Part 1 of Lydia’s Journey

What Would Happen if Atlas Dropped the Sky?

The light radiating off the blue sun reflected off the white sand of the desert landscape, making it difficult for anything to see its surroundings. A creature walking on all fours with shimmering grey scales skulked out from behind a boulder. A flat fin ran from the top of its head to the tip of its mace-like tail. This creature had no eyes but the fin on its back vibrated as it deftly navigated its surroundings. The desert was dotted with tall rock towers. The creature slinked from tower to tower, as if it had caught a scent. Pale dust clouds blew from side to side and off in the distance was the tree line of what looked like a jungle with trees that shined bright in the light with brilliant oranges and reds.

A significant distance from the creature, a shadow passed over the desert floor. A winged creature with dark grey skin and orange coloring that ran along its spine swooped from side to side looking for a meal. The creature boasted a massive wingspan and a long skinny spiked tail that trailed behind it as it swooped towards the planet’s surface. Its narrow orange eyes darted from side to side, sharp teeth ran along its mouth, and its head was shaped like a rattlesnake’s. The creature could not seem to find any prey to feed itself, but it continued its search. Atop one of the towers that the creature already passed, a lone figure wearing what looked like a space suit of some kind was seated with its back leaned up against a rock, its chest heaved with exhaustion.

It seemed to shudder with movement when the winged creature let out a cry of frustration. It didn’t seem that the creature had spotted the figure yet. The figure seemed unable to bring itself to its feet, it slowly unfastened itself from what resembled a parachute that was torn to shreds. A weak female voice sputtered out from the radio equipment from within the suit.

“Is anyone there?”, it cried. “Anyone? This is…” The woman was cut short when she saw the flying creature start to veer towards turning around. She started to crawl on her stomach with great effort towards what looked like a sealed trunk that had a smaller but still destroyed parachute attached to it. The woman’s left arm limply dragged at her side as the she pulled herself forward. As she made her way towards the sealed case, the woman froze as the creature made another pass near the large mesa. As the alien flew away she closed the distance.

Turning a knob on the trunk depressurized the containers lid and it sprung open. The woman grabbed an assortment of equipment from inside of the case along with a pack that she attached to the back of her environment suit. While attempting to avoid the gaze of the flying monster that was on the hunt, she crawled towards the cliff face and brought out a metal stake. She struck the stake into the dirt with a great amount of effort. The winged creature was now circling closer and closer to the mesa, letting out screeching cries as it seemed to have picked up a scent. The woman noticed this and began to hasten her efforts to get down to the surface. She removed some rope from her pack and started attaching herself to the metal stake. Her visor furiously looked to all directions, hoping to spot any form of cover that she can use once she got down to the ground.

In what seemed to be the south there was the tree line of a jungle a short distance from the spire that the lone woman was on top of. The creature was getting closer and closer and began flying a perimeter around the survivor’s position. The woman stopped moving and waited for the creature to pass. Waiting for the precise moment that the predator’s eyes were facing away from it, she kicked herself off the cliff face. Tumbling down the side of the mesa loosened some rubble that fell all the way to the desert floor. She seemed unable to use her left arm but still started clumsily lowering her body down the mesa.

The winged creature swooped back around to investigate the disturbance of stone that had occurred. The woman spotted the beast and began to lose her footing. She had made it halfway down the rock spire’s towering mass but was working frantically to avoid the massive creature hunting her. The survivor was now about thirty feet from the ground when the creature spotted her. It let out a deep guttural roar as it dove in to make it’s kill. The woman panicked and loosened the rope a little too much and began to fall down the side of the rock tower, bouncing over the jagged rock’s surface. With a great thud, the injured woman and all her gear struck the ground and the winged creature snapped its large maw where the figure was not even a second before. Despite her tumble and her probable injuries, the survivor rose to her feet and began a quick limp towards the nearby jungle.

As she gained momentum the woman started to run as best she could. The creature was far off for now as it made a wide banked turn on its way to try another attack on its prey. The woman was sprinting now as the winged beast made another cry. Her left arm seemingly broken, her right leg not responding in full as well, she wouldn’t dare tear her gaze from the sanctuary that was the jungle that was not too far off now. Her body shuddered with fatigue, but she continued. The alien closed in now, lower than last time and zeroed in on its target. The woman knew she couldn’t make it in time but what could she do? The lone survivor slung her pack to the ground and started rummaging around through its contents. The creature was closing fast. The woman’s chest rose and fell as a panic began to overtake her. She pulled what looked like a tube with a handle on it out of her bag and pointed it at the coming creature. The creature was flapping its wings furiously and then tucked them at its sides to speed up its attack. The woman took a second to steady her aim and waited for the proper moment. Finally, she pulled the trigger that was on the handle. A flare sprung from the tube and flew towards the beast, striking it in its face right above its snout. The flare stuck to its target and the phosphorous began to burn the right side of its face.

The creature screamed and fell to the desert floor. The thrashing of its wings created a massive dust cloud. Its tail whipped from side to side in a fury as it tried to remove the flair from it face to no avail. Using this moment of reprieve, the woman began sprinting again and closed in on the jungle. The underbrush was thick, so it was difficult for her to keep her footing as she ran through the vines. She continued to tear through the trees, searching for shelter of any kind. The alien creature’s cries could be heard in the distance as she continued moving through the vegetation that was sprawled across the wet ground of the jungle. The woman continued to hike through the trees. They were enormously tall with trunks that spread as wide as a house. She eventually came to a small clearing that was watched over by a massive tree that’s roots spread across the jungle floor.

There was no noise being made by wildlife of any kind throughout the jungle and the brilliant orange and red leaves along with the bright sunlight from the azure sun created a surreal ambience of a lavender glow in the area. The roots of the tree are large enough in some places that you could carve out a small room within them. While continuing her search, the lone survivor came across a small cave that was below the roots of the tree. Pulling out a flashlight proved to be difficult with her broken arm, but she managed. She crouched low through the small opening and entered the cavern. It was a dark cave, but it was large enough to be a small shelter for one.

The woman could stand upright within it as well. Once the woman made sure that the cave wasn’t home to anything else, she collapsed on the ground with exhaustion. She sat up against the wall trying to calm down from the apparent adrenaline rush. After some time, her breathing evened out and she started to take in her surroundings. The woman began to rummage through her pack and removed what looked like four different metallic rods with dormant power cells atop them. She embedded them into the ground in the four corners of the cave using the bottom end which worked like a drill. Once they were placed, she used a small device on the inside of her right wrist to activate them. They spurred to life with a faint light and the air throughout the cave shimmered. A small electronic voice crackled through the speakers inside the figure’s helmet.

“Atmosphere equalized. Air safe to breath, for the moment.”

The woman then took her backpack off and began to unlatch the various small tubes and utilities that connected her helmet to the rest of the environment suit. Some steam shot out of the gap between the bottom of the helmet and the neckpiece of the suit as she removed the headwear with a great sigh of exasperation. Within was the face of a woman with reddish-brown hair that was kept short and exhausted grey eyes. The slender faced woman began to unpack the various pieces of equipment that she was able to grab from the trunk that crashed down with her. She removed a bedroll, a flare gun with a small number of cartridges left, a large knife, a tool case, what looked like a portable computer terminal, and a small number of rations and other camping supplies from within the large survival pack. She cracked a couple of plastic tubes over her knee and they began to glow, she then placed these around the cave. The woman then began to take off the various pieces of her environment suit to reveal a small but sturdy body wearing utility fatigues and a tank top. She’s of average height and has scars and burns all over her hands and arms that seem to be from a life of tinkering with machinery. A tattoo adorns her right shoulder that shows a skull with a wrench clenched between its teeth and a small banner underneath that reads Army Engineer Corps and reaching up her back was a matte black tattoo of a tree with no leaves sprawling from shoulder blade to shoulder blade.  She placed all the pieces of her suit in the corner of the cave and then brought out what looked like an electronic splint and stuck her arm in it. Gears on either side of the device began to spin and it closed in around her elbow. She grimaced as the bone was placed then injected herself with a syringe of painkiller.

She began to set the gear up in various sections of the cave, organizing them by function and then set up the computer terminal and hooked up the space suit to it. She then removed the small wrist mounted device from the suit and placed it on her arm. She powered up the computer terminal with a small generator that she needed to hand-crank. The terminal booted up and text scrawled across the screen:

Pytheas Research Initiative

Terminal 06 Activated- Cannot Connect to Atlas Station

No Signals Found

Voice Login?

“Lydia Grath, designation 06. Engineering Officer.”

“Login accepted.” A robotic voice responded.

Lydia began to type on the screen, running the system through its various paces and trying to distinguish what systems within her suit were damaged and how severe the damage was. After getting a short diagnostics report, she brought her toolkit over and began to repair small damages that her suit had sustained. After spending an hour or two doing repairs, she opened a video feed on the screen.

“This is Lydia Grath. I was the Engineering Officer on the Atlas Space Station orbiting the uncharted planet Odessa, designated by the Pytheas Research Initiative. There were twelve of us, a research team to gather data on the planet for a couple of months and then return to the core systems. There was an unknown catastrophic malfunction within the station that caused it to fall from orbit towards the planet’s surface.” She stopped with a deep breath. The reality of her situation began to hit her, and her eyes started to water as she continued.

“I have made no contact with any other Pytheas personnel. I have no clue if anyone else is alive. Most of us made it to the escape pods I think. During re-entry, I could see the station breaking up mid-atmosphere. The station has most likely been scattered across the planet’s surface along with any survivors or remains…”

She paused and collected herself. Glancing around the small cave, she took stock of what little supplies she had.

“I was lucky enough to drop next to my emergency kit. The atmospheric tent is still functional along with the primary functions of my environmental protection suit. The E.P. suit sustained minor outer shell damage during my escape from a local predatory creature but other than that the suit is fine.”

“I also have enough rations and power cells to last close to a week but past that I have no clue what I am going to do. I still have most of my climbing gear and my scope-finder so hopefully I can get to some higher ground and spot some station wreckage or something to help me replenish my supplies. My main issue is that I have no weapon. All I have is a flare gun with 4 cartridges. If that creature is any indication of what else lives on this planet, I need to think of something before I go out into the wild. This is hopefully log #1 of many to come but I need some rest. Lydia logging off.” She finished unpacking and slouched in the corner of the cave, trying to decide what to do next.

She moved over to the cave entrance looking for some way to guard the cave entrance and keep any unwanted visitors outside. Lydia walked over to her pile of equipment and picked up a small tool case with her good arm. It seemed to have some weight to it. She then carried it over towards the mouth of the cave. She tinkered with the two atmospheric tent posts on either side of the cave entrance. She took a small metal panel off each post that was located halfway up its length and pulled some wiring out. She then pulled out a small splicing tool and began to solder and splice various parts of circuitry. As she continued to work on the internal machinery of these devices the air around the opening shimmered with an electronic disturbance. There was a light noise like embers from a fire crackling as light refractions artificially adjusted themselves. Lydia put her E.P. suit on and walked outside of the cave to check on her handywork. From the outside, the cave now looked as if there was no opening, only rock. Lydia smirked and then went back into the cave. After getting comfortable, she ate some rations and turned in for the night.

In her mind’s eye, memories began to swirl about as she fell deeper into a fatigue induced slumber. She finds herself back in the armory of the Atlas Space Station hard at work at her tool bench, modifying one of many pieces of standard issue weaponry stocked by their employers. She had what looked like a long-range rifle taken apart across the table’s surface and her tongue was stuck out of the side of her face in a look of frustration. The sound of a mechanical door sliding open could be heard from the other side of the room and when a tall and skinny man walked into the armory. He had hazel eyes underneath eye glasses and his black hair was very long, along with a scraggly beard. He wore a white jumpsuit that sported a medical cross on its shoulder and a name patch that read Maive. “What’s on the cutting table today? Another gun that wasn’t up to ‘standard’” he said sarcastically as he motioned his fingers like air quotations. “What have I told you, Thomas? Lydia said as she clenched her jaw but didn’t take her eyes off her project. “Don’t eat the tacos from the galley?” She slammed down her tools and looked up from the worktable, shooting him a perturbed look. “No. If I am in here, do not bug me.” She scowled at him before returning to her work. “Don’t make me mess with your electric razor again.” She smirked as she turned a small screwdriver. Maive recalled the last time he got on Lydia’s nerves and rubbed his hairy chin remembering the electric shocks.

“What crawled up your ass today?” He strode over to a stool and plopped himself onto it while crossing his arms. “I’m just in a mood today and I want to be alone.” She wouldn’t look at him. Maive was the closest thing to a friend that Lydia had out here, and he could tell something else was bugging her. His expression softened, and he scooted the stool a couple inches closer to Lydia. “Talk to me, Grath.” She was silent for a second. “Don’t do your shrink bullshit on me.” She still wouldn’t look at him. “Is today the anniversary?” She immediately slammed her hand down on the table and turned her furious expression on him. “Dammit, Thomas. What the fuck did I just say? Leave!” He didn’t budge. “Lydia, come on. We are isolated out here and you can’t bottle this shit up.” She turned away from him and slouched in her chair. Her shoulders shuddered a small bit. “You never told me what happened. Vent, it will help. I promise.” She was silent for a time while facing opposite of him. He waited patiently until she started to speak.

“It was twenty years ago. My brother, Benji, was four years old and I was seven. My parents would always leave for weeks at a time. They worked for a private merchant company and were order managers. Traveled to a lot of colonies. This was just a routine job. Halfway to their destination, their convoy of freighters had a critical malfunction. A chain reaction caused all the ships to implode and break apart. They were lost to space. Bodies were never found.” She pushed back tears and was still facing away from Maive. “And here I am, out in the farthest reaches of known space being a lackey for some greedy corporation while my little brother is on some backwater colony fighting insurrectionists.” She begins to sob. “I was supposed to never leave him again.” Maive walked over and put his hands on her shoulders.  “Hey. From what you have told me about him, he can take care of himself. And this wasn’t necessarily your choice.” The crying slowed a bit, but she still had tears streaming down her face. “This was the deal the army made with the company, so you could finish out your service safely after your injury. You’re doing your job, Lydia. I’m sure he understands.” She quickly stood up and gave Maive a swift hug. “Thanks, Thomas.” She then abruptly returned to her work like nothing had happened. He went back to his stool. With a smirk, she said “Go be bored somewhere else.” He chuckled and headed for the door. “Yes ma’am.”

Lydia awoke the next morning and double checked that her E.P. suit was charged and ready to go. She ate a small ration bar, did some stretches, and equipped her suit with the various pieces of gear she wanted to take. If only I crashed with some coffee and cigarettes, she thought as she adjusted the bionic splint holding her left arm together. She pulled out a small bag of dark liquid and squeezed some of the thick substance out into a small utility cup. Anything is better than this caffeine paste. Before she headed out, she logged one more entry into her computer terminal.

“I guess this is what you would call day two. My goal today is to find some higher ground and see if parts of the station have crashed nearby. I don’t have enough time or supplies to stay here so I need to start getting a goal in mind. Hopefully the emergency atmosphere re-entry gear kept some of the Atlas partly together, so I can scavenge some supplies. Lydia out.”

Before suiting up, Lydia made sure that the splint was still functioning, and she had some degree of mobility with her arm. She then began to put the various pieces of her suit on. Once she was fully geared up, she placed the helmet on her head, sealed the suit, and booted up the heads-up display.

“Enable minimal functionality. No motion sensor, no jump jets, no view scanner.”

A small electronic sound moved throughout the suit and then the onboard computer responded.

“Minimal Functionality activated, would you like onboard assistance to enter sleep mode as well?”

The small computer voice responded, trying to help her save more of her battery power. She seemed amused that the computer thought of this before she did.

“Yes, proceed into sleep mode.”

She hefted a small bag that contained anything she thought she might need and exited the small cave shelter. Her HUD said temperatures were normal within the jungle canopy and she didn’t see any abnormal movement around the clearing of the huge tree that looked over her shelter. The motion sensors that were equipped on the atmospheric tent were not tripped last night which meant there was still no small wildlife living within the jungle which she found to be very peculiar. This made it eerily quiet throughout the jungle and the purple ambience of the area furthered her feeling of paranoia. Resolving herself, she then began her search for some higher ground.  She made a small perimeter movement around where her shelter was located and couldn’t find a better vantage point then the large tree that watched over her temporary home. The problem with this is the tree trunk was massive and completely vertical. 

Looks like I’m using climbing hooks, she thought. This is going to be a bitch. As she inspected the tree’s surface, she noticed that it resembled stone in its texture and hardness. She wasn’t completely sure her climbing hooks would enter the tree and grab enough to support her. She pulled the climbing kit from her bag and placed the harness attachments on her boots and hands and removed the climbing hooks. These were handheld devices that resembled pickaxes except that the points at the end acted like drill bits to secure themselves within their respective surfaces. Much like the posts for her atmospheric tent, they could be activated with a small amount of power for climbing assistance.

After attaching all the appropriate gear, she looked up at the massive tree. This must be at least two hundred fifty feet. Hopefully I can make it by sunset. With a heavy sigh, she swung her right hook first and stuck it in. The metal pierced the tree’s “bark”, but she needed to activate the drill bit to get it to anchor in properly. She then swung the left one and winced with some pain but was satisfied that she could still use her arm. She then kicked in the hooks attached to her feet and began the arduous climb. Right arm, left arm, right foot, left foot. It was slow going but it was still progress.

As she rose high above the jungle floor she saw that she was on the edge of the jungle and that it spread on for miles in the opposite direction from where she entered the canopy. While she had some idea of the day and night cycle of the planet from her time on the Atlas station, she still didn’t have any way of telling the time, but it seemed to be early afternoon when she finally was making it to the top of the tree. The branches on the tree had a very long reach and were not straight. They moved up and down across their entire length, resembling waves in an ocean. The leaves growing from them resembled large banana leaves from earth except bright red and some were the size of Lydia’s entire torso. While this was the largest tree that she could see in the area, all the other trees had similar shapes and branches. She finally made it to the top and shifted with discomfort as she was drenched with sweat within the suit. If her timing was correct, the climb took her close to six hours. As she broke through the jungle canopy to look around, she had to guard her eyes from the bright blue sunlight that pierced through the air until her helmet’s visor automatically adjusted for her. When it did she was able to start taking in her surroundings.

The readings in her suit saw the local temperature spike from the seventy-five degrees below the treetops to an impressive ninety-five degrees almost instantaneously. A couple miles north of her, she could see the now small outline of the rock spire that she had landed on. The rest of the jungle section she was in spread on and on farther to the south. The blue sunlight made it difficult to see at distance and she could only make out rough shapes of various landmarks.  Lydia then pulled her viewfinder out from her bag and attached to the side of her helmet. She then brought the device down over her visor and it activated. New data began to feed into her HUD. She could see that the rock spire was exactly 2.7 miles away and that she was approximately 247.8 feet above the planet’s surface. She began to scan the vast horizon for any points of interest. She saw what seemed like a forest of mesas even farther north of the one she crashed onto. She also saw more pockets of jungle scattered across her entire field of view. Then she saw something very interesting much farther southeast from her current position. It was a massive metallic structure that was on fire and a massive plume of black smoke billowed out from the top of it.

“Onboard computer, activate. Give me a scan of that structure to the north.”

The sound of systems working within the suit began and there was a brief pause before the computer responded. New data began to sprawl across her visor.

“That structure is a primary section of the space station designated Atlas. It seems to have sustained massive damage on atmospheric re-entry, but hull integrity is surprisingly intact.”

Lydia smiled with a newfound feeling of optimism. She had something tangible to cling onto.

“What section is it? And how far is it exactly?”

More data began to roll across her HUD as the onboard computer searched for the answers to her inquiries.

“It seems to be the bridge of the station designated Atlas. Distance is approximately 13.4 miles from current position. Distance is too great to get a proper reading on still operational systems aboard station.”

That is going to be quite the trip, she thought. I’ll need a weapon, a route, and fully charged backup batteries. This was going to be a serious undertaking with the small amount of resources that she possessed, but Lydia had no other options. She did one final scan of the horizon and then began her descent back down towards the jungle floor. As she lowered herself through the branches she didn’t notice a dark shape gliding low above the treetops a significant distance back towards the collection of rock spires. Two large dark wings pumped with silent effort as they searched for the prey they have been hunting for close to two days now.

By the time Lydia made it back to the planet’s surface, the sun had set and moonlight from two separate moons created a ghostly aura throughout the jungle. She entered her small shelter and removed all her gear. She sat down in the corner of the cave deciding on her next plan of action. She needed something to defend herself on the trip and she also had to leave gear behind. After another disappointing dinner of chalky and stale ration bars, she began to rummage through all the gear she had. She removed the suitcase sized toolbox from the pile of equipment she had and popped it open. She began to remove various pieces of tools and started to assemble what resembled a rifle. She took out a collection of smaller tools and then began to adjust the various workings of the larger rifle-like object. She attached a trigger piece, something that looked like a makeshift sight, and then attached a strap from the toolbox itself that would allow her to carry it over her shoulder.

She continued to tinker with various objects she had around the cave and set them all next to her charging suit. She started cranking the handle on her backup generator for a couple more hours to charge spare batteries for the trip. By the time she was done it was late at night and she was exhausted. It was a big day tomorrow and she needed rest. As she laid down on her bedroll, it was still unsettling to her that there was no ambient sound coming from outside. After a while of tossing and turning, she decided she couldn’t sleep and booted up her computer terminal.

“So, I located the bridge of the Atlas just under fifteen miles from my current position and my only option is to hoof it there. I have as much battery power and food as I am going to have, and I modified a nail gun to work as a makeshift rifle if I run into any trouble. I then have four flairs and a flair gun, one standard issue survival knife, and my resilient spirit. I haven’t seen or heard the predatory creature since our last encounter when it ate a round of my flare gun. I am hoping that taking a burning projectile to the face will deter it in some way but as you can see, luck has not been on my side recently. I will be sending this and any other data entries that I can up along with an ongoing SOS beacon. So, if anyone picks up this frequency, just know I am here. Somewhere on Odessa, trying to survive and I could use a lift.”

She paused with a smirk, seemingly amused with herself before her expression sank and she stared into the camera. After being lost in thought for a moment, she continued.

“I am still not sure what went wrong on the station and I am definitely not sure I will make it past tomorrow but if someone does find this, at least try and locate the rest of us. We deserve that. Some recognition. We were one of five other research stations studying potentially dangerous uncharted planets for the core systems to expand to. We were the lucky idiots that fell for the tag line. ‘Make Your New Tomorrow, Today!’. It was all a load of horseshit. The captain let slip a couple of days before the crash that the Pytheas Corporation was looking to privatize colonization, so it can be commercialized and sold to the highest bidders. But who am I to throw in on something that high out of my paygrade? I’m just a hired mechanic. Anyway, Lydia Grath signing off.”

After an electronic clicking signaled to her that the computer had saved her latest entry, she began typing on the keyboard and then gave the computer new instructions.

“Set up an SOS beacon on an ongoing loop along with my video logs and link the signal to the E.P. suit. I want the suit connected to the terminal for as long as it can manage before I move outside of its range.”

“Beacon activated. You will be notified of any signal responses or interferences while within range.”

The small computerized voice updated her and then placed the terminal into standby mode. It was time for bed, she had a very long trip ahead of her. Tonight, a different memory visited her. She was younger, probably around eighteen years old. Lydia stood in some sort of travel terminal dressed in standard issue army fatigues hefting a large olive drab bag. A slightly younger man stood in front of her. He was a couple of inches taller than her with an athletic physique. He wore a leather jacket, torn jeans, and old sneakers. His shaggy and unkept reddish-brown hair matched hers and hung over his eyes. He had a somber look on his face, and he was staring at the ground between their feet. “I can’t believe you’re actually going through with this.” He still wouldn’t look Lydia in the face. “Benji, I need this. Working on old junkers that come through the port isn’t doing it for me. I need this. It feels like my tires are spinning here, but I’ll be back before your graduation. I promise.” He shuffled his feet a bit. “That’s the point, you weren’t supposed to go anywhere. Especially up there. And don’t call me that.” Lydia dropped her bag on the ground and moved in to hug her brother, tears streaming down her face. When she embraced him, his arms stayed at his sides. He wore an angry expression on his face. Lydia stood back from him, waiting for him to say something. Nothing. “I’ve got to go, Benjamin. I love you.” She turned and picked up her bag, then began to walk towards her shuttle. She kept looking back towards him. He finally looked up at her. “Give them hell, sis.”

Her memories shuffled and next she saw herself sprinting through the corridors of the Atlas space station. Red lights were flashing, and the onboard computer was issuing updates throughout the station. She saw herself leaping into her escape pod and donning her gear. The station was violently shaking, and sparks were flying in every direction. Through the viewport, she could see the planet, Odessa, creeping closer and closer. The pod launched after she strapped herself in. She began to hyperventilate. Was this how her parents felt all those years ago? Her vision distorts again and now she just sees the winged creature’s massive jaws closing in around her and that terrible scream piercing her ears.  

She awoke with a start as she came face to face with the creature and let out a blood rippling shriek directly at her. She was soaked in sweat and panting frantically. She began to panic as she realized that the screech of the monster wasn’t just in her dream. It was coming from outside of the cave along with the crunching of fallen trees and the sound of flapping wings. She snapped herself out of her dread induced trance and began to quickly but quietly gear up. It took her close to twenty minutes to get everything ready, all the while she could hear the creature thrashing across the jungle floor seemingly searching for her. She placed her helmet on her head and booted up the HUD.

“Minimalize functions once again but keep onboard assistant on.”

“Yes, Officer Grath.”

Lydia steadied her breathing and crouched by the cave entrance, preparing herself for a trip she now knows is going to be much more difficult then previously expected. She slowly moved out of the cave into the clearing. It was early enough in the morning that the sun wasn’t all the way up into the sky yet and the dual moons were still shedding some ghostly light into the area. She couldn’t see any movement, but she continued to listen through the onboard speakers in her helmet to see if she could pinpoint a direction that the creature might be coming from. After a minute or two of silence, there was a large crash and she saw a tree in the distance toppling over. It was coming from the north and she needed to go southeast so she began her long trek towards what was hopefully salvation. While she wanted to keep a quick pace to stay ahead of the creature, she wanted to go slow enough as to not draw attention to herself. The E.P. suit allowed for a decent amount of movement, not being as bulky as some older generations of space suits.

As she moved through the dense underbrush of the jungle that was made up of large vines, tree roots, and bushes with wide leaves like those growing off the trees, she could still hear the creature tearing through the jungle. It was close and onto her trail. She needed to pick up the pace. Some time passed, and the sun was now getting higher into the sky and shedding more light into the jungle canopy. She had been hiking for a couple of hours and had close to eight miles left in distance. She stumbled and fell to a crouch behind a boulder. The sun is casting that earie lavender light across the landscape. If her navigational marker was correct, she still had a couple of hours left before she exited the jungle. She made the mistake of resting for a second too long and a large snapping noise shook her out of her short rest. The creature was much closer now and continually closing. She hadn’t had a visual yet, but she kept seeing trees being taken down and leaves rustling. She did not have very much time.

She began pushing through the underbrush with increasing speed and she unslung her improvised rifle from her shoulder and loaded a large titanium nail into it. She was jogging now, and her heart rate accelerated along with her speed. She vaulted roots, ducked under large bushes, and trampled brambles that laid across her path. Despite her body’s protests she kept this rapid pace going, knowing that slowing down in any way would mean her demise. It was tough to tell how much time passed during the hike since her focus was primarily on not getting tripped up in the dense forest. She hadn’t heard anything from the beast in a while which worried her.

“Activate motion sensor.”

A small electronic buzz could be heard and then a small radius diagram appeared in her HUD. It would tell her if anything of significant size was moving within forty feet of her position. The only movement it was reading was her own, so she continued. After another short period of a quickened pace she needed to rest again. The weight of the suit and her gear was becoming increasingly difficult to carry at a fast pace. She drank some water from the hydration tube within the suit and then checked to see if she had everything before continuing. As she stood back up, she heard a small crack and debris began to fall from the tree above her all around the jungle floor. Quickly, she looked straight up above to see a large snake-like visage with a burn mark over its right eye sliding vertically down the side of the tree. The creature let out a low growl and kept its one functioning yellow eye fixed upon Lydia. It slowly made its way down the tree towards her using its claws to stick into the bark. She was seemingly frozen with fear. Keeping her eyes on the winged monstrosity as its long spike tail swayed back and forth, content that it had finally caught its prey. With a loud roar it lunged down on her, the exact move she was waiting for.

“JUMP JETS NOW!”

The computer didn’t take the normal time to respond, instead just acting. A flash of fire erupted from Lydia’s boots and she dove out of the way using the increased lifting power to move a greater distance from the creature. She then tucked sideways into a roll to come up onto her feet at the end of the dive. The creature lands with an earth-shaking crash where she was standing. As she stood up and faced back at the creature, she raised the rifle and winced with a jolt of pain from her bad arm. She aimed at the section of soft scales that rested between the creatures folded wings and its shoulder blades. She pulled the trigger and with a loud metallic snap, a large pointed titanium rod launched with great force from the weapon and lodged itself into the creature’s grey flesh. The beast let out a cry and shuddered to the ground.

Lydia used this second of distraction to start her run again. She began to tear through the vegetation, not worrying about silence anymore. She just needed to get some distance between her and the creature. As she ran off, the creature spun around in a frenzy and whipped its tail. It tried to take off, but it couldn’t use its wings with the nail in its back, so it settled with leaping from tree to tree. As its tail trailed behind it, it cut through tree trunks with ease. It had her trail now and it wasn’t giving up. She was sprinting now, not taking the time to look back and using her motion sensor to see if it was getting close. She could hear its cries closing in on her, but she pushed harder. She came up to a collection of vines that stood taller then her and began to climb. As she scrambled to the top, there was a loud crash as the beast leaped from a tree and tackled her into a clearing. She let out a cry as she landed on bad arm. The creature had to recollect itself as it tumbled into the clearing with her. It spun around as she stood up and was attempting to reload her rifle. Seeing an opportunity, it whipped its tail. It used the end spike that was the size of a sword to stab into her leg above the knee. It pierced straight through her leg like it was paper.

She screamed with all her might as the pain shot through her entire body. The creature then lunged at Lydia, using its diamond shaped head as a battering ram and sending her slamming into the tree trunk behind her. She was now in a seated position up against the tree. There was a spiderweb like crack across her visor and she could see blood pouring out of the hole in the leg of her suit.

“Seal the wound then the suit breach. Ready jump jets at maximum thrust.” Lydia ordered the computer as she struggle to bring the rifle up. The creature was low to the ground and following all her movements with its eyes. It was letting out a low growl of triumph as it was sure it had finally bested her. It was more intelligent then any old animal she noticed. It was studying her, waiting to see what she did next. The onboard systems sprayed a sealant foam over her leg wound and suit tear and she grimaced as the cold material hardened over the deep wound. She brought herself to her feet with great effort and was surprised to see the creature let her. It wants a challenge, she thought. She began to see the muscles on its hind legs tense as it prepared to pounce. She didn’t think it would fall for the last second dive again, especially because it had her in a tight corner. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do yet, but she had to think of something. It lunged, and she only had enough time to raise her rifle in a blocking motion in front of her. She was hit with the creature’s full force and was pinned to the ground with only the improvised nail rifle between her body and the creature’s razor-sharp teeth. The dagger sized teeth punctured the stock of the rifle and drool fell from the beast’s mouth. It pulled its head back to ready a bite and with a flash she unsheathed her large survival knife from its spot on her left shoulder and stabbed it into the space below its jaw at the base of its skull. It screamed and retreated off her. Bright orange blood gushed out of the wound and splattered all over Lydia and the jungle floor around her. Despite her boy’s protests, she did not wait to see if that killed it or not.

She grabbed her rifle and just kept the pace going even though her body was giving up. She pushed through more jungle and finally broke out into the desert landscape. There it was, just over a mile out. The space station was still on fire but intact. She kept moving. She could still hear the creature’s screams from the jungle, but she didn’t stop. As she got closer and closer, her vision was fading in and out. She had an atmospheric breach in her helmet and she became more and more light headed. She was so close though. Colors were becoming more vibrant and her eyes more sensitive to the light. She was close enough to the station that her onboard computer began to link to the station’s systems. “Can you… Can you piggyback on the bridges antennae?” She could barely speak.

“We are close enough to use the bridge’s communications array to send out a signal. Would you like me to send out an SOS, Officer Grath?”

“Do it, now!”

She was stumbling now and having difficulty holding onto her gear. She dragged her feet all the way up to the station and collapsed. She removed her pack and her rifle and tossed them aside. She didn’t get a response from the signal yet. The stations range was much larger then her suits. It should be able to reach all the way across the planet’s surface and even into orbit. But she had nothing. There were now multiple breaches in her suit, and she had no way of sealing them. She looked out over the vast desert at the azure sun in the sky. She drifted in and out of consciousness, not sure how much time was passing. She started having visions, her parents strolling by, her crewmates playing football on leave, her brother leaving home.

“Isn’t… Isn’t real…” she mumbles to herself.

Then there was a prolonged electronic beeping that came through the speakers in her helmet. Her motion sensor had picked up movement. It couldn’t make out a discernable shape. This could be it. She brought her rifle across her lap and sloppily loaded a nail cartridge into the chamber. A large shadow passed over where she sat. She tensed and attempted to lift the rifle to her shoulder to be able to shoot it. She couldn’t keep it steady. The shadow circled a bit and dust clouds began to pick up as whatever it was landed. She didn’t have much in her, she faded in and out while barely keeping the rifle up. She couldn’t make out the shape through the dust and extreme sunlight. Lydia was drifting off when the dark shaped swooped down and landed with a thud and a moan. She couldn’t make out if it was a beast’s growl or the moan of lift engines. She couldn’t hold on anymore, she glanced down through her broken visor to see the massive puddle of blood seeping through her suit into the dirt. Her eyes fluttered, and she faded away into unconsciousness.