Neue Jaspis IIh - Surface
Leaving the Concordia Veil landing site
Oreza shook the holstered pistol on his belt, checking how securely it was fastened, and looked around at the ethereal alien landscape. It looked even more strange from the ground, like something out of a bizarre dream, or fevered hallucination, and there was barely enough light to make more than outlines and vaguely colored shapes visible. The grove of squat, twisted-looking trees rose up in front of them like a wall, backlit by the washed-out greenish haze from the far horizon, with dark grey, cloudy skies above. The big man, donned in his flesh-hugging Dusk Suit, looked almost comical, his considerable frame stuffed into such a painted-on looking garment.
Checking the coordinates stored in his personal communicator, he oriented himself in the direction of the beacon's signal, straight through the trees ahead. "Looks like this is the way," he said over the comms, and switched on his helmet light. "Probably going to be a long walk in this gravity."
Turning her own helmet's light, Amelia simply nodded. At first she had thought the atmosphere would be bearable, but after a few seconds she was already breathing heavy and feeling light headed enough to change her mind and toggle her suit's internals on. Her suit was almost a comical contrast to Oreza's, while the massive nepleslian sported a skin-hugging suit, her small frame was covered by the looser fabric and ceramic plates for protection.
The astrogator did a quickly and last-minute check on her equipment, patting the stun-baton on her belt unholstering the pistol from her right thigh. She gave a quick look at the weapon, turning it around in her hand and pulling the slide back to make sure there was a bullet in the chamber in case of trouble. Just in case of trouble. Satisfied, she switched the safety on and returned the weaponto its holster. "I'm ready," she called out, her voice somewhat muffled by the helmet.
The first mate tapped the side of his helmet, indicating that she should switch on her radio to facilitate communication, rather than yelling through the plated visors. The thick atmosphere likely would make such a thing viable, since sound would carry better, but it still seemed like an unnecessary extra strain on their bodies to be spending the energy shouting that they would need merely to walk on this moon at any decent pace.
"Sorry," came the much more audible reply from the astrogator once she had switched her helmet to the proper channel.
With a nod, Oreza started off, shuffling foward as if he were waist-deep in quicksand, trudging off towards the woods. He wasn't his usual, personable self of late, it seemed, and he remained awkwardly silent as the two of them walked for some time, something that had not gone unnoticed by the astrogator, who despite that had decided to keep quiet about it.
They walked in silence for a time that, in their minds, should have afforded them much, much more distance between them and the ship than there actually was when either of them looked back to see just how slowly they had been progressing. Even through the thickening trees they could still see the
Veil behind them, impatiently waiting for them to accomplish their task already.
Finally, Oreza spoke up. "Has the captain spoken to you lately?"
It took a while for the astrogator to reply. Despite the normal level of oxygen that her suit was providing she was still straining herself because of the planetary gravity. "Yes," she replied, pressing two fingers against the side of her helmet between some fairly heavy breathing.
Oreza grunted softly, and Amelia could hear his own labored breathing for a moment. Silence lingered again for a few seconds, before he continued. "Are you any more comfortable aboard our vessel since Halna?"
"It's getting better," Amelia answered uncomfortably. The sudden concern about her well being was more than off-putting, considering the little interaction she had had with the first mate of the Veil.
"Good," Oreza replied simply, his eyes staying forward on their path as they strained ahead. Again, there was another pause in the conversation, then Amelia heard him take a hesitant breath, as if still deciding whether or not to go on. "I believe she is a good person, you know," he said tentatively.
"Right," the astrogator said, not trying to sound sarcastic. "If it wasn't for you in Halna I don't know what would've disarmed the situation," she added after a while.
The first mate sighed deeply, shaking his head slowly. "Nor do I," he mused. "I don't know what came over her then. I have missed a great deal of her life, but I know she carries a lot more on her than you may think." He took a moment to catch his breath from the effort of walking. "But I still have faith that the person I knew years ago is still there."
"Everyone has their problems," Amelia conceded, looking around at the vegetation. To her, every world she landed on was alien in its different way; while someone might call the ecosystem of the planet normal,
her normal were the clean and cramped confines of a spaceship or the sterile halways of a space station.
"That is true," the big man agreed with a nod. It seemed that there was more he wished to say, but his military conditioning, by all appearances, would not allow it. "I hope she has not soured you permanently, at any rate. You are a very talented young woman, Amelia, and this ship is better with you aboard."
"Thanks," The short woman replied, somewhat off-guard to the compliment. She also sounded like there was something else she wanted to say, but kept it to herself with much less grace than Oreza. "We must be close to the beacon," she commented, trying to change the subject.
Oreza checked his communicator's display, and nodded in agreement as he slowed his pace, appearing grateful for an excuse to slow their pace. "Blimey, but this walk is exhausting here," he sighed, composing himself, and unclasped his pistol holster. "Let's take a moment to catch our breath, then find this passenger of hers."
Amelia nodded, leaning her back against one of the nearby trees. The physical strain wasn't much, feeling like she had been logging her duffel bag around with her all the time, but she was sure that if she were breathing the raw atmosphere of the planet she could have passed out.
The two of them, or rather, mostly Oreza, took a few moments to gather themselves after the ponderous trudge, over what was certainly an aggravatingly short distance given the slow pace that they were able to keep up in the unrelenting gravity, keeping as alert to their dim surroundings as possible. Once the massive Nepleslian had caught his breath, he nodded to Amelia and rested his hand on the butt of his weapon. "Spread out a bit and let's go find our friend," he said.
The astrogator nodded, then started to take a few steps away from the burly Nepleslian, albeit still moving in his same general direction. Her heart still raced, not as much from the physical strain as from the expectation as to how this exchange would go.
Off to the side, disguised in a thicket Tam waited, he would first send a coded ping to Sienna
I have a female humanoid and a larger male humanoid nearing the coordinates that I sent, are they yours or did they stumble upon my beacon by chance?
A few minutes passed as the Gartagen observed the search party from his hiding spot, but eventually a message returned:
Code:
They're there for you. Don't do anything stupid, now.
Tam looked at the message and took it as a yes that they were with the ship that had answered his distress signal.
Check the account, you should be able to transfer an additional 3,000KS to your or your ship's account now
. With that the two in the clearing would see a rather short in comparison to them figure detach itself from the shadows of the woods and silently walk into the clearing. The silence was somewhat amplified by the fact that the figure was wearing a rather heavy looking set of armor yet was able to move fluidly in it without seeming to exert itself at all despite the planet's higher gravity. The figure would wave at the two humans and over a port in the helmet would come a somewhat gravelly voice "Greetings, I am given to understand that you are here to retrieve me from this hellworld."
The suited larger man whirled about when the voice suddenly spoke to him, in the same motion as he drew his sidearm and levelled it at Tam from several paces away. Holding his weapon trained on the Gartagen for a few seconds, he glanced over to Amelia's position, a bit further away and ahead of him, then looked back at Tam. Slowly, he lowered the gun and reached up to remove his helmet. With a twist and a hiss, it detached and revealed his bearded face, dressed in a guarded expression. "You are correct," he responded in his deep, resonant bass voice. "You're the one who set up the beacon?"
The astrogator, noticing the movement followed by the arrival of the person they were supposed to find, walked closer towards where the two were. Upon seeing Oreza lower his pistol, she somewhat relaxed, drawing her hand away from the holstered weapon, listening to the exchange from the two.
"I am the one that set up the beacon, my name is Bithut Palmatar Tam, who might you two be?" He asked as he examined the gear of the two figures in front of him and noting that they were clearly civilians of some sort or another from their mismatched items, small grade weapons, and somewhat clumpy movement through the terrain. "I'd also point out that the weapon which you are holding would not be particularly effective against me for your future reference."
The larger man tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" he commented dubiously. "I shall remember that, then. I am Oreza Dakkar, first mate of the
Concordia Veil. Our astrogator, Amelia Stroud," he introduced themselves, extending a hand in Amelia's direction, who simply raised a hand and waved in acknowledgement.
"Good to be introduced to you both, also yes I've encountered chemical propellant weapons of that type before, they are indeed good weapons to use against unarmored foes however they seem to lack penetrating capacity against anything that is wearing an armor heavier than basic clothing." Tam said with a tilt of his head to the side, "I must apologize however, I am unable to remove my helmet on this world for very long, the atmosphere is far too damp for my species and would cause severe issues regarding the amount of gear that I have to move. I'm going to guess that you were unable to bring any sort of device to aid in moving large and heavy objects back to your vessel. Is this a correct assumption or not?"
"Actually, do you have a large net or anything of the sort?" Amelia asked, her voice somewhat muffled from inside the helmet, still a couple paces away.
"I do not have one on hand, however I can produce one in a short time using local materials and some of my own gear. That is unless you were able to bring one with you." Tam replied as he looked at the duo.
"We could lift them onto a... What do you call it, those open spaces in a forest?" Amelia started to say, this time directed at Oreza. "If we put them in a place like that and land the Veil next to it then moving everything will be faster and easier," she suggested.
"A clearing, I think you mean," Oreza replied. "We would need to
Veil to look around overhead for such a place nearby."
"It's better than carrying it there," the astrogator said.
Oreza looked at the other two with another nod. "We'll see about getting closer if possible. How much cargo do you have to bring along?"
Tam tilted his head and ponderred a minute analyzing their posture and judging from what he'd seen of them it was unlikely that they'd be able to do anything with what he was about to show them before he could react. "Give me a moment" he said as he walked into the treeline a short distance and began shredding what looked at first glance to be foliage but was quickly revealed to be a camoflaged net that covered a pair of massive containers along with a small pile of other crates. "Roughly this much if your ship is capable of holding it all. If needed I can dump some of it but I'd prefer to not have to do so. Also if you need a clearing produced for your ship then I can have one prepared in the space of an hour using kinetic clearing methods." He replied as he gestured at the stack of gear and crates.
Oreza's eyebrows raised slightly, and he let out a low whistle. "Blimey," he muttered. "Well, space is not an issue. We have two empty cargo holds at the moment, but I don't believe either of those containers themselves will fit. And getting them to the ship will be another story in this gravity."
"Roughly how much space does your ship require in order to land safely?" Tam asked as he began examining the nearby trees and the foliage nearby.
"Fifty meters square, give or take," Oreza replied matter-of-factly. "Perhaps we could make do with less."
"Easily done, would a 60 meter square allow for easier access to the loading portion of your vessel?" Tam asked as he started measuring distances by sight and the electronics of his armor began pinpointing locations for tree and brush removal.
Oreza pondered what Tam was suggesting for a moment, then slowly started to nod. "That could work rather well, I think," he agreed.
"Well if you folks will get behind the crates I will begin preparing a landing zone for your vessel. I believe this method would be faster than trying to rig something to allow your ship to airlift my materials from here." Tam said as he began digging in a crate and extracting handfulls of what appeared to be some sort of claylike substance and some electronic looking parts.
Amelia looked at Oreza, then started doing as she was told with a shrug. The first mate gave Amelia a reassuring nod and followed suit.
Tam started walking to the first set of trees his electronics had indicated, he was going to start in a spiral pattern to create a clearing that was large enough for the ship to land in as short a time period as possible. The smaller trees got a single 1 pound charge, the larger trees got ever increasing charges, up to the largest tree getting a monstrous 10 pound charge of antimatter fueled explosive. As he set a charge he placed an electronic detonator into it and continued moving outwards until he had a zone of explosives planted that would either shred entirely or drop the tree and make a clearing for the Veil to land that was roughly 60 meters by 60 meters in area. Once he finished placing the last charge and detonator he raced over to where Oreza and Amelia were, moving fast but still hiding his full rate of movement for the time being. Once he got to them he dropped his armored gloves for a short time to rapidly dig a trench and gestured for the other two to get down inside it with him. Once the trench was built he donned his gloves again.
The astrogator was the first one to move, despite her reservations. Running at a half-pace towards the newly dug trench, she dropped inside the small space with a thud.
Oreza watched the Gartagen work, obviously impressed with his expertise and how fast the lithe little lizard-man moved in the crushing gravity. By the time Tam had returned to them, he aided in digging the trench in any way he could, but simply couldn't keep up, and eventually just stepped out of the way, hiding inside the trench with the other two and waited for the detonation.
Tam looked to make sure that the others were ducking down in the trench and then clicked the detonator three times initiating the charges.
In a rapid chain, the charges went off one after another, some with deafening bangs, others with dull "thud" sounds that each of the three felt in their chests more than heard. Clouds of dirt and dust were thrown up in sudden eruptions, and then in a visually unnatural-appearing suddenness, fell straight back to the ground hurriedly, leaving only the thinnest, lightest specks behind. All around them the trees began to topple, knocking into one another as they slammed hard down on the ground, the smaller, weaker outer limbs sprawling out every which way crunching and folding beneath the ponderous weight of their trunks. Just as soon as it began, the cacaphony subsided, leaving the entrenched people now standing just off-center of a newly-formed, levelled clearing in the alien woods. A few of the more stout-looking trees were not
quite laid flat, but there was more than enough room for the ship to land now, even if it did have to crush some of the canopies jutting upwards.
Oreza nodded approvingly once the show was over. "Not bad," he commented, while Amelia simply stared at the newly formed clearing from besides the Nepleslian. "Good thinking."
"Is this big enough to bring your ship in to start loading gear onto?" Tam asked as he looked over the new clearing and pondered the amount of explosives used and how it was somewhat insufficient for a few of the trees.
"It should be," the first mate replied, and pointed out towards the massive canopies sticking up from the now-sideways trees that fell victim to Tam's explosives. "We may need to do a little trimming here and there, but I think we can manage." He lifted his helmet over his head again, and slipped it on, activating the commlink. "Oreza to ship. We may have a better LZ for you now. Lock in on the beacon and move the ship closer. You should see it from the air."
There was a soft staticky sizzle for a second, and then a breathy but firm-sounding female voice came back. "Copy. May be a litle bit, but we'll have a look when we get ready."
The astrogator left the trench, dusting off her gloved hands as she examined further the destroyed vegetation. Growing bored or satisfied with it, she simply rested her hands on her hips and looked around the place, leaving the first mate to do all the talking.
"Trimming is easily enough done, let me know when your ship has checked to see what needs additional clearance in order to allow it to land and I will clear those branches" Tam replied as he looked at the other two.
With a nod Oreza removed his helmet again so that Tam could once again hear him more effectively. "Can I be of any assistance?" he asked.
"Do you have any bladed weapons on hand?" Tam asked . "They would be the most effective for clearing any remaining brush."
"I'm afraid not," Oreza answered, looking expectantly at Amelia. The astrogator, who was still looking around and examining the destroyed vegetation, took a while to notice it, and then simply shrugged back at the first mate, raising both hands.
Tam shrugged and looked at Oreza "you point out what needs removed and I'll take care of it" he said as he checked the hilt of the sword that was attached to his hip.
"Very well," the first mate said with a nod, and grunted as he hefted his bulk out of the trench. After a brief struggle, he looked at the astrogator. "You stand watch. Stay in contact with the ship, and keep an eye out for any trouble while I help him."
