Rule change : Due to lack of contribution, you can post as long as no double post.

You take note of the signal, and hail for a Gaian Patrol to investigate the signal.
After all, your problem is just to survey these worlds and investigate anomalies. Distress signals these days are just raids and skirmishes, are you aren't geared up for that.
And so, you continue your job, surveying planets.
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After a few weeks, distress signals pop up across your dashboard.
The entire Gaian Federation is being invaded by the Desciples!
The Fleets are all regrouping at a nearby star cluster known as Thestos Eta. However, there are other groups of people, trapped behind enemy lines. There's also the mysterious signal being transmitted from the water world of Malho... Whatever you choose, keep in mind the lives that hang in the balance.

Regroup with the Gaian Fleets
Go on a Search and Rescue Operation
Explore the strange signal from Malho

You choose to go on a Search and Rescue operation since you think it will ssave many lives.

As you spaceship screams through space (silently, cos there is no air), you traverse several light years on the way to the distress signal. As you approach, you send out your smaller ship to explore. At first, the planet looks more dead than the Adelaide Strikers' Big Bash aspirations, but after circling the planet you see seven survivors. Trouble is, your ship is based on an ancient "mini-van" from a long-forgotten time, and it only seats eight. And there are two people on board already. And there is a lot of very angry men with lasers about to attack them. You send out a radio signal telling everyone on the ground the situation. Unfortunately, no-one is killed in the resulting fight, which means you still have that tough choice. There are seven people:

A Politican, a member of Galactic Parliament

A Man From An Ethnic Minority

A Really Hot Woman

A Chef

An Engineer

Me

A Science Officer

Obviously, a choice awaits you. (the person you select is LEFT BEHIND AND DIES PAINFULLY IN HD, LIKE THE STRIKERS' BBL ASPIRATIONS)

A. Leave the Politican and get a long, tedious grilling when you get back.
B. Leave the man from an ethnic minority and get villified by the press for being racist.
C. Leave the woman behind and... yeah.
D. Leave the chef behind and have to live on sandwiches for the next two months.
E. Leave the engineer behind and have difficulty fixing problems on board. You don't have any right now, but you might...
F. Leave me behind and lose a great character.
G. Leave the science officer behind and be unable to record any scientifically important thing that will happen.
H. Sacrifice yourself bravely.
I. Push your co-worker out the window in an "accident"

CHOOSE NOW OR DIE NOW!

F. You leave Thomas 633 behind, tired of his talking.

and how did I know that was coming...

Because obviously every other person is more helpful than you are.

to make it harder (considering we all knew that was going to happen), your minivan suddenly fills up with stuff, meaning that you have to not allow someone else on.

A Politican, a member of Galactic Parliament

A Man From An Ethnic Minority

A Really Hot Woman

A Chef

An Engineer

A Science Officer

Obviously, a choice awaits you. (the person you select is LEFT BEHIND AND DIES PAINFULLY IN HD, LIKE THE STRIKERS' BBL ASPIRATIONS)

A. Leave the Politican and get a long, tedious grilling when you get back.
B. Leave the man from an ethnic minority and get villified by the press for being racist.
C. Leave the woman behind and... yeah.
D. Leave the chef behind and have to live on sandwiches for the next two months.
E. Leave the engineer behind and have difficulty fixing problems on board. You don't have any right now, but you might...
F. Leave the science officer behind and be unable to record any scientifically important thing that will happen.
G. Sacrifice yourself bravely.
H. Push your co-worker out the window in an "accident"

CHOOSE NOW OR DIE NOW!

A. Leave the politician, obviously. He would only disturb us. Who cares what happens next.

The politician dies screaming as Master Chief shoots his head off and keeps it as an ornament. After doing something that only belongs in a blue film or GoT, you are attacked by pirates. You know that even with the general you don't have a chance of fighting them off. They board and give you a choice:

A. Join them. They offer you a place in their crew, a big mansion and whatever the space equivalent of an Audi R8 is, if you serve 20 years with them (and survive).

B. If you refuse to join them, then they will bundle you all in the escape pods, and they will send you on a scenic route to the nearest system. By the time you are recovered by the Galactic Army, you will have given them enough time to get away.

C. Fight them and die.

CHOOSE NOW OR DIE NOW!

A. Join them. You don't want to die since there is that hot woman.

25 years later...

You are a rich buisness man on Earth, with your wife Erin (the hot woman). You have three kids, that are all doing well, and a Beemer. After you joined the pirates, they immediately got blown up by forces from your side. You managed to lie your way out of jail, saying you knew they would turn up and you were stalling. You got a decent house and a decent car with the reward money, and quit space travel in exchange for the stock market. Although your life is ordinary, you have done well, and your kids face a bright future. You are currently writing your memoirs, and this is the last page.

The End.

(we need a new one now)

Well, this took an unnecessarily comical turn for the worse. Perhaps we should just rewrite this whole thing from when Zomboss decided to go for Search n Rescue? You also ignored the plot hole that is the
" Desciples completely overrunning the Gaian Federation and the other species of the Galaxies' fleets ".
Also, Thomas : there is no need to make a " new one ". There are tons of possibilities that all diverge from that beginning decision of investigating or maintaining course.

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Your ship isn't prepped for ship-to-ship combat, so joining up with the Gaian Fleet is pointless. You approach Malho with the same mindset as the Zedong System from so long ago : call up a Gaian Patrol, let THEM solve the problem. Your ship does have some stealth drives, so Search n Rescue is deemed the decision you'll make.
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After a few hours of interstellar travel, you arrive to Garrison B405, a generally untouched world, that is completely habitable.
" Who would go here? It's just a Protean world with few outposts. Why was their distress signal ranked above the rest in our ship registry? " Comms Specialist Marvin James says, with a great zest of exposition.
" Right, you weren't here, Mr. James.. " Lt. Razh says.
" Yes, you see, back in the early days of this fine vessel we were dispatched to this world.. " Engineer Richard Holmes starts.
" It was a bloodbath. The native fauna was a hostile race. Unfortunately, they were also super-intelligent, and inexplicably strong. " Lt. Razh continues.
" The Galactic Guiding Board displayed a travel advisory star-sector-wide, and quarantined the whole place up. The race we nicknamed the " Machavoi " has since been left alone, with the occasional monitoring by listening posts. " Greg Nimoy finishes.
" So why come here? " Chief Analyst Lars Rukhzhev asks.
" Isn't it obvious? The damn Guiding Board knows they'll lose this war, and it'll be us who- " An explosion rocks the entire ship! The ship's entire circuitry goes out, and the emergency lights come on.
" We're being shot down! This is the GFV Baron of Bavaria, requesting immediate assistance, is anyone out there, over! "
No response. It all happens so fast, between soldiers grabbing their guns, aliens boarding the ship and the entire place imploding. You black out.
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You wake up, bloody and injured. Billows of smoke arise on the horizon. A few of your men lay with you, some dead, some struggling. After a quick role call, you understand that those who are with you are 2 soldiers, a scientist and 4 of the ship's engineers. You need to regroup with your squad, find where these survivors are and get out of this hellhole of a planet, if you even managed to land on Garrison.
So, where to look first?

Search the Jungle.
Search at where the billows of smoke are originating from.
Try to scan for any signals in the area.

Search for the billows of smoke, who surely are a sign of a form of life. In the jungle there are probably some very dangerous species and signals do not necessarily need to exist in the area.

It takes a while to get there, but you and your team of men head to the sight of the smoke.
What you find is terrible: parts of the Baron of Bavaria are scattered everywhere. According to the engineers, the parts that are scattered about are just extra hull and un-necessary processing centers. This still leaves the question : Where is the ship, and where is the rest of your crew?
Mid-monologue, 2 men come out from the dense jungle.
" Commander! " Lt. Razh says. He informs you that he and Nimoy both woke up in the jungle. The scars of battle are apparent on Razh's armor.
" Do you have any ideas where the rest of the crew is? " You ask.
" No, Commander. But, we have picked up signs of life within the area. I was working on this comms unit before you got here. " Nimoy replies.

Your crew is still amiss, the people stranded on this planet are still stranded, and now the ship is missing. Great.

Continue the search for the crew, investigating another nearby site of billowing smoke.
Head with Nimoy and Razh to inspect their reported signs of life.
Use Nimoy's comms unit to attempt to contact anybody in the region.

Let's investigate another site of billowing smoke. If we choose any other option we may die due to hostile aliens.

After a short break, you lead your group to another site with high hopes.
---
The scene on arrival is terrifying. Soldiers are impaled across the crash site of the Baron of Bavaria. Crewmen lay everywhere, their intestines ripped apart and half of their bodies torn apart. A few, scared soldiers walk out from behind some wreckage.
" We're all that's left. Everyone else... they were killed. " You scan the sky for more smoke, but find nothing. Then it is true. A crew of fifty, slaughtered down to fourteen.
" We need to split up ; the engineers will stay behind and fix the ship, while the rest of us find those survivors... " Lt. Razh declares.
" No, we go together! If those.. things, could do this to fifty of us, then I'm damn sure a few unarmed crewman and a few soldiers will be mincemeat. " The scientist, Professor Davos, says.
" Guys, we aren't even sure where we are! We shouldn't plan ahead in a world where the natives are killing machines! " Pilot Nimoy says.
" Hey, Nimoy is right. " One of the soldiers says.
" Hmm, I suppose we should leave this for another time... but still, we need to figure out where these Machavoi are coming from, and how did they take us down from the sky! I thought their intense hostility stopped them from evolving, especially after learning how to split the atom... " Razh says.
" So Commander, what should we do in the mean time? " Davos asks.

The crew should do some combat drills.
The crew should focus efforts on repairing the ship.
The crew should invest themselves completely into tracing the distress signal, which we came here for.
The crew should study local fauna, for possible food resources and better understanding of Machavoi weaknesses.
The crew should attempt to piece together video footage of the attack of the ship.
The crew should divvy up the different tasks equally.

Edited 1/24/2015 20:30:41

Can we choose a mix? If so, #2 and #5. If not, The crew should study local fauna, for possible food resources and better understanding of Machavoi's weaknesses. The crew need to survive this planet, and they do need to eat.

The only mix is #6, but no matter what you choose some crew will be diverted to discovering the location of the distress signal.
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Someone else can do the response to you doing study local fauna. I'm a little pre-occupied.

Edited 1/24/2015 21:32:45

Since you edited the decisions to allow a mix, I choose #6