#//BOO THANK YOU FOR PUTTING NERO IN THE SITUATIONS!!

[teknah]

Putting Nero in a Situation™️

It was just supposed to be a quick recon mission— in and out. That’s all.

An SOS distress beacon from a neighboring spaceship had been picked up on The Wishbone’s radar and the INTERPLAN vessel had the terrible misfortune of being the closest to respond (being only a single warp-jump away).

Under intergalactic law (and customary social peer-pressure), all ships anywhere at the cosmos were obliged to provide assistance to those lost in the beyond. <-Lest they be ridiculed.

But perhaps … second thoughts were in order, as Nero found himself onboard the other vessel after losing a round of rock-paper-scissors.

The stretch of corridor was barely illuminated. Power had long since gone out even before INTERPLAN had arrived, which left the ship’s back-up generator to keep this hunk of metal afloat and barely operational.

Yet not a single soul was found on board.

All that could be heard was the hum of dimmed fluorescent lights from above and the echoed footfall of Nero’s own boots.

That is, until there was a scream from further down the corridor. Shrill. Panicked. Then: a cry for help.

Someone, or perhaps 🧬something, was on this ship after all.

Shit. Nero hated being ridiculed more than usual. And he also hated being sent out on dangerous assignments without anyone else there.

♫

The away teams would take their sweet time getting over here. No one was answering the comms channels back aboard the Wishbone. Probably taking their sweet time warming up the telepads or prepping the engines on a shuttle. He produced his particle pistol, and started marching towards the sound of the disturbance, every footfall heavier than usual. He felt like he had the maneuverability of a Sherman tank, like from the historical archives of old school papers.

With his left hand, he slapped a button to open a sliding door. His right hand pointing the blaster pointed ahead at whatever caused the crew member to scream. Nero looked a little more harrowed than he'd have liked. A light clipped to his green field jacket, with the INTERPLAN logo patch over his left sleeve for identification, the right side bearing a patch from some defunct Terran commando unit.

"...?!"