Lost in Dreams (Amy)

[ericthered]

Amy continues climbing higher. She's happy that she isn't out of breath quickly, and that she hasn't been bitten or stung or anything yet.



How many hours or minutes will she head inland? Will she aim to keep going uphill, maintain elevation, or head back towards the beach? Is she looking for anything is particular?

[Anaya]

Amy will try to stay within walking (and finding) distance of the beach. When possible, she'll maintain low elevation. She's looking for a secluded, defensible spot in which to hide: Like a cave, or sunken enclave.

[ericthered]

Amy is trying to stay close to the beach when she hears a voice

"Hey! Over here!"

Its someone wearing the same uniform as her. The woman is very short but robustly built, about amy's age and has brown hair, green eyes, and light skin with freckles. Both of her legs have been replaced with slender pieces of metal, seemingly flexible.

Her badge declares her name to be "James".

[Anaya]

Damn it! Amy chided herself for being too conspicuous. Maybe she should have ventured deeper into the forest. Then again, doing that could have gotten her hopelessly lost. Either choice had a lot of potential for regret. Regardless, what's done was done. She'd just have to roll with the punches.

Amy plastered a relieved smile onto her face, and headed towards her 'comrade'.

"Good to see you! What's the situation?"

[ericthered]

Ms (Private? Sargent?) James: "I landed with two others. we got hit coming down. My Sargent got hit in the arm. I'm looking for others while they set up defenses near the pod. Glad to see someone from Two Suns. "



"What happened to your name tag? and the rest of your pod?" James pulls her pistol out.

[Anaya]

A misplaced name tag was all it took for James to turn hostile. The drawn pistol was a harsh reminder of the state's true nature. Back home, Amy had seen plenty of military propaganda. Their recruiters and advertisements targeted directionless young people like her. 'Join the army! Give your life purpose! Be surrounded by loyal comrades!". Yeah, right. The military's loyalty to you would evaporate as soon as you allowed a single thought into your head. Every gun-wielding teammate was one wrong move away from becoming an enemy.

Amy had no hope of winning a fight against a trained soldier. Her only option was to defuse the situation. Feigning regret, Amy glanced down at her uniform.

"I lost the tag a while ago, in a stupid slip-up. I kept meaning to get it fixed, but never got around to it. Now it's too late. Story of my life."

She was still glad that she'd cut off the tag. A white woman with a strong British accent wasn't cut out to impersonate someone called 'al-Baddour'.

"As for the others in my pod, they...didn't make it."

Amy barely needed to fake her grief. Though the pod's inhabitants had been strangers, seeing their corpses had still been traumatic. Hopefully that would help prevent her own corpse from joining the pile.

[ericthered]

OCC: pretty high acting skill... rolled a 13, success by 1

"What's your name?"

"You lost them both? that sucks. Its your first time, isn't it? with death."

"Give me your pistol and I'll get you back with us. You're in no shape to be shooting at the moment."

"You have a full pod worth of supplies... that's fantastic. Where is your pod?"


"You were with shields? We were with lasers. And where's your ship patch... the Impassive"

[Anaya]

"Amy. Amy Mills. And y-yes, it's my first time."

Amy surrendered her pistol without complaint. She'd never wanted that awful thing in the first place. When asked about her pod's location, she pointed in the wrong direction. James' comments about shields and patches received only a dazed look; As if Amy hadn't really processed her words. For now, she'd go with the 'shell-shocked and incompetent newbie' role. That should help excuse some of her mistakes.

But she knew that she was just delaying the inevitable. Sooner or later, her flimsy ruse was going to fall apart. Someone would eventually find the looted corpse. Or maybe they'd just notice Amy's complete ignorance about basic facts of this world. She was living on borrowed time. She had to find a way out of this mess, before she got executed as a spy.

[ericthered]

She thinks that's not the direction of the pod, anyways.

Corporal James: "There's two of us Corporals. Me and Gurman. Gurman is a Tortholite. And then we have Talc. Who's a private but is probably smarter than all of us."


A "Tortholite" appears to be a reptillian Gorilla (and gorilla sized) with mandibles and ear flaps. Gurman is busy cutting brush with the knife about 30 yards from the downed pod.


Talc is some sort of giant snail-thing. She's about 80 cm across, and is able to stick eyes, foot, mouth, several long tentacles out of her shell. She's doing something with the little clear piece of plastic.


"This Private Mills. Her pod is all dead, and I think she lost track of where it is."


Corporal Gurman looks over Amy. "I'll take that pistol. We have four now, and another human isn't a bad addition. We need to find the other pods if we can. Any luck Talc?"


Talc: "They shot out the radio. It was probably on or something stupid like that. <bleepity bleep>. That means anyone other outfits on this company can coordinate and we can't. Hopefully everyone will just wait for the battle to be over and pick up their people"


Gurman: "Until the food runs out, sure. You're sure about your analysis of the vegetation?"


Talc: "So far, nothing. Bring me more vegetation, and I'll tell you."


Corp. James: "And the animals are poisonous to us too. So far. So much for a 'garden planet'. I'll see if I can find anything else. If you think things won't get serious until food runs out, this is the best time to explore."


Gurman: "Be careful out there. I don't want to die because you were careless"


OCC: just looked back at the sheet. Pacifism (Innocents) and Squeamish. I did not target those on purpose. Good character building though.

[Anaya]

Amy surveyed her supposed teammates. Under better circumstances, they'd have been an inspiring sight. So many diverse species, all working together! It was wonderful to know that alien life could be a friend of humanity.

Sadly, Amy was in no position to appreciate that: Partly because these 'friends' were one misstep away from killing her; And partly because one of them was a giant snail. So slimy! Amy knew that her reaction was unfair. Poor Talc shouldn't be judged by such shallow metrics. But Amy couldn't just wish away a lifelong phobia. She'd just have to manage it as best she could.

"G-Good to meet you all. Sorry for being a bit...shaken...by recent events. I can help look for food, if you like."

That'd give her an excuse to venture back into the forest; And maybe 'get lost' in there.