The Crusaders

Chapter 4: Force From The Future

New York City, NY, September 17th, 2062

The sun was red nowadays. It always was since the atmosphere had been broken through, and the strange radiation that they had brought seemed to infect the upper levels of the atmosphere, turning the sky a deathly shade of blood red, making the sun a glowing scarlet orb that arced through the air daily, when it could be seen through the tombstone-grey clouds.

Today was one of those days, and the rays of light were shining through the broken parts of the buildings in the city, making a grid pattern on the abandoned city streets. The wind blew through the empty spaces, making a ghastly moaning sound, as a distant rumbling in the distance signalled another building falling over. This place was dead, in every sense of the word.

But, there was one sign of life. A single shape moving through the gargantuan city that had become the final resting place for many, and a nightmare for those who were still living. It was small, insignificant, and one of the last membesr of a dying race. A human. 

She was running as fast as she could, her short locks of blonde hair flying behind her, her white and black chrome suit shining and glinting in the sunlight. It assisted her movements, allowing her to move much faster than an average person, dodging and dashing through the several abandoned cars that had been left on the streets to rust. This was most helpful, considering what she was running from.

As she ran, she heard the rumbling noise come again from behind her, then the low, bass-filled sound of the engines thrusting. Her heart dropped into her stomach, and tears filled her eyes as she kept running. "Please God, please no..." She repeated over and over as she ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

Then, a red light moved over her, brighter than the sun, brighter than any light she'd seen before. They had found her, and they knew where she was. She hoped her suit could keep up with her panic as she kept running, vaulting over an entire car effortlessly as she continued running through the ruins of the place that was once called Times Square. 

She dared to look back upwards, then saw the shape that would fill her nightmares for days to come. It was a large ship, it's shape almost insect-like in shape, with a large oval-shaped centre, and several sharp metallic wings reaching out on either side. Underneath it was a large thruster with a glowing red light, and several long robotic arms that reached down to the ground, and were heading towards her.

As the clamps reached closer, she flashed back to the previous  events that happened, and the heart-pounding moments that occurred before this whole chase began. Dear God, please let me make it out of this alive. The future needs me.

25 minutes earlier...

Nyx Morrow was a rookie, but one of the best in her entire squad. She had technological skills, as well as an inane knowledge of the time-space continuum and how it worked. Because of this, she had been recruited to the Pursuers Temporal Task Force at age 18, after graduating top of her class at the Academy. The Pursuers were a group designed for one mission: use time travel to keep the Central Timeline and the fabric of space-time intact.

She joined up with Squad Delta 5-Trion, and operated under Captain Kindred, one of their oldest members, and one of the most experienced. He was also an alien. After getting used to the purple skin and four arms, Nyx adopted her new position fairly easily, and proved to be a valuable asset on missions. 

Everything was going well in her life, and was on track to being promoted to Sergeant by the end of the year. That was, until they arrived. No one knew who they were or where they came from, but once they showed up, the people of Earth didn't stand a chance. In a Class-Omega end of the world scenario, the Pursuers enacted Protocol 99, namely, emergency dimensional shift. Their entire base was now located inside a small pocket dimension right outside of the Central Timeline.