Mission: Polus

Chapter Five

𝐴𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟'𝑠 𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑒: 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟 𝑥 𝑉𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑

Date: June 12, 2152

Location: Skeld

Time: 7:30am

"𝐵𝐸𝐸𝑃! 𝐵𝐸𝐸𝑃! 𝐵𝐸𝐸𝑃! 𝐵𝐸𝐸𝑃!"

"Mngh~?" I slowly opened my eyes as I heard my alarm went off. I sat up and stretched, a smile forming on my face. 𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑙, 𝑔𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑎 𝑔𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑢𝑝 𝐷𝑢𝑚 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑢𝑟. 𝑀𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑎𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑓𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑦 𝑛𝑜𝑤. I rubbed my eyes and looked around, my smile faltering. "Wait, what the heck? Why does everything look so different?" At first I was wondering how in the world did I end up on the Skeld, until the events from yesterday came pouring in. My parents are dead and Dum was still out there, dead or alive. I'm on this ship with a group of people I barely know and we are heading to Polus's planetary base. "Shit" I muttered to myself, starting to feel upset again.

I heard a loud yawn next to me and saw Veteran, stretching. "Mornin' homeslice, did ya sleep ok?" I quickly smiled and nodded, not wanting him to see me upset. "Yeah, I slept alright, you?" He stretched again, his bones cracking from the pressure. " I slept like a baby, all thanks to you. All that letting out my emotions and talking to someone about my past really helped put me at ease y'know?" I chuckled, glad to know he was feeling better. "It's no problem. Always happy to help!" Veteran chuckled too and smiled, making me blush. 𝐻𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑡- 𝐼-𝐼 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛, 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡? I scratched the back of my head, embarrassed at the thought as Veteran gave me a concerned look. "Dude, you feeling ok? Your face is as red as your suit over there, please tell me your ok." I blushed even more and looked away, mentally cursing at myself for such thoughts. "Y-yeah, I'm ok! I promise." To avoid eye contact, I bent down and grabbed my suit and began to put it on. "Let's just go meet the others and do our tasks, ok? I don't know about you, but I am starving!" Veteran nodded and hopped out of bed, grabbing his yellow suit. "You said it pal, I could really go for some omelets with cheese. Delicious."

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We met up with the rest of the crew, who were busy eating in the cafeteria. Breakfast was cheesy eggs, bacon, blueberry muffins and orange juice. Veteran and I got on line for the food, which surprisingly looked pretty appetizing. You'd think that airplane/rocket food would suck, but this looked like it was made by a gourmet chef. We were practically drooling over the exquisite display of breakfast food, the smell making our stomachs growl louder than ever. We grabbed our food and sat at a table, where I devoured my food like a pack of hungry wolves. Veteran was also chowing down on the food, a look of satisfaction on his face. "Holy shit dude, as a master chef myself, I have to admit that whoever made this has real talent with food." I nodded between bites, eating more than ever. "Oh man, this may just be regular breakfast, but this is like eating gold in food form." Veteran chuckled at that and sipped his juice. "Whoa there buddy, slow down. You're gonna get a tummy ache if you keep eating that fast." I took a swig of orange juice and gulped it down. "Fine, I'll stop-" without warning, a loud belch escaped from my mouth. It thundered throughout the cafeteria, making everyone's heads shoot up. Everyone stopped talking and stared at me, making me blush for the second time today. Veteran however, laughed. "It's like they always say, better out than in!" He handed me a napkin as he patted my back. 𝐺𝑜𝑑 𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑡, 𝑤ℎ𝑦 𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑜 𝑐𝑢𝑡𝑒? 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝐼'𝑚 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑔𝑢𝑦 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝐼 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑡, 𝐼 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑒! I laugh nervously as Captain clapped his loud hands together, making us shift our attention to him.

"Good morning everyone! Today is the start of a new day, which also means the start of new tasks!" He bent down and took out several tablets, which all looked brand new. "These tablets will let you know where and what your tasks are, also containing tutorials on how to do them, which I know is going to be very helpful to some of you, including myself." I eyed him suspiciously, raising my hand to speak. "Wait, but aren't you the captain of the ship? Shouldn't you already be able to know how to do the tasks?"  The crew looked at each other as Captain tensed up at my question, frowning a bit. "Well yes, but you see, sometimes we forget what to do every now and then. It happens to everyone." I was still doubtful of Captain's authority, but I was willing to drop it so I shrugged. "I guess your right..."

Captain smiled again and looked at the rest of the crew. "Well, that settles it. Everyone come get a tablet! Lets start doing our tasks like good boys and girls, cause tasks are good! Everyone, scatter!" We all headed off in separate directions to complete our first task. Veteran and I headed over to Admin, where we turned on our tablets for the first time. "You got any cool tasks dude?" I nodded, showing him my list of tasks. "Yeah, I got the card swipe, wires, data, asteroids, and reactor." Veteran smiled as he compared our tasks. "Sweet, we almost got the same tasks! C-can we do our tasks together? You remember what I said about needing help and all that."

I don't know if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but did I just saw Veteran blush a little? I wanted to squeal like a little girl and scream hallelujah, but I contained my composure. "O-of course! Here, let's do the card swipe together!" Veteran pumped his fist and grinned, showing all of his teeth. "Yes!!" he exclaimed happily as I stood there, admiring my adorably silly yellow crewmate.

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Doing tasks with Veteran was literally the most fun I've ever had. We were constantly joking around, goofing off when no one was looking. Teaching Veteran how to do the tasks were a bit of a struggle, but eventually he got the hang of it. He said without me he would still be struggling on the first three tasks, which I had to agree. But it didn't matter because I would pay anything just to be with him. We talked about our interests, and I was over the moon when I heard him say his favorite games. He liked the exact games I liked, which were Fall Guys, FNF and FNAF. It was like we were destined to be together, we had the same interests and the same tastes when it comes to food. He was literally perfect.

We glanced at our tablets, looking at our final task. "Whelp, looks like our last task is uploading data in Electrical." I shuddered a bit and gave Veteran a weak smile, since Electrical was pretty much the epitome of hell on the Skeld. He reached out and held me in close, making me blush a deep crimson. "Don't worry Player, we'll be totally safe. We are going in there together, remember? With the two of us, there's nothing we can't beat." I looked into his green eyes, still blushing. "Y-your right, we can do this!" Veteran patted my back and chuckled, "that's the spirit!" Together we made our way to Electrical, where we stood at the entrance. It was so dark inside, you could barely see the gadgets on the other side. I took a deep breath and looked at Veteran. "Well, here we are. Ready?" He looked at me and nods, wrapping his hand around mine. "Ready." I wanted to jump into his arms and kiss him right there, but I managed to compose myself. With determination on our faces, we went into the dark.

As we made our way to the other side, I opened up the site and began to download. I was almost finished until I felt Veteran gently tapping on my shoulder. "Uh, dude...." Still focused on the download, I simply returned with a "Hm?" Veteran gently turned my head and pointed at something big on top of the vent. "Look." I couldn't make out what it was, so I turned on my flashlight. When we finally saw what it actually was, we screamed.

Stoner was lying there on top of the vent, his guts barely visible with a pool of fresh blood leaking into the vent and sprayed on the wall.