"Come on, Fifty! Stay with me! Don't pass out!"
It's crazy how quickly things can change. It's even crazier how humans can adapt to new conditions. After all, if we don't adapt, we die.
"My… My leg! I can't feel… Aaaaah... I can't feel it!"
Humans tried to adapt to the klaxosaurs by destroying the monsters with enormous flying weapons. I piloted one of those weapons, raised from birth and taught everything I needed to know to sit below the transparent canopy of a Flying Reconnaissance And Neutralization Vehicle, or FRANV. My mission was simple: kill the blue monsters.
"Calm down! Calm down! Everything's going to be fine! I'm bringing you back home."
But for every pilot, there is a copilot. Every time I went on a sortie, she was laying down behind me, linking her mind to the machine to control the sensors and the various systems of the plane, allowing me to fly and to fight at the peak of my abilities. However, there was a downside. As soon as this link between mind and machine was broken, only the most basic controls were available and all fighting capabilities were gone.
"It hurts! Aaaah… I'm going to die, Eighty-three! I'm going to die!"
When we took off from Mobile Settlement Twenty that morning, we all thought it was going to be a routine mission. Go there, blow the thing up and go home. But it turned out, klaxosaurs also knew how to adapt. After all, if they didn't adapt, they would die. When we engaged the large creature according to our usual flight plan, it launched one of its arms in our direction and it followed us as I executed evasive maneuvers. But it kept targeting us, and when it got close enough, the arm divided itself in thousands of tiny projectiles going so fast that they cut through the metal armor of the plane and the leg of my co-pilot without any difficulty.
"No you're not! We're almost there! Stay with me, Fifty!"
Through the small mirror that was glued to top of the canopy, I could see her, laying on her back inside her bathtub-like seat. She was wearing the brown suit and the grey helmet that made up the standard attire for copilots. But here, the cleanness and the smoothness of the suit had disappeared when her own blood got splattered all over it. Her face was still covered by the oxygen mask, but I could clearly see her two blue eyes. They were full of pain, full of distress, full of suffering. But they suddenly changed, just like she had accepted something deep within her.
"It... It has been an honor fighting with you, Eighty-three. I… I hope I made Papa proud…"
As soon as we got hit, I pulled both of us out the fight and back towards the Settlement, leaving the other three planes behind to take care of the monster. In fact, at that moment, the klaxosaurs were the smallest of my problems. What I was focusing on was bringing back my copilot to the Settlement as quickly as possible.
But it's crazy how quickly things can change.
And it's crazy how well damaged ammunition can explode.
I wasn't even able to give her an answer that outside, a large fireball engulfed the second half of the FRANV. All the buttons, all the levers, all the controls suddenly lost their utility as the ground started to close in fast. Pulling on the handle did not do anything. The only thing I could do was open all communication channels and scream in the microphone.
"This is Twenty Bravo. I've lost all controls and the plane's going down! We are bailing out! I repeat, we are bailing out!"
With a quick but strong movement, I let go of everything before grabbing the bright yellow handle that had been sitting discreetly between my legs the entire time and pulling it. And as the armored panels deployed from below the seats to cover the canopy, everything faded to black.
« This is Twenty Alpha to Twenty Lead. Target has been destroyed. No additional hostile contact detected. Over. »
« Copy that, Twenty Alpha. Mission accomplished. What is your status on fuel? Over. »
« We only have one or two minutes left before bingo fuel. Over »
« Understood. Squadron, change bearing to one niner zero and return to base. Over. »
« Lead, Delta. Interrogative: what is Bravo's status? Over. »
« Bravo has crash landed out of your range. Current orders are to RTB, refuel and stay on stand-by for a Search and Rescue sortie. How copy? »
« Twenty Alpha copies. »
« Twenty Charlie copies. »
« Twenty Delta copies. »
« Understood. Twenty Lead, out. »
During our formation, we all went through extensive classes on what they called the Emergency Ejection Procedure. I knew by heart what I needed to do and how I had to do it, but even the most advanced simulations can't prepare you for what you really feel when you pull that handle.
The Gs that push you in your seat when the pod rises up with the force of several small rockets, then the free fall that tries to lift you up and finally the parachutes that put everything back to normal when they deploy. Then, nothing really. The only thing that changes being the number on the altimeter slowly going down.
"Fifty? You're still with me?" I asked as I tried to find her eyes in the small mirror, but it was so dark that the only thing I could see was the blinking light of the distress beacon next to her head. "Fifty?"
But there was no answer. In my mind, I was already imagining the worst as I called her again and again. I needed to go check if she was alright, but my harness was preventing me from moving my body in any direction, only creating frustration as time passed.
Outside, I could hear many small detonations as the tiny explosive charges rigged all over the frame exploded during the self-destruction procedure. Only the escape pod and worthless sheets of metal would ever reach the ground as the rest of the FRANV went up in flames.
I knew that focusing on Fifty wouldn't do anything good to my mind, so instead I reminded myself of the procedure to follow on landing.
One: Undo the harness using the quick release mechanism
Two: Pull the red handle overhead to disconnect the armored panels
Three: Pull down the panels on one side to open the escape pod
Four: Step out of the pod
Five: Ensure that the surroundings are safe
Six: Verify that the emergency beacon is transmitting
Seven: Wait for Search and Rescue operation
Those seven steps were the key to our survival. If only one of them went wrong, then our chances to see the Settlement again would disappear into the unknown wilderness we were about to land in.
The landing in itself was hard, as a heavy metallic sound made it perfectly clear that we had landed on some sort of stone ground.
Without even thinking, I twisted the knob that was sitting on my chest, releasing me from the tight hug of the harness. I had always liked the feeling of taking the harness off at the end of missions, but here, it felt like I took a weight off my chest. With my body now free to move, I turned around as well as I could in the tight space to get the best grip of the opening handle that was over my head, reachable by both crew members if needed.
As I expected, the handle was heavy as it was directly linked to the seal between the two main panels of the armored pod. But the force you get in a desperate situation can allow to do incredible stuff, and the next second I was pushing down the panels.
The light was blinding. How much time had passed while we were locked in the pod? A few minutes? Several hours? A day? I didn't know. In fact, today I'm still not sure. The thing I'm sure of, however, was that as my view adapted to the new lighting, the first thing I heard was the sound of a light wind going through leaves.
Still half blind, I finally lifted a feet out of the foot well before putting it down outside, immediately feeling the hardness of whatever ground I just stepped in. It caused me to look at the ground, trying to process what was going on.
The ground was black.
To be more precise, the ground was made of an unnatural stone, cracked by grass in many places. Under my boot, I could feel how flat it was. Then, when I rose my look, I saw in the middle of trees what changed my perception of the world.
Buildings.
All around were small buildings, similar to the one in which lived the crews of Settlement Twenty. But no one was there, and it felt like the forest had absorbed the stone.
However, there was no time for observations as I turned around back towards the now open pod. But the pod in itself wasn't what I was thinking about.
"Fifty, can you hear me?" I asked as I kneeled down next to her, reaching to the side of her neck with two fingers.
The only answer that I got was a slow pulse going through her neck. It was enough to reassure me, but deep down I still felt the need to hear her voice. Quickly, I opened her harness and her oxygen mask and I looked around for any visible injuries.
Of course, the first thing I checked was her leg. I still remember how hard it had been for me not to puke while confronted with so much blood. The projectile had cut through the leg without any difficulty, only leaving torn flesh, cut blood vessels and a broken bone behind it. Quickly, I leaned toward the front seat before tearing down the back rest to reveal the first aid kit. From the small white metallic box, I pulled out the small tourniquet that I quickly wrapped around her thigh before turning the plastic handle to tighten it. The bleeding quickly stopped, and I then stuffed the wound with the small amount of gauze I had in hand before covering everything with the best bandage I could do. I did not know if the main artery had been hit, but that injury was enough to put her in a state of shock. The point of the bandage was solely to keep anything out of the wound, but my adrenaline filled mind really hoped it would bring her back to consciousness and ease her pain.
She did not appear to have any other injury, and with the bleeding dealt with, I finally had a chance to breathe and take off my helmet that was now just a piece of high tech junk. With my hands still covered in Fifty's blood, it left two large red prints that broke the uniformity of the clean and cold grey. Strangely enough, it did not cover the large digits of my identification number. Wind passed through my newly freed hair, and it was probably the best feeling I had felt in the last few hours. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I could feel the difference between the air of the Settlement and the pressurized oxygen that we breathed during missions. It felt cold, almost purifying, as it went through my lungs. My heartbeat finally started to slow down, and it was at that moment that I realized that my hands had been shaking the entire time. At that moment, I felt a form of calm I had never experienced before.
After reopening my eyes, I finally looked around me to find out what were my surroundings. The place where the pod had landed was completely surrounded by two or three story buildings, like some sort of large courtyard. On the ground, the black stone delimited some sort of path around this courtyard, while in the middle was what probably used to be some sort of small park or garden. The closest building was only a few meters away and stood out from others by a few steps that lead to an elevated front door. Grass had started to grow between the rectangular stones of the stairs and moss was covering a good part of the walls, hiding from view anything that would have been engraved in the stone. The other characteristic that distinguished this building from the others was a lone pole sticking out of the front wall several meters above the door, a lone piece of cloth hanging from it. The elements had torn and decolored it, but the three vertical stripes of blue, white and red were still visible. It was the symbol of a past civilization that I knew nothing about.
As my mind wondered trying to understand where we were, the sound of someone coughing reached my ears. I immediately turned around towards the pod.
"Eighty… Eighty-three?" asked a weak voice. It was only a whisper, but the relief it created in my mind was bigger than any other sentence could ever carry.
"I'm here, Fifty. It's alright. We bailed out and we landed safely. Everything is going to be fine."
"Where… Where are we?"
"I don't know… But the beacon is active. They'll come back to pick us up." I was trying to reassure her as well as I could. Having an injured teammate was already a challenge in itself, but having a panicking injured teammate would probably have made everything worse. "How's your leg?"
Slowly, she approached her wound with her hand before softly pressing on the bandage. She did not scream, but I could feel the pain when her eyes clenched. "It… hurts. But I think I'm going to live."
"Does it hurt anywhere else?"
"No… I think I'm good."
I nodded before going back towards the teared down backrest of my seat and pulling the other objects that had been stored there for emergency situations like this, namely a flare, some tiny bags full of nourishing gel and a small handgun. It was enough to survive for a few days while others were setting up a rescue operation. When I returned back to her, she had taken off her helmet too, letting free the short blond hair into the wind.
"It's getting cold and the night is probably coming soon," I said as another gust of wind passed me, making me shiver. "Got to go somewhere covered."
"But I can't walk," she replied, raising her back from her laid down position.
"Too bad there isn't anybody here to carry you," I laughed as I attached the gun to my belt and stuffed the rest into my pockets and my empty helmet. "Give me your hand."
She extended her arm toward me and put it over my shoulders. With one hand, I grabbed the arm while with the other I grabbed her unhurt thigh. I had only practiced this carrying technique on lifeless mannequins, and I gathered my strength to lift Fifty off her seat. Yet, she felt incredibly light. However, mannequins don't feel pain, and I heard Fifty breathing in through her teeth.
"You're alright?" I asked as I shifted my stance to balance her weight on my shoulders and free one of my hands.
"Yeah. Just… Just don't take too long."
She didn't need to say it twice as I walked up the few steps and reached the door. In many ways, those large double doors reminded me of the one of our home under the dome of the Settlement. They were clearly there to show how important that building was compared to the rest. But it was not the time to admire doors. Strangely enough, the handle did not resist and the door turned without any difficulty when I pulled it.
As I expected, the room that this door was leading to was some sort of lobby. Light was pouring from the windows that were not covered by the foliage, creating a darkened atmosphere compared to the exterior. At the opposite side of the room from the door, there were a large set of stairs that lead to the upper floor. Next to its basis was a desk that was facing several rows of tiny benches, while behind said desk was a chair that looked like the most comfortable option available. As I carried Fifty to her new seat, I noticed how everything was dusty, yet clean. It felt like the people that had been there before had left after putting everything in its place, and nothing had moved them since then.
"Thanks Eighty-Three." Said Fifty as I helped her sit down in the chair.
"You need anything?" I asked, putting down my helmet on the desk and emptying its content on the plane surface while she slowly turned the handle of the tourniquet to untighten it. Seeing as blood did not come, she completely unwrapped it with a small sigh of relief.
"I'm… I'm hungry." Her voice was weak, clearing showing she needed as much rest as possible. I handed her one of the small nourishing bag that she immediately cracked opened to drink the transparent jelly full of sugar, lipids, proteins and water. "Dammit, I forgot how horrible these taste."
"Well too bad because we only have that." I replied as looked around the room. In one corner, there was the same colored banner, completely covered in dust, and next to it was another one that I had not seen anywhere outside. Slowly, I extended it, revealing a plane blue cloth with the only symbol being a circle made out of yellow stars.
"What is this place?"
"I don't know… Some kind of small city, but those that lived here left a long time ago. Never noticed anything like this in our history books."
"Maybe it was because of the klaxosaurs?"
"Yeah. It's probably that."
I explored the rest of the building, but the only things I found were empty offices. In some of them, there were old boxes full of papers that I couldn't understand despite the words being written with the letters of our alphabet. The only thing I could possibly make out those papers was a fire, but the light and the heat were not required thanks to our thermal isolated suits and flashlight mounted under the barrel of my handgun.
When I returned to the lobby, the sun had almost set and Fifty had fallen asleep on her seat. Despite the bandage and the blood, she was looking peaceful in the orange light. I passed next to the desk and I picked up one of the remaining nourishing gel before sitting down on one of the bench that was directly facing a window. As I drank the horrible tasting preparation, I looked outside, wondering why all of this stuff was unknown to Fifty and me. Was it that we did not look hard enough in our books? Was it so irrelevant that people did not bother recording it? Or was it that someone was trying to hide it?
During long minutes, I observed the trees and the bushes that grew back where they had been cut for construction. The wonderful ability of nature to adapt to new conditions truly amazed me as my eyes started to close under the strength of my tiredness. I don't know how much time passed, but when I woke up, I felt the strange need to look if the pod was still outside as it was the only life line that linked us with the Settlement. As I peeked outside, the large oval shadow was still there, and I could perfectly see the small blinking light of the emergency beacon. But then, another shadow appeared.
It was bending over the pod, not really moving, as if it was examining what was inside the device. It stayed like that for several long minutes, and while I was watching it, I instinctively reached for the small pistol that I had put down on another bench. It only had one magazine, loaded with small high velocity cartridges made to defend oneself from the attacks of a small klaxosaur. It was clearly not something one would use for directly attacking a monster, but it was still better than nothing.
Suddenly, the shadow rose up, changing its shape to something looking vaguely like a man. I watched it as it moved towards the front steps of the building, following the marks that I had left on the ground while carrying Fifty, and the only thing I could was tightening my hold on the grip. My heart and my mind started to race. What was I supposed to do? Shoot it on sight? Wait and see if it was going to attack us? Should I abandon Fifty if things start to go wrong? I had so many questions, but not a single answer.
While I was trying to find a way to get out of this situation, the shadow reached the door. The only thing I thought was the right thing to do was to protect Fifty so, as the handle started to move, I rushed towards the desk and dived behind it.
I wasn't able to tell whether or not I had woken her up as I immediately pointed the gun towards the slowly opening door. When the shadow started to poke out of the doorway, I turned on the small barrel integrated flashlight at full brightness. After all, if I wanted to shoot it, it was better to know what I was shooting at.
When the light shined at it, the shadow immediately stopped and raised one of its arms to protect its face. It was at this moment that I found out what this shadow really was.
A man.
I lowered my gun, completely speechless, allowing the man to lower his arm without being blinded by the light.
"Who are you?" I launched towards him as I observed him.
He was wearing a large cloak made of several different pieces of cloth patched together, his face mostly hidden by a hood. Underneath was some sort of sleeveless vest over a shirt with a strange green and brown pattern. Hanging in front of him was some sort of rifle with a many parts made out of wood.
"Who are you?" I asked again, ready to raise my weapon again.
He replied something, but I couldn't understand any of the words he was saying. Slowly, he reached for the sling of his rifle, took it off before putting the old looking gun on the ground. Then, with a push of his foot, he made it slide a few meters away from him.
On the spot, I didn't really know what to say and what to do, so I turned my head back towards Fifty. She had woken up, but her face was clenched as she held her leg, breathing heavily through her teeth.
"Fifty!"
The blood filled bandage had started to come loose, and a few drops of the red liquid had already fallen down on the dusty ground. My hands started to shake again as I reached to what was left of the first aid kit. But I had almost used everything to make the initial bandage. The only solution was to go back to the pod, pick up her own kit and come back. It was the only thing to do, but it also meant leaving her for one or two minute with that man I knew nothing about.
But while I was not looking, he stepped closer and started to take the bandage off her leg to examine the injury. His movements were calm and precise, and for some strange reason this simple sight made him trustworthy in my eyes.
Finally, Fifty's pain convinced me. I stood up and ran towards the door that was still open, rushing past the man that hadn't really moved. Outside, the wind was freezing but I couldn't stop, jumping several steps to gain as much time as possible before almost diving into the back seat. As I had already did with my own seat, I teared down the backrest, revealing the exact same set of survival equipment. I grabbed the first aid kit and rushed back up the steps through the open door.
The man was laying Fifty down on the ground. I couldn't really protest, because in the end this was making my task of making a new bandage easier.
As I arrived, he turned back towards and started to speak to me in his language again.
"Je sais pas ce qui a fait ça, mais ça pisse le sang. Y a beaucoup trop de vaisseaux sanguins coupés. Je peux faire que du temporaire, mais il faut qu'elle aille voir un docteur."
At first, I understood that he was explaining what he had found, but the last word he said sounded awfully similar to something I knew.
"Doctor?"
He simply nodded before opening up the fresh first aid kit, pulled out the tourniquet and handed it to me. What he wanted me to do was obvious and I immediately started to put it around her leg. But as I was tightening the tourniquet, the man turned around, put his right hand in his mouth and let out a long a powerful whistle.
"What was that?" I asked, confused, after having finished my task.
But, obviously, he did not give me any answer as he returned to making a bandage using only the remains of the first roll. I was about to make inventory of all the usable items I had when I heard footsteps coming from behind. I immediately reached for my handgun and turned around, only to realize that another man had entered. By reflex, I had pointed the barrel towards the newcomer, causing him to point his own weapon, another wood covered rifle, towards me.
The first man yelled something at the other while at the same time waving one of his hand to make me lower my pistol. It was only at that point that I noticed how similarly both men were dressed, which made clear that the two were some sort of partners. And seeing how he spoke to the newcomer as he explained the situation, it seemed like the first one had some position of authority over him. The second man seemed unsure, but still nodded and started to undo his own cloak as the leader turned back towards me.
"On va vous amener vous et votre amie dans l'église. Vous serez au chaud et notre docteur pourra examiner sa jambe. Tout va bien se passer, ne vous inquiétez pas."
I could only give a nod stating that I agreed even though the only word I understood was doctor. The man then returned to his colleague who had laid his cloak on the ground and, with a calm movement they moved Fifty on top of it. I almost asked what they were doing, but their actions answered my question before it left my mouth as they lifted the piece of cloth like a makeshift stretcher.
Quickly, I gathered back all the useful stuff and followed them outside, using the first aid kit cases and my own helmet as carrying tools. And even if they were focusing on carrying Fifty as best as possible, they were still relatively fast as they avoided small obstacles on their paths.
We went around the park that was in the middle of the plaza, giving me a good time to look around even more. On most buildings, shutters were completely closed, as if everybody had taken the time to close everything. Then, without any restriction, nature had claimed back the area as grass, bushes and even trees grew between the stone.
The four of us were heading towards the building situated on the opposite side of the plaza. It stood out from the other buildings, and something about its look gave me the impression that it was the oldest in that town by a margin of several hundred years. It had a set of steps too, but those one led to more massive doors, and just above the heavy wood panels were engravings that were representing scenes that were unknown to me. But I couldn't try to figure out what they meant as we rushed up the stairs and stopped in front of the door.
Carefully, the leader let go of the stretcher with one of his hands and started to hit the door with a very precise pattern. At that point I knew I wouldn't understand anything I saw right away, so I just waited as metallic sounds came from the other side of the wood panel.
And the door opened.
What I noticed immediately were the large wooden structures that were filling up what apparently was the largest room of the building. But then I noticed the people.
Lots of people.
Men and women all had their looks turned towards a girl and a boy in strange suits, two of their own helping carrying her on a makeshift stretcher. They watched them go through the alleys between the structures towards the part of the building marked with a simple red cross before putting down the girl on one of the empty small beds along the stone wall.
There was another man in this room, his short gray hair and the wrinkles on his skin clearly showing that he was older than the two carriers. As my two helpers laid down Fifty on a bed, the old man that I assumed was a doctor of some sort pulled some curtains, separating us from the crowd that had started to gather to see the strange looking new comers. The three men exchanged a few words as I sat down in a small wooden chair next to my co-pilot. I softly touched her forehead and I felt the heat that was coming out of it, only making my worry grow.
The three men apparently reached some conclusion as the doctor also sat down next to Fifty to look at her leg injury while the carriers disappeared through the curtain. Outside, I could hear the voices of many people trying to ask questions without getting any answer. Apart from a few other beds, this infirmary was also furnished with a few shelves filled with old books that were no doubt about various medical subjects while all the needed light was provided by several simple lightbulbs hanging from the walls, meaning that this settlement had electricity. But before I could think about how they generated that energy, the doctor tapped on my shoulder before making a few hand signals, asking me to open the first aid kit that I had carried with me. He looked at what was left of the bandage rolls and the other supplies before grabbing the small pair of scissors that was inside of it. With the short but sharp blades, he cleanly cut the bandage, exposing the hole full of bloody gauze, before cutting through her suit all around her injuries. Her skin had become completely red, as expected from that kind of injury, but there were also some parts that had become unnaturally blue.
The same shade of unnatural blue as the klaxosaurs.
The doctor reached into the box and pulled out the already prepared morphine syringe. As indicated by the small drawings, he twisted off the cap and smoothly planted the syringe in Fifty's arm before pressing the top, injecting the transparent liquid in her bloodstream. As he put back the empty syringe in the box and grabbed the bandage rolls and the gauze, I heard the crowd behind the curtain. I turned my head in time to see the leader reappear, only wearing his green and brown clothes, and carrying a strange little but thick book. He approached and handed it to me, much to my confusion.
The cardboard cover was worn out but the print was still visible. There was the same tricolor banner next to another blue, white and red banner, this time made of several crosses on top of one another. In large print, there were a few words written in the unknown language, but the translation was just below it.
French English dictionary
On each page, there were dozens of words and their translation in the other language, first in one way then in the other. I had already used dictionaries before when I learned my own language in the Garden, but I had never seen one like this before. The more time went by, the more suspicious I felt towards what I learned. It was just like something had been hidden for a reason.
With this, we were able to communicate, but not without some difficulties. The leader introduced himself as Frederic, while the doctor was named Jule. But when he asked what my name was, I did not really know what to say.
"I… I am Code Zero Eight Three", I faltered, "FRANV pilot in the Mobile Settlement Twenty FRANV Squadron. And this is my co-pilot, Code Zero Five Zero."
The two seemed confused as they had never heard those words before. They looked through the dictionary, and the few words of my sentence that they could find in it were apparently not helping. The situation was awkward to look at, and I said the only words that I felt could carry the message across.
"Thank you."
Their reply was to say that it was only normal to help. But they were quick to ask the questions that I was expecting. What happened? Why did this oddly shaped pod land so close to where they lived?
"We were fighting to the south, not far from here, but our plane got hit. There was nothing I could do, so we had to eject. We never thought that we would land here… We didn't even know that there were people living outside the Mobile Settlements."
Their reaction seemed to indicate that it was the last two words that confused them. With the simplest I could think of, I tried to explain how the Mobile Settlements functioned and how it allowed humans to safely live without the fear of any kind of shortages despite the klaxosaurs and the lack of resources. My explanations were slow as I had to look for all my words in the dictionary, but I could see them nodding as they started to understand my point. However, I also wanted to ask questions.
"How do you protect yourselves from the klaxosaurs?"
Everything in this building had been made out of scrap materials gathered here and there throughout time, and there were obviously not a single anti-klaxosaur weapon in sight. Even their electrical system was made of exposed wires quickly welded together.
Both men shared a strange look before Frederic answered.
For them, klaxosaurs were not a danger.
I didn't say anything, but my eyes did all the talking. It was clearly impossible. I had already fought with my squadron dozens of battles against those monsters as they came rushing to attack Settlement Twenty and all the Magma it contained. There was no way what they were saying was true.
But they continued, saying that they had barely seen any come near the settlement, and that when they actually did, it was simply as they moved towards another destination. They had never witnessed a klaxosaur attacking anyone, ever.
My brain had trouble processing their testimony. I had always thought that those monsters were the most dangerous life form on this planet, that they shouldn't even be considered as anything close to animals, that the Settlements were the only way for Humanity to survive in those dangerous times.
Yet, they were here in front of me. Two men that had lived several decades without needing the safety provided by the many battles fought by FRANV crews. Were my teachers lying? No… There had to be another piece of information that I didn't know, something that would put the pieces together smoothly. So I asked Frederic about why everybody had left, why all the buildings were empty.
He sighed before telling me that he didn't really know exactly as he himself was born many years later, but one day people were ordered to leave their homes. His theory was that at the time, the klaxosaurs were a real danger, forcing people to evacuate, but that with time they became less hostile. Some people refused to leave, and after many years, this settlement was the only thing that was left. There were also stories of huge camps built around Magma power plants in which people that evacuated had to live in, stories of how they were destroyed by klaxosaurs and stories of how the few survivors scattered in the wild without any resources, a few lucky ones finding friendly settlements.
As I listened, I felt tiredness slowly coming back to me, my eyes becoming harder to keep open with time. Frederic and Jule noticed, and they quickly pointed towards the second bed. The simple mattress was clearly not as good as what I was used to back at the Settlement, but it was still miles better than the bench I had spent the first part of my night on.
Then, the only thing I remember was waking up with the sun hitting my eyes directly through the old colored window. But there was something else, a noise that I was not really able to analyze as I yawned. As seconds went by, both my vision and my hearing were losing blurriness. First, I realized that the noise was actually a slightly distorted voice, then that it was actually speaking the language I knew, and finally that it was coming from the headphones integrated into my helmet that was on the ground, next to the bed.
"Twenty Bravo? Twenty Bravo? Do you copy? What is your status?"
I reached for it, feeling with my hands the dried blood that was still on the cold metal, and put it over my head, allowing me to speak into the integrated radio.
"Huh… This is Twenty Bravo. I read you loud and clear, over." I said, rubbing my face trying to wake up faster.
"Twenty Alpha and Twenty Charlie are heading towards your position. ETA twenty minutes, over."
"Copy that Twenty Lead. Everything is clear over here. No need to change LZ, over."
"Understood, Twenty Bravo. Twenty Lead, out."
The voice stopped, and a few seconds later Frederic entered as I checked the temperature of Fifty's forehead. It was still hot, but it felt like it was less than earlier, which brought a small smile on my face. The man said hello before handing me a bowl filled with a vegetable soup.
With all the polite words I could find in the dictionary, I refused, saying that I was not feeling like eating, but in reality I knew that I was going to go through endless medical tests and that any suspicious data would have important consequences. He nodded, putting the bowl on a small free space on a shelf, before stepping back towards the curtain. He had barely lifted it when I called him again. With some difficulties, I explained that we had to go and that another plane was coming to pick us up.
When he understood, I saw a little bit of what I interpreted as sadness appearing on his face. He simply shook his head before diving one of his hands into a pocket. I wasn't able to see what he pulled out with his fist completely closed. He reached for my right arm, and slowly he put down the mysterious object in it.
It was a small rectangular plastic stick with a label stuck on it that was reading a single word.
MUSIQUE
One end of the stick was actually a cap, and pulling it off revealed a small metal plug. I had already seen similar devices in the hands of our Officer or the mechanics working on the FRANVs, and I knew these were used to store and transfer data. Obviously, this one was less advanced, but it had some sort of added weight. It was like it carried with in it a huge part of a culture that had almost disappeared.
I thanked him with a large smile before putting the stick in one of my suit's pocket and turning back towards Fifty. I softly grabbed her arm and her thigh and, with slow and large movements, I lifted her on my shoulders. I was about to pass the curtain when I stopped myself. There was one thing I had to do before leaving. I had to tell him one word. The one word I remembered from the dictionary.
"Merci."
He smiled and tapped my shoulder before stepping in front of me and raising the curtain. I followed him down the alleyway towards the large door, once again feeling all the looks turned towards me. We stopped next to a man that was acting as a guard and Frederic exchanged a few words with him. He only looked partly convinced, but simply shrugged as he started to lift the huge wooden bar that was preventing the panels from moving.
While he was opening the door, I turned my head towards Frederic one last time.
"All you, hide. Not go outside. Very danger." I said as a warning, even if I knew he would have to check the dictionary to understand my words. I didn't know what could happened if the rescue team were to discover them, but I knew it was not going to be good.
Frederic simply nodded before giving me another tap on my shoulder, this time like he was trying to softly push me out of the building. I walked down the steps and I turned around one last time when I reached the ground. The door was closing, and behind it, Frederic was waving goodbye.
The heavy sound of the hit between the two panels resonated on the walls of the abandoned buildings. Once again, we were alone, even though it wasn't supposed to be for very long and I knew we were being watched. The pod had not moved, still standing where it had landed, the rays of the morning sun hitting the grey mat paint and giving it an almost mystical feel.
I laid down Fifty on the ground, her back on the cold metal, and I sat down next to her. The daylight revealed even more details that I had missed, like how some windows were slightly open to make some observation points or how a small part of a wall had crumbled. Those ruins had some sort of charm, a beauty that only showed in calm moments like these.
"Hnng… Eighty-three?" suddenly launched a weak voice right next to me.
"You're finally awake?" I replied with a smile, trying to lighten things up a little.
She only answered with a grunt, rubbing her face to help her wake up faster. "Wait… Weren't we inside that old building when I fell asleep?"
She didn't remember what happened, and I felt relieved. For now, I wanted to keep this a secret, not only for my own safety, but also for Fifty's and for the one of those living inside the village.
"Alpha and Charlie are coming to pick us up. They'll be here any minute, so I had to move you even though you were sleeping. Anyway, how's the leg?"
With a slow movement, she reached for the bandage and softly pressed it. Then she extended her arm further down her leg and did the same thing.
"It doesn't hurt but… I don't feel my leg."
She apparently did not notice the blue marks that the bandage couldn't hide. Again, I did not say anything to keep the situation calm.
"Good," I said instead. "Looks like I didn't forget the first aid classes after all."
Silence returned between the two of us. Fifty was looking at ruins, probably experiencing the same kind of marvel as I did thanks to the new lighting.
"Is this where they got inspiration for our quarters?"
"Probably… I wonder what it was like when people were around."
I was perfectly aware that I was lying, and I really hated to do it, especially to my own copilot, the one person I needed to trust the most.
"Maybe it was like how the adults live in the Settlement… Too bad we don't really know how it is."
I was about to reply with a question on how adults lived when the radio speaker in my helmet started to buzz again.
"Twenty Bravo, this is Twenty Alpha. Do you read? Over."
"Twenty Alpha, this is Twenty Bravo. I read you loud and clear, over."
"We are inbound to your location. Requesting marking of recovery point, over."
"Copy that. Deploying flare on the recovery point. Twenty Bravo, out."
I sighed before standing up. With a few steps, I went around the pod towards its back. Along the curved surface was a small detachable panel marked by a red and white triangle. Despite the tight sealing, I detached the panel pretty easily, revealing a bright orange box and a switch. The box wasn't really big, but it was really heavy with the countless layers of protective materials designed to keep all the crucial data it contained safe from any damage. I put it on the ground next to me before turning around towards the free space between the pod and the building we had spent the first part of our night into.
I pulled a flare out of one of my pockets and, after twisting the top, threw it a few meters away. When it stopped bouncing around, a cloud of red smoke started to rise from the device.
Suddenly, a faint noise slowly faded in, like summoned by the smoke. It was a roar that was only growing larger and larger every second until the large and familiar shape of a FRANV appeared over the ruins.
The engines situated at the tip of the wings were pointing downwards, blowing hot air down on us, allowing the massive metal bird to stay still above our heads. Underneath, the weapon bay opened, but it did not reveal any anti-klaxosaur missile. Instead, something was slowly descending from it, attached to the plane by a heavy rope.
This something was called the Personnel Recovery Device, the official words chosen to describe what were simply two seats attached to a rope. When it touched the ground, Fifty had already put her helmet back on and was trying to stand up. I put her arm over my shoulder and helped her walking towards her seat and seating on it. While she strapped herself and connected her helmet to the oxygen system, I ran back towards the open hatch. The one last thing I had to do was turn the switch in several directions in a precise order. A light started to flash, telling that I had two minutes.
I reached for the bright box and went to store it in a special container strapped to the rope before seating in the remaining free seat. With the same movements I used when getting in my FRANV pilot seat, I tightened the harness and linked my respirator to the oxygen system of the Recovery Device.
"Alright I'm good," I said in the small microphone that I knew was now connected to the internal communications of the FRANV. "Pull us up Alpha."
"Copy that."
The rope immediately tightened up and the two seats started to rise up, away from the ground and towards the open mouth that was the open weapon bay. Below our feet, the shape of the pod was becoming smaller and smaller until the two minutes ran out and the thermite charges lit the metal structure ablaze, destroying all the electronics and all the data in an intense chemical fire.
After a few dozen seconds, we finally entered the weapon bay, and as the metal doors shut down under us, I could only think about Frederic and the settlement and how they were surviving with the bare minimum.
After all, if they didn't adapt, they would have died.
Welcome and thank you for reading the first chapter of Discoveries.
First, let me introduce myself. I am TheSlyls, I am a 20 year old Frenchman who has been writing fanfictions for the past two and a half years. I started with a story that I still write to this day : GATE : Opération Marteau de Justice. The point that got me to write was that I wanted to fix the inconsistences and the part of the story that did not make any realistic sense. And now, here I am with my first fiction that has an original story.
But I can already hear you ask. Mobile Settlements? FRANV? Planes? Is this even a Darling In The FRANXX fiction? My answer is that when my friend SpaceFox (who I must thank for beta reading this chapter) introduced me to DitF, I really enjoyed the overall story and character development. But I also hated a lot of things, mainly the design of the robots and the cheap fan service. It was constantly taking me out of the story as I was thinking "What kind of engineer would design this?" or "I don't want to see close-ups of asses! Get on with the story already!" So that is why, with my story fixing skills and the military knowledge I had acquired writing for GATE, I decided to change various elements more or less subtly so that they are believable in my eyes. It should not be too difficult to understand what X or Y is based on, and I don't believe that it goes against the story I want to tell.
I have already written the second chapter that I will post immediately after this one and the third chapter will come later, after I finish the 28th chapter of my GATE story. Until then, don't hesitate to write down a review if you have anything constructive to say.