Surface: Doomed Planet

Excerpt 6: The Man In Silver

I knew that I wasn't gonna be spared a cold due to my encounter with the water. While the sinus distress wasn't as immediate as I expected, punishment eventually came in the form of non stop sneezing, the near loss of ability to breath through my nose and a very, very bad irritation of my eyes, all six of them. Sneezes and a stuffy nose I can handle. But ever had your eyes itching and watering like crazy? Now imagine that you have a piece of special bone covering them that is harder than steel. Then, there was the cracked rib that felt like it got worse with every sneeze. Do you see the brilliance here? Luckily for me Chy had some really strong allergy meds on hand that more or less stopped the sneezing and greatly reduced my watery eyes, enough for me to keep helping out around the tower, which was a good thing because the people here needed it. The condition of the place was just...deplorable. The carpets of the office rooms were filthy, the tiled floors were covered in dirt and the blood of presumably slain undead, many if not all of the people here hadn't been able to shower in more than 4 weeks, the supplies that were on hand were messy and unorganized, space was tight because people who had tents on hand, which was actually more than you'd think, were too scared to pitch them outside and morale was just too damn low.

So, despite not feeling that great, I set to work improving the condition of the tower and getting everyone organized and making sure everyone was doing things to assist each other. The first thing I did was round up Marco, Chy, Sonya and Vahq and got them to help me take an inventory of the Weapons, ammunition and supplies we had on hand, which turned out to be quite a bit. Chy's team, except for her, had all been armed with M1 Garands and 350 rounds each with K-Frame 9mm 1911 handguns in reserve. Chy had managed to recover a good bit of her dead team members ammunition, but given the fact that there wasn't that much, I assumed that most of it had been expended escaping from the city. Excluding Vahq's equipment from the count, that left me with four rifles, four handguns, about 280 rounds of .30-02, a surprising 420 rounds of 9mm, several grenades, flash bangs and about 12 flares. The equipment my friends and I had brought from the ship more than tripled what Chy had, so seeing as how space was limited, and people were scared to set tents outside. I decided to put guards out and Chy said it was also a good idea to hand out her teams 9mm's to people who were willing to pitch outside. So while Chy and Sonya split up to go ask if people were willing to camp outside, I went looking for guards. Marco took the task without hesitation and Matt, who'd just kind of been in the background up until now, was more than happy to have a gun in his hands, which I assumed was due to being designed and built as a combat entity from the start.

Another candidate was an 18 year old Xenomorph who said he was from Bespin, and didn't actually believe I was really who I said I was.

"Prince Skyline died in 2144 when the Imperial Glykseian Army invaded Prouxsas City", the kid said, "he was vaporized when one of the ships launched a Stinger F-1 missile at the Royal Palace."

"That story ain't true cause I'm standing right here", I smiled.

"Impersonation of King Aegean's Brother is a treasonous offense, punishable by death."

"Kid", I said, "look, I don't feel well, maybe if I felt better I'd keep shooting shit with ya, but I don't, so do you wanna help out with guard duty or what?"

"I said I did", the kid said taking the rifle, "though I don't know if I'll be that much help since I've just barely made it through Basic."

"Your in the military?", I asked.

"Navy reserves", the kid said, "I was supposed to go to AIT next summer. I came out to Ania because I had the money and wanted to use every bit of the summer that was left."

"How long you planing to stay in?", I asked.

"As long as I can", the kid said as we walked outside, "I plan on working my way up and eventually becoming a Praetorian."