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Starship Planet X (Planet CYAO/Multicross)
- Thread starter SirBearington
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Chapter 1
SirBearington
Having a spiffing good time.
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First serious story in a while... It's been a while... started in FF and moved over to here. After years of reading, I'm finally writing something. Please don't kill me, I'm still a bit rusty. Also, I'm open for commissions... Rates is negotiable.
Chapter 1
Maarena T'neri stared listlessly at the screen, her eyes dropping while she cradled a streaming cup of bitter almna in her hands. The spicy and bitter taste along with the rush of energy from the drink kept her up while she stared the screen in front of her, sifting through the stream of data presented to her. The blue light of the screen cast long shadows in the relative darkness of her ship.
It was already late in the night or at least late in the night in the Thessian Academy of Science and Technology, the most prestigious university in Thessia,and she liked to keep her circadian cycle close to that of home. Still, she remains awake as the data from the recent gravitational wave survey in the area was... fascinating. There was nothing quite like it.
"Rena, go to sleep" Groaned out her research partner, Scipio the Turian. While many would think all Turians are martially inclined, not all Turians are built the same. Some are more curious and ask too many questions, a trait that many Turian higher ups wouldn't want in their armed forces. Scipio was the best partner she could ask for in this scientific trip and no not because he was eye candy and the fact that he could cook but because he kept reminding her when it was time to stop and because he was the best boyfriend an Asari could ask for; Could cook and gives the best back rubs.
"It's been 34 hours and you haven't had a wink of sleep" Maarena's colleague reminded her which made the Asari glance at the clock blinking innocently in the screen. It was already early in the morning... had time really passed that easily? Maybe it was time to sleep as her legs felt like leaden weights and everything felt like it was tilting but...
"Not sure if I could sleeping seeing the recent stream of data from out buoy. There's something weird going on in this Nebula..." She replied as she run the data on the statistic program on her omnitool, trying to see any significant results from the recent scan.
"Rena, you need to sleep. You're already... by the Patriarchs how many cups of this stuff have you been drinking!"
Maarena stared at the table besides her where her precious Almna making machine sat. Strewn all over it were used cups of the drink which Scipio was cleaning up. She flinched as Scipio turned on the lights. "Nooooo~! It burns" She hissed as the intense beam of light shone on her
She flailed uselessly as Scipio scanned him with his Omni tool. "Maarena you need to sleep. You're already hissing at the lights" called out with his lecturing tone of voice
"But the light, its angry" Mareena hissed as she buried her face on the desk, wanting the gentle embrace of the darkness. "Oh sweet mother of the night, I'll never leave you again" she whispered as she tried to reach out for another cup only for her hands to be swatted away by Scipio.
After dumping all that cup in the disposal bins, he then unplugged the machine from the ship. That would probably keep the Asari busy as the room was too bright for her to get up and re-plug it to the socket. "We've talked about this. The last time you stayed up this late you passed out and almost deleted all the data we've been gather so far."
Taking the groan as a sign of her inevitable defeat, the Turian pressed on "Besides, its not like the data would go away. We can always come back to it when both of us are awake and lucid enough to process all of it".
Taking a seat and placing it beside her colleague, he sat down beside her and gently rubbed the back of the Maiden who groaned out something unintelligible which he thinks was about rogue gravity waves and anomalies. Even if she was already a hundred years old, sometimes Scipio felt like he was the older one in the ship.
"I'll be just right back ok and don't drink anymore of the stuff, you've already drank enough to make a Krogan jittery" The Turian replied as he went off to fetch a blanket. He came back seeing his partner still, face down on the desk as she snored in her sleep. He chuckled as he draped her blanket over her. She's a nice girl, just too passionate at times.
Running his hands across his fringes, he sighed as he sat beside her. The things he does for love... At first, he came to this small expedition is this cramped vessel just to get in her pants but the more they work together, the more he valued her presences. Oh sure the sex was great seeing as there was little source of entertainment all the way out here but he loved her more for her passion and quirkiness.
Turning towards the screen, he started looking at the data as well. It was weird... really weird. They first came here to study how organic materials form in nebula's but stayed as they gather data on these "rogue gravitational waves". At first they thought it was just a large pocket of eezo missed by miners here in the nebula but soon found that the signal was simply too big for that.
Even going near the source of the waves they found nothing... literally nothing aside from the dust and cloud of the Nebula. Where there should be a planet size object floating around they came to a relatively empty patch of space. The strangeness just doesn't end there but it comes in regular interval. They checked and rechecked their equipment and found nothing anomalous, it was what they're looking at that was anomalous.
Drumming his talons on the desk, he cupped his chin and leaned against his arm while the data remains frustratingly the same in front of his eyes. What the hell was going on here? Every 24 hours, a wave occurs here spreading outward from a certain point
He was about to get up and make some breakfast when he felt something rock their ship. Another set of data wash across the screen. That shouldn't have happened... gravitational waves shouldn't be something you felt and he was sure it wasn't anything else because outside the window there isn't anything.
It happened once more and he could feel the ship lurch as if it was a naval ship caught by a wave. "No sexy time Scipio, need to sleep" Mareena whispered as she adjusted her position on the table.
"That wasn't me" Scipio replied as he walked towards the control room... before it happened. One moment the ship was just minding its business when space welled up before erupting, a gaping wound in the fabric forcefully upon reality.
The couples ship was tossed aside as exotic particles and strange lights flood the area, a wormhole in space and time opened from who knows where. What else could it be as their ships struggled as the tide of materials being spewed forth.
Scipio was tossed left and right as klaxons alarmed across he struggled to stay upright. He didn't have biotics to help him unlike Maarena who was instantly awake and was able to get to the control room. There she struggled against the variable gravitational and electromagnetic field which this anomaly produced. It was like their a small ship caught in the storm.
Scipio was able to claw his way to the control room just in time to see it rise from the depths. A pitch black planet rose from the portal, great forks of lightning arcing from the edge of its burning metallic surfaces. Scipio could only stare at what seems like eyes staring out towards them. Terrible burning eyes house in deep pockets of darkness. Their screams drowned out by everything as the planets terrible maw came into view.
They didn't knew if it was just delirium at this point but its smiled, its smiled with the large crack across its surface. Hundreds of blade like mountains jutting out from the crack while the malevolent red aurora's rippled across its surface.
"Get us out now!" Scipio shouted as adrenaline pumped in his veins, his focus upon the terrible planet along with the dread it inspired. Silence seem to reign as everything seemingly stopped as the planet passed through the portal. As terrible as this storm was, it soon passed as quickly as it came as the portal closed behind the planet.
"I can't! I can't maneuver the ship!" and that was the moment the planet seem to grew larger.
For a moment, Scipio and Maarena thought they heard laughter before they were ripped off their seat by a great and sudden acceleration. There last few moments of lucidity was filled by gleeful laughter before they passed out as they crashed against the wall of their accelerating ship.
Chapter 1
Maarena T'neri stared listlessly at the screen, her eyes dropping while she cradled a streaming cup of bitter almna in her hands. The spicy and bitter taste along with the rush of energy from the drink kept her up while she stared the screen in front of her, sifting through the stream of data presented to her. The blue light of the screen cast long shadows in the relative darkness of her ship.
It was already late in the night or at least late in the night in the Thessian Academy of Science and Technology, the most prestigious university in Thessia,and she liked to keep her circadian cycle close to that of home. Still, she remains awake as the data from the recent gravitational wave survey in the area was... fascinating. There was nothing quite like it.
"Rena, go to sleep" Groaned out her research partner, Scipio the Turian. While many would think all Turians are martially inclined, not all Turians are built the same. Some are more curious and ask too many questions, a trait that many Turian higher ups wouldn't want in their armed forces. Scipio was the best partner she could ask for in this scientific trip and no not because he was eye candy and the fact that he could cook but because he kept reminding her when it was time to stop and because he was the best boyfriend an Asari could ask for; Could cook and gives the best back rubs.
"It's been 34 hours and you haven't had a wink of sleep" Maarena's colleague reminded her which made the Asari glance at the clock blinking innocently in the screen. It was already early in the morning... had time really passed that easily? Maybe it was time to sleep as her legs felt like leaden weights and everything felt like it was tilting but...
"Not sure if I could sleeping seeing the recent stream of data from out buoy. There's something weird going on in this Nebula..." She replied as she run the data on the statistic program on her omnitool, trying to see any significant results from the recent scan.
"Rena, you need to sleep. You're already... by the Patriarchs how many cups of this stuff have you been drinking!"
Maarena stared at the table besides her where her precious Almna making machine sat. Strewn all over it were used cups of the drink which Scipio was cleaning up. She flinched as Scipio turned on the lights. "Nooooo~! It burns" She hissed as the intense beam of light shone on her
She flailed uselessly as Scipio scanned him with his Omni tool. "Maarena you need to sleep. You're already hissing at the lights" called out with his lecturing tone of voice
"But the light, its angry" Mareena hissed as she buried her face on the desk, wanting the gentle embrace of the darkness. "Oh sweet mother of the night, I'll never leave you again" she whispered as she tried to reach out for another cup only for her hands to be swatted away by Scipio.
After dumping all that cup in the disposal bins, he then unplugged the machine from the ship. That would probably keep the Asari busy as the room was too bright for her to get up and re-plug it to the socket. "We've talked about this. The last time you stayed up this late you passed out and almost deleted all the data we've been gather so far."
Taking the groan as a sign of her inevitable defeat, the Turian pressed on "Besides, its not like the data would go away. We can always come back to it when both of us are awake and lucid enough to process all of it".
Taking a seat and placing it beside her colleague, he sat down beside her and gently rubbed the back of the Maiden who groaned out something unintelligible which he thinks was about rogue gravity waves and anomalies. Even if she was already a hundred years old, sometimes Scipio felt like he was the older one in the ship.
"I'll be just right back ok and don't drink anymore of the stuff, you've already drank enough to make a Krogan jittery" The Turian replied as he went off to fetch a blanket. He came back seeing his partner still, face down on the desk as she snored in her sleep. He chuckled as he draped her blanket over her. She's a nice girl, just too passionate at times.
Running his hands across his fringes, he sighed as he sat beside her. The things he does for love... At first, he came to this small expedition is this cramped vessel just to get in her pants but the more they work together, the more he valued her presences. Oh sure the sex was great seeing as there was little source of entertainment all the way out here but he loved her more for her passion and quirkiness.
Turning towards the screen, he started looking at the data as well. It was weird... really weird. They first came here to study how organic materials form in nebula's but stayed as they gather data on these "rogue gravitational waves". At first they thought it was just a large pocket of eezo missed by miners here in the nebula but soon found that the signal was simply too big for that.
Even going near the source of the waves they found nothing... literally nothing aside from the dust and cloud of the Nebula. Where there should be a planet size object floating around they came to a relatively empty patch of space. The strangeness just doesn't end there but it comes in regular interval. They checked and rechecked their equipment and found nothing anomalous, it was what they're looking at that was anomalous.
Drumming his talons on the desk, he cupped his chin and leaned against his arm while the data remains frustratingly the same in front of his eyes. What the hell was going on here? Every 24 hours, a wave occurs here spreading outward from a certain point
He was about to get up and make some breakfast when he felt something rock their ship. Another set of data wash across the screen. That shouldn't have happened... gravitational waves shouldn't be something you felt and he was sure it wasn't anything else because outside the window there isn't anything.
It happened once more and he could feel the ship lurch as if it was a naval ship caught by a wave. "No sexy time Scipio, need to sleep" Mareena whispered as she adjusted her position on the table.
"That wasn't me" Scipio replied as he walked towards the control room... before it happened. One moment the ship was just minding its business when space welled up before erupting, a gaping wound in the fabric forcefully upon reality.
The couples ship was tossed aside as exotic particles and strange lights flood the area, a wormhole in space and time opened from who knows where. What else could it be as their ships struggled as the tide of materials being spewed forth.
Scipio was tossed left and right as klaxons alarmed across he struggled to stay upright. He didn't have biotics to help him unlike Maarena who was instantly awake and was able to get to the control room. There she struggled against the variable gravitational and electromagnetic field which this anomaly produced. It was like their a small ship caught in the storm.
Scipio was able to claw his way to the control room just in time to see it rise from the depths. A pitch black planet rose from the portal, great forks of lightning arcing from the edge of its burning metallic surfaces. Scipio could only stare at what seems like eyes staring out towards them. Terrible burning eyes house in deep pockets of darkness. Their screams drowned out by everything as the planets terrible maw came into view.
They didn't knew if it was just delirium at this point but its smiled, its smiled with the large crack across its surface. Hundreds of blade like mountains jutting out from the crack while the malevolent red aurora's rippled across its surface.
"Get us out now!" Scipio shouted as adrenaline pumped in his veins, his focus upon the terrible planet along with the dread it inspired. Silence seem to reign as everything seemingly stopped as the planet passed through the portal. As terrible as this storm was, it soon passed as quickly as it came as the portal closed behind the planet.
"I can't! I can't maneuver the ship!" and that was the moment the planet seem to grew larger.
For a moment, Scipio and Maarena thought they heard laughter before they were ripped off their seat by a great and sudden acceleration. There last few moments of lucidity was filled by gleeful laughter before they passed out as they crashed against the wall of their accelerating ship.
Last edited:
ScarletFlames
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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You should probably change the bad horror feel you gave the end of the chapter, you can achieve the same effect of letting the reader know how terrified the characters are without resorting to hallucination-like descriptions.
Other than that minor gripe it was a pretty fun read.
Other than that minor gripe it was a pretty fun read.
Chapter 2
SirBearington
Having a spiffing good time.
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2018
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Chapter 2
Pain, blinding pain was what Maarena woke up to. She found herself sprawled on the floor of the ship as she opened her eyes. Everything was bathed in the red light of the emergency power of the ship which was accompanied by the constant buzzing of broken electronics and alarms.
She found it hard to breathe, her sides hurting as she tried to move, as well as see as her left eye was swollen shut. It hurts too much to move too much. Were her ribs broken? She tried reaching out for ribs before wincing as she was introduced to the giant bruise that was her side. At least she couldn't feel anything wet as bleeding all over her more expensive suit would have been a cherry to top this already shitty scenario.
Slowly, she tried righting herself. She tried to push herself towards the nearby wall. The process was slow but soon enough she was propped herself up against the metal wall.
Where was she? Where was Scipio? She asked herself as she tried to find her partner. Struggling to turn her head to her side, she found the Turian passed out beside her. For a second she thought he wasn't breathing any longer before she heard his pained groan.
"Scipio... Scipio" She gasped, trying to breathe evenly even as she felt something poking against her lungs. She definitely had a broken rib. Where was her omnitool? She needed it to apply the some medigel so she can at least function and focus enough to used her biotics.
A flash of orange in the corner of her eyes alerted her where her omnitool was and she could sigh in relief as it wasn't broken from the crash. Reaching out for it, she struggled for a bit before she was able to use her biotic to move it towards her. Grabbing it as soon as it got close enough, she shakily applied the medigel to herself
She sighed in relief as the pain recede enough to think properly as well as move. Getting up, she got crawled towards Scipio to check on him. "Scipio" she prodded before Scipio coughed as he woke up.
He looked relatively well as he rolled to his back and looked up to her. "Did you get the license of the transport that hit us?"
"No you silly Turian" Maarena smiled as she pulled him in a tight hug. For a few minutes, they held each other before Scipio pulled away.
"Ok… so, we survive. Help me up so we can check if the ships still in one piece"
"This is why I ask you to exercise. If I'm not here you're going to be stuck there like a spiked palavan testudo" Maarena replied as she struggled to pull him upright, groaning as her partners weight.
"Yeah yeah, No more midnight snacks" Scipio replied as he got up, checking his feet if anything was broken before he was satisfied
"And snacks in general. You have snacks in between meals"
"Says the woman who drinks caffeinated drinks like people drink water" This comment earned Scipio a playful punch on the shoulders.
Walking up to the console, they finally got a proper look of this alien planet. They… were in a swap or a glade from how the glowing water flows on the ground while trees and plants reminiscent of Thessia's marshlands filled the landscape illuminating the area while unnerving dark blue clouds roiled across the sky occasionally flashing with forks of lightning and echoing with roars of thunder.
Here, their ship was stuck in a giant tree bare of leaves. The tree's dark gnarled branches wrapped around the ship as it seems to take on the ships considerable weight without much problem aside from the occasional creaks and groans.
Everything had an almost eerie glow not quite unlike the Eezo filled plants of the planet. The glow though was brighter with all sorts. So far there wasn't any animal to be seen but that may change once they got outside.
While Scipio checked on the status of the ship via diagnostics accessed in the still somewhat intact console, Maarena sat down and tended to her injuries. She applied more Medigel on the bruising, silently praising the humans for ignoring the rules when they developed this wonder material, before she asked "I'm not the only one that saw that the planet we are in have a mouth right?"
The sky was illuminated briefly by a large flash of lightning before the roar reverberated across their partially ruined craft.
"It was fucking creepy alright… What the hell happened anyways? At first we were just stuck there before all of the sudden we go pulled in here before we pass out from hitting our heads on the wall of our ship… Why does is it that this starting to sound likes that cult classic attack of the zombie planets…"
"I don't know… the planet didn't look diseased since we are in its surface… It looks peaceful anyways... plus where's the lava? Didn't we see volcanoes?" As if by chance, a black mountain far in the horizon suddenly erupted with columns of the red lava spewing on to the surface while plumes of black smoke rose up to fill the skies in the horizon with a hellish red glow.
"Well… at least we're lucky to not land there." He replied as he stared at the mountains erupting with the anger of the ancient gods before adding "Good news and bad news… good news is aside from the eezo core, everything's operational. Bad news is, Eezo core's breached and we probably violated several citadel environmental laws with all the eezo our shipped dump in the area.
"Well shit" Maarena replied… they were stuck here
"We can still send the more powerful distress signal since our electric generators still up and running with plenty of juice to last us the months ahead… it'll probably take us a month or so before they notice we're missing since we come back regularly for supplies which I forgot we are running out of… this is assuming the planet we are in doesn't actually move on its on since that would be crazy"
"Well… everything about this whole situation is crazy so it doesn't surprise me if we are somehow kidnapped by a planet of all things"
"Considering everything… we're probably still lucky since I'm picking up some extranet signals and while we're still picking them up I'm sending the distress call and hope it gets through" With a few clicks, their hope was now sent into the void and hopefully to the nearest comm buoy.
"Well... what now? I mean… we can stay all day here" Asked Maarena.
"I propose… we go out and explore. Maybe we'll find something edible"
"Oh no no no… I'm not confident in going out now and our suits aren't rated for handling NBC's. For all we know there might be some hidden pathogens down there"
"Come on, the place looks… safe… safe-ish~?" He wasn't sure himself.
"Didn't you say that this might be a zombie planet?"
"Well… didn't you say that the planet doesn't look like its diseased?"
"Touché"
For a minute, they just sat there in silence while lightning continued flashing in the distance.
"Ok, let's go out and if anything goes bad we go back her and hole up and try to wait up until we get rescued" Suggested Maarena
"Sounds reasonable but first, let's get some weapons and provisions" The two nodded and suited up and armed themselves. Nothing too fancy, just your average civilian protection. Scipio had the better weapon since the rifle he used was used for hunting armored Palaven megafauna.
Entering the airlock, they then went to open the door on the rear of the ship. A 20 ft drop stared back at them.
"I'll get the rope"
Attaching some rope to the ship, Scipio got down first as he wasn't that injured plus he was better armed.
"This isn't too bad… not seeing Eezo anywhere… weird. Even in the omnitool scan, nothing. Must have been swallowed by the earth already" He commented after scanning the surrounding with his omni tool. He then reached out for the tree. It felt… metallic, almost like a Palaven plant actually and looked at some of the eezo leftover which came from the leak above
"You know what's weird... scans saying that its earth life all over the place but it doesn't look anything like it. I mean just look at this tree we're stuck in." He said as he aimed at the scanner at it. "Says here it's an Earth oak tree... crossed with some mangroves and... reinforced by aluminum on its skin?"
"Airs fine as well if mildly radioactive though the radiation seems like we're higher up in the atmosphere. Nothing to worry about since we have suits"
Rappelling down, Maarena touched the ground and was surprised she didn't sink too much. It was just ankle deep water which faintly glowed. She frowned as she aimed at the water. Nothing... just the usual load of microbes you'd find in the swamp near a human settlement... this is weird... its not like this place looked settled which reminds her they should probably check the air for radio signals just in case.
"Nothing biological that's dangerous lurking as well" Scipio added as he scanned the surrounding. Down on the ground, they could now here the multitude of insect sounds and along with the hoots and cries of the strange creature hidden by the foliage.
"I mean the waters glowing but the scanners saying its just mundane bioluminescence." he commented as he kicked the water which caused a shining splash.
Maarena was about to check the nearby brushes when she stepped on something smooth and slipped. She cried out before muck and glowing water splashed all over her.
Scipio turned and hurriedly got to her side. "Are you ok?" he asked as he reached down to give her a boost. It was slippery alright and he wouldn't want her to slip back.
Maarena stared at ground for a moment before she reached up and pulled herself up. "I'm… actually fine… better even…" She said as she stood up. She jumped a bit on her leg, finding it healed. No pain, nothing.
"Umm Scipio... there's supposed to be a bruise on my cheeks right?" She asked as he used the front camera mode of her omnitool to check on her cheeks to find nothing... she didn't touch anything plus they were wearing space suits which are pretty sealed. She didn't skimp on paying for these since it's unnerving to wear something thin in vacuum.
"Yeah... what the heck..." Scipio replied as he held her helmet, having her turn to the side to see it all gone. "'Hey, what ever it was, it even removed that skin tag you had on your eyelid that you always wanted to remove"
He could only chuckle for a few second before he was pushed down by his irate girlfriend and pelted with mud. He fought back and soon the first mud wrestling in the planet commenced.
"You know our Xenobiology 101 teacher would kill us if he see us like this"
Edited: Made it less "let's drink this unknown liquid and made it more scan everything". Also, will be explaining how the healing probably... next chapter but hint: its in the air and its an Outside-Context Problem or is it solution?
Sorry to theqwopingone for that one earlier and thank you for pointing out that brain fart.
Pain, blinding pain was what Maarena woke up to. She found herself sprawled on the floor of the ship as she opened her eyes. Everything was bathed in the red light of the emergency power of the ship which was accompanied by the constant buzzing of broken electronics and alarms.
She found it hard to breathe, her sides hurting as she tried to move, as well as see as her left eye was swollen shut. It hurts too much to move too much. Were her ribs broken? She tried reaching out for ribs before wincing as she was introduced to the giant bruise that was her side. At least she couldn't feel anything wet as bleeding all over her more expensive suit would have been a cherry to top this already shitty scenario.
Slowly, she tried righting herself. She tried to push herself towards the nearby wall. The process was slow but soon enough she was propped herself up against the metal wall.
Where was she? Where was Scipio? She asked herself as she tried to find her partner. Struggling to turn her head to her side, she found the Turian passed out beside her. For a second she thought he wasn't breathing any longer before she heard his pained groan.
"Scipio... Scipio" She gasped, trying to breathe evenly even as she felt something poking against her lungs. She definitely had a broken rib. Where was her omnitool? She needed it to apply the some medigel so she can at least function and focus enough to used her biotics.
A flash of orange in the corner of her eyes alerted her where her omnitool was and she could sigh in relief as it wasn't broken from the crash. Reaching out for it, she struggled for a bit before she was able to use her biotic to move it towards her. Grabbing it as soon as it got close enough, she shakily applied the medigel to herself
She sighed in relief as the pain recede enough to think properly as well as move. Getting up, she got crawled towards Scipio to check on him. "Scipio" she prodded before Scipio coughed as he woke up.
He looked relatively well as he rolled to his back and looked up to her. "Did you get the license of the transport that hit us?"
"No you silly Turian" Maarena smiled as she pulled him in a tight hug. For a few minutes, they held each other before Scipio pulled away.
"Ok… so, we survive. Help me up so we can check if the ships still in one piece"
"This is why I ask you to exercise. If I'm not here you're going to be stuck there like a spiked palavan testudo" Maarena replied as she struggled to pull him upright, groaning as her partners weight.
"Yeah yeah, No more midnight snacks" Scipio replied as he got up, checking his feet if anything was broken before he was satisfied
"And snacks in general. You have snacks in between meals"
"Says the woman who drinks caffeinated drinks like people drink water" This comment earned Scipio a playful punch on the shoulders.
Walking up to the console, they finally got a proper look of this alien planet. They… were in a swap or a glade from how the glowing water flows on the ground while trees and plants reminiscent of Thessia's marshlands filled the landscape illuminating the area while unnerving dark blue clouds roiled across the sky occasionally flashing with forks of lightning and echoing with roars of thunder.
Here, their ship was stuck in a giant tree bare of leaves. The tree's dark gnarled branches wrapped around the ship as it seems to take on the ships considerable weight without much problem aside from the occasional creaks and groans.
Everything had an almost eerie glow not quite unlike the Eezo filled plants of the planet. The glow though was brighter with all sorts. So far there wasn't any animal to be seen but that may change once they got outside.
While Scipio checked on the status of the ship via diagnostics accessed in the still somewhat intact console, Maarena sat down and tended to her injuries. She applied more Medigel on the bruising, silently praising the humans for ignoring the rules when they developed this wonder material, before she asked "I'm not the only one that saw that the planet we are in have a mouth right?"
The sky was illuminated briefly by a large flash of lightning before the roar reverberated across their partially ruined craft.
"It was fucking creepy alright… What the hell happened anyways? At first we were just stuck there before all of the sudden we go pulled in here before we pass out from hitting our heads on the wall of our ship… Why does is it that this starting to sound likes that cult classic attack of the zombie planets…"
"I don't know… the planet didn't look diseased since we are in its surface… It looks peaceful anyways... plus where's the lava? Didn't we see volcanoes?" As if by chance, a black mountain far in the horizon suddenly erupted with columns of the red lava spewing on to the surface while plumes of black smoke rose up to fill the skies in the horizon with a hellish red glow.
"Well… at least we're lucky to not land there." He replied as he stared at the mountains erupting with the anger of the ancient gods before adding "Good news and bad news… good news is aside from the eezo core, everything's operational. Bad news is, Eezo core's breached and we probably violated several citadel environmental laws with all the eezo our shipped dump in the area.
"Well shit" Maarena replied… they were stuck here
"We can still send the more powerful distress signal since our electric generators still up and running with plenty of juice to last us the months ahead… it'll probably take us a month or so before they notice we're missing since we come back regularly for supplies which I forgot we are running out of… this is assuming the planet we are in doesn't actually move on its on since that would be crazy"
"Well… everything about this whole situation is crazy so it doesn't surprise me if we are somehow kidnapped by a planet of all things"
"Considering everything… we're probably still lucky since I'm picking up some extranet signals and while we're still picking them up I'm sending the distress call and hope it gets through" With a few clicks, their hope was now sent into the void and hopefully to the nearest comm buoy.
"Well... what now? I mean… we can stay all day here" Asked Maarena.
"I propose… we go out and explore. Maybe we'll find something edible"
"Oh no no no… I'm not confident in going out now and our suits aren't rated for handling NBC's. For all we know there might be some hidden pathogens down there"
"Come on, the place looks… safe… safe-ish~?" He wasn't sure himself.
"Didn't you say that this might be a zombie planet?"
"Well… didn't you say that the planet doesn't look like its diseased?"
"Touché"
For a minute, they just sat there in silence while lightning continued flashing in the distance.
"Ok, let's go out and if anything goes bad we go back her and hole up and try to wait up until we get rescued" Suggested Maarena
"Sounds reasonable but first, let's get some weapons and provisions" The two nodded and suited up and armed themselves. Nothing too fancy, just your average civilian protection. Scipio had the better weapon since the rifle he used was used for hunting armored Palaven megafauna.
Entering the airlock, they then went to open the door on the rear of the ship. A 20 ft drop stared back at them.
"I'll get the rope"
Attaching some rope to the ship, Scipio got down first as he wasn't that injured plus he was better armed.
"This isn't too bad… not seeing Eezo anywhere… weird. Even in the omnitool scan, nothing. Must have been swallowed by the earth already" He commented after scanning the surrounding with his omni tool. He then reached out for the tree. It felt… metallic, almost like a Palaven plant actually and looked at some of the eezo leftover which came from the leak above
"You know what's weird... scans saying that its earth life all over the place but it doesn't look anything like it. I mean just look at this tree we're stuck in." He said as he aimed at the scanner at it. "Says here it's an Earth oak tree... crossed with some mangroves and... reinforced by aluminum on its skin?"
"Airs fine as well if mildly radioactive though the radiation seems like we're higher up in the atmosphere. Nothing to worry about since we have suits"
Rappelling down, Maarena touched the ground and was surprised she didn't sink too much. It was just ankle deep water which faintly glowed. She frowned as she aimed at the water. Nothing... just the usual load of microbes you'd find in the swamp near a human settlement... this is weird... its not like this place looked settled which reminds her they should probably check the air for radio signals just in case.
"Nothing biological that's dangerous lurking as well" Scipio added as he scanned the surrounding. Down on the ground, they could now here the multitude of insect sounds and along with the hoots and cries of the strange creature hidden by the foliage.
"I mean the waters glowing but the scanners saying its just mundane bioluminescence." he commented as he kicked the water which caused a shining splash.
Maarena was about to check the nearby brushes when she stepped on something smooth and slipped. She cried out before muck and glowing water splashed all over her.
Scipio turned and hurriedly got to her side. "Are you ok?" he asked as he reached down to give her a boost. It was slippery alright and he wouldn't want her to slip back.
Maarena stared at ground for a moment before she reached up and pulled herself up. "I'm… actually fine… better even…" She said as she stood up. She jumped a bit on her leg, finding it healed. No pain, nothing.
"Umm Scipio... there's supposed to be a bruise on my cheeks right?" She asked as he used the front camera mode of her omnitool to check on her cheeks to find nothing... she didn't touch anything plus they were wearing space suits which are pretty sealed. She didn't skimp on paying for these since it's unnerving to wear something thin in vacuum.
"Yeah... what the heck..." Scipio replied as he held her helmet, having her turn to the side to see it all gone. "'Hey, what ever it was, it even removed that skin tag you had on your eyelid that you always wanted to remove"
He could only chuckle for a few second before he was pushed down by his irate girlfriend and pelted with mud. He fought back and soon the first mud wrestling in the planet commenced.
"You know our Xenobiology 101 teacher would kill us if he see us like this"
Edited: Made it less "let's drink this unknown liquid and made it more scan everything". Also, will be explaining how the healing probably... next chapter but hint: its in the air and its an Outside-Context Problem or is it solution?
Sorry to theqwopingone for that one earlier and thank you for pointing out that brain fart.
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I'm'a just assume that the water also causes brain damage from how much of a dumbass they are collectively being.
Nekraa
Nekraa
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If you think so, elaborate and explain your problems with it instead of going direct to vague insults.
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Can i just do the equivalent of a copy and paste and direct you to the complaints that everyone who has watched Prometheus has had about the unscientific actions taken by the apparent scientist charactors? Like, both of them were poking everything in sight and splashing around random chemicals, but at least those people needed a third party before they started getting the random chemicals on themselves, even if they were a snake-worm thing and a android; tell you what, i'll link you a parody/critisism of that movie, and you pick out any critisisms that you think might apply to your story.
Nekraa
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I haven't watched Prometheus, but that sounds fine? As long as you give proper credit to the source.
SirBearington
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Sorry. Hope this edited one made up for the earlier brain fart... really thought it was believable up until you pointed out that one. I should have known better
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Might want to take some vitamins and eat something if your brain's running that badly; i know how brains can come up with some pretty bad thoughts that don't seem that way until a few minutes or seconds later and you can't imagine what you were thinking.
SirBearington
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Come to think of it... I haven't eaten anything since lunch while I was writing that and it was almost 7 pm when I posted
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Eat some fruit or something before you pass out.
SirBearington
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Yeah, ate dinner already when I was rewriting that part
Btw, how's the edited scenes?
Chapter 3
SirBearington
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Chapter 3
It's been three days and they haven't been doing much exploring. It was too risky anyways since they aren't trained explorers. They were astrophysicist after all. The stars and the great big blackness of space was what they studied, not creatures and other sorts of creepy crawlies.
Still, they were scientist and they were a naturally curious bunch. When they weren't in their ship, they were off down in the ground scanning away to their hearts content.
"And here's another insect to my growing collection" Scipio whispered as he picked up the writhing creature with his omnitool tweezers. A hundred samples and counting. What little cargo space they have for space samples has now been taken over by specimens after specimens
It was a wonderland all for them to explore and no one to compete with. "Titus would be so jealous when he finds out I discovered a hundreds of new species"
"We discovered new species is what I think you meant" Maarena lectured while she analyzed some samples in the table they have set below the crash site.
There was a lot of discover here. Even in this small 30 meter radius circle around their crash site, the place is teeming with life. Unfortunately, they won't be able to explore more. They just weren't equipped to explore and it would be a fools errand to pursue thing for glory when it might cost your life. They hated their xenobiology teacher buy they didn't ignored his teachings.
"Sorry. Anyways, how's things looking on the gene sequencer? Shame we don't have the fancier equipment Titus and his team have" Scipio said as he got up and stretched a bit. He wasn't used to working down in the ground and it showed with how his back aches.
"It's… Earth life or at least a near perfect parallel evolution in action. The only difference is that they use the energy we found here and how they looked really." She said as she shifted her omnitool to that of a microscope.
Scipio often wonder how his ancestors had to deal with things before the advent of omnitools.
"This energy is amazing but I can't isolate it properly. It doesn't react to anything except bio-electricity and we don't have the instrument available to mimic that here". She stared closely as this energy seemed to piggyback along the simple nervous system of this mammalian creature they vivisected.
Pulling away from her samples for a bit, she turned towards Scipio before she said "I think… we should instead call a research team here instead of a rescue mission"
"Woah there. Remember the face" He cautioned as he pointed at his face. He smiled, trying to mimic the face they saw together. "Big sharp teeth the size of mountain ranges. Eyes that looked like they were pits of lava? Ringing a bell?"
"Maybe its just the stress of it all. Maybe we just… just hallucinated and remember how humans always said Pluto had a heart on its surface" She replied but she herself was unsure.
"I think we should get off the planet really. I… really feel uncomfortable once we knew that this energy passes through metal and we been soaking in it for days..." He replied as he sat down
"Yeah but look at this. You can even hear how the creatures healing already!". Over in the table was the poor rat like creatures wound sealing itself in real time albeit a bit slowly. It was like watching a stop motion video.
"Yeah… pretty much like how it was in the zombie movies..."
"Oh don't be a wuss. It's not like all the animals I euthanized came back from the dead plus its harmless so far. Besides, we're already too exposed to it and our craft doesn't offer that much 'protection' to this thing"
"Yeah that's the thing. Think they'll quarantine us before they rescue us off this planet?" He asked.
"Maybe but I can't wait to rub all of our findings at Jayaala's face". She was excited and Scipio couldn't help but smile as well.
For a while they sat there, exchanging notes and cataloging every new finding they have (backing that up with actual physical copies and extra hard drives just to be sure) before they call it a day.
"You see how the tree's seems to be dimming down? It's as if the plant life has a day and night cycle" Maarena said as she climbed up the make shift ladder they had made. Cutting the wood of the nearby metallic tree's had been hard but it was easy to shape into a workable ladder especially when the wood splinters can work as nails.
"Yeah… but shouldn't plants with bio-luminescence dim their lights when its night time… so does that mean were sleeping in the day and working at night?"
"Well there is no sun so lets just call the dim period as night then since there is a near eternal night with that cloud cover up above" Maarena pointed out
The night sky was filled with the roiling clouds of the planet, illuminated by the same mysterious energy they have observed down on the ground. The blue light cast an eerie glow now that the canopy was no longer illuminated by the plants. Like tiny twisted hands reaching to the heavens, the leafed branches rustled from the whistling wind
"It never fails to creep me out" said as he looked at the land before them. Its as if the land was illuminated by moon light when the only source of light was from the glowing sky.
Capturing a picture of the moment, Maarena nooded in agreement as she gestured for them to get in now that it was getting dark or at least dark by this planets standard.
Decontamination was a pretty easy thing to do plus one should do if they don't want any mud tracks inside the ship.
"Hurry up, dinner in a few minute" Scipio shouted as he knocked on the bathroom door while he passed by
"Yeah in a minute" She replied.
Their ship had been kind of their home for a most of their time as a couple. It was one field work after another so it was pretty lived in with posters and pictures hanging from the wall. It would have been a tragedy if their crash had been more violent.
Humming to himself, he opened the microwave oven door and pulled out the dehydrated meals they had packed. A dextro meal for him while a levo meal for her. It's a bit inconvenient at times with how different their biology is but its something one would have to get used too
"Smells delicious" whispered Maarena as her hands wrapped around his waist.
"It better be since we paid the extra credit for the extra flavor". He replied as she pulled away.
Their dinner wasn't the ideal dinner but what matters was that they have each other plus the view near the window was great.
"Say, how many meals do we still have before we run out?" She asked after taking a sip of recycled water. Taste horrible but it'll do.
"Since we're only doing two meals a day… maybe two more weeks" He replied as he savored every last bit of his meal, trying to scrape every last bit of it from the plastic plate. His stomach protested from the lack of sustenance but he had to persevere.
"Not that much huh..." She asked. They were saving up on everything. From power to water. Even if it pained her, they were in a dire strait.
She sighed as she looked over the window, her reflection illuminated by the soft light of the sky while their ship was plunged in darkness. It's only the slight hum of life support that reassures her that everything is still working.
She turned her head towards him as he felt his taloned hands upon hers. "We'll get through this. I promise" He said to her with that same smile that had her falling for him.
The edge of her lips quirked upward as she lifted his hands, holding it as both of them leaned against one another. They leaned for a chaste kiss, not wanting to break out into hives, before going back to their meal in relative silence.
As he was about to finish his plate, he saw a faint flicker of orange in the distance. A soft glow illuminating the area in that part of the forest. It wasn't that far, maybe a few clicks?
"Hey do you see that?"
"A forest fire?"
"Maybe"
Maarena shrugged. "We're inside a space ship that's rated for space as well as re entry. Nothing to be worried about. It's not like any sapient being is around here"
A flash in the distance was their only warning before the sound reached them. The deep rumbling sound of the explosion. The following series of gunfire, deep booms that shook their hearts, echoed in the forest.
Scipio could feel it in his teeth, how the very earth seemed to rumble with each gun fire. It wasn't like mass accelerators, it was more primitive yet oh so loader. His hackles raised as his heart raced. Maarena was equally tensed as the fight went on for what seemed to be an eternity before the final roar of the battle, the brutal sound of a saw against metal silenced it. The horrible sound of metal rending filled the air before it too was silenced
As the birds flew away and the fires glow slowly moved towards their direction, it was clear now that they were not alone
"Honey, grab the gun"
It's been three days and they haven't been doing much exploring. It was too risky anyways since they aren't trained explorers. They were astrophysicist after all. The stars and the great big blackness of space was what they studied, not creatures and other sorts of creepy crawlies.
Still, they were scientist and they were a naturally curious bunch. When they weren't in their ship, they were off down in the ground scanning away to their hearts content.
"And here's another insect to my growing collection" Scipio whispered as he picked up the writhing creature with his omnitool tweezers. A hundred samples and counting. What little cargo space they have for space samples has now been taken over by specimens after specimens
It was a wonderland all for them to explore and no one to compete with. "Titus would be so jealous when he finds out I discovered a hundreds of new species"
"We discovered new species is what I think you meant" Maarena lectured while she analyzed some samples in the table they have set below the crash site.
There was a lot of discover here. Even in this small 30 meter radius circle around their crash site, the place is teeming with life. Unfortunately, they won't be able to explore more. They just weren't equipped to explore and it would be a fools errand to pursue thing for glory when it might cost your life. They hated their xenobiology teacher buy they didn't ignored his teachings.
"Sorry. Anyways, how's things looking on the gene sequencer? Shame we don't have the fancier equipment Titus and his team have" Scipio said as he got up and stretched a bit. He wasn't used to working down in the ground and it showed with how his back aches.
"It's… Earth life or at least a near perfect parallel evolution in action. The only difference is that they use the energy we found here and how they looked really." She said as she shifted her omnitool to that of a microscope.
Scipio often wonder how his ancestors had to deal with things before the advent of omnitools.
"This energy is amazing but I can't isolate it properly. It doesn't react to anything except bio-electricity and we don't have the instrument available to mimic that here". She stared closely as this energy seemed to piggyback along the simple nervous system of this mammalian creature they vivisected.
Pulling away from her samples for a bit, she turned towards Scipio before she said "I think… we should instead call a research team here instead of a rescue mission"
"Woah there. Remember the face" He cautioned as he pointed at his face. He smiled, trying to mimic the face they saw together. "Big sharp teeth the size of mountain ranges. Eyes that looked like they were pits of lava? Ringing a bell?"
"Maybe its just the stress of it all. Maybe we just… just hallucinated and remember how humans always said Pluto had a heart on its surface" She replied but she herself was unsure.
"I think we should get off the planet really. I… really feel uncomfortable once we knew that this energy passes through metal and we been soaking in it for days..." He replied as he sat down
"Yeah but look at this. You can even hear how the creatures healing already!". Over in the table was the poor rat like creatures wound sealing itself in real time albeit a bit slowly. It was like watching a stop motion video.
"Yeah… pretty much like how it was in the zombie movies..."
"Oh don't be a wuss. It's not like all the animals I euthanized came back from the dead plus its harmless so far. Besides, we're already too exposed to it and our craft doesn't offer that much 'protection' to this thing"
"Yeah that's the thing. Think they'll quarantine us before they rescue us off this planet?" He asked.
"Maybe but I can't wait to rub all of our findings at Jayaala's face". She was excited and Scipio couldn't help but smile as well.
For a while they sat there, exchanging notes and cataloging every new finding they have (backing that up with actual physical copies and extra hard drives just to be sure) before they call it a day.
"You see how the tree's seems to be dimming down? It's as if the plant life has a day and night cycle" Maarena said as she climbed up the make shift ladder they had made. Cutting the wood of the nearby metallic tree's had been hard but it was easy to shape into a workable ladder especially when the wood splinters can work as nails.
"Yeah… but shouldn't plants with bio-luminescence dim their lights when its night time… so does that mean were sleeping in the day and working at night?"
"Well there is no sun so lets just call the dim period as night then since there is a near eternal night with that cloud cover up above" Maarena pointed out
The night sky was filled with the roiling clouds of the planet, illuminated by the same mysterious energy they have observed down on the ground. The blue light cast an eerie glow now that the canopy was no longer illuminated by the plants. Like tiny twisted hands reaching to the heavens, the leafed branches rustled from the whistling wind
"It never fails to creep me out" said as he looked at the land before them. Its as if the land was illuminated by moon light when the only source of light was from the glowing sky.
Capturing a picture of the moment, Maarena nooded in agreement as she gestured for them to get in now that it was getting dark or at least dark by this planets standard.
Decontamination was a pretty easy thing to do plus one should do if they don't want any mud tracks inside the ship.
"Hurry up, dinner in a few minute" Scipio shouted as he knocked on the bathroom door while he passed by
"Yeah in a minute" She replied.
Their ship had been kind of their home for a most of their time as a couple. It was one field work after another so it was pretty lived in with posters and pictures hanging from the wall. It would have been a tragedy if their crash had been more violent.
Humming to himself, he opened the microwave oven door and pulled out the dehydrated meals they had packed. A dextro meal for him while a levo meal for her. It's a bit inconvenient at times with how different their biology is but its something one would have to get used too
"Smells delicious" whispered Maarena as her hands wrapped around his waist.
"It better be since we paid the extra credit for the extra flavor". He replied as she pulled away.
Their dinner wasn't the ideal dinner but what matters was that they have each other plus the view near the window was great.
"Say, how many meals do we still have before we run out?" She asked after taking a sip of recycled water. Taste horrible but it'll do.
"Since we're only doing two meals a day… maybe two more weeks" He replied as he savored every last bit of his meal, trying to scrape every last bit of it from the plastic plate. His stomach protested from the lack of sustenance but he had to persevere.
"Not that much huh..." She asked. They were saving up on everything. From power to water. Even if it pained her, they were in a dire strait.
She sighed as she looked over the window, her reflection illuminated by the soft light of the sky while their ship was plunged in darkness. It's only the slight hum of life support that reassures her that everything is still working.
She turned her head towards him as he felt his taloned hands upon hers. "We'll get through this. I promise" He said to her with that same smile that had her falling for him.
The edge of her lips quirked upward as she lifted his hands, holding it as both of them leaned against one another. They leaned for a chaste kiss, not wanting to break out into hives, before going back to their meal in relative silence.
As he was about to finish his plate, he saw a faint flicker of orange in the distance. A soft glow illuminating the area in that part of the forest. It wasn't that far, maybe a few clicks?
"Hey do you see that?"
"A forest fire?"
"Maybe"
Maarena shrugged. "We're inside a space ship that's rated for space as well as re entry. Nothing to be worried about. It's not like any sapient being is around here"
A flash in the distance was their only warning before the sound reached them. The deep rumbling sound of the explosion. The following series of gunfire, deep booms that shook their hearts, echoed in the forest.
Scipio could feel it in his teeth, how the very earth seemed to rumble with each gun fire. It wasn't like mass accelerators, it was more primitive yet oh so loader. His hackles raised as his heart raced. Maarena was equally tensed as the fight went on for what seemed to be an eternity before the final roar of the battle, the brutal sound of a saw against metal silenced it. The horrible sound of metal rending filled the air before it too was silenced
As the birds flew away and the fires glow slowly moved towards their direction, it was clear now that they were not alone
"Honey, grab the gun"
SirBearington
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So here's the sound of the gun fire
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Better; still sort of...Off, primarily due to them not being at least as worried about the situation as a unsuited Quarian, but it's definitely more natural, if natural for rather stupid charactors.
Closer to being properly scientific about the situation they found themselves in; still would make Mark Watney give them a Look of shame, but still better then seeming like the gasoline fight accident victims from zoolander.
Yeah, now, see, if they had seen that first, or been caught in a fog or something, then it would make sense for them to use the stuff to heal (optimally after running it through a few dosen filters to remove anything in it that they didn't want), but with the first seen example of the effect being in themselves?
The only example of plants with any sort of luminescence that i can think of are ones that use radioactive isotopes and are active constantly.
SirBearington
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It's finally here. Took me a while since I was researching on the Alliance Navy along with some real life info on Coast Guards. Could have gone better and probably going to come back to this sooner or later but for now enjoy.
Chapter 4
While the two prepared to fight for their survival, the signal that had sent earlier had now finally reached the nearest comm buoy. As fast as light travels, it still took days before it reached this comm buoy.
Floating on its lonesome as it orbited around one of the forming stars in the nebula, this innocent thing was probably the most important thing in this sector of space. It isn't life nor the resources since all of it would be useless without this little line to civilization.
A marvel of engineering, a primitive mass relay the size of a car. Dwarfed by their bigger cousins, these constructs are just as important to the stability of civilization as they know it.
As it received the distress signal and the VI's processed the data packet, three things happened in succession. First, it triggered the parameters for the use of QEC emergency line to human space as the Humans have jurisdiction over the Armstrong Nebula. Second, it prepared the normal channels for the burst data its supposed to send every second. Finally, it sent the signals to the places it programmed.
One signal was sent was sent to the nearest System Alliance system while a weaker signal that didn't use the QEC emergency line was sent to a random buoy.
It might have been random at first glance but if a Salarian technician were to scrutinize the comm buoy, they'll find that the thing was bugged.
It takes an ungodly amount of comm buoys to provide just enough bandwidth for the people of the known galaxy. Even with the thousands dotting citadel space and beyond, the demand is still greater that what's available. The Citadel and private communication companies are forced to churn out more of these things and even then they'll need to limit the available bandwidth.
If companies ever hope to keep up with the ever growing demand, they needed things done cheaply and launched as fast as possible. It just so happens most of the major governments of the galaxy and many private entities are more than happy to manufacture parts. Some parts are OK but some are bugged.
It was said that for every comm buoy launched after the meeting of the Salarian's and Asari's, there's thrice as many bugging device out there attached to who knows which buoy. Sufficed to say, there's a lot of the people listening. As to why the citadel isn't that concerned is due to the STG and the Spectres.
One mustn't try to eavesdrop on things they can't handle and the STG just happens to have sensitive information of those that step over the line while the Spectre's… well they're the spectres and nobody wants them snooping around.
Back on the signal, the Quantum Entanglement of the particles for these devices made it so that the signal arrived as soon as it was sent from the Buoy. The relative cost of making them though and the limit them to being only in headquarters of departments that require them such as The System Alliance Patrol, the coast guard like entity of the Alliance
Processed by the VI, this distress signal was resent back to the Comm Buoy's within alliance space to nearby Ports that harbor SAP Ships that are available for rescue operation of the two scientist. All of this dome in a single hours thanks to VI's and the robust communication system
Thankfully there was one such ship that was already ready for such an operation. The SSV Hamilton with its highly decorated and experienced crew.
While it took days for the signal to contact the authorities, it only took hours for the authorities to prepare. When life is in the line, there's no room for slacking off. The captain of the ship was quick to gather his mean for the briefing of the mission
"Now listen up. At 800 hours standard galactic time today, a comm buoy in the Armstrong Nebula picked up a distress signal from the scientific exploratory vessel the CS Northern Wind." Said the captain as he stood in front of the gathering of hardened men and women.
Behind him was the holographic map of the Armstrong Nebula, a dime in a dozen nebula which only serves as an anchorage point for most ships from the Terminus System.
"Not much is known due to the distance from which the signal came from but we can trace the signal just on the edge of the Nebula over here". He said as his hand pointed at the far end of the Nebula which was far away from even most civilization.
"What we can gather from the distress signal is that the two scientist are now trapped in a rogue planet with possibly hostile life forms. Fortunately, the rogue planet doesn't seem to move that much since the signal is still regularly being sent from the same location. This however doesn't mean we should just take our merry time"
"We are the System Alliance Patrol after all and we respond as soon as we can not unlike our brothers in the Navy with their lumbering behemoths." This elicited some chuckles from the crowd.
"We have the one fastest ship in the Patrol's arsenal and by god we shall use it now suit up and prepare to leave port at1200 hrs. I want every single one of you to be ready by then. We are of the first, the oldest and the finest group in the Patrol and we shall show them why we are the best." His mean cheered as they scrambled to get the ship ready.
At barely 100 meters long, the cutter was on the small end of large ships but it's nearly unmatched with its large Eezo core to tonnage ratio. While it does boast some of the highest speeds, it does need to frequently discharge.
At 1200 hours, the ship was ready and heading straight for the nearby Mass Relay.
The captain stared at the massive monolithic structures. Left by the Protheans, near instantaneous travel between two points in the galaxy.
"Captain, approaching Mass Relay."
"Keep her steady"
It's almost disorienting for most people to see how the sky changes in an instant. It was smooth sailing from there as they hopped across several relays before getting to their destination. It only took hours before they started to decelerate.
"Ok people, in and out as fast as we can. Remember its nearly the ships 1st anniversary and I don't want any mishaps"
Turning to the window, he watched as the ship's VI counted down. "Brace for deceleration" As the ship decelerated, the captain could only watch as they came rushing towards the densest debris
"Take evasive maneuvers!" Shouted the captain braced himself as the shields were pelted by micrometeorites. It was a testament to the pilots skill as they weaved around each tumbling rock ranging from boulders to mountains.
The ship shock as they tried to get out but found that the erratic gravitational field in the area was making things hard. The ship was pulled from every which direction and it required the delicate hands of the pilot to get them out of here alive.
Finally, after a few close calls they managed to clear the debris field and now they came face to face with the planet.
"That is the ugliest son of a bitch I've ever seen..." Whispered the pilot as he stared at the almost skull like pattern on the planets blackened surface was illuminated by a star in the background. Its "eyes" looked like dark pits while its mouth were high mountain ranges. Over all, it looked like a creepy rogue planet
While they scanned the planet to find the possible crash site, the pilot called for his captains attention.
"Sir… doesn't that sun look strange?" the pilot asked as they saw the star peeked from the back of the planet
The star looked… odd, Like it was too close for some reason. It doesn't seem to match any known star here and there wasn't enough material in this part of the nebula to make a star. It was then the "eyes" of the planet opened.
A static screech echoed across all radio signals, drowning the cockpit in a cacophony of screeches.
"Get us out of her now!" Shouted the captains and it was only the quick actions of the pilots that prevented them from being pulled into the planet.
The asteroids where their location was previously was suddenly pulled in, burning up and heading straight to the planet like slugs fire from the main gun of a dreadnought
What could only be described as screams of frustration echoed in the ships comm as the eyes of the planet focused upon them, squinting even as it tried to locate them.
"Holy shit! That things alive!"
"Fly you fools!" Commanded the captain as the sensors picked up the rapidly building gravity in the area. An auxiliary engine was ripped out as it was caught at whatever gravity field the planet was producing.
Rushing over to the comms, the captain pushed aside the greenhorn manning the station as he tried to open up a communication to an old friend of his. "Computer, give me a real time connection to Admiral Hackett, this is an emergency!"
The ship shook as meteors from ahead of it was pulled towards the planet, hitting the ship as it passed by. Fire bloomed on the planet's surface as it began to move.
"Chad? It's been a while since you've talked to your old mentor."
"Admiral, I don't think my mean and I are going to be able to escape this but there's a planet here in the Armstrong Nebula"
Klaxons rang as the ship was tugged by the planets gravity but was able to break free.
"Chad? Is it a pirate attack?"
"Worse. I don't think you'll believe me but hopefully this recording would be able to reach you" He replied as he accessed the cameras of the ship over the terminal, pointing them at the monster barreling towards them.
It was moving past, space warping around it as barreled towards them.
"I don't think one dreadnoughts going to be eno-!" He was ripped off his seats as the planet finally won and caught the elusive ship, sending it hurtling towards the surface. The connection cuts off leaving Admiral Hackett waiting as a video was sent to him".
As it arrived he played it once before he played it again and again before he was finally convinced. It was a lot to take in but it seems that something out of the realm of fiction seems to become reality.
"Computer, cancel all my schedules today and send this video to Ambassador Udina and the Alliance Parliament. It seems that we have a problem that might require more than just the guns of the navy"
Chapter 4
While the two prepared to fight for their survival, the signal that had sent earlier had now finally reached the nearest comm buoy. As fast as light travels, it still took days before it reached this comm buoy.
Floating on its lonesome as it orbited around one of the forming stars in the nebula, this innocent thing was probably the most important thing in this sector of space. It isn't life nor the resources since all of it would be useless without this little line to civilization.
A marvel of engineering, a primitive mass relay the size of a car. Dwarfed by their bigger cousins, these constructs are just as important to the stability of civilization as they know it.
As it received the distress signal and the VI's processed the data packet, three things happened in succession. First, it triggered the parameters for the use of QEC emergency line to human space as the Humans have jurisdiction over the Armstrong Nebula. Second, it prepared the normal channels for the burst data its supposed to send every second. Finally, it sent the signals to the places it programmed.
One signal was sent was sent to the nearest System Alliance system while a weaker signal that didn't use the QEC emergency line was sent to a random buoy.
It might have been random at first glance but if a Salarian technician were to scrutinize the comm buoy, they'll find that the thing was bugged.
It takes an ungodly amount of comm buoys to provide just enough bandwidth for the people of the known galaxy. Even with the thousands dotting citadel space and beyond, the demand is still greater that what's available. The Citadel and private communication companies are forced to churn out more of these things and even then they'll need to limit the available bandwidth.
If companies ever hope to keep up with the ever growing demand, they needed things done cheaply and launched as fast as possible. It just so happens most of the major governments of the galaxy and many private entities are more than happy to manufacture parts. Some parts are OK but some are bugged.
It was said that for every comm buoy launched after the meeting of the Salarian's and Asari's, there's thrice as many bugging device out there attached to who knows which buoy. Sufficed to say, there's a lot of the people listening. As to why the citadel isn't that concerned is due to the STG and the Spectres.
One mustn't try to eavesdrop on things they can't handle and the STG just happens to have sensitive information of those that step over the line while the Spectre's… well they're the spectres and nobody wants them snooping around.
Back on the signal, the Quantum Entanglement of the particles for these devices made it so that the signal arrived as soon as it was sent from the Buoy. The relative cost of making them though and the limit them to being only in headquarters of departments that require them such as The System Alliance Patrol, the coast guard like entity of the Alliance
Processed by the VI, this distress signal was resent back to the Comm Buoy's within alliance space to nearby Ports that harbor SAP Ships that are available for rescue operation of the two scientist. All of this dome in a single hours thanks to VI's and the robust communication system
Thankfully there was one such ship that was already ready for such an operation. The SSV Hamilton with its highly decorated and experienced crew.
While it took days for the signal to contact the authorities, it only took hours for the authorities to prepare. When life is in the line, there's no room for slacking off. The captain of the ship was quick to gather his mean for the briefing of the mission
"Now listen up. At 800 hours standard galactic time today, a comm buoy in the Armstrong Nebula picked up a distress signal from the scientific exploratory vessel the CS Northern Wind." Said the captain as he stood in front of the gathering of hardened men and women.
Behind him was the holographic map of the Armstrong Nebula, a dime in a dozen nebula which only serves as an anchorage point for most ships from the Terminus System.
"Not much is known due to the distance from which the signal came from but we can trace the signal just on the edge of the Nebula over here". He said as his hand pointed at the far end of the Nebula which was far away from even most civilization.
"What we can gather from the distress signal is that the two scientist are now trapped in a rogue planet with possibly hostile life forms. Fortunately, the rogue planet doesn't seem to move that much since the signal is still regularly being sent from the same location. This however doesn't mean we should just take our merry time"
"We are the System Alliance Patrol after all and we respond as soon as we can not unlike our brothers in the Navy with their lumbering behemoths." This elicited some chuckles from the crowd.
"We have the one fastest ship in the Patrol's arsenal and by god we shall use it now suit up and prepare to leave port at1200 hrs. I want every single one of you to be ready by then. We are of the first, the oldest and the finest group in the Patrol and we shall show them why we are the best." His mean cheered as they scrambled to get the ship ready.
At barely 100 meters long, the cutter was on the small end of large ships but it's nearly unmatched with its large Eezo core to tonnage ratio. While it does boast some of the highest speeds, it does need to frequently discharge.
At 1200 hours, the ship was ready and heading straight for the nearby Mass Relay.
The captain stared at the massive monolithic structures. Left by the Protheans, near instantaneous travel between two points in the galaxy.
"Captain, approaching Mass Relay."
"Keep her steady"
It's almost disorienting for most people to see how the sky changes in an instant. It was smooth sailing from there as they hopped across several relays before getting to their destination. It only took hours before they started to decelerate.
"Ok people, in and out as fast as we can. Remember its nearly the ships 1st anniversary and I don't want any mishaps"
Turning to the window, he watched as the ship's VI counted down. "Brace for deceleration" As the ship decelerated, the captain could only watch as they came rushing towards the densest debris
"Take evasive maneuvers!" Shouted the captain braced himself as the shields were pelted by micrometeorites. It was a testament to the pilots skill as they weaved around each tumbling rock ranging from boulders to mountains.
The ship shock as they tried to get out but found that the erratic gravitational field in the area was making things hard. The ship was pulled from every which direction and it required the delicate hands of the pilot to get them out of here alive.
Finally, after a few close calls they managed to clear the debris field and now they came face to face with the planet.
"That is the ugliest son of a bitch I've ever seen..." Whispered the pilot as he stared at the almost skull like pattern on the planets blackened surface was illuminated by a star in the background. Its "eyes" looked like dark pits while its mouth were high mountain ranges. Over all, it looked like a creepy rogue planet
While they scanned the planet to find the possible crash site, the pilot called for his captains attention.
"Sir… doesn't that sun look strange?" the pilot asked as they saw the star peeked from the back of the planet
The star looked… odd, Like it was too close for some reason. It doesn't seem to match any known star here and there wasn't enough material in this part of the nebula to make a star. It was then the "eyes" of the planet opened.
A static screech echoed across all radio signals, drowning the cockpit in a cacophony of screeches.
"Get us out of her now!" Shouted the captains and it was only the quick actions of the pilots that prevented them from being pulled into the planet.
The asteroids where their location was previously was suddenly pulled in, burning up and heading straight to the planet like slugs fire from the main gun of a dreadnought
What could only be described as screams of frustration echoed in the ships comm as the eyes of the planet focused upon them, squinting even as it tried to locate them.
"Holy shit! That things alive!"
"Fly you fools!" Commanded the captain as the sensors picked up the rapidly building gravity in the area. An auxiliary engine was ripped out as it was caught at whatever gravity field the planet was producing.
Rushing over to the comms, the captain pushed aside the greenhorn manning the station as he tried to open up a communication to an old friend of his. "Computer, give me a real time connection to Admiral Hackett, this is an emergency!"
The ship shook as meteors from ahead of it was pulled towards the planet, hitting the ship as it passed by. Fire bloomed on the planet's surface as it began to move.
"Chad? It's been a while since you've talked to your old mentor."
"Admiral, I don't think my mean and I are going to be able to escape this but there's a planet here in the Armstrong Nebula"
Klaxons rang as the ship was tugged by the planets gravity but was able to break free.
"Chad? Is it a pirate attack?"
"Worse. I don't think you'll believe me but hopefully this recording would be able to reach you" He replied as he accessed the cameras of the ship over the terminal, pointing them at the monster barreling towards them.
It was moving past, space warping around it as barreled towards them.
"I don't think one dreadnoughts going to be eno-!" He was ripped off his seats as the planet finally won and caught the elusive ship, sending it hurtling towards the surface. The connection cuts off leaving Admiral Hackett waiting as a video was sent to him".
As it arrived he played it once before he played it again and again before he was finally convinced. It was a lot to take in but it seems that something out of the realm of fiction seems to become reality.
"Computer, cancel all my schedules today and send this video to Ambassador Udina and the Alliance Parliament. It seems that we have a problem that might require more than just the guns of the navy"
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IsaacTheAutobot1229
Not too sore, are you?
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I love the horror elements of this, really terrifying when you think of a planet trying to pull you in with intelligent action on its part.
Ryven Razgriz
Not too sore, are you?
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It's even more terrifying since said planet has a scary face and can and will watch you 24/7. It can even send in some harassing units at night for bonus horror-ness.
Brenden1k
Making the rounds.
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Reminds me of hexus, planet cyoa are fun.