Lost and Found (Daoine Sidhe & Arkhos)
<h1 id="title">Elliquiy Role Playing Forums</h1>
		<h2 id="linktree">Play-By-Post: Bondage, D/s, S&amp;M =&gt; Bondage: Exotic Solos =&gt; Topic started by: Daoine Sidhe on 04-03-2014, 05:17:08</h2>
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				Title: <strong>Lost and Found (Daoine Sidhe &amp; Arkhos)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Daoine Sidhe</strong> on <strong>04-03-2014, 05:17:08</strong>
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				<div class="floatleft">(http://cdn.whatanart.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/sci-fi-girl-500x500.jpg)</div> Space had always held a certain allure for Natasha.&nbsp; Her home colony, Century Seven, was a lush planet with plenty of wide, open fields in which to lay back at stare at the night sky.&nbsp; Laying in those fields and watching the ion trails of distant starships as they passed through the system were probably the only pleasant memories the young woman had of home.&nbsp; Life had been harsh there for her, harsher than it should have been.&nbsp; When she fled the colony - disappearing out from under the nose of the Galactic Committee itself, no less - she got her first glimpse of life off-world.&nbsp; It was gritty and rough; nothing like the depictions in the stories.<br><br>A young runaway woman was an easy target in the galactic community.&nbsp; Fending for herself on Century Seven was one thing, but it taught her enough to evade the clutches of certain nefarious individuals.&nbsp; Her self-taught thieving skills landed her a job with a small smuggling outfit.&nbsp; The gig was solid, and paid very well.&nbsp; Yet, even with a small fortune of ill-gotten goods, she longed for something more.&nbsp; The call of space never dulled, never quieted.&nbsp; It was all she could do to ignore it.&nbsp; Fate had a funny way of showing up when one least expected it.<br><br>Circumstances set into motion a series of dark moments.&nbsp; The Galactic Committee began to close in, her smuggler allies began to drift away, and she was certain that one of them had already tipped off a Committee official regarding her.&nbsp; She had a bounty on her head worth more than most of the hauls the team brought in.&nbsp; Natasha wasn't going to wait around to see who she could trust.&nbsp; Century Seven had instilled a strong sense of self-preservation in her.&nbsp; The betrayal at Gaven IV affirmed her belief to trust no one.&nbsp; So she ran.&nbsp; She stole the smuggling ship, overrode the command lock, and ditched the transponder signal.&nbsp; No one would be able to follow her.&nbsp; She kicked the small freighter into full burn and left all she had come to know behind.<br><br>She should have known that full burn on an Orion class TY9 Yellowjacket freighter wouldn't hold out longer than a week.&nbsp; Barely into the sixth day, the engine sputtered.&nbsp; Despite her tinkering, she couldn't keep the engine core operating at full capacity.&nbsp; She cut the engine down to impulse drive, dropping the ship out of the hyper-speed warp.&nbsp; Immediately, the proximity sensors blared alerts.<br><br>"The hell?" she started, grabbing at the piloting controls.&nbsp; She glanced over the sensor data.&nbsp; A planet loomed far too close to the ship.&nbsp; In hyper-speed, it would have cut through the gravity well without so much as a hiccup.&nbsp; But, at impulse drive, she would have to do some fancy piloting to cut across the gravitational current.<br><br>As she tilted the ship away from the planet's surface, intending on reducing the gravity sheer, the port engine nacelle buckled.&nbsp; The ship rocked violently as the engine simply shut off.&nbsp; The planet's pull took full effect and the freighter began a heart-stopping freefall of over 480 kilometers.<br><br>Natasha ground her teeth as she pulled on the manual yoke, trying to pull the nose of the ship up.&nbsp; Without the port nacelle, the engine would not fire.&nbsp; There was no way in hell she wasn't landing on this planet.&nbsp; But, if she could angle the ship just right, she might be able to dull the impact to something survivable.&nbsp; The metal hull groaned against the force pulling it down.&nbsp; As the altimeter screeched at her, the digital display showing declining numbers faster than the eye could follow, the tip of the freighter inched upward.&nbsp; Alarms blared from every part of the control panels.&nbsp; Everything was lit up like a Christmas tree.<br><br>"Come on, dammit," Natasha panted, barely able to hear her own voice.<br><br>Her heart slammed against her chest like a repeating rifle.&nbsp; The reentry speed exceeded that of the hull's durability.&nbsp; The metal glowed red hot, threatening to rip away.&nbsp; A loud, bloodcurdling groan echoed through the back of the ship as the hull began to pull away from itself.&nbsp; Small fractures began to form, and the pressure inside the cabin stared dropping as if she'd set a fire.&nbsp; The emergency shielding kicked in automatically, but it wouldn't hold out long.&nbsp; She had to put the ship down safely before too much damage was done.<br><br>Finally, at just over 200 kilometers above the surface, the nose was up enough.&nbsp; Natasha slammed her fist on the landing systems, activating the reverse thrusters on the ship's underside.&nbsp; The upward thrust would, hopefully, reduce the falling speed.&nbsp; The next 200 kilometers sailed by much faster than Natasha expected.&nbsp; She thought she'd have time to see her life flash before her eyes, maybe even think about finding a religion.&nbsp; No such luck.&nbsp; She had just enough time to fasten herself into the safety harness and brace for impact.<br><br>The ship slammed into the ground at over twice the speed it should have.&nbsp; Fortunately for Natasha, it struck at an angle slightly away from her, delivering the most catastrophic impact damage to the side of the cabin rather than head-on.&nbsp; The ship dug through the ground and ripped open a new canal.&nbsp; Most of the outer hull peeled away under the friction.&nbsp; Half of the cargo hold was ripped from the ship and scattered in large chucks across a previously green, untouched plain.<br><br>The initial impact, while not lethal, did slam Natasha with enough G-force to render her unconscious.&nbsp; She didn't know how she'd laid strapped to the pilot's chair in the cabin.&nbsp; When she came to, all she could see was the top of her stolen ship.
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Lost and Found (Daoine Sidhe &amp; Arkhos)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>arkhos</strong> on <strong>06-03-2014, 10:54:01</strong>
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				<div class="floatleft">(http://s.cghub.com/files/Image/108001-109000/108743/170_max.jpg)</div>Max had no clue what he was looking for.<br><br>Well, he did have a -clue-, but out in the junk-heap, this late at night, with very little light and so much crap to sift through, he knew his chances of finding the auxiliary coupling he was looking for would be slim to none. That's the way it was - and even if the sun were up now, his chances of finding what he sought would only be marginally greater.<br><br>Tau Ceti Gamma was a starship's worst nightmare. The planet was fairly small, nondescript and -looked- fairly ordinary. A pair of continents covered most of its surface, a couple small oceans, plenty of water and temperatures that ranged from hot and humid jungles to mildly temperate zones. Flora and fauna survived just fine, making food and water possible - if not dangerous - to acquire. Indeed, to most scientists it seemed like a fairly perfect world to colonize... until the first ships came.<br><br>That's when it was discovered that the ionized atmosphere of the planet had a strange and magnetic effect on modern spacecraft propulsion. Ships that landed on the surface were unable to depart. The first few that tried made it a few miles of the ground - only to have the grip of the planet's gravity pull it back down, like the hands of a jealous lover refusing to release the object of its desire. Stranded scientists could still communicate off-world... IF the recipient was fairly close to the planet. After years of experiments, trial and error, and research, it was discovered that only the most powerful ships operated by the Galactic Committee could land and then take of. Huge Nova-Class dreadnoughts could land easily enough, and then spend -hours- literally breaking free of the planet's ion and gravity induced trap.<br><br>The idea soon arose to make the planet a penal colony - Escapes would be non-existent, since anyone escaping a facility would have nowhere to go. And though the climate was hospitable, the wildlife was not. Escaping a facility would usually end in a short stay in the surrounding countryside, ending in a gory death - or, as happened sometimes, the inmate would willingly return to the facility seeking -safety-. There was only one way off the planet - on one of the dreadnoughts that visited twice a year to rotate staff, deliver supplies - and drop off more condemned. There were two colonies, on opposite sides of the planet. One for male inmates. One for female inmates. As far as anyone knew, there was zero contact between the two colonies.<br><br>The area around the planet was cordoned off as a no-fly zone for civilian or business traffic. But, as fate would have it, an occasional stray-jump would find some spacecraft being pulled to the planet's surface, as if invisible tentacles had reached upward to pull those ships from the skies. Calls for help would go unanswered, mayday and SOS calls ignored. The Galactic Committee forces on the planet's surface had no idea if a call was being made by a legitimate ship in need - or if it was some attempt at a break-out or distraction to violence. No, poor souls who plummeted to the planet's surface were left to fend for themselves - IF they survived.<br><br>Over two hundred years later, much of Tau Ceti Gamma's surface was a starship bone yard, and it was a bone yard that Max now searched.<br><br>Max was a member of a small-time freighter crew out of Perseus Nine. Their navigator fucked-up something fierce, and their jump landed them too close to the planet, and like so many before them, they were sucked in. Thankfully, while the freighter didn't have near the engine power to avoid the downward plummet, it was able to slow to fall so that the crash was survivable. Most of the crew and most of the paying passengers aboard survived. As if in some righteous stroke of irony, the navigator didn't make it - taking an I-beam to the face, nearly beheading him. It was as if the ship itself had exacted some vengeance on him for getting it into this predicament to begin with.<br><br>A camp was established, and the surrounding area cleared. A few good men lost their lives to poisonous animals and a couple really -big- ones that didn't care where their next meals came from. But with organized effort and a lot of hard work, an fairly large area around the ship's crash-site was cleared.<br><br>The survivors realized very quickly, though, that they weren't going anywhere soon. With a little work, they discovered where they were - and almost all spirits were crushed. Young Max was one of the few who didn't give up hope. But, being that he was only nine years old at the time, his brand of hope was seen more as a young boy's flights of fantasy more than anything else.<br><br>Now, sixteen years later, he still hadn't given up. He along with a few others had decided years ago that they weren't going to -ever- give up, and they started to collect scrap. They didn't have to venture far into the dangerous countryside to explore and look for more, and they were constantly surprised by the things they saw and found. Slowly, they started to piece together a shuttle, just large enough for three or four people, but with an engine the size of a freighter itself. They realized they didn't need to get EVERYONE off the planet, just a couple people so that they could get -help-. Any sort of rescue attempt would have to be handled themselves, and that's just the way it was.<br><br>But they were still missing a few key components, and their searches had grown wider and wider and more dangerous looking for them.<br><br>It wasn't -all- bad, of course. A total of 193 people had survived the crash. Since then, twenty-nine had died of natural causes or from the local wildlife, but forty-four had been born. Those who knew things taught those who didn't, and the young were schooled as they aged. What else could they do? Life had to go on, no matter the circumstances, no matter how bleak things looked.<br><br>Max sighed, recognizing some of the scrap he was looking at now. He had searched over it before, but was looking again, just in case. Every now and then someone would overlook something, miss something, and then find it later. It was possible. Anything was possible. He found a small containment unit, half-buried in the dirt. His brow furrowed and he extended his left arm. The mechanical arm he had gripped the metal box, his fingers clenching, tearing into it as if it was made of butter. The 'mech arm' wasn't a replacement, but rather a harness that he had designed himself. He wore it over his left arm and hand, and it served as a tool during his searches, able to move much heavier objects than he could without it, push and pull scrap around, even tear into it, as he was doing now.<br><br>The inside of the containment box... was empty. He hadn't gotten his hopes up very high anyway, but he sighed nonetheless. The soft whir of his arm sounded as his fingers released the scrap, allowing him to stand upright again. He arched his back, stretching, looking up into the night sky... and noticed one of the stars was -moving-. Watching it closely for a moment, he realized that not only was it moving, but it was getting -closer-.<br><br>Furrowed brows slowly turned to wide eyes as he realized the brightly lit object was coming -straight at him-. Asteroid, satellite, or ship didn't really matter - it was freakin' huge and he stood a good chance to be splattered by it. So, he ran.<br><br>He head west, away from the things trajectory as best as he could tell, so as to put as much space between him and the estimated impact site that he could. He could hear a faint whistling-crackling sound... burning, tearing metal, then.. the fire of engines? Or was that just the rush of blood through his ears as his heart pounded while he ran. He was several miles from the camp, but the object being as big as it was, most likely they'd see it too....<br><br>-KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM- SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPE -TEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR-.... the sound of a massive object hitting the ground as well as that of tearing, twisting metal filled his ears. It was a sound he hadn't heard since he was a kid, and he realized he hadn't missed the sound at all. The impact shook the ground beneath his feet, throwing him down hard. He just laid there, listening to the continuing death-scream of the object that had crashed just a hundred yards from him. Smoke and debris filled the air, and it wasn't until the terrible sound stopped that he slowly rose to his feet - and began making his way towards the ship. That's what it was, he could make out the shadow of it now - far too big to be a satellite, and definitely too smooth and shaped to be an asteroid.<br><br>He approached it, crawling over smoking wreckage, making sure not to touch anything. He knew that the metal would take some time to cool, so he weaved his way carefully through the wreckage, towards the largest part of the ship that remained in tact... apparently, the bridge or the cockpit...<br><br>With the assistance of his mech-arm, he was able to pull debris out of his way to explore and examine. So far, he hadn't seen a single body, and he was thankful for that. But any second now he was prepared to find the gruesome remains of....<br><br>Wait... there... a body, strapped to a seat. Long blond hair, and from where he stood she looked to be in one piece as far as he could tell. Could she possibly be alive. Anything was possible, he reminded himself - and then he -thought- he saw her head move. <br><br>"Hey... hey, lady!" he called out to her, and his mech arm whirred louder as he began to peel away debris to make a hole large enough to fit himself through. "Hey, lady! Stay with me! No time for sleep!" he called out to her. "How many others are there? Where were they located?" he asked, working as quickly and as safely as he could, lobbing pieces of wreckage to the side and behind him as he made his way toward her, finally reaching her seat. She as likely dazed, confused, maybe even suffering from a concussion.<br><br>"I'm coming to help you. Try not to move!" he called out again, getting closer, wondering if she could even see or hear him.<br>
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Lost and Found (Daoine Sidhe &amp; Arkhos)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Daoine Sidhe</strong> on <strong>11-03-2014, 11:58:20</strong>
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				Noise swarmed around her ears like insects.&nbsp; Buzzing, humming, crackling - all muffled beyond comprehension.&nbsp; Her short-term memory was hazy, and the last couple of moments seemed so much like a bizarre dream.&nbsp; Her field of vision was cloudy.&nbsp; When fully operational, the main cabin was all alight with whole panels of blinking colors.&nbsp; Even in her dizzied state, she could tell that most of the colors had been snuffed out.&nbsp; Only a hazy red filled the cabin: the emergency lighting, or what bits of it still operated.&nbsp; It felt like hours passed in her confusion.&nbsp; The world seemed to flow around her in slow motion.&nbsp; In the mix of odd sounds came a muffled mumbling.&nbsp; Natasha couldn't make out the source of the speaking, let alone the direction from which it came.&nbsp; She tried to respond, but her tongue wouldn't form any words.&nbsp; A couple moments of effort, and she managed only a hoarse whisper.<br><br>She suddenly realized that her head was throbbing in intense pain.&nbsp; Her hand shot up instinctively, but didn't move beyond her mid-torso.&nbsp; Her foggy gaze turned down to see her arm tangled in a mess of damaged wiring dangling from the overhead panels.&nbsp; As her vision cleared, the damage to the cabin came into full view.&nbsp; The port side was nearly caved in entirely, with a large, sharp metal shard all but staring her in the face.&nbsp; She'd come pretty damn close to being impaled.&nbsp; The cabin's reinforced dura-glass window had cracked.&nbsp; That alone spoke to the ferocity of the impact.&nbsp; Blinking away the fog, she finally realized that she was looking <em>down</em> at the ceiling panels.&nbsp; The cabin was upside-down.<br><br>She heard the voice again, but it was clearer.&nbsp; Her ear were still ringing, but she could make out the words.&nbsp; She turned her head to the side to see an opening in the debris.&nbsp; Someone was coming towards her, but his form was blurry.&nbsp; He seemed human.&nbsp; He certainly spoke the common trade language.&nbsp; She opened her mouth to reply again, and managed a pained groan.<br><br><em>How many others are there?</em>&nbsp; Others?&nbsp; "No one else."&nbsp; Her third attempt at a proper reply worked much better.&nbsp; "Just me.&nbsp; My arm is caught."<br><br>Her blood had been rushing to her head for some time, now.&nbsp; Her brief moment of clarity was starting to slip away as the distress of dangling upside-down lured her towards slumber.&nbsp; She shook her head as strongly as she could to keep her senses about her.&nbsp; Hopefully, her rescuer would cut her down before she passed out.
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Lost and Found (Daoine Sidhe &amp; Arkhos)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>arkhos</strong> on <strong>15-03-2014, 09:59:21</strong>
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				Max coughed from the scent of smoke, the fumes of melted and melting circuit boards and wiring creating a hazardous environment for the lungs of anything that breathed. He knew he couldn't stay in here long, despite the gaping holes in the ruined fuselage and cockpit. The dangerous fumes weren't venting quickly enough to make it safe for him to stay - or that of the person he saw not far from him.<br><br>He saw an arm move - so, they were still alive, at least, which would make the attempt to rescue them worth it.<br><br>Max weaved his way through the wreckage as best he could, avoiding bare, live wiring, sparks showering, red lights blinking in a symphony of alarms and alerts - as if the passengers of the ship would not yet realize its current condition. Finally, he made it to the person, strapped at eye-level into a seat, some random wiring from an overhead panel wrapped around parts of her body.<br><br>It was a 'her'... *definitely* a her. She was beautiful, if a bit battered, but there were no immediate signs of massive blood-loss. <br><br>"No one else. Just me.&nbsp; My arm is caught," she managed to say, and he nodded. He reached down with his left hand to grasp the bunch of wiring closer to the wall of the ship. His fingers -whirred- softly, forming a tight grip - and then pulled. More sparks flew, down by his feet, harmless but colorful and bright as he ripped the wiring free. Lifting it, he quickly unwound it from her limbs and tossed it aside. Moving so that his body was beneath hers, his shoulder near her gut, he reached a hand up to the buckle-clasp at her sternum.<br><br>"Hold on," he said, the only warning he gave her before pulling it, then catching her easily over his shoulder as she fell from the seat, her restraint suddenly peeled away. She was light - much lighter than he expected, and he turned and moved quickly, coughing once or twice, retracing his steps. He ducked lower to avoid live wires and other possibly dangerous wreckage, and within moments he had reached the hole in the fuselage that he had entered. <br><br>Even free of the wreckage, though, he continued to walk quickly, moving away from the ship dozens of yards. It was a wonder that it hadn't blown yet. Perhaps she had been low on fuel, maybe burning most of it trying to fight the planet's pull. Or perhaps this was a newer ship not powered by traditional fuels. Whatever the reason, he knew it was best to get far enough away from the wreckage - just in case.<br><br>When he finally reached a safe distance, he slipped behind a large boulder - suitable cover should the ship blow anyway. Gently, then, he unslung his cargo and set her on the ground, as gently as he could. Kneeling beside her, using his right hand he carefully brushed back her hair, looking for any sign of trauma, blood, or other wounds. So far, a few scrapes, bumps, some definitely impending bruising was all that he saw. <br><br>"You ok?" he asked, raising one of her arms slowly, then the other, looking for damage. "Any pain? Any bleeding or other injuries?" he asked. He wasn't a doctor by any means, but he needed to know the deal in case he had to transport her - or in case there was anything life-threatening going on. <br><br>"Who -are- you?" he asked, then, letting some of his own curiosity slip past the questions of necessity.
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Lost and Found (Daoine Sidhe &amp; Arkhos)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Daoine Sidhe</strong> on <strong>20-03-2014, 02:50:32</strong>
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				Her rescuer was little more than a dusky figure for all the smoke and sparks in the cabin.&nbsp; He moved quickly, yet gracefully, through the wreckage and freed her arm.&nbsp; It sounded like he used some sort of tool, but didn't see anything in his hand.&nbsp; Regardless, she could move her arm.&nbsp; Before she could respond further, he freed her from the safety harness and carried her out of the ship.&nbsp; As they exited the cabin, she realized that they didn't use the proper hatch.&nbsp; Instead, they climbed through... the <em>fuselage</em>.&nbsp; That... complicated repairs.&nbsp; It was a good thing she'd burned out most of the fuel before the crash.&nbsp; Otherwise, there wouldn't have been much of her to rescue.<br><br>Safely away from the wreckage, her back against the ground, her eyes ran over the man's face.&nbsp; His features became clear.&nbsp; He certainly looked human.&nbsp; And he spoke common trade.&nbsp; That was good news.&nbsp; Finding an up-to-date medical center on a foreign, alien world was virtually impossible.&nbsp; As was finding a new intersteller ship.<br><br>She coughed several times, clearing her throat as best she could of the smog from the smoldering wires and electronics.&nbsp; "I'm alright," she replied after a moment.&nbsp; "Banged up.&nbsp; My head and chest hurt, but probably just bruised.&nbsp; Everything seems to work."<br><br>She raised up and moved her arms and legs as proof - more to herself than to him.&nbsp; Everything responded properly.&nbsp; At least there wasn't any paralysis.&nbsp; She managed a relieved smile.&nbsp; "Thanks.&nbsp; That could have been worse."<br><br>She offered a hand.&nbsp; "I'm... Natasha."&nbsp; Using her real name might pose a problem, but it was unlikely that anyone could connect her to anything without her last name.
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Lost and Found (Daoine Sidhe &amp; Arkhos)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>arkhos</strong> on <strong>27-03-2014, 17:30:57</strong>
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				Max watched and listened to her closely as she claimed to be fine - just a bit beat up and catching her breath. Head and chest hurt - could be a concussion, could be internal damage, though she wasn't acting very distressed if that were the case. He nodded as he listened, then watched as she raised herself up a bit on her arms and legs without much problem. He continued to watch quietly, noting that her limbs all seemed to be functioning. <br><br>"Yeah, the fumes from burning electronics were getting bad in there. Much longer and you would have stayed unconscious... indefinitely," he said. He wasn't trying to make his 'rescue' of her sound like anything more than it was, but in his opinion she had come dangerously close to surviving an improbable ship wreck only to fall prey to the aftermath.<br><br>He took her hand gently with his own, his right one, the one not covered in metal exo-skeletal parts. "Max," he said, shaking her hand for a moment. "Nice to meet you Natasha... so what brings you to the beautiful world of Tau Ceti Gamma?" he asked curiously. A lone occupant on a ship such as this seemed a little odd, but if she wasn't a skilled navigator, that could explain the reason for her ship getting sucked down onto the planet's surface. Or, it could have been faulty equipment for all he knew. Only she would know the answers, most likely.<br><br>"I'm from a small village not far from here. I can take you there, have a better physician see to you and make sure you're good to go. Can also get you some food and water, too. I hope...," he paused for a moment before continuing. "I hope you weren't planning on being anywhere in a hurry. If you're not familiar with this planet, then you might be disappointed to learn that you'll likely be here awhile."<br><br>He leaned forward on one knee, offering her his hand. "Need a hand up? If you need help walking, you can toss an arm over my shoulder," he offered, trying his best to be helpful.<br><br>
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