Mining Colony Nsm-45612 (sonar)
Twisted_Mac
Join Date: 2002-12-12 Member: 10683Members
Join Date: 2002-12-12 Member: 10683Members
<div class="IPBDescription">The diary of Jared Mesh, 2nd in command</div> if anyone actually manages to read through it all, i'd like opinions and critique..
you'll also see this is far from finished... it's 3 pages in word and im looking to make it atleast 9 or 10.. dunno if i'll be able to though..
Also i want to change the year to 10 or 20 years after the first encounter with the kharaa but i couldnt find the date...
(because im lazy and didnt really look)
just ignore the year and look at the rest..
<b>January 6th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
I’m not sure about the exact date, but my DigiCalender tells me it’s that time back on Earth.
It doesn’t feel like it was 2 years ago I left Earth for the mining colony, but these things are said to never be wrong.
First the introduction: My name is Jared Mesh, I’m a miner at the mining colony NSM-45612 as it is formally known (we just call it Sonar after the guy that died on the trip here),
NSM standing for Nano-Sludge Mine… I’m still not sure how a word like sludge managed to get official footing in documents, but I guess that’s what happens when researchers work faster than the politicians can fathom.
We are so far from home I don’t even want to think about it (everyone working here except for one is from Tellus (or just plain Earth if you prefer that word)), and he is from the moon orbiting earth, so he’s practically a “homie”.
Most of the guys here keep a diary, so I thought I’d do the same to keep boredom at bay seeing as how we don’t have much entertainment here.
We have been talking about building a bar when we have terranized a larger area (we use the phrase terranization about building a damn ugly bubble over us that’ll keep the air in and whatever is out there out, I don’t know if it’s just some expression someone here has made up or if it’s an official term, but it really doesn’t matter).
I don’t really think it’ll ever happen, but it gives us something to talk about.
<b>January 12th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
The mail server is down again, I don’t know if my daughter got my last two mails, I’ll probably have to write and send them again.
Hopefully copies are still stored in the outbox, it took me hours to write those things…
Takes the damn things a month to send and another month before we get the reply. You would think they should have invented a better technology for sending it than radio waves with that phase gate technology…
<b>January 23rd 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
I got a mail from my fiancé today.
It seems the lack of the Kharaa scares people as much as the presence.
There are rumours going around that the Kharaa are stocking up somewhere and that’s why there haven’t been many attacks on freight ships lately.
I think people should be more optimistic.
<b>February 7th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
One of our outpost probes is seeing two ships coming in our direction, looks like they are in bad shape.
(Like all other outposts we have probes around the moon to alert us about the presence of movement)
Kind of weird since no one has hailed us beforetime.
It looks like they will pass over us but you never know.
Of course they have to come from the side with the defective probe, it can’t relay radio messages and it can’t detect lifeforms, this has naturally made people here get nervous and suspect it’s the Kharaa coming to get us.
Being second in command I can’t openly support these suspicions for the general morale, but I can’t help but to think they may be right.
The ships will pass us in a week or so, we’ll see then.
<b>February 11th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
Apparently the ships have speeded up between here and the probe, because it seems they are almost here.
But that’s not what worries everyone, it seems the first ship has changed course and is going to crash on our moon. We’re trying to calculate what would happen if they hit anywhere near us, and how far away they would have to be for us to be completely safe.
We are trying to hail both ships, but none are responding.
After a vote we have brought up the shotguns from the shelter and each person has one by his bunk, but we are miners, not marines.
Whatever happens I hope we can just lock them away again.
<b>February 12th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
It happened! the first ship crashlanded on the surface, a few kilometres away from us, so we barely felt the shake, we just saw it on our Richter scale.
The second ship has gone into orbit around us and is looking like it will land the more safe way. We still have no answer from it though.
We sent Swippa and Fritz out in the dune buggy to take pictures of the wreck and see if any survivors had come out of the ship. It was decided they should not try to enter the ship.
If the ship is still intact it will still have air to breathe, but if the airlock is damaged, opening the gate would probably make that part of the ship implode as that air would rush to get out.
<b>February 13th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
The second ship landed today and right outside our gates.
I’ve never heard of the Kharaa being able to land a ship but it was still decided to greet the newcomers shotgun in hand.
It turned out to be Frontier marines and they brought bad news with them.
The ship that crashed was filled with those parasitic beasts, the Kharaa, and the marines had been chasing them for a few months.
The ship they had used to chase them had originally been infested by Kharaa aswell and apparently they had missed one of the beasts when terminating them and it had in silence built a brand new hive in the cargo hold during the months they had been chasing the other ship.
They had been able to defeat that hive just a few days ago without a single loss thanks to one of the crewmembers dog finding it before it managed to spread too far.
The dog sadly died protecting its master and some of the marines were seriously injured.
The marines are keeping our Doctor (Dr. Wilko) busy and we had to move all the doctor’s equipment into a bunk area to give all the injured marines a place to lie down.
Looking back it probably wasn’t a good idea to send the doctor’s assistant (Swippa) out on that mission, but there’s not much we can do about that now.
Tonight we pray for Swippa and Fritz’s safe return. They should have been back by now.
<b>February 14th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
Swippa and Fritz came back today, apparently the ship had landed right-way-up and the engines had still been running when it hit the ground so it had ploughed its way through the soft sand dunes until it hit a big one and the engines were finally filled with sand.
Swippa went to help Dr. Wilko.
Me, Fritz and The Boss sat down with their commander and his closest men. Commander’s name is Captain Debrowski, but his men just call him Comm in the same way we call Albert The Boss.
I’m really bad with names so I like nicknames, they make it a bit easier.
Fritz showed the pictures they had taken, apparently a sand dune is covering a large part of the ship.
Tomorrow we talk about what needs to be done.
For now we are happy about the fact that they can’t breathe outside of the ship and they don’t wear spacegear, so they can’t get here.
<b>February 15th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
Today it was decided. We let them starve.
They are basically trapped inside the ship with no food so there’s really nothing to fear.
It still makes me jumpy to know that they are so close, and I can feel the rest of the crew think the same. The marines seem very calm though, I guess we’re going to have to trust their feelings on this matter, they have the experience with these creatures.
The marines will stay with us for a few months, they will then enter the ship and take out the remaining Kharaa.
They are going to build an outpost close to the Kharaa ship so they will be able to keep them under constant surveillance.
I don’t know about this plan… something is unsettling.
Why did the Kharaa change the course of the ship to have it crash on a moon with no breathable air? Maybe they just didn’t know…
<b>February 28th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
I KNEW IT!!! I KNEW IT!!!
The outpost was overrun by the Kharaa today. The two marines barely managed to send a message before dieing. They must have somehow adapted to the environment… but so FAST!
The marines are building defences in the base as I write this and our mechanics are helping them. I think the marines knew this would happen… why didn’t they attack the ship right after it had crashed?
<b>February 28th 2330 – Tellus calendar – addendum</b>
The marines have built an entire base… it looks like they have been building it during the past two weeks in their ship and they just put it together now.
They definitely knew what was going to happen. Why were we not told?
Why did they lie to us?
The Marines seem different… they seem… excited…
you'll also see this is far from finished... it's 3 pages in word and im looking to make it atleast 9 or 10.. dunno if i'll be able to though..
Also i want to change the year to 10 or 20 years after the first encounter with the kharaa but i couldnt find the date...
(because im lazy and didnt really look)
just ignore the year and look at the rest..
<b>January 6th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
I’m not sure about the exact date, but my DigiCalender tells me it’s that time back on Earth.
It doesn’t feel like it was 2 years ago I left Earth for the mining colony, but these things are said to never be wrong.
First the introduction: My name is Jared Mesh, I’m a miner at the mining colony NSM-45612 as it is formally known (we just call it Sonar after the guy that died on the trip here),
NSM standing for Nano-Sludge Mine… I’m still not sure how a word like sludge managed to get official footing in documents, but I guess that’s what happens when researchers work faster than the politicians can fathom.
We are so far from home I don’t even want to think about it (everyone working here except for one is from Tellus (or just plain Earth if you prefer that word)), and he is from the moon orbiting earth, so he’s practically a “homie”.
Most of the guys here keep a diary, so I thought I’d do the same to keep boredom at bay seeing as how we don’t have much entertainment here.
We have been talking about building a bar when we have terranized a larger area (we use the phrase terranization about building a damn ugly bubble over us that’ll keep the air in and whatever is out there out, I don’t know if it’s just some expression someone here has made up or if it’s an official term, but it really doesn’t matter).
I don’t really think it’ll ever happen, but it gives us something to talk about.
<b>January 12th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
The mail server is down again, I don’t know if my daughter got my last two mails, I’ll probably have to write and send them again.
Hopefully copies are still stored in the outbox, it took me hours to write those things…
Takes the damn things a month to send and another month before we get the reply. You would think they should have invented a better technology for sending it than radio waves with that phase gate technology…
<b>January 23rd 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
I got a mail from my fiancé today.
It seems the lack of the Kharaa scares people as much as the presence.
There are rumours going around that the Kharaa are stocking up somewhere and that’s why there haven’t been many attacks on freight ships lately.
I think people should be more optimistic.
<b>February 7th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
One of our outpost probes is seeing two ships coming in our direction, looks like they are in bad shape.
(Like all other outposts we have probes around the moon to alert us about the presence of movement)
Kind of weird since no one has hailed us beforetime.
It looks like they will pass over us but you never know.
Of course they have to come from the side with the defective probe, it can’t relay radio messages and it can’t detect lifeforms, this has naturally made people here get nervous and suspect it’s the Kharaa coming to get us.
Being second in command I can’t openly support these suspicions for the general morale, but I can’t help but to think they may be right.
The ships will pass us in a week or so, we’ll see then.
<b>February 11th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
Apparently the ships have speeded up between here and the probe, because it seems they are almost here.
But that’s not what worries everyone, it seems the first ship has changed course and is going to crash on our moon. We’re trying to calculate what would happen if they hit anywhere near us, and how far away they would have to be for us to be completely safe.
We are trying to hail both ships, but none are responding.
After a vote we have brought up the shotguns from the shelter and each person has one by his bunk, but we are miners, not marines.
Whatever happens I hope we can just lock them away again.
<b>February 12th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
It happened! the first ship crashlanded on the surface, a few kilometres away from us, so we barely felt the shake, we just saw it on our Richter scale.
The second ship has gone into orbit around us and is looking like it will land the more safe way. We still have no answer from it though.
We sent Swippa and Fritz out in the dune buggy to take pictures of the wreck and see if any survivors had come out of the ship. It was decided they should not try to enter the ship.
If the ship is still intact it will still have air to breathe, but if the airlock is damaged, opening the gate would probably make that part of the ship implode as that air would rush to get out.
<b>February 13th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
The second ship landed today and right outside our gates.
I’ve never heard of the Kharaa being able to land a ship but it was still decided to greet the newcomers shotgun in hand.
It turned out to be Frontier marines and they brought bad news with them.
The ship that crashed was filled with those parasitic beasts, the Kharaa, and the marines had been chasing them for a few months.
The ship they had used to chase them had originally been infested by Kharaa aswell and apparently they had missed one of the beasts when terminating them and it had in silence built a brand new hive in the cargo hold during the months they had been chasing the other ship.
They had been able to defeat that hive just a few days ago without a single loss thanks to one of the crewmembers dog finding it before it managed to spread too far.
The dog sadly died protecting its master and some of the marines were seriously injured.
The marines are keeping our Doctor (Dr. Wilko) busy and we had to move all the doctor’s equipment into a bunk area to give all the injured marines a place to lie down.
Looking back it probably wasn’t a good idea to send the doctor’s assistant (Swippa) out on that mission, but there’s not much we can do about that now.
Tonight we pray for Swippa and Fritz’s safe return. They should have been back by now.
<b>February 14th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
Swippa and Fritz came back today, apparently the ship had landed right-way-up and the engines had still been running when it hit the ground so it had ploughed its way through the soft sand dunes until it hit a big one and the engines were finally filled with sand.
Swippa went to help Dr. Wilko.
Me, Fritz and The Boss sat down with their commander and his closest men. Commander’s name is Captain Debrowski, but his men just call him Comm in the same way we call Albert The Boss.
I’m really bad with names so I like nicknames, they make it a bit easier.
Fritz showed the pictures they had taken, apparently a sand dune is covering a large part of the ship.
Tomorrow we talk about what needs to be done.
For now we are happy about the fact that they can’t breathe outside of the ship and they don’t wear spacegear, so they can’t get here.
<b>February 15th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
Today it was decided. We let them starve.
They are basically trapped inside the ship with no food so there’s really nothing to fear.
It still makes me jumpy to know that they are so close, and I can feel the rest of the crew think the same. The marines seem very calm though, I guess we’re going to have to trust their feelings on this matter, they have the experience with these creatures.
The marines will stay with us for a few months, they will then enter the ship and take out the remaining Kharaa.
They are going to build an outpost close to the Kharaa ship so they will be able to keep them under constant surveillance.
I don’t know about this plan… something is unsettling.
Why did the Kharaa change the course of the ship to have it crash on a moon with no breathable air? Maybe they just didn’t know…
<b>February 28th 2330 – Tellus calendar</b>
I KNEW IT!!! I KNEW IT!!!
The outpost was overrun by the Kharaa today. The two marines barely managed to send a message before dieing. They must have somehow adapted to the environment… but so FAST!
The marines are building defences in the base as I write this and our mechanics are helping them. I think the marines knew this would happen… why didn’t they attack the ship right after it had crashed?
<b>February 28th 2330 – Tellus calendar – addendum</b>
The marines have built an entire base… it looks like they have been building it during the past two weeks in their ship and they just put it together now.
They definitely knew what was going to happen. Why were we not told?
Why did they lie to us?
The Marines seem different… they seem… excited…
Comments
me not thinking right... thanx
Of course you should finnish it =)
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nice story, I like it a lot!! especially from the miner's perspective <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->