Planet Of The Rapes: In-Character

[banana]

In the midst of a turn, the Marion was tossed into an uncontrolled spin by an explosion at its stern. The blaster weapons of the pirate starfighter in hot pursuit had struck one of the rear manoeuvring thrusters one too many times, heating it to the point that some of its components vaporized, and that expanding vapor forced itself out into space like a geyser, carrying small pieces of the Marion's hull with it. A severe shock charred the neural net connections that serviced the thruster, carrying a feedback signal across the length of the ship that momentarily scrambled the images on viewscreen in the bridge and on all computer terminals through the ship. The ship's computer compensated within a few milliseconds to restore the picture, allowing the occupants to see the image of Nerim's atmosphere spinning about them wildly, intermixed with the streaks of orange light from the pirate's blasters.

Talia was the most qualified one to pilot the Marion, but even she struggled at the flight controls to stabilize the ship using the remaining active thrusters, haphazardly dodging blaster shots in the process, and spreading the rest of the damage across the ship's hull, where it could be withstood for a little while longer. Ultimately, the deviation from their already dangerous flyby course through the planet's thermosphere had begun to take its toll, and the ship rocked again. Gravity had pulled the Marion too close to the planet, and friction from the rapidly thickening atmosphere took hold of the ship's nose and swung it around some more, causing Captain Aerith Forge to almost fly out of her command chair, if it weren't for the restraints. Halina's urgent voice piped over the intercom into the captain's ear, "Captaaain! We're on an entry vector! We have to pull up!", as if Aerith didn't already know.

The blaster fire had stopped assaulting the Marion, and the frustrated pirate's voice crackled intermittenly over one of the radio channels. "YOU C...T DO TH.....STUP-", and then finally was lost as the ship was engulfed by an electromagnetically insulating bubble of plasma built up from the friction of atmospheric entry. The viewscreen also cut out into blackness that reflected the flashing red emergency lights all around the bridge. The ship rocked violently again, and Talia lost control of the front thrusters, scorched by the sudden and unexpected entry. Proper entry procedure is to align the ship well beforehand and then seal up the thrusters to protect them from being torn apart by friction. "AH! We lost the thrusters!", Halina screamed through the intercom. "TALIA! SEAL HER UP NOW!", Captain Forge barked. Talia reached into the control panel and dramatically yanked on a lever to deploy the emergency seals over all exposed holes on the hull. The bumpy ride suddenly got a lot smoother, and the bridge went quiet. The aerodynamic shape of the Marion started to straightened the ship out so that it stopped spinning as much.

Halina, the Chief Engineer, rushed around the engine room clinging to handles on the walls and reading displays from different terminals. "Halina, report", came the captain's stern voice over the intercom. Halina leaned over the intercom and responded solemnly, "We're too steep, Captain. We'll be destroyed in minutes... It's been a pleasure serving with you...". Aerith's voice barked back over the intercom, but Halina had tuned out.

She was quickly shaken from her daze by a strong hand on her shoulder, which belonged to Hurati, another engineer. "Ma'am! Charge the cannon! The cannon!", he blurted out frantically. The red squirrel-woman stared at the young man in a daze, then what he was saying suddenly registered in her head. She scrambled for the intercom button. "Captain! Charge the main cannon!", she shouted. Bathed in the pulsing red lights of the bridge, Aerith's masked face went cock-eyed with a sick expression. "ARE YOU CRAZY? YOU CAN'T FIRE A CANNON DURING-", she shouted back into the intercom, but was cut off by a determined Halina, who replied, "CAPTAIN! Don't fire it, just charge it! The radiation will tilt us!". The captain snapped her eyes across the bridge to Axel, who was manning the ship's weapons controls. "DO IT!", she ordered, and when Axel, who had not heard the intercom conversation, looked back blankly, she added, "Axel! Charge the main cannon!". Dumbfounded by such a strange order, Axel responded, "Ma'am, what?!", to which Aerith screamed frantically, "DO IT NOW, THAT'S AN ORDER!". With a sharp, "Yes ma'am!", the black fox-man punched a button in front of him. Both the bridge and engineering went quiet once more as they waited for something to happen.

In the crew quarters, the science team clung to the bunk frames and made peace with whatever gods they believed in. The ones who were atheists made peace with their own consciences. There was no way to conduct experiments during a battle, so they had all taken refuge in the crew quarters, where they waited to see what would become of the Marion. In the medical bay, Kit held onto the wall and mentally prepared herself for the task of handling casualties, should they survive the harrowing descent towards Nerim's surface. The security personnel on orderly duty were likewise stuck in their positions to await what Isaac Newton had in store for them. The engineers in the engine room looked at each other helplessly for almost a minute, though it seemed like five, and then their faces lit up... literally. They stared at a spot on the wall where the metal had begun to glow a dull red. The glow started to get brighter, and Halina immediately shouted, "EVERYBODY OUT NOW!"

The engineers rushed out of the engine room and pounded the emergency switch to slam down the thick heavy door and seal it off. A weak spot in the ship's hull had become superheated from exposure to the eight thousand degree plasma outside, and passed that heat through many layers of insulating material to turn a section of the engine room wall into a giant light bulb that soon ignited the oxygen in the room and turned it into a firestorm locked, thankfully, behind the heavy blast doors at the ass end of the engineering wing. Immediately, the ship went dark. All lights failed, and all sirens were instantly muted. The false gravity of the plated floor released, and everybody floated up into the air, attached to the ship only by whatever objects they were grabbing. The computer, still running on a capacitor, slowly faded out of existence over the next few seconds, cutting the engineers off from all knowledge of the outside world. Captain Forge hailed fruitlessly into the now-dead intercom, no longer able to know if her engineering crew was alive or dead.

The rumbling of friction outside the bridge began to diminish, and Talia looked at some analog dials showing the Marion's air speed in the absence of electricity. It had begun to decline rapidly. Another gauge next to it, tracking air pressure, was rising considerably. Talia cursed that she hadn't researched any information on Nerim before getting into a dogfight that destroyed their orbit around it. But if this planet was anything like her elven homeworld, then a pressure reading like that would put the Marion anywhere from 30 to 50 kilometres above the surface and falling at terminal velocity. "Captain...", she started to say, but Aerith beat her to the point. The captain leaned forward and interjected, "The anti-grav, I know. What about the emergency chutes?"

Talia watched the speed decline to within the safety limit for the chutes she had been made to memorize when she first accepted the task of piloting the Marion. Once the safe range was entered, she reached under the console, opened up a plastic safety cover, and yanked hard on a lever. The ship bounced violently, slamming everyone to the floor. The science team, falling about the bunks, watched the ship's sex android, Lola, smash against the floor, her right arm skittering one way, and her head bouncing up in a different direction. The damaged body limply slid around like a rag doll until Luis Silva caught her. Things settled down for several minutes, but everyone stayed on edge, knowing there would be an impact eventually, and that without anti-gravity landing pads, it would be a very rough impact. Unable to look outside to see the terrain below, they prayed that the impact would be with water or soft ground, and not into the side of a mountain or the jagged depths of a canyon.

The impact, when it finally came, tossed everyone. The Marion skidded and bounced, and flipped upside down, then onto its side. There was no doubt that the ship was now ruined for future space travel. But as it finally stopped moving, the members of the crew, in their different locations on the ship, looked around and saw that they were still alive and mostly unhurt, with the exception of poor Lola. Captain Forge unfastened her restraints and fell out of her chair, dropping with grace onto her feet against the starboard wall of the bridge. After making sure everyone on flight duty was alright, she forced open the bridge doors and dashed around the ship to find and muster the rest of the crew.

------------

Aerith, fortunately, had skimmed briefly over Nerim's file in the computer before they had arrived in the Fenoxo system. She recalls that the multitude of plant life on the planet makes its atmosphere rich in oxygen, and there were no toxicity warnings in the file for carbon-based readers. It said the climate is tropical around the equator and temperate at higher latitudes, and that there was a 20 hour day. Small g on the surface is 9 point something. It looked to be about the same as Digiworld Prime, and that's all she cared about.

Halina and Hurati recognize from the heat on the engine room door that the fire in there is probably still burning, which is extremely bad. For one, it means that there's a hull breech on the other side letting in oxygen, and it's probably feeding on the supply of hydrocarbon fuel they keep next to the backup power generator. Secondly, if the fire continues long enough to weaken the protective casing around the crystals in the main generator, the whole ship could begin leaking radioactive particles that would devastate this planet's environment for centuries. Or in the worst case, the entire ship could explode, taking with it most living things within a 5 mile radius. Whatever the rest of the crew is doing, the engineering team recognizes this as their top priority.

The rest of the crew, gathering around their captain on the starboard wall of the medical bay. They figure out the following status of the ship:

- Power's out. Main and backup generators are down, and on fire. Better fix that right away!
- The ship is on its side. It's going to be hard getting around in here until we turn it right side up.
- There may be hull breeches about the ship, and we don't know what kind of animals live on this planet. Someone will need to walk around the ship and assess the damage, and come up with a plan for securing a perimeter so that the crew is not threatened while they work.
- We don't know where we are, and hardly anything about this planet. Some exploration should be done, and also a few simple experiments to test things like our latitude, the weather patterns.
- We have supplies of food to last the crew another week before we have to forage for more. Water, on the other hand, depends on a recycling system that went offline when the power was knocked out. Either we have to get the power back on in a matter of days, or we need to find another source of water somewhere on this planet.
- The neural net pathways in the ship's computer might have been damaged in the crash. Someone should inspect them at some point.
- Other tasks can wait until later, it would seem.

[Danalthar]

Jack emerges from his shell, which he rid out the crash in. He blinks, dazed, then looks at his wrecked painting kit. His jaw falls open and he clutches at the doorframe. Finally, he comes to his senses, and ventures forth into the hallway, letting out a shout. "Hellooo!"

[That_One_Guy]

Garian had grabbed hold of a guard rail as the ship plummeted, and when the ship finally came to a stop, he stood up, wobbling a bit, and walked into the hallway, his arm either locked or dis-located, but thankful it wasn't broken as he relocated it back into the socket, he heard someone calling and turned towards it, seeing Jack. "Over here, mate. You alright?"

[Danalthar]

Jack first locates Kit, sighing with relief as he sees his partner. He turns back to Garian, cracking a fail joke, "First time in my life my shell's actually been useful. How's everyone on your end?"

[That_One_Guy]

Garian looked back the way he came and then back at Jack, "I don't know, I was kind of in a daze from the fall, I suffered a dislocated arm, but that was easy to fix." He then looked back at the way he came from, "I'll go and see if anyone else survived on my end." He told him and started to walk back the way he came.

[Danalthar]

Jack nods and opens his mouth, getting ready to shout back. However, the other is already gone by now. Jack half-hides in his shell and begins going the other way, after grabbing his scalpel.

[Hurati]

"Ow, my head", grumbles Hurati. Looking at the door to the engine room he sees that it has also started to glow, if only slightly. "We have to fix the engine but that fire needs to go first, unless anyone likes their critters crispy? Am I right?" Looking around him, Hurati notices that the engineering crew is unconscious or has already limped off. "Right, now to find a way to turn on the fire supression system..."

[That_One_Guy]

Garian walked down the hallway, towards the Security wing of the ship."Hello!" He called out down the hall, noticing that several lights are out and cursed under his breath. He backtracked to his workpost and grabbed his Rifle, making sure his pistol was still in its holster. He strapped the gun to his back and started on his way again yelling "Hello!!!"

[Danalthar]

Jack creeps down the hallway, yelling "Hello" at random intervals. After what seems like an eternity, he turns a corner, entering the Science bunks.

[That_One_Guy]

Garian continued his search before stopping and turning back around, heading towards the bridge. He needed to make sure that the captain was okay, hoping that the other security officers were okay.

[Hurati]

Hurati walks toward the engineering wing to look around for the appropriate system control. "Ah, found you." But spots something out of the corner of his eye. Turning to look Hurati sees that the door to the engineering bunks has been sealed. "Damn, when was that fail safe installed? Hmmmm, fire first or it will spread and kill us anyway." Walking back to the fire control system panel, Hurati pries off the panel.

[That_One_Guy]

Garian walked through the hallway and climbed a ladder, afraid that the elevator was offline or damaged to the point of falling and killing him. Upon reaching the top he opened the door and walked into the bridge, "Anyone here?" He asked, not yelling but loud enough for anyone to hear him.

[Demon]

"This can't be good..."-I think while standing with slight moans of pain-"Is everyone alive?". I pick up my staff and try to reach the hallway, climbing over things and getting small things on its place.

[That_One_Guy]

Garian went through the bridge, looking around and yelled this time "Anyone Alive?!" He then went to the ladder, looking down it and yelling into its abyss that led to the hallways "Anyone alive down there?!" He called, hoping his voice echoed enough to reach the bottom as well as all the other floors.

[Demon]

"Garian, you'r alive!"-I smile slightly in the joy that is to see a crew member still breathing while I finally get into the 90°-turned ship's hallway.

[That_One_Guy]

Garian smiled and slid down the ladder and into the hallway, turning to look at her, "Thank the gods, your alive Captain." He said with a smile, "I couldn't find anyone else, but I did run into Jack." He reported, "Any other survivors?"

[Demon]

"Not that I know of, Soldier"-I return to my serious attitude-"We must keep looking"-I start going down the hallway, trying to reach the medical bay and avoiding fallen objects.

[That_One_Guy]

Garian turned serious as well and followed her, "There may be a breach in the hull, captain, anything living on this planet may have gotten inside, I would like permission to barricade and secure the serious breaches while creating several chokepoints in one or two of the breaches so that we may at least leave the ship to gather supplies." He said, keeping in step with her, his rifle unslung from his back and at the ready in case he was right.

[Hurati]

"MOTHER-FFFFfffffffffffffff!", Hurati yelled after the console shocked him for the fourth time. Who builds a ship with all of this technology and forgets to insulate the wires? Who?!" Sighing, Hurati took off his tool belt and withdrew the electrometer. "Oh, that's why, the crash screwed up the electricity distribution and this thins is pumping out 3 times more megajoules than normal. Let's just-" Working some wires around He managed to divert the excess power to the ventilation systems. Hurati walked over to the ventilation master control and entered the command to shut off the flow into the generator room. ACCESS DENIED the screen read. "I would be disappointed if you didn't. Halina might have the code..... but she might not have it written down, how about, yes perfect" DIVERT OXYGEN FLOW FROM GENERATOR ROOM TO SHIP OR OUTSIDE HULL/ query: REASON/ reply: THERE'S A FREAKIN FIRE!!!/ reply: ERROR, REASON NOT RECOGNIZED, REASON?/ reply: FIRE/ reply: ACKNOWLEDGED, COMMAND ACCEPTED/ There was a a whir as the ventilation systems kicked in. That should buy us some time, but it's not the solution, though Hurati.

[Demon]

"Feel free to do whatever you need to secure our ship, Garian"-I reply as I reach the elevator door and try to break it open using my staff as a lever