The militia moved in to the area, securing the ship anticipating another set of Stalkers or something else, while several followed Tyson, Colton and the new man whose name was Reid.
The entrance was a mess of wires and metal, the compartment was quite wide fitting the squad of fifteen.
“So, what happened?” Reid asked with confusion.
“That all depends on what you mean by happened?”
“Where’s the smog, why is earth so green and lush and hostile and-“
“The planet went under a rapid reset.” Colton responded.
Reid gave him an odd look and chuckled. “No way, you're joking.”
“Do I look like I’m joking? Tell me a place on earth that is green in the time we’re living in?”
Reid was preparing to speak, then saw Colton’s point. “How long ago did this take place?”
“Probably the same time you stopped getting tests run and reports needing to be sent in. Say seven years ago.”
“Sounds about right Commander.” He responded, “One day we’re asked to complete this weird exercise, then the next all the coms to earth go down. We thought it was a drill. A week, good assumption, a month, odd but still possible, a year, perhaps they’re seeing if we survive or not, but this long, that makes sense.”
“No it doesn’t, don’t tell me a planet resetting itself makes sense because it doesn’t.”
Reid looked at him timidly, “So… what faction do you represent?”
“Pardon?”
“Are you the UN, the American alliance, god forbid the Reformen?”
“Oh, I understand… you think reset just applies to structures. The population of the earth was hit to, as far as we know my group of eight hundred is the only living group on this continent.” Colton responded coming to a white metal door and attempting to open it.
“What? That can’t be, how could it-”
“For the final time I’m as befuddled as you, now how do I open this door?”
Reid walked over beside it and tapped the wall twice, it opened revealing an intercom. “This is Reid, let me up there.”
The com was silent, then a voice came out. “Yeah… sure, what’s my birthday?”
“Oh not this again, come on Ashley, open the door.”
“Yeah, we saw those soldiers, prove to me you’re Reid or I won’t open the door.”
Colton stepped up to the com now pushing Reid out of the way, “Hello, my name is Colton and I am the leader of this group. Open the door please, we have Reid with us and he’s unharmed.”
“Ah ha, this is a hostage situation. Now let me tell you something, we don’t need Reid and you can keep him. Until we get orders we are not coming out of this place!” The voice continued.
“Orders are never coming, everything is gone. The mission ended seven years ago! Look out the window and ask why is it so green?” Reid insisted.
“It’s obviously an illusion, probably a holographic environment to trick us!”
“You know what, fine. We’ll take Reid back with us to our base, several kilometers away from here. In the meanwhile you can attempt to survive all the hideous creatures that come for you and whoever else is in their!”
“Fine!” The voice replied.
Colton took his hand off the button, and turned to Tyson. “Have are men move out of the area, tell them to wait in the trees, Reid and I will wait here for them to break their stubbornness and open the door. Once that occurs I’ll send you back out there to get them.
Tyson rushed outside and did what was said and then went back in, “It’s done.”
“Excellent, Reid go with my team.”
“What, why?”
“Do you really think this bluff will work if they don’t see you? Get out there and follow.”
The boy nodded his head and walked outside with Colton and Tyson watching as the military got back into their carts and on to their horses and took off just behind the trees.
Then Colton and Tyson returned to the com, “Alright we’re pulling out forces out, but before we go I’ll just warn you about a couple things. The weird metal looking wolf things are called Ravengers, They’re tough and enjoying eating just about anything although they do have a taste for meat. If they really want to get you, then all they would have to do is eat through the hull of your ship which for a pack is no big feat. Secondly, you have damages in your structure, the Ravengers are too stupid to use those but the Stalkers aren’t. They stand six to seven meters tall, have big heads, a mouth of sharp teeth and claws. They are quite fragile things but they have an inherent ability to turn invisible, you may have saw me early dicing my way through a hoard of those creatures. We have thermal vision, so I hope you do as well. Finally, there might be a Drakin in the area, they’re large dragon like creatures that can heat themselves to burning temperatures and have very tough skin. They can and will rip through anything that gets in their way. If you survive all of these things without us then you’ll be fine. Once the sun comes up most of the creatures will flee so you’ll be okay then… if you survive of course. Now unless you have any more questions will be on our way.”
Tyson and Colton waited a minute, then proceeded to walk through the ship and out of it, slowly heading towards their horses.
As they were getting on another person came sprinting out of the ship, she was short also wearing a jumpsuit, “Wait, wait, wait!” She shouted rushing towards them.
“I’m sorry about how I was acting earlier, nothing makes any sense and it’s a bit nerve racking. Please come back with your army, we need your help.”
Colton smiled, “But of course.” He stated. “Alright come back out guys, we’re pulling an all-nighter tonight!”
The unit’s quickly pulled back into position, preparing for another encounter with the monsters while Reid and Ashley showed Tyler and Commander up to their bridge The bridge looked mostly intact and undamaged. It’s design based out of science fiction, looking similar to one from Star Trek.
The short orange haired girl looked up to the Commander, “Welcome to the command center.” She stated beaming brightly.
“It may not seem grand, but it works.” Added Reid.
“I wouldn’t have expected anything else from us, I’m surprised at how advanced it is. How many crew members?”
“About eight in total, including the three of us!” Ashley responded.
“Make that six, Ash.” The third member stated solemnly as he typed on a monitor, the two others looked at him.
“What do you mean six?” Asked Reid.
“I mean we all didn’t make it, Tony and Malek got caught in the fuel explosion in engineering when we hit the surface.”
“No way, come on Rocco, they ran out when Evelynn order them too.”
“Well the line began venting fuel! Now if they didn’t stay back and fix it then none of us would have made. Grow up Reid, this isn’t a fairy tale where we nothing bad happens.” Rocco shouted.
“Easy frost, no need to yell at him. It’s not like he knew.” Ashley stated poking fun at her companions white hair.
Rocco was about to say… more like yell something but Colton quickly intervened. “Ok, now I don’t know what exactly has been happening on this ship nor do I have ties with its members. However I do realize emotions are high, you just fell out of orbit, you lost two men and I’m sorry but I need you to stay calm. After all, earth has changed since you last touched its soil.”
Rocco and the crew looked at each other for a moment, then began laughing.
“Commander, what did you do?” Asked Tyson.
“I have no idea.” He replied looking at the three.
“Last touched its soil, that’s a good one Colt.” Reid stated bending over.
“How?”
“What you seriously don’t know?”
Both men shook their heads, and the laughter ceased to confusion.
“What organization do they-“ Rocco began.
“Our own, Eden, the last human stronghold known to exist on this continent, if you spacemen had been paying attention you might have noticed that the earth is a lot darker and cleaner than what it once was.” Colton responded, getting a bit annoyed at needing to repeat the obvious.
“What are you talking about?” Asked Ashley, who was also a bit confused.
“I’ll explain everything, once you’re crew is gathered. Now tell me why I was so funny earlier!”
Reid cleared his throat and the men turned to look at him. “Well, I’ll start from the beginning. Space colonization has been a subject on the table for a long time, the only problem is no one was quite sure how it would affect us. Let alone if we could raise children out here and expand without earth. Thus began the bridge project!”
Rocco continued, “Bridge was any idea, of building a way for us to cross the stars and expand without earth. Eight set of parents were sourced, each having specific skills and knowledge that could benefit the human race. They were then sent up to the space station, Bridge 0-5, and then proceeded to, putting it in scientific terms, reproduce and create offspring.”
Ashley followed, “All of us were healthy, our only differences found with are hair, no one really sure why but some of us have normal hair, like Reid and I, while others, like Rocco have special hair. After all white isn’t a natural colour for his age and his parents had black hair. Anyway, we were raised by them, taught to survive until we were eighteen. Then are parents were removed from the facility… that was hard.” She paused biting her lip.
Reid finished up the story, “Since then we’ve been living up among the stars, everything per usual.”
“Except seven years ago when the chatter disappeared.” Colton stated.
“Yeah, after a year had gone by we just decided to continue with our mission. So we kept going, farming in the eco-dome, working in the cyber area… everything fine. Until today, the system completely malfunctioned, computers locking up, power fluctuating, eventually the station began to shut down. So, we grabbed what we needed and evacuated to this ship, It was supposed to be our ride back to earth a couple years ago, but it works well as an escape pod too. Thus we landed and met you people.”
Colton took the information in for a moment, preceded it. Perhaps humanity wasn’t as flawed as once thought, still they had made one crucial error. “Ok, now I think I have an idea of what happened, yet just so we’re clear I’m waiting for the whole crew to be on deck.”
“Well, you won’t have to wait too long.” A voice called from behind him.
Colton turned to face the voice, a woman about his height stood before him with long crimson hair. Behind her two more men came, a blue haired chap and a violet haired one. “Reid wasn’t kidding when said you folks have some strange hair.”
“He rarely kids, and when he does no one tends to laugh. The blue haired fellow said stepping towards Colton. “Now what makes you think that you have the right to claim our ship?”
“He’s not claiming our ship Zayne, if anything he’s saving us.” Reid argued.
“He’s not lying, it’s dangerous out there. No tricks or illusions according to Rocco’s perimeter scan. We both saw the mess with our own eyes and Rocco from behind a monitor.” Ashley added.
“Captain, Earth has become a much more hostile environment according to the given intel.” Rocco chimed.
“This is ridiculous, they’re trying to punk us and then take us captive. We should wait for the proper group to come rescue us.” Zayne argued.
All eyes were on the red headed lady, it was obvious she was in charge, what was she waiting for though? She then turned to the violet haired fellow.
“Wes, you’ve been quiet, what’s your opinion?” She asked.
The man looked at her, then to the group. “If they were a threat they would have already taken control, and since they haven’t, they are our friends for now, Miss Evelynn.”
“You’re outnumbered here Zayne, as for this man, who is he?”
“He’s Commander Colton Keltic, leader of the survivor stronghold six kilometers from here.” Tyson stated
“Survivor stronghold?” They all questioned but Reid.
“Yeah, earth isn’t what you remember it to be. Now do you people require a history lesson of the last seven years, or hold off for tonight”
“Earth history given in person, that sounds like a nice change.” Evelynn commented, “I would like that, everyone to the conference room, let’s hear more about what we’ve missed from our domain in the sky.”
The Captain led her members to the conference room with the two new men following. She then let them in one by one stopping Colton as he was to go in and let Tyson in first.
“Now, my crew trusts you and that’s great. However, you screw with us and you’ll be sorry.”
“Captain, please, I have many things I happen to be dealing with and pissing you off isn’t on my list. Let me make things absolutely clear, I rode six kilometers on a horse, at a dangerous time of night through wild territory full of monsters. If I was here to screw you over than I simply would have waited for night to pass and then scavenge from your ship. Do we have an understanding?”
The Captain nodded her head taken aback, then led the man in awaiting the information that he had for them.
No comments:
Post a Comment