The F.O.X. Project

Chapter 12: What Date Is It?

A network of portals stretched endlessly before Benchy, the holes in the fabric of matter allowing ships to travel through time and space. During Darkspace travel a ship is completely helpless as the electrical fields keeping the holes stable prevent a ship's reactor from producing power, like an EMP. Holes usually open up and suck the ship in to the right location but Benchy had an experimental reactor so it wasn't perfect. In fact, it was floating, unknowingly stranded in Darkspace.

Crystal noticed this and ran out of the bridge and down the short corridor to the reactor room at the end. While frantically trying to find the problem a hole split open just close enough to suck Benchy in. The ship creaked and the lights flickered as it was spat out into Realspace way too close to a planet.
Gravity grabbed hold of Benchy and dragged it towards the surface. Crystal had to act fast to activate the atmospheric thrusters and lower to the surface before Benchy plummeted into the planet's surface, especially since the planet looked quite inhabited.

Benchy lowered slowly to the surface and attached itself to the side of a cliff overlooking an old-looking fishing city.
Small streaks flew down the sky as Crystal made her way down the mountainside to the city.

Walking through the city, Crystal got some strange looks from it's inhabitants. She guess they didn't have any Anthros living there, most didn't seem to be very happy about her being, few shouted abuse but most just stared...
She was looking for the city's shipyard when a huge projectile crashed down a block away and exploded, blowing Crystal into the shop front beside her and rendering her unconscious.

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Trent leaned from the footplate as his T-30 as it clattered through a tunnel and into Torrenholm's underground station. The station's buffer stops hissed as they clamped onto the front of the train.
Trent leapt off the train and went in search of supplies. He walked through the station's entrance to discover that the town had been under heavy bombardment and several decent sized craters were dotted about the city as well as dozens of smaller ones. Buildings lay smoking in ruins and it looked like most of the residents had fled as stubborn little fires lay smouldering and threatening to burn the whole city to the ground.
He wondered the streets digging through the rubble of old shops and houses and taking food and provisions from the ones still standing.
Walking into a particular little shop, Trent searched the shelves for anything that could be of use.

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Waking up, Crystal panicked. Scavengers?! They probably have guns! Guess who doesn't have a gun? Me! But I do have my glaive so if I can let them get close to me I can threaten them or something.

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Trent walked slowly through the isles.

Crystal stayed silent, waiting for the right moment.

At that moment Trent decided that there wasn't really anything that hadn't been looted already. So he decided to check the storeroom.
He walked through the doorway and was suddenly faced with a large blade, inches from his neck held by someone that appeared to be a more feminine version of him. They stared at each other for a while, bewildered.
Crystal broke the silence.
'Who are you?' She demanded.
'Who are you?' Trent answered.
'Okay. What are you then?' She demanded again.
'How should I know?! I'm whatever you are.'
'Well I'm not telling you anything about me until you tell me what year it is, what is going on in said year and a little bit about yourself.'
'Well I'll start there then. The year is 2055 and the Insurgency has just sent aerial bombardments to several cities and from what I saw earlier they are attacking of the fronts too.' Trent explained.
'The Light Wars...' Crystal mumbled.
'What?'
'Nothing.'
'Well I need to get going.' He finished

Trent resumed searching the storeroom, grabbing several boxes of food before walking out of the shop. Crystal followed close behind, curious as to how an Anthro could exist this early in history. He walked through the city's main square and into the station. She crouched behind a vending machine as Trent loaded up the T-30 and fired up its turbines. As the train set off Crystal jumped onto the back of the train, if you're leaving, then I'm coming with. She climbed up the passenger car's back railing and in through its back door into the cargo area.
Crates lay in neat piles around the small area. There was a door at the other end, Crystal didn't walk through it as the door opening could alert the Fox that she had stowed away and she didn't know if he had weapons.

The train went over a bump in the track and a box tipped, the Desert Eagle on top of it flew to the ground as well as the box which split open, spilling parts across the carriage deck.
She jumped for cover as the door opened and Trent walked in.
Cursing, he loaded the parts back into the box and took the Desert Eagle into the cab with him. Guess he did have a gun.

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Max waded out of the icky, slimy marshlands and into the small city of Torrenholm. Exhausted, he made his way to the train station. Trent was close. Just then, he spotted a creature sneak by in the rubble, also going towards the train station. He followed behind the creature as quietly as he could. This might have been the inhabitant of the object dragged through by the Catalyst to balance out the gap in space. He looked up at a nearby mountain and spotted the same object attached to the cliff face.
Little did Max know he was following Crystal who was following Trent, funny how that works.
He followed the creature into the station just to see a T-30 locomotive pulling away with it clinging to the back.
Only mildly pissed, he hopped off the platform edge and over to a smaller shunting locomotive, discarded in a siding.
The locomotive fired up on the third try and soon he was perusing the T-30 several miles behind.