Colony Ch 1: Alien Planet

[Gineko]

It is midnight on Oreinz, the three moons glow full and bright, illuminating the foreign planet beneath your ship. It is a smaller ship, not exactly a military issue but a cargo ship with a modified cloaking device. On board there are roughly one hundred people including you, a relatively small fighting force but all that is required for your mission. Only a few hours ago had you landed on the planet, it had been a test run to see if you could adapt to the surroundings. You had taken off a little while ago and are now in orbit.

“Attention all hands! Report to the bridge at once!” came a roaring voice over the com system, it was heard throughout the ship.

Karen was checking her gear, when she heard the announcement she looked overhead. “¡Un qué dolor de cabeza! Acabamos de conseguir detrás.” She sighed. “Oh well, at least we can finally get started.” she said with a heavy accent, and made her way down to the bridge.

[WanderingWombat]

Rowan grumbled quietly to himself, lifting his bulk out of his acceleration chair. Artificial gravity was a pain, it always made him seasick. He couldn't wait to be back planetside, feeling the dirt beneath his boots. Still, he couldn't show discomfort. He was in charge of a lot of this motley force, and it just didn't do to have the chief ralfing in low-G.

He stomped lightly in the low gravity down the metal decking, heading for the bridge.

[Seeker]

With a final cleansing breath, Ki rises from his meditative kneeling position. Reaching for his gear Ki goes through what to him is an extension of his meditation, quickly strapping everything into place and checking that it's all secure and ready. Mind and body calm he heads for the bridge.

[TheBlindMime]

"So then she slaps me and says she wouldn't do that for less then 150." Troy says in a very embellished manner.

"What did you do then?" A private with his helmet on replied.

"Well Rodriguez, I did what any man would do in that kind of a spot, I scraped up 150 in a damn fine hurry."

"Smooth Parker." Rodriguez replied, the helmets speaker muffling his agreement to the story.

"And I have to say that was a mighty fine way to end my R and R. But another good way is what happened this one time in-" Troy was cut off before he could start his next story, he hated when that happened. Especially for that story, as far as bragging rights go this would have blown Rodriguez out of the water on female tall tales.

“Attention all hands! Report to the bridge at once!” Troy hated the sound the com made when the transmission ended too.

"Well that’s us Rod, Time for us to get to what we do best."

"Killing those f**king alien freaks." Rodriguez snickered.

"Damn straight, anything with more then two legs is fair game." Following a quick high five and chest slam between the two of them they began making there way toward the bridge, Troy continuing what could only be explained as a farce of sexual conquest all the way there.

[Ryu Kurai]

Astarat crossed his arms, fingering the needles in one of his pouches. He had snuck into the ship's air circulation systems, he presumed, because otherwise the ship randomly decided to have giant holes in it. He angrily bore his teeth at the human's mention of "killing those f**k alien freaks".

So, you come to our planet, try and take us over, and we're the freaks? Why don't you die right now... He said, raising his hand to toss the needle through the metal and into the middle of the human's skull. He shook violently as he slowly brought his hand down. By the moons, I can't let them infuriate me. I'll end up getting hit by those "gun" things they carry if I do it now as well. Soon, Rodriguez, my prey, soon you will feel my claws upon your neck, and I shall rip your spine from your evil flesh. He turned and made his way back towards his group, putting away his needle reluctantly.

[Mintaro]

The doors opened and a man walked in. Well not so much walked as danced. He scuffed across the floor with headphones on. The music could be heard slightly. It was a new music track. A sort of Celtic trance or almost techno style music. The man appeared to be about 6 feet tall, though it was hard to tell with his constant movement. He was wearing very thick looking gloves with odd looking pads covering them. The rest of his clothing was standard issue. With the exception of a golden Celtic symbol around his neck along side his dog tags. He has a large rifle strapped to his back, but the weight doesn't seem to hinder his built and toned body. He danced his way over to a chair and took a seat bobbing his head in time with the rhythm and taping his fingers very quickly along as well.

[BassDouken]

“Attention all hands! Report to the bridge at once!” came a roaring voice over the com system, it was heard throughout the ship.

Esentu looked at the com system. Then around at the men who were starting to file into the halls towards the bridge. He had assumed is rarly used human form when he snuck back on the ship and was already sick of being around all of these humans without being able to attack them. But he was there for an infiltration mission and it was not for him to lash out at them yet. He walked out the door, making sure to duck slightly due to his height. As he walked down the hall, he could feel Astarat's anger in the walls. Calm down my friend. I feel your anger. Trust me, these aliens will get their just desserts. I will make sure of it.

[Rookie]

Ulysses secured the helmet that covered his entire face as he walked towards the bridge. His supplies were secured and his gun loaded. His helmet kept track of his vital signs as he walked down the hall. He would be needing it in a while.

He met up with other soldiers as they went towards the bridge. "Great day to lay waste." He remarked.

[WanderingWombat]

"Great day to lay waste." He remarked.

Rowan grunted again. "It's never a good day to kill," he said to himself, looking around the bridge. Many of these fighters... too many... had joined up because it was better than living on the dustball of home. It was always cold on the ship instead of always hot Earthside, and the meals were regular. They hadn't joined out of civic pride or furthering the human race... they joined because it was something to do. If the aliens hadn't turned out to be hostile, they'd probably be trying to eke out a life farming asparagus, just about the only nutritious thing that grew anymore.

He growled. He hated asparagus.

He crossed his arms, feeling the assorted heavy objects scattered around his fatigues shifting position. Being a cop was different than being a soldier. Out here, he was the law, but he still had to take orders from above. The orders from above, lately, had just been "Blow away anything with fur."

[Rookie]

Ulysses turned towards the man next to him. Ulysses had fought in battles before, but never in one like this. Soldiers everywhere, fighting for a common cause. the bay door opened and he entered the bridge. Warriors were gathered all around.
"I don't particularly like killing. It was a dry remark." Ulysses said to the man next to him.
"Sure it was..." the warrior said.

[Gineko]

Karen sat down on the bridge and waited calmly for thier commander to appear. There was alot of socializing going on in the room, everyone was talking to someone, there was even a couple making out in the corner. She rolled her eyes. Why would you concentrate on love at a time like this?

~~~

Diego appeared at Astarat's side. "Well, I see you've already found yourself some prime targets, that didn't take very long." He did the closest thing to a smirk he could manage. Then he patted his back. "Come, my friend, they are congregating."

~~~

A sliding door opened and a large man came through the door. He wasn't fat, but he was very tall and muscular, he had a bushy mustache and a large scar on his neck. He glared around the room and all chatter stopped.
"Alright. Its time for you all to find out what you've gotten yourselves into. My name is General 'Smokey' Prodian, I'll debreaf you on the situation." He pressed a button on the wall and the lights dimmed, a platform rose out of the floor in front of him. "Your mission, to put it simplely, is to infiltrate the enemy capitol and capture thier leader." A hologram flickered to life to show Orienz, in full color and solid looking. It was blue, like earth, except it had a lot more land mass than water and it was about 2/3 of the size of earth.
"You all know about the Oren, the creatures that have shamed our names and killed our representatives." Some people nodded grimly and a few booed and hissed. "The main force against them is located here." He zoomed in on the map to show one of the continents. The eastern half of the continent was where the troops were, it was a relatively flat terrain. The General then pointed to the western half of the continent. "This is where we will start our approach on thier Capitol." This half of the planet was not nearly as inviting, it was covered with mountains and valleys with several forests and swamps sprinkled all over, by the likes of which no human had ever seen before. Right smack dab in the center of this, located within a valley, was a large city, but it also didn't look like anything they had seen before. First of all there were only 4 or 5 actual buildings that rested on the ground, the rest of the city was covered by very strange structures that it would be difficult to classify as buildings. They were spheres, and there were alot of them, and most of them seemed to be suspended in the air, some feet from the ground and others much higher. They all surrounded the few buildings equally on all sides.
"We have recieved information from our spies that thier Temeno ((leader)) stays in this building." He pointed to the largest one, which was taller than the highest sphere. "We are going to land in this area" he pointed to the southwest of the city, where there was a small spot that had a level ground, there was a river next to it "and you are going to make your way, following this river upstream to it's source. When you arrive there you will go east, past this edge of a forest and through this mountain chain. When you pass the mountains you will have to climb down into the valley and take cover in the trees. At this point you will contact us and wait for our signal before you enter the city. It has to be at the right time, when the main force is close enough to invade once you have captured the Temeno and any other Oren that are there. We want you to search the main building well, lock it down and make sure nothing gets in or out. You are to shoot anything that resists." He turned the lights back on, surrvaying them. "Any questions?"

[Mintaro]

Vance, who had been giving the appearance of not listening the whole time, raised his hand. "Sir, How many of these ugly brute fuckers do we get to put to sleep sir? Like are we expecting resistance at the landing site? Cause I wanna crush some of these rodent skulls in." A bunch of cheers went up from the troops at Vance's comment. A couple whispered about seeing his matches. The music could still be heard coming from his earphones. Its surprising he could hear the general.

[TheBlindMime]

Sitting next to Rodriguez as the general yammered on about something pointless after a while Troy got bored. After all there were several hundred other guys here, he could just ask them what the mission was later. Troy's eyes glazed over as he subtely scanned the room then, he saw her. "Hey Rodriguez is that your sister over there?"

He glanced over and back rather quickly. "Yeah what about her?"

"Think you could hook me up man?" Troy said with a smile.

"No way dude."

"Oh come on now thats not nice, I'm a good guy, why not?" Troy began a subtle attempt to guilt Ed. Troy had been pulling this move on him since basic training.

"Dude you're not her type and she isn't yours, you think your slick shit but you're not. You're not going to be able to get into her pants in one day, alright." Somebody must've slipped a bug up Rodriguez's ass during the covert ops training, he seemed more uptight then usual.

"Ah, c'mon she can't be that bad, after all once you get them started they always come crawling back for more." A quick elbow was delivered to Troy to shut him up as the crowd cheered some jerk's question. "This is cause I'm black isn't it?'

"Shut the f**k up man. I don't need your sh*t about my sister, I'm doing my best not to picture you to together and I need to focus on not getting shot first."

"Fine then if you'll excuse me I have an important question to address." Troy calmly stood up with his hand raised till the general took notice, he smirked a bit as he asked his question to the general. "I heard that the lizard ones taste like chicken, is that true sir?" Troy flashed his pearly whites towards the lady Rodriguez, I'll tap that in under a week, max.

[Gineko]

The General looked toward Vance. "We are landing in a noninhabited area. We don't want to attract attention to this mission too early on, it might damage our chances at getting close to the capitol." He then glared at Troy for a moment, then smirked. "You'll get your chance to find out."

Karen looked at him expressionlessly for a moment, then turned back to the general, ignoring him.

[Ryu Kurai]

Astarat would have growled at the chicken comment if he had known what a chicken was. He still regarded the chances of these creatures eating anything without blowing holes in it hundreds of times to be very small. He was again highly tempted to send his needles flying through the metal to scare the hell out of them. None of them looked like a derisive predator. Their skin looked soft, as though a rush through thorns would scratch it up quite badly. He had once chased a robbyt through a huge mess of thorns and it had been killed trying to escape. He equated that their skin was even thinner than its had been, considering the only large ammount of hair they had was on their faces. But there was the matter of the armor, which slowed them down considerably... He went on thinking about their statistics from observation for a good long time, remaining absolutely silent.

[BassDouken]

Esentu stared at the hologram for a minute, memorizing the entry point and path to be taken by these vile humans. He remained quiet and stood at the back of the room with his arms folded. He gave a cheer with the other men, but halfheartedly. Esentu listened intently to the questions posed by his "fellow" humans, taking notes as to what exactly they would be doing. He was there to gather as good of information as he could and relay it back to the capitol as fast as he could before the attack was to take place. He wanted badly to begin taking out as many of these virus like creatures, but he forced himself to wait til the time was right.

[WanderingWombat]

"What can we expect in terms of resistance at the capital building itself? Elite troops, traps, fortified defensive positions?"

[Gineko]

General Prodian shook his head, frowning. "Unfortunately, we know very little about the defenses of the building. These things do have at least some security and only a few of them are allowed to enter the building. What you are to do is take out the guards and enter as descretely as possible. We will be giving you as much equipment as we think will help, but not so much as to weigh you down." He glanced around the room, a slight flicker from the left wall caught his eye...

Esentu - you hear a voice in your head. At least we're not the only ones who had the sense to sneak on here. Two 'humans' on the left side of the room nodded at him.

[Seeker]

Ki watched and listened to the briefing in silence. It wasn't that he didn't care it was just that he had an odd feeling. Almost as if someone was watching him or crouching nearby. It was the same feeling he got when he was training and he would reach a mental point when he could anticipate his opponent next attack before it came. Try as he might though he couldn't sense it's source, it didn't help that the majority of his fellow "soldiers" felt that they could simply waltz onto an unknown planet and walk over any resistance that was offered. They had no respect for battle or their enemy.

Glancing through the crowd his eyes encountered first Rowan then Karen, and he thought to himself "Still, maybe there are a few who might be able to help me."

His thoughts were once again cut short by that feeling of another’s presence; he almost thought he could feel anger.

"Where is that coming from?" he whispered to himself.

His attention quickly shifted back the General and the explanation of the cities defenses, and in doing so he missed the movement of the two soldiers across the room.

[Mintaro]

OOC: I will delete this post if you want me to Gineko.

As the general began to explain the lack of knowledge regarding the purpose of their mission, Vance got up. He walked toward the back of the room. He reached the door when the general noticed him.

"Where are you going soldier! You were not dismissed!" The generals tone made it clear this was not a question but instead an order.

Vance turned around with a smirk on his face. He responded in his slight Irish accent. "I'm going to get ready for the welcoming party I know is waiting for us. You would have to be a fool to think they don't know about this already." With that Vance rolls his shoulders and then shakes his head walking out as the general tells him to get back inside. Vance just gives a quick over the shoulder wave as the doors close behind him. Vance moves down the empty hall and hears the doors open behind him a moment later and footsteps rapidly approach him.

"Damnit Vance! You're going to get yourself reprimanded again!" His Friend yelled at him.

Vance continued walking as his Friend came up next to him. Vance looked at him smiling. "What are they going to do Paul? Put me in a holding cell? Send me back to earth? No no. They won't do anything. I want to get in some time at the gym before we land. Spot me?" Vance comments.

Paul sighs, "yeah alright Vance. You still need to show me that combination of punches that one you the last bare knuckle match."

"Oh right. Well the first thing to remember is that your arms..." Vance continued off down the hall turning toward the small gym that had been put together.

[WanderingWombat]

Rowan watched the newbies leave. "Tough guys," he said to himself. "Let's hope they're half as right as they think they are." Part of him wished he mad made a friend on this voyage. As part of the officer corp, he knew it would be bad to get attached to any of the troops, but it also made it hard for them to trust him.

Well, one battle would sort out the trusting from the decomposing.

He drew one of his pistols, and checked it's battery for the seventh time.

[TheBlindMime]

Damn, Troy thought as the guy left the room, Now I can't play the badboy card to impress her.

"Just give it up troy, the stuff he's explaining could save your life." Rodriguez moaned.

"Fine." Troy's eyes quickly glazed over as the General continued answering seemingly moronic questions. He just hoped the majority of these guys were trained to aim their guns before firing. Elites my ass. Troy slowly began plotting a way to attract rodriguez's sister again, he wasn't giving up that easily.

[Gineko]

Cut short in his lecture the General turned beet red in anger. "We'll see where you end up in the ranks, gentlemen." he grumbled under his breath. He pressed another button and the lights came back on. He saw another flicker in the corner. Staring at the source he said "If there are no further ques..." he tilted his head inquisitively. He walked up to the left side of the wall, staring straight into the eyes of a man he didn't know.
"What's your name soldier?" He asked, fingering his tazer. The 'man' looked up at him and at a moments pause said "Adalan."
"Adalan what?"
"Adalan Herny"
"No, Adalan, sir."
"Adalan, sir."
The General glared at him, then around the room. "Has anyone seen Adalan before now? Anyone? In the corador or at meals maybe?" There was a general mutter of negative. "No? Well then..." In a flash he swept out his tazer and fired one shot into Adalan's head, which turned out to be his chest as the shocked Ueto fell to the ground dead. The girl who had been making out in the back screamed, the other Ueto looked down in horror but managed to keep his appearance human, though he let out a mental scream that only Esentu could truely hear.
The general smirked and resheathed his Tazer. "Someone clean this mess up. You know your mission, dissmissed." He left through the same door he came from.

Karen stared at the dead Ueto, then at the General. "That was completely idiotic, how can you call that a debreifing? Stupid overlarge toad..."

Diego ground his claws into the floor out of anger, then looked sypathetically at the fallen Ueto, What a waste of life...

The Ueto who had not been shot began to pick up his fellow's body. If he could cry he would have done so now. He gave Esantu a sad, meaningful look, then without saying anything carried the body through a door on his right.

[Mintaro]

Vance was working the makeshift punching bag with Paul when the rest of his little enterage entered the the 'gym'. They looked excited and nervouse respectivly.

Neal spoke first, "Oh man you missed it! One of those alien freaks was on the ship! Totally disguised as a human."

Lesley followed him up, "How can you be excited about this!? If there is one of them there have to be more."

Paul looked up from his spot holding the bag and turned to address his freinds. Only to have it slam into him and knock him sprawling onto the ground. Vance laughed jovilly and moved away from the bag. He rolled his shoulder as he spoke to his freinds. "Its alright boys. We know who each other is. As long as we stay together on the planet we'll be ok. Anyone we don't know we keep away from us. At least until we figure out how to tell if their human or not."

Paul picked himself up as gracefully as possible and responded at last. "So what do we do, just be compleatly paranoid?"

"If we have to be. We have a mission, and we are going to pull it off even if we are the only four left. Get your gear and meet me back here in thirty minutes. Stay in your bunk teams. Be suspiciouse if your partner so much as goes to the bathroom. Anytime your out of sight is a risk." With that said Vance motioned for Paul to follow him out of the room and headed off towards the bunks.

[Ryu Kurai]

Astarat would have growled at the sight of the Ueto's death, had he not been so used to seeing it already and had he not been focused on staying as quiet as he normally was. He simply brooded, noting that the captain had worn an outfit not similar to the other humans. He grinned. He could see the soft parts on the general that the clothes weren't covering. The neck... He would remember that one.

[TheBlindMime]

"Well Rodriguez with a few hours left till what could be our deaths what do you want to do, cause I know what I want to do."

Rodriguez responded by whipping out his pistol. "I swear to god if you say my sister you wont even get a chance to step on the planet."

Troy paused for a moment, then replied as he smirked, "I just wanted to get some chow man, but the thought of eating-"

"Don't!"

"Lets just get our last supper alright man."

"Whatever you say parker, But I'm keeping my gun out." Rodriguez angrily replied as he followed him with his pistol out.

[WanderingWombat]

Rowan sat in the mess, slowly working his way through a small pile of burritos. Well, they were supposed to be burritos. They looked right... they sure didn't taste right. He could taste the reconstituted asparagus, he didn't care what any of the scientists said. Only a few hours to go, and he still didn't know who his final crew was going to be. He had a dozen last time. Six had come back... he'd gotten a medal for that. Fifty percent losses, and you were a god-damned hero.

He'd sent back the medal with the remains package back to Earth, so the families of the lost would have something to remember them by, and so he very specifically wouldn't have anything to remember them by. He'd sent all of his medals home. He hadn't earned them the way he'd wanted.

He scooped more jalapenos onto the burrito. Where the soil was good, jalapenoes were a cash crop. They were packed with ridiculous amounts of vitamins and antioxidants. Back in his home town, kids had jalapenoes on toast because fruit was too scarce to waste.

Maybe this time only three kids would get eviscerated, and he'd get two medals.

[Seeker]

Ki had been severely shocked when the General had shot the Oren. Not because it was there and disguised as human, Ki had expected them to try and infiltrate the ship, but because he had not noticed the Oren in the least. He had a feeling though that even if he hadn't been distracted he still wouldn't have noticed the disguise had been practically perfect.

Afterwards Ki had unconsciously started going over every soldier he could remember meeting on the ship. He only did this for few minutes before he came to his senses and resolved to try and be more alert and less distracted. Otherwise he could easily end up the same as that Oren.

Looking around Ki saw that most everyone had cleared out and he hadn't seen where either Karen or Rowan went. He made a mental note to try and speak with them before they deployed. Right now he decided that some time training in the gym would help him to focus his mind and body before that moment came. As he approached the doors to the gym the he saw Vance and another person, Paul he thought his name was, emerge and head towards the bunks. As they turned away Paul narrowed his eyes at Ki almost as if he thought Ki would lunge at him any second. Ki nodded but Paul quickly turned away continuing down the hall with Vance.

"I wonder what that was all about." Ki thought to himself as he entered the gym.

The thought was swiftly pushed away though as Ki began to go about his training regimen

[Gineko]

Karen shook her head. "Why can't we have a competent leader for a change?" she walked down the hall and up to her room. She finished packing her equipment into her bag and then decided to get some food. When she reached the mess hall, she looked at the selection. Compared to the food she could make on her own, this was worse than eating dirt. She sighed and took a bowl of ravioli, might as well try something she hadn't had before, that way she couldn't judge it from her own cooking. She chose a table by herself and started poking at her food, not really eating it.

[Mintaro]

Vance placed his duffel on his bed and zipped it up. It hadn't taken him long to pack it, it never did. He turned and saw Paul finishing up his bag as well. They made their beds and picked the bags up. Vance settled his gun against his back and then his duffle bag onto his shoulder. They moved out of the room and walked side by side down the corridor nodding to the troops they past. Giving them lookovers. Paul kept glaring at everyone. "Damnit Paul." Vance whispered. "Be less conspicuous." Paul nodded slightly and began not looking so hard at the people they passed. The moved by the mess hall doors and Vance motioned to stop. "We should get some food from here while we still can. Good high energy, high nutrient food." Vance smiled and winked at Paul in a knowing way.

Paul sighed in irritation. "I do not want to eat Potato's again. How the hell do you eat those things for every meal?"

Vance entered the room with Paul in toe. They moved down the food line and Vance grabbed the last two baked potatos. After exchanging a few quick words, and a couple salt packets, with a mess worker he managed to get two more raw potatos. Vance walked over to a table Paul had sat down at. Paul had what appeared to be a vegetable nutrient mush. Vance just snorted at it. "And you say potato's are weird. Eat like your in prison cause we gotta go." They ate their food as fast as they could and headed off again. Vance had the two raw potatos stuffed securly in the false pocket of his duffle. He wouldn't be caught eating anything he didn't know was safe.

When he made it back to the Gym his other freinds were waiting just outside the door. Well they were all here. Time to get ready for a good old fashioned paranoid wait out.

[Seeker]

Ki landed lightly on his feet and immediately charged forward towards the dummy. At the last second he leapt over the dummy and spun in midair quickly striking the dummy first with his left foot in the head and then with his right forearm on the shoulder. As he landed he collapsed his body rolling in a half-moon around the dummy to the right, leaping to an attack stance at the end and throwing two lightning fast punches into the dummies upper torso before again moving quickly to a different position.

This was the essence of Ki's fighting style strike and move and do both quickly, often, and with efficiency. If you weren't there when your opponent struck then you couldn't be hit. He also felt it better to land many strong blows rather than a few crushing blows, this would help to keep you from exhausting your own energy while wearing your opponent down. However Ki also favored the ability to change your fighting style when needed so as not to become predictable to an opponent.

Ki executed one final spin kick striking the dummy solidly in the back of the neck. He landed in a crouch position, coming smoothly to his feet just as the gym doors began to open.

[Gineko]

Everyone is going about their business. A cool female voice is heard over the com system: "We will be landing in thirty minutes time. Please make sure that all of your equip-" BOOM! There was a violent explosion from somewhere on the ship and every living thing was knocked to the ground. There was a siren screaming from somewhere and there were people yelling, the whole ship was shaking uncontrollably. WHAM! There was a second explosion and this time everyone felt the physical force of it as if it was in their own body. The lights failed and there was smoke and rubble falling from the walls and ceiling, someone was saying something over the com but it wasn't heard over the roaring of the ship as it fell from the sky. There was no longer an up or down, just a mass of bodies being thrown against one another as the ship hurdled toward Oreinz, as the people inside struggled to straighten themselves and get to the escape pods.

[TheBlindMime]

Parker was walking down the hallway rubbing his hands together in anticipation of some grub. "First I'm going to eat some chicken, or steak maybe they have steak today. That would be so good with the potatoes they are always shoving down our throats."

"Parker calm down man, we still have like 40 minutes." Rodriguez didn't seem very amped up about eating.

"C'mon rod you need to enjoy what we have here because for all we know those aliens eat sludge."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and the sludge will taste like rocky road."

Parker stopped and gave Rodriguez an evil eye, "If it does I will pay for everything in your retirement years. And I mean that." A voice came over the radio explained there time frame of 30 minutes when a sudden rift came through the entire ship. Parker lost his footing and as he fell his head rebounded off of a steel hand rail. His head felt as though it was being split by fire. His eyes couldn't even focus as he held himself against the ground with one hand the other clasped against the sharp pain in his skull.

As the second explosion ripped through the ship Rodriguez was prepared, pressing himself against the wall using the rail as leverage. As the ship evened out for a moment Rodgriguez jumped into action, pulling Parker to his feet as he began dragging him towards an escape pod. "Now thats why they tell all the new recruits to keep their braincases firmly enclosed within a helmet."

"Arghh..." It was all troy could say, he tried to force out a few curse words but it was of no use. For him the world seemed off, beyond the smoke and rubble there was a great haze surrounding it. It may have been the adrenaline in his veins or the sharp strike his head suffered, but the next few moments seemed like a blur to troy. Footsteps, screams, hallway after hallway. It was as if he was asleep. When he awoke, he found himself locked into a seat on an escape pod. Looking around he couldn't see Rodriguez. "Rodriguez talk to me man, where are you?"

No answer.

"Rodriguez, does anyone know where rodriguez is?" The reply was just a bunch of blank faces. He had lost the man who saved him, the only man he had respected in basic training, his friend was gone. He wondered if he would see him on the planet as he pressed his hand into the minor trickle of blood on his head.

(ooc: gineko since he's your brother bring him back if you wish.)

[BassDouken]

Esentu was knocked down by the first blast. The force of it as well as the second blast caused his concentration to be interrupted. His mental hallucination was broken as his Uteo form emerged as he lay prone on the ground. The only thing that had saved him was the fact that everyone else was falling around as well. He looked up as a large chunk of the wall fell forward and enveloped him. He quickly projected a force feild around him and the wall stopped inches from his chest. The rest of the wall fell around him, causing him to slip out of sight of any others around him. He rolled back through the wall and the chunks of ship rolled off of him. He reprojected his human from as he stood up. He surveyed the chaos arround him and looked to where everyone was running.

OREN, ESCAPE PODS! NOW!!! I'll get one just for us, if you can't find us get into one with humans in it. Just GET OFF THIS SHIP NOW! Esentu yelled at any Oren on board. He dashed off through all of the humans. Most seemed to be going to the port side of the ship. Esentu also went to the port side, but went a floor above everyone in hoped that more escape pods would be there. He was in luck because it was less populated than the floor below it. As he ran, he noticed the other Uteo from the Breifing Room incident. He looked at him for a minute and then the other looked back at him. They ran for an unused escape pod. A human was about to enter into a far one, but Esentu sent out a mental blast that knocked him back into the wall. He slumped down with a trail of blood marked on the wall. Pausing before the entrance to the escape pod, he took note of the number.

E-429. That's the number of the escape pod.

Esentu then sent a mental blast along the walls which sent smoke and steam spewing around the hallway. That should prevent unwanted guests. He thought to himself.

[Ryu Kurai]

Astarat pushed one of the Ueto he was with ahead of him, unsure as to where the escape pods would be located. He dashed after them, hoping that his comrade had at least some semblance of an idea where he was going.

The moment that the Oren recieved the message, Astarat nodded at the Ueto. Their group sped on towards the escape pods, Astarat ready to dispatch any soldiers with a well-placed needle.

[WanderingWombat]

Swallowing his second reconstituded burrito, Rowan cocked his ears. During the announcement, he could swear he heard a whistl...BOOM!

The first explosion bounced his hide off of the cieling, and the second one drove him back through his cafeteria table. The center of gravity within the ship was shifting, and he could feel himself sliding towards the kitchens. A moment later, momentum was carrying him towards the doors.

"Oh, yeah, this is SO much better that attacking a fortified city," he groused, digging his booted heels into the ground, and trying to hurl himself at the doors. He was reasonably sure he could take them on...

With a well-trained footbal shoulder, he managed to drive himself into the flimsy sheet-metal doors, and completely through them, into the hallway. At least here, he had some bulkheads to use for grip. "ANYONE WHO CAN HEAR ME," he roared in his best drill-seargent voice, which he had honed for the past few weeks, "GET YOUR DAMN ASSES TO THE ESCAPE PODS! FIRST COME FIRST SERVE, SO SHAKE IT!"

[Mintaro]

Vance and his group regained their feet after the ship was rocked with the first explosion. Even an experienced boxer like Vance had trouble with a surprise like that. They managed to get into the Gym and spotted another soldier inside. They called out for him to follow them and headed past the gym and out another door moving straight for the closest escape pod. They managed to make it inside with minimal injury and picked up a couple more people along the way. They locked themselves inside the front seats of the pod and everyone else filed in behind them.

When it finally filled up they hit the launch button and jettisoned themselves out to what they hoped was the safety of space. Vance was just happy he had grabbed those potatoes when he did. No telling when they will be able to find food on the planet. "First thing we do when we land is take control of the people in this pod." He thought to himself. "Make them all submit to some sort of test to prove they arn't aliens and then lead them to the rendezvous point....where the hell IS the rendezvous point. Oh well, Paul will know." Vance contented himself to trying to get the pod down to the surface in one piece.

[Gineko]

Karen was doing her best to keep her balance, she was being thrown all over the place and into people who just pushed her off of them and continued running and yelling. She reached the escape pods and tumbled into one, then fell unconscious.

The ship continued to fall, none of the pods had jettisoned yet and the ground was coming closer. They were off course and heading toward one of the heavily forested areas. In the last seconds before they scrapped the top of the trees three pods shot away from the ship, but not fast enough. The ship hit the trees and with many loud series of cracks it broke through the shield of trees. The escape pods that had left the ship were not hit with the majority of the force that the ship was but they still plummeted into the forest. After a few minutes the ship and the pods came to a rest at the forest floor.

OCC , Im sorry i wont be able to come on the rest of the week i got kicked out of the library at school. RYU can take over Thankx

[Seeker]

Just as the door opened there was a deafening BOOM! and an explosion, which sent Ki sprawling across the gym. As he regained his footing the second explosion rocked the ship, this time though Ki was able to keep his footing if only just.

As he found his balance he heard someone yell to him to follow and looked up in time to see Vance and his groupies rushing through the opposite gym doors. Ki quickly scooped up his scattered weapons and rushed to follow them.

Exiting the gym and entering into the chaos of the hallway Ki dashed after the group as they entered a pod at the far end of the hallway. Along the way he pushed a couple of soldiers to their feet and pushed them towards the escape pod as well. Finally he sprinted through the doors and buckled himself into his seat just in time for the pod to jettison.

[Ryu Kurai]

The pod that the Oren were in was thrown clear of the shuttle's impact only by the force of the shuttle itself. The well-made escape pod fortunately was able to withstand most of the tumbling, but the immense ammount of spinning upon impact and the fact that Astarat had not known to strap himself in and had braced himself against all sides of the pod before impact had rendered the occupants of all the surviving pods unconcious.

The remains of the Ship burned brightly in the night sky, a grim reminder of what had transpired, as the first of the pod's occupants awoke.

OOC: Basically, you guys decide the order in which you wake up. You're all in heavy jungle underbrush, save the upturned earth made from the pods grinding to a stop. Injuries and such are up to you.

[Mintaro]

Vance woke up and looked around. It didn't look like anyone else had managed to awaken yet so he went ahead. And pressed the release button on his straps. He climbed out of his chair and awoke each of his for compatriots. They Climbed out of the pod. Waking up everyone on their way out. Vance looked around the jungle they had landed in. "Figures these animals would live in a jungle." Vance looked around and spotted this ship. He had Paul figure out where they had landed in relation to where they were supposed too. The distance was just that. A distance. It seemed the rendezvous spot would be closer then the landing spot. Though neither was close. After the last of the occupants of the pod had exited Vance informed them of the situation.

"Frankly what it comes down to is this. We are on an alien planet. With an alien species that can disguise themselves as humans. This brings me to our first order of business. Testing. Each of you will stand in a line and approach me. You will each in turn had your arm cut and bled. This is of course not a fool proof measure of finding out who is human and if any of you are not. But it is a start until we get an alien body." Vance gestures to his Friends and they all pull out their guns pointing them at the group. "Now, an orderly line would be lovely." He says as he pulls a knife out of his Friends leg scabbard.

[TheBlindMime]

Parker awoke after the grinding halt of the excape pods impact onto the ground. The shaking jolted him against, he saw the others getting up in a subtle haze. Releasing the seat restraints he slowly dragged himself to the door behind the others. They collected in a group right outside of the escape pod.

Parker sat holding his head with a first-aid rag as he slowly bled. He watched as the others appeared to let there paranoia consuming them. Almost all of their guns were drawn waiting for another person to make the first move. They had to cut there arms to prove themselves, Parker merely laughed. "I can one up that," he threw the bloodsoaked rag at the leader of the group. "I think that just about proves my humanity. Now what about yours?" Parker lifted his rifle and aimed it squarely between Vance's eyes. Parker wasn't going to move his rifle for anything, he just hoped the soldiers behind him were as human as he.

[Seeker]

Ki had been watching Vance's group and listening to his ridiculous command that everybody be "tested". He agreed that some of these soldiers might be aliens but this was not the way to go about finding them and there was no way he was going to cut himself for Mr. Paranoid and his cronies. It would be much better to find out who the aliens were without them knowing, better the enemy you knew than the one you didn't.

They hadn't yet moved towards him yet when Troy started the standoff though. Ki could see the way some of the others were giving Troy the eye and figured this could turn ugly quick unless a ranking officer showed up and soon at that. He knew the other pods had crashed nearby so maybe he could stall this until someone showed up.

Ki moved up alongside Troy and said in a level, calm voice, "Lets all just try to settle down. This isn't the way to go about this. The best thing to do now is find the others."

He glanced around trying to take everyone in, "We know the Oren caused that crash so they know we're here and are probably nearby. The longer we stand here the more chance they have of catching us unprepared."

Ki looked from Parker to Vance and said, "I don't about you two but I don't want to get shot by and alien because I was arguing about whether or not I was one. So what do you say?"

[Mintaro]

Vance took the rag and sniffed it. It was blood alright. One human down. Just then another man stepped forward.

"I don't about you two but I don't want to get shot by and alien because I was arguing about whether or not I was one. So what do you say?"

Vance just looked at him. He then raised his arm, and made a slow cut across it. Being careful not to hit any veins. The red blood slowly seeped out and Vance bound the wound with a handkerchief from his pocket. He then made a hand signal that everyone recognized as take aim. His team pointed their weapons at the one that had just spoke (Ki). Vance smiled at him and said simply "Well then you'll be next." Holding the knife out in front of him.

[BassDouken]

Esentu clutched his head as he regained conciousness. He pushed away a few wires that were dangling down from the top of the escape pod, at least what he thought was the top. He could no longer tell what side was supposed to be on top, but it didn't matter to him. He looked around and found the other Uteo as well as a few other Oren. He entered the Uteo's mind and woke him up. Get up. We crashed, and I have an idea. The humans should come searching here soon. Esentu and Iveol (the other Uteo) slipped out through a whole that was oppened up near the ground. They made their way to a depression in the ground. Iveol, make a projection above us, a rock or something. And watch what happens. Esentu concentrated, and one of the soldier's guns began to levitate above his hands and shot out into the center of the group. It just hung there in midair for a moment while the other humans just dumbfoundedly looked at it.