'The Death of a Palm Tree' or 'A New Arrival'
Mar 22, 2007 2:09:09 GMT
Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2007 2:09:09 GMT
It was a quiet morning at the little oasis, or as quiet as it ever got in the desert. The sun blazed in the reflection of the water, gusts of wind blew little puffs of the snow-white sand about, and the oasis' lone tree swayed gently. It was a morning much like any other that the tiny paradise in the middle of the white hell had seen, yet that was about to change very quickly...
It began with a sound. Not a loud sound, barely a whisper. But it began getting louder. And louder. And louder. The oasis, were it capable of sight, might glimpse a glimmer of light, high up in the sky, burning red where it plummeted through the atmosphere. The glimmer grew to a spot, and from a spot to an object as it drew nearer, the sound, now nearly a scream, building ever louder.
The palm tree never knew what hit it. The object slammed through the middle of the hapless plant, wood splintering against metal as the makeshift craft split the tree in half. The object didn't slow a bit, plowing full-on into the far bank of the tiny spring and digging a long, rough furrow, kicking up dirt and then sand in a tall spray, the heat of the hull turning the latter to shards of glass. The craft rose for a moment, leaving the ground, then came back down, landing in a shallow skid that left it stationary on the sand, smoking slightly.
Nisen realized two things as she came out of her self-induced cryo-sleep. One was that she had arrived somewhere (and survived the experience). She also realized that she had arrived...upside down. Her tiny craft, little more than a cryo-tube jury rigged with rudimentary propulsion, guidance, and star-plotting systems, had rolled over sometime during the 'landing,' placing the exit to her scrap heap craft directly downward. She frowned to herself, pondering the situation for a moment, then grabbed hold of a pair of handholds built into the compartment and began to rock herself back and forth, throwing herself into each direction harder and harder, jerking the capsule into motion. Slowly at first, then faster, the cryo-pod rolled over until the exit was facing in a properly vertical angle. She let go of the handles and hurriedly drove her foot into the door, forcing the weakened portal completely off its hinges. She climbed out of her now-useless craft, pulling her doublebow from the harness on the wall as she did, and got the first look at her new world.
"Desert." She stated flatly, looking at the pristine white landscape. "Of all the places to land, I hit desert." She turned, looking back at the site of her "landing," the gouge like an ugly scar across the unblemished sand. If she had any concern for casualties (like the palm tree), she didn't show it. Instead she gathered a few bottles from inside the cryo-tube-turned-ship and, after filling them from the spring, set out across the vast desert, in search of more suitable climes.
[OOC: I realize this post first showed up in the Eastern Continent area, and that was a mistake on my part. ^^; sorry!]
It began with a sound. Not a loud sound, barely a whisper. But it began getting louder. And louder. And louder. The oasis, were it capable of sight, might glimpse a glimmer of light, high up in the sky, burning red where it plummeted through the atmosphere. The glimmer grew to a spot, and from a spot to an object as it drew nearer, the sound, now nearly a scream, building ever louder.
The palm tree never knew what hit it. The object slammed through the middle of the hapless plant, wood splintering against metal as the makeshift craft split the tree in half. The object didn't slow a bit, plowing full-on into the far bank of the tiny spring and digging a long, rough furrow, kicking up dirt and then sand in a tall spray, the heat of the hull turning the latter to shards of glass. The craft rose for a moment, leaving the ground, then came back down, landing in a shallow skid that left it stationary on the sand, smoking slightly.
Nisen realized two things as she came out of her self-induced cryo-sleep. One was that she had arrived somewhere (and survived the experience). She also realized that she had arrived...upside down. Her tiny craft, little more than a cryo-tube jury rigged with rudimentary propulsion, guidance, and star-plotting systems, had rolled over sometime during the 'landing,' placing the exit to her scrap heap craft directly downward. She frowned to herself, pondering the situation for a moment, then grabbed hold of a pair of handholds built into the compartment and began to rock herself back and forth, throwing herself into each direction harder and harder, jerking the capsule into motion. Slowly at first, then faster, the cryo-pod rolled over until the exit was facing in a properly vertical angle. She let go of the handles and hurriedly drove her foot into the door, forcing the weakened portal completely off its hinges. She climbed out of her now-useless craft, pulling her doublebow from the harness on the wall as she did, and got the first look at her new world.
"Desert." She stated flatly, looking at the pristine white landscape. "Of all the places to land, I hit desert." She turned, looking back at the site of her "landing," the gouge like an ugly scar across the unblemished sand. If she had any concern for casualties (like the palm tree), she didn't show it. Instead she gathered a few bottles from inside the cryo-tube-turned-ship and, after filling them from the spring, set out across the vast desert, in search of more suitable climes.
[OOC: I realize this post first showed up in the Eastern Continent area, and that was a mistake on my part. ^^; sorry!]