Survival

All right this is what I’ve got so far. New to this so constructive criticism would help.

Don’t worry their will be sex in the next chapter I’m just putting backgrounds for the main character in this one.

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It is the year 2450 and the S.E.V Daedalus can be seen streaming through space at FTL speeds (faster than light travel). Aboard the ship, amongst the 3000 strong crew is a man named Steven Baker. He’s 32 years old with dusty blond hair, a 5 o’clock shadow, green eyes and he was currently pissed off. If you walked into the mess hall and saw Steven right now your first instinct would be to turn around and walk back out again. Very quickly. Steven had his arms crossed and was leaning against the table as he mumbled under his breath.

"Fucking orders…" Steven mumbled while glaring down at his innocent steak that he’d stabbed to bits minutes earlier. When the steak didn’t respond Steven came to the conclusion that he need someone to listen to him complain and agree with him. Steven shot up from his seat in the mess, strode out the door and began his walk to the elevator. But he couldn’t help but notice how silent it was.

"Not surprising" he mumbled as he entered the elevator. Steven pushed the button labeled armory and began his rapid decent. "No one feels comfortable near the mess anymore, not that I can blame them". The mess hall on the Daedalus was infamous due to the fact that that is where the Locust ate some of the crew. Steven smiled as he remembered his mother telling him that if he wasn’t good the Locust spirits haunting the Daedalus mess would come and eat him.

Unfortunately thinking of his dead mother only put him in a worse mood. As the elevator doors opened a poor Ensign was greeted with the sight of a pissed off Commander. The Ensign leapt to the side and gave the pissed Commander a shaky salute. Steven returned the salute and walked on, to the Ensign’s relief.

Steven swiped his access card against the reinforced door which swung open, allowing him to get to his locker. He opened the locker marked Commander B. and after routing through clothes and the occasional book Steven found what he was looking for. It was a picture of 2 adults and a child, his Mom, Dad and himself.

"You know looking at that picture is only gonna make you feel worse." Steven gave a quick glance to Captain Hollister, a 61 year old leader and the man who taught Steven everything he knew. On the Daedalus Hollister was in charge. Steven slammed the locker shut and said "Says the man with a picture of his deceased daughter always in his pocket."

Captain Hollister smirked "Yeah but I don’t obsess like you do, come on we have a job to do" the Captain walked towards the door and Steven quickly grabbed and holstered a pistol and followed. "You know a lesser man" Steven causally remarked "would point out your MMORPG obsession but it’s a good thing I’m not a lesser man, Captain Booster"

The Captain glared at Steven as they walked towards the elevator and asked "How the hell did you find out my screen name?" Steven smiled "Who do you think killed you last night?" The elevator doors shut and began its ascent towards the Bridge where the Ops. Room is.

"If you tell anyone about my… habits, I’ll have you busted to Ensign!" A silence filled the elevator until the Captain looked to the side and said "so… you want to do some quests tonight?" Steven smirked at the captain and replied "Is that an order sir?"Before the Captain could respond the elevator doors shot open to reveal the Bridge. The Bridge was a basic square room with consoles lining the walls and two console stations near the screen. In the middle of the room was the Captains chair which was elevated and the only other door was at the back wall behind the chair.

The Captain gave a quick nod to the on duty officer and walked towards the only other door in the room, with Steven hot on his heels. They entered the Ops. Room which was basically a circular room with a 3D interactive star chart in the middle. "All right then Commander I think it’s time you learned what is happening". Steven was curious of course, everyone was. No one but the Captain knew what the hell they were doing in ex-Locust space and theories and rumors were running rampant. Stevens’s favorite one was that the Captain was really a woman and was fleeing the evil scientist’s hell bent on cloning her.

It wasn’t true of course. After all they had communal showers but it was still funny to imagine the Captain in drag running from a needle wielding mad scientist. "Steven, Steven? STEVEN!" He snapped out of his daydream and turned to the Captain who now looked pretty pissed. "This is no time for daydreaming! We’ve got serious business"

The Captain turned to the Star chart and pushed a planet. The star chart was replaced with an enlarged view of planet. "This" the Captain began "Is X-23. Our long range probes picked up this planet a month ago. Since then we’ve sent a total of 12 more long range probes to confirm the readings." The Captain paused for the question he knew was coming. He wasn’t disappointed. '12 probes? Isn’t that a bit…excessive? I mean what did they find that needed that much confirmation?"

The Captain had a grim look on his face as he replied "The probes, all 12 of them have found evidence of evolved life"

Steven froze. So many thoughts were running through his head and he felt a crushing weight in his pocket where the picture of his mother and father was. Steven took a deep breath and asked "so does that mean that the Locust are" The Captain cut him off "We don’t know yet that’s why we are going to X-23 but we are running under that assumption." Steven began to pace, he was uneasy, restless but most of all he was angry. Steven stopped, turned to the Captain and glared "Why haven’t we told the crew"

The Captain sighed "You and I aren’t the only ones who lost people to that fucking virus. Every man on this ship has lost either a mother, sister, aunt, grandmother…a daughter" The Captain paused and took a deep breath "If I told the crew what I just told you they’d be out for Locust blood and nothing would get in their way" Steven had a confused look on his face as he said 'Well that’s good. That rage would help when we kill all the bastards" When the Captain said nothing Steven looked at him suspiciously "We are going to kill the bastards, aren’t we sir?"

The Captain turned his eyes back the holograph and said nothing. But the guilty look on his face said it all. "Are you kidding me? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" Steven screamed as he got right up to the Captains face. "After everything they’ve done we’re gonna let them live!. Those sons of a bitchs killed my mother! And your daughter! Or did she mean nothing to you?" The Captain grabbed Steven by the collar and with angry roar slammed him against the metal wall which was now bent out of shape due to the Captains genetic and nanobiotic improvements.

"Where the fuck do you get off saying something like that!" The Captain threw Steven to the ground and shouted out "If you ever say that I never gave a damn about my daughter again then I’ll throw you OUT THE AIRLOCK!" Steven slowly got to his feet and guiltily looked the Captain in the eye. "Captain… I’m… I’m sorry. You know I didn’t mean it I’m just" The Captain held up his hand to silence Steven "I know… I know. I pretty much did the same thing when the U.P gave me our orders" The Captain gave Steven a small smile "I’ve got a lot a letters of apology to right when we get back"

"Steven, I know this isn’t easy to hear but the Locust created the virus. For god sakes we’ve only mastered a quarter of the technology the Locust left behind and we’ve advanced 400 years in 4 years because of it. The Locust are probably the only species in the universe that could bring back human woman. If making friends with a bunch carnivorous, planet destroying bugs is going to give me my daughter back then I’ll gladly shake the hand of the devil"

The Ops. Room was plunged into silence as Steven thought about what the Captain said. "Captain" A voice filtered over the intercom "We’ve arrived at the set co-ordinates" Captain Hollister looked Commander Steven Baker in the eye and asked "Can I trust you on this?" Steven nodded

Looking back on what happened not only an hour Steven honestly couldn’t say if would be true to his word. Right now he and three other men were decked out in full combat gear with tranquilizer rifles at the ready as they trudged through a mucky forest. According to the scanners they were closing in on one of the life signs and the men were obviously anxious.

"Commander" Lieutenant Carlos Rodriguez, Stevens second in command on this mission whispered "What exactly is it we are looking for?" It was obvious question and one which Steven wished he could truthfully answer. But every year, on the anniversary of the Locusts defeat people burned straw dolls of the Locust. And Carlos was renowned for organizing the best burnings in memory of his dead mother, grandmother and sister. If Carlos knew they were hear to capture not kill a surviving Locust then there would be mutiny. "I’ll tell you when we see it" Steven replied

The scanner showed that they were close. They got closer and closer, blood was rushing to his head. Closer and closer, Steven could have sworn he heard his mother’s voice. They were their, just over these bushes. Taking in a deep breath Steven and his squad charged through the bushes, guns rigid, ready to take on anything!. But all they found was a woman. A purple skinned woman with milky eyes that blinked sideways. She had spines on her head where her hair should be, like a hedgehog. She had three pointed fingers on both hands and she was carrying fruit, everything else was about the same as a human woman. A quick glance down showed her C-cup breasts and some sort of zigzag white paint on her body.

Steven awkwardly raised his hand and said "Hi"

The alien screamed, dropped the fruit and fainted.