Bestial Planet

Chapter 5: Morning Drive

(peace amidst the horrors of reality.)

The Long Beach shoreline was forever changed. From a distance it looked like a child had slammed a massive building into the ground, kicking up the ground around it. Miles of alien warship stuck up into the air like something was trying to claw its way out of the Earth. At it's widest point it spanned a mile. From the ground you'd swear the ship was reaching into the clouds. Seven skylines had been redrawn with miles of vertical alien warship stretching into the atmosphere as if trying to get back to space, back to it's mission. But they were tattooed with carnage of meeting an object larger and more dense.

Here, at Section 6, a rupture raced through a large section of the ship facing the ocean. At this moment Captain Steegle was standing there, about 700 feet up, looking out at the ocean of the planet she was now responsible for. She seemed to be wearing human clothes; jeans, a graphic-t and hiking boots. Any hint of her military uniform was gone. Her hair was moving with the higher altitude winds and every so often you caught a glimpse of something on the right side of her head. It was hard to tell with the sun almost behind the ship at this time of day, casting her in a deep shadow.

Around Section 6 huge craters were filled with debris of a civilization that was. The craters surrounded these Sections like mass graves. After so many months, the never ceasing forests and parks started to take over what the humans had claimed for their cities at an alarming rate. Weeds were growing up through the asphalt and sidewalks. Trees stretched their roots wherever possible, often causing houses to collapse where the ground had been hollowed out for one reason or another. Nature was reclaiming the cities from her Humans.

"Captain."

A flickering holo-screen appeared to Captain Steegle's left and a one armed Android saluted her as best he could before speaking.

"Yes Hinrey, anything new?"

The Captain pulled her hair back into a ponytail, displaying a new scar which stretched backward from the corner of her right eye and tore off the top of her ear.

"Well Tould said he thinks he found some replacement parts in the main Section 9 wreckage. I was hoping someone from your post could check it out since you're closer."

"No problem, I'll ask Yora. Have Tould send the coordinates this way."

"Thanks Captain, I haven't been able to work out since I woke up, this body's getting stiff."

"Well if Tould's scans are correct this time, you should be back in shape soon enough."

"What the hell do you mean 'this time'?!"

An angry polygonal face appeared on screen, superimposed over the call interface. Apparently something went wrong when Tould downloaded himself to Section 6 before planet fall. An anomaly caused him a deep system split, an A.I. malady similar to Dissociative Identity Disorder and just as complex, if not moreso. This new personality wasn't murderous or psychopathic, he was just highly offensive and easily offended. No one was really sure how it happened. No one was really sure how any of this happened.

"Now now brother, she didn't mean anything by it. She's just saying that.."

"Yeah I know what the hell she was saying! She was saying that we are sub-par and should just be discarded. Well good luck sister I'm fully integrated into this baby, so you can kiss my..."

"Your what Vould, your what? You have no ass to kiss." Captain Steegle said, stifling a laugh.

Vould paused his angry retort, the words caught in his figurative throat.