Hey everybody, Riot here. I am making this new story which isn't really new. It is actually me re-writing the original Hope of the Galaxy. So it will have a new plot and a few different characters but it is just the more polished and refined version of the story.
For those of you who haven't read the original Hope of the Galaxy here it is: The Earth never gets destroyed, and instead it becomes the galaxy's second most powerful empire. The Human Empire (or The Solar Republic) is one of the main superpowers in the galaxy as they struggle to fight against the Apex Miniknog. The Solar Republic has colonized and terraformed every planet in the Solar System (save for the gas giants) and has colonized out into the Kepler, Centauri, Proxima, and Orion systems. But the main habitations of the Republic lie on Earth, Mars, and Luna.
The Terrene Protectorate in this story assumes the role of the United Nations in our modern timeline, and maintains a code of civil laws and conducts that all nations must abide to.
Of course this story deviates (A LOT) from the Starbound lore, and this is of course not a prediction of the future (duh), but I saw that there are enough loopholes in the game to make this story seem real enough to possibly happen. It was inspired when I wondered what would happen if each of the major races was a nation?
P.s. In case you don't already know, this should be a great story for anybody interested in Sci-fi stories, political stories, and alternate timelines of historical events (because I am a big history geek).
P.p.s The plot and many features of this story were inspired by or mixed heavily with the game Battlefield 4 and 3, as well as, Orson Scott Cards Enders Game. I love Battlefield (like love, love it) and I recommend playing it as a majority of the plot comes from BF4 and BF3 and I also recommend reading Enders Game. So much influence that I considered making this story a crossover, but decided not to for now.
Without further ado, here is "The Hope of the Galaxy: Countdown to War"
(I know that Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan. Just, increativity okay... Cut me some slack)
I banged on the door, trying to see if it would give way. It didn't, I must have been trapped behind at least 5 feet of rubble.
I muttered a curse under my breath, and turned around. Ahead of me was the rest of the hallway. A school building that has long since been deserted. Plant life grew in crevices through the walls, door led to destroyed classrooms, and artwork on the walls were almost completely faded away. It was creepy as hell, I navigated through the hallway, through fallen lockers, bobbing and weaving my way through the ruin. Faded paintings of Apex children were plastered on the walls under a large flag of the Apex Miniknog party.
This kind of propaganda existed everywhere. I held my gun closer to my body, the floors gave way in certain areas, the roof collapsed in some parts, I couldn't comprehend whether this was the result of natural wear and tear, or if it was done on purpose during one of the Apex bombing runs. Either way, I needed to regroup with the rest of Tombstone squadron, and fast. Before the Apex military closes in.
My EMC uniform was green and tan camouflage. The flag of the Solar Republic stood on my chest. The Solar Republic was my home.
Allow me to introduce myself. I am Isaiah Nelson, part of the 22nd EMC division. I am in squad "Tombstone". Now you may be wondering what all this stuff is. Well let me give a little history lesson.
The Solar Republic is the official nation of Humanity, it is centered around our main planet Earth and is one of the 4 main superpowers of the Galaxy.
The EMC is the Earth Marine Corps, it is a army trained to fight specifically on planets rather than space. The EMC is a branch of the ISDF. The ISDF, or Inter-Stellar Defense Force, is a military that fights and is trained in space.
I am a soldier in the EMC. And I have been deployed to an old abandoned Apex city called Baku. I am here for a special mission, to find and retrieve Intel from the Apex. It is something that could be potentially game changing and hazardous to the security of the Solar Republic.
I kept walking through the ruins of the building. Entering inside a room, I notice a large hole in the floor leading to the floor under us. Apex soldiers were inside the hole, scouring the area looking for me and the rest of Tombstone. I carefully tip-toed around the hole quiet as a mouse, and entered into another labyrinth of hallways. More Apex soldiers coming from the floor above, I heard their footsteps and I heard them talk to each other.
I kept walking through as quiet as possible, and reached a door. I silently pushed it open, and a gang of bat-like creatures took into flight and flew into my face. Disoriented I stumbled into the room, where somebody grabbed me by the collar and pushed me on the floor. When I recovered, I found myself looking straight into the barrel of a gun. Another Marine held his gun to my face, while shouting.
"STAY RIGHT THERE, DON'T- " I got a good look of his face, he did the same. He removed the gun, and let me go. Parker helped me stand up. The marine was wearing the same uniform I was in, green and tan but instead of a helmet he wore a beanie and had an sleeveless shirt.
"Damn it Isaiah. I almost shot you in the face," I chuckled a little," You lost your cool-"
Suddenly a door to our right opened, and we trained our weapons on the intruder. Another marine, dressed almost exactly like me just without a helmet. His name was Myers, and he was our commanding officer. He didn't seem to care at all that we had our guns trained on him, as he observed the room around us.
"Ease up soldiers, where the hell have you two been?" He demanded.
"After the pursuit went pear shaped, we came straight here. Apex, Special operations right? One second they are there, the next they're not…" Parker started to panic, but Myers calmed him down. He put his gloved hand on Myers shoulder.
"Relax Parker. You got the Intel?"
"Yeah, I have it right here." Parker pointed to a pocket on his chest. Under the flag of Earth, and the Solar Republic.
"Nice play. It's breaking daylight. Isaiah, do you have any idea where Irish is?" Myers asked me as he walked to one of the boarded up windows.
"No, I thought he was with you." I said to him.
"I am breaking radio silence~
[Myers] "Tombstone 4 to Tombstone Actual, what is your location?"
[Irish] "Tombstone Actual (*heavy breathing), inbound from the North. Requesting cover fire on my advance!"
[Myers] "Copy that Irish, we have you covered."
Myers turned to us when the radio call ended, "Parker, Isaiah. Take positions by the windows. Get ready to fire on my mark!"
Me and Parker hurried to the windows of the building, on the streets below were a few civilians, a couple of Apex Red Army soldiers among them. I was about to fire when Myers radio buzzed in again.
[Irish] "Hold your fire!"
The trio of us stood, guns ready, waiting. Irish made a huge mess when he came into our line of sight, crashing through a storefront window, with a wolf-like creature trying to maul him.
"Get the hell off of me!" I could hear Irish say as he punched the 'dog' after getting ontop of it. He quickly took cover behind a van, as the civilians dispersed. Red Army Soldiers poured into the streets. Myers gave the signal, and the bullets started to fly.
It was at least a 4v20 situation. It wasn't a fair fight. Not fair by any standards.
I almost felt bad for them.
One by one, the crack Apex infantry started to drop like flies. Oh, I might have forgotten to mention. Tombstone is one of many Elite ISDF/EMC Infantry Squadrons. The best of the best, these untrained conscripts didn't stand a chance.
After what seemed like fifteen minutes, the gun smoke cleared and Irish looked out from his hiding position.
"Did we get them?" Parker called out to the street.
"Yeah, there is nothing left!" Irish called back, he stood up and began running across the street towards us. He jumped atop a window frame and climbed up to the window we were in. Myers grabbed his hand and pulled him inside.
"Are you alright, Irish?" Myers asked, after pulling him up from the lower levels.
"Yeah, I guess this safe house isn't so safe." Irish, walked towards the center of the room next to me and Parker.
We all nodded our heads.
Myers nodded himself, as a sign of confirmation. He fiddled with his earpiece and talked into it.
[Myers] "This is Tombstone 4, to Fortress do you read?"
[Fortress ] "This is Fortress, we read you loud and clear, over."
[Myers] "We captured the Apex Intel. But we stirred up a hornets nest. Requesting confirmation of our extraction."
[Fortress] "WILCO, your extraction target remains unchanged. Redeye 14 is en-route to the Landing Zone, over."
[Myers] "Understood, Tombstone 4, out."
"Alright Tombstone. We don't have much time. Let's move, fast."
We marched through the building, avoiding patrols of Apex soldiers, until we approached a dead end. Myers hand me an explosive device, a grenade launcher of sorts.
"Alright Isaiah, let it sing." Myers said to me, I nodded my head and kept my finger on the trigger. Pulling it, the gun made a sound like a suction cup being removed. Then the wall became a flash of white, yellow and red light. I felt heat and a bit of a blast from the explosion. When the dust settled, there was no more wall.
Ahead of us was a green field, with a oil refinery in the middle of it all. It was filled with concrete structures, walls covered in graffiti, sewer drains to nowhere special, everything you need to have a really bad day. Skyscrapers were being constructed, farther past the oil refinery. I could see the cranes, blue tapestry and everything.
Myers stopped me from continuing on. I looked at him, and he handed me a pair of binoculars. State of the art ISDF equipment too.
"Isaiah, I need you to find the our extraction point. HQ has marked it onto the digital world, these bino's will help you see it. When you find it, tell me. And, I am letting you keep them. Guard it well."
I looked through them, I was met with a blue world. A red circle indicated what the extraction point was, it was atop one of the skyscrapers. How in the world we would get up there was beyond me. But we were Tombstone, we would figure it out. We always do.
"There it is. Atop the building to the east. On the rooftop, that's our objective."
"Alright, everybody spread out. Apex infantry could be lurking anywhere." Myers said. We dispersed and treaded lightly. We heard a whirring sound come from behind us, like a engine going into a superpower mode. The sound became louder and louder, until a gray and black helicopter appeared from behind us. On its belly, the words "EMC D-12" were etched in gray.
[Redeye 14] "This is Redeye 14 to Tombstone 4, I am ready to give you guys a transport outta here, and to help clear out some Apex infantry ahead of you."
[Myers] "Tombstone to Redeye, are we glad to see you! We should be at the extraction point in fifteen minutes. Over."
[Redeye 14] "Understood, hey Tombstone heads up, I am reading multiple heat signatures from the ridge above. Looks like Apex infantry."
We looked towards the area Redeye was talking about. Indeed, the Apex had began to block all points of our escape. They flooded in with vehicles and mass amounts of soldiers. A bullet whizzed right past me and cracked into the ground next to me.
"Hey Isaiah, take cover!" Irish yelled before pulling himself behind a concrete wall. I did the same, Myers and Parker took position on different concrete barrier to the left of us.
"Hey Isaiah! Use the binoculars to designate targets for Redeye!" Parker called out. I fiddle with the equipment strung around my neck, and looked through. There were at least 30 soldiers in the field ahead of us, opening fire at us. They were highlighted and a red color, so the helicopter pilot could see and exterminate them.
I looked at the aircraft, and it opened fire ahead of us. A swarm of missiles and gunfire erupted from the chopper and the ground ahead of us was turned to nothing but fire and light.
"Come on Tombstone! Move up, through that drain pipe. We move through there into the next complex."
The drain pie was essentially that, a road crossed over it and it led to the other side of the road or highway. Whichever it was.
We entered inside the pipe, inside was what seemed to be a mix between an office and a forward Headquarters. Probably used by some Apex rebels to operate while hidden from the Miniknog. While walking through, a dimmed red light illuminated the area. Anti-Apex resistance posters were on the wall, confirming my belief that this was a rebel hideout. Looks like they had to evacuate after the Apex bombing runs however.
"What is inside that Intel, that Earth wants so bad?" I asked Myers as we navigated through the pipe.
"Hmmm. Lets just say, it is a lot of important detail. It reveals a lot of things about the Apex and their technological advancement. I remember something about a bomb of some sort when I was being briefed at HQ. No matter, the Intel that we hold here can change the future. Forever, and Earth will be damned if they don't get their hands on it first." He said.
Something about a bomb? Interesting. As we walked I searched through rebel documents scattered about on tables and chairs. Most of it was about the Apex and different strategies to bring Big Ape down. But there was something else that caught my eye.
"Hey, guys. You might want to come see this." I said after flipping through a couple of documents. Myers looked back at me and shook his head.
"No time for that now, stow it away somewhere, I'll look it over when we've been picked up by Redeye."
I nodded my head and put it in a pocket of mine.
We emerged out the other side, closer than we were before to the oil refinery. In fact, it was right in front of us. The helicopter flew ahead if us, searching out the enemy.
[Redeye 14] "Tombstone, Apex infantry is ahead of you, I will try and clear them out-"
A rocket fired from the Apex and just barely missed the helicopter. It swerved backwards and little particles of light dropped from it. Flares I think, another rocket fired and missed too, however it hit one of the oil tanks and a huge explosion ensued. It almost fried my vision it was so bright.
[Redeye 14] "Shit, I am being engaged by Apex anti-air. I will meet you at the extraction point, get here fast Myers."
The helicopter swerved around while deploying flares, to the construction site.
"Rules of engagement sir?" Irish asked.
"Fire at will." We let the guns sing again. The fire was still there from the explosion. Apex infantry tried to duck and hide for cover. The wind started to pick up, I don't know if it was from the explosion or if it was natural. Either way, we were clearly winning the battle. After a few minutes the Apex started to retreat.
"Good, everybody move up." Parker said, moving up ahead. The rest of us followed him until we were right in front of the construction complex. Broken windows, tattered blue coverings, metal equipment everywhere, and a lot of dirt.
"Man this place gives me the creeps." Parker said when he entered inside.
"Yeah, it does a real shitty job reminding me of home." Irish agreed.
We looked around for a place to get up to the roof, and discovered a rusty old elevator. Myers led us inside , and it didn't look too safe at all.
"This is our best way up?" Irish asked Myers, when we were all inside.
"It's the fastest. No time to explore other options." Myers pressed a few buttons on a control panel, and we were on our way.
The view was breathtaking to say the least. But not in the way I would expect. The city if Baku, was quite literally, on fire. Pillars of smoke rose from fires and bomb craters all over the city and mixed in the sky with the starlight . There were two stars on this planet actually, one in the north, and one in the west.
"Hey, Myers. I'm sorry for blowing our cover back in the school building." Irish said apologetically.
"It's okay. We are all alive. That's what matters."
"This may be a crappy ride, but it sure is one hell of a view." I said out loud to nobody in particular.
"Wait until we reach the terrace." Parker joked back.
"Oh now I expect to be blown away."
"Shut up, both of you. Eyes peeled, Apex infantry can be anywhere."
We continued up for a little while, but then Redeye called us on the radio.
[Redeye 14]"Hey Tombstone, heads up! Apex aircraft is headed your way! Looks like a hovercraft!"
As soon as the call finished, a sleek black hovercraft rolled into view. It was almost completely black, save for a red stripe going down the sides of it. And it was armed to the teeth. It turned around and aimed its guns at us.
"Guys! That thing is about to open fire on us!" Parker cried out.
"EVERYBODY, GET DOWN!" Myers yelled out. We all hit the dirt, just as a missile erupted from the hovercraft, and hit the elevator.
I was launched to one side of the elevator, as it began to fall and detach from the side of the building. Sparks went flying as metal crashed and collided, I could hear the screams of metal clanking and scraping against metal. But then the elevator swung back, straight into the building.
We went straight through a concrete wall, and all of us were thrown out the elevator. A small fire started inside of it.
"EVERYBODY UP!UP! GET UP!" Myers called us on, despite the protests from my feet which must have received the brunt of the blow, I still stood up and started to run with the rest of the group.
"Holy Shit, they are trying to bring the whole building down!" I heard somebody say.
"Come on! Go, go!"
We ran through a metal walkway as the hovercraft opened fire. Metal sparks flew into the air, as bullets crashed with the steel walkway. I had to duck down a few times to narrowly avoid a piece of metal falling down on top of me.
"How long do we have until we get there?" Irish asked Myers.
"Only a few more flights of stairs until we reach the rooftop!"
We ran up the stairs and entered into a massive room with solid concrete floors. The roof collapsed on this floor, allowing us to easily access the rooftop.
"Look out!" Somebody called. The hovercraft flew over the hole in the roof, and missiles came flying down ontop of us. I tripped over and landed flat on my face, barely dodging the explosions. I was disorientated until Myers climbed ontop of me, shaking me to my senses.
"ISAIAH, COME ON GET UP! WE HAVE TO GO!" He pulled me upright, and I was on my feet. We ran and climbed ontop of the collapsed roof.
[Redeye 14] "Myers, where the hell are you? The building is unstable!"
[Myers] "On the rooftop, running!"
After running for some time we finally saw the helicopter that would get us out of here. A few marines were inside, cheering us on.
But then, the hovercraft came back. It fired another missile at us, this time it hit a concrete pillar which fell ontop of our transport. The concrete hit the metal blades of the helicopter, and the aircraft swerved towards us.
[Redeye 14] "Shit, I am losing controls! Stand back!"
I was pushed on my back from the shock, and the metal blades kept inching closer and closer towards me. I crawled on my back trying to move away from the blades of the helicopter, and almost as soon as they were going to hit one of my feet and effectively chop it off, Redeye banked the helicopter upwards, the helicopter flew out of my view. But I had bigger things to worry about.
The floor under us collapsed and we slid down off the roof into the floors below. The building was tearing apart. Myers was trapped under at least a foot of concrete, and I tried to grab his hand, but I missed. I kept sliding until I slid off the edge of the building. Grabbing onto the edge, I was left dangling some 100 feet or so in the air.
In the corner of my eye I saw a fire through the sky, turning my head I saw it was Redeye. His engine caught on fire and the helicopter was spiraling down towards the ground, it exploded as soon as it made contact with the ground.
Then I heard yelling, screaming almost. Myers was sliding into my view, somehow he got out of the boulders prison he was trapped in and was sliding towards the edge of the building. I grabbed his hand before he could slide off, and it left the both of us dangling over certain death.
I tried pulling us up, but the concrete I held on to started to crack. And then it crumbled. The piece I held onto fell, Myers and myself did too. When I hit the ground, I blacked out. All I remember was quietness, and peace. No pain at all, it was weird considering I fell from what had to be at least fifty feet onto even more concrete.
I woke up with dreary eyes in a dark prison, and I heard yelling.
Soon I saw the outside world. Irish pulled off pieces of rubble off my body. It hurt as he removed them, not to mention I was wearing at least twenty pounds of gear.
"Holy shit," Irish pulled a large piece of concrete from my face, "Are you okay?" Irish asked as he continued digging me out the rubble "Parker! Do you see any sign of Redeye and the rest of the crew?"
"No. No one survived that! "
"Get Myers away from the wreckage", Irish said to Parker. It was obvious something was going on I couldn't see. Something dangerous.
"I can't [grunt] he is buried!"
"Try your best! I am over here digging up Isaiah!" Irish turned back to me to dig me out.
"Arrgh! My leg!" I could hear Myers cry in pain through clenched teeth.
I got out from the wreckage and was assisted by Irish as he pulled me up.
"Oh man, oh man." Parker was about to panic. "Jesus Christ! His leg looks like popped sausage!"
I looked around and saw Myers, Parker was bent over him trying to free him of his prison. Aircraft fuel was all over the floor, and it was on fire.
"Your goanna be fine Myers. Your goanna be okay, man. We are goanna get you out!" Parker said.
"Parker the fuel!" I warned.
"Yeah I know!"
"Why don't we use our matter manipulators?" I asked.
"Too risky. We might ignite the fuel, or cut Myers leg, or…" Irish warned me against using it. I kept it inside my pack.
"Isaiah! Come over here! I need your knife!" Myers yelled out to me.
"What for, sergeant?" I asked him.
"I'm goanna have to cut the leg!"
"You need to do what?" Parker stole the words from my mouth.
I drew closer to Myers. He was on the floor, and he did not look okay. He was obviously in a lot of pain. Blood stained his face and body. If we didn't get him out soon, the fuel would explode or he would bleed out.
I knelt down beside him, and drew my knife. He looked me straight in the eye, and I realized that I had to do this.
"In order for the wolf to get out the trap, he needs to chew off his own leg! Come on Isaiah, the bone is powder just flesh and uniform keeping me here!" Myers said as he looked at me.
Parker and Irish didn't say a word, they just watched. I placed the knife under his leg and waited for Myers to give me the signal. He took a few breaths in, and gave me a thumbs up. I looked away and jerked my hand up, closing my eyes.
"ARRGH!" I heard him yell. Parker and Irish dragged Myers from under the rubble, I threw the knife away somewhere and followed them.
"Holy Shit! Is he dead?!" Parker asked, his voice wavering and shaking.
"No he just went into shock. Come on man, you're the combat life saver, you should know this!" Irish answered.
"It was only a three hour course!"
A civilian car pulled into the wreckage, a local came out the car with a look of worry and anxiety on his face. Which was justified, the wreck before us was enough to scare me. He came out and began asking hundreds of questions in a broken Solar commons.
We could tell that he was asking if we were all alright. He even offered us his car which we really needed at the moment, he backed off and ran to wherever he came from, leaving us to our own devices. We loaded the injured Myers into the backseat of the car, and when everybody got in, I floored the gas. Immediately we got the hell out of there, the car swerved around the wreckage and burst through a fence that served as an entrance to the area. Irish contacted Fortress, Fortress being the ship from which we came.
[Irish] "Fortress, this is Tombstone actual, we lost our evacuation ride. One of our squad members is seriously injured, and we are driving down towards the bay area. Requesting a new evacuation, over!"
Almost immediately Fortress returned the call.
[Fortress] "Copy that Tombstone, we have a new evacuation site. Head up the highway, three clicks north, and head east around exit 45, we have dispatched a emergency drop ship to get you guys. Fortress, out."
"Hey, Isaiah," Parker called my name from the back seat as he tended to Myers, "You see the hovercraft?"
"No visual, its gone I think… wait, its coming back around!" The hovercraft emerged from above the hills, as I drove down the road. At first it seemed as if it would fly past us, but once it got far enough distance away it swerved back around and opened fire.
Curse words and swears were exchanged as I yanked on the steering wheel to dodge the beams of super hot plasma that was raining down upon us.
The hovercraft needed to reload, and I found an opening, a tunnel that is. I put the pedal on the floor as we barreled into the tunnel where the hovercraft couldn't see us.
Myers recovered from his shock, but was still obviously in a immense amount of pain. Try as Parker might the painkillers that he carried where no where near strong enough to deal with a severed leg. He did manage to bandage the wound and keep the stump from bleeding.
"Argh, my wife. She is goanna kill me, if she sees me like this!" Myers spoke through clenched teeth.
"Don't worry Myers, we are getting you home! Alright, just stick with us!" Irish called out, his forehead sweating against his skin.
"Irish, if the Intel that we collected from the research lab in the city is true, none of us are going home."
My hands were shaking, a bad thing since I was going through the tunnel at least eighty kilometers per hour. My arms ached, my hands were sweaty (not to mention I was wearing gloves, so it didn't help all too much), my fingers twitched, it had "bad" written all over it.
We emerged out of the tunnel to find out that the highway ran along a stretch of rocky coast. Icy waves crashed against the rock shores, and the sea spray splattered on my windshield. The car slipped and slid all the way as the wheels tried as hard as they could to get any inch of traction possible. Then, I heard it.
"I-Isaiah! Isaiah, the damned bird is coming back around!" Parker confirmed my fears. I pushed down even harder and the wheels screamed in protest and agony. A barrage of plasma beams shot at us from the sky, and almost all of them missed, save for one. It blew the driver side door open, and I almost fell out of the car, had I not grabbed onto the walls of it.
We passed the hovercraft, and Irish took the wheel while I tried to regain my bearings, it was lining up for another attack. Irish handed me the same grenade launcher from earlier, and it seemed as if time slowed down at that very moment.
"Burn those motherfuckers!" Irish screamed at me, I took the launcher in my hand and fired a shot that was perfect. The grenade went straight into the cockpit of the hovercraft, and it exploded from the inside. It turned into a ball of fire and swerved up fast and really high, while I pulled myself back into the car.
It came crashing down right in front of us and the explosion pushed the car off to the left, straight into the water. I slammed the door shut as the car was launched off the highway and into the icy water.
I blacked out again, to wake up to a conversation, it was quite calm. Regaining my focus, I saw outside was a dark blue color.
"Hey, Irish. You know what kind of fish they have here n Baku?" Myers asked the man, who shook his head.
"Negative staff sergeant. Hey," He turned his focus to me, "Isaiah. Are you conscious? Stay in the game, man, stay with me!" He shook my shoulder. I brushed off my dreary eyes. My head hurt like hell and I knew at that moment that the helmet of mine was a blessing from god himself. I must have hit my head on the steering wheel when we collided with the water, blood was on the wheel and my nose hurt a lot. After wiping my nose, a trail of blood came out, exactly like how I thought.
"Isaiah, man. That was some of the finest driving I have ever seen, right up until the end. Parker, hit the lights." I accepted his compliment, as Parker turned on the carbon lights and illuminated the car. Cracks were forming in the windows, and we were only sinking deeper.
"Shit, your seat won't move. Your pinned in sergeant!" Parker said to Myers, who was stuck between two of the seats. The car was upside down so we were all on the roof of the car, except Myers who was stuck.
"listen, Parker, the worst thing we can do in a situation like this, is panic." Myers said to ease the worry in his voice.
"Myers, I swear, when you talk like that you scare the crap out of me!" Irish said in a nervous chuckle.
But soon things became even worst, we were still sinking and the cracks were growing bigger. We could tell our supply of air was running out and if the glass didn't break and drown us, we would suffocate.
The plan was to free Myers, shoot the window, and swim out of there, but Myers just couldn't move.
"Argh," Parker groaned in agony, "We are still sinking!"
"Hey, Myers, we are going to get you out of here! Alright!" Irish yelled. The commotion only made my head hurt again, but I tried to focus on getting Myers out as much as possible.
"Isaiah, take my gun." Myers handed his favorite pistol to me, I accepted it in my hand without much thought because my head still hurt, but soon I knew something was up. It might've been the next thing he said, "In order for the wolf to survive he needs to chew off his own leg!"
"What the fuck are you thinking!?" Screamed Irish, as he looked on in disbelief.
"Isaiah, shoot out the window." Myers egged me on. My hands started to tremble, and I broke out into a nervous sweat. It was because of that, or because the sir we were breathing in was not fresh at all and was running in low supply.
"What?! Negative sergeant, don't do it!" Irish protested, my hand moved without my consent, however slow it crept along. The gun shook in my trembling, and gloved hand as it slowly moved towards the window.
"No! Myers, we are not going to leave you here to die!" Irish yelled at the top of his lungs, with his voice cracking from the pressure.
"Myers, we can't do this!" Parker also joined in.
"Save yourselves, think men, think! If you shoot out the window one you can all swim free. But if you don't you will all die! Isaiah, shoot the window!" My mouth twitched at the sides.
Irish was screaming his head off in the back, and Parker pleaded with Myers. But no matter what, we all were prepared to swim. And then my finger slipped.
The glass shattered, the car filled with water, and we all bailed out. All except for one. Myers. I swam out the car with Parker and Irish right behind and next to me. I poked back at the car but I couldn't see Myers, it kept plummeting down.
I saw the surface of the water growing close, and my lungs screamed out to breath fresh air, and my arms were growing weak, but my brain pushed me forward. And we broke the surface, taking the first fresh breath of air we had in the past fifteen minutes or so.
-End transmission-
[Garrison] "Tombstone retrieved the Intel."
[Zee] "And?"
[Garrison] "In the event of a military coup, the Avians, Glitch, and Florans would remain loyal to the Apex. The general of the Apex has the full support of them in case war breaks out with us, The Solar Republic."
[Zee] " So that confirms our report from our assets in the Miniknog."
[Garrison] "So let me get this straight. Staff Sergeant Myers, was killed for something we already know?"
[Zee] "(*an audible sigh is heard over the phone) The Apex are on the brink of a civil war right now, and the Terrene Protectorate is getting involved. We needed to know for sure. The fact that we had to lock down all trade nodes and space lanes outside the Solar System is delicate enough, one wrong move, and we are talking war."
[Garrison] "Oh and about that extra bit of Intel Isaiah picked up from the rebels?"
[Zee] "It is being analyzed. Good thing he picked it up, because this is major. But I can't tell you right now. You have your orders captain"
[Garrison] "Aye-Aye, steaming towards the Apex main planet."