Earth Year 2840. Unknown Coordinates.
Lifepod 7 slammed into the freezing ocean.
"report your status squad!"
Captain Eva coughed while blood leaked from above her brow.
"I’m intact but I think I’m going to hurl,"
Chang groaned.
"My leg was pinned under a buckled beam but I’m good now!"
Daniel grunted while his face remained pale.
"Ruby are you hurt?"
Zeon gasped as he removed his belt and pulled the trembling Ruby to her feet.
"I’m uninjured, just shaking,"
Ruby whispered.
Then the AI terminal projected a blue holographic interface into the freezing cabin.
"Warning, survivors: Star nav does not recognize these stars, and our current location is
entirely unknown,"
the automated voice announced.
"Not recognize the stars? The Galactic Federation has over forty trillion star systems mapped!"
Zeon yelled over a sudden freezing hiss of water spraying through the fractured viewport.
"The debris shredded our buoyancy bladders, we are sinking fast!"
Eva realized as her holoband flashed red.
"Zeon, breach the hatch before this water pressure permanently seals us in!"
Eva commanded.
"I’m pulling it, but the titanium frame is completely warped!"
Zeon strained with his muscles burning while he hauled on the manual release lever.
"Step aside kid,"
a distorted mechanical voice commanded from the shadows.
The armored man casually placed his gauntlet against the jammed airlock.
He released a terrifying twilight aura that made the metal groan in absolute agony.
"What kind of Federation tech is that?!"
Daniel yelled as blinding light and pitch black miasma suffocated the cabin.
With a sickening screech, the armored man punched the titanium hatch completely off its hinges while freezing water flooded the pod.
"Move out now."
The Armoured man ordered flatly.
Zeon dragged Daniel through the water and climbed out while losing his breath entirely at the sight of the impossible ocean and the luminescent gravity defying mystic island looming miles away.
"Look at the Aegis!"
Chang screamed as he pointed at the burning two kilometer dreadnought tearing through the alien atmosphere and slamming into the far side of the island with a world shaking tremor.
"Forget the ship, Zeon... what in the universe is that?"
Ruby choked out while her fingers dug into his uniform.
Beyond the endless oceans stood a godlike golden Tree with its massive branches violently piercing the necrotic violet cracks in the heavens.
"Are those... eyes?"
Zeon whispered as he fell to his knees from the pressure of the moon sized rotting eyeballs blinking open within the cosmic darkness and staring down at them like cruel children watching trapped ants.
The massive eyeballs in the cracked sky swept their gaze over the burning dreadnought and the mystic Titan Tree on the horizon before finally resting on the tiny insignificant humans standing in the shallows.
Those countless eyeballs in the shattered sky were the Outer Gods and their stares pierced through any human logic or reality.
We are nothing more than insignificant microbes on a petri dish to them but their gaze burns with the madness and decay of a cruel reality.
"Keep your eyes down, don’t look directly at them!"
Eva ordered just before the unfathomable entities vanished back into the void and left only the bleeding sky.
The armored man came out of the ocean last while casually resting his heavy crude sword on his shoulder to scan the crystalline shoreline.
"That is far enough, soldier!"
Eva commanded as she drew her humming plasma sidearm and aimed it squarely at his back.
"You saved our lives and I acknowledge that but state your name and rank immediately!"
Eva shouted.
"Atmospheric composition is breathable though pathogens remain unknown,"
the distorted voice replied while he turned slowly to face her glowing barrel.
"My helmet remains sealed but you may refer to me as N032,"
the armored man added.
"I’m not asking!"
Eva warned as she splashed forward.
"No one in the Galactic Federation wields a sword that glows so take the helmet off before I
have Gemi wipe your biometric tags!"
Eva threatened.
For an agonizing second, N032 remained perfectly still before casually rolling his right
shoulder backward twice and resting his thumb over the crossguard of his sword.
"He rolls his shoulder and grips his sword exactly like I do,"
Zeon muttered to himself with a sudden chill because he recognized his own highly specific
academy trained habit.
"What is this place, Planet 4546B?"
N032 muttered with his deadpan voice dripping with dry sarcasm.
"Guess it’s time to go full Ryley Robinson,"
N032 sighed.
"Did he just reference Subnautica?"
Zeon asked aloud while utterly bewildered that this terrifying supersoldier knew a thousand year old retro survival game from the lower sectors of Ark City.
"What the hell is a Subnautica?"
Ruby asked while exchanging a look of confusion with the Captain.
"Your Galactic Federation jurisdiction ended the moment that sky shattered Captain,"
N032 stated as a fraction of his suffocating aura leaked out.
"Keep your weapon holstered, because the locals have noticed the crash,"
N032 warned.
Countless bioluminescent shadows began to rapidly shift and contort from the glowing treeline of the mystic island.