KING, FELIX
00:14:18
01/19/2682
TRANSPORT SHIP: "THE KEY"
I wake from my cryptosleep with a jolt. The world outside of my small pod is very obscured, masked by the thin coat of frost and ice from hundreds of years of build up.
I scan around the icy pod and look for something, anything, that could let me out. After a few minutes, I find an overhead lever, coated in a glistening red, then black, then red icicle and grab onto it and yank it down. The pod door flies open and I fall out onto my knees and look around as the smoky, cold air escapes from behind me. I feel sick; they said that would be a side effect of the cryptosleep, though. Very unsteadily, I manage to push myself up onto my feet and scan over my surroundings quickly, just before the ship itself shakes violently and I hear creaking metal and flowing water.
The ship is part of The Rising Sun Coalition's fleet, a colony ship built to hold hundreds, even thousands, of people. We only loaded around 250 for the beginnings of the colony, although the ship can hold almost 2,000. Informally nicknamed "The Key", it's supposed to be representative of the Coalition's campaign to "open new doors for humanity." Being it's only a colony ship, it doesn't have much firepower on board; only a few flak and energy turrets. The engineers at the Coalition are meant to be the best, so this ship should be built to last, meaning if something has gone wrong, it was man-made.
I turn and look around and look out a nearby window. Adjacent to the ship is a planet, but nothing at all like our destination. Uduran is supposed to be a tropical planet, covered with trees and water everywhere. This planet much resembles earth in its supercontinent of "Pangea" form : all of the land is connected, aside from a few islands out in the middle of the ocean. Instead of spreading out all over the planet, most of the land is compacted into the northern hemisphere of the planet, while the southern hemisphere is covered with water. I don't believe this planet has a name. It might be one of the Borderworlds, a planet that sits on the edge of the galaxy, separate from the rest of "civilization."
I turn away from the window and in both directions, all that can be seen is rows and rows of cryptosleep pods. It seems like I'm the only person that's awake yet among the hundreds of other people on the ship. I look at the pods next to mine in both directions; I have to find Jesse, but have no idea which pod she went into.
I begin to make my way towards the other pods and wipe the frost away from the glass of the first one I see and try to look in: Travis Ronin. He's the "leader" of our small group sent to colonize Uduran, but definitely not who I'm looking for. I move to the next pod and wipe away the frost and peer inside. A woman, for sure, but I don't know her name. She looks familiar, but, she's also not who I'm looking for. The next pod was particularly frosted over, so I wipe away all of the frost and try to look in. Through all the ice, it's hard to see, but this time it's definitely her.
I look around the pod for some way to open it and then pull on a large red lever and hear a loud whirring sound, then a huge crash. On the floor in front of the pod lies Jesse.
"Jesse!" It doesn't feel like it's been that long since I last saw her, but it's been 400 years. She doesn't look a day older. I help her up onto her feet and give her a tight hug.
"Felix! Oh my god, I've missed you!" she says. Her voice is still the same. Everything is still the same. Her long, dark dreads still fall over her shoulder and reach down to the middle of her back. Her dark brown eyes that turn into a beautiful light brown as they go in towards her pupils. Her chocolatey skin that somehow manages to shine in every light, sweaty or not. Her signature scar over her left eye. She hasn't changed in the slightest. "I'm lucky to be alive!"
I look at her, completely puzzled. "What do you mean, what happened?" I ask her, and her face seems pained.
"I woke up not too long ago to the ship being overrun by a bunch of Pirates...they called themselves 'The Asgo.' Somehow I managed to get back in here before they found me!" She looks around. "I have no idea if they're still here or not. I don't want to find out." She pauses for a moment then looks at me dead in the eyes. "We have to get off this ship, Felix."
"Are you sure that wasn't som-"
"I know it isn't, Felix. I saw it. I felt the air. It was very, very real."
"Well, we should wake the others and-"
"No, we don't have time. We have to go." Down the corridor I hear a small clanging sound. "They're still here! We have to go!" Jesse grabs my hand and begins dragging me along behind her as fast as she can take me, until:
"HEY!" They've spotted us. "STOP RIGHT THERE!"Jesse starts running faster and lets go of my hand, and I sprint after her. Gunshots ring from down the hall and the bullets fly past our heads, colliding with the walls. Jesse turns around the corner into another, more brightly lit corridor and runs until she reaches a room with a white sign bearing the word 'Armory.' She runs into the room and grabs herself a M402A pistol and a small knife then walks out into the hall. When she leaves, I look around the room quietly for a moment; the Asgo must have come here on some kind of looting mission, as the walls that were once stocked fully with weapons, ammunition, and various other equipment items, are now barren and house only a few weapons. I take a moment to decide before grabbing a CX-325 4- round burst rifle - military grade, manufactured back in 2273 on Earth for the war against the Inhabitors, a group of ancient, precursor aliens who got tired of us destroying their planet, so they decided to destroy us by destroying the planet. In the corner of a room sits a crumpled up duffle bag. I go to grab it and begin loading all of the remaining weapons and ammunition into it.
In the hall, I hear gunshots ring through the hallway and the room. Quickly, I sling the duffel over my shoulders and burst through the doors and back out into the hallway and immediately a bullet flies only a few inches in front of my face. I pivot to my left and look towards where the shot came from, raise my rifle, and pull the trigger twice. The first group of bullets misses, but the second hits one of the men square in the chest, knocking him onto the floor and forcing his comrade into cover. I turn around and meet eyes with Jesse, who simply nods to me and begins to run. I take the nod as my cue to follow.
As soon as we turned the corner, the emergency siren begins to blare loudly throughout the ship and on both sides, you can hear the thuds of bodies and clanging of pod doors. Someone woke everyone up.
"Do you have any idea where we are?!" I call out to Jesse. I'd be surprised if she heard me over the siren, but somehow she responds "No."
She goes through a thick steel door where we're immediately met by a large group of the Asgo pirates, all armed with guns. Jesse pauses, looks around at our surroundings quickly, then rolls over to a crate. The men begin to open fire at our position, so I quickly crouch down and walk over to a large metal barrel.
"They have to run out of ammo sometime," Jesse calls out to me through the stream of bullets. "I count ten!" Quickly, she reaches around her cover and takes a couple of potshots at the men and a small grunt comes from the other side of my cover. 'I have to think of something. They're between us and the escape pods.'
I drop the duffel full of weapons and begin to shuffle through it, hoping to find something of use. My hand hits something that doesn't exactly feel like a gun, so I grab it and pull it out from under the pile, revealing a small, black grenade of some sort. I look at Jesse.
"You distract them, I'll throw this at them!" I show her the grenade and she thinks for a second, then nods. After all, there's not like there's any better plan. Jesse rolls over her cover and begins firing at the men, moving forward to a beaten up half-cover barrier. While the men direct their fire towards her, I stand up and hum the grenade as hard as I can at the squad, hitting one of the men in the head, causing it to ricochet off of his helmet and into the air. Jesse aims and fires, hitting the grenade midair and a large white flash blinds four of the pirates. While they're distracted, I kick the barrel at a nearby pirate, knocking him off balance. I raise my rifle and pull the trigger three times, drilling a hole in his chest with the first two rounds and putting a few holes in his head with the final four shots. Over to my right, two shots sound from Jesse's pistol and a large crimson splatter paints a nearby wall, entailed by a thud and a yelp of pain. I aim and shoot at another soldier, but when I fire, only two of the shots make contact because another soldier hits my arm, forcing the shots to the left. Jesse fires three more times, one shot digging into the throat of a soldier and the last two hitting him in his right leg, crippling him while he chokes on his own blood.
When I aim to fire again, a force from the right knocks me off of my feet and throws the weapon from my hands. A pirate managed to slip through and tackle me onto my side. The impact of the blow dizzies me and the pirate spares no time; he rolls me onto my back and raises his knife above his head and swings down, but in his blind rage, misses, and digs the blade into my right shoulder. Pain shoots through my torso and I let out a yell of agony, and punch the soldier with my left arm, knocking him off of me and onto his back. I climb on top of him, begin hailing down punches onto his face, grab his head, and slam it onto the floor for the blow that knocks him unconscious.
I grab the handle of the blade in my shoulder and pull it out of me, then look down to see the blood stain my white jumpsuit. I put the bloodied blade up to the throat of the unconscious soldier and slowly slide it across his neck, watching as the blood gushes out of his throat and pool around him on the floor. Slowly I stand and look around the room: Jesse managed to kill off three more pirates, leaving three. I grab a bloodied Alternator-19 off of the floor: a twin barreled SMG that switches between each shot with a jacked rate of fire. To avoid getting hit again, I move forward and take cover behind cover with Jesse and she looks at me.
"Are you okay?" she asks me. Her voice shows hints of worry, but her face confirms her concern.
"Yeah, let's just get this done with," I reply. I stand up and begin firing at one of the pirates, peppering him with bullet holes and watch as he falls to the ground. Jesse also stands up and fires, emptying the final four shots of her pistol into the second to last pirate, one bullet hitting him directly in his heart, two in his stomach, and the final one flies through his mouth.
The final pirate grabs a grenade from his waist and tosses it behind our cover. It hits the wall, then the barrier, then clatters to the floor between Jesse and I. Jesse pushed me away from it and I quickly scuttle away while she rolls over her cover and takes a shot from the man. The bullet hits her in the stomach, she falls to her knees behind a mangled barrel and holds her stomach and looks at me.
"DO IT!" Jesse screams to me. I stand and aim at the soldier and begin to fire, but he ducks behind cover as soon as he catches sight of me. He raises his rifle over his cover and fires back at me, forcing me to drop into cover. A momentary pause follows this, where all is quiet. During this, the adrenaline from the fight begins to wear off and my entire body begins to sear with pain and i clench my teeth so that nothing escapes. Then, to break the silence, the pirate steps out from behind his cover and begins walking. I look at him from behind my cover, but he's not looking at me, but to Jesse. His rifle is raised at her and she sits there quietly, as if waiting for him to take her.
"Get up," he says, then he grabs Jesse by her left arm and aggressively pulls her up onto her feet. She swings and collides with the pirates face, staggering him slightly. He raises his rifle to fire, but she pushes it out of the way and forces him to shoot wildly around the room. He swings and upcuts her in the stomach, causing her to retch and bend over, but she quickly recovers, sticks her leg behind his, and does a sweeping motion. The pirate falls onto his back forcefully. Jesse strips his rifle from his hand and empties the entire magazine into him.
I stand up and look at her quietly, then walk over to go grab the duffel bag. Jesse begins to walk over to one of the only pods remaining, perhaps one of the only functional ones. She climbs into the pod and looks around it, then waits for me.
"The eject function is manual and from the outside...only one of us can go." I explain to her. Her face slowly fades from triumph and into that of sorrow.
"So we have to separate?"
"I'm afraid so, my love." I look her in the eyes and she jumps out from the pod to hug me. I can feel her tears fall onto my shoulder and dampen it. "You have to go, Jesse." She lets go of me and sits back in the pod, beginning to wipe the tears away.
"Will you meet me?"
"I'll try. I'll wait for someone to come...we'll be together soon." I can feel my eyes begin to get heavy and burn as the tears well up. "I promise, Jess."
Behind me, the doors to the room explode open. Several pirates move into the room, weapons raised. One of them yells "FREEZE!" and advances towards us. I quickly turn back to Jesse, hand her the duffel full of weapons and pull the eject lever. The door to the pod quickly closes. I press my hand against the escape pod glass and look at Jesse. Tears stream down her face while she screams and pounds against the inch thick barrier. Separated by nothing more than just some bullet-proof glass, she seems so far away, but also so close to me
The pirate that yelled grabs me by my shoulder and spins me around, and just as he does, my fist connects with the left side of his face, knocking him down onto the ground. While he's down, I notice he has a name tag: 'Carter Kimball.' I grab his pistol from his waist. It's definitely an energy pistol, none like I've ever seen before, but I don't have time to study the weapon. Quickly, I spin the pistol so that the barrel is facing towards Carter and fire once, leaving a large, smoldering hole in his head. Behind him, his comrades stand, dumbfounded for a moment before catching up to speed. I raise the pistol up to them and manage to get one shot off before they fire back. Time seems to have slowed itself down, as I can see each bullet fly through and around me, with each one increasingly more pain. I fall onto my back and look up at the ceiling of the ship, quietly lying there and looking into the bright lights. Slowly, the lights turn red, then all goes black.
'Goodbye.'