>>261818
You arrive at the holding bay, and walk all the way to the top security cells, the drones thinking it prudent to hold a creature capable of harming them their. The walls are composite materials, and consist of hundreds of layers, with explosives held between many of the layers. An acid attack might burn through some, but whatever is in these cells would likely die before escaping, or breaching the walls entirely. You will the observation monitor to turn on once more, and note the positions of the captives have shifted, likely staring right where you currently stand.

You have a variety of options. Your drone couldn't scan these things, but maybe your ships arrays would fare better. Killing one would probably be the easiest to achieve, but might damage the body. Knocking them unconscious is certainly doable, but last time it took enough electricity to practically cook them alive. You aren't sure how exactly to safely restrain it, but maybe you could think of something, and get a true vivisection out of this. Maybe there's an option you haven't considered.

>Try to render one of them unconscious and vivisect it while its out. (How do you render it unconscious.)
>Try to kill one of them, and dissect it. (How do you kill it.)
>Try to restrain one and vivisect it. (How do you restrain it.)
>Use the full range of sensors, seeing if anything can gather data
>Do something else.

[Extra Post]

You are Axos, head researcher at the university, and you're going to get your ship back. You spent the last three millennium perfecting that ship. Just thinking about the fact that it was stolen by some upstart barely 2000 years old would send you into a rage; if you were still capable of such emotions. Igeos was your student, once. He was so full of promise, becoming the youngest instructor of all time at the university at the age of 1529, over a full thousand years younger than anyone before him. You've never seen anyone so gifted with nanotechnology.

But now he's thrown it all always to go chase microbes frozen in ice sheets in some desolate corner of the galaxy. The vessel you now find yourself is law enforcement, but seeing as how you have so much invested into this, you were allowed to lead the chase. You were lucky he convinced a soldier to abandon his duties and join him. Perhaps without that extra bit of leverage, and the military funding that came with it, you may have had to abandon your ship and begin work on a new one. The military council that's came along to judge this Osdoros, has grown more angry every year of this journey, and you expect him to get a harsh punishment as a result.

They have no hope of escaping once you catch up to them. Their two hour lead has stretched into a lead of several days, during the eighty year journey you've all taken to reclaim your stolen property. But you have a clear lock on their position, and they've barely moved in days, its only a matter of time before you arrive in the system, and they they will have no hope of escape.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Ancient+Alien+Quest

>>261818
Have her bring them to medical
>>261819
Try to kill one of them, and dissect it. (Have the machine slice though its nerve cord at the base of its skull.)

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>>261818
“Doro, I'm going to kill one to dissect, I don't trust these things alive. Which one should I pick?”, he points out one of the males, one eye burned black from electricity, its skin covered in burns.

“Well that one seems to have taken the most damage, its probably the least valuable one if something goes wrong.” you don't disagree, and give the computer instructions for killing it. A small compartment opens up on the wall behind the scarred gray human and a piston stabs it in the back on the neck, and retreats back into the closing compartment in one fluid motion, almost to fast to track with your eyes. The thing's back arches and the compartment reopens, stabbing the thing three more times in quick succession. On the third strike something unexpected happens. It violently explodes, cutting the feed, and causing the containment cell to swell, metal warping into large round bulges, but the cell holds. The entire room rocks with the force of the explosion.

“What in Zorg's name did you just do Igeos!” Osdoros yells from on top of you, his reflexes having taken over at the instant of the explosion, his body shielding yours, though necessarily.

“That wasn't me, I just tried to sever its spinal cord, it should have been fatal but wasn't, and then the thing exploded!” he shouts back.

Ears ringing you decide to switch to mental communication, sending out the thought, “We can't try that again,but-” your interrupted by an alarm going off in the room, and the two of you quickly pick each other up and run to the monitors. The three remaining creatures have begun to spew acid all around the rooms. If they weaken those cells then explode who knows the damage they could do.

>Leave the holding cells as quickly as possible and get to somewhere safer.
>Detonate the cells before they have the chance, hopefully killing the acid spewing creatures.
>Vent them into space and have the ship re-position itself away from them.
>Do something else.

>>262064
Space and flee!

>>262064
>>Detonate the cells before they have the chance, hopefully killing the acid spewing creatures.

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>>262321
Waiting for tie breaker.

>>262064
VENT EM

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Throw them out the airlock!

Did OP dieded?

>>262845
Was eating with the senpai.

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>>261818
Modern Ibo still talk about their Dogon ancestors who traveled from Egypt where they met and bred with the Nommo aliens... they had precolonial knowledge of some star maps it seems BUT 1700s timeline is full of disinformation based cults infiltrating indigenous belief structures as a form of empirial destabilizations...and the details known by the Dogon are not proven to be that advanced...as of now.

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>>262064
“I'm cutting our losses!” you shout over the alarm at Osdoros, while mentally putting your plan into action. The ship breaks orbit with a thought, accelerating from its position in the direction opposite the holding cells. “Run!” you tell him and he takes off at a sprint towards the rooms door, you close behind. As soon as you both are in the corridor with doors firmly shut, you issue the command to jettison the entire section of the holding bay that contained the dangerous threat. The ship is rocked by an explosion, but quickly stabilizes.

You bring up a drone and it transforms into a monitor, displaying the view from a ships camera of the detached section of the ship, growing smaller as you hurtle away from it. The section is essentially shrapnel floating in orbit now, and you could return later to retrieve it if you wished. “How could this happen, Igeos?” Osdoros sounds more troubled than you've ever heard him.

“What's going on?” Ovella shouts while running towards you and your panicking friend. “What was that, why did we leave orbit?” she asks finally reaching the pair of you. Another, entirely different alarm goes off, filling you with dread. “Shit! Are we being attacked?” Ovella is positively hysterical at this point.” But you know whats really going on, having programmed the alarm system yourself. This is too much to handle at once.

The monitor drone's feed switches from the now almost too small to see wreckage, displaying instead line after line of sensor data. You've been pursued and what can only be a law enforcement ship has arrived at the edge of the system, coasting towards your position at a steady rate, it should reach you within a few hours. The monitor switches over again, now displaying the familiar face of Axos, your superior at the university, and the man who designed this ship. “You will surrender yourself, and return my ship to me. The civilians will be brought to Noxix Prime for sentencing. A military tribunal awaits Second Lieutenant Osdoros. You are trapped here in this system and have no hope of escaping. Do as you are told.” Axos is over forty thousand years old, far more machine than flesh, he holds no emotions. The petty pride of other researchers who built there careers on proving that we were the only complex life in existence is not a concern of his.

>Surely if you send all the data you collected, he will see that this planet must be studied.
>Bring the ship planet-side and land before deciding anything else.
>Send a message back. (What.)
>Do something else.

>>263071
Look what I found! Nya nya nya nya nya!
>show him complex life in the most obnoxious way possible while going planet side.

>>263071
"We've got more trouble than just you! There is something here that can make biological -molecular- acid!"
>then send them all the data you've collected

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>>263115
>how do i hold all this complex life

>>263115
"Ok, listen, this is a story that will make you look like the genius. you sent me to 'steal' your vehicle and research the planet, so that if there is complex life you can reveal your brilliance, and if there is not I take all the blame. Either way it is worth the effort to bring law enforcement out here, either to apprehend a theif, or to show everyone your genius. Think you pretend that was your plan?"

>>263133
Go for this. Not only is there sentient life here, there is sentient life that spits molecular acid and explodes when sedated. Like, literally explodes with sufficient force to rupture composite fucking bulkheads. The only reason we're in orbit in the first place is just to vent these insane buggers.

>>263767
Uh...actually, after reading
>The petty pride of other researchers who built there careers on proving that we were the only complex life in existence is not a concern of his.
Maybe we should follow this up with 'Wait, they actually managed to escape containment? Osdoros get your rifle! Oh my science stop them before they- AHH!!!' followed by explosion noises and a rapid decent into Earth's atmosphere.

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>>263778
HA!

>>263133
+1 if OP is still alive and not vented out of a spaceship or digested by acid

Just a heads up, my brothers high school graduation is today so if I make any updates they will be few and sparse.

>>263778
>>263778
This!

Ayy lmao

OP come back, I don't want Grand Theft spaceship quest to die this quick.

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It seems OP got Axos'ed

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>>265541
My patience wears thin quest master. Where is the next update.

>>263071
You have to act and act fast. You formulate a plan and fill Ovella and Osdoros in on the details. They're skeptical, but after a bit of discussion you've managed to convince them. You get to work with the ships drones as cameras staging an elaborate first impression. You know Axos pretty well, and you know he'll be unimpressed by anything else. You have your companions join you in acting out various scenes. You all greet Axos, while acting distracted and busy. “

'Wait, they actually managed to escape containment? Osdoros get your rifle! Oh my science stop them before they- AHH!!!' followed by explosion noises and a rapid decent into Earth's atmosphere.

"We've got more trouble than just you! There is something here that can make biological -molecular- acid!”

“There's more important things at stake Axos. I was right this place has life like we've never seen it. It has the standard variety-” you're interrupted by Ovella.

“Igeos, its breached containment. We had the cell reinforce itself, if you're going to try something try it soon!” she walks out of view of the camera.

“In addition to the standard variety they have unbelievable life, it appears to be capable of producing an acid stronger than should be possible.” This is where you will send the data on everything. The information on the mutated humans and their acid among the first data sent. Osdoros speaks up before leaving the view of the camera. “It won't die. Somethings wrong.”

You'll use the footage of the actual explosion here, Osdoros heroically knocking you both to the ground and out of view of the camera. And the footage afterwards all the way up until you're outside the door.

You really hope this works. All the while some unsettling things have been going on with your human captives. Though unconscious, they began to shake shortly after you began acting out your deception. Then their skin began to lose its color. You had to stop and watch the monitors, the three of you, when they suddenly woke. They began to scream in languages unknown, and you had one administered nanites. You soon could comprehand their screams and understood them to be screams of fear ad panic. “What's happening to me!”, “Let me out!”, “Where am I?”. You left them alone and continued to film for your message.

>Continued

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>>271874
By the time Axos and his ship where minuets away you had finished filming, and the humans had finished screaming, the intelligence gone from their eyes. Happily, the other three humans on-board appear to be unaffected, likely to the fact that they didn't share holding cell ventilation with with four jettisoned passengers. You position your ship as close to the wreckage as you feel safe getting and rig it to explode in a similar fashion to the previous ship damage you took. When you think the timing is just right you send your message as if it was a live communication. You watch the video you, making sure to send over the data at the correct time. The moment of truth approaches. “Get ready everyone.” As the you on screen yell about cutting your losses you send the ship hurtling towards the planet. Soon a large explosion rocks the ship. You see Axos ship appear, some distance from your earlier position, it grows small in the distances as your ship burns up. “What's going on!” You hear Axos shout over the communication, now actually live cameras positioned away from your group. The fires do no harm to the ship and you soon land, your ship making a landing that cratered the ground below it feel soft.

>Run to the front of the camera and assure Axos you're all right.
>Say something else as well. (What?)
>Cut the feed and go see Tehan and his daughter.
>Cut the feed and examine the five changed humans.
>Do something else.

>>271876
Cut the feed and talk to the changed humans, try and calm them down by having Tehan talk to them.

>>271876
>>Cut the feed and examine the five changed humans.
Just to be clear, the four raiders we captured earlier turned into the same warped humans we chucked out into space? Now that just ain't right.

>>271940
There are five of them now, they were the group which fist attacked your drones and were easily captured.

>>271944
Well then I guess it's time for Osdoros to actually get his rifle.

[Background Post]
You, Osdoros, and Ovella, are very young for your species, but they are exceptional people as well. You and Osdoros were friends since childhood, sharing the same interests in alien life, and you grew close over the years keeping in contact even after you were separated. Osdoros comes from a rare thing, a family which still believes itself to be part of the warrior caste. The caste system was abolished over a million years ago, but that's just the kind of people you are. He went off for training, and you went to Noxix Prime, the university planet. Soon you graduated, and then you graduated again. Then you began teaching. It was a surprise to everyone, even yourself, and it made things difficult for you. Many of the younger instructors envied you, and they took every opportunity to ruin your career politically. But you stuck to what mattered to you, research, and taught classes that interested you, choosing ones that would upset your hostile colleges even further.

You got a chance to see Osdoros again during a research expedition where the military was contracted for protection. During the expedition you were attacked, and Osdoros saved the lives of you and your colleges. You convinced him to transfer to the military base on Naxix Prime, where he's gone on several research expeditions with you since. You met Ovella when she took your class titled, 'Alien Biochemistry And The Many Different Forms It Could Take' in which she spent the entire semester heckling you as you tried to lecture. Needless to say she was your favorite student.

>>271996
Axos was something of a mentor to you, he was your first instructor and you had him for 'Nanotechnology, Microbiology, And How The Two Can Better Each Other', you preformed well in his class and he offered you a job as his research assistant. Everything he taught you over those years where you were research assistant by day and student by weekend, you prepared yourself for a teaching career and research projects of your own far earlier than you thought possible. He's said that he think of you as something of a son, having had no children while he still had that choice as a biological possibility, and having no interest in cloning. You've spent almost five hundred years helping him build this ship, a quarter of your life, and stealing it was the hardest decision of your life.

Axos is the head researcher at the university. He's lived long past the natural lifespan of his race, reaching forty thousand years old quite a while ago, and he's still going strong. When he was ten thousand years younger, he could still simulate emotions, somewhat, but he's since lost even that ability. Almost all of his brain tissue has been replaced with synthetic. He was extremely impressed with Igeos' skill with nanotechnology, and his deep passion for biology. He offered Igeos the chance to get ahead in life, and Igeos hadn't disappointed him; until he stole his ship. He sees himself as betrayed, its unable to hurt him on a personal level since he's out aged his emotions, but on an intellectual level he knows he's been betrayed by someone important to him.

>>271876
You cut the feed more important thing to attend to.”That will buy us some time at least. I hope.” Ovella is the first to speak, “We need to go and see the mutated humans, they could be just as bad as the others.” She had seen what the first batch were capable in the videos, the damaged plating of the containment cell the only remains of the ejected captives. Unless you count whatever pathogen they left, which mutated the other group while you filmed.

You reach the holding bay and the monitors show you the humans you hold captive in the remaining cells. Five occupied, three ejected, three empty and one damaged. The humans are duplicates of the ones you saw before, aside from the fact that they are clothed, hair still tightly bound to their heads. But the stares were the same, from the same lifeless eyes. Though these eyes, undamaged shown more brightly. The previous group had been shocked to the point of burns, their eyes whitened by a film of dead tissue. These were just humans, grey humans, with dull eyes. Their weapons lay at their feet. You begin to worry. Can this happen to you? Should you remove all air from the cells and have it purged? You don't know what to do, and don't know when Axos will arrive. All you know is that theses things are dangerous, and they're acting suspiciously passive. Though you think you have an idea of where they direct their stares.

>Purge the containment cell atmosphere.
>Message Axos. (With what?)
>Do something else.

>>272113
>>Do something else
Ask Tehan and our friendly shaman what the hell these things are and how that weirdo in the snake hat was.

>>272113
>Do something else
Use nanites to analize the air, try to find the patogen. Once found, analize them, try to see how it works and attempt to find a cure

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>>273100
>Implying it's a pathogen
>Implying it's not the manifested proto-Inca serpent spirit of evil and wickedness passed between mortal vessels upon their death

>>273159
Sir, please at least pseudo-science.

>>272113
Osdoros, rifle at his side, returns to to the room with a question, “Ovella, what did the humans have to say about this?” His eyes go to the monitors in the room before returning to the two of you.

“They didn't have much to say, besides a legend of a vast civilization far to the north, where men turned into monsters. But there's been no contact with them since their prehistory.” It's a disappointing amount of information.

You use this time you have have to try to examine the air. Here and there there's particles your sensors can't quite get a read from. You send in microbe sized drones to gather some of these particles and deposit them in a compartment of the cell walls. The captive humans make no move, simply staring at the walls they face. In disassembling the particles it seems many of your nanites were destroyed, but sheer numbers overcame and the particles were disassembled. The particles were made of mostly genetic materials, but it seems to have two additional base pairs. There's also a large amount of carbon, mostly in nano-tube form. But there's also a good deal of fluorine bonded to the carbon. The fluorocarbons were especially difficult for the nanites to break.

You're distracted from this by the sound of a large crash, the ground below shaking the ship slightly.

>Exit your ship and see whats going on.
>Do something else.

[Extra Post]

You are Axos, and you're frustrated, surveying the wreckage of your ship's holding bay, held in your borrowed ships cargo bay. You've ran tests on it, and found that they weren't lying about the acid. And there are other materials your ships just can't get any readings from. You probably lack sensitive enough equipment. You send messages down to the planet, telling Igeos and his crew that they would be safer back in orbit, and to return, but get no answer. You watch the video again, and a few choice things give It away as being a recording. So this was staged.

What could they possibly hope to accomplish with this? Why land on the planet? Is this some sort of trap? Questions flood your mind as your crew runs around making preparations and adjustments to the ship. You've had them all go to high alert. But something is wrong, they're movements grow sluggish, they appear fatigued You're unaffected by whatever has done this to them. The bravest among them speak up, saying they need to go to medical, something happening to them. They began to change shortly after. You've locked yourself in the ship's bridge, alone. You break orbit heading for the planet, aiming for a spot near your stolen ship.

>>274756
>>Exit your ship and see whats going on.

>>274874
Aw sheeeit, guess we're about to find out what our species is like mutated.

>>274874
Wait, what IS our species, what do we call ourselves?

>>274874
Looks like we're in autosage, you going to continue this quest OP?

>>277158

New thread >>278506