan and looked to him for a suggestion. Ethan gave a nod from his position in the gloom of the ship. Immediately she turned to the navigator and commanded "set the course and dock onto the vessel" then turning back over to Ethan "Get a squad, you lead"

An hour later Ethan and his team of Five soldiers had gathered at the dock point just in time. At the forefront Ethan was expressionless ready for nothing and yet anything. The hiss of release nodes had sprayed a fine mist as the doors opened up for the squad. With little hesitation they entered into the ship that was still dimly lit by the emergency lights.

The red lights flashed and the cargo thrown about in the cargo bay. Suddenly the hissing of the airlocks filled the already eerie room, and new forms of life enteried. As he hissing died the whispers returned to speak the the intruders...

"Who are you?"

"Help me!"

"DEAD!"

The voices where quiet, dead. As if the ship was the enemy to the new forms the had come aboard, but still the signal from the bridge continued to beep.

The ship was seemingly empty with the cargo strewn all over the place. There where somewhat audible whispers coming from....everywhere, Stepping further into the ship Ethan called out "HELLO IS THERE ANYONE HERE, WE'RE ALLIANCE SOLDIERS OFFERING ANY AID WE CAN!" there wasn't an answer yet and if the whispers continued his men would start to get on edge. Scanning the area they went up a connecting corridor leading further into the ships innards. A comm channel opened up in Ethans helmet "Status Report" the captains voice echoed in his ears. Touching the side of his helmet Ethan replied "nothing yet...if there is no one here we might as well strip the ship of any resources we can get." a short pause the she replied "agreed." After that short interlude in progress they restarted their sweeping and at the end of the hallway Ethan callled out again to make sure no one was there before going into the next room "HELLO IS THERE ANYONE HERE, WE'RE ALLIANCE SOLDIERS OFFERING ANY AID WE CAN!"

The life forms continued to search the cargo bay of the ghost ship.

"nothing yet...if there is no one here we might as well strip the ship of any resources we can get."

As the Human spoke those words the airlock suddenly closed shut, locking them in. The door panel turned red and a message come over the keypad..

"Head to the Bridge and await instructions..." It continued, waiting for it to be found by the inturders. In an instant all of the other doors unlocked, giving free access to the entire ship.

The shutting dock doors could be heard closing the men and Ethan rushed their way back to the door to get there too late. The men exclaimed in surprise and Ethan was the most angry of them all showing it with a distorted throw at the door which dented it a little but it was many inches of steel, it would take him all day to get the door open with his biotics. Immediately after the biotic display which didn't help much other than to worry his men even more Ethan opened a channel to the captain again "The cargo doors shut us in, theres a lot more going on here. I request a team of engineers be dispatched to the doors now. We will investigate this further." an annoyed voice came onto the channel "Dammit why can't we get a break out here, request accepted, keep me infomred Ethan and be careful we can't afford to lose a good biotic" Ethan chuckled to himself, its always so impersonal. touching his helm again he replied "Recieved, Ethan Out"

Just before leaving the area one of the marines shouted to him of finding a message. Ethan strolled over to the computer procesed the information to go to the bridge of the ship to recieve further instructions and also he downloaded the appropriate map to help them in this endeavour. Ehtan then turned to his soldiers and then commanded "March..." without question they followed Ethan across the ship at a fast pace finally reaching the bridge he ordered an immediate scan of the place.

As the humans began to scan the ship the controls came to life. As the systems rebooted, there was a loud screeching, then suddenly stoped. The monitors began to flash, then a message began to play over the intercoms of the enitre bridge.

"Captian's Log 59EO - Day 1"

"A few hours ago we had come across a distress signal from a Ghost Ship. It was strange, the enitre crew had disappeard when we went aboard, as if the ship had left its port without its crew, but we managed to find valuable slavage, which we took aboard, hoping to bring in some extra income."

And the screeching shot out, and again is stoped and the voice returned.

"Captian's Log 59EO - Day 4"

"Our main engeneers vanished! At first I thought it was just a joke they where all playing on us, but when they didnt appear for 2 days I autherized a search of the ship and there where no signs of them. The.....

The message cut short and there was static.

"Cap!@#n's Log *$&@#($ - Day 9"

"The engines have been down for 5 days now and more then three fourths of the crew is gone. There must have been something on that Ghost Ship we found, ever since then crew member have been diappearing, our food suppiles began to vanish, and all of the medical supplies have be poisioned!

I only have one warning for those who find this message, because I dought the remaing crew and I will be alive by the time you find this... RUN and dont look back the ship is a trap!"

The message died, as static took its place and the terminals died.

The message ended with a paniced warning which was frightening his soldiers which was only visible slightly as they were trained marines, they held their ground and were at a constant ready to fire state. The consoles just blurted out of power and Ehtan was enraged at the events that had occured because they were obviously lured here and they were being played with somewhat. Ethan kept his composure opening a channel up to the captain he reported in "I guess this ship is supposed to be a deathtrap, the whole crew before us were ghosted by something here, status report on the engineer squad?" there was a slight pause before an answer "Getting there should be open in ten minutes" almost cutting her off "Try and make it five, I'm not gonna be played with by whatever is here"

After confirmation to the suggestion Ethan took his men and headed back to the cargo hold, speaking aloud to his men "Damn thing thinks it can ghost us, it better think again" the men chuckled continuing on his rant "I bet it didn't count on an alliance dreadnaught ever boarding this sorry piece of trash, we get out of here and then blow this tin can out of existance." and with a cheerful Hoorah by all the men they started to make their way back.

The sounds of the hissing filled the cargo bay as more life forms behind it tried to get through. Hissing, cracking, annoince... The door began to ring.. a constant ring, unitl it finally opened on its own, it was willing to let the intruders go free.

Ethan came to the cargo bay to find that the doors where opened and the engineers seemed surprised themselves so he deduced that it wasn't the doing of the engineering team. With quick strides he made his way to the commanding team member of the engineers which was a scrawny older bald man that had a machine for a right arm. Ethan commanded a report "what happended" and in monotone voice was answered "It just opened on its own, I figure it was prompted by something from inside the ship judging from the impulses we where gathering from our close up ship to ship readings we got set up here." this was an acceptable enough answer for Ethan "ok start the undocking procedures"

Standing in a silhouette of light he looked into the bleak darkness of the ghost ship as the doors started the closing sequence now that all his soldiers where at a safe distance watching by Ethans side.

The light began to fade on the ghost ship, hopefully never to be opened again, but something had changed since there enterence into the ship. The whispers had ceased, and the ship had finially come to peace.

There was a slam and hiss, the doors shut, and there was nothing but silence and darkness in the ghost ship.

The doors had been shut the hatches closed at the docking area, Ethan had done his job even if the ship ended up to be nothing but a waste of time. With a heavy sigh he dismissed his men after the regular checkups which was a routine after missions no matter how small. The captain checked up on Ethan and the conversation which was just business as always and resulted in the ship being blown away by the massive gun of The Desolate Dreadnaught. Upon hearing the blast charging up and the static in the air starting to rise Ethan couldn't help but smirk at the thought of the destruction that a single shot from this ship could cause.

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

After all that Ethan took his leave and after a warm meal in the mess hall he made his way to his quarters for some rest and relaxation figuring that the day was over for him.

(OOC:Sadly He's always on call for more reasons than none since he's part of the captains personal staff)

The crew of the Desolate began to return to their normal ways, relaxed, comfortable with their familiar surroundings. As the eerie feeling and images from those who had entered the ghost ship began to fade, the speakers of the ship came to life with nothing but the sound static. As the crew stopped what they where doing to listen in a voice began to grow out of the static.

"Your not alone." he voice whispered out from the speakers. Suddenly blood curdling screams shot out from the speakers, mixed with scattered messages and eerie moaning. The screaming stopped and the moaning halted, but the mixed messages continued.

"You...”
"May...”
"Think that..."
"It’s over..."
"But, this..."
"Is only the beginning!!" the scrabbled voices screamed out.

The lights began to flicker, and the visual screens came to life and the figure of the ghost ship's captain appeared. The figure just stood there as the screaming, moaning, and mixed messages continued. Suddenly the figures raised his head and blood covered the man’s neck. Suddenly the figure vanished, and the screaming stopped, but a new image took to the visual screen.

It was as if it was in the view of a person, and was watching a man stood working franticly on a terminal. Slowly the person began to grow, as the new figure moved closer.

"Captain’s Log 59EO - Day 9"

"The engines have been down for 5 days now and more then three fourths of the crew is gone. There must have been something on that Ghost Ship we found, ever since then crew member have been disappearing, our food supplies began to vanish, and all of the medical supplies have be poisoned!

I only have one warning for those who find this message; because I doubt the reaming crew and I will be alive by the time you find this... RUN and don’t look back the ship is a trap!"

The man stood straight up, and then began to shake, slowly he began to turn around, and then suddenly screamed as the view jumped on top of the man and all went black.

Words began to slowly develop as if being typed slowly in real time. When the words where finished it read:

"He was the last to live; do you think it will make it that long??"

The visual screen flashed off, the speaker system went dead, and the lights stopped flickering and the ship when back to normal.

*on the bridge*

The captain was in a rage; quickly she went from one tech officer to another to see what exactly was going on, she ordered immediate control of all com systems and set up a constant systems monitor tech team until this situation is over. With nothing but a glance to her second in command he issued a call to her staff. The captain turned to the most qualified tech officer on the bridge “what exactly is going on to my ship…?” a little shaken by her presence he piped up immediately

“We figure whatever is doing this may have hit a junction point either in one of 5 nodes across the ship and hacked in, the other option is one of 3 nodes in the maintenance pipes. Whoever is doing this can hack in fast so our own tech won’t be able to stop it right away if it happens again, but after a half hour we could have everything fire walled until then we can only cut it off in mid transmission”

Turning over to the second in command she ordered “Get a squad of marines to each communication node and have man engineer accompany them to help get the firewalls going.” After that she took her leave of everyone and left to the war room in which most of her staff should have gathered.

*Ethan’s Quarters*

He had just closed his eyes after some interesting reading when the ghostly transmission blared on the PA system, ‘god dammed’ he thought angrily ‘this day will never end’ and with that he got up from bed pulled on his clothes and light armor. Walking casually to the counter in the center of his quarters he picked up the pistol and with a few flips and pulls he had checked it over making sure it was in peak condition then left the room.

*War room*

Ethan had been filled in with the information that the tech officers obtained and now was where the obvious was being stated just for clarification, the captain spoke clearly “there is a stow away from the ship an especially stealthy one, an infiltrator of sorts that has not been identified yet so it must be good.” Looking over at Ethan “you will take another squad and do regular patrols around the ship especially at the comm. Nodes. Don’t worry about the vitals of the ship they have all been reinforced with personnel and tech services to alert at the slightest hint of tampering.” Ethan knew she was trusting in him on the ground since it was getting a bit personal for him; whatever was messing with them was in a way his fault for even advising the docking with the ghost ship.

*later*

Ethan was in the center of the corridor flanked by the battle hardened soldiers of the SSV Desolate, and turning to his men “be ready for anything…”

The lights again began to flicker, and the whispers began to start again.

"I know where you are!"

"Who..."

"His is the Captian of...."

Suddenly a gental song from a music box begins to play, quietly, yet it could be hear by all aboard, it sang its gental song. Peacefully, calmly. The peacefulness of the song could have rested a small child into a peaceful slumber, slowly it began to weaken and came to a stop.

Dead quiet, no sound, the lights faded out, nothing...

The speakers came on with a blood curtling scream! Horror, terror, death was all the could be heard over the speaker! Nawing at the very souls of the marines, then dead quiet and it was over.

Hand at his ear Ethan activated a comm channel to the head tech officer up there "how much longer till we have full control of ourselves" said in his regal tone with a hint of annoyance. there was an electrical cackle when the comm channel opened "we will have it all fire walled in less then ten minutes." with that he kept his men marching in their patrol.

Ethan knew what the game was and it was fear...this game could be played all day and yes there was a chunk of the crew that would succumb but the ones that mattered the battlehardened soldiers would be under control ready to take on whatever it was that liked to play this game. wickedly he thought to himself 'if this thing keeps this up, when we catch him or it I'm glad we're in a remote area of space that has no laws against torture.'

Whatever ended up happening today there was only one sure thing and that was Ethans mood isn't gonna improve without a break to get some well earned R and R. Marching further along the ships innards he turned over to his ever stoic squad of soldiers "looks like we're gonna have to wait for the bastard to make his move."

((Now its time to get very eeire))

Only the foot steps of the patrols could be heard through the black halls of The Desolate. As the patrols marched on and on trying to find that stow away, the music box began again to play it gental sweet sound of peace.

As a patrol rounded the corner into another hallway they stopped, for a few moments they staired down into the pitch black hallway, nothing could be seen, nothing could be heard other then the music box. As they stood there stairing into the abyss, a red light suddenly appeared, it was close floor and began to slowly rise up only several feet down the hall.

As quickly as it had appeared, it vanished, as if it was sucked into the black void itself. Hesitantly the soldiers began to walk down the eerie hall, there was a sudden crunch. Slowly the soilder raised his arm up and flicked on his personal light, the soldier's eyes grew wide and began to shake at what he was seeing...

There was Blood splattered all over the wall and old bones scattered across the floor, it was as if the patrol was standing in a mass grave. There where strands of clothing that didn’t resemble military issued, but that of a privateers ship crews.

Suddenly the soldier light turned off, he franticly he reached up for it and found it quickly. He pushed the button to turn it back on but it wouldnt, suddenly the music box began to play and slowly began to get louder. Panicing he rapidly pushed the button on and off until it came to life, and the hallyway was empty. No remains, no blood, nothing except for the music.

The alert noise came on, there was a lot of frantic comm chatter. Ethan was getting more and more pissed by the second. "whats going on up there" he had opened a channel to the second on command and a stern response came back "multiple reports of odd sightings but really nothing." this game of fear was getting on his nerves. turning over to his men he asked them how they were doing, the reply was positive "solid Sir!" followed by a chuckle. opening the channel he asked the tech officer "whats the status I need some good news..." waiting for an answer, after a moment of static the tech officers optimistic voice came on "Its just about ready...give me a sec" the channel they where on went into a high pitch screech then it was abruptly cut off. "alright sir we are gold all channels are secured no more wierdness in that department anymore." awesome the ship channels had been firewalled.

As the firewalls came to life, so did the Desolate. Its, the light came back on and the systems humed. It was peaceful, all was normal...
The crews spirits rose, this unknown madness was final over!

As the joy grew, so did the madness. In an instant, all over the ship, the video screens came to life, but they where empty, expect for the flashing of a cursor on the lower left side.

It began to type:

"Y"
"o"
"u"

"C"
"a"
"n"
"t"

"S"
"t"
"o"
"p"

"m"
"e"


As the words finished typing the curos flashed inocently at the end of it. For a few moments the words stood there, being taken in by those who could see it unfold. The vid screen changed and the Tech officer became visable for all to see. He sat there, taking pride in stopping the madness aboard The Desolate and saving the crew.

He sat there typeing on the terminal with a large grin apon his face, so inocent, so peaceful. The entire crew could see him doing his job, what was trained to do, and what he was in trouble for...

As the crew watched, a shadow slowly began to delvelop behind the officer, growing larger and larger until it took its full blurry shape. It was as large as a man, but as dark as the endless void of space, a red light then appeared near the top, but yet, its true identity couldn't be seen.

The technician sat there, doing his work, unaware of what was about to happen, suddenly the music box began to play and the tech officer froze, his grin gone, his fingers frozen, and his eyes wide. He's body began to shake and his mouth shuttered, trying to find words, but where lost to him. The tech offier closed his eyes as a tear ran down his face, he was petrafied, frozen in his spot as the music continued to play its peaceful sound.

Slowly the Offier began to turn his chair, keeping his eyes closed out of fear, but he stopped. For a few moments he hesitated, then contiued to turn to face what was behind him, when the officers was compleatly turned around, he opened his eyes and instantly the screen went dead.

The evil curos took backs its postion, and once again began to type.
"He was the first, whos next?" and then the screen died.

The captain issued a ship wide order to all personell to not at anytime for any reason to be alone, she gave the crew a joke about the buddy system and then left the channel off. The clean up crew had taken care of the dead tech officers remains and brought it to the ship mortuary ready to be shippped home as soon as possible. The dead tech officer was a great in his trade but certainly not the best and a few of his underlings could match his skill so after he was gone they reinitialized the firewall within the first ten minutes since as any good tech officer would do he left hidden redundencies or backups for ease of access, after all he wanted the job done right and if there was any cracks in the coding the captain wouldn't allow him to take a break.

Ethan had done three summary executions that day for Cowardice among a few men amongst the crew who where openly rebelling against their duties and causing a disruption among the crew. These men had stopped working and where preaching on how the entity was unstoppable and that no one should trust in the captain. Definitely an overreaction from a single crew members death. Ethan had given his warning to the men and they blatently refused so he flexed his biotic powers and caused a singularity amongst them and with that he pulled his pistol out and dealt out some military justice. 'no mercy for the weak' Ethan thought coldly to himself and with a hope that he wouldn't have to do anymore executions he trudged on the ship braced for the next event.

((This post maybe offensive to some. Strong violence and violent descriptive graphics, readers desecration is advised.))

Everyone was on edge, and some even mutinied against the captain, slowly the body count began to grow on its own accord as fear arose. Every corpse, every form of lifeless flesh and bone slowly piled up in the morgue of the Desolate, waiting the return home.

The morgue was empty, no doctors and no guard. The lights began to flicker their haunting flashes of light throughout the entire sector of the ship, as a shadowy figure slowly walked down its empty halls. The figure was as black as emptiness space and just as cold. Its outline was blurry and a red light shined bright near the top, slowly it continued on its little walk through the lifeless morgue.

Slowly the double-swinging doors opened and the black figure walked in without a sound and stood there, starring into the dark morgue. The dead bodies of the crew lay upon the tables and the steel slabs of the morgue freezers. The room was cold and dead, as the figure slowly reached up and pulled back the white cloth that covered the bare body of the tech officer. The face of the tech officer was blue and motionless; the chest was scared and stitched with the signs of the recent autopsy that was preformed.

The figure stared down at face, examining it, examining its work. He stood there, cold and lifeless; no void of emotions, quietly the music box began to play. The figure raised its head, and stared at the rest of the bodies. In its hand it held a small music locket, the chiming was peaceful in the eerie room as the figure made its rounds, uncovering and examining the remains.

For hours it examined the bodies without disturbance, studying, as the music continued to play. It stood over the last of the bodies, examining the bullet wounds to the heart; again it raised its head, the looked around the room. A terminal was in the distance, and slowly it walked over to it. Log report littered its hard drive, the names, and causes of deaths of all twenty people now resided in the morgue.

It took satisfaction in its find; slowly the figure cocked it head to the left to find a small shelf with the autopsy tools upon it. It reached over and grabbed a large knife, it examined it with great pleasure and turned back to face the bodies. With its head cocked it walked back over to the body of the tech officers, the shadow stood next to the body.

The music contained as the shadow raised the knife over its head; it held it there, as if frozen in the action that it was about to commit, but in one quick thrust the knife came down.



A group of doctors walked into the morgue observatory, they where chatting and talking about the mysteries figure that now wondered the halls of the ship. Loudly the group walked over to the window that looked into the morgue, but the room beyond the glass was black, slowly one of them reached over and flicked a switch, and the lights came to life, and so did the horror.

Blood covered the walls and the organs thrown everywhere, the room was littered with the insides of the dead. The livers that use to belong to the bodies where smeard over the window, and where ripped to shreds as if by some wild animal. The stomachs where cut clean out of the carcasses and tossed around the room, they where torn open, releaing the sickness within of the last meals that the dead had. On a tray a heart lay, with the knife driven violently through it. The intestines, stretched out across the floor, tables, and even hung on the walls, blood was everywhere, and on the wall, written in blood, where words.

“They are mine now”

The white rags where stained with the deep red color of blood, but… the bodies where gone…

The group stared in into the morgue, wide eyed and sick. The horror of the sight made one of the doctors run over a trash can and vomit fierily.

The ship was getting even more wound up as the days went by and the stow away had not been dealt with. The patrols could not find the perpetrator, occasionally they had got onto the enemies trail just for it to end suddenly with the speedy black figures dissappearance. The mutilation that occured down in the morgue was not too pleasant but Ethan was there to Examine the situation.

For an Advisor position he was shoved into many of duties that would be suited more for the second in command or the Marine Captain. Ethan was becomeing a real asset to the newly commisioned dreadnaught and Ethan doubted that when the time for him to leave this ship came it would come as a welcome event. The situation at hand was an atrocity of sorts the thing was in a roundabout way responsible for most of the bodies that where in the morgue and then he apparently decided to play with their innards. Ethan was there pretty much alone except for the few doctors and one real quite one trying to make it look as if he wasn't talking to himself a moment ago. With the batch of executions Ethan had performed across the ship he had gained a ruthless reputation.

Ethan examined the room a bit more with some of the doctors that had been aboard one of which had a plethora of Forensic experience they where finally able to make some headway in what the Stow away was. They were able to determine that what had done the deed in the morgue was a machine based upon the rips and indentures around the ripped skin and actually a closer scan shows mettalic particles had grinded along the sides of the trays that held the bodies. The news was relayed to the Captain and then Ethan was about to head back out leaving the medical crews to come and help piece together the bodies for shipping and also to be locked more securely this time.

Just as he was about to step out of the room the quiet doctor had stepped up a notch in the crazy department and had begun his whispering again. Ethan stepped up to the doctor vehemently "I will give you this one chance, I have relieved you of duty and declare you confined to quarters for the remainder of this situation pending a psych evaluation once things are more calmed." The doctor nodded alot then walked off he was a bald man with glasses that had an eccentric walk about him taking note of how he looked Ethan hoped that was the last problem he had with that guy.

The blurry figure sat alone in the dark, the room it was in was small and littered with crates, and the only form of light came from the red light of the blurry figure and a lonely terminal that shined in front of it. The room was quiet, as if where void of life, except for the peaceful humming of the Desolate’s engines.

Slowly the shadowy figure rose up its arm and held out its palm, the peaceful sound of the music box began to play again as the small locket sat in the figure’s hand, but this time it wasn't an eerie feeling, it was sad, even though it played it same tune. As the figure sat there, it stared back down at it and listened. As the music played the red light from the figure turned light blue and the blur around the figure faded, revealing a hard metal body beneath it.

The light from the terminal shined off the surface of the metal, this was the stowaway’s true form. It was the form of a lonely Geth. Its body was in shades of Red, Black, and Silver, there where stretches that took away some colors revealing more shades of silver that where never meant to be there.

Without warning there where footsteps outside the door, but the Geth didn’t care, it was fixed to the sounds of the locket, as if was its master, controlling it, telling it what to do, yet, it wasn’t. It continued to listen as the footsteps faded down the hall outside the door.

There was more to it; something driving the Geth to do what it was doing now, and the locket was its moral to continue.

The hustle and bustle of the ship had lulled for a time since the sightings had faded for a few moments. Ethan was exhausted from the lack of sleep he endured ever since the stowaway came aboard. Ethan had marched alongside the patrol but he was falling behind and so as to not show any weakness Ethan played it off and acted as if he had something more important to do then told his men that he'd catch up with them later. After they dissapeared from sight Ethan leaned back onto the wall then collapsed onto the metal floor.

Ethan let his head rest lazily onto the wall and tilted. With a heavy sigh he closed his eyes hoping for just a moments rest, his hand firmly gripped his pistol though more out of habit it was as if it was his teddy bear. That pistol was his security blanket the one thing he couldn't be without at night and with all the problems along the ship no one would blame him. Ethan sat there and dozed for a while thinking or dreaming about the crazed people that couldn't get over their fears, the people Ethan had to execute to keep the rest strong.

It was a troubled rest but it was rest none the less, for a moment in this restful state he opened his eyes to make sure no one was around and Ehtan thought he could faintly hear the dreadful song that was played earlier still in his ears but this time it was as if it was somewhere nearby in one of the rooms. Ethan shrugged it off and just thought he was imagining it, letting himself fall in another moment of rest.

The music continued with its sad and slow chime and still the Geth stared at it, fixed upon it. The metal figure of the Geth seemed saddened by its tune, as if it was groping over it in its own emotionless A.I. way; it seemed to feel it as if it was an organic. It sat there, motionless, as the music still continued on playing, its sound seemed to echo, but the figure didn’t car, all it wanted to do was listen.

The chiming began to distance itself as the music began to slow. Ever so slowly the music began to fade, quieter and quieter with every note that was strung, until the music finally faded away. Alone, the Geth was there, its light still a cool blue, and its metal body still motionless. Now there it was silent, except for the yet remaining sounds of the engines.

Slowly the figure began to rise form its sitting positions, it was ever so careful as it finial came to its feet, and it stood there, staring into its palm, and even more deeply at the locket. Carefully it closed its cold metal fingers around and lowered its hand to a small metal pocket on its waist. It stood there, head down, as the blur around the figure began to return, and the cool blue light began to change back to its dark blood red color.

The lights outside of the room, as the figure stood there alone in the small room. Without another moment of hesitation it slowly turned and made its way to the door. Its pace was slow and quiet, as if death itself was walking towards it. The door opened into the empty hallway of flickering light, as the figure emerged, but instantly stopped. It cocked its head to the left to find a human sitting there on the ground, only a few yards down the hall.

With its red light fixed on the human, it waited as it examined the human, studying him, watching the male human sit there, not knowing what was going on around him, when suddenly he opened his eyes and stared back, it stood there for a moment, then began to fade away, until the figure instantly disappeared.

A deathly chill had run up his spine or so he had thought in his dream, in this dreamed he was chasing something through a metal labrynth always so close yet so far. Almost there but at the same time so far away, it was a never ending chase that had to end eventually but seemed as if it could go on forever. In the walls of this labrynth the men he executed where left screaming in the wall he could see their writhing bodies in the walls. Ethan was afradi these men where mad at him but they weren't they seemed to be urging him on and then he realized they where warning him of the dangers ahead, pointing toward a bright light.

That was when he awoke, Ethans eyes blinked for a second and then they were wide open. It was as if time had stood still as the machine stood over him the machines light resting upon his body. Ethan could make out every minute detail of the being and it was obviously Geth. Within that moment it was as if the machine dissapeared into thin air. Without hesitation and fueled with the rush of adrenaline the Adept was on his feet and with a raised arm clenched with all his strength he activated a wide reaching singularity.

(OOC: If he's just stealthing he'll probably be caught up in it...but its up to you if he's caught otherwise I'll just get back to duties and whatever, no problem with me in whatever you choose to do)

((Sorry it took so long to reply, been busy fora long time but here it is YAY!!))

By the time the human had used his power, the geth backed fare enough way to avoid the reach of his powrer, it still faced the human as it examined him as he stood there, the geth search his memory to find that this human wasn’t the one he was looking for. Slowly the figured turned and continued to walk down the deserted halls of the ship, invisible to the eyes of anyone who could threaten its tasks. The light flickered in his presence, as if he was a ghostly disturbance among the ships systems.

It marched on, searching it memory banks for yet another target, faces flashed by with the names and data that the geth had take from the ship’s data systems and it found several of the targets it was looking for, but stopped on one when it caught is attention. The man was named Pars Linderman, a man who was just picked up not long ago, without and expression, it stopped walking, it stood their with its head down, then suddenly turned around making his way back down the hall from which he had just come from, to find Pars Linderman.

Ethan sweated in relief and he felt that his previous actions where quite erratic. His breathing was still labored as he had exerted himself a bit much for that day. Ethan knew that sleep deprivation was getting to him and it is for that reason he had finally decided to give in and request a break from the captain. The captain wasn't pleased but had to allow the break since Ethan was just an advisor in rank not particularly under her command and besides he wasn't useful to her exhausted.

Ethan went to his room and pondered the current events with a little joy in that he may finally sleep, but then Ethan had an epiphany about all that was going on. He had finally connected the dots to what was going on and without as much as a hesitation Ethan opened the comm channel. Every single direct victim of the machine was not part of the normal crew, they were members of the inducted crew.

Not too long ago a badly damaged ships crew had been inducted into the dreadnaughts crew and any assets that they had where added to the Desolates stores. Now this crew addition was temporary and more of an act of kindness and each one of their ID's had checked out with the data base so the captain took them on.

On the open channel he ordered the gathering of the Gorbachev crew down to the cargo hold immediately for interrogation. The cargo hold was currently the only spot on the ship that lacked cameras due to the ships previous missions and incidents. Ethan thought to himself 'perfect no cameras I don't have anytime to waste on a "nice" interrogation'

The SSV Thermopylae drifted along without a real direction, since the navigations officer had somehow managed to send them into a completely random direction.

"What's our status, where exactly did you send us?" Derevai asked, watching as both the navigations officer and ex-Admiral Michael Danforth worked furiously at the console.

"Still working," Danforth replied irritably.

"Ma'am, I'm picking up some strange comm chatter here," the communications officer said from his station.

"Strange? How so?" Derevai asked, looking over at the young serviceman there. He was fresh out of the academy, so his definition of 'strange' was surely different from her own.

"Maybe you'd better listen to it for yourself..." The serviceman patched it through, and for a moment there was silence. A hiss began softly and slow became nearly deafening. It suddenly stopped, and was replaced by strange whispers.

"You're not alone," were the whispered words. Again, there was a weird moment of silence and then more static. Then an eerie sort of music, that at the same time was incredibly peaceful, grew loud until abruptly fading off. A sudden screaming made everyone on the bridge jump, then it was gone. Another silence, then a human voice crackled to life.

"How much longer till we have full control of ourselves?!" Yet again, an eerie silence followed, then a mass of frantic comm chatter. Finally, silence ...silence and static. Every person on the ship's bridge stared blankly at the speakers, eyes wide and mouths open. Finally, the pilot regained his voice and said what everyone was thinking.

"What...the hell...was THAT?!" There was a sudden explosion as everyone began speaking at once. A few people even panicked, imagining that they'd seen things in the shadow.

"Silence!" Derevai finally shouted, her voice overpowering the crews', "lock onto that signal, find out what generated it. In the meantime, this crew will NOT act like that again! That sort of behavior is for civilians, not trained soldiers, damnit!"

"I've got the signal locked. It's originating from one of ours, the SSV Desolate, a Dreadnought," the communications officer said.

"Good, patch them through, maybe we can make some sense of this," Derevai ordered.

"Patched through, ma'am."

"This is 1st Lieutenant Derevai Richards of the SSV Thermopylae. SSV Desolate, can you read me? We're picking up some of your comm chatter... is everything alright there? Can we offer any assistance?" Derevai said aloud, hoping the answer would be, "Yes, we're fine, just a minor malfunction."

The captain was in the shower when the ship message was coming through and since it was an alliance vessel she had no time to waste so dried her body with an ease and deliberation that screamed efficiency. She got dressed quickly and grabbed her gun as she strolled out of her quarters.

Since Ethan was currently persuing some leads in the cargo room she took her mind off of that situation for now and let him continue with his "Interogations." The machine that was aboard now had set up some sort of an independant comm at some junction and it was sending its usual garbage of fear, music, and words.

She went to her "war room" and had the comm patched in. Currently no staff were present but that didn't matter they where only around for convenience anyway. In her Regal tone she began "Greeting SSV Thermopylae, do not attempt a normal boarding if you must use a shuttle. Current situation is that we got ourselves a Geth infiltrator aboard but this one seems to have an alpha status intelligence and is messing with all our systms. Firewalls have been implaced and can keep it out of most of our systems. Any assistance is welcome but not required, boarding is inadvisable since we want to keep the thing on our ship." and with that she waited for a reply.

The halls flashed as the now black, blurry figure marched visibly down the corridors of the SSV Desolate. The Geth continued on its search, but didn’t find anything, not even a patrol marching down the halls trying to find the psychotic intruder. As there was nothing, it made the search a little easier, more freedom for it to search for Pars Linderman. For what seemed like hours, the synthetic search, but turned up nothing more then a few non-targeted crew members who where unaware of his presence as he stood, invisible to them if he came across anyone and would become visible again when alone.

Emotionlessly it continued down hall, corridors, and the occasional room moving slowly, thoroughly searching, but nothing. Suddenly it picked up a message, a message what it was hoping to find. It was a message that was sent to the crew of the Gorbachev telling them to meet down in the cargo hold immediately. Instantly the figure turned and began to make its way down the halls and corridors, back to the cargo hold, where the geth could hide the one he was looking for.

After traveling throughout the ship, it came to the cargo room; slowly it entered, to find it dark and deprived of anything living. Without hesitation it ducked into the pitch black shadows and waited for the pray to come to him.

The men were on their knees now some where crying but all in all they all refused to talk they where all sitting down hidden by a mound of crates, no one would have noticed if anyone was even there at a first glance. This was just a precaution because what he was doing wasn't quite sanctioned by any alliance laws. Ethan had figured out that whatever was happening to the ship was related somehow to the Gorbadhevs crew and a quick trajectory check had confirmed they where present at the "ghost ship not too long before the Desolate took them.

Ethan was only just starting and the crew wasn't quite ready to crack but for sure they would start talking if they seen one of the others tortured to death and he was ready to do it.

Ethan marched to a no name prisoner and fired his gun till it over heated then placed the muzzler right in between the fingers and with a loud scream Ethan smiled. Coldly and without emotion he asked for the hundredth time "why is the geth after your crewmates?"

Derevai had taken the ship commander's advice, and were preparing the shuttle to take her and four of her Marines over to the ship. It was her usual Blue-Team, the assault team, since it sounded like something needed hunting. 'Keep it on our ship' the captain had said.

"Admiral, take the ship and put it into orbit around the nearest planet. We'll call when we need to come back aboard," Derevai said to Danforth.

"Aye, ma'am," he replied. Derevai nodded, then stepped into the shuttle. A single, frightened Serviceman sat at the wheel. Derevai noted that he had been on the bridge while the crew had listened to the frightening comm chatter, and hoped he wouldn't be a problem. The shuttle disengaged, and the Serviceman obediently steered it toward the SSV Desolate, which looked deceptively serene at the moment.

"This is Lieutenant Richards to the SSV Desolate. We have disengaged from our craft and are en route to your own vessel. Requesting permission to dock, and a welcoming party to bring us up to speed. Preferably Marine, if you don't mind," Derevai said over the comm.

The figure watched as the human who had tried to capture him before, was now interrogating those he had been looking for. He sat there in the darkness, waited, planning, his light didn’t shine, but he could still see, he was one with the darkness, motionless, soundless, as quiet as death itself. He heard the Human shouting at those who where on their knees, crying and begging for the madness to stop, but the human wouldn’t let up.

It watched at the human fired it gun untilled it halted to cool down, emotionless it stood there observing as the human with the gun grabbed the other humans hand and placed it against the heated gun, he human shouted out in pain, but the Geth continued on its observation.

"Why is the geth after your crewmates?"

The geth heard the angered human shout at the screaming human, who was obviously in pain. It heard every denying word the human shouted back, disacknowledging any memory of the metal machine, from there past. Either that they where lying or they truly didn’t know anything.

Ethan stood over the charred face of the Gorbachev crew member who was unconcious now from the burns that Ethan had inflicted, glancing over to the others he spoke "anyone ready to talk yet?" one of them wimpered a reply that was inaudible. "what was that sir?" Ethan demanded and with a raised fist he flexed his biotic powers lifting the man up in mid air. The man yelped in fear and screamed "YOUR WASTING YOUR TIME, YOU'D KILL US ANYWAY IF YOU KNEW!" the other men grumbled in anger and with that Ethan swung his arm in a brutal motion of anger and the man was thrown across the room and into a steel wall his head split open and his brain matter spilled out. Looking over at the rest and said cooly "Damned if you do, Damned if you don't"

The captain replied back to the shuttle immediately "alright then your cleared for docking and you'll have an escort right away. They will take you to Ethan Lafflin our resident master biotic, Asari relations expert, he has been leading many of our investigations and missions. He is pretty much 2nd to me in rank and is currently following a lead in this matter you'll take orders from him." after that she closed the channel and sighed 'damn he should be my second' she thought. So far in her relationship with Ethan she has used him way more than she's permitted of a temporary staff member and he don't get paid enough to do what he does. she sat back and pondered Ethans position thinking he is definitely up for some medals.

Derevai's shuttle docked on the SSV Desolate, and sure enough, an escort stood just outside as the doors opened.

"Follow me to the cargo bay, ma'am," the Serviceman said, then led the marines through the enormous dreadnought, for what seemed like miles to the cargo bay. When Derevai got there, she was startled by what she saw. A man, dead, his skull split open, and a Marine shouting threats at the rest of them. She'd been told by the escort that this man, Ethan, was having an interrogation. This was no interrogation, this was murder.

"What the hell is going on here, Marine?!" Derevai shouted, storming up to the man. He grinned slightly as he turned to face her, and Derevai spotted the rank insignia on his chest. "Sir!" she added hastily.

"Just a friendly little interrogation. And I'd watch your tone if I were you, Lieutenant!" Ethan said, lifting another of the men and throwing him into the wall too.

"Sir, this is against protocol!" Derevai yelled, trying to keep it respectful, yet forceful.

"To hell with protocol," Ethan said, "now who here is going to tell me what I want to know?!" Derevai had had enough, and pulled out her pistol, aiming it at the man's head.

"With all due respect, sir, throw another damn prisoner at that wall and the last thing you'll see is the blast from this pistol!" she screamed furiously. Ethan didn't recoil, didn't react, he just laughed shortly.

"I dare you," were his words, taunting, fearless. He had Derevai caught there, she wasn't about to shoot a superior officer. She holstered her weapon and snapped to attention.

"My apologies, sir."

The figure watched as yet another Human, this time a female, entered the cargo bay. He examined her from afar, his systems searched, but she wasn’t a target. As he was about to look away, he noticed a one human on his knees, farthest way from the two humans who engaged in an argument between morals. It cocked its head and began to examine the human, searching through its memory of a face. It searched, and almost instantly the face came into memory as a target. It watched the human for a few moments, studying his moments and the way he acted, the human was frightened, he was shaking slightly and his heart rate was high. It was time…

Quietly the creature reached down and retrieved the music box from its protected placement and held it in its hand. It lowered its head and gazed upon it, in one quick motion, it activated the music box, filling the room with its peaceful tune. Instantly everyone in the room became quiet, petrified with fear, it was more then a tune, but a death song. The sound shot through the room, delivering the music equally through out the room, making it impossible to locate.

Slowly it raised its head, and the red light came to life, but quickly faded as the creature vanished from view. The man searched franticly, trying to see the metal beast that is so long feared, but nothing could be seen, his eyes unable to detect the hunter. The man’s breath began to quicken and sweat began to run down his neck, his shook violently with fear and turned his head in all direction. With quiet swallow of the saliva that had built up in his mouth, the creature hand trusted through the man’s chest.

The beast stood behind the man, still invisible to the eyes of the other, except for the hand that was now visible with the layer upon it. In the hand it held the man’s heart, who was still gasping for breath, but couldn’t find it. With its hand still in the chest of the man, it slowly raised the heart up the man’s face; it held it there for the being to observe. Wide eyes and gasping, the metal monster began to squeeze, the organ, which shredded into pieces instantly. As the remains fell out of the hand, the man died, still being help us by the arm of the Geth.

Slowly it pulled its hand back spraying blood across the invisible figure, making some parts of the figure viable, the body fell dead to the ground and stared back at the Male and Female humans, who now starred back. There were no sounds other then the gentle music box. Instant the music box died, with a suddenly explosion of a small create, behind the geth, covering its escape form view.

"Fire Marines!" Derevai commanded her troops. They all began firing wildly in the direction that the creature must have gone. Derevai pulled out her pistol and began firing as well, screaming as she did so.

"Come back here and fight, you chicken-shit sonuvah bitch! We'll see just how tough you are head-to-head!" the pistol overheated, but Derevai kept pulling the trigger, face contorted with fury. It was a Geth from what the escort had said, and Derevai never needed a reason to be angry at them, because there were so many already. She turned around and looked at Ethan, who stood calmly, watching her.

"Sir, aren't you going to order your men to engage?!" Derevai demanded of him. He waved it away dismissively.

"There's no use, we won't find him. Trust me, he'll be back," Ethan said. Derevai let out a short scream of fury and holstered her pistol, then tried to regain her composure.

"My apologies again, sir, I lost myself..."

Ethan turned over to the other guards that she had brought along with her, "go and check if you can see where it came from and how it got out" looking over to one of his own guards ordered "take the prisoners to the brig and get a cleanup crew down here after that"

Ethan looked over at the wreckage that was caused by the Geth. It was a surprise that the machine had taken the risk to get its hands on one of the gorbachev crew members. Scanning the place he took in a mental inventory of how many death had occured and had came to the conclusion that there where only 6 of the Gorbachev crew left and that he may convince the captain for an official order of summmary execution upon the rest of the men and have it broadcast across the ship.

with a heavy sigh looked over to the woman and asked politely "are you ok?" hoping for an added explanation as to why she was there he awaited an answer.

(Sorry about the prolonged absence, guys, I had a virus problem that had to be fixed before I could get back on.)

Derevai's marines paused for a moment at Ethan's command, looking to their leader for guidance. With a subtle nod from Derevai, the marines rushed off.

"Are you okay?" the man asked, a strange way to speak with a clear subordinate, in Derevai's opinion.

"Yeah, I'm fine... I mean-" Derevai snapped to a crisp attention, "Yes, sir, perfectly okay, sir! Once more, my apologies for my behavior, sir, it won't happen again. It's just... the Geth... They deserve all the hatred we have for their race."

There was a pause, then, "I'm sure an introduction is in order, sir. I am First Lieutenant Derevai Richards, Captain of the Alliance frigate, SSV Thermopylae. We picked up your comm chatter, mostly the things that the Geth generated in your systems, and we hailed your ship. Your captain sent me to you, as I requested that the leading Marine on-board brief me on the situation. Obviously, the briefing is no longer necessary." Derevai gestured in the direction the Geth had gone. She noticed that her second-in-command was there, motioning for her to come over.

"If you'll excuse me for a moment, sir," Derevai said, and without waiting for an answer, she walked off.

"What is it, Stevens?" she asked of her second-in-command, Operations Chief Jason Stevens.

"There's no sign of which way it went, we only know that it went through this here hole," the Operations Chief replied, indicating a hole roughly a meter in diameter, shred open. "I've sent the marines in teams of two, one person in each team scanning with thermal, sonar, and electric pulse devices. They're scrubbing the entire ship for this thing."

"All of them have their fail-safe systems online?"

"Yes ma'am, all operational."

"Very good," the fail-safe systems were a sort of last-ditch revenge system Derevai's team used. Strapped to their bodies were a very old variety of explosives called C-4, something from around the 21st century on Earth. Crude, archaic, yet effective, the C-4 were linked to biomonitors that detonated them in the event of the Marine's death, there-by taking their attacker down with them. There was also a manual detonation button on their chests which they could use if their assailant didn't kill them, but caused a mortal wound.

"As for... him," Jason gestured toward Ethan, "can we trust him? There's something wrong with him, his eyes... it's not natural." Derevai laughed at this remark.

"I'm surprised you've never seen that before, Stevens. Maybe you've been away from the universe too long. That's a ruthless look, brutal, passionate. He'll do whatever it takes to get a job done, and he'll do it in any fashion that he feels is called for. Usually, brutality is the end result of that mentality, as we can see from this so-called interrogation. Cold, yet fiery, hollowed from dispassion and a disregard for human life, undoubtedly from seeing one too many deaths...

"I don't agree with his methods, nor his disrespect for protocol, but I agree with what appears to be his creed. 'The ends justify the means'..." Derevai stared at the man for a moment, and could relate with him. She, too, had often been said that there was something wrong in her eyes. Cold as ice, pure calculation, pure military protocol, and the same hollow look that showed that she, too, had seen one too many deaths...

"Yes, we can trust him, but that doesn't mean we should let our guards down. If we appear to compromise this ship or crew, then we should expect to be victims of 'whatever it takes to get the job done'." Jason appeared to contemplate Derevai's words for a moment, then nodded and jogged off to do his duties. Feeling the adrenaline wearing off, Derevai noticed a prickling static feeling around her implants, needling her with dull pain. She had been inadvertently generating an aura of biotic power in her anger at the Geth creature the entire time.