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| Oberon and Athena; Habitable worlds, and story elements! | |
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| Topic Started: Jun 12 2009, 08:36 AM (1,419 Views) | |
| Spinosaurus Rex | Jun 12 2009, 08:36 AM Post #1 |
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Oberon and Athena will be a thread focusing on two worlds orbiting the star Vaio, with both harboring life. Athena "Look at it out there! So much like Earth... have we found Eden?" Mass: 1.17 Earth masses Equatorial Radius: 6,290 km. Polar Radius: 6,221 km. Surface Area: 499,471,00 km. Atmosphere: 79% Nitrogen, 19.5% Oxygen, 1.5% Other Gases Surface Gravity: 1.18 G (It is slightly denser than Earth) Oberon "Look at that monster! Like a big... black, marble." Mass: 1.98 Earth Masses Equatorial Radius: 6,996 km. Polar Radius: 6,932 km. Surface Area: 547,709,000 km. Atmosphere: 74% Nitrogen, 19% Oxygen, 6.1% Greenhouse gases, .9% Other gases Surface Gravity: 1.67 G These worlds orbit the G3IVm class star Vaio. It is bigger and warmer then Sol, and contains unusual amounts of metals (As denoted by "m"). Athena orbits confortably in the habitable zone of Vaio. Oberon is the equivalent of Mars distance, with it being farther away and out of the habitable zone. But because of its many greenhouse gases due to extreme volcanic activity, it is a relatively warm, supporting a complex ecoysystem of many different organisms. These organisms are surviving below a "veil" of dark, black gases which blanket the upper atmosphere of the world, refracting light into the atmosphere but not reflecting it out to space. This thread will be narrated in the form of late Jessica Navajo, an astrobiologist in her late twenties who volunteered for the Pioneer Colonies program. A large team of 500-600 volunteers would take a single science/industrial vessel (In Jessicas' case, her ship was the ISAP Enterprize.) to a suspected solar system which housed life, and possibly a habitable world. After Jessicas death, her hournal will be continued by one of her friends, a Draconis (Explained later) named Eeytola(Ai-ee-TO-la). A bit of background. The year is 2067. Earth initiated a controlled test of a traversable wormhole in 2016, to use it to reach Alpha Centauri. The ship returned, but with an armada of unknown vessels right behind it. They were the Vobex, a race of bipedal sapient reptiles who detected entrance into the habitable Alpha Centauri system. They were of the Imitiga hive, the largest hive in Vobex society. Vobex reproduce physically similarly to Humans, but the only fertile females are Queens and Rogues. Being extemely territorial, the Imitiga Queen ordered humanity genocided. The resulting conflict killed 4 billion humans, and humanity was just recovering from WWIII, a war that killed 900 million people. When the other hives discovered that humans possessed music, and indeed, had culture, the Imitiga Queen was killed for her actions, and all military forces retreated to Vobex territory. The Vobex had offered humanity hundreds of superior technologies in exchange for music CDs, of which they found so utterly beautiful they couldn't resist. It was later discovered that a race of humanoid machines was also establishing space colonisation within the area. These androids say that they were created by humans long ago, and that they seeked a world of their own. These three species formed the initial Interstellar Alliance Of Planets, which quicly expanded with the discovery and technological uplifting of many, less-advanced species. In 2061, an ISAP heavy cruiser observed an interstellar war between the two species of Gliese 581. When both sides were on the brink of releasing plagues and famine on the others world, the Draconis appeared. In a massive, super-ship, a Draconis vessel arrived out of previously thought to be impossible FTL travel, announcing that they "had been watching" the two species, and that "this will be for the greater good of both your worlds." The single vessel fired an ungodly assortment of only theoretical/prototype weapons in ISAP terms. The fleets of both species, well over 400 vessels, were utterly destroyed by the Draconis vessel. When ISAP Command learned of this seconds later, a fleet of thirty warships, including the only ISAP ship just as large and experimentally armed, the ISAP Folev, were sent immediately. It was revealed to ISAP that the Draconis evolved from Earth's troodontian species in the Cretaceous. After one million years of prosperity, a decision was made to "wipe clean our harm of our world and leave another species to its beauty." In otherwise, the Draconis directed the asteroid that caused the KT extinction onto Earth, killing the dinosaurs and indirectly leading to human evolution. They were also the UFOs species that was reported for so long, so many times. They were simply observing the genetic makeup of Humans, and tried to avoid "spoiling the surprise that life is everywhere in the galaxy." The Draconis agreed to join ISAP. However, they refused to share their advanced technologies, stating, "We have spent millions of years developing our culture, our technology, our very existence. Some things cannot be given. They must be earned." The ISAP history has much more (I wrote nearly an entire damn book on it when I was 17.), but for reasons obvious I'll go on with the damn thread. P.S. Humans still use guns. Vobex and Droidekka(the androids) weapons are actually not superior in strength. ISAP ships use combos of technologies to have a bit of everything. Jessica Navajo, initial entry into Vaio System. I'm on board the Enterprize, where the food sucks and everyone knows it. But, we'll get along better if we can farm on Athena. Jessica Navajo, we've just went through the wormhole. I can see Athena, way off in the distance. Woah... what is that? Look at that monster! Like a big... black marble. Database reads it as... Oberon. And that's it. No other information availlible. Well then, how fun. Look at it out there! So much like Earth... have we found an Eden world at last? Its' beautiful... green on some parts, with a single, large continent. It has green, yellow... red? This world is a damn rainbow! Initial readings say... earth-like atmosphere, flora similar to Earths... in some places. No readings on mega-large fauna yet. Too bad, I was hoping for a sapient, alien Godzilla to talk to. (Yawns) We've been in orbit for fourteen hours. After several probe launches, we have confirmed what Captain Grelyn should've... oh I don't know... deduced, that there are macroscopic fauna species living in the oceans. It's about time to hit the hay for me, I'll see what's happening tomorrow... ISAP Species Database Planet Athena Vaio System Kingdom: Animalia "Two Tailed Kylosinth" "Forest Runner" Kylosinth folivorestei Length: 6 ft. Height: 2 ft. Weight 120-150 lbs. Notable Characteristics: Three sets of visual organs; thermoreceptive thermal vision eyes, standard eyes, and the largest, motion eyes. Motion eyes illuminate sudden movement in bright blurs, and also allow for Two-Tailed Kylosinths to track "thermally dead" predators at night. Recently Updated Info: It is the only known species of Kylosinth to possess two tails. All Kylosinth tails produce highly charged and chemically reactive spores. These spores are dripped off of black proto-feathers on the ends of Kylosinth tails. Two-Tailed Kylosinths, like all other Kylosinths, operate in large herds of well over 50 individuals. They travel together, and offer protection to the rest of the herd. When they reach a destination, they disperse and often fend individually for food until nightfall, where they all regroup in large areas and rest. Kylosinth standard eyes are confirmed to see only black, blue, red, yellow, white, and brown. Edited by Spinosaurus Rex, Jun 14 2009, 03:37 AM.
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The Dreaded AOL Dial-Up has left me afraid to spend more than 5 minutes posting at risk of losing it all. Arghhh.
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| Spinosaurus Rex | Jun 16 2009, 12:20 AM Post #16 |
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Make it a story? That sounds fun! Jessica Navajo, live from a massive herd of Omegatitans! Heh, i've been working on my newscaster skills. God, look at these things! So many... so huge! They are eating entire forests in minutes! Minutes!!! God, if we had these things on Earth we'd be tree less in days! Maybe I'll stick around, and take a few pictures and videos for research... A massive, garbled up radio signal just erupted on all frequencies in the area. Source is in space, but all the info is garbled up and ininterpretable. I've also noticed that some of the info uses the obsolete Binary Code. We have no translators... so, I guess we'll have to go out and ask. After analyzing the message... I've gotten the following info out of it. It is not joyful. [Contingence UX117]... (Life System Failure)... (Critical Systems Failure)... [01000101 01101110 01100111 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01010000 01110010 01101111 01110100 01101111 01100011 01101111 01101100 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 01000011 01101111 01101110 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 01100101 01101110 01100011 01100101 00100000 01010101 01011000 00110001 00110001 00110111 00100000 01010010 01100101 01100110 00101110 00100000 01001001 01010011 01000001 01010000 00100000 01000101 01101101 01100101 01100111 01100101 01101110 01100011 01111001 00100000 01001000 01100001 01101110 01100100 01100010 01101111 01101111 01101011 00101110 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 01001111 01100010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01101110 00100000 01001111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01110101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01010101 01011000 00110001 00110001 00110111 00100000 01001010 01110101 01110010 01101001 01110011 01100100 01101001 01100011 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00101110](Real Binary) (Oberon One, Mass Error) (Oberon One Down) [REPEAT Contingence UX117] |
The Dreaded AOL Dial-Up has left me afraid to spend more than 5 minutes posting at risk of losing it all. Arghhh.
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| ATEK Azul | Jun 16 2009, 12:04 PM Post #17 |
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Transhuman
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What is going on it is a great part but I can't tell whats suppose to be happening? Of course I'm guessing that this is on purpose so I will wait for the next update. |
| I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's! | |
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| Spinosaurus Rex | Jun 16 2009, 01:53 PM Post #18 |
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Unless you can read binary AND are a damn good guesser, then you probably won't get anything out of it. Jessica Navajo. I have decoded part of the message. UX117 refers to protocols in vessels under military jurisdiction. TOP SECRET CIA SPOOKY kind've jurisdiction. When critical missions are compromised, a vessel must disengage all active systems and crash land into the nearest world. Assuming it was projected that they would make it. Enterprize's computer is just working down to the source... (Unpleasant Female Voice) Source Found: Vaio System; Planet Oberon No way... Oberon is dead. Under UX117C, UX117 is null and void if the crew doesn't survive or can't recon into the planet they're landing on. Oberon can't be reconned, as the unknown gas layer in the upper atmosphere prevents any signals from getting through to the surface. The probe that visited the system before us called it a "proto-gas dwarf" and attempted no further readings before taking a hitchhike to Athena. How could they... well, I have to inform the Captain... Jessica Navajo... I'm in the Enterprize. And we're orbiting Oberon. Let me tell you, we're getting some FUcked uP readings here. Like, off the damn charts. There is some kind've really large explosion of some sort ripping a hole into the gas layer. We're getting some readings, but most are just refract-WOAH NELLY, we got organic material, liquid water, supervolcano erupting, Jesus... there was life on the BLack Marble and we never even knew it. Signal source found, pretty close to the eruption. (Tilting Sound) (Annoying Male Voice) All passengers, we are making entry into Oberon. Please grab the nearest ledge as this will be very unpleasant. That is all. Oh boy... |
The Dreaded AOL Dial-Up has left me afraid to spend more than 5 minutes posting at risk of losing it all. Arghhh.
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| ATEK Azul | Jun 16 2009, 07:38 PM Post #19 |
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Transhuman
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Wow awsome their going to an even stranger planet! Cool i look forward to the strange world ahead and any thing else from Athena. |
| I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's! | |
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| Spinosaurus Rex | Jun 16 2009, 08:17 PM Post #20 |
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There'll still be plenty of stuff from Athena. After they figure out what the hell is going on, they'll regularly switch between Athena, Oberon, Athena, Oberon. Jessica Navajo, we are landing now. Jesus, look at this place! So many shapes, so little color... and there is the crashed vessel. No marks, no insignia, how very Roswell-ish. Well then, let's get oh so close to a supervolcanic magma flow, and just see how they're doing, shall we? Okay, now. Live from inside Oberon's Veil! I'm moving behind the soldiers. Coming up on the door... well, code didn't work. Huh, a kick from a soldier didn't work... (Metal shearing sound) but a teleninetic push inwards from one of our Draconis buddies did. How subtle. Okay, so we just get the crew, and we-w-wo-WOAH! Jesus, one of the windows is open, and all the crew... skeletons. Some with crushed bones. Talk about things that go "bump" in the night. It apears that this vessel must be years old, but we were the first manned vessel to ever enter this system! What the hell... Jessica Navajo... we're grounded. Electromagnetic storm. Pumping enough current overhead to fry a Poptart. Three days here, but we've got the last logs of the mystery vessel. Captain's crew trying to figure out how to break into them, read their encrypted, protected files. But they won't succeed. UX117 vessels are like Kremlin Ghost Codes. You don't break em, but they break you. Day One, Jessica Navajo, ISAP Enterprize, Vaio System, Planet: Oberon. Tch, yeah, more like planet "Hell Without The Fire To BRIGHTEN Up Your Day." I have yet to go outside and attempt to investigate the autotrophs. Or anything out there, for that matter. I saw what happened to the crew of the Eisley, that was its name. Killed by a ravenous swarm of killer piranha-like... things. I don't think they can be classified under any known genus or family. All I know is, I don't want to meet them. After they had gone, a thing that might be classified as an insect flew in through the window. Large, with no eyes. It seemed to take interest in the light, though. Strange, how could it even sense the lights were there? It did not have any vijsual organs, as far as I could see. More later... |
The Dreaded AOL Dial-Up has left me afraid to spend more than 5 minutes posting at risk of losing it all. Arghhh.
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| Spinosaurus Rex | Jun 18 2009, 01:55 AM Post #21 |
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Jessica Navajo, Day Two. I just took a trip outside. You know... it wasn't as scary as I had expected. Many animals seemed to just walk up and investigate me. Okay, nothing on this world has eyes. I had ascertained that the moment I got here. I've examined a traquilized creature, and found that it falls under the classification "reptomammalian." It seems to give live birth, is warm-blooded, has a thick scale like structure with fur, and appears to sense things through hypersensitive sonar. Advanced damn sonar. With that said, me yelling actually caused it to run off in pain. This specimen has a weird...weird hand. Where claws or fingers would be, it has four hypermuscular extensions of knuckle analogues, which are capable of smashing inwards with the force of most known creatures jaw strength. This thing has serious grip. It has jaws, as well, but it kind've seems to have devolved into a sort've flexing esophagus. As any meat goes in, it is pushed VERY quickly through a series of incredibly sharp teeth. Well, they are really thin and slice through meat and bone instantly, so... let's just call it a "pseudosupertooth." More on that creature later... |
The Dreaded AOL Dial-Up has left me afraid to spend more than 5 minutes posting at risk of losing it all. Arghhh.
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| ATEK Azul | Jun 18 2009, 03:45 PM Post #22 |
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That sounds interesting though I am having a hard time picturing it. |
| I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's! | |
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| Spinosaurus Rex | Jun 19 2009, 03:28 AM Post #23 |
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Which is why I need to get an artist. |
The Dreaded AOL Dial-Up has left me afraid to spend more than 5 minutes posting at risk of losing it all. Arghhh.
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| ATEK Azul | Jun 19 2009, 07:44 PM Post #24 |
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Transhuman
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Well that would probably help, though your descriptions are great. |
| I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's! | |
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| Spinosaurus Rex | Jun 19 2009, 10:16 PM Post #25 |
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Pssshhhtt, not like anyone's who is good will volunteer. They want to lay at their feet and lick their boots. But I'm getting so desperate, I just might... |
The Dreaded AOL Dial-Up has left me afraid to spend more than 5 minutes posting at risk of losing it all. Arghhh.
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| Empyreon | Jun 22 2009, 12:52 PM Post #26 |
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Are you plausible?
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Hey, if I had more time I'd draw for pretty much everybody! Unfortunately, that always leads to putting more on my plate that I can handle. I've finally sat down and started to read through this in depth. I love your style! Your aliens are amazing, and the story they're couched in is so compelling! What's your inspiration, specifically? One thing I'm interested in is why so much of the fauna you've described has developed not only universally acute senses but the sophisticated brains to readily process them. What kind of evolutionarily circumstances kept them from being more specialized and therefore less complex? Edited by Empyreon, Jun 22 2009, 01:21 PM.
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Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus! COM Contributions food for thought
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| Spinosaurus Rex | Jun 27 2009, 05:19 PM Post #27 |
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Now that I'm back to actually answer that... During the evolutionary course of Athena, the most common type of "sight" was thermal vision, which was universally used. However, many predators eventually evolved a counteracting "thermally dead" prescence. That is, their bodies emit significantly less heat, contained safely in thermally receptive epithelial layers in the skin, which allowed their bodies to be masked effectively. At this time, overpredation caused a mass extinction which was massive in scale. The few families that did survive adapted other ways to detect predators, therefore detecting predators and getting the hell away. This is what caused sonar, and "normal" eyes. Any herbivore that was born lacking a particular sense would probably be killed. Herbivores also began to evolve "thermally dead" skin layers, a result of convergent evolution. In response, predators have begun evolving completely universal senses. They detect everything, but there are so many different herbivores, all with often differing senses and physical characteristics, due to the unusually large amount of genes necessary to actually encode all of these senses. It is often that brothers will be born with different visions, one perhaps with coveted electromagnetic vision, one with only thermal vision. At its current point in developement, Athena can be described as a mixing bowl. It is likely that sonar and electromagnetic vision will succeed as the primary senses, as there is no known way to counter them, but creatures will most likely always retain their many senses because is it rare for these to actually hurt the creatures chance of survival. Inspiration? Uh... (error) <query/invalidate13902> (jAkhEidC723) ?????????? |
The Dreaded AOL Dial-Up has left me afraid to spend more than 5 minutes posting at risk of losing it all. Arghhh.
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| ATEK Azul | Jun 28 2009, 01:09 PM Post #28 |
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Transhuman
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Very interesting it sounds like we are looking at a planet in a major transition from the old mostly extinct habitats to new diverse and weird new habitats not like the old. That is awesome I love these worlds! |
| I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's! | |
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| Empyreon | Jun 28 2009, 04:00 PM Post #29 |
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Are you plausible?
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These guys are jacks of all trades, and masters of all. That's expensive, evolutionarily speaking. I guess I just think it would be a better use of their neurological budget to concentrate on a specific prey species (or type of hiding mechanism) and focus on overcoming its defenses. Such attributes probably won't last long in the whole scheme of things, and your human characters are very lucky to see such phenomena. |
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Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus! COM Contributions food for thought
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| Spinosaurus Rex | Jun 28 2009, 06:56 PM Post #30 |
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^Indeed. But, at least in herbivores, they aren't that... smart, to deal with the increased space that a larger, more developed sensory section takes up. Predators, however, grew larger skulls(As a consequence, got a lot bigger, too) to maintain high intelligence levels while not losing their many super senses. Jessica Navajo, Day 3. In sixteen hours, we're leaving. However, I do plan to occassionally return to this world. I especially wish to examine the muscular appendages I noticed on that... creature. I still can't wait to return to Athena, though. My god, the air here is unbearable. I want to return just to breath without these uncomfortable masks on. I've glimpsed wonders on this world... so i'm leaving a little robot drone to explore for me. (Chattering from many voices) Head Science Officer Navajo: Jessica Navajo, from Bridge. We are entering orbit around Athena... exiting wormhole in 3...2...1... (Cheers and whoots) Tactical Officer Desablo: Captain, we're picking up refined metals. We're orbiting the opposite side of the planet from the outpost, and these were not here before. Captain Kahjin: Another ship? Tactical Officer Desablo: No sir. No spatial disturbances, no ship entered the system with wormholes, and there is no Ion trail left by Draconis FTL. Our sensors just didn't pick it up. Captain Kahjin: Scan it, find out what- (Strange Sound) Tactical Officer Desablo: Unknown Energy Wave! Big one, sir! Captain Kahjin: Can't our shields- (Sparks flying, monitors bursting) Captain Kahjin: Block it? Tactical Officer Desablo: No sir, they only work with matter, and energy that's highly charged! (Flames igniting, lights failing, metal physically shearing) Captain Kahjin: You can't tell me that's not highly charged! Second Officer Adamson: Systems are failing, nuclear drive offline, life support has failed on two decks, hull breaches on C, D, and G, sir, we are- (Screen bursts) Second Officer Adamson: We have lost propulsion completely, backups are taking effect, but they are fluctuating. First Officer Ignotas: Sir, we are dead in the water. We should evacuate. Captain Kahjin: I agree, but first, Ensign, are sensors online? Ensign Herall: No, sir. We lost them. Engineering reports they'll have them back in seven hours. Captain Kahjin: Tell him to hurry up! Barry, initiate evacuation- Ensign Herall: Sir! we're plummeting into the thermosphere. Time to atmospheric impact, one minute, twelve seconds. First Officer Ignotas: That puts evac out of the question. Where will we land? Ensign Herall: The ocean. Wait... path fluctuating, unknown gravitational alterations, sir our trajectory is changing! Captain Kahjin: New destination point, Ensign? Ensign Herall: Our path is altering radically as we move in, sir. (Sighs) There's no way to know. Captain Kahjin: Can we survive atmosphere in our current state? Tactical Officer Desablo: ... (Shakes head) No... sir. Ensign Herall: Impact with atmosphere in ten seconds! Ensign Herall: Five... four... three... two... one... (Rumbling, serious vibration, people falling) Head Science Officer Navajo: Oh shit... |
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9:41 AM Jul 11