Posted by Vice Admiral CockRoach (GM) in Main Sim - Bridge - Those Who Remain Behind
[snip]

Nods of agreement came and went, and once the order got given the Bonnie began its slow careful descent through the atmosphere. Things were of course bumpy and a few panels and monitors flickered here and there as they struggled to compensate. But after a few minutes they broke through the upper atmosphere into cloud cover without much trouble. Once clearing the cloud cover they found they were in a circling pattern about 40,000ft or so above the ground. Again they would have to keep the ship moving to not put undue stress on the ship’s frame so hovering in place was pretty much out of the question unless there was a really big emergency needing it, even then they probably only could do it for a minute or three until problems would arise.

Green gritted his teeth. Next ship design could do a little better with their inertial dampers to smooth out that ride. But nothing bad happened both in their descent or on the screen. “Systems all green, Commander, ” he reported confidently.

Scans would clear up slowly, and it would take a bit of time to fully process and adapt their custom search algothrims for the lower altitude. In the meantime though, it seems they had drawn the attention of a pack of predatory very larger insects. 20 some of these 10ft long, 6ft wide spikey tailed creatures had initially flown away from the area of the Bonnie arriving. But it seems they had circled back now intent on driving off the bigger challenger to their air space. The swarm of larger spikey looking insects began to land and circle on the Bonnie’s hull. Of course they couldn’t do any damage right?

GM CockRoach

Comms came alive shortly after their descent. [o] Engineer Petty Officer Aelef to Bonaventure. We see you up there. That was . . quite an entrance. We’re wondering if anything is wrong? Are your comms not going through to us? [c] There was a pause. [o] You also have some bugs heading your way but Ensign Serinde doesn’t think they can do any harm. We’ve met two of the .. shuttle crew. They confirm they’ve been there for a century and a half but say they don’t know how. [c]

Green gave a dismissive clearing of his throat. Sure they’d be the authority on that down on the planet. He glanced up, however, at some skitching sounds above them. That must be some ‘bug’. Glancing over to a monitoring station crewman he asked, “Can we see what’s out there?”

NC Aelef

External cameras popped up in different spots on the hull, normally used for inspections while out in space. In different places all over the ship roughly 20 some large insects with spikey barbed tails were in singles, pairs or trios, scratching, pecking, or smacking the hull with their sharp mouth pieces, tails or body/feet. They had a wing span of around 5-7ft in width and a length of 9-12ft. They had a hooked trio of claws for legs, and a serrated hooked beak but they were clearly insects. So far in all places were they were hitting the metal of the ship no damage was being done other then some light scuffing of the ship’s paint job. But in one area near the ship’s mess hall a pair were intently hitting the glass windows, though so far no effects were notable.

As if to drive this point home Chef Marco down in the mess galley came over the ship’s comm, =/\= Uh bridge? Chef Marco here down in the galley. We got like three big honking nasty looking insects going nuts at our windows here. So far no damage but they are scuffing up the glass pretty bad. Should I do anything or could we do something to shoo them off? =/\= He said.

GM CockRoach

Green made a ewwww face. He wasn’t much for bugs but these were BIG bugs. Serinde didn’t say anything about that. Bugs sure. But these were bigger than him and that wasn’t a bug. His skin crawled at seeing them but more so about the idea that they might get through. At the same time he was offended that they were scratching up the ship which he would need to fix. Or get Serinde to fix. She would think better about not reporting correctly with a paint brush and exterior buffer in hand. He did have the image of Marco with a heavy cast iron skillet giving them a good whack.

“Commander, we could start with a reverse polarization charge on the hull plating. Give them a shock.” He hoped there wasn’t a quiver in his normally calm, deep British accent.

NL Green