Click me for the BoG R5 Main Thread for additional info!

Welcome to a Round Five Battle Thread for the BoG Tournament! Be mindful now, as your votes are the determining factor to who takes the win!

I will reiterate what I said in the main thread for those who missed it. If you will comment on the plot, please use spoilers. This is a mystery genre after all where plot is everything.

For a few reminders though:



Now without further ado here are the works of our would-be Masters of Genre!

Devour
The ship-wide intercom was not used often, so everyone on the TGS Explorer snapped to attention. “We’ve reached the home stretch. Once we clear this asteroid field, we’ll be warping back to Earth. Clean up your stations and be ready within an hour.” He hung up without another word.

Daniel sighed. The Captain was always a cold one, but he cared about his ship and his crew more than anyone. Still, it was painful to just stop working when there was so much left to do.

He remembered the alien planet they encountered last week: Odd and purple and so surreal that stepping foot on its soil felt like he had entered another dimension. He even managed to take some samples, and…

The biologist brought a small container of rocks to view from behind the carefully-sealed glass he worked through. This soil told tales of a civilization thousands of years old that once lived on that planet. Yet somehow, they were nowhere to be found…

From the glass, a reflection caught Daniel’s eye. It was the only warning he got.

An enormous asteroid was flying towards the Explorer with terrifying speed.

The ship’s thrusters fired at once. Daniel was thrown to the ground with his skin crushing into his body as they tried to avoid imminent death. For a second it looked like they would avoid danger, but they were not fast enough. The asteroid grazed them with a spiked projection of rock that cut out from its side, raking into the Explorer with a shower of sparks and flying shrapnel, sending it tumbling off course and out of control.

The lights in the ship went out, but Daniel could hear the thrusters still firing. Even spiraling madly, Captain Sorverg was able to avoid smashing into three more enormous rocks that flew into their path. Death grazed the skin of his teeth again and again and each time was closer than the last.

But then they were clear. The Explorer floated freely in empty space. Sorverg was able to pull the ship out of its spiral. Deep red emergency lights flashed on and illuminated everything with a dark red glow as the ship’s AI sealed the rooms that were connected to the giant hole, raked out of the ship as if by a giant claw. They were all still alive.

The ship’s intercom flickered back on, but the voice was not the Captain’s.

“What the fuck was that?” That was Scott Jackson, the ship’s Engineer. “Is everyone still alive?”

“Still breathing.” Sergeant Harkins was unfazed as always.

“Shut up and wait for the Captain’s orders.” Lando Sorverg was the Captain’s brother. Fear turned him terse and impatient.

“Yeah, I can see you all from here. Everyone’s okay.” Tom Lorentz spoke up anyways, nervous as hell. It was good to know his cameras still worked, though.

“I’m alive…” The shy Dr. Irene Misvrill said. “If anyone’s hurt, please make your way to—”

“Listen up, everyone.” The Captain interrupted. His voice was grim. “The Explorer charted a safe course through that asteroid field. What just happened, should not have happened.”

“What do you mean it shouldn’t have happened? It just did!” Scott shot back.

“Yes. It did. But asteroids don’t move themselves.” Sorverg was deathly serious. “There’s only one reason three of them would suddenly come at us like that. I think we are under attack.”

Another collision that rocked the ship as if on cue, knocking the crew off their feet a second time. The open comms became a mess of screaming and shouting, hurting Daniel’s ears as he himself struggled to figure out what was going on.

Then at last, everything was quiet. The biologist slowly crawled to his feet, deathly afraid of what might come next.

“Warning. I have detected a hostile alien life-form on board.” It was the voice of the ship’s AI. “Please proceed to the panic room now.”

“Everyone, stay the fuck where you are!” The Captain ordered. “AI. Give me their location.”

“I cannot detect them. All I know is that it’s here.” It replied.

Scott exploded on the comms again. “AI, what the hell do you mean by that? You just said you detected—”

“Damn it! It’s like I thought.” The Captain said. “AI, you can still detect that it’s on board, yes?”

“Affirmative. This is only possible by measuring the mass of everything on-board the Explorer. I cannot discern its location.”

“Sorverg, you know something that we don’t.” The Biologist finally spoke up. “You need to tell us what’s going on.”

But the Captain ignored him. “AI. Search the ship for corpses.”

“There is a body in waste disposal.” It replied at once. “I cannot identify it, except that it is human.”

For once, the comms were deathly quiet. No one knew what to say or what to make of the Captain’s orders. They should be running to safety before any more people died! They were just sitting in their rooms, waiting to be killed next.

“AI, please close every door in the ship and lock it tight.” Sorverg said.

“What?!” There were mixed cries of protest as everyone’s stations became prisons. In one moment to the next, their doors slammed shut and held in place by the AI, only opening once the alert was lifted.

“I need you all to listen carefully. This is a matter of life or death” Sorverg said. All comms had been shut off except for his. There was something in his voice that Daniel had never heard before. “We have a dead shipmate. Tom can confirm that their corpse is sealed in Disposals. The reason I need you all to stay locked within your stations, is because one of you is the alien who killed them.”

Daniel’s mouth hung open in astonishment. None of what the Captain was saying made sense to him. But as much as he wanted to shout and plead for answers, all he could do was listen and hope that Sorverg said more.

“There were only seven of us on-board. Me, Lando, Scott, Irene, Daniel, Harkins, and Tom.” He listed the names off easily; this crew had worked together for years. “AI, confirm this for me. How many bodies do you detect on board, in mass?”

“Eight, Captain.”

Another moment of stunned silence. Sorverg allowed this to sink in for everyone.

“One of you is a hostile.” His voice became angry, powerful, like a slowly-approaching storm. “I don’t know who you are, but I assume you’re using some kind of shape-shifting ability to disguise yourself as my former shipmate. But how well can you act as them? How long will you be able to keep up the charade? Because as soon as we find out who you are, you will die. Mark my fucking words.”

The comms turned back on.

No one said anything.

“This is why I have locked you all in your rooms. No one here can be trusted. Not even me. The only way we can find this being is through talking here on comms.” Sorverg said. “Eventually, they will slip up. We will then hold a vote between all seven of us, and if the majority of us are sure that someone isn’t who they say they are, the AI will remove the air from their room and suffocate them to death. Even if it’s me that you’re voting for. Do I make myself clear?”

Silence went on. And on. No one knew how to process what was going on or how they would even begin to find out who was real and who was not.

Finally, it was Irene’s quiet voice that broke the silence. It was plain that she was fighting back tears. “I understand, Captain.” She whispered.

______________________________________________

An hour came and went with little progress. Somehow, everyone recalled their previous missions together perfectly. The alien’s disguise was flawless. They learned that the damage had impaired the Explorer’s power, and in every hour and a half the AI would need to power down and restore its energy for ten minutes at a time. This left the doors unlocked, and the crew in danger.

Unless they found the alien, someone would die with each hour and a half that passed.

It reminded Daniel of an old game he had played back on Earth.

Every member of the ship still had access to their equipment, so to show what they could do to help they gathered the materials they could, presenting them via Tom’s system of cameras. It was here that they spoke now, able to look each other in the proverbial eye.

As a biologist, Daniel was able to use his sample from the alien planet to create a special serum. It could only be used once, but he would be able to use it to confirm a single person’s identity as human. “I’ll use it on myself.” He offered, speaking to his camera. “Then I can prove that I’m really human.”

“But then you’ll be useless.” Scott grumbled over comms. “You should confirm the identity of someone like Sorverg so that he can help us better.”

“You know Sorverg can’t be an alien after he set this whole thing up.” Lando interjected. “I think you want Daniel to waste that thing—”

“Maybe. We’ll figure it out later.” The Captain interrupted, standing diligently before his screen. "I can do my part too. These computers can project a small part of the ship’s shielding systems, and keep someone locked in their room via a force field. If he’s an alien, he won’t be killing anyone. Harkins, what can you do for us?”

“Uh, me?” Sergeant Harkins gestured lamely before his camera, searching around his barren room for something to use. He ended up pulling out his gun. It was a specially-modified blaster cannon he used to take down heavy targets. “I’ve got this baby with me. I won’t be able to recharge it, but you can bet your ass if the alien comes for me, they’re fucking dead.”

“More useful than you might think.” Scott Jackson grinned. He was holding a welding torch in hand, with his screen facing a large array of electronics. “When we power down, I think I’ll be able to disable the systems in someone’s room. Obviously I can only do one of ya at a time without overloading the ship, but maybe I’ll save a life or two.”

“Um,” Dr. Irene stood in the Medic Bay, surrounded by first-aid supplies. “If someone gets hurt I might be able to run out and save them… if I make there in time, at least. And if I can guess who he chooses to attack…”

“You better guess right, then.” Lando snarled. “If someone dies and you could have saved them, consider their blood on your hands.”

“Enough.” Sorverg barked as Irene looked away from the camera, saying nothing. “We can argue later. What can you do for us, Lando?”

“Well—” He bit down the scathing remark he wanted to answer with. “I’ve got the teleporters in here. I’ll use them to switch two people’s locations so that if the aliens want someone important dead, they’ll find someone else instead.”

“What do you mean by that?” Daniel was horrified. “Are you saying some of us aren’t as important as the others?”

“You’re goddamn right, I am.” He snarled. “Tom, that leaves you. You got your cameras, but what can you do without power?”

The security guard spoke up, obviously out of his element. “With a little bit of work, I think I can keep one screen up while we recharge. I’ll watch someone’s room. See if I can catch the bastards in the act.”

“That’s everyone, then.” Sorverg was terse. Time was running out. “Before the AI runs out of power, tell me your suspicions. Tell me if we should vote someone out while we still can.”

It was then that the reality truly hit. One way or another, someone was about to die. Everyone seemed to be at a loss for words.

“We hardly know anything yet.” Daniel said shakily. “We can’t just kill someone with such little information. We’ll just kill an innocent.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Scott was grinning, but his voice was hard as iron. “We know nothing. That’s exactly why we need to vote.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” He thought the engineer had gone mad, but Captain Sorverg was listening carefully.

“The alien bastard knows who he is. They want us to vote for the wrong person. If we point a finger at someone innocent, they’re gonna try and make sure it sticks. They’ll slip up when pressure is on them. We need to watch carefully and use this to get information for later. Even if we do end up killing one of our own, we’ll learn enough to catch him later.”

“But Scott,” Tom spoke up. “If we vote the wrong person, another innocent will die when the ship powers down. That would leave us with just 4 humans left. If we don’t find him after that, we can’t make any more mistakes or else we’ll all die. I'd rather have more time to talk.”

“It’s too big of a risk.” Daniel agreed. Lando was nodding on camera, but he said nothing.

“No vote, then? What does everyone think?” Captain Sorverg was a wall of neutrality.

“Scott is right.” Dr. Irene said carefully. “I think we should vote…”

“I can’t believe you’d say that.” Daniel frowned. “Coming from you, I mean. You’d really let someone die because of your choice?”

Irene’s mouth closed shut, staring back guiltily but saying nothing.

“I think she’s the only one who’s not a fucking idiot.” Scott growled. “We need to vote or else we’re in serious trouble. There’s so much information we can get with this.”

“No.” Lando finally said. “We’ll have much more time talk if we don’t vote. More time to figure things out. We’ll find the aliens that way without risking everything like this.”

Sergeant Harkins shrugged, offering his own words. “Scott’s idea is smart. But I ain’t smart. Chances are I’ll miss who votes for who and who defends what. All I know is that I want that alien bugger to try and kill me. Just try, you son of a bitch. I’ll be right here. No vote.”

“That settles

I'm no good at giving CnC, however, I'll try to explain my vote.