Stranded IC

[Metronome]

The Echo's bridge was quiet, just the way Orren liked it. There was no bickering, no pointless small talk, just a man and his helm. Orren sat in his captain's chair, gazing glassily out of the cockpit as he sipped on some kind of fruity alien drink they'd gotten from their last supply stop...a month ago. Luckily, they were smart enough to only buy food and supplies that had a long shelf life. They knew the next inhabited planet was about a month's flight away. And it would be another week before they got there due to a small technical difficulty a while back that left them stuck, floating in space, for a couple days. Orren was now taking a shortcut to get there before their food supply ran short.

A blip on the radar stirred him from his trance. Orren looked down at the device to see that there was a planet within the radar's reach. He didn't get too excited, as it could very well, and probably was, another barren rock. Most unrecorded planets are left unmapped for a reason: their simply not worth the trouble. They're just big, empty rocks floating in space with little to no life on them. Orren returned his gaze to the dark void of space. In the distance, he could see the little ball of a planet growing larger. As the ship drew nearer, his eyes began to grow as well.

Orren picked up his intercom speaker and broke the ship's silence. "All crew on the bridge. Get your asses out here now!" The planet Orren's eyes were now fixed on was a beautiful little blue and green ball. It was near identical to that of Earth in the old days.




The sun was almost an hour from setting, and the two lacertas were in the same spot they'd spent the day before in. Atrius didn't like staying in one place for too long. It made it far too easy for others to plan an attack. However, Jabiko was ill and unwilling to travel. Being pregnant with a clutch of eggs wasn't easy, as far as Atrius could see. He wouldn't know personally. This was his and Jabiko's first batch of offspring since their mateship became official. Both were nervous about the further, but Atrius tried not to show it. He knew that Jabiko looked to him when he was scared. If Atrius showed that he was just as afraid, it would cause the other to panic.

Jabiko was curled up on his side in a makeshift nest, holding his protruding abdomen. It would be any day now that he'd be laying his eggs. Atrius paced around the small space they were hiding in, searching for any sign of danger. The two had taken shelter under the above ground roots of a giant tree. The small cave the roots made was a shady and safe feeling, but both knew better than to let their guard down.

They were on the outskirts of a large forest, right where the treeline turned into a grassy plain. The open space made Atrius feel a little better; he could see something sneaking up on them from a good ways away. However, the forest on the other side still held danger. More than once, he'd caught the scent of a simman lingering around in the trees. Simmans would go out of their way to kill them just to keep them from reproducing.

And sure enough, one primate was doing just that. Chirp was perched high up in the large trees, his glowing eyes settled on the nest of the two reptiles. He'd discovered them there the other night, but hadn't quite gotten around to gathering up a group to attack. He had hoped that they wouldn't move tonight, and sure enough, they stayed put. It would be a fatal mistake on their part, as far as he was concerned. As soon as the sun went down, he would gather a party to attack. Normally, he wouldn't have spent so much time in preparation just to kill two lacerta, but when he saw the size of the purple male, he knew that it would be a tough battle to win. However, there was no way he was going to let a monster like that reproduce and pass along his giant genes.

[jel2658]

Jay stepped back and gave the machine he had been working on a good kick. It sputtered, and then whirred to life. He pumped his fist in the air. After working on it forever, a moment of pure elation came to him. Unfortunately it was short lived. He was able to faintly make out the static voice of the captain telling everybody to get their asses to the bridge. He put down his makeshift screwdriver he had been using, to harm the thing, on top of it. He wouldn't lose it.

Would it be for a good reason or a bad reason that eveybody had to go to the bridge? After several false alarms, he wasn't quick to go running. Was the captain going to chew somebody out again? Jay didn't want to see that, it was often awkward. Either way, Orren would be unhappy if he got there last. Jay walked down the halls in the bowels of the ship to where the stairs up would be. No elevators down below, but Jay didn't care. Walking more gave him time to think.

On the way to the stairs was a main part of the engine, the engine itself being further into the belly of the ship. He had to check it before coming up, as usual. He didn't want somehing bad to happen. He looked at all the dials and numbers. Looked good, but he might have to fix something up when he came back down. Hopefully whatever was being dealt with wouldn't take too long, he thought as he started climbing up.

[Argetlam350]

Zacar had just finished his daily workout routine when a the voice of the captain came through the intercoms. He grumbled and and stood up from where he had been resting. He had no fondness for the captain of the ship, actually he had no fondness for anyone here. Not because he didn't like them, on the contrary he probably would of considered them friends if he allowed it. However after the loss of his own men that had been assigned to him and the betrayal of one of them, he had taught himself to never again get attached to those that could be considered allies. It left to many scars. So he had made sure to not speak much to anyone on the ship and had kept himself busy with detailed daily routines as to not go insane from boredom.
As he walked down a corridor to the bridge he lit up a cigar, mostly out of habit, it was common for him to do so after his workouts but he was now running thin on them and soon would have to quit cold turkey.
He made it to the bridge before anyone else had."What's wrong?" he asked in a netural tone, with barely a hint of caring yet being serious at the same time. Not much made the Orren stur everyone to the bridge unless it was urgent, important, or someone was going to get their ass chewed out by him.

[PrettyLittleLia]

Rory had been relaxing in her cabin, able to finally get a minutes peace to herself, when Orrens voice rang throughout the ship.
"All crew on the bridge. Get your asses out here now."
She couldn't help but sigh as she stood up from where she'd flopped down onto her bed, but she followed his orders and started making his way to the bridge. It was quite a long walk from the cabins to the Bridge, but she didn't hurry; she didn't think anything would be that important that he'd need her there right away. Finally, she strolled into the room and stood in the doorway, realising she was only the second there and crossing her arms over her chest.
"What up, mon capitan?" She said, jokingly, before she strolled over to Orren and stood beside him, looking out into Space.
Her heart almost stopped and she didn't speak for a moment, simply staring at the little marble of hope in the distance, which shone like a beacon of light in their world of constant darkness.

[Metronome]

"Look," Orren said, pointing to the planet for those who hadn't seen it. "I think we should check it out. It's got green, blue, white...just like Earth did. Hell, it might even have breathable air. Maybe this will be the new Earth." He had hope in his voice, something he'd been missing for a while. One the prime objectives of their ship was to find a new, suitable planet for the humans to live on. Little did they know that the planet was already well occupied.

As the sun continued to set, Atrius grew more restless. Jabiko was curled up in the nest when he turned his head and told Atrius to get some rest. The big, purple reptile begrudgingly agreed. He ducked under the tree roots and crawled into the nest, curling around his mate and laying his head on Jabiko's shoulder. His piercing red eyes glowed in the darken atmosphere. Atrius could rest, but he wouldn't sleep. Something just didn't feel right.

[Argetlam350]

Zacar looked at what Orren was pointing out. For the first time on this miserable ship journey he felt an upbringing of hope with what he saw. A lush blue and green planet, something that he had never really thought they would find but here it was right in front of their ship. Finally, he thought, a fresh new start, on a new world.
"Well then lets land this hunk of junk on it and check it out," Zacar said holding back any sound of enthusiasm as he put out his cigar.

[jel2658]

Jay was actually pretty surprised. It seemed legitimate. He felt a rising eagerness to see what was on this planet, hoping they could colonize it or something. He was excited that there might be intelligent life forms on the planet as well, which would be awesome, as long as they could find a way to communicate or something. All in all, Jay was all for going to this planet. It looked healthy and reminded him of Earth, suddenly making him homesick. He didn't get that often, mainly since he didn't like home anyway. It was about time they found something other than a lifeless rock, Jay had begun feeling a bit too preoccupied with tinkering with parts of the ship. In fact, he had begun feeling like this whole thing almost wasn't worth it, though he would never say that out loud. He was finally feeling glad he had taken the job on The Echo. Finding a habitable planet would have people hailing them as heroes. "Where should we land?" There was no doubt in his voice he was all for exploring this new place. It wasn't really his decision though, so he scolded himself mentally. Orren obviously was happy too, which was a rare occasion. He probably had it all figured out by now.

[restlessScriblr]

Cynder wasn't as thrilled as everyone else seemed about discovering this new planet, sure they'd been traveling for a few years, but she felt in her element being in this tin can. She reveled in being able to tinker and repair and just being able to stay quite active. She's learnt quite a lot being on-board, and there was still so much more to learn. Seeing the new planet, Cynder wasn't sure she was ready to head out, though the itching feeling of adventure was soon crawling up her spin, she could start to feel the adrenaline rising, coursing through her veins. She did love a chance to explore and learn about the unknown, perhaps she'd find something salvageable on the planet? She was standing back at the fringe of their small crew, being the last to arrive, as usual. Cynder kept glancing at the planet, and back to their captain in anticipation. "Do you want us to go cut the engine and prepare for landing?" she called out, brushing stray hair away from her face.

[Metronome]

"No, I got this," Orren said as he fiddled with his control board. He'd spent enough time on this god forsaken ship to land it in his sleep. As he entered the atmosphere, the control panel beeped at him, as if he didn't already fucking know. Orren lowered the engine power and began looking for a suitable clearing to land in. The planet was dark, just like that of Earth at night. It seemed that they had chosen to enter the atmosphere right above a huge fucking forest. Luckily, a large, grassy plain appeared below them. Orren's expression was one of pure concentration as he skillfully banked and unfurled the landing gear. The ship landed in the grass like a graceful, metal bird. An ugly bird, but a graceful one nonetheless. The ship's lights shone across the greenery and landscape, turning the night into dawn.

"Fucking christ," Orren said as he looked out the window. "I don't even remember the last time I saw a green tree."


Meanwhile, a furry primate watched the scene from the nearby trees. Chirp had already gathered a group to attack the two nesting reptiles when some kind of horrific flying beast came out of the sky. The simman couldn't help but think that the thing looked familiar. He couldn't quite tell because the bright lights were blinding his sensitive eyes. He promptly told his fellows to forget about the attack. With any luck, the beasts would kill each other.

Sure enough, Atrius wasn't too pleased with the appearance of the giant metal bird. He had been comfortable and slowly calming down when the monstrous creature came down and landed mere feet from his nest. The purple reptile snarled and charged to make his disapproval known. His eyes glowed angry and red as he let out a deafening roar. His large, clawed hands smashed into the metal hull of the ship, leaving large dents in their wake. After a couple more hits, the metal panel that he'd chosen to attack began to give way.

The control panel in the bridge went wild. Orren's screen popped up, displaying the ship with the damaged area highlighted in red. "WARNING: HULL BREACHED," the computer's voice said clearly.
"Fuck!" Orren growled as he tried to access the monitors to see what the problem was. "Who the hell is attacking us?!" The feed from the monitor popped up the screen, the image of a horrifying, very pissed off creature tearing into their ship gracing their eyes. One alien, with it's bare hands, was doing more damage to their vessel than a small fighter ship could in twice the amount of time. It was then that Orren realized that they may have made a terrible mistake.

[jel2658]

"Oh damn." Jay muttered as he turned and ran to wear it was located. "Cynder! You handle the extra fortification! Make sure he doesn't break all the way through! I'll work on isolating the area that thing is attacking!" Without waiting for a response, he went through the doors and out of the bridge. He had to work quickly if he wanted to be sure it wouldn't come in and start to kill them. To be able to cut off that area from the rest of the ship, he would need to work on both closing the doors and engaging the emergency locking system that had been put in not too long ago. The creature was surely able to make some damage, clear from the way it could bring down parts of the hull. The resulting mess could cause serious problems if they didn't want the ship to stay.

He finally made it to the doors leading to where the creature had begun attacking. He got to work on closing and locking them, to cut the area off from the rest of the ship. Hopefully Cynder would at least consider doing what Jay had... suggested for her to do. It wasn't normally his way to order people around, especially her, but this situation wasn't exactly normal (in the sense of the word in which normal was a day on The Echo spent basically just floating around.