It's the same story as Unbreakable, just I thought the original was total crap, an embarrassment and desperatly in need of a re-write. And now I have holidays, and am not in the middle of major exams and such I now have the time to re-write it.
Plus, since I last updated I have been at the RvBRC, so my OC has gone through pretty major character developments.
Also, thankyou to Decoy Jew for Betaing.
...
Chapter One: Arrivals
The Pelican landed softy on the hard, dry ground. Its hatch slowly opened and a blast of scorching air entered the space in a matter of seconds. Even the ship's cooling system couldn't hold it at bay.
But he didn't notice.
The ship had landed on a ringed planet in the middle of nowhere.
He didn't notice.
There were two bases, one Red and one Blue, almost directly opposite each other.
He didn't notice.
The place was a desolate box canyon, with no way in or out. The only reason the Red Team had set up a base over there was because the Blue Team had set up a base over here.
If one of the Teams were to pull out and leave, then the remaining Team would have two bases in the middle in a desolate box canyon in the middle of nowhere. Whoopde-doo!
And he didn't notice that either. At least, not until it was too late.
In fact, the blue-clad Spartan he had spent much of the journey staring at the grey military issue seat directly opposite him.
Who knew the most exciting part of a space-ship was the seat?
The door to the cockpit opened and closed with a sharp snap and the pilot of the craft stepped out.
"We're here, Private Church," the Marine said, depositing several used cigarettes in an ash-tray by the door. His features displayed a cool disinterest and impassiveness, all of it directed at his Spartan passenger.
"Yeah, I hadn't noticed," Church snarled in reply.
Throwing his hands up in the air in mock surrender, the Marine returned to his cockpit, closing the door behind him with another snap.
Church sighed, standing up and readjusting his helmet. He watched as the HUD inside the visor started displaying screens and information he couldn't even pretend to understand.
Layouts and schematics for his new base flashed up, along with military profiles.
For a second, he could swear he saw a picture of a fat grey cat with white words above it, saying something about wanting hamburgers.
He blinked, shaking his head and passing off the picture as lack of sleep finally getting to him.
He quickly retrieved his duffel from a compartment above his seat, slinging it over his armoured shoulders. He sent a quick, hesitant glance in the direction of the Cockpit's door, unsure of whether to just leave or wait to be ordered to.
Shrugging, he walked over and smartly rapped three times on the steel, exactly as his father had taught him as a boy. Three knocks was polite, much more polite than simply barging in, the man had said.
It had driven Tex insane when they had been dating.
They had once had a fight over it, which had inevitably ended with make-up sex and her leaving early the next morning. And him finding, several hours later, a considerable amount of cash missing from his wallet.
After exactly a minute of waiting for an answer from the Marine (not that he had counted) he knocked again holding his ear against the frame to see if there were any signs of life from within.
Frustrated at the lack of any response, he pushed himself off the wall and performed a quick one-eighty turn, stalking the length of the ship. He readjusted the bag strap on his shoulder, before carefully stepping down the steep ramp onto the burnt orange ground.
A new assignment. A new base. A new start. That's what "they" had said he needed after the Sidewinder Fiasco.
Away from stresses and dangers of the front line.
When he had never even been within spitting distance of the front line!
What the fuck am I doing in the middle of fucking nowhere? After Sidewinder I…
Images of blood stained snow drifted before his eyes, and he shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of the memory of the corpses and screams.
He sighed in frustration, bringing his hand almost instinctively to his forehead before realising, with another more agitated sigh, that he had his helmet on.
Sidewinder.
A blurred figure, nearly invisible, racing across the white. "This doesn't seem physically possible!"
Tex.
He shook his head for what felt like the millionth time. No point getting into that again.
Taking several steps forward in the general direction of his new base, a sudden gust of wind made him turn his head towards a blur making its way very fast in the opposite
direction. An oddly familiar blur…
Tex?
No. It couldn't have been Tex. Tex and her precious Omega where… actually, he had no idea where she was.
And he didn't care, either. At least, that's what he kept telling himself whenever he thought of her.
Besides, the blur had been way too fast.
Squinting to try to see it better, he surveyed the shadowed area behind the landed ship.
There was no sign of the blur, and even if it had existed (which it probably hadn't) there was no way anything natural could move that fast.
He shook his head in annoyance and pushed the blur aside into his rapidly growing 'blame it on the lack of sleep' pile where it was greeted by the hamburger cat.
Now I bet that's something that's never been said or thought before, he thought, chuckling at his own self humour.
Turning away, he caught sight of a glint of blue on one of the ships side windows, approaching it to find his own reflection staring back at him.
The new set of armour looked good. Still in his chosen colour, cobalt blue, however without the scratches and marks that had covered his old armour from the Sidewinder scuffle.
Underneath the armour, however, he knew that his real body was still there. Still breathing and living past the robotic shell. He knew, that under the helmet, his short, untameable black hair was sprayed across his crown like a mop head. And that, beneath the thick black gloves his annoyingly feminine hands inherited from his mother were there, the nails bitten down as far as possible to reduce said femininity.
Under it all he was still there.
The past was behind him. There was no way it could find him here. He would forget about it. Forget about Tex, and go with the flow.
Finally deciding to start towards his new base, Church noticed that in the time he had been admiring his armour, two people had emerged from said Base. One wore the standard-issue blue he had always hated and the other some sort of teal. He presumed that one of them was Captain Flowers, and the other Private First Class Tucker.
Church groaned as he noticed teal inch towards blue, and thought back to the first time he had been told that his new Commanding Officer was named Flowers. His very first thought was that Captain Flowers was gay,even more so after learning the man's first name: Butch.
And seeing teal's very obvious body language told him immediately which was which.
At the same time the Captain slowly moved towards whom Church presumed was Private Tucker, the Private himself was subtly attempting to move away from his Commanding Officer.
He sighed.
As long as they weren't as complete idiots he could live with them. For now.
He paused when the ships engines came to life behind him, feeling rather than seeing the craft take off smoothly. He turned to see it airborne, watching the pilot light a cigarette before flipping several switches and blowing Church a kiss, a smug look on his face.
Church barely resisted the urge to lift his middle finger at the man as the ship glided away.
It wouldn't exactly have made the best first impression on his new CO if he had
Grumbling, Private Leonard L. Church turned and continued walking towards his new life.
...
In the shadowed section of the Canyon, a dark figure watched the Pelicans ascent into the sky. For a second, as the small ship turned from a dot to nothingness in the sky it wished it were still aboard, not stuck in some backwater Canyon in the middle of nowhere.
It sincerely hoped that Church hadn't caught a glimpse as it had sped from the vessel earlier.
It had only paused to watch silently its only escape out flew away.
And then, in a streak of gold against black, it was gone.