The first thing that hit her senses, was the sound of running water. Then came the smell. The smell of raw sewage and rotted meat, her breathing increased as she panicked. Forcing her eyes open she realized that she was blindfolded, raising her arms to take the blindfold off there was pain in her wrists then a
clang as the binders on her wrists stopped her from moving fully. This wasn't right, what could she remember? She raised her voice "Help!" Last she had known, she was being chosen- no she
had been chosen. "Heeeeeeelp!" She went into cryosleep. The doctor... Laurel? Lauren? No.... Loretta Raidne. She had put her into sleep, assured her she wouldn't be woken up until they had found a planet to settle on.
She was told how the process worked. "HEEEEEELP!" Her whole body ached, yet she had been told she'd feel refreshed. Had something went wrong? Though if she had been awoken properly then why was she bound and blindfolded? Why did she hear water? This wasn't the cryo bay. Then she stopped, her breathing heavy. She could feel her heartbeat in her ears, her heart sounding like it was ready to jump out of her chest. There were footsteps approaching, she could hear the water splash up as the person's feet touched down. Soon she realized it was more than one person, as they moved to surround her.
She wanted to scream out, to ask them to help her. Though, what if these were the people that brought her here?
"She's awake." She heard one of them speak, drawing in a Fed accent reminiscent of the old Western movies.
"Then it is time, my brothers." This time it was much more southern, deep and thick. She couldn't place it, maybe somewhere in Africa?
She struggled against the bindings, though made no oral complaint as footsteps came closer. She felt the person's hand on her face, struggling until the blindfold was removed. She squinted as the light shone brightly into her eyes, at first everything was a blur. Then she noticed she was in some kind of maintenance hallway. Similar to those of many structures she had worked in on Mars. Finally she mustered up the courage to speak.
"Whats going on? Where am I? Who are you people?"
Again the implacable voice spoke up, obviously the leader. He stepped forward, as she focused on him she saw his scarred visage as he stood tall over her. Her attention soon turned to the knife he held in his hand, pressing the tip against her chest. That's when she first noticed that she was barely clothed, if her heart were to beat any faster she had no doubt that it would basically jump onto the knife. "We are the truth-" He raised his knife and pointed it around the circle. "-We know that humanity, we weren't' meant to survive the apocalypse. It was our time, the Gods rained down hell upon us, and what did we do? We ran. Some of us were chosen to flee, an' here we are. We are the ones who'll bring about the en' as it was mean' to be. Then afta? Well y'know it, we be welcomed by th' Gods to sit at dere table."
"You're... you're talking about the Devastators?"
"NO!" He slapped her with his other hand, and she tasted blood. As her head twisted she got a good look at a couple of the other people in the circle. All of them appeared to be missing one or two fingers, were they that clumsy? She felt his tight grip around her face as he twisted her head to face him. One of his eyes was pure white and damaged with most of his face being scarred and burnt. "That are what the unbelievers call them, they don't understand that we were meant to be cleansed for our sins. All of us." He grinned, his teeth yellow and rotten.
"Then what do you want with me? I'm just a tech, I work on terraformers!"
He laughed as he let go of her and turned, pointing the knife right at her. "Glad you asked that. You see-" He turned addressing the room other than her. "I knew, that security was gonna crack down wheneva I took someone from a pod. Originally, I was gonna go for that religious leader they just unfroze. A sign that you can't get away when Gods come knocking at tha door. Y'know? Then I had a dream." He turned back around, pointing the knife at her. "You were there, and I saw you standing in the way of our plans." He chuckled. "The rest, well. It's history."
He walked over to her, placed the blade of the knife against her throat. She was worried to even swallow, holding her breath lest the knife cut her. "What we want? Is your flesh. We feed on you, and we become more like the Gods. We please them so that when we die we can be at their side. You know?"
She needn't have held her breath, as soon as everything went black. The last thing she ever heard was the group chanting, something she didn't quite understand.
William sat in his office, he hated Amara being down on the planet more than he felt he had ever hated anything. Well, except maybe her deciding to take a career in the military rather than just the standard service. While he was immensely proud he never liked the idea of her serving in the military, putting herself in the line of fire. That however was probably part of his job as being a father, as only a father could feel both proud and paranoid at the same time. The only thing that could worry him more was if Amara were to get in a long term relationship, but that was for entirely different reasons. Namely the prospect of being a
Grandfather. He wasn't that old yet, was he?
He shook himself out of his reverie. On the screen before him were reports of Chizuru Yama-Uchi, from weapon stats to what he knew about the Daedalus project. He had a couple of other people from the Conglomerate on the ship who had implants that had stemmed from the project. The thing that grated him was that she had snuck aboard, not to mention she seemed a little stuck up in assuming that she was the one that would save them all. He wasn't buying it though, from the feed given to him by her security escort on her way to Eden he saw a different side of her. She was still human deep down underneath, and part of him felt sorry for her. Was that stolen from her? Yes she joined the project but, she lost her main tie to humanity to a point where she wasn't quite either a machine or a person.
That said William was determined to use her presence to his advantage, once she proved herself trustworthy he had no doubt she could be of use on away missions. Hell she was basically built into an exoskeleton and atmospheric suit, when hazardous missions came up she'd be the most robust member of his crew to go on them. Maintenance was wasting her, though could she be patient and wait for her time to shine? If she could where would that lead her? She had requested to join the security detachment but did he want her under civilian authority? Especially with forming an actual government, or did he want her under military control where he could keep a closer eye on her? Besides if she did something while under military law that would place him in a position where he could court martial her with relative ease, rather than having legal jargon sprung on him.
He sighed and with a wave of his hand all the data was gone, now on his screen was the data on Aria Summers. He watched the recording as she left her pod, she was an unknown entity. While he knew everything about Kevin Ford, and his record. He was someone he trusted, as he exhumed an air of trust. Aria was much more of an unknown entity, put on his ship as some Earthers felt it would save them from fire and brimstone or some spiritualistic nonsense she had a following as what he could only believe to call a cult. He couldn't act on it as well, religious freedom was accepted throughout all human nations so long as it didn't bring anyone to harm. So for now, he just had to wait and observe. "Noah-" Before he could finish his command the avatar of the A.I. appeared.
"Admiral, there is a matter that requires your attention. The away team is under attack."
William stood up straight away. "Sound general quarters to all fighter pilots, tell the Commander I want a full SITREP by the time I reach the command centre."
"Aye Sir."
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