@#$%&&
...//
[ship_log_system_active]
[receiving_data_stream]

[Log // Robin Nielsen]

Well I suppose I should start a log, that’s what people do right? 
When they fly on anything larger than an armoured transport.
You always see that one those old sci-fi shows back on Earth.

Earth, Naomi...

For the first time in my life I’m not sure I’ll ever get back there.
I was always confident, and somewhat certain we would always win.
But now...
Everything’s so different, we don’t know what we’re up against. 
And rumour has it they’ve destroyed quite a few ships already.
They... heh. We don’t even know who they are, why they’re here...
The only thing we’ve done so far is run away from them.
We lost 5 of them on our little trip through the Dead Zone, 
but we’ve detected 23 more a few lightyears ahead.
If things go on like this, we will never reach the Outer Colonies. 

Daniel doesn’t know it, but I’ve already planned another route.
I hope he’ll approve if things get really screwed.

Well that’s it I think.
 
[Log // End]

[.Space Stories Proudly Presents]

[receiving_additional_data_stream]

[Log // Sean Bennington]

My notes are a complete mess at the moment, and I could use a place where I can type down everything.
PDA’s getting full as well.
So I can now  copy everything from that...

Wait a second...

Where is that thing? 

[Log // End]

[receiving_additional_data_stream]

[Log // Mary Kingston]

What a week.
I’ve done more in 7 days than I’ve done in my entire life.

Heck I might even end up saving the universe.
Who am I fooling?
I’m just going home, just like the rest of the crew.

Heh crew.
First time I actually feel like I’m part of a crew.
An odd crew, I might say.
It’s a mixture of Terran and OC.
Which is something worth a mention.

Under normal circumstances everybody would be at everybody’s throats by now.
But it seems we’re all content.
Though how much longer it will stay that way has yet to be seen.

Not every OC member is happy with Robin being here.

[Log // End]

[receiving_additional_data_stream]

[Log // Daniel Cray]

I’m starting this log so I can document our current and future situation.
Since I’m the captain here, atleast I think I am, I also feel it’s my duty to type everything down.

We’re currently in the Dead Zone, and we’re on the run for unknown hostiles.
Their ships seem to overpower ours, atleast the IR’s. They’ve destroyed two so far.
Just when I was talking to one of the captains, may his soul rest.

We’re still heading for the Outer Colonies, home.
But if we run into more of them, I don’t think we will reach our destination.

My crew seems anxious as well.
Even Robin is somewhat nervous, as is Mary.
But things have toned down a bit.

Which brings me to my next subject, this ship.
It has an effect on us. What it is exactly, I don’t know, but everyone feels it.
It’s calming.

Sean might have something on that.

I’ll add more entries once I get... 

[A Story By IXI]

[Unscheduled Log Entry]

@#$%&&
...//
[anomaly_detected]
[receiving_datastream_from_unknown_location]

[Log // Unknown]

Hello? Is somebody there? Could someone tell me what’s going on here?
Anyone?

Get me...

...// 

[unexpected_error]
[halting_all_datastreams]

[Log // End]

Daniel tapped the refresh-button a few times.
An error message was taking up most of the screen.
  “Odd.” He thought and he grabbed his empty cup, believing there was still some coffee in it.
He found out he was wrong when his tongue only tasted air.
Slighly agitated, Daniel got up to get a fresh cup at the mess-hall.

Sean was sitting in a lonely corner in the darkened mess-hall.
His beer had now reached the temperature of the room itself, yet Sean still drinked it, his mind not minding any of his senses. His eyes were set on the screen of his PDA he had lost and found again.
He had to keep a closer eye on that thing in the future.
Sean took another sip of his warm beer and continued typing on his PDA.
He had discovered so much about the ship, Joseph and the Mecha.
Sean had only begun documenting everything, and he had a long way to go.

[Based on the Background Scenario By Red Baron]

Daniel walked in, Sean didn’t seem to notice.
  “It’s one of his weaknesses.” He thought.
  “The man’s too damn curious, and gets himself into things too quickly.”
But those attributes have been handy so far, he had to admit.
Daniel coughed, bringing Sean out of his trance.
  “S-Sir, I didn’t notice you, sorry sir.” He apologised.
  “No need to be formal now.” His superior calmed him down.
  “Whatcha got?” And quickly asked him about his findings.
  “So far? A lot sir, well too much to tell you right now.”
  “Night’s still young.” Daniel was still interested.
  “Well...” Sean seemed hesitant.
  “What’s that?” Daniel pushed him in the right direction by asking him about his latest notes.
  “This?” Sean pointed at his writings, Cray confirmed him with a nod.
  “This is... well a theory really.” Bennington tried to hide it with a chuckle.
  “Do tell.” His friend grinned, knowing he had Sean.
  “Well this is... this is...” He didn’t know how to put it. “I believe this ship is alive.”
There, he said it. The most stupid thing he said in quite a while.
Yet, Daniel didn’t seem to laugh about it.
By looking at his face, Sean found that his superior was actually intrigued.

  “Alive?” Cray asked.
  “Yes, very much sir.” Sean seemed pleased to find his superior interested
  “What makes you think that?” 
  “Well while I was looking for info in the ship’s database, which is huge by the way, there are thousands of...”
  “Get to the point.” Daniel kept his man from from becoming too enthusiastic.
  “I can’t, well... describe it. It was like there was something in there that kept me away from certain files.”
  “You mean security systems?” The LT raised an eyebrow.
  “No, no, no. Something way more advanced than anything like that. It’s not Norton 2255 we’re talking about.” Bennington laughed hard, while Cray still held his brow up.
Seeing the expression on his superior’s face, Sean coughed and quickly continued.
  “It’s something I can’t really describe.” 
  “Odd.” And indeed it was, Cray had never found his medic so taken aback. Nor had he ever based a theory on nothing but a gut feeling.
  “It might also be the cause of the sudden shutdown of the log system.” Sean suggested.
  “The ship shut down the log system?” 
  “Yes, it sounds very strange yes.” The medic nodded. “There was somesort of log-entry which got deleted by the ship itself, or whatever it is...” The explanation was a wild one, though with everything that had happened, neither of the men seemed to think it was impossible.
  “Entry?” So instead of wondering about it, Daniel asked about the lost file.
  “Yes.” It was confirmed with a smirk.
Daniel slightly knew where this was going.
  “And you...”
  “Yes I managed to get a hold of it, of course. Before it got deleted.”
Although Sean showed another one of his cocky moods, Cray was still happy about it.
He looked at his man:   
  “Show me...”
  
[Boundless]
[2 // Dark Ship]

Robin stood in a dark hallway. There was light coming from the room behind him, but strangely enough, the section that dollowed had no power. Nor did it power itself up if Robin proceeded.
He figured now was a good time to put on his shoulderlight.
  “Jones, are you seeing this?” His hand positioned the microphone running over his left cheek. 
It was connected to the camera on the right side of his head.
William straightened his back after looking how Robin tested the camera for thirty minutes.
They had set up a mobile base in the middle of the ship shortly after their arrival, and from there one or two would set out to explore the ship. So far it was just the same room over and over again, until now.
  “That’s strange.” His voice reached Robin within moments.
  “Very.” As did Robin’s.
  “Good thing you came prepared.”
  “Oh I’m more than prepared.” Robin pulled out his sidearm which was retro-fitted with a flashlight.
In fact, almost everything was retro-fitted with spare parts and clever hands.
So far they hadn’t been able to use the ship’s systems with theirs. Though they weren’t so different.
And that worried Robin. If they were meant to find this ship, then why weren’t the able to use it fully?
Perhaps they weren’t allowed to, perhaps they’ve been deceived.
  “But first things first.” Robin thought out loud.
  “What was that?” William asked.
  “Oh, nothing.” Was the answer.
The lights did their job well, even outside the reach of the lights from the room behind Robin.
  “Robin?” It was Mary who had found him. She was standing in the lit chamber. But he seemed too busy to hear.
His flashlight had briefly showed something and he was searching so he could take another look at it.
There it was. A piece of cloth it seemed with strikingly familiar colours. Red, Black...
It seemed to be a uniform, NTA. They had been here before. Robin moved the circle of light over the rest of it.
He was looking at a body, its legs and head severed, leaving a torso with its arms spread out in a clownesque way.
His footsteps cracked as he walked towards it. He looked down and saw he had found one of the legs, the skull not far off. The strange thing was that the bones had been blackened near where they were cut. Robin compared the neck to the skull and found that the cut was clean, almost surgically clean. It seemed that the legs had been severed the same way. 
And suddenly there was this uneasy feeling rolling from his neck to his tail bone. He felt cold, and he knew he had to get out.
  “Robin?” Mary asked again, but her voice was different, more pressing. 
The hallway came to life. The lights turned on, coming towards Robin. But that wasn’t the only thing.
Lasers seemed to follow as well. Five, ten, fifteen. All able to burn right through him.
  “Frack me...” Robin had his eyes wide open.
He made a run 10 metres behind him. Mary held out her hands so she could pull him out.
It took mere seconds before he reached her, but just as he would jump through, a safety door slammed down.
Robin crashed into it and fell down to the floor. It took a moment before he got up, his nose bleeding and his vision double.
   “Robin!” Mary rammed her fist against the door.
He didn’t listen though, he turned away from the yelling to face his death.
The fifteen lasers spread out and formed a net that would slice him in 2 inch cubes.
He closed his eyes and pressed his back against the cold door, hoping the net wouldn’t reach him.
But it wouldn’t stop. It kept going, faster and faster. Until it reached Robin.
He could feel the light burning away his facial hair, and it blinded him as he tried to look at it.
And for a moment, he felt free. Free of worries, obligations, free of the world.
A feeling that soon sank as the floor under his feet disappeared.
Robin cursed as he fell in a hole that wasn’t there a moment ago.
The door opened, the lasers vanished and everything seemed normal.
  “Robin?” Mary looked around, saying his name for the fourth time, and again with no luck.
He was gone, no trace left of him. It didn’t seem he was dead, as there was no body, or blood for that matter.
  “Jones, you still have a link?” She contacted William.
  “No, I’m only getting static from his headset.” He checked his monitors to see if the problem wasn’t on his side.
  “Sir.” He switched the channel to Cray.
  “Yes.” Who was just going through the logfiles with Sean.
  “We have a situation down here.” Jones came up from behind the desk, certain that he wasn’t the cause of the lost connection.
  “Serious?” 
Information flooded Jones’ mind. He was taken aback.
He took a deep breath, and the static that was sounding through his headphones calmed him down.
  “Very.”

It began with white.
A colour that would fade once his head would recover, or so Robin thought.
But it didn’t. His eyes were open, and had lost the blurry vision that clouded them a few seconds.
He was lying face down on a floor that seemed to be made of pure light, though it didn’t seem to hurt his eyes.
Robin got up, aching. The blood that had dripped from his nose a minute ago was now gone.
In fact, he felt better already.
  “This can’t be it.” He whispered.
There was nothing to be seen, just a pure glow all around him. 
On top of that, there was seemingly no floor. Making the experience even more disorienting.
He turned his head, not knowing what to do or where to go.
Wait, something appeared over what should’ve been the horizon.
Robin focused his eyes. It was a tiny black dot coming his way, becoming bigger and bigger.
Wind from nowhere began to rush around him as it pulled itself forward.
The dot, became an endless black field, with him flying through.
Stars, nebulae, planets and their moons came and flew over Robin’s head.
Balmora, Jharhit, Ocanoran.
The Nagar Fields came into view, the countless asteroids flying around him like high speed traffic.
Ralakas, Ivara and finally Earth.
He was now standing in the middle of the universe.
Silence, silence after the wind had died. After that every stellar body made its own distinctive noise as it moved.
Everything made its cycle all around him, comets flew past him, stars were born, lightning came from every charged nebula. 
Robin didn’t know where to look, laying his eyes on one awesome sight after another.  
But before he could take a closer look at the marvel he was in the middle of, he was slowly moved to one certain planet.
A tropical world in the middle of a nebula that changed colour every day.
The cloud seemed to have no effect to him as he moved through and when he cleared it, his eyes saw something that struck him as awfully familiar.
Ships, thousands of them. Closely resembling the ones that had invaded the galaxy not long ago.
Flying cathedrals with fighters pouring out, and firing their massive cannons at the seemingly helpless planet Ilia.
The world came into view, and once again Robin felt like he was being moved.
He dove down through the atmosphere and skimmed the surface of one of many oceans.
His feet sat down on a white beach, tropical forests could be seen far in the main land. 
Sand was blown away as dozens of ships took off and left the planet.
Though he suspected there was more to be seen, right over the dunes that seperated him from an awful lot of noise. 
Robin climbed on a dune, and he now had a clear view of what was going on. It was a view he would remember.
A city like no other. Pure white buildings, curved with a sophisticated elegance and tropical gardens with a rainbow of colours. Though in the midst of this all, all the beauty, was disorder. 
Thousands of aliens, humanoid and with a blue, were making their way towards an equal amount of ships.
Fire rained down from the sly, but was stopped by an immense shield that covered most of the landscape.
Every round from above made it light up in a blue glow. 
It wouldn’t hold much longer though, the panic amongst the crows made that clear.
Robin could feel the fear, pure fear. Fear of the enemy, fear of what was to come, what would happen.
His eyes wandered over the sight. There was one ship that stood out, over the treeline on the horizon, where the sun was about to set.
The ship was dark, and though it seemed designed in the style of the city, its colour made it contrast deeply.
It was atleast half a kilometre in length. It was the ship Robin had found, the ship he had been on for the past week.
This, all of this, this must’ve happened thousands of years ago. It was the demise of the Ilians, and Robin was now witnessing the whole thing.
The shield finally collapsed, and one ship trying to flee was immediately penetrated by the endless fire from above.
Robin watched as it was torn in two, and one half exploded. The other piece simply crashed down on the planet, taking down another ship.
All seemed lost, until the dark silhouette, the shape over the horizon began to move. 
Deep rumbling could be felt throughout the ground. It penetrated everything, even the air seemed to move.
A blinding light came from the top of the ship. It was fused into a single beam and aimed at where the enemy was.
The sky was split in two, entire clouds moved and even the sun seemed to move away. There was no sound, only the sky that was moving. The beam stopped, and the silence continued for a few moments.
Until another light emerged in the sky, this time smaller, and spherical. A cathedral could be spotted, breaking apart.
Robin found his breath again, and sound returned on the planet. 
The Ilians cheered, and a wave of relieve spread out over the crowd.
But it wasn’t over, they still had to get off the planet.
The dark ship was the first to take off, leading the rest of the craft to a safer haven.
Robin followed them with his eyes, sheltering them with his hand, as they flew to the sun that was almost gone.
The light coming over the horizon seemed to expand. It grew brighter, until the white glow once again engulfed him.
He had now returned to the empty place where he was a minute ago. The sigh that left him was deep and he needed time to process everything he had seen. 
The white faded out, and familiar walls appeared. 

Jones looked around, thinking and cursing at the same time. 
He had to solve it, if he could, that would mean the search team would have a much better chance of finding Robin.
But every solution that crossed his mind was compromised by a new problem. 
At first he didn’t even notice that the connection with Robin was found again.
  “Ah, son of a...” Another problem that emerged. But when he shook his head he noticed the screen.
The image was moving, and he could hear breathing through his headset.
  “R-Robin?” He immediately sat down in front of the screens.
  “Yes what is it?” Robin blinked a few times, getting his eyes wet again.
  “You okay?” Jones was excited.
  “I err... think so.” The pilot looked around. The room was familiar and he saw a possible exit not far away.
  “Ano?” A robotic voice scared the daylights out of him. He turned around, holding his heart, and saw the female mecha.
Robin was silent for a second.
  “It seems I’m in the temple...” He couldn’t believe it himself either.
Jones immediately switched the channel to Cray.
  “Sir, Robin’s in the temple, I repeat, he’s in the temple complex.”
The search team stopped as Daniel stopped.
  “The temple?” Mary asked, slightly agitated.
  “Couldn’t you tell us before we walked through the entire ship?” Daniel sighed.
  “Sorry sir, the signal just returned.”
  “Roger...” Cray switched off the link. “Right, we’re going back people.” 
And he lead the team back the entire ship.

He didn’t mind though. Robin was back, though he had quite a few things to explain.
In fact the entire ship had something to explain, if Sean was right about it.
Lethal traps are not the way to welcome a new crew, even if Robin survived.
Right now there was some serious research to be done, because it seemed they took the ship without knowing anything of it.
Foolish.
Daniel sighed once more and he focused on the task at hand.

  “Robin, where the frack have you been?” The team entered the temple.
Robin was silent for a moment. 
  “Everywhere.” He said after a few moments.
  “You can tell me all about it, but not here.” Cray tapped him on the shoulder, happy.
  
Another day had finished, it was one of many discoveries. 
Perhaps too many for the time being.
But it wouldn’t be the last day of days.

...
...

Stars, one of the defining characteristics of the universe.
And they were everywherem crowding a somewhat familiar sky.
The smell of a new forest was mixed with the air from the sea and exotic birds gave their last concert for the day.
In the midst of it all, was a man, standing on a group of rocks which was constantly attacked by the ocean.
Water took the sky as wave after wave collided with the land.
It rained down on him, and he smiled.
  “I’m glad you finally ditched the ‘white-glowy’ room.”
It appeared he was talking to himself, until an ominous voice began to speak.
  “Since it is your last time here...”
  “Last time? You mean I’m done fulfilling  your destiny.” The man raised his voice over the thunder of the sea.
  “Not exactly...” And he got an answer he wasn’t hoping for.
  “What do you mean?” He was curious, but somehow he didn’t want to find out.
  “There is one last thing, before we let you go.”
  “Alright,” He sighed, “shoot.”
  “It’s the final chapter of your story, and actually it’s very alike your first.”
  “O... kay.” The answer puzzled him, but then again, he had gotten used to the cryptic sense of them.
  “But because of that, we need you to start over.”
A breath of wind filled the moment after that.
Somehow the lone man knew what was coming, he felt it, like he had been taught.
  “We need you to be reborn.” It was confirmed.
  “You’re sending me back?” 
  “You won’t remember anything of this though.” The voice kept going.
  “What?” And ignored anything the man had to say.
  “What do you mean by that.
  “Your physical being has been altered already, to support the fire within you.
  “Now wait a second...”
  “You will know, when he finds you again, then you’ll know.”
  “What?” He was puzzled, confused, dumbstruck and a dozen other things.
His mind tried to piece everything together.
He was denied to see the entire picture though.
  “Farewell... Joseph.”
The stars vanished, the rocks followed, the birds went silent and the smell disappeared.
Everything seemed to ascent to a higher plain made of pure white light.
His eyes closed and his vision faded.
 
As the entire crew was about to leave the temple complex, a noise came from behind them.
The pod came to life. Something had triggered it.
Sean immediately rushed to it, more excited than ever.
Joseph was returning.
The readings amazed Bennington.
Meanwhile the entire crew gathered around. Sharing the enthusiasm with Sean.

Things would be cleared now, hopefully.

[Chapter’s End]