RP: The Wayward Distant Memories (Ep. 2.0)

[Whitehart]

Spire

Nan was milling about marveling at the immaculate image of the spire. He was so deep in thought over the coincidence of the two roads meeting at the spire, combined with the spire's height and lack of any real damage or discoloration. Something gnawed at him about the the various facts that just didn't seem to add up properly. What was he missing?

He jumped a little as Rulloo touched the spire and it seemed to vibrate to life. What an odd thing for an ancient monolith to do. Several thoughts hit Nan and he mumbled them out loud, "Beacon, frequency, two points meeting." His thoughts still had yet to join the connections. He swung out a camera drone, popped it's wiring hatched and started to tinker with the communication parts. If eh could set the drone to scan for frequencies and try and gauge if the buzz was indeed either a communication, sensor or an alert. He might be able to extrapolate it's distance and direction. Nan smiled with giddiness.

Being tapped into the Anbruch he received Embel's warning about the arrival of a new ship. "Cap, Embel say's we got a ship landing 'bout 3 kilo's from the Anbruch. I'm gonna send Oh-Two to give us some extra intel." He put aside his current drone and flipped open his PHC. He plotted new directives into the patrolling drone at the Anbruch to stay high and scout the designated area. He spoke to Embel, "I'm sending you rudimentary control over Oh-Two. You can enter basic commands to help you all stay safe."

Nan went back to his jury rigged frequency drone and hoped his manipulations and hunches worked out.

 

[Enansel]

Galley

Quinn had successfully made Tea, and was now currently puzzling over how to put together lunch when Embel's warning came through. He sucked down the rest of his tea, pulled his coat on and took several long strides across the room only to run into a clearly panicked Ana. "You should not be up yet." He said softly, snagging a seat from the table and setting it so she could sit down. After only an hour the pain killers shouldn't have worn off yet, but he could tell she was feeling it anyway. "I'm going to find out what's going on. I'm pretty sure the crew would like to come back to an intact ship, so lunch can wait."

 

[SmokeEmpress]

Galley

Ana nodded as she sat on the chair, "Alarms. Woke me up." She rested her head on the table, too tired to do much more.

 

[Syaoran]

Spire
Hugar began getting a strange feeling as he walked about the perimeter, he’d constantly have to adjust his gait to head back into the tree line, turning himself away from the spire. HIs sense of direction was being affected by the sound and it was only getting worse as he struggled against it.

“So they’re coming after the ship?” Tanja replied to Nan and then let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t think they’re going to attack right away though, otherwise they’d have fired from the atmosphere. We should still make this quick though.”

“Yesss, I should be done in a few minutesss” Rulloo spoke up as he tinkered with his devices, trying to decipher the situation.

Nan soon found that the frequency being emitted was purely audio, it wasn’t projecting any noticeable electromagnetic signals, it was unlikely it was a mechanical communication signal.


Anbruch

“Atmospheric entry confirmed, all hands yellow alert.” spoke Embel over the PA system. She was still on the bridge, working away at the computers keeping track of the situation. She was more than a little glad that Nan had given her control over one of the drones. She sent it out to go investigate.

“Thank you Nan.” Embel spoke over the comm line that Nan opened. “Is everything alright there?”

Geboku could be heard walking up and down the halls of the ship, doing its due diligence in patrol.

 

[Whitehart]

Spire

"Yeah, just doing some quick research Embel. Cap says the new arrivals will take their time before moving on your position, if they even do. Do a sensor sweep for that crazy bear thingy Sis and I saw earlier. We might be able to move it into their path," Nan said as he fiddled with the camera drone.

It perplexed him that the buzzing was purely audio. Why would a spire at a particular junction of roads merely emit a buzzing sound when touched. Was it a lure? His usual overly happy demeanor was wracked with frustration. He moved to Rulloo.

"So, the buzz if purely audio. Doesn't seem to be a signal of any kind that I can ascertain. Can I do anything to help? Oh, you know I will send a cam up to the top, grab some pics and see if there is anything," Nan said to Rulloo and then himself. He sent a camera drone up to llok for oddities or writing.

 

[Enansel]

Anbruch

Quinn stroked a hand through Ana's hair. "Just stay here and rest." He told her, turning around and trotting off. He arrived shortly on the bridge, his eyes flicking to what Embel was watching. "Ana's drugged and sleepy, and I have no clue where Reed is." He told her. "What can I do to help?"

 

[SmokeEmpress]

Anbruch

Ana shook her head as she followed after Quinn. "I don't want to be alone." When she got to the bridge, she found an empty chair and sat there, curled up and listening to the others. She was somewhat listless, for she did need more sleep..but she wouldn't be able to unless she knew everything was okay. And right now, with alarms and such...everything was not okay in her books.

 

[Semjax]

Spire

Hugar grunted a bit in distaste, he didn't like how his sense of direction was being messed with by this noise. He opened up communications with Tanja as he continued his patrol; "Tanja, whatever this sound is, it seems to be messing with my sense of direction. I find myself constantly heading towards the spire instead of staying at the tree line...and the more I try to resist it the worse its getting..."

 

[Syaoran]

Spire

Rulloo hissed and worked as quickly as he could, fiddling with several different instruments and typing out information. He looked a bit nervous as he worked, like something was wrong. When Nan spoke up her turned to him and nodded quickly. “Yessss I need you to record the sound, and take pictures of the markings clearly.”

Hearing Hugar, Tanja spoke back over the comm line “You can’t help but walk towards it? Okay...that’s bad. Everyone, get prepared. if it’s affecting Hugar it might be effecting any animals with good hearing as well.”

Anbruch

Embel began the sweep like Nan asked, while she continued to monitor the new arrivals with the camera drone as best she could. She offered a wave to Quinn and Ana when they came in. “Nan is suggesting we use the bear as a distraction to buy us some time. Whoever they are, they didn’t land right next to us so they might be trying to sneak up on us, maybe thinking our sensors are broken.”

There was a pinging sound to indicate the scan was finished and Embel nodded. “Right now though, ideas are good, the captain is having her own troubles at the moment it seems at the spire.”

 

[Cmd_Jackson]

Anbruch

In the time since he had left the shuttle, Reed had stripped off his body armor and stowed the rifle he had borrowed back in the armory. Just as he began to settle down in his bunk, the alarms began blaring from the ships PA system. Deeply ingrained responses from his training with the NSN kicked in and Reed jumped out off of the bunk... only to trip on the armored leggings that he had thoughtlessly left on the floor.

I’ll clean that up later. He grumbled as kicked the offending garment under his bed before exiting his room. A few seconds later, Reed entered the bridge at a brisk walk. Taking his seat at the helm in the center of the room, he skimmed whatever information Embel had gotten from the scans. Reed held off from doing anything that could alert this new ship that they had been spotted, though he started the preflight checks in case they did need to move.

“I take it that they didn’t say hello before landing?” Reed asked half to himself before asking more seriously “Embel, were the sensors able to tell us anything about that ship? Like what kind of ship or something?"

 

[Whitehart]

Spire

Nan nodded in understanding and took control of his freshly modified drone to start recording an noises and variations it could ascertain from the spire. He maneuvered the camera drone along the spire being sure to capture any types or possible images or writing. He tried to form the connections in his mind.

The information from Hugar only added to the puzzle. He could only imagine that they would actually recieve some unwelcome local fauna. He nervously looked around.

 

[Enansel]

Anbruch

Quinn tilted his head sideways when Reed finally showed up. He sighed, watching the feedback from the drone. "No, they didn't bother to say hello before landing." He answered and then he gave Embel's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "If need be I can always take my shiny new sniper rifle and camp out on top of the ship." He would probably miserably fail at putting holes in people if it came to that, but at least he could attempt to dissuade anyone from coming closer.

 

[SmokeEmpress]

Anbruch

Ana paused in her thoughts when she heard of the idea of using the bear. She chewed on her cheek and tilted her head, not quite sure just how they could get the animal to help them against those who were coming towards them. But, rather than stay with the others, she quietly turned around and made her way towards the rear exit once more. She looked around, curious to see if that bear was still around, or if any other animals were also in their vicinity.

What are you doing? She thought to herself as she held her arms around her waist. Do you really think that you can even communicate with the beasts here? She sighed softly to herself as she shook her head. Maybe she couldn't do much of anything...but that didn't mean she couldn't try. She did see that the bear was still there, but so far it hadn't noticed her. She swallowed as she stopped for a moment before slowly, and very cautiously making her way towards it. She wouldn't get too close, but she was curious as to just how close she could get before it turned on her.

 

[Cmd_Jackson]

Anbruch Bridge

“You know what,” Reed turned to face Quinn “I think you're on to something.” Turning back to his console, Reed pulled up a schematic of the Anbruch and studied the diagram carefully. Specifically, he was checking specifications on the firing arcs of the Anbruch’s dual top-mounted anti-ship plasma turrets.

“If I were to hover the Anbruch a few meters off the ground,” Reed was talking half to himself now “I could flip the ship upside down to allow the plasma turrets to fire on targets approaching on the ground!” A grin slowly split his features as he pictured his plan in action. The ship's artifical gravity should be able to compensate. So long that the people approaching the Anbruch did not have any heavy weaponry, they would be untouchable! Anyway, why would they bring heavy weaponry with them? Reed thought to himself smugly They think that they are sneaking up on a crippled ship.

“Well Analiese?” Reed turned toward the chair where the young engineer had been resting “Is the Anbruch up ... to ... Analiese?" The pilot trailed off as he realized that the he was talking to an empty chair. Now where did she slip off to?

 

[Semjax]

Hugar tried to resist the sound, but in the end he found himself right back at the spire near Tanja. He shook his head a bit and paused looking around frowning deeply that he was back to where the sound lead him. He rubbed his head, and sighed a bit looking at Tanja. "...I guess I can't resist it as well as I thought I could..."

 

[Syaoran]

Anbruch

With a glance over the console Reed was able to see the arcs of the turrets, they could each turn almost 360 degrees and could elevate roughly 70 degrees, but with almost no depression angle, they would indeed have to turn the ship on it’s head in order to hit anything approaching while hovering.

Embel paused and then looked up to everyone a bit confused “Analise has just stepped out of the ship.”

On the outside Ana would indeed find the bear like creature, it sat roughly 50 meters from the ship chewing on branches and minding it’s own business. It seemed the lack of response to prodding had disinterested the creature and that food was more important now.

Spire

“Let’s just hurry and get out of here before-” Tanja’s voice was interrupted by a loud roar that shook their bones.

They did not have to wonder for long what produced such a sound however as mammoth sized creature stepped out of the treeline. It was a creature like nothing they had ever seen before. Two large powerful legs but barely tall enough to keep its body off the ground, a wide face almost like dragons in fairy tales, but with a large protrusion from it’s entire chin like a tusk groomed to be a beard. sharp large teeth revealed in its maw as it let out a second roar at noticing everyone gathered around the pillar.

Tanja was awe struck by the white scaled behemoth. Despite all her experience, this was way out of her realm of expertise. “Rulloo, I hope whatever you’re doing is almost done..”

“85 secondssss.” The Qel'noran spoke as it ticked away, not even looking up away from his tools.

“Damn..okay everyone you heard him, 85 seconds, we have to distract it.” She began to run away from the pillar and the creature to the left firing her rifle at it as she did.

 

[SmokeEmpress]

Outside the Anbruch

Ana continued to go closer to the bear. She kept her steps slow and steady, even though her heart raced at what she was about to do. She was doing her best not to come up on the creature in a way that it would be startled. She could see that it was eating something, but now she wished she had something herself in a pocket to give the creature. Looking around, she wondered if maybe there were some sort of edible vegetation that she could harvest, but the clearing seemed rather empty of what she would find familiar to herself.

When she was about 10 feet away, she stopped and watched the bear. Softly, she spoke more to herself, though it was quite possible that the bear could hear her. "Why do the others fear you?" Her head tilted to the side, rather glad that it was pulled back into a loose ponytail as the wind whipped around her.

 

[Cmd_Jackson]

Anbruch

“Analise just stepped out...what? Why?” Reed trailed off as he quickly inputted the commands to pull up the Anbruch’s external camera feed. Sure enough, she was outside the ship but she wasn’t alone. Reed watched in stunned silence as the unarmed girl approached the alien bear. What the hell is she doing?

“Oh for the love of-“ Reed practically vaulted over the helm and sprinted straight of the bridge. Halfway down the hallway, he slapped one of the intercom panels and shouted frantic directions back at the crew still in the bridge “Keep watching those scanners!”

“I’ll bring Analise back in!" Reed was now running down the spiral staircase descending multiple steps at a time. "Warn me if you see anything!”

Reed was inside the airlock now. He quickly slapped the control panel and the airlock began the slow process of descending to the ground. Tapping his foot impatiently, he checked his pistol’s magazine. He had 3 full magazines, 11 shots each.

For the first time since he had started left the bridge, Reed took this moment of forced inactivity to catch his breath and think about what he was doing. There is a group of unknown people who probably wanted to take the Anbruch and were probably already on their way. Analise was almost 50 meters away standing right next to a bear. And I had the great idea of leaving my armor and sword in my cabin. Reed reached that last thought with an angry kick at the wall. And if those wolves were any indication, my gun won’t do much more than tickle it.

Pistol in hand Reed stepped carefully out of the airlock. The frantic energy was replaced with a more cautious wary kind. Keeping the pistol trained on the bear, Reed took slow steps toward the bear, making sure to move to the side so that Analise wouldn’t be between him and the bear.

“Analise!” Reed called out in as soft of a shout as he could trying to get her attention without startling the bear. “What are you doing?"

 

[Enansel]

Anbruch

"Embel paused and then looked up to everyone a bit confused “Analise has just stepped out of the ship.”"

It took Quinn perhaps a few seconds too long to process that, his brain not catching up to the fact Ana had run off until Reed vaulted over some equipment and hotfooted it off of the bridge and down to the airlock. Quinn muttered a few curses under his breath and at least had some semblance of self control as he followed suit, grouching and grumbling internally when he had to wait for the airlock to come back up just so he could go down. He fished out his little communicator "Ana?" He murmured softly across it. "What do you think you're doing?" He asked, unaware Reed had just asked her the same darn thing.

When the airlock finally opened he found Reed advancing on the bear with a gun, Ana even closer and the bear not moving. Yet. He found that to be a tad puzzling though, so quietly he stepped from the airlock and closed the distance between the ship and Reed, wiggling a hand and motioning for the other to stay put. "No need to provoke the damn thing." He hissed to the other as he passed, inwardly shaking in his boots as he got closer to Ana. He reached out, intending to catch her by the back of her shirt, wondering why the bear hadn't yet decided Ana was food.

"You are in such deep shit little lady." Quinn murmured, watching the bear closely for any signs of it becoming disinterested in eating and more interested in them.

 

[SmokeEmpress]

Ana heard both of them at the same time asking the same thing. One in her ear, the other from just behind her. She stiffened, hunching her shoulders just a little as she heard the worry from both, and then on top of it all hearing Quinn when he caught up to her. She couldn't answer, not yet. She wasn't sure how the bear would react to the others now...but for some odd reason, she didn't think it was as dangerous as the wolves. Not yet, anyway.