Planetside IC

[:| Undying |:]

w00t!! The IC for Planetside is up!!!
http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq270/EmberFive/Logo-2.png

I haz drawn motivational artwork (also included on the OOC) of the new world's low-gravity surface;

http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq270/EmberFive/SeoulZone.png

Go now! Y u no RPG yet!? :)

[:| Undying |:]

http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq270/EmberFive/YUNOPOST.png

[Enigma]

The asteroid tumbled lazily towards the planet, a rough pointed shape barely a couple of meters long, slightly rounded from tumbling with others over the long years. The first faint wisps of atmosphere whispered past its rough shape as gravity pulled it down deeper.

The point stabilized as the heat of its re-entry made its underside burn with fire, not unlike several hundred smaller pieces that regularly fall and burn in its atmosphere. It left a trail in the night sky, remarked by only the eyes of the jungle that happened to look up.

The meteor belly-flopped into the plains, plowing a long gorge in the dirt before finally it came to a stop. For a hour, it sat there, the rock softly pinging as the raw dirt began to slowly dry under the warmth of the sun. And then it lurched, the top half rising a meter. Clear jelly poured out, sizzling in the heat from the hot base. Then an arm appeared, dragging itself forward, out of the jelly bath that had protected it for so long.

The suited figure, hauling with it a heavy black bag, heaved itself over the edge of the rock and tumbled onto the ground with a groan. After a few moments, it stirred again, glancing at the disguised ship and giving it a silent order. With the hiss of hydralics, the top half closed up again.

Satisfied, the figure began crawling along the furrow, towards the jungle edge.

[Xanthuss]

Date: Present Time

___________

The tiny and well-disguised Starship slipped in to the atmosphere of the terrestrial planet in the star system that Humans knew as Alpha Centauri, its sleek shape disguised by a layer worn rock and its stealth systems shielding it from the Human scanners that searched the night sky diligently, looking for rocks or ships just like this one. Flames flared along the asteroids length as it tumbled into atmosphere and a few minutes later it was heading straight for an untouched mountaintop plateau, far from civilization and Human existence.
It came to a rapid stop with a loud sonic boom and spray of shattered stone that was flung high in to the air as the ship slid along the stony ground, shattering outcrops of ancient stone and digging deep in to the thin dirt of the ground.
A full hour later the covering of ancient rock that had disguised the ship for many a decade of Human time shattered, falling away from the sleek matte-black skin of the ship smoothly. A section of the hull opened soon after, folding down to create a ramp that led down to the ground. A tall, cloaked figure stepped down the ramp seconds after it had finished descending; a small air-scooter of alien design floated down after the figure as well. With a hiss the ramp folded back up, almost instantly that the air-scooter and the cloaked figure had cleared it, and melded back seamlessly in to the ships side. With slight crackling sound the ship took off soon after, rising out of the crater it had created and then blurring, becoming opaque, then translucent and then almost totally invisible; the only sign giving it away being a slight rainbow coloured tinge that appeared when the light shone directly on where the ship had been a minute earlier. With another sonic boom that caused the cloaked figure to wince as the ship vanished off in to the evening sky.

The being whose name translated roughly, very roughly, to Q-bee slipped on to the padded seat of the air-scooter and engaged a similar cloaking device as the ship had used. With a crackling sound the scooter and its passenger turned invisible and then an invisible shield erected itself, just in time to protect the alien passenger as the scooter burst out across the plateau and in to the sky with a smaller but none the less loud sonic boom.

[Mr. FNG]

Darkness. . . Consuming. . . Fire. . . Screaming. . . A creature barreling towards him. . .

Micheal opened his eyes, and looked up at the bare ceiling. Don't need that much sleep, but what little i do is always filled with nightmares. . . He slowly sat up, unlocked the window next to his bed, and opened it. He admired the view from his "house", and thought pleasantly to himself,Another beautiful day it would seem. . .Micheal jumped out of his bed, and walked to his desk. He reached a hand underneath it, feeling his way around until he touched a little knob. He twisted it once, twice, once counter-clockwise, and then twice clockwise. A virtual interface appeared, and he quickly typed in his password. To his left, a piece of flooring slid up and out, followed by a tube slowly rising out of the ground. He walked over and opened the tube, revealing his Class-1 Voyager armor, courtesy of the fine people in the SCAR program. He quickly put on his armor, then slowly put on his helmet. Nothing but darkness. After pressing a few keys on his wristpad console, his helmet's HUD began to flicker to life.

/intializing. . ./
/Vital Readings. . . . Green/
/Armor Integrity Readings. . . . Green/
/Navigational system. . . Active/
/Communication Systems. . . Active/

"Gah!" Micheal covered the front of his helmet as the light poured in a lot brighter than usual. . . He had left his night-vision visor active. "Stupid thing. . . Should be light sensitive. . ." He was switching his NV off when he heard a loud sonic boom. What the hell was that. . . Well, might as well check it out. Could be fun. . . Better check with the Captain though. He quickly keyed Captain Shepard of the UNAF, who was in charge of monitoring sky traffic near the colony.

Micheal:*Static* "Captain Shepard, do you read me?"
Shepard:*fumbling and a grumble* "Wha-what? This is Captain Shepard, who is- Ah. Lieutenant Rusakov. What is it?"
Micheal: "I heard a fairly large boom earlier. Did we have any freighters flying near my position around 0500?"
Shepard: *clicking can be heard, along with some beeping and a silent curse* "Hold on Rusakov. This computer is. Not. Cooperat- There we go. Okay, 0500 you said? Checking. . . No. Nothing there Lieutenant. Let me check the scanners around that time. . . Hmmm. . . Odd. . . Probably just an anoma-"
Micheal: "What is it Captain?"
Shepard: "Well, at 0456, our sensors detected an object leaving our atmosphere. It appeared for only. . . 3.4 seconds. Then it just disappeared. Another object was detected about. . .1.2 minutes afterwards? God, why does it have to be in decimals. . . Anyways. A small object, smaller than the first, appeared for 1.87 seconds, then disappeared. Looks like it was flying at a rather horizontal path."
Micheal: ". . ."
Shepard: "Still there Lieutenant?"
Micheal: "Yes. Captain, send me a transport with some UNAF troopers. I want to check it out."
Shepard: "I don't thin- Nevermind. No point arguing with you. You'll just end up going anyways. I'll send them over; expect them in ten minutes."
Micheal: "Thanks Captain. Rusakov, signing out."

Micheal stretched, and walked outside, moving to the edge of the hill his house was perched on. He had a view of quite a portion of the main colony from here, and was thankful for that. If anything attacked, he would have some warning to prepare for combat. He drew his Predator Heavy Pistol and checked the chamber, making sure it was free of obstructions. Clear. Magazine? Check. Spares? Check. I should have told Shepard to have the team bring my MP5A with them. . . Oh well. He holstered the pistol and leaned against the wall of his house.

[Ten minutes later]
The dropship slowly came into view, hovering just above Micheal. It slowly came down, moving forward and then stopping in front of him. A lightly armored UNAF trooper jumped out and walked on over to Micheal, assault rifle slung over his shoulder. He handed Micheal a datapad, with coordinates for the anomaly. Micheal examined it, and saw that it was a fair distance away from the main colony, and the little settlements as well. More so talking to himself, Micheal muttered, "Whatever this is, either it really was just an anomaly, or it was something else. . . Something that didn't WANT to be detected. . ." The UNAF trooper looked at Micheal with a raised eyebrow, and was about to ask a question, but he was cut off by another trooper. "Sir, we're ready. Need a weapon?" Micheal jumped in and helped the other UNAF trooper in. He looked out the bay doors, and muttered, "No, i dont think so. I'd rather not jinx this trip."

[Twenty minutes later]
Micheal and his team of UNAF troopers arrived at the site of the anomaly, and the dropship dropped them off and flew off. "Recon team, we'll be back to make pick-up in thirty, have to refuel. Try not to get into too much trouble!"
Micheal waved off the short-range dropship, then started looking around. One of the UNAF troopers, by the name of Rodriguez, looked at Micheal and shrugged. "Sir, what exactly are we looking for?" Another trooper, Duran, shoved him in the shoulder. "Be quiet Rodriguez! Let him do his thing, we're simply here for back up." The last trooper, Jenkins, ran over to Micheal, who was investigating some burnt trees nearby. "Lieutenant *breathing hard*, I think i found something!" Micheal turned around and followed the excited trooper. He glanced at Rodriguez and Duran, "Keep this area clear, so our bird has a place to land. IF you make any contact, you let know ASAP. Understood troopers?" They both nodded, and pulled out their rifles, leaving the safeties on, but standing at rapt attention.

Micheal and Jenkins hiked through the thick brush, and made it to the. . .
"Here it is sir. According to the data Shepard gave us, it matches the size of the first object."
Micheal walked over to the edge of the crater, and bent down, examining the indentation. Unless we have a meteor clean-up crew I don't know about that can clean up this fast, this must have been some kind of transport. . . But for what. . . He got up, and looked around some more, with Jenkins standing sentry behind him. There had to be some trace, something he could- There it was. A pair of footprints. They sure as hell didn't look human, that was for sure. . . But then they stopped. Just some flattened grass left. Where did they go? Hmm. An investigation for a later time. He snapped a couple pictures with his helmet cam and walked over to Jenkins. He laid a hand on his shoulder and whispered, "Be careful Whatever this might be, may still be around. Let's head back to the others." Jenkins visibly tensed up at the thought of contact with another species, but kept his cool. They walked over to Rodriguez and Duran, and waited for their transport to come back, setting an electronic flare on the ground that their bird could home in on.

[Enigma]

Inside the meteorite, a timer reached zero. A thermal charge ignited, quickly dissolving the last of the acceleration jelly and melting the minimal internal hardware in a flaming inferno in the hollow cavity. The smoking meteorite sunk in on itself. In minutes, the large nickle-iron rock had melted into a pool of pinging metal at the bottom of the crater, all evidence it had been anything other than an asteroid destroyed.


Miles away, under the sheltering cover of the jungle trees, Anna paused on the edge of a large creek. Seeing no threats, she dropped the big black back she carried then unlatched her mud-streaked helmet. Lifting it slightly, she took a few cautious sniffs of the air.

With a grin, she pulled the helmet off her head, filling her lungs deeply with fresh air to expel the reprocessed air she'd been breathing for days, cramp inside the crude delivery meteor.

There was a rustle across the creek, and the large head of a neo-bear pushed passed the undergrowth to sniff at her.

Anna knelt down slowly, resting the helmet on the ground as her other hand pulled out the large knife she had sheathed on her belt.

The neo-bear pushed its way through to the bank and reared up on its back legs, standing an impressive nine feet tall as it bellowed out a challenge. As it thudded back down on its front paws to wade across, Anna lept across the bank impossibly fast, the blade in her hand slicing through the neo-bear's throat.

It tried to strike back but Anna's reflexes were just too fast for it. For a moment the neo-bear stood there, taking in Anna's slim dark shape as the blood drained from its neck, then collapsed.

Anna sighed, wiping her blade off on the dead beast's fur before sheathing it again. Moving upstream, away from the blood that was staining the flowing water, she stripped out of her thin space suit and washed up in the creek, keeping her blade with her as she kept a wary eye out for other predators that might be attracted by the dead neo-bear nearby while her implants swept the radio bands for signals.

Crawling out onto a patch of moss, she unzipped the large black duffel, pulling out a backpack. From this she removed clothes, a tan ballcap and a small pair of boots, all of her gear very much what the settlers would have gotten from Earth before they left on their journey 42 years ago. She dressed quickly, then stuffed the empty outer duffel bag into the suit helmet, along with the mud-stained space suit.

At the edge of the creek, she found a soft muddy place and with her knife dug a small hole near the water's edge that she stuffed her helmet into. From a pocket on her pack, she pulled out a small egg-shaped thermal grenade. Pulling the pin, she dropped it inside the helmet and stepped back. Flame flared inside the helmet, quickly burning the suit, helmet and bag into ash.

When she was satisfied, she used a stick to knock down the harden mud wall, letting the creek water flood in and wash the remaining ash downstream.

Leaping lightly to the opposite bank, she sheathed the knife at her waist as she began to follow the creek downstream. Already the beast's blood had been thinned and washed away - there would be almost no trace by the time the creek left the edge of the jungle. There was a few colonists living in scattered homesteads downstream and further on, a tiny town that was the edge of human civilization, a good day's walk.

With luck, there would be a data terminal there she could use to penetrate the colonists' database. While it was impossible to know all 20,000 colonists that traveled to this planet, it wouldn't do to have someone notice they had an extra person that wasn't in any records.

[GraftRaven]

The Charon hovered its way over the plains, hot on the tracker signal Krath had planted on that neo-bear the last time he had been out here, at the time he had only enough supplies for the trip back and the way he had found the bear last time... well, that wasn't sporting at all. He was as close as the general fix he had would take him, the Charon set down on the forest's edge, its landing gear working their way into the ground from its weight, and Krath stepped out, his vest adorned with various hunting tools and his rifle slung across his back.

As he looked around Krath noticed a faint trail of human sized prints leading into the trees, someone light or skilled in stealth. He followed the prints, they were taking him into the area of the bear. "If they've already killed him..." He muttered to himself, pulling his rifle around to his front. Minutes later he came across a creek, he had lost the tracks in the brush, but odds were if he walked along the creek for a bit he would find something to go on.

Krath walked downstream, noting an odd burned hole in the ground filled with ash before spotting the prints leading up to and then away from it back downstream. Then he spotted it, clearly dead, its head in the water and a very faint trickle of blood running downstream, this was fresh. Better yet, the tracks led further downstream, towards the town, he could catch them there, ask them what it was like to hill his bear.

**************

The Charon set down between the town and the edge of the forest, practically on the edge of the creek. Krath got out and checked the bank for prints, there weren't any on either side so he set off upstream, hoping to catch his poacher en route.

[Enigma]

As Anna walked around a bend in the creek, she could hear the faint angry buzzing of the Charon's drives as the tiny cargo freighter lifted itself into the air, down at the tiny town still a few miles distant.

Anna paused as she realized that the Charon was heading towards her. She'd passed a few house holds on her way downstream, but nothing that suggested to her they'd get supplies by air regularly.

She eyed the distant craft with a frown. The locals couldn't be on to her already, could they?

[Lyniara Arren]

Aria blinked away the call of sleep in her eyes, so busy studying a small lifeform she found in what appeared to be water and with further examination with a Ph reader it was found to be closer to phosphoric acid, she lost it's position as it darted around in the Cell Culture Dish (Also known as a Petri Dish) she finally decided to take a break and left the tiled floor and glass dome of her sample studying area and astrology center, the room's massive telescope calibrated currently to look at one of the moons orbiting the planet. She pulled her hair back and clipped it holding it in a loose ponytail, she left the halls of her so called home without a word, comforted and kept safe from the silence by her own footsteps. She stepped into the world outside to search for any other lifeforms microscopic or otherwise, it had been some time since she even met another human. She sighed to herself as she walked down a trail in the jungle stopping near a clearing to look for any sign of the meteor she witnessed land a few nights before. Finding nothing more than the loud insects of the planet she moved on into the jungle, leaving clay stones so she could find her way back if she were to become lost.

[Enigma]

Anna frowned as she ducked behind cover. It was too far to retrace her steps back to the jungle, but if the locals were looking for her already, she was going to have to strike out in a new direction.

Waiting for the freighter to go past her, she decided to go across the stream and strike out west, towards the little observatory. Hopefully there she would gain access to the colony's computer network.

[Xanthuss]

The being who was Q-bee parked his super-sonic flyer about a mile outside a small human settlement and stepped off it as the shields disengaged.

The flyer shimmered in to existence, releasing its cloaking and making Q-bee visible again. At the same time words shimmered across Q-bee's vision, sent by a mother ship almost a light year away.

// mission: diplomatic engagement with humanity at the star Cri-Lis // engage with prejudice use minimal violence unless threatened but do not hesitate to use violence if person is threatened // acknowledged? Y/N

Q-bee acknowledged the mission guidelines with a quick mental tap on Y and then watched then next line of text.

// local language ‘english’ learning pack – begin download? Y/N //

// Y // Q-bee commanded.

// neural download in progress – please wait // The computer replied, as it began to download a file containing all the knowledge it had on the local language to Q-bee’s neural implant.

The next second a more urgent message popped up. // warning – drone has detected activity by the local sentients at the landing site – ‘Humans’ appear to be military personnel //

“Find the seat of government for this planet, please computer.” Q-bee sub-vocalised, as he turned and looked at the landscape around him.

A minute later a message returned. // no permanent seat of government found – you are advised to contact the nearest government military outpost instead // download of english learning pack at 10% //

Q-bee sighed. “No permanent seat of government? What type of world is this?” Q-bee said out-loud in his native language.

The computer, not understanding the rhetorical question, answered. // planet is a class-three terrestrial world which hosts a stage one non-native settlement of local sentients //

Q-bee clicked his mandibles together in frustration and stepped away from the scooter, commanding it with a sub-vocalised command, to return to his ship while cloaked, and then turned and began to walk towards the town. As he walked he reviewed imagery of Humans, both on Alpha Centauri and Earth, and wondered what really meeting one would be like. They were unlike the other aliens that the Loons had discovered in every way, and it would be exciting to meet them.

The Loons themselves were cool, calm and collected, cold blooded when necessary, and relatively practical about life. If one couldn’t do useful work, why should he remain alive? That was one of the major rules of life in Loon society. If you couldn’t do something useful, anything useful, you would be put down. As simple as that. The Ag-ra-mega, who also happened to be insectoids, where of the same mind set; while the Kir’stee, who were very similar to four feet tall humanoid rodents in both behaviour and appearance, just ate anyone weaker than them; skills didn’t matter to them, just physical hardiness.

Only the Jipo came close to humans in mind set, but they still didn’t bother with cripples or runts; instead they just took care of the elderly who had done enough work during their life to warrant it, otherwise they threw them out on to the street.

And so the mindset of the majority of humans surprised him. He’d always thought sentient life was practical in entirety; that it was natural for sentients to be practical and unsentimental, but Humans threw that idea out the window.

They were the most impractical beings he had ever seen. They built big useless buildings that could only be used to pray to their heinous deities, they took care (for the most part) of their weak and crippled, they fought wars not over resources and living space, but instead over religion, race and caste, they still didn’t have a united government, and they practically destroyed their home world over some quarrel or other. Plus they didn’t even take proper advantage of the technologies available to them.
It was all so crazy. And just to add to it, it was laughable what there scientific name meant; Homo Sapien was their scientific name, and it meant, of all things, Wise Man.

Q-bee would have laughed had he been able, but instead he just clicked his mandibles and began to disguise himself. As a very helpful quirk that the Loons had developed, they could compact their body, making their bodies appear smaller, or instead, spread themselves out, making them appear larger than they really were. Q-bee did this now, as he practically squished himself together.

Slowly but surely he shrunk, as he shortened his legs and arms and even his torso partly. Eventually he had gone from 7 feet to 6 feet, without feeling any discomfort, and then he threw a long black trench coat over himself and attached a voice modifier to his throat; making him appear and sound like a shady trench coated human.

[TheDoctor]

Corporal Georg Liefson stood in the briefing room, awaiting orders. He was in his armor, ready for another day of scouting. The new world still fascinated him, even though he had been there just as long as anyone else. There was nothing in the whole universe that gave him the same feeling as discovering something no one else has ever seen. They had explored past the large planes, and now he didn't know where they were going.

A few minutes later, the Captain called his team into the next room where there was a massive hologram of the globe, bathed in blue light.
"Gentlemen, today we will be exploring past this plane and into the mountains 8 klicks northeast of the plane. These mountains can contain unknown organisms or records of the planet. All we need is information, not casualties. Dismissed!"
With a resounding "Yes Sir!" from every soldier, Georg and his team moved into their dropship that would take them to the mysterious mountains. Georg's heart thumped with anticipation as the ship lifted up. He checked his plasma rifle, checked the plasma weapon on his arm, checked his helmet, and stared at his hands as the ship made its way to the mountains. As soon as it landed, the squad stood up, with Georg at the head.
"Alright men, Move out!"

[Mr. FNG]

The transport arrived about fifteen minutes later, hovering just over the small team's position, and dropping down four lines of steel wire, with handlebars on each line. Micheal waved the UNAF troopers forward, and watched Duran, Jenkins, and Rodriguez grab the handlebars. The lines retracted, pulling the troopers straight up into the transport's belly. Micheal grabbed the handle on his line with one hand, using his other hand to hold his pistol, in case any hostile life decided to attack him. As he started zipping up, his comm unit started flashing blue instead of its normal green hue. He let go of the line as soon as he made it into the transport, and started fiddling with his comm unit, trying to decrypt the code that was flying through the screen. Eventually, he gave up, and waited until his transport arrived at the colony. Hopefully he could have Captain Shepard help him decode it.

[thirty minutes later]

The transport touched down in colony, and Out of nowhere, his HUD went dark, his suit shut down, and he felt the cybernetics used to boost his performance inside his body lock up. All he could do was breathe and move his eyes. Then, a single string of data started scrolling across his HUD :
01000011010011110100010001000101001000000100001001 00110001010101010001010010000001010100010100100100 00010100111001010011010011010100100101010011010100 11010010010100111101001110001011010010000001001111 01110000011001010111001001100001011101000110100101 11011001100101001000000101001001110101011100110110 00010110101101101111011101100010110100100000010001 00011001010111010001100001011010010110110001110011 00111010001000000101010001101000011001010010000001 00010101110110011001010111001001100101011100110111 01000010000001101001011100110010000001101110011011 11011101110010000001101001011011100010000001110100 01101000011001010010000001110011011110010111001101 11010001100101011011010010111000100000010100000111 00100110010101110000011000010111001001100101001000 00011001100110111101110010001000000110010001100101 01100010011100100110100101100101011001100110100101 10111001100111001000000110001001111001001000000101 00110100001101000001010100100010000001000100011001 01011001100110010101101110011100110110100101110110 01100101001000000100011001101111011100100110001101 10010100111010001000000101010001100001011011000110 11110110111000100000010000110110111101101101011100 00011000010110111001111001

It kept repeating for a solid three minutes. Rodriguez and the other UNAF troopers tried to get Micheal to move, but were knocked back by his suit's repulsor fields. Finally, The code stopped being received, and his HUD once again went dark. Then all systems simultaneously came online and he felt himself hit the floor on his back. Hard. He looked around to see the UNAF troopers regarding him in a curious and slightly fearful manner. Finally, Jenkins reached his hand out to Micheal, who graciously took it and pulled himself up. Micheal stood for a moment and scratched the top of his helmet quizically, wondering what the code could have meant. His suit seemed to read his mind somehow, and then flashed another, much shorter message across his HUD :

CODE BLUE TRANSMISSION- Operative Rusakov- Details: The Everest is now in the system. Prepare for debriefing by SCAR Defensive Force: Talon Company

Out loud, all Rusakov could say was, "What the hell is going on. . . ?"

Just as he finished saying that, a resounding boom flooded his, and the UNAF troopers ears, causing them all to cringe in pain for a moment. Micheal was the first to recover, and immediately ran outside the hanger. He found Captain Shepard walking rather wobbly in his direction. He quickly ran over and steadied Shepard, then shook him quickly. "Bring up your damn link to the radar system Captain. Have them do a-" But Shepard wasn't listening to him. He was looking into the sky. Micheal followed his gaze and saw it. "Holy shit. . ." A large Cruiser (http://files.turbosquid.com/Preview/Content_2010_02_19__11_32_33/seaquest01.jpg9affce0b-8464-4726-909f-9ffadf9d2c89Larger.jpg) came into view. On the side in Deep Blue letters was the name Everest.

************************************************** *****************************************

The cruiser extended the large flaps covering its cannons, converting them into function similar to wings. It decreased thrust almost to a complete stop, then engaged its many vertical thrusters to keep it at a hover over the colony. Its altitude was high enough to where its thrusters didn't cause much disturbance to the native flora, though the sound was unmistakable. It emanated a signal to all known military and civilian channels with a single message; "This is Captain Raines of the UNAF Cruiser Everest. Do not fire on us. Friendly human forces on board. We are here to supplement your exisiting defense force. Prepare for incoming troop transports. . ."
As soon as that message completed, a faint blue light was emmited from the bow of the ship, sweeping the entire area of the colony, and five miles outside of it, just barely encompassing the area near the observatory. Micheal felt the light scan over him, and actuallyFelt it. As if his entire body's organic systems had been scanned in a mere moment.
A door on the bottom opened up and roughly ten Transports (http://d6holocron.com/wiki/images/thumb/8/8e/BR-23Courier.jpg/500px-BR-23Courier.jpg) with the words "Talon" Emblazoned on the side flew out, and straight towards the Main colony. One diverged to head to the nearby observatory, while 5 others headed to the largest energy signature they found; the reactor of the Columbia. The other 4 landed in the colony within moments, and dropped off troopers (http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR798gDC9JHScCsogarMszf4I3M4d37l sBdJdJdZweqfQpJqcXb) in uniquely colored (http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSqs8qdQXV6k-Q4yoiKd2U2XliF7mox0GGJU2FbvOHOY99iCh76) armor into the central area.

[Enigma]

High above the system primary, looking like nothing more than a black rock basking in the heat of Alpha Centari, PAX Sentinel 3133393235A noted the arrival of the Everest. The ship broadcast no recognized id. Quantum sensor arrays went to work, silently collecting information on the new arrival. The PAX Sentinel compared the profile to the ones it had on file - and found a match, received from PAX Sentinel 3133393237B, one parsec away.

The transceiver at its core transmitted a burst transmission into the flux of hyperspace, sending the report of the Everest's arrival out into the network. It didn't matter to the PAX Sentinels that the core of the network that their reports were being sent to had been destroyed years before. They did not wonder who was now sending the orders. They were built to watch and report.


Anna sighed as the observatory came into sight. Shading her eyes, she sharpened her focus - and nearly fell as a powerful digital broadcast swept across the plains from the sky.

Anna frowned. It took the colony sleeper ship 41 Terran years just to get to this planet - a second colony ship, sent a year after the first? It was sensible to colonize in waves, the 20,000 humans in the first ship left plenty of room for others. Newcomers would make it easier for her to blend in - but she'd need to put herself into their system as soon as possible.

Gripping the straps of her pack, she took a deep breath - and took off running, her augmented muscles and reflexes setting a ground-destroying pace through the brush.


Anna slowed to a leisurely jog as she reached the observatory, a faint sheen of sweat on her forehead the only sign of her exertion. There was no sign of anyone outside, but there was a trail in the brush not unlike the one she'd left, heading towards the edge of the distant jungle.

Slipping off her pack, she winced as a second broadcast swept across the plain. Unlike the one before, this was no simple tone - it was a binary code. Her implants went to work, quickly breaking the simple encryption.


CODE BLUE TRANSMISSION- Operative Rusakov- Details: The Everest is now in the system. Prepare for debriefing by SCAR Defensive Force: Talon Company

Anna frowned. A defensive force? This did not sound like a colony ship to her. Had Earth send instead a diplomatic mission to meet with the Loons? Or had the probes found something else after the first ship had left?

There was a distant boom that stirred up the native life for miles around.

Anna stepped up to the door and knocked, hesitantly. Her implants reached out, penetrating the observatory's simple network security, fuzzing the door camera to obscure her face and letting her tap into the colony's intranet. In moments she was sorting through the colonist database, looking for missing and deceased colonists when this time a scan swept the plains.

It was clear the new arrivals were looking for something.

There was a girl about her biological age in the colony database who'd gone missing early on - a mute. Kate Jackson, no family, a blonde plump girl. Assumed dead. Anna had hoped to add a record - but if the humans were looking for someone, she'd have to transform herself into one of them instead. This was going to hurt and delay her, but the mission came first.

There was a new signal broadcast by the newcomer. ""This is Captain Raines of the UNAF Cruiser Everest. Do not fire on us. Friendly human forces on board. We are here to supplement your exisiting defense force. Prepare for incoming troop transports. . ."

She stepped away from the observation dome and sighed, looking around for the benefit of the cameras before starting out on the trail the other person had left. Why would Earth send out a crew to supplement the colony's defensive force? Unless it was the Loons...? Or they'd found the Children?

Nanites began moving through her bloodstream, making her feel feverish as the micromachines began to morph her body into mimicking the missing girl's. Anna staggered, then fell, twitching slightly as her face crawled, transforming in moments to appear as a swollen but thinner copy of Kate Jackson. Her hair changed to a sun-lightened brunette while her skin tanned. Anna's breathing rasped as the nanites that normally healed her began attacking her vocal cords.

Spots of color swam across her vision as subtle changes were made to the blood vessels in her irises. Anna was vaguely aware of the hum of the approaching Everest Transport before she slipped gratefully into unconsciousness.

[TheDoctor]

Only ten minutes into the mission, though, Georg was buzzed. "Corporal, we need you back at the colony pronto. Starship Everest is landing." Then, with a loud boom, Georg turned and saw, far away, a large cruiser floating over the colony. With a sigh of disappointment, Georg buzzed back, "Roger that, sir, we are on our way." With a shout to his squad, they all got back in the transport, which quickly lifted off and sped back to the colony.

[Xanthuss]

Ambassador Q-bee winced as a powerful omni-directional transmission swept the plains and the resounding sonic boom burst the sound barrier. His implants squealed in surprise, as they broke down the sonic boom and lowed its volume so as to not hurt there wearers ears.

A second later they set to work on the transmission; de-encrypting it and pinpointing the source.

Another second later, after the transmission was pinpointed, a message from the distant mother ship which currently orbited Proxima Centauri, almost a quarter of a light year away, was received by Q-bee. // warning! an armed human task force has arrived in system! // ‘SCAR’ forces are classed as ''possibly hostile'' //

Q-bee clicked his mandibles in frustration; His mission had just got much harder. He replied to the message none the less. // advised course of action? //

// you are advised to contact ‘SCAR’ first, instead of local authorities //

Q-bee nodded to himself and replied to the computer. // affirmative //

Five minutes later...

After calling to his lander and requesting a long distance atmospheric transport, which arrived soon after, Q-bee decided that the easiest way to contact SCAR was to be waiting at the spot where one of the troop transports landed. And so he had used Computers massive brain power to calculate the most likely spot for the cruiser to land and where Q-bee should be waiting when it did land, to minimize the possibility of a fight and to make the contact as calm as possible.

When Computer had finished doing this, Q-bee had jumped in to the atmospheric transport, and headed off to the contact point.

Resembling a human Helicopter in appearance, but equipped with retracting wings and a pair of small jet engines, the atmospheric transport could defeat the sound barrier easily and travel around the planet in twelve hours if going full speed, even though at that speed it would deafen every being on the said planet, so Q-bee tapered down its speed and set the course, so that he would arrive just before the landing cruiser.

Several minutes later, the atmospheric transport landed on the roof of the Star and Air Port Control Tower for the Main Colony.

Almost instantly a dark figure sprung from the sleek heli-jet, jamming a hat down on its head as it did so, and stood up to a full six feet once it had cleared the spinning rotors.

The atmospheric transport took off a second later, heading back to the landing ship and the base hidden in the mountains that Computer was having built at this very moment. This time it did use its super-sonic flight capability and it streaked away with a sonic boom that shattered windows all throughout Main Colony.


*******

One Year Ago – Onboard the Heavy Cruiser TGA Mee-ga-Clythn, in transit from Star 00-4-588 (Barnard’s Star) to Star 00-4-587 (Sol), the Human Sector, Orion Arm.

Captain stood on the bridge of the heavy cruiser Mee-ga-Clythn and watched as Hyper-space rushed past the sides the ship windows. The Mee-ga-Clythn was a new, revolutionary, star ship, utilising a brand new type of FTL-travel, which was dozens of times faster than what the Kirkenste’ain used. Loons used, he corrected himself. They insisted they be called Loons, not Kirkenste’ain for some weird reason and they took great offence if you called there species by its given name.

With a growl Captain turned his head sharply to the side, as Tactical Officer hurriedly hailed him. “Captain! Another ship has been detected; traveling slower than the speed of light but much faster than any of the current Class-8 Civilizations should be able to make their ships go.”

Captain looked down as the data on this ship appeared on his screen and quickly scanned over it. “Investigate. Engineering and architecture looks to belong to the inhabitants of Star 00-4-587, but they are only a Class-9 civilization, they shouldn’t be able to travel this fast or far.”

A few minutes later Tactical Officer replied. “The ship is most certainly of Star 00-4-587 origin; the 00-4-587ian’s have reached Class-8 status.”

Captain growled, unsheathing his claws in anger. “Remove us from Hyper-space.” Captain commanded.

Hyper-space Officer looked up quickly and bowed his head in acknowledgement. He then turned back to his control panel and began delivering orders to the Engineering department.

An hour later…

The Mee-ga-Clythn slipped out of hyperspace an hour later, straight in to the path of the Human ship Prospector.

A message in English arrived minutes after the silent and brooding Mee-ga-Clythn settled in to following the Prospector’s course. It read: “This is UNS Prospector, to unidentified starship. Please identify yourself! I repeat, this is the Human starship UNS Prospector, to unidentified starship; Pleases respond!”

After Translator had finished translating the message, he presented it to Captain.

“What do we do Captain?” Executive Officer asked Captain, watching as Captain took in the message. “The Protocols of First Contact say we should leave immediately and have no contact with the primitives.”

Captain growled. “We are going to test this ships weaponry on them, that’s what we will do, Executive Officer.” Captain replied finally.

“But Captain, that is against the Protocols of First Contact!” Executive Officer cried.

Captain growled in anger and leapt from his command chair. His spines bristled, and he hit Executive Officer with the back of his spine covered hand. The spines ripped in to the armour plating of Executive Officer’s face, and the alien fell to the floor, dead. “Any other arguments against testing the new weapons on the Humans?” Captain asked, turning to face his crew.

[Enigma]

Anna moaned wordlessly and sat up in the grass, rubbing her face. Of the transport, there was no sign. Briefly she wondered if what she heard was just her imagination or if the transport had simply passed her by. Either way, it didn't matter.

Pulling out her canteen, she gratefully drank the tepid water, her throat feeling hot and sore from the damage inflicted upon her vocal cords by the nanites that normally kept it in great repair.

Hesitantly Anna stood up, swaying slightly as if drunk, and began moving back towards the observatory. Now that she looked like the missing mute girl, Kate Jackson, she was less suspect if found without Kate's id - but the people who knew her would be wanting answers. Especially if one of them had anything to do with why the original girl disappeared. There were so many places to hide a body on a mostly empty world. Or perhaps ran into a neo-bear like Anna had earlier.

The wall stopped her. She paused for a moment, a little confused, then sank down to the ground and leaned against it. In a moment, she was asleep again.

[Lyniara Arren]

Aria decided to take a break near the same pool she had gotten the acid and micro-organisms from, she skipped a stone but it disintegrated. Holding her breath she pulled a notepad and empty waterbottle out, she opened the water bottle releasing the high pressure gas inside, she watched the effect on the acid when she skipped another stone across the fluid and it did not disintegrate. She pulled out a pen and recorded her observations taking a sample of the fluid to see if the gas had worked properly, to turn Acid into Water. She would need to go back to her lab to test it though, she kept the fluid in a vial and wondered if what she did would have an impact on the micro-organisms that called that acid their home. Putting it past her, she capped the bottle and placed everything in her backpack once more, setting out to go a bit deeper in the woods.

[Blazer Eon]

Ethan awoke dazed, his vision blurry and there was some blood nearby on the floor. As the world and room came more into focus he felt waves of vertigo and jolted to his feet when he saw his own blood on the floor. He felt the back of his head, it hurt but it didn't seem to be bleeding. Slowly with a few breaths he calmed down and relaxed into a reserved detached state. A noise that made his ear's want to bleed greeted him and he remembered he had fallen while exploring a waterfall, he was probably in a natural cave concealed by it.

[Enigma]

Anna's eyes fluttered for a moment, then with difficulty she pried them open. Leaning against the wall, she stood up and looked around. She was still alone. Whatever the recently arrived ship was up to, despite the scan that had swept through her, they apparently had much better things to worry about than her.

There was a chair nearby at a table. She staggered over and sat down heavily. The nanites were mostly done, but her body was responding as if she was sick. In a sense, she was.

Anna folded her arms and laid her head down. First, she had to find out about the visitor, wherever he wound up. If he was up to something, she had to fix it. Most races were very centric. The Humans were too new to the Galactic scene, eventually someone would try to push them around. And then there would be a war.

[Lyniara Arren]

Aria started to make her way back towards her lab after she encountered a haunting scene, another person's corpse out here being feasted on by the very jungle itself. She opened a navi that she named Gizmo, turning on her computer in the observatory with it she used the automated turning function of her telescope to turn it to a red nebula she wanted to look at today, the telescope's camera was a little fuzzy so she was nervous but it slowly came into focus. After a few moments of romantic awe, wishing she were as beautiful as what she saw she turned her attention to a file that had been opened on her computer which she could operate using the navi. She saw the contents and was glad it wasn't anything important, each important article needed her very DNA clearance, and not just a hair either. She logged an entry that something had been in her observatory today and possibly still was. Her camera's were not telling her what it was but she could make out that it had not left yet when she went through the content of the blurred tape. She would not set a trap as she neared her observatory, only wished that it would leave before nightfall when she'd force a confrontation. Humans needed to be safe behind walls at night on this planet, when larger animals lurked only distinguishable by moonlight.

[Blazer Eon]

Ethan pulled a small oval shaped item from his backpack and with a flick of a switch, his lightweight hoverboard came to life with it's extended red frame and yellow to white flames. With a sigh he set off for somewhere else, it would be dark soon and there were footprints and animal feces in this cavern, he had no intention of finding out just what animal it belonged to. He hit the play button on his Mp3 with his headphone's in he slowly rose above the gentle chaos of the world. Looking for comfort in the clouds and a sign of civilization where he could land for the night. He saw an observatory twelve kilometers from his own home, he saw a town some twenty kilometers away. Given the slow rate this thing could travel he had to go for the observatory, it would only be an hour before night would fall.

Ethan's board was lower on fuel than he thought though and only carried him eight kilometer's, he couldn't quite make it on foot after the way he plummeted from the sky into a tree almost onto a group of carnivorous birds who would surely rip his arms off. He veered it off to the left and almost trashed his board with that move. He sprinted in a desperate bid to make it close, maybe the owner was on their way back too. He was around a kilometer behind Aria when he ran out of breath. He drank the water that had been acid before Aria did whatever she did. It didn't taste the best but it was cleaner than his alternatives. He risked that it would be acid for the sake of re-hydration. Dehydration would leave him immobile at night and he was already dizzy when he had stopped. Twenty minutes from nightfall he still had two kilometers to go.

[E1Alpha]

"Now that's what I call a good drink!"

John let out a long-drawn sigh of relief, swallowing a good amount of his flask of whisky, which he had brewn at home in his spare time, to just be able to enjoy his favorite drink of all times once more. He screwed the cork onto the flask and slid it into his pocket, before crossing his arms over his chest, looking at the hollowed out excavation ground, in which engineers where using high-precision robots to plant various packs of explosives at key locations. He tapped his foot on the ground a few times, chuckling to himself, remembering how he spent the night after he had discovered a vast mineral vein in the area he was gazing down upon. A special metal alloy, create by the mere gravity of the planet. It was strong as steel, but incredibly flexible and isolating when refined. It was a goldmine for his company. He named it Alphadrite, after the system's name.
Sadly enough, John had lost much mining equipment to this mineral as it proved near unbreakable in its raw form. Bringing back those memories lets a wide smirk appear on John's face, remembering what he said in last week's project meeting. Quietly he repeated it to himself.

"If machinery lets ye down. Use blastpowder. A lot o' blastpowder."

A few moments later, one of the engineers walked up to John.

"Sir, we've got the last C6 packs in place. We're busy evacuation the blast site as we speak."

John raised his hands from his chest and clapped them together, before rubbing them against eachother. He turned to the engineer and walked up to him.

"Git everyone in the shelters. I'll head te the cabin and detonate the whole lot myself. I don't want te give away ma first row place for these fireworks!"

The engineers often had to take a second to understand John's accent, but eventually could make sense from it.

"But sir, it's against our safety measures to-..."

John burst into laughter, slapping his hand onto the engineer's shoulder.

"Tell the rest o' the lads that they uncork the champaign! This 'ere is gonne be the pinnacle of our company!"

The engineer blinked, before nodding, having an awkward smile across his face, before walking off. Very few understood how someone like John could have reached the top of a top-class company like I.M.P.A., but they wouldn't want to work under what they normally have.

John continued to gaze at the digsite for a bit, before heading down to his cabin, where the control panel for all high precision robots was flickering brightly with lights. John saw it as the start of something fantastic. He looked through the impact-proof window, looking at the observatory in the distance, which was clearly visible from atop the canyon they were located on.

"If there is a god out there, then 'e's gonne let this happen nice 'n' smooth. And hopefully not crush that girl's observatory down there. I'd hate having to see that pretty apperation crushed to bits."

John's men had been digging atop the canyon for quite some time now, though they never used explosives yet. John had often seen the girl at the observatory head out while sitting on the canyon's edge. Often had he wondered what she was up to, but never did he find the need to ask her.
Shrugging at the thoughts of what that girl may be doing now, he entered the security code to unlock the explosives's controls. Flicking a switch, he turned on the loudspeakers, which would echoe across the building and past it:

"Fire in the hole! Detonation in minus twenty seconds! Git yer arses to cover!"

John smirked, taking out his flask, flicking the cork off and taking a sip before yelling through the microphone.

"Five! ... Four! ... Three! ... Two! ... One! ... "

Exactly one second later, a tremendous explosion followed, launching dirt and rubble skyward, though the largest projectiles were not bigger than a baseball, due to the careful planting of the explosives.
The sound of explosion would echoe over kilometres, and the rubble would be flung hundreds of meters far.
John was laughing like a madman, leaning back in his chair, always having been one to enjoy big impressive things that make a lot of noise, enjoying what was left in his flask as he waited for the dust to settle.

[Enigma]

There was a sudden roar that tore Anna from her sleep. She jumped to her feet, the chair tipping backward. In the distance, she could see a dust plume.

Had it started already? She couldn't tell. Night wasn't far off. She hurried scanned the grassland, spotting a distant figure who seemed to be slowly heading toward the observatory.

Anna frowned. One? Was it the observatory keeper? Or someone coming for a visit? It didn't seem likely that it was a soldier. If it was an attack, the observatory was

Whatever was going on, there was no repeat of the explosion. It could be colonial mining, but who would be blowing up rocks down on the planet when there was easier minerals to obtain from the Oort cloud that surrounded this system or in the floating asteroids? It was easier to set up smelting in vacuum, using the system primary for heat to burn off the impurities. And wouldn't miners be worried about damage to the Observatory's sensitive systems? If these people were still using mirrors, the explosion might have cracked the optics - with the nearest replacements decades away.

Perhaps the humans didn't think about that?

She had to make a choice - stay here at the dubious shelter of the Observatory, or strike out for the forest edge, hoping her skills would allow her to make camp in a tree near the edge of the jungle.

[Xanthuss]

// warning, a large scale release of kinetic energy is in progress in this location; observations suggest cause is mining activities using primitive explosives // The computer told Q-bee. A second later a 3D map popped-up in to his vision, and marked the location of the explosions with dots of colour. Another second and it filled in other information, such as marking an observatory on the map and filling in a scan of all mobile life forms in the area. // several humans detected in area, including one in observatory – heat signatures also show various wildlife of substantial size //

Q-bee nodded slightly, narrowing his eyes as his scanners took in the mining activities, before dismissing them. But then he turned to the observatory, and quickly noticed the powerful telescope it held. // computer, normal image, full zoom on observatory. // He commanded.

“This could be a problem. If that observatory noticed my ships arrival, it could be catastrophic.” He clicked to himself, as he tapped a sharp finger nail against the concrete of the building’s roof.

However, the computers next message shocked him out of his thoughts. //WARNING! WARNING! – a starship has just made a hyper jump in to this star system. Scans cannot identify ship design. energy footprint is none-identifiable as any known starship design built by known sapient species. // The computer’s warning message appeared in bright red, written in thick, large text. Red lights began to flash all across Q-bee’s vision, as more and more data on the spaceship flooded in. // scans detect heavy weaponry on-board starship, and hostile radar-tracking devices, which have locked on to motherships position. instigating an emergency hyper-jump is recommended. permission granted? Y/M //

Q-bee jumped from his position with a sharp hiss as he watched a burning light billow in the sky.

// WARNING! starship identified as hostile. intruder has just targeted and destroyed civilian habitat of human build, located in the asteroid belt. WARNING! missile launch, missile launch! missiles incoming on motherships position! emergency hyper-jump is in progress, safety protocols override lack of order. mothership will be out of contact for the following ten minutes, do not try to contact during this time. // A second later a burst of radio-white noise crashed over the entire star system, as Mothership instigated a short-range hyper-jump, burrowing through the fabric of the universe and releasing a wave of radio-noise. The crackling noise flooded over radio receivers, communication satellites and even ship comms; anything at all that received a radio signal, drowning out all other communication.

By the time this noise finished, it seemed like years had passed, but it had probably only been five-ten minutes. All around the settlement, people cowered in corners and ran from houses, as the noise overwhelmed their house-hold systems and blasted out of anything that could emit sound.

“Stupidity, that’s given us away!” Q-bee muttered to himself, as he crawled forward to peer over the edge of the building.

[Lyniara Arren]

The blast knocked her from her feet, she ended up being thrown towards the edge of the cliff, she hit her head on a rock pretty hard but it saved her from rolling backwards off the ledge. The observatory gave a slight tremble and the glass on the interface broke, but maybe it didn't, because after a blink it looked like it did before. This was due to the use of engineered Mercury and Silicon mix, an industrial glass that bonds through electric currents. The force of the impact wasn't bad enough for a concussion but it was bad enough to knock her out, she would be vulnerable when night fell. She would have nightmares until she awoke hours later, to find a true nightmare facing her.