Once Upon The Stars (Updated 08-22-04)

[Atrocities]

Part XXX

By Gods Good Graces

Segment A

When Tom finally came to after the explosion that he had set off to prevent the creatures in the space ship from getting to them, he could taste the iron flavor of blood in his mouth, and he swallowed hard. He lay there motionless for several minutes, counting bones and body parts by moving as many as he could. He hurt horribly from head to toe, but as far as he could tell he was in one peace with no broken bones or missing limbs. Slowly he sat up and tried to look around. The cavern was dimly light, the cavern lights having been destroyed by the bLast or buried under the ice and snow. The only light that was illuminating the cavern was that which penetrated through the Ice above them.
The air was heavy with aerosolled ice particles and Tom found it difficult to breath. His ears rang and he was beginning to get head ace. Tom looked around a bit more for his comrades and began calling out their names.
“Harris? Nina?” He yelled.
A few seconds later Harris responded his voice rough and strained as he spoke. “General,” was all he could say before entering into a coughing frenzy. “I can’t seem to breath.”
“The air lines must have been cut off, we are running out of breathable air.” Speculated Tom as he tried to stand and nearly blacked out from the effort.
“I think my leg is broken sir.” Harris said slowly as he continued to cough.
“Sit tight.” Replied Tom as he scanned the darkens through squinted eyes looking for any sign of Nina Smith.
“Nina?” He yelled once more without a getting a response. Slowly he started moving through the ruminants of the Cavern looking for her. The bLast had been horrendous and it generated a shockwave that hit them like a tidal wave. Nina Smith was closer to the bLast then Tom, so he focused his search in the area she had been standing. It did not take him long before finding her. He bent down and checked for a pulse on her neck. He breathed a sigh of relief at feeling the smooth and even rhythm of her heart beat as it pushed blood through Nina’s jugular vain. He lowered down beside her and softly spoke into her hear. “Nina, Nina.”
Slowly she began to stir. A moan came first quickly followed by a gasp for air as her eyes came wide open and she let out a piercing screamed.
Taken back by this Tom startled away from her before regaining his composure. “It is alright, your alive.” He said softly as he helped her to lie back down. She said nothing, but Tom could read her eyes, she was confused and scared.
“The explosion caused a cave in as we had expected, we were all caught in the bLast wave and knocked unconscious.” Slowly she began to relax as her memory slowly returned.
“The assassin?” She finally said through chattering teething. “Where is that bastard?”
Tom had seen him lying uncurious against the far wall of the Cavern as he looked for Nina.
“He’s over by the caved in entrance.” Replied Tom.

Thirty minutes later everyone was awake and sitting on whatever they could find, silently waiting for someone to come up with an idea on how to get out of their ice tomb.
“As near as I can figure it, we have little over four hours before were all lit up like the apocalypse.” Commented Harris darkly from his little corner of the Cavern.
“My Chronometer was broken in the bLast, I don’t know the time, but I will agree, we have about four hours.” Replied Tom solemnly as fiddled with the two items in his hand.
“I have two of these explosive devices left.” Commented Tom as he looked at the devices in his hand. “Will they be enough to bLast open that caved in entrance?” He asked of Orata. Trax had used an alas to protect his true identity so to these people his name was Orata.
Trax smiled slightly but did not immediately answer Tom.
“Answer me?” Pressed Tom angrily.
“Yes, there are enough explosives in your hand to bLast through the obstruction. However, you will not be able to escape the bLast radius of a Titus warhead so why bother. It is better to die were we are than live with the false hope of being rescued in time to avoid the bLast. Besides, we will all be dead from suffocation long before we are ever struck by Titus.”
“We will worry about that problem once we are on the surface.” Replied Tom as he tossed the explosive to Trax. “If you try anything stupid, you will be the first to die, that I sincerely promise you.” Said Tom with as much venom in his voice as he could muster. He raised his pistol toward Trax and nodded toward the blocked entrance.
“Now get us the hell out of here.”

[dogscoff]

Woohoo! OutS is back! And we're back in the cavern! More woohoo!

[Atrocities]

Glad you happy.

[Atrocities]

After being told my story sucked a while back, I kinda lost interest in it. Oh well, I will wrap it up as quickly as I can. Hopefully those who have enjoyed it will continue to do so. Those who don't like it, well then, don't read it.

[Atrocities]

Part XXX

By Gods Good Graces

Segment B

As Major Jellico Mantel gently set his Prowler, Guardian One, down on the landing pad at Andover Base he could not help but repress the urge to hit something. His Co-Pilot, Captain Chad Jeffery’s, looked defeated as he sat there looking out the window at nothing in particular.
“Come on Chad, let’s get unloaded and head for the Officers club.” Said Jellico as he unfastened his harness and climbed out away from his pilot’s seat. Chad looked over at him and from the look on his face Jellico knew what it was he was thinking. He put his hand on Chad’s shoulder to comfort him.
“He was a good man, even if he wanted to kill you.” He said warmly.
“Its not that Jel, it’s the fact that we left him and other behind.”
“It’s a bad call, but we have to follow order.”
“Some orders should not be followed.”
Feeling a bit angry over the affair of having to leave one of his best friends behind and not being able to live with it himself he snapped out at Chad.
“You don’t think I wanted to stay and dig him out?” Snapped Jellico harshly
Chad looked away and lowered his head. Realizing what he had done, Jellico squeezed his friend’s shoulder firmly and said gently, “Come on, we have a job to do.”

Captain Richard Hess was not a man to keen on lying around, especially s when a good friend of his was in the very real danger of being killed. Despite his injuries, sustained when a Prowler had exploded on the landing field at the discovery site, he walked out of the base hospital toward the Officers Club. He wanted answered, and by God he was going to get some, or heads were going to roll.

The explosion came as a muffled sound as several tons of compressed Ice and snow were blown apart and out away from the entrance to the cavern that held General Tom Christopher and his party. The cavern filled with an arid odor of spent explosive that smelled too much like rotten eggs and sulfur for Toms tastes.
After the debris cleared Orata entered the whole the bLast had created and placed the second charge. The second bLast did the trick; soon after it was set off Tom could smell fresh air entering the cavern. Not long afterward they were all on the surface of the Ice probing the area for any signs of life. All of the buildings were still there, but no sign of life. Nina Smith and Harris made there way as well as they could toward the Mess/Medical tent to treat Harris’s broken leg. Tom keeping his pistol even with the Orata’s midsection made there way to the Command tent. Tom was not surprised to find it completely empty of any equipment. It was standing order to remove all communication and tactical equipment when an area was being evacuated.
Tom and Orata moved back outside and toward the Mess/Medical tent, when out of nowhere a blue light struck Tom in the right backside just below the rib cage. Tom crumpled to the ground without making a sound. Trax who was walking in front of Tom moved so quickly to grab the pistol out of Toms hand that even if Tom had been conscious, he would not have had time to react. Trax knew instantly what had dropped Tom and he knelt down beside him and checked for a pulse. He had one, but it was weakening. Trax looked up as Tanix approached, half walking, half hobbling through the snow.
“You were given an order to wait at the evacuation site.” Commented Trax with some anger in his voice.
“A good thing I did not follow that order.” Replied Tanix sourly.
“Yes indeed it was.” Observed Trax as he stood and casually walked over to Tanix. Without warning he pistol-whipped him knocking him to the ground.
“Next time you fail to follow my orders I will kill you.” He said coldly. With that he fired Toms Pistol into the snow next to Tanix’s head then dropped it. He helped Tanix to his feet and then both of them took off toward their evacuation site without looking back.

Nina and Harris heard the shot and ran out of the Medical tent to see what had happened. Harris, ever the soldier, checked the area as they exited out into the snow. Nina saw Tom lying in the snow first, but Harris’s cautioned her that it might be a trap as they slowly made there way toward him.

Tom’s wound was bad, but not immediately life threatening. Harris could not carry any weight on his leg and was having a tremendously difficult time hopping around in the snow. She was able to give him a mild painkiller and set his leg in a brace, but that was all she could do.
“There they are!” Said Harris as he brought his rifle up and started to take aim.”
Nina stood and put her hand on the forward part of Harris’s rifle and gently applied press to lower it as she spoke softly to him. “Let them go. We need to get the General inside so I can work on him.”
Harris looked at her and could see in her eyes that she knew what she was doing.
“If they wanted to kill him, they could have, but they didn’t.” Nina said as Harris’s rifle lowered slowly.

Since Harris could not help her, Nina had to use one of the tables from the mess tent and drag him across the snow inch by inch. It took here over thirty minutes to traverse the distance, but she did it. She was exhausted but still worked on stopping the bleeding from Tom’s wound. After another twenty minutes or so Tom regained consciousness. He was in serious pain but refused any pain medication.


“Where is Orata?” Asked Tom through clenched teeth as he looked around the tent slowly? He could not see much as he was laying on the floor on his belly no less.
“He’s gone.” Replied Harris.
“We have got to get away from here if we are going to survive.” Tom said as he tried to do get up.
“General, there are no land vehicles, no communication equipment, and both you and I are wounded.” Harris said bluntly as Nina and he bent down to try and help Tom up, “We are going nowhere.” Harris finished with a grunt as Tom finally stood and nearly fell over. Nina braced him as well as she could.
“What happened out there?” She asked in an effort to change the subject.
“I don’t know.” Replied Tom as Nina helped him to lay face down on the medical table. “We were walking along and the next thing I knew I was in here.”
“You were shot with an energy weapon of some kind.” Commented Nina as she sprayed liquid bandage on Tom’s wound.
“An energy weapon?” Commented Tom in a puzzled voice. “Those are only in the experimental stage of development! They don’t exist yet.”
“Well this one was real enough, an inch higher and you would not be here.” Replied Nina in a serious ton of voice as she continued to work.


Richard entered the Officers Club and immediately made way for the two men he openly recognized sitting at a table near a large Muriel of some old battle scene. The two men were not talking, and had barely touched their drinks when Richard hobbled up.
“Gentlemen,” he said politely as he pulled up a chair.
“Captain Hess,” Replied Jellico sincerely. “Glad to see you up and about. Care for a dink?” Jellico raised his hand and started to flag the waitress when Richard spoke.
“Major I need your help.”

[ March 01, 2004, 01:00: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

[dogscoff]

After being told my story sucked a while back

Who said that? Was that here or on the Speculative forum?

There's bound to be some people somewhere who don't like your story Atrocities, just because everyone's tastes are different. However, you know that plenty of ppl DO like it, and most importantly, YOU like it. F**k the rest of 'em and keep writing. You're good at it.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by dogscoff:

quote:

---

After being told my story sucked a while back

Who said that? Was that here or on the Speculative forum?

---

It was probably some Trek-head canon idle worshipper. Like D say's ignore 'em Atrocities. Write what you want. And don't listen to the critics.