Hard Fall
By
BlackX32
Prologue
By the year 2278 Earth had colonized many star systems. Although not all of them were under the same name. Some where of one corporation and some of two others. The names in this time have been banned from being spoken and were forgotten. On September 18, 2278 the corporations launched nuclear warheads at each other for 4 hours. This only happened on Earth. The colonies heard what as going on by radio transmission. These five hours became known as The Great Silence. The next three weeks became known as The Sorrowing. All the colonies agreed to form into one nation. The nation was called Peaceful Action Star Assembly or PASA. Their slogan was, “Peace and hope. These two are bonded under the one flag of PASA.” They agreed not to destroy the weapons but lock them underground vaults called Hell’s Gateways. They did this in case they where needed again to fight an unknown threat. The plants that made the ammo for these weapons were kept on for 5 years to have backup ammo. Also they would no longer use money, but if somebody needed something they would get it. Poverty was eradicated, peace stood, and they prospered. For 80 years it stayed this was. Until the farthest colony Xantar (Zan-tar) was attacked. This is the story of that colony.
Chapter 1
“Hey James, it’s time for you to get up and get ready.”
I winked my eyes a few time after my roommate, Craig, told me it was almost time to go work. Finally I worked up the strength to get myself up. As I looked around my room I could smell pancakes. The aroma woke me up even more then I already was.
“Hey Craig, why are you making pancakes? Don’t you only make those on special occasions?”
“Yeah today is a special occasion. Go ahead and read the paper,” Craig said as I got my shirt and pants on.
I opened my door and looked on the kitchen table to find the paper with the headline, “A Miner Gets Promoted to Manager of Robots. Biggest Jump of Job on Colony”
“Who’s the lucky guy?”
“You.”
“How and why?”
“Apparently you impressed the boss and he decided you should manage the heavy bots. In case you didn’t know those guys do most of the heavy lifting carrying the crates. All you gotta do is flip switches. The bots will function on their own and if there is a problem they automatically shut off.”
“Sounds easy enough.”
An hour later
“So that’s all I have to do Boss?”
“Yes James. Flip this switch, turn this knob, and watch the monitors.”
“Ok, sir.”
I sat down in my office chair and a whistle went off. That meant time to start. I flipped on the control panel, turned on the bots, and turned the knobs for the bots to move the cargo to the conveyer belt. It seemed simple enough.
I saw a monitor say Robot 8 had a low lift valve pressure and told it to step out to the side 30 ft from the robot line. I shut it off and called a mechanic in to fix it.
The mechanic quickly went into the room, and repaired the robot. He gave me thumbs up which meant to start it back up and put it back in the line.
I turned it back on and it started up and went back into the line.
The room lights began to flicker a little so I called in a mechanic. He came in and changed the bulb. Then it flickered again. He thought it might be something along the line and told me not to worry.
After 8 hours of working I went home.
Craig said that we had a 20% increase in minerals we got out today. I went ahead and began warming up our diner. Within a few seconds it was ready. The chicken was nice, juicy, and tender. I cleaned up and went on to bead.
I woke up on the hard and cold metal floor with a small red light going off and on slowly. The ground shook and then stopped suddenly.
Craig burst through the door and said, “We need to get to the Hell’s Gateway now!”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. They just made an announcement grab anything that can be used as a weapon and get there as fast and you can.”
I rushed and put my clothes on. I grabbed my metal bat and we ran to the Hell’s Gateway. The ground shook again as we ran through hallways and corridors. Suddenly we heard a loud scream. We rounded a corner and saw a dead corpse, and a giant brown spider.
“What the hell if that thing?!”
“I don’t know but whatever it is it killed him.”
It jumped at us not a moment later and I swung my bat at it and hit it. Green goo or blood got on my bat. Luckily it was dead.
We got outside the mining apartments and saw meteors raining down. Halfway through the farming fields Craig stopped.
“Craig come on we need to keep going.”
“No. You go. I’ll see if I can get any other people out.”
“Alright but hurry.”
My feet hurt like all hell by the time I reached the Hell’s gateway. There were military guards outside the door. I rushed into the maze of low light hallways.
End of Chapter 1
