Planet of Peculiar Peril: Interactive Story Thread

[Violetta]

Here we go, boys and girls. Let's actually get this thing rolling and see where it leads, eh?

--------------------

Across the uncharted reaches of interstellar space, at great distances that leave entire worlds but a speck detectable by only the most sophisticated of telescopes, the rocket Gemma Lancer cruises through space propelled by its mighty atomic engines. Retro rockets fire, stabilizing the craft as it enters the orbit of a strange, alien world. In moments it descends towards the eerie, rocky landscape. Coming to a rest on it's tail, the engines cool after the long journey.

In the command cabin, young Carina Flaire of the Solar Forces powered down her vessel and contacted the crew via the intercraft system. "Attention! We've made a successful touchdown on Khatar II. Temperature and gravity are within tolerances, and there's a safe, oxygen-rich atmosphere outside. I'm extending the ladder. Gather on the surface at your convenience. Carina out."

Grinning to herself at the prospect of exploring a new world, the girl unfastened her harness and moved to the interior ladder to make her way down to the hatch in the hopes of soon having alien soil under her boots.

 

[Abadon XXX1]

Hearing the intercom, Ouranus nodded her head as she started to get her shoes on. She was excited to find out what kind of technology, but she had been curious how the planet was able to sustain full oxygen though. She wanted to see if there was a way for this planet to either be able to have this naturally or have some kind of technology. None the less, Ouranus walked to the group and saluted as she stepped foot on the alien planet. "Nova ready for duty."

 

[Carnivore]

Damien clambered down the stairs, landing heavily on the soil of Khatar II. Even with the gravity set at Earth standard during the trip, he was still getting used to the heavy pull that seemed to want to yank his spine into his boots. He stretched his lanky form, hoping his muscles would be up to exploring a full sized world. It was nice to get out of the cramped confines of the Gemma Lancer. Not because of claustrophobia, Damien had flown much smaller ships before. But to share it with a crew! That was new, and took more than a little getting used to.

Damien looked around, seeing Carina and Ouranus already down, and noticed wryly that it made him the first man on this alien world. For whatever that was worth. He brushed imaginary space dust from his jumpsuit uniform, and looked around at their landing site. The clearing reminded him a lot of Earth. There was soil underfoot, some thing resembling tall grass some feet away, and beyond that some kind of rocky hills or mountains. As best he could tell, he might as well be outside the city limits of Moscow or Nairobi or Las Vegas. One of those, Damien was never good at Earth geography.

He walked over to the others, nodding at them. "Looks like we made it through outer space in one piece." Damien hoisted his large backpack, filled with rations and supplies, and holstered his space pistol on his belt. "Seems like heading in one direction is as good as any other. I've got enough food and space rations for a couple Earth days. Even if we find plant life, no telling if it's edible, or if it'd affect us somehow."

Looking around at the young women in front of him and the others coming down the ladder, he wondered if any of them really knew what they were doing. But as long as they completed their mission in one piece, Damien didn't much care.

 

[Violetta]

Carina returned Ouranus' salute with a smile. "At ease, rocketeer," she replied with a touch of pride. Saying that made her feel like a full-fledged Commander. "Ouranus, right? Since you're this voyage's technologist, I think it'd be a good idea if you made sure our own gear was ready to go. We've got lots to look at, and I'm sure everyone's eager to get to work after being cooped up in that rocket."

The Martian girl's attention was drawn to Damien as he approached, also looking pleased as punch to get a look at an environment no human had seen before. Already he wanted to get a move on, so it seemed she was right in her assumption that she'd have a ready crew.

"Whoa, I don't think a day's march and back is what we need just yet," Carina told him with a hint of a laugh, "I think just scouting our landing area will do for now. This spot looked good from above, but you can never be too sure. How about... you take that hill to the west... and I'll head for those rocks... Meet back here and we'll determine if this is a good base site after all. In the meantime, Ouranus, I guess it's up to you to get anyone working as they come out."

 

[Abadon XXX1]

"Not a problem commander."

As Ouranus was at ease, she was going through her mind about the tools she needed for this mission. As a technologist, she always knew that there was a tool for every kind of job. As she nodded her head, she already went to work. "On it commander." Her voice was considerably cheerful as she got to work with trying to understand the planet. She put her hand on the ground, picking up a small rock before putting it into a container. She thought it was a good idea to take it up to her lab to see what she could be able to determine the nature of the stone. If they were going to study the land, she was going to understand as much as she could about the planet.

 

[tklsh_swim_grl]

"Ahhhhhh" breathed Chrissana Barkrow, the Gemma Lancer's young engineer as she popped her bowl-shaped helmet off her head upon planting her feet on the ground. She always thought it looked pretty ridiculous anyway but it protected her face from dangerous rocket fuel combustion.

Not half as ridiculous as my ray gun and scanner she thought while picking up a box shaped object with colored lights that flashed with the air content.

"Nothing here commander!" she reported quickly before Carina marched off to explore. "I'll keep an eye on the rocket and make sure it's ready to go if we run into trouble." She flipped some latches and extended extra legs to keep the rocket secured to the ground. After, she started bounding up and down. Being from the Jupiter colony, Chrissana was used to much higher gravity and was really taking advantage of her lower-g freedom!

 

[Carnivore]

"Sounds good to me, you're the professional scout here." Damien said and nodded at Carina's suggestions. It seemed like a good idea to start small, and it would give him a chance to stretch his legs. He put down his backpack by the rocket, Damien wouldn't be needing more than a scanner since he was staying within view of the landing site.

Damien looked over at Chrissana bounding around the engines, merrily flipping latches and jumping around as if she were on the moon instead of a planet. "She must be from one of those cloud cities over Jupiter" Damien mumbled to himself, "which means she's probably a lot stronger than she looks. I'll have to remember that." It was a little unsettling to think that the shorter girl might be able to pick up and throw him, but the spacer wouldn't trade his life amongst the asteroids and stars for the strength gained by sitting at the bottom of a gravity well.

Shrugging the thought off, he wandered west towards the hill. He pulled out his scanner, trying to learn anything useful. "Sparse vegetation, simple tall grass and ferns here. Doesn't look poisonous, but I don't think I'd want to eat an alien salad just yet." Damien talked to himself, staring down at his scanner as it spat out readings seemingly at random with beeps and blips. He scooped up one of the small ferns into a sample vial. Maybe someone would be able to analyze the plant life more. "Hmm, lots of silicon in the rocks, and it looks like a copper vein is farther down… the minerals here would be useful for electronic devices."

Damien was so focused on the scanner, he didn't notice as his toes caught on a rock, tripping him. He threw out his arms, but a split second too late, and thudded heavily to the grass and gravel on the hillside. Sitting up and brushing himself off, he silently cursed himself. "I hope no one saw that. If I don't get used to the gravity soon, everyone will think me a fool."

 

[Violetta]

Carina watched proudly as her crew went to work securing the landing sight, Engineer Barkrow already stabilizing the ship with its additional legs. Damien was already underway, too, heading for the nearby hill to get his own look from that vantage.

The Martian girl reached the boulders soon after, and the auto-mapper she carried read the terrain to update itself. From there she could see the plateau they'd landed on, the hills cropping up on occasion to the west, and the stony mountain nearby. Bizarrely there didn't seem to be much life beyond the grass and sparse bushes. In fact the only thing moving in the distance was Damien who disappeared suddenly into the grass.

Laughing to herself, she turned to the mountain rising nearby. It provided even better vantages if she'd only climb to them. Slinging the auto-matter's strap over her shoulder she started up, hoping to soon find something exciting to make this planet memorable.

 

[Abadon XXX1]

"Hmm."

Ouranus raised her head when she heard Damien stumble. Dusting herself off, she walked over to see if he was okay. For now it seemed that everyone had been working and not one to simply stand there, she went to see how Damien had been doing. Smiling, she walked over to him as she spoke. "Everything okay Damien," she asked with an innocent tone of voice.

 

[Carnivore]

Damien saw Ouranus walk up the hill towards him, silently cursing his bad luck at being seen. He stood up deliberately, and thankfully finding nothing bruised or broken. "Yea," he told Ouranus somewhat gruffly, "I just wanted to take a closer look at the surface, that's all." He turned around to find the offending rock that had caused the fall, and finding a dark, round stone protruding from the soil, he picked it up.

The stone proved to be more than just a rock. It was perfectly spherical, and surprisingly heavy for its size. "Hmm, looks like I tripped over something interesting." Damien said, half to himself and half to Ouranus standing just behind him.

Damien cradled the black object in his large palms, turning it slowly. The sphere felt warm in his hands, and with its weight could mean it was some kind of device. On the other side, markings that might be some language. But it was definitely not like any script he had ever seen in any human language. Holding it in one hand, he picked up the scanner he had dropped while tripping. Analyzing the sphere turned up… nothing. It had been no wonder he hadn't noticed it staring into his scanner earlier, to their equipment, the thing simply didn't exist.

Damien grinned, his curiosity aroused at finally having a task he could tackle. He'd found old Earth artifacts out amongst Neptune's moons before, but they were always easy to understand. This thing was on a completely different level. Maybe it opened up somehow, if only he could figure out the method. Figuring he should show others before attempting to break open the thing, he said without turning, "Hey Nova, what do you make of this? It's definitely not natural."

 

[Regal]

As the crew of the Gemma Lancer went about their business, they had no idea they were being watched. A hovering, cycloptic football sized and oval shaped robot was hiding in the brush, silently observing the newcomers. Moments later it sprang from its hiding place, alarms buzzing.

"WARNING! WARNING! INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!" it yelled. "ATTENTION, INTRUDERS. YOU ARE VIOLATING PROPERTY BELONGING TO THE GLORIOUS BLACK EMPIRE! YOU HAVE SIXTY EARTH SECONDS, OR ONE EARTH MINUTE, TO EVACUATE THE PREMISES AT ONCE. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN YOUR IMMEDIATE TERMINATION!"

It then closed its eye lense and began to initiate a countdown. "60...59...58..."

 

[Abadon XXX1]

Ouranus smiled kindly as she listened to Damien. She didn't judge him about losing her footing. She remembered more often than not that if she didn't keep an eye out on her surroundings that she'd be flat on her face in no time. She watched intently as she followed behind Damien before motioning himself to a strange piece of technology. Her eyes seemed to beam brightly as she then knelt down in front of the artifact. Her silver hair covered her face as she started to look at the device curiously. "Hmmm, this is very peculiar indeed. Perhaps we should take it to the ship and..." Ouranus stopped talking when she heard a robotic voice. "We have to get the commander, it looks like we're about to have company."

 

[Carnivore]

Damien's eyes went wide as the strange object floated in midair ahead of them above the grass. Whatever it was, at the very least it was something threatening. Acting quickly, Damien tossed the orb to Ouranus. "Take this back to the ship. Alert the others. I'll be right behind you." He spoke to her quickly, pointing back towards the landing site. Part of him was reluctant to part with his find. Something about it was captivating… But since this was an official expedition, it wasn't likely he'd be allowed to keep his discovery. At any rate, better they had it then whatever robot they had just encountered.

Turning to the object, now beginning a countdown, it seemed clear that it knew more about them then the reverse. Damien had never heard of the "Glorious Black Empire," and frankly was a little skeptical it was as glorious, or frankly as black, as it claimed. Clearly, their mission couldn't be completed while this thing kept shrieking about termination. Without the time or inclination to consult the others, Damien pulled out his ray gun. He took careful aim right where the cyclopean eye was, fired… and accomplished nothing. The robot seemed completely unaffected by the shot.


Checking the ray gun, Damien turned the dial to maximum and made sure it was charged. This time he fired again, holding the bolt of yellow light over the increasingly annoying football. Again, the weapon didn't even distract the thing. It kept cheerfully, or maybe arrogantly, counting down. "Not good." Damien said, and immediately turned around to bolt back down the hill. This time gravity and his long legs came in handy as he bounded to the rocket and the others, practically colliding with Chrissana as he sprinted into the camp at full steam.

 

[tklsh_swim_grl]

Chrissana stopped her bounding and quickly unholstered her ray gun with the speed only a recent space academy graduate could beat. The scanner in her other hand babbled useless information in addition to red warning lights.

"Titanium-strogium alloy likely heat treated to 1000 deg C, no weapon pods, communications terminals active" rambled the scanner.

"Ok ok tell me something useful!" Chrissana said, trying to find something that would change a setting. "They said these are the latest and greatest but they're not doing much good. Ouranus, are you finding anything?"

She signaled the commander using the scanner's paging button. "Commander, you better get back here!" she shouted while firing at the robot with her ray gun.

 

[Violetta]

Carina had reached a clear vantage on the rocks that let her look back at the landing sight, but when she gazed down at her companions and their rocket she say something troubling. Down below floated a metallic object, and seconds after its appearance the bright beams of ray gun blasts slammed against it.

Then she heard Chrissana's voice beckoning her to return, and that was all she needed to hurry her down the rocky rise back towards the waiting rocket. The engineer's weapon hit the rocket, and by then Carina's weapon was in hand, too. She squeezed her trigger, adding a bright, teal beam to the salvo that heated the robot's metallic skin immediately.

"Keep firing! I don't know what this thing'll do, and I don't want to find out!" the Martian shouted over the sound of her own gun, "Even if we want to escape it'll take longer than than a minute to get that rocket off the ground!"

 

[Regal]

The robotic scout was relatively unphased by their assaults, though that's not to say it wasn't taking damage. If they continued to press the attack it would not be able to survive the countdown. Taking this into consideration, it opted to abort the sequence and instead fire back.

"PROTOCALL 59-0G ABORTED. INITIATING SELF-DEFENSE MODE.'' The robot opened its eye and two twig like arms attached to disintegration guns emerged from the body. It then proceeded to open fire upon the Gemma Lancer crew. Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched by another presence. This entire time the sentry was recording and sending information back to the mothership, including their location. At this very moment several massive warships were heading right to them.

 

[Abadon XXX1]

"Let me think..."

As Ouranus stayed behind cover, she seemed to be studying the machine almost intently. Though on one hand she had wished she was better with a weapon, but maybe she won't need to have a weapon. She grabbed her toolkit as she then looked to Chrissana. "I think I have a plan, try to keep it distracted." As she spoke, she opened her toolkit to grab an assortment of tools. Ouranus kept low to the ground, making herself unassuming to the robot as she did her best to sneak up behind it. Using the tools she had selected, she began her attempt to break into the robot to try and disable it.

 

[Carnivore]

Damien heard Carina's command to keep firing. Having no better idea, Damien turned back to the strange floating robot and fired again, holding his beam steady. The robot reacted, two small arms coming out and firing. A blast zapped right in front of Damien, and a crater suddenly formed just in front of his toes. The ground had been vaporized somehow, something he had never heard of on an Earth weapon. Damien decided he did not want to have a personal experience with the disintegration ray, and ducked behind a stout leg of the rocket just as another blast nipped at his heels. Thankfully, whatever technology the alien had couldn't vaporize the ship, giving him safe cover.

He popped up from behind cover for another salvo of his ray gun, adding his golden blast of light to the rainbow of colors already peppering the mechanical monster. The shootout was blinding, forcing Damien to look away lest the now glowing robot sear his retinas. Looking over, he saw Ouranus creeping around the sight with a toolkit. While he had an idea of what she was planning, he worried the girl was going to get herself killed. He redoubled his efforts, blasting the robot without a care for his energy supply. Hopefully his aggression would keep the thing focused on him.

While zapping away, Damien thought he saw a humanoid figure off in the tall grass, someone besides the intrepid crew of the Lancer. In the midst of the chaos, he couldn't be sure. His instincts told him to be wary; in addition to shooting the robot, he made sure to glance where there may or may not be someone watching them.

 

[tklsh_swim_grl]

Chrissana fired her ray gun while retreating quickly back to the rocket. Luckily for her the robot seemed more concerned with her crew members so she allowed them to cover her retreat as she made her way to the engines. Even after the short a time they had been there, the rocket was fairly cooled down and it would take time for the chemical reactions to start.

"The sooner we can get off the ground the better!" she yelled back to Carina. Steam started to pour out from the exhaust as the rocket began its ignition. Chrissana bounded around the rocket, releasing the extra legs and prepping it for launch.

As the prelaunch procedures were completed, she unholstered her ray gun and started peppering the robot with its deep purple beams.

"Come on get in!" she yelled to the crew

 

[Violetta]

(My deepest apologies for the pointlessly long hiatus. Things got difficult around here for a while.)

Hearing Chrissana announce a readiness to launch, Carina did her part to keep the heat on the robotic intruder. The thought of having to run so soon after landing here made the whole mission feel like such a waste, and she hoped sincerely that Ouranus' tampering would buy them some time. Just in case that didn't work, she also wanted the machine to face her to buy a clear chance for her crewmates to board the rocket unhindered. The only thing that could make a retreat more disastrous would be to have good people picked off the ladder as they made their escape.

"Good work, Chrissana!" Carina called out, "Damien, get ready to board!" That would take care of the crew ready at the rocket, but getting clear with their tech specialist would be trickier. "Ouranus!" the Martian shouted to get her attention, "It may be radio controlled. Try jamming its signal and hope that calms it down some!"

 

[Carnivore]

(Hey, it happens. I'm fine resuming sporadically, it's not like I can't scroll back and refresh my memory. Hope things are cooler now.)

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Damien yelled back at Carina. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck on this desolate rock with a crazed robot as his fellows blasted off to safety. As the robot turned to fire at Carina, Damien made his move, bolting up the ladder for the entry hatch. His long limbs finally coming in handy, he practically leapt up into the hatch in a combination of determination and fear-induced adrenaline.

Damien waved to Carina and the others to get aboard before disappearing into the rocket. He immediately started flipping switches and bringing systems back on line. He could hear the familiar hum as the engines woke up again. Unfortunately, that robot would be able to figure out what he was doing as well as anyone. Hopefully it couldn't climb a ladder or stop the launch somehow. Damien got everything ready to blast off at a moments notice once everyone was aboard.

The only thing left was to type in a destination. They were retreating, but to where? Back to the Solar system? Without completing their mission… Damien would probably just have to go on another one. He eliminated that option right away. The planet's moon? The low gravity and low atmosphere sounded like home sweet home to Damien, but the others probably wouldn't like it. Besides, the bosses back home probably wouldn't like a survey of a lifeless satellite. Perhaps the other side of the planet? Damien figured there was no way for that little robot to follow them around the globe. Maybe they'd be safer there. He typed in the coordinates and waited for the others to climb aboard.

 

[Abadon XXX1]

Come on...come on almost there...

Switching out for a makeshift jammer she had used before to help elude robot opponents during her days in the academy, she started to mess around with the dials to find the signal belonging . Even with the chaos that is ensuing around her, her mind was keeping on the robot as she moved backwards away from the machine. It had to have some kind of signal that could be jammed. If she couldn't fully keep it from moving, at the very least she could knock out its weapons.

 

[Regal]

As the fire fight raged on, the sentry was relentless in its assaults. It took notice of their plans to depart and would have taken actions to prevent that, except it detected Ouranus' attempts to hack into it. It turned its body slightly so that one gun could be focused in its attackers and the other one on Ouranus. It was about to fire when its arm was directly hit by a beam of light and severed from the body.

It responded to this by making erratic noises and firing faster than before. "SUSTAINING FATAL INJURIES! ACTIVATING RETREAT MODE!" it proclaimed. It holstered its weapon and began to flee.

However, things would only get worse as the warships were now entering the planet's atmosphere, ready to descend upon the unsuspecting heroes.

 

[tklsh_swim_grl]

Chrissana ran back up to the engines and started running the rocket through its checks.
I wish this didn't take so long! she thought as several more lights turned green from whatever colors they were representing the rocket's current status. She was too busy to even check the sensors as they flashed an alert.
"Thirty seconds to engine ignition!" she told the commander over the communications system. "I hope we make it out of here quick! Estimate two minutes to achieve orbit."

 

[Carnivore]

Despite being inside the rocket, the hatch was still wide open and Damien clearly heard the robots tinny shout of "ACTIVATING RETREAT MODE!" He was stunned, it seemed like nothing he had done had put a dent in it, yet Carina and Ouranus must have managed somehow. Damien had been ready to turn tail and run, but if the situation was now under control, they should probably stay put. Damien rushed back to the hatch to see Ouranus and Carina on the ground, with the robot quickly disappearing from view.

20… 19… the rocket countdown ticked down to ignition. To Damien's eyes it didn't look like either of them would make it into the rocket in time. The last thing they needed was to split up on a potentially hostile planet. Damien still wasn't sure he trusted any one of them enough to watch his back, but all together the crew seemed capable enough. He turned back to Chrissana at the controls. But would being alone on a rocket with the girl be that bad? He shook the thought out of his mind as quickly as it came, there wasn't time for such fantasies.

"Chrissana, the robots gone. Can you abort the launch? The others still aren't aboard!"