Star Brigade: A 53rd Century Adventure RP

[Tiger Sora]

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"Muo, if theres one thing sentient life does a horrible job at it's communicating. You think with the technology we have now and the thousands if not more years beings have had to develop the skill to a high efficiency. Well clearly not". Thor tossed an arm in the air to add context.

Lisa chimed in with their location coordinates and some helpful advice in her usual upbeat voice.

Thor quickly moved to cover himself." I said sentient not artificial sentient".

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A foreign voice named Amazan invaded the SB field line. An investigator from the Durras. "This is SU-SB-114. You are speaking to Thor. Our location is...... well about the middle of I don't know, I've been here all about 5 minute on the ground. Were headed to coordinates N47-49E, meet us there". Thor closed his comms end, leaving the other open.

"Am I the only guy with com equipment? Seriously. I ought to pound your heads in with a steel muffin"!

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Hmph, so that's a Durra. thought Tom, eying up the tall blue simians. He had to admit that they weren't what he expected, given that never expected arms to extend from a creature's spine. One of the heavily armed aliens turned its wolfish head towards him, its eyeless features giving the Durra an unsettling visage.

"Can you tell us what has happened here?" he asked Knight Diran.

The Durra facing lime motioned the group over to the table. Diran laid out a map of the area across the flat surface/ Oddly enough, the floor plans were not electronic, but instead appeared to be made of old fashioned pulp compounds.

"We lost contact with the settlement about a week ago." said Diran. "The Canopy Council ordered the Advance Recon unit to check it out."

Tom frowned. "Wait, you just heard about this a week beforehand? How did you get here so fast? This is nowhere near Jome. It took us a week by FTL to get here for the same reason."

Diran looked up, and barred his teeth at Tom. "We managed to grab a wormhole that had opened up. Luckily, the nexus made a straight shot between here and Jome. Damn lucky if you ask me."

 

[TheBlueShotgun0]

James and his group emerged into a clearing. For the past few minutes they had been hiking through the alien forest towards the meet-up location, and all the while James had been wondering just what a "steel muffin" was. But James pushed the thought out of his mind as he stepped into the clearing, for this was the spot where they were suppose to meet the Durras.

Except there was no one in the clearing other than James and his comrades.

James cocked an eyebrow. "Where are they?" he said out loud as the others followed him into the middle of the lot. Surely the Durras wouldn't lead us into a trap; they have no reason to. But despite these thoughts, James couldn't help but be somewhat suspicious, and he subconsciously became much more alert. Which is why he was even more startled when he heard a gruff and alien voice behind him.

He turned around to see a squad of armed and armored Durras, about half of which where still coming out of the brush. Their dark blue and green camouflage blended in remarkable well with the surrounding plant life. Apparently the crew had passed them as they had walked into the clearing and hadn't even noticed. Goddamn James thought. Glad they're on our side. Everyone else seemed to startled to say anything, so James approached the one who looked to be in charge. "You must be Amazan." He said in as cheery a tone as possible.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

James' team left the building, leaving Tom, Lime, Brian and Til with the Durras.

Tom looked with disgust at the creature the Durra were dissecting, before turning back to the Knight. Of everyone here, only he and Til Wing were technically diplomats. Brian and Lime were the guns of the group, but the talking came down to Tom at the moment. He cursed his bad luck, and hoped he'd be able to work something out that didn't involve imprisonment or death.

"As a member of the Diplomatic Corps, I demand that you let us move freely through the settlement." he said, trying to put on a facade of pomp. "You have your mission, and we have ours."

Diran gave a small growl. "Fine by me, go wherever you want. These soldier's lives matter to me." he said, waving his arms at the Durra. "Yours does not."

"That makes two of us." said Tom dismissively. The group turned to leave the building. Diran called out behind them.

"If any of you happen to die while you're here, make sure you dispose of the body quick! They'll swarm you if you don't!"

Tom stopped. What did Diran mean by that? He said he didn't know what had happened, and now he was giving them a warning about something that swarmed. When Tom turned around, Diran had sealed the doorway shut. They were on their own outside.

Well, that could have went better. First chance I get and I already piss something off on this planet.

 

[JoJo]

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Amazan raised a simian eyebrow at James' greeting and grunted in response.

"Hello human. You are correct, they call me Amazan," she avoided eye contact while talking to the Diplomatic Corp as if she was looking past him at something in the distance, it was impossible to tell if this was a cultural norm or just her being rude. The Durras behind her remained silent and as still as rocks, from many angles they were probably just as camouflaged as they had been before they revealed themselves to the team. She then turned her gaze back to James while one of the Durras behind her stepped forward and put a blue paw out a little too close to the corp's faces.

"Proof of identity?" he asked gruffly without any hint of politeness or tact, the voice emanating from the translator seemingly devoid of emotion entirely "Have you been... near colony yet?"

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Lime was appalled with Tom?s actions.
?Anderson! That is not how we treat fellow soldiers. Especially not when they make such generous offers with regards to the alliance.
If my subordinate hasn?t ruined chances I?d like to accept your offer. I assure you his view in no way reflects the general view of the S.U.?
Lime had been watching the dissection.
?So is it gryale?? Oh wait that probably wasn?t the best choice of words.
?There are gryale here yes, but they aren?t the main problem. With proper regulation they are extremely valuable to the colony.? Just because lime couldn?t here that doesn?t mean the annoyance wasn?t obvious.

Lime had ripped the door back open, and was talking to Diran again. Tom went back inside too to explain himself.

"Technically Lime, I'm not a soldier. You are." said Tom pointedly. "And Til wasn't saying anything, so I though I should pop in. Problem is, I'm a terrible communicator. It's a 50/50 chance I piss someone off.

 

[TheBlueShotgun0]

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James was slightly taken aback by the aliens sudden puncturing of his personal bubble, but tried to stay professional all the same. "We entered Docking Administration where you're set up briefly, but we never went into the main city." James of course had his own questions, but thought it would be wiser to let the Durras speak first.

 

[JoJo]

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Dirran looked moodily between Tom and Lime and made an odd sound that resembled a human sigh.

"You're back," he growled in a matter of fact tone "Fine, tell me where your instructions are to go and I'll point you in the right direction. Maybe if I'm lucky I won't have to see you again."

 

[Soviet Heavy]

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Dirran looked moodily between Tom and Lime and made an odd sound that resembled a human sigh.

"You're back," he growled in a matter of fact tone "Fine, tell me where your instructions are to go and I'll point you in the right direction. Maybe if I'm lucky I won't have to see you again."

"Fine then. We were supposed to check one of the outlying facilities for survivors, while our other team moved on to the main colony. Kind of hard to do that when we have no maps. And what was that about swarming creatures before?"

 

[Tiger Sora]

40.336326.13829088"]Snip

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Thor put himself between James and the Durras recreating space between the two groups. "Seems your commander didn't tell you we were headed to the main colony". Thor stepped to a more open position between the groups.

"Amazan, I thought we agreed to meet there. Yet your here, mind telling us why"?

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Dirran turned to look at Tom. "Skillex. They're little pests that attack in shoals out in the ocean. One isn't much of a problem, but a thousand is a different story. If you bleed into the water, they'll follow you until you stop moving. Like a Jomic Brusher Swarm, except water based."

Tom had paled a bit. "What do they look like, exactly?" he asked hesitantly.

"The historical references to Earth describe a creature known as a Lamprey. Think that, but bigger, and with fins. Oh, and the teeth, can't forget those. Millions of them."

"Oh, lovely." said tom, looking ill. "Well, apart from swarms of creepy killer fish, do you have any map layouts we could use?"

"Here, take them." said Diran absentmindedly, turning back to his work. "You were going to the outer facilities right? Follow the main boulevard, and turn left. The facilities are in the smaller domes off to the side of the main settlement."

 

[Soviet Heavy]

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Thanking Diran for his help, this time the group left on slightly better terms, though Tom could still feel Lime and Til's disapproval. Brian hadn't said anything since they landed, so Tom wasn't quite sure what to think about his opinion yet.

The settlement was very strange. Underneath the giant transparent dome, Tom felt like he was inside an enormous snow globe. Aquatic trees and rounded buildings dominated the walkway. The air was very thick and soupy, a byproduct of the wet planet's atmosphere. Things were designed in a way that if the dome was breached, the plant life could still live, and smaller buildings could be individually sealed for survival.

The four walked for twenty minutes along Diran's route. Eventually they came to the center. It was built like a massive market area, but there were no shops, no people, and no signs that anyone had been there for some time. Even the ground was picked clean, no garbage or refuse littered the streets. It was totally silent.

"He said to turn left, right?" said Tom. Lime nodded in acknowledgement. He seemed to be giving Tom the silent treatment for earlier. "Will you just let it drop, Lime? It was a mistake, and things worked out in the end. It could've gone worse, you know. He could have shot us."

To nobody in particular, Tom mused. "What sort of interest would the Durras have with a water world? They're tree dwellers, you'd think Oceans would be the last place to find them."

 

[JoJo]

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The human who had been fighting with Lime, a thin brown-skinned man whose messy black stumble was streaked with grey, fell to the ground in a heap. From where he lay he tried to wave his hands and speak but nothing would pass through his lips. One of the humans watching from the nearby buildings, a young man in his late teens with similar features to the older attacker, ran forwards to hold the man whilst brandishing what appeared to be a makeshift club at the corps.

"Wait, Dad, not yet!" The teenager cried to his injured father, then looked up in anger at the team surrounding him, "Who are you? What have you done to him?" He shouted, one of his eye's twitching slightly.

 

[A Gent of Villainous Intent]

"Mind controlling animals that your people worship as gods." Spoke Mae, able to recall his knowledge about the Gryale from the time he studied the Durras. "However I do not think this is the time for a quiz on Xenobiology. We came armed enough to deal with any local wildlife that may be in the wilderness, and with your group combined with ours we should be well fit to make it to the colony." He didn't want to waste time talking until they were at least at the colony, out of fear that the wilderness would tear his suit and that there may be survivors dying while they tarried.