After World 2155 – 0

Sven, the Monster Slayer

His name is Sven, no last name. At least none that he ever shared until now. He’s a young lad. The year 2155, making it about one hundred and thirty years now since the world’s era end. Sven’s long blonde hair can be seen coming out from his mask and hood, somewhat curly and even a bit electrified. Blue eyes and tan skin, darkened by dust.

The beast is screaming in anger, wide open mouth, sharp teeth and an abnormally long tongue trying to reach Sven’s right arm, as he grabs it from what seems to be the monster’s long, thick tail. Sven’s gloves are dusty and somewhat bloodied, but it’s the beast’s dark red blood what stains them. Brokean, he calls the monster.

The thing tried to feed from Sven as he was sleeping on his camp, sometime just before dawn. He didn’t have to use his Fission-Beam Rifle, and the Brokean was indeed too close for his hand crossbow. It was Sven’s traps that did the job for him.

“I wonder if you know how to swim” Sven said to the beast as he was about to drop the monster to the river, down a small cliff. “Sorry, that’s what you get from waking me up early”, said right before release. Sven couldn’t tell whether the Brokean couldn’t swim or if the river flow was just too strong. He turned back.

Salvation from Lies

Sven starts packing up camp, notices his audio-comm player laying on the floor. Must have fallen from his belt bag, he thought. He plays the last received track to make sure it still works: “Sven, they lied to us. There’s nothing here. Just an irradiated area of small islands and mountains. ‘The Brokean Islands‘ they said, wonderful!. Screw them. Since our Life Support Systems started failing, we’ll be staying up here for now. We need to find replacement parts for our SDVs (Synchronized Deuterium Vector) so we can repair and power them up again. If we fix them, we may be able to settle down here using Agatha’s Modules. As discussed, our plan A is to find signs of any remnant labs that might have Compressed Deuterium Pods we can use. Plan B is just to pay attention for underground facilities, and look for their Water Purifier Compressor. If we’re lucky, those have them too. If you find any communication device AT ALL, I set up ping detectors listening to frequency 303-1156-3521. Good luck! -Nadia.“

Ok, it still worked fine, and actually it never hurts to hear Nadia’s voice. Sven kind of misses her already, and it was just a week since he left the Agatha’s docking location. Nadia has been her friend since they were about 6 years old, she was always kind of the techie type, trying to break things just to fix them later. No surprise she joined the FAST Department (Forward Advanced Scouting Technology), those guys are the hackers of all scanning devices and lead the Agatha’s exploration decision-making that the NAVE Department undertake (Navigation Enablers). Still, what matters is, that none of them never made the move to go on beyond Friends.

Sven, on the other hand, is considered one of the few lucky ones to get an Aether Bike to navigate the lands declared for scavenging. The Council calls them Aether Scouts, likely because “Aether” was the name of the AI leading the Terraforming Projects on Earth back then, and continental land is whatever is left. They also get advanced training in survival, computers and biology, though most of it happens in virtual reality.

Still, the Brokean Islands are not what the Council said it could be. Here there was supposedly a node of survivors, a ship called Feinmann offering docking assistance and supplies. It was an unconfirmed source of information, so Sven was not sure why Nadia calls it a lie. Did they promise anything at all? Earth is no longer home anyway… The largest groups of humans just live in the Oceans where the winds clear up most of the radiation, though they still stay inside their ships most of the time, for security reasons. The point is, the Feinmann was never found and there is nothing but a radioactive archipelago with tons of mist and fog covering it.

The Brokean Islands

The Agatha arrived about a week ago. FAST and NAVE informed everyone onboard the ship, that they’ll be making a stop for an undetermined amount of time. The enormous ship approached the coast of a large island to the East of the Archipelago. Three Aether scouts would be deployed, Loras, Jenna and Sven. He would take one of the small islands to the West. Apparently, FAST detected some signal anomalies with their radars, and thus it was designated as an Alpha Recovery Zone, because of the likelihood to find remnant technology and civilization ruins.

The other areas for scavenging get to be marked as either Bio-Zones for the biological oriented ones or Hazard Zones for the Hazardous and likely Dangerous scavenging areas. There are also Delta Zones, but those are rarely called for, which represent areas that have some peculiar, high priority value. The Agatha has only called an expedition for a Delta Zone only once, and Sven was only a kid back then.

Sven got assigned to Khalinta, the Island is large and appears to be even larger than it looks, but not because of its radius, but rather the tall mountains surrounded by extended jungle areas. Scans report significant amplitudes in the temperature ranges and atmospheric pressure, so in the early intel, indications of caves, depressions and valleys are to be expected, where the most humid areas tend to match likely Jungle, humid areas.

Aside from the toxic flora and the colorful sight, little to none wildlife has been detected, except for the Brokeans, which are some form of mutated feline, puma sized, river located predators that cowardly hunt for sleeping victims, as their movement seems hindered by mutation, yet they are silent and stealthy. Early reports from the biology departments, is that they are likely going extinct, as they are failing to thrive for survival, given that their mutation adaptation is slowly adapting compared to other wildlife found in other regions.

JeansenVaars