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Areleia
Cookie Monster
61 posts
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(MIRTB) Multiple Independently-Targetable Re-Entry Thought Bombs... 0.o -GASP-
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last online Jun 26, 2009 21:56:22 GMT -5
Youngling
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Aug 11, 2008 22:04:59 GMT -5
Post by Areleia on Aug 11, 2008 22:04:59 GMT -5
Compound description coming soon.
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Areleia
Cookie Monster
61 posts
0 likes
(MIRTB) Multiple Independently-Targetable Re-Entry Thought Bombs... 0.o -GASP-
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last online Jun 26, 2009 21:56:22 GMT -5
Youngling
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Aug 11, 2008 22:14:52 GMT -5
Post by Areleia on Aug 11, 2008 22:14:52 GMT -5
Syb sat in the high backed executive chair with her feet propped up on the instrument panel. Areleia hadn’t been gone for much more than 15 minuets when “Weather Alert” started to flash in big red letters on the security screen. Syb drops her feet to the ground, leans forward and flips a switch on the wall next to the screen. The view of the perimeter of the compound is instantly replaced by a giant computer generated impression of the planet’s weather. The screen flickers and the diagram zooms in; where what should have been a view of the canyon that they lived in, there was only fuzzy white. A box appears in the top corner of the screen and a boot dialogue scrolls across:
Base Temperature -76 Celsius Wind Chill: -100 Celsius Visibility @ ground level: One foot Visibility @ 15,000 ft: 1.5 feet Winds bearing Grid North @ 115mph
Syb grabs a mike from the counter, Super Cell in bound, 3 minuets. She glances back at the Radar report, the cell was moving closer. She activates the mike again, Are, Super cell 3 minuets out. The lights blink off and come back on dimmer than before, the cell had reached the generators. The screen flickers and the computer begins to reboot. Damn, She reaches for the mike again, but the speaker crackles, *Static* Coming *Static* lock down *Static* Boot emerg *static* generators The speaker falls silent, and syb stares at for a moment before jumping up and running to a table against the far wall. She taps a wire diagram for the hanger doors, the picture flashes and the doors begin to close. She pushes a large black button marked “Droid Recall” and turns a dial mounted on the wall above the table. Somewhere in the distance the wailing of an alarm winds up. Out on the grounds the few droids that were outside drop what they were doing and head for the hanger or the compound, and a giant steel blast door slides closed over the security room window. The wailing continues. Syb pokes the wire diagram of the hanger and a list of available ships flash up. She taps the one listed as “Out” and the screen changes to a schematic for the Skiff and the skiffs location…. The first thing she noticed was skiff was already within the boundaries of the super cell, this was the ship her other had taken out. The second thing she noticed, was that the skiff’s engines were not running. She grabs the mike, Are, get in the skiff…..Mom… the speaker remains silent for a few seconds, before it lets out an ear splitting screech, syb drops the mike and flips the radio off. It was useless now, the super cell would continue to interfere with comm relays until the storm subsided.
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Meira
She don't mess around
2,830 posts
583 likes
Half awake in our fake empire
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last online May 11, 2023 23:01:34 GMT -5
Administrator
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Aug 13, 2008 20:15:57 GMT -5
Post by Meira on Aug 13, 2008 20:15:57 GMT -5
Just when I thought I'd get some rest...
Palas sat up angrily as a signal light in her quarters began to flash, accompanied by the weather alert siren. Strapping on the boots she had just taken off, she slammed her fist against the disengage button below the flashing light. Alright already. She said as she walked toward the door. It opened automatically, and her leather boots made quick thumping noises as she crossed the hall to the lift.
Exiting the lift Palas entered the command room with a stern look on her face. Her jaw was stiff as she walked over to a readout screen that gave the details of the storm coming in. It didn't look good. The generators had already gone out and they were running on reserve power. Luckily, these storms were as quick as they were deadly. It might seem like forever, but their reserves would hold out more than long enough.
Without even looking at her, Palas spoke to Syb over her shoulder. Call Areleia, tell her it looks like we've lost a scramble tower. We'll need to go out and fix it after this super cell passes or we'll be sitting ducks to anyone who happens to pass by. Yeah, ok. The odds of that happening were slim to none, but Palas didn't play odds, she played facts. And the fact was, if a scramble tower was down, you fixed it.
Palas had worked with Areleia for years, and had watched Syb grow up in the brief stops back at the hidden base. Syb had seemed to grow exponentially, due to the infrequency of their returns. And if all truths be told, Palas thought of her as a sort of niece, seeing as how the only real family she had was a rapidly degenerating father whom she saw even more rarely than the Child girl.
When she didn't hear a timely response, Palas turned. Syb, did you hear.... One look at the girl's face and it was clear that something was wrong. Palas' eyes shifted to a screen displaying one skiff as 'out' of the hangar. Not wanting to hear the answer she thought she would receive, Palas asked: Where's Areleia?
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Areleia
Cookie Monster
61 posts
0 likes
(MIRTB) Multiple Independently-Targetable Re-Entry Thought Bombs... 0.o -GASP-
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last online Jun 26, 2009 21:56:22 GMT -5
Youngling
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Sept 1, 2008 21:13:46 GMT -5
Post by Areleia on Sept 1, 2008 21:13:46 GMT -5
The plains again… She didn’t understand why she was here, all alone wearing nothing but the gossamer blue dress her mother had gave her for the “formal” occasions. It didn’t really occur to her that she should be freezing at the moment, in fact it never did, not in the 6 times she had been here. She steps over to the edge of the Glacier and peeks over down at the Ice plain below.
The valley was completely empty save for a single spider like device, a snow skiff and the huddled-up black figure of some sentient being at crouched at the base of the machine. Upon seeing the creature a deep, gut twisting sense of dread descended over her, it was always this way, the glacier, the person, the storm and the second person… she was always to far away to see their faces but it felt like she should know them, one of them at least… The wind picks up suddenly, kicking over the snow dunes in quick energetic bursts that sent the tiny crystalline flakes zipping off fast enough to skin a person alive, but they didn’t bother her, they never did. A second skiff enters the canyon racing toward the advancing wall of the storm. It only took the storm a few seconds to over take the tiny spider-like structure and the woman. Syb had watched this so many times that she already knew what would happen. A pearly white hands drops lightly on her shoulder, the thin manicured fingers wrapping over her collar bone. Syb didn’t turn or make any physical response to the stone cold touch, Who are they? Who are the people? She finally turns her head slightly still keeping the unsuspecting victims in sight. The owner of the hand, a tall beautiful pale skinned, black haired woman steps up to the edge of the cliff next to Sybille, You know who they are Sybille, you only have to accept it… Syb stares down at the duo and the approaching storm, her eyes dull, their inherent sparkle gone, No… No they aren’t, I don’t know them, she whispers as she turns away from the cliff. The woman turns watching her, her black satin dress whipping in the wind. The wind kicks up further, howling. The sky darkens and just before she slips back into the peaceful calm of sleep a soft, barely audible request reaches her ears, It’s time to wake up. Odd… The woman had never said that before. The glacier fades away.
A voice in the dark, the woman… why wouldn’t she leave her alone? What made this woman so important that she could interrupt her self-imposed exile? What did you do wrong Syb? Damn her, again with the questions. The questions weren’t exactly what angered her, in fact she wasn’t even angry at the woman, it was more that she was angry with herself for not knowing the answers. The voice persists, It’s time to wake up syb, wake up No, she was most certainly not waking up, the voice could rant and rave if it so wished but, she, Sybille Child, was not waking up. In the far distance a tiny speck of light flares to life. Damnit The disembodied voice continues to coax her out of her stupor as the light grows closer, brighter, larger. Damnit, no she mutters one last time before the light over takes her, casting the bleak dark world back onto the glacier…
Something was different this time, she could tell this even though she had not been paying attention before… The wind was the first thing, well, the lack of wind was what she noticed, though it took her several seconds to realize that the snow didn’t move… frozen to be exact. She spins around as the sound the snow crunching under someone’s feet meets her ears. It was the woman again, though she had never made noise before. Syb eyes flicker down to the snow underneath the woman’s feet and though there was sound, the woman’s feet left no mark of her passing. The woman stops a few feet away at the base of the incline leading up to Sybille and looks up. Its more peaceful now isn’t it? - without the storm? She pauses waiting for an answer, but when none was forthcoming she continues on unperturbed. Theres work to do… you know that, She starts up the hill slowly, still staring. And I think its time you woke up, don’t you agree?She stops a few feet way, Sybille continues to stare at her unresponsive, Who are you? The woman stops an amused look on her face, Don’t you know? When Sybille doesn’t respond she shrugs, well it doesn’t matter - Palas is waiting for you though…. You remember her right? Several yards away the snow shimmers and some medical room someplace fades into view. A single gurney flanked by a medical drone and numerous machines take up most of the tiny space, but near the door resides the passive form of a deep blue Twi’lek. Yes she remembered Palas, it was one of her mother friends… her mother… there was something she was supposed to remember, but it just wouldn’t come. She turns back to the woman in the black gossamer gown, there was something familiar with her too, like she was somehow related to her mother… The woman smiles at her sadly, you still don’t remember do you? The wind suddenly returns to life, blasting the snow up in a hazy wall between the two. Syb takes a step forward, Remember what? the room dissolves away, and the woman starts to fade, Remember what? The snow was completely blinding now, blocking viability down to a mere few feet. She stumbles forward as her feet go numb from the cold. She takes a few more staggering steps, and then, there she was perfectly calm, perfectly warm. Syb wraps her arms around herself as the numbness begins to creep up her legs, and from here fingers, w-wait… Who a-are you? the woman remains silent for a moment, Wake up marie she turns and disappears into the snow, leaving syb staring after her in shock. Only her mother called her that, marie was her kid name… Sybille lurches forward stumbling after the retreating figure, she couldn’t feel her feet at all, or her fingers, in fact she couldn’t feel anything but the ground underneath her and then… that too, was gone. The snow slackens slightly revealing empty space, as her legs, heavily - lead like, trip over themselves sending her screaming over the edge that was just a few seconds ago behind her…
Without warning, after three weeks of being in a coma, Sybille Maria Child, daughter of the late Areleia Lynn Child, snaps up, sitting straight up in the medical gunnery screaming. The EKG graph skyrockets, the tiny dot registering three times that of a normal heart rate.
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Meira
She don't mess around
2,830 posts
583 likes
Half awake in our fake empire
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last online May 11, 2023 23:01:34 GMT -5
Administrator
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Sept 2, 2008 9:33:12 GMT -5
Post by Meira on Sept 2, 2008 9:33:12 GMT -5
Palas had spent three weeks in that room, leaving only for minutes at a time. At first she cursed them Areleia and her child. The Childs. So foolish. Look what they had done! Set them back who knows how long. That blasted scrambler was still down too. But she couldn't go fix it. Why? Because Syb had the gall to fall into a coma. How irritating.
But after about a week of her condition remaining stable but still not good, her irritation faded, giving way for concern. This wasn't good. Palas didn't have the supplies or the equipment to maintain her for very long. They didn't have a medic, or a medical droid to care for her if Palas needed to leave. She was stuck here, with only the hope that this girl would wake up before her time ran out.
She made a mental note around the end of week two to never let Doc off her payrole again. Yeah, he could be a rude old bugger, but the fact was, he was good, and she never needed him more than she did now. When this was over, she was going to go find him, and make him stay, no matter how much he protested. He would too, she had a feeling. Deep under his rough exterior, he still had a heart.
She had taken to sleeping in the room. Her quarters were too far away if something should happen. Nothing ever did, but she wasn't one to take that kind of risk. But if something didn't happen soon, Palas was fairly sure she'd go crazy. Syb had better wake up, or she would kill her.
Ask and ye shall recieve. The girl sat bolt upright on the gurney, her eyes wide. The machines she was hooked up to went berzerk. The room, which had heard only silence and the soft steady beep of the heart monitor was suddenly as loud as a cantina on Coruscant at happy hour. Palas, who had been resting her feet on a desk fell backward out of her chair. her own heart rate might have matched Syb's for a moment. She stood up quickly, adjusting her clothing and then stepped forward, taking the girl by her shoulders.
Syb! She said, placing herself right in the girl's line of sight. Calm down! You're fine. Just.... breathe.
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Areleia
Cookie Monster
61 posts
0 likes
(MIRTB) Multiple Independently-Targetable Re-Entry Thought Bombs... 0.o -GASP-
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last online Jun 26, 2009 21:56:22 GMT -5
Youngling
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Sept 5, 2008 22:11:35 GMT -5
Post by Areleia on Sept 5, 2008 22:11:35 GMT -5
She was only dimly aware of the room, it seemed that the Eather world she had spent the last few weeks in was having trouble surrendering control of her mind; it was almost like a damaged double image of an old camera, the visage of the snowy cliff, that of the Palas in all her blue beauty and that of the stranger in the black dress slid over one another in one giant cluster of confusing swirls of color.
It was the first time in what felt like an eternity that she could actually feel herself, sure she had been aware a several points in time during the last week of her hibernation, but this was totally different, it was as if she had just been born again, everything felt… new. Palas’ voice finally fights it’s way through the chaotic pool of images to fall heavily on her ears, and like a life line she latched hold, dragging herself through the chaos and back into the horrid world of solid truths, a world holding a truth far more sinister than any she had ever known… A truth about her mother, a truth about Are’. And that, was indeed solid fact, Are was gone, forever and for always, irreplaceable, irretrievable .
She wasn’t sure when it was she had ceased the screaming, time seemed to be sliding by in a distorted fashion, but she had, and now she was face to face with the last person in the universe that she wanted to see… Palas, her mother’s closest friend. As if on cue to this new emotional threat the foggy veil of chaotically jumbled images slide to a close, leaving her and what was left of her sanity to face down the beautiful Palas.
It was odd, she knew she was awake, she knew she was no longer dreaming but the reborn feeling was ebbing away, and quickly too, leaving her feeling detached, cold almost heartless. She couldn’t find the horror that she thought she should be feeling was… simply… missing . She levels her gaze on Palas, her eye emotionless, dull & dead, Shes gone isn’t she?. Her eyes drop down to her hands, to the improperly placed IV feed, obviously placed there by Palas herself, and even through she knew she should feel some gratitude to the woman… she could find nothing. She yanks the IV out with steady, calculating fingers, and looks back up at Palas as she shrugs off the woman’s grip.
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Meira
She don't mess around
2,830 posts
583 likes
Half awake in our fake empire
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last online May 11, 2023 23:01:34 GMT -5
Administrator
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Sept 8, 2008 10:27:54 GMT -5
Post by Meira on Sept 8, 2008 10:27:54 GMT -5
As the needle withdrew from the girl's skin, a warning tone sounded at one of the monitors. Palas was about to speak, to respond to Syb's question. But it wasn't meant to be answered. She knew. So Palas stood and switched off the offending monitors, and the others as well. She hardly knew what they did. She just knew that if they made noise, it wasn't good. She stood for a moment, facing away from her friend's daughter, her arms crossed and her jaw set. How ungrateful of that girl, to push her away like that. It wasn't as if Palas saved her life or anything. She let out a sigh.
Yes. She's gone. There, she said it. Now that it was said, she couldn't take it back. She'd have to face it. Are' was gone. She was out there somewhere, buried under tons of snow, frozen and gone. There was nothing Palas or Syb could do about that. Now they had some serious problems. Are' was their pilot. Yeah Syb could fly, there was no questioning that. She had that little fighter, and Palas wasn't too bad herself. But she couldn't pilot AND captain the ship. And they needed a medic too. After this whole fiasco, Palas knew that if things had been any more serious with Syb, she'd be dead to. She couldn't risk that. She'd have to find Doc and convince him to stay on indefinitely. He wouldn't like that, but he might do it.
Palas turned around and stared down the back of Syb's head. We've got a lot of work to do. We need to load up the Jewel and get going. We're behind schedule. She turned to leave the room, but as the door opened in front of her she stopped. Palas had a tendency of seeming cold and unfeeling. But if the two of them wanted to see another year, they'd really have to start picking up the slack. She missed Are' as much as anyone. The woman had been her only true friend in the galaxy. But their life wasn't cushy. And it often fell on Palas to be the one to push them through.
I'm gonna miss her too. But that was all Palas could say while keeping a straight face. After all her years of facing her father as he wasted away and then turning around and running the business so that she could keep him alive, her body had learned not to show the pain in her heart. The door closed behind her and she made her way to the hangar to stock up the ship.
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