|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 2:50 pm
|
|
|
|
Isara could feel Naomi's hate and anger, even before she started speaking. I feel sorry for you. Pity. There was pity there, too, and a number of other emotions, some of which belonged to Isara herself. And suddenly there were more, what felt like millions more, from thousands of people. The thoughts and emotions churned inside her. She dropped her gun on the floor, and pulled her knees up to her chest, covering her ears. Tears streamed out of her closed eyes, but she couldn't feel them. She tried desperately to close them out, but she couldn't. It was hard enough just to keep breathing in and out, and to keep from puking. Nothing in the outside world could get through the mass of thoughts inside her head. Some part of her recognized that a knife had shown up next to her head, but it failed to understand how it got there, or the danger it represented. After a while, the emotions faded a little, and moved farther away, allowing her to think more clearly.
I made a mistake. I shouldn't have stayed away from people. I should have spent more time with them, learning to understand them, and to control my power. I...can't shut them out.
Eventually, all the emotions but Fog's disappeared. They were strong, but she could handle them. She opened her eyes, and stood up, surveying the damage that had occurred around her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:26 pm
|
|
|
|
Nius had launched himself behind a wall to avoid the firefight as soon as he left the airlock. He was unarmed and wearing nothing to protect him from damage. Oh s**t, I should have made another pass... They'd have been finished by then. Fog suddenly screamed. Whether it was pain, anger or sorrow was impossible for Nius to tell, only that the scream bit into his bones and turned his blood to ice within his veins. He froze, perfectly solid for a second before peeking around the corner. Fog was busy digging inside the beast, blood was all over his arms.
Nius backed away from the sight, repressing the urge to vomit. The image of Fog pulling out the beast's heart and eating it had burned itself into Nius' eyes and mind. His mind completely empty, Nius stood up and walked the long way round to his room. Completely on autopilot to avoid thinking about what he'd just seen, Nius shut himself in his room. The next thing he was aware of, he was sat at his desk with another piece of his Ether Drive open in front of him. He stood up, took a deep breath, ran to his bathroom and vomited in the toilet.
"Ugh..." He sighed, grabbed a drink from his mini-fridge and sat down. Kamaitachi's computer signalled that they'd begun the descent into the atmosphere of the planet, so Nius finished what he was doing to his Ether Drive and started getting ready for the mission.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 3:55 pm
|
|
|
|
DM Post
Sophia only looked at the events, her eyes scanned each situation silently. No emotion triggered in her face. Looks of disgust were an impossibility with her programming. Anger at the damage and repairs of the ship was also an impossibility, though a superficial look of annoyance was possible. The only things she knew were these: danger averted, crew injured but okay, ship landing into atmosphere. "Priority Switch: prepare crew for mission." She shook her head and re-holstered her partisan, walking toward the bridge to oversee the landing procedure.
Outside the expanse of windows available to the Kamaitachi the dense jungle could be seen. The bridge's life systems suggested that the air on the planet was breathable for the biological life in the ship, but recommended gas masks to protect against foreign bacteria and other mild irritants. Dense and chaotic flora seemed to engulf each other, creating walls of shrubbery that needed to be cut through. She pressed a button on the bridge controls, letting the ship hover above a small grassy plain that didn't seem overrun with vines and trees. The hangar doors of the ship opened, while rope ladders descended down from the hangar to the planet floor.
"Get ready guys, and wear your gas masks." She said, her eyes downloading the radar information about an emergency beacon. "The distress signal is about a quarter of a mile away."
(( Fifteen minute trek through the jungle before you guys reach the ship. It's filled with animals that are either growling but too scared to attack, or animals that do attack but are no match for the crew. ))
The jungle was humid and hot, unbearable the crew, and also for Sophia. It seemed her sensors were on the fritz, humidity interfering with some of her components. Still she was able to knock aback some of the bigger predators that tried to attack the crew. She guarded the front of the ship. The plants were similar to what one would find in a rainforest in old Earth, but taller and more chaotic. The animals resembled Earth animals as well, though the colours were bright, almost fluorescent.
Eventually they reach the downed ship, a rope ladder seen leading from an emergency exit down to the forest floor...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 8:44 pm
|
|
|
|
Isara took a few minutes to clean herself up, as well as get geared up for the mission. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself before she had to join the rest of the crew. She didn't want to see Naomi, or Fog, or anyone else who had witnessed her breakdown.
I'll just have to deal with it. This is just a mission, a normal mission, so there shouldn't be too much emotion, other than stress and excitement. And after this, I can spend more time with the crew, and...learn to understand people better, and make up for this.
Isara joined everyone else in the hangar, avoiding eye contact. She was the first one down the rope ladders, and she waited for the rest of the group to get going before walking behind them. She helped when they were attacked, but mostly stayed quiet, and out of the way. They reached the ship, and Isara looked at the rope ladder for a minute, and spoke for the first time since the battle on the ship.
"Does that mean survivors, or that someone else got here first?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 10:00 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 12:29 pm
|
|
|
|
All diagnostic checks reported green, every piece of equipment had been triple checked. Nius felt confident he was as ready as he was going to get. He grabbed his toolbelt and checked the contents. All his lock picking equipment was there, as well as several spares. His gun, a simple pulse carbine, glinted at him. He had only used it once since he'd bought it, and that was just after he bought it to defend himself from some muggers. He used his Ether Drive more often than his gun, but Nius was always acutely aware this his Ether Drive was more fragile that most, thanks to his upgrades.
Nius had felt a twinge of regret at leaving Ironheart in Kamaitachi, so he had set the computer system to standby and had it ready to remote-launch if he needed it. The quarter mile walk to the crashed ship passed quickly for Nius, he spent most of the journey in his virtual vision, testing out new detection algorithms for his radar. 20 algorithms later and he still couldn't detect Sophia walking right next to him. Must be a hardware issue. I'll have to have a look at that when I get back.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|