Hello~ I decided to dip my hand in the fanfic waters, mostly as a way to pass the time during my daily downtimes, and mostly inspired by my random adventures. Uhh, that's it I think.
Please keep in mind that there may be detailed violence. Also I won't be taking characters, as this is meant to be a lone wolf story.
Will be editing this post to provide a table of contents or whatever as I do stuff.
Chapter 1: "With open arms and sharp teeth."
The lone escape pod continued its fall on the trajectory of doom. It seemed appropriate that the light levels degraded a bit as the pod dipped deeper into the dark chasm. Hex opened his eyes, peering out the window on the opposite wall of the ship. What he saw was almost indescribable. Massive gears, each the size of a city, some bigger, some smaller, and enormous machinery as far as the eye could see. The thought that perhaps he was suffering from severe delusions just before death had crossed his mind. No such luck. The entire planet was truly a mechanical giant of steel and shadows, littered with round columns that disappeared into the deep depths, outside of visible range.
There was no time to properly enjoy the wonderful vacation view. The pod was rocketing towards one of the large horizontal gears which appeared to have several dome-shaped structures strewn along its edge. Hex believed this would most likely be it. The pod is sturdy, but surely it wasn't designed with the intention of being slammed into a thick slab of steel far outside of safe operating heights.
"Oh sh--" Hex began to mutter at the last moment before the pod crashed at an angle into the dome that had rotated closest to the pod... and punched a hole right through its shell. A beam of bright light suddenly shot through the pod window, blinding Hex for a second so he could not see what was happening. It wasn't long though before the pod made a second attempt at ending its pathetic flight, finally crashing to a complete halt on some other surface. The pod door had tore itself off in the final crash, as if telling Hex this was his last stop, and was flung out and had wedged itself outside vertically. The pod even took the liberty of ushering Hex out, using nothing but friendly momentum to toss him outside, and he fell flat on his face. He was knocked out. A moment of reprieve perhaps.
Hex awoke after a nice, short nap. His eyes opened to see a lovely vision of the sky. But he was laying on his stomach, how was the sky below him? As he looked up, it hit him. The dome he crashed into wasn't just another layer of metal, but it housed some kind of miniature floating world inside a sphere. He could see greens across from his position, laced with odd trees and other recognizable formations. Surely there was an explanation for all of this, but it was not the time for answers, for there were more pressing matters at hand. Slowly regaining feeling in his body, Hex could feel something biting hard on his leg.
And all hell was about to break loose, as the planet had welcomed Hex with open arms and sharp teeth.
Hex turned his head to see some kind of beige-colored wolf-like animal trying to make a meal out of him. Whats worse is that he could see the rest of the pack of these "wolvers" running in from a short distance away to join in on the party. Not one for being eaten alive, Hex rolled over while the initial wolver still had a grip on his leg and used his free foot to kick the creature in the body with enough force to send it whining off the edge of the island. He scrambled to his feet, unholstering one of his antiguas and taking his striker in the other hand, and hopped behind the pod door wedged in the ground for cover.
As the wolvers drew closer, Hex peeked out and took a potshot at one of them, sending a message that chasing this prey was not wise, with a bullet to the head, splattering bits and pieces on the ground. The next wolver neared and jumped up to the top of the pod door, slightly loosening it up. It was waiting for the rest of the pack, two others, to catch up. As one of them approached from the other side, Hex took a quick step back, readying his striker, and kicked down the door with all his might, forcing the waiting wolver at the top to jump off prematurely towards the knight. The approaching wolver screeched to halt, but had no time to move out of the way before being crushed under the weight of the pod door and creating a disgusting goopy mess of remains. The one that jumped towards Hex was quickly impaled by the awaiting blade and then tossed to the side like used meat. And then the final wolver arrived. Alone and outgunned, it was no match for a man who was experiencing a full on adrenaline rush. Hex put it out of its misery quickly with a bullet. His methods may be old-fashioned, but they're effective nonetheless.
That seemed to be the last of them, for now. Hex knew he couldn't stay here for long, but he had to assess the surroundings first and prepare supplies from the pod to take with him. The pod came standard with some medical supplies, but Hex had always stored a small supply of ammunition in his pod in case of emergency. He would be able to take a bit of both worlds, but figured it wouldn't last more than two days. He decided he would use the once-impaled wolver for further research and study. It may just come in handy.
I like it! Nice work! The writing and immersion was really well done and thought through. Keep up the great work, I look forward to more.
Prologue: "And that should have been the end."
Mood Music (open in another tab obviously :P)
Fire and steel rained down upon the unsuspecting planet that our ship quickly approached. The Skylark was going down faster than a fat knight tripping over his own greaves. The ship groaned, wanting to take its passengers down with it. Escape pods were being jettisoned from most sections, except the ones that were caught in the first wave of flames. They were goners, and anyone who couldn't escape the spiraling flames would be as well. The majority of knights had already jumped ship, some were dead, and the rest of the poor souls? Trapped in the Skylark's dank intestines -- the unlucky midsections one level above the pod deck. Electrical malfunctions had permanently sealed in many of these rooms; and at the same time had permanently sealed in the fate of the knights who couldn't get out.
Hex stood by the gun locker in his room, gazing at his family with dim orange eyes partially hidden behind a black stetson. A middle-aged knight of experience, he kept cool and collected while Fate was busy ending the world outside. As the Skylark fell and the flames began to burn through to his room, he wondered if maybe he should stay and try not to fight it. After a long history, Hex often felt his time was up, but could never seem to catch that special break. Dusty gloved hands reached for the weapons in the case: a pair of inscribed antiguas. He holstered them on the belt under his charcoal-colored gunman duster. There was a striker leaning against the wall which he snapped into a special sheath on his back. Last but not least, he grabbed the callahan from his workbench. How fortunate that the last moments of his time on the ship were spent reloading this howling beast.
The fires had engulfed Hex's room. He had but seconds to spare before it reached the ammo cases lying around his workbench. Pointing the callahan directly downwards, he pulled the trigger. The gunblast sounded like a tank firing its cannon, and it tore a hole in the floor as if a missile had hit it. And as luck would have it, along with the floor, Hex just happened to blow out the main safety lock which held his pod attached to the ship, which put an overwhelming amount of pressure on the supports. He smirked, his gut told him for sure that he wasn't going to luck out on this one, but there was still a little fun to be had. Placing the weapon in a specialized holster on his lower back, he jumped down the freshly made entrance to the top of his pod, hanging dangerously off of its tilted edge, caused by the ship's fall angle and the broken supports. This tilt made it easy to slide down into the open door and work the override system to seal the pod in like a casket just waiting to happen.
Hex never did get to launch that pod. No, Fate saw to that. Remotely, he did get the bay door to open... partially... before all the ammo cases just above in his room ignited and exploded with enough force to snap the weak pod supports like twigs and send the pod hurdling right through the rest of the bay door like a fireball towards the planet. The fall felt like an eternity. Without a proper launch, there was no guidance or control over the pod. Physics was in control this time, and it was not on Hex's side.
Many pods made it safely to the surface, many never made it off the ship, and many were lost in the wilds of the planet. Through the small window on the pod, Hex could see the approaching surface. The surface that the pod was not heading to. He was blasted severely off-course and heading straight into the belly of the beast -- the dark chasm, one of many upon the surface that could be seen from such a height. They appeared to house the planets innards, but it was too difficult to see through the smoke and flames. Hex smiled lightly, sitting back against the rumbling chair in the pod as it spiraled to the end.
"You finally got me," he said quietly to himself, and closed his eyes. And that should have been the end.