Re: The Fatal Conflict (GBS2G7) (Round 3: The Infinite Playground!)
08-13-2011, 05:48 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by Pinary.
Scott had seen jungle gyms before, but this was just ridiculous. It was more jungle than gym, just a tangled mass of pipes, ropes, slides, and any number of other things for kids to climb on or fall off of. He could see some sky here and there, but for the most part, he was forced to clamber through spaces not meant for a six-foot-something guy sporting an overdone, flowing cape and a healed-but-still-painful gut wound.
Seriously, it may've been healed over, and he probably wasn't going to die of internal bleeding, but getting a pipe jammed into you isn't something you just get over in five minutes. (Though, Scott reminded himself, neither was dying, but here they all were.)
As his frustration grew at manoeuvring himself gingerly through the cramped, awkward mess of a play-structure, he cursed the one who'd forced them all here. He didn't really form much in the way of a coherent philosophical argument against the pulling of beings into combat against their will, but he reached the conclusion that Zaire was a jackass just fine anyway. Heaving himself over a rope-mesh wall, he found his resolve solidifying; he wasn't going to fight the others, no matter how much the Grandmaster pushed. When it'd come down to it, they'd helped him (hell, Kaja had saved his life when he could've just not done anything and been one step closer to his own survival), and he wasn't about to repay the favour by just watching out for number one.
They were in this together, and he wasn't about to go after them just for his own benefit. Zaire may've gone and kept his distance this time around, but he'd shown himself to be massively impatient and overconfident. Scott didn't care how much work it took- he was going to find whatever crater the so-called Redeemer was hiding in and take him down.
-
"Newton Orbiter, please respond!"
Depending on your viewpoint, things in the shuttle were either mildly amusing or tense and stressful.
"Relax, man. Remember two months ago? That crappy ARCS array lost audio but kept going with video."
Carter, half of the ship's crew if you counted by individuals or two thirds if you counted by overall mass, shot his co-pilot a glare. "Yes, but they're not signalling at all. No audio, no video, not even a sliver of Morse."
Carol just reclined her seat a bit further and laughed. "You mean like last year, when ARCS kept them isolated for three months because they'd supposedly violated the warranty on the thing?"
"At least they had some sort of communication then. You'd think they would've reconnected the external lights to that encoder they rigged up by now."
-
Food.
Simphonia ignored the child, blowing right past him, missed Zom by inches, and clipped Zach. Her path started arcing up, her concerns completely changed in a fraction of a second. There was food up there. She didn't have time for intruders right now.
-
Air rushed out of the hole that that thing had shredded in the side of the pilots' cabin. Carter had been lucky- he'd strapped himself in and checked the safety gear under his seat before leaving. Carol had always been a bit more laid-back about such things.
The ship's remaining pilot wrestled with the controls, trying to keep it from just dropping straight towards the playground's surface. He succeeded, to an extent- it blew past a sea of coloured balls, skimmed the top of a tangled mass of climbing structure, and started back up and away. With any luck-
Something came up over the extremely-near horizon, and Carter swore. He wrenched the controls to the right, hoping he still had time to turn before the ship slammed straight into the massive slide.
His harness dug into him as the tiny transport tried valiantly to avoid impact, but he blacked out from the G-forces before the pain could really get to him.
-
Scott, who'd dragged himself to the peak of some sort of plastic rock wall when he'd heard something roaring through the atmosphere, watched as the ship tore a hunk of plastic slide off of the nearby mountain-like slide and tumbled away to land a little ways over the horizon with a whump. He couldn't be sure, but the cloud of brownish dust that the impact raised gave him a decent idea of where it had landed. He redoubled his efforts and headed off, the sense of (admittedly vague) purpose pushing his aching torso from his mind. With any luck, the thing would still be decently intact.
Scott had seen jungle gyms before, but this was just ridiculous. It was more jungle than gym, just a tangled mass of pipes, ropes, slides, and any number of other things for kids to climb on or fall off of. He could see some sky here and there, but for the most part, he was forced to clamber through spaces not meant for a six-foot-something guy sporting an overdone, flowing cape and a healed-but-still-painful gut wound.
Seriously, it may've been healed over, and he probably wasn't going to die of internal bleeding, but getting a pipe jammed into you isn't something you just get over in five minutes. (Though, Scott reminded himself, neither was dying, but here they all were.)
As his frustration grew at manoeuvring himself gingerly through the cramped, awkward mess of a play-structure, he cursed the one who'd forced them all here. He didn't really form much in the way of a coherent philosophical argument against the pulling of beings into combat against their will, but he reached the conclusion that Zaire was a jackass just fine anyway. Heaving himself over a rope-mesh wall, he found his resolve solidifying; he wasn't going to fight the others, no matter how much the Grandmaster pushed. When it'd come down to it, they'd helped him (hell, Kaja had saved his life when he could've just not done anything and been one step closer to his own survival), and he wasn't about to repay the favour by just watching out for number one.
They were in this together, and he wasn't about to go after them just for his own benefit. Zaire may've gone and kept his distance this time around, but he'd shown himself to be massively impatient and overconfident. Scott didn't care how much work it took- he was going to find whatever crater the so-called Redeemer was hiding in and take him down.
-
"Newton Orbiter, please respond!"
Depending on your viewpoint, things in the shuttle were either mildly amusing or tense and stressful.
"Relax, man. Remember two months ago? That crappy ARCS array lost audio but kept going with video."
Carter, half of the ship's crew if you counted by individuals or two thirds if you counted by overall mass, shot his co-pilot a glare. "Yes, but they're not signalling at all. No audio, no video, not even a sliver of Morse."
Carol just reclined her seat a bit further and laughed. "You mean like last year, when ARCS kept them isolated for three months because they'd supposedly violated the warranty on the thing?"
"At least they had some sort of communication then. You'd think they would've reconnected the external lights to that encoder they rigged up by now."
-
Food.
Simphonia ignored the child, blowing right past him, missed Zom by inches, and clipped Zach. Her path started arcing up, her concerns completely changed in a fraction of a second. There was food up there. She didn't have time for intruders right now.
-
Air rushed out of the hole that that thing had shredded in the side of the pilots' cabin. Carter had been lucky- he'd strapped himself in and checked the safety gear under his seat before leaving. Carol had always been a bit more laid-back about such things.
The ship's remaining pilot wrestled with the controls, trying to keep it from just dropping straight towards the playground's surface. He succeeded, to an extent- it blew past a sea of coloured balls, skimmed the top of a tangled mass of climbing structure, and started back up and away. With any luck-
Something came up over the extremely-near horizon, and Carter swore. He wrenched the controls to the right, hoping he still had time to turn before the ship slammed straight into the massive slide.
His harness dug into him as the tiny transport tried valiantly to avoid impact, but he blacked out from the G-forces before the pain could really get to him.
-
Scott, who'd dragged himself to the peak of some sort of plastic rock wall when he'd heard something roaring through the atmosphere, watched as the ship tore a hunk of plastic slide off of the nearby mountain-like slide and tumbled away to land a little ways over the horizon with a whump. He couldn't be sure, but the cloud of brownish dust that the impact raised gave him a decent idea of where it had landed. He redoubled his efforts and headed off, the sense of (admittedly vague) purpose pushing his aching torso from his mind. With any luck, the thing would still be decently intact.