Story [Issue 36] Forward - Part 2

[Kevred 1,586]

List of Previous Chapters

 

Section I- Lock n' Loaded                                   Section II- Normal Human

 

Chapter I, The Crimson Blades                                       Chapter IV, Forward

-Part II                                                                                                   -Part I

-Part III

 

Chapter II, The Titancore

-Part I

-Part II

 

Chapter III, Dawn of War

-Part I

-Part II

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Note: Enhancing Your Reading Experience

 

 

It is recommended to those who are reading this story to play the video below:

 

 

It is a BGM (background music) video which, if played while reading, will greatly enhance your reading experience. Comments on your opinions about this will be appreciated.

 

Music by: Two Steps From Hell

 

 

 

 

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Deep Under

 

 

Our freighter stationed in orbit around the mystical Terra, aghast as we observed Arshton do his business with his ‘ship’, if it could still be called one. The gigantic structure’s disproportioned movements were similar to the flailing of a baby, except they were a trillion times larger. Its claw-like arms shot towards the planet’s surface, creating a gigantic explosion on impact before retracting and repeating the action. Each hit raise a gigantic cloud of derbis, completely engulfing the atmosphere’s clouds. It didn’t take long before we realized Arshton’s plan.

 

“He’s digging a hole into Terra…” Erexa whispered, her eyes wide from shock.

 

“We have to-” I paused in the middle of my sentence, for a lone vessel just shot out of the structure’s belly. The vessel was actually fairly large, but it seemed smaller than a grain of sand compared to the colossal structure it came out from. I watched, mesmerized, as it penetrated into the hole created from the countless impacts on the planet’s surface.

 

“That must be Arshton. Andros, what do we do?” She stared at me, the overload of events too much for her to comprehend.

 

“Whatever he’s doing, it ought to be bad. Can you fly us into the hole?” I asked.

 

“You want me to fly through that huge thing, probably rigged with thousands of defences, and then, if, and only if we make it, fly into Terra’s atmosphere, where our shields have about no chance of holding?! What do you think?”

 

“Right, sorry. It was silly of me to-”

 

“Its a piece of cake. Strap on your seatbelt, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!” She devilishly grinned as she plunged her foot onto the thruster lever, completely ignoring my protests.

 

The freighter’s back thrusters burned fiery blue as we were propulsed towards the planet-size construction. Its details became more evident as we approached: there were remnants of earth, dirt and rocks on many of the arms of the structure, with sparse but visible spots of decaying vegetation. Its inner parts were, however, “normal”; except for the fact that they were red-hot. All the clues were pointing to the same fact: as unbelievable as it may sounds, the structure was previously a planet. Its chassis buried under kilometers of earth, ready to destroy their cover and emerge into space at the command of their controller.

 

Our ship made its way through the labyrinth of extending metal and floating coils, Erexa’s expert piloting ensuring we arrived in one piece to Terra’s atmosphere. Nothing, no guns, no defenses, no drones, nothing bothered our course. Surprising, but hey, I wasn’t going to complain.

 

We encompassed the colossus as we reached Terra’s outer atmosphere. I was pretty optimistic at this point, but, like always, Erexa just had to ruin my good mood.

 

“That was the easy part Andros. Now this is when we will be tested.”

 

I put a reassuring hand on Erexa’s shoulder. “I know you can do it. We will make it out of this alive.” Hopefully she didn’t notice that my hand was shaking like crazy.

 

“Easier said than done!” She said as we sunk into the thick gas. Everything went fine during the first few minutes, but then fire started building up on the outer armor of the freighter. The inside started glowing red at about the same time as our ship was furthermore seized by uncontrollable convulsions. It was a frightening sight; the corridor behind the cockpit  we were in was twisting and shaking as if it was made of rubber. Steam came out of everywhere as the first armor plate blew off our ship, followed by a second, than a third.

 

Cracks then appeared on the cockpit’s reputedly unshatterable glass. The ship’s oxygen system failed as carbon dioxide and nitrogen from the flaming air around us seeped in through the numerous fissures appearing all over the hull. Coughing, it took all my power to hang on to my seat as the ship shook like a boat caught in a violent tempest.

 

“Er-Erexa! How long till we reach the surface!” I shouted as I madly shook Erexa’s shoulder, but her inanimate head fell onto the command panel, hitting a lever. The ship’s engines then stopped.

 

“God damn it. Erexa! Wake up!” I tried to set the lever back in place, but a violent vibration sent me flying into the glass, breaking off a shard which implanted itself into my left forearm. Ignoring the pain, I finally manage to push the lever back up, and the engines reengaged.

 

That’s when I glanced outside, and I saw the huge, gaping dark hole we were falling straight into. We passed the surface as we continued diving through the gloom tunnel, our flaming armor illuminating the space around us. I clutched my chair and squinted, trying to see anything beyond the stinging nitrogen gases. The freighter’s back section hit the tunnel’s wall, obviously detaching, before exploding behind us. The shockwave pushed us even faster into the impending darkness.

 

The ship then finally yielded to the hull stress; it completely broke into pieces. Different segments and chunks hit the cavern sides and were immediately engulfed by scorching flames whilst  we continued to hang on inside the cockpit section, which was still descending into Terra’s most inner parts. Huge fissures began to spread all over the walls surrounding me and all seemed lost when we struck land. The cockpit’s nose hit hard ground, disintegrating on-the-spot. The rest of the remnant of the freighter, including us, flipped into the air a couple of times before finally skidding into a stop.

 

Covered in bruises, cuts and torched skin, I nevertheless dragged Erexa out of the ship, and laid her down on what seemed to be ancient marble. Ancient, because inscriptions in an unknown language could be seen all over the floor. After steadying her onto a pile of rubble, I proceeded to analyzing my surroundings. Afar, north, I could distinguish two looming archs, their silhouettes protruding from the darkness of the cave we landed in. East and West were nothing but stretching obscurity, and South was a cliff looming over a fall which led straight into magma, which made popping sounds as it boiled. As for Arshton, his vessel was nowhere to be seen, which was both reassuring and disappointing. After an evaluation of the options at hand, I decided to leave Erexa here whilst I went to explore the only reasonable option, in this case the two arches.

 

The ground separating me from the towers was a curious mix of ancient architecture and modern technology. Electric cords and titanium plates could be seen, incorporated into the marble. My feet sweated in order to find steady footing on the uneven ground. When I finally reached destination, blood covered my face due to the numerous falls I took. The arches’ gigantic shapes, much bigger from close than from far, loomed over me as I walked through them and into some sort of underground temple. The insides were surprising: it was the classic layout of a starship’s laboratory. Completely baffled by the huge contrast, I neared datapad lying on a table and tried activating its interface logs. Surprisingly, it was still working. On it, I could see complex schematics of DNA strands, each connected by a line to a certain specie. There were sharks, birds, snakes, spiders, whales… and humans.

 

That’s when a sudden but low sounds made me jerk around. I narrowly evaded a laser beam, jumping behind a table and flipping it on its side as more beams were shot at me. Blindly shooting over the table with my laughable handgun, I slowly but cautiously peeked over the metal cover.

 

My eyes were met with incomprehensibility at its purest.

My attacker was Arshton. But, at the same time, it was not him.

 

The End.

 

 

 

 

                                           

Edited January 7, 2018 by Hexed

[BlazingCoder 108]

Music makes it more interesting..

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

Aaaah, Kev!

Frankly, I feel that this chapter is not upto the mark of the standard you have set over the previous issues :ph34r:

Sorry, but I felt this had a tad less action in it! But, it's still kickass!

 

PS. Put some Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks in the next issue ;)

[Kevred 1,586]

Aaaah, Kev!

Frankly, I feel that this chapter is not upto the mark of the standard you have set over the previous issues :ph34r:

Sorry, but I felt this had a tad less action in it! But, it's still kickass!

 

PS. Put some Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks in the next issue ;)

Don't blame me, exams were calling k. My creative juices were all sucked up by knowledge.

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

^That makes it better! A masterpiece under pressure!

[Guest]

nice

[Halinator 52]

Hmm, Two Steps From Hell (Nero) was the music I was listening to while playing Tanki Polygon CP battles....

[Darren4Turbo 4,913]

Nice Story Kev :).

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

Hmm, Two Steps From Hell (Nero) was the music I was listening to while playing Tanki Polygon CP battles....

Didn't get that bro, because Two Steps from Hell and Nero are two totally different (and totally awesome) artistes.

[momy950666 960]

AWSOME!

[Kevred 1,586]

Didn't get that bro, because Two Steps from Hell and Nero are two totally different (and totally awesome) artistes.

Actually, TSFH has a BGM called 'Nero'

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

Actually, TSFH has a BGM called 'Nero'

Oh.... now I get it.

I was thinking Nero as in those guys who remixed 'Holding On' and made stuff like 'Promises,' 'Etude' and 'Satisfy' :P