Skeleton Crew: Stranded Lives

Prolouge

Throughout our existance on earth, we humans have had the pleasure of fighting amungst ourselves. We create weapons of mass destruction. Tools to help facilitate killing eachother in the most effective, most efficient way possible just so we can either protect ourselves, our beliefs and our own groups. We kill ourselves out of pitty, delusion, greed, sarrow, lust and pride. We kill eachother to conquer ourselves to try and fill empty voids we have just to try and satisfy our own greed and bloodlust. One day, we learned we weren't alone. We learned that we are not alone in this universe. Not alone, not separated and just discovered by forces we couldn't comprehend due to our own warring and slougher of one another. The visitor, bearing a strang mark, wearing a slick, bright suit but strangely...they bare the same figure as a human. Taller, skinnier, bolder, brighter, and mosy frighteningly...segnificantly smarter. Claiming to be a refugee of a now long, dead and decimated planet hundreds if not thousands of light-years away in a galaxy consumed by known forces, she warned of a incoming darkness so frightening, so devastating and so bent on consuming the universe, she pleaded to be sheltered to hide and help us build up to become a fledgling, space bearing force to escape in inevitable darkness that wouldn't hesitate to consume earth and her life bearing seeds. Only one country choose to bring her in and treat her as if she was human dispite her physical, mental, and physiological differences. With the greatest war still raging on, this country was neutral from the beginning. Amungst the largest, most powerful of them all, the country aided her allies in thier desprate bid for power. Though the government slowly pulled back aid due to allies turned enemies or allies killed and driven to refuge within the country, she stood as a becean to all who sinply wanted to get away from the war that currently decimates earth. With the old country's long dead and distroyed, this country is the longest standing governmental system that reformed and reformed the United States are a short but costly revolution. The name of this country? The United Sovren Republic, became what the United States failed to become. The land of the free. The land of the people. The land of the truely free. To all people. Even the extra terrestrial. Heeding her warning, the people affectionately named her Hope as she quickly became the leading figure in immense and quick R&D development. In 3 short years, the United Republic became the powerhouse for research, development, weapons manufacturing, early stages of immense and power mechs of power. Though her instructions grew more strict, and her codes slowly but surely stunted some aspects, she grew compationate and grew to care for the people that took her in and quickly heeded her words and tidings of doom. Eventually, the United Republic and Hope came togeather and began to devise plans for the inevitable evacuation of Earth and her people. For months, they pitched ideas, tested prototypes, invented a new mathematical system, but non of them would have been able to shepered and shield all of humanity. They all ended with one final conclusion. Only at most 200,000 people could be safely taken off world. Bearly even a small fraction of humanity could be saved. Let alone a state. Let alone the whole continent. Undeterred, Hope pressed on and eventually came to another conclusion. One that was better. One that held a less, doomed outcome. Large, behemoth side capital ships, based off the ones from her homeworld was envisioned. Behind able to house a little over a million people, this massive ship, this leap of faith became the final hope for the United Republic. After months of testing and new innovations and planning, the first ship lifted, shepparding a crew of only 50,000 crew members conducted thier first mission. A 6 hour mission. To Jupiter and back. Apon thier return, the ship landed as the nation cheered. It was the first success in almost a year. Production kicked into overdrive. 3 more ships built. 3 more Sheppards. The project was then dubbed The 'Lifehold of Earth'. With people begining thier boarding of the first ship, Hope then came up with a new weapon to increase the projects success and to make colization of a new planet easier and safer. The plants contained a new type of mech that could be mass produced, easy to learn and powerful enough to protect humanity from threats that would only be seen in the encroaching future. The name of these mechs? She calls them 'Skellitons'. Suits someone could walk into. Interfacing with the nervous system, they would become a second skin for anyone strong enough, trained, and slightly changed through an augmentation that would plant a bolt at the base of the skull to allow the Skelliton to read, react, and act as if the person themselve wasnt even wearing it. Seamless. Immensely powerful. Most groups adopted the mechs and only made the single augmentation to allow thier soldiers to connect to the suit. Other less known but rich groups, took the augmentation and push it to its limits. Little did the United Republic know, these groups could turn humans into cyborgs. Still fleash and blone but heavily changed through sevral surgeries to implant the new mesh armer, graph complex computer systems, and weave wires through vanes to increase the human bodies potential artificially. Surgeries that quickly became fatal to most people. Very few survived the first surgeries. Even less survived the mid phase training. Only the most stubborn and unique survived the 5 month long process. Affectionately called 'Augmented' these super humans were trained so intensely, conditioned so immensely, they only knew 1 thing. Thier one and only mission they would sacrifice everything to complete. Save, protect, secure, and oversee humanity when the day came thier designated ships landed onto a habitable planet. The first batch was brought to the goverments attention. Through bright eyes, big smiles, and genuine glee, these Augmented showed how powerful they were. Endless stamina. Strangth to lift bull dozers. Senses sharper than the most advance radars. They even hid a secret. Codes that onces activated, they would instantly switch focus, complete the objective connected to the code then return to thier orginal duties. Codes that lied dorment in thier sophisticated, highly advanced computing systems that once activated, nothing would stop them other than death. Dispite this, they retrained thier free will. Thier own thoughts, personality, planning, thinking, and other abilities and traits that made them human. Every one of them, agreed to be changed. Every one of them, risking everything to ensure their friends and family would be safe. Dispite the promise, dispite the desporation the nation was staring to feel, the government rejected the Augmented. 'Freaks' they were called. 'Sleeper agents' they claimed. The most loyal, the most devoted were shamed and denounced for thier actions. Dispite thier ruined reputation and rage, they continued the surgeries as some people approached and valinteered to be changed. Wounded soldiers. Veterans seeking a second chance. They know the risk. They knew what they were getting into and they had an 80% chance of dying on the table. They still took it. Dispite the progress. Dispite the innovation. The war turned agent the nation and the attacks began. Hope, forced to see her innovations used agenst humans who didnt want to see reason, she cried, as her Skellitons, her pride and joy was used to kill the humans she desprately wanted to saved. Her friends. Her new families. Were starting to die by the hands of greed, conquest, lust, all the sins that conusmed the rest of the world. One day, the White House was attacked. Pushed to her limit. Blood soaking her hands. Skelliton failed due to the blasts she took. She stood as an Augmented shielded her with a Skelliton she hadn't seen before. Stronger her own. More advanced in every way. The Augmented took her hand, shielded her, fought with her, defended her for days as she whatched all of her hard work used in ways she never wanted them to be used in. Carrying her to a hospital, the Augmented guarded her as if she was thier own daughter. It was then, the shamed, shunned and dispositions Augmented people were welcomed. The government in turmoil. The nation being attacked at every angle. The government enlisted the Augmented's help and beat back thier enemies with ease. Hope, seeing what they could do, devised an even better Skelliton. A Skelliton that trumps the power of them all. Even the one she used to get to earth. The first Skelliton Prime was made. Tested by the very Augmented that saved her life. The day before the debut, the first signs showed thier ugly heads. The darkness. The consuming forces that took her home world, that devoured her people had reached the Milky Way Galaxy. The 4 ships, tested, ready and standing by, now only had meer days, maybe meer hours to load thier people and flee earth. In the 6 years she lived on earth, she didnt accomplish her main mission. Save humanity. Now, she could only save a fraction. Little to her knowledge, the darkness wasnt alone. A second race. Just as advanced. Just as disctructive. Just as all consuming followed the darkness and was at war with it. With hundreds of thousands of soldiers, armed with Skellitons, armed with powerful weapons of unimaginable distruction, stood ready to give thier lived to save the behemoth ships. 'At all costs, these ships are to be protected!' Thier orders were. The United Sovren Republic now stood and faced extinction without flinching. The other warring nations, unprepaired, were distroyed in days. Millions of people, died in a few, very short days by the aliens battling the darkness that looked more and more powerful with each hour. The 4 great arch ships, loaded, fueled, supplied and as many people in stasis as possible, now stood ready to fly and flee the distruction. Cities burning. Great monuments turned to ash and rubble. Hope whatched as soldiers, civilians, Augmented, the darkness and the new alien race desperately fought for ground. One arch ship, protected by an elite guard, fell in orbit to a stray beam, cleaving it in two. The elite guard, torned apart, desimated by the alien race that deliberately targeted humans. With a sudden shift, the darkness relented and focused all efforts on distroying the alien forces, giving the last 3 ships a chance to escape. Unfortunately, one of the great ships would brealy enter warp space. Sevearly damaged, guards desimated, and falling apart, Hope stared with pure sarrow and sadness as the shit was torn apart by the vacuum of space, turning the last hope of human survival into a fight that would last the rest of her lifetime. Unscathed itself, Hopes ship lead the last ship into a warp jump that would last many years. The crew finally able to rest, her autopilot fully enabled, and her systems perfect, Hope was the last to enter stasis as the two great ships navigated the universe togeather. Outpacing, outplanning, and invisible to other, potentially hostile alien races, they sored through space, with no known destination.

After 200, very long, very hard years, the ships exited warp space in-between galaxies with countless planets. Hope awakened to a engineer, calling her to wake up. Her ship was in disrepair. The automated systems, old, withering and unmaintained by the robot sworm ment to take care of the ship, lied in piles around the ship. Thier deactivation a result of the ship entering and exiting countless nebulas that shocked thier systems and drained thier power cells through corrosion. Unable to fix themselves in time, they slowly fell into scrap piles. Essential personnel now awake and active, they relized the other arch ship layed dorment behind them. Scouts dispatched, they discovered they were raided some time ago. Cryo pods distroyed, pods holding sleeping people, now rotted with corpses. Half the people the great ship held now dead, a difficult decision was made. Salvaging the ship, repairing thier own and waking up the survivors to be transported the her ship. Many quite but deeply depressing months passed as the second to last arch ship was carfully taken apart to repair the final ship. Believing she had failed, Hope roamed in solitude. Depressed, sad, and utterly hopeless, she whatched as her new family struggled to survive. The government now ash in the cold winds, few people rose up to take responsibility and bring togeather the shattered race. Seeing thier stubbornness and sheer will to survive, Hope began the road of recovery and began the work to find, settle and prepare future generations to face the same evil that took her homes away. Dispite thier distance, dispite thier preparation and sheer force of will, something followed them into a glaxay they found was nearly perfect. The very alien race that targeted humanity, followed them to the other side of the galaxy. Thier rage, vengeance and bloodlust had only increased thier hatred twords the humans that desimated thier ancestors back in earth. A desperate clash unfolded as what was left of humanity fought the aliens on equal footing. The battle spanded 3 weeks with the few Augmented constantly fighting, distroying and pushing the aliens back as thier pure blood and fleash brothers and sisters rested, regrouped, resupplied and returned to continue the fight. With losses mounting, the arch ship began to take damage. With the alien forces having no end to thier numbers, humanity was begining to see its death thralls. It was only then, a single command was given. 'Exicute order 99. Command code Sigma Sintari Simmarus.' That single command put every Augmented into a frenzy. Thier bodies were put into such a hightened state, they beat back the alien forces within moments. Nobody knows who gave the order. Not even Hope knew was the order was. What she did know, it gave them the break they desperately needed. Beaten. Battered. Bloody. The ship was to damaged to resist the gravitational pull a massive planet that now pulled the crumbling ship into its orbit. As if calling the ship to it, they approached the planet with increasing dread. The aliens erraticated from the galaxy for a time, the Augmented rushed back to the ship and used thier own bodies to help the ship enter the skies of the planet. Many died due to sustaining to much damage, others passed out and fell onto the planets surface, lost to its lands. The ship, unable to hold itself togeather, ejected the stasis chamber holding 95% of humanity as they safely landed somewhere on the surface. The rest, clung onto the ship as she fell apart and crashed onto the surface. Many dead, to many injured and bearly alive, the crew of the now distroyed ship began the very long and very hard journey of exploring, discovering and building thier new lives on the planet. Knowing earth was consumed by the darkness, the hostile alien force hunting them down, and now the unknown wilderness creeping around them, Hope gathered those who survived and brought togeather people of many cultures, ethnicities, strengths, weaknesses, smarts, skills, abilities and formed a coalition with one mission. Find, reclaim, repare and awaken the sleeping people from the stasis chamber and revive humanity in the hopes they will live on. Secretly, her races ideals slowly, inch by inch creeped into her thoughts. If humanity could survive. Beat every odd, somehow succeed, maybe she can foster her own family. Maybe she can have children. Maybe she can continue her races lineage. Her people, if done correctly, are effectively, virtually immortal. Once her mission is set to succeed. Once humanity has proven it would survive agenst every odd imaginable, she will begin her personal hunt. A hunt...for the right human. She can bed with.