Radio OX-12 replayed the recorded files during our landing from the edge of the cliff buried in deep snow. Blood was right over us, our crew members either stabbed or thrown from the force of the ship were ripped in pieces, especially since one jammed the engines fans. Everything was covered; windows, side barriers, wires, suit… everything.
My last breath after from the crash was unbearable to catch under the blizzards of negative 30 degrees. I was still passed out, waking up under the barriers of glass protection around me with enough space to move around but I couldn’t. my ears were buzzed; everything in my body; I had no control since my suit was unheating itself.
The vision of a dark figure came slowly over the glass barricade I was in. my ears changed channels as I could hear it in a blur, then slowly the wind going through the glass. Slowly I pushed myself while laying on my back to move around moving my muscles. My armor is still in place.. but Sarah, one of my A.I companions we were assigned to lead us was no longer there but blown to bits after the whole crash. The blurriness only captured the small lights of Sarah now into scraps as the colors changed and dimmed itself.
I slowly reached out trying to grab all the pieces out from the snow but as soon as I could barely pull in a small yell echoed through the thin glass.
-viper..- it yelled my name softly as I could hardly see through the glass since it was covered in ice. The call of the voice echoed through my bushy ears as I tried to recover my eyesight and hearing, but as my vision started to gain sight as from recovering the silence, an afterlife banged on the tight glass I was covered as a shield from him coming in.
I shrugged back as a piece of the glass fell, cracks were spreading quickly with one of his staffs he had covering his arms and wings. Half of the sharp end he had went through the glass as I slowly looked around for anything that could help me kill it.
The pistol! I thought. I tried moving over a bit with a small hop since I was on it. The gun was bent and broken from the sides. Surprisingly the afterlife extended it’s arm through the glass as it screeched, grabbing my leg and pulling me towards it as I held the ground, his strength was too much since he was getting pieces of glass in his arm.
A loud cry was given out as the afterlife cocked it’s head with his main sticking up. It release and quickly gripped my leg as I was too late to even pull back; I tried reaching for the broken gun but it pulled me out, breaking the glass cover and throwing me from a short distance. He pulled out a small red weapon and pointed it through me but the icy wind blew stronger as he fell only shooting 3 bright rounds but missing. The gun landed through the middle between us as we both stared at the gun. I held my arm from the fall, stood up and dashed toward the weapon as he dashed rapidly than I did; he was too close to me now and the knife beside my left leg was the only plan to live so I jumped over him but as soon as I did he held my tail and forced me back down, landing on my back hard. Forcefully he landed on top of me with his beak almost near my face as I held his claws to push him back. He yelled all he could with every force in his system, forcing himself even closer to me with his drool dripping and his tongue almost reaching my nose.. til I lifted him a bit more than he could push down. I lifted my left leg under his abdomen and pushed him upward, released his claws as he lost my grip leaving me scratches.
The battle knife fell off my side as I quickly recovered it and turned from my side, jumping on the afterlife holding its beak together with its red eyes staring at me and quickly stabbing its throat and stepped back, watching the creature softly screeching but couldn’t. I fell back on the cold sheets of snow while the afterlife was slowly dying with the goo squirting all around it, releasing its final call or so.
I laid back breathless, my legs lifted a bit just in case he tries to attack me or if he was faking his death. The cold breeze was almost turning out to be a storm. My suit was almost frozen.
‘I could’ve been dead..’ I thought to myself. The dark grey skies kept getting darker.
Suddenly the loud screeches slowly echoed almost as if they were around me, the one I probably killed must’ve released a call for reinforcement and they’re almost in sight. I picked myself up slowly then getting near the dead corpse, retrieving the knife in his throat.
No one was here.. not even a single bit of life source anywhere but from the other enemies that’s in close by so I had to quickly stretch out my suit so it could function well for me to escape or to at least hide from them, and the ship.. god know where that’s at I thought, especially where I am.
The temperature dropped, leaving my body heat to drop. The ground suddenly got colder and hard, feeling as if it was made of metal
-..i..Is it you…’
a slow whisper shuttered through the back of my head of my gear.. A beautiful voice that I couldn’t believe.
-come back..-
an unordinary voice swirled around through my head, making me turn in every angle looking at least for a shadow but all I found was snow and a blazing storm hitting my face. I placed my hand near my eyes for a better sight but as I turned a yellow ball of light landed near me as it slowly dimmed. The shock of my body raced as I jumped the opposite way as It formed into a little ball of gas, exploding almost the area I was standing. A loud cry was yelled from a far distance; one of those other afterlife’s spotted me.
The helmet sank somewhere below or around me. From where I was theirs ground, but surrounded by holes. Quickly I picked myself up but an afterlife surprisingly stood on top of me knocking my face with a staff, coughing out spit and blood, though quickly I picked up the end of the stuff before it came back for another blow and forced it upon itself.
The afterlife screeched a bit more as it pulled the end of his staff towards me with a great amount of strength til I threw the staff besides me and threw him off guard, picking my right leg over his rear end and throwing him over me, hearing the yells echoed.
The sound of death slowly echoed and quickly descended, hearing nothing but the wind clogging my ears as I sat up. The staff was my only weapon of survival now even though it wasn’t from my world it’ll protect me.
My body kept swinging downward as I repositioned myself, but I realized it wasn’t me sliding myself the ground was moving.
The ground slowly picked itself up, the sheets of snow kept sinking from my sides and forward as the ground slowly revealed its color and vision. I stood in position for dear life, knowing what could had happen or where would I fallen up like the afterlife. I slowly place my left foot down, then the other one. After a few tries from slowly coming slowly down whatever I was on another one appeared and so did the third one.. but the last one came from across the one I was on.
I jumped down before it took me to greater heights, especially since the ground was visible. I dashed away for a short period then turning towards it, gazing at the unknown scene. Nearly half of the snow fell as the temperature from my body suit slowly increased up to thirty eight degrees, not it’s best but decent for me.
The movement of some like machine stopped, pointed all 4 edges to the sky, each of the tower had a small curve figure, stopping on the ground where it’s connected through. The thought of sitting on some toward took my breath away, seeing such a machine. I couldn’t waste time my unit are surrounded around here, either landed on something hard or soft to be injured on, but in the ship.. There’s no purpose to go look for it.
The ground was visible and hardly had any holes besides the two gaps far away, though it was time to run around the tower and reach towards the small hill as I made my approach carefully, hoping no other afterlife’s were around my distance. I gazed upon the tall tower like building, getting a glimpse towards it and the path I took from where I was injured
There’s nothing to look at anymore, I thought. What stays from where I was coming from must be lost; nothing in mind but to clear everything
Two Afterlife’s gone for good, but all I have ever learned were only they could easily trick minds and the other classes.. They’re unknown; especially since we weren’t studied for this kind of mission… well I wasn’t.
I jogged my way up through the highlands, reaching over the other slope downwards not only finding the tower, but from distance.. the astonishing view from what we were here for, all along was an old heroic battleship.
‘there must be something in there’ I answered myself in relief; the ship must be still up running! But what if everything in there is gone? The afterlife and it’s members could’ve probably had beat me since the beginning.
Slowly I went down the slope and stood on normal ground with the enemies staff, still catching my eye over at the antique across me.
That antique can save my ass from freezing or being killed; knowing the only safe way to get out of this was to get in and wait til assistance ever comes, knowing we haven’t return. As I took my steps towards the big ship, echoes of unknown sounds were rising, only making me feel as if it was a rescue team, but not for me since the sound was unrecognizable,.
I dropped into prone only crawling shortly trying to blend in with the snow all around me. The sound grew louder til it hovered over and descended away; an enemy ship flew over. It was a surprise that they didn’t spotted me, but it wasn’t me they were looking for, in my thoughts they were looking for last teammates until the medium sized enemy ship dropped another one but smaller, landing aboard the missing ship. Steam stretched itself from the enemy barrel and slowly disappearing while their fleet fled back from where I heard from as I tuck down once again letting them fly over without seeing me.
I stood down thinking what to do, then slowly lifting myself up with a puzzled mind.
How could I do this I thought, they must be looking for a way in; it was no rescue ship not even for their race. I took off walking from the left side that almost looked as if it was a stairway where it connected to a lower ground layer as the rest of the ground looked as if it had hit rock bottom. If I probably dashed my way towards the down ship I could make it and see what to recover from, but being slight injured would take to long, especially with enemies aboard. If only the helmet wasn’t a complete bust I would already have someone looking for me.
I stared across the light blue sky hoping at least a small ship from my kind lands anywhere from here. Slowly I jogged towards the ship as it began to rise as if it was already floating over my head. The story behind this ship was classified for lower soldiers like me to understand what happened during the great breakout; the only people who ever known about the ship was only the ones who were alive and the captains from the past and today. If the story was ever told without official permit from the captain him or herself.. Would be prosecuted with death. The only thing I ever knew about the ship was the enemy fleet took it down.
Finally, as I reached the left side of the ship I looked at its enormous flank, and the view of color wasn’t too old but almost as if it was barely ever used… I wonder why.
I looked around, only finding spiked edges from the smooth sides, but no handle cept from the sealed door where soldiers and any other people would come out from then back in. the cracks around the door slowly crumbled into bits of metal pieces, then turning to ashes or hard bits. I stood close through the sealed hatch, then elbowing the cracks as hard as I ever could multiple times. I stopped and stood a couple foots away.. only paying attention to run towards it as fast as I could. I dashed through and fell inside using my whole body and falling inside, cracks under and over me as I stood down for a couple of seconds easing off the pain from the fall.
Chills of deaths cold breath raised my fur inside my useless suit. Everything inside was dark, a bit too dark for an old ship to be. The only light I could’ve seen was only the light from the outside, but I continued through the dark side of the ship only hoping no enemies sees me.
I could see some stuff, I thought; Tables, chairs, and the metal floor glistening just a bit to guide me from where I’m coming from.
The enemy staff slowly rumbled around as I stood staring downwards, lifting it up a bit more, watching it resize it’s sheath. The sheath went back in through the other barrel and continued to shape back it’s figure. It was just a cylinder shape now ‘stead of a long stick.
‘You’re not one of them… are you..’ a small voice suddenly appeared through the back of my body only giving me chills as I held my staff.
The staff rapidly extended making a sharp noise out after I slowly tugged it quickly from an enemy.. But it was no afterlife, nor any of my squad.. But a small AI floating over my head standing in place just floating over me; The ship was upside down! I yelled deeply in my thoughts. No wonder I couldn’t get in correctly.
‘Leave! Now! You don’t know what your getting yourself-‘The AI paused, looking at my right side. The doors were being banged on, hearing the voice of the holograms.
‘open one of those glass seals and whatever’s left, rub it on you Now!’ the AI said quickly, only vanishing herself as I did what I was told.
A blue sphere was in the case as I punched not only the seal, but the sphere itself. Some water type of thing was rubbed across me as I rubbed it above my suit, face, ears, nose, and below the bottom waste.
The doors were broken down as the big bang frightened me almost throwing me off guard, falling on the floor.. making eye contact on more than just an afterlife… my life was over before I knew it. They came closer and closer as I could feel my heart beat rise, as I already knew they were beside me. I closed my eyes hoping death wouldn’t kill me fatally… til nothing happened but only hearing the steps of the different kind of race passing by me.
(End of chapter 1)