Sat Jun 10, 2006 12:58 am
Alternate ending 1
Markez’s mind was moving very slowly, he could hear faint noises, almost like he was listening through a very long pipe. Everything was black, he struggled to open his eyes, but it felt like they had been held shut with a tonne of weight each.
The sounds through the pipe seemed to be getting closer and closer, getting slightly louder and clearer.
The all familiar ache began to work its way through his shoulder and down his arm. He heard what sounded like a muffled voice, Markez concentrated on the voice, trying to hear what it said.
“…. In his arm…….Stabilize that power grid……..get me a compress……He’s almost awake”
Markez forced his eyes open, Tiny slits forming where his once closed eyelids were.
Light filtered in and revealed a blurred picture, A shape moved above him, while another shifted around behind it.
Markez was wondering if he was dead, his last conscious thought was of the fighter craft exploding.
Again he heard the muffled voice,
“Daniel Markez, Can you hear me? Try and open your eyes for me”
Markez moved his head slightly, trying to mumble a response to the voice.
He felt a hand against his face, a thumb rolled one of his eyelids up, at the same time an intense light momentarily shone at his eye, temporarily blinding him.
Everything around him was getting clearer and clearer, he could hear the voice getting louder, in the distance there sounded like an alarm wailing away. From close by there was a clunk, then a loud thud as something impacted against something else.
The voice spoke again,
“Daniel Markez, you are coming out of cryo freezing, you have freezer burn. You’ll be ok, but we need to get you out of here, Can you try and stand up for me?”
Markez managed to open his eyes fully, A man was standing directly in front of him, wearing a white coat over a cryo suit, the coat had a large red cross on one side of it.
The Man reached towards Markez and began to pull against his shoulders, Markez became aware that he was still inside a sleeper pod, its claustrophobic walls on either side still very cold to the touch.
Markez was pulled clear of the pod and onto his feet, he swayed shakily and then collapsed to his feet, vomiting all over the ground.
The Medic reached down to Markez and pulled him upright, thrusting a small plastic bottle of liquid into his hand,
“Drink this, you’ll feel better. It’s a great way to travel huh.”
Markez managed to speak finally, between drinking from the small plastic bottle,
“Where am I? I thought I was dead.”
“You’re aboard the sleeper ship Hispania. There is a lot of damage, if you’re ok I have to get to the next person. Try and get to the end of the cryo bay, and go easy on that shoulder, you were shot a day before going into cryo sleep, it hasn’t healed yet. Someone else will explain what’s going on.”
The medic moved onto the next cryo pod.
Markez stood shakily and looked around, he was standing in a long corridor, along either side of the walls were rows of cryo pods, a small team of men, including a few medics, were prying the pods open. The main blast shields had been retracted, but the hatches had to be broken off. With a loud thud another hatch fell against the floor and was pushed out of the way.
Markez looked at his shoulder, his cryo suit had been peeled back and a large bandage placed over his wound, He remembered what the medic had said, and began making his way to the end of the cryo bay. Hopefully he could get some clear answers.
It was a fairly long walk to the end of the bay. A lot of pods had already been opened, some were still shut with the blast shield still down, and showed signs of damage to the control panels. The alarm was still wailing in the distance.
Finally Markez made it to the end, through a door was a large hangar bay, with six shuttles sitting off to one side by the main doors. The room was filled with about 1700 or so people, all looking confused and scared, some huddling in small groups together, some wandering aimlessly around the room.
Markez spotted a man standing in front of a small group, giving what looked like orders. The other men standing around nodded, then turned and quickly walked away in several different directions.
Markez made his way over to the man,
“Hello, I’m Markez. What’s happening here? Who is in charge?”
The Man looked Markez up and down, a small smile forming across his face,
“Daniel, Good to see you made it. I rescued you from the Titan outpost and took you to the sleeper ships on Jupiter. Your squadron was holding off the forces attacking the landing pad, my special ops team had just come back from a covert attack and espionage run from the Coalition battle command centre on Titan. We needed the pad to get our ship into space, your squad held out long enough for us to get into our ship. Your entire squad was falling as we approached, you were all that was left, and you had already been shot in the shoulder but were still laying cover fire.
I was holding the rear, so as I passed by, I grabbed you and pulled you into the ship. We made the run to Jupiter base to warn that the coalition strike force was approaching.”
Another man approached
“Lieutenant Ramirez, we can’t access the bridge, and there is no way to control the reactor, we have about 40 minutes before it blows”
“Thank you sergeant Lopez, start getting the civilians loaded onto the shuttles”
Markez began again,
“What happened here? Why is the reactor going to blow, what’s going on?”
Ramirez spoke sternly “I’m going to tell you because you are a fellow soldier, But not a word to anyone, I don’t want a panic starting.
As far as we can tell there was some sort of explosion on board while everyone was in cryo, some of us already think it was sabotage. The forward cryo bay has already been emptied and all the shuttles taken, whoever organized that has left us for dead aboard a crippled ship with minimal supplies and no warning, we’ve been drifting for an hour or so. Now the reactor is going to blow, and we have to get everyone else into the shuttles, hopefully there is somewhere habitable nearby, or were screwed.
Can you help the civilians aboard the shuttles, we are pretty strapped for manpower at the moment.”
“Yea, ok,” Replied Markez. He headed over towards the shuttles, and began directing people aboard.
After 30 minutes a soldier came running over,
“Time to go, she’s gonna blow. Can you fly this thing or do you need a pilot?”
“I can fly this” replied Markez, “just tell me where to go”
“Ok, no worries. Get into space then follow the lead shuttle, Ramirez will be piloting that one.”
The soldier left and headed for his own shuttle, Markez looked quickly around the bay, nobody was left so he closed the shuttle door.
He moved to the front of the shuttle and sat as the controls, he powered up the engines and engaged the anti grav pads.
The shuttle hovered a few feet off the ground and waited for the hangar door to slide open, once open he followed two shuttles out, another 3 following close behind. Each shuttle held about 600 people each, but there was space left over. Not everybody could be removed form the sleeper pods. All in total about 2000 people were saved from the crippled sleeper ship.
The line of shuttles moved slowly away form the crippled wreck, Ramirez was heading towards a planet in the distance.
Markez was looking at the long range sensors, there were no other readings, other than the Hispania and the line of shuttles. The planet wasn’t registering any sorts of ships or buildings on its surface, and there was a gravitational anomaly inside a greenish nebula in the other direction.
After a few minutes the shuttles reached orbit around the planet, in the distance a flash was seen from the Hispania, as the reactor exploded and erupted from the rear of the massive ship, debris spewing from the gaping hole that was left.
Orbital scans showed the planet as hospitable, just.
Markez followed Ramirez through the atmosphere and down to the planets surface.
With a thud the shuttle settled against the hard rock. The hatch slid open and Markez walked out into the open plains. All the other survivors were standing around, looking at their new home. It was dry and flat, long fields of orange grass swaying in the wind. Not to far in the distance was a rocky mountain range, it looked like it would provide ample shelter.
One of the survivors standing next to Markez spoke.
“Home sweet home. Come on, we have a city to build.”
The end.
Bloody Bretonians! Almost as bad as the French!
Markez’s mind was moving very slowly, he could hear faint noises, almost like he was listening through a very long pipe. Everything was black, he struggled to open his eyes, but it felt like they had been held shut with a tonne of weight each.
The sounds through the pipe seemed to be getting closer and closer, getting slightly louder and clearer.
The all familiar ache began to work its way through his shoulder and down his arm. He heard what sounded like a muffled voice, Markez concentrated on the voice, trying to hear what it said.
“…. In his arm…….Stabilize that power grid……..get me a compress……He’s almost awake”
Markez forced his eyes open, Tiny slits forming where his once closed eyelids were.
Light filtered in and revealed a blurred picture, A shape moved above him, while another shifted around behind it.
Markez was wondering if he was dead, his last conscious thought was of the fighter craft exploding.
Again he heard the muffled voice,
“Daniel Markez, Can you hear me? Try and open your eyes for me”
Markez moved his head slightly, trying to mumble a response to the voice.
He felt a hand against his face, a thumb rolled one of his eyelids up, at the same time an intense light momentarily shone at his eye, temporarily blinding him.
Everything around him was getting clearer and clearer, he could hear the voice getting louder, in the distance there sounded like an alarm wailing away. From close by there was a clunk, then a loud thud as something impacted against something else.
The voice spoke again,
“Daniel Markez, you are coming out of cryo freezing, you have freezer burn. You’ll be ok, but we need to get you out of here, Can you try and stand up for me?”
Markez managed to open his eyes fully, A man was standing directly in front of him, wearing a white coat over a cryo suit, the coat had a large red cross on one side of it.
The Man reached towards Markez and began to pull against his shoulders, Markez became aware that he was still inside a sleeper pod, its claustrophobic walls on either side still very cold to the touch.
Markez was pulled clear of the pod and onto his feet, he swayed shakily and then collapsed to his feet, vomiting all over the ground.
The Medic reached down to Markez and pulled him upright, thrusting a small plastic bottle of liquid into his hand,
“Drink this, you’ll feel better. It’s a great way to travel huh.”
Markez managed to speak finally, between drinking from the small plastic bottle,
“Where am I? I thought I was dead.”
“You’re aboard the sleeper ship Hispania. There is a lot of damage, if you’re ok I have to get to the next person. Try and get to the end of the cryo bay, and go easy on that shoulder, you were shot a day before going into cryo sleep, it hasn’t healed yet. Someone else will explain what’s going on.”
The medic moved onto the next cryo pod.
Markez stood shakily and looked around, he was standing in a long corridor, along either side of the walls were rows of cryo pods, a small team of men, including a few medics, were prying the pods open. The main blast shields had been retracted, but the hatches had to be broken off. With a loud thud another hatch fell against the floor and was pushed out of the way.
Markez looked at his shoulder, his cryo suit had been peeled back and a large bandage placed over his wound, He remembered what the medic had said, and began making his way to the end of the cryo bay. Hopefully he could get some clear answers.
It was a fairly long walk to the end of the bay. A lot of pods had already been opened, some were still shut with the blast shield still down, and showed signs of damage to the control panels. The alarm was still wailing in the distance.
Finally Markez made it to the end, through a door was a large hangar bay, with six shuttles sitting off to one side by the main doors. The room was filled with about 1700 or so people, all looking confused and scared, some huddling in small groups together, some wandering aimlessly around the room.
Markez spotted a man standing in front of a small group, giving what looked like orders. The other men standing around nodded, then turned and quickly walked away in several different directions.
Markez made his way over to the man,
“Hello, I’m Markez. What’s happening here? Who is in charge?”
The Man looked Markez up and down, a small smile forming across his face,
“Daniel, Good to see you made it. I rescued you from the Titan outpost and took you to the sleeper ships on Jupiter. Your squadron was holding off the forces attacking the landing pad, my special ops team had just come back from a covert attack and espionage run from the Coalition battle command centre on Titan. We needed the pad to get our ship into space, your squad held out long enough for us to get into our ship. Your entire squad was falling as we approached, you were all that was left, and you had already been shot in the shoulder but were still laying cover fire.
I was holding the rear, so as I passed by, I grabbed you and pulled you into the ship. We made the run to Jupiter base to warn that the coalition strike force was approaching.”
Another man approached
“Lieutenant Ramirez, we can’t access the bridge, and there is no way to control the reactor, we have about 40 minutes before it blows”
“Thank you sergeant Lopez, start getting the civilians loaded onto the shuttles”
Markez began again,
“What happened here? Why is the reactor going to blow, what’s going on?”
Ramirez spoke sternly “I’m going to tell you because you are a fellow soldier, But not a word to anyone, I don’t want a panic starting.
As far as we can tell there was some sort of explosion on board while everyone was in cryo, some of us already think it was sabotage. The forward cryo bay has already been emptied and all the shuttles taken, whoever organized that has left us for dead aboard a crippled ship with minimal supplies and no warning, we’ve been drifting for an hour or so. Now the reactor is going to blow, and we have to get everyone else into the shuttles, hopefully there is somewhere habitable nearby, or were screwed.
Can you help the civilians aboard the shuttles, we are pretty strapped for manpower at the moment.”
“Yea, ok,” Replied Markez. He headed over towards the shuttles, and began directing people aboard.
After 30 minutes a soldier came running over,
“Time to go, she’s gonna blow. Can you fly this thing or do you need a pilot?”
“I can fly this” replied Markez, “just tell me where to go”
“Ok, no worries. Get into space then follow the lead shuttle, Ramirez will be piloting that one.”
The soldier left and headed for his own shuttle, Markez looked quickly around the bay, nobody was left so he closed the shuttle door.
He moved to the front of the shuttle and sat as the controls, he powered up the engines and engaged the anti grav pads.
The shuttle hovered a few feet off the ground and waited for the hangar door to slide open, once open he followed two shuttles out, another 3 following close behind. Each shuttle held about 600 people each, but there was space left over. Not everybody could be removed form the sleeper pods. All in total about 2000 people were saved from the crippled sleeper ship.
The line of shuttles moved slowly away form the crippled wreck, Ramirez was heading towards a planet in the distance.
Markez was looking at the long range sensors, there were no other readings, other than the Hispania and the line of shuttles. The planet wasn’t registering any sorts of ships or buildings on its surface, and there was a gravitational anomaly inside a greenish nebula in the other direction.
After a few minutes the shuttles reached orbit around the planet, in the distance a flash was seen from the Hispania, as the reactor exploded and erupted from the rear of the massive ship, debris spewing from the gaping hole that was left.
Orbital scans showed the planet as hospitable, just.
Markez followed Ramirez through the atmosphere and down to the planets surface.
With a thud the shuttle settled against the hard rock. The hatch slid open and Markez walked out into the open plains. All the other survivors were standing around, looking at their new home. It was dry and flat, long fields of orange grass swaying in the wind. Not to far in the distance was a rocky mountain range, it looked like it would provide ample shelter.
One of the survivors standing next to Markez spoke.
“Home sweet home. Come on, we have a city to build.”
The end.
Bloody Bretonians! Almost as bad as the French!