The Marines Journey
Chapter 01: Planetfall
By: Arcanomancer
Here we go, Story begins a-proper now once I figure out properly how to proceed… I sorta dug myself into a hole with whom to start this chapter up with and after some debate I managed to get forth the ideas portrayed inside.
So without further ado, lets get on with it and see how much I can mess this up!
AAA
"Warning, Atmospheric Stabilisers offline!"
"If you cant deliver any GOOD news," the Technician yelled, cramped into the escape pod with his commanding officer whilst 'expertly' attempting to re-kickstart various parts of the computer system itself, his results getting nowhere as beads of sweat glistened on his brow. "Then don't say anything at all, got it?"
"Please Re-input Query"
Groaning loudly and bringing his head down hard on the console, the Admiral sitting opposite simply shook his head from side to side, pulling a small handkerchief out of his top-pocket and placing it upon the Technician's brow.
"Come on son, use this… You'll get this thing working, you always do… and if you doubt yourself I'll Order you to do it…"
Finishing with a grin, a nod from the younger man escaped the blind mans detection before he started fiddling once again, sighing softly and tiling his head to ponder what he was reading.
"Tom, do you want the good news or the bad?"
"Good first Jon…"
The Technician patted the Admiral's Shoulder.
"Well the GOOD news is the area we're headed for isn't hostile in anyway terrain-wise, flat, barren plateau which even though it's miles away from our planetary research lab, will still provide a safe landing point…"
Nodding his head, the Older Officer pushed his Shades up the bridge of his nose with his left index finger before gesturing for the Lieutenant to continue.
"And the bad news?"
"On this path if we don't execute the fastest getaway since someone offered Captain Picard COFFEE back in the 24th Century… We're gonna run an extreme risk of Prime Directive Violation…"
An eyebrow was raised as the older man lowered his voice.
"Distance from Natives and Time til impact…"
"Distance, Less than a mile… Time til Impact… Less than five minutes… We're entering the Upper Atmosphere now!"
A
"Guys, Something MAJOR weird is going on here…"
Sonic stood in the central park of Station Square, Tails by his side as they spoke with their small group of friends, a distinct grunting from a Black Hedgehog whom looked very similar to Sonic got the blue ones attention as he simply shrugged, chest hair fluttering slightly in the breeze.
"That's all well and good, Hedgehog… but how can you be so sure that is going to be so weird… for all we know Eggman could be lying to us…"
"It would seem weird though," a White Bat started, landing beside Shadow gracefully from her position within a nearby tree after a quick vault, and when her wings folded up behind her back she raised one hand quizzically, the other on her hip. "If the Doc was as curious as the rest of us, he may attempt something to either provoke them or gain their trust…"
"I'd go with the former, Rouge…" Sonic smirked whilst addressing the bat. The group hadn't been together much since their previous incidents, so contacts were a bit sporadic at best, until a quick flash of red came down from above and assumed the shape of an Echidna.
"Problems Sonic?"
"Got that right Knuckles, something big is going down up in space."
Nodding as the story was explained to him, Knuckles was about to give his own views when Tails pointed over his shoulder towards something in the distance in the sky, and even though no one could focus from this distance, Rouge pulled a pair of binoculars out of who-knows-where.
"Hmm…" She muttered to herself, getting a good look at the strange device hurtling towards the planet, White in shape and fairly small, the flaming trail behind it hid most of the detail as whatever it was seemed to be in freefall. "Looks like some kinda pod, and guessing it's going to land outside of town…"
"Lets get over there!" Sonic pointed and yelled, revving up and getting ready to dash with his friends in tow.
Barely a minute after they had all vanished, a pink hedgehog arrived only to be greeted by an empty scene. Puffing her cheeks up in anger, she reached behind her back to pull out a large mallet before stomping off in the direction of screech marks, muttering something about him escaping her again.
AA
In orbit, a Shuttle hovered, dormant over the planet as it conducted scans for the person inside it. Not even removing his Helmet, the Marine tapped buttons softly, grateful for the easy to use interface that the Federation employed.
Sitting there looking over various scans of the planet and letting the computer do all the work, he merely leaned back, his feet propped up on the console affront the vessel and reloaded his weapons without any dire wish of speed encroaching upon his actions.
Beeping filled the air after a minutes silence, enquiring what this meant he idly tapped buttons as a variety of images appeared on his screen… Buildings, Vehicles, Cargo Containers… all in the same grey and blue colour scheme he'd seen aboard the station and the shuttle he'd stolen.
Grunting, the shuttles engines picked up upon his gentle button-pressing command, setting a course for this facility on the far side of the planet within a desert region.
AA
"OWCH!"
"AHH!"
The pod thudded to the ground with full force, a crater being an understatement as to what had been left behind as after what had seemed like long moments the two being pulled themselves off the floor of the pod to check what they had broken.
Completely unknown to them, their actions were being observed from two different places above them.
"You broken Admiral?"
The officer grunted before the Technician helped him to his feet, giving the older man a quick run down of the situation before the blind one sat down and replaced his shades upon his face.
"Report, Lieutenant."
"We've made planet-fall…" He began, but was interrupted.
"That much I was well aware when I did a 180 degree spin and landed on you…"
A chuckle escaped the younger mans lips as he shrugged and began a basic rundown of the surrounding landscape he could see… aside from the obvious crater it was just sand and rocks that greeted them. Checking over their supplies and what they would require, the Technician began to strip all the vital technology from the sides of the pod and into an adapted toolbox designed to reduce matter to store more inside.
"Vital tech attained… Lets go to the Nearest outpost…"
"How far?"
Jon looked at the PADD in his hand and let out a strained sound through his clenched teeth before he started to fiddle with the lock of the pod.
"We're talking about six miles due east of here… I got everything on me… Oh, your cane…"
Edging around the pod he gently grasped the fallen stick and passed it to his father, getting a nod and a pat on the head as the hatch finally gave way and made a loud clang as it impacted with something, most likely a rock as the two carefully strode out.
"God it's good to breathe real oxygen again…"
The Technician nodded, taking a deep breath and looking upwards to the cloudless summer sky, taking a deep breath before moving towards the older man who had walked away from him ever so carefully.
AA
"Who are they?"
Sonic muttered as he watched the two men edging their way out of the pod, their appearances similar in terms of height and build with the exception of one wearing shades and a red topped uniform with five pips shining in the sun, whereas the other had longer hair and a yellow uniform with only two pips evident.
"They're dressed quite strange Sonic…" Tails began as he watched the pair, seeing the younger looking one move slightly away before taking a deep breath and looking upwards. On the edge of the crater he was thankful they were obscured from sight, but was curious as to why the one wearing the black glasses hadn't seemed to focus on them, he'd stared in their direction a good number of times whilst slowly moving around. "That one with the stick… I thought walking sticks were brown…"
"They do tend to be little buddy, I wonder why his is white…"
Hearing a very soft whirring behind them, the small group turned to see Doctor Eggman climbing out of his personal transport machine before he slowly waddled over to the group.
"Been flying overhead rodents… Have you come to watch my Greatness impress these people into helping me make my empire?"
Ignoring the doctor in question, the team returned to watching the pair getting their bearings whilst the man in yellow knelt down and opened his pack, rummaging inside whilst his eyes darted left and right, the older man getting steadily further away as Sonic suddenly took note of one thing.
"Where's Knuckles?"
Eggman looked around, his moustaches momentum tickling the hedgehogs head but before Sonic could complain Eggman pointed ahead to the side of the pod where a small gleam of red had just vanished behind it.
"I think he's about to make first contact…"
AA
"I'm telling you Admiral …" the younger man said, slightly urgently as he dug around in his pack. "There's someone here… Where did I put it…"
Shrugging, the older man continued his slow investigation, tilting his head to the side as a button flashed on the side of his shades, scanning the surrounding area and transmitting the information straight to his brain.
"I don't sense anything… you said we'd impact and have a few minutes to get out of here before we violated any guidelines for being here… Come, lets go before we cause a problem…"
"You already have!"
The strange voice caught them both by surprise, suddenly the Admiral felt himself falling as Jon watched the cane go flying and the Officer fall to the ground with a grunt. Before he could do anything, a red being placed a boot on the mans back and glared at the other one, a lifeform completely unknown to the federation engineer. Humanoid in terms of build but much shorter, with red quills and pointing a pointed, gloved fist in his direction.
"What was that thing in Orbit and what are you doing here?"
"I can assure you…" the Technician began, tapping something inside his bag, which he quickly whipped out and pointed at the creature. "We mean no harm but there's protocols for when a Flag Admiral is attacked!"
An orange beam shot out of the weapon towards Knuckles, who threw himself to a side to dodge as the beam hurtled overhead and into the sand, knocking it upwards whilst the Technician pulled his bag onto his back before moving forwards, standing guard over the Admiral as he looked around cautiously.
"Report, Andrews…"
"I don't know WHAT that was…" Jon started, but grunted as he was thrown forwards by a punch from behind, rolling in the sand he vaulted himself back upright and kicked the Admiral's Cane back to him from where he had fallen.
"I don't know what you are… but Cease this madness right now before one of us gets hurt…"
"I'll stop as soon as you tell us what we want to know… Whats going on?"
"Us, you mean there's more of you?"
Knuckles sneared and gestured up to the hill where the others were, although the only beings who were there were a rotund, yet tall human with a large orange moustache and a strangely formed fox with only two tails. A few blurs were coming down the road towards them from the distance but before he could say anything else the Phaser was whipped from his hand by something and into the sand by the Admiral, who was now righting himself with the help of a third being.
This one was of a similar build to the red one, but was completely blue, and instead of quills coming down in the manner of dreadlocks, his were on the back of his head sticking outwards in such a way that the Technician thought they would make offensive weapons if used right just at first glance.
"Are you okay Buddy?" Sonic asked to the man on the floor propping himself up, who only turned his head in the direction of the voice whilst his free hand fumbled on the floor for his cane.
"Who or What ARE you all?" Jon yelled, watching the Admiral rise shakily and lean against the side of the shuttle, chuckling softly to himself as he grinned in the direction he thought the red one would be in.
"Fantastic… I haven't sensed this much fun since my first command back on the USS Lebanon…" He grinned and cast his shades around the group, flashing lights scanning them all before he coughed and bowed slowly.
"I am Admiral Thomas Brown and this is my Chief Engineer, Jonathan Andrews… we are from a group known as the Federation from far across the Galaxy… we mean you no harm, simply let us go to our outpost and we will leave you in peace…"
His smile left his face as he raised an eyebrow whilst facing the red being.
"And you… what is the name… Knuckles, is that right?"
"How do you know my name?"
The Admiral sneered.
"Kicking a cane from a blind man, that's lower than low… but I'll let it slide this once if you'll get us to our outpost…
Knuckles silently fumed as the others came down the hill, joined by two other beings. The first looked slightly similar to the blue being but was completely black with red patches on his quills and tufts of white chest hair, and the second was a female bat, clad in some kind of body suit that clung so well to her figure it caused the Technician to grin and remember some of the old programs he'd had to delete for immature content back on the Station.
"Hold on big fellas…" the blue one said, grinning and waving his arms up and down for attention as everyone stopped around them. "Lets just answer some of those questions we've been wondering before we decide anything? Aye?"
AAA
And that's Chapter one, little bit longer than I was expecting but once I get an idea off my back I just have to run with it, and I know there was no Marine in this one as such, but he'll be making an appearance pretty soon, as will the demons from the station ;) But now I need to go and rest, hope y'all enjoyed :)
