GhostHammer
09-06-2010, 12:53 AM
Chapter 1: A Change In Plans
July 9, 2089, 1146 PST
USMC Sergeant Cody Shaer looked up into the smiling sun scanning the clear blue sky. The few clouds that crawled along floated lazily as the light breeze rustled the grass at his feet. A bird sang from the branch of the aging oak beind Cody, its song a beautiful composition that seemed to bring the world alive and correct it's many evils. Cody turned as the bird continued to sing, his gaze dropping to the classic red and white checkered blanket where his fiance, Jodie, lay propped against the thick trunk, a plastic cup of water in her hand. He blonde hair fell around her shoulders in bouncy curls which danced lightly in the wind. He smiled and started towards her, each footstep seemingly weightless as he approached. Cody reached her in only a few paces, sitting beside her, placing an arm around her shoulders and puling her close to whisper into her ear.
"I'm glad we took the day off." Cody said as Jodie lay her head onto his shoulder. She pulled him down away from the tree so the two now lay side by side, protected from the sun by the oak's long shadow. She looked up at him, her piercing green eyes sparkling as she kissed him lightly, her lips soft and comforting, moved ever so slightly as she spoke quietly, her british accent soothing Cody's ears.
"I love you."
Cody cradled her head, his hand brushing through her soft hair as he pulled her close. "I love you to baby." he whispered back, fully feeling the completeness of their relationship. They had both met in highschool. Cody had been the football captain while Jodie has been a science buff. Hooking up at a party, the two dated throughout the last two years of highschool, and throughout their years at University. Cody had propsed the day of their graduation and Jodie had (As Cody had expected) accepted. Their wedding was scheduled in August.
They kissed again, more furiously this time as they pushed more passion into eachother as they competed to show their affection for one and other. Their moment of bliss was interupted however, by a blaring car horn. Cody jolted up, instinctivley moving infront of Jodie as a black Hummer barrelled towards them. It took Cody a few seconds to recognize his cousin's vehicle. Wondering what the hell could bring him out to their picnic, Cody stood and waved his hands in the air as the hummer braked hard and slid to a stop. The driver side door opened and Cody's cousin jumped out wearing a look of grim concern. He strode over to Cody.
"Mike!" Cody exclaimed, hoping Mike's visit was pleasure based, "What are you doing out here? I told Lt. I had the day off and--"
Mike cut him off. "I know brother. It's a code six, everyone is being pulled in. They're picking up Stan as we speak."
Cody shifted uneasily, the sun now seeming to blaze down upon them. Cody wiped sweat from his forehead. If the USMC was flying in Stan from his extended holiday in Germany, it must be bad. "Any ideas on what it's all about?" Cody asked.
Mike shook his head. "No idea man, but it's got some pretty solid people shaking."
Jodie chose this time to interject. She had slowly slid in behind Cody and without Cody noticing, had grabbed his hand as if aware of some impendin danger that bore down upon them. "Cody, sweetheart, you need to go."
Cody looked at her, Jodie's eyes shining with tears as he grabbed her chin. Lifting her face up, Cody kissed her. "I'll be fine baby, don't worry, I'll see you at home real soon." He pulled her in close and squeezed hard, afraid for her, and afraid for him. Pulling away, Cody gave her one last glance before jumping into the passenger side of the hummer, Mike in right behind him. No sooner had Cody clicked in his belt, Mike was shifting gears and tearing away, Jodie, and the peacful oak shrinking in the rear view mirrior. Cody looked back forward, glancing quick at Mike who's knuckes were white on the wheel. "It's really bad isn't it bro?"
Mike shook his head. "You got no clue Cody. Worse than the Alaska incident last year."
Cody swallowed hard. Last year, Alaskan seperatists had captured the President and held him hostage for two weeks before Cody's team had located and rescued the president. The situation had uncovered a substantial plot to destroy the United States that included many high level Pentagon and White House officials. Cody massaged a temple. "Start talking."
Kevin Foor quikly dropped in two sugar cubes into his coffee, grabbed his cup, and pushed his way out of the busy staff room and towards his communication station. The activity on the moon had increased of late, when mass mines of Uranium and Titanium had been discovered during an archaeological dig. Since their discovery, the mines had steadily become more and more used untill massive machines and buildings had been errected to fully exploit the minerals, and that was just the start. Major mining companies from Earth sent up equipment and miners daily to join the already hundereds of people working on the new found source of two very important metals. The original archaeological dig still progressed however, and the two operations put together had increased the population of "Distant Life", the station from which all lunar operations started and ended. As the main station on the moon, and major hub for all activity, people like Kevin played a key role in the smooth operation of such activites.
Dubbed as "space operators", people like Kevin, who were actually simple radio technitions, sat in towers with glass domes and "operated". Taking calls from all types of spacecraft from human shuttles, to heavy machinery tankers, these "operators" acted as traffic cops and directed the many ships to and from docking stations, directed flight paths, and even at times, help direct round crews to crashed or damaged ships. Kevin simply saw himself as a glorified spaceship control tower. So as Kevin put on his headset and took a gulp of his already lukewarm coffee, he resumed business as usual. Checking his long range scanner, he noticed a human shuttle appraoching Distant Life. Throwing on his headset, he flipped his broadcast switch, lokced in on the shuttle and made his call.
"Shuttle TS-1995 this is Distant Life come in."
A gruff Russian voice replied seconds later. "Distant Life, this is Shuttle TS-1995 over. I have a flightplan scheduled to land at Docking Station 13 with a load of twenty passengers and three crew, over."
Kevin glanced at his computer, punching in the shuttle's ID tag. "Rodger, stand by." The screen flickered and a flightplan appeared showing that Shuttle TS-1995 was scheduled to land at Docking Station 13 at 10:30am. Glancing at the clock, Kevin noticed the shuttle was three minutes early. He flipped back on his mic. "Copy that Shuttle TS-1995, you are cleared for landing. Welcome to Distant Life." Kevin checked his schedule and confirmed that no other ships would be entering the system for another few hours. With this, he kicked his feet up, and finished off his coffee. His thoughts wandered, from his dog and new car back home, to his University paper that sat unfinished in his back. They were coming to a hot blonde he'd seen coming to work that morning when a loud beep blarred from his scanner. Kevin ignored it, for when an asteroid or any other assortment of space junk floated by the moon, it would go off, identifying the object as "unknown". He was just trying to picture the blondes curves when it beeped again. Kevin new it wouldn't beep twice if it was nothing, so he took his feet down, and checked the scanner.
It painted a target roughly 60km long, and weighing a couple thousand tonnes moving towards Distant Life. Shaking his head, Kevin scanned the database for ship specifications that would match the size and shape. He found none. He checked the scan again and it confrimed the object was slowing down, and changing direction towards Distant Life. His eyes widened when the scanner reported nuclear and unknwon energy sources emmitting from the object before sparking and snapping off. Grabbing his handheld scanner, he brought them to his eyes and looked out towards the dig site. He dropped the scanner, and stood, jaw open, as he took in the sight.
A black, oil coloured craft that looked almost wet floated towards the dig site. It's front looked slightly angled, like an arrow, but the back was shaped like the top of a heart, with each side boasting a rather large tube type engine, each flaring with blue-green flames. Along the top like quills ran dozens of antenna and tubes while along the sides rested dozens of glowing, red eyes, each one moving, and pulsing with energy. Kevin couldn't believe his eyes as the massive alien craft stopped with amazing speed and acuuracy, and presented one of it's broad sides to the dig site. The red eyes that ran the ships length flared and pulsed faster and started raining down intense red beams, each one sending flames into the air like giant geysers of water.
Kevin picked up his tower phone and pressed the button to contact the centreal tower when the power snapped off and the line went dead. He turned back to the craft outside his tower's window, and saw more approaching from behind the dig site. Cursing his luck, he ran out of his tower and to the central part of Distant Life. People needed to be warned here, and on Earth.
"So his warning just got through now?" Cody asked Mike as they flew through a red light, and sped towards Fort Liberty. "It's been nearly 2 hours!" he excalimed as Mike laid on the horn, and swerved around a grey sedan doing 80.
"I don't know man, I just got a call an hour ago from Stan saying he's on his way back, and that everyone is getting called in. Not long after, Lt. called and told me to grab you and bring us both is asap. Fuck if I know whats going on now."
Cody nodded as they pulled down the road leading to Fort Liberty. Both exchanged worried looks however, when they saw the oily black plume of smoke rising in the distance, and the strange looking craft hovering above it.
Chapter 2: Out Of The Frying Pan...
July 2, 2019, 12:36
July 9, 2089, 1146 PST
USMC Sergeant Cody Shaer looked up into the smiling sun scanning the clear blue sky. The few clouds that crawled along floated lazily as the light breeze rustled the grass at his feet. A bird sang from the branch of the aging oak beind Cody, its song a beautiful composition that seemed to bring the world alive and correct it's many evils. Cody turned as the bird continued to sing, his gaze dropping to the classic red and white checkered blanket where his fiance, Jodie, lay propped against the thick trunk, a plastic cup of water in her hand. He blonde hair fell around her shoulders in bouncy curls which danced lightly in the wind. He smiled and started towards her, each footstep seemingly weightless as he approached. Cody reached her in only a few paces, sitting beside her, placing an arm around her shoulders and puling her close to whisper into her ear.
"I'm glad we took the day off." Cody said as Jodie lay her head onto his shoulder. She pulled him down away from the tree so the two now lay side by side, protected from the sun by the oak's long shadow. She looked up at him, her piercing green eyes sparkling as she kissed him lightly, her lips soft and comforting, moved ever so slightly as she spoke quietly, her british accent soothing Cody's ears.
"I love you."
Cody cradled her head, his hand brushing through her soft hair as he pulled her close. "I love you to baby." he whispered back, fully feeling the completeness of their relationship. They had both met in highschool. Cody had been the football captain while Jodie has been a science buff. Hooking up at a party, the two dated throughout the last two years of highschool, and throughout their years at University. Cody had propsed the day of their graduation and Jodie had (As Cody had expected) accepted. Their wedding was scheduled in August.
They kissed again, more furiously this time as they pushed more passion into eachother as they competed to show their affection for one and other. Their moment of bliss was interupted however, by a blaring car horn. Cody jolted up, instinctivley moving infront of Jodie as a black Hummer barrelled towards them. It took Cody a few seconds to recognize his cousin's vehicle. Wondering what the hell could bring him out to their picnic, Cody stood and waved his hands in the air as the hummer braked hard and slid to a stop. The driver side door opened and Cody's cousin jumped out wearing a look of grim concern. He strode over to Cody.
"Mike!" Cody exclaimed, hoping Mike's visit was pleasure based, "What are you doing out here? I told Lt. I had the day off and--"
Mike cut him off. "I know brother. It's a code six, everyone is being pulled in. They're picking up Stan as we speak."
Cody shifted uneasily, the sun now seeming to blaze down upon them. Cody wiped sweat from his forehead. If the USMC was flying in Stan from his extended holiday in Germany, it must be bad. "Any ideas on what it's all about?" Cody asked.
Mike shook his head. "No idea man, but it's got some pretty solid people shaking."
Jodie chose this time to interject. She had slowly slid in behind Cody and without Cody noticing, had grabbed his hand as if aware of some impendin danger that bore down upon them. "Cody, sweetheart, you need to go."
Cody looked at her, Jodie's eyes shining with tears as he grabbed her chin. Lifting her face up, Cody kissed her. "I'll be fine baby, don't worry, I'll see you at home real soon." He pulled her in close and squeezed hard, afraid for her, and afraid for him. Pulling away, Cody gave her one last glance before jumping into the passenger side of the hummer, Mike in right behind him. No sooner had Cody clicked in his belt, Mike was shifting gears and tearing away, Jodie, and the peacful oak shrinking in the rear view mirrior. Cody looked back forward, glancing quick at Mike who's knuckes were white on the wheel. "It's really bad isn't it bro?"
Mike shook his head. "You got no clue Cody. Worse than the Alaska incident last year."
Cody swallowed hard. Last year, Alaskan seperatists had captured the President and held him hostage for two weeks before Cody's team had located and rescued the president. The situation had uncovered a substantial plot to destroy the United States that included many high level Pentagon and White House officials. Cody massaged a temple. "Start talking."
Kevin Foor quikly dropped in two sugar cubes into his coffee, grabbed his cup, and pushed his way out of the busy staff room and towards his communication station. The activity on the moon had increased of late, when mass mines of Uranium and Titanium had been discovered during an archaeological dig. Since their discovery, the mines had steadily become more and more used untill massive machines and buildings had been errected to fully exploit the minerals, and that was just the start. Major mining companies from Earth sent up equipment and miners daily to join the already hundereds of people working on the new found source of two very important metals. The original archaeological dig still progressed however, and the two operations put together had increased the population of "Distant Life", the station from which all lunar operations started and ended. As the main station on the moon, and major hub for all activity, people like Kevin played a key role in the smooth operation of such activites.
Dubbed as "space operators", people like Kevin, who were actually simple radio technitions, sat in towers with glass domes and "operated". Taking calls from all types of spacecraft from human shuttles, to heavy machinery tankers, these "operators" acted as traffic cops and directed the many ships to and from docking stations, directed flight paths, and even at times, help direct round crews to crashed or damaged ships. Kevin simply saw himself as a glorified spaceship control tower. So as Kevin put on his headset and took a gulp of his already lukewarm coffee, he resumed business as usual. Checking his long range scanner, he noticed a human shuttle appraoching Distant Life. Throwing on his headset, he flipped his broadcast switch, lokced in on the shuttle and made his call.
"Shuttle TS-1995 this is Distant Life come in."
A gruff Russian voice replied seconds later. "Distant Life, this is Shuttle TS-1995 over. I have a flightplan scheduled to land at Docking Station 13 with a load of twenty passengers and three crew, over."
Kevin glanced at his computer, punching in the shuttle's ID tag. "Rodger, stand by." The screen flickered and a flightplan appeared showing that Shuttle TS-1995 was scheduled to land at Docking Station 13 at 10:30am. Glancing at the clock, Kevin noticed the shuttle was three minutes early. He flipped back on his mic. "Copy that Shuttle TS-1995, you are cleared for landing. Welcome to Distant Life." Kevin checked his schedule and confirmed that no other ships would be entering the system for another few hours. With this, he kicked his feet up, and finished off his coffee. His thoughts wandered, from his dog and new car back home, to his University paper that sat unfinished in his back. They were coming to a hot blonde he'd seen coming to work that morning when a loud beep blarred from his scanner. Kevin ignored it, for when an asteroid or any other assortment of space junk floated by the moon, it would go off, identifying the object as "unknown". He was just trying to picture the blondes curves when it beeped again. Kevin new it wouldn't beep twice if it was nothing, so he took his feet down, and checked the scanner.
It painted a target roughly 60km long, and weighing a couple thousand tonnes moving towards Distant Life. Shaking his head, Kevin scanned the database for ship specifications that would match the size and shape. He found none. He checked the scan again and it confrimed the object was slowing down, and changing direction towards Distant Life. His eyes widened when the scanner reported nuclear and unknwon energy sources emmitting from the object before sparking and snapping off. Grabbing his handheld scanner, he brought them to his eyes and looked out towards the dig site. He dropped the scanner, and stood, jaw open, as he took in the sight.
A black, oil coloured craft that looked almost wet floated towards the dig site. It's front looked slightly angled, like an arrow, but the back was shaped like the top of a heart, with each side boasting a rather large tube type engine, each flaring with blue-green flames. Along the top like quills ran dozens of antenna and tubes while along the sides rested dozens of glowing, red eyes, each one moving, and pulsing with energy. Kevin couldn't believe his eyes as the massive alien craft stopped with amazing speed and acuuracy, and presented one of it's broad sides to the dig site. The red eyes that ran the ships length flared and pulsed faster and started raining down intense red beams, each one sending flames into the air like giant geysers of water.
Kevin picked up his tower phone and pressed the button to contact the centreal tower when the power snapped off and the line went dead. He turned back to the craft outside his tower's window, and saw more approaching from behind the dig site. Cursing his luck, he ran out of his tower and to the central part of Distant Life. People needed to be warned here, and on Earth.
"So his warning just got through now?" Cody asked Mike as they flew through a red light, and sped towards Fort Liberty. "It's been nearly 2 hours!" he excalimed as Mike laid on the horn, and swerved around a grey sedan doing 80.
"I don't know man, I just got a call an hour ago from Stan saying he's on his way back, and that everyone is getting called in. Not long after, Lt. called and told me to grab you and bring us both is asap. Fuck if I know whats going on now."
Cody nodded as they pulled down the road leading to Fort Liberty. Both exchanged worried looks however, when they saw the oily black plume of smoke rising in the distance, and the strange looking craft hovering above it.
Chapter 2: Out Of The Frying Pan...
July 2, 2019, 12:36