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| Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) http://sonic.spindash.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=271 |
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| Author: | psikeout [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 7:03 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
Two ships streaked through the atmosphere: Earth's atmosphere, finally. How long had it been? For them, maybe a day or so—a day that went on too dang long, but still no more than 48 hours. Following their apparent crash-course in accidental hyperspace travel, though, no one's clock was correctly set to Earth time. No one aboard the ship could yet tell how long it had truly been back home. All they knew was that they were leaving ARK and all the trouble they encountered on it well behind them. Things didn't seem right, though. No one on the designated frequencies answered them. They had two full boatloads of refugees, some needing medical help, and they were about to set down without a word from ground control. Rock, seated at the helm of the SIRSV Lagrange, with his face strained by the forces of atmospheric reentry, silently glowered at the radio, and the whole lot of nothing he got as he scanned through channels. The Nocturnus ship was meanwhile in the hands of their token Gizoid helper and the Captain. Neither ship received anything more than scrambled noise on any given channel. It wasn't long before they were nose-down again, descending toward cloud cover, and making an approach for landing on South Island. Rock had their course set for Yellow Desert as a matter of familiarity. Fate had other plans, though. The island looked... different. Though the late-afternoon sky was still mostly blue above, there was an odd haze over South Island itself. Even from afar, one could see smokestacks pumping, and all kinds of pinkish, orangish discoloration hanging in the sky around grey clouds. All at once, the ships violently decelerated, groaning, flexing, and torquing, as unnatural pressure was placed on them. There was shouting and screaming all throughout the ships; nobody knew what the heck was going on. It felt almost like they had just charged headlong into some kind of fluid, but nothing was really visible except a strange blue-green light that now tinted everything outside the windscreen. Despite their thrusters still burning, and despite the fact that they were still airborne and should have been going somewhere, they were frozen in place. Soon after, they began to descend straight down. "Everybody just stay strapped in," Rock announced sternly over the ship's PA system. "Everything's under control." Then, with the PA turned off, he declared to those immediately seated around the helm, "I have no idea what the #%*$'s happening." *** A few minutes later, both ships were forcibly docked at a port in Gigalopolis, presumably by some kind of tractor beam. It was technology the likes of which hadn't really been seen on such a scale before, and, combined with the strange development across the island, it was enough to make one wonder exactly how long they had been gone. The field emitter shut down, though, leaving them locked in place, sitting silently in what looked to be some kind of bustling spaceport in the smoky city. One of their monitors lit up... with a big, red, black, and white flag. "Welcome to the fantastic Eggman Empire!" said Dr. Eggman's scratchy, grating voice, clearly a recording. "You have arrived at — Gigalopolis, South Island." Okay, that last part was some generic, placid-sounding male voice, and not Eggman. He apparently couldn't be bothered to record the name of every city. "Your ship has been halted for a routine investigation. You will now patiently stand by for valuable instructions from my port authorities—if you know what's good for you!" Blip. ... Muzak started being piped in. Rock stared blankly. "You know, I wasn't really even all that upset until the smooth jazz started." searchindextag chapter4search |
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| Author: | Mie [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 7:34 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
Jam was doing pretty well to grin and bear the turbulence of their flight home -- frankly, it was enough to just be actually going home that kept her grateful enough to not complain about the discomfort of reentry, but when things took a turn for the not-normal, she squirmed in her seat, pushing at the safety restraints, and leaned out of her quarantine zone to attempt a view onto the bridge. At their pilot's reassurance that everything was gravy, the the simian girl grunted an inaudible "Bee. Es," through her teeth, but otherwise refrained from saying or doing much else beyond holding her excruciatingly tensed abdomen with a sickly expression. Upon being tractor-beamed into the "fantastic Eggman Empire," Jam proceeded to do absolutely nothing, even after the abhorred dime-a-ditty music wafted in. Sloooowly, as if each patronizingly placating note bore a hole through her already thin patience for ... everything, her brows furrowed, and her nostrils flared, while her lips pulled back away from her teeth. Rigidly upright with her clenched fists perched tautly over her knees, she drew in a deep breath, and bitingly continued her acronym spelling bee. "Eff. Em. El." |
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| Author: | Kazz [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:21 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
A grumpy mass of hair, had stayed strapped in place, stonily stoic, arms folded one over another, looking impassively at the floor. He might have been mistaken for dead had he not occasionally reacted to people moving this way and that around him. Why? And then the ship came to a lurching stop, and Rodolf was whipped forward against his safety belt. He raised an eyebrow and blinked as Rock's announcement crackled over the speakers. Being who he was, he took this as a cue to release the straps and investigate the helm as soon as the ship stopped lurching. Almost as soon as he stood up, he was bowled past by a scruffy little green shape, followed closely by the wafting scent of smoke and alcohol. Rodolf's eyes slid halfway closed, and then twitched a bit as the trailing odor of alcohol and smoke reached him. Before he could wonder how the angry little man had gotten a hold of such things on the ARK (or if he just smelled like that naturally), he strode after him. It was only within a few short minutes that Murdoch was violently pounding on the helm door, yelling something akin to, "Yeh s*&$heads had damn well better explain wha's goin' on!" Rodolf stood back about ten feet, for caution's sake. |
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| Author: | psikeout [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:00 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
Rock turned around in his seat with a look that can only be adequately described as WTF. "D'you hear that?" he suddenly blurted in a near-shouting complete breakdown of his normal tone and inflection, utterly going back to his humble roots in a blink. "Am I hearin' this right? We just rescued this boatload'a mutha%#*$ ... [This dialogue truncated for length and decency! :)] ... %#$*es from certain death and here one is beatin' down our door? Jam, you open that door and tase whoever said that 'til his eyeballs steam. Ace, you go with'er, and if anybody gives her any trouble, shoot'em," he ordered... emphatically, to put it lightly. |
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| Author: | Kazz [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:14 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
"Yeah, tha'ss motha*$#&er, don't say anythin'! Just hide in 'yer helm!" It was uncertain if Murdoch was actually listening for whether or not there was any response, but either way, he had magnificently failed to hear Rock. He pounded on the door with renewed vigor and a fresh string of swear words and threats at the top of his little Tasmanian devil lungs. He was probably magnificently drunk. Where he had gotten the booze was a mystery, but the fact remained. |
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| Author: | Mie [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:33 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
The sliding door to the bridge whooshed open swiftly, revealing a monkey smaller and redder than the one the smelly green drunkard had probably wanted to talk to. With both sets of eyelids drawing her stare narrower and narrower over her tight-lipped frown, a single arm flashed out in a blur at the devil's face, (gloved) fingertips digging in vindictively around his snout and eyes, before the very same hand seemed to suddenly explode with a jarring bolt of snarling electricity. With a parting shock for good measure and spite, Jam released Murdoch's face, tiny tendrils of lightning still jumping across her palm. "Be glad that wasn't a lot lower." |
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| Author: | Kazz [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:46 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
Murdoch was -- wait for it, wait for it -- shocked by this turn of events (dohoho). As soon as Jam's electrified hand left his face, he stumbled backward a foot or two, and then... He slurred, drunkenly and (hopefully) entirely for the sake of getting a reaction: "Yehh, yeh'd like that, wouldn'tyah?" The devil leered in a way that only a drunken man of his disposition who has just been electrocuted in the face can. Rodolf, still a good ten or eleven feet away, raised his eyebrows. Had the unicorn a watch, he would have been checking it to count down until the short green monsterman got his shins shot off. |
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| Author: | Mie [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:51 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
Poker face be damned, she couldn't stop her involuntary recoil. "F**k it. Shoot 'im, Ace." |
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| Author: | Greens [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:21 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
Of course, Ace was a good soldier who followed his orders, and indeed still wielded the handy dandy handgun he'd pilfered from the ARK's armory. And before heaving himself off the seat he rested upon, he also brought with him the tool that gave far more sense of authority than any firearm ever could-- his trademark pink shades. It was probably those shades that hid his identity from Murdoch (if it wasn't the blood alcohol level, anyway) while Jam added "burnt hair" to his list of formidable scents. And by the time she gave her own orders, he couldn't help but crack a nostalgic (and somewhat smug-looking) grin as he strolled up and leaned over the little devil. The cat removed his glasses to give ol' Murdy a better view, and possibly jog his memory. "You know," he said with infuriating tranquility, "It's never too late to get help." And after just enough pause for Murdoch to almost spring up and wring his throat, Ace promptly brought the butt of his .45 upon his forehead with swift justice, remembering how tough his skull was from their last encounter. With that business hopefully over, he rose up to give Jam a look of assurance and apology. "You know shooting him wouldn't have shut him up." |
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| Author: | Mie [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:30 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
"Maybe," sniffed Jam, far too indifferently, considering the topic of conversation was shooting a man. "Woulda made me feel better, though." |
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| Author: | Seafarinhare [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:00 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
There it was. A long road trip with no pit stops to speak of, and no scenery except for the stars and pitch black space. It's nice to gaze at the stars once in a while, but it gets dull pretty fast when it's all that's there. But there it was. Earth. Badge gripped his seat as they experienced the turbulent re-entry event, followed shortly by news of the goings-on in their absence. "Eggman. Of course." Was all he had to say on the subject before Murdock started to make a ruckus. Two-on-one seemed like good enough odds to him, so he stayed out of it, but eyed the situation for the sake of stopping any security brutality. But luckily Ace didn't see it fit to waste any ammo on the dirtbag. He sat back in his seat with a sigh, "Never a dull moment..." And now, the waiting game. |
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| Author: | Sheff [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:18 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
Geoff was, to be blunt, ready to get home. Although the little venture into space had been brief, it wasn't an experience someone could just easily shrug off (just seeing Rock's physical state was enough to prove that fact). Just given the view of the Earth yet again granted the hedgehog a wave of relief. Too many factors had been involved in their return trip, most of which he did not give much thought, opting to indifferently zone out until they finally managed to come to an orbit around their home planet. Yet whatever thoughts of comfort he was managing to create on the bumpy ride back into the atmosphere were quickly overshadowed by the state of South Island from the aerial view. Things only turned for the worse as they were soon forcibly guided back to the surface. His eyes were soon found staring with growing contempt at the new (yet familiar) image of a flag that appeared before them. "...it's been two da-" His boiling outburst was abruptly interrupted by the ruckus of a certain Tasmanian devil, and Geoff watched with near fascination as Rock just... broke. And it was only the starting shot for the next few reactions of the others around him in the helm, and set with the background of smooth jazz, it was a strange mixture. The hedgehog watched it all with a silent satisfaction upon seeing Murdoch receive the wrath of the others, knowing he himself could easily have done the same. Obviously old memories didn't cease to exist in his mind. "...well, since we've got that out of the way... not like I minded it, but-" He gave a fleeting nod towards the glowing red and black monitor, his mouth curling downward. "What're we going to do about this?" |
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| Author: | psikeout [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:28 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
As if on cue, the monitor over the helm lit up with some robotic figure. This one was on a live feed. It was... kind of dumpy-looking, to be honest, with a dome for a head, beady lenses for eyes, a nearly globular body (at least from what could be seen of it), and a red, yellow, and grey paintjob. "State your name and business," it droned boredly, exhibiting all the charming personality of a DMV clerk. Rock, having pretty much assumed all "official" leadership of the flight, was naturally the one to respond, professional as ever (as if his previous outburst hadn't happened at all). "First Lieutenant Lazarus Lochert, South Island Air Force First Sp—" "Tehhhehhhh, not anymooore~," it laughed with as little enthusiasm as was possible while still technically laughing. It was apparently designed to be obnoxious. "There's no 'Air Force' anymore. Now, who are you and why're you here." Rock blinked a few times. With a deep breath and a look that said nothing but welp, he tried again, more casually. "Rock Lochert, and this is the SIRSV Lagrange. We're coming from Space Colony ARK with a full load'a survivors, some wounded." "ARK?" repeated the robot as it lurched back from the screen. "ARK?" it said again, this time leaning close and rising in pitch, as if this word really meant something. "... I'm gonna put you on hooold a second. I'll be right back." *Blip.* ... Smooth jazz. Rock's posture and facial features sagged in unison. It was over almost in an instant, though. The robot appeared on the monitor again. "Step outside the ship," it demanded. It quickly amended its statement, specifying, "Just the crew, no passengers. We don't want any more smelly, dripping injured folks than necessary just yet. And make it fast." The link closed and the monitor went off. Rock pushed himself to his feet with a look to Ace and Jam. "Guess that means us," he mumbled resignedly. Astrid was still in the sickbay, and he wasn't even sure where Coop was. With nothing to do except walk the figurative plank, he grabbed his duffel (just in case) and strode back through the ship's corridors and across the crowded galley, making way for the side airlock, looking troubled, but purposeful. Whenever he got there, he wouldn't immediately open it; he had to be discerning about who followed him out, after all, not only for his immediate group's sake, but everybody's. |
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| Author: | Seafarinhare [ Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:23 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
Upon the robot's order for the crew to exit the ship, Wild Badge stood up. In a flash of light, his suit disappeared, leaving him, once again in his civilian attire. He followed Rock toward the airlock without a word, his hands tucked in his jacket pockets. |
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| Author: | Tau [ Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tired of wearing black and blue (Ch. 4: Day 1) |
For Tau, the brief trip into space and the ensuing ordeal was significantly less stressful than it was for the others, if he even could feel such, that is. For Tau, the trip was both overly interesting as well as partly nostalgic. Not only was a newfound wealth of data collected during the trip that would take months to analyze, but Tau was also able to visit a place considered to be where the A.I. had 'grown up' in it's younger days. As for where Tau had been during the vessel's return to earth, the A.I. had chosen to stow himself within the engine room, not necessary because there were any particular tasks to preform on the engine or the surrounding equipment, but because none of the unfamiliar, as the robot communicating with the bridge had put it, "smelly, dripping, injured folks", were likely to be there. Listening in on the recent communication, Tau had quickly become interested with what had transpired during their absence from the planet, intrigued by the apparent expansion of the Eggman Empire enough to willingly comply with the given disembark 'request'. The A.I. would quietly make its way through the vessel towards the nearest airlock. Having long since stowed his plasma cannon, along with his other weapons, away within his assorted internal storage compartments, the A.I. quietly made its way through the vessel relatively unarmed, towards the nearest airlock and casually waited to disembark. |
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