Earth's Moon, New Horizons Lunar Colony
Location: Gilbert's Mining Co. workshop (status: Decommissioned since 2154)
Year: 2514
On the exhausted moon of Luna, are the slums of New Horizons, tall skyscrapers dwarfed over the colony. Ships flying overhead and throughout the colony, accompanied by a Unitologist ship broadcasting Jacob Danik's speech about the humanity's end across the colony. At the outskirts of the colony, is an abandoned mine who was holding precious natural resources centuries ago. And within the abandoned mine's workshop, are multitudes of tools, broken machinery, a deactivated bench and 2 figures working on a locked door.
One of them is an old, human man. And the other is a young, Equine Stallion. Both of them are wearing CEC Standard-Issue Engineering suits.
The stallion is working on a circuitry panel while the man is pacing back and forth behind the stallion with his arms crossed against his chest as he observes the stallion's progress.
"So, if I twist the wires correctly, it will malfunction, correct?" a young voice said as he looks towards the man.
the man nods his head in confirmation "Yes, and as the malfunction is in process, you can rip the wires out and then the machinery will lift it's lock-down and began to operate as it should be." a gruff and profesional voice explained.
"Okay then." the stallion then nodded in understanding as his gloved hooves are now behind the exposed panel and then starts rewiring the circuitry "So, if I do this. -CRRK- And this. -BZZT- And this, -CRACK- and then, I pull this." he mutters as he then pulls out the wires, the machine then whirs down and it's door projecting where the 'LOCKED' hologram was, is now changed into 'UNLOCKED'. "And Voila! The malfunctioned door to the centuries old suit kiosk is now opened!" the stallion cheers with a smile behind his helmet.
He then heard a helmet folding and felt a hand on his right shoulder as he looks back to see a helmet-less old man with a proud smile etched onto his face "Good work, son. Now you will be ready for time to become an engineer like me, in due time as you need more training." he congratulated the stallion with fatherly pride. The lighting of the centuries-old mine shines the man's official name tag (Jeremy Hanson) was shown strapped above his left chest.
Jeremy Hanson was in his fifties, with a few wrinkles on his face to show how aged he is. He is a Caucasian man with a mix skin-tone from his ancestors. His combed, jet- black hair greyed in age, same with his Five o'clock shadow. He have heterochromia, thus his left eye have a hazy brown eye while his right have a bright-green eye. He has numerous scars shown on on his face, the most noticeable is the large scar at his left face from an accidental Contact Explosion during his young times, thus damaging his brown eye in the process. Causing him to wear glasses due to poor visibility from his damaged eye. His Engineer RIG have both the stasis module and a Kinesis module while also gaining access to the tools by his authorized id.
The stallion's helmet folded into his chest's holoprojector and RIG, showing a beaming, teenage stallion who smiles widely at his adopted father for his praise. "Really, dad!?" he said with an excited expression and the man nods "If it does, I'll promise I will never let you down when I am in the CEC." he puffed his chest at the last sentence with an energetic, determined expression on his face with his hoof against his chest to show that he meant it.
The stallion's coat is dark-blue, his mane and tail are brown with thin-green highlights, and His eyes are innocent greenish-blue. Unlike his adopted father, his RIG only has a Kinesis Module due to his father still teaching him about what being a qualified CEC Engineer is. Like holding each tool with proper basics and handling, maintaining machines in operational condition and lastly, hot-wiring any exposed circuitry in case of an emergency.
The man audibly chuckles at his adopted son's energetic expression, then the man's expression turned serious "Now listen closely, Michael." his stern tone causes the stallion to look at him with an attentive expression "This job is a very dangerous thing and should not to be taken lightly, understand?" 'Michael' nods firmly and Jeremy smiles "Good, now let's see what does this old baby have for us!" said the man as he walks by his adopted son and towards the old suit kiosk while Michael follows suit.
Jeremy then stops in-front of the fabrication machine as he then inspect it's dust-filled mechanism with his hands on his hips as he leans closer and spots an empty slot for a power block "Hmm, this old thing needs some juice." he looks at his son "Do we have a spare power block at the rover?" Michael nods as Jeremy then straighten himself "Okay then, you'll stay right here while I'll go get it." after he said that, his helmet unfolds itself and encased his head as he then walk towards the airlock and to their rover in order to get the spare power block.
After his dad left the old workshop to get the spare battery, Michael then looks at the kiosk with a curious look etched onto his face as he pace around it. 'Hm, still intact, odd. The mechanisms looks brand new.' his eye narrows in concentration 'That means if someone's was recently here...' to confirm his suspicions, he jab the machine with his armored fore-hoof, causing it to suddenly whir and the centuries old kiosk's holograms went on. Michael was startled by it but quickly regained composure as his eye widen to try to remember something 'If they're were here, then-' his thoughts was cut off by the airlock door's hiss as it then opens up.
To reveal his dad carrying the power block by his kinesis module, Michael internally sighs in relief. "I'm back, did you get anything?" Jeremy asked and the stallion nervously nods, the old man chuckles "Well then, what is it?" Michael pointed at the suddenly activated kiosk. When Jeremy looked at it, his masked expression widens into surprise as he accidentally deactivates his kinesis module in shock. His stupor was short-lived as the sudden loud thud broke him out of it while Michael visibly startled in surprise by the sudden noise.
After Michael relaxes, he looks at the dropped power unit which is next to him and then he glares at his father with an unamused expression "Not cool, dad. Not. Cool." the man's response was a nervous chuckle and a cheeky smile while nervously rubbing the back of his helmet.
"Hehe, sorry son. You surprised me, that's all." he then looks at the old kiosk before looking back at Michael "Wanna try it out?" he asks.
Michael nervously looks at the kiosk with his unnaturaly large eyes "Erm, I don't know dad. Is it safe?" he says while looking at his dad with a hopeful look.
"Don't worry, son. It's not like one of those malfunctioning stores that day." he reassures the stallion with a pat on his back "Now, come on, give it a try."
Giving a nervous glance at the store, Michael then closed his eyes and sighs. When he opened his eyes, he gets closer until the RIG scanner of the kiosk turns on. After a few moments of scanning, the old feminine monotone adressed the stallion.
"RIG Identification Granted. Welcome: Kyle Frederickson." after the monotonous machine said that, the man and the stallion gave eachother a confused look.
"Okay then?" not wasting anymore time wondering, Michael spotted a holoscreen projector un-folds itself. After it unfolds, it displayed an unusual sight to the two as they look at the suit with wide eyes in awe and with nervous concern.
The holoscreen shows a classified state of the art suit authorized only for trusted government personel: The Advanced Suit.
Michael then gave a worried glance to his father "Um, dad?" his dad heard it as he looks at him with the same expression "I-isn't this illegal?"
"I think so, son. Whoever..." he looks intently at Michael and the stallion noticed it and visibly shrinks "Is it what you think it is?" he asks in a harsh whisper and his son wordlessly nods. "If they think they can get away with it, then so be it. Come on son, try it on."
Michael looks at his dad in shock as if he thinks he's crazy. Jeremy sighs as he noticed it and he looks at his son with a knowing look "-sigh- Look, I know you think I'm crazy, but" he kneels at his son while closing his eyes as his helmet folds back into his holoprojector.
After it folds, the man then opened his heterochromia eyes and gave the stallion a reassuring smile while also resting his right hand on his son's shoulder "this is a difficult choice and if you're scared. I'll be there for you." his left hand follows suit "And I will be damned if I weren't there for you if you need me." he then brings Michael close to him before hugging his equine son "Because, b-because you're my only son that I have ever since my wife died." he then felt two hooves wrapped around him as he then sheds a tear.
"And I'll try my old bones to make sure you're happy. Because you're my everything that's close to me ever since -sniff- ever since Martha died."
Their embrace tightens as the old man then remembers who he was a happy young man years ago who then felt broken and depressed since his wife died in an accident during the excavation mission he was working on. The real kicker to him is that she suddenly bears their unborn child, causing his depression to go even worse. Until that day comes when he was wandering around the colony of Mars that it suddenly changed his life.
"Is it that's why you found me which makes you happy now, isn't it dad?"
"Y *hic* yes son, it's that day I found you which turned me into happy old man that you see right now."
*Flashback*
*Three weeks after the Contact Explosion accident*
Planet Mars, Mars Capita (outskirts- residential apartments)
Year: 2494
The colony of Mars Capita was not a pleasant experience to live in, as numerous and continous riots broke out between the Mars Capita Security Force and Martian Independence revolutionists happening at the middle of the capital. Fighting for Independence while casualties quickly rises during the still going conflict. And it always happens around a single former engineer.
But Jeremy didn't care. As he was aimlessly wandering the the outskirts to avoid any conflict between the still ongoing riot. While he was stumbling around the residential area of the colony while also trying to drink his problems away, he also tries to drown out the screams and yells accompanied with an explosion happening in the distance.
The Rioters suddenly pass by him as they began running towards the center of the colony, while the security force gave chase behind them and not giving the former engineer a second glance as they ruthlessly 'incapacitating' the panicked rioters with either their non-lethal batons to the cranium with full force.
Or a single divet slug to the head, adding another body bag to the casualties list.
Jeremy was oblivious to the chaos happening around him as he is trapped in his small mind of guilt. He then stumbles upon a barren alleyway as he then felt his stomach as he then heave out all his contents at the nearby drain.
'*Hurgh* Is this my life now? *Hurgh* Becoming a drunken lowlife, instead of moving on?' he thought to himself as he was finished emptying his contents, he then shakily straighten himself up before leaning his back against the wall while his legs slowly gave in as he sits down.
"*Sigh* I should've move on, re-qualified myself as an Engineer again. But for what?" He quietly questioned himself while sitting down at the alleyway, moping to himself to think about pros and cons about moving on. He looks down at the bottle within his grip to see a faint reflection of himself.
Instead of a healthy, young man at the reflection. It shows a broken-hearted former Engineer with bandages covering his left face. His hair is a mess as it reaches down his shoulders while his unkempt facial hair almost reached down his neck. He wears a brown, long-sleeved jacket as a gift from his former colleagues on-duty with a black t-shirt underneath it and he is wearing a black cargo pants and brown boots. He also wears a Unitologist Necklace around his neck which is the only a reminder of his deceased wife.
Suddenly, the reflection looks back at him with a demented smile, but he didn't noticed it as it fades away.
Jeremy sighs as he hung his head down in sadness, only to look up to stare at the wall as he narrowed his eyes in anger. He then threw the bottle which being held by his hand towards the wall while yelling obscenities as the bottle shattered into pieces. After a few seconds of pent-up anger, he broke down crying as he then hugged his legs and hung his head in-between them.
Only to stop as he heard a child crying. He then raised his head in confusion to find where is it coming from. He then slowly stands up and straighten his posture as he then investigate the noise, albeit in a shaky walk as his drunken state started to fade away while also clear out any remaining tears on his face.
'Why is there a child in the alleyways? Shouldn't the children be sent away from Mars Capita to a much safer place during the bloody conflict?' he thought to himself as he was getting closer towards the source.
When he reached there, he found nothing. The only thing he sees are multiple dumpsters, a drain and a pile of opened boxes. Jeremy then scratches his head in confusion, only to accidentally nudge a small box infront of him by his foot and he heard the source of the cry inside the box. He then looks down at the box with a puzzled look on his face. As he then crouches down to inspect it in curiousity.
"Looks just like an ordinary cardboard box." he said to himself as he slowly opens the box "I wonder why... it's... here..." his voice died down as he looks at the 'baby' with either shock, surprise, disbelief or all three as what he was seeing right now.
It's a foal. A cartoony looking equine foal with a dark blue coat with brown mane and tail accompanied with thin green highlights. And it was staring at him with it's beady greenish-blue eyes in curiosity. The foal then slowly extends it's fore hooves out to try to reach Jeremy with a hopeful look on it's face.
"H-hug?" the foal innocently speaks.
Jeremy's eyes widen in surprise. 'H-holy shit, i-it speaks' his mind was in turmoil as multiple thoughts running around in his head as he stares at the wall with a blank look on his face.
'A alien. An actual alien that we never find in centuries.'
'What should I do with it? Send it to the authorities? No... too risky and I don't want any harm done to it.'
"Send it to the nearby orphanage? No, too dangerous.'
'S-should I adopt it as my own?'
He then thought about it as he looks down at the box containing the foal as it still tries to reach him with a pleading look accompanied with a pout. With a small shrug, he then carefully grabbed the foal by it's barrel, while he does that, it then giggles with a happy look on it's face. Oblivious towards the loud screams and explosions happening in the distance. Accompanied with multiple gun fires.
He then carefully look at the foal in his hands while it still giggling innocently, he then notice that the foal is way too clean to be abandoned. Even the cardboard box it's in is also clean without any external wear or tear. He then looks back at the foal and tried to assume it's gender. After a few seconds of shamelessly checking its gender, he identifies that the foal is a colt.
"P-papa?" he says in a high-pitched voice with a hopeful tone as he attempts to reach out towards Jeremy with his small hooves.
Jeremy then paused as he heard a word that it unknowingly caused him to be teary eyed. He then looks back at the colt with a small smile for the first time ever since his wife died. "Y-yes, 'son', I'm your new papa." he then softly tickles the colt's belly, causing him to giggle uncontrollably as the colt suddenly lunges at him and hugs him while Jeremy returns the gesture as he then felt a warmth in his cold heart. Their embrace was interrupted as multiple gun fires which brought Jeremy to reality as he realised that the riots are still in effect and it will brought harm towards the young colt.
So, he then secretly tucks the colt within his jacket while walking towards the Mars Docks to be officially re-qualified as the Engineer again while making sure he's sober. When he got his engineering job back. He hid his son in secret at his personal quarters at his re-assigned position on USM Kilo. Overtime, Jeremy always visits his adopted son when he's on break, albeit very frequently as the ship is very easy to fix and last longer, thus require little maintenance.
Taking it into account, he then educates his son in secret for years. Until one of his colleagues quietly stumbles at his quarters, spotting him teaching his son about maintaining proper circuitry when the colt was 10. After hearing his colleagues tell him about his son. He worriedly plead them to not tell the government to take him away. Fortunately for him, the captain said that everyone on board the USM Kilo are family so they keep it a secret from public while also being genuinely friendly to the colt.
For years, Jeremy has something to live on, and that is his son. Michael Hanson.
His little Engineer.
His everything.
*Present*
After breaking up their family embrace, Michael then looks at the kiosk and then he looks back at his father who was still wiping away any remaining tears with a questioning look on his face.
Jeremy noticed that he's being watched, as he looks at his son and nods. With newly found confidence, Michael then selected the suit.
The kiosk projector then folds itself as the door to the suit fabrication chamber opened. Michael then steps into it and leans his back against the wall with his hind legs until he felt the magnets locking him into place as the sliding doors of the kiosk then closed as it began fabricating the new suit onto him.
After a few moments, the doors opened itself to reveal Michael in his newly acquired, yet illegal suit. After he felt the magnetic locks unlatched onto him, he then slowly exits from the suit fabrication chamber as he then admires himself in his new suit with a look of awe. While Jeremy looks at the suit his son wears with the same expression.
Before Jeremy opens his mouth, the sudden bang on the door startled them. He then looks at his son in worry while Michael looks at him in panic.
*KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK* "Open the door, this is EarthGov Security! We know you're in there!" a loud, authorative voice said.
"Oh shit, Michael hide!" he whispered.
"But, what about you dad?" Michael said with terror and concern in his eyes.
"Look, if they see you in this suit they'll take you away for questioning. Now please, hide while I take care of this situation." after he said that, Michael hesitantly complied as he then deactivates his rig and quietly bolted into the darkness of the next room.
*KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK*
"Open this door! Or we will come in by force!"
After seeing his son is out of sight. He looks at the airlock and sighs "Alright, I'm coming!" he replied as he then walk towards the door. After opening it and before he opened his mouth to greet them, he was met with a rifle butt to the stomach. Jeremy then got his air knocked out of him as he rests onto his knees while breathing hard, he then slowly raised his head to take a good looked at his attackers and his eyes slowly widen in fear.
Both of the soldiers he was seeing have familiar markings painted onto their armor and balaclavas which represents a group which he and his son are hiding from the past year since their presence was known.
The Inner Circle: A Unitologist Extremist group who have mercilessly eliminated EarthGov and 'liberated' a Marker from the colony on planet Uxor which suddenly caused a necromorph outbreak.
"Sir, subject has been secured. Awaiting your orders." one of the soldier said to his leader through the private RIGLink channel. His lack of weapons training was shown as he's still pointing his rifle at Jeremy with his finger on the trigger. Making the engineer felt nervous.
"-BZZT- Excellent, now would you kindly step aside, brother? And also, point that gun away from the subject, please?" the soldier knew what his leader meant as he pointed the rifle's barrel downwards and his finger off the trigger.
The two Circle soldiers then position themselves at the edges of the door to make way for a single figure in the distance. A man in white coat then walks in. As he gets closer, his helmet unfolds itself into his RIG, the man then revealed himself to be the founder of the Inner Circle and the man who has decimated EarthGov and soon the other colonies within his fanatical wake of 'future Human Evolution'.
Jacob Arthur Danik
The man in white then pulls out a tablet from his satchel as he then looks at Jeremy "Ah, hello-" he calmly looks at the tablet before looking back at the kneeling engineer "- Jeremy Hanson. We are here to escort you to join in our ranks for this spectacular hour." Jacob gestures at the last sentence while he leans closer until he was face to face with the old man with an small smile etched onto his face "It is time for you to be made whole, brother." he then rests his hand on the former engineer's shoulder as Jeremy looks at him with wide eyes in realisation and worry as Danik said these words.
"And, it is time for you to witness your Creation's evolution onto the populace of New Horizons."
"And, it is time for you to witness your Creation's evolution onto the populace of New Horizons."
Jeremy's eyes widen and his face paled about what Danik had said. As he tries to get up, the Circle Soldiers then flanked him and then they brought his face to the floor. He then attempts to struggle free from his captors' grips as the man in white looked at him with amusement.
"Let me go!" Jeremy yelled as he's still trying to break free.
Danik looked at him with a hurtful frown "Why not, Brother?" he said with a subtle mock sadness.
"Because. Because I'm not Jeremy Hanson." Jeremy lied.
Danik's frown deepened "If you're not Jeremy Hanson." he then pulls out his tablet again from his satchel as he shows the engineer his profile. "Then tell me this."
"I *Grunt* I told you. I'm not Jeremy Hanson. Now, let. Me. go!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that, 'Engineer'. Because if you're not 'the' Jeremy Hanson" he then scrolls down to another profile "Then I shall find this 'alien'; Michael Hanson. A first alien 'Jeremy Hanson' has founded and adopted 'him' to be 'his' father." Danik emphasize his son's name and gender in a slight disgust. Causing Jeremy's anger inside of him to grow as he slowly narrowed his eyes at Danik in rage.
"I'm afraid that you're taking your time," Danik chuckled "It's not that I'm trying to not give away secrets and tried to planned out loudly." he heartily laughs before stopping and glaring at Jeremy.
He then pulls out his Revolver from it's holster as he then threatens the engineer by pointing it at him "Now tell me." he then cocks the hammer back "Where is Jeremy and Michael Hanson, because you're starting to lose my patience." he said through his gritted teeth in slight anger as he then shoves his revolver's barrel onto Jeremy's forehead as he continue his threat "If not, I'll find this 'abomination' and I will make sure Mr.Hanson will see his 'son' scream in agony for existing and angering our prophet, Altman." he then swiftly pull his revolver away from Jeremy to wait for the event to unfold.
Jeremy loses it as he then lashes out at Danik "MOTHERFUCKER, I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU TRIED TO TOUCH MY SON! YOU SON OF A BITCH!" he screams in anger as he violently shoves his two captors, disorienting them as he tries to strangle Danik in rage. Only to be pistol whipped by a calm looking Danik as he felt a heavy blow on his head. He struggles to stand up as his vision darkened by a concussion Danik gave to him as he then blacked out.
Danik looked at the unconscious engineer with a remorseful look "I should have warned you, Mr.Hanson. You should've done this peacefully." he then looks at his two downed soldiers as they struggle to stand up "You two, if you have already done your thing. Please bring Mr.Hanson to the gunship that I have already contact." he order his men as he uncock the hammer and holstered it.
The two soldiers who have regained their composure then looked at Danik as they saluted "Yes, sir!" after they said that, Danik then marches outside as his helmet emerged from his rig and assembled onto his head as he then patiently waits for the gunship to arrive. While he was waiting outside the workshop, he then looks back to see his men who have already wearing their helmets on and are dragging an unconscious engineer with his helmet on towards Danik. He then heard a low hum as he looks up to see an incoming Unitologist gunship heading towards them with a smirk on his face.
As they're waiting, they did not notice a pair of greenish-blue eyes watching the entire event unfold earlier.
*Michael's POV*
*During the Interrogation*
As I hid in the darkness like dad said. I waited patiently for dad to call off the Security. As I heard the airlock door opened, I heard grunts as my face turned into worry about my dad's safety as I slowly poked my head out from my hiding spot. Only to my horror, I see... Oh fuck. I-I see The Circle looking at dad as he struggles to breathe. Thanks to my equine ears, I heard everything they said. And as this man in white tell my father about me. I immediately hide as I heard this man in white coat talking about capturing me and threatening my dad as he then talks about torturing me in front of his eyes. Making my ears flop down on my head as I am visibly shaken by this man's threat. The word 'abomination' made me slumped further as I quietly whimpered.
"MOTHERFUCKER, I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU TRIED TO TOUCH MY SON! YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I heard my dad yelled as I heard grunts and then I heard someone getting hit by something heavy. Slowly raising my head again, I then slowly peeked out again to see my dad is unconscious. My eyes widened in fear and worry as the man in white looked at his unconscious form in remorse before ordering his men to take my dad away.
I was paralyzed in fear as the soldiers are now dragging my dad outside and are heading towards their shuttle. I. I don't know what to do. As the airlock door closes, I finally regained control of my body as I then ran towards the door with pure worry on my face. As I've managed to open the door, I covered both of my eyes from the sudden blinding light. As it dies down, I rapidly blinked my eyes to see the Unitologist ship hovering above me.
Then I heard static as the video link screen appears in front of me, as it clears up, I saw the man of white himself with a smirk on his face "Ah, hello there, Michael Hanson." he mockingly said my name, I slightly flinched "Enjoy the show, I hope? As much as I like to talk to you unfortunately. I have a show your father need to watch so, goodbye and hope we meet each other again." he waved at me before cutting the video link as the ship that was above me starts fly away from me and headed towards the colony.
I ran a few steps before stopping as I am reaching out my left hoof towards the shrinking ship "Dad." I weakly said with a saddened look on my face. I then closed my eyes as I breathe in and out.
Then, my eyes opened and narrowed with a determined look on my face as I'm heading back towards the abandoned workshop. As I entered the workshop, I then look around to find something until I realized about the power unit my dad dropped, as I am heading towards to where it is. As I reached to where it is. Fortunately, the power unit is still there. With a grateful smile, I then activated my kinesis and start bringing the battery towards the power slot. When I reached there and after I plugged the battery in, I've heard a familiar sound of a BENCH being online so I went towards where it is.
The centuries old frame building BENCH looks very old from the modern day nano circuit BENCH. Guess that's technology for you, they advanced every year while the obsolete tech will be either scrapped or still being used to this day.
Like that big old Planetcracker Ship, THE USG Ishimura. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to see it up close years ago. Because the Ishimura was being attacked by terroists 5 years ago and was brought to The Sprawl for repairs until 2 years later, the Colony's reactor malfunctions and destroyed both of them by the explosion. I still had that small model of it though, I wonder what it's like to be inside of that old big ship.
Moving on,
As I've reached the BENCH and started to turn it on, it's rusted frame suddenly scraped each other as it makes an ear-splitting screech while I cringed from it when it began to flip down it's aged Holoscreen.
After the holoscreen flips down, the BENCH unfortunately powered down abruptly. With a frutstrated sigh, I began to trot towards the side of the BENCH then I started to pull out the old circuit panel and started to rewire this old scrap. After a few moments of sparks and curses, the workbench then comes online and hopefully did not blow up.
With a hopeful look on my face, the workbench works properly. Without wasting time by celebrating, I entered a copy of my dad's RIG onto the machine to fabricate something that my father never told me to use it since I was young. But only use it for desperate measures. As the machine done fabricated the tool I ordered, I pulled it out and began to inspect it.
It's the perfect replica of dad's former tool, a tool of which caused him his scarring. And the only faulty tool he ever kept it as a reminder of his past mistakes that he will never forget.
The Unstable Contact Beam.
