And so me and Zenn had been left alone, at his and my request, by the grand exit of the Aurora with twenty four others; the best way to scrape away boredom is to count things, I have found. Many of these people I had recognised, I had spoken to them not too long ago. Others I did not. Me and Zenn sat on a steel rafter that jutted from the ground. It was green with ivy and brown with dirt. Trees were sprouting from the rust, and it could barely be noticed that it was metal at all beneath the overgrowth. I looked over at Zenn, sitting to my left. He glanced back at me, with worry in his eyes.
"Now's the time." I told him.
I stood up, and looked over the group of talkative people; men and women were amongst them, all of varying ages. Many smiled, but many more watched as I arose, fixating on my every movement.
I raised both of my hands high above my head. "People!" I yelled. "I have been appointed to protect you from the tyranny of Ollos the Betrayer, as people are now calling him. He could sail to this carcass at any minute and vanquish our one true leader. We will be his sentries; we will not let him die at the hands of such a monster!" Cheers erupted from some. "Alas, I fear he will not be the final betrayer amongst us. If we are to truly stay here forever, like some close to Malla are telling us, then are we truly wrong in questioning people's sanity?"
"Now?" Zenn looked up at me. I nodded quickly at him.
"I do." I continued. People began to gather around the base of the metal strut now. "I question people's sanity. I question their judgements, I question their intellects, I question their stance on this situation, and whether it is valuable to us or not. Am I truly wrong in doing so?"
Some in the crowd muttered to one another; about what I could not gather. Others watched me. Others I know too well.
"Are we truly going to let those people bring us down; sink us without warning? Are we to let them do this?" There was a silence. "I would not let it happen. My entire mining colony was murdered on Obraxis Prime, my family slaughtered in their beds. Any who question my knowing of grief best reassess their understandings of the universe."
Then another silence. I breathed heavily; perhaps too heavily. People began to hear me, and they talked amongst themselves. I glared at Zenn, who stood up next to me, looking at me as he rose. The conversations grew to roars and the roars grew to arguments.
"Sleeves up!" I yelled.
Some rolled their sleeves to their shoulders without question, whereas others thought about the command before carrying it out. Then once everyone had bare arms the silence returned. Half of the people in this crowd had deep scars cut across their upper arm, just beneath the shoulder. Zenn rolled his sleeves up, and he had them too. I remember putting them there; on everyone here I had cut them into their skin. Those without these wounds looked around confused, but those who bore the scars stared at me, waiting for the command.
I nodded.
Every man and woman with cuts carved into their arms pulled a knife from their sides, each of them glittering in the crowd like stars in the night sky. The unsheathing was obvious, and panic arose amongst those had no injuries. They began to run, but before they knew what was happening it was too late for them. Either my men grasped their shoulders, arms or wrists, but always did the knife cut the flesh, and always did the knife-bearer vanquish its prey. People fell around me. I felt a smile growing on my face, and turned to Zenn expecting the same, but he watched on with horror. This made my smile go very quickly.
It was at this moment I realised how this would end for me.
We wandered through the forests. Leaves fell around us like a storm of green. The wind was gentle, but in the distance we saw a storm approaching. It was a harsh storm; cracks of thunder travelling all this way, lightning slicing the air with every step we took, the clouds as grey as the deeps were murky. The storm was rolling in fast, and we would not avoid it; there was no way.
Leonard walked in front of me. He was a quick walker, even faster than me, perhaps. Penna lagged behind the group, but she kept up all the same.
"Leonard!" I ran over to him. "I was just thinking; why would Seth not know what Ollos would do to the Island?" He looked at me confused. "Well, if they're as good friends as they say they are, wouldn't Seth have gotten the measure of him by now? Why would he be surprised when Ollos made this grab for power?"
"Insanity?" Leonard shrugged. "We are alone on an uncharted planet, after all."
"Only we aren't alone." There was a moment of silence.
"Come on, Malla; he saw his entire crew die. Surely that has to count for something."
"The one word Seth used to describe Ollos was stern; do you think he would break at the moment his people needed him? I thin there's more to it than this... And why would Seth guard the Aurora from him like he did? He was quick to become a sentry, and against his own friend..."
After another quick silence, Leonard spoke. "I'm sure you're overthinking this." He laughed.
"Yes, I probably am," I said, "but let's roll with it."
"Are you saying that Ollos broke away at Seth's instruction? But why?" Leonard looked very confused.
"To separate the group." I came to the realisation that, if my speculation were true, we had walked into a deadly trap. But I doubted very much that it would be; I sometimes let my thoughts cloud what is real and let what isn't overtake my mind. I dreamt vivid and abnormal dreams, and when I woke up I never really knew if it happened or not. This was all folly.
***
After another hour of walking there was commotion in the undergrowth. Leaves rustled on mass, and the branches waved in unnatural patterns. I held out a hand to stop the group from advancing any further. The rustling continued. There are no creatures on this ship I told myself, although I didn't know whether it were true or not. I pulled the diamond knife from my side, and light refracted through it onto the soil. I held it out in front of me, at the enemy in the woods, and many others drew their blades as well. "Come out!" I ordered the creature. The rustling headed, and there was silence. I fastened my grip on the knife with my shifting fingers, beads of sweat pouring over my cheeks and down onto my chest.
Then there was a crack; the familiar sound of a propulsion gun firing. I turned around and saw the ripples in the air indicating it had fired, and a woman was thrown backwards, far, far backwards, and her back slammed into the great white trunk of a tree. It was impossible to tell whether the crack I heard was her spine or the tree. She fell to the ground without any indication of life; she was limp, she was not breathing and she did not move except for one arm, trying to pull her away.
"Penna!" I screamed. Men and women with stasis rifles and propulsion cannons and knifes flooded from the woods. I looked back at my men. Some of them were taking the time to roll their sleeves up; these men had cuts in their arms, as did those who were charging and I knew I had been betrayed. These cut individuals turned on my men, stabbing them mercilessly. I turned to Leonard next to me, but the blue bolt of propulsion cannon fire hit his arm, leaving him as still as a statue, glowing blue, bolts of electricity firing from him and onto the ground. Someone grabbed his shoulder and plunged a knife into his back several times. No blood came from the wound, and Leonard remained completely stationary. Then the blue faded away and blood erupted from the gashes, and he fell to the floor.
The man who had killed him charged at me, but I grabbed his neck hard and put my knife to his throat. With one slash he was dead. I looked around the battlefield. It was a massacre on my side. "Kend!" I yelled. "Kend where are you?! Zenn?!" No one answered. But then I saw Kend. He was wrestling with another larger, stronger man. They were both pushing forward with arms wrapped around each other, their heads facing down. Kend fought back, and pushed the other man to his feet. Suddenly another enemy charged froward holding a propulsion cannon. He put it to Kend's stomach and he was sent flying into the forest.
I stabbed another man with my diamond knife, right in the stomach. He fell bleeding tot he floor. I charged into the crowds, killing anyone without sleeves. Then, as if out of nowhere, I felt a pain in my legs. It was the scars I had gained from the shark attack. They were acting up, partly because I was running and partly because I had not stopped walking all day. I stopped in my tracks, and wailed. Then a man with a knife approached me. My vision was blurry and hazed. I swung my knife at him limply, and he grabbed my wrist with his free hand to stop me. Then he wrapped that arm around my neck, and lunged the dagger into my back. He did it once. Then twice. The a third time. I realised my hand was free, so I stabbed him in the neck and he fell. When he was gone I collapsed, down to my knees. I let the diamond knife fall from my grasp. I looked over the battlefield, and I saw Seth looking at me in front of the setting sun.
There's no way Malla can survive those wounds. There goes the last vestige of hope for the survivors...
I see that Seth couldn't even be bothered to do the dirty work himself, he had to stand there and watch. That annoys me. And I hope Zenn gets sucked dry by bleeders.
SkopeWouldn't you like to know ;)Join Date: 2016-06-07Member: 218212Members
Actually, at this point, Zenn is the only one I want to survive after this.
Seriously, what is this logic coming from people like Seth?
"We're trapped on uninhabited, water planet. But I want to be in charge of everyone, so that I get the glory. So let's kill everyone I don't like, less glory for me! Yay!"
Seth has officially replaced Sampson in the insanity program.
Bodies littered the ground. Blood rushed through the blades of growing grass, and Seth and I stood atop the bodies, above our work; his work. As he watched and smiled as Malla bled out, kneeling on the soil, I watched in horror. I had followed him for months and this is my sweet reward. I never thought it would come to this; I thought we would be leaving the planet together. Apparently I thought wrong. Sampson had killed Otta, Tary had killed Sampson, Malla killed Tary and now I had killed Malla. Penna sat on the sidelines, but even she couldn't escape death. She crawled lifeless along the floor, forcing herself forward with just one arm, the only body part left to move at all.
I looked at Seth. Where I had once seen Sampson in Malla I now saw him somewhere else. The day grew dim. He smiled as men were murdered around him, and he and Malla stared each other down from yards away. I felt my fingers tighten around the hilt of my blade in a wave of fury. I looked at Malla, and now his eyes were fixed on me. His face showed sorrow, and indicated that he had just given up. It looked like he had sighed, his lips forced outwards by a gush of air.
Then I unsheathed my blade. I swung it around myself, a whistle rushing through the air as the steel sliced the cold breeze. Seth's hand reached up faster than a bolt of lightning. He grabbed my wrist just before the blade punctured his warty face, and he glared at me.
"Damn it, Zenn." He hissed. "I knew you didn't have it in you." He flicked my hand away and threw his fist into my face. I heard the bone running u my nose crack, and felt hot sticky blood erupt from my nostrils onto my shirt. He snatched the knife I had dropped just then from the ground and held it quickly to my throat. "You're weak, and you're still loyal to that damn fool of a leader. Look at him now. He looks weak, doesn't he? Not someone I would follow." The dagger pressed to my throat hard, and I felt blood trickle down the side of my neck. Then he took it away and twirled it in his hand, throwing it onto the ground just after.
Then I stood up. I charged back at him, faster than I hard ever run before. He turned briskly around, not expecting me, I believe, to be as close as I was. I clamped all of my fingers around his windpipe and threw him to the floor, me on top of him. I felt and heard a smack, and Seth's smiling face froze. The smile turned less genuine, and became limp at the ends of his mouth. His eye lids drooped lazily across his eyes, and blood began to trickle from the corners of his lips. I picked his head up and in the back of the skull was an enormous crater, and beneath him a rod of steel jutting from the floor.
I left him, and stood once again. Seth's people gathered around me, and I was horrified. After a quick silence, one charged at me, but the others murdered him before he got too close. Then there were cheers, which I did not expect. The massacre still continued around this smaller group. I then looked at Malla, and came ever so slightly closer to him.
"Zenn." He managed. I nodded, tears building in my eyes. "Whatever you do, don't kill the baby. You can kill Sellan, you can kill Zaons, you can sure as hell kill Ollos, but don't kill my nephew."
"Okay." I said. I smiled to him, and he smiled to me, and he fell over sideways, onto the floor.
I walked towards him, and stood over his body. I knelt beside him, and put my hand to his hair. "Goodbye, Malla." I uttered. Then I saw beneath him a glistening. From beneath his corpse I pried out a knife, made of diamond. It was once Sampson's blade, but Malla had procured it after his death. I looked at it in my hand.
Now it was mine. "Anyone who betrayed you," I told Malla, "will meet the diamond end of this blade."
SkopeWouldn't you like to know ;)Join Date: 2016-06-07Member: 218212Members
Quick question, how many people were there once the second ship crash landed?
Because there has been enough deaths in this story to leave a small city desolate.
Remind me to never crash land on an alien planet with other people. Because if this story rings true, about 80% of every survivor will be killed in the first month.
Quick question, how many people were there once the second ship crash landed?
Because there has been enough deaths in this story to leave a small city desolate.
Remind me to never crash land on an alien planet with other people. Because if this story rings true, about 80% of every survivor will be killed in the first month.
Malla's Group - 40
Seth's Rebellion Force - 17
Malla's Group Survivors [POST MASSACRE] - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Zenn's Group [POST MASSACRE] - 15 (Seth and that one guy are dead now)
Island Group - 35
Ollos' Voters - 16
Sellans Voters - 19
Sellan's Voters [POST MASSACRE] - 11
Sasha has charged me with one task; seek out any survivors of the massacre and bring them safely back to the island. They was dispute for a time amongst those on the island concerning whether leadership would pass to Sasha or Sellan, but Sellan gladly gave up his position to allow Malla's sister the role. The infant had now been named; Jack, Sasha called him. Jack Malla Corren. She was going to let Malla decide on a name when he returned, but after Sasha heard of his death she named him herself.
I glided through the waters in a seamoth, and had done for six days now. The distance between the island and the vessel was long, and took a week to traverse its full length. Now I shot past pillars coated in a thin layer of red grass in the Plateau. Reefbacks heaved themselves along above my seamoth, and Sandsharks hunted far below. The pillars were taller than a Cyclops standing on its rudder, and much, much wider. Shoals of fish darted around the biome in colourful frenzies of purple and green, and abandoned, rust wrecks were dotted about the ocean bed.
I questioned my mission regularly; I wondered whether any survivors remained after the massacre, and if they did how far could they have travelled in six days? I had half a mind to give up the search and return to the island claiming I had tried my hardest, to find only dead bodies and no survivors in sight. But then above me I saw something. It was lucky I saw it at all; I moved quickly, and only saw it with the corner of my eye. It was a near-perfect square floating on the surface.
I burst out of the water, much to the surprise of the man on the white-wooden, red-stained raft. My seamoth now floated half-submerged in the water. I and the man on the wood stared at each other for an age before I popped open the glass on the submersible and stood on top of the seamoth. Waves lapped over the sides, into the machine, but the drainage-system would sort it out for me when I felt the need to return to the depths.
"Kendrick?" I asked with a smile. He looked at me, surprised.
"Zanos? Is that really you or am I seeing things again?" He reached out to touch the moth, but I leaned forward and grabbed his wrist before he could. His face was scarred, especially the left side. His left eye was glassy-white, and the left side of his nose was deformed in an abominable twisting of flesh and cartilage. I still recognised him, however.
"As real as I'll ever be, Kend." I pulled him onto the wing of the moth, and he shakily returned to his feet, straightening his legs. "Sasha wants all of the survivors back at the island."
"You've found them." His smile evaporated. "All of them. I'm the only one. I watched Malla die, I watched Leonard die, I watched Penna die, I watched Seth die and I watched Zenn take his place... Who do you think sent you all of that information?" I looked blankly at him. It was only then that I realised his left hand shook like hell. It quivered violently by his side.
"Get in." I ordered him. I hopped back into the driver's seat, and he glanced at me confused."There's enough space behind the seat for you to squeeze in, I'm sure." He ducked awkwardly beneath the roof of the moth, putting his legs behind my seat. I leaned forward as to grant him more leeway, and he twisted his body to the side, a miracle that his waist didn't snap in two. Then he slowly crouched behind the seat, his arms wrapped around his knees.
"My feet are wet." He criticised.
"Let me drain the damn thing, first." I pressed a button and flicked a switch and with a crack the water in the bottom of the moth shot outwards and the floor heated up to dry. The submersible lowered into the water and shot forward into the depths.
We glided through the oceans, close to the sea bed, kicking up a trail of sand behind us as we darted around pillars of stone and over red grass. Kend was still squashed behind the chair, barely able to move. The spine of the seat leaned forwards thanks to him, and I sat slouched forward over the steering wheel. I twisted and turned the moth around the rocky pillars and through small stony archways,avoiding predators and the like.
"How long were you on that raft?" I broke the silence. He looked at me and I instantly noticed the grey bags under his weary eyes, or what was left of his eye.
"Six days." He answered I was overcome with sadness. "I brought lantern fruit with me for the journey, but I ran out a few hours ago. They kept me hydrated and fed whilst I drifted."
"I can go out and get you some food?" I told Kendrick. He said that would be nice, and I pushed the glass hatch above us open and closed it behind me. I saw the bubbles through the glass where the water was beginning to drain out of the vehicle. I noticed a great shoal of Boomerang. They swam quickly and in perfect harmony. Their silky hides glistened in the sun as they swam, and there was not one gap between them. Flippers snapped from the toes of my wet suit and I swam forwards. They manoeuvred with elegance and grace, like a snake sliding through the waters.
I came close now, and the shoal swam my way. I held out a hand and they swam straight through me. The shimmering encapsulated me, and I was surrounded with the greens and yellows of the shoal. Then they disappeared behind me and in my hand I held two of the fish. They writhed to be free, but I did not let them. I held on tight.
I looked back to the shoal, and it dived downward, close to the sands. They drifted along the bed for a moment. The moment was short-lived, however. A great cloud of sand erupted forth, and the shoal dispersed. Each fish swam in a different direction, and when the sand cleared a beast was revealed, boomerangs upon boomerangs in its wide, toothy jaws. The shoal began to come back together above the monster, but all the while Skyrays dove into the water and picked them off one by one, carrying them away into the air; the rays were just as good swimmers as they were flyers.
Then the creature saw what was in my hands; two boomerang. I looked at them, then back to the shark. Then I began to swim back to the seamoth. I looked over my shoulder and it was gaining quicker than I had ever seen anything swim before. I swam quicker, and quicker. I felt every beat of my flippers, and every pump of my heart. I snapped open the front of the moth and the new currents pulled me inside. I brought the glass down to close, but all of a sudden the monster's bottom jaw became stuck between the steel and the window. It wriggled to be free, and I began kicking at it to get it to leave, or dislodge. Then I remembered my cannon. I pulled it out with one hand and fastened my fingers beneath the glass. I pulled it up and shot the propulsion gun. The shark flew a metre backwards and my arm was shot backwards. I felt my elbow smash against the metal of the moth, and then I felt nothing else int hat arm.
The glass snapped shut and the water drained out. The shark still circled the vehicle, but it was nothing to worry ourselves about.
"Your arm." Kend said. It fell limply across my lap. Pain rushed from my fingers to my elbow, and my elbow to my shoulder. I slowly and shakily lifted the arm and tried to move my fingers, but all they could manage was to twitch. The only thing I could move freely was my thumb.
"Do you want to drive for a bit?" I asked, placing the fish in his lap.
The world was upside down. I had no idea where to go from here, so I had decided to stop. I knew it wouldn't help anyone; not me, not my people and definitely not my son. Now I was in control, and in my mind there were now three factions on this planet: there was my faction, on the island. People had begun to call themselves the Islanders, and I have to admit, it was growing on me. Then there was Zenn's faction, perhaps still on the Aurora. I did not blame him for Malla's death, for Seth had manipulated him, I was sure. He was good at that. Then there was Ollos' military, on the other side of the gate. He was the one I hated. He was the one I wanted gone.
When I start to move forward again, let's hope he gets run over on the way.
Zanos had left seven days ago to search for any survivors, but I knew there were none. I don't know why I sent him, but a part of me wished he'd come back at least with Malla's body. The rest of me knew he'd return empty handed. I looked down at Jack in his crib. I put my hands on the sides and gently swayed it. He slept. I wondered what he dreamt of. Now Malla, I presumed.
Then I heard commotion outside. There was uproar, with screams and wails mixed in. I ran outside, and instantly I saw the problem. I heard the deep moans of a creature in the sea, and saw a blue-bottomed reef poking from the water. Then I saw on the shore a small Reefback, only five weeks or so, beached on the shore. People threw buckets of water over it to keep it breathing. Dead Peepers and Boomerangs were littered across its back, and its mother still bellowed from the tides just a few metres from the shore.
I ran up to the beast. "Island Guard!" I heard one of the guard acknowledge me from the side. "Ready your propulsion cannons, and push the Reefback back into the water."
"We've tried, ma'am." He sighed. "It's no good, it's lodged into the sand." Why could I feel tears in my eyes? No, no it wasn't as sad as this; of course it wasn't. This was the culmination of all the bad that had happened. I put my hand on what I thought to be the Reefback's head, and I gently plucked grime from between the blue tiles on it.
"Damn it..." I walked away, giving the final command to do anything the Guard could. I walked back to the base anyway, but on my journey a man ran out of the white door and beckoned me in quickly. He looked distressed. I panicked and my stroll turned to a jog, and my jog to a run.
I entered the base to hear someone talking out of the transmitter in a grainy, disjointed message. "This is...-- Solar checking...-- six hundred casua...-- net fall in two days...-- lar over and out."
"Is that another ship headed our way?" I asked. The man nodded.
"Voyager Solar, the French Colony Ship. They just dropped off a bunch of people at one of Obraxis Prime's moons, and now the crew of five hundred are coming to get us." Where I was in shock, he smiled. "Do you not know what this means?" He asked. "We'll have more people on the Island; we can destroy Ollos once and for all!"
I wanted to slap him. "It means we can go home." He looked just as much in shock as I did now. He had accepted blindly that we were never going back. "You won't have your people; they'll all be dead in two days." I stood up and left the room. If you hear a ship's coming you don't take it that we're getting more troops; that's horrible. It means we could be going home, or five hundred will die. The transmitter only collects frequencies, however, and can't create them. I had no way of telling them to stop, so I held my breath and continued on. I was angry with the man. I didn't even ask his name; I didn't want to.
I would like to reiterate that no one is giving me any ideas. That massacre I knew was going o happen from the start, and I have every future event planned out on a nice little word document.
I was sat behind the pilot's seat, squashed uncomfortable behind Kendrick. I saw his hands shuddering on the wheel. The seamoth moved slowly, and at this rate we would make the island in no less than ten days. I knew, however, that it was the only option. Firing the propulsion cannon with one arm was, now that I look back on it, a mistake, and my fractured arm could have been avoided rather easily. We had left the plateau behind us, and now we swam through the mushroom forests. The biome was beautiful; vibrant blue rays hopped about through the great mushroom trees, and the smaller creatures were large in number.
The rays squawked like birds, but every time they let loose this squeal it made Kend jump almost from his seat. The fifth time this happened I had snapped. "Kendrick," I said, "they're not going to hurt you. For one they're outside the moth, and second they're not dangerous anyway. I passed them coming to find you, I went out and touched some of them."
"I don't believe you." Kend said, keeping his eyes in front of him. He could always tell when I was lying. I sighed and put my head back against the warm metal.
We venture deeper and deeper into the forests, and every once in a while a Boneshark grew curious and chased after us. This was when I felt most in danger, not because of the predator but because I wouldn't be surprised if Kend smashed head first into one of the rocky trunks trying to escape.
"Kend, I think we should go a little bit faster." Immediately after I said this the moth darted forwards at insane speed. It was noisy, it was nauseating and the world outside was just a blur. I put my hand on his shoulder to slow him down. "On second thoughts," I said, "late is better than never."
"What do you mean late?" He asked. "Late for what?"
"Well, when I get back I'll be leading a search party to try and find Ollos and his people; we'll kill Ollos, and with the others we aren't sure. If they surrender I suppose we'll keep them alive." Kendrick looked back to where he was going and I saw him piecing the puzzle together with his eyes and his brain. He knew what Ollos had done, but he just couldn't remember right now.
"Ollos... Betrayed Sellan and Sasha...". I looked at him and nodded. "Seth told us he would stand guard in case they attacked..." I remembered now that he was on the other side of all of this. I had seen what Ollos had done, and heard of the massacre on the Aurora, but Kend had seen the massacre and heard about Ollos' betrayal. "He separated the group... His people swarmed us and..." Then there was silence.
"And?" I asked.
"And Malla was killed." He said, looking back at me. It was at this point I realised we could finally get answers. I realised a survivor of the massacre was more valuable than any amount of scrap we could acquire. "And Penna, and Leonard..."
"Did you see who killed Malla?" I asked. Revenge could be sweeter than I had ever anticipated.
"I saw Seth murder Penna; she was the first to go. He snatched a propiulsion cannon from one of our hands and threw her into the trunk of a tree... He broke her..." This was interesting, but not the information I had asked for. Then he continued. "Leonard was frozen and killed by Jack Stamford." I had heard of Jack, and spoken to him once, but I did not know him well. "I fought Ruthless fist to fist after he pulled the knife out of my hand..." Daniel Ranald, or Ruthless. One of the strongest, most burly men I had ever seen. If vikings still existed he would be one. "Then Jack charged me and I flew out into the forest. I think jack saved my life..." I didn't buy it. Jack seemed nice, but I didn't expect anyone to betray Seth like that; no one but Zenn.
We went north. North was the safest bet. In the west was Sasha and the baby, and I wouldn't be able to look at them, and I'm sure they wouldn't want to look at me. In the south was Ollos the betrayer... although now I suppose I was just as much a betrayer as him. I had killed a man I had pledged to follow, but is it truly betrayal if all of his men are with you? Even the higher-ups like Ruthless and Jack Stamford were with me, in the bridge of the Kraken. I had taken the Kraken for my own, out of respect for my fallen friend. I stood at its wheel, whilst Dan and Jack stood behind me. The Kraken was designed by Malla to be larger and more durable than other Cyclops. I had brighter plans for it, as long as we found a suitable settlement in the north.
"It'll be cold up there." Jack pointed out.
"Let the cold come." Ruthless pounded a fist into his palm. "I'd like to feel the snow in my hair, the cold in my fingers."
"We have no idea if there will be any food up here." I added. "No idea what predators are up here. This is the one place the Survivor never came to. We'll be exploring it first hand; we'll be the surveyors." Jack smiled. The waters were already growing a deeper shade of blue than before. We had been travelling for a week, so I expected no less. It became darker closer to the surface, and the seabed was made from a dark rock, and deeper shades of purple coral. Small chunks of ice were already floating on the surface, and small fish were living beneath them in the shade.
"There's your food." Jack smiled. I looked at the fish; were they safe to eat? It was clear Jack had thought the same thing. "If you stop the Cyclops I can send someone out to scan the creatures for you; I'm sure they won't mind." I brought the Cyclops to a half and he disappeared into the back rooms. Soon enough a woman swam out of the Cyclops in a thermal suit, towards the small chunk of ice. She scanned the fish and gave a quick thumbs up to me. I returned this, and she boarded once again.
"If we see any more of them we know they're safe to eat." I continued through the ink waters.
We eventually found a small island, and cheers erupted throughout the Kraken, and from other accompanying Cyclops and moths. As they applauded as I pulled up beside the island and they marched off onto the shores me and Jack saw something in the distance. It was an enormous, rigid wall of ice that appeared to plunge out of the water and stretch downwards forever. Now we knew why the glad times had ceased as soon as they got out of the water. Me and Jack looked at each other and we got out of the Kraken and onto the island. From the water in the distance rose an enormous ice burg. We looked in awe for a moment.
Jack broke the silence. "Only a small part of ice actually sticks from the water," he said, "so that could go down for miles."
The island was very flat. It was mainly made of rocks and pebbles, and Ruthless and Jack got to building right away. All the while I stared at the ice burg. How is there enough room to fit that in the ocean, I asked, and if we took it out how far down would the water go? "I'm going for a swim," I decided.
"Have fun." Jack continued with what he was doing as I dived into the water. Even through a thermal suit I felt cold. The seabed was shallow, but filled with small crevasses. Over these crevasses twisted and turned thin bridges, that arched in loops and twirls over these small caverns. Barnacles and coral covered the sea floor, and on the bridges I noticed strange pink reptilian creatures running the length of them. It was beautiful; more beautiful than I had expected. I knew we may be living in the shadow of the ice burg for quite some time, as the are was gorgeous and full of life to feast on.
In all seriousness, I'm on pins and needles here @Jamezorg. I suddenly just got really invested into this story, and I need more of it.
Sorry, over the past two days I've been fleshing out the story and I've got it all planned out from start to finish now.
Hopefully there will be no more breaks like this. I've sort of calculated this whole thing, and from what it looks like it's going to be a good half year - year before this story is complete. Really excited to get to some bits, and I hope you're excited for them too
I had been wasting away on this island for more than two weeks now; Ollos had the entire force working on clearing the island of any forgotten settlements, save for the alien constructions below the surface, and filling the cave systems with weaponry that he had begun creating. Mech suits unlike the prawn had been constructed for weeks now. They were darker in colour, and their arms had been replaced with large machine guns. I had been in charge of creating these mechs.
The Auroras back had begun turning a darker orange-brown in the past few weeks, as had the leaves on the Silver Island. They began to fall off of the trees, and the air was cooler than when we had crashed. Now there was word that another ship was on its way, and I prayed that its population survived the blast and the inevitable crash.
Ollos piloted a P.R.A.W.N atop one of the peaks on the island. He looked down on all of us as we fabricated weaponry and destroyed rusting bases for him. When i had voted for the man I never expected to end up where I was. I wanted to kill him myself, but knew that pleasure was reserved for Sasha; he had indirectly caused Malla's death thanks to Seth's manipulation, and his sister would be the one to get revenge. Or the child, if he lasted that long.
"Jacob!" Ollos slid down the side of the peak in his P.R.A.W.N and skidded to a halt just in front of me. "How many of the Mechs do you plan to construct?" He asked. I looked up into his eyes. They burned still. He had a never ending grin stuck onto his face, and it made him appear all the more crazed.
"About twenty, sir; enough for all of us and some to spare." I answered.
"Good." He looked around in the P.R.A.W.N. "We need to be ready for an attack from the North; Sasha and Zenn are both up there, with submarines that could end us. They lack the firepower we possess, however. These mechs have fended off worse than a Corren, haven't they, Jacob?"
"Yes they have, sir." I replied with disgust.
"But our first priority," he continued, "is vacating the planet. We can't get at the Aurora, in case Zenn is still there, so we have to to look straight down." There were to possibilities as to what he meant by this.
"Do you intend to harvest power from Precursor Facilities or use their Ion Crystals?" I asked, sure that these were the only two options for breaking atmosphere.
"No; I'm looking for something more human in origin. In these waters a ship crashed, predating the Aurora by a couple of decades. It's the-"
"The Degasi." I finished his sentence, and I had no idea by the look on his face if he was angered or did not care about what I had done. "I apologise, sir." I finally said.
"It's quite alright." He smiled through his menacing grin, but it soon faded. "As I was saying, the Degasi was not even found by the Aurora survivor. A shame... no clues to point us in the right direction. I suppose that means it falls to you to do the searching for us." I looked at him, my expressions revolting at the idea, although my mind told me not to. "The Solar shall be here soon; no doubt we will be collecting some of the survivors from that disaster. That task also falls to you." Abruptly, he left me to deal with other matters. In less than a minute he had burdened me with two of the hardest tasks any of us had ever been given. I supposed I would just have to wait for the ship to arive before I could start my search for the Degasi in that case.
Still, however, I prayed that one day a Corren would return to slice his pretty throat.
Comments
And so me and Zenn had been left alone, at his and my request, by the grand exit of the Aurora with twenty four others; the best way to scrape away boredom is to count things, I have found. Many of these people I had recognised, I had spoken to them not too long ago. Others I did not. Me and Zenn sat on a steel rafter that jutted from the ground. It was green with ivy and brown with dirt. Trees were sprouting from the rust, and it could barely be noticed that it was metal at all beneath the overgrowth. I looked over at Zenn, sitting to my left. He glanced back at me, with worry in his eyes.
"Now's the time." I told him.
I stood up, and looked over the group of talkative people; men and women were amongst them, all of varying ages. Many smiled, but many more watched as I arose, fixating on my every movement.
I raised both of my hands high above my head. "People!" I yelled. "I have been appointed to protect you from the tyranny of Ollos the Betrayer, as people are now calling him. He could sail to this carcass at any minute and vanquish our one true leader. We will be his sentries; we will not let him die at the hands of such a monster!" Cheers erupted from some. "Alas, I fear he will not be the final betrayer amongst us. If we are to truly stay here forever, like some close to Malla are telling us, then are we truly wrong in questioning people's sanity?"
"Now?" Zenn looked up at me. I nodded quickly at him.
"I do." I continued. People began to gather around the base of the metal strut now. "I question people's sanity. I question their judgements, I question their intellects, I question their stance on this situation, and whether it is valuable to us or not. Am I truly wrong in doing so?"
Some in the crowd muttered to one another; about what I could not gather. Others watched me. Others I know too well.
"Are we truly going to let those people bring us down; sink us without warning? Are we to let them do this?" There was a silence. "I would not let it happen. My entire mining colony was murdered on Obraxis Prime, my family slaughtered in their beds. Any who question my knowing of grief best reassess their understandings of the universe."
Then another silence. I breathed heavily; perhaps too heavily. People began to hear me, and they talked amongst themselves. I glared at Zenn, who stood up next to me, looking at me as he rose. The conversations grew to roars and the roars grew to arguments.
"Sleeves up!" I yelled.
Some rolled their sleeves to their shoulders without question, whereas others thought about the command before carrying it out. Then once everyone had bare arms the silence returned. Half of the people in this crowd had deep scars cut across their upper arm, just beneath the shoulder. Zenn rolled his sleeves up, and he had them too. I remember putting them there; on everyone here I had cut them into their skin. Those without these wounds looked around confused, but those who bore the scars stared at me, waiting for the command.
I nodded.
Every man and woman with cuts carved into their arms pulled a knife from their sides, each of them glittering in the crowd like stars in the night sky. The unsheathing was obvious, and panic arose amongst those had no injuries. They began to run, but before they knew what was happening it was too late for them. Either my men grasped their shoulders, arms or wrists, but always did the knife cut the flesh, and always did the knife-bearer vanquish its prey. People fell around me. I felt a smile growing on my face, and turned to Zenn expecting the same, but he watched on with horror. This made my smile go very quickly.
It was at this moment I realised how this would end for me.
"Find him." I boomed in command. "Find him!"
Ollos and Seth are starting to prove that statement wrong.
I'm also seeing that keeping knives in the basic tools was a mistake.
We wandered through the forests. Leaves fell around us like a storm of green. The wind was gentle, but in the distance we saw a storm approaching. It was a harsh storm; cracks of thunder travelling all this way, lightning slicing the air with every step we took, the clouds as grey as the deeps were murky. The storm was rolling in fast, and we would not avoid it; there was no way.
Leonard walked in front of me. He was a quick walker, even faster than me, perhaps. Penna lagged behind the group, but she kept up all the same.
"Leonard!" I ran over to him. "I was just thinking; why would Seth not know what Ollos would do to the Island?" He looked at me confused. "Well, if they're as good friends as they say they are, wouldn't Seth have gotten the measure of him by now? Why would he be surprised when Ollos made this grab for power?"
"Insanity?" Leonard shrugged. "We are alone on an uncharted planet, after all."
"Only we aren't alone." There was a moment of silence.
"Come on, Malla; he saw his entire crew die. Surely that has to count for something."
"The one word Seth used to describe Ollos was stern; do you think he would break at the moment his people needed him? I thin there's more to it than this... And why would Seth guard the Aurora from him like he did? He was quick to become a sentry, and against his own friend..."
After another quick silence, Leonard spoke. "I'm sure you're overthinking this." He laughed.
"Yes, I probably am," I said, "but let's roll with it."
"Are you saying that Ollos broke away at Seth's instruction? But why?" Leonard looked very confused.
"To separate the group." I came to the realisation that, if my speculation were true, we had walked into a deadly trap. But I doubted very much that it would be; I sometimes let my thoughts cloud what is real and let what isn't overtake my mind. I dreamt vivid and abnormal dreams, and when I woke up I never really knew if it happened or not. This was all folly.
After another hour of walking there was commotion in the undergrowth. Leaves rustled on mass, and the branches waved in unnatural patterns. I held out a hand to stop the group from advancing any further. The rustling continued. There are no creatures on this ship I told myself, although I didn't know whether it were true or not. I pulled the diamond knife from my side, and light refracted through it onto the soil. I held it out in front of me, at the enemy in the woods, and many others drew their blades as well. "Come out!" I ordered the creature. The rustling headed, and there was silence. I fastened my grip on the knife with my shifting fingers, beads of sweat pouring over my cheeks and down onto my chest.
Then there was a crack; the familiar sound of a propulsion gun firing. I turned around and saw the ripples in the air indicating it had fired, and a woman was thrown backwards, far, far backwards, and her back slammed into the great white trunk of a tree. It was impossible to tell whether the crack I heard was her spine or the tree. She fell to the ground without any indication of life; she was limp, she was not breathing and she did not move except for one arm, trying to pull her away.
"Penna!" I screamed. Men and women with stasis rifles and propulsion cannons and knifes flooded from the woods. I looked back at my men. Some of them were taking the time to roll their sleeves up; these men had cuts in their arms, as did those who were charging and I knew I had been betrayed. These cut individuals turned on my men, stabbing them mercilessly. I turned to Leonard next to me, but the blue bolt of propulsion cannon fire hit his arm, leaving him as still as a statue, glowing blue, bolts of electricity firing from him and onto the ground. Someone grabbed his shoulder and plunged a knife into his back several times. No blood came from the wound, and Leonard remained completely stationary. Then the blue faded away and blood erupted from the gashes, and he fell to the floor.
The man who had killed him charged at me, but I grabbed his neck hard and put my knife to his throat. With one slash he was dead. I looked around the battlefield. It was a massacre on my side. "Kend!" I yelled. "Kend where are you?! Zenn?!" No one answered. But then I saw Kend. He was wrestling with another larger, stronger man. They were both pushing forward with arms wrapped around each other, their heads facing down. Kend fought back, and pushed the other man to his feet. Suddenly another enemy charged froward holding a propulsion cannon. He put it to Kend's stomach and he was sent flying into the forest.
I stabbed another man with my diamond knife, right in the stomach. He fell bleeding tot he floor. I charged into the crowds, killing anyone without sleeves. Then, as if out of nowhere, I felt a pain in my legs. It was the scars I had gained from the shark attack. They were acting up, partly because I was running and partly because I had not stopped walking all day. I stopped in my tracks, and wailed. Then a man with a knife approached me. My vision was blurry and hazed. I swung my knife at him limply, and he grabbed my wrist with his free hand to stop me. Then he wrapped that arm around my neck, and lunged the dagger into my back. He did it once. Then twice. The a third time. I realised my hand was free, so I stabbed him in the neck and he fell. When he was gone I collapsed, down to my knees. I let the diamond knife fall from my grasp. I looked over the battlefield, and I saw Seth looking at me in front of the setting sun.
Zenn stood next to him.
THE
FUCK
Guys, I think we just got Red Wedding'd.
I see that Seth couldn't even be bothered to do the dirty work himself, he had to stand there and watch. That annoys me. And I hope Zenn gets sucked dry by bleeders.
Seriously, what is this logic coming from people like Seth?
"We're trapped on uninhabited, water planet. But I want to be in charge of everyone, so that I get the glory. So let's kill everyone I don't like, less glory for me! Yay!"
Seth has officially replaced Sampson in the insanity program.
Bodies littered the ground. Blood rushed through the blades of growing grass, and Seth and I stood atop the bodies, above our work; his work. As he watched and smiled as Malla bled out, kneeling on the soil, I watched in horror. I had followed him for months and this is my sweet reward. I never thought it would come to this; I thought we would be leaving the planet together. Apparently I thought wrong. Sampson had killed Otta, Tary had killed Sampson, Malla killed Tary and now I had killed Malla. Penna sat on the sidelines, but even she couldn't escape death. She crawled lifeless along the floor, forcing herself forward with just one arm, the only body part left to move at all.
I looked at Seth. Where I had once seen Sampson in Malla I now saw him somewhere else. The day grew dim. He smiled as men were murdered around him, and he and Malla stared each other down from yards away. I felt my fingers tighten around the hilt of my blade in a wave of fury. I looked at Malla, and now his eyes were fixed on me. His face showed sorrow, and indicated that he had just given up. It looked like he had sighed, his lips forced outwards by a gush of air.
Then I unsheathed my blade. I swung it around myself, a whistle rushing through the air as the steel sliced the cold breeze. Seth's hand reached up faster than a bolt of lightning. He grabbed my wrist just before the blade punctured his warty face, and he glared at me.
"Damn it, Zenn." He hissed. "I knew you didn't have it in you." He flicked my hand away and threw his fist into my face. I heard the bone running u my nose crack, and felt hot sticky blood erupt from my nostrils onto my shirt. He snatched the knife I had dropped just then from the ground and held it quickly to my throat. "You're weak, and you're still loyal to that damn fool of a leader. Look at him now. He looks weak, doesn't he? Not someone I would follow." The dagger pressed to my throat hard, and I felt blood trickle down the side of my neck. Then he took it away and twirled it in his hand, throwing it onto the ground just after.
Then I stood up. I charged back at him, faster than I hard ever run before. He turned briskly around, not expecting me, I believe, to be as close as I was. I clamped all of my fingers around his windpipe and threw him to the floor, me on top of him. I felt and heard a smack, and Seth's smiling face froze. The smile turned less genuine, and became limp at the ends of his mouth. His eye lids drooped lazily across his eyes, and blood began to trickle from the corners of his lips. I picked his head up and in the back of the skull was an enormous crater, and beneath him a rod of steel jutting from the floor.
I left him, and stood once again. Seth's people gathered around me, and I was horrified. After a quick silence, one charged at me, but the others murdered him before he got too close. Then there were cheers, which I did not expect. The massacre still continued around this smaller group. I then looked at Malla, and came ever so slightly closer to him.
"Zenn." He managed. I nodded, tears building in my eyes. "Whatever you do, don't kill the baby. You can kill Sellan, you can kill Zaons, you can sure as hell kill Ollos, but don't kill my nephew."
"Okay." I said. I smiled to him, and he smiled to me, and he fell over sideways, onto the floor.
I walked towards him, and stood over his body. I knelt beside him, and put my hand to his hair. "Goodbye, Malla." I uttered. Then I saw beneath him a glistening. From beneath his corpse I pried out a knife, made of diamond. It was once Sampson's blade, but Malla had procured it after his death. I looked at it in my hand.
Now it was mine. "Anyone who betrayed you," I told Malla, "will meet the diamond end of this blade."
Because there has been enough deaths in this story to leave a small city desolate.
Remind me to never crash land on an alien planet with other people. Because if this story rings true, about 80% of every survivor will be killed in the first month.
I'll give a quick run-down.
Lunar Vessel - 700 Passengers
Lunar Vessel Crash - 75 Survivors
Malla's Group - 40
Seth's Rebellion Force - 17
Malla's Group Survivors [POST MASSACRE] - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Zenn's Group [POST MASSACRE] - 15 (Seth and that one guy are dead now)
Island Group - 35
Ollos' Voters - 16
Sellans Voters - 19
Sellan's Voters [POST MASSACRE] - 11
Eclipse Survivors [POST MASSACRE] - 1
Sasha has charged me with one task; seek out any survivors of the massacre and bring them safely back to the island. They was dispute for a time amongst those on the island concerning whether leadership would pass to Sasha or Sellan, but Sellan gladly gave up his position to allow Malla's sister the role. The infant had now been named; Jack, Sasha called him. Jack Malla Corren. She was going to let Malla decide on a name when he returned, but after Sasha heard of his death she named him herself.
I glided through the waters in a seamoth, and had done for six days now. The distance between the island and the vessel was long, and took a week to traverse its full length. Now I shot past pillars coated in a thin layer of red grass in the Plateau. Reefbacks heaved themselves along above my seamoth, and Sandsharks hunted far below. The pillars were taller than a Cyclops standing on its rudder, and much, much wider. Shoals of fish darted around the biome in colourful frenzies of purple and green, and abandoned, rust wrecks were dotted about the ocean bed.
I questioned my mission regularly; I wondered whether any survivors remained after the massacre, and if they did how far could they have travelled in six days? I had half a mind to give up the search and return to the island claiming I had tried my hardest, to find only dead bodies and no survivors in sight. But then above me I saw something. It was lucky I saw it at all; I moved quickly, and only saw it with the corner of my eye. It was a near-perfect square floating on the surface.
I burst out of the water, much to the surprise of the man on the white-wooden, red-stained raft. My seamoth now floated half-submerged in the water. I and the man on the wood stared at each other for an age before I popped open the glass on the submersible and stood on top of the seamoth. Waves lapped over the sides, into the machine, but the drainage-system would sort it out for me when I felt the need to return to the depths.
"Kendrick?" I asked with a smile. He looked at me, surprised.
"Zanos? Is that really you or am I seeing things again?" He reached out to touch the moth, but I leaned forward and grabbed his wrist before he could. His face was scarred, especially the left side. His left eye was glassy-white, and the left side of his nose was deformed in an abominable twisting of flesh and cartilage. I still recognised him, however.
"As real as I'll ever be, Kend." I pulled him onto the wing of the moth, and he shakily returned to his feet, straightening his legs. "Sasha wants all of the survivors back at the island."
"You've found them." His smile evaporated. "All of them. I'm the only one. I watched Malla die, I watched Leonard die, I watched Penna die, I watched Seth die and I watched Zenn take his place... Who do you think sent you all of that information?" I looked blankly at him. It was only then that I realised his left hand shook like hell. It quivered violently by his side.
"Get in." I ordered him. I hopped back into the driver's seat, and he glanced at me confused."There's enough space behind the seat for you to squeeze in, I'm sure." He ducked awkwardly beneath the roof of the moth, putting his legs behind my seat. I leaned forward as to grant him more leeway, and he twisted his body to the side, a miracle that his waist didn't snap in two. Then he slowly crouched behind the seat, his arms wrapped around his knees.
"My feet are wet." He criticised.
"Let me drain the damn thing, first." I pressed a button and flicked a switch and with a crack the water in the bottom of the moth shot outwards and the floor heated up to dry. The submersible lowered into the water and shot forward into the depths.
a) Kendrick is a lying bastard and hates Zenn
or
b) For some reason Zenn went nuts and killed everyone
Also: Got anything you want to tell us, Sasha?
We glided through the oceans, close to the sea bed, kicking up a trail of sand behind us as we darted around pillars of stone and over red grass. Kend was still squashed behind the chair, barely able to move. The spine of the seat leaned forwards thanks to him, and I sat slouched forward over the steering wheel. I twisted and turned the moth around the rocky pillars and through small stony archways,avoiding predators and the like.
"How long were you on that raft?" I broke the silence. He looked at me and I instantly noticed the grey bags under his weary eyes, or what was left of his eye.
"Six days." He answered I was overcome with sadness. "I brought lantern fruit with me for the journey, but I ran out a few hours ago. They kept me hydrated and fed whilst I drifted."
"I can go out and get you some food?" I told Kendrick. He said that would be nice, and I pushed the glass hatch above us open and closed it behind me. I saw the bubbles through the glass where the water was beginning to drain out of the vehicle. I noticed a great shoal of Boomerang. They swam quickly and in perfect harmony. Their silky hides glistened in the sun as they swam, and there was not one gap between them. Flippers snapped from the toes of my wet suit and I swam forwards. They manoeuvred with elegance and grace, like a snake sliding through the waters.
I came close now, and the shoal swam my way. I held out a hand and they swam straight through me. The shimmering encapsulated me, and I was surrounded with the greens and yellows of the shoal. Then they disappeared behind me and in my hand I held two of the fish. They writhed to be free, but I did not let them. I held on tight.
I looked back to the shoal, and it dived downward, close to the sands. They drifted along the bed for a moment. The moment was short-lived, however. A great cloud of sand erupted forth, and the shoal dispersed. Each fish swam in a different direction, and when the sand cleared a beast was revealed, boomerangs upon boomerangs in its wide, toothy jaws. The shoal began to come back together above the monster, but all the while Skyrays dove into the water and picked them off one by one, carrying them away into the air; the rays were just as good swimmers as they were flyers.
Then the creature saw what was in my hands; two boomerang. I looked at them, then back to the shark. Then I began to swim back to the seamoth. I looked over my shoulder and it was gaining quicker than I had ever seen anything swim before. I swam quicker, and quicker. I felt every beat of my flippers, and every pump of my heart. I snapped open the front of the moth and the new currents pulled me inside. I brought the glass down to close, but all of a sudden the monster's bottom jaw became stuck between the steel and the window. It wriggled to be free, and I began kicking at it to get it to leave, or dislodge. Then I remembered my cannon. I pulled it out with one hand and fastened my fingers beneath the glass. I pulled it up and shot the propulsion gun. The shark flew a metre backwards and my arm was shot backwards. I felt my elbow smash against the metal of the moth, and then I felt nothing else int hat arm.
The glass snapped shut and the water drained out. The shark still circled the vehicle, but it was nothing to worry ourselves about.
"Your arm." Kend said. It fell limply across my lap. Pain rushed from my fingers to my elbow, and my elbow to my shoulder. I slowly and shakily lifted the arm and tried to move my fingers, but all they could manage was to twitch. The only thing I could move freely was my thumb.
"Do you want to drive for a bit?" I asked, placing the fish in his lap.
The world was upside down. I had no idea where to go from here, so I had decided to stop. I knew it wouldn't help anyone; not me, not my people and definitely not my son. Now I was in control, and in my mind there were now three factions on this planet: there was my faction, on the island. People had begun to call themselves the Islanders, and I have to admit, it was growing on me. Then there was Zenn's faction, perhaps still on the Aurora. I did not blame him for Malla's death, for Seth had manipulated him, I was sure. He was good at that. Then there was Ollos' military, on the other side of the gate. He was the one I hated. He was the one I wanted gone.
When I start to move forward again, let's hope he gets run over on the way.
Zanos had left seven days ago to search for any survivors, but I knew there were none. I don't know why I sent him, but a part of me wished he'd come back at least with Malla's body. The rest of me knew he'd return empty handed. I looked down at Jack in his crib. I put my hands on the sides and gently swayed it. He slept. I wondered what he dreamt of. Now Malla, I presumed.
Then I heard commotion outside. There was uproar, with screams and wails mixed in. I ran outside, and instantly I saw the problem. I heard the deep moans of a creature in the sea, and saw a blue-bottomed reef poking from the water. Then I saw on the shore a small Reefback, only five weeks or so, beached on the shore. People threw buckets of water over it to keep it breathing. Dead Peepers and Boomerangs were littered across its back, and its mother still bellowed from the tides just a few metres from the shore.
I ran up to the beast. "Island Guard!" I heard one of the guard acknowledge me from the side. "Ready your propulsion cannons, and push the Reefback back into the water."
"We've tried, ma'am." He sighed. "It's no good, it's lodged into the sand." Why could I feel tears in my eyes? No, no it wasn't as sad as this; of course it wasn't. This was the culmination of all the bad that had happened. I put my hand on what I thought to be the Reefback's head, and I gently plucked grime from between the blue tiles on it.
"Damn it..." I walked away, giving the final command to do anything the Guard could. I walked back to the base anyway, but on my journey a man ran out of the white door and beckoned me in quickly. He looked distressed. I panicked and my stroll turned to a jog, and my jog to a run.
I entered the base to hear someone talking out of the transmitter in a grainy, disjointed message. "This is...-- Solar checking...-- six hundred casua...-- net fall in two days...-- lar over and out."
"Is that another ship headed our way?" I asked. The man nodded.
"Voyager Solar, the French Colony Ship. They just dropped off a bunch of people at one of Obraxis Prime's moons, and now the crew of five hundred are coming to get us." Where I was in shock, he smiled. "Do you not know what this means?" He asked. "We'll have more people on the Island; we can destroy Ollos once and for all!"
I wanted to slap him. "It means we can go home." He looked just as much in shock as I did now. He had accepted blindly that we were never going back. "You won't have your people; they'll all be dead in two days." I stood up and left the room. If you hear a ship's coming you don't take it that we're getting more troops; that's horrible. It means we could be going home, or five hundred will die. The transmitter only collects frequencies, however, and can't create them. I had no way of telling them to stop, so I held my breath and continued on. I was angry with the man. I didn't even ask his name; I didn't want to.
No, don't give @Jamezorg any ideas.
I will pull a Julian if Jack dies.
What do you mean by "pull a Julian"?
I mean I will bring back Jack by any means necessary.
No matter how stupid.
Skope, you already gave @Jamezorg ideas.
"Oh, Malla is my favorite character! Gee, I sure hope it he makes it off the planet alive!"
BAM. He's dead, Jim.
I already knew he was dead, it was kind of obvious.
The leader always dies.
I wouldn't be surprised if Sellan dies in the next few posts.
I was sat behind the pilot's seat, squashed uncomfortable behind Kendrick. I saw his hands shuddering on the wheel. The seamoth moved slowly, and at this rate we would make the island in no less than ten days. I knew, however, that it was the only option. Firing the propulsion cannon with one arm was, now that I look back on it, a mistake, and my fractured arm could have been avoided rather easily. We had left the plateau behind us, and now we swam through the mushroom forests. The biome was beautiful; vibrant blue rays hopped about through the great mushroom trees, and the smaller creatures were large in number.
The rays squawked like birds, but every time they let loose this squeal it made Kend jump almost from his seat. The fifth time this happened I had snapped. "Kendrick," I said, "they're not going to hurt you. For one they're outside the moth, and second they're not dangerous anyway. I passed them coming to find you, I went out and touched some of them."
"I don't believe you." Kend said, keeping his eyes in front of him. He could always tell when I was lying. I sighed and put my head back against the warm metal.
We venture deeper and deeper into the forests, and every once in a while a Boneshark grew curious and chased after us. This was when I felt most in danger, not because of the predator but because I wouldn't be surprised if Kend smashed head first into one of the rocky trunks trying to escape.
"Kend, I think we should go a little bit faster." Immediately after I said this the moth darted forwards at insane speed. It was noisy, it was nauseating and the world outside was just a blur. I put my hand on his shoulder to slow him down. "On second thoughts," I said, "late is better than never."
"What do you mean late?" He asked. "Late for what?"
"Well, when I get back I'll be leading a search party to try and find Ollos and his people; we'll kill Ollos, and with the others we aren't sure. If they surrender I suppose we'll keep them alive." Kendrick looked back to where he was going and I saw him piecing the puzzle together with his eyes and his brain. He knew what Ollos had done, but he just couldn't remember right now.
"Ollos... Betrayed Sellan and Sasha...". I looked at him and nodded. "Seth told us he would stand guard in case they attacked..." I remembered now that he was on the other side of all of this. I had seen what Ollos had done, and heard of the massacre on the Aurora, but Kend had seen the massacre and heard about Ollos' betrayal. "He separated the group... His people swarmed us and..." Then there was silence.
"And?" I asked.
"And Malla was killed." He said, looking back at me. It was at this point I realised we could finally get answers. I realised a survivor of the massacre was more valuable than any amount of scrap we could acquire. "And Penna, and Leonard..."
"Did you see who killed Malla?" I asked. Revenge could be sweeter than I had ever anticipated.
"I saw Seth murder Penna; she was the first to go. He snatched a propiulsion cannon from one of our hands and threw her into the trunk of a tree... He broke her..." This was interesting, but not the information I had asked for. Then he continued. "Leonard was frozen and killed by Jack Stamford." I had heard of Jack, and spoken to him once, but I did not know him well. "I fought Ruthless fist to fist after he pulled the knife out of my hand..." Daniel Ranald, or Ruthless. One of the strongest, most burly men I had ever seen. If vikings still existed he would be one. "Then Jack charged me and I flew out into the forest. I think jack saved my life..." I didn't buy it. Jack seemed nice, but I didn't expect anyone to betray Seth like that; no one but Zenn.
"But who killed Malla?" I asked.
We went north. North was the safest bet. In the west was Sasha and the baby, and I wouldn't be able to look at them, and I'm sure they wouldn't want to look at me. In the south was Ollos the betrayer... although now I suppose I was just as much a betrayer as him. I had killed a man I had pledged to follow, but is it truly betrayal if all of his men are with you? Even the higher-ups like Ruthless and Jack Stamford were with me, in the bridge of the Kraken. I had taken the Kraken for my own, out of respect for my fallen friend. I stood at its wheel, whilst Dan and Jack stood behind me. The Kraken was designed by Malla to be larger and more durable than other Cyclops. I had brighter plans for it, as long as we found a suitable settlement in the north.
"It'll be cold up there." Jack pointed out.
"Let the cold come." Ruthless pounded a fist into his palm. "I'd like to feel the snow in my hair, the cold in my fingers."
"We have no idea if there will be any food up here." I added. "No idea what predators are up here. This is the one place the Survivor never came to. We'll be exploring it first hand; we'll be the surveyors." Jack smiled. The waters were already growing a deeper shade of blue than before. We had been travelling for a week, so I expected no less. It became darker closer to the surface, and the seabed was made from a dark rock, and deeper shades of purple coral. Small chunks of ice were already floating on the surface, and small fish were living beneath them in the shade.
"There's your food." Jack smiled. I looked at the fish; were they safe to eat? It was clear Jack had thought the same thing. "If you stop the Cyclops I can send someone out to scan the creatures for you; I'm sure they won't mind." I brought the Cyclops to a half and he disappeared into the back rooms. Soon enough a woman swam out of the Cyclops in a thermal suit, towards the small chunk of ice. She scanned the fish and gave a quick thumbs up to me. I returned this, and she boarded once again.
"If we see any more of them we know they're safe to eat." I continued through the ink waters.
We eventually found a small island, and cheers erupted throughout the Kraken, and from other accompanying Cyclops and moths. As they applauded as I pulled up beside the island and they marched off onto the shores me and Jack saw something in the distance. It was an enormous, rigid wall of ice that appeared to plunge out of the water and stretch downwards forever. Now we knew why the glad times had ceased as soon as they got out of the water. Me and Jack looked at each other and we got out of the Kraken and onto the island. From the water in the distance rose an enormous ice burg. We looked in awe for a moment.
Jack broke the silence. "Only a small part of ice actually sticks from the water," he said, "so that could go down for miles."
The island was very flat. It was mainly made of rocks and pebbles, and Ruthless and Jack got to building right away. All the while I stared at the ice burg. How is there enough room to fit that in the ocean, I asked, and if we took it out how far down would the water go? "I'm going for a swim," I decided.
"Have fun." Jack continued with what he was doing as I dived into the water. Even through a thermal suit I felt cold. The seabed was shallow, but filled with small crevasses. Over these crevasses twisted and turned thin bridges, that arched in loops and twirls over these small caverns. Barnacles and coral covered the sea floor, and on the bridges I noticed strange pink reptilian creatures running the length of them. It was beautiful; more beautiful than I had expected. I knew we may be living in the shadow of the ice burg for quite some time, as the are was gorgeous and full of life to feast on.
We now have a veritable triangle of settlements going on.
Things can only get more interesting from here.
In the same area.
Genius. Just genius.
Hopefully there will be no more breaks like this. I've sort of calculated this whole thing, and from what it looks like it's going to be a good half year - year before this story is complete. Really excited to get to some bits, and I hope you're excited for them too
I had been wasting away on this island for more than two weeks now; Ollos had the entire force working on clearing the island of any forgotten settlements, save for the alien constructions below the surface, and filling the cave systems with weaponry that he had begun creating. Mech suits unlike the prawn had been constructed for weeks now. They were darker in colour, and their arms had been replaced with large machine guns. I had been in charge of creating these mechs.
The Auroras back had begun turning a darker orange-brown in the past few weeks, as had the leaves on the Silver Island. They began to fall off of the trees, and the air was cooler than when we had crashed. Now there was word that another ship was on its way, and I prayed that its population survived the blast and the inevitable crash.
Ollos piloted a P.R.A.W.N atop one of the peaks on the island. He looked down on all of us as we fabricated weaponry and destroyed rusting bases for him. When i had voted for the man I never expected to end up where I was. I wanted to kill him myself, but knew that pleasure was reserved for Sasha; he had indirectly caused Malla's death thanks to Seth's manipulation, and his sister would be the one to get revenge. Or the child, if he lasted that long.
"Jacob!" Ollos slid down the side of the peak in his P.R.A.W.N and skidded to a halt just in front of me. "How many of the Mechs do you plan to construct?" He asked. I looked up into his eyes. They burned still. He had a never ending grin stuck onto his face, and it made him appear all the more crazed.
"About twenty, sir; enough for all of us and some to spare." I answered.
"Good." He looked around in the P.R.A.W.N. "We need to be ready for an attack from the North; Sasha and Zenn are both up there, with submarines that could end us. They lack the firepower we possess, however. These mechs have fended off worse than a Corren, haven't they, Jacob?"
"Yes they have, sir." I replied with disgust.
"But our first priority," he continued, "is vacating the planet. We can't get at the Aurora, in case Zenn is still there, so we have to to look straight down." There were to possibilities as to what he meant by this.
"Do you intend to harvest power from Precursor Facilities or use their Ion Crystals?" I asked, sure that these were the only two options for breaking atmosphere.
"No; I'm looking for something more human in origin. In these waters a ship crashed, predating the Aurora by a couple of decades. It's the-"
"The Degasi." I finished his sentence, and I had no idea by the look on his face if he was angered or did not care about what I had done. "I apologise, sir." I finally said.
"It's quite alright." He smiled through his menacing grin, but it soon faded. "As I was saying, the Degasi was not even found by the Aurora survivor. A shame... no clues to point us in the right direction. I suppose that means it falls to you to do the searching for us." I looked at him, my expressions revolting at the idea, although my mind told me not to. "The Solar shall be here soon; no doubt we will be collecting some of the survivors from that disaster. That task also falls to you." Abruptly, he left me to deal with other matters. In less than a minute he had burdened me with two of the hardest tasks any of us had ever been given. I supposed I would just have to wait for the ship to arive before I could start my search for the Degasi in that case.
Still, however, I prayed that one day a Corren would return to slice his pretty throat.