Situation Ethics 7
That_Annoying_Kid
Sire of Titles Join Date: 2003-03-01 Member: 14175Members, Constellation
Sire of Titles Join Date: 2003-03-01 Member: 14175Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">nearing the end</div> well then, were almost done with my story, only one chapter left, I've got it sorta planned out in my head, and I've just got to type it up, in the meantime let's get right in the action...oh, comments, pointing out of typos, stuff that is unclear and needs clarification is always usefull, now on with the action
Charlie and Nem both exchanged panicked looks as the airlock started to swivel.
"Markins! What is coming thru that airlock?!" Charlie spoke with a slight quiver. Seconds later there was a noticeable surge in energy and a pinging sound as the observatory concentrated nanites on that particular area. Concentric blue rings shot out from the area that was being scanned, and they would have been rather soothing to look at had Larkins not muttered the word "onos" thru the voice comm. Charlie spoke, back in base the soft whump of the sieges could be heard, firing at the chambers behind the airlock.
"You guys, get behind me and start welding, I should be able to block him from getting into base, Nem your grenades are the only thing that have a change of stopping this big wanker, you up to it?"
Nem just nodded, Charlie positioned himself in the hallway leading to the base, the compliment of soldiers already behind him with welders out, the airlock slowly spun around, little did it know the death and destruction it was delivering to the marines. As the airlock finally complete it's rotation, several thousand pounds of kharaa bulk roared and charged towards Nem. He jumped into the air, his jetpack propelling him away from the reach of the onos. The beast turned around and charged up the hallway, only to run into Lioc. Charlie braced himself as the onos pushed him backwards, hitting at him the same time, The HA strained as it put every ounce of pressure into pushing back, but the onos was slowly winning the push. It reared its head and smashed into the suit again, but the armour shot back up as the terrified marines welded, showing a composure that only came with experience. Charlie looked the massive alien in the eye, and loosed his shotgun on its massive head plate. Bits and pieces of organic armour fell off as the pellets tore into the creature, after shooting five shells the onos reared again and charged back down towards the airlock, obviously angry. Nem was there to greet it with the a soft his off compressed air, several canisters shot out of the grenade launcher, propelled by the rushing air. The onos ran straight at him and again Nem jumped up with his jetpack. Charlie was slowly pressing forward but the strain of stopping the bulk of the level 5 in mid charge had borked one of the leg motors. The nanites were working furiously to repair it but his forward progress was slow. Nem was jumping around the room, leaving a blue trail of exhaust; the onos was spinning around trying to bite him, as he would zoom by. The time delay charges in the first set of grenades detonated, shaking the corridor, Nem had to quickly perch on the ledge by the airlock as he slammed another clip home. The onos, hurt and even more angered by the massive explosions around him rammed the wall below Nem. Again the jetpack flared to life as Nem zoomed around again, two grenades left the gun and flew at the onos. One of the grenades touched the onos, and upon contacting the bacterium that coated the thick skin, detonated, the other grenade sensing the explosion of it's mate followed suit. Shrapnel dug into the hide of the onos and penetrated deep, ravaging massive organs and slicing the creature's digestive sack open. Nem noticed that he was almost out of fuel, and dodged around the onos, he curved inside of the airlock, his head inches below the ceiling and he had planed to swoop up to the same ledge and get a small recharge, when the three tentacles on the back of the onos reared up. Nem realized his mistake far to late as the near invisible dart came into contact with his skin, instantly the neurotoxin went to work. Nem hovered for a second and then crashed to the airlock floor. The wounded onos looked and him sauntered over to the airlock switch, chuckling loudly it used its giant tusk to activate the airlock.
Charlie rounded the corner at that precise moment, and opened up with the shotgun, the onos simply ignored it and watched the airlock spin, Nem realized what was going to happen and screamed YOU **** and then threw his remaining clips of grenades at the onos, the launcher had two grenades left in it and Nem sent those the way of the creature, in return the onos sent another tiny dart flying into Nem. While all of this took place, the nanites were busy fighting their own microscopic battle against the paralyzing agent that was invading the body, they had removed the majority of the toxin when the second dart hit Nem, again flooding his system with it and locking all muscles it came into contact with down. The onos spun out of view as Nem let out an exasperated cry. The last two of Nem's grenades lazily rolled around the floor below the massive towering onos, they bounced off the loaded magazines that had been throw there, as the fuse's rapidly burned down. The onos spun around, to face Charlie. It growled and stamped one of its hoof's in preparation to charge. At that moment the timer ran out and the explosion of the two grenades underneath the onos also managed to perforate the grenades that lay dormant in their casings, the hot metal fragments bored into one of the grenades and set it off, this immediately set of the rest of the grenades in the clip. The fury of four more grenades exploding was more than enough to set of the other two clips of grenades, all of this happened in a matter of nano seconds. An onos may be a fearsome creature, but the fourteen grenades that simultaneously exploded underneath the gigantic animal easily ripped thru the layers of carapace and flesh, even the layer of amour on the animals other side proved little resistance as the energy of the grenades was transferred to the creature. Gibing it a second, Charlie looked up at where the onos had once stood; all that remained was a massive head and the remains of some legs. Charlie only had to glance at the spinning airlock to figure out where Nem was.
"Scratch one onos Nem, you did good"
These words provided solaces to Nem as the airlock finished it's rotation. The offense chambers perked up and quivered for a second and then fired. Thankfully the pain only lasted until the acid ate away his pain receptors, leaving him in a blissful stupor as his last thoughts were of his <a href='http://www.natural-selection.org/manual/alien_evolutions_scentoffear.html' target='_blank'>brother</a>.
"Damn, that's another we've lost on this godforsaken ship, after refinery hive goes down were out of here"
Charlie silently vowed to kill at least one more alien before he left.
"Markins, I'm headed to engine room I will take a look at the situation there and we can decide what to do"
Charlie headed towards the freight elevator, the remains of Nem's squad followed, Charlie turned "No boys, I'm headed there myself, I just need a little break to get things straight"
With that he activated the elevator, sending it lurching downward, but when it was halfway down he crouched and walked into the vent that was exposed. He turned and slowly clomped towards docking hydraulics.
Fam on the other hand was buys in Refinery; Denelyp had been implicit with his instructions to not shoot the hive or anything else in the room.
"Your group here has done...well...however I think it's fair for me to tell you the real reason why we needed the TSA here"
Fam stared at the man in the suit, he continued "you see that hive right there?" he gestured to the massive throbbing organ that hung from the ceiling of the refinery. "It's coming home with us...er...me" Denelyp smiled, an evil glint in his eyes "I need your squad to cover the entrances into this room for a moment, I'm afraid my work can't be interrupted. He turned and climbed the ladder that led to the round walkway close to the hive, Fam watched in apprehension as the man in the suit easily jumped 15 vertical feet up and 20 over, his jaw dropped to the floor as Denelyp landed softly on the hive, there was a pause and then over the radio "I need your two of your squad members there, two of them there, and you Fam, can you come here" he had been gesturing from atop the hive, and each spot he had pointed too a waypoint appeared. "He's wired into the command network, that bloke is good" was all Fam could think as he trotted to his waypoint, a good 15 feet from being under the hive. Fam watched as Denelyp made an odd gesture at each off the tentacles supporting the massive hive, seconds later there was a bright light as the nano's constructed something at each location he had gestured to. "Mr. Markins, as you may recall there is a blocked build icon in the advanced build menu of your commchair. I'm opening that up, I need you to drop that lovely structure right about here" and with another four quick points at the floor there were four more glowing waypoints, forming a square underneath the hive. Seconds later there was the telltale thwunk of the nanites pulling together to create a structure and the tinkling of metal as it hit the floor. Fam was puzzled until he recognized the massive structure that lay under the hive. It looked exactly like an interstellar phase gate, but instead of passing massive ships thru, this one looked to be big enough to fit a hive. Fam jumped as the machine started to spark, it took him a second to realize that it was constructing itself. Then the massive machine shuttered and hummed to life. The members of Fam's squad glanced back at this new sound and turned to watch the entrances again. On top of the hive Denelyp simple strolled forward and onto thin air, except he was slowly coming down as if walking a down invisible stairs, as soon as he touched the floor he spoke "Fam, what does the number on your HUD say?"
"92 percent"
The only reply that he got was "excellent" but in a much sinister tone that the question had been.
Fam glanced up at the hive, and glanced down at the suit wearing seemingly human who stood next to him, Fam noticed the watch he was wearing matched the suit, Denelyp pressed a button on the side of his watch and there were several sharp noises in unison. The hive roared and then suddenly all four tentacles snapped and the hive plummeted towards to the ground, but it never reached it as it fell right onto and thru the event horizon that was produced by the massive but still miniature version of the interstellar phase gate. There was a blinding flash and the hive was gone, instantly the gate started to recycle itself. Denelyp smiled "The Comprox division would like to...thank your squad...for assisting in the acquisition of this fine specimen"
Fam was quick to retort, "Like we had a choice"
"You can think what you want, but I can still reprimand you beyond your wildest dreams, you and your marine friends can feel free to leave this station" and with that he turned and away, as soon as he was out of sight they heard a distinct phasing sound.
"Markins, did you catch that, let's get ready to leave this mess of a ship"
"I hear you Fam, Lioc headed towards engine room but I can tell him we have the go to pull out"
There was a loud boom as Charlie inched out of the vent and into the main corridor that led to the engine room, there was a fork before you could go into the engine room and Charlie chose the left one. As he ka-chinked around the corner the hive came into view, thankfully the room was empty of aliens, and the motion tracking didn't detect any that were close enough to pose a threat. He paused, still in the left fork, he noticed the churning resource node that lay 10 feet in front of him, and the room was silent except for the squishing noises that emanated from the kharaa resource tower. He took another step forward but ran into an invisible wall. Puzzled he stopped for a second and started to walk forward again, bumping into the same wall. He froze and slowly extended his hand, after reaching out he ran into whatever was obstructing his path, he pressed against it, noting that it had some give to it, and even though his fingers were surrounded by nearly a centimeter of armour the nanites would convey the sense of feeling to him, and he could swear that whatever it was warm. As he continued to explore the invisible wall he became aware of a rhythmic sound of air being forced to move around. Charlie's eyes slowly grew wider as he realized what he might have his hand on, his fears where confirmed when he could feel a blast of warm air repeatedly hit his hand as he moved it down to find what could only be a bunch of teeth the size of a large fingers. Charlie jumped back and leveled his shotgun, but he knew it was a futile attempt, suddenly the hive was blocked out of view and replaced by a looming shadow, and as the onos took a step forward, Charlie heard a faint chuckle.
Charlie and Nem both exchanged panicked looks as the airlock started to swivel.
"Markins! What is coming thru that airlock?!" Charlie spoke with a slight quiver. Seconds later there was a noticeable surge in energy and a pinging sound as the observatory concentrated nanites on that particular area. Concentric blue rings shot out from the area that was being scanned, and they would have been rather soothing to look at had Larkins not muttered the word "onos" thru the voice comm. Charlie spoke, back in base the soft whump of the sieges could be heard, firing at the chambers behind the airlock.
"You guys, get behind me and start welding, I should be able to block him from getting into base, Nem your grenades are the only thing that have a change of stopping this big wanker, you up to it?"
Nem just nodded, Charlie positioned himself in the hallway leading to the base, the compliment of soldiers already behind him with welders out, the airlock slowly spun around, little did it know the death and destruction it was delivering to the marines. As the airlock finally complete it's rotation, several thousand pounds of kharaa bulk roared and charged towards Nem. He jumped into the air, his jetpack propelling him away from the reach of the onos. The beast turned around and charged up the hallway, only to run into Lioc. Charlie braced himself as the onos pushed him backwards, hitting at him the same time, The HA strained as it put every ounce of pressure into pushing back, but the onos was slowly winning the push. It reared its head and smashed into the suit again, but the armour shot back up as the terrified marines welded, showing a composure that only came with experience. Charlie looked the massive alien in the eye, and loosed his shotgun on its massive head plate. Bits and pieces of organic armour fell off as the pellets tore into the creature, after shooting five shells the onos reared again and charged back down towards the airlock, obviously angry. Nem was there to greet it with the a soft his off compressed air, several canisters shot out of the grenade launcher, propelled by the rushing air. The onos ran straight at him and again Nem jumped up with his jetpack. Charlie was slowly pressing forward but the strain of stopping the bulk of the level 5 in mid charge had borked one of the leg motors. The nanites were working furiously to repair it but his forward progress was slow. Nem was jumping around the room, leaving a blue trail of exhaust; the onos was spinning around trying to bite him, as he would zoom by. The time delay charges in the first set of grenades detonated, shaking the corridor, Nem had to quickly perch on the ledge by the airlock as he slammed another clip home. The onos, hurt and even more angered by the massive explosions around him rammed the wall below Nem. Again the jetpack flared to life as Nem zoomed around again, two grenades left the gun and flew at the onos. One of the grenades touched the onos, and upon contacting the bacterium that coated the thick skin, detonated, the other grenade sensing the explosion of it's mate followed suit. Shrapnel dug into the hide of the onos and penetrated deep, ravaging massive organs and slicing the creature's digestive sack open. Nem noticed that he was almost out of fuel, and dodged around the onos, he curved inside of the airlock, his head inches below the ceiling and he had planed to swoop up to the same ledge and get a small recharge, when the three tentacles on the back of the onos reared up. Nem realized his mistake far to late as the near invisible dart came into contact with his skin, instantly the neurotoxin went to work. Nem hovered for a second and then crashed to the airlock floor. The wounded onos looked and him sauntered over to the airlock switch, chuckling loudly it used its giant tusk to activate the airlock.
Charlie rounded the corner at that precise moment, and opened up with the shotgun, the onos simply ignored it and watched the airlock spin, Nem realized what was going to happen and screamed YOU **** and then threw his remaining clips of grenades at the onos, the launcher had two grenades left in it and Nem sent those the way of the creature, in return the onos sent another tiny dart flying into Nem. While all of this took place, the nanites were busy fighting their own microscopic battle against the paralyzing agent that was invading the body, they had removed the majority of the toxin when the second dart hit Nem, again flooding his system with it and locking all muscles it came into contact with down. The onos spun out of view as Nem let out an exasperated cry. The last two of Nem's grenades lazily rolled around the floor below the massive towering onos, they bounced off the loaded magazines that had been throw there, as the fuse's rapidly burned down. The onos spun around, to face Charlie. It growled and stamped one of its hoof's in preparation to charge. At that moment the timer ran out and the explosion of the two grenades underneath the onos also managed to perforate the grenades that lay dormant in their casings, the hot metal fragments bored into one of the grenades and set it off, this immediately set of the rest of the grenades in the clip. The fury of four more grenades exploding was more than enough to set of the other two clips of grenades, all of this happened in a matter of nano seconds. An onos may be a fearsome creature, but the fourteen grenades that simultaneously exploded underneath the gigantic animal easily ripped thru the layers of carapace and flesh, even the layer of amour on the animals other side proved little resistance as the energy of the grenades was transferred to the creature. Gibing it a second, Charlie looked up at where the onos had once stood; all that remained was a massive head and the remains of some legs. Charlie only had to glance at the spinning airlock to figure out where Nem was.
"Scratch one onos Nem, you did good"
These words provided solaces to Nem as the airlock finished it's rotation. The offense chambers perked up and quivered for a second and then fired. Thankfully the pain only lasted until the acid ate away his pain receptors, leaving him in a blissful stupor as his last thoughts were of his <a href='http://www.natural-selection.org/manual/alien_evolutions_scentoffear.html' target='_blank'>brother</a>.
"Damn, that's another we've lost on this godforsaken ship, after refinery hive goes down were out of here"
Charlie silently vowed to kill at least one more alien before he left.
"Markins, I'm headed to engine room I will take a look at the situation there and we can decide what to do"
Charlie headed towards the freight elevator, the remains of Nem's squad followed, Charlie turned "No boys, I'm headed there myself, I just need a little break to get things straight"
With that he activated the elevator, sending it lurching downward, but when it was halfway down he crouched and walked into the vent that was exposed. He turned and slowly clomped towards docking hydraulics.
Fam on the other hand was buys in Refinery; Denelyp had been implicit with his instructions to not shoot the hive or anything else in the room.
"Your group here has done...well...however I think it's fair for me to tell you the real reason why we needed the TSA here"
Fam stared at the man in the suit, he continued "you see that hive right there?" he gestured to the massive throbbing organ that hung from the ceiling of the refinery. "It's coming home with us...er...me" Denelyp smiled, an evil glint in his eyes "I need your squad to cover the entrances into this room for a moment, I'm afraid my work can't be interrupted. He turned and climbed the ladder that led to the round walkway close to the hive, Fam watched in apprehension as the man in the suit easily jumped 15 vertical feet up and 20 over, his jaw dropped to the floor as Denelyp landed softly on the hive, there was a pause and then over the radio "I need your two of your squad members there, two of them there, and you Fam, can you come here" he had been gesturing from atop the hive, and each spot he had pointed too a waypoint appeared. "He's wired into the command network, that bloke is good" was all Fam could think as he trotted to his waypoint, a good 15 feet from being under the hive. Fam watched as Denelyp made an odd gesture at each off the tentacles supporting the massive hive, seconds later there was a bright light as the nano's constructed something at each location he had gestured to. "Mr. Markins, as you may recall there is a blocked build icon in the advanced build menu of your commchair. I'm opening that up, I need you to drop that lovely structure right about here" and with another four quick points at the floor there were four more glowing waypoints, forming a square underneath the hive. Seconds later there was the telltale thwunk of the nanites pulling together to create a structure and the tinkling of metal as it hit the floor. Fam was puzzled until he recognized the massive structure that lay under the hive. It looked exactly like an interstellar phase gate, but instead of passing massive ships thru, this one looked to be big enough to fit a hive. Fam jumped as the machine started to spark, it took him a second to realize that it was constructing itself. Then the massive machine shuttered and hummed to life. The members of Fam's squad glanced back at this new sound and turned to watch the entrances again. On top of the hive Denelyp simple strolled forward and onto thin air, except he was slowly coming down as if walking a down invisible stairs, as soon as he touched the floor he spoke "Fam, what does the number on your HUD say?"
"92 percent"
The only reply that he got was "excellent" but in a much sinister tone that the question had been.
Fam glanced up at the hive, and glanced down at the suit wearing seemingly human who stood next to him, Fam noticed the watch he was wearing matched the suit, Denelyp pressed a button on the side of his watch and there were several sharp noises in unison. The hive roared and then suddenly all four tentacles snapped and the hive plummeted towards to the ground, but it never reached it as it fell right onto and thru the event horizon that was produced by the massive but still miniature version of the interstellar phase gate. There was a blinding flash and the hive was gone, instantly the gate started to recycle itself. Denelyp smiled "The Comprox division would like to...thank your squad...for assisting in the acquisition of this fine specimen"
Fam was quick to retort, "Like we had a choice"
"You can think what you want, but I can still reprimand you beyond your wildest dreams, you and your marine friends can feel free to leave this station" and with that he turned and away, as soon as he was out of sight they heard a distinct phasing sound.
"Markins, did you catch that, let's get ready to leave this mess of a ship"
"I hear you Fam, Lioc headed towards engine room but I can tell him we have the go to pull out"
There was a loud boom as Charlie inched out of the vent and into the main corridor that led to the engine room, there was a fork before you could go into the engine room and Charlie chose the left one. As he ka-chinked around the corner the hive came into view, thankfully the room was empty of aliens, and the motion tracking didn't detect any that were close enough to pose a threat. He paused, still in the left fork, he noticed the churning resource node that lay 10 feet in front of him, and the room was silent except for the squishing noises that emanated from the kharaa resource tower. He took another step forward but ran into an invisible wall. Puzzled he stopped for a second and started to walk forward again, bumping into the same wall. He froze and slowly extended his hand, after reaching out he ran into whatever was obstructing his path, he pressed against it, noting that it had some give to it, and even though his fingers were surrounded by nearly a centimeter of armour the nanites would convey the sense of feeling to him, and he could swear that whatever it was warm. As he continued to explore the invisible wall he became aware of a rhythmic sound of air being forced to move around. Charlie's eyes slowly grew wider as he realized what he might have his hand on, his fears where confirmed when he could feel a blast of warm air repeatedly hit his hand as he moved it down to find what could only be a bunch of teeth the size of a large fingers. Charlie jumped back and leveled his shotgun, but he knew it was a futile attempt, suddenly the hive was blocked out of view and replaced by a looming shadow, and as the onos took a step forward, Charlie heard a faint chuckle.
Comments
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and i liked the dramatic way of taking down the onos. uber!
also like the way you added the NS team to the story
c'mon people speak your mind!
cookie to the person who gets the correct reason
it's much apprecited
So the Onos is a friendly Onos!
"I HAVE COME WITH YOU TO DESTROY MY RACE! SKULKS PHEER MEH!"
Then I'm going to put all the chapters in one thread and yeah, hope you all like how it turns out <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
more comments on this chapter!
anyone notice the reference to the manual...