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10-05-2006, 09:54
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Note: This line of story telling is inspired by Hurrikanes efforts here on EF, but is no way linked. It is a completely different story, not in any way meant to tie in with Hurrikanes.
------------------------------------------------------------ Alien Existance Chapter 1: First Landing Hum of machinery filled the metallic corridors of this place. An incessant sound that never ceased, but was only added to. It was the kind of sound that, if listened to long enough, would become completely forgotten, but if stopped would be noticed immediately. The sound was altered. Not stopped, but its pitch changed, as if the source of it was experiencing severe strain. The hum ebbed and flowed, then keened at a high note, holding that pitch for a few seconds. The sound was interrupted violently. A keen and shrill siren blew. The hallways of this place started to pulse with a deep red light. And a voice explouded into existance. "Attention all hands. Prepare for an emergency landing procedure. Requesting all personnel to posts, and to be strapped in tight. This will be a rough ride ladies and gents. Get moving." Captain Trena laid the personal address microphone, a slim, wire-like object, back into its recess in the control panel before him, before turning his gaze back over the bridge and his crack team of executive officers. It was moments like this he wished he had Liandria with him, but it was exactly moments like these he knew he couldn't. "Engineering, report. What damage to our landing systems?" Chief Engineer Jinda turned from his glowing monitors to face his superior. "Captain, we have sustained damage to the fore and aft landing thrusters, as well as suffered damage to the starboard retro's." Matter of fact, as always. No opinion offered until asked. "And how do you think our chances are of making a survivable crash?" "We would survive no question, Captain." A look of concern covered the Engineers face. Sometimes his inability to just share what was not asked could be very frustrating. "Spit it out Chief, what is wrong?" "Well, sir, my biggest concern isn't our safety landing, its the survivability of the ship. If we land with the damage we have, I am almost certain the ship will be damaged beyond repair. We could be stuck here for a while." "Well, our entire aim is to investigate and perhaps live on this place for a time period Chief. Communications, please ensure that our current predicament, as well as the Chiefs comments are sent back to Earth." "Already sending sir." Sometimes he wondered if they really even needed a Captain. Pride started swelling in him before he quashed it. More important things to deal with than how you feel of your crew. "Alright then, lets get ourselves prepped for landing as best we can..." The next hour those humming hallways were filled with the clatter of boots on the metallic floors, the clatter of equipment being hurriedly prepared. The hooting and shrieking of Earthly animals, terrified of this new prospect, before they were sent to sleep by the tamers. Anyone without knowing would have thought it to be chaos ... but the crew of the ship liked to call it organised chaos. Within less than an hour, the Sun Ship Edorian was prepped and ready for her final resting place. The Captain gave the order... "Descend into the atmosphere ... making your altitude 10 000 feet ... our orbit synchronous with the continent marked on your chart." And so the ship descended. The first molecules of the atmosphere collided with the exterior and immediately dissolved into plasma, setting off a chain reaction of fiery protest, as if the planet willed them away. Instantly the energy sheilds automatically activated, keeping the burning flames away from the ship, making it look as if the Edorian was floating withing a fiery cocoon. The ship cleared the upper levels of the atmosphere and rapidly descended to the ocean that could now be seen below. "SIR! SIR! Wheres the land?" Even in the chaos of the moment, young Private Wills' young voice could be heard. He sounded panicked ... needed a firm voice. "Stay calm, Private. We need to use the water to cushion the landing, and we will be stopping just off shore of the continent. Be calm." The working retros fired, pitching the nose of the ship upwards as predicted, forcing the fall of its immense bulk to flatten out. As its trajectory become almost parallel with the waters surface, it touched down ... the first human ship to reach the surface of this new planet. The job now remained to keep this the first intact ship on the planets surface. The speed of the ship dropped dramatically as it planed over the liquid, sending sprays of water into the air that turned to steam as soon as they came into contact with the bio-defence sheild activated around the top of the vessel. Within minutes, a mass appeared ahead, and yet the ship seemed to be going too fast, as if it would meet that mass and be sunderred into pieces. "Get ready Jeron. Ready on those anti-grav's." "Ai sir". The young Captain layed his hands over the controls, prepared for his duty. And the mass loomed closer. Still skidding over the waters, the continent ahead now filled the entire horizon... "NOW JERON, HIT IT NOW". And as the switch was flicked, the rumbling motors burst into action, using the gravitational force of the planet itself against the ship to slow its speed. Images of a similar technique using air to slow a vehicle in Earth's 20th Century flashed through the Captains mind ... great billowing parachutes. So much more efficient this way, he thought. The continent still approached, but within minutes the speed had slowed to such a degree, one could now see the waves in the ocean. As the ship got to within 500 metres of the shoreline, the ship halted, and then lurched into its new dock. Its graveyard. Its final resting place. If they had been more inexperienced, there may have been a collective letting-out-of-breath, but the crew simply stood and offered their congratualtions to each other on a job well done. They never doubted we could do it. "Alright folks, we know what needs to be done. Lets get everyone geared up and ready ... Time to see what is so special about this place we've been sent to..." Last edited by gmccumskey; 10-05-2006 at 10:18. Reason: Typo |
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Ingame: 
Ingame: 
Nice one keep going 
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10-05-2006, 10:57
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10-30-2006, 11:19
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Alpha
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Alien Existance
Chapter 2: The First Expedition The sky was shrouded with a mist that hindered, but did not completely halt, the parties march through the wilds. It swirled as they passed through it, like some phantom recoiling from being near living things. Footfalls were barely audible, muffled by the moisture, and no other sound could be heard ... quiet as a graveyard. The small party of five walked cautiously through this intimidating space. This was after all alien territory, and there was no point in being careless. Revival stations had not yet been erected to counter the truly massive disadvantage of being dead, but these men were used to it. Years of long hardships in fighting wars on distant planets where revival was simply not an option had a way of making you stronger. And this affinity had lead them to be selected as the first explorers away from camp. Captain Tellar raised his arm and made a fist. Immediately the other four stopped. Absolute silence. Captain Tellar looked to be listening for something. He turned to Sergeant Dulum and made a circular spiral signal in the air in front of his face. Immedialty Sergeant Dulum pulled a pack off his back, quietly and quickly opened a small pocket of it, and depressed a few buttons, before turning back to the Captain and shaking his head. The radar was clear. That didn't mean there wasn't trouble, just no trouble that humans could detect. The Captain raised his arm once more and motioned for slow advance. Hoisting their weapons the small group continued in the mist. The swamp land they walked through was not badly overgrown, only in patches did the grass come to about chest height, but the ground was exceedingly soft, making silent progress that more difficult. The Solomate Outbackos carried by the men were held ready should anything be encountered. A gentle trill broke the silence. An almost bird like sound that they had never heard before. Immediately each man turned in a direction, another man to his back looking the opposite way, with Sergeant Dulum in the middle, who immediatly pulled off his pack and opened the radar screen again. This time the result was different. He raised two fingers and pointed southwards, raised another three and pointed to the north west and finally another two and pointed east. Something had been spotted, and it was all around them. Another bird chirping filled the ears of the soldiers. Dulum raised 5 fingers and pointed south. There were now 9 unknowns in the south. Captain Tellar instructed his men to prep for anything, but repeated the words of the ships Captain in his mind: "We are new here, and we do not know the intentions of any creatures we meet. Lets not start our relationship with intelligent beings as hostile." The order was passed to only shoot on his command. A shape rushed past, swirling the mist around the men on their west side. The soldier who faced that way waved his free hand in front of his eyes, saying his view was obscured he didn't see anything. Then another went by them on the south, the soft squelch of quick feet heard as it rushed by. Steady men, they are trying to test us. The twittering and tweeting was also picking up now, becoming steadily louder. A look at Dulum produced an open fist closing ... they were moving closer en masse. Sergeant Gita never saw the creature that burst through the curtain of mist, grabbed him by the face and pulled him away. His neck snapped as soon as the creatures jaw closed around him. And no one else saw what took him either. Only the sound of a large object being hurriedly dragged away. The Captain broke his mens silence, speaking for the first time in hours. "MAN DOWN. Assume battle ready positions. These bastards are not friendly." Each man immediatly brought weapons up to their faces and readied to fire at anything that moved. Damn that was fast, thought Captain Tellar. I've never seen something move that fast. His anger over losing a man so easily threatened to overwhelm his thinking before he got it under control. The marsh suddenly exploded in a cacophony of bird-noise. Deafening the soldiers; who ignored it and continued to scan the mist. A shape approached to the north and immediatly laser fire errupted, striking whatever it was. Another from the south, west ... both went down. But Captain Tellar saw the inevitable. They were being toyed with now. In a short space of time the mass would attack. A few more showed their presence and were gunned down, then another 6 appeared .... As the sun began to set over this inhospitable region, the laser fire became punctuated with screams of men being taken down. Until at last the final scream of Captain Tellar, last survivor of the first expedition into the planets interior, filled the night air before being suddenly cut off. Silence filled the swamp once more. |
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