The atmosphere in the room was tensed, with everyone anxiously waiting for Victor to arrive. In total a crew of five had been put together. Sarah looked around the room. This was the first time they were all together; she had heard of some of them before, and Victor had told her everyone's names and jobs, but this was the first time she saw all of their faces. Quietly whispering to each other, there were the two guardian marines from the Lunar defence and Exploration Academy. Sarah worked there too. Not as a marine, but as a researcher. Victor had told her they were brother and sister, both born and raised on Luna. Zalo and Zalana, they were called. Sarah had seen plenty of marines before. Some of them she knew by name. She hadn’t seen them before though, at least not with their suits off. She was fascinated by them. Even without their suits, they looked lethal. Zalo was bold and had arms like a lion, almost fully tattooed. He was probably the strongest man she had ever seen. Zalana had her long black hair strapped back in a ponytail. She was about two heads smaller than her younger brother, but no less dangerous. They had been trained to work together as one. Both excelling in tactics and pure destruction. They were there to keep everyone safe form anything that might still be down there.
To the right of the room Layla was staring at the wall at the front of the room trying to stay relaxed. Layla was going to be their pilot. Sarah didn’t know her, but apparently she was the best transport pilot Luna had to offer.
In the back Daniel sat at a table surrounded by paper. He was about as old as she was. He was still trying to prepare as optimally as possible. Not to her surprise. Ever since they started to work together, Daniel had been extremely dedicated to his work. He must have been. He had one of the most important jobs on the academy.
Sarah stood up. Zalo and Zalana immediately turned towards her. They looked her straight in the eye. It felt a little uncomfortable. Normally she could read someone's state of mind by looking into their eyes, like with Daniel back at work. Their eyes said nothing. She walked towards Daniel’s table. Daniel looked up and he cracked a smile.
‘Still preparing for it?’ Sarah said.
‘I’m just trying to do my best,’ Daniel said. ‘We are going on the most important mission Luna has ever undertaken, recovering Earth. And I’m the one to find out what happened on there. I need to be prepared.’
Sarah smiled. ‘You are.’
Just when waiting for Victor was beginning to turn the atmosphere from tensed to confused, he finally walked into the room, towering over everyone. When Victor was in the room, you could feel his presence. He always wore the same: a green shirt with an army-style jacket without sleeves and lose jeans in roughly the same tint of green. He had spent over twenty years in the Terran Marine corps, and he had seen more of war than anyone on Luna. Most prominent about him were his scars scattered over his lower left arm, with the biggest one ending where his ring finger and little finger had once been. Though Victor looked like everything but a nice person- and even Zalo would probably back down to him in a fight- he was another person at heart. His strategic mind and understanding of the world were the reasons he was asked to lead this mission.
Victor's dark brown eyes looked around the room while he walked to the front.
‘Morning everyone,' he said. 'I hope you’ve had plenty of time to meet, we’ve got some work to do now.'
As quickly as he had broken the silence, it returned. Now everyone looked at Victor, waiting for Victor to tell them to get on the ship.
‘I guess I’ll get to it, then,’ Victor resumed. ‘I know this mission may seem daunting to some of you. Others might underestimate the importance of this mission. But let us remember, that three years ago, on this day, we lost all communication with earth because of what we suspect is a nuclear apocalypse. All we saw of earth since then is a thick yellow layer of radioactive dust. Billions are assumed to have died that day, everybody on Luna was able to see it. In the months following this event we have send numerous drones to give us more information about what happened. Yet after four long years of sudden engine failure and loss of connection, we still don’t know who was behind it, or what they used, or anything for that matter. Recently, though, new developments have maybe given us a definite cause of the event. Your mission is to go back to Earth and prove this.’
‘When do we leave, sir?’ Layla asked.
‘We leave now. Gear up ladies and gentleman, we fly in one hour.’
Everyone stood up and moved towards the door. Sarah walked out first after Victor. She tried to make eye contact, but Victor didn’t react. She went to the dressing room to suit up for the flight. Luckily she didn’t have to go in one of those huge bulking space suits her parents told her about. When people first went to Luna, Sarah’s parents told her, they had to spend hours gearing up for a trip. Sarah however only had to put on a special sort of clothing, designed to protect her body from the vacuum of space and to help her body cope with the increase of gravity on Earth. Zalana had her suit parked in a corner of the dressing room. Most of the suit was made up of small black scales, leading to small metal plates that covered her chest. The head piece was also black, but with two stripes carved into it each with a piece of glass to see through. The neckpiece made of a different material. She couldn’t figure out what it was. Zalana’s suit was built for agility, making it smaller, faster and more versatile. Zalo’s suit however was built on strength and power, giving him multiple build in weapons, more armour, and making him look like a towering giant. Sarah kept looking at the suit, intrigued by the beauty of it. She stood up. The neofiber suit she wore made a squeaking noise against the freshly cleaned floor. She had put her hair in a ponytail, otherwise her hair would float around during the spaceflight. She walked towards the suit in the corner. The suit was facing the wall. The neckpiece had a special mark on it. She recognized the mark. It indicated that the neckpiece was the Ore-canister. That’s what powering the suit, she thought. Sarah gently touched the left arm of the suit, taking extra care for the suit not to fall down, because the suit was standing loose. The suit was like the shell of a person. But no eyes. Only the diagonal stripes of tinted glass that replaced traditional eye sockets. The strips went back almost to the ears. They connected in the middle of the face. The suit felt warm. It was a scaled surface.
‘Like what you’re seeing?’
Swiftly Sarah swung her head around. There Zalana stood. Her arms crossed, her bright green eyes shimmering in the light. Sarah’s arm pulled away from the suit like a reflex.
‘You scared me,’ Sarah said. ‘How did you get behind me?’
‘This is a dressing room,’ Zalana replied. ‘I came in through the door. What where you doing with my suit?’
‘It was in the corner while I was dressing up and your suit was in the corner and I just kept looking at it. I just wanted to touch it.’
‘Yeah, it has that effect on people.’
Zalana smiled. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m Zalana.’
‘Sarah.’
They shook hands. Zalana had an extremely firm grip. It could have been expected, Zalana was military after all.
‘Sarah? O, are you the science girl?’ Zalana’s had a more friendly tone in her voice.
‘That’s me.’
‘Then you must be one of the people that made my suit. That’s awesome!’
‘I didn’t work on all of it. I’m just Daniel’s assistant. I just do research on the power core. It’s made of the Ore.’
‘What Ore?’
‘You don’t know about the Ore? You’ve been wearing it for years!’
‘Well, what is the Ore then?’
Sarah was batheled. How could Zalana not know that she had been in contact with the Ore?
‘Well?’ Zalana repeated.
‘It’s complicated,’ Sarah replied. She didn’t know what to say to her. How do you explain to someone that they’ve been used as a guinea pig for years?
‘Come on, tell me,’ Zalana said seriously.
‘All guardian marines to meeting hall 4 for mission prep,’ the intercom shouted.
Zalana turned her head towards the door.
‘I gotta go,’ Zalana reacted immediately. ‘Step aside Sarah.’
Zalana started walking towards her suit. Sarah quickly got out of the way. Zalana’s pupils tightened. Sarah saw that all the muscles in Zalana’s arm started to twitch rapidly. Zalana kept walking towards the suit. But nothing was happening. Just as Sarah thought Zalana was going to run into her suit, the entire backside unfolded. All the scales rolled sideways and revealed the inside of the suit: nothing. Aside from some weapons in the arm there was nothing. Zalana stepped in without any trouble. When Zalana was completely inside the black scales folded back into place and Zalana disappeared entirely. It fit perfectly. The room was quiet for a moment, but suddenly Zalana dropped down. She fell straight down, like her legs disappeared from under her body.
‘Zalana!’ Sarah screamed, ‘Are you alright?’ Sarah came down on one knee to try and help her. Zalana’s body flinched. Sarah heard her take a deep breath. Zalana jumped back up before Zalana could reach her.
‘Don’t worry, it’s normal,’ Zalana said, ‘It’s just the suit starting up.’
A dim yellow glow now emitted from the neckpiece, but the neckpiece was quickly covered by a layer of black scales.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
‘I’ll see you later, Sarah.’
Zalana walked out of the dressing room. For a moment Sarah stood completely still.
‘All members of exploration flight alpha to the main hangar,’ the intercom said.
Sarah was slowly making her way towards the hangar in which the craft was stalled that would take them back to earth. The hallway branched out into numerous corridors. The hangar door was at the far end of the hallway. She looked at it. Her gaze fixated. A moment ago, all Sarah could think of was the talk she had with Zalana, but now another thought was creeping its way into her head. I’m leaving. I might never see my friends again. I’m leaving… Victor had tried to talk her out of going but she never even bothered to consider. Now walking through the hallway, she was scared. She could see the door of the hangar.
‘Keep it together, Sarah. You’re gonna do this, and you’re going to return,’ Sarah whispered to herself. She pulled the door open. The giant hangar opened up before her eyes. Three sides of the hangar are built onto the main building, but the fourth side had no wall. It was open space. Giant beacons on the sides were holding the air in the hangar. In the middle of the hangar stood a ship. It was shaped like a sharp-tipped bullet. The light hitting the hull floated seamlessly along the sides and eventually made a sharp curve at the end of the hull where the two wings were located. At the back of the ship there were two powerful engines. Each one located at the base of a wing. Seeing the beautiful ship shining in the light made Sarah feel good about the mission again. A man stood beside the spacecraft. Sarah walked towards him. Victor also started walking towards her, grabbed her, and gave her a big hug.
‘Sarah!’ Victor said, still hugging her. ‘I wanted to say goodbye to you.’ Victor let her go.
‘I’m glad you did,’ Sarah responded. ‘Where are the others?’
‘They’re inside. You’re the last one to go in.’ Victor went down on one knee to come face to face with Sarah and he came closer to her. Victor held her shoulders with his hands.
‘Listen. When you get there, and you will, Layla is the best pilot in the world I could find, remember why you are there. You and Daniel need to get the data, get some footage, and get back.’
‘Are you worried?’ Sarah said sarcastically.
‘Am I wrong to? You are amongst the first to go back, and I don’t know what’s down there.’
Sarah smiled. ‘I’ll be fine, Victor. And I’ve got your two best marines protecting me.’
Victor smiled. from the ship’s door Daniel appeared.
‘there you are, Sarah. Come on board. We’re leaving soon.’
‘Coming.’
‘You should go, Victor said. I’ll be on the coms whenever you need someone to talk to.’
‘There is one thing though.’ Sarah looked over both of her shoulders. No-one was within hearing distance. ‘It’s about the Academy. I talked to Zalana in the dressing room and I mentioned the Ore. She didn’t know it existed.’
Victor looked away. He seemed surprised by it too.
‘I’ll look into it,’ Victor said softly. ‘But don’t you worry. I know Zalo and Zalana both personally. They are good people, not just good soldiers.’
Sarah stood still for a moment, then gave Victor a final hug. She walked to the stairs leading to the ship’s door, where Daniel was waiting for her, and got in. She looked back at the hangar one final time. Daniel closed and sealed the door.
‘Welcome on board,’ Daniel said. ‘Come, let’s go to the cockpit. The others are in there.'
They entered the ship’s cockpit. Layla and Zalo were sitting in the pilot’s seats, preparing the ship for take-off. To the right behind Zalo was a closet where he had parked his massive suit. She saw his hammer hanging on the wall next to it. It was as tall as she was. The hammer had ‘‘Rusos’’ etched into the hilt. Zalo himself was quietly going through some paperwork, like an ordinary office worker. Funny how a person’s outer self can be so different from what he is internally, She thought.
Daniel walked up to them ‘How is the flight looking, guys?’
‘The flight is looking fine,’ Layla responded. ‘With this craft we could get to earth in 3 hours, and that’s without using the jump engine. But we’re gonna be going a lot slower than that to save as much fuel as possible. So we’re only looking at a flight time of about 30 hours until we reach the Earth’s atmosphere.’
‘And that’s where the hard part begins,’ Zalo added.
‘But that aside.’ Layla stood up from her chair and shook Sarah’s hand.
‘Welcome on The Recovery, Sarah.’
‘I’m glad to be here.’
‘Why don’t you and Daniel just take a seat in the middle of the ship and relax for a moment. Zalo and I are almost ready for take-off.’
Sarah and Daniel left the cockpit and took a seat in the middle section of the ship. There were four seats on each wall. The back of the ship contained a small kitchen, a sleeping area, and storage room, which was packed full of research equipment and supplies of all sorts. On the left Zalana was sitting, still in her armour. Sarah and Daniel took the seats next to her. Zalana didn’t say anything. Sarah couldn’t see her face, so she didn’t know if Zalana was sleeping. She could only see the helmet with the yellow eye sockets and the small black scales running down Zalana’s body.
Some time passed. Daniel was staring at the wall in front of him. Sarah saw a drop of sweat going down his face. Zalana was still quiet.
‘Don’t be scared, Daniel. Be exited. We’re going back! After years of speculation over what happened to Earth we are finally going to find out. I’ll finally know what happened to my parents, and you to yours.’
I’m just afraid we won’t make it down there. We don’t know if there’s even still land down there. We don’t know anything…’
‘Victor said the same thing to me before I went aboard.’
‘I didn’t know Victor could be scared. I thought he would just grab fear by the throat, say something cool, and shoot it.’
They both laughed. Suddenly Zalana stood up and turned towards them.
‘Of course General Stormborn can be scared. He’s still human. How he deals with it, though, is what makes him a genius. He uses fear to his advantage. Analysing his fear objectively and seeing the underlying cause of it. General Stormborn knows fear very well, and that’s a good thing, because every enemy he will face will know it too. And the more your enemy, the easier it is to find a weak spot and defeat him. You two should respect him for that. Especially you, Sarah.’
Zalana took a deep breath and sat down, holding her back perfectly straight. Sarah and Daniel looked at each other. They were both caught off guard by Zalana’s speech. This showed both of them the level of respect the guardian marines had for Victor.
‘Strap in, we’re ready,’ they heard Layla shout from the cockpit.
‘Mission control this is exploration flight alpha-6 ready for take-off. Requesting permission to start engines.’
‘permission granted, Layla,’ Victor’s voice said over the intercom. ‘You are clear to go.’
With a load roar the engines turned on. The cabin shook. Sarah and Daniel held onto their armrests tightly. It had been a long time since any of them had flown. The craft started to move. First upwards, then it rapidly started moving sideways. Sarah saw the enormous hangar sliding by faster and faster and then.. space. Through a small window on the opposite wall Sarah looked out into the emptiness. On the right side of the window there was a vertical line of grey rocks. The ship was climbing vertically away from the moon, and still accelerating in a rapid pace. Sarah could feel her own body become heavier. After a time the feeling went away and was replaced with a sensation of weightlessness.
‘Alpha-6, you are at cruising height,’ the intercom said. ‘the estimated flight time is still around 30 hours.
‘copy that,’ Zalo responded. ‘Flight time of 30 hours. Switching to autopilot now.’
Layla and Zalo got out of the cockpit and joined the others in the middle of the ship. Zalo took a seat to the opposite of Zalana. Zalana finally relaxed and sat normally. Layla floated on to the kitchen and grabbed a plastic jar which contained some pills. She took four in her hand and returned to the middle. She handed one to Daniel and one to Sarah. She offered a pill to Zalana, but she refused.
‘We need to be as conservative with our resources as possible in case something goes wrong. We have enough to last for a month, but I don’t like wasting valuables. So it is best that we sleep through the bulk of the spaceflight. These will keep us under until we’re almost at our destination.’
‘I won’t take one,’ Zalana said. ‘I don’t like being sedated, unable to act. I’ll just sleep normally.’
‘Won’t Zalo take one?’ Sarah asked.
‘I will stay awake in case anything unexpected happens. And those pills only work on me for a couple hours, and I don’t even like being numb for a second.’
‘Ok, then,’ Layla continued. ‘I’ll see you guys when we get there. ‘Layla strapped herself in and took the pill, shortly followed by Daniel. Sarah was the last one to take the pill. Just seconds after she took it she started to get a fuzzy feeling in her head.
‘Sweet dreams, kids,’ she heard a deep voice say as the world faded away.