roque
Knight
- Local time
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- 35
- Age
- 25
I'd always dreamed of being on a starship. To travel the stars, see things the human race as a whole had never seen before. Even after all these years, it was still something I would've liked to do. Four hundred years ago, when Earth was the only known planet to support life, the first unmanned drone reached the farthest reaches of the known universe. With the invention of faster-than-light communication, the world watched the live camera feed from the drone over thirty light years away. What they saw was the planet Ares. The second habitable planet.
The colonization of the first two planets, Athena and Ares, had been over a century ago. Ever since then the IUS (International Union for Space Travel) had found six more habitable planets, and were getting ready to colonize them. After the discovery of Ares, the IUS had taken control over any militant operation in space. They kept tabs over international space travel. They had a tight grip on whatever went into space, be it a satellite or a Sputnik. I was on the second ship to establish a safe zone for the remaining planetary transports orbiting the third planet, Deferon. PFC Dickins, PSC Collens, PSC Maurder, Lieutenant Zanovich and myself were on the recon team. Our main objective was to gather information on what had happened to the first ship, the Kraken. The ship and its crew hadn't been heard from since the landing. It couldn't have been weather related, so we were sent to investigate.
I had never been on a landing ship before. Sure, I had been on one in the training sims back in basic, and I knew how to fly one if need be. But I'd never set foot on a landing ship until I was assigned to the investigation team.
We entered the atmosphere sooner than I thought we would. It was a pretty rough ride, and I would've vomited if there had been something in my stomach. There were strict rules about star flight. For one thing, eating or drinking 24 hours before the flight was prohibited. As to prevent vomiting. Before I knew it, we were landing. Officer Zanovich told us to bring the equipment we were assigned and nothing else. I managed to slip a few pictures of home into my pack. It'd be bad news if Zanovich found out.
We walked out of the ship. The sun was just going down. Everywhere I looked there were trees. No people. We were the only people on the planet. It felt bizarre. To think that in a few years, there'd be a small village about a mile from where I was standing. The Kraken was just ahead, below the mountain the ship had landed on. It seemed to have crashed, but there were too many trees blocking the way. Had to get a better view. Officer Zanovich told Dickins to take point, and I led the rear. The trip to the Kraken wasn't long. When we got there, the sun had set and we could see the planet's moons. Days were not long here. The nights sometimes lasted for months. The Kraken had indeed crash landed, but there were no obvious signs of the crash. Nothing had been destroyed except the ship itself. There was a hull breach on the right side of the ship, too big to have been from a crash. This couldn't have been a three week old crash. The rust in the paint suggested that it was older. As we grunts established a defensive perimeter, Officer Zanovich radioed in to command about his insights on what might have happened here.
In response, we were given orders to keep investigating and search for survivors. That meant entering the ship. Zanovich said that he and Dickins would go inside the ship to investigate while Collens, Maurder and I were to stay outside and hold the perimeter. My instincts told me this was a bad idea. Something was wrong here. This ship had been at least a month and a half old wreck. Either the intel was wrong about when it crashed (which was never the case), or something else was going on here. Zanovich must have felt the same way, because he said if he wasn't back in 20 minutes, we were to radio back to command, tell them the situation, then tell them we were going to look for Zanovich in the ship.
The wait was dreadfully long. I was starving, since I hadn't eaten in a day, and I was pretty sure Maurder and Collens were hungry too. Luckily, I'd brought a few rations along. I took them out of my pack. Maurder saw them, chuckled, and asked how I got them past Zanovich. Collens' interest was peaked by this, and he finally turned to us. I laughed and said it was easy considering he doesn't check anyone's pack. I handed him and Collens some of the food and we talked for a bit while we ate.
"You been doing this long?" I asked. I was genuinely curious. Me being the newbie, him the veteran.
"What, planetary colonization? Well, it's only been four centuries since we started. Do I look that old?" He joked, and I cracked a smile.
"No, I mean recon. How long have you and the rest of the squad been a team?"
"Three years, not including basic. Four, if I include the time we served in Royal Guard."
"You served in the Royal Guard?" Maurder saw that my interest had been piqued.
"Yeah, for a year. But that was before we started recon. The Chairman assigned us these jobs specifically. Said we were the best-qualified people for the jobs."
"And what did you do before you enlisted?" I asked.
Collens chuckled, but Maurder only smiled.
"Enlisted? I didn't enlist. There was a draft, remember? I've been trained to do this stuff since I was 9 years old."
I thought about that for a moment. A draft? Drafting citizens, as far as I knew, was illegal. Then I remembered the stations. The stations that had to travel over hundreds of years of space to get to the planet they were after. During that time they had to, in a way, colonize the ship. Once the food and oxygen supplies were running low, they started planting fruits and vegetables in the greenhouses that were meant for the planet's surface. They became vegetarians, and they survived. But, unfortunately, the soldiers on the ship all died of old age, and they were forced to draft. They trained citizens as young as 9 years old the way they would train a soldier. Maurder and Collens must have been a part of that.
"Damn. And I thought my training was rough." I said. If there was the pity in my voice, neither Maurder nor Collens showed any signs of offense.
"Trust me, kid. You haven't seen rough until you've seen the way they train draft--" There was a sound. A screech of some creature. Maurder and I looked at each other, and Collens gripped his weapon. He seemed unnerved.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Hell if I know. I've never set foot on this planet, same as you," said Maurder.
We hear it again. We all jumped up from our seats. It was closer. Louder. Left or right?
"I thought there was no life on this planet other than the vegetation," I said.
"Same here," said Collens. That had been the first word he spoke since we got off the ship.
"Something else is going on here. The crash, the loss of communication, and now this," said Maurder.
"What do you think it is?"
"It doesn't matter what I think."
Collens placed a finger on his own lips, told us to be quiet.
Maurder tapped my left shoulder and pointed in front of me.
"Over there. In the bushes," he says, and I looked to where he pointed. He was right. The bush wiggled and jerked, but we didn't hear the sound again. I turned my flashlight on and raised my rifle just as Maurder did the same. I pointed the barrel towards the bush, and Maurder crept forwards, his rifle trained on the bush. Collens stayed quiet and behind the two of us, but he kept his rifle close. The bush kept wriggling, shaking, then it suddenly stopped. Maurder was right in front of the bush then. With one free hand, keeping the barrel on the bush, he moved it with one quick, sudden motion.
Behind the bush was a creature I'd never seen before. Obviously, it was native, but that didn't make me feel less unnerved. It was a hairless, almost pale looking creature. It resembled a very sick dog. When it saw Maurder, it screeched loudly in his face, then turned and ran into the darkness. Reflectively, I almost shot it. Maurder pointed the barrel of my rifle to the floor and told me to calm down. Collens sat back down on his log. We went back to eating, and the next three minutes were spent in wonder on what was going on here.
***
Five minutes later, still no word from Zanovich. Maurder called command and told them what was going on while I put the rest of the food away. Once we were sure command had been notified, we grabbed our gear and went inside.
20 meters inside.
It was dark. Not because of what time it was. This darkness was deeper than the absence of light. We could barely see, even with our lights on. Maurder led the way, I followed behind him, while Collens stayed between us.
40 meters inside.
The interior of the structure was still intact, though it wasn't in good shape. The rust was tearing away at the equipment. There were vines and various plants growing throughout the ship. The floor was full of weeds and other unidentifiable vegetation. The air was thick with humidity. In short, the ship was falling apart.
50 meters inside.
Going towards the aft now, we were seeing more and more plants. We had gathered a few samples for examination. The quarters, bathrooms, and storage rooms are filled with some kind of pod-like plant, not sure if it's aquatic or not. It gives off this distinct odor resembling the yoke of an egg and partially looks like a barnacle. They grow on walls, ceilings, floors, doors, etc. Any attempt to retrieve a sample failed and resulted in the odor becoming worse, almost smelling like rotten meat. Moving past these rooms was not easy. The floors were covered with a yellow, slime-like substance (which, by the way, also smelled like the pods, if not worse) and made mobility nearly impossible. It stuck to our clothes, weapons, and caused a slight irritation to the skin. When we finally passed them all, we found the captain's quarters.
70 meters inside.
Inside the quarters was the ship's Captain, Rodriguez Colon, Private Dickins, and Officer Zanovich. They were lying on the floor, side by side, covered in that same yellow slime from the pod rooms. Their faces were blank. Eyes open, jaw hanging. They lay there, unmoving, unbreathing, even. Maurder walked into the room, letting his rifle hang, and I stood behind, weapon up, ready for whatever might come.
"They're not dead," said Maurder.
"Unconscious?" I asked.
"I don't know. Seems like it."
"How do you figure that happened?" asked Collens.
"I don't know and I don't care right now. We need to move. I don't want to spend a minute more in this place than I have to."
Maurder began to take out the mobile stretchers and put Zanovich and the Captain on them.
Then we heard it again. That screeching of that creature. Louder, and more vicious than it had been before. Collens gripped his rifle and brought it up. Maurder looked at me, and his face said: "We need to move!"
Once the bodies were on the stretchers, the AI found the easiest path to the landing ship and put a protection barrier over the body before it hovered into the next room. Maurder and Collens lift the body of Dickins, and I was left to be their support. Just as we were about to follow, we heard scratching on the walls in various areas of the ship. They echoed off the walls. There was more than one. Two? Four? No way to tell. Maurder, Collens and I were just about to leave the captain's quarters when I glanced backwards, and there they were. 6 of those creatures, their eyes gleaming in the light.
But they didn't lunge at us like we expected. They just stood there, watching.
I turned around and began to run towards my squadmates. Mauder and Collens were still carrying Dickins. Behind us, I could hear them screeching. They were chasing us now. Something we did must have provoked them. I dared not glance back. I was afraid I might trip, and then it'd be over.
We caught up with the stretchers, but those things were still behind us. The opening the stretchers had to get through was too narrow. We'd have to cut an opening for the stretchers or we were never getting out of there. In seconds, Collens and I had turned around and gotten our rifles ready while Maurder got the laser cutter ready, while Dickins lay on the floor. Cutting through this solid steel would take time, at least four minutes. Those creatures were still coming. I kept my head on a swivel and Collens threw a glow stick on the floor to help with visibility.
All I could do was wait. For the few seconds that was. It felt like hours, and at the same time, it felt like no time at all. Before my brain could register it, one of those things had lunged at me from the top left corner of the wall. Instinctively, I fired twice and struck the creature in the chest both times. It fell to the floor and screamed in pain. I fired again, this time in the head and it stopped moving. I looked at Collens, and he gave me a nod. I could hear others coming. Maurder was almost finished with the door.
I pointed my light towards the other end of the corridor.
Three of them, two on the ceiling and the other on the floor, all running towards us with incredible speed. Collens and I raised our rifles, fired. I got two shots off before I was on the ground, the surviving creature on top of me. It beat me repeatedly with it's clawed hands. I was hit on my arms, face, torso. My arms went slack. I couldn't fight it off. I heard two shots, and then the beating stopped. The body convulsed on the ground next to me, and my face was smeared with a green substance. Presumably blood. Collens had shot the creature. Maurder helped me to my feet, and we started running again. I was bleeding. I didn't know where yet, but I was bleeding.
We kept running; following the stretchers while they went back to the ship. We'd tried using the radios to call command, but we didn't get any responses. How funny would it be to think that the people in front of the desks were getting a cup of coffee while we were here calling for help and running for our lives? No, that's unrealistic. There was probably atmospheric disturbances. Still, it would be pretty funny.
I could still hear them from behind us. Screaming, writhing for our blood. We kept running until we reached the end of the ship, where we came in. The stretchers went out first with Maurder while Collens and I watched his rear. Surprisingly, those creatures didn't follow us out. We were home free as far as we knew. The stretchers went ahead, and we stopped to catch our breath.
"What the hell is this?" Collens exclaimed, keeping his rifle close.
"I don't know. We're all in the same boat here." I said, and he had to nod in agreement. I checked my body for the wound. On my right hip there was a gash that ran through my clothes and pierced my skin. There wasn't much blood, and it didn't really hurt much. After we'd caught our breath, we set off for the landing ship again. As I said before, it shouldn't have been too far. With the AI on the stretchers leading us there, it wouldn't take longer than ten minutes. Maybe less, if we hurried.
The colonization of the first two planets, Athena and Ares, had been over a century ago. Ever since then the IUS (International Union for Space Travel) had found six more habitable planets, and were getting ready to colonize them. After the discovery of Ares, the IUS had taken control over any militant operation in space. They kept tabs over international space travel. They had a tight grip on whatever went into space, be it a satellite or a Sputnik. I was on the second ship to establish a safe zone for the remaining planetary transports orbiting the third planet, Deferon. PFC Dickins, PSC Collens, PSC Maurder, Lieutenant Zanovich and myself were on the recon team. Our main objective was to gather information on what had happened to the first ship, the Kraken. The ship and its crew hadn't been heard from since the landing. It couldn't have been weather related, so we were sent to investigate.
I had never been on a landing ship before. Sure, I had been on one in the training sims back in basic, and I knew how to fly one if need be. But I'd never set foot on a landing ship until I was assigned to the investigation team.
We entered the atmosphere sooner than I thought we would. It was a pretty rough ride, and I would've vomited if there had been something in my stomach. There were strict rules about star flight. For one thing, eating or drinking 24 hours before the flight was prohibited. As to prevent vomiting. Before I knew it, we were landing. Officer Zanovich told us to bring the equipment we were assigned and nothing else. I managed to slip a few pictures of home into my pack. It'd be bad news if Zanovich found out.
We walked out of the ship. The sun was just going down. Everywhere I looked there were trees. No people. We were the only people on the planet. It felt bizarre. To think that in a few years, there'd be a small village about a mile from where I was standing. The Kraken was just ahead, below the mountain the ship had landed on. It seemed to have crashed, but there were too many trees blocking the way. Had to get a better view. Officer Zanovich told Dickins to take point, and I led the rear. The trip to the Kraken wasn't long. When we got there, the sun had set and we could see the planet's moons. Days were not long here. The nights sometimes lasted for months. The Kraken had indeed crash landed, but there were no obvious signs of the crash. Nothing had been destroyed except the ship itself. There was a hull breach on the right side of the ship, too big to have been from a crash. This couldn't have been a three week old crash. The rust in the paint suggested that it was older. As we grunts established a defensive perimeter, Officer Zanovich radioed in to command about his insights on what might have happened here.
In response, we were given orders to keep investigating and search for survivors. That meant entering the ship. Zanovich said that he and Dickins would go inside the ship to investigate while Collens, Maurder and I were to stay outside and hold the perimeter. My instincts told me this was a bad idea. Something was wrong here. This ship had been at least a month and a half old wreck. Either the intel was wrong about when it crashed (which was never the case), or something else was going on here. Zanovich must have felt the same way, because he said if he wasn't back in 20 minutes, we were to radio back to command, tell them the situation, then tell them we were going to look for Zanovich in the ship.
The wait was dreadfully long. I was starving, since I hadn't eaten in a day, and I was pretty sure Maurder and Collens were hungry too. Luckily, I'd brought a few rations along. I took them out of my pack. Maurder saw them, chuckled, and asked how I got them past Zanovich. Collens' interest was peaked by this, and he finally turned to us. I laughed and said it was easy considering he doesn't check anyone's pack. I handed him and Collens some of the food and we talked for a bit while we ate.
"You been doing this long?" I asked. I was genuinely curious. Me being the newbie, him the veteran.
"What, planetary colonization? Well, it's only been four centuries since we started. Do I look that old?" He joked, and I cracked a smile.
"No, I mean recon. How long have you and the rest of the squad been a team?"
"Three years, not including basic. Four, if I include the time we served in Royal Guard."
"You served in the Royal Guard?" Maurder saw that my interest had been piqued.
"Yeah, for a year. But that was before we started recon. The Chairman assigned us these jobs specifically. Said we were the best-qualified people for the jobs."
"And what did you do before you enlisted?" I asked.
Collens chuckled, but Maurder only smiled.
"Enlisted? I didn't enlist. There was a draft, remember? I've been trained to do this stuff since I was 9 years old."
I thought about that for a moment. A draft? Drafting citizens, as far as I knew, was illegal. Then I remembered the stations. The stations that had to travel over hundreds of years of space to get to the planet they were after. During that time they had to, in a way, colonize the ship. Once the food and oxygen supplies were running low, they started planting fruits and vegetables in the greenhouses that were meant for the planet's surface. They became vegetarians, and they survived. But, unfortunately, the soldiers on the ship all died of old age, and they were forced to draft. They trained citizens as young as 9 years old the way they would train a soldier. Maurder and Collens must have been a part of that.
"Damn. And I thought my training was rough." I said. If there was the pity in my voice, neither Maurder nor Collens showed any signs of offense.
"Trust me, kid. You haven't seen rough until you've seen the way they train draft--" There was a sound. A screech of some creature. Maurder and I looked at each other, and Collens gripped his weapon. He seemed unnerved.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Hell if I know. I've never set foot on this planet, same as you," said Maurder.
We hear it again. We all jumped up from our seats. It was closer. Louder. Left or right?
"I thought there was no life on this planet other than the vegetation," I said.
"Same here," said Collens. That had been the first word he spoke since we got off the ship.
"Something else is going on here. The crash, the loss of communication, and now this," said Maurder.
"What do you think it is?"
"It doesn't matter what I think."
Collens placed a finger on his own lips, told us to be quiet.
Maurder tapped my left shoulder and pointed in front of me.
"Over there. In the bushes," he says, and I looked to where he pointed. He was right. The bush wiggled and jerked, but we didn't hear the sound again. I turned my flashlight on and raised my rifle just as Maurder did the same. I pointed the barrel towards the bush, and Maurder crept forwards, his rifle trained on the bush. Collens stayed quiet and behind the two of us, but he kept his rifle close. The bush kept wriggling, shaking, then it suddenly stopped. Maurder was right in front of the bush then. With one free hand, keeping the barrel on the bush, he moved it with one quick, sudden motion.
Behind the bush was a creature I'd never seen before. Obviously, it was native, but that didn't make me feel less unnerved. It was a hairless, almost pale looking creature. It resembled a very sick dog. When it saw Maurder, it screeched loudly in his face, then turned and ran into the darkness. Reflectively, I almost shot it. Maurder pointed the barrel of my rifle to the floor and told me to calm down. Collens sat back down on his log. We went back to eating, and the next three minutes were spent in wonder on what was going on here.
***
Five minutes later, still no word from Zanovich. Maurder called command and told them what was going on while I put the rest of the food away. Once we were sure command had been notified, we grabbed our gear and went inside.
20 meters inside.
It was dark. Not because of what time it was. This darkness was deeper than the absence of light. We could barely see, even with our lights on. Maurder led the way, I followed behind him, while Collens stayed between us.
40 meters inside.
The interior of the structure was still intact, though it wasn't in good shape. The rust was tearing away at the equipment. There were vines and various plants growing throughout the ship. The floor was full of weeds and other unidentifiable vegetation. The air was thick with humidity. In short, the ship was falling apart.
50 meters inside.
Going towards the aft now, we were seeing more and more plants. We had gathered a few samples for examination. The quarters, bathrooms, and storage rooms are filled with some kind of pod-like plant, not sure if it's aquatic or not. It gives off this distinct odor resembling the yoke of an egg and partially looks like a barnacle. They grow on walls, ceilings, floors, doors, etc. Any attempt to retrieve a sample failed and resulted in the odor becoming worse, almost smelling like rotten meat. Moving past these rooms was not easy. The floors were covered with a yellow, slime-like substance (which, by the way, also smelled like the pods, if not worse) and made mobility nearly impossible. It stuck to our clothes, weapons, and caused a slight irritation to the skin. When we finally passed them all, we found the captain's quarters.
70 meters inside.
Inside the quarters was the ship's Captain, Rodriguez Colon, Private Dickins, and Officer Zanovich. They were lying on the floor, side by side, covered in that same yellow slime from the pod rooms. Their faces were blank. Eyes open, jaw hanging. They lay there, unmoving, unbreathing, even. Maurder walked into the room, letting his rifle hang, and I stood behind, weapon up, ready for whatever might come.
"They're not dead," said Maurder.
"Unconscious?" I asked.
"I don't know. Seems like it."
"How do you figure that happened?" asked Collens.
"I don't know and I don't care right now. We need to move. I don't want to spend a minute more in this place than I have to."
Maurder began to take out the mobile stretchers and put Zanovich and the Captain on them.
Then we heard it again. That screeching of that creature. Louder, and more vicious than it had been before. Collens gripped his rifle and brought it up. Maurder looked at me, and his face said: "We need to move!"
Once the bodies were on the stretchers, the AI found the easiest path to the landing ship and put a protection barrier over the body before it hovered into the next room. Maurder and Collens lift the body of Dickins, and I was left to be their support. Just as we were about to follow, we heard scratching on the walls in various areas of the ship. They echoed off the walls. There was more than one. Two? Four? No way to tell. Maurder, Collens and I were just about to leave the captain's quarters when I glanced backwards, and there they were. 6 of those creatures, their eyes gleaming in the light.
But they didn't lunge at us like we expected. They just stood there, watching.
I turned around and began to run towards my squadmates. Mauder and Collens were still carrying Dickins. Behind us, I could hear them screeching. They were chasing us now. Something we did must have provoked them. I dared not glance back. I was afraid I might trip, and then it'd be over.
We caught up with the stretchers, but those things were still behind us. The opening the stretchers had to get through was too narrow. We'd have to cut an opening for the stretchers or we were never getting out of there. In seconds, Collens and I had turned around and gotten our rifles ready while Maurder got the laser cutter ready, while Dickins lay on the floor. Cutting through this solid steel would take time, at least four minutes. Those creatures were still coming. I kept my head on a swivel and Collens threw a glow stick on the floor to help with visibility.
All I could do was wait. For the few seconds that was. It felt like hours, and at the same time, it felt like no time at all. Before my brain could register it, one of those things had lunged at me from the top left corner of the wall. Instinctively, I fired twice and struck the creature in the chest both times. It fell to the floor and screamed in pain. I fired again, this time in the head and it stopped moving. I looked at Collens, and he gave me a nod. I could hear others coming. Maurder was almost finished with the door.
I pointed my light towards the other end of the corridor.
Three of them, two on the ceiling and the other on the floor, all running towards us with incredible speed. Collens and I raised our rifles, fired. I got two shots off before I was on the ground, the surviving creature on top of me. It beat me repeatedly with it's clawed hands. I was hit on my arms, face, torso. My arms went slack. I couldn't fight it off. I heard two shots, and then the beating stopped. The body convulsed on the ground next to me, and my face was smeared with a green substance. Presumably blood. Collens had shot the creature. Maurder helped me to my feet, and we started running again. I was bleeding. I didn't know where yet, but I was bleeding.
We kept running; following the stretchers while they went back to the ship. We'd tried using the radios to call command, but we didn't get any responses. How funny would it be to think that the people in front of the desks were getting a cup of coffee while we were here calling for help and running for our lives? No, that's unrealistic. There was probably atmospheric disturbances. Still, it would be pretty funny.
I could still hear them from behind us. Screaming, writhing for our blood. We kept running until we reached the end of the ship, where we came in. The stretchers went out first with Maurder while Collens and I watched his rear. Surprisingly, those creatures didn't follow us out. We were home free as far as we knew. The stretchers went ahead, and we stopped to catch our breath.
"What the hell is this?" Collens exclaimed, keeping his rifle close.
"I don't know. We're all in the same boat here." I said, and he had to nod in agreement. I checked my body for the wound. On my right hip there was a gash that ran through my clothes and pierced my skin. There wasn't much blood, and it didn't really hurt much. After we'd caught our breath, we set off for the landing ship again. As I said before, it shouldn't have been too far. With the AI on the stretchers leading us there, it wouldn't take longer than ten minutes. Maybe less, if we hurried.