Chapter One

For My People

Notes for this chapter:

I know I could probably do a better job describing the complex that the humans are in cryostasis in. In my mind, I pictured something similar to STAR Labs from the Flash TV show, with the cryostasis pods functioning like a way more humane version of the Pipeline. Other floors hold amenities, like a residential area for awakened humans, an athletic center (with a swimming pool, of course) and a massive library packed with books, vinyl music, and archived blueprints and drawings. There was also a floor for food storage, and a tech center, with computers, gaming consoles and more music, this time stored online.

Also, after this chapter, the next couple of chapters will come at a much slower rate, since school is picking up the pace and extracurriculars are about to begin.

—

"Welcome to the future." = Speech

"Welcome to the future." = Thought

Welcome to the future. = Music

With Nathan

This for my people

Trying to stay alive and just stay peaceful

So hard to survive a world so lethal

Who will take a stand and be our hero

For my people, yeah...

The first thing Nathan Eastbrook experienced after he was put in cryostasis was the song he had asked to hear when he was to wake up. Slowly, he began to feel his senses return to him as he began to get used to his surroundings, and the music played in the background.

Without really thinking, he began to stretch, since his muscles felt incredibly tight from his forced coma. Standing at a solid six foot one and weighing a little under two hundred pounds, Nathan liked to think of himself as one of the better physical specimens of the people that went into cryo. The blue jumpsuit he had been issued still fit his tanned form perfectly, like it had when he was forced into a coma. "That's a good thing, too," he mused internally, "I'm glad to see I didn't mutate into anything."

He chuckled and took a few minutes more to iron out the kinks in his bones and muscles, before the reality of his situation hit him like a star linebacker.

Most of humanity, he remembered, was dead. A few thousand people had gone off into space while he and a few hundred others, himself included, had been forced to stay unconscious for who knows how long. Nathan quickly felt his throat begin to grow somewhat dry as a single thought crossed through his head.

"Oh my lord, this is actually real."

After taking a few more moments to let that reality set in further, he spoke aloud, seemingly to no one in particular. "Was I the first one to awake?" he asked anxiously, taking his time stretching out his jumpsuit clad frame. A bright, mechanical voice quickly answered over a speaker, taking the young man by surprise.

"Good evening, Mr. Eastbrook. To answer your question, yes, you are the first member of your group to wake up. I was the one to awaken you."

The human stood there and blinked, trying to process the new information given to him. Apparently, the scientists working on the project had also made an A.I. to guide the people once they had awoken from their very long slumber. Seeing as Nathan had paused and chosen not to respond, the A.I. in question continued speaking.

"My name is Athena", she said. "I was created by one of the leading members of the artificial intelligence community for the purpose of helping you integrate yourself into the new world. I regulate the conditions in this building so they remain stable, and I also know about some of the outside world as well. You, Mr. Eastbrook, were selected to be the first person to awake from cryostasis by the president himself."

That was a sentence Nathan did not want to hear. He had been the dude elected to scout out the outside world and see if it was livable in. He had been the dude elected to make first contact with new sentient species, and establish that humans weren't going to be hostile to them. It was, admittedly, an intimidating task.

But it was one he would need to start sooner instead of later.

"Ok, Athena. I need to know about the outside world, and then I need to know the ins and outs of this facility."

—

It took a good while, but eventually, Nathan had managed to get himself up to speed on the current state of affairs. Apparently Athena, in the time since she had been awakened (which was a long time ago), had gained the ability to feel emotion. The first emotion she had learned to feel was loneliness, and she threw herself into learning as much as she could to avoid that feeling. Awakwening Nathan had made her feel like she had had company for the first time in ages (outside of the beings crawling through the middle floors right now, though they didn't know about her). She was glad to tell Nathan everything he wanted to know, and she gleefully answered his questions.

For starters, it had been a little under twelve millennia since his group had been put into cryo, and Earth had done a pretty good job of recovering. While the water had become quite polluted, many other environmental aspects greatly improved. The global temperatures had lowered, the hole in the ozone layer was almost completely repaired, and the sea levels had dropped by a good margin. Also, two new sentient species had evolved in that time frame and they had taken heavy inspiration from humanity.

One species evolved from squids, and they had taken to calling themselves Inklings. Another had evolved from octopi and aptly called themselves Octarians, with their own sub-species called Octolings. Apparently the two races had gone to war a while back, weaponizing the ink they made to fight over a power source, electricity-producing fish known as the Zapfish. The Inklings had emerged victorious, and the Octarian Empire had had trouble producing power ever since.

"As the old saying goes, to the victor goes the spoils," Nathan thought bitterly. While the Inklings had won the war fair and square, they had still managed to effectively doom an entire race of sentient beings to a struggle while they lived in luxury, looking down upon the Octarians. Meanwhile, the Inklings' main sport was basically a war simulation with two teams of four during it out to see who could cover the most battlefield in their team's color. At least the Inklings didn't wage war at random like some of humanity once did.

That couldn't quite be said for the Octarians, who had apparently elected to steal all the Zapfish a couple years back. Their leader at the time was brash, power hungry and overconfident, really bad traits for a leader to have.

Plus he made horrible house music instead of, you know, trying to lead his people. No wonder some special Inkling force (Squidbeak Platoon or something?) had managed to defeat him and recover that power source. The new Queen was probably far more competent.

At the end of his history lesson, Nathan had drawn a couple conclusions. The first and foremost conclusion was that the two races would probably have a better time coexisting if the Octarians had a consistent power source. Unfortunately, while the archives in the cryo facility probably had blueprints for many power sources (solar was probably a good choice, considering the Octarian population wasn't nearly as high as humanity's once was), he wasn't an engineer. He was a fighter and a negotiator if need be. That was what he had been trained to do.

The second conclusion he came to was that it would be a while before Athena, the A.I., could wake up any more humans. She said it was a minor bug in her system that she would work out eventually, but for now he was on his own.

The third and final conclusion had to do with the first. Perhaps, Nathan reasoned, if he could make a good first impression, he would be able to ally with either the Inklings or the Octarians and help the two races coexist while inserting his own into the mix.

"Thank you for getting me up to speed, Athena," Nathan tried his best to be polite while his mind raced. "For now, I need a couple of things. I would like some new clothes, something to eat, and maybe a weapon, just in case. I assume you know where those are, right?"

"Of course, Mr. Eastbrook. I can give you directions if need be."

"Lead the way, Athena. And please, call me Nathan. You don't need to be so formal."

—

With Persephone

Now, Persephone had advocated for leaving and coming back later and more well equipped when the strange, musical sounding noise had gone off at first. However, the few colleagues she had gone in with had disagreed, meaning that she had been outvoted. And as the leading expert in precursors, she was going to be obligated to make sure her three companions stayed safe.

This was how Persephone found herself slowly striding up a few flights of metal stairs in front of three Octarians, who had elected to bring along weapons just in case. Somehow, the facility was still fully lit, which was simultaneously relieving and nerve wracking. It was made a little more nerve wracking by the fact the sound they had heard at first had turned into full blown music now, with the same noise repeating as a drum pattern played and deep, unintelligible speech could be heard, and some melodic singing could also be heard at intervals. It was strangely calm and minimalist to Persephone, but for reasons unknown, it invigorated her as well.

Eventually, as the music seemed to get louder (singnaling that they were getting closer), they reached the top of they staircase, and the music quieted and faded away. That left them in silence as the last member of their party reached the top of the stairs. The fact of the matter was that nobody really had any idea what was going on. They had been there for a while, so why would this facility choose now to act up? Plus, why play music of all things?

Persephone was the first to exit the staircase, emerging at the end of a long hallway. As she made her way forwards, the rest of her squad followed, weapons down for the moment. Every second seemed to stretch into ten as they wandered forward, guards up.

Then one of the doors opened, and... something stepped out.

It wasn't looking at them yet, so Persephone had a few moments to make observations. For starters, it had a figure similar to an Octoling, but its head looked significantly smaller on its body. Its head was still the size of an Octoling's though, meaning it was huge. Persephone's head barely went to its chest, and she was still pretty tall for an Octoling. It was wearing one massive piece of blue clothing that covered the majority of its body. That stuff on its head looked like thousands of small, black tentacles. It was an incredibly intimidating figure, judging by her Octarian counterparts' stunned expressions. Persephone didn't blame them.

"Remain calm!" she quietly hissed at them. They needed to stay quiet.

That didn't work. The... thing suddenly tensed and stood up straight, adding even more size to its already massive frame. It cocked its head in the direction away from them.

Then, it turned to the side and made eye contact with her.

"Holy.."

The thing was staring at her in awe, but without any signs of malice. He was probably surprised, but that didn't stop Persephone from making more observations about it. Like its facial features.

It had eyes, ears and a nose like any standard Inkling or Octoling. But what stunned her most was its teeth. "So many teeth." There had to have been dozens of them. Their saving grace was that it (he?) was unarmed.

Persephone and the figure (she would need to determine a name for it) never stopped locking eyes as one of its arms rose towards its chin and stroked it. It's mouth moved, saying something in a language he couldn't recognize. She could only stare at him in awe.

That awe soon turned to horror. She was going to open her mouth to respond when one her cohorts gave a loud cry and began fired at the figure. Soon the other two joined in, coating the figure's body in purple ink. Persephone could only watch as one of her biggest dreams was shattered. With a loud cry, the figure stumbled backwards before hitting the floor, motionless.

—

So that's Chapter One. The song that played in the background was "For My People" by Joey Bada$$, hence the chapter's title. He's one of my favorite rappers and I think he's really underrated.

So anyways, to summarize, in this chapter, Nathan awakes and learns the basics of the outside world and its recent history. I don't know if I chose to let him know a little too much, but if Athena had been around for a very long time (I would assume she was set to boot up about eight to ten centuries before she was able to wake Nathan), she would probably be able to learn about the environment, its species and their history with each other. Hell, as an advanced A.I. she's learned the language they speak too, and she'll try to teach it to Nathan as well.

Nathan's main skills will be in fighting and negotiations, since he was the first human to awake. He would need to know how to fight to keep himself alive, and how to negotiate to establish good relations with the Inklings and Octarians. Obviously, since the facility he was placed in cryo in was located mainly underground just outside of Octo Valley, he will have to meet the Octarians first. And he has. He's been shot by a couple too.

How'd I do? Do I need to go a bit more in depth on my characters, and flesh out their personalities a bit? Let me know.

I don't own Splatoon or Nintendo, and I sincerely doubt that I'll have the rights to my OC's.

Next Chapter: Nathan takes his revenge on the Octarians that invaded his home, and he gets to know the Octoling known as Persephone Eldoris. Thankfully, Athena knows how to translate.