Posted on 12/28/2009 9:44:19 AM PST by asimshah
NicknamedBob needs semicolons, is all.
Nicknamed;Bob
Nicknamed; Bob
.
Nah, doesn’t work for me.
LOL, first I shall torture you, then I shall strip the editing from your fingers.
More reading torment:
“What signal might that be?”
“Uhh.. transmit these numbers on frequency band...” the numbers and frequency popped up on his visor.
“Okay, if I become nanite lunch, I’m blaming you.”
Amused chuckles came back in reply.
“Don’t worry so much da-” the channel cut out.
Did the voice start to say ‘dad’?
He shook his head and waited for a response to the signal he’d sent out.
His suit sensors told him that various spiderbots were still active, below him by several levels, but none of them were currently in awake mode.
Something popped up on his screen, furtively moving ahead of him, just at the edge of his scan range.
He transmitted the numbers again, and the motion stopped.
“Oh come on, if that’s you, at least let me know. And please don’t slave me.”
A radio chirp told him that he had communication with something ahead.
“I suggest you quickly move forward, and come to junction A-7.” A fully active and non-malfunctoning EVA voice said to him.
“NOW.” the voice implored urgently when he hesitated.
He started forward using handholds and magnetic grappling devices.
“Stop, and sit very still.” came EVAs voice over the channel, “Slowly turn right and shine your light on maximum setting down the corridor.”
He did so and unleashed a barrage of weaponfire at the stubbornly crawling silicon bug that was slowly dying.
Even the silicon aliens needed an atmosphere of some type to live, but they were far more resistant to suffocation than all previously known life.
This one had been suffocating for four months.
“That’s the last one Sparks. The others were dispatched by Sigma before,” she trailed off for a second, “Before I had to tell him to sleep. And you can stop screaming now, I’m sure your shuttle would appreciate that very much.”
Sparks shook violently inside his suit, he’d only seen the results of what the silicon bugs did.
The events of four months prior came back in vivid color and sound.
He’d never seen them up close and ugly like that before, let alone been close to being consumed by one.
How Sigma had vented the atmosphere while presumably face to face with one and not been shredded he couldn’t fathom.
He chalked it up to another one of his “gut hunches” that would forever go unexplained.
Four months before.
He shook his head, it wouldn’t go away.
Smoke hung low in the air in the control room, Kappa was coordinating with Nægling, Sleipnir, the Hab, the dockyards, and various other sensor platforms encircling Venus.
“I need a fix on where that signal is coming from!” Kappa shouted over the din of yet another close detonation ringing against the shields.
“Linkup complete! Sending imagery to main screen now, and.. Oh My God..” Sparks momentarily froze.
The sheer size of the alien delvings came to full horrific view, encircling the whole of Venus was what looked like a cyclopean particle accelerator.
Massive tunnels capable of comfortably housing trillions of human sized beings sprang off in all directions.
Immense caverns containing structures of unknown purpose sat at regular intervals around the ring structure.
“You’d better hurry, we’re running out of enemy craft out here to keep them from directly targeting us with that thing! Oh Da-*static*” Sigma burst over their collective stupor like a rude wave awakening a sunbather.
Nægling and Sleipnir had darted close to the Hab and the dockyards before lighting off their jumpdrives, using the gravity tug action to pull and slingshot their respective charges away from Venus.
“That was a bad idea guys, you just blossomed on the screens, expect incoming fi-” Sigma was cut off by a shimmering just to the front of Sleipnir.
Sleipnir took a chance and fired her forward energy weapons at the shimmering area in her path.
The glory of a newborn sun shone for the briefest second as the shimmer was disrupted, whatever method or substance the alien weapon used was partially dispersed by the energy weapon.
But Sleipnir still received a healthy dose of damage from the close aboard partial detonation.
“The Hab is clear, I repeat, the Hab is clear and spooling up mains!” Sleipnir had to get clear herself, she lacked a teleFRAG, and her particle weapons couldn’t penetrate the Venus atmosphere.
“Not good enough, they’re still targeting the Hab!” Sparks read an energy spike and connected searchlighting beam locking onto the Hab.
“Put us between Venus and the Hab.” Kappa made his own snap decision.
“Sir?”
“Do it.”
The fires, the arcing electricity, the cries of the injured, all droned in together at once as Bradamante short jumped into the path of fire.
Time slowed down, they’d jumped from within a temporary protective blanket of enemy fighters and bombers.
Many were slung past Bradamante straight at Venus.
Many of her own spiderbots were similarly flung to parts unknown.
Sigma, somewhere out there himself, was now -where?
On cue several shafts of upwards traveling shimmers were there to greet the fresh arrival, even if she wasn’t the intended target.
“Brace for impact.”
Sparks picked himself up off the wall as several more impacts rocked Bradamante from stem to stern.
“Target that ring, and those four large structures. Set the teleFRAG for continuous ripplefire, full load, grid patterns. We’re going to resurface the planet.” Kappa looked like Lucifer in the red lights, a stream of crimson tinged his cheek below his left eye, an ugly bruise swelling above his right.
Again, he heard church bells.
Was this how it would end?
Bradamante finally had a target for her lance, an enemy to unhorse.
And unhorse it she would, with her last ergs of strength.
Her portside emitters created an aurora glimmer for a short distance away from them as their energies charged the area in front of them.
The atmosphere of Venus was rent by blasts that fell short of their intended destinations, seismic data transmitted from surface stations told of the horrific cataclysm being created below.
The ground surface was rising and falling by distances measured in miles in some locations.
And Bradamante wasn’t finished emptying her magazine hold.
She was fully on automatic, the full contents of her hold being dematerialized and transmitted to someplace far below.
Blasts were being deployed at various depths, as well as a predetermined pattern in smaller degrees around the surface.
A sudden spike below told them that somebody below was responding in a similar fashion.
aughta boy!
I liked it. Time to feed the catz and go to bed.
I recommend that you also wear the socks in unusual ways. Wear them over your hands, around your neck like a scarf, tied to your belt in back to give yourself a tail should add joy to the screening process. I urge you to be creative in your sock wearing.
At least it's sunny...
OK. I’m convinced. Let me know when it’s published in full.
Something that I’m sure would not benefit those with Seasonally Affective Disorder, is the thought that folks in their graves are in a warmer environment than anyone waiting for a bus.
I mean, really! Even there, four feet below grade, the temperature is thirty degrees warmer. Why aren’t more people there?
If I had to live up there, I’d be dug in really deep. I’d put a lot of down in my hunker. Probably want to put it in my fur-lined parka too.
Sunny here, too. 30.
Overcast here. Yawn...
Still cold. Frank and I and a kitteh had naps.
Hey, Mr. Sheed! The U.T. has moved over here for the new year. We’re very up-to-date.
Not cold here. 50s, I would guess. Still, fired up the downstairs woodstove. Anoreth will probably by over in a little bit.
We’re really cold here.
How cold is cold?
I’d send you some heat from our woodstove but I don’t think it would make. you will get a smidgen more CO2 though.
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