Survivors of the Euphrates- CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT OUT NOW!

[FlyingDebris]

Author's Note- The first few chapters were written a year ago by myself, and are lacking in quality. I do intend to go through and rewrite them once the story is complete, however.


As the once-great vessel plunged through the atmosphere towards an alien world, all seemed lost. The Euphrates was a CS-100 class cityship, never designed for atmospheric encounters. And yet, they had no choice but to do just that. As the massive hull broke through the upper layers of the stratosphere, massive pieces were ripped from the outer hull. *ALL CIVILIANS TO EMERGENCY QUARTERS. REPEAT. ALL CIVILIANS TO EMERGENCY QUARTERS.* The alarm sounded again, although more urgently than it had when they came under attack. As the civilians raced towards the innermost section of the ship, the guards and soldiers stationed inside of the Euphrates tried to secure a safe path to the reactor core, which had been taken over by enemy boarding parties.

The ship was now entering the denser layers of the atmosphere, and the friction of fhe surrounding air created an immense fireball which engulfed the ship. There was no stopping their descent now. The soldiers were ordered to seal all the blast doors and retreat into the inner sections of the ship."What about the reactor?!" Shouted one soldier. "Forget it, just seal the door!" another shouted back. As they ran into the saferoom, they felt the ship sway and twist. Suddenly, a massive grinding noise was heard, as the entire ship vibrated. Everything went dark, and silent. You could just barely hear the sound of air rushing past the hull from inside the saferoom, but they knew that the ship had been severed in half, and the reactor was in the other piece. With no power, the forward half of the ship and all of the survivors inside plunged towards near-certain destruction. *BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT* a loud noise echoed through the ship, one similar to that of a thousand marbles being dropped onto a stone floor simultaneously, albeit ear-splittingly loud. The forward section of the ship came to a screeching halt, and leveled out. As the inhabitants tried to figure out what was going on, an old yet harsh voice rang out over the communication devices of every soldier inside. "You are worthless to us."

And then the noise stopped, and the ship fell again. Within mere seconds, everyone was thrown against the wall as the bow section landed sideways on top of what at first felt like ground, however was quickly found out to in fact be a very deep lake. In the minutes that followed, everyone attempted to climb to the top of the ship, leaving behind all their belongings in a mad dash along what were once the walls of a ship deemed too powerful to ever be taken down. As they began to swim ashore, the few survivors, a handfull of soldiers and civilians of all types and backgrounds were huddled around a single piece of burning wreckage, trying to get dry. It was then that they noticed that hardly any of the people inside the compartments had made it ashore, and suddenly the reality of the situation was made quite clear- they were stranded on an alien world, with nothing left of their old lives but the clothes on their backs. "They left us here to die? Who could do such a thing?" said one survivor, although no response was made, as everyone was still trying to grasp the situation at hand, and figure out what they would do next.



So, MrNature72 evidently decided to discontinue the Galaxy Burning series, so I figured I'd give it a shot, and make my own short story. This was just a preview, more will be coming soon!

 

[psteiner]

nice!

 

[ToyotaSupra]

Pretty good, good luck on the next chapter!

 

[FlyingDebris]

Chapter 1- The Ordeal


It had been not more than a few days since they first landed, if you could call it that, on the planet and things were getting off to a rough start. For one, the planet was inhabited by a wide range of species which were, for the most part, edible in one way or another. On the other hand, most of those things seemed to be either covered in spines or were actively trying to kill you. The soldiers were the first to set up any sort of camp, which included a gigantic overhang from what they believed to be the courtyard ceiling. The armory, however, was virtually flattened by the weight of the metal pieces above it. Any weapons inside were virtually inaccesible, save a handful of HELR light stun rifles, which, while goot at immobilizing other humans, did not work too well on the three foot tall, four legged, two hundred pound beasts which were the most readily available source of reasons not to go to sleep at night.

The civilians, on the other hand, had broken into two groups and were arguing over what type of shelter they should make or who should be the leader, all while slowly running out of the food supply they had hoarded off of the wreckage and hidden from the soldiers. This proved to be a horrible idea, as when the soldiers found that they had the food supply to last everyone half a year and had eaten it all within two weeks, there were a few broken noses and screaming men for the marine medics to (grudgingly) attend to.

One night, a faction of civilians who were tired of eating rationed food decided to break into the vault, convinced that there was more food inside. Upon opening it, they saw that it was actually filled with weapons and ammunition. Running back to the group to tell them of the discovery, they halted, to ponder why they should give the others any of the weapons when they could save them for themselves? Sure, they might get an extra ration or two, but why not use them by themselves and reap all the benefi-

"Put your hands over your heads and come with us." As they looked to their right they saw a group of soldiers from the ship that had boarded them, all heavily armed and quite unhappy looking.


END OF CHAPTER ONE


More coming soon!

 

[Keptick]

Two words: MOAR.... uh.... MOAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!

 

[FlyingDebris]

They're on their way, and will hopefully be longer, too!

 

[Keptick]

Vaygr attack? :P

 

[FlyingDebris]

Who knows? It could be anybody~

 

[FlyingDebris]

Chapter 2- Native

As they did as the soldiers said, a few of the boarding party went into the vault to investigate. "Hey, we found..." said one, but he was cut short. He was looking off to the right, at a pair of eyes and a loaded gun looking back at him. He raised his weapon. The creature stood about five foot six inches, had a flat face and large eyes which glowed a brilliant white, while the rest of its body was quite human, save that it only had three fingers.

*BANG* the soldier dropped to the ground, and the others raised their weapons and began firing. More gunshots were heard, mixed in with the sounds of ion beam rifles firing at full stream. The attackers were all around them now, they had evidently been waiting for the opportunity. "Ambush!" said one soldier as he tried to retreat back into the vault. The rest only lasted a few minutes before they were downed. The frightened civilians were now huddled in a corner, scared for their lives.

After about two minutes of this, one finally tried to talk to the things who had saved them. "H-h-hello?" he said. The creature hearest to him stepped forward and looked him dead in the eye. "You come with, we go to you home." he said in very broken English with a heavy accent like none they had ever heard.

They stood up, and followed him. After what seemed like a few minutes of walking, much shorter than what they took to get there, the group was back at camp. After looking around, they noticed that there was no ome to be found. Then they saw it. An enemy group far larger than the one that had captured them was holding the others prisoner. The natives took up positions around the camp and prepared to attack.

END OF CHAPTER TWO

 

[FlyingDebris]

So I realized while building the Euphrates that now I have to build things where they are in the story.

Long story short, the day care is right next to the armory.

You can change a baby's diaper while watching a mech running around.

Yep...

 

[jayman38]

What could possibly go wrong? :p

 

[FlyingDebris]

Chapter 3- The Assault

As the natives finished preparing for the attack, one of the civilians attempted to contact the prisoners with a small radio. One of the guards heard the radio on the other end and sounded the alarm. At this moment, the natives sprung out from behind their hiding spots and opened fire. As the guards dropped one by one, they began to locate the native positions. Coordinating their fire to draw them out, the guards managed to take down a few of the natives before being gunned down by the others. Upon realizing they had lost the battle, the remaining guards retreated from the crash site, abandoning the prisoners. Within a few minutes, the noise of engines were heard as the transports that had brought them to the surface left the planet to retreat to the enemy ship that had forced the Euphrates out of the sky.

While untying their companions, the people on the expedition remembered that they were still surrounded by the natives, who had not left since eliminating the enemy soldiers at the crash site. One of the civilians, a man named Thomas Eyri, decided he would talk to the natives, who evidently understood something similar to English. "Hello, do you understand me?" he said to one of the natives. "Yes. Understand." it replied. "Why did you help us?" Thomas asked. "You people good. They not good. They shoot us with laser." Laser, he thought to himself. How would someone with only a basic knowledge of gunpowder know what a laser is? "How do you know what a laser is?" he asked. "We learn from inside of Enpri." it replied. "Thank you." Thomas said, as he turned to go back to the remaining civilians.

That night, they held a discussion on what to do with their new allies. "I say we go and take a look at whatever this Enpri thing is." said Thomas. "Whatever it is, they're learning modern tech from it while they're just out of the bronze age." Another person, Jacob Ciela, thought otherwise. "What do we have to gain from a bunch of trigger happy cavemen? Why don't we just run in there and take whatever they have? I bet you they stole some of the Euphrates, too!" "No, if we do that we'll make them mad, and you saw what happened to those guys earlier." Thomas said. "We'll assemble a team with a few soldiers as guards, if that's alright with you, Captain."

They waited.

END OF CHAPTER 3

 

[Dark-life]

I just started reading and now I wait.

 

[Kaelani Revyruun]

Kinda makes me want to write a bit of my novel for the ship I'm building. I might also eventually design the Aerianis xD

 

[FlyingDebris]

CHAPTER FOUR- ENTERPRISE

As the scouting party walked, they noticed that they were being followed by an increasing number of natives. After a few miles, Thomas asked the scouting party leader, Captain Higgs, what he thought of the rapidly increasing native group following them. Higgs was a mountain of a man, seven feet tall and two hundred fifty pounds of pure muscle. "They're mostly unarmed, and they look more curious than angry. So long as nobody raises a gun, we'll be fine." Higgs said. "And what if we happen across this 'Enpri' thing that native mentioned?" Replied Thomas. "Eh, only one way to find out."

After a few hours of walking, the forest began to turn into shacks and fields, then small houses, until they were standing outside the walls of an entire city. "What do you make of this?" Asked Thomas. "It's a bit larger than I was expecting..." Then, they remembered their following which had since swelled to no less than a few thousand. A few natives came up, yelled something in a language foreign yet familiar, and the city gates opened. As they walked inside, it became clear what 'Enpri' was. At first, all they saw were a few houses that seemed out of place, made from solid metal. As they went further in towards the city center, they saw a structure that looked similar to one of the biodome modules on the Euphrates, but with most of the glass missing. "Odd, do you think it came from the Euphrates?" Asked a soldier. "No, it doesn't look quite right..." replied Higgs.

As they approached what was now quite clearly the remnants of some sort of habitation module, a procession of natives dressed in flamboyant red and gold clothing emerged. With them was a native who stood head and shoulders above the rest, and was dressed nore finely than all the others. They watched this strange procession until it became evident that it was headed towards them. When the first of the natives reached them, it bowed and began to recite something in their language. Eventually, it stopped, and the tall native stepped forward. "You are of the sky, yes?" It said. "Yes, we crashed here." replied Thomas. "You search for Enpri, you arrive. Welcome you to Enpri, home of Sodiya people. Am Mira Fletcher, from Vira." It replied. "Sodiya, hm? Interesting name." Said Higgs. The native chieftain replied "Are Sodiya. You with me." As it motioned for them to enter the broken biodome.

As they walked inside, it was evident that the dome was assembled in a way similar to that of the early spacefaring days, not long before humanity had broken the light barrier. They descended down a makeshift staircase that looked to have once been an elevator shaft, to a room dimly lit blue by a number of computer consoles, some working, some not. "Well, that explains what 'Enpri' is quite adequately." Said Higgs. As they walked they saw dozens of natives tapping away on the displays, writing down the diagrams presented by them. Thomas stopped to look at one. As he peered into the viewscreen, a 3D rendering of what appeared to be the nearby star systems appeared. Thomas touched the screen, and the display registered a number of small prompts, all typed in Old English. He tapped one that he read as saying "Database". The screen flashed blue, then displayed what looked to be a rendering of the structure they were inside, relative to their location. It was not a building, but in fact a massive ship, extending on for almost a mile in two directions and a quarter mile down and to the sides. Thomas tapped the display again, and it brought him to a technical view of the ship. The computer began to make sounds, which slowly became audible over a few seconds. "This is the mainframe of the SS Enterprise-2, Von Neumann colony ship serial number 000413. Current location is unknown, please check starmaps and guidance systems for errors." With that, the computer blanked out. "Higgs, this thing is a ship." Thomas said. "No, really? I thought it was just a biodome that happened to have been built airtight and lead into a computer room." He replied. "That said, we should take a look around. Maybe we can find out about this thing. Perhaps see if the ship's AI is still running?" Thomas said.

END OF CHAPTER 4

 

[Dark-life]

Wow this is going to be fun to read I can tell...

 

[EpicFailLord123]

Ahem

MAKE MOAR CHAPTARS
!!!!!!!

 

[Utopiaman]

MOAR!!

 

[Dark-life]

Debris you forgot to post the chapters 4-10.

 

[FlyingDebris]

*grumble grumble* FINE. :I

Tbh I forgot about this, gonna get back into writing these.