Fox's Arrival

Posted on Wed May 26th, 2021 @ 9:38am by Petty Officer 3rd Class Dante Fox

Mission: A New Legacy
Location: Transport Shuttle Aries
Timeline: Arriving on USS Arcadia
993 words - 2 OF Standard Post Measure

The salted ocean of the Trident was underneath him when land finally approached. The small shuttle glided in the wind as the sun bared down and heated the windows. The shuttle’s worn paint glistened. The name "Lyn" was painted on the side of the shuttle. Rust concealed the X – the full name being Lynx, the origin mothership of the shuttle.

Fox finally reached land after what seemed like hours.

Beep... Beep... Beep... “Proximity Alert ... 200 yards."

A ringing in the cockpit echoed as Fox was slouched over asleep. His head lay against the five-inch-thick glass. Drool flowed down his mouth. His facial hair overgrown and ungroomed.

Beep... Beep... Beep... “Proximity Alert ... 150 yards."

Fox’s brown eyes crept open. Crystalized protein “crust” fell from them. At first, his vision appeared hampered by the bright sunlight, but then they slowly adjusted after a few seconds. His mouth was parched. The sweat on his brow fell onto his dirty and worn uniform.

Beep... Beep... Beep... “Proximity Alert... 100 yards. Evasive maneuvers recommended.”

Fox shrugged and stretched in the confined space. His legs nearly numb. After a second of getting his bearings, he looked down at the control dashboard and blinked his eyes. A peculiar warning on the dashboard: “Evasive maneuvers Recommended”

Beep... Beep... Beep... “Proximity Alert... fifty yards. Evasive maneuvers recommended.”

He moved his eyes from the dashboard to the window directly in front of him to see what was straight ahead.

"Shit!" Fox quickly deactivated autopilot and pushed buttons. The shuttle arched upward as the maneuver forced him back into his seat. His blood rushed to the back of his body. The shrieking noise of the shuttle echoed as it sliced through the wind like a knife through butter. It's hull slightly buckled against the extreme maneuver.

The shuttle became vertical and missed the structure he almost collided with by a mere seven feet. The massive structure ran underneath him like a runway. It was so massive that it appeared to continue forever like a black hole's event horizon. It took him ten additional seconds of full-vertical flight to clear the object. The collision alarm subsided. He leveled the shuttle and came about to get a better look at the object from a more comfortable distance.

It was massive. It appeared to have planted itself into the ground. It was a cube shaped metallic object roughly 1600 meters universal (H x L x W). After a second, he knew what it was. It was a Borg Cube.

The computer suddenly broke the silence.

"Warning... enemy vessel 100 meters starboard."

Fox turned back to see his unwelcome visitor. It was a Borg Sphere and it had detected him. The Sphere was much smaller than the Borg Cube, but it was faster in its maneuverability. He activated shields and weapons but questioned what he could do shuttle craft do to a Borg Sphere. He maneuvered the shuttle and adjusted speed accordingly to evade it. He made his way toward the desolate city in the distance. Sphere followed behind.

He entered the city center's airspace and stayed just above the building line. The Borg Sphere fired on him but missed. He did his best to maintain distance.

"Warning... Energy cells down to four percent", the computer announced.

"Computer, ETA until full power failure?" he asked.

"On current power usage and distribution, approximately twelve minutes"

An explosion rocked the surface just ahead of him as the Borg Sphere started a new attack pattern: Obstruct his path of flight.

Fox knew he couldn't do much under the circumstances and decided to cut his losses. He maneuvered the shuttle just below the building line. The Borg Sphere began to fire a full spread in all directions and caused more damage. It was getting desperate.

Fox turned the autopilot back on and walked to the rear of the shuttle. He put on a parachute and activated the rear door.

He remembered his S.E.R.E survival training at the academy which stood for: Survive, Evade, Resist, and Escape. As the shuttle began to climb again, and the door completely lowered, he jumped out. The Borg Sphere hovered away and followed the shuttle. It finally targeted the shuttle for the last time and had a clear shot. As Fox fell to the ground, he heard an explosion behind him but didn’t bother to loo. He knew what it was.

Fox slammed on the button to open the chute. The chut opened above him and he began to float toward the roof of a building. He braced himself and maneuvered the chute. He skidded on the roof and came to a complete stop after a few seconds. It was the perfect landing he could wish for. He quickly hit the recall button of the parachute as to not create attention to himself from whatever or whoever was on the planet. He unbuckled himself from the harness and looked around. He walked over to the edge of the roof and looked down toward the street. He saw desolate streets and empty buildings surrounding him. No people or moving parts as far as he could see.

"What happened here?" he asked himself.

He stood, contemplating his next move when suddenly BANG.

Fox turned and saw the access door that led into the building vibrate.

BANG

Another bang. Something was trying to get onto the roof from the other side of the door. Fox unholstered his side arm and braised.

BANG.

The hinges flew off. The door began to fold outward and then...

SWOOOOOOOSH. The door ejected and went over the side of the building.

Fox’s eyes opened as he woke from the dream. He woke up inside the transport’s fifteenth isle seat two with his hands folded underneath his pits freezing from the temperature on the shuttle. He looked out of the shuttle’s small glass window and watched the ship appear in sight. The ship he would be calling his new home, USS Arcadia.