Aliens (Halloween RP 2015)

[Deleted]

Welcome everyone, to the 2015 annual Halloween Roleplay! Now, as some of you have been wondering, yes, this will work differently than your average roleplay. As mentioned in the OOC thread, this will be a fatal Roleplay. That means that at any given point in time, your character may get killed off without your consent. If that should befall you, then your part in this years Halloween RP will have officially come to a close. If you're smart, and a tad bit lucky, you may even survive until the RP comes to a close at the end of October. I may even arrange a little reward for the quote on quote 'winners'.

How this will work, is that I will make roughly one post a day. My posts will act as the driving narrative, and in between my posts you will all have a chance to react to the events around you. You will be afforded a maximum of two posts between each o my posts. If you post a third time before I get the chance to advance the story, your post will be deleted. No exceptions.

Now, a few things to keep in mind here. (I suggest you read these. Ignorance is not an excuse, and I will grant you no sympathy if you were simply too lazy to read it.)

-Firstly, just like with the rest of the forum, there will be absolutely no Godmodding. Now, sometimes I see players confused with what actually constitutes as god modding, I will give you an example:

"An Alien has grabbed Moxie from above. Tara yanks the Alien down from the rafters, saves Moxie, and kills the Alien."

This is God Modding. Tara gave me no chance to say how the Alien reacted to his rescue attempt, he simply killed him.

"An Alien has grabbed Moxie from above. Tara attempts to yank the Alien down."

This is a perfectly acceptable reaction to the situation, and is not God Modding.

-The Alien(s) are faster, stronger, more durable and stealthier than you are. These creatures are born killing machines, you on the other hand, are a trucker in space. You are not a soldier. Fighting the Alien(s) is obviously allowed, but will more often than not result in gruesome results.

-Remember your roles, and if it's not on your equipment sheet, you don't have it. Forum character sheets don't apply here.

-I will be keeping track of where your characters are located in the colony. You can only move so far, so fast.

-If you are inactive for too long without informing me, I'm killing you off.

-No out of character drama. You start shit, you're out. Period.


ALIVE
Basilisk Nova (Captain)
Seller (Pilot)
Tarascha Terastari (Co-Pilot)
Flux (Engineer)
Moonlight Scroll (Medical Pony)
Strong Defense (Security)
Trixie (Surveyor)
Cobblestone Road (Servicemare)
Archimedes (Cargo)
Plush Ramen (Sole Surviving Colonist)


DEAD
Moxie (trainee)
Onyx Mind (Electrician)

OPENING POST:

    The high beam lights of the SS Mercury pierce through the harsh rain and fog, shinning onto the industrial sight of Celestia IV. Finally, after several years of grueling travel, you all have reached your destination. This started out as a fairly routine run, Celestia IV has been self sustaining for almost two decades now; you and the crew of the SS Mercury we're only delivering basic supplies. Technological upgrades straight from Equestria. Yes, a routine run... That was, until the colony went dark. Nopony responded to your landing requests, nor your requests to disembark. This was strange, as your arrival was planned out well in advance. It wasn't as if you were just popping by unannounced. At first, you all simply shrug it off; a downed communications unit perhaps. A relatively simple repair, all it means is that your crew will have to stay on Celestia IV for a bit longer to help the colonists with their equipment. This was more inconvenient than anything, after all, most of you just wanted to drop off the cargo and leave. It's a long flight back to Equestria after all.

    Regardless, you didn't come all this way just to be scared off by a lack of communication. You have a job to do, and you're here to do it. You all emerge from your ship and enter the colony, looking to make contact with the local residents. Surprisingly, nothing but dark corridors, empty living quarters and abandoned service rooms would greet you. Not a soul in sight... It was almost as if Celestia IV has been a ghost town all of this time. A population of over 200 ponies, seemingly vanished into thin air. Where could they possibly have all gone? What started off as a baffling mystery, quickly turned into something more sinister. Burn marks line the walls and floors of some rooms, with
make shift barricades seemingly smashed through. What in the hay happened here?

You all try to return to your ship, only to find it completely locked down. You receive a message from the WEYLAND YUTANI corporation, informing you all that the SS Mercury has been grounded, and you will not be able to leave until you discover what happened to the colonists. Perhaps you all missed something? Celestia IV is a massive place after all...

    Two days pass, nothing. Your crew sets up a temporary camp in the colony. During the days, you split into teams of two and scour the colony, looking for any signs of life. Some of you could swear that you are being watched. Noises can sometimes be heard coming from the floor grates, and between pipes. To the paranoid mind, it would become clear that you ponies are not alone in this station. Could it be the colonists? Or could it be something else?...

[Flux]

Flux's head jerked up and his ear twitched. He'd been keeping his hooves occupied polishing his welding mask, but once again he could have sworn that he heard noises coming from behind the wall structures. Given that there shouldn't be space for anything behind them, and that if there was it would have been uninhabitable by any creature he knew of, this was slightly unsettling. The distant echo of a pipe's clang sent shivers down his spine and he slowly resumed cleaning his facepiece.

"Ain't right," he muttered to the others. "200 ponies can't hide this well for this long."

[Cobblestone Road (R.I P)]

"Well, if they didn't hide this well something else apparently did." Cobblestone was lying on her back, balancing a decently-sized piece of rubble she'd picked up from one of the barricades on all four legs and pushing it up and down to stay in shape.

She made a turn of up and down again, then continued. "And not just themselves. If something else did ransack this place, they didn't leave so much as a tooth from the ponies who lived here. At least I haven't found any so far." She made another turn and paused again, tilting her head to look around the room at the other ponies she could see. "Any of you find anything? Some bones? A skull? Maybe a conveniently labeled recording or diary, explaining in detail what essentially boils down to 'Get the hay out of here'? I swear, this place is giving me the creeps more and more the longer we have to stay here."

[Moonlight Scroll]

The doctor remained silent as he, for the fifth time this hour, checked to see if all his medical supplies were in place and accounted for... which they, for the fifth time, indeed were. He sighs as he brings up a hoof to lightly massage his temple, telling himself yet again to calm down and not be so nervous. "It's just a trick of the mind. When faced with the unknown, the mind is quick to come up with the craziest scenarios for what this unknown is. Just a trick of the mind..." He though to himself as he looks up at the ceiling above them, searching for... well, anything really. Inspiration? A sign of life? Anything really.

"There has to be logical explanation to all this... has to."

[Onyx Mind (R.I.P)]

Onyx sat and twirled a wrench around. "We could find out." He put the wrench down, and leaned forward a bit. "There's these terminals spread throughout the place. If we could just get one running, perhaps we could get some form of idea as to what happened." Onyx sat and waited for a response from any of his crew-mates.

[Moxie]

Trotting down a stuffy hallway corridor to where the others had gathered, Moxie's eyes darted around her as she held her flashlight in her mouth, always checking dark turns and corners, always ready to see.... something.

The young pegasus had felt herself being watched from the very moment they had stepped out from their ship, but she continued to be too ashamed of her growing paranoia to tell any crew members besides Moonlight, their doctor. After all, she was only a trainee. A greenhorn in the business, a nuisance to many due to her inexperience. She tended to find herself at the butt of every joke her crew could muster. Admitting her pitiful fear was just hooving them more ammo for the next round of teasing.

She had always prided herself on being practical, on learning quickly and being able to connect the dots on her own, and especially being able to get the job done. But this place... seeing the blockades knocked away like they were nothing, the burn marks, the trashed dinning rooms and sleeping quarters.... it all seemed to spell one thing out to her. Something came in that these ponies did not invite.

Quivering slightly as she gave one last jerking look behind her, Moxie entered to room and tried to shake herself back into a more professional composure. Quickly wiping the evidence of a bead of nervous sweat from her temple, she strapped her flashlight to her belt and looked out to the others. "Nothing to report besides more damage in the observation tower...I-I mean by that, no ponies or skulls, or diaries or.... eh.... you get it." She shut herself up, blushing slightly. Cobblestone's remark had made her feel as if she needed to clarify, but too late she decided it wasn't necessary.

[Seller: The Prophet (R.I.P)]

(*Has discussed this with Tara; has the Grey-German-Alien-Slayer's approval*)


Sitting his plot on a large holo-map-projector-table, Seller was relaxing across his co-pilot Tara, playing a game to pass the time. The grey pony was in no means smarter than him, but he made good company, compared to the rest of the crew. He had found a deck of cards the first day he landed the ship down, and decided to play the only game he knew - 'Go Fish' - with the blond-maned simpleton.

It's not like they expected Seller to actually do work, right? What if something happened to him? Who would fly them back home? Tara? Seller scoffed at the idea, then lazily asked:

"Got any 2's?"

[Strong Defense]

    Strong looked up from cleaning his stun gun for the... Buck, if I know how many times it had been by now. The gun was so clean by now that the light reflecting of it might just stun some pony. Ok, Strong that was just a bad joke and you know it. This place was getting to him, there was something just plain not right about this place. 

    "Moxie take it easy, ok? We can't let this place get to us, that goes for every pony here. We just need to figure out what happened here, then we can get the Buck out of here. Every pony just keep an eye out for anything and stay safe." 

    That's right Strong just keep it together, if security starts losing it, then how long till every pony else is freaking out? By now Strong was so done with this place, he just wanted to go home to Noble. He have taken this job because the pay was good and now he was just sitting here, when he should be on his way back home by now.

[Trixie]

Trixie sighed and wondered exactly when something was going to happen, she dreaded it. Normally her job was only a bit dangerous, lately because of this it was extremely dangerous. She decided to go see the Doctor to see how he has been holding up. Actually she wasn't paying to much attention to what was going on so to try to keep her mind off of the sense of dread around them all, and she accidentally ran into him. "Owwwwww, oh hello Moon"

[Tarascha Terastari]

Before Seller had spoken up, Tara had just stared blankly at his cards, deep in thought about the whole situation. They were trapped here, no doubt. And they had to do something about it. But what? The barricades, the burned marks all over the place...Tara didn't trust this place for a second. If he could, he would have left this place right away and never spoke to anypony about it. But for now he would keep close to his crew members. Maybe the pilot had any smart ideas like usually.

"W-what?" The earth pony had flinched violently when Seller spoke up, nearly dropping his cards in the process. "O-oh! No, sorry." Tara let out a nervous, awkward giggle and hid his face with his unkempt mane, quickly turning his head around to look at every corner of the room. That damn feeling of being watched constantly was really getting to him over time.

[Seller: The Prophet (R.I.P)]

Seller let out a groan as he saw every single one of Tara's cards. He set his own down; giving up on trying to play with the nervous wreck of a co-pilot he was stuck with. He relaxed and let out a breath of air as he scanned the room to see if anypony had figured out what happened yet. He could probably override the ships protocols with his command code, if he set something up to the comms, but the Captains code surely would have a better chance... though there was that deal he made with the strange business executive... perhaps his code has more punching power than he thought. He made a mental note to check it out when he got a moment alone with the ship.

"What on Earth could frighten you so much?" Seller asked Tara, huffing slightly and collecting the cards back up and pocketing them, "In ancient Equestria, several civilizations just seemed to up & go out of the blue. Maybe there was a gas leak that made everypony evacuate, and it cleared out by the time we got here... perhaps we should have kept our gas-masks on..." Seller ended with a hum to himself, coughing into his hoof.

[Plush Ramen]

A loud scream could be heard coming from a locked section of the colony. Metal doors with a rippled and half burnt warning sign stood in Moxie's way as a voice could soon be heard coming from the other side. Pounding on the hard door and speaking to the only one brave enough to venture this far, a scared mare tried to reach for the yellow pony's attention. Despite unable to actually see across from the wall, the sound of hoof steps her way had the terrified suited pegasus pushing to finally get help. Hiding all of this time, she had initially locked the doors to keep something out. Now hearing civilization once again, her need to warn them all was immediate and rushed.

During her once brave efforts to hide from the monsters, she had locked herself in the one place they cared not for. The food storage section. Able to live off of the cans and easily over dated supplies, she now found that the door refused to open. Pounding harder for attention, her first scream was to get attention of something bigger, her hooves pushing against the door was to alert the pony closest to her that she needed help.

"Please! Someone! Anyone! Let me out of here!"

[Moxie]

Moxie nearly jumped out of her skin, already on edge and having just intentionally dropped her guard to seem collected. Her flashlight went spinning out from her belt to the ground and she clattered after it. Finally getting her hooves on what seemed to be an unnecessarily slippery flashlight, Moxie quickly switched it on and pointed it like a shield at the ominous door the screams were coming from, heart beating out of her chest as she panted in pure terror. Slowly, her pupils grew a bit from their shrunken state as her mind clicked on to the fact that the sounds were words, words asking for help.

"G-guys! I think someone's back here!!" She forced her shaky legs to move and approached the door, inspecting it for a moment before knocking on the door and interrupting the yelling from the other side. "Hello? I-I'm here. We're going to get you out, just... hang on!"

She looked around for a way to unlock the door, mentally ignoring the large warning signs in desperation to find at least ONE colonist pony. Spying a large dialing pad to the right of the door, she rushed to it and started plugging in the only code she had been given for the mission for access. Hoping the door was something that could only be opened from the outside, she stepped back and waited to see if her code would work, heart racing in both urgency and excitement. She had found somepony!! No pony else had found anything even close to this. Finally she had done something right. Maybe they wouldn't find so much to tease her about now.

[Flux]

The scream that tore through the shelter was such a stark contrast to the eerie quiet, and the long metal corridors carried the sound and echoed it back for many long seconds. Flux jumped and swore loudly, nearly falling off the crate he was sitting on, and the mask he was holding fell swinging on its tether back down to his side as his hooves tried their best to keep his hammering heart in his chest. After a moment that seemed to last forever he realized that the sound was followed by actual voices, not the sounds of brutal death. It was clearly Moxie, but it sounded like there was someone else here...someone that could tell them what was going on!

Through adrenaline-fueled heaving breaths the stallion picked himself up and quickly trotted towards where the sounds had come from. Rule #1 about creepy abandoned space colonies: If you hear something that sounds dangerous, go towards it. It was in the manual. He skidded around a corner in time to see Moxie step back from inputting something on what appeared to be a control panel of sorts, and his engineer's mind began putting pieces together.

>Door || possible help/information
>Door + control panel = possibly open
>If door + control panel =/= open:
>Door mounts + blowtorch.

Flux swung a hoof back to his equipment belt and flipped the torch's microfusion cell on, pulling the unit forward in the same smooth, practiced motion. Maybe the panel could open the door, but it was always good to be prepared with a tool that could be used for many, many things.

"What did you do?" he asked the shaken mare, not in accusation but for information. "Did you turn something on?" The ship's trainee had to go through the customary picking on and joking, but she was still a pony and part of the crew, deserving the same respect as any of the others.

[Onyx Mind (R.I.P)]

Onyx grabbed his tools and followed Flux, wanting to know where the scream had come from. He was panicking terribly, but tried to keep it contained within himself as much as possible. When they reached the door, Onyx analyzed it for a few seconds. I doubt that any code we enter will open this door, and we haven't enough time to try all of the codes. He reached back and grabbed his screwdriver, and set to work trying to get to the electrical stuff behind the panel. He looked over to Flux and Moxie, "It's not like we're blaming you for anything. It's just part of the process that we," he gestures between Flux and himself, "go through to figure things out." His screwdriver slipped out of his grasp, and fell to the floor as he spoke.

[Moonlight Scroll]

Moon, who had been spacing out himself, was too rather surprised with being suddenly run into, but since he was already seated managed to fare a bit better than... ah, Trixie. He allowed himself a small blush to spring upon him as he realized who it was, some of the unknown terrors of this dreadful place being momentarily forgotten. "H-Hey, careful there, ah, Miss Lulamoon. We ah, wouldn't want anypony getting hurt now, right?" He asks as he tries to regain his composure.

He is however interrupted from this by the sudden sound of something other than silence. The doctor tried perking his ear as to what it was, not sure what he felt like right now, but as the yell that came from their newest crew-member reached his ear, he realizes with grim understanding what this meant. "Answers..."
He offered Trixie a quick look before he got up and carefully followed the more technically inclined members of their crew, making sure to bring his medical tools with him. When getting to the door that blocked their way for the moment, he took a step back, letting the technical ponies do their work while he got ready to do his, a peculiar feeling of foreboding sweeping through him.

[Deleted]

[ACCESS DENIED...]

    The control panel bleeps at Moxie's attempt. The WEYLAND YUTANI general access password that most of the crew was given was only meant to enter and exit storage bays, and unlock lines of communication. Whatever system Plush used to lock down the door, it was incompatible with the codes given to the crew of the SS Mercury.

    The screws began to loosen around the electrical panel, before Onyx dropped his screwdriver. It became clear that with a little effort, the electrician would be able to remove the panel.

    Through her pounding and screaming, Plush would hear a faint sound creeping up behind her.

Scuddle... Scuddle...

    Light scraping could be heard from behind the wall.

Hiiiisssss....



    Meanwhile, just above Tara and Seller, a droplet of a peculiar substance drops down from the roof, and coats Tara's cards. It appeared to be thick drool.

[Tarascha Terastari]

"Maybe you are right. It's just that...nothing of this feels good to me! Have you looked around ye-" In the instant his cards got soaked in the liquid, he threw them away from himself, being as jumpy as he was already. Within three seconds, he had jumped over the table to land right next to Seller, shivering in fear. He stared at the cards with disgust and partly hid behind the older unicorn pilot while reaching for his flashlight. It may have been just a flashlight but it was better than nothing in case something should jump out. And Tara sure had gathered a lot of theories about this place in the last days. From logical things like evacuation over to ridiculous ideas like the undead or revolting machienes.

"W-what the hay is that?!" He pointed at the liquid on the cards with his flashlight, having finally managed to turn it on after fumbling around with it in his shaky hooves.

[Basilisk Nova (R.I.P)]

Basilisk Nova, captain of the SS Mercury. the leader of the fine crew you are witnessing right now, Nova standing still, His eye's scanned anywhere as far he can see, looking around for any explanations of why 200+ ponies just vanished in thin air! "Burnt markings...barricades...It's the same thing over and over again! The only scenario I can imagine if the place was ransacked by a bunch of criminals and the crew of Celestia IV were trying to defend themselves but that doesn't explain the scorched markings..." Nova and his crew tried to find any clues for the last 2 days but sadly no avail. He'd noticed how his crew members been acting quite frighten by the whole "eerie" vacant area. 

"Maybe if we collected some data from the terminals we could have an ide-" Nova train of thought was soon disrupted by the sounds of wailing from the lockers. Suddenly getting up Basilisk Nova also noticing 2 red dots on his radar, one that seems 10 meters behind the other one. " Everyone who isn't working on that door stand back!" He warned, not liking the situation of what the radar is currently telling him. "It could be a trap....But what kind of trap is it? It' cant be a hostage type of situation.." Nova thought in his head. The yellings coming from that locker wasn't helping either.. " Moxie and Flux I want you two to get something heavy and position that right in front of the door. Oryx I want you to work on that door and tell me when it's ready to be smashed down! when I say Go You stop what your doing and get out of the way and me, Flux, and Moxie will smash that door down. Get to it now!" He ordered.

[Seller: The Prophet (R.I.P)]

Now things were happening! Finally! They would find a survivor, the survivor would tell them that surely some kind of alien-fungi was the root cause of this, he would collect a sample, and they would be back in the ship before supper!

Seller's eyebrow flinched at the goo dripping from the ceiling, and he groaned as soon as the younger Co-pilot hid behind him. Seller was as thin as a stallion could get, with hardly any muscle; surely the Co-pilot could find a better pony-shield.

"It's just an oil leak, calm down." Seller said, hopping off the table and grabbing his flashlight. He took a step back in case it was a pipe buildup that would result in a burst; making it raining oil down above him. He took a few more trots back and glanced at the Captian. Thankfully his name wasn't called, and he diverted his attention back to the surely-rupturing pipe.

"I think we have a bigger problem!" Seller calls out, referring to the pipe that's about to burst. He pointed the flashlight up to where the strange substance came from.

[Basilisk Nova (R.I.P)]

The captain looked at seller, he too turned on his flashlight to the direction where seller had his pointing too. Nova eyes squinted, trying to get a good view of what Seller is showing him.

[Onyx Mind (R.I.P)]

Onyx picked up his screwdriver, and got back to work. Break down the door? They wouldn't need me to do this if that's what they want to do... He nearly dropped his screwdriver again as the last screw fell out. He carefully pried the panel from the wall, and took a peek in. What he saw was old technology. Child's play. He could have this door functioning in less time than it took for Nova to yell go. HE reached in and began to fiddle with the wires. "Let's see. Live feed, To door. Thank goodness these things are labelled."

[Archimedes]

(Assuming all comms are open because we all have em and peeps be explorin' an shit)

Archimedes sighed in relief and zipped up the front flap of his spacesuit, finishing his business. He flushed the toilet and turned to wash his claws when the long range communicator echoed the scream that came from Moxie's direction.

He darted from the bathroom and made it halfway down the hall when he heard the captains orders over the comm. He took up his flashlight in a claw, the heavy duty Celestia's Beacon. With luck, there was nothing wrong, but his pulse quickened at the thought of attack. Celestia's Beacon was the perfect impromptu weapon for stunning ponies. After all, he didn't want to kill. He'd go to jail. And dragons in jail...have to hunch. Jail cells are too tiny, being made for ponies.

Finally, he rounded the corner and stood ten feet behind the captain, sighing relief as he silenced the speaker end of the comm.

[Plush Ramen]

"N-o.. It awoken.. SOMEPONY!"

Fidgeting with her make shift flame thrower, Plush Ramen really didn't want to use the last of her fuel if she could find another way. Scared with her back to the locked door now, the petrified orange mare had begun to laugh lightly as a last resort. She was frightened, and obviously trapped as her hooves trembled religiously.

"I.. I can get you food! I pr-omise, just like last time.."

Her last words were spoken to the darkness, her words low enough to where the others on the outside wouldn't be able to truly hear what it was she was saying. She was however, still panicked and trying to escape. Pounding on the door with her back right hoof for help, her eyes scanned the area for left over objects to throw.

"OPEN THE DOOR, QUICKLY!"

[Onyx Mind (R.I.P)]

Onyx fumbled a bit more with the wires. "Just a couple more." He connected the last few wires that he believed would open the doors. When the doors did nothing but buzz for a few seconds, he reached back and grabbed his wire cutters, which he promptly used to cut the universal power to the door, disabling all locks and motors on it. "I can't believe it has to come to this..." He looked over at the captain. "Go ahead," he said as he slowly backed away.

[Trixie]

Trixie had become a little curious about the racket coming from the door they were all trying to open. She watched carefully and took a glance at her motion tracker to see if there was anything behind the door besides the pony. This very well could be a type of trap and she wanted to be ready for it. Though with all the crew around it probably wouldn't go well for the trapper. Probably.

[Flux]

Flux had kept his attention focused on the door and what seemed to be the mare behind it. "Who are you," he muttered to himself, chewing slightly on the inside of his cheek as his mind worked.

His train of thought, however, was interrupted as a set of instructions buzzed through the broadcaster in his ear. While voicing his acknowledgement of the order he had turned to catch Moxie's attention and complete the task when the unmistakable bulk of Archimedes became clear, and a slow smile poked at his mouth.

"Hey, Archie, c'mere!" he called out, gesturing the dragon over. Both the being and the equipment he carried added up to quite a bit. "Captain, I think we just found something heavy," he said over the radio.

[Strong Defense]

    Strong readied his Stun gun, keeping an eye out for the ponies working on the door. I have a job to do, but goddess damn I was ready to leave the minute we got here. Well, if we're lucky who ever is on the other side of that door will have our answers and we can get out of hear. 

    "Hey, how is that door coming?" Strong said as he scanned the area, stay near the others. 

[Cobblestone Road (R.I P)]

Cobblestone started at the scream, tensing up on instinct and accidentally bucking the rubble several feet into the air. She cursed under her breath and quickly rolled to the side, standing up and dusting herself off as the piece of rubble crashed back to the floor.

She noticed the two pilots crouching together at one side of the table, she scrunched and walked over to them, stretching her legs out and cracking her neck lightly to get a kink out of it. "An oil leak, really? I don't know how long this place has been abandoned, but a pipe suddenly starting to leak now of all times sounds a bit too coincidental."

She pulled out her nail gun, looking up at the ceiling and squinting a bit. "Not that it wouldn't be nice to see you were right, but I'm ready to nail this 'leak' shut."

(By the way... what's up with everypony suddenly pulling out their flashlights, even in the rooms they were just walking in or even playing cards a moment ago? How much installed light do we have?)

[Archimedes]

Archimedes picked up what Flux was puttin' down and rushed over to the door, sheathing Celestia's Beacon. The pounding on the other side became apparent immediately. His racing pulse was ignored for the moment as concern took over.

"There's somepony behind here?" He asked rhetorically.

At once, he squatted and wrapped his claws around the grips at the bottom of the door used for manual override in the event of power failure and pulled with all his might. Captain's orders be damned!