Music for this chapter: East Wes by Eric Johnson
Note that each chapter I assign a soundtrack like a songfiction. Listen to it before, after, or while you read it, whatever works for you. I consider this whole story, in fact, a screen play of any sort.
A small warning, heavy violence in later chapters.
Yes, similarities to "Avatar" but I refer you to my agent, KrzyKrn, who will confirm for you that I have started this before James Cameron's movie came out. In fact, the only reason for this to come out is because I need a project to fill my time and Krzy edged me, or partially inspired me to write this again.
Hyper sleep isn't the best sleep you could get, but waking up is the best part. Like you've just experienced the best sleep you've ever had. All traces of fatigue are gone, you feel like you could run a marathon, or maybe that because when you wake up, the ship is just starting to rotate and give you gravity, and then you have to take the longest piss in your entire life.
Rylin, exiting the large hyper sleep apparatus, slowly made his way around the sleep chamber to the restrooms on the opposite side. When he was finished, he floated down the hallway to the next station in the ship
He stopped to look outside the window of the small connection tube that tethered the stations together. Outside, a large nebula floated next to the star, engulfing the system, giving off a purplish smoke with pillars rising from its base, then curving inwards towards each other in a spiral, the sun was tinted, just a bit, but not enough to create a deep purple shade. Two large planets, un-inhabitable not only because of the thin and toxic atmosphere, but also because the mass created a gravity strong enough to crush bones, floated nearby in slow orbits around the sun. On the other side of the small compartment of the ship, he floated to the other window; the planet Chiso334, in a lush, green glow with a small ring of meteors, silently floating in its orbit. Also occupying the meteors space were two moons: a small, black, charred moon left over after an impact with a nearby planet and then getting caught in Chiso's orbit, and a larger, more lustrous moon, abundant in jewels and resources. It shone with all different shades of blue, purple, and white. Below the entire system sat on a flat, plain like nebula, adding color to the entire thing, hues of yellow and slight shades of purple, and several bright stars shone in the far distance with glares like crosses, adding more light, a breathtaking spectacle.
He rubbed his eyes, trying to adjust to the bright light that reflected from the planet, nearly blinding him.
He was small, built, and skinny; well, almost. He had short cropped, messy black hair with green eyes and a square face that he always kept shaved clean. The rest of the crew always said he was the quiet one. Taking on the name 'Mouse,' or the more popular name from his instructor at the academy…
"Yo, princess, let's go, we don't have all day," came Aetyn from behind Rylin, waiting impatiently. He was the team's science junky, blonde with a heavy build, he was the leader, so to speak, his real profession before taking this job was instructor at the Air Force Academy. Behind him was Dr. Klein, the teams' medic and surgeon. He had dirty grey hair with brown eyes, somewhere in his late forties, he was the wise one, always just as quiet as Rylin, but he spoke his mind when needed. Rylin lifted himself off the window with a shove and then, using the rails on the walls, made his way into the storage station.
Already in the station were the two security personnel, Cane and Rila, and another science buff, Tiana, who by now already had her large headphones over her short hair. Everyone knew her as the eccentric one, and she was also the first one to ever greet him when he came aboard, they became friends in no time. Tiana was in her mid twenties, just above Rylin in age, with dark brown hair, boyish face, and a medium build. They were both, however, students in Aetyn's classes at the Air Force Academy.
Cane was your typical action movie solder; heavy toned muscles with shaved hair and brown eyes. Rila also had the tone muscles and also with short cropped messy hair style that wouldn't get in her eyes underneath a helmet.
Rylin opened his locker, careful not to let anything spill out. The station was just at it's warm up in spinning, so he was weighted down, but objects around him still floated like half inflated balloons. They said it would feel weird, the adaptive gravity made you think that your weak muscles could make you walk fully, but in reality, it was only spinning enough so that you could walk. In a couple days, the station would be at full gravity and everything in his body would be in check.
Stretching his legs, he gathered his stuff and hit the showers.
Breakfast was simple, military MRE's, only a little better quality because of the available facilities. They weren't out in the field…yet.
"You know our job," Dr. Klien, the eldest of them all, said while taking a bite, "The Corps want us to just scout it out. I sent out a probe before breakfast to check the atmosphere, check for life, and, if possible, see if intelligent life exists, other than for valuable resources. The state still needs enough to fill their quota for next month, forty billion new families this last year alone."
"Means more resources, same old song and dance, why can't we just get more soldiers instead of civilians?" replied Aetyin.
"Because, we're not free," said Rila," The Corp doesn't just hire us out for a bag of chips and a gun."
"That's why they also train scientists to handle a gun too," mumbled Tiana with half a headphone on, then taking a bite of the spaghetti.
"Right, all bitching aside, I got the mobile station ready to go, all we need is to equip and set off after we get the readings from the probe. Then we set out, scout the area, and wait for command to arrive," said Aetyn, "Remember, study, scope, then take off to the next planet. We grow by the thousands every day. We can't afford to delay."
"Package, docking now," the intercom screeched with with Dr. Klein's heavy, booming voice, "Coming through the airlock."
"Let's go people, can't wait up forever, especially you, princess."
Rylin cursed under his breath, then got up from his little R&R in the corner, sitting on crates and reading a magazine.
The Hangar housed two ships, one with the mobile living quarters docked underneath it, the other with a SUV with a turret for close encounters.
Four of them, he, two soldiers, and Aetyn, ran to the air lock.
With a hiss, the doors opened from the door, imbedded into the floor. A platform rose up with a large box, with six boosters on it, and a magnetized clamp for docking to ships.
"Let's see what command got us for house warming gifts…"
Aetyin took a plasma wielder and mask to begin working on the box. When the side opened with a clank of metal on metal, several small, cardboard boxes fell out.
Just like Christmas, the solders started ripping at the boxes as fast as they could.
"M20A3 with red dot sight and grenade launcher, not bad," Cain said, unwrapping a large rifle from its bubble wrap packaging, "Not bad at all, SCAR IV works just fine..."
Rila took out one of the longer boxes and ripped it open, revealing a large sniper rifle.
"What the hell does command think we're gonna do with this? Assassinate someone?"
"No, but what you could do is go out and shoot some birds for food, if it doesn't make them explode like balloons," Came Aetyn, then boomed a large hearty laugh, then went to unpacking one of the four turrets.
Fun fact: did you know that in the air force, you did get weapons training? Even if you take a degree in first encounter/diplomatic solutions/jurisprudence.
Even Rylin was surprised at that the first time he enlisted.
This would be his first FE/DS mission. In the past, all he had was Diplomatic Solutions experience, being an apprentice to the actual person who solved a minor war. Other than that, he was fresh out of the academy. The only reason why he was out here was because he used to be Aetyn's student in the FE class.
He walked through the hallways, and then turned at a door. Inserting his key card, it gave a small whir and beep, then clack, and it was open. With a loud click, he turned on the lights to the weapons station.
What to get…
Simple assault rifle? CQB? He didn't know.
"Try the G38K, works best in the environment kid," came Aetyn's voice, "Can't go losing another one to some wild animal."
Aetyn tossed a weapon at him.
"Throw a red dot on top of the pre-installed thermal sight and a long range bio sensor on the bottom rail and you're pretty much set to go, I call it the scouts assistant."
He nodded, "What happened to the last guy?"
"Got stupid, split off with the others, then got rammed by some bull out in the middle of nowhere," a small silence, then, "I'm telling you kid, 'gotta keep your wits about you, no mistakes, no curiosity, that's what the science buffs are there for."
"Right…" Rylin nodded, the last end of the word fading off into silence, filled with the large clicks of weapon tinkering, dropping of hex wrenches. He clipped the red dot sight on top of the scope and then slid the large tube like bio-sensor under the barrel and loaded several clips with ammo. Then he threw the now enlarged weapon into a box with his name on it, along with a pistol that now carried a flashlight/laser attachment.
"Listen, Rylin, in this job, you have to be prepared for anything, some days, shit happens."
Two days later
Aetyn was reading off a chart, listing the important facts about the planet. Everyone was sharing their probe collected findings today.
"…sits in an important trade route between planets and systems in this area. So far we've hit one possible landing site. I've also gotten data on the dominant species, locals call the planet Cerinia," he picked up a large tablet on the table, the lights went dim and a hologram soon became the only light source in the room, "We've encountered a couple problems with our probe, including how to shield it from some of the wildlife. On the planet is a class five civilization, wheel, fire, and everything up to discovering an explosive resin," then images of a busy street, looking as if it was straight out of the renaissance, a normal street, several carts, and lots of different stalls on each side, rugs hung over the camera as the shot looked up from the ground, showed up on camera. There were people, but they weren't normal people. "Rylin, mind sharing?"
Remembering his public speaking classes, he walked up to the front of the room, nervously adjusting his collar, then speaking: "The microphone from the probes mini-cam also detects a language. Given the Ezeria Method and the statistic that sixty percent of languages follow the 'noun, adjective,' case, we've been able to collect fragments of data to piece together a simple language translator. But as we speak, the probe is collecting more data.
"Another thing we were able to probe out is the government system," more images, only inside what looked like a large dome, at least three to four hundred of the figures sat around it, the camera was peering through a top hole in the dome, "a democratic election system, all done by means of representatives. This, from what we can see," he pointed to one of the figures in the middle, "is a sort of mediator or leader, showing that they do have some experience."
"Right, thank you Rylin, what you got Doctor?"
"Plenty to keep me up for most of the night, looking through blood samples," Dr. Klein said, walking up, "We've encountered a slightly more complex species than us. The normal human body has somewhere around three hundred DNA connections. What we have here is somewhere between four and five hundred connections, although, maybe that's because they're humanoid." Then another image came up, three different figures, all standing by a wall, dressed in bright clothes, again, looking like something out of the renaissance. A silence entered the room, everyone taking in what they appeared to be. Then Rila finally spoke up.
"You sure you're not looking at some cartoon, Doc?"
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