TCS: Fate Of The Cosmos

Chapter 16: Young and determined

Maya kicked at the hatch, trying to force her way out of the jammed doorway to the outside world. It wasn't exactly too cramped or uncomfortable in the transport pod, but its interior was slowly heating up, the air getting more humid and difficult to breathe. The capsule had crashed into the ground, resting in a small crater whilst smoking. It took her great effort, but eventually, the hatch flung open and slammed into the pod exterior. Steam burst out, and the girl scurried to get out and take a deep breath of fresh air.

Except, to her surprise, there was none. Oxygen there was, but there was no such thing as 'fresh air' here. It was extremely sultry, the air was nearly unbreathable, hell, the humid and thick air in the transport pod was easier to breathe than this. She didn't realize why before she averted her gaze to her surroundings, and the landscapes she had unfortunately come to land in. Maya's chest tightened at the sight, it wasn't anything like the wilds she had come to know so well, back on earth. Twisted mountains and cliffs as far as the eye could see, they seemed to make up the majority of this colony ship habitat ring.

Jumping from the transport pod, she set foot on the heated-up ground, which she could feel even through her thick space-suit boots. Her attention was immediately drawn to the fauna in her surroundings, as it was unlike anything she had ever seen before. There were no spruce trees here, or large redwoods that stretched far into the sky, no, there were massive mushrooms, flowers, and weeds that towered over her, all made up of some sort of organic material she could not even begin to understand what was.

Maya wrinkled her nose and her brow at the disturbing sight. This was definitely not normal, it couldn't be!

By her side, a rhombus-shaped device hovered over her shoulder. In the middle of it, the little thing sported a blue crystal that hummed with mysterious energy, tek energy, to be very specific.

"Ickkk, this place is gross," Maya complained to the device as she analyzed her surroundings. "Element Core, where are we? Can you scan my environment or something?"

The little drone looked in her direction, needing no eyes or a face at all to give her that empty, blank stare. "You'd be an idiot to think I could not.", it peeped in a monotone, high-pitched voice.

"Whuh-" Maya glared at it in disbelief, before the core went to work.

It hovered around the environment, between bush and tree, or what was supposed to resemble such at least. From the blue-glowing crystal in it's center, a beam shot out and graced across the countless points of interest, small breathing flowers to enormous venus fly-traps that stretched dozens of feet into the sky.

Returning to the girl, the Element core began; "As you might have already guessed, we are in one of the habitat rings of the colony ship. This one, they call the graced gardens."

"Oh... Can you tell me anything about the plants here... they don't look normal at all!"

"Mhm. That is because they are part of Sir Edmund Rockwell, the man who threatened to take over the universe back on earth, and the man your dad will probably punch in the face."

Maya was stunned, but not exactly surprised to hear this. Only the other day had she joined Crusader Johnson, her mentor of over nine months, and Agent 47 on a deadly mission through what was Rockwell's macro innards, and after seeing the absolute horrors in the external parts of the ship, this truly did not faze her much, only amazed her in a way.

"Huh... Wait does that mean that-"

"Yes, all of the fauna here is made of organic substances. The very same that you will find in your flesh, and what is beneath."

Chills were sent up Maya's spine as she heard this, but once more, she was not that surprised. "So all of this is just... flesh, meat and organs too then?"