NationStates Jolt Archive

Pr. Herk Aumagaug couldn't be happier. He was on a foreign world studying. He was studying whatever he felt like.

Border Planet #39640 was lush and rich in animal life. Herk was looking for any possible sentient xenos. How he loved those. What really disconcerted him though was the footprints. Getting about a mile away from his original landing ship he'd found the first. It was freshish and couldn't have been made by somehting under 7 feet.

Once finding those he'd quickly activated defense drones from the ship. He'd found a group of bovine like creatures and was currently tracking them across the plains. For further study of course. There was a rock up ahead and his feet hurt so he decided to take a nap on it while the three defense drones watched over him...

bump

The two stood inside a mountain. A huge cavern had been dug out inside it millennia ago. It was filled with dead, empty chryopods, as far as the eye could see. A lot of them had been covered with rubble beneath a huge hole in the side of the cavern, presumably where a ship had left.

"I reckon they were here," Nineteenth nodded. Twenthieth looked around the huge cavern, at all the empty chryopods, and then down at Nineteenth.

"You think?!" he exclaimed.

"We have to make sure they're all gone," Nineteenth nodded.

"Just being here gives me the creeps," Twentieth shuddered, lifting his large plasma rifle. "There must have been thousands of them in here..."

"Almost a hundred thousand," Nineteenth corrected him, and showed him a pad. "Sensors don't lie. Well, not often."

Nineteenth looked down at his belt as there was a bleeping noise. He pressed a button and his large, serpent-shaped helmet retracted into a small slot in the back of his armour and he held his wrist up to his mouth.

"Nineteenth of the First here," he said sternly.

"This is General Trekkor," a gruff voice said. "Have you found any?"

"Negative sir," Nineteenth shook his head. "They seem to have all left at the same time as the others."

"Good," Trekkor said, relief in his voice. "Ready your ship then; come back up and we'll jump to the next system and check that out."

"Yes General," Nineteenth said enthusiastically. "We'll be back up in an hour or so. Ground team out." He pressed a button on his belt and his helmet redeployed. He stood up and looked at the large Gerash milling around behind them. "You three, head back to the ship and power it up. We have to 'secure' this cavern."

"Yes sir," the Gerash said. He shoved one of his friends out of the way and the Gerash filed outside into daylight.

"Twentieth; you take that side of the cavern, I'll take this side."

"Yes sir," Twentieth nodded. The two dropped down into the cavern and walked along the edges, placing small devices every twenty metres or so as they went.



The three Gerash emerged into the sunlight and squinted as they walked towards the small dropship a kilometre away.
As they approached, the ramp lowered and one of them stomped inside. It was small, with about ten seats lining each side of the inner walls and a cockpit at the front. Small triangular wings poked out of the small red engines at the rear, stabilising the ship for atmospheric flight. The Gerash inside started pressing buttons while the other two stood outside, gazing at a passing Wildercat with a hungry look on their faces.

Herk had sent out one of the defense drones to hunt. It saw a wildercat and had been stalking it for several hours. The thing hadn't noticed it yet and it was just about to pounce when it saw them.

Herk's monitor bleeped causing the herd he was near to scatter and become anxious. It was a message from one of the drones. It was an automated code that he'd learned as a boy in school. the basics were what he always got. Now though, the screen read the same thing over and over. 1337 which meant sentients...

Herk had grabbed a land floater and was rocketing towards the drone.

"Run! Run!" Twentieth shouted as he pounded the ground, ducking and jumping through the foliage. He overtook Nineteenth who was fumbling with something.

"I am running!" he shouted back. He pulled a small device from his pack and held it up triumphantly.

The two burst into the clearing where the ship had landed just in time to jump to the ground. The ground, the very air, shook violently as a thumping 'boom' reverberated across the area. In the distance a cloud of dust and smoke rose as shards of the small mountain flew away. More explosions shook the ground, and finally, the mountain caved in on itself. A cloud of dust blew over the thin forest, reaching the ship within moments. When it died down, Nineteenth and Twentieth stood up, spluttering. Their backs were white with dust. The Gerash stood there with a look of shock on their faces, their entire front covered with dust. One of them coughed up a pebble, looking around with a dazed expression on his white face.

"Now THAT's how it's done," Twentieth cheered, trying to rub the dust off on a tree. He chuckled as he saw the Gerash. "Perhaps we should have told them to get down..."

"Gerash, is the ship ready?!" Nineteenth snapped, dusting himself off.

The Gerash he spoke to looked around for a second, then focussed on him, shaking the dust off. "Yes sir," the Gerash said, batting his chest. "Ship ready, we can fly now."

"Excellent," Nineteenth said. He pointed at some now-white equipment lying on the floor just behind the ship. "Pack that stuff up and then let's get ready to move out."

The brakes on the floater weren't working. When he saw the Gerash he tried to stop the craft but it wouldn't. It kept going into the clearing while he managed to jump off.

The drones quickly surrounded him on the edge of the clearing standing by him. Their plasma hoses ready to begin spraying white liquid fire. Their mining lasers were powerful enough to tear through twenty feet of rock an hour. They were ready and they would die before letting the professor be harmed.

Nineteenth looked around when he heard the professor and immediately raised his bulky plasma rifle to firing position.

"Gerash! Stand ready!" he shouted. Twentieth looked around as the Gerash pointed their weapons at him, and immediately pulled a plasma pistol from his belt and pointed it at the small mammal.

"What the hell is that...?" Twentieth asked. "Why is it here?!"

"Looks like a human," Nineteenth said. "You know, those bipedal mammals."

"I've never seen one before..." Twentieth said thoughtfully. "Ugly, huh?"

"Yeah... I think I know some of that English language some of them use back from my 0micronis days," Nineteenth said. He cleared his throat and grunted out a few words.

"You... stop... Imperium territory..." he said. Twentieth sighed.

"Great, now it thinks we're stupid," Twentieth sneered.

"Well, they are," Nineteenth nodded at the Gerash. "How do you know what I said anyway?"

"Just because I haven't seen a human doesn't mean I don't know the language," Twentieth sighed. He coughed and switched language. "Mammal, this is Imperium territory, what are you doing here?"

"Studying xenobiological material. I didn't realize this was Ghargant Imperium territory and could you ask your Gerash to lower their weapons please? The drones are responding to that."

Herk stood there ignoring a swarm of flies that kept buzzing into his vision.

Twentieth nodded at Nineteenth, who looked behind him at the Gerash.

"Lower your weapons!" he shouted sternly. The three looked at him, and then each other, and slowly lowered their plasma rifles, aiming them down at the floor.

Nineteenth turned around and walked to the ship, talking into his wrist communicator. Twentieth continued looking at the professor.

"Your turn; shut those things off," he said, nodding at the drones.

Herk smiled as he opened a maitenance panel on one and shut it off. He went to the one next to that and shut it down. The last one he made it look like he shut it down but actually just told it to assume stealth mode.

All three drones settled onto the ground their ten foot wide frames making an effective barrier if the professor should have to try and escape.

He turned and said "I assume you're taking me prisoner?"

"Ghargonians don't take prisoners," Twentieth snarled, snapping his jaws. He turned around to look at Nineteenth. "What do we do with it?" he asked in Ghargonian.

"We 'invite' it to visit Ghargonia Prime, apparently," Nineteenth shrugged as he walked back over.

"What?"

"Orders from the General, which he got from High Command, which they got from 'higher powers'," Nineteenth said. "Go figure."

"You sure you didn't hear 'kill it' in that sentence?" Twentieth asked hopefully.

"Afraid not," Nineteenth shook his head, scowling at the small creature.

"If he refuses the invitation can we kill it then?" Twentieth asked, hopeful again.

"They didn't say," Nineteenth shook his head. "I assume that meant no."

"Great," Twentieth sighed, holstering his pistol.

"You've been invited to visit our homeworld," Twentieth said in English again. He narrowed his eyes. "It is a rare... actually, unheard of occurrence. I suggest you take them up on it."

"My base Ghargonian which was picked up from unencrypted messages mind you tells me if I refuse I die. Gwolk tai mwonga." The remaining drone stood and collapsed into itself. Easily boarding the ship Herk followed it in.

OOC: I'll edit if you tell me to.

"Seal up the rear," Nineteenth said when everyone was aboard. "Jumper 1 to GMS Kranlos, you're clear to start bombardment."

The rear hatch whirred closed and hissed as a seal was formed. There was a whirring sound from outside as the wings extruded further and the engines hummed to life. The small ship lifted from the ground, rotating slowly, and as it cleared the tree line it zoomed forwards, pulling up towards space.

As it went, huge balls of glowing blue energy zoomed past it and thumped into the ground around the mountain they had destroyed.

The ship cleared the atmosphere and a ship was visible in the distance. It was large, long, and a dull grey in colour, with some dark green decorations around the elevated command tower but little else. It was obviously a ship of battle, as dozens, maybe hundreds of turrets could be seen mounted on the hull as well as torpedo launching holes in clusters. The blue energy balls were being fired from this ship at the planet, one turret at a time.

The small ship came to a halt beneath the goliath vessel, and a small opening appeared. The drop ship slowly pushed itself upwards until it was hovering inside a large, dull hangar deck and the door beneath it shut again. The drop ship lowered slightly, clanging against metal as it landed.

"We're done," Nineteenth said. Twentieth nodded and pressed a series of buttons. Another whirring sound as the wings retracted, and the ramp hissed and dropped open. There were a series of loud clangs as Ghargonians in similar metal armour surrounded the entrance with rifles raised.

"Stand down," Nineteenth said sternly. The shocktroopers looked at each other and shrugged, unenthusiastically lowering their rifles and standing to the sides.

A Ghargonian in silver armour was revealed as they moved out of the way. He stepped forward, clanging his metal boots against the metal deck plating, and stopped in front of the drop ship's ramp.

"I am General Trekkor," the Ghargonian growled, looking at the professor. "Welcome aboard the Imperium Battlecruiser Kranlos. Come this way," he stood to one side and gestured away from the drop ship with his arm.

Thank you this is quite an honor to be "escorted" by ones such as yourself. I am sure that this flight will be hellishly pleasant." Herk stepped forward after his sarcastic remarks and offered his hand to Trekkor.

Thank you this is quite an honor to be "escorted" by ones such as yourself. I am sure that this flight will be hellishly pleasant." Herk stepped forward after his sarcastic remarks and offered his hand to Trekkor.

The General looked down at the arm curiously and shrugged, looking back up. "Follow me."

He led the professor out of the huge, bustling hangar deck and into an elevator. Trekkor pressed some buttons and the elevator shut and started whirring, occasionally jolting from side to side quiet sharply. After a while it came to a halt and the doors whirred open. Trekkor stepped out and stomped his way down some poorly lit, narrow metal corridors. Ghargonians apparently didn't believe in comfort or 'decoration'; the floor was metal mesh plating, with white lights illuminating it from underneath. Tubes and bare circuitry could be seen. The walls were similarly rustic, with large pipes and cables riveted in place. There was no paint, and the metal inside the ship wasn't even finished nicely; it was just bare metal. With no illumination above, the lights in the floor were the only source of light.

He stopped beside a door and pressed some buttons on a panel beside it with his large, clawed finger. The computer said something in a deep, growling Ghargonian voice and the door clunked and whirred open slowly.

"This is the code to open the door," Trekkor said gruffly. "You would not understand the letters if I told you, so I will show you where they are; pay attention."

He pretended to press the buttons on the panel slowly, and then pretended to press the slightly larger red button beside it. He then made a gesture of doors opening.

"There is a similar panel inside," he said. He walked in, ducking slightly to get through the door and pointed at a larger panel, with a screen mounted above it. "That is a library computer. It is not connected to any military database, but instead the civilian open source data library. You may use it if you can figure out how to make it translate the text to English."

He moved to one side to allow the professor to enter the room. It wasn't large; about ten foot by ten foot by ten foot (to accommodate the height of a Gerash). As with the corridors, the only source of light was from under the metal mesh floor plating, and the walls were similarly exposed. An alcove in the far wall suggested something that looked like a bed, only it was little more than a flat sheet of metal in a hole in the wall. Another, smaller panel was in the wall beside this alcove.

"Sleep there," Trekkor said, pointing at the alcove. He then pointed at the panel beside it. "That is a communications panel; use it for emergencies and official business only. Abuse it and you sleep in one of the Gerash barracks. They don't have communicators in there."

He stepped back outside the room. "We are diverting to Ghargonia Prime to take you to the Imperium Palace. It will take a short amount of time. I have posted guard points at sensitive areas of the vessel; you may roam, but if told to turn around you will or you will be dealt with. Is that understood?"

Herk just stared at the library almost lovingly before nodding. He stayed in the room all night long translating what he could and generally researching Ghargonian and Gerash history.

The huge vessel finally stopped spewing fire at the planet. It turned slightly, a small black hole opening in front of it. The hole grew in size, until it was big enough to accomodate the Kranlos. At that point, the Kranlos suddenly shot into the hole disappearing from space. The hole slowly shrank back to nothingness again, leaving a smouldering planet behind.



"Estimated time to arrival?" Trekkor said as he entered the command deck and climbed some circular stairs.

"Six hours, twenty-three minutes," one of the deck officers called back. Trekkor came to a halt beside the central control centre.

"I relieve you, Thir... I mean, First," he said sternly. First stood up from the chair, stepped out of the arrangement of consoles and stood straight, slamming his arm across his chest.

"I stand relieved, sir," he said. Trekkor patted him on the shoulder and took his seat.

"Is it true we have a mammal on board, General?" First asked.

"Yes," Trekkor nodded. "That is why we are diverting from our Kree patrol to go to the homeworld. The Ghargon has expressed an interest in it."

"I have never understood that," First shook his head. "What he sees in them."

"General Kelrod suggests to me that General Grashnik told him a story before he died," Trekkor said, looking up from one of the screens. "A story about the Ghargon's childhood exploits on Earth. That is irrelevant now; assign someone to keep tabs on and see to the mammal while it is on board. I don't know how much food, and of what type, they require to stay alive."

"I will tend to it personally General," First nodded.

"Chief Fighter Maintenance Officer report to the command deck now," the General said into the ship-wide announcement system, continuing with ships business. First took that as a sign he was no longer interested in the mammal and walked away.



First arrived at the doorway. He could smell the creature already, but he had dealings with mammals before and found them to be useful once in a while. The one that saved his life back on the Kree infested colony always sprung to mind. He tapped in the code with his claw and opened the door to find the mammal apparently fixated on the lirbary computer's monitor.

"Mammal," First shouted. "I am First, of the First Shocktrooper Division. I command this vessel and all its warriors when the General is elsewhere. I am here to find out how long you can survive without food before you die. If the answer is 'not long', would raw wildercat meat be appropriate? Or am I going to need to instruct the galley to find something else? We do not keep the flesh of other carnivores here, nor do we keep vegetation, so you may have to find something to eat for yourself. We have water though, I know mammals value water."

He paused for a moment, thinking.

"I would offer you ale," he said finally. "But our ale would likely rip out most of your internal organs, har har har!"

OOC: Ghargonian 'ale' would be roughly 60-70% proof. They call it ale, though really we wouldn't consider it such... the only reason they do is because it's meant to be used the same way as normal ale or beer... in large quantities. It would taste pretty bitter, and very strong.

Also, while you're still lurking, don't be surprised if I don't post anything over the weekend as I'll be building and setting up a new computer. You don't need to bump it unless you want someone else to read it or join in though, 'cause I have it in my subscriptions and I'll find it as soon as I get back to the 'net. Though it's only 3:10pm here, so it'll be a few hours before I disappear.

"Why thank you for the offer reptile. I believe a small watered down dosage of your ale would do me well. Scorpion Ale is pretty strong. Scorpion Ale is very popular in my nation. Cooked wildercat sounds good. Also I have seen from the biological makeup of most reptilian organisms that they too require the basic irons and proteins provided by plant material. You may call me Herk if you so wish."

Herk got up from the console and opened his jaws wide to show his poison glands.

OOC: It's a common greeting among Hexicans (people from Hexico my western province) to present their poison glands to each other.

"Cooked?" First snorted. "I... cooked?! You're serious, aren't you? Very well... and watered down ale. I will see to it, Herk Mammal."

He started to leave but stopped by the door, and turned back around.

"You should probably come to the galley with me," First suggested. "To ensure they do not 'cook' your food excessively."

Herk left regretting the fact that he had to leave.

Following First to the galley he began speaking to himself in an ancient Arab dialect. Going back and forth constanly with a conversation that he seemed to pull from nowhere.

He got to the galley door. Staring at the pad he stepped back and bowed to First.

First looked over that the Herk Mammal, talking to itself in crazy ramblings. These creatures were very strange. Cooked meat? Bah, why not have someone chew it for them as well?

First stepped through the door and took a slab of meat from one of the Ghargonians working in the large kitchen-like room, and slammed it down on a metal surface nearby. He handed Herk something that looked like a small, short-range flame thrower.

"We do not cook," he said. "So we lack the proper tools. We will have to improvise."

Herk grabbed the flamethrower and looked it over. "Yeah that'll do." He got to work. When the meat was done he went over and grabbed another. Pulling some spices out of his back pocket he seasoned the meat this time. After hitting it several times he flamed that meat as well.

Picking up both pieces he handed First the unseasoned piece.....

First looked at the offering and shook his snout sideways.

"I am not hungry," he said. "Come this way, and I will..."

He was interrupted by klaxons and sirens. The computer, with a bellowing roar of a voice, announced something in Ghargonian.

"All warriors, prepare to enter normal space," it announced. "Repeat, all warriors, prepare to enter normal space. This is not a drill."

"Sit," First said when the noise subsided. He pointed at some sort of metal bench welded to the far wall. "Things have been known to go wrong when leaving a transportation singularity." He sat down on the hard bench and pulled some leather straps around his cest, clipping them into small holes in the wall.

Herk stuffed the piece of meat into his mouth and sat down. While the ship shook he just calmly relaxed eating what he could.

Grabbing the straps he clipped himself in and stared absent mindedly at First's snout....

An Earth sized planet hung in space calmly. In its natural state, the planet would appear to be covered with a rocky desert, with forests at the equator and oceans breaking the landmass, but nothing else of note. As it was, however, it was covered with a green-grey city, broken only by the oceans. Large space stations orbited, and fleets were on maneouvres nearby.
A large series of skeleton shipyards orbited both of the moons of the planet. Most of the shipyards contained half-finished Ghargonian capital ships and fighters. One of them contained a featureless brown vessel, obviously not of Ghargonian design. Several battleships surrounded the odd-looking vessel as science ships flew over it, scanning it and firing different particle beams at its hull.
Trade ships and civilian vessels milled around everywhere, giving the impression of a very busy region of space. But other than the unusual brown ship, no ships of alien design could be seen anywhere. This was a society of xenophobes and isolationists.

Not so far away from this busy atmosphere, space rippled as a black hole obscured the stars. It grew in size, seemingly endless, until the GMS Kranlos slowly emerged. Its hull glowed and sparked until it was free and the hole sealed up behind it. The ship pushed forward, entering the fray.



First looked up as the intercom chimed.

"First of the First," a voice said in Ghargonian. Trekkor's voice. "Remove the mammal from this ship and then return. We are running behind schedule." The intercom chimed to signal the end of the message just as First was going to say something.

"Come with me," First growled. "We have arrived at Ghargonia Prime."



First led him back out into the dark, metal corridors of the ship and into an elevator. They travelled back down to the hangar. When the doors opened, the vast hangar could be seen, technicians and Gerash going about their business. Countless dagger-shaped fighters hung from the roof, and a few of the larger transport ships similar to the one they travelled up in were fixed to the walls. One of the transports was sitting on the closed hangar doors, its rear loading ramp open as technicians went over its systems.

"It's ready to go sir," one of the technicians said as First approached. "We managed to clean nearly all of the dust that you filled its engines with."

First snorted in amusement and looked at the Herk Mammal. "Get in, I will not be long."

He wandered off and found two Gerash, and they wandered back over. When they were all inside, the hangar doors opened and the transport lowered itself down into a compartment. An airlock method was more power-efficient than force fields, so when they weren't rushing they always did so. As the doors above shut, the lower doors opened and the transport flew off towards the planet.

Herk had been learning. He knew that ow that Ghargonians may say they prize honor and strength most but that was not the case. They prized efficiency. He knew their weakness and he could exploit it if he ever had to.

The ship ride was rather nice though......

The ramp lowered down and clanged onto a metal platform. They had landed on an airbase, only it was suspended in mid-air. The very streets were in the air, suspended at various levels in the midst of the huge skyscrapers. The streets lower down were illuminated with artificial lighting as the skyscrapers blocked out their sunlight. A dozen Gerash stood in lines on either side of the ramp, marking out a short path to follow. First motioned for the Herk Mammal to get out.

"I am leaving," he said abruptly. "I have other business to attend to."

The ramp whirred shut behind Herk and the ship pushed slowly forward. Once it was clear of all the people, it's engines roared and it lifted off.

Herk was left in the middle of all the Gerash for some time, the only noise distant atmospheric fliers going about their business, and the whistling wind blowing over the high platform. The Gerash here were more ornate; their silver armour decorated with gold Ghargonian writing, with gold stripes running over their chests. Even their rifles were silver instead of the standard black. These were the Elite Gerash units, guardians of the Imperium. Not the bog-standard off-world units. Ghargonian officers in bulky black uniforms walked around near some of the large metal structures on the sides of the platform, instructing other people in their duties. They wore black officers uniforms rather than armour; still bulky with elongated shoulder plates, but not as tough.
The temperature of the planet was unusually high even at this altitude. It was a dry heat, with little humidity. Even the wind was quite warm. It probably explained why such a species had evolved so successfully compared to some reptiles of planets such as Earth. It also explained why off-world military units had thermal regulation systems built into their armour. It wasn't excessively warm, but it was almost 50 degrees Celsius.
After some time, the green-grey metal plates of the platform started to vibrate slightly beneath Herk's feel. A rhythmic clanging sound. The Gerash stood to one side and a huge figure, slightly taller even than the Gerash, stepped up to Herk. He pulled a simple black hood from off his snout and looked down at the creature, his sharp yellow eyes looking him up and down.

"I am Ghargon Gorbgan IV," the reptile said after a few moments. His voice was notably deeper and more growling than the others. Gerash seemed nervous in his presence, a reaction that would have been unimaginable for such creatures. "I understand that you were found on one of our outlying colonies by one of our ships on a Kree patrol? What were you doing there?"

Herk was mystified by the make up of the creature's face. He began to trace patterns in the air moving and shuffling genomes and evolutionary processes in his head. He nodded as he came to the conclusion.

"I was studying xeno-biological material but now I am much better off. After all it's not everyday that I get to meet the leader of an Empire."

He rubbed his chin as the traits that would be needed to survive in such an enviroment burst into his head. "Maybe a challenge of some sort to prove that I was."

He stepped forward and looked the Ghargon in the eyes smirking as he did so.

OOC: Apologies; Christmas, New Years, couldn't get chance to/didn't remember to respond.

IC:

"Challenging a Ghargon is not necessary," Gorbgan said. "Nor wise. If I defeat you, I would be bound by tradition to take your life. And if you somehow defeated me, a non-Ghargonian Ghargon would surely be met with 'unpleasant' resistance from these friendly idiots around us. Though I admire your bravery. I believe you were there for the reasons you said you were. No-one would spy on such a remote, unimportant planet, nor would anyone attempt invasion with but a single soldier. Instead, how about you follow me and my guards and I assist you in your research?"

OOC: No biggie.

Herk's face lit up as he bowed low and his mind raced. "Yes that would be most favorable. Thank you Gorbgan I look forward to it."

He began recording eveything he saw in his mind as he followed the Ghargon intently...