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Lord DreamCrusher
Primal yet Intelligent, Savage yet Sophisticated
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2018
- Location
- United States
Mara 931. It was a remote planet in the galaxy that had long been deemed unimportant and uninteresting. It had been centuries since the first human exploration vessel had scanned the surface from low orbit and reported the findings which showed no large cache of materials nor any scientific anomalies to puzzle the sensibility of researchers. However, that first pass had proven insufficient to achieve the level of detail mandated by the new worlds initiative, an organization focused around the exploration of new systems for the benefit of humanity as a whole. When this error was eventually discovered it forced a second ship to sweep the planet and, lo and behold, find an oddity that past negligence had missed. While the planet as a whole remained uninteresting there was a single island on the equator that could not have formed naturally. The data was clear, it had been teraformed or otherwise artificially created in a manner that was inconsistent with the rest of the world at large. This was important due to the fact that humanity lacked the technology to accomplish this and that they had never met another sentient species even remotely close to their own level of achievement; only primitive species that humans had chosen to leave as untouched as possible. This one oddity was enough to spark a firestorm in the scientific community and propel a once forgettable planet into the spotlight.
It had taken years for the battles between proposed expeditions to get sorted out and untold amounts of money all but burned in the fires of legality over who would have the chance to go there and delve into this island first hand. Even after it had been decided that the Höllentechnik company, a business with a shady reputation for the fact that it marketed weapons of war alongside medical aid and research, would have the rights to establish a base on the island it took years more to get the necessary staff and equipment designed for such a long range mission. Mara 931 was well outside of settled space and would only be able to resupply once a year. Even that time frame was expensive to maintain and thus was a gamble that the results of the research would prove valuable enough to pay off. So the base needed to be as self sufficient as possible and as safe for the crew as could be. That meant redundant systems upon redundant systems. Extensive hydroponics to supplement food shipments, hyper-efficient generators that could run constantly with minimal fuel drain, and even a state of the art cloning system to provide insurance that any individual on the project that met an untimely demise would be resurrected, complete with all their memories, since there truly was no other way to ensure proper medical care. And yet, for all this trouble and investment, so many people remained so interested in what this project might reveal that bribes and elicit deals were offered to every potential member of the journey to... share some of their findings discreetly.
It had been eight months since the vessel landed and dropped off the crew and materials for the construction of Research Base Hund. Despite the buildings being prefabricated it still took much work to assemble everything and get the base operational. Though, thankfully, the area surrounding the base seemed relatively peaceful and of temperate climate to not make matters any worse. Four months was the official date in which the base was considered fully operational and the four months spent after that were mainly focused on doing the groundwork for further exploration. This boiled down to mostly long range scans to try and map topography or judge heat signatures to determine density of life. Very little actual scouting was performed in-person due to the uncertainty of what they would find but, perhaps more frustratingly, the fact that they had determined a primitive species existed on the island meant that the crew was required to use extreme caution to minimize chances of encountering them directly. So many laws had been raised to prevent interference with primitive species that to breach even one of them could be enough to shut the whole project down. It was one thing if primitives encroached upon the base, self defense was not an issue, but it was another thing if the researchers encroached upon the tribal's territory.
Long range scanning was notoriously inaccurate and imprecise, which meant setbacks for the project on the whole. They couldn't risk exploring too deeply into any of the four biomes of the island without knowing where these tribals lived; Marans as they were labeled in a temporary designation though no doubt each person at the base might have their own nickname for the four-armed creatures. The best that everyone had managed to assume at this point was that the Marans lived mainly to the north in the jungle biome, a section of the island that resembled the likes of the Amazon Rainforest on Earth, but trying to use long distance scanning to discover small villages within an area so densely packed with heat signatures was almost impossible so their progress per month of charting that territory was measured in meters or feet rather than miles or kilometers. It was frustrating but everyone present still held relatively high spirits and hope that the work they were doing would amount to great things. It only took one night for all that optimism to get washed away.
The alarm perimeter had gone often late in the evening but this was nothing new. The proximity sensors tended to trigger for any small creature moving about the area which often included birds if they were flying low enough. There had never been anything larger than a rabbit around the base in the entire eight months they'd been here so there was no reason to worry about the sensors this time. Unfortunately though, this time had been very different. A hunting party of Marans swarmed the compound with stone axes and crude bows, attacking everyone they came across yet otherwise staying as quiet as they could. This was no simple war but rather a night raid, an attack from stealth with the hopes of crippling what they recognized as a superior foe.
The walls of the compound did little to stop the approach as they managed to scale them with little issue, much stronger and graceful than expected perhaps, but as soon as the first gunshot rang out from one of the few guards at the base then all hell broke loose as the noise alerted every other human of the approaching storm. Ultimately, while the battle had costed a few of the tribals their lives it proved to be a slaughter in the case of the humans working within who were ill-prepared for such conflict. A stone-tipped arrow might be little compared to the bullet of a firearm but it could kill all the same. Doctor Aurora Krauszer was one such casualty of the sudden violence but she had not been killed. Instead she had simply been knocked out by a solid blow to the back of her skull and, in her unconscious state, would eventually find herself somewhere very different when she did manage to recover enough to awaken.
When her eyes eventually flitted open, struggling and straining to adjust and focus, Aurora would find herself on the floor of a simple hut. The walls were made of thin pieces of wood lined together and lashed with plant fiber, the cracks and crevasses packed with some kind of mixture of dirt and mud. The roof was a patchwork of sticks and large leaves layered together in an arch to protect from the rain, though the nature of such a construction would necessitate constant maintenance and replacement quite often to remain functional. For her part she was laying upon a rough rug of sorts made out of some kind of reeds, not dissimilar to bamboo perhaps but certainly not identical, which was lain over a dirt floor; earth packed densely from years of use that it was hard like dried clay. The air was humid and thick like soup, it clung to her clothing and skin in an oppressive manner but was made all the worse for the temperature. This place was hot, near-sweltering even, and she was currently shaded within a hut. It was difficult to even breathe as if felt like each inhale only offered half the oxygen she needed.
When she was able to push past the lingering throbbing of her skull from the strike that disabled her in the first place and take further stock of her surroundings she'd find that she was alone in this building which was sparsely furnished. A makeshift bed seemed to be in one corner, though it was little more than another mat of reeds with leaves and plant fiber piled atop it for some minimal padding, and a few small decorations hung on the walls or rested upon cloth on the floor. Beads and simple jewellery or feathers affixed to painted wooden masks as well as a few wooden bowls and cups. The building even lacked a proper door and instead had thin strips of some kind of leather that hung down as a flap to cover the entryway, suggesting that she could just get up and leave if she so desired and yet when she tried to move her hands she'd find that her wrists were bound together in front of her by some kind of vine-rope that was far more coarse and resilient than its appearance suggested. What she remembered of the attack on the base was uncertain but she had been clearly been captured.
It had taken years for the battles between proposed expeditions to get sorted out and untold amounts of money all but burned in the fires of legality over who would have the chance to go there and delve into this island first hand. Even after it had been decided that the Höllentechnik company, a business with a shady reputation for the fact that it marketed weapons of war alongside medical aid and research, would have the rights to establish a base on the island it took years more to get the necessary staff and equipment designed for such a long range mission. Mara 931 was well outside of settled space and would only be able to resupply once a year. Even that time frame was expensive to maintain and thus was a gamble that the results of the research would prove valuable enough to pay off. So the base needed to be as self sufficient as possible and as safe for the crew as could be. That meant redundant systems upon redundant systems. Extensive hydroponics to supplement food shipments, hyper-efficient generators that could run constantly with minimal fuel drain, and even a state of the art cloning system to provide insurance that any individual on the project that met an untimely demise would be resurrected, complete with all their memories, since there truly was no other way to ensure proper medical care. And yet, for all this trouble and investment, so many people remained so interested in what this project might reveal that bribes and elicit deals were offered to every potential member of the journey to... share some of their findings discreetly.
It had been eight months since the vessel landed and dropped off the crew and materials for the construction of Research Base Hund. Despite the buildings being prefabricated it still took much work to assemble everything and get the base operational. Though, thankfully, the area surrounding the base seemed relatively peaceful and of temperate climate to not make matters any worse. Four months was the official date in which the base was considered fully operational and the four months spent after that were mainly focused on doing the groundwork for further exploration. This boiled down to mostly long range scans to try and map topography or judge heat signatures to determine density of life. Very little actual scouting was performed in-person due to the uncertainty of what they would find but, perhaps more frustratingly, the fact that they had determined a primitive species existed on the island meant that the crew was required to use extreme caution to minimize chances of encountering them directly. So many laws had been raised to prevent interference with primitive species that to breach even one of them could be enough to shut the whole project down. It was one thing if primitives encroached upon the base, self defense was not an issue, but it was another thing if the researchers encroached upon the tribal's territory.
Long range scanning was notoriously inaccurate and imprecise, which meant setbacks for the project on the whole. They couldn't risk exploring too deeply into any of the four biomes of the island without knowing where these tribals lived; Marans as they were labeled in a temporary designation though no doubt each person at the base might have their own nickname for the four-armed creatures. The best that everyone had managed to assume at this point was that the Marans lived mainly to the north in the jungle biome, a section of the island that resembled the likes of the Amazon Rainforest on Earth, but trying to use long distance scanning to discover small villages within an area so densely packed with heat signatures was almost impossible so their progress per month of charting that territory was measured in meters or feet rather than miles or kilometers. It was frustrating but everyone present still held relatively high spirits and hope that the work they were doing would amount to great things. It only took one night for all that optimism to get washed away.
The alarm perimeter had gone often late in the evening but this was nothing new. The proximity sensors tended to trigger for any small creature moving about the area which often included birds if they were flying low enough. There had never been anything larger than a rabbit around the base in the entire eight months they'd been here so there was no reason to worry about the sensors this time. Unfortunately though, this time had been very different. A hunting party of Marans swarmed the compound with stone axes and crude bows, attacking everyone they came across yet otherwise staying as quiet as they could. This was no simple war but rather a night raid, an attack from stealth with the hopes of crippling what they recognized as a superior foe.
The walls of the compound did little to stop the approach as they managed to scale them with little issue, much stronger and graceful than expected perhaps, but as soon as the first gunshot rang out from one of the few guards at the base then all hell broke loose as the noise alerted every other human of the approaching storm. Ultimately, while the battle had costed a few of the tribals their lives it proved to be a slaughter in the case of the humans working within who were ill-prepared for such conflict. A stone-tipped arrow might be little compared to the bullet of a firearm but it could kill all the same. Doctor Aurora Krauszer was one such casualty of the sudden violence but she had not been killed. Instead she had simply been knocked out by a solid blow to the back of her skull and, in her unconscious state, would eventually find herself somewhere very different when she did manage to recover enough to awaken.
When her eyes eventually flitted open, struggling and straining to adjust and focus, Aurora would find herself on the floor of a simple hut. The walls were made of thin pieces of wood lined together and lashed with plant fiber, the cracks and crevasses packed with some kind of mixture of dirt and mud. The roof was a patchwork of sticks and large leaves layered together in an arch to protect from the rain, though the nature of such a construction would necessitate constant maintenance and replacement quite often to remain functional. For her part she was laying upon a rough rug of sorts made out of some kind of reeds, not dissimilar to bamboo perhaps but certainly not identical, which was lain over a dirt floor; earth packed densely from years of use that it was hard like dried clay. The air was humid and thick like soup, it clung to her clothing and skin in an oppressive manner but was made all the worse for the temperature. This place was hot, near-sweltering even, and she was currently shaded within a hut. It was difficult to even breathe as if felt like each inhale only offered half the oxygen she needed.
When she was able to push past the lingering throbbing of her skull from the strike that disabled her in the first place and take further stock of her surroundings she'd find that she was alone in this building which was sparsely furnished. A makeshift bed seemed to be in one corner, though it was little more than another mat of reeds with leaves and plant fiber piled atop it for some minimal padding, and a few small decorations hung on the walls or rested upon cloth on the floor. Beads and simple jewellery or feathers affixed to painted wooden masks as well as a few wooden bowls and cups. The building even lacked a proper door and instead had thin strips of some kind of leather that hung down as a flap to cover the entryway, suggesting that she could just get up and leave if she so desired and yet when she tried to move her hands she'd find that her wrists were bound together in front of her by some kind of vine-rope that was far more coarse and resilient than its appearance suggested. What she remembered of the attack on the base was uncertain but she had been clearly been captured.
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