OT: Story Thread: Giants Awakening. NEW CHAPTER!

[Deathstalker]

Please indluge this attempt at authourship. The author makes no claim to know what he is doing...(I'm making this up as I go along.... )

Giants Awakening: Part One of 'Civilizations in Ashes'

Prologue: The Dig
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Danni set down her shovel and took a minute to look around the barren landscape around her. It was quite simply amazing, no signs of civilization upon the surface of Gith-Yari (I) at all but dig a few hundred feet below the surface and the ruins of an ancient race were there for the taking. No one really knew what happened to the race the University had dubbed the 'Cryslonites' but it was if something had totally vaporized all thier above ground habitat. Including any flora or fauna.

She was quite excited to see the artifacts just unearthed by herself and her partner 'Xar'. She knew that her face beamed excitement, but then most humans faces were easy to read emotionally, the Abbiddon though were harder to read as they could not survive outside their environmental suits gaseous atmosphere. The suit was humanoid though Xar was far from it, more leechlike actually, it still gave Danni a small shudder even though they had hit it off quite well and were fast becoming friends of a sort.

"What do you think they are Danni-friend??". The translator machine in Xar's suit made his question come out in almost a rasp, like a voice with a dry cough. Not the sturdiest of machines it had taken a beating with all the dust and grit in the air.

"Not sure Xar. Definitly the gems and the broken shards are the remains of Cryslonite buildings or memory crystals, but the metal sphere is unknown. I've never seen any non-crystalline tech in any of the Cryslonite worlds I've been on." Danni replied, somewhat pensively. The sphere was taking up too much of her concentration, it almost deliberately drew the eye towards it. Definitly strange.

Xar carefully picked up the sphere, holding it close to his suits helmet, his large eyes finally focusing now that it was within range of his races notoriously weak visual abilities.

"Self does not like it,....it.....feels bad...." Xar rasped again, a great deal of emotion in his normally flat voice.

"Pardon??" Danni said with a start. Xar had been somewhat of an enigma. His race was not known for its interests beyond artwork, though she admitted that archeology was somewhat similar as it unearthed lost treasures, many of them art. In the six months she had known him this was the first real human level emotion that she had gotten from him. Puzzling on his sudden change it took her a second to realize that the Sphere had suddenly started glowing with a dull green light, the light reminded her of the swamp gas lights of Edrell (IV) back when she had first started these offworld digs. "What the...." she started to say but Xar cut her off with what the translator spit out as a feedback shriek as he dropped the Sphere and took four quick steps backwards. It continued to glow, getting brighter by the moment.

Xar's suit continued to emit garbled sounds as her University emergency training kicked in. Slinging off her backpack she reached for the containment field generator and quickly set it up around the Sphere, turning it on to the standard level of containment. A snap hiss of air displacement as a force shield sprung up around the sphere, lifting it off the ground as it encompassed it. The glow seemed to dim for a moment then pulse brighter as the field whined to compensate for whatever the thing was throwing off. Quickly activating her scanner Danni saw that it was emitting pulses of radiation throughout all the known bands of energy, including the hyper-bands normally associated with hyper-engine travel. It also seemed directed, pulsing out in a definite direction towards the stars.

"Crap!" she excalimed in anger. Distractly she recalled one other instance of discovery of a communications-like device on a cryslonite world, it was quickly contained with the high-tech the Company had provided but this was a University funded dig and could not afford the containment equipment of that caliber. She swore again as she turned up the field to full and pulled out her Comm as she turned to Xar.

Her attempt on communicating with the rest of the expidition died upon her breath as she saw exactly what was happening to Xar. He was staggering back and forth, literally taking one step forward and two steps backward, though she dimly realized that the backwards movement was lessening.

"Danni-friend.....{squawk}...Self can no longer control self's suit....{squark}....it seems.....alive?"...Xar's 'voice' went through many modulations as he tried to speak and the translator finally settled on a pitch and octive with the final word that Danni could only describe later as 'sinister'in its questioning tone, like something out of a pre-Federation holo-flick about men from New Mars.

Xar's body staggered forward and almost reached her before her paralysis broke, his clumsy hugging motion evaded as almost forgotten 'womens defense class' reactions kicked in. Her mother had made her take the Judo classes before she had attended the University on Imsk Prime, almost a lifetime ago it seemed now as her mind flashed random thoughts admist the chaos of what was happening to her. Taking Xar in a throw designed to use his weight and the suits mechanically enhanced strength against him she flipped him up and over. He landed a good distance away and began to struggle to his feet, the suits were notoriously hard to get back upright, almost turtle-like she mused distractedly.

The sudden pop-hiss of escaping air clairified her thoughts and brought her back to her current situation. The field sputtered off with a whine as it collapsed to nothingness, looking down towards the sphere also saved her life as she saw what was happening to her digging gloves. Made of heavy steel fiber they were enhanced with Nano-tech from the Company to give the wearer greater strength and endurance while in the field. While nowhere near as strong as Xar's suit they allowed her to dig through the hard packed ground here with ease. The hand that had touched Xar though was starting to glow green as well. With a curse she threw it off, being careful not to touch it , flinging it off as a child does a mitten after a day outside in the snow on her homeworld of Jotun (II).

Backing away from the glove and Xar her childhood memory was swiftly forgotten as Xar righted himself in a doglike fashion.

"Danni-friend......FLEE!" he shouted as his control on his translator finally gave, the voice becoming 'Not-Xar'with a finality that shook her to the core. Running for her life towards where the shuttle and hopeful safety lay Not-Xar's words rang after her.

"Cease motion humanoid. Stop and be evaluated for Assimilation.....Resistance...is Futile...."


The Beginnning???


Note, the above is rough, very rough. The Authour does indeed have a plan, whether it is a sound one is up to question. (and time permitting). But the idea popped into his head as he lay sleeping Last night. Hopefully this story turns out ok.




Next:

The happy go-lucky crew of the United Suns Federation Hermes Class Destroyer 'Javelin' in all thier glory....

[ November 06, 2003, 05:39: Message edited by: Deathstalker ]