Doors

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piper82
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 1:28 pm

Doors

Postby piper82 » Thu Sep 20, 2012 2:29 am

"Commander!"

"COMMANDER!"

I shook my head and took a glance at the man screaming at me. I tried to answer. I wanted to answer. But I couldn't. I thought I must be dreaming. And then, there were those strange lights and this strange music was playing from the ship's speakers. The frown on my face turned to a smile.

"Yes, that's why i can't talk. It happens all the time in dreams, right?" I thought to my self.

As he grabbed me by my throat the man yelled "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

Tiny drops of liquid hit my face. I recognized the scent. It was blood.

For the first time I looked straight at the man's face. It was Gunnery Sergeant Lagardi. Lagardi was a pretty tall for an Italian. He was always taking great care about his looks. Dark hair and a happy smile. Crew entertainer. He dreamed about the house in the Florence and a beautiful wife to go with it. He spent most of his free time flirting with Maria and Laura in the shield room. They were a happy bunch always laughing and cracking jokes.

His face was covered in thick blood gushing from the wounds on his head. Patches of hair were missing and the rest was burned almost to the skin. His grip tightened as he stared at me in disbelief. He had a gaze of a lunatic.

For the first time i let the voice and tried to explain myself.

"I..."

He pushed me hard and i fell on the floor next to the deck. I held my neck gasping for air. And there, suddenly, I could smell some other scents in the room. Foul alien stench, burning electronics, fuel and... Burning flesh...

I started to come to my senses.

Fires were burning across the vessel and the lights and sounds of various ship alarms accompanied with the sounds of air leaking out from the hull breaches, Mantis clicking and screams of the hurt crew members composed a horrifying symphony of destruction. Urge to breathe became stronger.

"This can't be happening" i mumbled.

As I tried to get up, I noticed the half-burned book on the floor. It was the hundreds of years old book i stole from the shop in the civilian sector. I can't help my self around books. They are so rare and i just love their scent. On the cover, there was a picture of human hand about to push the domino wall.
I opened the book and there was a text:

"HERE IS A SMALL FACT. You are going to die. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables."


"What have i done?" thought struck me in horrible realization.

We were experienced crew on important mission closing to an successful end. Ship was equipped with state of art technology cutting through enemy ranks as if they were made of paper. Routine fight against Mantis slavers turned out to be the worst nightmare of any star traveler. Mantis slaver ship was no match to our vessel by any means. Roaming through uncharted nebula just before entering our final mission sector our ship get caught in the ion storm. Nearby Mantis ship scanners did a poor job and underestimated our power. They came out of stealth and attacked. And there I made the fateful decision. Pushed the domino. Set the crucial variable.

"We don't have time for this. Cut the power to all available systems and reroute the power to weapons. It shouldn't take more than a few seconds." i ordered.

"But sir, the shields..." Lagardi tried to object.

"That's an order!" I interrupted him.

Our crew hadn't have much sleep in the past few days and i wanted to deal with threat as fast as possible and rest the crew hiding in the nebula.

"We should be ok." Laura added.

"Aye, aye sir. Tu sei il capo..." Lagardi replied unhappy with my decision.

Lagardi did as i ordered. We struck the Mantis ship with horrendous firepower and it fell apart within seconds.
However, everything went wrong at this point. Clever Mantis commander realized his mistake as soon as we started powering up our weapons and ordered full crew boarding on our ship. Moments before falling apart, the Mantis ship fired a fire beam and a barrage of hull breaching missiles. Fire, missiles and boarders struck almost at the same time on our unprotected hull. Fires were burning across the ship, hull breaches were everywhere and Mantis commandos rampaging whats left of the crew and the systems. I knew that the crew couldn't deal with all these threats at once. I tried to figure how to deal with it. And then I froze up.

"Go fix the oxygen room!" Lagardi's voice pulled me back to the reality of situation. He roared and jumped on the Mantis clawing the back of the crew member lying on the floor. It was Maria. Or Laura. I couldn't tell. They were sisters and looked very alike and it was hard to tell which one is it under the given conditions. Laura was renown shield systems specialist and the Maria was the best damn engineer after the Engies in the whole known universe. They were born in distant colony and their father was a respected general of Federation forces. He was assassinated in Slug nebula during a meeting with the Slug revolutionists organizing coup against their government. Their mother and younger brother were declared missing after the Rebel forces wiped out the colony they lived on. I felt the lack of oxygen clenching my lungs as i fought to take a sip of air.

I started to run to oxygen room and ran by a Mantis bashing on the door of a door control room. He struck me while i was passing, but as i ran past him, he turned to the door again. I entered the oxygen room and found Maria lying on the floor. She was trying to repair the machine. Only few nuts and bolts and she would have made it. She was holding a picture in her hand. Picture of her family on their home porch. Her brother sitting in Laura's lap. Her parents hugged. I smelled the picture, put it in my pocket and quickly fixed the machine and fresh air started pouring from the vents. Even with the fresh air, i couldn't breathe well. There was one smell that was still bothering me. It was a foul smell of a Mantis breaking into door control room.

Suddenly, of all the deaths around me i began to fear one the most. My own.

So i made another decision. I stuck the doors so they cannot open remotely. I stopped breathing for a second and i could still hear the faint sound of a fight throughout the ship. Another thought crossed my mind "HERE IS A SMALL FACT... I am not going to die."

"COMPUTER!" i yelled.

"Yes commander?" Ship computer replied.

I paused for a brief moment and said "Open all doors on the ship."
noname1208
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2012 12:43 pm

Re: Doors

Postby noname1208 » Sun Sep 23, 2012 12:46 pm

What a story, great job with that
piper82
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 1:28 pm

Re: Doors

Postby piper82 » Mon Sep 24, 2012 5:41 pm

noname1208 wrote:What a story, great job with that


Im glad you liked it!

Im not well versed in english as i should be to write a quality story but i tried to the best of my capabilities.

This actually happened with one of my "now or never" Kestrel ship before i beat the game for the first time.
It was going so well and i decided to move away from the laptop, unplugged the earphones and play with just a mouse for a while. The only downside was the small crew of 4.

I entered a nebula with ion storm. Started a fight, considering the power surge i had to compensate and rerouted all power to weapons to zerg the opponent. I was distracted by some other things in the house and i didnt notice any of the danger since the sensors were offline and i didnt have slug on board. When the fire and invaders spread to occupied rooms i finally noticed flashing warnings and I was too far to press the space when the s*it hit the fan. As i watched the mess on my ship i couldnt decide what to do until it was too late. I jumped and pressed the space just to conclude that this fight will be lost. I had about 6 mantis on my ship and multiple fires and breaches and i didnt even noticed. (except one fire and one breach which were under control at the moment). So wherever i sent a crew, there was something not survivable. Ship was almost beyond survival. I was SO mad at myself.

But then i figured it out. I sent the pilot to the oxygen room, opened all doors then closed the oxy room. (moments before losing door control). Although pointless against AI, i felt much better for not having them survive my failure. :twisted:
ComboBreaker
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 9:05 pm

Re: Doors

Postby ComboBreaker » Mon Sep 24, 2012 10:02 pm

The whole story had some weak moments(Captain has some time to read a book in the middle of assault?What?),but in the end I enjoyed it.

Final dialogue sent chills down my spine,nice preparation and execution!

When I am losing I am trying to make as much damage to AI as I can.Like,I send all my crew into teleporter just to take and hold their oxygen room.You are going to hell with us in a handbasket you gits!
piper82
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 1:28 pm

Re: Doors

Postby piper82 » Tue Sep 25, 2012 10:31 am

ComboBreaker wrote:The whole story had some weak moments(Captain has some time to read a book in the middle of assault?What?),but in the end I enjoyed it.

Final dialogue sent chills down my spine,nice preparation and execution!

When I am losing I am trying to make as much damage to AI as I can.Like,I send all my crew into teleporter just to take and hold their oxygen room.You are going to hell with us in a handbasket you gits!


My first thought looking at the screen in that mess was "You are all going to die." It reminded me of a prologue of a book 'The Book Thief'.

I had to make captain read that prologue for the story purposes and it needed to be a book, not a memory because i also wanted to reference it by making the captain ironically steal it from somewhere. The book thief stole the book thief.

I tried to cover it by the captain's state of shock.

Looking back at it now, i agree that i made a mistake. No matter how shocked, i doubt someone would take a book and open it in such situation. I should have made the book open and captain falling on it just to read the needed line.

Glad you liked it and keep em suffering! :) I never restart or rage quit. I try to enjoy the game as it is and the dying hard is large portion of the game. Sh*t happens is space wars and most of stories do not have happy ending.
Doc
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:18 pm

Re: Doors

Postby Doc » Tue Sep 25, 2012 4:51 pm

I knew that I'd seen that line before! Funny thing is, I ended up stealing the same book from my english teacher, I always found it ironic.

Also, really good. I liked the last few lines especially.
piper82
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 1:28 pm

Re: Doors

Postby piper82 » Tue Sep 25, 2012 6:14 pm

Doc wrote:I knew that I'd seen that line before! Funny thing is, I ended up stealing the same book from my english teacher, I always found it ironic.

Also, really good. I liked the last few lines especially.


Well, it is ironic and i find it funny too :) Its a good novel.

Thanks for the feedback, its appreciated.