- Unnamed Mountain, Main, Northeast USA, 2035 -
On a warm, clear night amongst the trees sprawling the mountainside laid a small one-story wood cabin. Walking up the dirt driveway from the nearest road, one would see the area littered with glinting metal buried into the dirt and parts of vehicles spread around like a junk yard. While to the unassuming eye, it would look like someone just flew over the place and dumped their trash around without a care in the world. However, to someone who takes a little bit more time and looks closely, they could see that all the parts were seperated into piles by part type, year and function while the small glints of metal scattered across the area were actually empty bullet casings.
Continuing up along the dirt driveway and coming up to the wooden cabin, one would finally see that sitting on an old looking rocking chair surrounded by a small radio, beer bottles and a Siberian Husky was a middle-aged man. The man looked to be in decent shape if you ignored the small beer-gut growing. Scars could be seen below his short-sleeves and along his jawline just below his close-cropped, military style, salt and pepper colored hair. Looking at the mans scarred but handsome face, one could get lost in his deep blue eyes that seemed to give off a feeling of calmness when locked on to you.
This man is Markovious Celestine, former United Earth Marine Corps Staff Sergeant, enjoying his retirement after almost two decades of service. Half of which was spent in combat zones across the Earth and Moon. Now he spends his time keeping up his shooting skill while collecting car parts and using them to build his dream car, a 1969 Ford Mustang. Usually he sits on his porch in the evening and enjoys watching the stars and wondering what's out there while drowning himself in beer because it keeps the sleep away, well not the sleep but the dreams, the dreams where he's watching his Marines, friends and brothers dying in front of him. Sometimes they die because of an order he gave and sometimes they die because fate deemed it their time. It doesn't matter though, their still dead and he's alive. He's strong enough to consciously ignore the guilt and regret that hits him but when he's asleep it's not his choice, his subconscious decides to replay every stressful moment he's seen in a warzone.
'God help me, I'm sorry guys. It's been years and I still can't join you yet, I feel like I have one more mission to complete before I can come keep ya'll company.' Marko's thoughts were interrupted though by a large boom from the airspace to the West, his side of the mountain range.
Looking up to the West, Marko stares with uninterested eyes at the empty skies. Shrugging, he goes back to petting his best friend and only remaining family Angel. Marko got Angel from the local Veternarian when she was first born. After adopting her, she's never left his side, even during his bad days where he barely moves from his bed or chair she still chooses to stay with him and helps get him through most of his issues. In fact if it wasn't for her, Marko was sure he still wouldn't be here today.
Looking back to where the sound came from Marko can see a small light flickering in the distance. 'What the hell? there's no stars there so what in Gods name is that?' Marko can't help but think about this abnormal situation. Staring for a little bit longer, he can tell that the light is getting a little bit bigger every second. Panicing for a split second, Marko jumps up off his chair, sending his beer bottle smashing to the ground. Suddenly though, the light disappears and he rubs his eyes with his fist to make sure he wasn't just seeing things. Apparently he was though because when he looked again, there was nothing there.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Shrugging, he looked down to where his bottle broke and swore "Ah dammit, Angel can you go inside and grab me another beer while I clean this up? I don't want you to cut your paws because of my fuck up." Angel turned and headed back into the house where she'll be able to use some rags tied to the fridge to open it and grab him a beer. Walking over to the side of the front door, he grabs a dustpan and another cloth to pick up the glass spread across the porch. "Haaa alright lets get this shit cleaned up so I can get back to my oh-so-important task" Marko says as he squats and bends over to begin picking up the glass. However, what happens next takes Marko by surprise and he freezes for a moment before looking up. Just before he touched his fingers to the glass, the entire area began to shake without warning and the glass shard rattled away from his outstretched fingers.
"What the fuck now?!" He shouted as he looked around to see if he could find the cause of the shakes. That's when something moved in his peripheral and he turned his head up to the left and saw a shape tearing across the sky coming straight at him. Taken by surprise for the first time ini a long time, Marko doesn't even have time enough to analyze the situation and get him and Angel out of there. "OH FUCK!" he shouts just as the object sails right over his cabin, catching everything in the area up in a strong gust of wind as it passed over. Looking back to the direction this object went, he could see it strike the ground with a large explosion of dirt and wood. It appears to have landed about 10 klicks away.
Rushing back into his cabin, Marko quickly makes his way to his gear room. As a Veteran, he knows how to appreciate being prepared so of course he has a whole room full of his weapons and gear that'll allow him to get through most situations. Reaching the door to the room, he blasts past it and into the room and heads straight for the clothes. Quickly stripping out of his Blue Jeans and red lumberjack fleece, Marko throws on his Marine Pattern - Dynamic or MARPAT-D camoflauge utility uniform, which was developed in 2022 and allows for the pattern to automatically change depending on the surrounding enviroment. After throwing on his utilities and boots, he walks over to his weapons vault and enters his code. The vault opens to show a multitude of weapons including shotguns, sidearms, rifles, and of course his favorite Automatic Rifle, the AR-20 which fires an 8mm caseless round. On his way out of his gear room, Marko grabs a ready bag filled with provisions and ther things one might need to survive in the wild for a while.
Making his way out of his cabin again with Angel by his side, Marko begins his 10 klick journey to the crashed object, finally feeling a little excited after so long of nothing happening around him.
"Alright Angel, let's go see what type of junk is falling out of the sky these days!"
"Woof, Awoooo" Replied Angel as she and her master began an Adventure that would take them to places they never knew even existed.