Earthdragon

chapter 1

(Third person view)

The cyropod hissed open as the lock disengaged, stass drugs and liquid nitrogen seeped out in a low, slow fog. The heaters and wake-up sequence started with a barely audible buzz of fans. After a minute of silence with only the buzz of the fans, a foot, clad in smart shoes, with the whole shoe being made of a lycra material of sky blue colour, slowly stepped out of the pod, followed by a leg with the same lycra material. At shin height there was a shin guard made of ballistic gel weaved with Kevlar encased in carbon fibre laced with steel. Further up the leg at thigh height the same carbon fibre casing body armour filled with ballistic gel was melded into the suit too. The carbon fibre was a dark khaki green, contrasting quite pleasantly with the lycra smart material. As the figure stepped further out it became clear that said figure was a man, or more accurately, a teen, torso clad in the same slim carbon body armour as his legs, with one forearm encased in a gauntlet and the other free of carbon armour and the shoulder having strips of gel padding weaved with Kevlar to absorb any impact that may occur, with the other shoulder being identical. The torso had two breast-plates and a slim rectangle with gentle curves to cover the abdomen. The teen was wearing a silver half-dome-half-rectagle helmet with a reflective material making up the entire helmet, which was void of any kind of marking, with only two slats on either side of the forehead for lights, which were not currently being used. The figure then proceeded to reach up under the left side of his jaw, pressing a hidden button. The helmet literally collapsed backwards and outwards, folding behind his left ear into an impossibly tight, hearing aid-esque device. With his face revealed, he appears to be be about 14-15 years old, with dark brown eyes and thin, full eyebrows. His hair is brown too, with the fringe being medium short and styled to the left with the sides and back being cut military short. His nose is curved outwards gently at the top and a quarter way down it straightens out, and then curves into a semicircle. His lips are full, thin and his jawline curves into a single chin. His build is not that of an athlete's, but not far off, being slim and modestly muscled, and without measuring, roughly 6'0 tall. He breathes out and a blue mist escapes into the atmosphere.

(James)

'Jeez that was a cold wake up' I thought, having stepped out of the Cryopod. -All A-Class_Cadet_Elite-Candidates- please make your way to Hanger_01, follow the pulsing yellow lights to guide you to the destination. I looked down to read my serial ID, which, surprisingly, was A_Class_Cadet_E_Candidate, with my name below, James_Darkline_AC, and my cadet ranking next to it, which was Able cadet, which means I had seniority over every other cadet in my unit unless they were equal rank. I started to walk towards the hanger, seeing many other cryopods on the way filled with civilians, mostly the military's family members. Looming tall, the hanger door was kinda hard to miss, with a faded scratched green paint job. Opening the door, I was met by the sight of other cadets, maybe seven or eight,

milling about waiting. After a couple of minutes there was a large clanking sound and a mech, coloured like the door, dropped from the ceiling with its hatch open. Within the mech, a man, about 40-50 years old with greying hair and a face like cold steel glared at us. "So, you lot are what the military gave us for protection. Guess I expected too much." His gruff voice resonated in my eardrums. " I will be teaching you sorry lot how to operate a mech and show you the way you should think when using an exoter-traversal

suit." 'Exo tra what?' I thought. "SHIP WILL MAKE LANDFALL IN 20 MINUTES, RETIRE TO ALLOCATED QUARTERS", Well then, cadets, I should give you the data chip for your gauntlets, line up by the door and take one each! I repeat, ONE EACH." I went to the door and took the small data chip he previously mentioned and held it to a compartment that opened to accept the chip. A glass like singular lens slid out of my helmet fabricator, a new blueprint had been added, most likely by the data chip. The lens slid up to my eye, projecting a 3D arrow towards what I assume was my quarters. Upon arriving, I let out a breath of contentment. 'Finally got here dad, I'm not giving up trying to find you, or.... at least your grave'. 'First things first, I need to get out of this getup, at least until I land'. Pressing a few buttons on my gauntlet, my suit changed into black shorts and a black and red top, my ninja shoes, as I like to call them, morphed into black trainers with red socks. My tail immediately flopped out of the back of my shirt. ' Omigod I can't move it at all, it's so stiff.' I placed my hands the base of my mainly red, with flecks of silver, black, yellow, and blue on the underside, being barely noticeable at all, reptilian tail. Grimacing slightly, I pulled up with all my might and heard a loud crunch as the tail grinded back into place, reconnecting with my spinal nerves almost instantly. "Arrgghhhh!!!", the pain was excruciating, like a madman shrunk and went in my tail and started shooting it from the inside. "Owww" I said rather grumpily as the pain started to subside, ' The lengths I go through to not be discovered as a freak' I thought. I slowly massaged up and down the length of my tail, which was about 16-20 inches long, ending in a rounded point, the tail itself was very thin at the end and very gradually got thicker, being about 5 inches at the base and just under 1 at the tip. Tentatively, I tried moving my tail from side to side, to wake up any sleeping muscles and stretch those that were awake already, it worked perfectly, being like a third leg. I curled it around my midsection for the time being, concealing it under my baggy shirt. 'When they said quarters they just meant small rooms to relax in then.' I thought, having looked around seeing only a comfy looking chair. For the rest of the journey after I changed which only took about 3 minutes I lounged around, before dislocating my tail again and tucking it vertically up my back, concealed in my forming back armour, having compacted the spinal support armour and widened the tubular width of it to make space for the tail. Hearing the tannoy announce that we would be making landfall in 2 minutes and to strap into the nearest seat, I made my way into the corridor and, as instructed, sat in a seat, my suit locking into the grooves of the chair seamlessly.