... and see beneath you, stretched for hundreds of miles in all directions, vast shadow-swept marshlands and endless dark swamps. You thank your lucky stars there are no mountains or rocky crags to dash your ship to spacedust against.\n\nThat said, your velocity is still extremely high and the surface of Neptune is fast approaching.\n\n[[Scream]]\n[[Brace for impact]]\n[[Pitch back and attempt to land]]

You immediately begin asserting the validity of your statements and denouncing the queen, hoping a display of unchecked aggression will cow her into belief. When it doesn't appear to be working, you make to draw your weapon, seeking to prove your prowess in a flourishing display of martial skill.\n\nYou are instantly impaled from behind by the spears of the queen's guards. They withdraw their weapons from your body and you slide to the floor, dying with a final bloody gurgle.\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: 2//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to try honesty//

You smile brightly and laugh, apologizing to the queen for the poorly timed joke. Seeing that your grandiloquence was an attempt at humor she smiles as well, laughing with you and dismissing your apology.\n\nYou then begin to explain the actual nature of your arrival-- the purpose of your original mission, your ship, the nature of the crash, and the effect the Neptunian gravity has on your agility. She nods as she listens, doing so with great interest and sagacity.\n\n"Your journey has been difficult," she says, "but I fear there is something more I must ask of you."\n\n[[Hear her request]]

You duck down and charge forward, rolling to the side of the horrific beast and flashing your blade upward, severing one of its arms. You keep moving forward as you roll past the beast, putting distance between you and your quarry. The creature roars furiously and reels, beginning to turn its great mass around to charge you again.\n\n[[Strike from behind]]\n[[Meet the charge]]

ROBOPILOT ACTIVATED, CALCULATING APPROACH VECTORS...\n\n... APPROACH VECTORS CONFIRMED, FLIGHT PATH ASSUMED.\n\nSLEEP WELL, COMMANDER.\n\nMaking your way to the back of the ship, you open the cryopod hatch and slip down, pulling the hatch back down over you and initializing the cryosleep sequence using the small keypad near your hand.\n\nThe cryopod emits a series of gentle beeps as it homogenizes its internal life support systems. Then all of the lights in the Rice-Burroughs shut off at once and you are plunged into the infinite darkness of space.\n\n[[Go to sleep]]

FLIGHT PATH INTERRUPTION DETECTED\nROBOPILOT ATTEMPTING TO COMPENSATE\nCOMPENSATION FAILED, MANUAL PILOT INPUT REQUIRED\nBEGINNING RESUSCITATION SPRINGBOARD\nCRYOPOD INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT EQUALIZING\nCRYOSTASIS TERMINATED\n\n[[Open the cryopod]]

//Choose your name, starfarer://\n\n[[Commander Jack Bronto]]\n\n[[Commander Dana LaCroix]]

The next few days are spent in constant rest and celebration of Galaar's great victory over the Mire Stalker horde. Gifts are lain endlessly at your feet, such that you can barely go anywhere without having to step over the offerings of the artisan Nymphs. Songs are sung in the halls of the huntresses that tell of your incredible battle with the Mire Stalker king. You spend most of your time with Alaana, whose fascination about your race is unending.\n\nAt the end of one of your conversations she gives you a warm [[smile]].

You quickly reload your revolver and extend your arm, charging forward with a furious battlecry and pulling the trigger six times in rapid succession. The monster attempts to serpentine its way out of your view but you maintain your aim, landing every single shot with the expert precision of a trained marksman. Each Antimatter round creates an enormous sizzling hole in the body of the wretched beast, and by the time you have expended your reload cell there is little of it remaining. The artisan Nymphs are safe, for now.\n\n[[Survey the scene]]

Taking no chances, you find a fallen log to duck under before the lifeform discovers you.\n\nSuddenly a great, monstrous insect rushes through the marsh-trees and into the clearing where you landed. It is roughly ten feet tall and twice as long, with the lower body of a giant centipede, a humanoid torso, great chitinous insect arms and a smooth, hairless head that reminds you of a goat's skull.\n\nAs it slides its way into the clearing, it immediately begins searching for you, leaning forward and prodding at the various objects in the clearing with its insectoid arms. It begins moving closer to your hiding place...\n\n[[Wait]]\n[[Spring out and attack]]

War rages all around you. The sounds of battle are harrowing and everywhere-- screams of agony and of rage, nightmarish bestial roars, clashing steel and chitin, the roars of the noble lizard-mounts. Your Bog-Nymph charges fight with admirable zeal and strength in the defense of their home city, slaying many of the beasts. The tide seems to be turning in your favor. You know, however, that were it not for your assistance, the battle would soon be lost.\n\nTurning, you see a dark, massive shadow climbing upward along the face of Galaar, making its way toward the summit.\n\n[[Give chase]]

You leap to the side and dodge the alien like a matador dodging a charging bull. Your leap sends you sprawling across the clearing, flipping bodily. You tuck your limbs inward and stop yourself on a tree, pushing yourself off with your feet and soaring over the beast's monstrous head.\n\n[[Open fire]]\n[[Take aim]]

You face the creature with your arm outstretched and proceed to expend the five remaning shots of the reload cell. Unfortunately, three of the shots miss, one grazes, and the final shot only manages to sever another of the great beast's arms.\n\nFurious and wounded but not incapacitated, the horror lurches forward with terrible speed and picks you up in its remaining scythe-arms, impaling you with its pointed mandibles and disemboweling you.\n\nThe last hope for Galaar dies with you. The Bog-Nymphs are doomed.\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: 30 Love//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to save the day//

You are Starleague Commander Jack Heironymous Bronto III, ace starpilot. You graduated top of your class in Astro-maneuvering with an unmatched specialization in inertial freeflight. You are reputed for your chivalrous demeanor and general good etiquette. You're the reigning champion sharpshooter from the Royal Marksman Academy of Ganymede.\n\nOn the surface, you accepted this mission to prove yourself to your superiors, but secretly you're doing it to run away from the pain of losing your wife who died in a tragic sulfur-mining accident on the surface of Io.\n<<set $genMale = true>>\n[[Head to briefing|Briefing]]

THE BOG-NYMPHS OF NEPTUNE

You clear the sleep from your eyes and groggily begin reading over the nav computer's readouts. You determine that you were awoken a month and one week prematurely and are currently at the far edge of Neptune's gravitational zone.\n\nYour ship is being pulled toward Neptune.\n\n[[Scream at the nav computer]]\n[[Begin pressing buttons]]\n<<if $genMale>>[[Jump into the pilot's seat]]<<else>>[[Attempt to recalculate robopilot course|Adjust course]]<<endif>>

You shrink back into your hiding place and keep silent, allowing the monstrous creature to draw nearer. It searches near you for a few moments, then turns away and moves to the wreck of the Rice-Burroughs and begins searching through it.\n\n[[Stop hiding and sneak up on the beast|Sneak]]\n[[Continue hiding]]

FLIGHT PATH INTERRUPTION DETECTED\nROBOPILOT ATTEMPTING TO COMPENSATE\nCOMPENSATION FAILED, MANUAL PILOT INPUT REQUIRED\nBEGINNING RESUSCITATION SPRINGBOARD\n[[...|....]]

Your refusal to accompany the strange women to their city immediately inspires hostility in the group. You reach for your weapon, meaning to protect yourself, but suddenly they are upon you, perforating you with their spears. You suffer a slow, excruciating death of exsanguination and are left to become food for the strange alien wildlife of the Neptunian swamp.\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: 2.49//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to don't be a putz//

<<if $genMale>>You are a knight in service to a great king.\n\nYou fight with vigor and always triumph.\n\nYou lead great campaigns in service to your liege, thwarting evil where it dwells, gaining honor and prestige and carving out your name in the annals of history.\n\nGlory is yours.\n\nYou dream this dream for many weeks.\n\n[[Until...]]<<else>>You are a dolphin in the seas of a giant ocean planet.\n\nYou travel the depths with your pod, exploring vast ruined underwater cities.\n\nYou play by day, leaping and skimming across the surface to bask in the rays of the orange sun before plunging back down.\n\nBy night you wind your way through deep caves and sing strange songs with stranger creatures.\n\nYou dream this dream for many weeks.\n\n[[Until...]]<<endif>>

You find your vessel, the SLV Rice-Burroughs, waiting for you in the hangar of Ganymede Orbital. You board it, run through the pre-flight checklist for an Osprey class, then slip into the pilot's seat and prepare to ignite the engines and depart the station.\n\n[[Pre-ignite thrusters]]

You lower yourself into a crouch and, just as the great beast is nearly upon you, spring up into a mighty leap, flipping and wheeling over the monster's protean head. You bring in your legs and pinwheel your arms, spinning like a dervish as you arc over the creature and begin to descend again.\n\n[[Throw your blade like a javelin]]\n[[Spin around and press the attack]]

Rather than doing anything productive, you begin to scream, flailing your arms and shaking your head.\n\nUnfortunately they have yet to design the nav computer that can be piloted by screams. Without any human guidance, the Rice-Burroughs nose-dives into a marshy embankment on the surface of Neptune and explodes, evaporating you instantly.\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: 1,300 starpoints//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to not scream//

You lower yourself to the ground before leaping mightily, clearing an entire level of the great spiral city in one bound thanks to Neptune's gentle gravity. You continue to do this, leaping up the side of Galaar level by level, keeping the great shadow in your sight as you ascend. Soon you are beside the creature, and you can see that it is like a Mire Stalker but perhaps three times the size, and with four bladed insect arms instead of only two. It vaults the lip of the summit just as you do and begins charging toward the queen's temple.\n\n[[Cry out to the beast]]

You stand your ground and cry out as the thing charges you, pulling the trigger rapidly and unloading your Antimatter cell in the monster's direction. The strange Neptunian gravity disturbs your usually flawless aim, but you still manage to score a few powerful hits on the beast's arms and carapace.\n\nIt isn't enough.\n\nThe monstrous alien reaches you and takes you up in its scythelike arms, lifting you above itself and giving a great shrieking war-cry as it rips you in half, showering itself in your blood.\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: B+//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to give love a chance//

You let out a long, guttural wail at the nav computer.\n\nIt's an impressive display, but unfortunately the robopilot's robot nature makes it impervious to demoralization.\n\nYour ship continues falling towards Neptune.\n\n[[((Back))|Check the nav computer]]

The beast lunges. You leap. The beast turns, lunges again. You dash backward your back to a wall. Before you can attack the beast is lunging again, its four savage arms splayed hideously, ready to slash you apart.\n\n<<if $genMale>>[[Shoot one of the arms]]<<else>>[[Sever one of the arms]]<<endif>>

You smile at the girl and put up your hands, trying your best to refuse the gift as graciously as possible. You don't want to do or touch anything until you have an opportunity to learn more about the alien culture. She looks hurt but nods her understanding, turning away and leaving quickly.\n\n[[Continue on]]

The Mire Stalker throws its arm forward, attempting to impale you. You somersault over it, severing the arm effortlessly with a flash of your blade. It roars and brings its other arm around, attempting to swipe at you. You leap over the arm with a graceful butterfly kick, your blade severing the arm at the shoulder. The creature roars once more and lunges forward, attempting to sink its mandibles into whatever part of you it can reach.\n\nYou turn your back to it, lean back at an angle, and reach your sword above yourself, impaling the creature through the center of its torso. Then, with a furious battlecry and a great lunge, you arc your blade forward and up, cutting through the monster's body and splitting it in half. Its sundered halves fall to either side of you and you take a deep breath, flicking the creature's dark blood from your nervoblade.\n\n[[Survey the scene]]

As you look upon the towering shape, you are reminded of a massive version of the Spiral Minaret, an Old Earth structure you remember from historical records. It is an awesome structure that seems to stretch upward for miles, and looks as though it were hewn entirely from smooth marble, black with white-green swirls. Small shapes move and commute over the entirety of the structure, which is lined with great arching doorways and windows, all lit in a variety of luminous purples and blues and greens. At the very top of the structure is a great crystal beacon that glows a rich peridot.\n\nYou realize that this is Galaar, the great spiral [[city]] of the swamp-women of Neptune.

You slide into the pilot's seat and immediately set about adjusting trajectories and approach vectors, running exceedingly complex astrometric calculations. Your fingers fly across the surface of the console as you attempt to manually correct the robopilot's flawed course.\n\nYour ship stutters and bucks as it attempts to respond to your course corrections, but it's no good. Neptune's gravitational hold strengthens by the second. You're going to crash-land.\n\n[[Activate atmos-shields and attempt to make manual planetfall|Planetfall]]

As none of the Nymphs below have yet noticed the Mire Stalker on the level above, you are the only one who can slay it before it wreaks havoc on the defenseless artisans within Galaar. You call out to the warriors below to alert them that the Mire Stalkers are capable of climbing, then charge forward.\n\n<<if $genMale>>A few shots from your revolver are enough to gain the creature's attention. It turns toward you and rears back, screeching and lunging forward.\n\n[[Unload on the beast]]<<else>>You call out to the monster and slash your blade across the air, the charged nervosteel humming dangerously as it travels. The beast turns toward you, shrieks, and lunges.\n\n[[Eviscerate the beast]]<<endif>>

You continue to climb for a long while, the curve of the spiral staircase gradually becoming tighter and tighter as you near the top of Galaar. Finally you come to a platform at the center of the great city-structure. At the center of the clearing is a great covered structure that appears to be some manner of temple, atop which rests the great glowing crystal you saw as you approached from the swamps. The guards standing at either side of the temple doorway uncross their spears and you enter, finding yourself face to face with the [[queen of the swamp-women]].

Standing amid the drooping marshy branches of the treeline are a half-dozen quadrupedal lizards, their long legs arching upwards then coming down to end in sharp pointed tusks upon which they are somehow able to stand. They are long and lithe of body with shining black-yellow skin, and upon their backs, one per each of the strange lizards, ride a half-dozen smallish alien [[women]].

She rests atop a great stone pedestal in the shape a toadstool, positioned centrally within a large pool filled with shimmering blue-green water that glows with strange alien light. She is breathtakingly beautiful, all clad in wing-gossamer fineries and silvergrass jewelry. She smiles as you approach.\n\n<<if $genMale>>"Greetings, Jackbronto of Starleague, who feel from the sky and came to rest in the dark depths of the Black Marsh. My huntresses have told me of your battle with the Mire Stalker. I am pleased and impressed. My name is Alaana, Queen of the Bog Nymphs."<<else>>"Greetings, Danalacroy of Starleague, who feel from the sky and came to rest in the dark depths of the Black Marsh. My huntresses have told me of your battle with the Mire Stalker. I am pleased and impressed. My name is Alaana, Queen of the Bog Nymphs."<<endif>>\n\n[["It is an honor, your majesty."|An honor]]

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You travel atop the swift lizard-beasts for nearly an hour before the thick marsh-trees begin to thin out and the detachment of swamp-women form a line formation in their run. The ground becomes wetter-- you have entered the depths of the swamp now. Amazingly, you look down at the tusk-feet of the great lizards and see that they are skimming along the top of the water without being submerged.\n\nYou look off into the distance and see a massive shape looming against the dark Neptunian [[night]].

You smile at the girl and accept the gift, slipping it onto your wrist. It immediately tightens itself to conform to the size of your arm, doing so gently and fitting perfectly. It's a magnificent piece. The girl grins, giggles, and dashes away without another word.\n<<set $hasBracelet = true>>\n[[Continue on]]

KRAKOOM\n\nThe report of the Antimatter charge is like the thundering hoof-crash of some celestial stallion. The monster's skull is blown into a billion particles, which rapidly dissolve from existence. The body goes limp and slumps over, sliding out of your ship and sinking into the marshy ground.\n\nYou holster your revolver and check your [[scicomp]].

LANDING STRUT MAGLOCKS DEACTIVATED\n\nWARNING: VESSEL IS NOW INERTIAL\n\n[[Retract struts and launch]]

... but on the surface of Neptune, on the summit of the great marble city of Galaar, a statue is erected in the likeness of <<if $genMale>>Jack Bronto<<else>>Dana LaCroix<<endif>> of Starleague, Starfallen Champion, Savior of the Bog-Nymphs of Neptune.\n\n//THE END//

Your nervosword howls as it cuts the air, passing effortlessly through the neck of the Mire Stalker king and sending its head flying from its shoulders. It soars over the edge of the summit and plummets down to the ongoing battle below, hitting the ground with a heavy wet 'thud' that silences everyone, Bog-Nymph and Mire Stalker alike.\n\nThe body soon follows, hitting the water of the swamp with a great splash and instantly demoralizing the remaining Mire Stalkers. They are routed instantly, and a great, joyous cheer rises up across the entire city of Galaar. Gossamer-clad artisans pour from their hiding places within the structure and surround you as the last of the silver light fades from you, and you are lifted up onto a crowd of shoulders and carried before the [[queen|Victory]].

You watch the hulking form of the alien beast as it passes underneath you and, with a heave of your arm, send your sword rocketing point-first toward the creature's back. It throws out an arm and attempts to deflect the sword, but your blade flies true and fast, impaling the beast through the heart with a mighty 'SHUNK.' The beast arches its back and shrieks, falling back into the swampy mud beneath it and giving one great lurch before going still.\n\nYou land softly and brush yourself off, walking over to the creature's corpse to retrieve your nervosword before taking another scan with your [[scicomp]].

A bright white glow begins to pulse from your hand. You turn your head to look and see that it's the bracelet given to you by the young artisan Nymph, glowing with mounting intensity.\n\nThe Mire Stalker king roars in confusion and turns its head away, unable to look at the glow. You feel incredible warmth course through your body, flowing like warm water through your veins and toward the wound in your [[chest]].

You put your arms in front of your face and lock your knees, pushing yourself back into the pilot's seat as you prepare to crash.\n\nUnfortunately the Rice-Burroughs' approach angle was simply too steep. Without your guidance to correct the approach, the ship crashes with full force into a thick copse of marsh-trees, their massive branches tearing you and your ship to pieces.\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: 7,500 starpoints//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to try again//

In one final moment of desperate resolve you pull back on the flight controls, pitching back the nose of the Rice-Burroughs just before hitting the canopy of a thickly-wooded swamp.\n\nYou are jostled about your cockpit, your head slamming against the nav computer. The Rice-Burroughs hurtles through the dark swamp, caroming off of thick-bodied marsh-trees as it bleeds off velocity. Klaxons blare, instruments flash and blink and flicker.\n\nThen, after interminable minutes, the Osprey-class starship comes to a halt on the surface of Neptune. Your forehead is killing you, but you are alive.\n\n[[Prepare to disembark]]

You decide to wait the creature out and remain in your hiding spot.\n\nYou keep still for hours as the beast picks over the wreck of your ship, tenaciously searching for something.\n\nYou wait so long that the alien foliage of the Neptunian swamp begins to take note of you. Without realizing it, you have volunteered yourself as the latest meal of the strange, carnivorous plant-life beneath the fallen log. Roots and vines begin crawling over and into your skin, binding you to the ground and draining you of your vitality.\n\nVenom fills your veins and you are forced from consciousness, slinking reluctantly down into the final sleep of death as Neptune consumes your nutritious fluids.\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: 205,000 starpoints//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to starve the planet//

You enter the briefing room of Ganymede Orbital Starbase and place your hand against the computer console. The Briefcomp wallscreen glows to life and you are assailed with blinking infonodes and flight plans.\n\nGREETINGS COMMANDER\n\nSTARLEAGUE THANKS YOU FOR ACCEPTING THIS YOUR MOST RECENT MISSION\n\nTARGET PLANET: PLUTO\n\nMISSION OBJECTIVE: INVESTIGATE GRAVITATIONAL ANOMALIES\n\nPRIMARY MISSION HAZARD: FLIGHT-BASED\n\n<<if $genMale>>REASON FOR PILOT SELECTION: EXEMPLARY PERFORMANCE IN ALL STARFLIGHT EXERCISES<<else>>REASON FOR PILOT SELECTION: EXEMPLARY UNDERSTANDING OF ASTROPHYSICS AND ASTROMETRICS<<endif>>\n\nCRYOSLEEP DURATION: 4 MONTHS\n\nSTARSHIP ASSIGNMENT: OSPREY CLASS SCIENCE FRIGATE "SLV RICE-BURROUGHS"\n\nGOOD LUCK COMMANDER\n\nAll information having been imparted, the wallscreen fades to darkness.\n\n[[Board vessel and launch|Launch]]

The Neptunian women listen to your introduction with wonder and immediately begin discussing something to themselves. Two of the smaller ones continue to stare at you, wide-eyed. You think, anyway-- their eyes are naturally very wide.\n\nThe larger one turns to you again.\n\n"We accept your peace-offer, Danalacroy. You must come with us to our city of Galaar."\n\n[["I'm not going anywhere."|Refuse]]\n[["It would honor me to visit your city."|Accept]]

You fire off a snap-shot at one of the beast's lower arms, striking a joint. The Antimatter charge works quickly, dissolving the flesh of the beast where it contacts. The arm is severed instantly. The beast roars and attempts to complete the charge, but you roll forward, dodging through the newly-created gap in the creature's defenses.\n\nThe lumbering horror is forced to turn around, giving you a momentary advantage. It's time to press the attack.\n\n[[Unload your clip]]\n[[Take an aimed shot]]

<<if $hasBracelet>>You reach up your hands and wrap them around the razor-sharp mandibles. Your fingers instantly begin to bleed but you hold tight, keeping your grip as the beast jerks its head to and fro. Unfortunately this has the added effect of pulling you further down the creature's arm. The agony is indescribable and you nearly lose consciousness, when [[suddenly]]...<<else>>You reach up your hands and wrap them around the razor-sharp mandibles, pulling with all your might. All you can think to do is rip the hated beast's head apart, but fury alone isn't enough. The beast twists its arm and horrible agony rips through you afresh, and what little strength you had evaporates.\n\nYour arms go limp at your sides, blood dripping from your hands to the black Galaarian marble beneath you.\n\nYou turn your head and look to the Bog-Nymph queen. Her eyes are wide with terror and confusion.\n\nThe starfallen hero has failed. Galaar is doomed.\n\nThe Mire Stalker king feasts upon you, and within moments you are swallowed by the blackness of the hereafter, your last thought one of terrible guilt at knowing you have failed to save the Bog-Nymphs of Neptune.\n\n//THE END//<<endif>>

LANDING STRUTS RETRACTED\n\nYou fire your rear inertial thrusters long enough to bring your speed up to 200 A.S.U, creeping your way out of the launch corridor.\n\n"SLV Rice-Burroughs departure confirmed," the landing bay operator radios to you from the control room. "Good luck, Commander."\n\nYou clear the landing bay aperture and suddenly your entire viewport is filled with black space. Ganymede Orbital retreats behind you.\n\n[[Activate robopilot and enter cryopod]]

You leap into the pilot's seat and let your finely-honed instincts take over. You fire forward and ventral intertial thrusters, attempting to break free of Neptune's hold and angle the Rice-Burroughs into an escape vector. Then you fire rudders, attempting to twist free and put the planet into a relative position above you. Neither works.\n\nThe hull of the ship groans as Neptune's gravitational pull gains strength by the second. There's no escaping now-- you're going to crash-land.\n\n[[Activate atmos-shields and attempt to make manual planetfall|Planetfall]]

Your Enviromask receives the woman's words and begins processing them, passing them through a Semiotic Modulation Filter and decoding the language. A gentle beeping in your ear notifies you that the sequence is complete, and the woman's last words are played in your ear.\n\n"Who are you, who has single-handedly slain a Mire Stalker?"\n\n<<if $genMale>>[["I am Commander Jack Bronto of Starleague. I come in peace and good will."|Jack]]<<else>>[["I am Commander Dana LaCroix of Starleague. I come in peace and good will."|Dana]]<<endif>>

FLIGHT PATH INTERRUPTION DETECTED\n[[...|.]]

<html>by <a href="http://kittyhorrorshow.wordpress.com" target="blank">Kitty Horrorshow</a></html>

You state your refusal to help the queen or her people in their defense from the Mire Stalkers. She looks crestfallen, then sighs and bows her head. After a long silence, she waves her hand. Suddenly you are hoisted up by the arms, a guard at either side of you.\n\n"A pity," the queen says, looking at you. "We will have to hope that offering your body to the Mire Stalkers will sate their lust for [[vengeance]]."

The bracelet on your wrist begins to glow, dimly at first but soon with an incredible silver intensity. Warmth courses through your body, rejuvinating you, dulling the intense pain caused by the Mire Stalker king's arm. Even your hands, wrapped around the razorlike edges of its mandibles, seem impervious to pain. You are overcome with incredible vigor and strength of purpose. The creature continues to buck and jerk its head, trying desperately to avert its insectile eyes from the blinding [[light]].

You take hold of the flight controls and initialize planetary avionics. The Rice-Burroughs' forward velocity is too high to stabilize-- the most you can hope for is to bring the nose up and control your descent. It's a struggle.\n\nThe atmos-shields glow as the intense heat of the atmosphere assaults them. The dark blue-green clouds of Neptune loom large beneath you. Soon you are plunging through them, your ship shaking and rumbling threateningly.\n\nYou pass through the clouds and into Neptune's [[atmosphere]]...

You bow before the queen, who immediately gestures for you to stand, still smiling.\n\n"You are as honorable as brave, starfallen. It is not an easy thing to slay a Mire Stalker-- it would take four of my most skilled huntresses to fell such a beast. How do you explain your deed?"\n\n[[Self-aggrandize]]\n[[Explain truthfully]]

//A near-fatal crash... a danger-filled swamp... a beautiful alien queen... a grand adventure at the furthest edges of the solar system...//\n\n<html>(Recommended music: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_tHaQbNZtk" target="_blank">Carbon Based Lifeforms</a>)</html>\n\n[[BEGIN]]

You hold out your weapon and scream at the monster, desparate to gain its attention lest the queen be killed. It stops its charge, lumbers around to you, and rears up. It arches its bladelike arms, tilts back its monstrous head, and screams with a fury that shakes the very foundations of the great spiral city.\n\n<<if $genMale>>You lock a fresh reload cell into your revolver and prepare to [[die]].<<else>>You hold aloft your nervosword, narrow your eyes, and prepare to [[die]].<<endif>>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The queen is elated at your decision, and she flings her arms about you.\n\nYou decide to remain on Neptune with the Bog-Nymphs.\n\nYour life lasts many years, for the gentle atmosphere of Neptune extends the human lifespan to nearly triple its expectation.\n\nYour days are spent in leisure and peace. The artisans teach you their crafts and arts, and you spend many seasons stalking the vast marshes with the huntresses, learning their ways and hunting with them for the good of Galaar. They even give you your own Glass-Strider, one of their great lizard steeds. Its love for and loyalty to you is unmatched in all of the kingdom of the Bog-Nymphs.\n\nWhen the day finally comes that you pass from life, your body is entombed in a great marble vault beneath a statue in your likeness, erected on one of the platforms at the summit of the spiral city.\n\n<<if $genMale>>You are remembered forever after as Jack Bronto, Starfallen Champion of Galaar, Savior of the Bog-Nymphs of Neptune.<<else>>You are remembered forever after as Dana LaCroix, Starfallen Champion of Galaar, Savior of the Bog-Nymphs of Neptune.<<endif>>\n\n//THE END//

You grit your teeth and brace yourself for the horrendous beast's next charge.\n\nA single instant-long opening presents itself when the beast rears up for attack. You dart to the side and cry out, your sword wickering viciously through the air. Another arm severed. The beast shrieks, strikes again. You dart again, running up a pillar and twirling over the beast, severing a third arm with another Iridium flash. The beast staggers once and lurches back, and for a moment you think you have it right where you need it.\n\nYou compose yourself, charge forward, and raise your blade to strike.\n\nThe beast turns in a flash and throws out its last remaining arm. Agony blazes through your body and you drop your sword, looking down at the beast's arm where it has [[impaled you]].

You finally arrive, your escort maneuvering her beast to the end of a dock-like extension that leads toward the lowest level of the city. She dismounts and helps you down, her comrades immediately moving beside her.\n\n<<if $genMale>>"You are welcome here, Jackbronto of Starleague. You must go to our queen at the summit of Galaar, but mind yourself-- you will be observed, and we will tolerate no violent acts."<<else>>"You are welcome here, Danalacroy of Starleague. You must go to our queen at the summit of Galaar, but mind yourself-- you will be observed, and we will tolerate no violent acts."<<endif>>\n\n[[Enter Galaar]]

FLIGHT PATH INTERRUPTION DETECTED\nROBOPILOT ATTEMPTING TO COMPENSATE\nCOMPENSATION FAILED, MANUAL PILOT INPUT REQUIRED\n[[...|...]]

FLIGHT PATH INTERRUPTION DETECTED\nROBOPILOT ATTEMPTING TO COMPENSATE\n[[...|..]]

The Mire Stalker king lifts you from the ground on its great bladed arm. The pain wrenches a scream from your lips and you clutch the impaling limb. The beast slides forward and pushes you back against a pillar, leaving you pinioned like a preserved moth. It leans forward slowly, parts its savage mandibles, and gives a single scream of triumph.\n\n[[Grab its open mandibles and tear]]

You are Starleague Commander Dana Fairweather LaCroix, expert astrophysician and xenoanthropologist. You graduated top of your class in Starfaring Psychology, and wrote a symposium on the importance of peaceful contact with alien races which was later incorporated into the Starleague Peace Accord of 3121. You are the resident longsword mistress of the Europan Academy of Acrobatic Swordswomen.\n\nOn the surface you accepted this mission to chart gravitational anomalies occuring in Pluto's orbit, but you're secretly hoping to make first contact with yet undiscovered lifeforms.\n<<set $genFemale = true>>\n[[Head to briefing|Briefing]]

It's a miracle the Rice-Burroughs managed not to suffer any kind of hull-breach through the course of the crash landing-- internal atmosphere is still stable. Checking your sensor panel, you determine that the external atmosphere will be breathable as long as you wear an Enviromask.\n\nHeading to the back of the ship, you open a hatch and retrieve a Mark III Interplanetary Environmental Adaptation Mask, placing it over your nose and mouth and securing it around your head with thick rubber straps. You pull an earpiece from the side and slip it into your ear canal, flicking a switch to activate the Semiotic Translation Module.\n\n<<if $genMale>>You also open the small metal footlocker beside you and retrieve your six-chamber Antimatter revolver and a hand-full of reload cells.<<else>>You also open the metal locker beside you and retrieve your charged Iridium nervosword.<<endif>>\n\nBracing yourself for whatever may wait for you outside the safety of the Rice-Burroughs, you mash the heel of your hand into the airlock button and open the ship's hatch.\n\n[[Disembark]]

Suddenly a great, monstrous insect rushes through the marsh-trees and into the clearing where you stand. It is roughly ten feet tall and twice as long, with the lower body of a giant centipede, a humanoid torso, great chitinous insect arms and a smooth, hairless head that reminds you of a goat's skull.\n\nIt sees you and lets out a hideous shriek, leaning forward and charging you with its bladelike arms outstretched.\n\n[[Stand and fire]]\n[[Leap aside]]

You stand amidst hundreds of the taller caste of Bog-Nymphs, all of them armed and grim-faced as they stand in silent expectation of the coming assault. You can't see a single member of the artisan caste, who have all sought shelter within Galaar's protective marble walls.\n\nThe stillness of fearful anticipation suffuses the air. Barely a sound can be heard throughout the entire city.\n\nThen... [[they come]].

You can't help but feel positively exultant. The crowd never ceases to cheer, chanting your name even as the queen herself slides from her pedestal and wades through her reflecting pool to meet you, putting her arms around you and hugging you warmly.\n\n"You have saved us all, starfallen," she says, her voice radiant with love and appreciation. "You are the champion we so hoped for, the savior of our people. <<if $genMale>>Thank you, Jackbronto. Thank you."<<else>>Thank you, Danalacroy. Thank you."<<endif>>\n\nGalaar is [[saved]].

You fire two shots in the beast's direction, but both go wide. The creature manages to lunge forward at the huntress that impaled it, scything her with its arm and flinging her bleeding body away into the swamp. Her companions scream in fury and indignation, immediately setting upon the beast with their spears.\n\nYou could not save that Nymph, but you manage to save these two-- a decisive shot to the neck severs the nightmarish head of the monster, and its body slumps to the ground. The two look to you thankfully, then rush off to aid their sisters.\n\n[[Survey the scene]]

"You are wise and noble, starfallen, and a hero to my people. So it saddens me to know that you must return to your own kind."\n\n"But my ship was destroyed," you say, surprised.\n\n"Yes, it was. But last night I sent my outriders to salvage what they could of your vessel. They were able to use parts of it to fashion a Starpod that would be capable of returning you to your Ganymede Orbital Station."\n\nFor a moment, you are unsure what to say. Up until now you had assumed that you would never be able to return to Starleague, and that you would live out your days with the Bog-Nymphs in their spiral city. You consider for a few moments, then...\n\n[["My place is here, with the people of Galaar."|Stay]]\n[["Legends will tell of the peace between our people."|Return]]

You decide to do the diplomatic thing and stand your ground as you await the approach of the lifeform.\n\nSuddenly a great, monstrous insect rushes through the marsh-trees and into the clearing where you stand. It is roughly ten feet tall and twice as long, with the lower body of a giant centipede, a humanoid torso, great chitinous insect arms and a smooth, hairless head that reminds you of a goat's skull. It unleashes a shrill screech and lunges at you.\n\nYour last thought is an unhappy internal debate about the merits of interplanetary diplomacy.\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: 8,300 starpoints//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to try again//

THRUSTERS PRE-IGNITION CONFIRMED, PROPULSION DRIVE NOMINAL\n\n[[Depressurize launch chamber]]

<<if $genMale>>You draw your revolver and assume a marksman's stance, facing the direction of the approaching lifeform and steeling yourself.\n\n[[Prepare to strike|Gun]]<<else>>You draw your nervosword and assume a defensive stance, preparing yourself to strike at a moment's notice as you await the approach of the unknown lifeform.\n\n[[Prepare to strike|Sword]]<<endif>>

The alien women all begin dismounting their reptilian steeds, approaching you cautiously and brandishing lethal-looking spearlike weapons. They are smallish, none taller than five feet, with slick blue-green skin that glistens with their movements. They have tendrilous tresses of dark green hair on their heads and their bodies are wreathed in some kind of strange light-green plant that glows faintly. Their bodies are slender and their faces long and sharp, with overlarge almond-shaped eyes as black as Neptune's sky. Despite their alien nature they are exceptionally fair and pleasant to behold.\n\nOne of them, slightly taller than the rest, begins speaking at you in a strange chirping [[language]].

You bring your blade around and grip the handle with both hands, preparing an attack as you rush the monster. Unfortunately, it is uninterested in you-- its attention is fixed on the Nymph that impaled it. You leap forward and attempt to slash the creature but it slides away, rushing past you and impaling the girl with its arm before flinging her sundered body away into the dark swamps. Her comrades scream with fury and indignation and make ready to attack.\n\nYou spare them the effort, turning on a heel and lunging at a pillar near the monster. You fly forward, carom off of the pillar, spin through the air like a dervish of death and neatly sever both of the monster's arms with a wickering cross-flash of your nervoblade. The monster howls and writhes, then slips away into the murky swamp to die.\n\nThe two surviving Nymphs look to you with tear-streaked faces, nodding thankfully before charging off to join their sisters in battle.\n\n[[Survey the scene]]

As you climb, you watch the strange creatures, who in turn watch you with mixed fascination and caution. It soon becomes evident that this race is composed entirely of women. They seem largely divided into two castes-- the smaller among them wear flowing gossamer robes of a material that reminds you of the wings of dragonflies, while the taller are clad similarly to the outriders who met you at the crash-site of the Rice-Burroughs. These appear to be the hunters and gatherers of the society, while the former are the crafters and [[artisans]].

FLIGHT PATH INTERRUPTION DETECTED\nROBOPILOT ATTEMPTING TO COMPENSATE\nCOMPENSATION FAILED, MANUAL PILOT INPUT REQUIRED\nBEGINNING RESUSCITATION SPRINGBOARD\nCRYOPOD INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT EQUALIZING\n[[...|.....]]

In your climb you witness many beautiful and fascinating sights-- the swamp-women have apparently established a trade economy, and many of the robe-clad women gather their wares around them on the great platforms and walkways of Galaar. Beautiful artifacts, strange works of art, breathtaking leaf-tapestries and eye-catching jewelry are all on display.\n\nAt one point a small, young-looking woman with long purple hair runs up to you and smiles brightly, offering you a bracelet made of some kind of shining, woven silver grass.\n\n[[Accept the gift]]\n[[Refuse the gift]]\n[[Slap her hand away]]

You recoil from the small swamp-woman and slap at her hand, destroying the bracelet and making her gasp with fright. You are instantly set upon by guards, whose spears flash with dizzying speed and puncture you before you have time to react. Your bleeding form is dragged to a platform, and your body is hurled from the great city of Galaar to sink into the swamps below, broken and forgotten.\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: What kind of shit-head monster slaps a sweet little alien girl when she tries to give them a gift, what the hell//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to be a better person//

You awaken to the sensation of pins and needles all throughout your body. You push open the cryopod hatch and step out into the darkness of the Rice-Burroughs. A klaxon is buzzing from the the nav computer, and the only light comes from the spinning red alarm lights throughout the ship's interior.\n\n[[Check the nav computer]]

"One shot," you think to yourself. "One shot's all I need." You extend your arm and aim along the holosights as you soar over the creature, trying to line up the perfect killing shot.\n\nSuddenly the beast compresses itself down, then springs up toward you with frightening speed. It knocks your arm aside with one of its own and gores you with the other, pulling you toward itself and sinking its razor-sharp fangs into your exposed neck. If you'd only had a second more...\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: $140,000//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to man up//

You twist in the air and turn around, landing softly in the murky morass and readying yourself to spring for a second assault. Unfortunately, the beast is quicker-- before you can push yourself off of the ground it's upon you, burying its scything mandibles and shredding arms into your flesh and rending you apart.\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: $20,000//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to snicker-snack//

With a mighty cry you fling yourself into the battle, determined to defend the Bog-Nymphs of Neptune or die in the attempt.\n\nYou begin by joining a trio of huntresses struggling with one of the Mire Stalkers. <<if $genMale>>You take a stance, take aim, and squeeze the trigger, instantly obliterating the skull of the creature just as it was about to bite down on one of the huntress' neck.<<else>>You propel yourself forward, making full use of your heightened agility to dash along an adjacent wall before launching yourself toward the beast and decapitating it in a flash of Iridium-charged nervosteel.<<endif>>\n\n[[Join with the huntresses]]\n[[Find a new target]]

You lunge toward the monster's exposed back, hoping to exploit this single momentary opening with a decisive thrust to its spine. It twists its torso and slashes at you with both of its arms, knocking you from your course and sending you crashing against a marble pillar. The breath leaves your lungs in a rush and you are dazed just long enough for the beast to rush toward you and impale you with its three remaining arms.\n\nIt opens its mandibles and screams one final furious scream before it begins to devour you.\n\nThe last hope for Galaar dies with you. The Bog-Nymphs are doomed.\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: -1//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to save the day//

Suddenly a great, monstrous insect rushes through the marsh-trees and into the clearing where you stand. It is roughly ten feet tall and twice as long, with the lower body of a giant centipede, a humanoid torso, great chitinous insect arms and a smooth, hairless head that reminds you of a goat's skull.\n\nIt sees you and lets out a hideous shriek, leaning forward and charging you with its bladelike arms outstretched.\n\n[[Attempt to parry its arms]]\n[[Leap over it]]

SHUNK\n\nYour blade slides effortlessly through the beast's thick carapace, impaling it bodily. It rears back and shrieks, its arms reaching behind it in search of the offending weapon. You twist the blade's handle and slash upward, the charged Iridium nervoblade cutting easily up through the monster's torso, bifurcating it. The monster instantly goes limp and slides to the ground, sinking down into the wet mire.\n\nYou flick the alien's blood from your sword and replace it over your shoulder, taking another look at your [[scicomp]].

The beast's one remaining arm tears through your chest with a flash of white-hot agony, bursting through your shoulder and pinioning you to the ground beneath the hulking thing.\n\nIt leans down and spreads apart its wicked mandibles, preparing to devour you alive.\n\n[[Fire the last round into its open mouth]]

She nods thankfully when you state your willingness to listen, then proceeds:\n\n"The Oracles wrote that the day would come when a starfallen hero would come to Galaar. It is said they would be proven by the killing of a great beast, but that their coming would foretell a great disaster-- the vengeful brethren of the slain beast would come to attack Galaar, and only the aid of the starfallen may keep Galaar and her people from destruction.\n\nIt is with heavy heart that I must ask that you help us defend ourselves from the attack of the Mire Stalkers that I know is soon to come, for the Oracles have never been wrong.\n\n<<if $genMale>>What say you, Jackbronto of Starleague? Will you be our champion?"<<else>>What say you, Danalacroy of Starleague? Will you be our champion?"<<endif>>\n\n[[Accept the task]]\n[[Refuse the task]]

Though it saddens her to know that you must leave, the queen understands your decision. A great feast is held in your honor, followed by a ceremony to see you off. You are helped into your vessel, which looks like a massive golden seed-pod, and are launched from the surface of Neptune on a direct course for Ganymede Orbital Station.\n\nAs soon as you are towed into the station you head to a comstation and make your report with Starleague. They send an envoy to Neptune to confirm your report, and soon after a group of diplomats are deployed to engage in peace talks. The 'talks' last as long as it takes for the queen to proclaim her undying loyalty to you and all who the Starfallen Champion holds in allegiance.\n\nA great friendship flourishes between your two races. Starleague even assists the Bog-Nymphs with the creation of their first interstellar vessels. Many times, in times of great conflict, the Bog-Nymphs come to the aid of humanity, and it is always enough to turn the tide.\n\nYou are given innumerable honors and accolades for your exemplary mission, and live out your days in quiet honor. Starleague remembers you in [[history books]]...

<<if $genMale>>Your personal code of honor won't allow you to brook even the slightest consideration of refusal. You accept instantly, vowing to do your best to fulfill the prophecy of the Oracles and keep Galaar and all of her people safe.<<else>>Recognizing the momentous importance of this encounter, you accept the request without hesitation. You swear to do everything you can to keep Galaar and all of her people safe, so that a long future of friendship with the Bog Nymphs might be assured.<<endif>>\n\nThe queen beams happily, heartened by your acceptance.\n\n"Go with my guards, they will see you armed in the protective raiments of my people. The Mire Stalkers will soon be here-- do not fail me, starfallen."\n\n[[Go with the guards]]

You take another scan of your surroundings to make sure there aren't any more of that creature's like on their way. You determine a half-dozen lifeforms moving swiftly in your direction, but none are as large as the one you just encountered.\n\nThe sound of numerous rustlings announce the arrival of your company and you turn to [[see]].

You begin frantically pressing buttons on the flight console. Within minutes you have succeeded in jetissoning your entire store of Strawberry Vibrocrunch into space. It falls toward Neptune and is immediately incinerated in the atmosphere. Breakfast is ruined.\n\n[[((Back))|Check the nav computer]]

<<if $genMale>>You crawl out from underneath your hiding place and begin skulking toward the creature. Your increased agility makes sneaking easier than expected, and the beast is already preoccupied with tearing apart your ship. You unholster your revolver and extend it, taking careful aim as you approach. Soon you are directly behind the monster, the back of its bestial head directly in your holosights.\n\n[[Fire]]<<else>>You crawl out from underneath your hiding place and begin skulking toward the creature. Your increased agility makes sneaking easier than expected, and the beast is already preoccupied with tearing apart your ship. You draw your nervosword slowly and soundlessly, readying it for an assassinating strike. Soon you are directly behind the monster, its great arched back completely exposed.\n\n[[Strike]]<<endif>>

You clench your teeth and make ready to parry the strikes of the assaulting monster. It rushes forward and lashes at you with its arms and you cross your blade before you, managing to sever one of the monster's limbs.\n\nOnly a momentary success, however-- you are unable to leap away before the alien beast brings its remaining arm around and slices you open at the stomach. You double over in pain, and the monster snaps its jaws down around your head, tearing your skull from your shoulders.\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: B+//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to push it to the limit//

You keep your calm and take aim, watching the lumbering creature as it turns. Aiming for its head, you squeeze the trigger just as it turns around. Your shot hits its mark, but even the powerful Antimatter charge only manages to destroy half of the creature's head which, to your horror, is not enough to kill it. You take aim again and fire, blowing another of the beast's arms from its body. It begins charging you. You squeeze the trigger once more, destroying a third arm, leaving the beast with only one. Your last shot goes wide as the beast finally collides with you and suddenly your world is a supernova of inexpressible pain.\n\nThat sole arm has [[impaled]] you.

The creature's arm begins to sizzle as white light engulfs it, and in a moment the tip of the beast's limb is severed. Your wound heals instantly and you are rejuvinated, filled with an incredible feeling of triumphant fervor. The beast continues to writhe and withdraw from you, unable to look upon your blinding visage.\n\nYou hold out your gun, take aim, and fire the [[final shot]].

You begin soliliquizing about your plethoras of training and experience, making up stories about the many alien beasts you've killed over the course of your life.\n\n<<if $genMale>>You put special emphasis on your acts of incredible bravery and the strength of your implacable Earthling physique.<<else>>You put special emphasis on your superior intellect and unmatched prowess with your 'enchanted blade.'<<endif>>\n\nThe queen narrows her eyes, scrutinizing you. "You're lying," she says finally.\n\n[[Laugh, apologize, and explain yourself|Explain]]\n[[Aggressively refute her accusation|Refute]]

The Neptunian women listen to your introduction with wonder and immediately begin discussing something to themselves. Two of the smaller ones continue to stare at you, wide-eyed. You think, anyway-- their eyes are naturally very wide.\n\nThe larger one turns to you again.\n\n"We accept your peace-offer, Jackbronto. You must come with us to our city of Galaar."\n\n[["I'm not going anywhere."|Refuse]]\n[["It would honor me to visit your city."|Accept]]

You make your way down the dock and find yourself standing at the base of the great spiral city. Even if you crane your neck, you have difficulty perceiving the top of the city from where you stand, so dizzying is its height. You resolve to begin climbing the spiral staircase that winds around the city from base to tip, deciding to waste no time in reporting to the queen of the alien [[culture]].

You shut your eyes and allow your body to be taken by the cryosleep.\n\nTime slows.\n\nTime ends.\n\nYou [[dream...]]

The horrifying sight of the massive enemy force instantly routs you and you turn, retreating from the base level and climbing for your life. A number of warrior nymphs turn and watch you, crying out after you and declaring you a coward. One of the great lizard beasts, at the behest of its owner, charges up the stairs after you. You are swiftly overtaken by its superior speed, and with a single great bite from its massive jaws your body is shorn in two.\n\n//YOU HAVE DIED//\n\n//Final score: -1.5 million//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to be a hero//

LAUNCH CHAMBER DEPRESSURIZING...\n\n...\n\n...\n\n...\n\nDEPRESSURIZATION COMPLETE, LAUNCH BAY FORCE FIELDS DEACTIVATED\n\n[[Deactivate landing strut maglocks]]

KRAKOOM\n\nWhat remains of the Mire Stalker's head explodes in a glorious plume of sizzling black vapor, and the body topples over the edge of the summit. It crashes with an earth-shattering thud into the swamps below, instantly demoralizing the remaining Mire Stalkers. They are routed instantly, and a great, joyous cheer rises up across the entire city of Galaar. Gossamer-clad artisans pour from their hiding places within the structure and surround you as the last of the silver light fades from you, and you are lifted up onto a crowd of shoulders and carried before the [[queen|Victory]].

The Osprey-class' formidable atmos-shields whirr to life just as the plummeting ship begins to reach heat velocity. Another couple of seconds and you'd have been little more than a fireworks display sprayed across the dark Neptunian sky.\n\n[[Initialize manual control and attempt a crash-landing|Crash-land]]

You leave the huntresses and turn toward the stairs, seeking high-ground from which to single out your next target. One of the creatures has somehow made it to the level above you and is attempting to find a way in to Galaar's interior, where the artisan caste have hidden away.\n\n[[Charge]]

Seeing the importance of tact and forthrightness, you immediately explain your understanding of the situation so far-- the purpose of your original mission, your ship, the nature of the crash, and the effect the Neptunian gravity has on your agility. She nods as she listens, doing so with great interest and sagacity.\n\n"Your journey has been difficult," she says, "but I fear there is something more I must ask of you."\n\n[[Hear her request]]

You extend your arm and immediately begin pulling the trigger, firing a barrage of ravaging Antimatter rounds into the creature's hulking form as you arc gracefully over it. All but one of your shots find their mark-- the alien beast shrieks and howls as its body twists and bucks, the Antimatter charges creating great dissolving craters in its chitin and the soft spongey matter beneath. The final shot annihilates the monster's head, and soon it is nothing more than a still, steaming carcass.\n\nYou land softly on the dank marsh soil and dust yourself off, reloading your revolver before holstering it and taking a second scan with your [[scicomp]].

You are dragged bodily from the chambers of the queen and brought to a platform overlooking all of Galaar. The bog-nymphs all seem to be staring up at you, eagerly watching the fate of the starfallen hero. Before you can act in your own defense there are hands at your back shoving you forward, and you are thrown from Galaar's great height, sent screaming down to the murky swamps at the city's base.\n\nYou are killed instantly when your head slams against an outstretched platform, and your lifeless body topples into the mire.\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: !!!#!!!//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to be obdurate//\n\n//Hit 'Back' twice to try again//

Before anything else can be done, you decide, you must adapt to the foreign gravity. You begin practicing basic walking, acclimatizing yourself to moving delicately so as not to send yourself soaring in all directions.\n\nSoon you have mastered basic movements, and begin practicing more advanced maneuvers-- jumping, rolling, dodging, and the like. After an hour of practice you have adapted well enough to make the best of your newfound agility.\n\n[[Take surface readings]]

You allow the guards to escort you to a large room at the next-lowest level of Galaar, wherein a great many of the taller caste of Bog-Nymphs are suiting themselves in the protective leaf-clothing of the outriders who were the first to find you.\n\n<<if $genMale>>They bring you to a small alcove and begin undressing you, but you politely insist on doing so yourself, removing first your revolver's holster and then your uniform. They soon bring a set of their unique plant-armor for you to wear, but are slightly confused when it doesn't adequately cover you. Improvising, they bring a second set of the armor and dismantle it, using the additional pieces to fashion you an effective suit of armor.<<else>>They bring you to a small alcove and set about undressing you, handling your nervosword with special care and delicacy as they set it down on a nearby pedestal. Soon after they bring you a suit of their curious plant-armor, showing you how to equip it and secure it to your person. It is a surprisingly good fit, and you realize that the biological nature of the armor allows it to change its shape slightly to suit your form.<<endif>>\n\nReclaiming your weapon, you nod to the guards, who then lead you back down the steps of the great spiral city to wait with the rest of Galaar's warrior women.\n\n[[Await the attack]]

<<if $hasBracelet>>Gathering what little strength you have left, you grit your teeth and attempt to raise your gun to fire the final shot. Even knowing it may be the difference between the salvation and destruction of Galaar, you simply haven't the strength. Death seems [[assured]]...<<else>>You gather what little strength you have left for a final herculean act of will, raising your arm to place the barrel of the gun beneath the beast's chin. You grin savagely, but before you can pull the trigger, the beast turns its mighty head and snaps its jaws around your wrist, neatly severing your hand.\n\nYou stare in horror. The beast gives a last triumphant roar.\n\nYou turn your head and look to the Bog-Nymph queen. Her eyes are wide with terror and confusion.\n\nThe starfallen hero has failed. Galaar is doomed.\n\nThe Mire Stalker king feasts upon you, and within moments you are swallowed by the blackness of the hereafter, your last thought one of terrible guilt at knowing you have failed to save the Bog-Nymphs of Neptune.\n\n//THE END//<<endif>>

You keep hold of the monster's insect jaws, letting warmth course through you. Veins of white light cross your skin and move toward the hole in your chest. The wound closes almost instantly, severing the tip of the beast's last remaining arm. You drop to the floor with the mandibles still in your hands and the beast gives a single pitiable groan. You clench your teeth and cry out with the fury of every fallen Bog-Nymph that gave her life to defend Galaar and with a mighty pull you rip the jaws from the monster's face. It rears back and shrieks one long, keening scream of pain, its body swaying drunkenly.\n\nYou pick up your dropped nervosword, take stance, and whirl the blade around in one final, fatal [[slash]].

The swamp-women are visibly relieved when you accept their offer, and they put away their spears as they return to their beasts. The tall one gestures to you, sliding forward along the strange lizard's back to allow you room to mount.\n\nYou climb on and put your arms around the woman's waist, finding her skin cool to the touch. She makes a loud chirping noise and her lizard heaves itself up and begins running swiftly through the swamp, spiriting you away toward the great Neptunian city of [[Galaar]].

Using your wrist-mounted scicomp, you run a basic analysis of your surroundings. The Neptunian swamp teems with all manner of biological life, most of it either microscopic or vegetable. The air is full of strange sounds-- distant musical howlings and chirrups, like the evening-song of insects from the holomemographic recordings of Old Earth's summers.\n\nSuddenly, your scicomp picks up another reading-- a lifeform, but not a microscopic one. It's large, and it's headed directly toward you.\n\n[[Stand and wait]]\n[[Hide in cover]]\n[[Arm yourself]]

<<if $genMale>>You clutch your revolver and make ready to attack, gritting your teeth before leaping from your hiding place. You cry out and charge, firing wildly at the alien monster, aiming for the back of its protean head. It wheels around at the first sound you make and ducks down, bull-rushing you with frightening speed. All of your shots go wide, your aim thrown off by the unusual gravity. The beast gores you, impaling your stomach with its chitinous arms.\n\nYou gasp, clench your teeth, cough blood, go limp. Within moments the monster is peeling the skin from your bones.<<else>>You grip the handle of your nervosword and make ready to attack. Springing out from your hiding place you leap high into the air, crying out in fury and bringing your sword to bear, preparing to decapitate the beast. You fall slower than expected however, and the monster has time to wheel around and raise itself up on its gruesome centipede-body. It pulls you from the air and shreds you apart with its bladelike insect-arms.\n\nYour heroic career is brought to a swift, visceral end.<<endif>>\n\n//YOU ARE DEAD//\n\n//Final score: 20 starpoints//\n\n//Hit 'Back' to try again//

The earpiece of your enviromask beeps in your ear.\n\n<html>DECISIVE BATTLE DETECTED, INITIALIZING DRIVING ELECTRONIC <a href="http://youtu.be/CGcRHPmyWnY" target="_blank">SOUNDTRACK</a></html>\n\nThey pour from the treeline that surrounds the swamps of Galaar, swift and silent as a Deimosian plague-wind. Scores of the monstrous creatures, all identical to the one you slew at the crash-site. As they draw near to Galaar they begin to shriek their awful alien cries, arching up their bodies and cutting the air with their bladelike insect arms.\n\nIn an instant, the battle for the lives of the Bog-Nymphs has begun.\n\n[[Flee]]\n[[Attack]]

You watch the hatch of the Rice-Burroughs open slowly with a loud hissing as the internal pressure equalizes with that of the Neptunian surface. You take your first tentative step out onto the boggy surface and are surprised when you find yourself drifting forward nearly a dozen feet. The gravity here is considerably lower than the Earth-standard gravity settings of most orbital Starleague stations.\n\n[[Practice maneuvering]]

You approach the huntresses and declare your intent to join with their platoon. They seem glad to have the starfallen champion in their company.\n\nThe trio turns and begins running down the docks when they see one of the Mire Stalkers attacking the Galaaran lizard-mounts. One of the huntresses picks up a fallen spear and hurls it at the beast, impaling it in the chest. It howls and turns toward your group, preparing to charge.\n\n<<if $genMale>>[[Ready another shot]]<<else>>[[Ready another strike]]<<endif>>