Forgotten Voices, Dragonriders of Pern RP

[+Aiko+]

(OOC: This takes place 4000 years from Landing, and 2000 years after the Red Star was redirected away from Pern and thread was eliminated. For more details, read the recruiting thread.)

The gather celebration in Benden Hold was in full swing. People from all across Pern had come to enjoy the festivities in one of the most prosperous and lavish holdings on the planet. Benden had an especially good crop year, and many flasks of famed Benden wine. Packtail fish from Telgar were brought in by scooner, the delicacy cooked by eager Benden chefs. Fat wherry roasts and fresh fruits from holds along the southern continent were also brought in. Steamy bubbly pies were purchased by apprentices and youngsters throughout the gather, using marks from various crafts. Mastercraftsman bought and sold goods from the crafthalls.

The Harpers, even the Masterharper himself, provided the evening entertainment. Songs filled the air, telling of ancient legends such as Moreta’s Ride, the Question Song, and other favorites. People loved to hear the tails of dragons and dragonriders, and of the terrible menace of thread. The myths were fantastic stories, told to children and adults alike.

None of them had any idea that the myths held truth until this night.

“What’s that?” someone loudly called, his voice ringing clearly above the noise in the courtyard. Others looked up, following his outstretched arm to a point in the heavens.

All of them stared in awed terror at the ball of fire streaking across the sky.

-------------------------

“Phil, I need stabilizers now!” Stephanie yelled. Her hands gripped the control stick of the ship so tightly that the cuts along her knuckles stopped bleeding. The ship was barreling out of control, plunging into an alien atmosphere. If they couldn’t slow their rate of decent, they were done for.

“They’re gone!” a man yelled in reply.

“Thrusters?!”

“Trying!” a woman replied.

The ship bucked as thrusters sputtered, producing barely enough force to slow their pitching rolls. The inertial force pushed all of them to one side of their seats, the buckles biting painfully into their skin. None of them felt it though. They were fighting for their lives.

Something exploded just behind the cabin, sending the ship barreling over its nose. Stephanie jerked roughly forward and to the side. Her helmet collided with the side of her seat so roughly she thought for sure her neck would snap.

“Mary! I need thrusters!!”

There was no response. Stephanie strained to look behind her. Mary was slumped in her chair, a beam of metal through her chair.

“Shit. Mark?!”

“Still here. Auxiliary 02 tanks in the nose can be blown to slow us down!”

“Wait until we’re close to impact!”

“Roger!”

The next five minutes were an exercise in futility as the crew struggled to pilot their dying vessel.

-----------------------
Benden Hold watched as the fireball sank below the horizon. With one final explosion that lit the western sky, the fireball met its demise. The gather folk looked uncertainly at one another, wondering what such a portent might mean.

[~DarkKnightCuron~]

Y'know, just once, Matthias would LOVE to be able to effing relax, especially on a festival such as this one. But once again, Benden Hold needed something from the man, and Mattias slammed the goblet of good wine down on the table, looking in the direction where everyone else was looking.

Matthias had seen a lot, but this was definately something out of the ordinary. It was as if one of the stars themselves was falling from the sky, crashing into the ground. The nervous chatter that left the lips of the commonfolk only made Matthias made him that much nervous. He ran a hand through his thick brown hair, not exactly keen on going out to see this burning thing, but still...

Still, he would need to figure out what the heck that thing was.

"Guardsmen!" He yelled, thankful that a few of the guardsmen were nearby and not nearly as drunk as some of the other people in the crowd were. He'd need his men to at least stay in their saddles for this crisis. "Get saddled up, get provisions, and we're going to find out what that monstrosity is!" He barked his order, grabbing his sword, sheath and made his way to the stables. He quickly slid the sword (in its sheath of course) around the saddle as he pulled it from its stand, and made his way to Windsy's small area. As usual, the horse was rather excited to see its master, nodding his head up and down as if already getting itself ready for an adventure. Matthias merely smiled, petting the brown stallion on his head, before putting a blanket on the horse, then the saddle, making sure the saddle was on tight. In short order, Matthias was outside the stables, as were half-a-dozen others with their mounts, armed with their shortswords and bows.

"Alright, let's head out!" He yelled, not waiting a moment later for anyone else wanting to join him, as they guided their horses towards the edge of the area. Matthias managed to shift his shoulder, allowing his heavier clothing to rest easier on his body. The colder months were beginning to come along, and the...THING...had landed out in the middle of nowhere, probably. Luckily, they wouldn't need to go that far...

However, they quickly grabbed a few days worth of provisions (thankful that the festival had easy access to food and water), and placed them in their packs. By the way the burning sphere from heaven looked, it was about 3 to 4 days of hard riding. Their horses were thoroughly bred and trained, however, and they would take to it...

...at least, that's what Matthias HOPED anyway. Benden was a wealthy holding, but that didn't really leave room for throwing away good mounts.

[~Scout~]

Nevira Restegis woke from unconsciousness slowly, and painfully. At first she was confused. Her recent memory was all a blur, filled with terror and fire. It all came back to her in bits and pieces. They had been on the ship, and then something went wrong, she didn't remember what. Then they were entering the atmosphere of a planet. It seemed almost surreal.

That was a frighteningly realistic dream, Nevira thought as she opened her eyes. And then she wished that she hadn't, because all she saw was the wreckage of the ship that a few hours ago had been her home. ...Or was it days? She had no clue how long she'd been out cold. She didn't even know if anyone else was alive, or if they had left her behind and gone somewhere.

Nevira got up slowly. She was covered in cuts and bruises, each varying in size, from a little off-color mark on her arm to a gash on her leg she could have sworn was a foot long. Her perspective could have been off, but she was having difficulty standing, so it was at least substantial. Nevira spread out her wings to fly off the ground... and cried out in pain. Her right wing felt like it was on fire. She looked back at it to see it caked in dried blood.

She felt like a cripple. A Sar Kerith who couldn't fly was seen as such. Nevira had always passed people like that on the streets and not given them a thought, but now that she was in that same situation, she felt small and weak. She sat down on the ground, amongst the shrapnel. Maybe somebody had survived, and they would find her.

[+Aiko+]

Something smelled really bad. That was the first thing that Stephanie noticed as she drifted in and out of consciousness. She couldn’t feel anything at first, and she lucidly wondered where she was. Had Nevira finished those tacos of hers? Mark loved those things, after all. She really didn’t care for them, but food was food and even Nevira’s cooking was better than rations.

That stink just wouldn’t go away. It smelled like burnt meat. Nevira better check the stove. She opened her mouth to yell for the Sar Kerith, but something dripped out other than words. A little embarrassed, she lifted a hand to wipe the spittle from her lips. Was she really that hungry?

Lazily she opened an eye. She tried to open both of them, but the other eye was sealed shut with something. She hoped she wasn’t getting pinkeye. She stared at her hand, her eye taking longer than normal to focus.

Well, that was weird. Spit wasn’t supposed to be red.

Half of her felt cold, and the other half felt too hot. Something was holding her down. Fumbling around, she realized she that she half-strapped into a chair.

Hands grabbed at her and she weakly swatted them away. Somebody yelled at her, but she didn’t understand a word they said and mumbled as such. The hands grabbed her more roughly the second time. She groaned as the pressure sent pain arching through her body.

Her mind couldn’t handle the strain, and she faded into oblivion again.

--------------------

A group of 10 Bitrans, natives of the neighboring hold to Benden, swarmed over the wreckage like vultures. At first they were apprehensive about approaching the strange object, still smoldering grabbing anything they thought was worth something. Bitrans were a dry sort, addicted to gambling and other vices. This group was no different, and saw potential great profit out of stealing whatever they could from the odd shiny rock.

They weren’t expecting to find people inside. The efforts momentarily ceased as they argued amongst themselves. Finally they reached a decision, pulling the severely injured Stephanie and Mark from the wreckage, along with other people they found.

One of them climbed over the wreckage and screamed. The others, who were strapping Stephanie and Mark down onto the backs of packbeasts, quickly ran over. They stared at the Sar Karith, frightened of such an alien looking creature. But… what a price such a prize would fetch!

Slowly and carefully, they approached Nevira, uttering soothing noises as if they were approaching a young animal.

[~DarkKnightCuron~]

Bitran country. Of all the places that thing COULD have landed, it HAD to be there. Matthias spat on the ground as his stallion rounded the corner of a fairly large hill. The path itself was fairly wide, but other than that, it was merely a path of dead grass. As such, he didn't ride his horse too hard, lest his horse find a soft patch in the grass and break its leg or something. He had instructed his men to do the same, though their faces of anxiousness weren't well-hidden.

Bitrans were fairly known for being opprotunistic, and the fact that they sold anything and everything they could for profit or to pay off some gambling debt or another only made Matthias that much more hesitant about entering the hills. Still, the wreckage would still need to be investigated, just to see what it was. Tales of old flickered through his mind about fierce demons that fell from the sky, destroying everything in their path, but Matthias quickly dismissed it. Such an abomination didn't exist, nor ever would exist, for that matter.

As the half-dozen riders continued to ride as the sun set, Matthias, however, still couldn't shake a chill that crawled up his spine...

[~Scout~]

Nevira looked around as she heard people talking amongst themselves. She had thought the planet was uninhabited. Perhaps they could get her and the others to a medical facility, before anything bad happened.

What she saw, however, was not a rescue team and an ambulance, but a whole bunch of dirty-looking men wearing unfamiliar clothing. Nevira yelped and tried to crawl away from them, but then was painfully reminded of the long gash in her leg. She put her hand to the cut and it came back bloody. Perhaps it would be best to go with them. They might have some way of patching her up...

No. They were scary people. Nevira crawled further back.

[+Aiko+]

“Grab it, Jerian! It’s hurt, it’s not going anywhere. We need to hurry it up. They probably saw that fireball all the way down at Southern. Where is Naxol?”

“Naxol took a runner back to Glaron’s hold. He’s got that big herdbeast barn we can keep whatever we find in until we figure out the price on these things,” Jarian replied, making cooing noises periodically at the winged abomination of a female in front of him. From the looks of things, she wasn’t convinced of his good will.

“Shards, Jarian, just grab her! Use the fellis cloth!”

Jerian slowly moved forward, a piece of dirty looking fabric dangling from his hands. His rough features and calloused hands were proof that he had spent time in the mines of Crom, a place where criminals were sent to work.

His companion, a man by the name of Baler, was busy tying the runners together so they could make a hasty retreat to Glaron’s hold before other raiders arrived to reap the spoils they had discovered. Thankfully the shiny skymetal and fallen in a rather remote region of Bitra, far from the main hold.

The remaining seven men were prying as much metal and other valuable-looking objects off the hull and smoldering innards as they dared. Many key components were destroyed, disconnected, and shoved into carry-sacks. The ship wouldn’t fly again. Stephanie and her crew were trapped on a planet with technology too primitive to get them starward again.

Although Nevira made a valiant effort to escape, her attempts were futile. She was too weak, and the Bitran men too strong. Jerian managed to grab her by the hair and shove her face into the cloth. Nearly instantly, she sagged and fell asleep in his arms.

The sound of a strange, warbling whistle pierced the woods.

“It’s time to go!” Baler said, hopping onto his runnerbeast. Jarian draped Nevira, who was surprising lighter than she appeared, over his saddle and hoisted himself up. Spurring their beasts on, dragging the mounts carrying the unconscious Mark, Stephanie, and a few other seriously injured crewmen behind them.

_______

An undetermined amount of time later, Stephanie woke in a cold, dark, damp place. She shivered and pulled something over her, too tired to realize that her fingers had curled around an animal skin and not a synthetic emergency blanket. She hurt all over. Slowly awareness came, and she was able to lift her head. One eye was swollen shut, and her other could barely open as well. She could only see rough shapes, but she thought she recognized the lump in the corner.

“N…Nevira? Where’s Mark? Chris? Tracy? Where are we?” she groaned.

[~DarkKnightCuron~]

((Gonna fast forward a little bit, hope no one minds))

Over the course of the last few days, Matthias and his men had ridden their horses has hard as they dared, walking them whenever they felt was appropriate, and finally camping when the final light of the sun disappeared. Going through the mountains in the dead of night was far too dangerous to risk their lives and their mounts, despite the urgency of what was going on.

At least in Matthias' opinion.

Now, however, he felt they were getting close. He could smell as if something had been burned, which would match closely with the firey rock they had seen falling from above just a few days before. As they rounded the corner, they saw...something like a metal house. However, the wreckage around it suggested otherwise.

"I-Is that it?" One of the soldiers said, pointing his drawn bow and arrow at it.

"I believe so..." Matthias, looking around. There was no one in sight.

"Spread out! I want a safe circle around this thing. Joseph, you're with me. We're gonna investigate this thing..."

[+transcon+]

Archived due to lack of activity.