“Fuck this shitty planet”

Whined a boy as he wiped the beading sweat from his forehead. The boy had a respiration mask on that made his face heat up under his laboured breathing as he worked.

He wore loose rags that appeared as an improvised ghillie suit. Here and there under the rags bits of armor could be seen.

Around his waist various tools and large rounds for a weapon could be seen along with a pistol.

The most prominent piece of gear he had was on his lower back. It was like a butt pack except it had two thruster nozzles that faced down and slightly away from him on either side. It was his most treasured and important piece of gear.

At the moment he was kneeling on the rusted frame of what appears to have once been an Mech, much of it was covered in foliage. Littered around him were various parts extracted from it, most of which were too slagged, too broken or corroded to be useful. From time to time he would pull out some wires or a component that may be of use which he would wrap then place in the bag next to him. However he wasn’t too excited about any of these finds because he was here for something else.

“One minute it’s fucking cold the next it’s hot, its always cloudy and you never know when Zeus will smite your ass”

He cursed as he finally got a seized mechanism moving.

It was five years ago that he had found himself on this inhospitable planet and indeed the environment, at least in the area he has explored so far, was volatile at best and unstable at worst.

The sky was forever charged and struck out at the landscape in lightning storms daily.

The temperatures could also swing wildly throughout the year and the air had to be breathed through a mask which added to his discomfort in hot weather.

As he wound the mechanism using a wrench, large shells began to come out of their ammo bin. These shells were what he had been looking for.

The past four and a half years he had not spent just running around these ruins. He has been trying to make his way to civilization and about a month ago he had come to a roadblock. These shells were hopefully going to help him remove the obstacle.

The boy was smiling with joy under his mask as he quickly packed his tools and newly acquired rounds in his bag.

The ever cloudy sky was beginning to darken and winds were beginning to pick up as it replaced the sunset for the indicator of coming night.

He buckled on his bag that sat above his butt pack and checked all his gear was properly secure. Happy, he reached up to his shoulder and grabbed an orb that was black and like the rest of his gear looked as if it had its fair share of usage. He threw the orb up in front of him.

It stopped up in the air and swiveled to point a camera lens down at the boy. He smiled, temporarily removing his mask showing a young haggard face.

He had dark bags under his eyes and lacked the chubby cheeks a youth should have.

Still he smiled and posed as though unaware of his disheveled appearance to the camera. The camera moved to various angles to capture the image of him atop the remains of a machine that now lay embedded into the side of a crumbled overgrown building.

He made a gesture and the camera flew back as he wore his mask. The boy held the camera in his hand and gazed at the holographic display of the photos it produced and swiped through them removing some he was not happy with as he hummed. Placing the camera back on his shoulder where it would record he leaned down to grab his home made grenade launcher and turned to head to his home when his ears twitched.

Looking into the far distance he focused his eyes and saw five aircraft flying insanely fast over the ruins, occasionally dodging skyscrapers, one of the aircraft was also leaving a trail of smoke.

Soon they were gone just a dispersing smoke trail to tell of their presence. The boy gazed in the direction they had left with longing in his eyes. There should be human civilization in that direction.

His years in the ruins had not been easy as he had been totally alone. He wanted to see people again and the thought of the possibility of being in civilization again was an overwhelming desire of his as he was certain he was already losing his mind while stuck in these ruins.

Though he was desperate for human interaction, speeding up his plans to reach said civilization would only end in his demise. He could only hope that the end of his solitude was near.

Sighing in longing as he glanced in the direction the aircraft had left in. He turned then taking a few steps as a run up he leapt off the top of the remains of the mech however as he jumped the thrusters on his mobility gear glowed silently for a second as the nozzles moved slightly to micro adjust the propulsion angle sending him further. He landed on a pile of rubble that was higher than the wreck but didn’t stop. He kept his momentum and gained speed with Burst’s from his mobility gear as he left behind the stark remains of an ancient war machine.

***

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

In the darkening world one could see the silhouettes of towering degraded structures. There was the constant flashing of lightning as if the paparazzi were reveling in the ruined cityscape and its many features.

There were also the occasional shapes of massive broken hulls from fallen warships that lay sprawled across the now overgrown city which stretched far into the horizon in every direction.

At the feet of the flora-covered buildings where the busy streets once were, lay the resting places of silent fortifications, various war machines and the millions of bones of those who once manned and fought them, some alien and some human. Yet both of them now were mostly obscured under vegetation.

A small figure was dancing through the ruins as though to a flowing rhythm. His steps were light as if he only needed to touch a surface to keep himself afloat. He shuttled across wide streets where he might use one of the many vines that span the ruined city as a bridge. Perhaps he might navigate the tangled structure of a damaged building, stepping, sliding or simply ducking as he almost flew through the tangled debris. His speed was fast, almost to the point where a normal human couldn’t keep up. The boy however calculated every step, movement and posture needed to maximize the limited range of motion the thruster nozzles of the mobility gear provided to keep up his speed through complicated terrain.

As the gale force winds of the night ramped up and the ruins darkened the boy seemed unhindered by the darkness as though his eyes could pierce right through it. Meanwhile he seemed to sail on the harsh winds as he jumped between structures with the wind guiding him to his desired landing points.

He navigated the ruins heading to the towering remains of a starship. It was crumpled and scorched with little left of its former glory. It would have once had a length that stretched kilometers, however now its broken hull is split apart by the same distance.

***

The nightly winds were now howling throughout the ruins, anything not fixed down would blow through the overgrown streets.

At the final street between the hull of the warship and the ruined buildings a figure quietly navigated the air currents and flying debris. The boy flew across the large street using small bursts from the quiet thrusters to dodge debris and follow the gusts of wind.

Soon he landed in an opening on the hull and dashed inside. The interior of the ship was also a mess, some hallways were fully collapsed while some new ones had been made by weapons tearing or melting through the ship. Eventually he found himself entering a less damaged section which had an intact hallway that led to a door.

As the boy walked down the still hallway a seemingly unpowered turret in the roof silently prepared to fire. Multiple hidden sensors checked him. After it confirmed his identity the door opened leading to a dark compartment which he entered as the door shut.

“Oi Kate, could you hurry up and turn on the lights?”

A robotic female voice spoke from the corner of the dark compartment.

”Welcome back Kasey, I have determined that turning on the hanger lights is an unnecessary expenditure of energy as you can see in the darkness as long as it isn’t completely without any photons… Also my designation isn’t Kate.”

“I’m not going to talk to you with some random serial as a name and don’t call me Kasey I hate that name like I have said many times before, call me Fay.”

Fay gradually removed his gear and placed it on a stand while he threw his clothes onto a pile. Soon he was naked and a tattoo of a skull and flower could be seen on the side of his neck. Fay hummed and grabbed some well worn faded shorts and a shirt in no better condition. He did not wear any shoes as he grabbed the bag with the day's salvage and started walking to a messy workbench.

”Also despite being able to perceive everything, do you know how irritating it is to have everything lit up by the emergency exit sign. It’s like in this dark dreary world that is my hangar bay the sun that brings hope to it is an emergency exit sign.”

As he threw the bag onto the workbench with a loud thud that knocked more items on to the floor the lights began to come on.

Soon the hanger was presented in its full glory. It was messy with junk scattered into various piles while some were placed on overflowing shelves.

Before he found himself in this world he had kept his uncle's house he lived in clean and organized as he couldn’t stand messy surroundings.

This place also used to be very clean and orderly too however around two years back Fay had started to care less about keeping the place clean as his desperation mounted.

There were two prominent features in the hangar one was an aircraft and the other was the large torso of a mech.

The aircraft was a stealth transport capable of holding a small vehicle or twelve men. It was in this hanger when Fay had found it.

The damaged remains of a mech however was brought here using the aircraft. The mech remains are also what powers the place and is the origin of the robotic voice.

Fay dug around a pile of junk and pulled out a handheld scanner. After going back to the messy workbench and tipping out his bag he threw the extra items into various piles around him. Now left with the cannon shells from earlier he used the scanner to check them.

The first one was too corroded and was unsalvageable so he threw it onto a pile of similar rounds. The second looked better however the casing had been compromised by some impact. Both the third and the fourth had similar problems. Fay bit his lip in nervousness, he had been trying to find one of these rounds in good condition for months now.

These were a highly specialized kinetic round designed to penetrate the energy shields of smaller scale alien machines or rapidly deplete larger shields such as sub-capital ship shields. The issue is they were used by higher end mechs which made them harder to find.

Also despite the deathly visage of the city it was anything but uninhabited. Many deadly creatures roam the ruins. So safely locating these mechs is a challenge and can take quite a bit of time. Time which has been chewing at Fay’s sanity.

Fay crossed his fingers as he scanned the shell starting at the warhead. The warhead was fine. He let out a shaky breath and continued. Next the propellant was checked and it came back green. Last is the casing.

Fay steeled his heart and scanned it.

He let out a sigh of relief. He let himself fall to the floor and lay down.

“Ha ha ahahaha It’s finally time to deal with that fucker”

Fay lay down laughing as he had to wipe his eyes that were watering. He was tired. He was sick of living in these hostile ruins. He just wants to talk to a person again. He looked over at the wall of the hanger where he could see a hologram displaying images he had taken during his time in this world.

He then thought back to the day he had gotten here.