In the midst of war, a lone protogen sets out to survive rather than thrive, after his ship crashes on earth. Will he make it back to a home he never had?
Disclaimer: this is a fictional work. Correlation between real world events and this story's c...
/][RUN SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS << SYSTEM POWER 68%>> REBOOT SUCCESSFUL][\
He stayed crumpled where he lay. As the dark blur of unintentional sleep wore off, he decided it would be a good time to open his eyes. After being slammed into a wall from a faraway explosion, his vision was still dark and foggy.
Perhaps the dingy feelings were coming from where he was though. He groaned, unable to think clearly from a massive headache that stung with the dull aftershock of blunt force trauma.
He was somewhere very familiar: Somewhere with a viewport, diagnostic stations, and a very unforgiving floor. Now he remembered; this was the small landing craft he had been given to repair and test.
Across from him lay a data pad—lightly cracked as it must have been tossed around just as he was—and a floor strewn with spilled containers. His tools in particular had been tossed every which way. This would have irked him more now if he still had the energy to care. Strength was barely returning-he noticed as he tried to clench his fist. Even with his enhancements, the injured protogen still needed to recover.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
He laid his head back down on the floor—propped up by the wall he had been flung into—and took a second to put his mind back in order. With his consciousness returning, so did the weight of what had happened the day before.
The Primogenit Nehixim were ruthless towards escaped protogen. They were also lazy, caring nothing about collateral damage. Any craft suspected of carrying an escapee could be boarded, maimed, or simply destroyed at a moment's notice.
Two days ago, when they had discovered a certain ship carrying a whole crew of newly freed protogen fleeing oppressive vice, the primogenitors had taken extra care to "make it personal". The armored refugee frigate that he had called home for the last six months had been attacked, utterly ravaged, and reduced to atoms as an arcaite power cell had been hit. He could only sit and try not to think about how many of his fellow crew had not survived. Captain Risha was gone. No other ships had made it out of port-side docking.
He had been assigned interior maintenance on his lander at the time when the entire deck was blown out and sucked into space. Names and flashbacks sped up in his head as he fought off tears. Faster and faster, he spun through possibilities, fears, and grief, until his mind went limp.
He was alone.
Under the visor, he couldn't even cry. He couldn't move. With the emotional spike that had come with the final realization, his system dropped him into deep sleep.
TWENTY SEVEN HOURS LATER...
The jarring sound of a proximity alert jolted him awake. He flipped his weight onto his front and crawled, scraping his way towards the damaged data pad. He powered it on and began scrolling through ship resources and diagnostics.
/][HULL INTEGRITY: 74% {FUEL CELL INTACT} LIFE SUPPORT REMAINING << 26.3 HOURS >>][\
He fiddled through the information absentmindedly until he stopped at the last item on the docket.
/][MAINTENANCE TO STARBOARD FLIGHT STABILIZER][\
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
With a hiss, he heaved his weight up to grab ahold of the cargo netting that was bolted to the wall and limped towards the viewport.
Everything else he could deal with. Life support was a bit of a fix, but he could manage on low power for years if need be. The flight system, however, was a whole other deal. Wherever he was going, he'd have a rough landing.
/][RUN SECONDARY DIAGNOSTICS << SYSTEM COMS TEST >> CONTACT FAILURE][\
He kicked the wall in a small burst of frustration before switching off coms.
/][ENABLE ENCODED BEACON][\
On the way to the control seat with checklists occupying his attention, he had completely forgotten about the proximity alert that had awoken him. As he swung the flight seat around to check the cabin view, his eyes went wide. He slowly lowered his data pad as he took it all in. Nothing could have prepared him for what lay ahead on the other side of the glass.
So yeah, what do you guys think? I tried to make this one a bit intense, but also not too extra. It's only 700 words, so if you guys would like more on the regular, then let me know and I'd be happy to add!
UPDATE: I am making revisions where needed just to make the story more cohesive^^
Also, yes I KNOW I KNOW, I used a touch of AI software to make some of the art.
