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cyren-myadd · 4 months

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Rant about Eywa theories

Eywa is one of the most interesting concepts in the Avatar universe, imo. The concept of an interplanetary consciousness that every native organism can "interface" with is so cool. One thing that really fascinates me about Eywa is how she goes about "protecting only the balance of life" as Neytiri explained to Jake. As of Avatar 1, Eywa did not react to the human threat mining and destroying the forest for several years, nor the genocide/abduction of the Sarentu clan, even though Eywa would've been aware of what was happening when the Na'vi shared their memories with her soul trees. She only reacted to the threat AFTER she was exposed to human memories of the destruction of earth when Jake interfaced with her via his avatar body, and then again when she interfaced with Grace’s human body. The reaction was similar to an immune response within a body attacking a foreign virus, with native fauna mobilizing to attack anything that registered as alien. One interesting thing of note about the immune response is that the animals were not physically connected to Eywa when they attacked, which means Eywa can somehow send commands to organisms “wirelessly.” This phenomena could also explain how the atokirina conveniently show up to stop Neytiri from killing Jake. Anyway, the immune response won the final battle of A1, in A2 we saw the immune response can't protect Pandora in its entirety. The recoms could get past the immune response undetected, and Bridgehead and the whaling ships didn't face an immune response at all.

Another interesting thing about Eywa we learned from the original script for Avatar 2, is that she is confirmed to have caused Grace’s pregnancy. Norm describes Kiri’s birth as “parthenogenesis,” which is a biological process in which an egg produces viable offspring without sperm from a male. (idk if the script needs a spoiler warning, so I'm putting one just to be safe) Based on the fact that Jake describes the pregnancy as “a mystery,” we can assume parthenogenetic birth isn’t something normal to the Na’vi’s alien reproductive cycle. On earth, parthenogenesis is only found in invertebrates and some plants. Assuming that Na’vi reproduction is somewhat similar to earth animal reproduction (which I think we can safely do since the Sully children clearly have inherited different traits from their parents, implying that they get half of their DNA from each parent just like on earth, but they are aliens so I could be completely wrong here), Grace would’ve had gametes inside of her avatar’s reproductive system, which are cells that only contain half of the genetic material to produce a viable offspring. A complex, multicellular organism like a Na’vi couldn’t exist without a full set of genes, so in order to produce a zygote (a new cell with a full set of genes that can grow into an embryo), the other half of the genetic material must’ve come from somewhere else, and the only place it could’ve come from is Eywa herself. This means that Eywa, to some capacity, can create or at least copy and reproduce genetic material. Since Kiri is so similar to Grace, it’s possible the other half of her genes are just a complete copy of Grace.

From all this we can conclude some things about Eywa.

We know she is not:

All powerful

All knowing

A “god” in the traditional sense

We know she is capable of:

Storing memories, including memories of the deceased from the last time they connected with her

Making decisions to react to threats based on those memories

Interfacing with an alien’s nervous system

Commanding fauna

Sending signals to organisms without physical contact

Creating/changing genetic material

What is still unclear is how Eywa’s consciousness works. Is she:

A sentient individual?

A hive mind of the deceased Na’vi?

An amalgamation of consciousness built from memories?

Something akin to a biological artificial intelligence?

Now that we’ve established the things that are confirmed about Eywa, I want to get into some speculation about what else she might be capable of. Note that from this point on I’m being purely SPECULATIVE and I’m not saying any of this is for sure possible in canon, I’m just coming up with hypotheses based on info we already have. After the end of Avatar 2, it looks like Jake and the Na’vi are planning to make their stand against the RDA, but if they want any hope of winning against the RDA’s superior technology, they’re going to need a combination of a Na’vi war force and divine intervention, just like in Avatar 1. The question is, how will Eywa help them? The one form of defense we’ve seen from her is the immune response, but that can only go so far. It can be fooled by avatars and recoms, and it is not strong enough to attack a heavily fortified base like Bridgehead. Eywa is going to have to step up her game, and I’ve created three theories on how she might do that.

📢potential spoiler warning for the last theory!📢

Theory 1: The 880 Virus

Project 880 is a screenplay James Cameron wrote in 1995 that eventually morphed into the Avatar we know and love today. One element in 880 that never made it to Avatar was the counter-viruses. For every earth virus the RDA brought with them to Pandora, Eywa created a counter-virus that would stop it, protecting both native organisms and the humans from getting sick from the viruses ever again. The RDA was even planning to create vaccines using the counter-viruses and sell them back on earth. At the end of Project 880 when the RDA is forced to retreat, Jake tells them that if they ever come back, Eywa will unleash a deadly virus that will wipe out any human that dares set foot on Pandora again. Even though Project 880 is not canon, I could see James Cameron revisiting his old idea to help the protagonists shake off the RDA forever. The problem is they’d need to find a way to protect the friendly humans like Spider and Norm.

Theory 2: Avatar Kiri

Between the parthenogenetic birth and Kiri’s ability to control vines (seen in The High Ground comic) and anemones (seen in Avatar 2), the movies are clearly setting up for there to be something special about her. In both the comic scene where she controlled plants and the movie scene where she controlled the anemones, the characters around her expressed confusion that she could do so, from which we can assume those are not normal abilities of a Na’vi. Since Kiri is also established to have a deep connection to Eywa, it is possible she is meant to act as an “avatar.” In the original context of the word, an avatar is a manifestation of a deity in mortal form, so Kiri would act as an avatar for Eywa. Since Kiri is a person and not a… whatever Eywa is, she can make her own decisions and react quickly to problems without having to absorb memories first. There’s no more information to speculate about what other abilities Kiri may develop in the future, so unfortunately, there’s not much else to discuss here that we can base on any evidence.

Theory 3: If you can’t beat em, join em

📢Here’s where we’re getting into potential spoiler territory.📢 In the BTS footage for Avatar 2, there were some scripts accidentally shown which described some very interesting scenes: Spider, breathing without a mask, and Kiri confessing to Mo’at that she caused it to happen. There was also some concept art shown in Las Vegas that depicted Spider with a neural queue plugged into the underwater spirit tree with Kiri. Full disclaimer, it’s entirely possible these are scrapped ideas and will not be seen in the Avatar franchise, but for the sake of this hypothesis, let’s assume they’re legit. I’ve seen a lot of people asking the question of HOW would this happen, but I haven’t seen anybody asking an equally important question: WHY? I’m very interested in the HOW and maybe I’ll make a discussion post on it later, but for my hypothesis let’s just talk about the WHY. Even though Kiri claimed responsibility for it, I don’t think this is something she could do without the help of Eywa, since Na’vi aren’t established to have the ability to radically alter other organisms. So why would Eywa want to give a human kid the ability to breathe the Pandoran air? Sure, he’s Kiri’s friend, but Eywa has never intervened to save an individual’s life just because people cared about them before (otherwise we’d still have Neteyam RIP). As Neytiri said, “The Great Mother protects the balance of life.” Eywa did not intervene to stop the destructive mining or protect the Sarentu, she only intervened AFTER Grace’s memories showed her that the RDA could potentially cause planet-wide destruction like on earth. So if she gave Spider this life-saving ability, there must be a bigger reason for it other than just Kiri wanting him to survive. My hypothesis is that Eywa has realized what a massive threat the humans pose to Pandora, and that her immune system response is insufficient to protect her biosphere. Her solution is to behave like a virus and weaponize the humans against themselves. When a virus infects a healthy organism, it “hacks” into healthy cells and reprograms them to attack uninfected cells and produce more viruses. Eywa will “hack” Spider’s biology the same way she “hacked” into Grace’s nervous system to interface with her, and will “reprogram” him to breathe the air and have a neural queue. Spider is already loyal to the Na’vi, so she doesn’t need to do anything further to him, but what if she repeated the process with other humans? Any human who gained a neural queue would be able to experience tsaheylu and the connection between all living things. Humans who are already loyal to Eywa would be able to fight back better with their new abilities, and it would give Eywa more access to more memories to gain a better understanding of the enemy. Humans who are loyal to the RDA would be more inclined to switch sides after experiencing Eywa’s consciousness, much like Jake did. I’m aware this final theory is a bit more out there than the others, but it spawned from me trying to answer the question of WHY would Spider get the ability to breathe the air and I felt like there had to be a bigger reason than just Kiri wanting to save him. Unlike Kiri, there’s not some special significance about Spider (other than his connection to Quaritch, but I don’t think Eywa would care about that) that would make him vital to the fight against the RDA, so I thought, what if he’s not special, he just happened to be the first piece of a much larger plan? And the result is this theory.

What do you think of my theories and do you guys have any of your own to share?

TLDR: Eywa is really cool, and in the future I think she could possibly defeat the RDA by unleashing a deadly virus, giving Kiri special powers, or "converting" Spider and other humans.

#avatar #atwow #avatar the way of water #eywa #project 880 #atwow kiri #avatar kiri #kiri sully #spider socorro #avatar spider

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lowtaperfeyd · 2 months

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Scintilla (Prologue)

Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen x Mentat!reader

author's note: This is the first official posting of the series. I do plan on making chapters than what I am posting now.

warnings: house harkonnen, mentions of death and blood

wc: 528

“Are you sure I’m getting what I want?”

You say to the guard blocking the closed door. You’re saying not for him but mainly for yourself. How easy his life must be. He just stands there, quietly. You think.

“Are they going to write me off and not listen?”

FACT: OPEN POSITIONS ARE ON KAITAIN. INFERENCE: 70/30 CHANCE I GET KAITAIN. HYPOTHESIS: WILL GIVE ME KAITAIN OR A TEACHING JOB IF WORSE COMES TO WORSE

The great door opened with a bird-like screech,

“(Y/N) (L/N) come in.”

The door slammed, punctuating your entrance. You take rushed steps and a nervous inhale. In front you is a monstrous pedestal that holds the council of three professors who told you everything you know, who made you self righteous and sufficient. The people who gave you everything; the people who would give something great back in return.

“(Y/N) (L/N), the orphan, the child of a planet destroyed by interplanetary wars,” says Vere Engle, the one standing in the middle, the old man with a shocking white beard and circle glasses.

Gosh he’s ancient.

“My peers and I have decided to give you a prominent assignment.” He says with a slight chuckle.

“You’re giving me Kaitain, aren’t you?” You coldly state while cutting off Professor Engles giggles, “To work for the Emperor and become his mentat? He always needs more of us.”

“Well there’s been a change of plans…” Professor Glacian utters out, the lady who made your life a living hell. Drilling you over and over again when you got complex material wrong. Punishing you and saying that it was because, ‘you need to learn how to take this information or else you’ll face more extreme consequences’

“You’re not going to Kaitain anymore…” She says.

FACT: THE COUNCIL IS KNOWN FOR NOT DECLARING OTHER OPENINGS FACT: THE BENE TLEILAX NEEDS MORE PROFESSORS HYPOTHESIS: YOU COULD BE STAYING HERE (EXTREMELY UNLIKELY)

You weigh your options, staying here to teach isn’t a bad thing, you think

“Okay,” you muttered out, trying to hide your disappointment, “if not Kaitain then it must be that you want me to stay here.”

“No (L/N), you’re leaving this planet.” Professor Engles says.

“You’ve been given the honor of working for house Harkonnen on Geidi Prime” The third professor beams out, “isn’t that just splendid?”

You feel the anger well up into your body. I have trained harder and better than every single one of my classmates and this is how they repay me.

“Why am I going there?” Your voice almost breaks as you reply.

“The Harkonnens mentat, Piter De Vries, has gone off the wrong path if you know what we mean. Since we cannot trust that the Baron has the best interests in mind, we are sending another mentat, you.” Engles says trying to calm the situation down.

“No one survives Geidi Prime. You’re sending me to an early grave.” You say jokingly, even though the people in the room knew the gravity of the assignment.

"So, learn to hold your tongue" declared Glacian.

If I die at least no one will see the blood stains on my clothes

#feyd rautha #feyd rautha x reader #house harkonnen #mentat!reader #dune 2021 #dune 2024 #dune #dune x reader

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drnikolatesla · 4 months

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Nikola Tesla on Human Energy

In an article written in 1900 titled “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy,” Nikola Tesla shares his ideas aimed at revolutionizing the way energy is generated, transmitted, and utilized, with the ultimate goal of enhancing human well-being and progress.

Tesla starts with his philosophical perspective on human life–what is it, and where is it going? He implies that human life is a movement, and since the existence of movement naturally implies a body which is being moved and a force which is moving it, then wherever there is life, there is a mass moved by a force. Since action and reaction are coexistent (Newton’s third law of motion), then human movement, along with all movement in the universe, is rhythmical. He explains how we are witness to this rhythm in the motion of the stars, the surging and ebbing of the oceans, the changing of seasons, and the infinitely varied phenomena of organic life. Tesla then identifies humanity as a unitary whole, and comes to the conclusion that the same general laws of movement that govern the whole physical universe must be applicable to all living things, including humankind, and we may understand this movement by using mechanical principles. Consequently, Tesla implies we may measure human energy using the formula for kinetic energy, E=MV²/2, which is one of the fundamental physics equations that describes a moving object's energy. E represents energy, M being human mass, and V a hypothetical velocity. Tesla goes on to consider humans analogous to machines and asks how do we increase the energy of this machine positively and decrease the negative forces decelerating it? In answering this question, Tesla suggests:

Promoting marriage

Having more children and raising them to a higher velocity, or enlightenment, than their parents

Attention to health

Improving quality of drinking water

Providing healthful food to those in need

Encouraging a vegetarian diet rather than a carnivorous one

Discouraging artificial food

Moderation of exercise between both mind and body

Discouraging bad habits with alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee, and other stimulants

Discouraging gambling

Improving hygiene, education, and morals

Reducing ignorance, stupidity, imbecility, religious fanaticism, etc.

Improving the productivity of soil by electrical means

Increasing the workforce

Ending warfare by developing machines (remote controlled robots, drones, etc.) to fight battles leading to fewer human casualties

Encouraging peace by bringing humans in closer contact

Improving methods of manufacturing (i.e., coal, gas, iron, aluminum)

Withdrawing from traditional energy sources and tapping into renewable energy

Tesla shares his invention of a radio controlled boat and its possible use. He also shares his experiments involving burning of nitrogen in the atmosphere, wireless transmission of power, and more. He discusses his vision for harnessing natural forces to help increase the energy needs of humanity. He proposes a global system of wireless power transmission, using the earth as a conductor and waterfalls as a power source. He also explores the possibilities of interplanetary communication and ideas related to tapping into cosmic energy sources and utilizing them for the betterment of humankind.

Tesla finishes his article saying:

"I anticipate that many, unprepared for these results, which, through long familiarity, appear to me simple and obvious, will consider them still far from practical application. Such reserve, and even opposition, of some is as useful a quality and as necessary an element in human progress as the quick receptivity and enthusiasm of others. Thus, a mass which resists the force at first, once set in movement, adds to the energy. The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter — for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way. He lives and labors and hopes with the poet who says:

"Schaff’, das Tagwerk meiner Hände, Hohes Glück, dass ich’s vollende! Lass, o lass mich nicht ermatten! Nein, es sind nicht leere Träume: Jetzt nur Stangen, diese Bäume Geben einst noch Frucht und Schatten."

(Daily work — my hands’ employment, To complete is pure enjoyment! Let, oh, let me never falter! No! there is no empty dreaming: Lo! these trees, but bare poles seeming, Yet will yield both food and shelter!)

*Goethe’s “Hope." Translated by William Gibson, Com. U. S. N.*

#nikola tesla #science #history #quotes #energy #wireless #power #humanity #humankind #philosophy #ahead of his time #ahead of our time

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whirligig-girl · 25 days

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Eaurp Guz Rocks!

WIP and details in the read-more:

This one had a bit of a false start. For the life of me I couldnt' get the motion right.

The gif's pacing was all wrong, the hair started out not moving so it wouldn't have looped right... it looked jittery... i just didnt like it. (she's lip syncing to "saturn five" by inspiral carpets in this one. i ended up not doing any mouth movements in the final one)

so i had a play around with some sine and -cosine charts to figure out where the body and hair should be. I ended up not really using the -cos chart for the hair and just kinda animated the hair to what felt right, but using the sine wave for the body position helped a lot, and it meant i could reuse several frames for the body animation (they would be differentiated by what the hair is doing of course).

This test image uses only 8 frames instead of 12 and looks a little clunky, both because of the smaller amount of frames and also because of which positions are shown in each frame. i also made a 12 frame version (like the final version), which did look a lot smoother, but i didn't save it.

applying a sine wave like movement to Guz's head and body and then fixing the arms resulted in a much more natural, consistent, and easy to loop animation.

so i added the hair jiggling and a little hand movement to imply scribbling in some shading. The hair jiggling is honestly the most fun part.

her body was too stiff, so i um. i made it um. jiggle. and um. yeah it uh. it was too much. lol.

so i basically just averaged it, frame by frame, with the previous version.

Doing the glitter/bubbles visible in the final version was a challenge. I decided that since the hair was moving so wildly, the glitter in it could be essentially random in each frame and it wouldn't really matter. But the glitter on the face had to track with her face or it would look strange. I solved that problem by drawing the glitter on the first frame, then drawing two white dots over the eyes, and aligning the dots with the eyes for every frame (which is similar to how I aligned the highlights).

finally, here's the "concept art" (which i repurposed for the first frame)

and here's the drawing of the Saturn V rocket Guz was making (which i showed in another post). And did you notice that the earphone she's using is the one Uhura uses in TOS? :)

Guz is enamored with the space exploration histories of many worlds, but the ones with large moons (or the ones that are large moons), are her favorite. Imagine not having to wait months for interplanetary maneuvering, or decades for close encounters with your coorbital giant planet.

#Eaurp Guz #Slimegirl #Slime girl #Star Trek #Star Trek Lower Decks #Lower Decks #Original Character #Lower Decks OC #stimming #art #animation #gif #music #dancing

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chibinotan · 11 months

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Comet Halley

#interplanetary body #Comet Halley #comet #solar system

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frogblast-the-ventcore · 2 months

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The Contract

CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT

The following contract is made between and entered into by The Helldivers Division of the Super Earth Armed Forces (hereby referred to as "the Enlister") and the individual who has successfully completed their preliminary Helldiver training as set forth in Exhibit A of the Super Earth Armed Forces Recruitment and Retention Manual part 27/B-10264 (hereby referred to as "the Enlisted"). The following contract is entered into willingly, and the Enlisted confirms that they have authority to enter into such an agreement at this time, being of sound mind and body, of legal age, and of Citizenship Grade E or above.

1 SERVICES

1.1 The Enlisted shall perform the Services outlined in Appendix A in accordance with the operational directives identified by (i) Super Earth High Command (ii) the President of Super Earth (iii) the Democratic Council of Super Earth (iv) accredited employees of the Ministries of Super Earth (v) accredited representatives of the parties aforementioned in clauses 1.1.i - 1.1.v, (vi) accredited representatives of those representatives (hereby referred to as "the Authorized Command Structure"). The Authorized Command Structure may, at any point, with no prior notice, make amendments to the schedule of services outlined in Appendix A. A copy of Appendix A may, if required, be obtained by the Enlisted through contacting the relevant authorities in the SEAF Administrative Corps, with a hard copy of the Appendix to be delivered to the requesting Enlisted within 5-10 business years.

1.2 The Services performed by the Enlisted for the Enlister shall include, but are not limited to active combat operations (which may include, but shall not be limited to raids, deployments, invasions, sorties, forays, assaults, blitzes, incursions, onslaughts, liberations, razings, flattenings, and nukings), non-combat operations (which may include but shall not be limited to parades, interviews, signings and appearances, executions (both summary and otherwise), interplanetary transportation, including the escort of civilian or Democratic vessels, and any activities deemed necessary in the pursuit of the aims identified by (i) The Enlister, and (ii) The Authorized Command Structure. In order to enable full and complete enactment of these Services, the Enlisted is hereby authorized to employ lethal force, non-lethal force, non-lethal non-force, and lethal non-force, to be employed at the discretion of the Enlisted. The Enlisted may not subcontract in whole or in part any of the duties requested of them by the Enlister.

1.3 The Services shall be performed by the Enlisted at locations identified by (i) The Enlister (ii) The Authorized Command Structure. In order to enable the completion of the Services in an efficient and timely manner, the Enlisted will be entrusted with the command of a Class 6 "Super Destroyer" Series Crewed Interplanetary Combat Vessel (hereby referred to as "The Super Destroyer") Upon the Termination of the Contract of the Enlisted (refer to Section 5, TERMINATION), command of this Super Destroyer will be transferred to the next eligible Enlisted in the order designated by (i) the serving Ship Master, (ii) The Enlister, (iii) the Authorized Command Structure, (iv) Accredited representatives of the parties listed in clauses 1.3.i - 1.3.iii. The heirs, successors, and assigns of The Enlisted have no right, claim or interest in the ownership or command of the Super Destroyer. Should the actions of the Enlisted result in loss, damages, or impediments to the Super Destroyer, requiring ameliorative or restorative action, the cost of such repairs shall be subtracted from the Martyrdom Payment due to the heirs or successors of the Enlisted (refer to Section 2 COMPENSATION).

1.4 The Enlisted will be responsible for the purchasing, maintenance, replacement, and improvement of the equipment used for the provision of services. If the contract of the Enlisted is terminated due to the conditions outlined in Clause 5.1 (absence of pulse), the equipment purchased, maintained, replaced, and improved by the Enlisted shall stay with Destroyer, and shall be made available to the next Helldiver to command the vessel.

2 REMUNERATION

2.1 For the performance of the services outlined within the schedule set forth in Appendix A, the Helldiver shall receive monetary compensation for the services rendered. The compensation shall vary in line with the services performed. The Enlister reserves the right to, at any time and with no prior notice, make amendments to the schedule of payments.

2.2 The Enlister acknowledges that the position of the Enlisted ("Helldiver") is classified by the Super Earth Ministry of Employment as an "Exceptionally Patriotic Duty". Accordingly, upon commencement of the delivery of services, the immediate family members of the Enlisted (defined as parents, siblings, heirs, and successors) shall receive 4.5 citizenship points, to be allocated at the recipients’ discretion. This compensation shall be non-transferable, and may not be exchanged for a cash equivalent.

2.3 In the event of the non-continuation of the 'alive' status of the Enlisted in the course of the rendition of services, a Martyrdom Payment shall be made to the immediate family members of the Enlisted (defined as parents, siblings, heirs, and successors) minus any dispensations outlined in Section 1.3.

3 CONFIDENTIALITY AND CLASSIFIED MATERIALS

3.1 In the course of the rendition of services, the Enlisted is likely to become exposed to information of strategic importance (including but not limited to maps, mission briefings, internal procedural documentation, details of products, prices, and seasonal discounts). The Enlister and Enlisted agree that any and all privileged information (collectively "CLASSIFIED MATERIALS") viewed by the Enlisted (i) shall be maintained in the strictest secrecy by the Enlisted, with all reasonable efforts made to avoid the transfer, leakage, dissemination, publication, conveyance, and/or seepage of Classified Materials, and (ii) shall be provided in formats which are traceable to the Enlisted in the event of transfer, leakage, dissemination, publication, conveyance, and/or seepage. The Enlisted agrees to return any and all data, documents, directories, manuals, maps, and notes pertaining to “CLASSIFIED MATERIALS” upon (i) termination of this contract, (ii) request by the Enlister.

3.2 Any information made known to the Enlisted outside of operational parameters which is not considered customarily known to the general citizenry and/or which was not known to the Enlisted prior to the commencement of this agreement shall, for the purposes of clarity, be considered "CONTROLLED CLASSIFIED MATERIALS". For the access of "CONTROLLED CLASSIFIED MATERIALS" explicit, advance written consent must be obtained by the Enlisted.

3.3 To read these terms and conditions in full shall be considered a breach of Clause 3.2.

4 INDEMNIFICATION

4.1 Unless otherwise stated, the Enlisted shall be solely and exclusively responsible for any and all damages, harm, liability, loss, costs, expenses, craters, atrocities, and crimes (civil, uncivil, war) caused, created, or generated during the course of the rendition of services. The Enlisted hereby indemnifies (i) The Enlister, and (ii) the Authorized Command Structure, including but not limited to any employees, representatives, heirs, and successors against any costs, challenges, losses, damages, or expenses (without limitation) arising from or relating in any way to the rendition of services by the Enlisted.

4.2 Any damage sustained by the Enlisted, whether reputational or corporeal (including but not limited to incineration, evisceration, spinal separation, vaporization, crushing, freezing, burning, decapitation, paper cuts, explosion, contusion, removal of arms and/or limbs, addition of arms and/or limbs, dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath and/or death) shall not be considered the responsibility of the Enlister.

4.3 The Enlisted shall not hold the Enlister in whole or in part responsible for whether they return in whole or in part.

5 TERMINATION

This agreement will be governed by the laws of Super Earth, and shall be terminated in the event that:

(i) The Enlisted is mortally wounded, such that medical attention shall not be physically or financially justifiable.

(ii) The Enlisted expresses seditious, dangerous, or Traitorous thoughts, opinions, actions or sentiments.

(iii) By the Enlister, for any reason. Notice of the cause for termination is not required. The provisions of sections 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 shall survive termination.

6 GENERAL PROVISIONS

6.1 The Enlisted consents to personal information (including but not limited to Biometric, Patriotic, and Demographic data) to be collected and processed by (i) the Enlister (ii) The Authorized Command Structure (iii) Appropriate agents of the Super Earth Armed Forces and Democratic Council.

6.2 The Enlisted consents to personal samples (including but not limited to flesh, bone, and blood) to be collected and processed by (i) the Enlister (ii) The Authorized Command Structure (iii) Appropriate agents of the Super Earth Armed Forces and Democratic Council.

6.3 The Enlisted provides unequivocal and irrevocable consent to the use of experimental weaponries, technologies, and narcotics.

6.4 The Contract shall be considered binding upon being read, in whole or in part.

(For the purpose of the elimination of doubt, the Enlisted spending 1 second within 15 meters of a copy of the contract shall be interpreted as the contract being read.)

#helldivers #helldivers 2

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ma-ri-yana · 13 days

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Castaways

Ghoul Cooper Howard x Alien Reader

A/n: this one’s a bit of a long one. Probably the longest entry since it’s the intro. Cooper doesn’t have a big role in this chapter since it’s introductory buuuut I’m going to post the next two (? Not sure yet) chapters within the next few hours so you can see more of Cooper. This is more of an intro to the reader’s character and schtuff. I hope you guys like it. There may be some typos here and there so I’ll come back every so often to edit it lol. Pls lemme know what y’all think 😭🙏🏻

Edit: I forgot to mention this takes place roughly 30 years before the first season.

Rough summary: you are an alien that crashed landed on Earth while you were on your way to a different planet. Cooper runs into you while trying to catch/collect a bounty.

Chapters:

1 2 3 4 5

Nembaria. It was a tiny little planet, much like Earth. Rather, what Earth used to be. Nembaria was full of bodies—of water that reflected the colour green because of the planet’s atmosphere, of plants that reached different heights. Tall and lanky, short and stubby. A home of different species of animals.

The small planet orbits a different star. It does not reside in the same galaxy as Earth, but the next one over. Though the small planet contains many different life forms as Earth always had, its political landscape is not the same. At least, it’s not comparable to the one currently on Earth. There are three nations in Nembaria, separated from each other by vast oceans.

The planetary society as a whole is technologically advanced. Far more advanced than its neighbouring planets and definitely more advanced than planet Earth, pre and post war. While this is true, the Nembarians made sure to take great care of their ecological systems. They were also known for being a -mostly- pacifist society. Their military, in spite of the pacifism, was known to be able to hold its own. It had to, with all the interplanetary tourism and trading.

The planet was able to sustain a mostly peaceful atmosphere for centuries, having not involved itself in any conflicts, outside or inside the planet.

Despite this, the planet wasn’t perfect. The three nations still disagreed, but they refused to show the public they disagreed. Instead, they enacted policies that greatly contradicted each other and greatly affected the ones outside of political power. People with little money, no generational wealth and inheritances. People like you. Regardless of the troubles, it was home to you. It was where you slept, ate, socialised. It was where you planned to live your life.

Time is unforgiving. Change is inevitable. With time, everything changes. You had lived a mostly happy childhood, despite your family’s place in the world. The Lyri family was big. Your parents couldn’t seem to keep their hands off each other and because of this, you had a total of six siblings. Four brothers and two sisters whom you adored. You were the eldest daughter, but not the eldest child. Even still, you acted like the oldest, most times. Making sure your siblings had everything they needed—as much as you could. You all looked fairly similar to one another, as family tends to. All having varying shades of purple hair, yours was closer to periwinkle; while the rest of your sibling’s hair alternated between lavender, periwinkle, and indigo like many of the people from that region. Your skin was rose pink, the same as the rest of the family’s, save for your father. His skin was tan from all of his outdoor labour, rouge pink would describe it better. You had lighter pink markings that swirled along your body and antennas, save for your face, that you were born with. That was also common for your people.

Though many in more privileged positions seemed to look down on you and those in your class, you were still able to excel in school. You and your older brother, Dimiil, took your schooling very seriously in hopes of transcending your status and, in turn, that of your loved ones. Your younger brother, Nikkand’r, the third child in line, wasn’t as driven but he was smarter than you two. It’s because of this, the three of you were able to graduate from your university with many accolades. This resulted in the three of you being recruited by the DOI (department of intelligence) in the military. You would go on to complete 3 months of general military training and 6 months of training for your specific “job”. Though the three nations in your planet remained separate from one another, they did share their military as Nembarians weren’t known for fighting amongst themselves. At least, not on a grand scale such as war. The military’s purpose was more for intergalactic defense.

The three of you weren’t separated from each other when you joined. Such a practise was actually considered barbaric and outdated. The military determined it was better not to separate family from each other, when possible, to reduce the stress and anxiety of the separation. They deemed forced splits to be counterproductive. That didn’t go to say that you couldn’t part ways if you wanted to take different jobs in different places; but forced partitioning was unlawful.

It had been four years since you officially finished their military training. You and Dimiil made it through with flying colours with Nikkand’r barely scraping by. Nikk was never really the disciplined type— but once he started to work in the field, he surpassed his brother and sister in his performance.

You still cared for your brothers the way you always had and often called home to keep in touch with the rest of your family via holographic projections. Aside from communicating with your loved ones at home, you also enjoyed playing and writing music. your ears were never deprived of music. And you never seemed to stop singing, much to your roommate’s chagrin. Your roommate seemed to give up on yelling at you to shut up not too long after you moved in and created a soundproof force field between you that she’d lower whenever she felt like talking to you. Which was rare.

Nik spent most of his free time playing games online with his friends on different planets on his GalaSphere. Dimiil mainly spent his time studying. It was never the same thing, just anything that seemed to pique his interest in that moment. He’d alter between listening to podcasts and watching VousTube videos.

In spite of you being in a militaristic environment with the intentions of defending your planet—it was very peaceful. Mostly because Nembarians didn’t really involve themselves in conflicts. They didn’t mediate, nor did they instigate. So when all the branches were summoned by their supreme leader, Maromik Fyndru, and told that they had gotten pulled into a conflict with Anthraxus, one could imagine all of their surprise. When asked why they were going to war, they were told that it wasn’t determined they were at war just yet, but some Anthraxans had killed innocent Nembarians. The supreme leader assured his soldiers that his first priority was ensuring that their peace would not be disrupted by war. He assured his soldiers that he was sending some diplomats to speak with the Anthraxans.

And while it was true, Maromik was striving for peace, it did not matter. Jorak Kannus, the Emperor of Anthraxus and the Anthraxan Empire, had other plans. His empire had been annexing many planets for years. They’d been expanding from solar system to solar system, galaxy to galaxy. Any planet that was deemed useful in their eyes was either given to them willingly by their primary population or taken by force.

Jorak wasn’t interested in peace. He was planning to do what he had been doing his whole life, what his father had done his whole life before that, and his grandfather before that. He was going to take Nembaria for his own. He was going to add it to his collection.

The reasoning behind it didn’t matter much to you, all you could be certain of was that your world was going to change.

After your supreme leader, Maromik, finished explaining the situation to the branches, he cleared his throat. “I am now going to read off a list of names. If you are called upon, I ask that you kindly follow Boraq to the Strat room…”

Your violet irises trailed over to Boraq, watching as he opened the door and made a gesture, signalling that he wanted those called upon to walk in. “Jenip’r Grenol, Johar Monolna…” Maromik listed off, his voice grew more and more distant in your ears as he read on. Your mind trailed off, racing with the possibilities of what could happen. What this potential invasion could mean. If the invasion would improve your general quality of life or turn your lives into a living hell.

“Y/n Lyri,” you heard Maromik call. You snapped back to reality and swallowed the spit that gathered in your mouth.

You felt Nikkand’r elbow you in your side, prompting you to suck your teeth and roll your eyes as you slowly made your way to where Boraq stood, your head and body turning to look back at your brothers. Boraq clicked his tongue to signal you to keep walking.

“Dimiil Lyri…”

Right on cue, Dimiil started his walk, following your trail. Once he’d caught up to you, he bent his knees a bit and leaned his head to the side to meet your ear and whisper. “Everything will be fine, nebby.” Nebby was the nickname he had for you, he’d named your nebbies. They were bugs that came out at night. Their lower thoraxes and antennae light up in the dark. You used to stay up to watch them every night.

“I’m not so sure about that…” You muttered, turning your violet eyes to the door as you watched your other brother speed in.

Nikkand’r nodded to you both and stood beside Dimiil whilst you all patiently waited for the side meeting to commence.

The three of you walked out of that meeting feeling a bit uneasy. You weren’t told much about the exact state of things but even with the very little information you had, you’d inferred that it couldn’t have been good. Of course things couldn’t have been going well. You wouldn’t have been pulled into a meeting and assigned to spy on the Anthraxan empire otherwise.

“When’s your appointment?” You asked them as the three of you sat in Dimiil’s room, devouring your bowl of noodles with beef. You stood up to serve yourself some more food as you listened for your brother's answers.

“Tomorrow at noon,” said Nikkand’r with his mouth full.

“Tomorrow at one,” said Dimiil, bringing another forkful of beef and noodles up to his mouth. “You?” He asked while he chewed.

In front of others, you ate more properly. Amongst yourselves, you ate like animals, most times.

“Tomorrow at eleven,” you groaned.

“Sweet, we’re an hour apart from each other,” Nik pointed out.

“Ah yes, one hour apart from each of us getting our heads split open,” You cheered sarcastically.

“Don’t be so optimistic,” Dimiil snorted. “It’s not like we’re gonna die or anything—“

“They’re splitting our skulls open—“

“It’s a surgery. Those happen all the time,” Nikkand’r failed to reassure you. “Plus, this is a standard procedure for people in our department and has been for ages. I’m surprised they waited till now, to be honest.”

“Look on the bright side, we’ll be able to download languages into our brains and become fluent in almost any language in a matter of milliseconds!” Dimiil couldn’t contain his excitement. You scoffed, he was such a nerd.

You rolled your eyes and crossed your arms. “I’m not a fan of being cut into.”

“It kind of comes with the territory, sis. We’re in the military, we’re not always gonna be farting shooting stars or whatever the phrase is,” Nikkand’r sighed before digging right back into his bowl.

“We’ve been at peace for over two hundred years. Forgive me for thinking everything would be fine.”

“Things can always go tits up at any given moment—doesn’t matter how long you’ve been shooting the shit.”

“Dude, come on,” Dimiil complained, pointing to his food as if to say, ‘I’m eating, here.’

You cackled, temporarily forgetting about the stressors that ran through your mind. Those were tomorrow’s problems.

You forgot how quickly tomorrow would approach. When you’d laid your head down to sleep, you woke up as quickly as you had closed your eyes.

You groaned as you slowly sat up in your bed, the blue Nembarian sun having woken you up by beating down on your face from the open window. You looked down at your wrist watch, 7 AM, it practically screamed at you. You still had a bit of time to enjoy your morning before everything went to hell. With yet another groan, you climbed down from your loft bed, starting to get ready for this morning’s shenanigans. After dawning your indigo uniform with neon green linings, you stepped out of your dorm, making your way to the cafeteria. You had forgotten the instructions issued to you not to eat before your surgery until you had the food displayed right in front of you as you stood in line for breakfast. You cursed under your breath and sighed before putting the empty tray back and stomping off to your room. Your stomach rumbled. You were irritable.

8 AM, your watch reads, projecting the time holographically to make it bigger and easier to see. You were still nervous. you’d never had a surgery before. You’d never purposely been cut into and had some foreign object inserted into your body. The thought made you shiver. Whatever, you thought to yourself. I’ll just take a nap.

And that you did, but not before setting five different alarms, all five minutes apart starting at 9:50. As much as you hated the idea of getting that surgery, you understood you couldn’t afford to miss it.

9:50 came faster than you’d wanted it to, and once again, you made your way to the restroom to brush your teeth and fix your hair before you could stomp off to the medical wing of the base. As you sat down in the waiting room, reading a magazine, you felt your watch vibrate. Looking down at your wrist, you noticed Dimiil had messaged you.

Good luck with your appointment, Nebby. You’ll be fine. He had sent it in their group chat.

Almost as soon as the message was received, your watch vibrated again to indicate you had received another text.

If she’s gonna be fine, why are you wishing her luck?

You rolled your eyes and scoffed, putting your attention back on the magazine you had picked up. A few minutes later, you heard someone call your name from the metallic door frame. You put the magazine back in its place before standing up and walking through the doorway. “Good morning,” you said politely as you passed the assistant. The employee pointed you to another room, the room where you’d get your final check up before the surgery.

Your physician walked in after they’d administered all the final labs with the results, “looks like you’re good to go. You’re in mint condition, as usual.” He grabbed your hand, you resisted the urge to yank your arm back and recoil. You didn’t like it when he did that. It was nothing personal, really, you just liked your personal space. “You’re going to be fine. This is a standard procedure. We get lots of them done every day. Our surgeons can practically do it with their eyes closed—not that they would.”

Your nose lets out a sharp breath, the kind that comes out when you chuckle silently. “Okay, fine. I’m trusting you. But if I die, I’m haunting you.”

The doctor gave you a small smile before he stood up, “they’ll come retrieve you shortly, your anaesthetist, Wilcyn, is going to administer your anaesthesia first.” He informed you, opening the door to let Wilcyn in as he walked out

The surgery turned out well. And as medically advanced as the Nembarians were, it didn’t seem as if your recovery would take longer than three days.

After those three days were over, you had been pulled aside at work. Your Sergeant, Grover, informed you that your task would begin tomorrow and that you were expected to board your ship at 5am. He warned you not to be late.

And you weren't. As a matter of fact, you were an hour early, waiting by the closed space ship. You played music on your phone made of light particles that attached themselves together whenever you tapped your fingers together that you listened to via your wireless earbuds as you waited. You scrolled through your social media feeds, silently judging some of the things you saw your coworkers and friends post.

Half an hour later, your antennas perked up, sensing that someone was approaching and emitting a dim yellow light as a result. You looked around and noticed your brothers walking over.

“I can’t believe we’re going to be traveling through space.” Nikkand’r commented.

“Yeah, it’s like we’ve always dreamt,” Dimiil smiled.

“I don’t know ‘bout you two, but I never dreamt of doing it under these circumstances,” You scoffed.

Dimiil started, “it makes it all the more exciting—“

“Death is exciting to you?”

Your brothers exchanged a look, nodding to one another before turning their heads toward you. They spoke in unison, “yes. Yes it is.”

You facepalmed, your pink, fleshy antennas moving up and out of the way as you did so to avoid your hand’s wrath. The action left a faint red mark on your forehead.

“Good morning, hope you all had a good night’s—” the Sergeant stopped in his tracks once he saw your red face. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, why?” You questioned him, obviously confused by his unreasonable concern.

“Have you felt or noticed any symptoms other than redness?”

“What’re you talking about?”

“He thinks you’re having an allergic reaction to the medicine, ya dingus.” Nikkand’r explained, annoyance seeping through his tone at his sister’s supposed idiocy.

“She’s alright, she just hit yourself trying to kill a moskfly before it bit her,” Dimiil cut in. His explanation made you look like an imbecile.

The Sergeant sighed and looked up to the sky, “if this is the smartest team we can get, we’re doomed.” He muttered to himself.

Nik snorted, you elbowed him in the stomach. “So, uh… which planet are we heading to?” You asked in an attempt to bring the conversation back to its original course.

Sergeant Grover cleared his throat, “yes. You are going to Anthraxus itself—“ your jaws dropped, “—but you are expected to also visit a few different planets on the way. Most of which will be known allies of ours. Some otyours will be more… neutral in their position. The goal is to try and secure the relationship between us and these different planets. That alone may be enough to deter the Anthraxans from trying to invade us.”

“Or it could provoke them. They may see it as an act of retaliation—of aggression—“ Nikkand’r spoke.

“That’s not for us to decide,” Dimiil warned, placing a hand on his younger brother's shoulder. He looked down at him knowingly, his eyes screaming for him to shut up and take the job.

The young man gulped and apologised.

The Sergeant smiled politely, his eyes didn’t smile though. They remained cold and empty, giving the appearance of an animal baring its teeth to scare their predators. “I’ve sent a link of the necessary documents to your tablets. From there, you’ll be able to download said documents to your chips and view the necessary information, even without access to your devices. I also suggest downloading the different languages files as you pass through certain planets, even if you’re not planning to stop by them. You may have to make some extra stops depending on how fast you go through your food supply.” The Sergeant shot a look at you.

You pretended to be offended and gasped, “you’re really hurting my feelings here, Serg.”

“Have you all downloaded the documents into your chips yet?”

“Yep, just finished installing,” Dimiil informed.

“Perfect, open them up and scan through them once you’ve boarded the ship. If you’ve got any questions, feel free to reach out,” the ship’s door opened itself as he said this. A long set of stairs descending to the ground to meet them.

You gulped and shook your jitters away, taking the first step up with the rest closely following you, except for the Sergeant who had already begun walking back to the base.

“So, which one of us is flying this thing? Can I go first?” Nikkand’r asked, practically calling dibs on the pilot’s chair as he ran in.

You made sure everyone made it safely inside before pressing the button to bring the stairs back up and close the door. “Yeah yeah, go ahead, geek,” you heard Dimiil say as you turned back to look around the ship with your eyes, not bothering to move from your spot before you did. With your x-ray vision, you looked through the walls of the ship. Not that you needed to, you were safe in your home base, nothing could go wrong. But you just had this weird feeling that made you worried sick to your stomach. You felt as if something was going to go wrong. Your eyebrows furrowed when you noticed strange figures approaching from a distance.

Without hesitation, you pressed the invisibility button, not wanting to take a chance. “Hey, what’re you doing?” Nikkand’r complained. You shushed him and kept watching even still, noticing how the number of strangers seemed to multiply: all of them with weapons in their arms.

“Go,” you commanded, Nikkand’r groaned. “Go,” you said more sternly.

“Dude, at least let me admire her before I take her out for a joyride!”

“Go, go, go, gogogogo!”

“Will you calm down?”

“What’s going on?” Dimiil questioned, knowing it was not normal for you to be reacting like this. He knew that you had been nervous about the journey, but he still knew you well enough to know you were not one to panic this way.

“Look!” You directed, pointing to your eyes to emphasise he’d need to look past the steel walls of their aircraft.

He followed your directions, eyes widening at the sight. “You’ve gotta go. Now.”

The youngest one followed the eldest’s command, turning the engine of the craft on and starting to lift off. You and Dimiil continued to watch the scene play out as scores of aliens raided their base. As much as you wanted to know what was happening, you needed to get out of there and start your mission. All of your antennas emitted a blue light that looked purple because of the pink shades of their skin. It was clear that the threat of the Anthraxan invasion was much graver than they were told by their superiors. It was now clear that the threat had reached Nembaria. It had reached your home. The three youngsters sighed. You were all distraught. You thought you had more time, you thought you’d have a chance.

“Okay, let’s get movin’… The first planet on the list, Firulandis.” Dimiil read from the document in the chip that was inserted into his brain. His eyes glossed over with some kind of a white film. “After that, we have to head to Mattrinum.”

“Okay… that’s 26 light years north for Firulandis and then 180 light-years west for Mattrinum?” You clarified.

“Yes. You heard that, Nik?”

“Yep, I’m stepping on it,” Nikkand’r agreed, “sit down and hold onto your shit.” He commanded before pressing the button to fast-travel to their first target planet.

After days of traveling, speeding across the stars, you made it to the first destination of many. You were welcomed in with open arms. This was one of the ally planets. Nembaria traded frequently with Firulandis, their histories having been interwoven for over a millennia.

When you had left, you left with more food to take for their travels. More than enough to last you all until you could hit your third destination, at least.

“Ya know, I’ve always wanted to go backpacking through space,” Dimiil mused as he stared out one of the many giant windows surrounding the disc shaped spacecraft. “I know the circumstances aren’t… optimistic… but this is still kinda nice.”

“I wonder if Jaina is okay…” You mumbled.

“Ha, knowing her, she would’ve kicked all those Anthraxan asses for making too much damned noise,” Dimiil laughed. “Ah, man… she is really pretty…”

“I told you to shoot your shot,” You softly nudged him in the bicep. “She’s single and very sweet once you get past all the… meh.”

“I really hope it’s not too late…” he looked down at his bowl filled with food that vaguely resembled couscous and chicken. He stood up and walked over to their fridge and put his unfinished serving inside. He’d lost his appetite and decided he’d eat that for breakfast.

You put your hand on his shoulder, “I hope so too… If you made it, you’d better ask her out. You’d better not play chicken.”

“You’ve been watching those old Earth TV shows again, haven’t you?” Nikkand’r laughed, “you’re talking like them now.”

“And? You know, before they destroyed everything, they created some nice art. I like their music a lot.”

“I know, ever since you were a kid, you’d sing Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra songs like your life depended on it,” Dimiil chuckled.

“Don’t forget Celia Cruz,” Nikkand’r chimed in.

“Those Earth TV shows were the worst!”

“Hey! They’re actually really good if you take the time to watch them.” You answered defensively.

“Do they even watch them?” Said Nikk.

“They blew themselves to oblivion, so I doubt they do,” Dimi crossed his arms.

Silence befell them. You all thought the same horrible thing but didn’t dare to say it out loud. “Here, why don’t I play some music—not from Earth— that we can all enjoy, huh?” you proposed, standing up from the cushioned blue chair you sat in. “Morgana,” you called, activating the voice assistant in the aircraft before commanding the ai program to play some music. As the music started to play, you pulled your brothers up from their chairs by their arms.

“Gemmy, I’m flying here,” Nikkand’r groaned. Gemmy was the nickname he’d given you when he was little because he had trouble pronouncing Nebby for some reason.

“Put it on autopilot, Nikk,” You suggested, earning yet another groan from the youngest before he gave in and did as you instructed. He then let you pull him up to the center of the ship. You all danced together, temporarily forgetting your worries and troubles at home; feeling hopeful for the future even if it looked bleak at the moment.

You all danced until you started to feel sleepy. One by one, you and the boys gave in to your tiredness and moved to the sleeping quarters, letting the playlist you turned on ring as you drifted out of reality.

The Lyri family was awoken by several violent shakes and loud noises. “Are we getting fucking hit?” Nikkand’r jolted awake, running back to the pilot seat.

Dimiil was the next to run to his position with you following closely behind, bringing your blanket with you. Your rose fingers grabbed at the joysticks after wrapping your blanket around yourself to shield yourself from the cold as you aggressively and strategically thumbed the buttons to fight back against your attackers.

You sighed, once you noticed the insignia on one of the masses. “Anthraxans, they’ve caught us— turn on the invisibility gear.”

“I can’t, it’s jammed.”

“Nikki, do it now!” Dimiil yelled.

“Did you not hear me? I said it’s fucking jammed.”

Dimiil stood up and ran over to the dashboard, looking at the variety of buttons on display. You couldn’t say what exactly it was that Dimiil did to fix that issue because you were busy shooting lasers at their attackers and the wave of relief that waved over you when he did was also inexplicable.

“Now haul ass out of here, they can still kind of see us with their sensors, but if we get far enough, they might not find us.” Dimiil instructed him again. Earning a nod and a salute from the youngest.

You stopped shooting the laser cannons in their enemies’ direction as you all scurried off, not wanting to give away your location. You just prayed the forcefield wouldn’t be overpowered by them if they were able to keep a close enough distance. You sighed, moving your curly, periwinkle hair out of your pink face so your violet eyes could glare daggers at the two men. Your antennae glowing some sort of green colour. “So, is this the kind of backpacking through space you had in mind? Or were you looking forward to having more missiles directed at us?”

The year was 2263. The sun shone brightly in an irradiated man’s scarred face. The man’s eyes moved behind his eyelids before he slowly brought himself to open them, squinting for a few seconds as he let his eyes adjust to the sudden light. He groaned, sitting up in the desert dirt. He brought his knees up to his chest, his hand sat atop his knees, as he looked around at the barren orange landscape. Another day, another chem. He thought to himself. It was what seemed to motivate him to keep going—aside from the possibility of reuniting with his daughter.

The scarred man grabbed his hat that was sat next to him on the dirt, plopping it back on his head as he stood up and kept walking toward his destination. He hadn’t planned on sleeping there. Not initially anyway. But he was so tired, he couldn’t help himself. Luckily for him, there was no one around, at least not when he’d last checked, as he was so close to the place he’d been walking to that it didn’t seem to matter.

He grabbed his bag and took a look inside with a sigh. He was running low on chems again. “Yep. That’ll do it,” he groaned, forcing himself off the sandy ground. His bones ached, something he never got used to in spite of dealing with joint pains for over a century. It came with the territory. The chems helped with the pain. He debated with himself whether he’d stick the pain out until he got to the agency or if he’d just take some of his ‘medicine’ beforehand. He chose the latter; inhaling some the chems before he set off to the nearby settlement. A settlement he was very familiar with. It was home to the bounty agency he frequented.

“You look like hell, Ghoul,” the man working the agency greeted the scarred one.

“Got nothin’ new to say, I see.” The Ghoul glanced at the employee walking up to the bulletin board, “any new jobs for me?” He asked no one in particular, he didn’t need to be told when he could just look at the wall himself. There was a pretty new face on the wall. He chuckled, “y’all coloured this one?” He questioned as he looked at the girl on the paper with your e/c eyes. Elena Zakharova, it read. Long h/c , s/t, y/h, about 25 years old, travelling with four others. Wanted dead or alive. Bonus if she’s alive.

Wonder what kind of trouble she got herself into, he thought to himself. Squinting at the prize offered at the bottom of the page.

50,000 caps. Not bad, he thought to himself. Not bad at all. He grabbed the paper from the wall and folded it before putting it in his pocket. “See you in a few, butterball.” He tipped his cowboy hat at the employee as he walked back out into the desert sun. His eyes squinted while he stepped out as they readjusted to the bright light again.

Days went by, and it seemed as though you’d lost their adversaries—or rather, their adversaries had lost you. It wasn’t until you were halfway to the next planet that you’d been attacked yet again. You barely scraped by this time, but when you were attacked a third time, almost three quarters of the way to your destination, your space RV gave out. All it took was one last beating before the ship started to plummet into some random planet’s harsh atmosphere.

You held on tightly to the handles that stood on either side of your chair, already strapped into it. There was also a beyond noticeable change in pressure within the aircraft, as the regulator had been blasted by the foreign military. This resulted in your ears popping, your noses filling with stinging pains; unbearable migraines with vertigo and joint pains. You felt as though you were dying, and you could very well have been. The systems were going haywire, popping in and out use as you all descended at dangerous speeds toward this planetary surface. You couldn’t see whether you were going to plummet into the ground or into a body of whatever liquid this little planet contained because it was so dark. It must have been nighttime. You closed your eyes, not that it made much of a difference, it wasn’t like you could see where they were headed, but you prayed for the former, silently. Your eyes stayed closed the whole time, bracing for impact. “Please,” you heard Nikk cry, “don’t let me die a virgin! I haven’t even had the chance to tell Wandala I love her!”

“Activating emergency landing protocol,” you heard Morgana speak calmly through the chaos once you were 150 feet off from hitting the ground. Two clear parachutes particalised outside the aircraft, causing the now hunk of junk to spring back a bit in the air. It would have been a… smooth landing had the ship not landed in the forest and the parachutes had not gotten caught in the trees on their way down. “Caution, stuck. Caution, stuck. Caution, stuck.” Morgana repeated.

You groaned and stood up, your brothers huddled up to one another, clutching each other's hands. They looked up from the floor at each other and immediately scrambled apart. Dimiil coughed loudly, “glad to see you’re alive, brother.”

“Same to you, bro,” Nikkand’r cleared his throat.

You rolled your eyes as you carefully walked over to the dashboard and climbed on top, careful not to step on any of the buttons. You moved a latch down to open one of the various windows and climbed out and on top of the ship. You felt water droplets falling onto your face and head as you pulled out a handle and pressed a button on its side. A jagged blade materialised at the end of it. You blinked the water out of your lashes and used the blade to cut the strings of one of the parachutes, causing the aircraft to turn on its side. You held on to the ‘doorway’ tightly and impatiently waited for the machine to stop moving before carefully climbing over to the other side and repeating the same motions. The moment you finished cutting, there was a snap; the spaceship started falling toward the ground again, rocking side by side as it bounced between tree after tree on its way down. You didn’t have enough time to put the blade away. The knife cut through your indigo jumpsuit with neon green linings. In one of the jerking movements of the aircraft, you were dragged forward and impaled yourself in the gut as you descended. You winced in pain, careful not to stick your tongue in between your teeth.

The aircraft settled onto the muddy ground below with one final, violent drop. “This is just great,” you muttered to no one in particular as you fell back into the structure.

Dimiil saw your fall back in and your uncoordinated motions as you crawled toward one of the drawers within the cockpit. He ran over to quickly close the window and to grab the first aid kit for you and quickly patched you up. You moaned in pain as you sat up, Dimiil grabbed your hand to help pull you up. “Thanks,” you managed to say. He simply nodded.

Dimiil turned to Nikk. “We need to get out of here. Grab whatever you can.”

Nikkand’r nodded and immediately started packing some first aid kits and vacuum sealed food bags into his backpack. You sat for a few seconds as you collected your bearings and started to do the same.

Once you had all finished collecting some important items, you quietly made your way out, using your watch to turn you invisible beforehand.

You heard loud crunching and squishing noises approaching and hid behind the bushes for safety. The invisibility feature had recently gotten an update that had some bugs, ironically, that needed to be fixed–the main one being battery drainage, which would then leave them exposed once the watches shut off. They could only really be used for half an hour at a time, which in most cases was enough to get away from attackers. But you needed to find a way to wander the world for parts to help repair the spacecraft undetected.

It was as you watched five humans walk past you, three males and two females, that you realised where you were. You had landed on Earth. And those people had just discovered your spaceship. A feeling of dread overtook you. You were screwed. The place was known for being a savage and chaotic cesspit.

“What the fuck is this?” You heard one of the men say as he stared at it. He looked a bit rough. They all did. They all looked dirty, their clothes dirty and tattered as well.

“Who the fuck knows… Let’s check it out,” said another man in the party of thugs. His voice was gruff.

“Oh hell no, I’m not going in that thing,” said the third man. One of the women seemed to agree with him and stood by his side, nodding vigorously.

“Well, if y’all two are too chicken shit, you can stand watch outside. Let’s go check this thing out, baby,” the other woman spoke up. She had wavy h/c picked up in a ponytail. Her e/c eyes narrowed at the two scaredy cats as she spoke before lighting up at the end when she looked up to, who some would assume was, her partner.

“Sound like a deal?” Her partner said to the two that stood away from the group, grinning.

“Yeah, whatever,” said the third man as the rest of the group went inside, leaving him outside with the other woman, pacing around the perimeter of the ship with their guns at the ready.

More crunching and slushing noises approached, and a new stench came into the air with it. Your eyes widened. It was them. The Anthraxans that had followed and attacked you. They looked much like regular humans with very few defining features that set them apart from the other species. The most obvious were their stench and the shape of their ears. You swallowed your spit silently, watching them as they approached the spaceship. The moment the humans noticed them, they started shooting them, to no avail. Their skin was bulletproof. The bullets bounced off them like it was nothing. The soldiers grinned, amused by the human’s futile attempts at killing them.

Fear flooded the man’s face as one of the Anthraxans stepped closer, grabbing him by the neck. Another one stepped forward toward the woman, doing the same. Without much effort–just a tiny squeeze–they snapped the human’s necks and flung them through the ship’s entrance. The lights in and outside of the ship were still flickering on and off in spite of its battered state, making the scene more terrifying.

You closed your eyes and wrapped your arms around yourself as if to soothe yourself before covering your ears. A choir of screams emerged from inside the ship as the Anthraxans slaughtered them all. The boys watched in horror, unable to pull their eyes away from the scene. It only took a minute. One minute for them to be killed off. One minute for the soldiers to walk out of the spacecraft unscratched and unbothered. The boys watched them walk off in the direction they’d originally come from, climb into their own undamaged ship and fly off. They let go of the breaths they didn’t quite realise they were holding.

Dimiil shook you, “they’re gone. It’s safe now.”

You opened your eyes and stood up, following your brothers back to the spaceship, walking slower than the two of them. “Walk faster,” Nikk grumbled as they climbed up the silver steps. Begrudgingly, you did as he commanded.

Still slower than the other two, you followed behind them, wincing once you saw the violence that had occurred in their humble aircraft. Your invisibility feature turned off once you entered the spaceship, the twenty minute timer you’d set had shut off the mechanism.

It was a massacre. Blood was plastered everywhere. Entrails decorated the place. Throats were slashed. The human’s bodies were displayed in unnatural positions with bones sticking out of their bloodied skin. The family couldn’t help but let their minds wander to what could’ve happened to their friends back at the base. You felt like crying but fought back your tears. Nikk gagged, swallowing back the acid and previously eaten food. Dimiil looked unphased. His antennae glowing red. You and Nikk felt a wave of calm rush through you. Dimiil had manipulated the physical effects your emotions had on your bodies. Slowing down your heart rates and calming your stomachs and bowel movements down.

You still had thoughts racing through your mind, but the physical uneasiness escaped you. You looked up to Dimiil and furrowed your brows, confused if you should be grateful or angry that he was controlling you in that way. You decided to choose the former for the sake of moving things along and getting out of the hellish spaceship as soon as possible. “Right, so…” you started, placing your hands at your hips. “We’re going to need a disguise… because this,” you paused and pointed to your antennas, “is going to give us away.” You ran your fingers through your hair.

“You can’t be serious,” Nikk crossed his arms, disgusted by your suggestion.

“It’s not like we’re going to be wearing their skin—“

“No, but pretending to be them isn’t any better.”

“Do you have any other ideas?”

Dimiil and You stared at Nikki as if they were expecting an actual answer from the man. He growled, “no.”

“Okay then…” You mumbled under your breath as you looked at the two women. You picked the one with y/c hair as you found her to be the prettier one of the two and completed a scan of the dead body by pointing your arm out in front of it. A green holographic light illuminated the cadaver, separating into multiple lines moving about vertically as it scanned her body. Once done, the watch chimed, prompting you to look back down at your wrist. Would you like to copy the body’s appearance in its current state?

You tapped one of the two options offered to you. No.

The watch then presented you with more options. Current age, infant, five years, thirteen years, seventeen years. You picked the current age. The watch presented some more options. Would you like to copy the body’s appearance before death in accordance with genetic information?

Yes.

Please insert a DNA sample! You bent down to pull out a piece of her hair and placed it on top of your watch so it could examine it. Thank you! DNA collected!

Hold out watch to finish the process! You did as you were instructed. The green lights came out again, doing one final scan of the body. Scanning complete! The body is now in your inventory! You sighed, going to your Home Screen on the watch to find the program that would change your appearance.

“This is horrible,” Nikk complained as he finished the copying process.

“Yeah, well. We signed up for this, dude,” Dimiil said, rolling his eyes.

“I didn’t.”

“You signed the dotted line, brother,” the eldest sighed as he started the process of morphing his body to match that of the specimen he selected. “At least we’re not skinning them and wearing their skins. That’s what they did centuries ago.”

That seemed to shut the youngest one up for the time being as you all morphed into three of the five humans you’d seen alive not even twenty minutes ago. You took the clothes off the dead woman’s back and changed into them. Blood, cuts and all. The two males judged you silently. “Well, if you wanna have everyone looking at you, feel free to keep the uniform on.”

They looked at each other before nodding and following your lead.

Once done, you all started to inspect the ship inside and out to perform some kind of diagnosis. You knew how the parts were destroyed, you experienced it, but you needed to know exactly what was damaged.

You spent a few minutes taking a look at everything that had taken a hit and noting down the materials and elements that made up the materials.

Nikk spoke up, “what happens if we don’t find what we need?”

“Then we’re out of luck,” Dimiil scoffed.

You glared at your older brother , “or, we find another way, you Debbie-downers.” You stood up from the dirty ground, patting the dirt that clung to your stolen pants off, swiping at your back side. “Well, let’s start looking for this shit.”

Nikk rolled his eyes, “do you even know where to look?”

“Nope, but neither do you. We’re not gonna get anything done if we stay put, asshole.”

“Let’s at least wait until daylight. Get a good night’s rest. We’re all tired and irritable,” Dim suggested. You all looked at each other silently, as if you were deliberating your options.

You were the first to agree, “I’ll clean up in there, I refuse to sleep with that mess.”

“I’ll help,” Nikk offered, it was his way of extending an olive branch without explicitly apologising.

You smiled softly, recognising his intentions, even if he didn’t outright say it.

It took you a bit, but you finally finished cleaning your station. Whilst everyone seemed to be able to sleep soundly, you couldn’t. Every time you seemed to drift into your slumber, you’d get pulled out by the hurtful thought that you wouldn’t be able to fix your mode of transportation. The aching thought that there would be no way for you to go home.

You shook your head as if that would shake the bad thoughts away. You needed to have faith that everything would turn out okay and that you would be able to save your home. You looked down at your watch and tapped the headset icon. The watch flashed a bright blue light, wireless earbuds materialised and you stuck them in your ear, hoping some music would soothe you enough to allow you a few hours of sleep.

————————

Voustube- basically YouTube lol

GalaSphere- basically an Xbox or PlayStation. The name is a play on the game cube

Y/h- your height

S/t- your skin tone

E/c- eye colour

H/c- hair colour

#cooper x reader #alien x ghoul #alien reader x ghoul cooper howard #cooper howard x reader #the ghoul x reader #the ghoul #fallout #fallout tv show #50s 60s alien aesthetic #alien reader #aliens and ufos

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