Earth Year 2840. The Crashed U.N.S. Aegis, Deck 4.
The Abyssal Stalker plummeted toward Commander Maroon with terrifying silence.
Just then, Maroon threw his weight backward allowing his magnetic boots to disengage, and collapsed flat against the sludge covered floor.
The Stalker’s scythe like claws missed his throat by a inch gouging deep into the titanium bulkhead behind him.
Before the creature could pivot for a second strike, N032 was there.
The armored man lunged forward driving his shoulder pauldron into the Stalker’s chest.
BOOM!
The impact sounded like a cannon firing as blinding Light erupted from N032’s armor searing the creature’s shadowy flesh.
The Stalker shrieked as it scrambled backward with its limbs latching onto the walls like a spider.
"Suppressing fire!"
Marron still on his back, raised his rifle and held the trigger down.
The armor piercing rounds tore into the Stalker shattering its obsidian bone plating and pinning it against the ceiling.
N032 closed the distance in a blur as he point his blade downward and drove it through the Stalker’s chest pinning the eldritch horror to the titanium deck.
Then holy Light flared, instantly vaporizing the creature into a cloud of foul smelling black ash.
A few seconds later, the corridor plunged back into flashing red emergency light.
"That wasn’t a mutated crewman was it?"
Maroon slowly pushed himself up from the floor.
"It was an elite hunter,"
N032 Replied, pulling his sword from the deck and shaking the ash from the blade.
"They spawn when the Abyss establishes a strong enough foothold. We don’t have much time. Open the vault."
Maroon stepped up to the panel, jacking his descriptor in.
Within seconds, the massive blast doors groaned open.
The air inside the armory was packed with tech, supplies and ammunitions.
They couldn’t take the massive Goliath Exosuits, they were too heavy to move without power.
But resting in the center of the room were two automated grav crates hovering silently off the ground on their own internal batteries.
"Load the crates. Heavy ordnance only,"
Maroon ordered as they packed with brutal efficiency.
Rifles , pistols, heavy plasma repeaters, portable kinetic shield generators, a dozen thermal detonators, Anti Tank Launchers, Ammo and crates of concentrated nutrient paste.
It was enough firepower and sustenance to turn FOB Aegis from a survival camp into a genuine stronghold.
"We have what we need,"
Maroon said, sealing the grav crates.
"Let’s get back to the recruits."
They brought the crates with them as they venture out of the Aegis.
By the time they reached the structural tear in the hull, the three way war in the valley below had shifted.
The native flora and fauna had pushed the Abyssal horde back toward the dreadnought’s engines giving Maroon and N032 a clear path back toward the mountain.
"Thermal masking is holding. The horde is distracted,"
Maroon said, checking his tactical overlay.
"We move fast, we make it back before..."
BOOM.
Suddenly a loud sound came from the sky.
It was a sonic boom so massive it rattled the teeth in Maroon’s skull.
The ambient violet glow of the jungle was suddenly washed out by a blinding golden light.
Maroon and N032 looked up.
High above the atmosphere, the sky was tearing open.
It was a cosmic warp bleeding with the colors of a dying nebula.
Plummeting from the tear was a shower of burning debris but it didn’t look like federation titanium.
Rather, it was shattered pieces of a flying cathedral.
And among the burning wreckage were three distinct glowing escape pods.
The pods were glowing with a protective Magic, Runes and fire screaming through the atmosphere.
They were heading directly for the colossal glowing Titan Tree that anchored the mystic jungle.
Commander Maroon lowered his rifle, his organic eye wide with shock.
"More federation ships? No... that architecture. I’ve never seen anything like it. It looks... divine."
Beside him, N032 went completely rigid as he locked onto the falling golden stars.
His hands usually so steady, gripped the hilt of his sword so tightly the metal gauntlets groaned.
"The main story is starting too early,"
N032 muttered, his voice dropping to a desperate whisper.
Maroon turned, frowning deeply at the bizarre choice of words.
"What? What are you talking about? Do you know whose ships those are?"
N032 didn’t answer the question as the cold supersoldier vanished, replaced by an entity driven by undeniable panic.
N032 unclipped the tow cable of the grav crates and shoved it into Maroon’s hand.
"I need to hurry to them before the horrors get them,"
N032 commanded, his voice ringing with a fierce intensity Maroon had never heard before.
"Take the supplies. Get back to the FOB. Tell Eva to fortify the main tunnel and do not let the recruits wander into the deep caves."
"Wait a damn minute,"
Maroon barked, his own commander instincts flaring.
"You are not breaking formation to chase unknown wreckage across a hostile planet. We have no idea what those things are or what they brought with them!"
"I do,"
N032 replied, already turning toward the eastern treeline as his twilight aura flared violently.
"And if the person in that pod dies or gets taken by the abyss... everything I have fought for, everything I have sacrificed in my life will mean nothing. Anna has to survive."
Before Maroon could order him to halt, N032 moved.
He launched himself off the rocky ridge and plunging into the dense canopy of the jungle.
N032 moved like a hurricane, shattering trees and leaving a trail of compressed aura in his wake as he bolted toward the horizon.
Maroon stood alone on the ridge holding the tow cables of the massive supply crates.
He watched the armored ghost disappear into the glowing forest then looked back up at the sky.
Far in the distance, the golden lifepods smashed violently into the planet near the roots of the giant Titan Tree.
Maroon realized.
The armored man was fighting to save whoever had just crashed.