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Divided stars: White Rabbit
Posted By: CSP499<Csp499@Yahoo.com>
Date: 13 May 2005, 5:02 AM
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-White Rabbit
Roswyll woke up to feel the cold, steel floor of the Elation's Main dorsal corridor. He could hear a rumbling, like something going really fast through the air. The ship was shaking and vibrating madly. It was hot, really hot. Roswyll found his way to his feet. Maybe the ship is using some experimental drive-booster I was never told about, he thought. He looked around to find the corridor amazingly empty. He looked down the hallway to find the door at the end tightly sealed, and remembered what happened. The captain gave the order to abandon ship, and as he ran for the lifeboat bay he ran into a group of Union Assault Marines. The big, ugly one had him by the neck and spit in his face, then threw him on the floor. The big one, probably the Sergeant of the group, was about to stab him when he was shot in the chin. This, scum... Roswyll remembered, is the luckiest day of your life. Then there was an explosion... an enormous explosion, and he was thrown to the floor, and he hit his head and was knocked out. That must have been where he had been laying all this time. Roswyll picked up his helmet and keyed the radio. "Captain, this is Private Jacques Roswyll, can you hear me?" Static is all he received. "Captain if can you hear me, what in God's name is going on here?"
"Captain, if... can hear me... God... name is go...here?" Lazarus could recognize the voice in the radio, even with the excessive static and skipping in speech. It was Jacques Roswyll, one of the Marines aboard the Elation; more specifically the one nearly killed by the Red Assault-Sergeant. "Roswyll, this is Neil Lazarus, I read you, where are you?" Lazarus said. There was a short pause, then Roswyll responded, "I'm in corridor two, deck Alpha, Dorsal section." Neil's eye's widened. "Roswyll, brace for impact. When you hit, the concussion's going to be big."
Roswyll was confused. Brace for impact, he thought, what's gotten into him? He walked over to the door nearest to the aft of the hall, which was tightly locked. Suddenly, the ship creaked and tilted, sending Jacques flying into the left wall. He righted himself and went to open the door. As he pushed the button, it opened as usual after giving off a spark. What wasn't usual was what was on the other side of the door. The air was rushing up from where he looked. He could see a wreckage of a half of the Elation in the distance, with some assorted falling junk and debris. He was riding a derelict. He looked around to see that the explosion had split the ship in half, and he was riding the bow section. He thought quickly, Okay, I'm riding a half of a ship that is in rapid descent to the surface of a moon orbiting a hostile planet, wonderful. That's when the radio crackled to life again and Roswyll could hear Neil's calm orders. "Roswyll, find something that will secure you down. Head to the bridge, the commander's chair will do nicely." Roswyll responded, "Yes sir, I'll get there."
"Good luck. I'll see you planetside if you make it." Lazarus ended the transmission. "Yep," He said, "he's a dead man."
As Jacques entered the bridge, he found it torn up on the walls, floor and ceiling, but still in good enough condition for walking in. He strapped himself in the captain's chair as the derelict of the Elation's bow descended even lower into La' Drang's humid atmosphere and began rotating. The centrifugal force was intense as it continued to fall. "Okay," he said calmingly to himself as his short, dark hair wavered in the spinning ship. "it's alright, you're going to get out of this alive, nothing to deny about it." As the bow rotated so the tip faced downward, Roswyll could see the ground approaching rapidly and dangerously close. It's over, he thought to himself. My life is over.
As the lifeboat descended, Lazarus could see the bow of the Elation lying upright. "Ten seconds 'till landing, brace for intense braking." Jung said. The craft shook violently as he jerked the brake and eased the speed-control downward. Peters looked out the window and gasped at what he saw. "Guys, look!" he urged eagerly. Neil looked out the window. He could see numerous lifeboats descending, and a Union cruiser looming ominously over the Elation's derelict. There were miles and miles of endless tropical jungle. Neil could count about thirty-five shades of lush green. However, he couldn't justify how many miles of jungle there was, as it stretched on beyond where the eye could see. A thin, misty fog covered the canopy. There were valleys and rivers below, not to mention the occasional falling, burning piece of Sphinx class frigate falling from the exosphere. "Coming down now," said Jung. "Retracting landing skids." The modern lifeboat was far better than the older "Bumble Bee," which was still used. The "Bumble Bee" would crash into the ground, rather than the LBmk-06, which would actually land like a landing-ship. There was a thud as the boat touched down into a clearing. The humidity caused the windows to fog up, so nobody could see out of them. The pressurized door hissed and lowered as a ramp. As he stepped out, Lazarus contemplated why it was called a jungle rather than a rainforest. It was simply beautiful. It was lush, green and full of noise from the earth-like wildlife. "Whoa," said Staten as he stepped out. "Now I know why it's named after a region in Vietnam. It looks just like it." They all exited the shuttle. "Alright, everyone listen up." Neil ordered. The others turned to face him. "We should head for what's left of the Elation. We should see if there's any cargo we can salvage, and find out if Roswyll is still alive. Also, we should contact the other groups of survivors and get them to rendezvous with us at the bow." Peters interjected, "Well if that's our plan, we should get going with it. Let's go!" And with that, they moved in.
Roswyll woke up to find himself under a bush in a grassy plain. He stood up and saw the endless jungle and the miles of clearing he was in. Then he saw what must have been the bridge's main airlock, but about a few miles away from the remains of the Elation's forward section. Looking on the optimistic side, he concurred that he was in the longest unaided flight- ever. He settled himself in at what remained of the armory, and waited for the others. He decided to hold his ground there, as he would be found... eventually.
Meanwhile, in what was left of the lifeboat airlock, a scorched and bloody hand broke out of a debris pile. After he managed to climb out of the pile, Diretz grew hot, and the voices in his head screamed with anger. "You- will- find- them...and- you- shall KILL them!" He let out a roar so loud, that an entire town would be able to hear him clearly.
The roar had taken Neil by surprise, but not directly by fear. All he feared of it is what let it out. "Someone is mad." he said "Very, very mad."
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