Outpost Universe Forums
Projects & Development => GORF => Outpost Novellas => Topic started by: Kalshion on May 31, 2006, 12:06:53 AM
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Please read "Constoga 5, Planet Laveron" to get up-to-date information on what happened before here
Now
Chapter 1
Over six years have passed since the blight 'colonized' most of space, the planet we reside on has a natural defense against it, although we found out that the main REASON for that defense was because Eden had originally used this planet to test out the blight sometime before we landed on Laveron, apperently the natural balance on this world was interrupted and created a defense
But apperently mother nature didn't like Eden screwing around with her, because when we found the base it was in shambles. Buildings had holes in them and a lot of them appeared to have been struck by lightning, and where not talking once, where talking several times
Perhaps the most interesting was the hot lab, or advanced research facility, it's containment field was still operational but that didn't matter considering there was a hole the size of our tiger tank on the north side of the facility, so the containment doors where useless anyway
The only scary part about it was that the command center was STILL operational. It's AI was still active and performing daily routines, it was only natural that it perceived us as a threat the moment we cracked the doors and entered, years of abandonment had left it's internal defense grid seriously compromised, so the structure laser turrets didn't exactly work, they did pop out and look at us but they didn't fire
Eden's Garage was still sealed up, when we managed to get inside we found a lot of bodies strewn about. Looked like canabilism had taken place telling by the amount of fleshless people, we knew Eden where barbarians but this finally takes the cake.
It wasn't until we cracked the seal on there research database, which had been stored in a powered down scout, that we realized how much of a gold mine we had found
The database contained information related to weapon's research, but also on inhuman experiments on criminals and plymouth prisoners. I can't tell you how glad I was to find out that nature decided to smite this base and all it's personell
Even the space port had been struck, the gantry crane showed signs that it had been struck by now only lighting, but apperently several hudnred torpedo's and dust storms. It was a safe bet that the space port in general wasn't usable, even if it had, the amount of internal damage would've made it a nightmare to restore
The surrounding's of the abandoned Eden base where also a mystery. It was pretty much a barren waste land, sand dunes doted many areas, it was clear that vegetation had once been around but not any more. For about 90 kilometers this continued till it finally stopped at the edge of a forest
What was best about this planet was it had oxygen. Even though we would rather co-exist with the planet, since it had oxygen we decided to take advantage of that, although we still built inclosed structures, those structures did have the ability to open up vents and let in fresh air: We still had to be on guard in case the oxygen in the air suddenly vanished
Our base was also created to be defensive in nature, RPG and EMP towers doted many area's. Since we where located on the plains and not in a crator, there where several avenues of attack. In fact, a smart person might attack from all four directions.
Thanks to technology though our power plants and contruction facility where located underground, allowing for residential and military structures to be build above ground. The Spider Facility was build above ground, we mainly used spiders now-a-days instea of the slow and combersome tigers. We also used lynxs, but the spiders where now able to house the same weapons that the tigers had
Strangely enough, even though we had oxygen, there was no gravity. In order to move amount the planet we had develope a special type of technology that allowed us to move over the planet surface: Hover technology was soon born and all our vehicles, including the spiders, where equiped with this technology
Maybe it was just a matter of time. Late one night we had spoted a metoer in the sky falling toward the ground, at first we thought it was normal; but then we remembered: The upper atmosphere is made to prevent metoers and other outworldy objects from hitting the planet, that meant it wasn't a metoer, it could only be one thing: An eden seed factory
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I'm just going to ask because it feels like a huge loophole. A lack of gravity is impossible no matter what the planet. If there was no gravity even the hover vehicles would completely fly off the planet, plus the oxygen would not be pulled to the surface it would vent into space... I know its assholish of me to say it but it makes absolutely no sense.
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Yeahh.... I was going to say that too, but didn't want to.
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Thats apart of the story though =)
It's not suppose to make sense
In this part of the story the blight has all but taken the universe, however the blight has been causing some adverse effects on planets
Some planets have no gravity, yet still have oxygen in abundance
Other planets have no gravity, but hover vehicles can still move across the planets surface
Some planets have Oxygen, but vehicles and some such can't operate
This is all apart of the story, basically this part of the story talks about the side effects of this particuler blight infestation, everything will clear up as I progress the story
I must apologize, I meant to explain this in the first post but I've been rather busy
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Chapter 2
We spent several days monitoring the construction of the Eden base. The Seed Factory had landed in one of the most defensible locations, just north of our base and up in the mountains. Of course it also worked to there disadvantage, there wasn't much ground to build on and the ground under them wasn't exactly easy to drill through either
The first vehicles we saw where Eden Lynx and Panther units, they where equiped with sensor arrays to detect approuching 'threats' thankfully our scouts where powered down and well hidden, so unless we powered them up they wouldn't see us
But that wasn't the most disturbing sight, that sight came when we saw a tiger come out of the vehicle factory wielding a very strange looking weapon. It looked like it might've been an old earth flame thrower, but we couldn't be sure exactly
Four days of watching and already they had built up a sizable outpost. Structure factory, command center, vehicle factory, robot command center, and a few weapon emplacements
Of course, our main base was more than able to defend against such a small attack force my main worry was for that tiger
"We need to get into that base." I said to one of my subordinants - "And find out what that thing is"
"I don't know if you'll be able to, it seems they have the base locked up tight and with only one avenue of approuch that'll infiltrating difficult." Another of my men said but I shook my head. "This planet strangely has no gravity remember?"
"Yea... and the only reason we, along with our base and vehicles, haven't floated off is thanks to the generators clamped to the side of our suits and vehicles that simulate gravity around the vehicle or person." A scientist in our group said
I nodded. "I think we have a pretty good idea what happened here, lets go." I said and got up, I jumped off the side of the cliff and allowed my gravity suit to float me to the ground below, granted I had to turn it down slightly so that I wouldn't become a pancake
When I touched the ground I looked around and was glad to know that no one had spotted my 'ascent' into the base. I ran over to the doors, apperently Eden wasn't aware of our presence, the doors where wide open. The moment I stepped inside however I felt artifical gravity, I looked back out the doors and then back down the passage. "Interesting... I didn't know it was possible to have gravity when the space just outside this door has no gravity." I grinned and made my way down the passage
"They must have that information stored in the vehicle factory since they have no research labs here." I said to myself and turned a corner, I saw someone coming down the passage so I ducked into a side room and waited until the person walked by, then continued my way to the factory
I knew I was there when the doors opened and I saw an assembly line producing many of those strange tigers I saw. I made my way into the command center of that factory and noticed no one was in there, odd, I ran over to the control console and accessed the main computer. "Huh.... this is strange.. both the structure and vehicle factories are completely automated, no personal at all." I said and downloaded the information, I apperently tripped something because a moment later the alarms went off
Grabbing my kit I quickly made my way out of the control center and down the gantry path, I stopped before the doors and looked back to see several completed tigers turning toward me, I ran through the doors just as a strange bluish slime spread across and melted the doors. I knelt down and noticed the slime had a metalic look to it, but also noticed that it had stopped burning the ground, I wondered if it was safe to take a sample so I took out my kit and ran a tube through it, sure enough it melted the tube. "Ok...." I said and took out a metalic tube and ran that through it, this time it didn't melt it. "This is VERY strange..." I said to myself and put the full tube in my kit then made my way out of the base
The setting off of the alarm at the factory caused several of the tigers and lynx units outside the converge on the vehicle factory. I ran out the doors and disengaged my gravity control's which pretty much caused me to shot up into the air, I re-engaged the unit's a few feet from the cliff and settled onto the ground, then completely engaged the unit so that I wouldn't fly off again.
That night our resident scientist was amazed at what she was seeing. "This strange slime has the property's of the blight, but this is controled like I've never seen."
"You mean to tell me that Eden actually made a 'weapon' out of this stuff?" I asked her and she nodded. "Yes they did, I don't know how but they have indeed created a weapon here"
"But shouldn't it be not so effective against our units considering we developed blight resistant armor awhile back?" One of my crew men asked. "Well yea but that's only if this particuler strain of the blight is the same as that in orbit, which I doubt." she said and closed her kit. "I have enough here to take back to base, this stuff isn't active so it should be safe." she said and walked out of the scout and over to the cliff edge
I nodded and walked over to her. "Then we'll leave tonight." I said to both her and the others, who nodded and started to pack things up. "Lets just hope those sensor units aren't active at night, and pray they think this place is still 'empty'"
"It's possible they think that the only threat on this planet right now is perhaps pirates, considering you weren't wearing anything that identifys you as a Plymouth." She smiled at me. "Besides, even if they DO find out that there's a plymouth colony here, we know whee they are located and they are located in a very bad location, it will take two weeks for them to thread across the plains to get to our base. However our construction units are faster than there tiger units so we'll be able to set up an outpost here in no time."
A smile creased my face, even though she was a scientist she still tought of military tactics. We decided it was best to wait for now, but I was going to send a message back to the main base to have them send out a small group of convacs under stealth to this location, to lay in wait along with some spiders and perhaps a lynx or two. We just hoped Eden was purely here for there old base and that they would leave until recovering whatever it was that they came for
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A planet with out gravity hmmmm unless its completely hallow its going to have gravity Any larger solid mass with have gravity its just plan fact :P. I know its i story tho just need to say that.
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I'm gonna go with good story.... still I feel the logistics are lagging a little... but this is all due to the blights awkward phoenomenan(sp?)... so lets see where this is going.
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hope Kalshion is still work on this story for do like reading it.
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I havent posted in so long!, Good to see the story is still going.
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One.....
Two..........
Three..............
Four weeks had passed since we had infiltrated the Eden base. We had set up a small outpost in a cave not far from Eden's base.
Rail Towers, Thor Towers, RPG, CMP, ESG, all of which where set up to protect the area into our base. We only had a small detachment with us, but we knew the terrain better than Eden's did, or so we hoped.
"How long now?" I asked the scientist who had helped us a few weeks ago. She had just gotten back from our main base with some new equipement to help analyze some of the items I had brought back.
She looked up at me with those tired eyes and yawned. "Eden's been busy." is all she said before getting back to work.
I walked outside and looked toward the area where Eden's base was, although you could see it right now thanks to the darkness of the sky, you could just barely see the light of there factorie's shining off the sky. Actually, there was more lights now than when we had first arrived. "Seem's they are building up there forces." I said to myself and rubbed my chin. I had always despied Eden for my own reasons, of course until now I never had a chance to actually 'show' it.
"Sir, we got movement to the north of there base. Looks like a few scouts." A young man said to me. "Direction?"
"They are headed west." He said and I thought about it for a second, "not toward the base thats good, but still have a scout tail them, don't get to close though."
"Yes Sir" he said and ran back into the command center
I rubbed my chin one last time. "What is Eden up to... it's apperent that they are looking for something.... but wht.." it baffled me and made me wonder if the reason they didn't have much in combat units might be due to them not having much of a population perhaps?
That night I thought about what I had seen and what I was told. All of it was confusing, without any satallites in order that made the prospect of searching the planet even harder, we had to relie on scouts instead in order to find new ore deposits.
In the rare case's we did finds ruins and old abandoned outposts left by an ancient race. At one point we even found a cit-
"THATS IT!" I said and sprang back up and ran in the direction of the command center. I ran in and noticed no one there, typical, so I jumped into the remote seating for scouts and combat units and brought up the scout that was following the enemy scouts.
I triangulated it's position in accordance with our maps and realized that it was only eighty miles from the location of the destroyed city. My main concern though was that we still had people 'searching' the city and if those scouts got there and reported back that there where people searching the city, they would most likely send in a task force to arrest them. They would then discover that we are here.
"No good..." I said as I tried for over two hours to reach the search team. I rubbed my eye's once more.....
A couple hours later I awoke, I had apperently fallen asleep at the console, my head was laying on it and feeling rather hot right now. I lifted it up and shook the cogs out of it before looking back at the screen. They where now forty miles from the ruined city.
"Why are they so interested..." I asked myself and decided to go through the photo's taken by the search team over the past few weeks. As I did so I passed through several with strange symbols and glyths - one of the symbols looked eerly like Eden's home symbol. The other was the symbol of - Omega.
Then it struck me. "Maybe it wasn't a city after all-" I said to myself. "-that explains why we haven't found any body's or vehicles of any sort. Perhaps the citie's real purpose was for testing" I said and the grim reality came. "If it's for testing, then maybe thats hwy Eden is here.. to see how this 'test' went.
The fear of that being an actual biological test came into my head and voice. It wasn't something I wanted to conceive but it was something I had no voice but to consider, Eden was working on a terraforming project back on New Terra, but this lead to the whole planet being largely uninhabitable thanks to the Blight. Which later evolved and went into space, from there it spread out, we don't know how far. For all we know it is probably only present in this area, but we don't know for sure.
I clasped my hands, the only units we had that could quickly get there are still alpha prototypes back at the research labs. The first flight varient that would be developed since we abandoned earth, but it was still under a lot of tests. "I just hope that search team hides when those scouts arrive." Was all I said before the scouts enemy scouts disappeared into the interior of the city, leaving our scout to stay outside and monitor the situation.
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Thanks for your great work :D
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Not an update to the story, just an update on whats about to happen :P
I hope you all are enjoying this, trust me I am. Sorry about the one-two month long disapperence, life has a way of pulling you away from things you enjoy.
I will get in another update sometime within the next day or so, writing's like these are one's I love to do, and in some case's, specilize at.
To bad I tend to put in to much DETAIL (thumbsup)
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We didn't know how long it would take Eden to search the city. We had been informed by the recon group that several edens units where approuching the abandoned city and that we should flee.
However, we couldn't flee, not after what we discovered. The city itself was a floy, a trick, a way of hiding what was really going on. There was no people living here, the building's where just prefabricated structures made to 'look' real and 'act' real. It was enough to fool us at first, until we found out what was really being hidden.
Under the city was a vast maze of tunnels and hidden rooms, one such room lead to a sealed off vault. When we opened the fault, we where amazed and perhaps horrified, at what we found: An infact, transperent, canister filled with a bluish haze. It wasn't long before we discovered that this 'bluish haze' was actually apart of the blight at one point or another.
However before we could research it further, Eden came with there scouts and started rolling over the ground above us, after being untouched for so many years the ceiling couldn't take the stress and had begun to cave in. We fled through the tunnels and back to our scouts, and soon found ourselves outside tunnels and in the city itself.
At first we thought we had escaped the eye's of Eden, but it wasn't long before we spotted a scout in the distance. We hid ourselves behind some of the 'fake' building's and watched as the Eden scouts passed us by and deeper into the city. After some more time passed we finally made out move.
That was our mistake.
Eden's alarm was raised the moment we moved out from behind the buildings. Several Eden Laser Lynx that had accompanied the scouts turned there attention to us, the first blast hit the building in front of us and vaporized the steel the kept it up, the second slammed against the front panels, but thanks to the reflective armor we had on, the weapon did little damage.
We sped off then and into another tunnel, must've been one of the access tunnels used by Eden when they used to work here. We saw abandoned scouts and other vehicles just sitting there, begging to be looked into. Problem is we couldn't seeing how we where being chased by an Eden scout.
Our driver flew around one corner, and nearly slammed into the far corner before he regained traction and had us go flying out of the tunnel and into the vast plains that laid before us. Eden wasn't about ready to let us go as they continued to chase us even into the green plains, this was the one thing we liked about this planet: Terraforming was happening automatically now, Eden didn't influence the terraforming in anyway.
It was with luck that the recon group had brought in some RPG and MSG lynx, the msg's had riddled the ground with there mines and the moment the Eden lynx's drove over the mines they where struck and behind to slow, while also taking damage. A second later, the RPG's opened fire and there was nothing left of our pursuers.
While we did get out alive, there was no doubt Eden knew 'someone' was here. Thankfully our scout didn't have the color's or markings of a plymouth unit, so maybe it had bought us some time... but we can only hope.
-Report made by Security Officer R'kan of the Plymouth Research Group.
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"Hmm... interesting report." I said as I set it down and looked out the window and toward the city. "perhaps we should keep a closer eye on Eden, and step up our defenses." I said to no one in particuler before closing the report and putting it in a folder and closing the hatch.
I then padded the driver on the shoulder and the next thing I knew, our convec was on it's way back to the research outpost. Closely followed by our escorts and the scout from the research group. "Let's just hope, and pray, that what they discovered might help in fighting off the blight a little more." was all I said before closing my eyes.
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yea finally a another addition.
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I love this story. Please write another chapter.
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Still in the hospital getting over my surgery, when I get home and am able to concentrate more on writing than the pain THEN I'll write another chapter :)
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Ok
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How long.. had we truly been blinded by the enviroment around us?
Over six months had occured since that unexpected finding, and not a word has come back from the six recon groups we dispatched to Eden's small outpost. Strange yet, all signel's from Eden suddenly stopped four months ago, which was odd considering that even if they had abandoned the base, a faint energy signature would've been present even if the eletricity was turned off. There would still be residul trace amounts.
What we lacked in understanding, we made up for in our knowledge of our surroundings. When one of our recon groups finally made contact with the Eden base, there report shocked us down to the deepest depth of the human soul:
"The wall's are painted in blood, bodie's everywhere, it's as if someone had sent these people into the vacuum of space, only far harsher."
Those words would haunt my people for some time to come. Panic had insued, we knew something was odd when we landed here some-time ago, now we realized - this planet was already inhabited by another race, and that race didn't like us being here uninvited.
Our first clue was the destruction of Eden's base, the second clue was the destruction of our front line defense column that been set up just down the mountain from Eden's location.
The third clue... and the most damaging... was when half our population suddenly vanished late at night. Woman, children, 46% of the population just up and disappeared without any warning, without any signs, no foot prints, no sighings... nothing.
Security had been streagthened, new measures put into place. You could no longer walk around the outpost without someone being with you at all times.
It wasn't until the forth and final clue emerged that told us that we truly weren't alone.
It was late in the day, we had just finished preparation's to launch our first RLV sinc we got here. Everything was ready, it was loaded with the material's needed to create an orbital skydock, the skydock had taken twice the amount of material's to create than the very original that we used on New Terra, but that was because this Skydock was shielded from the effects of the blight.
I was in the observation tower when I heard it.. a terrifying.. and horric sound. It came from the space port's command center, scream's could be heard across the interfacility comm. line
What we saw next made us wonder if it was organic, machine.. or something else. The RLV suddenly liquadified, before the fuel on board was ignited. Hot liquad showered across the launch pad, burning through the windows as if they weren't even there. Countless people where injured, many more killed.
By the time my men and I got the port's command center it was to late, all that remained was bit's and peices of bone and the wall was splattered with blood, there wasn't a single location where there wasn't blood.
No evidence though. No foot prints. No tracks of any sort. It was as if an unseen force was striking at our people and then vanishing into the darkness of the night. And these attack's only occured at night, rarely during the day.
We didn't know what we where dealing with, we didn't know how to stop these attacks. What we DID find out was that every attack was occuring either at a mineral refinary base or within the research labs. We searched the records and discovered that the attack's began shortly after we started mining a new mineral we discovered in a deep deep cave located 120 kilometer's from our main base. The mineral held very unique property's, one of which was useful for combating the blight, in fact it actually very effective at this, canceling it out within a certain radius of the mineral.
We also noticed that the mineral's had been completely destroyed in every attack. This got us thinking - maybe the only reason we hadn't been attacked before was because we hadn't been persumed a threat, maybe now that we where mining this mineral we where considered a threat to them. We did know, however, that even if we stopped mining the mineral the attack's woud most likely continue.
Our theory was correct. We stopped mining the mineral for six months, yet the attack's continued, we had now lost over 450,000 people since the attacks began. We had barely 50,000 colonist's remaining.
However, another discovery had been made. One of our recon scouts had picked up a very faint bluish image that was darting across the land, it was moving at a high rate of speed, so fast that the camera's barely got it.
Another thing we discovered, that we had over-looked before, the wall's in our research lab's had already been fitted with this material.. however everywhere else the attack's occured everything had been destroyed.. the attacks in the research facility's had been clean, to a degree, no machine's or anything had been destroyed.
We took advantage of our over-sight and used what little material we had left to construct an energy field to trap one of these strange creatures, the only advantage we had was that the scout's where able to pick them up.. we would use that to figure out what these creatures are and why they are on this planet.
Of course.. what we discovered after words sent deep dark and horrific shivers down everyone's spine...
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That was scary. :unsure:
I cant wait for another chapter though! (thumbsup)
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How many days had truly passed? Time had apperently left us after we discovered what these strange creatures where.
Well, they weren't strange anymore. The creatures where made of energy, but had bits and peices of the blight within them. It explained why machines where easy subverted, or destroyed and why organic's where completely killed off.
It also explained what happened to Edens base, perhaps that was a good thing though as Eden had stopped probing the base and left us alone. We built the small outpost up to include several more residential units and recreational buildings. At the same time we also added a few DIRT - Disaster Instant Resposne Team - buildings to the line up.
The original structure factory we had when we landed was showing signs of wear and tear and keeping it up was costing more than just tearing it down and rebuilding it, so we did just that. The tearing down of the factory was considered a magnecient sight by many of our people, and when it was finally on the ground, the robo-dozers moved about and cleared it and then built the new factory in it's place.
Once it was done the factory started turning out several new structures - including the energy barriers that we had developed a few months back to trap that one sole creature, now we used the barrier to help protect the RLV when it sent into space to supply the orbiting station that we had started to build.
Of course we still have the major problem - rare minerals were indeed rare, as they weren't easy to find on this planet anymore thanks to the blights infection. We had discovered that the blight got onto the planet by adapting to the atmosphere, but it didn't crawl through the ground, it was strictly on the surface. The reason teh rare mineral's were infected was because the blight would saturate the vein and thus render the minerals useless.
So much was going on that no one, not even myself, had time to visit family. Our scientist's where in such a race that many had taken they're beds out of they're quarters and laid them on the ground in there work quarters, made life very simple for them.
While the inside the base was being reinforced, so was the outside. Four different zone's of defense had been set up, the first was the weakest defense line, while the last was the most difficult. The last included several of our newest beam weapons, while the first included several newer RPG weapons.
The thing was - we had no idea that these new creatures had instore for us - time would only tell, and that time soon came one early morning.
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The sky had turned a harsh red color; burning brightly with each passing day. We had been locked up in the reseach lab for so long we hadn't even noticed that the sky had changed colors.
With area around the base completely covered in the blight we had to work faster to get most of our people onto the evacuation transports; but progress was slow, as the blight had strangely reinforced itself and made getting the RLV into orbit a lot tougher, this was made even more harrowing when the blight began to alter the atmosphere to a point where it was creating dangerious storms. There was no doubt about it - the blight had taken on a new form of life.
Tornado's spawned and destroyed the first line of defense in mere seconds, lightning erupted from the clouds ands truck the nearby power units supplying power to the RPG and EMP cannons, the sight of the explosion woke everyone inside the base, children cried and their parents worried that it was only a matter of hours.
Thankfully the blight stopped just short of the last line of defense but it wasn't because of the defense itself; it was because of the energy barrier that we had created.
Over the course of the past few hours our vehicle factory had been churning out the new Creton Energy Tanks, the Creton was a four threaded tank with eight cannons and two energy barriers. It was very slow moving, but it's armor and firepower more than made up for that lack.
The energy barriers killed the blight and stopped it from moving; the cannons were all EMP and further reduced the blight's movement. However the blight was adapting and learning and it wasn't long before EMP stopped working, but the energy barrier's continued to be a thorn in their side.
A bang resonated through the base as the RLV, Re-entry Launch Vehicle, blasted off from the spaceport and into the sky, passing through the energy barrier and then through the atmosphere and into orbit. From there it dropped off it's cargo of computer components and personnel before returning to the planet.
Strangely enough, at night the blight stopped moving, it just settled there, it's bluish flow bouncing off the cloud cover and giving off a blue horizon. It was beautiful, yet frightening at the same time. Many of the base's children couldn't help but be marveled at the sight, many more didn't know that the blue glow came from an entity that would kill them without regret, but no one had the heart to tell that that - to tell them that they had a low chance of making it off the base alive.
Perhaps the fault was my own - I had stupidly thought the blight could not cause any harm and for that I had made availible very little in terms of evacuation ordors. While we did evac a good portion of our population, the sad truth was that our new ship didn't have the capacity for thirty five thousand people - more like ten thousand.
Myself and my family, along with that of the command staff had been gurrenteed a position on board. Out of that ten thousand people that could go we had to consider those that had children, a child was more important than the elderly and so a decision was made to allow children and at least one person from their family to board the next RLV.
It was a fateful decision and one I knew I would regret my whole life - when the announcement had been made, all the elderly knew they were going to be left for dead after the next four RLV's launched. My own grand mother was apart of those I was to leave behind, she had once told me - "Life is important, but the life is a child outwieghs that of any other." I never thought she'd be right.
At first the children didn't understand - but they quickly realized that they would only be going with one parent. Most of those parents were female, a few of them were male to help keep the blood line going. Our scientists and factory personnel were also allowed on board.
That's when it happened - a massive bang revertated through the base and a cloud of super heated plasma rose into the air. The blight had broken through the energy barrier and destroyed the plasma cooling pipes that supplied the barriers with their power.
Now instead of hours, we only had a few minutes - a few minutes to get everyone on board a single RLV. A few minute's to realize that we would only be able to rescue six thousand people, instead of ten thousand. "My god protect us," I said, even though I didn't truly believe in god - this was one time when I truly wished he, or she, did exist.
Fire erupted from the RLV's engines and soon it blasted off into the sky; gantry crane's and lifts were blown off the pad and the craft made it's way through the sky and into the atmosphere. I looked back through the port hole, watching as countless thousands died with each passing seconds.
But, I had left a surprise in store for the blight - something that they would never forget.
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Argggggg. Say couldn't Plymouth use a sonic weapon matched to the blights resonnance to EXTERMINATE the blight........... That's it!!!!!!!!!
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Technically they could ;)
Evening everyone, this is not an addon, but an apology for not making any headway over the past few months. Life has been rough, mostly within the job market which is why I've been unable to write any chapters. I promise to get another up, but please give me some time :)
-Kalshion
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Umm, why would the blight have a resonance?
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well supposedly every thing vibrates.
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How many days had passed since we left the world we had called home for so long? When the RLV lifted off the platform and rocketed into space; a microbomb had been left behind full of EMP coils that would make the blight far more difficult to follow us.
We had ventured over seven lightyears now from the planet; roughly seventy days trip when the bomb suddenly went off. A shockwave so massive that we in the control room felt it might hit us, but to our luck the wave dissipated long before it would reach us.
Still; over ten thousand people crowded our ship. It was one point five kilometers long with numerious cyrogenic bays. Out of those thousands, only a hundred were up and awake.
I myself was amongst those who were awake. My eyes kept to the ships sensor displays, the blight crept at a very slow and agonizing pace through space. We knew that it would be years before it would reach us again but we also knew that Eden wasn't far behind us.
When we had reached orbit and were being tractored into the loosely built station; we had found a second RLV attached to it. On board were Eden Children, most afraid of us due to stories told by their teachers and parents but a couple did seem to be neutral to what was going on.
We had quickly placed them into cyro storage but igniting the ships eight engines; the explosion was enough to send us away. And now here we are, lightyears away from the planet and yet still fearful of what might happen in the coming months.
"Ten thou of rare metals, common and other materials on board," I said to myself, scanning the cargo bays inventory. "Plus enough food for several more months," I listened to myself, curious whether it was a good idea to be talking to one's self.
Outside the massive window, space rolled by. Blackness enveloped everything, with stars being visible through that blackness. I knew we were between star systems and our course had us heading to Alpha Cignus, a system we had sighted many months ago and was rich in planets.
One such planet had caught our attention; a probe we had dispatched days afterwards had arrived and sent us data that we were excited about. While the planet still had less oxygen than needed to have open structures, it was still rich in minerals and had stable grounds. It also appeared to be in a 'natural' transformation, meaning it wasn't accelerated growth like Eden had done to New Terra.
"I guess I'll get some rest then," I said, getting up from my chair and taking one last glance out the window before making my way to the elevator. As it sped through the shaft leading to the cryo-hanger I found myself thinking, wondering if we were truly safe from the Blight, or if another force may exist somewhere in the galaxy.
Truth be told; days after we had launched a transmission was intercepted and shown that there was more life out there; the transmission was mostly grabbled but did have some words spoken, we knew it was English. "Perhaps someone from Earth survived?" One of our communications experts said at the time. The others had quickly wondered the same thing, thinking that maybe Earth had survived the impact of two asteriods - but it was a foregone conclusion.
Stepping onto the deck plating the bay; my eyes quickly fell upon the cryo-pods located on the decks floor. Each pod was specifically designed for two people, and in this case, the bottom pods housed children. Some as young as five, others as old as seventeen.
Like when we launched, most of the adults in cryo were female with only a few males mixed in. Most of our people stayed behind in a futile attempt to stave off the blight, after all, our base was specifically designed to fend off the blight so I was surprised the bomb had actually lasted the whole seventy days.
Passing by another set of pods; I looked inside and smiled. The youngest of my officers was inside, her arm in a sling and her face contorded due to pain she had sustained months before. I had been told that moving her was a mistake, that it would kill her - but as luck would have it she survived the trip from the hospital, to the starport and onto the ship itself.
"Perhaps this new world we won't have to worry about Eden.." The words flowed easily from my lips, I then turned and headed to my own pod. Taking one last glance about the room, I stepped inside and pressed a small green button that was hidden behind a steel flap. The casing began to come down as tubes were feed into my flight suit. When the fusalage closed shut a hissing sound could be heard as cool air was pumped into the pod.
Then, I felt my eyes become heavy as a sleeping compound was pumped into my body. Second's later I was asleep, my hearts rythm slowed down just enough to kepe me alive.
Dream
My dream. It was pleasant. Children ran around without enviromental suits on, they played tag, pouncing upon another in an attempt to say 'your it'. I watched them curiously, wishing I was as young as them.
Around me were various building, some resemble those used in the colony. Others seemed 'new' and were more 'open' to the enviroment.
The Enviroment. A lush, green landscape lay before me, trees sprout up from different points in the ground. Birds flew from tree to tree, chirping away and singing their own song. Foxes searched for a meal while rabbits and racoons scrouged for food.
In the distance I could see light clouds heading our way; a drizzle of rain could be seen. As I watched I felt someone tugging on my pants and looked to find a young girl handing me a flower, "for you," she said to me and smiled.
Accepting the flower; I held it up to my nose and took in the aroma. Paradise... pure and utter paradise.
End Dream
The sound of the fusalage lifting up arose me from my dream; cursing lightly I waited until the tubes retracted from my body before stepping out. My limbs felt numb, cold foul tasting saliva dropped from my mouth. I knew I had to swallow the stuff as it was full of neutrients, the stuff tasted like mucuse.
As I made my way slowly across the deck my eyes fell upon a monitor; on it was a crisp image of a somewhat green world. We were now in orbit above Sigma Cignus 2, the largest planet and the most hospitible one that we could find.
Pressing a few keys I shifted the camera away from Sigma and back toward the other solar system we had once been in. I could barely see the bluish aura of the Blight. It seemed to behaving issues crossing the expanse of space between our two systems. "Perhaps the Blight is weak to more than just EMP," I smiled and made my way to the bridge.
Once there I brough the human systms back online and sent a signal to the command crews cyropods to start waking them up. "We still have two days before we can send down the seed landers to prepare our new colony. We have to locate a spot first, and then hope it has adiquete materials," I said. "Well, time to get the ball rolling."
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"Over there," I shouted to a group of workers as they shifted a crate from the warehouse to the seedlander.
For the past six days we had been repairing damage to the ships; while internally it seemed fine, externally was a different story. Our trek through space had us going through an asteriod belt, while the shielding on board had protect all vital areas, other places lik the observation deck and some of the other unshielded area's took damage.
"Create one six nine, over there," another group of workers nodded and brought another crate over to another seedlander. I looked up at the giant vehicle that lay in the bay. It was different now from what we've used in the past, while it was cyclindrical and still had a point at the top. It now had more AI controled vehicles inside and could better faciliate construction of an outpost.
Along with that; the new command center that would be constructed had improvements on it that would make more ideal and more useful than the last. "Seed loaded," someone shouted as everyone moved away from the seedlander that was positioned above the hanger bay doors.
Everyone left the bay, myself included. The doors closed, air was pumped out of the bay and gravity was established. The doors parted way's and the lander began to drift out of the bay, day's before a scout group had found a perfect location for our first outpost and that was where the lander was headed.
Making my way back to the bridge; the corridors were quiet, only authorized personnel were awake and active. All civilians were still asleep, tucked away in their cyropods awaiting the signal to awaken to a new world.
The bridge was just as quiet as the rest of the ship; the officers on station monitored the cyropods and also kept track of the lander. "Entering atmosphere," one officer said as she kept her eyes on the monitor. Minute's later the lander made a course correction before landing gracefully in the open, green, field.
"Oxygen levels are low, not enough for someone to be outside for extended periods of time," another officer said as he looked at the data that was being transmitted to him via the landers sensor suite. "Gravity seem's about the same as New Terra," the same officer said.
"Seem's everything is ok," I said and walked toward the main view screen. "How about the blight, how is it progressing?"
Another officer turned in his chair and looked at another monitor. "Very very slowly, computer estimates it'll be years before it arrives," he said.
I nodded. "Good, that'll be a major morale boost to the civilian population," a smile creased across my face as I left the bridge and headed to my temporary quarters.
Looking back; I realized that we had just barely made it. "The hull was designed to emit EMP while we flew, I'm surprised nothing shorted out..." I said and laid back in my chair and allowed my eyes to close shut.
Several more days passed; we hadn't launched anymore landers until the main outpost was set up. On this day, four days after the primary lander was launched, myself and a group of colonist's boarded a transport heading to the surface and to our new home.
Our transport flew out of the bay and into the atmosphere, we were in a gerosyncronise orbit above the outpost so it took just a matter of minutes for the transport to arrive at the temporary landing pad. As I unbuckled myself and made ready for the continued experience of leading my people - I wondered just how long it would be before we had to evacuate again.
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The retro-rockets fired as the seedlander came to a slow; it's landing structs extended out of the hull and made a perfect landing. Four doors, one side end side of the lander, curled themselves up with ramps extendeding out of the hull. The ramps touched down on the soft, sandy sand as two autodozers and one construction vehicle came out.
Aboard the seed lander were the parts needed to make an improvement to the structure factory that was already operational and churning out residential structures. The connection tubes that came from each structure were reinforced now, able to withstand earthquakes in magnatude of thirteen point five.
Inside the command center, which was located on a cliff that overlooked the outpost, I stood on the observation deck. "It's only been two weeks," I stated, "and already we have several agridomes, residential and a DIRT up and running," a smile creased my face.
"Things are proceeding nicely sir, our colonists have pretty much been relocated from the starship to the base," someone said behind me. I turned slightly and saw a man wearing a red miners uniform, he looked to be around forty years old, though in reality he was actually thirty.
"Where do we plan to land the starship?" I asked him, turning my attention back to the base.
The man was silent for several seconds before responding. "Eight kilometers from here; it'll be landing in some soft dirt," he said.
I merely nodded and strolled over to some control panels. I looked at the displays above them and nodded again. "Power levels look excellent, the new additions and refinements to the geothermal plants are working better than I thought," I said but then looked up at the defensive screen.
On the screen were over eighteen construction vehicles, all moving around the northern side of the crater. The dozers had excavated a three mile long trench at angle out of the crater and that trench was now being reinforced with metal pylons and braces but was also being equiped with turrets, such as EMP and RPG and MSG.
Up on top of the crater were several other construction vehicles, but these were hover type vehicles that were setting up something else. "The meteor shield should be up in a week," the same man said when he noticed what I was looking at.
"Well, we have the starship in orbit right now so it'll provide us at least some defense's until it's up," I said with a nod. "By the way, how our scout parties going? Have they found any deposits?" I asked.
"Several, but tests have found they are merely common deposits, like nickle and such. We haven't been able to find the rarer stuff but we will," he grinned.
Again, I merely nodded and turned my attention to another construction display. "The Robocommand centers third upgrade should be done in a few hours," I muttered under my breath. "The vehicle factory is nearly done as well," I added.
A sudden alarm took my attention to another display that hung over the center of the command room. All around the center, people manned stations with each monitoring something different. "What's going on?" I shouted over the alarm.
"Meteor inbound, location mark forty six seventy one eight," she said and relayed it to an overview of the base. "It'll hit just outside the crater," she said in a thankful tone.
Seconds later a fireball roared through the sky and slammed into the ground just feet from the craters edge. There was no smoke, as there was no air. I had found this as being very strange. "There is green plant life in this crater and outside it," I said and looked back out the observation window. "And yet, there is no oxygen at all?" I questioned myself.
"Perhaps we have a lot more to learn about this planet sir, either way, I better get back to the men," he said and bowed lightly before leaving the command center.
I sighed but nodded my head. "We still have a lot to do, though I do hope that we don't encounter Eden again - seems everywhere we go, there they are," I grumbled and just kept observing.
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The ground trembled as the first of many robo-miners moved out of the base's newly constructed garage. They sped past a guard post, whose thor hammer AI operated emplacement tracked them casually until they rounded the corner of the University building.
Across the base, several AI controlled surveyors plunged deep metal rods into the soft ground and then waited for several seconds as their hydraulic systems pushed the rods deeper into the crust. Finally, the robots stopped and retracted their rods and then moved on to another assignment
At another garage, a trio of tiger based RPG launchers moved out toward the front of the base. Though the base was still being constructed, the materials on board the ship were enough to build some defensive units.
Toward another side of the base, a top of the crater with one single tube running vertical to the side - an observatory sat, watching the sky and space for any signs of threats.
"Anything?" I said as I stepped into the command center. It had been almost five weeks since we landed and things were progressing nicely.
One woman, wearing a typical miner’s uniform from the old days, turned in her chair and flipped a button on her keyboard. Ahead of me, displayed on a holographic projector, the base's layout came into view. "We are still gathering the materials to build ten additional residential units, which should be enough for the next few years hopefully. Additionally, we have another vehicle factory being built on the eastern side of the base.
"We also have an advanced and a hot-lab being built two kilometers west and south of the base. They should be up and running within a matter of days," she said and retracted the holographic layout.
I tapped my lower chin and nodded. "Make certain the scientists know what they are doing, the last thing we need is another incident that results in the deaths of hundreds," I said, recalling a past event many years ago.
Though I was inside, I could hear the hammering of the wind. Our scientists still hadn't yet figured out why there was no oxygen on a planet that had vegetation, it was baffling. With a heavy sigh I made my way out of the command center and toward the adjacent garage. Flipping open the door to a lynx light recon vehicle, I got inside and checked all the systems to make sure they were in working order before turning the engine on and heading out.
A small warning light beeped on, the robotic command center's AI was angry that I had taken a vehicle out without uploading an AI assistant. Silencing the alert, I made my way across the base to a set of nursery and university structures. I pulled up to the side of the nursery and disembarked, cycling through the air-lock and into the structure.
Unlocking my helmet and carrying it inside, I could faintly hear the cries of children playing somewhere above me. A smile creased my face as I made my way toward an elevator and punched the fourth floor button. The doors slid shut, and the elevator ascended to the fourth floor.
Now the sounds of children playing became much louder, when the door parted I saw these children as they played with toys, some read books, while others looked outside. Their nannies, all of which human and no robots, tended to their care.
One of the nurses there noticed me and walked over. "Afternoon commander, what brings you here?" she asked, her apron dirtied by the constant running around of the children.
"Just checking on our future residents. How are they holding up?" I asked her while placing the helmet down on top of a dresser.
She let out a heavy sigh and placed a hand behind her head to fix her braids as she talked. "They all pulled through the journey together, though I still know a few of the children are in the medical bay due to the cryo-burn."
"Ah, I did hear of that. I'm sure they'll be fine," I said as the structure rumbled slightly. Curious, I walked toward a window and looked out, several of the children looked up at me before turning their gaze toward what I looking at: A newly advanced construction vehicle - designed for carrying four construction kits instead of the normal two. It was also made to be faster, more heavily armed; it also carried an RPG launcher turret on the forward left. Despite that, it was still a heavy vehicle, those it was only a tad faster than normal - but its loud sounding engine made it not worth using on a battlefield.
The lady watched this vehicle as it waited patiently for a robo-dozer to finish clearing the ground; then moved off as one of the bays of the convec vehicle opened up, four mighty construction cranes came to life and became to construct a water purification center. "That should help with cleaning the water," I heard the nurse say.
"That it will," I replied before placing a hand on a little boys head and ruffling his hair. He giggled playfully before being tapped on the shoulder by a younger girl; the two then took off, playing tag. "So full of energy," I said while watching them.
The nurse didn't say anything, instead just nodding in agreement. "Where you headed now?" she asked.
"Structure factories, need to see what is going on there," I said and retrieved my helmet.
"Be careful," said the nurse before she hurried off to help a child who was crying.
I smiled. "Yea.... I just hope we don't have to evacuate again anytime soon," sealing up my helmet, I headed back down.
Roughly a half hour later I was at the structure factory. The foreman, a tall man with a black beard wearing dirty worksmen clothing, greeted me at the door. "Nice to see you commander, I didn't expect ya to come here though," he said and lead me into the command center of the structure.
"How's the progress?" I asked him.
He rubbed his beard and nodded. "On schedule," he said in a German accent, "Dah last remaining nursery kit should be completed tomorrow night. Then we have the meteor protection structure, dat will be done in three days. We also have a few more structures, such as guardian towers and even smelter ready to go," he smiled.
"That's good, let me know if you need anything," I said and turned around, but stopped when I heard him clearing his throat.
"Actually, I need more workers, da ones I have right now haven't had much rest in days.... can you spare some workers from the vehicle bays?" he asked me.
"I'll see what I can do," with that I headed back out to my vehicle. Looking up toward the sky, I could barely see the bluish tint of the Blight - far off into the distant space. "Hopefully, by the time it does get here we'll either be long gone or perhaps know to fight it," with that I sealed up the door to the lynx and drove off.
*Writer note: Not as good as I would like, but hopefully next time will be ebtter :D*
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ooo wow I read this page so i'll have to go back and read it all form beginning now. pretty neat gj
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Considering I only update this story once every few months due to constant writers block; I usually have to reread this story each time I get an idea for an addition.
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I miss this story. Is there any progress happening?
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considering it seems to have been dead for 2 years, I'd have to vote no.