Singularity

Archive Log: 34

No one said that landing on the new planet was going to be easy, a breeze; no, quite the contrary, if anything this was going to be a constant struggle. Not just for the pilots, but for the passengers in the lander, and the lander itself. Yes, the machine was built to be durable, to withstand most of what was going to be thrown its way, but scans showed that the storms which happened to strike this planet were vast, deadly, and strong.
Being bumpy was an understatement, everyone was about to get to experience what it felt like to be a piece of clothing in a washer. Luckily, the straps and harnesses which were tightened around everyone would keep them in place. However, it didn't mean they wouldn't still feel the turbulence and the rocking which this storm was going to send their way.
The lander descended smoothly from the ship, leaving behind Tennessee, Ricks and Upworth. Faris was piloting the lander, Oram was copiloting with an ever prominent serious expression on his face. He was not taking any of the light banter happening from the crew behind him. Whereas Faris would join in, he'd sternly look at her, as if reprimanding her; she wasn't going to stop trying to relax the crew, and herself of what was to be a rather stressful flight.
The sky beyond the windows darkened considerably, and it wasn't from the space they were flying through. It was the storm clouds, thick, heavy, impossible to see through as rain suddenly lashed against the windows. The wipers managed to wipe drops away, only for more to replace those. It was endless and never ending as lightning accompanied the rain as well. The cracking light and the static it gave off didn't affect the machinery in the lander as such, but it did have some crew members leaning as forwards as they could to look towards it.
The tension in the air was palpable, and it wasn't just because of the storm. It was nerves, all round, from what would happen if they were struck down by this storm, or what would they truly find on the planet, everyone's nerves were pitching ever higher.
Faris struggled a little to try and avoid the worst patches, if that was even possible. It wasn't as such because the wind would just push the small vehicle in different directions. Through this all, she was struggling to direct them downwards. They weren't aiming for a specific point to land, but they needed to still get to a point where they could even see land.
Hearing the cracking of static, Faris looked to the equipment briefly before her, she reached out a hand to tap a screen and push at a button. Her arm wavered and her other hand gripped tighter onto the steering. They were full on in the storm now and it made trying to keep her hand and arm level hard. She looked troubled, Oram beside her looked a bit confused.
"The storms cut contact." Faris explained. "We might have better luck reconnecting to the Covenant when we land." She furthered when Oram just tilted his head silently, because that was a job she was going to have oodles of fun with, not. No guessing who was staying with the ship and not exploring then?
The moments dragged by as they continued their struggling flight through the storm, yet it did eventually break. It was sudden too, what was grey, angry dark clouds full of rain and thunder, was suddenly replaced by a dull sky and roaming clouds. The lander transitioned smoothly, no longer fighting the wind and travelled alongside some of the largest mountains anyone had ever seen.
Rocky mountains reached upwards high to the sky, almost touching the storm clouds it seemed, yet surrounding them were lush, green vegetation of rolling forestry. Everything seemed so green, so lush, so full of life. The lander swooped and lowered, travelling low to the blue coloured water which was in the centre of the surroundings. Everything wasn't just mountains, there was land dotted around too. They needed to find a place to land, hopefully near one of these pieces of landmass.
Faris reached forwards, now she could steady her arm, she found the controls she wanted and flipped them. Switching the lander into amphibious-mode, this allowed the vehicle to make contact with the water without taking damage, that's all this thing needed was more of a battering.
The landing was rocky, they bumped and hurtled slightly yet, they were soon on solid ground. No longer being pushed around and vaulted about felt odd. Everyone looked relieved, very relieved. And with now being landed, the communications came back on. The signal was faint, crackling even, but it was there.
"I can sort that out, don't worry." Faris said while undoing her harness, behind her she could hear the clicks of harnesses. The crew couldn't wait for freedom, to stretch their legs.
Walter made his way to the front of the group. Opening the door, he sidelong looked at the crew before flicking his blue eyes forwards. The door opened without any trouble, he peeked his head out and slowly made his way downwards. Everyone else remained where they were, Walter was running tests, even if he was just standing there. The air was breathable, the atmosphere, though rainy and stormy, didn't differ too much than Earth, or even Origae-6. He didn't see anything dangerous and turned to nod at the crew. One by one they left and looked around them.
Exactly eight kilometres away was the source of their mission. Everyone had been handed a weapon, the guns were clutched onto and ready at the slightest moments. Lope moved forwards past Walter, he was the man in charge when it came to this sort of thing, and his team followed suit on instinct. Years of training kicked in as they kept their guards up and walked training their weapons on the slightest bit of movement.
There was an eerie fog which seemed to dance about their surroundings, it clung to the foliage around them. Even with them moving through it, all it did was dissipate before grouping together again. Perhaps it was a permanent feature? After all, no one truly knew, this planet was new to them, as the planet was probably new to people.
Pausing and reaching out, Lope grasped onto a piece of the long grass. He pulled something off it, cracked it open and let it spread out in his hands. "Wheat. This is wheat." He frowned, his dark eyes looking around, the fog had lifted a bit to show that what he said was true; they were all walking through a wheat field.
Walter stood, head tilted slightly as he looked around. This wheat field stretched on for a bit, he felt a tug on his sleeve and looked to Onora. "Where there is crops...there are people, right?" She frowned confusedly up at him. Yes, things could grow naturally, as a biologist she understood that. But this seemed convenient at best.
"We do not know that." Walter replied, the scans hadn't flagged up lifeforms. But then, the scans could only do so much.
Onora looked uncertain, worried even as she walked beside him, she had a gun too but it wasn't very tight in her grasp. Walter sent her a serious look, she got the message and held it across her chest, her finger resting on the safety and looking around like everyone else.
"Onora," hearing Karine, Onora turned and looked to where the dark haired woman was standing. She had taken her pack off and was standing looking over what could only be described as a small swamp. Boggy, muddy ground was around her as she stood with her hands on her hips. "Here would be a good place to take samples, don't you think?" She questioned, they had ventured further through the wheat and got into the forestry. They'd been walking a few minutes before Karine voiced this.
Onora moved from Walter's side, she climbed over a log and jumped over a few up jutting rocks to stand beside her. Her eyes scanned the surroundings. There was everything here which could give them some decent readings of what could be here. "Yeah, yeah I think so too." She placed the gun down gently and took to shouldering her pack off. Between them both they were carrying equipment, it was cumbersome and heavy, but needed.
Karine smiled, "That's that sorted, we're staying here to collect samples." She looked to the crew which were all single file and looking their way.
Oram moved, he looked around uncertain, yet they hadn't come across any dangers as of yet. "Okay, radio in if there's any trouble." Karine merely nodded, Onora knelt down taking things out her bags. She was attempting to ignore the rather couple like moment, she paused and looked up.
Walter stood stock still, almost tense as he looked her way. He had shouldered his gun a little while ago, so that left his arms to hang at his sides. His hands were fisted, whereas a few moments before they would hold onto hers if she struggled to climb, or slipped. He didn't look pleased with her not being with them, with him as much as Oram seemed displeased about his wife parting ways from him too.
Only difference was that Oram could clearly express his displeasure, Walter and Onora could not. Although by now both were rather sure the crew had an inkling something was between them, but they kept it to themselves. Onora did look at Walter, she smiled as reassuringly as possible and took to fiddling with her com-system. She looked at the synthetic, he seemed to get the imploring look and slyly held up his finger of what his direct channel was. If there were problems, she'd contact him directly, and he would come running. That wasn't just being dramatic, they both knew he would. To make sure she was safe, Walter would run through fire and brimstone.
"Ledward, stay with them." Lope instructed while Oram moved to the front of the team again. Both men completely missed the look Onora sent their ways.
To say she was not happy with this, was an understatement. The security officer had not got over her shunning, well, he did, but he still sent her rather dirty looks. Left alone, Onora was sure there would be words, and she was not in the mood.
Regardless, Ledward stood near and watched his friends walk onwards. He wanted to go too, of course he did, but he couldn't disobey Lope. So he stuck around, he even knelt and helped pack things up once they started work.
Karine strolled through the boggy ground, she would stop and lean down to inspect before maybe backtracking. Onora watched her while clipping parts of plants off and storing them, she wrote a label and packed them away.
"So," hearing Ledward, her eyes flicked to him. He kept his voice low, which made her eyes narrow suspiciously. "Look...our last words-"
"Your last words." She corrected with a shake of her head. "Were heated, hurtful, and rude."
"I'm trying to apologise."
"Properly? Then go on." Onora labelled a packet and wrote a number across the white parchment.
Ledward frowned, "I am sorry, I wasn't thinking."
"No, you weren't. It isn't so much me, but Walter you should really say sorry to as well." There was a scoff which had Onora pausing and looking blankly upwards. "Problem?"
"I'm not sure he would understand an apology."
"And there you go again!" She hissed and looked to Karine who was climbing over a log to properly inspect what was on the other side. She wasn't straying far, but sound still travelled. "Is it so hard to understand that a machine can feel? Can understand feelings?"
"That's the thing, he isn't meant to." Ledward pointed out. "You're in bed with a potential twitchy model, do you not get that?"
Onora zipped up a pocket on her bag and glared at him. "You're unbelievable." She stood up and took some supplies with her. "Karine?" She called out softly, she waited until the biologist looked her way, she was back kneeling in the mud again. "I'm just going over there to continue getting samples." She pointed a thumb to the side, Karine just nodded and smiled, she was seemingly stuck right into what she was doing. "Help her, don't just sit there."
"Actually, I'm going." Ledward stood, Onora frowned at him. "Toilet, if you really wanted to know." Her face scrunched up, she shook her head in disbelief and watched Ledward walk away.
"I'll help, Karine then." She muttered and walked over, shaking her head she knelt down and picked up the supplies she had.
"What happened to going over there?"
"Our guard decided instead of helping, he'd go for a piss. So here I am." Onora smiled and pulled off the pen cap to write labels of samples Karine was collecting.
"You two don't seem good."
Onora rolled her eyes, "We are not friends." She stated and shook her head, "Don't think we will be."
"Is this because of Walter?" Karine asked, watching Onora tense and look at her with a frown. She held her hands up in defence and wiped at her forehead with her forearm, her gloves were caked in mud.
"Yes, mainly." Onora replied, the conversation seemed to end there because hearing the rustle of leaves, Ledward made his way back to them. He stopped near them, kneeling down heavily and looking between the pair as they continued quietly.
Karine was the first to warily look to Ledward, mainly because of the rasping cough which came from him. Onora stubbornly did the same, then pushed aside any harsh feelings she felt for the man when she saw how he looked. Pallid, sweating, his eyes were unfocussed and ringed with dark patches. He looked awful, Onora put the samples in her bag, zipped it up and placed her fingers to his neck while Karine checked his eyes. They both exchanged a worried look before shouldering their packs and helping him to stand.
"You got him? Okay. Oram? Come in. We're returning back to the lander. Repeat, we are returning back to the lander." Karine said while leaving Onora to try and keep Ledward upright and stable, he was awfully wobbly and his eyes kept drooping shut.
"You didn't eat anything, while out there, did you?" Onora asked while Karine conversed over the com.
"N-no...no...I had a smoke...and..." Ledward had to take long breaks in between talking to breathe. His breaths were laboured, heavy, easily heard rattling in his chest as he hacked up another cough that shook him.
"Karine! We've got to go! Talk and walk." Onora said, basically hauling Ledward as Karine was still talking. The woman trotted after the pair as Onora dragged the poor man. She felt bad for doing so, but they needed to move.
Karine ran to his other side and grasped onto his arm as well, between them they managed to struggle through the woodland space. After a few more moments, the lander came into sight, thankfully.
Faris had been forewarned by Karine to prepare the med-bay, she let Ledward's arm go and he sunk to the shingle stones of the bay where the vehicle was waiting. Onora got taken down too, he was literally a dead weight by this point.
Onora looked questionably up at Karine, she didn't get what she was doing. She held her hands up, "I'm going to help Faris, get him in."
"It'll be quicker if we both do it!" Onora shouted, but Karine had ditched her pack while running and was gone. She looked to the barely conscious man, he was worse looking by now. Inhaling deeply, she tugged, "We've got to move, Ledward. Come on, one foot in front of the other, we can do this, you and me. That's it, steady now. We will get you help, even if we have to crawl to that lander." Onora said quietly, reassuringly, the man nodded and coughed. Onora almost gagged seeing the stuff he bought up, that was not normal. Black gunk was all she could describe, yet she hauled. Yes, as bad as it was, she was repulsed by that. But Ledward, through it all, was suffering and she wasn't one for ignoring someone else's plight.
They managed to get there, Faris soon being caught up with the events as she steadied Ledward as Karine finished getting stuff ready. Soon she came out and aided moving him too.
Onora pointed over her shoulder, "I'm going to continue trying to get in touch with everyone, including the Covenant." Neither Faris or Karine deterred her, mainly because they were chatting amongst themselves about Ledward, and what's wrong with him and what they needed to do to treat him.
Onora just backed off, she looked to the device which Faris was trying to use to reestablish contact. Crouching down, she took to tinkering with it, not wholly knowing what she was doing. With a frown she stood and walked a few paces away, clicking her com, she tilted her head. "Walter? Walter, I can't get in touch with the Covenant, and everything seems...wrong. I don't really know what to do-" Onora said, she got cut off mainly because of rapid gunshots followed by an explosion. The fire seared behind her as she felt the heat, the shockwaves of the explosion pushed her forwards and Onora crash landed in the nearby water, her mind was blinking out like a candle as she felt herself sink slightly into the cold water surrounding her.

----

(A/N: And it begins...sorry for delay, honestly, the sooner the summer holidays are over with the better I will be. Work has been so murderous, I can't even explain! But sheesh, welcome to Paradise eh?! xD)