"Audio log one dash thirty, A.
"It's been months since we landed back on this dirtball. Shit, not even sure of how many exactly. My perception of time has been fucked over after everything that happened.
"It's been a busy couple of months, thats all I can really remember. Time flew by as we tried to assess our situation, starting with the sheer culture shock between us and the survivors.
We were able to uphold the peace, sure, but it didn't take us long before we realized we couldn't co-exist as close neighbors.
"I mean it makes sense. Half of the Feds are soldiers and decorated engineers who were cryo-frozen, whilst the other half are offspring from the many generations that lived and died on that colony ship for... many centuries. Most of our civilian workers have known nothing but metal and stars their entire lives. Then there's the survivors. They're clones. From all across human history, just like our colonist cargo was. We're still amazed that they've been able to hold out so long, and so well, despite the extreme differences from one person to another.
"One moment I'm talking to an Aztec warrior, the next, an unfortunate soul from ancient Egypt. Hundreds of years between the two, each with their different ideologies and ways of life. It's surreal.
" Fortunately though, we were able to find a somewhat decent solution to the mismatching between us and them. Nova is coming along nicely. Our people are starting to move into the renovated buildings, and I'm pretty sure I just passed a grocery store or two earlier on my way here. At least something is going well in our lives despite everything we lost on that ship."
A long inhale through the nostrils before an audible exhale out the mouth, one Cole hoped wouldn't be picked up by his audio recording program integrated into his TEK headgear. For a moment he hesitated, as he gently planted his hands on the exterior of the fighter jet.
His gloved hands gently brushed along the sleek metal exterior of the aircraft, until beneath his fingertips he felt the texture change as they graced over an engraved logo that in bold letters spelled "FAF." Federation Armed Forces. For a moment he paused, as he glared at the insignia. One that he was so familiar with, one that had been part of his entire life in some shape or form.
Leaning closer to the jet's hull, the sergeant started getting lost in his own thoughts, blocking out the background noise that consisted of a hundred voices chattering, cheering, and weeping. In this intimate moment, he had completely forgotten that he stood on the right half of a runway, surrounded by onlookers from all angles that stood watch as a departure was prepared. At this moment, there was only the voice in his head, himself, and the logo before him which he leaned ever so close to.
Suddenly, a pair of legs walked past on the other side of the aircraft, their silhouette shining beneath the jet and jolting Cole back to reality in the blink of an eye. Dazed, he looked around himself, as the crowds around him began to clear from the runway, returning to a position behind fences and railings at a safe distance from the large road that stretched hundreds of feet into the city grounds. As the person who had passed the jet finally emerged from the other side, the sergeant realized it was the aircraft marshaller, and that was enough of a cue to get the man moving. Removing his hands from the side of the aircraft, he reached up and grabbed onto the frame of the cockpit, hauling himself into the TEK jet and taking his seat.
As he sat there, familiarizing himself with the set of holographic controls that were displayed before him, loud engines belonging to a larger machine roared fiercer than the beasts that now inhabited our world, and a shadow that blocked out the setting sunlight was cast over him and his aircraft. Past him, in the middle of the runway drove a large plane that on a nameplate said "Athena", following the guiding lights of the marshaller who had waddled his way out into the open Area.
After he pulled the canopy down shut on his jet, he looked through to meet the eyes of many onlookers. Survivors. Some, he could recognize to be people he had been acquainted with before. Such as the man from the medieval time period, who stood there draped in his crimson red cape, his helmet hiding whatever expression he carried on his face. And next to him, stood one that towered above the other heads in the crowd, but he was not a survivor. The chosen survivor's AI companion stood watch as well, his hands tucked away behind his back as he peered past Cole's aircraft and onto Athena. The other people... He had no clue, but he knew the reason why they had gathered in this part of the city, despite this place being home to none of them.
The crackling of a radio broke the silence within the cockpit, and Cole's head snapped in the direction of the noise.
"This is Commander Briggs from escort one, Sergeant, do you copy?"
"Sergeant Cole here, yes I copy."
From the other end came mumbling. Then the clearing of a throat. "Alright. Seems that our communication systems are working. We'll be escorting them over the outer city walls, then we're taking a spin and returning to this runway. Nothing much."
The man nodded as he listened to his superior, but said nothing. In silence, he sat as he watched Athena snail her way further into the runway. In a minute more or so, their triangle formation would be met perfectly, one that would develop into a straight row of three until the escorts depart from her side. A sense of pride gently washed over Cole as he watched the larger aircraft move elegantly across the runway into position. Having overseen the pilot's coursework, and guiding their way through the training simulation, they had become a relatively decent pilot in a short amount of time. Sure, they had a lot to learn still, but with the assisted flight control they were able to design as part of the ship, those skills would have no problem with coming in at a later stage. A slow-burner of sorts.
A triangle formation had been achieved by the three crafts, and soon enough, the engines and thrusters of the two lesser TEK jets too roared with immense power, as a bright blue fire was spewn out. The ground shook, dust clouds began to fill the air and the aircraft marshaller jogged out of the way as people held their breaths. Cole could see in the reflection of his cockpit canopy as some waved, and some raised their hands in the sky in some form of showing gratitude or saying farewell. He couldn't tell.
The sun removed itself from the horizon, and the purple skies set in, slowly overtaken by an inky black void filled with little speckles and stars that stretched out into the infinite void. Cole took a deep breath, as he embraced himself, taking only a glance over at the jet beside him, where the silhouette of Briggs' head poked out from his own cockpit.
And then Athena's thrusters were lit, and she began to make her way down the runway, shortly followed by her escorts that now set their thrusters to full as well. It took them mere seconds before their landing gear no longer made contact with the ground, and the snouts of the aircraft aimed at the clouds as they soared above the buildings and skyscrapers of Nova. With that, they found themselves hundreds if not thousands of feet above the city, beneath the clouds, and chasing the light of the sun that was being slowly snuffed out by the dark of night.
Cole gently pushed his joysticks ahead and increased his speed, seeing as Briggs was doing the same. Secretly though, the sergeant hoped he could at least catch a glimpse of the third pilot amongst them, who sat in the well-lit cockpit of Athena, one that was clearly much larger and more comfortable than the tight one he sat crammed inside at that moment. And eventually, he did. The triangle formation was broken as the escort jets aligned at the sides of Athena, and when they did, both of the pilots could get a good view of the silhouette of the person they accompanied. Cole let himself grow a small smirk across his face as he saw the man's silhouette, laid back in his seat.
Before he knew it, they had already reached the outer bounds of Nova, and the pace of Athena picked up slightly. For a moment Cole was dazed, distracted by some thoughts that crossed his mind, but once again he snapped to. The consistent groan of the engines continued on for another fifteen seconds before suddenly, the large plane's thrusters boomed like thunder, the shockwave immense enough to cause turbulence for the escorts.
She picked up pace faster than the two had expected and shot off into the night sky, the sound barrier booming as it shattered in the collision with Athena. Only a trail of blue translucent light was left in the wake of the large aircraft, as it disappeared into the clouds.
"But even now that we've been able to scrape together a faint vision of a better future, I can't help but shake the feeling that something's off. Like, It still feels as if there's a void in my chest consuming every emotion I experience. I was hoping that void would be filled now that I've..."
Hesitantly hovering his finger over the 'End recording' button, Cole, discouraged, let out a heartfelt sigh.
"I never really reached that promised paradise. I- erh, all of us really, just moved back into our own ruins. It's like moving back into your parent's basement after losing your job and the ability to afford your own place, now fearing to return to the same old habits. I don't know... I'm seriously conflicted, I guess."
______________________________________
From the dark streets outside, stumbled Cole through the transparent door that slid to its side as he approached it. His legs felt so unbearably weak now that he had touched down on the ground again, more so than how it usually is after a flight. By the doorframe he stood for a moment, his eyes slowly gracing across the interior of the convenience store, where others stood. Unlike him, none of them were clad in military combat gear, nor were they masked and had their eyes hidden behind a visor as he did. He stuck out as a sore thumb, and the woman standing behind the counter glared at him, still carrying a dark grey box of contents he could not identify.
At that moment, Cole felt almost disgusted with himself because of how they looked at him, but he didn't show any emotion, nor any gestures besides nodding to the cashier who he recognized, before making his way into the store. Waddling past a few aisles that had been left unfinished, surrounded by boxes of both more primitive components, and some of more familiar material from his own time. When he first came here, the atmosphere felt heavier, and why it did so, he had no clue. Was it because of how out-of-place he seemed, still wearing his combat gear? Did he have something on him? Blood? Guts? Maybe just dirt?
No, not at all. He was clean, straight out of the cockpit of a Terran Federation fighter jet, the only thing it left behind was an imprinted scent from the heated inside of the cockpit, but that would vanish soon enough.
And so did the uncomfortable atmosphere, when the other people in the building returned to their shopping, but Cole swore he could feel their eyes following him as he walked toward the fridges at the back end of the store.
"Audio log one dash thirty, B.
"I can't be the only one who puts on a mask. I know I'm not. I see it in many people nowadays. I guess I've just gotten good at spottibg it after having dealt with my own bullshit for so long. There's been so many ups and downs since we left the earth in ruins, and came back to it healed. All around me, I see others who mask their misery with smiles and laughter. I guess maybe half of it is real, but the rest is an illusion.
"The most notable person I can think of is Locke. He's this hero that every other survivor on this planet looks up to, they hail him like a saint. Some of the more influenced people from ancient Earth history even throw themselves to the ground at the sight of him, but then of course, there are more sensible people out there who form their own opinions of the man, despite the legends and tales they were fed by the ARKs.
"I don't know what he went through before he was respawned. He never told me any details bout' how his past life was, besides the professional ends of it, and how in the start of the twenty-first century he sparked the beginning of the TEK era. But I can see it on his face. The man is tired. Sure, he sports a stoic and stern expression most of the time, and when he isn't, he's smiling. But beneath it, I see someone who has been through so fucking much. I can barely begin to imagine the weight he carries on his shoulders, cause even when he's tucking away his title temporarily, all this shit's gonna haunt him until the day he dies.
"Was it always like this? It makes me wonder if people were like this before my time too, back in earlier parts of human history. I wouldn't know- Never paid attention In history classes."
Cole met his own reflection in the glass doors of the dairy section as he approached one of the fridges. His face was completely obscured and hidden away behind the helmet's visor, and the cloth mask that covered his face up over his nose. Staring long enough at his own self-image, he thought he could see through to his eyes on the other side of the visor, but he couldn't, and if he thought he did then he was certainly imagining it.
His hand made a soft leathery noise as he gripped the handle, pulling it open and reaching in for one of the glass bottles that stood neatly stacked on the shelves. This was the only row of shelves that had been properly stacked and refilled, whilst the others remained lousily put together. The floor was still littered with various different kinds of containers and boxes filled with all sorts of goods and foods. It became immensely clear that this place had opened up only recently, perhaps within the day before nighttime came. The man remained standing up close to the glass door as he slowly closed it, firmly holding a bottle of milk in his other hand.
Inspecting it thoroughly, he quickly concluded that this was not produced here, nor by the Terran Federation and their civilians. Firstly, the bottle was made of glass, something you'd usually only find used for beer and wine back in his time, secondly, it wasn't properly labeled, nor did it have any wrapping with any information about what it contained, hell, what animal it even came from. He didn't really hesitate though, sure he knew himself well as a picky eater, but seeing as this was on shelves, he didn't doubt its safety of consumption.
"Hey-" A voice spoke, and Cole froze where he stood, but his head snapped around.
The woman who stood there carried a slightly annoyed frown on her face, her brows covering some of her eyes as she looked at him with a stern expression. In one of her hands, she held a basket full of goods. "Could you move out of the way? Other people are trying to get their groceries here too y'know!"
Under his breath, he could only mutter "Yes, sorry.", before shuffling out of the way.
The woman, in a hurried manner, opened the glass door as he had done and quickly grabbed what she needed before walking off into the store, clearly annoyed with the man despite how little he really had done to upset her. Cole couldn't take it personally, he physically wasn't able to as he almost drowned in his own thoughts again, still standing there holding that bottle of milk in his hands. When the woman disappeared, it was revealed that two young kids had been following behind her. It had to have been her own, but unlike their mother, they didn't storm off, no, they lingered there, looking up at the man whose head hung low.
Cole only glanced in their direction, where they stood six feet away from him, staring back at him. It was tempting to say something, to kindly ask them to leave him be, or to that it's rude to stare, but he couldn't get himself to do it. Suddenly, the young girl with short curly hair, dressed in a big ugly sweater spoke. "You are one of those heroes, right?" Her voice peeped. She couldn't have been more than four or five years old, thats at least what she sounded like. Her brother, who only wore a T-shirt and baggy sweatpants, opened his mouth to say something but didn't. He only stared at Cole.
Beneath his visor, the federation sergeant raised an eyebrow, but before he could ask the child what they meant, she continued.
"My parents tell me stories of you. You fight monsters so we can be happy, right?"
"... Yeah," Cole answered, hesitantly. He wasn't quite sure what would be appropriate for him to answer, nor how much he should say around kids as young as they must've been.
"We saw it," The boy finally spoke as well. "They had clothes like what you wear! They fought monsters with laser pistols."
The man felt his gut wrench and his insides felt as if they were being turned when it quickly hit him that these kids had seen things no one their age should've had to see. In one way, he felt shocked, remorseful and he felt bad, but in another, it didn't surprise him that much. The number of times the remnant of the federation was attacked as they held out in the uncontaminated Eden ring of the colony ship was bound to lead to folks being left with scarring, be it physically or mentally.
"Did you do that too?" The boy asked, tilting his head as he fiddled with his fingers and hands.
"Yes... Yes, I did,"
"Will you do it again? If those monsters come back?" The girl followed up.
Cole gritted his teeth and took a deep breath before he bent one knee and got down on the other. "They won't come back, I promise you. And yes... I would do it all again. For you, and your friend here." In a soft tone of voice, he spoke, as he very gently tapped the girl on her forehead with the milk bottle he held, before pointing at the boy who she was accompanied by.
"Thats my brother!" She said as a smile grew across her face, smiling and giggling at the Federation sergeant. He almost began smiling himself, before a voice called out for the kids from between the aisles. Cole's head shot up, and he stood up as fast as he had gotten down to meet the eyes of the kids as an adult figure poked its head out from behind nearby shelves.
"Ada, Gustav." The man spoke before he stepped out into the open to retrieve his kids. "Come on now, Mom's waiting for us by the cashier! We need to get home fast, it's well past your bedtime."
He went to pick up his daughter, and her older brother followed after them, but as they departed, the little girl whose name was apparently Ada, said to her father "But dad, we was talking to the nice military man!"
And as she spoke this, the father turned as if he hadn't noticed that Cole was there, to begin with. Through his messy brown hair that covered some of his face, he made eye contact with the man in armor, and for a moment they stood there before the man nodded and let out one of those typical friendly smirks men give one another before he turned again and left with his two kids.
That was something, the man thought to himself, as he stood there watching the family walk up to the counter where the woman from earlier stood, lifting groceries onto the counter whilst the lady on the other side wrote on a piece of paper, presumably calculating the overall price of what they were getting. Still, Cole felt his gut twist and turn inside him, but for a different reason now.
Seeing those kids by the side of their father brought back memories Cole couldn't bear to think back on, but now they stormed in his mind, ringing in his ears and echoing time and time again like a voice calling out from a fjord, amidst a mountain range. The sound bounced around his head as he stood there pathetically staring into the distance in the middle of the
convenience store.
"I can't be the only one who feels weird about being back here on Earth. By now, we should've been on a distant planet, untouched by mankind and in similar conditions to Earth before we fucked her over. The slate would've been clean, and we would've been clear to start anew. But now that I think about it, would it really be that different, had things gone right?"
"Hadn't our ship been attacked by the corruption, had we colonized that planet with all our forces, gear, and machines, would it really be much different from what we had before? Would it remain a paradise if history just repeated itself? Erh... I don't know. I'm rambling. It's too late for this shit."
The next second, he found himself out in the now well-lit street outside the store, looking up at the stars as they shone brightly in the skies above. This part of the rebuilt city wasn't as animated and crowded as other parts were, and in the distance, he could hear the chattering and marching of many footsteps, as people made their way through the city. It had to have been the survivors who had earlier come to say their farewells to the Terranova family before they departed with Athena, now on their way out of Nova to return to their homes in various settlements elsewhere in the region.
The moment was peaceful, despite the distant background noise everything felt so quiet out there. Crickets chirped around him, occasionally a creak or a technological hum would echo from the uncharted parts of the city's still ruined parts. From where he stood, he could see past and over the military barricade which behind it hid parts of the city they had yet to expand their territory into. Despite having finally moved part of their population into a comfortable, functional part of Nova, the majority of this absolutely enormous city laid in ruin still, overrun by the derelict autonomous military force of the URE. But with each day that passed, their efforts to fight back and retake the city would pay off.
A new city block would appear here and there, suddenly a whole street, then an entire district. Cole had been there, as they marched armed men in TEK suits alongside heavy artillery and combat ground vehicles like tanks into the dark. Reminiscing about it, he turned to look up over the barricade, at the buildings whose blue lights did not shine like the fixed buildings' did. He stood there, taking a deep breath, before suddenly, a hum echoed from the dark silhouettes of the buildings.
Cole was startled, he took a step back but kept his eyes on the derelict structures. Then, blue lights were lit. A long row of blue and cyan glow flickered before they flashed brightly amongst the dark buildings. Their luminosity graced the surrounding area, revealing the structures from their dark and ominous silhouettes. Buildings in disrepair, parts that crumbled in on themselves, both old and new impact holes from infantry. But what caught Cole's attention the most, was the structure the lights belonged to. Raised at least a hundred feet or more over the ground, and stretching far into the dark city, was a railway system.
Cole squinted at it, having been unable to see it before the lights coincidentally turned on. A flash of deja-vu hit him in the gut... And then he realized why, and it all came back to him.
______________________________________
"Still up and goin, Cole?"
The Federation sergeant failed to realize he had already arrived at the militia checkpoint and was just about to trot past it when a voice called out to him from within a guard booth. He turned around wildly, like a deer in headlights, quite literally as where he stood he had multiple floodlights aimed in his direction, bright white lights flashed and blinded him even through his helmet visor. Past the border of light, and into the pitch black sung crickets and owls amongst the lush and overgrown buildings covered by vines and large roots. Nature had claimed parts of this city, something the Federation was very willing to let stay on their structures, something they thought added a flare of charm to their municipality.
He looked to the small metal shack lined by wide, one-way windows with hexagon patterns in them. "Thought I was the only one!" He responded to the disembodied voice, in a sarcastic manner.
From a door that dissolved into blue particles, emerged a soldier in attire identical to the one Cole donned. Extremely lightweight and simple combat gear, with thin TEK plating and an advanced combat helmet accommodated by a pair of TEK visors and a bandana to cover the individual's face.
"Hey, those bikes over there," The sergeant started, then pointed a finger at the row of compact land-based vehicles that stood propped up neatly side by side. There had to be at least twelve of them there. "Anyone using those at the moment?"
"Besides me, nope. Just using one when the sun rises and my shift's moving to the barricade to the east. Why?"
"Assign me one of those hoverbikes, temporary ownership," Cole demanded, his finger now pointed at the soldier himself as he made his way toward one of the bikes that stood at the side of the road, beneath an overgrown, flickering streetlight.
He jumped onto the bike, placing his feet down on the footrests, and his hands on the handlebars. It had been years since he had ridden one of these, or that's how it felt anyway. In reality, it had been centuries, entire lifetimes ago. Yet after all this time, the controls of the TEK hoverbike hadn't changed in the slightest. Of course, they hadn't, these had been rotting away in a hangar bay for hundreds of years before the colony ship went up in flames.
The soldier had returned to the inside of the booth, and through the windows that had now become see-through, the sergeant patiently watched as the man hunched over a desk littered with numerous screens, and once he had gotten the confirmation that his ID had been registered, he turned back to the bike. A finger to the side of the handlebar proved enough, as the vehicle lit up and the large thruster on the back growled furiously.
When he approached the gate at the checkpoint, however, there was an awkward and tense silence that filled the area, that deafened even the critters of the night, and the distant theropod roar and herbivore howl. Cole turned to the window again, staring at the soldier.
"Are you going to open that up for me or do I gotta do it myself?"
"Sergeant, I can't let you through to the empty parts of the city without a mission warrant. And especially not if you're going alone. You'll get yourself killed."
"Just open the gates, that's an order!"
"I can't. You're just a sergeant, I can't take orders from you unless we're in the same assigned-"
"Jesus fuck" Cole interrupted, sighing loudly. "Save me the headache and just open the fucking gates, I won't be long."
The man inside the booth remained quiet. His silhouette didn't move an inch and only remained looking in the direction of the sergeant through the blue glass.
Suddenly, a large croak was emitted from the large metal barricade, before gates of solid TEK material slowly slid their way out of the street, leaving a large opening straight into the dark, untouched parts of the ruins they had yet to expand their territory into.
"You'll get in big trouble with the commanders once they find out about this, you know that right?" The man's voice peeped from inside the building.
"Won't get in trouble unless you tell on me."
Once the gates had fully opened, Cole turned to the darkness before him, and kicked his supporting foot off of the ground, placing it on the footrest at the side of the hoverbike. It rumbled as he turned on the handlebars, and he began slowly moving through the gates. Without turning to look back, he shouted "Thanks Bill!" to the man he had met, before journeying into the empty streets of the city ruins, his hoverbike letting out a loud hum as it shot through the darkness.
In the booth, the soldier sat down on a small wooden stool, shaking his head and whispering to himself. "My name's Steve." Before he looked to the desktop to realize that his large holographic nameplate had not been stuck to his chest when he went to greet the sergeant.
______________________________________
Even through his attire could he feel the wind clashing against him as he sped through the dark city streets, letting only his gut tell him where to turn to reach the elevated highway. It had been so long since he had felt this alive, this free, unbound by the chains of responsibility. Amidst his busy schedule, he was able to find breathing space for himself. The repercussions of what he was doing did not scare him at all. What's the worse that could happen? He knew they wouldn't disband him, they couldn't, for even if they had wanted to, there was no overarching system in the world that could make that decision. No governments, no greater authority. Only one large band of brothers and sisters, working tirelessly to make themselves comfortable in this unforgiving world.
If his superiors would want to scold him for venturing out on his own as un-called for as this, then he would welcome it with open arms. He had his mind set on more important things now. With his weight, he bobbed the hoverbike from side to side, staying clear of the obstacles before him on the lifeless highway. Overgrowth, roots, and large trees had claimed the large driving field that stretched miles into the distance, along with the countless abandoned vehicles that rested on it. It almost appeared as if time itself had stopped here on the road, many ancient TEK vehicles remaining in stasis with their doors out, thrown open in fits of panic. It really did look like a place where the world had come to an end.
He kept his posture leaned forward over the handlebars as he raced down the endless lane, until beside him arose another rode that ascended past the altitude he was already at. Large pillars would pass him each with a loud 'SWOOSH!". It was the railroad tracks he had seen earlier, emitting the seemingly sole light source active in this abandoned part of the city, still flickering on and off on occasion. All he had to do now, was follow the tracks, riding parallelly to it on the highway it was built by. Cole didn't know how long the trip would take him. Even at the speed his bike was able to provide, it could still take hours for him to locate what he was searching for, and in the end, it might not even be here. But a feeling in his gut dragged him towards the unknown as if he would find something familiar in the shadows.
A feeling of deja-vu began to grow in Cole's soul the further he followed along the tracks, as the tall buildings around him grew more and more eroded with each one he passed. It was when the headlights of his bike hit a solid surface that a lump formed in his chest, dread hitting him like a head-on collision. The bike winced and the humming from its thrusters went quiet as he came to an abrupt halt, his road completely blocked by the remains of a sky-scraper that had fallen onto the highway. That already tough sense of anxiety seemed to grow tenfolds in size, however, when Cole took a gaze up at the railroad he had been chasing for miles on end.
The very back end of an elongated TEK construction was now resting atop the railroads, at the very ledge before a drop caused by parts of the tracks having collapsed under the fallen building. A TEK train, one that would have been used to transport people, if not resources and perhaps even weapons toward the end of the old world. Cole swallowed hard, and he knew that he had found exactly what he was searching for.
The inky black night sky began to drip purple as night came to an end, and beneath the fading stars, the Federation sergeant slid down a mound of rubble, trying his best to slow his descent so as to not damage his combat gear, or worse, get seriously harmed out here in the middle of nowhere. It was like a hill of scrap metal, and pieces of futuristic structure that now only resembled boulders of earth-material after centuries of decay and erosion. And beside him, stretching the entire way down to the ground below, the multiple carts of the TEK train lay spread about, some flipped on their sides whilst some there was barely any remains of left. Completely smashed into its surroundings.
As the man reached the bottom, he quickly leaped straight into a jog, making his way around the ruins of the railroad and the vehicle that had once driven along it. He no longer needed to carry a flashlight as he searched the area, as black turned to purple, and purple to red, soon enough the sun would rise upon the horizon, between the mountains and the ARKs that littered every direction one would look.
After minutes that felt like endless hours, Cole was able to find his way to the spot he was looking for in particular, but it was different from how he had remembered it, how he had seen it in those countless dreams he had had. There was more debris here now than the last time he was here. His heart raised as he looked at the barren scene, the scrap metal, and the cart that rested on its side. In a fit of panic, Cole dug right it, beginning by grabbing a piece of sheet metal, likely from the train, and throwing it across the area, wildly and rabid. Again, he grabbed onto a piece of metal, then another, throwing them off to the side as he got down on his knees and dug through the mounds.
As his hope began to dwindle, Cole finally saw it – A hand. At least something shiny that resembled one. In the dawning skylight, it shimmered from the shadows the rubble cast over it. He continued digging, his heart racing even more, panting like an animal as he threw away metal piece after metal piece, and without thinking further, he grabbed onto the human-like appendage, dragging at it with all his might.
"FUCK!", Cole screamed to himself, his voice wobbly as he stumbled backward and fell on his behind. He winced, groaned, and let out a whimper as he sat there shaking, all alone. And then he looked up. The body of a person lay before him, freed from the debris and rubble. Beneath his mask he let his jaw drop, and he quickly crawled over to the figure.
Against a smaller mound of debris and ancient TEK material, he rested the lifeless body, before he fell to his knees again. The figure was clad in a full set of armor, a set of armor Cole was all too familiar with. A Terran Federation TEK suit, akin to the one he had been given on the Genesis ship, under attack.
The lights of the matte gray suit flickered at him as if responding to the sergeant's presence. They were dimmed as if they were about to give out at any moment now. Cole was expecting it, for he could impossibly imagine how the suit had remained active for hundreds of years. But they did not. On the floor he groveled, slowly crawling closer to the body and planting both of his hands onto the side of its shoulders. The visor hid the face of its wearer. Cole's mouth dried out as he opened it slowly, it felt as if his lips were about to crack and fall apart. He raised a hand and in one go, he tore off his combat helmet, the piece of cloth that hid his face, and the advanced HUD visor he wore.
To his forehead, his blonde hair was plastered, his entire face moist with the immense amounts of sweat he had accumulated getting down from the highway, and then digging through a large hill of ruin. That lump in his chest had grown larger, he could barely make a sound with his voice before a sob escaped his mouth. "Dad," He muttered weakly.
"Dad I'm sorry, I'm sorry for everything," He repeated himself, through sobs that now consumed him, making it nearly impossible for him to string together full sentences.
"I never should've let us get on this train, I shouldn't have left you behind like I did!"
Tears rolled down the sergeant's cheeks as his head lowered.
"I'm so fucking sorry, I failed you, and" - He paused, interrupted by another oncoming sob. "And... I'm not even sure if I made it."
Cole shook vigorously before he let himself collapse to the side, rolling over and landing at the side of his father's lifeless body. His watery eyes faced the direction in which he had ran for his dear life, many moons ago, in the direction that the sun now peered up over the horizon, ridding the sky of its darkness and casting away the shadows that covered the lands. The large ball of fire rose from its slumber, illuminating the mountain ranges and the large towering structures in the distance. Clouds scattered as the sun prepared to take back its rightful throne in the skies above. It was a sight that left the Federation sergeant speechless. The world around him turned a beautiful shade of orange and gold.
Cole let his head tilt and turn to face his father again, and as he did so, his eyes caught a glimpse of something he had thought he would never see again. The sun's mighty light was able to penetrate the thick TEK helmet visor, and through it, Cole could now see the face of the man beneath the armor. He didn't look a day older. The TEK suit, still clinging to life with what energy remained in its systems, had kept its wearer from decomposing, and their vital organs from falling apart with time. There was no pulse, so it helped naught, fighting to keep its wearer alive when they were already passed along to another life.
Another tear slid down the man's cheek as he couldn't help but smile softly at what he was seeing. The sight of his father's lifeless corpse pained him greatly, but seeing how peaceful his face remained even after all this time... It sure was twisted, but it did something to him. Reaching over to his father, he curled his fingers around the chest pieces of the armor he woke, before ripping them off with a loud 'CLICK'! The chest plates came off easier than he had expected, possibly from the metal having weakened with the years that had gone by.
Cole reached for a small compartment found between the two chest plates, and once he had gotten a good grip on it, he jolted it out of his father's chest. As the small compartment departed from the suit, so did what energy remained. In his hand, he crushed the power core of the TEK suit. Letting it crumble away in his palm and blow away with a drag of wind.
"You can rest now, old man," He affirmed and wiped away the tears that had stained his cheeks. Knowing that the suit no longer lived on, what remained of his father could perish too. Again, he leaned his back against the mound behind him, and rested, watching the sunrise on the skies above him.
"Audio log one dash thirty, C.
"At the end of the day, you'll come to realize that this might've been the ideal outcome. I don't know how things would've gone, had we touched down on that distant shore on the other side of the galaxy. Would we have had it better? Would we be able to settle things peacefully with our potential alien neighbors, or would we bring that place down to hell too? I'm glad these are questions I don't have to answer, cause we never chose that path.
"I've been through many weird things in my life, things some would consider gruesome, things that some people would never have been able to recover from. I've learned a fuck ton of useful life lessons from it, so there's that. But I think the most meaningful one I've come to know, is that what you seek, is seeking you too. For us, our promised paradise was right beneath our noses this entire time. The Earth, our home."
"Humanity will prevail, no matter where, or when we are. At the end of time, or the dawn of a new era. Sergeant Cole Novak, signing out."