NationStates Jolt Archive


The Great Leap Forward...

Dyelli Beybi
24-04-2007, 13:42
The truth was the Dyellians had been mucking around with wormhole technology for years. They had tried and failed to set up a military base on one world. They had worked out what had gone wrong and after a bitter civil war, were ready to try again.

Gate 1 is up and running Control.

Affimative Engineering, you may proceed with the tests.

The exact location of the bunker was a secret, even from many of the employees. Deep in the bowels lay a huge cavernous chamber containing two large gates, each capable of having a truck rolled through them, each surrounded by a metal ring and apparently opening straight through the concrete wall and into open grasslands dotted with the odd tree. The grass though, was alien with a faint reddish hue to it, while the trees resembled giant gnarled mushrooms unlike anything found on earth. An alien sun illuminated one scene, while the other was quite dark, although a few stars shone in the sky.

A small robotic tracked drone rumbled towards the sunny gate, up a short ramp and into the alien world. There it abruptly stopped.

Readings coming in now control, everything seems correct, may we proceed to stage two?

Affirmative Engineering

In the bowels of the bunker a door opened to bring out a huge vehicle on tracks. On closer inspection it would appear to have no driver, just several metal crates and a pair of mechanical arms. It rumbled up the same ramp the drone had taken and out into the alien landscape. Dozens of soldiers flooded onto the floor following it, taking up positions to cover the gate to darkness. There was tension in the air, an uncertainty of what the next few seconds might hold.

When the vehicle had passed through the gate a red light began to flash, Initiating shutdown of Early Gate. Five...

Four...

Three...

Two...

One...

Shutdown commencing.

And the gate vanished. The metal ring now showed concrete wall. It was sudden, but without dramatic incident, one moment it was there, the next it wasn't.

There was a slight flickering in the second gate... then there was light. Artificial light. From behind the rear rank of soldiers a scientist rushed out. He was wearing a white lab coat, an comunications headset on his head.

He stopped to stare at the gateway, "We did it." he whispered

"WE DID IT!" he yelled.

"Ladies and Gentlemen." he clapped one soldier on the shoulder, "What do you see?"

"A city Sir." the Soldier replied simply.

"What you see is the future." he beamed broadly, then apparently became aware of his headset, "Control, everything appears to have worked."
Dyelli Beybi
25-04-2007, 12:12
Two weeks later...

'Neo Fasta Benj', Unnamed Star System.

"Who the hell would have thought there would be locals?" Lieutenant Hawkins spat onto the purple grass, "Unfriendly little critters aren't they?"

The dark eyes of Sergeaqnt Greene were fixed on the back of the Leiutenant's head, but the NCO bit his tongue.

The Lieutenant stirred one of the corpses with the toe of his boot. The creature was bipedal, about 5 foot tall, with long powerful jumping jegs, clawed front feet and a fearsome looking jaw, "So?" he demanded, "You have an opinion Sergeant?"

"We started shooting first." the Sergeant replied cagedly, "Perhaps we could have waited before wiping out the tribe?"

Hawkins didn't turn around, but continued prodding at the beast with his toe, "They shouldn't be here, this place was built for us."

"Did anyone tell them that?" the Sergeant responded, now the disapproval was quite evident in his tone.

"Hah." the Officer grunted, finally turning, "Don't come all High and Mighty on me, I saw you gunning one of the frog things down."

"Self defence." the Sergeant replied.

"Yeah." the Officer smiled unpleasantly, "Self defence..."