As there had been with the expansion to America when humanity moved into the stars and civilians started being able to get ships there became an abundance of criminals and pirates. some from civilians who managed to acquire guns for their ships others from military ships that mutinied. To combat this the UC formed an elite force and navy, trained in space combat and boarding procedures. With the rise of rebellions across the colonies though they focus less and less on piracy leading to unsafe space once again. To combat this we suggest that groups with legal permits maybe authorised to arm ships.
Extract from Rear Admiral Johnston’s proposal for the legalisation of mercenary ships. 75 SE.
My mind felt cloudy as I was slightly justled and it seemed some distant noise was trying to get my attention. After what felt like hours of trying I finally managed to open my eyes and keep them open for more than a second or two. The first thing I noticed was a blurry image of concerned brown eyes and a long braid of red hair hovering above me, after blinking my eyes a few more times I finally realised that Estrid must have taken off her helmet. My mind managed to slowly register that it must mean we are still alive.
I had expected not to wake up or to awaken in pure agony after the truma my brain had gone through, however all I could feel was a weird haze of grogginess. I finally realised that I must have been given something to numb the pain, but why such a strong dose?
All these thoughts tried to trudge through the thick haze in my brain as Estrid moved out of my sight, she was still speaking but I couldn't process the words, the sun seemed so very bright through my visor. Wait no my helmet wasn't on, it must have been taken off me. I tried to raise my left arm to block the sun, but it wouldn't move. Was the dose so high that I couldn’t move my body? oh god was my arm broken?
Okay I cannot lie, I had started to panic slightly. And that small amount of panic became a full panic attack when I realised I couldn't move my body in the slightest, the panic, hyperventilation and drugs did not combine well. I am not too vain to deny what happened, I fainted.
When I came to next it was warm, a flickering light against my eyelids before I finally opened my eyes, my brain feeling much clearer, however my body still felt a little groggy showing that some form of pain killer must still be in my system.I realised I must have been out for hours, I realised this because it would have been pitch black if not for the fire not far from me. I managed to start finally taking in what was around me, the fire flickering upon the metal corpse of what remained of our ship.
It seemed that I had been dragged into a covered area that Estrid had then built a small shelter around using remains from the ships. I could hear soft breathing nearby, and when I turned to look I saw her sleeping form. Trying not to wake her I kept looking around, it seemed that the cockpit had been torn off the rest of the ship, and we had by some miracle landed in a collision that should have been almost impossible to survive. I could only think that the crash procedure must have activated as I blacked out, causing the seats to activate their seatbelts and a small shield around each seat.
I managed to put two and two together and realised that my suit's basic intelligence probably registering so many issues with my vitals and pain signals from the ship link, that most likely overloaded the suits basic AI causing it to flood me with pain medication. If we ever got back I would have to report that issue, after all it would be bad if our armour started overdosing soldiers.
It was during this thought, while I was spacing out looking into the woods that I noticed something which quickly grabbed my attention. As the firelight flickered against the border of the woods four glowing orbs seemed to be watching through the bushes, four orbs which looked almost exactly like the eyes of a cat glowing in the dark.
I could only stare at them, my hand fell to my hip as I sluggishly felt around for my pistol. Only to find nothing there, panic ran through me again as a distorted growl pierced the air, yet I forced myself to remain calm and to keep my breathing regulated. My eyes locked into staring at the bushes. After what felt like an eternity but had probably only been minutes the eyes seemed to get smaller before vanishing all together.
Now as I am sure you can imagine, that made it almost impossible to go back to sleep even as exhausted as I was feeling. Thankfully Estrid had made sure to stockpile wood before falling asleep which I could use to keep the fire going. The rest of the night dragged on with my drained but worried mind seeing creatures in every shadow but I was left alone and unobserved by anything, well that I could tell at least. Estrid stirred with the dim rising sun letting out a few unintelligible grumbles before she was able to string a sentence together, she was never really the type to get up happily.
“Oh good you're awake and not high off your tits from the meds this time.” She stated with a slight tired slur to her words, letting out a yawn as she rubbed at her eyes, she then looked at the smouldering embers of the fire. “I figured that as much as we crashed fleeing from a ship that with the state of our ship they probably wouldn't be looking for survivors other than maybe drop pods, and you didn't need hypothermia, not to mention fire tends to scare off animals.”
“It did stop us becoming something’s dinner I am pretty sure.” was all I could think to reply as I pushed myself up onto my feet, stumbling slightly before I caught myself. The slow reaction of my body and brain caused me to let out a sigh of annoyance. Right now my main focus is reuniting with the crew and getting out of this forest. We needed to get to the nearest colony town and find out what's happening.
“You will recover soon I hope. Then again we are just lucky you are alive and not comatosed with the state the ship was left in. People have had their minds closed down from being linked with ships that took a lot less damage.” Estrid stated, slipping into deep thought by the end of it.
“Which is why it isn’t recommended to connect with the ship, then again I have heard some fighter pilots are crazy enough to get an implant which makes it easier to do just that.”
“What does it feel like?” She asked almost softly, as if prodding a sore spot.
“It’s odd, your mind tries to process becoming a ship and the easiest way to process it for us is through feeling. At times it's breathtaking like freediving and flying just feels so free, as if the wind was rushing through your hair as you soar above everything. However once the cannons fire it's harder to explain, shooting guns comes as naturally as moving a limb but as I said you feel it all as feelings and sensations. When you get hit when there's shields it feels almost like a paintball. Yet when the shields collapse it becomes a feeling of each shot hitting you as if hitting your own body and when things break off it feels as if your body is being ripped apart. On Top of all of that it is a serious strain on the brain so too much of it can leave you groggy, with a migraine or even just cause your brain to collapse.” I replied with a slight shiver.
“So what’s the plan captain?” Estrid asked after a prolonged silence as she tried to change the conversation to help me shake it off. Together we left the makeshift shelter, with Estrid walking beside me as I looked around. The cockpit of the ship had crashed half into a tree that looked similar to the old redwood trees I had only seen in records of earth past, the main difference being that the leaves and vines wrapped around the tree were almost black instead of the green leaves of earth. “What are we going to do about food? Our amount of stored water isn't that high either.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Yet I didn’t answer Estrid right away, my mind instead racing about how we were going to get out of this situation. I knew how to sort out the food and water issue at least for the short term, but how do we get to civilization and find the rest of the crew? My gaze lingered on the canopy of the trees nearby, with how thick it seemed to get we most likely wouldn't be able to see the sky from within the forest.
“What's with the leaves, they look so different to the ones on mars and the few areas of earth?” Estrid asked as she followed my eyes. Then without me even asking and before I had even noticed she walked to the small part of the entrance hall to the cockpit that remained, pushing apart a large piece of metal she had used to block the entrance after dragging me out.
“It's because of the red dwarf, as you can tell this planet doesn't get as much light as planets on earth, so the plants are darker to absorb more light.” I answered with a shrug, nodding my thanks as I stepped into the mess that was the cockpit. A set of four winged birds resided within, their beaks opening up at the bottom similar to a snake as they let out caws of protest that sounded nothing like any bird recording I had heard, or like the pigeons that resided in earth’s under-cities. As the flock flew away my eyes were drawn to their black feathers that shimmered slightly under the dim red light of the sun and the two long ribbons like tails that grew from the bottom of each wing. It seems that nature can truly be beautiful on any planet.
“Pft nerd.” Estrid teased as I rolled my eyes at them, she often teased me on the fact that I tended to read a lot during the bit of downtime we got on the ship.
Without a reply I walked towards the captain chair, scrap metal digging into the ground all around it yet a circle around it remained perfectly pristine where the shield must have sprung around it. I leaned down under the chair and pressed a slight indent in the floor, however the panel I had expected did not appear when I pressed the access button. The emergency power must have run out. Thankfully there was a backup. “Hey come here for a second.”
“What do you need?” She asked as she stood behind me looking over my shoulder. I didn't reply but pointed at two indents just big enough for someone to slide their hands into. As much as I was slowly getting back into shape my sluggish body didn't leave me enough strength for the process needed. Estrid knelt down and pushed her hands into the gestured areas, with a grunt she pulled the metal panel off. Under it was another part that needed to be pulled off, this time with a much more obvious hand grip.
Estrid pulled it off and a storage hole was revealed, in which was a duffle bag. I pulled it out with a nod of thanks and opened it up. It contained three twenty four hour ration packs, a large metal bottle of water, a box containing a flare gun and three flares, a survival knife and leg sheath, a few water cleaning tablets and a flask of whisky. Damn not to speak ill of the dead but it seemed our captain had an issue.
I then gestured in front of another chair for Estrid as she went over and found another indent pulling it open, after ten minutes we had found a total of five bags. Putting them together as we scavaged them to make a survival pack each. I took the captain's bag and added a first aid kit, and a tinder set to it. Estrid filled her pack similarly to mine but added a long wire she had found in one of the bags, both of us then added extra rations to our bag so we had a week's worth of food. It made the packs nearly full and definitely more cumbersome but we had no idea how long it would take until we reached civilization. “There's our temporary food and water issue sorted.”
“How did you know we would find bags in there?” Estrid asked me, I couldn't see her face as I was too busy looking around the cockpit for something else. I knelt down looking under each console before letting out an Aha! in triumph.
“Hmmm? Oh, after someone… recommended me for the promotion. I had to start taking tests, they needed to make sure I could take control of the ship if needed in case something like this happened. However in the test it also revealed other information I needed to know. Turns out the higher-ups in the cockpit have a bug out bag under their legs, usually they can be opened by a hidden console beside them but in the case of a total power cut they have manual releases that you sorted out for us. Because they are the set persons BOB’s though they tend to be a lot more customised than the emergency kits in the drop pods.” I explained, all while trying to stretch my arm under the console as I felt around for what I had seen. Finally I managed to grab it, pulling my missing sidearm out with a sense of joy, granted the gun was technically not mine as it belonged to the military but it was still one I felt attached too. I reconnected it back to the magnetic holster on my hip.
It didn't take long for me to find the helmet that Estrid had taken off me when checking my vitals, picking it up from the area near the captain's chair where she had obviously laid me down to check me properly. A large crack down the visor of the helmet made me let out a slight tisk of annoyance. I ran a finger along the visor inside of the helmet making sure there wasn't any loose glass but the visor still seemed strong other than the slight crack so I put it back on. There is something reassuring about wearing a helmet, I wasn’t sure if it was due to the fact that I knew it to be extra armour or if it was just because I was too used to covering my face due to the pollution of the under cities.
Estrid used that time to place the remaining bags back into storage areas and cover them back up as much as she could, then she grabbed her own helmet from a chair she had left it on and put it on as we then both threw the bags over our shoulders.
“From the data I was able to read from the console as we were heading to the surface I believe we landed on a northern based course from the town of New California.” Estrid stated as we left the mess of the cockpit, I waited for a second as she replaced the blockade.
I pressed a button on the side of my helmet to turn it back on, the display flickering repetitively until I bashed it a few times. Every so often the display would still flicker but it stopped being constant at least, I waited until the basic AI managed to register which planet we were on. It then took a few more minutes before the compass started working. Now at least we knew which way we had to go, the next issue was just trying to find our crew.
I had trekked through dense forest before, most people in the spaceforce had of course gone through training in different environments. However the few jungles left on earth had nothing compared to the overly thick jungles in Ularian. Not only that but the red light the sun gave was not as bright as sol’s sun, meaning that through the denseness of the canopy it was almost pitchblack so we had to work with the limited lights built into our helmet. This mixed with the fact we only had combat knives to cut our path made it slow progress.
The only way we had to track the time during this was the clock in our helmets display which slowly dragged down the hours as we hacked our way through the thick vegetation. Well by that I mean mostly Estrid hacked through it as I followed behind trying not to trip over my slow feet and using my arm to move the vines and branches out of the way of my head, oh the joys of following the path of someone shorter than you.
We had been moving for quite a few hours before the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, controlling the holo-display with my eyes. I sent a quick command to Estrids own helmet causing her to stop suddenly, both lights on either side of her helmet sweeping the trees in the look for threats. I watched in the corner of my eye as she slowly swapped her knife to her left hand and drew her service sidearm, the same model as mine.
While that happened I slowly moved down pulling out my own sidearm, keeping my finger off the trigger as I held it in front of me. The light moved with my head as I watched the treeline, and then I saw it. Four glowing eyes reflecting back under the light peering at me from the undergrowth, the same disturbing growl rising from the area of the eyes. However when Estrids light finally rested where I was looking the eyes had vanished, gone within a blink.
“What is it?” She asked in a hushed voice, her pistol raised as she turned again to cover our backs.
“Did you not see it?” I answered confused, even though she hadn’t seen the eyes, how had she not heard that weird growl. “Or even hear anything?”
“See what? I didn’t hear a thing?” She asked. Obviously a little concerned, she lowered her gun slightly as she looked over at me. “Are you feeling dizzy or anything?”
“I didn't imagine it.” I snapped instantly, I couldn’t have. Right? My head felt fine after all. Struggling with worrying about the state of my mind and the fact we may in fact be in danger I slowly approached the bush, gun slightly raised. However no noise reached me nor did I see anything hiding in the bush. I used my gun to push the vein-like vegetation slightly away as my eyes roamed over where the creature had been moments before.
Nothing, no creature, no fur stuck on the plants or even any footprints. Was I losing my mind? Could it really be a hallucination? However just before I could step away something shone under the light. I knelt down, grabbing whatever it was. It appeared to be a red marble like substance carved into a triangular shape with a smooth rounded top. Within the object was a clear white gem that seemed to sparkle under the light of the helm, however as the light ran over the marble it reflected in a way that made it look as if purple lighting was running through the marble.
Confused, I looked back at where I had gathered it from, yet the ground looked undisturbed. It seemed as if the item had almost been gently placed there and somewhat recently at least as the vegetation had not grown over it.
“What is that?” Estrid asked, confused, at some point she had come to me but I had been so infatuated with the object that I hadn't noticed.
“I have no idea, it's obviously man made though, maybe someone dropped it here?” I stated, but instantly it ran through my mind just how undisturbed the ground was. I figured however that it was a mystery that could be pieced together when our survival was guaranteed, so I slid the weird object into my bag and got back to trekking through the forest.