NationStates Jolt Archive

The Colony ship BSFS Hawdon had done it's job. With the help of some friendly Xenos the ship found a suitable planet for Colonisation. As soon all the equipment that was stored on the ship was loaded off. Modifications where being made. Alot of the bulk of the ship had become useless and it was originally designed to loose 2/3rds of the actual ship for building materials, etc for the new colony. Though the process was not easy. It was found to be more difficult that anyone had thought it would be or should be. Though eventuallyThe Hawdon was reconfigured and it looked like an almost entirely new ship. So much so that once it was finished. The Hawdon was given a new name.. NBS (Nova Baz Ship) Terra Nova in an ancient language that means "New Land".

6 months after the initial landing the first Nova Bazalonian ballot was held. Randall Jackson, the inital Provisional Prime Minister was elected as Nova Bazalonia's first PM.

2 years after a quick fly past by the fighters had mapped the entire planet there was nothing on the planet that they had detected. Apart from a unique form of life. The Novaen Slug.. it is essentially a Giant Slug, it can be deadly if it runs over you but it will only do so if it does not know you are not a branch or some other inanimate object.

At this stage Randall Jackson ordered a ground-based survey of the entire planet. A number of survey teams containing a Geologist, Surveyer and a Civil Engineer supported by some army troops. They where able to use the Terra Nova as a relay antenna for the away teams.

15 years later just over half the planet had been surveyed with no incidents. So Military troups where no longer sent with the engineers but where stationed back at the Capital city. "Hawdonia"., This had always been at the Shagrin of the Captain of the Hawdon orginally but. Considering the city was made up of parts of it, it was only far. At this point scientists had been working on Hyperspace.. What is it?How do you open a gate into it? These Where the questions they where asking. The readings that the Hawdon had gathered during their "jump" to the Seaquestrian home planet of Altera had greatly help. They would have no idea where to start. And it was at this point that they could successfully open a small entrance into Hyperspace.

Another 10 years later the Survey was nearly complete there was nothing of real significance apart from the standard geological features and some underground resources. But this was not to be the case for long... one day a survey team failed to report in. An army division was despatched to see what happened . They reported to have found some sort of tunnel into the crust of the planet... They decended into the Tunnel... the tunnel distorted communications and it seemed quite staticy. Not long later there was a pause, no sound was coming through from one end though the connection was working.... then suddenly cries of pain came through from the communications device cutting in and out.

There was a sattelite in orbit around Nova, it was in a geosynchronous orbit around the planet as it was a communications sattelite. It was not a sattelite however focused on communication between ground stations. It was a communication device for interstellar communications a device called a Hyperwave, RF frequencies thransmitted through hyperspace(Hyperwave was invented 5 years ago and we estimate another 6 years for the Terra Nova to be able to use Hyperspacial travel). The following message was sent to the Seaquestrians and the Tidani's in that order.

Dear Friends,

Thank you for what you have done for us. Nova Bazalonia will be ever grateful for the Assitance that you have provided in the past. However, all is not well on our little planet. A team that was tasked on surveying the planet had found an underground tunnel they have now been missing for months. A military division was sent to explore the area and they found the tunnel which it seems the survey team explored. They have not returned either.

We ask for your assistance once again in finding out what happened. If it would be possible we ask you to send a ship with a military force to our home, the planet of Nova. Once you arrive we ask for the leader(s) of the force to come and meet with Military Commander James Hawdon, He was a Captain when our civilisations first met. Please respond if you are able to come. Thank You.

Randall Jackson
Office of Prime Minister


[OOC: I am working on a map showing the planet, Hawdonia and the site of the Tunnel. For now Hawdonia is on the western shore of the main continent.]

After quickly passing participation through the senate a message was sent to Nova Bazalonia.

It is good to hear from the Bazalonians.

We were sad to hear of your situation, and have decided to do all that we can to help you resolve it. The TRS Orathan, a Megalodon class Cruiser, is now on route with a military force of 5000 soldiers. We hope that the situation will not require force but are ready to assist you in the event that this is more than a lost expedition. General Borse will meet with Commander Hawdon upon arrival.

We hold out hope that we may yet recover your people unharmed.
Lan Ohme, Minister of Foreign Affairs

General Borse boarded the Orathan and it launched heading straight for Nova.

Atlantis - Atlantis class capital city ship - Command Center

"Emperor, I think you better read this."

"Let me see."

The General hands a PADD containing the message to the Emperor.

"Hmm," says the Emperor as he reads through it, "looks like it will be fun for whomever we send. Who's available?"

"Not many, sir. The Ruins of Nirai Kinai are drawing people from all over, those that have clearance of course."

The Emperor looks at a screen displaying a curved vessel. Sister ship to the I.S.S. Protector, and class ship, the I.S.S. Galaxy Quest was going through a minor refit as an experimental device was added to her and as a couple prototype units were added to her embarked craft compliment.

"Lets use the Galaxy Quest when she's ready to transport whomever we send."

"Aye, sir."

"Is General Amon available?"

"Yes, sir. I do believe he is."

"Then put him in charge of the team."

"Aye, sir. Do you have anyone else in mind?"

"Put Lieutenant General Kyosuke Date as his X.O.. Other then that, get anyone who's free to go."

"Aye, sir."

Messages

In response to the Nova Bazalonia message:

Its quite nice to hear from you again. The Emperor himself has assigned a team led by two of our best officers to aide you.

They will arrive shortly aboard the I.S.S. Galaxy Quest, one of our new exploration cruisers. The standard equipment of the class, as well as some of the extras were are currently loading, may be of some use during the investigation.

General West
Head Of Atlantis Gate Control

The Messages from the Tidani's and the Seaquestrians where received by the Sattelite. It forwarded the messages to Military Commander Hawdon as well as Randal Jackson. In the next election Randall was due to stand down and let his deputy take over Jack Drakkerson. But his was not for another year yet

Their PD's automatically analysed the message and translated it nearly word perfect. The programs used for analysis and translation had been re-written from stratch and the program was as good as anyone could make it. at the moment.

Some time later (the exact amount is unimportant)

The Seaquestrians and the Tidani's had arrived in the system. NBS Terra Nova hailed them and sent the following message.


Greetings.

This is the NBS Terra Nova. I am captain Kate Holmes. The Terra Nova is what is left of the BSFS Hawdon after much of it was used during the colonisation process. Please let us know when a delegation is ready to leave and one of our fighters will leave the docking bay and escort you down onto the planet below. Commander James Hawdon will meet you when you arrive on the surface and will take you to our conference room. Terra Nova. Out


The last three words "Terra Nova. Out." where not necessary as all communications where full-duplex but she insisted on it. No one really knew why, some speculate that even she does not know why. But everyone expects it of her and knows that when she communicates from the ship that she is not over until those three words come out.

{ooc: Here is a partial view of the planet showing Hawdonia and other areas of interest}
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/Bazalonia/Nova%20Bazalonia/Nova-1.jpg

The following images (linked only) are centered at... 0, 90, 180 and 270 longtitudes respectively (Only Hawdonia shown)

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/Bazalonia/Nova%20Bazalonia/Nova-0.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/Bazalonia/Nova%20Bazalonia/Nova-90.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/Bazalonia/Nova%20Bazalonia/Nova-180.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/Bazalonia/Nova%20Bazalonia/Nova-270.jpg

TRS Orathan sat high in orbit. After they received the transmission from the Nova sattelite, General Borse insisted a squad of elite marines suited up to acompany him to the surface. If they were having military problems it couldn't hurt to have protection, and Borse liked to appear in control. After a few hours he was ready and one of the Phantom dropships had been readied for a drop.

This is TRS Orathan to Terra Nova. General Borse is ready to proceed to the surface with your authorization.

When authorization had been granted the Phantom launched from the ship carrying the general and the twelve soldiers.

Kate Received the message.

This was her reply.


Authorisation granted. A fighter has been despatched to lead you to an appropriate landing bay. We have not installed an electronic guidance system as of yet, so please don't lose the fighter. Terra Nova. Out


The fighter was out of the bay as the Tidani's have received the message. It flew generally towards the Tidani ship but was heading for a point inbetween the ship and Nova.

The fighter sent a message of it's own to the Tidani's


This is Welcome 1. Ready to escort General Borse to the surface. Commander Hawdon will be waiting for us at the Landing bay.

OOC: Sorry about the delay. Been busy.
Oh, and here is the Galaxy Quest class exploratory cruiser: http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10509811&postcount=33

IC: I.S.S. Galaxy Quest - Main Bridge

"Generals, we have arrived."

"Understood, Captain. Feel free to test your new sensors until we need you."

"Aye, sir. Thank-you, sir."

Messages

Transmitted to the N.B.S. Terra Nova:

This is the I.S.S. Galaxy Quest of the SeaQuestian Empire. We are requesting co-ordinates to transport General Amon and Lieutenant General Kyosuke Date to.

I.S.S. Galaxy Quest - Transporter Room

"Energize when we get clearance, Ensign."

"Aye, General, sir."

OOC:
General Amon: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/JPKTrekker/Character%20Pics/amon.jpg
Lieutenant General Kyosuke Date: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/MistrissDraconia/Character%20Pics/KyosukeDate.jpg

Kate received the message from the I.S.S Galaxy Quest. She was not quite what to do about it however.

She used her PD and sent the following message to the Commander.


The Seaquestrians are requesting co-ordinates. Should I give them co-ordinates? and if so what ones?


after a about half a minute the reply came back...

Give them my current co-ordinates. The Seaquestrians use some sort of teleportation devices, So we won't need to worry about organising a fighter to escort them in.

after a couple of minutes Kate sent a reply to the Galaxy Quest


For the use of Teleportation devices, the Military Commander has given me co-ordinates for you to use. These co-ordinates will send you right to the Commander and have been included in this transmission. If, however, you are not going to use your teleportation devices please let us know so that one of our fighters can escort you to an appropriate landing bay. Authorisation has cleared for Teleportation to provided co-ordinates. Terra Nova. Out.

Understood Welcome 1. Following your lead.

The dropship followed the fighter down to the surface. It hovered over the landing area while it waited for clearance to land. Then it touched down, and the General and his escorts exited the craft.

Upon recept of the co-ordinates, the General and Lieutenant General dissapeared in pillars of light from the transporter pad and reappeared in similar pillars at their destination.

Amon bowed in greating before offering his right hand.

"I'm General Amon. I'm in charge of the SeaQuestian forces sent here to help."

The representative from Seaquest teleported infront of James, he briefly shielded his eyes from the light and acknowledged the bow. Shaking his hand.

"Thank you for coming General Amon." He did not use a the Translator on his Personal Device, he did not trust it particularly since it failed the first time they met the Tidani's and Seaquest.

A reasonably short man with short black hair approached.

"General Amon, this is Shane, He will take you to the conference room. I would take you there myself but the Tidani's will be arriving momuntarily and I wo..."

He was disrupted by the landing of the fighter and about 10 seconds later the Tidani's came in...

"Well, actually, if you wait we can meet the Tidani's together. There coming in now."

[OOC: depending on the decision Shane would go and lead General Ammon to the Conference room or have faded into the Background... Shane is James's Senior Aide]

Amon said, "I will await the Tidani in the conference room. However, if Kyosuke wishes, he can go meet the Tidani represenatives while I wait."

Kyosuke nods in agreement and says, "I'll go meet the Tidani."

OOC: The work both these guys do is the "I'll tell you, but then I'll have to kill you" type of Special Forces work.

Shane without a word lead the way, Through a door in the side of the landing bay and down a corridor. He made a left turn into another corridor. Ahead there was a door, with a military person standing guard. Shane looked back to make sure that Amon was still following and to say "Here's our conference, room."

Shane placed his hand palm down on a sensor on the wall. The sensor humbed as it read the hand print and then beeped a confirmation beep. However this was only part of the process for entrance into the conference room. He shown his identification card to the guard, who verified his card and and then pulled out some kind of device. The view of exactly what it was was hidden from both Shane and the General. The door was opened by the guard and Shane entered and the General followed into the room.

The room was square itself with no windows but there was the hum of a few flourescent lights. The room was nearly filled with a square table. Monitors where embedded to the desk and there was a large display on one wall. One corner there is a small table that contains a number of slices and cakes as well as a a pot of Tea and Coffee as well as a jug of water.

"Can I offer you a refreshment? Unfortunately we don't have much of a range." Shane spoke as he made his way towards the table.

OOC: Seaquest... that's good... because they are going to need it.

When Borse exited the dropship he saw a Bazalonian and SeaQuestian waiting for him. Confident that inside the Bazalonian base security would be adequate, he told the soldiers that had come with him to stay with the dropship. He and the major incharge of the squad left the ship and walked ahead to where their host was waiting.

"Commander Hawdon I presume." Borse greeted the commander. "It is a pleasure to meet you. It looks as though you are making yourselves at home here, I hardly recognized Nova from when we helped you find it."

The commander acknowledged the Tidani greeting.

"Thank you, General Borse. I don't know if you have met one of the Seaquestrians that will be at the initial meeting, Lieutenant General Kyosuke Date. General Amon has gone ahead to the conference room. I don't think I know your companions name." James last statement certainly implied a question.

Kyosuke gave a half-bow in greeting and said, "Call me Kyosuke, please."

Borse addressed the SeaQuestrian. "We have not met yet." He reached out to shake his hand.

"This is the commander of my special ops squad, Major Voda." He introduced his companion who bowed respectfully.

OOC: Oh, some info I forgot. Amon is one of my Seeds (a.k.a. magick users) and Kyosuke is, well, a different kind of Seed (the non-magick kind).

IC: Kyosuke took Borse's hand and shook it firmly. For one who appeared so young, Kyosuke carried himself very maturely. It was as if he was older then he appeared, which pretty much all Seeds were.

"The name's Kyosuke Date," he said, "though, like I said, I would prefer it if you called me Kyosuke."

OOC: Note, most of my Seeds are young, physically. All my Seeds are amoung the few who are 'reincarnated' using my current cloning tech when the need arises.

The Commander smilied... "Let's get on with business, since all of the introductions have been done, if all of you would please follow me to the conference room. We'll get the briefing underway."

He went towards the same door that Shane had went to when escorting General Amon, and through the same corridor when when he came to the door. He stopped when it was time to make the turn.

"Just head down there and stop at the guard." he said as he sheperded the 3 visitors down the hall and followed down behind.

The same security procedures that shane went though the Commander went through putting his hand on the same sensor which did it thing and did it's happy beep. Then the guard checked his credentials and then the guard still hiding the object that opens the door opened the door and let the Commander and those with him inside.

There they find General Amon and Shane.

"Can I get anyone anything before the meeting takes place? We do only have a very limited range though, I am afraid." asked Shane.

Amon held up his hand in a declining manner and shook his head.

"No thanks," he said.

"A glass of water will do for me, thanks," said Kyosuke as he took his seat next to Amon.

Borse declined as well as he walked into the room. "No, thank you. I think we are all anxious to find out what is going on down here that requires outside help." He nodded to Amon. "General."

Shane poored a glass of Water for Kyosuke and brought it over to the Seaquestrian with a smile.

"Shane would you go and tell the Major that we are ready?"

And with that Shane quickkly disappeared out of the room.

"Major Jones Cantrill will be leading the Nova Bazalonian forces on this mission. He is a good man, and a great caver. You'll understand why that is necessary later on. I, however won't be able to make it. I'm getting too old for these sort of things. Ah Major, Welcome". The door was opened as the Major came in.

The Major Saluted the Commander and the commander saluted back. Brief introductions where made and the major found his seat.

An image apppeared on the screens embedded on the desks. It was a photo of Nova from space with Hawdonia marked on the map (OOC: Nova-180.jpg in the image links) An extensive survey project was undertaken and this is the area that is stil yet to be properly surveyed (OOC:image displayed on page 1 or Nova-1.jpg without the Tunnel marked)"

"While a survey team was surveying this area (OOC: The area around the tunnel) he indicated on the large display and a drawing indicating the area was over lain on the image. We lost contact right about here." The dot appeared indicating where they disappeared but not the word tunnel.

"After a day of no-contact from the survey team a small military squad was sent to find out what happened. They found the entrance to a cave system. This was a photo taken by the squad before they entered.

The following photo displayed on the screens ... http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/Bazalonia/Nova%20Bazalonia/cave_entrance.jpg
(OOC: The white-sorta stuff is meant to be snow.. since the cave is in a snowy area. Yay.. go my image editing skills :p)

"They entered the cave but as they went further down.. we heard what we thought was screaming but by this time the communications device that they have was cutting in and out. It could have been anything."

A brief pause to let the information soak in

"And so that is why you're here. To find out once and for all what happened. Any questions?"

OOC: Bump...

A bump does not have to be an FT bump.. just a regular old MT bump will do:D

Seaquest could you TG me (Nova not my main) about the magickal abilities of you're seed. Thanks

OOC: Hmmm... maybe this does need an FT bump... So here is a visit from sir bump-a-lot

(ooc: It's been a hecktic day. It's too bad I didnt get my nation change rp done before this came up. The I would have a tribe of aliens that live their whole lives underground. Now those would come in handy.)

Borse listened attently. "Have you established a base outside of this tunnel, or a perimeter around the area? If they only ran into problems after entering the tunnel, then it is reasonable to think the problem is only underground. It would appear that we really have no solid evidence to assume this however."

"There are no indications of another entrance, a number of squads have searched the area and have found nothing. A small base has been set up just outside the entrance, the base contains parabolic mike listening into the cave as well as a sensor picking up general energy emissions from the entrance. We are picking up stable energy emissions but we don't know if that is from some sort of natural or artificial source. We are getting nothing from the audio." said James barely looking down at the notes that he had with the facts.

OOC: Bah, Yeah... I should have used "Nova Bazalonia" but meh.

OOC: Sorry about the delay. I've got a bunch of threads to keep track of.

IC: As the Tidani entered the room, Amon nodded in acknowledgement of their precense and the greeting. Date took the glass with a smile and a nod in thanks.

After the Major finished giving the briefing, Amon asked, "How thorough where you when you checked this planet for native life-forms?"

OOC: As for the powers for my Seeds, I get the magickal and non-magickal powers from various sources. As Amon has no cannon 'gift', and I haven't used him in an RP where he need to use his power, I have to create one for him. As for Date, I TG'ed you the info on him.

"As thorough as possible, we don't have a 'biological' sensor, our energy sensors have not picked up any indications that there has been any other technology on this planet and our surveys have not revealed anything that hints this planet was ever inhabited. There is an interesting native slug but it has shown no signs of real intelligence."

James went over to the nook and poured himself some water and took a sip and then continued

"though with that said our sensors do not penetrate into the ground far, and we still have yet to completely finish our survey."

OOC: Sir bump-a-lot rode on a horse through this thread

OOC: Once again Sir Bump-a-lot rides through this thread... this time he has a Lance

OOC: Sir Bump-a-rides into the thread stops, stares down at the characters currently frozen in time then rides off again

(ooc: I'm not going to be able to keep up with things this week. If you want to have my forces tag along with SeaQuest I'll give him control of them.)

OOC: Sorry about the delay.

As for my characters, Amon will be staying in the command center to, well, command, while Dante goes into the tunnel with the usual cannon fodder.

IC: Amon nodded and said, "And we can't forget the various types of mineral that either block sensors, absorb them, refract them, reflect them, or just don't register."

OOC: @Tidan, Understood

IC:

"So, if that's it for the questions, we'll meet at the small base out side the tunnel. I'll make sure that everyone has the co-ordinates. Major, get your squad ready and head out to the camp Bravo-7" said James

The major stood up and saluted the Commander (who returned his salute) and the MAjor left to get his squad to the small base

Amon signaled the Galaxy Quest via his Palm Link. He and Date were transported from their current location to the base of operations outside the tunnel where the SeaQuestian team was ready and waiting for them.

With the flash of light the Seaquestrians where transported the the base outside the entrance to the cave. It was a small base, very small, only enough tents and equipment to support the sensors, the people that man them and 4 teams of 4 guards on 6 hour guard shifts. There was also a communications relay device.

The Seaquestrian forces dramartically increased the population of Bravo-7. Captain Henderson spotted them and the SeaQuestrian response to their prescence. A couple of slighty on edge guards could be seen approching the General and the Lieutenant General. "Privates, get back to your posts NOW!" he barked.

The Captain approached General Amon and the Lieutenant General. "General Amon and Lieutenant General Date I presume. Major Cantrill and his squad are still 45 minutes away. Welcome to Bravo-7."

OOC: I'm also actually going to be heading off for most of the week as well. So We'll pause here and I'll TG both of you when I get back. Bah.. we are just about to get to the interesting stuff as well. Oh well, that's RL

OOC: Okay... I'm back

Sir Bump-a-lot gets this thread back going again.

OOC: WB. Sorry about the delay. I've been a little busy.

IC: Dante winced and said, "Its Dante, with an 'n' before the 't'."

Amon gave the usual SeaQuestian bow in greeting and said, "Thank-you. May I ask who you are?"

The dropship carrying General Borse and his 20 commandos landed softly at the Bazalonian camp near the mysterious tunnel. It was followed by two more unloading one hundred soldiers who began to set up a temporary camp next to the existing one. More would follow soon but until the exploration began and it was determined how many feet they would need on the ground, things started small.

Borse approached the command building. "Generals, Captain. Good morning. This reminds me of being back home. Once again the depths will reveal themselves to us, only this time it will be the depths of the earth. What have I missed?"

"My apoligies Leutenaint General, I had Date down. I am Captain Henderson, I run this small Base. I'll be monitering what I can from up here. We've got a communication relay, that will dramatically increase the depth that we can travel down and still communicate. ... "

Then to the just arrived Tidani

"Ah, welcome. Major Cantrill and his squad are on their way. I'm Captain Henderson. Welcome to Bravo-7."

OOC: Sir Bump-A-lot without his horse came strolling through this thread

OOC: Like the way I worked your typo into the IC storyline?

IC: Dante rolled his eyes and replied, "I'm not putting any blame on you," he then adds in a joking tone, "but you do need to get a better secretary."

Amon gave a slight half-smile and snorted in amusement.

The Captain half-smiled as well, he appreciated the Joke but was puzzled about how the 'n' went missing.

OOC: I thought that Date was his last name.... meh. I'll wait for the Tidani post before taking you on a Tour around Bravo-7... It's small so it won't be much of a tour :p

OOC: I just looked it up. You were right. It is Kyosuke Date, with no 'n'. My bad.

(ooc: oops, didn't realize I was being waited on. sorry.)

"Thank you, Captain Henderson. I am General Borse, and this is Major Voda." He introducing his second in command and turned to the SeaQuestians. "General Amon and Lieutenant General Date, hello again. So, this is 'tunnel' that is causing so much trouble? Things are never what they appear anymore are they? When will the Major be arriving, Captain?"

"Ah... they would have an ETI (OOC: Estimated Time of Intercept... how long it will take to arrive ETA is the actual time they are expected to arrive)
of around 40 minutes now. I have been given permission to give a tour of the base... We can start now that everybody is here." Suggested the Captain

OOC: Sir-Bump-a-lot but his squire performed his duties on his behalf, by kicking this thread back to life

OOC: Sir Bump-a-lot raises his lance and charges his jousting opponent. What was the result? No one cares. Because this thread is so bumped

ooc: I think the tour of the base is all you for now.

OOC: Tour it is then....

IC:
"As you would have been briefed upon, the major purpose of this base is to monitor the cave entrance, and to provide support for you guys when you finally do go down." said the Captain as he lead them towards a central tent, this tent was larger than the others.

As they got closer the noise of the nearby power generator powering the contents of the tent. A guard was at the door, the guard saluted the captain and curled back the flap of the tent. The Captain entered with his guests following. Inside was an array of electronics, sensors and various equipment. One of the more obvious pieces was a Television screen that showed the live video feed that was coming from a camera facing the cave entrance.

"Here is the nerve center of the Base, all the equipment monitors the cave. This is the live feed from the just outside the cave, this is part of the energy sensor, this is an audio analyser, determines whether any sounds come from the cave and blocks out all others. And this is the communications relay. Any questions?"

OOC: Sir Bump-a-lot races from the other thread into this one... but he has no idea what he was going to do once he got here that he moved to some threadless corner of the world to work it out

"Only one," said Kyosuke, "When do we get started?"

Amon rolled his eyes and said, "Ahh, the impatience of youth."

Captain Henderson chuckled "The Major should not be too much longer..."

... after some time of general time wasting Major Cantrill and his squad finally arrived.

"Everyones here and ready? Good... Let's get going." he said commanding his squad to follow as he lead the way to the cave entrance....

Not to far down into the cave Major Cantrill and those that followed after stopped. There was a hole in the floor of the Cave, large enough to block further decent into the cave appart from a sliver of ground that allows for one person to pass at a time. It was on the far right of the cave, right up against the wall.

Major Cantrill stopped just before the hole and squated... there was a gun lying there on the ground just next to him.

Bump

OOC: Sir Bump-a-lot's horse gallops through the thread... and his squire is chasing after it

Major Voda lead his 20 commandos down into the cave, another 20 soldiers followed them. When they came to the pit Voda walked up to the edge and looked at the gun Cantrill had found. "Ominous." Then he leaned forward further and began to tip over the edge. In the dim light it would have appeared that he had begun to dive over the edge, but he suddenly stopped. If the others were to look around now they would notice that two of the commandos had secure hold of the major's tail, and had infact been lowering him over the edge.

Now at an almost 45 degree angle Voda pointed his lights downward, when this afforded no more than finely erroded walls and a black unseen bottom he switched them off. He pulled out a neon green flare, lit it, and dropped it down the hole. It fell down illuminating the walls for some distance until details could no longer be seen. Finally, only a point of green light could be seen, then nothing at all.

Now clear of the hole Voda said, "Well, that's just great. Looks like its the narrow road for us, with quite the incentive to keep to it."

OOC: Sorry about the delay. I've been occupied with some other things (RL and NS).

IC: Kyoske had led the group of fifty SeaQuestian Marines into the cave while Amon stayed behind to help run things.

Inside the cavern, Kyoske joined Major Voda in looking down the tunnel.

He asks, "Any idea how far down it goes?"

OOC: Marine Compiment:
50 total:
20 Draconians (male)
10 Furlings (male)
10 Furlings (female)
10 Alterans (male)
Note: All except the Draconians are wearing armor (don't have an armor design for them). If you want, I can provide pics of the armor.

"A Long way." said Cantrill as he started to examine the edges of the pit, they where sharp, unlike the walls of the rest, there was a bit of an overhang as well... only slight however. "It seems there was about an inch worth of a stone... skin covering this pit, and with the gun it seems one or more of the search party broke the skin and fell through." he stated as he stood up.

"Jenkins, come here!" Cantril commanded, he usually would have boomed that out but not in this cave. he continued speaking "Cross to the otherside and find a good place to tie this." as he pulled a rope out of his kit. Private Jenkins came and without a word managed to cross to the otherside without too much trouble, He found a stalactite in the perfect place as the cave after the pit veered to the right, the stalactite was almost in the centre of the tunnel.

The Major on the other hand had previously identified a spot for the rope and he went and after Jenkins had tied his end the Major used a hitch-type of not which made the rope really taut, the rope spanned the pit just an inch out from the ledge. "I'll be the last to cross, Novaens, Go!" he commanded and warily one-by-one the 19 other Novaens crossed, walking on the thin ledge using the rope for support. He waited for the Tidani's and the Seaquestrians to cross

Crossing what might as well have been a bottomless pit, was rather disconcerting even for trained soldiers. Fortunately military training involved endless hours of crossing pits which quickly took over. Still, it was hard to keep the mind from wondering what it would be like to fall for an unknown amount of time, knowing that the next second it could all end...or not.

After joining the Novans on the other side, Voda returned to the edge again. "We should bring some equipment back here, if some of the group did fall down it is unlikely they survived but you can never know for sure. At least we should try to remove their remains."

The Alteran Marines crossed via the rope, as did most of the Furlings. The Draconians just flew across and the rest of the Furlings hung from their tails or rode on their backs.

However, Kyoske continued to kneel where he was. He half-watched the others cross and half-continued looking down the whole. After everyone else was across and he was the only one left on that side, he stood up and removed a glow stick from his belt. He gave it a quick twist to break the seal seperating the two chemicals inside and shook it to mix them. The glow from the chemical reaction gave everything a green tint.

With the glow stick in one hand and backed up a few meters from the drops edge.

He said, "Life is an adventure that we should live to the fullest."

With a running start, he jumped over the pit and landed with a controlled roll on the other side.

Now that everyone had crossed it was Major Cantrills turn, he started heading across using the rope, he was very competent at using the rope and had alot of experience in these sort of environments, he was feeling strange.... he wasstill moving closer to the otherside, each movement he made he got more tired and tired, eventually when he got to the middle he just dropped off from the rope, he did not make a noise and soon was enveloped by the inky blackness...

The Novaens stood their shooked as they saw the major drop from the rope, there was nothing they could do... one of the Captains tooks some initiative...

"No one is to go near that hole, it has claimed too many lives!", this was Captain Connelly.

OOC: The mystery about that hole will be explained but for now... it's scary... please keep the Major plummeting to his doom.... or not.

Voda watched the Novaen major fall. Something was not right about it, but caution won out over curiousity. "Agreed, but how do we know the entire team we are looking for is not down that hole. We could search deeper and deeper into this tunnel for days and serve no purpose."

"We still have to find the survey team, and there are still likely to be at least some that did not fall down the hole. I dunno why he did, the Major was an experienced caver and had traversed a rope many times before.... If you want to leave, that is your business but we are going to continue." There was a murmur of agreement from the Novaen ranks "... We'll leave the rope there, we might need to traverse it on the way back."

After a few seconds after the Novaens had readied themselves, they started heading down deeper into the cave

The Tidani would not give up the search either, even if it ended up being a waste of time. They condinued down the tunnel, not knowing what they would find next.

There were a few worried whispers amoung the SeaQuestian Marines when the Major 'fell' down the hole. They were silenced by a quick glance from Kyoske.

"Now," Kysoke said, "this is starting to get interesting."

He put the still lit glow stick in a holder for it on his utility vest and pulled what looked like a sword, only minus the blade, from his belt.

"Lead the way."

As the forces moved further down into the cave, there was something ... unusual about it, it was probably the fact that the cave was always the same general shape and no big variance in the size of the areas.

Though as they moved forward.. someone found something against the wall...
It was Private Jenkins.... It was a tall, slender slab of rock that looked like it could have been a pillar if it wasn't nearly totally embedded in the wall. It had carvings on it.

(OOC: I would have had a picture but I can't find one...)

On the slab of stone Jenkins saw some depictions of what seemed like dinosaurs, it was like they where under attack from some other flying dinosaurs, underneath there seemed to be a chamber in a cave... the chamber seemed to be glowing. There was also another room... this room's function was unclear as there was nothing in it but whatever it was it obviously important.

OOC: This is starting to sound like the movie "The Cave".

IC: "I'm no linguist or anthropologist," Kyoske said, "and the others are just ordinary marines, so I don't know of any I brought who could figure out what that means. Though, I do know that it must be important if someone went through the trouble of leaving it this far in."

(OOC: Actually... I have not scene The Cave... Though I am going to use this RP to introduce something new to Nova)

Gaining an impression of the carvings but having no idea what they mean, the Novaens moved on..... The tunnel seemed to be going down and by the Co-ordinates reading on the PD... "Hmmm.... we are currently under the sea." stated Connoley with no real purpose.

They seemed to be going down for a long while... in fact it seemed like hours even though the clock on the Captains PD showed only 20 minutes had passed. They turned a corner and came across a solid stone wall. This was not the Cave just ending, it was like someone built a wall across blocking further passage through the tunnel.

"What on Nova?!" Exclaimed Connolley staring blankly at the wall. "Did anyone notice anything like a branch off the main that we missed?" puzzled Connolley who had no idea how to proceed from here.

(OOC: YAY! I get to use the thread title :p)

OOC:Sir Bump-a-lot charges down the tunnel and goes straight through the wall, where his Squire chases after him and hit his head on the wall and falls down comically unconcious

Yo Hello,... We are doing an RP here you know

OOC: Patience, Nova, patience. I can't be on 24/7/365.

IC: The SeaQuestian Marines shrugged.

"We were following you," one of them said.

"Should we blow through, or go back? This is your planet, it's your call."

Captain Connolley got on his PD device and sent a message to Military Commander Hawdon. He got an acknowledgement that the Commander had read it, he probably was deciding.

"I'm going right to the top of the chain for this one, I have no idea." he stated while waiting.

Private Jenkins who was the one person to pay alot of attention to the etcvhings on the slab before went and had a look, he started pressing on the stones, but as you might expect they didn't move... well all apart from one, which was slightly above head height and on the left of the wall. "Huh?!" he exclaimed seemingly shaking himself out of a trance

There was a strange noise and slight rumbling of the cave around them, but nothing fell... However... the stones where moving of their own violition they seemed to meld into each other leaving a doorway in the middle of the wall, the door way let to a cobbled stone room, that seemed empty.

Captain Connolley messaged Bravo-7 and the Military telling them what happened and Private Jenkins , followed eventually by the Novaens. The room seemed to only have the door they entered, all the walls where made of stones like it originally was but there where no other doors, windows or openeings of any other kind.

"I don't like this," Kyosuke said as everyone, including some of the SeaQuestian marines, went past him, "only one way in or out of a previously sealed room. Smells like a trap to me."

There was nothing in the room, nothing at all.

"This must be the room depicted on the slab," Commented Pvt Jenkins" There must be something more to this room, more than is apparent."

"Be quiet Jenkins; People be careful we don't know could be here, there could be an exit but it could very well be hidden."

The Novaens started searching around looking for anything that seemed out of place, or strange.

Lamps were set up to illuminate the room. The walls were being carefully examined and the floor cleared of dust and dirt to see if anything was written on it.

With the additional lighting and the floor and walls being carefully swept there was three places around the room where on the stone floor there where there was a sign like "^" pointing directly to the wall. It was 3cm long and 1cm deep.

The examination of the wall triggered 3 doors at each of the markings which merged into the wall just like it did.

The Left door lead to another tunnel that went further down underground, a faint eeries glow could be seen from down the passage.

The middle door lead to a dias that had a pedastal where a stone that was giving off a bright light sitting on top of the pedestal. It was sitting on top of some prongs that where holding it up above the top of the Pedestal.

The Right door revealed to show a containment barrier, using some sort energy to contain whatever was behind it. What was behind it was the original survey team and in a seperate cell right next to them was some of the military rescue team that had been caught after entering the room in an attempt to see what they could do to free the surveyors.

"Oh, Thank heavens you're here..." exclaimed one of the Surveyors
"You need to find the power-source and un-plug it." stated one of the captured soldiers "Don't come in, you'd probably get captured too but if you can stop the flow of power than the barriers should go down as well."

Voda looked around. There were two choices then. First they could go down the tunnel and see what the glow was. That could lead them to the power source or a trap. Second was to investigate the stone.

Voda chose the stone. One of his men had ventured up to the doorway. Leaning inside slightly he peered around the inside of the door frame and around the room. "Looks alright Sir."

"Check the stone."

"Yes'ir."

He moved in and examined the stone as it pulsated with energy. He touched it. It was not hot and it did not discharge, so he picked it up off the pedestal. "Did that do anything?"

Voda leaned over to check the barriers.

"Too obvious a choice," said Kyosuke after finally entering the chamber, "far to obvious."

He went over to corrider with the light at the end and took a sniff to see if he could pick up any scent trails.

Hidden by the Doorway was some large lettering, it was of a very strange style, no one had seen it before. As Voda lifted the stone from the pedestal it continued to glow and exuded a strange warmth from within it.

As he tilted back to see what was happening, he saw the barriers where still up. And then there was this high pitch hum that got lower and lower. As he continued to look he could see the barrier fading. When the humming got to it's lowest pitch there was a Clunk type of noise, the barrier had gone. Not a microsecond after that clunk there was another sound, a Whoosh sound, as a large drawer came out of nearly every second 'stone' block in the main room.

The drawers where chilled and a light mist started to form in the Drawers, however there was something more interesting than mist in the draws. Each draw contained a padded rack of vials, each vial was labelled using the same lettering as was in the room with the pedestal but muchg shorter.

The Survey team and the military rescue team that was sent had been without water and food for 2 days now, but the conditions had favourable and fairly constant so, they did not loose too much water in the time. Though they still where thirsty and hungry.

The rescue team asked asked "Any news on the rest of the squad? They fell down what seemed to be a never-ending hole."

Captain Connelly replied "No news as of yet."

"Kyosuke, could your Draconians take these men back upto Bravo-7?" he asked

"Yes there is!" stated a man that had just appeared in the tunnel, the lights revealed it to be Major Cantrill

Voda was shocked to see the Major walking toward them. "Cantrill? What happened? We saw you fall into the hole."

The Major was looking at the shining stone that was still in Voda's had and looked up to see the 'stone' drawers in the room.

"Oh, no tell me you didn't, here give me that." he said as he tried to get the stone from Voda, using as much force as required to take it from him.

Cantrill had ignored Voda's question and was intent on getting the stone from him.

Puzzled by the major's actions Voda surrendered the stone and stepped well back of the man.

The rescue team asked asked "Any news on the rest of the squad? They fell down what seemed to be a never-ending hole."

Captain Connelly replied "No news as of yet."

"Kyosuke, could your Draconians take these men back upto Bravo-7?" he asked

"Yes there is!" stated a man that had just appeared in the tunnel, the lights revealed it to be Major Cantrill

Kyosuke, who was 'studying' one of the doors, started slightly when his name was called.

When his breathing returned to normal, he asked, "Sorry, what did you say?"

Then, upon the Major's mysterious return, Kyosuke watched him through slitted eyes.

"Very peculiar," he thought, "I wonder what was at the bottom of that pit that could have permitted this in a standard humanoid."

Captain Connolley was just stunned at the sudden appearance of the Major, he was trying to determine what was in the vials but when the Major appeared he put them back in the draw. And started to walk towards him.

Then the Major took the shining stone from Major Voda and raced up and placed the stone back on the pedastal.

There was a sound of something charging back up and the stone drawers started to retact back into the wall and they sealed back up.

"I hope they weren't out too long." stated Major Cantrill as he sat down on the edge of the Dias

"You fell down that hole," Kyosuke stated bluntly, "and now you are here. What happened?"

The Major started explaining what happened.

"I don't know if you know this but this tunnel/cave system is not a natural system, It might look rough but it is too consistant. In regards to that hole, it not only seemed to be an extremely long, but it was an impossible length. Someone wanted to seem that long but it infact is nowhere near that. As I crossed the rope I felt strange, and as I moved on it was like I fell unconcious and that is why I dropped from the rope. I woke up looking up through the hole above. And there they where, when the stone skin covering the hole gave way bringing down some of the rescue squad with them, a number of them gained serious leg injuries. So while most of them stayed behind looking after the injured, others went and explored. There was a cavern, a storage room for some sort of shining stones, the same sort of stone that is on that pedestal. The Storage room was very bright but there was a slab of stone that was on the wall, etched into was a, picture story. A civilisation of Dinosaurs had been attacked by some other Dinosaurs, however these where aggressive and had wiped the civilisation out. However before that happened they managed to create this room to, in a way keep their civilisation alive. The picture did not show how they did it, but it showed the drawers and it was clear that they placed their hope in whatever is in the Drawers. The only thing that I could think of that would be located in the drawers is genetic material. We have the genetiic material of a now dead civilisation in this room."

Cantrill was gesturing furoiusly while he spoke, and there he waited for a response from the others in the room.

"Intriguing. Now the question is, what are you going to do with them? Do you believe that you have interpreted the art correctly? Or that their version of the story is even trust worthy? There are many unknowns to consider when dealing with a dead civilization."

"I don't know, that's why I had to close them, so we would have time to work out what to do. I do think I have interpretted it correctly, but it would not hurt for verification from an expert. As to what to do about it, including determining the trustworthyness of the source, well that is not something for me to decide alone." answered Cantrill

"So, Sir, should we take the rescue team and the surveyors back to the surface and then we'll decide on what to do?" suggested Connolley, who had not yet fully gotten out of his leadership role, but was very close.

OOC: Sir Bump-a-lot trys to pick up a stone but because he's a fictional character in an OOC trying to do an IC thing, he can't

Bump

Kyosuke ordered the SeaQuestian Marines to go with the rescue group.

OOC: Ehh, is that all that's down there?

OOC: Yep...

IC: With all the rescue party and the Surveyors accounted and the Seaquestrians helping the injured amoung them. The Novaens and their allies started to head back to the surface, this time it was not long until they found the hole, which when they arrived looked like it was infinitely long, now it was just about 5 metres with pieces of broken stone laying at it's bottom. Once again they used the rope to cross and this time as the Major stayed behind he unhitched the rope and made his way across the small ledge.

He got over to the otherside without any incidents and packed up the rope and put it back in his pack.

They came out of the Tunnel and arrived back at Bravo-7. Captain Henderson and General Amon where there to meet them and medics came and tended to the injured.

"So... What's going to happen with the stones and the vials?" asked Cantrill.

"A scientific team, including geneticists and people to study the markings are on their way, they should be here any minute. They are bringing a mobile lab with them." Hendersen replied.

Hendersen's PD beeped... There was a message from James Hawdon for the Tidani's and the Seaquestrians, it read

Thank you for your help once again. A scientific team should be arriving at Bravo-7 at any moment. You are welcome to stay as our guests but if you have to be going then I understand. It has been good to see you again.

OOC:MEh... I'll finish this thing up....

The Tidani's and Seaquestrians went home the Linguists and Anthropologists studied the etchings and carvings into the slabs of wall. And came to the conclusion that the Major had the general gist of the message right. What the specialists manage to reveal was of a way to control the draws without disrupting the power source. One of the vials where taken for research and in very high security and being dressed in equipment as you would for an ultra dangeous ultra contagious disease or virus.

Once the Scientists had looked into the vial they confirmed it was DNA, but it was certainly not human DNA. The Scientists used the genetic material to clone the first Sauron, a race that was extinct for thousands of years. (OOC: think Dinosaurs of the same type as in Dinotopia). Soon after that a massive cloning operation began bringing the dead race back to life intergrating adult Saurons into the Novaen society. A recent law was passed giving Saurons the exact same rights as the human Novaens granting all Saurons citizenship in Nova Bazalonia.

It was not long that some of them started to exhibit slightly psychic or magical abilities, these abilities seemed to be latent abilities that expressed themselves after they had finally matured though no one was quite sure how to categorise them.

The 'Sunstones' as the shinging lumps of rock found in the cave became to be known as served as the power source for the nations towns and cities. However the sunstones where not powerful enough to power large ships