Cronus

Chapter 1

Terraluna
I sprinted into the hallway dodging bolts of electricity that had already set me ablaze once. The source was an Augmentor. Augmentors generally had gotten ahold of a drug that was designed change their basic human chemistry. Most people die before they even realize how dumb of an idea it was. However, this degenerate was standing on a catwalk grinning like a newlywed. Underneath the electric madman was Complex 115,000. All complexes are 30 foot cubes, contain one main plus sign shaped walkway, and have the space for 12 rooms. The rooms themselves have no ceilings, four 10 foot high walls, and one door. Each of the 19 million complexes that spread across Terraluna surface and underground have hallways on all 4 sides. Of the 24 inhabitants of this complex, 23 were dead before I arrived.
At that moment I had been standing in the mouth of a hallway when one last bolt came from Complex 115,000's catwalk. The bolt damn near disintegrated the last man alive as he clutched his wife's arm like it would save him. I watched helplessly as the bolt came down and entered the man's chest. The bolt was not energized enough to pass through the person, which would have caused less damage. With this particular strain of augmentation the electricity was absorbed throughout the torso and destroyed the mans organs. In the first second the energy turned the heart into a pulp, eviscerated the lungs, fragmented the sternum, expanded the ribs out and away into the skin, and finally popped the digestive tract like a bubble. In the next second there would be two arms, two legs, one head, and a feces and blood covered room.
My brain processed the murder in slow motion, and the explosive scene captivated me into brief inaction. Damnit Trent move it!
In the third second I had whipped back into the complex and shot the man on the catwalk in the head.
I felt victory course through my viens me as I watched his head whip back. For a moment his blue veined and distorted body swayed. He should have fallen onto the guardrail that every catwalk in every complex contained. This would have held his energy filled body up from the ground and ended my nights work. However, this maniac decided to commit 24 acts of murder in the only complex with a rail less catwalk. I watched the bodies weight shift over the edge and start its plummet. With only a 20 foot fall for the dead augmentor and no where for me to run, I prepared to act out the first life saving plan I could think of. I crouched down, tensed my legs, and jumped. This idiotic plan would go on to be known as the "Electric Jump Rope" for years to come. The augmenters body released all of his energy as his back hit the ground. A massive current created a shockwave that coursed through the floor, walls, ceiling, and air. The electricity on its own would have killed me had I stayed in contact with the ground, but the blast that came through the air a moment later merely knocked me unconscious and broke some ribs

************************************************************
I woke up some time later as the other 11 members of my security squadron swarmed into the complex ready for action. Oh ya. I forgot my uniform I thought to myself. All members of the security force wore full body vests that were several inches of tightly woven nanofibers that could stop anything from a large caliber bullet to a plasma bolt. As I shifted from unconsciousness to consciousness, I noticed a certain co worker walking towards me with murderous intent. Skylar holstered her gun onto her back and squatted down in front of me trying to determine if I had survived again. Although her her face was mostly obscured, and her body language was completely stoic, her eyes told me 20 different intense emotions. I give Skylar a bloody smile as she silently picked me up for the last time and dragged me to the ground level shuttle for the infirmary. I fell out of consciousness at ease.
My eyes fluttered open and my body tensed against bed sheets. My mind started back up slowly as I tried to get a grasp of my surrounds. White walls, uncomfortable bed, and no ceiling.
Still alive on Terraluna
As the tinder of my mind caught ablaze I determined that I had woken up in the infirmary. The tubes running into my arms indicated that the doctors had injected medical nanobots that would force tissue regeneration or scarring to occur within minutes. These little suckers would grab tissue fibers themselves and weave me back together, and any dead tissue would be recycled by the bots themselves. A screen with a live x-ray feed showed that the nanobots were working on my concussed head, 16 cracked ribs, and nerve damage in my left arm from where I caught a bolt of electricity. A tape on the overhead monitor was replaying the event of the entire fight. On the screen I watched as the augmentor climbed the catwalk of the sleeping complex. He stood in the middle of the catwalk and jammed an augmentation needle into his left arm. For once I didn't see an augmentor turn into ashes as the hideous process took over.
Blue power coursed through every part of his body causing muscles to tear and regenerate over and over again as he was set into heart failure. He fell down onto the catwalk in agony as the process having his bodies' molecules rearranged several times in a few seconds changed him from a crazy criminal to an absolute psycho. For a moment his extremities convulsed like he had put firecrackers in all of his joints. After he had gained the attention of several of the inhabitants of Complex 115,000, he rose again with electricity arcing in and out of his body like solar flares. I cringed as the augmentor wasted no time and went to work killing entire rooms in one spastic flick of his arm. Because of the awesome power that had consumed him, simple muscle movements, like extending an arm, had become a violent fight between nerves creating action potentials for muscles, or the energy within him just forcing the muscles into massive contractions. Peoples bodies were destroyed and popped like balloons. After the 23rd occupant had been roasted and blood had splattered the nearly every surface in the complex, I sprinted in with my casual wear wielding my metal staff and plasma handgun.
Back in the infirmary panic surged through me as looked around for my staff and gun before I found them on a table nearby. I let out a deep sigh. My handgun and staff are my soul, and also completely unique. The standard layout for a security officer was a plasma stick, a plasma pistol, and a high caliber auto targeting assualt rifle. However, the plasma pistol often doesn't narrow down the plasma enough to be pinpoint accurate. So as the plasma goes across the room it could hit a target within a large radius as the plasma spreads out over the distance it travels. This inconsistency lead to accidents, and our government either did not care or did not have the funds to fix this issue. Also the standard assualt rifles caliber is so high that it has to be shot from a braced position or the recoil will break a wrist or blast the user on their ass. Even before you can brace for the recoil the gun has to find its targets. While the auto-targeting is convenient, it is slow. My layout consists of a low power plasma handgun and a longer barrel for plasma accuracy over nearly any visible distance, and my extendable nearly indestructible metal alloy staff. I make up for my lack of power with skill with my weapons of choice.
Looking back to the camera I saw myself sprint into the middle of the complex. As the augmentor prepared to shoot another bolt at occupant 24, I stabbed my staff into the ground where I envisioned the bolt was going to travel. I pulled my arm away from the staff quickly, but electricity leaped into the staff, and jumped from the staff to my hand and up my arm. After traveling through the air, the staff, and the air again the energy transferred was only enough to injure my arm, not destroy it. I heard someone entire the infirmary room and I looked away from the screen as me from the past grabbed the staff and dived away into the hallway in search of cover.
Skylar had stepped into the room and silently closed the door behind her. Helmet still on, she walked over to my bed and took a seat at the foot. She was wearing the security uniform with helmet and still had my blood on her chest piece.
I must have been in the infirmary for only a couple hours. I thought to myself.
"This is the 5th time you have run off onto the job without your squadmates or your gear." said Skylar, her voice completely professional.
"I had a good reason." I replied with the same professionality, trying to hold my ground.
"Do you expect the end result to justify your actions? You are injured." she said as she took off her helmet. She still spoke in a stiff tone. Her short brown hair unfurled as the helmet went over the top of her crown. Her facial scars minutely diluted on her white skin. Skylar was pretty but not overly sexual. A quality I liked.
"So trying to save lives was not a correct action?" I said. I too spoke as if we were merely coworkers and not life long friends
Me and Skylar had know each other as long as either of us could remember. 25 years ago Terraluna had stopped getting supplies from any home colonies, and those who were not fully committed to our survival departed. Those leaving left any newborns behind as an attempt to lower baggage. So Skylar and I found ourselves inside of a set of orphan complexes. There we got our mental and physical scars, and our fighting skills for our future careers. As we grew up our strong moral compasses had led us to the security force. Training for these security programs started at 12 years old and now we were part of an elite squadron. While we both had a strong drive to do everything we can for what we believe is right, my compass led me with a leash. Which is why when I watched the security cameras and saw that a nearby complex was under attack I wasted no time to gear up. This is also the reason for why Skylar and I were having this passive aggressive conversation
After my last comment Skylar had obviously tensed up.
"And what about your life?" She said with no feigned professionalism. Her voice had an obsidian edge to it.
Shit.
We had only been in the security force officially for 6 months and I had already run off on my own five times. All five times I had apprehended the deserving criminal, nearly died, and in the end landed myself in the infirmary.
"You do this again and I am breaking your legs!" screamed at me in a whisper. Apparently she was trying to be considerate to the rest of the dying people.
Does she want me to just let an augmentor murder two complexes before the squadron arrives? I thought. I was infuriated with her opposition at that moment.
"Well I better get a splint prepared!" I spit at her with no regard. It wasn't very aggressive but it upset Skylar. She knew should could do nothing to stop my recklessness and was infuriated by it. She kicked the cross beam of my bead snapping it clean before she stomped out into the main hall way of the complex. It took me a good 5 seconds for my rage to subsidize, and that I was being inconsiderate of her feelings. She had deserved a compromise with my actions.
I looked over at the live x-ray and saw no obvious nano bot movement. With that confirmed I attempted to get up gently but the foot end of the bed collapsed as I shifted my weight, and the bed unceremoniously dumped me onto the floor. I picked myself off the ground with my now perfectly healed arm and grabbed my staff and gun. I did not realize that within 12 hours of grabbing my gear and heading out to the security barracks to find Skylar, I would have uncovered secrets of Terraluna's government, and crashed a non heat shielded escape pod into the most dangerous penal colony in the history of mankind.