Alright guys it's time for the contest of the season. Two people walked into the contest and only one can be crowned the victor. You have until the 7th of December to cast your votes.
<-- The other one from Mass Effect
In the Red Corner we have the Thunder from Down Under, the Boss who sleeps under the Southern Cross, the guy with 74 reasons to write. Batkevin74 (For some reason the images didn't copy over sorry)
2025, Mauna Kea Military Observatory, Hawaii
“Sir…” the young lieutenant at the far desk raised his hand. General Neil Grissom acknowledged and strode over to him on the far side of the NASA listening post.
“What is it son?”
The lieutenant pulled off his head phones and handed them to the general, pointing at the screen “I don’t know sir”
Neil scowled and put on the headphones as he looked at the patch of the universe this young man was “looking after”. The near seventy year old commander listened intently as he looked at the images from the deGrasse-Tyson lunar orbiting radio telescope.
“Sweet Jesus!” he exclaimed near whiplashing himself as he bolted upright.
“Sir?”
“Triangulate the signal son, we need confirmation.” Grissom regained his composure “LISTEN UP! Everyone needs to focus upon the Aldebaran quadrant which is…”
“Screen 2841 sir” whispered the lieutenant.
“Screen 2841!” added Grissom “Also as per Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the espionage Act of 1917, nobody leaves this room! Colonel!”
An MP at the back of the room snapped to attention “Sir, yes sir!”
“Lock the doors! Every cell phone, blackberry, smart phone, pager is to be collected and destroyed. If any of you have a problem with that,” General Grissom drew his sidearm “Then we will talk about it. Someone get me a line to the President!”
The White House, Washington D.C
Newly elected US President, Antonio Kwai Rubio, stood looking out the window of the Oval Office to the crowds gathered at the fence of his home. He smiled as he looked at the placards and banners, knowing that this honeymoon period would be over soon enough. Like Obama way back in 2009, Rubio was the first of his kind; the first Cuban-Asian President and also the first homosexual in the top job. The fundamental Christians on both the left and right nearly exploded in bigot rage.
“Mr President.”
He took a few moments to realise that the Secret Service agent was talking to him. Antonio smiled his broad smile, the sunlight gleaming behind him giving him an angelic appearance “Yes?”
“Could you come with me please?”
The War Room
President Rubio looked around at the Joint Chiefs and the dozens other gathered in the room. Up on the big screen was General Neil Grissom in Hawaii.
“Aliens? Like little green men?” said the President as he flipped through the phonebook sized stack of papers in front of him.
“We don’t know sir!” replied Grissom “But it’s a definite signal from the Aldebaran quadrant…”
“Which is where exactly General?” interrupted General Keith Brooks, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
“If you look at the screen sir, it’s…the large orange star. Located just under…seventy light years away it’s the direction…we launched Pioneer-10 back in 72,” said the General, obviously parroting the information from a scientist off-screen “Pioneer stopped transmitting back in…2003 but it seems due to the plates that…Dr Sagan insisted on putting on the deep space probes...we’ve got a response!”
President Rubio smiled to take his mind of the enormity of the information “If it’s in Klingon, my daughter can decode it.”
“No sir, binary” replied the general, missing the joke “It comes out as 01010111 01100101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00001010 01010111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110101 01101110 01101001 01101101 01110000 01110010 01100101 01110011 01110011 01100101 01100100”
The President look around the room and then back at the general “I can see that general, but what does it mean? I don’t speak binary!”
“We can see you, we are unimpressed”
The whole room went quiet. The president rubbed his forehead “Did...we just get dissed?”
****
(Notes: Gen. Neil Grissom is a combo of astronauts Neil Armstrong & Gus Grissom.
President Antonio Kwai Rubio is based partially on Marco Rubio, potential US future president and the picture is actually a friend of mine Adam who I asked if I could use his pic. Adam is neither Cuban, Asian, American, homosexual or president to my knowledge, but he does have a daughter and is pretty darn cool :)
Gen Keith Brooks is based on Gen Vincent Keith Brooks a current US Pacific general.
Pioneer-10 was launched in 1972 and the stats about it are factual)
And in the Blue Corner you have the Huntress from your nightmares, the woman who chokes on noodles frequently, the sleep deprived ecologist. Impurest Cheese
The Last Journey of the Cirkel van Liefde
<Status Offline – Awaiting Activation Code>
<Query – Search Directory for Activation Code>
<Response – Activation Code Required – Check Manual for Emergency Activation Code>
<Code Input – E472-FUM1-00QX>
<Code Accepted – IVI (Model 0013) On-line>
<Search Request – Recorded Infractions (11/12/2881 to 11/01/2882 – Sol Standard Calendar)>
<Request Complete – 4 Records Found>
<Accessing Record Log (Most Recent – To Oldest)>
<Report 1 (of 4) – Submitted: 17:38PM 10/01/2882 Submitted by: Martin <No Crew Records Exist> Length of Transmission: - 00:01:58 (H:M:S)>
“This is probably the last transmission to leave the Cirkel van Liefde we are running out of time not to mention ammunition and food. Still if anyone finds this message within the next few hours I urge them to hurry. When we started defensive actions there were eleven of us but now it’s down to me, Jade and Owen. There is some good news, before he died Ian fixed the atmospheric generators and managed to reduce the level of oxygen down to normal ratios. The Orumcek are getting sick and their strength has been reduced down to just ten individuals, the same number of haz-mat suits they have onboard. They come every few hours, testing the perimiter but so far the bridge defence network has stalled any major attack. What, oh right Jade just informed me to talk about the cargo, just for any salvagers who pick up this beacon.”
<Key Storkes can be heard – Logged as Cargo Bay Capicity Scan> - “All Cargo was jettisoned on the 05/01/2882. Unknown vessal retreived all jettiosned supplies.”
“Yeah so our employer Mr Fargo should have got what he ordered. That should mean help will be coming except we all signed contracts that allows him to cut us lose if we get into trouble. Still as soon as I die my daughter becomes a rich woman thanks to the insurance clause that is valid if we die on mission. Used to hate all the paper work but now...well I know we won’t be coming back. Still I’ve got five shots left in my M45 Pistol and a 20% charge in my Energy Cutless, whenI go I’m going to take as many of those eight legged freaks with me.”
<Log Terminated by the Sound of Gunfire – Structual damage to Bridge Terminal>
Report 2 (of 4) – Submitted: 09:23AM 31/12/2881 Submitted by: Martin <No Crew Records Exist> Length of Transmission: - 00:02:19 (H:M:S)
“It’s almost New Years Day but funnily enough the Auld Lang Syne spirit hasn’t reached this bug infested bucket. Today we had a supply drop in the aft shuttle bay as agreed with Mr. Fargo. We’d been doing well recently, holding off the Orumcek despite the problems with the atmosphere generators. Mainly we’ve been using flechette pistols, strobe grenades and the two remaining T77 Chemical Sprayer rigged to deliver a cryogenic blast strong enough to freeze anything in a ten meter radius. There were eleven of us left this morning, all civilians back home which just shows the spirit of our group, a rag-tag band of defenders holding off trained soldiers at least until earlier today. Eleven of us went out to claim the supply package and only four of us left.”
<Five Second Pause - Sound of Running Water is recognized in Background>
“We went in and set up a perimeter when Liam started yelling, turns out he wanted off the boat and had decided that the only to leave was through suicide. And as a member of the clergy he decided that he would offer us all the same salvation. So he strapped a pair of PAGe Bombs under his jacket and waited for the right moment and lifted his arms to start his journey to kingdom cum taking Laura and Chazz with him. As the flash cleared the doors opened up and the Orumcek surged in; Peyton and Hope were cut down immediately and that was when I made the decision, that the food and bullets could wait but if we stayed we’d all be dead. Fortunately the others had come to the same conclusion and bolted, still Elektra and Danny were cut down before they could reach safety.”
<Three Second Pause – Sound of Pump Shutting Down>
“With no food we’re going to lose strength quickly, something the Orumcek don’t have a problem with. Any species that practices ritual cannibalism probably has little qualms about making their dead into a staple part of their diet.”
<Log Terminated due to Power Loss at Aft Water Processing Plant – Please Alert Maintenance Immediately>
Report 3 (of 4) – Submitted: 22:08 PM 21/12/2881 Submitted by: Martin <No Crew Records Exist> Length of Transmission: - 00:02:39 (H:M:S)
“It’s been ten days since the assault started and the ship we’re in, well it looks like it’s been under attack for ten years, virtually nothing is working either due to attrition or sabotage from both sides. There are no real days anymore, just periods of fighting followed by silence something worse then the sound of ion shots or gunfire. I don’t sleep anymore; nobody sleeps anymore not in the constant twilight, not with the Orumcek on the prowl. They have all the advantages; numbers, strength, speed and superior night vision. Hell even the atmosphere is on their side; they supercharged the oxygen content up to around thirty percent to mimic their home world. That’s another reason nobody sleeps, it’s kind of hard to get shuteye when you feel constantly nauseated.”
<Six Second Pause>
“Now it’s time to take stock of what we have on our side, honestly it’s not a lot. Well for starters the super oxygenated environment means conventional firearms are useless although we all still carry a sidearm. Most of us are armed with the AN-45K/A Carbine, a rifle that was built for amphibious operations and fires darts using a gas compressor. We also have two T77 Chemical Sprayers and a XM82 Micro Neutron Gun, both of which would be illegal back in the colonies. Besides that we have grenades; mostly Strobe Grenades because the Orumcek evolved on a world with almost no natural light or M11 ‘Mudpuppy’ Grenades that release a quick sealing adhesive. All that against a species that wrote the book on warfare in these conditions assuming the Orumcek can read or write that is.”
<Two Second Pause – Audible Inhalation>
“Because of that one of my guys; Minerva decided that we should use the enemies’ weapons. Turns out that’s a bad move, the DNA lock keeps us from firing them and the triggers are laced with a gene catalyst. A day after testing Minerva was already mutating, growing the extra eyes and elongated fingers of the enemy. She claimed that her mind was still her own but we didn’t believe her and doctrine states any compromised soldier is to be terminated immediately. We didn’t take chances, one clean cut from an energy sabre and the problem was dealt with. Minerva was an idiot and she died because of that, and because of that her compensation is void. Always did have a thing for ‘the bugs’ claimed we were in the wrong. No is sorry that she’s dead.”
<Terminal Cannibalised – Replacement Data Processor Required before Full Transfer>
Report 4 (of 4) – Submitted: 07:44 AM 15/12/2881 Submitted by: Martin <No Crew Records Exist> Length of Transmission: - 00:01:25 (H:M:S)
“Mr. Fargo wants regular reports from all Cohort Leaders so I guess I’ve got some things to say. First is the dream of coming out here and finding aliens and I mean good looking aliens had been over for decades. Turns out in the grand scheme of things we are the most aesthetically pleasing SOBs out here, and while the other five races are all ugly the Orumcek are the worst. They stand eight feet tall and walk on four legs freeing up two pairs of arms with long venomous fingers to manipulate objects. They have four eyes that glow yellow in the dark placed above, well calling it a mouth would be generous, a maw would be more accurate with long curved fangs. In essence they are spiders on steroids and their ships just reinforce that, elongated and sleek with massive arrays of photo-voltaic panels that can be deployed to form an energy catching web.”
<Extreme Vibration Detected – Locking Terminal for Five Seconds>
… craft was brought aboard and the team was slaughtered in seconds, it was only until the third wave that they got a foot hold. Using that the teams pushed deeper and deeper as the rest of the boarding teams surged in after them. We managed to secure maintenance before the bugs could separate the ship but the controls were to badly damage to deploy the cargo for pick up. Back at work my friends often ask me what I do for Mr. Fargo. I wonder what they would say if they knew I acted as technical support for a gang of pirates.”
<Record End>
<Sending Data to Tegethra and Sol Legal Departments for Analysis>
<Location of Joint Tegethera/Sol Stolen Government Aid – Unknown>
<System Power will Fail in 00:00:10 (H:M:S)>
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