The War for an Abbey's Ruins RP

[Skyblade]

"EVERYONE, CALM DOWN!" Mystery yelled as loudly as she could. She turned to Ridge. "What do you want? I'm sorry; I don't mean to be rude. What did you come for? Please don't kill us."

[LT Sandpaw]

"What.. What are you?" Ridge asked moving his weapon from the bird too the thing too the badger in quick succession not knowing what to shoot first.

"And what we want isn't really your concern. As for your friend it isn't dead just out cold for a while." Ridge backed off, along with the rest of the humans pointing their weapons threateningly at the creatures.

[Wot, wot!]

Spero turned  her gaze from the humans to Mystery, Stashi, and Ashenwyte, giving a great sigh of relief when she saw Stashi breathing again. Then, Spero turned her dark eyes back to the humans,"What didyou come for? Why did you take innocent creatures? Do you not realize that you destroyed everything? I don't understand it."

[Eulaliaaa!]

"Turn back and go the other way, if you want to live." You turn and see Stashi leaning against a tree, "Don't go any farther in that direction, nothing's there." She snarled, "And as for what we are, you made us, and we're never going back."

[Lady Ashenwyte]

Ashenlance said "I know you humans plan to settle this land, enslave us, and ruin this world like your planet.I too, have read books, you know.". Ashenlance laughed mirthlessly and threw his katana at the man, Bloodwrath controlling him. "And for that, you die!" He roared before charging at the human.

[LT Sandpaw]

"What, no, Our planet isn't ruined, Hey!" Dodging to one side Ridge avoided the weapon. The man right behind him took it to the chest a look of surprise crossed his features before he fell dead.

"No," Ridge glared at the charging badger his teeth ground together. "You'll die for that, Fire!" All four humans emptied their assault rifles magazines on the charging badger. The loud crack of the guns sounding though the forest.

[Eulaliaaa!]

Stashi ducked behind a tree, wrapping her wings around her for protection. Then started making her way through the bushes back to the human spaceship. She would completely destroy it, giving the humans no way to get back to their land. They would probably run far away, never coming back, and the other humans would think Mossflower was hostile and lose interest in living on it. She was certain the plan would work...

[Wot, wot!]

Spero stared in horror at the humans with their weapons raised at Ashenlance." Please, No!  We'll let you go! Don't kill him! Don't you see he's in bloodwrath right now? He can't help it! Stop!" Spero screamed, starting to fly at the humans.

[Skyblade]

"What.. What are you?" Ridge asked moving his weapon from the bird too the thing too the badger in quick succession not knowing what to shoot first.

"And what we want isn't really your concern. As for your friend it isn't dead just out cold for a while." Ridge backed off, along with the rest of the humans pointing their weapons threateningly at the creatures.

"I am... I don't know," Mystery murmured. She looked down at her webbed and clawed feet, proof that she was a mix-up, a creature that had no place to fit in. "And really? Stashi is alive?" A grin appeared on her dejected face when she turned to see the winged fox standing up. She opened her mouth to say something else when Ashenlance's vehement attack startled her. She scurried backwards as the badger flung himself at the humans. Quivering with fear and hesitation, Mystery did nothing but watch and immediately regretted it. "NOO!" she yelled, the guns serving as an impetus to put herself together. She threw herself in between the humans and Ashenlance before her fear would make her back down.

[Eulaliaaa!]

Stashi reached the ship, going inside and tearing apart everything. A loud beeping noise went off, startling her and sending her running out of the ship. It sounded out into the forest, able to be heard for miles.

[pacificmaelstrom]

OOC: Illustrations for posts #2, #8 and #49

[Lady Ashenwyte]

OOC: Thanks Pacific-san!  You should join. Can I have another character?

[Wot, wot!]

OOC: wow! Pacific, that's awesome!!! You really should join

[Eulaliaaa!]

That is amazing!

@Ashenwyte: yes, you can have up to two characters.

[pacificmaelstrom]

OOC: Ok I am joining. Brace yourself, this is a bit long.

BIC:

In geosynchronous orbit, from which point the vast mossflower woods appeared but a small patch of green beneath white swirling clouds of a beautiful planet, Commander Natalia Kosova was on the bridge of the SS Refuge.

It was among the smaller of the ships that had once made up the vast fleet her late father had maintained, but it was big enough. Of the ship's capacity of 2000, she and her crew of humans made up only 538. On Earth, it had been hard to find the kind of people she needed for a mission like this.

Actually, she thought to herself, it was hard to find any kind of people on Earth anymore.

Born of the irony, a dry smile began to form on her face, but she immediately stiffened from the pain. Under layers of makeup and plastic surgery, her beautiful, expressionless face masked deep scars from a nightmare she would never forget.

The outbreak. She was lucky to be alive, true, and while she and the company had single-handedly saved what remained of humanity, not a day went by that she didn't curse the disease and the planet that created it.    

At first it had all gone so well. Her father's explorers had discovered a unique form of alien life: a whole world populated by highly intelligent animals that bore such an uncanny resemblance to those of Earth, that the planet became known as Alterra. (A name derived from "Alter Earth") Their unique genetic code seemed to be the secret to unlocking all sorts of scientific discoveries. Labs had been set up all over Alterra to capture the animals and test them. Her brother had gone to supervise the progress himself.

But then it had happened.

Contact with Alterra was lost, and though several ships went to see what had happened, none of them returned, until finally, after seven years of silence, the SS Fearless returned to Earth on autopilot, its' crew dead from a mysterious disease.

Her father had tried to cover the whole thing up. Despite her protests, the ship was quietly returned to Earth for cleaning. Insufficient precautions were taken, and the disease escaped to wreak havoc on the globe. Even her father succumbed.

But Natalia was a survivor. She locked herself in a facility with the company's best remaining scientists. As the plague raged around them, they worked feverishly on a cure.
The pathogen was like nothing ever seen before. In humans, it triggered uncontrolled mutations, causing cancer and death, but in animals it seemed to turbocharge evolution, rapidly increasing their size and intelligence with each new generation until they reached a certain level, at which point it would cease to have any effect.

This explained the astonishing diversity of intelligent life on Alterra, long ago they had formed a sort of symbiosis with the pathogen and it had increased their intelligence to human levels. Unfortunately, humans, having evolved their intelligence independent of the pathogen, were targeted by it. It was as if the pathogen wished to eliminate any form of intelligence that it had not created.

The raw beauty of it was unmistakable. Given a few more years, the Earth would have become a second Alterra, all its humans decimated and replaced by newly intelligent animals. Perhaps there had once been something like humans on Alterra? It was a chilling thought, and it kept them going, knowing that they were fighting for the survival of the human species.

Finally, they made a breakthrough. With the right genetic modifications, humans could trick the pathogen and conceal themselves from its attacks by making it believe they were one of it's "animals".

Before the cure could be completed a mob of humans, fleeing from a horde of the new mutated vermin, broke into the facility and infected some of the scientists. In desperation, Natalia and the remaining scientists injected themselves with the unfinished serum, causing their bodies to undergo disfiguring mutations, but ultimately saving their lives. They were then able to finish the cure, eliminating its visible side effects.

Many dark months followed for Natalia. She fought tooth and claw for survival, establishing a human outpost which successfully repelled wandering hordes of mutated rats. Salvaging what she could of her father's decimated company, her outpost became a beacon of hope for the surviving humans. Slowly but steadily she formed some semblance of human civilization out of the ruins.  

Gradually she developed a plan. At great expenditure of ammunition and human lives, she had cleared the mutants from an old company facility long enough to retrieve the SS Refuge from its parking orbit. It was in that battle that Ridge had first proved himself to her; his strategy had brought them victory when all seemed lost.

The ship was their salvation. She had landed it at her outpost. With its government's and industries decimated, Earth might never build another Starship.

Natalia had used the robotic medical units on board the ship in an attempt to repair her mutated form. Ignoring warnings that it was too much, she went again and again under the knife, desperate to remove every last trace of the mutations. When she was finished, she had rebuilt or re-grown almost all of her body, leaving painful scars that would probably never heal.

But at least she was no longer a monster... like them.

With Earth becoming more dangerous by the day, she had decided it was time to leave. Gathering the best crew she could from the surviving humans, she decided to take the SS Refuge to Alterra. There, armed with modern weapons and immunity to the pathogen, she would carve out a new human civilization on the backs of the aliens who had destroyed hers.

They had taken her former life, her brother, her father, and left her permanently scarred. Now it was her turn to do the taking.





*BEEEEEEEEEEP*
An alert from her console shook her from her trance. It was the shuttle. Something had triggered its emergency locator beacon.

"Pull up an infrared on the shuttle," she told Xavier, her systems officer, her voice a whisper, amplified by a microphone on her jumpsuit. It hurt her to talk normally.

"I got it." He said, gesturing to his screen. "I see a medium signature moving away into the forest. Probably one of the aliens got in. Apparently the door failed to secure correctly."

"See if you can close it remotely. And what is the status of Ridge's party? I want that landing zone secured by morning."

"He appears to be surrounded by several of the aliens. There may be a conflict going on. Do you think we should do something?"

"Has he called for help?"

"No."

"Then leave him—" She coughed suddenly, racking her body in pain. She managed not to scream out, as that would have only made things worse.

"Are you all right?" Xavier asked nervously. She nodded, her jaw set tight and her eyes lightly closed. After a few moments she regained her composure.

"Leave him alone unless he asks for help." She said, "He can take care of himself."