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Post by Itanecrio on Apr 21, 2010 19:16:41 GMT -5
Polyphemus broods in Pandoras night sky, the unblinking eye of the gas-giants storm boring down across the leagues. Beneath the dark canopy of the jungle a myriad of shifting lights intermingle, the luminescent flora and fauna engaged in the theatre of life. Yet there is one dark point in the sky, backlit by the glimmering radiation storm of Pandora's atmosphere. The sound of the freighter rattles through the humid air, the strain of it's stressed engines obvious, and later the distinctive scent of an electric fire. The flight-lights of the craft begin to flicker abnormally as the systems of the craft fail one by one. The unseen pilot manages to stabilise the hapless craft, battling to make its descend amongst the trees a survivable landing. But through the forest rolls the thunderous noise of the crash, the iron-hard timbers of an uprooted tree crack and groan as it reluctantly falls. Breathless moments turn into a soundless while, and through the canopy pierces a light. A beam that stretches up -the distress beacon of the survivors.
"Sound off!" The captain groans and wrestles himself free of the seat-belts -powering down the ship's dead systems by habit. From amongst the wreckage come the voices, ragged, winded, and frail. "Phyl? You okay?"
"Yes and no." The only feminine voice, husky as it may be, comes from within the craft, made hollow by the full face mask of the exo-pack. "We're all unhurt I think."
The Captain moves to the beacon, checking over it's systems. Swearing under his breath. "Whatever that storm was, it half-fried the beacon too! Navigator?"
"Sir?" The Navigation officer lifts his head from between his knees, a gash across his temple and an already bruising cut across his lip.
"Did you manage to get a read on our location?" The Captain flinches away from an electric shock the damaged beacon gives him.
The Navigation officer shrugs. "Yes and no. The readings were everywhere. I can hazard a good guess, but not till morning I'd say."
The Captain nods, his eyes turning to the portal in the hull of the ship. "Till morning then."
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Post by Çħĭγȁ on Apr 22, 2010 18:42:40 GMT -5
Crash![/size]
The sounds of tearing vegetation and something hitting the forest floor at high velocity snapped Nyoni out of a deep slumber. She was awake instantly, ears flat, eyes wide as she searched for the source of the noise.
There was a moment of silence - utter silence, without even a birdcall or growl to break the sticky tension.
Then, suddenly, a beam of yellow light shot into the sky, making Nyoni jump.
"Uniltìranyu," Nyoni whispered to herself, feeling excitement build in her chest. Humans! Only they could make light with no fire, and only they had loud flying things that were neither alive nor dead. That was what must have crashed in the forest.
A short sharp whistle brought Usiku spiraling down from the canopy to latch onto the tree trunk beside Nyoni. Nyoni smiled and stroked her ikran's snout, before sliding down onto her back and linking with her friend.
Over there, she thought, and the two of them winged silently towards the flickering beam of false-fire.
Usiku set Nyoni down in a copse of low trees. Nyoni stretched herself out as long as she could, and slunk along the branches until she was just over the site of the crash.
Humans ran around in their funny clear-hard faces, chattering to each-other in English. Nyoni could only understand a few words: "think", "storm", "morning". Whatever had happened, they hadn't been expecting it.
Nyoni moved closer, leaning down until she was practically level with the ground, hanging from her branch by her feet and tail. She reached out and picked up a shard of shattered clear-hard that had been damaged by the crashing flying not-beast. It was sharp enough to cut her finger, and she hissed to herself and licked at the purple bead that welled up from the wound.
The clear-hard would make a good prize, Nyoni figured, but there were more interesting things here.
If you bring a human to the camp, you'll really be in for it, she thought.
That made up her mind.
Nyoni dropped to the forest floor, landing on her tail and barely suppressing a curse of pain. She straightened herself up, placed a hand on her bow just in case, thought for a moment for the correct greeting in English, and called out, "hello?"
Words 406
Comments tired tired tired
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Post by Itanecrio on Apr 23, 2010 18:04:19 GMT -5
Phyllo paused, the heavy steel grill in her hands emitting the slightest screech as she levered it out of its place in the floor panel. A breathless moment she waited, feeling sweat begin to bead on her forehead. When at last, her head throbbing from holding her breath so constantly, she slipped down into the stowage of the freighter she moved quickly, knowing that she would soon be missed.
Reassembling Cob only took a few minutes, but the radiation of the storm that had damaged the ship seemed also to have shut down the motor-rider's mother-boards. The complete reboot of its systems seemed to take every bit as long as shifting the grill. Phyllo watched the pale l.e.d.s as one by one the computer that operated the rider came to life. With a low sound, the Cob powered up, like a beast rousing from sleep. Appearing somewhere between a horse, a motor-bike from earth, and a mountain lion, the Cob took advantage of Pandora's low gravity -having many centrifuge devices to stabilise it, and enabling it to manipulate the g-forces to turn it on a dime, send it leaping through the air, performing somersaults all the while. The design was enough to have gained Phyllo access to the new avatar-programme she had been en-route to attend.
Manually she cranked the door of the hold open, the sickly density of the Pandoran air rushing into the air-lock. Through the glass wall of the lock she saw the livered Captain, beating his fist against the glass, his mouth unmistakeably making the impotent objection :Stand down Phyllo! Do not set foot outside the craft, repeat! Do not step outside the craft!
Phyllo checked the breathing assembly of the black-singlet shaped rebreather, and straddled Cob -feeling the propulsion drivers and centrifuges come to riding power. From out of the hoof-like ends of the Cobs leg-assemblies appeared the electromagnetic globes that gave the basic propulsion, tongues of el-mag binding to earth, steel, or branch alike. Before Cob leapt away Phyllo reached into her bra, digging out the lipstick stashed there, writing on the glass. Due respect given Captain. Electronic transmission unreliable. Going in search of aid. With that she felt the immense press of the dense atmosphere, like a powerful wind, as the Cob idled out into the morning light.
--
The Captain leant back his head for a moment and snapped awake. Something was different. Veteran sensibilities instantly carried out the roll, singling out Phyllo as missing. He was on his feet shouting in an instant.
The entire regular crew erupted into a search, finding the grill to the hold. Before they could get down there, the Engineer's daughter had already sealed the airlock and was cranking open the exterior exit. "Three of you, raim for exterior activity -armed activity. Comms, try those systems again! Phyllo!" He pounded his fist against the glass. "Stand down Phyllo! Do not set foot outside the craft, repeat! Do not step outside the craft!" The red-haired hellion just smiled, straight teeth showing through the breather assembly. She reached between her breasts and wrote in lipstick on the glass before giving a half salute and vanishing outside.
"I got nothing Captain!" Comm's shouted before he appeared, armed and armoured to move outside. "The ship is dead, sir."
Outside the crew established a perimeter. This done they regrouped, the Captain dragging an arm over his sweating brow. "Systems -how much air-time we got out here?"
The officer shrugged. "Couple days, sir. If we take it easy."
The Captain swore under his breath, looking toward the deeps of the jungle again, his heart leaping with a sensation between electricity and ice. A Na'vi warrior standing real as life before them. Female. Small. Lightly armed. She straightened, revealing fangs as she spoke the heavily accented word. "Hello."
--
Her head tucked to one side of the neck-assembly Phyllo glanced heavily at a branch ahead, the laser-interface scanning her retina's feeding imagery into her left eye, establishing the Cobs trajectory -programming a half-power leap, during which a clock-wise ninety degree twist would be needed in order to rebound from a tree-trunk. With a few adjustments, and the execute directive the inner workings of the Cob smoothly carried out the manoeuvre. Careful to keep her breathing, and the position of her body and weight in harmony with Cobs automation. The press of air was like strong warm hands trying to pluck her from the sleek design of the jungle-rider, propelled through the low gravity within a hair's breath of a fatal impact with a branch, muscles straining to cushion the rebound as the Cob clawed and leapt its way into the high tree canopy. Sweating heavily, and parched, Phyllo achieved the canopy -carrying out an immediate scan of the sky and nearby branches for any hostile creatures. Stretching aching muscles that had not been appropriately warmed before the rigours of riding the Cob she took a slug from her canteen -already half empty. She'd managed to establish some suitable land marks -if only she could somehow get a transmission within range of help. But at the edge of sight loomed the Hallelujah mountains, ominously shifting in complete defiance of gravity. That meant two things, Phyllo mused gravely: transmission of any sort was unlikely, and that they were in the prime territory of the jungle-Na'vi.
With that thought she turned back toward the ship, keeping a closer eye out for the Na'vi -who must certainly have knowledge of the crash, and who could even be watching her now.
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Post by Çħĭγȁ on Apr 23, 2010 20:25:53 GMT -5
One of the humans approached Nyoni, a wary but not mistrustful expression on his funny-colored, sheltered face. He looked important - all the other milling aliens seemed to do as he told, from what Nyoni could gather.
The other humans were standing around, fangless mouths open in what Nyoni flattered herself into thinking was awe. She really had done a good job, so far. They appeared to have understood her, and they weren't aiming any sort of nasty-looking weapons at her, so she figured she must be doing all right.
The human-tribe-leader man spoke, but Nyoni did not comprehend. She bit her lip, and then said haltingly, "you... please... slower?"
The human understood, thank Eywa, and repeated what he had said, slowly and loudly: "who are you?"
That one was easy, at least.
"I... are... Nyoni of Aylukana. You beast are dead?" Nyoni gestured to the fallen not-beast, not knowing the word for it, and cursed herself for not paying closer attention to Father's lessons. Other things had seemed so much more important than learning the human language, but then, Nyoni never expected to get herself into this sort of situation.
The human did not seem to get what Nyoni was after, so she tried again. "You air beast are dead. I help. Not harm, yes?"
Her English really was terrible. Maybe, once all this was over, Nyoni would rethink being respectful of her father.
Maybe.
For now, though, she had to help them and prove to her people that the humans were something interesting, and not dangerous invaders like the elders made them out to be.
Words 273
Comments gah no brain sorry for short post...
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