TCS: Fate Of The Cosmos

Chapter 1: The beginning of the end

"Hellooo? Locke?! Please! Wake up!"

...

"COME- ONNNN!! I can tell your vitals are working more than just fine!!"

...

"Locke...?"

The air is humid, to the point of discomfort, enough to cause anyone to sweat their skin off. The scent of rot fills the dimly lit room. It is quite dark. A quiet humming is the only noise to be heard.

In the room, our survivor lies unconscious, beaten.

"This can't be happening!!"

A small robotic companion hovers distressed before the unconscious survivor, who sits hunched back against a wall. HLN-A uses her robotic fins, trying to make the survivor wake up, pushing into him and smacking him with her small limbs but to no avail. But nothing. Not until the man suddenly jolts back to life, hyperventilating. Sweat runs down his body from within the tek suit he dons, and an incredible heat swallows him.

Locke coughs violently as blood splatters on the inside of his helmet, and he panics grabbing at his helmet, tugging at it as steam is released from within. He throws it off and takes deep breaths between lung-crushing coughs, sending blood out his throat.

Locke's black hair lies greasy and sweaty over his face.

"LOCKE!!" HLNA shouts in relief as the survivor comes back to life.

He continues to cough and breathes heavily, the heat almost making him pass out again. It takes him some time, but eventually, Locke builds up the strength to focus. He looks up at HLNA with an internally dead glare, and HLNA looks back at him.

"What... happened...? Where am I?"

Locke wheezes the words beneath his dry breath.

"Simply put, a tentacle burst through the floor and you failed to fight it! It grabbed you, slammed you against corridors trying to kill you, and eventually left you to die in this place!" HLNA responds, waving her little fins around.

Locke groans as he tries to get up, HLNA only watching as she doesn't really have the hands to help him.

"What is this place...?" Locke asks and grabs his helmet, wiping blood from the inside of the visor.

"Looks like... some kind of graveyard," HLNA responds.

Locke takes a moment to stabilize himself on his weak legs, standing straight up. It is when his eyes meet his surroundings, that they widen caused by an explosion of emotions and thoughts. As the survivor looks up, he is met with the same material on the walls, as the one which dons his suit. Silver platings lined the walls, the floor, and the ceiling. Blue and cyan lights are spotted in between every other plating, dimly lighting up the environment. They were not very bright. All of this was very similar to what he had seen when he collapsed out of the biopod, leaving the genesis simulation. All of this was no news to Locke's eyes though, and his attention was quickly caught by a horrific sight, which tells him exactly where that dreading scent of rot and acid came from.

A meaty substance is growing across the room, on all surfaces one could imagine. The eyes littered across the flesh-like growth stared at Locke as he stared back at them in horror. The growth was pulsing, breathing as if it was alive. Sharp teeth and gaping mouths grew from the walls, it was all surreal. Locke recoils in fear at this, taking a step back, only to step onto something that burst beneath his foot.

The sound echoes throughout the room; a wet and moist squish. Locke swiftly stepped away, startled only to look down and be met with a disgusting view of a human corpse, almost entirely fused into the meaty floor they lie on. He had crushed the head of the poor deceased. Looking around himself, Locke sees more corpses. Tens, hundreds, stacked on top of each other.