Home Education Group - Universe Novel-Writing
This group is writing a sci-fi novel from different points of view about the last spaceship on Earth crashing on a planet in a distant galaxy.
'Great to be part of such a super group! Bel's wonderful and I really enjoy making stories.'
Read extracts below
HOME EDUCATION WRITING MULTI-PERSON STORY: A ROUGH GUIDE
The story is written by several people, all writing from different viewpoints about the same events.
Set time: 24th/25th century
PLOT: earth is getting hideously overpopulated, there is not enough food, so a fleet of ships is created, each one tasked with finding somewhere for the human race to relocate to. This story is about the crew of the UN DISCOVERY 20. Which is one of those ships with the task of ‘saving the human race’.
But a month into the journey, just after the ship has left the solar system, the ship crashes on a marshy, swamp-like planet where the atmosphere is only breathable during the day. The captain is killed on landing, the deputy captain is hated by the entire crew, and to top it all off; there are hostile life forms living everywhere…
Also: ship is tatty, run-down, old piece of junk put on the fleet merely to make up the numbers (and to get rid of a load of nutters of course.)
Also, before the ship was pressed into service as the UN DISCOVERY 20 it was called Rusty.
NPC: non-played character
SHIPS CREW:
Ship’s Captain (NPC) (NOTE: Captain’s name is
Daniel Brooks)
Role not available, kill off on landing.
Deputy Captain (NPC)Role not available. To be killed off quickly.
Security officer
Role taken
Scientist/biologist
Role taken
Engineer
Role taken
Assistant engineer
Role taken
Medical Officer
Role taken
Biographer and Communications officer
Role taken
Storemaster (NPC)
Role not available. To be killed off quickly.
Pilot
Role taken by
Co-pilot
(NPC)
Role not available. wound on landing.
Trainee/General Worker
Role taken
CHARACTER SHEETS
TOM WALKER
Security officer aboard the UN DISCOVERY 20
HEIGHT: 5 foot 9.
APPEARANCE: brown hair, green eyes, stubble, lightweight body armour strapped onto chest, the armour is covered by a matte black flak jacket (but he can replace the jacket with a camo smock)
AGE: 29
LIKES: something to do, action. The average soldier.
DISLIKES: anybody whose ego is bigger than the book that he’ll throw at them if they won’t shut up.
BIO: grew up in England and joined the army at 17. At the age of 21 he was promoted to sergeant and awarded the DSO after helping to take out a troublesome insurgent position in the middle of the desert.
Three years later he volunteered for a Special Forces unit to deal with alien incursions (ETITF– Extra-Terrestrial Incursion Task Force). After three years of combating alien incursions he was offered a job as security officer aboard the UN discovery 20. He accepted and was immediately put into training. He is finding life aboard the UN discovery alright, but is starting to get irritated by certain members of the ship’s crew.
TINVITOM VINVIV ARGOA (Tin)
Chief engineer aboard the UN DISCOVERY 20
HEIGHT: 6 ft 4. (Quite small for his kind.)
APPEARANCE: four fingers. Light purple skin, one orange eye and one green (they change depending on his mood), he has dark blue spiky hair fading into lavender to pink, with bright beads braided into it. Long drooping ears with clips taken out of them. Short nose with wide bridge, and very furry eyebrows, one is usually permanently quizzical – even when he’s being serious.
Wears a brightly checked tartan scarf, very bright flashy clothes sometimes so bright you’ll need sunglasses.
Instead of taking off his glasses he lets them hang off one ear, so they swing
AGE: he’s older than he looks, roughly 300 in human years but quite young in his people’s years.
PERSONALITY: only uses hammers for tools and he is the worst engineer ever. Lousy sense of direction. A ‘bit’ mad and he daydreams a lot whilst mind wanders pointlessly around at inappropriate moments. But very loyal and does have good ideas. Sometimes.
LIKES: tea, gingerbread, knitting and brightly coloured things. He’s good at cooking, telling stories, and helping to conduct pranks. On most of the pranks he teams up with Felibix for their favourite victim ‘Grick the Goblin’ (the Storemaster).
DISLIKES: scared of Minoti (a type of rodent) but
unfortunately for him Felibix has one for a pet. He also hates peanut butter,
spanners and being an engineer.
BIO: his father was an engineer among his people, he was named Tin by his father in the hopes that he would follow in his father’s footsteps. (Ironic isn’t it?)
Tin worked on a space trader for his kind cooking but the ship was hit in a meteor storm near Pluto and his escape pod went to earth. He can’t get home because he has no way of contacting them and he doesn’t know how to get back. He doesn’t know what’s happened to his planet. The reason he joined the crew of the UN discovery 20 is because he had hopes of finding his planet.
Found Felibix and recognized him as one of his people so obviously took him on under him.
Been on earth 150 years and got tossed into the role of engineer because he was an alien, and therefore should know everything about it.
FELIBIX ANTRIA NIRA (Felibix)
Assistant engineer aboard the UN DISCOVERY 20
HEIGHT: 6ft (very small for his kind.)
APPEARANCE: red tipped spiky hair with purple strikes in the bright white/blue/brown of his spiky ‘fell out of bed’ look. In regards to clothes he doesn’t really mind and will throw on whatever he happens to find first thin – which has resulted in him wearing a few of Tin’s weird outfits.
He doesn’t mind what he wears as long as it is practical – so lets Tin make his clothes, which can result in a peaceful argument/brutal fight.
Light lilac freckles, broad nose, light blue/ purple skin and huge golden eyes that occasionally glitter with rainbow sparkles when he’s really happy.
AGE: 150 in human years but very young in his people’s years.
LIKES: he loves to make small robotic creatures out of bits and pieces, and if things go missing its usually because of him and his robots who have artificial intelligence.
DISLIKES: the Storemaster and the Deputy captain (well doesn’t everyone on board the ship hate the Storemaster and the Deputy captain?).
BIO: he is more of an engineer than Tin, and he’s the one that really keeps the ship running, but still counts himself as the assistant and wouldn’t dream of taking Tin’s job.
When he was eight (in his peoples years, not ours.) There was a meteor storm and for safety everyone was evacuated. The escape pod he was in got hit by the meteors and bumped into our solar system. From there the pod crash-landed in area 51. Somehow Felibix managed to get out before the US authorities arrived. He never knew if any of his companions survived the crash (the answer is no.)
He wandered around for a bit until Tin found him and took him on under his wing.
BURT GRICK
Storemaster aboard the UN DISCOVERY 20
HEIGHT: 5 foot
APPEARANCE: bald, brown eyes. Sneering mouth, short and stubby nose.
AGE: 30
LIKES: keeping stock of everything he is assigned to, standing in the entrance of HIS storeroom with his clipboard in front of him and vigorously questioning anyone who tries to take anything out.
DISLIKES: ‘trespassers’ trying to ‘steal’ the items in HIS storeroom.
BIO:
Grew up in England and worked as an ‘administrative archivist officer’ (not his official title, that’s just what he liked to call himself) for the government. After a series of incidents where he demanded a lengthy explanation of why a file needed to be taken out whenever someone requested to see a file (he once did this to several high-ranking government officials, including the deputy prime minister and a NATO official.) he was dismissed from his position. In the years after he was dismissed he worked at a bank (keeping track of accounts and vault numbers). A year or two on he was approached by the government in an effort to give him the position of storemaster (and also to rid him from the world) on the UN DISCOVERY 20. Relishing this opportunity he at once accepted the offer. He is finding life aboard the UN DISCOVERY excellent. He loves the feeling that he is keeping stock of essential supplies. He loves thinking that he is more important than he actually is. And of course, he has already become a hated character aboard the ship (in fact he has been given the nickname of ‘Grick the Goblin). He has been the subject of several (increasingly deadly) pranks, including an exploding clipboard (that one was from Felibix, but with explosives from Tom’s armoury), a box that had legs (Felibix again), a scone that had some ‘illegal and highly dangerous’ berries in it (planted by Tin) which made him lose his voice for the rest of the week (but after he had got his voice back several members of the crew urged Tin to do it again but this time with even more dangerous substances). And once, the lights in his storeroom suddenly went out, and when they were turned back on again he found that all his stock had gone missing (that one was the mastermind of pretty much the entire crew).
OZIAS
Co-pilot aboard the UN DISCOVERY 20
HEIGHT: 6 foot 8
APPEARANCE: completely back, long tail, long braided black hair, 13 medium white spots in a line down the middle of his body starting at hairline.
AGE: 519, human years 135.
PERSONALITY: very quiet, telepathic, kind, loyal, says what he (and other people) are thinking.
LIKES: unknown.
DISLIKES: unknown.
SPECIES: shibier/unicorn
BIO: believed to have been born on Xiezainform. The rest is unknown.
JUNO GARCIA
Pilot aboard the UN DISCOVERY 20
HEIGHT: 6 foot 2.
APPEARANCE: very tall, with a willowy but feminine figure. She has rather wild slightly wavy honey blonde hair, cut into a long shoulder-length bob. Tanned skin with a few freckles across her nose. She has very large emerald green eyes, with long dark lashes, outlined with black kohl, wears dark skinny-bootleg jeans, tunic tops and converse.
AGE: 22
PERSONALITY: she’s very loyal to her friends but you wouldn’t want her as an enemy, she’s cynical, her mortal fear is being alone, she’s quite fierce, and can get grumpy and therefore annoyed very easily. She desperately wants to get home and hates being in a small space, especially with so many people. She is very confident. She likes her own space.
LIKES: reading. Dancing, swimming, her friends and family, dreaming, writing, horror movies and laughing.
DISLIKES: running, having control thrust upon her, egotistical potheads, chatter boxes and being alone.
BIO: half English, half American, her mum and dad broke up when she was 11 and her mum went back to America soon after so Juno spent some of her childhood in the states. Went to college in England, living with her father, but went to New York to go to university, where she majored in art and ICT. Her uncle is the pilot on another ship and it was he who taught her to fly spaceships. She travelled for a while before getting a job on a Russian spaceship, the Zvedy. She then bounced around a bit (no pun intended) before landing a job on the Discovery.
WYNN
Pilot Juno Garcia’s cat.
HEIGHT: 3 ft.
AGE: 8017
PERSONALITY: empathy, loves talking, scared of Tom Walker.
LIKES: Juno, food, talking.
DISLIKES: Garth, water, snakes, mice.
SPECIES: shibier/cat
BIO: I have no idea
DARCY SPENCER
Deputy captain aboard the UN DISCOVERY 20
HEIGHT: 5 foot 10
APPEARANCE: two words: Hugh Grant. The fact that he looks so much like the aforementioned is probably one of the reasons everyone hates him so much.
AGE: 36
PERSONALITY: spoilt brat. Arrogant, thinks he knows everything. Acts tough but is actually a wimp, and would be no use in a crisis.
SPECIES: humanoid in appearance, but crew has strong suspicion he is a Grenide, whom are famed for their arrogance.
BIO: Darcy was born in Chisister. He went to Eaton and Rugby. He wanted to join a spacecrew just so he could say he had, and was a bit surprised at how much hard work it was. By then of course it was way too late to quit. And he was stuck on a ship for another ten years. He was then almost immediately roped in to join the crew of the UN DISCOVERY 20.
NORDA WISEN
Biographer and communications officer aboard the UN DISCOVERY 20
HEIGHT: 5 foot 11
APPEARANCE: she has long black hair which she always wears up, thin, pale skin, long fingers and green eyes that make her look like she’s dreaming.
AGE: 26
LIKES: dancing, reading, playing piano, watching clouds, music, ‘Muncinflump’ (a type of chocolate, Juno and playing with Garth.
DISLIKES: noise, her job, being in small spaces, having
nothing to read, people who shout a lot and people who don’t fill in their
logs
BIO: born in Wales, was sent to Eton girls college, boarding school at 12 (she hated it), graduated at 18 and wanted to study to be a dancer but her parents wanted her to be a journalist and wouldn’t pay her fees. When she was 20 she got a job as a communications officer for Adolf Darling (the guy who is in charge of sending out the UN DISCOVERY fleet). When she was offered the job on the UN DISCOVERY 20 they said she couldn’t take Garth with her, so she has to make sure that they don’t find out that he is on board. She is also telepathic.
GARTH
Biographer and communications officer Norda Wisen’s dog.
HEIGHT: 4 foot 10
APPEARANCE: a large, green and tiger striped dog with big eyes.
AGE: 50
PERSONALITY: happy and fun to be around except when he is ignored (or hungry).
LIKES: food and being listened to by Norda
DISLIKES: being hungry, being ignored and Wynn (Juno’s cat).
SPECIES: dog (sort of)?
BIO: not much known, found by Norda on the planet Mount Vesuvius 2 (which was later destroyed by a natural disaster), he is immune to almost everything except some snakes.
Two years ago he was bitten by a Nixsan snake, which he has to take Fuloxide tablets for. He is also slightly telepathic.
DOCTOR ADNARIM
Medical officer aboard the UN DISCOVERY 20
HEIGHT: 6 foot 5
APPEARACE: human, female, long brunette hair which is slightly curly, brown eyes, quite pale skin, dressed in a sort of medical uniform, wide nose and big triangle fluffy eyebrows, giving her a surprised look all the time.
AGE: 28
PERSONALITY: comes over as shy, quiet, bright, kind and loyal but has a rather vicious temper sometimes.
LIKES: the countryside, gardens and flowers (making it the
worst thing ever to be stuck up in space, cats, music, being tidy, tennis, art
and painting, writing poems, being with the people she likes and fancy cakes.
DISLIKES: DD, noise, messy people, people who don’t turn up for their medical check-ups, people who don’t take their medicine, fighting, guns and being out in space with her job.
BIO: born in France, but moved to London at the age of 5 due to her father’s job. She hated school and her nasty teacher so she left as soon as she was 16.
She then spent 2 years working in a pharmacy, but finished up walking out on her manager after a row.
At 18 she went to study medicine at University, but she gave it up due to rising costs.
Her mum and dad kept pestering her to get a job and make some money.
She was so flattered to be offered a job on the UN DISCOVERY 20 that she took it immediately accepted it. She was excited and happy at first, but now she regrets it!
DOMINIC DARWIN (DD for short)
Scientist/Biologist aboard the UN DISCOVERY 20.
HEIGHT: about 6 foot.
APPEARANCE: male, quite mad, yellow hair which is quite out of control (really in need of a cut), fading in places into ginger/reddish colour, has a slightly alien look about him. Massive bright eyes that are a blue/violet colour,
Very small nose and curly ears (which go a blue colour when he’s angry or worked-up).
AGE: he’s very young for his people’s years (whoever that might be) but for a human he is about 35 to 40 years old.
PERSONALITY: bubbly, overpowering, talkative and happy, but on the other hand, despite being a bit too much for anyone to handle, he is caring and kind, but he can’t remember a thing.
LIKES: anything that grows, moves, makes noises, everything weird and strange.
Has a love for things green and nature stuff. He does not leave a stone unturned & simply has to know everything!
He loves himself, wacky experiments, things that go bang and his job.
DISLIKES: being quiet, sad people, Tom Walker, a moment when he can’t find anything to do, when he can’t figure out things and food.
BIO: no family as such, but there’s a problem, as already said above he can’t remember a thing!
So his Bio is ‘unknown’.
The only way he manages his job is because his cabin is stacked roof high with all his papers and notes, he only remember his own name because it’s down his arm and he’s got it painted all over his bedroom wall.
He keeps a map of the important places around the ship in his pocket.
STUART THE II OF THE FALCON FAMILY
Trainee/General Worker aboard the UN DISCOVERY 20.
HEIGHT: 5 ft 11.
APPEARANCE: thick mop of brown hair. Quite a weedy look
although this is deceiving and is quite strong. Long legs and can run fast
AGE: 29 and three quarters.
SPECIES: 90% Human, 10% Unknown.
PERSONALITY: short temper and is angered easily, but this hides a kind and sympathetic attitude.
The 10% Unknown part of him makes him intelligent, but he is ashamed of this and does not show it at all.
LIKES: a difficult task, cats, a good book, a good cup of tea, explosions and action.
DISLIKES: Tom saying he’s useless, dying, the Welsh and Spiders.
BIO: the fancy name came from NOT being born to a posh family, that’s just what they wanted everyone to think.
Born in Huddersfield. Or Pontefract. Or Barnsley. I don’t know, all the Yorkshire places sound so similar. and you can’t understand them. Maybe that’s why Stuart moved away as soon as possible, age 16, to the middle of nowwheresville (Cardiff). The dislike of the Welsh came from here, as all they ever did was call him names in Welsh because he was from Yorkshire and there were sheep crawling into his garden every day and making a mess of it. Then at the age of 18 Stuart moved to Windsor, and did very well there. Got on with the Queen too.
Stuart started to take interest into space exploration and signed up as a trainee, 21 years old.
Although with his intelligence he could have jumped straight into the captain’s chair. Then Stuart spent 6 and a half years of going on short hop missions to places such as Venus, the Moon, and Mars.
Mars was disastrous as he almost caused the ship to crash when he spilt tea onto the control panel. Allocated to the UN Discovery 20, perhaps to get him out of the way.
Tom took an instant dislike to him, mainly because after 10 minutes he was almost decapitated by Stuart when attempting to cut a dodgy bit of ship off.
And then after 10 hours Stuart flooded Tom’s bed when he let the bath overflow. In revenge Tom teases him about his odd name.
STORY SO FAR
(Tom Walker)
Tom walker opened his eyes and groaned, what had happened? He lifted his head and looked around.
Where was everyone? Painfully he stood up and looked around once more. There was no debris or anything that could’ve fallen from the ceiling and knocked him out, so what had knocked him unconscious?
“Hello?” he shouted. No reply came.
Perhaps the ship had crashed? Tom decided to go and find out.
He walked along the corridor, he came across a porthole and looked outside, all he could see was swamp and jungle. He had been right, the ship had crashed. He saw movement in the undergrowth, he wasn’t sure what it was, but at the same time he didn’t want to find out. A thought came into Tom’s head; ‘What if the ship has crash-landed in a swamp? Perhaps the ship is sinking?’ but before the thought had sunk into his mind, instinct kicked in, Tom ran along the corridors at full pace, after a few minutes or two he reached the door to the armoury. He grabbed the wheel that was the ‘door handle’ and turned it round as fast as he could. Slowly the door began to open. As soon as it was open he rushed in, grabbed an assault rifle and some clips of ammo and stuffed them into his belt.
He pulled off the safety catch on the gun and held it at hip height, Tom ran out of the armoury and ran along the corridors, he headed towards the engine bay, there he would be able to find out what exactly had happened and where they had crashed.
He ran for several minutes and pushed open the doors to the engine bay; the sight that greeted him was not a pretty one.
(Tin)
First thought as I opened my eyes was: What in Marmril happened?
I could smell smoke sooty and dark. There was burning close by too.
I slowly sat up looking around. I was in a jungle type thing on broken branches of grey leaves - such a dull colour, why couldn’t it be green with purple polka dots?
Dragging myself from that thought I felt something sticky on my forehead, reaching up I looked it was blue blood – mine. Straightening my glasses, I paused as incomprehensible mumbling came from near by then it came again until my gaze rested on a large spiky leaved bush purple with red tipped leaves, the mumbling came again, a talking bush?
What a wonderfully strange planet… but I can’t forget to introduce myself, manners Tin!!
“ Hello?” I addressed the bush, “I’ve never met a talking bush before, and I’m Tin.”
More mumbling before a blue three-fingered hand thrust its way free of the bush followed by the familiar sight of red tipped brown hair of my assistant.
“ Tin?” he asked slightly dazed as he fought his way free.
I was glad he was alive but I also wanted to meet a talking bush!
My assistant Felibix, leaves and bits of broken metal caught in his light blue fur, now free asked his golden eyes wide and worried, “ Tin, are you all right?”
“ Think so,” I replied patting myself checking I was in one piece, hammer, gingerbread and scarf, Yup all hooky nory! “ Now! First thing… “
I stood shakily my hand resting on the rough bark of a blue tree. It was almost the same shade as my skin but needed a little more purple.
I can still smell smoking.
“ We need to find the others,” Felibix said his voice trailing away, “ Uh, Tin?” “ Good idea,” I replied my mind drifting away as I wondered where we were; this was going to be fun.
“ Tin,”
“ Find them, and where’s my gingerbread anyway?’
“ Tin?” My assistant’s voice was rising almost on a squeak now,
And I could really smell burning, where was it coming from anyway?
“What is it?” I asked “ Because my ginger bread-”
“ Tin!! Your tail its …”
“What about my tail? I know it’s a fine tail but…”
Felibix’s voice was now a squeak “ Tin, its on fire!!!!!!”
So that’s where the burning smell was coming from!!!
Before it clicked, at the same time as I felt the heat and burning “ aghhhhhhhh!! My tails on fire, my tail!!!!!!!!!”
(Felibix)
Tin’s tail was still merrily burning as he danced around,
Looking around for any thing I could use to put it out - no water.
There was only a bubbling oily pool nearby and that really didn’t look the place to stick a burning tail.
“ Use the leaves!!” came a voice from the bushes, I nodded once to the rough bark voice and tossed over one of the giant grey leaves the flames fizzed and went out, as Tin checked the damage which was a lot less then he’d been talking about. I turned back to thank the voice but who ever it was had gone, and here was no trace of who ever - or should I say what ever was here didn’t want to be seen.
Casting one last glance back I rushed over to tin “ Tin are you all right?”
This time the little voice in my head asked sarcastically
“ Yes.” He replied after a moment one eye turning blue the other a stunning gold flecked with lilac, “ lets find the others and my gingerbread!!”
He sadly looked at the torn remains of his scarf “ and find my scarf set, shame. I liked this one!”
(Juno)
Frankly, Juno wasn’t surprised that they had crashed. The UN DISCOVERY 20 was a completely useless bag of nails, that she strongly suspected had just been put in the fleet to make up numbers. It was just a matter of time before something went wrong and Tin had just helped it along.
“Tin!” she called, coughing from the dense purple smoke.
“Juno!” Tin yelled happily, a large smile on his face at the sight of her, well, he was smiling until he tripped over a large weed and fell flat on his face.
“Uh, are you ok?” Juno asked hesitantly.
“He’ll be fine once he’s washed all the grime off and can breathe again.” Juno turned around to find the source of the voice. Standing behind her was Felibix, the assistant engineer.
“Oh. Felibix, are you okay?” she asked.
“Yep. Only a couple of scratches.” He replied.
“Good. Do you know if there’s anyone else?” if Felibix was surprised at her frankness he did not show it.
“I should bloody well hope so. This doesn’t seem to be the most friendly environment to be in on our own.” He gestured with his arm, incorporating the swamps, odd plants, and trees that were moving even though there wasn’t any wind.
“Quite.” There came a sudden yell of “I found the others” from Tin, and both Juno and Felibix looked back towards the remains of the ship. They seemed to have walked a long way while they talked.
“Which others?” yelled back Juno, rubbing her head, fighting to keep a migraine at bay.
“Walker, he’s okay, Grick the- I mean Grick, out cold, but breathing.”
“Unfortunately.” Muttered Juno.
“Darcy’s good.”
“Again, unfortunately.”
“ But the, ah…” Tin’s voice grew quieter, fading, as he moved away from them.
Juno and Felibix followed him to the remains of the engine room. It was hard work, as they had to climb over various bits of debris, large and small.
Juno and Felibix walked through the corridors of the ship, trying to get to Tin, now and again they would have to climb over large pieces of ceiling/bulkheads/doors. After several minutes they reached the area in which they thought Tin was.
Juno looked ahead and saw Tin standing in the doorway of the Captain’s quarters.
“ What’s happened, Tin?” Juno moved faster to get to where Tin was. There was Tom Walker standing with him and there was the captain sitting in his chair... oh, my god. His eyes were wide open and staring. There was a thin trickle of blood running down from a wound on his head.
“ I think he’s dead.” Said Tin.
Walker went over and felt the captain’s pulse. “Yes, he’s dead.”
“Well, at least it was an accident.” Said Tin. Everyone turned to look at him.
“What do you want me to say? Ooops?” he asked.
“ An apology would be nice,” Juno commented.
“Ok. Sorry. I apologise for crashing the ship, killing at least one person, and wounding many others. And,” he said, sniffing, “ I ruined my best purple scarf!”
(Tom Walker)
Tom stood there, watching the others looking at the captain’s dead body, listening to Juno and Tin’s useless squabbling. He wasn’t shocked by the death of the captain. He was used to seeing his comrades dead in front of him. Tom looked up just as Tin was giving out his ‘heartfelt apology’. Just as Tin finished, Tom opened his mouth to comment;
“May I point out that technically, you didn’t crash the ship, you blew it to smithereens.” He said angrily, gesturing around at the debris.
“ Well if a certain pilot hadn’t told me to go faster, then I wouldn’t have had to hit the engine with a hammer!” Tin snapped back angrily.
‘YOU HIT THE ENGINE WITH A HAMMER? What sort of mechanic are you? We might as well just have hired a chimp to do it!” Juno shouted.
Tom rolled his eyes, listening to Juno and Tin arguing.
“Both of you shut up!” shouted Felibix.
“HE started it!” said Juno angrily, jabbing a finger at Tin.
“Oh yeah? Well you’re the pilot! You should’ve been steering the ship! You could’ve steered us away from this hell-hole of a planet!” shouted Tin.
Tom stepped in. “ both of you shut up and stop playing the blame game!” he said wearily.
This hadn’t made any difference, Tin and Juno were still staring at each other, it was probably a good thing that neither of them had their sidearms. Or else there would’ve been a second corpse in the room.
“Quite right! So now the arguing is over, what are we going to do?” said Felibix.
“Simple. Juno, you search the ship and try and see if you can assess the damage and find any other crewmembers. Felibix, you go to the engine bay and see if you can find anything salvageable from this wreck of a ship.” He gestured around, “ and see if you can find any way to plug that large hole in the hull. Tin, move the wounded and dead, then go and work out how much food we’ve got left. I’ll head over to the viewing gallery and keep watch.” He finished.
“Who put you in charge?” Juno snapped angrily.
“I am the security officer. It is my job to keep you all alive, and since we do not have a competent leader anymore,” he gestured at the captain’s dead body. “I’m the only one around here who has the slightest idea of what to do. Happy?”
Reluctantly Juno and Tin wrestled their eyes away from each other and began to get on with their jobs. Felibix instantly ran out of the room and in the direction of the engine bay.
Tom walked out of the room and towards the viewing gallery. He opened the door and looked outwards at the planet they had crashed on.
He had a feeling that this was going to end badly.
(Norda)
‘Oowwww my head hurts’ this (seeing as you might not be familiar with it) is the sound of someone (me) thinking (technically it’s a feeling but it’s a bit complicated).
‘Ouch, even thinking hurts, maybe if I open my eyes then I will wake up and it won’t hurt anymore………..nope didn’t think so. What I saw before me was, well, a dump. The last thing I could remember was falling asleep. But now my bed was upside down in the corridor and Garth was nowhere to be seen. Looking out of the window she saw that the ship had crashed on a strange swamp-like terrain.
‘No-one else might be alive!’ I though,
‘No, no you can’t think like that Norda, find Garth and then……….see what happens.’
Walking down the passageway I heard voices arguing in the captain’s cabin. It was probably Tin and Juno. As I went though the doorway Garth jumped up and placed his paws on my shoulders.
“Thank goodness you’re all right.” Said Tin.
“What happened?” I asked.
“We’ve crashed.” Said Tin.
“Yes, I think she got that.” Said Juno scowling at Tin.
“What happened to the captain…” my voice trailed off as I saw him sitting with blood trickling down his face. I felt my face go paler than it was already.
‘How am I going to write this in my log?’
(Tom Walker)
Tom heard a crackle on his earpiece.
“HELLO!” shouted Tin happily over the communications network.
Tom winced as Tin’s shouting hit his eardrum spot on.
“TIN! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU? YOU DON’T NEED TO SHOUT INTO YOUR EARPIECE!” Tom shouted back.
“ALRIGHT!” Tin yelled.
Tom winced again. “What is it?” he asked.
“I’m looking at the food stocks now, and it appears that we only have one week’s supply of food left!!” Tin said.
“WHAT?” Tom shouted in shock.
“We’ve only got a week’s supply of food left!”
Tom sighed. ‘Right, get down to the canteen as soon as possible. Out.”
Tom took his earpiece off and fiddled around with it for a couple of seconds before putting it back on. There, it now should be in the right frequency for him to talk with all the other crewmembers.
“Attention everyone, I’m calling a meeting, get down to the canteen within the next ten minutes. Out.” Hopefully now all the other crewmembers should be moving towards the canteen. Time to get over there.
(Stuart)
“Ooh, the Pain! That was some hard landing.” Stuart thought as he opened his eyes. “Actually that was too hard for a landing, we must have crashed.” “CRASHED!?” he yelled out loud and sat up. “Best check everything is still attached!” “Head yes, face, arms are still there, ten fingers, torso still there, legs yes, feet yes, toes.” “Excellent, I’m in one piece” Stuart murmured and got up. Just then he heard a voice over his earpiece “Attention everyone, I’m calling a meeting, get down to the canteen within the next ten minutes. Out.” “That’s Tom” Stuart thought “A meeting in the canteen.” “It’s just a few decks up” he said, slightly cheerily. “I’ll be there in no time”. Stuart walked towards the stairs and climbed up them.
(Tom Walker)
Tom turned around and walked out of the viewing gallery and quickly walked down the corridor towards the lift (well, it’s more of a kick-operated dumbwaiter.).
He reached the lift and punched the big red button to call the lift to where he was.
A barely audible ‘Bing!’ signalled the arrival of the lift. The doors opened, and then stopped, leaving a three inch gap for which Tom was expected to squeeze through.
Shaking his head, Tom kicked the lift doors and they opened another three inches.
He kicked it really hard and the doors opened six whole glorious inches, leaving a foot wide gap which Tom just about managed to squeeze through.
He punched the ‘canteen’ button and the lift doors clanged shut, the lift jolted and moved down a bit before stopping.
Tom let out a cry of frustration and kicked the side of the lift compartment, the lift jolted and sped downwards, before clanging to a halt. The lift doors opened four inches.
Yet again Tom kicked the door and it opened another foot. He squeezed through the gap, shaking his head as he walked towards the canteen at the end of the corridor.
Tom opened the door and walked in, all the others were already sitting at the largest table.
“What took you so long?” asked Ozias, who had his right arm in a sling.
“I used a lift.” Tom said. “How did you get that?” he asked, pointing to the sling.
“One of the ceiling monitors in the cockpit fell on my arm.” He replied.
“Ouch.” Tom replied. He walked around the table, Darcy was sitting in a chair looking as moronic as ever. The rest of the crew were also sat around the table.
Tom sat down.
“So what’s up?” asked Juno.
“Tin has just informed me that we’ve only got a week’s supply of food left.” He said.
“ONLY A WEEK’S SUPPLY OF FOOD LEFT! WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE! WE’RE GONNA RESORT TO CANNABALISM! NOO! PLEASE DON’T EAT ME! DON’T EAT ME! EAT TIN INSTEAD!” screamed Darcy, who promptly hid under the table.
Ignoring Darcy, Norda started speaking; “only a week’s supply? Are you sure?”
“Yup. Only a week’s supply left.” Tom replied.
“So what are we gonna do?” asked Ozias.
“We resort to cannibalism!” joked Tin. Darcy let out a short wimpish scream.
“There’s only one thing we can do.” Tom replied. “We’re gonna have to live off the planet.”
“But we don’t know which plants we can eat!’ said DD.
“Exactly. We’re gonna have to send a patrol out there to see if there’s anything edible.” He said.
“But who gets the lucky jackpot of going outside?” asked Juno.
“Simple, me, DD, Juno and Darcy.”
Darcy nervously looked out form under the table. “Why me?” he squeaked.
“Because protocol states that when taking out a patrol onto a planet, at least one senior officer must be present.” Tom replied gleefully.
“So what do we do while you’re busy outside?” asked Norda.
“Felibix, you carry on trying to salvage the engine, Norda you stand by in the communications room. Ozias, Adnarim, you work in the cockpit and see if anything can be used. Stuart, do something useful for once. Tin,” he paused. “I dunno, just don’t break anything. Everyone clear on that?”
“Right, Juno, DD, and Darcy, meet me over at the armoury in five minutes time, everyone else, get on with your tasks.” He said before standing up and walking out of the room.
Five minutes later Tom was walking through the neon-lit aisles of the armoury, Darcy, DD and Juno were all following him.
Tom stopped and picked up a C.A.W (Compact Assault Weapon) MK2 SMG from the rack and passed it to DD.
“take this, you can use it one handed, you’ll need to other hand to take readings.” He said. DD nodded.
Tom carried on walking down the aisle, he turned a corner into another aisle and stopped. He picked up an AKM-100 assault rifle and passed it to Juno.
“right, this is what you’ll be using, basic assault rifle. If you want any modifications then just tell me.” Tom said. He turned around and picked up his own personal modified AKM-100 assault rifle (equipped with heat seeking optical sights and a powersaw for close-range combat) and turned back.
“right, that’s all our weapons sorted-“ Tom was interrupted by a squeak from Darcy;
“but you haven’t given me a gunny-thingy!”
“well you’ve got your sidearm haven’t you?” Tom replied.
“yes, but you haven’t given me a big gunny-thingy!”
“well, protocol states that whenever a patrol is being undertaken, the commanding officer must only be equipped with their sidearm so as to leave their other hand free.” Tom stated gleefully.
Darcy let out a moan.
“anyway, as I was saying, we’ve got the weapons, now we just need the other gear.”
“what other gear?” said Juno impatiently.
“follow me.” Said Tom. He walked down several aisles before stopping at a door, he took out a key, unlocked the door and walked inside, the others followed him.
Tom opened a large cupboard and took out three items. He passed them around.
“field caps with fitted torches. Useful in the dark.” He said, replying to their bewildered expressions.
Tom took out three more items and passed them around.
“ammunition bandoliers. Equipped with the appropriate ammo. Now, would anyone like a camo smock?” silence followed. “I’ll take that as a no then.” Said Tom.
He took out three more items from the cupboard and passed them around.
“what the hell are these?” asked Juno.
“gas masks.” Tom replied.
Juno raised her eyebrows.
“Just in case.” Tom said firmly. “right, you’ve got the gear, you all know how to use your weapons, go get down to the engine bay and wait for me, I’ll be there in five minutes. Oh, and DD, you’ll need to take some kind of handheld scanner. That will be all.”
The others turned around and walked out.
Tom waited for a few seconds before turning back to the cupboard. He took out a camo smock, an ammo bandolier, a gas mask and a camouflaged helmet with attached torch. He walked down an aisle and sat on a metal bench.
Tom took off his black flak jacket and replaced it with the camo smock, next he fastened the ammo bandolier around his chest.
He fastened the gas mask around his head and put on his helmet. He stood up, picked up his modified AKM-100 and clicked off the safety catch.
Tom was ready.
