[Darkness]

The arm of the Aphorite you hacked at flies off, not even bleeding a bit. With its other arm, it swipes at you with a clawed hand. How odd. Aphorites don't have claws... Another Aphorite lunges at you, attempting to knock you down. A third picks up a hand pistol energy weapon from the floor, shooting it several times at you.

[Neraphym]

Neraphym sends a ball of fire from his sword. The fireball crashes directly into the Aphorite that was shooting lasers at him.

Neraphym: "No liquid blood. They are certainly dead."

[Darkness]

The Aphorite that you hit is sent flying backwards. The chest seems torn apart and destroyed... The arm raises up, hand still holding the gun, and fires several more times in your general direction! Another Aphorite grabs at your throat, and another slashes at you.

[Neraphym]

Neraphym: "Fire doesn't work either... hack and slash seems to be the only way to deal with them. Varulla, you may assist me now. Sever their limbs off."

Varulla is silent... an evil gleam fills her eyes as she is given the order to attack. The sound of a clanking chain rushes past Neraphym's head. A blade flies through the ranks of the undead, taking off a leg here and an arm there. The limbs and bodies fall to the ground. Varulla yanks on her end of the chain, pulling the blade back to her. The blade flied back towards her, taking off the head of another Aphorite in the process. She catches the hilt of the blade skillfully.

Neraphym: "Great shot."

Varulla: "Thanks."

She smiles, then wraps the chain back around her body. Then she tucks the head of the blade in the chain, draws her sword and charges the undead Aphorites. She and Neraphym slash up the corpses with their swords.

[Darkness]

The dead Aphorites lay in pieces around you, arms and legs and torsos and heads and other various body parts all hacked to pieces. You find it amazing... and almost unrealistic... that you weren't wounded. In fact, it's strange to the point where you wonder if there is some greater being controlling you who is too full of pride to allow you to get hurt! ... But how silly of you to think that. You dismiss it almost immediately.

Anyway, as was said, the dead Aphorites are... dead. Again. There is still the door one of the Aphorites died trying to open sitting over there, closed, or you could continue on in the corridor. Or maybe you wish to turn back, now that you know that perhaps this ship is not... as it seemed... lifeless?

[Neraphym]

Varulla: "Neraphym, you're hit."

Neraphym: "Ah, that? The claw just tore the outer cloth layer; it didn't make it past the composit armor. Oh, it seems to have put a nasty scratch in it..."

Varulla: "No, not there, here! You're bleeding from it."

She points to a blast mark on Neraphym's left shoulder. The armor around it is singed, and some blue blood is leaking from it.

Neraphym: "Hm, I didn't even notice this. It's not serious, nor does it hurt. Let us ignore it and move on."

The go through the door that they were going through before the zombies so rudely interrupted.

[Darkness]

You appear to be in a room that regulates power -- at least for this part of the ship. With your knowledge of Aphorite technology, you know that those panels along the wall pull out like filing cabinets and are full of long, straight crystals All running parallel to each other, from the back of the 'cabinet'. These crystals would supply power to different areas. Each crystal would be able to be taken out and replaced, or moved, to different parts. Each panel probably supplies a different section or room. There are about... twenty or so panels inside this room, and you figure that this room probably controls an eighth of the ship, centered around the room. Each panel is labeled in Aphorite words, probably designating where each one controls. The state of the crystals in this room might answer some questions as to why some of the doors and lifts aren't working quite right. There are blast marks inside this room as well, designating that perhaps a battle was fought here. There are several corpses of Aphorites, but they don't seem to have the substance present on them. You know that almost all of the crystals in each panel are needed to power their designated section, so only about a third of the crystals being fried could result in that section becoming offline. You know that there are also about a hundred or so crystals for each panel, though it varies slightly with the amount of power needed to supply a section.

[Neraphym]

Neraphym: "Interesting. Varulla, there are more corpses in here. Check them."

Neraphym walks over to the panel that reads "Turbolift" in the Aphorite language. He opens the panel.

[Darkness]

The panel slides open easily... Strange, all of the crystals appear to be intact. Why didn't the lift work, then?

[Neraphym]

Neraphym reads all of the other panels, opening and inspecting the crystals inside as he goes along.

[Darkness]

The panel labeled 'Medical Facility CC11' will not open. Perhaps the panel itself sustained too much damage from weapon fire.

The panel labeled 'Medical Facility CC12' slides open easily. Only about three of the crystals appear to be intact.

The panel labeled 'Hallway Lighting' slides open easily. None of the crystals seem intact, but most of them appear to be in good enough condition to supply minimal power. Perhaps this is why the lights were flickering.

The panel labeled 'Hallway Life Support' slides open easily. None of the crystals are intact.

The panel labeled 'Airlock A16' slides open easily. There are only about fifty crystals in this panel, and most of them seem intact.

The panel labeled 'Airlock A17' slides open easily. None of the crystals appear to be intact.

The panel labeled 'Airlock A18' will not open. Perhaps the panel itself sustained too much damage from weapon fire.

The panel labeled 'Power Room S3' slides open easily. About three fourths of the crystals appear to be in good condition. You assume that if any more them were not, this whole section of the ship would go offline, because this panel probably controls all of the energy being sent out of the room. Without this panel, no energy would be able to leave.

The panel labeled 'Weapons Platform V21' slides open easily. Perhaps twenty of the crystals appear to be intact.

The panel labeled 'Weapons Platform V22' will not open. Perhaps the panel itself sustained too much damage from weapon fire.

The panel labeled 'Weapons Platform V23' will not open. Perhaps the panel itself sustained too much damage from weapon fire.

The panel labeled 'Weapons Platform V24' opens slightly, and then stops. It appears to be stuck. After a bit more pulling, it slides open quickly. Strangely, all of the crystals in this panel seem to have been removed, except for about ten that are damaged.

The panel labeled 'Armory Section W6' slides open easily. None of the crystals are intact.

The panel labeled 'Turbolift' slides open easily. There are only about fifty crystals in this one, and they all appear to be intact.

The panel labeled 'Central Control Room Lift' slides open easily. None of the crystals are intact.

The next panel's name is obscured by blast marks. The panel will not open.

The next panel's name is obscured by blast marks. The panel will not open.

The panel labeled 'General Power H6' slides open easily. None of the crystals are intact.

The panel labeled 'Auxiliary Power B6' slides open easily. None of the crystals are intact.

The next panel's name is obscured by blast marks. The panel slides open easily. Most of the crystals are intact.

[Neraphym]

Neraphym carefully inspects and removes all of the broken crystals from each and every panel, tossing them on the floor as he goes. Varulla, having nothing else to do, starts building fun structures out of the broken shards. Currently, she is making a bridge over one of the corpses. She is quite skilled at this, but I digress. Neraphym judiciously decides to get the general power on. He inserts functional crystals from the Medical Facility CC12, Airlock A16, Weapons Platform V21, and the Turbolift panels, but not the panel that contains many functional crystals, but the name is blasted off. Neraphym is not willing to risk a core overload or some similar catastrophic event that a certain someone might think up...

[Darkness]

The lights stop flickering, but they are still rather dim. You ended up with an extra 19 crystals, while General Power H6 is completely full, equaling about 90 crystals inside of it.

[Neraphym]

Neraphym: "Good news. The general power is still functional on this ship. We can't make good use of it, but it's good to know that it works."

Neraphym removes the crystals from general power and places them into Weapons Platform V21.

Neraphym: "Come Varulla, we will inspect the first weapons platform and see if we can't find anything of value."

Her bridge collapses.

Varulla: "Aww... Ok!"

They head outside and go in the general direction of the weapons platform.

[Darkness]

You reach a door. You assume that this is Weapons Platform V21, for it is in the location that it should be. ... Indeed.

Anyway, there is the normal hand control panel by the door, as usual.