Among Us: Chapter 1

The Good Wario

"Captain's Log: Intergalactic Date 71919.9. My name is Captain Gary Williams, one of the twelve souls aboard the Intergalactic Alliance Ship The Skeld. My first mate and the Chief Officer is Alice Leonard. We are currently departing from a failed recovery mission that had us land upon the planet Omega Psi Five dash Five dot Two. Our crew is currently in their respective posts as I sit within the Administration chamber. Charles 'Charlie' Hobbes, our helmsman, is with Alice and they are currently within Navigation and directing our ship to Intergalactic Alliance Outpost Polus to report our findings in person. The trip will take a week at the very least and everyone is ready to be dismissed for shore leave as soon as possible."

Listening to the captain's log from the security chamber was Scottie Crawthon, chief of security aboard The Skeld. The captain's log would become a matter of public record so there was no issue in listening to the transmission.

"Does the Captain ever say anything worthwhile in hindsight?" Scottie's co-worker asked.

"No Eleanor, he really doesn't. Nothing exciting happens in space in this quadrant. Throughout our search of other life we have rarely found any beings that match human intellect."

"So does that mean I can go back to my post in Communications?"

Scottie nodded, so Eleanor exited the Security Room and went towards the Lower Engine where the head engineer Tommy Knocker was doing a check up on it's performance ability.

"Hey Tom, how's The Skeld holding up?"

"She's holding up fine Eleanor, she'll be able to make her way to Polus with no issue at all."

"That's swell." Eleanor said with a smile before looking around "Hey Tom? Where's our cadet?"

"Rachel? She's at the upper engine, doing what I'm doing."

"Is it safe for the cadet to check on it all by herself?"

"She's fine. She's a fast learner and the very knowledgable on IA ship construction," Tommy replied as he spoke into a walkie-talkie "Isn't that right Rachel?"

"10-4 Tommy!" The Cadet replied as she held a scanner over the upper engine. "The Skeld is in ship shape and having no issue."

"Fantastic Rachel, can you go check on the reactor?"

"Sure will Tommy!" Rachel put her scanner away and then walked over to the reactor, which was situated between the two engines and powered them both. It also provided power to the rest of the ship, which was managed within the electrical chamber.

With her scanner, it read that the reactor had a slight imbalance within it but that it would not be a major issue unless messed with in some way.

"Rachel?" A male voice spoke over her walkie talkie.

"Yes Dr. Meyerson? How can I help you?"

"Please, call me Max!" the voice replied "I'm currently in the Oxygen Control Room right now, can you tell me how much water is currently in the reserves?"

On a screen right by the reactor was an indication for how much water was being stored in the water reservoirs. It showed that it was currently decreasing from 97% and relatively fast.

"It's decreasing Doctor, maybe the cook is currently using it to prepare dinner?"

"I'll go talk to him, over and out."

Max then stepped out of the Oxygen Control and took a left towards Weapon Control, where Samantha was cleaning the set of twelve IA Issue Series 47 Hand Phasers.

"Hi Sam" Max spoke, but his greetings failed to engage with the battle wrung Quartermaster. With a shrug, he made his way to the Cafeteria where Salieri was cleaning off the tables and floor. The cafeteria was where the crew not only ate and mainly socialized but was also where the Meeting Button was located. In the center dining table, if anyone wanted to put the crew on high alert, the cover would be lifted and everyone would rush to the Cafeteria.

"Sal?" the doctor asked "You not using too much water, are you?"

Sal looked at the janitors bucket he was armed with before looking back at Max.

"Max, this is all the water I'm armed with. Maybe Henry or Louise are using water?"

"Where are they?"

Sal quietly pointed to the hall that led to the Medbay. With a sigh, Max made his way there and saw the two finishing up an autopsy.

Omega Psi 5-5.2 was a planet chosen as the most ideal for human colonization in the Ohm Solar System as it was the most like Earth. The first team of colonists landed on the planet 6 months ago. Within a month of it's settlement, the colony began radio silence and broke regulation. After numerous attempts to communicate with the colonists, The Skeld was sent to find out what happened to the inhabitants during what would have been the first supply run to the colony.

The only sign of remaining human life was currently being hosed down in the Medbay by the ship's nurse, Louise.

Henry Rodman, the ship's doctor, was currently unwrapping a set of surgical tools.

Max rolled his eyes as he watched the water poured into the drain to be filtered and recycled into the ships water systems.

"It was really that bad that you needed to get a hose?!" Max shouted.

Henry sighed as he turned to Max "Yes, it was with in my medical opinion that it was necessary to wash off the blood-soaked body bag before putting it on one of the gurneys.

Max rolled his eyes and looked over the body bag.

"Are you certain that this is the only piece of human life that we found, Max?" Henry asked as he began wiping down the remaining blood with towels.

"We looked throughout the whole facility and we checked every room! The sealed body bag we found in Omega Psi's Medbay is without a doubt the only bit we found."

Henry shrugged "Fine. Now if you don't want to be overwhelmed by the stench of corpse I suggest you leave."

"I will. In fact, I have to check the shields before we reach warp and hold roll call."

Max then left and made his way back to the Cafeteria and towards Storage, which passed by the the Kitchen and the Administration Chamber. Saleri was now baking bread while the captain was still speaking into his log. Through Storage, Max passed by Communication and entered the Shield Chamber to test their strength and found that they working at full power.

"As Captain," Gary continued "I find it necessary explain my worry if something shall go wrong on the way to IA Outpost Polus. During our exploration of the planet, we did come in contact with various materials but we have all used the colony's sterilization hall before getting back on The Skeld. In case of an emergency, we do have two escape pods that are connected to the engines but since The Skeld is a tightly run ship and can withstand the worst that space has to offer, but I worry about what circumstances could require the use of them. Captain's Log over and out."

"HA!" Scottie exclaimed.

"What's so funny?" Eleanor asked.

"The captain is being paranoid…"

"I guess."

"Now we wait for the captain to begin Roll Call in five…four…three…two…"

"Crew of the IAS Skeld, this is Captain Gary William. Please wrap up your duties and make your way the cafeteria for Roll Call."

"Man you're good at that" Eleanor complemented as she and Scottie hopped out of their seats to make their way to the Cafeteria.

"Aww…" Louise complained "We were just about to slice up the corpse!"

Henry looked at Louise is confusion as he began extracting fluid from the corpse "You were looking forward towards the dissection?"

"Sort of. I'm just curious as to how things tick."

Henry shrugged as he took the vial of fluid and put it in the Medbay centrifuge before making his way to the cafeteria with Louise.

Standing by the emergency button was the Captain and in his hand was a tablet computer with the rest of the crew surrounding him.

"Right everybody, you know the drill. You are all wearing an IA issued and verified crew uniform. Your color indicates your role on the ship and we will be going in chromatic order, starting with white. When I say your color and role, state your name. Affirmative?"

"Yes sir!" The crew replied in unison.

"Ok! White, Assistant Mechanic!"

"Rachel Juno!" She replied with a salute.

"Pink, Nurse!"

"Louise Prong!" She replied as she popped up one leg.

"Red, Doctor!"

"Dr. Henry McKidd Rodman." He replied, arms crossed.

"Orange, Captain, that's me. Yellow, First Mate!"

"Alice Leonard!" She replied as she brushed off the IA insignia on her uniform.

"Light Green, Science Officer!"

"Dr. Maxwell Earl Meyerson" He replied as he fiddled with a scanner.

"Dark Green, Quartermaster"

"Samantha Michelle" She replied as she sharpened her Survival Knife.

"Dark Blue, Security!"

"Scottie Crawthon" She replied as she checked her smartphone.

"Light Blue, Navigation!"

"Charles Hobbes" He replied as he look at a map on his own tablet.

"Purple, Communications!"

"Eleanor Rose! Tee hee!" She replied as she flashed a peace sign.

"Brown, Cook!"

"Saleri Roux." He replied as he rubbed his belly.

"And finally black, Mechanic!"

"Tommy Knocker!" He replied as he polished his cosmic wrench.

"All present and accounted for. You may now return to your duties."

With a sigh, Henry made his way back to the Medbay.

"Doctor! Wait for me!" the nurse pleaded as she followed.

Henry silently put in a pair of nose plugs and finally broke the seal of the body bag to begin the autopsy. Despite the nasal blockages, the rancidness of the corpse's smell still overwhelmed the doctor and nurse so much that they had to run across the hall to the Crew Cabin to vomit into the space toilets.

"HURRRGHPFHT!" Henry exclaimed as he ejected what little food he hadn't fully digested yet.

"GURRRRKKK!" Louise emitted as she vomited as well.

Samantha, who was resting in her bed after the meeting and drinking a glass of Don Dew witnessed the pair throw up together.

"Oh come on…I saw combat on Mira and saw tons of mutilated corpses of all kinds. What you saw couldn't be as disgusting as what I've seen."

"It wasn't the sight of the corpse that was so stomach turning…" Louise retorted as she coughed up the rest of what she could "It was the smell!"

Samantha rolled her eyes and went to the Medbay to get a whiff and immediately regretted her decision as she ran to the toilets to vomit as well.

"What the hell is wrong with you three?" Alice asked, wondering what all the commotion was about.

"Whatever…you do…don't go in the Medbay" Henry warned "That corpse rancid!"

Alice took a brief whiff and closed her nostrils "I'll take your word for it. Take a few moments to regain your composure and get back to the autopsy."

Henry and Louise nodded, making their way to the cafeteria to put some snacks into their emptied bellies.

Charlie was also in the cafeteria, sipping some Don Dew when he saw Max enter with a tablet under his shoulder and carrying large box labeled "Omega Psi 5-5.2" filled with hard drives, papers, and other documents.

"Hey Charlie, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Navigation?"

"The ship's on auto-pilot and there's nothing in the way towards Polus for lightyears."

Max crossed his arms "Do you mean time or distance?"

"Distance."

Max eased up as he dumped the box of contents onto the cafeteria table.

"What's all this crap?"

"This 'crap' is all the records we could salvage from the colony."

"Oh, I see…" Charlie spoke as he examined a hard drive "I'm surprised that so little could be salvaged, it's like someone was trying to erase all the evidence."

"Maybe something was but couldn't finish the job."

As Max looked over broken hard drives, Charlie found a brown hardcover journal that had been torn in half at the spine. While the scientist was trying to salvage data, Charlie began reading the first page.

Intergalactic Date 71394.3

This is the journal of Carpenter Campbell, cook of the Intergalactic Alliance colony on Omega Psi 5-5.2. We have been dropped off by the IA Ship Lerwick to begin habitation here. We have been given enough supplies to survive eight months but we will receive more within six months. We have a population of twenty people here on Omega Psi and we hope to have enough established for new arrivals that are to come in two years…

Bored with the entry, Charlie skipped to the end of the Journal's entries. Despite being torn in half, Mr. Campbell was unable to write enough to make it's way towards the middle.

Intergalactic Date 71498.6

Last week we had found evidence of life that had been on this planet. Less than 72 hours ago we had discovered a cave that had been covered with ancient debris, rocks and sealed with a welded metal door. Less than 48 hours ago a quarter of the landing party is now dead. Less than 24 hours ago over half of the landing party is dead. We have burnt the bodies and have currently sealed up the corpse of Captain Nelson Nada for cremation. While everyone is worried about who killed the rest of the crew, I am the only one to notice a peculiarity between the corpses. Half of them have been killed in ways that a normal murder mystery would showcase, while the rest-

The writing suddenly stopped within the journal, and in the corner at the bottom of the page were three drops of blood that had soaked into the journal and the following pages.

"Max…"

"Hold on Charlie, I'm trying to make this hard drive work."

"Max."

"Gimme a second!"

"MAX!" Charlie shouted, shoving the journal towards him and pointing at the last entry. The scientist quickly sped through the text and handed it back to Charlie.

"Shall we tell the Captain about this?"

"No…we'll keep this to ourselves, especially when he mocked my suggestion when we first landed on Omega Psi 5.5-2."

"The one where you said that everyone relied on the buddy system."

Max sighed "Yes, the one that got me laughed at by half of the crew."

"I understand…but do you trust me with this information?"

Max looked over Charlie intensely, observing his crew-mate's whole body.

"For some unexplainable reason, I do."

Charlie smiled and patted Max's shoulder "That's good. Let's make our way to Navigation and do some star watching."

The two got up from their seat, bringing the journal but leaving the box of documents. As the pair left, Rachel and Tommy entered the cafeteria. While Tommy went to grab a glass of Don Dew, Rachel went to the box and examined the contents.

"What's this Tommy?"

"Huh? Oh! That's the box of files collected off of Omega Psi. Most of it is busted and damaged."

"Maybe there's something we can salvage in this?"

Tommy shrugged "Possibly. I don't know a lot about computing but maybe there's something with a memory card of some sort?"

The two then began digging through the box and put aside hard drives, tablets, and smartphones as being too hard to decrypt.

"Hey! Here's something!" Rachel spoke as she pulled out an old digital camera that was manufactured by Simsong. It looked bombproof despite the massive dent in it.

"Open up the side, there should be a SD card of some sort!" Tommy explained.

With the flick of a tiny lever, the side of the digital camera flopped open. Inside was the battery and a 2 Terrabyte SD card.

"Do we have anyway to read this information?" Rachel asked.

Tommy scratched his chin "I think so. SD cards are still used so there should be a reader within Communications." The two then left the cafeteria, passing by the kitchen where Sal and the captain were located, the latter of which was washing his hands intently.

"I think you've washed your hands quite enough captain…" Sal commented.

"Sorry Sal, after vomiting on myself after I saw the corpse I feel like I had to disinfect myself completely."

Sal shrugged as he took out a chef knife and the sharpening steel "So do you want to help me with tonight's appetizers?"

The captain nodded "Sure, what's the opening course?"

"French onion soup" Sal explained as he sharpened his knife "I need your help chopping onions while I slice other veggies for the salad."

He then handed the knife over to the captain and pointed to a stack of eight onions. She took one of the onions and began cutting it to take the skin off."

"Ah this reminds me of when I peeled potatoes as a private!"

"Did you like it?" Sal asked as he started washing lettuce in the sink.

"Not one bit!" the captain chuckled as she threw the scraps into the disposal and began to truly chop the onion up "So what's for the main course?"

"New York strip steak with smashed potatoes!"

The captain frowned a bit as he continued.

"Don't worry, I've already peeled the potatoes."

Sam's smiled returned as she continued chopping the onion and putting the chunks into the pot.

"What should I do with the knife after using it? Put it in the sink?"

Sal shook his head "No captain, see that microwave looking thing next to the fridge?"

"I do."

"That's the microwave. See the toaster oven looking thing above it?"

"Yes."

"That's the toaster oven. See the thing above that?"

"What's that? The air fryer?"

"No, the air fryer is by the Keurig. That is the sterilizer. It'll clean off utensils within thirty seconds. The med bay has a similar thing that's even heavier duty than this one."

"I see…is there any dessert after the main course?"

"Ah! I will be preparing a particular specialty that I can't wait to share! Mini Pavlovas with berries and chocolate on them."

"Sounds fancy!"

"Sounds excessive." A voice from the hall spoke. It was Alice, leaning against the frame of the door dismissively. "When I was climbing the rank ladder I didn't have such good food to eat."

"Now Alice, just because you didn't have good things in the past doesn't mean you should complain about the good you have now."

Alice simply groaned as she made her way to storage.

"She's gonna try to kill me someday." the captain remarked.

"Yeah, and I'm going to get reassigned to the Center of Chaos Containment."

Alice just quietly strolled to storage where she saw Samantha cleaning a IA issue Shotblaster.

"Hello Sam…" With military precision, Samantha put the safety of the weapon on and placed it on the ground before saluting her.

"Ma'am, yes ma'am!"

"At ease Sam… we're not on Mira."

Sam nodded and leaned against one of the crates.

"Permission to be frank, ma'am?"

"Permission granted."

"…You seem pissed."

"I am pissed…when I see how Gary carries himself on this ship I just feel so…"

"Unappreciated, ma'am?"

"Exactly!" Alice shouted as she tossed her hands up in the air "We were both in the running to take over the ship from the late Captain Hunter Greenwood but because Gary was such a suck up…"

"You forget your behavior during the Tsilindr Clan incident, ma'am."

"There's no evidence to prove that I was the cause of the explosion!"

"But there never was any evidence to disprove it either when there was a bunch of video evidence to exonerate everyone else."

Alice quietly put her hands on her hips "I do know that the reason I didn't get the position wasn't because that I'm a woman…"

"The court martial probably had something to do with it…"

"That was uncalled for!"

"My apologies ma'am…may I take my leave?"

"Yes you may, but unlock the manifolds in the reactor before you do so."

Sam saluted before picking up the Shotblaster and passed by Electrical and through the Lower Engine before arriving at the reactor.

Within the security room, Scottie sipped on Don Dew as she watched everyone go about their day and quietly drifted off to sleep, assured that every image would be recorded and obtainable for future record.