the first feeling welcoming you to new life is a blank void. warm fuzzy darkness wrapping you like a blanket, protecting you from reality.
then memories flooded back. you were Selar, a Seran adventurer from the Valan empire. you were hired to explore an old ruin at Alpha Centauri Prime, where your employer believed there were artifacts of a powerful ancient civilization.
you found the artifacts, but you also found out the ancient empire didn't intend to give up its treasure easily. a fleet of gigantic drone ships woke to life as soon as you recovered the artifact, and you were forced to run
you decided to try and evade through the uncharted Sol system, hoping the barely known coordinates will confuse the drones. in a risky maneuver, you decided to stay close to the sun, so the powerful radiation will hide your ship's signature.
then, when you were convening to discuss your next move, there was this explosion and a powerful flash of light. and you could remember nothing more
a powerful rush of air, suddenly felt across all your body, finally tears the screen of darkness, and you are shaken. Dahran of the void! you are stranded across the atmosphere high up, so high you would probably have died if not for your racial traits. and you are falling, the entire land stretches beyond you. it seems this planet is inhabited, since you can see tiny forests and primitive fields beneath, stretching to the horizon, dotted by the tiny points that probably mean rather large cities. damn it. you had your share of deadly situations in your adventures, and you were pretty sure you would find your death in one or another, but plummeting to your death falling through the atmosphere was not one of them
you try to grasp yourself, to keep rational, but against such a terrifying, unavoidable prospect your best attempts are wasted. and what would it matter? you have nothing to latch into, and no way to slow your fall. you had a jetpack on the ship, but of course, you had to remove it to rest a bit!
so instead, you close your eyes, waiting for your death, trying to gain a bit of serenity that was so missing in your life, before the impact comes. perhaps some miracle will save you. but such thinking is dumb. no one will help you here, in this remote place.
and then everything goes black again and your consciousness is lost.
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when your eyes open, it is morning, and you are at what seems like a rundown neighborhood, in a primitive city. you are shocked you opened them at all, given the state you were in when you closed them. quickly, you get up, incredulous but wasting no time, letting the cold morning wake you up. the rising sun is not very different from your childhood sun on orion, although everything else is, as you quickly notice. checking yourself for wounds and finding none, you turn to examine the area. you are at what seems like a small alley, with large buildings made of concrete on each side. the rest of the area seems filled with garbage and some broken glass bottles, at which you smile.at your homeworld, actual glass bottles are something that you would only see at museums dedicated to ancient civilizations, but it seems this world is not so advanced. not surprising, actually. trying to remember the very little you know of the inhabited planet of Sol, you shake your head. there is a disappointing scarcity of information given how little visited is the system. you remember the civilization here is quite primitive, at early stages of industrialization. they call their planet earth and are interested mostly in internal wars among their own. overall, they are considered mostly harmless.
a scream wakes you from your thoughts, and you quickly turn your gaze to the entrance of the alley, expecting some fight. instead, you see a middle-aged man, looking in terror at your light blue skin, clad in a tight black nano-cloth made to keep you warm and protect you, with your energy sword handle dangling from your belt. apparently, the people here are not used to galactic visitors, which might make you quite scary for them. you get into a defensive position, ready to fend off a possible attack, which sends the man running away, screaming something about a blue monster.
well, he just ran, and you doubt many will take him seriously. but if he saw you
first, you need to see what you have. you start with your clothing. it seems your nano-cloth has been torn quite a bit. no actual private bits are shown, but neither does it cover much more now, which probably only increased the man's panic. and also explains why are you feeling the cold.
your energy sword still worked, which was good. a wide metallic handle with a guard turning toward the blade at the edges emitted a deadly broadsword-like blade of pure energy which was, to the best you could determine, just as powerful as always and showed no malfunction. your force field armor, operating from a small device on your body, sparked a bit, but it was nothing you could not fix with a minute of tinkering.
just as important, your disguise ommiter seems whole, despite the damage to your clothing. it is a small chip embedded into your skin, though easy to remove with a pull, leaving only a tiny cut. it was fine overall, though you will need to do a few repairs and reconfigurations before you can use it safely. the last piece, the translator, was another chip worn on your ear. it was likely working fine, since the few words you overheard from the street sounded clear, not an incomprehensible jumble of static noise.
your communicator was broken, and so were the scanner and the computer. but overall, you were in a good state, with a powerful weapon and defense, as well as equipment that will be very useful surviving here. certainly better than the expected mesh of flesh on the ground. no, you remind yourself, focus on the moment.
now what you do next. from your mental senses, the streets seemed very crowded, likely with people going to work, which means the stream of people would lessen in a few hours. you could wait in the alley, maybe configure your disguise. of course, someone might come here eventually which means you will need to deal with him
or you could go out. the sight of aliens might disturb some people, but you don't necessarily need to care. if you need to, you could always find a disguise. it will certainly draw more attention, but also more information, among other things, which means you could find out faster your next course of action. you are not going out of here in the near future it seems, so you might want to see what is going on here.
you could do it more subtly maybe. you are a good sneak, as well as an athlete and acrobat. it won't be easy, but you could travel on the roofs and higher ground to avoid being detected. this will limit your search, but you can keep a low profile while still being active and finding a better place to hide.
whatever you decide to do, you need to make a decision. there is no point wasting time.
[]stay in the alley. find a good place to sit, preferably protected from the cold. wait a few hours for a better time to get out, and use your time well
-[]try to listen in to people on the street, possibly even read their minds
-[]try repairing your nano-cloth a bit. you can't restore its protection, but at least you could make it a bit more modest and less torn
-[]write in
[]travel on the roofs. try to avoid attention while finding out things about the city and the area, and find a better place to plan further
[]get out of the alley straight ahead. find out what to do now, and how to survive.
[]write in
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------and with this, we are formally out of char gen and starting the story. this arc will deal with Selar's learning about her new living area and getting accustomed to Berlin, as well as starting to establish herself as a superhero.
no option in this vote is better or worse, so no need to calculate risks this time, not this early at least. this is just the direction you want to see the story going. that won't be true for future votes though, just this early one.
also, I wonder if anyone caught that small reference to a well known book in the update. point it out if you did!
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