There is a traitor in your midst, meatship. A crew member working for the Nightmare King, enacting his will subtly on the crew.

This person has access to all the Nightmare King knows about their crewmates, and there's plenty the horrible being can glean from their dreams.

Today, it's time to act, to try to cripple all they can, to bring the fears of their crewmates to the forefront to make them easier prey. Today they revel in their cruelty, their soul twisting and writhing in the grips of their cruel master.

[ooc: This is your cue! Each of you, tag in making a new subthread, and set up the setting of where your character is, like you'd do for an post to the comm in general. In the OOC post please lay out the fears and insecurities you plan to exploit in your character's final nightmare to help with the messin'--they'd be bringing those fears to the forefront with their comments, to make it easier for the Nightmare King to act on them]

First it was the nightmares. The memories pushing back fifteen years to the last day he'd seen his father alive, the day the Drej had come out of nowhere and obliterated Earth and turned the thousands that had managed to escape into refugees. Without a home, they had become shunned by the other races, viewed with disdain. Ignored at best, openly attacked at worst.

His time on the ship had somehow allowed him to forget all that. Maybe it was being around so many other humans--the first time in fifteen years that Cale had been part of a 'majority.' Or perhaps it was that, now, everyone was in the same boat as he was, the boat he'd been in since he was four years old. Their homes were gone. Destroyed by a mysterious alien race. Whatever the reason, Cale had allowed himself to begin to forget the home he never had, to forget Earth, to forget the Titan, and to forget his father.

That was, until, the dreams.

They'd first come when he was asleep, jarring him awake with their vividness. There were several times that Cale been convinced they were real, only to wake up and be surprised that he wasn't a four year-old kid anymore. He was a nineteen year-old young man.


He wandered the streets of the city, meandering his way aimlessly until by pure chance he happened upon the statuary. He didn't recognize any of the stone sculptures. Most of them were supposed to be from Earth. That's what he'd been told by others in the crew. Who knew if it was true. Cale didn't. He'd been just a kid when the planet was blown to pieces. He didn't know squat about humanity or its history. Just that it was dying and would likely be extinct in another few hundred years. And there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Especially not him, no matter how much Akima and Korso tried to tell him differently. Earth was gone. There was no getting it back.


If only the nightmares had just stayed nightmares. Sleep was easy enough to avoid. Short cat-naps here and there allowed him to get a little rest, keep from hallucinating, without slipping into the dreamworld where his past seemed poised, waiting for him. But they hadn't just stayed nightmares. Now, the nightmares seemed to be alive. His past had walked alongside him. No. Not walked alongside him. It had tried to kill him. His past, the responsibility that had been dumped on him, was back and wasn't going to let him go. Even his father was a part of it. The man who had abandoned him, left it to him to finish what Sam had started. It was his fault the survival of their species had been dumped on Cale's shoulders.

And the Drej. If it weren't for those bastards, Earth would still exist. His dad wouldn't have left him. And everyone wouldn't be looking to Cale to save them.


"Aaaaaaargh!!!" Cale shouted snatching up what appeared to be a stone arm, broken from one of the statues--likely during one of the many battles the crew had fought in the city--and started swinging. He decapitated Venus di Milo. Another blow sent David's leg hurtling across the room. "Leave me alone!" he raged, striking the statues at random. "You're all DEAD!!! It's too late. It's all over. What the hell do you want me to do?!? Huh? What the hell do you want from me?!?"

The crew will see them slinking off, disappearing around hallways--shifting shadow shapes and the backs of heads ducking around corners. They're always people they think they know. Dead loved ones, perhaps, or loved ones they're not sure are dead or alive. They lead crew members into dangerous places, sudden drops, parts of Stacy where things can go wrong.

And they do go wrong. Floors drop out. Ducts become damaged somehow, invisibly, and suddenly spew hot steam. Around the children, items slam into walls--poltergeist activity.

Whether these are really those lost souls, or just illusions, is hard to tell. Either way, those that are part-ghost or have supernatural powers will have a helluva workout. The upside is the presence of the ghosts might disrupt the Waking Dreams to allow people to escape them more easily.

Which is good because the dreams will start to cause injuries now. Real ones.

And refusing to go to sleep doesn't save you when the dreams can happen while you're awake.

[ooc: Waking dreams will continue--and start causing injuries. Furthermore, ghostly apparitions will start to cause poltergeist activity and lead the crew into danger. Start to raise the alarm, meatship. It's starting.]

It is that time again, meatship.

Once again, the King of Nightmares has deigned to spread his touch to all of your dreams.

This time, however, he has decided to give them a much more personal touch, sending his very own children to visit each and every one of you, slowly sowing the seeds of madness within all of you.

Such a kind and loving king he is, isn't he?

[ooc: Alright folks, Nightmare King is ramping things up a bit. These nightmares are a good bit more dangerous now, and he's sending in his minions to make things a little more real. The nightmares will be of a much more serious nature this time, designed to start driving the crew slowly insane. Characters are more likely to run into nightmare minions in the guise of someone or something that will tug at the edges of their sanity. Also, this time, the characters can have joint dreams, as these nightmares are of a more mystical nature this time. Once again, tagging in isn't mandatory, but if you want to, go crazy (literally)!]

[Additional Note: Any injuries won't be carrying over to real life at this point in the plot but don't worry, we'll get there eventually!]

The news that his 'world'--or universe, rather--had been destroyed seemed to have little effect on a certain nineteen year-old member of the crew. Eerily so. But as far as Cale was concerned, his world had been destroyed long before by another 'all-powerful' alien species...the Drej. Earth was gone, blown apart by a species of pure energy. There was no 'home' for Cale. There was no 'world.' It was already gone. What remained of humanity had scattered amongst the stars, living in squalor and enduring the cruelty of racism from the other species they were forced to live among. They weren't people anymore but had become little more than beggars, living out of old rusted-out ship hulls that had been melded together to form drifter colonies.

Poverty-stricken and with no planet to call their own, the human race--at least that of Cale's universe--was dying. It was going to extinct. They were destined for history books and museums. So, the sting of his whole universe being wiped out seemed to have little effect on him. He showed no signs of sadness, betrayed not tears or anger. He, for all intents and purposes, was going about his business as usual.

Making his way through the ship, he wandered the halls, checking out the newly opened areas with an almost childlike curiosity and excitement. Each new area seemed to hold even more technological wonders behind its doors, wonders that Cale couldn't wait to get his hands and study to figure out how they worked.

He seemed to be distracted, for the moment, from the task of tracking down Leela and making sure she was all right, that she was still alive. Surely, if something had happened to her, someone would have said something to him by now.

Across the ship, dumped in a completely different hallway--one just outside the city--stood Cale Tucker. Or, rather, there sat Cale Tucker...one his butt...in the middle of the hall...wearing nothing but what appeared to be his shredded uniform as a make-shift loin-cloth. Though, however, it looked more like a hand-towel that he had to hold onto to keep from exposing himself to anyone and everyone who just might come walking by.

"Oh, come on!" he hollered out angrily. He, too, had been nabbed by a certain bored AI with an affinity for messing with the members of the crew and treating them like her own personal playthings. "I did everything you asked me to! I even did it naked when you said I had to! You can't just dump me out here like this."

He paused, waiting for a response but got nothing in return.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" he continued, climbing to his feet and, balling up his fist, began to pound on Stacy's fleshy walls in an effort to get the attention of his tormentor.

A mass of zombies has laid seige to the Vatican.

Time to fight for your lives!!!

The Vatican had a lot of ground to cover. Normally covered in expansive gardens (just empty plots on the ship) and comprised of a multitude of buildings, holing up there meant holing up in simply a part of the Vatican. The group was therefore in St. Peter's Basilica, which had had most of its entrances sealed off. Now they had to work on small windows and a few other entrances left neglected, but overall, it was a very defensible position. There were no exits other than the ones leading to the sacristy and treasury--which was their main avenue of escape, and heavily guarded. The prisoners were being kept in this area, and guarded by the rear guards, as leaving them in the prison was deemed too dangerous for their safety. As bad as they'd been with the Yeerk conflict, they were crew, and no one wanted them to die.

The courtyard was a chokepoint. Gunners could sit on the roofs of the buildings running alongside the courtyard to strafe St. Peter's square from the sides.

The various chapels and vestibules along the sides made excellent areas for food, medical, and weapons supplies to be gathered, and most were clustered in the middle of the basilica. The Medical area was in the Chapel of the Column, the main weapons and ammo caches, and Food storage areas were in the two Transepts, respectively, to the sides of the Papal altar. Pews all in the main areas had been converted to sleeping areas, right in the center of the whole place.

There was still work to be done, before the other group could leave. Last minute barricades, blocking more windows, moving the last of the medical supplies, inventorying the food, and so on. Then it would be time to hunker down.

So push up your sleeves and lend someone else a hand, folks.

[ooc: Read instructions for these threads here!]

12 - 1700 hours - Crew Work. Check.
17 - 1800 hours - Visit Leels in the hoosegow. Check.
18-2000 hours - personal projects. In progress.

Over in the Engineering department, Allen is putting the finishing touches on a small, nondescript device. It's sleek, black, has a lense, and when he engages it, it floats, then zips over his shoulder and down Stacy's halls.

"Control, f, my wife," he murmurs as he saunters after it. He turns off as the device zips on its way and comes to a stop in the Media Lab, where he flops down to wait, either for updates, or tentacles.

In the meantime, he puts on Casablanca. For the fourth time this month.

Cale had made the mistake of not visiting Leela once when she was in trouble and had nearly gotten his head caved in for the lack of effort, especially since he was the reason she was in trouble to begin with. Granted, these were completely different circumstances. For one, she wasn't in life-threatening danger, merely locked up. And, it wasn't Cale's fault. Leela had managed this all on her own. Hell, Cale hadn't had the slightest clue what she had been up to until he'd heard about the fight down in the city and that Leela had been part of it.

Regardless of his lack of culpability and the danger of her dying, Cale showed up at the precinct anyway if only to avoid the beating he was bound to receive once she got out if he didn't. Although, the kissing that had followed he could definitely take again. Willingly.

"Wow," he said as he stepped up to the bars of Leela's cell. "And here I thought it would be you visiting me in here first."

Down in the Vatican, Cale Tucker is tinkering away in one corner of the basilica as he installs the food preserver that he'd constructed--complete with it's own power source--at the request of the guy (Sawyer) who'd taken it upon himself to turn the cathedral into a fortress. It'd taken him some time to get the thing completed, but after some long hours of arduous work, Cale had come through. It wasn't the most attractive of machines considering it was built from materials he'd scavenged from the labs--sometimes from under the Brainies' noses--but it would work, of that he was positive.

Once the thing was secured to the wall and floor to keep it from falling over and getting damaged, Cale stepped back to admire his handiwork for a moment before walking over to collect the plate of slop that he'd taken from the mess hall for his test run. Taking a deep breath, Cale dumped the slop and edible plate into the insertion funnel at the top of the machine, flipped the switch and crossed his fingers.

There was a low hum and, while it took several seconds, eventually a small, vacuum-sealed package of dried slop and edible tray emerged from the discharge panel. If Cale's calculations were right--and he was positive they were--this little package should last at least six months. That meant, assuming they managed to preserve enough food, the crew should be able to last at least that long on the off-chance they had to hole themselves up in the basilica for an extended period.

Feeling pleased with himself, Cale let out a loud 'whoop' as he picked up the package and ripped it open to take a taste.

"Bleh," he gagged, tossing it over his shoulder. "Still tastes like crap."

Of all the places on Stacey that Mal could think of holding a team meeting, there were actually very few he felt comfortable doing it at. He'd gotten the list a few days before and had been mulling it over every since trying to decide how to go about doing this. A team wasn't the same as his actual crew, but in a strange way it was. These were people he was going to have to keep their well being in mind no matter what they were doing on the ship- having River and Kaylee both listed was a comfort all in its self.

Mal had considered a few places as soon as he had picked the sensorium as the meeting spot. The Southdown Docks were nice and had a few good bars even if it would be a high distraction for those of not their 'verse. Haven could also be good but, well, that wasn't going to happen because of Book. However when the Captain discovered the rather detailed showing of Serenity that Kaylee had programed, the former Browncoat knew instantly where it was going to be held at.

So he set about sending out the waves to those on his team with detailed maps of how to navigate from the cargo bay to the kitchen/living room/family room on the ship along with a time for them all to be there. He'd wait, of course, and explore his ship. Sit in the pilots seat, play with Wash's dinosaurs that River had insisted on keeping out, and remember.

So she was high off her nut for a little while because her arm swelled up and hurt like a bitch and a ton of shit went wrong, and then she was out. When Leela wakes up, her arm is pretty much back to normal, if a little numb, and she can breathe pretty easily again.

Rather than get all confused and ask where she is, she just looks around the MedBay and lets out a loooong yaaaawn, trying to get all her thoughts straight.

For the most part, the groups reconvene without incident. There are some minor injuries and a few are battered, but overall, everyone is fine. At least barring poor Leela, her arm swollen, her breathing still troubled. Fortunately, when she's brought back aboard Obs Deck, Stacy provides something if a medical cot out of the floor, that she can be secured to by her caregivers for the return trip, as well as an oxygen mask.

However, as they all meet up again and climb back on board, there is one group that's a little late...

Chief, Brainiac 5, Leela, Cale, Bri, Paco, Samus, and Allen took the fifth pod. The ground beneath their feet slowly became softer and more squishy, undoubtedly to the grave annoyance of those wearing armor. Marshland, perhaps? It was definitely something they should keep an eye on. Who knew if there was quicksand or something like it, and marshes were generally home to some not-so-pleasant creatures...

The door opens to a lush green place. They've landed in a forest glade of some kind. Deciduous in nature, but the leaves are somewhat odd in shape and very, very thick and tall. The grass is a green that's almost a blue.

The sky is blue like a normal sky, but brighter, more vibrant than on Earth. Two moons hang there, so close that they're visible even in the daytime.

The air is fresh and clean-smelling, like after a rain--in fact, the moisture in the air means it may have rained here recently. There's even a cool, light breeze.

Curiously, when they come down the ramp, they'll see that the pod--its umbilical cord spiraling up miles upon miles to meet the ship, floating visibly in the atmosphere--is floating about six inches off the ground.

The Meeting is interrupted.

There is a resounding mental alarum that sounds through the ship. Nearly "deafening." Lights flash from places for extra emphasis, making it impossible to ignore.

||Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention, all personnel...||

They can hear it through the meeting bubble and Jaime drops it.

It's entirely likely that she won't stop repeating the announcement until, well, everyone reports to Obs Deck. The mouth in the huge statue opens, revealing a screen. On it, the dossier for the mission flickers into display, understandable to every person there. Smaller copies of the dossier appear in holographic form in front of everyone.

The planet's stats, right next to a rotating picture of it, marled blue and green, are as follows:

( Mission Dossier )

It's big meeting time! Word of mouth gets everyone gathered in the Obs Deck--everyone. New, old, the entire crew is there and that makes it clear that there's close to a hundred of them, if not more.

When they've all arrived, a blue bubble pops up around them, courtesy of Blue Beetle, to block them all from Stacy's sensors. Most of the new people were given the basic rundown by Cybil or Chief when they were first released. Some of them have already joined a discussion with a the Commanding Officers and department heads. Some have had a chance to explore a bit. Some were only just recently released.

[ooc: READ THIS BEFORE TAGGING.]

Hunched over a table in the Special Weapons Division is Cale, working intently on the automated assembly system that Brainy had designed to build the Omnicom computers and communication rings that the crew would be using so that they didn't have to 'shout across the ship' as the green alien was want to say. Laying on the table next to him, is a datapad that Brainy had given him, detailing the specs of the system. But, these didn't read like normal specs and instructions that Cale had read. They seemed...dumbed down. Big time!

"Step 752: Use magnetic screwdriver to tighten the screws, securing the..." Cale then started to silently read to himself. That is, until he got to the footnote of this particular instruction: "The magnetic screwdriver looks like this: ..."

It was accompanied with a picture of the tool that Cale was supposed to use. He stared at the datapad as if it had just offended him. It did!

"I know what a magnetic screwdriver is you green-skinned..."

Cale couldn't even bring himself to finish the sentence.

There is an AI on the ship that goes by the name Bender Stack. It only pops up now and again, and now its function may finally be somewhat clear.

"Hey. Hey meatbag!" says a grating voice.

Bender Stack chases people away from work when they've been doing too much of it.

This is why Brainiac 5 leaves the Special Weapons Division and by the time he gets up to the Living Area (having decided to eat anyway if the irritating AI is going to heckle him out of work) he's about at his wit's end.

"--For the last time, I am not going to build you a robot prostitute! You're an AI, not a mechanoid, you couldn't interface with it anyway."