C with a bit of F. Separating now would be foolish, but after going through all the work of getting the station back stable, it'd be a waste to bail right now.
However: The private's companion is either lost or caught a bad case of dead, so unless we stumble upon his/her location by accident, I suggest we do not search for that one.
After either failing or succeeding to rescue the private, kick in all the closest doors in the station on our way to our carrier, hopefully finding one or two hiding cowards, eh scientists, and get them along.
On a side note: How portable would supplies be? Since our highly esteemed captain has no combat skills at all, we can perhaps let her carry some supplies?
I see the appeal of the thicker paragraphs in a forum setting, but its a little painful as a person who's profession depends on writing well, its hard for me to ignore a paragraph break between speakers unless it really bugs y'all. ^_^ If the shorter paragraphs DO bug you, feel free to comment or PM me, but I'll be writing with my previous style in the mean time, though as requested I'll keep the coloured conversational text.
"I'll meet you outside the airlock, I'm heading out now." Scarlet said, reaching to her hip and drawing her service pistol, much more conservative than Kar'rak's bolter, but it got the job done. Quickly she made her way back through the ship and out the airlock, "Jack, pull back the airlock until I get back." she ordered on her way out. The doors gasped open, revealing a hyper-vigilant Tutarin Hunter.
"It moved into the vent." Kar'rak growled, his eyes never ceasing as they scanned the room... Sure enough Scarlet heard the cries of the unknown creatures from across the station. It sent a shudder down her spine as she heard the airlock behind her depressurize and slide back, blocking their only path of escape.
"There are a pair of people over on the Scuto, right there." Scarlet pointed to the functioning interface board to where the Scudo was still displayed, its airlock secure. "They asked for our help." Scarlet nodded confidently, as if there were no other option.
Her alien ally looked perturbed, shifting his weight, giving her only a glance, "I don't like that plan." He stated deliberately, never once lowering his bolter. More than anything he seemed to be anxious about staying, There are stories told by my people about monsters that use the bodies of the living and turn them into... Something else. He grumbled, "We move quickly, or not at all." He said, stepping forwards, moving down the long hall towards the station. As he moved, Scarlet stayed close behind him, her red hair tied back, her stray red bangs dancing across her brow as the chill in her spine running up into her skull. She began to feel Kar'rak's apprehension as well.
The pair reached the door onto the station, with a glance in each other's direction, they moved through the door, Scarlet aimed right, Kar'rak aimed left. The corridor was lit, and nothing was in sight. Their shoulders relaxed, and they breathed a sigh of relief as they began to head for the Scudo's atrium. Just as they were about to open it, they heard frantic knocking on the door leading to the far hangar, the one under quarantine, Scarlet let out a yelp of surprise. A voice accompanied the frantic knocking, "H-help! Let me in! There's something in the hangar!" the female voice squealed. "Please! I-I'm not infected!" She sobbed, her fist hammering the door over and over.
Kar'rak continued, unmoved by the plight of the woman, but something stirred inside Scarlet. She bit her lip and looked back and forth from Kar'rak to the door at the far end of the hall... "K-Kar'rak, there's someone down there." She said, her heart heavy as she realized the obvious choice to leave the woman.
The spines on the back of the Hunter's head quivered as he sensed her intent, he turned, an eyebrow raised, "The two of us cannot perform what the duty of the security force could not. Unless you are about to suggest we vent the hangar, we shall continue to the Scudo."
CHOICES
A- Go let the person belonging to the female voice inside, and quickly shut the door.
B- Continue to the Scudo, ignore the cries for help
C- Rescue the person belonging to the voice and clear the hangar, what could have made it all the way here on a shuttle?
D-Turn back NOW.
E- Other
Sub-Vote:
I've thought of something interesting and would like your input. I was wondering if you'd all like to try a more free form CYOA to give the voters a little more freedom. I was thinking that if I didn't post choices, but rather set up an option at the end of each post and allowed the readers to present their own ideas of how to proceed. This way the "Other" choice might be heard more often!
1- Give it a try, why not?
2- Lets keep things traditional.
If we chose to give it a try, I'll offer the choice to switch back in the next couple posts in case it gets to be too much!
A We're here to rescue people, and that's what we'll do. Be sure to tell the person on the other side of the door to get right on the ground so that we can have Kar'rat spray the hallway with bolter fire just to be safe.
Also, 2. Let's stick to the traditional CYOA style.
I sub-vote for traditional stuff, since as the way I understand it, people tend to just bandwagon on the first suggestion or so when it comes to choice-less whatsits.
Also, about your concerns regarding the paragraphing, please keep doing what you're doing. I actually hate reading threads/stories where the writer(s) *don't* bother to separate paragraphs between speakers. It makes the dialogue much less easy to read when a new speaker isn't given their own paragraph.
The way I see it:
A: A big gamble. She's either infected(By what actually? Should ask her.) She's uninfected, but upon opening the door we let all the space-zombies in, or it's the single most obvious trap in the galaxy.
B: Less of a gamble, but do we actually want to risk going in a ship of which we KNOW at the least one enemy is around, and has probably killed/eaten/posessed his crewmate?
C: Suicide, plain and simple.
D: Waste of our previous vote, we might have one useless and one poor fighter, but we're not cowards.
E: Not a lot of other options here...
I'm going to say A, but: Run to the Oxygen controls and surveillance rooms(Right side of station) first: We can check what's in the quarantine room and the girl's room, and if needed kill the oxygen there as well. Then we ask her what she means with infected, if it sounds fishy/zerg-related, we leave her to her fate and consider the rescue mission a loss. We also ask her if the door leading to the quarantine area(use map, she's in a little checkpoint before it) is shut&locked, if not, we leave her. We also need Scarlet to hold&lock the rightmost door when we're at her location, since obvious space-zombie trap is obvious, they're coming out of that door.
Phew, end of tactical nonsense: Should we actually survive all that and rescue the girl, toss her in quarantine for a day or two, and lock the doors. Don't want a zerg-mutated girl chomping our legs while at the bridge, now do we?
Subvote: 2. As I see it, when people don't like options/see a better alternative, the "Other" option is used anyway, and if you toss the progress wide open, there will be 20 votes detailing 20 different progresses, which is a shame since it slows the CYOA.
Also, if someone has a great tactical thought, like Rose here, feel free to post again to voice your opinion on the matter! Even if it doesn't contain a vote.
"Kar'rak, we're just going to open the door and let her in." Scarlet glared back at the Tutarin Hunter, she turned, taking the first few steps towards the airlock where the voice was emanating from, but Kar'rak reached out and grasped her arm.
"Fine," he grunted, We will open the door, but first we check the sensors in the back. He pointed to the security station behind them, "But the Scudo won't last without help." He insisted, giving Scarlet's arm a squeeze before releasing her.
The pilot nodded in agreement, "Fine, lets get to the Sensor room." She said reluctantly, glancing back at the airlock before following Kar'rak back to the security station. As they arrived, a light above the door flashed, indicating that the automated mechanisms had been disabled.
Kar'rak growled at the door, looking up for only a moment before holstering the bolter and latching his claws down in the seam of the door, beginning to pry it open, his wiry muscles full of tension. Scarlet stowed her weapon as well, reaching forwards and beginning to slide the heavy door aside. "The contempt I hold for this situation is unimaginable!" Kar'rak growled as the two of them pried the door apart. Kar'rak pulled his bolter and moved into the room, Scarlet took a few staggered breaths before following him inside.
There was a window into the airlock, showing anyone who was seeking access into the station... No one was present, and a red light flashed above the entrance, "NO OXYGEN ".
Kar'rak rushed over to the sensor room, sliding the lighter door open with one hand and stepping inside. Unfortunately there wasn't a great deal of information the sensors provided... They showed forty one life signs within the quarantined hangar but couldn't identify the race of those life signs... Only one within the airlock that the voice was. The more disturbing thing perhaps was that there seemed to be a breach from the quarantined hangar into the security station on the other side... On the other hand though, there were still three ships docked at the station besides the Scudo and the Sparrow. Scarlet and Kar'rak studied the map for a moment, "Go vent the oxygen from the other hangar." Kar'rak ordered.
Scarlet let out a gasp of disbelief, "There are clearly people in there!" The detectable life signs were mostly clustered in groups of two or three as if confined to shuttle pods, save for a few that were making their way about the hangar.
"Most of the people in there appear to be in pods, they will be safe from the vacuum of space." The Tutarin said, storming out of the sensor room towards the oxygen room. Scarlet followed, grasping his shoulder tight.
"We don't have time to argue and I won't let you kill our crew mates. We're all apart of the Empire and we have to depend on one another. What if those are marines walking around, securing the area?" Scarlet snapped, glaring into the eyes of her alien counterpart.
CHOICES
A- Vent that damned hanger and rescue the person so we can get to the Scudo!
B- Save the person, investigate the hangar carefully.
C- Leave the person, and the hangar, get to the Scudo.
D- Get off the station.
E- Other
Additional Possibilities: (Please specify which ship if you'd like to search another one)
1 -Ignore the other ships for now
2 -Search one of the other ships before taking primary action
B Hell we've come this far, you never know who they might be. Plus we can always just peek in and hop back out, then vent the hangar anyway, I say it's worth the risk to investigate for a minute and then rush off to the Scudo. Besides, we may be able to get more than just 1 possible crew member extra this way.
I vote A1 - I daresay the rescuee would not be so frantic if she knew there were friendlies on the opposite side of the airlock.
...isn't the door system disabled? If so, why is the rescuee having trouble getting out, and how are our heroes supposed to be venting the quarantine hangar anyways?
Because: Let's face it. Those ships have no communication at all, didn't help, so they're either vacant or worse.
Friendlies never start in the quarantine zone: vent that area, grab the girl, and leg it to the Scudo.
Besides, we can always claim "Wrong Button" later, should the quarantine people in fact be friendlies, but why would said girl be frantic to get out if friendlies were one door away?
I just hope going to save our cowardly private here won't come back to bite our butts.
Why I didn't pick Gargantua's e? Because not doing anything with those "things" in the quarantine zone is even more of a liability.
