Lost in Dreams (Amy)

[ericthered]

Amy Mills slept well that night. That didn't happen every night, but it happened this night. She dreamed. She dreamed of enormous space ships firing at each other across the sky of some green and blue marble planet. Dozens of them, hundreds of them... maybe even thousands. She dreamed of lasers and missiles, of glowing shields and explosions. She dreamed of men and women in uniform, and strange aliens of all shapes running besides, running about a ship. She dreamed of fires in one part of the ship, about gaping holes in other parts.

She dreamed of escape pods raining down from the ships to the planet below. some burned up in the atmosphere. Some crashed. some made it towards the water and land below.

She woke up to the feeling of sand against her body. All of her body... where were her clothes? At least she's not too cold. She could hear the sound of waves off to her left. And smell some sort of acrid smoke.


Opening her eyes, its early twilight. she can see occasional shooting stars in the sky, coming down at a high rate. And occasional flashes of light in the sky. She's on a beach. She can't tell if the plants are tropical or not. The smoke is coming from a giant metal can or pod on the beach, just a few dozen yards away.

[Anaya]

The sensation of sand against skin awoke Amy quickly. She scrambled frantically to her feet.

"Gah! What...How..."

Her mind searched in vain for any explanation. She couldn't even hazard a guess as to how she'd ended up here. Nonetheless, Amy was forced to accept reality. The shower of falling pods ruled out even the most high budget prank. No matter how absurd the situation seemed, she really was standing naked on an alien beach.

Her first instinct was to find clothing. Then she saw the crashed pod, and changed her mind. Finding friends came first. If her dream was accurate, then these people were in the same boat as her: Stranded and desperate. They hopefully wouldn't care about one unfamiliar 'crewmate' amongst the survivors.

Amy made her way over to the pod. The breeze on her skin did nothing to calm her nerves. She positioned her long red hair to cover herself as best she could. How would she explain this to whoever was in the escape pod? Maybe she could say that she'd been in the shower when the call came to abandon ship. Some actual crew members might even be in that predicament. Amy braced herself for what promised to be a very awkward first meeting.

[ericthered]

She approaches the pod, trying to improve he modesty. The exterior of the pod is blackened and indistinct, and the smoke is coming from the bottom burns her nostrils.



There is a Hatch at the top, Its heavy, but it lifts up easily enough.



Acrid smoke billows out of the hatch and there are three motionless people inside. Two of them are human, both women, and their skin color looks unnatural, like they died in some horrible way. The third is some sort of alien, with six legs branching off a mantis-like body, covered in grey-brown fuzz, a series of tentacles around its mouth, and enormous ears.


They're each wearing uniforms, complete with name tags. "Sandell", "al-Baddour", and "Eekritch". With Eekritch being the alien.

[Anaya]

Amy recoiled in horror. She half-climbed, half-fell back onto the beach. She'd been so naive; Only worried about embarrassing first impressions. The idea of anyone being dead never occurred to her. Now she truly understood that this beach was beneath a battlefield. How many people would manage to make it down here alive?

Regaining her composure took a minute. Amy wanted nothing more to do with this oversized coffin. But she was in desperate need of supplies. Someone in her position couldn't afford to walk away. So she sat on the sand, waiting for the smoke to completely dissipate. Those poor people looked like they'd been poisoned. Amy wouldn't risk inhaling any unknown substances.

Once she was confident of the air being clear, she'd cautiously climb the pod again. Maybe there'd be an emergency kit inside. Her naivety surfaced again, as it conjured the image of a neatly folded spare uniform. But this time, Amy recognised the hope as vain. She knew what she'd really need to do in order to clothe herself...

[ericthered]

As she waits for the smoke to clear, she notices a parachute in the sky, headed inland of the beach. It has a pod as well, but it seems to be a different design.



She climbs into the pod. The quarters are quite cramped: she's can't properly search the bottom while the corpses are still in there. "al-Baddour" matches her height and build the best ("Eekritch"'s uniform won't fit a human body at all). The uniforms have various markings. One appears to be a logo or flag of some sort, of blue circle partially overlapping a red circle.

The set of clothing is complete, including underwear and shoes. It has lots of pockets, but they are empty except for a small clear plastic slab with metal at its top and bottom. It glows faintly with the words "Signal Lost".

Having Taken Al-Baddour's body out of the pod, there is room to investigate. The pod has screens all over its inner walls, but no power for them. The bottom has a removable panel. Inside is a space blanket, a strange metal ring with attached metal and some sort of plug, twelve packaged food bars, another clear plastic slab with metal at each end, but not glowing this time, and what looks for all the world like a pistol with no hole in the end. A laser pistol? it has at least some electronic components. There are also what look like very thin plastic bags with some fancy way to open and shut them, and four canteens that seem very heavy. And one large but impossibly thin knife.

[Anaya]

Amy watched the new pod descend. This one looked different. Maybe it came from the opposition? She had no idea which (if either) side of this battle were the 'good guys'. For all she knew, this pod might belong to a fascist regime. Pretending to be from one faction would probably make an enemy of the other. But it was a risk that she'd have to take.

Dragging and stripping the corpse was grizzly work. Amy kept telling herself that it was necessary. The dead didn't need possessions any more. Soon enough, she was wearing a dead woman's uniform. Being clothed again was a relief. It made Amy feel more in control of the situation. If possible, she'd remove the name tag. Impersonating a specific person felt wrong; Especially given the risk of meeting her old shipmates.

With the worst job finished, Amy took stock of the supplies. She now had food, water, a blanket, some kind of tablet computer, a strange ring...and a gun. Amy had never even held a gun before. She hurriedly holstered it, without even trying to figure out how it worked. The knife was easier to stomach. She at least had knives in her home. It'd come in handy for plenty of peaceful uses; And hopefully nothing else.

Okay, time to go. Amy would set off for the nearest treeline. Her plan was to lose herself in whatever forest or jungle might be available. She hoped to camp in seclusion, while the battle burned itself out. This wasn't her war.

[ericthered]

What does she doe with al-Baddour's Body, after she has taken the clothing?

She finds the knife to be excellent as she cuts the name badge off of her uniform.

The forest has a brief dense wall of vegetation. After a little bit of looking for a path, she makes in through a spot. Its dark in there, but visibility isn't terrible. She doesn't recognize any plants, but then again, should she?

The ground is fairly smooth, and there is a fair amount of space between tree trunks, which are very very tall. Ferns (?) about four feet tall are abundant, as are other plants, but its not nearly as thick as the wall of vegetation at the tree line.

She hasn't gone too far when she sees her first animal. She can't decide if it looks more like a starfish or a spider: Four wide hair legs on a seemingly headless body, clinging flatly to the vegetation. Its bigger than her hand, and seems to have chewed a path as it climbed up the tree. Some of those hairs look like they might be spikes.

How far into the forest will she go?

[Anaya]

Originally Posted by ericthered

What does she doe with al-Baddour's Body, after she has taken the clothing?

She hauled it back into the pod. That seemed slightly better than dumping it in the ocean.

The journey gave Amy an opportunity to collect her thoughts. So much had happened already. The barrage of bizarre revelations kept obscuring one another. For instance, she only now had time to process seeing an alien. One of the people in that pod had been an honest to goodness extraterrestrial! Yet she'd been too busy to give that world-shattering fact more than a passing glance. Had she been transported to the distant future?

Reaching the forest gave some welcome cover. Now she at least wouldn't be a sitting duck. Her trusty knife left a small mark on each tree that she passed, to help avoid going in circles. None of the vegetation looked familiar. Maybe Amy wasn't even on Earth any more. This hypothesis soon received some disturbing support: In spiky, spidery form. Amy gave the creature a wide berth, making no sudden movements. From then on, she kept a close watch on the trees above, and the ground below. There was no telling what could be waiting in ambush. Still better than a war, though.

Amy would keep walking for a while longer. She wanted to go deep enough to avoid meeting anyone else; But not deep enough to get hopelessly lost. Given her complete lack of wilderness training, she didn't have high hopes of threading that needle.

[ericthered]

After a little bit of walking, she came to a rise in elevation. A steep rise. Large rocks poked out from among the trees.



Now that she was looking, she noticed the four-armed little star crawlers all over the place. And large worms, a foot long or more, crawling through the trees much more rapidly than a worm should... maybe they're closer in function to snakes?


Then she notices another line of notches in trees, much like hers, but higher off the ground.

[Anaya]

The abundance of wildlife worried Amy. Even a small creature could be lethal. She'd have to be extra vigilant against poisonous bites. But with so many potential threats in all directions, it'd be difficult to track them all.

The extra notches were even more worrying. After seeing the ravages of battle, Amy had changed her mind about making friends. If she met an 'ally', she'd be drafted into the war. And if she met an 'enemy', they'd probably kill her before she could even attempt diplomacy. And the idea of killing them instead horrified her; Especially when she knew nothing about either side. What if she was wearing the uniform of a space Nazi?! She could easily picture a clueless traveller (like her) appearing naked on a WWII battlefield, and unwittingly grabbing the worst possible choice of outfit.

So instead of following the new notches, Amy veered away from them. She also modified her own marks to be more distinct from the others; And more discreet. She didn't want anyone else following her trail.