Post by gollee on Nov 21, 2013 16:34:45 GMT
The idea for the villains in a book I am considering writing
The Planet of Carnic was a first stage colony world, its gigantic savannahs and benevolent environment making it ideal for an agricultural colony, to supply the vast cities and industries of the nearby systems. Vast tracts of land were ploughed and put to seed, while other areas were turned over to cattle. A total of five hundred million people owned land and worked on the planet, covering an ever-expanding area.
Samuel and his team stepped out of the jump jet, weapons raised, scanning the terrain. They had been sent to discover why a twenty kilometre wide area of this colony world had ceased communication, Satellite scans and recon flights had amounted to nothing, from what they could see, there wasn’t a single living thing moving on the savannah. Pale, greenish-blue grass reached up to their waists, and they could see scattered trees across the plains, but not a single animal, anywhere, or any people. The six of them moved quickly, heading towards the closest town’s co-ordinates. They had landed at the edge of the dead zone, which had appeared the day before, and had grown exponentially to its current size, then completely stopped expanding.
Samuel took point, keeping his ion carbine raised, using its thermal scope to track for any life signs. Other than the faint glow of heat from the approaching town, there was nothing. The town was small, a collection of turf and wooden houses, based around several empty pastures, which should, have held cattle. The group of six walked cautiously into the town, transitioning from long grass to dirt paths easily. Samuel made a sharp gesture with his left hand, and two of his soldiers moved forwards, moving to secure the closest house. The two soldiers disappeared for a moment, searching the inside of the house, before a voice echoed over the comms, “Nothing inside sir, no sign of a struggle, everything is laid out for dinner, but no one arrived,” The two soldiers exited the building and made their way back to the group, scanning the area with carbines.
When they had regrouped, the soldiers moved rapidly into the town, alert for any signs of life, but they couldn’t even see a single aboriginal rodent. The six of them, moving as a pack, approached the centre of the town, scanning the ground before them for any signs of hostile activity. Samuel halted suddenly, pointing his rifle at a patch of heat haze floating in the middle of the town square; the rest of the team activated all their sensors against the haze, attempting to detect what had alerted Samuel. The sensors revealed a faint electromagnetic signature.
Samuel spoke out, “I can see your signature, reveal yourself, this is your only warning,” The heat haze flexed for a moment, before falling, to reveal a horrifying apparition. A ghastly white, floating form, like a twisted caricature of a human, with withered legs and deep, glowing yellow eyes, set into a balding skull with a wide, slanted gash for a mouth. A shiver of horror went through Samuel, and he raised his rifle to point at the creature’s head, “What the hell are you!?” The creature tilted its head to the side, observing Samuel, then spoke, in a cold, clinical voice, “We are Sinith, you will give us information” The creature raised one of it’s claws, and gestured at the soldier to Samuel’s left. With a scream, the soldier was dragged forwards, and suspended in the air, about two metres in front of the Sinith. The Sinith observed the struggling soldier for a moment, and then opened its claw wide.
The unfortunate soldier burst apart in a smooth, clean fashion, his armour coming apart at the seams and floating gently away from his form, which was being disassembled just as efficiently. His organs burst out of his chest and floated within a metre of the Sinith, while his blood floated in a distended globule to the far right of it, his armour had been reconstructed out to the creature’s right, while the emaciated remains of the soldier continued to flat in front of it. The creature extended its other claw and stoked the organs, spinning them gently, examining them. With a yell of shock and fear, Samuel and the remaining soldiers opened fire on the creature, incandescent beams of ions streaking in to impact on the creature.
Every single beam stopped exactly one inch from the creature’s skin, but the attack attracted its attention, “Biological analysis complete, triggering fear reaction, releasing nanonic digestors,” He creature dropped the remains and flung its arm out wide and a smear of grey dust flew onto the ground before it. Where ever the dust touched, the grass died, withering away to nothing while the dust grew thicker and thicker, spreading quickly towards the soldiers.
“Fall back! Fall back!” Samuel shouted, scrambling away from the rapidly approaching swarm of dust. The team retreated quickly, firing sporadically at the creature, though it didn’t appear to harm it in the slightest. As the team began to gain ground on the swarm, the creature raised one of its claws again, and made a sharp, yanking motion with its arm. One of the soldiers screamed as they were pulled off of their feet and dragged towards the ravenous swarm.
Within seconds the soldier was concealed within the cloak of grey, though occasional thrashing limbs breached the surface. Within in a half minute, all movement had ceased, and the swarm stopped its advance, feasting on the dead. The creature tilted it’s head at the cries of horror emanating from the retreating soldiers, “Fear reaction analysed, specimens needed for behavioural analysis,” The creature glided forwards, the dust swarm splitting beneath it, and swiped its arm at the fleeing soldiers. “Move!” Samuel cried, diving to the side, but the rest of his team was too late, they were encapsulated in scintillating lines of force, and inexorably dragged back towards the Sinith. Samuel blasted shot after shot into the force shell holding his team mates, and a small rupture split the side of the shield.
When they saw the rupture, one of the soldiers tried to scramble out, they threw themselves against the weakening shield, and passed partially through before the rupture suddenly snapped shut, slicing through armour, flesh and bone, severing their left leg. The soldier gave a shriek of agony as their blood sprayed onto the grass. The Sinith ignored her, attention focused on bringing the other two close to itself. Samuel ran forwards, and seized the soldier under her arms, and dragged her away from the slowly spreading dust.
When they were a good distance away, he seized her by her good leg, and her left arm, and, activating his suit augmentors, flung her over his shoulders, running full pelt towards the waiting jump jet. He ran five hundred metres in less than ten seconds, and leapt aboard; shouting into his radio, “Lift off! Lift the hell off!” The pilot responded immediately, the jump jet vibrated, then leapt into the air, gaining altitude rapidly.
Samuel set the soldier down, and began working on her leg, by this point; the blood flow had reduced significantly, her heart straining to work against the falling blood pressure. He quickly applied a medical dressing to the wound, which quickly and efficiently bond to the flesh and armour, sealing the wound, before administering anaesthetic. The soldier gave a short groan of relief, before lapsing into unconsciousness. Samuel began stripping off her armour, applying various medical packages to the exposed skin, where they beeped alarmingly at the damage she had suffered.
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After ten minutes of intensive medical care, the medical packages ceased beeping, and a number of green lights flickered on. Samuel sat back, giving a sigh of relief, before carefully moving the unconscious soldier into a medical pod. He carefully buckled himself to a chair next to the pods readout, so he could monitor the soldier’s condition. His radio buzzed, and a voice echoed through it, “Samuel, We are seeing a massive amount of activity down there, what happened?” Samuel accessed the satellite feed of the dead zone, to see a large number of Sinith, at least thirty, congregating around the force shell containing his men. “Aliens, they took us apart… One of them just picked up Desmond and pulled him apart, then started playing with his guts,” The radio was silent for a moment, before the voice said “Confirmed, what about the rest of your team?” Samuel grunted, “Kane was killed… Devoured by some sort of nanobots, Hazel and Carl were captured, Jane had her leg cut off, but I saved her, at least.” The radio stayed silent for an extended period, before the voice finally said, “Confirmed, we will have a medical team awaiting your arrival.”
The Planet of Carnic was a first stage colony world, its gigantic savannahs and benevolent environment making it ideal for an agricultural colony, to supply the vast cities and industries of the nearby systems. Vast tracts of land were ploughed and put to seed, while other areas were turned over to cattle. A total of five hundred million people owned land and worked on the planet, covering an ever-expanding area.
Samuel and his team stepped out of the jump jet, weapons raised, scanning the terrain. They had been sent to discover why a twenty kilometre wide area of this colony world had ceased communication, Satellite scans and recon flights had amounted to nothing, from what they could see, there wasn’t a single living thing moving on the savannah. Pale, greenish-blue grass reached up to their waists, and they could see scattered trees across the plains, but not a single animal, anywhere, or any people. The six of them moved quickly, heading towards the closest town’s co-ordinates. They had landed at the edge of the dead zone, which had appeared the day before, and had grown exponentially to its current size, then completely stopped expanding.
Samuel took point, keeping his ion carbine raised, using its thermal scope to track for any life signs. Other than the faint glow of heat from the approaching town, there was nothing. The town was small, a collection of turf and wooden houses, based around several empty pastures, which should, have held cattle. The group of six walked cautiously into the town, transitioning from long grass to dirt paths easily. Samuel made a sharp gesture with his left hand, and two of his soldiers moved forwards, moving to secure the closest house. The two soldiers disappeared for a moment, searching the inside of the house, before a voice echoed over the comms, “Nothing inside sir, no sign of a struggle, everything is laid out for dinner, but no one arrived,” The two soldiers exited the building and made their way back to the group, scanning the area with carbines.
When they had regrouped, the soldiers moved rapidly into the town, alert for any signs of life, but they couldn’t even see a single aboriginal rodent. The six of them, moving as a pack, approached the centre of the town, scanning the ground before them for any signs of hostile activity. Samuel halted suddenly, pointing his rifle at a patch of heat haze floating in the middle of the town square; the rest of the team activated all their sensors against the haze, attempting to detect what had alerted Samuel. The sensors revealed a faint electromagnetic signature.
Samuel spoke out, “I can see your signature, reveal yourself, this is your only warning,” The heat haze flexed for a moment, before falling, to reveal a horrifying apparition. A ghastly white, floating form, like a twisted caricature of a human, with withered legs and deep, glowing yellow eyes, set into a balding skull with a wide, slanted gash for a mouth. A shiver of horror went through Samuel, and he raised his rifle to point at the creature’s head, “What the hell are you!?” The creature tilted its head to the side, observing Samuel, then spoke, in a cold, clinical voice, “We are Sinith, you will give us information” The creature raised one of it’s claws, and gestured at the soldier to Samuel’s left. With a scream, the soldier was dragged forwards, and suspended in the air, about two metres in front of the Sinith. The Sinith observed the struggling soldier for a moment, and then opened its claw wide.
The unfortunate soldier burst apart in a smooth, clean fashion, his armour coming apart at the seams and floating gently away from his form, which was being disassembled just as efficiently. His organs burst out of his chest and floated within a metre of the Sinith, while his blood floated in a distended globule to the far right of it, his armour had been reconstructed out to the creature’s right, while the emaciated remains of the soldier continued to flat in front of it. The creature extended its other claw and stoked the organs, spinning them gently, examining them. With a yell of shock and fear, Samuel and the remaining soldiers opened fire on the creature, incandescent beams of ions streaking in to impact on the creature.
Every single beam stopped exactly one inch from the creature’s skin, but the attack attracted its attention, “Biological analysis complete, triggering fear reaction, releasing nanonic digestors,” He creature dropped the remains and flung its arm out wide and a smear of grey dust flew onto the ground before it. Where ever the dust touched, the grass died, withering away to nothing while the dust grew thicker and thicker, spreading quickly towards the soldiers.
“Fall back! Fall back!” Samuel shouted, scrambling away from the rapidly approaching swarm of dust. The team retreated quickly, firing sporadically at the creature, though it didn’t appear to harm it in the slightest. As the team began to gain ground on the swarm, the creature raised one of its claws again, and made a sharp, yanking motion with its arm. One of the soldiers screamed as they were pulled off of their feet and dragged towards the ravenous swarm.
Within seconds the soldier was concealed within the cloak of grey, though occasional thrashing limbs breached the surface. Within in a half minute, all movement had ceased, and the swarm stopped its advance, feasting on the dead. The creature tilted it’s head at the cries of horror emanating from the retreating soldiers, “Fear reaction analysed, specimens needed for behavioural analysis,” The creature glided forwards, the dust swarm splitting beneath it, and swiped its arm at the fleeing soldiers. “Move!” Samuel cried, diving to the side, but the rest of his team was too late, they were encapsulated in scintillating lines of force, and inexorably dragged back towards the Sinith. Samuel blasted shot after shot into the force shell holding his team mates, and a small rupture split the side of the shield.
When they saw the rupture, one of the soldiers tried to scramble out, they threw themselves against the weakening shield, and passed partially through before the rupture suddenly snapped shut, slicing through armour, flesh and bone, severing their left leg. The soldier gave a shriek of agony as their blood sprayed onto the grass. The Sinith ignored her, attention focused on bringing the other two close to itself. Samuel ran forwards, and seized the soldier under her arms, and dragged her away from the slowly spreading dust.
When they were a good distance away, he seized her by her good leg, and her left arm, and, activating his suit augmentors, flung her over his shoulders, running full pelt towards the waiting jump jet. He ran five hundred metres in less than ten seconds, and leapt aboard; shouting into his radio, “Lift off! Lift the hell off!” The pilot responded immediately, the jump jet vibrated, then leapt into the air, gaining altitude rapidly.
Samuel set the soldier down, and began working on her leg, by this point; the blood flow had reduced significantly, her heart straining to work against the falling blood pressure. He quickly applied a medical dressing to the wound, which quickly and efficiently bond to the flesh and armour, sealing the wound, before administering anaesthetic. The soldier gave a short groan of relief, before lapsing into unconsciousness. Samuel began stripping off her armour, applying various medical packages to the exposed skin, where they beeped alarmingly at the damage she had suffered.
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After ten minutes of intensive medical care, the medical packages ceased beeping, and a number of green lights flickered on. Samuel sat back, giving a sigh of relief, before carefully moving the unconscious soldier into a medical pod. He carefully buckled himself to a chair next to the pods readout, so he could monitor the soldier’s condition. His radio buzzed, and a voice echoed through it, “Samuel, We are seeing a massive amount of activity down there, what happened?” Samuel accessed the satellite feed of the dead zone, to see a large number of Sinith, at least thirty, congregating around the force shell containing his men. “Aliens, they took us apart… One of them just picked up Desmond and pulled him apart, then started playing with his guts,” The radio was silent for a moment, before the voice said “Confirmed, what about the rest of your team?” Samuel grunted, “Kane was killed… Devoured by some sort of nanobots, Hazel and Carl were captured, Jane had her leg cut off, but I saved her, at least.” The radio stayed silent for an extended period, before the voice finally said, “Confirmed, we will have a medical team awaiting your arrival.”
