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mark13
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Northampton, England
Sep 2000
time: 05:15
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2123 to Hobbes...LOL Googlie, I know how you feel (and it's your own fault  )
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Apprehension had given way to unity as the workers strived to clear the wreckage of the fallen scout rover division. Further afield, the Provost knew, there was a Unity Foil ship being pursued by an island of mind worms - quite clearly some kind of aquatic vector of the land-based version. He ceded that it was probably best not to come across them too often.
As he gazed out of the University Base laboratories, toward the newly-founded Korolev Centre, his eyes were drawn in by the bright red landscape around him. The fungus suffocated everything around it - if he strained his eyes, he could see, as a dot in the distance, the group of formers working away on a particularly stubborn patch of fungus, thought to be hiding some sort of energy reserves underneath. It was the height of summer, even though the calendar said March 15th, 2123 - of course, the seasons on Chiron did not directly correspond with those of Earth, and until a replacement calendar could be devised, the old one would have to do.
But now his thoughts were of a rather different nature, as he strolled into the main lab for the daily debrief. This wasn't until 11am, partly due to the early morning fog that set across the landscape and didn't shift until well into the morning (some sort of side-effect of the excessive fungus, though climatologists were not certain on this) - though the Provost wouldn't be the first to concede that it was partly due to the fact that he was a lazy sod who didn't want to get out of bed.
"Report, Katyana?"
"We've lost the Unity Foil, sir - isles of the deep thought to blame." came a soft voice from the other end of the table. Katyana was no older than the Provost's own daughter - yet her obvious communication skills and intrinsic intelligence would stand her in good stead.
"A sad day indeed for our faction - though their adventures will be told for years to come. Exploration is as much about research and discovery as anything in a laboratory could tell us. Inform the people they are not to work today - the news of the loss will deflate them beyond words."
"Indeed - should I commission a replacement vessel, Provost?"
"We have neither the means nor the tools with which to build such a contraption. Until, we can learn to be a little more flexible with our resources, that'll have to wait."
The thought of a replacement was not entirely out of the question, the Provost would have done anything to get away from the suffocating fungal blooms - though the journey would be perilous, and there would be no way of guaranteeing they'd be any better on the oth -
"...Sir, emergency!!" A stocky man came running in from his security post, panting - visibly shaken - "mind worms, a whole pack of them out there!"
"Send immediate reinforcements - tell the citizens to assist the scouts in their plight. We will take a stand against these beasts."
The world outside was in complete disarray - people abandoned their posts, some to run, some of the more courageous to join the scout squadron. Weapons would be useless, they knew that - and so it was that a group of one hundred and fifty-four assembled outside battled for half an hour with the mind worms. The occasional squelching could be heard as the worms collapsed under the strain of their own psychic power, and the groans of the unfortunate victims on the other side - the last worm fell, and the world slowly returned to normal again. The base suffered minimal losses in the end - fourteen had fallen by the factional outposts. Three obviously important ministers strolled back into the boardroom, their heads bowed - one of them was Zakharov - they were followed by five further, lesser ministers, who took their assigned seats. A brief silence followed, before Zakharov said what needed to be heard.
"Sensor outposts become first priority - set formers on the case immediately, god knows we've got enough of them." The Provost's determination was unwavering, and his motion was opposed by no-one. "We have suffered enough at the hands of these beasts - fourteen gallant colonists were lost today, in addition to the Unity foil and its inhabitants. They will all die, every last one of them - no matter what that loony Deirdre might think."
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DilithiumDad
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Got it now, and sending on to lady Sits. The UN faction is studying different economic models. So far, none seem to be clearly superior to our frontier barter system. Some of us are concerned that free eneterprise may actually be dangerous with all the dense fungus around us. They point to recent earthquake activity as a sign that ecology is critically important on this world.
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DilithiumDad
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Why is it taking TWO MONTHS for one turn here? Did someone drop out?
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All times are GMT. The time now is 05:15.
Apolyton Time is 00:15. |
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07-03-2002 04:52
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