Stranded

Who: Keto, Shakespeare, Trisees, Wildflower, Coffey, Alexander
Where: Blundering about in the forest
When: Sometime before the crew left the planet
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Keto growled to himself as he trudged along the not-quite-a-track, branches
and leaves cracking underfoot. Anyone listening in would have been able to make
out the words, "floating city", "fall" and "rubber tree".
Having made the very slight error of running straight off the edge of the city
in an attempt to avoid the Plebians with guns, Jay and Alota having hurried
onwards towards the control centre, Keto had been fortunate to land on something
less than concrete. Unfortunately for him, it was somewhere in the Plebian
forest, with no way of knowing which way it was to camp, or indeed to anywhere.
"If I could only find my way to SOMEwhere," muttered Keto, still walking
along, the sun glinting through the branches, "Or if I could only find SOMEone
or SOMEthing that could tell me where I was! I'd give an entire medibay FULL of
ointments just to not have to walk through this forest going slowly insane..."
"CHARLES!" cried a delighted voice, making Keto unexpectedly flinch. He
turned, and to his horror saw Shakespeare running through the forest towards
him, a look of utter happiness on his face, followed by a surprised Wildflower
and a very depressed looking Trisees.
The three halted when they reached Keto, and for a moment all four stared at
each other.
"...I sympathise," said Trisees, eventually.
-- Ninety Minutes Later --
"...and then there beeth the time when..."
"Shut up," said Trisees automatically.
"Shut up," said Keto simultaneously.
"Be quiet, the pair of you," snapped Wildflower, "You've been saying that for
the last hour."
"And still it speaks," observed Keto.
"Definite lack of intelligence," concurred Trisees.
"Ist mine tale not enthralling?" asked Shakespeare, looking surprised, "Not
e'en for thee, Charles?"
Keto merely hung his head, not wanting to repeat the same dialogue that had
occurred every ten minutes for the last hour. They had been walking, seemingly
randomly, through the forest for the last hour and a half, without any sign that
they were getting any closer to the camp, the city, civilisation or indeed
anything more than more trees.
"Methinks we mayeth be getting close!" exclaimed Shakespeare. Trisees reached
up and broke off a low-hanging branch.
"You hold him down, I'll beat him over the head for the good of humanity."
"Guys!" exclaimed Wildflower suddenly, "I think he's right!"
The four of them emerged into a clearing of sorts, much like that where the
camp had been.
"Well well," said Trisees, "So glad to see we're making progress. We've gone
from being lost in the middle of a bunch of trees, to being lost in a space in
the middle of a bunch of trees. If we keep this up, before long we might be
lost in the middle of a mushroom ring in the middle of a space in the middle of
a bunch of trees."
"Or," said Wildflower, "We could run into people from the camp."
"Did you just see a pig fly past, or have you finally gone clinically insane?"
"No, I just saw Hazel Coffey and Sarah Alexander over there," replied
Wildflower smugly, pointing across the clearing to where the aforementioned pair
were hurrying across the open ground to reach them.
"Great, it's a medibay reunion!" sighed Keto, "Now all we need are Cleavage
and the Tree."
"We came looking for you," said Coffey to Wildflower, "When you didn't return
after a while, we decided that it would probably be better to come and find
you..." Her voice trailed off as she looked at Shakespeare.
"William..." she said.
"Hazel..." replied Shakespeare.
"Sarah..." said Trisees.
"Lawrence..." said Alexander.
Keto and Wildflower looked at each other.
"Right, which way to camp!?" they asked hurriedly.
-- Several Hours Of Trudging Later --
"...and THENST there were thy time..."
"Are we there yet?" asked Trisees.
"Or at least somewhere where we can easily bury the body?"
Suddenly (and to the relief of Keto and Trisees), Shakespeare's tale was
interrupted by an almighty WHOOOSH...and the giant shadow of a shuttle passed
overhead.
"That's the camp!" cried Wildflower happily.
"Yes! And they're leaving!" pointed out Trisees.
There was a second's stunned silence, and then all six of them broke into a
run. Keto, powered more by desire to escape Shakespeare again than anything
else, pulled ahead, and burst out into the camp a long way ahead of the others,
only to find it under attack.
-- SNIP --
Seymour turned around, thinking he would see the first of his crew to be
turned into a gibbering idiot. "Oh hello Dr. Keto!" he said.
-- END SNIP (OOC - You'll pay for that! ;) ) --
Keto was about to reply, asking why the hasty evacuation, when suddenly a
crewmember hurtled into the side of him, trying to dodge a Plebicising beam.
The beam missed the crewmember...but caught Keto's leg.
"What...?" began the doctor, and then suddenly realised that he couldn't move
nearly as quickly as he thought he could...
"Charles! Beeth thy alright?" cried a voice - a voice which anybody, dead or
alive, could have recognised.
"Yes, quite alright, I've just been shot and my left leg appears to have
learned how to sleepwalk independantly of my body. But other than that I'm
fine."
"Wast that sarcasm?"
"Wast? Since when was wast a word?"
"Wast wast not a word?"
"Was a what what? Shut up and give me a hand!" snapped Keto.
Shakespeare reached down and hauled the doctor up, helping him back over to
where the others were avoiding shots from the Plebian robots.
"What do we do now!?" yelled Wildflower, ducking a shot from one of the robot
and throwing a rock at it. It gave an irritated-sounding buzz and flew off to
find an easier target.
"Well, this is only a suggestion, but getting the smeg out of here sounds
good!" replied Trisees, leaping to one side and almost toppling over Keto's
outstretched Plebian leg.
"How are we going to get over there?" asked Coffey, nodding to where the
shuttles were taking off one by one. "There's too many robots!"
"We'll loop around!" suggested Trisees, "Go back in the forest, and circle
around! Don't worry, they won't leave without us!"
The six of them moved back into the cover of the forest, Wildflower swatting
at a few of the following robots with a torn-down branch. Finally, they were
safe.
"This way, follow me," commanded Trisees, and headed off around to the side of
the clearing.
-- An Hour Later --
"Lost is such a STRONG word..."
"So now what do we do?" asked Wildflower irritably, "You've led us an hour
away from camp, and I'm sure that was the Phoenix that flew overhead a short
while ago. You know what that means?"
"You spend way too much time studying ships?"
"It means that Jay's flown off in it, and the Phoenix wouldn't leave unless
all the normal shuttles were taken! They've all gone, and we've got nobody to
fly us off here!" snapped Wildflower.
"Relax," said Trisees airily, turning towards where Shakespeare was happily
telling Keto more tales, the latter unable to hobble away fast enough, "I can
fly, I've got a pilot's license. Okay, so it was before I joined the JMC, but
I've got one! I can fly!"
"Oh, well that's a relief," said Wildflower, "So we'll just make a ship out of
these trees here, I suppose?"
There was a pause.
"...that's not the point," said Trisees.
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OOC: Yes, that's right, the six of us are stranded on the planet. Don't worry,
we'll catch you all up! Just as soon as we find a ship...Sean?
And yes, I know I haven't been posting much, I'm sorry. I have actually been
overwhelmed and had little time to even read the posts - but hopefully I'll have
more time come Thursday!