Earth Year 2840. The Crashed Dreadnought, Auxiliary Server Room 4.
"To you who survived the endless struggle of the Dark, face forward, hoping for a Light to shine in the abyss, And to my one and only reader, do not fret this lightly, as there is tragedy beyond the margins of the narrative clinging for the same salvation as you do,"
N032 , the anomaly continued.
"It’s been countless thousands of years since I’ve read those words that kept me going while fighting the Abyss alone in a ruined, war torn Earth,"
Beyond the quarantine door, muffled screeches and claws dragged across the hull of the nightmare filled dreadnought.
"You’re going to strip the rifle if you keep scrubbing like that, Dan,"
Ruby said quietly, watching Daniel clean his jammed kinetic rifle.
"Miller was just talking to me yesterday in the mess hall about the hydroponics bay smelling like sulfur,"
Daniel whispered, his voice cracking under the trauma.
"Did you see what that thing did to his ribs, wearing him like a meat suit?"
Daniel asked with wide hollow eyes.
"I saw it, Dan,"
Ruby replied softly, offering no empty platitudes as she placed a steadying hand over his trembling fingers.
"Breathe, Dan, three seconds in and three seconds out. we are still alive,"
Ruby instructed while Commander Maroon and Captain Eva huddled over a glowing terminal.
"Come back to me, Zeon, promise me,"
Zeon muttered to himself, remembering his mother’s words as he unclipped his dented, thermal sealed lunchbox.
With a soft hiss, Zeon popped the thermal seal filling the cramped room with the intoxicating aroma of braised beef, garlic, and seasoned rice.
"Eat,"
Zeon said softly, scooping a generous portion with a titanium spork and holding it out to Ruby.
"Zeon, that is your mom’s cooking, it belongs to you,"
Ruby hesitated, looking at the rare portion of real food.
"We just burned three thousand calories running from space zombies, so eat it,"
Zeon countered with an exhausted smile.
"That is a direct order from your favorite babysitter,"
Zeon added, passing the remaining portions to Chang, Daniel, Eva, and Maroon to anchor their shattered nerves.
Zeon walked the last piece of meat and rice over to the darkest corner where the exhausted, aura suppressed armored anomaly stood perfectly still.
"I know you can’t take the helmet off,"
Zeon whispered as he held out the lunchbox.
"But there is an emergency nutrient port on the lower jawline of standard fed helmets, so if you want it, it’s yours,"
Zeon offered kindly.
N032 slowly uncrossed his arms taking the dented container with a shockingly delicate grip as if it were a cosmic artifact.
The armored man’s left thumb absentmindedly traced the deep scratch on the lid exactly three times before tapping the bottom corner twice.
"Why is he doing my nervous tic of three rubs and two taps?"
Zeon muttered to himself in panic, recognizing the specific subconscious fidget his mother had taught him.
"She used too much garlic,"
A distorted synthesized whisper crackled from N032’s featureless helmet.
"What did you just say?"
Zeon gasped, his breath catching in his lungs as his blood ran ice cold.
"She always uses too much garlic when she is worried,"
N032 corrected himself, his mechanical voice carrying a universe of infinite sorrow.
"The cooking back on Ark City is distinct,"
the armored anomaly lied, locking his opaque visor onto Zeon’s eyes.
"Keep it, because you need the calories far more than I do,"
N032 said quietly as he handed the lunchbox back.
"You made a promise to go back to her, so do not break it,"
N032 commanded, rolling his right shoulder backward twice before retrieving his heavy sword.
"She always uses too much garlic... how could he possibly know that?"
Zeon murmured reeling backward to his server rack.
"I never told anyone that detail, not even Ruby, so who exactly is under that helmet?"
Zeon asked himself frantically.
"BEEP BEEP BEEP!"
the alarm on Commander Maroon’s holoband shattered the atmosphere of the server room.
"Rest time is officially over, Marines!"
Maroon barked with authority.
"We breach the cargo doors, secure the Behemoth tank, and push into the jungle!"
the Commander ordered as the squad armed themselves.
"We find Sergeant Hayes and his thirty survivors, set up a Forward Operating Base, and take this place back one inch at a time!"
Maroon declared.
"Visors down and weapons hot,"
Captain Eva ordered resting her hand on the heavy mechanical locking wheel of the quarantine door.
"Welcome to the real war, squad,"