The Discovery of Elredras (FT/OPEN)

by **Elredras** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 12:59 am

OOC: Thank you for reading this! If you would like to take control of the survivors or of any interested parties, by all means, do so. The primary purpose of this rp is for the Elredri to be discovered and, to their dismay, introduced into the interstellar community. Facts about the planet Elredras and the Elredri species can be found at the end of the op.

The Sojourner
Independent passenger vessel
Enroute from Earth to Galagos IV, a 420 Lightyear (42 day) trip

Captain Sorvos almost fell out of his chair as a massive explosion rocked the vessel, spilling his tea across his table and onto his lap. "God dammit..." he muttered, standing and rushing to a console on the wall. "Commander, what's happening?"

"There's-- problem-- plasma condu--" The Commander's voice cut out as another explosion rocked the ship, knocking the Captain to the ground. The Commanders voice came over the ship's intercom, saying "All hands to emergency stations, all passengers immediately proceed to the nearest saferoom! This is not a drill!"

The Captain stood, running out of his private dining room and into the hallway when he felt the ship fall out of warp. As it did a series of conduits on the wall erupted next to the Captain, the rupture electrocuting him to death.

Elredrasian Naval Command
Elredras, Androni System (Officially, the system is uninhabited)
Approximately 2 kilometers underground

The Elredri worked quietly, about 30 people monitoring the various ships travelling within 4 lightyears of the system. It wasn't that the Elredi were hostile, they just... well... kept to themselves. Leftenant Lucas Volki's computer suddenly lit up as it detected a ship falling out of warp nearby Elredras.

"Sir? I have a ship coming out of warp. They're approaching the planet-- it looks like their engines aren't functioning. Our gravitational field is pulling them in."

"Onscreen." The Major said. On the view screen appeared a long, tall ship, with obvious ruptures on the starboard side and a large trail of debris falling out of the ship. "Will it be destroyed on impact with the planet?"

"Ah... Yes, sir, I believe so." the Leftenant said, scanning the ship. "There are about 2500 people on board, however, from more than a dozen species."

"That doesn't matter. Our orders are to avoid any contact with the outsiders, and that's what we're going to do." The Major stated authoritatively. The Elredri watched the view screen as the ship fell into the atmosphere, launching several escape pods. The ship itself fell flaming until it impacted an ice cloud half a kilometer thick, shattering the cloud and slowing the ship's ascent. As it continued to fall, it impacted two more clouds before finally colliding with the frozen planet's surface, creating a small crater as it did so. The various pods mostly landed on the ice clouds, with a couple being tracked to the actual surface.

"Sir... it looks like two of the pods have landed on the planet, one about three kilometers from a surface elevator. Should we intercept them?" Volki asked.

"Negative. The people on the ice clouds will die from a lack of oxygen, and the ones on the surface will freeze by nightfall. The temperature is supposed to be... what, -30 degrees tonight? No outsider will question the cause of their deaths." The Major said, losing interest in the event. "Go back to scanning. Alert me if anyone comes to retrieve the vessel."

by **Egenis** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 1:37 am

Elredras, Androni System
Approximately 5 hours after the incident

The last thing Engineer Thomas McCoy knew, is that one moment the plasma conduits responsible for charging the hyper drive coil ruptured, the whole Engineering Deck exploded and engulfed to flames, lucikly he survived, with a third-degree burn on his left arm that was just freshly bandaged and possibly a bruised elbow. The scene, plated back in his mind like an movie reel, where a medic picked him up, to the drop pod and bandaged his wound, and even injecting his body with nano-serums, specialized nano bots that repair body cells and promote faster healing procedures. His landing pod, along with the medic inside, ejected from the ship as he witnessed the ship slowly engulfed by the flames and crashing down to the ground.

By the time he woke up, he was hit by a wave of nausea, groaning in pain. Despite being disoriented, he already knew he blacked out. How long? he asked to himself. 30 minutes? An hour? Five or more? He ground as he slightly tilted his head still in pain, as he tried to make out his surroundings with his blurry vision. He titled his head to the left to see his bandaged arm, he could somehow make out the white bandage cloth wrapped around his whole left arm, despite giving him a blurry image. He titled his head again to the the center, only to see a face. Yet he could do nothing about it.

The face was that of African-American decency. Wearing a pristine white medic's uniform consisting of a white long-sleeved nano-fiber coat and long white slacks and matching white shoes, and still wearing white latex gloves. Male, his head shaved with black curious eyes, the medic known as Eli Anderson placed a hand on Thomas' right shoulder. He then tilted his head lower and crouched his body so that his patient can see. "Hey?" he said, but his patient gave no response. He tried again, "Hey? Hey, are you alright?"

In Thomas' viewpoint, his vision was clearing up, his nausea gone, though he felt weak. The medic, the same one who picked him up in the Engineering Deck spoke to him. He didn't respond, so the medic spoke to him again. Thomas managed to open his mouth and let out a breath, said "Whe-Where? Where are we?", his voice windy and weak. The medic responded "Good. I'm glad you're well and you can talk.", in contrast, the medic spoke in a more upbeat tone, with a hint of upset, although. Thomas asked again "Where are we?"

"I don't know yet", Eli responded, "But this pod's in life support mode. Best thing to do is stay put for now, okay?" Thomas cleared his throat and swallowed, then responded "Who are you?" this time in a clearer but still weak voice. "Eli Anderson" ,Eli replied "And I take it your Engineer Thomas McCoy, am I right?". Thomas nodded and Eli smiled, without showing teeth, in response. He then let of Thomas' shoulder and stood up inside the drop pod.

by **The Fedral Union** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 1:49 am

(do you mind If I reserve a post for later?)

by **Anesaira** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 8:19 am

Alestra sat on a seat inside the pod, hugging her knees and sniffling. She'd been a bit of help when they'd first launched, but in the absence of direction, she'd simply taken to sitting and watching, unsure of how to move forward. Out of her element, surrounded by foreigners and out of range of any network, she'd been simply overwhelmed.

Her eyes flicked to the burned man as the medic helped him up. She thought it strange, why pick him up, when there was very little space to move him, but she said nothing. Not a doctor, not a member of the crew, just a Lawyer who was bad with money taking a shit flight home.

She flipped open her neural-net and tried to find another network again. She found little, the pod had it's own network, but it wasn't connected to anything, and some other network, a ghost of something she could barely detect which she assumed was what was left of The Sojourner's network.

“Eli Anderson,” she heard, and her eyes flicked back to the two in the middle of the room. Her fingers started to fidget on her shin, forming patterns. “And I take it your engineer Thomas McCoy, right?” she breathed in sharply, eyes darting to the others in the pod, and she tensed, her breathing started getting faster and more ragged as her eyes moved from passenger to passenger.

by **Elredras** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 12:12 pm

Elredrasian Naval Command
Elredras, Androni System
Approximately 2 kilometers underground

Leftenant Volki couldn't get the crashed ship out of his mind. Surely not all outsiders were hostile, and what harm could helping a few dying people do? If he could just come up with a reason, then maybe he could at least send out a probe...

An idea suddenly popped into his mind. The crashed ship had a warp core, which means it had antimatter. Initiating a scan, he detected residue and one intact tank of antimatter. Writing down the information, he stood and walked over to the Major.

"Major, the crashed vessel has an antimatter tank that survived the crash. We can't make it on our own, so shouldn't we retrieve it, along with any other technology that survived?" Volki said, showing the the Major the data. The Major read the data and paused to think for a minute.

"Fine. Send a cloaked shuttle to search the wreckage, but have them return if any other vessels drop out of warp in the system." The Major said, sighing and agreeing. Volki thanked him and walked away, then made a small addition to the orders before sending them out.

Shuttle 30.2.1
Shuttle Bay 3

Sergeant Ador sat at the pilot's console, activating the cloaking device and then taking off. Four soldiers sat in the back of the shuttle, with two cargo crates sitting on the ground between them. As Ador lifted off the ground, a massive metal door began opening up, like a lion's maw. The shuttle shot out, travelling toward the wreckage, dodging ice clouds as it did so. When it neared the first pod that had impacted the planet, the soldiers opened up the cargo door and dropped the first cargo crate from the shuttle to the ground, the crate surviving the 2500 foot drop. The shuttle did the same when it intercepted the second pod, then proceeded toward the Sojourner's wreckage.

Ador thought it was odd that Naval Command would tell them to drop off thermal supplies to the escape pods, but he didn't question his orders. The shuttle landed next to the smoldering hull, rifts stretching all along the side of the ship. Ador stayed with the shuttle while the four soldiers left to secure the antimatter tank and download the ship's database. The soldiers split off into teams of two, entering through the hull's rifts.

by **Egenis** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 5:13 pm

Elredras, Androni System
Inside the drop pod

A woman asked about both of their names, who was sitting somewhere on the pod. Eli was the first to respond. He turned to the woman and raised his hand "You heard it right" he said as he reached out for a handshake "My name's Eli Anderson". Eli then took a quick glance at Thomas who was now comfortably seated and was doing fine by now. However, Thomas had a faraway look in his eyes, probably contemplating of home. He turned to face the woman again and pointed his thumb at Thomas' direction without looking. "This is Thomas McCoy, one of Sojourner's engineers."

As soon as Thomas noticed his name being called he snapped back to his senses, his eyes darting around the pod until he saw Eli conversing with another person. He turned to the woman, making a crude wave. He dropped his hand to the seat, while looking at Eli's conversation. "Excuse me" Eli paused the conversation as Thomas asked in an upbeat and not-so-loud voice."You look familiar. I saw in Sojourner. Uhhhh.... Alestra? Right?" Thomas said as walked across the room and reached his hand for a handshake.

by **-United Earth Directorate-** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 6:46 pm

The Ragnar was adrift in space, its engines having exploded in a horrible malfunction- 15 years ago. When the Directorate sent it out, it was supposed to be on a one-year trip to a system that was now unknown to the ship's semi-intelligent AI, called ATLAS. The passengers, however, never new where they were going. ATLAS continued to maintain the ship (most of it, anyway) as the thousand passengers lie dormant in their cryogenic pods.

Since the main engines were destroyed, ATLAS has had to rely on the ship's maneuvering engines to prevent it from crashing into things. As if the situation weren't bad enough, ATLAS had also 'forgotten' about Earth and all of their colonies, making a distress call impossible. ATLAS was left with only one objective: to maintain the ship and care for its passengers. That was, until it noticed something.

Not too far away, another ship shot out of a seemingly random warp session. It was exploding.

ATLAS was alarmed.

As the other ship began plummeting toward the nearby planet's surface, drones began exiting the Ragnar under ATLAS's orders. They shot off into the distance, following the crashing ship toward its projected crash site.

ATLAS was going to try to obtain the survivors.

by **Elredras** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 2:00 am

Elredras
Sojourner Wreckage
Shuttle 30.2.1

Ador continued to listen to the comm chatter from the soldiers. Everyone in the wreckage was dead-- at least everyone they found. The team heading toward the bridge to download the database found that it had been ripped off the ship, and thus began searching for some kind of server room. Meanwhile, the other team had successfully detached the antimatter tank and were effectively struggling to drag it back to the hull rifts. Considering the ship was diagonally on it's side, that was no easy task. Ador, on the other hand, had his feet kicked up on top of the console reading a novel on his datapad. He could only chuckle as the two soldiers with the tank tried to move it vertically up a corridor, only for the tank to slip and fall halfway up. Through his earpiece, he could hear one of the soldiers cursing under his breath.

The console started beeping, indicating a hail from Naval Command. Ador put his feet down and set aside the datapad, answering the hail.

"This is Sergeant Ador. What can I do for you?"

"Sergeant, this is Leftenant Volki, and I've been monitoring your shuttle. I've detected several probes entering the atmosphere from what we assumed was an abandoned ship. They seem to be moving toward the pods and the wreckage, but the ice clouds are slowing them down."

"How long do we have?"

"About ten minutes, then we're pulling you out."

"Confirmed." Ador said, cutting the video feed. He put his hand up to his ear, saying, "Did you guys catch all of that?"

"Yes, sir--" One of the soldiers said, cut off by another soldier.

"Ten minutes? Are you fucking kidding me? Do you have any idea how heavy this is?!" The soldier shouted, making Ador laugh audibly.

"Fine. Team two, go help team one with the antimatter. We can come back for the database later. It's not like the ship's going to take off and go anywhere." Ador said. As the teams worked to get the tank to the hull rifts, the Sergeant powered up the shuttle and maneuvered it about a foot over the side of the ship, so when the teams came out they wouldn't have to travel far to load the tank into the shuttle and leave.

by **Anesaira** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 3:50 am

She looked at the hand offered to her quizzically, not fully sure what to make of the gesture. Her eyes looked to Eli's face, then back to his hand, before she unfolded herself and grabbed it, using it to pull herself upright. When Thomas came over, and offered his hand, she blushed slightly.

“Yes,” she said quickly, leaving Thomas' hand out awkwardly. “I am Alestra Eranlin Kalin,” she lets out a shuddered breath. “So your both members of the crew? I'm...not really very good at...” she gestures around, softly “Any of this, really. Is there something I can do, to hel...” there is a pause. If either of them where looking closely, they might see a small flash of blue in her right eye, and suddenly her head snapped around.

“Wh-what?” she stuttered, turning back. “I think there's someone out there?” she hissed, suddenly a whisper. “My neural net is trying to connect into something, and it's…not the ships network.” She started breathing rapid, panic becoming more visible.

by **-United Earth Directorate-** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 12:35 pm

ATLAS began receiving data from the drones. The drones' pathfinding software had them avoiding most of the clouds and going through only a few of them, as most of them read as solid. This combined with the climatological data collected by the drones so far led ATLAS to reason that these were ice clouds. ATLAS had no record of ice clouds. It immediately created a report based on its findings, not that it would reach anyone, except maybe the passengers, should they awaken.

A moment later, ATLAS decided that it would begin actively scanning the vicinity for any other ships, reasoning that if one ship was here, there may be more. A nanosecond later, the ship's scanners began actively sending out scanning pulses throughout the surrounding space.

ATLAS began to consider its options. Should another ship be found, what would it do?

by **Elredras** » Wed Apr 06, 2016 2:49 pm

Sojourner Wreckage
Shuttle 30.2.1

Sergeant Ador set the shuttle to hover about a foot over the wreckage, then opened the door at the back of the shuttle and hopped out. Briskly jogging over to the rift in the wreckage's hull, he reached down and grabbed the valve handle and pulled it up, while the four soldiers below pushed it up. They pushed the tank out of the ship and it fell over, slamming down with a bang as it smashed the hull. Ador kept it from rolling down the hull while the soldiers heaved themselves out, breathing heavily. The five of them picked the tank up and quickly moved it into the shuttle, setting it down on the floor of the shuttle and sliding it forward until the tank was fully inside.

Ador jumped into the shuttle and moved to the pilot's console, preparing to head back to base when he heard gunfire behind him. Jolting forward instinctively, he turned around to see two of the soldiers outside raising their rifles firing.

"What the hell are you shooting at?" he shouted, confusion and anger filling his eyes.

"Sir, one of the probes base told us about found us, so we shot it down," one soldier said, while the other ran down the hull of the wreckage to retrieve the probe they'd shot down.

"And what about whomever was directing the probe? Don't you think they'll want to know what happened to it?" Ador growled.

"Well that's why we're retrieving it-- to make sure they don't find it." The soldier returned, carrying the heavy probe and putting it down next to the antimatter tank. Ador shook his head and sighed, closing the door once all of the soldiers were in and began flying back to base.

Shuttle 30.2.1
Shuttle Bay 3

Ador flew back into the shuttle bay, the giant door closing itself behind him. He flew to the an open space on the third story catwalk, maneuvering into position for unloading. Several teenage cadets had apparently drawn the short straw, and their faces cried out for mercy as they realized how heavy the tank was. Ador and the soldiers chuckled as they watched the young boys struggle to carry the tank. Ador grabbed the probe, lifting it up and looking at it as he carried it out. It looked like it had been hit twice-- once on some kind of limb, ripping part of the limb off, and once straight through the center of the probe. For a second he thought he saw the probe try to move, but he disregarded it and sent one of the soldiers to drop the probe off at a science lab for testing. Maybe Military Intelligence or Research and Development could get some use out of it.

Ador sighed and looked around the shuttle bay. The outside world was interesting, but he preferred the icy walls and caverns of the underground. He began filling out his report on his datapad as he walked, entering into the surface elevator. The elevator was filled with cargo and various workers and began descending into the planet. A few minutes later, the ice walls turned into rock, which opened up to a massive cavern. Ador looked out across the cavern, the massive Elredri city filling it to the brim. Magma causeways contained by the geothermal plant glowed brightly, filling the cavern with a dark red glow in addition to the artificial lights from the buildings. Ador found it beautiful.

by **-United Earth Directorate-** » Wed Apr 06, 2016 3:19 pm

Warning signs flashed across the drone's display to the CIC of the Ragnar. ATLAS watched intently. Text reading "WARNING: HIGH VELOCITY PROJECTILE IMPACT" was the centerpiece of the visuals, behind the text being footage of an armed, armored individual firing some kind of rifle at it. A second later, a notification reading "WARNING: STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED" followed by another reading "WARNING: PROPULSION SYSYEMS FAILING" flashed across the screen, and the ground quickly came closer on-screen until an apparent impact occurred and the camera was damaged. Although the video feed stopped, the probe's transmitting systems were still operational, and it continued to provide data on its environment.

ATLAS paused for a moment. It understood that what had just occurred was a hostile action, carried out by a sapient being. Would it retaliate? Could it? ATLAS's options were limited, as the automated security forces were rather small in comparison to-

The crew. Yes, the crew! That was the solution! ATLAS would awaken the crew and passengers. It would inform them of the situation and they, along with the ship's automated security, could retaliate!

Or could they? ATLAS had no idea of the capabilities of the assailant, or assailants. It decided that, before it would bring all of the ship's systems back online and awaken the crew, it would try to subtly maneuver the ship to a better position to scan the surrounding area. After all, ATLAS knew that there was a possibility of an entire fleet just around the corner, and it had to look after the passengers.

With that, some of the ship's auxiliary engines hummed to life and the ship began subtly maneuvering around the planet's orbit.

by **Egenis** » Fri Apr 08, 2016 1:16 am

A few moments Thomas was somehow stunned by Alestra's loss of words the time he extended for a handshake, it almost made him laugh. But then he noticed a small flash of blue in her right eye, he then suddenly saw her head snapped around. She began talking about that her neural net is trying to connect to something. Both he and Eli were suddenly caught off guard about the situation, Eli snapping his head to Alestra's location while Thomas was trying to contain himself. Impossible he thought the Sojourner is sending a distress beacon? No, probably another unlucky ship. He breathed sharply, trying to think of the situation. He glanced nervously around the pod, then absently saying "We need to get out." Eli turned to Thomas saying "What?" Thomas this time turned to Eli saying "Something must be out there, we need to get out of this pod."

by **The Fedral Union** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 1:55 am

Bump In the night? or?

Richard Hammerson; until now was relatively quiet, if it hadn't been for the quick succession of events that had put him in this situation he would have looked out of place. He ran a hand over a bump on his head wincing slightly a grimace appearing upon his smooth face, the loose obsidian colored garments upon him didn't seem so much as a first layer but something akin to an under layer of sorts.
He slicked back his brown short hair, as he let out a sigh.

“What the hell is going on now? First we're blown out of the sky then...”

The situation seemed a bit rapid; and quite hectic, There was far more to Hammerson than met the eye of course, a man like him didn't even look like he could afford the trip the unfortunate lot he was with was on, yet here he was. His tone was rather straight forward and none too amused, he grunted as he shifted positions.

“There’s gotta be an emergency escape hatch, hell ain’t this thing equipped with explosive bolts?”

Hammerson pondered a moment, how crude it was to need explosive bolts; but then even Terran's used such things he supposed, why fix a method witch wasn't broken? He shifted over slightly introducing himself rather as a second thought.

“When I booked this damn trip I didn't think we'd be blasted apart and forced in to an escape pod.”

Or did he? Of course, even if he had conjured up the worst of all things he didn't expect it to happen right off the bat. But of course the mysterious aura of the man didn't give away much other than the typical businessman play-boy mantra that followed his type around. He himself was in a state of slight bewilderment, he stood as much as he could feeling upon the paneling on the walls almost frantically. Hammerson's glances toward the various details of paneling and what ever else he could see such as knobs or miscellaneous console buttons diverged from their primary objective toward Alestra now and then, his expression turned from a plain but strained looked to a slight half smile. Quickly running through a few thoughts In that odd brain of his he decided on something random.

“I don't believe we've met Ma'dam, I'm Richard… I was the dolt knocked out for a few moments in the corner..”

He somewhat nervously chuckled, obviously because of the situation at hand, his brown eyes tried to lock on to the panic stricken woman’s gaze, then toward what he was doing. The thought occurred to him…

“I do quite a bit of mechanical work…. On my own transport unit back at home.. McCoy..”

He spoke aloud even more now calling out the engineers name.

“Do we have anything we can pry one of these panels loose with?”

His eyes looked toward the man then toward a panel that seemed to be marked with some sort of warning strip, possibly indicating a power pack of somekind.

“This… this is quite a pickle”

he said with a bit of a nervous tone in his voice though it began to turn in to a more subtle uneasiness…

TAS Wellington FFG-24

The ships large circular and well lit CIC was abuzz with activity, drones and photoform avatars along side a sophonts manned the various stations that lined several points of the command center, the large holographic projection in the center of the bridge brought up a clear image of the sector; layer upon layer from normal space to ether of meta space/hyperspace to the tiniest quantum fluctuations in between were under constant scrutiny. Captain Se-aioen Uorrian drummed his rubbery black digits against the right armrest of the command chair; those blue eyes focused on the central holographic display seemingly immersed in its every detail. The Savvaran shifted in his seat, looking up toward the wellingtons avatar.

“I take it there hasn't been a signal from an-”

His thought process had been interrupted by a beep, a faint signal just over twenty light years away in the general vicinity of four systems had briefly came through. Uorrian straighten his posture sliding both hands on the armrests of his chair fully now; his mind interlinking with the ships sophont, the tendrils of what seemed to be a strange presence began to intertwine with his thought process; adding a new depth adding a new voice.

-”Can we track down where the hell that came from?”

The Savvaran would ask at the speed of thought; the markings upon his black and white form indicative of his pod's affiliations, and what golden runes weren't covered by his uniform clearly stated he was from one of the more prominent pods on world insofar as spiritual wealth. Which happened to be a form of social capital used by the Savvarans, and primary to most everything before the exchange between other cultures and themselves. The Wellington replied with a soft tone in its exchange back in to the ocra like mind of the Savvaran.

-”We've been getting faint readings from various sources for the past week, it appears though.. That this one was more coherent than the last, it could be our ace.. It's going to take some time to confirm if it was the trip signal.”-

-”So inherently we've got more waiting to do?”-

The sophont of the ship nodded;, the two hundred and fifty meter long Wellington with its white plating slowly drifted within a binary system. A cool red dwarf orbiting a sol class yellow star bathed the ship in two arboreal colors; its sleek angled form with its machinery of war, peace exploration and wonder now lay in wait..

Uorrian sunk back in to his chair, the galaxy as vast as it was had some underlying current of issues outside of the core of allied and Terran space, investigations on to what where causing this where still ongoing; the Terran Alliance, and the GRF had sent out various ships as they've always had to explore the unknown regions of the galaxy.

by **Elredras** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 8:56 am

Coroban, Elredri capital
Approximately 2 Km underground
Elredras

Volki stepped off of the tram, carrying a small duffle bag with his uniform and offsite comm link. He walked down the street and proceeded down a staircase, walking down twenty two flights of stairs before heading down another street. To be honest, the streets were much more like catwalks, with metal netted floors and, from the highest street, almost 100 stories to fall if one were to jump over a railing. The trams and elevators were certainly accommodating, although Volki was stuck at a computer all day and walking the stairs was the only way for him to stay up to par for the military. After about 30 minutes, he reached his apartment, walking in the the god-awful smell of burning vegetables and curry. He could see a small layer of smoke beginning to form on the ceiling as he dropped the duffle and ran forward, looking around the corner and finding his wife at the stove furiously trying to turn off the flame and get the pans away from the heat. As Volki moved in to help, his wife grabbed the front of his shirt and pushed him back out of her kitchen forcefully.

"I've got this! Just... hold on for a minute." She barked, going back to fixing the mess. An air duct in the ceiling turned on and began to pull in the smoke, creating a strong breeze in the room.

Maintenance team 3.21
Air Filtration Center, Coroban
Elredras

Erin Augus punched in several commands into the computer, stirring the filtration tanks and receiving a readout of the filters themselves. One filter in particular was beginning to fail, letting various microbes and toxins, like smoke, back into the general air system. It wasn't a major problem, nor was it unheard of. Erin sealed off the ventilation ducts leading to the filter, then purged the filter. The tank containing the microbes and toxins was vacuumed out and the system shot the contents onto the surface of the planet, the filter itself being burned and sent with it. After the system replaced the atmosphere inside of the tanks, it inserted a new filter into the duct and reopened the airways. Erin made a note to check on the filter in a couple days, just to make sure that it had been installed properly.

On the surface, a foot by foot shaft opening could be found in the side of a glacier, which shaft lead to several of the filtration tanks. A massive gust of air flew out of the shaft, smoke, carbon monoxide, and other toxins as well as a wealth of microbes shot out onto the surface of the planet.

by **Anesaira** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 9:30 am

“I..it see..ms li..ke,” a quick set of breaths, in and out rapidly, stifled her words. She took a moment, slowing her breathing, before continuing. “Seem...s like evor...evar...every...one was.” she got out, looking at those who where still lying unconscious. “I...woke up first, tried...tried to help, somehow managed to wake up the medic, who told me to...sit down.”

She did so, again, falling roughly into the chair and pulling her legs up again. “I'll...keep an eye on the signals.” She frowned softly, managing to get some deep breaths in between sudden spikes of speed. “There is something directly outside though, I think...a transmitter maybe?” she shrugged, softly. “A...signal is trying to let me connect, but the interface isn't running and compatibility software, so they're...just sort of bouncing off one another. Whatever it is though, it's just an ambient link, it's not communicating with anything else.”

by **Egenis** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:21 pm

"I'll go check the supply panel. There's some good stuff inside" Thomas said. He went to a distant left side of the pod, where he found a non-activated holo-interface, which has resemblance to a 21st century camera lens. He hovered his hand to the lifeless interface, and waved once. A small red light slowly and softly glowed in the interface, and a second later, the holo-interface came to life, bursting a small, rectangular, gray-tinted holo-screen. It asked for a passcode, each passcode differing from one person to another. A holo-keyboard then appeared in front of Thomas, bathing him in ominous gray light.

With one hand, he swiftly typed in his passkey, and hit an enter button on the holo-keyboard. A few moments, later the tint, the holo-screen changed. It was tinted into red, the interface gave out a soft warning beep, and a female voice from the interface spoke "Access Denied". Thomas cursed under his breath, and typed in his passkey again, this time more carefully, as soon as it reverted back to normal. A a second later, the holo-screen changed again, this time it was tinted into a more friendly green and the interface said "Access Granted. Welcome, Mr Thomas McCoy".

The interface turned off again, as the door slid upwards swiftly, revealing a small supplies chamber. He went inside the chamber, insoecting it with awe. The provisions within the pod is enough to sustain 20 people in 4 weeks. However, some didn't make to the pods as the Sojourner crashed, thus only 8 people were inside their pod, including him, Eli, and Alestra. He noticed a temperature meter screen facing in front of him. He squinted, and saw the external temperature reading: -20 degrees Celsius. He grabbed a couple of special coats, survival backpacks, supplies and blaster pistols. As he left the chamber the door slid down.

He placed the stuff he grabbed from the chamber, and Eli eyed the stuff. "Where did you get that?" Eli asked. "There's a supply chamber, you can access it by your passkey. You can see for yourself. The medical supplies are more than adequate." Thomas responded as he starts wearing a coat. "You're bringing a coat with you, why?" Eli said. "Temperature meter in the chamber says its negative twenty degrees Celsius outside. Not a good way too die if you're frozen alive." Thomas replied, making Eli chuckle. "Eli, go tend the other survivors, I'm going out, with Alestra" Thomas said. "Sure thing. No wonder why you brought two supplies. You going out for a date?' Eli replied. "What? No, no" Thomas laughed "She has a NeuralNet, we can find out what's outside there. That's why I'm taking her". In response to this, Eli shot a skeptical look at Thomas.

Thomas had put on his survival gear, with his supplies on a backpack and a blaster pistol in his holster. He went to Alestra saying "you go change, you need to help me what's outside there. The gear's back there." He then stayed at her spot.

by **Anesaira** » Tue Apr 19, 2016 10:45 am

“M-m-me?” Alestra stuttered, looking at Thomas in horror. “I can't go out there! I'm a programmer, not some space adventurer!”

“You going out for a date?” Eli questioned, and Alestra tensed further.

“What? No, no,” Thomas laughed, “She has a neural-net, we can find out what's outside there, that's why I'm taking her.” He threw her the cold weather gear and the blaster…

Which she promptly dropped.

She fumbled, and then picked up the clothing, leaving the blaster on the floor. “If...I'm going out there, I'd prefer someone else to hold that.” She said, nodding to the pistol as she moved to a smaller alcove, which provided at least some privacy. “I don't know how to use it, probably shoot someone on our side, if we got into a fight.”

She got changed, quickly in the corner, with startling efficiency, and then stepped out.

“Okay...okay,” she repeated, trying to breath properly. “Let's...do this. There is a signal right outside. If we can get access to it I might be able to get a better idea of any other survivors.”

by **-United Earth Directorate-** » Thu Apr 21, 2016 9:06 am

Nothing.

If there was a ship within the vicinity, it was long gone. ATLAS was somewhat frustrated.

Wait.

ATLAS was never supposed to have emotions... Could this mean-

No matter, it wasn't important.

ATLAS ran a scan of the planet below, pinging it with everything, trying to get a complete reading on composition, presence of life, et cetera. It seemed the only life on the planet beyond random microorganisms and whatnot were near the crash site. ATLAS decided it was time to act.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Marine Cryo Bay
The Ragnar
1300 Shipboard time

Music

Alarms sounded throughout the cryo bay. The Cryogenic pods, which had kept the Ragnar's marine contingent in suspended animation, began the wakeup process. The soldiers began to thaw, and were injected with stimulants to awaken them. The pod doors opened quickly and the marines climbed out in quick succession, coughing up the protective fluids that were put into their bodies to prevent death during the cryo-sleep.

ATLAS's robotic voice echoed throughout the cryo bay.

"This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill. All Marine assets are to be activated immediately. All Marine personnel must be up to combat status immediately.

The marines scrambled over to their lockers and grabbed their uniforms, putting them on. The highest-ranking officer, a Colonel Jack Hoffman, walked over to ATLAS's interface in the room.

"ATLAS," said Hoffman.

"Yes, colonel?" ATLAS replied.

"Bring me up to speed. I want to know everything you've got about this situation."

"Yes sir, colonel."

A few seconds passed as ATLAS compiled the data and prepared it for relay to the marines.

"The situation is as follows," ATLAS said. "Two hours ago, an unidentified spacecraft crashed on the surface of the planet below. I dispatched drones to investigate the crash, and the first to arrive was fired upon and brought down. However, it is still active. Its transponder is still sending signals, meaning whoever shot it down took it with them. I ordered the rest of the drones to return so as to avoid any further losses."

"Hm. Is there anything else?" Hoffman replied.

"Data from the drones indicated that the planet is extremely cold. In fact, its temperature is so low that it allows ice clouds to exist in its atmosphere." ATLAS said.

"Ice clouds? That's a first."

"Indeed, colonel."

"Any signs of life?"

"None detected as of yet, colonel."

"Alright, thank you, ATLAS."

"Pleasure to be of service, colonel."

Hoffman switched the interface off and went to meet his contingent of marines, who had gathered in an assembly area.

Hoffman walked in front of the marines.

"AttenTION!" he barked at them. The soldiers stood at attention.

"At ease!" The soldiers went into rest stance.

"Two hours ago, we dispatched some probes to recon a ship that very recently crashed on this here planet. One of those probes was shot down by some stupid son-of-a-bitch on the ground. WE, are going down there to see if there are any more stupid sons-of-bitches down there. If there are, we will pound those bastards into the damn ground! And if there are any survivors, we pick 'em up, and we bring 'em back here. Any questions?"

Nothing.

"Alright, now get your asses in your suits."

by **Elredras** » Thu Apr 21, 2016 12:05 pm

Xeno research laboratory
Coroban
Elredras Capital

Dr. Killian finished scanning the antimatter, submitting his approval for it's use by the military. Everything brought from the surface had to have his approval before it could be used or placed in the city, which he honestly felt was tedious and unnecessary. But, someone somewhere above his pay grade felt it was important, so he consigned himself to it whenever such services were requested.

Stepping up to a long metal table with a large metal probe lying on top it, he began to scan it with his tricorder. Mostly common materials, and too few rare materials to make the effort worth it to get them out. The computer core inside was still intact, however, so he could at least find out where it came from and whom sent it. Stepping aside to a computer, he typed a series of commands and initiated a download of the data. Skimming through it, he realized that the size of the file was not only increasing-- it was transmitting. It was recording data about the area it was in right now and sending it somewhere.

"Shitshitshit," he said softly, waiving his assistant over. "This probe is still transmitting, we have to find the transmitter and remove it."

The two began working hurriedly, digging through the alien technology. Killian removed the upper hull of the droid, setting it aside and then scanning the various circuits and devices inside.

"I... none of this tech looks familiar, I have no idea what it could be." The assistant said, looking up at the doctor. The doctor finished his scan and moved several gadgets to reveal a cylindrical device, several wires connecting to each end.

"Found it," he said, reaching forward to remove it. As he did, the probe delivered some kind of shock, making the doctor yelp in pain and jump back. Several of the probes limbs began to move erratically, flailing around the table as the assistant jumped back.

"Guards! Guards!" the assistant shouted, frantically running back away from it. A soldier ran into the room and, seeing the probe flailing, raised his rifle and shot it several times, knocking the probe off of the table and onto the ground. Running over, he put two more rounds into its' processor, Just to make sure it was dead. The doctor sat on the ground recovering, now understanding why it was important to inspect alien artifacts. His assistant picked up the tricorder and scanned the machine, then confirmed that it was, indeed, dead. It was no longer gathering data nor transmitting.

by **Egenis** » Thu Apr 21, 2016 9:08 pm

Seeing her complying, Thomas sighed at relief. He then saw Alestra dropping the blaster, saying that someone will have to hold it. Guess I'll have two then, Thomas thought. As he finally puts his hood on, he looks back at Alestra and asks her "You ready?" He then turned and walked to the door, he stared at it for the moment and breathed deeply. This is it. No turning back he thought loudly, and typed an exit code at the pod door. As soon as he opened the door, he saw a snowy landscape with mild wing blowing of the snow from the surface. "Let's go." He said, as he carefully set his foot down the snowy terrain, and started walking.

by **-United Earth Directorate-** » Sat Apr 23, 2016 7:29 pm

The marines get in their suits and head to the surface in dropships. There are four dropships sent. The dropships shoot toward to planet and enter its atmosphere, nearing the crash site.

(OOC: Incredibly sorry for the short post, I can't really write right now and I want to move the story forward.)

by **The Great Harmony** » Sun Apr 24, 2016 6:06 pm

Ice cloud above other survivors

Song of Rage and Tranquillity woke from the hibernation he had entered upon the pods ejection from the stricken ship, crystalline limbs and the tiny shards serving as fingers melting from his body. The first things he noted were that a large shard of ice had torn its way into the pod and that the atmosphere was too thin in his present location to permit organics to breathe, though noting the condition of the deceased organics in the pod they had also realised this problem. Song sighed to himself as he shot small spikes throughout the pod to begin the process of rapid crystallisation, it would take a while but from the movements of the pod from what little of it had become dense crystal it would be coming down shortly. Whether it was done or not.

by **Elredras** » Sun Apr 24, 2016 9:40 pm

Elredri Naval Command
2km underground

"Put two security details in the surface elevators, and evacuate all other personnel. If they find the hangar doors, you are not to open them, under any circumstance." The Major said, the command room in a buzz. He was hoping these dropships would pick up the various survivors and leave, although something told him that they'd want to retrieve their lost probe. A search for the said probe would likely lead them to the Elredri-- a meeting that the Major wanted to avoid, if possible.

One security detail was already present in each of the elevators, so another ascended to the surface, where they traded places with the maintenance crews and scouts. The details ensured that the hulking hangar door was shut, then began setting up defensive positions. The door was sturdy enough to hold out against earthquakes and severe ice storms, but if someone started shooting... that would be a different story.

One of the soldiers stood in the control room, watching the cameras. He could see about 500 meters outside the door, but since night began to fall, he couldn't see well.

by **Anesaira** » Mon Apr 25, 2016 11:06 am

The door opened, and cold, frozen snowy landscape stretching out before them. Alestra had to look away, as the harsh, white light contrasted with the deeper sealed enviroment they had been in. When she looked back out, several things stood out to her.

One, was most obvious: they really where in the middle of nowhere. The snow stretched out as far as the horizon, and no obvious signs of life could be seen. Pieces of the wrecked Sojourner still fell from the sky, small, brief lines of fire lighting up the sky. She saw no sign of any other pods, and she wondered if they where the only group who had gotten out.

The second thing that stood out took her longer to realise. About 10 metres from the pod, a box stood, clearly placed rather then fallen. She looked at it somewhat confused, before turning to Thomas.

“Is that part of the Sojourner's supplies?” she asked, and she stepped out of the pod. “It...doesn't look like the same tech."

The Discovery of Elredras (FT/OPEN)

The Discovery of Elredras (FT/OPEN)

as promised.

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