Challenge #02370-F180: Stone Tools and Bear Skins
An alien crew hires a discount group of human bodyguards to protect them on an expedition to a heavily forested/jungled planet to research the planet life. Murphy’s law happens and the alien crew find out they hired the human group that is , as a group, a hybrid of MacGyver, John Wick, and the the A-Team. – Anon Guest
One of the launch seats, heavily charred, fell out of the tree with a solid thud. The Human who dislodged it had got up there by using a series of ropes, spiked objects, and an apparent disregard for gravity. Another Human, who had neatly sidestepped the falling chair, looked at the burned remains and said, “Whelp. There’s your problem.” Three other Humans laughed.
The one up the tree shouted, “Three more debris! All metal!” and the Humans working underneath cleared out from the hazard zone. One was carrying the chair. The Humans had been doing this since their explorer vessel exploded in a freak combination of electrical storm and meteor shower, and Grox had yet to understand why.
She was doing what they called ‘oxcart duty’, which consisted of applying her muscular strength to pull around a cart the Humans had made from convenient pieces. It was, they said, better than hauling “all that crap” by hand. That, and 'oxcart duty’ was keeping all the surviving scientists out of harm’s way. The Humans, after all, did not want to waste any more time rebuilding their carts.
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Challenge #02368-F178: Culinary Explorers
An inter-species cooking class is very interesting to observe, and better to participate in. – Anon Guest
Some people just never learn to cook. Why would they? Obtaining foodstuffs from vendors is easy and they then have more time to spend on other enjoyable pursuits. There are those who insist that cooking is a vital survival skill, and they are repeatedly ignored by those who plan on never having to survive like that. It is far cheaper, faster, and overall safer to have a food printer and never be concerned with all that fiddling about.
On the Edge, food printers are less available. People don’t trust them as easily as they do in more ‘civilised’ space[1]. So it is there that cooking classes are held for any level of understanding from 'What is cook?’ through, 'I think I’ve got this!’ to, 'Oh hey, there’s a new ingredient, now what?’ There, on the Edge, it is possible to learn the organic sources of all foods, learn how to prepare them, and learn how to do so safely.
Nevertheless, it has been determined that allowing anyone near open flames is an invitation for disaster. The Havenworlders don’t like it when things go 'foomp’ and the Humans like it uncomfortably too much. That sort of thing is reserved for restaurants run by trained professionals, that also have offensensitivity warnings clearly present on the entrances. Yes, even in the Edge territories, the lawless have figured out that some laws are just common flakking sense.
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Challenge #02367-F177: Impossible Dreamers
If you think that “something” is impossible to do… Give it to humans and they will make it “possible” – Anon Guest
Never tell a Human what’s impossible. – Galactic Alliance saying.
They had once said that travelling faster than light was impossible, just like time travel. Humans managed to find one-way wormholes, which utilised both, and then proceeded to use them to seed their colonies all over surprising corners of space. Humans, it seemed, accomplished six impossible things before teatime.
It was impossible to hold one’s own against the Vorax, unless you were a Human. It was impossible to merge conflicting technological philosophies of construction, unless you were a Human. It was impossible to terraform a rogue planet… unless you were a bunch of Humans who thought it worthwhile.
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Challenge #02366-F176: Fight, Flight, or…
Fight or flight, the natural reactions to fear. Though, people don’t mention one, freeze. People like to ignore that possibility because it tends to put them in danger. Unfortunately for them, it is real, it is dangerous, and it is terrifying if you happen to be the one experiencing it. – Anon Guest
Most Humans can be relied upon to act quickly in an emergency. Most of them. Their presence in any place of inherent hazard is reassuring to anyone in field of view. There is a Human, they think, even if the worst happens, all will be well. For the most part, it is a reasonable assumption.
They also think that Humans only have two reactions to that which they fear - the typical ‘fight or flight’ that has had so many stories spring up around it. What they did not know, until the latter half of the 423rd Century, was that there was a third option.
There was chaos all around him. People were hurt. People were crying out in pain. Things were on fire. Things were collapsing. Despite all this, Len was frozen in place. He could barely breathe, and he certainly couldn’t move. His brain was full of static and nothing seemed to be able to shake him out of it. He wanted to shake out of it, but there was… a sort of wall. The want didn’t reach his muscles. It certainly didn’t reach his brain, which was screaming, What are you doing just standing there? Move! Do something! Yet the all important knowledge of what to do just never arrived.
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Challenge #02365-F175: Motivational Inspiration
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo – Anon Guest
It was vaguely conical, and smaller than the most popular cars of the late Terran Twentieth Century. This was a vessel designed to get three Humans back to their planet after a long and perilous journey to truly hostile territory. There was just enough room for three Humans and all the samples they had gathered while they were up there.
What was more worrying was the landing craft for their missions to the moon. Computational power had barely reached past the Babbage Machine, and some of the most important elements were hard-coded with wires woven through tiny ring magnets. In lattices that were swapped out as necessary.
They could have easily died a thousand times over on the trip there. A thousand more on the way back, with hundreds to spare for the actual surface of the moon. Yet, by the time the third such mission was underway, the rest of Humanity found it boring. Which pretty much sums up Humanity in the smallest of nutshells. Do something often enough and, no matter how risky, dangerous, or expensive, it will be tired and old hat to any Human observers.
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