DRAFT Mark of the Fallen Vol I.

Mark Of The Fallen Vol I.

shitty first draft

Chapter 1. "One more beautiful hit....."



The hallway was dark. Poorly maintained lights flickered on and off to a tempo that was neither mechanical nor biological. The infrequent buzzing sounds that emanated from them were enough to drive the sanest of people mad. Distant footstep could be heard coming and going to an unknown destination. Some were hurried; some more elongated and whimsical. But all moving constantly. There were monitors that blabbered endlessly about some new product to buy that would make your life supposedly easier, but it was all bull shit to pry  credits from your account.



<!-------------(expand upon hatred of the “squawk boxes”)



    The walls of the hallway were flecked with rust and mold alike. Where the conduit for the carbon scrubber tubes were, mold could be found aplenty. The warm musty air was a perfect habitat for the slimy mildew and it grew rampantly. It wasn't uncommon to see hallways like this covered in the bluish mold. But hey, it gave the janitors job security. This particular hallway was secluded from the more traveled docks that strung around the station like a pinwheel. Windows were evenly spaced about every 10 meters for anyone that wanted to see the desolation of it all. The finite in the infinite.



<!-----(Expand more on setting in background. More people, more description of the station. )



    Here is where I was to die. Right here in some god forsaken hallway. <!----(Located at some fictional space station in some remote corner of the universe)  Might as well be a gutter. But even a gutter back on earth was a more palpable place to die than this. I can feel the life ebbing from my body in a darkened pool next to my leg. In my shirt pocket is a pack of cigarettes that seemed to have better luck than I at dodging pistol fire. Wouldn't ya know it? The one thing that will eventually kill me is the one thing that survived that brutal melee. <!-------(More description on main character. Facial features, muscular build and so on...) My green jumpsuit is spattered with my flesh and blood. My left leg is shattered. It's contorted to a very unnatural position wrapped around my left side. I reached for my smokes and attempted to grab one with my right hand. Shrieking pain shot through my chest as my arm slumped back to down after the attempt. My dog tags jingled after gravity pulled the lifeless limb back to the ground. Choking on my own blood I made a second attempt at the luscious nicotine infested sticks. One............more........puff. Success! I managed to maneuver my arm and hand enough to pull one of those delectable treats out of their celephane enclosed world. Now where is the damn lighter? Thankfully it was in one of my cargo pockets on my right side. I mustered a little more strength to free the ignitor of blissful-ness. Now to make my wretched hands nimble enough to spark the flint. Ah, yes. One more triumphant success! After I lit my cigarette, I let gravity take over my arm one more time. Right there in that moment, I locked eyes on that god-damn tatoo again. The bane of my existence that caused this whole mess. And what the fuck is it anyways? A crescent moon with a spike through it down the center. The crescent east to west with the arc facing toward my wrist. The blackened spike whose course was through the center pointed toward my bicep. Right there on my fore arm. Mocking me with its foul secrets that led me on a quest to end up here! Dying in the middle of nowhere with even more questions then when I began.



<!-------------(quick nested flashback about a random scenario the tatoo caused him trouble.)





    "Fuck you......". I gurgled. Blood trickling down the sides of my mouth. What little air I could muster to speak the profanities caused a whirlwind of pain and vertigo. This was it. I....have no fight left in me. The darkness is coming to claim its prize. To add to its own empty blackened mass with my dead, lifeless soul.  <!-------------- (Reference the “void” )    One more beautiful hit of my cigarette.......eyelids heavy..... Vision is just about gone. Fuck.... With that last nimble thought my body slumped over to the right. Smearing my blood in an arc reminiscent of the foreboding tattoo on my write.

    "Here he is! Get T'aneth over here now! He must not die!"

    "Let the fool die. He squanders his gift with the ignorance of a child."

    "Don't be absurd. If he dies our cause is lost!"

    "So be it. I didn't sign on for this shit any way. Our cause? Since when did you even care enough to be a champion of this noble 'cause'? At what point did it strike your fancy?"



<!---------------( More heated banter between “the two”)





      "Quit babbling and help T'aneth get him stabilized. NOW!" Were the last words I remember hearing for quite some time.









Chapter 2. "Strangely I am still alive.....why?"

   







         Slowly I started to wake up and take a peer at my surroundings. As far as I could tell, I was lying on my back staring up at the lights on the ceiling. Great, this isn't helping me much. I had to blink a couple of times to make sure that everything is coming into focus. As I lie there blinking, I can vaguely see a figure off in the distance. I can't quite tell whether or not it is male or female or alien. I tried a motion to flex my abdomen to gather my strength to sit up, but apparently I was not one hundred percent yet. An agonizing pain wracked my body on the left hand side. Moving my head was a no go as well. On the bright side, instead of an agonizing pain, I just got a migrane headache. Ugh...

         “You don't want to do that. You have to give it some time to heal. Those Pri'ja-ier's ripped you a new one. Heh, your bodly looked like swiss cheese when we got to you. I personally would have left you for dead, but the 'Fearless Leader' had other ideas. You can thank her for your life and wasting our time.”

         “Who.......” I winced as the muscles gave me my duely noted reminder of my current frailty. The vertigo wasn't helping either. My God, the pain just from trying to talk. One more time pussy. Suck it up.

         “Who.......is ….her?”

         “Seriously. Don't try to overdue it right now. Just sleep or meditate. You body ain't worth a shit right now. The answers will come when yer more rested.”

         The voice speaking was a deep baritone. Definitely male. It conjured up images of a menacing hulk that was about to bear its full weight down on me. He sounded not human. Certain enunciation of words gave it an un-earthly quality. The small rasping of the 's' and the 'clicks' on the 't' s. You could faintly hear the scraping of metal on some sort of nylon when the figure moved closer to me. It must be wearing armor or carrying weapons. There were odd metallic clanks when the figure shifted his weight.  And the sounds of boots on the floor! I swear! He must weigh a ton! Each step of this monster was a thunderous boom in the silent room. I thought ceiling lights would shatter from the resounding shock waves.

         With that, the figure came closer and stuck some kind of device into me. After that, the black descended upon conscience once again.



         Get up! Time to move! Now! If you wait here any longer your a dead man!

         

         I awoke to maelstrom of noise and alarms. What is going on here? C'mon eyes. Focus dammit!

The groggyness was still present. I couldn't tell if the noise was external or internal. It penetrated everything in me all at once. Where was the 'hulk'? The lights above that were once a pale shade of white were now blinking red and orange distorting things even more.



         “Warning. Hull breach in medical bay 2. Warning Hull breach sector 2-C. Warning Hull breach in starboard crew quarters. Life support failure in 30 minutes. Recommend emergency evacuation. Warning.”



         The automated system on board kept blaring warning left and right. From a snap judgement of what is goin' on, I am in a world of shit. In the distance I can hear a melee ensuing with phase type weapons and live rounds. There must be humans on board or at least someone using human type weaponry.  Machine guns, 3 round burst fire. Controlled bursts. On the other end of the stick: the high hum of phase weapons. Could be anyone of the races inhabiting the quadrant using phase.  So they brought me back to life to get me killed again. Only this time I don't even get to see who is going to kill me. Time to move.          

         People were shouting orders left and right. Some in alien tounges, some in human. One of the alien tounges was barely audible. I cold faintly make it out..... Pri'ja-ier!! Time to move! Get the fuck out of bed! God gave you a second chance for a reason!

         I tried lifting my head again expecting the resounding pain to be there again. Much to my relief and surprise, it didn't rear it's head. That's a good start. I can move my head. Now lets go for broke. This time, I tried to sit up. No more pain. Excellent. All better to start running again. I moved my legs and they seemed to respond ok as well. The pain wasnt completely gone in the lower extremeties, but it will have to do. I could get a stim pak from one of the containers in the room. No. wouldn't be able to focus on the task at hand. Which is?

         “Getting out of here.....”

I rolled over the edge of the bed and in one fluid motion ripped the numerous tubes out of my skin. Killer instinct was kicking in. I quickly surveyed the room for any thing that could be construed as a weapon. Not finding one I ran to the medical bay entrance door off to my right. No. Going into the hallway without a weapon is suicide at this point. Think dammit think! I turned around to dig a little deeper for a weapon. Anything at all would suffice. A resucitator cranked all the way up, a syringe with cyanide, a surgical laser. Anything! There underneath my bed were my personal belongings. I could see the shiny glint of my chrome plated lady. Hey all right! I scrambled back over to the bed, and quickly got dressed taking note of my nimbleness considering I almost died and have been laying in bed for god knows how long. With my green jumpsuit all zipped up and my boots and socks back on, I reached for my trusty peacemaker. Nothing fancy. Just a nickle plated 9mm custom with a chrome barrel. Fortunately my clips were still in place. Four clips. Hardly enough for a tight corridor gunfight. I put the three reserve clips in my cargo pockets and loaded up the other. The click of the clip locking in cinched the severity of the moment. I hurried back over to the medical bay door. I crouched right underneath the control panel that opens the door. Three quick breaths. Go get it. I pressed the door open and was expecting to see people shooting from one end of the corridor to other. Much to my surprise that was not the case. Instead at the end of the corridor where one corridor meets the other I see a menacing monster. Eyes yellow, glowing, and a purple aura surrounding it. I seem to vaguely recongnize the creature, but I cannot place it one hundred percent. The creature noticing he had been flanked on three ends of the corridor turned to me and let out a snarl of fury that would make general Patton shit his pants. Just aim for the head. Maybe we can take it down relatively quickly! I raised my gun and sighted the creatures head with my 9mm. Sensing I was about to pull the trigger the abomination turned to me. I was about to squeeze the trigger.



         “What the fuck are you doing?” Boomed the creature. “Get back in the medical bay!”



It was the hulking menace that was in my room. I was astonished and very surprised. I don't remember him looking purple with yellow eyes though. I dropped my gun and my jaw in amazement at the creature. Here was a specimen of magnificance. Shortly there after the purple aura seemed to come alive. The movement of the purple aura was fluid and deliberate. It almost had a sensual quality about it. And then it spoke!



         “You need to get back in the medical bay and take cover. We will handle things out here!”



A female's voice? Was the purple aura another being? Why was it engulfed on the monster in the corridor? As the questions rose in my head the Pri'Ja-ier opened fire on the monster. This enraged the hulking menace. The phased weapons were like bee stings to the creature. Not even a bee sting. More like gnats annoying a sweaty human.



         “T'am Silah! We need to end this now! The Pri'Ja-ier are going to flank us and rip a hole in the hull any ways to get at him. Make a decision lady or we all die!”

         “So be it. Let me prepare the cargo. We only have one shot at this. If he is too weak we all die Granthar.”

         “Either we die by Pri'Ja-ier or of our own choice. I choose death by my own hand!”

         “Agreed.”



With that the purple aura outstretched a tentacle to me.

         “Touch my tentacle with your tatoo human.”

I stood there amazed at what was going on. I have seen my fair share of gunfights, but a monster that treats phased weaponry like gnats???

         “SNAP OUT OF IT! Touch me with your tatoo and surrender your will to me! You must volunteer to me!”

         Without thinking I rolled up the green jump suit from my right arm to expose that god forasken tatoo. I almost wanted to spit on it as soon as I had seen it. What the fuck right? I turned my arm so that the purple tentacle would be able to touch my tatoo. In a flash my body went limp and started to dissolve. I could feel my body breaking apart and yet there was no pain. I was engulfed by the purple aura and was soon enmeshed with both the enormous monster and the plasma like purple entity. Surrendering my will however was the hard part. I could hear the thoughts of the monstrosity and the more calm focused thoughts of the mysterious female. I was one with both of them, yet I was seperate.



         Now let go human.

         I don't know how.

         I told you he didn't know how to master it.

         Both of you, silent. I need to focus.

         We don't have much time T'am Silah.

         I am aware Granthar.

         Holy fucking shit. What is this?

         Human, I need you to teleport us. Do you know how to use your bio-relocation?

         My what?

         Nevermind. We are going to have to wing it Granthar.

         Hahaha!

         Hold tight human. This WON'T be pretty.

         Now Granthar! I will try to control it. How far away from the planet surface are we?

         About 100,000 meters. Ooooh I am gonna have fun.

         A small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.

         

         The beast named Granthar let out a bellow so invigorating, I felt I was going to burst with the sheer power of it. I could feel the destruction, malice and brutality that bellow entailed. I have never felt such raw emotion in my entire life. And it didn't stop there. Granthar seemed to be focusing on these raw emotions and in doing so was gathering their power of essence into him. I didn't know how much more I could take. I felt as though I would explode from the spirit of destruction alone. I could see war, murder, planets being destroyed, stars going nova, all in the breath of a moment inside Granthar's mind. I suddenly felt very small.



         Don't do that human! He needs to gather that force. Not belittle it!



         Apparently my contribution was a detraction. I was amazed an in complete awe. One more time Granthar gathered those chaotic forces of the Universe until himself.  I was having a hard time keeping it together. The force was so astounding my brain wanted to split apart. And then there was peace. In the glint of a moment, I went from being ripped apart to absolute still peace. I used Granthar's eyes to look about to see what was going on. I was horrified. Both the remainder of the crew and the  Pri'Ja-ier screamed in horror as the force descended upon them. Flesh melted from the bones of the crew. After the flesh gave way, the bones were next. Everything was stripped to oblivion. The crew and the bodies of the Pri'Ja-ier were not the end. Next the ship itself was succumb to the heinous force. Walls dissappeared, then girders, then bulkheads. Soon the ship itself was nothing more then a memory. Next was the Pri-Ja-ier ship. And still the force was not satisfied. I watched with dismay as the planets atomosphere was siphoned off and the surface started to buckle. Soon the colors of the rainbow ebbed from the planet to be replaced by a darkness that was blacker than deep space. And then it happened. The force subsided and did not seek out any more victims. But the damage had been done. The planets surface began to show cracks of volcanic activity. The rotation had ceased alltogether. With a mighty 'crack' the planet buckled inward.



         Now! We need to teleport now human! If you don't do it we all die!

         I have no idea what you are talking about!

         Think, concentrate on a memory of love! Once you have the emotion of love, picture a place that you want to travel to!

         

         When she yelled at me a multitude of images flashed through my mind, none of which however provided the necessary emotion of love. And then a faint image. An image I couldn't even remember if it was real or not. A place. A longing to be in that place. The picture was slowly starting to fill in...



         No Humnan! Not that one!

         

         Interrupted again, I glanced back at the planet. It was all but folded in on itself. My mind raced to grasp at a fond image. Anything! Again, an image started to paint inside of my mind. One of my niece. Her white dress blowing in the wind. The sky gray and overcast with splotches of black expecting a downpoor. The grass was a magnificent green that swayed to and fro in the wind. Immediately upon recollection, the emotion of love was enveloped in me.



         Now choose the place.





         And then we vanished. As we were whisked away to safety, the planet gave it's final heave and collapsed. The explosion created was so large we could feel it inside the tunnel. I thought the fabric of this makeshift tunnel would be blasted away, but it firmly held. It seemed to not care of the planets bellowing explosion. It was like the house that the pig made out of bricks when the wolf blew. It just didn't care.

         I picked the only place I could think of. The place I had been to more often then not that just felt like home. In an instant we vanished. In a tunnel of unnamed origin. Bright colors swirled around us. We were being pulled through a tunnel to faint sight at the end. Already I could hear the music playing. The tunnel suddenly came to a screeching halt and all three of us were separated. I was my own person again and T'am Silah and Granthar their own respectively as well. We were all sitting in a booth at my favorite place with a mug of beer sitting in front of each of us. The local pub. Strangely I am still alive...Why?





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