The Legacy Of Humanity - A Splatoon Fanfiction

Prologue 2 - The eternal slumber.

"Hey, Drake. What brings you here?"

"I hear you had another argument with the Commander."

"You heard that, huh?" His middle aged father turned towards the monitor. "I hate to say this, but there is a chance that the Eden ship will never return for us. Even if they reach their new home, it will be sometime before they are able to come back for us. If they can at all." Manfred's face darkened. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you second guess your decision to let Hannah take your place on the Eden craft. I'm just saying that we should be prepared for the event that we may be on our own when we awaken. If that happens, we are going to need all the resources we can get, and the longer we prolong our stasis, the less we will have when the time comes."

Drake shuddered at the thought of Hannah and the others never making it to their new home, but he knew his father was right. "Well, forget Commander Mclarrin. It sounds like we go in the freezer tonight."

"Yeah, the announcement will be made in an hour." Manfred noticed that Drake was holding Judd. "Oh, you have the cat with you? Perfect timing". Drake looked at his father, clearly confused. "I'm a bit worried about the effect the stasis pod will have on him, so I would like to run a few tests and put him in the special pod before the rest of us enter stasis."

"What do you mean? Didn't we already try it on the live stock?"

"True, but I don't know how a feline will fare. Do you mind leaving him with me?"

"Alright." Drake handed his father the cat, and started to leave the room. "I'm going to see to my squad. I'll see you at dinner."

With Drake out of the room, Manfred took the cat over to workbench. "Sorry little guy, but I don't want Drake to see this." He grabbed a syringe filled with a special serum he had prepared a few hours ago. The serum was a prototype mutagen Manfred had developed in secret. "This might sting a bit, but it will be for your own good. I don't know what state the world will be when we wake up, but with this..." Manfred paused and wondered if he was really doing the right thing. No, he couldn't second guess himself now. "With this, you will have the best chance at surviving the unknown. Even if we are not there to see it with you." Manfred then Injected Judd with the mutagen.

The effects of the injection were noticeable almost immediately. His body began to change. His head grew, and his tail changed shape. But more importantly, the cat's mind changed. Evolved even. Judd looked at Manfred, and Manfred stared right back at him. He saw something in his eyes. Not the eyes of a scared animal, but eyes that hinted at true intelligence. The mutagen had been a success.

Just then, a loud bang on the door startled Manfred and brought him back to his senses. It was Mclarrin, and she was demanding Manfred accompany her to the control room to make the announcement of the cryogen sleep. He jerked up, and bumped into the table that held the rest of the mutagen sample, knocking it over. The canister fell, and shattered as it hit the floor, leaking the mutagen all over. He cursed as he watched the mutagen flow down the drain.

"Manfred! You in there? What was that sound?" Mclarrin banged on the door again.

"It's nothing! I just broke an empty test tube. I'll be right out, so give me a minute."

"Well, Hurry it up!" Mclarrin shouted back. Manfred quickly mopped up the remaining mutagen, while sighing with relief as he remembered the drains in the lab didn't lead to the treatment plant, but rather outside to already polluted oceans. All Manfred could do, was hope what little ocean life remained wouldn't come in contact with it before it could dissolve.

Before heading out, he took Judd, who was standing on his hind legs and watching him, and placed him into the special cryogen pod that his assistant had prepared in advance for him. The cat looked at Manfred with confused eyes as the pod closed and the freezing process started. With in minutes, the cat was frozen. Manfred checked the vital readings and sighed with relief when the monitors indicated that Judd was alive. The freezing processes was successful. "I hope Drake, or my assistant, never find out what happened here," he said to himself.

As he prepared to head out with the increasingly agitated Mclarrin, he noticed the words inscribed on Judd's pod by his assistant. "Oh, my beloved Judd... It seems the day has finally come. This capsule is designed to remain cryogenically sealed for 10,000 years. Good-bye, my purrfect little kitty cat. May your meows echo through the ages."

Manfred's first thought was awe at how much his assistant adored that cat. He must have really loved him to write something so corny. This made him feel even more guilty about testing the mutagen on Judd, but then he noticed something odd about it. 10,000 years? Yes, with the hydroelectric systems, and the facility itself being airtight, the pods, in theory, could last that long, but they were only planning to sleep for 300 years. "Well, maybe that was just the worst case scenario," Manfred said to himself, as he left the lab with Mclarrin.

Later that day...

"So, he's okay?" Drake asked his father, inquiring about Judd.

"Yeah, he's fine. I would like to talk more, but it's time for us to sleep. We will see each other again. I just hope it's the future we all planned for." Manfred left to take his station overseeing the cryogenic pods. Drake remembered that his father would be the last one to enter stasis to ensure the other survivors were in good condition, and that no pods malfunctioned.

"You know, I really wish they had given us some meat for our last meal. That crap from the agridome was atrocious." Drake looked over, and saw Matt, a brawny security officer, complaining in his pod.

Reggie, the dark skinned nerdy guard, was next to chime in. "Well, what did you expect? We need to save the limited live stock we have for when we really need it. Those might be the last cows left on earth, you know."

"Yeah? Well that doesn't mean I have to like it, smart ass". Drake ignored their argument, and turned to Justin, the team medic.

"So, how is everybody holding up?" Drake asked.

Justin took out the results of their check ups, and handed them to Drake. "They all check out. As long as the cryopods work like they are supposed to, the security force should be fine."

"What about second and third squad?"

"Look for yourself. Everybody is good to go." Justin headed over to his pod, and stepped in.

Drake turned to his team before entering his own pod. "Well guys, been great working with you. Hope we all make it out of this."

"Same for us, sir," they all answered, except for Matt, who would never admit it. Drake's pod closed, and he could feel the freezing process begin. His last thoughts were wondering how the future would turn out, if the Eden ship would reach its new home, or if he would ever see Hannah again...

Earth 2319 A.D.

The pods were supposed to automatically start the unfreezing process today, if they didn't receive a signal from the Eden ship. They were, but they didn't. The computer overseeing the process had error messages flying all over the screen, until the diagnostics system finally finished.

The screen read as follows:

Waking base commander...error...

Waking senior staff...error...

Waking medical personnel...error...

Waking security personnel...error...

waking support staff...error...

waking civilians...error...

Resetting thaw date... error... suspending Cryogenic thaw process indefinitely...

Checking special pod 001... subject is alive... resetting thaw date to... error... 9,700 years... success...

Entering sleep mode...

The Eden ship never returned for the stranded survivors. For all intents and purposes, Humanity was finished.