boxofmystery | This is Alien

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This is Alien

Things were usually quiet out here in the middle of nowhere, and that was how Ralph liked it. The Marines had built a base on a little forest planet that was home to no sentient life, but plenty of critters.

After the disaster of a mission he had recently been on, he was glad to have a chance for a more relaxing mission. Most of the other surviving Marines from that mission had been stationed here as well. This place was good for young Marines just starting out, and older ones who needed some calm in between.

There were plenty of other staff stationed here, in case of accidents and emergencies. There was a full medical staff and multiple robotics experts for androids and cyborgs.

However, there had been a small bump of excitement lately, a ship carrying 4 traumatized passengers had entered the sector and the Marines had intercepted it.

A fellow Marine was one of the passengers on the ship, and with information from him and the rest of the passengers, it painted a gruesome tale.

Ralph didn't know much about all of that, just what he had heard from the others. His specialties weren't needed, so he hadn't been on scene.

But, once the group had gotten settled and all the excitement of newcomers was over, everything had settled right back down into routine once more.

Ralph's routine involved a morning jog through the forest, and that's where he's at now. He had grown up on a heavily-forested planet, so he felt like the trees gave him a little taste of home.

As he jogs through the forest, he hears something rustling nearby and he pauses, looking around to see if he could spot it. Maybe it was a bird or a fox or something.

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That's a bit strange but then she remembers he's a marine. So that makes more sense and she nods.

"It's really good. Is the entire planet mapped though?"

Ralph tilts his head, "You know, I don't think so. I know they scanned it, but that just tells ya basic details. I know the whole forest isn't, just the parts closest to the base."

That makes her stop.

".....then how do you know there aren't things here that want to kill us?"

Ralph frowns lightly, "That's a good question... We've been 'round here for a while and I haven't heard of anything, but that's not a guarantee..."

After thinking it over, he finally suggests, "What if I bring my gun an' keep it ready? That way if anything attacks us, we'll be prepared."

"I was on my colony for 7 years and we didn't find out about the ship with the aliens till the company sent my- some people to find it."

She's clearly conflicted. On the one hand, what she said. On the other hand, they had been exploring at home and someone had to send her family there for it to happen. It might not happen again.

".....maybe we don't go too far. I don't want to meet monsters again. And monsters killed lots of people who had guns."

Fear wins out. It's going to for a long time.

Ralph listens quietly as Newt explains what had happened and what's she decided. He frowns when he hears that the aliens had been there that long without discovery, but he says nothing about the situation.

He gives her a nod, "All right, sounds good to me. You let me know when we're goin' too far, and we'll turn right back around, okay?" He wants her to know that she's in charge, and he'll do whatever she wants him to.

She'll give that some serious thought and then nod.

"Okay. But if you see any really big eggs, stay away from them."

Eggs. Ralph's seen that eggs can cause more problems than you'd think, so he agrees with Newt's assessment.

"Gotcha. If I see any eggs, I'll leave 'em alone."

They're getting close to the forest, the trees are very clearly in sight. He glances at Newt to see if she has any hesitation about their plan.

Eggs are evil.

"Okay, good."

She's glad she doesn't get an argument about that. She's not showing any fear at the moment as they go towards the woods again.

Avoiding eggs is definitely a topic Ralph won't argue.

The sun is still bright in the sky, so to Ralph, the woods look inviting. He's glad that Newt seems okay with it as they head in, but he's keeping an eye on her so that they can get out as soon as she seems skittish.

Once they're in a little ways and completely surrounded by trees, Ralph takes a deep breath and looks up at the light playing through the leaves, then closes his eyes.

When he did this, it almost felt like he was home again.

Newt seems only as skittish as she's been this entire time. Which is more then most kids should be, but she isn't running away yet so that's a good sign.

She does look around a lot. But she's also out here to look around so it's not out of the ordinary.

Ralph takes things in in his own way for a minute or two, then he opens his eyes and pays more attention to his surroundings.

He's glad that Newt hasn't panicked yet, but he keeps a close eye on her, just in case her mood changes.

Ralph's noticed that she's skittish, however, he hasn't been around kids to know that it's out of the ordinary for them, but he feels a little skittish himself some days.

They're on what's close to a path, the grass has been worn away down to the dirt. The path stretches to both the left and right, Ralph's standing closer to the right, but he doesn't have a preference or if they should make their own way.

Newt will glance at the two paths as though she's making a mental note and will head to the right.

She likes to know where she is.

"Are there lots of marine bases like this one?"

Sort of out of no where but she's been wondering about how many marines there actually are in the universe.

Ralph walks with Newt, answering her question as they go, "Yep! They try to space 'em out where most planets are a short distance away if they need help. That way, the ones closer can arrive quickly, an' then the others are reinforcements an' backup as they arrive."

This base, however, was on the outskirts, and not close to many planets at all. There were quite a few spread out along the outskirts, not only to watch for dangerous things coming in, but to give some of the worn out Marines an easier job while they recover.

"Doesn't sending more people just mean more people die?"

She is sort of aware that not EVERY situation is one like hers. It's just hard to think of that yet. The others are trying.

Ralph frowns just slightly, tilting his head at how pessimistic that sounded. But, she had been through a lot, from what she had told him, so it made a sad sort of sense.

He shakes his head, "I mean, yeah the more people that're somewhere, the more of 'em could die. But, you get enough good guys on yer team, you eventually outnumber the bad."

That was the theory, anyway. It didn't always work exactly like that, sometimes you needed better technology or weapons to deal with a problem.

She thinks that over for a moment.

"I guess that could work in some cases..."

Which is saying a lot for her.

Ralph notices the change and smiles softly, "Yeah! There's nothin' that'll work 100% of the time, but with everybody workin' together, we can come up with somethin' that works for the rest of the time."

He's been beaten and worn, but he's still got relentless optimism in there. He has to. He can't imagine a universe where the bad guys always win.

It's the universe that Newt is pretty sure exists.

"Maybe once....or twice. For some people."

While he doesn't agree with everything Newt's saying, she does bring up a good point, "You can't save everyone, but you gotta try. An', with enough people, we can keep comin' up with stuff an' keep stopping the bad guys again and again."

Ralph's seen a lot of things, but so far, he's been lucky. He's always been on the winning side, even if they suffered some heavy losses.

"I guess."

Trying is good, she'd be dead if people hadn't tried to rescue her after all. All the same, there is still a strong part of her that wants to hide away in safety forever. Even if she isn't sure safety will ever exist again, or ever did.

"As long as people listen to the people who know what is going on and don't do stupid things. If you don't act smart you die and you make other people die too."

It could be said that Ralph has more stubbornness than sense, but, so far, it's kept him alive. He won't stop trying to do what's right until he's dead, which, in his line of work could be sooner, rather than later.

This time, he fully agrees with Newt and nods, "Right. You gotta know when to listen an' who to listen to. The Sergeant usually takes care of that, but sometimes we learn stuff that she takes into account."

Edited 2020-04-11 15:16 (UTC)

She nods as well.

"Like if someone knows something is dangerous and survived it once, you should listen to them about it because they know more then you."

Then again she's very biased towards people listening to Ripley. But this goes for her, Hicks and Bishop when people try to brush them off with, but really how dangerous can those things really be?

"Exactly! That's th' perfect time to listen to somebody." First-hand accounts were valuable, possibly even more so than information put together by someone who hadn't seen what had happened with their own eyes. All sources of data needed to be taken in account in order to make the best decisions.

"Bishop says sometimes people ...'downplay the danger because the reward for them is worth more then the human lives they would lose-' ..that's how he explained it to me."

Bishop is getting better at not using so many long words when it comes to talking to Newt. She still said that part like she's reciting as it's important to get right.

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This is Alien

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Sorry for the delay!

np!

Thanks! And, I'm so sorry again!

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I'm so sorry for the delay!

XD that's okay it happens

Thanks! And, sorry again for the delay.

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