Death is sweet, death is painless, I'm not sure why I feared it so much but it feels rather pleasant. Having some closure on what is behind the veil actually makes me happy, I feel like I uncovered a great mystery. I feel like....
Hold up, I'm not dead am I? Ah well, guess I'll just open my eyes to see what lies in front of me...yeah it's just all black, I might actually be de-...oh wait, my helmet's optics aren't online aren't they? Ah well, I'll just smack the side of my hardsuit's helmet and boom! I can see, guess I'll just stand up now and start thinking productively.
So the first thing I did was to stand up and doing so allowed me to get a better look of where I was. I was in a dark, damp and relatively untame forest. It didn't look Earth-like in the slightest but it didn't differ enough to be completely alien either. Tall, twisted trees with vines coiled around their trunks went as far as the eye could see, dull green vegetation and wild bushes overran the forest floor, leaving only a putrid brown path in front of me. The shadows in this place never seemed to stay still, always moving and always dancing with the sway of the tree branches above. All in all this place was kinda creepy but not enough to scare me, I'm a big boy after all.
I took a look at this dirt path, summarising that if a path were to exist; then there must be civilisation nearby on either end of the path, but choosing which way to follow may be the tricky part. Now usually I'd let a coin decide what to do but unfortunately I lack one, a shame really, what other arbitrary item could I use to make a decision? Guess I'll have to make my own decisions then, a scary thought really...heh.
Before I go anywhere, I should check my armaments to keep myself aware of what gear I had. First of all I was wearing my most important piece of equipment; my standard issue Gorlex hardsuit which has saved me more times than I'd like to admit. Gorlex hardsuits are space worthy thanks to their atmospheric sealing and pressurisation, plus the armour plating on the already tough-as-nails frame made it nearly bulletproof, extremely heat resistant, provides acceptable protection to blunt force trauma and radiation plus it looks awesome!
Better yet, it sacrifices little speed and is comfortable to wear, something that I am very glad for. I then looked onto my right hip and magnetically harnessed onto it was my trusty C20r SMG, an effective weapon in close quarters but not so much long range. Either way I pull it out of its harness and slide the magazine out of the bullpup and count the rounds inside. Seven 12mm rounds left in a mag that carried twenty six before and I have six spare magazines stowed away in my chest rig, considering I don't want to be caught with a dry mag; I swapped out the old one with a fresh magazine and slipped it into my C20r with a click whilst keeping a mental note of my last magazine.
I then looked at my other hip mounted piece of equipment and smiled, it was my energy saber! I pulled it out with glee and activated it.
Shwoom!
A bright red rod formed at the hilt, acting as a sort of glorious super hot death blade. Now that it was active; it let out a low pitched hum and continued to make similar sounds whenever I swung it about. I decided to sheath my blade, figuring that I'd be drawing more attention than I'd like if I kept it on.
Shweep!
Well, guess I should be going now, I'm on my journey to find...something I guess, something that isn't more bushes and trees.
It's been how long now? I've been walking the same path for about an hour or so and I haven't found anything, I can't stop now, I have nowhere else to go so I guess I'll just keep on going, on and on until I find something.
Awoo!
Great, wildlife and stuff that sounds like wolves but probably aren't wolves, chances are they're going to be giant fleshy monsters with tentacles that assimilate their victims or something, life is cruel like that after all. I'm keeping my head on a swivel though, I'm not going to get ambushed if I can help it.
The snap of a twig behind me caused me to spin around to catch a lupine creature in my gaze. It looked like a wolf, it acted like a wolf but something's off. I drew my energy sword and activated it, the light and sudden noise caused the 'wolf' to jump back with a snarl and a hiss, I smirked, it was unsettled by my weapon.
Then it leaped at me, followed by four other wolves. Nothing I can't handle I guess, I sidestepped the attack of the first wolf and slashed at its left foreleg, instantly severing the limb from the rest of its body as it fell to the ground in a mixture of pain and shock.
The rest didn't attack, they stared at me, almost horrified as they continued to growl. I looked down at the limb of the wolf I just maimed and realised that there was no burnt flesh, just charred wood.
These things are made of wood?!
I kept my pose ready to intercept any attacks that they were willing to throw at me but still, these things were literally timber wolves.
Still, I've seen way weirder and I'm not dying to some IKEA project gone wrong. The wolves and I locked together in a fierce Mexican stand-off, neither side willing to make another move as we calculated each other's subtle movement, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
"I-is there something wrong?" a soft, gentle voice in the far distance asked.
I took a step back and so did the wolves, they really didn't want to fight considering what I just did to their friend.
"A-are any of you hu-" the voice cut off, followed by a sob.
I looked over to my right to see what appeared to be a butter yellow pony with a pale, pink mane with two feathery wings who stared at us, her eyes becoming damp with moisture. It was sort of unsettling to be honest.
"Leave her alone!" she demanded, her voice was stern, spiced with anger and sadness.
She probably meant the wolf I just attacked and so I turned off my blade and looked back at the wolves.
"Can you guys bugger off now?" I casually requested for the wolves to do so, not wanting to deal with them for any longer.
"No! She's hurt, and I need to treat her" she chided me harshly before moving over to the wolf in pain, comforting it whilst I stood and stared.
"Why did you hurt her?" she demanded to know, resulting in a shrug from me.
"It attacked me, I attacked it, that's how life works man"
She looked at me like I was some kinda monster, as if I just sold her entire family off to a cannibal cult or something along the lines of that.
"You don't hurt other people...just because they're mean." she replied as she looked away, her eyes slowly tearing up as she did so.
"So what? I let it kill me?"
"N-no! Why would they kill you? They're just...rough sometimes" her voice became soft as she started to sob, she seemed genuinely confused as to why I thought they'd kill me.
"Because they'd...why are you crying?" I asked, becoming seriously disturbed by her behaviour.
"I don't like yelling..." She'd hide behind her mane as she answered me.
"Then why did you yell"
"Because you hurt my friend!" she shouted once more, letting out another sob as she hid behind her mane.
It was unusual to see someone cry, let alone place so much value into another living being. Sensitive people in general are rare, at least in my line of work anyway. Everyone is either too jaded, insane or careless to really think about anything selflessly.
"Okay first thing's first, I hurt your buddy and I'm not sorry, but I'm willing to help" I replied in the most sincere way I could which didn't seem to work too well.
She stared at me, really hard actually. Very similar to the kind of stare you get when you do something wrong and someone just looks at you with utter contempt.
Except this one evoked feelings of guilt in me.
I thought about it for a moment, maybe I shouldn't have maimed that wolf, maybe I shouldn't ha-...Nah, fuck it, I could have done so much worse.
"Whatever you're doing isn't working, just tell me what you need me to do and I'll just do it"
Her intense, teary expression changed to one of shock and surprise, not expecting me to bend over I guess.
"Nothing I can do can put her leg back on, timber wolves can't regenerate burnt wood. I just want you to apologise to her."
Is she serious? She's asking ME, a nuke operative to apologise to a stupid fucking animal? Nuh uh, ain't happening buddy. Still, the more I look at her, the more inclined I feel to do so, some sort of black magic maybe? She's probably the only sapient creature I'll find for a while, might as well get on her good side.
"Yeah, sorry for hacking off your leg there. Don't know if it hurts or anything but...eh" I apologised in a rather blunt tone, earning a faint sigh from the pegasus.
"Thank you..." she gave a warm, pained smile as I finished my apology.
I expected to get chided but no, she was relatively grateful for what I did. I have to say; I've never seen anyone like her.
"If it's not too much...could you help me bring her back to my home? We need to treat her leg after all" she humbly asked, seeming more comfortable with me as time went on.
"Yeah sure, ready when you are" I replied, earning a nod from her as I picked up the wolf.
The pony proceeded to comfort the wolves, telling them that we were going to treat their friend and that they can visit whenever they want.
I'm still not sorry.
