NationStates Jolt Archive

::Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.::

In the vast darkness of space, a tiny red light flickered on the bow of a beat-up old starship as it drifted through emptyness. The beeping was on an emergency channel, broadcasting the location of the ship to all in the galaxy to come and render aid. Hopefully, it would be quick in coming.

The starship was big, perhaps a cruise liner or transport at one point in its long-forgotten past but now, just a battered relic of makers whose grandchildern's grandchildren were dead. Still, the distress system worked well enough, transmitting a FTL beacon that would actually warp forward through space, broadcast and then continue on. Thus even ships lightyears away might pick up the signal within minutes and come to the rescue.

Usually the Republic did not intervene in matters that did not threaten its borders directly, but out of sheer pity for the poor souls that emitted the far off beackon of distress, a small cruiser was dispatched to investigate. And thus it came to be that the starship Nebula appeared in a dazling display of light and began drifting towards the troubled vessel.

Attention,

This is the Republican cruiser Nebula, answering the distress call. May we humbly inquire as to what help you require?

A Typical Blub..
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/9177/blubkendo6ml.png

There was a pause of perhaps five minutes. Then at last, a reply would be sent across.

"2ndsah saj20sd *&6dndnd"

Perhaps half a page of such gibberish worth of text. Then, something clicked. A second later, a live video feed began to transmit from the stranded, crippled ship.

For those viewing the video, they would see a scene caught appearently by a security camera mounted on the bridge of the starship. There was a small cluster of odd creatures gathered around a console. The creatures were small, about two feet high and seemingly green blobs. They had eyestalks and tentacles, and mouths and seemed faintly snail-like in shape.

They were making odd blubblubing sounds at each other, while poking at the keyboard with various tentacles. They seemed to be arguing over whom should be doing the typing. Intelligent creatures, but quite simple.

Moments later, a droid appeared on the bridge through a hatch. It looked at the creatures, then shoo'd them away from the console and sat down at it, typing in,

"Greetings Nebula, this is transport ship 10093. I am Translator Droid 092. Our ship's engines have failed completely and suffered catastrophic rupture. The crew abandoned ship three days ago. On behalf of the passengers, I request rescue."

"The crew abandonned ship?" questioned the Captain as he read the transmission. If the crew abandonned ship, then what the hell were those green blob things?

Droid,

If the crew abandonned ship, what are those creatures aboard that we saw a minute ago?

The droid paused at that, scanning over the console for a moment. Ah, there. It seemed one of the Blubs had somehow manged to flip on the video feed through random mashing. On the screen, the droid turned and made that odd chattering/blubbing sound.

A few of the Blubs turned their eyestalks towards where the camera was, then wandered over. They appeared, close-up to the camera, examining it with their eyestalks and poking at it with tentacles. The camera's view suddenly jerks up towards the cieling as a Blub grabs it and pulls on it. The view wobbles and spins, then upside down a Blub stares into the lens, "Blubblubblub!"

The droid was still typing,

"Oh, excuse me. These are the Blubs. They are the passengers. They are a small colony of creatures freshly discovered in the Radon-A3 Galaxy. The sun around which their planet orbited was dying out, and a private exploration company arranged for them to be transported somewhere else to be safe. Unfortunetly, the ship has broken down, and the crew.. well, I'd imagine they're in the next system by now. There wasn't room enough for them in the escape shuttles."

The Captain was glad that he was not broadcasting video like the other vessel, for his crew and himself had broken out into a cacophany of laughter. What silly creatures these...these Blubs! They looked more like pets than intelligent life, but perhaps there was some reason in saving these amusing creatures.

Very well, we shall send a transport to bring you and the...Blubs back to our vessel, and shall ferry you to whatever your destination was prior to the malfunction.

The Blubs who were fooling with the camera began to tug back and forth on it, wrestling for control. The camera's view of course, spun wildly before it was dropped aside, and the two Blubs wrapped each other up in their tentacles, harmlessly wrestling about. The upside down camera view showed the droid typing into the console, then turning to consult with a couple of other Blubs.

"Very well, you have the deepest appreciation of the Blubs. The destination was in the Revelation Galaxy, a small habitable system called Juno. Appearently, it is currently unoccupied. The exploration company assured the Blubs that there was no intelligent life present that would confront the Blubs for control. I shall begin ... herding the Blubs to the cargo bay."

"Rob."

The figure on the bed stirred, then grumbeled.

"Rob, it's time to wake up. I'm detecting two ships in the area. I've already taken the liberty of activating the cloak, so they won't notice us."

Another grumble; the figure put a pillow over his head.

"ROB!"

The bed suddenly went vertical, throwing both both man and pillow out the bedroom door and onto the cold metal of the outside hallway. Rob Pulson groaned and rubbed his head.

"Was that really nessasary, Eve?" He said as he slipped on his jacket and put on a pair of pants. He took a moment to check his gun, then slipped it into his holster. A disembodied voice spoke back to him.

"Probably not, but it was entertaining enough."

Rob Pulson grumbled and quickly made his way to the bridge of his magnificent ship, the Type-02 Lightwave Frigate. One of only two of it's kind in existance, the Lightwave was decked out with the most advanced weaponry of the day, and had was eqquiped with one of the smartest AI systems known to man.

The problem with this particular ship was that it was stolen; Rob Pulson had commendered the spacecraft right under the Ravean Space Fleet's nose about six months ago and had been making his way as a pirate ever since. A hard life, but made considerably easier by Eve, the Lightwave's AI. Eve could easily connect to Rob's cerebral cortex and the pair of them could pilot the ship without any need for a crew.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Okay, Eve, what do we have here?" Rob squinted at the various display screens and monitors, trying to assess the situation.

"Two ships are in the current sector; one of them is totally burned out, more like a useless floating hunk of metal than a ship. Somehow it's managing to send out a distress beacon. The other ship is a large cruiser, apparently stopping to help."

"Roger. Got an I.D. on either of them?"

"No idea whose the first ship is. I believe the second one is a....yes, that's right. A Taledonian."

Rob paused and thought hard for a few seconds.

"Hmmm. The Taledonians are good-real good. I have no doubt that we could handle a single ship, but we might have some trouble taking on any sort of larger Taledonian fleet, assuming the Cruiser calls for help. Keep us in cloak; I want to see what these two do before we make any moves."

"Aye, Captian."

Onboard the crippled ship, the droid walked through a hallway lit by red emergency lights and then down a ramp. Behind the droid came a small army of Blubs, creeping along behind the droid rather obediently. Many of them pushed little carts loaded down with strange objects or carried sealed boxes. Probably packing along their worldly possessions.

At the bottom of the ramp into the cargo bay, the droid's voice mimicing system flipped on and it waved the Blubs along, "Go ahead. Move to the side to make room for the transport. No shoving or fighting, be on your best behavior."

Once inside the huge bay, the Blubs gathered near one of the walls in a large, gyrating green mass. Dozens of them began inspecting the bay itself, a few crawling inside an old, abandoned fighter escort which had been found at one point by the starship's owners and stuck into the corner of the cargo bay.

Inside the fighter, one of the Blubs flopped into the cockpit seat, tentacles wrapping around the control stick. The Blub wriggled the stick, causing control fins on the fighter to flap back and forth. The other Blubs clapped their tentacles excitedly, and a chorus of 'oooooo' resounded throughout the bay.

::Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.::

In the vast darkness of space, a tiny red light flickered on the bow of a beat-up old starship as it drifted through emptyness. The beeping was on an emergency channel, broadcasting the location of the ship to all in the galaxy to come and render aid. Hopefully, it would be quick in coming.

The starship was big, perhaps a cruise liner or transport at one point in its long-forgotten past but now, just a battered relic of makers whose grandchildern's grandchildren were dead. Still, the distress system worked well enough, transmitting a FTL beacon that would actually warp forward through space, broadcast and then continue on. Thus even ships lightyears away might pick up the signal within minutes and come to the rescue.

"Oy! Dis fing 'ere is buzzin'! Says somefin's comin' from da over fing dat's broken 'cause it dont say when it finds fings!"
"What?"
"I said da fing is buzzin'!"
A disorderly thaumaturgist bustled into the room, "You mean the CB? The CB is buzzing?"
"Yeah, da fing. Dats what I said."
The thaumaturgist sighed, Goblins were far more intelligent than people thought, and sometimes he had no doubt that they were champion actors as well.
"Activate the C...thing. Push the shiney red button."
"Got it mac. Dis one?"
"Da-...that one, yes."
The large crystal in the center of the ships main deck lit up. Skyships were fourtunatly much more organized than typical sailing vessels, they usually dispensed with all the pointless bits of rope and such that typically cluttered an oceangoing ships decks.
"Hmph, looks pretty beat up...see if they can get an inside view."
A pause.
"Nope, dey say da ships hull's interferin' with da quantum thaumic wave signature dealy. No go."
"Quantum thaumic...Please go and hit one of them for me."
"Gotcha."
"And set course for the ship, Full spead ahead!"
"Its almost directly below us..."
"Full speed...down!"

Inside the cargo bay, the Blubs had quickly forgotten their instructions to stay out of the way and had surrounded the fighter. There were dozens of them actually clinging to it, while the 'pilot' Blub cackled madly, still jerking the stick around. Another Blub found a faded old helmet in the back of the cockpit, and shoved it onto his head.

The one with the helmet on wriggled its tentacles, then wobbled and fell off the fighter with a clatter. On the floor, the little Blub squeaked and scuttled about, making odd squeaking-pewpewpew noises.

The bay was filled with the racket of hundreds of Blubs at play. The droid lifted a metal hand and covered its face with an emulated sigh.

The large shuttle slowed to a crawl as it passed into the hanger and landed. The ramp descended and out came two Shocktroopers carrying blaster rifles in their arms. They looked around at the odd little creatures that played with the broken fighter in the corner, and sought out the droid that was seemingly the only sensible one on the whole ship.

"Droid, get the passengers onto the transport so we can go."

The droid bobbed its cranium, then began to chatter in the Blub language. It took several minutes, but eventually the Blubs began to pile into the transport, pushing their carts and dragging their boxes along behind. A team of Blubs pushed the old fighter along on its flat wheels, struggling mightily for ten minutes to load it onboard the transport as well.

Several other Blubs had meanwhile stripped the cargo bay of its useful components. Tools, wiring, even bulkhead panels were carried onboard. It would seem the entire colony is a species of packrats.

The droid shuffled up the ramp into the transport, pouring gratitude onto the soldiers, "Oh, thank you, thank you! I don't ever know what would have become of me .. trapped on that ship with ... hundreds of Blubs."

And in under fifteen minutes, the Blubs were completely onboard the transport. A handful of them inched up the wall and clung to the cielings, while others scurried throughout the hallways of the transport, exploring eagerly.

One small Blub, probably a toddler eventually made its way to the bridge of the transport. Clutched in one tentacle was a sticky glob of candy, which the little Blub stuck into his mouth to chew on occasionally, eyes big and in awe as they watched the ship's bridge crew.

<bump>

Trying their best to ignore the strange creatures, the troops lifted off and exited the broken vessel. Engaging its thrusters, it headed back at full speed towards the hanger in which it had come. Passing through the force field and back into the wide open bay filled with many other small craft such as fighteres and bombers, it landed. As the ramp was lowered, five more Shocktroopers met the pilots.

"Take them to storage room eight, Captains orders. Nothing in there but food, they can cause the least amount of damage in there."

Saluting, the troops ordered the droid to round up the Blubs and follow them.

When the transport's doors opened and the ramp went down, a wave of Blubs came pouring out, scattering among the hangar bay. Within moments, there were Blubs everywhere. Several were attempting to climb into a bomber, while a small gang of them had assembled around the feet of the soldiers, babbling incoherently and cheering excitedly at their saviors.

The poor droid shuffled about the hangar, jabbering at the Blubs and even picking a few of them off the bomber and tossing them back into the crowd. It took a while, but eventually the Blubs were herded into the storage room, where they assembled in a mass of shimmering green and a field of waving tentacles, hooting back and forth.

The droid stood outside the doorway and produced a small information disk, which had the coordinates for the Juno system on it. "Here you are, this is the system that the Blubs were being taken to." it was offered to the nearest soldier.

ooc: Just want to say this is funny as hell and a blast to read.

The trooper nodded and then left, the door being locked behind them. Who knew what those little buggers would do should they get out of the storage room. Arriving at the bridge, the data disk was handed to the Captain, who in turn gave it to one of the navigations officers. Minutes later, the vessel dissappeared in a brilliant flash of light.

There were Blubs everywhere. On the cieling, the walls, one was chewing on an old plastic box in which rations were stored. The Blubs were picking through the food stores in the room, searching primarily for candy and other sweets. Very little of that was to be found, however. So they settled for whatever else was there.

A couple of Blubs were ripping open packets of powdered fruit punch, and sending the powder flying into the air in pink and orange clouds. The Blubs hooted with laughter and amusement.

The droid on the otherhand just listened through the door and cringed at the sounds of Blub amusement. Blub amusement typically meant a mess of some kind. The droid opened a compartment on its thigh and withdrew a small metal container. The tip of one finger opened up, and extended a tiny probe-type device. The droid stuck this device into the box's locking mechanism, and the lid popped open.

The droid then looked at the nearest soldier, "Excuse me, but who should I see about payment for this rescue?"

The guard looked at the droid and the device he had withdrew from his side. "No payment necessary, Droid. However the Republic will be monitoring these creatures on their new home."

The droid's thumb pressed the box's lid back down, and it locked again. The box was stuck back into its compartment. "I assure you, you have the gratitude of the entire Blub colony. Please wait." The droid leaned down closer to the door, and hooted something in Blubbish. A few answering hoots resounded, and the droid made more babbling Blub-talk.

There was a few seconds of silence from the Blubs, then as one they all hooted joyfully, clapping their tentacles. - The droid looked to the soldiers again, "They say, thank you."

And so... they traveled through the void of space. One lonely cruiser and a shipful of Blubs. It turned out that the Juno system was a large, sprawling solar system orbiting slowly around a blue giant sun.

The system had dozens of planets, and a wide region of habitable space in which orbited at least four different planets. One was quite large, a mostly water world with a few patches of green land visable on the surface between heavy cloud cover.

The planet the exploration company had marked however, was slightly closer to the sun and seemed to be about 60% surface water with generous levels of precipitation. The planet was medium-sized, and its moon was a green little ball of forest and mountains.

The exploration company had even marked the landing site on the planet. It was in the western hemisphere, a thousand miles or so above the equator. The Blubs didn't seem fit for tropical climates, and so the company had decided that they'd set them down in a temperate, comfortable area.

And so the Republic concured with the decisions of the previous transporters, and the cruiser landed in a rather large grassy plain. The main doors were opened, and the Blubs were led out of the ship. It was no surprise that they would begin exploring or playing with their wrecked fighter they had brought. Goodbye's were exchanged, and the Captain reminded the droid that a constant Republican pressence in orbit of the planet would be there to monitor the creatures. Then, with a great roar the engines fired up once again and the ship took off.

And indeed, when the ship's ramp went down, the Blubs poured out in a wave. The fighter craft was also wheeled out and parked off to one side for the time being. The droid of course went with the Blubs and stood near the hatch, counting to make sure they all got off. "Oh! I want to thank you kind people again." the droid managed to blurt out before the hatch closed, and the ship lifted off towards space.

For half an hour or so, the Blubs scurried about the landing site while looking towards the sky sadly as their new friends left. A few mournful hoots sounded out from among the gaggle before at last they began to take stock of the land.

A few Blubs began gathering small sticks and twigs, piling them up while another got a fire going.

On the edge of the grasslands where the forest began, that little toddler Blub peeped its eyestalks over the height of the grass curiously. The Blub could 'feel' something approaching. Vibrations on the ground told the tiny Blub that something big was coming its way. Still, the tiny blob stared curiously into the woods while chewing on its glob of candy.

A second later, a large lizard-like creature stormed out of the woods roaring at the little critter. The Blub squeaked, drew back its tentacle and shoved the candy forward, jamming it into the lizard's nostril. That stopped it cold for a moment, coughing as it snorted down a lungful of sticky drool from the candy. The little Blub scooped up a stick in another tentacle, and smacked the lizard across the face twice before the lizard turned and yelping, ran back into the woods.

The little green Blub hrumph'd.

(OOC: Ahahaha, wow, that's gotta be the wierdest RP I've ever done. Original species you got going here, though it might be a bit hard getting involved in many RP's if you keep them sitting on a planet beating lizards away with sticks and candy. Can't wait till they're flying spaceships, how looney will that be. Anyways, good job, hope to RP with you again.)

(OOC: Ahahaha, wow, that's gotta be the wierdest RP I've ever done. Original species you got going here, though it might be a bit hard getting involved in many RP's if you keep them sitting on a planet beating lizards away with sticks and candy. Can't wait till they're flying spaceships, how looney will that be. Anyways, good job, hope to RP with you again.)

OOC: Hey, thanks a bunch buddy. I'm glad someone rescued them. ^.^ And yeah, things'll be pretty interesting with them in the universe now. It'll be fun 'growing' their society. I hope you'll have visitors and such in the future to check in the Blubs. :)

The Blubs are rather social and friendly creatures, and they worked together to start constructing basic living spaces for the time being. These were basic lean-tos or huts and here or there, the Blubs strung up large sheets of cloth or plastic that they'd scavanged from somewhere to provide shelter.

The droid eventually found its way to the edge of the crowd and stared out at the empty plains, its logic functions attempting to decide a course of action.

Then, one of the Blubs noticed a soft beeping noise. The Blubs are particilarly sensitive to sound waves, and so managed to home in on it rather quickly. Its excited hoots drew a further crowd, and soon there were dozens of Blubs gathered around the source of noise.

It was a medium-sized dozer type machine sitting among fifteen or twenty huge crates. The dozer had been air-dropped into place to begin construction of a landing pad, but when word that the Blubs had been lost in space arrived, the exploration company had simply abandoned the project. It turned out that the crates were filled to the top with various useful items such as tools, nails, screws and even a pair of fusion-based power generators that were fueled by water.

Other crates had importantly, food enough for a work crew to last a month or so and one box contained a trio of huge tents probably intended to serve as a mess hall and storage tent for things best not left out in the weather.

While a crowd of Blubs fiddled about in the boxes, a few of them climbed onto the dozer and happily played with the controls. One Blub found a construction helmet among the crates, and appeared on the dozer wearing it. He dug into a storage compartment on the dozer and pulled out a thick book detailing the operation and maintance of the machine, coo'ing softly as he flipped the pages with a tentacle.

The droid nearly paniced when he heard the big engine of the dozer start up a minute later. "Oh no, they've found heavy machinery.."

A few weeks later..

The Blub Colony had really sprung up. Neat little huts were everywhere, and in the center of the colony were three huge pavilion tents where the supply crates had been dragged to keep them out of the occasional rain showers which blessed this planet with such abundant plant life.

There had been a handful of clashes with the giant lizards out near the edge of the woods, but the lizards had started to learn how badly a volley of flung rocks and sticks could hurt. The Blubs although they seemed harmless, had the useful advantage of leverage. Their stretchy tentacles could whip a rock forward like a sling, sending it hundreds of yards at a lethal speed.

In one of the pavilions, a group of grease-splattered Blubs were working on that old fighter craft. All around on the floor were pages out of the fighter's maintaince and care manual, torn out of the actual book and laid out flat on the floor.

The tires had been patched with a sticky resin found naturally on one of the local trees, and refilled with air thanks to a small compressor. The machinery had been taken apart completely and put back together - to the droid's ultimate suprise - as perfectly as new. The Blubs had a knack for ripping things apart and rearranging them again.

The Blubs needed more items however, and so three of them had climbed into the cockpit of the fighter and piloting with tentacles and apendages, had guided the out-of-date craft off into the atmosphere, where as soon as it hit space, it disappeared into a FTL jump.