Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Forest of the Fall

Kuruka tried his best to follow the exchange of conversation, but the more he heard and saw, the less he understood. His senses had grown so overwhelmed that a steady and distracting buzz had begun to build in the back of his mind.

"What next?" he asked.

If he did not understand anything of his surroundings, it seemed best to just continue following Steele's lead, and instructions. At least until they were back in his own element.
 
Following the exchange, Steele worked tirelessly on the ships computer systems, running diagnostics and checking primary systems.

"Looks like everything is mostly intact, just need to repair a few secondary systems and the engine nacelle." He muttered.

A couple hours went by, and Nagala finally emerged aboard the CIC, slowly opening the door and peering inside, Steele was hard at work in front of a console, and the black haired woman simply glared at Kuruka.

"Admiral." Nagala said flatly, causing Steele to stand up from his console and offer a brief salute, once Nagala reciprocated, she looked back to Kuruka.

"Is this the native you told me about? You know protocol, you could be irreversibly contaminated." She warned, and Steele frowned.

"He saved my life." The Admiral retorted, and then Nagala slowly walked up to Kuruka, eying him up and down, sizing the aelora native up.
 
Unlike Steele - whom had largely intrigued Kuruka - Nagala made his skin crawl. Even during the tense meeting between Kuruka and Steele in the woods, Kuruka hadn't felt threatened by the foreigner, but this woman gave off a very different vibe. The sharp glare, the tone of her voice, the judgement in her eyes... He didn't need to understand the full depth of their words to understand body language.

He didn't shy away from her, but he was wary and watchful as he studied her back.

"I am Kuruka," he answered.

As with Steele before, Kuruka made no move to raise his weapon to Nagala, but it was clear he was tense.
 
"I see." Nagala replied curtly, unlike Steele, who was muscular and well fed, Nagala had a weathered appearance, she had lost weight as evidenced by the loose fit of her arctic camouflage pants, which still held the bloodstains from the incident atop the mountains.

In the trek through the forest, she had largely abandoned her cold weather gear, and everything else she could carry was left in the cargo bay when she came aboard, but it was clear the patterns in her clothes were different, than Steele's tattered uniform.

Nagala's cold green eyes were piercing; but she made no move to threaten Kuruka.

"Do you know these lands well?" She asked, while Steele worked in the background, poking at a display.
 
"Good." She said. "Then you are of use to us." She added, before turning to Steele.

"I inventoried our supplies while I was walking, there's a condor in the main hangar and a couple thousand JPs of tylium fuel." She said, turning to Kuruka.

"In what direction is the nearest settlement?"
 
Kuruka mused over the question. There were the tribal settlements throughout the forest, but he got the sense that these weren't likely the settlements the woman spoke of, nor did he feel comfortable leading the woman back to his own people. It seemed more likely that she sought the large developed settlements from beyond the forest.

"The Ora'na'shawa settlements are far from here, to the west," he answered truthfully. "I have never been to them, but they lay within the great plains of Amarathia."
 
as written by barney_fife and Tiko

Nagala nodded, and then she turned back to Steele.

"Josh, we're going to go on a little excursion." Nagala said curtly, before she turned towards the main turbolift, Steele simply shrugged, and then turned to Kuruka.

"Dont mind her, she can be a bit short but she's not going to hurt you." Steele said, gesturing towards the lift, boarding it after Nagala.

Kuruka hesitated as it sounded like Steele intended for him to accompany them to the Amarathian settlements. A place as foreign to him as the ship he now stood within.

"I know nothing of the lands beyond the forest," he informed them as he followed them towards the lift. "I will speak with my brothers and sisters about aiding you in returning to your lands, and await your return here in the forest."

Both Nagala and Steele frowned, neither of them could allow this native to remain on the bridge of a highly sophisticated Imperial warship, they talked among each other for a moment in Anquietas, and then Nagala switched to Common. “I can stay here and work on restoring astrometrics and navigation, as well as plot exactly where the hell we are.”

Steele nodded and made his way over to the Lift.

It was a short ten minute ride, with the lift doors opening up to reveal a small hangar bay. Most of the vehicles inside were wrecked in the crash, smashed into each other and the walls, but secured to docking clamps and facing the hangar door was a single condor VTOL.

Steele quickly made his way to the aircraft, checking around it in what seemed like excitement, and then immediately going to the door controls and opening the bay, bathing the interior of the hangar in sunlight.

Steele then stepped forward next, gazing on the aircraft, and opening the rear ramp, which hit the ground with a thud. A moment later, Steele was climbing into the belly of the ship.

Once seated in the cockpit, Steele began flipping switches, controls beeped and chimes, displays came to life, and a low hum was heard throughout the cabin.

"Power, fuel, weapons capacitors, everything's in order." He said, reaching out to put a flight helmet on.

And then Steele flipped a switch, and the craft shuddered, and then silence, and then shuddered again, a howling coming from the inside of the craft that gradually got louder and higher in pitch, until it turned into a shrill deafening scream.

At that moment Steele got onto the radio. “Marathon Actual, this is Condor One, I’ve finished my pre checks and am preparing for departure.”

Once Steele taxied to the outside of the bay, on a small pad on the back of the ship, he increased the throttle, the engines screaming as the VTOL lifted off.

With the flip of a switch, the VTOL took off in a westerly direction.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Kuruka found Nagala's demeanor far less palatable than Steele's. While Steele had instilled a sense of curiosity and intrigue in the native, Nagala prompted quite the opposite. There was malice within the woman that filled Kuruka with a strong sense of caution and wariness. Had he encountered her first, he might have left her in the woods to fend for herself, but Steele had given Kuruka no real cause for alarm. So despite his wariness of the woman's seemingly less than benevolent nature, he would do as he had said. He would return to his tribe with word of what had transpired, and if all went well return with others to aid Nagala and Steele with returning to wherever it was they had come from.

He was swift in his departure from the hangar bay as he headed northwards, and back to the covering of the surrounding forest.
 
Back
Top