The Rebel Faction

Unknown location - Origination of distress signal...

Onboard the Privately owned Starship 'Harbinger'




"Reversion in ten seconds..."

Saladin gripped the handrail running along the command deck and braced himself. With a subtle lurch, the 'Harbinger' reverted into real-space , and into a massive cloud of superheated gases and debris. The entire ship seemed to shudder, and alarms from seemingly all stations all shrilled in unison...

"SHIELDS! DAMNIT SHIELDS!" Roared Saladin as the vessel took another thunderous course of buffeting...

He swung around to the scanning station manned by a scared shitless looking Devoronian...

"REPORT! what the hell did we just fly into?" He demanded angrily, his intense gaze focused entirely on the hapless scanning officer. The Devoronian's eyes and fingers raced across the console reading and absorbing information as fast as it came in, anxious and uncomfortably aware he was the centre of attention, he reeled slightly as he realised what the data was revealing...

"Sensors report that all indications point to the remnant of a solar flare my Lord, a big one at that-- "What?" Saladin interrupted the officer "Solar flares don't cause this much mess! If I have to come over there and take correct readings myself you'll find yourself floating home!" The anger evident in Saladin's voice was all too palpable for the Devoronian officer...

"With respect my Lord, there is a great deal of interference, but the readings are correct, the debris field we've just flown into matches the position of what should be two planetary bodies, a planet and it's moon, all evidence indicates one is... " His words hung in the air as he double checked his findings... "Gone" He added simply...

Saladin growled, and swung around to the view screen.. "Scan the nearest star in this area, I want to know what's happening, Mastor, do we have a fix on that transmission?"

"Yes my Lord" Mastor's reply was instant...

"On screen"

The control deck was suddenly lit up in the blue glow of a planet, and as Saladin's eyes settled upon it, he could just about make out the swirl's and eddies of cloud and weather formations held within its atmosphere, his eyes narrowed in reaction...

"The planet is not listed on any known star charts we have , my Lord"

"All sensor readings indicate....life readings...its highly populated" Continued the Devoronian as if on cue...

"What kind of life?" Saladin asked slowly, his voice calm and calculated...

"Many low level , but mostly...human" The scanning officer reported dutifully, and watched as this information seemed to spark something off within his Commander....

"Tactical, report! " Saladin shouted and stepped closer to the planet in view, his eyes studying it intensely...

"No threat imminent, scans indicate no defensive batteries, no shields, no orbital stations, the only thing I am reading is very low level tech capabilities, whoever is down there, they're living in the dark ages, my Lord..."

The tactical officer could barely hide his eagerness to report the welcome news...

Saladin allowed himself a faint smile at this information, this was it, what he had been looking for! He turned to address his crew...

"Good job men! There'll be an extra bonus for each crewman , it looks like we've hit the jackpot!"

All at once there was a huge cheer from around the control deck...

But there was one , who didn't... "My lord" Stammered the Devoronian over the noise, causing Saladin to face him once again... " readings report the nearest star is collapsing, sensor's traced the solar flare to the main sun in this sector, all indications confirm, its...unstable..."

Saladin frowned... "Elaborate on ...unstable" He asked guardedly...

"Its expanding, my Lord, the flare was, just the beginning..." There was a short sharp intake of breath from around the deck...

"Its going supernova"

Saladin pursed his lips at the sobering news... "How long?"

The deck seemed to go silent as the Devoronian ran through some quick calculations... "its hard to say, I can run through some simulations, but it'll take a while, best guess with the current information we have, it could be days, or even hours..."

Saladin's top lip snarled in reaction to this, every operation had its risks, but this was different, some dangers could be counter-balanced or even worked around, but there was no working around a supernova. His eyes glided to the blue and white orb floating in front of them, as he weighed up the dangers...

Life was all about risks, he had learned this quickly as a youngling , but where there were high risks, there were also high gains...

This could be the one to set him up for life, if done right...

He made his decision.

"Helm take us into orbit, prepare the ground crews, we're going in" He turned back to the scanning station "You, Devoronian, I want those simulations run now, and the results first thing!" The officer acknowledged and set about his task...

No more scrounging for scraps off the outer reaches of space...not now....not ever!

"This is madness! if another Solar flare hits, we won't stand a chance!" Mastor's voice was only mere moments away from panic...

Saladin held his palm up to silence his underling...

"Which is why we act fast , take what we came for, and leave.."

"but, but....the star!" Mastor could only stammer, before being interjected...

"We won't be here! don't you get it Mastor! We've been given the perfect opportunity! We take what we need, and leave before the star goes supernova, we only need mere hours, and we can all be rich beyond belief!"

"What if we're not the only ones who got the message!" Mastor returned...

"You don't think I have thought of that!" Snapped Saladin, his impatience at being argued with beginning to show...

Mastor trembled slightly at hearing the edge in his master's voice...

"Think! Mastor! there are no ships around to threaten us, and by the time there are , we'll be long gone! and do you know what the best bit about this is?"

Mastor shook his head fearful of the whole idea as Saladin leaned forward, his canine-like grin showing his fangs...

"Once that star goes supernova, all evidence of us being here will be gone" He pointed to the sun glowing in the distance on the view screen, and his terrible smile grew larger as the genius of what had occurred to him sunk in...

"No one will ever know we and this planet, were even here"
This post was edited by Seth Vinda (4:45am 06/11/15, 10 years ago)

Approximately twenty-four hours prior to emergency distress signal…
Camp Bravo...



"What is it?" Snapped Novak , as he felt the presence of someone linger beside him, and became aware of all eyes of the makeshift command station suddenly upon him...

He felt what little hope left within him evaporate even more in anticipation...
"I'm sorry for the interruption General, but, you ordered me to update you if any new developments happen.." The young officer's voice trailed off...

"I'm waiting" The General growled, without shifting his gaze from the reports of the dead and missing, it had still only been a matter of days since the destructive events had caused utter chaos.With scores of people dead, whole towns and villages had vanished in what seemed like the blink of an eye. The dust was still settling, but the General knew this moment of calm was mere illusion.

"Its the scientists General, they have finished their preliminary reports"

Novak stiffened slightly, and a grim expression began to spread across his face, as he gestured for the folder the young officer was holding…

Since the disaster, what was left of the scientific community has been tasked with obtaining the closest thing anyone had to both an explanation and if possible, a solution, to hear back from them this quickly, despite it being requested, was not a good sign.
As he started to read the first part of the report he became aware the officer was still present, he looked up from the papers as he spoke to young man… "that will be all"

The officer nodded in acknowledgement, but seemed reluctant to leave, as if on the cusp of asking something important, but then seemed to think better of it, saluted and exited, leaving the General alone to digest the information he had just been handed.

When he did , his heart sank, further.

He sat down and wiped his face with his hands, as if trying to erase both the words written in front of him, and the memories of what had transpired so far. With a loud sigh he placed the folder upon the desk in front of him...

A voice broke through his thoughts...

"I take it the situation does not look good" It was not a voice the General was familiar with.

Novak looked up to see a suited stranger standing next to him, he narrowed his eyes as he studied the face and found it to be one he did not recognize, the frown dug deeper. 

"Do I know you?" He asked pointedly

"No, but I know you General, my name is Mr Fisk, International Security Agency, and I have something to show you" Fisk answered, flipping his wallet open to reveal his identity card...

The General tilted his head slightly before rising to his feet to inspect it closely.. "I hardly think this is the time, Mr... Fisk..." Novak began, as he handed the agents wallet back to him...

"On the contrary" Fisk said flatly " Now, would be the perfect time"

Novak stared at the man for a long moment... "How about you just tell me what is so important"

"I'm afraid I cannot, its too sensitive" Replied Fisk perfectly serious.

The General controlled his temper admirably "I don't have time for your agency bantha-shit right now Mr Fisk, in fact in case you hadn't noticed none of us have much time at all, period. So how about you tell me now or I have you forcibly removed... come to think of it, how the hell did you get in here?" With that Novak called out for one of the guards on sentry...

Fisk, realising his time was now quickly running out, started talking , fast.

"Did you mean what you said before, by wanting to know about every option, no matter how crazy?"

Novak stopped and turned his attention back to the suited stranger... 

"Yes, why" he said curtly...

Fisk's eyes widened, and the faint whisper of a smile toyed at the edges of his lips as he replied "Because what I have to show you, only a crazy person could dream of"

"I don't have time for this" Novak answered dismissively, but Fisk's response was quick..

"It seems to me like you"--Fisk paused before correcting himself pointedly--"we, do not have the luxury of dismissing any option at this moment in time, wouldn't you agree?"

Novak stared at the agent standing next to him and grunted, reluctantly agreeing…

"Very well, Agent Fisk, you have my attention, what option do you have in mind?"

"Its better, and more…." Fisk trailed off for a moment as if looking for the correct word… "...expedient, if you were to see for yourself"

Something within Fisk's eyes told Novak he was telling the truth, and the General suddenly felt the creeping sensation, that things were about to get a lot more complicated.

"Alright, Agent Fisk, but this better not turn out to be a waste of my time, or you will come to regret it" Novak said , his tone deadly serious…

"I can assure you General, it is not" the agent replied with a thin smile.





 *  *  *








ISA Hangar - Undisclosed location…



"What the hell is it?" Novak asked warily, not removing his gaze...

"That General, is the question we've been asking ourselves for a long time…" Came Fisk's rather annoyingly ambiguous reply...

"Stop speaking in riddles man what is it?" The General barked out angrily...

The man named only as Fisk, seemed to shift his weight to one side of his body to the other as he coughed nervously...

"The remains of an Alien spacecraft that crashed onto our planet about ten years ago…" He answered, flatly.

Novak, for a moment, found he could not process the words he had just heard, and a heavy awkward silence seemed to permeate the room as if he considering his next words carefully...

"This is some kind of demented joke , right?" He replied eventually, his tone also flat, but with an edge one knew came as a warning to the eruption of anger that lay just below it's surface...

"I assure you General I am deadly serious, as real as the craft you see before you"  Came Fisk's measured response, finding it hard to hold the intense stare the General now fixed him with.

"Why were we not told? This is…" The General broke off mid-sentence, clearly at a loss of words...

"Astounding, yes General, and so would have been its repercussions, thus the decision at the time to keep it from the general public.
But there is more…"

"More?" Novak repeated in disbelief...

He followed Fisk into a medical chamber of some description, where a large tube filled with liquid sat upright upon the chamber floor. Inside the tube, the figure of a naked man standing upright...

"…What the!…"

"This encumbent, was one of the bodies we recovered from the wreckage, as well as a large green humanoid creature.
both died on impact"

Fisk paused for a moment, to let the General digest this information, before continuing...

"The man you see, is from what we can tell, human, but his, ah, companion, is something else entirely…"

Novak could only stare at the two figures, evidently at a loss for words…Fisk, took this as his cue to elborate more...

"This technology is light years ahead, a quantum leap from what anybody has now.
There is no other explanation. There must be more where they came from, a culture far more advanced than ours...."

The General glanced up quickly as he realised the implications of these revelations, and perhaps, the reason why Fisk had bought him here in the first place...

"You think they can help us?" He blurted out, incredulous...

"Yes" Fisk stated firmly.

Novak stared at the agency man in disbelief, and laughed out loud...

"Forgive my outburst Fisk, but, as amazing as this is, to call this a long shot, would be stretching it"

The General had a sudden urgent need of a drink, something strong and alcoholic, preferably. He held his hands up in defeat... 

"Alright Fisk, let's say you are right for a moment" He held a finger up in the air to underline his point as he continued "And I am not saying you are, even if they could, how in the hell would we contact them? Assuming they are still around,  how do we know they would even care enough to try" 

Fisk smiled again for the second time since the General had met him, and Novak had the distinct impression he was enjoying all of this...

"What is it? "Novak asked , warily...

"We are....not.....entirely sure, but we believe it to be a communications relay of some description, it was damaged from the wreck, we believe we can use it to contact ...them"

The General turned his full attention towards the man next to him, his expression once more incredulous.
The enormity of both this unseen and somewhat left-field revelation and the predicament they were all in was beginning to dawn upon him...

"Let me get this straight, you are proposing, we use this" He waved his hand towards the alien equipment before him brusqely..."whatever the hell it is to contact ....whoever the hell it belongs to ...for help?..."

The man nodded simply, as if it were the most simple thing in the world.
He suddenly found himself struggling to keep his composure as a sudden feeling of anger welled up inside of him...

Things were hard enough to process as they were...

His family gone.

The world as they knew it was evidently falling apart around them..

...and now this?

His head ached with grief, and the knowledge that he was powerless to do anything.

The General's sudden sullen silence, prompted the agent to venture further..

"Shall I proceed with operating it"


Novak stared coldly at the man with an expression the agent could not read...

"General?" The agent asked , puzzled...

How was someone supposed to process all of this?

"Sir?"

Novak looked up at the agent and smiled faintly, as he nodded..

"What do we have to lose?" He muttered...

And as he turned to take his leave from what he had just seen, and from Fisk, he spoke once more...

"Do it"


 
This post was edited by Natalya Vinda (2:28am 26/08/15, 10 years ago)

Above...



The ship lurched out of Hyperspace with a bone-shattering shudder, which almost threw Natalya out of her seat,  and she swore under her breath as she struggled to both strap herself in properly and grip the controls. Almost immediately the collision detection alarm began to sound off its shrill warning.

KO-BE1 her R2 unit, joined in with it's own squawks of concern.

They had been hit, and pulled out from hyperspace prematurely, at this point Nat couldn't tell whether it was down to design or by accident. The young Jedi apprentice took in the various information from the instrumentation in front of her, and glanced outside the cockpit, and the reason why became self-evident pretty damn quickly.

Her ship had reverted close to a planet, and into what only could be described as a scene of total devastation, as what appeared to be the remains of a moon loomed closely in front of her, rapidly. It's shadow darkening the cockpit ominously.

Natalya's eyes widened in alarm, and she thrust the control stick forwards in an emergency action to avoid the massive crippled lunar body, the ship's hull creaked and moaned in response to her harsh treatment.

As the ship dived from its original course, it shook and reverberated as it became peppered with asteroids and debris, KO-BE began chatting wildly as it took over controls of the turrets and began shooting at the larger pieces.

It took all of the young Jedi's concentration to manoeuvre her vessel through the asteroid field she now found herself in, but it would not be enough, as another alarm began to sound off.

No!…not the engines! Nat thought to herself desperately, resisting the urge to panic...

Realising she had little choice, Nat veered off towards the planet below her, quickly assessing her scanners for a viable destination, and gritted her teeth, as the craft began to break through into the upper atmosphere. Shaking and buffeting the ship violently.

Gripping the controls tightly, Nat battled to stay on course.

"Hold on KO-BE!, this is going to get rough!" she shouted out to her Droid who simply murmured in response…

As the ship descended, she began to see landmass and did her best to fly towards it.
They were coming in fast, too fast, and as the Jedi began to try to compensate, one of her engines gave out, and the ship began to drop altitude even more.

Nat squinted out of her cockpit just able to catch sight of trees and woodland below her and tried her best to get her craft to straighten up, they were now only tens of metres away from the surface, and as if to confirm this, she began to feel the forest canopy start to scrape and brush against the hull.

"Brace yourself!" She yelled, just as the vessel struck the ground hard, sending debris and dirt flying everywhere, as it carved a path through the forest floor before finally coming to an abrupt stop.



 
This post was edited by Seth Vinda (7:19am 19/10/16, 9 years ago)

Onboard the 'Nova Runner'…




"Look! there!" Keyes pointed out abruptly...

Palmer squinted at the display, and rubbed his stubble covered jaw in thought as he watched the blip on the screen descend far too quickly for it's own good, and grunted in response…

"That can't be good…" murmured the Captain, perplexed at what had just transpired…

So far, the suspected pirate attack , had not materialised, and whilst this was , indeed, a good thing all round, it only served to make Palmer even more suspicious.

They had detected a very large cruiser like vessel on the other side of the planet, and had carefully kept an equidistant course away from it, and had been on silent running all this time while they made the relevant repairs to the hyperdrive.

So far it appeared, their presence had gone undetected, and Palmer was about to give the order to leave when another craft, considerably smaller , a freighter of some kind, had suddenly dropped out of hyperspace, and appeared to be in trouble.

"Well , whoever it is, clearly needs help" Keyes said, looking up at the Captain expectantly…

Palmer eyed him warily "we don't know the situation down there, for all we know, it could be a war-zone, besides I have this ship, and your sorry arses to think about, not to mention my own"

"We might be able to get parts down there" came a voice from behind, and Palmer knew without turning around that Juno had entered the compact bridge… "I thought it was just a wiring issue?" Palmer replied, as he turned around to face not just Juno but, Booth, and Chenko also…

Inwardly he groaned, he already knew where this was going…

"Yeah, well, that was before I found the burnt-out actuator" Chenko piped up… Causing Juno to follow up with "Yeah, maybe whoever it is has spare parts we can use" 

"Or some decent cargo?" Keyes joined in...

Booth simply remained silent, his huge presence speaking for him.

Palmer rolled his eyes… Great! getting ganged up by a soppy engineer , a mute and a talking monkey…

"Alright already!" He blurted out, already irritated "I can see where this is going…We'll check on the pilot, but then we are leaving, this system is clearly not safe…everyone happy?"

Chenko grinned, or at least strange approximation of one, Palmer just found it creepy.

"I swear if this turns out to be a mistake, I'm leaving you all on that hunk of rock" He added.

With that Keyes nodded and began punching in co-ordinates, but then froze midway…

"What?" Came Palmer's wary response…

"The cruiser" Keyes started, his tone ominous… "What about it?" Palmer said anxiously as he strained over his pilot's shoulder to see what had caused the man's consternation… "It's just begun a descent to the surface" Keyes replied.

"Maybe they've gone to help?" Offered Juno, and Palmer narrowed his eyes as he checked the data on the scanner…

"No.." Keyes muttered "Nowhere near it, they're headed somewhere else entirely, according to their trajectory at least"

"Where are they heading?" Asked the Captain cautiously

"Not sure, but if they carry on as they are, a different region by the looks of it, high concentration of life…population centre, a city maybe?" Keyes ventured..

Palmer grunted again, before speaking "Right, we do this fast and sly, drop down while they are descending themselves, they won't be scanning while they are breaking the atmosphere, and even if they do, chances are they won't be able to pick us up. Then we're in and out, Bish-Bash-Bosh! and that's the last I wanna hear about it…unless anyone has a problem with that?"

The crew murmured in agreement…

"Sounds like a plan Boss" Chenko replied, and saluted with his tiny yet freakishly human-looking hands. The action under other circumstances might even have appeared cute, but at this point in time only irritated Palmer further.. "Good" he responded not bothering to hide it "Now go, fix my damned hyperdrive"

As the others left to prepare, Palmer narrowed his eyes as the planet began to grow bigger, filling the bridge window. 

"Whoever it is" The Captain muttered under his breath… "better be bloody worth it" 




 
This post was edited by Natalya Vinda (9:08am 25/08/15, 10 years ago)

Out in the forest...




"Did you see THAT!…"

Brannigan strained his neck to look upwards through the windscreen of his Jeep, and abruptly, yet deftly adjusted his steering to account for the fact they had nearly swerved off the dirt track which evidently constituted a road in these parts.

Tarik nodded in reply as he peered out through the dirty and weathered windshield himself. His eyes followed the trail of black smoke that now hung over them in the sky. Truth be told he wasn't sure what he had seen, it had shot past so fast. Whatever it was it had been big enough to cast a shadow over them in the brief moment it had passed overhead.

"That was no meteor" Tarik heard Brannigan mutter under his breath as he pulled over, and with the engine still running, cautiously got out of the vehicle. Tarik moved as if to do the same, but the Ranger turned to him and gestured with his palm out-stretched indicating that the boy should remain in the jeep. "Stay put" The grizzled man said firmly, it was said in a tone that did not invite argument.

Tarik said nothing, for he knew the Ranger was merely thinking about his safety, so he watched quietly instead, leaning forward to gain a better view.

The Ranger, now outside, reached back inside the jeep to the glove compartment, and retrieved a pair of binoculars in order to better pin-point where whatever-the-hell-it-was had just crashed, it was clear that the term 'landed' was in this case far too optimistic description to describe what had just transpired.

Brannigan carefully clambered up onto the roof of the Jeep to try to see above the thinning canopy of the forest, luckily they were at the point on the track where the road dipped into a kind of small valley, which meant he could get a fairly broad view of the area. Despite the still smouldering fires still in existence in parts of the forest all adding to the general haze of the unusually reddish morning sky , it did not take him long to trace the plumes of oily smoke to where the 'craft' had ditched. 

It was a craft alright... 

The experienced ranger knew an engine when he heard one, but during the briefest of glimpses he had managed to see of it as it careered over them, it was clearly unlike any aircraft he'd ever seen or heard of.

Some new experimental aeroplane maybe...?

Brannigan lowered his binoculars as he located it's crash site, he did a quick calculation in his head, gauging the distance by experience, and determined it to be roughly two or three miles away. Not far, and despite the rough track, would not take long in the Jeep.

The grizzled Ranger grunted to himself as he considered his options. Before this they had been on their way to a location they had learned about at the Ranger station. While the station itself had been abandoned, his comrades had left him a repeating message indicating they had been recalled to some refugee camp, about a day's drive away. Camp Bravo, they called it.

At least his fellow Rangers had left him supplies, fuel, food, basic medical supplies, even some ammunition for his shotgun, more than enough to cover the journey.

Something at least….

Whoever had been in that thing when it had crashed might need help, they weren't too far away, and he couldn't just leave them out here to fend for themselves, the rest of the world had gone to shit, but he was still a Ranger, and he could still help, right?

Brannigan clambered back down, and narrowed his eyes at the smoke rising from the crash site in the distance, he threw a glance towards Tarik, and appeared to make his mind up.

"Right strap in, we're taking a look" he said gruffly.

And with that the Jeep set off down the track towards the billowing black smoke in the distance.