FORUM FANFIC (OCS): OPERATION SNOOPY
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Below you'll find the opening scene. Remember the rules (do check on them if you're unsure). Post ONLY scenes in this thread. It is invaluable to keep the story as clean as possible. You can discuss ideas or the story into another thread that can be opened for it. Try to keep one thread only for this fanfic, so that everything will be clear.
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OPERATION SNOOPY
INTRODUCTION
Doctor Saunders rubbed her drowsy eyes; she still looked positively exhausted. The Observatory’s night staff had awakened her in a hurry only a half-hour ago, right in the middle of a wondrous dream-filled sleep. It could only be an emergency, and so, she had left her bed, had not even taken a shower, and had came to the Observation Center in robe and slippers, yawning all the way while she hurried through the corridor. She was aware that she didn’t look very professional, with her hair going in all direction when she entered the room and, passing by the various personnel manning their stations, went to Caulfield, who was seated in front the main computer.
“What is it?” she asked, standing by him, and causing him to look up in her direction. She barely noticed it; she had her eyes riveted on the huge screen that was covering the entire wall over the computer. It was conveying the image from one of their most powerful telescopes, showing all the magnificence of the star-dotted space. This was a picture she was familiar with, but she always felt awe whenever she was looking at it.
However, right now, she couldn’t quite see on that screen, what could have the emergency; nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She shrugged. “Is it a shower of asteroids coming our way?” she deadpanned. “A new planet? The moon being thrown out of its orbit?”
“Not quite, ma’am,” Caulfield answered, trying to suppress from his face the smile caused by his superior’s banter. He returned his attention to his console, and pushed buttons and turned dials, as Saunders returned her attention to him. “We picked up a message… Well, a beacon, of some sort… Quite strange…”
“A beacon?” she repeated, raising a brow. “From where?”
“Well… We’re not quite sure. It’s coming from the direction of Mars.”
Saunders’ heart sank. Last time they had picked up ‘strange signals’, she recalled, that had led up to Earth’s encounter with the Mysterons – an encounter that had been the origin of the war that had been raging ever since between the two planets.
“Are you sure?” she asked, wondering if it wasn’t some kind of trick from the Mysterons.
“No, Doctor, I can’t say I am,” Caulfield answered. “I don’t have enough data to be absolutely sure. I don’t know if it comes from Mars itself… or something that could presently be in the planet’s orbit… Or simply in a trajectory between Mars and Earth. But the signals are directed toward here. That’s the only thing I’m sure.”
“Great,” Saunders muttered. “I do hope those damned aliens are not sending any kind of missile – or whatever they use as such toward us. How long before you know for sure?”
“I’m working as fast as I can to try to find the source of that signal, Doctor. However… I doubt it comes from the Mysterons, ma’am. I would say… it seems to be of human origin. Something that man would have created.” Caulfield turned to his superior, just in time to see her frown in perplexity. “Would you like to hear it?”
Saunders nodded and Caulfield turned his attention to his console. He pressed a single button. The speakers came alive with beeping sounds that filled the room, causing everyone to look up in curiosity and listen. Saunders too was listening, attentively, her frown deepening as the seconds were passing. Yes, Caulfield was right; this definitely sounded like coming from some machinery, built by man. And yet… the suspicion that was slowly starting to build in her mind couldn’t be possible.
And yet…
“My God…” she murmured. “That’s incredible!”
“Doctor?” Caulfield asked, turning a curious gaze to her.
“We must contact the authorities,” Saunders said. “The scientific community…. Spectrum… This must be investigated before the public knows.”
“Knows what, Doctor?”
“Those signals, Caulfield…” Saunders pointed to the speakers. “Those come from Beagle II.”
Caulfield blinked in surprise. “But Beagle II disappeared… so many years ago! It probably crashed on Mars! How…?”
“I don’t know, Caulfield,” Saunders replied excitedly. “But it does look like Beagle II is back… and that it’s trying to contact Earth again.”
* * *
Edited for minor grammar/vocabulary amendments - The Beta Queen
Webmaster and administrator of http://www.spectrum-headquarters.com
"This is an operational base, not a rest centre!"
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chrisbishop
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"Maybe they're trying to bore us to death," Grey suggested. "I mean it's been what, two weeks?"
"Seventeen days, five hours and twenty minutes," Magenta said, "not that I've been counting or anything."
"Does this make us really bad people?" Grey got up and strolled across the officers’ lounge toward the coffee dispenser. "To be wishing for a Mysteron threat, or just, y'know, to have something to do?"
Magenta shrugged, and returned to searching through the news channels.
Just then the radio crackled into life, and Green's accented voice filled the room.
"Could all captains report to the conference room?"
With more enthusiasm than usual Grey and Magenta answered the call.
“Did we miss anything exciting?” Magenta asked, slipping into the seat next to his field partner.
"Something about the Beagle II,” Ochre said, offering him the bag of pretzels he had half finished.
“Oh yeah.” Magenta took a handful. “I have some vague memory of that from history class.”
Colonel White cleared his throat pointedly, and all the captains turned their full attention to him. He scowled at the two American captains eating. "Captain Ochre, will you PLEASE put that away?! This is an operational base, not a takeaway!"
Ochre swallowed his mouthful of pretzels and quickly crumpled the packet and stuffed it in his pocket. "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."
“Members of Spectrum,” he began “we have just received word from Doctor Saunders of the American Space Observatory that the Beagle II Mars probe has been discovered, and it seems that the craft is attempting to make contact with earth.”
For a moment the captains fell silent, and looked at each other. Surely they were all thinking the same thing, but wondering who would voice such an opinion. In the end Blue spoke up.
“Sir, Beagle II was part of the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission. Contact was lost upon landing, and its location unknown until… well now, sixty five years later, now that we are at war with the Mysterons. It seems... I mean, couldn’t it be possible...?"
“That there is Mysteron involvement in the Beagle’s reappearance?” White concluded. “Yes, I have considered the possibility myself.”
“Colonel,” Lieutenant Green interrupted “I have Doctor Saunders standing by on the video link.”
“Excellent,” White nodded, “let’s hear what she has to say.”
Edited for minor grammar corrections and insertion/deletion of missing/extraneous words - The Beta Queen
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Sage
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Elsewhere, in a quasi-dark control room
"Sir, the parasite is finally up and running," a female technician told her commander, who was leaning against the back wall of the room.
"Good, nice to know that my grandfather's journal was accurate in that regard," the man replied. He sauntered over to the technician's post. "Still, it has been quite a while since the probe's disappearance. Have the parasite run a systems check."
"Yes, sir," the technician acknowledged. She typed in a few commands then waited. Minutes later, the response came back. "We have a glitch. The probe's beacon came online with the parasite and has been trying to re-establish contact with its home base. Sir, considering where the probe was hidden, I would now recommend holding off on the operation for a couple weeks."
"Just where is the probe hidden, and why would you make such a recommendation?"
"In your grandfather's words, sir, within the heart of terror itself. The probe was taken into a deep crater on Deimos, where it was allowed to disappear. My concern is that if the beacon was picked up by someone else, they would inform Spectrum on the off-chance that the Mysterons were involved."
"Fine," he replied, "I will consider it and give you my decision in the morning. And Anna, you've had a long day; why don't you get some sleep. I am sure we can handle the shut-down without you, for once."
"Thank you sir." Anna gracefully rose from her position and left the room. The commander waited until she was out of earshot before turning to another technician.
"Ivanovich, come here and take Petronov's seat. Then instruct the parasite to shut off that blasted beacon and to run subroutine 591."
"And what will you tell Ms. Petronov, sir?" Ivanovich asked while his fingers flew over the keyboard.
"That, as our time frame for this mission is already constrained as it is, we must forge ahead regardless of some might-be. We must make the most of this opportunity if we are to remove the oppressors' knives from our throats."
"Of course, sir. Sending instructions now." Ivanovich hit the transmit button. The wait seemed even longer this time. Then the technician let out the breath he subconsciously held. "Transmission received and understood. The flea now controls the beagle."
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Lieutenant Topaz
“Hold on.” Ivanovich was looking down with a frown at his instruments and the information he now was seeing displayed on it. “There’s something strange going on…”
“What is?”
“Sir, the beacon has not stopped.”
“You did instruct the parasite to stop it, did you?”
“I did, Sir, and I also instructed it to run the subroutine – as you ordered. It did the latter… but it seems to refuse to shut down the signal it’s sending to Earth.”
“What?” the commander murmured. His brow furrowed in concern, as he leaned next to Ivanovich to check on the instruments. “Some kind of malfunction?” he asked in a murmur.
“It COULD be, Sir,” Ivanovich admitted. “It’s like the parasite has decided that the Beagle should be discovered. Like it has a mind of its own.”
“A mind of its own? Impossible!” The commander straightened up as he contemplated this new problem. “We must regain control of the parasite. What good could this possibly be to us for it to control the Beagle if WE can’t control the parasite?” he spat angrily.
“You cannot hope to regain control of it…” The voice, coming from behind the two men was deep and ominous enough to send a shiver down their spines. They both turned around; they were stunned to see a man standing there. Dark-haired, wearing all black, he was staring at them with a coldness that reflected eerily in his eyes, which seemed like dark pits in his gaunt face.
“Who are you?” the commander demanded in a stern if somewhat shaky voice. “How did you get in here?”
“That is of no importance. I know what you are doing here. What you were planning.” The man made a step forward. “I am Captain Black…”
“Captain Black… Spectrum?” The commander’s frown deepened. “How did Spectrum learn about this place? You can’t hope to stop us now!” All wariness had left his voice and he was now openly threatening the Spectrum officer, whose intentions, quite obviously, were to arrest them all before their plan could even be put in motion.
“You are making a mistake. I am not Spectrum…” The voice of Captain Black was even colder than previously. His face still without any emotion, he raised the gun he was holding in his right hand, and pointed it at the now surprised commander. “… And I have no intention of stopping you.” Impassively, before the two men could react, he pulled the trigger of his gun. The commander fell like a cut tree against the controls behind him and Ivanovich, shooting from his seat, made a desperate attempt to rush to the door. Black’s next bullet drilled into the back of his skull, and he dropped on the floor like a sack of flour.
For a moment, Black looked at the two men now lying on the floor, dead. Two rings of eerie green light appeared out of nowhere and slowly passed over the two bodies, seemingly scanning them…
A second later, Black raised his head and stared at the two silhouettes standing before him; they were the spitting images of the two dead men.
“You are working for the Mysterons now,” Captain Black said dispassionately. There was no reaction from the two doppelgangers created by the Mysterons. Not that Black expected any from them; he was just sure, beyond any doubt, that they would do their masters’ bidding.
Black turned on his heel, preparing to leave the room. “Get rid of those corpses,” he said dispassionately. “They must not be found. You are now to make sure that everything goes according to plan.”
“We know what we must do,” the two men intoned in the same monotone voice.
Without turning back, as silently as if he had been a ghost, Captain Black left the room.
Edited for minor grammar and vocabulary amendments - The Beta Queen
Webmaster and administrator of http://www.spectrum-headquarters.com
"This is an operational base, not a rest centre!"
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chrisbishop
- Colonel
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“Imagine, this probe has survived on the planet’s surface for sixty-five years! It’s nothing less than a miracle,” she exclaimed.
“Well, there are other explanations for how and why it survived. Explanations that are more diabolical than miraculous,” Captain Scarlet interjected.
“But why would the Mysterons bother to keep an ancient probe, Captain?” Saunders asked. “And why start its signal now?”
“Whereabouts on Mars is Beagle II?” Grey asked. He was studying a Martian map, showing the known geographical features of the planet, and a few top secret locations – such as ‘Site of the Mysteron City’.
“And why was it named after a dog?” Ochre added innocently.
Captain Blue could have told his partner not to trust Ochre anytime he sounded that innocent, but he didn’t have time.
“It wasn’t named after a dog!” Scarlet retorted. “It was named after Darwin’s ship – the ship Darwin made his voyage to the Galapagos Islands on.”
“And not after Snoopy after all?” Ochre asked, struggling not to laugh. He rarely managed to trip Captain Scarlet up; it was usually the erudite Blue who couldn’t resist answering his questions - however inane they were.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Scarlet snapped, rolling his eyes.
“That’s quite enough of that, gentlemen,” Colonel White said, with a glower at the irrepressible Captain Ochre.
Dr Saunders had been following this exchange with some bewilderment. “Colonel, do you want to know what we’ve discovered or not?” she asked.
“Please, continue, Dr Saunders. What have you found out about Beagle II?”
Minor alteration of "whereabouts" by The Beta Queen
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Marion
- Cloudbase Captain
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"You didn't?" Grey asked with puzzlement. "But I thought that the probe had crashed on the planet's surface all those years ago... Or am I mistaken?"
"That was the assumption, Captain. Actually, nobody was ever able to ascertain what had been the fate of Beagle II at the time. It remained something of a mystery. It was just logic to conclude that the probe had crashed on Mars, having been pulled by the planet's attraction after experiencing some kind of malfunction in its propulsion systems."
Scarlet was frowning with some scepticism. His inner suspicions were quite obvious, by the look on his face. "If it didn't crash on Mars, then where it is exactly?"
"In space - somewhere between Mars and Earth."
"In space?" Blue repeated, also puzzled. "What exactly happened to it, all those years ago?"
"We still don't know that yet. Perhaps it bounced off Mars's atmosphere? It remains a mystery so far. The original mission of Beagle II was to make an in-depth analysis of Mars, take samples and photographs," Saunders said. "Now that we know it didn't land - or even crash - on the planet, we know that the probe never had the chance to take samples. But... it has been orbiting the planet for some time, probably. So it might have been able to take photos."
"Has it started to transmit pictures of the planet?" There was a hopeful note to Colonel White's voice, and that didn't go unnoticed amongst his staff. Since the failed mission that ended up with the destruction of the K14 Observatory, there had been no further success in obtaining any further information on what could be happening on Mars - specifically, what exactly the Mysterons were up to. They had made a point of stopping any attempt from Earth to find out more about them.
But maybe this news about Beagle II could change that fact...
"We've received no pictures from Beagle II yet, Colonel," Saunders said somewhat apologetically. "It seems that that part of its system appears be down at the moment."
"But it's sending a signal," Scarlet said.
"Yes, Captain. A beacon. Something that tells us of the probe's present position."
"In space, as you said earlier," Blue remarked. He nodded thoughtfully. "Why has it started transmitting again?"
"That's another mystery, I'm afraid. But like the rest of the mysteries concerning Beagle II... we might be able to find out very soon."
"Whatever do you mean, Doctor?" Colonel White asked.
"Here's the most exciting news concerning Beagle II, gentlemen," Saunders said with a large smile lighting her face. "According to the signal we are receiving from it, the Beagle is coming back to the kennel."
"Say what?" Scarlet asked in surprise.
"Beagle II is heading straight for Earth..."
Some grammar and phrasing amendments by The Beta Queen
Webmaster and administrator of http://www.spectrum-headquarters.com
"This is an operational base, not a rest centre!"
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chrisbishop
- Colonel
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- Location: Canada
Colonel White, and the other captains all looked rather surprised at the urgency in their colleague's voice.
"What do you base that on?" Magenta asked.
"Let's just say I am wary of anything coming directly at us from Mars," Scarlet replied.
"The chances of it being dangerous, just because it's coming from Mars, are a million to one," Ochre said. "Besides, it hasn't been on Mars - it's only been orbiting it - you heard the lady. That must mean it can't have anything to do with the Mysterons, as such."
"Oh, you mean, like the TVR 7 radio station didn't have anything to do with them?" Scarlet reminded him.
"You advocated NOT destroying that," Blue reminded his partner quietly.
"There were people on it and ... oh well, we've been through that argument a dozen times." Scarlet began to frown. "This is an unmanned, unexpected, decades old piece of space hardware. I think we should get rid of it."
"You can't do that!" Dr Saunders had been getting very agitated at the other end of the video link. "It is a unique opportunity -"
"To let the Mysterons land a piece of their hardware on the planet? Yes, it is," Scarlet interjected.
"Colonel..." Dr Saunders pleaded.
"I understand your apprehension, Captain," White began.
"Here comes the 'but'," Scarlet muttered.
"But, I think we need more information about Beagle II before we decide to destroy it. It could indeed provide us with valuable information we have no other way of obtaining."
Scarlet hunched into his seat rebelliously. "Don't say I didn't warn you, when nasty things start to creep out of the shell-casing," he muttered.
Colonel White gave a shake of his head and continued, "Keep us informed of the Beagle's progress, Doctor. In the meantime, we will draw up contingency plans and, if the probe gets to Earth, Spectrum will provide the security and place the probe in isolation until it has been properly examined and assessed."
"Looks like 'Operation Snoopy' is under way," Ochre commented brightly.
Magenta grinned at his partner. "That must make you 'Woodstock'," he said, tongue in cheek. "After all you're the one in yellow, Ochre."
Even Colonel White had to suppress a smile at the look of outrage on Captain Ochre's face.
Teeny-tiny change by the Beta Queen
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Marion
- Cloudbase Captain
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